Category Archives: Books

Ian Cawley, Gnosis. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

How much of the world is actually real, how much of it is just a by-product of our own consumption and greed? The problem lays with our own perception of what is good for ourselves rather than what is beneficial for the planet. Over commercialised, de-sensitised to the true scale of the issues that are laid out in stark reality before us, Earth is choking, suffocating and throwing up so much bile and yet people are more concerned about profit, the year on year increase of the bottom line and making a fortune out of the world’s misery; it is something to really get angry about, however those that do are still in the minority.

Ian Cawley, Gnosis. Book Review. full post

(487 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Sally-Anne Tapia Bowes, Her Father. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Crime and its hopeful punishment, the restoration of justice in a world that at times barely even sees the word as anything but a triviality, of open ended reasoning and deduction; sometimes the world is just too blind to see how truth gets in the way of the facts and that neglect of a single person can not only lead them to feeling invisible but also on the fringes of society enough where their actions have no thought of possible reprisals.

Sally-Anne Tapia Bowes, Her Father. Book Review. full post

(445 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Nathan O’Hagan, The World Is [Not] A Cold Dead Place. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Humanity has never been so well connected, so informed of what is going on in the world or the possibilities within it and yet day by day, each passing moment on the clock, someone finds anger, resentment, the reason to start pulling away from society and withdrawing into a world which is safer, clean and with less chance of finding their thoughts tipping over the edge. It is arguably an issue that stems from having to deal with the perceived lacking of understanding, the social anxiety, the modern day disease that comes with no cure, the malaise of knowing that world is as heavily and royally screwed as you imagine.

Nathan O’Hagan, The World Is [Not] A Cold Dead Place. Book Review. full post

(534 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

Spencer Leigh, Simon & Garfunkel: Together Alone. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

When you read any book on music or the arts you want it written with authority, painstakingly so, it needs to have at some point the feeling of the last word expertly laid down on the pages and no matter whose book you read on the subject, be it even the artist’s, you want that feeling of completion to there in your hands at that precise moment.

Spencer Leigh, Simon & Garfunkel: Together Alone. Book Review. full post

(597 words, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

Ged Thompson, Middle Earth Magic. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The ability of being able to believe, to have faith in something that might only exist in the fertile minds of children; is to hold onto life. Not a so called life where bills and the banality of day to day existence are allowed to punch you in the stomach, where they are allowed to chew away the imagination a little piece at a time, but the life in which faeries, goblins and the chance to live as a dragon should you wish; that is true belief and it is one so beautifully captured by Liverpool poet Ged Thompson in his incredibly presented book Middle Earth Magic.

Ged Thompson, Middle Earth Magic. Book Review. full post

(490 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Rudolph Herzog, A Short History Of Nuclear Folly. Book Review.

There are some things which are beyond a simple marking measure, the absurdity of the race for nuclear destruction is arguably the biggest one, whatever the book that discloses information on humanity’s insatiable greed and need to destroy itself, is surely beyond any yard stick of simple pleasure. As long as it completely factual, as long as it truly makes you angry that there are those since World War Two that have looked to the nuclear question as the be all and end all of life’s niggling conundrums, just how to get along without killing each other over ideology.

Rudolph Herzog, A Short History Of Nuclear Folly. Book Review. full post

(561 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

Batman: No Man’s Land 1, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If the city you lived in was left to rot by the powers that be, if something so catastrophic hit it that the decision to let it bleed to death, let it become a crumbling edifice of humanity’s folly, would you stay behind to try to save it, cower in the darkness and the filth and wait for a hero to turn up, one that could at least bring hope, or would you run, leave the city to die in slow agony and watch from afar, counting down the heartbeats, counting down time to the inevitable last gasp from the shadows.

Batman: No Man’s Land 1, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(465 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Fables: Farewell. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Every story must come to an end, every tale must wag in the face of the reader one final time and heroes and villains alike must bid their own individual Farewell; some though live forever, they are as immortal as the ability to relay the tales either through spoken narrative or visual aid, the hero and villain must live in the ether ready to be seen again.

Fables: Farewell. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(441 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Betrayal: The Crisis In The Catholic Church. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The investigative newspaper journalist is almost an extinct animal, hunted down by television and left to rot by a public who would rather arguably leave some things alone, if they don’t know about it then the world is safe, it is not a scary and rotten place in which to bring up their children.

The world though is teetering upon the edge of an abyss and it takes the calm and collected measure of newspaper journalists to cut through the Hollywood glitz that television offers to really get to the point of the investigation. The camera at times only adds to the sensationalism, the written word will always carry much more weight and respect.

Betrayal: The Crisis In The Catholic Church. Book Review. full post

(470 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Harley Quinn: A Call To Arms. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Helping others for profit, offering to protect and save the ordinary citizen from the exploitation and damage caused by others for recompense and the odd bit of spare change, it used to be said such actions could only ever take place in America. Now, they are creeping in to all corners of society as once more we seem to embrace the greed and desire to have recognition for what we have in the bank account rather than we contribute to the world.

Harley Quinn: A Call To Arms. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)