chasing bawa

Check out my last post on my trip to Kuala Lumpur this summer where I discovered prawn mee – lots and lots of eating shenanigans at Umami Mart: Slightly Peckish. Go on, check me out!

In bookish news, I’ve read some really fantastic books this year including Michelle de Kretser’s Questions of Travel and The Rose Grower, Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch and Scott Lynch’s The Republic of Thieves. All of which I still haven’t reviewed because it’s hard to write about books that you love so much without gushing about it and typing, it’s brilliant, I love it, just read it, goddammit. But I will soldier on and hopefully write about them before Crimbo. I will, I will, I will.

And now I am reading the Booker Prize-winning Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel, the sequel to the wonderful Wolf Hall charting the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s right hand man and Anne Boleyn’s nemesis or is it the other way round? Mantel’s prose is so fluid, so expertly rendered, that you feel you are right there in 16th century England.

Incidentally, I went to my first book signing with Scott Lynch tonight at Forbidden Planet – I was so excited about this as I’ve been a huge fan of his Gentleman Bastards series since The Lies of Locke Lamora was published in 2006 and it was totally worth the 2 hour queuing time. What an incredibly warm and friendly man. And next week Donna Tartt will be speaking at a Waterstone’s event in Piccadilly about The Goldfinch and the following week about The Secret History at the Guardian Book Club. I swear I’m not a stalker but I just love her books. And her. She’s just too cool. Did any of you see the Review Show special where Kirsty Wark interviewed Donna Tartt? If you have a chance, do.

And here’s a picture of The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch just because I think everyone should read his work. And Donna Tartt, of course.