I read every day. Less than 1% of what I read is poetry. And Ann Michaels Held isn’t a poetry book. But it’s got that feel about it. I checked the number of pages. 220. Because I also write, I’d estimate that’s between 60 000 to 80 000 words. I’d like to be more precise. It’s been a couple of days since I finished it (meaning to review it) and had to look at the Contents page. Now we’re getting somewhere. The first six chapters are labelled...

Drew Gummerson would be high on the list of books that need to be banned and burned in the good old US of A by the followers of the moron’s moron cult and stealer of elections he, apparently, never stole. Short stories that become longer stories. Fey wee folk that become fucking big folk that catch up with their shopping with their dead sister who gets stroppy about what you’re buying. (It happens.) A young boy, Ginny, with a massive wanger that...

Polly Tonybee is an author who writes regularly for The Guardian and Observer . You’ve probably guessed by that she’s left-leaning and middle class. An Uneasy Inheritance shows that doing good is not the same as being good. Her family includes the leading intellectuals of their day, including Arnold Tonybee, the economic historian and social reformer who charted the miserable conditions of how the working class lived in the late nineteen century...

Healing of psychiatric illness is more difficult than physical healing. Spiritually there is greater warfare. Bearing a grudge can make someone ill. The psychiatrist deals with that grudge directly. Emotional trauma can make someone ill. Barry Bennett described a woman being hit by a car. She wasn't badly injured but the trauma caused her to have severe arthritis. The psychiatrist is dealing with that trauma directly. Some psychiatrists say that...

One of the most controversial questions about healing is whether sickness could ever be beneficial. God uses pain and suffering to discipline and purify us all the time. None of these verses is specifically about illness but the Bible contains principles that can be applied to different situations. James 1:2-4. Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds. The testing of your faith produces perseverance. James 1:12. Blessed is the man...

Help. I realise this is unprofessional - ABCTALES, delete if you must - but I have been locked out of my Amazon Kindle Publishing Account for over 6 months, and I cannot get in or make contact with anyone at Amazon, all I receive is: "We have detected unusual activity on your account and have locked it temporarily. Please contact customer service for further assistance." "Temporarily" has been months and months and months. I have tried every...

This is the third John Boyne novel I’ve read and reviewed. For a short time The Heart’s Invisible Furies had a lot of hits on my blog site (Wordpress, and by a lot I mean over two in a week). I wasn’t sure why that was. I rarely remember what I wrote. Writing is a way of keeping track of time. His novel, classified for younger readers, and told from a child’s perspective The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which was made into a film, was, em, boring...

Question Twenty-Three – If needed, what coping mechanisms have you put in place with regards to your work space? Donna Reliance on God’s strength Alyss Coping in general, not exclusively, or inclusively, connected to my significant other status: Prayers, lots of prayer; the Psalms are great when times are tough. Bible reading in the morning is the best form of defence, cue “Men in Black” ;) Stay out of the projects and areas where challenging...

Question Twenty Two – If you have worked in the corporate field, how has your ‘single status’ impacted, or effected, your work relationships, if at all? Alyss The money-making environments are spaces of their own. Being asked to go on dates and my politely declining has taken me out of opportunities at times, and created awkward energies (for me anyway). Staff spaces have revealed things about married men that have disgusted me. Environments...

Question Twenty One – Have you found peace in the space of your singleness, or not? How so? Donna Yes Alyss I am human, and thus inconsistent, so if it’s a bad day, no; but if it’s a good day, yes. Spiritually, when the day is tough, and I am comparing myself to societal expectations and others around me, ( or I find myself in that crazy space of social media where the psychological trauma of everyone else’s ‘great’ lives impacts me ) God speaks...