Putting together your life after it has been torn apart by the death of your husband is not easy, especially when you have two young children, and it was discovered that your husband had been cheating on you before his death. But Nicki Valentine is not going to let that get to her. Quite the… Read More Book Review: Finding Sky, by Susan O’Brien
There are books that make you dream. Then there are books that sweep you off your feet and welcome you into a dream. Reading Sieni A.M.’s second novel, Scar of the Bamboo Leaf, was a little bit like the latter. Regular readers of my reviews will no doubt remember how much I loved her first… Read More Book Review: ‘Scar of the Bamboo Leaf’, by Sieni A. M.
Marriage is such an important topic for the single, the dating, the engaged, the married, or the divorced – unsurprisingly so, as it is a fundamental building block of society that helps order the community. And since marriage starts way before we meet that special someone, and since we don’t have to be married to… Read More Book Review: Team Us, by Ashleigh Slater
Summertime means reading in the sun with a glass of something refreshingly cold at your side. Hurrah? Not always. I find it increasingly difficult to find a satisfying read amidst the sea of superficial stories that do nothing to contribute to my reflection. The challenge is invigorating as I scour bookshelf after bookshelf for fiction… Read More Book Review: Honeymoon Hotel, by Hester Browne
That there are more screens in our lives now than ever is probably something we all agree on. Even if we do not personally own one, screens are everywhere: on roads, in stores, at our workplace, in schools, ad nauseum. In my personal, non-expert point of view, screens are here to stay. Thankfully, screens are… Read More Book Review: Growing up Social: Raising Relational Kids in a Screen-Driven World, by Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane
One can choose to read a book of conversations about writing for many reasons. It can help a reader delve into the minds of those who create the literary food they live on; it can help a writer glean useful insights. As both an avid reader and long-time writer, I picked up this title for… Read More Book Review: Writing Talk: Conversations with Top Writers of the Last Fifty Years, by Alex Hamilton
I am neither a psychologist nor a psychiatrist, but I have seen the effect a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) can have on a child; chances are, you and I are in the same boat. My experience has been overall negative; the diagnosed children have, for the most part, been labelled as unable… Read More Book Review: The Elephant in the ADHD Room: Beating Boredom as the Secret to Managing ADHD by Letitia Sweitzer
In an eye opening NPR talk, Harvard professor Ann Blair discusses how information overload is certainly not unique to the digital age. This same concern accompanied every invention related to any increase in our ability to more efficiently share more information. The question of organizing information started the instant humans invented writing. How will the… Read More Book Review: The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, by Daniel J Levitin
Long-time readers of my reviews know that one thing can break even the best written, most engaging, highly interesting book: if it doesn’t encourage reflecting about an important topic, then it’s not worth reading. This is why I read books like Twilight; they really trigger an amazing reflection and conversation about the unhealthy concepts of… Read More Book Review: Before I Go by Colleen Oakley
If someone in your family or in your close circle of friends has a young child, you are no doubt intimately aware of how young ones see the world as a fascinating place filled with wondrous secrets that are within their grasp if they explore long and hard enough. We all used to be like… Read More Book Review: ‘Why Do Buses Come in Threes?’ by Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham