Difference between revisions of "Newest Humour Reviews"

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[[Category:Humour|*]]
 
[[Category:Humour|*]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
{{newreview
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{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15"  <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
|author= Grady Hendrix
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<!-- van LENTE -->
|title= My Best Friend's Exorcism
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|-
|rating= 5
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|genre= Horror
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[[image:1683690346.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690346/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|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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}}
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| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
{{newreview
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===[[The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente]]===
|author= Kevin MacNeil
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|title=The Brilliant and Forever
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|rating= 3.5
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|genre= Humour
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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]]
|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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}}
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<!-- Coulton -->
{{newreview
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|-
|author= Christopher Fowler
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|title= Bryant and May: Strange Tide
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[[image:1473669588.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473669588/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|rating= 3.5
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|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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| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857523422</amazonuk>
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===[[Falling Short by Lex Coulton]]===
}}
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{{newreview
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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]]
|author=Kevin Smith
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|title=The Voyage of the Dolphin
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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]]
|rating=5
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|genre=Historical Fiction
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<!-- van LENTE -->
|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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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|amazonus=<amazonus>1910124826</amazonus>
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[[image:1683690346.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690346/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
}}
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{{newreview
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|author=Tony Hawks
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| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|title=Once Upon a Time in the West… Country
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===[[The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente]]===
|rating=3
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|genre=Travel
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|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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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444794809</amazonuk>
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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]]
}}
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{{newreview
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<!-- Curran -->
|author=Marian Keyes
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|-
|title=Making It Up As I Go Along
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|rating=4.5
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[[image:1683690133.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690133/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|genre=Entertainment
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|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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| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
}}
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===[[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris]]===
{{newreview
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|author= Jean-Yves Ferri
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
|title= Asterix and the Missing Scroll (Album 36)
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|rating= 5
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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]]
|genre= For Sharing
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|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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<!-- Jester -->
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1510100458</amazonuk>
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|-
}}
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
{{newreview
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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]]
|author=Spadge Whittaker
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|title=Braver Than Britain, Occasionally
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|rating=4
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| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|genre=Humour
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===[[Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester]]===
|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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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993429904</amazonuk>
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fasntasy]]
}}
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{{newreview
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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]]
|author= Mike Bullen
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|title= Trust
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<!-- Stibbe -->
|rating= 4
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|-
|genre= General Fiction
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|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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[[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]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751559253</amazonuk>
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}}
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{{newreview
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| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|author=Dan Rhodes
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===[[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe]]===
|title=When the Professor Got Stuck in the Snow
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|rating=4.5
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[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]
|genre=General Fiction
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|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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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]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910709018</amazonuk>
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}}
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<!-- Doescher -->
{{newreview
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|-
|author=Rob Temple
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|title=Very British Problems Abroad
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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]]
|rating=4
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|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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| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751558494</amazonuk>
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===[[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher]]===
}}
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{{newreview
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[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|author=Fraser McAlpine
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|title=Stuff Brits Like
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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 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… [[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher|Full Review]]
|rating=4
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|genre=Humour
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<!-- Goss -->
|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.
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|-
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1857886348</amazonuk>
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
}}
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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]]
{{newreview
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|author= John Samuel
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|title= What I Tell You in the Dark
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| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|rating= 3.5
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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]]===
|genre= Humour
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|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…
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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]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715650505</amazonuk>
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}}
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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]]
{{newreview
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|author= John Niven
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<!-- Ingram -->
|title= The Sunshine Cruise Company
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|-
|rating= 4.5
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|genre= Humour
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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]]
|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.
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434023183</amazonuk>
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}}
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| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
{{newreview
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===[[Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram]]===
|author=Marie Phillips
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|title=The Table Of Less Valued Knights
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Pets|Pets]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|rating=4.5
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|genre=Fantasy
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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]]
|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 forth. Meanwhile in the kingdom of Tuft, new Queen Martha has run away after a disastrous wedding to… a… well… disastrous Prince Edwin.  She may not realise it yet, but she too will have a job for Humphrey!
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555875</amazonuk>
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<!-- Harris -->
}}
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|-
{{newreview
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|author=Tim Flannery
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[[image:Harris_Glass.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1908943823/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|title=The Mystery of the Venus Island Fetish
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|rating=3
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|genre=Historical Fiction
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| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|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?
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===[[The Breaking of Liam Glass by Charles Harris]]===
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1922079308</amazonuk>
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}}
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[[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
{{newreview
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|author=Roman Dirge
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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]]
|title=The Cat with a Really Big Head
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|rating=3.5
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<!-- LENTE -->
|genre=Graphic Novels
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|-
|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.''
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| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782762876</amazonuk>
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[[image:Lente_10.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690222/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
}}
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{{newreview
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|author=Val Hennessy
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| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|title=Not Far From Dreamland
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===[[Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente]]===
|rating=4.5
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|genre=General Fiction
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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|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 barrier.  What 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.
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373874</amazonuk>
+
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]]
}}
+
 
{{newreview
+
<!-- Scott -->
|author=Harry Harrison
+
|-
|title=Bill, the Galactic Hero
+
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|rating=3.5
+
[[image:Scott_Eliz.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788037006/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|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 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>
+
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
}}
+
===[[Elizabeth, William... and Me by S Lynn Scott]]===
{{newreview
+
 
|author=Ian Doescher
+
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|title=William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace
+
 
|rating=4.5
+
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]]
|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!
+
<!-- Rodford -->
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594748063</amazonuk>
+
|-
}}
+
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
{{newreview
+
[[image:Rodford_Surgeon.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178565005X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|author=Attaboy
+
 
|title=The Book of Hugs
+
 
|rating=4
+
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|genre=Humour
+
===[[The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2 by E G Rodford]]===
|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?
+
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0867197978</amazonuk>
+
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
}}
+
 
{{newreview
+
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]]
|author= Christopher Fowler
+
 
|title= Bryant and May – The Burning Man
+
<!-- Jordan -->
|rating=4
+
|-
|genre=Crime
+
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|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.
+
[[image:Jordan_Tiny.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1760293814/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857522043</amazonuk>
+
 
}}
+
 
{{newreview
+
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|author=Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg
+
===[[Our Tiny, Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan]]===
|title=The Little Old Lady Who Struck Lucky Again!
+
 
|rating=3.5
+
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|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.
+
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]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447274903</amazonuk>
+
 
}}
+
<!-- Taylor -->
{{newreview
+
|-
|author=Winshluss
+
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
|title=In God We Trust
+
[[image:Taylor_Scilly.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178475515X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
|rating=4.5
+
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
+
 
|summary=To start with, a rhetorical test. How 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.
+
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861662350</amazonuk>
+
===[[The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor]]===
}}
+
 
{{newreview
+
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Travel|Travel]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|author=David Walliams and Tony Ross
+
 
|title=The Queen's Orang-Utan
+
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]]
|rating=5
+
 
|genre=For Sharing
+
<!-- Lloyd -->
|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.
+
|-
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008135134</amazonuk>
+
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
}}
+
[[image:Lloyd_Twas.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472125118/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
{{newreview
+
 
|author=Jack Sheffield
+
 
|title=Silent Night
+
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|rating=3.5
+
===[['Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees]]===
|genre=General 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.
+
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552167045</amazonuk>
+
 
}}
+
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. [['Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees|Full Review]]
{{newreview
+
 
|author=J Robert Lennon
+
<!-- Phinn -->
|title=See You In Paradise
+
|-
|rating=3
+
| 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]]
|genre=Short Stories
+
 
|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.
+
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781253358</amazonuk>
+
===[[The Virgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn]]===
}}
+
 
{{newreview
+
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Anthologies|Anthologies]]
|author=Lynne Truss
+
 
|title=Cat out of Hell
+
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]]
|rating=3
+
 
|genre=Horror
+
<!-- North -->
|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>
+
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
}}
+
[[image:North_Romeo.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0356508536/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
{{newreview
+
 
|author=Jimmy Hansen and Mychailo Kazybird
+
 
|title=Wallace & Gromit : The Complete Newspaper Strips Collection Vol 2
+
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
|rating=4
+
===[[Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North]]===
|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 font.  No 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 output.  Together 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.
+
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782760822</amazonuk>
+
 
}}
+
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]]
{{newreview
+
 
|title=Dear Committee Members
+
<!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->
|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>
 
}}
 

Revision as of 10:24, 9 July 2018

1683690346.jpg


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


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

1683690346.jpg


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

1683690133.jpg


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

Goss 600.jpg


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