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30/10/2018 0 Comments

Review: The Sentence is Death

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz
Page length: 384 pages
Genre: Crime Fiction
Publication Date: 1 November 2018
Publisher: Cornerstone Digital
Source: ARC via NetGalley
 
Stars:  5 out of 5
 
Link: AMAZON (UK)

 
ABOUT THE SENTENCE IS DEATH
 
You shouldn’t be here. It’s too late…’
 
These, heard over the phone, were the last recorded words of successful celebrity-divorce lawyer Richard Pryce, found bludgeoned to death in his bachelor pad with a bottle of wine – a 1982 Chateau Lafite worth £3,000, to be precise.
 
Odd, considering he didn’t drink. Why this bottle? And why those words? And why was a three-digit number painted on the wall by the killer? And, most importantly, which of the man’s many, many enemies did the deed?
 
Baffled, the police are forced to bring in Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, the author Anthony, who’s really getting rather good at this murder investigation business.
 
But as Hawthorne takes on the case with characteristic relish, it becomes clear that he, too, has secrets to hide. As our reluctant narrator becomes ever more embroiled in the case, he realises that these secrets must be exposed – even at the risk of death…
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My Review:

As I really enjoyed Mr Horowitz's new Sherlock Holmes in The House of Silk, I was very excited to get the chance to read The Sentence is Death. I read the book in two days and couldn't put it down – it was a sumptuous way to spend the weekend.
 
Anthony is a writer, (the writer of this book and many others) and Daniel is an ex-policeman turned private detective. I knew immediately I was going to be a fan of Daniel and Tony's pairing. The book opens on the television set for Foyle's War (I couldn't help but check – yes, Mr Horowitz was indeed a writer for said television programme), when Daniel Hawthorne comes blustering onto set ruining an expensive take.
 
The race to solve the murder was on…. Between Daniel and Tony, and between them and the police. A second death that was possibly a second murder, possibly a suicide, or possibly an accident muddied the waters. There were enough clues and red herrings to keep me wondering throughout the book.
 
I didn't realize this was the second book in the Daniel Hawthorne series.
And luckily I can now binge straight away on more Daniel Hawthorne with the first in the series The Word is Murder.
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
 
Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review. 
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28/10/2018 0 Comments

Review: Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture
Edited by Roxane Gay
Genre: Non-Fiction/Essays
Publication Date: 1 November 2018
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Source: ARC via NetGalley
 
Stars:  5 out of 5
 
Link: AMAZON (UK)


 
ABOUT NOT THAT BAD: DISPATCHED FROM RAPE CULTURE
 
In this valuable and revealing anthology, cultural critic and bestselling author Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are "routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied" for speaking out. Contributions include essays from established and up-and-coming writers, performers, and critics, including actors Ally Sheedy and Gabrielle Union and writers Amy Jo Burns, Lyz Lenz, and Claire Schwartz. Covering a wide range of topics and experiences, from an exploration of the rape epidemic embedded in the refugee crisis to first-person accounts of child molestation, this collection is often deeply personal and is always unflinchingly honest. Like Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me, Not That Bad will resonate with every reader, saying "something in totality that we cannot say alone."
 
Searing and heartbreakingly candid, this provocative collection both reflects the world we live in and offers a call to arms insisting that "not that bad" must no longer be good enough.
 
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My Review:

This book is an excellent collection of essays, at a pivotal time.
 
Ms Gay's introduction starts:
When I was twelve years old, I was gang-raped in the woods behind my neighborhood by a group of boys with the dangerous intentions of bad men.
 
The above may be uncomfortable reading, however it gives an expectation of the contents. The essays are sad, raw, revealing, heart-breaking and they left me feeling downright angry. Having read this book in the days after Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed onto the Supreme Court, and in the words of John Oliver “We believe you [Dr Ford]— we just don’t care.” I couldn't help but think repeatedly, what madness are we living in? A world where women in spite psychical assaults, thank their lucky stars that at least they are still alive. That's the bare minimum; at least he didn't kill me.
 
The accounts will offer solidarity to survivors and relief to those who encountered near misses. It is a shame that the people who really should read this book (rape apologists, perpetrators of abuse, and aggression against women) almost certainly won't pick up Not That Bad.
 
Thank you Roxane Gay for compiling these essays. They will stay with me forever.
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
 
Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review. 
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24/10/2018 0 Comments

Review: A Spark of Light

A Spark Of Light by Jodi Picoult
Page length: 368 pages
Genre: Political Fiction/Women's Fiction
Publication Date: 30 October 2018
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Source: ARC via NetGalley
 
Stars:  5 out of 5

 
Link: AMAZON (UK)

 
ABOUT A SPARK OF LIGHT
 
The Center for women's reproductive health offers a last chance at hope - but nobody ends up there by choice.
 
Its very existence is controversial, and to the demonstrators who barricade the building every day, the service it offers is no different from legalised murder.
 
Now life and death decisions are being made horrifyingly real: a lone protester with a gun has taken the staff, patients and visitors hostage.
 
Starting at the tensest moment in the negotiations for their release, A Spark of Light unravels backwards, revealing hour by urgent hour what brought each of these people - the gunman, the negotiator, the doctors, nurses and women who have come to them for treatment - to this point.
 
And certainties unwind as truths and secrets are peeled away, revealing the complexity of balancing the right to life with the right to choose.
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My Review:

Wow! What a book.
 
Forgive my ignorance for not knowing the global landscape on abortion laws – this Wikipedia page helped show different laws and attitudes around the world.
 
What timing for this exceptional book. At a time where women's reproductive rights are going through a huge change (Ireland's referendum to repeal the 8th) and the US seeming het up about overturning Roe vs Wade (read here for what a overturning could automatically set off in respective US states).

Ms Picoult's highly-skilled storytelling is a wonder to behold. The story starts in a women's health centre, and a gunman has taken staff and patients hostage. The hostage negotiator discovers his own sister and daughter are amongst those held.
 
As the hostages struggle to stay alive, we hear the interwoven backgrounds and fateful journeys of how every character including the gunman made it to be present at the health centre that ill-fated day. The time lines and the characters stories are changed regularly, which could be confusing but offers detailed glimpse at each of their own respective histories.
 
The book was very engaging and I found myself trying to sneak another page wherever I could between my nightly bedtime reading. (In the queue at the bank, whilst being put on hold, waiting for the kettle to boil).
 
There is an excerpt from A Spark of Light on Jodi Picoult's website – get stuck in!
https://www.jodipicoult.com/a-spark-of-light.html

 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
 
Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review. 
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17/10/2018 0 Comments

Review: Hippie

Hippie by Paulo Coelho
Page length: 304 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Date: 25 September 2018
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Source: ARC via NetGalley
 
Stars:  5 out of 5
 
Link: AMAZON (UK)

 
ABOUT HIPPIE
 
Drawing on the rich experience of his own life, bestselling author Paulo Coelho takes us back in time to relive the dreams of a generation that longed for peace and dared to challenge the established social order.
 
In HIPPIE, he tells the story of Paulo, a skinny Brazilian with a goatee and long hair, setting off on a journey in search of a deeper meaning for his life.
 
He travels on the famous ‘Death Train to Bolivia’, then on to Peru, later hitchhiking through Chile and Argentina. In the famous Dam Square in Amsterdam he finds young people playing music, while discussing sexual liberation, the expansion of consciousness and the search for an inner truth.
 
There he meets Karla, a Dutch woman in her twenties who has been waiting to find the ideal companion to accompany her on the fabled hippie trail to Nepal. Together with their fellow travellers, they embark on a trip aboard the Magic Bus, heading across Europe and Central Asia to Kathmandu.
 
For everyone, the journey is transformative. For Paulo and Karla it is a life-defining love story that leads to choices that will set the course of the rest of their lives.
 
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My Review:

I really enjoyed Paula Coelho's The Alchemist and I jumped at the opportunity of reading Hippie. I shopped short of reading Mr Coelho's Wikipedia page for fear of giving any of his story away.
 
Hippie starts:
The stories that follow come from my personal experiences. I've altered the order, names, and details of the people here, I was forced to condense some scenes, but everything that follows truly happened to me. I've used the third person because this allowed me to give characters unique voices with which to describe their lives.
 
With the above in mind, there are elements that are unbelievable – but as they say – truth is stranger than fiction!
 
It was a quick read, but it still checked in at over 300 pages. In the first chapter I felt I had time-travelled to the seventies and I was reminded of the importance of travel and exploration for the body and mind. What I was expecting; a memoir of hippie-esque travels of free-love and discovery was anything but. It really did contain the bricks and mortar, good and bad experiences (woah, one really bad experience!), which maketh the man. I've not visited South America or Istanbul, nor even Amsterdam. The vivid descriptions of these exotic sounding far-flung lands incited wanderlust.
 
A beautiful, if unexpected, book about love and self-discovery.
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
 
Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review. 
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9/10/2018 0 Comments

New Jack Reacher Preview - Past Tense

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I love Jack Reacher, and can't wait for the next installment - Past Tense!

Past Tense, the brand new Jack Reacher thriller by Lee Child, follows our hero on a quest into his father’s past and climaxes in the most nail-biting, hair-raising ticking time bomb of an adventure yet.

Jack Reacher plans to follow the autumn sun on an epic road trip across America, from Maine to California. He doesn’t get far. On a country road deep in the New England woods, he sees a sign to a place he has never been – the town where his father was born. What’s one extra day? He takes the detour.

At the very same moment, close by, a car breaks down. Two young Canadians are trying to get to New York City to sell a treasure. They’re stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere. It’s a strange place… but it’s all there is.
The next morning in the city clerk’s office, Reacher asks about the old family home. He’s told no one named Reacher ever lived in that town. He knows his father never went back. But was he ever there in the first place? The present can be tense, but the past can be worse.


Dead Good Books have the first three chapters of Past Tense by Lee Child - click here to read!

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