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Entries Tagged as 'Reviews'

King Bastard

January 15th, 2022 · Comments Off on King Bastard · Music

They say that you can’t or shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but what about records? If the front cover has a picture of a skull in a space helmet, a band name of King Bastard above an album name of It came from the void and the back shows a track listing that […]

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Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

October 10th, 2019 · Comments Off on Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood · Life

Last month I snapped up Trevor Noah’s autobiographical book, Born a Crime while it was the 99p Kindle deal of the day. I kind of regret that because it is very much worth the full price – currently £4.99 The book has two big things going for it: a remarkable story to tell and a […]

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The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

February 11th, 2019 · Comments Off on The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis · Life

I have had this book sitting on my Kindle for ages, having snapped it up as the £1 deal of the day some time ago. Last week I finally got round to reading it, and what a book it is. It was, at the same time, exactly what I expected but also nothing like what […]

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Spoonbenders

August 30th, 2017 · Comments Off on Spoonbenders · Life

I just finished reading a book called Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory. The paperback is out in May 2018 but it is available in hardback or for the Kindle now. There are two things that you can put in a book description to make me run a mile. If the description starts with “One woman’s journey..” […]

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The Irregular

May 22nd, 2017 · Comments Off on The Irregular · Life

I have a book to recommend. The Irregular by H.B.Lyle. Last month I had proof copies of two different new novels that trade on a connection with Sherlock Holmes. The first was Arrowood by Mick Finlay, which was interesting enough, but I have to admit that I found The Irregular to be much more exciting. […]

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Outskirts

April 13th, 2017 · Comments Off on Outskirts · Life, Politics

A short review of Outskirts: Living Life on the Edge of the Green Belt by John Grindrod which I mentioned in a previous post. It is due to be out in hardback on June 1st. Although I got hold of an advanced proof copy, I did buy his previous book and would have bought this […]

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No more ‘Chinese friends’

October 5th, 2016 · Comments Off on No more ‘Chinese friends’ · Life, Technology

The news today is that Amazon are banning ‘incentivised reviews’. What that means is that you can’t accept anything in return for reviewing a product, not even a free or discounted product. It has always been the case that you can’t accept payment in return for writing a review, and especially not for writing a […]

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The Ice Beneath Her

June 27th, 2016 · Comments Off on The Ice Beneath Her · Life

I have just finished reading my first Scandinavian thriller. It is called The Ice Beneath Her by Camilla Grebe, due to be published on September 8th. This is what I thought about it…

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An Android Awakes

November 3rd, 2015 · Comments Off on An Android Awakes · Life

An Andoid Awakes by Mike French and Karl Brown This is a soon-to-be-published book (Nov 13th) which I had an advance reader copy of from the publishers. Reading this book, the word that kept coming to mind was ‘kaleidoscope’, by which I mean those tube-like things we had as kids in the 60s where the […]

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I, Robert

September 30th, 2015 · Comments Off on I, Robert · Life

It is very rare that I buy actual paper books these days. Basically I just do not have the space for any more books. Instead I download e-books which is not the same experience but is much more convenient. The few ‘proper’ books I get are mostly proof copies from publishers or presents. If I […]

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