Unsticky - Sarra Manning

High fashion, high art, high expectations – this is Pretty Woman for the twenty-first century. 

Money makes the world go round – that's what twenty-something Grace Reeves is learning. Stuck in a grind where everyone’s ahead apart from her, she’s partied out, disillusioned, and massively in debt. If she’s dumped by another rock-band wannabe, squashed by anyone else at her cut-throat fashion job, or chased by any more bailiffs, Grace suspects she’ll fall apart... So when older, sexy and above all, wealthy art-dealer Vaughn appears, she's intrigued against her will. Could she handle being a sugar daddy’s arm candy? Soon Grace is thrown into a world of money and privilege, at Vaughn’s beck and call in return for thousands of pounds in luxurious gifts, priceless clothes – and cash. She’s out of her depth. Where's the line between acting the trophy girlfriend, and selling yourself for money? And, more importantly: whatever happened to love?

I picked this book up from a second hand book shop in Mount Tambourine for a bargain and my expectations were not ridiculously high, so I was surprised when halfway through the second chapter I found myself really addicted to the story, even to the point where I thought about it during my work day and looked forward to the 1 hour train ride home so I could see if my predictions came true.

It was so easy to read and become involved with the characters – their bad choices and cringe-worthy situations. And I liked that the ending was not overly melodramatic or predictable.

I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a cheap laugh, a good giggle, and an unpredictable love story for the 21^st century girl. I will be looking out for more of Sarra Manning’s novels in future.

Amazon Beaming - Petru Popescu

This is the story of the fulfilment of a great dream - and the first public disclosure of an extraordinary experience.

In 1971, after years of searching, the photographer and writer Loren McIntyre flew deep into the Amazon interior to look for the source of the great river, and for the Mayoruna tribe. Never before contacted by the outside world, they were rumoured to be the only people who knew the true source of the Amazon. Lost in the jungle and kidnapped by the Mayoruna, McIntyre was at the mercy of the extraordinary war-painted "cat-people" with spines bristling out of their lips. He claims to have reached his goal by communicating telepathically with the tribe's head shaman. This is McIntyre's story, told by Petru Popescu.

I find this topic very interesting and love hearing about different cultures, but what happens in this book is so wild it's hard to believe.

This is a work of non-fiction, a sort of biography of Loren McIntyre and his experience with the Mayorunan tribe and his journeys through the Amazon, but it was at times very hard to be motivated to keep reading - and to be honest I only made it to page 265 (out of 398), not because I didn’t enjoy it, but towards the end it was like reading a text book journal and was quite hard to keep up with the different writing styles used.

I like to think that I have a somewhat open mind, but the idea that he could communicate with the tribe non-verbally leaves me a tad sceptical and I would need to experience something like this first hand before I was able to logically believe it.

And this may be picky but I found it unusual that McIntyre doesn’t mention being worried about never seeing his wife or children again at all during his ‘capture’, yet he is worried enough about his preconceptions of ‘time’ to contemplate this continually throughout his entire time along in the jungle (and at times his rantings about ‘time’ can get quite tedious). Maybe it is just me but if I was his wife I would find that really insulting!

Now that I have pointed of the things I didn’t so much enjoy, the best things about this book is that it strongly highlights the importance of conservation to preserve the precarious balance of flora and fauna - some that have still not been identified anywhere else in the world!

This book also gives a detailed insight in to an area of the world that I would love to visit and describes the amazing lifestyle of tribes that have not altered since the beginning of man thousands of years ago.

All in all I enjoyed reading this book (up to where I stopped) but would probably not read it again, or recommend it to anyone unless this is the sort of writing that they enjoy, otherwise like me, even with the best of intentions you may not be able to finish it.