The A to Z of Stuff The Indispensable compendium of wisdom

The A to Z of Stuff, The Indispensable compendium of wisdom, as it is subtitled is one of those "must buy" Christmas presents that we see every so-often.

It is compiled and written by prolific author and travel writer David Fletcher.

Like many of us, David became more than a little bit irked and frustrated with the large volume of knolwedge that we are flooded with every single day of every single week.

And what makes it worse is that this knowledge is, for the most part, utterly and completely useless and pointless.

"Life," points out David, "is filled with trivia. More and more, it seems, every waking minute of our lives is accounted for by the inconsequential, the irrelevant, the incidental, the positively wasteful and by a whole host of other stuff that serves no purpose whatsoever, other than to distract us from what is really important."

David Fletcher set out to look for a remedy for this ill, something to act as a counterblast to all of the stuff that we are constantly bombarded with, 24/7, 7 days a week.

Eventually he hit upon the antidote which became his latest book, The A to Z of Stuff!

The book covers many, many different and diverse subjects. Anarchy, education and how dire it is compared to the good old days, the BBC -referred to as the Bloated Bureaucracy Corporation, democracy and how it works, or rather doesn't work, the European Union and how it operate or rather how it fails to operate. Did you know that the European Union has an official with the job title of: "The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy?"

Nor did I, but after reading The A to Z of Stuff, I now know this and, as they say, once the bell is rung, it cannot be unrung.

David coins a monumentally superb name to describe a certain type of EU tax haven, deluxembourg.

He will probably gain few friends in Luxembourg by accurately, though perhaps somewhat harshly, as being "parasitical."

Other subjects such as the United Kingdom, Quaggas (it's on the page after a poem, do check both out) the actual and mysterious continued existence of dinosaurs (see NHS), drones, young people, religion and lots more, receive the keen eye and laser-like probing of the dry with and machine-gun like delivery of David Fletcher.

It's published by Matador at £10.99 and is, as has been pointed out, a must buy Christmas present. No stocking should be without it, this year!

You can purchase it from the comfort of your own armchair or Smartphone when you visit our gift buying emporium, which is filled with enough Christmas food and drink to satiate an army and thousands of books and gifts. You'll find the portal just this way >>> https://goo.gl/WNNZUm.

That's Books and Entertainment: Religion Can Be Fun

That's Books and Entertainment: Religion Can Be Fun: Religion Can Be Fun is a light-hearted and humours approach to how religion can be taught as a subject. Huib van Hoeven, who lives in th...

Love is Small Talk

Love is Small Talk is a delightfully drawn and very amusing book of cartoons by Fred Jefferies.

It's a large format book and it is, says Fred, "inspired by heaven's 'little angels'".

Fred provides his readers with a peep into the magical and make believe world of little kids which, points out Fred, he is providing for the delight of bigger kids.

It's a "must buy" Christmas gift for Christmas 2016.

It's charmingly and very colourfully illustrated with a whole array of very well drawn and oh-so-believable little characters. And they are little characters in more ways than a little!

Meet children by themselves, with dogs, with prams, with dogs in prams, at the seaside, in the park, in the dark, having a lark,  having a party in fact just about everything is illustrated within  these magical pages.

Why is this book of cartoons so popular? The cartoons are funny, yes, that's true. But there's more to it than that.

This book of cartoons is so popular because it takes the reader back to a time when they were the kids taking part in apparently bizarre conversations.

It is published by The Book Guild at a very reasonable £7.99 and will make an ideal book to flip through during and long after the Christmas period.

The book is available to purchase at our own book and gift shop, along with thousands of other great gift ideas, please do check it out:-  https://goo.gl/WNNZUm.

Olverum Bath Oil the perfect Christmas gift

Olverum Bath Oil is the perfect Christmas gift for the person who you know just loves to luxuriate in a nice, hot bath, aided and assisted by a nice, perfectly natural bath oil.

Which is where Olverum Bath Oil comes inot its own!

Olverum Bath Oil is a unique and utterly luxurious bath oil that is a carefully and skillfully prepared blend of ten highy exotic and eminently useful essential oils.

They have been carefully chosen and selected to combine together to create  Olverum Bath Oil, which is designed to help remove stress and reduce tension in both the mind and also the body, too.

Olverum Bath Oil is designed to help bring balance back into your life and help you go back to your natural, stress-free self.

Even the smell of it as you carefully place it into your hot bath will start to make you feel better, even before you slip inot the hot water after you have added the Olverum Bath Oil!

15ml is enough for three baths, so you can see that it is a powerful and highly concentrated yet entirely natural wonder treatment for your bath.

There is Siberian Fir, Ground Nut oil, Lavandin oil, Eucalyptus oil, Geranium Flower oil and many other oils and special ingredients

It was originally developed in the 1920s by Franz Otto Klein, a highly successful wine maker in Germany's Mosel Valley, when he formed a passion for learning about the therapeutic properties of essential oils.

He and his wife Edith created their own experimental laboratory where they developed their unique product, which has remained unchanged and highly popular to this very day.

The 125ml size costs £26.00 and will be enough for 25 baths, the 250ml size will be £48 and enough for 50 baths. Their main stockists  are Liberty, Harvey Nichols and www.houseoffraser.co.uk.

Bored? This super stocking filler will remove all boredom!

Author Graham Lanceley has written a new book that will certainly provide the reader with hours of harmless fun and amusement as they read through his choice of fifty alternative sports and pastimes!

Learn about games, pastimes and sports that are modern inventions or which the origins of which are shrouded in the mists of our ancient history.

Learn about hobbies from A to Zed. Astronomy, amateur radio, beekeeping, bellringing, gem cutting at home, geology and many more.

There are sports a-plenty, from the modern sport of tchoukball to the ancient sport of jousting, they are all here in this most excellent book.

Fancy caving? Or some ancient British pub games? Morris Dancing, postcard collecting, fencing, Falconry, water dowsing, Bandy (it's on page 9!) Equestrian vaulting, Fives?

You'll find all these and many more, with clear but brief instructions of how to get involved in them.

What about some extreme sports? From Zorbing to Ultimate Frisbee, this book will give hours of pleasure and will make a super Christmas present for people form 8 to 88 or even older!

It is published in paperback by The Book Guild at the nifty price of £7.99.

You can purchase it at our very own retail establishment -along with thousands of other books, gifts and DVDs, etc- which you will find here https://goo.gl/GMfXdS.

Ben and the Spider Lake

Ben and the Spider Lake is another magical book from children's author Angela Fisher.

She returns to the Spider Kingdom for this her third book.

It is the summer holidays again and Ben, together with his dog Scoot and his family plus his best friend Jess travel to a small cottage close by the Dark Mountains.

He learns that the lane at the back of the cottage is to be dug up. This is a disaster for it would result in homelessness or even injury for the families of spiders who live under the lane.

Ben must locate Lox, who is the guardian of the Spider Gate.

With Jess, Ben tries to work out a way to help move the spider kingdom subjects  to a safer location.

But they only have one month before to workmen arrive!

Where can they be moved to? How can they be moved?

Will there be any help forthcoming? Or does Ben's gran know more than she is letting on?

The book is ideal as a Christmas present for any children between 3 to 6 for parents, grandparents or other relatives to read with them.

This book is published in hardback by The Book Guild at £9.95 and it is available for purchase at our own shop https://goo.gl/KD9so0 along with thousands of other books and gifts of all types.

Mischief

Mischief is the latest novel by popular writer Liz Vincent.

It tells the story of the younger generation of the Lange family, who readers met in her previous novel, Malice, published last year in 2015.

Grace Langhe is maturing and growing up,. Her mother is worried that Grace seems to be channelling for her grandmother Madge, a somewhat domineering and forceful personality in the family.

Thomas comes onto the scene and Grace falls for him and she enters into a relationship that some might describe as troubled or even risky.

Yet Thomas is not quite what Grace had presumed him to be and the relationship comes to a dramatic conclusion that leaves Grace feeling justifiably traumatised.

Grace feels that, somehow, Grandmother Madge is looking out for her and trying to steer her in the right direction.

Grace leaves to work away from home with her best friend Lucy.

Through Lucy she meets a young man called Seth, though the circumstances of their meeting are a little strange, to say the least. She decides to keep her relationship with Seth a secret from her parents. After all, things had had very badly wrong with Thomas and she was so hurt by her experience that she doesn't feel able to confide in her parents that she is in another relationship.

After a time she reassess her life and decides to take up the opportunity to train to become a journalist.

Quite by chance she catches up with an old friend from her school days who she has seen in years, Jade. Jade is extremely proud of her handsome boyfriend. Thomas!

Grace reveals the less-than-savoury truth about the dark unpleasant true side to Thomas' personality and eventually they join forces to formulate a plot to get revenge on Thomas.

The revenge serves a dual purpose, because it also means that Grace is pushed into the limelight and her career in journalism grows and prospers.

But all the while, Seth is there, being her rock.

She and Seth wed and start their life together. But strange things are happening. What if Madge did not merely approve of her marriage to Seth, but actively arrange for it to take place?

But what, exactly, was really taking place? And what was the link to the long dead crusader with the tomb in the church?

This is an intriguingly mystical book and to reveal more of the plot would spoil this extraordinary story.

It is published in paperback by Matador and will make a very welcome stocking filler for lovers of fiction with historical and modern flashes.

It costs £9.99 and is available for purchase here: https://goo.gl/vwb28W