Beta-Reading and First class English

It's more than two months since my last post. I didn't stop reading but for some time I encountered only average books.

Then this month suddenly there were some emails from authors asking me to read their books that have not yet been published.
I must admit it makes me proud. I want to help author's to make their work even better, and it's a big ego-booster when they come and ask me and appreciate my comments.

The varity could not have been greater.

Teddy asked me to beta-read, because Martin suggested to contact me with this stunning mail:

I should have mentioned two things, Teddy. First, Barbara's German but her English is first class.

Second, in her last beta read for me (she's a survivor of two editions of my novel) she noted something like "nice paragraph." She only did that once. She picked out the one paragraph that I thought best.
So my English is "first class"???!!!???

Teddy's quite good at writing sexy scenes and funny dialogues, but she thought it necessary to put some action, mystery and suspense in the mix. I hope Martin and I convinced her not to do it.

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For the next one I had already been waiting impatiently. I was really excited to be allowed to be a beta-reader for the sequel of Remorseless by Will Patching.

It didn't feel like beta-reading at all: the novel is perfect. It's creepy, well constructed, full of believable strange characters...and there wasn't much to suggest, to comment or to correct. Will is really an incredibly gifted writer. As soon as I know the publication date I'll post more about it.

BTW Remorseless will be free on BookBub on November 3, 2016. Don't miss it!

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Robert apparently found me on goodreads, had a look at this blog, liked what I read and asked me to read his manuscript.

Pirates, drugs, revenge in 1936.

I made so many hopefully friendly comments that I feared to discourage the author, something I never want to do. But I was wrong, he appreciates my comments and wants to continue the work with me, closing his email: "your forever beta friend".

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Ok, the last one isn't a beta-read. It's just an ARC, publication date November 1, 2016. I'm not sure if I'll have a review ready by then, because this is deep stuff. I've read about 15 % now of
Gregoy Brown's                                 

"If we do not know God's words, if we do not know theology, then we cannot truly worship him."

and it's amazing. I've read my share of bible studies, but this is something different. There's so much depth in there, he is really exploring all the glorious mysteries hidden in a text I've read uncounted times - and he challenges his readers, not by difficult writing or sophisticated ideas, but by the truth of God's Word.

He told me that The Armor of God is part of this book.

After finishing I'll write another post about it.