Reviews / Books
recent Reviews/Books
by Sarah Maessen | 5:06 am, 10/10/2011
(4/5)
by Sarah Maessen | 4:01 am, 03/10/2011
Author: Chan Koonchung; translated from Chinese by Michael S. Duke Publisher: Doubleday 1/5
by Sarah Maessen | 6:12 am, 19/09/2011
by Feby Idrus | 2:10 am, 12/09/2011
Bound is the fourth book in Vanda Symon’s crime novel series starring Detective Sam Shephard, and it opens with a hell of a bang (kind of literally; there’s a reason why the murder victim’s face is described as “just dripping meat, bone and brain”). In fact, the opening made me think “Wow, she’s really going balls to the wall, isn’t she? This is going to be awesome!”
by Sarah Maessen | 10:32 pm, 22/08/2011
The New Stephanie Meyer?
Relax and Grow Rich: How to Live a Successful, Satisfying and Sustaining Life
by Kathy Young | 12:23 am 26/07/2010
Authors: Mike Hutcheson & Claire Wadey Publisher: Harper Collins 1/5
This book is not about getting rich in a practical sense, and the ‘relax’ aspect is certainly not in relation to what you would do as you bank the bucks from passive income. Relax and Grow Rich spends 280 pages describing various ways to “think outside the square,” “throw caution to the wind,” and various other clichés.
The book consists of eight parts that aim to provide an analysis of the essence of creativity, broken down into manageable bits. Starting with “Know Thyself” and proceeding through to “The Creative Environment,” with discussions about serendipity and flow and brainwaves, etc. in between, you’d think Hutcheson and Wadey had lots to say about creativity. Instead, there was definitely a repeated emphasis on slowing down and being honest. Not particularly helpful stuff.
Right, I said Relax and Grow Rich is not about getting rich in the usual sense. Instead, it defines being rich as having plenty of spirit, love, and abundance that cannot be given a price tag. If I bought this book on the basis of the title, I’d be pretty disappointed. Give it a miss, unless you need help figuring out how long to lie in the hammock looking for patterns in the clouds, which is about as helpful as reading tea leaves at the bottom of the cup to clarify your future. That is all.
