The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

A new Anglo-Irish independent - I don't know much about them - only three books published so far but if they match the first El Hacho by Luis Carrasco, they will be worth following!

https://www.epoquepress.com/

Do you have a link to the other two they have published?

Ang wrote: "Do you have a link to the other two they have published?"
The other two are The Groundsmen by Lynn Buckle and The Wooden Hill by Jamie Guiney.

El Hacho was £1.99 on Kindle last night (I bought it).

I finally got around to reading El Hacho and simply loved it. After writing my review, I saw that epoch had recently published another book by Carrasco. After checking the price on Amazon, I went to the epoch and bought it from them, as well as a copy of El Hacho (I read it on Kindle) because the covers are perfectly matched. They have not published many books but the two I've read - El Hacho and What Willow Says were superb so I'm tempted to buy copies of all the books in their bookstore (there are only a few)!

oohh Seek the Singing Fish is probably their best one yet

I started Seek The Singing Fish today. First 20-30 pages haven’t grabbed me in the way that others of their books have but it is early days yet.

I got the three of the 6 I have not read for Kindle. The shipping almost doubles the cost for the remaining 3, so will have to wait awhile for those as my book budget is busted -- again!

Just dropping back in to say Seek The Singing Fish is now shaping up nicely - I think I am going to enjoy this one.

I read El Hacho and loved it. Happy to hear about Carrasco's second novel.

Linda, I know we discussed Blackwells starting to charge for shipping, but Blackwells still has free shipping and they almost always have indie press books. Because of free shipping from Blackwells I was able to order two copies of Still Born.

I often order from Blackwell's but was taking a turn at supporting a small, independent press. I did order two from epoque yesterday but the last 3 will need to wait for a bit as I splurged on a signed copy of Horse by Geraldine Brooks.

Vesna wrote: "I read El Hacho and loved it. Happy to hear about Carrasco's second novel."

Ghosts of Spring is excellent!

I get that, Linda. I try to order from the small presses, too, but at least with Blackwells the press is getting paid for the book they sold to Blackwells.

Ghosts of Spring is possibly my favourite book from époque press. For me it’s a masterclass in writing one story but managing to tell two.

I have read all their books. Or I will have done when I finish Seek The Singing Fish in a couple of days.

Seek the Singing Fish is sold out on Blackwell's even though it was published only 3 days ago!

Damn. I was going to look for it today. Did you ask to be notified when it’s available, Linda? I did that for a Peirene Press book and they notified me a few weeks later.

I just checked Epoque to get the author’s name and it lists Seek The Singing Fish available for preorder. They must be printing another run.

It’s been saying “available for pre-order” for months. I am not sure the website was ever updated to say “available for ordering”. I did pre-order and for some reason had July in my head so was surprised when my copy arrived a few days ago.

So Epoque has it, but not Blackwells. I’ll wait for Blackwells to restock. Hopefully enough people are asking so Blackwells will reorder.

I have read all 10 now. Here's a link to a shelf with all my reviews.

I have 3 at 5*, 4 at 4*, 2 at 3* and 1 at 1*.

I think 7/10 at 4* or above is a pretty good hit rate, especially as both the 3* books have comments in my reviews about how they probably should have more stars than that. There's just the one book that I couldn't make work (and all the other reviews of that one are positive).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

After no luck at Blackwell's, I ordered from Book Depository and two days later got a message from them that it was out of stock. I ended up ordering Seek the Singing Fish from Epoque, paying 1.5 times the price of the book for the shipping! It has shipped so eventually will arrive. The Carrasco shipped a week ago, so when it arrives I'll have a sense of how long before the Singing Fish will show up. Eager to read it given the positives this group is singing.

Hmmmm....

I quite liked Seek The Singing Fish, but 300 pages was a bit much for me and I'm not a massive fan of nature books, so it ended up as 3.5 rounded down to 3. (and 3 for me is still pretty good)

I've had two people comment on my review - both polite, but disagreeing with my rating, and saying everyone should read this book (hence my rating is a bit harsh).

Which is fine.

Except both have joined Goodreads recently, have reviewed this and about 4-5 other rather random books. both appear to be from North London. And there seem quite a lot of other 5 star reviews from people without many reviews otherwise.

On the positive side I've discovered the author's Tiktok where she is a "Nature nerd & voice for wildlife. Pirate elf spreading random positivity."

https://www.tiktok.com/@ramblingroma/...

The evidence is pretty blatant now you mention it.

She’s not a Sally Rooney fan.

Now if they had said that then I might have added back a star.

I find it very frustrating that people feel they have the right to tell other reviewers their rating is 'wrong' i.e. differs from theirs. Even if they are polite. What do they want? To bully you into artificially inflating your rating?

From the sample I've read, I'd give Singing Fish 3-stars as well; as you say, that's a decent rating from me.

How funny, they’re both from Wood Green F3, both joined 4 weeks ago, and have both read 5 other books. Do they not know how obvious they are?

WndyJW wrote: "How funny, they’re both from Wood Green F3, both joined 4 weeks ago, and have both read 5 other books. Do they not know how obvious they are?"

Must be non-online natives. My parents probably wouldn’t know how obvious they were if they did something like that!

Right!

I assumed it was the author because Ghosts of Spring for example doesn't have the bogus reviewers.

Yes I think author not press.

The "Wood Green F3" think is odd generally though - I see that on a lot of reviewers from UK and I'm not sure what it means (I don't think they all live in Wood Green

Is Wood Green a town?

Part of north London. But I see it a lot on people’s info (not just this book) versus people who live there. It is about 0.04% of Uk population.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_...

I just looked it up, it’s a commercial area in London.

Most famous for its Barrett’s sweet factory

But not for having a disproportionately large number of Goodreads users.

Must be a very literate part of London!

I was suspecting her mum and pals as I get the feeling they’re older. Unless that’s what she wants me to think…

It’s a double fake out, Lee!

Yes, hard to believe it’s the same person who’s posting those tiktoks. Although, I hate to say it, but goodreads is so outmoded and clunky that perhaps a digital native is not at home here.

I suspect it is family and friends not author.

But the Wood Green thing seems to be an issue on GR that is nothing to do with this book.

I have noticed it before as I actually have two real life friends who live in or near Wood Green and are on Goodreads. And on Goodreads one is “Edgware, A2” (which I have also seen a lot and again is a small part of London and not where they live) and the other “London, H9”.

I just created a new Goodreads account to see what happens. And I just gives me “Barnsley, A3” as my info for no apparent reason.
(That is a town in north of England)

Anyone know why/how? (Have a go at creating a new account yourself)

Weird.

Hey, Roma Wells is beautiful, but for the uninitiated, be forewarned: TikTok is highly addictive and you will lose hours of your life if you chance upon dog videos or infants stretching after being unwrapped from swaddling.