[[Category:Humour|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding==Humour=="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->__NOTOC__<!-- van LENTE -->{{newreview|-|authorstyle=Guy Kennaway"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|title=Bird Brain[[image:1683690346.jpg|ratinglink=4http://www.5|genreamazon.co.uk/dp/1683690346/ref=Humour|summarynosim?tag='It began for Basil ''Banger'' Peytonthebookbag-Crumbe the day he died in a pheasant shooting incident'.21]]
If you were in any doubt as to the nature of the novel given the cover jacket and the author's disclaimer to the effect that any similarity between the human characters and any real person is entirely coincidental, but he feels safe from any threats of libel action on behalf of the dead animals whose characters he has mercilessly manipulated for narrative effect, then its opening sentence should put you straight.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224093991</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|authorstyle=Neil Forsyth"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||title=Why Me? ==[[The Very Important Emails of Bob Servant|ratingCon Artist by Fred Van Lente]]=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Catchy title and catchy front cover graphics. What's not to like? It takes a lot to make me laugh generally, but as I had an initial flick through this book, things looked promising. And I was also thinking that it's a pleasant change to see another location (other than perhaps the predictable Glasgow and Edinburgh) get an airing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780270097</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Harry Thompson[[image:4star.jpg|titlelink=TintinCategory: Herge and His Creation|{{{rating=3.5|genre=Biography}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|summary=I love Tintin. I love his quiff and his innocenceCrime]], his plus-fours and his foreign adventures, I love Snowy the dog and most of all I love Captain Haddock and the flamboyance of his blistering barnacles language. So I was thrilled to see a biography of the character and Hergé, his creator, and I picked it up with enthusiasm. [[:Category:Humour|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848546726</amazonuk>}}Humour]]
{{newreview|author=Joseph Heller|title=Catch 22|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=At Comic-Cons are a place of wonder and sanctuary for many people, and when Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, he's looking for both that and sanctuary with other fans and creators, plus the heart chance of the very black comedy that maybe, just maybe reuniting with his ex. However, when his rival is ''Catch 22'' found dead, Mike is Captain Yossarian, a World War II American bombardier, who wants forced to survive navigate every dark corner of the war. Flying repeated combat missions is undermining con in order to clear his sanity, name – from cosplay flash mobs and surely a mad man should be grounded? But if he asks intrusive fans to be grounded, he demonstrates an absolutely sane concern for zombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his own safety. If he is sane, he can't be grounded. Thisinnocence and, his doctor tells himin doing so, is catch 22may just unravel a dark secret behind a legendary industry creator.[[The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099529114</amazonuk>}}Full Review]]
{{newreview
|author=William Giraldi
|title=Busy Monsters
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=
Charles Homar loves his Gillian. He's proved it to us, if not to her, by going after her possessive, jealous state trooper of an ex with the intent to kill - if only ended up rescuing a cat instead. But lo and behold, she's declared she's off to discover the real love of her life - the giant squid. Failing to stop this, Charlie spends too long with a Nessie obsessive, then goes on a hunt of his own - for Bigfoot, all the while, chapter by chapter, sending his narrative of the same to a magazine as essays for one of those autobiographical, frivolous columns.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393079627</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview<!-- Coulton -->|author=Kevin Wilson-|titlestyle=The Family Fang"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"||rating=4[[image:1473669588.5jpg|genrelink=General Fiction|summary=Annie Fang and her brother Buster are back living at home with their parents - where they never thought they'd ever be againhttp://www. But it has come to this - her film actress career is on the rocks with the kind of self-destruction so much enjoyed by tabloid writers, and he - well, he's here because of a jumbo spud gunamazon. Neither want life back at home, as throughout their childhood they were used by their parents - without much planning, without any consideration of feelings, or consent - in a whole career of performance art pieces, designed to enact a point of life or just cause havocco.|amazonukuk/dp/1473669588/ref=nosim?tag=<amazonuk>1447202384</amazonuk>}}thebookbag-21]]
{{newreview
|author=Zadie Smith
|title=White Teeth
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Some books sneak up on you. Others are thrown at you from every corner of the media to the extent that you almost make a conscious decision NOT to read them, or at least, not yet. Let the furore die down. If they're still around in a few years, your subconscious whispers, maybe we'll go see what all the fuss was about.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241954576</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|authorstyle=David Lodge"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||title=The Campus Trilogy|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary[[Falling Short by Lex Coulton]]==Somewhere along the line the word "vintage" stopped meaning simply the wine crop of any given year, and started to mean the wine of a particularly good year, and then to mean anything of a past year that was (is) of outstanding quality. Such is the mutability of language. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099529130</amazonuk>}}
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{newreview|author=Ludwig Bechstein, Axel Sceffler and Julia Donaldson|title=The Gloomster|rating=4.5}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|genre=General Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|summary=We've all been there. Finding fault with everything around usHumour]], and perhaps picking on one particular irritant that gets us so rattled, tetchy and narked all we can do is invoke "Hell and damnation!" down on all creation - including, of course, ourselves. After all, our lot is so bad it won[[:Category:Women't make anything much worse.s Fiction|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571274242</amazonuk>}}Women's Fiction]]
{{newreview|author=Stella Gibbons|title=Conference Lex Coulton's debut novel is a story about mistakes, failures, and relationships. The main protagonist, Frances Pilgrim, is a sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, a work colleague, and is grappling with the increasingly eccentric behaviour of her mother. This relationship is complicated by the fact that Frances's father disappeared at Cold Comfort Farm|rating=4sea when she was five years old.5|genre=Humour[[Falling Short by Lex Coulton|summary=There are no Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm.Full Review]]
To those of you who've not read Stella Gibbons' magnificient [[Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons<!-- van LENTE -->|original novel]], this is hardly likely to be a major shock - to the Gibbons fans amongst us, though, this is chilling news indeed. And when RobertPoste's child Flora returns to the farm | style="width: 10%; vertical- now a modernised monstrosity full of members of the International Thinkers' Group – sixteen years after her original visit, the news get graver and graver, as the cows Feckless, Graceless, Pointless, and Aimless have passed away of shame due to the disgrace of the bull Big Business. With the menfolk trying to make their fortunes abroad, and the women struggling, it's left to Flora to try to save the day once againalign: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1683690346.jpg|amazonuklink=<amazonuk>0099528681<http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690346/amazonuk>}}ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
{{newreview
|author=Stella Gibbons
|title=Cold Comfort Farm
|rating=5
|genre=Humour
|summary=Orphaned at 19, Flora Poste – a London sophisticate – is led to retreat to deepest Sussex to live off her relatives the Starkadders at the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm, a mournful bunch who take her in as they couldn't refuse anything of 'Robert Poste's child', but seem less than happy with having to do so. As she meets the preacher Amos, his over-sexed younger son Seth, his flighty sister Elphine, and the hugely memorable – if barely seen – Aunt Ada Doom, the first person in literature to see 'something nasty in the woodshed' – she resolves to take the family in hand and solve their problems.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141441593</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|authorstyle=Philip Jose Farmer"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||title===[[The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Peerless Peer|rating=4.5|genreCon Artist by Fred Van Lente]]=Crime (Historical)|summary=It's World War One, and Britain has got wind of some brilliant scientific research, that has created a new bacterial weapon capable of wiping out the world's supply of sauerkraut. But a dastardly German has stolen the formula. Before he can give a variant based on boiled meat, cabbage and potatoes to the kaiser, his most recent nemesis - Sherlock Holmes, no less - must be brought out of beekeeping retirement. Cue an adventure and a half, as he and Watson take to the skies for the first time in their hectic lives, end up in darkest Africa, and encounter a certain yodelling, long-haired nobleman, more than up to the name of King of the Jungle...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857681206</amazonuk>}}
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{newreview|author=Tom Sharpe|title=The Wilt Inheritance|rating=3.5}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|genre=Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|summary=Wilt is stuck in a job he doesn't want – teaching a subject he's not keen on to people for whom he has no affection – at one of the new Universities. We used to know them as technical colleges. But he can't afford to lose it because of the expense of keeping the quads at an expensive school and of maintaining his snobbish wife, Eva. It's Eva though who signs him up for a job in the summer holidays – tutoring the step-son of a local aristocrat in the hope of getting him into Cambridge – and particularly Porterhouse College. It's not long before Wilt discovers that the boy totes a gun and shoots at anything which moves – or even doesn't move – and that he's an idiot who would probably struggle to get a bus to Cambridge.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099493136</amazonuk>}}Humour]]
{{newreview|author=Alain Mabanckou|title=Memoirs of Comic-Cons are a Porcupine|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The protagonist place of this novel is an ordinary Congolese porcupine until Papa Kibandi performs an ancient ritual involving a hallucinogenic cocktail called ''mayamvumbi''wonder and sanctuary for many people, and transforms him into his sonwhen Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, he's harmful double. The insecure younger Kibandi becomes more looking for both that and sanctuary with other fans and more embittered as creators, plus the chance of maybe, just maybe reuniting with his life goes onex. However, and sends when his porcupine rival is found dead, Mike is forced to 'eat' anybody he feels navigate every dark corner of the least bit threatened bycon in order to clear his name – from cosplay flash mobs and intrusive fans to zombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his innocence and, a process whereby that person's life essence is sucked outin doing so, killing them instantly. Over one hundred victims later and following his master's death at the hands of may just unravel a vengeful baby, our narrator retires to the hollow of dark secret behind a baobab tree where he writes this confessionallegendary industry creator.[[The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687675</amazonuk>}}Full Review]]
{{newreview<!-- Curran -->|author=Tom Holt-|titlestyle=Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|rating=5[[image:1683690133.jpg|genrelink=Fantasy|summary=Imagine a world where pigs can do quantum mechanics, and where female solicitors turn into chickenshttp://www. Add a dry cleaner that moves (literally, from the roof tiles to the basement) from town to town every forty-eight hours, a couple of medieval knights who've fought every day for centuries, and a magical ring (or pencil sharpener, depending on the mood it's in)amazon. Stir in a bit of property developing, a thaumaturgical detective and an old man who lives in a cloudco. Resultuk/dp/1683690133/ref=nosim? You haven't even begun to probe the depths of this crazy, absurd, complex and hilarious book.|amazonuktag=<amazonuk>1841495077</amazonuk>}}thebookbag-21]]
{{newreview
|author=Steve Hely
|title=How I Became a Famous Novelist
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With an uncompromising title like 'How I Became a Famous Novelist', this clearly isn't intended to be a subtle book. So I can hardly complain when a cynical look at the writing industry swings raw punches in every direction. It just isn't my sort of humour, but equally, if you rave about 'The Office' you will likely enjoy this book far more than I have done.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015724</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|authorstyle=Charles Lamb"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|title=Great Food: A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig and Other Essays|rating=4|genre=Cookery|summary=[[My Lady''A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig'' is a collection of food-related essays from the early 19th century, with a humorous bent. They're but a few pages each - a light read to bring a smile to your face, then on to the next little foodie treat.|amazonuks Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris]]===<amazonuk>0241951003</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=ClientsFromHell[[image:4star.netjpg|titlelink=Clients From Hell|Category:{{{rating=4}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|genre=Humour|summary=Everyone who's worked as a freelancer has a story of a client from hell - that person who asked for something that was impossible]], wanted it done yesterday for a fraction of the usual price, or is just plain angry about the work produced. The website [http[://www.clientsfromhell.net ClientsFromHell.netCategory:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] has collated a number of such stories over the years, and has now published them as a book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0982473931</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Manu Joseph|title=Serious Men|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Ayyan Mani is You are a Dalitlass of twenty eight. Plucky, an untouchable, stuck penniless and in Regency era London the race is on to find a flat in Mumbaisuitable suitor - or else doom yourself to life as an eternal spinster. Along your journey you's slums but hopingll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager to save you from a life alone, somehow, for and fired by a better future rogueish sense for his sonadventure. Working at When it comes to suitors though, you'll have to make the Insitute of Theory ultimate decision between witty, pretty and Research he uses all his cunning wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and wiles to stay ahead of caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the game amongst the Brahmin scientistsmad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. Does he have the intelligenceWith orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and nervesancient Egyptian artifcats along the way, it's clear this isn't going to convince everyone that his son, against all odds, is a genius?be an easy decision... [[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848543085</amazonuk>}}Full Review]]
{{newreview<!-- Jester -->|author=John Saunders-|titlestyle=The Vernham Chronicles"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|rating=4[[image:Jester_Forever.jpg|genre=Humourleft|summarylink=Set amidst the rolling British countryside around Vernbury Vale is the little village of Vernhamhttps://www. Anyone who lives in a village will recognise it immediately, with its cobbled streets and Tudor buildingsamazon. There was some damage during the war (which might, or might not have been down to a lighthouse folly constructed by a local landowner on his lake) but the gaps have been filled with some beautiful, er, mock Tudor buildingsco. Almost unique and nearly beautiful as the village is, it's not the star of The Vernham Chronicles. The stars are the people who live in Vernham.|amazonukuk/gp/product/1510704361?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=<amazonuk>1907499598</amazonuk>}}1510704361]]
{{newreview
|author=Martin Millar
|title=The Good Fairies of New York
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=In this fairytale of New York, the Cornish fairy King's children are living in exile, hiding in Central Park from a nasty industrial revolution back home. They have friends from Ireland with them, and all have the ability to startle the local squirrels. Elsewhere two innocent scallywag fairies fleeing Scotland have arrived, and adopted a human each. Heather has joined up with Dinnie, the city's worst busker, a fat, alcoholic and lonely fan of TV ads for phone sex, while Morag befriends Kerry, a dying kleptomaniac beauty, just as alone for different reasons.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749954205</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|authorstyle=Gervase Phinn"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|title=Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Stars|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=I spent many of my teenage years reading James Herriot's books, and I found that this collection of anecdotes and poems [[Forever After: a dark comedy by Gervase Phinn had a real flavour of Herriot about it. Perhaps it was just the setting, for Phinn was a school inspector in the Dales for many years, but I think he also has that knack of capturing a situation, and a character, and bringing out the humour without making the person appear ridiculous. Here he collates stories from his other books, some Christmassy and others not, and he relates them with several of his own poems interspersed between.|amazonukDavid Jester]]===<amazonuk>0141036435</amazonuk>}}
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:History{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]]{{newreview[[:Category:Paranormal|author=Simon Garfield|title=Just My TypeParanormal]], [[:Category: A Book About FontsHorror|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary=A quality typeface is a bit like a good referee at a football match in that you only really notice them if something has gone wrong. A referee is there to facilitate the players on the pitchHorror]], not to be the star of the show (though watching Match of the Day these past few weeks you'd often beg to differ). So it is with typefaces. A good type helps the reader, enhances the flow and makes the viewing experience easy and simple. Well sort of.[[:Category:Fantasy|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683017</amazonuk>}}Fasntasy]]
{{newreview|author=Bob Servant Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and Neil Forsyth|title=Bob Servant: Hero of Dundee|rating=3.5|genre=Humour|summary=After [[Delete This at Your Peril: One Man's Fearless Exchanges with gets made the Internet Spammers by Bob Servant|bursting into public consciousness]] as the scourge offer of email spammers, Broughty Ferry's resident polymath Bob Servant has returnedhis lifetime; immortality. This time, he expands upon the colourful life only hinted at in his previous oeuvreWe follow Michael, Delete this at Your Peril. And what a life it has been. He steers us from his humble beginnings, his broken family and traumatic schooldays, through the rise grim reaper and fall of his window cleaning empire, friends Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and his role Naff (a stoner in Dundee's brutal cheeseburger wars. Along the way, we witness his struggles records department) as they grapple with, respectively, women ('skirt'), his simpleton sidekick Frank, their long lives and the demon drinkfinding a clean surface to sit on in their flat.[[Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841589209</amazonuk>}}Full Review]]
{{newreview<!-- Stibbe -->|author=P K Munroe-|titlestyle=You Can Stick It"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Stibbe_Xmas.jpg|ratingleft|link=3https://www.5|genreamazon.co.uk/gp/product/0241309824?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=Humour|summary6738&creativeASIN=Literary merit? Absolutely none!0241309824]]
Plot, characterisation and all that other stuff you usually talk about? Nope – there's none of that, either.
Ah, so it's non| style="vertical-fiction? Well, calling it ''fact'' would be stretching things a little too far...align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe]]===
So, come on then[[image:4.5star. What ''is'' it?jpg|amazonuklink=<amazonuk>0007362188</amazonuk>Category:{{{rating}}}Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]
{{newreview|author=Axel Scheffler|title=How Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to Keep think about the turkey for that – once upon a Pet Squirrel|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=So, how do you keep a pet squirrel? Welltime it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and if that failed the simple answer is that you donhair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it't. Theys all having to make sure it're wild animals s suitably free-range and organic – but not at all suitable for keeping in captivitytoo organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, but accepted thinking didn't always run that wayis of course also a time of great boons. It was whilst he was dipping into ''The Children's Encyclopaedia'' cash in hand for a lot of 1910 that Axel Scheffler came across plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a small but indispensible guide to obtaining and caring godsend for your pet squirrel. His inventive mind came up postmen with these beautiful illustrations all the thank-you letters to accompany the text aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and if you're looking as for an amusing gift for an animal-loving adult then this book could the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well be , did they even try and sell them any other time of the answer.year? [[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571255981</amazonuk>}}Full Review]]
{{newreview<!-- Doescher -->|author=PJ Vanston-|titlestyle=Crump"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|rating=3[[image:Doescher_Will.jpg|genre=General Fictionleft|summarylink=It's Kevin Crump's first day as a lecturer at Thames Metropolitan University - an ex-polytechnichttps://www. It's the happiest day of his life, and he can't wait to see all that it holds, and make a difference to all his studentsamazon. And then it hits him: the relentless pettiness of authority figures, the students who can't string two sentences together, the lowering of standards in search of higher test scores, so more money from foreign students, and political correctness gone (as I believe the saying goes) madco.|amazonukuk/gp/product/159474985X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=<amazonuk>1848762852</amazonuk>}}159474985X]]
{{newreview
|author=John Lennon
|title=In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works
|rating=3
|genre=Humour
|summary=During the height of Beatlemania, John Lennon used to doodle or write short poems or nonsense stories to pass the time (and there must have been a good deal of time to pass away on tour, if only waiting for screaming fans to leave them alone and go back home). Some of them were seen by Tom Maschler, literary editor at Jonathan Cape, who encouraged him to produce more. The results were published in two very successful short books in 1964 and 1965.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099530422</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|authorstyle=John Lindsay"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|title=Emails From An Asshole|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=Some classified ads are crying out for trolling. John Lindsay replies to them, spins them a yarn, and strings them along for as long as possible. Sometimes [[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the advert is fairly innocuous and he emails them anyway. These are emails from an asshole, after all.|amazonukSeventh by Ian Doescher]]===<amazonuk>1402778279</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=L C Tyler|title=The Herring In The Library|rating=[[image:4.55star.jpg|genrelink=CrimeCategory:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|summary=TallScience Fiction]], elegant Ethelred is a gentleman, and a third-rate author. Elsie, his literary agent, is short and dumpy, and not afraid to speak her mind. It is Elsie, in fact, who constantly assures her client he only occasionally aspires to the giddy heights of being second-rate. This could be the business partnership from hell, but not only do these two seem to get along, they even manage to solve crimes together. In this, the third outing for L C Tyler's eccentric sleuths, we are provided with a locked room mystery, a cast of possible villains of the most stereotypical type, and a fresh, funny tale which will make you laugh so much you'll get a stitch.[[:Category:Humour|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230714684</amazonuk>}}Humour]]
{{newreview|author=A J Jacobs|title=My Experimental Life|rating=3.5|genre=Humour|summary=A J Jacobs has long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a man called William Shakespeare, who was able to create a reputation for setting himself onerous tasksseries of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. His first book was about reading You may or may not have noticed the entire Encyclopedia Britannica; cinematic version of his second detailed a year spent according original stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken'', but here at last we get the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to -before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the Biblical preceptsfamily til it hurts. In My Experimental Life And if you need further encouragement, he recounts nine briefer episodes don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of living outside his comfort zone.Henry VI – here the series is so popular we're on to part seven – surely making this over twice as good… [[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099547422</amazonuk>}}Full Review]]
{{newreview<!-- Goss -->|author=Seth Grahame-Smith|titlestyle=Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"||rating=3[[image:Goss_600.5jpg|genre=Humourleft|summarylink='Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shorehttps://www.' That quote, on the Statue of Liberty, was probably not designed with the inclusion of vampires in mindamazon. But by some means or another North America is rife with the things – hiding in plain sight, as the older ones can bear sunlight, with the help of darkened glassesco. It might just come down to one eager young man to rid his new country of such things, on his way to something he’s a bit more known for.|amazonukuk/gp/product/1785942719?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=<amazonuk>1849014086</amazonuk>}}1785942719]]
{{newreview
|author=Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith and Tony Lee
|title=Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Graphic Novel
|rating=3
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie story of any renown will not remain simply a zombie story. Before you can say ''the risen undead'' it will become a series of books, inspiring others, and/or lead to the same story being published in many different guises. Here, then, on its way to Hollywood, is Jane Austen’s story of Lizzie Bennet, the feisty young woman trying to ignore Mr Darcy while fighting off the ''manky unmentionables'' – at least she is until the hidden truths open up to her, just as the soft soils of Hertfordshire do to yield their once-human remains. And this time it’s in graphic novel form.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848566948</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|authorstyle=Carl McInerney"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|title=The Funniest Football Joke Book Ever|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=[[Doctor Who scored the most goals in the Greek Mythology League? The centaur forward. Badoom boom tshhhh. It's a football joke book, packed to the gills with all sorts : Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of cheesiness Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and silliness. Funniest ever? Perhaps not, but it's not too bad.|amazonukRussell T Davies]]===<amazonuk>1849391114</amazonuk>}}
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{newreview|author=Paul Magrs|title=Hell{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Children's Belles|rating=3.5|genre=HumourRhymes and Verse|summary=The idea behind this series of novels is quite enchanting and amusing. FrankensteinChildren's daughter is living Rhymes and sleuthing in WhitbyVerse]], ably aided and abetted by her sidekick[[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], the enigmatic Effie, and a growing menagerie of younger accomplices, namely Michael and Penny. Whilst the original idea showed huge promise, I felt that the author has rather overdone it in terms of output, in his desire to capitalise on his original success. Book two in the series was quite disappointing, relying on sensationalism rather than adequate plot and character development. Book three was an improvement-and I'm delighted to report that this, the fourth book in the series, shows him returning to form with the promise we saw in the first of the series.[[:Category:Humour|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755346467</amazonuk>}}Humour]]
{{newreview|author=Valerie Thomas Consider the Doctor. Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to keep in touch with even half of his companions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some of them, say, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate the life of a Time Lord and that of some of his friends and Korky Paul|title=Winnie's Jokes|rating=2enemies.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Who turns off As luck would have it, he has the lights at Halloween? The lights witchspace in his TARDIS to stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and get himself ready. What does an Australian witch ride And if you're working on? A broomerang. Yepa shorter timescale, it's with a joke bookshorter lifespan, and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the same.[[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192729063</amazonuk>}}Full Review]]
{{newreview<!-- Ingram -->|author=Nick Wadley-|titlestyle=Man + Dog"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"||rating=4[[image:Ingram_Kammie.5jpg|genre=Humourleft|summarylink=Throughout my life I've lived with dogs or deeply regretted the fact that I lacked a canine companionhttps://www. Watching a dog – or better still, the interaction between dogs – is infinitely better than anything on television and it's sheer joy to see how man and dog interacts and how, so often, they hold a mirror up to each otheramazon.|amazonukco.uk/gp/product/1785451995?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=<amazonuk>1564785521</amazonuk>}}1785451995]]
{{newreview
|author=The Harvard Lampoon
|title=Nightlight: A Parody of Twilight
|rating=3.5
|genre=Humour
|summary=Most people will have heard of the worldwide phenomenon that is [[Twilight by Stephenie Meyer|Twilight]]. The books by Stephenie Meyer and the film have made a legend of the romance between vampire Edward Mullen (Robert Pattinson plays the movie role) and teenage schoolgirl Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart).
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849013330</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|authorstyle=Steven Lowe and Alan McArthur |title=Is it Just Me or Has the Shit Hit the Fan?"vertical-align: Your Hilarious New Guide to Unremitting Global Misery|rating=3|genre=Humour|summary=''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over a wet kitchen floor.'' Surely that is the wackiest, most inappropriate simile for the credit crunch and all it has done for the world. You won't get any such nambytop; text-pamby animal likenesses from these authors, instead with quite a potty mouth on them they will lambast the modern world, the entire banking system, all those who failed to see it coming, and those millions just seemingly waiting for us all to revert to high-interest, high-risk, high-lending capitalism, so they can get back on the expenses train, and back up the rich lists.align: left;"|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Eoin Colfer|title=And Another Thing ... Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Part Six of Three (Hitchhikers Guide 6) |rating=3.5|genre[[Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram]]=Science Fiction|summary=Of all the big books announced for this year, this one must have raised more eyebrows than many. Why try and write a new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book, when way before the end, its creator Douglas Adams was proving quite hopeless at such a task? And why approach an Irishman, Eoin Colfer, when the originals - tempered with their humour which could only be described as Monty Python doing a sci-fi Terry Pratchett, and with their cups of tea and dressing gowns, could only be described as very English? Well the answer is most evident - Colfer is a world-beater when it comes to knocking up a story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718155149</amazonuk>}}
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{newreview|author=The Vampire Miles Proctor|title=The New Vampire's Handbook|rating=3.5}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Pets|genre=Pets]], [[:Category:Humour|summary=I shall start with a prediction. I will not become a vampire, for this imminent Hallowe'en, any festive fancy dress parties, or indeed for life as the lifeless undead. I will not need tips on filing my fangs, or how to divert attention from the fact I cannot eat human food at dinner parties. Me and my reflection in mirrors will remain intact. But for those of you reading this at night, somewhere, flameproof cape at hand, with your distaste of garlic, publicity and presumably the anaemic, this is the sterling how-to lifestyle guide.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224086464</amazonuk>}}Humour]]
It was something of a relief when I encountered Annie Ingram and her cocker spaniel Kammie. You see, Annie knows something which has been self-evident to me for a long time: dogs are perfectly capable of communicating with humans and not just on a level of food!, walk! or play!. You do require extensive training to become fluent, but most dogs will be perfectly willing to give their time to teach you and all you have to do is listen. Annie has studied hard: Kammie has trained her well and the pair have allowed us to share some of their conversations. [[Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram|Full Review]] <!-- Harris -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Harris_Glass.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1908943823/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Breaking of Liam Glass by Charles Harris]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{newreview{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Teenager Liam Glass is mugged and stabbed yards from his Camden flat. As the boy lies comatose, desperate journalist Jason Worthington scrabbles for the inside scoop, tired police officer Andy Rockham searches for a missing tape, harried politician Jamila Hasan fights for re-election, distraught mother Katrina Glass waits by her son, and gym-owner Royland simply finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. We follow this host of ensemble characters in a bleak, kaleidoscopic satire of modern media. [[The Breaking of Liam Glass by Charles Harris|authorFull Review]] <!-- LENTE -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Lente_10.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690222/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=David OCategory:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Nine comedians are invited to a remote Caribbean island under the guise of working with Dustin Walker, a comedic legend. Each fits neatly into one of the archetypal comic stereotypes: Steve, the washed-up has-been who has fallen far from his early days; Zoe, the rising female star with a new stand-up special coming soon; Dante, who went from being a kid on the streets to the hardest working road comic in the business; Oliver, the child-like prop comic who can'Dohertyt get any respect from his peers; Janet, Claudia Othe insult comic who is past her prime; TJ, the nightly variety show host with a reputation for harassing his female colleagues and guest acts; Ruby, the ultra-feminist YouTuber and Blogger with a chip on her shoulder; and William, whose redneck character ''Billy the Contractor'' is a far cry from his real personality as a posh millionaire. Of course, all nine agree because 'Doherty 'when God almighty walks down on a beam of light and Mike Ahernasks for your help, what the hell else are you going to say?'' [[Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente|Full Review]] <!-- Scott -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Scott_Eliz.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788037006/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] |titlestyle=100 Facts About Pandas"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Elizabeth, William... and Me by S Lynn Scott]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Ally is an ordinary woman with teenage children, a husband and a job. Then comes the day when ordinariness flies out of the window. It's not a coincidence that it's the same day she finds Queen Elizabeth I in the pantry and the Bard of Avon in her bath. What's she going to do? Well, Elizabeth and Will have their own ideas about that! [[Elizabeth, William... and Me by S Lynn Scott|Full Review]] <!-- Rodford -->|-| style=3"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Rodford_Surgeon.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.5uk/dp/178565005X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] |genrestyle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|==Humour=[[The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2 by E G Rodford]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|summarylink=Sometimes Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] In the title says second instalment of this series, Private Investigator George Kocharyan has been hired by a well-known local man to track down some missing valuables. Bill Galbraith, a world-famous surgeon at Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital who hosts a popular medical television programme, has had his briefcase stolen by his live-in domestic servant, Aurora. According to Galbraith, this briefcase contains confidential notes concerning an important patient of his at the hospital. George agrees to look into the theft, assuming it all will be a relatively easy and straightforward case – little does he know, he's about to enter a world of deceit and dysfunction. [[The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2 by E G Rodford|Full Review]] <!-- Jordan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Jordan_Tiny.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1760293814/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text- align: left;"|===[[Our Tiny, Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] As predicted by Caroline and Janice's mother on Caroline and Henry's wedding day, their marriage is over, albeit 15 years and two daughters further along than predicted. Indeed, this is definitely not a good weekend for Janice to be babysitting at Caroline's house. There's the split and the awkwardness of the girls' schoolteacher being the other woman for a start. Then there's that mistaken identity moment involving the neighbours. At least Janice is well adjusted and over her ex-husband Alec. She still dreams of him, yes, but it's so over! Just as well really… guess who's at the door? [[Our Tiny, Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan|Full Review]] <!-- Taylor -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Taylor_Scilly.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178475515X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Life of a book Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Travel|Travel]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Meet the Isles of Scilly. (I know they should be called that – the author provides a handy guide to the etiquette of their name, their nature and location, etc.) For our more distant readers, they're several chunks of granite rock out in the Atlantic, where Cornwall is pointing, with 100 facts about pandasjust 2,200 permanent residents. They're big on tourism, and big on growing flowers in the tropical climate the Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the weather is bad enough to turn any car to a rust bucket within years. Sometimes They're so wee, and so idyllic-seeming, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for a police presence. But there is – at least two working at any one time. And one of them in recent years has been Colin Taylor, who has done his official duty – alongside maintaining a well-known online existence, which has brought to note life all the author too whimsical comedy of his work. [[The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor|Full Review]] <!-- Lloyd -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Lloyd_Twas.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472125118/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[['Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] It's Christmas Eve and Mum has arranged everything. All she now has to do is await the arrival of the relatives and the food shopping delivery. Little does Mum know that those two elements alone have the potential to ruin everything. [['Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees|Full Review]] <!-- Phinn -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Phinn_Virgin.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1444779400/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text- David Oalign: left;"|===[[The Virgin Mary'Doherty won an Edinburgh Comedy Awards Got Nits by Gervase Phinn]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Anthologies|Anthologies]] Christmas in our house is the time we tend to get on a plane and head to either sun or snow, so this anywhere that is far, far away from the madness at home, last minute dashes to the shops on Christmas Eve, and food cupboard stockpiles that would imply supermarkets are shutting for a month, nor a mere 36 hours. But I do remember the feeling of Christmas when I was younger, back when it was magical, and back when you knew exactly what the season would bring with carol concerts and school nativities and Christmas parties. This book is an anthology of those moments, and it took me right back to the wonder of Christmas as a 100 silly child. [[The Virgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn|Full Review]] <!-- North -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:North_Romeo.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0356508536/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Romeo and untrue facts about pandas/or Juliet by Ryan North]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] For all those who think tragedy plots are too restricted and prescribed, read on. In these pages you too will see that Romeo had lots of options en route to hitting the bottle. Likewise, she could have turned away from her predestined path at no end of junctures. And to what result? Well, happy marriage and a kid called Ben, because the leads have just banged people's heads together and stopped the quarrelling, or Death by Tybalt (him) or a long life running an establishment curing murderous women, such as a Lady M (her). [[Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North|amazonuk=Full Review]] <amazonuk>0224086324</amazonuk!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->}|}
