Book review blog site, with some entertainment material from time-to-time.
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
That's Christmas: New Christmas Song from Red Sky July
That's Christmas: New Christmas Song from Red Sky July: Red Sky July are an award-wining female trio consisting of husband and wife Ally McErlaine (guitarist from Texas) and Shelly Poole ()Alish...
Sunday, 13 December 2015
That's Christmas: Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses
That's Christmas: Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses: I believe this is one of the best Christmas songs ever!
A War Symphony
In it, Keith Rumsey, who is an academic expert in the German language, take a collection of writings in the original German and translates them into English.
The writings are taken from the periods between the World Wars and beyond into the mid-1950s.
they offer the reader a compelling and different view on the impact of both wars on the ordinary people of Germany, but, obviously, from a Germanic perspective.
The writings were all created by influential German writers.
You will igially written by a wide range of German voices, such as Hermann Hesse, Bertolt Brecht, Hans Bender, Elisabeth Langgasser and Ernst Glaser.
They all make reference to war on one way or another, yet they are not specifically war stories, as such.
They touch on a wide range of subject matter, such as the impact of war on both military personnel and on the civilian population.
Some are stridently anti-war, others are less so, but still manage to convey the futility of war and those who are more strident in their attitudes place the entire blame for the two World Wars on nationalism.
There are elements of humour and filled with sympathy for the victims of war.
The book is published by Matador and costs £7.99 in paperback.
It is available through the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, which is to be found to the right hand side of this review.
Terragaineous
As a child growing up on a farm in rural Ireland, he recalls a scrawny aged ash tree that grew on the side of a hill on the family farm.
Its roots were exposed as it clung, somehow, to the hillside.
He imagined that there were tunnels beneath the tree and its roots and that there was a busy civilisation of wee folk who lived out their lives there.
Which brings us to his novel Terragaineous...
Callum is 15 years old, an ordinary young boy, living an ordinary life, until fate decides that it has other plans for him, when Callum's mother unexpectedly dies.
Riven with grief and rage at this cruel turn of events, Callum's life, his whole world, falls to pieces.
Several weeks later Callum becomes convinced that he has finally succumbed to insanity caused by his grief when he is rescued by a homeless man. Yet this homeless man is no ordinary man. He is an extraordinarily small man. In fact, he is a tiny man.
The tiny man reveals to Callum that he is a member of an ancient subterranean civilisation made up of tiny folk just like himself.
He regales Callum with stories of how they reside, happily in a magical world where all live in harmony with nature. Far away from the turmoil of the life led by humanity.
Realising that he has not lost his mind, Callum latches on to this opportunity to live beyond his own hurt and he convinces his friends to help him assist the tiny man to find his way home.
But exactly where will their open, childish curiosity and kind-heartedness take them?
What will happen to their tiny friend? What will happen to them?
This is a book that will captivate children -and adults- as it draws them into the world of Terragaineous.
It is published by Matador at £8.99 and will make an excellent present for children of all ages. It is not available for Christmas (the official publication date isn't until 28 December) but you can pre-order it at the Amazon-powered That's Books and Entertainment book shop, which will be found at the right hand side of this review.
Pirates and Promises
Whilst he was enjoying a holiday in the beautiful coastal village of Mousehole, Peter (who hales from Portwrinkle) discovered that in 1595 there was a Spanish attack on both Mousehole and also on the town of Penzance when the Spanish invaders set both of those Cornish towns ablaze.
Intrigued, Peter undertook further research and discovered that the coast of Cornwall was subject to frequent and numerous attacks by the Barbary pirates of North Africa.
He combined his research with his lifelong passion for the sea (he is a former Royal Navy officer and a seaman) to provide the basis for his novel, Pirates and Promises, which is written for children aged from 9 to 12.
Becca and Jack Tremayne are twins living in Cornwall. They find a mysterious man, Azfer Hakeem, shipwrecked on a neighbouring beach and they save his life.
But there is much more to Azfer Hakeem than appears at first sight. For it transpires that he is of the royalty of the country called Lebanon.
He is in command of a fleet of armed merchantmen, ships that trade between Europe and the Mediterranean.
However, under the circumstances of them saving him from certain death, Azfer Hakeem feels honour bound to assist the twins in their desire to locate and rescue their parents, Kerenza and Brethoc, who had fallen prey to Barbary pirate two years before.
During his recuperation he and the children build up a genuine rapport and, whilst showing them is magic tricks and regaling them with tales of his distant travels, he begins to formulate a plan of how he could use his royal and diplomatic connections to discover the fate of the parents and to rescue them, if possible.
He uses his network of spies to find that Kerenza is being help captive in the court of the Governor of Algiers, and there are rumours that Brethoc is enslaved to the team of rowers on a galley.
Eventually, Azfer Hakeem is well enough to command his brave and resourceful crew of all nations to take the twins on an adventurous and perilous mission to attempt to locate and rescue their parents.
Will they survive? Will they find their parents? Can they rescue them?
Buy this book as a Christmas present and you and your children can learn for themselves!
The book is published by Matador at a very reasonable £6.99. It's also available from the That's Books and Entertainment Amazon-powered bookshop (you'll find it to the right hand side of this book review) but if you want it before Christmas, we would suggest you go for one of the faster delivery options.)
The Little Read Book
Mike takes us through an enterprising and entertaining romp through the world of words and also through the word of worlds.
He takes what we know and shines a strong light on it and helps us to see that perhaps what we thought we thought we knew is not actually always the case.
He casts his sardonic and humorous gaze upon matters medical, fashion, science, food and drink, medicine, business, the military, music, people, nature, the law, entertainment and the media, geography, literature and much more, besides.
The tone of the section on medical matters "Delirious Diagnoses" is set by the deliciously apposite aphorism: "Most men have a body shaped like a Homeric hero -too bad that it's from the Simpsons and not the Iliad."
Mike doesn't just take a sideways look at a subject. He takes the subject, breaks it down into its component parts and then says, gleefully: "See? See what this thing is really all about?"
And you look at it and you say: "Yes! Yes! I see it all, now! Why are consultants so expensive? And why is there no rhyming slang for rhyming slang? What was AA Milne thinking when he called the bear Winnie? And why was he a pooh bear? Why is English a universal language? And why is dyslexia spelt like it is?"
And is it true that the love of evil is the root of all money?
This book has the ability to turn a common, well known fact on its head and make you actually think about what you think you already know.
At £9.99 this book, published by Matador in paperback, it is the ideal Christmas gift for anyone who loves words and language.
It is, of course, available through the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop (you will find this to the right hand side of this book review) but we suggest that you use the faster delivery options if you want to make sure that it arrives before Christmas.
A Cold War Spy Hunt by a Crummy Army Newspaper
A Cold War Spy Hunt by a Crummy Army Newspaper tells the story of how Tim Topps, a recently commissioned officer (but one who does not feel in the slightest bit military-minded) is assigned to a laid-back army base in Shropshire, two years after the end of World War 2. Most of the people assigned to the base are "coming down" from the five years of the previous war.
But now a very different type of war was beginning to become noticeable, even at Tim's base. For this was the era when the Cold War began to become evident.
However, all Tim knew was that he was to perform the duties of an officer at the huge base, including being in charge of the stores, but what he might not have expected was that he would also have another duty dumped on him, that of serving as the editor of a "crummy army newspaper" that is "published" at the base every week.
Tim's remit as editor is to not only lick the weekly paper into some sort of shape, but to expand the paper, too.
However, all is not as it seems. For the true role that Tim is to serve as the editor of the publication is to turn it into a tool (to "weaponise" it, to use a modern term) in order to trap a Communist sleeper agent who, MI5 is convinced) has managed to plant himself within the civilian staff of the base.
In the meantime Tim manages -contrary to the rules- to fall deeply and madly in love with a very pretty and charming young ATS -who is also very good at her job- which merely adds to the general Mayhem of the situation as it develops and trundles along on its troublesome way.
Tim and his ATS assistant take their time but manage to narrow down the suspects not to a civilian worker but to an officer.
But is all it seems?
Is there a sleeper? If so, who is it? And who is working under him?
What is the connection with Southern France?
This book is an exciting romp, with some touching romance too, it must be mentioned, through the early days of the Cold War and is another must read book from Tim Topps.
This novel is available via the That's Books and Entertainment Amazon-powered bookshop to be found to the right hand side of this review. It will make an excellent Christmas gift. But may I suggest you order express delivery if you need it to fill a space in a Christmas stocking?
It is published by Matador in paperback at a very reasonable £8.99.
(Incidentally your reviewer has a message for Tim Topps. When my father spent several years working as a civilian at COD Donnington in the early to mid-1960s, it was still just as laid-back as ever. And still is to this day, if stories are to be believed.)
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