Tag: book-review

Little Books With Lots of Heart, by Mawson: One of this bright world’s few published Writer-Bears

Books by Mawson the Writer-Bear

Do you sometimes feel a bit muddled about, well, Things ?

Sometimes rather ruffled when Things just go and, well, Happen ?

Sometimes feel confused one moment and completely baffled the next?

Mawson and friends look at his little books

It’s not easy being Grownup. All this business of having to be sophisticated and industrious. It’s just too much. But here you can flop down among the cushions and relax.

Here you can find the answers to just about nothing at all. You can forget you ever had questions anyway.

Mawson writes little books that are not full of the answers to life. Or perhaps they are

Mawson and his friends are befuddled about most things most of the time – just like so many of us. And that’s all right.

No Bear Is An Island is all about feeling alone and apart when in reality there are friends to be found all around.

She Ran Away From Love,is all about his friend Frilly feeling hopelessly baffled by Big Questions.

‘A brilliant children’s picture book that does well to pick you up from a bad day. Writing about love, dreams, happiness, and finding your own identity is all found within this short happy book.‘ Review on Amazon UK.

In his book, It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In , Mawson attempts to put into words that mysterious feeling of Feeling Lost.

“It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In” is a book about optimism, searching for new adventures and making the most of life and love’. Review on GoodReads by Debbie Young, author of the Sophie Sayer Mysteries.

Ready comparisons can be made to the giants of literary beardom, such as Paddington and Winnie the Pooh. Joey Madia.

Dreamy Days and Random Naps looks at the joys of naps, sleeps, snacks, hopes and dreams. Perfect as a random gift of kindness for your tired friend who just wants to flop into a nap.

Mawson is a precious teddy  who should be a staple read on every little one’s bookshelf. He certainly has a home on ours.  I know he certainly inspired my own inner child. Lyndie, Bookaholic reviews. 

Where to find these Little Books With Lots of Heart.

At Amazon in soft cover and Kindle and free to read too on Kindle Unlimited. At Bookshop Org (supporting local bookshops.)

You are at Mark’s blog called Baffled Bear Books. Mark is a dark coffee tragic, bibliophile and Guardian of Mawson Bear. Mawson is a Ponderer of Baffling Things and one of this bright world’s few published bears.

The Bad Bridesmaid, by Rachael Johns

Waylen: ‘Mum’s about to call you, and I thought I’d better give you a heads-up.’
Fred (aka Winifred): ‘Don’t tell me she’s got a new boyfriend.’
Waylene: ‘Worse. She’s getting married’.

So begins a desperate campaign by Fred, or Winifred as she hates to be called, to stop her mother, Tracy, marrying for the sixth time. She accepts being nominated as her mum’s Matron of Honour only because being on the spot will give her a better chance to stop what she feels is a terrible mistake. How far will she go to carry out her plot?

Rachel Johns novel the Bad Bridesmaid is avidly read by our romance loving bear, Lizbeth
Our in-house lover of romance, Lizbeth Bear, sets aside Sense and Sensibility to find out just how bad a bridesmaid can be

As we compulsively read on to find out why on earth Fred is so antagonist toward marriage generally and for her mother in particular, we are taken from Perth to Norfolk Island and even across to the world to London. Why has her mother married so often though? And isn’t Fred just a little too upset about her mother apparently finding happiness?

Fred is even writing a book called “21 Rules For Not Catching Feelings” in which the 21st rule (this is not a spoiler) is, ‘If anyone shows signs of attachment, end it immediately.’ When she meets her prospective brother-in-law, Leo, Fred is horrified to discover she might in fact be catching a feeling or two. Her Rule 21 faces a severe test.

Among the little treats for readers to love along the way are the descriptions of Norfolk Island where the wedding is planned to take place, the references to Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and to the old movie, The Parent Trap, and the fact that Fred works in a library and that her house mate is a rag doll cat called Aunty. (Go on, try resisting all that. You have to read it now, don’t you.)

Author Rachael Johns not only has 30 novels to her name but also hosts an online bookclub and does podcasts and library visits. I heard her speak at a local library and she is very entertaining. Her books tend to be corralled under the heading “Women’s Literature” but she herself prefers the term “Life Literature”. For a good example of an often sombre, thoughtful and satisfying read about serious issues faced in life, consider looking for her novel, “The Greatest Gift” which revolves around issues of infertility and egg donation. This bloke really recommends that one.

Where to find The Bad Bridesmaid

All Rachael’s books can found through Rachael Johns own website . You can also listen to audio extracts there. They are available on all the big on-line retailer sites and in actual bookshops too. Print, Audio, and Ebook formats are available. I suggest getting a copy or several in print because after reading them, you are going to want to press them on to your friends so they can enjoy them too.

Your host, Mark, is Mawson Bear’s Guardian, photographer, editor, blundering typist, chocolates fetcher and cushions re-arranger. Mawson’s own Blog is Mawson, A Writer-Bear for Our Befuddled Times.
Baffled Bear Books ABN: 4787910119.

Alina: A Song For The Telling, by Malve Von Hassell: A trobairitz in the court of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem

‘Something tugged at me – a dream of seeing distant lands’. Ch. 3.

‘Fourteen-year-old orphan Alina refuses to accept the oppressing life her strict aunt wants to impose upon her. When the opportunity comes along for her to escape, she and her brother embark on a journey through the Byzantine Empire all the way to Jerusalem.’ Back Cover.

In the Spring of 1173, orphans Alina and Milos set out from Provence on a perilous journey to the Holy Land. Milos has lost the inheritance of his land to his uncle. Alina faces only a bleak arranged marriage. But she does possess the highly valued gift of making music and song. And this, on reaching Jerusalem, is a gift that opens up a new world for her, perhaps even an independent future. For Alina, as a woman, this had been an impossible. But now her dream is to become a trobairitz like Beatriz de Dia, that is, a woman troubadour, making her own way in the world.

I enjoyed the children’s journey from Provence to Venice to Acre and on to Jerusalem as if I had become a tourist a thousand years ago and was seeing the sights for myself. Once in Jerusalem the pace of the story changes as Alina and Milos get drawn into the complexities of the court. The author skilfully disentangles all the plots and factions and the competing suitors for the hand of princess Sibylla – who is even younger than Alina. I galloped through the last half of this story. Suspicions mount and danger follows danger.

This book so deftly written that you would almost not realise the depth of the research it must have taken to create it. The story is set in a fascinating but little known time and Alina is a wonderful creation. I also enjoyed the portrait of Princess Sibylla, imperious and arbitrary to Alina, but really just a child struggling to face her imminent responsiblities in the little kingdom facing danger on all sides. This is highly readable historical fiction.

I have always loved stories set in medieval times. I devoured books by Henry Treece, Geoffrey Trease, Rosemary Sutcliff and Zoe Oldenburg. Most of these novels featured knights or barons – men in a male world. Few placed a woman centre stage, and these were the highborn wives of powerful men. In Malve von Hassell’s story, however, Alina is the heroine and her musical gift widen her world not just for herself but her brother too.

Malve von Hassell is a writer, researcher, and translator.  On her website you can learn more about her works including Letters from the Tooth Fairy, written in response to her son’s letters to the tooth fairy, The Falconer’s Apprentice, her first historical fiction novel for young readers and The Amber Crane, a historical fiction novel set in Germany in the 17th century,

Learn more about Trobaritz, the women singers and song makers of the Twelfth Century, on Malve’s excellent blog, Tales Through Time. The quote that precedes the tale of Alina is by Countess Beatriz de Dia, who composed the one piece from that time that survives with musical annotations, the A chantar m’er.

Where to find Alina, A Song For the Telling

Alina, A Song For The Telling can be found by looking at Malve’s website, where you can also learn about her other fascinating books. It is available via these links here, and on Kobo and on Kindle, , and as an Audiobook on Apple Books.

Your host, Mark, is Mawson Bear’s Guardian, photographer, editor, blundering typist, chocolates fetcher and cushions re-arranger. Mawson’s own Blog is Mawson, A Writer-Bear for Our Befuddled Times.
Baffled Bear Books ABN: 4787910119.

Tell me a story, Babushka received a great Kirkus Review!

“Timely, with relevance to today’s difficult Ukrainian struggle as history is repeated.” — Kirkus Reviews Full review here. [PRE-ORDER] Buy it in pre-order here. [BOOK TOUR] Join us here if you can post a review anywhere. You’ll receive an ebook and a media kit! [WORLDWIDE GIVEAWAY] Find the clickable KittyBerry hidden in the cover here […] that is, click on the link just below.🙂

Tell me a story, Babushka received a great Kirkus Review!

The direction Baba’s story takes surprises herself as well as her granddaughter. This folk tale ‘about memories and families’ begins with a lovely cottage in the Ukraine and a little girl ‘poor of money but rich of soul.’ But all too soon the Monsters come. And everything changes forever. 

Mawson Bear reads about what happens to a little girl in the story that Babushka tells. The cover is from an older edition

What will happen to our princess and all the other children in this frightening world. After sad events, the little girl finds a matryoshka doll, and inside the doll a message of hope. Will the children be able to escape to safety? Listen closely, as Babushka unfolds her story.

Mawson’s Guardian says: This story is set during ‘The Holodomor’ in the Ukraine in the 1930s. I had no idea about the Holodomor. Here I am learning about it from a kids book. And its well worth grownups reading it too.
In 1932 in the time of Stalin, Soviet soldiers stripped the Ukraine of so much grain that millions died of famine. They transported thousands of people to Siberia. It is a hard story of awful history, here shown in a deftly written children’s picture book.

With this story of drama and hope, Carola Schmidt has, I think, created a wonderful little book that confronts a hard part of history that will intrigue grownups as well as children.

Boumund Bear and Mawson read three of Carola Schmidt’s books, Tell Me A Story Babushka, Babushka is Homesick and Chubby’s Tale.

About the Author: Carola Schmidt, the author of the Babushka Tales series, is a Pediatric Oncology Pharmacist. She has written scientific books on paediatric oncology and also, for children and their families, Chubby’s Tale . Mawson and friends proudly read and reviewed Chubby’s brave story here. You can find Chubby on Twitter and on Facebook.

Carola’s Amazon Author Page is here where you can find these books and her other titles listed.

You can also read here about: Babushka is Homesick.

Conversations From The Bridge, by Pauline Dewberry (Ollie Cat’s last diary)

This book is not only for cat lovers, but for all everyone who has lost a pet and wondered wondered about how they are, over there, across The Rainbow Bridge. In the third and last of his diaries, Ollie reports from beyond the Bridge.

Cover of Conversations from the Bridge, by Pauline Dewberry
Ollie Cat himself as he arrives over The Bridge

Ollie, the bouncy young cat, is back. But no longer does he recount his exploits within the Lazypaws Guest House For Discerning Felines, as he did in his previous two diaries (Click here to see my reviews) . For Ollie has taken himself unsupervised on a walk across the road (Oh, No!) … And now finds himself in what he thinks is a dream. “Iridescent beautiful colours seemed to be everywhere, shimmering in the early morning haze’. (Chapter 1). To his further surprise, Ollie is greeted by former departed cats of the Lazy Paws Guest House, wise old Garfield, Ricky, Timmy and Billy.

They explain that he is at The Rainbow Bridge. But Ollie wants to go back to Mum at home. They say that he cannot cross the Bridge back the other way. Ollie thinks this is a stupid rule. Time and again, he attempts to cross back over the Bridge. The other cats, and his new friend Michael Mouse, and even The Great Cat In The Sky, patiently help Ollie bear up through his shock, confusion, and longing..

This is a story, as the author says, of grief as seen in reverse. Just as Mum takes time to come to terms with Ollie’s sudden road accident death, so does Ollie parallel her bereavement. Eventually, looking back through a special portal, he sees Mum ‘get her purr back’ as she is comforted by other cats. Finally he feels ready to let go his responsibility for looking after her.

l recommend this book to all looking for comfort after losing a loved fur-friend. ‘Purr filled blessings” be upon you.

Conversations from the Bridge: More adventures of Ollie the Cat, by Pauline Dewberry is available in Kindle from Amazon. Take a look too at Ollie’s other diaries.

The first of Ollie’s three diaries is called Landing On All Four Paws: The diary of a kitten called Ollie, by Ollie Cat. I reviewed it here. It’s available on Amazon too. (FREE too, if you use Kindle Unlimited.) . The second diary, Further adventures of Ollie the Cat, is are also available on Kindle.

The author: Pauline Dewbery helped Ollie to record his adventures. The Daily Mews is Pauline Dewberry’s popular website for cat lovers. With cat humour and jokes, caption contests, guest articles about cat care and cat antics, it is your ‘purrfect way to start the day.’ It provides, among other things, a space to respectfully reflect on feelings of grief for our passed pets, for instance, in the tributes called “Napping on A Sunbeam”.

Cover of For Such A Time As This: My journey through cancer. How love and my cats sustained, fortified me, and helped take the pain away

Pauline also wrote For Such A Time As This: My journey through cancer. How love and my cats sustained, fortified me, and helped take the pain away. This is listed at Amazon UK and Amazon USA and on Amazon Australia. and more. It’s about $3 on Kindle and in some regions its FREE to read with Kindle unlimited.

You are at Mark’s blog called Baffled Bear Books. Mark is a dark coffee tragic, bibliophile and Guardian of Mawson Bear, a Ponderer of Baffling Things and one of this bright world’s few published bears.

Landing On All Four Paws: Further adventures of Ollie the Cat, by Pauline Dewberry

A book for cat lovers.

Cats rejoice! Ollie is back. By perusing this continuation of his diary, the discerning can learn and share the joys of how to play with the bits of broken sky (‘snow’), how to play with spiders on the windowsill and what to do about live birds in the mouth of your brother cat, and how to train your food-bowl-filler-person to fill your bowl with precisely what you require.

When will those who make cat food make plain and simple food.. Why can’t we have Mouse flavour, Little Furry Thing flavour, Next Door Neighbours Gold Fish From His Pond flavour? …

Ollie, Sunday 15th, attempting to have his bowl filled properly
Don’t miss Ollies further adventures.

By study of Ollie’s easy to read diary entries you can also learn how to be banned from every room in the house by trying to be helpful. Consider, for instance, the important cat job of supervising in the kitchen.

‘I helped her by overseeing what she was doing, so each time she did a new bit of floor, I sat on the bit that she had just washed. It was no trouble at all – I like helping, you know me!  It all seemed a lot of hard work though, so I walked up and down on the wet floor”.

Ollie describes how to get banned from the kitchen.

With delightful chapter headings like, ‘Chapter 7. Hypnotised by the biggest bumble bee in the world’, and wise quotes about cats by famous cat lovers, your humans will also find this book a light easy read about their favourite subject – living with us cats.

 Landing On All Four Paws: The diary of a kitten called Ollie, by Ollie Cat, is the first of Ollie’s diaries. I reviewed it here. It’s available on Amazon. (FREE too, if you use Kindle Unlimited.) . These Further adventures of Ollie the Cat are also available on Kindle.

The author: Pauline Dewbery helped Ollie to record his adventures. She trained to be an editor and had many articles published in teen girl’s magazines. Pauline is a pet bereavement counsellor. The Daily Mews is Pauline Dewberry’s popular website for cat lovers. With cat humour and jokes, caption contests, guest articles about cat care and cat antics, it is your ‘purrfect way to start the day.’ It provides, among other things, a space to respectfully reflect on feelings of grief for our passed pets, for instance, in the tributes called “Napping on A Sunbeam”.

Cover of For Such A Time As This, by Pauline Dewberry

Pauline also wrote For Such A Time As This: My journey through cancer. How love and my cats sustained, fortified me, and helped take the pain away. This is listed at Amazon UK and Amazon USA and on Amazon Australia. and more. It’s about $3 on Kindle and in some regions its FREE to read with Kindle unlimited.

You are at Mark’s blog called Baffled Bear Books. Mark is a dark coffee tragic, bibliophile and Guardian of Mawson Bear, a Ponderer of Baffling Things and one of this bright world’s few published bears.

Mud and Glass, by Laura E Goodin: satire of the academic world

‘Everything is Geography.’ Ty Kornotz, Professor of, yes, geography.

Mud and Glass by Laura E Goodin is an affectionate satire of the academic world,  Unwittingly, Dr Celeste Carlucci becomes the target of everyone who thinks she can help them find the missing Littoral Codex and thus the key to power and glory. Especially power. Their power.

‘Everything is dramatic arts’. Russ Garrick, Professor of, unsurprisingly, dramatic arts.

In this zany romp we have media billionaires (ruthless), The Littoral League (weird), librarians (never underestimate librarians), newly minted ninjas, and a resistance movement of geriatric academics. 

Mud and Glass by Laura E Goodwin. A satire of campus life and academic politics

Tenureless and struggling to survive until payday, our heroine Celeste is as keen to defend her precious cache of cookies as she is on dodging her multiplying enemies. She gets shot at, assaulted and dragged along secret tunnels. Will anyone even explain to her what all this is about? With intellect and altruism their only strengths, street theatre their only weapon, and a library to die for their only equipment, can our motley band strike back at the forces of greed and evil?

More books from Laura E Goodwin: After The Bloodwood Staff (follow link to see my review).

PS. After reading Mud And Glass, I feel in a strong position to advise you to never order a cup of macadamia-chilli icecream. Even if you do want to ‘feel more alive’.

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The Ouroboros Key, by Patricia Leslie: mythology adventure in modern day Colorado

The Ouroboros Key by Patricia Leslie blends Sumerian mythology, esoteric Templar secrets, and a detective story, all played out in the mountains of modern day Colorado.

Before Dan Tenney can understand the strange dreams he’s had all his life, he’s attacked by an enigmatic group, the Brotherhood of the Grail.  When he is whisked away from them to underground sanctuary by an even less explicable pair of men, he comes into the possession of what is apparently an ancient relic. His dreams get worse!

His friends search first for Dan, and then for the meaning behind the mystifying events they stumble upon. We readers learn the clues, the connections and the mythologies at the same pace as the band of searchers as they dodge villains and attempt to pin down straight answers.

This is as much a story about these characters and their idiosyncrasies and relationships as it is about a myth-riddled artefact. I liked this approach, as the details and lore of each mystery never got too heavy, too scholarly. We learn, together with our little band, enough to get some sense of things, and then are on the way again, as the quest develops into a dangerous trek in the mountains.

This novel will be enjoyed the readers who love to delve into the mysteries of ancient myths and at the same time enjoy a good adventure – and isn’t that most of us?

Patricia Leslie gives more details about this, including how she came to write, and also her other books at patricialeslie.net.

Where to find it: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, Chapters Indigo and more. Or ask your friendly local bookshop to obtain it for you.

You are at Mark’s blog called Baffled Bear Books. Mark is a dark coffee tragic and bibliophile as well as the Guardian and blundering typist for Mawson Bear, Ponderer of Baffling Things and one of this bright world’s few published bears.

Swallows Dance, by Wendy Orr

From the back cover: ‘Leira is starting her initiation as a priestess when her world is turned upside down. A violent earthquake leaves her home in pieces. And the goddess hasn’t finished with the island yet.’

1625 BCE (Before Common Era), the thriving Minoan civilisation of Crete extended out to the volcanic island of Thera. The earthquakes at this time were followed by one of the greatest volcanic eruptions in history. Wendy Orr tells an absorbing story of disaster and struggle for survival after a way of life disappears under rubble and ash.

WendyOrr Swallows 2 2990

My heart sings of it’s love for my land of steep cliffs, grey, brown and red;
rocky hills where wild goats leap and swallows fly home to nest ..Ch. 7
and Ch. 7.

In the foreword, writer Wendy Orr describes her fascination with a fresco unearthed from the ruins by archaeologists. The fresco portrayed girls in ceremonial dress who picked crocus on the mountain. Who were they? And here is Wendy’s Orr’s lyrical story of who they might have been and what happened to them.

The house shakes like a dog wet from the sea. Ch. 2

In an hour of heaving earth, it is not only buildings that crumble. The privileges of young Leira’s noble birth turn also to dust. Though she has not yet finished the ritual Learning that will take her from girlhood to womanhood, Leira by necessity now grows up fast. There is no one but her to try and rescue her old nurse and injured mother from the collapsed house. She is the one who must obtain food for her family, even haul water, once slave’s work.

This pain is true, we all feel it, we all see it, the gods have betrayed us and everything terrible is true. Ch. 6.

The author sets down much of this story in poetry. Perhaps some readers unaccustomed to a novel presented this way might feel nonplussed at first. I loved it. Hearing the lines in my head as I read was rather like hearing a minstrel sing a tale that had been passed down orally in memory and song. We are sung into Leira’s thoughts, her fears, and hopes, and especially her bewilderment and pain at the loss of her entire way of life.

Wendy OrrSwallows 2989

I have always loved fine historical fiction that draws me into another era. Ancient times were simpler and brutal, yet in the right hands they can also seem to a reader to be exotic and timeless. I devoured the books of Rosemary Sutclife and Mary Renault. Now Wendy Orr brings us a vivid tale of Bronze Age life told through the life of a young woman driven to the extreme of her endurance, yet in the midst of despair still lifts her voice in a song for the swallows.

Where to find it: Amazon, AbeBooks.com.
Swallows Dance, with it’s beautiful cover and helpful maps, is published by Allen and Unwin, 2018, ISBN 9781760297879.

Wendy Orr’s website: Here you can read about all of Wendy Orr’s books, including Nim’s Island and DragonFly Song, another tale of Crete.

You are at Mark’s blog called Baffled Bear Books. Mark is a dark coffee tragic, bibliophile and Guardian of Mawson Bear. Mawson is a Ponderer of Baffling Things and one of this bright world’s few published bears.