Second Chance by David Perry Review

Title: Second Chance

Author: David Perry

My Rating: 2/5

Part of a series? Not yet. 

Genre(s): Mystery, Thriller.

Description/Blurb:

Pharmacist Alex Benedict’s career and personal life are collapsing around him. Battling his own exhaustion, a powerful physician and an unforgiving boss, he fights to uncover the reason behind a series of mysterious deaths in his hospital while preparing for a life-altering crisis. The suicide of a colleague thrusts Benedict into a hunt for clues leading to the ultimate, improbable answer. In the end, Benedict discovers the unthinkable and in a climactic, unforgettable scene must make an agonizing, life-defining choice that will haunt him forever.

My review: 
It's taken my quite a while to read this, I think it's been weeks which (if you read my blog) you'll know is quite unusual especially considering this isn't exactly a lengthy novel. 

The novel starts off quite well, it seems like the standard mystery that I expected from reading the blurb, mysterious patient deaths, a suicide and possible someone behind it all. Later things started getting a bit more unusual, more like sci-fi than mystery which I can live with, plenty of authors manage to blend the two dramas together nicely but it didn't feel quite right here. I struggled to do the whole suspension of disbelief thing as the universe didn't seem to follow it's own rules. I mean a character can be shot, be in serious pain and a few chapters later (and the whole book only seems to span a week or so) the same character can be in a fight with the pain from the injury and even the injury itself not even being mentioned. The story itself had a lot of promise and the characters themselves appeared to be consistent it's just the little niggles where the author doesn't follow the rules of the universe the characters live in made it a bit difficult for me to enjoy the book.  

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks review

Title: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

Author: Oliver Sacks

My Rating:3.5/5

Part of a series? : No

Genre(s):  Psychology, Non-fiction, Medicine, Anthology

Description/Blurb:

Oliver Sacks's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents. 

My review: 

This is an interesting collection of one man’s experiences with patients with various neurological disorders. Some of them happen to be quite humorous while others are simply stories of interest to those who are interested in human behaviour. I would love to give it a higher star writing but I felt that some of the editing was below par with a few of the sentences not making complete sense (yes I know I have that problem too but I don’t have an editor!).  Also sometimes Sacks uses terms which somebody with no previous experience of psychology may struggle to understand without a quick google though I do admit most of the time you can just skim over the term without understanding it as the detail would only be of interest to somebody with an interest in psychology, if you’re just reading the collection for some unusual real life stories then you won’t really lose anything by just skipping over it, I’d recommend doing the same for some of the explanations of the disorders as again they can be a bit confusing for somebody who hasn’t really looked into psychology before though some of Sacks’ explanations and theories are really quite interesting.

I'm Nobody by Alex Marestaing Review

Title: I'm Nobody

Author: Alex Marestaing

My Rating: 3.5/5

Part of a series? No

Genre(s): Young adult, Mental health,

Description/Blurb:

Caleb Reed is losing his mind, at least that’s what his father thinks.

If it were only the show - America's Funniest Home Videos - the same taped episode he's watched every night for the last six years - then perhaps his parental unit wouldn't worry so much. But there’s far more to the thirteen year-old’s manic daily regimen that makes even Caleb himself question his mental health. 

For starters, there's his obsessive worry about the abandoned mansion across the street, and then there's that curious note someone left on his doorstep. It's neatly folded, black ribbon wrapped, and signed by a stranger named Emily Dickinson.

"I'm nobody. Who are you?" it reads. "Are you nobody too?"

My review: 

I know this wouldn't typically be classed as a book for adults but it's well worth a read. Ok, it's a bit odd, a long dead poet apparently sending a young boy letters but I think most people can relate to the book in a way. It shows us how a single person can touch so many lives and that with the help of others we can overcome obstacles and even our greatest fears can end up not being that great after all.

In this book we face the effects of grief and how it can damage a family and a person’s mental health, we also see how friendship can blossom from the strangest of beginnings. I really can’t say much more without giving away spoilers as ‘I’m Nobody’ is a short book (I have no idea how the author manage to pack so much into it).

This is another of those books I’d recommend to pretty much anybody, young or old, I particularly recommend it to those who feel alone in the world as her we’re offered a wonderful perspective on those the world view as strange and alone.

Blood, Sweat & Tea by Tom Reynolds Review

Title: Blood, Sweat & Tea: Real-Life Adventures in an Inner-City Ambulance

Author: Tom Reynolds (aka Brian Kellett)

My Rating: 4/5

Part of a series? Yes, there is a second book 'More Blood, More Sweat & Another Cup of Tea'

Genre(s): Non-fiction, Memoir, Medicine, Humour

Description/Blurb:

Is there anyone who hasnt wondered about the state of the occupant of an ambulance, screaming along with its sirens on and blue lights flashing? And have you wondered about the other people inside the ambulance? Meet Tom Reynolds, an Emergency Medical Technician who works for the London Ambulance Service in East London. He has kept a blog of his daily working life since 2003 and his award-winning writing is, by turn, moving, cynical, funny, heart-rending, and compassionate. From the tragic to the hilarious, the stories Tom tells give a fascinatingand at times alarming picture of life in inner-city Britain, and the people who are paid to mop up after it.

My review: 

I should start off by pointing out that this book is basically a collection of blog posts from the blog 'Random Acts of Reality' which is no longer updated as the author no longer works for the ambulance service full time and has moved onto other things. 

As you can probably tell from the rating, this is one of those books I truly enjoyed. Ok, I read it over a couple of weeks during the breaks between lectures when I had nothing better to do but just because I didn't get so sucked in I couldn't put the book down it doesn't mean this book wasn't gripping. The blog post type format made it easy to find a place to stop as the stories weren't really related so you're not compelled to turn the page to find out about what happened to the person you were just reading about.

This one can get a bit depressing at times, nobody thinks reading about sick children and dying patients is fun and games but there's enough humour (sometimes quite dark humour) to offset this. Oh, and reading about some of the reasons people call out the emergency services can make you lose a little bit of faith in humanity (I don't seem to be conveying how much I enjoyed the book very well here) but all those moments are worth it just to read the descriptions of traffic dodging and the weird panicky things people seem to do when they hear a siren.