Early Reviewers: Librarything

I have received 3 books in the last few months, lucky me!

The first was Timoleon Vieta Come Home  , fitting nicely into my 1010 Challenge Travel Category.  The link of the book is the titular dog, Timoleon Vieta, a mongrel who attaches himself to a lonely Englishman in the Italian countryside. Man and dog live together, the only constant in the Cockcroft's life, a life littered with failed romances, exile in a foreign country. This, the only truly constant relationship of the book, is interrupted by the arrival of the Bosnian. Timoleon and the Bosnian do not hit it off, leaving Cockcroft with a difficult decision to make.  In the second part of the book, we see the dog's encounters with other people, touching their lives in a small way. I really enjoyed the second part, windows into very different people's lives, and very personally written. It is in the second half that the writer's touch for description really comes in to force.

The second was  This is How,  I am a huge fan Canongate press and so picked this one out of the Early Reviewers scheme.
I read the book rather quickly, this was due to the snappy writing style and the plot. 
Patrick is a mechanic who, after his girlfriend dumps him, decides to move to the coast.  He ends up living in a boarding house run by a widow, trying to find his place. 
This is a book of frustration.  We hear all of the happenings through Patrick, which could be seen as one-sided, but helps the tension build and, ultimately, brings the reader to sympathise with the protagonist.
I found the Patrick´s time in prison particularly well written, capturing as it did the otherworldliness or time of life on the inside.


And last, but not least,  The Obelisk.  I was so excited to get this, I have enjoyed each and every one of Forster's books. This one is rather different, a collection of short stories, unpublished in his lifetime. There are uniting themes, homosexuality and class being the most prevalent. There is also the juxtaposition of the real and unreal, leaving the reader eager to read on and work out exactly what is going on. For me, the titular story was the best.