Welcome my lovely bookophiles to my spotlight post for Damp Pebbles Blog Tours, thank you to Emma Welton for all her help@damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours
Please find below all the lovely book information for this interesting & rather creepy read. If you are looking for something otherworldly this Halloween weekend, could this be the book for you?
Publishing Information:
All Due Respect Books on 21st August 2020, in digital and paperback formats
A man wakes up in present-day Alaskan wilderness with no idea who he is, nothing on him save an empty journal with the date 1898 and a mirror. He sees another man hunting nearby, astounded that they look exactly alike except for his own beard. After following this other man home, he witnesses a wife and child that brings forth a rush of memories of his own wife and child, except he’s certain they do not exist in modern times—but from his life in the late 1800s.
After recalling his name is Wyatt, he worms his way into his doppelganger Travis Barlow’s life. Memories become unearthed the more time he spends, making him believe that he’d been frozen after coming to Alaska during the Gold Rush and that Travis is his great-great grandson. Wyatt is certain gold still exists in the area and finding it with Travis will ingratiate himself to the family, especially with Travis’s wife Callie, once Wyatt falls in love. This turns into a dangerous obsession affecting the Barlows and everyone in their small town, since Wyatt can’t be tamed until he also discovers the meaning of why he was able to be preserved on ice for over a century.
A meditation on love lost and unfulfilled dreams, The Ancestor is a thrilling page-turner in present day Alaska and a historical adventure about the perilous Gold Rush expeditions where prospectors left behind their lives for the promise of hope and a better future.
The question remains whether it was all worth the sacrifice…
About the Author
Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of the novels THE DESIRE CARD, THE MENTOR, and SLOW DOWN. He has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the 2018 Prix du Polar. His Alaskan Gold Rush novel THE ANCESTOR is forthcoming in 2020. He is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Fringe, dedicated to publishing fiction that’s outside-of-the-box. His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay contests. After graduating with an MFA from the New School, his writing has also appeared in the anthology DIRTY BOULEVARD, The Millions, Cagibi, The Montreal Review, The Adirondack Review, The New Plains Review, Underwood Press, Monologging and others. He is the co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series and lives in New York City. Follow him at leematthewgoldberg.com
Thank you to Emma Welton and Damp Pebbles Book Tours for my gifted eBook and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.
Book Details:
A heart-warming, dramatic family saga. Unspoken is a tale of secrets, love, betrayal and revenge.
Unspoken means something that cannot be uttered aloud. Unspoken is the dark secret a woman must keep, for life.
Alice is fast approaching her one hundredth birthday and she is dying. Her strange, graphic dreams of ghostly figures trying to pull her into a tunnel of blinding light are becoming more and more vivid and terrifying. Alice knows she only has a short time left and is desperate to unburden herself of a dark secret, one she has lived with for eighty years.
Jessica, a journalist, is her great granddaughter and a mirror image of a young Alice. They share dreadful luck in the types of men that come into their lives.
Alice decides to share her terrible secret with Jessica and sends her to the attic to retrieve a set of handwritten notebooks detailing her young life during the late 1930s. Following the death of her invalid mother and her father’s decline into depression and alcoholism, she is forced, at 18 to take control of the farm. On her birthday, she meets Frank, a man with a drink problem and a violent temper.
When Frank’s abusive behaviour steps up a level. Alice seeks solace in the arms of her smooth, ‘gangster lawyer’ Godfrey, and when Frank discovers the couple together, he vows to get his revenge.
Unspoken. A tale that spans two eras and binds two women, born eighty years apart.
My Thoughts:
It is often said that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover…well I very nearly did and it would have been serious flaw in my judgment. The cover for this remarkable family saga really doesn’t do justice to its absorbing and irresistible content. The drama and flair of this story reminded me of the epic family dramas penned by the legendary Barbara Taylor Bradford, it grabs your attention and sweeps you along right from the opening pages and you are captivated by the lives of its protagonists.
I confess to having a fondness for stories that move between the present and the past as this one does, from modern times back to the 1930s, which isn’t a period of history I am overly familiar with, well until now. I also enjoyed the mixture of how the story was presented to the reader, via memories with Alice’s diaries and from her own point of view.
At the start of the book, in the present you have Jessica, Alice’s great-granddaughter, who is a journalist struggling to write a book. She does seem much beleaguered to my mind and clearly has catastrophic taste in men (this it seems is a family trait, as Alice goes on to reveal). In Jess’s case it is her boyfriend, the controlling Calvin, who is unutterably vile and quite frankly I would like nothing more than to apply a taser to him…repeatedly!! And you do wonder why on earth Jess is with him, I couldn’t decide if she was blindly unrealistic in her romantic ideals or deeply insecure about her value or overly determined to make her relationship work at any cost! She at least has the option to leave him where as Alice given the historical context and the subjugation of women within that time, she had little or no option when faced with such a calamitous choice of partner!
Jess’s respite from the hideous Calvin is her weekly visits to the incredible Alice, who I think was my favourite character, she is nearly 100 year old and boy does she have gumption in spades!! Alice recognises that Jess’s relationship is not what it should be and sees a lot of herself in her great-granddaughter. Alice has quite literally seen it all and what a life she has led but she knows that she is reaching the end of it and for the most part she is satisfied but with the exception of her ‘unspoken’ secret, one that she has kept for decades and that will/would have stratospheric ramifications but she believes that now is the time to finally reveal that secret and Jess will be the recipient of this information.
Now I know that you really want to know what the secret is but I have no intention of giving you any inkling of what it might be, so you will have to read the book and find out all about it yourselves. My lips are sealed!
Overall I loved how the story explored the vivid details of these women’s lives, their experiences and interactions with a fantastic cast of characters, who impact their choices and influence the type of person they are now. As you would expect, in true dramatic family saga style, both women survive and prosper despite all the secrets and lies, and there is a clear message that whatever occurs in your life there always hope and there is nothing more valuable than importance of true friends.
This is the perfect book for a cosy Sunday afternoon read, with fluffy socks and hot chocolate, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I hope you do too.
Happy Reading Bookophiles…
About the Author:
T A Belshaw is from Nottingham in the United Kingdom. Trevor writes for both children and adults. He is the author of Tracy’s Hot Mail, Tracy’s Celebrity Hot Mail and the noir, suspense novella, Out Of Control. His new novel, the family saga, Unspoken, was released in July, 2020
His short stories have been published in various anthologies including 100 Stories for Haiti, 50 Stories for Pakistan, Another Haircut, Shambelurkling and Other Stories, Deck The Halls, 100 Stories for Queensland and The Cafe Lit anthology 2011, 2012 and 2013. He also has two pieces in Shambelurklers Return. 2014
Trevor is also the author of 15 children’s books written under the name of Trevor Forest. The latest. Magic Molly the Curse of Cranberry Cottage was released in August 2015
His children’s poem, Clicking Gran, was long listed for the Plough prize (children’s section) in 2009 and his short poem, My Mistake, was rated Highly Commended and published in an anthology of the best entries in the Farringdon Poetry Competition.
Trevor’s articles have been published in magazines as diverse as Ireland’s Own, The Best of British and First Edition.
Trevor is currently working on the sequel to Unspoken and the third book in the Tracy series; Tracy’s Euro Hot Mail.
Available: In Hardback/eBook and Audio from 15th October 2020
Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours and HarperCollins for my gorgeous gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.
Book Details:
The grieving widower. The motherless daughters. A beautiful house in the woods.
And a nanny come to save the day….
So what if Lexi isn’t telling the truth about who she is? Escaping to the remote snows of Norway was her lifeline. And all she wanted was to be a part of their lives.
But soon, isolated in that cold, creaking house in the middle of ancient, whispering woods, Lexi’s fairytale starts to turn into a nightmare.
With darkness creeping in from the outside, Lexi’s fears are deepening. Lexi knows she needs to protect the children in her care.
But protect them from what?
‘Vivid and compelling’ Rosamund Lupton
‘A gorgeous, atmospheric book that chilled me to the bone’ Samantha Downing
‘A taut, scary thriller that winds the suspense so tightly you can barely breathe’ Simone St. James
‘Best read with the lights on’ Alice Feeney
‘chilling, totally engrossing and full of intrigue’ Katherine May
‘A fun, gothic treat’ Kirsty Logan
My Thoughts:
This book is the epitome of a modern fairy tale, beautiful crafted, with flawed heroines, sinister dark woods, mysterious apparitions and while you are completely absorbed in reading the tale you are imbued with an atmosphere of tangible malice, which compels you to want to know more but also made me want to hide behind the sofa!
This book also looks as good as it sounds, with a stunning, shiny, ethereal elk head cover, which caused me to gasp in joy when I pulled it out of its packet and turned it reverently in my hands for the first time. Some books just give you a feeling from the first moment you see them and The Nesting is one of those books, my fellow book bloggers will know exactly of what I speak.
CJ Cooke’s interest and knowledge of mental health issues, has clearly been an influence on the creation of our protagonist Lexi, I see her as variation on the classic Cinderella or Snow white character who are usually beset by evil step mothers and witches who wish to do them harm. Instead, we have a disturbed young woman who only wishes to do herself harm and when we first meet her, Lexi has tried to end her life because life’s disappointments have become simply overwhelming. Although Lexi survives this suicide attempt, the blows keep coming, she loses her dead-end job, her partner of 8 years finds her ‘too much’ and ends the relationship and with that turn of events she also loses her home!
This catalogue of life disasters resonated with me at a deeply personal and visceral level, because all these things have happened to me and rather like Lexi all in a very short space of time…which I can attest makes for utter disappointment and a catastrophic sense of failure in oneself and you quite simply want to make it all just stop…which is exactly the conclusion Lexi comes to!
And then just like in a traditional fairytale, something miraculous/magical happens, with nowhere to live, no clothes and a 4 piece toaster in her bag and having purloined her ex’s travel pass, Lexi is on a train to goodness knows where, when she over hears a conversation about a role for a nanny in Norway…Now as much I wish to reveal how Lexi ends up with this job, I am not sharing the details because it is too good for me to spoil it, needless to say she ends up being employed by Tom Faraday, who has recently lost his wife Aurelia, leaving him with two small daughters to take care of. Tom is engaged in building a holiday home in Norway, a tribute of sorts to his dead wife.
They head to Norway and a semblance of a normal routine emerges as Lexi gets to know her charges, Gaia and Coco. Yet there are very subtle hints and shadows of suspicion that all is not right and I started to ask questions, is it because of the actions of Maren the errant housekeeper or the distant, driven, grief stricken husband Tom or what about his partner, the dubious Clive who is far too jovial and slick for my liking; or is it his interior designing wife Derry with her uberfit obsession and tendency to be over familiar, there is definitely a malignant undercurrent, then add in a wondering Elk, a gang of crows and a series of disturbing visions seen firstly by Gaia and then Lexi…and you are compelled to read on to find some answers.
At the same time as we are reading about Lexi, we are also observing Aurelia’s life, the two story lines run parallel, and her fairytale life, is exactly that a merely imaginary perfection. We see through Aurelia’s eyes and her journal a series of events, which are confusing and often violent and I confess that on occasion I couldn’t distinguish between the imagined and the reality but I am not sure I was intended to…like Lexi, I was given the distinct feeling that Aurelia had her own mental health issues, post-partum depression perhaps but her recollections often seem starkly real. As Aurelia’s story unfolds, the cracks in her marriage and the building of their dream home become literally evident.
It is also through Aurelia we are introduced to a number of quite scary (for me anyway) Norwegian folktales and these stories are always bound by the ethos, that peoples actions have consequences and usually a form of macabre punishment is metered out to those who ignore the warnings! So it is very easy to believe that given her state of mind, Aurelia could have taken her own life, that is if you haven’t read the prologue or the rest of the book! As if I am going to spill the beans here, did you really expect me to?
As in all the best fairy tales/folklore mythology all the strands of the story intersect and intertwine, the secrets and lies are exposed mainly around Lexi but not completely, there are some starling revelations pertaining to Aurelia to! The story storms towards its dramatic conclusion, with a series of twists, another accident, the evildoers for the most part get their comeuppance, the innocent are vindicated and there is a sense of satisfaction for the reader, as there is almost is a happily ever after…I did say almost!
In case it isn’t apparent from my verbosity, I was enthralled, entranced and addicted to this story, its environment, its suspicious atmosphere, its glorious and imaginative superstition, its captivating cast and very striking details about Norwegian eco-building traditions, with its focus on protection of the land and nature and the merging of traditional and modern building techniques, an unusual subplot line but it is deftly woven into the fairytale ethos, that Mother Nature will do what is necessary to protect herself and punish those who infringe upon her territory!
What more can I say…this is one of my favourite reads of 2020, I can only beseech you to buy it, you will seriously miss out on an extraordinary read if you don’t.
Happy Reading Bookophiles…
About the Author:
C.J. Cooke is an acclaimed, award-winning poet, novelist and academic with numerous other publications under the name of Carolyn Jess-Cooke.
Born in Belfast, she has a PhD in Literature from Queen’s University, Belfast, and is currently Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, where she researches creative writing interventions for mental health.
She also founded the Stay-At-Home Festival
Don’t miss any of the other reviews on this blog tour.
Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours and Serena Fairfax for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.
Book Details:
Jazz clubs, yacht clubs, aunty bars and a Bollywood beauty shadowed by her pet panther. This is glamorous Bombay in the late 1950s.
Love has blossomed in London between vivacious Scottish Presbyterian, Audrey, and clever Indian lawyer, Nat Zachariah.
When the happy newlyweds move to Nat’s exotic homeland and the striking family villa, Audrey must deftly navigate the rituals, secrets, intrigues and desires of his Bene Israel Jewish community, and adjust to perplexing new relatives.
In time, the past unlocks, old family ties unravel, lies are exposed and passions run high as different generations fall out. Then something shocking happens that undoes everything. Will this marriage that has crossed boundaries survive?
My Thoughts:
As the autumn nights draw in and dark mornings are once more upon us, I love the opportunity to curl up on my sofa, with a soft throw, a frothy coffee and a captivating story to transport me from the cold and dark of Yorkshire to warmer climes. That is exactly the level of escapism I got when reading Mango Bay. This is a truly wonderful, imaginative story, I think Serena may have been channelling both MM Kaye’s Far Pavilions and Downton Abbey when she created this tale.
The story starts in London in 1956, in true classic romance style, a man and woman catch each other’s gaze across a dance floor, instant curiosity a little spark perhaps and so our story begins, Audrey Cuthbertson is a blue eyed, blond haired Scottish Presbyterian musician and Nat (Nathaniel) Zachariah is a tall, handsome India Lawyer, with instant attraction and a successful conversation, so begins their whirlwind romance, which leads to their engagement and subsequent marriage, all very quick, what you ask could possibly go wrong?
In the first instance, not a great deal but neither of them decide to tell their respective families about their romance or their marriage and with a union as unique as theirs within the historic context, where inter-racial relationships were a very new development societally and one that though not persecuted to the extent they were in the US, they were not celebrated (sadly) either! Audrey decides to go alone to tell her parents of her marriage and as you can imagine, they are disappointed in her choice of spouse mainly because of his race but more so by her choice to leave them out such a life changing event.
The book moves on 3 months and Audrey is alone in the lodgings she usually shares with Nat but it seems Nat has returned to India and at this stage there is no sign of him arranging for her to join him. Which I felt was a cause for concern…it certainly give you an unsettled feeling and left you wondering what on earth was going on??…
Meanwhile in India, Nat is has returned to his family and I had the distinct impression he was having a holiday of sorts (without his new wife!) which is most perplexing to say the least.
We readers are now introduced to a whole cast of beautifully crafted characters, his parents, his siblings and the incredible home they all share…Mango Bay. The estimable Khan Sahib, Nat’s father is glad to have his son and heir back home however, he has plans for his son, that include finding him a job and a wife. His plans for these necessary events are well underway, it is only when Khan Sahib speaks to Nat that Nat is forced to admit that he already has a wife! There is a level of baffled anger and demands for answers from his parents but the fact their new daughter in law is English isn’t the biggest issue, it is the fact she is not Jewish because and this a very fascinating twist to the story that Nat’s family are Indian Jews or Bene Israel (BI) and part of a long established community in Bombay. As soon as Nat’s family discover he is in fact married, they insist that he brings his wife to be with him.
The rest of this wonderful story is woven around Audrey’s move to India and her establishing her marriage and relationships with Nat’s family and building a life and friendships within this community. Both the subject of race and religion have their part to play but they do not overwhelm the story line. Serena has created a magnificent cast of characters for us all to become involved with and there are some wonderful subplots and few surprises, some good, some sad, some bad but every chapter makes for utterly compelling reading. It is also apparent that Serena has a knowledge and love of India, as it shines out of the vibrant and vivid setting of Mango Bay and its surrounding environment.
I was utterly captivated by this marvellous and captivating story, that spans continents and ensnares us readers in the incredible lives of generations of a unique family. I really hope you choose to add this to your libraries because I haven’t enjoyed a family saga more.
Happy Reading Bookophiles…
About the Author:
Serena spent her childhood in India, qualified as a Lawyer in England, and worked in a London law firm.
Some of her novels have a strong romantic arc although she burst the romance bubble with one quirky departure. Other novels pull the reader into the dark corners of family life and relationships. She enjoys the challenge of experimenting and writing in different genres.
Her short stories and a medley of articles, including her reviews of thrillers and crime fiction, feature on her blog.
Fast forward to a sabbatical from the day job when Serena traded in bricks and mortar for a houseboat that, for a hardened land lubber like her, turned out to be a big adventure. A few of her favourite things are collecting old masks, singing and exploring off the beaten track.
Serena and her golden retriever, Inspector Morse, who can’t wait to unleash his own Facebook page, live in London.
Please keeps your eyes peeled for other reviews on this tour.
Available: 15th October 2020 in Paperback and eBook
Thank you to Lizzie at Red Door Press and Caroline Smailes for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.
Book Details:
A Christmas Carol meets a very Northern Stranger Things in this funny, sweary and moving festive story
‘Funny and touching and utterly brilliant’ – Rachael Lucas
‘A remarkable, funny, truly redemptive read’ – Miranda Dickinson
When 19-year old Theodora Quirke heads to work on Christmas Eve the last person she expects to find outside of her flat is St Nicholas of Myra – the Saint people think is Santa Claus (much to Saint Nick’s disgust).
Given he is in full Santa suit and professing to be nearly 2000 years old Theo is wary, but St Nick insists he is here to save her – although he isn’t sure how or why. St Nick does know that Theo is grieving however, so he shows her four scenes from her life that give her hope, but he’s also had cryptic messages from the Christmas Higher Powers that lead him to begin Theo’s training as the first ever female Christmas Angel – a role Theo is not sure she is cut out for.
Theo’s training is soon derailed by St Nick’s evil brother, filled with jealousy and spite over his brother’s popularity and, with confidence dented, and saddened by society’s spiralling levels of expectation and greed, St Nick begins to falter. Theo does everything she can to defeat Nick’s brother and to lift St Nick’s spirits, but as the deadline for Christmas miracles draws close, she realises she must complete them herself – but is she up to the job?
My Thoughts:
This book is the perfect parody of a Christmas tale, profound, peculiar and utterly irreverent, with a definite essence of Dickensian spirit in the sense that Caroline Smailes has humorously obliterated the warm and cosy side of the season, and instead has created a series of raw and gritty events which have left the main character Theodora Quirke with plenty of experience that, Christmas is not the most wonderful time of the year!
The book opens with Theo (Theodora) meeting St Nicholas on Christmas Eve (he is most certainly not the picture of the universally recognised Santa Claus nor is he sponsored by coco-cola) he is the antithesis of what we normally associate with Father Christmas, he is not jolly chap in a lovely red suit, more “how Santa would look before he goes into rehab for alcohol addiction and possibly after spending 3 months on the streets”. Theo is rather bemused by the whole episode and to the reason, why he’s here to see her and what does the rather grubby weird note he has mean…Save Theo, Spitfire & Oral…!
What is unwrapped is a very ‘Christmas Carolesque’ style adventure, St Nicholas takes Theo to view some rather traumatic elements of her past involving her mother and her boyfriend Gabe (Gabriel), which makes for ghastly view (have the tissues ready) and it is partly to allow Theo to emotionally process what has happened to her previously and partly to allow her to move forward and be open to a completely new experience/life as a Christmas Angel and before now there has never been a female Christmas Angel, Theo will be the first one…can she prove to ‘up there’ that she can fly on her own???
There is also a more dark and dastardly element to this story for us readers to revel in and throughout the book there are sections (they read like social media posts) relating to Dottie Smith and the ‘Spitfire, Saint Nicholas Umbrella Collective’ . Dottie has clearly had an ‘miracle experience’ with Saint Nicholas and this plot line all starts innocently enough but by increments you start to realise, something diabolical is afoot…want to know what it is…?? And what do these posts and Dottie have to do with Theo, Christmas Miracles and Saint Nicholas…As if I am going to give those plot elements away…no chance!! I know I am a complete meanie!
Now you may think, I have been rather reticent about the story details in my review, well that is only because I hate spoiling other people’s first-hand experience of a story and this one deserves its audience to have the same snarky, sarkie, sublime surprises I found when I read it. This glorious book, caused me to howl with laughter one minute and sob buckets the next, it is utterly hopeful and wonderful and you will truly miss out on an exceptional read if you don’t get a copy. Add it to your Christmas lists, buy it as a Christmas gift…I insist. I am off now to add several more of Caroline’s books to my wantie list…
Happy Reading Bookophiles
About the Author:
Caroline Smailes’ acclaimed debut novel, IN SEARCH OF ADAM, was published in 2007 (The Friday Project/HarperCollins). The Big Issue North declared the book ‘an engrossing and touching read from a new talent’. Since then Caroline has written four additional novels. These include BLACK BOXES, international bestseller LIKE BEES TO HONEY, an experimental digital novel with eleven endings 99 REASONS WHY and modern day fairy tale THE DROWNING OF ARTHUR BRAXTON (all HarperCollins). The film of THE DROWNING OF ARTHUR BRAXTON is in post-production, with an expected 2020 release.
Caroline lives in the North West of England. She is also known as Caroline Wallace (THE FINDING OF MARTHA LOST).
Please keep an eye out for other posts on the tour.
Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours and Monoray for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.
Book Details:
“In writing this book, it is my modest aim to help you understand how dangerous and untrustworthy our information ecosystem has become, and how its harms extend far beyond politics – even into our private and intimate life. It is my hope that this understanding can help us come together to bolster our defences and start fighting back. As a society, we need to be better at building resilience to the Infocalypse. Understanding what is happening is the first step.”
– Nina Schick
In Deep Fakes and the Infocalypse, Nina Schick warns us urgently of the impending information overload (known as the ‘Infocalypse’) and explains the dangerous political consequences of this Infocalypse, both in terms of national security and what it means for public trust in politics. Deep Fakes have been around for less than three years, to silence and for revenge and fraud. Government, business and society are completely unprepared.
Schick also unveils what it means for us as individuals, how Deep Fakes will be used to intimidate and to silence, for revenge and fraud, and how unprepared governments and tech companies are.
The malicious use of Deep Fakes is not only a real threat for democracy but they take the manipulation of voters to new levels. With the impending US election, and with vast amounts of money being spent of social media, it is expected that Deep Fakes will become a huge story later this year – – AI generated fake content is here for good, and we will have to figure how to navigate a world where seeing is no longer believing.
As a political advisor to select technology firms, Schick is at the forefront of trends emerging from the worlds of data science, machine learning and AI. In Deep Fakes and the Infocalypse, Schick tells us what we need to do to prepare and protect ourselves.
“Too often we build the cool technology and ignore what bad guys can do with it before we start playing catch-up. But when it comes to Deep Fakes, we urgently need to be on the front foot.”
My Thoughts:
A large portion of my career as an information professional has been spent assessing the quality and provenance of the material/information that I would source and provide to my clients (Lawyers & Accountants). As a result when I saw the details for this book, I was very interested in what Nina had written and I was not disappointed in what she had to say or how she has chosen to express her thoughts on the matter. Although with a book containing material that contains an unavoidable level of controversy and conspiracy, I would say I was optimistically skeptical as well….it comes from working with lawyers for 15 years and is not a condemnation of this book in anyway.
In my opinion this book is a clear, concise and informative exploration into the subject of information or rather mis-information and the potency and impact it has on daily life at present and what could occur if vigilance and a healthy dose of sceptism is not applied to the validity of the myriad of media data enmeshed in our lives.
Nina defines a deepfake succinctly, “A deepfake is a type of ‘synthetic media’, meaning media (including images, audio and video) that is either manipulated or wholly generated by AI.” And from her words, it seems clear that the concept that ‘ it has to be seen to be believed’ can no longer hold true. The stratospheric development of AI (Artificial Intelligence) impacts our lives, it has the ability to produce content, communicate and interpret for us and as a result it can be and is being exploited for much more nefarious purposes. Nina makes her points on this matter adroitly and illustrates when and how such instances have occurred with live examples from the Russian MH-17 incident, to Trump’s deft manipulations, to Brexit and further afield and she does so in an eminently readable way.
Nina is very clear in her delineation between dis-information which is manufactured information/media with a malicious intent in contrast to mis-information, which is simply bad information (as in material that is mis-contextualized or edited) but isn’t malicious. The main power of dis-information lies in the fact it can be used to win influential arguments within the political arena, on issues like; race, gender, equality, Brexit, Covid-19. Ultimately it pollutes our information ecosystem removes our shared reality from which there can be no basis for sensible conversation. Which makes any sort of common ground impossible to ascertain or allow us to move forward and compromise on some hugely impactful matters and if we can’t do that, what happens???…nothing good is putting it mildly!
I very much respect the length and depths to which Nina has explored this subject and admire how she has extrapolated such technical and complicated concepts into digestible sections for everyone to understand. There is a level of bravery here as well, to openly say this is what happened at this event, this is how it happened and how social media is manipulated and how we have and continue to be misled and it is only by be being diligent and aware of the influence Deepfake have, that we stand a chance in minimizing the impact of such huge levels of malignancy within our information ecosystem.
The Infocalypse is a global issue and the ‘Freedoms of the information age are not inherently good’ in fact they can be downright deadly. I feel in reading this book, I have a better grasp of the nuances of the issues and a clearer understanding of the taxonomy, language and issues surrounding this subject. This is not a book to curl up on your sofa and relax with. It is a learning experience at a grass roots level, Nina’s own experiences and knowledge are insightful and intense and make for compulsive consumption.
I suspect, this book is the tip of the ice-berg on the vivid and vicious matter of DeepFakes and the Infocalypse. As a book blogger and experienced user of social media, it is definitely a book that will remain on my reference shelf and one I would recommend anyone using social media should definitely add to their collection, it is not an easy read but I believe it is a crucial one.
Happy Reading bookophiles…Stay sharp and aware.
About the Author:
Nina Schick is a political commentator, advisor and public speaker, specialising in how technology is reshaping politics in the 21st century.
Most recently, her work has seen her focusing on the evolution of disinformation, and the fallout generated by election interference in the US (and around the world) since 2016.
Nina has advised global leaders including Joe Biden and Anders Fogh Rasmussen (the former Secretary General of NATO), through her research on next-generation disinformation and AI-generated deep fakes.
She has also worked at the heart of historic campaigns, including on the presidential campaign, the Brexit referendum and with Emmanuel Macron.
Half German and half Nepalese, she speaks seven languages and holds degrees from Cambridge University and University College London. She divides her time between London, Berlin and Kathmandu.
Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours and Jan Mazzoni for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.
Book Details:
When passion becomes obsession, anything can happen…
Chic, intelligent, highly motivated and unexpectedly unemployed. AND soon to be forty. Not a situation Katie Tremain finds easy to cope with, especially as it gives her time to notice that she and husband Ben seem to get on better together when they’re apart. So when the opportunity to escape the city and work on a dilapidated house on Exmoor comes her way, how can she refuse?
Then, one misty morning, she comes across something so bizarre that she can’t believe her eyes. A fox with fur so white it sparkles, like snow. A very rare albino vixen.
From that moment Katie’s days – and her life – change completely. And as the fate of her faltering marriage becomes entwined with that of the fox, Katie must decide just what she’s prepared to risk to save this beautiful but vulnerable creature.
Her sanity? Her marriage? Even her life?
My Thoughts:
Initially what drew me to this book were the uncanny similarities it reflected of my own life, like the character of Kate in my 40th year I was made redundant from a job and career I adored and whether it was my age or skill set I found it impossible to find another role and I made the monumental decision to leave London, my life, my friends and favourite haunts for the frozen North, otherwise known as Yorkshire and the historic city of York. Which is where I am today as I write this review.
I haven’t read anything quite like this book before, it is structured around the seasons (Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn) and the story is interspersed with diary entries and occasional impressions from the perspective of the fox (our silent protagonist). The book opens with a description of the countryside caught in a cold snap and compellingly conveys the ethereal starkness of the land, combined with the stillness and silence that comes with snow and cold in the wild places. There is also a brutality to the scene that is quite breathe taking and certainly focused this reader’s attention.
After an explosive start, the story moves to London and Kate, who after decades of being a high-flying career woman is redundant, unemployed and with the loss of her role, has lost her purpose and identity, making her feel utterly adrift, helpless, enraged and numb. There is almost a sense of her watching her life rather than living it, going through the motions of her day, going to the gym, having a coffee but not being engaged in or by anything she is doing.
There is also a distinct sense that although Kate has a life style many readers would aspire to, lovely home, successful husband and long standing relationship, this life is really a facade, a house of cards and with Kate’s unemployment, their life is starting to unravel one thread at a time. Ben, her husband seems to be intent on chivvying her out of her funk but not truly understanding why or what she is feeling (and I got the sense this was an ongoing issue for their relationship, almost like a puzzle whose pieces don’t quite fit) but it is Ben’s efforts that bring about the project.
The project being a near derelict house on the edge of Exmoor, which has been inherited by a client of his. In exchange for Kate putting to use her long dormant interior design skills to renovate the property, they can have the place rent free for a year. It is now we enter the Spring section of the story, as Kate embarks on her solo move to Devon she is reminded of memories of her childhood summers spent in a similar environment. She is focused on making lists (a woman after my own heart) and working out what needs to be done to the house and embarking on making it habitable. She is also aware of how isolated, quiet and far from civilization she now is (no more tofu or taramasalata) and yet you get the impression, she is starting to relax and appreciate her new surroundings. As Kate starts to explore the land and nature around her new home, she discovers the remarkable white vixen and her cubs and ultimately it is this discovery that heralds the biggest evolution and the main focus or obsession in Kate’s life, and it has a huge impact (and no I am not providing you with the details).
As the seasons change, you feel Kate’s relationship, knowledge and understanding of her rural home and its surrounding landscape develop and by increments her ideals, her needs, her marriage and her past memories all change as her perspective does, sometimes for the better sometimes for the worse. As much as I would like to reveal more, that would be remiss of me, part of the extraordinary experience of this book, is being able to read it with completely fresh eyes. Trust me you do not want to miss out on such an unusual adventure, nor do I wish to colour your reactions to what unfolds within the story.
As I said at the beginning of my review, this fictional tale resonated with me from the very first page because I have in the past few years lived through similar drastic changes in circumstances and environment as Kate does in this story but some of the deft twists of circumstance are definitely confined to her story and not mine.
In her book, Jan Mazzoni has crafted a sensitive, vivid, occasionally brutal but yet wholly realistic tale of how life works in both a rural community and the urban jungle. Jan, I believe has shown considerable skill at creating an evocative, poignant and insightful plot weaved around the wild and remarkable nature and landscape of Exmoor which has made for addictive reading and makes it nearly impossible to put the book down.
I can do no more but to enthusiastically encourage and entreat you to add this remarkable and compelling book to your book stash, as soon as possible.
Happy reading bookophiles..
About the Author:
It was only recently that Jan Mazzoni found that – surprise, surprise – there IS a genre where her writing fits perfectly. It’s ecofiction. And having been writing fiction that combines her passion for the natural world with a gripping tale for many years, she’s over the moon to find a place where the stories she so loves to tell are completely at home.
Not that ecofiction is new. But as concern for the planet and its inhabitants grows, so does the popularity of novels that pick up today’s environmental concerns, toss them into real-life situations with Ordinary People, and then stand back to watch what happens next. In principle ecofiction is much like any other genre – historical, thrillers, even romances – in that they all need the protagonist to go through some kind of hellish situation and challenge before reaching the (hopefully) happy ending. Ecofiction just tends to have prettier locations!
It’s her yearning for wilderness that encouraged Jan to move to a little house hidden in a large, rambling garden on the edge of Exmoor, a windy, bleak but beautiful part of the UK. Here, with husband George and four Romanian rescue dogs, she leads the simple life she’s always wanted to live. She calls herself a recluse-in-training. As an only child she long ago grew up living inside the stories in her own head, and is quite happy there. She can control that world. And when the ideas that come seem like they’re worth putting down on paper, she retreats to the shed at the top of the garden and taps away at the PC. Sadly the dogs don’t usually go with her. It’s too cold up there.
I am thrilled to be able to reveal the fabulous cover for Street Cat Blues by Alison O’Leary on behalf of the glorious Red Dog Books so keep your eyes peeled my lovely bookophiles, my furbeast Comet has given his paw of approval to this book.
Below is a taste of what you could be reading very soon and if you want to dive in and pre-order, personally I think that would be a brilliant idea. Don’t miss out, time to make your to be read lists just a little bit longer.
Book Details:
Publisher: Red Dog Books
Publication date: 4th November 2020 in Paperback & eBook
Book length: 216 pages
ISBN:
Paperback: 978-1-913331-89-4
eBook: 978-1-913331-90-0
About the Book:
A quiet life for Aubrey?
After spending several months banged up in Sunny Banks rescue centre, Aubrey, a large tabby cat, has finally found his forever home with Molly and Jeremy Goodman, and life is looking good.
However, all that changes when a serial killer begins to target elderly victims in the neighbourhood.
Aubrey wasn’t particularly upset by the death of some of the previous victims, including Miss Jenkins whom Aubrey recalls as a vinegar-lipped bitch of an old woman who enjoyed throwing stones at cats, but Mr Telling was different.
Mr Telling was a mate…
Author biography:Alison O’Leary
I was born in London and spent my teenage years in Hertfordshire where I spent large amounts of time reading novels, watching daytime television and avoiding school. Failing to gain any qualifications in science whatsoever, the dream of being a forensic scientist collided with reality when a careers teacher suggested that I might like to work in a shop. I don’t think she meant Harrods. Later studying law, I decided to teach rather than go into practice and have spent many years teaching mainly criminal law and criminology to young people and adults.
I enjoy reading crime novels, doing crosswords, and drinking wine. Not necessarily in that order.
Available: 15th October 2020 in Paperback and eBook
Thank you to Fanny at Farrago Publishing for my gifted book and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.
Book Details:
Simon is an academic expert on the mating behaviour of birds – but he has a lot to learn about humans…
Simon Selwood spends his time researching the courtship behaviour of birds. Unfortunately, he’s rather hopeless at finding human love.
Then he meets Kim, and suddenly something is more important to him than ornithology. But Kim doesn’t give a hoot about birds. And at first, she doesn’t seem to be very interested in Simon either.
Relying on what he has learned from observing the opportunistic pied flycatcher and other bird species, plus the unorthodox advice from his best friend and wingman Phil, Simon spreads his wings and sets out to discover love for himself. Will he make the right choice?
My Thoughts:
What a complete ‘Hoot’ this book is and yes that is the first of possibly several bird related puns, I may make in the process of this review. This fledgling enters the book world tomorrow and you will want to take a copy home to feather your nest…Ok I may have gone slightly overboard now!
What drew me to this book and I consider unique about it, is that this is a romantic comedy, told solely from the male perspective, a rare bird or an odd one indeed but not in a bad way.
Our protagonist Dr Simon Selwood is dedicated to his academic career and could be considered obsessed with study of the mating behaviours of birds (a nerd he maybe but definitely not a bird watcher or a bird stalker) and as this is his main area of expertise, he attempts to use his knowledge of the avian world to try to help him make sense of human mating rituals. Which it seems, usually confuse him and his inability to attract a mate leaves him lonely and perplexed. He is aided and abetted in his search by wing-man Phil who despite some very dry and witty banter, does want to help him succeed and avoid total ‘bird’ related disaster!
Simon wants is to form a permanent pair-bond with the right woman and his previous experiences have been a dismal failure, possibly of his own making (I think). Then he meets Kim, who he believes could be the one (but trust me nobody else does). What ensues in his ornithological tinged search for love, is a great deal of hilarity for the reader and a level of avifauna coloured comedic chaos and I did spend considerable time squawking at Simon for missing the obvious…the term bird brain may have been used!
But of course I am not spoiling this experience for you, so you will have to read the book for yourselves to discover as to whether Simon succeeds, will Kim really be the one to truly ruffle his feathers or will Phil succeed in getting him to take his head out of the sand and help him fly in the right direction to find his true mate.
That is more than enough bird commentary from me, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, it really is a wonderful hybrid, the spirit of men behaving badly, mixed with colour and detail of a series of Autumn watch, it is cleverly comic, beautiful crafted and sent this reader’s spirit soaring.
Happy Reading Bookophiles…
About the Author:
Lee Farnsworth studied Genetics at Newcastle University, eventually gaining a PhD for his work on bovine mitochondria.
He then spent more than fifteen years in the pharmaceutical industry, holding senior leadership positions in Europe and the US before kissing the corporate world goodbye to spend more time writing. Lee lives in Berkshire. He has two children and a large collection of bird feeders.
Available: 30th September 2020 in Paperback and eBook
Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Tours and Hope Road Publishing for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.
Book Details:
Clinton, founder and head of a firm of international engineers, arrives in India to build a dam, bringing with him his young wife, Helen, and a strong team of aides and skilled men. They are faced with a formidable challenge, which involves working in daunting mountain and jungle terrain, within a time schedule dictated by the extreme tropical weather. Setbacks occur which bring into focus fundamental differences in the attitudes to life and death of the British bosses and the Indian workers.
A timely reminder of the British contempt for Indian lives and for nature.
‘The Coffer Dams is an absorbing tale about mechanical strength and spiritual weakness, physical certainties and moral doubts. It is set in modern India, but the conflict of values at its heart is universal.’ John Masters, author of Bhowani Junction
My Thoughts:
Talk about the epitome of historical fiction, this is a book created before I was born about a time and place I will never experience or have knowledge of in anyway other than through the eyes and voices of others. Although a work of fiction, the style and depth of the writing, contains the visual acuity of a national geographic article but with a great deal more literary flare and sublime prose and it deserves to be recognised as a seminal piece of literature and I believe it deserves many accolades, it is just sad the author is no longer with us to be praised for her astute observations.
The days of the Raj are dead, India declared its ‘bloody’ independence in 1947, and the age of modernity and technological development are advancing into every corner of the world. Man has turned from conquering other men and their territories and has now turned his arrogant, thoughtless attentions to exerting mastery over the natural environment, attempting to bend her will to his wants.
Clinton is the living embodiment of this ethos, he has no care or interest in the land he is on or the people who inhabit it. He cares only for mastery of the dam project brutalising and bending the natural environment to his bidding and enslaving her power. In complete contrast is his young wife Helen, who is curious and fascinated by her new surroundings and its people and she is keen to explore. It is possible to see their characters as the physical embodiment of Britain (prejudiced and persistent) and India (independent, empathetic and enchanting) and the advancing divisions within their marriage as similar to those of relations post independence between Britain and India.
The story is woven around the building of a dam and is packed full of technical details and machinery and excavating techniques, which are oddly fascinating. However it is the subject matter of this tale that is the focus of the novel, not the characters. They are merely the vehicles to illustrate the casual and brutal horrors of racism and the ramifications of ignoring the indigenous people and their wealth local knowledge of their land and weather purely because the British perspective (at this time) is to dismiss those they believe to be less, than they are! As a result the project is beset by tragedies and more shocking and compelling are the reactions of each side of the racial divide to these horrors!
The startling arrogance and blatant racism expressed in the pages of this story could be quite disturbing to many readers but this approach is necessary to illustrate the deep held belief that the ‘English’ characters (bar Helen) know better, how to plan the Dam project, how to engineer it, how to build it and some of the phrasing used makes for an uncomfortable read at times. I don’t believe that reading something uncomfortable, is necessarily a bad thing, especially if it leads to the reader learning about an issue from the experience.
In this review I haven’t really delved into the nuances of the plot or the various other characters identities because I feel that these are elements you can see very easily for yourselves and this is absolutely a book you will want to add to your historic novels collection, it is beautifully written, stark, detailed and absorbing. I can’t say that I loved it but I am very glad to have read it and absolutely believe you should to.
So don’t delay bookophiles, order a copy today….happy reading.
About the Author:
Kamala Markandaya (1924 – 2004) was born in Mysore, India. She studied history at Madras University and later worked for a small progressive magazine before moving to London in 1948 in pursuit of a career in journalism. There she began writing her novels; Nectar in a Sieve, her first novel published in 1954, was an international bestseller. Reviewing the republication of The Nowhere Man in 2019, Booker prize-winner Bernadine Evaristo wrote; ‘For the last 20 years of her life, Kamala Markandaya couldn’t get published and went out of print. Generations of readers lost out in reading this gem. Now I hope it will find its place in literary history.’
The Fallen Librarian Reviews 