This is a collection of short stories about W. Wilson Newbury, a banker to whom weird things keep happening. It’s mildly entertaining, but certainly not worth reading again.
BooksOfTheMoon
The Purple Pterodactyls: The Adventures of W. Wilson Newbury
By L. Sprague de Camp
Rating: 3 stars
Book details
ISBN: 9780441691906
Publisher: Ace
Year of publication: 1979
I Think the Nurses are Stealing My Clothes: The Very Best of Linda Smith
By Linda Smith
Rating: 3 stars
Linda Smith was a great comedian and stalwart of Radio 4. She died of cancer in 2006. This book was compiled by her long-term partner and spans her entire career, from her early stand up in small comedy clubs, through some of her radio and TV stuff to her final shows when she had made it big.
In reading this, I could really hear Smith’s voice coming out of the pages. She had a very wicked sense of humour and it’s apparent on every page. Not every joke sticks, but enough do to leave you coming away with an appreciation of her.
Book details
ISBN: 9780340938461
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Year of publication: 2006
Boy and Going Solo (Roald Dahl’s Autobiography, #1-#2)
By Roald Dahl
Rating: 4 stars
Roald Dahl led an interesting early life, and these two books tell the story well. Boy tells the story of Dahl’s childhood, until he leaves school, and Going Solo takes it from there until the end of his active service in the second world war. Both worth reading.
Book details
ISBN: 9780141311418
Publisher: Puffin
Year of publication: 1984
A Piano In The Pyrenees: The Ups and Downs of an Englishman in the French Mountains
By Tony Hawks
Rating: 4 stars
The man who makes silly bets is back. But this book isn’t about hitchhiking around Ireland with a fridge, playing the Moldovans at tennis or getting a hit song in Europe, it’s about Hawks’ problems when he bought a house in the French Pyrenees, and the piano that he took there.
My worst fears were averted when the titular piano got safely to the house in about chapter two or three, leaving the rest of the book to be about him settling into life in a tiny French village. This book sees a middle-aged, more contemplative Hawks, reflecting on his life and his friends, with the house being the focus that draws this out.
The first half is quite amusing but it’s the second that had the more laugh out loud moments. Very different, but possibly his best book since Round Ireland with a Fridge. In saying that, the person who gave me the book said that it doesn’t necessarily have re-readability, so I’ll reserve final judgement and see if it makes me want to read it again.
Book details
ISBN: 9780091902674
Publisher: Ebury Press
Year of publication: 2006
The Colors of Space
By Marion Zimmer Bradley
Rating: 0 stars
Teenager Bart Steele is drawn into a web of mystery and murder as he tries to discover the secrets of interstellar travel and the mysterious eighth colour from the alien Lhari.
This is one of Bradley’s earliest novels and it doesn’t have any of her later feminist themes. Indeed, there’s only one minor female character who doesn’t appear until near the end of the book. But it’s still an entertaining space opera for younger readers.
Book details
ISBN: 9780898651911
Publisher: Walsworth Pub Co
Year of publication: 1963
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