book reviews
Reviews of books by relationship gurus, dating experts, and cautionary tale-tellers.
7 Great Books About Self-Improvement Everyone Must Read
Reading is the best way to help people grow and improve themselves. What you read can make a difference in your life, the kind of thinking you possess, and your future. In this article, we will come across some of the very best books every human must read. I will help you along this journey.
By Chandler Voca4 years ago in Humans
Book Review: Diary of an Angry Young Man by Rishi Vohra
Raghav is an ordinary seven-year-old growing up on the 'good' side of Colaba in Bombay. His is a safe, protected world and he is kept well away from the 'other', darker side of Colaba, which nevertheless, holds a deep fascination for him with its colorful, busy alleys bustling with activity, people and mystery - the 'real' world as far he is concerned. But life has other plans and Raghav's entire world comes crashing down one day. In the space of a few crucial hours, his childish innocence is ripped away brutally, and he also loses the one person who may have made his world right again - his mother. That fateful day alters the course of his life and the 'other' side is the only place he can escape his now truly miserable home life and his bitter father who he resents more and more each day. He never tells even his closest friends about the horrific abuse he suffered the day his mother died, the day a fierce, burning anger took root in his very soul. Now, 20 years later, all his peers and friends are settling down into jobs and the business of growing up. But Raghav is still trapped between his now suffocating relationship with his father, his own inability to find a job and make a life for himself and the painful memories of his childhood ordeal that still haunt him. And this is when he meets Rani one day, an orphan beggar girl who knows life on the streets of Mumbai, but not in the way Raghav does. He wants to 'save' Rani from the beggar mafia and give her a chance at a better life. His strong need to stand up for something, to truly help someone is fueled by the recent Nirbhaya gangrape case in New Delhi, that evokes painful memories of his own past trauma. Set in Bombay in 1992 and Mumbai in 2012, and inspired by true events, Diary of an Angry Young Man is a coming-of-age urban drama that explores the complex layers of humanity. And the city that engenders them.
By Marie Sinadjan4 years ago in Humans
Audiobook Review: The Child of Fire and Earth by Barry Ryerson
Hew had always dreamt of being a knight. Take that, villain! Yes, princess, of course I'll rescue you. Thank you, your Majesty, yes I am great with a sword. Unfortunately, being a farmer's son made that dream impossible. Real life was more about cleaning animal mess and checking for weeds. Until he met the dragon. It opened up a hidden world of magic around him. Faeries. Hobgoblins. Monsters, shape changers, brownies; you name them, he met them. But there was a problem. A blight to the north was making magic fade from the Earth. If it disappeared completely, then everyone would freeze to death. Yes, that included Hew's annoying little sister, but even she didn’t deserve to be frozen. He would have to be brave and defeat this blight. The question was… What could a nearly eleven-year-old do?
By Marie Sinadjan4 years ago in Humans
Book Review: The Heron Kings' Flight by Eric Lewis
The Heron Kings have been betrayed. A century after their formation from a gang of desperate peasant insurgents, the shadowy band of forest rangers suffers a rare defeat when a skirmish turns into a bloody ambush. Their shaky truce with the crown is tested as young members Linet and Aerrus work to track down their enemies. When reluctant peacetime soldier Eyvind reveals a conspiracy to welcome the charismatic invader Phynagoras, the trio must convince a weak king and pitifully few allies to stand against the storm. Their only hope lies in the forgotten tactics of their own guerrilla past, and a terrifying new alchemical weapon the likes of which the world had never imagined. The only question is which side will be destroyed by it first... This is the sequel to The Heron Kings. Click on the link for the review and the purchase links.
By Marie Sinadjan4 years ago in Humans
Book Review: From Brick and Darkness by J.L. Sullivan
Bax always fantasized something remarkable would happen in his life. So when a decrepit man with glowing purple eyes offers him a ring intended for his estranged father, Bax accepts. The ring speaks to Bax in a dream, tempting him with a vision of a powerful djinn. Desperate to make his fantasies a reality, Bax unleashes a creature called Ifrit, but soon learns this djinn isn't what the ring led him to believe. Feeding off the depths of his subconscious, the sinister demon fulfills what he thinks Bax wants by manipulating, threatening, and murdering. With everyone he loves in danger and a trail of crimes pointing back at him, Bax must scramble to solve the puzzle that will banish Ifrit forever.
By Marie Sinadjan4 years ago in Humans
"Story Genius"
Am I a genius when it comes to writing? I’d like to believe so, but sadly, no. I need some support. I think this book offers me some. Maybe it’s a crutch, or maybe not so much a crutch, as a jumping-off point, giving me a strong push in the right direction; giving me some support while developing my own technique.
By KJ Aartila4 years ago in Humans
My 2022 Books of the Month, Part 1
JANUARY: The Showstopper by Kyle Robertson New York, 1922: the economy is booming, the days are short, and the nights are long and filled with every kind of entertainment imaginable. But all is not well in this dazzling, decadent world. A masked criminal is stalking the streets and haunting the theaters, leaving chaos in his wake. No stage production is safe from his deviously brilliant methods of sabotage. In the opinion of janitor Tom Wilkins, the snobbish actors and businessmen around him are getting exactly what they deserve at the hands of the mysterious vigilante. But a chance encounter will soon plunge him into a deadly game of cat and mouse against a madman bent on total destruction. Caught in the whirlwind along with a beautiful actress, a refined theater owner, and a rookie police officer, Wilkins will have to use all his skills to expose the mastermind behind the curtain pulling all of their strings, before the curtain falls on Broadway–and his own life–forever.
By Marie Sinadjan4 years ago in Humans
Dealing with Bad Book Reviews
The first book I ever wrote was actually just self-published within the last month. I decided I wanted to write about something that I knew a fair amount about. It is about options trading, specifically covered calls in options trading. It was something that I researched and taught myself after trying to get others to teach me. I always have friends and family who ask me how to get started in it, so I wrote a guide on what it is and how to execute. The "book" literally took me years to write. Not because I didn't know how to do it, but I just didn't have the time, nor really took the time to write. You know how life just sometimes gets in the way.
By Kristi Flowers4 years ago in Humans
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Recently, I've read a number of novels that have really left me feeling empty. Some were too simple, others had a lot of issues fixed swiftly and neatly, while a third category had textual errors such misidentified bugs, incorrect tribes, and inaccurate descriptions. As I often do, I slogged through them all in the hopes of finding some intellectual interest and stimulation, but ultimately I was deeply let down. Then I chose Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Fowler takes all the lovely components of a book and incorporates them into a compelling story with interesting people and situations. My mind was completely engaged from the first page to the last.
By Rahau Mihai4 years ago in Humans
Book Review: Valen and the Beasts by G.J. Kemp
Valen plucked the glass box off the shelf and gently placed it on his desk. Inside, a set of handcrafted metal circles linked to form the body of his new beast. He closed his eyes and dreamed of the Fairacre residents buying his latest creations. A commotion outside Valen’s shop brings him back to the present. The Captain has caught the leader of the sewer rats and is parading her in front of Fairacre residents. Her fate will be determined by the townsfolk’s demands. Valen steps in to defend the leader. A story of discovery, hope and courage, Valen and the Beasts is a journey of an outsider risking everything to stand up for the people he loves. Will Valen save the leader of the sewer rats? Will he show everyone his secret? Or will he buckle under the pressures of the old conventions?
By Marie Sinadjan4 years ago in Humans
Book Review: The Heron Kings by Eric Lewis
After a warlord slaughters her patients, Sister Alessia quits the cloister and strikes out on her own to heal the victims of a brutal dynastic conflict. Her roaming forest camp unwittingly becomes the center of a vengeful peasant insurgency, raiding the forces of both sides to survive. Alessia struggles to temper their fury as well as tend wounds, consenting to ever greater violence to keep her new charges safe. When they uncover proof of a foreign conspiracy prolonging the bloodshed, Alessia risks the very lives she’s saved to expose the truth and bring the war to an end.
By Marie Sinadjan4 years ago in Humans
