The Wind Through the Keyhole - Stephen King

Wonderful to return to Midworld. It's a good book even by King's standards and I like the story within a story within a story format. Also nice to see more of Gilead-that-was and get to know some characters from those days - like taciturn badass-in-training Jamie DeCurry. The central story dragged a bit during the quest section, I thought, and as always with fantasy some of the conceits appealed to me more than others. But good fun. Latest on the film and/or TV adaptation is that they want Russel Crowe as Roland. Please no.

How I Escaped My Certain Fate - Stewart Lee

A very entertaining and thought-provoking book. As well as autobiographical chapters it contains transcripts of some of his stand-up shows, annotated with thousands of words of footnotes where he explains all the jokes and analyses himself, sometimes very critically. His views on comedy and art are interesting and he's obviously very intelligent, but fairly arrogant too, and his repeated admissions of and apologies for this arrogance don't help. The fact that he has made a career on such a narrow, non-mainstream, intellectual approach in an industry full of bullshit and greed (like any other) is very encouraging.

A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness

A kids' or "young adults'" book about a boy whose mum is dying of cancer and a Swamp Thing-style tree monster. It's very powerful and mostly well-written, except for the annoying habit of breaking up lines for emphasis.
Like this.
Which is a cheap trick.
Even when used sparingly - and here it isn't. Also feels a little... not didactic, exactly, but a bit messagey. A bit "here's the answer, kids!" But a well-crafted, tightly structured bit of fiction, definitely.