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Advantages: Great Caine filmography
Disadvantages: You need to like Caine

THE AUTHOR Christopher Bray graduated in Film and Literature at Warwick University. He's written about films and books for the Observer, Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times, Independant, New Statesman, Spectator, etc. This is his first book. BIOGRAPHY OR FILM BUFF'S CRITIQUE? A critical filmography and biography. The personal biography takes second stage to the analysis - nay deconstruction - of Caine's performances in every film he appeared in, up ...
...here, from his earliest to 'Mona Lisa' (which arguably heralded his 'comeback'), to 'Last Orders', the 'Quiet American' etc, as well as many you may never have heard of. It's a film buff's book, but also a Caine buff's book. Bray interleaves biography with social history, showing how Caine's initial circumstances, his escape from these, and his later film roles, reflect wider social changes in the latter 20th century. Specifically, Bray is talking ... Read review

Advantages: Easy reading. Nicely written. The honesty.
Disadvantages: None

I've never really been a big fan of Cilla Black, but do like the woman. On TV she comes across as a very nice and down-to-earth woman. So, when her autobiography came out, I wanted to read it. Get an insight into the life of the Liverpool lass. She was brought up in Liverpool at 380 Scottie Road (Scotland Road) with her 3 brothers, mum (mam to her!) and dad. They lived above a Barber shop. She always dreamed about being a singer and famous one day. ...
...hair brush. Wherever the echo was louder, you'd find Cilla in there singing! She often told her mum that she wanted to be famous one day. Her mother never knocked her, always standing by her side whatever she said. She loved her parents. She was born Priscilla White. As a child, her family didn't have a lot of money. Throughout the book, she never forgets her Liverpool roots, and often refers to how she misses the place. Her parent remained up there, ... Read review

Advantages: Easy to follow, heart warming, he doesn't get killed, an unspun version of events in Iraq
Disadvantages: Describes an ongoing brutal war

My War - Killing Time in Iraq is the first book I have taken the time to read relating to the experiences of US forces in Iraq. The book written by Infantryman Colby Buzzell follows in detail his 12-month tour of duty in Iraq in the months following the official end of the Iraq war. The book itself follows a 3 year period in the life of Colby Buzzell, a punk rock loving Californian living in the San Francisco area in his journey from relative obscurity ...
...from his favourite songs. My first impression of the book itself was that it was rather funny! Buzzell tries to write everything as he sees it, there doesn't seem to be any artistic licence used. There is very little of the macho "I fear nothing" approach that you would expect from someone who joined up to go and fight. The views expressed are brutally honest and at times just down right frightening, but this aside it does provide an amazing insight ... Read review

Advantages: A gripping story of determination
Disadvantages: I can't think of one!

This is not the sort of book i would normally choose to read but a friend insisted i should give it a whirl, being open minded i did and boy am i glad i did! This truly inspirational story of a child that defied all the odds and made good. It sounds like sentimental clap trap i know... that's what i thought but it's anything but. Constance Briscoe is bought up in a large family where she is humilated, beliitled, shamed and abused by her Mother and ...
...and just when she feels she has no purpose in life a Barrister visits her school and inspires Constance of what she could achieve. With no support from her family, left home alone to fend for herself at just 13 years old. Constance driven by her ambition proves to the world exactley what she is capable of. This is a true story. It isn't for the faint hearted, there are chapters that are harrowing and extremely graphic. It will leave you with nothing ... Read review

Advantages: The mix of personal experience and international crises
Disadvantages: none

...books have you read about the second world war from a German perspective? To be fair, Christine Bielenberg isn't German, she's an Anglo-Irish woman married to a German and that perhaps makes this book even more readable. "The past is myself" follows her life as the wife of a German from just before the outbreak of the second world war to its end. Having missed the opportunity to escape to England she manages to avoid internment. She and her family ...
...move to the safer rural area of the Black Forest. The story includes arrests, plots, rescues and living in hiding. Throughout the book Bielenberg blends domestic detail with international events. On the one hand she writes about the problems she has when her hens invade the neighbours garden, and on the other hand she describes her husbands involvement in the plot to kill Hitler. What makes it such a good read is that Beilenburg is an ordinary person. ... Read review