Book review - Destiny and Faith Get Stuck In The Country, by Teddy O'Malley

This book is a marvellous illustration of the advice that is constantly being given to modern writers - show, don't tell. Children's books, at least the better ones, always contain some didactic element, and O'Malley has slipped hers in with beautiful subtlety, showing the young reader a number of desirable behaviours that include flexibility, kindness and true and whole-hearted acceptance of people with disabilities, including the all-important inclusiveness of making it easy for them to share in everything with the rest of a group. For this reason, the book should appeal to parents and teachers as well to its target audience. Very nice work indeed; a great addition to the library, classroom or home. 

Destiny and Faith Get Stuck In The Country is available from AMAZON in large print paperback.

While you're at Amazon ordering your copy of Destiny and Faith Get Stuck In The Country for your child, check out my new romance novella; you deserve something for yourself. Preorder Operation Tomcat HERE.

Book review - Daily Habits: How to Win Your Day, by Prashanth Savanur

This book doesn't make grandiose claims, but for anyone who is determined to bring about a change in his life, it provides a sound blueprint for taking control.

I once heard it said that all of the systems work if you do them. I am sure this book is no exception. I couldn't give it the full five stars because the English is dreadful, but this shouldn't necessarily put off a potential reader, as long as it is the content only that is of interest - Savanur's English is by no means bad enough to obscure his meaning. It is just like talking to a foreigner who has a heavy accent and makes mistakes - it doesn't mean you can't understand him. The content is the more important thing in a book such as this.

Daily Habits: How to Win Your Day is available from AMAZON.

While you're about it, you can preorder my new rom-com novella, which will be released on Amazon on 11 December. It's a quick, fun read. Preorder HERE.

Book review: Naked News for Indie Authors: How to Get on TV, by Gisela Hausmann.

I am not, and have never been, remotely desirous of appearing on the television. Nevertheless, I read this book thinking that some of the techniques described might be adaptable to pitching for other things, and so, in fact, it turned out to be.

Hausmann is down to earth and there is never any waffle in her books, which is so refreshing compared to the usual offering of this kind of work, which is generally known for having a huge amount of puffery before you get to the actual content. So although this book is very short, the entire thing is payload.

Useful techniques presented with a minimum of packaging - a worthwhile addition to the toolbox, and probably invaluable for anyone who actually does want to be on the television. 

How to Get on TV is available from AMAZON  in both ebook and paperback editions.  

Book review: NOW and the Weltanschauung of Government Men, by Gary J Davies

Mr Davies seems more on his home ground with this non-fiction work than with his novels, and the writing is smoother and more competent. No doubt we all work best with our familiar materials. It's still in dire need of proofreading though. Davies acknowledges his devil-may-care attitude to the quality of his work in the work itself, but to acknowledge a problem is not to alleviate it. Really, not even a little bit. It only serves to infuriate the reader.

There were some fascinating concepts raised in the scientific portion of the book, and although I, with my non-scientist brain, could not follow it all, it seemed to be well argued. Nevertheless, I found the whole project an ill-conceived one for several reasons.

First, although covered by the loose statement of intent to define his Weltanschauung, the combination of discussion of physical theories of the universe with blather about fruit pies and socks was less than enticing. Anyone who liked one part is bound to loathe the other. A third group will loathe both.

Second, although by its very nature the book had to be aimed at the lay person, the earlier portion of it, dealing with quantum mechanics et alia, is above the touch of most lay people.

Third, it is almost impossibly pointless to write learned tomes based on a very second-rate novel that few people have read, or will read. The time would have been better spent editing Government Men into a decent book.

Davies has a fertile imagination, and when he's not being egregiously annoying, an engaging presence. We have already seen in his short fiction that he is capable of writing well. In the instant work, he was playing well below his standard.

Book review - Just Another Number, by Maggie Young

It takes an enormous amount of courage to disclose one's life to the extent that Young has done in this frank, and sometimes confrontational, memoir. Such courage must be respected even when the means of expressing it do not altogether please.

Young's writing is in general articulate and fluent, and the book was an easy read from that point of view, although use of language was at times careless and the work would have benefited from tighter editing.

I did find parts of the book distasteful. There was, I felt, far more explicit description of sexual activity than was necessary to tell the story, and one could not but gain the impression that this was done deliberately to shock or confront the reader. I found this distasteful, for both reasons. However, the accounts of Navy life in particular were fascinating, and overall I did like the book, although I didn't love it.

Just Another Number is available from AMAZON in both paperback and Kindle formats.

Book review: Do As I Say, by David Sterling

This book has a terrific plot, and would make a great movie. Sadly, however, the book itself is an abject failure. It is just too badly written to be at all enjoyable.

All of the usual suspects that, sadly, mar so many independently published novels, are present: misplaced apostrophes, homophone errors and 'lay' used intransitively, but this is not what really kills the book. The thing that made 'Do As I Say' such a completely missable experience was the weird flatness of the prose; the writer seems not to be able to distinguish between the importance of, say, a major break in his criminal investigation and the fact that someone turns on the taps before stepping into the shower. The monotone effect produced is oddly disconcerting, like the lifeless tones of a severe schizophrenic's voice.

The other major problem with the book was that it reads like a case report. I am not, in general, a fan of these 'golden rules' that abound nowadays - never use adverbs, and so on. But the overworked maxim 'show, don't tell' is in this case something this writer could well take on board; in fact, I should like to see him have it tattoed across his forehead.

Book review: Secrets of Goth Mountain, by Gary J Davies

The book opens strongly, with one of the geek characters that Davies does so well. Sadly, however, it soon degenerates into a long fantasy tale of unicorns, werewolves, ancient evil stirring, blah blah blah. Even the strong opening character is allowed to devolve into a cardboard cut-out hero. This author is capable of so much better work, as can be seen from his collected short fiction, There Goes The Neighbourhood.

The writing is sloppy and the whole book cries out for stern editing. Better character development and a tightening of the plot, which would reduce the rambling length of the book, and even a good dose of proofreading would result in a far, far better product. The book teems with cringe-worthy homophone errors and intransitive 'lay', which are annoying enough when the writer is semi-literate, but inexcusable in a writer who is capable of good work.

Secrets of Goth Mountain is available from SMASHWORDS, and is free at the time of writing.