Our Christmas read was this year's Booker winner The Sellout by Paul Beatty. I watched Beatty's acceptance speech when he won the award and aside from all the crying and blushing he amused me with his frank acknowledgment at one point that he hates writing. That he found it tough to write is hard to determine from the novel, however, which certainly has its challenges, but is a warm, funny, character-filled romp around a mostly black and Latino neighbourhood of LA. It's a challenging read, but also a genuinely funny one, and it made a good book club book as there was plenty to discuss. Turns out there really was a series of Little Rascals films (Our Gang) and the idea for the character of Hominy may have come from Ernie Morrison. Interesting BBC interview with Beatty here. As for what we made of it, the book scored 65, level with Kamila Shamsie's Burnt Shadows. Full reviews on the main site, here.