Review - Albert JACK - "Red Herrings and White Elephants"

Publ: 2004
GB's
ISBN: 1 84358 129 9
Genre: Linguistics
Pages: 256p
Searching for inspiration for words blog
Rating: *****


What led you to pick up this book?
Searching for inspiration for words blog

This books seeks to explore the origins of the phrases we use every day but I'm not sure how reliable it is. Certainly some of the conclusions it reaches about the origins are questionable but as a dictionary of the explanations of some of our phrases it is quite useful.

Review:- Paul STEWART & Chris RIDDELL - "Muddle Earth"

Publ: 2003
Mine
ISBN: 0 330 42628 1
Genre: Children's Fantasy and humour
Pages: 450p
Found by Serendipity in charity shop
Rating: ***** *


What led you to pick up this book?
The title and the front cover

Describe the plot without giving anything away.
Vaguely reminiscent of Tolkein with the difference that I don't recall anyone being attacked by flying wardrobes in The Lord Of The Rings. Muddle Earth is in danger from a villain - Dr Cuddles. Its three moons, perfumed bog, pink stinky hogs and exploding gas frogs are all threatened. Fortunately a wizard called Randalf manages to summon a schoolboy from earth (and Henry his dog) to aid him and Norbert-the-not-very-big (a friendly ogre) in their adventures. Margot the Drqgon plays her part well. Great fun - the authors definitely have the Wellies of Power to assist them when it comes to writing.

What did you think of the characters?
Typical of what one would expect from a childen's fantasy book.

What did you think about the style?
Easy-flowing prose eminently suitable for the older child.

What did you like most about the book?
The imagination used in creating hazards for the heroes.

Was there anything you didn't like about the book?
No

Thoughts on the book jacket / cover.
The cover and illustrations throughout the book are great.

Would I recommend it?
Yes, to any child around the ten to thirteen age with an interest in fantasy.

Quotations:
Randalf watched the ground hurtling towards him and desperately racked his bran for a not=breaking-every-single-bone-in-your-body spell.


PAUL STEWART (b 1955) is the author of many books for children and with Chris Riddell is the creator of the hugely successful EDGE CHRONICLES series. He lives in Brighton with his wife and two children.


CHRIS RIDDELL (born 1962) is the Kate Greenaway Medal winning illustrator of a broad range of highly successful books for children. With author Paul Stewart he is the creator of the best-selling fantasy series THE EDGE CHRONICLES. He has been the political cartoonist for THE OBSERVER newspaper since 1995. With his wife and two children he lives in Brighton.

Review: - Alasdair GRAY - "Ten Tales Tall and True"

Publ: 1994
GB's
ISBN: 0 14 017579 2
Genre: Short Stories
Pages: Too many
GB's
Rating: ***


What led you to pick up this book?
The title and the introduction - see below - and the illustrations.

Describe the plot without giving anything away.
Strange stories of which the first is the best - giving one false hope for what is to follow. They are basically satirical with a touch of fantasy, sexual cliche and autobiography thrown in for good measure.

What did you think of the characters?
Sketchy.

What did you think about the style?
The first story is cleverly written the rest - so far as a I read - were simply strange.

What did you like most about the book?
The illustrations and the introduction which says - "This book contains more tales than ten so the title is a tall tale too. I would spoil my book by shortening it, spoil the title if I made it true."

Was there anything you didn't like about the book?
Lots.

Thoughts on the book jacket / cover.
A clever illustration of ten tails.

Would I recommend it?
No.

Totally irrelevant side note:
The whole book was one totally irrelevant side note. Sorry Alasdair but our senses of humour don't match up. I'm sure someone likes your work but not me.

ALASDAIR GRAY was born in 1934. In his own words, 'Alasdair Gray is a fat, spectacled, balding, increasingly old Glaswegian pedestrian who (despite two recent years as Professor of Creative Writing as Glasgow University) has mainly lived by writing and designing books, most of them fiction." He has been described by his publisher as one of the best and most respected of modern writers. I'll take the publisher's word for it.

Review: - Martin MARTIN "A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland"

Publ: 1981 - facsimile of 2nd ed. 1716
GB's
ISBN: -
Genre: Scotland, topography,
Pages: 392
Found by Serendipity
Rating: ***** **

I read this book a few years ago and was using it as a reference - then got hooked again.

It gives an insight as much into the early late seventieth / early eighteenth centuries as it does to the Western Isles and their customs, geography and history. It was alleged by Martin that 'Those Isles have never been described till now , by any Man that was a Native of th Country, or had travel'd them.' His descriptions of the habits and beliefs of the inhabitants are fascinating. And unlike many early travellers he is not especially condescending of the natives who he considered very industrious.
First published in 1703, this book is particularly noted for its information on the St. Kilda archipelago. Martin's description of St Kilda, which he visited in 1697, had also been published some years earlier as A Late Voyage to St. Kilda (1698). Dr Johnson took a copy of the book on his tour but believed him to be credulous, and indeed, some of his descriptions of second sight and other superstitions appear to be this way.

Quotations:
"Women were antiently deny'd the use of Writing in th Islands, to prevent Love-Intrigues; their Parents believ'd, that Nature was too skilful in that matter and needed not the help of Education; and therefore that Writing would be of dangerous consequence to the weaker Sex."

MARTIN MARTIN was a native of Bealach, near Duntulm, Skye. He appears to have come from the Highland middle class, the tacksmen, who were factors on lairds' estates. His brother may have been tacksman at Flodigarry on Skye.
Martin graduated MA from the University of Edinburgh in 1681. Nothing seems to be known of him in his later years, except that he entered Leiden University in 1710, and there graduated as MD, afterwards residing in London until his death, unmarried, in 1719.

Review:- Mark HADDON - "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time"

Publ: 2004
GB's
ISBN: 0 099 45025 9
Genre: General Fiction; psychology
Pages: 272
Found by Serendipity
Rating: ***** *****


What led you to pick up this book?
The title; the cover; the fact that it won the Whitbread Book of the Year; and the reviews. As the publishers claim it is "one of those very rare books that change the way you see everything."

Describe the plot without giving anything away.
The narrator, fifteen year old Christopher, suffers from Asperger's Syndrome and when he finds a neighbour's dog dead with a garden fork sticking in it he sets off to investigate. His detective work leads him, to discover all sorts of things about his family and his neighbours and to undertake the greatest adventure of his lifetime. In the process his mathematically inclined brain sets us puzzles and new ways of thinking about things.

What did you think of the characters?
This is a book without villains. Even those who act in an unsympathetic manner are shown to simply be human and have the traits and fallibilities that make us what we are.

What did you think about the style?
The book is written as though it were done by Christopher and is the best insight into Asperger's that one could ever hope to find. Strangely, because the style is childlike in places it actually becomes difficult to read. A book without emotion is an amazing thing. It lacks the flow of normal prose, much as the Asperger's sufferer lacks the normal thought processes. This means it is not a book you can rush but the extra few minutes are well worth it.

What did you like most about the book?
I enjoy anything that helps me to see the world through the eyes of someone with a different outlook and this certainly does that. "Mark Haddon's portrayal of an emotionally dissociated mind is a superb achievement. He is a wise and bleakly funny writer with rare gifts of empathy." Ian McEwan

Was there anything you didn't like about the book?
No.

Thoughts on the book jacket / cover.
Appropriate and part of the reason for making one pick the book up in the first place.

Would I recommend it?
Yes. Anyone who wants to know about Asperger's or who has contact with people with special needs of this sort must read it.

Totally irrelevant side note:
If we could analyse our thought processes the way Christopher does it would be a fascinating exercise.

Quotations:
What actually happens when you die is that your brain stops working and your body rots, like Rabbit did when he died and we buried him in the earth at the bottom of the garden. And all his molecules were broken down into other molecules and they went into the earth and were eaten by worms and went into the plants and if we go and dig in the same place in 10 years there will be nothing except his skeleton left. And in 1000 years even his skeleton will be gone. But that is all right because he is a part of the flowers and the apple tree and the hawthorn bush now.

All the other children at my school are stupid. Except I'm not meant to call them stupid, even though that is what they are. I'm meant to say that they have learning difficulties or that they have special needs. But this is stupid because everyone has learning difficulties b4ecause learning to speak French or understanding Relativity is difficult, and also everyone has special needs, like Father who has to carry a little packet of artificial sweetening tablets around with him to put in his coffee to stop him getting fat, or Mrs Peters who wears a beige-coloured hearing aid and Siobhan who has glasses so thick that they give you a headache if you borrow them, and none of of these people are Special Needs, even if they have special needs.

Eventually scientists will discover something that explains ghosts. just like they discovered electricity which explained lightning andf it might be something about people's brains, or something about the erath's magnetic field, or it might be some new force altogether. And then ghosts won't be mysteries. They will be like electricity and rainbows and non-stick frying pans.


MARK HADDON (born 1962) is an author, illustrator and screenwriter who has written fifteen books for children and won two BAFTAs. He lives in Oxford.

Review - Jim DODGE - "Fup"

Publ: 1983
GB's
ISBN: 1 84195 259 1
Genre: Humour
Pages: 88p
Re-read
Rating: ***** ****


What led you to pick up this book?
I saw this 'modern fable' sitting on GB's shelf and having read it a few years ago (after he had recommended it) I read it again. It was as funny this second time around as it was the first.

Describe the plot without giving anything away.
A 99 year old Grandaddy, a gentle giant of a young man and a duck called Fup. All the ingredients for a fun life together in rural California. That is, it would be fun if a wild pig called Lockjaw didn't keep attacking Tiny's fences.

What did you think of the characters?
So well drawn that they live on in one's mind for years afterwards.

What did you think about the style?
Sharp, incisive and very funny.

What did you like most about the book?
The skill with which the plot twists and turns. It was described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "A stupendous little book that will knock your
socks off... it is a jewel, a gem, a diamond in the cesspool of life."

Was there anything you didn't like about the book?
No.

Thoughts on the book jacket / cover.
This edition (Canongate 2002) is illustrated by Harry Horse and the cover and illustrations are super.

Would I recommend it?
Absolutely - without reservation - to everyone. Whatever your reading tastes this should fit them.

Totally irrelevant side note:
You have to read it if only to find out why Tiny's suggestion for the duck's name was over-ruled in favour of Gandaddy Jake's 'Fup'.

Quotations:
"I didn't get to be 99 years old by fool speculation," Grandaddy replied. "It's hard enough separating the good stuff from the bullshit without adding to the whole mess by wanting to know what you ain't gonna know."

"You know, I've seen 30,000 sunsets, and no two that I can remember have ever been the same. What more can we possibly want?"


JIM DODGE, born 1945, has written three books of fiction (Fup, Not Fade Away, and Stone Junction), as well as numerous essays, articles, and reviews on a variety of social and environmental matters. He has worked variously as a shepherd, professional gambler and environmental consultant, and currently serves as Director of Creative Writing at Humboldt State University. He lives in the Klamath Mountains with his wife and son.

Review:- Judy PARKINSON - "Catchphrase, Slogan and Cliché"

Publ: 2003
GB's
ISBN: 1-84317-062-0
Genre: Lexicology,
Pages: 180p
Re-read when found on GB's shelves
Rating: ***** ****


The origins and meanings of a host of expressions we sue every day in the English language. A Pandora's box of expressions from Norman times to the present day. The sort of book which can be read from cover to cover or simply dipped into.

Review:- Peter BOWLER - "The Superior Person's Book of Words"

Publ: 2002
GB's
ISBN: 0 7475 5537 8
Genre: Humour, lexicography,
Pages: 166p
Read for the second time
Rating: ***** ****



A wonderful book to either read from cover to over or simply dip into ad lib. It introduces the meanings of a variety of unusual words and then suggests uses with Bowler's unique brand of humour.

Thoroughly recommended for anyone who is interested in words or in skilfully putting down others by the use of some of the more strange words in the English language. An example is perhaps the best way of demonstrating the nature of the book:-

ZZJOANW n. A Maori drum. The recommended use is in Scrabble. The technique is to save up, at all costs, the letters Z, X, J, O. and W (or a blank that can be used in place of any you don't manage to acquire); to wait for a dangling A N on which you can build; and then to strike. The satisfaction to be derived from this single act altogether outweighs whatever chagrin you might otherwise experience through losing the game, as assuredly you will- even that experienced through losing six games in succession, if need be, before you can effect your coup.