Category: Funny

Recent Reads: The Great Troll War by Jasper Fforde (The Last Dragonslayer 4)

Posted on by Pam

My review:🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Great Troll War by Jasper Fforde (The Last Dragonslayer 4) continues where The Eye of Zoltar left off!  Our heroes returned to a kingdom under siege in the last book, and the Princess in her servants body, except it’s now hers.  And now the Princess is actually in charge!  

The Trolls and another kingdom are in league with the Mighty Shandar, and so it’s up to Jennifer, the wizards, and the Princess to save the day!

This was a fun continuation of the story!  I enjoyed our cast of characters, and was cheering them on!

The Great Troll War was published on 9th September 2021, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Jasper Fforde on Twitter and his website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, and so my thanks to NetGalley and to Hodder & Stoughton.

You can read my reviews of the books in this series:

The Last Dragonslayer – book 1 

The Song of the Quarkbeast – book 2

The Eye of Zoltar – book 3

The Great Troll War – book 4

Recent Reads: Loch Down Abbey by Beth Cowan-Erskine

Posted on by Pam

My review:????

Loch Down Abbey by Beth Cowan-Erskine is a murder mystery that has a lot of elements of lock down life in 2020!  There is toilet paper hoarding, food shortages, and unexpected childcare!

In the style of a golden age murder mystery, this is a country house murder set in the 1930s, where the guests can’t leave due to an illness sweeping the countryside. 

The house is Loch Down Abbey, and when the Earl is found dead, everyone is a suspect.  We have family members who don’t get on, weird dynamics, and of course, secrets and lies.

This is a rollicking read, and especially funny as you encounter lockdown reminders as you go along.

Loch Down Abbey was published on 10th June 2021 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

I’m afraid I couldn’t find anywhere for you to follow Beth Cowan-Erskine.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Hodder & Stoughton.

Recent Reads: The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde

Posted on by Pam

My review: ????

The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde is set in a world similar to our own, except there was an event fifty five years ago when a small number of rabbits anthropomorphised. Now there are a couple more (1.2 million or so) rabbits of human size that live in the UK.

Peter Knox is a rabbit spotter who works for the government, and lives in a small village into which a rabbit family moves.  This causes uproar in the village, especially amongst those who support the United Kingdom Against Rabbit Population party.

Jasper Fforde is a hilarious, insightful author with comments made about his fantastic UK which have bearing on Brexit and Black Lives Matter.

I’ve read and enjoyed lots of Jasper Fforde’s books, from his Thursday Next series set in a world of books, to Shades of Grey, where people can see one shade of colour, and the shade that you can see shows your class, to Early Riser, where people sleep through the winter, except for a few individuals.  If you enjoy satire and surrealist humour (think Eddie Izzard – I’ve added a sketch of his that always stands out in my mind below), then you will enjoy this book!

 

The Constant Rabbit came out on 2nd July, and here are links to Amazon and Waterstones.  I’ve found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

You can follow Jasper Fforde on his website,   Instagramor twitter.

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Hodder & Stoughton (the publishers) for this book.

Recent Reads: Five French Hens by Judy Leigh

Posted on by Pam

My review: ????

This cover is quite mis-leading, as it makes it look like it’s a Christmas book, and there isn’t a single scene that is set at Christmas time. It starts in February, and ends a few months later.

Five French Hens is about five ladies in their 70s discovering that life isn’t over.

Jen is 73, and just engaged to Eddie, who has decided to go on a stag do with his son to Las Vegas.  Jen, and her friends decide they want to go to Paris, and so off the go!

Rose, a widow who teaches piano, Pam, who loves her dog and isn’t interested in a relationship with anyone, Tess who is boisterous but has a husband who loves golf, and finds her embarrassing, and Della, whose only problem is money, and who is very much in love with her husband even after all these years.

I really enjoyed this book, even if in the back of my mind I was wondering about when Christmas would fit in!

Five French Hens was published on 5th December 2019,  and is available to buy on Amazon  and on Waterstones.  I’ve found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!


You can follow Judy Leigh on Twitter, or through her website.

If you’re interested in other books where age is just a number books, then have a read of:

Mr Double Begins Again by Seni Glaister ????

One Summer in Paris by Sarah Morgan ????


I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Boldwood Books (the publishers) for this book.
Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!

Recent Reads: How to be Famous by Caitlin Moran

Posted on by Pam

My review: ?????

How to be Famous is about Dolly Wild, who is 18, living in London in her own place, and is a writer for a music magazine in 1994, when BritPop is big!  

Her best friend and man of her dreams, John Kite, has just made it big in music, which means he’s touring all of the time.  In the meantime, Dolly makes friends with Suzy, a woman who knows she is going to be famous.

Dolly has a two night stand with comedian Jerry Sharp, which turns ugly later.  There are many points where this book was great, and how Dolly deals with this situation is one of these.

How to be Famous is the second book about Johanna  Morrigan aka Dolly Wild, with the first being How to Build a Girl.  I’m definitely going to read that!

How to be Famous was published on 28th June 2018,  and is available to buy on Amazon  and on Waterstones.  I’ve found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

You can follow Caitlin Moran on Twitter, or through her website.

If you’re interested in funny journey stories, then I’d suggest The Fall and Rise of the Amir Sisters by Nadiya Hussain, which I gave ????.


I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Penguin Random House (the publishers) for this book.
Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!

Recent Reads: The Fall and Rise of the Amir Sisters by Nadiya Hussain

Posted on by Pam
My review: ????

I had loved watching Nadiya Hussain on Great British Bake Off, cheered and cried when she won.  So you can imagine my excitement when I spotted she had written a fiction book (The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters)!  I added it (at least mentally) to my to read list, but then I saw the second book was coming, so I ran off and got the first so I could review the second!

In the first book The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters (available on Amazon, and every where you can buy books) looks at all the secrets the sisters, and family, have from one another, and the chaos that it can cause on their lives.  Fatima (Fatti) feels out of place, still living at home with her parents in her 30s, wanting more, and coping with her feelings by eating.  Farah lives a perfect life, with her successful husband, in a beautiful home, is the dependable one, but then her husband is in an accident, and things start to unravel.  Bubblee has never approved of her twin, Farah, marrying Mustafa, and not just because he was their first cousin, but at least she’s left the village, can live her life, and create her art in London, which means success must just be around the corner, right?  Mae is the youngest, and obsessed with social media, and blogging about her family.  But she blogs about her family anonymously, so no one will ever connect the dots…

In The Fall and rise of the Amir Sisters, Mae is off to university, Bubblee is visiting home, Farah is desperate for a baby, and Fatti is happy, and we know that everything is going to change.

I enjoyed seeing where the characters went, and how things changed, even if my heart did ache for Farah and Mustafa.  I thought the way the family interacts with each other is authentic (the scene in the hairdressers, for instance.  Who wouldn’t want to hide from that conversation!), and you can see the love they have for each other.  The characters are consistent from the first book in to the second, and Nadiya Hussain has put them through an emotional rollercoaster.

I’m looking forward to the third book, which I feel must be planned!


The Fall and Rise of the Amir Sisters is out on 24th January 2019, and available on Amazon to pre-order, and everywhere else you can find books!


I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and HQ (the publishers) for this book.

Check out my GoodReads profile for more reviews.

One of the many things I quote from

Posted on by Pam
I’m not hugely in to keeping up with webcomics, but I really enjoyed Sequential Art (yes, that is a link for the very first comic! Aren’t I good to you!) when I read it, and this strip is one that I often quote from, just because it strikes my funny bone!
Here’s the link to the page this comic is from!

Hope that brightens your day, because it always does mine!