Again! by Emily Gravett

After a hard day’s work you’ll be tired.  The last thing you’ll want to do is read a bedtime story over and over and over again to your energetic kids who just won’t go to sleep until you have. Well that’s what this book is about.

The book starts with a child dragon who wants a bedtime story to be read to them by their mummy/daddy/guardian dragon, who obliges. Then the child dragon wants it read again. The mummy/daddy/whatever dragon reads it again, a slightly different version. Then the child dragon wants it to be read again. And so on with the parent dragon getting more and more fed up/tired and the child getting more and more frustrated resulting in chaos at the end, hence a hole in the back of the book. 

So this is the ideal bedtime story because you and your child can relate to the story. And hopefully it can aid your child’s understanding that parents don’t have unlimited energy, especially at the end of the day, so don’t necessarily want to continuously read them bedtime stories. But the book says all this in a fun way, which is why my daughters and I love it. 

(This book is listed on Amazon here.)

Birdsong: 150 British and Irish birds and their amazing sounds by Jonathan Elphick, Lars Svensson and Jan Pedersen

Bird books that I've seen in the past normally have a description of how the bird's song sounds, but to decipher a sound accurately from a string of words is difficult (for me at least). Hence why when I saw this book, complete with sounds you could hear, I got it. Also I thought it'd be good for my young children to play with so that they get interested in birds.

When the book arrived it was bigger than I thought it'd be. It is a big, glossy, heavy hardcover of a book; certainly not one you could easily take with you when you go out and about birdspotting, and not necessarily one you'd give to the kids to play with.

The book typically gives each bird a 2-page layout with a long bit of description about the bird and a nice glossy photo on the opposite page to go along with it. Sometimes there is an hand-drawn illustration too; some birds only get one page coverage. Sometimes there is an additional 2-page photo spread of a bird too. All of the pictures are beautifully taken and in full colour. They are also pictures I've never seen before (sometimes I've seen images shared between books) and they come with useful captions beneath them.

The sound player itself is easy to use. You basically cycle through the 180-odd sounds, pressing play on the one you want (or you can play all). This means you can't easily switch between one birdsong and another if they are far apart in number but the design aids with simplicity and keeps the amount of buttons that were required down to a minimum. There are instructions on how to use the player within the book too if you do feel that you wouldn't be able to pick it up so easily but it is really simple to use so don't worry about that. Also the sound player takes 3xAAA batteries which are included with the book. Once finished they are easily replaceable too.

There are 180-odd sounds in this book for 150 birds - this is because some birds have multiple sounds. For example the blackbird has three sounds: its song, its call and its alarm call. However despite all these sounds in reality the bird may make another call and thus you still may not be able to recognise sounds when out in the wild but that is the nature of birdsong I guess. Anyway I love reading the descriptions of the sounds of the birds now that I can listen to them at the same time. It certainly adds to my experience and understanding of what those words are describing.

What is missing in this book though is the little summaries that other bird books give you, such as a little map of Britain and Ireland indicating where the bird could be found and at what time of year, listings of their habitat, their size etc. But this can be found in the main text for each bird anyway whilst the summary tables can be found in other books as standard so you could use the two together.

As an alternative to this book you could get birdsong from off a website (e.g. RSPB) but I find websites harder to navigate than this book, although with its heaviness this book isn't necessarily ideal either.

Overall then a book for those that want to not just read about and see birds, but want to hear them too.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon here.)

The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder by J. W. Ironmonger

This book is about Maximilian Ponder. He is pictured on the cover, lying dead and beheaded on a table. And that is where the book starts. His friend Adam Last then narrates the full story to fill in the gaps of what has happened before. This includes the telling of the life of Max and how he took to cataloguing his brain, writing a whole library-worth of volumes containing his memories, his conversations, etc. as he shuts himself off from the world to take part in this exercise. 

So the premise is certainly unique and I found it to be interesting. The way the book was written provided an intriguing way of getting little tidbits of information or funny little stories or detailed descriptions into a novel but at the same time there is a story there to carry it all, a story of an obsessive.

There is wit in the novel too, in places, although predominantly the tone is serious. My only criticism really is that it may not be for everyone but for me its quirkiness and unique premise worked.

Recommended.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon here.)

Asterix the Gaul by Goscinny and Uderzo

This is the first Asterisk novel, thus it introduces many of the themes that follow in the following 30-odd books: the premise of a Gaulish village resisting against the might of the Roman army; the Romans getting a good biffing from those villagers whenever they attempt to take it; Asterix’s craftiness; the magic potion as produced by the druid, Getafix, that gives those who drink it great strength; Obelix who has permanently high levels of strength due to falling into the potion as a boy and he can never have it again as the consequences would be tragic, yet he does want it; Obelix's love of wild boar...

The story here is good too. It tells the tale of the Romans sending a spy into the village to find out where their great strength comes from which leads to a kidnap plot on the druid, and Asterix gets involved too, but all ends happily with a great banquet to celebrate (another theme carried through into the other books). 

The drawings themselves are a little cruder and less refined than the later books (just look at Obelix on the cover and compare him to the way he looks within), which is understandable given this is the first, but this is the ideal place to start if you’re new to Asterix.

(This book is listed on Amazon here.)

Goblins by Philip Reeve

This book is luminous green. Even the edges of the pages are luminous green. It looks like a Yellow Pages although is smaller and not yellow. It’s just the sort of thing that would appeal to the young male readers it is intended for. Just flicking through the pages too there are pictures of the goblins poking their heads or a limb onto the edges of some of the pages inside further keeping the attention. 

But they say don’t judge a book by its cover so let me review the actual story too. I thought it was a great story full of suspense. It starts with the goblin Skarper being fired out of a catapult and it ends with Skarper being fired out of a catapult, although there is stuff that happens in between. 

On the negative side the first half took a little time to get going as all the different creatures were introduced into the story, from goblins to boglins, and there were a lot of them. Also the story is about far more than just about goblins so the title isn’t entirely accurate although I think that is me being quite pernickety.

Overall there is a fast-paced, enjoyable story here well worth reading.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon here.)

Eagle in the Sky (reissue) by Wilbur Smith

Wilbur Smith's Eagle in the Sky is being re-issued today. It comes in a groovy new cover. My original review for this is here. The book with the new cover is listed on Amazon here.

Luton Town: An Illustrated History by Roger Wash

This book presents a pictorial history of Luton Town from 1885 through to the summer of 2000. It is loosely split into 6 chapters, each chapter having an opening page of text detailing the club's history over the period before being followed by photos and the odd piece of memorabilia. Each picture comes with a little caption detailing what it is.

Highlights include photos from away friendlies in 1956 against Barcelona, presumably at the Nou Camp, and Dynamo Bucharest where 120,000 spectators turned out; a picture of Ron Baynham making a save in the 1950s, long before goalies wore gloves; the famous photo of Town fans dressed up prior to the 1959 FA cup final (this can be seen on the cover too); Pleat doing the jig across the Maine Road pitch in 1983 (also on the cover); all the Luton goals from the victorious 1988 League Cup final and pictures of former stars in action such as Graham French and Malcolm MacDonald.

There are a couple of mistakes though: e.g. a couple of captions not showing the correct picture such as the programme for the 12-0 Bristol Rovers match missing. Also all the pictures are in black and white (no colour ones), some of them are quite small and some of the photos you may have seen before. Because it is picture-based it is quicker to consume than a written history too. Still for a die-hard Luton fan this nostalgia-filled book is sure to be a big hit.

(This book is listed on Amazon here.)

The Definitive Luton Town F.C. by Steve Bailey, Brian Ellis and Alan Shury

This book is a statistical record of Luton Town from their formation through to the 1996-97.

The opening pages show four black and white team photos, a page of Luton's honours and records, and a 2-page condensed history before the main content of the book - the season-by-season statistical records.

The non-league seasons (late 19th/early 20th century) are covered briefly, the league seasons in more detail with each league season being covered match by match with details of the scores, the attendances, the players that played and the Luton scorers. The final league table is also given. Cup matches are included too, including cups such as the Full Members Cup, the Anglo-Italian Cup and the Southern Professional Floodlit Cup (which Luton won in 1956-57).

After this there are 2-pages listing Luton's full playing record against other league clubs, 8-pages worth of details on the players that played for Luton with their DOB, place of birth, when they died, their seasons at Luton, the clubs they came from and went to, their appearance and goal records. A brief list of managers follows before a page of black and white pictures to close.

Overall this is a great statistical record for Luton fans. There are some gaps in the early years on attendances, and the accuracy I haven't checked although the authors say they have double and triple-checked so it should be good. Of course this isn't up to date now and a more recent record can be found within the book Luton Town Football Club: A Full Record: 1885-2010.

(This book is listed on Amazon here.)

Chomp by Carl Hiaasen

This book is an Everglades adventure centred around nature. Mickey Cray is an animal wrangler (he deals with animals). He gets a TV contract for a survival show hosted by Derek Badger, trouble is he is not fully recovered from concussion caused by an iguana that fell out of a tree (such a zany book) so his son Wahoo (I love the unusual names in this book like this and others such as Tuna Gordon and Raven Stark) has to help him.

They go to film in the Everglades where they see that Derek Badger is not the seasoned survivalist he is portrayed to be. In fact he hasn't got a clue about animals, nature, survival etc. and that leads to conflict with Mickey who absolutely loves nature, all good-natured and fun. Throw into the mix a drunken madman with a gun and the whole thing ends in an exciting manhunt.

This story is a fast-paced, zany adventure that I loved.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon here.)

The Comic Cafe by Roger Stevens

This story is part horror and part mystery. It follows Wilf and his 4 sisters as they re-open an abandoned café that they call the Comic Café. They do this without their parents who have both gone on holiday without knowing that their kids are unsupervised. The kids then get spooked at night by noises in the café, solve a mystery and simultaneously manage to refurbish the café within a couple of weeks.

Oh, and there are female bottoms in there too, but all in good taste.

The formula of a bunch of kids solving a mystery without adult assistance has been done before but this is still a decent book for children. 

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon here.)

The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki

This book was recently long-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012 so I thought I'd check it out.

The description of this book made me think that this was going to be like "Catch Me If You Can: The True Story Of A Real Fake". However it really isn't like that.

The story is of Maqil Karam. It follows his life through selected periods of his life. Each chapter is headed after a place in the world, like Paris, London and Lahore, and a year. The story goes from birth to, inevitably, death. Throughout he is changing identities, leaving wives behind, businesses behind..., yet to me, despite the description suggesting that all his past acquaintances were trying to "pin him down", he never seems like he is nearly being found. There was one person, Nasser, that caught up with him but he got out of that rather disappointingly easily, and it never seemed like he was in any danger through the book. Mainly it seems the only people making efforts to keep track of him are family, for reasons that they want to keep in touch rather than pin him down. So I think there could have been more suspense thrown in to make the book more exciting.

Also for me the book didn't really get going until a few chapters in, when he returned to Lahore. But after that false start I got into the book a bit more. The writing style is a contemplative one which has a lot of thought going on throughout.

Overall not the book I was expecting but decent nonetheless.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon here.)

Easy Money by Jens Lapidus

I will definitely not be reading any more books from this Author. It was very difficult to follow the story line of the book. A lot of detail which would have made for coherent story telling seems to have been missing; perhaps lost in translation from Swedish to English. The pace of the book unlike many crime thrillers is very slow, boring and not gripping. I really struggled to finish the book.

There were a lot of graphic scenes of violence, double crossing, extortion, fraud, money laundering and prostitution which I found unappealing. The use of gangster-speak, vulgar and gutter language also means that the book will have a limited number of followers.

Lapidus seems to have missed a trick by not having a Police or Detective solving the crime and bringing to justice the "wrong doers" as in James Patterson’s character ‘Alex Cross’ or Michael Connelly’s Detective ‘Harry Bosch’.

The book is one long and laborious narration about the lives of crime of three very grim and unsavoury characters who are totally bereft of morals and capable of committing unspeakable crimes in a bid to make ‘easy money’. There is no likeable rogue in the story to empathise with – the Chilean (Jorge) the Swede (JW) and the Serbian Mrado are all despicable characters.

I found it impossible to believe that Jorge following his escape from prison continues his lifestyle of crime and drug dealing in Sweden undetected by law enforcement agents and he does this simply by wearing a silly disguise and growing a beard. That certainly does not speak well of the standard of policing in Sweden.

Lapidus background as a Criminal Defence Attorney comes into play in the book – his case notes rather than engendering a cohesive thread; jump at you. It is also difficult to see what value the various ‘Project Nova’ reports add to the story. The reports could have been seamlessly included in the book through a narration by a character in the book – it seemed to me at times as if I was reading a report and then a story; I found this a bit disjointed.

I however found it poignant and touching that Jorge forgave JW for double crossing him. Jorge’s gesture in depositing Three Hundred Thousand Kronor into JWs account in the Isle of Man surely illustrates that ‘there is honour even amongst thieves’. 

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. My friend Chuka reviewed it. It is listed on Amazon here.)