May 2021 – Page 2 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

TBR Pile review: Make it Happen: How to be an Activist, by Amika George

56754284 — Paperback, 256 pages
Expected publication: January 20th 2022 by HQ
ISBN:0008434360 (ISBN13: 9780008434366)

‘Make It Happen reminds us that people of any age can create change in their communities. From finding allies to setting goals, everyone who wants to contribute to a better future can learn from Amika’s book.’ Malala Yousafzai

GET UP. SPEAK UP. DON’T GIVE UP.

The world is waking up to the fact that society is arranged to
benefit some more than others. There is much that needs changing. And you can be the one to do it. Anyone can make history, including a teenager launching a global campaign from their bedroom. And Amika will show you how, in this essential and inspirational step-by-step guide to being an activist.

Are your favourite brands making little effort to be diverse?

Are the people who’ve been hardest hit by COVID-19 not getting the support they need?

Is the environment being overlooked in favour of driving profits?

Amika George succeeded in campaigning to get the government to fund free period products in every school across England. Make It Happen is her guide to being an effective activist. With chapters on finding your crowd and creating allies, how to get those in positions of power and influence to listen, how to use social media effectively and how to look after your mental health while protesting. Amika will you show you how you can make real and lasting changes in your world.

Featuring candid interviews with award-winning campaigner
Caroline Criado-Perez, host of The Guilty Feminist podcast, Deborah Frances-White, founder of the Gurls Talk network and podcast Adwoa Aboah, and founder of The Pink Protest Scarlett Curtis, Make It Happen is the go-to handbook for the changemaker in you.

Review: The Walls of Rome, by Robert M Kidd

The Walls of Rome

218 BC. Sphax is seventeen and haunted by the brutal murder of his parents at the hands of Rome. After ten years of miserable slavery he will make his last bid for freedom and go in search of Hannibal’s army and his birthright. He will have his revenge on the stinking cesspit that is Rome!

Destiny will see him taken under the wing of Maharbal, Hannibal’s brilliant general, and groomed to lead the finest horsemen in the world – the feared Numidian cavalry that would become the scourge of Rome.

From the crossing of the great Rhodanus River, Sphax’s epic journey takes him through the lands of the Gaul to the highest pass in the Alps. This is the story of the most famous march in history. A march against impossible odds, against savage mountain Gauls, a brutal winter and Sphax’s own demons.

This is more than a struggle for empire. This is the last great war to save the beauty of the old world, the civilized world of Carthage, Greece and Gaul. The world of art and philosophy – before it is ground into dust by the upstart barbarity of Rome.

Purchase Links

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Walls-Rome-believe-climbed-Hannibal-ebook/dp/B08MQMRDMM

US – https://www.amazon.com/Walls-Rome-believe-climbed-Hannibal-ebook/dp/B08MQMRDMM

Giveaway to Win the A Hostage of Rome (Book 3) to be dedicated to the winner, & a signed dedicated copy too (Open INT)

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/33c69494422/?

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

Blog tour calendar: The Walls of Rome, by Robert M. Kidd

Blog Tour Calendar: Screams From The Void, by Anne Tibbets

Audiobook Review: After The Storm, by Isabella Muir, read by Charles Johnston

After The Storm

When a violent storm blasts England’s south coast, it’s up to retired Italian detective Giuseppe Bianchi to sift through the devastation and piece together the tragic events left behind in the storm’s wake.

Giuseppe Bianchi’s brief visit to Bexhill-on-Sea has become an extended stay. He is loath to return to his home in Rome because of the haunting images that made him leave in the first place.

During his morning walks along the seafront with Beagle, Max, he meets Edward Swain, who becomes Giuseppe’s walking companion. They form a friendship of sorts and find they have a similar outlook on life.1

But the devastating events of a single night lead Giuseppe to question the truth about Edward Swain. Teaming up with young journalist Christina Rossi – his cousin’s daughter – Giuseppe learns about the brutal reality lurking behind the day-to-day life of families in the local community. And as the story unravels Giuseppe is reminded how anger and revenge can lead to the most dreadful of crimes.

After the Storm is the second novel in the Giuseppe Bianchi mystery series – the much-awaited sequel to Crossing the Line.

Grab your copy today, and enjoy the intrigue of traditional English mystery, cleverly combined with a continental twist.

Purchase Link – http://viewbook.at/Afterthestormaudio

Review: Setsuko and the Song of the Sea, by Fiona Barker, Illustrated by Howard Gray

Blurb

Setsuko loves the sea. She swims its shallows. She dives its depths. But she worries that her friends have chosen to abandon her way of life. Then she meets a whale who also fears he is the last of his kind. In return for giving him hope, he gifts her a song which she uses to remind people of the beauty of the ocean. Setsuko took the song and made it her own. They played together from the first crisp light of morning until the setting of the evening sun. Everyone who heard Setsuko’s song was filled with the wonder of the sea. They remembered the beauty and mystery of the ocean. A story of an unlikely friendship, Setsuko and her friend the whale have one thing in common ― their love of the sea. Much like the revered ama-san, ― women who have been diving off the coast of the Shima peninsula in Japan for over 2,000 years ― Setsuko is a strong girl who is on the path to becoming one of these real-life mermaids. 10% of the net profits from each book will be donated to the Marine Conservation Society, the UK charity working for seas full of life. Visit www.mcs.org.uk to find out more.

Buy Links

Publisher Shop – https://bit.ly/3cfj7mp

Waterstones – https://bit.ly/2YgEDz2

Foyles – https://bit.ly/3ooqzxS

Amazon – https://amzn.to/3a63xHb

Goodreads – https://bit.ly/3iNZ0gw

Blog tour calendar: After the Storm, by Isabella Muir

TBR Pile Review: Burn, by Herman Pontzer

54737800 — Hardcover
Published March 2nd 2021 by Allen Lane
ISBN:0241388422 (ISBN13: 9780241388426)

Blurb

Over the past twenty years, evolutionary biologist Herman Pontzer has conducted ground-breaking studies across a range of settings, including pioneering fieldwork with Hadza hunter-gatherers in northern Tanzania.

This book draws on his eye-opening research to show how, contrary to received wisdom, exercise does not increase our metabolism. Instead, we burn calories within a very narrow range: nearly 3,000 calories per day, no matter our activity level.

By taking a closer look at what happens to the energy we consume, Pontzer explores the ways in which metabolism controls every aspect of our health – from fertility to immune function – and reveals the truth about the dynamic system that sustains us. Filled with facts and memorable anecdotes, Burn will change the way you think about food, exercise and life.

Review: The Queen of Romance, by Liz Jones

18 MARCH 2021
Market: Biography
Paperback
ISBN:9781912905119
Price: £9.99

Blurb

The first biography of the bestselling author and journalist Marguerite Jervis.
Daughter of an officer of the Indian Medical Corps, Marguerite Florence Laura Jarvis (1886 – 1964) was born in Burma and became one of the most successful novelists of her time. During the course of her 60-year career, Marguerite published over 150 books, with 11 novels adapted for film, including The Pleasure Garden (1925), the directorial debut of Alfred Hitchcock. In her heyday she sold hundreds of thousands of novels, but is now largely forgotten; under numerous pseudonyms she wrote for newspapers, women’s magazines and the silent movie screen; she married one of Wales most controversial literary figures, Caradoc Evans. She also trained as an actress and was a theatrical impresario. Known variously as Mrs Caradoc Evans, Oliver Sandys, Countess Barcynska and many other pseudonyms, who was she really?

Liz Jones has dug deep beneath the tale told in Marguerite Jervis’s own
somewhat romanticised memoir to reveal what made this driven and
determined woman. And what turned her from a spoilt child of the English
middle classes to a workaholic who could turn her hand to any literary
endeavour and who became a runaway popular success during the most
turbulent years of the 20th century.