The New Book Review

This blog, #TheNewBookReview, is "new" because it eschews #bookbigotry. It lets readers, reviewers, authors, and publishers expand the exposure of their favorite reviews, FREE. Info for submissions is in the "Send Me Your Fav Book Review" circle icon in the right column below. Find resources to help your career using the mini search engine below. #TheNewBookReview is a multi-award-winning blog including a MastersInEnglish.org recommendation.

Showing posts with label #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing HowToDoItFrugally. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing HowToDoItFrugally. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

REVIEW OF: DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND: LEARN HOW TO RENOVATE YOUR HOME TO RECHARGE YOUR LIFE




Design For Your Mind: 

ITLE OF YOUR BOOK: Design For Your Mind: How a Family Caregiver and Mental Health Therapist Renovated Her Home to Recharge Her Life – and Didn’t Break the Bank

TITLE OF YOUR BOOK DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND: HOW A FAMILY CAREGIVER AND MENTAL HEALTH THERAPIST RENOVATED HER HOME TO RECHARGE HER LIFE – AND DIDN’T BREAK THE BANK


AUTHOR OF BOOK's NAME Annie Guest


AUTHOR'S EMAIL ADDRESS annieguestdesign@gmail.com


AUTHOR'S FAVORITE LINKS: https://www.annieguestdesignforyourmind.com/


ASSURANCE TO SATISFY COPYRIGHT LAW: 

 X I am the reviewer and give TNBR permission to print this review.


REVIEWER’S BYLINE: Abigail Adams


ITHE REVIEW:


  Design For Your Mind is an inspiring tale of how someone can cope with the loss of their parents and sorting out the possessions that they have left behind. In the case of Annie Guest, the author of this book, she inherited her parents’ house and renovated it to be a suitable home for its new occupant—which was Annie herself. The book tells not only how she did this, but how she was able to rediscover herself in the process.

As a mental health therapist, Annie understands how the environment in which we live can affect our mental health. She shows how it is possible to retain the precious family memories which we acquire as we grow up in our family home, and then put our own contemporary stamp on the home to make it habitable for ourselves—and how to do all of this in a cost-effective way!

Design For Your Mind is in part a practical manual on interior design, and Annie lays out the process in a clear and easy manner. The book systematically goes through each room in her house and outlines what methods she applied to renovate these rooms. Readers will find these methods readily applicable to their own homes.

Annie has given her own name to the type of design she describes in Design For Your Mind: “Benessent Design.” Annie explains that the term “Benessent” comes from the Latin phrase for well-being, bene essere. What she means by Benessent Design is the design of rooms and furnishings that can meet “the emotional and intellectual needs of real people, so they have what they need to thrive as whole human beings.” For Annie, the “four pillars” of an enriched environment are good nutrition, high-quality sleep, regular aerobic exercise, and social support.

Annie takes us step-by-step through her quest to renovate her parents’ home and make it her own. Her methods and explanations are easy-to-follow, meaning you do not need to be a qualified interior decorator or a certified mental health therapist in order to get to grips with Design For Your Mind. Her Benessent Design theory provides the framework for why all of the steps she took were taken, and the “before” and “after” pictures give a clear visual illustration of what steps she is discussing throughout.

As well as her underlying theory and her practical steps, Annie makes the book personal with a great store of heartwarming family anecdotes. This helps to make Annie’s book very relatable, as many of us will be able to identify with the sort of tales she has to tell, or recognize ourselves within them. It ties in nicely with her theme of blending old memories and traditions with new innovations that help to make a home truly your own.

The blend of sound theory, practical steps, and personal anecdotes all help to make Design For Your Mind a terrific, practical book from which we can learn a lot about interior design, and about ourselves. Very highly recommended.

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER: 
I’m Abigail, and I’m a big book lover who is interested in all genres.

REVIEWER'S TWITTER MONIKER: @AAdams22700

ABOUT THE AUTHOR WHOSE BOOK IS BEING REVIEWED: Annie Guest had a varied career in book publishing, advertising, and law, before she took another jump to work as a mental health therapist and publish her first book. In DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND, Annie combines her passion for people and their potential with her love for interior design and her appreciation for the design choices that support mental health.


AUTHOR  IMAGES: 


Design For Your Mind: How a Family Caregiver and Mental Health Therapist Renovated Her Home to Recharge Her Life - and Didn't Break the Bank


Cover of Design For Your Mind by Annie Guest



Profile Photo of Annie Guest, author of Design For Your Mind



AUTHOR'S EMAIL ADDRESS annieguestdesign@gmail.com


AUTHOR'S FAVORITE LINKS: https://www.annieguestdesignforyourmind.com/


ADD THIS ASSURANCE TO SATISFY COPYRIGHT LAW: 

 I am the reviewer and give TNBR permission to print this review.


REVIEWER’S BYLINE: Abigail Adams


INCLUDE THE THE REVIEW ITSELF, of course!


Design For Your Mind is an inspiring tale of how someone can cope with the loss of their parents and sorting out the possessions that they have left behind. In the case of Annie Guest, the author of this book, she inherited her parents’ house and renovated it to be a suitable home for its new occupant—which was Annie herself. The book tells not only how she did this, but how she was able to rediscover herself in the process.

As a mental health therapist, Annie understands how the environment in which we live can affect our mental health. She shows how it is possible to retain the precious family memories which we acquire as we grow up in our family home, and then put our own contemporary stamp on the home to make it habitable for ourselves—and how to do all of this in a cost-effective way!

Design For Your Mind is in part a practical manual on interior design, and Annie lays out the process in a clear and easy manner. The book systematically goes through each room in her house and outlines what methods she applied to renovate these rooms. Readers will find these methods readily applicable to their own homes.

Annie has given her own name to the type of design she describes in Design For Your Mind: “Benessent Design.” Annie explains that the term “Benessent” comes from the Latin phrase for well-being, bene essere. What she means by Benessent Design is the design of rooms and furnishings that can meet “the emotional and intellectual needs of real people, so they have what they need to thrive as whole human beings.” For Annie, the “four pillars” of an enriched environment are good nutrition, high-quality sleep, regular aerobic exercise, and social support.

Annie takes us step-by-step through her quest to renovate her parents’ home and make it her own. Her methods and explanations are easy-to-follow, meaning you do not need to be a qualified interior decorator or a certified mental health therapist in order to get to grips with Design For Your Mind. Her Benessent Design theory provides the framework for why all of the steps she took were taken, and the “before” and “after” pictures give a clear visual illustration of what steps she is discussing throughout.

As well as her underlying theory and her practical steps, Annie makes the book personal with a great store of heartwarming family anecdotes. This helps to make Annie’s book very relatable, as many of us will be able to identify with the sort of tales she has to tell, or recognize ourselves within them. It ties in nicely with her theme of blending old memories and traditions with new innovations that help to make a home truly your own.

The blend of sound theory, practical steps, and personal anecdotes all help to make Design For Your Mind a terrific, practical book from which we can learn a lot about interior design, and about ourselves. Very highly recommended.

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER: I’m Abigail, and I’m a big book lover who is interested in all genres.
REVIEWER'S TWITTER MONIKER: @AAdams22700

ABOUT THE AUTHOR WHOSE BOOK IS BEING REVIEWED: Annie Guest had a varied career in book publishing, advertising, and law, before she took another jump to work as a mental health therapist and publish her first book. In DESIGN FOR YOUR MIND, Annie combines her passion for people and their potential with her love for interior design and her appreciation for the design choices that support mental health.


AUTHORProfile Photo of Annie Guest, author of Design For Your Mind


More About #TheNewBookReview Blog The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's #AuthorsHelpingAuthors service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in the right column of this blog home page (a silver and gold badge and threee silver-gray circles beneath it. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author and veteran educator, she also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing HowToDoItFrugally http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews. Pre-format the post editor for each new post. Cancel Save Post published

Monday, September 15, 2025

REVIEW OF DANCING WITH RED FLAGS, AN INCREDIBLE MEMOIR

TITLE OF YOUR BOOK: DANCING WITH RED FLAGS


AUTHOR OF BOOK's NAME: Anna Rajmon


AUTHOR'S EMAIL ADDRESS annarajmon@gmail.com


AUTHOR'S FAVORITE LINKS: https://www.annarajmon.com/


ADD THIS ASSURANCE TO SATISFY COPYRIGHT LAW: 

 X I am the reviewer and give TNBR permission to print this review.


REVIEWER’S BYLINE: Abigail Adams


THE REVIEW:


Anna Rajmon, author of the incredible memoir Elis: Irish Call Girl, has delivered an interesting self-help book in Dancing with Red Flags.

This book is a guide intended to help women understand the manipulative behaviors that define toxic relationships, in the hope that they will not get trapped in them. Rajmon shares her own experiences and insights in recognizing red flags in dating, and has studied the psychology behind those red flags. She is really good at explaining psychological ideas in a way that makes sense to people who do not have a psychology background.

The notion of “women’s intuition” is often referred to in everyday life, but Rajmon demonstrates that it is a very important tool in detecting red flags. Sometimes, we “know” that there is something not right with how someone behaves, but we do not have the words or ideas to properly explain to ourselves what it is that is wrong. That is our intuition in action—and Rajmon says it is the voice we should listen to most closely. She also notes that it is the voice we are most likely to ignore, and she insists that we cannot afford to do this if we want to be happy.

Anna Rajmon has brought to Dancing with Red Flags the same style of sarcastic humor, lovely drawings, and great writing that made Elis such a good book. She can describe awful behaviors like the silent treatment, love bombing, and ghosting in a way that will make you laugh as much as it will make you think. Her examples and her drawings all make her points very clearly, so that you never feel like you are reading up for a college course with some dry textbook—it’s written in a way that makes you feel as if Rajmon is having a friendly and funny conversation with you directly.

While Dancing with Red Flags is primarily meant for women, there is no reason men cannot learn from it too. Unfortunately, there are also toxic women who use some of the cruel and controlling tactics which Rajmon outlines here. No matter who we are, it would certainly benefit us all to learn what these tactics are so that we can recognize abusers for what they are before it is too late. Not just for relationships that we are directly in, either—it helps if you can spot when a friend or a family member is involved in a toxic relationship, too. It could be the first step toward doing something about that situation.

Overall, I found Dancing with Red Flags to be a very eye-opening book that unveils the nature of toxic relationships and can help us to “stop giving your best self to the worst people” as Rajmon puts it. The lessons her book teaches are ones thtat will be beneficial to us all, and especially to the women it is intended for. Very highly recommended.

This review was originally published at Story Circle Book Reviews. The link to the original review is https://www.storycircle.org/book_review/dancing-with-red-flags/.

This review was originally published on Goodreads, and the link to the original review can be found here.

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER: I’m Abigail, and I’m a big book lover who is interested in all genres.
REVIEWER'S TWITTER MONIKER: @AAdams22700

ABOUT THE AUTHOR WHOSE BOOK IS BEING REVIEWED: Mandy Stadtmiller is an author and columnist for New York magazine, former editor-at-large of xoJane, "Girl Talk" columnist for Penthouse and host of the comedy podcast "News Whore." She is also known for her dating column in the New York Post, called "About Last Night."

She is on Twitter/X at @annarajmon


__________________________________________________________________________


More About #TheNewBookReview Blog The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's #AuthorsHelpingAuthors service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in the right column of this blog home page (a silver and gold badge and threee silver-gray circles beneath it. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author and veteran educator, she also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

This Review for Tales2Inspire ~ The Diamond Collection - Series II Says It All!!


Now the recipient of a National Indie Excellence (NIEA) Finalist Award

_________________________________________________________________________


Author’s Name: Lois W. Stern (Creator, editor, contributor)

Author’s email: tales2Inspire2@gmail.com

Title of Book: TALES2INSPIRE ~ THE DIAMOND COLLECTION - SERIES II

The complete editions of the Ruby (Gifts of Compassion) and Sapphire (Timeless Memories)  Collections under one cover 

Number of pages: 268

Age/Interest level: 10 +

  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1507618050
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1507618059

Amazon link: bit.ly/3sQ8AbO

Reviewed by: Foluso Falaye 

Posted on: Readers' Favorite


Review: Tales2Inspire: The Diamond Collection - Series II is created by Lois W. Stern is a riveting collection of nonfiction short stories by award-winning authors. Each story inspires consciousness, empathy, and appreciation for the little things we take for granted. The book is divided into two sections. The first part focuses on stories of compassion while the second one is about timeless memories. In one story, we see how training dogs helps in teaching dropouts to be responsible. Another story reveals the effect of the horrors of the Holocaust on a survivor. An assistant DA shares the values he stands by while relating an encounter with some good-looking burglars. As these stories are told, each author is introduced with an "about the author" page that follows their brilliant contribution. We experience their amazing stories and connect with their important memories, as well as the life-changing messages they hold.

I found several parts of the book quite relatable, especially being judged by a lover's parent for having different hair. Additionally, I loved that each story doesn't have too many characters or themes but maintains a concise structure that allows for quick assimilation and deep intrigue. The collection includes themes of family, loss, health challenges, pets, sports, mental illness, and romance. Apart from the stories, readers are engaged with the book's other fantastic features, including book club discussion questions, pictures of protagonists and authors, and an "about" section. I loved all the tales so much that I am now convinced that everyone should tell their story. Like the authors in Tales2Inspire: The Diamond Collection Series II, everyone has a profound experience of life that sheds light on what truly matters. All nonfiction short story fans will be happy to read this beautiful, heartwarming book by Lois W. Stern.