Welcome to part 31 in a series of non-fiction book reviews, originally based on the idea that the books I request from netGalley tell you everything you need to know about me. I have, after so many chapters of this series, realised that all these posts say about me is that this was just a place to put these reviews! I can see how broad my non-fiction reading is, and how many interesting, good (and sometimes not-so-good) books and topics I've had a chance to explore thanks to Netgalley.
Today we have the Violent Femmes first album, the Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night, and owls. Diverse indeed!
Owls by David Alderton (Publishing 14 April 2026)
Owls have been a source of fascination and awe throughout history. In Indian folklore, owls represent wisdom and helpfulness, while in Ancient Greece they were seen as a good omen if sighted before a battle. Today, owls are often kept as pets by bird lovers, and can be found in woodland and forests from the Canadian Arctic to the deserts of the Arabian peninsula. Full of fun facts and expert insights, Owls introduces these iconic birds in all their variety.
Did you know that owls can rotate their necks 270 degrees, or that an owl’s ears are asymmetrical? Or that owls are considered apex predators? Or that the tiniest owl in the world is the Elf Owl, a mere 12cm (5 inches) tall, while the largest North American owl is the Great Gray Owl at 80cm (32 inches) tall. Or that Barn Owls swallow their prey whole – skin, bones, and all – and they eat up to a thousand mice each year.
With chapters divided into type of owl – Barn & Grass Owls, Typical Owls, Snowy, Horned and Eagle Owls, Wood Owls, Pygmy Owls, and Owlets and Nesting – this book is a concise examination of these superb aerial hunters in over 200 vivid photographs.
Violent Femmes' Violent Femmes (33 1/3) by Nic Brown (publishing 14 May 2026)
Through rare access to the Violent Femmes and their archives, this book investigates the creation of such iconic songs as "Blister in the Sun", "Kiss Off", "Add it Up" and "Prove My Love", as well as the album's recording process.
The self-titled debut from Milwaukee post-punk acoustic trio the Violent Femmes is one of those rare albums that seems to have altered the course of popular music and influenced just about everyone who heard it while also managing to operate almost entirely outside of the mainstream. Released in 1983 to little sales or attention, the band was so iconoclastic that it couldn’t even engender support from Milwaukee’s anti-establishment punk scene. Over the ensuing years, though, Violent Femmes managed to exert itself as an unstoppable cultural force, ascending the college radio charts and spreading through word-of-mouth.
Violent Femmes didn’t sound like anything else when it was made, and it still doesn’t sound like anything else. The album somehow exists both outside of time and as one of the most evocative and enduring artifacts of the alternative ‘80’s.
This is an instalment in the 33 1/3 series, that focuses closey on individual albums.
This is a very detailed look at the Violent Femmes first album. Detailed to the point of 5 pages on each of the tracks from the album. I'm more of a casual listened, so some of this was lost on me - although this series is designed for a true deep dive, so that's more of a me problem. there was an hilarious moment when I was reading about what brand of microphone they recorded with, and I thought 'I don't care about microphones' and then I remembered that I recently read (and enjoyed) a book about nothing but microphones!
This lost a star by being completely uncritical. The music is all brilliant, the people are all fine, things just happened. It's clearly a book by a fan, for fans. If you are a very big fan of the Violent Femmes you can learn lots on this deep dive. if you are a casual listener this might be a bit more than is required.
A Hard Day's Night by Samira Ahmed (publishing 11 June 2026)
With warmth, wit and precision, Samira Ahmed reveals how the Beatles' first film changed both the band themselves and pop music's relationship with the screen.
In a vivid and personal exploration, she shows how this black-and-white gem, shot in a documentary style and brimming with youthful energy, captured Britain at a moment of social transformation, with a portrayal of celebrity, camaraderie and media frenzy that still resonates today. Drawing on her own experience of first discovering the film as a child and going on to work in the television industry, Ahmed shines a spotlight on the craft behind its enduring appeal. With insights from members of the cast and crew, including her own new interviews, Ahmed highlights A Hard Day's Night's class and sexual politics, and adds a delightfully original analysis of the women in the film.
In these pages you will be transported to a time when four young men from Liverpool, via the mass medium of television, changed the way Britain saw itself and the way the world saw Britain, revealing how, and why, A Hard Day's Night has become a landmark of modern cinema.
The books starts with an interesting chapter where Samira explains where this movie fits in her personal world and a bit of history. then there is a very long description of the movie. I realised that I hadn't actually seen it, so i took this opportunity to go and watch it. Madcap fun! they we have a chapter that I think it meant to put this in the broader television cultural context, but I found it really hard to pay attention. There was a lot of information about Richard Lester the director. After I struggled through that there was a chapter about women, which was basically a description of the women in the movie. It then concluded with some thoughts about the lasting impact of the movie, including a weird dis to Spice World.
I found this book far too descriptive, and not particularly interesting.
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