Autism - A Practical Guide for Parents by Alan Yau.

Alan Yau has worked as a teacher and has been involved in helping children with autism spectrum disorder for 20 years. In this book he offers advice to parents so that they can help their child.

Before reading this book, I knew nothing about autism. Boys are 4 times more likely to have autism than girls. About 1 in 88 children in America are now identified as having autism. People with autism have difficulties in three areas, known as "the triad of impairments": social interaction, social communication and rigidity in thinking. There is currently no cure for autism - and many individuals would argue that they don't need to be cured.

I found this book a wonderful eye opener. It let's you into the mind of the child with autism, so that you can experience the world from their point of view. Alan has written a great book that is very easy to understand. He appears to be a great teacher and really knows how peoples' minds actually work, whether the person has autism or not. This book is a great mixture of theory, problem solving and case studies. Because each aspect of autism covered ends with a case study, you really understand how peoples' brains are wired and how they feel. I found the mindset of autism so very easy to relate to.

I am not the parent of a child with autism but my day job is a coach driver for National Express. Passengers with autism do not wear a badge to alert the driver but can have a distressing journey because of the ways our industry works and how frequently things change. Reading this book has really helped me to understand the mindset of passengers who I will unknowingly meet every working day.

I really enjoyed reading this book and Alan is clearly an expert in his field. His talents as an author are great, the structure of this guide is spot on and he explains everything really well, so it does not matter if you knew nothing about autism beforehand. I can find nothing wrong with this book and I learned a great deal. I found this guide a very good read and it get's the top score of 5 stars from me.

Autism is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2012.

Valley of the Dolls by Gerard Harrison.

This is a short story about Jackie Thorn, a 26 year old African American who has just left her boyfriend and drives away in the hope of starting a new life. She calls into a diner in Greensboro, North Carolina where she meets Clayton Powell, a middle aged white guy. From here this short story moves to the Valley of the Dolls.

This is actually a horror story that slowly develops as things are just not right. Gerard's writing quality is good and this is an enjoyable read. I quickly developed an empathy for Jackie and although there are only 2 characters in this story, it is not a dull tale. The pace is steady and it does entertain all the way to the end.

Within the constraints of a short story, Valley of the Dolls does it's job and succeeds in being an okay read that I will vote 3 stars.

Valley of the Dolls is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 1996.

Kindle Unlimited by Bryan Woolrich.

This short guide is all about the Kindle Unlimited subscription service where you pay £7.99 a month to have access to over 700,000 eBooks. The author introduces the workings of eBooks and the Amazon Kindle before going onto mention the pros and cons of the subscription service.

However, you gain extremely little from reading this guide. The pros the author mentions are simply the 700,000 eBooks and the cons that the service is only available in your country. He actually states it is only available in America but looking at the UK Amazon website, it states the £7.99 offer is only available in Britain.

This short guide does not do the subscription service justice. It eBooks in the Kindle store, only a selection of lower priced eBooks.

This short guide is nothing more than an advert published by an amateur. You are better off spending your time surfing the Amazon website to decide if this subscription service is right for you. This guide will not help you choose and brings nothing to the debate on this service. This guide is rubbish and I must vote it only 1 star and suggest you give it the MISS.

A Touch of Autumn by Evie Hunter.

This is an erotic short story set in a fetish club in Paris. Sinead O'Sullivan is playing around with Niall Moore and they are both having fun. But there is more to this story than their relationship as they interact with the other guests.

This short story is different because of the sub plots involving the other characters. But it is not an exciting read. The writing is clear and articulate but the story telling is poor. It does not shine in any area and is a disappointing read. This is not a very erotic tale and you will get more thrills from walking around Asda. The sex is rather tame and will not upset a Grandmother.

I got very little pleasure from reading this short story and found it a POOR read which I can only vote 2 stars. Eileen Gormley and Caroline McCall work together under the pen name of Evie Hunter and I do not think their team work has brought anything to the erotic short story genre.

A Touch of Autumn is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2013.

Silence in the house by Natasha A. Salnikova

Lana is in an abusive relationship with her husband Spike. She suffers this domestic violence for a number of years then gets the courage to leave and buy a house to live on her own. Only there are some problems she must wrestle with in her new home.

Silence in the house is a cross-genre novel, it has a domestic violence survivor tale, supernatural encounters and romance. This is a run-of-the-mill novel and is nothing special. It is an easy book to put down and the writing is very middle-of-the-road. There is no WOW! factor and this is not a gripping story. It is easy reading and I developed an empathy for the characters. The pace is okay and the supernatural things are rather odd. The book has a happy ending and WITHOUT giving anything away, dog owners will then make sense of the supernatural bits, even an Atheist like me!

Silence in the house is an okay read, so I will vote it the middle score of 3 stars.

Silence in the house is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2014.

Refuge by N. G. Osborne.

I started reading this book and straight away I felt "at home". I was very impressed with how it felt so familiar and like a pair of old slippers. It was almost like chatting to an old friend.

This novel starts off during 1981 in Kabul as Noor and her family flee Afghanistan when the Russians invade. They become refugees and move to Peshawar in Pakistan. The book then moves onto 1991 and she meets Charlie Matthews, an American aid worker. From here this novel becomes very cross-genre.

Refuge is a mixture of historical fiction, politics, culture, religion, land mine clearance, refugee camps and romance. This mixture works well and makes for an enjoyable read. I liked the context of the story and getting the full picture. It was a good book to escape into and I liked how all the background and information was woven into the story, so that readers who are not experts on Afghanistan and Pakistan, can understand the problems involved.

There is a lot of action in this novel but no sex to upset your grandmother. The plot is a little convenient to make the story work but this is a good daily read. The quality of writing and character development is good. There is a warmth that comes through which is very similar to the news reports filed about the Middle East by Robert Fisk for the Independent newspaper. It was this warmth among the poverty, politics, jihad, struggle and violence that made me feel so "at home". Osborne ticks all the boxes for an intelligent, informative and entertaining read. Although I did NOT like the ending, this is still a top score 5 star read. It will make you think before you run after a football!

Refuge is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2012.

Diabetes Cure in 30 seconds - Say Good Bye to Diabetes and Live a Healthy Life by Dr. Samantha Robert.

Diabetes is sweeping across the western world through ignorance. This short guide could help you to avoid becoming a victim to diabetes.

I found this short guide helpful as it packs a lot of data and figures for you to gauge your risk. The way the body works with sugars etc. is very complicated but this guide does the maths for you in your gamble against this disease. I found this book easy to understand because Samantha builds her strategy together in a logical way. She is not vague with values like low or high but quotes exact figures so you can make an informed decision on your risk and treatment.

I am pleased I downloaded a copy because you only get one chance in life. We all like our food and drink but it is so easy to sleepwalk into diabetes. Hopefully this book will give readers the chance to change before it is too late. This short guide is a good, clear read that gets to the heart of the problem and I will gladly vote it 4 stars.

Diabetes Cure in 30 seconds is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.