Disraeli Avenue

This exquisite novella written by Caroline Smailes will be published as a truly limited edition of 500 hardback books and all 500 books will be signed and numbered.

The pre-order will be available direct from bluechrome at only £10 and this book should arrive before Christmas, being dispatched on December 01 2008.

Please note that if you order from Amazon you will not receive Disraeli Avenue in time to give yourself and others an extra special Christmas present. Don't wait until the official release in January because this one is going to sell out well before then.

Most importantly, all profit from the sale of Disraeli Avenue will go to One in Four the charity run for and by people who have experienced sexual abuse.

Click here to pre-order a copy or three.

The State of Me

The State of me, by Nasim Marie Jafry and published by The Friday Project (an imprint of Harper Collins), is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

So I suppose it is now going to seem a bit strange when I explain that it is about a woman's journey through illness!

Somehow, as I read this painful story about a victim of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), Nasmin managed to wrap her words around me and whisk me away on a merry dance. Almost against my will I realised that I was enjoying myself. I don't know how Nasim did it but it happened, time and time again, chapter after chapter.

I know of many readers who are forever raving about how dialogue is what makes a book great but for me it is descriptiveness that brings the story alive. The prose in The State of me is wonderfully descriptive.

Nasim paints images with words:

'A man with a staircase of fat from his neck to his groin was eating ice cream at the next table'.

'A woman with an arse like a shelf was wedging herself into the seat in front. She hated me from the start. I accidentally dunted her seat and she turned round and glared with shark eyes'.

'We lay like spoons and he put his arm round me. I could feel him breathing on my neck. It was like agony iced with hundreds and thousands'.

Two pages into the book I thought 'This is perfection on paper'. Then I had to put the book down for a while as I felt faint with jealousy.

Warning...this book is best read in between the writing of your own novels not during...

For a more traditional book review on The State of me, you can click on either of the following links : Sally Zigmond's book blog or Caroline Smailes's

I strongly recommend that you make this book one of your must reads for this year.