Book Review: “Base Notes” by Lara Elena Donnelly

I got this book as part of Amazon Firsts, where you get a free book a month or so before the main release. From the blurb that accompanied the text, it sounded very good and reminded me of another Amazon Firsts book, “These Toxic Things” by Rachel Howzell, that I had recently read. With my…

Book Review: “The Making of the Movie Jaws” by Edith Blake

As I have discussed in my posts about visiting Martha’s Vineyard, watching the play “The Shark Is Broken“, My Top Movies and TV Shows, and No Escaping Jaws, “Jaws” is my favourite movie. Recently I read, for the first time, the original book by Peter Benchley. I have many other Jaws-related books – most of…

Book Review: “A Funny Life” by Michael McIntyre

I received this book as a Christmas present and what a fabulous gift it was. I have been enjoying Michael McIntyre’s work for many years and saw him live in Cardiff back in 2018. What I soon discovered when reading “A Funny Life (The Autobiography)” is that it’s not THE autobiography, but AN autobiography. There…

Book Review: “Jaws” by Peter Benchley

As I have discussed in my posts about visiting Martha’s Vineyard and watching the play “The Shark Is Broken“, “Jaws” is my favourite movie. I have probably watched it well over 100 times – most recently only last week. But, I had never read the original novel until this week when I received it as…

Book Review: “No Way Back” by J.B. Turner

There are few absolutes when it comes to tastes – no book/film/programme that everyone will agree is excellent, or that everyone will agree is awful. We all have different views. And that is one of the problems with reviews – particularly if only a star rating is given – you just don’t know if the…

Book Review: “Did They Steal A Million Yet?” by James Crookes

It’s December 2021. But it’s also December 1984. Yes, after the highly enjoyable “Do They Know It’s Christmas Yet?“, Tash, Jamie, and company are back for another crazy ride between two time lines. Unlike the first book, this one doesn’t have the premise of needing to ensure that a key thing happens so that history…

Book Review: “At First Light” by Barbara Nickless

On the face of it, as someone who is interested in symbols and semiotics, this should have been the perfect crime book for me to read. There was certainly much that I enjoyed. But I also found elements of the book a bit of a battle. The two main battles I had actually surrounded the…

Book Review: “The Unfinished Atomic Bomb: Shadows and Reflections” edited by David Lowe, Cassandra Atherton, and Alyson Miller

As I have written about before (see for example, In the Shadow of the Mushroom Cloud: 75 years since the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Book Review: “The World Set Free” by HG Wells, Mushroom Cloud Art, and Book Review: Hiroshima-75 edited by Aya Fujiwara and David R. Marples), I have had an interest…

Book Review: “Her Name is Knight” by Yasmin Angoe

This is a challenging book. In a good way. I have read books before (such as “Deadly Waters” by Dot Hutchison) where the descriptions and topic just seemed to go to far as I nearly stopped reading (though was pleased that I didn’t). This book wasn’t a challenge in that way. Yes, the topics were…

Book Review: “Bad Foreigner” by James McKnight

As a Hanshin Tigers fan, when it came to my most recent birthday and relations were asking what they could get me, I added James McKnight’s books about supporting the Hanshin Tigers to the list. I knew that these would be a very different experience to The Sportsworld of the Hanshin Tigers: Professional Baseball in…