Difference between revisions of "Newest Entertainment Reviews"

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[[Category:Entertainment|*]]
 
[[Category:Entertainment|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Entertainment]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Entertainment]]__NOTOC__ <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
==Entertainment==
 
__NOTOC__
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Scarlett Thomas
 
|title=Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Reference
 
|summary=I really wasn't expecting a book about how to write fiction to change my TV viewing habits. Alter my reading? Possibly. Improve my writing? Hopefully. But watching Grand Designs in a completely different light?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857863789</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Lois Banner
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|author=Patti Smith
|title=Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox
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|title=Year of the Monkey
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Biography
 
|genre=Biography
|summary=With the possible exception of Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe is probably the most written-about deceased woman in twentieth-century history.  The thirty-six years of her life and the manner of her death will no doubt continue to provide an opportunity for as many writers as they have since her sudden passing. After a decade of research Lois Banner, a Professor of History and Gender Studies at university in California, has added another weighty tome to the relevant shelves. As a self-styled pioneer of second-wave feminism and the new women’s history, she has some interesting insights to offer into her subject’s life as a gender role model.
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|summary=On the coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the lunar year of the monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, and unexpected moments. In a stranger's words, ''Anything is possible: after all, it's the year of the monkey''. As Smith wanders the coast of Santa Cruz in solitude, she reflects on a year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and ageing are faced head on, as it the shifting political waters in America.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408814102</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1526614758
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Walton_Ask
|author=Kirk Blows
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|title=Ask For Blues
|title=Hammered: Heavy tales from the hard rock highway
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|author=Malcolm Walton
|rating=3
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|rating=3.5
|genre=Entertainment
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|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Kirk Blows is the former editor of hard rock journal Metal Hammer.  Just to confuse, he is also well known as a sports writer and an authority on 'the other Hammers', namely West Ham FC.  However this book is nothing to do with sportInstead it devotes its attention to a brace of his interviews with various hard rock luminaries.  These took place for the journal some years ago, and have now been revised and updated for book publication.
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|summary=Malcolm Walton's book is clearly a memoir about his introduction to the Trad Jazz scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s, but he has chosen to write it in the form of a novel, claiming in his prologue that this would give the book a different approach to the music memoir. His protagonist 'Martin' takes on Malcolm's mantle and begins with his first discovery of the Salvation Army band with his grandfatherThis catapults him into a love of music, initially taking piano lessons, and later delving into his true love – the trumpet.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859654850</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Moore Bientot
|author=Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carriere
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|title=A Bientot...
|title=This is Not the End of the Book;
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|author=Roger Moore
|rating=4.5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=In many ways, the cover of my edition of this book is perfectly appropriate. Huge, bold serif script, with nothing but the typeface; a declamatory instance of the art in the most common of fonts, and that perfect semi-colon at the end of the book's name - proving that that itself is not the be-all and end-all.  Buy this book, as you can, in electronic form, and you might see this cover for ten seconds at most, but it is so much part and parcel of what's within.
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|summary=The news of the death of Sir Roger Moore in May 2017 came as a great shock: he was one of those people you knew would go on forever. There was just one small glimmer of light in the sadness - the news that a matter of days before his death he'd delivered the finished manuscript of his book, ''À bientôt…'', to his publishers. Just a few months later a copy landed on my desk and I didn't even bother to look as though I could resist reading it straight away.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099552450</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Maslanka Sherlock
|author=Molly Carr
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|title=Sherlock: The Puzzle Book
|title=A Sherlock Holmes Who's Who (With of Course Dr.Watson)
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|author=Christopher Maslanka and Steve Tribe
|rating=2.5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Given the amount written about Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, even the most dedicated of Sherlockians must sometimes require a refresher on the characters. As I'm certainly not the most dedicated of anything, although I love Holmes and have read the entire canon, I was eagerly anticipating the chance to remind myself of those within. Sadly, this book has done little to quench my anticipation.
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|summary=Who doesn't love a good puzzle, especially those really fiendish ones that get the brain working extra hard? There really is nothing to compare to that buzz we get from the Aha! moment, when everything falls into place and the solution reveals itself. If puzzles are your thing then you may wish to put your grey cells to the test with ''The Sherlock Puzzle Book'', based on the popular TV series.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780920822</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Corcoran_Dylan
|author=Robert Cannon
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|title=Do You Mr Jones?: Bob Dylan with the Poets and Professors
|title=Opera
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|author=Neil Corcoran
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Opera, Cannon tells us in the introduction to this book, 'has never ceased to grow and change – often quite radically.' His aim is to describe and show the many different facets of opera in its development over the centuries, and its relevance to the modern world.  While he does not intend to write a history as such, he has organised this book chronologically as opera developed in a very conscious way across Europe.
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|summary=Bob Dylan's award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 'for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition' proved highly controversial. It inevitably led some people in the literary world to take stock and look at his work and reputation with a fresh eye. This volume of essays was first published in 2002, and is now reissued with a new foreword by Will Self.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0521746477</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Francesca Beauman
 
|title=Shapely Ankle Preferr'd: A History of the Lonely Hearts Advertisement
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=You might think the Lonely Hearts ad a trivial matter.  You might think it should appear in lower case and not be capitalised, but you'd be in disagreement with Ms Beauman, who gives a big L and a big H to it every time she writes of it in her survey of its history. What's more, she gets to write about a lot more than just the contents of the adverts in this brilliant book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009951334X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Colin Grant
 
|title=I & I: The Natural Mystics
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=
 
Just mention the word reggae, and the name that nearly always springs to mind is that of Bob Marley and the Wailers.  The music has always been very much a product of the Jamaican culture, nurtured in years of turbulent history.  In this book Colin Grant, born in Britain of Jamaican parents, goes back deep into its roots, and in the process examines the childhood lives of the Wailers’ three main personalities, namely Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Neville Livingston, better known as Bunny Wailer, to provide an account of the group – but much more than that.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099526727</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Bruce Robinson
 
|title=The Rum Diary - A Screenplay
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Kemp has lied his way onto a failing newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rica, as the only candidate for the job, and in a semi-comatose state induced by too many miniatures from the hotel minibar, stumbles into a conspiracy of epic proportions, via classic bar room brawls and nightclub mayhem. On the way he (almost) writes horoscopes and bowling championship stories, meets the fantastically erotic girlfriend of the evil businessman, and teams up with a proto-Nazi out of his mind on a cocktail of hootch and LSD, and a photographer side kick. There is no question that this is Hunter S Thompson territory, especially when all the above is combined with a witty, slow-talking hero who in spite of his alcoholic haze sees clearly through the exploitation of a third world country by its massive first world near neighbour.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555697</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Mick O'Shea
 
|title=Amy Winehouse: A Losing Game
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=At the risk of stating the obvious, this is a sad book.  Writing this review some five months after her death, now the immediate smoke has cleared, it is apparent from this book (as well as other general sources) that she was a gifted performer, with a jazz voice which could have qualified her for a lengthy career long after scores of aspiring X-Factor contestants had given up singing and opted for less glamorous, more steady careers.  After all, her idols had been not only near-contemporaries like Michael Jackson and Missy Elliott, but also those of an earlier generation such as the classic 1960s girl groups, as well as Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, with whom she was thrilled to record a duet four months before she died.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859654826</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gillian Lynne
 
|title=A Dancer in Wartime: One Girl's Journey from the Blitz to Sadler's Wells
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=
 
At eight years old, Gill Pyrke was driving her parents crazy, as she couldn't sit still and was nicknamed ''wriggle-bottom''. Her mum took her to see the family GP and told him in great detail how annoying she was. The doctor asked if he could talk to Gill alone and put on some music. She started to dance around and climbed on to his desk. He prescribed ballet classes. She started off in a Bromley dance class where one of her classmates was later to be the famous ballerina Beryl Grey. This story is lovely and funny, and has lots of elements of a dream story, yet is told in a very down to earth style which makes it very convincing. The same could be said of the whole of Gillian Lynne's memoir of her early years, starting out on a brilliant career in dance.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701185996</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Kyncl_Stream
|author=Jermaine Jackson
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|title=Stream Punks
|title=You Are Not Alone: Michael Through A Brother's Eyes
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|author=Robert Kyncl and Maany Peyvan
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=It is inevitable that the books we have already seen about Michael Jackson in the two years since his sudden passing will be merely the tip of the iceberg.  Yet for those which comprise and are based on first-hand knowledge of his life and death, there will surely be few if any to rival this account by his brother Jermaine and ghostwriter Steve Dennis.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007435665</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Mark Kermode
 
|title=The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=I've been there, and so, despite all number of free press screenings, has Mark Kermode. When a major cinema chain I probably shouldn't name, but will - Odeon - moved from their smelly inner-city fleapits to a major new development far from any convenient bus routes, they started their multiplex life with the best intentions, having an arthouse film every week, on a Wednesday, and an offer of free entry courtesy of the local newspaper. This was brilliant for me - or would have been, if they'd managed to keep up with my expectations. I lost track of the number of weeks they had the wrong film on the projector, and particularly how many times they started the right one without glimpsing that it was being shown on the wrong-sized screen, through the wrong lenses, not matching with the gate, or even upside down. The projectionist of course had eleven other screens to worry about, pressing a button for each and never needing (or wanting?) to watch a movie. Kermode is correct in that if we must still think of cinemas in the parlance of theatres, and film-showings as performances, the projectionist can ruin a show just as a bad actor can a stage play.
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|summary=I watch quite a lot of YouTube. I play music videos when I want to listen to a particular song I don't already have in my collection. I use it to find out how to do things, with the instruction videos they seem to have for pretty much anything. At the gym, I'll stick it on on my phone, prop it up on the cross-trainer and watch some behind the scenes interviews with the cast of my favourite shows. And sometimes I'll treat it as if it is Netflix, to watch series with new episodes releasing every few days, exclusively on YouTube. Having a new smart TV adds an extra, easy way to watch without having to plug in my laptop or squint at a small phone screen. So yes, I like YouTube and I use YouTube. But I didn't know a whole lot about the site it until I read this book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847946038</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Robert Ross
 
|title=Marty Feldman: The Biography of a Comedy Legend
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=Some years ago, I was given a Penguin edition of Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', with what looked like an uniquely fearsome face on the front cover. A year or two later, I saw a photograph of Marty Feldman and was convinced he must have inspired it if not actually been the model.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857683780</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=JVDK_Swing
|author=Nick Hasted
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|title=We Can Swing Together: The Story of Lindisfarne
|title=You Really Got Me: The Story of The Kinks
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|author=John Van der Kiste
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary='People in America talk about 'The Beatles, the Stones, The Who.' For me it's 'The Beatles, the Stones, The Kinks.' Those words, quoted in the book, are those of Pete Townshend of The Who himselfHe is certainly not alone in his verdict that, at the height of the swinging sixties in Britain, the Muswell Hill quartet were No 3 in the premier music league.  Patchy chart success since their heyday has done nothing to diminish their reputation, or that of leader Ray Davies as one of the most gifted British songwriters of the last fifty years.
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|summary=It all began with a group of youngsters in North Shields.  Rod Clements, Simon 'Si' Cowe, Ray 'Jacka' Jackson and Ray Laidlaw formed ''The Downtown Faction'', soon changing the name to ''Brethren'' when they were joined by singer-songwriter Alan Hull. As a US-based group had a similar name they opted to change the name again - and ''Lindisfarne'' (with the name taken from an island off the Northumberland coast) was born.  More than forty years on and with numerous changes of personnel the band is still very much aroundThey might not be touring or producing much in the way of new material, but they still perform, with Rod Clements, one of the original members on his fourth stint with the group.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849386609</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=JVDK_ELO
|author=Marcus Gray
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|title=Electric Light Orchestra: Song by Song
|title=Route 19 Revisited: The Clash and London Calling
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|author=John Van der Kiste
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=When I began reading these 500 pages or so, my initial feeling was – how could anybody write a book THIS long on one album?  Soon, it became clear that I had been slightly misled by the title. Although 'London Calling', long feted as the best LP (now a CD, naturally) ever made by one of punk's most seminal groups, is the focal point, this volume also charts in detail the history and development of the Clash to that point, their subsequent career (and decline), and their legacy.
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|summary=My memories of pop music in the early sixties revolve around guitars and drums, sometimes the piano with only occasional excursions into strings and brass. Pop music rarely stands still and it wasn't long before the basic instruments were seen as constraints and The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys began to experiment, with other groups following where they led. Amongst these groups was The Move and their lead guitarist and songwriter, Roy Wood. Wood wanted to develop the group's sound by adding more instruments but was prevented from achieving what he wanted by cost limitations and because the rest of the group didn't really share his enthusiasm.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099524201</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Watkins_Lets
|author=Barbara Sinatra
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|title=Let's Make Lots of Money: My Life as the Biggest Man in Pop
|title=Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank Sinatra
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|author=Tom Watkins
|rating=4.5
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|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Barbara Blakeley, born in 1926, was married firstly to Robert Oliver, an executive, with whom she had a son, and secondly to Zeppo Marx.  But it was the already thrice-married and thrice-divorced Francis Albert Sinatra, whom she had idolized as a singer for a long time, with whom she would make her most enduring marriage, and vice versa.  They tied the knot in 1976, and stayed together until his death in 1998.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091937248</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Philip Norman
 
|title=John Lennon: The Life
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=For part of my formative years, John Lennon was one of the four most famous people in the world.  All that we have learnt about him in the thirty years or so since his death has kept his name firmly in the public eye, if not always for the best of reasons. At over 800 pages, this is one of the lengthiest biographies written about the extraordinary life and times of the former Beatle. It's also surely one of the most impartial.  
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|summary=Who on earth would be a manager in the larger than life, here today gone tomorrow world of pop? Anybody with an ego, a ruthless streak, an opportunity to embrace the chances and accept that it's not going to last, evidently. Tom Watkins is just one of several to have walked the fine line and, for part of the time, quite successfully. As his memoirs suggest, part of the time was achievement enough.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000719742X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Kendrick_Scrappy
|author=Donald Spoto
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|title=Scrappy Little Nobody
|title=Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford
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|author=Anna Kendrick
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Thanks to the memoir 'Mommie Dearest' by her adopted daughter Christina, the enduring image of movie star Joan Crawford is one of an alcoholic, sadistic monster.  Spoto clearly believes that this portrait is a gross exaggeration, and is at pains to rectify the balance. Having previously written biographies of Alfred Hitchcock and Marilyn Monroe among others, he clearly knows the subject of cinema inside out, and has written a very thorough chronicle of Crawford's career.  The impression the reader is left with, however, is that in looking at her family life and art he has perhaps striven too far to present her as a person more sinned against than sinning, a legendary talent, beauty and above all a grossly maligned adoptive mother.
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|summary=Celebrity autobiographies. It's a genre long tainted by the examples of people who clearly didn't deserve to be a celebrity, let alone have a ghost-writer create their book, and by those who did so little but managed to churn out five memoirs before they were even thirty. But more recently it's become a way of staking a claim to importance for female comics. They've not all written autobiographies, as Bridget Christie proved, but enough have to provide for a rapidly-filling shelf at the bookstore. 2016 we had Amy Schumer winning a GoodReads award, Lena Dunham's been at it, and we've also got Anna Kendrick. Now she's not a strict comic – not all of her films are designed to make you laugh, and some of them that are just don't – but this has to be in the same bracket.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091931274</amazonuk>
 
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Ropek_Tragic
|author=Keith Richards
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|title=Tragic Magic: The Life of Traffic's Chris Wood
|title=Life
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|author=Dan Ropek
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Nearly forty years ago, Keith Richards was considered the next most likely rock'n'roll star to succumb to drugs.  The man has defied all the odds in staying alive, and continuing to do what he has been doing for almost half a century.  In the process, he has earned the sometimes grudging, sometimes unqualified respect of those who would once never given him the time of day.
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|summary=Chris Wood was a member of Traffic, the group formed by Steve Winwood in 1967 after he left The Spencer Davis Group. A gifted musician best known for his flute and saxophone work, he also played keyboards, bass guitar and contributed backing vocals as well as having a hand in writing several of the songs and one or two instrumentals. This biography takes its title from the name of one of his compositions for their fifth album.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297854399</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Christopher Isherwood
 
|title=Diaries Volume 1
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=In January 1939 Christopher Isherwood left England for America in the company of poet WH Auden.  This hefty volume covers his diaries from that date until August 1960, when he celebrated his fifty-sixth birthday. A 49-page introduction setting out the background leads us into the entries, which are divided into three sections – The Emigration, to the end of 1944; The Post-war Years, to 1956; and The Late Fifties.  After these we have a chronology and glossary, or to put it more accurately a section of brief biographies of the main characters mentioned, these two sections comprising over a hundred pages altogether.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555824</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Eric Siblin
 
|title=The Cello Suites: In Search of a Baroque Masterpiece
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|summary=At the end of the 20th century Eric Siblin was a rock and pop critic for the 'Montreal Gazette'.  This, he says, was, a job which filled his head 'with vast amounts of music, much of which I didn't want to be there'. Aware that there were vast horizons crying out to be explored, he went out one night to hear a recital from the Boston cellist Lawrence Lesser, featuring the solo cello suites of Bach.  The contrast between hearing one solitary performer playing a simple wooden cello for an audience a fraction of the size could have hardly been more different to the stadium style gigs he had been covering regularly until then.  About three years earlier, he had reviewed a show by U2, noting that for the 52,000 fans who attended and 'wanted to see more than four Lilliputian musicians making huge noises...technology blew everything out of proportion.' The inevitable hate mail soon rolled in.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546787</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lindsay Reade
 
|title=Mr Manchester and the Factory Girl: The Story of Tony and Lindsay Wilson
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|summary=Mr Manchester, as Tony Wilson came to be known, could have been the next John Humphrys.  Instead he ended up becoming the next Malcolm McLaren – or, perhaps, a far less successful version of Richard Branson.  After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in English he became a trainee news reporter for ITN, and for much of his life he worked as an anchorman for regional evening news programmes.  Yet he is less remembered for this than for his championship of alternative music and punk rock, founding of Factory Records and involvement with the Hacienda Club.  Although he loved the Beatles and folk music in general, he disliked much of the contemporary music scene until he saw the Sex Pistols live in the summer of 1976.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859654567</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Larry Stempel
 
|title=Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|summary=Stempel is an associate professor of music at an American university so I would imagine that this book is primarily a labour of love.  In the Preface Stempel bemoans the loss of important research material over the years, whether it be musical scores, playbills or similar.  It happens. It is a fact of life.  Simply thrown away or discarded as being considered not important.  It's only a musical, after all.  A bit light and frothy.  Stempel thinks otherwise - and takes his time telling us exactly why.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393067157</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Dolby_Sound
|author=Peter Doggett
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|title=The Speed of Sound
|title=You Never Give Me Your Money: The Battle for the Soul of the Beatles
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|author=Thomas Dolby
|rating=5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|summary=When four young Liverpudlians got together to make music in the early 1960s, they can have had no idea of their future impact on the world around them.  Likewise they would surely not have had an inkling of the extraordinary business minefield which their existence as a group would create, and which would leave the scars long after they had gone their separate ways, even after two of them had died.  As at least one of them ruefully commented, they must have provided several lawyers' children with a very expensive education.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532360</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alan Davies
 
|title=Teenage Revolution: Growing Up in the 80s
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Born in 1966, Alan Davies grew up in Essex, the son of a staunchly Conservative-voting father and a mother who died of cancer when he was only six.  It was a childhood dominated at first by 'Citizen Smith' and the other TV sitcoms, 'Starsky and Hutch', 'Grease', Barry Sheene, the Barron Knights, and Debbie Harry.  The book begins at 1978, ''the year I started venturing out more'', and finishes at 1988, when he graduated from Kent University to find that stand-up comedy could be an alternative to finding a job where he would have to do what he was told.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141041803</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Clinton Heylin
 
|title=Still on the Road: Songs of Bob Dylan, 1974-2008
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Heylin is also obviously a fan, a very knowledgeable and obsessive one to boot.  He has never met or directly interviewed his subject (who is known to guard his privacy quite fiercely most of the time), but his research materials include official recording sessionographies and interviews conducted by others.  All this is naturally invaluable information for his analysis and history of all the 600-plus songs the man is known to have written or co-written from 1974 to almost the present day.  In terms of his discography, that spans the albums from ‘Blood on the Tracks’, released in 1975 and commonly regarded as probably his best post-1960s set, to ‘Together Through Life’, which appeared in 2009.
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|summary=From struggling post-punk musician to pop star, from Silicon Valley innovator to university professor, Thomas Dolby has had a remarkable if not unique career, often reinventing himself on the way. This memoir is based on his extensive notes and journals.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849010110</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Marina Hyde
 
|title=Celebrity: How Entertainers Took Over The World and Why We Need an Exit Strategy
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|summary=I have what is perhaps a regular-sized interest in A and B-list celebrities. I can name the off-spring of many an actress, tell you who the spokespeople for certain brands are, write a list of celebs with publicly declared devotions to certain religions, even win the odd pub quiz thanks to knowing the birth names of various performers. I know all sorts of things about this rather small subset of society, but I know the ''what'' more than the ''why'', and that's exactly the problem, according to this book. After all, if more of us sat down to wonder about what it actually ''is'' that the likes of Geri Halliwell and Nicole Kidman bring to the UN, we might seriously question how and why they ever got involved in the first place.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532050</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Morris_Legion
|author=Rob Chapman
+
|title=The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains: Oddball Criminals from Comic Book History
|title=Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head
+
|author=Jon Morris
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Roger Barrett, who later acquired the moniker 'Syd' (let's make him Syd from now on) was born in Cambridge in 1946.  The fourth of five children, he was the only one to inherit any lasting artistic talent, which came from his father Max. The latter was a senior pathologist, member of the local Philharmonic Society, gifted singer, pianist and watercolour painter.
+
|summary=As much as I like comics – and I do, whether superhero ones or not – I have to admit one thing, namely that the villains in them are a bit pants. What is The Penguin but the world's worst Mafioso, with a hobby of waddling along like his pet birds? Where else do you win an Oscar of all things by playing a two-bit killer who just fell in a vat of random chemicals and changed colour, and got mardier as a result (although recently he's become a nanotech genius – but let's not go there)? And what is it with the gimp in the see-through plant pot because he is the embodiment of cold? And that's just some of the better-known enemies of ''Batman'', one of the better goodies. You can imagine how awful the baddies related to the bad goodies can be. And if you can't, this is the perfect primer.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571238548</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Fletcher_Midnight
|author=Michele Monro
+
|title=In the Midnight Hour: The Life & Soul of Wilson Pickett
|title=Matt Monro: The Singer's Singer
+
|author=Tony Fletcher
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=In terms of British chart statistics and record sales, Matt Monro never quite fulfilled his full potential.  When measured against the achievements of contemporary ballad singers like Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, he fell some way short.  Yet the former Terry Parsons was a regular fixture on the light entertainment circuit, and overseas, particularly in Latin America and the Philippines, he was undoubtedly one of Britain's most successful exports ever, and at one point he was the biggest selling artist in Spain.  His idol Frank Sinatra, to whom he was often compared, often said that Matt was the only British singer he ever really listened to.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848566182</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Don Felder
 
|title=Heaven And Hell: My Life in the Eagles, 1974 - 2001
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=In terms of record sales and income from live tours, hardly anyone matched the Eagles' rate of success during the 1970s.  Yet the constant search to better themselves with each record, the in-fighting, the drugs and egos, soon got the better of them.  They say it is tough at the top, and nobody is better equipped to tell the often painful story than their former guitarist Don Felder.
+
|summary=Tamla Motown groups and singers apart, in the mid-sixties there were three major names in the soul music field who mattered above all. James Brown was something of a cult name who rarely bothered about or troubled the singles charts, and Otis Redding was on the verge of shooting into the stratosphere when he died in an aeroplane crash. The other was the man from Alabama, 'the wicked Pickett'.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753826771</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Will Birch
 
|title=Ian Dury: The Definitive Biography
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=Ian Dury was always one of the most individual, even contrary characters in the musical world.  In a branch of showbiz where people often relied on good looks as a short cut to stardom, he was no oil painting.  During the pub rock era, he and his group, the Blockheads, ploughed a lonely furrow which owed more to jazz-funk than rock'n'roll, and his songs extolled the virtues of characters from Billericay or Plaistow rather than those from Memphis or California.  Alongside the young punk rock upstarts with whom he competed for inches in the rock press, he was comparatively middle-aged. As if that was not enough, in his own words childhood illness had left him a permanent 'raspberry ripple'.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0283071036</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Mark Simpson
 
|title=Alastair Sim: The Star of Scrooge and the Belles of St Trinian's
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=The mere mention of Alastair Sim conjures up visions of pictures made during the 1950s when a more gentle humour was the order of the day.  Yet the man hated and did his best to avoid publicity, claiming that the person the public saw on screen revealed all that anybody needed to know about him.  How he would have fared twenty years later in the age of a more intrusive press, one cannot but wonder.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752453726</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Paling_Reading
|author=David Clayton
+
|title=Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library
|title=The Richard Beckinsale Story
+
|author=Chris Paling
|rating=4
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=A generation probably knows Richard Beckinsale only from repeats on the UK Gold TV channels, and from occasional mentions in the context of 'how great he would have been if only…'  In 1978 The Sunday Times Magazine tipped the 30-year-old sitcom favourite as a rising major star of the 80s who would blossom into one of the great all-round stage actors.  One year later, he was dead.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752454404</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Val Doonican
 
|title=My Story, My Life: Val Doonican - The Complete Autobiography
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=In the 1960s, if Harold Wilson was the personification of politics and the Beatles the collective icon of youth culture, Val Doonican was similarly at the very apex of light entertainment.  He may no longer have such a high profile – but he's outlasted them both.  Over four decades he has refused to bow to passing fads and fashions, remained true to himself, and in the process he has never really put a foot wrong.  As he says towards the end, 'When you find out what it is you do best, and what the public wants from you, then stick with it, and do it as well as you can.'  With the possible exception of his contemporary and long-time professional and personal friend Rolf Harris, it's difficult to think of another person in showbiz who comes across as more genuinely likeable, and more a genuine case of 'what you see is what you get'.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906779619</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jo Berry
 
|title=The Ultimate DVD Easter Egg Guide: How to Access the Hidden Extras on Your DVD
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Consider the Easter Egg - at least in the way DVD collectors meanSometimes a pointless hidden add-on, that is there for no reason.  Sometimes they can be a priceless bonus, seemingly gifted by the disc producers to those in the know, costing - at least in the case of some animated instances - many thousands of poundsSome oik on set with a camcorder, they are not.  I've been guilty several times of clicking away in directions the menus don't seem to encourage on the off-chance I find something (or, on a PC, just sweeping the PC mouse over any and every title card in case it highlights something previously invisible)Forcing several titles and chapters by going straight to them in case they're something secret is not a hobby I like to admit to.
+
|summary=I once made a comical faux pas in a library when I was younger, but it certainly didn't put me off returningI once declared in a self-important way that I would start at the beginning of the books for young children and not stop til the end, then do the same for those for the older children – ''and then do it all over again with them'', I said, pointing at the large-print shelves''I hope not'', was the response – but little me was only aware of a need for large font for my fellow whippersnappers, and not for any other reasonSince then I've needed libraries, and going to them has been second nature.  On the dole I made sure I could use the free Internet they provided to pay me back for my council tax; later I was intent on finding out if a Senior Library Assistant girl was worthy of her title, and of course, it saved a fortune on books for study and funI'm not alone in sharing the warmth of both their heating system and the very thing they were born to provide – books, but there was still a huge step up between my level of use and knowledge of them to actually working in one.  Which is where Chris Paling comes in.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752875205</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Springsteen_Born
|author=Gary Giddins and Scott Deveaux
+
|title=Born to Run
|title=Jazz
+
|author=Bruce Springsteen
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=At first glance this 700-page volume might look a little dauntingDo not be dauntedIf you want a small pocket book which merely scratches at the surface and can probably be digested in a sitting or two, look elsewhereOn the other hand, if you want an extremely readable and comprehensive book on jazz which can not only be read cover to cover, but also retained as a work of reference to use again and again, I doubt if this can be bettered.
+
|summary=No, you haven't stumbled into a music review from the 1970s, I'm talking about The Boss's autobiographyLots of books have been written about Springsteen by folk who knew him, worked with him and by others who have only read the cuttingsOver the last seven years he has been going about – not putting the record straight, exactly – but telling it from his own perspective.  As he puts it: ''Writing about yourself is a funny business''By his own admission, it isn't the whole truth, discretion holds him back but ''in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind.'' ''In these pages, I've tried to do this.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393068617</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=JVDK_Beatles
|author=Nick Hornby
+
|title=A Beatles Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Beatles but Were Afraid to Ask
|title=An Education: The Screenplay
+
|author=John Van der Kiste
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Adroit marketing?  Well, yes. ''An Education'' has been published, of course, to coincide with the film's general release in the UK.  Hardly surprising since our national appetite for nosiness seems insatiable and cosy background details prop up every telly series and film these days. As well as the screenplay, Nick Hornby has provided an introduction and diary of the film's successful premiere at the Sundance Festival in Utah. Beyond trivia, I think this fascinating little book presents an excellent 'how to' guide for wannabes from one of Britain's most respected screen and novel writers.
+
|summary=You might have thought that just about everything which could be said about the Beatles had been said and certainly, there's been no shortage of books about what went wrong, what happened to the money and even what went right. But what I've never seen before is a 'miscellany' - all those little facts which are so hard to track down and this is where historian John Van der Kiste comes into his own: he's a man with an eye for detail and the ability to bring everything together into a very readable whole. It's a wonderful collection of the small facts.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141044748</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
Move on to [[Newest Fantasy Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 16:30, 29 August 2020


1526614758.jpg

Review of

Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith

4star.jpg Biography

On the coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the lunar year of the monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, and unexpected moments. In a stranger's words, Anything is possible: after all, it's the year of the monkey. As Smith wanders the coast of Santa Cruz in solitude, she reflects on a year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and ageing are faced head on, as it the shifting political waters in America. Full Review

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Review of

Ask For Blues by Malcolm Walton

3.5star.jpg Autobiography

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

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

Review of

A Bientot... by Roger Moore

4star.jpg Entertainment

The news of the death of Sir Roger Moore in May 2017 came as a great shock: he was one of those people you knew would go on forever. There was just one small glimmer of light in the sadness - the news that a matter of days before his death he'd delivered the finished manuscript of his book, À bientôt…, to his publishers. Just a few months later a copy landed on my desk and I didn't even bother to look as though I could resist reading it straight away. Full Review

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

Review of

Sherlock: The Puzzle Book by Christopher Maslanka and Steve Tribe

4star.jpg Entertainment

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

Corcoran Dylan.jpg

Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

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

Kyncl Stream.jpg

Review of

Stream Punks by Robert Kyncl and Maany Peyvan

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

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

JVDK Swing.jpg

Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

It all began with a group of youngsters in North Shields. Rod Clements, Simon 'Si' Cowe, Ray 'Jacka' Jackson and Ray Laidlaw formed The Downtown Faction, soon changing the name to Brethren when they were joined by singer-songwriter Alan Hull. As a US-based group had a similar name they opted to change the name again - and Lindisfarne (with the name taken from an island off the Northumberland coast) was born. More than forty years on and with numerous changes of personnel the band is still very much around. They might not be touring or producing much in the way of new material, but they still perform, with Rod Clements, one of the original members on his fourth stint with the group. Full Review

JVDK ELO.jpg

Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

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

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Review of

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

4star.jpg Entertainment

Who on earth would be a manager in the larger than life, here today gone tomorrow world of pop? Anybody with an ego, a ruthless streak, an opportunity to embrace the chances and accept that it's not going to last, evidently. Tom Watkins is just one of several to have walked the fine line and, for part of the time, quite successfully. As his memoirs suggest, part of the time was achievement enough. Full Review

Kendrick Scrappy.jpg

Review of

Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick

3.5star.jpg Entertainment

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

Ropek Tragic.jpg

Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

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

Dolby Sound.jpg

Review of

The Speed of Sound by Thomas Dolby

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

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

Morris Legion.jpg

Review of

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

5star.jpg Entertainment

As much as I like comics – and I do, whether superhero ones or not – I have to admit one thing, namely that the villains in them are a bit pants. What is The Penguin but the world's worst Mafioso, with a hobby of waddling along like his pet birds? Where else do you win an Oscar of all things by playing a two-bit killer who just fell in a vat of random chemicals and changed colour, and got mardier as a result (although recently he's become a nanotech genius – but let's not go there)? And what is it with the gimp in the see-through plant pot because he is the embodiment of cold? And that's just some of the better-known enemies of Batman, one of the better goodies. You can imagine how awful the baddies related to the bad goodies can be. And if you can't, this is the perfect primer. Full Review

Fletcher Midnight.jpg

Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

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

Paling Reading.jpg

Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

I once made a comical faux pas in a library when I was younger, but it certainly didn't put me off returning. I once declared in a self-important way that I would start at the beginning of the books for young children and not stop til the end, then do the same for those for the older children – and then do it all over again with them, I said, pointing at the large-print shelves. I hope not, was the response – but little me was only aware of a need for large font for my fellow whippersnappers, and not for any other reason. Since then I've needed libraries, and going to them has been second nature. On the dole I made sure I could use the free Internet they provided to pay me back for my council tax; later I was intent on finding out if a Senior Library Assistant girl was worthy of her title, and of course, it saved a fortune on books for study and fun. I'm not alone in sharing the warmth of both their heating system and the very thing they were born to provide – books, but there was still a huge step up between my level of use and knowledge of them to actually working in one. Which is where Chris Paling comes in. Full Review

Springsteen Born.jpg

Review of

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

5star.jpg Entertainment

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

JVDK Beatles.jpg

Review of

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

5star.jpg Entertainment

You might have thought that just about everything which could be said about the Beatles had been said and certainly, there's been no shortage of books about what went wrong, what happened to the money and even what went right. But what I've never seen before is a 'miscellany' - all those little facts which are so hard to track down and this is where historian John Van der Kiste comes into his own: he's a man with an eye for detail and the ability to bring everything together into a very readable whole. It's a wonderful collection of the small facts. Full Review

Move on to Newest Fantasy Reviews