Happiness Diary

Happiness Diary is a splendid new book from psychologist and researcher Narissa Phipps.

Narissa has undertaken detailed research on the concept of happiness and the result is this highly useful and extremely readable book called Happiness Diary.

It is aimed at helping and uplifting late teens and adults and helping them to become more happy.

Readers are encouraged to use the book for just five minutes a day and it is aimed at helping the reader to be able to create healthy and log-lasting habits towards happiness.

There are daily contemplations that are designed to inspire the read, plus there are daily challenges that are intended to test the reader.

It is intended that people reading this book will soon be able to experience the fact that actions really are better than mere words.

Narissa believes: "One day at a time, you can make a difference." And she is confidant that this can start for people once they begin to read her book.

The book can help readers to become inspired to change their attitudes to their own surroundings and also to others in their lives, in order to bring about a way of life that is truly happier.

Narissa was able to draw upon her qualifications as a psychologist and her experiences employed in the field of children's mental health.

The book will make an ideal Christmas present for those who are faced with the vicissitudes of life and who might need the highly valuable help that this book can offer.

It is published in hardback by The Book Guild and costs £11.99.

It is available from the That's Books and Entertainment book and gift shop, the portal to which you will find to the right hand side of this book review.

I believe this book will make a most excellent stocking filler this Christmas.

Peginoor Land of the Lost

Peginoor Land of the Lost is a new novel for children by Nanna Lambert.

What happens to all the objects ad things that get irretrievably lost?

They all travel to a very special, mystical land called Peginoor.

Sometimes they travel to Peginoor because they feel a call to go there because they are required there.

Sometimes they decide to travel there of their own volition, because they feel that they are unloved and unwanted.

Brother and sister Jack And Marcie are holidaying with their grandparents and whilst exploring their grandfather’s allotment they discover a strange code hidden there.

This single event is just the beginning of a fantastical journey which eventually leads them to the secret land that is Peginoor!

It is a truly wondrous place filled with mystery wisdom and much, much more.

But eventually they come to understand that the very realm of Peginoor is under threat from dark forces that challenge the important goodness that is at the very heart of the existence of Peginoor.

Jack and Marcie find themselves at the heart of a battle to defeat these dark forces, yet they ultimately become aware that Peginoor is holding them both captive. And to free themselves they must seek out and discover the object that they are searching for.

This is an ideal Christmas present for children aged 7+ (for parents or grandparents to read from) or for older children aged 9 and upwards.

The book is published by Matador at a very reasonable £7.99 and will make an excellent stocking filler.

You can buy this book just over to the right from the That’s Books and Entertainment bookshop.

Ilona Lost

Ilona Lost is a romantic yet tragic novel by author Jim Pinnells.

It is set during the First World War and it tells the story of an English nurse called Evelyn who is working with the wounded on the Eastern Front in the year 1916.

She witnesses great horrors, the mutilations, the loss of sight, the illnesses like tetanus, the problems caused by gangrene and even worse as the “lucky” ones are invalided back home to face an unknowable future filled with pain and heartache.

Evelyn rescues a teenage Polish girl, Illona, from being raped by Cossack cavalry.

Numbed by the horrors that they have seen the two women manage to flee as Lenin and the Red Army begin to take over and they fall in love.

Eventually they arrive in England but they quarrel and part.

But is their love story over?

Or is there still more tragedy to follow?

Read this novel to find out more.

It is published by Matador at £7.99.

Twelve Thrilling Tales

Twelve Thrilling Tales by Rita Cheminais is exactly what it says on the tin. Twelve thrilling tales.

Each of the stories is short, yet are packed with several punches lacking in some novel length works that I could mention. But wont!

And the twists within each story? Oh, how beautifully they are executed!

And all with a touch of humour that certainly helps to boil the pot just a little more!

There’s a couple who meet up with a dead woman on a luxury cruise ship, a murder mystery weekend with a difference, a very unfortunate occurrence at the Hotel California, a little trouble in an overgrown jungle of a garden, some problems at a writers’ circle and a variety of other grim, yet gripping, stories.

Rita Cheminais is a film and TV extra, a voice over artiste and also works as a promotional model when she is not penning cracking short stories. And she is also a member of a writers’ club.

The book is published by Matador at the rather nifty price of £7.99 and will make an excellent Christmas gift for the reader in your life.

It's ideal for reading in front of an open fire, with brandy and minced pies at your side on Christmas afternoon!

You can buy it from the That’s Books and Entertainment bookshop. You’ll find the portal just to the right hand side of this review.

You can also purchase thousands of other books, Christmas presents, Christmas food and drink, etc., there, too.

Belinda: The Forest How Red Squirrel

Belinda: The Forest How Red Squirrel is an utterly charming and highly captivating book that is a three-year photographic study of red squirrels in their natural habitat by squirrel enthusiast Peter Trimming.

The study was undertaken by Peter in Forest How, which is situated in Eskdale, Cumbria.

During his research he witnesses a terrible and highly destructive outbreak of squirrel pox. Sadly this outbreak killed the entire adult population in Forest How.

However, despite this dreadful event a small number of the younger red squirrels who were born in the spring of 2014 managed to survive the outbreak and began to rebuild their shattered colony.

They emerged in gu4esthouse gardens from the late summer of 2014. A squirrel, named as Belinda, is chosen by Peter as a special recipient of his attention and he watches her closely.

This book is about wildlife conservation and it contains a wealth of detail about the colony, but it also features a multiplicity of full-colour images of the squirrels and their lay-to-day lives.

The introduction was written by Helen Butler MBE, who is of the Wight Squirrel Project and the IOW Red Squirrel Trust.

As Helen Butler MBE puts it: “Peter is not only a keen observer but a very good photographer.”

The book is published by the Book Guild in hardback at £12.95 and is a must buy Christmas present for the wildlife lovers in your life. Or even for your own Christmas stocking!

You can buy it from the That’s Books and Entertainment bookshop, which you will find just to the right of this book review.

A Door Marked Hawker

A Door Marked Hawker is an intriguing mystery, written by novelist Nigel Milliner.

It tells the story of Dorgy Pascoe, a village artisan and what happens after is untimely demise.

Jack is faced with the task of acting as the executor of the estate of Dorgy.

Jack believes that the matter will be a simple affair which he would be able to deal with in a very straightforward manner.

But Jack soon learns that nothing could be further from the truth.

Jack discovers there is a complicated web of intrigue surrounding Dorgy Pascoe. And that some attacks that seemed to surround Pascoe before his death had more significance than might have seemed possible at the time.

Jack feels compelled to dig deeper into matters that took place in the past and he becomes aware that the past that he is uncovering is far more dark and dangerous than he could have imagined possible.

Will Jack be able to resolve the matters that he has discovered to the satisfaction of the Pascoe family?

Or might the dark and murky past of Pascoe mean that Jack might even be endangering his own life?
This is an ideal Christmas present for those who like their mysteries.

It’s published by The Bookguild at £9.95.

It is available from the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, which you'll find to the right of this review.

Snatched

Kieran. He is a normal, average businessman, running a normal, average (but high end) ticket agency.

But the truth is that Kieran is not, by any means, what he seems.

In truth Kieran, with his degree in Child Psychology, runs a high end agency, a very high end agency indeed, that deals in a very precious commodity.

In fact, Kieran deals in the most precious commodity that there is. Stolen children.

It's probable that you could describe his business as being a sort of adoption agency. Although the parents and the child are unwitting and completely non-consenting participants.

All goes well for Kieran as children are spirited away from their families to be delivered to super rich oligarchs who have much more money than sense or moral fibre.

Until, that is, Kieran decides to kidnap Thomas who lives in the London borough of Chiswick.

He is on holiday with his family and it is planned that the family's au pair will snatch Thomas.

However, things go very badly wrong and the consequences for everyone concerned, but especially Kieran, are, to put it mildly, shocking.

This is a very well written book and will make an ideal Christmas present for lovers of thriller novels.

It is published by Matador at £7.99 and is available from the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, which you will find to the right of this book review.