Review: Angelino Heights by Adam Bregman

Synopsis: When Dalton Everest, a naive school teacher with a crackerjack, free-form way of expressing himself, forms a fast friendship with Nathan Lyme, a charmer who’s cagey about his employment, everything Dalton knew of his previous life is swiftly upended.

Set up by Nathan to fall hard for Melanee, a frequently drunk French girl and former purse snatcher, Dalton ends up in a pickle and then, paranoid out of his wits, is ultimately chased through the streets of downtown L.A.

Angelino Heights is a crime novel obsessed with Los Angeles. It traipses across the city from a crooked pawn shop in Cudahy to a secretive mecca of modernism protruding from a hill in Pasadena to the old timey dive and themed bars, where its protagonists drink up the atmosphere of old L.A. 

Firstly - apologies to Adam for my tardy review. Secondly - what a great read!

I love noir! And this is a compelling tale of a solid citizen's flirtation with the dark side that has ultimately led to where they find themselves. Bregman takes his reader on a mystery tour of the seedy side of Los Angeles as we follow mild mannered school teacher Dalton Everest as he is slowly seduced over to the dark side by one Nathan Lyme. 

The reader never really discover's Lyme's motive in his selection (or targeting) of Everest as his partner, accomplice, patsy, fall-guy . Nor do we ever really discover what made Everest so susceptible to Lyme's charms, for Lyme does manage to have a certain hold over those in his immediate sphere. 

However, I strongly suspect that it all boils down to that need to walk the fine line between good and bad, a flirtation with danger; and like the old style sobriety test, some just never manage to stay on that straight line.

LAPD Detective Orlando Talbert sums it up nicely, "... they sure don't make crazy white dumbfucks like they used to ..."

Update for 2021

I hope everyone is having a better start to the new year. Here in Australia, C19 seems to be waning but then again we are in our summer and the warmer months, so I have been led to believe, contribute to a reduction in noticeable cases. So to you all in the northern hemisphere, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I have been a bit tardy on the review front. I have a number pending from last year which I am endeavouring to get to, as well as addressing numerous review requests and current review commitments. 

At the same time, I started a new job, which slowly snow-balled out of control over our busy tourist period, and wasn't helped by staff leaving and a skeleton staff left entirely in the lurch to cope as best we could, unsupported (especially when dealing with some - well, basically, (lazy, catty,  bitches!). And just to top it all off, I decided, during our C19 lockdown last year, to embark on further tertiary studies! So literally, no time to scratch myself. Now things have quietened down on the work-load front, and my first lot of study is under my belt, I can take a deep breath and focus on my reading!

So to any and all who have emailed me with review requests, my sincere apologies for my tardiness - sometimes, life just gets in the way of getting to a good book!

Review: Dear Dory by Tom Kreffer

Synopsis: Imagine discovering you're about to become a parent, even though doctors told you the chances of making a baby were close to zero.

Now, a soon-to-be first-time father is charting a course through the perilous and choppy waters of living with a pregnant woman. He's dodging hormonal right hooks, evading emotional explosions, saying all the wrong things (like 'Are you okay?') and trying to figure out how the hell you install a car seat.

Written as a journal to his unborn child, Dear Dory is the unfiltered, irreverently funny, honest and heartfelt account of one man's journey to fatherhood as he contemplates his new identity as a Daddy and prepares for the responsibility of a lifetime.

WARNING: This book contains a truckload of profanity. 

I will go out on a limb and say that this is not typical of the type of book I would normally pick up - I have a huge penchant for history and its related memoir genre. However, this book, offered by the author, Tom Kreffer, was a blast!

It is one man's documenting of his personal perspective of the events from the discovery to the leading up to that all important delivery date and his own impending fatherhood. It is written by a man for his child -- it covers the highs and lows of living with a pregnant woman - and many men will find a kinship with Tom in this - how he got away with much contained therein with his manhood still intact is a miracle!.

The diary style entries are humourous, satirical, reflective, refreshing, and heartfelt. Tom recounts his fear, joys, relief as both he and his wife travel the much worn path of scans, appointments, false alarms, "to tell or not to tell" family and friends, baby expos, mood swings (and the appearance of what Tom refers to as "Miss Heidi"). And as Tom reflects ... "... this pregnancy stuff is fucking nuts! .."

Just keep swimming, Dory! How I loved that name! I do hope Tom continues to use it as a nickname for the young squib when they arrive!

This is a must read for every prospective parent - and those already with children will no doubt be sagely nodding their heads amid bursts of laughter and self-recognition!

Visit the trailer here >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iIiQo9EnsE

Review: From My Balcony To Yours by Nino Gugunishvili

Synopsis: Who would have thought that Global Pandemic, Self-Isolation, Cluster, and a Lockdown were to become the trendiest words in 2020? Who would have imagined the world would freeze and people would stay home shattered with fear, panic, uncertainty towards their future?How do we adjust to this changing reality, when none of our questions have answers when plans turn upside down, things get totally out of control?

In her new book: “From My Balcony to Yours,” author Nino Gugunishvili shares her personal account during the first several months of the COVID -19 global pandemic in the form of short stories and observations.

So utterly relatable - personal, humourous, emotional, compact.

A series of small observations as one woman documents her life during covid lockdown from March to September 2020. Nino writes of all the emotions she experiences, emotions that will be familiar to us all - from acceptance and contemplation, to fear, anger, apathy, anticipation. Her stories will touch everyone in some small personal way.

Nino describes covid as a "... noisy, unwanted neighbour you have to share your apartment with ..." whilst also acknowledging that " ... there were more dramatically things happening ...." around the globe, even more poignant when reminiscing about her childhood. And then there is one line that will resonate with us all - "... socks are my best friends ...".

This charming tale will find a home with all readers for we all have this one great shared experience wherever we are in the world. A must read!

Review: Melting in the Middle by Andy Howden

Synopsis: Long-listed for the Exeter Novel Prize, Melting in the Middle is a literary comedy about redemption and second chances, played out amid the madness of modern life.

Set against the backdrop of a modern day "David and Goliath" story, a middle management, middle aged man must come to terms with changes not only in his business life but in his personal life. Will he succeed - only time - and his persistence - will tell, especially when a spanner, in the form of an enigmatic and contradictory young woman, is thrown in for good measure.

This slow moving tale of one man's attempts to keep his life and career afloat makes for interesting read. At times, it almost seemed as though the workplace was being used a metaphor for some sort of dystopian society where it was a case of survival of the fittest (maybe I am reading too much into something that is not there).

Our hero, for want of a better word, a big fish in a little pond, finds himself merely one of a school in a large pond. To keep his head above water, he must fall in line with the new management protocols or else find himself on the scrap heap. But Stephen Carracas is a survivor, he goes from being "axeman" and "lackey" to back to the top of his game, and along the way comes to terms with events in his personal life.

I would not have normally picked this up but was offered a complimentary review copy, and I did enjoy reading it.

Review: Because He's Jeff Goldblum by Travis Andrews

Synopsis: An irreverent yet deeply researched biography about the always offbeat, suddenly meme-able, and wildly popular actor.

When did you first encounter Jeff Goldblum? Maybe as a deranged killer in his 1974 screen debut in Death Wish? Maybe as a cynical journalist in 1983s The Big Chill? Or a brilliant if egotistical scientist-turned-fly in 1986s The Fly? Perhaps as the wise-cracking skeptical mathematician in 1993s Jurassic Park? Or maybe you're not a film buff but noticed his face as part of one of the Internet's earliest memes. Who knows?

Whenever it was, you've probably noticed that Goldblum has become one of Hollywood's most enduring actors, someone who only seems to grow more famous, more heralded, more beloved through the decades, even though he's always followed his own, strange muse. The guy primarily plays jazz music these days, but is more famous than ever. Actor, pianist, husband, father, style icon, meme. Goldblum contains multitudes, but why? What does he mean?

The Washington Post's Travis M. Andrews decided to find out. And so he set out on a journey through Goldblum's career, talking to directors like Lawrence Kasdan and Philip Kaufman, colleagues like Harry Shearer and Billy Crudup, and pop culture experts like Chuck Klosterman and Sean Fennessey, to get to the bottom of this whole Goldblum thing. And then he took what he learned and he wrote this book, which is titled Because He's Jeff Goldblum and is the best thing written since The Brothers Karamazov and slightly easier to follow. But you should already know that. In this new semi-biography, semi-rumination, and semi-ridiculous look at the career of Goldblum, Andrews takes you behind the scenes of his iconic movies, explores the shifting nature of fame in the twenty-first century, and spends far too much time converting Goldblum's name into various forms of speech.

Want to hear how Goldblum saved a script supervisor from an amorous baboon? Or what he would write on the mirror after taking showers when he was a teenager? How about his feelings on various brands of throat lozenges? (That one could be an entire book unto itself.) Then this is the book for you! 

Very quirky biographical /memoirish style of book with absolutely no contribution from the subject at hand - but I was fascinated none-the-less as Goldblum is such a tenacious, enigmatic, figure, seemingly beloved by all. What more can I say.....