Do you need to step up your mental game? We all need to consider this from time to time as life throws its various challenges our way. I like to share book reviews on my blog and am delighted to share this one from Alex Laurie about  Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B Cialdini. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion As I was strolling through Barnes & Nobles, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B Cialdini caught my eye. I love the self help section and psychology section of book stores. I feel like it helps me grow on an individual level. As a salesperson, I’m always looking…

When I was asked to do The Blanket Bears Book review I was amazed as the request came on the 50th anniversary of my own adoption or rather the day my new parents took me home for the first time. Now that is what they call serendipity. The Blanket Bears is a book about adoption from a child’s perspective. Adoption is a wonderful thing and was the making of me. However, like many adopted children I have struggled with issues around identity all my life. I also experience insecurity a lot and can be quite needy apparently. It makes absolute sense that a child will experience trauma on being removed…

After reading and reviewing the Missing Wife, I was keen to seek out author Sheila O’Flanagan again. I went off to a second-hand book shop hoping to find one of her novels. Sadly the only book they had available by her was a collection of short stories called Destinations. I was happy enough really and bought it. Here is my book review of Destinations, Setting The stories are all based on stops along DART which is the electric rail system in Dublin. Funnily enough I have always wanted to write a book of short stories myself based on public transport. I am sure like me you have found yourself at…

It was only last week I was showing off that I managed to read A Tiny Bit Marvelous by Dawn French in just one week. Clearly the reading habit benefits from practice as this week I finished this week’s novel a few days ago. I seem to be selecting books about women of a certain age at the moment. I do have a habit of reading novels that cover the time of life that I happen to be in.  I think I will try something a little different this week to mix things up a bit but in the meantime I hope you enjoy my The Pull of the Moon…

A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French is a book that I managed to finish in just one week. For me that is quite an accolade. I used to read at quite a pace before becoming a wife and mother. Reading was one of those pastimes that got neglected for too many years with me juggling parenting, work, home education and housework. I have put that right but am still much slower at finishing books than I used to be. So you can take it as read (no pun intended!) that if I finish a book in a week it means I love it. A Tiny Bit Marvellous I picked…

As I attempt to get into a regular blogging pattern so that my readers know what to expect, I am using Mondays to focus on reading. I hope you enjoy my book review of The Missing Wife by Sheila Flanagan. Book review of The Missing Wife The book starts with a journey as we meet our heroine Imogen for the first time. I always think at public transport stops and stations that every passenger probably has quite a powerful story to tell. Imogen is making a journey from A to B but also from a relationship of coercive control with Vince to one of self-discovery and liberty. She uses a…

  As a book lover, nothing beats the feeling of getting my hands on a new book. Sure, e-books cost less and take up less space when they’re in your Kindle or smartphone, but the feeling of flipping the page and immersing yourself in a whole other universe is an entirely different feeling. One of my pet peeves, though, is seeing many people mishandle their books. It’s not that people are actively destroying their books, but they’re unknowingly mishandling the books so much that it takes on damage. As a result, their books look damaged even though it’s only been a few months in their possession. If you’ve a tendency…

I want to share my The Reunion book review with you. The Reunion is actually by Guillaume Musso and fortunately translated from the original French by Frank Wynne.  I have a history of avoiding all school and college reunions and I know I am not alone in that. There are fears about the fact that you look so much older or perhaps have not fulfilled all your early promise. You can be haunted by thoughts of how everyone at the reunion will be doing so much better than you are. It is nonsense of course. Once I did go to a college reunion, I realised I had riches others did…

Something to Live for by Richard Roper is Orion Fiction’s major debut launch for 2019. I was delighted to be asked to read the book and review it on my blog. The book deals with the themes of life and death. When describing the book to my husband I started referring to it as “my death book” but actually it is far more about how to live life well whilst we have it and how we can all forget how vital that is particularly when curveballs are thrown our way. First impressions of Something to Live for I read about 50 pages of the book and thought it was OK…

Confessions of a Bad Mother, The Teenage Years is the new non-fiction book from Stephanie Calman. As a mother of boys aged 18 and 13 and a daughter aged 15, I was keen to read it to pick up any wisdom or reassurance from another mum. I struggled when the children were small and it seems my challenges continue making me feel all too often I am not cut out for parenting at all even though I love them so very much. Confessions of A Bad Mother, The Teenage Years The Sunday Times called this book “an antidote to all those perfect mother manuals”. The book shares tales from the…

The  New Achilles by Christian Cameron was published by Orion on 18th April 2019. I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to read it so I could share an early review on my blog with you. This is a book where if you settle down and put the effort in you will be rewarded with a great read and learn lots too. The New Achilles by Christian Cameron The book is set in 3rd century BC Greece. There is a power struggle between Macedon and Rome which is threatening to tear Greece apart. I have had a long fascination with this period and wish I had studied Ancient History…