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Writer's pictureThe_Secret_Bookreview

Canongate Book Mail 💌

Updated: Jul 4

On a very wet, and windy, storm 47699753 of the year so far, I was lucky enough to receive the most amazing book mail from Canongate!


Here is a summary of each book that I have kindly been sent! There is also a section on my Amazon Store Front for Canongate Books.


The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now by Meg Jay:


The Defining Decade by Meg Jay is a transformative guide that resonates with the challenges and opportunities we face in our twenties. Jay, a clinical psychologist, skilfully navigates through the pivotal decisions and experiences that shape this critical decade of our lives. Her insights are not just professional wisdom but are deeply human, offering a compassionate yet no-nonsense approach.


Navigating my twenties has been a constant struggle with anxiety, self-doubt, and a pervasive sense of being lost, entangled in the complexities of a quarter-life crisis. This book has been a revelation, articulating and validating every emotion I've experienced. It emphasises that these struggles are not unique to me or my age group but rather symptomatic of broader societal pressures. The book underscores the societal expectations that often lead us to conform instead of pursuing what is right for us at this particular moment in our lives.


If you find yourself grappling with similar emotions, take solace in the fact that it's a shared experience, not an isolated one and give this book a read. This will be a book that I will continue to return to.





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Big Feelings: How to Be Okay When Things Are Not Okay by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy:


From the duo behind the bestselling book No Hard Feelings and the wildly popular Liz and Mollie Instagram, an insightful and approachable illustrated guide to handling our most difficult emotions.


We all experience unwieldy feelings. But between our emotion-phobic society and the debilitating uncertainty of modern times, we usually don't know how to talk about what we're going through, much less handle it.


Over the past year, Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy’s online community has laughed and cried about productivity guilt, pandemic anxiety, and Zoom fatigue. Now, Big Feelings addresses anyone intimidated by oversized feelings they can't predict or control, offering the tools to understand what's going on, find comfort, and face the future with a sense of newfound agency.


Working within the NHS, burnout can happen very easily, and you need to find people who will pull you through and laugh at things that sometimes, may not always be appropriate, but it is how you get through. This is one of those books you can share with your colleagues, laugh, cry and then laugh some more. This book lays out strategies for turning big emotions into manageable ones and this came just at the right time.





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Namesake: Reflections on A Warrior Woman by N.S. Nuseibeh:


This book contains a collection of essays exploring what it means to be a young, secular Muslim woman today by N.S. Nuseibeh.


N.S. Nuseibeh reflects on her ancestor Nusayba, the only woman warrior to have fought alongside the Prophet.


Nuseibeh delves into the experience of being an Arab woman today and in the distant past - taking her from superheroes and the glorification of violence to the rise of Arab feminism, to what courage looks like in the context of interminable conflict.


By seeking to understand her namesake in the context of her twenty-first-century concerns, Nuseibeh links our current ideas of Muslims and Arabs with their origins, exploring myth-making and identity, religion and nationhood, feminism and race.


I'm always eager to learn about culture, experiences and how different people experience life. this is full of backstories and historical facts that make the book flow and be addictive.






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