A Carpet Ride to Khiva: Seven Years on the Silk Road by Christopher Aslan Alexander.

Christopher Aslan Alexander worked for 7 years with Operation Mercy, an NGO setting up a carpet workshop in Khiva. Here is his story about his life and work in Uzbekistan, with the odd visit to neighbouring countries in Central Asia.

I thought this book was a wonderful read as it has the magic to take you to a very different world from the comfort of your armchair. I loved how Christopher explained the culture and history of Uzbekistan. He made easy work of informing you about the contrasting cultures alive in Uzbekistan with it’s vibrant mix of politics and religion.

There are lots of great detail within this book, like using dog fat as a popular medicine for flu and onion juice as a common cold cure. Christopher got across the great passions people get from their workplace and explained in ways that are easy to understand, how silk worms produce silk, how carpets are made and how natural dyes can be used.

This book is full of amazing anecdotes about the people Christopher meets along the way. Anecdotes that will make you smile and remember them, about old grannies in a madrassah, toilet paper, bribes, donkeys, Breast feeding, vaksal/Vauxhall station, phone tapping, corruption and workplace fiddles,

His story is told in a light and entertaining way, for example…

Russians joked that if you wanted to see heaven on earth you should watch Uzbek TV - and to see hell on earth, you should actually visit.

...Of course the locals loved their television and became obsessed with a Brazilian Soap Opera. Christopher managed to convey the feel of Uzbekistan and how it is to live and work there. He became an active part of people’s lives in Khiva and was NOT a bystander snapping the odd photo. I loved how he described the nitty gritty of daily life in Uzbekistan and the many challenges he met doing the warp and weft in the carpet workshop.

I thought A Carpet Ride to Khiva was simply a joy to read. I loved the epilogue and the handy glossary at the end. The book seemed very real and I felt as though I had been there too!

It is great when someone tells you about their day job and you hear all the tricks of the trade and the moving trends. After a while you think “this guy loves his job” and so it is with Christopher and his carpet workshop.

I feel that A Carpet Ride to Khiva works really well as a book. It educates, entertains and has the magic to take you into another world without the hassle of accomodation, cost, employment or visas. I have no hesitation in giving this book the top score of 5 stars, even though I can’t get the thought of those poor donkey’s out of my mind.

A Carpet Ride to Khiva is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2010.

Broken Dolls by James Carol.

Follow Jefferson Winter, an ex-FBI profiler as he helps solve a case in England for the Metropolitan Police.

Broken Dolls is a great tale about the profiling of offenders. I liked how Jefferson explained to the reader how profilers worked and how offenders have signatures to their behaviour. I loved all this detail, not just in the profiling of offenders but how people think in general. I loved how James used real locations in his story and how he used real life crimes to build the advice Jefferson was putting forward. There were some great social observations throughout this story. I loved all the extra details that were thrown into this story which made it such an absorbing read. I really enjoyed this book and loved the parts when I wondered if Jefferson and the Police were simply getting it wrong and barking up the wrong tree. The joy I got from the detail and the great plot made Broken Dolls a very entertaining 5 star read.

Broken Dolls was written in 2014 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

Chemical Flowers by Ian Woodhead and Suzanne Reeves.

In the fictitious British small town of Sedgingly, there is a problem at the factory and a chemical spill causes big trouble.

I found Chemical Flowers to be a FUN read. It was AMUSING and read like the script for a B-Movie HORROR film. This is EASY reading and does not make the reader think or work hard. You can let this story wash over you as nothing is serious. The writing is PUERILE and quite raunchy in places with a fair bit of vanilla casual sex. The plot was SIMPLE and should be a warning to gardeners everywhere.

This book is NOT to be taken seriously but I found it to be an okay 3 star read. There is some humour thrown into the story apart from the sexual observations, the best being…

Maria pulled on the doors. “These are locked! How are we supposed to get in?” she sighed. Harry pulled out his wallet and took out a card. “I used to work here, I still have my key card” he smiled “They didn’t notice that I had handed in a Sainsbury’s Nectar card.”

Chemical Flowers is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was published in 2012.