Difference between revisions of "Newest Humour Reviews"

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{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Harry Harrison
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|author=Ian Doescher
|title=Bill, the Galactic Hero
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|title=William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh
|rating=3.5
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Meet Bill.  He's a simple farmer – well, he ''is'' taking a correspondence course in being a Technical Fertiliser Operator – but fate has something else in storeAnd so does the mechanised, technological, industrial military, which needs several billion grunts to fight the Chingers, in mankind's first inter-galactic war.  Still, at least he gets medals just for signing up.  After that it's all downhill, and the likes of Petty Chief Officer Deathwish Drang can only make that a straight line downReally, what hope is there?
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|summary=A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a man called William Shakespeare, who was able to create a series of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdyYou may or may not have noticed the cinematic version of his original stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken'', but here at last we get the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to-before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the family til it hurtsAnd if you need further encouragement, don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the series is so popular we're on to part seven – surely making this over twice as good…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147320531X</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>159474985X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Ian Doescher
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|author=James Goss and Russell T Davies
|title=William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace
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|title=Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Humour
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|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary= Join us, good gentles, for a merry reimagining of `Star Wars Episode 1' as only Shakespeare could have written it. 'Tis a true Shakespearean drama, filled with sword fights, soliloquies and doomed romance…all in glorious iambic pentameter and coupled with gorgeous illustrations. Hold on to your midichlorians: The plays the thing, wherein you'll catch the rise of Anakin!
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|summary=Consider the Doctor.  Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to keep in touch with even half of his companions?  He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some of them, say, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate the life of a Time Lord and that of some of his friends and enemies.  As luck would have it, he has the space in his TARDIS to stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and get himself ready. And if you're working on a shorter timescale, with a shorter lifespan, and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the same.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594748063</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785942719</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Attaboy
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|author=Annie Ingram
|title=The Book of Hugs
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|title=Conversations with Kammie
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Humour
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|genre=Pets
|summary=A hug's a hug, OK? You either do, or you don'tSome people might be a little more enthusiastic about the process whilst others are more elegant in the execution of the hug, but basically you just get on and do it and then forget about it, right?
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|summary=It was something of a relief when I encountered Annie Ingram and her cocker spaniel Kammie. You see, Annie knows something which has been self-evident to me for a long time: dogs are perfectly capable of communicating with humans and not just on a level of ''food!'', ''walk!'' or ''play!''You do require extensive training to become fluent, but most dogs will be perfectly willing to give their time to teach you and all you have to do is listen.  Annie has studied hard: Kammie has trained her well and the pair have allowed us to share some of their conversations.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0867197978</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785451995</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Christopher Fowler
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|author= Charles Harris
|title= Bryant and May – The Burning Man
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|title= The Breaking of Liam Glass
|rating=4
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|rating= 3
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary= The Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) has a new set of overlords. For reasons that were explored in the previous couple of outings they have been transferred to the City Of London Police.  The Met are still the big players in the area.  City of London Police only police the old city, the square mile, the financial district in other words, that has very little in the way of street crime, because no-one lives there anymore and the people who work there are, by and large, either too rich to need to steal, or too smart to have to do so on the streets.
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|summary= A flawed but reasonably entertaining swipe at modern media. There's plenty here to like, and plenty not to. But good structure and scramjet pace keep this one flying to the final page.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857522043</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908943823</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg
+
|author= Fred Van Lente
|title=The Little Old Lady Who Struck Lucky Again!
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|title= Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery
|rating=3.5
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|rating= 4
|genre=Humour
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|genre= Humour
|summary=Following the success of ''The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules'', the League of Pensioners are back – and this time, they’re in Vegas! I haven’t read the first book but it was on my list when the opportunity arose to review this one. The idea of the League of Pensioners marching towards a fairer world through fun and frolics was hugely appealing to me and this is a stand alone novel so I thought I would dive straight in with this one.
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|summary= Nine comedians are invited to a remote Caribbean island under the guise of working with Dustin Walker, a comedic legend. Each fits neatly into one of the archetypal comic stereotypes: Steve, the washed-up has-been who has fallen far from his early days; Zoe, the rising female star with a new stand-up special coming soon; Dante, who went from being a kid on the streets to the hardest working road comic in the business; Oliver, the child-like prop comic who can't get any respect from his peers; Janet, the insult comic who is past her prime;  TJ, the nightly variety show host with a reputation for harassing his female colleagues and guest acts; Ruby, the ultra-feminist YouTuber and Blogger with a chip on her shoulder; and William, whose redneck character ''Billy the Contractor'' is a far cry from his real personality as a posh millionaire. Of course, all nine agree because ''when God almighty walks down on a beam of light and asks for your help, what the hell else are you going to say?''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447274903</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594749744</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Winshluss
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|author=S Lynn Scott
|title=In God We Trust
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|title=Elizabeth, William... and Me
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic Novels
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|genre=Humour
|summary=To start with, a rhetorical testHow about God and Adam playing badminton day in and day out, until one gets bored and decides to create Eve?  Or the defeater of Goliath and the saviour of the Israelites being one Conan the Barbarian? Or this as a test – Jesus Himself failing to have a successful session of tequila slammers with Gabriel due to the holes through His hands?  I barely need mention that in these pages God does battle with Superman, for you to have answered the test and put yourself firmly in one of two camps for this book – one very much opposed to buying it, and one very much in favour.
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|summary=Ally is an ordinary woman with teenage children, a husband and a jobThen comes the day when ordinariness flies out of the window. It's not a coincidence that it's the same day she finds Queen Elizabeth I in the pantry and the Bard of Avon in her bath.  What's she going to do?  Well, Elizabeth and Will have their own ideas about that!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861662350</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1788037006</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=David Walliams and Tony Ross
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|author= E G Rodford
|title=The Queen's Orang-Utan
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|title= The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2
|rating=5
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|rating= 4
|genre=For Sharing
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|genre= Crime
|summary=The Queen felt trapped in the palace with all those stuffed animals which she has been given on foreign tours. There are mountains of them and every night she would dream of escaping. When her birthday drew near the family dutifully asked her what she would like as a present.  The Prince was thinking of a gold, diamond encrusted stairlift whilst the Duke was considering a great big bottle of brandy.  The Royal Baby had some decorated thimbles in mind, but the Queen became just a little snappish as she explained that what she really wanted was 'One's own orang-utan'.  And she didn't mean a stuffed one, either.
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|summary=In the second instalment of this series, Private Investigator George Kocharyan has been hired by a well-known local man to track down some missing valuables. Bill Galbraith, a world-famous surgeon at Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital who hosts a popular medical television programme, has had his briefcase stolen by his live-in domestic servant, Aurora. According to Galbraith, this briefcase contains confidential notes concerning an important patient of his at the hospital. George agrees to look into the theft, assuming it will be a relatively easy and straightforward case – little does he know, he's about to enter a world of deceit and dysfunction.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008135134</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178565005X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Jack Sheffield
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|author=Toni Jordan
|title=Silent Night
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|title=Our Tiny, Useless Hearts
|rating=3.5
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|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
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|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=I read a couple of Jack Sheffield’s books about five years ago, and enjoyed them very much. They were written in a similar style to those popularised by, for instance, James Herriot or [[:Category:Gervase Phinn|Gervase Phinn]], told mostly in the first person, describing the author’s first couple of years as Headmaster at a small village primary school in Yorkshire. The village of Ragley is fictional, as are most of the characters, but the incidents and situations encountered are based on the author’s experience.
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|summary=As predicted by Caroline and Janice's mother on Caroline and Henry's wedding day, their marriage is over, albeit 15 years and two daughters further along than predicted. Indeed, this is definitely not a good weekend for Janice to be babysitting at Caroline's house.  There's the split and the awkwardness of the girls' schoolteacher being the other woman for a start.  Then there's that mistaken identity moment involving the neighbours. At least Janice is well adjusted and over her ex-husband Alec.  She still dreams of him, yes, but it's so over!  Just as well really… guess who's at the door?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552167045</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760293814</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=J Robert Lennon
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|author=Colin Taylor
|title=See You In Paradise
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|title=The Life of a Scilly Sergeant
|rating=3
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
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|genre=Travel
|summary=Lennon writes with a relaxed, easy style and his characters are instantly recognisable as people from everyday walks of life, without being in any way stereotypical. Many of the people in these stories are dealing with normal frustrations, and Lennon is cleverly detached enough not to make them individuals that you're obviously supposed to root for (the only exception is the industrialist in the eponymous tale, who is an archetypal capitalist fat cat). There are some very clever characterisations – in ''Weber’s Head'', for example, the narrator is a flawed individual whose opinions of his housemate are gradually revealed to be unreliable and unfair. For me, the most unsettling story is ''No Life'', because it portrays a decent couple at the mercy of people more powerful and influential than them. There is no supernatural or bizarre element at work here, just ordinary characters at the mercy of social power.
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|summary=Meet the Isles of Scilly.  (I know they should be called that – the author provides a handy guide to the etiquette of their name, their nature and location, etc.)  For our more distant readers, they're several chunks of granite rock out in the Atlantic, where Cornwall is pointing, with just 2,200 permanent residents.  They're big on tourism, and big on growing flowers in the tropical climate the Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the weather is bad enough to turn any car to a rust bucket within years. They're so wee, and so idyllic-seeming, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for a police presence. But there is – at least two working at any one time.  And one of them in recent years has been Colin Taylor, who has done his official duty – alongside maintaining a well-known online existence, which has brought to life all the whimsical comedy of his work.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781253358</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178475515X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Lynne Truss
+
|author=Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees
|title=Cat out of Hell
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|title='Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody
|rating=3
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|rating=3.5
|genre=Horror
 
|summary=Meet Alec Charlesworth.  He's retired and decamped to an isolated coastal cottage with just his dog and loving memories of his colleague wife, now that she has died before her time.  But the fusty librarian cannot rest too long before engaging in exploring some unusual computer files that were pinged across by someone at the college he worked at, just before he left.  Bizarrely they show photographic and audio evidence of a talking cat called Roger, replete with Vincent Price voice – although they are also damaged by being included alongside some bad screenplay attempts about said cat.  Worryingly, we soon see what at the most only a few of the characters can, that this cat is being accompanied by unusual and unexpected death – much like Alec's wife.  It's only when Roger testifies to having been pushed through the ends of endurance and out the other side that we begin to doubt where the true evil in this story lies…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099585340</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jimmy Hansen and Mychailo Kazybird
 
|title=Wallace & Gromit : The Complete Newspaper Strips Collection Vol 2
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Humour
 
|genre=Humour
|summary=For me there are two important areas of the cover of this book where three letters are arranged in meaningful ways.  The first is with the S-U-N in their obligatory red and white fontNo minor paper could hold Wallace and Gromit, their adventures have to be in what is (unfortunately) the most widely read tabloid in the country.  And elsewhere is C-B-E, suggesting that even the storytellers at Aardman Animations who are not household names are feted and revered as artistic experts, raising many laughs and much money for the country courtesy of their creative outputTogether these short collections of letters show just how much WaG are major creations, and if the proof was needed this much longer collection of their daily comic strips provides it in spades.
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|summary=It's Christmas Eve and Mum has arranged everythingAll she now has to do is await the arrival of the relatives and the food shopping deliveryLittle does Mum know that those two elements alone have the potential to ruin everything.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782760822</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472125118</amazonuk>
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Dear Committee Members
 
|author=Julie Schumacher
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Jason Fitger (Jay) is a Professor of creative writing and literature at a small university in the American mid-west. He is also a frustrated novelist with a colourful personal history, much of which bleeds into his professional life, with interesting results.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007586345</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=Mapp and Lucia Omnibus
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|author=Ryan North
|author=E F Benson
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|title=Romeo and/or Juliet
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Humour
 
|genre=Humour
|summary=Miss Elizabeth Mapp rules the town of Tilling - she is the centre of the social life, and spends her days enjoying bridge, polite conversation and civilised painting. When Mrs Emmeline Lucas arrives in town (known to all as Lucia), Miss Mapp finds her life truly shaken up, as the cultured, fashionable and progressive Lucia makes her home in the town, and swiftly rises to the top of the ranks amongst the social scene in Tilling.
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|summary=For all those who think tragedy plots are too restricted and prescribed, read on.  In these pages you too will see that Romeo had lots of options en route to hitting the bottle.  Likewise, she could have turned away from her predestined path at no end of junctures.  And to what result?  Well, happy marriage and a kid called Ben, because the leads have just banged people's heads together and stopped the quarrelling, or Death by Tybalt (him) or a long life running an establishment curing murderous women, such as a Lady M (her).  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849908478</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356508536</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=Encyclopedia Paranoiaca
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|author= Gervase Phinn
|author=Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf
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|title= The Virgin Mary's Got Nits
|rating=4
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|rating= 4.5
|genre=Popular Science
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|genre= Humour
|summary=We're screwed.  Wherever we look, whatever we think of doing, there is a reason why we shouldn't be doing it, and people to back that reason up with scientific data.  Take any aspect of your daily life – what you eat, how you work, how you rest even, what you touch – all have problems that could provoke a serious illness or worse. And outside that daily sphere there are economic disasters, nuclear meltdowns, errant AI scientists and passing comets that could turn our world upside down at the blink of an eye. Perhaps then you better read this book first – for it may well turn out to be your last…
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|summary= Christmas in our house is the time we tend to get on a plane and head to either sun or snow, anywhere that is far, far away from the madness at home, last minute dashes to the shops on Christmas Eve, and food cupboard stockpiles that would imply supermarkets are shutting for a month, nor a mere 36 hours. But I do remember the feeling of Christmas when I was younger, back when it was magical, and back when you knew exactly what the season would bring with carol concerts and school nativities and Christmas parties. This book is an anthology of those moments, and it took me right back to the wonder of Christmas as a child.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715649213</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444779400</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=Diary of a Mad Diva
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|author= Kieran Crowley
|author=Joan Rivers
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|title= Shoot
|rating=3.5
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|rating= 4
|genre=Humour
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|genre= Crime
|summary=The late Joan Rivers was, without a doubt, a character. Actress, comedian, writer, director, presenter, she was well known in the USA and beyond for her sharp tongue and no holds barred persona. This was the last of the dozen books she published, her final title before her death in September 2014.
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|summary= I make something of a habit of being late to discover good writers, in this case getting to Crowley after he is no longer with us.  The result is that what is billed as ''an F.X. Shepherd mystery'' with all the optimism of there being more to come has the poignancy of being, if not the last of a short line, certainly one of a few.  F.X. Shepherd – he doesn't like his first name and prefers just "Shepherd" is, technically, a columnist.  He's been sacked by one New York newspaper and is writing a weekly column for another. I don't know much about journalism, but I'm guessing one column a week doesn't pay much as a rule…which explains why Shepherd's soap-washed-foul-mouthed editor (read the book, you'll see what I mean) expects him to turn in some genuine journalism as well: front page, seat of your pants stuff.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0425269027</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783296518</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - The Nearly Definitive Edition
+
|author=Gray Jolliffe
|author=Douglas Adams
+
|title=The First Ever Christmas: And Who to Blame
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
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|genre=Humour
|summary=There are few series that have garnered such a cult following as 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'. Whether the fans have come from the radio series, the (impossibly hard) computer game, or the (well intentioned but not particularly good) film, they are everywhereAsk a room of people what the meaning of life is, and you can be pretty sure a good few will pipe up with '42' as the answer.
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|summary=If I tell you a secret, will you promise not to tell anyone?  Well, I really don't like Christmas: it's my least favourite time of year and whilst some people count down to the day itself, I look forward to that point when I can say that it's all over for another year. It's all too commercialised for me, with a coating of faux religion.  I've never found it in the least funny - that is, until I found Gray Jolliffe's ''The First Ever Christmas: And Who's to Blame''Amazingly, I'd never encountered Gray Jolliffe either, but I'm a convert to his skills as a cartoonist (if not to the idea of Christmas) after reading this collection of Christmas-themed cartoons from his archive.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434023396</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445663503</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=Quick Pint After Work
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|author=Jonathan Pugh
|author=Luke Lewis
+
|title=Pugh's New Year's Resolutions
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Humour
 
|genre=Humour
|summary=BuzzFeed is one of the world’s best time sucks, and I’m regularly directed to the site by links from Facebook and Twitter, in between browsing the app on my phone. According to the author bio on this book, BuzzFeed is 'a social news and entertainment company', which is a fancy way of describing lots of fun lists that speak to the readership (20 words that have a completely different meaning in Manchester, 30 Things all ex-gymnasts know to be true, 40 Very British problems, yadda yadda yadda). These list work well on line when you want a quick distraction, and they’re easy to flip through, looking at the attached photos or video clips. The question then, is whether or not BuzzFeed the book will have the same appeal.
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|summary=If there's one thing that's for certain, it's that the world is changing.  We're dating online, we're communicating in ways that make email seem redundant, and when we're shopping we just tell a website where and when it can be delivered, and how much leeway they have to swap our wishes for whatever it is they do bring us.  But those changes are also supposed to be affecting us – we're supposed to use a smart watch to tell us if we're moving or not, we have to keep up with the latest fads, and we're supposed to prick our ears up and take note when the proverbial 'they' change their minds about what we're supposed to eat.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751557730</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722885</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Graeme Simsion
+
|author= Luke Rhinehart
|title=The Rosie Effect
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|title= Invasion
|rating=4
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|rating= 4.5
|genre=Humour
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|genre= Humour  
|summary=Following inadvertent success with the Wife Project, Professor Don Tillman and his new bride Rosie have moved from Australia to New York. Although Don's position on the autistic scale is subjective, he still operates on a daily basis of structured procedures, lists and logic. Rosie can generally handle that but there are choppy waters ahead.  With the patter of tiny feet imminent logic goes out the window as she struggles with her PhD while Don struggles to find his place in the baby production process. At least he has his drinking buddies to support him – an aging rock drummer and a friend whose wife has thrown him out for infidelity.  What could possibly go wrong?
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|summary=Super-intelligent furry aliens suddenly appear from another universe. And they've come to earth to have fun. Alien Louie follows fisherman Billy Morton home one day, and he and his family quickly come to love the playful alien. But when Louie starts using their computer to hack into government and corporate networks, stealing millions from banks to give to others, they realise that Louie and his friends mean trouble. As Billy and his family begin a roller coaster ride of fame and fortune, as well as a ranking high on the FBI's most wanted list, the Government soon decides that these aliens are terrorists, and must be eliminated. Whilst the aliens are playing games they hope will help humans to see the insanity of the American political, economic and military systems, they soon come to realise that the Powers that Be don't play games: they make war. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785651757</amazonuk>
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718179471</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=Burnt Tongues: An Anthology of Transgressive Short Stories
+
|author=Rod Green
|author=Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Widmyer and Richard Thomas
+
|title=Only Fools and Horses: The Peckham Archives
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
+
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound rightSome things are so disturbing or politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your head, or better yet not thinking of them at allWhen these words are spoken they could lead to the sensation of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect of knowing what you said was wrongAre you prepared to enter the world of Transgressive Fiction that aims to disturb, alienate, disgust and question?
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|summary=We are in the world of one of the country's most famous and well-loved sitcoms – even if it was sort-of killed off for Christmas 2003Yes, there have been specials since, and more repeats to clog up the BBC schedules than is really pukka, but very few people failed to succumb to its charms at one time or anotherI'm sure there have been books before now celebrating the stony-faced reception of ''that'' drop through the open bar hatch, and ''that'' chandelier scene, but this is much more meatyPurporting to be the family archives, found dumped in Nelson Mandela House, the documents here were passed from pillar to post, from one council worker in a department with a clumsy acronym to another, from them to the police – and now here they are being published for their social history worth.  Will enough readers find them of worth, as the series quietly celebrates its 35th birthday?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329552X</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849909245</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Sammy Looker
+
|author= Mara Wilson
|title=Something Nasty in the Slushpile
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|title= Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame
|rating=4
+
|rating= 5
|genre=Humour
+
|genre= Autobiography
|summary=I couldn't resist the title - a neat play on [[Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons|Cold Comfort Farm]] and I'm sure that you'll understand that I was expecting some examples of the horrors to be found amongst the mountain of unsolicited manuscripts which every publisher accumulates.  I'll confess I was expecting to giggle, even to groan - unkind, I know - and I'd mentally shelved the book with the trivia, or (hopefully) the humour.  There is that element to the book, but there's also something far more useful.  If you're thinking about publishing a book this should be required reading ''before'' you even go near a publisher.
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|summary= Mara Wilson has always felt a little young and a little out of place: as the only child on a film set full of adults, the first daughter in a house full of boys, the sole clinically depressed member of a cheerleading squad, a valley girl in New York and a neurotic in California, and an adult the world still remembers as a little girl. Tackling everything from how she first learned about sex on the set of ''Melrose Place,'' to losing her mother at a young age, to getting her first kiss (or was it kisses?) on a celebrity canoe trip, to not being cute enough to make it in Hollywood, these essays tell the story of one young woman's journey from accidental fame to relative obscurity, but also illuminate a universal struggle: learning to accept yourself, and figuring out who you are and where you belong.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472111028</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0143128221</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=The Queen
+
|author= Tony Stuart
|title=Still Reigning
+
|title= Writing Lines
|rating=4
+
|rating= 4.5
 
|genre=Humour
 
|genre=Humour
|summary=Anyone who frequents Twitter will know that it's a mixed blessing. It's a mine of wonderful information and supportive camaraderie. It's also - unfortunately - home to a lot of people who take great pleasure in causing pain to others. But in amongst all this are a few gems and one of them is [https://twitter.com/Queen_UK @Queen_UK], a delightful satire on members of the royal family, celebrities,  the political classes and the state of Her Majesty's nation.  Or, ''one's nation'' as Ma'am would say.  ''Still Reigning'' is her second book, after ''Gin O'Clock'' and it's the sort of parody which leaves you wondering if the writer might not be someone ''very'' close to the original.
+
|summary= George Gordon Wentworth (1946-2011) lived a humdrum life. He was a barely adequate teacher in a fairly world renowned independent school in Kent and kept a copious diary of his quotidian existence. Most of what he recorded was dross. However, amongst all the utterly uninteresting tailings of his life there were some nuggets and grains to catch the attention. Author Tony Stuart has created these amusing anecdotes, panning them out over twenty six episodes which give us the best of Wentworth – comedy gold. From losing all the pupils in his charge on a school trip to being arrested on suspicion of terrorism; from waking up in bed between the married couple the morning after their wedding, to destroying a ski run; from appearing full-frontal naked in a sheep-farmers' gazette to triggering an air-sea rescue; Wentworth was, blinkered and befuddled, the subject – of these and so many more unlikely but highly amusing events.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715649132</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524634441</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=Last Days of the Bus Club
+
|author=Graham Fulbright
|author=Chris Stewart
+
|title=Driving Mad: Maniacs, Morons and the Advanced Motorist's Club
|rating=4
+
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Humour
 
|genre=Humour
|summary=I could well have been a near-neighbour of Chris StewartNot, of course, near his current primary occupancy, an ecological farmstead just beyond the turning off from the back end of nowhere in the most rural of corners of southern Spain, but back when he lived in the south-east of England, being Genesis' first ever drummer, and building bridges in the North DownsThe fact I learnt the latter from this book shows up several of the features of this warm-hearted 'travelogue' – the fact that Stewart is never shy about portraying family details and history – given a good map and a prevailing wind one could find where he lives and descend on the farm, if one wished; and that while this might be on the travel shelves, the narrative is so fragmented it actually moves a lot more than any of the characters do.
+
|summary=I passed my driving test when John F Kennedy was in the White House and I've recently had to reapply for my driving licence having achieved a venerable ageWhen I started driving the roads were kinder, more forgiving places - or put another way, the idiots were fewer and further between.  I don't know how long Graham Fulbright has been driving, but he certainly knows his motoring morons and in ''Driving Mad'' he brings us a fictional sample of their eccentricitiesWell, I'm pretty certain that they're fictional - but these days you never know...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745436</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783062584</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=Summer Half
+
|author=Mario Giordano
|author=Angela Thirkell
+
|title=Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Humour
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=If one didn’t know of Angela Thirkell’s distinguished background as a granddaughter of Sir Edward Burne-Jones and daughter of a classicist, it would be tempting to describe her as a kind of country cousin of [[:Category:P G Wodehouse|P.G. Wodehouse’s]]. An unaffected and intelligent one, whose humour is less sophisticated but bubbles over with just as much glee. The middle-class world she has created, where young men come from families that are comfortably wealthy rather than outrageously so, offers a counterpoint to the Mitford or Wodehouse worlds with their aristocratic characters who travel the world and mingle with more louche, bohemian ones.
+
|summary=Poldi had not long been widowed when she decided to move from Bavaria to Sicily with the intention of drinking herself to death.  She could, of course, have done this in Germany, but she felt that a sea view was essential.  Once there, new friends, family already resident on the island and the corpse of a young man, his face blown off by a shotgun, whom she found on the local beach, intervened to give her life some meaning.  For a while she was a suspect, but that (and her wig) were no obstacle to her falling for Commissario Vito Montana who was assigned to investigate the case.  Assisting him (or having him assist her) came naturally to Poldi and before long there was an investigative and personal partnership.  At least so far as Poldi was concerned.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184408969X</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908524693</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=The Bojeffries Saga
+
|author= Grady Hendrix
|author=Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse
+
|title= My Best Friend's Exorcism
|rating=5
+
|rating= 5
|genre=Graphic Novels
+
|genre= Horror
|summary=A very truncated history of comics will start with the idea that they should be funny strips – one jape then you're out; then that they should have more – perhaps a superhero; then that you can have so much more than just a superhero – witness the works of [[:Category:Alan Moore|Alan Moore]]. But you mustn't be too surprised to see the whole thing come around in a full cycle.  Because Alan Moore has, with this volume, concluded his own funny strip japery, and whatever history or greater opinions about the canon of comix might say, it's just about his best ever book.
+
|summary=1988, Charleston, South Carolina. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disatrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act...different. She's moody. She's irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she's nearby. Abby's investigation leads her to some startling discoveries - and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship enough to beat the devil?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861662318</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594748624</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Reverend Adam Smallbone
+
|author= Kevin MacNeil
|title=The Rev Diaries
+
|title=The Brilliant and Forever
|rating=4.5
+
|rating= 3.5
|genre=Humour
+
|genre= Humour
|summary=Adam Smallbone wasn’t always a vicar.  He used to work for the Bristol Housing Department, enabling his father-in-law to tell everyone he worked 'in property'.  From there, his initial calling was to a rural church in Suffolk which did nothing to prepare him for this, his current London inner city parish.  Indeed, he's not prepared for Adoha (the Nigerian parishioner with 19 grandchildren and 'the bottom of God') or Colin, the homeless alcoholic who has adopted Adam and his wife Alex (Mrs Vicarage to Colin).  But then Alex also has a lot to get used to; after all, she didn't actually marry a vicar.
+
|summary= You know sometimes when someone tells a joke, everyone else laughs, and you're sat there wondering what was so funny?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718178394</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973376</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=Look Who's Back
+
|author= Christopher Fowler
|author=Timur Vermes
+
|title= Bryant and May: Strange Tide
|rating=5
+
|rating= 3.5
|genre=General Fiction
+
|genre= Crime
|summary=''Hitler Youth Ronaldo! Which way to the street?''  With these words a very misguided Nazi Fuhrer asks for his first directions in the Berlin of 2011Mistakenly believing the lad to be a party junior member with his own name on his football shirt, he also thinks for a while it is still 1945He's soon informed of the truth, but still makes some unfortunate conclusions – that the street kiosks selling Turkish language newspapers are a sign of a Soviet-beating alliance between the two countries, that people eat granola bars because the war still leads to a bread shortage, and that people making an ironic speech bubble with their fingers in the air is all that is left of the Hitler salute. But yes, after a long hiatus neither he nor our author is particularly concerned with explaining, ''that man'' is back – and if he has his way he's going to be just as popular this time round…
+
|summary= The thirteenth outing for Bryant and May is looking very much like it will be their lastArthur Bryant is on compassionate leave whilst tests are continuing, which are likely to confirm that he is suffering from Alzheimer'sHis condition is worsening almost by the day, memory lapses are morphing into full-scale hallucinations.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052926</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857523422</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Adam Ruck
+
|author=Kevin Smith
|title=The Bluffer's Guide to Golf (Bluffer's Guides)
+
|title=The Voyage of the Dolphin
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=5
|genre=Sport
+
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The fly leaf suggests that this Bluffer's Guide is the way to instantly acquire all the knowledge which you need to pass as an expert in the ''arcane and labyrinthine'' world of golfThere's quite a bit there that I'd agree on - the rules (and to an unfortunate extent the ''attitudes'') are arcane and they seem to take a lifetime to master, but there's a surprising amount of information tucked away inside this little bookWhat I might quibble with is whether or not you would ''pass as an expert'' (which suggests that you're something of a con man): there's enough detail here to give you a solid grounding without needing to bluff.
+
|summary=Dublin 1916: Among the unrest and anti-British feeling worsened by the threat of conscription into a war seen as nothing to do with the Irish, Trinity College faculty has other distractionsThey'd like a trophy; the skeleton of an Irish 'giant' to be precise.  The only glitch is that the main trophy contender, Bernard MacNeill's skeleton, is somewhere difficult to access and all seasoned explorers are otherwise engaged.  There may be hope though.  They turn to Fitzmaurice, a student not good enough for anything elseFitzmaurice agrees, picking his friends Crozier and Rafferty to go with him.  So… ''Gentlemen, lace up your strongest boots and pack your warmest underwear – we're all off to the bloody Arctic!'' Whether battle cry or epitaph, three men and a dog… and an iguana… are going anyway.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909365327</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124826</amazonuk>
 +
|amazonus=<amazonus>1910124826</amazonus>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=
+
|author=Tony Hawks
The Collected Works of A J Fikry
+
|title=Once Upon a Time in the West… Country
|author=Gabrielle Zevin
+
|rating=3
|rating=4
+
|genre=Travel
|genre=General Fiction
+
|summary=I have often complained in a jokey voice to my partner about life in the sticks, and the way she moved me from an inner-city flat to slumming it in the suburbs with fewer busses, no takeaways within walking-and-keeping-food-hot distance, and no 'Polish' shops for a can of beer whenever you fancy oneThings are different with Tony Hawks, as here he has purposefully decided to up sticks from London to Somewhere, Devon – a tiny village where the people who built their own homes decades ago still live in them, where slugs are a lot more of a problem for the wannabe lettuce-grower than they are for the metropolitan commuter, and where village halls have the power to turn you into both a Pol Pot dictator if you get on their committee and into a quivering, bruise-inducing wreck if you're the wrong gender at a Zumba class…
|summary=A J Fikry is not having a good time.  He's lost his wife to a car crash, and he's not making that much money.  The book store he runs, stuck out on a limb on a quiet island community, is too remote to turn a profit year-round, and he has just dismissed the latest publisher's rep to turn up at his door, partly because her previous counterpart, an inconsequential part of A J's life when all is said and done, had died and he didn't know about itBut his bad time is about to get a lot worse, as the one thing he owns worth the most – a rare book, more valuable than his house, his business, anything – is about to vanish.  Which bizarrely will cause several major changes to his one-person household…
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444794809</amazonuk>
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408704617</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=William Hanson
+
|author=Marian Keyes
|title=The Bluffer's Guide to Etiquette (Bluffer's Guides)
+
|title=Making It Up As I Go Along
|rating=5
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
+
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=If you ask people what they fear most in any social situation most will tell you that it's not knowing how to behaveThey'll be fine about the basics, but it's those little niceties - how to introduce yourself, what to ask for as an aperitif, how to address someone, for instance which can suddenly reveal you as a parvenuWilliam Hanson gives us a quick trip through the essentials in a book which is very readable and - in places - hilariously funny.
+
|summary=Oh, how the book reviewing gods like to give, and equally like to take awayHere before me is a brand, spanking new collection of journalism by the wonderful Marian Keyes – but it's a proof copy, so there's no photo of the author.  Even if over the years I have stopped reading her novels, I have always turned to the author picture to remind myself such sights exist in this world.  Himself is a lucky man, for sureBut beyond sounding like a letch, what can I say about this – the beauty's third large dose of essays, web columns and other journalism?  I can start with agreeing that I am not the target audience, but it's easy enough to see from these pages exactly what the target is.  So much like that test you do – you know the one, that formulates decisions about the age and commonality of all things in space to come up with how many billions of planets are likely to have alien life on – you can narrow things down quite readily here, and still come up with a huge number.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909937002</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718182529</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=Horrid Henry's Biggest and Best Ever Joke Book - 3-in-1
+
|author= Jean-Yves Ferri
|author=Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
+
|title= Asterix and the Missing Scroll (Album 36)
|rating=4.5
+
|rating= 5
|genre=Humour
+
|genre= For Sharing
|summary=It is easy to see why Horrid Henry remains such an enduring and well-liked children’s character. The adventures of this cheeky, irreverent schoolboy and a cast of extreme characters including Miss Battle Axe, The Demon Dinner Lady, Rabid Rebecca and arch-nemesis Moody Margaret are incredibly funny and a perfect way to encourage reluctant young readers to cultivate a love of reading. It is no surprise then, that the series has spawned a set of three spin-off joke books, which have now been combined to create a single volume: ''Horrid Henry’s Biggest and Best Ever Joke Book''.
+
|summary=Asterix is those rarest of book series; one designed for kids which is actually even funnier when you are an adult. I used to love Asterix as a child, but now that I reread them I can't help but wonder why, because they are so full of hilarious jokes that I definitely wouldn't have understood when I was younger. I laughed loud and hard to myself twice within the first two pages of Asterix and the Missing Scroll, so I'd definitely say that this was a hit.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144401174X</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1510100458</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}

Revision as of 13:57, 5 October 2017

William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher

4.5star.jpg Science Fiction

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a man called William Shakespeare, who was able to create a series of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. You may or may not have noticed the cinematic version of his original stage play for The Force Doth Awaken, but here at last we get the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to-before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the family til it hurts. And if you need further encouragement, don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the series is so popular we're on to part seven – surely making this over twice as good… Full review...

Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies

4.5star.jpg Children's Rhymes and Verse

Consider the Doctor. Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to keep in touch with even half of his companions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some of them, say, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate the life of a Time Lord and that of some of his friends and enemies. As luck would have it, he has the space in his TARDIS to stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and get himself ready. And if you're working on a shorter timescale, with a shorter lifespan, and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the same. Full review...

Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram

4star.jpg Pets

It was something of a relief when I encountered Annie Ingram and her cocker spaniel Kammie. You see, Annie knows something which has been self-evident to me for a long time: dogs are perfectly capable of communicating with humans and not just on a level of food!, walk! or play!. You do require extensive training to become fluent, but most dogs will be perfectly willing to give their time to teach you and all you have to do is listen. Annie has studied hard: Kammie has trained her well and the pair have allowed us to share some of their conversations. Full review...

The Breaking of Liam Glass by Charles Harris

3star.jpg Crime

A flawed but reasonably entertaining swipe at modern media. There's plenty here to like, and plenty not to. But good structure and scramjet pace keep this one flying to the final page. Full review...

Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente

4star.jpg Humour

Nine comedians are invited to a remote Caribbean island under the guise of working with Dustin Walker, a comedic legend. Each fits neatly into one of the archetypal comic stereotypes: Steve, the washed-up has-been who has fallen far from his early days; Zoe, the rising female star with a new stand-up special coming soon; Dante, who went from being a kid on the streets to the hardest working road comic in the business; Oliver, the child-like prop comic who can't get any respect from his peers; Janet, the insult comic who is past her prime; TJ, the nightly variety show host with a reputation for harassing his female colleagues and guest acts; Ruby, the ultra-feminist YouTuber and Blogger with a chip on her shoulder; and William, whose redneck character Billy the Contractor is a far cry from his real personality as a posh millionaire. Of course, all nine agree because when God almighty walks down on a beam of light and asks for your help, what the hell else are you going to say? Full review...

Elizabeth, William... and Me by S Lynn Scott

4.5star.jpg Humour

Ally is an ordinary woman with teenage children, a husband and a job. Then comes the day when ordinariness flies out of the window. It's not a coincidence that it's the same day she finds Queen Elizabeth I in the pantry and the Bard of Avon in her bath. What's she going to do? Well, Elizabeth and Will have their own ideas about that! Full review...

The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2 by E G Rodford

4star.jpg Crime

In the second instalment of this series, Private Investigator George Kocharyan has been hired by a well-known local man to track down some missing valuables. Bill Galbraith, a world-famous surgeon at Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital who hosts a popular medical television programme, has had his briefcase stolen by his live-in domestic servant, Aurora. According to Galbraith, this briefcase contains confidential notes concerning an important patient of his at the hospital. George agrees to look into the theft, assuming it will be a relatively easy and straightforward case – little does he know, he's about to enter a world of deceit and dysfunction. Full review...

Our Tiny, Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan

5star.jpg Women's Fiction

As predicted by Caroline and Janice's mother on Caroline and Henry's wedding day, their marriage is over, albeit 15 years and two daughters further along than predicted. Indeed, this is definitely not a good weekend for Janice to be babysitting at Caroline's house. There's the split and the awkwardness of the girls' schoolteacher being the other woman for a start. Then there's that mistaken identity moment involving the neighbours. At least Janice is well adjusted and over her ex-husband Alec. She still dreams of him, yes, but it's so over! Just as well really… guess who's at the door? Full review...

The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor

4.5star.jpg Travel

Meet the Isles of Scilly. (I know they should be called that – the author provides a handy guide to the etiquette of their name, their nature and location, etc.) For our more distant readers, they're several chunks of granite rock out in the Atlantic, where Cornwall is pointing, with just 2,200 permanent residents. They're big on tourism, and big on growing flowers in the tropical climate the Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the weather is bad enough to turn any car to a rust bucket within years. They're so wee, and so idyllic-seeming, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for a police presence. But there is – at least two working at any one time. And one of them in recent years has been Colin Taylor, who has done his official duty – alongside maintaining a well-known online existence, which has brought to life all the whimsical comedy of his work. Full review...

'Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees

3.5star.jpg Humour

It's Christmas Eve and Mum has arranged everything. All she now has to do is await the arrival of the relatives and the food shopping delivery. Little does Mum know that those two elements alone have the potential to ruin everything. Full review...

Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North

3.5star.jpg Humour

For all those who think tragedy plots are too restricted and prescribed, read on. In these pages you too will see that Romeo had lots of options en route to hitting the bottle. Likewise, she could have turned away from her predestined path at no end of junctures. And to what result? Well, happy marriage and a kid called Ben, because the leads have just banged people's heads together and stopped the quarrelling, or Death by Tybalt (him) or a long life running an establishment curing murderous women, such as a Lady M (her). Full review...

The Virgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn

4.5star.jpg Humour

Christmas in our house is the time we tend to get on a plane and head to either sun or snow, anywhere that is far, far away from the madness at home, last minute dashes to the shops on Christmas Eve, and food cupboard stockpiles that would imply supermarkets are shutting for a month, nor a mere 36 hours. But I do remember the feeling of Christmas when I was younger, back when it was magical, and back when you knew exactly what the season would bring with carol concerts and school nativities and Christmas parties. This book is an anthology of those moments, and it took me right back to the wonder of Christmas as a child. Full review...

Shoot by Kieran Crowley

4star.jpg Crime

I make something of a habit of being late to discover good writers, in this case getting to Crowley after he is no longer with us. The result is that what is billed as an F.X. Shepherd mystery with all the optimism of there being more to come has the poignancy of being, if not the last of a short line, certainly one of a few. F.X. Shepherd – he doesn't like his first name and prefers just "Shepherd" is, technically, a columnist. He's been sacked by one New York newspaper and is writing a weekly column for another. I don't know much about journalism, but I'm guessing one column a week doesn't pay much as a rule…which explains why Shepherd's soap-washed-foul-mouthed editor (read the book, you'll see what I mean) expects him to turn in some genuine journalism as well: front page, seat of your pants stuff. Full review...

The First Ever Christmas: And Who to Blame by Gray Jolliffe

5star.jpg Humour

If I tell you a secret, will you promise not to tell anyone? Well, I really don't like Christmas: it's my least favourite time of year and whilst some people count down to the day itself, I look forward to that point when I can say that it's all over for another year. It's all too commercialised for me, with a coating of faux religion. I've never found it in the least funny - that is, until I found Gray Jolliffe's The First Ever Christmas: And Who's to Blame. Amazingly, I'd never encountered Gray Jolliffe either, but I'm a convert to his skills as a cartoonist (if not to the idea of Christmas) after reading this collection of Christmas-themed cartoons from his archive. Full review...

Pugh's New Year's Resolutions by Jonathan Pugh

4.5star.jpg Humour

If there's one thing that's for certain, it's that the world is changing. We're dating online, we're communicating in ways that make email seem redundant, and when we're shopping we just tell a website where and when it can be delivered, and how much leeway they have to swap our wishes for whatever it is they do bring us. But those changes are also supposed to be affecting us – we're supposed to use a smart watch to tell us if we're moving or not, we have to keep up with the latest fads, and we're supposed to prick our ears up and take note when the proverbial 'they' change their minds about what we're supposed to eat. Full review...

Invasion by Luke Rhinehart

4.5star.jpg Humour

Super-intelligent furry aliens suddenly appear from another universe. And they've come to earth to have fun. Alien Louie follows fisherman Billy Morton home one day, and he and his family quickly come to love the playful alien. But when Louie starts using their computer to hack into government and corporate networks, stealing millions from banks to give to others, they realise that Louie and his friends mean trouble. As Billy and his family begin a roller coaster ride of fame and fortune, as well as a ranking high on the FBI's most wanted list, the Government soon decides that these aliens are terrorists, and must be eliminated. Whilst the aliens are playing games they hope will help humans to see the insanity of the American political, economic and military systems, they soon come to realise that the Powers that Be don't play games: they make war. Full review...

Only Fools and Horses: The Peckham Archives by Rod Green

4star.jpg Entertainment

We are in the world of one of the country's most famous and well-loved sitcoms – even if it was sort-of killed off for Christmas 2003. Yes, there have been specials since, and more repeats to clog up the BBC schedules than is really pukka, but very few people failed to succumb to its charms at one time or another. I'm sure there have been books before now celebrating the stony-faced reception of that drop through the open bar hatch, and that chandelier scene, but this is much more meaty. Purporting to be the family archives, found dumped in Nelson Mandela House, the documents here were passed from pillar to post, from one council worker in a department with a clumsy acronym to another, from them to the police – and now here they are being published for their social history worth. Will enough readers find them of worth, as the series quietly celebrates its 35th birthday? Full review...

Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame by Mara Wilson

5star.jpg Autobiography

Mara Wilson has always felt a little young and a little out of place: as the only child on a film set full of adults, the first daughter in a house full of boys, the sole clinically depressed member of a cheerleading squad, a valley girl in New York and a neurotic in California, and an adult the world still remembers as a little girl. Tackling everything from how she first learned about sex on the set of Melrose Place, to losing her mother at a young age, to getting her first kiss (or was it kisses?) on a celebrity canoe trip, to not being cute enough to make it in Hollywood, these essays tell the story of one young woman's journey from accidental fame to relative obscurity, but also illuminate a universal struggle: learning to accept yourself, and figuring out who you are and where you belong. Full review...

Writing Lines by Tony Stuart

4.5star.jpg Humour

George Gordon Wentworth (1946-2011) lived a humdrum life. He was a barely adequate teacher in a fairly world renowned independent school in Kent and kept a copious diary of his quotidian existence. Most of what he recorded was dross. However, amongst all the utterly uninteresting tailings of his life there were some nuggets and grains to catch the attention. Author Tony Stuart has created these amusing anecdotes, panning them out over twenty six episodes which give us the best of Wentworth – comedy gold. From losing all the pupils in his charge on a school trip to being arrested on suspicion of terrorism; from waking up in bed between the married couple the morning after their wedding, to destroying a ski run; from appearing full-frontal naked in a sheep-farmers' gazette to triggering an air-sea rescue; Wentworth was, blinkered and befuddled, the subject – of these and so many more unlikely but highly amusing events. Full review...

Driving Mad: Maniacs, Morons and the Advanced Motorist's Club by Graham Fulbright

3.5star.jpg Humour

I passed my driving test when John F Kennedy was in the White House and I've recently had to reapply for my driving licence having achieved a venerable age. When I started driving the roads were kinder, more forgiving places - or put another way, the idiots were fewer and further between. I don't know how long Graham Fulbright has been driving, but he certainly knows his motoring morons and in Driving Mad he brings us a fictional sample of their eccentricities. Well, I'm pretty certain that they're fictional - but these days you never know... Full review...

Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano

4star.jpg Crime

Poldi had not long been widowed when she decided to move from Bavaria to Sicily with the intention of drinking herself to death. She could, of course, have done this in Germany, but she felt that a sea view was essential. Once there, new friends, family already resident on the island and the corpse of a young man, his face blown off by a shotgun, whom she found on the local beach, intervened to give her life some meaning. For a while she was a suspect, but that (and her wig) were no obstacle to her falling for Commissario Vito Montana who was assigned to investigate the case. Assisting him (or having him assist her) came naturally to Poldi and before long there was an investigative and personal partnership. At least so far as Poldi was concerned. Full review...

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

5star.jpg Horror

1988, Charleston, South Carolina. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disatrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act...different. She's moody. She's irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she's nearby. Abby's investigation leads her to some startling discoveries - and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship enough to beat the devil? Full review...

The Brilliant and Forever by Kevin MacNeil

3.5star.jpg Humour

You know sometimes when someone tells a joke, everyone else laughs, and you're sat there wondering what was so funny? Full review...

Bryant and May: Strange Tide by Christopher Fowler

3.5star.jpg Crime

The thirteenth outing for Bryant and May is looking very much like it will be their last. Arthur Bryant is on compassionate leave whilst tests are continuing, which are likely to confirm that he is suffering from Alzheimer's. His condition is worsening almost by the day, memory lapses are morphing into full-scale hallucinations. Full review...

The Voyage of the Dolphin by Kevin Smith

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

Dublin 1916: Among the unrest and anti-British feeling worsened by the threat of conscription into a war seen as nothing to do with the Irish, Trinity College faculty has other distractions. They'd like a trophy; the skeleton of an Irish 'giant' to be precise. The only glitch is that the main trophy contender, Bernard MacNeill's skeleton, is somewhere difficult to access and all seasoned explorers are otherwise engaged. There may be hope though. They turn to Fitzmaurice, a student not good enough for anything else. Fitzmaurice agrees, picking his friends Crozier and Rafferty to go with him. So… Gentlemen, lace up your strongest boots and pack your warmest underwear – we're all off to the bloody Arctic! Whether battle cry or epitaph, three men and a dog… and an iguana… are going anyway. Full review...

Once Upon a Time in the West… Country by Tony Hawks

3star.jpg Travel

I have often complained in a jokey voice to my partner about life in the sticks, and the way she moved me from an inner-city flat to slumming it in the suburbs with fewer busses, no takeaways within walking-and-keeping-food-hot distance, and no 'Polish' shops for a can of beer whenever you fancy one. Things are different with Tony Hawks, as here he has purposefully decided to up sticks from London to Somewhere, Devon – a tiny village where the people who built their own homes decades ago still live in them, where slugs are a lot more of a problem for the wannabe lettuce-grower than they are for the metropolitan commuter, and where village halls have the power to turn you into both a Pol Pot dictator if you get on their committee and into a quivering, bruise-inducing wreck if you're the wrong gender at a Zumba class… Full review...

Making It Up As I Go Along by Marian Keyes

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

Oh, how the book reviewing gods like to give, and equally like to take away. Here before me is a brand, spanking new collection of journalism by the wonderful Marian Keyes – but it's a proof copy, so there's no photo of the author. Even if over the years I have stopped reading her novels, I have always turned to the author picture to remind myself such sights exist in this world. Himself is a lucky man, for sure. But beyond sounding like a letch, what can I say about this – the beauty's third large dose of essays, web columns and other journalism? I can start with agreeing that I am not the target audience, but it's easy enough to see from these pages exactly what the target is. So much like that test you do – you know the one, that formulates decisions about the age and commonality of all things in space to come up with how many billions of planets are likely to have alien life on – you can narrow things down quite readily here, and still come up with a huge number. Full review...

Asterix and the Missing Scroll (Album 36) by Jean-Yves Ferri

5star.jpg For Sharing

Asterix is those rarest of book series; one designed for kids which is actually even funnier when you are an adult. I used to love Asterix as a child, but now that I reread them I can't help but wonder why, because they are so full of hilarious jokes that I definitely wouldn't have understood when I was younger. I laughed loud and hard to myself twice within the first two pages of Asterix and the Missing Scroll, so I'd definitely say that this was a hit. Full review...