Book reviews (part 16)

It's time for another batch of book reviews as Charles Fudgemuffin offers his opinion on books from the genres of humour, mystery and suspense, romantic comedy, and crime, with a round up of reviews of books by authors  Douglas Adams, Stieg Larsson, David Nicholls and Håkan Nesser.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
by Douglas Adams

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams – 4.5 / 5.0

I’m a big fan of Douglas Adams so I was pleased to discover within a few pages that Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency has that unmistakable unique Douglas Adams sense of brilliant weirdness about it. Although primarily a comedy book, it also features the sort of imaginatively creative off-the-wall science fiction ideas which Douglas Adams crams into all of his novels.

Although Dirk Gently is maybe not quite in the very same league as The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy books, this is nevertheless still a very enjoyable book so if you’re a fan of ‘Hitchhikers’ then it’s a pretty much safe bet that you will also love this book.

Creative labelling

Previously on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I've taken a look at silly slogans, and supermarket signs, labels and vouchers. This week's blog post has a very loosely related theme, as I focus on some creatively labelled food products with unexpected ingredients and surprising percentages.

'Strawberry and beetroot.'
The clue is in the name ... or is it?

1) Strawberry And Beetroot

First up is a 'strawberry and beetroot smooshy snack' which I have to say was delicious, but what would you guess was the main ingredient in this strawberry and beetroot smoothie? Strawberries perhaps? Maybe beetroot? See if you can guess from the multiple choice list of options below...

A) Strawberries
B) Beetroot
C) Organic apples
D) Other stuff

That's right! As you'd expect from a strawberry and beetroot smoothie, the main ingredient was of course organic apples, making up 70% of the ingredients!

To be fair, it did also include organic strawberries (20%) and organic beetroot (5%), as well as organic raspberries (5%), but 'strawberry and beetroot' does seem a bit of a strange choice of name for a drink containing 70% organic apples.

Crime Doesn't Pay: A collection of crime themed short stories

'Crime Doesn't Pay'
Sound advice.

It's been almost a year since I published my last book 'Santa and the Naughty Elf'*, but my next book is finally ready for publication.

* Strictly speaking, 'Santa And The Naughty Elf' is by Charles Fudgemuffin’s younger brother, Charles Fudgemuffin, Jr, but his writing style is curiously similar to Charles senior. Hmm…

The book in question is 'Crime Doesn't Pay' and it's a collection of crime themed light-hearted short stories. This is the list of short stories which are included:

1) Is A KitKat A Chocolate Bar Or A Biscuit?

2) Walk Again

3) The Cashier Who Didn’t Work Saturdays

4) True Freedom

5) The Puppet Master

6) The Absence Of Fear

7) Wagon Wheels, Star Wars Memorabilia And The Nice Ham

Funny things kids say (part 3)

Dinosaur, pictured on his wedding day...
(See below.)

My previous blog posts on the theme of 'funny things kids say' always seem to get a lot of page views, so here's another round-up of 'kidisms', featuring such random subjects as hair transplants, dinosaurs, and tennis goggles.

The following are taken from real life, twitter and facebook, with twitter links included where applicable, and to start things off here's one example where kids take things literally...

1) Hair today, gone tomorrow

Here's one from the paper...

Daughter: "Mammy, why have I got brown hair and you've got blonde hair?"
Mother: "It's cos you got your hair from your dad."
Daughter: "Oh, so that's why he's bald!"