If you don’t know your Scottish slang, find a web site that can help you. I have a few friends from Scotland and that helped a wee bit.

In not big on summaries, but I’ll tell you, my feelings. I got extremely sad and depressed reading this book. I wanted to put it down, but didn’t. Obviously, not every story has a good ending, but this is an extremely detailed and well written book about a young child dealing with a mother with alcoholism (ok, a bit of a summary). I was glad when it was over because I was feeling overwhelmed emotionally. But was proud of myself for reading a book that has a character such as Shuggie, who is left so alone emotionally and will not shy away from them in the future. I really did get the feeling I knew most every character well, even the minor ones. If you can get past the maudlin premise of the book, it is worth it.

It got the praise it deserves and not surprised it won a Booker Award.