Book review blog site, with some entertainment material from time-to-time.
Thursday 25 April 2019
Wednesday 24 April 2019
Shelter Rock
The country of South Africa feels that it is beleaguered on all sides during the height of the Apartheid era.
Innocent young Englishman Ralph meets Elanza an heiress who has been made blind due to a disease. Elanza is politically well connected and she is seeking love.
Ralph suddenly realises that he has come across a massive South African secret.
Ralph vanishes whilst walking home in the midst of the continent and the only black secret agent employed by the National Intelligence Service, becomes involved in their lives.
It is the official mission of Angel Rots to use his unique skills to find Ralph. But does he have a hidden agenda? An old score to settle? If so, with whom?
He follows Ralph from Cape Town all the way to Cairo. Ralph always seems to be one step beyond Rots and so Rots begins to question what, exactly, is happening?
Why is Ralph considered to be worthy of all this attention? What does Ralph know that is so important?
As a good secret agent, Rots knows how to seek out information. But what Rots discovers shocks him to his very core. It's something so huge that his loyalties and his beliefs are challenged. It's a secret that is so big that it could change the course of history.
The novel is well written and well researched. The characters, including minor characters, are all well drawn and depicted as sympathetically as possible.
It is published by Matador at £9.99.
The City Grump Rides Out
In The City Grump Rides Out, Stephen Hazell-Smith brings together a wide-ranging collection of articles that he published under the name The City Grump, his regular column in the online pages of Real Business magazine.
The articles are all humorous, highly witty and acerbic, shining a bright light on the business and the political landscape of Great Britain.
The City Grump became well known for exposing and rooting out the bizarre and absurd behaviour of the great and the good who were in control of the institutions of the country.
Over the past nine years he turned his mordant wit on those who, he considered, deserved it.
Hazell-Smith spent well over a quarter of a century working within the City of London, having a variety of careers, including a stockbroker's analyst, chairing a stock-brokerage concern, a PR company that specialised in financial matters and an Exchange.
He is still involved in chairing a range of venture capital trusts and investing his own funds in a number of start-ups.
He criticises the reemergence of Stalinist style leadership in political parties, the possibility that baby boomers are inherently selfish, the good that Margaret Thatcher did when she came into power, how it is knowledge that is, ultimately, a power for corruption, how the Davos elite got things so badly wrong and, in the end, proved to be such an abject failure.
Learn why and when Richard Branson should have started to avoid and shun the spotlight, how and why George Osborne brought shame to the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer and why small is beautiful and big ugly in terms of business.
He also touches on what is wrong with Mrs May, and includes a compelling analysis on all things Brexit and European Union under the chapter £The Brussels Death Star." And why Blockchain might prove to be helpful.
At £12.00 this book is a must have if you feel you might like to know what happened, who did it and what is really happening at the moment.
An Author On Trial
Have you heard of Italian author Giuseppe Jorio? The probability is that you have not.
And there's a good reason for that for the sub-title of this book is: the story of a forgotten writer.
Written by his son, Luciano Iorio, the book tells the story of how, after he enjoyed considerable success with his debut novel, La Morte di un Uomo (Death of a Man) Jorio's career as a writer was virtually destroyed because he was prosecuted and put on trial no less than five times in the course of six years and eventually found guilty of obscenity for writing his novel Il Fuoco del Mondo (The Fire of the World).
Jorio was the first post-war Italian author to be given such a conviction and, uniquely, the only such author to ever receive a prison sentence.
Using the diaries that his father kept and reading through family letters from the time, Luciano Iorio brings to life the hidden story of what actually happened to his estranged father.
It reveals how biased, bigoted and prejudiced judges aided and abetted by illiberal and bellicose censorship policies (allegedly in order to "defend decency") of the ruling Christian Democrat Party, assisted by the Vatican, decided to make an example of Jorio, even if this meant they would have to twist and misapply the relevant legislation.
The book examines the terrible strains that the five trials and the prison sentence placed not only on Jorio and his work as a novelist but also the terrible strains it placed him other members of his family under, including his own son, Luciano.
As for the book, Il Fuoco del Mondo? it was never published.
It is a moving and illuminating book that pulls no punches as it examines all people involved in the scandal and spares no one, not even Jorio, who, it is acknowledged, had not been without fault.
It is published by Matador at £8.99 and will be a very useful book for anyone with an interest in 20th century literature.
Tuesday 23 April 2019
The Magpie Effect
In his book, experienced life coach Damien Massias has put together a new guide for us.
He reveals that in his book he aims to help us understand not only social media but our own behaviours when we fall down the rabbit holes of the various brands of social media.
He points out the various pitfalls and erects warning and direction signs to help us make it through the bewildering maze that is modern social media. Such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, etc.
He covers such vital topics as low self-esteem and low self-confidence, how communication skills can be damaged, the dangers of social media reducing everything to a pointless competition, social media and mental health and how social media can reduce people to zombies.
If you are concerned about social media, perhaps you work in the industry? (as does your reviewer) then this book is one for you.
It's published by Matador at £14.99.
Wellness is Easier Than You Think
Are you looking to change your lifestyle? Perhaps you have health issues that are impacting on your mind or body that you wish to alleviate?
A trip to the Doctor (if you can get an appointment, that is) is all well and good, but if you can obtain a prescription for a pill or a potion, this might only help you by deadening the symptoms somewhat. They might not deal with the root cause of your ailment.
In this highly readable book Susie Bailey will help you look at the underlying factors that might be at the base of your health issues.
Susie Bailey employs an evidence-based technique that is backed by nutritional and scientific facts.
The book is, basically, a nine step programme to help you deal with your issues.
There are chapters on the importance of looking after the health of your gut, making certain you get good sleep, how you should employ sound nutritional practises, the importance of exercise and how to maintain your relationships with others.
The inspiration for writing this book was Susie's own mother whose health took at turn for the worse in 2014. Not only did the techniques Susie taught her mother help her get rid of anxiety, acid reflux, IBS, tiredness, depression and fibromyalgia, Susie also noticed that, by employing the techniques in her own life, her asthma stopped occurring and she ceased getting frequent colds.
It's a well-written book and is colourful and illustrated and if you want to employ mindfulness in your life, this book is a perfect way to start on that route.
It's published b y Matador at £9.99 and will make an excellent book not only for you but also people in your life who might need a bit of a boost.
You're the froth on My Soy Cappuccino
It's an amusing and less-than-serious examination of modern life.
From courtship 21st century style, to high and not so high technology, selfies, the use or otherwise of social media, and more besides, nothing (well, almost nothing) escapes the careful eye and the pen of Don Behrend.
From the shock of what airport security guards can learn about you, to modern love songs, Jules Verne on the A380, a matter of sartorial confusion at the opera festival, memes and memetics, to Allergy in a Country Churchyard, all subjects are covered in this extremely witty and well-written collection of poems.
It's published by Matador at £8.99 and if you only buy one book of poems, make this the one. You'll love it.
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