Matthew Gair

Historically I’ve not spoken much about music on my blog but thought I’d make an exception as an old school friend of mine has just released his first music video and despite the fact that he’s a mate I actually really like his stuff so thought I’d give him a bit of a write up.

He has two distinct musical styles the first is folky lyric driven harmonies which he records as himself and includes the above song although my personal favourite from his back catalog is The Aircraft Engineer from his album Aeroplanes and Evil Brains there are no weak songs though and all his stuff is available through iTunes, Amazon and other popular formats.

Matthew also records acoustic melodic world music under the nom de plume Man Gwanani he’s now released two very different albums under this name, both of which are fantastic dinner party music and I’ve even used them as lullabies (to be fair they are written as lullabies) with great success.

so there you have it, send some money or publicity Matt’s way he’ll be truly grateful.

Lastly I’m going to share a picture I took that was then edited by a friend which conveniently fits with Look Mom There’s a Tree and I’ve gifted to Matt.

Be swanky people

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

Hope Road and The Wages of Sin

I know I know I made you promises and I’ve failed to keep them, Hope Road was indeed next on my reading list but because it was a promo copy that had been emailed to me I needed to connect my Kindle to the computer to sync it up and start reading it, this of course hadn’t happened by the time I needed a new book so I read The Wages of Sin first instead.

First though I’d like to talk about the book I was still reading when I wrote my last review, Blood Guilt, it’s a novel about a detective who accidentally kills a man in a drunken rage following the death of his own Son. He goes to jail and when he comes out he finds himself trying to help the widow of the man he killed whose son has now been kidnapped. The book is very well written and there is great character development with plenty of twists and turns of did he do it or was it him? to keep you guessing right up until the very end. Currently available on Amazon for under a quid it’s got to be worth a punt.

I then read The Wages of Sin by Tim Ellis, he’s another author new to me and this is the second in a series of novels about the Characters Parish and Richards(I’ve since gotten the first novel so will review that at a later point once I’ve read it) There is no problem with starting at this point although I’m sure it would be better to read them in order, this does stand up as a standalone book with sufficient details of the principal characters backgrounds to not worry too much. The book is very well written with lots of dark humour and arguments with the Senior Detective (Parish) coming across as a boorish oaf along the lines of Gene Hunt bullying the gifted young trainee whilst secretly caring for her very deeply. Again available on Amazon for under a quid and not to be sniffed at.

And now on to the headline story, Hope Road by John Barlow.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book too, but would like to make mention of the fact that the copy I read did contain a number of minor editorial errors or typo’s (who am I to talk right)which I found irritating even if they didn’t affect the story itself. The copy I read was a promotional copy sent to me by the author so I cannot say whether these errors have been corrected in the published version available through Amazon. The book itself it well conceived, the characters are likeable and well-developed and there are plenty of nasty characters along the way and enough twists and turns to keep the plot singing to you right up until the final page. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for future John Barlow novels and parting with my own money if he’s not kind enough to send me more preview copies.

The books are all available for under a quid on my Amazon store now.

This offers the same services and pricing as buying directly from Amazon with me getting a miniscule kickback which is greatly appreciated.

Dead Line and Hope Road

once again I’m hopelessly far behind on my book reviews but I thought I’d do a little catching up today.

I’ve recently finished Dead Line
by the ever enjoyable Stella Rimington, for those of you who aren’t familiar Stella is the former director general of MI5 and obviously drawing from this experience she now writes spy thrillers, this one is highly entertaining if slightly predictable but definitely worth a read if you enjoy the works of Andy McNab, Chris Ryan, Stephen Leather etc.

next on my list of reviews is The Delta
by Tony Park, I’m not really sure where to go with this one as I think I enjoyed the book but there was something about it that irritated me and I can’t quite put my finger on it. It is essentially the story of a female mercenary hired to assassinate Robert Mugabe and then when that fails going on the run across Southern Africa and ending up in the area she grew up notably the Okavango Delta. I don’t know it is well written, it’s entertaining and relatively accurate in its descriptions of the African veld but I keep coming back to the fact that something about the whole book irked me. I’ll have to try something else by Tony Park and see if I can lay my finger on it that way.

At the moment I’m reading Blood Guilt
by Ben Cheetham, Ben is a new author to me but thus far I’ve really enjoyed the twists and turns of this unusually premised former detective gone bad but still trying to do the right thing novel. Definitely one to keep an eye out for.

Next on my reading list is something that I’m rather excited about as it is the first time I’m going to be doing a reading and doing a review of a book called HOPE ROAD
by John Barlow, the reason I’m so excited about this book is that I was sent a promotional copy of it by the author himself as he’d found and read this blog and cares enough about my opinions and those of you dear my readers to throw himself open to public scrutiny. As I said the book is now at the top of my reading list as opposed to one that I’ve already read but having been engaged in email dialogue with John I have no doubt that it’s going to be a cracker and urge you to support him and his writings. I’ll of course be doing a full review as soon as I’ve gotten round to reading it.

Be swanky people

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

I’m behind again

I’m pretty poor at keeping my reading list up to date for which I apologise.

I’ve just finished the first three Kerry Wilkinson Jessica Daniel novels which I found highly entertaining. They’re available in the kindle sale at the moment so I’d definitely recommend stocking up on them for reading at your leisure.

Like so much of what I read and enjoy they’re police procedurals this time based in and around Manchester in the north of England.

The main character Jessica Daniel is well formed and definitely grows through the three books with other characters making regular returns.

Let me know if you try them and what your thoughts were

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

 

 

 

sorry I’ve been rubbish

I’m once again way behind on keeping you all up to date on things I’ve been reading and what I thought about them.

I’ve now read all of the Jefferson Bass Body Farm novels and have thoroughly enjoyed them all, they’re in a similar vein to many police procedurals with a forensic anthropologist helping out the local police force and FBI etc track down baddies whilst putting their socially awkward selves into all sorts of improbably dangerous and amusing situations. You can buy his books in all formats through this link Body Farm

On TV we’ve been watching and thoroughly enjoying Rizolli and Isles which is another police procedural based on the books by Tess Gerritson, it is good though again injecting high drama with humour and even a little blood and gore.

We also just finished watching the terrible but strangely compelling first season of the new Hawaii Five O (note that’s the letter O not a 0 as it was for the original programme) The acting is terrible the plot lines are thin but strangely it’s highly addictive and entertaining so whilst I shouldn’t be recommending that you watch it I am doing just that.

Bones is now back on our screens in its 7th season and I won’t add any spoilers but the magic is still there with plenty of dark humour and sexual tension.
All of the previous seasons are now available on DVD via this link Bones

As you all know I’m a big fan of Amazon and their christmas sale is now on.

Anyway I promise I’ll try to be better at keeping this up to date moving forward.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

Haloween

Amazon are having a sale on some of their excellent Haloween Range.

you can check it out and help me out by clicking on the below link.

Haloween

Many thanks and as always

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

Catch-up

With all of this breeding I’ve been doing along with moving the site over from blogger I’ve not delivered you any reviews for some time now for which I apologise.

I’m going to do a big post here in order to try and catch up on some of the books I’ve read in the last month or so. As normal, you can buy these books through Amazon by clicking on the links and I’ll make sure they are also available in my Amazon Shop

I’ll start out with a double review as it was a couple of books from the same series


They were both great easy reads and I can’t wait to get stuck into the third book in the series. They follow the life and adventures of a forensic anthropology professor who runs a body farm and will appeal to fans of Patricia Cornwall and Kathy Reichs with the humour very similar to the TV Series Bones. Certainly worth spending a couple of quid on for some gory entertainment. 5 bones out of 5

Next up was

This is a great if poorly edited read, the first half is set during the Rhodesian bush war with stories of chasing terrorists and attrocities commited by both sides then moving forward to a fictional present day Zimbabwe and farmers (black and white) fighting back against corrupt officials in the current fictional but remarkably familiar sounding government. Definitely worth a read. 3.5 african sunsets out of 5

behind that we have another double review


If you’re a fan of Lee Child these both live up to his usual standards of big bad guy taking on the world against the odds. The Affair (Reacher 16) is Reachers last case as an MP and goes some way towards explaining why he becomes the drifter he does. It’s the usual tale of reacher bedding the local beauty and then taking on the baddies who are ruining her life of course but isn’t that why we read Lee Childs books, there is a comforting similarity to them without being the same story repeated. Second Son is a Kindle only (for now anyway) short story set back when the Reacher brothers were still teenagers and it too gives some great background to all of the later stories and for under a quid definitely worth the read. 5 bad MP’s out of 5.

Next up we have Lost City

This is a terribly written and virtually unedited story but the story itself is brilliant, I’d equate it to the DaVinci Code with an african twist and setting. Such a pity that the author/publisher either could not afford or just chose not to pay a proper editor. This book with the right publicity and some time and money on it could be a huge international bestseller. Sadly as it stands it’s a readable novel with a great story and plot destroyed by irritating spelling mistakes. 4.5 archealogical dramas out of 5

Next we have A Place Called Charlie Tango

In this instance I’m going to plagiarise their own produce description because it works and I feel it’s pretty accurate.
“Set in the late 1970’s during the closing stages of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia’s long and bitter Bush War, this terrifyingly vivid, true-to-life account paints an unforgettable picture of life and death on a remote African outpost, deep in the arid heart of the terrorist-infested bushveld.
This extraordinarily brutal yet ultimately heart-warming real-life drama lays bare the unrelenting horror and constant danger that all those who lived here faced in this chilling cat-and-mouse conflict, the tragic consequences of which still resonate to this day.
Yet behind all the bloodshed, fear and intrigue lies the elemental and starkly beautiful backdrop of the vast African landscape itself, timeless and ever mysterious.”
As described above, I really enjoyed this well priced read and would give it 5 African War Novels out of 5.

and lastly for today we have The Family by Martina Cole.

I always read Martina Cole novels and if I’m honest I’m not sure why, they are all incredibly similar, this one unfortunately is no exception, I’ll describe the plot of this one but it could as easily be pretty much any of her other books. Set in the East end of London, two poor kids fall in love, he becomes the biggest meanest gangster London and Essex have ever seen, she’s a fragile buttlerfly who drinks because she doesn’t like who her husband has become, they have kids, they turn out mean too except one of them is actually fragile like his mum too blah blah blah 2 east end gangsters out of 5 read it if you’ve read her other books and actually liked them. Not sure I’ll be bothering with any more myself.

Well that I think at least has brought you up to date with my current reading.

I will try and do this more regularly and in more depth in future.

As always with love.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

Google+

I have fallen head over heels in love with google+

It has all of the positives of the other social networks (excepting the userbase at present but it’s growing fast) and none of the drawbacks.

Sign up, browse amazing photography, communicate with random celebrities or just kick it with your friends and best of all you can fulfill these needs seperately from each other or all together it’s up to you.

Anyway feel free to follow me or +1 me here Mr Bunny Chow

Lots of love and TTFN as Always

Mr Bunny Chow

Baby Deals

As an expectant father I always keep an eye out for Baby Deals like these.

A quick note on this section

Just to try and keep things simple I have decided to run my blog in separate sections with this section devoted to reviews of products, books, etc etc that I feel deserve mention be that good or bad.

My original blog will continue to run and be dedicated to the rants and essays for which I have become known.

There is also now a shop where I will put goods available through amazon which I feel deserve you to spend your hard earned money on. Yes I will earn a small commission for this but it does not affect the price you pay vs. the main Amazon site so I would greatly appreciate you custom.

I will happily welcome any suggestions for items you want me to review and will give an honest unbiased review regardless of the item.

Thank you for your continued feedback

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow