Nonfiction
That Girl in Your Mirror
Calvin Coolidge said: "The world is full of unsuccessful people with talent." I'm sure that's why my mother kept us grounded in reality, which for us, was poverty. Mom fostered a love of fairytales when I was small, but that shifted when she divorced dad, moving us to Georgia. My grandfather passed the year before, leaving my grandmother alone, so we found ourselves working a dirt farm.
By Veronica Coldiron2 years ago in BookClub
The Symphony of Dreams
In the quaint town of Harmonia, music was more than just a form of entertainment; it was the heartbeat of the community. For generations, the annual Harmonia Music Festival had been the highlight of the town's calendar. This year, the stakes were higher than ever, as the festival was set to commemorate its centennial edition.Among the bustling streets of Harmonia lived a young girl named Amelia. From a tender age, she displayed an extraordinary gift for music. Her fingers danced effortlessly across the piano keys, creating melodies that seemed to touch the very soul of anyone who heard them. Yet, Amelia was hesitant to share her talent with the world. She feared her music wasn't good enough to stand beside the works of legends that had graced the festival over the years.Amelia's grandmother, Eleanor, had been a renowned violinist in her prime. She saw potential in Amelia's talent and believed that she possessed the ability to create something truly remarkable. One evening, as the sun dipped below the horizon, Eleanor sat Amelia down by the window."Listen," Eleanor said, as the night breeze carried the distant strains of a violin playing in the park. "Music is the bridge between emotions and the universe. Each note we play is a story waiting to be told."Eleanor's words resonated with Amelia, sparking a fire within her to share her music with the world. She decided to compose an original piece for the upcoming centennial festival. Day after day, she poured her heart into her composition, weaving a tapestry of emotions through the notes.As the festival drew near, Amelia's nerves intensified. She knew that her composition, titled "Symphony of Dreams," had to be extraordinary to stand a chance of winning the prestigious award. With Eleanor's unwavering support, she practiced tirelessly, fine-tuning each note to perfection.Finally, the day of the festival arrived. The town square was adorned with colorful banners, and the air was filled with excitement. Musicians from all around had gathered to showcase their talents. As the sun set, casting a warm glow over Harmonia, the stage lights illuminated Amelia's piano.Amelia took a deep breath and began to play. Her fingers moved with grace and confidence, the music enveloping the audience in a cocoon of emotion. With every note, she poured her heart into the composition, reliving the memories and dreams that had inspired it. As the final note echoed, there was a moment of silence before the crowd erupted into thunderous applause.Days passed, and the festival's awards ceremony arrived. The anticipation in the air was palpable as the winners were about to be announced. When the time came for the Best Original Composition award, the tension was nearly unbearable. The presenter cleared his throat and announced, "The winner of this year's award is... Amelia!"Amelia's heart swelled with a mixture of joy, gratitude, and disbelief. She walked to the stage, her steps feeling as light as air. Accepting the award, she looked out at the sea of smiling faces and felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. Her music had resonated with the hearts of the townspeople, just as she had hoped.Eleanor embraced Amelia with tears of pride in her eyes. "You've woven a masterpiece, my dear. Your Symphony of Dreams will forever be remembered in the harmonies of our town."From that day on, Amelia's music continued to captivate audiences far and wide. Her composition became a timeless treasure, a symbol of the magic that can be created when dreams are transformed into melodies.And so, in the town of Harmonia, the centennial festival celebrated not just a hundred years of music, but the birth of a new legend whose melody would echo through generations, inspiring dreamers to share their gifts with the world.
By Md. Sujon Islam2 years ago in BookClub
Your Reaction To Harry’s Book, Spare, Speaks Volumes About Your Relationship Issues
Everyone has a reaction to ‘Spare.’ Every person alive, who knows of the British Royal Family, has an opinion about the fact one of the senior royals is dishing everything.
By Ellen "Jelly" McRae2 years ago in BookClub
The Haunting in Hillwood Manor
Once upon a time, in the little town Hilwood, there stood an old and eerie house known as Hilwood Manor. its dilapidated appearance and gloomy aura made it the talk of the town, and rumors circulated about it being haunted. As a curious journalist, I couldn't resist the temptation to investigate this enigmatic place.
By Banele Magwaza2 years ago in BookClub
The psychology of emotion
The psychology of emotion explores how emotions influence our thoughts, behavior, and overall well-being. Emotions are complex responses to various stimuli, often involving physiological changes, thoughts, and subjective feelings. Our senses, such as sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell, play a crucial role in shaping our emotional experiences and our perception of reality. For example, visual stimuli can trigger emotions through colors, patterns, and facial expressions. Auditory cues like music or voices can evoke strong emotional responses. Touch can convey comfort, affection, or discomfort. Smells and tastes can trigger memories and emotional associations. These sensory inputs can influence how we interpret situations, form judgments, and make decisions. Our emotions also interact with our cognitive processes, affecting attention, memory, and decision-making. Emotions can bias our perception of events, leading to selective attention and memory recall. This, in turn, influences how we construct our understanding of the world around us. In essence, our senses provide the raw data that our brain processes into emotional experiences, which in turn shape our perception of reality. This dynamic interplay between our senses, emotions, and cognition plays a crucial role in determining how we respond to situations, relate to others, and navigate our lives.
By Uchenna Emmanuel 2 years ago in BookClub
Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience — Eighteen Years Later
Authors preface: I first published this review on Vocal two years ago, and before that I had published a version on Medium. With each republication I have updated or revised various sections. Thought it made sense to resurrect it one more time for a Vocal Book Club Challenge to "write about a book that changed you." This particular book, PFoN, I happen to believe, is one of the most important ever written and, it has impacted my own thinking on a huge range of topics very deeply. At the time this was written I was reading tons and tons about neuroscience. Specifically at this time I had recently completed reading a number of works by Patricia Churchland Smith, a neuroscientist/philosopher of great renown. I found her views disturbing and her positions misguided. She is the queen of the mereological fallacy (see below for what this is) often using the brain and the person interchangeably as she views them as one and the same. She also believes that if we fully understood everything about how the brain works, we could recreate particular states of consciousness. She is the ultimate hard core reductionist and views consciousness as nothing more than a particular series of electro-chemical reactions in the brain which, like particular states of consciousness, we could replicate artificially if we fully understood. No body would be required for this miraculous achievement. My guess is the AI crowd is a big fan of her work, myself, not so much. In any event, Dr. Churchland-Smith is a frequent target of Bennet and Hacker's logical breakdowns of various neuroscientific studies and claims about the brain and consciousness, which they dissect and show to be in error point by point.
By Everyday Junglist2 years ago in BookClub
Cinderella: The Native American Story
IN THE SHORES of a wide straight on the Atlantic shoreline of what is presently called Canada there stayed in bygone eras an extraordinary Local American fighter known for his wondrous deeds. He had an extremely magnificent and unusual power - he could make himself undetectable. In this manner he could blend concealed with his foes and pay attention to their plots. He was referred to among individuals as Solid Breeze, the Imperceptible.
By L.Soufiane2 years ago in BookClub
The Survivalists: A Novel by Kashana Cauley (January)
Community gardeners meet doomsday preppers stockpiling weapons above a trendy coffee shop in The Survivalists (Soft Skull Press), a darkly funny look at how people form communities to care for one another amid institutional failures and scarcity. Set in a mostly Black Central Brooklyn, this debut novel from Kashana Cauley, a former lawyer, Daily Show with Trevor Noah writer, and New York Times contributor, finds humour in our hostile, uncertain present while outlining starkly different visions of the future—and how we might prepare for them. — Lisa Wong Macabasco.
By Sarah Habarneh2 years ago in BookClub
The Wager Book Review
David Grann's The Wager is a masterful work of nonfiction that tells the story of the Wager Mutiny, a real-life event that took place in 1741. The book is a gripping tale of shipwreck, survival, and murder, but it is also much more than that. It is a meditation on the nature of power, the limits of human endurance, and the power of storytelling.
By Timothy A Rowland2 years ago in BookClub
