Book Review; A Collection Of Books For Halloween, Autumn and Winter

Hi readers, 

It feels like I'm writing this post a little late - should have been closer to the start of October then the end! As most of you know though, I've not been well and so I've not been writing a lot, not that I've been keeping on top of this blog anyway! Now, I'm trying to get back to doing things I enjoy and helps to keep me busy.

So, I wanted to write about some books that have the same theme and fit in with Halloween which is next week. I'm not sure if I'll get around to writing about them all individually which is why I thought it would be good to do a collective post. However, I've not read some of these books yet, so I can't give a full view so this is just going to be a quick look and first thoughts.

I'm going to be looking at 6 anthologies, 4 novels, 8 non-fiction books and a coloring book. I really enjoy reading short stories at this time of year because things are often so busy it's nice to dip in and out of stories and not have to fully commit to a single novel.   

My hope is that this post might be useful to other people and introduce them to some new books. Let's make a start with the books in the above photo and what better way to be began with the master of darkness and horror himself, Dracula.   

The Rivals Of Dracula, Stories from The Golden Age of Gothic Horror edited by Nick Rennison.

I saw this book in Waterstones a month or so back and decided I had to have it for my vampire book collection. The anthology contains 15 short vampire stories which were written in the late Victorian and Edwardian times. The blurb describes the stories as being 'classic tales to chill the blood' by well known and less known supernatural writers including, M R James and EF Benson. 

I'm looking forward to reading this because I like Victorian literature and reading about 'early' vampires. 

Haunted Nights, A Horror Writers Association Anthology edited by Ellen Datlow and Lisa Morton.

Someone brought me this book as a Christmas present last year and I decided to save it to read around now. This anthology has 16 short stories that are themed around Halloween. I don't recognize any of the writers which can be a good thing as it's an introduction to new authors and the chances of re-reading a short story are low. 

The stories are described as being 'sly modern narratives to haunting traditional stories' and 'explore the many facets, cultures and traditions' of Halloween. I'm really interested in reading some of this stories as the titles sound so good and with them all being based around my favorite holiday just makes me want to read it more.  

Eight Ghosts, The English Heritage Book Of New Ghost Stories edited by Rowan Routh.

I saw this book whilst on holiday in Cornwall in the Tintagel Castle shop. I pre-ordered it in paperback when I got home. English Heritage, for those that don't know, is a charity that looks after over 400 historic sites in England, including Tintagel, many other famous castles and Stonehenge. 

This book contains 8 ghost stories described as 'a rich collection of unnerving ghosts and sinister histories,' set at different EH sites, some of which I have been too. I don't know any of the writers once again. I do like that there is no introduction to this anthology and it goes straight to the stories. The afterwards includes a list of EH sites that are known for being haunted which I really like and gives a nice finish to the collection.  

   

Complete Ghost Stories by Charles Dickens.

I found this book in a discount book shop along with 2 others. I'm a fan of Dickens, though often find his novels difficult and lengthy to read, so this collection of 20 ghost stories, including the super famous A Christmas Carol, is perfect for me. Dickens was interested in supernatural and liked telling ghost stories. In this anthology, his 'Gothic talents can be seen' and the stories cover, 'grotesque comedy...revenge, insanity, pre-cognition and dream visions.' 

I love the characters and plots Dickens has created in his other writings, so I'm sure I'll love reading these ghost stories too.   

Ghosts Of Christmas Past edited by Tim Martin. 

The last book in the photo, I brought with the Dickens one and they do go together. This anthology has 13 modern and classic short stories and some of the writers I know including; M R James, Jenn Ashworth, E. Nesbit and Neil Gaiman. The stories are Christmas themed and described as 'seasonal chillers,' 'a world of ghosts and horrors,' and 'real spirits of Christmas.' 

I'm looking forward to reading some of these stories at Christmas time. For me, winter evenings, especially when its rainy and windy, create the perfect back drop for curling up and reading horror stories.

The Mammoth Book Of Halloween Stories edited by Stephen Jones. 

This is the last of the anthologies and it's in the photo below. I love Mammoth Books, they cover so many different genres both fiction and fact and I've not found one I didn't like yet. This collection of 26 horror stories set around Halloween was published this year and is a new format from the other books; bigger, larger text and it's also the first to use Halloween in it's title.

The anthology is described as being, 'a dark feast of frightening fiction by some of the most successful and respected horror writers working today,' and is a 'spooky selection of stories set on the night when evil walks the earth.' Once again the writers are a mix and I known some of them including; Neil Gaiman, Nancy Kilpatrick and Ramsey Campbell.

I've started reading this and am enjoying it.   

    

                                                                                                                                                                   

Blood Communion, A Tale Of Prince Lestat by Anne Rice.

This is the first of the novels and I've all ready finished reading it! So I'll be writing a review soon. Briefly though, one of the most famous vampires in the world, Lestat returns in a new novel about the coming together of all the vampires in the world and how he became Prince of them all. This horror story is so fitting to this time of year and I love to get swept away by Anne Rice's passionate and deeply descriptive writing. 

Colouring Heaven, Halloween Special edited by Sally Fitzgerald, Anthem Publishing.

Different from the other books in this post, but I still wanted to include it, is this coloring magazine. I've a subscription to Colouring Heaven now as I found myself buying this magazine each month and loving the art work inside. This edition is the Halloween one and there are '40 unearthly designs with spooky-cuteness.' I love all the drawings and each captures a different spirit of Halloween in a funny or horror way.   

Adult coloring has become really big now and I'm on that train. It's so calming and a different escape from everything else, plus I like bring the pictures to life and making them my own. Plus, I have found myself creating stories about the people etc in the imagines and I'm hoping this will inspire me to write some more stories.        

    

World War Z by Max Brooks

People in the past have recommended I read this novel written as accounts after a zombie plague has taken over the world. I've not had the chance to yet but my boyfriend has lent this book and the follow up one to add to my reading pile. I've never been a fan of zombies, maybe it's because of all the supernatural they don't interested me and when a biologist friend told me that there was actual likely-hood of there one day being a zombie, it put me further off! 

However, I'm willing to read this novel because it's different style, 'based on extensive interviews' in the 'finest traditions of American journalism' interests me and lots of people say it's good. I just hope it's not too scary!  

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

This book is the companion to the one above and is about surviving zombies, 'don't be reckless with your most precious asset- life.' So, I guess if the threat of real zombies ever happened this self-help book would contain useful information in dealing with a whole range of situations. The chapters look at zombie myths and realities, weapons and combat techniques, on the defense etc. It has a very fact feel to it and isn't something I'll be reading at bedtime! 

A Secret History Of Witches by Louisa Morgan

This book was the first I picked up for the discount book shop and I thought it was like a non-fiction book about witches, then I read the back and saw it was a novel. It kinda of sits on the edge of my normal supernatural reading but it interested me enough to buy it. It's about a family of witches who have lost their magic and need to rediscover it as the Second World War arrives in order to change history, 'a tale of family, sacrifice, love and magic.' 

Without reading it I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about.    

Wicca For Beginners by Lisa Chamberlain

Keeping with the witch theme here's the first of the non-fiction books. I have had an interest in magic for awhile now and I've been meaning to get around to learning more about how I can use it. This little book gives a brief guide to 'Wiccan beliefs, rituals, magic and witchcraft.' It's laid out nicely and simply, not going into too much detail and covering lots to get you more interested. 

I've had a flip through and found I can connect with some of the ideas about the religion of Wicca. I'm looking further to reading more.  

Wicca Book Of Spells by Lisa Chamberlain

I got this book to go with the one above as I wasn't sure how many spells there'd be in the beginners book. Each page has a different spell on it, a list of things need to cast the spell and instructions on how to do it. There are spells on how to make friends, find love, succeeded at job interviews, get more money and protecting the home, 'for success in magic, your state of mind is the most important factor.' 

I've not tried any out yet but I'm hoping too. I thought that this, in a different way, might help me to deal with some of the stress and anxiety issues I've been having, of which there are actually spells for! I'll have to give it ago and write about what happens.   

This next group of books don't really link in with the Halloween, horror theme but they do link in with autumn and winter times and how that change of seasons can effect your mental health. Most people at this time of year get depressed and it's something to do with the lower sunlight, the darker nights and the coldness too. I've had different battles with depression over the years and this time it's been mixed in with anxiety and stress, so I wanted to get some different books to help deal with some of my issues. 

The two animal spirit guide books, I brought because I've been turning more and more to my animal spirits and asking them for help. I wanted to find some information out about the different animals I had been seeing and how best to communicate with them. I have found both these books helpful. 

Animal Spirit Guides is a reference book of each different animal and though it's been fun looking them up, I've found that some websites have had more detailed information on them. Animal Magic is more of a guide book to understanding animal spirits and how to interact with them. 

The other four books are about learning to overcome different problems; I got The Happiness Trap because I was looking for a self- help book about dealing with stress at work, anxiety and depression which this book covers. It comes across different from other books that deal with these problems as it sets out to explain that having strong emotions and feelings is normal and that humans aren't always meant to be happy. I've read the first chapter of this now and I'm starting to understand how this book is going to teach me how to deal with my mental health problems better. 

The This Book Will Make You... series has lots of different titles, I picked 3 that I felt would be most useful to me. they are cute little books, packed with simple information to help bring around changes to help you achieve the title. I've had a quick scan through all of them and they look easy to read and have practical information in them. I'm hoping that they will help me progress into a new job and improve my motivation and passion for things. 

That brings me to the end of the post and shockingly it's taken much of the day to write this. But it has made me happy and kept me busy. Let me know if you decided to get any of these books now or your thoughts if you've all ready read any of them. I'm looking forward to dipping into each of them during the coming long, cold winter nights. 

Book Review: Sorted! The Good Psychopath's Guide to Bossing Your Life.

Hi readers, 

I was actually going to write another life up date but I decided that this book was far more interesting and also on the topic I was going to write about. 

This is a non-fiction book, which is a rare thing in my bookcase. Not because I don't like reading no-fiction but because finding subject matters that interested me and make me want to finish the book is hard. I saw this guide by chance whilst buying a Christmas present for my mum. I thought it seemed like I good idea. 

It's a follow on book from the first book they did and though there are some references to that, you can easily read this by itself. It's aimed mostly at men, I would say 21-40 odd, which is why it has what I call 'lad dialogue.' It's causal and funny, like men talking in a pub. However, it does stick in your head because you aren't being bombarded with lots of facts and instructions.

So this guide, it's not like a 'how to live your life', it's more like how to improve your habits and behavior at work and social events. It's divided into 3 chapters which are then sub-divided into different sections making it easier and faster to read. There's also images; graphs, timetables and quizzes which allows you to visualize the information.

I've found it very useful because last week I had a bad week at work. A lot of things went wrong and I was really stressed out. Then when I thought I'd done the main task- sorting out a rota, it turned out I'd made two mistakes! This wasn't technically my fault as no one had told me that a certain person couldn't actually do daytime shifts but I took the blame for it and that made me feel more stressed. So, yeah I wanted to write a blog post about that; when your job stops being your best friend and becomes your worse enemy. Which sounds like a good title for a book anyway!

In turning to Sorted! I found a lot of answers and advice that I needed to hear. There is one part about emails and how we are constantly sending and answering emails which has a great effect on the brain and causes lots of tension. The suggestion of checking your emails less, maybe only three times a day, is something I've now started doing. I check in the morning, lunch time and an two hours before I leave. This means that I've stopped clicking on an email every time I hear a ping and it's just made things easier and I feel less demanded.

I also found the part about listening well interesting and I'm now determined to listen to people better and to give them more time to talk. There are other tips; learning how to say no, leaving work at work, mixing actives up at work to keep things fresh, learning to communicate better with people and persuade people correctly into doing things.

Overall, this is a good book for those needing advice about work and social events. I enjoyed reading it and I feel more prepared to change my behavior towards people and work tasks. Hopefully, that'll help improve my work output, social skills, listening skills and general attitude to work.

Thanks for reading and please check out the links below.  Next week is going to be a manga review.

https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/7287580

https://thestoryfiles.wordpress.com/

Book Review: Hauntings; True Stories Of Unquiet Spirit

Hi readers, 

I'm kicking off this year's book reviews with a non-fiction book. I don't think this is a first for me, but this year, I want to expand my reading and try some different books out. Also, I'm trying to read 50 books this year! I read 20 last year of which this true ghost stories book was the second to last. 50 books might not be a big ask of some people, but for me it is a challenge due to being dyslexic, but I'm hopefully I can achieve it. 

I do enjoy reading non-fiction supernatural books and have read a few of them now. There's something interesting about this mysterious 'other world' of unnatural happens. Some books do set out to convince you it's all real which can sometimes make it hard going, this book does have a bit of angle towards that, but it's let down by bad writing. That's the main reason why I choose to review this book! 

At first, Hauntings comes across as a factual book, listing the different kinds of ghosts and paranormal activity that has been record over the years. This is okay, but for someone who's read a few ghost books, they'll know most of this information. There's no added details or sense of new information about these ghosts. Then there's the true stories of hauntings and ghosts which come from across the world and different people, but these accounts are not well written.     

The chapters are divided up into the different kinds of ghosts and paranormal activity; Haunted Homes, Highways To Hell, Poltergeists. This does work though you get a bit of over lapping. There's introduction from the author about his experiences with ghosts then the first chapter lists the different kinds of ghosts and an explanation about what ghosts actually are. 

The second chapter focus totally on the city of Edinburgh which is claimed to be the most haunted city in the world. The stories listed here though are about well known haunted places and ghosts. There is an interview from a local ghost tour guide about the experiences he and visitors have had. This is interesting and does show that ghost tours can be more then just historical walks around. 

        

Then in the other chapters, we get a lot of 'true stories' about different ghosts. Some of these are just like a paragraph or two of eye witness accounts of supernatural sightings. Others include quotes from people and some of the stories are complete accounts. This mixture of writing is a bit jarring and there's no flow. Also, the bulk of the stories/accounts just suddenly stop; there's no ending/conclusion, which makes the writing worse. I realise in some cases there might not be a solid ending, but it would be easy enough to round up the story. 

I found some of the longer ghost stories to be a bit dull. There is one which is taken from a diary but we only get the main activity of the ghost and it's very broken up. Also, there are some interviews which feel like they go on for too long. I get that some of the stories are not to going to be exciting like fiction can make them, but if the writing of these accounts was better written then the stories might come across more interesting. I guess that's the downside to using so many quotes accounts though.    

The other issue with this book is it's size. It's a tall thin book, over A4 size. I think that is because it's a very photograph heavy book and the author/designer/editor decided to give us full page photographs. There is also large photos or collections of smaller photos on every page or next. Whilst this is great for really showing what ghosts and paranormal activity looks like, most of these photographs are not of real ghosts. There's maybe only a handful which are real and those photos are ones that are well-known to be of real spirits because they can't be disproved in anyway. There's also a few drawings which have been either taken from the accounts of people or drawn to go along side them. Even though it's good to have a visual interpretation, I feel this photos help to mask the bad and thinly detailed writing of the ghost stories.      

    

Overall, there are better books of this nature out there. 

Thanks for reading and see you next week. In the meantime, please check out my goodreads book list and my other blog where I write a short story everyday. 

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7400715-hayley-hardman

https://thestoryfiles.wordpress.com/

(Image from Goodreads)

Book Review: Millions Of Women Are Waiting To Meet You by Sean Thomas

Hi readers, 

Though I didn't think I was going to do it, here's a book review for you! Firstly, let me say that my mum found this book for sale in a library close to where she was working last week and thought it'd be a laugh. She knew I'd done internet dating in the past - how I met my last two ex-boyfriends and been on some boring dates with a few guys before too- and the fact I'm currently waiting to sign up for it again. I just need to get myself more together and figure out what I want to do for the next few months and years. 

This book is one man's humors memoir about his experiences internet dating and the women he encountered. Sean is asked by the editor of a magazine whom he currently works for to do a piece about internet dating. With all his expenses, including the first few dates, being paid for, he decides to give it a shot and I guess this is the book he ended up writing afterwards! It is also about his past relationships, growing up, his travels, reflections on relationships and women and some psychological stuff. 

I would say that whilst the audience does seem to be middle-aged/older men, women would also find this book useful. It gives some insight into a man's head, but it's not as deep as say Men Are From Mars and Women Are From Venus and those kind of books. You know those types of books that actually analyse the way and differences between the thoughts and reactions of men and women. This book uses those points more to back up what'd being said. 

The book opens with Sean debating if and how he should propose to his girlfriend. That leads into the whole world of us getting to know him and he being assigned to discover internet dating. To me it felt true to the experience of online dating; the whole looking at profiles and photos, deciding who you like and if you'll match. Then messaging them and waiting ages, but more likely never, to hear back from them and getting messages from random people too. It has changed the way people now meet and date, but as Sean states, it's made it freer. In the past, for me, it's just been so much easier to meet people online. I guess, I might have to write about my experiences in my life up date posts when I decided to give it ago again! 

I really enjoyed the way Sean writes. I guess because he's a journalist and has had novels published, the flow and humor are naturally there. There's one part that's going to stick with me because I was reading it on the bus and I just burst out laughing. He had put his height wrong and made himself one foot nine instead of five foot eleven! I also enjoyed his description of the women's personalities and he does meet some crazy ladies; like the one who stalks him and sends him birthday cards, the one who's living with a bunch of cats and the one who doesn't like soup. Of course, it being a very 'for lads book' there's a heavy focus on women's bodies and sex, but I just overlooked that stuff. 

Actually, I found his past interesting and though it's interwoven between him talking about these relationships, he brings it into make connections between why he thinks like he does. He's also spent a lot of time traveling and just embracing life and though that's not something I can connect to, I could understand his experiences from doing that. I understood his heartbreak a lot more too and that's something I did deeply connect with. 

If there's one thing that bugged me it was that the flashbacks/reflections of past relationships and the thoughts he has come in-between the 'now' relationships/scene, thus making it very non-linear. I get way he does this because he wants you to read on and because it's making reference to things. I guess if this was a linear memoir it might get a bit boring, but I think it was more to do with the fact that these flashbacks are too long. Not that I forgot where he was and who he was with, but I just thought that in real life you might not have so many flashbacks to past girls all the time whilst you're dating a new girl...or maybe men do that? I don't know.    

Overall, at it's core Millions is a man's reflection on love. I think that if you are interested in internet dating or are currently or maybe just you fancy a laugh at someone's struggles with relationships and to met some interesting characters then it's worth reading. But if you want to figure out why your other half behaves the way they do then go for one of the more psychological aimed books. 

Thanks for reading be sure to check out my other blog; https://thestoryfiles.wordpress.com/

Next week: hopefully another book review! I just got gifted an e-book by the author in exchange for a fair review. Something I've not done before and I'm looking forward to it! See you next Monday for that.        

Image from: http://www.popmatters.com/review/millions-of-women-are-waiting-to-meet-you-by-sean-thomas/

The Reason I Jump Review: 'One Boy's Voice From The Silence Of Autism.'

Hey readers, 

I just finished this book and thought I'd write up a quick review of it before I get into reviewing A Unfortunate Series of Events. My mum told me about this book and she'd heard it was very interesting. I will admit that for, parents, siblings, relatives, carers, friends and anyone else who knows an autistic person or else is doing research, then this book would benefit you. 

For general reading though, its probably not going to be that interesting. However, I would still say to pick it up because it gives a good insight into a world in which we can't see and other books on the subject have struggled to put across. 

I know people who are autistic, so to read a book that allows me to understand why they do what they do was a bit special. This book isn't a straight guide about everything though, but it does want to make you change your behavior towards people. That old saying of fearing what you don't know is still very true today and it's known that once we've actually understood the fear that we don't fear it any longer. For me this book appears to be just that. 

It's written by Naoki Higashida, a Japanese writer and blogger, when he was thirteen. The book is a mixture of non-fiction and fiction, which makes giving examples easier.It also has grey-scale pictures of flowers and patterns. For me though it also shows Higashida as a fiction writer. In the opening, it states that Higashida's autism effects his speech and communication. He has learned to over come some of this by using a cardboard keyboard with letters on it and also a normal computer keyboard. It's through these methods that he's written this book and more. 

The book also includes an introduction by David Mitchell, (Cloud Atlas) in which he discuss his son's autism and how he found the book to be very useful. That really gets you interested to find out more, but as you turn the pages you discover that the narrative is nearly all questions and answers. So, instead of the normal story or non-fiction layout, each 'chapter' starts with a question, which Higashida then answers across one or two pages. 

This format makes it easier to read and understand. It feels like a secretive, quick look into the mind of someone autistic and this context it really works. The questions appear to be the most commonly asked ones, such as; Why do you take ages to answer questions? Do you prefer to be on your own? and Is it true you hate being touched? Higashida gives clear answers to them all and makes the point of stating that not all autistic people have the same dislikes and issues, but that they all want to be respected and loved. 

I've learned a lot from reading this book and I can now see why my autistic friends behave the way they do. It's also helped me to understand that autistic people are just like everyone else; they are creative, intelligent, have a love of learning and nature and just try to get on with things. One of the saddest things I'm taking away from this book is that some autistic people believe that they should be on their own due to how they act because they know it causes upset for others and that is something that they hate about themselves. Many autistic people just want to be around others because they like the rest of us don't want to be alone. 

Higahida says that at first he wanted to be normal like everyone else, but then he decided that if it was possible he wouldn't change. I agree with him and I think that the world needs to see people with special needs and disabilities as being normal people and not judging them because they see things differently. 

'If all of you can grasp this truth about us, we are handed a ray of hope.'

Image from: Goodbooks.com