Two Songs & A Book

First, Alex singing Celie’s song I’m Here from The Colour Purple in Miscast the other week:

Next, do yourself a favour – two favours – sign up to BookBub and download lots of free books to your Kindle…and then delete half of them because they’re terrible, but at least you didn’t pay for them; and the good ones are worth wading through the dross.

And do it TODAY, so you can get a free copy while it’s available of Penny Reid’s Neanderthal Seeks Human.  She writes witty, intelligent romances with quirky characters and I own every book she’s written and hate that I discovered her while she’s still writing because I have to wait for the next book, and the next, and the next…you get the idea.

How can I convey the depth of my love for her books?  If I tell you I would spend my Malteser money on them, would that do it?  

My favourite line: This is the mammals all over again.

Go and get it NOW!  It’s FREE!

Finally, Alex and the other Colla Voce Boys in Chicago’s Cell Block Tango:

Big Brother Is Watching You…Eat

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Fatmouse.jpg

I download a lot of free books from BookBub.  I strongly recommend it: many – but not all – of the books are self-published and if I’m honest, there’s a lot of dross; but I have discovered some real gems, including the Talented Saga by Sophie Davis, which I absolutely loved.  The first book was free but I bought the next three because I enjoyed it so much.  The whole collection cost me less than £6.50 and I will definitely re-read them; and more than once.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13466202-talented

Last night I started reading another free download, Gone by Christine Kersey. It’s a YA novel about a teenage girl who runs away from home on a whim; realises her mistake; struggles to get back; and finds herself in a parallel universe, where it is illegal to be fat.  The government sends anyone over the weight limit to F.A.T. camp, forcing them to sell their house to pay for their mandatory treatment.

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/294/a/4/funny_picture_by_metalmario2345-d5ijd9x.jpg

It’s an okay book but I thought the premise was a little preposterous.  And then I read Sky News this morning: it appears that fat is now a government issue.  The current incumbents, if re-elected in May, propose to strip benefits from anyone deemed obese who refuses to go on a diet.  

You couldn’t make it up.

Or you could; but the real thing is much more frightening.

Please, take a read of the whole Sky News story and tell me what you think.