Everything Is Better With Dragons
Book blogger, Autistic, Probably a Dragon
May 2014. Sierra Leone is ranked the country with the highest death rate of pregnant women in the world. The same month, Ebola crosses in from neighbouring Guinea. Arriving a few weeks later, Dr Benjamin Black finds himself at the centre of an exponential Ebola outbreak.
From impossible decisions on the maternity ward to moral dilemmas at the Ebola Treatment Centres. One mistake, one error of judgment, could spell disaster.
Publication date: 25th August 2022
Category: Fiction
Print RRP: £11.99
Print ISBN: 978-1-913109-90-5
Paperback: 198 x 129 mm
E-book RRP: £6.99
E-book ISBN: 978-1-913109-96-7
Blurb
The narrator, Mwana, is a young man from Bantuland, living in Geneva. A
graduate from a Swiss university, we first encounter Mwana waiting for a bus in the hills of Lugano gazing at a poster calling for “black sheep” to be sent home. Mwana’s efforts to find work are fruitless until he lands an internship in an NGO campaigning against racial discrimination. The team is busy organising a demonstration against the black sheep poster.
Mwana has one foot in each culture. He sees Swiss society through African eyes, with all its contradictions: its moderation, stunning landscapes and its eccentricities, but also its intolerance and inflexibility. He also casts a critical eye on his native Africa, the weight of its traditions and beliefs. Is belonging nowhere the price Mwana has to pay for these insights?
Sad and playful Does Snow Turn a Person White Inside? is a moving
reflection on the immigrant experience.
Rosemarie’s Note: This was going to be a review, but the book didn’t arrive in time, so promo post instead. The book arrived on Monday, I’m reading it and will review it as soon as possible. I’m about 23% of the way through the book.
I’m disappointed, I was looking forward to sharing this book with you. It’s not the fault of the blog tour organiser, but probably a delay at the publisher’s end. These things happen, unfortunately.
Author Biography:
Max Lobe was born in Douala, Cameroon. At eighteen he moved to Switzerland, where he earned a BA in communication and journalism
and a master’s in public policy and administration. In 2017, his novel Confidences won the Ahmadou Kourouma Prize. Other books by the
author include 39 Rue de Berne and A Long Way From Douala published by Small Axes in 2021. Max Lobe lives in Geneva.
Summary
Join a hunt for lost witch treasure, in an enchanting adventure story of storms, spells, and the magic of the natural world, from bestselling and award-winning Tim Tilley.
Will believes in witches and the stories he’s grown up with – of mythical storm-lions, disappearing villages, and secret songs. Most of all, he believes the tales of magical treasure hidden in the Fens centuries ago. Treasure that he has to find, to solve the mystery of his Ma’s disappearance.
Then, in the eye of a storm, a witch arrives. She holds the key to finding the lost treasure – a powerful magical object that can summon storms. But someone else is searching for it too. If it falls into the wrong hands, Will’s beloved home could be destroyed, and with it, his chances of ever finding his ma.
Join Will on an epic quest filled with riddles, ruined towers, cloud cities and broomstick chases, on a journey to save everything he loves before time runs out.
Blurb
1899, Belle Époque Paris. Lucienne’s two daughters are believed dead
when her mansion burns to the ground, but she is certain that her girls
are still alive and embarks on a journey into the depths of the spiritualist
community to find them.
1949, Post-War Québec. Teenager Lina’s father has died in the French
Resistance, and as she struggles to fit in at school, her mother introduces
her to an elderly woman at the asylum where she works, changing Lina’s
life in the darkest way imaginable.
2002, Quebec. A former schoolteacher is accused of brutally stabbing her
husband – a famous university professor – to death. Detective Maxine
Grant, who has recently lost her own husband and is parenting a
teenager and a new baby single-handedly, takes on the investigation.
Under enormous personal pressure, Maxine makes a series of macabre
discoveries that link directly to historical cases involving black magic and
murder, secret societies and spiritism … and women at breaking point,
who will stop at nothing to protect the ones
Blurb
The end of empire in the island of Great Britain was both more abrupt and more complete than in any of the other European Roman provinces. When the fog clears and Britain re-enters the historical record, it is, unlike other former European provinces of the Western Empire, dominated by a new culture that speaks a language that is neither Roman nor indigenous British Brythonic and with a pagan religion that owes nothing to Romanitas or native British practices.
Other ex-Roman provinces of the Western Empire in Europe showed two consistent features conspicuously absent from the lowlands of Britain: the dominant language was derived from the local Vulgar Latin and the dominant religion was a Christianity that looked towards Rome. This leads naturally to the question: ‘what was different about Britannia?’ A further anomaly in our understanding lies in the significant dating mismatch between historical and archaeological data of the Germanic migrations, and the latest genetic evidence. The answer to England’s unique early history may lie in resolving this paradox.
John Lambshead summarizes the latest data gathered by historians, archaeologists, climatologists and biologists and synthesizes it all into a fresh new explanation.
Continue reading “Review: The Fall of Roman Britain – and why we speak English, by John Lambshead”
Blurb
Astronauts are dying on the first crewed mission to Mars. Is it bad luck, or something far more sinister?
An international mission to search for life on Mars meets heated opposition from the religious right in the USA. Astronaut Hattie Fredericks’ dreams are realised when she is selected for the voyage, but her presence on the Starship coincides with a series of incidents which threaten to derail the mission.
After a near-miss while landing on Mars, the world watches as Hattie and the crew struggle to survive. But worse than the harsh elements are her suspicions that someone is trying to destroy the mission. After several crew members die, Hattie doesn’t know who to trust. And her only allies are 35 million miles away.
As the tension ratchets up, violence and suspicion invade both worlds.
Will Hattie discover life on Mars, or die trying?
Buy Links
Continue reading “Review: Mortal Mission, by Pip Skinner”
The small community of Akranes is devastated when a young man dies in a
mysterious house fire, and when Detective Elma and her colleagues from
West Iceland CID discover the fire was arson, they become embroiled in an
increasingly perplexing case involving multiple suspects. What’s more, the
dead man’s final online search raises fears that they could be investigating
not one murder, but two.
A few months before the fire, a young Dutch woman takes a job as an au pair in Iceland, desperate to make a new life for herself after the death of her father. But the seemingly perfect family who employs her turns out to have problems of its own and she soon discovers she is running out of people to turn to.
As the police begin to home in on the truth, Elma, already struggling to
come to terms with a life-changing event, finds herself in mortal danger as it becomes clear that someone has secrets they’ll do anything to hide…
All the adults are freaking out. Giant monsters are smashing up supermarkets across the country. The army can’t stop them and the prime minister is hiding in panic. A colossal six-headed gingerbread man, a massive emoji poo, a gigantic bouncing bum… Top scientists have no idea where they come from – or why they seem to hate supermarkets so much. But nine-year-old Otis has an idea. The creatures are exactly the same as drawings by his five-year-old brother, Jago: what if Jago brought his crazy creations to life with a magic pen? But their parents won’t listen, so it’s up to Otis and his pals to sort this monster mess out!
My Review
Thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic Tours for organising this tour, and the author and publisher for sending me a copy of this book. I was a little worried it wouldn’t arrive on time but it did on Thursday. I think I read it Thursday evening.
Monsters are attacking Rottingdean, and all the adults are going a bit mad. It’s up to Otis, Jago and their friends to find out where the monsters are coming from and stop them. Their adventures are hilarious as they dodge monsters, soldiers and their Dad, who keeps running into walls. They outwit the adults, defeat the monsters and get covered in chocolate.
At 157 pages with illustrations and a couple of paragraphs a page, it’s not a long read, but for a young child it would be a good starter book, once they’ve moved beyond picture books. Six to nine year olds will love this book. They will also learn about the damage our government has done to libraries. The book was written during lockdown to help Lloyd Jones’ sons cope with the pandemic through humour. The illustrations of the increasingly frantic prime minister in his bunker were particularly pointed.
The group of friends are a balanced group, characters who bounce off each others’ silliness and manage to work well together to solve a problem. I liked the depiction of the people at the care home having lives beyond their status as old people waiting for their family to visit or to die of boredom in their care home. I giggled quite a lot reading the book.
The illustrations are really good, very humorous. It’s a familiar style in books for the age group.
I would definitely recommend this book, especially for kids struggling to cope with the pandemic and lockdowns of the last couple of years.
Author Information
Rob Lloyd Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed middle-grade novels Wild Boy and Wild Boy and the Black Terror, as well as the Jake Atlas adventure series.
Created with his sons, Otis (9) and Jago (5), during home-schooling, Me, My Brother and the Monster Meltdown is his first funny fiction for younger readers. In Rob’s words, “it celebrates the power of children’s imaginations and their strength in adversity and adventure…and a monster apocalypse.”
Rob lives in East Sussex with his wife, and monster-mad Otis and Jago.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RLloydJones
The Hostage of Rome
217 BC. Rome has been savaged, beaten and is in retreat. Yet, in that winter of winters, her garrisons cling on behind the walls of Placentia and Cremona, thanks to her sea-born supplies. If he could be freed, a hostage of Rome may yet hold the key to launching a fleet of pirates that could sweep Rome from the seas. For that hostage is none other than Corinna’s son Cleon, rival heir to the throne of Illyria, held in Brundisium, four hundred miles south of the Rubicon.
But Hannibal is set on a greater prize! Macedon is the great power in Greece, feared even by Rome. Its young king, Philip, is being compared with his illustrious ancestor, Alexander the Great. An alliance with Macedon would surely sound the death knell for Rome.
Given Hannibal’s blessing, Sphax, Idwal and Corinna face an epic journey against impossible odds. Navigating the length of the Padus, past legionary garrisons and hostile Gauls, they must then risk the perils of the storm-torn Adria in the depths of the winter. If the gods favour them and they reach the lands of the pirate queen, only then will their real trials begin.
Purchase Links
UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hostage-Rome-Histories-Sphax-Book-ebook/dp/B09X3L8WLB/
US – https://www.amazon.com/Hostage-Rome-Histories-Sphax-Book-ebook/dp/B09X3L8WLB/
Continue reading “Extract from ‘The Hostage of Rome’, by Robert M. Kidd – Giveaway!”
Everything Is Better With Dragons 