I finally finished reading One Big Damn Puzzler by John Harding. It’s about a lawyer ending up on a tropical island where he comes across a native tribe. Some of the tribespeople have lost legs, arms or are otherwise disabled because of mines, left by American and the lawyer is there to start getting the tribespeople compensating. The tribe didn’t ask for compensation and it’s not clear whose doing it is to send the lawyer there and arrange for compensation. The book starts off quite funny, but along the way it’s all more of the same I think. Not highly recommended…

Then on to some other books. A friend of mine works in a shop selling books for kids and since my nephew and niece are celebrating their birthday tomorrow I dropped by to get some books. Unfortunately Geertruide wasn’t there, so I had to phone here up to get some advice. She told me first of all to read the Gruffola. This book is simply great. It’s about a mouse, an owl, a snake a fox and the gruffalo.

The second book I got for my niece is a priceless one. It’s ‘written’ by Thé Tjong-Khing. The book is titled ‘Where is the Cake’ (’Waar is de Taart’ in Dutch). In the book, a cake gets stolen en then a hunt begins for the two animals that stole th cake. The great thing about this book is that it doesn’t have any words at all, it’s just drawings. Along the way, a lot of stuff happens in the drawings, and that’s what makes the book very special I think.

For my nephew I bought ‘De grote kleine kapitein’ (literally translated as the big small captain), about a boy setting sail with a boat he built himself. Fun stuff for Mas, who’s spending most of his holidays on the boat of his daddy (my brother).

In the meantime, some music to finish the day with (the ones via Last.FM are in the recommendations in my profile).

• Death in Vega - Hands Around My Throat (via Last.FM
• Ian Dury - Spasticus Autisticus (via YouTube)
• MGMT - Time to Pretend (via Last.FM). It’s the song the movie ‘21′ starts off with