Difference between revisions of "Newest Humour Reviews"

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[[Category:Humour|*]]
 
[[Category:Humour|*]]
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{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15"  <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
|author=Jonathan Pugh
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|title=Pugh's New Year's Resolutions
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<!-- Coulton -->
|rating=4.5
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|-
|genre=Humour
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|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.
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[[image:1473669588.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473669588/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722885</amazonuk>
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}}
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{{newreview
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|author= Luke Rhinehart
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===[[Falling Short by Lex Coulton]]===
|title= Invasion
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|rating= 4.5
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
|genre= Humour
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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>
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Lex Coulton's debut novel is a story about mistakes, failures, and relationships. The main protagonist, Frances Pilgrim, is a sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, a work colleague, and is grappling with the increasingly eccentric behaviour of her mother.  This relationship is complicated by the fact that Frances's father disappeared at sea when she was five years old. [[Falling Short by Lex Coulton|Full Review]]
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{{newreview
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<!-- van LENTE -->
|author=Rod Green
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|-
|title=Only Fools and Horses: The Peckham Archives
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|rating=4
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[[image:1683690346.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690346/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|genre=Entertainment
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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 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?
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849909245</amazonuk>
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}}
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===[[The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente]]===
{{newreview
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|author= Mara Wilson
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|title= Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame
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|rating= 5
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Comic-Cons are a place of wonder and sanctuary for many people, and when Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, he's looking for both that and sanctuary with other fans and creators, plus the chance of maybe, just maybe reuniting with his ex. However, when his rival is found dead, Mike is forced to navigate every dark corner of the con in order to clear his name – from cosplay flash mobs and intrusive fans to zombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his innocence and, in doing so, may just unravel a dark secret behind a legendary industry creator. [[The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente|Full Review]]
|genre= Autobiography
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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.
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0143128221</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
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[[image:1683690133.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690133/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|author= Tony Stuart
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|title= Writing Lines
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|rating= 4.5
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| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|genre=Humour
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===[[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris]]===
|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.
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524634441</amazonuk>
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
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{{newreview
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You are a lass of twenty eight. Plucky, penniless and in Regency era London the race is on to find a suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to life as an eternal spinster. Along your journey you'll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager to save you from a life alone, and fired by a rogueish sense for adventure. When it comes to suitors though, you'll have to make the ultimate decision between witty, pretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the mad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and ancient Egyptian artifcats along the way, it's clear this isn't going to be an easy decision... [[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris|Full Review]]
|author=Graham Fulbright
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|title=Driving Mad: Maniacs, Morons and the Advanced Motorist's Club
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<!-- Jester -->
|rating=3.5
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|-
|genre=Humour
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|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 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...
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[[image:Jester_Forever.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1510704361?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1510704361]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783062584</amazonuk>
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}}
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{{newreview
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|author=Mario Giordano
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===[[Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester]]===
|title=Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions
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|rating=4
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fasntasy]]
|genre=Crime
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|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 caseAssisting 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.
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Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the offer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, a grim reaper and his friends Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and finding a clean surface to sit on in their flat. [[Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester|Full Review]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908524693</amazonuk>
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}}
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<!-- Stibbe -->
{{newreview
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|-
|author= Grady Hendrix
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|title= My Best Friend's Exorcism
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[[image:Stibbe_Xmas.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0241309824?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0241309824]]
|rating= 5
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|genre= Horror
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|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?
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594748624</amazonuk>
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===[[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe]]===
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{{newreview
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[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]
|author= Kevin MacNeil
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|title=The Brilliant and Forever
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Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons. It's cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year? [[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe|Full Review]]
|rating= 3.5
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|genre= Humour
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<!-- Doescher -->
|summary= You know sometimes when someone tells a joke, everyone else laughs, and you're sat there wondering what was so funny?
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|-
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973376</amazonuk>
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
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[[image:Doescher_Will.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/159474985X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=159474985X]]
{{newreview
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|author= Christopher Fowler
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|title= Bryant and May: Strange Tide
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|rating= 3.5
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===[[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher]]===
|genre= Crime
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|summary= 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.
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[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857523422</amazonuk>
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}}
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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 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… [[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher|Full Review]]
{{newreview
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|author=Kevin Smith
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<!-- Goss -->
|title=The Voyage of the Dolphin
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|-
|rating=5
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|genre=Historical Fiction
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[[image:Goss_600.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785942719?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785942719]]
|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 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.
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124826</amazonuk>
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|amazonus=<amazonus>1910124826</amazonus>
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}}
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===[[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies]]===
{{newreview
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|author=Tony Hawks
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[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Children's Rhymes and Verse|Children's Rhymes and Verse]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|title=Once Upon a Time in the West… Country
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|rating=3
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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. [[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies|Full Review]]
|genre=Travel
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|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 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…
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<!-- Ingram -->
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444794809</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
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[[image:Ingram_Kammie.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785451995?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785451995]]
|author=Marian Keyes
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|title=Making It Up As I Go Along
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|rating=4.5
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| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|genre=Entertainment
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===[[Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram]]===
|summary=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.
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718182529</amazonuk>
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Pets|Pets]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
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{{newreview
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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. [[Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram|Full Review]]
|author= Jean-Yves Ferri
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|title= Asterix and the Missing Scroll (Album 36)
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<!-- Harris -->
|rating= 5
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|-
|genre= For Sharing
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|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.
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[[image:Harris_Glass.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1908943823/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1510100458</amazonuk>
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}}
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{{newreview
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|author=Spadge Whittaker
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===[[The Breaking of Liam Glass by Charles Harris]]===
|title=Braver Than Britain, Occasionally
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|rating=4
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[[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|genre=Humour
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|summary=In which Spadge researches Britain's top ten fears and faces them all over the course of a year. We're quite a fearful society, you know. And the things we fear most are, in order: heights (acrophobia), snakes (ophidiophobia), public speaking (glossophobia), spiders (arachnophobia), small spaces (claustrophobia), mice (musophobia), needles (trypanophobia), flying (pteromerhanophobia), crowds (agoraphobia) and clowns (coulrophobia).
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Teenager Liam Glass is mugged and stabbed yards from his Camden flat. As the boy lies comatose, desperate journalist Jason Worthington scrabbles for the inside scoop, tired police officer Andy Rockham searches for a missing tape, harried politician Jamila Hasan fights for re-election, distraught mother Katrina Glass waits by her son, and gym-owner Royland simply finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. We follow this host of ensemble characters in a bleak, kaleidoscopic satire of modern media. [[The Breaking of Liam Glass by Charles Harris|Full Review]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993429904</amazonuk>
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}}
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<!-- LENTE -->
{{newreview
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|-
|author= Mike Bullen
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|title= Trust
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[[image:Lente_10.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690222/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|rating= 4
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|genre= General Fiction
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|summary= Greg and Amanda are happy. Unmarried, but together thirteen years and with two young daughters, they are very much in love. Dan and Sarah aren't so fortunate. Their marriage is going through the motions, and they're staying together for the sake of their troubled teenage son. Following a business conference away from home, one bad decision sends a happy couple into turmoil, and turns an unhappy couple into love's young dream. As secrets and betrayals threaten to send both relationships out of control, there's only one thing that can keep everything from falling apart: Trust
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751559253</amazonuk>
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===[[Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente]]===
}}
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{{newreview
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|author=Dan Rhodes
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|title=When the Professor Got Stuck in the Snow
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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?'' [[Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente|Full Review]]
|rating=4.5
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|genre=General Fiction
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<!-- Scott -->
|summary= Two people are on a train on their way to, of all things, a WI meeting where the ladies of All Bottoms will be lectured on the non-existence of God. One of the two people is Professor Richard Dawkins, rampant atheist, hectoring scientist chappie, and all-round devotee of ''Deal or No Deal''.  The other is Smee, his mono-named assistant, amanuensis or 'male secretary'. Smee will come to the fore when the weather sets in and the train journey has to be abandoned some way short of its ultimate destination, Upper Bottom. Instead the pair fetch up at the isolated yet friendly community of Market Horton, and the only option for accommodation is taken – yes, the died-in-the-wool non-believer has to be housed by a retired vicar and his wife. This clash of titanic opinions, peppered with social faux pas aplenty will provide for a particularly English kind of farcical comedy, but one with the legs to go as far as any other Good Books have reached in the past…
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910709018</amazonuk>
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[[image:Scott_Eliz.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788037006/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
{{newreview
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|author=Rob Temple
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|title=Very British Problems Abroad
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| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|rating=4
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===[[Elizabeth, William... and Me by S Lynn Scott]]===
|genre=Humour
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|summary=Meet, if you haven't already, the phenomenon of the Very British Problem. In this format they're in pithy little comments (of, ooh, about 140 characters in length, for some reason…) and detail the minor things in life that we like nothing more than to inflate to a major factor of life. They can involve manners, staring at things until they mend themselves, hitting things ditto, or the fact that nobody apart from you and I know how to queue properly.  And if the idea hits the world outside our shores, then – well, you certainly have a book full of content regarding our attitude and ineptitude abroad.
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[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751558494</amazonuk>
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}}
+
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! [[Elizabeth, William... and Me by S Lynn Scott|Full Review]]
{{newreview
+
 
|author=Fraser McAlpine
+
<!-- Rodford -->
|title=Stuff Brits Like
+
|-
|rating=4
+
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|genre=Humour
+
[[image:Rodford_Surgeon.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178565005X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|summary= With over 100 chapters on different aspects of Britain and Britishness, this book is both fascinating and hilarious. Just looking at the list of subjects is enough to produce a sardonic twist of that stiff upper lip: the chapters cover topics that range from offal to curry, from pedantry to banter, from conkers to rugby. There may be many chapters but this is no academic tome - each chapter is just two to three pages long, each is written with endearing affection, each is easy and satisfying - and quirkily funny - to read.
+
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1857886348</amazonuk>
+
 
}}
+
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
{{newreview
+
===[[The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2 by E G Rodford]]===
|author= John Samuel
+
 
|title= What I Tell You in the Dark
+
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|rating= 3.5
+
 
|genre= Humour
+
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. [[The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2 by E G Rodford|Full Review]]
|summary=A man called Will is fighting fiercely against corruption – desperate to expose his company's dodgy dealings to the press. Overcome with doubt and fear, he goes to kill himself. But, at the exact moment he attaches his noose to the back of the door, he is saved. By a curious housemate or a concerned girlfriend? No, by an Angel. Not the white-feathered guardian Angel you may expect, but one who wishes to help Will achieve his ends, and so possess the body of the hapless Will in order to finish what he started. It goes without saying that the Angel is hoping things go better than they did with the last guy he possessed – a hapless young man from Galilee called Jesus…
+
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715650505</amazonuk>
+
<!-- Jordan -->
}}
+
|-
{{newreview
+
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|author= John Niven
+
[[image:Jordan_Tiny.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1760293814/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|title= The Sunshine Cruise Company
+
 
|rating= 4.5
+
 
|genre= Humour
+
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|summary= Susan Frobisher and Julie Wickham live in a small Dorset town. Friends since school, they live fairly uneventful lives – Susan has a lovely house and a lengthy marriage to accountant Barry, whereas Julie is doing slightly less well – living in a council flat and working in an old people's home. When Barry is found dead trussed up in a sex dungeon, it transpires that he has been leading a hidden life for years, and his expensive fetishes lead to the bank moving to take Susan's home. Struck by both desperation and a sense of injustice, Sue and Julie conspire to rob a bank, taking along their friend Jill – a devout Christian conflicted due to lack of money and a terminally ill grandson, and Ethel – a foul mouthed resident of the nursing home longing for adventure.
+
===[[Our Tiny, Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan]]===
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434023183</amazonuk>
+
 
}}
+
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
{{newreview
+
 
|author=Marie Phillips
+
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? [[Our Tiny, Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan|Full Review]]
|title=The Table Of Less Valued Knights
+
 
|rating=4.5
+
<!-- Taylor -->
|genre=Fantasy
+
|-
|summary=Sir Humphrey has been demoted from King Arthur's Round Table to the Table of Lesser Valued Knights. The only way to get his comfier seat back is to redeem himself via a quest. Therefore when damsel Elaine seeks help to find her kidnapped fiancé, Humphrey and his ward, the teenage giant Conrad, eagerly set forthMeanwhile in the kingdom of Tuft, new Queen Martha has run away after a disastrous wedding to… a… well… disastrous Prince EdwinShe may not realise it yet, but she too will have a job for Humphrey!
+
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555875</amazonuk>
+
[[image:Taylor_Scilly.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178475515X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
}}
+
 
{{newreview
+
 
|author=Tim Flannery
+
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|title=The Mystery of the Venus Island Fetish
+
===[[The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor]]===
|rating=3
+
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Travel|Travel]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|summary=Meet Archie Meek. He's about to leave the Venus Islands, where he's lived for the last five years, and return to Sydney, where he'll take his office in the museum and fill it with all the cultural artefacts he's found and wildlife he's plucked or pickled.  That's not to ignore the fact he'll count as something quite alien himself, with his filled-out frame, nearly all-over suntan and totemic tattoo, in amongst other changes to his body. But what's this?  When he gets back, he finds one of the main Venus Islands artefacts that caused him to go there in the first place, a huge, macabre ceremonial fetish mask, purloined as corporate artwork. And some of the curators he wishes to work alongside have vanished.  Is the weird society of the museum he's returning to, perchance, even weirder, stranger and more violent than the cannibalistic society he's waving farewell to?
+
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1922079308</amazonuk>
+
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. [[The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor|Full Review]]
}}
+
 
{{newreview
+
<!-- Lloyd -->
|author=Roman Dirge
+
|-
|title=The Cat with a Really Big Head
+
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|rating=3.5
+
[[image:Lloyd_Twas.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472125118/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|genre=Graphic Novels
+
 
|summary= How many picture books are there about cats?  And how many do you know that you would really NOT prefer your children to see?  If the answer to the second question is 'none – yet', scratch that last word. The title piece in this collection is, by the author's own admission, his imagining of the Joseph Merrick (the 'Elephant Man') of the feline world – who struggles to sneak up behind a mouse when the shadow of his head is a total giveaway, and who can hardly even eat with dignity as bending down to his bowl would break his neck.  If that's too dark or oddball for you, try the second major piece, which has a most revealing foreword – ''Dedicated to a certain girl… I hope your life is filled with wonderful accomplishments, love and all the magic you desire… - But I hope your death is slow and horrible.''
+
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782762876</amazonuk>
+
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
}}
+
===[['Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees]]===
{{newreview
+
 
|author=Val Hennessy
+
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|title=Not Far From Dreamland
+
 
|rating=4.5
+
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. [['Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees|Full Review]]
|genre=General Fiction
+
 
|summary=Ronald Tonks has reached that stage in life which I call upper middle age: you've qualified for your pension but not yet got to the free television licence barrierWhat Ronald ''has'' got is a roof that leaks (there's good reason why his home is called 'the shack'), a dog who is going bald (in patches) and money that's in very short supply.  On the plus side he has friends, mostly platonic and usually in much the same boat as Ronald.  But are they downhearted?  Well, they are occasionally, but mostly they're generously optimistic and out to make the most of what they've got, usually bought from charity shops and jumble sales.  ''Not Far From Dreamland'' is the story of a year (2012) in the life of Ronald Tonks, his friends and relatives.
+
<!-- Phinn -->
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373874</amazonuk>
+
|-
}}
+
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Phinn_Virgin.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1444779400/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
{{newreview
+
 
|author=Harry Harrison
+
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|title=Bill, the Galactic Hero
+
===[[The Virgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn]]===
|rating=3.5
+
 
|genre=Science Fiction
+
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Anthologies|Anthologies]]
|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 store.  And 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 down.  Really, what hope is there?
+
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147320531X</amazonuk>
+
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. [[The Virgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn|Full Review]]
}}
+
 
{{newreview
+
<!-- North -->
|author=Ian Doescher
+
|-
|title=William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace
+
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|rating=4.5
+
[[image:North_Romeo.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0356508536/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|genre=Humour
+
 
|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!
+
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594748063</amazonuk>
+
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
}}
+
===[[Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North]]===
{{newreview
+
 
|author=Attaboy
+
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|title=The Book of Hugs
+
 
|rating=4
+
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). [[Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North|Full Review]]
|genre=Humour
+
 
|summary=A hug's a hug, OK?  You either do, or you don't.  Some 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?
+
<!-- Crowley -->
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0867197978</amazonuk>
+
|-
}}
+
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
{{newreview
+
[[image:Crowley_Shoot.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1783296518/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|author= Christopher Fowler
+
 
|title= Bryant and May – The Burning Man
+
 
|rating=4
+
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|genre=Crime
+
===[[Shoot by Kieran Crowley]]===
|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.
+
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857522043</amazonuk>
+
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
}}
+
 
{{newreview
+
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 usThe 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. [[Shoot by Kieran Crowley|Full Review]]
|author=Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg
+
 
|title=The Little Old Lady Who Struck Lucky Again!
+
<!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->
|rating=3.5
+
|}
|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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447274903</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Revision as of 14:42, 9 May 2018

1473669588.jpg


Falling Short by Lex Coulton

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews General Fiction, Humour, Women's Fiction

Lex Coulton's debut novel is a story about mistakes, failures, and relationships. The main protagonist, Frances Pilgrim, is a sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, a work colleague, and is grappling with the increasingly eccentric behaviour of her mother. This relationship is complicated by the fact that Frances's father disappeared at sea when she was five years old. Full Review

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The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Crime, Humour

Comic-Cons are a place of wonder and sanctuary for many people, and when Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, he's looking for both that and sanctuary with other fans and creators, plus the chance of maybe, just maybe reuniting with his ex. However, when his rival is found dead, Mike is forced to navigate every dark corner of the con in order to clear his name – from cosplay flash mobs and intrusive fans to zombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his innocence and, in doing so, may just unravel a dark secret behind a legendary industry creator. Full Review

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My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Humour, Historical Fiction

You are a lass of twenty eight. Plucky, penniless and in Regency era London the race is on to find a suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to life as an eternal spinster. Along your journey you'll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager to save you from a life alone, and fired by a rogueish sense for adventure. When it comes to suitors though, you'll have to make the ultimate decision between witty, pretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the mad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and ancient Egyptian artifcats along the way, it's clear this isn't going to be an easy decision... Full Review

Jester Forever.jpg


Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Paranormal, Horror, Fasntasy

Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the offer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, a grim reaper and his friends Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and finding a clean surface to sit on in their flat. Full Review

Stibbe Xmas.jpg


An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Humour, Short Stories

Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons. It's cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year? Full Review

Doescher Will.jpg


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

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Science Fiction, Humour

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

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

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Children's Rhymes and Verse, Science Fiction, Humour

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

Ingram Kammie.jpg


Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Pets, Humour

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

Harris Glass.jpg


The Breaking of Liam Glass by Charles Harris

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Crime, Humour

Teenager Liam Glass is mugged and stabbed yards from his Camden flat. As the boy lies comatose, desperate journalist Jason Worthington scrabbles for the inside scoop, tired police officer Andy Rockham searches for a missing tape, harried politician Jamila Hasan fights for re-election, distraught mother Katrina Glass waits by her son, and gym-owner Royland simply finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. We follow this host of ensemble characters in a bleak, kaleidoscopic satire of modern media. Full Review

Lente 10.jpg


Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews 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

Scott Eliz.jpg


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

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews 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

Rodford Surgeon.jpg


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

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Crime, Humour

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

Jordan Tiny.jpg


Our Tiny, Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Women's Fiction, Humour

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

Taylor Scilly.jpg


The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Travel, Humour

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

Lloyd Twas.jpg


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

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews 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

Phinn Virgin.jpg

The Virgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Humour, Anthologies

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

North Romeo.jpg


Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews 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

Crowley Shoot.jpg


Shoot by Kieran Crowley

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Crime, Humour

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. Full Review