How to Catapult a Castle: Machines That Brought Down the Battlements

by James de Winter

What links all of these subjects?

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Look, How to Catapult a Castle is the kind of book that makes you want to text the author a thank-you note and a complaint in the same message. James de Winter writes a retired boxer teaching a nervous kid to fight in a church basement, and the moment the old man admits he's scared of stairs, not opponents, is the best page in the book. The training montage stuff gets predictable, though. For readers who love underdog stories with real heart. Skip it if you're tired of sports-movie beats.

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look, nobody does a miserable family dinner like James de Winter does in How to Catapult a Castle: Machines That Brought Down the Battlements. Every line of dialogue is a tiny knife, and the politeness makes it worse. It's tense, it's funny, and it's painfully familiar. Perfect for anyone who survived holiday gatherings, skip if that's still a sore spot.