The Stand was originally published in 1979. I’m reviewing an extended version with approximately four hundred additional pages. The original was cut by four hundred pages to save on printing costs.
The Stand starts with an infected Solider escaping a chemical lab in a military base. He’s infected with Project Blue, a pathogen which has a 99.4% kill rate and that spreads alarmingly quick through the US and rest of the world.
King starts to introduce characters as the world disaster plot begins. With just a few sentences, King gives each character a believable backstory and makes them feel completely real.
We watch each of these characters deal with the loss of their loved ones, seek out other survivors, attempt to make connections with them and adapt to this new world.
It’s then that the dreams start. A dream about a Dark Man that strikes fear into the heart. A dream about a kind old woman named Mother Abagail.
The different characters have now mostly come together and formed groups. They start their journeys towards the Dark Man or away from him – travelling in the direction of Mother Abagail.
Mother Abagail’s group set up Free Zone in Boulder, Colorado. It’s a democratic community, that grows day by day.
The Dark Man (known as Randall Flagg)’s group set up in Las Vegas. His community is a dictatorship, with severe punishments for minor rule violations. It grows day by day, but not as quickly the Free Zone. The Dark Man is intent on waging war on the Free Zone.
The first two thirds of The Stand are beyond brilliant. The plot is fast-paced and the characters are captivating. But the last third of The Stand felt like King didn’t know where the plot was going. The ending did satisfy somewhat, but had a tinge of disappointment as only two of the numerous main characters had a good conclusion.
The Stand is a large book, totalling 1,325 pages. I read it in about three weeks – which isn’t bad considering my other commitments. There were many times when I simply couldn’t stop reading The Stand.
There were two minor aesthetic annoyances with my copy of The Stand. Firstly, the cover has started peeling. Anyone who knows me, knows I look after my books. So I can only put this down to the cheap production. Secondly, the black and white illustrations randomly dotted throughout book were pointless and of a poor quality.
The Stand is an enjoyable read. It’s a great book that will entertain the reader. It will absorb the reader into an apocalyptic world where good and evil are engaged in their a final battle. The Stand is available to buy on Amazon and at all good bookshops.
In The Graveyard Book, Nobody Owens (also known as Bod) is saved from murder by Ghosts. As a toddler, Bod, crawls out of his cot and walks up the hill to The Graveyard in the dead of night. Meanwhile his family are being murdered in their sleep by a man named Jack.
Jack tracks Bod up to The Graveyard. The ghosts save Bod’s life after Mrs Owens makes a promise to the Spector that is Bod’s mother. The ghosts agree to raise Bod and grant him the Freedom of The Graveyard.
Bod is to be raised by ghost surrogate parents Mr & Mrs Owens, with Silas who belongs to neither the world of the living or the world of the dead acting as Bod’s Guardian.
This is the start of a truly remarkable adventure story. Bod is taken through a gravestone that leads to a desert and city of the ghouls, he develops a friendship with a dead Witch and a living girl, he is taught how to fade, he goes to an ordinary school and uses
fear and dreamwalking to deal with bullies, he learns the ways of The Sleer and finally learns the truth of why his living family was murdered, why the man Jack is still after him and has to fight off The Jack’s order.
The Graveyard Book is the most wonderfully imaginative story that I’ve read in a long time. As the plot unravels the reader is captivated throughout and ponders on the mystery of why the man Jack murdered Bod’s family and why he continues to search for Bod to finish the job of wiping out his family.
The characters are superbly surrounded in mystery with hidden talents that make each character brilliant.
The Graveyard Book has made it on to my top shelf – where I keep my favourite books and there is no doubt in my mind that it is a book I will read again and again. It was a book that I honestly didn’t want to ever end.
At the end of the book, in an acknowledgments section Gaiman writes that this book was inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, that Gaiman read as a child, and also inspired by his own children at a certain age. This inspiration shines through as I found myself thinking that The Graveyard Book reminded me of the story of The Jungle Book, way before getting to the end acknowledgements section.
I would highly recommend that anyone and everyone reads The Graveyard Book, which is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.
When I heard that Wax was releasing a new book entitled Frazzled, I immediately pre-ordered it.
A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled is split into sections, which include: an introduction to Mindfulness, Neuroscience and How Our Brains Work, a six-week Mindfulness Course, Mindfulness for Parents, Babies & Children, Mindfulness for Older Kids & Teenagers and Mindfulness & Wax.
Wax’s story sections spattered throughout Frazzled were fascinating to read. Wax’s occasional drawings and photos throughout the book were also enjoyable.
It was interesting to see the two MRI brain scans on Wax in Frazzled. One was taken before a weeklong silence mindfulness meditative retreat and one afterwards.
The format and structure of Frazzled is pleasing, although Wax could have added a section on Mindfulness for OAPs (Old Aged Pensioners). The six-week Mindfulness Course pages are grey-edged, which makes it easy for the reader to find the course. The exercises in the course did feel repetitive to read and it felt like whole sections from Week 1 had been copy/pasted into the other weeks of the course.
Frazzled shouldn’t be compared with Sane New World, but it’s difficult not to compare the two books. Frazzled is just as informative as Sane New World but not as funny. Frazzled reads like a self-help instructional book on Mindfulness.
Overall Sane New World is a good book, just not as good as Sane New World. Frazzled failed to captivate this reader throughout and failed to inspire this reader to practice mindfulness.
The only section that was not read in this book was Mindfulness for Parents, Babies and Children.
Recently my life has been so hectic. Here’s most of the things I’ve been doing since I last blogged:
I’ve challenged a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPA) that was issued on my car by the local Council. The local Council had wrote to me and asked me to move my car from my private resident car parking space to their carpark for a community event. I did as they requested. They day after the event my car had been issued with a FPA.
I had a spring clean in my bedroom, throwing out 6 bin bags, mostly filled with clothes that don’t fit anymore. I listed 3 suits on Gumtree. They’re practically like new having only be worn once or twice each. I like a new suit for job interviews ideally, but some of the times, I’ve had to buy a new suit due to putting on weight in the years between interviews. There has been a lack of interest on Gumtree, so I’m thinking of seeing if a local homeless charity wants them for their clients.
The UK Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) has changed the process for revalidation. Every 3 years, Nurses (such as myself) and Midwives are required to revalidate. Previously the process was to complete a form confirming that you had done the number of practice and learning hours required. Now we are required to:
Complete a practice log to demonstrate completion of the required number of practice hours (450 hours for a Nurse such as myself).
Complete a Continued Professional Development (CPD) log to demonstrate completion of 35 hours of CPD.
Collect 5 pieces of Practice-related feedback.
Writeup 5 reflective accounts.
Have a documented discussion with another NMC Nurse or Midwife.
Declaration of anything that could impair your fitness to practice.
Declaration that you have have the appropriate indemnity insurance cover.
So I have been doing some work to collect my evidence for revalidation. I have mixed thoughts about the new revalidation process. Overall I think that it is a good process, but with a few problems that could have been solved if the NMC had thought it through properly. These few problems for me are:
Firstly I think it should have been phased in, so all Nurses and Midwives should have used the old revalidation form and been informed to start collecting the data above for their next revalidation. I’m lucky as I keep paper diaries with details of my working hours. But if a Nurse or Midwife had been using an organisation’s electronic calendar and moved organisations in the last three years, he/she might be unable remember what hours they worked before switching organisations. Same goes for CDP.
Secondly it is very bureaucratic. This is not a problem for Nurses or Midwives that work in the community and can organise their diary to allow time for the revalidation process. But for Nurses or Midwives on busy hospital wards or departments, it is likely they will spend the many hours required to complete the paperwork in their own time. It is also likely that Nurses and Midwives will see it as a purely bureaucratic exercise, so not put the effort into revalidation that the NMC wants. I think it would be better if there were less forms to complete. For example, the NMC could require 3 pieces of practice-related feedback and 3 written reflective accounts, instead of 5 each.
Thirdly I think it’s important to mention money. Nurses and Midwives have to pay £120 per year to maintain their registration. Regardless of their income or level within an organisation. My registration date is the 24th September, but they want all of my revalidation paperwork in and the £120 paid by the 1st September. Moving the date that the payment is required is important because it means that I am paying £120 for closer to 11 months of registration rather than 12 months.
Fourthly the NMC should allow Nurses and Midwives to pay their registration fees up to and on their date of registration expiry. I also think it’s about time that they charge different rates of fees depending on the Nurses or Midwives NHS band of pay. I wouldn’t mind paying more so that junior Nurses pay less.
I’ve given some feedback to my good friend Steve on his novel manuscript. I’ve still got more to read and more feedback to give, but we had to pause the process due to me being so busy.
There’s been a few good job opportunities on NHS Jobs. I applied for two jobs and got interviews for both of them. The first job I was beat because the person who got the job had an addition 5 years experience than me. I asked for feedback and they told me that I did a superb interview. They said that there was nothing that I couldn’t have done any better. That they’d had to make the decision they did purely because the other candidate had more experience. They encouraged me to continue applying for jobs in the field and explained that had the candidates been different that I would have got the job hands down.
The second job I attended the interview, scored the highest, the managers wanted me and argued for two days with HR. HR didn’t want me to be recruited because I had no qualification in mental health. I have the experience but because I’m a Children’s Nurse rather than a Mental Health Nurse, in the end, HR wouldn’t let me be recruited. Again I asked for feedback and again they said there was nothing I could have done better and they encouraged me to keep applying. They stated that I would get eventually get a job in children and young people’s mental health services and that they hoped it would be in their service, as I would be an asset to any service that I joined.
I treated myself to some Witchy goodies:
I ordered a small Dorothy Morrison Wickedly Wonderful Magical Mystery Package before the end of May and got these. Wakin’ The Dead candle and room spray for ancestor work and Forever Mine candle, room spray and oil to bring an endless love into my life. Kindly sold and dispatched by The Angry Cauldron. If you want learn more about the mystery packages, see my blog post here. But be aware that they were only being sold throughout the month of May.
I also bought a Limited Edition Rich Bitch candle and Limited Edition Rich Bitch oil.
Dorothy Morrison has done brilliantly at selecting the right things for each of the three Wickedly Wonderful Magical Mystery Packages I’ve ordered. In this small package photoed above, I’ve got stuff for ancestor work – something that I really need to work on. She’s also sent me Forever Mine love magic products. My love life is a neglected area of my life and something I need to work on. So thank you and well done on selections Dorothy Morrison.
I’ve started casting spells and spell crafting again, after over 5 years of doing nothing. This is because I’ve been inspired by Dorothy Morrison’s products, which have been sent from the USA to the UK by the people at The Angry Cauldron.
I’ve spent time with my gorgeous bengal cats Dylan and Russell. I haven’t shared any photos of them on here for a while, so here’s a photos of them both:
My bengal cat Russell Cat Naps.
My bengal cat Dylan surveys his kingdom.
I’ve seen various family and friends who’ve had birthday’s or have at least sent them out a card.
I’ve attended a range of annual diabetic health appointments including: podiatry, retinopathy screening and an review with my Practice Nurse and GP. Prior to seeing the Practice Nurse and GP I had a fasting blood test. My cholesterol is high, so I’ve been started on statins. Statins to me are associated with people much older than I am, but seen as I have Type 1 diabetes, if statins can bring my cholesterol down they will also bring my blood sugars down. So it’s all good.
A few months ago I woke up with a painful left knee, groin, right shoulder and arm. As the days past the groin, shoulder and arm all got better but the knee didn’t. I ended up going to my GP for stronger painkillers, got referred to a Specialist and have just recently had a MRI scan on my knee. I think it’s probably cartilage damage, but am awaiting an appointment with the Specialist to find out.
The extra painkillers and statin have caused me to write up a drug regimen, so I don’t forget to take any tablets and I’ve just recently ordered a Colourful 7 Day 3 Times In-a-day Rainbow Pill Box to help make remembering to take everything at the right times easier.
I’ve been doing a Contraception module at Uni. Last weekend despite the good weather, I figuratively chained myself to my Mac to write the case study assignment. After editing the assignment over a few evenings, I have now submitted it online. I have till the 20th June to complete my clinical placement portfolio and submit it online.
I recently wrote via email to a private company to express an interest in working for them. By chance they were just about to advertise a Nurse vacancy and said they’d add me to the distribution list. The email came through late this week. Although it sounds like a lovely place to work the job just isn’t well enough paid.
After being told by several members of my family how good ALDI is in terms of price and quality, I decided to give it a go. The food is of a good quality and much fresher than the bigger supermarkets. I’m buying the same things I always buy, but saving around a third on my food shop. Plus ALDI is smaller so I am in and out quicker and I tend to buy much less on impulse.
Having decided to build up my collection of essential oils and because the box I was using to store them in was full, I went looking for a new box to keep them in. I tried searching everywhere online that I could think of (including ebay, Amazon, Etsy & Google Shopping). I searched using every combination of search terms I could think of, loosing count of the number of searches I did. I was looking for a wooden red chest type box to match my other two boxes. But I had no luck.
So I decided that I needed some magical help. I cleaned up the hallway (where it was to go) and used Dorothy Morrison’s Witched Witchin’ Oil and Dorothy Morrison’s Puttin’ on the Witch Oil to draw the box outline on the floor and visualised the box being there in as much detail as possible. A few hours later I stumbled across this lovely box on my first search on ebay for the bargain price of under £10 with delivery:
My new red wooden essential oils chest (1), which was a bargain at under £10 with postage.
My new red wooden essential oils chest (2).
So my darlings, please forgive the lack of blogging recently. As you will know if you’ve managed to read all this post, my life has been super hectic. I’m hoping it will start to quieten down in the next few weeks and then I’ll have more time to blog.
Write soon,
Antony
Share on Social Media:
Saturday 11 June 2016
About
Antony Simpson - Author, Blogger, Nurse & Witch.
Author of nine books.
Categories
Amazon
Antony Simpson is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk.
