Audible book review of Combatting Wastefulness & COVID-19 Etc. by Seton During

Combatting Wastefulness & COVID-19 Etc. is a self-help guide that the author Seton During says should help ethical taxpayers worldwide, and the ignored should benefit too. Seton During is an ex Chartered Engineer who has tried many things in his eighty-four years, including being a voluntary sector activist. His book gives strategies, policies, and practices that could help with health issues, energy saving, and house maintenance. Do you want to find out about pioneering research for dementia patients? Would you like advice on saving money on repairs and maintenance of your home? Would you like to save money? Are you worried about your health and safety? Listen to the audiobook Combatting Wastefulness & COVID-19 Etc. by Seton During to discover the answers to these and other questions. The narrator is Robert Sebastian Cooper, who has a voice I found very easy to listen to, and he speaks as I expect an elderly British man to sound.

I enjoyed the small amount of tongue-in-cheek humour in this book which made me laugh out loud; for example, when checking the house for repairs, "Access the spaces between higher ceilings and roof, if you can see the sky anywhere you have a leaking roof." There is some interesting information in Combatting Wastefulness & COVID-19 Etc. and I learned that if I put the palm of my hand in front of my door locks and I can feel a draft, then I should replace them with draft-proof locks; I never knew there was such a thing! I had never thought about what happens to the money of people who die without relatives or a will in place. I know now! 

I did not like a lot of Combatting Wastefulness &COVID-19 Etc. there is some complicated jargon that I had to google, making this book less user-friendly than it needs to be to make a difference. Despite the humour in this book, some passages are wordy and difficult to follow, and Seton During covers some heavy-going subjects, including Ebola, HIV, and Covid-19. Seton During has strong opinions, facts, and figures, which sometimes come across as scaremongering! His view on the Covid-19 vaccines, for example, "It continues to appear that deaths from the vaccines which primarily attack their victim's natural immune systems by triggering over defensive responses are higher than deaths from the virus itself!"

I would not recommend Combatting Wastefulness & COVID-19 Etc. by Seton During to anyone as the only parts I enjoyed was the humour which was only a few sentences. If you are interested in an elderly man bemoaning how countries deal with diseases and how they profit from vaccines to the detriment of the population, then you would enjoy this book!

Some areas feel like During is just venting against anyone who is not him and British. Some paragraphs in the book are just lists of things to try, which gets boring after a while. There was also a sentence repeated twice, which is unforgivable in an audiobook. Moreover, scaremongering is dangerous. Because of all these things and because I would not recommend this book to any of my friends and family, I want to give Combatting Wastefulness & COVID-19 Etc. 1 out of 5 stars 

Audible Review - E M P Honeymoon by Dorothy May Mercer, Narrated by Scott Ellis

 

The audiobook E M P Honeymoon by Dorothy May Mercer tells the story of Tom and Kelly, who are on their honeymoon on a Caribbean Island. While Tom is on a diving boat checking out the coral reefs. Kelly goes off on the Excursion bus. Whilst out, she discovers an exciting shop where she hopes to buy souvenirs for the family back home. Kelly spends a while choosing gifts, and when she is ready to pay, she realizes there is no one else in the shop, not even a shop assistant! Peeking around a door at the back of the shop, she is shocked to see a strange hi-tech lab. A burly man sees her, grabs her and tries to drag her away. She fights back and gets in a taxi back to her holiday villa. The first thing she does is shut the windows, pull the curtains and then call her brother Senator Mike McBride. Kelly is so scared that she does not make much sense and hangs up before Mike finds out what is wrong. He is worried and calls Tom, who gets in touch straight away. Kelly does not want to spoil Tom's day, so she dumbs down what has happened. Their honeymoon is not the romantic and relaxing holiday Kelly and Tom had hoped for as they find themselves caught up in international intrigue and a plot to blow up North America using an electromagnetic pulse.

There was not much I liked about this audible book, and I only managed to read 50 pages. The idea for the story was good but poorly executed, even though Dorothy May Mercer has obviously put time into researching areas of the book. I did like that there were no swearing or sex scenes.

The narrator Scott Ellis has a dreadful voice, so staccato. It is also extremely annoying that this has the title, chapter, reader's name and author's name at the beginning of every chapter. This really interrupts the flow of the story. It was also very odd that Kelly's brother. Senator Mike McBride does not recognize his sister's voice when she calls him at work. Su -Jin, the young commander of a top-secret mission for the People's Army, does not make sense. Who has undergone meticulous training, including how to throw a frisbee and facial reconstruction. She gives herself away when she is unsure how to wear Western clothing. 

The story changes direction all the time to the point that I had no clue what was happening in some areas and had to rewind this audible book to relisten.

I would suggest this is aimed at older adults looking for a book to read on the beach.

I would rate this book 0 out of 5 stars as I did not enjoy it and would not recommend it to anyone. I feel that if this book had been adequately proofread and edited, the things mentioned above I did not like would have been picked up on. Dorothy May Mercer has proudly written 5 novels in 7 months; sadly, it shows in this audible book!

Thank you to Dorothy May Sayer for a free copy of this book in exchange for an impartial review.

Audible Review - Looking Glass Friends by E L Neve

 

This review is of the Audible book version of Looking Glass Friends by E.L. Neve, a slow-burning romance between two married people, Neil and Ellie. Who bond over a book when they meet at a bakery. They have an online relationship by writing to each other through emails. Eventually, the relationship moves on to talking on the telephone. The book is multi-dimensional, and we get the growing relationship between Neil and Ellie but also see the effect of their relationship on their families. Ellie has a husband called Jake and a son, Johnny, and Neil has a wife, Fay. Both marriages have relationship problems that leave an emptiness in Ellie and Neil's lives, allowing their love for each other to grow and blossom.

I would not usually listen to romances, but the way the characters interact is very different from books I have read. I found the way the book is written challenging to get into to begin with, but I ended up loving this audible book. There is plodding progress where Ellie and Neil grow from being strangers, then friends to falling in love. At the same time,  I liked how I could see this effect on their failing relationships with Fay and Jake. All the characters in this book have lovely, uncomplicated personalities. Although this was a love story, I liked that it did not revolve totally around Ellie and Neil. Their families were equally important. This novel gives all sides of every relationship in the story and builds an excellent picture for the listener. I felt I experienced all of the characters' emotions even when I disagreed with what they were doing.

The build-up to the romance between Neil and Ellie is a slow burn, and I did find myself wishing the relationship would progress more quickly as there are times when the book can feel very slow. The story explains how Jake treats Ellie and how she feels about her marriage, her husband, and her relationship with her son. It equally told me about Fay and Neil's home life, and I could see how their marriage was going and where it was failing. I liked how the narrator, B. J. Harrison, read the book. His voice was very listenable.

I rate Looking Glass Friends by E.L. Neve 4 out of 5 stars. It is a compelling story, and I enjoyed listening to it. I marked it down because of the areas where the story plods.

I recommend Looking Glass Friends to adults who enjoy romantic books, especially ones which build up slowly.

Thank you to E L Neve for a free copy of this book in exchange for an impartial review.

Audible original Novella review - Kill Your Brother by Jack Heath - Narrated by Hannah Monson

 

Kill Your Brother by Jack Heath is an Audible Novella set in Australia. It is a tense and compelling story with a damaged young woman at its heart. Elise is a disgraced elite athlete – the backstory to the cause of her disgrace is gradually revealed through the novella. She is searching for her older brother Callum who seemingly has disappeared. Demonstrating considerable strength and resourcefulness, Elise soon realizes that more choices are available to her than the two she has been presented with. As in all good psychological thrillers, the story unfolds with sufficient twists and turns to ensure the reader is kept enthralled to the last page.

Readers of the crime genre do not always look for depth in character development. Their requirements are more for a fast-paced plot-driven story with twists, turns, and perhaps some clarity at its conclusion as to who did what. There are, of course, some crime writers whose characters are fully-fledged and who inhabit their stories with depth and breadth of personality. This novella is essentially plot-driven. Its characters are drawn only to the extent that serves the plot. Elise's parents – for example – are lightly sketched out. Just enough to tell the listener how inadequate they were in their responses to the issues confronting Elise and Callum as children and teenagers.

Callum's personality features strongly throughout the novella, even when he is not physically present. His whereabouts and the reasons behind his disappearance drive the narrative. The third protagonist Stephanie, however, is the one who is the puppet master. Through the story's exposition, the reader slowly learns what led to her actions, even if there may be some difficulty in accepting them.

Telling the backstories of Elise, Callum, and Stephanie while at the same time ensuring that the momentum of the present time narrative is maintained is no mean feat. But it is one that the author manages exceptionally well. The tension increases as the novella moves closer to its conclusion. Kill Your Brother is a well-crafted psychological thriller that will satisfy the listener. 

 

I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it to an adult audience who enjoy psychological crime thrillers.

Book Review - Little Boy Lost by J P Carter

 I listened to this as an Audible book and have to say I didn't like the reader's voice, the characterisation, particularly of the main character, Anna, really grated. 

As for the book it started with a good story and had great potential, it was very well written but the story never really went anywhere. I guessed from quite near the beginning who the abductor of Jacob was although I couldn't work out why, so laboured on with the story until it was revealed at the end. I also found the riots and Chloe's experience became very boring and a lot of her story made little sense. Anna's daughter was abducted by her father when she was 2 and despite Anna being in the police, she doesn't get Chloe back again until she is 12. Interesting beginning with lots of potential! 

There are riots going on but Anna is called back to work and despite the riots, only having her 12-year-old
daughter home for a month and the hell both she and Chloe have gone through, Anna leaves Chloe alone, would any mother really do that? Sadly this was a minor part of a fairly boring book!