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August 2017

Book Review: Forever is the Worst Long Time by Camille Pagan

By Amazon, Books & Authors, Reviews2 Comments
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View on Amazon.co.uk
 Forever is the Worst Long Time by Camille Pagan is one man’s story of his life, his love and his loss.

James’ life is pretty ordinary until he meets Rob’s (his best friend) girlfriend Lou. James and Lou have an instant attraction.

The more James learns about Lou, the more fascinated he becomes and the more her wants to know. To James everything about Lou is perfect (even her imperfections) and he comes to love her.

Then James and Lou do the unthinkable and they set out on journey that is filled with love and loss.

The story is told from James’ perspective, his voice engaging and likeable, but is a little longwinded at times.

This first person perspective is good for the story, which is essentially about the ups and downs of his life set over seventeen years.

Use of this perspective made James’ voice, actions and motivations come across clearly. But for the same reason, left the reader feeling that other characters were lacking at times. Pagan could have improved the novel by switching to some of the other character’s perspectives.

The plot moved along at a reasonable pace. But because it was about James’ ordinary life, that mostly lacked anything extraordinary, it felt like not a lot happened. It also felt like reading a biography of someone who is a complete stranger and has done nothing to attract the reader’s interest.

The last few chapters are likely to elicit an emotional response from readers, which is a credit to Pagan’s writing.

The description and dialogue were excellent throughout. The idea was all right, but more thought and imagination could have been inputted into the story. I really wanted to like Forever is the Worst Long Time, but it just wasn’t for me. Perhaps because it was a story told by a mediocre main character.

Forever is the Worst Long Time is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.

Review soon,

Antony

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Wednesday 16 August 2017

Book Review: Spellcraft for Hedge Witches by Rae Beth

By Amazon, Books & Authors, Paganism, ReviewsNo Comments
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View on Amazon.co.uk
 Spellcraft for Hedge Witches is a remarkable book about natural magic, spell craft and paganism by Rae Beth.

It is aimed at Hedge Witches (solitary practitioners) of all levels who are in need of healing for themselves or others.

Beth’s part-conversational and part-instructional writing style is engaging and informative.

Spellcraft for Hedge Witches covers all things natural magic including:

  • The basics: tools, visualisation, magic as energy, how to raise – intent – release energy and the importance of having a strong emotional resonance when spell casting.
  • Throughout brief mentions of the history of the Craft.
  • Magical Correspondence (along with why they’re important).
  • More advanced ways of working (nicely done as the book progresses so does the spell craft).
  • How to communicate and work with: the Fae, elemental spirits and the God/Goddess.

Here’s a list of spells in the book:
1. Spell to Heal Anything.
2. Chant for Power.
3. Spell to Banish Abuse from a Relationship.
4. Spell to Banish Humiliation.
5. Spell to Counter an Ill Wish.
6. Spell to Gain Psychic Protection.
7. Spell for Transforming Destructive Feelings.
8. Spell to Heal Psychological Trauma.
9. Spell for Justice.
10. Spell to Consecrate Your Life to a Chosen Purpose.
11. Spell to Gain the Right Home.

Dotted throughout Spellcraft for Hedge Witches are superb illustrations and purely on a visual front, these would have been even better if they had been in colour.

I’ve been pagan for well over a decade and still learned many things from Spellcraft for Hedge Witches. Beth also reminded more of many more things that I already knew, but had forgotten about. I found the ideas in this book inspiring.

Throughout Spellcraft for Hedge Witches Beth encourages the reader to be creative when spell casting and do what works for them. Beth truly is a wise-woman and this book is bursting with her wisdom.

I would highly recommend Spellcraft for Hedge Witches to any Witch, pagan or other follower of an earth-based religion. I bought it from The Goddess and the Green Man shop on a recent trip Glastonbury (read about it and see photos by clicking this link). It is available to buy on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony



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Tuesday 15 August 2017

Did You Know? (Part 5 – Animals)

By The WebNo Comments
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Did You Know?

 This is the fifth in a series of Did You Know? blog posts. Each blog post will gives fascinating facts on a particular topic. In part 1 the topic was science. In part 2 the topic was history. In part 3 the topic was geography. In part 4 the topics were art & music.

Today, I give you ten facts about Animals:

1. Cats domesticated themselves around 10,000 years ago. Dogs are thought to be the first animal domesticated by humans also around 10,000 years ago.

2. Elephants have the longest gestation period among mammals lasting nearly 2 years. However the spiny dogfish shark gestation period tops the elephant at 3.5 years, as does the black alpine salamander with a gestation period of 2-3 years.

3. Animals with the shortest gestation period include: koala (34-36 days), squirrel (about 40 days) and a number of animals that have a 60-62 day gestation period.

4. The largest bat colony is believed to have 20m bats and is in Bracken Cave, Texas, USA.

5. Bees taste with their feet.

6. Octopi each have 9 brains, 3 hearts, blue blood and are about 90% muscle.

7. Dolphins can sleep half a brain at a time, meaning they can be active for 15 or more days.

8. Seahorse males carry fertilised eggs and give birth to hundreds of baby seahorses per time.

9. Ants never sleep and don’t have lungs. There are 1 million ants for every 1 human in the world.

10. Flamingos can only eat when their head is upside down.

Write soon,

Antony

References
The Nest – How Long Have Dogs & Cats Been Domesticated?
Mother Nature Network – 12 animals with the longest gestation period
Info.com – Which mammals have the shortest and longest gestation periods?
BuzzFeed – 47 Surprising Facts About Animals
The Daily Catch – An Octopus has 3 Hearts, 9 Brains & Blue Blood
List 25 – 25 Amazing Facts You Didn’t Know About Animals
The Fact Site – 300 Random Animal Facts

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Monday 14 August 2017

Book Review: Carrie by Stephen King

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
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View on Amazon.co.uk
 Carrie was Stephen King’s first jaunt into novel writing, originally published in 1974.

Carrie is a brilliant thriller, featuring an essentially damaged teenage girl with telekinetic (the ability to move objects with the mind) abilities.

Carrie White is the outsider at school. She’s always the butt of the joke.

Carrie’s home life isn’t much better with her Christian Fundamentalist mother. Her mother is physically and emotionally abusive, she thinks practically everything is sin. She regularly locks Carrie in a closet, the closet is designed to terrify and torment with effigies of sinners. To encourage Carrie to recognise her many sins and repent.

One day things change for Carrie. She is sixteen, in the communal showers at school after Physical Education, when she begins to bleed. She stands there, thinking that she must be dying.

Nobody has ever told her about menstruation. Unfortunately the other girls are less than sympathetic, in fact they are the polar opposite. They are cruel. They taunt her. They throw sanitary towels and tampons at her, telling her to plug it up. This traumatic event during puberty triggers something within Carrie and she starts to slowly realise that she can move and manipulate objects with her mind.

But what will she do with the power? Then popular boy Tommy Ross invites Carrie to The Spring Ball. What somebody intends as a kindness to Carrie leads to devastating consequences.

In Carrie the description is good, but some of it has become dated over time – including references to things. This is something that King recognises in the introduction to the story. However the reader can still mostly imagine what’s happening.

The story is told from various perspectives and using various formats (including quotes from imaginary books published about The White incident, interview Q&A from The White Commission, articles from News Papers, AP tickers and direct first person accounts). This variety in formatting made a refreshing change, although it did give some of the plot away at times. However it did add an retrospective analysis to events.

Carrie was a character that the reader quickly develops empathy for. All the other characters were strong and a few words of dialogue or internal thinking was all that was needed for them to come to life.

The plot was captivating and the pacing moved along at an appropriate speed. As Carrie was King’s first book, it is much shorter than some of his other books. This shortness actually made the book more enjoyable than some of King’s tomb-sized books.

Carrie is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.

Review soon,

Antony

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I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Friday 11 August 2017
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