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[1] The Flying Phone Booth: My 3 Years Behind The Candid Camera- Lou Tyrrell
Candid Camera is part of television history, not just because of being the first and still one of the best examples of the Reality TV show, but also because it is one of the media industries greatest comedy formats. Some of the earliest shows are as funny and fresh today as they were fifty years ago.
Lou Tyrrell's so very readable book gives us a wonderful view behind the cameras during three of the best years of the show. Lou was producer, and for one of those years the key driver of the show. During this year the very individual Alan Funt, the format's creator was on his "world tour", mainly it seems of famous hotels. During some of this period Candid Camera was the top rated show by viewing numbers in the whole of the USA, and in no small measure because of the author's influence.
The writing is light and whimsical. The chapters bounce by, as one feels as though one is almost standing alongside Lou watching his vivid, journalistic, visual bits of autobiographical entertainment unfold. Lou makes it very easy to picture oneself in the TV theatres, restaurants, domestic chaos, street setups, and business deals that were his world.
I don't remember what I ate yesterday, or what tie anyone has ever worn anywhere whether they are an Alan Funt or a Yogi Bear, and I don't suppose for a moment that Lou is always quite spot on with his memory. However, I am sure that the imagery, the snap-shots of those exciting days, are as contextually accurate as any memories of any autobiographical days can ever be.
This is a delightful, highly readable book that is ideal for a long read, or to be enjoyed in bursts of irregular pleasure. For all those who have fond memories of Candid Camera this book is a must. In addition this book gives us a wonderful glimpse of the beating heart of 1960s' down-town New York.
http://www.amazon.com/Flying-Behind-CANDID-CAMERA-ebook/dp/B005BQYCNE
Lou Tyrrell's so very readable book gives us a wonderful view behind the cameras during three of the best years of the show. Lou was producer, and for one of those years the key driver of the show. During this year the very individual Alan Funt, the format's creator was on his "world tour", mainly it seems of famous hotels. During some of this period Candid Camera was the top rated show by viewing numbers in the whole of the USA, and in no small measure because of the author's influence.
The writing is light and whimsical. The chapters bounce by, as one feels as though one is almost standing alongside Lou watching his vivid, journalistic, visual bits of autobiographical entertainment unfold. Lou makes it very easy to picture oneself in the TV theatres, restaurants, domestic chaos, street setups, and business deals that were his world.
I don't remember what I ate yesterday, or what tie anyone has ever worn anywhere whether they are an Alan Funt or a Yogi Bear, and I don't suppose for a moment that Lou is always quite spot on with his memory. However, I am sure that the imagery, the snap-shots of those exciting days, are as contextually accurate as any memories of any autobiographical days can ever be.
This is a delightful, highly readable book that is ideal for a long read, or to be enjoyed in bursts of irregular pleasure. For all those who have fond memories of Candid Camera this book is a must. In addition this book gives us a wonderful glimpse of the beating heart of 1960s' down-town New York.
http://www.amazon.com/Flying-Behind-CANDID-CAMERA-ebook/dp/B005BQYCNE
[2] Battle of Gettysburg: A Visual Tour- Jack Kunkel
If I ever walk the grounds over which the United States was effectively cast from the bloody trails of the Civil War, I will have Jack Kunkel's guide in my grasp. I never have and in truth I probably never will visit these historic acres, however, this book has allowed me to get so close that I feel as though I once stood on Little Round Top and watched the whole terrible drama unfold.
Even in the electronic format that I read this book, it is stunningly well presented, with clear maps and some of the best known contemporary photographs of that terrible battle and its aftermath. This was the first war to be caught in the glare of the recently invented camera. Long photographic plate exposure ruled out anything approaching photographs of live action, but we still get a real feel of the terror of the conflict in the way the book is presented.
Kunkel brings his tour stops of the battlefield to life so effectively that I could easily build a visual picture in my mind as the troops engaged across the hard fought ground. We are guided towards an understanding as to why one of the greatest generals of all time failed at Gettysburg. Over ambitious tactics by Robert E. Lee outlined by him on the evening of July 2nd 1863 were to lead not just to the Confederates defeat in this battle, but to their eventual loss of the war. A few over ambitious decisions, that were less than thoroughly followed through, changed the course of American history and so that of the World. As Kunkel tells us, if the Confederates had entrenched and moved away their main forces towards Washington a very different history may have resulted from those three hot days in June. Even with Gettysburg following close to the course it did, if Lee had been just a little better served by poor logistics, he may have drawn victory over the North. A little more food, a better supply of artillery ammunition, better equipped artillery spotters, or perhaps even just a few thousand pairs of new shoes may have been enough to have swung the battle so far in Lee's favour, even as late as day three, that the Union would have been routed.
We know what happened, and most of us with any interest in history know a good deal about why it happened. With Kunkel we take another step, and watch as it happens, watch the modern site of this historic battle come to life, watch history change by the hour as the tide of war swings from blue to grey and back again many times. Until finally, instead of tactical withdraw from the stalemate Lee maintains his onslaught into a third day, and the South bleeds out in the afternoon sun on Cemetery Hill. The World was not to see such senseless slaughter of so many regimented troops charging fixed and well-defended defensive positions again for another fifty years, and that was to be across the pond in Europe. Tactics had to change for the South after June 1863, as never recovered numbers dictated the need to skirmish rather than to march shoulder to shoulder against the guns.
Read Kunkel's tour guide that allows one to see Gettysburg live, through the smoke of guns and the smog of time. http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Gettysburg-Visual-Jack-Kunkel/dp/098297051X
Even in the electronic format that I read this book, it is stunningly well presented, with clear maps and some of the best known contemporary photographs of that terrible battle and its aftermath. This was the first war to be caught in the glare of the recently invented camera. Long photographic plate exposure ruled out anything approaching photographs of live action, but we still get a real feel of the terror of the conflict in the way the book is presented.
Kunkel brings his tour stops of the battlefield to life so effectively that I could easily build a visual picture in my mind as the troops engaged across the hard fought ground. We are guided towards an understanding as to why one of the greatest generals of all time failed at Gettysburg. Over ambitious tactics by Robert E. Lee outlined by him on the evening of July 2nd 1863 were to lead not just to the Confederates defeat in this battle, but to their eventual loss of the war. A few over ambitious decisions, that were less than thoroughly followed through, changed the course of American history and so that of the World. As Kunkel tells us, if the Confederates had entrenched and moved away their main forces towards Washington a very different history may have resulted from those three hot days in June. Even with Gettysburg following close to the course it did, if Lee had been just a little better served by poor logistics, he may have drawn victory over the North. A little more food, a better supply of artillery ammunition, better equipped artillery spotters, or perhaps even just a few thousand pairs of new shoes may have been enough to have swung the battle so far in Lee's favour, even as late as day three, that the Union would have been routed.
We know what happened, and most of us with any interest in history know a good deal about why it happened. With Kunkel we take another step, and watch as it happens, watch the modern site of this historic battle come to life, watch history change by the hour as the tide of war swings from blue to grey and back again many times. Until finally, instead of tactical withdraw from the stalemate Lee maintains his onslaught into a third day, and the South bleeds out in the afternoon sun on Cemetery Hill. The World was not to see such senseless slaughter of so many regimented troops charging fixed and well-defended defensive positions again for another fifty years, and that was to be across the pond in Europe. Tactics had to change for the South after June 1863, as never recovered numbers dictated the need to skirmish rather than to march shoulder to shoulder against the guns.
Read Kunkel's tour guide that allows one to see Gettysburg live, through the smoke of guns and the smog of time. http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Gettysburg-Visual-Jack-Kunkel/dp/098297051X
[3] Addressing Spirits- Carla Foft
If you like ghosts that are modern, as believable as anything paranormal can be, interesting rather than blood chilling, and just the sort of fair that paranormal investigators would really get involve with, then this is for you.
The book is three short stories involving different incidents in the same core characters' lives. The stories are set in believable suburban western U.S. locations. One feels that Foft could be writing about her neighbours, she isn't, or perhaps in some ways she is. Foft has a smooth easy going style of writing and has no trouble in building believable dialogue, and solid character.
This is a good read for all the family members. Enough spooks to make one think about life, death and any space which may exist in-between without over scaring the children, or sending the priest running for holy or spirit water. http://www.amazon.com/Addressing-Spirits-Carla-Foft
The book is three short stories involving different incidents in the same core characters' lives. The stories are set in believable suburban western U.S. locations. One feels that Foft could be writing about her neighbours, she isn't, or perhaps in some ways she is. Foft has a smooth easy going style of writing and has no trouble in building believable dialogue, and solid character.
This is a good read for all the family members. Enough spooks to make one think about life, death and any space which may exist in-between without over scaring the children, or sending the priest running for holy or spirit water. http://www.amazon.com/Addressing-Spirits-Carla-Foft
[4] Railway Confessions- A Collection of Short Stories- Carolyn Moncel
I find that as a means of travel nothing else feels as secure and protecting as going by train. In this cosy world, cocooned together, often closely facing each other, the train is a likely place for complete strangers to find themselves in conversation. For a variety of reasons this is often especially true on a long journey, rather than on the short familiar commute. From time to time this dialogue, seemingly detached from our real lives, may even become a confession.
Of course we need a connection to break the silence, a reason to allow our natural reserve to fall. Morcel works these variously likely connections to build interesting conversations. We have an overheard phone conversation in a common, not locally spoken, language, another time a baby and the strings it pulls between two women. Then we have worries about planned meetings, the constant danger of delays, or perhaps about a disturbing passenger just far enough away to be talked about. The triggers are many. From these incidents Morcel builds story, moulds characters, plays with our expectations, drawing on our sometime need to talk to someone, anyone. The freedom of conversing with those that will never cross our paths again, or so we assume, can be compelling. The relief in bouncing our guilty secrets, our fears, our concerns off those whose judgement is unlikely to be prejudice to our future can so easily melt away our guards.
And what better place to read Morcel's "observational" short stories than on a train as it speeds across some wide open countryside between distant cities. Perhaps we will read, have a snooze and wake to find an excuse, a need, to talk to the fascinating other sitting just in front, a narrow leg space away. Beware, that friendly smile may belong to Carolyn Moncel, and she might tell! There is only one problem with this compelling read, it is far too short. Morcell writes very well, pulling one in to quietly listen to a train's intimate strangers.
http://www.amazon.com/Railway-Confessions-Collection-Stories-ebook/dp/B0076BLY42
Of course we need a connection to break the silence, a reason to allow our natural reserve to fall. Morcel works these variously likely connections to build interesting conversations. We have an overheard phone conversation in a common, not locally spoken, language, another time a baby and the strings it pulls between two women. Then we have worries about planned meetings, the constant danger of delays, or perhaps about a disturbing passenger just far enough away to be talked about. The triggers are many. From these incidents Morcel builds story, moulds characters, plays with our expectations, drawing on our sometime need to talk to someone, anyone. The freedom of conversing with those that will never cross our paths again, or so we assume, can be compelling. The relief in bouncing our guilty secrets, our fears, our concerns off those whose judgement is unlikely to be prejudice to our future can so easily melt away our guards.
And what better place to read Morcel's "observational" short stories than on a train as it speeds across some wide open countryside between distant cities. Perhaps we will read, have a snooze and wake to find an excuse, a need, to talk to the fascinating other sitting just in front, a narrow leg space away. Beware, that friendly smile may belong to Carolyn Moncel, and she might tell! There is only one problem with this compelling read, it is far too short. Morcell writes very well, pulling one in to quietly listen to a train's intimate strangers.
http://www.amazon.com/Railway-Confessions-Collection-Stories-ebook/dp/B0076BLY42
[5] The Moonstone- Nikki Broadwell
This book strikes straight out of the heart of traditional fantasy, carefully combining many elements from ancient culture and modern fairy-tales. Broadwell's sources are a well-crafted mix of Celtic mythologies, Gaelic rooted language, life observations, and fantasy themes. We are set at first in a recently past Scotland, and follow a path from there into an Otherworld of mysticism, sorcery, and the swirling mists of our childhood dreams and adult mares.
The journey which the heroines take has an undeniably real feeling start to it. We travel from a present Highlands into landscapes from Scotland's past, lands of vast oak forests, wolves, and hard, rural, centuries old life. This is only a step away from the heather and boggy grasslands, from the modern stands of spruce and pine, from the tarmac torn wilderness; an easy step for fantasy readers. We are with an ordinary girl from a modern, broken family-life, torn away from the familiar mix of love and abuse common to so many backgrounds. This pregnant, already married and separated, heroine is drawn away. The pull provided by an, until the moment, long absent promiscuous "new age" mother. They travel into another world, of hallucinogenic spells, ancient beliefs, Celtic gods, magical herbs, fantastical apparitions, and immemorial struggles. It is an intoxicating idea that somewhere between the familiar and the deep cold ground that awaits all but the most innocent and pious, is another world. Such is the bedrock of fantasy. Broadwell's well-painted fantasy is far better than most, even more rational, (if that isn't a contradiction,) and worth every easy moment it takes to read.
The Moonstone is a beautifully crafted book, driving a compelling narrative that has many adventurous surprises, highs and lows. No theme in the book is totally original, or even unpredictable, but it is all magically put together, with enough description to enchant without overwhelming our vivid, private imaginations. The path in the moonstone is as compelling as that route to any golden-fleece, or promised chalice. It is a path worth taking, an exciting one.
The weave of this story has enchanted me into needing more, to see further into the flawed mystical world created by Broadwell's deep well of imagination. I will consume the rest of the trilogy without the slightest effort. The plot is often predictable, as is most adventure, but it's play of character, its mix of ideas and psychology isn't. Enjoy all, the craft in Broadwell's writing, the mix of myth and mythology, of ancient art and modern thought, the frustrating predictability of flawed character, and the sometimes unforeseen, all the elements that make this a great story.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Moonstone-Volume-nikki-broadwell/dp/0615534724
The journey which the heroines take has an undeniably real feeling start to it. We travel from a present Highlands into landscapes from Scotland's past, lands of vast oak forests, wolves, and hard, rural, centuries old life. This is only a step away from the heather and boggy grasslands, from the modern stands of spruce and pine, from the tarmac torn wilderness; an easy step for fantasy readers. We are with an ordinary girl from a modern, broken family-life, torn away from the familiar mix of love and abuse common to so many backgrounds. This pregnant, already married and separated, heroine is drawn away. The pull provided by an, until the moment, long absent promiscuous "new age" mother. They travel into another world, of hallucinogenic spells, ancient beliefs, Celtic gods, magical herbs, fantastical apparitions, and immemorial struggles. It is an intoxicating idea that somewhere between the familiar and the deep cold ground that awaits all but the most innocent and pious, is another world. Such is the bedrock of fantasy. Broadwell's well-painted fantasy is far better than most, even more rational, (if that isn't a contradiction,) and worth every easy moment it takes to read.
The Moonstone is a beautifully crafted book, driving a compelling narrative that has many adventurous surprises, highs and lows. No theme in the book is totally original, or even unpredictable, but it is all magically put together, with enough description to enchant without overwhelming our vivid, private imaginations. The path in the moonstone is as compelling as that route to any golden-fleece, or promised chalice. It is a path worth taking, an exciting one.
The weave of this story has enchanted me into needing more, to see further into the flawed mystical world created by Broadwell's deep well of imagination. I will consume the rest of the trilogy without the slightest effort. The plot is often predictable, as is most adventure, but it's play of character, its mix of ideas and psychology isn't. Enjoy all, the craft in Broadwell's writing, the mix of myth and mythology, of ancient art and modern thought, the frustrating predictability of flawed character, and the sometimes unforeseen, all the elements that make this a great story.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Moonstone-Volume-nikki-broadwell/dp/0615534724
[6] Doing Max Vinyl- Frederick Lee Brooke
This is a great entertainment, written with flare. Brooke certainly has an ability to write, and to weave an interesting plot. The comic moments are well crafted from the story; comedy built out of a nice muddle of possible mishap, and peoples very mixed abilities. Some of the characters are so sharp, so accurately portraying individuals we might well know. Then Brooke variously stretches personality to logical yet ridiculous extremes.
By half way one can guess some of the end, but that doesn't make it any the less amusing when it happens. This is a good week-end read, even when half-distracted by family chaos, as I was. The characters are so memorable that one can't lose the thread for very long. The mix of the ridiculous, melodramatic, violent, comic and pointedly accurate is done very well. This is a tragic comedy played out in the shady worlds of "rubbish" re-cycling, and gang-land competition. I have only just finished, and if only it wasn't all so fresh in my mind I would love to immediately start all over again.
http://www.amazon.com/Doing-Vinyl-Annie-Mystery-Volume/dp/0615469493
By half way one can guess some of the end, but that doesn't make it any the less amusing when it happens. This is a good week-end read, even when half-distracted by family chaos, as I was. The characters are so memorable that one can't lose the thread for very long. The mix of the ridiculous, melodramatic, violent, comic and pointedly accurate is done very well. This is a tragic comedy played out in the shady worlds of "rubbish" re-cycling, and gang-land competition. I have only just finished, and if only it wasn't all so fresh in my mind I would love to immediately start all over again.
http://www.amazon.com/Doing-Vinyl-Annie-Mystery-Volume/dp/0615469493
[7] By Darkness Revealed (Blackwell Magic)- Kevin O. McLaughlin
This is an urban fantasy story by a better than competent writer. One that has no trouble keeping one entertained. The well-constructed story is set in and around a very realistic feeling, modern, military academy, whilst the plot makes use of many well established "superstitions" surrounding the "dark arts".
The inter-play of characters was interesting, although too many of them were rather underdeveloped. I would particularly have liked the white knight figure of the gardener to have been more deeply explored, along with that of the undergraduate who released the ancient evil. The recovery just in time approach to solving a struggle was perhaps used once too often, but the action scenes were certainly exciting. Possibly the fact that the College kept running almost normally with so many deaths was slightly difficult to go along with. All these irritations were almost certainly due to the constraints of fashionable concise writing, and not to any lack of inventiveness in telling story.
Despite my minor criticisms, this book is a very well worthwhile fantasy read with plenty to keep the reader interested in searching out ongoing stories of Blackwell magic. This is one of the best long "short-stories" I have read, but I really hope McLaughlin starts to risk a bit more paper. This is a very clever use of the Occult in a modern "urban fantasy", by an author that all readers will be keen to read more of.
http://www.amazon.com/Darkness-Revealed-Blackwell-Magic-ebook/dp/B005G8L3X4
The inter-play of characters was interesting, although too many of them were rather underdeveloped. I would particularly have liked the white knight figure of the gardener to have been more deeply explored, along with that of the undergraduate who released the ancient evil. The recovery just in time approach to solving a struggle was perhaps used once too often, but the action scenes were certainly exciting. Possibly the fact that the College kept running almost normally with so many deaths was slightly difficult to go along with. All these irritations were almost certainly due to the constraints of fashionable concise writing, and not to any lack of inventiveness in telling story.
Despite my minor criticisms, this book is a very well worthwhile fantasy read with plenty to keep the reader interested in searching out ongoing stories of Blackwell magic. This is one of the best long "short-stories" I have read, but I really hope McLaughlin starts to risk a bit more paper. This is a very clever use of the Occult in a modern "urban fantasy", by an author that all readers will be keen to read more of.
http://www.amazon.com/Darkness-Revealed-Blackwell-Magic-ebook/dp/B005G8L3X4
[8] The Wake of the Dragon: A Steampunk Adventure- Jaq D. Hawkins
This was my first Steampunk novel; immediately I'm wondering my neglect. Hawkins writing is good enough that I was unaware of reading, as the words flowed so effortlessly into the adventure. Some writers can make me feel I'm watching film, I felt that. Hawkins crafts a wonderful adventure out of her genre inspired distortion of 19th Century History.
We read about a fictitious battle for wealth, conducted by industry, traders and outright crooks. In particular we observe a battle for the trade in opium and other nefarious goods between all parties from the huge East India Company, down to the lowest of pirates. We are not though, as history would lead us to expect, at sea. We are in the skies above East Anglia, London, Cornwall and eventually Paris. Pirates in airships and other inventively interpreted steam age technologies add a magical layer to Victoriana. Imagine Montgolfier balloons with wooden pirate ships as baskets. Not an exactly new artistic invention, that's true, but newly drawn. With the trade in intoxicants, the presence of spies, prostitutes, crafty merchants and a generous supply of other maverick souls we follow the in the wake of the Dragon. Some of Hawkins characters almost walk out of the words, or at least they do for me.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wake-Dragon-Steampunk-ebook/dp/B0080UVQIW
We read about a fictitious battle for wealth, conducted by industry, traders and outright crooks. In particular we observe a battle for the trade in opium and other nefarious goods between all parties from the huge East India Company, down to the lowest of pirates. We are not though, as history would lead us to expect, at sea. We are in the skies above East Anglia, London, Cornwall and eventually Paris. Pirates in airships and other inventively interpreted steam age technologies add a magical layer to Victoriana. Imagine Montgolfier balloons with wooden pirate ships as baskets. Not an exactly new artistic invention, that's true, but newly drawn. With the trade in intoxicants, the presence of spies, prostitutes, crafty merchants and a generous supply of other maverick souls we follow the in the wake of the Dragon. Some of Hawkins characters almost walk out of the words, or at least they do for me.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wake-Dragon-Steampunk-ebook/dp/B0080UVQIW
[9] Puppet Parade- Zeinab Alayan ~~~~ (Extract 8)
This beautifully written book is full of inventiveness, emotion, and clever re-examinations of a host of fantasy ideas. This is a modern adult fairy story, which draws on so many classic themes and cultural tales that it is difficult to guess which ones were originally uppermost in Alayan's mind. It is not that we need to de-construct to enjoy the story; it is simply that as a writer I cannot stop myself wondering from where the spark came. What we do need to do, if cynical adults, is to re-construct some aspects of our childish selves. After all, this is a fairy story in which wooden puppets can talk. Remember back to when Pinocchio seemed plausible. Now get on with finding your own way onto the train with Oliver and Sophie.
Alayan enables us to see a complex world through the eyes of the variably innocent and naïve, whilst at the same time she avoids creating a childish story. Her fairy tale grows out of what is already a fantasy world, one a dimension away from our own, and takes us into fantasy inside fantasy, and even a fantasy inside that, like a sort of giant layer cake. It is as though the Brothers Grimm had taken five or six folk tales, stripped each to its core, and then rebuilt their own complex dark fantasy from the result.
The whole book is all the cleverer as it is written through two pairs of childish eyes, one pair that hid from facing an outside world and one that were hidden from it. Actually, the pictures are so well drawn that it is easy to become submerged. For the times I took to read this work the Parade really existed, strings really did control the humans, and not the puppets, and if Alayan had asked me to see water flowing uphill I would have done so. As with any fantasy that starts to have a solid quality some structure needs to become predictable. Some stops on the train did little more than draw us a little further into understanding, but the length of the description and the multiple stops were necessary. Modern fantasies are often written far too short. Alayan's generosity of quantity, as well as undeniable quality, made the conclusions so much more complete.
This is a longish book, because it needs to be long enough to draw us into the Parade, long enough for the reader to be "absorbed" and for the principle characters to grow. I don't want to read a sequel. This is a completed fairy tale that needs no revisiting. It has its own encapsulated magic, which would only be damaged by reopening. However, I absolutely will be looking out for new works by Zeinab Alayan, just to see whether she can pull off such a feast again.http://www.amazon.com/Puppet-Parade-ebook/dp/B007W39RXY
Alayan enables us to see a complex world through the eyes of the variably innocent and naïve, whilst at the same time she avoids creating a childish story. Her fairy tale grows out of what is already a fantasy world, one a dimension away from our own, and takes us into fantasy inside fantasy, and even a fantasy inside that, like a sort of giant layer cake. It is as though the Brothers Grimm had taken five or six folk tales, stripped each to its core, and then rebuilt their own complex dark fantasy from the result.
The whole book is all the cleverer as it is written through two pairs of childish eyes, one pair that hid from facing an outside world and one that were hidden from it. Actually, the pictures are so well drawn that it is easy to become submerged. For the times I took to read this work the Parade really existed, strings really did control the humans, and not the puppets, and if Alayan had asked me to see water flowing uphill I would have done so. As with any fantasy that starts to have a solid quality some structure needs to become predictable. Some stops on the train did little more than draw us a little further into understanding, but the length of the description and the multiple stops were necessary. Modern fantasies are often written far too short. Alayan's generosity of quantity, as well as undeniable quality, made the conclusions so much more complete.
This is a longish book, because it needs to be long enough to draw us into the Parade, long enough for the reader to be "absorbed" and for the principle characters to grow. I don't want to read a sequel. This is a completed fairy tale that needs no revisiting. It has its own encapsulated magic, which would only be damaged by reopening. However, I absolutely will be looking out for new works by Zeinab Alayan, just to see whether she can pull off such a feast again.http://www.amazon.com/Puppet-Parade-ebook/dp/B007W39RXY
[10] Flight Surgeon- Michael Jennings
This is mainstream romance. Jennings writes in a traditional long style, taking care to build his characters, and draw the reader deep into their lives. The "heroic doctor" is very much the centre of the story, playing a handsome but needy romantic. Briana is the centre of surgeon Michael's, attention, a young beauty that appears to be too good to be true. That was almost the story!
Both Michael and Briana are amongst the over-rich of affluent society America. Both though are "the right sort", generous with their skills, time and money. Michael's role as Good Samaritan heads the relationship towards disaster. Remember though, this is classic romance.
Flight Surgeon is a book for the leisurely holiday, or the long weekends unwind. Some of it was a little too schmaltzy for my taste, and some of the build was a touch long; but overall I really enjoyed it, and I know that regular readers of romance will love this book. The sex is more about good hands than over heating graphic detail. Those that want the full monty of athletic intercourse, nicely disguised as romance, need to go elsewhere first. Then afterwards read this crafted book, in order to relax and in good time recharge their batteries.
I am intrigued to find out how Frankie, the butler, really fits in. That will have to await the sequel, to which I look forward.
http://www.amazon.com/Flight-Surgeon-ebook/dp/B0096SZF4I
Both Michael and Briana are amongst the over-rich of affluent society America. Both though are "the right sort", generous with their skills, time and money. Michael's role as Good Samaritan heads the relationship towards disaster. Remember though, this is classic romance.
Flight Surgeon is a book for the leisurely holiday, or the long weekends unwind. Some of it was a little too schmaltzy for my taste, and some of the build was a touch long; but overall I really enjoyed it, and I know that regular readers of romance will love this book. The sex is more about good hands than over heating graphic detail. Those that want the full monty of athletic intercourse, nicely disguised as romance, need to go elsewhere first. Then afterwards read this crafted book, in order to relax and in good time recharge their batteries.
I am intrigued to find out how Frankie, the butler, really fits in. That will have to await the sequel, to which I look forward.
http://www.amazon.com/Flight-Surgeon-ebook/dp/B0096SZF4I
[11] Spate of Violence- Peggie Biessmann
This social drama is set in a small satellite town of Frankfurt, which could be in the domain of just about any western city. The small town is mainly one of middle class streets. There is though, an area called the Park which is made up of low cost, high-rise apartments. This neighbourhood is full of foreign and first generation German citizens, many of Turkish extraction. The Park is an estate labelled by high unemployment and crime. The story is written in a pacey way, without any excess of information or irrelevant detail. Biessmann has a very modern style of writing that keeps the plot boiling along. The descriptions are always crystal clear.
The ending rather faded, as though a next episode was soon due, despite this my interest was sustained to the very end. That isn't to say there wasn't a crescendo, just not one quite as sustained at a peak as the plot was set to allow. Quite possibly Biessmann deliberately undercooked the end in order to maintain a strong sense of the real, of the truly plausible, to leave us with a message rather than an adrenaline high. I was led to feel that I understood a great deal about the many principle characters without at any stage being burdened by the information build. The writing is omniscient, detached, and yet draws a great depth of emotion from the principle characters thoughts and actions.
I can see this book working very well as a television drama, provided good acting is used to convey Biessmann's sharp emotive descriptions. Many of the all too common ills of society and the often inevitable paths they lead the differentially placed individuals on, make for a very compelling and believable read. If any of us where in any of their shoes would we be so different? Only the strongest of us are ever more than where we sit is where we stand, as is true amongst this interesting cast.
http://www.amazon.com/Spate-of-Violence-ebook/dp/B00B1B7DVQ
The ending rather faded, as though a next episode was soon due, despite this my interest was sustained to the very end. That isn't to say there wasn't a crescendo, just not one quite as sustained at a peak as the plot was set to allow. Quite possibly Biessmann deliberately undercooked the end in order to maintain a strong sense of the real, of the truly plausible, to leave us with a message rather than an adrenaline high. I was led to feel that I understood a great deal about the many principle characters without at any stage being burdened by the information build. The writing is omniscient, detached, and yet draws a great depth of emotion from the principle characters thoughts and actions.
I can see this book working very well as a television drama, provided good acting is used to convey Biessmann's sharp emotive descriptions. Many of the all too common ills of society and the often inevitable paths they lead the differentially placed individuals on, make for a very compelling and believable read. If any of us where in any of their shoes would we be so different? Only the strongest of us are ever more than where we sit is where we stand, as is true amongst this interesting cast.
http://www.amazon.com/Spate-of-Violence-ebook/dp/B00B1B7DVQ
[12] Lyon's Legacy- Sandra Ulbrich Almazan ~~~~ (Extract 5)
This short book of 36,000 words is a trifle too short to fully expand and explore all the elements of the plot in the detail I would have liked. Almazan's writing is certainly entertaining and has a lively spark of originality about it.
This book will suit those who wish to read stories about strong female fantasy/SF characters that maintain their individuality and femininity. Joanna Lyon is a research scientist. How refreshingly normal that is. She is a truly normal female with all that that entails, rather than some sort of super-heroic titan that wields a sword better than mere men; so often the fare of modern SF and fantasy.
The action is set on an Earth and a parallel Earth that is possibly identical. This second place is on a timeline that is running slow by a century or so. This parallel existence is an interesting concept as it allows Joanna to go backwards in time to before her own birth, without actually using a time machine. The possibility that the "wormhole" took her back to earlier in her reality, which is certainly a common enough SF scenario isn't contemplated. Almazan's plot-line is far more mathematically plausible. To paraphrase, "time may change thee, but thy can't change time". Well, at least not in one's own past. I actually felt that neither Earth was quite the one I am in, as music had a stronger role in social development in Joanna's than I have observed. Bear to mind, though, that I sit in an atmosphere of words rather than music.
I am a fan of speculative fiction. This story very much fills that bill. Almazan also uses this work as an opportunity to explore scientific issues that are starting to emerge as concerns for all our futures. This book, good read though it is could have been so much more. So many issues of both social and scientific natures are only so lightly brushed. I know this author has a great deal more to say. I hope she does. Perhaps she had been put off by the modern fashion for minimalist and short content; a trend which seems to suggest that humans have suddenly evolved backwards in their attempts to sustain thought. The short sound bite has its place, but that can be achieved sufficiently by the use of short climatic chapters, rather than by producing books that try to get by using far too few words.
Yes, of course a strength of this book is the lack of waffle. You must realise I like waffles, and just wanted a bigger one with even more Almazan chocolate.
http://www.amazon.com/Lyons-Legacy-Catalyst-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B005T82Z0G
This book will suit those who wish to read stories about strong female fantasy/SF characters that maintain their individuality and femininity. Joanna Lyon is a research scientist. How refreshingly normal that is. She is a truly normal female with all that that entails, rather than some sort of super-heroic titan that wields a sword better than mere men; so often the fare of modern SF and fantasy.
The action is set on an Earth and a parallel Earth that is possibly identical. This second place is on a timeline that is running slow by a century or so. This parallel existence is an interesting concept as it allows Joanna to go backwards in time to before her own birth, without actually using a time machine. The possibility that the "wormhole" took her back to earlier in her reality, which is certainly a common enough SF scenario isn't contemplated. Almazan's plot-line is far more mathematically plausible. To paraphrase, "time may change thee, but thy can't change time". Well, at least not in one's own past. I actually felt that neither Earth was quite the one I am in, as music had a stronger role in social development in Joanna's than I have observed. Bear to mind, though, that I sit in an atmosphere of words rather than music.
I am a fan of speculative fiction. This story very much fills that bill. Almazan also uses this work as an opportunity to explore scientific issues that are starting to emerge as concerns for all our futures. This book, good read though it is could have been so much more. So many issues of both social and scientific natures are only so lightly brushed. I know this author has a great deal more to say. I hope she does. Perhaps she had been put off by the modern fashion for minimalist and short content; a trend which seems to suggest that humans have suddenly evolved backwards in their attempts to sustain thought. The short sound bite has its place, but that can be achieved sufficiently by the use of short climatic chapters, rather than by producing books that try to get by using far too few words.
Yes, of course a strength of this book is the lack of waffle. You must realise I like waffles, and just wanted a bigger one with even more Almazan chocolate.
http://www.amazon.com/Lyons-Legacy-Catalyst-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B005T82Z0G
[13] The Owl Knows- Roy Owenby
This is a nicely put together work by a man familiar with his stories real setting. The script is never dull as it skips through its dramatic event-line in a very appealing timeless sort of Jack London style. It reads as though equally composed of a mix of journalistic feature, and fiction adventure genres. We get the graphic detail, creating vivid self-generated views without the words ever becoming more than quietly descriptive. There is nothing over gratuitous, pandering through unnecessary detail, to our base natures. I felt that I had already watched the film that has yet to be made as the pages scrolled by me, imagination building the landscape and its characters in intricate detail from Owenby’s talented direction.
I have no idea how far Macon County factual history is redrawn. It is impossible to tell which parts have absolutely no factual basis, and which are dripping with it. As the author lives amongst the community I suspect that real characters are well camouflaged even should any exist or have existed as single individuals. Perhaps long-time residents of close environs in Eastern North Carolina and the Chattanooga end of Tennessee are washed with strong speculations about what true events Owenby dwelt on. I certainly found every aspect of the plot to be eminently believable as simple fact. People do disappear whilst hiking, sometimes to never be found, and certainly some of these are the victims of evil individuals. Yet others will have succumbed to nothing less natural than the bite of a snake.
Two separate cases weave across each other and the cast of characters. There is plenty of material for at least two books here, not that the plots don’t work very well in the one. Even though the chapters jump back and forth a bit, I never lost my way.
I haven’t come across any other books by Owenby, which suggests to me a frustrating waste of talent. I hope there is at very least a lot more to come.
If only the bomb was a step too far beyond likelihood? I wish I could claim that to be the case. I certainly can’t. We all know that modern lives are lived too close to the loony fringe, ready at any moment to strike terror into ordinary lives. Whether in Tel Aviv or Asheville, drivers check your buses, before you take a break to read this book.
The owl knows would make for great cinema or TV drama, should the opportunity arise. I can still see the owl hovering over the camping sight, silent on the wing, waiting to stoop down on some small mammal, a killer to its core, but in its case perfectly justified in such actions.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Owl-Knows-ebook/dp/B00CH3WGZU
I have no idea how far Macon County factual history is redrawn. It is impossible to tell which parts have absolutely no factual basis, and which are dripping with it. As the author lives amongst the community I suspect that real characters are well camouflaged even should any exist or have existed as single individuals. Perhaps long-time residents of close environs in Eastern North Carolina and the Chattanooga end of Tennessee are washed with strong speculations about what true events Owenby dwelt on. I certainly found every aspect of the plot to be eminently believable as simple fact. People do disappear whilst hiking, sometimes to never be found, and certainly some of these are the victims of evil individuals. Yet others will have succumbed to nothing less natural than the bite of a snake.
Two separate cases weave across each other and the cast of characters. There is plenty of material for at least two books here, not that the plots don’t work very well in the one. Even though the chapters jump back and forth a bit, I never lost my way.
I haven’t come across any other books by Owenby, which suggests to me a frustrating waste of talent. I hope there is at very least a lot more to come.
If only the bomb was a step too far beyond likelihood? I wish I could claim that to be the case. I certainly can’t. We all know that modern lives are lived too close to the loony fringe, ready at any moment to strike terror into ordinary lives. Whether in Tel Aviv or Asheville, drivers check your buses, before you take a break to read this book.
The owl knows would make for great cinema or TV drama, should the opportunity arise. I can still see the owl hovering over the camping sight, silent on the wing, waiting to stoop down on some small mammal, a killer to its core, but in its case perfectly justified in such actions.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Owl-Knows-ebook/dp/B00CH3WGZU
[14] Mystery at Dead Man's Ridge- Mandy Edwards ~~~~ (Extract 7)
This is a very exciting story that in my non-expert view is suitable for children of eight and upwards. I'm trying to think back over 40 years to the books I was reading at that age. They were Enid Blyton's Famous Five and later, Anthony Buckeridge's Jennings and Captain W. E. John's Biggles books. Edwards covers some adult topics in a very young person friendly and modern way; whilst in quality and plot style following very much in the footsteps of the best 1940's- 1960's children's authors.
The scene is set in rural Otago in New Zealand, with a full array of the elements that life there entails. The landscapes and the farming life of backblock NZ feels very real, and the young townies introduction to rural life hits the tin roof panel nail right on the head. Edwards brings into this environment many of the issues that face any growing child; shifting friendships, adult frailties, substance abuse, abandonment, physical abuse, the nuclear family and the common absence of one, I could go on. Issues are tackled in a realistically matter-of-fact way, through the "eyes" of the young characters.
I very much enjoyed this, in many ways, "gritty" story, and have confidence that you and yours will as well. This book is also well balanced in terms of gender aspirations, which is something that children's books weren't always in my young days. In other words, Edwards reflects well the expectations of the now in which we live. I have little idea what the young read today other than about teenage vampires and Hogwarts, but I would be shocked if this book got a less than favourable response from its target age group. I couldn't possibly give this book less than five stars.
http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Dead-Mans-Ridge-ebook/dp/B00D3XI33M
The scene is set in rural Otago in New Zealand, with a full array of the elements that life there entails. The landscapes and the farming life of backblock NZ feels very real, and the young townies introduction to rural life hits the tin roof panel nail right on the head. Edwards brings into this environment many of the issues that face any growing child; shifting friendships, adult frailties, substance abuse, abandonment, physical abuse, the nuclear family and the common absence of one, I could go on. Issues are tackled in a realistically matter-of-fact way, through the "eyes" of the young characters.
I very much enjoyed this, in many ways, "gritty" story, and have confidence that you and yours will as well. This book is also well balanced in terms of gender aspirations, which is something that children's books weren't always in my young days. In other words, Edwards reflects well the expectations of the now in which we live. I have little idea what the young read today other than about teenage vampires and Hogwarts, but I would be shocked if this book got a less than favourable response from its target age group. I couldn't possibly give this book less than five stars.
http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Dead-Mans-Ridge-ebook/dp/B00D3XI33M
[15] Involution: An Odyssey Reconciling Science and God- P. A. Rees
As the book is subtitled, this is "an odyssey reconciling science to God". That is Rees's ambitious aim at least.
I'm not so sure that she succeeds unless we, physical living mankind, are understood to be part of a flow of consciousness that is actually God. That is a difficult place for me to go. I need the division of the soul of man from the divine. However, to the main theme, that on a spiritual level we may already know all that science is steadily revealing to us, that we are all at core a part of a consciousness that is this Universe; I fully concur.
I am not a person that finds it easy to connect with poetry, so was never going to find inspiration in the epic poetic story telling that amounts to our total history. I get the concept, and applaud it, but I've such a chaotic, dyslexic and ambidextrously muddled mind that I need the directness of prose. The splitting of the book into separate themes, half to connect with the artistic right hemisphere and half with the linguistic and mathematical left, wasn't helpful. My "scientific" thought already contains plenty of mystical spaghetti. I am certain that Rees's own flexible intellect is not just a few fathoms deeper than mine, but that most readers will have less of a problem with her holistic approach. I would far rather have had a straight prose history of thought with the wonderful endnotes she provides. Some will live in the poetry and forsake the naked theory and most others will engulf both spheres. Such diversity gives sound reason to Rees's duality, for really this work has serious things to say to everyone.
The key to my admiration for this work is the inspired belief that consciousness creates structure; creates the physical Universe we inhabit. Rees believes that if we look hard enough for the "facts" logic currently needs we will find them. The necessary solution, the quarks, will come into conscious existence because man needs to find them. Whether there was a quark before the conscious thoughts of man, already designed by the Highest Conscious, God, is a mute consideration. If Rees satisfactorily answered this question, then I missed it.
Following Involutionary Theory, Einstein was only tapping in to what the unconscious mind already "knows". Our, so called, trash DNA already contains all there is to understand about the Universe, as it has already lived the course of history. All we have to do is read our evolution back, involute knowledge already experienced. In this theory, the original language of conscious thought is none other than the chemical language of our own DNA. We need to follow the entanglement of knowledge back to creation, which just happens to be, as far as Rees is concerned, exactly where science is leading us anyway.
In a non-intellectually vigorous way I have long dabbled in Rees's school of thought. This line is after all a very good way of making sense of life without losing either all the dogma of "Church" or embracing all the spiritual void of science. To look in my own backyard, speculative fictions of many sorts cover parts of the same ground, without actually getting anywhere near even the foothills of Rees's integrated theory of everything. Those with other careers, specialities, and private convictions will equally find plenty that rings bells.
The poetry enabled the skimming of the history of knowledge, and so avoiding risking being submerged in detail. This form also gave the freedom to seamlessly bob about on the timeline of history, without having to justify, or even make sense of, every leap. I admire the use of the epic poem as a way of trying to cover the history of everything, which it really almost does. But however much I admire, I would be lying if I claimed it suited my train of thought. Despite that, I got so much from this book. I have no hesitation in recommending it to any thoughtful reader of any area of interest; from the most open spiritually to the most narrowly religious, from the mathematically autistic to lovers of scientific fantasy. Rees's thoughtful and though provoking journey is well worth taking.
This is a very personal view of a very big philosophy. Please read a range of other's reviews, which this one merely augments.
http://www.amazon.com/Involution-Odyssey-Reconciling-Science-ebook/dp/B00DEKR01A
I'm not so sure that she succeeds unless we, physical living mankind, are understood to be part of a flow of consciousness that is actually God. That is a difficult place for me to go. I need the division of the soul of man from the divine. However, to the main theme, that on a spiritual level we may already know all that science is steadily revealing to us, that we are all at core a part of a consciousness that is this Universe; I fully concur.
I am not a person that finds it easy to connect with poetry, so was never going to find inspiration in the epic poetic story telling that amounts to our total history. I get the concept, and applaud it, but I've such a chaotic, dyslexic and ambidextrously muddled mind that I need the directness of prose. The splitting of the book into separate themes, half to connect with the artistic right hemisphere and half with the linguistic and mathematical left, wasn't helpful. My "scientific" thought already contains plenty of mystical spaghetti. I am certain that Rees's own flexible intellect is not just a few fathoms deeper than mine, but that most readers will have less of a problem with her holistic approach. I would far rather have had a straight prose history of thought with the wonderful endnotes she provides. Some will live in the poetry and forsake the naked theory and most others will engulf both spheres. Such diversity gives sound reason to Rees's duality, for really this work has serious things to say to everyone.
The key to my admiration for this work is the inspired belief that consciousness creates structure; creates the physical Universe we inhabit. Rees believes that if we look hard enough for the "facts" logic currently needs we will find them. The necessary solution, the quarks, will come into conscious existence because man needs to find them. Whether there was a quark before the conscious thoughts of man, already designed by the Highest Conscious, God, is a mute consideration. If Rees satisfactorily answered this question, then I missed it.
Following Involutionary Theory, Einstein was only tapping in to what the unconscious mind already "knows". Our, so called, trash DNA already contains all there is to understand about the Universe, as it has already lived the course of history. All we have to do is read our evolution back, involute knowledge already experienced. In this theory, the original language of conscious thought is none other than the chemical language of our own DNA. We need to follow the entanglement of knowledge back to creation, which just happens to be, as far as Rees is concerned, exactly where science is leading us anyway.
In a non-intellectually vigorous way I have long dabbled in Rees's school of thought. This line is after all a very good way of making sense of life without losing either all the dogma of "Church" or embracing all the spiritual void of science. To look in my own backyard, speculative fictions of many sorts cover parts of the same ground, without actually getting anywhere near even the foothills of Rees's integrated theory of everything. Those with other careers, specialities, and private convictions will equally find plenty that rings bells.
The poetry enabled the skimming of the history of knowledge, and so avoiding risking being submerged in detail. This form also gave the freedom to seamlessly bob about on the timeline of history, without having to justify, or even make sense of, every leap. I admire the use of the epic poem as a way of trying to cover the history of everything, which it really almost does. But however much I admire, I would be lying if I claimed it suited my train of thought. Despite that, I got so much from this book. I have no hesitation in recommending it to any thoughtful reader of any area of interest; from the most open spiritually to the most narrowly religious, from the mathematically autistic to lovers of scientific fantasy. Rees's thoughtful and though provoking journey is well worth taking.
This is a very personal view of a very big philosophy. Please read a range of other's reviews, which this one merely augments.
http://www.amazon.com/Involution-Odyssey-Reconciling-Science-ebook/dp/B00DEKR01A
[16] Desolation Run- James Snyder ~~~~ (Extract 15)
Reading this very competently put together, adult, adventure thriller very much reminded me of the Wilber Smith books I once devoured. The continents that provided location may be different, but the landscapes are not so dissimilar. Snyder has a similarly smooth ability to write believable gritty plot. This story is full of rich vistas, both large and small, which are filled with dramas from characters clinging onto both sides of the good and evil divide.
For those that appreciate reading raw brutality, there is no shortage. There is enough perverted cruelty, lust, greed, pain, and death to fill any action packed thriller. There is also just about enough hope, even when all those that have any good in them are being bashed senseless by the one main character that it is impossible to have any sympathy for.
This isn’t a comfy read. If it was a film it would be adult rated with warnings. However, it is great entertainment that actually manages to avoid getting over voyeuristic even in the most violent action. Accepting, of course, that the writer only guides the thoughts conjured in our own heads. The book is well written, using obscenity and crudity for effect and not as punctuation. The main characters are full and interesting, working in a plotline that reflects realities that are for most of us just extremes of life that we will never have to face ourselves. Description is detailed without being laboured and the very few grammatical strains didn’t cause enough of a trip to require my rereading of any sentence. We are asked to follow at least two, and sometimes more, characters points of view, but only once was I confused by a change of POV.
Some of the secondary characters are a bit clichéd. That though is perhaps inevitable given the breadth of the plotline contained within the word count of the book.
James Snyder is a great story teller. Look out for his works.http://www.amazon.com/Desolation-Run-James-Snyder-ebook/dp/B00FYY53B8
For those that appreciate reading raw brutality, there is no shortage. There is enough perverted cruelty, lust, greed, pain, and death to fill any action packed thriller. There is also just about enough hope, even when all those that have any good in them are being bashed senseless by the one main character that it is impossible to have any sympathy for.
This isn’t a comfy read. If it was a film it would be adult rated with warnings. However, it is great entertainment that actually manages to avoid getting over voyeuristic even in the most violent action. Accepting, of course, that the writer only guides the thoughts conjured in our own heads. The book is well written, using obscenity and crudity for effect and not as punctuation. The main characters are full and interesting, working in a plotline that reflects realities that are for most of us just extremes of life that we will never have to face ourselves. Description is detailed without being laboured and the very few grammatical strains didn’t cause enough of a trip to require my rereading of any sentence. We are asked to follow at least two, and sometimes more, characters points of view, but only once was I confused by a change of POV.
Some of the secondary characters are a bit clichéd. That though is perhaps inevitable given the breadth of the plotline contained within the word count of the book.
James Snyder is a great story teller. Look out for his works.http://www.amazon.com/Desolation-Run-James-Snyder-ebook/dp/B00FYY53B8
[17] Life Drawings- Philip Newey ~~~~ (Extract 22)
This is a study of a mix of characters in life's emotional pressure-cooker, the boiling mass of hormones, memories, fears and pains that make us all. We come to know the two main characters very well and to build convincing pictures of many of those around them. We see that we often become far more than we might expect, through the quagmire of interactions we experience with others. Even the meek may learn to kill. Sometimes, we eventually break away from the bonds of our past, to be relatively free agents, and sometimes the past eventually destroys us.
This is a well written look into the emotional turmoil of a group of intimately and sometimes unavoidably knotted together lives. We actually get some way to actually feeling what it is like to be someone else, to be submerged into the books characters. One can ask little more from such a book. We have all experienced some of this and others have lived lives far closer to this particular emotional mix than we may allow ourselves to admit. Most of you may guess the books direction accurately, but that makes it no less intriguing because this knowledge probably means that to some degree you have actually walked some of the steps.
I recommend this book for those that enjoy a book where what happens is seen with all its drivers, rather than with just those dictated by the narrow entertainment of vivid plot. These are drawings in which we see so many crossing character lines rather than an easily analysed photograph. I enjoyed this book very much.
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Drawings-Philip-Newey-ebook/dp/B00F8OW2U4
This is a well written look into the emotional turmoil of a group of intimately and sometimes unavoidably knotted together lives. We actually get some way to actually feeling what it is like to be someone else, to be submerged into the books characters. One can ask little more from such a book. We have all experienced some of this and others have lived lives far closer to this particular emotional mix than we may allow ourselves to admit. Most of you may guess the books direction accurately, but that makes it no less intriguing because this knowledge probably means that to some degree you have actually walked some of the steps.
I recommend this book for those that enjoy a book where what happens is seen with all its drivers, rather than with just those dictated by the narrow entertainment of vivid plot. These are drawings in which we see so many crossing character lines rather than an easily analysed photograph. I enjoyed this book very much.
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Drawings-Philip-Newey-ebook/dp/B00F8OW2U4
[18] Orphan of the Olive Tree- Mirella Sichirollo Patzer ~~~~ (Extract 23)
This is a well written romantic novel, rather let down by a poor final edit. The infrequent typos jarred particularly deeply because Patzer's writing is so very good. I can't help but think that the author was badly supported by her editor(s) and meddlers.
From early on in this read I was rooting for the 'nice' characters, and was relieved when romance eventually got the upper hand, though I have to say I was rather disappointed at how easily the black witch was finally overwhelmed. Perhaps, a bit more on the moral conflict within her would have made capitulation easier to accept. Someone so black should not have turned to a light tone of grey so easily.
All the principle characters were well rounded and played an interesting dance, but I do rather question the authenticity of the historical background. The historical elements were too few and there details too often repeated, rather than explored, to give me any real confidence in the author's historical research. I enjoyed the book best when I was able to categorize it as a fairy-tale, as a morality tale, rather than as an historical fiction. Patzer is very strong on the psychological elements of character, and weaves them together with a great deal of skill.
Once I was into the book I found it to be a compulsive read, indicative enough of the plots qualities. Whether the history was any more than a weak veneer I will leave to better historians to judge. I would be more than happy to read another of Patzer’s books.
http://www.amazon.com/Orphan-Olive-Tree-Italian-Historical-ebook/dp/B009YHLQ5S
From early on in this read I was rooting for the 'nice' characters, and was relieved when romance eventually got the upper hand, though I have to say I was rather disappointed at how easily the black witch was finally overwhelmed. Perhaps, a bit more on the moral conflict within her would have made capitulation easier to accept. Someone so black should not have turned to a light tone of grey so easily.
All the principle characters were well rounded and played an interesting dance, but I do rather question the authenticity of the historical background. The historical elements were too few and there details too often repeated, rather than explored, to give me any real confidence in the author's historical research. I enjoyed the book best when I was able to categorize it as a fairy-tale, as a morality tale, rather than as an historical fiction. Patzer is very strong on the psychological elements of character, and weaves them together with a great deal of skill.
Once I was into the book I found it to be a compulsive read, indicative enough of the plots qualities. Whether the history was any more than a weak veneer I will leave to better historians to judge. I would be more than happy to read another of Patzer’s books.
http://www.amazon.com/Orphan-Olive-Tree-Italian-Historical-ebook/dp/B009YHLQ5S
[19] The Sugar House- Jean Scheffler ~~~~ (Extract 24)
This is a fantastic historical fiction that beautifully tells us so much about the social history of Detroit from 1915 until the early 1930s. These were years in which the City was growing to be the combustion engine of the United States of America and then laboured through the hard years of the the 1920s, to only grow stronger.
We see the development of this great city through the eyes of one particular Polish immigrant family in a new world of immigrants. In particular, we watch the streets through the life of Joe Jopolowski, boy and man. I don't know how far the real goes, but I do know that Scheffler is digging deep into her family memoirs and those of many others of the generations that lived through the Spanish Influenza Epidemic, the call to arms in Europe, the rapid growth of the car industry, prohibition and the Great Depression.
We are drawn deep into a community of beautifully developed characters, all based on the melange of conversations the author had with those that lived those years. For those that herald from, live in, or have been visitors to Motor City, this book should be on one's reading lists. For those that have never been there, such as I, the book is so well written that you will think you have.
This book is one of waves, just like life, slow and fast, high and low. There is plenty of drama, passion and excitement, but also rich hunks of the everyday: cooking cabbage, the trot of horses, the smell of sugar, whiskey, church, outhouse, and hot car exhausts in freezing winter air, the paraphernalia of home, and the construction sites of a rapidly expanding city. So much of life is touched, from the pains of childbirth to the blood and guns of Gangs, from the Catholic Church to the Blind Pigs, from the shoeless walk to school to the glitz of visiting Hollywood stars.
So what is there to be critical about? I'm sure I passed over a few imperfections of grammar, a few redundant sentences, a few over hammered details, but quite frankly all I can be bothered to mention is that the end came far too quickly. For a few hours I was an observer of early 20th century Detroit and hardly aware of passing words. Perhaps I'm too easily entertained, I hope not. I suggest that you decide that for yourself. This is a literary read rather than a pot-boiling entertainment, though that doesn't mean that the 'The Sugar House' lacks for punch. Not a bit of it!http://www.amazon.com/Sugar-House-Jean-Scheffler-ebook/dp/B00ILBRC6A
We see the development of this great city through the eyes of one particular Polish immigrant family in a new world of immigrants. In particular, we watch the streets through the life of Joe Jopolowski, boy and man. I don't know how far the real goes, but I do know that Scheffler is digging deep into her family memoirs and those of many others of the generations that lived through the Spanish Influenza Epidemic, the call to arms in Europe, the rapid growth of the car industry, prohibition and the Great Depression.
We are drawn deep into a community of beautifully developed characters, all based on the melange of conversations the author had with those that lived those years. For those that herald from, live in, or have been visitors to Motor City, this book should be on one's reading lists. For those that have never been there, such as I, the book is so well written that you will think you have.
This book is one of waves, just like life, slow and fast, high and low. There is plenty of drama, passion and excitement, but also rich hunks of the everyday: cooking cabbage, the trot of horses, the smell of sugar, whiskey, church, outhouse, and hot car exhausts in freezing winter air, the paraphernalia of home, and the construction sites of a rapidly expanding city. So much of life is touched, from the pains of childbirth to the blood and guns of Gangs, from the Catholic Church to the Blind Pigs, from the shoeless walk to school to the glitz of visiting Hollywood stars.
So what is there to be critical about? I'm sure I passed over a few imperfections of grammar, a few redundant sentences, a few over hammered details, but quite frankly all I can be bothered to mention is that the end came far too quickly. For a few hours I was an observer of early 20th century Detroit and hardly aware of passing words. Perhaps I'm too easily entertained, I hope not. I suggest that you decide that for yourself. This is a literary read rather than a pot-boiling entertainment, though that doesn't mean that the 'The Sugar House' lacks for punch. Not a bit of it!http://www.amazon.com/Sugar-House-Jean-Scheffler-ebook/dp/B00ILBRC6A
[20] The Trouble With Celebrity- Charlie Bray ~~~~ (Extract 25)
When you have had too much of the press, magazines, the paper towels we call newspapers and TV going on and on about nothing more than their favourite luvvies and an infamous and usually talentless army of variously damaged and or synthetic egos, then that is the time to read Charlie's short book. Charlie Bray is a very English raconteur, who here aims his satirical wit at those that our modern media driven society flaunts.
This book gets my five stars for what it is- an irreverent look at individuals in the mixed quality pile of people that become, for at least a short time, a brand, a household name.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Trouble-With-Celebrity-Lighthearted-ebook/dp/B00J15D9NK
This book gets my five stars for what it is- an irreverent look at individuals in the mixed quality pile of people that become, for at least a short time, a brand, a household name.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Trouble-With-Celebrity-Lighthearted-ebook/dp/B00J15D9NK
[21] Kings of Delusion- E.J. Findorff ~~~~ (Extract 41)
This is an exciting fiction thriller, set in real life, real time events. The book has an important sub-text that explores the collapse of social norms in a population under extremes of stress. The backdrop to the plot is the catastrophic environmental disaster inflicted on the City of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.
This is a classic modern thriller read, with the expected adrenaline surges sure to hit most readers at the end of every chapter. There are also many of the twists common to the 'Whodunit' genre, in this story that centres on paedophilia, depravity, the treatment of the old, the struggles of the poor and corruption in high and low places.
Extra poignancy is given to the plot by the author's personal life experiences in and around the streets of that most exotic of cities. The great many real characters on which Findorff has based his fictional ones have helped him weave such an exciting and disturbing story. This work is less scary in a bloodthirsty sense than his last work, 'Unhinged', but feels even more real, grittier, closer to the pulse of life on the edge.
Well written though less than perfectly edited, top of the pile drama. Findorff is one of the new stars in the million strong army of previously suppressed independent writers. I hope there are many more Findorff fictions to come.
http://www.amazon.com/KINGS-DELUSION-E-J-Findorff-ebook/dp/B00NVZUB7S
This is a classic modern thriller read, with the expected adrenaline surges sure to hit most readers at the end of every chapter. There are also many of the twists common to the 'Whodunit' genre, in this story that centres on paedophilia, depravity, the treatment of the old, the struggles of the poor and corruption in high and low places.
Extra poignancy is given to the plot by the author's personal life experiences in and around the streets of that most exotic of cities. The great many real characters on which Findorff has based his fictional ones have helped him weave such an exciting and disturbing story. This work is less scary in a bloodthirsty sense than his last work, 'Unhinged', but feels even more real, grittier, closer to the pulse of life on the edge.
Well written though less than perfectly edited, top of the pile drama. Findorff is one of the new stars in the million strong army of previously suppressed independent writers. I hope there are many more Findorff fictions to come.
http://www.amazon.com/KINGS-DELUSION-E-J-Findorff-ebook/dp/B00NVZUB7S
[22] Missing You- Michael Robert Jennings ~~~~ (Extract 46)
Jennings has developed a good plot line into engaging entertainment of the modern Mills and Boon variety. The story centres on the relationship between a rich, career minded, single, businessman and a mother separated from a drug dealing father. The child goes missing in the aftermath of an earthquake. The relationship between the mother and the child runs rather superficially, as a background to the developing bond between the main character and the mother. A think that unless there had been very strong relationship difficulties between mother and child, which their apparently weren't, the loss would have impacted more forcefully on the adult relationship. Readers will draw their own conclusions. However, I'm sure I won't be the only one that sees this as strange. Having pointed up this one possible flaw, the story works well in all other respects.
Apart from some rather avant-garde verb structures the style of writing works well. These constructs may cause some others to similarly pause to scratch their heads from time to time. Meaning is always clear, but the lack of grammatical rigour did cause me to jump a few mental hurdles.
I don't think many readers will fail to guess the end from early on in the story, not that that matters with mainstream romantic genre plots. I assume that most lovers of romance reads like to have a feel-good ending, one which Jennings doesn't fail to deliver after some deep emotional pits have been navigated. We run through a good range of emotions as we head towards a climax or two. Not everything is left to the imagination as it was in this author's début book, "Flight Surgeon", so a broader readership is likely to be fulfilled. This one is definitely less suited to reading aloud in church, whilst still being stayed enough to avoid upsetting all but those with a severe prudish intolerance for real-to-life drama. So those that are expecting Jennings' very proper sexual propriety demonstrated his first book are forewarned. The contents are certainly less chaste than the cover.
http://www.amazon.com/Missing-You-Michael-Robert-Jennings/dp/0985541237
Apart from some rather avant-garde verb structures the style of writing works well. These constructs may cause some others to similarly pause to scratch their heads from time to time. Meaning is always clear, but the lack of grammatical rigour did cause me to jump a few mental hurdles.
I don't think many readers will fail to guess the end from early on in the story, not that that matters with mainstream romantic genre plots. I assume that most lovers of romance reads like to have a feel-good ending, one which Jennings doesn't fail to deliver after some deep emotional pits have been navigated. We run through a good range of emotions as we head towards a climax or two. Not everything is left to the imagination as it was in this author's début book, "Flight Surgeon", so a broader readership is likely to be fulfilled. This one is definitely less suited to reading aloud in church, whilst still being stayed enough to avoid upsetting all but those with a severe prudish intolerance for real-to-life drama. So those that are expecting Jennings' very proper sexual propriety demonstrated his first book are forewarned. The contents are certainly less chaste than the cover.
http://www.amazon.com/Missing-You-Michael-Robert-Jennings/dp/0985541237
[23] The Darkest of Suns Will Rise- Brian Sfinas ~~~~ (Extract 51)
The title is very appropriate- a good place to start and a connection that is often missing. The future here isn't one I would be eager for, one in which a super species, computer intelligence, and manipulated humans/androids, seem to subvert the very laws of nature and even of physics.
This is about progress defeating culture, science defeating religion, and I sense a final hopelessness for the rebel 'Orphanage' in a following book. The 'Mother against invention' may not get another outing, as the script does stand alone, but I expect one.
The style is very much telling, reporting, by characters. There is no omnipresent voice. This is a difficult style to pull off. We read a series of reports from different characters, different angles and shifting time. I was happy with that, but felt I needed to be taking my own notes. I'm sure I missed some significant points, which is always easier to do when the story is driven by detail about events rather that events as they unfold. We have to try and remember and distinguish between what is probably fact and what is likely to be flawed conjecture without narrative anchors. With one reading I got the spirit of the book rather than conviction that I understood every detail. However, I do agree with another reviewer here, Brent Meske's probably discovered plot hole. I'll be interested to know if any other readers agree. I reviewed from an advanced reader's copy, so it's perfectly feasible that Sfinas dealt with this issue prior to publication.
This book breaks all sorts of fashionable 'rules' or advices about matching reader expectations in a book. I respect any author who can flick fingers at fashion with such aplomb. There are great swathes of formulaic books pumped out by the writing factories, so three cheers for Sfinas. This is a very original, left of field, creative book with some fine science fiction speculations. No live action here, and plenty of infill needed by one's imagination, I just would rather not have been made to feel so mentally sick by the pictures I painted of the central sadomasochistic relationship.
http://www.amazon.ca/Darkest-Suns-Will-Rise-ebook/dp/B00VJEOIGI
This is about progress defeating culture, science defeating religion, and I sense a final hopelessness for the rebel 'Orphanage' in a following book. The 'Mother against invention' may not get another outing, as the script does stand alone, but I expect one.
The style is very much telling, reporting, by characters. There is no omnipresent voice. This is a difficult style to pull off. We read a series of reports from different characters, different angles and shifting time. I was happy with that, but felt I needed to be taking my own notes. I'm sure I missed some significant points, which is always easier to do when the story is driven by detail about events rather that events as they unfold. We have to try and remember and distinguish between what is probably fact and what is likely to be flawed conjecture without narrative anchors. With one reading I got the spirit of the book rather than conviction that I understood every detail. However, I do agree with another reviewer here, Brent Meske's probably discovered plot hole. I'll be interested to know if any other readers agree. I reviewed from an advanced reader's copy, so it's perfectly feasible that Sfinas dealt with this issue prior to publication.
This book breaks all sorts of fashionable 'rules' or advices about matching reader expectations in a book. I respect any author who can flick fingers at fashion with such aplomb. There are great swathes of formulaic books pumped out by the writing factories, so three cheers for Sfinas. This is a very original, left of field, creative book with some fine science fiction speculations. No live action here, and plenty of infill needed by one's imagination, I just would rather not have been made to feel so mentally sick by the pictures I painted of the central sadomasochistic relationship.
http://www.amazon.ca/Darkest-Suns-Will-Rise-ebook/dp/B00VJEOIGI
[24] One Before Bedtime- N. S. Johnson ~~~~ (Reviews 56)
Here we have an interesting montage of short stories, which actually are 'just the ticket' to set the dreams rolling as one lays down one's head. Well, a couple of the stories may cause nightmares, but at least one won't be worrying about the unfilled tax return, or how about how to get to work and the kids to school. We are all different, so do bear in mind that horror does creep from the page to the dark.
I really enjoyed the way the words are put together as much as the stories themselves. Johnson writes very easy prose. The writing often has the grace and effortless flow of swans on water, with the sometimes surprising and unsettling flurries of that species. Swans have their warning hiss, and sudden explosions of power.
As the cover says, there is certainly mystery and fantasy in these stories, though perhaps suspense is rather over egging the content. These are short stories, some of which have strong impact, but suspense usually conjures up rather longer drawn out tensions. It wouldn't be right for the cover wording to attract someone expecting the tension that it is hard to generate outside of a novel, for them to then be unjustifiably critical because of unsatisfied expectation. I'm sure I will revisit one or two of the stories that particularly grabbed my uniquely raised attention, these being the ones with a more speculative, metaphysical bent to them.
This is a short book of short stories that really are best read one at a time, as each one deserves some time for reflection. I decided I was doing both Johnson and most definitely myself a disservice by reading the book in one sitting. So I actually re-visited to read most of the stories again, one at a time. The whole book is short, not just each story. I hope that you will agree with me that twenty six stories would have been better than thirteen. I'm not thinking in terms of cost in coin.
The stories finish with the now rarely used word Cockaigne- a suitable name for a land of nod. SweetBerry dreams!
http://www.amazon.com/One-Before-Bedtime-Mystery-Suspense-ebook/dp/B00ZJTFAYI
[25] The Prophet of Marathon- Bob Waldner ~~~~ (Extract 65)
An interesting plot centred on a rich wastrel from a well-to-do family, who in the end sort of comes 'good'. There are two very powerful male characters in this book and neither of them are the failing gambler that is at the centre of this story. One is his father, and the other a preacher of dubious reputation. There is a strong female role as well.
The book reads well and is in the main well edited. The plot is believable, unlike many thrillers, with all of the individual elements pieced together from behavioural patterns that really do regularly pop-up in the real world. There are some nice twists that kept refreshing the book without over stretching one's credulity.
The book's strongest elements, the difficult relationship between a highly successful father and a son that at thirty still hasn't fully tested his potential, the shenanigans of the evangelical preacher, and the preacher's daughter that seems to like existing on the seedy side of life, might be in a sense formalistic, but believable characters have to be, don't they? They certainly aren't ridiculous inventions.
The story dynamics lack some of the power of Waldner's first book, 'Peripheral Involvement', but I preferred the first person writing that was employed here. We need to get inside James's head in as personal way as possible, we need to understand why he was so easily manipulated, and that is perhaps only possible by engaging through his mind and his eyes. The third person style would have been far too remote for us to build any genuine sympathy for this patsy. I was sort of left doubting that James's father would have trusted a dime given past history between the two, but he did, and thinking about it as I read on, the father's assumed feelings of guilt made that element seem believable.
So, so far, two great five star reads, from Waldner, with I assume plenty more to come. If you like believable thriller fiction then these books might well be your cup of tea as they are mine.
http://www.amazon.com/Prophet-Marathon-Bob-Waldner-ebook/dp/B017QX9PK4
The book reads well and is in the main well edited. The plot is believable, unlike many thrillers, with all of the individual elements pieced together from behavioural patterns that really do regularly pop-up in the real world. There are some nice twists that kept refreshing the book without over stretching one's credulity.
The book's strongest elements, the difficult relationship between a highly successful father and a son that at thirty still hasn't fully tested his potential, the shenanigans of the evangelical preacher, and the preacher's daughter that seems to like existing on the seedy side of life, might be in a sense formalistic, but believable characters have to be, don't they? They certainly aren't ridiculous inventions.
The story dynamics lack some of the power of Waldner's first book, 'Peripheral Involvement', but I preferred the first person writing that was employed here. We need to get inside James's head in as personal way as possible, we need to understand why he was so easily manipulated, and that is perhaps only possible by engaging through his mind and his eyes. The third person style would have been far too remote for us to build any genuine sympathy for this patsy. I was sort of left doubting that James's father would have trusted a dime given past history between the two, but he did, and thinking about it as I read on, the father's assumed feelings of guilt made that element seem believable.
So, so far, two great five star reads, from Waldner, with I assume plenty more to come. If you like believable thriller fiction then these books might well be your cup of tea as they are mine.
http://www.amazon.com/Prophet-Marathon-Bob-Waldner-ebook/dp/B017QX9PK4
[26] Murder and More- Gerald W. Darnell ~~~~ (Extract 74)
A detective mystery set in the 1960s with an authentic feel of the 1960s. The book could so easily have been written then rather than in 2015. The read is nicely scattered with illustrative pictures from the period, which I can see adding a lot to the reading experience of those born later. I felt that I could be reading a period Mickey Spillane novel; the script felt that authentic. I'd even say that there are more than a few similarities between Mike Hammer and Carson Reno— well at least as how I remember the character. Then again, possibly Reno is a more James Garner in the Rockford Files TV series. Okay, that was very 1970s scripted, but the Rockford character could have been slotted seamlessly into any '50s/60s detective series. So then, for me, Carson Reno is possibly best described as a blend of Mike Hammer and Jim Rockford.
The writing has a sharp journalistic economy, never burying us in irrelevances and keeping a brisk pace. Some of the bit players are easy to confuse, but that problem is relieved by the index of characters. This is the first Darnell book I've read. Love it. I can see this series of books on every paperback turntable in front of every '60s newspaper store. The mass market paperback days are, generally speaking, history, but that shouldn't limit the availability and popularity of Darnell's Carson Reno. This book is an object lesson in how to get that old paperback buzz into the e market. For those still addicted to traditional paper, the lovers of the smell and feel of 'pulp', for those that still have or are discovering vinyl records and classic cars, the hands-on version looks just as 60s slick. The period will always be culturally cool and so will Carson, with bourbon and coke and an after dinner cigar.
This is a mystery detective novel, not a voyeuristic trip through violence and death, as so many modern genre books are. A read that may seriously damage your place in time.
http://www.amazon.com/Murder-More-Carson-Reno-Mystery-ebook/dp/B01BHDLXMM
The writing has a sharp journalistic economy, never burying us in irrelevances and keeping a brisk pace. Some of the bit players are easy to confuse, but that problem is relieved by the index of characters. This is the first Darnell book I've read. Love it. I can see this series of books on every paperback turntable in front of every '60s newspaper store. The mass market paperback days are, generally speaking, history, but that shouldn't limit the availability and popularity of Darnell's Carson Reno. This book is an object lesson in how to get that old paperback buzz into the e market. For those still addicted to traditional paper, the lovers of the smell and feel of 'pulp', for those that still have or are discovering vinyl records and classic cars, the hands-on version looks just as 60s slick. The period will always be culturally cool and so will Carson, with bourbon and coke and an after dinner cigar.
This is a mystery detective novel, not a voyeuristic trip through violence and death, as so many modern genre books are. A read that may seriously damage your place in time.
http://www.amazon.com/Murder-More-Carson-Reno-Mystery-ebook/dp/B01BHDLXMM
[27] In the Garden of Weeia- Elle Boca ~~~~ (Extract 80)
This is a light weight novella, which I think is aimed primarily at secondary school level. That doesn’t mean that adults that enjoy Hogwarts and Narnia won’t enjoy reading about Weeia. The lively little story kept me well entertained, though this sort of fantasy is no longer exactly my thing. I would have been a very enthusiastic reader it my early teens.
There is certainly some originality in Boca’s characters and at least in this book their superpowers are kept almost in the bounds of the possible. That was perhaps why Boca suggested that if I really was going to get off my backside to buy and read any of her already well reviewed books I might be best starting with this one. By the end, I was left wanting to know a great deal more about the only stone-cold character. Perhaps in a next in series the minerals of that magnetic personality softens. We seem to be in an almost contemporary fantasy world, as is Harry Potter, Ernie could pop around to see you the reader. However, Boca has developed her own mythology to weave her stories into rather than merely reinterpreting well-worn fantasy ‘lore’.
The book is well enough written, into a quickly paced short read. There are editing errors, as there nearly always are, but not enough to agitate even my glacially slow reading rhythm, which is inclined to pause on every other word. What a relief to find a real series that isn’t fixated on the ‘undead’ of some sort or other.
I won’t ever be in the Boca fan club, but I do like her parallel race idea, which though certainly not original is developed in an original way. For some strange reason I was reminder of a 1968 TV series about ‘humans’ given superpowers: The Champions. Um- there is no real connection to Boca’s urban fantasy- unless the Champions were helped from their crashing plane by Unelmoija (Dreamer). Except that perhaps there is, because both that half-forgotten TV series and this book worked by keeping a close contact with real, every day, life. It is the very ordinariness of the characters that make some fantasies work.
https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Weeia-Elle-Boca/dp/1932534091
There is certainly some originality in Boca’s characters and at least in this book their superpowers are kept almost in the bounds of the possible. That was perhaps why Boca suggested that if I really was going to get off my backside to buy and read any of her already well reviewed books I might be best starting with this one. By the end, I was left wanting to know a great deal more about the only stone-cold character. Perhaps in a next in series the minerals of that magnetic personality softens. We seem to be in an almost contemporary fantasy world, as is Harry Potter, Ernie could pop around to see you the reader. However, Boca has developed her own mythology to weave her stories into rather than merely reinterpreting well-worn fantasy ‘lore’.
The book is well enough written, into a quickly paced short read. There are editing errors, as there nearly always are, but not enough to agitate even my glacially slow reading rhythm, which is inclined to pause on every other word. What a relief to find a real series that isn’t fixated on the ‘undead’ of some sort or other.
I won’t ever be in the Boca fan club, but I do like her parallel race idea, which though certainly not original is developed in an original way. For some strange reason I was reminder of a 1968 TV series about ‘humans’ given superpowers: The Champions. Um- there is no real connection to Boca’s urban fantasy- unless the Champions were helped from their crashing plane by Unelmoija (Dreamer). Except that perhaps there is, because both that half-forgotten TV series and this book worked by keeping a close contact with real, every day, life. It is the very ordinariness of the characters that make some fantasies work.
https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Weeia-Elle-Boca/dp/1932534091
[28] Dead Down East- Carl Schmidt ~~~~ (Extract 81)
The main character of this book is private-eye Jessie Thorpe, and a relatively believable one when compared to so many private sleuths from fiction. This the first in Schmidt’s proposed series of books, is unsurprisingly based on one of Jessie’s first cases, and certainly his first murder. Jessie is a bit of a middle-class smart arse, who at the start of the book has had an interesting life but perhaps not achieved a great deal. Jesse has many skills, as a guitarist in a group, an odd job carpenter and now as a gumshoe. He is also toying with the idea of writing. Quite a lot of him is quite possibly a younger version of Carl Schmidt the author.
The book runs on a fuel of wry-witted observations from Jesse. The voice is very much confident middle-class, white, American. Jesse is definitely macho, but far from Rambo, relying on the ability to disarm with words rather than violence. Jesse has a firearm but not one that is habitually to hand. His so far unused shooter has been given the name of an ex-girlfriend. The feminisation is presumably supported, though it wasn’t instigated by him, through seeing Rhonda as a dissipater of threats rather than a projector of them. Rhonda is carried to give a bit of Dutch courage when felt necessary, and hopefully discourage harmful activity from the psychologically less restrained. Courage without gin, that is. Jessie would never drive inebriated unless absolutely unavoidable. Hopefully Jesse won’t become just another fictional private-eye happy to spray lead first and follow leads second.
The actual murder mystery is inventive, solved with mathematical logic and, it has to be said more than a reasonably likely quotient of good luck. Isn’t that nearly always the case in real life? If there is one thing we can say is generic to police everywhere, it is that why often make good traffic cops but generally hopeless detectives. It seems the cops of Maine are, at least in this story, little different.
I feared for a moment as the story veered in the direction of psychic practitioners. I can’t deny I was relieved that the case was solved in a sensibly scientific way. I notice that book two in the series is out, ‘A Priestly Affair’, and hope that it displays a normal range of modern detective skills to achieve what I assume will be another PI success.
The murder mystery, at least in this first book, was more of an anchor around which to build interesting back story and a range of secondary characters than the be all of the read. The book would have worked equally well without any murder at all. The fun here is in what is happening outside the mechanics of case solving. This isn’t much of an intense thriller, being more about the drama that flows around the murder. If I may borrow images from film/TV, this is more James Garner as Jim Rockford than Bruce Willis as John McClane. Actually, Jesse Thorpe mysteries would adapt perfectly to the TV series format. The book opens with reflections on modern classics in book and film, as Jesse and a fishing buddy with an academic background actually fish on ‘Golden Pond’.
The writing itself is good, especially where Schmidt allows space for idle chat and scene setting, rather than to the intricate plays of the case. I like reading modern fiction that doesn’t suffer the James Patterson disease of needing a spectacular at the end of each chapter. Yes, there is interest to keep the reading flowing, without a felt requirement for thirty world ending events. We get just enough of the landscape in the authors mind to build our own real feeling interpretations, to visually create our imagined or recall the real backdrop, of the State of Maine. I had no trouble feeling that I was visiting the murder scene.
Schmidt is yet another in the band of independent authors who write as well as, and better than some, lauded authors, but most of whom will never get the lucky, or ‘contacts’ enabled, breaks. For those that like reading good books from good writers rather than just good books by the fashionable few in the front shelves of book stores, I have no reservations about recommending this author. And of course, I hope Schmidt bucks overwhelming statistics to become a fiction writing success.
www.amazon.com/Dead-Down-Jesse-Thorpe-Mysteries/dp/1533502188
The book runs on a fuel of wry-witted observations from Jesse. The voice is very much confident middle-class, white, American. Jesse is definitely macho, but far from Rambo, relying on the ability to disarm with words rather than violence. Jesse has a firearm but not one that is habitually to hand. His so far unused shooter has been given the name of an ex-girlfriend. The feminisation is presumably supported, though it wasn’t instigated by him, through seeing Rhonda as a dissipater of threats rather than a projector of them. Rhonda is carried to give a bit of Dutch courage when felt necessary, and hopefully discourage harmful activity from the psychologically less restrained. Courage without gin, that is. Jessie would never drive inebriated unless absolutely unavoidable. Hopefully Jesse won’t become just another fictional private-eye happy to spray lead first and follow leads second.
The actual murder mystery is inventive, solved with mathematical logic and, it has to be said more than a reasonably likely quotient of good luck. Isn’t that nearly always the case in real life? If there is one thing we can say is generic to police everywhere, it is that why often make good traffic cops but generally hopeless detectives. It seems the cops of Maine are, at least in this story, little different.
I feared for a moment as the story veered in the direction of psychic practitioners. I can’t deny I was relieved that the case was solved in a sensibly scientific way. I notice that book two in the series is out, ‘A Priestly Affair’, and hope that it displays a normal range of modern detective skills to achieve what I assume will be another PI success.
The murder mystery, at least in this first book, was more of an anchor around which to build interesting back story and a range of secondary characters than the be all of the read. The book would have worked equally well without any murder at all. The fun here is in what is happening outside the mechanics of case solving. This isn’t much of an intense thriller, being more about the drama that flows around the murder. If I may borrow images from film/TV, this is more James Garner as Jim Rockford than Bruce Willis as John McClane. Actually, Jesse Thorpe mysteries would adapt perfectly to the TV series format. The book opens with reflections on modern classics in book and film, as Jesse and a fishing buddy with an academic background actually fish on ‘Golden Pond’.
The writing itself is good, especially where Schmidt allows space for idle chat and scene setting, rather than to the intricate plays of the case. I like reading modern fiction that doesn’t suffer the James Patterson disease of needing a spectacular at the end of each chapter. Yes, there is interest to keep the reading flowing, without a felt requirement for thirty world ending events. We get just enough of the landscape in the authors mind to build our own real feeling interpretations, to visually create our imagined or recall the real backdrop, of the State of Maine. I had no trouble feeling that I was visiting the murder scene.
Schmidt is yet another in the band of independent authors who write as well as, and better than some, lauded authors, but most of whom will never get the lucky, or ‘contacts’ enabled, breaks. For those that like reading good books from good writers rather than just good books by the fashionable few in the front shelves of book stores, I have no reservations about recommending this author. And of course, I hope Schmidt bucks overwhelming statistics to become a fiction writing success.
www.amazon.com/Dead-Down-Jesse-Thorpe-Mysteries/dp/1533502188
[29] The Lives and the Times- Amit Verma ~~~~ (Extract 82)
First, please don’t be put off by some rather dubious reviews. Authors have no say over who reviews their work, whether they wish to flatter with stars or trash with their absence. I took the trouble to make contact and ask the author about what had happened. He had a book signing event on his own academic institutions campus. We can’t control our popularity. I admire Verma’s honesty, especially in this world where the honest authors have to compete against an overwhelming pile of deceit in the book marketing business. Some or all of these over egging reviews may not be on other popular reviewing sites, in which case this opening paragraph is of only obscure relevance. (I read on Amazon.com)
This book is written with a very Indian voice, with a common rhythm of English spoken on the sub-continent. That style is exactly right for the book, however, a good edit to internationalise the sentence structure, and improve some word choices, is needed. There are also grammatical errors that distract from the flow.
I would have preferred a title along the lines of ‘June’s Dream’. The prologue to the book seems to be misplaced. In my opinion, it adds nothing to the later folds of the story.
I actually loved reading this book, feeling drawn to look at a class-based mind-set, a detachment from the less fortunate masses that pervades on the Indian sub-continent. I felt the harshness, the magic, the dust, the rural backwardness and the strange mix of modern and ancient that I associate with India. The bizarre dream of June allows for the development of so many elements of life, for some penetration satire, and for the surrealism that invades some many of our dreams. I sensed the deep frustrations that pervades those attempting to turn India into the truly modern country it should already be, but for the failures to unlock its potential. The story, the dream, breaths the rhythms of a billion people from a host of interlocking, connected but independently acting cultures, that generally put their own needs before those of the greater society. The biggest democracy in the world needs to be what on paper it should have rapidly become after 1947, a date which is already a long-lifetime in the past. Verma is an accomplished writer with a great story, but one rather let down by poor execution. I don’t know who edited the book, but I do know that they’ve done the author less than justice. Verma’s satirical humour is deserving of much better presentation.
www.amazon.com/Lives-Times-Amit-Verma-ebook/dp/B007PSPUPU
This book is written with a very Indian voice, with a common rhythm of English spoken on the sub-continent. That style is exactly right for the book, however, a good edit to internationalise the sentence structure, and improve some word choices, is needed. There are also grammatical errors that distract from the flow.
I would have preferred a title along the lines of ‘June’s Dream’. The prologue to the book seems to be misplaced. In my opinion, it adds nothing to the later folds of the story.
I actually loved reading this book, feeling drawn to look at a class-based mind-set, a detachment from the less fortunate masses that pervades on the Indian sub-continent. I felt the harshness, the magic, the dust, the rural backwardness and the strange mix of modern and ancient that I associate with India. The bizarre dream of June allows for the development of so many elements of life, for some penetration satire, and for the surrealism that invades some many of our dreams. I sensed the deep frustrations that pervades those attempting to turn India into the truly modern country it should already be, but for the failures to unlock its potential. The story, the dream, breaths the rhythms of a billion people from a host of interlocking, connected but independently acting cultures, that generally put their own needs before those of the greater society. The biggest democracy in the world needs to be what on paper it should have rapidly become after 1947, a date which is already a long-lifetime in the past. Verma is an accomplished writer with a great story, but one rather let down by poor execution. I don’t know who edited the book, but I do know that they’ve done the author less than justice. Verma’s satirical humour is deserving of much better presentation.
www.amazon.com/Lives-Times-Amit-Verma-ebook/dp/B007PSPUPU
[30] These Thy Gifts- Vincent Panettiere ~~~~ (Extract 83)
This is a very well written book in which the author uses a fictional story to emphasise the real need for serious cultural changes, and ideally doctrinal ones, in the Catholic Church. These may or may not be genuinely in progress, but we can’t doubt that many ordinary Catholics are doing their level best to see that the good practices prevail. Other religions and institutions of many sorts have been exposed for similar evils, but the unnatural sexual denial demanded of the Catholic priests actually makes that church a particularly easy hunting ground for the paedophile, misogynist, and cruel manipulator of the weak. The churches should be the greatest bastions against evil, but they actually only shield these crimes and far too often. The secrecy of the hierarchy and lack of accountability in that church have also made it vulnerable to penetration by big crime operations, especially financial ones. The historic evils of the ‘European Churches’ are well documented and, as that history recedes into the mists of time, they can be easily forgiven. But that so many of these practices endure to this very day, can’t.
Panettiere looks beyond the sacrament, the alter rails, the impenetrable walls of the established Catholic Church. It is undeniable that the Church, worldwide, has continued to act as a law unto itself, rather than before God; and worse, as a corrupt hierarchical institution that protects its own while claiming to be protecting the trust of the congregation, It habitually glosses over problems rather than cures them. Panettiere looks at the Catholic Church in the United States, though actually the setting could be almost anywhere that the Pope has significant flocks.
We follow the story of an American priest of Italian descent who is everything a priest should be. One that despite not being truly chaste, so having to live with his own crippling ‘sins’, eventually exposes some rotten apples. Actually, it is the propaganda that any but the most unusual of individuals can be entirely inactive sexually that has got the church into such hideous problems. But enough of that, that is my bias declared, a bias that greatly oversimplifies Panettiere’s generally well-measured ‘observations’ in this story.
Names, places, characters, and details vary immensely in real life, but the fictional characters’ behaviours have all been commonplace. Paedophilia, alcoholism, aggrandisement, and financial and ‘political’ corruptions are certainly far from unique sins of the Catholic church, but they are made all the worse by the fact that the Church pretends to be sitting closer to God, high above the sins of ordinary men.
The majority of honest men, and still only men, in the high places in that church, are silenced by the control exercised on their careers, by lies and deceit, and even in the extreme through fear for their very survival. Even the worst depiction of man in this fiction, the coward at war, the priest that enjoys the ministry of prostitutes, the filth that seeks his own advancement at every opportunity, all aspects of the ghastly Dykes, is all protected by the hierarchy, which he in turn becomes a key part of. He may be an extreme, but his parallel is far from unknown in real life. This fictional deviant was only too happy to help hide the legions of paedophilic priests, so helping obscure his own sins. But that is enough for plot giveaways. For more, buy and read this really necessary, psychologically revealing, fiction.
At times some of the support characters rather melted together in my mind. Perhaps, because I was unable to sustain much continuity in my reading. I enjoyed the book immensely despite that. In truth, only half a dozen characters needed to be clearly distinguished for the book to be fully appreciated. It isn’t necessary to follow every path and absorb all the chronology to fully enjoy reading ‘These Thy Gifts’. This isn’t some corny crime write that depends on some ridiculous clue buried deep on page two hundred and thirty-two.
Sometimes good fiction can be used to explore sensitive issues in a far deeper psychological way than can cold hard reality. Voices in the real world are so often blurred and rendered weak by lies, deception, obfuscation, deception and fear of legal challenge. Fiction is free to penetrate deep into the ‘engineering’ of observed truths. Panettiere outlines this terrible modern history, quite brilliantly. He lays bare the cracks in a one thousand, if not truly two thousand, year old system of unaccountable leadership. Unaccountable to either distant God or downtrodden people, so to most men and nearly all women. Perhaps someone should write a fiction in which the Catholic Church is saved by the nun that becomes a pope. Man, as the Church, may not like that, but I’m happy to risk my soul by saying that God would be delighted.
www.amazon.com/These-Thy-Gifts-Vincent-Panettiere-ebook/dp/B01L0CQTJ2
Panettiere looks beyond the sacrament, the alter rails, the impenetrable walls of the established Catholic Church. It is undeniable that the Church, worldwide, has continued to act as a law unto itself, rather than before God; and worse, as a corrupt hierarchical institution that protects its own while claiming to be protecting the trust of the congregation, It habitually glosses over problems rather than cures them. Panettiere looks at the Catholic Church in the United States, though actually the setting could be almost anywhere that the Pope has significant flocks.
We follow the story of an American priest of Italian descent who is everything a priest should be. One that despite not being truly chaste, so having to live with his own crippling ‘sins’, eventually exposes some rotten apples. Actually, it is the propaganda that any but the most unusual of individuals can be entirely inactive sexually that has got the church into such hideous problems. But enough of that, that is my bias declared, a bias that greatly oversimplifies Panettiere’s generally well-measured ‘observations’ in this story.
Names, places, characters, and details vary immensely in real life, but the fictional characters’ behaviours have all been commonplace. Paedophilia, alcoholism, aggrandisement, and financial and ‘political’ corruptions are certainly far from unique sins of the Catholic church, but they are made all the worse by the fact that the Church pretends to be sitting closer to God, high above the sins of ordinary men.
The majority of honest men, and still only men, in the high places in that church, are silenced by the control exercised on their careers, by lies and deceit, and even in the extreme through fear for their very survival. Even the worst depiction of man in this fiction, the coward at war, the priest that enjoys the ministry of prostitutes, the filth that seeks his own advancement at every opportunity, all aspects of the ghastly Dykes, is all protected by the hierarchy, which he in turn becomes a key part of. He may be an extreme, but his parallel is far from unknown in real life. This fictional deviant was only too happy to help hide the legions of paedophilic priests, so helping obscure his own sins. But that is enough for plot giveaways. For more, buy and read this really necessary, psychologically revealing, fiction.
At times some of the support characters rather melted together in my mind. Perhaps, because I was unable to sustain much continuity in my reading. I enjoyed the book immensely despite that. In truth, only half a dozen characters needed to be clearly distinguished for the book to be fully appreciated. It isn’t necessary to follow every path and absorb all the chronology to fully enjoy reading ‘These Thy Gifts’. This isn’t some corny crime write that depends on some ridiculous clue buried deep on page two hundred and thirty-two.
Sometimes good fiction can be used to explore sensitive issues in a far deeper psychological way than can cold hard reality. Voices in the real world are so often blurred and rendered weak by lies, deception, obfuscation, deception and fear of legal challenge. Fiction is free to penetrate deep into the ‘engineering’ of observed truths. Panettiere outlines this terrible modern history, quite brilliantly. He lays bare the cracks in a one thousand, if not truly two thousand, year old system of unaccountable leadership. Unaccountable to either distant God or downtrodden people, so to most men and nearly all women. Perhaps someone should write a fiction in which the Catholic Church is saved by the nun that becomes a pope. Man, as the Church, may not like that, but I’m happy to risk my soul by saying that God would be delighted.
www.amazon.com/These-Thy-Gifts-Vincent-Panettiere-ebook/dp/B01L0CQTJ2
[31] Drip (a gothic bromance)- Andrew Montlack ~~~~ (Extract 101)
I laughed a lot. I’m inclined to that with all vampire books- I mean, they can’t be real. But Montlack can make the macabre funny, frightening, possible, stupid, and yes, scary, all within a few sentences. Drip is a good book, whether one reads with a focus on pure comedy or as satirical horror/speculative fiction. The words are well put together. I’m glad this was written as a straight book, rather than an adult comic, as books are always better if one is free to paint one’s own pictures. Films have damaged so many good books. Montlack is very much out of the multi-media suite; being a jack of many trades doesn’t always work, but I’m pleased to report that this is great entertainment.
There are some great characters. JD and George apart, I have to say, I was quite drawn to Cerri. If I fell through the proverbial rabbit hole into the plot, her relative sanity, and certain attractive qualities, would have made her my go to person. This book has loads of the old vampire stuff in a fashionable modern environment, mainly that of big business. Think bloodsucking bankers, except that they are not bankers, in what is on one level an often-seen story of business greed. On other levels, it’s one that quickly slips off the path of sanity.
Reading this had me in a sort of split hemisphere frame of mind, one side, left or right, up or down, whatever, was laughing at every other line; the other was all, “This is getting quite worrying, almost scary”. There are few original ideas, are there ever, but Montlack puts those he uses together in a very individual way. What’s to say?- Except, read it!
Now, how did I write all that without a gulp of coffee?
www.amazon.com/Drip-Gothic-Bromance-Andrew-Montlack-ebook/dp/B0722LK1L7
[32] Edging- Michael Schutz ~~~~ (Extract 102)
An intense read, high on adrenaline to the end. Not all the loops in the story quite join at the end, though some of this is almost certainly intentional as Schutz sets his readers of for a second edging. There are a few copy errors, but none that came close to spoiling my read.
In my view, the book has a little too much pace to it to really built the horror, increasingly lacking a juxtaposition between normality and evil abnormality which really put’s teeth on edge. So not quite Mary Shelly or Steven King, but a great read by any standards. This is very much the sort of book that I would be happy picking up as a pot-luck read from the airport lounge.
As to the plot, I am inclined to make the noun plural. There are many elements that might have been better divided into two separate stories. The first, about the drug culture and it’s dangers to society was by far the most powerful. The second plot, the devil working through the minds of his devotees and captured souls and the physical manifestation of his evil, provided the meat of the climatic ending but lacked the conviction of the narcotic story. There is connection between the two plots, but not a direct and strong enough one for my liking. Perhaps Edging II will bind the plots together with more conviction.
Overall, I recommend this book to those that like to feel the rush of a fast paced, edge-of-seat entertainment. Reading this is like watching a movie, exciting but lacking enough detail to properly join all the dots, entertainment trumping exacting plot, rather than a book plot stripped of logical continuity in the making of a film. That doesn’t make the book unreadable any more than making an exciting movie unwatchable, on the contrary, both can be great entertainment; that being very much the case here.
This raises the question of whether this book has potential as a film. It absolutely does. With well-engineered special effects, it could be a real blockbuster.
As I did, you may want to compartmentalise the plot elements a little. But, yes, this is a quality read. I have no hesitation in awarding the five stars I do to most books that raise my interest enough to solicit a review.
www.amazon.com/Edging-Michael-Schutz-ebook/dp/B06XR3SM57
In my view, the book has a little too much pace to it to really built the horror, increasingly lacking a juxtaposition between normality and evil abnormality which really put’s teeth on edge. So not quite Mary Shelly or Steven King, but a great read by any standards. This is very much the sort of book that I would be happy picking up as a pot-luck read from the airport lounge.
As to the plot, I am inclined to make the noun plural. There are many elements that might have been better divided into two separate stories. The first, about the drug culture and it’s dangers to society was by far the most powerful. The second plot, the devil working through the minds of his devotees and captured souls and the physical manifestation of his evil, provided the meat of the climatic ending but lacked the conviction of the narcotic story. There is connection between the two plots, but not a direct and strong enough one for my liking. Perhaps Edging II will bind the plots together with more conviction.
Overall, I recommend this book to those that like to feel the rush of a fast paced, edge-of-seat entertainment. Reading this is like watching a movie, exciting but lacking enough detail to properly join all the dots, entertainment trumping exacting plot, rather than a book plot stripped of logical continuity in the making of a film. That doesn’t make the book unreadable any more than making an exciting movie unwatchable, on the contrary, both can be great entertainment; that being very much the case here.
This raises the question of whether this book has potential as a film. It absolutely does. With well-engineered special effects, it could be a real blockbuster.
As I did, you may want to compartmentalise the plot elements a little. But, yes, this is a quality read. I have no hesitation in awarding the five stars I do to most books that raise my interest enough to solicit a review.
www.amazon.com/Edging-Michael-Schutz-ebook/dp/B06XR3SM57
[33] Fidget Spinners Destroyed My Family- George Billions ~~~~ (Extract 103)
This is a social drama, a psychological dystopian descent, about the self-destruction of a classic mum, dad, two children and cat family. The story slips genre into black comedy and momentarily into horror of the plausible variety, always so much more disconcerting than ghouls and zombies. This is a novella, which a fast reader may well consume in one sitting. The book could easily have been longer, though possibly that would have diluted the constantly disturbing buzz in its pages.
This story is very well written, with clear flowing prose and only a few typos. The story is narrated through the first-person mother with a very realistic feeling voice. I felt that I was sitting listening to the mother’s distressed, sometimes questionable, and less that sober first-hand narrative, rather than, as we are directed to believe, a story cobbled together by the author from episodic conversations.
My only complaint about the story was the abrupt ending. I would have liked to hear the completed story of the family from the tragic peak we are left on. I feel a need to know if disintegration or renovation of the mother to child relationships was the eventual outcome.
I had a sort of personal interest in the story that only added to its poignancy, one that is all too common in western culture. I have lost a parent through the ravages of alcohol. But believe me, such a direct connection isn’t a required ingredient for one to get the full taste of this sad tale.
I have an issue with the cover as on the book at this date, September 2017, in that it really doesn’t reflect the content. The big youthful, blood-smeared, smile gives the impression that one is in for some sort of zany horror comedy. That isn’t the case. Too many books are falsely sold, or not, by misleading covers. This book doesn’t need a creepy cover to sell it, just the publicity it deserves, which I like to think will be boosted by this and other reviews. True or not, the family disassociations and disintegration explored in this social drama are tragically reflected to varying degrees in many real lives.
www.amazon.com/Fidget-Spinners-Destroyed-My-Family-ebook/dp/B073WLTXP7
This story is very well written, with clear flowing prose and only a few typos. The story is narrated through the first-person mother with a very realistic feeling voice. I felt that I was sitting listening to the mother’s distressed, sometimes questionable, and less that sober first-hand narrative, rather than, as we are directed to believe, a story cobbled together by the author from episodic conversations.
My only complaint about the story was the abrupt ending. I would have liked to hear the completed story of the family from the tragic peak we are left on. I feel a need to know if disintegration or renovation of the mother to child relationships was the eventual outcome.
I had a sort of personal interest in the story that only added to its poignancy, one that is all too common in western culture. I have lost a parent through the ravages of alcohol. But believe me, such a direct connection isn’t a required ingredient for one to get the full taste of this sad tale.
I have an issue with the cover as on the book at this date, September 2017, in that it really doesn’t reflect the content. The big youthful, blood-smeared, smile gives the impression that one is in for some sort of zany horror comedy. That isn’t the case. Too many books are falsely sold, or not, by misleading covers. This book doesn’t need a creepy cover to sell it, just the publicity it deserves, which I like to think will be boosted by this and other reviews. True or not, the family disassociations and disintegration explored in this social drama are tragically reflected to varying degrees in many real lives.
www.amazon.com/Fidget-Spinners-Destroyed-My-Family-ebook/dp/B073WLTXP7
[34] The Master of The Name- Tavi Florescu ~~~~ (Extract 104)
Master of the Name was for me an intriguing read, despite, or even perhaps because, it seriously challenged my knowledge base. However, I have to say that being so stretched is a mixed blessing when reading a fiction novel. I’m certain that I would have had an easier time with a stronger sense of where facts and cultural beliefs end and storytelling starts. I did wonder, particularly in the opening chapters, whether the story really benefitted from such complexity. However, the package is certainly worth a little effort, and since my reading has inspired me to investigate some very ancient, mostly Jewish, religious ‘stories’. I’m sure that even the most erudite should read on without worrying over much about the historically based elements that escape immediate understanding. This is after all an entertainment, which though strengthened by factual content doesn’t require any truths.
As to the power of words, especially names, I have no trouble getting that. Words certainly have power, both for good and evil. In this book, as in the real lives of many, even in our modern age, the very name of God has terrifying power. That physical power is held in religious text is certainly something that many religious people of varied faiths believe. Indeed, one may well be aware of the convention of avoiding writing or speaking the ‘true’ name of God, an idea appearing in by degrees in almost all mainstream religions. We can’t know what God calls himself, so then enabling priests of diverse colours to empower themselves.
Linguistics is powerful enough simply in lay usage, dictating so much that goes well and badly in relationships between individuals, ‘tribes’, and nations. When competing religions gets involved in the battle of words then poison soon flows.
At times, I felt that the backstory threatened to strangle the hunt for the murderer, to be dragging me too far from police tracks. I encourage those that have similar thoughts to read on, and perhaps enjoy a Wiki search for information when they have finished: as was my course. The ending is a revelation.
Tavi Florescu has woven his extensive knowledge base into a most exotic detective story. Whether he gets the balance correct between the background and the chase will depend on the individual reader’s preferences. This is a well written novel, which while defying conventional pigeonholing is certainly good literary fiction. As to the detective, I think I would be less intimidated by almost any ‘frankensteinian’ creations. Detective Gray and his pencil are not lightly crossed.
www.amazon.com/Master-Name-Tavi-Florescu-ebook/dp/B074S1BWR2
As to the power of words, especially names, I have no trouble getting that. Words certainly have power, both for good and evil. In this book, as in the real lives of many, even in our modern age, the very name of God has terrifying power. That physical power is held in religious text is certainly something that many religious people of varied faiths believe. Indeed, one may well be aware of the convention of avoiding writing or speaking the ‘true’ name of God, an idea appearing in by degrees in almost all mainstream religions. We can’t know what God calls himself, so then enabling priests of diverse colours to empower themselves.
Linguistics is powerful enough simply in lay usage, dictating so much that goes well and badly in relationships between individuals, ‘tribes’, and nations. When competing religions gets involved in the battle of words then poison soon flows.
At times, I felt that the backstory threatened to strangle the hunt for the murderer, to be dragging me too far from police tracks. I encourage those that have similar thoughts to read on, and perhaps enjoy a Wiki search for information when they have finished: as was my course. The ending is a revelation.
Tavi Florescu has woven his extensive knowledge base into a most exotic detective story. Whether he gets the balance correct between the background and the chase will depend on the individual reader’s preferences. This is a well written novel, which while defying conventional pigeonholing is certainly good literary fiction. As to the detective, I think I would be less intimidated by almost any ‘frankensteinian’ creations. Detective Gray and his pencil are not lightly crossed.
www.amazon.com/Master-Name-Tavi-Florescu-ebook/dp/B074S1BWR2
[35] Surfing with Snakes & Dragons and Other Tales of Suburbia- Roger J. Couture ~~~~ (Extract 105)
We read in the minds of characters, which are all by degree, hedonistic, narcissistic, masochistic, and deeply psychologically introverted. That doesn’t mean that they are necessarily uncaring and detached from others, far from it. But deep exploration of subject character is so much the essence of these individualistic snakes and dragons. All the characters are flawed, troubled by the direction of their lives, and struggling between living for the moment and their worldly, practical, daily responsibilities, by concern for their own well-being and that of others. None of the main characters are uncaring of others, but they are all certainly self-absorbed. Perhaps most of us are, perhaps that is the message?
Couture quite probably exposes more of the conflicts in himself than those of others through these stories, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t also extremely observant of how others see their worlds. He writes in a highly descriptive, word-rich, and psychologically penetrating style. At times he borders on repetitive description and on says too much about what has surely already been deduced by any fully engaged reader, but he writes with such poetry, such cadence, that the overflow of description can easily be forgiven. Ultimately, nothing is decided, but every consideration is explored, possibility is left hanging, food for thought. Life is drawn to the extreme, to the fear, to toy with danger, and to them contemplate what it is that makes people repeat behaviour again and again. Couture writes with particular conviction about what it is to be a dedicated surfer, clearly a sometime overriding passion in his own life. But there is much more here, beyond the draw of the pounding sea. However, I recommend mixing the eight reads, as, for me, we start with rather too much abundant surf. There is connectivity between each story, characters spilling from one to the other, but these are truly independent constructions that can be shuffled like the cards in a single suit.
The poems at the start of each story acted as mood setters for the rich poetry of prose inside. A lot of this book is an exploration of the ‘adrenaline’ in life, in sport, in personal relationships, and at times raises one’s own hormonal beat, but this isn’t writing for the lover of the pacey thriller. This is writing for the lover of literature, for the lover of detail, for the contemplative, for those that like to enjoy the journey of an adventure rather than necessarily the climb to peak tension and final relieving climax. If one likes descriptive writing, and the analysis of what makes people tic, then this series of stories is for you. I might call these essays on the waves in life rather than stories with firmly placed beginnings or any definitive endings.
www.amazon.com/Surfing-Snakes-Dragons-Other-Suburbia-ebook/dp/B0742JG56F
Couture quite probably exposes more of the conflicts in himself than those of others through these stories, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t also extremely observant of how others see their worlds. He writes in a highly descriptive, word-rich, and psychologically penetrating style. At times he borders on repetitive description and on says too much about what has surely already been deduced by any fully engaged reader, but he writes with such poetry, such cadence, that the overflow of description can easily be forgiven. Ultimately, nothing is decided, but every consideration is explored, possibility is left hanging, food for thought. Life is drawn to the extreme, to the fear, to toy with danger, and to them contemplate what it is that makes people repeat behaviour again and again. Couture writes with particular conviction about what it is to be a dedicated surfer, clearly a sometime overriding passion in his own life. But there is much more here, beyond the draw of the pounding sea. However, I recommend mixing the eight reads, as, for me, we start with rather too much abundant surf. There is connectivity between each story, characters spilling from one to the other, but these are truly independent constructions that can be shuffled like the cards in a single suit.
The poems at the start of each story acted as mood setters for the rich poetry of prose inside. A lot of this book is an exploration of the ‘adrenaline’ in life, in sport, in personal relationships, and at times raises one’s own hormonal beat, but this isn’t writing for the lover of the pacey thriller. This is writing for the lover of literature, for the lover of detail, for the contemplative, for those that like to enjoy the journey of an adventure rather than necessarily the climb to peak tension and final relieving climax. If one likes descriptive writing, and the analysis of what makes people tic, then this series of stories is for you. I might call these essays on the waves in life rather than stories with firmly placed beginnings or any definitive endings.
www.amazon.com/Surfing-Snakes-Dragons-Other-Suburbia-ebook/dp/B0742JG56F
[36] Soil and Sense- Michael Graham ~~~~ (Extract 125)
My copy is from the 4th impression of the original Faber and Faber book printed by the Western Printing Services Limited, Bristol. The book was considered important enough to be first printed in 1941, when invasion of England by Hitler’s armies appeared imminent. We already had the 4th impression by 1944, so the book was in regular demand. Its relevance at the time was extreme, as it could only help the farmers struggling against national food shortages that were threatening to bring the British nation to its knees.
The book is very general, but mostly geared to the encouragement of lea farming, as the best way of optimising fertility on many farms. The preface to the book was written by the great agriculturalist E.J. Russell, from Rothamstead Experimental Station in May 1940. Soil and Sense was deemed to be of significant war time value, though it was the Great War, (WWI), to which the written words mostly related.
The book still has a relevance today to the organic farming movement, although written before much was known about the more complicated microbial activities of soil bacteria. Note though, that the farmers best learning experience has always been practical observation of working his own lands. The book is certainly of modern interest to those concerned about the excessive demands on the planet’s agricultural land resources.
The writing is light and entertaining for what is in effect a text-book of agriculture, and Graham’s particular interest in lea farming. This is the breaking of the arable rotation with more-or-less three years of sown grass mixtures, grazed and/or cut and carted. I enjoy reading the book a chapter at a time as a way of being both entertained and relaxed. I’m sure I am biased in the books favour, my copy having once been the possession of my uncle, Bruce, struggling with my father and grandfather to make ends meet on their tenanted Lightleigh farm in North Devon. Leigh translating from Old English leah (area of cleared forest. The light, in agricultural terms is an adjective indicative of sandy soil, not heavy, from leoht (Saxon). I note that most of their income was from netting rabbits, so poor was the land and way they could afford to farm it. Michael Graham would have been appalled that the rabbits were in such great numbers that they could ravage the new sown leas. The book was much needed, to give courage to my family’s farming. Lea farming is certainly a balanced and efficient way to farm not just in North Devon, but across vast swathes of lowland Britain. And of course, what applies for the good management of land in these territories applies equally to many temperate areas of the world.
The reading of this book is a delightful way to be drawn away from the urbanised world into the countryside and its agricultural fields, and so back to the roots of our civilisation, which are the very rootstock of farmed grasses and wheats. Our true wealth is still the land on which we tread, and the richest of the lands aren’t covered in concrete, asphalt, factory and glass, but with natures tapestry, modified by arcadian care, and sustainable methods of farming.
The book is still in print though in some sources, possibly dubiously acquired and profiting. Also note the risk of confusion with other authors who have subsequently written under the name Michael Graham. Humus in the soils, humour in the words and not an ounce of hubris. A book that still should have a place in the organic farmers’ bible.
www.amazon.com/Soil-and-Sense/dp/B002TN4FP2
The book is very general, but mostly geared to the encouragement of lea farming, as the best way of optimising fertility on many farms. The preface to the book was written by the great agriculturalist E.J. Russell, from Rothamstead Experimental Station in May 1940. Soil and Sense was deemed to be of significant war time value, though it was the Great War, (WWI), to which the written words mostly related.
The book still has a relevance today to the organic farming movement, although written before much was known about the more complicated microbial activities of soil bacteria. Note though, that the farmers best learning experience has always been practical observation of working his own lands. The book is certainly of modern interest to those concerned about the excessive demands on the planet’s agricultural land resources.
The writing is light and entertaining for what is in effect a text-book of agriculture, and Graham’s particular interest in lea farming. This is the breaking of the arable rotation with more-or-less three years of sown grass mixtures, grazed and/or cut and carted. I enjoy reading the book a chapter at a time as a way of being both entertained and relaxed. I’m sure I am biased in the books favour, my copy having once been the possession of my uncle, Bruce, struggling with my father and grandfather to make ends meet on their tenanted Lightleigh farm in North Devon. Leigh translating from Old English leah (area of cleared forest. The light, in agricultural terms is an adjective indicative of sandy soil, not heavy, from leoht (Saxon). I note that most of their income was from netting rabbits, so poor was the land and way they could afford to farm it. Michael Graham would have been appalled that the rabbits were in such great numbers that they could ravage the new sown leas. The book was much needed, to give courage to my family’s farming. Lea farming is certainly a balanced and efficient way to farm not just in North Devon, but across vast swathes of lowland Britain. And of course, what applies for the good management of land in these territories applies equally to many temperate areas of the world.
The reading of this book is a delightful way to be drawn away from the urbanised world into the countryside and its agricultural fields, and so back to the roots of our civilisation, which are the very rootstock of farmed grasses and wheats. Our true wealth is still the land on which we tread, and the richest of the lands aren’t covered in concrete, asphalt, factory and glass, but with natures tapestry, modified by arcadian care, and sustainable methods of farming.
The book is still in print though in some sources, possibly dubiously acquired and profiting. Also note the risk of confusion with other authors who have subsequently written under the name Michael Graham. Humus in the soils, humour in the words and not an ounce of hubris. A book that still should have a place in the organic farmers’ bible.
www.amazon.com/Soil-and-Sense/dp/B002TN4FP2
[37] The Bit Dance- Tilmer Wright Jr. ~~~~ (Extract 126)
I very much enjoyed this very near future speculative fiction. The book centres on a family drama, with a work obsessed and emotionally distant father, two teenage children that he generally fails to engage with, and a mum doing her best to hold diverging lives together. Contemporary drama is very much the emotional driver of this work. The other key elements revolve around a dangerous terrorist unit of anti-capitalists and robotic toys that communicate with each other rather too well, when their software is enhanced with a sort of bee hive logic-based application. Perhaps surprisingly, the diverse elements of the story bond together very well.
The book is well written, adequately edited and paced towards a suspenseful climax. In other words, Wright has produced a rewarding entertainment. As far as my very thin understanding of information technology goes, the artificial intelligence elements are plausible. I am accepting of the scientific understanding that sentience developed naturally through animal evolution. So perhaps that is also a realistic, and possibly even inevitable, ‘evolution’ in computer logic. Certainly, that is the basis of a massive modern outpouring of science fiction and philosophical thought. ‘We think, therefore we are’.
I have no hesitation in giving this book five stars on those media streams that demand such crude stamp collecting. I greatly enjoyed the development of all of the main characters, including Sherlock, who blossoms late in this worth reading adventure.
www.amazon.com/Bit-Dance-Tilmer-Wright-ebook/dp/B0765QLBVZ
The book is well written, adequately edited and paced towards a suspenseful climax. In other words, Wright has produced a rewarding entertainment. As far as my very thin understanding of information technology goes, the artificial intelligence elements are plausible. I am accepting of the scientific understanding that sentience developed naturally through animal evolution. So perhaps that is also a realistic, and possibly even inevitable, ‘evolution’ in computer logic. Certainly, that is the basis of a massive modern outpouring of science fiction and philosophical thought. ‘We think, therefore we are’.
I have no hesitation in giving this book five stars on those media streams that demand such crude stamp collecting. I greatly enjoyed the development of all of the main characters, including Sherlock, who blossoms late in this worth reading adventure.
www.amazon.com/Bit-Dance-Tilmer-Wright-ebook/dp/B0765QLBVZ
[38] Never Say I Can't- Philip Catshill ~~~~ (Extract 127)
This is a wonderful true to life book, written by the sufferer of a major cerebrovascular accident experienced at the very young age of thirty. Having just received his sergeant’s strips as a British Policeman, Catshill is cut down to a physical half, with a severely damaged long and short-term memory and at first a total lack of coherent speech. He had to learn how to regain control of his motor functions, especially those on the entire right side of his body, and his mind. The man even had to ‘retrain’ his injured brain to see through what had become a suddenly ‘disconnected’ right eye. His courage, honesty, and determination shine through in proverbial buckets.
Catshill has survived not only this story’s devastating stroke, but two more less severe episodes since. That is that they were considerably less severe than the first, but by no means inconsequential. In his rebuilt life he has become a first class autobiographer and in another genre fiction writer. This is the sort of story that should fortify the determination of any one of us having fallen into some form of severe health crisis. Except sadly, our own minds are likely to be so shattered or simply pre-occupied that we will fail to benefit from any memories from this amazing story about the will to recover.
This is an immensely humorous book, though of course often of a very black nature, but one that raises genuine belly laughs at that, and so it should for live is unbearable if we try to treat every unfortunate situation with only the gravity it naturally generates. It goes without saying that it also inevitably moistens one’s eyes. I felt at liberty to laugh at Catshill’s struggles, laughing with him, but taking the seriousness, the mental depression, the physical distress on-board.
In many ways this will always be a unique book, as it is rare for anyone to recover from such major trauma, and to also have the intellectual ability to subsequently write so well about the event. When the trauma is of the nature of a stroke, a literal cerebral infarction, then this book must be seen as all the more remarkable. This isn’t a some imagined third person narrative or ghost-written augmentation of the victim’s capacity, this is true, direct, gritty autobiography.
Some living individuals don’t come out of this narrative at all well, as brutal honesty extends beyond the author himself. I trust that their identities are well hidden. Arguably, biography can only be real when the wide field is truly accurate. There is no implied criticism on my part, only reason that would always prevent me getting to close to publicly disclosed personal truth. Memoir is an often-painful genre. As we read in this story, we notice how a simple sentence, spoken or written, can be totally devastating or by tone or tiny change be the greatest of empowering gifts. Recovery is always easier with the kindness of others and can hang in the balance either way on very few targeted words. The words in this book are chosen and ordered to strong affect.
www.amazon.com/Never-Say-Cant-after-stroke-ebook/dp/B006HSNVO6
Catshill has survived not only this story’s devastating stroke, but two more less severe episodes since. That is that they were considerably less severe than the first, but by no means inconsequential. In his rebuilt life he has become a first class autobiographer and in another genre fiction writer. This is the sort of story that should fortify the determination of any one of us having fallen into some form of severe health crisis. Except sadly, our own minds are likely to be so shattered or simply pre-occupied that we will fail to benefit from any memories from this amazing story about the will to recover.
This is an immensely humorous book, though of course often of a very black nature, but one that raises genuine belly laughs at that, and so it should for live is unbearable if we try to treat every unfortunate situation with only the gravity it naturally generates. It goes without saying that it also inevitably moistens one’s eyes. I felt at liberty to laugh at Catshill’s struggles, laughing with him, but taking the seriousness, the mental depression, the physical distress on-board.
In many ways this will always be a unique book, as it is rare for anyone to recover from such major trauma, and to also have the intellectual ability to subsequently write so well about the event. When the trauma is of the nature of a stroke, a literal cerebral infarction, then this book must be seen as all the more remarkable. This isn’t a some imagined third person narrative or ghost-written augmentation of the victim’s capacity, this is true, direct, gritty autobiography.
Some living individuals don’t come out of this narrative at all well, as brutal honesty extends beyond the author himself. I trust that their identities are well hidden. Arguably, biography can only be real when the wide field is truly accurate. There is no implied criticism on my part, only reason that would always prevent me getting to close to publicly disclosed personal truth. Memoir is an often-painful genre. As we read in this story, we notice how a simple sentence, spoken or written, can be totally devastating or by tone or tiny change be the greatest of empowering gifts. Recovery is always easier with the kindness of others and can hang in the balance either way on very few targeted words. The words in this book are chosen and ordered to strong affect.
www.amazon.com/Never-Say-Cant-after-stroke-ebook/dp/B006HSNVO6
[39] Brief Answers to the Big Questions- Stephen Hawking ~~~~ (Extract 128)
This is a great read, despite some minor repetitions. We have to bear in mind that this is really only a series of essays, some of which cover a little of the same ground. My view is that if Hawking had lived a little longer then this would have been a better compiled set of ‘letters on the big questions’, but that doesn’t much detract from the quality of the work, and certainly not from its messages. These essays run a lot wider than science, into Hawking’s hopes and fears for humankind. Some of the essays run into sensitive issues, which raise a good deal of honest debate. Well, there are just too many of us on our wonderful planet, which we are rapidly destroying, and this alone must justify our questioning of everything, even the very existence of God.
There are a few contradictions in the science, which isn’t surprising when writing about an incredibly quickly advancing field of science, cosmology, and especially when the material was compiled from words written over some spread of time. Inevitably the gravitas, the gravity of Hawking’s thoughts are also less than perfectly modulated. I was only too pleased to read every single word despite my minor criticisms.
I must add though that for me the finest words in this book were actually penned by his daughter, Lucy, in the Afterword. I quote from the many pearls among them. “I think he would have been very proud of this book.” This collection tells us a little about Hawking as a political animal, being in part autobiographical, and given yet greater insight into the man by the biography content of the other contributors. We have had a ‘Brief History of Time’, which is now augmented by this brief and personal feeling encounter with the brave genius in the electrically powered chair. Alas, the book is all too brief, and doomed now to a steady state of content, unlike our dynamic and cosmically unstable universe.
www.amazon.com/Brief-Answers-Questions-Stephen-Hawking/dp/1473695988
There are a few contradictions in the science, which isn’t surprising when writing about an incredibly quickly advancing field of science, cosmology, and especially when the material was compiled from words written over some spread of time. Inevitably the gravitas, the gravity of Hawking’s thoughts are also less than perfectly modulated. I was only too pleased to read every single word despite my minor criticisms.
I must add though that for me the finest words in this book were actually penned by his daughter, Lucy, in the Afterword. I quote from the many pearls among them. “I think he would have been very proud of this book.” This collection tells us a little about Hawking as a political animal, being in part autobiographical, and given yet greater insight into the man by the biography content of the other contributors. We have had a ‘Brief History of Time’, which is now augmented by this brief and personal feeling encounter with the brave genius in the electrically powered chair. Alas, the book is all too brief, and doomed now to a steady state of content, unlike our dynamic and cosmically unstable universe.
www.amazon.com/Brief-Answers-Questions-Stephen-Hawking/dp/1473695988
[40] The Helicopter Pilot- Darcy Hoover ~~~~ (Extract 129)
There was a brief period at the start when I thought that there was going to be rather too much engineering talk about helicopters, but this soon passed. Then very soon I was being drawn into the real story, the one about the characters that pilot those machines, and particularly the sub-culture of well-travelled pilots that ply their trade wherever it is called for. The story centres on a group of pilots working a fictitious site of oil drilling platforms of the coast of East Africa.
As the story begins to generate pace, we soon realise that its main theme is a clash between wealthy, privileged Western and a strong African culture that manage to sustain its people despite appalling relative poverty. The central figure, a form-filling, technically efficient if less than naturally talented, pilot is both naïve and prejudiced in his attitudes to foreigners in general, and especially those that live under African skies. He isn’t racist, that would be an unfair slur, but he certainly lives his bottled-up life under a thick blanket of cultural prejudices and unsound expectations. However, the mix of skin-hardened bush, ex-military and worldly-wise commercial pilots ensure that Edward sees his African contract through, if only just. We see Edward not so much change his spots, but to at least give them a depth of human understanding, that even in our widely wired, and increasingly educated population is far from always associated with first-world experience; even when burnished with occasional bursts of sunburn't crimson in one protected tourist enclave or another.
This is a well written first book by a more than competent independent writer, who brings a good deal of personal experience to this entertaining story. However, a professional copy edit would certainly improve the read. It is, in the end, a book about the human condition, about the ability of people to make the best of what they have, wherever they happen to be, and about the prejudices in our variable characters that define us all, that make us the individuals we are. Edward would end up utterly the same man and yet profoundly changed by a few weeks in a much larger world; a place less tailored to his comfy, safe, preconceptions.
www.amazon.com/Helicopter-Pilot-Novel-Darcy-Hoover-ebook/dp/B079C6PY2C
As the story begins to generate pace, we soon realise that its main theme is a clash between wealthy, privileged Western and a strong African culture that manage to sustain its people despite appalling relative poverty. The central figure, a form-filling, technically efficient if less than naturally talented, pilot is both naïve and prejudiced in his attitudes to foreigners in general, and especially those that live under African skies. He isn’t racist, that would be an unfair slur, but he certainly lives his bottled-up life under a thick blanket of cultural prejudices and unsound expectations. However, the mix of skin-hardened bush, ex-military and worldly-wise commercial pilots ensure that Edward sees his African contract through, if only just. We see Edward not so much change his spots, but to at least give them a depth of human understanding, that even in our widely wired, and increasingly educated population is far from always associated with first-world experience; even when burnished with occasional bursts of sunburn't crimson in one protected tourist enclave or another.
This is a well written first book by a more than competent independent writer, who brings a good deal of personal experience to this entertaining story. However, a professional copy edit would certainly improve the read. It is, in the end, a book about the human condition, about the ability of people to make the best of what they have, wherever they happen to be, and about the prejudices in our variable characters that define us all, that make us the individuals we are. Edward would end up utterly the same man and yet profoundly changed by a few weeks in a much larger world; a place less tailored to his comfy, safe, preconceptions.
www.amazon.com/Helicopter-Pilot-Novel-Darcy-Hoover-ebook/dp/B079C6PY2C