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[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]]__NOTOC__{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=HumourThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal__NOTOC__|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=William Nicolson1529153050|title=The Romantic Economist: A Story of Love and Market ForcesBritain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson

|genre=AutobiographyHumour|summary=William Nicolson was a student - well a student of economics, Seeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to be accurate. He had seem more and more like an uncanny knack of losing girlfriends far too quicklyadrenaline sport, the last one having departed in a personal best time I was nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of six weeks2022''. Actually I don't think Sharp eyes will have noted that was too bad - Iwe've encountered a lot of men who only ever managed about thirty minutes - but it worried Will and he considered applying what he had learned as an economist re not yet through the year: the cartoons run from 4 September 2021 to his relationships with the fair sex31 August 2022. Girls were something of a mystery to him but he was sure that if he used his ability to reduce a complex world to a set of rational principles then he should Who can imagine what there will be on to a winner. Or two.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780721021</amazonuk>come in the 2023 edition?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sir Compton Mackenzie1785633074|title=Whisky GaloreStaggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry

|summary=The inhabitants Members of Great Todday and neighbouring Little Todday enjoy embrocation provided Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, headed by a tot or two of whisky. Unfortunately this is war time. To date the sacrifices in Prime minister - the Hebrides have included their young men ''primus inter pares'' (that's for those of you who are Eton and a token black-out (the harbour lights remain on so there seems little pointOxbridge educated) but more follows. The water of life itself the reality is becoming scarcer and theythat the ''prime''re approaching Lentmovers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the government. The timing is unfortunate as they don't exactly give it up for Lent, but drink extra as Shrove Tuesday approaches We are in the spirit privileged position of having access to the season. Somemoirs of Rafe Hubris, as supplies dwindle to extinction, imagine their surprise when a ship containing practically a million bottles the man who was behind the skilful control of it en route to America founders off the coastCovid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020. The community launch a covert army-like operation to liberate the alcohol fighting, planning to outwit You might not know the Germans name now but he will certainly be the islands' Home Guard, HM Customs and Excise and an inept British Intelligence officer. Easy then? Well, an easier task than that which local headmaster George Campbell has. He wants man to get married but his mum won't let himwatch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780270925</amazonuk>

{{Frontpage|isbn=0571365884|title=My Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a child. She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was the sort of life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and far between. On a visit to a therapist, as an adult, when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that she should write it down and ''My Mess is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' is the result - or so we are given to believe.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kevin SmithJohn Boyne|title=Jammy DodgerThe Echo Chamber

|genre=HumourGeneral Fiction|summary=ItMeet George Cleverley. He is self-defined as "one of the few television personalities over the age of fifty without a criminal record". He starts this book a bit worried when his mistress tells him she's 1980s Belfast and Artie McCann has it sortedcarrying his child, but then his author wife is getting her kicks with the Ukrainian partner "Strictly Come Dancing" paired her with. Having left uni They have three children, who are a sad-sack with absolutely no social skills whatsoever, a girl who hangs around with a literature degreevirtue-signalling, a love keyboard warrior "wokester" who wants to save the world's homeless with out-of poetry -date food, and no real urge for hard worka fit young lad doing the gay hustle thing. Add in a few other characters – therapists, lawyers, random transgender types – that all have two very different connections to his life, he and his mate Oliver discover you have something that suggests an almost farcical approach to the modern world. What suggests the farcical approach even more, however, is the joy of Art Council grantsfact this is bloody funny. All they need to do |isbn=0857526219}}{{Frontpage|author=Stephen Clarke|title=The Spy Who Inspired Me|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=This is establish a literary magazine and bring out an issue (very) occasionallyspoof spy story, that isn't about James Bond. Or Ian Fleming. This frees them up But it features a man called Ian Lemming, who dresses well and 'likes the ladies' and who works for reliving the best bits secret service, but in the planning side of their former student lifestyle and discussing things more than the comparable merits of biscuit varietiesactive service. However things start Lemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, and the pair end up stranded in Normandy, with Margaux on a desperate mission to go awry; not all unearth traitors in the magazineresistance network, and Lemming desperately trying to keep up with her!|isbn=2952163855}}{{Frontpage|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=Kokoschka's wouldDoll|rating=2.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-be contributors are happy (or unarmed) go, which is why I picked my review copy up and life begins flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. I found things to appear more unsettledpotentially delight me each time – a weird section in the middle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the 20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and so on. There is It intrigued with the subterranean voice a way out but man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it will take some hard workmentioned, too. But you've seen the star rating that comes with this review, an actor and a remedy for can tell that smell of rotting milkif love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908737085</amazonuk>1529402697

You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mike HenleyB08GFSK2WZ|title=One Dog and His ManThe Karma Trap|author=Lisette Boyd

|genre=PetsWomen's Fiction|summary=Oberon George Jackson is a Labrador with a pedigree as long as your arm thirty-three years old, absolutely gorgeous to look at - and single. She''One Dog s not had sex for eight months and His Man'she' s stuck in the karma trap: an awful lot of bad luck is his story about what itbeing visited on her and she has a real talent for attracting drama. Her life's like living chaotic: she dealt with the man he generously refers leak from the shower by putting something down at the bottom of the stairs to absorb the water - then the shower fell through the roof whilst she was in it and left her, stark naked, staring at the pervy postman. She only has to as ''The Bosstake her mother's dog out for a walk for her to end up with dog poo spattered across her face - and a photo being taken by someone who shares it around the office.}} {{Frontpage|author=David C Mason|title=Pandora's Gardener|rating=3|genre=Crime|summary= John Cranston is a gardener, although what he did before he became a gardener, he claims, is classified. That is just as well because he is about life to be caught up in general a criminal / spy / terrorist plot, where only he can save the day. |isbn=0956180523}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Jester_Forever|title=Forever After: a dark comedy|author=David Jester|rating=4|genre=Horror|summary=Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the ways offer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, a grim reaper and his friends, Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and finding a clean surface to sit on in their flat.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1683691172|title=William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls|author=Ian Doescher|rating=2.5|genre=Humour|summary=A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, all the worldStar Wars films were crunched up against Shakespeare, and the marriage seemed a perfectly suitable one. Think of him as So much so – so easily did the canine equivalent of plots and characters converse in Shakespearean dialogue, and behave with Shakespearean stage directions – that the parliamentary sketch writerproducers tried again, there with [[William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to highlight the idiosyncrasies of human life and bring Future! by Ian Doescher|Back to the Future]] no less. And that worked. But simultaneously they put a gentle humour real test out. A film I can't even really remember seeing was transcribed into the original Elizabethan lingo. A cult following I had never followed whatsoever was given the brand new, yet oh so ancient, dressing. Here was the true challenge – would I manage to situations which might otherwise be taken far too seriouslyenjoy this, based on little foreknowledge? Oh damn those shiny gold stars for letting the game away…}}{{Frontpage|isbn=168369094X|title=William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future!|author=Ian Doescher|rating=4. Before you wonder how this is possible - how 5|genre=Humour|summary=A long time ago, in a dog can write publishing house far away, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite the story of Star Wars in Shakespearean pentameter, colliding two entirely different genres and styles in such a book - let me remind you that dogs are very intelligent animalsclever way they seemed perfectly suited. After It was then duly repeated for allthe other films in the main Star Wars cycle, dogs and clearly someone's buffing their humans might go to what are laughingly called 'dog training classes'quills ready for Episode Nine, but it's the humans who are trainedtitle of which became public knowledge the day before I write. In the hiatus, however, not the dogseffort has been made to see if the same shtick works with other texts, and to riff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in iambs.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471660354< And could we have anything more suitably unsuitable-seeming than Back to the Future, with its tales of time travel, bullying, and parent/amazonuk>child strife like no other?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rosy Sherry1473669065|title=BoobadoodleQueenie Malone's Paradise Hotel|author=Ruth Hogan

|summary=Boobadoodle is Tilda returns to Brighton, to tidy away the remains of her mother's life after her death. Whilst there, she returns to the Paradise hotel, a book haven for eccentrics and misfits. A place where people can be themselves, and let go of doodlesthoughts that torment them elsewhere. On boobsLittle wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a child, from this place of wonder. Fifty doodles on a variety With the help of boobsQueenie Malone, some belonging caring, and gregarious, Tilda begins to pick apart the author, some to tricky and uncertain relationship she had with her friends. Quite good friends, I imaginesometimes cruel and distant mother.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846059267</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Clarke1683690346|title=The Merde FactorCon Artist|author=Fred Van Lente

|summary=MeetComic-Cons are a place of wonder and sanctuary for many people, if you haven't alreadyand when Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, Paul West. Before now wehe've had four chances to meet him s looking for both that and sanctuary with other fans and see creators, plus the chance of maybe, just maybe reuniting with his struggles with all things French – their cuisineex. However, their languagewhen his rival is found dead, their social life and their bureaucracy – Mike is forced to navigate every dark corner of the con in order to run an English-styled tea-room in the trendier side of Paris. Four books then, clear his name – from cosplay flash mobs and we might have expected him intrusive fans to have settled down into some form of success zombie obstacle courses – were it not for the fact this is a comedy series. But noMike must prove his innocence and, he seems to still be in France on borrowed timedoing so, on borrowed (or sub-let) land, and things are certainly not turning out tres belle for himmay just unravel a dark secret behind a legendary industry creator.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780890338</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Drummond Moir (compiler)1473669588|title=Just My Typo: From 'sinning with the choir' to 'the large hardon collider'Falling Short|author=Lex Coulton

|summary=Warning: this book can seriously damage your reputationLex Coulton's debut novel is a story about mistakes, failures, and relationships. Laughing in pubic will be the least of your worries. You will reach the stage where teas run down your face and you snort in politically incorrect fashion at the disfigured man The main protagonist, Frances Pilgrim, is a sixth form English teacher who has always had a car on his facerecently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, or the one who could not find the cash to buy a house work colleague and had to burrowis grappling with the increasingly eccentric behaviour of her mother. YouThis relationship is complicated by the fact that Frances'll snigger s father disappeared at the charmless who become harmless but it will be up to you as to whether or not you agree that love is just a passing fanny. Personally I felt very sorry for the man who studied and became an unclear physicistsea when she was five years old. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444759973</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan Tyers and Beach1683690133|title=I Kick Therefore I am: The Little Book of Premier League WisdomMy Lady's Choosing|author=Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris

|genre=SportHumour|summary=You remember Ronnie Matthewsare a lass of twenty-eight. Plucky, donpenniless and in Regency-era London the race is on to find a suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to life as an eternal spinster. Along your journey, you't ll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager to save you? He's the footballer who celebrated his one – from a life alone, and so far, only – international match fired by booing his way through the Faroe Islands' national anthem, then getting a red card rogueish sense for chatting up the lineswomanadventure. He still thinks he contributed well When it comes to a vital friendlysuitors though, however. Heyou's ll have to make the player whose career in piddling his way through continuously lesser ultimate decision between witty, pretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and lesser clubs for far too long has only been matched in caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the recent game by Steve Claridgemad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. And still he's bucking With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and ancient Egyptian artefacts along the trend – heway, it's the only author smart enough to realise that four-hundred page, ghost-written biogs are unnecessary, for heclear this isn's crammed all his life, career, philosophy and response t going to Twitter into be an hour's readeasy decision...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408832763</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Barry FantoniStibbe_Xmas|title=Harry Lipkin, Private Eye: The Oldest Detective in the World|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Harry Lipkin may not be the fittest private investigator in Florida once you take into account his indigestion and his arthritis, but at 87 he's definitely the oldest. Despite this he still manages to make a steady living, picking up the little jobs that don't interest the police and Norma Weinberger's problem comes into that category. Small but expensive knick-knacks seem to be going missing from around the house so could it be a light-fingered member of staff? The suspects (the gardener, the butler, the maid and the chauffer) each have their own story and motive, leaving Harry to get the four down to a short list of one. A task that's perhaps a little harder than it sounds.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972272</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Alan Clark|title=Rory's BoysNina Stibbe|rating=4.5

|summary=Rory Blaine, grandson Christmas – the time of Lady Sybil Blaine is gaytraditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, free, single and loving if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it, as he tells himself a dozen times a daytreatment was your next best bet. He may be middle aged but heNowadays it's still got all having to make sure it. He's a partner in a successful advertising firm suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and sovisit it, so over having been thrown out of home when he was a teenager; yes, over and get too friendly with it to want to eat it – totally and completely. When he hears his grandmother Christmas, though, is dying, he decides it's of course also a time to remind her (and her considerable wealth) of his existencegreat boons. The tardy but intensive attention seems to pay off when heIt's left the ancestral pile. But cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the stately home wasn't left thank-you letters to him quite aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in the way that he thought. There are so many strings attached it resembles long-hand as a marionette: if he wants to keep it he must transform it into child, and as for the first retirement home for elderly gay gentlemen makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and he also seems to have acquired his first resident, whether he's wanted or not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906413886</amazonuk>sell them any other time of the year?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Serge BlochDoescher_Will|title=You are What You EatWilliam Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: And Other Mealtime HazardsStar Wars Part the Seventh|author=Ian Doescher|rating=34.5

|summary=We last saw Serge Bloch's talents A long time ago, in [[Reach for a galaxy far away, there was a man called William Shakespeare, who was able to create a series of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. You may or may not have noticed the Stars and Other Advice cinematic version of his original stage play for Life's Journey by Serge Bloch|Reach for the Stars and Other Advice for Life's Journey]] when The Force Doth Awaken'', but here at last we saw lots of whimsical advice for get the Boy and actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to-before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his dogoeuvre, Rogerand people keeping it in the family til it hurts. This time he wants us to look at what we eat. BoyAnd if you need further encouragement, don's mother has told him that he t forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the series is what he eats - so hepopular we's very careful about what he puts re on his plate, because you might end up with a pea-pod mouth and a tomato tummy. Roger looks to have fared rather better - with a bone for a body. He at least seems to have a smile on his face!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1402797605</amazonuk>part seven – surely making this over twice as good…

{{newreview|author=Philip Reeve|title=Goblins|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Poor Skarper. He's such a loser. In the violent and bloodthirsty goblin world where fighting and eating and taking other people's loot are all-time-favourite, number-one activities, he has a terrible handicap. He thinks. In fact, he's pretty clever, for a goblin, to the extent that he uses the goblins' bumwipe heaps for . . . reading. Yup, you heard me. Reading. The foolish hatchling works out that the black squiggles Move on the mouldering heaps of soft and crinkly stuff left, long ago, by the ancient inhabitants of the tower, are written words, and instead of going out raiding like any sensible goblin, he creeps off to a quiet corner to work out what they mean. Silly, eh?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407115278</amazonuk>}}[[Newest LGBT Fiction Reviews]]