The Babble Hinge - 8.

BOO!! I am back! Over a year away and over the last couple of weeks I have slowly crept back in. Did you notice? No prize if you did but hey, well done. oh and welcome back faithful Zebinoco readers.

What to tell you.....ok, so I had to take a break as the pain in my wrist and hand was getting just a little too much but over the last few months a wonderful Doctor at the pain management team has been my godsend. Did I mean to give him a capital D, oh yes, I sure did.It's as close as I can get to naming him on here- The Doctooooor.haha.Yes, ok, more meds but he never treated me like a leper.He believed me.He could see there was something that wasn't right and finally the right meds have and are working.I am hoping to stay on them for a good year or two and hopefully reroute my pain pathway and then slowly come off them all.I hate taking so many.I feel like a crumbly 90 year old living in a medicine cabinet.Still, if it is what is needed right now, then so be it. What we do know is that it is definitely neuropathic pain.

BUT (da,da,da,daaaa), it doesn't end there, oh no.I am not meant to have a break.😄
I have been off work with an acute case of Achilles Tendinopathy/Tendonitis with also a possible Haglunds deformity lump on the calcaneous bone where the tendon joins. I am off for an ultrasound to prove this in a few days.Physio is helping the Achilles and I am able to walk down stairs normally now and without hobbling thanks to my fabulous orthotics but this weekend has been so so sore.I have to wear the orthotics in full shoes, but the best thing for haglunds is open cloggs.aarrrghhh! A viscious circle, so whilst I am helping my tight achilles tendon, I am making my Haglunds very sore. I have ordered some Haglunds support gel padding.

Warning: Feet Photo's - Just because, it's my blog. hahahaha 😇 Scratch and sniff currently not working.Please retry later.

As you can see, this was at one of  the points at the beginning. There were times I couldn't even put my shoe on.It doesn't swell like this now or get inflamed, although I know it still does inside as my nerves buzz somewhat. 

Lets talk about more jollier stuff now.I met a friend and colleague for, what shall we call it.....elevenses (ooooo posho) yesterday. 11:15 at a cute little place called The Bicycle Shop in the city where I live (Norwich). I am a little out of blog practice I didn't take any photo's to put up so lets scout the net.....Such a quaint cute place.I recommend booking a table though as it is very small.
It used to be a bicycle shop many years ago, funny that.

 
https://www.thebicycleshopcafe.com/

I had a wonderful eggs benedict with a latte. oh my, it was so nice.The decor was so delightful with yes, you got it, old scattered books along the wall edge and bird cages in the huge plants in the cafe, no, not real ones with real birds.All pretend with pretend birds in the plants. They accept dogs in too which I thought lovely and I know some would disagree but I'd rather sit next to many dogs than many humans I've met! Most are a lot cleaner to be honest.They had a little bowl of dog biscuits by the till.Cute. What a lovely, lovely place.The staff were very pleasant and it was a very relaxed atmosphere too. I'd definitely go again.

In Chapelfield Gardens there was an Alice in Wonderland fun day for the RSPCA.It had been really hyped up all year but upon a slow walk over, I felt slightly disappointed if I'm honest.Yes, I was aware it was mainly going to be aimed at children but thought there was going to be many characters and such like.There was a few games and some food and craft stalls.The weather hadn't been great so maybe that had affected it and it was a charity event so money would have been tight but it did take almost the way around before we saw anything remotely Alice in Wonderland AND I donned my Alice tee shirt for the occasion too! I love Alice in Wonderland as many of you will remember from my 40th Mad Hatter tea party.

 Photo from Norwich in Wonderland Event's post in Alice in Wonderland Family Fun Day.
 https://www.facebook.com/events/1668503556783231/permalink/1718267138473539/
People who went reported to have a fun time and the children loved it.There was lots of nice food about and I hope they made lots of money for the RSPCA.

Well, that's all for now or I'll run out of paper and you know how big I write.Catch you next time readers.

Immortalis by G.M. Sherwin

Read from May 24th 2017 - May 27th 2017.

Published May 26th 2017 by Sherwin Publications.

Format    Kindle -  pages.

Synopsis - Taken from Goodreads - On the last planet to be colonized by humans, astrophysicist Ash Palmer will set in motion events that will change the history and future for the human race.
Still trying to come to terms with a horrific tragedy he sets out to finish his father’s life’s work
There are others who are interested in Palmers work that will stop at nothing, no matter what the cost to prevent an ancient prophecy becoming a reality.
In his search, Palmer encounters a stranger who will turn his world upside down with revelations about his own origins and that of one other whose fates are linked.
What he discovers will lead him into darkness and the battle for his very soul will begin…

My Review -  Gary Sherwin's first published book and I get to read and review it. Won at a book party, the first thing that attracted me was the cover, a bit of an attention grabber, I must say and what a lovely colour. This was going to be amazing and so I tucked into it pretty quickly.

Not knowing anything about the book, being a first, I had no expectations apart from knowing it was a horror. It soon transpired that it was a Sci Fi ultimately. That's fine too as I do like some Sci Fi.
The story took off right from the start and the chapters were short so as I turned the page (sounds better than swiped) I wanted to carry on with the next page straight away. There is an immense amount of characters that flit about back and forth that I did get a little confused who was who and felt somewhat overwhelmed at times. Maybe I should have had a notebook beside me? Still, on I went and was enjoying it very much. The story developing, I was ah - ing and oo - ing every so often.
I did find it jumped in rather quickly and developed at fast speed. It charged along like commentator at the Grand National and it wasn't going to slow down for me!
I would have liked it to have moved at a slower pace and watch the characters lives evolve to where the story was going for the reader. I don't feel I knew how or why or what had happened and although I was piecing it together as I was going along, it would have been better with more of a run up, a history. I didn't feel there was anything within the characters that I could connect to. With more given, the connection may have been there.
Three quarters of the way in and take note, this was all over two-three days, I got to the 'horror' part.Very, very mild and not particularly scary. Any of you that like Sci Fi but are not horror fans, give it a go, you will be fine, trust me......or not! Haha.
All in all, a very good debut book and I gave it 3 and half stars for a first book, the content and plot. There is a few small errors along the way which Gary appreciated me telling him about. Naughty proof reader missed them but it didn't deter from the story at all.
I would be very interested to see how the writing and story develops in books two and three.

3.5 stars given.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Read from May 16th 2017 - May 23rd 2017.

Published June 14th 2011 by Razorbill.

Format    Paperback - 288 pages.

Synopsis -Taken from Goodreads - You can't stop the future. You can't rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret. . . is to press play.
Clay Jensen doesn't want anything to do with the tapes Hannah Baker made. Hannah is dead. Her secrets should be buried with her.
Then Hannah's voice tells Clay that his name is on her tapes-- and that he is, in some way, responsible for her death.
All through the night, Clay keeps listening. He follows Hannah's recorded words throughout his small town. . .
. . .and what he discovers changes his life forever.

Review - This is one of those rare time's when I think the series was many times better than the book and I think I would have said that even if I'd watched the series after reading the book. I felt the book lacked the depth it needed for the subject matter.The characters all came across very bland.Actually, no, they all seemed to show similar emotion throughout.It didn't change.Reminded me of when I started reading as a youngster and the teacher said to put some emotion and expression in your read.It isn't the the the the all in one monotone. This is a Young Adult book which didn't go into as much depth or detail as a book targetted for adults but still, it was very flat.I really can't understand the banning of this book in some places as I can't see where it would give youngsters idea's or thoughts and for a youngster to get that from it, I believe there has to be some underlying issue there anyway to get to that extreme. Another issue I had with the book is the format with Hannah's tapes in italics and Clay's world in standard type.It flitted between the two quite often.Not being very well defined, I had to read parts twice to realise I'd read Clays story as Hannah and vice versa.When you are getting into your book reading trance, you don't want to have to be concentrating too hard on whose line it is. However, I did enjoy the book.Very different layout to the series.Even lacking the emotion, it was an inviting read.It didn't blow me away unlike the series so if you are expecting it to be like that with all the hype surrounding it, I think you need to re-think it before you read but it was an enjoyable read, if I can say that. 3 stars given.

Over My Shoulder by Patricia Dixon

Read from July 12th 2017 - July 26th 2017.

Published May 19th 2017 by Highfield Press

Format    Kindle - 454 pages

Synopsis -Taken from Goodreads - This is a love story with a difference. A dark romance which tells of a nice young girl who met a very bad man. Sounds simple? Not really. By the time the girl realised the depths of his wicked soul and a wiser, braver young woman was about to emerge, it was too late. His twisted roots had wrapped around her life, spreading rapidly, taking a firm hold of her confused head and fragile heart. There was to be no escape from the tangled mess unless it was on his terms and even then, once she was free and her life rolled precariously on, the seeds he had sown remained embedded deep within. When she least expected it he would return and make good his promise, exact revenge and ensure she paid any price he felt owed.

Set in Manchester in the early nineties, Over My Shoulder is an intricate tale of blinkered love and obsession. This gripping psycho-sexual thriller with criminal undertones tracks the life of a young woman, from her carefree mid-twenties right up to present day.
Freya falls under the spell of controlling and manipulative Kane and soon, her life changes beyond her wildest imagination. When the luxurious life she craves gradually becomes intolerable, escape is out of reach.
This is a disturbing story of an affluent life, cleverly camouflaging the sinister underworld which funds it. And just when you think it is all over, there is a twist.
When will it end, can it end?

Review - If I could give this book further stars, I would.Patricia Dixon has excelled.This book deserves more than the words I can even describe it by but I shall indeed try.
This book is written in first person, I know some people find that difficult to read so lets get that out of the way now. In this book, it works and I can't for the life of me see how Patricia could have written it in third person anyway. It was written almost like a personal diary where the person is telling the story but then talking to the actual reader which gave it a slightly different feel and setup.This was the first time I had experienced this when reading a book and yes, I enjoyed it.It showed smooth change overs back and forth so as a reader you didn't feel lost.
I quickly took the role of a counsellor or a police lady with a clip board sitting in front of Freya in a little plain room.This was how I imagined and the best part of first person reading.You can be in that story especially when as I have said, the character turns to talk to the reader.

I think Patricia swallowed a thesaurus as she was writing this masterpiece.The words that popped up every so often through out were great, such as metamorphosis, irascible and burgeoning. What? What's that about? luckily, I do know most and reading it on kindle did honour me with a dictionary for the ones I fell foul of. Phew, so there's no excuse.There aren't many and my word, they are such good words, they just seemed to pop out of nowhere.
This book, I'm sure held some mystical powers.A drug that made me want to read on and on and on.
It wasn't dull and wasn't full of violence but as the book went on, you knew exactly how dark it was getting.It was almost like it was in two halves and started off as a beautiful love/romance (I thought, hmm this may not be for me, a chic lit style thing going on here)but developing into a heart pounding, nail biting, and yes it did turn me into a cannibal of myself at about 3am, leg jiffling scary thriller!

With the plot, Patricia wrote with empathy and sympathetically. This is a very hard, deep topic to start writing about and you do need to get it right.I don't know because I didn't ask her but felt she had done an amount of research prior to writing this story.I don't feel she could have written it without.
How can you get your readers to feel what you want them to feel if you as an author do not or have not tried to feel what you want them to feel yourself is something I heard very recently.I thought about this when reading Over My Shoulder and I do honestly feel that Patricia through whatever way she did it researched this subject and put herself right in the thick of the feel of her writing. She really plunged all she had held back into this book.
She made me, as a reader feel.Made me feel anxiety and butterflies flying around in my stomach.

The book was packed.Packed from start to finish, packed with scenario's and lots of little adjoining stories that connected to the main quite nicely.
I do wonder whether Patricia herself is aware how much anxiety she gave to her readers, then the calm, the anxiety, the calm.Like waves.

I do have a negative.My negative would be that I felt Freya was way too strong throughout.She had elements of 'weakness', but she just seemed extremely strong all the way. With the manipulation and put downs, in reality, I do not feel she would be as strong as she was portrayed by the end or at least have some elements of low self esteem that wasn't shown.This, however is just my own opinion.

The story had a few places where I actually thought, reading on kindle it must be the end, but happily for me it wasn't. I really wasn't prepared for what came after but was so glad of it. The author really did squeeze out every drop.

I don't do sad books, books that are about domestic violence or child abuse, animal abuse etc because I fail to see why anyone can find pleasure from reading about these things especially when you feel that sadness, that pain BUT this book wasn't written in that way.Obviously there is some but enough and written well.

I found this most excellent work which I most certainly will read again.In fact, I can safely say, I think it is so far one of my top three reads this year.






I gave this top book 5 stars of course ;-).

The Hypnotist (Joona Linna #1) by Lars Kepler

Read from June 12th 2017 - June 24th 2017.

Published July 5th 2011 by McClelland & Stewart.

Format    Hardback - 503 pages.

Review    Tumba, Sweden. A triple homicide, all of the victims from the same family, captivates Detective Inspector Joona Linna, who demands to investigate the grisly murders -- against the wishes of the national police. The killer is at large, and it appears that the elder sister of the family escaped the carnage; it seems only a matter of time until she, too, is murdered. But where can Linna begin? The only surviving witness is an intended victim -- the boy whose mother, father, and little sister were killed before his eyes. Whoever committed the crimes intended for this boy to die: he has suffered more than one hundred knife wounds and Lapsed into a state of shock. He's in no condition to be questioned. Desperate for information, Linna sees one mode of recourse: hypnotism. He enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to mesmerize the boy, hoping to discover the killer through his eyes. It's the sort of work that Bark had sworn he would never do again-ethically dubious and psychically scarring. When he breaks his promise and hypnotizes the victim, a long and terrifying chain of events begins to unfurl.


My thoughts I always try to write my reviews without adding in any spoilers. I don't believe there is any included here.

The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler, had sat on my shelf for a while. One of those 'I really want to read that' and then passing by it when the moment comes ones.

The first thing that stood out for me once I did start page turning of this brick of a book was the great translation conversion from Swedish to English. I have read one or two Swedish to English converted books before and they just haven't worked.Maybe that was one of the things that stopped me from picking it up to read, but I was pleasantly surprised and so, read on.

There was no waffle in this book.

Very punchy and entertaining throughout.

I do find when I read books, I read with no connection to characters.Maybe it is me at the moment but I loved the characters in this book absolutely and they all pulled me into the story in some way.

I was there.There in Eriks office, his landing when Benjamin was kidnapped. I really felt like it was happening around me and I was actually in the rooms but obviously invisible to the characters. No book has ever done that to me before.

I struggled to put this book down.One of those 'unputadownable' books as I call them.

Some books you would say are more directed at female buyers or male buyers.Although I don't believe any of that personally.I am reviewing this book for you guys not me,so my thoughts on this one is that is comes across very unisex.It is full of dark crime without all the blood thirsty violence that we are used to reading or seems quite on trend right now, but this still packs the same punch as those kind of books.

I found that as a reader, quarter of the way in you start being drip fed twists that totally send you off on a different track from what you thought was right and then get led down so many roads.

I personally liked how each chapter is dated so you can imagine it in real time and it helped when it was flowing from ten years ago to the stories happening in present day.

With the different scenario's and characters running along side, the author managers to keep the flow running extremely well.

By the end of the chapter I was chomping at the bit and moved to the edge of the chair.

It also left me feeling finished and fulfilled at the end with a smile on my face.

I feel it definitely goes down as a favourite book and a new favourite author to follow.


I gave this one 5 stars.