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The author shares the traditions, interests and beliefs of the people with whom she was sharing her time in Afghanistan. She tells of how she laughed with them, despaired and cried with them. She tells of a world which most of us will never see, taking the reader through rural and urban landscapes. I loved reading about the Afghan alternative cures!  This is a great book by an insightful author named Mary Smith.

An extract from A Soldier Like Jack

‘A heavy silence fell across the room as we all attempted to understand the implications of what he was saying, and in the end we didn’t say much more that night – or even when the morning came. He had given us plenty to think about, and we were left to wonder about the survival behaviour of men in war.

When Alfred went back to The Front, I wondered whether he was one of the clever ones, and because he had recognised this as being a quality of those who were surviving, would he be one of the survivors?  I spent many days pondering over that; sometimes that was all we had, time to ponder while we waited. I also wondered whether my Jack was one of the ones who would survive through cunning and, I suppose, strategy. Was Jack a man like that? Was he shrewd? Somehow I doubted that very much, and that thought sent shivers down my spine.’ …

 

A Soldier Like Jack is now available from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback… so glad to have got it to this stage 🙂 If you like it then (as always) reviews are VERY gratefully received on Amazon 🙂 Also available in other Amazons across the world … Thank you for your support xxx 

 

 

 

Nobody’s Poodle made me laugh and cry about Gizmo’s experiences, and despair at the stupidity and thoughtlessness of some people. Gizmo is a very clever dog (after all, he can write!) who takes you on his journey and is very frank about what he thinks about those he comes across. No-one is safe, biped or quadruped. I truly believed the story was being told to me by a dog, and became thoroughly engrossed and desperate to know how the story would end… a great book with lovely illustrations. Highly recommended.

 

I loved this book.
I only ever read just before I go to sleep, and I found this was one of those books I kept on thinking about into the next day. Each day I couldn’t wait for bedtime so I could start reading again – it is like a good film which lingers in your mind. The book is entertaining, but also full of underlying regret about the outcome for some of the animals which make their way into the family. You get a strong sense of retrospective despair and want to keep on reading to see what is going to happen next. It is fluently written and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
There is a lesson to each us about how animals are perceived in our society, but also about honesty and ‘coming clean’ about the mistakes we make along the way – something which the author has done admirably well in this book.

Here’s the link if anyone would like to give it a go 🙂

 

 

I’m off to see Carol Houlihan Flynn today for some author talk and coffee (tea for me though, I’m British 🙂 ),

Here’s a picture of us when we did book talks at Wagtongues…

http://wagtongues.wordpress.com/2014/05/24/scenes-from-a-pop-up-bookshop/