November Reading and Listening Recommendations

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nite-Time by Mark Haddon
Set in 1996 outside of London, The Curious Incident… is narrated by Christopher Boone a 15 year old boy with Asperger’s Syndrome whose mother had recently “died” (note the quotation marks around died – I’ll have to leave solving that mystery up to you). It is narrated in the manner that Christopher is writing a book to solve the mystery of the death of his neighbor’s dog, which he is immediately accused of and held by the police. His innocence is cleared within the first 20 pages and we learn of the real killer of the dog by the middle of the book. What starts as the catalyst for Christopher’s books, which has been suggested by his teacher Siobhan, becomes more of a back story as he stumbles further into his naïve investigations. For the record I don’t like mysteries, but while this is constructed as a mystery it really isn’t as such. I read this book as more of insight into the mind of someone with autism or Asperger’s syndrome. In fact this is the first book that I could definitively say should be taught in Math class of all places. Christopher’s obsessions lie with prime numbers and the chapters are numbered as such. He is fascinated by math equations and puzzles solving and offering several thoughout the book and providing an answer key after the last chapter.


How We Operate by Gomez
Gomez is a prolific British indie band that started in 1998. How We Operate is their 6th album. I’m not entirely sure if I am a Gomez fan or a fan of Ben Ottewell who makes up 1/3 of the band’s lead singers. Ottewell has a distinct voice that could be loosely compared to that of Grant-Lee Philips, as well as more of a folky songwriting style. Should the band have been fronted by only Ian Ball (another 3rd of the lead singers) they could have been billed as more of a dreamy alterna- band with heartwrenching lyrics and doe-eyed ernestness, which isn’t bad, but would make 12 songs worth a bit hard to swallow. As contrasted with Tom Gray who is a little brit-poppy for my tastes, with his ‘sha-la-la’ lyrics. Together the three of them (plus drummer Ollie Peacock and bassist Paul Blackburn) put together quite a solid and enjoyable catalog of tunes. The music seems to be written collectively as a band which allows for consistency as opposed to the impression of listening to a mix tape. What each singer seems to offer are the lyrics and the melody.
The keepers on this album are the title track “How We Operate”, “Chasing Ghosts with Alcohol” and “See the World”. The fillers are: “girlshapedlovedrug”, “Woman! Man!” and “Don't Make Me Laugh” (all of the brit-poppy bits).