Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Dai Sijie)

Dai Sijie
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Recommended by Zayn (thanks!) which made me search out Balzac and only now 18 months after have I read the book. Which only took a day. Although small it's packed with story about love, relationships and awakenings. Set in China's 1970s with two sons of city intellectuals being sent out into the countryside to live as peasants as part of their re-education which may be forever. Their awakening is less about the Maoist kind rather in reading classic novels that are illegal. Mixed into this is their friendship with the Little Seamstress and her awakening in discovering the classics through the two boys which leads to another realisation and action which... well I won't put a spoiler in here suffice to say that the novel is a great read and possibly a classic in itself. 

Hooked (Paul Merson, Rob Bagchi)

Paul Merson (Rob Bagchi ghost writer)
Hooked

An honest (I assume) and all laid bare history of Paul's addictions that covered alcohol, cocaine and gambling. Although all interconnected it's interesting that gambling is the one that he sees as the hardest to kick (excuse the pun) and the most devastating to his wellbeing and life. Coke is the easiest for him to stop. It's written in a convincing and engaging manner which I assume is largely due to the ghost writer Rob Bagchi. The first part documents how Paul falls into drinking, gambling and then cocaine and how they take over his life exasperating feelings of low self esteem with the only relief coming from his 90 minutes on the football pitch. As an aside he was one of the best players of his generation and a key member of the league and cup winning Arsenal team. The middle part continues with his addictions and his latter years as a play post Arsenal but here I feel he loses his way and goes off into moaning about managers and players sometimes quite critically which is uncalled for in my opinion. And uncritically of a certain manager that left a certain south coast team deep in the financial mire. The latter part picks up again on what the book is about in how hard Paul finds it to quit gambling and losing literally all his money. The ending is optimistic in that he is a well regarded pundit and has a loving wife who has complete control over his finances to prevent him gambling it all away. The big take away for me is how devastating a gambling addiction is and how little is in place to help addicts which is something that Paul references too.