Helen's Babies by John Habberton

There is something I find incredibly annoying about listening to Librivox recordings. I can't quite put my finger on it but I don't think I've ever listened to one that I didn't find annoying.



This is an old book and it's perfectly harmless. It's a book for children or a book for families, which ever way you want to look at it. It's about a well groomed city guy who spends a week looking after his sister's young children. He initially finds the children annoying but he ends up literally falling in love with them. They get up to all kinds of scrapes and mishaps but forgive me, I wasn't rolling around on the floor in hysterics.



I just found it boring. Maybe if I had read the book instead of listening to a woman reading it to me I would have appreciated it more. I just found her annoying, especially when she was reading the children's voices. I just wanted to chuck this book-less book at her!





Not my cup of bovril.




2/5

Nailed by Lucia Jordan

As it's Valentines day I though I would try to get in the spirit by reading something a little fruity.


It's always been my mission to read as many kinds of books as possible so it was time for me to read another erotica book. I'm not going to beat about the bush with this one. Just a short, flash of a review.


So how was it for me?



It's another example of those marketing ploys that pisses some people off, where an author writes a book and divides it into 3 or 4 books and you are hoodwinked into buying 3 or 4 books instead of one. As usual the first one is free and then the publishers are hoping to get the reader hooked so that they will purchase the others.



I won't. This was fun, sexy and and probably written by a guy. Lucia Jordan, really?





3/5

Someone Like Me by Tom Holt

'Nobody knows where they came from.

Nobody knows what they want.


The creatures are killing humans for meat and nobody, it seems can stop them.'




It's Earth but not as we know it. Everything has stopped. Everything that we once took for granted has disappeared. Apart from the monsters. The monsters have arrived.




In many ways this is right up my street. Set in a dystopian world, it is creepy and dark and has periods of excitement. However the book as a whole suffers a little bit from what I call the Tom Gordon effect. Most of the book is centred around the main character's journey through a dark tunnel, which is great for a single chapter but for an entire novel it did tend to drag on a little bit.


It's Ok though and the writing isn't bad.


Decent.



3/5

Two Quick Reads

I had some catching up to do if I wanted to get on track with reading at least 52 books this year and so here are a couple of quick read reviews.

This is my second book by Carmel Carberry and it doesn't disappoint.



Once again it's such an inspiring and helpful book, with a mixture of real life stories, bible verses and much more. Communion With God , Soaring on Eagles Wings is a bright light on a dull day. It's a book that kept my interest all the way and I found it encouraging and educational at the same time.



Sometimes Christian books can be heavy and repetitive but this was neither. It was light and enjoyable. Grab it if you get the chance.




5/5

This was diabolical. The less that can be said about it the better.



I am surprised because Lynda La Plante is very much a household name and a highly respected screenplay writer and Author. I haven't read any of her work before but I have briefly come across her television adaptations. But this was shocking!


Although Lynda states at the beginning of the book that 'The Escape' is based on two actual prisoner accounts (and I have no reason to doubt what she says), this whole book is completely unrealistic and unbelievable from the very first page. Not only is every single plot twist unrealistic but this small book is littered with incredibly obvious coincidences masquerading as plot devices.



A prison guard is about to look at a photograph that would blow the whole escape plan but suddenly a fight breaks out so he doesn't look at it.

The prisoner escapes because his hand cuffs are removed in the magistrates court waiting area and his guard goes off into a separate room, leaving him alone next to the front door.

The prisoner runs out of the court and needs to find a mode of transport and just at that exact time an old man is propping a bicycle up against a shop window.




Too many coincidences. Poor, lazy writing. The biggest plot hole is the main plot itself. A plot hole bigger than the Eiffel Tower. Avoid.



1/5

The Dying Photo by Alan Gibbons

A strange man takes a photo of Jimmy's family. As the camera flashes, Jimmy's parents vanish.

The only clue is a picture of his mum and dad screaming.



You know what, sometimes teenage books are fun to read.

This may never win a major literary prize and you're not going to see it being discussed on The Book Show on the BBC, but it is great! It's original, twisty, scary and imaginative. Everything I like in a book. So sometimes it's good to ditch the 400 page adult piece of literary fiction. This, for me, is what books should be about. Somebody telling a fabulous story.



What makes it even cooler is that it was published by Barrington Stoke for The Book Factor. A Liverpool project where a schoolboy called James Pybis came up with the story idea and another boy called Dylan Gibson helped to design the book cover. What a cool idea!



5/5

Relentless - Jeff Bezos

Anyone that knows me will tell you that I have a love/hate relationship with poetry. I like poetry as long as it doesn't try to talk to me as if I'm a two year old or expects me to be impressed because it knows all the names of the Greek Gods (or the colour of Jane Austen's knickers) and I don't.



Anyway it's about time I reviewed a poetry book and I was lucky enough to have discovered this wonderful little collection via the Twitterverse,  edited by Russell Bennetts and published by Pendant Publishing. I was minding my business when it popped onto my screen this afternoon.



It's a rather witty and imaginative collection using business magnate Jeff Bezos as inspiration. To be honest he's not somebody who I know an awful lot about. Maybe it's because I'm British or because in many ways the i pod generation has slipped me by, and I can't afford all that stuff anyway. But it's a great read that takes you on a satirical journey that borders on insanity in parts. In parts it's hilarious. But before I say anymore, just read it.




Maybe not all poetry is annoying after all.

The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Vision Board

This is my first read of the year and as I am hoping to get through quite a few spiritual books this year I couldn't resist downloading this free book from Amazon UK.


I'm still not entirely sure who it is written by. The mysterious Author of the 'Love Your Life,' series is only briefly mentioned as somebody called Simone! It's ok. It's a brief introduction to the idea of using vision boards to manifest good things into your life. I personally like the idea of vision boards as I am a big believer in visualisation. However I prefer to use mental visualisation, rather than pinning an actual board on my bedroom wall. I still found this little book encouraging although it is littered with spelling and grammatical errors. Something hopefully the rather mysterious author will remedy at some point.


It is quite repetitive and most of what it contains can be found on any spiritual message board or website but it is ok. I'm glad I didn't pay for it but as it's free I can't really complain.