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Review schedule – May to September 2018

Hola peeps, it’s the end of April and this time for me to write the reviewing schedule for May. Except I’m starting my dissertation in a few days, so reviewing is taking a back seat. That doesn’t mean there won’t be reviews. Even I need a break from writing occasionally.

Which reminds me, Charley’s War is on to chapter 30 and is only half done. I’ll get there eventually.

So, what have I got booked in for the next few months?

Edit: It’s npw mid-July and some significant progress has been made with the dissertation so I’ve added some reviews to the schedule.

May

  • 6th
    • The Planetsider, by GJ Ogden
    • Alex is reviewing this one. since it’s a YA novel.

June

  • 1st
    • When The Water’s Recede, by Graham Smith
    • Crime novel
  • 20th
    • Tubing, by K.A. McKeagney
    • Crime thriller

July

  • 13th
    • The London Mysteries, books 1 & 2, by Alice Castle
    • Cosy crime set in modern London
  • 19th
    • Wrecker, by Noel O’Reilly
    • Historical fiction set in Cornwall
  • 27th
    • Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, by Gina Kirkham
    • Humour

August

  • 3rd
    • Duck Egg Blues, by Martin Ungless
    • Crime/sci-fi
  •  8th
    • The Cheesemaker’s House, by Jane Cable
    • This is to celebrate the novel’s fifth birthday
    • Mystery/women’s fiction (maybe, I’m not too sure)
  • 18th
    • Implant, by Ray Clark
    • Crime
  • 23rd
    • Love you Stationary
    • A children’s picture book
  • 24th
    • Tommy Twigtree
    • Also a picture book
  • There will also be a couple of promo posts this month:
  • 12th
    • Q&A about ‘The Bespokest Society Guide To London’
  • 14th
    • Promo post for ‘The Camberwell Calamity’, by Alice Castle
    • The London Mysteries #3 – Beth’s adventures continue… 

September – Nothing booked in so far.

It’s a bit spartan, I know and mostly crime, but I need to focus on my writing for a few months. As I said, there will be other, unscheduled reviews, because I have a pile of books waiting to be read.

 

 

 

Review: ‘Everybody Works in Sales’, by Niraj Kapur

Everybody Works In Sales - Cover Published By: Independently published

Format: Kindle and paperback

Price: £7.00

I.S.B.N.: 9781527219410

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blurb

We all work in sales. If you work for somebody, you earn a living by selling their product or service.

If you are self-employed, you earn a living by selling your product or service.

When you buy from Amazon, they always recommended other products similar to the ones you are purchasing or have already purchased – that’s selling.

When you download a song, movie or TV show from iTunes, they always recommend more similar products. That’s selling.

When you register for most websites, they sell their products or services to you through a regular email.

When you attend an exhibition at the NEC, London ExCel, Olympia, Manchester or even a local market, everyone is trying to sell you their product.

We all work in sales, yet few people know how to sell. Until now.

Containing 27 valuable lessons, plus 17 interviews with experts, Everybody Works in Sales combines unique storytelling and personal development to ensure you have the tools you need to do better in your career.

Purchase from Amazon: http://amzn.to/2ET89nn

Everybody Works In Sales - Niraj's business photo 2018About Niraj Kapur

​Award-winning executive, Niraj Kapur, has worked in corporate London for 23 years.

From small businesses to a national newspaper to FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies, he’s experienced it all and shares his insight, knowledge, big wins and horrible failures.

Containing 27 valuable lessons, plus 17 interviews with experts, Everybody Works in Sales combines unique storytelling and personal development to ensure you have the tools you need to do better in your career.

Niraj has also had several screenplays optioned, sitcoms commissioned, kids’ shows on Channel 5’s Milkshake and CBBC. His movie, Naachle London, was released in select cinemas across the UK.

He’s working on his next book while advising companies and coaching individuals on how to improve their sales.

@Nirajwriter

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/nkapur

Continue reading “Review: ‘Everybody Works in Sales’, by Niraj Kapur”

Book shopping and weekly uni update.

It’s student loan day, and therefore it is also book shopping day for me. This term I took a visit to my favourite independent book shop, Lindum Books, of Bailgate, Lincoln.

I made the decision to just get two books. I could have bought all the ones I wanted, but I definitely have to be more restrained and financially responsible at the moment. I’ve got an historical crime novel and a Sci Fi novel to get my teeth into.

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky is Lindum Books’ May ‘book of the month’ and I’m hoping to get to their evening book club, but it depends on finances, commitments and brain weasels. They also do a lot of author talks, which I can’t get to because of the train times. They all start at 7 pm and the last train is 20:02. Author of Beloved Poison, E. S. Thompson will be there in May, as will Joanne Harris, The gospel of Loki author, with her follow up novel. It’s so frustrating.

I had a ‘walking workshop’ this morning and my hip is terribly painful, so I’ve blown off the 4 – 6 pm seminar to get an early train home where I can rest. During the workshop we walked through the city centre and up to The Collection, a museum. I’ve been several times. It wasn’t the most challenging of days, except physically.

The most important thing I got out of it was a chance to sit and discuss the future with one of my course colleagues, who is interested in a PhD, as am I. First I need to get a distinction in my Masters degree, but still, it’s interesting to talk to someone else who has similar ambitions.

Next week is our symposium, I will be presenting my dissertation proposal. I have made some notes for it, so I’m as prepared as I get.

St.George’s Day? I prefer Shakespeare’s Birthday.

And it comes round once again, the day every English bigot loves, an excuse to wave flags and be openly racist. Although, to be fair to them, they’re usually openly racist anyway. I’m certain there are some people who ardently celebrate St. George’s Day who aren’t bigots, but they’re drowned out by the noisy, ignorant ones. Continue reading “St.George’s Day? I prefer Shakespeare’s Birthday.”

Bonus Review #2: ‘Conan Doyle For The Defence’, by Margalit Fox

Published by: Profile Books

Publication Date: 28th June 2018

Format: Hardback

I.S.B.N.: 9781781253564

Price: £16.99

Received via Netgalley in return for an honest review

 

 

 

Blurb

Arthur and George meets The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: how the creator of Sherlock Holmes overturned one of the great miscarriages of justice.

Just before Christmas 1908, Marion Gilchrist, a wealthy 82-year-old spinster, was found bludgeoned to death in her Glasgow home. A valuable diamond brooch was missing, and police soon fastened on a suspect – Oscar Slater, a Jewish immigrant who was rumoured to have a disreputable character. Slater had an alibi, but was nonetheless convicted and sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment in the notorious Peterhead Prison.

Seventeen years later, a convict called William Gordon was released from Peterhead. Concealed in a false tooth was a message, addressed to the only man Slater thought could help him – Arthur Conan Doyle. Always a champion of the downtrodden, Conan Doyle turned his formidable talents to freeing Slater, deploying a forensic mind worthy of Sherlock Holmes.

Drawing from original sources including Oscar Slater’s prison letters, this is Margalit Fox’s vivid and compelling account of one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in Scottish history.

Continue reading “Bonus Review #2: ‘Conan Doyle For The Defence’, by Margalit Fox”

Review: ‘The Cubit Quest’, by Trevor Leck

Cubit 3.2

Published By: Clink Street Publishing

Publication Date: 2nd March 2017

I.S.B.N.: 978-1911525271

Format: Paperback

Price: £9.99

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blurb

Twelve-year-old Charlie Watkins could have inherited his dad’s massive intellect.
He got his massive feet instead.

Perhaps if Charlie had that intellect he might have been able to figure out why so many men in suits were suddenly following him or where his dad hid the Cubit – a mythical object that men have sworn to protect and even more have died trying to possess – before his so-called accident.

If starting yet another new school wasn’t bad enough, Charlie meets Mr Leopold, a disfigured, mind-reading lunatic and discovers that he alone must find the Cubit if he is to save his dad. The Brotherhood, however, have other ideas. Led by the ruthless Draganovic, they will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. With the help of Mr Leopold and fellow new boy Elvis, Charlie sets out on The Cubit Quest.

Hunting for the Cubit, playing football, lessons with the dreaded Funeral Face and unsuccessfully avoiding school bully Grimshaw by day, Charlie finds his nights no less complicated. Stalked in his dreams, he’s soon immersed in a world of power struggles, battling dragons and duels to the death. With the Brotherhood hot on his heels and as the bullets begin to fly, there are no guarantees that Charlie, or anyone else, will make it to the end in one piece.

Purchase from Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N12WKPG/

Continue reading “Review: ‘The Cubit Quest’, by Trevor Leck”

Review: ‘The Book of Air’, by Joe Treasure

 

Published By: Clink Street Publishing

Joe Treasure Final front cover only

Publication Date: 4th April 2017

I.S.B.N.:  978-1911525097

Format: Paperback

Price: £8.99

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blurb

Retreating from an airborne virus with a uniquely unsettling symptom, property developer Jason escapes London for his country estate, where he is forced to negotiate a new way of living with an assortment of fellow survivors.

Far in the future, an isolated community of descendants continue to farm this same estate. Among their most treasured possessions are a few books, including a copy of Jane Eyre, from which they have constructed their hierarchies, rituals and beliefs. When 15-year-old Agnes begins to record the events of her life, she has no idea what consequences will follow. Locked away for her transgressions, she escapes to the urban ruins and a kind of freedom, but must decide where her future lies.

These two stories interweave, illuminating each other in unexpected ways and offering long vistas of loss, regeneration and wonder.

The Book of Air is a story of survival, the shaping of memory and the enduring impulse to find meaning in a turbulent world.

 Continue reading “Review: ‘The Book of Air’, by Joe Treasure”

Review: ‘Ape Mind, Old Mind, New Mind’, by John V. Wylie, M.D.

36668818Published By: BookBaby

Publication Date: 1st January 2018

I.S.B.N.: 9781543919370

Format: Paperback

Price: £11.62

 

 

 

 

 

Blurb

Ape Mind, Old Mind, New Mind is a personal memoir by a psychiatrist who gradually discovers from his patient’s descriptions of their mental illnesses that human motivations have been evolved over millions of years for productive engagement rather than competitive fitness. A new uplifting and spiritual view of human nature emerges that is not only consistent with the science of human evolution, but also opens up a simple explanation for such ancient mysteries as self-awareness, reflective thought, and the vast complexity of language.
All other books about the evolution of emotion approach it from the “outside” as an object; this book is about the biological evolution of the “inside” experience of emotion-and-motivation, which can only be known empathetically.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Ape Mind, Old Mind, New Mind’, by John V. Wylie, M.D.”

Review: ‘When I Grow Up’, by Patricia Asedegbega

When I Grow Up

 

 

 

 

Blurb

“You need a plan B,” said Alicia’s mother when at five years old she told her what she wanted to be when she grew up. Thirty odd years later, Alicia is on plan D: sharing a flat, no tangible savings, and working for hateful Julia, whose sole purpose in life is to make her existence utterly miserable. Good thing she has Oscar and the girls to make the long hours at work bearable. But when a series of events tears the close-knit group apart, putting friendships and motives under suspicion, will Alicia be able to restore balance and set things right? More importantly, will she ever be able to upgrade her life to at least plan C?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Author of I stand corrected, When I grow up…, Rewind, Balou uncensored, Bienvenidos a gatos anónimos, Pasarse cuatro Pueblos and Sesenta segundos dan para mucho, Patricia Asedegbega Nieto was born to a Spanish mother and a Nigerian father in Madrid. As a child, she relocated with her family to Nigeria and later returned to Spain, where she acquired her BSc and master´s degree. She is currently living near Madrid with her family and her very stubborn cat, Merlin Mojito.

http://www.patriciascorner.co.uk/

Twitter @Patricias_Place 

Continue reading “Review: ‘When I Grow Up’, by Patricia Asedegbega”