Three-book break

This Christmas, I mostly read and, for once, they were all corkers.

Wise Children

Another Xmas holiday side project was working on a V&A book about Hollywood's Golden Age so I found this Angela Carter book in a Crouch End charity shop at just the right time. It's a rich, dense, dazzlingly mad romp through the lives of the Lucky Chance sisters, Dora and Nora, through their time hoofing it in the music halls and their complex family tree.

My favourite Amazon review comes from an unwise child; "It is just random anecdotes and bizarre stories unfortunately trapped together in over 200 pages of confusing and untalented literature. This is coming from a student who got a stars at GCSE level and actually an a grade in the AS English."

The Basic Eight

As someone from the Secret History generation, I'm a sucker for a campus novel. The Basic Eight, written by Daniel 'Lemony Snicket' Handler (no, I haven't read any Snicket, yes, I did once meet him at a press event and thought he was super-clever and charming) is Heathers in book form; all about a bunch of shapeshifting teens in San Francisco getting murdery, if they can find the time between dinner parties. It's funny and sharp, and the heroine, Flannery Culp, is unforgettable.

Disgusting Bliss: The Brass Eye of Chris Morris

There's something pretty great about finding things out for yourself. One of my only childhood television memories is watching the very final Blackadder episode, where they charge into the trenches, and myself and my three brothers and sisters all bursting into tears at once. We watched Ab Fab as a family; my brother and I started to get the jokes on Have I Got News For You at the same time.

But, perhaps two years after my dad banned me from playing Bis and PJ Harvey in his car (shame on you, Dad, look at Bis' latest state-of-the-nation album...), I found Brass Eye and I was smitten.

This bio of the genius Chris Morris is interesting for any Day Today/Alan Partridge megafan like me, but, given that it's about someone who is famously private, there isn't much on, er, Chris Morris. Instead you've got a bunch of famous comedy types (who all know each other; I'd never realised Lee and Herring worked on the radio show that preceded The Day Today) rinsing each other.

Like Iannucci on Coogan - "Were it not for the fact that he has this fantastic gift for comedy, Steve is fundamentally a guy who reads a lot of car magazines". ZING, Armando, ZING.

So, er, I'm out of books. Any tips?