Traps by MacKenzie Bezos

"Life is full of things that feel like traps. Our own weaknesses and mistakes. Unlucky accidents. The violence done to us by others. But they're not always what they seem. Sometimes later we see that they led us where we needed to go."

Traps follows four women. In chapter 1 we meet "our first hero", Dana, who is being confronted by a savage dog inside a locked vehicle as part of her training before she returns home to her nice, ordered home across the way from her messy boyfriend's place.

Chapter 2 is where we meet Jessica , an famous actor who is in hiding at home with her doctor husband and two girls, as she avoids answering her ringing phone. 

In chapter 3 we meet the third woman, Vivian, a teenager forced to flee the red widow spider infested hovel home of her boyfriend, with her twin babies, and $14 in her pocket.

Chapter 4 is where the fourth woman, Lynn, is introduced. She runs a dog rescue centre and is advertising a vacancy after yet another of her "girls" leaves the role. 

Having four separate introductions for me disrupted the flow of the book at the beginning, and the chapters also contain a lot of detailed description in them making them slow reading for me.

But after those chapters the disconnects become less and the stories converge, as each of the women confronts their traps, leading to a moving end for each of them.

Overall a book that gets more gripping as you get through it and would suit those who like emotional stories (4 for the price of one in fact).

I got this book through Amazon Vine UK. It is listed HERE.

The Abominators by J.L. Smith and Sam Hearn

The Abominators are “the naughtiest children in Year 5” of Grimely East Primary School. Cecil Trumpington-Potts is a new boy at their school, his father having fallen from riches to poverty and having to send his posh speaking son (“panty wanty woos”) to school for the first time in his life. Cecil loves this and looks forward to finally making friends afor the first time in his life, and the people he wants to be friends with are the Abominators.

Trouble is they don’t want to be friends with him because he is “a la-di-da lunatic” who wears “girly pants" and talks like a baby and is weird. Because of this, and because Cecil wants so badly to be part of their gang, they set him three impossible tasks for him to complete, which they mask as initiation tasks, and if he completes all three he can be part of their gang. The first task is to replace the school flag with the head-teacher’s pants.

Through the book there is also a rivalry between Grimely East and Lofty Heights Primary who have all the smart, well-behaved children in the town, and who win all the trophies such as the shiniest shoe trophy, which makes Grimely’s head-teacher in particular jealous of them, and their head boasting all the time.

The story also contains a few black and white pictures along the way which add to the story.

Anyways Cecil has a distinctive voice, even if the four Abominators themselves are somewhat interchangeable, with his posh-ness, his positive attitude and his naivety. He makes this short story a most enjoyable ride, which made my daughter laugh in places, and me too. Good fun throughout. It would be suitable for young readers too, although there are some big words in there.

Recommended.

I got this book through Amazon Vine UK. It is listed HERE.

Tiger's Eye by Barbra Annino

You know this is going to be a quirky novel right from the off, what with the doggy quotes at the beginning of most chapters (example: "I spilled spot remover on my dog. He's gone now." Steven Wright).

Stacey Justice is a quirky character too, matching the image portrayed on the front cover. She's a reporter on the paper that her father helped set up. There are three mysteries that she solves through this novel: 1) Who was behind the death of her father many years ago, 2) The mystery of the sad collie dog named Keesha, and 3) Why did Lolly's fiancé disappear just before her wedding, also a long time ago?

And Stacey Justice isn't just a normal human, she belongs to a family of witches, so she has some magic up her sleeve too, and has given the tag the "Seeker of Justice" based on predictions written in the family's "Blessed Book of the Garaghty Clan" that has been passed down the generations.

This is the third book featuring Stacey Justice (the first two being Opal Fire and Bloodstone with a fourth on the way later in 2013 called Emerald Isle), but I got by without having read the first two perfectly fine, although I obviously missed out on the character bios so it did get a little confusing knowing who Lolly, Birdie, Cinnamon and others were in relation to Stacey early on.

The novel is upbeat throughout, Stacey is a busy woman zipping from place to place, and has lots of friends (coming from a small town means she knows everyone), making this book a fun read.

I got this book through Amazon Vine UK. It is listed HERE.

Vlad All Over by Beth Orsoff

I came across the author Beth Orsoff through her book Disengaged, which is very much a Rom-Com. This book on the other hand is a more serious affair, but still with the romance in there.

The story follows Gwen Anderson, a woman who was adopted after her real mother abandoned her leaving her only a painted icon of Saint George. This plays a key part in the plot, but given the way Gwen feels towards her birth mother who never has attempted to find her so she can't care less about her, it seems strange that she should hold on to this and keep it as a good luck charm, but never mind.

Gwen has nightmares about her killing lots of people. She meets Alex Romanescu and he, behind her back, uncovers that she is in the Vlad Tepes aka Dracula family line, which upsets Gwen so much that they fall out. ("He'd lied to me from the moment we'd met. Betrayed my trust. We were through.")

And that is the basis of the book.

The first half sort of plodded along, mainly because the two lead characters lacked life. It's only when the big revelations come into it, and the conflict starts, that the book comes to life. So the second half was good. And it is good to see that the story is going to continue into another book, where hopefully Alex and Gwen get back together.

Overall the book is ok, but is not as good as Disengaged, the other book I've read by the author.

I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon UK HERE.

Tom Gates: Genius Ideas (Mostly) by Liz Pichon

This is more than a book. It is a work of art. 

This is a book that will get kids who aren’t interested in reading, interested in reading (at least for one book). And for kids who are already interested in reading, this is their reward for being interested in reading.

Throughout the book the layout of every page has so much going on. Even before we’d started the story there was a little flip-book bug in the bottom corner doing his thing. Then on every page there are words that are block-lettered, little pictures everywhere, big pictures in places, clever usage of lines and text, doodles and drawings etc. 

And the plot is funny in places too, like when Tom Gates imagines what his most amazing day at school would be like, and some of the interaction between Tom's family members, especially Tom's mum and the dad.

My daugther says she liked it because "it was a flip book. It was very funny because Tom got his hair cut and it wasn't very nice. And Mr Fullerman's class came second in the sports day, when they used to be last, and there was a line of 'You're an idiot'."

So highly recommended.

I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed HERE.

There was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra by Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe has been given the accolade "the father of modern African writing" and very few critics can dispute this fact.

I have over the years read numerous works by Achebe the `master story teller' and to date, Things Fall Apart remains my favourite - this novel depicted the life of an `Igbo Man' called Okonkwo. Okonkwo was a tragic leader and a die-hard African traditionalist with a firm conviction in the destiny of his people, yet he was a man who failed to accept the inevitable changes in his world. The book ended with Okonkwo finding totally unacceptable the influence of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on his Igbo community, culminating in his unfortunate suicide. Conflicts between modern societal beliefs and Igbo traditionalism continue to exist.

Achebe's book `There was a country - A personal History of Biafra' will not disappoint his numerous fans - it is is in my opinion a beautifully written account of his personal experiences of the Biafran War. He takes us on a journey of his early life in Nigeria. He speaks candidly about his personal experiences and discusses the principal actors and major players at the time.

The book in itself is a lament on the failure of a giant that never was; Achebe mourns Nigeria's failures, the greatest and most devastating of which in his opinion was Biafra; a nation and a vision that did not come into fruition.

Achebe being Achebe is brilliant in interweaving his narration with proverbs and idioms. He got straight into the act right from in the `Introduction' using the well known Igbo proverb - `A man who does not know where the rain began to beat him cannot say where he dried his body'. He then set out his stall by saying that the `rain' or to put it concisely `the problem' of Africa started four to five hundred years ago by the `discovery' of Africa by Europe through the transatlantic slave trade; to the Berlin Conference of 1885 which precipitated the `Scramble for Africa''. The colonisation that ensued created artificial boundaries leading to tension-prone modern states due to the merging of people from diverse ethnicities and tribes with little or nothing in common. The plethora of nations created were without a doubt dysfunctional, recipes for disaster, catalysts for chaos, anarchy and ticking time bombs.

Part one of the book deals with Professor Achebe's family life, Part 2 and 3 provide an insight into the Biafran war and Part 4 is an analysis of Nigeria's present situation which profoundly illustrates that the country is tethering on the brink as it is currently saddled with the burden of "corruption, tribalism, nepotism and political ineptitude."

Achebe however does not conclude that the game is over but challenges Nigerians to throw down the shackles and embrace the spirit of change.

I strongly recommend this book and give it a Five Star rating.

- Chuka

This book is listed on Amazon UK HERE.

Elimination Night by Anonymous

So this book is written by Anonymous, the reason being given on the back cover, that the book is “so hilariously accurate about the inner workings of the talent show machine that it had to be written anonymously”. And the book does seem like it could be accurate about that sort of stuff, although around that the book isn’t too serious as it is all built around the laughs.

The story focuses on Sasha King. Her boyfriend is off in Hawaii concentrating on his “surfing career” whilst she is in LA earning enough money to follow him over, but also to allow herself time to write her Novel of Immense Profundity.

Sasha works on the production side of “Project Icon”, an X-Factor/Pop Idol show. They are starting their 13^th season and star judge-based-on-Simon-Cowell Nigel Crowther has quit to set up a different, rival reality show.

The pressure is on.

First a new panel of judges needs to be found, which is easier said than done (funny bios, all sorts of negotiating etc.). They arrive at three, although they don’t exactly click. The auditions takes place but ratings for the series are down which carries consequences. “They’re giving us one episode. No ratings, no more show. Our elimination night.”

Luckily the controlling company gets into trouble over a rigged-bingo show so “the ratings of a televised singing competition were no longer at the top of Big Corp’s agenda.”

Along the way Sasha finds herself too.

The book is all for the laughs, the happenings are outlandish although there is a believable element to the details underlining everything. The book did get rushed at the end though and maybe a joke or two were repeated but overall an enjoyable read, and I’ll be looking out to see what Anonymous does next.

I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed HERE.  

Trailer video is below:

Wendy Quill is a Crocodile's Bottom by Wendy Meddour and Mina May

This book is made up of three short stories and a few pages of extra bits at the end.

The first story is about Wendy Quill playing the part of a crocodile's bottom in a Peter Pan play when she would much have preferred the part of Wendy, given her name. Still the play does allow her to be a little bit famous.

The second story (incidentally called Act 2 which fits in with the `play' theme of the first story that leant its name to the book) is about how Wendy Quill accidently became part of a tap-dancing show where she again became a little bit famous.

The third story is about her school class learning about the plague. And again Wendy Quill becomes a little bit famous, even more so than in the previous two stories.

This book will appeal to parents because of the pictures being drawn by the author's 11-year old daughter. It will appeal to children because of the layout with pictures throughout breaking up the text, the stories being school based (characters have firstname surname names) and the stories being normal (no magic).

There is maybe a Charlie and Lola influence in the way Wendy Quill narrates so it's not totally original stuff but it is fun.

As for my 6-year-old daughter's view she says she likes it "because Wendy Quill is called Wheezy Bird, even though she wasn't a bird, and was a crocodile's bottom."

I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed HERE.

Truth or Busted: The Smell of Poo Closed Parliament! by Adam Sutherland

I read this with my 6-year-old daughter over several bedtimes and it really struck a chord with her, even without her knowing a lot about the subject matter of London beforehand.

She loved how the facts and non-facts were presented with an introduction followed by a “And the truth is…” section. She liked to guess whether the myths were truth or busted before the reveal.

The presentation is probably one of the things that really appealed to her in the first place. There are glossy pages with bold black and white design throughout, lots of pictures too. 

As well as the truth or busted bits there were other sections on London things, like explanations of Cockney rhyming slang, and it is quite interesting just how many of these have made it into the English dictionary without people, or me at least, even realising it. Other articles cover things that originated from London (e.g. tennis and pavements), the smelliest jobs in London over the years, and a few other things too.

For me the book was maybe a bit short, being under 100 pages, and it seemed to be running out of ideas right at the end but for my daughter’s reaction it gets 5 stars.

I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed HERE,

The Mirror Classic Cartoon Collection by Mike Higgs

This book starts with a short written introduction (three paragraphs) before going straight into the cartoons, each with the tiniest of introductory text themselves, and in this way the cartoons are made to do the talking, which is the way it should be.

First up are 2 serial stories following the escapades of Garth, the space-travelling human, one from 1957 and one from 1969. They are by different artists and have different styles. The first is more of a prim and proper 1950s style whilst in the second one Garth sports longer hair, and takes part in a very sexist, of-the-era story.

Next is 10 pages of Andy Capp cartoons, with a couple of intro paras of course describing his origins. The cartoons evolve from 1-panel to 3-panel affairs. And you get to see why Andy Capp has become so popular as the strips here are simple, yet genuinely funny.

It’s onto longer serial strips again next, this time for Romeo Brown, a ladies-man detective. These are much more light-hearted than the Garth “adventure” style stories from before, with two tales full of fun as Romeo Brown gets into all sorts of scrapes involving a healthy dose of danger and women.

Useless Eustace is next. His intro talks about his “extremely round and extremely bald head” leading me to think of Karl Pilkington. Perhaps Useless Eustace was the Karl Pilkington of his day.

A few pages of Calamity Gulch single-gag cartoons follow, Calamity Gulch being a little Western town, with Cowboys and Indians featuring.

Then to finish is Scorer, a story strip again, about footballer Dave “Scorer” Storry, a scorer on and off the pitch it seems. This particular story sees him have a psycho female fan on the warpath for him, causing him a lot of off-field aggro, whilst also off the pitch he meets his girlfriend Ulrikka for the first time. Meanwhile on the pitch he helps Tolcaster reach his first Euro final. 

So all-in-all a selection of the Mirror’s cartoons over the years that, although a non-Mirror reader, I found enjoyable with good artwork and good fun plentiful.

This book is out of print but is listed on Amazon HERE.