Subtitled ‘An Irish Garden Memoir of Making a Place Where Life Grows’, this small book has a great message. It tells the story of how a man (the author) managed, with help from many people, to set up gardens that allow cultivation to reside in mutual and positive cooperation with wildlife and wild flowers.Told in …
Continue reading Nature’s Acre, by Ciarán De Buitléar: #BookReview.
Set in India, this is the story of a personal mission by Stephen to discover the reason his family left the country in 1951. Was it fear, betrayal, homesickness, or some other cause that forced a move from what had always been his home? It occurred only a few years after the appallingly handled India/Pakistan …
Continue reading A Persistence of Ghosts, by Mick Canning: #BookReview.
12 short stories, varying in topic, treatment and length. Here you’ll find the surreal, the complex, the bizarre, and the simply unclassifiable. And that, I imagine, is the intention. These stories are definitely not ‘regular’ and refuse to be placed into pre-defined boxes.There is a literary element here, but you’ll also find some playfulness. Some …
Continue reading Irregular Stories, by The Irregular Writers Collective: #BookReview.
I picked up the hardback copy of this book at a book fair where I was hoping to sell some of my own books. There was a very large stall selling pre-read hardbacks for £1.00. Having read other books by this author, I felt the expense was worth the risk! I’d enjoyed the other titles, …
Continue reading The Dark Room, by Minette Walters: #BookReview.
I've reviewed this book, a really useful and practical guide for creators looking for exposure, on Medium. You can read it, without cost, using this link:
Subtitled ‘A neuroscientist’s guide to a healthier, happier life’, this book is just that. An extraordinary piece of work that, read well and applied to everyday life could be a life-changer for you. It already is for me. In just 8 chapters, this book demystifies both the workings of our most complex organ and our …
Continue reading How To Make Your Brain Your Best Friend, by Rachel Barr: #BookReview.
What is ‘Outline’? Is it a novel, a collection of essays, a piece of philosophy, an account of the physical, mental and emotional wanderings of the gifted author? It is all these things, and more.Whilst I discovered it was possible to put the book down, it was not feasible to do so without finishing that …
Continue reading Outline, by Rachel Cusk: #BookReview
Subtitled ‘A new author’s guide to publishing and marketing for success’ this book was recommended to me by another writer, who thought it might be of use to me. It is! First, I’m a published writer, both self-published and published with a small indie publisher, so, on the face of it, this book could seem …
This sumptuously illustrated book of 400 pages of visual art and its history is an attempt to show the development of pictorial representation from the earliest daubes and scratches on the walls of caves all the way through to the more modern daubes and splashes that can apparently be counted as art. In between are …
Continue reading Timelines of Art, by DK: #BookReview
It surely can’t be this long since I reported on my WIP, can it? But it appears my last post was way back on 23rd November 2024. How can that be?Well, I’ve some excuses. It’s possible some of you may consider them reasons, which would be better for my conscience.First excuse: I’m suffering from an …
Continue reading Further Progress on the #WIP
For some reason, lost in the dark clouds of obfuscating age-related memory, although I reviewed this book on Goodreads way back in the mists of time, I seem to have failed to have placed that review here. I now correct that missed opportunity. # As just one of the seventy-two poets featured in this remarkable …
Continue reading Epitaphs, by Anthological Poets: #BookReview.
Had another couple of reviews of ‘An Excess Of…’ so far this month. As writers and readers will know, reviews are never easy to get, unless you’re willing to spend a fortune on them, but paid for reviews have never struck me as a genuine way to discover the true value of a book.I’ve copied …
Continue reading The Reviews Continue to Come In!
5 Star review from Mojgan Azar December 21, 2021 An Excess of … Stuart Aken’s “An Excess of” is a story about human nature and the conflicts we hold within each of us. The journey takes us from the deck of a sinking ship to the sands of a strange shore and deep into the …
Continue reading And Another 5-Star Review of ‘An Excess Of…’
Here’s another lovely review for my latest novel, posted to Goodreads. Aithal Aithal's review Jan 08, 2022 really liked it This book is not just a story but a very thought-provoking piece of work. Several times, I found myself nodding in agreement. The subject matter is interwoven as the story progresses. Stuart Aken masterfully makes …
Continue reading Another Great #Review for An Excess Of…
I came across this review by Joshua Grant while doing a search for my book on Amazon to check on current progress. Despite the fact I entered the title of my book in its exact form, the search returned 75 pages of titles, none of which (apart from mine) had this exact title. In fact, …
Continue reading Another 5 Star Review.
