Albert J. Alletzhauser

Advantages: A lovely story about others trying to make someone smile!
Disadvantages: None

...I only happened upon this book in December despite it having been around since 2002. - Nick Butterworth - I know of the author due to his Percy the Park Keeper books which are a firm favourite with many children who have passed through my classrooms over the years! Nick Butterworth had planned to go to art college after leaving school but instead got a job as a typographic designer in the printing dept of the National Children 's Home. He then worked as a freelance graphic designer and then went on to writing and illustrating his own children's books with huge success. - Who is Albert le Blanc? - Albert le Blanc is a huge French polar bear in Mr Jolly's Toy Shop. He has sad looking eyes and even looks sad from behind with his hunched up shoulders! - The Story - Albert is seen by the other toys in Mr Jolly's toy shop and instantly... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: I'm struggling on this one...
Disadvantages: Cardboard cut-out characters; barely discernible plot

...The Carl Hiassen influence in modern American fiction is horribly persuasive. Even bad writers have their imitators, of course, and Janet Evanovich, whose current offering - such is the way of the literary world - reposes in the upper half of the hardback top ten might be Uncle Carl's even less talented niece. She is meant to be a "funny writer" but, compared to her fitful strivings to hold down a joke, Olivia Goldsmith is Dorothy Parker reincarnate and P.J. O'Rourke oh, I don't know, a James Thurber for the 21st century. She doesn't do plot and she doesn't do establishing detail (road, house, TV playing, man opening door is about the descriptive limit here) but, like Hiassen, by God can she banter. Put her pistol-packing bounty-hunting heroine Stephanie Plum in a room with a sidekick and a bozo she's just knocked unconscious and you... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: funny, witty, exciting, and gripping, easy to keep interested in
Disadvantages: you won't want to put it down

...This book is all about a man who at first is named Albert Spangler who eventually becomes known as Moist Von Lipwig. Albert is a man who likes to live life on the edge (it is the only time he feels truly "alive"), and so his exploits aren't just about the money, they are about the adrenaline. Simply put, his thinking becomes sharper when he is under pressure, or in an extreme situation. Or at least, his mouth says things and then his brain at some point caches up and somehow, so he always manages to "pull it off" with interesting results. Unfortunately his luck finally runs out and he is caught and put in jail to be hanged...... At the moment of his hanging, things don't go quite as Albert was expecting. This is when he meets Lord Vetinari, the ruthless, cunning, powerful (and seemingly almost psychic) ruler of Anch Morpork... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful