Thomas Noel Smith

I coundn't resist the beautiful cover and generally love a good yarn, especially if it's "somewhere in between", which, for me, means genre mix.

The stories in this book turned out to be a hugely enjoyable variety, humour, ghosts, love, it's all there.
I used to read one or two on my daily way to work and they kept me happily occupied and surely entertained, but had me also scratching my head, because the end more often than not isn't really a surprise.
In fact, I found myself wondering if this was just the first chapter and maybe another one was to follow, but sadly, it wasn't to be.

Let me give you an example.
In the first story Blind Date, singleton Walter isn't really looking forward to his date. He has been set up by his working colleague, and would rather prefer to call the whole thing off by now. Assuming his colleague will take offence, if he says no that late in the day, he gritts his teeth and goes along to the restaurant, where they are supposed to meet.
The woman turns up in time, she is nice, they get on well, he feels relieved and......well, that's it folks.
Don't get me wrong, the story is nice, but there's no unexpected twist, no oomph.

Still, I have to be honest and to admit, I found myself getting back to the book, and looking forward to do so, until I had finished reading it.
Definitely a collection to pass the time nicely and I give it 3,5 stars.… (mehr)

As the title reflects there are distinct parts to this book.

Part 1: The Blind Date; The Clairvoyant, A Fatal Adventure, Another Cigarette, Kevin Becker’s Epiphany – and many more – all dark, darker and outright scary dark. I am still looking for the tales of charm.

Part 2 – Mother Goose on the Rocks – A series of Fairy Tales, some very clever, some not so much, some would have been better without all the sarcasm. Actually sarcasm seemed to pervade all the writing and it felt overdone and tedious.

Part 3 – Adam & Eve - was this the balderdash? Or was this simply how it could have gone in the Garden of Eden?!

In Conclusion – a silly convolution of every cliché the author could pull out in forty seconds or less. Was this the balderdash?

As defined in the dictionary; Balderdash; senseless, stupid, or exaggerated talk or writing; nonsense.

My biggest criticism would be the throwback language. I kept thinking this guy is mired in the sixties, seventies, several decades ago – it grated.

The book is definitely different - I kind of liked it – not over the moon – but I liked it.

Thank you NetGalley and Outskirts Press for a copy.… (mehr)

Brace yourselves because I have been craving to review a book of poems for a while and Mr. Smith has hit the nail right on the head.

To me this book was about life and death, and everything in between. There were so many poems that spoke to me, it was impossible not to fill my paperback with dog-ears and highlighted quotes. There is such a wide range of emotions in this collection that there is bound to be something for everyone. One of my favorite poems was Men Still Dream of Being Wanderers. There is a stanza that reminded me a little bit of Rilke (my favorite poet of all time). Rilke's words in Requiem For A Friend:

"We can so easily slip back from what we have struggled to attain, abruptly, into a life we never wanted; can find that we are trapped, as in a dream, and die there, without ever waking up. This can occur. Anyone who has lifted his blood into a years-long work may find that he can't sustain it, the force of gravity is irresistible, and it falls back, worthless. For somewhere there is an ancient enmity between our daily life and the great work.."

From Thomas Noel Smith's Men Still Dream of Being Wanderers:

"The world doesn't welcome wanderers,
The world doesn't welcome dreamers.
Hopes and dreams slowly die
In office spaces
And life is seen on the haggard faces"

Anyone who reads the poems I sometimes write on my blog might know the kind of poems I usually gravitate towards and I was able to find that in Mr. Smith's Impressions and Memories. Every other page is marked with a poem I loved. This is definitely a book that I will keep reading and re-reading. Every line is full of meaning and I feel like these poems exude the passion they were written with. They tell the story of a life that's been lived to the fullest through its ups and downs.

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*… (mehr)