I Gave Him My Best Shot

I Gave Him My Best Shot is a novel by June Felton.

It tells the story of how a family begins to become pulled apart  because their son has Asperger's Syndrome.

Anna and Max have a younger son called Barney who is diagnosed with the Autistic Spectrum Disorder condition called Asperger's Syndrome.

Barney takes everything that is said to him quite literally.

Amidst the problems caused by his condition Anna and Max are also working hard to build up their business and to survive in the troubled and troubling worlds of the fashion industry.

Anna finds herself battling to cope with the competing demands of her family life and that of her business life.

Max, however, can't quite get his head around the needs and demands of Barney's condition. This puts further strain on their marriage.

Matters are further complicated by the machinations of Dinah Deedes, the Personal Assistant to Max who seems to be working against their marriage for her own devious ends.

The action flits between various exotic locales In India, the USA and their ordinary life in the UK.

But in truth the problems arising from Barney's condition are only a minor part of the problems that beset their family.

For there are concerns over betrayals in both the personal and business realms that put strains on their marriage and on old, long-established friendships. After all, it is a saying that one should not mix business and pleasure.

The author June Felton has a long professional history of working with autistic children so her portrayal of Barney's condition and the strain that this places on the family is extremely realistic.

It is a beautifully written and well-plotted romantic novel and costs a reasonable £17.99 for the hardback version, which is published by The Bookguild.

It is available via the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, to the right hand side of the site.

It is available for pre-order and will be published on 26 November.

Shadows of Yesterday

Shadows of Yesterday is a powerful novel by Ann Wardlaw.

It tells the dramatic story of Marc Chevaud.

Marc was captured and subject to dreadful torture by the Nazis during the Second World War.

After the war he found himself in Britain and he created a highly successful business in the country that he now called home.

But did he really, truly call Britain his home? For he still yearned for the ageless beauty of his native Provence.

Suddenly he knew that he would have to return to France to go back to what had been his ancestral home, redolent with memories of what the chateau and vineyards had been like before Germany had decided to eat its neighbours and itself in a bout of mindless destruction.

He leaves the day-to-day running of his business to his brother Leo and he makes the decision to return to Provence.

Of course, Marc realises that when he returns to his ancestral home that things will not be the same, but nothing could have prepared him for the dreadful state of decay of the family chateau and the ruinous condition of the lands surrounding it and of the vineyards. Partly caused by its occupation by unsympathetic enemy forces during the war years.

He is saddened by what he finds but, perhaps as impulsively as his decision to return there, he decides that he will restore both the chateau and the vineyards to their former, pre-war glories.

Yet Marc cannot fathom out the hostility of the local people to his return and for his plans for his family estates. What do they know that he doesn't?

However, he begins to discover dark secrets from the past that he would find to be beyond what he could ever have imagined possible.

What will this mean for Marc and his family? Dare he dig deeper? And if he does, what else will he uncover?

Set in the 1960s and with flashbacks to the war years, this novel readily evokes the reality of life in post-occupation rural France.

Ann Wardlaw relates a tale of complex but utterly believable personal histories with many twists and turns that help to bring this story to life.

It is published by The Book Guild and costs a very reasonable £9.99. It is available via the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop which is to the right hand side of this site.

It will make an excellent Christmas present.

That's Education: Dyslexia Rules? No! Multiplication Rules!

That's Education: Dyslexia Rules? No! Multiplication Rules!: Just ask Penny Topsom and she will tell you that Multiplication Rules! Penny Topsom is a mother on a mission. Penny suffered throughout ...

Charlie's World of Glittering Powers by Tracy Rawles

Charlie's World of Glittering Powers by Tracy Rawles is a fantastic must have stocking filler of a book that is going to go down a real treat with young children of eight and over, their parents and their grandparents, too!

It tells the story of Charlie was is a cigale, a type of flying insect. /charlie is a rare type of cigale, he is also known as a Snuffle-Buzzer.

But Charlie is no ordinary cigale, he is a cigale with a fairly serious problem. How would you like to be a cigale, like Charlie, who had a serious allergy disorder?

Charlie likes to know things, he is very inquisitive, very talkative and has daydreams of travel that will be filled with various adventures.

Sevi is a young girl from Cornwall. Whilst on holiday with her parents in Provence in France, she explores the local forest and discovers that the forest may be much more than she3 could ever have thought possible.

Eventually one single, solitary golden sparkle brings about a series of mystical happenings that propel Charlie and Sevi on the path toward a remarkable adventure that is more stunning and more thrilling than either of them could ever have thought possible!

There are powers to be discovered, mysteries to be solved and joys to be had for both Sevi and Charlie in this charming and exciting book. It's published by Matador at an eminently reasonable £7.99, and it is available via the Amazon-powered That's Books and Entertainment bookshop which you will find to the righthand side of this site.

Dark Nights: Whitewater by Norman A. Viles

Dark Nights: Whitewater by Norman A. Viles is described as a detailed memoir about the sport of sea fishing.

The memoir by Norman A. Viles is filled with the excitement, suspense, thrills, spills, danger and pure joy of sea fishing, but it is added to by the Yorkshire humour of the author that illuminates the book like a lighthouse of glee on a rocky promontory on the Yorkshire coast, jutting out into the icy waters of the North Sea.

Norman is a gifted raconteur and a skilled storyteller and his joy for the life of a sea fisherman shines through this engaging book.

There are tales of fishing from sunny beaches, of fishing from rocky cliffs on a dark, cold winter night, of fishing from boats (including one bought and lovingly and carefully rebuilt by Norman and others.

Learn of sea angling competitions of catches lost and of catches made, of trips around the bay, of trips made to bays in foreign seas, including a number of memorable trips to the waters off the coast of Ireland.

I am not an angler by any stretch of the imagination, but by the power of the story telling abilities of Norman A. Viles, I could almost feel the weight of the rod as the fishes took the bait, almost feel the wind and taste the tang of the salty sea air. Will I take up sea fishing? Probably not. But having read this book, it's almost as if I did...

If you have any kind of angler in your life, it will be the "must have" book for their Christmas stocking this year.

And if you are that angler in your life,  at only £9.99, this book will make the ideal self-given early Christmas present. Or give family members some very heavy hints about this book. Such as emailing them the url to this article!

You can buy this book through the That's Books and Entertainment Amazon-powered bookshop which you will find to the righthand side of this website.

Living in a Complex World a Simple Guide by Dr Joachim Winkler

Living in a complex World a Simple Guide by Dr Joachim Winkler is a vitally important book for those of us living in today's information rich world. Which is every one of us, pretty much.

The book contains fifty ideas that are designed to help those of us who are perhaps struggling to pick our way through a wor4ld that is drowning in information and data, yet who are starved of time to do anything about it.

The book goes through a number of topics, how the world works, what is really important in our lives and of the lives of other people. We should, argues Dr Winkler, all be encouraged to give thoughts to these topics.

The book is devised to be as short as possible and easy to understand, and it is crafted in such a way as to be a handy reference work for those who might benefit from a resource to act as a rapid reminder of some basic truths that we might already know, but which we could have forgotten in the hurly burly of everyday, modern life.

The book uses honest, straightforward language and terminology and it covers a wide range of subjects such as wealth and poverty, values, freedom, excessive demands,  the taking of risks, and not only our rights but, even more importantly, some might argue, our responsibilities, too.

It also covers time, cause and effect, the truth and the difficulties of saying 'no.'

It is 94 years of distilled wisdom published by Pen Plot and Pixel at the remarkable price of £9.99. Thats just over 10 pence a year and in that context you really cannot afford to miss the opportunity to buy this absorbing and very helpful book.

It will make a fantastic Christmas present and will be available from the That's Book and Entertainment bookshop (powered by Amazon) which is on the right hand side of this page.

Formidable

Formidable is a new book by published author Steve R. Dunn.

It is the third in a trilogy of naval history books.

It is a well-researched book that shows how, because some senior officers in the Royal Navy were using rules of engagements that had, in the main, stayed the same for 100 years, the Royal Navy suffered some jaw-droppingly ridiculous losses of ships and men during World War 1.

Rule of engagement that were suitable for the days of Lord Nelson and fighting set piece battles under full sail were worse than useless when one faced a modern enemy using modern equipment including submarines.

Dunn points out that, because a Vice Admiral thought it "unmanly" for his ships to seek shelter during storms that the ships under his disastrous command were forced to remain at sea, as he ignored the ever-present threat of attack by U-boats because to his sclerotic thought processes, the use of U-Boats to attack enemy ships from beneath the surface of the water would be utterly unthinkable due to the fact that it would be ungentlemanly behaviour.

Because of his tactical blunders Formidable, captained by Noel Loxley (accompanied by Bruce, his  terrier) went down with a completely inexcusable loss of nearly 600 men and boys.

Captain Loxley decided to remain on board Formidable as it sank, accompanied by his faithful companion, Bruce.

Dunn not only explains what happened but also explores why it happened and also makes a careful examination of the stories of some of the individuals involved in this utterly senseless loss of so many lives. And of the hardships that was the fate of their hapless wives and children during a transitional period which Dunn has dubbed the "Vicwardian" era.

It is a highly moving and very well researched book which will appeal to history buffs and to people who are interested in the First World War and will make an ideal Christmas present.

It is published by www.bookguild.co.uk at £12.99.