This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

Title: This Is Where I Leave You
Author: Jonathan Tropper
Publication: Orion (21 Jan. 2010)
Summary: Poor Judd Foxman returns home early to find his wife in bed with his boss - in the act. He now faces the twin threats of both divorce and unemployment. His misery is compounded further with the sudden death of his father. He is then asked to come and 'sit Shiva' for his newly deceased parent with his angry, screwed-up and somewhat estranged brothers and sisters in his childhood home. It is there he must confront who he really is and - more importantly - who he can become.

What I Think

There's no point writing about an ordinary family with no problems. The Foxman family in Johnathan Tropper's This Is Where I Leave You is anything but normal. In fact, it's almost farcical. Every issue you can imagine arises; from adultery to death to struggling with fertility to unwanted pregnancy to you-name-it. It's a psychiatrist's dream family. But despite the struggles of this family, the book is extremely funny. It's been a long time since a book has made me laugh this much. A bittersweet novel about a man trying to find his way and I would highly recommend it. 

About the Author

Jonathan Tropper is the internationally bestselling author of six novels: Plan B, The Book of Joe, Everything Changes, How To Talk to a Widower, This Is Where I Leave You, and One Last Thing Before I Go. His books have been translated into over twenty languages. He recently adapted This Is Where I Leave You as a feature film for Warner Bros. Studios, starring Jason Bateman and Tina Fey, and is currently adapting One Last Thing Before I Go for Paramount. Jonathan is also the co-creator and executive producer of the television show Banshee, which premiered on Cinemax in January 2013 and is currently shooting its third season. He lives in Westchester, NY with his three children.

Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus

Title: Snow White Must Die
Author: Nele Neuhaus
Publication: Pan (4 July 2013)
Summary: In a trial based on circumstantial evidence 20-year-old Tobias Sartorius was convicted and imprisoned for the murder of his childhood friend Laura and his beautiful girlfriend Stefanie – otherwise known as Snow White. After serving his sentence, Tobias returns home. When the Sartorius family is subjected to a number of attacks, Detective Inspector Pia Kirchhoff and DS Oliver von Bodenstein are tasked with monitoring the tense atmosphere in the tight-knit community. As the village inhabitants close ranks it becomes apparent the disappearance of Snow White and her friend was far more complex than imagined. Then history starts to repeat itself in a disastrous manner when another pretty girl goes missing. The police are thrown into a race against time. Can they solve the mystery before it’s too late?

What I Think

I nearly gave up on this book because quite frankly the writing is a little dire in places. At times sentences were unclear, cliches have been used, there's a dramatic over-use of adverbs and the dialogue was occasionally implausible. I appreciate that some of this may be due to translation errors, but I still would not expect this is in a published novel. 

However, despite all this, I plowed on and I'm pleased I did. The story is excellent with an unpredictable plot and there is a vast array of fleshed-out characters (one or two unnecessary). It was a good thriller and I enjoyed reading a book set in Germany, but I would only recommend it to people who are willing to be a little lenient and read over its imperfections. 

About the Author

Cornelia Neuhaus (born 20 June 1967 in Münster) is a German writer. She is best known for her crime thrillers.

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

Title: The Last Anniversary
Author: Liane Moriarty
Publication: Penguin (23 Oct. 2014)
Summary: One abandoned baby. Two sisters with a secret. One chance to rewrite the past. Over seventy years have passed since sisters Rose and Connie Doughty found an abandoned baby near their home on the island Scribbly Gum. With no one to take care of it, Rose and Connie took the baby in as their own. Since then the 'Munro Baby Mystery' has brought fame and fortune, putting Scribbly Gum on the tourist map, especially for the island's annual celebration. But now, with Connie dead and outsider Sophie Honeywell about to move into her home, Rose begins to wonder if they made the right decision all those years ago. How much longer can they cover up the lie that has sustained their community for generations? And what other secrets are about to be revealed?

What I Think

I think I may have found another great (not merely good) chick lit author. Up until now my favourites are Jojo Moyes and Mhairi McFarlane and, although they remain my favourites, Liane Moriarty might be joining them. I'll have to read another book of hers to make my final decision. Previously by Moriary I read The Husband's Secret and despite thoroughly enjoying The Last Anniversary it wasn't as good. It was a little too 'chick litty'. You see, even though I like chick lit books occasionally, they do have to meet certain criteria. I class this as sophisticated chick lit, i.e. not too obvious, the female characters should not be pathetic, the male characters should not be too 'hot', there should be a 'deeper' story-line than just 'finding The One'. Yes, I'm picky, but it's worth it when you find the right fit! 

And unfortunately The Last Anniversary had some of the criteria I don't like in chick lit. Only fleetingly, but enough to make me say: only read this if you actively want to choose a lighter book to read. Otherwise, read The Husband's Secret because that is a truly excellent book of lies, loyalty and secrets. 

About the Author

Liane Moriarty is the Australian author of six internationally best-selling novels, including Three Wishes, The Last Anniversary, What Alice Forgot, The Hypnotist's Love Story and the number 1 New York Times bestsellers, The Husband's Secret and Big Little Lies.

The Husband's Secret has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and is set to be translated into over 35 languages. CBS Films has acquired the film rights.

With the launch of her most recent novel, Big Little Lies, Liane became the first Australian author to have a novel debut at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Film and television rights have already been snapped up by Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon.

Writing as L.M.Moriarty,Liane has also written a series of books for children.

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

Title: The Kitchen House
Author: Kathleen Grissom
Publication: Transworld Digital (14 Mar. 2013)
Summary: When seven-year-old Irish orphan Lavinia is transported to Virginia to work in the kitchen of a wealthy plantation owner, she is absorbed into the life of the kitchen house and becomes part of the family of black slaves whose fates are tied to the plantation.

But Lavinia’s skin will always set her apart, whether she wishes it or not. And as she grows older, she will be torn between the life that awaits her as a white woman and the people she knows as kin…

What I Think

Set between the years of 1791 and 1810 The Kitchen House tells the story of Lavinia, a young white orphan who is intentured to a wealthy landowner in Virginia. It's the story of 'what ifs'. What if her parents hadn't died on the passage from Ireland to America. What if she and her brother Cardigan hadn't been separated. What if she'd known the truth... This novel weaves layers and layers of secrets, some which Lavinia is too young to understand and and some which she makes up her own truth for. This, ultimately, is her downfall. 

Lavinia is but one of a large cast of characters in this novel. She is naive, but likable, however not my favourite. Out of all of them Mama Mae is my favourite character. 'I work for Mrs. Pyke like I don't know what tired mean. Nothing' that I won't do. "Yes, Mrs. Pyke, you right, Mrs. Pyke," that all I say. You girls watch me close. I act like I don't have no mind of my own, except how to make every body in the big house happy. That because I mean to stay up there, and I tryin' hard to keep you girls with me.' 

I found this to be a real page-turner; I really couldn't wait to see how the story would unfold. It was exciting up until the very end. 

About the Author

Over the past ten years, Kathleen Grissom and her husband have been restoring an old plantation tavern in Virginia. While researching the plantation's past, Kathleen found an old map on which, not far from their home, was the notation, 'Negro Hill'. Unable to determine the story of its origin, local historians suggested that it most likely represented a tragedy. This became the inspiration behind The Kitchen House. 

This is Kathleen Grissom's first novel. 

Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead

Title: Seating Arrangements
Author: Maggie Shipstead
Publication: Blue Door (24 May 2012)
Summary: The Van Meters have gathered at their family retreat on the New England island of Waskeke to celebrate the marriage of daughter Daphne to an impeccably appropriate young man. The weekend is full of lobster and champagne, salt air and practiced bonhomie, but long-buried discontent and simmering lust seep through the cracks in the revelry.

Winn Van Meter, father-of-the-bride, has spent his life following the rules of the east coast upper crust, but now, just shy of his sixtieth birthday, he must finally confront his failings, his desires, and his own humanity.

What I Think

Maggie Shipstead's Seating Arrangements takes place over three days, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, in the lead-up to and the day of Daphne and Greyson's wedding. Despite Winn, Daphne's father, being the main character, the story is told from multiple points of view. This gives the reader an insight into how everyone - not just the main character - feels and interprets the various events which happen over these three days. 

Shipstead's writing and imagery is beautiful. "The farm might have been the end of the earth. A thin seam of ocean sealed its fields to the sky, all of it coppered by the sun." And not only is she able to capture these scenes perfectly, but she interjects these long, languid sentences with short snappy dialogue which makes for varied and interesting reading. 

Various characters offer us an insight into relationships, both romantic and otherwise. "Female friendship was one-tenth prevention and nine-tenths cleanup." "Because it turns out to be a choice, commitment - not some done deal."

Overall this is not a fast-paced thrill of a book, but it's not supposed to be. It's a gentle unraveling of a family, their friends and (soon to be) in-laws and the secrets that they all hold. I really enjoyed it. 

About the Author

Maggie Shipstead is the author of two novels: Astonish Me and Seating Arrangements, which won the Dylan Thomas Prize and the L.A. Times Book Prize for First Fiction. She is a graduate of Harvard and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. Her writing has appeared in many publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, The New Republic, Tin House, and The Best American Short Stories. “La Moretta,” a story published in VQR, was a National Magazine Award finalist. She lives in Los Angeles.

The Two of Us by Andy Jones

About the Book

Title: The two of Us
Author: Andy Jones
Publication: Simon & Schuster UK (12 Feb. 2015)
Summary: Falling in love is the easy part. What matters most is what happens next...
Fisher and Ivy have been an item for a whole nineteen days. And they just know they are meant to be together. The fact that they know little else about each other is a minor detail. Over the course of twelve months, in which their lives will change forever, Fisher and Ivy discover that falling in love is one thing, but staying there is an entirely different story. The Two of Us is a charming, honest and heart-breaking novel about life, love, and the importance of taking neither one for granted.

What I Think

William Fisher can be very annoying. Not only is he constantly trying to have sex with his pregnant girlfriend, but he flirts outrageously with a colleague and you keep hoping that he's not going to be an idiot. On the flip side he's wonderfully endearing too. He is kind and patient with his best friend, El, who is dying of Huntingdon's and El's partner as well as having a close relationship with his family. 

The Two of Us reads a chick lit book for men (bloke lit - is that a thing?). However, it's not a flighty version of chick lit, but it's of the weightier end, like a Jojo Moyes (in fact it's not dissimilar in certain ways to Me Before You). As the book progresses it tackles increasingly heavier themes culminating in a true tragedy at the end which William struggles to deal with. 

This book made me laugh, made me cringe and brought tears to my eyes. It is well-written and pacy with strong characters and heart-warming relationships. 

About the Author

Andy Jones lives in London with his wife and two little girls. During the day he works in an advertising agency; at weekends and horribly early in the mornings, he writes fiction. 

Follow Andy on Twitter & Facebook:
@andyjonesauthor

facebook.com/andyjonesauthor

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

About the Book

Title: Wide Sargasso Sea
Author: Jean Rhys
Publication: Penguin Classics; New Edition (30 March 2000) 
Summary: Born into the oppressive, colonialist society of 1930s Jamaica, white Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent beauty and sensuality. After their marriage, however, disturbing rumours begin to circulate which poison her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is inexorably driven towards madness, and her husband into the arms of another novel's heroine. This classic study of betrayal, a seminal work of postcolonial literature, is Jean Rhys's brief, beautiful masterpiece.

What I Think

Wide Sargasso Sea is a  prequel to Jane Eyre. However, it's written by a different author, in a different time and with (mainly) different characters. It (supposedly) tells the story of Mr Rochester and Bertha Mason, Mr Rochester's mad first wife who lives in the attic. I say 'supposedly' because I don't feel that this book really sheds any more light on the story and found a lot of the plot to be full of holes and confusing. I was disappointed that I didn't enjoy this more, but unfortunately I just didn't. 

About the Author

Jean Rhys (1894-1979) was born in Dominica. Coming to England aged 16, she drifted into various jobs before moving to Paris, where she began writing and was 'discovered' by Ford Madox Ford. Her novels, often portraying women as underdogs out to exploit their sexualities, were ahead of their time and only modestly successful. From 1939 (when Good Morning, Midnight was written) onwards she lived reclusively, and was largely forgotten when she made a sensational comeback with her account of Jane Eyre's Bertha Rochester, Wide Sargasso Sea, in 1966.

Typewriter

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©2015 Laura Besley

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©2015 Laura Besley

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Elsie Sze - author interview

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I was born and grew up in Hong Kong. I left for Canada to pursue graduate studies at 22. I subsequently taught high school in Toronto, got married and moved to the United States. In our years in the States, my husband and I raised a family of three boys, and I worked as a librarian upon completing a master’s degree in Library Science at the University of Chicago. In 1987, I returned to Canada with my family. I was with the Toronto Public Library for nine years. During this time, I took a summer workshop and a correspondence program in creative writing for three years with the Humber School for Writers. In 2001, I gave up my job as librarian to devote my time to writing. My first novel Hui Gui: a Chinese story was published in 2005, followed by The Heart of the Buddha in 2009, and now, Ghost Cave in 2014.

2. Can you give us a brief description of Ghost Cave: A novel of Sarawak?
Ghost Cave is historical fiction with the main focus on two devastating events in Sarawak history, the Chinese miners’ rebellion of the mid-nineteenth century and the communist guerrilla war of the 1960s. In 1849, Liu Hon Min and his friend Lo Tai left China for Sarawak, Borneo, in search of fortune, with the intention to return home to a better life for themselves and their families. They worked in the gold mines of Mau San, but became embroiled in a rebellion of the miners against the ruling Englishman James Brooke which ended tragically. Trapped by Brooke’s men inside a cave (later named Ghost Cave), Liu Hon Min was rescued by a native girl and afterwards married her. A hundred years later, one of their descendants Tak Ming fought as a communist guerrilla in the jungles of Borneo against Malaysian and British troops.  Ghost Cave was the setting where the two protagonists, over a century apart, were connected not just by bloodline but in an uncanny way by what transpired inside Ghost Cave. All this came to light when Tak Ming’s granddaughter, a young woman from Canada, went to Sarawak to find material for her journalism program, and in so doing unraveled her family’s past. 

3. Your father’s homeland is Sarawak; how, and to what extent, has your family history influenced the writing of this novel? 

Elsie Sze's 97-year-old father looking at the book Ghost Cave in Edmonton recently

Ghost Cave is by no means biographical. My father’s family and their history have had no bearing on my novel. My father’s grandparents were the first generation in our family tree to migrate from southern China to Sarawak in the late nineteenth century, many years after the Chinese miners’ rebellion – thank heavens! They were not miners but rubber and pepper plantation growers and traders.  As far as the plot and storyline go, my father’s family history has not influenced the writing of this novel. However, it was because of them that I decided to use Sarawak as the setting for this novel, something I wanted to give back to my father and his (our) family in Sarawak. It was my way of reconnecting with my roots.

4. Did you find it harder or easier to write about a place with close family connections?

A cousin and I at the grave site in Buso, Sarawak, of our great parents who migrated from China. The inscription on the right tombstone, that of our great grandfather reads: "Born 1862 Guangdong Dongguan / Died 1943 May 15th Kuching"

Before I answer this question, I must say I found it more interesting and alluring to write about a place with close family connections. I was thrilled to be at the sites where important and often calamitous events had occurred in the time periods of my story. My relatives in Sarawak made it possible and easy for me to go to those places time and again. My father’s village of Buso was one of the scenes where the massacre took place.   And there I was, walking down its main street where blood had flowed profusely in 1857! I suppose in a way you can say it’s easier to write about a place with close family connections, because of the ready access to information and research, but then the poignancy of the subject matter made it emotionally more taxing and therefore harder for me to write about it. 

5. This novel won the inaugural Saphira Prize (Women in Publishing Society, Hong Kong). What made you decide to enter your book? 

I had just completed the manuscript of Ghost Cave when the Women in Publishing Society invited submissions for the inaugural Saphira Prize for unpublished writing in the winter of 2012. At the time, I was in the process of negotiating an agent and finding a publisher, and when I read about the Saphira Prize, I thought I would submit my manuscript, to give it a shot. The result is the published Ghost Cave: a novel of Sarawak. You can say an ancestor or two must be looking out for me! 



6. Your first novel, Hui Gui: a Chinese story, was published in 2006. What made you decide to start writing after a career as a teacher and a librarian? 
I’d had a passion to write ever since I was in high school.  My goal to be a writer was not formed late in life, but I knew when I was younger that I wasn’t ready, in terms of life’s experiences and writing skills. It took me two full and gratifying careers as a teacher and a librarian which I had enjoyed very much before I felt it was time to start writing seriously if I was to stand a chance of realizing my life-long goal. That was when I took an early retirement from the library to pursue my dream.

7. You are an avid traveler; to what extent has this influenced your writing? 
To a very great extent! My travels have played a big part not only in my novels, but also the short pieces I have written and published. For Hui Gui: a Chinese story, I did not need to travel much, as my story was set in China and Hong Kong. I had been to China several times before the writing of Hui Gui, and I grew up in Hong Kong. Mostly I researched the historic period for the early part of the story with the help of books, films, the Internet and interviews. However, my second novel The Heart of the Buddha depended a lot on on-site research in Bhutan. I fell in love with the little Himalayan kingdom in 2000 when I first accompanied my husband on a business trip there. I decided there and then that I would write a novel about Bhutan. We returned to Bhutan two years later solely for my research. I interviewed monks and lamas, including a rimpoche (reincarnate lama), visited formidable dzongs (monasteries for administrative and religious purposes), even trekked the foothills of the Himalayas to over ten thousand feet altitude. Incidentally, Timeless Books, an Indian publisher, bought the right from me a few years ago to republish the novel for distribution in the Indian subcontinent which included Bhutan. I was very happy the book was finally ‘home’, made accessible to the Bhutanese people.  As for Ghost Cave: a novel of Sarawak, I wouldn’t have been able to write it without traveling to Sarawak. I paid five visits there in the last eight years, partly to see my family, and partly to research.  

8. Is there anything, or anyone, else that inspires you to write? 
Apart from my travels to countries that have inspired me,  there were my high school English teachers who gave me lots of encouragement, and English authors such as Emily and Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, whose works I have studied and loved. And my mentor and friend from the Humber School for Writers in Toronto, Isabel Huggan, a renowned Canadian author. 

9. What can we expect from you in the future? Are you working on another novel? 
I intend to keep on writing, with the main focus on novels. I do have another novel in mind, and have started my research. I don’t make it easy for myself: my next novel will again involve a lot of research on an off-the-beaten-track land, massive in size yet unfamiliar to most of the world. It will again transport me and my readers to another time, another place, far from the comfort zone and familiar domain of my North American home base. It will require a lot of traveling again, but it will be worth it. Much of the fun is in getting there.

Ghost Cave: A Novel of Sarawak by Elsie Sze

About the Book

Title: Ghost Cave: A novel of Sarawak
Author: Elsie Sze
Publication: Hong Kong Women in Publishing Society (26 Feb 2014)
Summary: Ah Min, a young Chinese immigrant, follows his best friend to seek his fortune in Sarawak in the mid-19th century. They labour in the mines alongside fellow Hakka and some native Dayak. Ah Min explores a humid land of beguiling women, of fragrant spices and of ghosts. But the oppression of the English White Rajah draws the men into a rebellion that will have catastrophic consequences.
Over 100 years later, Ah Min’s descendant Ka Ming joins communist guerrillas in the jungles of Sarawak. Facing danger at every turn, he and his friends must fight for their ideologies against British and Malaysian troops. The stories of Ah Min and Ka Ming are told through the eyes of a modern young woman, Therese. A tattered journal, a mysterious stranger and the voice of Ka Ming ultimately reveal that the two men are connected by more than blood.

What I Think

I was very interested in reading this book as I enjoy books about people, places and cultures. Living in Hong Kong I know a little about Chinese culture, but previous to reading this book knew nothing about the area in which this book is set (Sarawak, Borneo) or its history. Spanning roughly 150 years, this novel, through three different perspectives, gives a good overall picture of what it was like living in Sarawak from mid-19th century until the present. 

There are three different stories in this novel: Ah Min, a Chinese immigrant who moves to Sarawak temporarily to earn money to provide for his family; Ka Ming, a communist guerrilla and Therese, a young woman interested in her family history. Therese, who we learn very little about, has Ah Min's journal and she talks to Ka Ming to get his story. I think I would have preferred to have Ah Min's story in journal format. This would have made the different voices more distinguishable and added variety to the different perspectives. 

Overall this was an informative and interesting novel and I feel that I learned a lot about the setting and the time in which it took place. I would recommend this to people interesting in reading historical fiction. 

About the Author

ELSIE SZE grew up in Hong Kong and currently lives in Toronto with her husband, Michael. They have three sons, Benjamin, Samuel and Timothy. A former teacher and librarian, she is an avid traveller, often to remote places which form the settings for her stories. Her first novel, Hui Gui: a Chinese story, was nominated for Foreword magazine’s Book of the Year Award in Fiction, 2006. Her second novel, The Heart of the Buddha, was published in the United States in 2009 and was shortlisted for the Foreword Magazine 2009 Multicultural Fiction Book of the Year Award. In 2013, Elsie’s manuscript “Ghost Cave” won the inaugural Saphira Prize, a literary prize offered by Women in Publishing Society, Hong Kong, for unpublished writing.

Language in the Blood by Angela Lockwood

About the Book

Title: Language in the Blood
Author: Angela Lockwood
Publication: angela lockwood (16 Aug 2013)
Summary: Until the outbreak of the First World War, young Cameron Blair would have liked nothing better than to stay in Edinburgh and marry his childhood sweetheart. As the call to arms goes out, Cameron and his pals sign up to fight for their country. They are soon delivered into the nightmare of war, and there Cameron more than meets his maker. 
The story follows Cameron as he comes to terms with his new ‘life’, from his first days as a hapless vampire in war-torn France to the glamorous modern day setting of the Côte d’Azur. Along the way, he develops a distinctive taste for the finer things in life: jewels, yachts, small dogs and champagne-infused human... 

What I Think

Until now I have avoided the 'vampire genre' and Language in the Blood is, therefore, the first vampire book that I've ever read. I was more than happy to give it a try thinking that maybe I was missing out on something and you shouldn't knock something until you've tried it (except maybe for Fifty Shades of Grey). 

Cameron, the main character in the book, was born in the early 20th century and spends the better part of it being a vampire after he is turned into one during World War I. He initially struggles to adapt to his new way of living, especially how to find 'food', but within a couple of years starts to feel more comfortable. The main changes in his character take place very early on and after that he remains fairly stable, albeit cold distant and ruthless. I would have preferred to see more of his early development as this is where the biggest changes happen. 

This is an easy to read novel divided into bite-sized chapters which relate to the people Cameron meets during his life. I would recommend this to people who are interested in vampire fiction. 

About the Author

Angela Lockwood-van der Klauw was born in the Netherlands. She learned her trade as a jeweller and gemmologist at the Vakschool Schoonhoven before moving to Edinburgh as an apprentice jeweller. There she met and later married her husband Adam. Angela ran her own jeweller’s shop in Edinburgh for ten years before she and her husband moved to the south of France in 2011. Like Cameron, Angela prefers the climate there, but often thinks about the town she left behind and its people. 

follow language in the blood on: 
http://www.cruftslover.adzl.com/ 
https://www.facebook.com/CruftsloverAkaCameronBlair

On the Edge by Dick Hannah

About the Book

Title: On the Edge
Author: Dick Hannah
Publication: Amazon kindle (2013)
Summary: On the Edge takes Joe Malone, a disgraced and psychologically scarred Iraq War Marine veteran, to the canyons and deserts of West Texas to face his biggest fears and confront a dangerous enemy while racing in a three day adventure race. 

What I Think

On the Edge is almost two books for the price of one: present Joe and past Joe. As the book progresses we learn more about Joe's past life as a Marine and why this has led him to be the way that he is in his present life. These two threads of the story are cleverly woven together and feed into the ever-building climax at the end. 

Despite not knowing much, or indeed anything, about adventure races, there is enough detail in the book to follow what is going on. Joe works for his father's adventure fitness company as an instructor and the battle of fitness is also played out in the tumultuous relationship with his father. This relationship is tested further when one of their clients is murdered whilst Joe is leading the training session. 

Overall this is an enjoyable thriller and is recommended for people who enjoy murder mysteries. 

About the Author

Dick Hannah grew up loving to read and write. His first story, written in first grade, read like a Rex Stout pulp thriller but with less direction and absolutely no structure. He has since progressed and enjoys writing thrillers in the mould of Dick Francis and Diane Mott Davidson, but with adventure racing as a theme instead of horse racing or catering. He hopes to eventually develop into a techno/thriller writer and leverage his background in the Airborne Ranger Special Operations units. 

He is the author of Toe the Line and On the Edge. 

I have read & reviewed Dick Hannah's previous novel, Toe the Line, and he very kindly did an author interview for my blog. Click here for the link. 

Friday Flash Fiction - The Wedding

The Wedding

It was the worst wedding I had ever been to. Seriously, how were you supposed to enjoy watching your ex, who you’re still a teensy tiny bit in love with, say vows to a stick insect with perfect hair and still have a good time? Impossible, right? Right.

I don’t really know why I’d been invited. I wouldn’t have invited me if I’d been them. The ex-girlfriend? Not just someone he’d dated for a bit. No, I’m the ex he lived with for a couple of years. The ex who thought he was going to propose on that holiday in Greece. The ex who should bloody be standing up there instead of the stick insect with perfect hair.

Breathe. Breathe. You can do this. You can watch him get married and be the bigger person, congratulate them with a smile of your face and pretend you don’t care. You can.

I scanned the church and saw a man sitting by himself three pews from the back, more intent on looking anywhere than at the happy couple. He looks about as miserable as me. Oh! Wonder if he’s her ex.

After the beaming couple walked down the aisle, I made a beeline for “miserable man”.

‘Hi, I’m Penny,’ I said.

‘Josh.’

‘You look about as miserable as me if you don’t mind me saying.’

He looked at me and raised his eyebrows. ‘Really?’

‘Yup. I’m the ex.’

‘Ah. Yes, well, me too.’

‘Kinda weird, isn’t it? Inviting us, I mean.’

‘Weird alright.’

‘Are you going to the reception?’

‘Supposed to be.’

‘D’you wanna go get pizza instead?’

He smiled. ‘Sure, why not?’ 

©2014 Laura Besley

Flash Fiction Diary  

Snippets: A Collection of Flash Fiction is now available!  
Amazon UK/Amazon US

Many thanks to those of you who have already downloaded and read my collection of flash fiction. Also my thanks go out to those of you who have helped me to promote it by posting on facebook, twitter, sending emails or word of mouth. It's all much appreciated! 

I've had five 5star reviews, which have obviously made me extremely happy. 

"This is a wonderful collection of flash fiction and short prose. What I liked most was the variance of the storylines and their tone because I think they really complimented each other well. Some were humourous, others romantic, some dark and some topical (and relevant)."  Michael Diack

"If you like flash fiction, you're going to love Laura Besley's collection of stories in Snippets. If you don't like flash fiction or if you haven't tried it before, read Laura's book. She just may convert you." - Clint Morey

Are We All Having a Lovely Time? by Neil Saunders

About the Book

Title: Are We All Having a Lovely Time?
Author: Neil Saunders
Publication: I Get Knocked Down But I Get Up Again Publishing; 1st edition (10 Nov 2013)
Summary: Ben Cashew really thinks he's something special! Being the cruise director of the Ocean Explorer gives him ample opportunity to show himself off as the natural performer he is. Since childhood he dreamed of being a professional entertainer, so considers that he has done very well for himself. But when a drunken séance causes the boy he bullied at school, and committed suicide 20 years before, to come back to Earth, he is confronted by his bitter victim as to whether or not he really is a success. He is forced to re-evaluate his life and perhaps both bully and victim, through each other, can even find redemption.

What I Think

I have previously read and reviewed Neil Saunders' first publication, Al Qaeda Broke my Suitcase and other short stories, a collection which I enjoyed immensely. I was therefore looking forward to reading his first novel, Are We All Having a Lovely Time?. Both publications have a great cover, which I think immediately appeals to the reader. 

Set on a cruise ship with a small cast of characters Are We All Having a Lovely Time? has strong political themes, both British and international, a similarity that can be drawn with Saunders' first publication. The characters discuss Montenegro, former Yugoslavia and Serbia; the European Union; "the first cruise holidays available to ordinary people were provided by Hitler". 

Another strong theme is education, and everything that falls under that from being good at sports to bullying to the state of the education system and how funding is raised for schools. Ben Cashew, the main character in the book, bullied Rhys at school which led to Rhys' suicide. Until the drunken séance he hasn't given Rhys a second thought. But by reconnecting, both characters stand to change and maybe gain something. 

Saunders' second publication doesn't disappoint. The writing flows well and the characters are believable. As an author Saunders has a strong voice and writes convincingly on subjects he is clearly passionate about. Are We All Having a Lovely Time? is a good read. 

About the Author

When Neil Saunders arrived at primary school he could already read, his mother having taught him from a cartoon strip in the Daily Mirror. School was dangerously easy, and he achieved with little effort, making him rather lazy. He didn't enjoy school and was obsessed, not with reading, but with pop music.

Having spent years in factories and finally managing to get a permanent position as an admin officer in an office, he took a short story writing course. He discovered that he could write. And that is how he came to write Al Qaeda Broke My Suitcase and other stories. 


Are We All Having A Lovely Time? is his first novel. 

Everyone Knows this is Nowhere by Alice Furse

About the Book

Title: Everyone Knows this is Nowhere 
Author: Alice Furse
Publication: Amazon (2013)
Summary: It’s an endless winter in suburbia, and a young graduate who dreams of fading into anonymity moves in with a traffic warden and accepts a mind-numbing job in an office. Slowly, she starts to believe that the apocalypse is imminent, but unable to find anyone who understands she hatches a plan to save herself – before it’s too late. 

Everybody Knows this is Nowhere is an honest, comic, heart-breaking novel about how we love each other and the road to discovering that life rarely happens as we expect. Disarmingly frank, the narrator pulls the novel to its inevitable, and painful, conclusion.

What I Think

I read Alice Furse's debut novel, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, twice, and that's saying something because I very rarely read a book twice. I thoroughly enjoyed it both times, and that's really saying something.

Sometimes I decided that there had to be another life out there, waiting for me to step into it like a new shoe. My life felt as if it didn't match me at all, as if I'd picked up the wrong one by accident. 

The main character (whose name we never find out) has just graduated and not knowing how to get the job of her dreams, accepts a mind-numbing job in an office. Personally this is something I can relate to as I found myself in exactly the same position after university. The book is filled with all the little experiences of working in an office and Furse finds a way to make the endless mundane days at the office interesting. 

You love what you love and you believe what you believe. 

Relationships are also explored in the novel, the most important being the one between the main character and her boyfriend, the Traffic Warden. They live in "the noisiest place in the universe" and embark on post-uni life together. Relationships between couples in the twenty-first century are changing; there are no longer any rules and it's not always easy to find your way. Which flaws can you accept as endearing, and which are unbearable? 

I loved the sharpness of the air in my mouth and the skeletal trees spread like veins on the clear sky. 

Alice Furse has a way of looking for the extraordinary in the ordinary, writing about it and making it compelling in a way that I've rarely seen before. Everybody Knows This is Nowhere is like a fly on the wall documentary, but in book form, and it's excellently done. She has a beautiful way with language and the book is packed with similes and descriptions, as well as fabulous one-liners. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is about to finish university (although make sure you're in a 'happy place' when you sit down to read it), anyone who has been frustrated after leaving university and anyone who is looking for a new, unique talent in the world of writing. 

About the Author

Alice Furse lives in Brixton, London, and works as a press officer for a national sports radio station. She has an MA in Creative Writing and Everybody Knows this is Nowhere is her first publication. 

Alice Furse - Author Interview

I'm very excited to welcome debut author Alice Furse to my blog today. I read her book, Everybody Knows this is Nowhere, recently and will be publishing a full review on Wednesday 12th February. I hope you enjoy this interview with Alice.  

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself 

I’ve moved around quite a bit but live in London now and absolutely love it. It’s massive and dirty and it took me a good year before I properly got my head around it, partly because when I first moved here I was a dealer in a casino and worked nights. Now I work as the press officer for a national sports radio station, which is a lot more fun and also means I get to see the daylight. I live near Brixton and there’s a great indie cinema, a sprawling food market, and a pub full of funny characters as well as a decent secondhand bookshop. I like the fact you never really know what you’re going to see when you leave your front door – London is a great place for eccentrics and misfits.

2. Can you tell us a little about your debut publication, Everyone Knows this is Nowhere?
Everybody Knows This is Nowhere is about a girl who has just left university and feels that life should now be starting, only to realise that nothing is how she thought it would be (including the man she lives with). She gets a job as an office receptionist and is just itching for something else, but really doesn’t know what.
In common with most first novels it’s heavily autobiographical: when I left uni I moved straight in with a boyfriend and had no solid idea about what I wanted to do with my life (beyond being a writer, a profession that everyone told me was a pipedream), but I wasn’t at all prepared for how utterly lost and useless and bored and alone I would feel. This novel was really my exploration of those feelings.

3. I would describe your writing style as ‘fly on the wall’. Do you think this is accurate and is this a style you have purposefully used? 

I read somewhere that when you write a novel it should be like you’re taking the reader by the hand and showing them around a world, and I really love that idea because firstly you have a license to take a person on a journey and show them whatever you want, which is amazing, but there’s also an onus on you to make it interesting enough that they continue to want to be there with you.
Everybody Knows is not plot-driven by any stretch of the imagination, so I purposefully had to think of ways to draw readers in and keep them, and I tried to do this by creating an ominous atmosphere and pretty weird ensemble of characters, as well as holding it all together by a deadpan narrator.
I was definitely trying to capture something real, as I was pretty sure that other people must also feel as I did and if I could make them feel less alone then great, because I think that’s what a writer’s job really is.

4. Did you make a conscious decision to self-publish, or was this made for you? 
Bit of both, I guess. I wrote the novel a few years ago, and right after it was finished I got an agent interested, who sent it out to his contacts. It got reasonably far at a few publishing houses, but they all said that although they liked it they couldn’t figure out how to market it, so I left it and got on with other things.
About six months ago it occurred to me what an utter waste this was, and that I’d put so much work into something that I’m pretty proud of and no one would ever get to read it. Self-publishing has been made so much easier as technology has advanced and now I have three years experience in PR under my belt, so I just decided to go for it. 

5. And what have been the ups and downs of self-publishing?
The main best thing has been seeing the project come to fruition – it feels complete now in a way it didn’t before. It’s had more downloads than I imagined in my wildest dreams, and I get a real kick out of the thought that people are actually reading something that I wrote. 
Also, the complete independence and control over what you’re doing is brilliant. I know it doesn’t sound all that fantastic when you compare it to a £20,000 advance, but it’s really something to look at your project and know that you made it all happen. I’m extremely lucky to know a great graphic designer who helped me put the cover together, but I came up with the idea for it and took the photo myself, and seeing the finished cover for the first time was one of the best moments of my life. I don’t say that lightly. I suddenly knew it was what I’d always wanted and I couldn’t put a price tag on that.
I don’t want to go on too much of a downer about self-publishing as there’s enough people who’ll do that for you, but it absorbs a lot of hours and the whole time I had this thought in my head, ‘What if this is a complete waste of time?’ 
I said before that I loved using my own photo for the cover, but it took me two evenings and a full Saturday mucking about to get that picture and I’d have much rather been sitting on the sofa eating crisps. Learning the ins and outs of formatting a book for Kindle isn’t a lot of fun either, but it just has to be done. 

6. Moving on from Everyone Knows this is Nowhere, what are you working on at the moment?
To be honest I’m working on a kabillion things, as usual. I’ve started another novel about London and a girl who has an affair with an older man and I’m about 10,000 words in, but I’ve yet to get my teeth into it properly as I’ve been up until the wee hours most nights getting Everybody Knows up and running and being read.
I’m also working on a couple of short stories to send out to magazines – the one I’m focused on at the moment is a story from my time working in a casino, which is something I’ve never been able to write about much. I’m also trying my hand at writing articles for blogs and newspapers, and just for a laugh I sometimes try to write stuff for a comedy radio station that my friend is building.

7. Do you believe “No one can teach you to write” or have you found that completing an MA in Creative Writing has helped propel your writing forward?
Unbelievably the latter. I guess I would say this because I invested a huge amount of time and money in my writing education, but you can get tons out of a good writing teacher – from initial inspiration and encouragement, to ways of approaching the deeper thematic strands of your work, to the nuts and bolts of avoiding clichés and formatting dialogue. 
I had a close relationship to my writing teacher at uni, who was the first (and only) person to tell me that I should try to write a novel, which seemed a laughable notion to me at the time. Post-uni, I’ve found that there’s no substitute for having someone who knows what they’re talking about actually reading what you’ve written and criticising it, not to mention an all important deadline to get you producing something.
A decent teacher should also help you to figure out what makes the writer in you tick – and doing a course gives you the time and space to think about yourself as a writer and establish how you produce your best work. That might mean you write religiously for an hour every morning, or sporadically at night, like me.

8. Not being a full-time writer, how and where do you find the time to write? 
I do a lot of work in the evenings, and recently I decided to treat every Saturday like a work day – it’s been good for me to set that time aside for writing. Last year I massively cut down on drinking because I was wasting way too much time mucking about and getting pissed, and that’s helped. 
My problem is that I’ve always got a million things I want to do – I’m obsessed with sewing as much as writing, and I’m also training for a half-marathon. I’ve literally had to force myself to focus on one thing at a time so I don’t constantly feel guilty that I’m not getting enough done.

9. What or who influences your writing or inspires you to write?
I’ve been influenced by loads of writers over the years – I want to say Cormac McCarthy because I loved The Road so much, but I actually didn’t write anything for a long while after I read it because I felt I would never be able to write anything even approaching meaningful… The spell broke when I read No Country for Old Men, which I think works much better as a film.
I love Magnus Mills, who had written lots of good stuff but the two novels that stick out to me are The Restraint of Beasts and All Quiet on the Orient Express. He writes in this tight, terse prose that seems simple on the surface but builds into a great climax, and his characters are all so rough and deadpan. I’ve always loved the fact that he works as a bus driver and used to be an itinerant fencer, because you can tell that the characters he’s met doing those sorts of jobs have informed his work.
I was pretty young when I read The Bell Jar and that book will have a place in my heart forever. It has this reputation that it’s only for teenage girls but that’s just bollocks. 
For short stories, Raymond Carver and Ali Smith have influenced me quite a lot – Ali Smith has this great device of using second person narration in her stories that I quite like to adopt sometimes. 
Lately I’ve been trying to read more biographies and non-fiction, as I think it helps to expand your worldview and improve your writing if you know more about the world and the worlds that people have come from.

10. Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
There’s so much good advice out there I don’t know if I can add much to it! For me the main job of a writer is to be able to see things that other people miss and connect them in an original and hopefully entertaining way. It’s a writer’s job to put into words what people know and have experienced, but cannot say themselves. That takes guts, and practice. Fine tune your bullshit detector. Read a lot. You can make stuff up, but never lie. Be awake and observant. Read your work aloud to yourself in the bath to hear your mistakes clang. Never give up. It’s tough – but that’s why most people aren’t writers.