Book Review: My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward by Mark Lukach

Posted on 08/01/2023 by Lenn

Title: My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward

Author: Mark Lukach

Publication Date: May 2, 2017

Number of Pages: 320

Format: Audiobook

Publisher: Harper Wave

Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir, Mental Illness

Synopsis:

A heart-wrenching, yet hopeful, memoir of a young marriage that is redefined by mental illness and affirms the power of love.

Mark and Giulia’s life together began as a storybook romance. They fell in love at eighteen, married at twenty-four, and were living their dream life in San Francisco. When Giulia was twenty-seven, she suffered a terrifying and unexpected psychotic break that landed her in the psych ward for nearly a month. One day she was vibrant and well-adjusted; the next she was delusional and suicidal, convinced that her loved ones were not safe.

Eventually, Giulia fully recovered, and the couple had a son. But, soon after Jonas was born, Giulia had another breakdown, and then a third a few years after that. Pushed to the edge of the abyss, everything the couple had once taken for granted was upended.

A story of the fragility of the mind, and the tenacity of the human spirit, My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward is, above all, a love story that raises profound questions: How do we care for the people we love? What and who do we live for? Breathtaking in its candor, radiant with compassion, and written with dazzling lyricism, Lukach’s is an intensely personal odyssey through the harrowing years of his wife’s mental illness, anchored by an abiding devotion to family that will affirm readers’ faith in the power of love. Continue reading →

Bangkok Book Haul

Posted on 02/26/2023 by Lenn

Of course, our trip wouldn’t be complete if I don’t drop by bookstores and shop for books. I knew that they have one of my favorite bookstores when travelling in Asia (I haven’t travelled outside of Asia yet, but you get my point), Books Kinokuniya, so it was instantly on our itinerary! But we also dropped by Open House at Central Embassy Mall which I learned from Kathryn Bernardo’s Instagram post when she went to Thailand last year. Ever since I saw her post about this beautiful bookstore, I knew that I wanted to visit it and that’s why I convinced my husband to spend our first anniversary in Thailand.

Open House is located at the 6th floor of Central Embassy mall. Take note, they occupy the WHOLE floor. They sell different kinds of books from educational, cultural, memoirs, and fiction. They also have cafe’s and restaurant’s inside the bookstore! It was really a cool place to visit if you’re a bookworm like me. Oh, and they also offer art materials for painting, drawing, etc. Continue reading →

Book Review: Time is a Mother by Ocean Voung

Posted on 02/22/2023 by Lenn

Title: Time Is A Mother

Author: Ocean Voung

Publication Date: April 5, 2022

Number of Pages: 128

Format: E-book

Publisher: Penguin Press

Genre: Contemporary, Poetry

Synopsis:

In this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life among the aftershocks of his mother’s death, embodying the paradox of sitting within grief while being determined to survive beyond it. Shifting through memory, and in concert with the themes of his novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Vuong contends with personal loss, the meaning of family, and the cost of being the product of an American war in America. At once vivid, brave, and propulsive, Vuong’s poems circle fragmented lives to find both restoration as well as the epicenter of the break.

The author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky With Exit Wounds, winner of the 2016 Whiting Award, the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize, and a 2019 MacArthur fellow, Vuong writes directly to our humanity without losing sight of the current moment. These poems represent a more innovative and daring experimentation with language and form, illuminating how the themes we perennially live in and question are truly inexhaustible. Bold and prescient, and a testament to tenderness in the face of violence, Time Is a Mother is a return and a forging forth all at once.
Continue reading →

Book Review: The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan

Posted on 02/21/2023 by Lenn

Title: The Nanny

Author: Gilly Macmillan

Publication Date: May 1, 2019

Number of Pages: 432

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Century

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

Synopsis:

Jocelyn loves her nanny more than her own mother – until the night that the nanny disappears. Jo is seven years old when it happens and never gets over the loss.

Now, thirty years later, Jo is returning to her family home with her daughter in tow – just as human remains are pulled out of the house’s lake.

Then there’s a knock on the door. And a woman claiming to be her nanny stands outside.

Is she who she says she is?
Can she be trusted?
And what really happened on that fateful night all those years ago?

Sometimes the truth hurts so much you’d rather hear the lie.
Continue reading →

Book Review: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Posted on 02/20/2023 by Lenn

Title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Author: Stuart Turton

Publication Date: February 8, 2018

Number of Pages: 511

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Raven Books

Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller, Mystery

Synopsis:

It is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy. As fireworks explode overhead, Evelyn Hardcastle, the young and beautiful daughter of the house, is killed.

But Evelyn will not die just once. Until Aiden – one of the guests summoned to Blackheath for the party – can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself, over and over again. Every time ending with the fateful pistol shot.

The only way to break this cycle is to identify the killer. But each time the day begins again, Aiden wakes in the body of a different guest. And someone is determined to prevent him ever escaping Blackheath…
Continue reading →

Stuff I’ve Been Reading Lately #30

Posted on 02/10/2023 by Lenn

BOOKS READ:

Melvina’s Therapy by A. Rasen
I’m a Therapist and My Patient is in Love with a Pedophile: 6 Patient Files From Prison (Dr. Harper Therapy, #2)
Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke
The New Year’s Party by Daniel Hurst
The Ex by Alafair Burke
The Secret Lives of Introverts: Inside Our Hidden World by Jenn Granneman
Chef’s Kiss by Jarrett Melendez
Woom by Duncan Ralston
American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper by Daniel Stashower
A Boy Possessed by Jon Athan

ONGOING:

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard by Tom Felton

BOOKS BOUGHT:

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Better Together by Christine Riccio
The Defence by Steve Cavanagh
Fifty-Fifty by Steve Cavanagh
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
We Told Six Lies by Victoria Scott
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

Continue reading →

Book Review: A Boy Possessed by Jon Athan

Posted on 02/02/2023 by Lenn

Title: A Boy Possessed

Author: Jon Athan

Publication Date: August9, 2018

Number of Pages: 199

Format: Ebook

Publisher: Createspace

Genre: Horror

Synopsis:

The life of Jamie Cruz, a single father, begins to crumble when his eleven-year-old son, Casey, begins to exhibit signs of mental illness. At first, he turns to a doctor for help. To his dismay, Casey’s behavior inexplicably worsens as the boy becomes more aggressive—more violent. When Casey’s actions begin to challenge the laws of nature, their once-peaceful home becomes a house of unimaginable terror. Jamie is forced to question everything he knows. He tackles every possibility—psychological and supernatural—and enlists the aid of doctors, a parapsychologist, and a priest to help him save his son.

But, what are they fighting? And is it too late to save Casey?

Jon Athan, the author of Her Suffering and Madness at Madison Mall, brings you a battle between good and evil, mind and soul, and father and son in this supernatural horror story.

Please note: This novel is a remake of a previously-released book titled In the Name of the Devil: A Horror Novel. The book has been completely re-written from beginning to end and features a new chapter as well as over 10,000 words of new content. This is not your average re-release.
Continue reading →

Book Review: Woom by Duncan Ralston

Posted on 01/31/2023 by Lenn

Title: Woom

Author: Duncan Ralston

Publication Date: August 6, 2016

Number of Pages: 131

Publisher: Shadow Work Publishing

Format: Ebook

Genre: Extreme Horror, Splatterpunk

Synopsis:

“I believe pain lingers,” Angel said. “Do I believe in spirits? In the supernatural? Probably not.”

The Lonely Motel holds many dark secrets… and Room 6 just might possess the worst of them all.

Angel knows all about pain. His mother died in this room. He’s researched its history. Today he’s come back to end it, no matter the cost, once and for all.

Shyla, a plus-sized prostitute, thinks the stories Angel tells her can’t be true. Secrets so vile, you won’t want to let them inside you.

But the Lonely Motel doesn’t forget. It doesn’t forgive. And it always claims its victim.
Continue reading →

Book Review: American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper by Daniel Stashower

Posted on 01/25/2023 by Lenn

Title: American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper

Author: Daniel Stashower

Publication Date: September 6, 2022

Number of Pages: 368

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Format: Audiobook

Genre: Non-fiction, True Crime

Synopsis:

Boston had its Strangler. California had the Zodiac Killer. And in the depths of the Great Depression, Cleveland had the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run.

On September 5th, 1934, a young beachcomber made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Cleveland’s Lake Erie: the lower half of a female torso, neatly severed at the waist. The victim, dubbed “The Lady of the Lake,” was only the first of a butcher’s dozen. Over the next four years, twelve more bodies would be scattered across the city. The bodies were dismembered with surgical precision and drained of blood. Some were beheaded while still alive.

Terror gripped the city. Amid the growing uproar, Cleveland’s besieged mayor turned to his newly-appointed director of public safety: Eliot Ness. Ness had come to Cleveland fresh from his headline-grabbing exploits in Chicago, where he and his band of “Untouchables” led the frontline assault on Al Capone’s bootlegging empire. Now he would confront a case that would redefine his storied career.

Award-winning author Daniel Stashower shines a fresh light on one of the most notorious puzzles in the annals of crime, and uncovers the gripping story of Ness’s hunt for a sadistic killer who was as brilliant as he was cool and composed, a mastermind who was able to hide in plain sight. American Demon reconstructs this ultimate battle of wits between a hero and a madman.
Continue reading →

Book Review: Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke

Posted on 01/23/2023 by Lenn

Title: Sour Candy

Author: Kealan Patrick Burke

Publication Date: November 13, 2015

Number of Pages: 107

Publisher: Independent

Format: Ebook

Genre: Horror, ThrillerBoo

Synopsis:

At first glance, Phil Pendleton and his son Adam are just an ordinary father and son, no different from any other. They take walks in the park together, visit county fairs, museums, and zoos, and eat together overlooking the lake. Some might say the father is a little too accommodating given the lack of discipline when the child loses his temper in public. Some might say he spoils his son by allowing him to set his own bedtimes and eat candy whenever he wants. Some might say that such leniency is starting to take its toll on the father, given how his health has declined.

What no one knows is that Phil is a prisoner, and that up until a few weeks ago and a chance encounter at a grocery store, he had never seen the child before in his life.

But you’ll also learn about me — and the worst thing I’ve ever done.
Continue reading →