Book Reviews
Fantasy, quirky history, non-fiction, historical fiction books & more
Book Review: The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk
Publisher: Penguin Genre: Non-Fiction, Psychology Rating: 🌟🌟🌟 This is a comprehensive guide to trauma. Unlike other guides, it places emphasis on the physical body and how past buried traumas are inextricably connected to the body, or in other words: ‘The Body Keeps the Score’. Although this book is more of a clinical guide for psychologists,…
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Eight ‘classic’ and popular books that are unreadable…
Do you have any books that everyone else seemed to love and you absolutely hated, or that you found to be a bit mediocre? Do you disagree with my assessment on these books and want to give me a good talking to? Let me know below.
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Book Review: Ordinary Beauty: Meaningful Moments in Everyday Life by Mary McEvoy
Publisher: Hachette Books Ireland Genre: Non-Fiction, Spirituality, Wisdom, Buddhism, Paganism Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 This is a book of wisdom, quotes and treasures is from writer Mary McEvoy. She has lived experience of depression and anxiety. So she understands intimately how to handle and manage the dark times of life. How to look at the darkness squarely…
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Book Review: A Curious History of Sex by Kate Lister
Genre: Non-fiction, sex, history, women’s history, feminism. Publisher: Unbound Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Be prepared to have your hair on both ends of you to blown back and rearranged into a merkin. The History of Sex is like one prolonged literary orgasm and I mean that seriously. It’s a delight and a treat, a flirtatious and salacious…
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Book Review: The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene
Robert Greene has written best-selling books on seduction, power, war, self-mastery and now knowledge. Although the sum and total of his output of books gives the wrong impression about the man. He’s not an evil and Machiavellian type jockeying for power – rather his books are about understanding the lesser-known shadowy parts of ourselves to…
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Book Review: Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe
Publisher: Magabala Books Genre: Non-Fiction, History, Australian History, Aboriginal History, Archaeology Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 This is a hidden book about hidden Australian history. Written by esteemed and respected Aboriginal elder, historian and author Bruce Pascoe, Dark Emu tells an alternative version of how pre-European Australia looked according to the original and rightful owners and custodians of…
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Book Review: Standing Firm: Resisting The Self Improvement Craze by Svend Brinkmann
‘Standing Firm’ in the sense of this book means to counter the incessant drive towards more, more, more of everything. It’s a call to action to resist and stand firm against ‘improvement culture’, not just self-improvement and personal development, but also the constant acceleration and growth in our economic systems, and the overuse and destruction…
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Book Review: Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens Dawidowitz
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Genre: Non-Fiction, Psychology, Consumerism, Marketing, Digital Media, Digital Technology, Big Data. Rating: 🌟🌟 Everybody Lies: What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens Dawidowitz sets out to reveal the hidden selves that we reveal freely to the Gods of Search Engines, but rarely to other people…
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Book Review: Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Genre: Non-Fiction, Psychology, Spirituality, Anthropology, Culture, Politics, History Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 I was initially skeptical about this book. A hopeful history of humanity? During the time of COVID, climate change and mass animal extinction? However, there was a kernel of hope within me that really wanted for this concept to be true. This…
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Book Review: You May Also Like by Tom Vanderbilt
Publisher: Knopf Genre: Non-Fiction, Psychology, Consumerism, Marketing Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 If you’re like me, you are an endlessly curious person who enjoys reading and learning about many things, and you like and enjoy a great many different things…if so, then here is a classic book for you! ‘You May Also Like’ endeavours to answer some fascinating…
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Book Review: The Introvert’s Way: Living a Quiet Life in a Noisy World by Sophia Dembling
Publisher: Penguin Genre: Non-Fiction, Psychology Rating: 🌟 This book about introversion was profoundly disappointing. After having recently read ‘The Highly Sensitive Person;’ by Elaine Aron and all of the immense insights this book contained, I felt that The Introvert’s Way was lacking in psychological insights and research and was instead focused on flimsy personal anecdotes…
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Book Review: Grace Jones, I’ll Never Write My Memoirs
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Genre: Non-Fiction, Biography Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 This is the life story of one of the most iconic musicians and fashionistas in history. She’s a rebel, an iconoclast. A bit mannish, a bit womanish, a bit old, a bit young. Completely unpredictable, indefinable and wild in heart and soul. I am speaking of…
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Book Review: All that Remains: A Life in Death by Sue Black
* No Spoilers Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Scottish Forensic Anthropologist and Professor Sue Black’s memoir about her life confronting death won the Saltire Book of the Year in 2018. Forensic anthropology (in case you are wondering) is the study of human remains in order to solve criminal cases. I was very excited to read this book. Yet…
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Book Review: The Sky Atlas by Edward Brooke Hitching
* No Spoilers Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Edward Brooke Hitching, history-hound, lover of quirky things and writer for the ever-popular and erudite quiz show QI, has written The Sky Atlas. A treasury and history of some of humankind’s most beautiful maps and charts. Yet this book is more than that, it’s a sparkling and glittering array of…
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Book Review: The Lives of the Surrealists by Desmond Morris
* No Spoilers Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 This is an incredible book. Written by Desmond Morris who is a prominent Zoologist and well-known for his book The Naked Ape. It’s possibly less widely known that Morris was himself a surrealist and knew many of the prominent surrealists in the art movement. I have to admit not knowing…
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