A couple of weeks ago a marketing bod from Olympia Publishing emailed me with a list of recent books to see if I wanted to read and review any of them. I asked for three that looked interesting. I’ve now read them and present to you, dear readers, the reviews. I’ve also been looking at the Olympia Publishing page, since I’ve never heard of them before I thought I’d also give you my opinion on the quality of the books and anything I’ve gleaned from reading their website.
Category Archives: Non-fiction
Review: ‘When Science Collapses’, by Christopher Hivner
Author website here
Publisher’s website here
Publication Date: 31st December 2016
Published By: Writing Knights Press
ISBN: 9781541337237
Format: Paperback chapbook
Price: $8.00
My Review
Christopher Hivner contacted me a week or so ago, and asked if I’d review his chapbook, When Science Collapses and I agreed. I do enjoy reading poetry now and then. The book arrived very quickly, yesterday while I was packing my house up to move in two weeks. It managed to survive the packing process so I’ve had a chance to read it earlier than I expected.
I enjoyed the poems, although poetry isn’t my speciality. They mix personal experience with scientific concepts for affecting results. A small book of only 23 poems, each poem causes the reader to stop and ponder the connections between life events and scientific concepts.
3/5
Review: ‘Six for the Tolpuddle Martyrs’, by Alan Gallop
Published by: Pen & Sword History
Published: 5th June 2017
ISBN: 9781526712509
Price: £14.99
Blurb
In 1834 six farm labourers from the Dorset hamlet of Tolpuddle fell foul of draconian Victorian laws prohibiting ‘assembly’. Today the names of George Loveless and his brother James, Thomas Standfield and his son John, James Brine and James Hammett, who made up the Tolpuddle Martyrs, stand high on the roll of British men who have been victimised for their beliefs but stood steadfast in the face of persecution. They refused to be persuaded to betray their principles either by the promise of release or by transportation to Australia. The Tolpuddle men fought to win their freedom sustained by their passionate conviction that their sacrifices would not be in vain. Their experience and example have proved to be an inspiration for future generations and they remain icons of pioneering trade unionism.
The Author has thoroughly researched their story and the result is a fascinating and revealing re-examination of this legendary saga. Their triumph over legal persecution and abuses of power over 180 years ago is told afresh in this comprehensive and attractively illustrated book which delves deeper into their story than ever before.
More details here
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Review: ‘The Crane Bag’, by Joanna van der Hoeven
I was sent this book by the publisher in return for an honest review.
(My reviews are always honest and I’ll frying pan anyone who slanders me by suggesting otherwise).
Published by: Moon Books
Publication Date: 22nd June 2017
Format: Paperback
Price: £6.99
I.S.B.N.: 978-1-78535-573-8
http://www.moon-books.net/books/pagan-portals-crane-bag
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Review: ‘Digging in the Dark’, by Ben W. Johnson
I was sent this book by the publisher in return for an honest review.
(My reviews are always honest; I’ll bury alive anyone who slanders me by suggesting otherwise)
Published by: Pen & Sword History
Publication date: 5th June 2017
I.S.B.N.: 9781473878174
Format: Paperback
Price: £12.99
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Digging-in-the-Dark-Paperback/p/13485
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Review: ‘Women at War in the Classical World’, by Paul Chrystal
Published by: Pen & Sword Press
Publication Date: 20th March 2017
I.S.B.N.: 9781473856608
Price: £25.00
Format: Hardback
Blurb
Paul Chrystal has written the first full length study of women and warfare in the Graeco Roman world. Although the conduct of war was generally monopolized by men, there were plenty of exceptions with women directly involved in its direction and even as combatants, Artemisia, Olympias, Cleopatra and Agrippina the Elder being famous examples. And both Greeks and Romans encountered women among their ‘barbarian’ enemies, such as Tomyris, Boudicca and Zenobia.
More commonly, of course, women were directly affected by war as non-combatant victims, of rape and enslavement as spoils of war and this makes up an important strand of the author’s discussion. The portrayal of female warriors and goddesses in classical mythology and literature, and the use of war to justify gender roles and hierarchies, are also considered. Overall it is a landmark survey of how war in the Classical world affected and was affected by women.
Available: here
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Review: ‘The Path of Paganism’ by John Beckett
Published By: Llewellyn Worldwide
Publication Date: 8th May 2017
Edition: Paperback
I.S.B.N.: 9780738752051
Price: $19.99 (US)
Blurb
The Path of Paganism provides practical advice and support for living an authentic Pagan life in our mainstream Western culture. Witches, druids, polytheists, and other Pagans will discover an experiential guide to the foundations and practices of these deeply meaningful traditions.
For John Beckett, practicing Paganism means more than adopting a set of books, tools, and holidays. Practicing Paganism means cultivating a way of seeing the world and your place in it. It means challenging the assumptions of mainstream society, keeping those that prove true and helpful while discarding those that show themselves to be false. It means building a solid foundation from which you can explore the nature of the universe, the gods, your self, and your community while learning to strengthen your relationship with all of them.
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Review: ‘Earth’, by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Linda T. Elkins-Tanton
Publication Date: 9th May 2017
Published by: Bloomsbury Academic
Edition: Paperback
I.S.B.N.: 9781501317910
Price: $14.95
Blurb:
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
In Earth, a planetary scientist and a literary humanist explore what happens when we think of the Earth as an object viewable from space. As a “blue marble,” “a blue pale dot,” or, as Chaucer described it, “this litel spot of erthe,” the solitary orb is a challenge to scale and to human self-importance. Beautiful and self-contained, the Earth turns out to be far less knowable than it at first appears: its vast interior an inferno of incandescent and yet solid rock and a reservoir of water vaster than the ocean, a world within the world. Viewing the Earth from space invites a dive into the abyss of scale: how can humans apprehend the distances, the temperatures, and the time scale on which planets are born, evolve, and die?
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
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Review: ‘What Regency Women Did For Us’ by Rachel Knowles
Pub
lished by: Pen & Sword
Publication Date: 5th April 2017
ISBN: 9781473882249
Price: £10.39
Blurb
Regency women inhabited a very different world from the one in which we live today. Considered intellectually inferior to men, they received little education and had very few rights. This book tells the inspirational stories of twelve women, from very different backgrounds, who overcame often huge obstacles to achieve success. These women were pioneers, philanthropists and entrepreneurs, authors, scientists and actresses women who made an impact on their world and ours. In her debut non-fiction work, popular history blogger Rachel Knowles tells how each of these remarkable ladies helped change the world they lived in and whose legacy is still evident today. Two hundred years later, their stories are still inspirational.
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Review: ‘Lunatics, Imbeciles and Idiots’, by Katheryn Burtinshaw and Dr John Burt
Published by: Pen & Sword
Publication Date: 3rd April 2017
I.S.B.N.: 9781473879034
Price: £15.99
Click cover for link to publishers page.
As ever, I was sent this book in return for an honest review. Thanks to Alex and Pen & Sword for sending me the book.
Blurb
In the first half of the nineteenth-century treatment of the mentally ill in Britain and Ireland underwent radical change. No longer manacled, chained and treated like wild animals, patient care was defined in law and medical understanding, and treatment of insanity developed.
Focussing on selected cases, this new study enables the reader to understand how progressively advancing attitudes and expectations affected decisions, leading to better legislation and medical practice throughout the century. Specific mental health conditions are discussed in detail and the treatments patients received are analysed in an expert way. A clear view of why institutional asylums were established, their ethos for the treatment of patients, and how they were run as palaces rather than prisons giving moral therapy to those affected becomes apparent. The changing ways in which patients were treated, and altered societal views to the incarceration of the mentally ill, are explored. The book is thoroughly illustrated and contains images of patients and asylum staff never previously published, as well as first-hand accounts of life in a nineteenth-century asylum from a patients perspective.
Written for genealogists as well as historians, this book contains clear information concerning access to asylum records and other relevant primary sources and how to interpret their contents in a meaningful way.
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Everything Is Better With Dragons 