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[[Category:New Reviews|Lifestyle]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amelia Freer1454955546|title=Eat. Nourish. Glow.: 10 easy steps for losing weight, looking younger and feeling healthierSugarless|author=Nicole M Avena|rating=45
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Amelia Freer had struggled with her own health for ''This isn't a diet book. The last thing anyone needs is another diet book.'' There was a while and time, not that long ago, when it reached a stage where she was waking up feeling tired and groggy, relying on ten cups a day of thought that sugary tea to perk her up and her food was mainly processed convenience foodsbetter for you than food with high-fat content. At Fat was the time she demon food which was working as a PA going to Prince Charles elevate your cholesterol and loved the job but her busy life meant that she made automatic food choices without consideration of what they were doing to her healthcause heart disease. Sugar was a carbohydrate, so good. It wasnThere't until she went to see s a nutritionist that she realised what she had been doing and made the decision not only to change her dietproblem, but to train to be a nutritionistthough. The result Sugar is a busy practice - addictive and can hijack your brain in much the same way as drugs like heroin and this bookcocaine. Does that sound over the top? Well, it isn't.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000757990X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschappeler1635866847|title=The Test Book: 64 Tools to Lead You to SuccessLavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=The title of It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book intrigued me: for you. Before I started reading ''The Test BookLavender Companion'' , I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the offer of sixty four tools which would lead me to successhomepage. Idon'm happy with where my life is t eat cakes and desserts - but it struck me I wanted that only a fool doesn't see room for improvement - and besides, itcake viscerally. (There's a slim recipe in the book, ideal for popping into which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a bag or pocket for those waiting room momentsmess of it. It was only Notes in the reputation of margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the authors - and the value corners of their earlier books - which made me realise pages. You suspect that this wasn't going to smears of butter would not be a light-hearted series of problem. I ''loved'tests' such as those favoured by some magazines and newspapersthis book already. For the most part these are serious, well-established tests used by professionals.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178125320X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0760381267|title=Digital InfernoVerdura: Living a Garden Life|author=Paul LevyPerla Sofia Curbelo-Santiago|rating=43.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=You know how ''The most important part of a garden is the one who enjoys it goes''. You have  I've 'gardened' in a pressing job that requires your immediate attentionvague, but decide to treat yourself to indefinite sort of way for more than half a five minute tea break surfing the internetcentury. One link leads to another and before you I know it, your short tea break (most of) the basics but life has swallowed up changed and I needed 'projects' rather than a whole hour. Or maybe you are at an important meeting and you feel the phone vibrate in your pocket, signalling an incoming text. Is it rude general commitment to check your messages when your full attention should really be elsewhere? If you feel that meaningful communication with the family has been replaced with a glut of hastily-typed x's, LOLs and emoticons, this book may be just what you needgardening. ''Digital InfernoVerdura'' aims to help with its readers reclaim their place in the digital world promise of projects for both indoors and gain mastery over all outdoors of those pieces of tech that seem to demand so much of usvarying complexity seemed like the answer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570740</amazonuk> So, how did it stack up?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Making of HomeSarah Wilson|authortitle=Judith FlandersThis One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured world|rating=43.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=In 1900 a young girl My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in a strange land told the people around her that which she had decided she no longer wanted asks ''What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?'' I get to live in their lovely country, but would love that line so much rather return because my answer is ''This! Precisely this.'' I'm lucky enough to be living my one wild and precious life the ‘dry, grey’ place she had come from, because there was ‘no place like home’way I want to. Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. The girl was Dorothy, while In her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can't see that she acknowledges the people around her were source) she pushes us to think about whether we really ''are'' living the citizens of Oz life we want andthe best life that we could be living. Her answer is an unequivocal ''no, yeswe are not''. Don't care what you're doing, it was all fictionshe thinks you (we, I) could be doing more…And she's effing furious about the creation of author L. Frank Baum. Nevertheless he had put into words something which many people deeply felt but had fact that we are not yet expressed.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848877986</amazonuk>1785633848
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1394159544|title=The Bookshop BookRecycling for Dummies|author=Jen CampbellSarah Winkler|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=I love a good bookshop''Recycling one ton of plastic can save up to 16.3 barrels of oil. The smell, the feel '' ''Recycling one ton of paper can save 17 trees from being cut down.'' If you send an old bookshopapple core to landfill, it will take between 6 months and 2 years to decompose. A glass bottle will take up to 1 million years. As a just-post-WWII baby, I faced a dilemma: reducing, reusing and recycling is part of my DNA. NEVER throw away anything that might ''possibly'' come in handy now or in the wonderful feeling when future. NEVER buy anything if you chance upon a book can cobble together something that appeals to youwould serve the purpose. They may Almost everything can be used one more time and any purchase must pass the test of 'Is this absolutely essential?' On the other hand, I suspected I was guilty of wishcycling: assuming that something must be a dying breed recyclable (toothpaste tubes - I'm looking at you) and dropping it in some placesthe kerbside bin. Yes, I could go searching on the internet - and get conflicting advice - but Jen Campbell has written what I needed was a fantastic book that celebrates the bookshop and those who love themrecycling bible.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472116666</amazonuk>s
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=William Poundstone0760378134|title=How to Predict the UnpredictableThe First-Time Gardener: The Art of Outsmarting Almost EveryoneContainer Food Gardening|author=Pamela Farley|rating=45|genre=ReferenceHome and Family|summary=William Poundstone believes that we are all in the business of predicting, whether If you've ever thought how good it would be something as minor as playing rock, paper, scissors to pay a bar bill though be able to anticipating how pop out into the housing or stock markets are going garden and pick some fruit and vegetables for a meal – but realised that you wouldn't know where to move. Nowstart, I'm not particularly competitive - if whatever it this is means the book you need. It's comprehensive: you'thatll cover everything from why you should grow your own food, what you'' much re going to someone else then Igrow, what you'd rather let them have ll grow it - so this book didnin (both containers and soil), where you'll put these containers, how you't appeal to me on ll water and fertilise them and you finish the basis main part of doing better than someone else, but I was interested in how it might be possible to predict what is going to happenthe book with a handy section on troubleshooting. There's also a good glossary. So, care to predict how is it stacked upany good?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780744072</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dan Waddell|title=Who Do You Think You Are?: The Genealogy Handbook|rating=4.5|genre=Reference|summary=The celebrity genealogy programme ''Who Do You Think You Are?'' celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The makers, Wall to Wall Media, were fortunate enough to ride the ripple of family tree fascination, helping to turn it into the hobbyist tidal wave that remains today. For those not familiar with the format, each episode allows us to accompany a household name as they discover secrets, scandals and surprises about an ancestor or two. Thus we aren't only entertained; we're encouraged to delve into our own pasts, BBC TV publications acting as tutor and motivator via this handy little reference guide.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849908249</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Lynne Martin|title=Home Sweet Anywhere: How We Sold Our House, Created a New Life, and Saw the World|rating=4|genreisbn=Travel|summary=Lynne and Tim Martin had known each other decades ago but when we meet them they've only been married for a short time. There's just one thing though - they're not ready to settle down, despite the fact that they're what might be called 'upper middle aged'. Their roots are in the US - both have adult children there and the Martins have a house in California - but they want to travel and not just as tourists. They want to see the world as the locals see it and to experience what it's like to live there. Lynne describes them as not being wealthy, but they decide to sell their home, invest the money and become 'home-free'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00J0CRNKE</amazonuk>}}{{newreview1398508632|title=The ConversationsWilderness Cure|author=Olivia FaneMo Wilde
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=I need no encouragement to start talkingIt had been on the cards for a while but it was the week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food. Leave me alone with someone and I will find something to talk to them about The end of November, particularly in whatever language. I’ve dated people I’ve met by talking Central Scotland was perhaps not the best time to them on aeroplanesstart, hablaring español with them in evening classesa world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, chatting to them onlineBrexit and a pandemic. I’ve made friends at Wilde had a few advantages: the gym, on the shop floor, during area around her was a day’s IT system training, people I still keep in touch known habitat witha variety of terrains. So you might think the last thing I need is She had electricity which allowed her to run a book of conversation startersfridge, freezer and yet in dehydrator. She had a way that’s what car - and fuel. Most importantly, she had shelter: this iswas not a plan to ''live'' wild just to live off its produce.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099581981</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Flowerpot Farm: A First Gardening Activity BookBjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|authortitle=Lorraine HarrisonI May Be Wrong|rating=3.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionAutobiography|summary=With When the demand for us Dalai Lama adds his words to eat seemingly more fruit and vegetables every dayyour frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the rest of the world of grow-responds to your-own is backbook. Why buy from I know, having read the supermarket when you can release book in question, that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He knows (and at core so do I) that it matters very much how the kids into rest of the garden world responds to graze like cattle? However, before you do thisbook, perhaps you should pick up a book like ‘Flowerpot Farm’ by Lorraine Harrison and Faye Bradley which will show them how to create their own fruitbecause it tells the truth as it is, veg and flower garden no matter how small a space they have to work within the early 21st century.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782400818</amazonuk>1526644827
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1732898731|title=He TextedThe Boy Who Loved Boxes: The Ultimate Guide to Decoding GuysA Children's Book for Adults|author=Lisa Winning and Carrie Henderson-McDermottMichael Albanese |rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=This bookThere was a Boy who loved boxes. He had a box for everything and he was meticulous about storage: his parents probably couldn't believe their luck! It began with art supplies, despite stuffed toys and the title, is about more than textinglike: all the things which most children have in abundance. It is about The Boy's delight was in the whole digital world and how guys and gals interact within sense of order in his room: it (Companies’ House stalkerage aside)made him feel happy. From how long to wait to text back As he grew up and became a Man, to how to respond to friend requests his life became more complicated and what to do he dealt with the power when you’re unleashed on his Facebook wall, this book promises to provide hilarious by getting bigger and essential advice on how to navigate better boxes. Look carefully at the perplexing world pictures and you'll see that is trouser-shapedone of them has a padlock...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780892071</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1846276772|title=The End of Bias: How We Change Our Minds|author=William HansonJessica Nordell|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|titlesummary=Anyone who is not an able, white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the extent to which they suffer from it: it's simply a part of everyday life. White men will always come first. The Blufferable will come before the disabled. Jobs, promotions, higher salaries are the preserve of the white man. Even when those who wouldn't pass the medical become a part of an organisation it's rare that their views are heard, that their concerns are acknowledged. It's Guide to Etiquette (Blufferpersonally appalling and degrading for the individuals on the receiving end of the bias but it's Guides)not just the individuals who are negatively impacted.}}{{Frontpage|author=Erling Kagge|title=Walking: One Step At A Time
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle|summary=If you ask people what they fear most in any social situation most Those who have read my reviews before will tell you know that how much I loved a book is evidenced by the number of pages with corners turned, so let me start this one with an apology to the Norfolk Library Service: sorry! I forgot it's was your book not knowing how to behavemine. TheyIn my defence, I will say that as a reader of this type of book there is something connective about noting where prior readers were inspired (provided it is subtle – I'll be fine allow creased corners, but not scribbles – for the latter we must buy our own copy – which I am about to do as soon as I have finished telling you why). Erligg Kagge is a Norwegian explorer who has walked to the basicsSouth Pole, but itthe North Pole and the summit of Everest. He knows a thing or two about walking. However, this isn's t a travelogue about any of those little niceties - how to introduce yourselfepic journeys, it is instead a thoughtful exploration of what it means to ask for as an aperitifwalk. It is a plenitude of unnumbered essays about walking. There is no 'contents' page and I haven't counted. In small format paperback, how to address someoneeach essay is only a few pages long. Perhaps then, for instance which can suddenly reveal you better thought of as a parvenu. William Hanson gives us a quick trip through the essentials in a book which is very readable and - in places - hilariously funnymeditation rather than an essay.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1909937002</amazonuk>0241357705
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John JacksonRichard Brook|title=A Little Piece of EnglandUnderstanding Human Nature: A tale of self-sufficiencyUser's Guide to Life|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Here at Bookbag I am a firm believer that sometimes wechoose books, and sometimes books choose us. In my case, this is one of the latter. Not so very long ago, if I had come across this book I're great fans d have skimmed it, found some of John Jacksonit interesting, but it would not have 'hit home' in the way that it does now. We loved his I believe it came to me not just because I was likely to give it a favourable review [[Tales for Great Grandchildren by John Jackson and Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini|Tales for Great Grandchildren]] ''andfull disclosure The Bookbag'' [[Brahma Dreaming: Legends from Hindu Mythology by John Jackson and Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini|Brahma Dreaming: Legends from Hindu Mythology]] s u.s.p. is that people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, so it was something of there is a treat predisposition towards expecting to meet like the author on his own groundbook, so to speak. Originally published as even if it doesn''A Bucket of Nuts and a Herring Net: The Birth of a Spare-Time Farmt always turn out that way'' this ] – but also because it is actually Jackson's first a book and thirty-five years later we're delighted that it's been republished in hardback complete with the original black-and-white illustrations by Val BiroI needed to read, right now.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1909661031</amazonuk>1800461682
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0753558378|title=MastermindEffortless: How Make It Easier to Think Like Sherlock HolmesDo What Matters|author=Maria KonnikovaGreg McKeown|rating=34.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Psychologist Maria Konnikova seems to have rather ambitious aims regarding her new book''The marginal return of working harder was, in fact, negative.''Mastermind That's what happened to Patrick McGinnis. It' . She plans s no exaggeration to teach her readers how say that he devoted his life to think like Sherlock Holmesthe company he worked for, struggling through, even when he was ill, only to find that he was working for a bankrupt company. Anyone who has read the adventures of the world’s most famous detective will have no doubt marvelled at His stock had fallen by 97%, he had lost his uncanny powers of analysis health and observationhis job had little value. Can He made a book really unlock the power of the mind bargain with God; if he survived, he would make some changes. He did survive and turn averagecame through stronger -Joe into and richer. There is, you see, a master of deduction?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085786727X</amazonuk>different way: ''great things are not reserved for those who bleed, for those who almost break.''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chip Heath and Dan Heath1523092734|title=Decisive: How A Women's Guide to Make Better Decisions in Life and WorkClaiming Space|author=Eliza Van Cort
|rating=5
|genre=Business Politics and FinanceSociety|summary=I don't have 'She brings a problem with making decisionshug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again.'' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, probably because ICirque du Soleil RSD) ''To claim space is to live the life of choosing unapologetically and bravely. It is to live the life you've always tended to wanted.'' Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the view that itnews, ''A Women's better Guide to make a decision and get on with life than haver and waste time in limboClaiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. With Now - to be clear - this book is not a few notable exceptions 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's served me wellsomething far more effective, but when discussion at the moment seems to be about how women can be ''Decisiveprotected'' appeared on my desk it struck me . I've always thought that there could women need to rise above this, to be advantages to improving the quality of the decisions toopeople who don't need protection, people who claim their own space. The Heath brothers have a good history of collaborating on such subjects and delivering books which open the mindIf all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be used to prove that they are big men.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847940862</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529109116|title=The Examined LifeCall Me Red: How We Lose and Find Ourselves A Shepherd's Journey|author=Stephen GroszHannah Jackson|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''I usually review fictionwant the image of a British farmer to simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nation. For I don't think that reason alone, I knew is too much to ask.'' The stereotypical farmer was probably born on the land where ''his'' family have farmed for generations. He's probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he really wants to do: he knows that reviewing this particular book would he'll be a challengefarmer. It's not always the case though. I Hannah Jackson was born and brought up on the Wirral: she'd never set foot on a commercial farm until she was twenty although she'd always had a deep love of animals. Her original intention was that she would become 'Dr Jackson, whale scientist' and she was attracted well on her way to achieving this when her life changed on a family holiday to the Lake District. She saw a lamb being born and, although 'Hannah Jackson, farmer' lacked the kudos of her original intention, she knew that she wanted to it for many reasons; I thought it would give me be a window into many situations shepherd. With the determination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of which I know little or nothingher, she set about achieving her ambition.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099549034</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Hadfield1786495902|title=Change One ThingThe Natural Health Service: How Nature Can Mend Your Mind|author=Isabel Hardman|rating=35
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=On the face of it the principle is simple: just change one thing for Isabel Hardman suffered a better lifetrauma which she chooses not to share. Of course itShe says that a friend who does know, burst into tears and health-care professionals's not that simplejaws have sagged in disbelief. Working on the basis that the longest journey starts Hardman dealt with a single step Sue Hadfield looks this at the disillusionment which is a time by-product of our work-driven life and guides us towards 'keeping going': the steps we'll need next day she went to take work to pull ourselves out of what's not so much a rut as a pit of despair on occasions. Changing one thing is just cover the beginningbudget, but as she points outnext there was the EU referendum, the political party leadership contests and then it can was party conference season. One night she had to be sedated and returned home to begin long-term sick leave. That was what's needed brought me to kick-start this book: 2020 was the year when the whole process - to a better way of our current life or a whole new lifebins went out more often than I did.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857084607</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=How to Win: The Argument, the Pitch, the Job, the RaceLauren Martin|authortitle=Dr Rob YeungThe Book of Moods|rating=3.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Looking for I was in a sure-fire way to intimidate the competition during a job interview? Just sit in great mood when I first learnt of this book, and because sarcasm doesn't always translate well into writing, imagine the waiting room perusing the oh, so subtly titled word ''How to Wingreat''being delivered with an eye roll and a sigh, with through clenched teeth. I had spent the best part of a rainy, windy weekend afternoon out on the book tilted water at our local sailing club in the optimum angle to allow everyone to see the bold heading rescue rib, on standby in case anyone who was racing needed support. It's a volunteer duty we all do during the cover. Of courseyear, and normally I'm happy to, if more than one candidate is reading but that day the same bookweather was miserable and I was miserable, difficulties may ensueand it all came to a head that evening when I noticed on the website that we had been thanked for our time as "Dave and wife".Wow.I had never needed this book more.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857084291</amazonuk>1538733625
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0008420386|title=The Mistress ContractFailosophy: A handbook for when things go wrong|author=She and HeElizabeth Day|rating=34
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary='Women feel a reluctance to talk about those things which should be mysterious.' WellWhat do Malcolm Gladwell, Alain de Botton, not all of them. This line – and I won't say who says it – is a quote from a large audio archive of the thoughts of a most unusual couple. College friendsPhoebe Waller-Bridge, they split apart then got back togetherLemn Sissay, and ended up having an affair. Until she decided to formalise it in a momentary flash ofNigel Slater, wellEmeli Sandé, somethingMeera Syal, saying she would cede Dame Kelly Holmes and Andrew Scott have in common? They've all failed and - more importantly - they've been willing to appear on Elizabeth Day's podcast to his every sexual discuss their failures and housework wishes if he would cater how life worked out for her financially and with a place to livethem afterwards. Nowhere did that small contract say that they would open up themselves to public scrutiny with recordings You'll find the results of their conversations, over a restaurant table or these discussions in bed or a car having a tete-a-tete, but they soon did – and these small pages are the resulting book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846689430</amazonuk>''Failosophy''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1504321383|title=Dedicated to...: The Forgotten FriendshipsSingle, Again, and Again, Hidden Stories and Lost Loves found in Second-hand BooksAgain|author=W B GooderhamLouisa Pateman
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=I have found many strange and unusual things in second-hand bookshops. I have done one or two strange and unusual things in them as well, but that's a different story. Twice now I have managed to find a second-hand book, completely signed and dedicated by the author, yet discarded by the recipient, and have been able to present the author with the edition at hand and get it re-dedicated. (If I'm not mistaken, the discarders were a neighbouring babysitter, and a teacher of the author's children.) I'll admit that's rarefied, however, and on the whole the scribble you find in second-hand books is from the person who bought it, and gave it as a gift, not the person who wrote it. But even so, the dedication of the donor can be immensely fascinating and open to all kinds of interpretation, as these examples show perfectly clear.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593072847</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|title=A Piece of Danish Happiness
|author=Sharmi Albrechtsen
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=''You can't be happy and fulfilled on your own. You are not complete until you find a man''.Sharmi Albrechtsen This was a true Hindu-American princesswhat Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe. Obsessed with shoes and handbags and designer labels, she saw status and wealth It wasn't unkind: it was simply the adults in her life advising her as the only route to happinesswhat they thought would be best for her. But It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the girl (she wasn't happy s usually fairly young) is rescued by the handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. Few girls are lucky enough, no matter how much designer gear she ownedto be brought up ''without'' the expectation that they will marry and have children. And it wasn't until 1997, when she married her second husband, It was a Dane, belief and relocated to Denmark, that she began to wonder if it was something lacking in herself, rather than her possessions, would be many years before Louisa would conclude that was at the root of her problems''a belief is a choice''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00EAINZM8</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rachel Ashwell1538731738|title=Couture Prairie And Flea Market Treasures Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life|author= Sarah Ban Breathnach|rating=45
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''Shabby Chic'' has always appealed to meSomeone once said: it fits neatly with my views on recycling's not self-indulgence, upcycling and generally refusing to replace anything which still looks good and has life left in it. 's therapy! Rachel Ashwell takes this to a whole new levelI think they were talking about shopping, but her most glorious moment must have been when - on her regular yearly visit to the flea markets of Round Top in Texas - she decided on a whim it probably can be applied to buy The Outpost at Cedar Creek and she turned this into The Prairie, a group of buildings which would house her retail store and a B&B which exhibited some of her most treasured findsthings. As she said herselfIn my case, her cowboy bootsit applies to writing about things because I want to, jeans and love of poetry in country music had come homerather than because I can sell it or because I've got something to sell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782490434</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Very British Problems: Making Life Awkward for Ourselves, One Rainy Day at a TimeSharon Blackie|authortitle=Rob TempleIf Women Rose Rooted|rating=35|genre=HumourBiography|summary=Are I normally say that you compelled can tell how much a book means to apologise multiple times a day – even when you are not at fault, or me by how many pages have corners turned down. Perhaps an even greater measure of impact is setting out to inanimate objects? Would you subject yourself buy my own copy before I've finished reading the one I've borrowed. I want to great inconvenience rather than confront someone who avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing' – although it is sitting in your reserved seat on a train? Have you been known to commit desperate acts in definitely the first two and only time will tell about the search third – but clichés exist for your next cup of tea? If so, you may be suffering from Very British Problemsa reason and I'm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751552593</amazonuk>1912836017
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1543987877|title=How Learn to Love: Guide to Keep Calm and Carry OnHealing Your Disappointing Love Life|author=Daniel Freeman and Jason FreemanDr Thomas Jordan|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Heart pounding''Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life'' is a book about love relationships rather than a book about love. The two greatest emotions are love and grief and love is the opposite of grief: ''if you love'', rapid breathingDr Thomas Jordan tells us, dry mouth ''you will inevitably grieve''. Your love relationships begin the moment you're born and end only when you die. Whilst we all come into the world hoping to give and sweaty palms receive love there are just some of many people for whom love is not quite so simple. Some people suffer multiple disappointments - sometimes repeating the unpleasant symptoms associated with anxiety. Anxiety affects us all at one time or another in our lives same mistakes - and occurs in varying degrees of severitythis eventually becomes resignation. For examplepeople who are making the same mistakes repeatedly, a little nervousness is par for self-preservation, in the course when a performer steps on stage in front form of resignation is a huge crowd, but on the other end of the spectrum, conditions such as OCD and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can leave sufferers paralysed with fearnecessity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0273777750</amazonuk>
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{{newreview|title=Hospice Voices: Lessons for Living at the End of LifeFrontpage|author=Eric LindnerMichael Harris|ratingtitle=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=''Hospice Voices'' tells the stories of the last days Solitude: In Pursuit of some fascinating people while it follows author Eric Lindner through his journey as a hospice volunteer and Singular Life in a crisis in his own daughter's health. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1442220597</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Jill Stark|title=High Sobriety: My Year Without BoozeCrowded World|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=On This is not the first of January 2011 Jill Stark woke up with book I was expecting it to be. For some reason I expected it to be another self-help manual on how to find calm, how to step outside the hangover from Hellmainstream, but it is not that at all. She was no stranger to them: at thirty five she'd been binge drinking for Instead of telling us how, it is more than twenty years and was in about the dubious position of being the health reporter who wrote herself off at weekends''why''. And by Harries examines how we'wrote herself off' I mean being seriously drunk on re eroding solitude, which used to be a very regular basisnatural part of our human life, having consumed vast quantities of alcohol and having regularly put herself in danger why that matters. Of course he talks about how some people have found solitude and what has come of serious illnessthat, unwanted pregnancy and assault. But on that first day eventually in January Stark decided that she was going to do something the final chapter he talks about his own experience of having deliberately sought it out, but mostly he wanders down the alleys and the initial decision was by-ways that she would spend three months on the wagonhis thinking about this lost art led him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1922247030</amazonuk>1847947662
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0753553236|title=Tiny Habits: The Sex DiariesSmall Changes That Change Everything|author=Arianne CohenB J Fogg
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=As far as ‘doing what it says Go on the tin’ goes, this book is a good oneadmit it - you're not quite perfect. It’s the diaries You still have those odd, pluralquirky even loveable (to you) habits which seem to annoy other people. Other people, from peopleof course, pluralare sorely afflicted with some dreadful flaws which they could so easily correct, talking about their sex lives. But it’s not if only they would make just the doing a little bit of the deed and the sowing of the seedeffort. Or put another way, it’s also all the stuff that goes I get cross with being in a relationship myself because I forget to do things or not being in onedo some actions more than I should and no matter how I try to make what seem to be quite monumental changes I never quite seem to get to grips with the concepts. The daydreams I constantly fail and then I get cross with myself for failing. The texts. The efforts made Lack of willpower is another burden to add to secure a hook-up, if there’s not one waiting for you at homethe list.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091939550</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris Ward1785785516|title=Out of Office: Work Where You Like and Achieve MoreFucking Good Manners|author=Simon Griffin|rating=34
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary='Imbibe coffee and become imbued with an entrepreneurial spirit' would be an apt summary Manners maketh man, they say. It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a set of the gist conventions, some of 'Out of Office' by Chris Wardwhich are ages old and other which have evolved over time. If Manners are not about how much to tip or how you should behave if you choose get an invitation to read the bookBuckingham Palace, be prepared they have nothing to receive inspiration rather than practical instruction on how do with class or financial status: they're about getting the basics right before we try to build an empiredeal with more difficult matters. Of course we all have more relaxed manners when we're with family and friends, but it's best if anything. This is not we learn to discredit the book; it is attractively designed, full of fundraising event photos distinguish between our public and company founder portraits, motivational quotes private lives and brief enthusiastic testimonies of the interviewees featuredto act appropriately. But in terms of content, it doesn’t offer substantial advice ''Fucking Good Manners'' aims to help us on how to make that leap from the office cubicle – a context quite heavily vilified by Ward – to the existence of the creatively liberated mover and shakerway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0957612303</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Blastland and David Spiegelhalter1999811402|title=The Norm Chronicles: Stories and numbers about danger|rating=5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=I'd like you to meet Norm. He's an absolutely average kind of guy, thirty one years old, 5'9”, a touch over thirteen stone and he works a thirty-nine hour week with the occasional treat of a bar of milk chocolate. Oh, and he's ambivalent about Marmite - couldn't care one way or the other - can take it or leave it. In ''The Norm Chronicles'' we hear the story of his life and the lives of his friends Prudence (the name tells you what you need to know) and Kelvin, who's a dare-devil, hard-living kind of guy. It's the story of the hazards they face - some real and some imagined - in every aspect of their lives. And along with these stories are the ''real'' facts about the reality of the risks they take.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846686202</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewPainting Snails|author=Simon Dawson|title=Pigs in Clover: Or How I Accidentally Fell in Love with the Good LifeStephen John Hartley
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Simon Dawson really had no intention of leading It's very difficult to classify ''Painting Snails'': originally I thought that as it's loosely based around a life of self-sufficiency - he accidentally fell into the beginnings of year on an allotment it at would be a New Yearlifestyle book, but you's Eve party which was a little too noisy for him re not going to be completely certain get advice on what it was he was agreeing toplant when and where for the best results. But even then there was no need for The answer would be something along the lines of 'try it to go too farand see'. After allThen I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, this man's heart was in London did an engineering apprenticeship, became a busker, finally got into medical school and he was is now an estate agent A&E consultant (part- a member of the profession whose place at the top of the opprobrium ladder was only made wobbly after a serious PR campaign on behalf of journalists and politicianstime). But his wife was determined I found out that she couldnthere't stand being a property solicitor any longer and so they sold their flat in London and rented a property s an awful lot more to what goes on Exmoor and Simon began a weekly commute - weekends in Devon and most of the week in London.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780285019</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Naomi Schillinger|title=Veg Street: Grow Your Own Community|rating=4.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=As a child Naomi Schillinger helped her parents to grow fruit and vegetables in their South London garden and the urge to grow resurfaced when she had her own property. It wasnMajor Trauma Centre than you't just the ll ever glean from ''growingCasualty'' which she remembered, but that isn't really what the book's about. There'sharings a lot about rock & roll, which seems to be the real passion of Hartley's life, but it didn' of t actually fit into the produce and sense of community which went with itentertainment genre either. Soon after starting to grow food Did we have a category for herself she was a prime mover in getting whole streets involved in growing fruit and vegetables in their front gardens, making 'doing the impossible the hard way'? Yep - that's the most of recycled materials and free seeds and compostone. When weIt're constantly urged to reduce food miles what could be better than growing your food (quite literally) on your own doorstep?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780721129</amazonuk>s an autobiography.
}}
 
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