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[[Category:New Reviews|Entertainment]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreview|title=Wanna Cook? The Complete, Unofficial Companion to Breaking Bad|author=Ensley F Guffey and K Dale Koontz|rating=4|genre=Entertainment|summary=Cancer. Chemistry. Drugs. The DEA. Heisenberg. Mexico. Fried Chicken. Blood baths (and baths full of blood). Cartels. Criminal lawyers. Bacon birthday breakfasts. This is Breaking Bad, and the only question that remains is… Wanna Cook?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190580296X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Books that Changed the World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human History|author=Andrew Taylor|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Oh the pleasure when, as a book reviewer, one can simply point to the title and say – 'yup, that'. Or, I suppose, as in the non-existent follow-up, Adverts That Changed the World, simply repeat the mantra 'it does exactly what it says on the tin'. This paperback edition of the six year old original, fresh with several typos they had time to iron out alongside putting in Seamus Heaney's departure, makes life even easier, given that subtitle. I'm sure the more bibliophilic are already sold, and there is little influence I can bear on things. I will, however, soldier on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782069429</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=The Beatles|author=Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom|rating=5|genre=For Sharing|summary=''The Beatles'' begins with the childhood of John Lennon at the end of the second world war. The first illustration seems to convey and infant John twisting and shouting on his way to the air raid shelter. The text and illustrations both paint a picture of mischievous but intelligent child. We especially loved an illustration that shows the mixed emotions of the passengers and driver as John plays an old harmonica for hours on the bus. Some of the passengers look desperate to escape, but the driver is so impressed he gives John a better harmonica.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847804519</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Live At the Brixton Academy: A riotous life in the music business|author=Simon Parkes and J S Rafaeli|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Who on earth would want to buy and run a live music venue in deepest Brixton, and manage to keep it running for fifteen years, transforming it against all the odds into what becomes one of Britain’s most iconic establishments of its kind? Such an undertaking calls for somebody with special managerial skills who can keep one step ahead of the game, walking a precarious tightrope, keeping gangsters, punters, promoters and the local authorities onside. It also requires a good deal of luck.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846689554</amazonuk>}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Let Me Off at the Top!: My Classy Life and Other MusingsPatti Smith|authortitle=Ron BurgundyYear of the Monkey
|rating=4
|genre=Humour
|summary=''This book is a testament to my giant balls.'' But it's also a lot more. The story we've never been able to discern from either of the ''Anchorman'' films is one of surprising hardship, unsurprising hardness, and great hair. It's a rags-to-riches tale, as Ron Burgundy comes from a Hicksville town in the middle of the outskirts of somewhere the arse end of nowhere (a town perpetually on fire due to the accidents in the mines underneath) and struggles against all the odds – and many of the evens in the shape of women's legs – to get where he is today, thrusting himself and his news at us nightly.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780892241</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|title=Dedicated to...: The Forgotten Friendships, Hidden Stories and Lost Loves found in Second-hand Books
|author=W B Gooderham
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=I have found many strange and unusual things in second-hand bookshops. I have done one or two strange and unusual things in them as well, but that's a different story. Twice now I have managed to find a second-hand book, completely signed and dedicated by the author, yet discarded by the recipient, and have been able to present the author with the edition at hand and get it re-dedicated. (If I'm not mistaken, the discarders were a neighbouring babysitter, and a teacher of the author's children.) I'll admit that's rarefied, however, and on the whole the scribble you find in second-hand books is from the person who bought it, and gave it as a gift, not the person who wrote it. But even so, the dedication of the donor can be immensely fascinating and open to all kinds of interpretation, as these examples show perfectly clear.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593072847</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|title=Cher: Strong Enough
|author=Josiah Howard
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Having looked at On the title and sub-titlecoast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the latter being no more than lunar year of the twomonkey -word title of one of her latter-day hitspacked with mischief, sorrow, I assumed this was going to be and unexpected moments. In a fairly comprehensive biography of the American singer. The sub-titlestranger's words, ''Strong Enough'', taken from one of her latter-day hit singlesAnything is possible: after all, reveals nothing. Not until I had almost finished it, a little puzzled at it not being quite what I had expected, did I finally look at 's the blurb on year of the back – at which point all became clearmonkey''. This was not As Smith wanders the full story coast of Santa Cruz in solitude, she reflects on a showbiz career which has lasted close year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and ageing are faced head on half a century, but for as it the most part an extraordinarily detailed account of her 1975 TV variety showshifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0859654842</amazonuk>1526614758
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Walton_Ask|title=My LifeAsk For Blues|author=David JasonMalcolm Walton|rating=43.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Born in North London in February 1940 during Malcolm Walton's book is clearly a memoir about his introduction to the early years Trad Jazz scene of the Second World Warlate 1950s and early 1960s, David John White once had a brief career as an electrician. Fortunately for but he has chosen to write it in the world form of entertainment and a novel, claiming in his prologue that this would give the public, he soon forsook book a different approach to the world of fuses music memoir. His protagonist 'Martin' takes on Malcolm's mantle and wires for that begins with his first discovery of the stage and small screenSalvation Army band with his grandfather. When he joined Equity This catapults him into a love of music, they already had a David White on their recordsinitially taking piano lessons, and after a little quick thinking on later delving into his true love – the phone, he became David Jasontrumpet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780891407</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn and Tom PinfoldMoore Bientot|title=Tudor Monastery Farm: Life in rural England 500 years agoA Bientot...|author=Roger Moore
|rating=4
|genre=HistoryEntertainment|summary=Think The news of it the death of Sir Roger Moore in May 2017 came as time travela great shock: he was one of those people you knew would go on forever. Three professional historians have travelled back some five hundred years to put what they've learned into practice. On a monastery farm they've experienced what it There was really like just one small glimmer of light in rural Tudor England. It's a book to accompany the BBC television series but it's still a rich and rewarding experience if sadness - like me - you missed the show. There's news that a wealth matter of experience between days before his death he'd delivered the three authors and they write about what they each know best finished manuscript of his book, ''À bientôt…'', to his publishers. Just a few months later a copy landed on my desk and I didn't even bother to look as though I could resist reading it's all supplemented by some sumptuous photographs of Bayleaf Farm in west Sussex and the surrounding farmlandstraight away.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849906920</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Maslanka Sherlock|title=Sherlock: The Story of MusicPuzzle Book|author=Howard GoodallChristopher Maslanka and Steve Tribe|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=As an award-winning composer of choral musicWho doesn't love a good puzzle, film and TV scores and stage musicals, Howard Goodall especially those really fiendish ones that get the brain working extra hard? There really is well qualified nothing to compare to write that buzz we get from the Aha! moment, when everything falls into place and present on the subjectsolution reveals itself. Covering something which has flourished for over 40If puzzles are your thing then you may wish to put your grey cells to the test with ''The Sherlock Puzzle Book'',000 years in every shape and form imaginable is no easy task, but in this book, written and published to accompany a recent six-part documentary series based on BBC2, he has distilled the lot into a very enlightening chronological narrative in just over 300 pagespopular TV series.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587173</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Corcoran_Dylan|title=Armchair NationDo You Mr Jones?: An intimate history of Britain in front of Bob Dylan with the TVPoets and Professors|author=Joe MoranNeil Corcoran
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=All Bob Dylan's award of us have a love-hate affair with television, or ‘the idiot lantern’. Hardly anybody who has ever owned a set, or been part of a family which has had one, can envisage life without itthe Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 'for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition' proved highly controversial. It has been a source of endless entertainment and escape from the drudge of everyday life, while at inevitably led some time it has irritated most of us beyond measure. Love it or loathe it, it has always been part of people in the fabric of our existence. While literary world to take stock and look at his work and reputation with a certain extent it has been superseded by online services which have supplemented if not overtaken or usurped part fresh eye. This volume of its roleessays was first published in 2002, its iconic status and is unlikely to disappear for the foreseeable futurenow reissued with a new foreword by Will Self.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683912</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Kyncl_Stream|title=Sounds like London: 100 Years of Black Music in the CapitalStream Punks|author=Lloyd BradleyRobert Kyncl and Maany Peyvan
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=As Lloyd Bradley points I watch quite a lot of YouTube. I play music videos when I want to listen to a particular song I don't already have in my collection. I use it to find out in how to do things, with the introduction instruction videos they seem to this bookhave for pretty much anything. At the gym, if you stand long enough I'll stick it on on any street corner in London todaymy phone, you will hear musicprop it up on the cross-trainer and watch some behind the scenes interviews with the cast of my favourite shows. More often than not And sometimes I'll treat it will be black music, whether as if it is dubstepNetflix, hip hopto watch series with new episodes releasing every few days, reggae exclusively on YouTube. Having a new smart TV adds an extra, easy way to watch without having to plug in my laptop or any other genresquint at a small phone screen. So yes, I like YouTube and I use YouTube. Once it was in effect But I didn't know a whole lot about the original ‘underground music’ long before the term was ever recognised, site it gradually became the mainstream – and here we find out howuntil I read this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687616</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=JVDK_Swing|title=Lucky MeWe Can Swing Together: My Life With - And Without - My Mom, Shirley MacLaineThe Story of Lindisfarne|author=Sachi Parker with Frederick StroppelJohn Van der Kiste
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Born in Los Angeles, raised in Tokyo, and schooled across Europe, Sachi Parker had already lead an eventful life before she turned 18. Add to the mix a secretive father with an explosive temper and a Hollywood icon for a mother and you have enough stories to fill a book.
 
And that's exactly what she's done.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1592407889</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|title=America's Mistress: The Life and Times of Eartha Kitt
|author=John L Williams
|rating=4
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Two quotes on the back It all began with a group of youngsters in North Shields. Rod Clements, Simon 'Si' Cowe, Ray 'Jacka' Jackson and Ray Laidlaw formed ''The Downtown Faction'', soon changing the dust jacket testify name to ''Brethren'' when they were joined by singer-songwriter Alan Hull. As a US-based group had a similar name they opted to change the name again - and ''Lindisfarne'' (with the name taken from an island off the power Northumberland coast) was born. More than forty years on and public perception with numerous changes of Eartha Kitt during her lifetimepersonnel the band is still very much around. Orson Welles once called her ‘the most exciting woman They might not be touring or producing much in the world’way of new material, but they still perform, with Rod Clements, while to one of the original members on his fourth stint with the CIA she was ‘a sadistic nymphomaniac’group.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857385755</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=Inferno Decoded: The essential companion to the myths, mysteries and locations of Dan Brown's InfernoJVDK_ELO|author=Michael Haag|rating=4|genre=Entertainment|summarytitle=Here be spoilers. Not so much in my review, but certainly in its subject, a very quickly produced companion guide to the latest [[:CategoryElectric Light Orchestra:Dan Brown|Dan Brown]] blockbuster. It's not so much a page-Song by-page guide, but certainly serves as an educational and intelligent look at the background to the biggest-selling book of 2013.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781251800</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Boy About TownSong|author=Tony FletcherJohn Van der Kiste
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=My stepchildrenmemories of pop music in the early sixties revolve around guitars and drums, who were not even born at sometimes the time, would disagree piano with me fiercelyonly occasional excursions into strings and brass. But for those of us who Pop music rarely stands still and it wasn't long before the basic instruments were growing up during the 1970sseen as constraints and The Beatles, it was a very exciting time The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys began to be a popular music fanexperiment, with other groups following where they led. Tony Fletcher, who Amongst these groups was born almost ten years after meThe Move and their lead guitarist and songwriter, evidently agreesRoy Wood. In this memoir of his formative years, covering the years 1972 Wood wanted to 1980, he conveys develop the thrill of how it group's sound by adding more instruments but was to be a schoolkid who grew up loving prevented from achieving what he wanted by cost limitations and eventually becoming part because the rest of the scene. It all started with the purchase of a David Cassidy single and ended up with him becoming founder-editor of a fanzine and interviewing household names while taking his O-levels. In fact it didn’t exactly end up that way, for these days he is known best for group didn't really share his highly-respected biographies of The Who drummer Keith Moon and R.E.Menthusiasm.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434021679</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Watkins_Lets|title=Cemetery GatesLet's Make Lots of Money: Saints and Survivors of My Life as the Heavy Metal SceneBiggest Man in Pop|author=Mick O'SheaTom Watkins
|rating=4
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=The way Who on earth would be a manager in the larger than life, here today gone tomorrow world of pop? Anybody with an ego, a ruthless streak, an opportunity to hell embrace the chances and accept that it's not going to last, evidently. Tom Watkins is paved with dead heavy metal starsjust one of several to have walked the fine line and, or so you might be forgiven for thinking after reading this book. On part of the other handtime, some have made it back from the brinkquite successfully. In this bookAs his memoirs suggest, Mick O’Shea has summarised in twenty chapters the lives and often troubled times part of ten 'saints' who ended up inside the cemetery gates, and ten survivorstime was achievement enough.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859654834</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dylan JonesKendrick_Scrappy|title=The Eighties: One Day, One DecadeScrappy Little Nobody|author=Anna Kendrick|rating=3.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Most of us can count on Celebrity autobiographies. It's a genre long tainted by the fingers examples of two handspeople who clearly didn't deserve to be a celebrity, perhaps only onelet alone have a ghost-writer create their book, a select few special days when it was as if the eyes of the world were focused on one major event. These include 9/11; the day Princess Diana was killed; and for by those of us with who did so little but managed to churn out five memoirs before they were even longer memories the day Kennedy was shotthirty. Add But more recently it's become a way of staking a claim to that grim litany an event which had far more positive resultsimportance for female comics.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848094132</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robert Sellers|title=What Fresh Lunacy is This?: The Authorised Biography of Oliver Reed|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=For rather more of his career than heThey've not all written autobiographies, as Bridget Christie proved, his family and closest friends might but enough have liked, to provide for a rapidly-filling shelf at the name Oliver Reed was bookstore. 2016 we had Amy Schumer winning a byword for boozeGoodReads award, Lena Dunham's been at it, brawls and all types of laddish behaviourwe've also got Anna Kendrick. As Sellers’ very full and remarkably objective biography reveals, it was Now she's not a funny yet sad life strict comic – not all at once. For although he repeatedly played up of her films are designed to the image of the lovable rogue which he had createdmake you laugh, underneath the bad boy and some of popular legend he was at heart a professional actor who could always deliver a first-rate performance on them that are just don't – but this has to be in the film set when requiredsame bracket.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147210112X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sylvie SimmonsRopek_Tragic|title=I'm Your ManTragic Magic: The Life of Leonard Cohen|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=If you or I wanted to write a story about an imaginary figure who began as a novelist and poet, then became acclaimed as a singer-songwriter in the swinging sixties, made and lost a fortune, became a monk, and returned to a musical career at an age when most mortals are well into retirement, and found himself not only more popular than ever but also playing to the largest audiences in his entire life, it would be dismissed as total fantasy. Nobody could make it up – and nobody needs to, because in a nutshell that is the life (so far) of Leonard Cohen, the subject of this biography and surely one of the music business’s most unique figures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099549328</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewTraffic's Chris Wood|author=Nige Tassell|title=Mr GigDan Ropek
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Born too late to remember Chris Wood was a member of Traffic, the 60s and early 70s, music lover and journalist Nige Tassell, who has written group formed by Steve Winwood in 1967 after he left The Spencer Davis Group. A gifted musician best known for ''The Guardian'', ''New Statesman'' his flute and others, lived the life for some years as puntersaxophone work, reviewer, roadie, DJ and promoter. Then he married and became a fatheralso played keyboards, bass guitar and the most important gig (if the one with the least comfortable seats) was the kids’ primary school nativity play ten days before Christmas. Around 2010 the midlife crisis hit with contributed backing vocals as well as having a vengeance, and the urge to hit the road hand in search writing several of what live music was all about these days came upon him. That does not just require private transport capable of taking roads the length songs and breadth of the land in one or two instrumentals. This biography takes its stride (and title from the car passed the test - just), it also requires a certain amount name of one of couragehis compositions for their fifth album.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780721617</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Christophe CastelliDolby_Sound|title=Making The Speed of Life of Pi - A Film, A JourneySound|author=Thomas Dolby
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Before I'd seen the film of Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi I knew the end result would leave me either wondering 'how did they make that?!' or 'WHY did they make that?!'. The fact I ended up watching it twice before the general public had their chanceFrom struggling post-punk musician to pop star, and lapped up a repeat viewing within a fortnightfrom Silicon Valley innovator to university professor, says it all. There's no plot spoiler in the fact that the creators left us with Thomas Dolby has had a visually dazzling, splendidly luxurious-looking piece of cinemaremarkable if not unique career, one that left me scrabbling for tiny faults to nitpick with and just acknowledging how brilliant often reinventing himself on the FX way. This memoir is based on his extensive notes and acting were. And, as the resulting question was the right one, I am still interested very much in the answer - luckily for me this book provides itjournals.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781166382</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John FisherMorris_Legion|title=Tommy Cooper 'Jus' Like That!'The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains: A Life in Jokes and Pictures|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=I grew up watching Tommy Cooper, and watching my dad do impressions of Tommy Cooper. I thought he was hilarious (the real Tommy!) and loved his expressions as he repeatedly tried and failed to do magic tricks! This book is rather unusual as although it is a biography of sorts, giving information about Tommy's life and his history in the world of entertainment, it isn't text heavy, and so mostly Tommy's story is told through photographs and pictures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184809311X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewOddball Criminals from Comic Book History|author=J F Roberts|title=The True History of the Blackadder: The Unadulterated Tale of the Creation of a Comedy LegendJon Morris|rating=3.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=If you need As much as I like comics – and I do, whether superhero ones or not – I have to know everything about admit one thing, namely that the history villains in them are a bit pants. What is The Penguin but the world's worst Mafioso, with a hobby of waddling along like his pet birds? Where else do you win an Oscar of ''Blackadder'' and all things by playing a two-bit killer who worked on itjust fell in a vat of random chemicals and changed colour, this and got mardier as a result (although recently he's become a nanotech genius – but let's not go there)? And what is probably it with the book for you. It has gimp inthe see-depth biographies through plant pot because he is the embodiment of all cold? And that's just some of the main actors involved, lots better-known enemies of details about their prior achievements''Batman'', and a huge amount one of information which includes scripts of deleted scenesthe better goodies. That said, it's staggering that a book about one of You can imagine how awful the baddies related to the funniest TV programmes ever made bad goodies can be anywhere near . And if you can't, this dullis the perfect primer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848093462</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Francine StockFletcher_Midnight|title=In Glorious Technicolor: A Century of Film and How it has Shaped Us|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Many of us have been captivated from an early age by the world of movies, whether introduced to them by visits to the cinema, or watching them on TV, video and latterly DVD. Author and presenter Francine Stock’s lifelong love affair with the medium began when she was taken as a child to see ‘My Fair Lady’ on the large screen. A little later, for her the most memorable thing about the summer of 1970 was not the weather, but repeated viewings of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535645</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Martin Kelner|title=Sit Down and Cheer: A History of Sport on TV|rating=4|genre=Sport|summary=Like many English sports fans, the majority of the calories I burn are used up by shouting at the TV and occasionally going to the shops for more beer and crisps. Sports books tend to be about the sport itself or biographies of those who expended great effort to reach the top of their chosen sport. But in Martin Kelner's 'Sit Down and CheerMidnight Hour: A History The Life & Soul of Sport on TV', there is finally a book for the less energetic among us.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140812923X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewWilson Pickett|author=Peter Doggett|title=The Man Who Sold The World: David Bowie And The 1970sTony Fletcher
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=With hindsightTamla Motown groups and singers apart, it’s difficult to argue with the oft-expressed opinion that David Bowie was the single most important rock musician of in the 1970s. Having been a perpetual ‘one to watch’ from around 1966 onwards but with only one hit during that decade, ‘Space Oddity’, from 1972 onwards he went through several remarkable selfmid-reinventions sixties there were three major names in musical style, with an uncanny knack of being able to pre-empt the next big trend. In examining his whole career but focusing largely on his work throughout that particular decade, Peter Doggett looks specifically at every song he recorded, including cover versions. There are also boxed-out features on each album, and articles on related topics such as ‘The Art of Minimalism’ and ‘The Heart of Plastic Soul’soul music field who mattered above all. He concludes that by 1979 the man’s extraordinary creativity was more or less spent and his subsequent output, successful though it may have been, James Brown was in effect treading water up to his ‘elegant, unannounced retirement’ in 2007.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548879</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Scarlett Thomas|title=Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power something of Stories|rating=4|genre=Reference|summary=I really wasn't expecting a book cult name who rarely bothered about how to write fiction to change my TV viewing habits. Alter my reading? Possibly. Improve my writing? Hopefully. But watching Grand Designs in a completely different light?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857863789</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lois Banner|title=Marilyn: The Passion or troubled the singles charts, and Otis Redding was on the Paradox|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=With the possible exception verge of Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe is probably shooting into the most written-about deceased woman stratosphere when he died in twentieth-century historyan aeroplane crash. The thirty-six years of her life and the manner of her death will no doubt continue to provide an opportunity for as many writers as they have since her sudden passing. After a decade of research Lois Banner, a Professor of History and Gender Studies at university in California, has added another weighty tome to the relevant shelves. As a self-styled pioneer of second-wave feminism and other was the new women’s history, she has some interesting insights to offer into her subject’s life as a gender role model.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408814102</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kirk Blows|title=Hammered: Heavy tales man from the hard rock highway|rating=3|genre=Entertainment|summary=Kirk Blows is the former editor of hard rock journal Metal Hammer. Just to confuseAlabama, he is also well known as a sports writer and an authority on 'the other Hammerswicked Pickett', namely West Ham FC. However this book is nothing to do with sport. Instead it devotes its attention to a brace of his interviews with various hard rock luminaries. These took place for the journal some years ago, and have now been revised and updated for book publication.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859654850</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Paling_Reading|authortitle=Umberto Eco Reading Allowed: True Stories and Jean-Claude CarriereCurious Incidents from a Provincial Library|titleauthor=This is Not the End of the Book;Chris Paling
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=In many waysI once made a comical faux pas in a library when I was younger, the cover of my edition of this book is perfectly appropriatebut it certainly didn't put me off returning. Huge, bold serif script, with nothing but I once declared in a self-important way that I would start at the typeface; a declamatory instance beginning of the art in books for young children and not stop til the most common of fontsend, then do the same for those for the older children – ''and that perfect semi-colon then do it all over again with them'', I said, pointing at the end of the booklarge-print shelves. ''s name - proving that that itself is I hope not '', was the be-all response – but little me was only aware of a need for large font for my fellow whippersnappers, and end-allnot for any other reason. Buy this bookSince then I've needed libraries, as you canand going to them has been second nature. On the dole I made sure I could use the free Internet they provided to pay me back for my council tax; later I was intent on finding out if a Senior Library Assistant girl was worthy of her title, and of course, it saved a fortune on books for study and fun. I'm not alone in electronic form, sharing the warmth of both their heating system and you might see this cover for ten seconds at mostthe very thing they were born to provide – books, but it is so much part there was still a huge step up between my level of use and parcel knowledge of what's withinthem to actually working in one. Which is where Chris Paling comes in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099552450</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Molly CarrSpringsteen_Born|title=A Sherlock Holmes Who's Who (With of Course Dr.Watson)Born to Run|author=Bruce Springsteen|rating=2.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Given No, you haven't stumbled into a music review from the amount 1970s, I'm talking about The Boss's autobiography. Lots of books have been written about Sherlock Holmes Springsteen by Sir Arthur Conan Doylefolk who knew him, even worked with him and by others who have only read the most dedicated of Sherlockians must sometimes require a refresher on cuttings. Over the last seven years he has been going about – not putting the charactersrecord straight, exactly – but telling it from his own perspective. As Ihe puts it: ''Writing about yourself is a funny business''. By his own admission, it isn'm certainly not t the most dedicated of anythingwhole truth, discretion holds him back but ''in a project like this, although I love Holmes and have read the entire canonwriter has made one promise, I was eagerly anticipating to show the chance to remind myself of those withinreader his mind. Sadly'' ''In these pages, I've tried to do this book has done little to quench my anticipation.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780920822</amazonuk>''
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert CannonJVDK_Beatles|title=OperaA Beatles Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Beatles but Were Afraid to Ask|author=John Van der Kiste|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Opera, Cannon tells us in You might have thought that just about everything which could be said about the introduction to this bookBeatles had been said and certainly, there'has never ceased s been no shortage of books about what went wrong, what happened to grow the money and change – often quite radicallyeven what went right.But what I' His aim ve never seen before is a 'miscellany' - all those little facts which are so hard to describe track down and show the many different facets of opera in its development over the centuries, this is where historian John Van der Kiste comes into his own: he's a man with an eye for detail and its relevance to the modern world. While he does not intend ability to write bring everything together into a history as such, he has organised this book chronologically as opera developed in very readable whole. It's a very conscious way across Europewonderful collection of the small facts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0521746477</amazonuk>
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