Not long back from a lovely relaxing week at Center Parcs Longleat Forest. There was coffee, there were cocktails and there was a lot of food, all with zero cares.
From hours in the tropical swimming pool, to a full day at the Aqua Sana Forest Spa, Ben and I had a great time exploring and strolling around every inch of the site at a leisurely pace. A well-needed break from the craziness of reality.
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Rating: 2 stars
Headline: Poor formatting and overuse of purple prose prevent “Defining Thoughts Poetry” from being the collection it could be
Review:
Defining Thoughts Poetry is the new poetry publication by Victoria Halton. A cross between poetry and storytelling, this eighty-eight page collection aims to, as Halton presents it, transport readers to a world “where extortionary becomes reality”. The book also includes photographic shots, which add flavour and drama towards the written content.
Within this collection, most of Halton’s poems follow a conventional layout of non-rhyming three and four line stanzas and, while there is nothing explicitly linking the poems, patterns soon emerge in Halton’s enchanting descriptions of scenes and locations. The strong writing calibre serves as a strong reminder that this is not Halton’s first entry into the poetry market. The poem “Remember the Scent” was a personal favourite, in its depiction of both a relatable experience, cleverly demonstrating the intertwined link between smell and memory.
The book’s main challenges come, in many ways, within its strengths. While it is an impressive talent, Halton’s over use of purple prose damages the reading experience, leaving readers tangled in excessive flowery and ornate language that loses meaning. It makes Defining Thoughts Poetry confusing, if not impenetrable, at points.
There is also the major issue of book’s formatting. Somewhere along the line Halton and/or her team decided to put the copy of this book onto a bronze ripple effect background. Unfortunately doing this makes the book incredibly hard to read, as the varying backing colours fight against the copy overlayed on top. When the copy already demands a good deal of thought and consideration, the background serves as an additional, and unneeded, distraction. The book should have been published on a standardised white background.
Reading Defining Thoughts Poetry inspires a mixture of conflicting thoughts and feelings. While on the surface this is a book that had every potential to succeed, its failings are difficult to overlook. If Halton reigned in her use of purple prose, this could have had the bones of an exceptional read. The truth is, sometimes you just want a spade to be called a spade.
AEB Reviews
Links:
Reedsy Discovery Review: AEB Reviews – “Defining Thoughts Poetry” by Victoria Halton
Purchase Link: “Defining Thoughts Poetry” by Victoria Halton (Amazon)
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I don’t know if it’s because of the heat we’ve had in the UK all summer (combined with woeful lack of air conditioning), or because there’s a lot of personal stuff on the go right now causing me no end of stress, but this picture, this is me.
Credit goes to TK Maxx for this one and zero credit goes to boyfriend Ben who flatly refused to let this exist in the same house as us. To be fair, given how much stuff* (*putting it politely) I have, I tend to agree. Ben has also reminded me that I routinely sit / sleep in positions similar to this and call it “comfortable.”
I think he’s trying to hint that it would be cheaper for me to just continue being me, sans human-sized cushion.
TK Maxx, if you’re reading this, my door is always open for an Alice/skeleton cushion collab. Just don’t tell Ben.
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Rating: 5 stars
Headline: Next time someone has plans for world domination, I know where to send them
Review:
Having worked in digital transformation for well over half a decade, I have seen first hand the raw passion and drive of many new businesses, from those treating it as a side-gig alongside fulltime employment through to individuals who are looking to expand their operation as a means to ultimately become the next big thing.
The Resilient Scaleup: The CEO’s Guide to Growing a Business Sustainably (hereafter The Resilient Scaleup) by Reginald James is the guide that I wish I could have given to my peers in the past. It is a business management guide that is not only unafraid to not only state some of the cold realities of scaling up, but also embrace them. James’ mantra can be boiled down to simplicities, that every year thousands of small business fail and while you may aspire to be an operation with cult-like following, you’re not Apple. At least not yet.
That is what I particularly like about this guide, its no nonsense approach hits you with the truth followed swiftly by reassurance. Take one such example, where the author details how Apple could be classed as a level five firm for employee respect (where employees practically worship the product), most companies fall somewhere between a more modest level two or three. Having low employee morale is not incurable as long as CEOs work rapidly to address the fault lines and, perhaps crucially, do not see recruitment as a cure. In The Resilient Scaleup, James pitches the argument that expansion is not always the answer.
For start-up leaders determined to scaleup, James also covers off in significant detail the right (and wrong) ways to recruit and maintain incoming talent and essential CEO skills to bring existing employees on that scaleup journey. With helpful illustrative drawings peppered throughout, it is a highly consumable guide that can be returned to throughout the scaleup process.
I was a little surprised that, given the title, the content makes no mention of environmental factors (the word “sustainability” presently being synonymous with the climate debate). Despite this, the content in The Resilient Scaleup more than makes up for this oversight and remains a highly recommendable book to business entrepreneurs. Next time someone gushes over their plans for world domination, I know where to send them.
AEB Reviews
Links:
Reedsy Discovery Review: AEB Reviews – “The Resilient Scaleup” by Reginald James
Purchase Link: “The Resilient Scaleup” by Reginald James (Amazon)
Author Website: https://www.reginaldljames.com/
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The music, the editing, the vibe; this introduction to Swindon title sequence from the 1990s has everything going for it.
Hailing from a time (now long since gone) where many medium sized towns had their own cable TV station, I don’t know how I stubbled across this Despite that, this 30 second clip has since become a video that I absolutely love and adore for all its total cheesiness. It lives in my head rent free.
Thinking ahead, I might feature this clip in another Swindon-related piece, or I might choose to feature it in every single thing I say and do from now on. As intros go, I think this is unashamedly low-budget and utter class. And now I have shared this delightful earworm with you as well.
What can I say? You’re welcome.
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Rating: 3 stars
Headline: A thought-provoking collection of short stories which could have been improved with better place setting
Review:
What We Don’t Know About Our Friends is a collection of three short stories by the British author L Christie. While the three stories are separate to each other, the tales contain similar underlying themes surround love, friendship and what it means to be human in an increasingly digital age.
“Meet me @” follows the story of Kieron as he comes to terms with the loss of his close friend, Sarah. When Kieron starts receiving mysterious calls from Sarah’s mobile phone, many are quick to dismiss him, but is it possible that Sarah’s spirit still lives on?
“The Dialogue Tree” features two characters across the mortal and virtual divide. After losing his life partner, Milton turns to artificial intelligence to bring back his beloved Desiree. Whether he is ready for what this version of Desiree is another thing altogether.
Set in the backstreets of 1847 Zurich, “Tia’s Inheritance” places the titled protagonist in the heart of emotional conflict, marry into money at the expense of happiness or escape, poor and isolated.
The premise of all three stories have potential, particularly “Tia’s Inheritance” which could have been expanded to become a novel or novella in its own right. The story-telling itself is weakened in the places where the author, Christie, chooses to convey a lot of information by telling the readers what is happening, unknowingly skipping over swathes of detail in the process. There is a distinct lack of place setting in all three stories, information which makes the stories feel hurried at times and disconnected from the locations which feel a bit flat.
The book’s opening has trigger warnings that, in my view, never fully come to pass. For example, it is suggested that themes of homosexual awakenings are addressed in the book, yet the one place where this is possibly alluded to is so vague it would be easy to overlook it altogether. The precursor to “Tia Inheritance”, a reader warning to not to consume poisonous berries, also feels like a statement that should not be needed in a book written for adults.
There are elements of nice storytelling in What We Don’t Know About Our Friends, a book that needed better place setting to score higher than 3 stars.
AEB Reviews
Links:
Reedsy Discovery Review: AEB Reviews – “What We Don’t Know About Our Friends” by L Christie
Purchase Link: “What We Don’t Know About Our Friends” by L Christie (Amazon)
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From my writing class scribbles, a quick 10 minute starter activity penned in response to the prompt “tell a story through a list”. Enjoy.
(Writer’s note: this piece is intended to be satirical. Please don’t do any of these things at home…including #1.)
How to call in Sick for Work
(From my notebook. First draft penned 07/05/25)
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Rating: 5 stars
Headline: Essential reading for any parent tackling the knotty topic of financial education
Review:
In the modern day and age it is hard to know how to best impart financial guidance on the young minds of the future, with many parents are left wondering how to best teach their children about the value of money in a society where many items are acquired with lightest of taps from a piece of coloured plastic.
In Teaching Kids Good Money Habits, author Mario A. Vasquez details the seven ways parents can support their children to become more financially literate. As well as being grounded in the author’s educational credentials, it is a guide written by a parent, for parents. In the view of Vasquez, no child is too young or too old to start receiving a financial education. There are one or two exceptions to this, including in the opening chapter on teaching the value of money, but otherwise this is a book best treated as a catch-all guide for any and all children aged four years to sixteen.
Teaching Kids Good Money Habits is a good, informative guide. As a book it broadly aims to demystify the knotty topic of financial education, helping parents bridge the gap where, through funding cuts and a restrictive timetable, state education services are not able. The tone of voice is nicely balanced so content never feels overwhelmingly tedious or too overly informal which is perfect for the intended parental audience with formatting constructed of block paragraphs. With a page length coming in at around 120 pages it feels like a manageable guide for any time-strapped parent.
Essential reading for any parent tackling the knotty topic of financial education, Teaching Kids Good Money Habits is a book I would recommend to adults; it is worthy of the reading time investment and very much worthy of a five star review.
AEB Reviews
Links:
Reedsy Discovery Review: AEB Reviews – “Teaching Kids Good Money Habits” by Mario A. Vasquez
Purchase Link: “Teaching Kids Good Money Habits” by Mario A. Vasquez (Amazon)
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Did anyone else watch “Oswald the Octopus” growing up? I vaguely do, but I am quite sure I was out of the target age range for watching. How do I know this? Because I found it weird that you’ve got a talking, walking, octopus, but the dog can’t talk? It makes no sense!
Anyway, back on to sensible matters, here’s a video of Oswald growing a giant banana and gifting chunks of it around the community. Just, don’t question the physics of a banana frisbee, or a snowman in central park.
It’s videos like this that make my boyfriend question what children’s television writers are on half the time they do their job.
Still, it’s a relaxing watch, I think.
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Rating: A well-written poetry collection set across the shores of America and Egypt
Headline: 4 stars
Review:
Cairo is the new poetry collection from the author Kolton Lane. Despite the title, Cairo splits itself into two distinct geographical regions, the first half focusing itself on America and the second on Egypt. There is also a final third section which is comprised of a short story titled “Inseparable Threads”, which is set in Kansas, America.
Poems in this book follow what many would consider to be a traditionalist, conventional style of poetry, with block stanzas and rhyming couples used frequently to great effect. There is a sense of clam and ease while reading the poems, that nothing within the reader’s eye needs to be rushed. Personal favourites include the poems “Waters of the Nile” and “Dust Storms” which romanticises the arterial river which dominates the very fabric of what Egypt is and was.
The inclusion of the short story “Inseparable Threads” feels a bit out of kilter with the rest of the book. While like the rest of the book, the words are well written, by the author’s own admission, it is not a integral part of the collection. In the foreword preceding the story, Lane states, “who knows, maybe the next book may be a collection of short stories.” It is an element that probably should have been debuted elsewhere. The title of this book, Cairo, might also have benefitted from being more flattering to the boarder locations referenced, seeing as the first half the book is set in America and the second half does not limit itself to the city boarders of the Egyptian capital.
When it comes to poetry, the best collections are the ones with either a sense of urgency or a sense of place. With Cairo, Lane has successfully managed to target the latter camp to great effect. With poems that are well put together with nice deployment of visual language, reading this book will make you long for sunny days on distant shores.
AEB Reviews
Links:
Reedsy Discovery Review: AEB Reviews -“Cairo” by Kolton Lane
Purchase Link: “Cairo” by Kolton Lane (Amazon)
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My Housemate's a Mermaid 