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I have been planning this post for months and am super excited to finally write it. Why? Virginia Woolf is one of my all-time favourite authors, whose literary ideas have shaped the work of thousands of authors, both male and female. As a modernist she experimented with different forms of writing, challenging the status quo, giving birth to techniques that we take for granted now, such as narrating from multiple perspectives reflecting human psychology, monologues and ‘stream of consciousness’. Woolf’s writing took place during the First World War, at a time when society was reasserting traditional values and her work...

This was the premise of Victor Frankl’s epic bestselling book and perhaps the most recommended book since the dawn of publishing, “Man’s search for meaning” . Frankl, a prominent psychiatrist and an Auschwitz Nazi death camp survivor, in his sobering yet enlightening memoir, conclusively makes that case that it is through suffering that we find meaning and the drive to keep us going. Our goal in life is not to attain pleasure (happiness) or power but to ‘discover meaning’. It is the pursuit of this meaning that provides the purpose of life. During his death camp experience, Frankl observed that those who...

For a serendipitous moment on a Sunday evening I seemed to encounter authors writing about their personal journeys of grief, bereavement and healing, their subconscious pulls to heal manifesting through their writing. The highly raw accounts of emotions give birth to these prolific texts that touch our hearts and souls. The same writing, essentially the writer’s bibliotherapy, relieving them of the heartache they hold onto. Some of the best writing and essentially magnum opuses were created by authors confronting their pain through writing. To celebrate the masterpieces I have delightfully stumbled upon this week, I dedicate this post to all...

With the advent of every type of book under the sun when it comes to motherhood, it seems that writing about motherhood (in various shapes and sizes) has become quite fashionable. Whether its surprise pregnancies, struggling-to-conceive memoirs, postpartum depression, ambivalence about having children, novels on raising other people’s children, single parenthood, working mothers battling to have it all or reflections on motherhood and societal expectations, current literature seems to capture the epic subject of motherhood in all its glory and tribulations. These are the latest trends in motherhood along with the books that capture their intimate and vulnerable stories.  1....

Prescribing books and curating reading lists for other people based on their individual needs, interests and circumstances is my passion; as is writing non-fiction books on personal development together with poetry. Taking a break from writing I wondered how I could improve my own writing skills. This casual pondering led me to create a reading list for myself that could help me hone these. The result was the below reading list and my key takeaways from each one. Fabulous and inspiring, I’d recommend getting kindle or pocket copies of all of them. They serve as great reference points and are...