Three beautiful things, all of them vaguely literary

I bought Brussels Unlimited today. I almost never buy it, but yesterday I wanted to, and I couldn't find it, and so today, even though it's a new issue, out of sheer bloody-mindedness I tracked it down. And I'm so glad I did, because without it I would never have known that:

* They picked my question on Starbucks to use in their section at the beginning where they round up the discussions on xpats.com.

* Howard Jacobson is coming to Brussels! He won the Man Booker Prize, and I've heard him interviewed on both the Guardian Books Podcast and Radio Four Books, and I like him. I haven't read The Finkler Question, but I certainly intend to, although I think I'll go for his earlier work, The Mighty Waltzer, first, after hearing him talk about it on the Radio Four Book Club Podcast. This is exciting, because as far as I know Real Live Famous Authors never (or rarely) come to Brussels, and this is the kind of event I ought to be going to as an aspiring writer. I'm even tempted to have some business cards made, though I can't think why - surely not to give to him? Although, well. You never know, do you?

Unrelately to Brussels Unlimited, but staying in the general theme of newspapers, I passed a Guardian today that had an article which intrigued me, but I talked myself into being sensible and not buying it. My last lesson of the day was in Exki on Place Stephanie, where - bless their hearts - they have a variety of newpapers in various languages, including my British rag of choice. And since I was there when it closed, and since no one - bless all of your hearts - had taken the G2 section, they let me take it away with me. For free, not the statutory €5, or however much a British newspaper costs here these days. These little things make me smile. ]

Having my chubby-faced nephew flash me beautiful dimpled smiles was also pretty great today, but that takes me to four beautiful things, and that's not allowed, is it?

"Inevitable", by Claire Lyman - what's it about?

What's it about? I usually get asked when I apologise for my recent lack of social engagement with the excuse that "I'm writing a book, and I'm living eating sleeping breathing nothing else at the moment." So, for those of you who've wondered...



Catherine is bored. It’s not that she doesn’t love her books and her West Wing DVD collection, and the passion and excitement they stir in her. But she’d like something to happen in her real life for a change.

In search of adventure, or at the very least some existential angst she can use to finally do some of that writing she’s always secretly wished she had the heartbreaking past to fuel, she moves back to her native Belgium.

Yes, Belgium. Things happen there too, you know, as she discovers when she begins teaching French to Brad, an American diplomat, who, looking as he does like Bradley Whitford circa 1999 and minus the disproportionately controversial moustache, is not hard to fall in love with.

All well and good, but Brad’s ambiguous friendship with the beautiful Lucy (think Janel Moloney), back home in the US, seems to be getting in the way of the perfect Pride and Prejudice ending she’d like for her autobiography.

If heartbreak is the price for adventure, is it worth it? Should she fight for Brad? Should she settle for his best friend, who just happens to be another attractive American? Or should she retreat back into the world of fiction, living vicariously and free from gut-wrenching pain?

Come with her and help her decide...