Reviews Archives - Page 12 of 45 - Antony Simpson is an Author, Blogger, Nurse & Witch.

Book Review: Smoke by Catherine McKenzie

Sunday 1 October 2017 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Who started the fire that threatens to set the town ablaze? Fire Investigator Elizabeth needs to answer.

Could Angus, my secretive son, have been involved with starting the fire? Mum Mindy asks herself.

In Smoke by Catherine McKenzie, former best friends Elizabeth and Mindy have these two questions in their mind.

But Smoke is so much more than just a whodunnit story. Both Elizabeth and Mindy are complex characters with complex lives.

For Elizabeth it’s about her desperation to have a child, the potential ending of her marriage and about her finally looking her problems and fears in the eye and navigating them the best that she can.

For Mindy it’s about wanting to do more than just be a wife and mother. It’s about her wanting to make a difference and find herself. That is until her son is in the frame for the fire.

The story is set over 6 days. Each chapter is set from the first person perspective of one of the two main characters. The description, dialogue and pacing are all excellent. McKenzie uses plenty of hooks that ignite the readers curiosity and drive the reader to read on. The character development is good on the whole, but the plot lacked realness towards the end.

The reader will have lots of opinion-flipping about characters, whodunnit and the plot overall. The reader will enjoy both characters unique and engaging voices, which is a huge credit to McKenzie.

Smoke is a pleasurable read and is available to buy on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony

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Productivity Journal Review: The Productivity Planner by Intelligent Change

Thursday 21 September 2017 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 3 minutes

The Productivity Planner by Intelligent Change is a journal aimed at boosting your productivity.

It focuses on single-tasking rather than multi-tasking and doing the most important task of the day first. It also uses The Pomodoro Technique. The Pomodoro Technique is working on a task for 25 minutes without distraction or procrastination and then taking a 5 minute break.

Here are some images of the Productivity Planner:

The Productivity Planner cover.	Weekly Task Planning.
Daily Planning.	Weekly Notes.

Like any productivity journal the Productivity Planner has Pros and Cons. Here they are:

Pros

Cons

Its design is smart and business-like.
It’s compact and light to carry.
It’s dateless, meaning you can start using it at any time.
It prioritises tasks into: Most Important, Secondary and Additional.
It has Weekly Planning/Review sections.
It has a place for Notes on each day and a full Weekly Notes page.
Every daily page has an Inspirational Quote and a Productivity Score (1-10).
It has circles next to tasks to measure time. You set a Target and then record the Actual, helping you to allocate a more realistic amount of time for tasks.
It has a bookmark ribbon and an elasticated closure.

It is really designed for business use. It only has a 5 day week.
There’s no Done boxes to tick tasks off on the daily pages.
The planner only has 6 months worth of pages in it. Meaning you would need to buy two for 1 year.
It is expensive for a journal, being priced at £20+.
There’s no short term, medium term or long term goal setting pages.
There’s no monthly or yearly view pages.
It is black and white throughout.
There isn’t anywhere to record rewards for completing tasks. I find rewards really motivating.
There’s no way to organise tasks into groups, e.g. Personal, Business, Health, Family/Friends, etc.

The Productivity Planner is available to buy on Amazon.

In my next Productivity Journal Review I will be reviewing the far superior Inspire Now Journal by Inspire Now Daily, which I absolutely love.

Write soon,

Antony

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Book Review: The Jungle Book (CollinsClassics Edition) by Rudyard Kipling

Sunday 17 September 2017 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: < 1 minute

The Jungle Book is the story of man-cub Mowgli, who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle.

Shere Khan, the stripped tiger, was Mowgli’s reason for ending up in the jungle in the first place. And as Mowgli grows, Shere Khan makes himself Mowgli’s nemesis.

Mowgli is taught The Law of The Jungle by Baloo the bear and Bagheera the black panther. At one point Mowgli is taken by monkeys in the canopy above. Baloo and Bagheera rescue him with the help of Kaa the Python.

The Jungle Book has probably become a classic because it taps into our curiosity of wildlife and our desire to learn about foreign and exotic lands. Kipling brilliantly crosses the worlds of animal and human with main character Mowgli.

Kipling uses anthropomorphism, giving all animal characters human traits, emotions and intentions. The Jungle Book was written in 1894 and as such some of the language has dated and some of the description is unclear.

The Jungle Book would probably be called a novella today, in terms of word count. The CollinsClassics Edition I read contained four other Kipling short stories.

The Jungle Book is well worth a read, although the reader will probably only want to read it once. The Jungle Book is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.

Review soon,

Antony

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Book Review: The Radleys by Matt Haig

Wednesday 30 August 2017 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The Radleys consisting of husband and wife, Peter and Helen, and their two children Clara and Rowan on the surface appear to be an ordinary middle class family in the village of Bishopthorpe.

But there is some odd things about The Radleys. Like the fact they don’t like sunlight, are all dangerously allergic to garlic and always appear to be unwell.

Then when Clara gets attacked at a party, something inside of her comes alive and she ends up killing a boy.

Life for The Radleys is about to get complicated. The two blood abstainer parents must decide how they feel about abstaining, each other and what to do about the situation that is unfolding before them. They have to deal with Peter’s older brother, Will, who turns up on from Manchester.

Will is a non-abstainer that Peter and Helen haven’t seen for seventeen years and their children have never met.

Helen also has to protect Peter and the children from finding out what went on between her and Will all those years ago.

Clara and Rowan are let in on the family’s secret, must deal with being lied to all their lives and work out how to go forward with this life changing truth.

While all this is going on, the Unnamed Predator Unit, a secret nationwide Unit run by Greater Manchester Police has set its sights on Will and is planning to take him down. They feel that his blood lust is out of control.

The Radleys is imaginative, captivating and addictive. Anyone who likes reading stories about vampires or reading in the fantasy genre will enjoy this book.

Everything about The Radleys is superb. The characters are interesting and pull the reader in. The plot makes the reader like a drug addict, desperate for their next fix. The pacing is quick and chapters are short. The description is brilliant, enabling the reader to imagine everything in perfect detail.

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

Review soon,

Antony

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