My Family and Other Animals

I'm not sure I've ever truly had a book just wash over me before. It's a really fun, lovely romp around a beautiful place with the author as an interesting, fun kid. I was very impressed at how he really sets every scene with description, since one of my writing pet peeves is “three adjectives for everything”.

My only complaint for this book is that the author reproduces the speech impediments and incorrect English of some of the characters. This is very distracting, and has been considered poor form for several decades. When the book was published it was probably a common style, so the author isn't trying to make fun of the characters, but all the same it is irritating.