For those lucky fans with iPads, every week MX Publishing gives away 10 review copies of a different Holmes book to fans on their iPad list. This week’s give-away is Holmes Sweet Holmes by Dan Andriacco, the second in the Sebastian McCabe and Jeff Cody series. To get on the reviewers list you can subscribe here http://eepurl.com/rHS_9
Lots of Sherlock Holmes books for the iPad on Pinterest.
“Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus by P C Martin. I suppose the combination of Sherlock Holmes and Steampunk was inevitable. Guy Ritchie’s first Holmes film had elements of Victorian super science, but the true hybrid flowering is in Steampunk Holmes. Full details are at www.steampunkholmes.com, but for the less elaborately electronically enabled, such as me, the first adventure is now available in its most accessible form: i.e. a book. Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus places Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson in a world where electricity has yet to be developed, the internal combustion engine is irrelevant, and steam power has been developed to the highest degree. Holmes’s favoured transport is a powerful motorcycle. Watson sports a mechanical right arm. And Mycroft Holmes is Sherlock’s beautiful, devastatingly intelligent sister. The story, as you’d expect, involves Captain Nemo and his famous submarine, cleverly working them into a reimagining of ‘The Bruce-Partington Plans’. With character portraits by Daniel Cortes and a superb cover by John Coulthart, it’s very stylish – though for the best of Mr Cortes’s illustrations you’ll need to check the website. “
Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of The Nautilus is available from all good bookstores including in the USA Barnes and Noble, Amazon and in the UK Amazon and Waterstones. For elsewhere Book Depository offer free delivery worldwide. Also available on Kindle.
“The Hound of Baskervilles: A Sherlock Holmes Play by Simon Corble. The Hound of Baskervilles doesn’t easily lend itself to the theatre, but dramatists seem unable to resist the challenge. I’ve not had the chance to see it performed, but Simon Corble’s play is pretty close to the top of my list of favourites. It was written to be performed out of doors, with the audience following the actors from place to place. Mr Corble boldly adapts the story rather than simply dramatising, and the result is clever, witty, exciting – and refreshingly intelligent. David Stuart Davies contributes an appreciative foreword, and the text is enhanced by a dozen photographs and superb atmospheric cover, using photos taken during a production at Brimham Rocks in North Yorkshire.”
Hound of The Baskervilles: A Sherlock Holmes Play is available from all good bookstores including in the USA Amazon and Barnes and Noble, in the UK Waterstones, Amazon and Book Depository (free worldwide delivery).
Rugby column
By Frankie Deges
“The second book is the labour of love of a Kiwi-born, Brazilian resident Paul Tait. For reasons that beat me, he has written, in English, the very interesting “Rugby World Cup Argentina 2023” in which he analyses the many reasons why after the England (2015) and Japan (2019) World Cups, the following should come our way. He sounds like a lunatic, but some of the ideas he puts across are interesting.
Not that the Argentina Rugby Union have already taken notice of this book, but he has done a lot of research on what makes rugby in our country tick and how to best distribute such a tournament. I’d love to go with him on this one…the current national scenario makes me sceptic to say the least. But he has a dream and he’s put it over 286 pages of compelling reading.”
Rugby World Cup Argentina 2023 is available from all good bookstores including in the USAAmazon and Barnes and Noble, in the UK Amazon and Waterstones. For other countries Book Depository offer free delivery worldwide.
“56 Sherlock Holmes Stories in 56 Days by Charlotte Anne Walters. After submitting her novel Barefoot on Baker Street, Charlotte Anne Walters set herself the task of re-reading all the short stories in the Canon, one a day, and writing about each of them on the same day for her blog at http://barefootonbakerstreet.wordpress.com/. For the book publication she has added her observations on the four long stories. Her remarks are often amusing, occasionally thought-provoking (why so little protest about the uncanonical back-story for Mary Morstan in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes? I suspect it’s because so much else in the film is defiantly uncanonical), and always personal and entertaining. She seems unaware that the text in the Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes is American, and differs in several instances from what was (and ought still to be) the standard British text. And I can assure her that marriage between first cousins was and is perfectly acceptable in British law – and church law, if it comes to that. Royalties from the book go to the Undershaw Preservation Trust. “
Roger Johnson
56 Sherlock Holmes Stories in 56 Days is available from all good bookstores including in the USA Barnes and Noble, Amazon, in the UK Amazon and Waterstones. For elsewhere Book Depository offer free delivery worldwide. In ebook format there is Amazon Kindle,Nook and iPad format.
“Sherlock Holmes and the Dead Boer at Scotney Castle by Tim Symonds. Once again Holmes and Watson become entangled in a potentially devastating political conspiracy. In 1904 an invitation to address the exclusive Kipling League at a Sussex country house has unexpected consequences for them. Holmes suspects that the lecture was arranged to provide an alibi for the murder at nearby Scotney Castle, but uncovering the truth stretches his powers to the limit as the killers have learned more from him then he supposed – and the Kipling League’s schemes, like those of Baron Maupertuis, are colossal. It’s an engrossing tale, well told.”
Roger Johnson
Sherlock Holmes and the Dead Boer at Scotney Castle is available from all good bookstores including in the USA Barnes and Noble and Amazon, in the UK Waterstones,Amazon and Book Depository (free worldwide delivery) and in all electronic formats including Kindle and iPad.
“Simon Horton is the Lead Trainer in Negotiation Skills at the United Kingdom training and coaching firm of Negotiation Mastery. You are not seeing double, the name of Mr. Horton’s firm and his book are the same.
Mr. Horton holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Brighton University (U.K.) and has done additional graduate work at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). His career has been almost evenly divided into an early period of approximately ten years as a business consultant to the financial services industry and a second path of almost equivalent length as a negotiation skills trainer and coach. In that capacity he has focused on training hostage negotiators, lawyers, bankers, and large manufacturer purchasing department personnel. Additionally, Simon Horton serves as a Visiting Lecturer at both the Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art.
This book is a primer on negotiation skills and certainly is a reflection of Mr. Horton’s courses. His approach is clear and unequivocal from the opening introduction through the last page of his book: “… the negotiated solution must be win-win in nature” (p. 13).
Lest the reader have any doubt about the certainty of Mr. Horton’s commitment to win-win negotiation, he explains his view immediately: “…it is a no brainer” (p.14). Mr. Horton’s argument for his approach is an eminently pragmatic one. Quite simply, he states:
“…If the other party is not satisfied with the agreement they will not implement it or they will sabotage it or undermine it or implement it to the letter but not in the spirit” (p. 14).
To further define his approach, Mr. Horton labels it as “Strong Win-Win” (p.21). Unlike traditional win-win approaches, Mr. Horton states, his “strong” variant avoids the two major criticisms that have been raised against the strategy. “Strong win-win” he contends:
With these characterizations and an array of seemingly unending statements such as “… win-win does get you your best deal” as anchor, Mr. Horton moves into an essentially traditional negotiation skills presentation ranging from the importance of preparation through joint problem-solving to enlarging and splitting the pie. It is a solid and useful work filled with a wide range of examples and illustrations of techniques and strategies that worked and others that failed.
Readers will find Mr. Horton’s presentation of steps in the preparation process, the vital role of creativity, and the importance of developing your Plan B alternative into a true and real option of particular interest.
Too often, negotiators are not really prepared to walk-away from negotiations despite their early planning bravado. Mr. Horton not only drives this plan home, he is correct in this reader’s view. “He who cares least wins,” he tells us. Mr. Horton sees this saying as true. Alas, it often is true. This reviewer, however, sees this the proverbial pregnant moment, a cross roads with one path leading out the door and a second path pausing for a last try by the parties. One must always work even harder to find the path to agreement at the darkest hour of the negotiation. To do less is to sacrifice potential for immediacy when patience may be the miracle remedy.
Readers will also find the author’s admonitions to “start with no” (p. 87), “cultivate your alternatives” (p. 90), and “warn them before you walk away” (p.91) excellent advice. There is much here in few words. The thoughtful negotiator will find much to reflect upon in these pages.
As a last note, I fully agree with Mr. Horton’s often stated contention that negotiations are rarely one-on-one situations. Much to their chagrin, many negotiators take too long to learn this key component of negotiations. The importance of this understanding alone is worth the price of the book.
Recommended.”
John D. Baker, Ph.D.
Editor
Negotiation Mastery is available from all good bookstores including in the USA Barnes and Noble and Amazon, in the UK Amazon and Waterstones. For other countries Book Depository offer free delivery worldwide. The book is also available in ebook format including Kindle, iPad, Kobo and Nook.
(Source: negotiatormagazine.com)
“As Randall Stock notes in his foreword, a chronology is not a biography, but A Chronology of the Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, May 22nd 1859 to July 7th 1930, the magnum opus of Brian W Pugh, is more valuable than most of the published lives of Conan Doyle. The new edition adds about fifty pages, seven of them containing a chronological summary of the journal recently published as ‘Dangerous Work’: Diary of an Arctic Adventure(enthusiastically reviewed in DM 325). Here are lists of ACD’s various homes, his sporting career, the burial places of the Doyles, statues and plaques, and more, including some fascinating photographs. But the essence of the book is in the orderly calendar of Sir Arthur’s life, in which innumerable ambiguities and uncertainties are authoritatively resolved. Brian Pugh has created that rare thing, a genuinely essential work of reference.”
Roger Johnson
A Chronology of Arthur Conan Doyle – Revised and Expanded Edition is available from all good bookstores including in the USA Amazon, Barnes and Noble, in the UK Amazon,Waterstones, and for everywhere else Book Depository who offer free worldwide delivery.
“Audiences have been fascinated with Sherlock Holmes since the first story with him as a character was published. Over the years, a number of books and films have been made, typically adding a twist on the original material. Author P.C. Martin presents her vision of Holmes with the novella,Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilius. The author very successfully captures the style of Arthur Conan Doyle and the essence of the characters. Holmes is his typical self; scintillating and Watson is well written with his blend of intelligence and naiveté, especially when it comes to beautiful women. One of the more interesting things is the reconceptualization of Mycroft as a sister rather than a brother. This sets up a different kind of interplay between Sherlock and Mycroft, as well as between Watson and Mycroft.
The plot is nicely laid out and the steampunk gadgets and weapons are a fun addition to the Holmes world. According to the author’s website, this novella and subsequent Holmes adventures will eventually be interactive, which will be interesting to see and hear. For now, though, fans of Sherlock Holmes will have to content themselves with enjoying this fun take on the classic character.”
Reviewed By Barbara Cothern
Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of The Nautilus is available from all book bookstores including in the USA Barnes and Noble, Amazon and in the UK Amazon and Waterstones. For elsewhere Book Depository offer free delivery worldwide. Also available on Kindle.
(Source: portlandbookreview.com)
“In The Many Watsons Kieran McMullen takes a look at fifty-four actors, male and female, who have played Dr Watson or a Watson character on screen. It’s good to see the Watsons getting their share of attention, though the text needs proofreading, and I could wish that the actors had been dealt with in alphabetical or chronological order. Should there be a second edition, I hope Mr McMullen will include some at least of the radio Watsons – Leigh Lovell, Alfred Shirley, Norman Shelley, Michael Williams, Andrew Sachs, Larry Albert… Royalties from this light, lively collection of essays will go to the Undershaw Preservation Trust.”
Roger Johnson
The Many Watsons is available from all good bookshops including in the USA Amazon andBarnes and Noble, in the UK Amazon and Waterstones. For elsewhere Book Depositorywho offer free delivery worldwide. In ebook format there is Kindle, iPad, Nook and Kobo.
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