Book Reviews – Page 46 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Review: Keeper, by Johanna Gustawsson, translated by Maxim Jakubowski

38468901. sy475 — Whitechapel, 1888: London is bowed under Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror.

London 2015: actress Julianne Bell is abducted in a case similar to the terrible Tower Hamlets murders of some ten years earlier, and harking back to the Ripper killings of a century before.

Falkenberg, Sweden, 2015: a woman’s body is found mutilated in a forest, her wounds identical to those of the Tower Hamlets victims.

Profiler Emily Roy and true-crime writer Alexis Castells again find themselves drawn into an intriguing case, with personal links that turn their world upside down.

Published April 28th 2018 by Orenda Books (first published March 15th 2017)
Original Title: Mör
ISBN:1912374056
ISBN13: 9781912374052
Edition Language: English
URL : http://orendabooks.co.uk/book/keeper/
Series
Emily Roy & Alexis Castells #2

My Review

So, today I’m reviewing the second Emily Roy & Alexis Castells novel, and introducing Alienor, who I adored when I read Blood Song.

This book is as twisted as the first novel, Block 46, and just as tightly plotted. We learn more about Emily and Alexis, their backgrounds and neuroses. The Whitechapel Murders of 1888 were tenuously linked to the investigation as the background for the abusive family history of the murderers. The modern murders are confusing until you get to the revelations later on. The betrayal at the end was an unexpected twist but made the whole book make sense.

As with books 1 and 3, Gustawsson alternates between the investigation and the personal history of the murderers. I like the insight I got into the background to the crimes but was frustrated that I didn’t put the clues together. I’m not very good at that, clearly.

Another fantastic book from Gustawsson and Orenda.

Review: Block 46, by Johanna Gustawsson, translated Maxim Jakobowski

34734963. sy475 — In Falkenberg, Sweden, the mutilated body of talented young jewelry designer Linnea Blix is found in a snow-swept marina. In Hampstead Heath, London, the body of a young boy is discovered with similar wounds to Linnea’s. Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 1944. In the midst of the hell of the Holocaust, Erich Hebner will do anything to see himself as a human again. Are the two murders the work of a serial killer, and how are they connected to shocking events at Buchenwald? Emily Roy, a profiler on loan to Scotland Yard from the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, joins up with Linnea’s friend, French true-crime writer Alexis Castells, to investigate the puzzling case. They travel between Sweden and London, and then deep into the past, as a startling and terrifying connection comes to light.

Paperback, 300 pages
Published October 1st 2017 by Orenda Books (first published February 5th 2017)
ISBN:1910633704
ISBN13: 9781910633700
Series
Emily Roy & Alexis Castells #1

My Review

Last year I reviewed Blood Song, the third book in the Emily Roy & Alexis Castells series. It was so good that I ordered the first two and I’ve just read them so I’m reviewing both, but in separate posts. Today it is book 1, Block 46. Tomorrow I will review Keeper.

This was a rather fantastic novel, linking events in Buchenwald Concentration Camp (where the author’s grandfather had been a prisoner for being a French Communist?/Resistance member) and murders in modern Falkenburg, Sweden and London, UK.

The main characters are introduced, although it is clear they have a past relationship and complex personal histories. Their backgrounds and personalities are slowly revealed. Emily Roy could be an unsympathetic character but for the pieces of vulnerability Gustawsson reveals in the narrative. I wasn’t sure about Alexis Castells, she seemed very self-involved, although that changed as I read, again her past was revealed in little bites that made her more understandable. They are both very complex, slightly damaged characters.

The plot was sufficiently twisted that I didn’t see the truth coming, even though the clues were there, looking back. I enjoyed the way the life of the criminals and the investigation intertwined throughout the novel, shifting between perspectives and giving clues to the reader while still hiding the truth. It didn’t feel contrived that a writer and a profiler would know each other or become involved in the investigation (even if I personally have reservations about the scientific validity of profiling) or that they would both end up in Sweden.

It was fascinating to learn about the Buchenwald Camp via fiction, I didn’t know that the prisoners and International Resistance had cached weapons and fought the SS as the Allied Forces got closer to them. I wonder how many SS officers escaped by pretending to be prisoners? *shudder*

Not having read the original novel, because my French is not great and Swedish non-existent, I can’t comment on the translation’s fidelity, but Karen Sullivan, who runs Orenda Books, wouldn’t allow a dodgy translation so I’m going to run with it being accurate.

I highly recommend this book, and the series actually, Also, the publisher, who is an absolute delight.

Review: ‘Bella’, by R.M. Francis

Blurb
A spectre has haunted Netherton for generations.
Everyone has a theory, no one has an answer.
The woods that frame the housing estate uncover a series of heinous acts, drawing onlookers in to a space of clandestine, queer sexuality: a liminal space of abject and uncanny experience.
A question echoes in the odd borderlands of being, of fear-fascination, attraction-repulsion, of sex and death…
Who put Bella down the Wych-Elm?

Review: Health At Every Size, by Linda Bacon Ph.D

7890166 — Fat isn’t the problem. Dieting is the problem. A society that rejects anyone whose body shape or size doesn’t match an impossible ideal is the problem. A medical establishment that equates “thin” with “healthy” is the problem.
The solution?

Health at Every Size.

Tune in to your body’s expert guidance. Find the joy in movement. Eat what you want, when you want, choosing pleasurable foods that help you to feel good. You too can feel great in your body right now—and *Health at Every Size* will show you how.

*Health at Every Size* has been scientifically proven to boost health and self-esteem. The program was evaluated in a government-funded academic study, its data published in well-respected scientific journals.

Updated with the latest scientific research and even more powerful messages, *Health at Every Size* is not a diet book, and after reading it, you will be convinced the best way to win the war against fat is to give up the fight.

Paperback, 374 pages
Published: March 23rd 2010 by BenBella Books
(first published October 11th 2008)
Original Title
Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth about Your Weight
ISBN:1935618253
ISBN13: 9781935618256
Edition Language: English
URL:http://www.haesbook.org/

My Review

I bought this book out of interest, having been a fat person for most of my life and tried diets multiple times that worked temporarily. I’d lose a couple of stone then plateau before starting to increase again. And before I knew it I’d be back to my old weight. In the last year I’ve put on 10 kg. The nurse has got grumpy with me, I’ve returned to the Wellbeing Service Health Trainer I was seeing three years ago (at least), and she’s referred me to Thrive. I have to fill in a food diary and track everything. It’s already screwing with my head. I’m trying not to restrict but I’m struggling with it. I want to get fitter, my weight will do what it will.

I read this book with interest. Linda Bacon is a good writer and she makes the science understandable. The first half of the book is about the science, which shows that restrictive dieting may actually trigger the body’s anti-starvation mechanisms, making the dieter obsessed with food and binge. She discusses the social and political pressures around body size and health.

The basic idea is that rather than restricting food and exercising as punishment for eating, people should try to listen to their body, eat when they’re hungry and move in ways that feel good. The book tries to help the reader with that. It’s very easy to read, and full of information. Many will find it challenging because it questions everything we’re told about weight and health.

The book is US-centric and doesn’t discuss disability in respect to health and food. It also assumes the reader is in a stable living situation where they can afford and cook ‘real’ food. At times it comes off as a bit preachy.

If you’re struggling with your weight, sick of feeling a failure because the diets don’t work, try reading this book.

Review: ‘Vile’, by Keith Crawford

Elianor Paine is a Magistrate of the Peace in the Kingdom of Trist and a republican secret agent. She has 6 days to subvert her investigation, supplant war-hero Lord Vile, then coerce his adult children to start a revolution, before her masters discover the truth and have her killed. Just how far is she willing to go? And can she change the world without changing herself?

https://amzn.to/2qNDyll

Review: Killing Beauties, by Pete Langman

23 January 2020 | Unbound | Paperback | £9.99 | #KillingBeauties
ISBN: 978-1-78965-065-5

England, 1655. Following the brutal civil wars the country swelters under a cloud of paranoia, suspicion and the
burgeoning threat of rebellion. With the fragile peace being won by Cromwell’s ever-efficient Secretary of State John
Thurloe, the exiled king Charles Stuart sends two spies on a dangerous mission to wrest back the initiative. These spies
are different, however: they are women. Their task? To turn Parliament’s spymaster into their unwitting accomplice.
Killing Beauties is a dark tale of subterfuge, jealousy and betrayal.
It is sometimes said that women are written out of history, but often they are not yet written in. Killing Beauties is based
on the true stories of two female spies from the 1650s and gives them the voice that only fiction can. Pete Langman.

Review: Let’s Spill the Beans, by Benjamin Di Marc

Are you looking for the right sustainable healthy diet, but you are struggling between all these popular starry-eyed plan meals? Do you want to know what really matters? Well… just keep reading!
Time is up.
You need to start to keep care of yourself, and this time is for real.
Maybe you have already tried different diets, from the strictest to the most flexible but nothing… it is impossible to stand some paper that tells you what to eat and what to avoid.
You are also starting to think that maybe the key to everything could be just healthier eating, but what really does that mean?
According to the NCBI, 50-70% of Americans are trying to lose weight and eat healthily, but at the same time, obesity in the country is skyrocketing, reaching one-third of the population inexorably.
Isn’t it so clear the importance of choosing a right and sustainable diet?
In Let’s Spill The Beans you will discover:
 What are the hidden secrets behind the most lifelong communities of the world
 Which is the key factor for a real healthy eating
 What all the gurus never told you about diets
 false myths about food that are trying to confuse you
 How you can achieve your weight loss goals in a sustainable and enjoyable way
 Why the most popular diets have been developed
 Pros and cons of the trend diets
 How my life-changing spreadsheet will be your best pal for achieving your dream shape
 My weekly meal plan suggestion
It is not the ordinary diet book where I tell you “what you eat and what to avoid, period.” Because remember, the real key for achieving your goals is not knowing just how you have to do it, but why you are doing it. Only with the right knowledge, everything will be natural and straightforward for you then, and you will stay easily focused on your goals.

Review: The Museum of Second Chances, By AE Warren (Tomorrow’s Ancestors Book 1)

The Museum of Second Chances

What happens when the future recaptures the past?

In a post-apocalyptic world the human race has evolved beyond us through genetic engineering – and we’ve been left behind to make amends for the damage inflicted on the earth.

The reversal of the extinction of long lost animals is key to our reparations and all of these are housed in the Museum of Evolution – along with another species of human that hasn’t existed for 30,000 years.

Elise belongs to the lowest order of humans, the Sapiens. She lives in an ostracised community of ecological houses, built to blend with an idyllic landscape. Deciding to widen her stagnating life in the manufacturing base, she takes a chance opportunity to become a Companion to a previously extinct species of human.

But Elise has secrets of her own that threaten to be exposed now that she is away from the safety of her home. And while living in the museum, Elise realises that little separates her from the other exhibits…

Purchase Link – http://mybook.to/TMOSC

Book Post!

Just had my post delivered. It was all books for blog tours. I’ll be reviewing Bella by R. M. Francis later this month, and a month later The Coronation by Justin Newland.

Thanks to the authors, publishers and blog tour organiser, Love Books Tours.

Unexpected Review: The Peasants’ Revolting Crimes, by Terry Deary

My Review

Thanks to Rosie Crofts at Pen & Sword for sending me this book. I’m making my way through my book backlog while trying to keep up with my blog tour commitments.

It’s popular history, so don’t expect in-depth discussion of the crimes or events covered in the book. The author has a rather broad definition of ‘peasant’. A peasant is:

a person who owns or rents a small piece of land and grows crops, keeps animals, etc. on it, especially one who has a low income, very little education, and a low social position. This is usually used of someone who lived in the past or of someone in a poor country
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/peasant

Deary’s broader definition seems to be broadened to ‘a person with a low income and a low social position’. So long as they don’t have land and extensive income or property, the author classes them as a peasant.

The author covers the period from the Norman Conquest to the late-eighteenth century. The crimes are everything from petty theft to forgery, murder and revolt. This book is sometimes humorous and it was good for dipping in and out of. It did keep me amused (even when I had to correct minor things) and it is an easy to read book that builds on Deary’s ‘Horrible Histories’ books. It has a similar format to those books, with the era chapters sub-divided by crime, which makes it easy to find specific crimes in specific eras. Deary uses quotes judiciously to support the text.

Probably a good one for children interested in history who have read all the ‘Horrible Histories’.