Biographical

Cleo

My heart went out to Helen with this book. As great as it was that Cleo eventually went to live with them. Love them. Heal them. The incident that led to her becoming one of the Brown family is heart wrenching. Such an amazing story about an amazing little cat and an amazing family. 

Stet
Diana Athill was hailed as the best editor in London and reading about the way she interacted with her clients I can see why. Anyone who is interested in publishing should give this autobiography a read and get some insight into the world of books, authors and editors.

Max Perkins
This biography will only be of interest to literary types. But, this biography will be of interest to literary types.
Maxwell Evarts Perkins was an American editor. Or rather 'the' American editor at Scribner's publishers. The man responsible for discovering F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Tom Wolfe amongst others. And maybe he should have just thrown Ernest Hemingway back.
This biography reads like a who's who of great American literature from the 20's, 30's and 40's. The golden age of great writing. 

Truly Madly - The Alan Rickman Diaries
I am glad I read these simply because it gave an insight into the man who used to be my favourite actor.
He name drops A LOT.
He brags A LOT and he was a nasty anti-semitic Nazi.
It was worth the read just to find out that he doesn't deserve the adoration he received.
I think it's safe to say he knew Rema would make a mint out of the books upon his death. All the name-dropping and self-satisfied blather about where he's been, who he spoke to, who his friends were, etc, etc is testimony to that.
He loved people who were rich and famous. Moaned about most of the projects he worked on unless it had a political agenda. His. And did everything he could to turn people against Jews. Vile, horrible, nasty little man.
It also galls that we see his poison seeping into the tweets of Emma Watson, a girl he criticised when she joined Harry Potter. A child!
Please go to your local library and loan a copy. It's well worth a read but I fear that profits will go to a nefarious cause so please borrow.
A must read for anyone who wants to know the real Rickman.
As he said, "Israel deserves to be hated." - In that case Mr Rickman, so do you.

Son of Hamas

This book had me gripped from start to finish. Even though I knew Mosab was alive and well and living in America, I was there with the child Mosab. With the youth Mosab. With the young man Mosab. With the hero, Mosab as he navigated his way through one of the dangerous periods in Middle Eastern history, the son of the leader of one of the most dangerous terrorist organisations in the history of the world. Hamas. There are no words that can describe how brave, how selfless and how loving this gentle man is. For the truth on what's really going on in the Middle East, this is a must read.
It might have done Rickman well to read this before hurling hate at Israel.