Book Reviews

Hi All

I've been getting slack lately and neglecting the blog. I've not really been slack just busy doing other things, including looking after our seven year old grandson for the weekend. Whew, don't these youngsters have some energy and just as an aside he looked at It's Time for Good Manners, my previous post and book review and gave it the thumbs-up. The end user is happy!

Anyway, the reson for this post is to let you know that I have bought a product from Amazon.com just so I can post my book reviews on there. Which I have now done. Amazon said it would be 48 hours before they could be viewed but I just had a series of emails telling me they are all online now, good. So, if I've reviewed you book the review will now be on Amazon. I hope the reviews filter over to Amazon.co.uk. I'll have to check that out.

All my reviews are posted to The Books and Novels to Read website, this blog (obviously), Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook and a new group I've joined on facebook, Author Central, thank you Collette Scott for telling me about that. Linkedin and I think that is it. If you know of anywhere else I could or should be posting to, let me know.

I know it's Monday, but have a good day - Terry.

A Review of It's Time for Good Manners! By Leslie Susskind

Review of Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty by Neil Hanson

 

Review of Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty

Wow, this book is different. It is a serious consideration of mysticism in modern religion or more correctly the modern world. The story is written in the form of a letter to the author’s father who had died fifteen years before. Partly it is in the form of a confession or rather an admission of human frailties that a young rebellious son can feel towards his parents. Plus he tells the truth when when he states the difficulty people have in uttering the words ‘I forgive you,’ and actually meaning them.

I’m getting ahead of myself. At the very start of the book Neil states clearly that this book is non-denominational. It is meant for everyone who believes in their G-d be it Christian, Muslim, Judaism or whatever. Even though I am not a religious person I can subscribe to the belief that no one religion is right. After all how can millions of Muslims be any more right in their beliefs than millions of Christians or vice versa? I would consider a person’s beliefs are more an accident of birth than anything else. Neil himself writes G-d and refers to Him, Her or It, as a way of demonstrating how little we actually know about the entity. Let’s face it belief in any G-d is a matter of faith after all. He subscribes to the view that all that has been written no matter by what religion is man made and that modern orthodox religion has lost its way in teaching the true meaning of G-d and his word.

The letter to his dead father relates three mystical experiences; I won’t go into the details as I wouldn’t want to spoil the reader’s enjoyment of Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty. All I’ll say is that Neil feels that these experiences brought him very close to his G-d and yet these same experiences are dismissed by the church leaders as nonsense. However at the end of the book in his section Suggested Other Reading Neil leads us to read books that show mysticism has its place in most religions and points out that some religions are based on nothing but mystic tradition.

Peace at the Edge of Uncertainty is a very good book, extremely thought provoking by asking you to question religious orthodoxy. Anybody who believes in G-d should read this book and consider what its subject matter could mean to them and for non believers I guarantee it will set you thinking.

Neil’s website:-  http://www.neilhanson.com/

Neil’s blog:- http://neilhanson.blogspot.com/

If you wish to contact Neil by email:- Neil@NeilHanson.com

Computer Problems

Hello


My apologies for the disruption to service of BNR. Last Friday week we had an enormous thunder and lightning storm here in Spain while I was uploading some files to BNR plus a long power cut. Unfortunately it messed up my computer which is being looked at as I write. I'm writing this in an internet cafe just to keep you posted. Co-incidently I'm changing my telephone and internet supplier which has proved to be an absolute nightmare. Sometimes here in Spain things can get uneccesarily complicated. The upshot is I hope to be back on-line on Thursday or Friday of this week.

When I eventually open up Microsoft Outlook I'm expecting a deluge of emails if the last month or so is anything to go by. I'll catch up as quickly as I can, promise.

In the meantime I hope you are all keeping well and selling your books.

All the best - Terry

More information about Books and Novels to Read (BNR)

BNR has now reached another milestone; there are now over 2,000 book entries on the website. I won’t say individual books because there are a number in print and ebook versions. I’d remind you that on all other listing websites if your book was one of the first added then it would now have disappeared without trace, which is not the case with BNR. As the pages fill up with new books page 2 becomes page 1, page 3 becomes page 2 etc etc. With page 1 being relegated to the bottom of the pile. That way everybody’s book gets a chance of being top of the list where it will be seen. As far as I’m aware that is unique to BNR.

You may have noticed that I have added a search facility to the website. I was asked about this and have been in two minds for a while. It will be useful for authors to find their book’s entry within BNR but authors really are secondary to the book buying public. We want them to come and browse, look through the various genres, read the blurbs and buy some books. I’m concerned they won’t do that with the search facility. However in the spirit of co-operation I’ll trial it for a month and see what happens.

I’ve just received the first proof copy of my second novel, A Lucky Break, a time travelling romantic comedy. It has been an ebook for about a year but I decided I would like to hold the book in my hand. I’m going through it carefully checking for any errors but expect to approve it shortly. I’ll let you know when it is.