Chuckles Mini Reviews Catchup

I review everything I read, on my blog and on Goodreads. Most reviews are of a decent length but sometimes you don't have much to say about the book because of its length or you DNFed it or various other reasons. In cases like that it makes sense to write a few mini reviews in one post and clear them out your way! So lets catch up with some reviews from June and July!

1) Nick Robinson-Election Notebook
Just after ten o’clock on Thursday, 7 May 2015 Nick Robinson stared down the lens of camera 5 in the BBC’s Election Night Studio to explain to millions the significance of an exit poll that shocked the country and heralded an earthquake in British politics. That moment was a personal milestone for the BBC’s Political Editor, who had been discharged from hospital just hours earlier following weeks of treatment for cancer and the loss of his voice after surgery.

In the year leading up to that night Nick kept a journal recording the events he reported on day after day to millions of viewers and listeners, and which he continued to monitor, often from his hospital bed as he fought to get fit in time for election night. This is Nick‘s behind-the-scenes account of his encounters with David Cameron, who many wrote off before the shock victory he called his 'sweetest'; Ed Miliband, who turned abuse & ridicule into respect before leading Labour to its worst defeat in a generation; Nick Clegg, who led his party into power and then to humiliation and near oblivion; Nigel Farage, who rose so fast and then fell at the final hurdle; Alex Salmond, whose public clash with Nick led to thousands protesting outside the BBC’s Scottish HQ, and Nicola Sturgeon, whose stunning success as SNP leader has put Scottish independence back on the map.

The result is an extraordinary narrative, characterized by Nick Robinson’s trademark insight, analysis and backstage gossip, of an adrenaline-fuelled year which culminated in a captivating election that transformed Britain’s political landscape.

The book takes in all the events from the 2014 political events through to the aftermath of the General Election in 2015. It covers the local and European elections, the Scottish Independence Referendum and then the General Election, a lively time in British politics. It follows the campaigns of the leaders of the three parties and their ups and downs in media relations. Who can forget the infamous Edstone? I loved reading about that and the media reaction to the unveiling of it. I enjoyed seeing what was happening behind the scenes of the campaigns and election nights as viewed by the media broadcasting it all. It was a really entertaining read, the perfect mix of politics, humour and the personalities involved.

I liked the humour that Nick brings to it, sharing moments from his campaigns. The moment when former Liberal leader Charles Kennedy was excited by a hospital patient declaring he was voting Liberal before mentioning he was in for brain surgery! Boris declaring he was more likely to be reincarnated as an olive than become Prime Minister. Then there was the Labour cabinet meeting where half deaf Jack Straw was sitting beside half blind Gordon Brown and the two trying to pass notes that Gordon couldn't read as Jack couldn't hear him talking. I loved the story about Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper going on a Sound of Music bike tour wearing outfits made of curtains! I can imagine that being chaotic. It was fun to see May and Gove at war, the Labour MPs considering a plot against Ed as well as lots of things from the news like the phone hacking, defections to UKIP, the rise of ISIS and alleged Paedophile ring at Parliament. I very much enjoyed these diaries and will certainly read them again in the future.

Read June 2019
4 stars.

2) Rhiannon Frater-A Very Fort Christmas (As The World Dies)
As harsh weather descends on the Texas Hill Country, it's looking nothing like Christmas at the fort in Ashley Oaks. That is, until Jenni decides the children survivors deserve gifts and a holiday celebration. Christmas during a zombie apocalypse. What can go wrong? This novelette takes place during Fighting to Survive (As The World Dies Book 2)

When Christmas decorations are found in the Fort, Peggy's son becomes worried about the fate of Santa in the zombie apocalypse. Jenni decides that the children need reassurance and fun and wants to do another supply run to get presents for all of them, something that could endanger the lives of the volunteers going outside. It turns out to be a lot more dangerous than any of them prepared for. This story comes in just before the end of book 2, Fighting To Survive and I enjoyed seeing the Christmas raid.

Read July 2019
4 stars.

3) Rhiannon Frater-Untold Tales vol 2
In the second volume of the AS THE WORLD DIES UNTOLD TALES experience three terrifying tales of those who are forced to face the unrelenting and hungry walking dead. In a nearby town Ken and Lenore have started their regular routine at Ken’s Beauty Salon. A terrible accident brings the undead plague to their front door and soon the best friends are scrambling to escape their overrun town…

Katarina is just finishing her shift at a roadside café when a badly injured man stumbles through the front door. She quickly realizes that to survive she must learn to kill…And finally, a trapped family must face the fearsome truth that sometimes zombies are not the worst monster they have to fear as the world dies…

These three short stories are relevant to how people at the Fort came to be there. In the first story Katarina is trying to avoid a customer in the cafe who always makes suggestive comments to her when a dying man staggers into the building and seconds later becomes a zombie, forcing her to defend herself or die. In the second, we meeet Julie, her employer Alan and fellow worker Rob, along with Alan's children and bitter soon to be ex-wife Debbie stuck inside an orange juice factory when the zombies attack. Their story continues in Deadly Night. The third story features two of my favourites Lenore, an out of shape employee of Ken at the beauty salon, who have to try and round up friends and family and get out of a town teeming with zombies. I love these Untold Tales which tell how characters in the main trilogy came to be there at the safety of the Fort. I hope there are many more of these novellas.

Read July 2019
4 stars.

4) Rhiannon Frater-Deadly Night
All is not well in the small town of Ashley Oaks, Texas as the human inhabitants struggle to survive behind the walls of their makeshift fort. A zombie herd is on the outskirts of the town and the survivors huddle behind the cement walls encompassing their encampment in hopes the undead will pass them by. While Katie is on sentry duty, a child cries out in the night, spurring Jenni into action. Soon both women find themselves fighting against the ravenous undead in a seemingly futile attempt to save other survivors.    

The Fort is blacked out and on lockdown due to a nearby zombie herd that they don't want attention from, when Jenni silenty goes over the wall to kill a lone zombie. She and Katie then hear a crying baby coming from a truck that is new to the area and could signal survivors. The noise from the baby is going to attract attention so the Fort sends out a team to get the woman and kids to safety. When Jenni hears that two men went to a nearby gas station for medicine, she decides to lead a team to try and rescue them before the herd arrives. I very much enjoyed this story which is best read after Untold Tales vol 2 but not vital. I love these short stories which give background to the Fort characters. 

Read July 2019
4 stars.

5) Ambrose Ibsen-Lonesome Dead
“Don't look out towards Knob Island at night.” That was the warning Douglas' grandfather gave him as a boy. Now returning to the shores of Lake Manuxet as a grown man, with his twin sister and their ailing grandmother in tow for a final, nostalgic visit, Douglas begins to experience frightful things in his cherished childhood vacation spot. Just what is it that claws its way out of the lake each night, only to approach their cabin? What mysteries does the remote lake hold? Are the horrors Douglas experiences genuine, or is he simply inheriting the madness that seems to run in his family? What is the true nature of the cryptic warning his grandfather gave him so many years ago about the small island at the center of Lake Manuxet?

What begins as a sentimental pilgrimage to a once-enjoyable vacation spot rapidly deteriorates into a fight for survival and sanity. 

Douglas has happy memories of the small cabin by the lake where his family spent vacations. The men in his family have suffered mental illness through the generations with many taking their own lives, most recently his grandfather Caleb. With a failed marriage behind him, Douglas takes his cancer survivor sister Cecily and dementia ridden grandmother Kathryn for one last holiday at the cabin together. However Douglas becomes plagued by hallucinations of a woman on the island and crawling about the grass up to the cabin, and Kathryn herself becomes upset, starting to wander outside at night. Cecily is sure that Douglas is becoming ill like his father and grandfather and just wants to leave but something won't let them.

This is my first book by the author and it was certainly well written. I thought the storytelling was decent and cohesive. Now I admit that this is not the kind of book that I usually read, with ghostly figures, family secrets and hallucinations but I can't fault the plot or writing itself. I did find it repetitive in reminding us about how much Douglas loved the place and how the men in the family were always developing mental illness, but that wasn't a major issue. I did wonder WHY the family continued to go there each year for holidays, given what we find out. It seems a bit dumb to me really! Still, there would be no story if people were sensible.

If you like that psychological thriller type thing with the MC unsure whether he is imagining the things he sees and hears, you might well enjoy it. It's not really my kind of horror. This is more about family secrets that were buried coming back to haunt the living than pure horror. That said, I think a lot of people will enjoy this one.

Read July 2019
3 stars.