Book reviews (part 13)

It's time for another round-up of book reviews, and this week I take a look at books from the genres of crime, humour, crime (again) and non-fiction...

Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus

Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus - 4.5 / 5.0

Snow White Must Die is a crime mystery which focuses on events in a small German village after Tobias Sartorius is released from jail having served a ten year sentence for the double murder of two former girlfriends. There are a lot of plot threads and puzzles to work out, but it all fits together very well and comes across as very plausible, and author Nele Neuhaus provides a well presented ending. Also, the story focuses more on the mystery behind the crimes, rather than the grisly details, which is what I personally prefer.

One small criticism is that I would perhaps have preferred to see some clues or insights into what actually happened provided a little sooner, but all in all this was an enjoyable crime mystery and I'll definitely be loooking out for future translations of Nele Neuhaus' work.

Life goals

Cryptic spoiler alert: "Ha, ha! Ow! Ha, ha! Ow! Ha, ha! Aargh!"

A sculptural representation of laughter.

In my previous job I worked with a dude who was always laughing, always happy, and whenever he told a story he always seemed to find it hysterically funny. For the most part, this had a positive effect on every else in the office, as laughter can be infectious (rather like yawning), but there would sometimes be the occasional moment when the laughter was inappropriate.

For example on one occasion we were swamped with work, transferring to a new system and time was running out as we were struggling to make our deadline. The laughing dude from work was assigned to work on an important report and after a few hours he seemed to be taking rather a long time to complete it, so the manager asked him how we was getting on. The laughing dude then revealed that unfortunately, just when he was nearly finished, he had forgotten to save the spreadsheet, so hours of work had been wasted and he had had to start all over again!

Santa themed 'would you rather?' dilemmas

I'm a big fan of 'Would You Rather?' dilemmas, so as it's Christmas I thought it would be topical to take a look at a selection of Santa/Christmas related 'Would You Rather?' scenarios. So put aside reality for a moment and decide what options you would go for if you found yourself with the following hypothetical choices...

Santa or Star Wars?

1) Santa versus Star Wars

The first dilemma offers you the chance to live in one of two fantasy worlds, as you're granted a choice between living in a world where Santa Claus is real*, or living in the Star Wars universe. They're both appealing options, as free toys for everyone on the nice list (such as myself) would be really cool, but so would going for a ride in the Millenium Falcon.

* Much like our own world where Santa is also real.

Top selling toys from years gone by (part 1)

As it's only a few days until Christmas, this week I take a nostalgic trip down memory lane as I look at a selection of popular toys found on lists to Santa in the olden days.  I've also included the decade when they were launched, or in some cases the decade when the popularity of the toys in question was at its peak.  However, the popularity of many toys has spanned over generations, so don't be surprised if you associate some of the toys with a different era...

1950s - Play-Doh

Play-Doh, sponsored by Keith Lemon, the 'Fuzzy Pumper'.

Despite its current use as modelling clay, Play-Doh was originally invented as a wallpaper cleaner.  Obviously, it wasn’t called Play-Doh back then, as Play-Doh wouldn’t have been a very appropriate name for a wallpaper cleaner, but it was effectively the same product.  However, as the market for wallpaper cleaner began to dwindle, the company that originally manufactured Play-Doh was heading towards bankruptcy.

Fortunately, Joe McVicker (nephew of the dude who invented Play-Doh), noticed that young kids were using the wallpaper cleaner for modelling purposes and so after a quick change of marketing direction, the wallpaper cleaner was repackaged as ‘Play-Doh’ and sales quickly took off.  Within a few years the company had already racked up millions of dollars’ worth of sales and by 2005 more than two billion cans had been sold!

It just goes to show the importance of marketing and correctly identifying your optimum target audience.

How does Santa spend his free time?

Santa Claus, pictured in his spare time.

If you've ever wondered how Santa Claus spends his free time, then wonder no more!  Photobox recently conducted a survey asking kids aged five to eight to describe what Santa gets up to when he isn't delivering presents, and some of the results were a little surprising.

According to the creative kids surveyed, football, hibernation, and romance were just a few of Santa's lesser known pastimes.  Read on to discover a few more of the things that Santa apparently likes to do in his spare time...

1) Kids apparently believe that Santa's Christmas duties leave him extremely tired out, so to recover he spends all of January asleep next to a cosy fire!


2) Santa regains his energy by February, however, when he spends the entire month writing romantic love letters to Mrs Claus!


3) A quarter of kids think Santa keeps fit by playing football with his elves.  Surprisingly, this isn't quite as ridiculous as it sounds, as there is actually a real football club in Finland called FC Santa Claus!  And as you'd expect, the team wears a red and white football strip!

Santa and the Naughty Elf

A festively themed new book by Charles Fudgemuffin's younger brother...

'Santa and the Naughty Elf'
Available for Kindle from Amazon.

I don't usually feature books by other authors on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, but this week I highlight a new book with a Christmas theme written by my younger brother ... Charles Fudgemuffin, Jr!

The book in question is entitled 'Santa And The Naughty Elf' and as the name suggests it tells the story of a naughty elf whose devious plans could ruin Christmas for everyone!  This is the blurb...

"Santa Claus has gone missing and his replacement, Neville the Naughty Elf, is getting up to all sorts of mischief while Santa is away. In fact if Neville succeeds in his despicable plans, this could turn into the most miserable Christmas ever!

Two of Santa’s loyal elves, Derek Droopy-Ears and Elvis Curly-Toes, are determined to do everything they can to stop Neville from ruining Christmas for everyone, but will they be able to track Santa down before it’s too late? Or will naughty Neville succeed and spoil Christmas for all the nice kids all around the world?"

Formula 1: How fast is it?

How does the speed of a formula 1 car compare with other speeds? Read on for a comparison...

A formula 1 car can reach speeds of up to 231.5 mph.
Not this one, though.  This one was stationary

The formula 1 championship comes to an end this weekend, so this week I analyse how the speed of a formula 1 car compares with the speed of a variety of other objects, creatures and events.  As a starting reference point, the maximum speed recorded by a formula 1 car was 231.5 mph set by Juan Pablo Montoya at Monza during the 2005 Italian Grand Prix.

Listed below you can see how Juan Pablo Montoya's feat compares with a variety of other significant speeds.  Here they all are starting with the slowest first...

1) The top speed of the world's fastest snail* = 0.0313 mph

* The speckled garden snail.