Lonely Planet, Italy: #BookReview.

On 30/08/2018 By stuartakenIn Book, Reading, Review

Travel/Italy 992 pages Until I’ve been to Italy, I can’t know the true value of this book. However, having read it in preparation, I can comment on what I’ve so far found. I’m off to Italy soon, visiting Rome, Naples and Pompeii, Florence, and Lake Maggiore, which is why I bought the general travel book …

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Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.

On 08/08/2018 By stuartakenIn Author, Book, Creative Writer, Fiction, Mars, Progress4 Comments

It’s done! It’s out! It’s available to buy (and review)! Right now! Okay, so an overindulgence in apostrophes. I’m excited. Delighted. Eager. The book is no longer a Work In Progress, so this is the last post in this series. There’ll be more on the book, of course: I’d like everyone to read it, after …

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What Would a Muslim Say?, by Ahmed Lotfy Rashed: #BookReview.

On 05/08/2018 By stuartakenIn Book, Creative Writer, Reading, Review9 Comments

Religion and Spirituality/Islam 156 pages Subtitled ‘Conversations, Questions, And Answers About Islam’, this slim volume is an introduction to the Muslim’s view of Islam. It’s also an attempt to separate the actions of extremists from the doctrines on which they base those actions. And an effort to educate non-Muslims in the way the religion is …

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A Fortunate Man, by John Berger, illustrated by Jean Mohr: #BookReview.

On 04/08/2018 By stuartakenIn Book, Creative Writer, Reading, Review

Biography/Medical Memoir 177 pages. I came to this extraordinary piece of writing via an unusual route. The village hall hosted a short dramatic presentation by ‘New Perspectives’ introducing the book using visual aids, a soundtrack and the skills of two actors to explain how the book came into being. Although that drama was flawed, it …

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Landscape and Memory, by Simon Schama: #BookReview.

On 03/08/201803/08/2018 By stuartakenIn Book, Creative Writer, Literature, Reading, Review2 Comments

History 672 pages Art historian, philosopher, raconteur, academic, or proselyte? Simon Schama’s great tome carries elements of all these. One reviewer, quoted on the cover, adds ‘self-indulgent and perverse’, and I’ve no argument with those. There are undoubted instances of the self-congratulatory, ‘I know a lot more than you’, and the academic show-off in this …

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Befriended, by Ruth O’Neill: #BookReview.

On 21/07/2018 By stuartakenIn Author, Book, Creative Writer, Fiction, Reading, Review

Contemporary Fiction 310 pages Subtitled, ‘Be Careful Who You Trust’, this piece of modern fiction is not the usual material I read. I dislike labels, but I do wonder if this is intended more for the ‘Women’s Fiction’ market. The story is well presented and the characters particularly well developed. I did have some difficulty …

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Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.

On 18/07/2018 By stuartakenIn Author, Book, Creative Writer, Fiction, Mars, Progress

Much like the swan paddling upstream, most action on the WIP is happening beneath the surface for now, so I thought I’d post a piece on the process of writing the book, the reasons behind some decisions. As I recently had a rather unusual review of the first two books in the series, highlighting the …

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Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.

On 12/07/2018 By stuartakenIn Author, Book, Creative Writer, Fiction, Mars, Progress

We’re in that quiet-on-the-surface period, when the publisher is frantically busy behind the scenes but very little shows on the surface. So, briefly, regarding progress: the book’s with the publisher and proceeding through the various steps that take an author’s words and make a book of them. The cover’s well on the way to being …

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The 93-E Contradiction, by Melodie Trudeaux: #BookReview.

On 09/07/2018 By stuartakenIn Author, Book, Creative Writer, Fiction

Science Fiction 24 pages This science fiction short story looks at the threat imposed by over-reliance on technical advances without regulation. We live in a world where many things are possible. This book asks the question, ‘Just because we can, does it mean we should?’ I leave it to the reader to decide, after reading …

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Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf: #BookReview.

On 08/07/2018 By stuartakenIn Book, Creative Writer, Fiction, Literature, Reading, Review6 Comments

Classics 208pps This classic of English Literature breaks all the rules of writing a novel; a bold step at the time of its creation. Viewpoints come and go, often without any real introduction, and sometimes within a paragraph. Passages develop and proceed, often without any indication of who we’re listening to in their internal dialogue, …

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Everybody Shrugged, by Walt Pilcher: #BookReview.

On 05/06/2018 By stuartakenIn Author, Book, Creative Writer, Fiction, Reading, Review

354 pps Genre Fiction/Political/Literary humour. Humour in any book is a gamble. We don’t all see with the same eyes. Whilst this novel rarely made me laugh out loud, I did smile and grin a lot, so it was a positive experience. That it managed this while dealing with such issues as government incompetence (this …

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Greek Mythology, by in60Learning.com: #BookReview.

On 24/05/2018 By stuartakenIn Book, Literature, Reading, Review4 Comments

Subtitled ‘Beyond Mount Olympus’, this small book is a short introduction to the broad and complex area of the Greek Myths. A bold undertaking to attempt to condense centuries of myth and legend, featuring a myriad heroes, gods, goddesses, nymphs and satyrs, this slim volume does its best. Inevitably it is superficial and, at times, …

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Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.

On 16/05/2018 By stuartakenIn Author, Book, Creative Writer, Fiction, Mars, Progress4 Comments

Six chapters to go, and the MS stands at 68,660 words, a record low word count for one of my novels! Thursday, I was driven to hospital by a kind and friendly volunteer from a local service that provides rides for people on such missions. I won’t bore, or distress, you with details of the …

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The QI Book of General Ignorance, by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson: #BookReview.

On 16/05/2018 By stuartakenIn Book, Creative Writer, Reading, Review

393 pps Humour/Puzzles & Games/ Subtitled ‘The Noticeably Stouter Edition’, this book of humorously presented erudition is a gem. Clearly, a book to be dipped into, rather than read at one sitting, it is nevertheless addictive. Those who know the TV show, first hosted by the inimitable Stephen Fry and latterly by the equally unique …

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A Better Ten Commandments, by James Miller: #BookReview.

On 13/05/2018 By stuartakenIn Author, Book, Creative Writer, Reading, Review

This is both a self-improvement and inspirational book with a very real difference. That difference is crucial. James Miller is a man on a mission. A mission I’m utterly at one with. Our lives are governed from birth, throughout education and maturity, to the final day, by dogma, myth and legend posing as truth. Although …

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