Welcome to Biscuit Land: A Year in the life of Touretteshero - Jessica Thom, foreword by Stephen Fry

'Tourettes is a mysterious neurological condition. Having it means I make movements and noises I can't control - these are called tics. Sometimes they're simple and just involve me squeaking or nodding my head. Sometimes, though, they're more complicated and involve me saying stuff like 'Sexually frustrated dog food.' And that's when it gets interesting.'

Jess has Tourettes Syndrome, which results in her making sounds and movements much of the time and over which she has no control. She is one of about ten percent of people with Tourettes Syndrome who swears. Welcome to Biscuit Land is an intimate account by Jess of her life over the course of one year. Jess set up Touretteshero, which the book explains is 'an organisation that celebrates the humour and creativity of Tourettes without mocking or self-pity...It's about reclaiming the most frequently misunderstood syndrome on the planet.' Jess proclaims at the start her account that 'from this point on Tourettes won't be my problem - it'll be my power. From now on, I'm going to be Touretteshero.'

Jess writes openly and honestly about living with Tourettes and about the ways in which it can and does affect her daily life. I found this an informative, honest and very moving account and found I learned a lot about Tourettes through the straightforward way that Jess has recorded her thoughts, activities and tics here. Her account is very readable, and I hope it encourages more people to find out about and understand Tourettes a bit more, which in turn ought to help further reduce any preconceived ideas about the syndrome. If you're wondering about the title of the book, 'biscuit' is one of the tics that Jess found herself uttering an awful lot at the time of writing. 

Jess introduces us to those in her life who she is closest to, who have shown her love, understanding and support. This book is not without humour and optimism. Jess writes of the friendship she has with the first person with Tourettes that she met, noting 'that those who tic together stick together.' She receives varied reactions and she always tries to engage in conversation with people to encourage an understanding of what happens to her and why. 

'I never know how people will react. There's not one group or type of person that seems to respond more positively or negatively than any other. All I know is, when I leave my house in the morning other people will react, and their reactions will be mixed. I'm sure this isn't unique to Tourettes, but is something that's experienced by people with any conditions that make them stand out.'

At times though it's very hard to read what happens, both in the way that Jess's physical tics can make her hurt herself, and in the form of the reactions of others to her tics, without feeling very saddened. As someone who enjoys walking, I struggled to comprehend what it must be like to want to walk but be in constant fear of crashing to the ground as Jess is whilst walking. There's one particularly unkind comment a woman makes when Jess is waiting for a tube, which is hurtful and affects Jess badly when it happens. I felt that what she wrote about this was very telling indeed and perfectly illustrates how people don't always think about what they say or do, not considering the affect it might have: '...the woman's comment had really hurt. She could carry on with her day and never be disturbed by my tics again. I don't have that choice.'  There's a moment in a bar, too, which made me feel angry at the way Jess and her friend were spoken to.

I'm really glad to have read this book, to have had the opportunity to get to know Jess Thom a little through her words and to have discovered more about what Tourettes is like through her open, moving and brave first-hand account. There's a lovely foreword to the book by Stephen Fry too.

Published by Souvenir Press

Thank you to the publisher for kindly sending me a copy of this novel to read and review.

You can follow @touretteshero on twitter and find out more here. 

Here's a link to a lovely guest blog that Jessica Thom wrote for Souvenir Press last year about the road to publication of the book. 

This is the first book in my new occasional series on the blog, featuring a non-fiction title in the spotlight.

Do feel free to join in from time to time with a non-fiction book review on your own blog.

Non-fiction Spotlight!

Welcome to a brand new, occasional series on the blog, entitled 'Non-fiction Spotlight', featuring non-fiction books that I have been reading. Although much of my reading time is spent in the company of novels, I do very much enjoy reading a variety of non-fiction books too and I have reviewed one or two in the past here on my blog. I thought that when I do review or want to highlight a non-fiction book in the future it could be part of a sporadic feature, hence this post. 

From time to time I read biography, history, travel, health, wildlife, and other non-fiction books. I'm not sure what this feature will incorporate yet, or how often it will appear, but I have a couple of books in mind to get it started: I've recently read Welcome to Biscuit Land by Jessica Thom, so that one will be featuring next, and I hope to read Death in the Baltic by Cathryn J. Prince and The Spy who Loved by Clare Mulley soon. I have lots of other non-fiction books I've bought sitting on my to read pile that I hope to look at going forwards and mention here too.  

I'd be interested to know how much non-fiction others who primarily read fiction get through, and whether you think about it differently in terms of whether you would ever feature it on your book blog. I hope you enjoy these occasional reviews.

How Not To Murder Your Grumpy - Carol E. Wyer - Book Tour

In How Not To Murder Your Grumpy, author Carol E. Wyer has drawn on her own personal experience of life with a retired 'grumpy' ageing husband at home to write an humourous book highlighting many ways, over 700 suggestions in fact, to keep just such a husband occupied and therefore not drive you to distraction! 

I've enjoyed Carol E Wyer's writing in her fiction novels that I've read (Mini Skirts & Laughter Lines and Surfing in Stilletos) and that same witty, cheeky but warm-hearted humour is again in evidence here, together with a slightly more factual element to the content, this time in a shorter work that is fun to just pick up and read a few passages or pages from.

Presented as an A-Z guide to activities ranging from fun, to sporty, serious and just bizarre, there are passages on everything from furniture restoration, to campanology, bodyflying and yodelling, all included here with the ultimate aim of encouraging 'your beloved Grumpy...to stop wrestling with retirement and tackle a new venture.'

I was tickled by some of the ideas here and by the variety of potential activities, and enjoyed reading about some of the people who have tackled these pursuits, including the 96 year old man mastering Zumba!

I was also glad to read the 'Author's note: No Grumpy Old Men were harmed in the writing of this book.' :-)

Published by Safkhet

There's a fab giveaway accompanying this book tour - just complete the Rafflecopter form below!

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About the author:

After completing a degree in French and English at Keele University, Carol Wyer became a language teacher in Casablanca, Morocco. She ran the EFL department at a private UK school (a non-magical Hogwarts), set up Language 2000 Ltd, teaching a variety of languages, including basic Japanese, and translated documents. Recurring medical problems forced her to give up teaching and become a fitness instructor. Thanks to older age, she now writes novels, articles and books that poke fun at getting older. Known for her light-hearted take on life, Carol has written two award-winning novels and now also tours giving talks on how to age disgracefully.

Visit Carol's website here, find her on twitter @carolewyer,  on facebook here and on amazon.

Visit the other Virtual Book Tour Stops:

10th June 2013 Dizzy C’s Little Book Blog

11th June 2013 Love Reading Love Books

12th June 2013 Cosmochicklitan

13th June 2013 Sylv Jenkins

15th June 2013 Rhoda Baxter

17th June 2013 Lou Graham’s Blog

17th June 2013 Bookalicous Travel Addict

18th June 2013 The Little Reader Library

19th June 2013 Room for Reading

20th June 2013 Brook Cottage Books

21st June 2013 Beauty and the Armageddon

The President's Hat - Antoine Laurain

'This is no ordinary hat.'

Translated from the French by Gallic Books (Jane Aitken, Emily Boyce, Louise Rogers Lalaurie)

It is November 1986 and accountant Daniel Mercier is dining out alone at a brasserie in Paris whilst his wife and son are away. What was a very pleasant evening becomes even more special as he is stunned to notice that none other than President Francois Mitterand sits down at the table next to him. His evening is transformed as he listens to the conversation at the President's table, and then, when he leaves, Daniel realises that Mitterand has left his hat behind. Pondering for a moment, Daniel takes the hat with him, and after making this split-second decision and putting the hat on his head, his life is never quite the same. 

On the back of this new and quite unexpected acquisition, Daniel suddenly develops a newfound confidence at work, sharing his views and finding the courage to stand up for himself: 'With unprecedented confidence, he watched himself negotiate the complex layers of diplomacy with the ease of a dolphin leaping through the waves.' ....'It was as if the real Daniel Mercier had finally stepped out into the light of day.'

Daniel believes that the changes within himself, the decisions he is making and the confidence he now has is due to just one thing: 'The hat. It was the hat that was responsible for the events that had turned Daniel's existence on its head in the last few days. He was convinced of that. Since he had taken to wearing it, the hat had conferred on him a kind of immunity to the torments of everyday life just be being there. Better still, it sharpened his mind and spurred him to take vitally important decisions.' Can a hat really have these magical, transformative qualities? What has made things so different for Daniel since his possession of it? What is it about the hat that affects 'a profound change...a metamorphosis' on the wearer? And what will happen next to the hat? 

This is an absolutely delightful, warm-hearted and magical tale about life and fate. I loved reading it!  Antoine Laurain has created a very special, mystical and entertaining story here that reveals truths about human nature in a clever way that made me smile and ponder as I read. Love, families, relationships, careers - the hat has a hand in the destiny of so many facets of people's lives in the story.

I don't want to reveal too much about the path that the story takes, except to say that the hat will transform more lives than just Daniel's, and that the story links together well as it develops and then it all comes back together very satisfyingly at the end. We are taken back to the 1980s and there is a some comment on the times then in France which I found interesting, alongside the step back in time to a place when technology was much more basic than that which we have today. 

The translation, with three authors taking on the different main characters, worked really well too. It's a really nice edition, with a lovely design and feel to the covers.

All in all, a real treat of a book and a joy to read.

Published by Gallic Books

Thank you to the publisher for kindly sending a copy of this novel to read and review.

You can follow @gallicbooks on twitter and find out more about this novel on their website here and on the book's website here.

Sleeping Patterns - J. R. Crook

This a short work of just over a hundred pages and it is an unusual narrative of layered stories. The opening surprised me and heightened my interest - the novel is 'dedicated to the memory of the author'. Then we have an introduction by Annelie Strandli, know to her friends as Grethe, who is also a character in the book, alerting us to the fact that the story we are about to read consists of fifteen elements of a tale by the writer. Berry Walker is a withdrawn and introverted insomniac and an aspiring writer who Annelie lives with (amongst others) in a student residence. She hopes to discover more about him through his writings. Within the elements of the story that describe Annelie's narrative, there is another layer recounting the story of a boy, Boy One, a dreamer, and the story explores the notion of dreaming, not just whilst asleep but whilst awake; 'he allowed his dreaming to overflow into the daylight hours.' 

I enjoyed this book, in fact I think I was a little unsure whether at first I would like it, and it pleasantly surprised me; it offered me something different and I felt the way it was written made me sit up and pay attention. I discovered that the fifteen chapters or pieces of the story are numbered non-sequentially; first I read 5, then 1, then 11. I was intrigued, and tempted to rearrange them and read them from 1 to 15 as per usual, but I resisted and read the book as it was presented to me. It made me think and re-evaluate what I expected from a work of fiction, after all, the author is named in the book, so is this entirely fiction? How does the relationship between the reader and the writer and the story work? I could imagine readers having varied reactions to this novel and therefore sharing an interesting discussion about it.

There are some lovely passages; one in particular I liked was this, describing Annelie's curiosity about the Berry as she anticipates uncovering his writing: 'She would be hoping that small fictions and understated truths were there for her to find. She would be fancying the image of the writer's hands, like those of an illusionist's, revealing to her all manner of things invisible before.'

For me this is the work of an inventive and talented writer who has taken a chance and is unafraid to challenge the reader's expectations with the unconventional style and structure of his storytelling here. As I've said, it was quite different from a lot of what I read and I liked the challenge and uniqueness of it. I think I'd like to read it again one day and see what else I discover, and the short length of the book encourages me to do this as does the attractiveness of the edition.

I would certainly try more fiction by this author and after reading this book I would be interested to see what approach he takes to his future works.

Published by Legend Press

Sleeping Patterns was the winner of the 2011 Luke Bitmead Bursary.

Here's a link to a great review of Sleeping Patterns on Vishy's Blog

Thank you to the author for kindly sending me a copy of this novel to read and review.

You can find the author on twitter @JRCrookkk and visit his website here.

The Summer of Love - Notting Hill Press - a new publishing partnership

Want to see your favourite authors’ books before they’re published?

What do award-winning, best-selling chick lit/romantic comedy authors Talli Roland, Belinda Jones, Michele Gorman, Matt Dunn, Nicola May, Scarlett Bailey, Nick Spalding, Sue Welfare, Chrissie Manby, Victoria Connelly and Lucy Robinson all have in common?

They’ve joined the new publishing partnership, Notting Hill Press, and now you can be on the inside track to get freebies, discounts, signed copies and even sneak peeks at some of their books before they're published!

Like the sound of that? Simply:

• Sign up for the Notting Hill Press newsletter here
• “Like” the Notting Hill Press facebook page
• Follow @NottingHillPR on Twitter

And to celebrate Notting Hill Press’s launch, 5 lucky winners will each get to choose 5 eBooks by these authors. Enter here by June 13^th for your chance to win.

Cascade - Maryanne O'Hara - Book Tour

Set in the 1930s during the time of the Great Depression in America, this novel recounts the story of Desdemona 'Dez' Hart Spaulding. As the novel opens and we meet Dez, the reader quickly learns that her father William Hart, up until recently the owner of the playhouse in Cascade, Massachusetts, is seriously ill and that Dez, a talented artist who has studied in Paris, gave up on her dreams of working in New York City in order to return home and look after him. Like so many others at that time, his financial fortunes took a serious downturn and he lost his property and was to all intents and purposes bankrupt. Dez is forced to admit that she married her pharmacist husband Asa more out of a feeling of responsibility than out of any strength of love for him, something that is underlined for her when she meets fellow artist Jacob Solomon and immediately feels a very different connection with him. Her father's dying wish is for Dez to save and one day reopen the theatre in Cascade, and he entrusts her with a special box only to be opened on this eventual future date. The future of the town of Cascade itself is under serious threat, with plans to flood it and create a reservoir for Boston. 

Dez is confronted with a difficult situation, with choices that will affect her future life. The novel deals with the conflict between the promises and duties she feels she needs to keep and uphold, and the desire to pursue her love of art and to follow her heart's feelings towards Jacob. There are themes of duty and desire, hoping for freedom to pursue dreams and yet enduring the constraints of reality. Asa would like to start a family, yet Dez hopes to pursue her artist ambitions. The idea and role of an artist is very important in the story, as is water, both literally and in the imagery used. Dez tries to capture and portray water in her paintings, and she dreams about it.

I felt that Dez was a well-defined, engaging and strong character whose fortunes I wanted to read on and discover. She seemed real to me, in the way that she was clearly torn between what she had and what she wanted to have, and the sometimes flawed decisions she made. The author has created a lead character with depth and complexities, whose inner turmoil I could feel as I read.

Maryanne O'Hara carefully establishes a connection between Dez and the reader earlier on, and draws us in to care about her, and also to care about and feel connected to the once-vibrant town of Cascade itself; the town felt to me like a character in its own right. Through the eyes of her friend Abby, who is visiting the place briefly, Dez sees a different version of the town, realising how it must look now to an outsider: 

'..now Dez felt its smallness, its loss of its old glamour...Their once-fashionable resort town with its pleasant waters was looking more and more like the ghost valley that was invading dreams and even the pages of her sketchpad. She had done half a dozen studies: the drowning person's blurred upward view from the bottom of a flooded place. The bleary, uncertain light. The smooth stones, long grasses, and someone struggling through thick river mud, Ophelia-like, trying to find a place to breathe.'

Within the town, the playhouse is a symbolic building, built by her father and meaning so much to Dez, and we learn of its grand past, home to Shakespearean performances. The period detail rang true through the author's descriptions, but the historical aspect and setting never becomes heavy or overbearing in the story. As well as the Depression era in America, the ever worsening news that filters through from Europe adds another imposing backdrop to the tale. It was enjoyable reading an historical novel set in this period and location. 

I think the book cover design for this novel is very effective in representing key elements of the narrative - Cascade Falls, the role of water, and the artistry inside Dez's mind; I found it a very striking image; it made me look twice and think about the story again. 

Cascade is a moving debut novel about a woman and her emotions and dreams; a woman trying to maintain her loyalties and responsibilties but fearing that this is at the expense of her career, at a time when certain expectations were still firmly placed upon women by society. It is about the feeling of being in a quandary between accepting what you have and chasing after what you desire, and it is about art and about change. I enjoyed reading this book, the author has a pleasing style and brings a fresh perspective to eternal themes. I will be interested to discover what Maryanne O'Hara will write next.

Published by Penguin Books

Thank you to Amy at Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours  and to the publishers for the chance to read and review an ebook copy of this novel via netgalley.

Visit the other stops on the Cascade Book Tour

About the author

Maryanne O’Hara was the longtime associate fiction editor at the award-winning literary journal Ploughshares. She received her MFA from Emerson College fifteen years ago, and wrote short fiction that was widely published before committing to the long form. She lives on a river near Boston.

For more information on Maryanne O’Hara, please visit her website.  You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and GoodReads.