Know yourself through your Handwriting

This book, appropriately enough for an anonymous sheaflet from the 1970s that came for free with a box of breakfast cereal probably, would be an invaluable tool to anyone looking into psychology, criminal theory or practical forgery tips; and that's about all as I'll say on't.

How to Speak Emoji

This book is quite literally the least entertaining book I think I've ever reviewed for this blog. Do with that information what you please. One for the white elephant game bag...

Ozma of Oz

This book, adapted from the original Frank L. Baum for Marvel Comics by Eric Shanower and Shottie Young, is a marvellously-illustrated romp through the magical land of Ev, where, to give a taste without giving too much away, Dorothy Young of Kansas inexplicably finds herself once again embroiled in a zany adventure - this time teaming up with clockwork men and a sassy hen called Bill to take on the Nome King and restore order to the topsy-turvy kingdom's inhabitants. I've never read the originals nor even seen the movie "The Wizard of Oz" but I really enjoyed this graphic novel and it's made me excited to explore the rest of the series - this is book three of that, and Marvel have done all three, so I'm on the lookout in Oxfam next time (was where I got this one) for the prior two instalments of these actually magical bizarre adventures.

Ripon in Old Picture Postcards

This book, once again, I cannot find anywhere online, but it's along similar lines to this book I read about my old hometown - this town instead being my parents' old university stomping ground, and so I looked into this book out of aesthetic interest for that slice of northern history. Not the most exciting read but a fab little window into the quirks of anonymous sparklings or harkings of whenceforth yesteryear.

I am Number Four

This book by Pittacus Lore is the first in the Lorien Legacies series, which if I'm flat out honest I have no plans to read any more of as I really wasn't that impressed with the writing style, or the characters, or the plot, or the worldbuilding... I'm not out on a rant I just feel like the whole thing was on the verge of obscenely derivative of a billion well-worn fantasy adventure YA tropes, and didn't make the best use of them even. My favourite character was his dog, because it seemed to be the only one responding properly to the silliness of the book's internal tone problem. But I mean seriously, what with Netflix churning out content like The Old Guard or Umbrella Academy stories like this are going to have to really up their game in the next few years to not be completely left behind by the inter-canonical meta-lore governing story production conspirators, whoever they be. I borrowed it off my now-18 year old brother so will just be dumping it back at the main Stovell house whenever. Thanks Ryan, I'll get you a better book for Christmas.

Small Dreams of a Scorpion

This book by Spike Milligan is a fairly dry and cynical compendium of poems, if I'm being brutally brevitous; it's alright if you're worried about my reading budget, as you may well be forgiven for being seeing what this blog may inherently imply, but I borrowed this one from the Stovell house, as with many of the lent or temporarily-available books that have similarly been spewn onto the ethereal textscape... I'm rambling about almost nothing. Like this poetry book, a bit.

Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle

Can't find this one online either - I found it slightly waterlogged in a park, it looks like it probably came from a Happy Meal or something. Anyway it's a pretty bog standard Scooby story so I won't spoil the fat old mystery here in case you also find a copy of this riveting pocket-size adventure somewhere in the mad fuzz of our outdoors world.

D.I.Y. Dentistry

This book by Andy Riley is one of those "flip through it over the course of six or seven poos and then never think of it again" kind of books, for the coffee table in your nearest bathroom, then to be given away after being disinfected thoroughly to someone you vaguely hope might find it funnier than you did. Not a very humorous humour book if you ask me, very samey and barely even pretends to try to double down on its own penchant for the squeamish.

senses

This book is an early learning picture book about the five senses. I read it to a toddler on the wrong [as it happened] expectation that it would feature sections about things like proprioception and humour but alas. It did not. And the cover the main five were given was a bit all over the place if you ask me.

Sloth Life: Don't Hurry, Be Happy

This book by Forrest Greenwood is a damn near perfect coffee-table toilet-shelf micro-book of cute sloth pics and funny text. That is, I believe, all that needs saying about it - at least, it's all I will say, as ironically I'm writing this in a spot of a rush.

A Pair of Sinners

This book by Allan Ahlberg, illustrated by John Lawrence, is a classical-style poetic fairy type story with, as its title implies, a strong moral compulsion/conundrum baked into it. A bit grim and dark compared to the kinds of children's books I've primarily been enjoying recently, but a bit of grim and dark in kiddish bedtime reading never went too far awry, right? Dunno. I reckon many 4 - 6ish year olders would get a kick out of this, but I can't imagine it would become a regularly-demanded favourite for the majority of normal children. But what do I know?

Realist Manifesto

This text by Naum Gabo is as it says on the tin; a potently concise and polemically clear statement of the philosophy of a school of artistic performance/criticism - that of realism. Certainly a thought-provoking read should anyone be interested in that kind of thing; I read the text initially live at the Tate in St Ives.

Reckless

This book by Amanda Quick started off relatively interesting and turns into a pulpy erotica mess about eighty pages in, which didn't really surprise me from the blurb-geist I'll concede but I still could've done with a bit more attention paid to the whole "knight-errant" angle which kicks off the plot and made for a fairly interesting dynamic between the female protagonist and her "not that noble" a chivalrous aide. Would make for a great trashy beach read if you're not fussy about the above elements.

the Diary of a Killer Cat

This book by Anne Fine (and illustrated excellently by Steve Cox) is a poignant, on-the-nose assessment of ways in which we misunderstand or misinterpret the kindnesses or otherwise our pet cats bestow upon us. Now, as an arguably OTT cat-empath who sees a lot of myself reflected in the being of cats (see also Waldron's Ginger), I found this bright eyed six-day seven-chapter Whodunnit tale extremely entertaining, and this would be an optimal Good Bedtime Week's-worth of Reading to Cat AND dog children* as some kind of litmus test for any pet-getting considerations. I enjoyed it, in any case.

* All other pets, rabbits and rats and such, forbid you introduce them to the flesh of these pages. For it is, this book, only truly for cat-lovers, and lovers of cats alone. Which, and I know this is weird, but even the author isn't.

The Twits

This book by Roald Dahl is a grim, somewhat funny but mostly grim, story about domestic abuse taken to its most horrendous logical conclusion, in a flamboyantly misanthropic married couple who end up more or less killing each other with all their schemes and plots. I mean, the monkeys helped, but spoilers.