I have to admit, this book was laugh-out-loud funny at times; I found myself cracking up in a way I haven’t done for years when reading.  Well done, Carlos; comedy gold.  Bit crude and crass, at times, in a way where you know instantly it can only have been written by an English author; the language is very strong and its coarseness sometimes invokes an uncomfortable wince.  I don’t have a problem with that, as such – I’m no prude – but it has to be funny.  Though, in truth, Carlos ...

There’s something a little warm and wholesome about this slice-of-life memoir; it is full of love, faith and a family-friendly read.  Describing a year or so in the life of a young boy whose family moved to Alaska to build a log chapel, where his father would become a pastor, it is your usual fish-out-of-water story, the theme of so many memoirs by U.S. authors – a country so vast that moving home often means a massive culture shock.  And this is the same, as the Taylor family learns to f...

Very sharply scripted, biting satire, and more of the same from the sardonically witty Harlin, this time set against the increasingly fashionable backdrop of the battle of the generations: Millennials vs. GenX (or whatever monicker the superior former have deemed dominion to label the latter with).  It was by pure coincidence that I read this book, about a former creative, days from his 50^th birthday, just a few days before my own 50^th birthday, and I therefore felt I had more of a stake in i...

Bizarrely offbeat, this book is part fantasy, part satire and generally overall, I think, mostly literary fiction.  Those familiar with the original Baron Munchausen tales – and I refer now to the book, not the tall stories told about the real man himself – will recognize this as much of the same, with the same strangely vivid, visual setpieces and abstract palette, though I have to say I’m not entirely sure why the author chose to pigeonhole himself with a direct sequel to a literary c...

I won’t lie, it was a slightly tough read, this fantasy thriller from Nick Nielsen.  Not because he isn’t a good writer, by any means; quite the contrary, in fact, he is an exceptionally good writer – in fact, I think this might actually be the issue for me; he is too good.  This is a great story, with some fantastic writing, tremendously well edited, but, if I’m being as obtuse and simple about it as I can, the book simply felt too long.  There is an exceptional number of words – s...

It isn’t immediately clear just how much of this book is autobiographical, or even semi-biographical, if any at all, but I would suspect there is a fair amount of personal truth and life story of the author, or perhaps one of her immediate ancestors, in this heartfelt and emotionally charged tale.  I wouldn’t really call it a coming-of-age story, as the first-person narrator is a little young, at twelve, to be considered that, but it does bear all the hallmarks of these slice-of-life chil...

There are two sides to this side-splitting book, one laugh-out-loud comedy and the other a little more serious in tone, enough to make you wonder if you really should be laughing along with Will Goodrich – not for any politically correct reason, but because you feel this is a man with a very sour history of women.  Obviously I don’t know anything about Will’s three marriages, nor will I blindly take his side, but as a fellow man of the world, I can utterly laugh along with this book.  I...

Before I begin, I should disclose that I assisted Lance in the production of this book.  However, rest assured that this has no bearing whatsoever on my review.  I have been fortunate enough now to read a couple from this author, and I can say with all sincerity that he is a cut above the rest.  His quality is from the top drawer, and whilst his books might not be the most eventful or action packed, they are as poignant, as profound and as thought-provoking as you are ever likely to read.  Al...

If you were to read this book from cover to cover, as I did, it would likely take you less than an hour in one sitting.  But there would be little point in doing so.  This is, in fact, a very handy little coffee table read, for you to pick up and practice as and when the mood takes you.  The whole premise is that you can literally physically manifest events, outcomes and even objects, just by training yourself to change your outlook and attitude.  Whilst the latter of those three seems somewh...

As an unwavering atheist, who believes wholeheartedly in the existence of Jesus, I was very much looking forward to reading this book, and its evaluation of the authenticity of his divinity, from the point of view of an author immeasurably more knowledgeable on the subject than I.  Whilst Jonathan Dean certainly doesn’t disappoint – he is an extremely high quality author, who has undeniably studied, researched and analysed his subject comprehensively – I will admit that it was a slightl...

A very tough read – for lots of reasons – but a very good one.  I have to give you the forewarning I wasn’t: this is an incredibly harrowing book, with graphic, detailed and repeated accounts of the internal and external injuries of a murdered two-year-old.  Written by an experienced crime scene investigator of many years, and very clearly outlining a case which elicited very intense emotions in him, Immunity for Murder describes the day-by-day, true-life investigation into the particul...

So, this book is technically flawed, ultimately unsatisfying and doesn’t really go in any direction near where you are hoping it will go – and you know what?  I loved every minute of it!  Tom’s book is great.  With its tangible air of menace permeating throughout, simmering below the surface from very early on, it is safe to say that you spend much of it in nailbiting suspense, just wondering where bullied Henry is taking all of this.  And the author knows this.  Furthermore, he fosters...

I love short stories, especially when they’re well written, and this intriguing anthology is just that.  From what is clearly an interesting and creative mind, Stephen Murphy delivers a dozen and a half or so of what can only be really described as vignettes, and for the most part slice of life, even if some of those fictional lives are a good deal more interesting than others.  The tales are not action packed or exciting, but rather more anecdotal or perhaps suggestive.  They are more abou...

Not a work of literature in any real sense, but it is still difficult to imagine that this beautiful and sometimes stunning collection won’t appeal to most people on some level.  The elegant foreword and introduction aside, this book is in fact almost entirely a showcase of photography curated by a talented and shrewd-eyed life observers.  The 100 or so photographs range from the stylish to the sombre, the exciting to the calm, and the most simple of setpiece to the cleverest of visual effe...

This is not so much a book of three short stories, as some of the reviews might suggest, but rather three parts of the same story of one man’s life, each taking one of the themes of its three major events: birth, marriage and death.  It does get you wondering while reading just how much is fictional and how much biographical or autobiographical.  You hope it is not too much of the latter, to be honest, because in all honesty, generally the unnamed protagonist does not come across a particul...

I wouldn’t necessarily call Nom D. Plume’s mind an odd one, so much as a very high functioning, obscure one, and good luck trying to get on the author’s tangent – though if you do, you’ll be rewarded, for sure.  I like short stories and poetry, and I really like this collection, too.  The tales, I would say, are more like little vignettes or snippets of narrative, as bizarrely offbeat as they are exceptionally intelligent and well written, and as utterly random as they are astutely ...

William Hart is an excellent writer, accomplished and professional; in a way, that makes this otherwise standard coming-of-age memoir a slight cut above.  In point of fact, I call it “coming of age”, but truthfully the characters are much younger than this – for this reason the content of this book didn’t really sit right with me at times, and readers are warned in this respect.  It is pretty vivid in its the sexual content, and I found this a little uncomfortable, because in the main...

Incredibly for a book of less than 10,000 words, I can’t really work out if User Story Confus...

Hugely accomplished work, by an author I’m coming to know as eloquent, intellectual and highly knowledgeable.  Caught Between Worlds is an insightful and informative coming-of-age drama, which is bittersweet, understated and melancholy, to the point of feeling a touch bleak at times.  Yet even though there is a feeling of mental (and perhaps even tangibly physical) coldness when reading it, ultimately there is also warmth – the kind which only comes from thoughts of “home”.

A real cu...

An imaginative and highly creative take on motivation and life coaching by a non-fiction author who is entertaining and engaging.  Lew infuses large swathes of personality and humour into his writing, and is very easy to relate to.  He clearly has huge interest and knowledge of his field of expertise: the military history of ancient China.  Using popular fables and anecdotes from this long, eventful period, he goes on to apply the lessons of the time to how we approach life generally in the m...

I’m becoming a big fan of John Bauer’s writing, and this acerbic coming-of-age drama is another good one from him.  He is a sharp author, with a great professional style and a wry sense of humour.  The interaction between the characters is entertaining and nostalgia-inducing; you remember talking that way with your buddies at their age (boys, that is; girls I can’t really speak for).  More than that, though, Bauer has a knack of creating lead characters with multiple layers of humanity,...

Slow burning and hugely atmospheric, Lorna’s work always simmers below the surface, with an intensity which grows and engulfs the reader; this thought-provoking composition is no different.  With a palpable feeling of menace growing gradually throughout, there is also an element of mysterious ambiguity, in this tale of a man with a history of violence struggling to raise his wayward daughter, whilst protecting her from the dark truth about her mentally ill mother.  Be warned, it is as bleak...

I must confess to struggling with this book somewhat.  With an ensemble cast of characters, and different strands of a connected storyline, I admit that I spent much of the read lost and trying to play catch-up.  I saw it through, of course, because I was keen to see where this otherwise intriguing, dark, absurd and occasionally disturbing tale was leading.  It is, in fact, a very clever, if simple overall story, in which two misogynistic zealots set out to genetically create a subservient gl...

This wryly comic and academically enlightening look at the professional day-to-day in the working life of a hospital surgery intern, based on real-life stories and experiences, is a real treat, if a little hard to stomach at times – as is the nature of this type of book: i.e. medical profession fly-on-the-wall.  There are a lot of this extremely popular and growing genre coming into print these days, and although I have to say they really don’t appeal to me personally (as someone married ...

A wonderful collection of understated, yet profoundly compelling slice-of-life stories, by an author I am very fond of.  Lorna’s writing is lovely to read, creatively crafted in alluring prose.  Be warned though, it can be a little bleak – reminiscent of a grey, rainy day, and there is little respite from a permeating feeling of sadness and melancholy.  But, this is not necessarily a bad thing; it is ultimately warm comfort – reading her work brings to mind a feeling of home; hot tomato...

This bleakly unsettling, yet triumphantly entertaining L.A.-dream-turned-sour tale, laced with sharp, very black – and sometimes side-splitting – comedy, is a real welcome interjection to the noir genre.  Addressing a subject which is vastly overlooked in our society: the scrapheap of middle-age – an age which takes everything from you, one piece at a time, it is very coarse and sour, and very, very good.

Set in the early-current decade – the post-recession Obama years – East of Li...

I was sent this book as a free review copy, and as I read – because I tend not to read blurb before my review reads – it became immediately clear that this was the second in a series.  Because I had also not read the first instalment, this fact did give me a few problems, in terms of context, setting and character backstory; I had to piece much of this together myself.  There were even aspects – such as the era in which it is set – which I didn’t realize until right near the end; fo...

“Looper” is not quite what I was expecting, but rather a pretty laid-back, inoffensive affair, telling the tale of a teenager who spend his 1980 summer break caddying on a pro golf course.  Although the tagline suggests this is a “coming of age” tale, I think perhaps the main character Ford is a couple of years too young to be described as that.  There are none of the usual puerile high-jinks which often accompany such a genre, and to be honest that is refreshing; Ford and his friends...

“Father Divine’s Bikes” is a fantastically written and utterly enthralling book by a very talented author.  It is at its best when a slice-of-life cultural expose, and for the most part this is what it is.  Set in wartime 1940s New Jersey, it portrays a melting pot of immigrant culture, with all the racial segregation, paranoia and employment resentment which comes with that.  The racial language is raw and offensive – there is certainly no whitewashed rewriting of history here, and t...

I grabbed this one from my TBR list because it was short, and took my curiosity.  I wasn’t doing a cop-out – looking for an easy ride to shrink my review pile (honest) – it was more that the mysterious blurb sold me on this book.  What was it about?  Was it a short story, a funny monologue… a witty self-help guide?  I had literally no idea; all I knew was that it looked like a lot of fun, and something I could read with a cuppa.

What it actually was is the second of those three, mi...

These may be 3-minute reads (one or two maybe a little longer), but it is clear from very early on that their composition was far from brief – the author has put a huge amount of work into each one of these stories, and moulded them in a very unique style.  Although only an average of 750 words, each displays a particularly impressive know...