The Fart by Cynan Jones

The Year Of The Short Story (cntd) 
The Mole


Cynan Jones is a true published author with two books (Everything I Found On The Beach and The Long Dry) in print more as 'work in progress'. We interviewed the author and found him to be a most sober chap.  His first novel (The Long Dry) was translated into French, Italian and Arabic but in this short story he demonstrates that he does have a sense of humour. It's not the schoolboy humour that the title may imply but a sort of mature... err... errr... schoolboy humour?

WARNING - This story contains details of a bodily function that some people may find offensive. If this is you then please look away now.

WARNING - This story also contains wry humour that may mean you want to read it on your own - whatever, enjoy it!

How long should a short story be? Perhaps not this short but it's all about entertainment and this certainly entertained me. This kind of thing has never happened to me but I can feel everything that happened in it and smile about it too!

This story can be downloaded for free from Amazon until 3rd February 2012 and if you don't own a kindle then Amazon offer free software on most any device, however I haven't seen one yet for my vacuum cleaner.

Publisher - Kindle
Genre - Adult, Humour, Fiction, Short Story

Get The Fart from Amazon

Songs of the Dying Earth edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

The Year Of The Short Story (Pt 1)
Review by The Mole

2012 is, officially, the year of the short story so maybe it's time to revisit some of those short story collections that are gathering dust.

With the birth of e-readers and the decline of the hardback novel the opportunity for people to read a whole story during a morning commute may mean a return to reading by people. Let's hope that works for at least some people.

This particular collection is written by a group of science fiction writers of repute who feel that they have read, enjoyed and been influenced by Jack Vance. The Dying Earth was Vance's first novel which he wrote while working in the merchant navy and is a book that I haven't read. Each of these stories has been set on that dying world.

The first contributor is Robert Silverberg, possibly one of the more universally known writers who has quite a list of stories and awards to his name. I have read many stories by both authors over the years and enjoyed their worlds, times and events.

The True Vintage Of Erzuine Thale by Robert Silverberg

Puillane of Ghusz is a poet. Well, not just a poet, but a celebrated poet, celebrated as the greatest and most prolific poet alive. He is also a man expecting the planet to die imminently. This constant expectation of the sun's death breeds in him a depression that leads him to drink. But the local wines are rather special and when drinking the poetry spills forth like an uncorked barrel. In his wine cellar is a bottle of the most special wine that there ever was, The True Vintage Of Erzuine Thale. This particular bottle he is waiting to open until the sun actually goes out because he believes that if he drinks it then then the greatest poem ever written will pour from him. All his property is protected by magic and this bottle especially so. Travellers come to see him but will they persuade him to open the bottle early?

Truly a good opening to the collection this story delivers much of it's enjoyment through the telling as all good stories should although to say more would be to give spoilers. And as a first story in the collection it sets the scene and treats the reader to the delights of both Vance and Silverberg leaving the reader with high expectations for what is to come from the rest of the collection.

Publisher - Voyager
Genre - Science Fiction, Fantasy, Short Story

Buy Songs of the Dying Earth from Amazon

The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer by Jennifer Lynch

Behind The Scenes with Laura Palmer
review by Maryom

If you ever watched Twin Peaks you'll remember that it started with the death of popular homecoming queen Laura Palmer. To the world she appeared to be a normal happy teenager but as the series progressed her increasingly dark past was revealed. Her diary starts from the other perspective - from the age of 12 Laura shared her darkest secrets with her only guaranteed-to-keep-silent friend, her diary. The reader is immediately aware of the relationship between her and mysterious character Bob, and follows her as her life descends into a nightly round of drugs and sex while keeping up her 'innocent' daytime life.

Reading this a long while after watching Twin Peaks, I wasn't sure how well it works as a stand-alone novel. I had a feeling that it was mainly filling in gaps from the TV series and leaving a lot unsaid. At times, the device of having pages 'ripped out' is used to avoid giving the reader too much information - surely a better way could have been found.

An interesting read out of curiosity but not one I'd be likely to re-read.

Warning - sexually explicit a lot of the time.

Maryom's review - 3.5 stars
Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - adult fiction, TV tie-in


Buy The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer from Amazon

Vanished by Liza Marklund

How To Disappear
review by Maryom

A woman is on the run from a killer after two men are shot dead in the container port of Frihamnen near Stockholm. When she contacts the Evening Post newspaper offices, she is put through to copy-editor Annika Bengtzon, who in turn puts her in contact with The Paradise Foundation - an organisation that claims it can make people disappear without trace - offering a lifeline to battered wives or criminals eager to escape their past. Annika's further enquiries into the Foundation start to leave her wondering if it is as altruistic as it first appeared and if referring anyone to them was such a good move. Investigating both the dockside killing and Paradise's credentials leads Annika along a convoluted, dangerous trail and to an encounter that will shape her life.

I read my first Liza Marklund thriller, The Bomber, just before Christmas and was curious to see how Vanished would compare. Some crime/thriller series fall into a repetitive mould with the same-old characters going through the same-old motions time and again. Happily, Marklund has avoided that trap. Vanished is set at an earlier point in time than The Bomber. Annika Bengtzon is down on her luck at this point in her life - leading an almost solitary existence in her crumbling dilapidated flat, working odd hours at the Evening Post, troubled by her family relationships. All in all things are not going well for her. There are hints at her backstory - enough to fill in the gaps but not so much that I wouldn't want to read about it. I was fascinated to see how the Annika Bengtzon character had developed over the time between Vanished and The Bomber. Here she is younger, less confident of herself in both personal and work relationships, but still recognisable as the more mature person she will become. She comes over as a real, living, breathing faults-and-all person and through her Marklund examines issues that affect many lives- difficulties with family, care of the elderly, uncaring work colleagues.
It is, of course, mainly a thriller. Her journalistic instincts for a good story lead Annika into situations that will have you biting your fingernails and reading rapidly to get her out of the fix. Most definitely a book that falls into the 'stay-up-late to find out how it ends' category.

Vanished is published next month - but meanwhile I've seen other Annika Bengtzon thrillers on sale in my local supermarket...

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Corgi/Transworld
Genre - thriller

Buy Vanished from Amazon

Year of The Dragon Book Challenge

Another New Year, Another Reading Challenge


Shortly after posting yesterday's review - Tell Me A Dragon by Jackie Morris - I happened to be idly looking at our book shelves and realised how many books we have involving dragons in some way, shape or form. So I've decided to mark the Chinese Year of the Dragon with another reading challenge - I won't be going out of my way to read nothing but dragon-related stories all year, but to keep track of the ones that I do.


Top of my intended list, waiting on the TBR pile for nearly a year since I bought it, is The Ultimate Dragon - a collection of dragon-related short stories from a variety of authors including Tanith Lee, Ursula Le Guin and Robert Silverberg.





It's also a good excuse to read old favourites from The Hobbit to Eragon to the Dragonriders of Pern series or catch up with the latest RainWild chronicle from Robin Hobb - City of Dragons, published in April 2012



If anyone feels like joining in or just sharing their favourite dragon stories, please comment below.

Tell Me A Dragon by Jackie Morris

Year of the Dragon
review by Maryom

Today is Chinese New Year and as the upcoming one will be the Year of the Dragon, I thought I'd share one of our daughter's Jackie Morris books with you - Tell Me A Dragon.


Big dragons, small dragons. Ones that fly through the air, ones that swim in the sea. City dragons, country dragons. Icy blue for the Arctic, fiery red for the desert. This book has them all, brought to life in Jackie Morris's inimitable style.

Tell Me A Dragon is not a story book as such but one of magical paintings to en-trance the reader and fire a child's (or adult's) imagination. Encourage your child to interact by imagining their own dragon - would he be fierce or gentle? red, blue, violet with golden spots? gigantic or tiny? - or making up stories about the dragons, and owners, depicted in the book.

A captivating book for all lovers of dragons - whatever their age!

PS My favourite dragon? I'd have to have two - the 'big as a village' cover dragon, 'jade-winged and amber-eyed', daintily choosing a cupcake, and the pale as moonlight 'sparkled with stardust' dragon 'made from the sun and the stars', flying across the moonlit sky.

Maryom's review - 5 stars

Publisher - Frances Lincoln
Genre - picture book

Buy Tell Me a Dragon from Amazon

How To Win Friends and Influence People

Perhaps The First Self Help Book
Review by The Mole

This book has been a massive success in so far as it has sold 15million copies since it's first publication in 1936. It's title alone is an enticement to pick it up - who does not want to make more friends and, perhaps, get more from the friendships they already have?

This version has been updated to reflect "the digital age". You might expect that this would cause a drastic reworking and almost obviate the original teaching, but in fact it highlights how, with the internet and other digital social connections, it is fact quicker and easier to destroy all goodwill and friendships than ever before. It stresses, though, that the same rules that applied in 1936, about face to face, letters and phone calls then apply equally apply today for all digital communications as well. In fact the same rules apply whichever form of communication you choose to use. It's not about how and when to use Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn but about how to deal with people. It includes examples of how not to achieve it (where things generally went spectacularly wrong) and how things have been done well. These examples are not from the original publication but are modern events where they exist and are relevant.

I picked this book up expecting all sorts of rules and actions but was very surprised to find that there is one underlying message - be positive and interested in what everyone has to say. Sounds easy? Well, maybe not. If you can be self critical and really want to achieve what the title says then you need to commit a lot of time and effort to read this book - not just once but as often as needed to reinforce your understanding of the many types of encounter you may find yourself in.

Another important fact is that this book works at the micro level (you and your wife, you and the barman, you and the neighbour, etc) as well as at the macro level (a managing director and his company of 10,000 employees). This book is about people and the reader and is a long term project to achieve, not just friends, but with friends comes contentment and happiness.

The Mole highly recommends this book.

Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - Non Fiction, Self help

Buy How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age from Amazon