This week’s recommendation is from Texas Monthly: it’s a fascinating and engaging analysis of Southwest Airlines and the reasons behind the success of the airline, even in times of recession. It’s by Sam Gwynne.

This is the building I was heading to in Sunderland yesterday… I did eventually arrive!

Spotted in Sunderland earlier today whilst completely lost! I always get lost when I go to Sunderland city centre… it’s as if they’ve not yet discovered directional signage for pedestrians!

Last week, I featured David Mitchell the comedian. In his book, he complains about being mistake for David Mitchell the author. So this week, I reasoned, why not feature Cloud Atlas? It’s another book that’s “now a major motion picture” – but I haven’t seen it, so that can’t upset me.

I really liked Cloud Atlas. It has a lovely central message, which is continually revisited and all brought together nicely at the end, and the quality and style of the language over hundreds of years seems spot-on. I’m not enough of a student of literature to know whether it is spot-on, but it was certainly good enough to convince me.

The book is essentially constructed of six smaller books, each interrupted at a crucial moment in their story – one even midsentence – and returned to again later. The story spans from the 1800s right through to a distant future, with each of the different small books being about a different time period, and written in the style of that time period. This sort of Calvino-esque style could have been gimicky and poorly written, but it actually worked quite well. Mitchell clearly has the talent required to construct such a story of such lofty ambition, and to transcend both styles and genres. And the unusual format is handled so deftly that it almost faded into the background once I got engrossed in the plot.

That said, this isn’t Calvino. For example, whilst If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller is also a collections of interrupted stories-within-stories, Cloud Atlas is far more accessible and populist, losing all the self-referential surreal genius that makes the former a masterpiece. Cloud Atlas isn’t Dan Brown-esque, you understand – it does maintain some literary merit, and has some worthy themes and messages. It’s accessible without being trashy.

All things considered, I’d highly recommend this book. Having said that, given the massive hit it’s already been, if you were going to read it you probably already have…! I was going to suggest revisiting it over Christmas, but I’m not sure it has the depth to sustain a second reading. Still, it’s pretty good.

Cloud Atlas is available now from amazon.co.uk in paperback and on Kindle.

Wendy and I have been writing Christmas cards tonight. Most years, we’d have had them sent out about a week ago, but we seem to be running late on most Christmas preparations this year! And we didn’t even manage to get the cards finished tonight!

I had a slight panic that they might be just too big for a normal stamp, too. But having measured very carefully with the official Royal Mail size guide, I’m confident that they don’t quite need large letter stamps – though it’s a close run thing. Let’s hope I’m right, or we’re about to annoy quite a lot of people with excess postage charges!

Wendy bought me this brilliantly whimsical money box a few years ago now… I think it’s great!

This newspaper which dropped through our letterbox today really helps to spread the a seasonal merriment! I shouldn’t joke, though… I know the cuts to Local Government are particularly tough for Newcastle, and there are lots of jobs and services at risk.

Taken during a break in the Christmas shopping expedition Wendy and I embarked on today. It was exceptionally busy in Newcastle, but we did manage to pick up a few presents!

So this photo of Newcastle at night is clearly a bit rubbish, but you can make out the Christmas lights snaking up the monument on the left hand side.

The article I’m recommending this week is totally heart-rending: forgetting a child in the backseat of a car is a surprisingly common cause of childhood mortality. Gene Weingarten’s article in the Washington Post looks at the emotional and differing criminal repercussions.