Philip Henry's 3 favorite reads in 2024

I love Tina Fey and this book captures her personality and sense of humour perfectly. It's almost like she wrote it herself!

Even though I loved these awkward anecdotes about growing up, crappy jobs, trying desperately to lose her virginity - what is WRONG with American males? Look at her, she's beautiful! And she's a nerd! What more could you ask for? - and her rise to fame through improv, Saturday Night Live and the excellent 30 Rock, I feel there's probably even more to empathise with if you're a female person of the contradictory gender to myself (it's a Fawlty Towers reference, don't come after me in the comments about gender politics). Tina was a girl when she was young, and she grew into a young woman, and then an adult woman - the stuff you learn in autobiographies! - so persons who also had that journey will probably relate more.

I loved this. I can only hope Tina Fey is reincarnated when she dies so we can get a sequel.

I'm a huge Tarantino fan but I think OUATIH is his worst film by a country mile. The plot (?) meanders around in circles going nowhere for two hours and then there's 15 minutes of cool, violent, vintage QT.

My worst fear was that this was going to be a straight novelisation of the movie, but it's so much more and SO much better. We get more backstory on Cliff - I would gladly watch a whole movie about him now! - and unlike the movie, Rick's character actually has an arc and is different at the end. Without spoilers, the ending is different too. The movie's ending is mentioned about a quarter of the way through the book and is described in 2-3 lines and that's all he says about it. The book's ending is much more low key, but makes more sense to the story.

Looking at the movie now, it comes across as an even bigger mess, with QT spending stupid amounts of screen time on scenes that don't matter to the narrative. I wonder which came first - book or film. If it was the book, he did a terrible job of adapting it, if it was the screenplay, he fixed all the shortcomings of the script in the novel.

I don't think I'll ever warm to the film, but it's nice to know this version of the story exists and I can console myself with the fact QT hasn't lost it, he just made some terrible decisions adapting this story.

QT goes into a lot of backstory detail about the western TV show Rick is guest-starring in. This means nothing to the plot, and while a few lines is interesting, I think he spends two chapters telling us the whole backstory of all the characters in this TV show and it's boring. If there was some parallel between them and Rick's real life, that would be something, but there isn't.

That's the only criticism, though. Otherwise it's a really good book.

I suppose this is technically chick-lit, and I'm a big hairy man, but I loved it just the same.

Our heroine Nell returns to London after living in New York for several years. She's just been through a bad break up and needs to start over. She needs a place to live, a job, and needs to reconnect with her old friends and family. That's the sort of thing you have the energy and endurance for in your twenties, but in your forties it isn't so easy.

This is such an easy read. And despite me not being a woman of the female persuasion, I really identified with Nell and a lot of her struggles, challenges and insecurities. I think a lot of the things she goes through are universal so please, even if you're a hetero bloke like myself, don't think this book won't speak to you. It will. Trust me.