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!"

10 real facts that sound made up (part 2)

Back from the dead.
A Dagenham & Deadbridge fan.

This week's blog post features another round-up of strange sounding facts, but once again I've included one fake 'fact' in the list. I suppose therefore that strictly speaking, the title should read 'nine real facts that sound made-up and one that actually is made up'.

See if you can guess which one it is...

1) Premature condolences

Back in 1993, non-league football side Congleton Town FC were forced to cancel a minute's silence to mourn the death of the clubs oldest fan ... when the allegedly dead fan walked into the ground!

2) "Hmm, how much wrapping paper do I need?"

In the early days of the US Parcel Post Service, at least two children were sent by post. This prompted the Postmaster General to issue a regulation making the sending of children in the mail illegal.

Choosing a book cover for 'Crime Doesn't Pay'

In a few weeks time* I'll be releasing 'Crime Doesn't Pay' (a collection of crime themed short stories), so this week I'd like to ask for help in choosing a book cover.

* Update: I ultimately decided to publish the collection of short stories under the alterantive title of 'How To Poison Your Husband And Get Away With It'.

To keep with the crime theme, when designing the book cover I've firstly written the title 'Crime Doesn't Pay' in the style of a ransom note. Based on this theme I've then narrowed it down to a choice of three designs, and to help me decide I've created a poll.

If anyone could spare the time to check out the three designs below and then vote for their preference I would greatly appreciate it.

The first design uses a few blood splatters...

National Pug Day (part 2)

Last year on National Pug Day I featured a few photos of my parents' mischievous pugs, Bella and Phoebe. It was a very popular post, so there must be lots of pug lovers out there (just like me), so as today is National Pug Day here are a few more photos of Bella and Phoebe, featuring ice cream, general mischief and snuggly pugs!

1) The happiest day of Bella's life!

This was one of the happiest day of Bella's life. The day she discovered the fridge!

"Wow! Look at all the goodies in here!"