A Woman's Review of "A Man's Life"

I love reading, always have. I was that kid with the torch under the bedclothes desperate to finish her latest book. I even used to enjoy reading the dictionary. Sounds tragic but I always came top in spelling....

Books (Photo credit: henry…)

As an adult my love of reading continues although I have much less time to indulge. I'm a member of a book club- which is part book club, part supper club (read more about that here) and I'm always struggling to finish the book. Or in fact this month, even buy the book - what was it again?

 I'm equally happy with a paperback I can read in the bath, a hardback I can prop up on my knees (or guiltily devour with my eyes while eating my lunch when there are no children around to tell me off ) or my e-reader.


Yes I don't think it should be either/or when it comes to books vs e-reader. I love my Kindle - a fairly old black and white one with no touch screen. OK I can't read it in the bath but I love having a giant library at my fingertips.

Anyway, enough of that - I'm starting to sound like Ive been paid by Amazon! I actually started this post with the goal of telling you about a book I did manage to finish this month - because it was one of those once started I couldn't put it down. And it is an e-book so anyone with an e-reader or tablet or smartphone who can access Amazon downloads can enjoy it too!

There's a bit of a story behind me reading the book. Regular readers will know I am a big fan of comedian Dominic Holland  and in fact feature in his DVD (read about how that happened here).

He asked me to review his latest novel "A Man's Life" and since I enjoyed his non-fiction "Eclipsed"so much I was happy to agree.

I really didn't know what to expect. I really wanted to enjoy it and luckily I wasn't disappointed. It wasn't the light comedy book I expected - I was taken aback by the power of the writing describing some fairly dark moments in the main character's life and chatting to another person who'd read the book we both wondered if Dominic had drawn on personal experience as the emotions seemed to real to be imagined.

I don't want to give away the plot at all but there's death, bullying, desperation, mental health issues and overwhelming sadness. But there's love and friendship and family bonds and of course humour which means the book is nicely balanced. OK maybe a bit predictable at times but all packaged neatly and the story bounces along nicely despite its risky foray into the usually dull arena of small town finance and politics. Intrigued? I hope so.

"A Man's Life" is available for just £1.99 from Amazon. And breaking news - I read on Dominic's website today that he has just started working on his fourth novel! Looking forward to it already.

Disclaimer; I received no financial incentive to review the book. I purchased the book myself. Views as always are my own.