Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Entertainment]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jon MorrisPatti Smith|title=The Legion Year of Regrettable Supervillains: Oddball Criminals from Comic Book Historythe Monkey|rating=54|genre=Graphic Novels Biography|summary=As much as I like comics – and I doOn the coast of Santa Cruz, whether superhero ones or not – I have to admit Patti Smith enters the lunar year of the monkey - one thingpacked with mischief, namely that the villains in them are sorrow, and unexpected moments. In a bit pants. What stranger's words, ''Anything is The Penguin but the worldpossible: after all, it's worst Mafioso, with a hobby the year of waddling along like his pet birds? Where else do you win an Oscar the monkey''. As Smith wanders the coast of all things by playing Santa Cruz in solitude, she reflects on a twoyear that brings huge shifts in her life -bit killer who just fell in a vat of random chemicals loss and changed colourageing are faced head on, and got mardier as a result (although recently heit the shifting political waters in America. |isbn=1526614758}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Walton_Ask|title=Ask For Blues|author=Malcolm Walton|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Malcolm Walton's become book is clearly a nanotech genius – memoir about his introduction to the Trad Jazz scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s, but let's not go there)? And what is he has chosen to write it with the gimp in the see-through plant pot because he is the embodiment form of cold? And a novel, claiming in his prologue that's just some of this would give the book a different approach to the better-known enemies of music memoir. His protagonist 'Martin'Batmantakes on Malcolm'', one s mantle and begins with his first discovery of the better goodiesSalvation Army band with his grandfather. You can imagine how awful the baddies related to the bad goodies can be. And if you can'tThis catapults him into a love of music, initially taking piano lessons, this is and later delving into his true love – the perfect primertrumpet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594749329</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Theo GuignardMoore Bientot|title=LabyrinthA Bientot...|author=Roger Moore|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionEntertainment|summary=Of all The news of the books published for death of Sir Roger Moore in May 2017 came as a great shock: he was one of those people's paper-based hobbies when I you knew would go on forever. There was a youngster, it's remarkable that all just one small glimmer of them have been revisited and revamped. I say this because they certainly weren't exactly brilliant fun back then. No, we didn't have quite light in the sadness - the modern style news that a matter of colouring-in books, but they were available, if youdays before his death he'd gone beyond 'join delivered the dots'. I read only recently that origami is allegedly coming back – and I remember how every church finished manuscript of his book sale for years had , ''OrigamiÀ bientôt…'', ''Origami 2'' or ''Origami 3'' paperbacks somewhere for ten penceto his publishers. But the ultimate in paper-based fun back then was the use-once format of the maze book. This is the modern equivalent – but boy, hasnJust a few months later a copy landed on my desk and I didn't the idea grown up since then…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847809987</amazonuk>even bother to look as though I could resist reading it straight away.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tony FletcherMaslanka Sherlock|title= In the Midnight HourSherlock: The Life & Soul of Wilson PickettPuzzle Book|author=Christopher Maslanka and Steve Tribe|rating= 4.5|genre= Entertainment|summary= Tamla Motown groups and singers apartWho doesn't love a good puzzle, in especially those really fiendish ones that get 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 brain working extra hard? There really is nothing to compare to that buzz we get from the singles chartsAha! moment, when everything falls into place and Otis Redding was on the verge of shooting into solution reveals itself. If puzzles are your thing then you may wish to put your grey cells to the stratosphere when he died in an aeroplane crash. test with ''The other was the man from AlabamaSherlock Puzzle Book'', 'based on the wicked Pickett'popular TV series.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0190252944</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris PalingCorcoran_Dylan|title=Reading AllowedDo You Mr Jones?: True Stories Bob Dylan with the Poets and Curious Incidents from a Provincial LibraryProfessors|author=Neil Corcoran

|summary=I once made a comical faux pas in a library when I was younger, but it certainly didnBob Dylan't put me off returning. I once declared in a self-important way that I would start at the beginning s award of the books Nobel Prize for young children and not stop til the end, then do the same for those Literature in 2016 'for having created new poetic expressions within the older children – great American song tradition''and then do it all over again with them'', I said, pointing at the large-print shelvesproved highly controversial. ''I hope not'', was It inevitably led some people in the response – but little me was only aware of a need for large font for my fellow whippersnappers, literary world to take stock and not for any other reason. Since then I've needed libraries, look at his work and going to them has been second naturereputation with a fresh eye. 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 This volume of essays was worthy of her title; and of course it saved a fortune on books for study and fun. I'm not alone first published in sharing the warmth of both their heating system and the very thing they were born to provide – books2002, 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 innow reissued with a new foreword by Will Self. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472124715</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Bruce SpringsteenKyncl_Stream|title= Born to RunStream Punks|author=Robert Kyncl and Maany Peyvan|rating= 4.5|genre= AutobiographyEntertainment|summary= No you haven't stumbled into I watch quite a lot of YouTube. I play music review from the 1970s, videos when I want to listen to a particular song Idon'm talking about The Boss's autobiographyt already have in my collection. Lots of books have been written about Springsteen by folk who knew himI use it to find out how to do things, worked with him and by others who the instruction videos they seem to have only read the cuttingsfor pretty much anything. Over At the last seven years he has been going about – not putting the record straightgym, I'll stick it on on my phone, exactly – but telling prop it from his own perspectiveup on the cross-trainer and watch some behind the scenes interviews with the cast of my favourite shows. As he puts And sometimes I'll treat it as if it: ''Writing about yourself is a funny business''. By his own admissionNetflix, it isn't the whole truthto watch series with new episodes releasing every few days, discretion holds him back but ''in exclusively on YouTube. Having a project like this, the writer has made one promisenew smart TV adds an extra, easy way to watch without having to show the reader his mindplug in my laptop or squint at a small phone screen.'' ''In these pagesSo yes, Ilike YouTube and I use YouTube. But I didn've tried to do t know a whole lot about the site it until I read thisbook.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471157792</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=JVDK_Swing|title=We Can Swing Together: The Story of Lindisfarne

|title=A Beatles Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Beatles but Were Afraid to Ask|rating=4.5|genre=ReferenceEntertainment|summary=You might have thought that just about everything which could be said about the Beatles had been said It all began with a group of youngsters in North Shields. Rod Clements, Simon 'Si' Cowe, Ray 'Jacka' Jackson and certainly thereRay Laidlaw formed ''The Downtown Faction''s been no shortage of books about what went wrong, what happened soon changing the name to the money and even what went right''Brethren'' when they were joined by singer-songwriter Alan Hull. But what I've never seen before is As a 'miscellany' US- all those little facts which are so hard based group had a similar name they opted to track down change the name again - and this is where historian John Van der Kiste comes into his own: he's a man 'Lindisfarne'' (with the name taken from an eye for detail island off the Northumberland coast) was born. More than forty years on and with numerous changes of personnel the ability to bring everything together into a band is still very readable wholemuch around. It's a wonderful collection They might not be touring or producing much in the way of new material, but they still perform, with Rod Clements, one of the small factsoriginal members on his fourth stint with the group.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781555826</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Julian PalaciosJVDK_ELO|title= Syd Barrett & Pink FloydElectric Light Orchestra: Dark GlobeSong by Song|author=John Van der Kiste|rating= 4.5|genre= Entertainment|summary= There were few sadder casualties 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 scene than Syd (real name Roger) Barrettrarely 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 original songwriting genius Move and front man of Pink Floydtheir lead guitarist and songwriter, he burnt out all too soonRoy Wood. A few months in Wood wanted to develop the spotlight were followed all too soon group's sound by adding more instruments but was prevented from achieving what he wanted by a pathetic postscript cost limitations and because the rest of a stuttering solo career, and over three decades as a largely housebound reclusethe group didn't really share his enthusiasm.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859655482</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jason FryWatkins_Lets|title=Star Wars Rogue OneLet's Make Lots of Money: Mission FilesMy Life as the Biggest Man in Pop|author=Tom Watkins|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers Entertainment|summary=Out of several books I've seen to tie-in to the seventh official cinema movie Who on earth would be a manager in the ''Star Wars'' universelarger than life, this – and the resulting review – is the greatest source here today gone tomorrow world of spoilers. What you get is a surprisingly mature look at the background and events to ''Rogue One'' for such a juvenile book, pop? Anybody with some fine stills photographsan ego, and a volume that introduces all ruthless streak, an opportunity to embrace the main characters chances and gears you up accept that it's not going to understand and enjoy a lot last, evidently. Tom Watkins is just one of several to have walked the events fine line and, for part of the filmtime, quite successfully. So if you don't want to know those in advanceAs his memoirs suggest, look away nowpart of the time was achievement enough. But certainly consider this as a purchase for reading once you've watched it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405285036</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=LucasfilmKendrick_Scrappy|title=Star Wars Rogue One: Art of ColouringScrappy Little Nobody|author=Anna Kendrick

|genre=CraftsEntertainment|summary=Colour me happy that ''Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'' is aroundCelebrity autobiographies. While IIt've not had s a genre long tainted by the chance examples of seeing it yetpeople who clearly didn't deserve to be a celebrity, I'm dead chuffed it takes place at let alone have a central point of the main arc of films' storylinesghost-writer create their book, and not some nebulous place elsewhere in [[Star Wars: Galactic Atlas by Emil Fortune and Tim McDonagh|that galaxy far, far away]]those who did so little but managed to churn out five memoirs before they were even thirty. Yes, But more recently it does do what the 'new trilogys become a way of staking a claim to importance for female comics. They' didve not all written autobiographies, and have much more gloss and many more technologies than the films set after itas Bridget Christie proved, but what is not enough have to like? Well, provide for a rapidly-filling shelf at the expected expenditure on tie-in books and articlesbookstore. 2016 we had Amy Schumer winning a GoodReads award, I guess – several hundred pounds on Lena Dunham's been at it, and we'one'' collectorve also got Anna Kendrick. Now she's card is not a little steep. But seeing as I handily mentioned colouring above, in the vernacularstrict comic – not all of her films are designed to make you laugh, why not take it literally and use some of them that are just don't – but this large format paperback, promising ''100 Images has to Inspire Creativity''?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405286377</amazonuk>be in the same bracket.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der KisteRopek_Tragic|title=Pop Pickers and Music VendorsTragic Magic: David Jacobs, Alan Freeman, John Peel, Tommy Vance and Roger ScottThe Life of Traffic's Chris Wood|author=Dan Ropek

|summary=You know those questions you get Chris Wood was a member of Traffic, the group formed by Steve Winwood in celebrity interviews - 'which extinct being would you most like to see brought back to life?' Well, I'd like to see Jimmy Savile brought back, so that 1967 after he could get left The Spencer Davis Group. A gifted musician best known for his comeuppance. It's not just the damage he did to children flute and young peoplesaxophone work, dreadful as that was - it's the shadow he cast over the entertainment industry. We know that he wasn't alone in what he didalso played keyboards, but somehow there's bass guitar and contributed backing vocals as well as having a whole era hand in writing several of entertainment which has been tarred by the same brush. John Van der Kiste has turned the spotlight away from Savile songs and on to five of the great DJs of the music industryone or two instrumentals.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781555443</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Emil Fortune and Tim McDonagh|This biography takes its title=Star Wars: Galactic Atlas|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=At from the time name of writing this review, people are eagerly tapping away at phones, laptops and screens everywhere to find out what they can about ''Rogue One'', the ''Star Wars'' film that's the first live action cinema effort to be off to one edge of the canon, and is five whole weeks away. Perhaps, however, there is a chance that all the many books being released that mention the ability to tie in to ''Rogue One'' will let slip something important. The volume at hand ''includes a map from…'' said movie, and all the maps here initially seem to feature a huge amount of informationhis compositions for their fifth album. Could valuable secrets be herein?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405279982</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marc MyersDolby_Sound|title= Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History Speed of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and PopSound|author=Thomas Dolby

|summary= This book developed From struggling post-punk musician to pop star, from Silicon Valley innovator to university professor, Thomas Dolby has had a series of columns of the same title which appeared in the ''Wall Street Journal'' over a period of five yearsremarkable if not unique career, in which forty-five songs (what an appropriate number) from often reinventing himself on the years 1952 to 1991 were put under the microscope and examined through interviews with the artists, songwriters way. This memoir is based on his extensive notes and others who created themjournals.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>080212559X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen MossMorris_Legion|title=Planet Earth IIThe Legion of Regrettable Supervillains: Oddball Criminals from Comic Book History|author=Jon Morris

|genre= Animals and WildlifeEntertainment|summary=''Planet Earth II'' is the official companion As much as I like comics – and I do, whether superhero ones or not – I have to admit one thing, namely that the upcoming BBC wildlife documentary series of the same namevillains in them are a bit pants. Our understanding of What is The Penguin but the world around us has reached 's worst Mafioso, with a new level, courtesy hobby of waddling along like his pet birds? Where else do you win an Oscar of groundall things by playing a two-breaking technology that gives us unparalleled access to bit killer who just fell in a diverse range vat of environments 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 'sneak peek'Batman' into previously hidden worlds', one of the better goodies. The book looks at six vastly different environments: JunglesYou can imagine how awful the baddies related to the bad goodies can be. And if you can't, Mountains, Deserts, Grasslands, Islands and Cities and showcases some of this is the amazing creatures that live in each oneperfect primer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849909652</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John SeabrookFletcher_Midnight|title= In the Midnight Hour: The Song Machine: How to Make a HitLife & Soul of Wilson Pickett|author=Tony Fletcher|rating=4.5

|summary= The popular music business has always been about – wellTamla Motown groups and singers apart, business – and some might say that in the mid-sixties there were three major names in the soul music comes a poor secondfield who mattered above all. Ever since the advent James Brown was something of a cult name who rarely bothered about or troubled the 78 r.p.m. discsingles charts, record companies have competed with each other and sought new ways Otis Redding was on the verge of marketing their goodsshooting into the stratosphere when he died in an aeroplane crash. The songwriter, or if you like the person or partnership at other was the controls of ‘the song machine’man from Alabama, has long been a vital link in 'the chainwicked Pickett'. In today’s climate of increasingly free music, how much does this still hold true?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009959045X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rod Green|title=Only Fools and Horses: The Peckham Archives|rating=4|genre=Entertainment |summary=We are in the world of one of the country's most famous and well-loved sitcoms – even if it was sort-of killed off for Christmas 2003. Yes, there have been specials since, and more repeats to clog up the BBC schedules than is really pukka, but very few people failed to succumb to its charms at one time or another. I'm sure there have been books before now celebrating the stony-faced reception of ''that'' drop through the open bar hatch, and ''that'' chandelier scene, but this is much more meaty. Purporting to be the family archives, found dumped in Nelson Mandela House, the documents here were passed from pillar to post, from one council worker in a department with a clumsy acronym to another, from them to the police – and now here they are being published for their social history worth. Will enough readers find them of worth, as the series quietly celebrates its 35th birthday?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849909245</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Mojang AB|title= Minecraft Exploded Builds: Medieval Fortress|rating= 5|genreisbn= Entertainment|summary=If you have ever marvelled at the creative architecture designed by the talented members of the Minecraft community and been inspired to give it a go yourself, then ''Exploded Builds'' might be the perfect book for you. It is aimed at those of us who have the ambition but lack the necessary expertise to design such stunning buildings. ''Medieval Fortress'' will guide you every step of the way with detailed diagrams and customisation options, allowing you be king of you own castle in no time at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140528417X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Bruno VincentPaling_Reading|title=Danger MouseReading Allowed: Declassified|rating=4|genre=Entertainment |summary=There is nothing else for it but to declare my love for ''Danger Mouse'' (True Stories and no, I don't mean the musician/producer, or the remake, which I've not sampled). What I didn't know at the time to call 'breaking the fourth wall', the chutzpah and energy of the storytelling, and primarily the simple and simply brilliant character design made it one of my go-to sources for entertainment, and about the only thing that would get the TV switched to ITV, apart Curious Incidents from ''Blockbusters''. The dates on the front of this volume prove we're referring to the genius original series, but these contents seem to me fully new. Taking it that they are, has the idea stood the test of time, and will people be on board for what is surely a much-belated tribute gift book?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753545225</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewProvincial Library|author= Simon Callow|title=Orson Welles, Volume 3: One-Man BandChris Paling

|genre=BiographyEntertainment|summary= Orson WellesI 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 noted actorend, director then do the same for those for the older children – ''and producerthen do it all over again with them'', I said, pointing at the large-print shelves. ''I hope not'', was one of those larger than life characters whose impact on the world response – but little me was only aware of stage a need for large font for my fellow whippersnappers, and screen during his lifetime was inestimablenot for any other reason. Simon Callow Since then I've needed libraries, and going to them has found been second nature. On the task 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 condensing his story into course, it saved a single volume is impossiblefortune 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 this knowledge of them to actually working in one. Which is the third of three solid instalmentswhere Chris Paling comes in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099502836</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter DoggettSpringsteen_Born|title= Electric Shock: From the Gramophone Born to the iPhone - 125 Years of PopRun|author=Bruce Springsteen

|summary= For many of usNo, it must be difficult to imagine you haven't stumbled into a life without recorded musicreview from the 1970s, I'm talking about The Boss's autobiography. Millions Lots of us must books have grown up been written about Springsteen by folk who knew him, worked with, even to, a very varied soundtrack consisting of one genre after anotherhim and by others who have only read the cuttings. In this book, Peter Doggett takes a marvellous broad sweep through Over the history of popular music from last seven years he has been going about – not putting the end of the nineteenth century to the present dayrecord straight, exactly – but telling it from wax cylinders to streaming serviceshis own perspective. A rather maudlin ditty As he puts it: ''Writing about yourself is a funny business'After The Ball', by Charles K. Harris By his own admission, is regarded as it isn't the first modern popular song (wellwhole truth, it was modern discretion holds him back but ''in 1891) – a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the first of millionsreader his mind.'' ''In these pages, I've tried to do this.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184792218X</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= John LydonJVDK_Beatles|title= RottenA Beatles Miscellany: No Irish, No Blacks, No DogsEverything You Always Wanted to Know About the Beatles but Were Afraid to Ask|author=John Van der Kiste|rating=3.5

|summary= Picking up this book immediately makes you wonder what exactly you make of John LydonYou might have thought that just about everything which could be said about the Beatles had been said and certainly, the man who became notorious in the late 1970s as 'Johnny Rottenthere' s been no shortage of the Sex Pistols. Was he the iconoclast who if some of the tabloids were to be believed was books about to destroy western civilization almost single-handed? Had he really come to destroywhat went wrong, or merely what happened to use the showbusiness system money and end up becoming part of even what he had set out to fight, or both – or went right. But what?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859653412</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Nev Schulman|title= In Real Life: Love, Lies & Identity in the Digital Age|rating= 4|genre= Reference|summary= Nev (itI's pronounced Neev) ve never seen before is a man who knows about the darker side of online dating. Known for his documentary 'miscellany'Catfish'' – a film which showed an online flirtation going sour, Nev then began making a tv show of the same name, travelling America to offer advice to - all those in online relationships, and possibly being catfished (little facts which means being lured into a relationship by someone adopting a fictional online persona). Now the go-are so hard to expert in online relationships for millenials, a generation who have never known a world without Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, track down and other online places this is where interactions can form. Here, he takes his investigation to the page – exploring relationships in the era of social media, delving deeply historian John Van der Kiste comes into the complexities of dating in a digital age, and continuing the dialogue his show has begun about how we interact with each other online – as well as sharing insights from his own story. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473608066</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=John Howlett|title= James Dean: Rebel Life|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary= James Dean was in he's a sense to man with an eye for detail and the 1950s what Sid Vicious was ability to the 1970s – the ultimate bring everything together into a very readable whole. It'live fast, die young' character, although as the star of three classic movies of the era he achieved rather more in his short life than the hapless punk icon ever did in his.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859655342</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Sue Perkins|title= Spectacles|rating= 4|genre= Autobiography|summary= A dash of drama, a sprinkling of gossip and s a smattering wonderful collection of laugh-out-loud funny make for the best sort of memoirsmall facts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405918551</amazonuk>