Kentish Book Boy returns - part six

 

The Monkey Who Fell from the Future by Ross Welford (Harper Collins)

Synopsis

The year is 2425. Centuries after a catastrophic meteor collision, nature has retaken the earth. In a small town in what was once Englnd, young Ocean Mooney and the monkey-owning Duke Smiff have just dug up a 400-year old table computer.

Meanwhile, in the present day, Thomas Reeve and his genius cousin Kylie create the Time Tablet - a device which they hope will allow them to communicate with the future.

But when the Time Tablet malfunctions live on television, Thomas and Kylie are sucked in to the tear 2425 - and only have 24 hours to return home, and save the future of humanity...

My views on the book

I really enjoyed this book; my favourite part was the prologue - so descriptive and it really paints a picture in my head. I felt the epilogue was kind of funny as it linked back to the middle of the book!

Recommendation

Really recommend this book.
No other words for it.

Another one for me to borrow I feel - KBB has interesting (and great) taste in books!

Micro Review 58

 

Librarian Tales: Funny, strange, and inspiring dispacthes from the stacks by William Ottens (Skyhorse)

I've always enjoyed books that take you behind the scenes of professions, and that are full of anecdotes from the front line, and as I've now worked for the library service for well over a decade books about library life (fiction or non) are definitely ones I gravitate towards.

On the whole I find books about real libraries slightly more appealing as they try to dispel so many persistent images people have of libraries and library staff.  Reading Allowed by Chris Paling did this for the English library system a few years ago and I loved it so much that I've read it repeatedly.

I've been looking forward to reading Library Tales for a while to get a behind the scenes feel for how American libraries work, from trips we've made to libraries in the States I had the feeling that US libraries were incredibly similar to ours but also very different and I wanted to know more about this.

Otten's book charts his career as a librarian and working in libraries in Kansas and Iowa, and it gave me a great feel for what these similarities and differences are. It seems that library users are the same the world over - it is the behind the scenes work that differs. He does explain the different roles that people working in libraries do, and clarifies who can actually be called a librarian although I'm not sure that this makes any difference to customers in branches!

This was an easy read that made me nod along in recognition and wince at some of the stories whilst gaining an insight as to how different the running of buildings can be. If I'm honest I'd have preferred more anecdotes but that's just me - and if you'd like more of the humorous insights into working for a library then do give Ottens a follow on Twitter @librarianprblms or on Instagram as @librarian_problems.

Armchair traveling

 

Subpar Parks by Amber Share (Plume Publishing, USA)

Social media is often seen as a negative place but just occasionally there are real pockets of joy. Subpar Parks is one of the latter. Talented artist Share takes one star reviews of America's wonderful National Parks and illustrates them in a style very reminiscent of the traditional Parks publicity.

On social media the reviews and images are presented without comment but in this book Share has added details about the park, extra images and even tips from park rangers.

Some of the reviews are crazy - dismissing the Grand Canyon as 'just a hole' for instance, but the book never feels cruel just a delight and one when I am missing travel more than usual I shall dip into (and also use to help plan future trips - but shhh! don't tell Mr Norfolkbookworm that)

You can find more pictures and reviews on Instagram by searching for @subparparks 

The Becket List Blog Tour (#IndieBookNetwork)

 

The Becket List by Henry Becket (RedDoor Press)

Let's face it 2020 has been a pretty miserable year and anything that can raise a smile has to be a good thing, and for me The Becket List has really been a tonic over the past few weeks.

When I was offered the chance by Bex at Ninjabookbox to take part in another #IndieBookNetwork project - and one that was going to be based around a humour book - I was very excited, any thing that chases off the onset of the winter blues is to be embraced.

The Becket List seemed to be just what the (book)doctor ordered:

The Becket List is a not entirely serious compendium of 'First World Problems' - the sort of stuff that drives us round the bend on a daily basis. How is it that atonal music, bus stations, cling-film and coat-hangers can bugger us up so comprehensively? Or passport control people, modern poetry, or just about anything you'll find in a typical hotel bedroom? Embracing both the inanimate - from allen keys to rawlplugs - and the animated (well, in some cases) - from your fellow-travellers to every third-rate waiter who ever walked the earth - this book is essential for your sanity. As such, this comprehensive A to Z provides a signal service to humanity.

The list is arranged alphabetically and I've been reading it one (or two) letters a day during my coffee break and it has made me laugh out loud more than one. I think Mr Norfolkbookworm has got a little fed up with me reading extracts to him as he's trying to do the crossword.

With any personal list there's entries that made me nod in agreement with Henry Becket's thoughts and then there of course there were some entries that I thought were a little harsh, even then his reasoning often brought me round to his point of view! 

I think that my two top entries were the ones on cats and the weather forecasts - both were spot on with my feelings and it was nice to see that others share my opinions on the latter! A little of me would have liked to have heard his opinion on bucket lists but that is a minor quibble.

The book is illustrated by Tony Husband, but the book isn't reliant on them which makes the joy of coming across them all the funnier - the illustration below is actually about teapots and not vicars but it captures my experience with every teapot I've ever used...

This book should bring delight to anyone who comes across it - however grumpy or not they are in general!

Huge thanks to Bex at Ninjabookbox for offering the chance to take part in the blog tour, RedDoor Press & Helen at Literallypr for the copy of the book and then of course to Henry Beckett and Tony Husband for writing a book that has raised a smile in the gloom of autumn 2020.

Kentishbookboy Reads

In which the Kentishbookboy reads on while the Norfolkbookworm flounders!

I've seen so many social media posts go through talking about all of the time people are going to have for reading and catching up with TV series and the like during the current "situation" that I am now convinced that I am doing something wrong - I seem to be busier than ever right now and didn't even manage to keep up with the Kentishbookboy as he read and reviewed another book.

His school is now closed for the foreseeable future but on the very last day he managed to take in his 12th review to his teacher which completed her reading challenge. I'm sure that I'll be publishing that  here as a joint review soon, as it was for the first Paddington book and thanks to Norfolk Library's eBook catalogue I am reacquainting myself with the lovable bear.

Anyhow here are KBB's thoughts on his first Terry Pratchet book:

I always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Pratchett's books so when KBB picks the next one I will have to try harder to read along!

A familiar refrain...

...well to be honest at the moment I seem to have more of a fiction reader's block rather than a full on block.

I don't seem to be alone in this as a member of the online book group I'm a part of has also said the same recently, which was nice and reassuring.

I'm taking this as a sign of just how good non fiction books are right now rather than thinking that fiction isn't in a good place. Some of this problem settling on novels is also self inflicted, Mr Norfolkbookworm and I are off on our holidays soon and I've been stockpiling books I do want to read ready for two weeks in the sun (well shade - I burn too easily!). My most eagerly anticipated books are out reach for another few weeks...

The exception to this was the third instalment from Gill Sims in her Why Mummy... series. I'm not sure why these appeal to me, I'm not a parent and my husband very definitely shares the housework with me and our families are nowhere near as dysfunctional as Ellen's.

There's just something about these books that I can lose myself in. On the surface they are light hearted books which take everyday events and humorously exaggerate them to great comic effect but you quickly realise that this is very much surface and that underneath there are some very serious issues that are handled incredibly sensitively.

This is especially true for the third book in the series Why Mummy Doesn't Give a **** which I've just finished. I'm not sure that reading this on a train was my brightest idea as I found myself snorting with laughter and crying, well at least I had a seat to myself...

I discovered the books before the hilarious Peter and Jane facebook page https://www.facebook.com/peterandjaneandmummytoo/ and while, obviously, the humour is very similar between the page and the books don't think that you've read the books if you follow the webpage - they are very different and on balance I prefer the books.

The book is published on 27th June, and it will make a lot more sense if you've read the other two - the story is a continuation.

Many thanks to Net Galley for the electronic proof.

Wasted on children...

The Goth Girl Series by Chris Riddell

Just over a week ago I was lucky enough to be working an event with the former Children's Laureate - Chris Riddell.

I've long been a fan of his illustrations and political cartoons, and last summer I picked his Travels With My Sketchbook as a top read but for some reason I've not read any of the books solely written by him, despite recommending them to all and sundry based on the illustrations and blurbs!

I've rectified this now as I've raced through three of the four Goth Girl books in the past 10 days, I picked these ones on the back of Chris's comment at his talk where he talked about some painters of bucolic scenes calling themselves the twee-Raphelites  and something about this dreadful pun really spoke to me.

The Goth Girl books were a delight, and as an adult the fun came in the puns and jokes as much as the plots and I was giggling hysterically from the description of Ada Goth's father as being mad, bad and dangerous to gnomes at the start of the first book right up until the very sweet book in a book that slots into the fourth book and gives an alternative origins story to the Narnia books.

I am really surprised that these books haven't been recovered and rebadged for the adult satire market as they really do stand up against books like Bored of the Rings. I hope that the plots do mean that the books appeal to children as much they do to me!

In addition to this Chris is a great guy and spends time talking to, and listening to his fans of all ages, I'd hoped that would be the case as I'd hate to have had my illusions of such a library and reading advocate to have been not so nice in real life!

Be warned - everyone in the family is going to be getting books by Mr Riddell for birthdays and Christmas from now on...

Writing back to books

Book Review

Dear Fahrenheit 451 by Annie Spence

I am still struggling with reading narrative fiction, I think it is getting better but retaining a complicated plot with multiple characters is still too hard. Books of letters however are ideal and I was very excited to come across this mentioned in a catalogue and then to discover that it was a book I could borrow from the library.

Annie Spence has written letters to books that have had an effect on her - whether positive or negative and all these notes are wonderful and often hilarious. Not only are they heartfelt but often they are written in a pastiche of the original which just adds an extra dimension.

Spence talks about many books that I am familiar with, which makes me think we are of a similar age (or have at least worked in the book world for a similar time) and there are many books I have added to my must read or reread lists. Her asides about working in libraries also give an insight into some of the other things we do as well as stamping books!

The end of the book is comprised of amusing articles full of book recommendations, the one called I'd rather be reading: Excuses to tell you friends so you can stay home with your books made me laugh a lot. I also like the article about how books lead to other books, taking The Virgin Suicides as a starting point Spence then takes us on a journey through 10 books that lead on from each other.

I do enjoy books about books and this one is a real treat, now to keep building my reading stamina so I can enjoy all the new titles I've added to lists!

November Reading Round Up

For a variety of reasons in November I did a lot of rereading, one was to compare book and film (Andre Aciman's Call Me By Your Name) and others were Girls' Own type stories.

There were some new reads however mixed in and I enjoyed four of these enough to mention here.

Princess and the Suffragette by Holly Webb.
Back in 2015 I was very excited by Webb's updated sequel to A Secret Garden and I'm really pleased to say that she's done it again! This is a follow on to another Hodgson Burnett story (A Little Princess) and follows the lives of the girls left at Miss Minchin's seminary after Sara left. As stated in the title it is about the women's suffrage movement and I found it gripping - one that really should get lots and lots of attention next year as we mark 100 years of women getting the (limited) vote.

Wonder by R. J. Palaccio

I'm not sure how I've missed this book for so long, I know that colleagues have loved it and recommended it to me but somehow it just never rose to the top of the pile.  However Mr Norfolkbookworm went to a preview of the film adaptation and was really impressed so I read the book.  It is powerful and moving, as being a good tale. It borders on being didactic, saccharine and predictable but through beautiful writing and clever narration it stays just the right side of these line (for me) and was just a wonderful book that did make me cry.

Why Mummy Drinks by Gill Simms

I love reading Simms posts on Facebook where she chronicles her chaotic life in the form of spoof Peter and Jane tales.  I expected that this book was going to be just a collection of these social media posts but instead it was a full novel, told in diary form, using the same style as the posts. I laughed a lot.

White Chrysanthemum - Mary Lynn Bracht

This book was a proof thanks to Net Galley and is set in Korea starting in the Second World War. It deals with the Japanese occupation and atrocities, then the internal problems caused by the politics post war which ultimately led to the Korean War, the ramifications of these two conflicts then echo down the generations to the modern day.  I knew a little of the history here, especially regarding the Japanese history but what came next horrified me. 

In following the lives of two sisters we get up close and personal to this history and it isn't easy reading at all, at times it is horrific. However I feel that this is an important part of history all too often glossed over in the name of reconciliation and rehabilitation - there are a lot of lost stories in this part of the world that need to be told, whether in history books or in fantastic fiction like this. 

Theatre 2016: Review Twenty

Brian, the Switch and the Wardrobe, Blakeney Player, Blakeney. July 2016.

as ever this cannot be an impartial review - the whole cast now feel like family that we just don't see too often!

It doesn't seem possibly that the year is already more than half over and that it is time for the Blakeney Player's summer show.  The weather always seems to be nice on these summer outings and it was a lovely drive up to the coast and we even had time for a nice Cromer Crab salad supper...but I digress.

Brian, the Switch and the Wardrobe was great fun, the audience is taken back to the Norfolk coast in 1958 at a time where the end of the pier theatre is falling down and the cast behind the times - a bigwig from London is invited to come along and save the day...

However this is all with the unique Player's take which takes the strengths of the players and then works the rest out around them. The new writers did this brilliantly and managed to give a new feel to the show whilst keeping the unique style we've come to love, the plot was very strong in this show. As ever the choreography is incredible but it has to be said the narrator stole the show for me.

No more details - tickets are still on sale go see it yourself!

I always love looking for the influences the group have used and in this one I certainly got aspects of The Play that Went Wrong as well as the obvious ones that are shown, the use of Spamalot also had me in stitches.

As ever I left Blakeney Village hall with a huge grin on my face and looking forward to the winter show!

Not dribbling - giggling

The Road to Little Dribbling - Bill Bryson.

I can't believe that it is twenty years since the wonderful Notes from a Small Island was published, and by all accounts neither can Bryson as he haphazardly sets off to explore England, Wales and Scotland again.

From page one I was chuckling to this, and I found myself reading out many sentences to my poor travelling companion who kept giving me funny looks as I shook with suppressed laughter on a busy train.

After re-reading some of Bryson's earlier travel books a while back I was a little nervous about this one - there was a nasty strain of racism/xenophobia in a a couple - but this didn't disappoint. It is full of well aimed and well deserved quips about the British all dialled up to 11 for comic effect.

This will become a firm favourite and Mr Norfolkbookworm is now reading it, giggling a lot and reading favourite passages to me, all the sign of a good book. Bryson's mocking of poor grammar and punctuation in print journalism really made me smile. It won't be for everyone, it is firmly southern England-centric and at times less than kind to Norfolk but on the whole a great read.

Not everyone agrees and the Guardian's Digested Read does have more than a whiff of truth about it, but taken as a light, whimsical book it was perfect reading for the weekend that saw the clocks change and everything seeming that bit darker and more miserable.

Theatre 2015: Review Eleven

Shakespeare in Love, Noel Coward Theatre, London. April 2015.

Apologies for the radio silence - April has been an important study month with two essays to research and write.  I've broken the back of them now and so time to catch up on other areas!

Way back at the start of the month a friend and I went to London on a whim to see Shakespeare in Love. For me it was a recommended play/film for my Shakespeare's Legacy course and my friend is also studying Shakespeare currently.

This was a delightful way to spend the afternoon, the play followed the film throughout and now that I have spent a few years studying the Bard I found it a lot funnier than I recall. In fact at a couple of points my friend and I found ourselves laughing at lines that others in the audience didn't...

The set for this play was magnificent and very clever as it moved back and forth to show the different locations in which the action takes place.  Some of my favourite parts were very simple, for instance when Shakespeare is in the row boat cast members dip hands in and out of buckets of water to create the sound effects.  The use of the actors to move the scenery was very well done, and I liked the way that most of them appeared on stage throughout. It did remind me in someways of Elizabethan/Jacobean theatre as staged in the two theatres at the Globe but was still modern. It mixed the styles very well.

Sadly this play closed in the middle of April but I hear rumours that it will be going on tour and if it does then I do recommend trying to see it.  It is a fun romp that leaves you with a smile and sometimes that is just what you want from a play. This is the first film-to-play show that I've seen and I think that it worked very well, I do wonder if a lot of this is due to the fact that Tom Stoppard (renowned playwright) wrote the script to the film.

There is also an adorable dog in the play who steals the show entirely in the couple of scenes he appears in - although I'm not sure he deserved the biggest cheer at the end!

Theatre at the Pictures

The Audience, National Theatre Live. Cinema City, Norwich. June 2013

It has been a while since I've seen a live broadcast at the cinema. Several of this season's plays I've seen live and one I just couldn't make it to any of the showings however I knew I had to see this one if at all possible.

I'd really have liked to have seen this one on stage but lack of time and unavailability of tickets when I was free made it impossible, so the next best thing has to be the National Theatre Live.

The play is deceptively simple - once a week, when possible, the Queen meets in private with the Prime Minister. What is discussed in these audiences is not known...

There have been 12 Prime Ministers in the 61 years since HM came to the throne and not all of them get a mention here but those that do are very cleverly portrayed. The 'audiences' depicted are usually from momentous points in the political life of the PM and the interesting view is that the Queen is actually more of a therapist than monarch.  In her constitutional role she can't give opinions or change how parliament is working but through these conversations you see her try to influence outcomes through her guidance, advice and experience.

Through very clever costume and wig changes the play moves backwards and forwards in time  - Major is the first PM that we meet, then back to Churchill then forwards again.  One scene must be re-written weekly, if not daily, as the conversation between HM and Cameron mentioned Prince Philip's current stay in hospital.

The play is genuinely funny, heartwarming and moving - I don't think I've been to a NT Live screening where there was so much laughter.  I was unsure at first about the conversations held between the Queen and her childhood self and while they grew on me and I can see why they were included I did find that they did break the flow a little.

The only thing I really didn't like about the broadcast was the tight focus on characters - this often meant we missed the clever costume changes, and made it hard to suspend belief and see Dame Helen Mirren as a 20 year old.  Seated in the theatre at a distance from the stage this would have been easier to see - although then of course you'd miss the subtle eye rolls and facial ticks that show what HM is thinking during the audiences.

In the interval there was an interview with the play's author and I really liked what he had to say about truth and accuracy.  Obviously no one knows what happens in the audiences but as he said from biographies, memoirs and interviews you can get a feel for how they go - thus these exact words might not have happened but the audience would have gone along those lines.

I laughed lots and I did have a lump in my throat at the end, I wish I'd managed to see the play live on stage but this was a great alternative.  If it is shown as an Encore and you aren't sure if you'd like it I'd say go - it doesn't matter if you are to the left or right politically or a rabid republican it is just a great play!

image taken from the NY Times

Shiver my Timbers

Pirates! An Adventure with...by Gideon Defoe

Many years ago I read a daft little book called Pirates! An Adventure with Scientists. I remember it being funny but nothing more.  Thinking back on the book I am sure it is because I didn't know enough about the things Defoe was poking fun at.

Fast forward about a decade and the wonderful Aardman Animation studios release The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists which was brilliant.  From the opening to the end of the credits I think it was one of the best films I've seen in ages and for me it was better than the last couple of Pixar movies - heresy I know!

Since then I've use the library to borrow the book where the Pirates meet Moby Dick and have the one about the Communists on reserve. When I saw that the brand new book The Pirates! An Adventure with the Romantics available on Net Galley I knew that I had to request it.

This past weekend I developed a horrible summer cold and The Pirates! were just what the doctor would have ordered I am sure.

The Pirate Captain and his band of inept pirates are sailing on Lake Geneva once more in financial straights.  Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Godwin are in the vicinity and bored.  Cue the start of the adventure.

I don't think that there was a chapter that didn't raise a snigger and I think that Mr Norfolkbookworm was ready to throw me to the sharks as I kept reading snippets out to him. Any book that rates the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford over the Ashmolean is always going to be a favourite with me.

As with the other Pirates! books some knowledge of the bit of history/literature that Defoe is lampooning makes the books far more enjoyable but I hope there are more books and more films!

Please note that this is a small review of a book that won't be published until August 30th, the other books in the series are available already and the film is still on release in UK cinemas and the DVD will be released in September 2012.