And use the intelligence you were born with.
Lurching ever rightwards – http://wp.me/p5MCkF-3Z6
Category Archives: Non-fiction
Review: The Radium Girls, by Kate Moore
Published by: Sourcebooks
Publication date: 1st May 2017
I.S.B.N.: 9781492649359
Format: Hardback
Price: £20.89
Blurb
The incredible true story of the young women exposed to the “wonder” substance of radium and their brave struggle for justice…
As World War I raged across the globe, hundreds of young women toiled away at the radium-dial factories, where they painted clock faces with a mysterious new substance called radium. Assured by their bosses that the luminous material was safe, the women themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered from head to toe with the glowing dust. With such a coveted job, these “shining girls” were considered the luckiest alive—until they began to fall mysteriously ill. As the fatal poison of the radium took hold, they found themselves embroiled in one of America’s biggest scandals and a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights.
A rich, historical narrative written in a sparkling voice, The Radium Girls is the first book that fully explores the strength of extraordinary women in the face of almost impossible circumstances and the astonishing legacy they left behind.
Kate Moore is a Sunday Times best selling writer with more than a decade’s experience writing and ghosting across varying genres, including memoir, biography, and history. In 2005 she directed a critically acclaimed play about the Radium Girls called ‘These Shining Lives.’ She lives in the UK.
My Review
What an absolutely fascinating story!
I’ve heard of the Radium Girls, women who worked painting dials for various companies in the U.S. who were killed by the radium they were injesting and the callousness of the companies they worked for. This book provides the human stories of the women, their suffering and their battle for justice, utilising letters, photo albums, the memories of family and friends and documentation such as newspapers and legal papers. The story of these women is inspiring and the author does an excellent job of telling it.
I may have cried somewhat.
Definitely recommended.
Review: Strange History, by Bathroom Reader’s Institute
Published by: Portable Press
Publication Date: 14th June 2016
Format: Paperback
Price: $15.99
I.S.B.N.: 9781626865839
Blurb
From the 20th century to the Old West, from the Age of Enlightenment to the Dark Ages, from ancient cultures all the way back to the dawn of time,Strange History is overflowing with mysterious artifacts, macabre legends, kooky inventions, reality-challenged rulers, boneheaded blunders, and mind-blowing facts. Read about…
*The curse of Macbeth
*Stupid history: Hollywood style
*The secret LSD experiments of the 1960s
*In search of the lost “Cloud People” of Peru
*The Swedish queen who declared war on fleas
*Unearthing the past with the Outhouse Detectives
*The Apollo astronaut who swears he saw a UFO
*How to brew a batch of 5,000-year-old beer
*The brutal bloodbaths at Rome’s Coliseum
*Ghostly soup from ancient China
*The bathroom of the 1970s
And much, much more
My Review
Honestly, if this was supposed to be a humorous look at history I was only mildly amused. I only laughed a couple of times in the whole book. It’s a book that is part of a series covering strange facts. I can’t say I’d buy any of them if this one was an example.
There were errors, most obviously the whole section on Easter, which aggravated me particularly because every year someone spouts the bunnies and Eostre nonsense (there are no surviving myths) claiming it’s all ancient mythology and then I have to hit them with a copy of Ecclesiastical History (The Venerable Bede) and again with Teutonic Mythology (The Grimms), until they shut up. A book claiming to be about (the funny side of) history needs to be better than rehashing debunked rubbish. I may be being picky, but referring to the English and Welshmen who made up the armies of the Hundred Year’s War as ‘British’ is a misnomer; until about 150 years ago ‘Britain’ and ‘British’ referred to pre-Roman people or the island specifically. The British didn’t fight the French during the Hundred Year’s War, the English did, and the Welsh were recruited for their bows. There was some pretty complex politics involved.
And Joan of Arc heard voices because she was eating rye bread infected with ergot.
*bashes head against wall*
I’m sorry, I hadn’t realised how much this book irritated me. I like funny history books, the world can be a funny place amd history more so because the past is so alien, but funny, accurate history is preferred, at least by me.
Not recommended, although if you want a mildly amusing time when you defecate, this might do the job. I can think of better bog reading though.
Review: The Dark Side of East London, by David Charnick
Published by: Pen & Sword
Publication Date: 30th September 2016
Format: Hardcover
Price: £19.99
I.S.B.N.: 9781473856448
Blurb
Just hearing the phrase ‘the East End’ summons up images of slums and dark alleyways, with Jack the Ripper appearing from the mist, or housing estates and pubs where you might find the Kray twins. It is a place of poverty and menace, yet these images can prevent us from seeing the reality of life east of the City of London, and of its dark history. This study features stories of crimes and misdeeds that show what life was like in this area before the ‘East End’ existed. They also reflect the changes caused as the settlements of the Tower Hamlets became absorbed by the new metropolis of London.
As there is nothing new under the sun, so these stories find their modern counterparts in our times. However, they also take us into unfamiliar territory as they bring to light the often forgotten past that underlies the present-day streets and lurks behind the façades of some of the area’s older buildings. Many of the stories will be unfamiliar and indeed strange, but yet they show how the character and notoriety of the City’s famous shadow has been formed. Paying scrupulous attention to place, this volume features a wealth of specially-commissioned photographs, allowing the reader to locate these stories in the present-day London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
My Review
This volume concentrates on a specific part of London, the East End, exploring it’s past as the city spread out and swallowed up the hamlets and fields east of the Tower. Rioting, thefts, murders and child abuse (by a vicar, no less), all feature in this book, as well as a description of how the scenes of these events have changed since the crimes took place.
The information is interesting and I definitely want to learn more about the weavers riots in Spitalfield, but the execution left something to be desired. The text reads like a tour guide trying to hard to be entertaining while they’re leading you round the town. It might be for dramatic effect, but it doesn’t work. There’s something a little unprofessional about it.
2/5
Review: Origins, by Frank H. T. Rhodes
Published by: Cornell University Press
Publication Date: 6th Septhember 2016
Format: Hardback
Price: £22 (approx.)
I.S.B.N.: 9781501702440
Review: The Tudor Murder Files, by James Moore
Published by: Pen & Sword History
Publication Date: 30th September 2016
I.S.B.N.:9781473857032
Format: Paperback
Price: £14.99
Blurb
In the Tudor age the murder rate was five times higher than it is today. Now, in this unique true crime guide, the Tudor Murder Files reveals just how bloody and brutal this fascinating era really was.
From the dark days of Henry VIII to the turbulent times of Shakespeare, James Moore’s new book is the first to chart the period’s most gripping murder cases in all their grizzly detail. Featuring tales of domestic slaughter, sexual intrigue and cunning assassinations, as well as murder mysteries worthy of Agatha Christie, the book vividly brings to life the violent crime wave that gripped the 16th century both at home and abroad. Enter a world in which stabbings were rife, guns were used to kill victims for the first time and in which culprits frequently escaped justice.
The book also reveals just how severe some of the penalties could be, with gruesome punishments for those who dared to commit the gravest of crimes. Discover how one murderer was gruesomely ‘pressed to death’, another boiled alive for poisoning his victims and meet some of history’s most notorious serial killers, including one considered so barbaric she was labelled a vampire.
MY REVIEW
An interesting book covering well-known and less well-known murders of the Tudor era. With as much detail as possible, and relying on pamphlets printed at the time, this book explores a more violent age where death was a constant threat and policing nonexistent.
Review: Mary Ann Cotton – Dark Angel; Britain’s First Female Serial Killer, by Martin Connelly
Published by: Pen & Sword History
Published: 1st August 2016
ISBN: 9781473876200
Format: Paperback
Price: £10.39 (from publisher)
Usual disclaimer: book provided in return for an honest review.
Review: The Long, Long Life of Trees, by Fiona Stafford
Published by: Yale University Press
Publication Date: 2nd August 2016 (UK), 27th September 2016 (USA)
Price: Hardback – £11.89 (UK), $30.00 (USA); Kindle – £11.30 (UK)
I.S.B.N.: 9780300207330
Continue reading “Review: The Long, Long Life of Trees, by Fiona Stafford”
Local Authors Reviewed: Part One
As you may remember, a few weeks ago I went to a local authors event to do some networking and get opinions on the best self-publishing platform and was given four books by local authors to review. Here are the first three.
As always, I received these in return for honest reviews. I am going to be very honest. Sorry.
Selected Poems, by Michael Nilsen (poetry)
Published by: Matador
Publication Date: October 2015
ISBN: 9781784624705
Price:£9.99
A collection of poems written over a 22 year period and covering a range of themes including nature, autobiography and surrealism.
My Review
The nature poems were the most affecting and well-written, with great imagination. Unfortunately most of the poems didn’t move me all that much although they could have a different effect on other people. Poetry is subjective like that.
The Crooked Link, by David Evardson (General adult fiction)
Published by:Self-published
Publication date: 2016
ISBN: 9781522901259
Price:Unknown
Stanley is a crook, a crook who happens to have stolen money from an even bigger crook in London. When he turns up in Cleethorpes with a plan to buy a house, if he can sell his London flat first. A chain of buyers and sellers build but the chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link, and this link is crooked.
My Review
The plot is good but the execution needs work. It feels like a first novel even though the author has written several books before. It doesn’t quite ring true enough to become immersed in the plot, although the attempt at local dialect is good.
Marikka, by Sam Hawksmoor (children’s fiction)
Published by: Hammer & Tong UK
Publication Date: 2015
ISBN: 9781511994224
Price: Unknown
Marikka flees from an arson attack on her home to the sea, where she meets Mika – a runaway working for a sinister, scarred man hiding from the world. Meanwhile her father, long thought dead, searches for her with the aide of ‘the girl who can read objects’.
My Review
The plot reminds me of an Enid Blyton novel that has been modernised, including the sinister, mysterious villains and the evil step-father. I really quite enjoyed it and I admit to bawling like a baby at end. I liked the main characters, the plot was good, the chapter titles funny and the writing fluent. There were editing errors, e.g. instance instead of instant, minor things I had to parse to get the gist of the sentence but nothing that a re-edit won’t fix. Definitely a good one for the young teenager before they move on to more challenging books.
I have just one other book to read, For the love of Emily by Joy Wood. I haven’t started it yet but I will soon. The books are piling up again on my to be read list. I’ve been working on craft projects and writing assignments. Before I start University at the end of September I want to get the non-fiction assignments of my Writer’s Bureau course completed. I’m almost done, I have one task left to do on the final non-fiction assignment, and I shall tackle that tomorrow.
For those following the Saga of the Bath, finally today, after nine and a half weeks, the landlord sent a plumber to replace the old bath with a shiny new one. Or, I should say, the letting’s agent did. I intend to wallow in that thing tomorrow morning.
Reviews, as promised :D
Two book reviews for you today, they’re not very long because it’s way too hot and muggy, and I’m still recovering from Paris.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 