Catching up - short (probably very short) reviews

I'm on track with my reading so far. That's a first! Anyway, I have three books waiting in the wings so here are three very short and lazy reviews.

Olivier by Philip Ziegler:
Biography of legendary stage and film actor Sir Laurence Olivier.

I liked this a lot I have to say, but it felt like it took forever to read. Not because of the subject matter - Ziegler is a  respectful and readable biographer - but for some reason the book was really heavy, which made it hard to hold up for extended periods.

It covers Olivier's life from go to woe, with a lot of focus on his acting life, rather than the more salacious details of Olivier's private life. Very interesting.

Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks

I have very, very mixed feelings about this one. The Wodehouse estate chose Faulks to pen a new Jeeves and Wooster novel, but the question is - did the world really need it?

Jeeves and the Wedding Bells is light-hearted and full of all of the Wodehouse plot-standards: star-crossed young lovers, country estates, misunderstandings ... but that special light touch and wittiness is somewhat missing.

It's readable enough, but go for the source material. Pip pip.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

I loved loved loved The Scorpio Races. I'm still emotionally fragile because of The Scorpio Races and I approached The Raven Boys with a little trepidation.

It was not, however, half as traumatic as The Scorpio Races.

Blue comes from a family of psychics. She's not psychic herself, but she acts like a signal boost. She's always been told that she will cause her true love to die, which is enough to make Blue cautious.

Then she meets Gansey, a Raven boy from the nearby boarding school and Blue's life changes completely as she gets caught up in Gansey's quest to find an ancient Welsh king.

I loved The Raven Boys a lot, and I'm excited to read the rest of the series, but - so far - it's not as earth-shattering as The Scorpio Races was. (I'm sure the pain is coming.)