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Here is the thread for the December Family and Self, Cider With Rosie. I'll be reading this next week. Who is with me?

I hope to get to this but my reading has been slower lately so no guarantees (especially with the holidays).

I should be starting this in a few days.

Is it just you & me Kaycie?

It might be...haven't seen anyone else. I started, but it's kind of slow going for me. I'll try to update this weekend.

Is this a novel or an autobiography? The blurb in my copy calls it an autobiography but I thought that the Guardian's list didn't include nonfiction...

Its an autobiography, basically.

I'm having a hard time because it's really over-written in my opinion. The descriptions are just over the top and too eccentric for me to follow easily, so reading isn't an immersive experience. I'm always trying to figure out what the hell the author is saying, and not getting in to the story.

I was surprised at this book, as it was far from what I was expecting. I can see why people like it - Lee is a poet and his descriptions can be poetical - but it wasn't for me. Like I said previously, everything was too over-the-top, and I felt the descriptions actually hindered the story.

I also frequently dislike autobiographies, as its hard to write one in which you don't sound too conceited - writing so much about your own life. In this, like many others, I got the impression that Lee really thinks quite a bit of himself.

Also, there is a scene towards the end where (view spoiler)[Lee and his friends plan the gang-rape of a mentally handicapped girl. They fail, but the scene is painted with such nonchalance, it was equally as sickening to me as if they had actually succeeded because their attitudes were...just ugh. (hide spoiler)]

Anyways, this took me quite some time for such a short book because I read it slowly to understand it, and never felt like picking it up.

Lee paints a pretty ideal childhood despite his large family having been abandoned by their father and raised by an overwhelmed mother. A simple, easy read but as mentioned before not sure how this made the list.

I enjoyed the innocence and descriptions pf village life in this book. Recommended!

I liked it OK but preferred Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford trilogy, which covers much of the same ground.