BOOKSIMO

Description An informative and entertaining look at why plants have been used in magic and what that tells us about people and plants in a post-magic world. With chapters on subjects as diverse as Witchcraft, Curses and Blessings, Divination, the Plants of Faery, Hallucinogens, Divine Plants in the Christian and Pagan traditions and a Plant Bestiary, Greg Kenicer’s book is an erudite and informative look at how and why various plants have had a role in Europe’s supernatural and magical traditions. Individual entries look at particular plants combining botanical analysis with historical examples and anecdote to explain exactly why each plant came to be used in this way. Considerations of dangers and actual efficacy cast light on how modern science is now re-examining the uses of many of the plants and how the evolution of the plants themselves has been influenced by our use of them. Whether Foxglove or Mandrake, Hawthorn or Aspen, Rowan or Oak, St. John’s Wort or Bird Cherry, Plant Magi...

  Description Can you fall in love for the first time twice? A recently widowed women is about to find out when she wakes up and finds herself eighteen again in this "compelling" story of second chances ( Mail On Sunday ). Kate’s husband Luke – the man she loved from the moment she met him twenty-eight years ago – died suddenly. Since then she has pushed away her friends, lost her job and everything is starting to fall apart. One day, she wakes up in the wrong room and in the wrong body. She is eighteen again but remembers everything. This is her college room in 1992. This is the first day of Freshers' Week. And this was the day she first met Luke. But he is not the man that she lost: he’s still a boy – the annoying nineteen-year-old English student she first met. Kate knows how he died and that he’s already ill. If they can fall in love again she might just be able to save him. She’s going to try to do everything exactly the same… Review I wasn't sure I was reading t...

I'm so pleased to be on the Blog Tour today for this book. Description 17-year-old Billy has just left school with no A levels and he's desperate to escape middle England. As a grave-digger, he’s working the ultimate dead-end job. Billy’s home life isn’t any better. In the evenings, he observes his dysfunctional family: his Grandad’s engaged to a woman half his age, his xenophobic Dad’s become obsessed with boxing, and he suspects his deeply religious Mum is having an affair.  All the while, celebrities are dropping like flies and Britain is waiting for the EU referendum. Everything is changing, and Billy hates it. Meeting Eva, though, changes everything. She’s Swiss, passionate about Russian literature, Gary Numan, windfarms and chai tea, and Billy gambles everything for a chance to be with her. When things start to go wrong, Billy’s journey across Europe involves hitch-hiking with truckers, walking with refugees, and an encounter with suicidal cows. But the further he goes, t...

  Description Skid doesn’t believe in ghosts or time travel or any of that nonsense. A circus runaway-turned-bouncer, she believes in hard work, self-defense, and good, strong coffee. Then, one day, an annoying theoretical physicist named Dave pops into the seat next to her at her least favorite Kansas City bar and disappears into thin air when she punches him (he totally deserved it). Now, street names are changing, Skid’s favorite muffins are swapping frosting flavors, and Dave keeps reappearing in odd places like the old Sanderson murder house. And that’s only the start of her problems. Something in the world has gone wrong. Terribly wrong. Absolutely f--ked up. Someone has the nastiest versions of every conceivable reality at their fingertips, and they're not afraid to smash them together. With the help of a smooth-talking haunted-house owner and a linebacker-sized Dungeons and Dragons-loving baker, Skid and Dave set out to save the world from whatever scientific experiment has...

Description People disappear when they most want to be seen.  Jess Walker, middle child of a middle class family, has perfected the art of vanishing in plain sight. But when she arrives at a concrete university campus under flat, grey, East Anglian skies, her world flares with colour. Drawn into a tightly-knit group of rule breakers – led by their maverick teacher, Lorna Clay – Jess begins to experiment with a new version of herself. But the dynamic between the friends begins to darken as they share secrets, lovers and finally a tragedy. Soon Jess is thrown up against the question she fears most: what is the true cost of an extraordinary life? 'In the vein of Agatha Christie herself. Startling' Irish Times Review I think I was drawn to this book because of the Agatha Christie links. A little like a Christie novel the book darted here and there and then revealed something you could never have guessed.  I wasn't too keen on the book. It started slow with a college life I wasn...

Description Barrington Jedidiah Walker is seventy-four and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney since the sixties. A flamboyant, wise-cracking local character with a dapper taste in retro suits and a fondness for quoting Shakespeare, Barrington is a husband, father and grandfather - but he is also secretly homosexual, lovers with his great childhood friend, Morris. His deeply religious and disappointed wife, Carmel, thinks he sleeps with other women. When their marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away? Mr Loverman  is a ground-breaking exploration of Britain's older Caribbean community, which explodes cultural myths and fallacies and shows the extent of what can happen when people fear the consequences of being true to themselves. Review I wanted to read this book as I enjoyed the writing in "Girl, Woman other" so much. ...

  Description Lizzie was an army child. She went on to marry an army officer and believed a life or routine and order would follow. But after 34 years of, relatively, happy married life she received the bombshell that her overweight, balding husband was leaving her for a Polish woman 20 years her junior.  Within a month Lizzie was single, penniless, about to be homeless and very, very angry. It was also becoming obvious her mother was fast heading towards full dementia. The stability and help that Lizzie had hoped to give her aging parents was heading out the window, along with her husband’s clothes and possessions.  After the sale of her home, Lizzie moves into the spare room of her daughter Lucy’s flat. A situation somewhat complicated by Lucy, at the same time, setting up a sex party business. For the next six months Lizzie shared the room with condoms, sex toys and champagne. When life could not seem to be any stranger, Lucy then decided to sign her mother up on Times...

  Description A bewitching novel set in contemporary Japan about the mysterious suicide of a young woman. Miwako Sumida is dead. Now those closest to her try to piece together the fragments of her life. Ryusei, who has always loved her, follows Miwako’s trail to a remote Japanese village. Chie, Miwako’s best friend, was the only person to know her true identity ― but is now the time to reveal it? Meanwhile, Fumi, Ryusei’s sister, is harbouring her own haunting secret. Together, they realise that the young woman they thought they knew had more going on behind her seemingly perfect façade than they could ever have dreamed. Review I'm not sure how, but the beautiful writing of this book perfectly evokes the sense and being of Japan. The phrasing and gestures described throughout the book spoke to me of Japan, and reminded me of my visit there. Although the author is from Singapore she has spent a lot of time in Japan. I was drawn to this book because it was set in Japan and wasn't...

  So pleased to be on the Blog Tour for this book today. Description From the Norman Invasion in 1066 to the eve of the First World War,  Stick a Flag in It  is a thousand-year jocular journey through the history of Britain and its global empire. The British people have always been eccentric, occasionally ingenious and, sure, sometimes unhinged from mad monarchs to mass-murdering lepers. Here, Arran Lomas shows us how they harnessed those traits to forge the British nation, and indeed the world, we know today. Follow history s greatest adventurers from the swashbuckling waters of the Caribbean to the vast white wasteland of the Antarctic wilderness, like the British spy who infiltrated a top-secret Indian brothel and the priest who hid inside a wall but forgot to bring a packed lunch. At the very least you'll discover Henry VIII's favourite a***-wipe, whether the flying alchemist ever made it from Scotland to France, and the connection between Victorian coffee houses and ...

  It's great to be on the Book Tour for this book today. Description If a simple change of mindset could help you improve the quality of your relationships, your work and your day-to-day life... would you try it? In  When in Doubt , the reader is encouraged to turn self-doubt into a tool that can be used to their advantage to create a better life for themselves. There are no magic tricks in this book, just a simple mindset: “when in doubt, assume you’re wrong”. The key principle behind everything this book teaches is a mindset observed in almost every great leader and entrepreneur this world has seen.  When in Doubt  offers a fresh point of view on this ancient principle, allowing people to better relate to it in today’s fast-paced and technology-centred society. Value-packed and straight-to-the-point with a sprinkle of playfulness, this short 60-page book is a great tool for any goal-oriented person with a desire for improvement. Review If you've ever lost something...

Description Escaping a difficult childhood, unhappy marriage and dead-end job, Rachel McIntyre has escaped to the tiny Hebridean island of Inniscreag in search of a new beginning. Taking a job as the manager of the local distillery, she's just settling into her new life when the elderly, eccentric owner dies, unexpectedly leaving her two hundred year old family legacy in Rachel's inexperienced hands. Can she keep the small, community business alive in the face of a takeover attempt from a major multinational corporation? And can she resist the charms of the flirtatious, attractive company lawyer who arrives on the island to persuade her to sell up? Join Rachel and the quirky inhabitants of Inniscreag - along with a couple of unexpected arrivals - in this funny, heartwarming tale about love, loss and having the courage to start over. Review This is the second book of Elsie's that I have read and reviewed. You can read about her first book The Back up Plan here . It was just ...