Pun based title, when I think of one

The Amber Spyglass is the third part of Phillip Pullman's  His Dark Materials trilogy. Here follows a few random impressions. I can't in all conscience do a full and proper 'review' because I began it several years ago, only to put it down halfway through. Circumstantial reasons, I don't remember why. Also, it's very much part of the whole, the whole trilogy, which I began even further in the past. But I've just finished it, today, and it's made more of an impact on me than I anticipated. - Back when I stopped, it was frustrating; and I did skim ahead to get the general picture of what happened. Hm. I've yet to find an exception to the rule, that this is never a good idea , especially with a book of any complexity. Pullman's prose is very fine, and needs to be relished and nurtured, and you do lose out on some understanding if you skim, thinking you only have to pick up on main events. As I now know. - This (right) was the edition I bou...

I know of Katy Brand as a stand up comic, although I've only seen her on the news satire show, Have I Got News For You . She comes across as being very sharp. And funny. All very promising, because this book is set in the world of stand up comedy. The front and back are covered with quotes from well known writers and comedians, about how funny it is. I picked this up from my local library, part of my unconscious search for variety in my reading this year. I must have thought this would be a good light comic read, but it's actually quite a different kind of book.  Brenda Monk is Funny is the story of a comedian's girlfriend who gets fed up with being the material for his humour and decides to become a stand up comic herself. It's often funny, but not so much from the content of any stand up routines. We're sort of expected to take them for granted; which is okay, because we quickly come to understand that the delivery of comedy is all about crafting the perform...