Everything's Fine by Socrates Adams

Thoughtful, Funny, Tragedy
Review by The Mole

Ian works in sales. Unfortunately Ian is not very good at sales. Ian is not very good at knowing how bad he is at sales. Ian does, however, think he does everything in the best way possible and so is convinced he is good at everything. His sales director has a review of Ian's performance and chooses to humiliate and shame Ian into improving.

I had read that this book is funny. I want to take time to explain how I found it. At first I found it tragic. In my years I have dealt with salesmen and seen how some disdain targets. I have seen sales directors tear their hair out trying to get salesmen to try to take targets seriously. I have heard of sales directors trying to humiliate salesmen into improving their results.

Similarly I have seen employees who think they are the best at their jobs and won't be counselled otherwise in order to improve. Worse, to my discredit, I have employed them! Ian is the office nightmare and I felt I knew him.

However Adams keeps taking him and his sales director one further step towards the precipice and away from reality and so it becomes more and more fun as the story progresses. Is there hope for Ian? Will the worm turn? Will the worm take a totally different direction?

This book is a great deal of fun and, while it is not 'laugh out loud' it is funny, tragic and most of all thought provoking and deeper than you realise. I did REALLY, REALLY enjoy this book in a happy, tragic, thoughtful way.

Publisher - Transmission Print
Genre - Adult Humorous Fiction

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Iain Banks Reading from Stonemouth

By The Mole

When we heard that Iain Banks was coming to Nottingham Waterstones we decided we would go. I duly phoned for tickets and they had just 2 left. Big Sad Face - we wanted 3 so I wimped and pouted and bought the 2 and she took my phone number and said she would speak to the events manager.

Next day my phone rang - it doesn't do a lot of that and it was a number I didn't recognise. It was the events manager! He explained that he had set a maximum but was sure he could squeeze one more in so everyone was happy. The alternative might have been to camp outside on the windowsill with my ear to the window! A big Thank You to Waterstones.

Iain said he would start the evening by reading from the beginning of Stonemouth explaining, in a very amusing way, the benefit of starting from the beginning - he then started reading from page 196!. I am not the 'first' fan of Iain Banks in our house with that honour going to Maryom (she named 'The Crow Road" as her Top Scottish read when asked by The City of Edinburgh) but none the less I determined that this is one book I intend to read. I have read The Crow Road and The Bridge (hasn't everyone?) and thoroughly enjoyed them. It always has been my intention to read some more of them and last night re-awoke that for me.

The questions were the kind that he must have been asked a thousand times before "Which book is your favourite?", "Why do you write the two different styles, 'mainstream' and 'sci-fi'?", "Which is your least favourite?", "How and when do you write?" but his answers felt new and just for us. The humour was consistently there and although there was a little swearing it was in context and he explained that there was only one book he had written without swearing in (to please his Mum) and it wasn't his biggest seller. We had taken our 14 year old and I'm sure she hears worse in breaks at school.

Afterwards there was the inevitable book signing and I left Maryom three quarters of the way round the room (almost three quarters of the way down the queue! - Yes the queue went round all four walls) and I went to buy a copy of Stonemouth. While at the till I also managed to get one of the World Book Nights copies of The Player of Games. Maryom  took along her Iain Banks books and he kindly signed them all - including the WBN copy!

Blackmoor by Edward Hogan

 Review by Maryom

Blackmoor was a Derbyshire pit village until economics forced the closure of the mine and the resultant gas build-up in abandoned workings forced the demolition of a community - the people were moved out and buildings flattened.
 Teenager Vincent has grown up in the suburb village of Church Eaton, never knowing Blackmoor the place where he was born or his mother Beth who died there.  Vincent is a strange solitary boy not fitting in with schoolmates; his father George an over-protective parent with a not-too-hidden aggressive streak. Both have been shaped and changed by the events leading up to Beth's death - when Vincent starts a school project about the demolition of Blackmoor , he never expects to unearth things about his own past

Blackmoor was Edward Hogan's debut novel and although I enjoyed it, it feels less accomplished and polished than his second, The Hunger Trace. I don't want to give the impression, though, that this is a dull, badly written  book - far from it! Blackmoor is an absorbing exploration of things hidden below the surface of life - neither coal mines nor buried family history can be simply ignored and walked away from. Hogan takes the three strands of Beth's life, her son's and the mining village she lived in and weaves them intricately together.

 I come more or less from the area the novel is set in and loved Hogan's capturing of local dialect and landmarks -as I read, I could imagine myself following the characters' footsteps, seeing the sights they saw etc

One criticism I would make is about the cover illustration - it gives the distinct impression that this is a novel set in the past - early 20th century or maybe Victorian era - whereas it's actually set 'now' and in the not so distant past of 1980s.

Maryom's review - 4 stars

Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - Adult literary fiction

 

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Liberator's Ruin by P J Johns

Definitely NOT Star Wars
Review by The Mole

In a world at war, three people hold the fate of an entire country in their hands.

Nathaniel An’Rieyr is the captain of the airship Storm Brother and profiteer extraordinaire. He dreams of making his fortune in the lucrative southern trade routes. But to achieve that, he will need to get involved in a war he has made a career of avoiding.

As the last surviving member of the Illysian Royal Family, the war is all Anna has left. The Rhivellian Empire took her family, her throne and her country. Unable to compete against the might of the Rhivellian war machine, Anna enacts a plan to retrieve a mighty artefact from a long forgotten Age. With it, she will finally have the power to reclaim her kingdom; a goal for which she will sacrifice anyone, even her closest ally.

Thomas Ras’Kar, High Inquisitor of the Rhivellian Empire, has been sent to Illum in disgrace, where he will be forced to contend with the incompetent Thane Charles. Three years of occupation has seen the city’s populace cowed and the Thane’s interest turned to his own pleasures. A fate worse than death for a man of honour and action such as Thomas. But the Princess is returning to Illum, and she may be the key to his redemption.

When I started to read this book - one of the last e-books we agreed to review I would stress - my immediate impression was 'Star Wars'. But because I was deep in several other books at the time I put it to one side and it had to wait - being an e-book an' all. And wait. And it waited 9 months until we went away and I thought I would take it with us. It wasn't long before the Star Wars impression melted into the background and was replaced by a feeling that perhaps the motivations of the characters, that bore that resemblance, were being portrayed more realistically than the fairy tale. In fact the reality of their motivations makes this adult reading. Yes, there is a non-gratuitous sex scene and I'm afraid it's not of literary quality, but it is important that it's in there.

I quickly came across a lot of poor editing which was also mentioned in reviews on Amazon. I have encountered this with a few self published books and always try to raise it with the author. I have not known an author take this badly and Johns had already taken this on board in producing a better copy which he forwarded. From then on the edit was MUCH improved and am happy to put aside the early edits. (I did check a few to make sure they had been picked up - there were a few howlers.)

In reviews on Amazon some people expressed disappointment with the end... well I want to go on record and say I loved it! The ending brought real justice as I saw it and I would not want to see it changed at all!

I was trying to explain the plot to my wife who replied "Oh, Star Wars as it SHOULD have been written?". Well maybe. But I did thoroughly enjoy this book and would recommend it to lovers of science fantasy. I read it using the world's worst method of e-reading, yet I looked forward to picking it up again and again.

Publisher - Self published
Genre - Adult Science Fantasy

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The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

Wisteria and Sunshine - who could resist?
review by Maryom

Enticed by the promise of wisteria and sunshine, four ladies leave cold, wet London for a month at the castle of San Salvatore in Italy. They each have something that in their individual ways, they're running away from. Both Lottie and Rose are trapped in unhappy marriages; Mrs Fisher believes that nothing is quite as it was in 'the good old days' and Lady Caroline is trying to escape the hectic rounds and demands of Society. In the glorious, almost heavenly, surroundings of San Salvatore they 'find themselves' - for want of a better expression.

This is an oldish favourite of mine that I originally discovered through the 1992 film, starring Miranda Richardson and Josie Lawrence, and that I was prompted into re-reading  by a blog post at Iris on Books about another of von Arnim's novels,  The Solitary Summer
A lot of readers might dismiss it as lacking in action or too touchy-feely for their liking, but The Enchanted April is a book that never fails to work its magic on me. Starting in a dark, damp London February and moving to the heat and light of an Italian April, this is the perfect novel for Spring reading. The reader, too, can leave behind doom, gloom and persistent rain and bask in glorious sunshine.
Something more that appeals to me, as a gardener, is the gorgeous, luxuriant garden surrounding the castle where Spring and Summer flowers all bloom together in a mad rush, cascading down the hillside - one day I'll have one just like it!

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Virago
Genre - Adult Fiction, Literary


Other reviews; Dusty Old Books 
                       The Worm Hole

Chipping Norton Literary Festival #chiplitfest

In it's first year Chipping Norton Literary Festival is finding it's feet. Some of the events proved more popular than expected and had to be moved to larger venues so it would seem some level of success must be celebrated.

We went on the Saturday, and had a look around and took in a couple of events.

Overall and despite the attempts by the weather we enjoyed it and wish them every success in the future.

Maryom attended a couple of events which she talks a about on her blog, and The Mole took in other aspects which he shares on his blog.

The Alchemist and the Angel by Joanne Owen

Bringing the dead back to life
Review by The Mole

Jan is orphaned and living with his Aunt and Uncle. His Uncle decides to take Jan on as an apprentice alchemist and his training is going well when his Uncle dies suddenly. His Aunt then decides to move to Prague so Jan goes with her believing her to be a sincere benefactor. He meets Zuzana, a young girl who helps among the plague victims of the ghettos and she carries secrets with her.

Jan is a trusting youth who fails to see the bad in those who he feels love him. Unfortunately the trust he places in others is not always well placed.

While there is a small amount of love interest it is such a small part of the story it mustn't dissuade readers as the story is sure to entrance and delight the younger readers as Jan sets out to find a cure for the plague - the killer of his own parents. His intentions are totally altruistic while innocent and naive. I have to admit to wanting to shake Jan and say "look behind you" on several occasions and I'm sure younger readers will too.  This I feel will pull them in and engage them in this story.

The story is peppered with myths and legends told incidentally by characters within the plot, but published separately on illuminations made to look like ancient parchment making it very easy for the reader to remember that they have 'stepped outside' the story for a while.

Peppered with real historical figures this is a really nice story with magic and alchemy set in sixteenth century Prague and Vienna. for readers who are around 10+.

Publisher - Orion Books
Genre - Children's Historical/Fantasy Fiction

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