Amy, My Daughter by Mitch Winehouse.

Amy Winehouse, a very popular and top selling British singer, died just 27 years old. In this book her father Mitch Winehouse tells the tale of his daughter’s short life.

I was fascinated by this book which told the story of Amy from when she was born until after her death when the Amy Winehouse Foundation was established to help to prevent the effects of drug and alcohol misuse on young people and to support, inform and inspire vulnerable and disadvantaged young people.

Mitch writes at length about his father/daughter relationship, all the pitfalls and successes plus the constant ups and downs of coping with Amy. This is an intimate story and you feel as though you have become a member of the Winehouse family as Mitch trusts you with the family’s secrets. Amy got a fair amount of bad press in her lifetime and here Mitch puts the record straight rather than the distorted picture portrayed by the press to gain further sales.

I learned a lot about Amy and Mitch has made a lovely legacy with his book. I really engaged with this story and Mitch captured the very feeling of fathering a daughter caught in the media spotlight, letting her lead her own life but being there for her when needed. The focus of this book is strong and I took a lot away from it. Mitch writes…

Drugs were illegal, expensive and required privacy. Alcohol was freely available, and she could drink wherever and whenever she liked, mostly without public criticism. As a consequence, her lack of inhibition about drinking was yet another problem - it was moving beyond serious, and if she carried on, her illness might end up killing us both.

… This book has many highs and lows with Mitch getting across to the reader how this turmoil affects a father and how tiring supporting a daughter through her problems can be. Amy was such a kind, loving and generous person you just hoped she would work through her problems and come out shining. I got so caught up in the tension within this story, that when I got to the end, a wave of sadness crashed over me. This is a very powerful and moving story with such a sad and avoidable ending. MItch has written a wonderful tribute to his daughter as well as giving the man-in-the-street a fascinating and hugely informative read. This has got to be the best taxi driver tale, ever and I will vote it the top score of 5 stars. You do not have to be a fan of Amy or her music to get an awful lot from this book. This is top class human-interest material and will really make you question how you feel as you are enjoying drinks with friends.

Amy, My Daughter is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2012.

The Bat by Jo Nesbo.

The Bat is the first Harry Hole thriller by the top selling Norwegian author Jo Nesbo. It is a Police Crime Drama set in Sydney, Australia. Harry Hole is a Norwegian policeman sent down under to investigate the murder of a Norwegian young woman working in Sydney.

The Bat is different to other crime thrillers in that it is not solely focused on the plot or the development of characters. The Bat is full of anecdotes given by everyone involved in this story. The plot moves on as the police try to indentify and catch the murderer of Inger but alongside this there is a wealth of anecdotes imparting wisdom on the reader. As the scenes unfold, a character will present an anecdote to explain the background or procedure involved. This vast content provided by these anecdotes makes you feel involved with the story as you are carried along on it’s learning curve. None of these anecdotes are tedious or just put in to bulk out this story. Jo Nesbo tells his story with such a lovely depth. I finished the book and the themes of these anecdotes still buzzed in my head. Most of the anecdotes are quite long and detailed, so I will quote 2 very short anecdotes to illustrate…

1. He watched her as she bounced up and down. She met his gaze, sent him a brief smile and looked away. It was the kind of smile you get when you’re on the tram and inadvertently stare at someone for too long.

    2) ‘The precursor to Coca-Cola was discovered by an American chemist who wanted to concoct a remedy for hangovers,’ Joseph said. ‘But he reckoned he’d failed and sold the recipe on for eight dollars. If you ask me no one has found anything better.’

Jo Nesbo has written a very good novel and he is a top author in this genre. The Bat is a very good read, it is a full and entertaining story. I was impressed and could find nothing wrong with this book. I am not alone in my praise for this book as the editors at Amazon have included it in their top 100 thrillers to read in a lifetime. I will vote The Bat the top score of 5 stars and look forward to reading the second novel in the Harry Hole series called Cockroaches.

The Bat has 425 pages and was written in 1997 but was translated into English by Don Bartlett in 2012.

Kindle Unlimited UK - Get Kindle Unlimited Books for Free by Lavee Natch.

This brief guide tells you all you need to know about the business model behind the Amazon Kindle Store and the Kindle Unlimited subscription service. Here in the UK you can pay £7.99 a month to have access to over 900,000 eBooks within the Amazon Kindle Unlimited brand. But as Lavee Natch explains, by studying his guide and searching intelligently on the Kindle Store website, you can download for free - without a subscription - from a range of 60,000 eBooks including 23,000 novels. By downloading these eBooks for free, they are in your collection for ever and you can read them years later, when they can cost maybe £4 each.

Lavee tells you how to search the Kindle Store website and provides links to send your Kindle browser to an Amazon webpage to let you view all the free to download eBooks for that day. He also provides a link so that you can get email alerts for when the price of an eBook you are interested in falls to £0.00p - this is priceless because once you download for free, it is yours to keep.

I have had a Kindle for over 4 years and Lavee is right, there is plenty of good free content available out there, all you have to do is search intelligently. Grab those eBooks while they are free, add to your collection and read maybe years later. It is quite surprising when you look on the Kindle Store soon after your free download, how the price has risen! These 2nd division authors have an awful lot to offer the reader. They do not sell as many copies as the 1st division top selling authors but their books give you the same reading pleasure at a much reduced or even free cost.

So I suggest you learn from Lavee and grab some eBooks for free. Lavee writes clearly and gives good explanations, for example…

All the authors, who are part of the Kindle Unlimited program, have multiple options to promote their books. One of the promotional tools they have is to offer the book for free…

The authors can offer the book for free up to 5 days each quarter.

...I will vote this guide the top score of 5 stars for his altruism and for putting his knowledge into the public domain.

Kindle Unlimited UK - Get Kindle Unlimited Books for Free is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2015.

The Koran (Al-Qur’an) translated from the Arabic by the Rev. J.M. Rodwell with an introduction by the Rev. G. Margoliouth.

This book has a lovely introduction and preface to this translation of the Koran. It puts the reader in the right frame of mind to enjoy this epic work in context. Each Sura is translated and has numbered footnotes that expertly explain the context and technicalities involved.

I found the Koran a great challenge to read. It is not easy reading and I dipped into it over a period of four years. I found the footnotes a great help in understanding the context and to stop any easy misunderstandings. For example on the last Sura V.? The Table [CXIV.] …

O believers! surely wine and games of chance, 34 and statues, and the divining arrows, are an abomination of Satan’s work! Avoid them, that ye may prosper.

... Okay, I do enjoy a beer, which is a type of alcohol and I understand that strict Muslims shy away from all alcohol. I do not gamble because the maths prove that the gambler will ALWAYS lose, so that is an obvious belief to hold. What I was surprised at was footnote 34 which informed the reader…

Tradition has expanded the word ansab, so as to include all figures, and hence the strict observers of the letter of the Koran forbid the game of chess. The Persians, however, and Indians generally interpret this verse more liberally.

… So that is the beauty of this book, it puts the Koran in it’s historical context. It is not an easy read and I think that Rodwell and Margoliouth have done a very good job in making this work available to readers who are ignorant of Arabic but are able to read this classic text in English. It gave me the ability to understand the Koran and form my own view of it’s value to society. I learned a lot about Islam and what the Koran means to Muslims. I feel enlightened having read this book and the secrets surrounding the Koran have been shared with me. I now know what Muslims believe rather than the sound bites propagated by commentators in popular media.

Rodwell and Margoliouth have done a good job in making the Koran accessible to English readers. For that I am truly grateful and I will give their work the top score of 5 stars. What is very nice is that they allow the reader to form their own opinion about the Koran and Islam. Here is a translation and interpretation of the Koran, read it and then make your informed opinion.

Peace be with you.

While I was dying... by Natacha Troubetzkoi.

Follow Nicki in this first person narrative about a young woman finding her way in life. She has many pitfalls along the way as she tries to establish a name for herself.

This book showed promise as her story unfolds but I found her tale quite tedious. It was like one of those telephone calls when a woman is droning on about the little problems in her life and you wish she would end her call. The story does move on from one job or relationship to another but I never gained any empathy for Nicki. This whole book was quite dull and it was not an entertaining read. Nothing much exciting happened although Nicki did travel quite a lot. For all the glamour that Nicki was involved with, her tale did not have any sparkle. Even the sex she had was described as though she went to the shops!

While I was dying… was a drag for me to read through. I did not like the structure as you knew from the prologue that she was going to die and this tale was her looking back on her life. I took nothing away from this book as I was rather bored. I am a fan of first person narratives but this book left me cold. The attitude was shallow and the dialogue between characters was poor. This book was a big disappointment for me, so I can only vote it 2 stars as it was such a poor read.

While I was dying… is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2014.

The Villager by Matt Kruze.

This novella is a British thriller about a suspicious stranger who comes into a rural village. Is he up to no good? Can our resident protect the village against any potential threat posed by this visitor?

What follows is a cat and mouse game where both men use their skills in a classic, hunter and the hunted. Matt has written his story in what he calls “parts” rather than chapters. However these parts do not form logical breaks as the next part continues on the same day! There is plenty of tension in this story as the plot unfolds. The action is quick and snappy which makes for a thrilling read.

Matt does use a lot of obscure words in his book making the average reader do a lot of tapping to bring up the dictionary definition. He appears to be trying hard to raise his game by using an extensive vocabulary but I do not feel that a thriller of this type needs these obscure words. I got the feeling he had been on a creative writing course and was ticking the boxes as the story went on.

I found The Villager to be an okay read in the way that it was entertaining. It did not have an attitude though and the writing was quite sterile. His style was of a magazine story writer, giving you the feel this was a throwaway book. I finished this story and thought it was average, a pleasant read that I will vote the middle score of 3 stars.

The Villager is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2013.

Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna.

This novel is set in Coorg, Southern India and runs from 1878 to 1940. It is a cross generational love story told in the third person. It is not a slushy romance but a story that explores the gripping emotion of love. This is a book that men can enjoy because Sarita understands just how people form loving bonds. Through the story the foundation of love is explained with the characters as they grow wiser with age. There is no explicit sex in this novel but lots of emotional turmoil.

Sarita’s writing is top quality, it is difficult to believe this is her debut novel. Her vocabulary is huge and her prose is very educated. Her book enables the reader to escape their everyday life, go back in time and to a country they may never have been to. You do not need to have travelled to India or be conversant with the culture. Sarita gently guides you through the rich landscape of Coorg, often described as the ‘Scotland of India” as she details the culture and Hindu traditions.

All the characters are well developed but at a natural pace. The love slowly grows, this is not whirlwind romance but something deeper and stronger. You feel for the characters and wish them well. You feel sorry for all the setbacks they encounter and appreciate their point of view. As a reader you take on a grandfatherly role and wish the younger offspring had the benefit of your experience and can understand the love that bonds us all.

Tiger Hills is a pleasure to read, it is one of those books that you can escape so easily into. It is a wonderfully crafted reading experience and because the timeline spans over 60 years, you feel as though you have lived in India with the characters and your home is in Coorg. The story is not claustrophobic because of the many characters and you feel as though you are part of the community. Many love stories are tightly woven around 2 or 3 characters but the beauty of Tiger Hills is the love that is shared through generations and the landscape. It is not the simple girl meets boy love but a greater and far deeper love that people develop as they grow older. Sarita really understands how love develops and how people have to deal with the pitfalls that life throws at them. This book is so easy to relate to because of how the characters develop a fondness and love for others, that you remember how you felt about past loves of your life. This is not just about love for other people but also for landscapes and animals. Many times through the book I have felt tears coming on and the desire to cry at the book “No! No!”.

Tiger Hills is a very moving book and when I finished it, I felt as though I had a lifetime experience of raising a family and cultivating a coffee plantation in Coorg. I put the book down and stroke Charlie the Pug, my pet dog and remember Nancy the Malabar squirrel and another tear comes to my eye. Sarita has written a wonderful novel and I have no reservations about voting it the top score of 5 stars. There is nothing I can find wrong with her book, the editing is spot on and she ticks all the boxes.

Tiger Hills was written in 2010 and has 593 pages. It was one of the novels featured in The TV Book Club on Channel 4 television in the UK during 2011.