Difference between revisions of "Newest Entertainment Reviews"

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search
 
(97 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
[[Category:Entertainment|*]]
 
[[Category:Entertainment|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Entertainment]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
+
[[Category:New Reviews|Entertainment]]__NOTOC__ <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
{{newreview
+
 
|author=Dr Gareth Moore
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Clever Commuter: Puzzles, Tests and Problems to Solve on Your Journey
+
|author=Patti Smith
|rating=3.5
+
|title=Year of the Monkey
|genre=Entertainment
+
|rating=4
|summary=The week before I reviewed this book I saw a newspaper article that said that so-called brain-training apps are a waste of time, that they merely replace what we should be doing anyway to keep our grey cells active (multi-tasking, observing, REAL LIFE etc). This is the puzzle book version of a brain training app, and so with all those electronic titles on the market it already had opposition, even before that news came in. But let's face it – who on earth would risk the science being wrong on this occasion? Surely this kind of book should be an inherently essential purchase?
+
|genre=Biography
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782433953</amazonuk>
+
|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.  
 +
|isbn=1526614758
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Peter A David
+
|isbn=Walton_Ask
|title=The Avengers Vault
+
|title=Ask For Blues
|rating=3
+
|author=Malcolm Walton
|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 happen.  ''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?
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Entertainment
+
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Essentially, the three authors (all of whom have long careers in the book industry) revel in the idea of being whining old curmudgeons who miss the good old days of publishing. This unashamed nostalgia provides the focus of the book and allows the writers to recount numerous anecdotes from their days in the publishing business. Whilst the primary audience for this book may well be students of creative writing and media studies, it also serves as an interesting exploration of an aspect of modern history: how a once-burgeoning industry is now a shell of its former self, much like a lot of manufacturing. Because of this, I was disappointed that no space was given to a consideration of how the rise of the e-book and Kindle has directly damaged both the sale of books and 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 of books as treasured artifacts, the dismissal of the Harry Potter phenomenon seems truculent, given the impetus the series gave to reading amongst both the young and adults.
+
|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 grandfather. This catapults him into a love of music, initially taking piano lessons, and later delving into his true love – the trumpet.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704372983</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=David Lodge
+
|isbn=Moore Bientot
|title=Lives in Writing
+
|title=A Bientot...
 +
|author=Roger Moore
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=David Lodge Lives in Writing. So blares the cover of my edition, and it's not far wrong.  When he's not entertaining us with his [[:Category:David Lodge|writing career]] (now in its third, more erudite and to me more serious stage, after the first third of comic light touches, before he found his metier – and fame 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, 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 road.
+
|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>0099587769</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Steve Tribe
+
|isbn=Maslanka Sherlock
|title=Sherlock: Chronicles
+
|title=Sherlock: The Puzzle Book
|rating=5
+
|author=Christopher Maslanka and Steve Tribe
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=I still remember sitting down to watch the first episode of ''Sherlock''.  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 the television and film versions I had seen, this felt like the most authentic interpretation of the original stories - but trying to work out exactly why would definitely be a three patch problem. Happily, this book provides all the explanations.
+
|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>1849907625</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Greg Keyes
 
|title=Interstellar: The Official Movie Novelization
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|summary=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 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
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Mark Cotta Vaz
+
|isbn=Corcoran_Dylan
|title=Interstellar: Beyond Time And Space
+
|title=Do You Mr Jones?: Bob Dylan with the Poets and Professors
 +
|author=Neil Corcoran
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Christopher Nolan speaks here of two pertinent visits to the cinema to see sci-fi epics.  The first time round it was ''Star Wars'', and the young cinema craftsman in the making became an avid fan, who eventually found the story and nature of the film's construction almost as epic, invigorating and absorbing as the movie itself. After that came a chance to see a re-release of ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', upon which Nolan reports ''information about 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 – the trailers and camera diaries of set footage advertising upcoming blockbusters in parallel with each other, the DVD and Blu-Ray extras, and so on.  And I'm sure a lot of that is evident with the example of ''Interstellar'', 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 outlines, and the full-on, nothing-kept-sacred smorgasbord detail of a Blu-Ray.  A very happy ground, indeed, that will leave many a happy reader.
+
|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>178329356X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Paul Ruditis
+
|isbn=Kyncl_Stream
|title=Battlestar Galactica Vault: The Complete History Of The Series, 1978-2012
+
|title=Stream Punks
|rating=4
+
|author=Robert Kyncl and Maany Peyvan
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=For those who don't know, or can't remember, ''Battlestar Galactica'' was a '70s piece of American sci-fi TV, launched to great acclaim as a parallel 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 in the foot with 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 sensibilities. It's not a programme I would necessarily have entered a 'vault' for, as I was only a fan of the original, and possibly only then as opposed to now. I've not seen a ''BSG'' entity since my youth – but I know a heck of a lot about what I have pushed to the back of my mind since then, courtesy of these pages.
+
|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>1781313350</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=The Art of Noir
+
|isbn=JVDK_Swing
|author=Eddie Muller
+
|title=We Can Swing Together: The Story of Lindisfarne
 +
|author=John Van der Kiste
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Colour is surely not the first thing one associates with film noir – after all, the clue is in the name.  ''The Third Man'' is only better with the shadows, Fritz Lang never needed gaudy colour, and the whole genre of noir would have been very different if it had been born in TechnicolorBut it did live into the era of Cinemascope and colour pictures, and it was never advertised as black and white, as these superb images testify.  The large postcards and posters that adorned American picturehouse lobbies to plug the films on offer were always lurid, vivid and extremely colourful.  And this book is just as colourful – as well as erudite, comprehensive and extremely entertaining.
+
|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 HullAs 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>0715647687</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=The Art of Making Shadows
+
|isbn=JVDK_ELO
|author=Sophie Collins
+
|title=Electric Light Orchestra: Song by Song
 +
|author=John Van der Kiste
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Winter is almost upon us and the evenings are getting darker. However, rather than bemoaning the lack of sunshine, how about putting a positive spin on the situation and viewing those long, dark evenings as the perfect opportunity to hone your shadow-casting skills? Shadow-play is an art form that has endured through the ages and yet still has the power to enchant and entertain. So grab a lamp, gather round and get ready to create barking dogs, flying birds and a whole menagerie of shadow characters...
+
|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>1905695454</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Eminent Hipsters
+
|isbn=Watkins_Lets
|author=Donald Fagen
+
|title=Let's Make Lots of Money: My Life as the Biggest Man in Pop
 +
|author=Tom Watkins
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Donald Fagen is best known as one half of the partnership that became Steely Dan, one of the more sophisticated names in American rock music.  While at school in the 1960s he was convinced that his vocation would be journalism, until music took over.  When the group, or rather duo plus hired hands, went on hiatus, he contributed to various journals. About half of this fairly brief book consists of his articles on films, music and science fiction, and the rest is made up of his entries (including random thoughts concerning the world around him) from a touring diary.
+
|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>0099593335</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Life on Air
+
|isbn=Kendrick_Scrappy
|author=David Attenborough
+
|title=Scrappy Little Nobody
|rating=4.5
+
|author=Anna Kendrick
|genre=Autobiography
+
|rating=3.5
|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>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Hollywood Frame by Frame: Behind the Scenes: Cinema's Unseen Contact Sheets
 
|author=Karina Longworth
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=If you ever think of Hollywood you think of it as the home of a certain kind of output.  Superstars, big studio productions, and what they combined to produce – things you might call movies, or films. Once upon a time, of course, they were called moving pictures, without the abbreviation, but the artform – once called the greatest of the 20th Century – was just as recognisable through the still images it produced. This coffee table book is designed as a catalogue of those still images – whether they be formally posed portraits taken on set, re-enactments of the cinema's scenes shot separately on still camera for the purpose of publicity, or candid stills that formed a matter the star had a final say in, which would go some way to increasing the cult of their personality in the magazines that were then starting to focus on celebrity.
+
|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>1781579806</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=The Art of Neil Gaiman
+
|isbn=Ropek_Tragic
|author=Hayley Campbell
+
|title=Tragic Magic: The Life of Traffic's Chris Wood
 +
|author=Dan Ropek
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=An early [[:Category:Neil Gaiman|Neil Gaiman]] book was all about Douglas Adams, and came out at the time he had a success with a book of his own regarding definitions of concepts that had previously not had a specific word attached.  Gaiman himself is one of those concepts.  I know what a polyglot is, and a polymath – but there should be a word for someone like Gaiman, who can write anything and everything he seems to want – a whimsical family-friendly picture book, a behemoth of modern fantasy, an all-ages horror story, something with a soupcon of sci-fi or with a factor of the fable.  He can cross genres – and to some extent just leave them behind as unnecessary, as well as cross format – he was mastering the lengthy, literary graphic novel just as 'real' books were festering in his creativity, and songs and poems were just appearing here and there.  So he is pretty much who you think of as regards someone who can turn his hands to anything he wishes.  He is a poly-something, then, or just omni-something else.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781571392</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Wanna Cook? The Complete, Unofficial Companion to Breaking Bad
 
|author=Ensley F Guffey and K Dale Koontz
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Cancer. Chemistry. Drugs. The DEA. Heisenberg. Mexico. Fried Chicken. Blood baths (and baths full of blood). Cartels. Criminal lawyers. Bacon birthday breakfasts. This is Breaking Bad, and the only question that remains is… Wanna Cook?
+
|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>190580296X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Books that Changed the World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human History
+
|isbn=Dolby_Sound
|author=Andrew Taylor
+
|title=The Speed of Sound
 +
|author=Thomas Dolby
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Oh the pleasure when, as a book reviewer, one can simply point to the title and say – 'yup, that'. Or, I suppose, as in the non-existent follow-up, Adverts That Changed the World, simply repeat the mantra 'it does exactly what it says on the tin'. 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 is little influence I can bear on things. I will, however, soldier on.
+
|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>1782069429</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=The Beatles
+
|isbn=Morris_Legion
|author=Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom
+
|title=The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains: Oddball Criminals from Comic Book History
 +
|author=Jon Morris
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=''The Beatles'' begins with the childhood of John Lennon at the end of the second world war. The first illustration seems to convey and infant John twisting and shouting on his way to the air raid shelter. The text and illustrations both paint a picture of mischievous but intelligent child. We especially loved an illustration that shows the mixed emotions of the passengers and driver as John plays an old harmonica for hours on the bus. Some of the passengers look desperate to escape, but the driver is so impressed he gives John a better harmonica.
+
|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>1847804519</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Live At the Brixton Academy: A riotous life in the music business
+
|isbn=Fletcher_Midnight
|author=Simon Parkes and J S Rafaeli
+
|title=In the Midnight Hour: The Life & Soul of Wilson Pickett
 +
|author=Tony Fletcher
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Who on earth would want to buy and run a live music venue in deepest Brixton, and manage to keep it running for fifteen years, transforming it against all the odds into what becomes one of Britain’s most iconic establishments of its kind?  Such an undertaking calls for somebody with special managerial skills who can keep one step ahead of the game, walking a precarious tightrope, keeping gangsters, punters, promoters and the local authorities onside.  It also requires a good deal of luck.
+
|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>1846689554</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Let Me Off at the Top!: My Classy Life and Other Musings
 
|author=Ron Burgundy
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Humour
 
|summary=''This book is a testament to my giant balls.''  But it's also a lot more.   The story we've never been able to discern from either of the ''Anchorman'' films is one of surprising hardship, unsurprising hardness, and great hair.  It's a rags-to-riches tale, as Ron Burgundy comes from a Hicksville town in the middle of the outskirts of somewhere the arse end of nowhere (a town perpetually on fire due to the accidents in the mines underneath) and struggles against all the odds – and many of the evens in the shape of women's legs – to get where he is today, thrusting himself and his news at us nightly.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780892241</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Dedicated to...: The Forgotten Friendships, Hidden Stories and Lost Loves found in Second-hand Books
+
|isbn=Paling_Reading
|author=W B Gooderham
+
|title=Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library
 +
|author=Chris Paling
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=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's a different storyTwice now I have managed to find a second-hand book, completely signed and dedicated by the author, yet discarded by the recipient, and have been able to present the author with the edition at hand and get it re-dedicated(If I'm not mistaken, the discarders were a neighbouring babysitter, and a teacher of the author's children.) I'll admit that's rarefied, however, and on the whole the scribble you find in second-hand books is from the person who bought it, and gave it as a gift, not the person who wrote itBut even so, the dedication of the donor can be immensely fascinating and open to all kinds of interpretation, as these examples show perfectly clear.
+
|summary=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 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>0593072847</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Cher: Strong Enough
+
|isbn=Springsteen_Born
|author=Josiah Howard
+
|title=Born to Run
|rating=4.5
+
|author=Bruce Springsteen
|genre=Biography
+
|rating=5
|summary=Having looked at the title and sub-title, the latter being no more than the two-word title of one of her latter-day hits, I assumed this was going to be a fairly comprehensive biography of the American singerThe sub-title, ''Strong Enough'', taken from one of her latter-day hit singles, reveals nothingNot until I had almost finished it, a little puzzled at it not being quite what I had expected, did I finally look at the blurb on the back – at which point all became clear. This was not the full story of a showbiz career which has lasted close on half a century, but for the most part an extraordinarily detailed account of her 1975 TV variety show.
+
|genre=Entertainment
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859654842</amazonuk>
+
|summary=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 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.''
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=My Life
+
|isbn=JVDK_Beatles
|author=David Jason
+
|title=A Beatles Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Beatles but Were Afraid to Ask
|rating=4.5
+
|author=John Van der Kiste
|genre=Autobiography
+
|rating=5
|summary=Born in North London in February 1940 during the early years of the Second World War, David John White once had a brief career as an electrician.  Fortunately for the world of entertainment and the public, he soon forsook the world of fuses and wires for that of the stage and small screen. When he joined Equity, they already had a David White on their records, and after a little quick thinking on the phone, he became David Jason.
+
|genre=Entertainment
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780891407</amazonuk>
+
|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.
 
}}
 
}}
 +
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

Walton Ask.jpg

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

Watkins Lets.jpg

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