Alana Woods' book reviews: My Story by Julia Gillard

26 January 2015 22:00 (GMT)

Julia Gillard was Australia's first female Prime Minister from 2010 to 2013. 
I’m impressed with the generosity of spirit that Gillard possesses. MY STORY is littered with the names of people to whom she gives thanks: for their enduring friendship, their casual mateship, their thoughtfulness, their support and love. What a rich life this woman has, if those she counts as friends is a guide. 
And that in her official memoir encompassing her time as Prime Minister of Australia she unstintingly gives credit where she believes it’s due to her political opponents and enemies as well as the many people who sustained and continue to sustain her is generous indeed.
Generous also is her take on what is important in life: to make a difference to the lives of others through your own hard work. 
Working class immigrants to Australia from Wales when Gillard was a child, her parents regretted their lack of education and the limits it placed on them. Education and hard work were inculcated into their two daughters. And Gillard has made bettering Australia’s education system her life’s work. The education sphere is where she headed immediately she left politics.
I’ve never read the memoirs of past prime ministers before. Never wanted to. But I felt the memoirs of the first female to hold that position warranted my attention. Having only read this one I don’t know if its structure follows a formula for PM memoirs. Whether it does or not it’s a good one. Rather than adopting a time sequential telling where the multiplicity of what was going on at any given time would overwhelm you, each chapter covers a different aspect of her prime ministership. 
The first part chronicles the overall story. Subsequent chapters deal with individual areas such as defence, health, education, environment, tax, foreign policy. This approach makes it possible for the reader to grasp all that was done and accomplished. It makes clear the vast breadth and scope of what is expected of a country’s leader. 
It’s also an intimate picture of what goes on behind the scenes. I suspect I’m no different to any other reader when I say it’s those candid moments and the humour that reveal and round out the woman.
At the end Gillard says ‘I hope my words inform, provoke, intrigue and amuse'. For me they did all of those. It was well worth the read.

Elysian Wonderland - The blurb...

19 January 2015 18:54 (GMT)

26,000 words now written in Elysian Wonderland - here's the latest chapter list:
1. Don't EVER Believe We Can't Be Rockets
2. Clarion Call To The Stars
3. Ain't That The Darling Truth
4. Sky Blue Sighlence
5. In The Falling
6. Purple Alice And Her Hot Magic Juice
7. Ah For Fu...
8. Curious And Curiouser
9. The Rambling Tale of Hedgehog Paul

Remove the Special Offers ads for free on £59 model

18 January 2015 12:31 (GMT)

Hi, I have posted this on a reply but thought it might be useful for other UK users:
I found that Amazon would remove Special Offers for free from my 7th gen basic non-subsidised Kindle (£59). I am a UK user, but this might work for European, and possibly US users so try this before paying for the non-subsidised model or paying any extra to remove. I made a video to show you where to ask and what to ask: http://youtu.be/t-03jlcGL1U
Not sure why this is the case in UK that provides the special circumstances, I think probably because there is no easy way in the UK 'myk' settings screen.
Happy reading and long live e-Ink!

Win a Kindle Fire 7" HDX

10 January 2015 20:36 (GMT)

Win a Kindle Fire 7" HDX. Easy entry. Details here:
http://helensmithbooks.com...

Kindle sales have 'disappeared'

07 January 2015 08:14 (GMT)

At least, in Waterstones apparently.
Some interesting news/views from them on the subject of ebooks vs. paperbooks. Here's the first para:

Waterstones has admitted that sales of Amazon's Kindle ebook reader had "disappeared" after seeing higher demand for physical books.
The UK's largest book retailing chain, which teamed up with Amazon in 2012 to sell the Kindle in its stores, saw sales of physical books rise 5pc in December, at the expense of the popular e-reader.
Kindle sales had 'disappeared to all intents and purposes', Waterstones said.

Any views? My sales certainly haven't disappeared.
Here's the full article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk...

How to use KDP Keywords to increase your book's visibilty

06 January 2015 19:34 (GMT)

Rock KDP Keywords - Author Marketing and Book Promotion (Authoring Marketing and Book Promotion For Self Publishing 1

I can't seem to make a link to the review on Amazon.com, and the cut and paste is a mess .  Just wanted to alert authors to a useful book.

[font=Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif]4.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for authors looking for visibilty January 5, 2015[/font]
[font=Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif]By Jan Hurst-Nicholson[/font]
[font=Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif]Verified Purchase[/font]
[font=Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif]I came across this book while taking part in a discussion about keywords and was fortunate to be able to download it while the author kindly made it free. It certainly was an eye-opener, and taking the suggested advice I immediately changed the keywords in some of my books. The books are now showing in several searches, some even on the first page. I’m now waiting to see what it does for sales. I’m happy to recommend the book to other authors[/font]

An Amniotic Odyssey: The Four Causes FREE for a limited time only!

28 January 2015 23:51 (GMT)

"I'll set you free with one cup of my honesty." So begins Dale M. Chatwin's second novel: An Amniotic Odyssey: The Four Causes.

An odyssey which stretches across multiple dimensions and reaches into the untimely fathoms of humanity's macabre nature, where three men find their destinies entwined within the web of one woman: Velouria Elements. A creature wreathed in mystery and desire. Journey deep into the minds of Cisco Operative, Theodore Gomorrah and Bartholomew Godfrey Rawls as each man must come to terms with transformation, loss of sanity and accepting Death's eternal embrace.

Only through death can we be reborn.

http://www.amazon.co.uk...

Last chance to get Holdfast (part one) for FREE

23 January 2015 18:29 (GMT)

Last day to grab a free a copy. Not many UK downloads so far.

To celebrate the release of the completed Holdfast story, part one is available free until Sunday.

Quick, grab yourself a copy

"Forced below the waves by a hostile climate, humanity lives in undersea colonies, each their own city-state.

Calder dreams of making it rich while he hunts for rare items in the darkness of the Holdfast, the twisted remains of old ships that form the foundations of his colony. He's accompanied by a girl called Trice, a fellow scavenger.

When they stumble across some slavers smuggling out drugged captives, Trice ignores his advice and decides to rescue one of them, a young woman. Little did she know the trouble it would bring,

Can they evade their pursuers, who seem desperate to get the girl back, and return her to her family, members of the colony's rich and powerful? Even if they succeed, what will their heroics cost them?

This is a novella of ~22,000 words (72 pages)"

No Hard Feelings, a Kate Stanton Mystery - free January 19 - 23, 2015

19 January 2015 09:39 (GMT)

NO HARD FEELINGS - FREE on Amazon January 19 - 23, 2015
Some secrets can’t stay hidden, especially when they involve murder… 

Liz Farrell is still reeling over the murder of her mother almost a year earlier at the hands of her father, Leo Bauer, when she receives the startling news that she’s inherited her estranged father’s sizable estate. Unable to come to terms with her father’s unspeakable legacy, Liz and her grandmother, Kate Stanton, visit Leo’s property in Benedict Canyon, desperately hoping to find closure. Instead, they find a bunker hidden under an old hunting lodge that had been used by Leo at one time to hold Liz’s mother captive. Horrified by the discovery, Liz immediately orders the bunker filled and the lodge destroyed but the ensuing demolition quickly comes to a grinding halt after a man’s remains are discovered in a shallow grave at the base of the old lodge. Once the press get wind of the gruesome discovery, rumors quickly surface, linking the remains to a murder spree that took place at the same address almost half a century earlier; a murder spree conveniently covered up by the governor at the time who also happened to be Leo Bauer’s stepbrother. Liz and Kate’s efforts to uncover the truth behind the murders are soon hampered by family secrets and a killer who’s intent on finishing the job started almost fifty years ago. 

Free - 'A Right Royal Raspberry!' Children's Chapter Book.

17 January 2015 19:20 (GMT)

Free this weekend!

 A Right Royal Raspberry! An early reading chapter book, perfect for ages 7 -12 years old, with fun pictures through-out.

Product Description
Queen Melicent had never had wind in her life, and she totally forbade anyone in her Kingdom to fuff or floof. Not even the smallest parp!
This fabulous 11 chapter story will have you dissolving into laughter, rolling on the floor in hysterics and sniggering with mirth at the antics of Great Bottomly's pent-up residents.
Will they successfully manage to hold it all in, and what eventually happens when Queen Melicent holds it all in a bit too much?

A book for all children and adults of a breezy disposition.

I'd love to know what you think...

At the Church of Jack the Ripper -- free this weekend

17 January 2015 18:12 (GMT)

He was an unemployed and lonely man when Anna picked him up on a London street. She had a strange magnetism, and a dark flame glowing in her eyes. And as she introduced him to the night-side of the world, he began to learn the truth about that world's most famous killers ...

Here's the link.