A.Gary Shilling

Advantages: Frivolous & fun, laced with political comment
Disadvantages: Not the best of the series

...Polly cuts off her long blonde ringlets and climbs out the window, below which she lands on the inn courtyard as Oliver. Polly is running away to join the army. She needs to find out what happened to her brother ~ she also needs to protect her inheritance, but of course that isn’t the reason… To enlist, clearly she needs to become a man. Well, male anyway. In this man’s army being a man, as such, is not a pre-requisite. Aside from Polly, there is a Vampire (black-ribboned, temperance league sworn off the blood, but with a desperate need for coffee), a Troll (silica-based life-form, very slow thinkers at normal temperatures), and an Igor (a whole other species…although of course using the word ‘whole’ about an Igor is stretching a point). Monstrous Regiment is the 28th Discworld novel... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Keeps the family name going
Disadvantages: I dont get royalties!

...on to sell the old dog every time he got into dire straights financially. ***********************The Book************************* It exactly the same as the book originally printed in 1910. The only exception being the colour of the cover and the price charged. The original edition has a yellow cover and as can be seen from the illustration accompanying the review the new cover is a dirty orange colour. I cannot imagine anyone in 1910 paying £7.99 for a book either! A hardback book it is of about the same dimensions as a thin paperback. The illustration on the front cover, as you have seen is a cartoon of a contemporary boxer. No he isn't in his underwear that was the approved apparel for boxers in those days. This is not a cartoon of my grandfather. The back cover of the book is taken up by a philosophical statement: "A... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: A great book
Disadvantages:

...I had to read this book for a school asignment over the summer holidays and I just finnished it this morning. Verdict? Let's just say, I'm glad I picked it! Angela's Ashes is the harrowing tale of Frank McCourt growing up in the Irish town of Limerick. His family don't have two shillings to rub together. Frank's father drinks all the money the family recievs on the dole and they are left with nothing. He goes to England to find work and is never seen again. Frank, only a young boy at the time stays at home with his mother and two brothers and dreams of the day he can become a man and earn money and hopfully go to America some day to become wealthy. At the age of fourteen, he gets his first job as a telegram boy and wants the whole world to know he has earned his first pound! He continues to earn money until the age of nineteen when he... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average off topic