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What Rhymes With Bastard? By Linda Robertson

What does rhyme with bastard? Astard, Castard, Dastard? Maybe Mastered, or Plastered?

What rhymes with bastard, is the hilarious true story of Linda Robertson’s past relationship, when her partner Jack went from wrwbnice boyfriend to plastered bastard and the songs she wrote about the events that followed. It is an eye-opening and hilarious take on what happens at the end of a relationship and how things can go from bad to completely down to toilet in the blink of an eye.

Linda and the situations she finds herself in over the course of the book will have you cringing, laughing out loud and thinking of what happened your relationship ended. The book is paced nicely, and you do feel for her and what she is going through. Any one can, whether you are a man or a woman.

It is worse checking out if you are interested in true stories and if you are anti romantic novels. ‘What Rhymes with Bastard’ is now available on Amazon and in any local book store.

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Books From My Youth

Books From My Youth: Animorphs

Animorphs number one

Memories, so many Memories.

I’m starting to see a little pattern here. A lot of the books that I read in my youth became TV programmes in the 90s, much like books that were publish in the early 2000s beings adapted to the big screen.

Animorphs, to me, is to science fictions books what Goosebumps was to horror. It bad me like the science fiction genre and was a great series that had such as impact on me that it spilled over into my everyday life. For example the first (and only) fan fiction I wrote was based on the series and I developed  a crush on a boy because  he looked like the character Marco. Uh enough of that, here is Animorphs.

Created by K. A. Applegate, it followed five human teenagers, Jake, Cassie, Marco, Rachel and Tobias as well as their alien ally, Aximili Esfarrouth Isthill nicknamed Ax, as they fight an unseen war again an invading alien race called Yeerks, parasitic slug like creatures that control a host by sliding into the ear and taking over the brain. The term Animorphs comes from the six protagonists’ ability to change into any animal that they touched, a gift given to them by Ax’s race to help them fight the war that  came to Earth. Continue reading

Man Week Title Card

Ghostman by Roger Hobbs

Ghostman

‘ People See What You Tell Them To See….” – Isn’t Jack

There is a man out there, you don’t know him. You’ve probably met him once, but you still wouldn’t know he exists. He is a man who oozes charm and confidence. He could talk his way into congress if he wanted to.

You could stare at him all day and not know who is or what he looks like and once he walks away he’ll be gone forever. No one would ever know that he existed because -

He’s a Ghostman.

The Plot

Ghostman is a heart pounding, adrenaline pumping Crime thriller by new author Roger Hobbs. When an Atlantic City casino heist goes awry, the Ghostman, whose name isn’t Jack, is called in to investigate what went down. His caller? The man who orchestrated the heist. The stakes? He has less than 40 hours to discover what went wrong and recover the bag has gone missing. The bag with 1.2 million dollars.

The Character

‘Isn’t Jack’ is an amazingly complicated protagonist. He’s a loner, a master of disguise, a bit of a genius, paranoid, cautious, charming and confident. It is understandable that he wouldn’t go out into the real world and mingle with others, opting to keep to himself in his loft. He packs light and has several hiding places all over the world, just in case anything goes wrong he could just, in his words, ‘ put his hard drive in the microwave and be on the next plane to Russia’. During his investigation, the reader is given an insight into his past, he tells you about a job that went bad five years before, which he, as well as the mastermind behind the job, blames himself for. In this the reader is introduced to his mentor as she teaches him one finally trick.

You also learn about his relationship with the master mind behind the job. THIS job.

Overall

Ghostman was an amazing read, you’ll find yourself looking those who walk past you on the street, wondering if they were Ghostmen. The book shows that Hobbs knows what he talking about. It is well researched and well written. The characters are likable and you can identify with them, although you have to keep reminding yourself that these people are not the heroes. They are thieves and criminals. Nevertheless you will find yourself cheering for Isn’t Jack and hooked to all 60 chapters.

In the UK Ghostman was published by Random House Publishing, you can buy the books, in hard back, paperback and eBook on Amazon, the Random House website and any major Book stores under the Crime/Fiction section.

 

Note: I called him ‘Isn’t Jack’ because his name, although he is called that by several of the characters, isn’t Jack. 

Books From My Youth

Books from My Youth: Grizzly Tales For Gruesome Kids

Goosebumps was not the only kids horror series I encountered during my youth. There was a series that actually gave me nightmares. Oh my Great Britain really do not like their children.

GrizzlyTales

You know, for kids. It says so….and its not really. It’s not really for kids. It’s….horrifying. It’s Nightmare fuel for Kids.

Grizzly Tales For Gruesome Kids was written by Jamie Rix and was originally published in 1990. In 1999 the books were made into a TV series for British Television channel ITV and in 2010 the series was re invented and picked up by Nickelodeon UK and Nicktoons UK. Continue reading

Dirtygirls

Book Review: The Dirty Girls Book Club by Savanna Fox

Dirtygirls

” I apologize for being late I left my meeting a few blocks away and that’s when my heel snapped off” She hated to look unprofessional. – Georgia a few seconds after meeting Woody.

‘The Dirty Girls Book Club’  written by Savanna Fox tells the story of 25 year old widow Georgia Malone, a Marketing Executive who is a part of a book club. Her life is turned upside down when she meets Woody Hanrahan, a famous Canadian Hockey player who she has to work with for an ad campaign.

The Plot
Surrounding the life of Georgia, the plot is about her relationship with the hockey player and the growth of their relationship while she struggles with their first encounter and her past. It also focuses on Woody and his trials and tribulations surrounding his career, his mother and his manager.

The Characters
Georgia as a character is okay, she isn’t very likable but she isn’t unlikable either. In Chapter 1, you do sympathize with her as a widow.  Married at a young age,  her husband was taken from her and she has come to  accepts that her soul mate is gone. She states that she is comfortable with her life, going  as far as to proclaim her celibacy, something she has dealt with during her teens. That is likable Georgia, unlikable Georgia appears when she first meets Woody in Chapter 2.  It is shown that she is sexually attracted to Woody, something all women can relate to. However it does go a bit further than that. In Chapter 4 all her attributes, that we have come to love about her, completely disappears as the two  sleep together 5 minutes after  meeting. This portrays Georgia in a different and unflattering light in my eyes, saying that women just think they are strong but put a good looking muscly man in front of them and they will give into anything. Of course she quickly regrets this and getting to know Woody, she decides would like a relationship with him. Continue reading

Books From My Youth

Books From My Youth: Goosebumps

Horror is my favourite genre in everything, books, movies and television. I don’t know what it is but there is something about being scared that just appeals to me. My mom is also a horror fan, we even bonded over the genre when I came to live with her. The first movie I remember watching with her was 1986′s Maximum Overdrive, a film that was loosely based on the short story ‘Trucks’ by Horror icon Stephen King.

My love for the horror genre started with a simple book series that became so popular that they were adapted into a television series Welcome_to_Dead_Houseon Fox Kids (Now called Disney XD). It was called Goosebumps and it was awesome! Written by the Kids Spook King R.L. Stine, the series had its run from 1992 – 1997 with a few spin offs and were published by Scholastic Publishings. Filled with a mix of horror, humor and the supernatural, the books each had their own story line, including those that were meant to be sequels to others, and were published in chronological order. As I look back on them now (i.e. reading through the book plots on Wikipedia) the book were relatively tamed in their scares. Some were cautionary tales (much like another horrifying horror book series that my nieces now enjoy but I’ll get back to those later) and others often showed kids being resourceful, getting out of sticky situations, and defeating evil. Although in the Goosebumps universe adults did suffer a bit from, ‘Stupid Adults Who Don’t Listen To Their Kids’ Syndrome. Continue reading

Left to tell

‘Left To Tell’ An Amazing Story of A Girl Surviving The Rwandan Genocide.

Left to tell

“One night I heard screaming not far from the house, and then a baby crying. The killers must have slain the mother and left her infant to die in the road. The child wailed all night; by morning, its cries were feeble and sporadic, and by nightfall, it was silent. I heard dogs snarling near by and shivered as I thought about how that baby’s life had ended.”

Saturday April 6th marks the 19th anniversary of the tragic events of the Rwandan Genocide. In 1994 the African country was hit with rapid violence that broke out between two Rwandan Tribes, the Hutu and Tutsi. For 4 months, starting in April and ending in July the Hutu killed around 500,000 to 1 million Tutsi. Out of the survivors one was Immaculee Illbagiza, who at the age of 19 experienced the horror of those dark days. Written by Steve Erwin with the insight of Immaculee, you are taken on a journey from her safe and innocent beginnings, living with her father, mother and brothers. Like any normal girl she went to school, had friends and was taught to have a very personal relationship with God.

From Humble Beginnings

Throughout the first chapter Immaculee paints a playful picture of her life, how she went to church with her family, and the activities she did with her father, mother and brothers. She also gives an insight into the first time she was met with racist discrimination at school. Continue reading

poppet-hp-2012

Jack Caffrey in Poppet by Mo Hayder

Mental asylums have long been my favourite setting for a good horror novel. There’s just something about total insanity and the fact that you can’t trust your own senses that makes it that much scarier. Mo Hayder depicts this setting in a very natural and realistic way, as her words comes to life in my mind. Reading about how a shared illusion can spread like a virus at a mental hospital full of impressionable people, and how any sane person who doesn’t watch out can themselves get wrapped up in this hallucination.

The latest Jack Caffrey novel starts out strong by depicting the Monster Mother in her attempt to “hide herself” in a rather graphic and unexpected way that made my stomach curl up. In two short paragraphs, I had to pause three times just to look away from the words. To even try to imagine what is going on inside the head of these people is very hard, but Hayder makes it easier when you get to experience everything from inside the head of Detective Inspector Jack Caffrey, as he stares down the eyes of evil itself in this nerve-wrecking thriller.

Poppet by Mo Hayder is a sure buy for me and it was released yesterday (March 28th) and is available at Amazon and a teaser from the first chapter can be found Dead Good Books.

The Origin of Sex

The Origin of Sex by Faramerz Dabhoiwala

The Origin of Sex

” Dabhiwala’s book argues that while most of western history was set in its strict roles and attitudes towards out of marriage sexual relationships, it was all shattered in the 1600s and 1800s by an unlikely revolutionary idea that heard many say that sex is a private act and that the mortal thoughts of some should not be forced on to others.”

Sex, do you remember when it was stigma to talk about sex openly? Do you remember when sex out of marriage was not socially acceptable? Oh have the times changed. It makes you wonder if our modern society has made sex less valuable. There is no denying that sex, particularly among our younger generation (those aged 15- 18) see sex as nothing more than an act simply done with no value or importance any more. Do you ever wonder where it all  began?

English author Faramerz Dabhoiwala answers this question with his first book The Origin of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution. Dabhiwala’s book argues that while most of western history lived by  its strict roles and attitudes towards out of wedlock sexual relationships, it was all shattered in the 1600s and 1800s by an unlikely revolutionary idea that stated ‘sex is a private act and that the mortal thoughts of some should not be forced on to others.’

This book sounds like an interesting read and would work wonders for those who are taking a course in college about the history of sex or the ideology surrounding society and sex or even the modern views of sexual relationships when compared to the invention of pornography. There is also the age old feud of Morality versus Freedom  Dabhoiwala does give a lot of great points and does point out that our modern culture of sex is helping to fuel the ideas the revolution began in the 1600s and 1800s. Although it will always comes back to the mortality or the freedom feud.

Overall this is worth seeking out if you are interested in the subject and history. It is very educational and to me, it is a great read that will have you thinking about both sides of the argument.

You can find a copy on Amazon as well as Penguin Publishings.

shadowfever

The End Of MacKayla’s Story: Shadowfever by Karen Moning

shadowfever

““Evil is a completely different creature, Mac. Evil is bad that believes it’s good.”” Shadowfever

Mackayla Lane has been on the journey of a life time, from loosing her sister, to travelling to Dublin in search for Alina’s killer, she had no idea her life would become what it is now. When she begun she had no idea what she was getting herself into, now it has come to a head. The wall between our world and the fae world is beginning to crumble and Mackayla is beginning to see that things will never be the same again.

Shadowfever is the fifth book of the Fever series and the final in Mackayla’s story. It was a truly amazing journey seeing her grow in front of us as a character. This book sees not only the reveal of Alina’s killer but the epic battle between Fae and humans and Mackayla meeting someone who she thought had been lost to her a long time ago. This book is a fitting ending to MacKayla’s story, as you read about what the character is going through, you can feel a sense of helplessness and empowerment Mackayla gains in her travel and which contributes to her growth as a character and by the end you will feel that her anger is justified towards those around her.

Personally I enjoyed the Fever Series so far, and I’m not sure that I’ll continue onto Dani’s story, but if I do pick up t ‘Iced’ I’ll have a look and write something down about it. Karen Moning as a writer is very creative in her stories, and does an excellent job of creating an immersive universe that her readers enjoy. Although on the adult side of the book shelf I would place up there with the likes of Christopher Pike, Celia Rees and K A Applegate of Animorph’s fame. She created another series named the Highlander Series, and I strongly suggest that you go out there and read those books.

Since I forgot to add this to the other articles I’ll plug it here: You can find the Fever Series on Amazon in both paper back, hard back and Kindle Edition.