Tag: nonfiction

A review of 20/20 Meals by Julie Goodwin

Goodwin fans will particularly enjoy the non-pretentious and warm presentation of good home cooking. Goodwin makes it clear that you don’t need to study for years to be able to cook high quality food for your family. Anyone can, and should do it, and the recipes and tips in this book will certain encourage that.

A review of The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

There is no easy answer here but the key lies in what he calls the habit loop: a cue leading to a routine (the learned behaviour itself) in order to obtain a reward. Belief is also important: the belief that you really can change, if you put your mind to it. Belief enables you to overcome the inevitable crises and avoid relapse.

A review of Risk Savvy By Gerd Gigerenzer

The thrust of the book is that you can use such straightforward rules to cope with and take control of almost any real-world situation, from choosing how to invest your money, to picking a spouse, to deciding what to order from a restaurant menu.

A review of Unlock Your Style by Nikki Parkinson

There are a few things I really like about this book. The first is that Nikki Parkinson targets the advice in this book to real women, and uses women models who are a variety of ages, shapes and sizes. The second is the warm, down-to-earth, non-judgemental tone that is always focused on feeling good over dictates.

A review of The Twelfth Raven by Doris Brett

One ordinary evening when Doris Brett and her husband Martin went out dancing, the normally super-sharp Martin became confused. After struggling to put sentences together, an ambulance was called, and, in Doris’ own words, “so it begins.” Martin ends up having a massive stroke, suffering extensive damage to the left frontal lobe, which leaves him unable to talk, walk (never mind dance) and eat on his own.

A review of Writing Wild by Tina Welling

Tina Welling wrote Writing Wild: Forming a Creative Partnership with Nature, to share an insight she had while hiking near her home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a location which attracts visitors from all over because of its magnificent scenery and wildlife. While walking, she experienced “the interconnectedness between the earth’s creative energy and [her] own personal creative energy.” Since then, Welling takes “spirit walks” in nature to replenish her resources and let the earth’s energy provide insights and answers.

A review of The Man Who Couldn’t Stop—OCD, and the true story of a life lost in thought by David Adam

In The Man Who Couldn’t Stop, David Adam provides a compelling history of mental dysfunction, its various treatments and cites numerous cases of the miraculous and downright bizarre. But far more than being a book filled with facts and figures, this is a story about Adam’s own battle with OCD, which began early in his childhood. No one understands the effect OCD has on a life quite like a sufferer, and it’s this unique insight that sets this book apart from others of its ilk.

A review of And there was Light by Jacques Lusseyran

Some books should not be read with other books. Or the other book will not compare favorably. Some books remind the reader of why books are read in the first place – because they open the eyes and heart to new worlds that the reader had never dreamed of. Some books remove the cap from our head, and open the top of our skulls. And There was Light is such a book — at least in the first section. But for some, it might be the second section. It depends.