Reviews of Bachelor Kisses by Nick Earls, White Teeth by Zadie Smith and Flying for an Angel by Harrison T. Beardsley

Book reviews - December 2002

Bachelor Kisses
by

humourous
Pan Books, published
ISBN: 0330373358
432 pages
Review written on the 29th of December 2002
I rate this book 8/10: **********
You can find other peoples opinions of this book at Amazon's websites (where you also can order the book):
This book at Amazon (UK) Bachelor Kisses
This book at Amazon (Deutschland) Bachelor Kisses
This book at Amazon (Canada) Bachelor Kisses
This book at Amazon (USA) Bachelor Kisses
Nick Earls - Bachelor Kisses

Some years ago I read Zigzag Street, the first novel by Nick Earls, and I found it quite amusing. Hence I picked up this book from Amazon, that somehow ended up in the bookshelf unnoticed. When going on vacation earlier this year I brought Bachelor Kisses along with some other long forgotten novels. It was a happy reacquaintince to read Nick Earls, this novel was really funny. I recall Zigzag Street as funny with some more serious moments (I might be totally wrong, but that is how I recall it). Bachelor Kisses is pure funny, telling the tale of a young mans adventures working at a hospital, probably bits and pieces of Mr. Earls life thrown into it. It was an excellent read for the beach and the 300 pages or whatever goes by in a whoosh!

Read my other reviews of Nick Earls's books:
My review of ZigZag Street
My review of Perfect Skin

Reviews of books written in a similar style:
My review of John O'Farrell's The Best a Man Can Get
My review of Mike Gayle's My Legendary Girlfriend
My review of Lisa Jewell's Ralph's Party
My review of Keith Lowe's Tunnel Vision


White Teeth
by

fiction
Penguin, published
ISBN: 0140276335
560 pages
Review written on the 29th of December 2002
I rate this book 4/10: **********
You can find other peoples opinions of this book at Amazon's websites (where you also can order the book):
This book at Amazon (UK) White Teeth
This book at Amazon (Deutschland) White Teeth
This book at Amazon (Canada) White Teeth
This book at Amazon (USA) White Teeth
Zadie Smith  - White Teeth

2/3 of the book was quite amusing and interesting. The book starts cheerily off with the middle aged Archibald that is at the point of his life where he simply do not see the point anymore. In a sudden rush he is saved from his (quite poorly planned anyway) suicide and he find himself experiencing quite an interesting life. As I said 2/3rds of the book was funny to read, but then I started to lose interest in the story rapidly. "The autograph man" is now out, and maybe that one can keep my interest through the whole book, but I doubt that I will read it in the next couple of months.
heh, funny, I was just checking Amazons pages and saw another reviewer saying "This is one of those books that'd be so much better if it was a third shorter. And that's just about where I finished it: a third from the end."


Flying for an Angel
by

crime
Xlibris Corporation, published
ISBN: 0738856355
232 pages
Review written on the 29th of December 2002
I rate this book 6/10: **********
You can find other peoples opinions of this book at Amazon's websites (where you also can order the book):
This book at Amazon (UK) Flying for an Angel
This book at Amazon (Deutschland) Flying for an Angel
This book at Amazon (Canada) Flying for an Angel
This book at Amazon (USA) Flying for an Angel
Harrison T. Beardsley - Flying for an Angel

This crime story takes place in the 80s in the middle of Silicon Valley. An accountant at the high technology company Stratonics is brutally murdered in the middle of the night. This is not what you expect to happen at Stratonics where engineers normally do less violent things. Even more surprising is the man that is arrested, found at the place with a gun in his hand: David Williams, a very controversial financer of high-tech companies. Unfortunately he was found knocked down at the place and he cannot remember anything from the evening, why he was there and why he should have killed the victim. With everything against him it seems like a clear case, but some female friends of Williams are convinced that he is innocent. By pulling some strings, the women manage to get Charles Douglas, a well known attorney on the case, and even though he has got his doubts he starts to investigate the case, and when someone seems out to get David Williams things are getting dangerous. Mysterious video tapes, a young aspiring journalist and sex affairs are packing into this crime novel.
The story is taking place before the dot com era, but Silicon Valley where the place for technology at that time as well. Harrison T. Beardsley was himself a corporate financial advisor to several high-tech companies, and mixing that with his experience as a newspaper journalist he has created this first novel. Your basic crime story with an interesting setting, a brutal murder in the middle of the Valley, it will take you through a summer day learning that not even nerds can walk around in a safe environment these days (could they ever?)
Apparently a sequel to this novel is on its way, but I have no idea when that one will be published though.


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