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[[Category:New Reviews|Entertainment]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lincoln PeircePatti Smith|title=Big Nate: Laugh-O-Rama (Big Nate Activity Book 4)Year of the Monkey|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionBiography|summary=This seems to be a firmly established publishing practise now – On the enhanced readership experience offered to fans coast of a franchise by a tie-in activity book. This is yet another example – looking like a genuine entry in an on-going seriesSanta Cruz, it instead offers Patti Smith enters the fan lunar year of the characters the chance to interact monkey - one packed with them in new waysmischief, as well as looking back through the shelves of their collectionsorrow, and inwardly as wellunexpected moments. In a stranger's words, ''Anything is possible: after all, at their own thoughts and tastes. Note I say it's for a fan – this example will alienate anyone else from the first page – but for year of the right audience it’s generally a good thingmonkey''. And As Smith wanders the coast of Santa Cruz in this instance it's solitude, she reflects on a veryyear that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and ageing are faced head on, very good thing indeedas it the shifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007569076</amazonuk>1526614758

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dr Gareth MooreWalton_Ask|title=Clever Commuter: Puzzles, Tests and Problems to Solve on Your JourneyAsk For Blues|author=Malcolm Walton

|genre=EntertainmentAutobiography|summary=The week before I reviewed this Malcolm Walton's book I saw is clearly a newspaper article that said that so-called brain-training apps are a waste memoir about his introduction to the Trad Jazz scene of timethe late 1950s and early 1960s, that they merely replace what we should be doing anyway but he has chosen to keep our grey cells active (multi-taskingwrite it in the form of a novel, observing, REAL LIFE etc). This is claiming in his prologue that this would give the puzzle book version of a brain training app, different approach to the music memoir. His protagonist 'Martin' takes on Malcolm's mantle and so begins with all those electronic titles on his first discovery of the market it already had oppositionSalvation Army band with his grandfather. This catapults him into a love of music, initially taking piano lessons, even before that news came in. But let's face it and later delving into his true love – who on earth would risk the science being wrong on this occasion? Surely this kind of book should be an inherently essential purchase?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782433953</amazonuk>trumpet.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter A DavidMoore Bientot|title=The Avengers Vault|rating=3|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=It's not just because the third richest take of any movie is about to get a sequel that we have this pictorial background guide. There have been decades of action featuring the main characters of The Avengers, and they themselves are fifty years old as a collective entity, so this book has a lot of ground to cover. To its benefit there are hardly any mentions of the global behemoth that are Marvel films these days, beyond a couple of references where relevant. Instead we're looking back, with bright and eager eyes, to see what we can find, what the beginner may need to know, and what the fan will have fond memories of.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781313989</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Gareth Murphy|title=Cowboys and Indies: The Epic History of the Record Industry|rating=5|genre=Entertainment|summary=It’s not difficult to find a history of popular or recorded music, written around the musical names who made it happenA Bientot. ''Cowboys and Indies'' takes a different approach. While there is plenty in these pages about several of the most important stars, there is just as much again if not sometimes more about the movers and shakers, the inventors, managers, impresarios, and record label founders without whom there would not have been a record industry.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781254524</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Emma Tennant, Hilary Bailey and David Elliott|title=Did We Meet on Grub Street?Roger Moore|rating=3.54

|summary=Essentially, the three authors (all of whom have long careers in the book industry) revel in the idea The news of being whining old curmudgeons who miss the good old days death of publishing. This unashamed nostalgia provides the focus of the book and allows the writers to recount numerous anecdotes from their days Sir Roger Moore in the publishing business. Whilst the primary audience for this book may well be students of creative writing and media studies, it also serves May 2017 came as an interesting exploration of an aspect of modern historya great shock: how a once-burgeoning industry is now a shell he was one of its former self, much like a lot of manufacturingthose people you knew would go on forever. Because of this, I There was disappointed that no space was given to a consideration just one small glimmer of how light in the rise of the esadness -book and Kindle has directly damaged both the sale news that a matter of books and days before his death he'd delivered the potential for new books to be written (fewer real books sold = fewer financial advances paid to writers = fewer books written). Also, given the clear love finished manuscript of books as treasured artifactshis book, the dismissal of the Harry Potter phenomenon seems truculent''À bientôt…'', given the impetus the series gave to his publishers. Just a few months later a copy landed on my desk and I didn't even bother to look as though I could resist reading amongst both the young and adultsit straight away.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704372983</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David LodgeMaslanka Sherlock|title=Lives in WritingSherlock: The Puzzle Book|author=Christopher Maslanka and Steve Tribe

|summary=David Lodge Lives in Writing. So blares Who doesn't love a good puzzle, especially those really fiendish ones that get the brain working extra hard? There really is nothing to compare to that buzz we get from the cover of my editionAha! moment, when everything falls into place and it's not far wrongthe solution reveals itself. When he's not entertaining us with his [[:Category:David Lodge|writing career]] (now in its third, more erudite and If puzzles are your thing then you may wish to put your grey cells to me more serious stage, after the first third of comic light touches, before he found his metier – and fame test with TV adaptations– with comedies about the social and sexual lives of academe) he's teaching about and around writing. When I was younger I also read around writing – literature books'The Sherlock Puzzle Book'', in other words – and Lodge's were among those I turned to. So this book and its contents are a welcome step back down a very familiar roadbased on the popular TV series.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587769</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steve TribeCorcoran_Dylan|title=SherlockDo You Mr Jones?: ChroniclesBob Dylan with the Poets and Professors|author=Neil Corcoran|rating=4.5

|summary=I still remember sitting down to watch Bob Dylan's award of the first episode of ''SherlockNobel Prize for Literature in 2016 'for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition'proved highly controversial. I was looking forward to it, certainly, but within minutes I realised this was going to become far more than just a television series. It also struck me that, of all inevitably led some people in the television literary world to take stock and film versions I had seen, this felt like the most authentic interpretation of the original stories - but trying to look at his work out exactly why would definitely be and reputation with a three patch problemfresh eye. HappilyThis volume of essays was first published in 2002, this book provides all the explanationsand is now reissued with a new foreword by Will Self.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849907625</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Greg KeyesKyncl_Stream|title=Interstellar: The Official Movie NovelizationStream Punks|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summaryauthor=The Earth is dying – dust storms are ravaging the world and blight killing off all useful crops, meaning farmers are vital to keep the few people to have survived recent wars fed, even if they need to go further and use less arable lands to do so. Cooper is one such man, despite a history in a completely different career; he lives with the father of his deceased wife Robert Kyncl and their two children in amongst the corn. But when some mysterious happenings keep occurring in the bedroom that was his wife's as a young girl and is now their daughter's, a most unlikely chain of events leads him to find clues that could revive his past – that in fact of a highly trained astronaut, with the one last potential mission – that of a shortcut to the stars in the trails of prior manned probes to detect new habitable planets for what's left of mankind…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783293691</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Mark Cotta Vaz|title=Interstellar: Beyond Time And SpaceMaany Peyvan

|summary=Christopher Nolan speaks here I watch quite a lot of two pertinent visits YouTube. I play music videos when I want to the cinema listen to see sci-fi epicsa particular song I don't already have in my collection. The first time round I use it was ''Star Wars''to find out how to do things, and with the young cinema craftsman in instruction videos they seem to have for pretty much anything. At the making became an avid fangym, who eventually found the story and nature of the filmI's construction almost as epicll stick it on on my phone, invigorating and absorbing as prop it up on the movie itself. After that came a chance to see a recross-release of ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', upon which Nolan reports ''information about trainer and watch some behind the making of Kubricks's masterpiece was harder to come by than Lucas's.'' You don't need me to tell you that nowadays information about making of movie magic is all around us – scenes interviews with the trailers and camera diaries cast of set footage advertising upcoming blockbusters in parallel with each other, the DVD and Blu-Ray extras, and so onmy favourite shows. And sometimes I'm sure a lot of that ll treat it as if it is evident with the example of ''Interstellar''Netflix, Chris Nolan's attempt to bridge the gap between ''Star Wars'' and ''2001'' and create a thinking woman's emotional, family sci-fi epic. Likewise, too, this book, which is a happy ground between being told only the bare outlineswatch series with new episodes releasing every few days, and the full-exclusively on, nothing-kept-sacred smorgasbord detail of a Blu-RayYouTube. A very happy ground, indeed, that will leave many Having a happy reader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329356X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Paul Ruditis|title=Battlestar Galactica Vault: The Complete History Of The Series, 1978-2012|rating=4|genre=Entertainment|summary=For those who don't know, or can't remember, ''Battlestar Galactica'' was a '70s piece of American sci-fi new smart TVadds an extra, launched easy way to great acclaim as a parallel watch without having to the rather similar ''Star Wars'' with a full-on TV movie, then one lengthy season of hour-long adventures, that even had Fred Astaire playing a bit part before audiences dwindled and the show died out. It shot itself plug in the foot with my laptop or squint at a sort-of sequel soon afterwards, then languished for decades before two crafty creatives found a way to put more meat on the bones, and to marry the show with much more modern sensibilitiessmall phone screen. It's not a programme I would necessarily have entered a 'vault' forSo yes, as I was only a fan of the original, like YouTube and possibly only then as opposed to nowI use YouTube. But Ididn've not seen a ''BSG'' entity since my youth – but I t know a heck of a whole lot about what the site it until I have pushed to the back of my mind since then, courtesy of these pagesread this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781313350</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=JVDK_Swing|title=We Can Swing Together: The Art Story of NoirLindisfarne|author=Eddie MullerJohn Van der Kiste

|summary=Colour is surely not the first thing one associates It all began with film noir – after alla group of youngsters in North Shields. Rod Clements, Simon 'Si' Cowe, Ray 'Jacka' Jackson and Ray Laidlaw formed ''The Downtown Faction'', the clue is in soon changing the nameto ''Brethren'' when they were joined by singer-songwriter Alan Hull. As a US-based group had a similar name they opted to change the name again - and ''The Third ManLindisfarne'' is only better (with the shadows, Fritz Lang never needed gaudy colour, name taken from an island off the Northumberland coast) was born. More than forty years on and with numerous changes of personnel the whole genre of noir would have been band is still very different if it had been born in Technicolormuch around. But it did live into They might not be touring or producing much in the era way of Cinemascope and colour picturesnew material, but they still perform, and it was never advertised as black and whitewith Rod Clements, as these superb images testify. The large postcards and posters that adorned American picturehouse lobbies to plug one of the films original members on offer were always lurid, vivid and extremely colourful. And this book is just as colourful – as well as erudite, comprehensive and extremely entertaininghis fourth stint with the group.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715647687</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=JVDK_ELO|title=The Art of Making ShadowsElectric Light Orchestra: Song by Song|author=Sophie CollinsJohn Van der Kiste

|summary=Winter is almost upon us and the evenings are getting darker. However, rather than bemoaning the lack My memories of sunshine, how about putting a positive spin on pop music in the situation early sixties revolve around guitars and viewing those longdrums, dark evenings as the perfect opportunity to hone your shadow-casting skills? Shadow-play is an art form that has endured through sometimes the ages piano with only occasional excursions into strings and yet brass. Pop music rarely stands still has and it wasn't long before the power to enchant basic instruments were seen as constraints and entertain. So grab a lampThe Beatles, gather round The Rolling Stones and get ready The Beach Boys began to create barking dogsexperiment, flying birds with other groups following where they led. Amongst these groups was The Move and a whole menagerie their lead guitarist and songwriter, Roy Wood. Wood wanted to develop the group's sound by adding more instruments but was prevented from achieving what he wanted by cost limitations and because the rest of shadow characters..the group didn't really share his enthusiasm.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905695454</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Watkins_Lets|title=Eminent HipstersLet's Make Lots of Money: My Life as the Biggest Man in Pop|author=Donald FagenTom Watkins

|summary=Donald Fagen is best known as one half Who on earth would be a manager in the larger than life, here today gone tomorrow world of pop? Anybody with an ego, a ruthless streak, an opportunity to embrace the partnership chances and accept that became Steely Danit's not going to last, evidently. Tom Watkins is just one of several to have walked the more sophisticated names in American rock music. While at school in the 1960s he was convinced that his vocation would be journalismfine line and, until music took over. When for part of the group, or rather duo plus hired hands, went on hiatustime, he contributed to various journalsquite successfully. About half of this fairly brief book consists of As his articles on films, music and science fictionmemoirs suggest, and the rest is made up part of his entries (including random thoughts concerning the world around him) from a touring diarytime was achievement enough.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593335</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|title=Life on Air|author=David Attenborough|ratingisbn=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=I was one of the generation who grew up when David Attenborough was a giant among presenters of wildlife programmes on television, and anything with his name attached was a must-watch. At the time, I had no idea that he was also one of the pivotal characters in the development of broadcasting, having been controller of BBC2 and director of programming for BBC TV for several years. These days, he is probably best remembered for writing and presenting the nine ‘Life’ series, a comprehensive survey of all life on the planet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849908524</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewKendrick_Scrappy|title=Hollywood Frame by Frame: Behind the Scenes: Cinema's Unseen Contact SheetsScrappy Little Nobody|author=Karina LongworthAnna Kendrick|rating=43.5

|summary=If you ever think of Hollywood you think of it as Celebrity autobiographies. It's a genre long tainted by the home examples of people who clearly didn't deserve to be a certain kind of output. Superstarscelebrity, big studio productionslet alone have a ghost-writer create their book, and what by those who did so little but managed to churn out five memoirs before they combined to produce – things you might call movies, or filmswere even thirty. Once upon But more recently it's become a time, way of coursestaking a claim to importance for female comics. They've not all written autobiographies, they were called moving pictures, without the abbreviationas Bridget Christie proved, but enough have to provide for a rapidly-filling shelf at the artform – once called the greatest of the 20th Century – was just as recognisable through the still images it producedbookstore. This coffee table book is designed as 2016 we had Amy Schumer winning a catalogue of those still images – whether they be formally posed portraits taken on setGoodReads award, re-enactments of the cinemaLena Dunham's scenes shot separately on still camera for the purpose of publicitybeen at it, or candid stills that formed and we've also got Anna Kendrick. Now she's not a matter the star had a final say instrict comic – not all of her films are designed to make you laugh, which would go and some way of them that are just don't – but this has to increasing the cult of their personality be in the magazines that were then starting to focus on celebritysame bracket.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781579806</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Ropek_Tragic|title=Tragic Magic: The Art Life of Neil GaimanTraffic's Chris Wood|author=Hayley CampbellDan Ropek

|summary=Cancer. Chemistry. Drugs. Chris Wood was a member of Traffic, the group formed by Steve Winwood in 1967 after he left The DEASpencer Davis Group. Heisenberg. Mexico. Fried Chicken. Blood baths (A gifted musician best known for his flute and saxophone work, he also played keyboards, bass guitar and baths full contributed backing vocals as well as having a hand in writing several of blood). Cartels. Criminal lawyers. Bacon birthday breakfaststhe songs and one or two instrumentals. This is Breaking Bad, and biography takes its title from the only question that remains is… Wanna Cook?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190580296X</amazonuk>name of one of his compositions for their fifth album.

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Dolby_Sound|title=Books that Changed the World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human HistorySpeed of Sound|author=Andrew TaylorThomas Dolby

|summary=Oh the pleasure whenFrom struggling post-punk musician to pop star, as a book reviewer, one can simply point from Silicon Valley innovator to the title and say – 'yupuniversity professor, that'. Or, I suppose, as in the non-existent follow-up, Adverts That Changed the WorldThomas Dolby has had a remarkable if not unique career, simply repeat the mantra 'it does exactly what it says often reinventing himself on the tin'way. This paperback edition of the six year old original, fresh with several typos they had time to iron out alongside putting in Seamus Heaney's departure, makes life even easier, given that subtitle. I'm sure the more bibliophilic are already sold, and there memoir is little influence I can bear on things. I will, however, soldier based onhis extensive notes and journals.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782069429</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Morris_Legion|title=The BeatlesLegion of Regrettable Supervillains: Oddball Criminals from Comic Book History|author=Mick Manning and Brita GranstromJon Morris

|genre=For SharingEntertainment|summary=''As much as I like comics – and I do, whether superhero ones or not – I have to admit one thing, namely that the villains in them are a bit pants. What is The BeatlesPenguin but the world'' begins s worst Mafioso, with the childhood a hobby of waddling along like his pet birds? Where else do you win an Oscar of John Lennon at the end all things by playing a two-bit killer who just fell in a vat of the second world war. The first illustration seems to convey random chemicals and infant John twisting changed colour, and shouting on his way to 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 air raid shelter. The text and illustrations both paint a picture embodiment of mischievous but intelligent child. We especially loved an illustration cold? And that shows 's just some of the mixed emotions better-known enemies of ''Batman'', one of the passengers and driver as John plays an old harmonica for hours on the busbetter goodies. Some of You can imagine how awful the passengers look desperate baddies related to escapethe bad goodies can be. And if you can't, but this is the driver is so impressed he gives John a better harmonicaperfect primer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847804519</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Fletcher_Midnight|title=Live At In the Brixton AcademyMidnight Hour: A riotous life in the music businessThe Life & Soul of Wilson Pickett|author=Simon Parkes and J S RafaeliTony Fletcher

|summary=Who on earth would want to buy Tamla Motown groups and run singers apart, in the mid-sixties there were three major names in the soul music field who mattered above all. James Brown was something of a live music venue in deepest Brixtoncult name who rarely bothered about or troubled the singles charts, and manage to keep it running for fifteen years, transforming it against all Otis Redding was on the odds verge of shooting into what becomes one of Britain’s most iconic establishments of its kind? Such the stratosphere when he died in an undertaking calls for somebody with special managerial skills who can keep one step ahead of aeroplane crash. The other was the gameman from Alabama, walking a precarious tightrope, keeping gangsters, punters, promoters and 'the local authorities onside. It also requires a good deal of luckwicked Pickett'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846689554</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Paling_Reading|title=Let Me Off at the Top!Reading Allowed: My Classy Life True Stories and Other MusingsCurious Incidents from a Provincial Library|author=Ron BurgundyChris Paling|rating=4.5|genre=HumourEntertainment|summary=I once made a comical faux pas in a library when I was younger, but it certainly didn''This book is t put me off returning. I once declared in a testament to my giant balls.self-important way that I would start at the beginning of the books for young children and not stop til the end, then do the same for those for the older children – '' But and then do itall over again with them's also a lot more. The story we've never been able to discern from either of , I said, pointing at the large-print shelves. ''AnchormanI hope not'' films is one , was the response – but little me was only aware of surprising hardship, unsurprising hardnessa need for large font for my fellow whippersnappers, and great hairnot for any other reason. ItSince then I's a rags-ve needed libraries, and going to-riches tale, as Ron Burgundy comes from a Hicksville town in them has been second nature. On the middle of dole I made sure I could use the outskirts 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 somewhere the arse end her title, and of nowhere (course, it saved a town perpetually fortune on fire due to the accidents books for study and fun. I'm not alone in sharing the mines underneath) warmth of both their heating system and struggles against all the odds very thing they were born to provide – books, but there was still a huge step up between my level of use and many knowledge of the evens them to actually working in the shape of women's legs – to get one. Which is where he is today, thrusting himself and his news at us nightlyChris Paling comes in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780892241</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Springsteen_Born|title=Dedicated Born to...: The Forgotten Friendships, Hidden Stories and Lost Loves found in Second-hand BooksRun|author=W B GooderhamBruce Springsteen|rating=4.5

|summary=No, you haven't stumbled into a music review from the 1970s, I have found many strange and unusual things in second-hand bookshops. I have done one or two strange and unusual things in them as well, but that'm talking about The Boss's a different storyautobiography. Twice now I Lots of books have managed to find a second-hand bookbeen written about Springsteen by folk who knew him, completely signed worked with him and dedicated by others who have only read the author, yet discarded by cuttings. Over the recipient, and have last seven years he has been able to present going about – not putting the author with the edition at hand and get record straight, exactly – but telling it re-dedicatedfrom his own perspective. (If I As he puts it: ''m not mistaken, the discarders were Writing about yourself is a neighbouring babysitter, and a teacher of the authorfunny business''s children.) IBy his own admission, it isn'll admit that's rarefied, however, and on t the whole the scribble you find truth, discretion holds him back but ''in second-hand books is from a project like this, the person who bought itwriter has made one promise, and gave it as a gift, not to show the person who wrote itreader his mind. But even so'' ''In these pages, the dedication of the donor can be immensely fascinating and open I've tried to all kinds of interpretation, as these examples show perfectly cleardo this.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593072847</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=JVDK_Beatles|title=CherA Beatles Miscellany: Strong EnoughEverything You Always Wanted to Know About the Beatles but Were Afraid to Ask|author=Josiah HowardJohn Van der Kiste|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyEntertainment|summary=Having looked at You might have thought that just about everything which could be said about the title Beatles had been said and sub-titlecertainly, the latter being there's been no more than the two-word title shortage of one of her latter-day hitsbooks about what went wrong, I assumed this was going what happened to be a fairly comprehensive biography of the American singermoney and even what went right. The sub-title, But what I've never seen before is a 'Strong Enough'miscellany', taken from one of her latter-day hit singles, reveals nothing. Not until I had almost finished it, a all those little puzzled at it not being quite what I had expected, did I finally look at the blurb on the back – at facts which point all became clear. This was not are so hard to track down and this is where historian John Van der Kiste comes into his own: he's a man with an eye for detail and the full story of ability to bring everything together into a showbiz career which has lasted close on half very readable whole. It's a century, but for wonderful collection of the most part an extraordinarily detailed account of her 1975 TV variety showsmall facts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859654842</amazonuk>