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The Autoimmune Solution: Prevent and Reverse the Full Spectrum of Inflammatory Symptoms and Diseases
M.D. Amy myers and Amy M D Myers
Book
A leader in the paleo and functional medicine worlds introduces an accessible, easy-to-follow, and...
The Push is a dark, twisted and thoroughly disturbing look at motherhood - and I couldn’t put it down.
Blythe wants to be everything her own mother was not when she was a child, and we do see some of the ways her mother treated her in flashbacks. This is three generations of women (grandmother, mother and daughter)who have clearly not been ideal mothers or treated well as daughters. Blythe desperately wants to break the cycle, and goes in to motherhood with the best of intentions. Except her newborn is not an easy baby for her. She cries continuously, and Blythe really struggles. I did wonder throughout the book if a lot of Blythe’s problems derived from postnatal depression. Except when she goes to see a male doctor about it, he thinks she’s fine (insert the eye roll here! I really didn’t agree with him!). The same could possibly be said of Blythe’s mother and grandmother: if not PND, then some other mental health issue was surely at play here?
This is a brutal look at motherhood. It shows it for what it is for many women: a hard slog. I couldn’t help but empathise with Blythe. I felt that her needs and feelings were pushed aside by her husband and the doctor. In a time where motherhood is all about creating a perfect family, with perfect babies, children and husbands, Blythe doesn’t seem to stand a chance. It made for an intensely uncomfortable reading experience in places.
This is a book that’s going to stay with me for a long while - especially after THAT ending (see, you’ll have to read it now!). I’d highly recommend this - it’s already in my books of the year.
Many thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph for an e-copy of this book to read through NetGalley.
Blythe wants to be everything her own mother was not when she was a child, and we do see some of the ways her mother treated her in flashbacks. This is three generations of women (grandmother, mother and daughter)who have clearly not been ideal mothers or treated well as daughters. Blythe desperately wants to break the cycle, and goes in to motherhood with the best of intentions. Except her newborn is not an easy baby for her. She cries continuously, and Blythe really struggles. I did wonder throughout the book if a lot of Blythe’s problems derived from postnatal depression. Except when she goes to see a male doctor about it, he thinks she’s fine (insert the eye roll here! I really didn’t agree with him!). The same could possibly be said of Blythe’s mother and grandmother: if not PND, then some other mental health issue was surely at play here?
This is a brutal look at motherhood. It shows it for what it is for many women: a hard slog. I couldn’t help but empathise with Blythe. I felt that her needs and feelings were pushed aside by her husband and the doctor. In a time where motherhood is all about creating a perfect family, with perfect babies, children and husbands, Blythe doesn’t seem to stand a chance. It made for an intensely uncomfortable reading experience in places.
This is a book that’s going to stay with me for a long while - especially after THAT ending (see, you’ll have to read it now!). I’d highly recommend this - it’s already in my books of the year.
Many thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph for an e-copy of this book to read through NetGalley.
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Saint Maud (2020) in Movies
May 28, 2021
God damn, am I a sucker for horrors that are equally beautiful and unsettling. Saint Maud hit all the right notes for me.
A big chunk of the runtime is dedicated to the extremly authentic-feeling relationship between the titular Maud (Morfydd Clark), a live-in nurse and her patient Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), a retired dancer who is terminally ill with cancer. The sweet connection between the two of them is subtle but well realised, making it all the more uncomfortable when things take a sinister turn.
The religious premise is nothing new in this genre, and there is a bit of a Rosemary's Baby vibe going on, but it's execution is pretty much flawless. Maud's devotion to God is occasionlly terrifying, but her human doubt and her occasional shake in faith stops the narrative from going full blown religious fanatic, and instead touches upon mental health issues. For all of her preaching at Amanda, Maud is the one who is portrayed as lost and lonely, trying to suppress past trauma. Her character is certainly a sympathetic one.
95% of its runtime is a slow burn, one that is complimented by wonderful cinematography and a haunting music score. However, I'm struggling to think of a film in recent memory that escalates so severely in such a short space of time, when the other 5% finally hits. To say anymore would be stepping into spoiler territory, but I will say that it's beautifully horrifying to watch unfold, with a final shot that will be seared into my brain for a while.
Rose Glass has created a true horror masterpiece with Saint Maud. Her presence withing the horror genre is a welcome one, and I'm excited to see what she does next.
A big chunk of the runtime is dedicated to the extremly authentic-feeling relationship between the titular Maud (Morfydd Clark), a live-in nurse and her patient Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), a retired dancer who is terminally ill with cancer. The sweet connection between the two of them is subtle but well realised, making it all the more uncomfortable when things take a sinister turn.
The religious premise is nothing new in this genre, and there is a bit of a Rosemary's Baby vibe going on, but it's execution is pretty much flawless. Maud's devotion to God is occasionlly terrifying, but her human doubt and her occasional shake in faith stops the narrative from going full blown religious fanatic, and instead touches upon mental health issues. For all of her preaching at Amanda, Maud is the one who is portrayed as lost and lonely, trying to suppress past trauma. Her character is certainly a sympathetic one.
95% of its runtime is a slow burn, one that is complimented by wonderful cinematography and a haunting music score. However, I'm struggling to think of a film in recent memory that escalates so severely in such a short space of time, when the other 5% finally hits. To say anymore would be stepping into spoiler territory, but I will say that it's beautifully horrifying to watch unfold, with a final shot that will be seared into my brain for a while.
Rose Glass has created a true horror masterpiece with Saint Maud. Her presence withing the horror genre is a welcome one, and I'm excited to see what she does next.
Jordan Binkerd (567 KP) rated Ad Astra (2019) in Movies
Sep 27, 2019
The cast (3 more)
The score
Realistic science
Beautiful VFX
Anticlimactic/possibly unreliable ending (3 more)
Awkward voiceover
Pacing? Some would disagree....
Action scenes are kind of shoehorned in
Beautiful and haunting
First off, you've got to see this in the theater if you're going to see it. The sparse lunar and Martian vistas, not to mention the star-strewn expanses of space, will be so much less impressive on your living room television. The cast is amazing, though there's not nearly enough Tommy Lee Jones or Donald Sutherland. The tone is haunting and uncomfortable, aided by a subdued score that at times seems to pay tribute to the soundless vacuum in which parts of the film are set. The science is up to date, in that it accurately reflects the fact that after getting sidetracked for a decade or four, we're back to using rockets to explore the solar system. The plot is at heart an exploration of humanity, our needs, drives, relationships and obsessive stubbornness, and dips somewhat into questions of sanity and mental health, again sometimes uncomfortably, though the slow-burn pacing is not for everyone. There are occasional action sequences, but they often feel disconnected and shoehorned in. The ending was a little anti-climactic, and I'm not entirely sure it actually happened - it's barely a spoiler to suggest that the protagonist is in danger as the ending nears, and everything that follows his return to Earth could easily be a dream or dying hallucination (and in fact if argue that this would be a stronger ending). The voiceover was a bit awkward, and would have benefitted from an in-story justification such as the character journalling or leaving a sealed log of some sort. Basically, I think it was worth seeing, but it's not going to be for everyone.
Anti Stress and Anxiety Hypnosis
Health & Fitness
App
Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or thought that...
Hold Still: A Portrait of our Nation in 2020: Sunday Times Bestseller
The Duchess of Cambridge Patron of the National Portrait Gallery and Lemn Sissay MBE
Book
Focused on three key themes – Helpers and Heroes, Your New Normal and Acts of Kindness, this book...
The Silver Road
10.0
Rate It
Book
This is a novel of love and loss, guilt and grief, and of family in both the good and bad sense of...
Merissa (11587 KP) rated When Darkness Turns to Light (Dark River Stone Collective #2) in Books
Jun 11, 2021 (Updated Jul 18, 2023)
WHEN DARKNESS TURNS TO LIGHT is the second book in the Dark River Stone Collective. Lincoln and Mason play a part in this but you don't have to have read their book for this one to make sense, although events are referred to.
Toad has been on the run from his family for a while, escaping a mental health facility to do so. His being under the radar is scuppered when he messes up his hand and has to go to the hospital. This opens a whole can of worms that he didn't want to deal with or for his brothers to know about. Sid has his own issues to contend with, which means that these two don't have a smooth ride of it. It's not major angst, but there is still some.
This was a brilliant addition to the series, with Sid and Toad definitely in the limelight. Lincoln and Mason are their supporting cast, and we get to see Mason in his full lawyer glory once again. The relationship between Sid and Toad has its bumps as they're both stubborn as...! These two are sexy as anything though, and I loved both the hot action and also the tender moments between them. The ending was perfect, such a Toad thing to do, and it was great to see the heat hasn't diminished between Lincoln and Mason too.
I am loving every word of this series and have no hesitation in recommending it. Now who comes next?
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Jun 11, 2021
Toad has been on the run from his family for a while, escaping a mental health facility to do so. His being under the radar is scuppered when he messes up his hand and has to go to the hospital. This opens a whole can of worms that he didn't want to deal with or for his brothers to know about. Sid has his own issues to contend with, which means that these two don't have a smooth ride of it. It's not major angst, but there is still some.
This was a brilliant addition to the series, with Sid and Toad definitely in the limelight. Lincoln and Mason are their supporting cast, and we get to see Mason in his full lawyer glory once again. The relationship between Sid and Toad has its bumps as they're both stubborn as...! These two are sexy as anything though, and I loved both the hot action and also the tender moments between them. The ending was perfect, such a Toad thing to do, and it was great to see the heat hasn't diminished between Lincoln and Mason too.
I am loving every word of this series and have no hesitation in recommending it. Now who comes next?
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Jun 11, 2021
Hazel (2934 KP) rated Good Samaritans [Audiobook] in Books
May 14, 2023
![Good Samaritans [Audiobook]](/uploads/profile_image/8d3/35178302-459f-4b44-a863-84f356c318d3.jpg?m=1684075253)
Oh my word ... what a book ... absolutely brilliant and the best audiobook I have listened to this year so far and, I think, it will take something remarkable to beat it!
This is a very dark, disturbing and extremely gripping story that will draw you in, shake you around and spit you out the other side and all the while you're thinking, what the heck and why am I enjoying this so much?!?
It's all kinds of wrong but so right and deliciously wicked and addictive.
I'm not even going to go into the story - you'll just have to buy it - but what I will say is that the characters are scarily normal which makes them ultra creepy, the story is riveting and there's some great twists that I didn't see coming and the build up of tension is palpable.
There are graphic descriptions of murder, a lot about suicide, mental health and a number of sex scenes (maybe too many if I'm honest and this is my only negative) so if any of these are triggers for you, I would steer clear.
Would I have enjoyed it as much had I read the physical book? I'm not sure if I'm honest because the narrator made all the difference and was absolutely perfect and brilliant. I fell in love with his voice from the beginning ... it was so contradictory to the content of what he was reading that it made the story all the more creepy and disturbing.
I haven't read or listened to any of Will Carver's work before and after listening to Good Samaritans, I won't make that mistake again and I must thank Bolinda Audio and NetGalley for enabling me to listen to and share my thoughts of Good Samaritans and introducing me to another excellent author.
This is a very dark, disturbing and extremely gripping story that will draw you in, shake you around and spit you out the other side and all the while you're thinking, what the heck and why am I enjoying this so much?!?
It's all kinds of wrong but so right and deliciously wicked and addictive.
I'm not even going to go into the story - you'll just have to buy it - but what I will say is that the characters are scarily normal which makes them ultra creepy, the story is riveting and there's some great twists that I didn't see coming and the build up of tension is palpable.
There are graphic descriptions of murder, a lot about suicide, mental health and a number of sex scenes (maybe too many if I'm honest and this is my only negative) so if any of these are triggers for you, I would steer clear.
Would I have enjoyed it as much had I read the physical book? I'm not sure if I'm honest because the narrator made all the difference and was absolutely perfect and brilliant. I fell in love with his voice from the beginning ... it was so contradictory to the content of what he was reading that it made the story all the more creepy and disturbing.
I haven't read or listened to any of Will Carver's work before and after listening to Good Samaritans, I won't make that mistake again and I must thank Bolinda Audio and NetGalley for enabling me to listen to and share my thoughts of Good Samaritans and introducing me to another excellent author.
Louise (64 KP) rated Whisper to Me in Books
Jul 2, 2018
***This review may contain spoilers***
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway, which let me tell you I was so pleased, I mean who doesn’t like free books?
First off, I need to mention how beautiful the cover is, the colours are amazing (I am a fan of pinks and purples) and the summer evening with fairground in the background just makes you feel like this is going be an epic summer read with loads of fluffyness…..How wrong was I! This book is DARK!
This book is told as a massive email, 535 pages long! I feel sorry for the guy she is writing to.
The story follows Cassie, she is writing an email to this boy that she met over the summer and tries to explain the reasons behind her actions and to hopefully win him back. The seaside resort that Cassie lives in always brings tourists and Teens looking for summer work, for the past couple of years there have been prostitutes/escorts that go missing but no evidence is left so the killer is at large.In Cassie’s favourite spot at the beach she finds a human foot washed up, after the shock of this discovery she starts hearing a voice inside her head, she is convinced it’s one of the prostitutes and starts investigating and taking matters into her own hands. Along the way she meets this guy and they start hanging out, but she is unable to reveal her secret.
I am going to start off by saying that I didn’t enjoy this book and there are several reasons. I hate having to write negative reviews as this author has taken a lot of time to write this and make a success of it but there were too many flaws for my liking.
First off the book is way to long for a contemporary, it could have easily been 200 pages less,there was a lot of waffle.
I didn’t like the characters!The father suffered from PTSD after being in the Navy SEALS, but to me he felt abusive and really harsh and scary, he was so protective of Cassie and would have these sudden outbursts that I actually feared for her. Cassie was really timid, a bit of a pushover. The guy she has a romance with (you never find out his name) is boring and dull.
HA HA, that brings me on to the romance. It was awful, it was awkward but not in a good way,in a cringe OMG why you doing this way. There was no spark, no angst..nada.
It uses *****for the swear words and that got really tedious in the end and sometimes I didn’t even know what swear word to use,you can fill in the blanks yourself.
Moving on to the things I liked, I enjoyed the focus on the mental health aspect, Cassie is diagnosed with some type of Schizophrenia and she has two different forms of treatment, she has a psychiatrist who just wants to pump drugs in her to solve the problem and then she has cognitive behavioural therapy and you can tell the difference between the good therapist and the bad one. I have read quite a few books about mental health like Depression, Bi-polar and anxiety but none with hearing voices so it was interesting to read something different.
The writing was good it was told in different formats and had some sarcasm and was definitely easy to read.
The ending, I was so damn disappointed with the ending! nothing got resolved, I literally felt I had been robbed. It was like Lake got bored and finished the story early and didn’t tie the ends.
I originally gave this book a 2.5 stars but after reflecting on this I have lowered it to 1.5-2 stars and one of those stars is for the cover.
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway, which let me tell you I was so pleased, I mean who doesn’t like free books?
First off, I need to mention how beautiful the cover is, the colours are amazing (I am a fan of pinks and purples) and the summer evening with fairground in the background just makes you feel like this is going be an epic summer read with loads of fluffyness…..How wrong was I! This book is DARK!
This book is told as a massive email, 535 pages long! I feel sorry for the guy she is writing to.
The story follows Cassie, she is writing an email to this boy that she met over the summer and tries to explain the reasons behind her actions and to hopefully win him back. The seaside resort that Cassie lives in always brings tourists and Teens looking for summer work, for the past couple of years there have been prostitutes/escorts that go missing but no evidence is left so the killer is at large.In Cassie’s favourite spot at the beach she finds a human foot washed up, after the shock of this discovery she starts hearing a voice inside her head, she is convinced it’s one of the prostitutes and starts investigating and taking matters into her own hands. Along the way she meets this guy and they start hanging out, but she is unable to reveal her secret.
I am going to start off by saying that I didn’t enjoy this book and there are several reasons. I hate having to write negative reviews as this author has taken a lot of time to write this and make a success of it but there were too many flaws for my liking.
First off the book is way to long for a contemporary, it could have easily been 200 pages less,there was a lot of waffle.
I didn’t like the characters!The father suffered from PTSD after being in the Navy SEALS, but to me he felt abusive and really harsh and scary, he was so protective of Cassie and would have these sudden outbursts that I actually feared for her. Cassie was really timid, a bit of a pushover. The guy she has a romance with (you never find out his name) is boring and dull.
HA HA, that brings me on to the romance. It was awful, it was awkward but not in a good way,in a cringe OMG why you doing this way. There was no spark, no angst..nada.
It uses *****for the swear words and that got really tedious in the end and sometimes I didn’t even know what swear word to use,you can fill in the blanks yourself.
Moving on to the things I liked, I enjoyed the focus on the mental health aspect, Cassie is diagnosed with some type of Schizophrenia and she has two different forms of treatment, she has a psychiatrist who just wants to pump drugs in her to solve the problem and then she has cognitive behavioural therapy and you can tell the difference between the good therapist and the bad one. I have read quite a few books about mental health like Depression, Bi-polar and anxiety but none with hearing voices so it was interesting to read something different.
The writing was good it was told in different formats and had some sarcasm and was definitely easy to read.
The ending, I was so damn disappointed with the ending! nothing got resolved, I literally felt I had been robbed. It was like Lake got bored and finished the story early and didn’t tie the ends.
I originally gave this book a 2.5 stars but after reflecting on this I have lowered it to 1.5-2 stars and one of those stars is for the cover.