September Book Picks

bookreviews

Geetu Bharwaney Emotional Resilience.

An intelligent and accessible book. This brilliant book helps you develop your emotional resilience. It has practical steps which are easy to follow and understand, leaving you with the tools to perform at your best. It is all broken down well and is an original, unique book that allows you to prepare yourself against challenging situations. This great book gives you the toolkit to be your best at work.

Pressure, stress and annoying problems are all part of life, especially at work.

By developing your emotional resilience you can be bulletproof, prepare yourself against even the most challenging situations, and focus fully on achieving your goals, getting things done, moving ahead and being the best you can be.

With this comprehensive, practical and empowering guide, you will start feeling the benefits of emotional resilience straight away as you learn to:

·   quickly adapt to tricky and pressured situations and get the best from them;

·   be at your best all the time by successfully managing your emotions, thoughts and actions;

·   handle everyday demands, hassles and annoyances with positivity and confidence;

·   realise your full potential – whether on your own or with others.

Being clever, skilled or smart is not enough. To get an edge, stand out and really succeed you need emotional resilience.

Emotional Resilience: Know What it Takes to be Agile, Adaptable and Perform at Your Best is available here.

 

J.D. Robb Obsession In Death.

Another brilliant crime thriller from J.D Robb AKA Nora Roberts. Entertaining and indulgent. These books are hugely popular for a reason.

A crisp winter morning in New York. In a luxury apartment, the body of a woman lies stretched out on a huge bed. On the wall above, the killer has left a message in bold black ink: FOR LIEUTENANT EVE DALLAS, WITH GREAT ADMIRATION AND UNDERSTANDING.

Eve Dallas is used to unwanted attention. Famous for her high-profile cases and her marriage to billionaire businessman Roarke, she has learned to deal with intense public scrutiny and media gossip. But now Eve has become the object of a singular and deadly obsession. She has an ‘admirer’, who just can’t stop thinking about her. Who is convinced they have a special bond. Who is planning to kill for her – again and again…

With time against her, Eve is forced to play a delicate – and dangerous – psychological dance. Because the killer is desperate for something Eve can never provide – approval. And once that becomes clear, Eve knows her own life will be at risk – along with those she cares about the most.

Obsession in Death is available here.

 

Helen Oyeyemi Boy, Snow, Bird.

Now out in paperback. this imaginative and original novel is well worth a read. Read our review here.

The fifth novel from award-winning author Helen Oyeyemi, who was named in 2013 as one of Granta’s best of young British novelists. A retelling of the Snow White myth, Boy, Snow, Bird is a deeply moving novel about an unbreakable bond . . .

BOY Novak turns twenty and decides to try for a brand-new life. Flax Hill, Massachusetts, isn’t exactly a welcoming town, but it does have the virtue of being the last stop on the bus route she took from New York. Flax Hill is also the hometown of Arturo Whitman – craftsman, widower, and father of Snow.

SNOW is mild-mannered, radiant and deeply cherished – exactly the sort of little girl Boy never was, and Boy is utterly beguiled by her. If Snow displays a certain inscrutability at times, that’s simply a characteristic she shares with her father, harmless until Boy gives birth to Snow’s sister, Bird.

When BIRD is born Boy is forced to re-evaluate the image Arturo’s family have presented to her, and Boy, Snow and Bird are broken apart.

Sparkling with wit and vibrancy, Boy, Snow, Bird is a novel about three women and the strange connection between them. It confirms Helen Oyeyemi’s place as one of the most original and dynamic literary voices of her generation.

Boy, Snow, Bird is available here.

 

J.D Robb Devoted In Death

Another entertaining thriller. A must read and destined to become a film (we hope).

It’s a new year in New York city, and two star-crossed lovers have just discovered an insatiable appetite…for murder.

Lieutenant Eve Dallas has witnessed some grisly crimes in her career and she knows just how dark things can get on the streets. But when a much-loved musician is found dead, Eve soon realises that his murder is part of a horrifying killing spree, stretching right across the country.

Now the killers have reached New York, and they’ve found themselves another victim. Eve knows she only has a couple of days to save a young girl’s life, and to stop the killers before their sadistic games escalate. Eve’s husband Roarke is ready to put his brains and his considerable resources behind the search. But even as the couple works closely together, time is running out…

Devoted in Death is available here.

 

 

Bird of the week: The Kingfisher

The Eurasian kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) is one of Britain’s most colourful and popular birds.

Kingfishers hunt fish, tadpoles and aquatic insects and are therefore found by rivers and lakes.

Despite their colourful appearance – bright blue and orange – they are not actually easy to spot. They’re quite small – not much larger than a sparrow – with a short tail and very long bill.  The sexes look pretty much alike but you can tell them apart by having a close look at their bills: the female’s lower beak is orange (as if she had put on some lipstick!) and the male’s is all black.

Kingfishers are very territorial and you will only ever see more than one at a time during the breeding season – if you’re lucky that is.

The kingfisher is a so-called ‘schedule 1’-bird, protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Thich means that unless you’ve got a licence, you mustn’t go near a nesting site or disturb the birds in any way.

So if you are lucky enough to see a kingfisher, most likely perched on a branch or log near the water, bobbing its head up and down before diving and within seconds emerging again with a fish, keep your distance and enjoy this magical experience. Or you might just notice an electric blue flash across the water, come and gone before you realise what you’ve just seen.

Let me share some of my favourite kingfisher photos with you – they are truly stunning birds and I hope you’ll get to see one yourself!

Male Kingfisher

Male Kingfisher

Female Kingfisher
Female Kingfisher
Male Kingfisher with fish

Male Kingfisher with fish

Male Kingfisher preening

Male Kingfisher preening

Female Kingfisher

Female Kingfisher

Sandra Palme
www.finepetportraits.co.uk

Bird of the week: The Nightingale

For about six weeks each spring – in April and May – a very special songster’s voice graces the English countryside. So my first bird of the week has to be the nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos).
Whether you’re a birder or not at all interested in birds, whether you are familiar with bird names such as dotterel, corncrake and lesser redpoll or whether your knowledge of bird species starts and ends with blackbird and robin – everyone has heard of the nightingale.
This bird is a legend, a myth that has been mentioned in poems, songs and stories for hundreds of years. So – what do YOU know about the nightingale? It’s a bird…and it sings by night? Correct (although it does also sing during the day).
Have you ever actually heard a nightingale though? Do you know what it looks like?
Sadly, most people’s answer to these questions will be ‘no’.
This is sad because one of the reasons is the nightingale’s decline – fewer than 7,000 males can be found in the whole country, most of them in the Southeast of England.
It is also very sad because listening to a male nightingale’s song – and it is the males that sing in order to attract females and to defend their territory – is pure magic and an experience you will never forget. No other bird can hit and creatively combine sequences of low and high notes quite like a nightingale can. I can’t really describe it – but it touches the heart.
Check out this page on the RSPB’s website for an example of a nightingale’s song:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/n/nightingale/index.aspx
Seeing one is another matter – nightingales are very elusive birds and the males love to sing hidden in a bush or thicket.
Some might think that a nightingale – the great songster – must also have a striking appearance. Wrong – males impress females with their fantastic voices and thus don’t need a colourful plumage. Plus – if you give away your location by singing day and night with a wonderful and loud voice you certainly don’t want predators to be able to spot you easily. So nightingales are basically brown with a white-ish chest and roufus-coloured tail. However, I don’t agree with people who call a nightingale ‘plain’. I think it is a very beautiful bird indeed.
I would like to share some of my favourite nightingale photos with you, all taken within the last few days – I feel very privileged to have heard and seen nightingales on numerous occasions, some perching right in front of me – this certainly doesn’t happen very often.   

Nightingale

nightingale

Nightingale singing

Nightingale

Nightingale in full song

This is the best time of year to watch and listen to all of the resident and migrant birds that have just returned from Africa (including the nightingale). They are now singing their little hearts out, show off their best plumage and are more easily seen than at any other time of the year. I shall introduce you to more of those wonderful birds in the next few weeks!

O NIGHTINGALE that on yon blooming spray 
Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still, 
Thou with fresh hopes the Lover’s heart dost fill, 
While the jolly Hours lead on propitious May.

(from: “Sonnet to the Nightingale” by John Milton) 
Sandra Palme
www.finepetportraits.co.uk