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[[Category:Entertainment|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Entertainment]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter AckroydPatti Smith|title=Charlie ChaplinYear of the Monkey|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Charlie Chaplin dominated On the formative years coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the lunar year of the cinemamonkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, as actor and directorunexpected moments. In a stranger's words, ''Anything is possible: after all, like no otherit's the year of the monkey''. As we Smith wanders the coast of Santa Cruz in solitude, she reflects on a year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and ageing are told faced head on, as it the shifting political waters in an early chapter of this America. |isbn=1526614758}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Walton_Ask|title=Ask For Blues|author=Malcolm Walton|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Malcolm Walton's book, on is clearly a memoir about his first visit introduction to America in 1910the Trad Jazz scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s, but he is alleged has chosen to have shoutedwrite it in the form of a novel, ‘I am coming claiming in his prologue that this would give the book a different approach to conquer youthe music memoir. Every man woman His protagonist 'Martin' takes on Malcolm's mantle and child shall have my name on their lips!’ begins with his first discovery of the Salvation Army band with his grandfather. Within This catapults him into a few years he had indeed conquered love of music, initially taking piano lessons, and later delving into his true love – the entire movie-going world|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099287560</amazonuk>trumpet.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charles SolomonMoore Bientot|title=A Wish Your Heart Makes Bientot...|author=Roger Moore|rating=4|genre=Entertainment|summary=The news of the death of Sir Roger Moore in May 2017 came as a great shock: From he was one of those people you knew would go on forever. There was just one small glimmer of light in the Grimm Brotherssadness - the news that a matter of days before his death he' Aschenputtel d delivered the finished manuscript of his book, ''À bientôt…'', to Disneyhis publishers. Just a few months later a copy landed on my desk and I didn's Cinderellat even bother to look as though I could resist reading it straight away.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Maslanka Sherlock|title=Sherlock: The Puzzle Book|author=Christopher Maslanka and Steve Tribe|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=ItWho doesn's not t love a useful thinggood puzzle, to have sniffy presumptions, when you're a humble book reviewer. The same applies of course in especially those really fiendish ones that get the world of cinema, and a lot else besides, but I do have brain working extra hard? There really is nothing to admit compare to be really quite dubious about that buzz we get from the thought of a live action remake of CinderellaAha! moment, even before seeing, reading or hearing anything on which to form a proper judgement. Did when everything falls into place and the world need it, I wondered – the original was great enough, and surely so much a sine qua non in animation historysolution reveals itself. What would some new young cast members, and Kenneth Branagh, add If puzzles are your thing then you may wish to put your grey cells to – or possibly would they overlay – decades of cinema audiencesthe test with ' joint memory? Surely it would be a pig's ear. Well, if this luscious first book regarding the new film is any indication, itThe Sherlock Puzzle Book's actually going to be pretty good. The format of film tie-in guides itself doesn't always engender much hope in , based on the likewise prejudiced – but I confirm this, too, is an item well worth bearing in mindpopular TV series.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1484713265</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sean SmithCorcoran_Dylan|title=Tom Do You Mr Jones - The Life?: Bob Dylan with the Poets and Professors|author=Neil Corcoran
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyEntertainment|summary=Few singers have sustained a career over half a century and appealed to succeeding generations Bob Dylan's award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 'for having created new poetic expressions within the way that great American song tradition' proved highly controversial. It inevitably led some people in the former Thomas John Woodward of Treforest has managed literary world to dotake stock and look at his work and reputation with a fresh eye. Almost written off during a lean period or two, he proved himself the master This volume of re-inventionessays was first published in 2002, and is now in his mid-70s he is loved and revered as something of reissued with a national treasurenew foreword by Will Self.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000810445X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lincoln PeirceKyncl_Stream|title=Big Nate: Laugh-O-Rama (Big Nate Activity Book 4)Stream Punks|author=Robert Kyncl and Maany Peyvan
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=The week before I reviewed this book watch quite a lot of YouTube. I play music videos when I saw want to listen to a newspaper article that said that so-called brain-training apps are a waste of timeparticular song I don't already have in my collection. I use it to find out how to do things, that with the instruction videos they merely replace what we should be doing anyway seem to keep our grey cells active (multi-taskinghave for pretty much anything. At the gym, observingI'll stick it on on my phone, REAL LIFE etc)prop it up on the cross-trainer and watch some behind the scenes interviews with the cast of my favourite shows. This And sometimes I'll treat it as if it is the puzzle book version of a brain training appNetflix, and so to watch series with all those electronic titles new episodes releasing every few days, exclusively on the market it already had oppositionYouTube. Having a new smart TV adds an extra, even before that news came easy way to watch without having to plug inmy laptop or squint at a small phone screen. So yes, I like YouTube and I use YouTube. But letI didn's face t know a whole lot about the site it – who on earth would risk the science being wrong on until I read this occasion? Surely this kind of book should be an inherently essential purchase?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782433953</amazonuk>.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter A DavidJVDK_Swing|title=We Can Swing Together: The Avengers Vault|rating=3|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=It's not just because the third richest take of any movie is about to get a sequel that we have this pictorial background guide. There have been decades of action featuring the main characters of The Avengers, and they themselves are fifty years old as a collective entity, so this book has a lot of ground to cover. To its benefit there are hardly any mentions Story of the global behemoth that are Marvel films these days, beyond a couple of references where relevant. Instead we're looking back, with bright and eager eyes, to see what we can find, what the beginner may need to know, and what the fan will have fond memories of.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781313989</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewLindisfarne|author=Gareth Murphy|title=Cowboys and Indies: The Epic History of the Record IndustryJohn Van der Kiste|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=It’s not difficult to find It all began with a history group of popular or recorded musicyoungsters in North Shields. Rod Clements, Simon 'Si' Cowe, Ray 'Jacka' Jackson and Ray Laidlaw formed ''The Downtown Faction'', written around soon changing the musical names who made it happenname 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 ''Cowboys and IndiesLindisfarne'' takes a different approach(with the name taken from an island off the Northumberland coast) was born. While there is plenty in these pages about several More than forty years on and with numerous changes of personnel the most important stars, there band is just as still very much again if around. They might not sometimes more about be touring or producing much in the movers and shakersway of new material, the inventorsbut they still perform, managerswith Rod Clements, impresarios, and record label founders without whom there would not have been a record industryone of the original members on his fourth stint with the group.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781254524</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Emma Tennant, Hilary Bailey and David ElliottJVDK_ELO|title=Did We Meet on Grub Street?Electric Light Orchestra: Song by Song|author=John Van der Kiste|rating=34.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Essentially, the three authors (all My memories of whom have long careers pop music in the book industry) revel in early sixties revolve around guitars and drums, sometimes the idea of being whining old curmudgeons who miss the good old days of publishingpiano with only occasional excursions into strings and brass. This unashamed nostalgia provides the focus of the book Pop music rarely stands still and allows it wasn't long before the writers to recount numerous anecdotes from their days in the publishing business. Whilst the primary audience for this book may well be students of creative writing basic instruments were seen as constraints and media studiesThe Beatles, it also serves as an interesting exploration of an aspect of modern history: how a once-burgeoning industry is now a shell of its former selfThe Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys began to experiment, much like a lot of manufacturingwith other groups following where they led. Because of this, I was disappointed that no space Amongst these groups was given to a consideration of how the rise of the e-book The Move and Kindle has directly damaged both the sale of books their lead guitarist and the potential for new books to be written (fewer real books sold = fewer financial advances paid songwriter, Roy Wood. Wood wanted to writers = fewer books written). Also, given develop the clear love of books as treasured artifacts, group's sound by adding more instruments but was prevented from achieving what he wanted by cost limitations and because the dismissal rest of the Harry Potter phenomenon seems truculent, given the impetus the series gave to reading amongst both the young and adultsgroup didn't really share his enthusiasm.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704372983</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David LodgeWatkins_Lets|title=Lives Let's Make Lots of Money: My Life as the Biggest Man in WritingPop|author=Tom Watkins
|rating=4
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=David Lodge Lives Who on earth would be a manager in Writing. So blares the cover larger than life, here today gone tomorrow world of my editionpop? Anybody with an ego, a ruthless streak, an opportunity to embrace the chances and accept that it's not far wronggoing to last, evidently. When he's not entertaining us with his [[:Category:David Lodge|writing career]] (now in its third, more erudite Tom Watkins is just one of several to have walked the fine line and to me more serious stage, after for part of the first third of comic light touchestime, before he found quite successfully. As his metier – and fame with TV adaptations– with comedies about memoirs suggest, part of the social and sexual lives of academe) he's teaching about and around writing. When I time was younger I also read around writing – literature books, in other words – and Lodge's were among those I turned to. So this book and its contents are a welcome step back down a very familiar roadachievement enough.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587769</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steve TribeKendrick_Scrappy|title=Sherlock: Chronicles|rating=5|genre=Entertainment|summary=I still remember sitting down to watch the first episode of ''Sherlock''. I was looking forward to it, certainly, but within minutes I realised this was going to become far more than just a television series. It also struck me that, of all the television and film versions I had seen, this felt like the most authentic interpretation of the original stories - but trying to work out exactly why would definitely be a three patch problem. Happily, this book provides all the explanations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849907625</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewScrappy Little Nobody|author=Greg Keyes|title=Interstellar: The Official Movie NovelizationAnna Kendrick
|rating=3.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Christopher Nolan speaks here of two pertinent visits to the cinema to see sci-fi epicsCelebrity autobiographies. The first time round it was ''Star Wars'', and the young cinema craftsman in the making became an avid fan, who eventually found the story and nature of the filmIt's construction almost as epic, invigorating and absorbing as the movie itself. After that came a chance to see a re-release of ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', upon which Nolan reports ''information about genre long tainted by the making examples of Kubricks's masterpiece was harder to come by than Lucas's.'' You donpeople who clearly didn't need me deserve to tell you that nowadays information about making of movie magic is all around us – the trailers and camera diaries of set footage advertising upcoming blockbusters in parallel with each otherbe a celebrity, the DVD and Blulet alone have a ghost-Ray extraswriter create their book, and by those who did so onlittle but managed to churn out five memoirs before they were even thirty. And IBut more recently it'm sure s become a lot of that is evident with the example way of staking a claim to importance for female comics. They''Interstellar''ve not all written autobiographies, as Bridget Christie proved, Chris Nolan's attempt but enough have to bridge provide for a rapidly-filling shelf at the gap between ''Star Wars'bookstore. 2016 we had Amy Schumer winning a GoodReads award, Lena Dunham' s been at it, and we''2001'' and create a thinking womanve also got Anna Kendrick. Now she's emotional, family sci-fi epic. Likewise, too, this book, which is not a happy ground between being told only the bare outlinesstrict comic – not all of her films are designed to make you laugh, and the full-on, nothing-kept-sacred smorgasbord detail some of a Blu-Ray. A very happy ground, indeed, them that will leave many a happy readerare just don't – but this has to be in the same bracket.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329356X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul RuditisRopek_Tragic|title=Battlestar Galactica VaultTragic Magic: The Complete History Of The Series, 1978-2012|rating=4|genre=Entertainment|summary=For those who don't know, or can't remember, ''Battlestar Galactica'' was a '70s piece of American sci-fi TV, launched to great acclaim as a parallel to the rather similar ''Star Wars'' with a full-on TV movie, then one lengthy season of hour-long adventures, that even had Fred Astaire playing a bit part before audiences dwindled and the show died out. It shot itself in the foot with a sort-Life of sequel soon afterwards, then languished for decades before two crafty creatives found a way to put more meat on the bones, and to marry the show with much more modern sensibilities. ItTraffic's not a programme I would necessarily have entered a 'vault' for, as I was only a fan of the original, and possibly only then as opposed to now. I've not seen a ''BSG'' entity since my youth – but I know a heck of a lot about what I have pushed to the back of my mind since then, courtesy of these pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781313350</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=The Art of NoirChris Wood|author=Eddie MullerDan Ropek
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Colour is surely not the first thing one associates with film noir – after allChris Wood was a member of Traffic, the clue is group formed by Steve Winwood in the name. ''1967 after he left The Third Man'' is only better with the shadows, Fritz Lang never needed gaudy colour, and the whole genre of noir would have been very different if it had been born in TechnicolorSpencer Davis Group. But it did live into the era of Cinemascope A gifted musician best known for his flute and colour picturessaxophone work, he also played keyboards, bass guitar and it was never advertised contributed backing vocals as black and white, well as these superb images testify. The large postcards and posters that adorned American picturehouse lobbies to plug having a hand in writing several of the films on offer were always lurid, vivid songs and extremely colourfulone or two instrumentals. And this book is just as colourful – as well as erudite, comprehensive and extremely entertainingThis biography takes its title from the name of one of his compositions for their fifth album.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715647687</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Dolby_Sound|title=The Art Speed of Making ShadowsSound|author=Sophie CollinsThomas Dolby
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Winter is almost upon us and the evenings are getting darker. HoweverFrom struggling post-punk musician to pop star, rather than bemoaning the lack of sunshinefrom Silicon Valley innovator to university professor, how about putting Thomas Dolby has had a positive spin remarkable if not unique career, often reinventing himself on the situation and viewing those long, dark evenings as the perfect opportunity to hone your shadow-casting skills? Shadow-play way. This memoir is an art form that has endured through the ages based on his extensive notes and yet still has the power to enchant and entertain. So grab a lamp, gather round and get ready to create barking dogs, flying birds and a whole menagerie of shadow characters..journals.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905695454</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Morris_Legion|title=Eminent HipstersThe Legion of Regrettable Supervillains: Oddball Criminals from Comic Book History|author=Donald FagenJon Morris|rating=45
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Donald Fagen is best known As much as I like comics – and I do, whether superhero ones or not – I have to admit one half of thing, namely that the villains in them are a bit pants. What is The Penguin but the partnership that became Steely Danworld's worst Mafioso, one with a hobby of waddling along like his pet birds? Where else do you win an Oscar of all things by playing a two-bit killer who just fell in a vat of random chemicals and changed colour, and got mardier as a result (although recently he's become a nanotech genius – but let's not go there)? And what is it with the more sophisticated names in American rock music. While at school gimp in the 1960s see-through plant pot because he was convinced is the embodiment of cold? And that his vocation would be journalism's just some of the better-known enemies of ''Batman'', until music took overone of the better goodies. When You can imagine how awful the group, or rather duo plus hired hands, went on hiatus, he contributed baddies related to various journalsthe bad goodies can be. About half of And if you can't, this fairly brief book consists of his articles on films, music and science fiction, and the rest is made up of his entries (including random thoughts concerning the world around him) from a touring diaryperfect primer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593335</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Fletcher_Midnight|title=In the Midnight Hour: The Life on Air& Soul of Wilson Pickett|author=David AttenboroughTony Fletcher
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=If you ever think of Hollywood you think of it as Tamla Motown groups and singers apart, in the mid-sixties there were three major names in the home soul music field who mattered above all. James Brown was something of a certain kind of output. Superstars, big studio productions, and what they combined to produce – things you might call movies, cult name who rarely bothered about or films. Once upon a time, of course, they were called moving pictures, without troubled the abbreviationsingles charts, but and Otis Redding was on the artform – once called the greatest verge of shooting into the 20th Century – stratosphere when he died in an aeroplane crash. The other was just as recognisable through the still images it produced. This coffee table book is designed as a catalogue of those still images – whether they be formally posed portraits taken on setman from Alabama, re-enactments of 'the cinemawicked Pickett's scenes shot separately on still camera for the purpose of publicity, or candid stills that formed a matter the star had a final say in, which would go some way to increasing the cult of their personality in the magazines that were then starting to focus on celebrity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781579806</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Paling_Reading|title=The Art of Neil GaimanReading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library|author=Hayley CampbellChris Paling
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=CancerI once made a comical faux pas in a library when I was younger, but it certainly didn't put me off returning. Chemistry I once declared in a self-important way that I would start at the beginning of the books for young children and not stop til the end, then do the same for those for the older children – ''and then do it all over again with them'', I said, pointing at the large-print shelves. Drugs ''I hope not'', was the response – but little me was only aware of a need for large font for my fellow whippersnappers, and not for any other reason. The DEA Since then I've needed libraries, and going to them has been second nature. Heisenberg 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. Mexico. Fried Chicken. Blood baths ( I'm not alone in sharing the warmth of both their heating system and the very thing they were born to provide – books, but there was still a huge step up between my level of use and baths full knowledge of blood)them to actually working in one. Cartels. Criminal lawyers Which is where Chris Paling comes in. Bacon birthday breakfasts. This is Breaking Bad, and the only question that remains is… Wanna Cook?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190580296X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Springsteen_Born|title=Books that Changed the World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human HistoryBorn to Run|author=Andrew TaylorBruce Springsteen|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Oh the pleasure whenNo, as you haven't stumbled into a book reviewermusic review from the 1970s, one can simply point to the title and say – I'yup, thatm talking about The Boss's autobiography. Or Lots of books have been written about Springsteen by folk who knew him, I suppose, as in worked with him and by others who have only read the cuttings. Over the non-existent follow-up, Adverts That Changed last seven years he has been going about – not putting the Worldrecord straight, simply repeat the mantra 'exactly – but telling it does exactly what from his own perspective. As he puts it says on the tin: ''Writing about yourself is a funny business''. This paperback edition of By his own admission, it isn't the six year old originalwhole truth, fresh with several typos they had time to iron out alongside putting discretion holds him back but ''in Seamus Heaney's departurea project like this, makes life even easierthe writer has made one promise, given that subtitleto show the reader his mind. I'm sure the more bibliophilic are already sold' ''In these pages, and there is little influence I can bear on things've tried to do this. I will, however, soldier on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782069429</amazonuk>''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=JVDK_Beatles|title=The A Beatles Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Beatlesbut Were Afraid to Ask|author=Mick Manning and Brita GranstromJohn Van der Kiste
|rating=5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Who on earth would want You might have thought that just about everything which could be said about the Beatles had been said and certainly, there's been no shortage of books about what went wrong, what happened to buy the money and run even what went right. But what I've never seen before is a live music venue in deepest Brixton, 'miscellany' - all those little facts which are so hard to track down and manage to keep it running for fifteen years, transforming it against all the odds this is where historian John Van der Kiste comes into what becomes one of Britain’s most iconic establishments of its kind? Such his own: he's a man with an undertaking calls eye for somebody with special managerial skills who can keep one step ahead of detail and the game, walking ability to bring everything together into a precarious tightrope, keeping gangsters, punters, promoters and the local authorities onsidevery readable whole. It also requires 's a good deal wonderful collection of luckthe small facts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846689554</amazonuk>
}}
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