memoir – Page 2 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Audiobook Review: The Road Not Taken, by Paul Dodgson

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Unbound (22 Aug. 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1783527757
ISBN-13: 978-1783527755

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Not-Taken-memoir-about/dp/1783527757

BLURB

On the Road Not Taken is a memoir about the transformational power of music. It begins with a boy growing up in a small town on the Kent coast in the 1970s, who learns to play the guitar and dreams of heading out on the open road with a head full of songs. But when the moment comes to make the choice he is not brave enough to try and do it for a living.

Time passes but the desire to explain the world through music never goes away. And as the years go by it gets harder and harder to risk looking like a fool, of doing the very thing he would most like to do, of actually being himself. Eventually, thirty-five years later, when it feels like time is running out, he walks out onto a stage in front of 500 people and begins to sing again.

What follows is an extraordinary period of self-discovery as he plays pubs, clubs, theatres and festivals, overcoming anxiety to experience the joy of performance.

Audiobook Review: ‘Chickens Eat Pasta’, by Clare Pedrik, narrated by Colleen MacMahon

I’ve not reviewed an audiobook here before, although I listen to them regularly I usually review an audiobook on Audible after I finish it. Rachel’s Random Resources as branched out though and I agreed to listen to this book.

Blurb
Not just another romance, but a story of escapism, coincidences, friendship, luck and most of all… love.

Chickens Eat Pasta is the tale of how a young Englishwoman starts a new life after watching a video showing a chicken eating spaghetti in a mediaeval hill village in central Italy.

“Here I was, 26 years old, alone and numb with boredom at the prospect of a future which until recently had seemed to be just what I wanted.”

Unlike some recent bestsellers, this is not simply an account of a foreigner’s move to Italy, but a love story written from the unusual perspective of both within and outside of the story. As events unfold, the strong storyline carries with it a rich portrayal of Italian life from the inside, with a supporting cast of memorable characters. Along the way, the book explores and captures the warmth and colour of Italy, as well as some of the cultural differences – between England and Italy, but also between regional Italian lifestyles and behaviour. It is a story with a happy ending. The author and her husband are still married, with three children, who love the old house on the hill (now much restored) almost as much as she does.

Chickens Eat Pasta is Clare’s autobiography, and ultimately a love story – with the house itself and with the man that Clare met there and went on to marry. If you yearn for a happy ending, you won’t be disappointed. It’s a story that proves anything is possible if you only try.

Purchase Links

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chickens-Eat-Pasta-Escape-Umbria-ebook/dp/B012GZXOPY

US – https://www.amazon.com/Chickens-Eat-Pasta-Escape-Umbria-ebook/dp/B012GZXOPY

UK Audiobook – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chickens-Eat-Pasta/dp/B07BYLZX3X

US Audiobook – https://www.amazon.com/Chickens-Eat-Pasta/dp/B07CBJRG9C

Blog Tour Calendar: ‘And The Swans Began To Sing’, by Thora Karitas Arnadottir

I’m looking forward to sharing this one with you, it’s a memoir by Icelandic author Thora Karitas Arnadottir.

The swans on the pond, quite abruptly began to sing. It was a singing so loud they were almost screaming. The swans were screaming, screaming as if they saw the horror of the world.

Gudbjorg Thorisdottir has been hiding from the ghost of an ugly secret for most of her life. When she finally faces the truth of what happened throughout her childhood, the ghost floats away. Painting an evocative picture of her life in Iceland, this is the story of a little girl who didn’t know how unnatural it was to experience both heaven and hell in the same house.

Thora Karitas Arnadottir (b. 1979) studied drama in the UK, and is a producer as well as appearing on stage and television. And the Swans Began to Sing is her first published book; her mother’s story, and formed the final dissertation for her MA in Creative Writing. The book was nominated for the Icelandic Women’s Literary prize Fjoruverdlaunin in 2016.

Website: Wild Pressed Books

Review: ‘Sex Drive’, by Stephanie Theobald

Publication Date: 18th October 2018

Published by: Unbound

I.S.B.N.: 978-1-78352-681-9

Format: Hardback

Price: £16.99

Blurb

Arriving in New York with a failing relationship and a body she felt out of touch with, Stephanie Theobald set off on a 3,497 mile trip across America to re-build her orgasm from the ground up. What started as a quest for the ultimate auto-erotic experience became a fantastic voyage into her own body.

She takes us from ‘body sex’ classes with the legendary feminist Betty Dodson to an interview with the former US Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, who was fired for suggesting that masturbation should be talked about in schools. Along the way, we are immersed in a weird, countercultural America of marijuana farms and ‘ecosexual sexologists’.

Sex Drive is a memoir about desire and pleasure, merging sexuality and spirituality,
eighteenth-century porn and enlightenment philosophy. A new sexual revolution has begun – and this time round, it’s all about the women.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Sex Drive’, by Stephanie Theobald”

Blog Tour Calendar: ‘Sex Drive’, by Stephanie Theobald

Sex Drive Final Blog Tour Poster

Blurb

Arriving in New York with a failing relationship and a body she felt out of touch with, Stephanie Theobald set off on a 3,497 mile trip across America to re-build her orgasm from the ground up. What started as a quest for the ultimate auto-erotic experience became a fantastic voyage into her own body. She takes us from ‘body sex’ classes with the legendary feminist Betty Dodson to an interview with the former US Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, who was fired for suggesting that masturbation should be talked about in schools. Along the way, we are immersed in a weird, countercultural America of marijuana farms and ‘ecosexual sexologists’.

Sex Drive is a memoir about desire and pleasure, merging sexuality and spirituality,
eighteenth-century porn and enlightenment philosophy. A new sexual revolution has begun – and this time round, it’s all about the women.

Author Bio

Quête de Vision, pays basques Stephanie Theobald is a British journalist, novelist, public speaker and broadcaster known for her playful and
thoughtful work around sexuality and feminism. The Times described her as as ‘one of London’s most
celebrated literary lesbians’ and she writes regularly for the Guardian , the Sunday Times and Elle UK . She is the
author of four novels, most recently A Partial Indulgence (2010). She lives between London and Los Angeles.

Bonus Review #6: ‘The Fact of a Body’, by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

Whatever happened in the past, the story wrote right over it. The story became the truth. What you see in Ricky killing Jeremy, I have come to believe , depends as much on who you are and the life you’ve had as on what he did. But the legal narrative erases that step. It erases where it came from.

Page 310/91%

Published by: Pan Macmillan

Publication Date: 3rd May 2018

Format: ebook

I.S.B.N.: 9781509805648

Price: £8.99

Blurb

When law student Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich is asked to work on a death-row hearing for convicted murderer and child molester Ricky Langley, she finds herself thrust into the tangled story of his childhood. As she digs deeper and deeper into the case she realizes that, despite their vastly different circumstances, something in his story is unsettlingly, uncannily familiar. The Fact of a Body is both an enthralling memoir and a groundbreaking, heart-stopping investigation into how the law is personal, composed of individual stories, and proof that arriving at the truth is more complicated, and powerful, than we could ever imagine.

Continue reading “Bonus Review #6: ‘The Fact of a Body’, by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich”

Review: ‘Back Story: A Memoir’ by David Mitchell

29th May 2013

HarperCollins UK

Continue reading “Review: ‘Back Story: A Memoir’ by David Mitchell”

Review: Fifty Years in Polygamy Uncensored Edition By Kristyn Decker

2013

Synergy Books Publishing

Memoir

www.kristyndecker.com

Continue reading “Review: Fifty Years in Polygamy Uncensored Edition By Kristyn Decker”

Review: ‘Double Happiness’ by Tony Brasunas

At 22 Tony Brasunas had never left the US, but fascinated by China he embarked on a post-University year teaching English in a Chinese high school. The school year over he the travelled to Beijing to see the hand over of Hong Kong before venturing west to through China to Tibet and then south east back go Hong Kong and finally home to America.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Double Happiness’ by Tony Brasunas”

Review: ‘A funny thing happened on the way to heaven’ by Corey Taylor

2013
Ebury Press

This second book by Stone Sour and Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor follows on from Seven Deadly Sins in a round about way. He is again pondering the mysteries of life and death while sprinkling the whole with memories. This time it is his experiences with ghosts. Ever since he was young he has had encountered the paranormal and lived in various haunted buildings. People have told him their own ghost stories; they are gathered here with the express intention of starting a conversation.

Corey Taylor is an articulate and intelligent, if uneducated, man and has clearly thought his ideas through. Whether the reader believes the stories he tells or agrees with his hypothesis of ‘intelligent energy’ is up to them. He won’t tell you what to think, only to think.

I’m not sure whether I agree with much that he has written, except that people need to use their intelligence and not let ignorance and dogma control them. He clearly believes and feels strongly about the subject. It shines in his writing. The writing style is conversational, he goes off at a tangent regularly, but that is not necessarily to the detriment of the work.

An enjoyable and interestting look in to the mind of an important member of the Metal music fraternity.

Bye,

Rose