Cope with Your Biological Clock

This book is essential reading for anyone suffering biological clock anxiety. Deciding whether or not to have a baby is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. The wealth of information presented in this book provides invaluable assistance in helping you make an honest, realistic assessment of your expectations and current circumstances and make the decision that is right for you.It shows motherhood in a realistic light which, while undoubtedly bringing immense joy and satisfaction to some, can be restricting and unbearable for others. Based on detailed research, the book is packed throughout with real life examples of women who have made various choices about motherhood and shows that all choice involves both loss and gain.

There are excellent chapters on how to optimise fertility, the pros and cons of being an older mother, options available for those considering bringing up a child alone, coping with the emotional pain of infertility and the wide range of fertility treatments now available.

One of the main messages of the book is that such a life altering decision should not be based on biological clock panic but on whether you are really ready to became a parent. ''Having a baby is not something to be squeezed in before it is too late ". This very readable book is informative , positive and inspiring.

Highly recommended for anyone aware of the ticking of the biological clock.

LB

Beat Depression

Anatomy of the Spirit

This book seeks to show the links between emotional and spiritual stresses and specific illnesses in the context of the anatomy of the human energy system, linking the emotional, psychological and physical factors that lie at the root of illness. It presents Myss's model of the body's seven centres of spiritual and physical power in which she synthesizes the ancient wisdom of three spiritual traditions - the Hindu chakras, the Christian sacraments, and the Kabbalah's tree of life.

With this model Myss seeks to show how you can develop your personal power and spiritual maturity, to understand the anatomy of your spirit, the spiritual causes of illness, how to sense and correct an energy imbalance before it expresses itself as physical illness, and how to recover emotionally and physically from an illness you may already have.

Feel Fabulous Over 50

Good health and maximum energy are crucial at every age, but perhaps it is in the approach to fifty that we really begin to assess our lifestyles for the longer term benefits. Gloria Hunniford and Jan de Vries have worked together for ten years on health programmes for the BBC and believe that there is no reason why we should not enjoy great fitness and good health into our fifties and beyond. Indeed, it is never too late to adopt a healthy approach and make the fifties our best years yet!

How do I look?
How do I drink and eat
How do I feel? healthily?
How do I cope with the. menopause?
How do I exercise? .
How do I keep my love life active?
How do I care for my skin and hair?

Find the Love of Your Life

This book goes into more detail about relationships than its title implies.  There are some questionnaire pages designed to provoke some self-analysis but they were too general to be of much benefit.  Quite a few chapters dwell on past experiences, what you have brought with you from previous relationships and what you should abandon or need to work on.  The book is dotted with case studies to illustrate the various topics but I found them to be superfluous in general.

Later there is guidance about how you might meet a potential partner - no earth-shattering new ideas though.  There are a few tips on how to be successful on a date, how to ask for a date and how to accept one.

Another topic is coping with problems in a relationship (this merits a book in its own right!) and how to recognise a good relationship from a bad one!

All in all I felt that this book did not really explore all the areas that might have been covered in a book with such a promising title.  Clearly there are no quick and easy solutions and as such the title of the book is a little misleading in this respect, but nevertheless, still an enjoyable read. JM (Hodder, £6.99)

Flirt Coach

Ignore the title and the garish pink cover - it's the worst thing about 'Flirt Coach' and something that I think will instantly stop men buying it. This is a real shame, because it's a book that's useful to either sex.

Peta Heskell has created a whole business out of flirting and her expertise shines through. The book is a very easy read but don't take that to mean it's not powerful stuff because it's full of clear common sense advice which, if you take, you WILL benefit from.

This book is not just about getting a date, but how to communicate in ways that makes both parties feel good about themselves. It covers a wide range of topics that will make a difference, socially and in business, ranging from NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) to raising self esteem.

'Flirt Coach' shows you how to get on with other people and how you can feel good by making them feel good. You suddenly find that more people want to be around you. I've tried many of the tactics and I'm amazed how effective they are. People really do respond and it's put a whole new slant on how I interact with both men and women. It makes you feel good about yourself - providing you make the initial effort to get started. I have to stress that it really is an effort initially, but once you try, you start to see results very quickly - within the first day judging by my own experience!
I'm having a lot more fun in life and friends have commented on how I've changed. It certainly seems that I'm making other people feel good at the same time, which can't be a bad thing!

If you've just had a relationship end and you think it's too early for you to follow this kind of advice, let me reassure you that it will still benefit you as the book deals more with making sure you like yourself rather than giving you cheesy chat up lines. After all, if you don't like yourself why should anyone else?

To summarise, it's an excellent book at a reasonable price. It can be like following a recipe and you do have to make that initial effort, but the results are amazing.

9 out of 10.Nigel G

Find the Love of Your Life

This book goes into more detail about relationships than its title implies.  There are some questionnaire pages designed to provoke some self-analysis but they were too general to be of much benefit.  Quite a few chapters dwell on past experiences, what you have brought with you from previous relationships and what you should abandon or need to work on.  The book is dotted with case studies to illustrate the various topics but I found them to be superfluous in general.

Later there is guidance about how you might meet a potential partner - no earth-shattering new ideas though.  There are a few tips on how to be successful on a date, how to ask for a date and how to accept one.

Another topic is coping with problems in a relationship (this merits a book in its own right!) and how to recognise a good relationship from a bad one!

All in all I felt that this book did not really explore all the areas that might have been covered in a book with such a promising title.  Clearly there are no quick and easy solutions and as such the title of the book is a little misleading in this respect, but nevertheless, still an enjoyable read. JM

Get the Happiness Habit

The habit of unhappiness can be dropped and the choice to be happy can be made. This book shows the reader how to: assess their own happiness; learn the secrets of happy people; rethink irrational, negative beliefs; stop feeling guilty; know that they deserve to be happy and, act happy and be happy.

Get the Self-Esteem Habit

Poor self-esteem affects every part of our lives. It prevents us enjoying our talents and using them, it makes us hesitant to embrace new opportunities, it encourages us to hang back in the face of a possible promotion or even a new relationship. In short, lack of self-esteem limits our enjoyment of life and numbs our potential.
Christine Webber, author of the successful Get the Happiness Habit, applies her practical advice to self-esteem. Like happiness, self-esteem is a choice. We can choose to diminish ourselves and our skills, or we can look in the mirror and believe in ourselves and our power to shine and succeed. This book will really work in helping YOU to take that step towards self-belief and a more fulfilled life.

Getting rid of negative beliefs
Getting control over situations that trigger poor self-esteem
How to say what you mean and mean what you say
How to succeed at work
How to succeed in relationships
Learning to enjoy success

Get a Single Life

Whether you’re suddenly single or more of a professional singleton, GET A SINGLE LIFE is the book for you. Aimed at today’s modern woman still pursued by the negative spectre of spinsterhood, Liz Simpson takes a long-awaited look at the benefits of being single, while pointing out that contented singleness not only enhances your life generally but also your chances of finding love with your intellectual and emotional equal. Make your relationships a life choice not a necessity. Discover the key to being sublimely single! Includes: Finding yourself single: how to cope with the changes - Coupledom and society: recognising the myths - Who are you? Getting to know yourself better - Expanding your horizons and enjoying it - How to take charge: getting to grips with long-term planning - Sex and intimacy: addressing your needs.

Grace and Grit

The story of a woman's long fight against serious illness, told by her psychologist husband, and combined with extracts from her own journals. It conveys insights into psychotherapy and women's spirituality and into meditation, questioning both conventional and New Age approaches to illness.

Hands of Light: A Guide to Healing Through the Human Energy Field

Hands of Light is a scientist's look at the field of bioenergetic healing--offering specific techniques towards expanding perceptual tools of healing, seeing auras, understanding psychodynamics and the human energy field, and spiritual healing. Trained as a physicist and psychotherapist, Brennan has spent the last 15 years studying the human energy field and working as a healer. Hands of Light goes beyond conventional, objective knowledge while retaining scientific clarity. It details a study of the human energy field and how it is intimately connected to a person's health and well-being and contains essential information for anyone involved in healing and conscious health care, including people seeking to heal themselves. Science and spirituality may currently be at odds, but fortunately there will always be scientists who are spiritual seekers, and it is in the mingling of the two worlds that wisdom is born. Jodie Buller

Happily Ever After - how to meet your match

Would you mind reviewing this book for me,’ asked Mike. ‘The usual thing – about 400 words explaining what the book’s about, and what you thought of it. Oh, and by the way, it’s by my stepmother, but don’t let that influence you...’
Having divorced fairly recently, I looked at the title with a fair amount of scepticism, but decided to try to keep and open mind! The author, Penrose Halson, has been running the Katharine Allen Marriage Bureau since 1986, so she certainly knows what she is talking about.
Happily ever After is primarily aimed at women in their 30s and explains how to find that elusive specimen, the Enlightened Man or ‘EM’. The book starts out by putting things in a historical context: Nineties women are likely to be very different from their mothers and grandmothers, with a radically new set of expectations and attitudes. "Perhaps the most significant difference … is the demise of meekness. They no longer accept the traditional role. They want to function on their own terms, not as dictated by society, religion, men or any other individual or institution. … they know their own worth and they want a man of equal worth. They want him as a bonus; he’s not a necessity."
So how do you go about finding your EM? Penrose Halson shows the way using numerous case histories. She lists organisations to join and places to go and explains what to do if you are thinking of joining an introduction agency. The secret of success, it appears, lies in creating a Ripple Effect: ‘what happens when you start to throw stones into the pool of possibilities by doing new, different and pleasurable things’. This in turn leads to the Halo Effect: you begin to radiate a happier, more interesting and involved personality, thereby becoming more attractive to others – including your Enlightened Man.
I think the book is a very practical and helpful guide for any woman wanting to increase the likelihood of finding Mr Right. I’m off to sign up for that Italian class!
KB

Hot Sex

A really good book for anyone looking for inspiration or just extra tips. The cover made me want to pick it up immediately, bright pink with subtle G Spot logo. I was hooked by page 2 with the humorous personal approach to masturbation - a taboo subject which Cox made feel like an old friend!
This book covers all you need to know and more - we all know about the G-spot, but what's an A spot? This is just one of the chapters - how to find it and what it means when you do!
Many personal quotes are included, which keeps an air of reality, with people's opinions making an amusing contrast to the nitty gritty information.
So, if you want to know about sexual etiquette, routes to orgasm, or merely dispel a few old myths, this is the book for you. An enjoyable, fun, informative read, I highly recommend it.
CD

In the Meantime

What is the meantime? According to author and inspirational speaker Iyanla Vanzant, being in the "meantime" means being in a state of limbo. "When you are not happy where you are and you are not quite sure if you want to leave or how to leave, you are in the meantime", she explains. Rather than wallow in confusion, Vanzant encourages you to use the meantime as an opportunity to prepare yourself for true love. The first order of business is to clean house, starting with the basement--the place in the psyche where you store your most destructive thoughts. Room by room, Vanzant takes you through a metaphorical cleaning of the soul. This way, when your meantime days are over and love finally comes knocking on the front door, you'll have a clean house to welcome love into. --Christine Buttery

Love Coach

Susan Quilliam is one of the UK's best known relationship psychologists, and is the author of 16 books. Her latest title - Love Coach - throws light on many of the problems that can arise in any long-term relationship. Well worth reading if you want to make sure that the same problems do not arise next time around.

See also: www.susanquilliam.com and www.thelovecoach.com

Making and Breaking Families

Making and Breaking Families looks at the many new combinations which have come to constitute a family at the end of the 20th Century. As families split up and re-group, step families are formed, half brothers and sisters are born, and parents may share their time between two families. This book addresses some of the issues arising from this most profound social change, often through the words of the many people to whom the author talked, as they describe what happened when their marriages broke up and how their new families emerged, sometimes through great difficulties.

Click here for more information or to order.

 Mars and Venus: Starting Over

Many of the ideas outlined in Mars and Venus Starting Over bear an uncanny resemblance to the beliefs behind Single Again. Using the well-established Mars and Venus approach, John Gray provides countless insights into the issues involved in dealing with the loss of a partner and rebuilding your life.

The first part of the book focuses on break up or bereavement – the pain it causes and the steps you need to take to start the healing process. Part of this involves initiating a grieving process to help get what has happened out of your system. Negative attitudes such as resentment, blame, indifference, guilt, insecurity, hopelessness, jealousy or envy all serve to prevent us loving fully again; it is important instead to tap into healing emotions – forgiveness, understanding, gratitude and love.

The second part of the book examines the issues involved in rebuilding your life from the very different points of view of women and men. Why are women so cautious about their next relationship, and why do men so often plunge straight from one rebound relationship to another? How can men avoid putting women off by bringing sex into a relationship too quickly – and how can women avoid putting off men by rushing towards intimacy?

Mars and Venus Starting Over is a straightforward, practical and enlightening book that really could make a difference to anyone who is serious about leaving the past behind and finding love again.

MH

Mars and Venus: Single Again

A breakup, divorce, or loss of a loved one isn't just the end of your relationship with that person. It's a continuation of every feeling of abandonment you've ever suffered. It's the loss of a system of approval you'd come to depend on. The struggle, as Gray points out in Starting Over, isn't just to find a new partner, but to get over those feelings of abandonment or loss or anger or whatever else gets dredged up by the end of a relationship.
Perhaps the book's most crucial chapter posits that the best way to get over the loss of love is to focus on the "love" more than the "loss." That may seem impossible, especially if the bum took off with your best friend, your life savings, and your Lyle Lovett CDs, but Gray didn't get to be a household name because the advice in his Venus and Mars books doesn't work. Remembering only the bad parts, Gray says, leaves you with an important part of your emotional being closed to new business.

As for the Venus and Mars stuff, that comes in the second half of the book, when Gray looks at how men and women start new relationships from different points of view, with different priorities (a man might want to have fun with no strings attached; a woman might carry with her a lengthy list of requirements for her next partner, a list that excludes virtually all available men).

Click here for more information or to order.

The Dating Game

A light-hearted look at dating and how to do it.  Davina McCall uses her experiences and those of her friends to illustrate the dos and don'ts of dating.  She is anxious to point out at the outset that these are only her thoughts on the subject and she is no expert.  However, she also adds, trust me, I'm a presenter - and you can't help thinking that it is for this reason that she probably does think she's an expert - either that or she is simply cashing in on her fame - and why not?  

The book is full of practical advice - chat up lines do not work, white towelling socks are out,  cleanliness is next to Godliness, try to look happy, etc. interspersed with anecdotes of friends' relevant experiences to illustrate the points.  The style is witty and entertaining with some amusing observations on men's and women's behaviour and attitudes, for example, Perfect Girl Syndrome - where men are destined to never find lasting romance because, in the past, they went out with someone they have subsequently decided was perfect and so no one else matches up - Davina's advice - a reunion with the Perfect Girlfriend when the sufferer can see her for what she really is: or women's obsession with getting married and her advice that once you start fixating on The Big Day, you become mysteriously less picky about The Husband,  and that men can smell husband-hunters and pick up the desperation vibes.  

There's advice on what to wear on the first date, what to look for in a partner and how to dump him/her if it isn't working out.  Most of the points are common-sense but this could be the perfect dating book for men since they probably won't have read any other book like it - being men.  Sadly, the men who should read it will, no doubt, be the ones who don't.
VB

Passages in Men's Lives

Passages In Men’s Lives looks at the turbulent challenges and surprising pleasures that begin at mid-life for men. As their lives become both longer and increasingly unpredictable, men today are faced with the urgent need to reinvent themselves. Work anxieties, concerns over sexual potency, marital and family stress, issues of power, all take on new urgency as men contemplate the decades ahead.

But as Gail Sheehy reveals in this new book, mid-life is precisely the period when men have the best chance to become masters of their fates, to understand what is missing and forge new directions to invigorate the second half of their lives.

Over the course of researching Passages In Men’s Lives Gail Sheehy has spoken to 8,000 people, mostly men. The result is an informative and inspiring book, grounded in fact and full of fascinating life stories. Decade by decade (Flourishing Forties, Fearless Fifties, Influential Sixties) Sheehy uncovers the issues facing men today: surviving job change, finding new passion and purpose to invigorate the second half of their lives, enjoying family life and fatherhood, defeating depression, dealing with male menopause and learning what keeps a man young.

"Her book will encourage and comfort many men, who…had imagined they were the only ones disheartened and confused by the thorny, arduous path from one stage of life to another." (People Magazine)

The Seat of the Soul

Gary Zukav, one of the pioneer members of the New Age Movement in psychology, has built upon the contents of his first book "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" to show how we create our own reality through action and thought. The author argues that our souls evolve as we develop our own latent powers.

This book examines cases of multi-sensory individuals, looks at conventional marriages and spiritual partnerships and at traditional and spiritual psychology.

Stop Fighting About Money

Financially speaking are you a planner, hoarder, spender, worrier, gambler, gold digger, doormat, ostrich or eco-warrior? You'll discover the truth in Corinne Sweet's book 'Stop Fighting About Money'.

The author believes money colours our relationships, our love and even our sex lives. According to Relate, 44% of couples fight about money. And with PC/Internet banking, greater secrecy is possible between couples where money is already generally regarded as more private and personal than sex.

The aim of this Help Yourself book is to assist couples discuss money matters and to understand and identify what the author calls Emotional Money Baggage and Money Patterns.

The book is written in four sections, covering:
1) Why Couples Fight About Money
2) Making a Money Match (for those dating/living together /contemplating marriage
3) Money Relationship Crunchpoints
and
4) Stop Fighting About Money.

With the help of real life case histories, Ms Sweet demonstrates how money affects our love relationships and sometimes destroys them. She encourages embattled couples (heterosexual and homosexual) to understand their own and their partner's Emotional Money baggage and come to view money as a mere commodity - a means to an end.

You may at this point be wondering if the book has any relevance to you. Well, if your relationship broke down due to never-ending financial discord, Corinne Sweet offers insights into why this happened, as well as and positive steps to avoid the same thing happening in future. There is also a section on sorting finances out for people who are currently splitting up or divorcing - or, conversely, those dating or starting again. And I'm assuming most of us are eventually hoping to be starting again some time in the future?

JH

I Want A Divorce?

Simone Katzenberg is a family lawyer and mediator in private practice in London. In this book, she aims to link the emotional and legal aspects of divorce without becoming weighed down by either psychological or legal jargon. Based on her observations of people going through separation and divorce, this book begins with an analysis of the emotional process broken down into seven stages: breakdown, shock, anger, pain, hatred, grief and acceptance. The second part contains practical advice on the legal process including the divorce itself, issues arising over the children and how to negotiate towards a financial settlement. There are helpful sections including tips on finding and dealing with solicitors, costs, first moves, the finances generally, housing, pensions, types of orders, mediation, procedures and courts. Case studies are presented to illustrate particular experiences common to many marriage crises, and a list of relevant addresses and telephone numbers is provided.

Why Are My Parents Separating?

A story-tape for 5 - 9 year olds whose parents are separating. Lucy and Dan's parents are splitting up. Lucy blames herself and her older brother just bottles up his feelings. A chance encounter with Geraldine - a wise old cow, starts them on the exciting journey of understanding what is really happening at home. Through encounters with animal families and Geraldine's expert guidance the concept of shape-changing is introduced i.e. that families come in all shapes and sizes and even if both parents don't live together you are still a family.

Beat Depression

Written in a simple and direct way, David Hinds' book on depression is easy to read and is packed with wisdom, understanding and useful tips. Having suffered from severe depression himself, he speaks from experience. Written in six parts with very short chapters, this is a practical book. Hinds takes us from the Introduction into States of Depression, Means of Recovery and Therapy, and finally he suggests how we can learn to enjoy life again.
At the heart of this book lies the suggestion that we should find something we passionately want to do, and do it, not for material gain, but for its own sake. I found the section on Therapies particularly useful. A book to take seriously, to be re-read and mulled over. This is the best book on beating depression that I have read. I certainly felt more cheerful after reading it.
EA

Spiritual Divorce

Divorce is an emotional and devastating procedure for anyone to have to go through. This book would be ideal guide for those going through a divorce or thinking about it.
The book is not only informative and practical but tells something of the author's life. There are thought-provoking ideas and suggestions in every chapter.
I would have definitely benefited from this book during my divorce; however some of the thoughts and ideas from the author can help anyone still emotionally tied to their past.
LH