Malasz

Caitlin's life is a mess. Her marriage to a man everyone else thinks is perfect has collapsed, along with her self-esteem, and breaking free seems the only option.  Nancy, her four-year-old daughter, used to talk all the time; in the car, at nursery, to her brother Joel. Then her parents split up. Her daddy moves out. And Nancy stops speaking.  Nancy's Auntie Eva, recently widowed and feeling alone, apart from the companionship of two bewildered pugs, is facing a future without her husband or the dreams she gave up for him.  But when Eva agrees to host her niece and nephew once a fortnight, Caitlin and Eva are made to face the different truths about their marriages - and about what they both really want .. . I always look forward to a new book by Lucy Dillon and her covers are always so enticing and the cover of All I Ever Wanted is no exception, this will call out to you from the shelves. When Patrick accepts a job transfer it sparks the end of his marriage to Caitlin. W...

I had come across Ruby Elliot on Twitter (@Rubyetc ) with some of her drawings so when her publishers asked if I would like a copy of her new book called It’s all Absolutely Fine I jumped at the chance as it was something completely different to what I usually read and was rather intrigued. It is no secret that I battle with anxiety and depression and sometimes it is so hard to put in to words how you are feeling to someone who has been lucky enough never to have suffered but what Ruby has managed to do is draw pictures that shout a thousand words making it understandable to those who don’t understand and also making them incredibly relatable to those who have found themselves going through the dark times. Ruby has managed to take the topic of mental health and sprinkle some humour to make it a lighter read. There was one particular picture that showed how yes you can acknowledge all the things that you have achieved but instead lets focus on that tiny little thing that I messed up and...

Christmas has arrived in the town of Wynbridge and it promises mince pies, mistletoe and a whole host of seasonal joy.  Ruby has finished with university and is heading home for the holidays to save up for her trip around the world in January. Against her father’s wishes, she takes on a stall at the local market, and sets about making it the best Christmas market stall ever. There’ll be bunting and mistletoe and maybe even a bit of mulled wine. But with a new retail park just opened on their doorstep, the market is under threat. So together with all the other stallholders, Ruby devises a plan to make sure that Wynbridge is the first port of call for everyone’s Christmas shopping needs.  The only thing standing in her way is Ruby’s ex, Steve. It’s pretty hard to concentrate on saving the world when he works on the stall opposite, especially when she realises that her feelings for him are still there… Heidi Swain takes us back to Wynbridge this Christmas with her new novel Mince...

Nonfiction Conscience defined by combat THE RISE OF A PRAIRIE STATESMAN:  The Life and Times of George McGovern By Thomas J. Knock 434 pp. Princeton University Press Reviewed by Diane Diekman The Rise Of A Prairie Statesman: The Life And Times Of George McGovern is the first volume of a major two-part biography on the most eloquent critic of the Vietnam War. Thomas J. Knock, a distinguished historian and teaching professor at Southern Methodist University, has written an aptly titled account of the life and times, through the 1968 elections, of this U.S. Senator from South Dakota. George McGovern was elected to a second term in the U.S. Senate in 1968, after losing to Hubert Humphrey for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. The two had been close friends until divided by the war in Vietnam. Early in the Presidential campaign, Humphrey picked up the torch for President Lyndon Johnson’s bombing approach, while McGovern supported Robert Kennedy’s de-escalatio...

Just because you can't remember, doesn't mean you can't love . . .   Anna Forster is thirty-eight years old and has started to suffer from the early stages of Alzheimer's. She knows that her family is doing what they believe to be best when they take her to an assisted living facility. But best can still hurt. What she also knows is that there's just one other resident her age at the facility - Luke.  As her disease steals more and more of her memory, Anna fights to hold on to all that's left. What remains are her feelings for Luke. Before long the pair fall in love, despite the forces that are set against them.  But when a tragic incident occurs, Luke and Anna's families decide to separate them. There is one person at the facility who can help the pair, but only if she's willing to risk everything for them . . . The Thing we Keep is the first book I have read by Sally Hepworth and I wasn’t too sure if it was going to be my kind of book if I am completel...

A dark speck slips from dormancy, where it has been trapped for millennia. It is utterly alien, singularly enthralling, and devastatingly lethal. What follows in its wake are chaos and death. There will be no escape. The opening strikes me as a mashup of the first third of King's Dreamcatcher (the good part) and an incident that took place near the end of Koontz's Watchers . James offers us a lovely picture of an idyllic natural setting and then unleashes his "speck" upon a hapless marmot. The speck has the ability to control minds in close proximity through suggestion at the most primal level. As the speck grows in size, it gains strength and sophistication. Things spiral out of control, leaving the reader to hope that someone can get the speck under control before its destruction reaches catastrophic proportions. The story starts with a universal omniscient narrator but switches to third person subjective once humans get involved in the story. The narrative is rel...

Today it is my stop on the Not Just for Christmas blog tour. I'm joined by the lovely Alex who is talking to us about her love of Christmas. Countdown to Christmas I absolutely adore Christmas, from the tips of my fingers right down to my toes; snuggly encased in my Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer slippers! There’s no other part of the year like it and I throw myself into the whole affair with much enthusiasm! I try to get all of my shopping done in plenty of time, having learnt over the years that trudging through the hordes of other disorganised shoppers on Christmas Eve really isn’t the best start to the perfect festivities.    On Christmas morning, I’m like a kid in a sweet shop! I LOVE giving presents to those special people in my life, even more than getting them myself and I spend ages picking the perfect gifts. Seeing the look on their faces when they rip open the paper is the best present I could have. But the loveliest thing about Christmas is being together with ...

I have been longing to replace my poor broken kindle for over a year now. I made the mistake of purchasing the Kindle Fire which is great to use as a tablet but personally I didn't like reading on it, I found I was getting headaches and just generally didn't enjoy reading on it.  I really wanted the Paperwhite but it came with a hefty price tag. BUT IT HAS FINALLY GONE ON SALE! The Paperwhite is usually £109.99 but it has been reduced to  £79.99 You need to get in quick though as this offer is only available until Tuesday 29th November. So get your Christmas shopping started early and make someone's Christmas with a gift that just keeps giving. Click on the link below to purchase. Available in White and Black. If the Paperwhite still has a hefty price tag for you then think about the Kindle Fire which is great for people looking for a lightweight device to read on as well as having the added use of using as a tablet. The Kindle Fire is only £29.99! Making it an affordable p...

Fiction Double trouble PARADIME – A NOVEL By Alan Glynn 255 pp. Picador Reviewed by Dennis C. Rizzo What would you do if you discovered someone was your double? Not just “kind-a looks like you”, but a real double. The laws of probability say it’s fairly possible. Some of us have had the experience, or know those who have. In  Paradime , Alan Glynn explores what might be, and what might result. Danny Lynch, a two-tour veteran of Iraq and sometime sous chef, now slipping in and out of work in Manhattan, stumbles onto what he thinks is an opportunity to make some cash. I then stand there, staring through the window, and it takes me a while to see it, for it to click – my own reflection in the glass is superimposed on Trager. He’s facing in my direction but is busy with his phone and doesn’t appear to see me. For my part, I switch focus from one image to the other, from mine to his, and back again, until I get confused...Trager scruffy and unshaven one second, me groomed and in a ...

Today it is my stop on the While You Were Sleeping blog tour and I am able to share with you the Prologue to give you a little teaser of what this book has to offer....... While You Were Sleeping   By Kathryn Croft   PROLOGUE   I open my eyes and know immediately something is wrong. Nothing is familiar. The dark blinds, shutting out all but a tiny sliver of sunlight, are not mine, and neither is the black silk sheet covering my body, nor the too-soft pillow beneath my head.   This is not my bedroom.   With eyes still groggy from sleep, I rely on all my other senses to comprehend where I am, but I have no idea.   Something else is wrong.   I should be warmer than this – it was over eighty degrees yesterday evening, yet now I feel cold. And as I become more alert, it only takes a few seconds to work out why this is.   I am naked.   Forcing my eyes to focus, I squint into the darkness, and try to take in the rest of the bedroom. Everything is wh...

Fiction Wild child, gentle wisent Codex Orféo: A Novel By Michael Charles Tobias 242 pp. Springer Reviewed by David E. Hoekenga, M.D. This is a thriller about geo-terrorism, anti-Semitism, the Holocaust as it reverberates decades later, and grasping global pharmaceutical syndicates. The more interesting subplot involves the intriguing biology of Belarus, including a hundred species of bees, bracket fungi (a new darling in the fight against cancer), six-hundred-year-old oak trees, red squirrels and the beloved, ancient wisent, or European wood bison.   However, there were also ticks that could crawl undetected up one’s anus and deliver the universally fatal encephalitis that had in recent years increased four-fold in prevalence. The form of the novel is most unusual. It consists of ninety short chapters, one only three sentences long. The author uses this technique to “propel the reader into a continuous zone of the unexpected.”   It also includes thirteen high-quality photos b...