Book Review -- Night Shift Diary -- R.August King

Title: Night Shift Diary

Author: R.August King

Format: Kindle version

Publisher: Dorrance Publishing

I was first interested in this book as I too work Night shifts for the emergency services, so I thought I would see what a Night Shift was like from the eyes of a nurse.

This book starts of with his/her being a student nurse, and working through the different departments of a hospital. The author talks about their struggle with sleeping when working night shifts and I can symapthise fully with that! You have to be so aware as not to make mistakes which can make the difference to someone's life, so you have to get used to the lack of sleep.

There are tales about pregnant women who throw up their dinner all over her; Friday night bar fights with stabbings and tongues torn in half. Talks of working in the childrens ward, where the parents are more difficult than the patient! One tale made me smile. It was about an old lady who was in the mall doing her shopping and the author stood in the queue behind her. She noticed that she had what looked like a hospital gown underneath her coat and a hospital bracelet and a foley bag in her handbag, complete with urine and tubing! This reminds me of when patients abscond from hospitals and we as police, get called out to look for them. What a sight that must have been.

I laughed out loud at some of her incidents. I won't tell you in full about the man with some leaves hanging out of his rear end... You'll have to read that for yourself.

She (I'm just assuming it's a she) talks about working in intensive care; the heart unit and other departments. She also talks about the relationship between nursing staff and doctors.

This was only a short book, which I read in about 2 hours or so, but it was "enjoyable" if you can call someone dealing with death and illness as enjoyable. I liked the way the author injected some humour into the book, by using not just sombre tales but amusing tales too.

The book is good value for a quick read. You can tell the author is not an author of several books, due to the grammar in places, but nevertheless it was a pleasant read.

My rating 4/5

I received a complimentary copy of Night Shift Diary as a member of the    

Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team.  Visit dorrancebookstore.com

to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team.

Book Review -- Wisdom Gone Wrong - Christine Ann Hare

Title:- Wisdom Gone Wrong

Author:- Christine Ann Hare

Publisher:- Dorrance Publishing

This is a short book of 26 short poems? which have a moral at the end of them.
One of them is called Bart the Fart. The poem itself is just a few lines long and followed up with a moral at the end. This one being "If you really want to keep and not chase away friends, just use a smile but not your rear end" Not very inspiring.

I am unsure of the age range the author is aiming this book at. I found it quite immature as if it was either written by or written for a younger audience. I think that some of them were supposed to be quite humourous but unfortunately they failed to humour me. I am just hoping that the author is aiming it at young adults as I don't think it will really appeal to an older audience due to the standard of writing and the humour. I'm sorry but this book was not for me.

"I received a complimentary copy of Wisdom Gone Wrong as a member of the
Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team.  Visit dorrancebookstore.com to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team."

http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?dorrance+7XZRvv+index.html

My rating 2/5

Book Review -- Adopt is a powerful word: How I found my real family - Sandra Kanak

Title:- Adopt is a Powerful Word:How I found my real family

Author:- Sandra Kanak

Edition:- Kindle edition

Publisher:- Dorrance publishing

I was looking at books on adoption for some research. This book was published by Dorrance Publishing and I thought I would have to give it a try. I was more than pleased! This book is not only about how the author herself was in foster care for two years before being adopted at 7, but about a whole lot more.

The author spent many years going through records, books, letters and family memoirs, trying to piece together her family history, and trace her birth parents and some of her siblings. It makes it a most fascinating read. There are stories of how her relatives struggled and came through the War. There is the fascinating story of how one of her relatives became a newspaper magnate in the UK and became one of the first newspaper tycoons to offer giveaways in his paper, increasing it's circulation. There is the moving story of another family member who helped transport numerous Jewish children from overseas to a place of safety, during the war. He committed some heroic feats.

There is so much else that happened in this book that I would hate to put it all down in a review in case of it becoming a spoiler. All the while the author is telling the wonderful tales of her birth family and adopted family and including photos and copies of interesting documents and paper cuttings.

At the same time, she is telling of all the efforts she went to in order to trace two of her siblings and her birth parents. She had amazing adopted parents and this come's across really well in the book. You can tell by her writing the love and admiration she had for her adopted parents.
Her initial upbringing with her birth parents is a sad tale so it is good that some joy came into her life. This book provides lhappiness and tears.

For a book that does not have several hundred pages, this author has packed so much factual and interesting information into the book. I got so much more than I was expecting from this book, making it a wonderful memoir and history book all in one. 

My review 5/5

Book Review -- Nobody's Fault But My Own -- Saundra Terrell

Nobodys Fault but My Own - Saundra Terrell

This book is published by Dorrance publishing and was given to me to review as part of their Book Review Team. I have not been paid for this review and the thoughts are my own.

The book is about the life,trials and tribulations of Orie, Exie, Ziewon and Mirror who are all siblings and also their Mother Eve. There are many more characters in the book and to me there were too many, as I had to keep flicking back between the chapters to work out who was who as I couldn't remember who belonged where in the story.
The book is told in chapters, with each sibling being a chapter. None of the siblings are married and each of them has a secret. One of them runs a dolls shop; one is a musician who has an ex-girlfriend who's stalking him; one is living with a police officer but scared of committment and won't marry him; the other one is a widower with admirers, but who should she choose. Their Mum is also a widower and also has a secret. She is having a relationship with Dave, that none of her children know about. She's scared to tell them as she doesn't know how they will react.
Initially I found it hard to get to grips with the characters as the chapters seemed to come to an abrupt end just as you were getting to know them. However as the book went on and the chapters kept changing characters you learn more about each person.
I found that sometimes some parts in the book were laboured and then when it got to an interesting part it fizzled out in a few sentences without any elaboration and I was left wanting to know more.
On the whole I enjoyed the plot lines, albeit a bit disjointed, and I liked learning how their lives ended up, but felt the ending was rather hurried.
I would still recommend you give it a try, as it is a nice light hearted book with likeable characters.

My book rating 3/5

I received a complimentary copy of Nobodys Fault as a member of the Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team.  Visit dorrancebookstore.com  to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team.