Category: Reviews – Books
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Book reviews by Steve Earles: Everybody Lies
Everybody Lies: What The Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are By Seth Stephens-Davidowitz Foreword by Steven Pinker It’s hard to get your head around the fact that on any given day the human race searching the internet amasses eight trillion gigabytes of data! Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is a Harvard-trained economist and worked as a…
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Book reviews by Steve Earles: FICTION
Radio Girls By Sarah-Jane Stratford It’s difficult in this 21st century era of mass communications to understand just how important radio was in its early years (think of Rush’s “Spirit of Radio”!). It literally opened up the world. I remember my mother telling me her granny would listen to the radio all day, transfixed by…
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Book reviews by Steve Earles: HISTORY
Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality: What He Actually Said By Richard M. Langworth In 1968 Richard M. Langworth founded the Churchill Study unit and its journal Finest Hour, which he edited for over thirty years (since 2014 he has been Senior Fellow for the Churchill project at Hillsdale College in Michigan). It is fair to say…
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Book reviews by Steve Earles: NON-FICTION
Celtic Astrology: From The Druids to the Middle Ages Written by M.G. Boutet Foreword by David Frawley As an Irishman I am always interested in anything to do with the Celts – my interest being initially sparked by Jim Fitzpatrick’s superb Celtic artwork that has graced books, t-shirts, cards, and several fabulous album covers including…
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Bruce Dickinson – What Does This Button Do?
An Autobiography As I began to read ‘What Does This Button Do?’ in order to review it, I noted that it was firmly embedded in the UK Top 10 Books… This is as it should be, as it is a most splendid read indeed! This book will obviously appeal to fans of Bruce Dickinson and…
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Book reviews by Steve Earles, November 2017
Military, Political & Social History Rebellion in the Reign of Charles II Written by Julian Whitehead Published by Pen & Sword History The Restoration is one of the most fascinating periods of history, and certainly a great favourite of mine. King Charles II (known with good reason as the Merry Monarch as is well known from…
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Occult Paris: The Lost Magic of the Belle Epoque
Written by Tobias Churton Published by Inner Traditions Any book by Tobias Churton is a special event. His books on Aleister Crowley, particularly ‘Aleister Crowley: The Beast in Berlin’, are amongst the best books ever written on Crowley; they are essential reading for anyone interested in reading about Crowley and his life and works, and…
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‘Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down: Rock ‘N’ Roll War Stories’ by Allan Jones
This book gives a great insight into the glory days of music journalism: i.e., when it was an actual paying job reporting on an actual record industry. Allan Jones joined Melody Maker as a junior reporter in 1974. His ultra-confident application signed off with the lines: “Melody Maker needs a bullet up the arse. I’m the…
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Book reviews by Steve Earles: October 2017
History, medical science, detection and crime Digging in the Dark: A History of the Yorkshire Resurrectionists Written by Ben Johnson Published by Pen & Sword History The progress of medical research depended on a supply of bodies for surgeons to learn their skills from in 18th and 19th-century England. The amount of legally proscribed bodies…
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Doctor Who: Myths & Legends
Epic Tales From Alien Worlds Written by Richard Dinnick Illustrated by Adrian Salmon It’s fair to say that Doctor Who is a magical thing, infinite and ever-changing (as I write this, we are soon to have our first lady Doctor Who, not our first lady Time Lord however – this was done as far back…