The Compass Of Now By DDnard Book Review

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Frostie

DDnard sure is an inspiring women: widowed at 27, the mother of an 11 month old and $3 million in debt. She managed to pay off the debts she inherited from her husband and become a multi-millionaire. Quite a remarkable accomplishment and it is hard to not be impressed.

Now she has a bestselling book. 1.4 million copies sold to be exact. Reading the book it is easy to see why. You come out the other end inspired and with a better outlook on life. The book is easy to read and well illustrated. The step-by-step guide is easy to follow, far from being condescending; the advice is brilliant and concise, helping you to change the way you think and set your compass to now. There are good quotes and thought-provoking stories along with the advice.

In a way the book brings you back to yourself. DDnard brings ancient wisdom to her goals and instead of being crushed about losing her husband; becomes stronger and clears $3 million of debt. In a way The Compass of Now is a guide to positivity. It brings you back down to ancient wisdom and away from the negative aspects of thinking and living. Although there is a spiritual aspect to the book, it adds to the book and no religion is shoved down your throat. In fact, even non-religious people can benefit and be spiritual. This is a very good, inspirational book. Even people who don’t like self-help books will love it.

By 27, she owed £2million.

By 29, she was debt-free.

By 35, she was worth £4million.

The Compass of Now follows one woman’s incredible journey from destitute widow to one of the world’s most powerful entrepreneurs and inspirational leaders.

It documents, in moving detail, how she fought back from the brink of financial ruin just months after giving birth and then suddenly losing husband to a heart attack, and emerged emotionally stronger – and significantly richer – than she could have ever imagined.

But The Compass of Now is more than just an inspirational success story. It is the definitive guide to taking control of your finances – and your life. It’s step-by-step advice to financial and emotional freedom has already made the book a global phenomenon with more than 1.4million sales worldwide.

Author and self-help guru DDnard is the bestselling writer of all time in her native Thailand and one of the country’s most sought-after celebrities. She is now set to become a household name in Britain with the release of an English-language version of The Compass of Now, which hits the shelves for the first time this month.

This internationally-acclaimed title, released through Life Compass Publishing, merges the best of Eastern and Western world thinking, mindfulness and emotional healing techniques to reveal the practical, tried-and-tested steps that Brits – including the estimated 70 per cent in debt – can take in order to:

– Manage and overcome personal debt

– Become financially and emotionally free

– Unleash their full potential and live life to the fullest

Speaking about the 216-page, full-colour paperback, DDnard, who lives in Bangpakong, Thailand, said: “This inspiring book is filled with the message of hope and personal strength, and will help you come to understand that your future truly is in your own hands.”

The Compass of Now is available now

Go The F**K To Sleep Book | Parenting

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Frostie

Forget National Book Week. This is the book of the year! After a long day, sometimes you just need your child to go to sleep. This funny, tongue in cheek book and hilarious book pokes fun at that. Whatever you do, make sure you don’t actually read this out loud to you child.

It’s realistic, sarcastic and will become a parent’s best friend. It talks about everyday family situations and has excuses of why they can’t sleep, such as ‘mummy I’m thirsty’ or ‘there’s a monster in my cupboard’! We’ve all heard them, and this book helps to soothe an excited child to sleep, as well as humour the annoyed parent.

Written by Adam Mansbach who writes from personal experience of a sleep disturbed toddler, his honest nature and funny colourful illustrations drawn by Ricardo Cortes instantly puts the reader at ease as they sift through the different ways to get their little monkey to sleep.

Costing only £10.95 from www.prezzybox.com

Features:

A bedtime book for parents who live in the real world
Captures the familiar and unspoken tribulations of putting your child to bed
Colourfully illustrated and hilariously funny, this is a breath of fresh air for parents new, old and expectant
(*You should probably not read this to your children.)

Win Sophie Duffy Books

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Frostie

A real treat of a competition today on Frost: two Sophie Duffy books to giveaway, The Generation Game and This Holey Life are up for grabs. Perfect if you are a fan, and a great introduction if you are not already. Check out our interview with Sophie Duffy here too.

To win follow @Frostmag on Twitter and Tweet, ‘I want to win books with @Frostmag’ or like us on Facebook. Alternatively, sign up to our newsletter. Or subscribe to Frost Magazine TV on YouTube here: http://t.co/9etf8j0kkz. Then comment below saying what you did.

The competition closes on the 31st of March 2014.

Boy, Snow, Bird By Helen Oyeyemi Book Review

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Catherine Balavage

As Boy, Snow, Bird By Helen Oyeyemi was delivered to me I started to see review of it everywhere. Much hyped and fawned over, I decided to put all of that aside to focus on the merits of the book myself.

Boy, Snow, Bird is about three women; Boy, who escapes an abusive parent and ends up in a small town in Massachusetts, solely because it is the last stop on the bus route she took from New York, the locals aren’t welcoming but she wins them round in the end and ends up marrying a widower who is the father of Snow. Lastly, Bird is Boy’s daughter. Who brings up the truth about the family she has married into: they are African Americans who pass themselves of as white.

Whenever a child comes out with darker skin, they are sent off to live with an aunt. The aunt who, incidentally, was sent away herself for being dark-skinned.

With hints of Imitation of Life, the excellent 1959 Lana Turner film where a young women turns against her own mother because she is a light-skinned African American and can pass for white; this book is a rather wonderfully written take on race, vanity and family.

Spoiler Alert

When Boy’s own child comes out dark-skinned she is supposed to send her away. Instead she sends away the beautiful Snow, a decision which causes much dismay to Snow and her in-laws. A further twist comes at the end

Well written and hard to put down, the novel has plenty of twists and turns and an ending that I did not see coming and to be brutally honest, initially didn’t really get it as it was so left of field. However, the ending is not a bad ending at all, it is imaginative in fact. Bird, Snow, Bird is a very good book. Well worth a read.

Named one of 2014’s most anticipated books by CNN, The Huffington Post, Bookpage, Time.com, The Chicago Tribune, Vulture, Philadelphia Inquirer, Real Simple, The Millions and Flavorwire

From the prizewinning author of Mr. Fox, the Snow White fairy tale brilliantly recast as a story of family secrets, race, beauty, and vanity.

In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty—the opposite of the life she’s left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman.

A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she’d become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy’s daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as light-skinned African Americans passing for white. Among them, Boy, Snow, and Bird confront the tyranny of the mirror to ask how much power surfaces really hold.

Dazzlingly inventive and powerfully moving, Boy, Snow, Bird is an astonishing and enchanting novel. With breathtaking feats of imagination, Helen Oyeyemi confirms her place as one of the most original and dynamic literary voices of our time.

Boy, Snow, Bird can be bought here.

Bestseller Enables Those In Financial Or Emotional Debt To Turn Life Around

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Frostie

By 27, she owed £2million.

By 29, she was debt-free.

By 35, she was worth £4million.

The Compass of Now follows one woman’s incredible journey from destitute widow to one of the world’s most powerful entrepreneurs and inspirational leaders.

– Manage and overcome personal debt

– Become financially and emotionally free

– Unleash their full potential and live life to the fullest

The Compass of Now by DDnard (Life Compass Co., Ltd.) is available now.

Bonnie Marcus Collection Book Reviews

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Frostie

We received two cool books to review from the Bonnie Marcus Collection: Guilt-Free Girl Desserts and Cupcakes & Cocktails. First impressions of the book is that they have a great design. Second is: I am now hungry. And I want a cocktail.

Guilt-Free Desserts is my kind of book. Who doesn’t want to eat dessert without getting fat? It may seem like a pipe-dream but you can make dessert as guilt-free as possible. These desserts are low calorie, there are a lot of figure-friendly recipes. Some of the desserts have fewer than 250 calories each. The book is bursting with great desserts that will make you a domestic goddess. It is hard to choose a favourite but I particularly thought the Banana and Coconut Ice Cream Balls looked amazing.

The book also lets you know what ingredients to add that are super-foods and will make you healthier. This is a stylish book with great dessert ideas.

Cupcakes & Cocktails

Cupcakes and cocktails. Just so yummy and they really make a party. This book even helps you match cupcake and cocktail flavours, or make the ingredients clash. There is even cocktail cupcakes to try.

This book should be on every bookshelf. It has a huge amount of cupcakes and cocktails, all delicious. It doesn’t just have recipes, it also has tips on baking. There is also a lower calorie chapter and a chapter entirely on chocolate. Heaven awaits. There are so many to try it will take a while to get through them all. Which is only a good thing as it will be a lot of fun.

Bonnie Marcus launched her stylish stationery company, the Bonnie Marcus Collection “Where Fashion Meets Paper®” in 2002 from her dining room table, while expecting her first child.

As a former wedding planner in New York City, Bonnie was well-known for her event planning expertise, and found there was a void in the stationery market in terms of fashion-forward, stylish designs. She decided to combine her passion for fashion (having worked for designer Diane Von Furstenberg) with her love of event planning, and her collection took the stationery industry by storm!

Bonnie’s stylish designs are now available in thousands of retail stores world-wide, and celebrity fans include Cindy Crawford, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross and many others. Bonnie has been recognised as a pioneer for women in business and is proud to be an established partner of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Autism Speaks.

Available from Amazon UK

Somewhere Over England Book Review

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Catherine Balavage

Somewhere Over England almost had me just with the back cover. I love books about World War II, female protagonists and history. Somewhere Over England has all in abundance and a whole lot more besides.

Set in 1930s England, 18-year-old Helen falls in love with Heine, a young German photographer. She bravely puts aside the prejudice of her friends and family to marry him. He fled Germany because of the growing powers of the Nazis, but there power is growing and the worst is yet to come as storm clouds gather over Europe and World War II looms. What happens next is an unputdownable story of love, war, compassion and struggle.

Heine is interned and Helen has to face the horrors of London during the blitz alone as their young son is evacuated. Heine is political, he sees Hitler for what he really is and knows that a war is coming, they help refugees before anyone knows their will definitely be a war, but his weakness is that he is too much of a political fighter and cannot always see his family. Helen is sweet and fresh at the beginning of the book. She longs for love and the proper family she never had. Helen becomes stronger and stronger, even feeding the family and selling her own pictures. She becomes a strong, bolshy, independent women and makes Heine find his way home to them. The book perfectly captures early love and marriage.

As World War breaks out the family is divided and times are tough for everyone. The historical facts in the book are excellent. This really is a riveting book with a lot of depth. It is interesting and you learn a lot. The prejudice that people go through is horrendous. Chris, Heine’s and Helen’s son, hates being half-German and even hates his own father sometimes. He is horribly bullied sometimes and finds his identity hard. Will he ever see the difference between being a German and being a Nazis, and be proud of his heritage?

This is a wonderful, layered book. One that you never forget after you have read it. Essential reading.

Buy Somewhere Over England

For more on Margaret Graham: www.margaret-graham.com
www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk
www.wordsforthewounded.blogspot.co.uk
www.margaret-graham-author.blogspot.co.uk

Interview With Author Sophie Duffy

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Catherine Balavage

How did it feel to win the Yeovil Literary Prize, and then a host of others?

I was very surprised when I had an email to say I’d won the Yeovil Prize back in 2006. I see that moment as a breakthrough though it was another 5 years before The Generation Game was published by Legend Press, after it won the Luke Bitmead Bursary in 2010.

Do you have a favourite book that you have written?

I feel closest to the characters in The Generation Game as I lived with them for so long. I still think about them and wonder what they are up to. Particularly Philippa Smith.

What is your writing routine?

I wish I had one! I am not the most organized and have a house full of teenagers which can be a distraction. Supplying food. Washing countless socks. Nagging. Driving around Devon lanes. However, I do now have a room of my own, an office at the bottom of a garden. A glorified shed. It is full of all the tat I’m not allowed to display in the house. I love tat. So I try to get out there in the mornings. But inevitably my plans are scuppered.

How do you come up with your ideas?

They come from small thoughts. A memory. A conversation. A person who passes in and out of your life. Those small thoughts then grow into something more substantial. Something that nags away in the back of my mind, eventually pushing through and saying ‘write me’. I write about families and so I get inspiration from every family I meet, all with their different quirks, make-ups, rules, traditions and skeletons in the cupboard.

Do you ever get writers block?

Not really. I can faff around a lot and resist the act of sitting down and actually writing. But when I do sit down with the intention of writing, the words usually come. If I am struggling, then I read and read and read. It’s all part of the creative act.

How long does it take you to write a book?

Hmm. A while. Eighteen months to two years to get down a decentish first draft. Then maybe another year to rewrite. It’s a long, slow process for me.

What’s next?
I’m rewriting my current novel. I have the plot and the characters but I was telling it wrong. So I have changed the voice and it seems to be working much better. I hope.

Tell us about CreativeWritingMatters.

I used to be an early years teacher and moved on to youth work. I love teaching and was delighted to join Cathie Hartigan along with Margaret James running workshops and courses for www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk in the Exeter area. We also appraise manuscripts and mentor novelists online. Last year we launched the Exeter Novel Prize and had over 250 entries. We now have a shortlist which is being considered by my agent Broo Doherty of DHH Literary Agency. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in Exeter on 22nd March. Very excited.

Advice for wannabe writers?

Persist. Don’t give up. Be determined. Read. Do a writing class. Join a writing group. Enter competitions. And write whenever and wherever you can.

Best piece of advice you have ever been given?

Be bold.

http://www.sophieduffy.com/
The Generation Game
This Holey Life

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