Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Books to be Reviewed: Against The Flow by Tom Fort

Thanks to Natalie Higgins for sending me a copy of Against the Flow by Tom Fort for reviewing. This is a travel book about one man's travels and angling adventures around Eastern Europe on two trips, one just after the collapse of Communism and one more recent.

"Twenty years ago, Tom Fort drove his little red car onto the ferry at Felixstowe, bound for all points east. Eastern Europe was still a faraway place, just emerging from its half-century of waking nightmare, blinking, injured, full of fears but importantly full of hope too. Things were different then. Czechoslovakia was still Czechoslovakia, Russia was the USSR and the Warsaw Pact had not formally dissolved. But what did exist then, as they do now, were the rivers: the nations' lifeblood. It was along and by these rivers that Fort travelled around Eastern Europe meeting its people and immersing himself in its culture. Since that trip though, much has changed and in more recent years around one million Poles have settled in Britain. Fort's local paper has a Polish edition, his supermarket has a full range of Polish bread, sausage and beer and an influx of Polish businesses opened in his town centre. And it's not just the Poles, his gym has a Lithuanian trainer and the woman who cuts his hair is from Hungary. As a tide of people began to leave Eastern Europe and settle in the UK, Tom Fort started to wonder about what they were leaving behind and whether the friends he had made all those years ago remained. And so he decided to make the journey again."

A review will soon appear here. For those that want to read it for themselves now, it is available here: Against the Flow.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Books to be Reviewed: The Missing by Jane Casey

Thanks to Caroline Newbury for sending me a copy of The Missing by Jane Casey for reviewing, this is her first novel and deals with the investigation of a missing child.

"Jenny Shepherd is twelve years old and missing...Her teacher, Sarah Finch, knows better than most that the chances of finding her alive are diminishing with every day she is gone. As a little girl her older brother had gone out to play one day and never returned. The strain of never knowing what has happened to Charlie had ripped Sarah's family apart. Now in her early twenties, she is back living at home, trapped with a mother who drinks too much and keeps her brother's bedroom as a shrine to his memory. Then, horrifically, it is Sarah who finds Jenny's body, beaten and abandoned in the woods near her home. As she's drawn into the police investigation and the heart of a media storm, Sarah's presence arouses suspicion too. But it not just the police who are watching her... "

A review will soon appear here. For those that want to purchase a copy now, orders can be placed here: The Missing.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Book Review: The Seven Gifts by John Mellor


The Seven Gifts, by John Mellor, is small volume that contains a set of seven delightfully bizarre, short allegorical tales linked together by the story of a boy who is in the process of being tutored by an angel for the purpose of delivering seven gifts that have been bestowed upon earth.

This highly unusual book delivers seven thought-provoking stories, laced with a large collection of some of the most strange and memorable characters that have ever appeared together in a book. Each tale can be read and enjoyed in isolation from the others, however, the linking narrative of the boy and angel make this far more than just a collection of short stories and provides a clearer picture as to the meaning of each tale. So original and full of potential are these stories that readers are sure to examine, at least some of them, several times even though they are easy to read.