Book Review: Mercury Falls by Robert Kroese

Mercury Falls is a comic novel about the approach of the Apocalypse and how preparations for it by the managements of heaven and hell become compromised by over-complicated beaurocracy and underhand deals.

This amusing story tells how a reporter, an indolent angel and a nerd end up having pivotal roles in the approaching Apocalypse, a world-ending deal that has been forged by heaven and hell after many thousands of years of legal wrangling. The writing here is extremely imaginitive, with angels and demons resembling employees of large corporatations and heaven and hell appearing like competing companies. Whilst the author creates humour from turning the divine into the banal and poking fun alternately at creationism and modern science, at times the humour is rather esoteric and this may prevent this novel from appealing to a wide range of readers.

Whilst the story of Mercury Falls is quite compelling and the constant parody of people's views of a very well-known series of children's books featuring an adolescent wizard, at times it becomes quite complicated and begins to resemble the beaurocracy it draws its humour from. However, a fine ending draws the reader in and made me laugh right up the conclusion where the main characters make a deal with the devil and come out on top.

This novel is very well-written, with a wonderful vocabulary and is clearly written by a mind that sees deeply into all sorts of situations and creates a book as surreal as a painting by Dali.

This is a very clever bookwith a good story and a lot of humour. However, it is way off the main stream and requires a similar imagination to the one that the author uses in order to appreciate it. I would recommend this book to readers who like the surreal, anything anti-establishment and irreverent. I would not recommend this book to religious fundamentalists who would probably take great offence to the almost certain delight of the author.

Score: 8.5/10

Book Review: Tricks of The Mind by Derren Brown

Tricks of The Mind is an insight into the sleight of hand, distractive, memory and psychological techniques used by the British mentalist showman, Derren Brown. Whilst this book examines the way in which people's perceptions and beliefs can be manipulated for magical effect, it is not a manual on how to perform such tricks as predictions, disappearances and feats of memory.

In Tricks of The Mind, Derren Brown very skillfully and often humourously examines psychology, illusion and how people can be made to believe things that are not real in a way that hints at how these techniques are used in his shows.

As a showman of the highest order, Derren Brown does reveal a trick or two early on to lure in his audience, often leading them on to quite philosophical points, but also sometimes ranting in a manner that makes the reader feel like they are sitting next to the author in a bar, discussing the application of manipulative techniques over a beer. As well as showmanship and illusion, Derren discusses religion and the way in which mediums use similar techniques as his to fool vulnerable people.

This is a truly fantastic book, engaging at every level, discussing complicated philosphies, techniques and beliefs in an amusing, informative and interactive way using a memorable vocabulary. The chapter on memory techniques is particularly enthralling and I was able to achieve remarkable feats of memory soon after reading the book, indeed I can still remember a list of 20 items given in the book, three months after reading it.

I would recommend this book to a wide variety of thoughtful readers, anyone interested in the way the mind works, philosphy, magic, showmanship, religion, indeed anyone who enjoys challenging ideas and, of course, anyone who wants to improve their memory or get a small insight into how Derren performs his remarkable "tricks".

Score: 10/10

Books to be Reviewed: Mercury Falls by Robert Kroese

Thanks to Robert Kroese for sending me a copy of his book, Mercury Falls, for reviewing. This is a comic novel about the adventures of a rogue angel at the brink of the apocalypse.

"Years of covering the antics of End Times cults for The Banner, a religious news magazine, have left Christine Temetri not only jaded but seriously questioning her career choice. That is, until she meets Mercury, an anti-establishment angel who's frittering his time away whipping up batches of Rice Krispy Treats and perfecting his ping-pong backhand instead of doing his job: helping to orchestrate Armageddon. With the end near and angels and demons debating the finer political points of the Apocalypse, Christine and Mercury accidentally foil an attempt to assassinate one Karl Grissom, a thirty-seven-year-old film school dropout about to make his big break as the Antichrist. Now, to save the world, she must negotiate the byzantine bureaucracies of Heaven and Hell and convince the apathetic Mercury to take a stand, all the while putting up with the obnoxious mouth-breathing Antichrist."

A review will soon appear here, until then readers can order a copy here - Mercury Falls.

Book Review: Thoughts, Life of a Suicide by Dillan Kane

This book is a self-published attempt to look at understanding suicide and how those that are left behind deal with the issue. The author is the brother of someone who committed suicide at a young age and someone who has worked in the mental health system with those who have suicidal tendencies.

Whilst this book is written from the heart, I found that the author focusses on his own feelings too much and does not really provide an insight into how suicidal people feel or what makes them feel that way. Disappointingly, the story of the author's brother is not really explored properly and I feel that if it had, a more interesting and meaningful book would have been the result.

However, I found that the first chapter of Thoughts was quite moving when the author reflects on the last days of his father's life. This may have been because it made me think of a similar situation with my own father. With this in mind those who know suicidal people may enjoy this book, they may find a connection.

Unfortunately, though, the book does not grab the reader, jumping between themes and repeating itself again and again. No doubt writing it provided therapy for the author but the reader is left wanting some deeper insight.

Apart from repetitive themes and nonsense about mediums by far the biggest problem this book has is its lack of editing. There is almost not a single page that is not littered with spelling errors and basic grammatical mistakes, on one page I found 12 such errors! Whilst no one is perfect, this level of bad English is inexcusable and I found it really irritating and it made understanding some sections difficult and detracted from what is a heartfelt message.

Although I found this book unappealing it is possible that others, who have experience of knowing people who have attempted suicide or successfully committed suicide, will find something to connect with here and may find it comforting. I would certainly not recommend it to anyone else.

Score: 2/10

Squidoo Page on Dr Seuss's Top 5 Books

I have loved Dr Seuss's books since I was a kid, my favourites being Green Eggs and Ham and The Sneetches. I still read these books as an adult.

Recently I made a page on squidoo.com about what I think are the best 5 Dr Seuss books out there. There is a bit of information about Dr Seuss himself there too and some links to other Dr Seuss books.

Please take a look: The Best 5 Books By Dr Seuss.

Book Review: French Revolutions by Tim Moore

French Revolutions is the true and humourous tale of one man's attempt to cycle around France following the route of the 2000 Tour De France. Whilst this attempt is largely successful, the author does resort to cheating on a number of occasions, something he justifies by outlining the history (tradition?) of cheating in the real Tour. The take is interspersed with such factual anecdotes about the Tour De France which gives it another dimension.

This is a well-written and interesting story which takes the reader through the French countryside and the effort it takes to complete the Tour even at a slow pace, imparting something of the author's emotional journey as he becomes a more accomplished cyclist.

Whilst the details of French Revolutions are interesting the humour falls short of anything but mildly amusing, although it is sufficient to add an element to the book. However, I found myself turning the pages wanting to know the progress of Tim Moore as he, bit by bit, improves as a cyclist and manages ever-increasing feats of bicycling endurance.

This is a very enjoyable book but I didn't really understand why the author resorted to cutting out parts of the route - if he wanted to cycle the route of the Tour De France why didn't he do just that rather than truncate the journey? For me, this slightly detracted from the tale.

For readers who enjoy travel literature this is a good choice with an engaging story, amusing anecdotes and fun facts about the Tour De France. I recommend this book to a wide range of readers.

Score: 9/10

Books to be Reviewed: Thoughts - Life of a Suicide by Dillan Kane

Thanks to Greg Shelangoski for sending me a copy of Thoughts: Life of a Suicide by Dillan Kane for reviewing. This book aims to provoke thoughts on what makes people commit suicide and what happens afterwards in an attempt to prevent further suicides; the book is authored by the brother of a suicide and is self-published through Author House.

"My brother committed suicide in 1999 at the age of 16. Like any suicide it didn't seem to need to have to happen,but it did. This is my attempt to try to understand the impulses of suicide and heal from the aftermath. It is also my attempt to define what death is and what it means to me,interwined with what life means. "

A review will soon appear here but until then readers can order a copy from Amazon: Thoughts: Life of a Suicide.

Book Review: The Case of The Missing Books by Ian Sansom

The Case of the Missing Library Books is the first in a series of comedic novels featuring the librarian Israel Armstrong who becomes an unlikely detective. Israel arrives, from London, in small and obsure Irish town where outsiders are made to feel as such. he quickly finds that he has been downgraded to mobile librarian and that he must locate all 14000 missing books.

This is an interesting yarn which draws heavily on Israel's discomfort and inability to fit in with the locals for sources of humour but there is a lot of situational amusement to be derived from this book too. Cultural stereotypes are used a lot in this story but they are not flogged and largely occur because of Israel's lack of social skills and preconceived ideas.

Israel is an unconventional hero both because of his physical limitations and unwillingness to engage the situation, and this is refreshing in a literary world of so many cliched lead characters. Unfortunately, many of the large number of characters that are introduced are intriguingly interesting but not expanded upon; one gets the impresion that the author is saving many of them for subsequent novels.

This book is also appealing due to the way that Israel gradually becomes part of the community and that turns out to be central to solving the mystery of the missing books.

I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone as its easy-to-read style, amusing style and interesting story will engage almost any level and age of reader.

Score: 8.5/10

The Guv'nor by Lenny Mclean & Peter Gerrard

The Guv'nor is the nickname and biography of Lenny McLean and catalogues his violent progress in the east end of London from abused child to petty thief, hard man, minder, bare-knuckle boxer to actor.

Although this is a biography it has the feel of an autobiography due to its first person narrative and use of colloquial English, giving it a really authentic feel and making it as if The Guv'nor is telling his story directly to the reader and makes for unusual and interesting reading. Indeed the litany of misdeeds and violence which are described in Lenny McLean's life would sound ridiculous if told in any other way.

Whilst this is the story of a man who earned his living through violence or the threats of violence this book in no way glorifies it and the reader very quickly becomes aware of a code of honour which is religiously adhered to among these characters of the underworld; the author does exceedingly well to introduce the reader to other aspects of the Guv'nor's personality.

As well as giving an insight into the lives of such characters, this book gives the reader a glimpse of the British judicial system and reveals that it is far from perfect, indeed the final chapters of this story describe how McLean spends one year in prison before even receiving a trial.

Whilst this is a surprisingly interesting and captivating read much of the book has the same theme and rythym, recalling bare-knuckle boxing matches, fights and other violent interludes and toward the last third of the book this becomes a little repetitive. However, the ending is engaging enough to wrest the book away from becoming dull and I think most readers will be left feeling like the Guv'nor is someone they could have got on with.

I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy biographies and tales of misadventure, particularly those of gandland violence in London in the 60s to the 90s. This is a surprisingly interesting story and I think many readers would enjoy it.

Score: 7.5/10

Book Review: Hit List by Lawrence Block

Hit List by Lawrence Block is a story of a professional hitman, John Keller, for whom things begin to go wrong. Whereas most of his jobs have run smoothly, a few begin to take a strange twist whereby people loosely connected to Keller die and he begins to get jumpy. After a few close incidents he realises that someone is out to get him and he is eventually forced to take out a hit on the hitman who is trying to hit him.

Whilst the premise of this story is interesting and has the possibility for some rather dark humour, it is woefully padded out with a large amount of barely relevant incidents such as Keller doing jury duty and an unacceptable amount of banal sarcastic dialogue.

Despite the many bad points of this novel, the character of Keller is an interesting one and he is developed quite considerably and the plot, although short, does make the reader want to find out what happens. Unfortunately, the twist is so obvious that I could see it coming way before the end and as such the ending was a complete washout.

This book is okay to pass the time with and with an interesting plot idea and lead character, it isn't a complete waste of time, but don't go out of the way to buy it.

Score: 5/10