A World of Wisdom: Fun and Unusual Phrases from Around the Globe by James Chapman is a colorful comic guide to idioms that is fun to dive into. Proceeding by topics, each section compares expressions from different cultures. Sayings are grouped by the animal kingdom, aquatic life, facial hair, dancing, love, advice, nature, food, and books. Cats, due to their popularity, have their own chapter, as do dogs. Particularly popular ideas, such as “when the cat’s away, the mice will […]

There are a ton of Sherlock Holmes film and TV projects briefly described in Cut to Baker Street. With the book’s inclusion of web series, video games, and other short pieces, any reader will discover something they weren’t previously aware of. However, the information given for any project is very brief. Most titles have mere plot descriptions, without much information about history, style, quality, or importance. Particularly with those items that weren’t commercial full-length films or TV shows, it’s frustrating […]

I had a brilliant time reading Doctor Who: Whographica. It’s colorful and fun and full of ridiculous detail. It has twelve chapters, one per Doctor. (Published in 2016, the book only covers through 2015, or two-thirds of the way through the Twelfth Doctor’s run, ending with “The Husbands of River Song”.) Each chapter also covers another theme — including TARDIS, Alien Worlds, Technology, and my favorite, “That’s Silly” — and opens with something like this: That lists the episodes for […]