The Book-ish Variety: February 2012

Follow Harry through the year of 2010 where he has many escapades with his many showbiz pals, as well as his family - Mum, Uncle Bob, Dog and Nan. There are so many celebrities mentioned that there is a danger that this book might date quite badly in the future but I don't think Harry is that worried because he says (jokingly of course) that he is "fully aware that one day this book will be considered a hugely important historical document."

Now anyone expecting this to be a normal diary giving insight into Harry's private life and covering Harry's activities such as his time at TV Burp will be in for a shock. For others familiar with Harry Hill's stand-up they will know exactly what to expect in this spoof diary. This is silly and surreal turned up to eleven. Like Harry himself says, "everything in this diary actually happened. Only the facts have been changed."

There were a few mistakes I noticed reading through such as the monkey-hanging incident being attributed to Hull rather than Hartlepool and the disappearance of 31st May, but nothing to detract from the fun.

And fun it is, although not necessarily the constant LOL-type fun you'd get by watching Harry's comedy (after all laughter is best suited to a shared environment whilst reading is generally a solitary experience).

(This book is on Amazon here.)

Monday, 27 February 2012

The Beezer Book 1990 by DC Thompson

This Beezer annual has all the favourite Beezer characters within, such as the Numskulls, Baby Crockett and Little Mo, as well as some of the newer ones at the time, like Sting, and all in full-colour too. What more could you want?

Highlights in this annual include the recurring feature "great beez in history" which profiles such greats as Julius Beezer, and a feature-length story featuring a number of the Beezer characters and a dangerous journey they go on in "The Castle of King Splud".

Just watch out though if you are buying second-hand (as will be the case sine this review was written over 20 years after the release) in-case any of the pages are missing. I say this from experience with mine missing one right near the end.

(This item is listed on Amazon here.)

Sunday, 26 February 2012

The Beano Annual 2009 by DC Thompson

This Beano annual has all the favourite Beano stars within, such as Dennis the Menace and Minnie the Minx, as well as some of the newer ones, like Pirates of the Caribeano, and all in full-colour too. What more could you want?

Highlights include:

* A Bash Street Kids musical

* A look at Roger the Dodger's ancestors

* Cameo appearances from Beano stars of old such as the Nibblers and the Bash Street Pups

If I was nit-picking I could find some faults:

* The 7 wonders of Beanotown weren't strictly based on the 7 wonders of the world (so not good educationally)

* The 4-part strip based on reservoir dogs was (in my eyes) not well drawn or scripted (although the concept was good)

* Walter's mum is different inside the book compared with the more familiar version on the back cover

But that is just nit-picking.

(This item is listed on Amazon here.)

Saturday, 25 February 2012

32 Programmes by Dave Roberts

The premise for this book was good: the author had to reduce his treasured collection of 1,134 football programmes down to 32 because he was emigrating. So I was looking forward to reading it but in the end it turned out to be a book of two halves.

The good half was where the author had something to say, for example where he related the programmes to childhood crushes or to meeting his first wife for the first time. I particularly enjoyed him meeting a fellow programme collector in the very early stages of his football match attending life. Could that have been the spur for the obsession that followed? Also there were good moments where the author talked specifically about various aspects of the programmes themselves.

Then there was the not so good half where the author didn't have a lot to say that hasn't been said before (as another reviewer already picked up on) like the obligatory first-match experience, which is the standard fare of all football memoirs, and the match report moments that you could have got from a newspaper.

Then I came to the end and the author dropped a bombshell saying that he was going to ship across the other programmes he left behind anyway at a later date so this made the preceding part of the book seem a bit pointless and I felt a little like I'd been lied to as he was going to be re-united with all his programmes anyway.

But it was a nice, easy-to-read book with the programmes being varied enough to cover lots of different teams and keep my interest.

(I got this book from Amazon Vine. It is available to buy here.)

Friday, 24 February 2012

Rippin' it Old-School (Sweet Farts) by Raymond Bean

This light-hearted story follows Keith Emerson, a 10-year-old boy, in his struggles to get a science project together before the annual science fair. There is huge expectation on him because the previous year he made "sweet farts" which are sweets that make farts smile nice. That project was a huge success and he feels under pressure to deliver something as successful this time around.

My first concern was whether this book would be too toilet-y for my tastes what with its title and all that but I needn't have worried. The humour was fine although based around farts the majority of the time. The rest of the humour was mainly generated from the banter between Keith and his friends.

The book flowed along nicely although it did take Keith an awfully long-time to get an idea for his science project - I'd already guessed what he'd do some time before - and also the science fair itself was over in a couple of pages despite the whole novel pretty much leading up to it. Further this book is a second in a series but doesn't rely on having any prior knowledge from the previous book as I followed it easily enough despite not having read the first one.

It took me about 2-hours to read and is for kids but adults can enjoy it too.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is available to buy here.)

Thursday, 23 February 2012

The Graduate Student by James Polster

I read James Polster's "Brown" before this. That was good, this did not disappoint. The book follows lead character Blackwell James as he tries to complete his studies but it isn't a boring book about someone attending lectures where they are taught uncomprehensible academic waffle. Instead Blackwell gets mixed up in the Hollywood movie business and a whole madcap adventure unfolds around him.

The book is split into three distinct parts (each begins from chapter 1), a beginning, middle and end. The beginning part was a little slow perhaps, the middle was a forest drug-fuelled adventure and part three brought the novel to a thrilling climax.

Compared with the previous Polster novel I read this book is a more serious novel with less emphasis on the humour, although it still has fun, quirky elements, and the storyline is probably better and less far-fetched.

Recommended.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is available to buy here.)

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

Brown by James Polster

"Brown" follows the hero McGee Brown through a bizarre occurrence of events that sees him go from sports-writer to psychologist to private detective.

I loved several things about this book. I loved the humour. I loved that the chapters were generally short so that I could breeze through relatively quickly (and could stop easily when I needed to). I loved the outlandish situations that the author threw Brown into (well most of them). And I loved the characters' weird ways.

There was a bit in the middle however where the author was relying solely on the ridiculousness of Brown's plight to generate the humour. However this section was over quickly and the beginning prior and the subsequent ending (spoiler: 3-way chase) made up for this.

I enjoyed this read and would recommend.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is available to buy here.)

Tuesday, 21 February 2012

The Tenderloin by John Butler

No, this isn't a book about steaks. The Tenderloin is a neighbourhood in San Francisco (the book didn't tell me that though, I had to research it - the effort I go to to write these Amazon reviews!) and if you knew that then you might like to read this book because it's shoehorned with San Fran references.

The story follows Evan as he settles in San Fran having come over from Ireland with his friend Milo.

Immediately as I read the book I was hit with a zany writing style where the story fritted from one bit to the next with little joining up in between. Perhaps it was written in bits before being pieced together? Or maybe the author wanted the text to be a bit wayward just like Evan was.

There were some things I didn't like about this book like the lack of attributing dialogue to characters making three-way conversations a little more difficult than they needed to be and the way several characters would said to look like some person that I had never heard of.

But on the other hand there were good things about this book like the storytelling was good, although as previously said I felt they were individual stories pieced together rather than a whole plot, and there was an unconventional ending where you think Evan will resolve his issues and it'll all be ok when actually it doesn't happen like that in real life, and a good epilogue where the story is seen through the eyes of another character.

For a debut novel I enjoyed this quirky read.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is available to buy here.)

Monday, 20 February 2012

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

Excellent opening sentence: "This is a story about madness." It sums up the book immediately in just six words.

I was unfamiliar with Jon Ronson before reading this and picked up the book because it looked interesting and was in the "humour" genre. I was interested to find out how someone would make psychopaths and those with psychopathic tendencies sound funny. Unfortunately the book's classification into the humour genre was misleading as this wasn't a funny book in general. It was however fascinating to read none-the-less.

The book opens with a mystery over a cryptic book, a mystery that the author solves - the solution being a little disappointing but that wasn't his fault. This sets him off on a quest to find out more about madness, the circulation of a cryptic book being an act of madness, and being a journalist he wasn't afraid to approach the right people for their takes on the story. Nor did he take sides as he sought views from both sides. This added a balance to the narrative that could have been missing if presented by another journalist (the red-tops?).

He learnt how to identify psychopaths and starts investigating to find psychopaths at the very top of the corporate/political world as there are a greater proportion of them there than in the general population, around 3% compared with 1% supposedly. However he barely started to do this before a colleague made him doubt his psychopath-spotting abilities. So he tailed off his investigations on this which was a bit of a disappointment (but it has laid the foundations for someone else to step in and take the mantel if they are brave enough and confident enough).

Summing up this is an easy-to-read journalistic story that explores madness well although some avenues could have been explored further and no firm conclusions were made, which may be a good thing of course where classifying someone mad or allocating them with a mental disorder is concerned. Or perhaps that was the conclusion, that madness is not something that is cut and dry so keep an open mind before classing that "mad" neighbour or "mad" aunt mad.

(I received this book through Amazon Vine. It is available to buy here.)

Sunday, 19 February 2012

John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Personal Success

I normally struggle with these self-help books. That's because in my reading time I don't like to concentrate too much on what I'm reading which is why I normally read fiction or non-fiction on a topic that I love. So I tried reading this book like a normal book and found that, as I expected, I was struggled with it. I changed my approach. There is simply too much to take in and reading it in the manner I had been meant I wasn't doing that. Instead I started to read it slower and consider what was on the page. In fact this book is ideal for this approach. You can dip in and out of it easily because each idea typically takes up only one or two pages. Also the way each idea is laid out, normally an opening quote followed by some description often including examples and more quotes with key points and bullets in boxes, helped me take in the key messages without as much difficulty as I expected. (In fact when I used the Amazon look inside feature before getting this book I thought that the layout was going to be beneficial to me.)

So under this new reading approach I did enjoy this book and did pick up a few tit-bits, like if I want to succeed in a particular field then I have to be fully committed. Naturally though this book doesn't guarantee you or me to succeed, after all they are just ideas and you can do with them as you wish. But I'm hoping that I am a better person because of it and that's all I can do.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is available to buy here.)

Saturday, 18 February 2012

Tiger, Tiger: A Memoir by Margaux Fragoso

"Tiger, tiger" is a book about a relationship between a girl and a middle-aged man. For that reason I was worried before I started reading it that I would not be able to complete the book. However from the beginning I was hooked. The writing was superb. The author was able to conjure up the childish behaviour of a child effortlessly. And as she got older so did the way she behaved.

But then the relationship between Margaux with the aged Peter got frequently sexual (she was around 13 at this time) and the graphic content of this middle section did lead to a lull in the book for me. But I read through this wanting to get to the bit where Peter was going to commit suicide, as was cleverly mentioned right at the beginning of the book, but needing to know what triggered it. Although in the end there was no trigger but just a gradual build-up of depression and accusations that made him do it. And strangely the end isn't that sad until the author looks back nostalgically to the good moments they had together in the last couple of pages of the book before the afterword.

The "Tiger, tiger" title was clever. It had two meanings. Meaning 1 was a reference to a game that Margaux and Peter played when she was young and meaning 2 could reference the animal - the predator after its prey, like Peter in his grooming of the young child Margaux.

A challenging read but if you can get past the subject matter and the not-too-nice middle-section it can be rewarding such is the excellent writing style.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is available to buy here.)

Friday, 17 February 2012

There's a Hamster in my Pocket by Franzeska G Ewart

This book is probably aimed at 14-year-old girls and I am a 30-year-old man so treat this review with the weight it deserves - not a lot.

The book starts with a chapter entitled "Beset with worries" where the worries of the narrator, Yosser, are outlined. Throughout the rest of the book she lets her worries escalate to get the better of her until the end when, of course, they are all resolved. And along the way the book also deals with relationships between friends and families, and pets, like the Hamster in the title of the book.

So the overall moral of the story is: do not worry because, more than likely, it'll be alright in the end.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is available to buy here.)

Thursday, 16 February 2012

The Ghost of '66 by Martin Peters

This is the autobiography of Martin Peters, one of only two Englishman to ever score in the FIFA World Cup final (to date of course, here's hoping).

The biography itself is pretty straightforward with no controversy throughout. The obvious high point is the recalling of the run to the World Cup Final which he scored in as England won.

He also talks us through his club career too. He started at West Ham before moving on to Spurs and then Norwich. He also described a stint at Sheffield United where he was also manager, but only for a short time. He also talks about the famous characters in the game he came up against and there are some good anecdotes of the likes of Bobby Moore and Sir Alf Ramsey. There are also lots of comparisons with how football was then to how it is now.

The closing chapter where he offers views of who should make the 2006 England World Cup squad is already out of date and is a chapter that probably could have been left out of the book.

Overall there is nothing spectacular to set this apart from other biographies and it is probably not worth going out of your way for unless you are a West Ham, Tottenham Hotspur or Norwich City fan.

(This book is available to buy here.)

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

A Season with Verona by Tim Parks

This book starts off brilliantly with the tale of a boozy, drug-fuelled organised coach journey for Verona fans to a far-flung away match. The chapter blew me away and I thought I was in for a real treat as I continued through the book. Unfortunately though that chapter was the book’s highlight and the other chapters couldn’t compare with some proving to be a lot poorer. For example chapters where the author went on a tangent and talked about something completely unrelated to football but tried to tie it in somehow. A case in point was when instead of analysing a particularly heavy defeat for Verona at the hands of Roma the author instead of talking about the football instead dissected an antiquated Italian poem which I thought made for particularly heavy reading. These instances made chapters resemble academic essays which wasn’t the light football-related reading I was expecting.

Other gripes include that the coverage of a Verona cup exit only gets a one-line mention as he couldn’t bring himself to write about it (similar to the Roma game which was neglected and replaced as mentioned above) and that his views are totally biased towards Verona. For example when the Veronese fans get picked on by the police or rival hooligans then he is up in arms against those that have committed this violent deed. Yet when differing factions in the Verona crowd come against each other he merely glosses over it. Also Italian phrases are used regularly through the book so try and stick them into your memory bank when you first come across them as they are likely to be repeated later on. Failing that keep your Italian phrasebook handy.

But other things are good. The author went to the efforts of contacting the club to let them know about the book before it was written and they granted him access to the team on various occasions through the season including where he accompanied them to an away trip. Unfortunately I feel this magnificent opportunity was not utilised fully and little insight seemed to be gained from these meetings although Verona fans may find things like the club’s income and expenditure figures and brief biographies of some of their playing squad of interest.

Overall though Tim Parks is obviously an accomplished writer and the book is jam-packed with material on all sorts about Italian football, Italy and their culture. However if he’d left out all the other unnecessary asides from the book and focused more on the actual football and the passion of his fellow fans like he did in the first chapter then I feel he would have made an okay book into an all-time classic.

(This book is available to buy here.)

Tuesday, 14 February 2012

Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett

Basically the book consists of different combinations of the four words in the title of the book and each combination is accompanied by an appropriate illustration. The fact that there are only these words through the book (and one additional word at the end) means that my daughter who is three and two/thirds can read it to herself. I'll be looking out for more books like this in the near future to help her as she begins to learn to read.

(This book is available to buy here.)

Monday, 13 February 2012

Run Baby Run by Nicky Cruz

This book is the autobiographical account of Nicky Cruz. Originally hailing from Puerto Rico he was sent to New York as a teenager. There he had no-one so he turned to the gangs. It wasn't long until he was elevated to gang leader thanks to his fearless ways. But later came a man with three words for him that did scare him:

`Jesus loves you!' Three small words that change Nicky Cruz's life for ever!

However the change was not easy, there were struggles along the way and friends were lost as Nicky made the transition from gang leader into ministry!

This book can make you cry when you read about how faith in Jesus Christ has impacted on people's lives where they are seemingly too far gone down the darkside to be saved.

Read it and weep.

(This book is available to buy here.)

Sunday, 12 February 2012

My **** Life So Far by Frankie Boyle

This is the autobiography of Frankie Boyle from TV's Mock the Week. As you'd expect from the title of the book and from Frankie's comedy style as seen from his TV and stand-up work he views life negatively. However this doesn't mean the book is dour and depressing because he has interspersed his humour into it as much as possible. Some of this had me laughing out loud. For example he relates a story where he shimmies down a drainpipe to avoid his flatmate who he wants to avoid, only to get caught by the police who then march him back to collaborate his story with his flat mate. He then has to tell his flat mate how much he hates him.

But other bits of the book went off on tangents as he inserted some of his on-the-shelf comedic material into the book. For example there are ideas for TV reality shows of the future quickly followed by a couple of scripts for sketches that never made it to TV. As you'd expect some of this is funny but it is off topic and it does mean the biographical story can be lost which is a shame because I found the stories relating to his life, such as the above drainpipe story, to be better than the shoe-horned insertions of his previous material.

So there were a lot of very funny bits that made it an enjoyable read in places but the meandering structure of the book, especially later on, makes it a bit confusing.

(This book is available to buy here.)

Saturday, 11 February 2012

Shout at the Devil by Wilbur Smith

Having read lots of Wilbur Smith's books this one stands out as being different. It is split into two parts. Part 1 is set before WWI and focuses on one man, Flynn O'Flynn, who lives just outside German East Africa and his comical raids into Germany. Early in the book he meets an Englishman and their repetoire is very funny. I can see why this was made into a film (according to other reviews) as the dialogue is very good. Then WWI starts and the Germans advance beyond their borders for revenge. This is where part 2 begins and the book becomes more serious as you'd expect. The ending is untypical of Smith as it isn't a feel-good ending but I don't want to spoil it.

Good book that I highly recommend.

(This book is available to buy here.)

Friday, 10 February 2012

Hungry as the Sea by Wilbur Smith

Another typically good Wilbur Smith story.

This one is set in the mid 60s and focuses on the hero Nicholas Berg and his trip from 40 year old has-been to great success once more. It all starts with him taking on the captaincy of one of the two ships (the bulk of the novel is set at sea) his struggling firm owns to try and rediscover his vitality. And it works.

Needless to say this is gripping adventure at its best all the way through and is a stand-alone novel so can be read without reading any of Wilbur Smith's other material.

(This book is available to buy here.)

Thursday, 9 February 2012

Eagle in the Sky by Wilbur Smith

This book is your typical Wilbur Smith book. It starts with the first flying lesson of a teenage David Morgan and then takes you through his life to his mid/late twenties. It just so happens that David is from a rich family and so can do what he likes. He does this by travelling to Europe from his native Africa to try and find his way in life. If only we all had enough money to do this. There he meets the love of his life and then everything goes sweetly. But being a Wilbur Smith book it doesn't go smoothly at all. This is where the rollercoaster ride begins with ups and downs. I particularly liked a chase section in the latter part of the book that had me on the edge of my seat. The only downer is that the story ends with so much more of David's life to live that you just wish it continued.

The first part of the book is partly set in Israel with David joining the Israeli Air Force. This made the book very relevant to current events with Israel currently bombing targets outside of its borders. Therefore the topical nature of the book (at time of writing this review in 2006) makes it an excellent book to read.

There are only a few criticisms I've had of Wilbur Smith books in the past like too much technical detail or rushed endings but they are not evident here.

(This book is available to buy here.)

Wednesday, 8 February 2012

Places to Hide in England, Scotland and Wales by Dixe Wills

First thing to say is that the concept for this book is brilliant. Immediately you know that’ll it’ll be a tongue in cheek type of book and indeed it is. Those who thought otherwise and expected an encyclopaedic book comprehensively listing all hiding places in England, Wales and Scotland will be disappointed. Instead you get 62 hiding places spread out across the nations, quite a lot of them on or near the coast so if you live there you’re in luck. These come with nuggets of information such as what natural foods are abundant there to eat and where is the nearest toilet. They also come with pictures. These are black and white so are sometimes difficult to see properly and would definitely have been better in colour.

Amongst all the hiding places there are other articles about hiding, like a basics guide, how to hide up a tree and how to put on a disguise. There are also articles about famous people that have gone into hiding such as Agatha Christie and Robert the Bruce and why, where and how they hid (these are inspiration for newbie hiders).

The whole book is written with humour, most of it working, the rest not working for me thanks to the usage of some obscure quotes or references or some clever language that I just didn’t get. I enjoyed this book and if I ever become a fugitive I may just take it with me.

(This book is available to buy here.)

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Football Against the Enemy by Simon Kuper

This is a book about football politics around the globe. It was written in the 92-94 period. It starts with a look at the Dutch national team and their hatred of the Germans. I wasn't very impressed by the initial chapter but after that the stories are excellent. The stories include a look at corruption at clubs in the former states of Russia and how East Germans would try and watch West German teams when the two countries were divided. In fact corruption is a theme that reappears in different countries throughout the book, a subject that is of great interest to me.

There is an article on Cameroonian football and how President Biya puts himself in danger of being shot when he makes the obligatory trip to see the cup final.

There is an article about why the Italians play a defensive style of football.

Further travels include Argentina, Glasgow via Ireland, South Africa, Croatia, USA... All in all this book is about three things, politics, travel and most of all, FOOTBALL!

(This book is available to buy here.)

Monday, 6 February 2012

Mourinho: Anatomy of a Winner by Patrick Barclay

This is an interesting book to read for anyone interested in finding out how Mourinho came from nowhere to manage one of the world's leading teams, Chelsea. It includes interviews of fellow managers and others who have known Mourinho along the road. It also looks at Mourinho's methods of management from a psychological point of view.

There are no interviews with Mourinho though but there are mentions of the official Mourinho biography so that will be my next read.

An interesting read into an interesting character.

(This book is available to buy here.)

Sunday, 5 February 2012

El Diego by Diego Maradona

El Diego takes you through the life of Diego Maradonna through the words of Maradona. He focuses on the good times, the winning of the 1986 World Cup, the winning of Italian titles etc.

What you really want is the details of the low-points of his career, his taking of drugs is only touched upon. So if you want a full account of Maradona's career then don't get this book.

(This book is available to buy here.)

Saturday, 4 February 2012

Socks Are Not Enough by Mark Lowery

I really enjoyed this book. It is about a 14-year-old boy Michael Swarbrick who has a lot of stuff going on around him that he doesn't like. His brother is an idiot and is going out with the girl he fancies (or that he admires as he prefers to say) and his parents are nudists. And pretty much because of them he gets himself into many embarrassing situations and gets the blame for a lot of stuff, so much so that he even becomes an "international hate figure". It's pretty funny how he gets into all these situations innocently yet they build and build such that it gets worse and worse for him.

Also the characters are very good. Michael himself narrates the book. His style is for plenty of footnotes and several lists. It works. His best friend is someone who loves his food, loves leering at ladies and is susceptible to making up outrageous stories about himself. The other characters include Michael's mum who is a nudist, his father a more reluctant one, his big bro who is someone who likes to play the field. His swimming instructor is someone who loves to shout and doesn't even remember his name. And that is just naming a few.

One other thing to mention is that the publicity for this book said it was "as wincingly funny as the Inbetweeners". Just to clarify, this book is funny in the same way as the Inbetweeners because of all the embarrassing situations within but it is definitely not as crude so don't worry about that.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine and it is available to buy here.)