Book reviews (part 9)

It's been several months since I last reported on some of the books I've been reading, so here's another batch of book reviews...

The World According To Humphrey by Betty G.Birney

The World According To Humphrey by Betty G. Birney - 4.9 / 5.0

The World According To Humphrey is told through the eyes of Humphrey the Hamster, the classroom pet of room 26. The kids take it in turns to look after Humphrey for the weekend, and on his travels Humphrey gets up to all sorts of interesting adventures, and manages to help the children's families solve a few problems along the way.

It's a book intended for children, but it's written in a lovely heart-warming style, and Humphrey is such a likeable little character that you can't help but enjoy his adventures, however old you are. I loved it and I suspect that many adults who still have a fun side to them will also love this book, as it's written in such a magical way. Highly recommended for kids of all ages!

The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized
History by John Ortved

The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History by John Ortved - 4.5 / 5.0

As a fan of The Simpsons (although admittedly just the early seasons) I found it fascinating to read this account of how The Simpsons became the phenomenal masssive worldwide success that it was. The book is largely made up of a collection of quotes from the creators, writers, voice actors and other people associated with The Simpsons, with author John Ortved providing the occasional paragraph or note to help the story along and clarify a few points made in the quotes.

Towards the end the book did fizzle out a bit (rather like The Simpsons itself) but overall this was a very interesting historical account of arguably the most significant cartoon for adults in the history of TV.

Wired by Douglas E. Richards

Wired by Douglas E. Richards - 4.0 / 5.0

The plot to Wired stretches credibility at times, and it all gets a bit over the top occasionally, but the best strategy when reading Wired is to switch off your sense of logic and just enjoy the ride. There are several twists along the way with many chapters ending on a mini cliff hanger.

As a result I often found myself thinking, 'I'll just read one more chapter...' and a quick few pages would often transform into an extended reading session! Wired is dramatic, well-paced and a fun read providing you're not too pedantic about the absolute logic of it all.

Black Lands by Belinda Bauer

Black Lands by Belinda Bauer - 4.7 / 5.0

I'm a recent convert to crime novels and my only general criticism of the genre is that they can sometimes take a while to really get to the meat of the story. No such criticisms could be labelled at Black Lands as within the first few pages I was already hooked. Author Belinda Bauer takes a different approach from the usual 'someone's been murdered, now try to work out who did it' format of many crime novels, and instead focuses on an exchange of letters between a young boy and the serial killer who killed his uncle.

The author really delves into the mind of a serial killer and it can be quite unsettlingly creepy at times, but I found it a real page turner.  The method of story telling works very well indeed and I can imagine this making a great movie.

The book reviews featured above are the opinions of Charles Fudgemuffin. Charles is the author of 'The Quiz Master' which is available for kindle from Amazon.

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More book reviews:
Book reviews (part 10)
Book reviews (part 11)

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