Difference between revisions of "Newest Entertainment Reviews"

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[[Category:Entertainment|*]]
 
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{{newreview
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|author=Tim Parks
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{{Frontpage
|title=Where I'm Reading From: The Changing World of Books
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|author=Patti Smith
 +
|title=Year of the Monkey
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Biography
 +
|summary=On the coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the lunar year of the monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, and unexpected moments. In a stranger's words, ''Anything is possible: after all, it's the year of the monkey''. As 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 faced head on, as it the shifting political waters in America.
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|isbn=1526614758
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=Walton_Ask
 +
|title=Ask For Blues
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|author=Malcolm Walton
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Entertainment
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|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Books, eh? – who here doesn't just love them?  (And if you don't, please exercise greater mouse control as you click away.)  Some of us love books about books – and that includes a lot of us here at the Bookbag.  And who better to turn to regarding books than [[:Category:Tim Parks|Mr Tim Parks]], who writes them, writes about them, educates about them, translates them, teaches the translation thereof, blogs professionally about them…  He tells us he has a split personality in that different worldly territories know him for different things, whether that be essays, travel writing, seriously serio-comic fiction, or just for being 'that bloke who never exactly set the world on fire but does do a definitely reliable turn every time I've tried him'.  This, being the pick of four years' web posts for the ''New York Review of Books'', is his clearest statement in book form about books, and yes, it is yet again a pretty reliable turn.
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|summary=Malcolm Walton's book is clearly a memoir about his introduction to the Trad Jazz scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s, but he has chosen to write it in the form of a novel, claiming in his prologue that this would give the book a different approach to the music memoir. His protagonist 'Martin' takes on Malcolm's mantle and begins with his first discovery of the Salvation Army band with his grandfather.  This catapults him into a love of music, initially taking piano lessons, and later delving into his true love – the trumpet.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784701793</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Emma Marriott
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|isbn=Moore Bientot
|title=The World of Poldark
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|title=A Bientot...
|rating=5
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|author=Roger Moore
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Back in the seventies I watched ''Poldark'' on television: it was enjoyable, but I'll confess that if I'd missed an episode it wouldn't have worried me too much.  When the gentleman rebel reappeared in 2015 I had no intention of watching, but a friend saw the first episode and said how good it was. I caught up on iPlayer, almost for politeness - and was hooked.  It wasn't just the story - but perhaps I'm more in tune with it now that I was forty years ago - it was the quality of the production which kept me watching week after week. When Emma Marriott's book landed on my desk the temptation to 'just have a quick look' proved far too much for me.
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|summary=The news of the death of Sir Roger Moore in May 2017 came as a great shock: he was one of those people you knew would go on forever. There was just one small glimmer of light in the sadness - the news that a matter of days before his death he'd delivered the 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 straight away.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509813616</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alastair Fothergill and Huw Cordey
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|isbn=Maslanka Sherlock
|title=The Hunt
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|title=Sherlock: The Puzzle Book
 +
|author=Christopher Maslanka and Steve Tribe
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Animals and Wildlife
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|genre=Entertainment
|summary=My mother has long complained that nature programmes too often concentrate on the death and violence, or how it's all about the capture and killing of one animal by another.  She's long had a point, but [[Of Orcas and Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us by David Neiwert|killer whales]] swanning by doing nothing, and lions sleeping off the heat without munching on a passing wildebeest's leg really don't cut it when it comes to providing popular TV content.  I doubt she will be tuning in to the series this book accompanies, even if the volume very quickly testifies that it's not all about the capture – often the chase can be just as thrilling, and the result for the intended victim is favourable.
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|summary=Who doesn't love a good puzzle, especially those really fiendish ones that get the brain working extra hard? There really is nothing to compare to that buzz we get from the Aha! moment, when everything falls into place and the solution reveals itself. If puzzles are your thing then you may wish to put your grey cells to the test with ''The Sherlock Puzzle Book'', based on the popular TV series.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849907226</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Justin Richards and Dan Green
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|isbn=Corcoran_Dylan
|title=Doctor Who: The Dangerous Book of Monsters
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|title=Do You Mr Jones?: Bob Dylan with the Poets and Professors
|rating=5
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|author=Neil Corcoran
|genre=Confident Readers
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|rating=4.5
|summary=It's imperative you keep up with The Doctor, in both senses – meaning in case the first thing he tells you to do is ''Run!'' and in the sense of following all his various adventures and maintaining knowledge of what's what and who he's faced, enemy-wise. One great way to be enemy wise is to peruse this book, which really is a great present for the young fan – and of course a life-saving manual for when you yourself find sharks in the fog, gas-mask wearing boys ''sans'' their mothers or indeed gigantic Cyberking dreadnought spacecraft.  Honestly, why this is classed as a fiction title I have no idea…
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|genre=Entertainment
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405920033</amazonuk>
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|summary=Bob Dylan's award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 'for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition' proved highly controversial. It inevitably led some people in the literary world to take stock and look at his work and reputation with a fresh eye. This volume of essays was first published in 2002, and is now reissued with a new foreword by Will Self.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Michael Klastorin and Randal Atamaniuk
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|isbn=Kyncl_Stream
|title=Back to the Future: The Ultimate Visual History
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|title=Stream Punks
|rating=4
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|author=Robert Kyncl and Maany Peyvan
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Well, thankfully I have never had to sit through ''Jaws 19''. Of all the perks invented for the heady days of October 2015 by the middle film in the ''Back to the Future'' trilogy, that was one of the least inviting.  I've never actually seen that middle film, either – really liked the original and still do, had the middle one pass me by totally, then saw the third so often as a cinema steward (shows my age!) I was word perfect on the script. The threesome is one of a most wholesome kind – the restoration of family values through grabbing hold of your own destiny by the horns, the application of science to save the day over brawns and shooting people up, the habitually dung-filled comeuppance of the baddies throughout time – it's no wonder that the trilogy is much loved.  And as it's the most pictorial and detailed guide to their creation on paper imaginable, this volume will follow it into many hearts.
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|summary=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 how to do things, with the instruction videos they seem to have for pretty much anything. At the gym, I'll stick it on on my phone, prop it up on the cross-trainer and watch some behind the scenes interviews with the cast of my favourite shows. And sometimes I'll treat it as if it is Netflix, to watch series with new episodes releasing every few days, exclusively on YouTube. Having a new smart TV adds an extra, easy way to watch without having to plug in my laptop or squint at a small phone screen. So yes, I like YouTube and I use YouTube. But I didn't know a whole lot about the site it until I read this book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783299703</amazonuk>
 
 
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}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Caroline Taggart
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|isbn=JVDK_Swing
|title=New Words for Old: Recycling Our Language for the Modern World
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|title=We Can Swing Together: The Story of Lindisfarne
|rating=3.5
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|author=John Van der Kiste
|genre=Trivia
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|rating=4.5
|summary=I never declare myself off to have a 'kip', as I recall reading that it originally meant the same amount of sleeping – and activity – as happens in a whorehouse.  The word 'cleave' can mean either to split apart, or to connect together, and I'm sure there's another word that has completely changed its meaning from one end of things to another although I can't remember which.  Certainly, ''literally'' has tried its best to make a full switch through rampant misuse.  Such is the nature of our language – fluid both in spelling until moderately recently, and definitely in meaning.  This attempt at capturing a corner of the trivia/words/novelty market is interested in such tales from the etymological world – the way we have adapted old words for our own, modern and perhaps very different usages.  Certainly, having browsed it over a week, I can declare it a pretty strong attempt.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782434720</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Spencer Leigh
 
|title= Frank Sinatra: An Extraordinary Life
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Entertainment
 
|summary= Frank Sinatra was undoubtedly a legend.  In a notoriously precarious profession, he managed to stay at the top, or very close to it, for a remarkably long time.  Despite a few half-hearted flirtations with other styles which may have strayed a little from his comfort zone, he remained true to his musical style, won the respect of younger generations, and never really went out of fashion.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857160869</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Steve Tribe
 
|title=The All New University Challenge Quiz Book: Questions, Answers, Facts, Figures and everything in between
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=[Cue theme musicLights up on presenter, who waffles on about establishments providing contestants – De Montfort University, local pub, family unit.  Contestants don't, for once, introduce themselves as it's probably a given that they know each other.  Contestants imbibe nervous sips of 'water', and settle back.]  ''You all know the rules, so let's not waste time – here's your first starter for ten.''  
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|summary=It all began with a group of youngsters in North ShieldsRod Clements, Simon 'Si' Cowe, Ray 'Jacka' Jackson and Ray Laidlaw formed ''The Downtown Faction'', soon changing the 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 Northumberland coast) was born. More than forty years on and with numerous changes of personnel the band is still very much around.  They might not be touring or producing much in the way of new material, but they still perform, with Rod Clements, one of the original members on his fourth stint with the group.
 
 
Yes, this book throws no punches and attempts to put you in the spotlight of one of the nation's most superlative televisual institutions – but does it manage it?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184949701X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Jody Revenson
 
|title= Harry Potter: The Character Vault
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Entertainment
 
|summary= Unlock new information about your favourite characters from the Harry Potter film series. This coffeetable book profiles the good, bad, and everything in between – from Harry and Ron to Voldemort and Umbridge. Hugely detailed and filled with beautiful illustrations, images, and never before seen glimpses into the design process – this book will answer your questions about character design in the Harry Potter series.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0062407449</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=JVDK_ELO
 +
|title=Electric Light Orchestra: Song by Song
 
|author=John Van der Kiste
 
|author=John Van der Kiste
|title=Jeff Lynne: The Electric Light Orchestra - Before and After
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
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|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Jeff Lynne grew up in a Birmingham suburb right at the end of 1947: even as a child he was passionate about music and was a much respected guitarist as a teenager.  He was a member of various semi-professional groups - critical acclaim came when he fronted Idle Race in the late sixties and popularity and a degree of commercial success arrived when he joined the popular group The Move.  Whilst still playing with that group he co-founded, along with Roy Wood, the groundbreaking Electric Light Orchestra, but it was with Wood's departure that Lynne turned what had been an occasionally uneasy fusion of classical and rock into a successful and popular act.
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|summary=My memories of pop music in the early sixties revolve around guitars and drums, sometimes the piano with only occasional excursions into strings and brass. Pop music rarely stands still and it wasn't long before the basic instruments were seen as constraints and The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys began to experiment, with other groups following where they led. Amongst these groups was The Move and their lead guitarist and songwriter, Roy Wood. Wood wanted to develop the group's sound by adding more instruments but was prevented from achieving what he wanted by cost limitations and because the rest of the group didn't really share his enthusiasm.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781554927</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreviewplain
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{{Frontpage
|title=Thunderbirds are Go Official Guide
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|isbn=Watkins_Lets
 +
|title=Let's Make Lots of Money: My Life as the Biggest Man in Pop
 +
|author=Tom Watkins
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Entertainment
|summary=It's time to admit that I am old.  I remember the first series of ''Thunderbirds'' from Saturday morning kids' cinema – an episode of that, then a second-run film, both for a quid.  They were only ten years old or so then, but at least that proved the franchise was durable.  Nothing did that quite as much, however, as the news a couple of years ago that the Anderson estate was to allow a CG updating, bringing a new generation of people to the massed audience.  Amid the usual worries about it losing everything that made it special, it actually did pretty well when it aired in 2015 – even with a breakfast time transmission slot. This small(ish) format hardback is, bar the annual, the very first chance to look at an official book concerning the series, and inasmuch as it inspired me to research the return, and certainly accept it as looking a worthy addition to the canon, it succeeds on all fronts.
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|summary=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 embrace the chances and accept that it's not going to last, evidently. Tom Watkins is just one of several to have walked the fine line and, for part of the time, quite successfully. As his memoirs suggest, part of the time was achievement enough.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471124991</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Keith Partridge
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|isbn=Kendrick_Scrappy
|title=The Adventure Game: A Cameraman's Tales from Films at the Edge
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|title=Scrappy Little Nobody
|rating= 4.5
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|author=Anna Kendrick
|genre= Animals and Wildlife
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|rating=3.5
|summary=Keith Partridge has been one of the world’s leading adventure cameramen for over twenty years. The award winning Touching the Void, Beckoning Silence and Human Planet are just some of the films that have taken him all over the earth, from the caves of Papua New Guinea to the summit of Mount Everest. No location has been too dangerous, no environment too wild, and if you have ever seen a climber or explorer in some outrageous position, chances are that Keith Partridge was there with his camera. Here Keith discusses the challenges that have faced him in the daring adventures has taken part in, with personalities such as [[:Category:Steve Backshall|Steve Backshall]], [[:Category:Joe Simpson|Joe Simpson]] and Stephen Venables.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124311</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jonathan Rigby
 
|title=English Gothic: Classic Horror Cinema 1897-2015
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Wow. Every once in a while you come across a book such as this, which represents in two covers the complete sine qua non of its subject and type.  There is little vital to say about this book except it is essential for anyone with any remote interest in British horror in motion picture form – yes, it covers cinema to a minute level but also regards TV in an addendum that will bring back equal memories to those who watch it. A book as long and detailed as this – and boy, is it long and detailed – is immediately marked out as a sterling, five-star read, and yet the humble reviewer (like perhaps a victim of one of these gothic fictions) has an exhaustive and exhausting time ahead.  Yes, we here at The Bookbag do read every word of the books we cover, even if the only verdict regarding them is blatantly evident from the first hour's perusal.
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|summary=Celebrity autobiographies. It's a genre long tainted by the examples of people who clearly didn't deserve to be a celebrity, let alone have a ghost-writer create their book, and by those who did so little but managed to churn out five memoirs before they were even thirty. But more recently it's become a way of staking a claim to importance for female comics. They've not all written autobiographies, as Bridget Christie proved, but enough have to provide for a rapidly-filling shelf at the bookstore. 2016 we had Amy Schumer winning a GoodReads award, Lena Dunham's been at it, and we've also got Anna Kendrick. Now she's not a strict comic – not all of her films are designed to make you laugh, and some of them that are just don't – but this has to be in the same bracket.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0957648162</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Antonia Fraser (editor)
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|isbn=Ropek_Tragic
|title=The Pleasure of Reading: 43 Writers on the Discovery of Reading and the Books That Inspired Them
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|title=Tragic Magic: The Life of Traffic's Chris Wood
|rating=4
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|author=Dan Ropek
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary= There has been a trend for lists in recent years, with numerous websites and books cashing in on this craze for cataloguing must-see films, favourite foods, and things to do before you die. ‘’The Pleasure of Reading’’, edited by Antonia Fraser, may be, then, the most sophisticated and erudite result of this fascination for listography, since its premise is straightforwardly based around the top ten books chosen by famous authors. Behind this book is the curiosity readers feel for each other or the question, as Fraser puts it, ‘What ‘’do’’ other people read?’ But these people are some of the greatest writers working in recent years, with contributions from Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing, and Tom Stoppard and others. The book, however, returns us to those early moments in their lives – before fame and prizes – when reading was a hobby like it is for so many people. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408859629</amazonuk>
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|summary=Chris Wood was a member of Traffic, the group formed by Steve Winwood in 1967 after he left The Spencer Davis Group. A gifted musician best known for his flute and saxophone work, he also played keyboards, bass guitar and contributed backing vocals as well as having a hand in writing several of the songs and one or two instrumentals. This biography takes its title from the name of one of his compositions for their fifth album.
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Stephanie Milton
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|isbn=Dolby_Sound
|title=Minecraft Beginners's Handbook: Updated Edition
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|title=The Speed of Sound
|rating=5
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|author=Thomas Dolby
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=If you haven't heard of ''Minecraft,'' where on earth have you been? This popular construction/survival game has captured the imagination of almost 30 million people worldwide and the craze shows no signs of abating. If, like me, you are curious as to what all the fuss is about and wonder why you can no longer get near the computer until after the kids have gone to bed, then this new series of books by Egmont are just what you need. In no time at all, you will be happily chatting about mobs, redstone, endermen and zombie pigmen as if you were an expert...
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|summary=From struggling post-punk musician to pop star, from Silicon Valley innovator to university professor, Thomas Dolby has had a remarkable if not unique career, often reinventing himself on the way. This memoir is based on his extensive notes and journals.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405276770</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Martin Edwards
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|isbn=Morris_Legion
|title=The Golden Age of Murder
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|title=The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains: Oddball Criminals from Comic Book History
 +
|author=Jon Morris
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Martin Edwards has had such a good idea for this book. He takes the foundation of the Detection Club in the late 1920s and follows through into the postwar period, ending his account sometime in the mid-1950s, perhaps with the death of Dorothy L Sayers in 1957. I may sound tentative here because there is no entirely precise end date. The Detection Club itself still lives on, hosting three dinners a year for elected members. Edwards is its current archivist – yet there are no archives, unless you count the hundreds of books produced by its members, which of course he does. And he also explores their lives.  
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|summary=As much as I like comics – and I do, whether superhero ones or not – I have to admit one thing, namely that the 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 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 gimp in the see-through plant pot because he is the embodiment of cold? And that's just some of the better-known enemies of ''Batman'', one of the better goodies. You can imagine how awful the baddies related to the bad goodies can be. And if you can't, this is the perfect primer.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008105960</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Peter Ackroyd
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|isbn=Fletcher_Midnight
|title=Charlie Chaplin
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|title=In the Midnight Hour: The Life & Soul of Wilson Pickett
 +
|author=Tony Fletcher
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
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|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Charlie Chaplin dominated the formative years of the cinema, as actor and director, like no other.  As we are told in an early chapter of this book, on his first visit to America in 1910, he is alleged to have shouted, ‘I am coming to conquer you. Every man woman and child shall have my name on their lips!’  Within a few years he had indeed conquered the entire movie-going world
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|summary=Tamla Motown groups and singers apart, in the mid-sixties there were three major names in the soul music field who mattered above all. James Brown was something of a cult name who rarely bothered about or troubled the singles charts, and Otis Redding was on the verge of shooting into the stratosphere when he died in an aeroplane crash. The other was the man from Alabama, 'the wicked Pickett'.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099287560</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Charles Solomon
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|isbn=Paling_Reading
|title=A Wish Your Heart Makes : From the Grimm Brothers' Aschenputtel to Disney's Cinderella
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|title=Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library
 +
|author=Chris Paling
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=It's not a useful thing, to have sniffy presumptions, when you're a humble book reviewerThe same applies of course in the world of cinema, and a lot else besides, but I do have to admit to be really quite dubious about the thought of a live action remake of Cinderella, even before seeing, reading or hearing anything on which to form a proper judgementDid the world need it, I wondered the original was great enough, and surely so much a sine qua non in animation historyWhat would some new young cast members, and Kenneth Branagh, add to – or possibly would they overlay – decades of cinema audiences' joint memory?  Surely it would be a pig's ear.  Well, if this luscious first book regarding the new film is any indication, it's actually going to be pretty goodThe format of film tie-in guides itself doesn't always engender much hope in the likewise prejudiced – but I confirm this, too, is an item well worth bearing in mind.
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|summary=I once made a comical faux pas in a library when I was younger, but it certainly didn't put me off returningI 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''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 reasonSince then I've needed libraries, and 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 funI'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 knowledge of them to actually working in one.  Which is where Chris Paling comes in.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1484713265</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sean Smith
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|isbn=Springsteen_Born
|title=Tom Jones - The Life
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|title=Born to Run
|rating=4.5
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|author=Bruce Springsteen
|genre=Biography
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|rating=5
|summary=Few singers have sustained a career over half a century and appealed to succeeding generations in the way that the former Thomas John Woodward of Treforest has managed to do.  Almost written off during a lean period or two, he proved himself the master of re-invention, and now in his mid-70s he is loved and revered as something of a national treasure.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000810445X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lincoln Peirce
 
|title=Big Nate: Laugh-O-Rama (Big Nate Activity Book 4)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|summary=This seems to be a firmly established publishing practise now – the enhanced readership experience offered to fans of a franchise by a tie-in activity book. This is yet another example – looking like a genuine entry in an on-going series, it instead offers the fan of the characters the chance to interact with them in new ways, as well as looking back through the shelves of their collection, and inwardly as well, at their own thoughts and tastes.  Note I say it's for a fan – this example will alienate anyone else from the first page – but for the right audience it’s generally a good thing.  And in this instance it's a very, very good thing indeed.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007569076</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Dr Gareth Moore
 
|title=Clever Commuter: Puzzles, Tests and Problems to Solve on Your Journey
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=The week before I reviewed this book I saw a newspaper article that said that so-called brain-training apps are a waste of time, that they merely replace what we should be doing anyway to keep our grey cells active (multi-tasking, observing, REAL LIFE etc). This is the puzzle book version of a brain training app, and so with all those electronic titles on the market it already had opposition, even before that news came in. But let's face it – who on earth would risk the science being wrong on this occasion? Surely this kind of book should be an inherently essential purchase?
+
|summary=No, you haven't stumbled into a music review from the 1970s, I'm talking about The Boss's autobiography.  Lots of books have been written about Springsteen by folk who knew him, worked with him and by others who have only read the cuttings.  Over the last seven years he has been going about – not putting the record straight, exactly – but telling it from his own perspective.   As he puts it: ''Writing about yourself is a funny business''.  By his own admission, it isn't the whole truth, discretion holds him back but ''in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind.'' ''In these pages, I've tried to do this.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782433953</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Peter A David
+
|isbn=JVDK_Beatles
|title=The Avengers Vault
+
|title=A Beatles Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Beatles but Were Afraid to Ask
|rating=3
+
|author=John Van der Kiste
|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 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>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gareth Murphy
 
|title=Cowboys and Indies: The Epic History of the Record Industry
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=It’s not difficult to find a history of popular or recorded music, written around the musical names who made it happen. ''Cowboys and Indies'' takes a different approach.  While there is plenty in these pages about several of the most important stars, there is just as much again if not sometimes more about the movers and shakers, the inventors, managers, impresarios, and record label founders without whom there would not have been a record industry.
+
|summary=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 the money and even what went right. But what I've never seen before is a 'miscellany' - all those little facts which are so hard to track down and this is where historian John Van der Kiste comes into his own: he's a man with an eye for detail and the ability to bring everything together into a very readable whole. It's a wonderful collection of the small facts.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781254524</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
Move on to [[Newest Fantasy Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 16:30, 29 August 2020


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Review of

Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith

4star.jpg Biography

On the coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the lunar year of the monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, and unexpected moments. In a stranger's words, Anything is possible: after all, it's the year of the monkey. As 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 faced head on, as it the shifting political waters in America. Full Review

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Review of

Ask For Blues by Malcolm Walton

3.5star.jpg Autobiography

Malcolm Walton's book is clearly a memoir about his introduction to the Trad Jazz scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s, but he has chosen to write it in the form of a novel, claiming in his prologue that this would give the book a different approach to the music memoir. His protagonist 'Martin' takes on Malcolm's mantle and begins with his first discovery of the Salvation Army band with his grandfather. This catapults him into a love of music, initially taking piano lessons, and later delving into his true love – the trumpet. Full Review

link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/Moore Bientot/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21

Review of

A Bientot... by Roger Moore

4star.jpg Entertainment

The news of the death of Sir Roger Moore in May 2017 came as a great shock: he was one of those people you knew would go on forever. There was just one small glimmer of light in the sadness - the news that a matter of days before his death he'd delivered the 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 straight away. Full Review

link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/Maslanka Sherlock/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21

Review of

Sherlock: The Puzzle Book by Christopher Maslanka and Steve Tribe

4star.jpg Entertainment

Who doesn't love a good puzzle, especially those really fiendish ones that get the brain working extra hard? There really is nothing to compare to that buzz we get from the Aha! moment, when everything falls into place and the solution reveals itself. If puzzles are your thing then you may wish to put your grey cells to the test with The Sherlock Puzzle Book, based on the popular TV series. Full Review

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Review of

Do You Mr Jones?: Bob Dylan with the Poets and Professors by Neil Corcoran

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

Bob Dylan's award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 'for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition' proved highly controversial. It inevitably led some people in the literary world to take stock and look at his work and reputation with a fresh eye. This volume of essays was first published in 2002, and is now reissued with a new foreword by Will Self. Full Review

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Review of

Stream Punks by Robert Kyncl and Maany Peyvan

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

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 how to do things, with the instruction videos they seem to have for pretty much anything. At the gym, I'll stick it on on my phone, prop it up on the cross-trainer and watch some behind the scenes interviews with the cast of my favourite shows. And sometimes I'll treat it as if it is Netflix, to watch series with new episodes releasing every few days, exclusively on YouTube. Having a new smart TV adds an extra, easy way to watch without having to plug in my laptop or squint at a small phone screen. So yes, I like YouTube and I use YouTube. But I didn't know a whole lot about the site it until I read this book. Full Review

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Review of

We Can Swing Together: The Story of Lindisfarne by John Van der Kiste

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

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 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 Northumberland coast) was born. More than forty years on and with numerous changes of personnel the band is still very much around. They might not be touring or producing much in the way of new material, but they still perform, with Rod Clements, one of the original members on his fourth stint with the group. Full Review

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Review of

Electric Light Orchestra: Song by Song by John Van der Kiste

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

My memories of pop music in the early sixties revolve around guitars and drums, sometimes the piano with only occasional excursions into strings and brass. Pop music rarely stands still and it wasn't long before the basic instruments were seen as constraints and The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys began to experiment, with other groups following where they led. Amongst these groups was The Move and their lead guitarist and songwriter, Roy Wood. Wood wanted to develop the group's sound by adding more instruments but was prevented from achieving what he wanted by cost limitations and because the rest of the group didn't really share his enthusiasm. Full Review

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Review of

Let's Make Lots of Money: My Life as the Biggest Man in Pop by Tom Watkins

4star.jpg Entertainment

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 embrace the chances and accept that it's not going to last, evidently. Tom Watkins is just one of several to have walked the fine line and, for part of the time, quite successfully. As his memoirs suggest, part of the time was achievement enough. Full Review

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Review of

Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick

3.5star.jpg Entertainment

Celebrity autobiographies. It's a genre long tainted by the examples of people who clearly didn't deserve to be a celebrity, let alone have a ghost-writer create their book, and by those who did so little but managed to churn out five memoirs before they were even thirty. But more recently it's become a way of staking a claim to importance for female comics. They've not all written autobiographies, as Bridget Christie proved, but enough have to provide for a rapidly-filling shelf at the bookstore. 2016 we had Amy Schumer winning a GoodReads award, Lena Dunham's been at it, and we've also got Anna Kendrick. Now she's not a strict comic – not all of her films are designed to make you laugh, and some of them that are just don't – but this has to be in the same bracket. Full Review

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Review of

Tragic Magic: The Life of Traffic's Chris Wood by Dan Ropek

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

Chris Wood was a member of Traffic, the group formed by Steve Winwood in 1967 after he left The Spencer Davis Group. A gifted musician best known for his flute and saxophone work, he also played keyboards, bass guitar and contributed backing vocals as well as having a hand in writing several of the songs and one or two instrumentals. This biography takes its title from the name of one of his compositions for their fifth album. Full Review

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Review of

The Speed of Sound by Thomas Dolby

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

From struggling post-punk musician to pop star, from Silicon Valley innovator to university professor, Thomas Dolby has had a remarkable if not unique career, often reinventing himself on the way. This memoir is based on his extensive notes and journals. Full Review

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Review of

The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains: Oddball Criminals from Comic Book History by Jon Morris

5star.jpg Entertainment

As much as I like comics – and I do, whether superhero ones or not – I have to admit one thing, namely that the 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 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 gimp in the see-through plant pot because he is the embodiment of cold? And that's just some of the better-known enemies of Batman, one of the better goodies. You can imagine how awful the baddies related to the bad goodies can be. And if you can't, this is the perfect primer. Full Review

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Review of

In the Midnight Hour: The Life & Soul of Wilson Pickett by Tony Fletcher

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

Tamla Motown groups and singers apart, in the mid-sixties there were three major names in the soul music field who mattered above all. James Brown was something of a cult name who rarely bothered about or troubled the singles charts, and Otis Redding was on the verge of shooting into the stratosphere when he died in an aeroplane crash. The other was the man from Alabama, 'the wicked Pickett'. Full Review

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Review of

Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library by Chris Paling

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

I once made a comical faux pas in a library when I was younger, but it certainly didn't put me off returning. 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. 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. Since then I've needed libraries, and 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 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 knowledge of them to actually working in one. Which is where Chris Paling comes in. Full Review

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Review of

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

5star.jpg Entertainment

No, you haven't stumbled into a music review from the 1970s, I'm talking about The Boss's autobiography. Lots of books have been written about Springsteen by folk who knew him, worked with him and by others who have only read the cuttings. Over the last seven years he has been going about – not putting the record straight, exactly – but telling it from his own perspective. As he puts it: Writing about yourself is a funny business. By his own admission, it isn't the whole truth, discretion holds him back but in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I've tried to do this. Full Review

JVDK Beatles.jpg

Review of

A Beatles Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Beatles but Were Afraid to Ask by John Van der Kiste

5star.jpg Entertainment

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 the money and even what went right. But what I've never seen before is a 'miscellany' - all those little facts which are so hard to track down and this is where historian John Van der Kiste comes into his own: he's a man with an eye for detail and the ability to bring everything together into a very readable whole. It's a wonderful collection of the small facts. Full Review

Move on to Newest Fantasy Reviews