Christine is obsessed with self-help books and uses them to fix all of her problems, as well as everyone else’s. She decides to leave Barry, her husband after she realises how unhappy she is.
Christine see’s Adam on Ha’penny Bridge, Dublin about to jump. Christine, in a moment of panic makes a pact with him: give her two weeks (his 35th birthday) to help him fall back in love with life. She knows if she fails, he will be back on that bridge.
Adam is desperate, moody but loveable. Maria, his girlfriend has just slept with Sean his best friend. His father is making him take over the family company, which he doesn’t want and he recently lost his job with the Coast Guard.
Christine remains with Adam throughout the fortnight. They grow close, but will they help one another fall back in love with life? The story, told in Christine’s first-person perspective is sad, humorous and joyous.
How to Fall in Love is anything but predictable; it has twists and turns right up to the very end. It has several sub-plots that complement the main storyline. The story shows the dark and light sides of life; from depression and suicide to fun and happiness.
The characters are all loveable, even the unlikeable one. They were well developed and had real depth.
How to Fall in Love is romance at its very best. Its a one-of-a-kind story, which was an addictive page turner. I can’t heap enough praise on Cecelia Ahern for this fantastic tale.
Steve and I went to see Despicable Me 2 at the cinemas last weekend. Gru is back with Margo, Edith and Agnes. Gru’s life seems perfect – apart from being chaotic; but he’s missing a wife and the kids are missing a mother. Here’s the trailer:
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Gru is recruited by Lucy to join the Anti-Villain League. Gru must help Lucy to identify which of the Mall Store Owners has stolen a serum. The serum is capable of turning the cute yellow minions into purple I-will-eat-anything-and-everything monsters.
The minions stole every scene with their beyond hilarious antics. It was great to sit in a crowded cinemas and hear the audience actually bellow with laughter for most of the film.
More Minions!
Despicable Me 2 [DVD] was a fantastic film, one that I’d happily watch time and time again. I intend on buying the DVD as soon as it’s released on Amazon.
Lottie is sure Richard her boyfriend is about to propose, but when he doesn’t Lottie ends the relationship.
Then Ben, Lottie’s first love from 15 years ago gets back in touch and tells her that he’s never stopped loving her. He drunkenly proposes and she agrees to marry him with one condition: no sex until the Wedding Night.
Fliss is going through a difficult divorce and adjusting to being a single mother to her son Noah. The divorce is making Fliss bitter and she’s starting to feel that getting married to Daniel was the worst mistake she ever made; Noah being the only good thing to come out of the marriage.
Fliss receives a call from Lottie telling her that Richard & she have broke up and that she’s going to marry Ben. Fliss is understandably more than a little bit concerned. Especially as Lottie has a habit of making ‘unfortunate choices’ when experiencing emotional trauma – like that time she joined a cult.
Fliss decides that this marriage to Ben is another ‘unfortunate choice’ and must be stopped. When Fliss fails to stop the wedding, she puts all her efforts into stopping the Wedding Night so that the marriage can be annulled.
Wedding Night is written with chapters in both Lottie and Fliss’ perspective and starts as comfortably predictable at the beginning, but as the book progresses the predictability becomes increasingly frustrating to the reader.
As with all of Kinsella‘s books the element of fantasy and escapism came in the form of a very wealthy business man whose a love interest for the main character. In Lottie’s case, this was Ben. This was a missed chance for Kinsella be more creative and use a different fantasy element.
The description lacked detail, relying far too much on the readers imagination. Compared to Kinsella‘s previous books, the characters in Wedding Night felt dumbed down and lacked any emotional depth. The reader gets to know Fliss a lot better than Lottie which is dissatisfying as the story is suppose to be about Lottie’s Wedding Night.
Mid-way through the book Fliss decides to read Lottie’s diary. The diary Lottie wrote when she was eight-teen, when she first met Ben during her gap year on the Greek Island of Ikonos. This was a perfect opportunity to add some depth to Lottie’s character, as well as give the reader some idea of the past relationship between Lottie & Ben, but Kinsella completely missed this, much to the readers disappointment.
Kinsella clearly tried to write a comedy and there were a few funny chapters; but many fell short of causing a smile, let alone a laugh. Kinsella‘s desire to write humorous chapters seemed to be at the sacrifice of the plot, which felt filmsy and put together with numerous hints that were as subtle as anvils falling from the sky.
Kinsella really lost her way with this book. Wedding Night was more chick-trash than chick-lit. Kinsella is regarded as Queen of chick-lit, but if she writes another book like this she is likely to loose her crown.
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This is what it’s about:
Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.
(From: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html, Last accessed: Saturday 20th April 2013.)
After Elizabeth Gilbert‘s best selling book Eat, Pray, Love she went in search of a psychological construct to deal with her work and her natural anxiety about writing her next book.
What I like about Elizabeth Gilbert‘s talk is her use of humour and storytelling. She looks at creative people in history and how they managed their anxiety; as well as talking about brushing up against devine creativity. I found myself in agreement with everything that she says and certainly related to brushing up against devine creative. I’ve had inspiration and ideas appear from nowhere in my mind and in these cases it feels Like they are not coming from me, but from somewhere else.
I have shown and shared this video with the many creative people in my life. The feelings were mixed. Some agreed with all of what she says, some agree with bits and some totally disagree. I guess it’s a perspective thing.
In the near future I will be sharing some of my short stories as free downloads. I’m stomach wrenchingly nervous about it. But the having a genius concept makes me feel less anxious. If people don’t like my short stories my genius can take the blame.
Are you a Doctor, Nurse, Healthcare Assistant or Other Healthcare Professional? Or a Student?
Ways The Human Body Can Go Wrong covers every system of the body, what can go wrong when the body malfunctions or fails, symptoms (including why these happen) and cures/treatments available.
It includes knowledge around essential skills for Clinical Excellence such as Assessment, All Age Observational Norms, Models of Care, Communication/Handover Tips, the role of Specialities, Medication Tips, Dealing with Errors, Documentation Advice and a list of Useful Resources.
It is written in plain English, but highlights important medical terminology. It has been written at a level where someone from a non-medical background can pick it up and learn, but that it is still valuable to those with significant Clinical Experience.
My dear friend Roy decided to follow in his family’s footsteps and enlist in the Royal Navy.
I wanted to maintain our friendship, to continue to support Roy, to make him laugh and to entertain him. So I came up with the idea of sending him a weekly email on random topics.
These emails were on a variety of topics, always being entertaining, sometimes being interesting, sometimes funny and occasionally being serious.
Topics included: Jokes, Puzzles, Inspirational Quotes, Future Technology to Be Excited About, How to Fight A Shark, How to Woo A Turtle, Some of the Most Amazing Jobs in the World, Facts About Castles, Do Aliens Exist?, The Kindest Humans, A List of Cakes, 13 Weird Body Facts, 20 Super Space Facts, Ancient Egyptian Curses, 10 Weird Olympic Games, The Great Emu War of 1932, Quiz: Flags of the World, Legendary Characters from the UK and others.
My Royal Navy Friend is a copy of these emails. In total, there are 52 emails. Dispersed throughout the book are also Royal Navy facts and stories.
This workbook has been designed for anyone that is struggling with alcohol or has struggled with alcohol in the past.
It is written in a Motivational Interviewing style, one of the key therapies used to support people with alcohol issues. It has been designed using a trauma-informed approach and is strength–based.
What you will find in this book is more than just worksheets about alcohol. You’ll find all the tools someone needs to get into recovery from alcohol and stay there. It’s a therapy-based book, not an alcohol-based book.
SpellCast is a comprehensive compendium of spells, oils, charms and talismans. It is purely a book about magic, folk magic for the 21st century. The spells are ones that are tried and tested, with some that will stand the test of time.
In SpellCast you will read about the power of Instant Magic, of Banishment & Bindings, Blessings, Cleansing, Communication, Death, Employment, Finance & Money, Fertility, Friendship, Happiness & Joy, Health, Love & Relationships, Luck Magic, Protection, Transformative Magic and WishCraft.
This book will change your life. Your life will be abundant in all meanings of the word.
This book contains everything that you need to know about mental health and mental illness. Mental Health Wisdom is divided into three sections.
Understanding is section one and is all about the facts of mental health.
In section two, Empathy Through Lived Experience, the author shares his personal experience of mental illness.
Life Hacks is section three. It’s all about self-care and quick and easy ways to improve your mental health, prevent mental illness or relapse of mental illness.
Mental Health Wisdom contains everything that you need to know about mental health and mental illness.
Mental Health Wisdom is divided into three sections.
Understanding is section one and is all about the facts of mental health.
In section two, Empathy Through Lived Experience, the author shares his personal experience of mental illness.
Life Hacks is section three. It’s all about self-care and quick and easy ways to improve your mental health, prevent mental illness or relapse of mental illness.
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