I have read the first 5 chapters and I thought it was very good, but I
have to stop now - I was told not to buy any more books until after
christmas, but I cracked and apparently my wife has bought this one for
me!

This is going to be a bookray.

Ok, so the bookray is as follows;

VauxhallCrosser - London
Fushmush - London
Garibaldisghost - Nottingham
YowlYY - Nottingham
Chelseagirl - Standford in the Vale
veganknitter - Greater Manchester
bike51man - Horsham <--- Book is here
jaynereader - Sheffield

After that, It's up to you!

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to VauxhallCrosser on the start of an international bookray...

Received with thanks, I hope to get to this soon, although my current ring book is dragging its heels a little.

Sorry I've taken my time with this, but work has been so busy lately. Finished now. Not as enjoyable as his previous work in my opinion, but a well-observed story of family politics. Will be sending on to Fushmush as soon as I have an address.

Fushmush has received a copy in the meantime and asked to be skipped for this ring. I am sending it on to garibaldisghost.

Safely received, ta ~ I'll start reading it soon.

I found this at times to be hilarious, at times disturbingly familiar and throughout a poignant observation of a family in crisis (mid-life, mid-marriage, mid-anything!).

Thangyerverymuch for sharing.

RELEASE NOTES:

This bookray is being handed over to Yowlyy whose next on the list.

Received at today's meetup. Having read "The Curious Incident" a while ago, I am quite curious to see how this newer work fares. However, I have three other rings/rays lined up before this one, so it could take a couple of weeks until I get to read it. I will check with Chelseagirl if it is ok and she can wait that long :)

This is a book that I could have finished in a dash, hadn't I been travelling around so much and leaving it at home so that nothing happens to it (after all, it's a ring and I couldn't stand the thought that it got lost with a suitcase in some airport!).
Although completely different from the first work, it is just as good if not even better in the storyline. This disfunctional family with George on the very top of it is very much entertaining, even when sometimes they make you cringe at their actions (you know what I mean...there are plenty of those moments in there..). In fact, this reminded me a bit of "The worst week of my life" and similar British comedies, with a dash of darkness in it.
Thanks so much for sharing...the book is leaving tomorrow to visit Chelseagirl and continue its tour.

Arrived while I was on holiday so apologies for the delay in journalling. I loved Curious Incident and have heard mixed reviews of this one so I'm looking forward to reading it for myself.

Sorry I've had this so long - I had a couple of books ahead of it in the queue!

It took me an extraordinarily long time to get into A Spot of Bother but I'm glad I stuck with it because it was worth the effort. The chapters are very short and jump around between the characters and for a long time I felt that I wasn't given enough time with each of them to build up any kind of bond and I just didn't care about them at all - to the extent that I almost didn't bother reading on. However, about halfway through something changed and I suddenly wanted to know how things would work out for everyone, and from then on I couldn't put this down. it's funny but also very sad, and I guess quite realistic in depicting how a family can be close yet still not really know what's going on or how the actions of one can affect others.

In the end this was really good, thanks for sharing.

I'll get an address for veganknitter and pass it on asap.

I have almost finished a rather boring book I am reviewing for Amazon (they won't send me any more free stuff otherwise) and then I will get on with this.

Thanks for including me!

I really enjoyed this book although I found George rather irritating.

In fact, I didn't like any of the characters at the beginning of the book but as they discovered inner strength and become less selfish I found myself becoming quite fond of them by the end.

As probably the only person in the whole wide world NOT to have read The Curious Incident...yet, I wasn't able to compare this to that book and it probably helped.

I enjoyed the black humour and the observations of family life.

I have just read The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher and this book has many similarities but is mercifully a lot shorter.

Off to the next participant now - thanks for sharing!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to bike51man

The book's in my hands now - thanks Veganknitter. I'm afraid I won't be able to start it just yet: I've got Christmas plus another bookring to get through before this one, but shouldn't be too long.