Reviews with TLC

The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day Expanded Edition by Lisa Tener was both better and worse than I expected. I bought this journal more as research in how it was designed than in thinking I needed the promised spark to my creativity; however, it did add a spark to my creativity most days. I found the 8 minutes a day more of an aspiration than a reality on several days, but I was okay with that. A few of the prompts didn't work that well for me, but others were great. The videos were nice but didn't really seem necessary. I quite enjoyed the meditations Tener provided links to. Tener offers creative prompts that allow the writer to mold them to their own needs. I did all the expanded exercises, so The Joy of Writing Journal took me a little over two months to complete. Overall, I would suggest The Joy of Writing for anyone who feels a lull in their creativity, enjoys writing prompts, or likes to journal. Currently Reading: The Ethnic Cleansin...

The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook: A Proven Way to Accept Yourself, Build Inner Strength, and Thrive by Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer is an interesting and inspiring workbook that reiterates that self-compassion is a way of life not a goal to be met. Neff and Germer gently remind the reader that to be self-compassionate is to constantly notice where one needs self-compassion many times in the book. The exercises in this workbook pushed me to think about events in my life and accept my feelings about those events with compassion instead of judgment but also to approach my judgment with compassion. As I worked through the exercises, old issues I'd thought long resolved resurfaced and reminded me that suppressing isn't the same as dealing with things. Facing these with self-compassion rather than judgment was a helpful exercise. That said, I also found it hard to relate to some of the exercises and felt like I just worked through them without much depth because they felt...

Self-Love: Journey of Self-Discovery and Emotional Healing to Help You Feel Good Enough: Guided Journal by Suzanne Heyn started off putting me on edge because my copy was put together incorrectly. I considered returning it but decided to just go with the flow. It made the entire experience feel like I was reading and writing backwards, an interesting brain exercise. Heyn offers an essay before each daily prompt. I found some of them interesting but mostly felt like this was work I'd already done. Heyn does what the book promises, but also leans into religion and spiritually in places that felt limiting but that could be because my personal beliefs don't align with hers.  I bought the book to help me explore a specific reason for a dip in my self-love. By twisting the prompts, I was able to kind of hone in on my issue. Overall,  Self-Love  was good, but I don't think I'm its target audience. Someone who is earlier on in their self-love journey might find the book far...

We Should All Be Feminists: A Guided Journal  by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a beautifully designed and inspiring guided journal/workbook for exploring feminism and the role feminism plays in an individual's life as well as in society as a whole. I often found that the questions I most dreaded answering were the ones that brought me the most insight into not only my own struggles with feminism but in the messaging of feminism and even anti-feminism to some degree. Exploring the platitudes that often popped into my thoughts and how those platitudes became so much a part of the lexicon helped me find a deeper relationship with my feminism. Many of the exercises helped me better integrate feminism's role in the wider struggle for equality. We Should All Be Feminists: A Guided Journal inspired me to examine my own inner struggle with feminism and reminded me of the importance of speaking up for equality whenever I can however I can. I highly recommend We Should All Be Feminists: A...

I moved a bit more toward workbook style guided journals than I have used in previous years. I found the ones I used this year to each provide some helpful insights as well as to have some less than insightful points. Whether this is because of where I am in my life journey or a fault of the journals is yours to decide should you decide to try them.   52 Lists for Calm  by Moorea Seal is  a list journal with prompts that one fills out weekly rather than daily. Some prompts are better than others. Honestly, I didn't enjoy this list journal as much as I've enjoyed others in past years. I never could quite figure out why. All I know is that instead of making me feel calm, somewhere around the middle of the year it began to feel like a chore. I've really enjoyed list journals in the past, so I'm not so sure if the problem was with the journal or with where I'm at in my life.   52 Lists for Bravery  by Moorea Seal -  This is another list journal I started at the...

  My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood is an easy to read short story that examines the relationship of mothers and daughters from the daughter's point of view. The daughter feels alienated from the mother because of the mother's dabbling with what appears to be wicca. As the daughter matures and finds out some of the things the mother told her were untrue, she begins to doubt the power she believed her mother held. Anyone with a complicated relationship with their mother might find something to enjoy in this story.  Overall, My Evil Mother is a quick and rather fun read.   Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives by Louise DeSalvo is a very interesting book on multiple levels. DeSalvo delves into going deep into our life experiences, reactions to them, thoughts about them, and the emotions they bring up for us through writing. She demonstrates how this writing can be healing. As someone who has long written to heal or to make sense of the ...

  This Can't be Love: The Cabin Trilogy: Book 2  by Joanne Pence was the lighthearted read I needed toward the end of the month. I needed something that carried me along and didn't require me to think too much. The characters were fun to get to know and I fell hard for the cat that kept appearing at  the cabin. While parts of the book were what I think of as typical romance, Pence's play with the tropes was fun. The deeper issue of the characters' insecurities hit me hard a few times as Pence's insights made them come alive. For anyone who enjoys a love story with a hint of a ghost story, This Can't Be Love is a quick but enjoyable read.    The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama lifted my spirit and made me feel more hopeful than I have in a while. Honestly, I didn't realize how much I needed that dose of hope until I let out a deep exhale about halfway through the book. Her chapter on friendship brought me to tears as I though...

  Dangerous Journey by Joanne Pence is an ebook that I've had for quite a while and just got around to reading. It's a love story with the usual twists and turns of a romance but also with enough of a unique touch to keep me interested. With a dash of humor, a dash of adventure, a dash of family dynamics, a dash of insecurity and then another, a dash of romance, and a dash of crime, Dangerous Journey fits a lot into a quick, easy, and fun read that also reminded me why romances often get on my nerves. Yet, I must admit I rather enjoyed it for a light read that didn't require me to think all that hard. Rachel Pollacks's Tarot Wisdom: Spiritual Teachers and Deeper Meanings by Rachel Pollack was another of those books I bought and then kept moving down in my to-be-read pile. I bought this book as research for a character I was toying with including in a book/story. As of yet, that character hasn't materialized and the initial idea fizzled away. I finally started rea...

Verseweavers: the Oregon Poetry Association of Prize-winning Poems Number 25/2020  is a compilation of the winners of the Oregon Poetry Associations contests held in 2020 with comments by the judges who chose the winners. As usual it was an interesting compilation of poems from a diverse group of poets. I found many quite compelling and almost all of them interesting. This book is only available in the Oregon Poetry Association's store .  Bear Witness by Mary Gaitskill (part of Out of Line Collection) took a journey that felt a jarring in the way Gaitskill explored the different points of view she presented in the short story. The storyline was interesting but none of the characters were easy to like. There was a feeling that something was going to happen that quite seemed to materialize.  Halfway to Free by Emma Donoghue (part of Out of Line Collection) still gives me chills just thinking about it. A story of haves and have nots and those who want to control others is ...

The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht  translated and edited by Tom Kuhn and David Constantine  is a very long book of poetry. I finally finished reading The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht. It took me a full eight months to read this book having started it on January 1, 2022 and finished on August 31, 2022. Brecht's poems made me smile, squirm, and wince. Brecht's range of topics combined with his examinations of emotions makes for an intense, thought provoking, emotion provoking read. While some of the poems are definitely poems of the time in which they were written, they provide a glimpse into life during those times and often feel more apropos to today's world than one would think at first read. While I am very glad to be finished with this book, I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys poetry and/or those interested in World War II. The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of An American Wine Dynasty by Julia Flynn Siler is an intriguing look inside the Mondavi fam...

  Get Untamed: The Journal  by Glennon Doyle is a guided journal inspired by Doyle's book, Untamed. I started this journal at the beginning of March. Overall, it was an interesting journal to complete. As I indicated before, I often found myself feeling like I was repeating work I'd already done. I really didn't feel like this journal pushed me the way I expected it to. Someone else, however, at a different point in their life journey might find it great and enlightening! Still, I felt encouraged and inspired all the way through. Science of Yoga: Understand the Anatomy and Physiology to Perfect Your Practice  by Ann Swanson is interesting. Swanson breaks down human anatomy in bite size morsels that are easy to digest. Her illustrations of what is happening within the body during various yoga asanas helped me not only be more aware of my body during the poses but to determine if I'm using good form by noticing how my muscles and joints are reacting. My only real complain...