Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: General

  • 1001 Magical Plants

    1001 Magical Plants

    The Complete Book of Botanicals for Every Purpose (1001 Series)

    What a marvellous coffee table 1001 Magical Plants is with ideas that are so fresh and interesting it is hard to put down. The introduction tells us that plants and their products have become a daily part of our world.

    Plants have spiritual gifts which are often linked to their physical nature. “Plants contain energies to transmit good fortune, love, happiness and health.” The book suggests ways for using plants, both magically and physically. A history of each plant, how to magically use it, along with advice for safety is given.

    As we delve into the book, each plant has a heading and illustration. Apple Blossom is pictured and a heading underneath it is, “Magical Forms.” This explains that the blossom is the state flower of Michigan and Arkansas and it is used fresh or dried. The next heading tells us which planet and element the plant is linked to. The heading Magical Uses tells us this plant is good for fertility, good fortune and new beginnings.

    Goddess rituals use Apple blossom for enhancing beauty. The final heading How to Use, gives suggestions for specific purposes. Roll in fallen apple blossom to become pregnant, add to bath sachets, or use as an apple blossom tea. Descriptions of how these actions work is given.

    We discover that the Iris has been used by the ancient Egyptians and the ancient Greeks as a symbol of reincarnation. It is aligned with Mercury(moon) + air and water. The magical use for this plant shows it assists communications, sometimes with the deceased or helps to receive long awaited news. “A small patch of Iris should be planted on the day of a baby’s birth. The warning tells us the plant may be toxic to pets.

    1001 Magical Plants is a beautifully presented book with an originality in the presentation which will keep the pages turning to the next plant.

  • Our Incredible Imagination

    Our Incredible Imagination

    To explain to children how the brain works and what is imagination, is a difficult task. The author has done a masterful job of clarifying and simplifying a tough topic. As an adult, reading Our Incredible Imagination helped to clarify vague ideas and notions of what imagination is.

    The explanation is that “Imagination is the brain’s ability to VISUALIZE THINGS THAT ARE MISSING.”  The following pages expand and explain this idea and show how musicians, artists, athletes and dancers, (to name a few) use imagination to further their goals. It is shown that you can visualise something real, or a wish, or something made up. Children have vivid imaginations, but often these fade as we get older. Artists often retain this strength as their mind is largely taken up with their art.

    Many questions are posed and answered. Can you train your imagination? Can it break down? Can imagination play a role in science? There are different kinds of imagination. An area of the brain switches off and on depending on whether you are thinking scientifically or daydreaming. When we are fearful our thoughts can be very frightening, but when the fridge is empty, our imagination helps us plan our meals and what food to buy.

    Some thoughts can be connected to a particular place. “That’s the Church I was married in.” There are automatic thoughts, when your alarm goes off for example, and thoughts that stay with us for life. After the table of contents, there is a page which tells about the author, has some tips on a deeper understanding, and references to finding other materials on the subject.

    Our Incredible Imagination is such a well thought out, brilliantly compiled book that it should be in every school and home.

  • Mending Lost Dreams at the Highland Repair Shop

    Mending Lost Dreams at the Highland Repair Shop

    In this gentle and softly nuanced tale of life, love and challenge Mending Lost Dreams at the Highland Repair Shop, Kiley Dunbar has created a world that is truly lovely to visit, if even for just a short while.

    Dr Alice Hargreave has made the huge decision to move far from her family and home in Manchester to learn all there is about being GP in the very small highland town of Cairn Dhu, literally at the end of the train line. She is stressed, distressed and feels very vulnerable.

    Murray McIntyre is hiding out in his hometown of Cairn Dhu, smarting from a failed relationship, trying not to flirt with the rather handsome, teasing builder who is working on the extension to the Cairn Dhu Repair Shop of which his father Charlie is in charge.

    Finlay Morlich is the National Park Ranger who loves sweets, does not like people and lives off grid up the slopes of Cairn Dhu Mountain. He reluctantly comes into town only when his tin of treats is low, library books need replenishing and no other reason.

    Then there is the dapper Cary Anderson, first met when wheeling a large clock along the street in a wheelbarrow on the way to the Repair Shop. He stops and helps Alice find some shops, tells her the Bank is not open until Thursday and suggests she call the deli for home delivery. Alice is now beginning to wonder that she has gone and done by coming to live in this tiny little town!

    Add a few more villagers, all who are lovely, nosey and out for a good gossip and you have the basis for a warm-hearted story about discovering who you are and chasing what you really want in life, even if it is at the risk of life and limb.

    Mending Lost Dreams at the Highland Repair Shop has been spun with help from the Seelie’s of legend and a great deal of understanding about people, chasing dreams and living life.

    Book three in the Highland Repair Shop series is due out mid 2026.

  • A Catalogue of Love

    A Catalogue of Love

    Erin H0rtle’s story is about a young girl’s journey from childhood to adulthood. A Catalogue of Love is rich with experiences and enhanced with marvellous descriptive writing. We are taken on Neika’s journey through her early days and are privy to her most intimate thoughts and opinions.

     Neika, her brother Heath, mother and father are a tight knit happy family. They live an idyllic life on Bruny Island. But the young mother dies and although father is bereft, he maintains the warmth and love in the family. They live to surf and immerse themselves in the ocean.

    Their neighbour Sean, a farmer nearby, comes to help and when Neika sees him in bed with her father, she realises that dad loves women and men. The story evolves around the love and steadfast support of her two fathers who nurture her in every way.

    As she grows the girl wonders how different life would have been with a mother, but there are only a few occasions when she feels this way. The author explores the advice that was given to the girl at school when a kid teased her about her gay father. “Oh yes he is, she said, but your father is often drunk, isn’t he?”

    There is such a comfortable acceptance that the family persuade Sean to enter his lamingtons in the show, competing with the CWA ladies. As Neika becomes a teenager, she longs for a relationship and makes mistakes in decisions.

    As an adult, Neika returns to Bruny Island to work as a PHD student. She reflects on many issues and shares thoughts with her best friend Meg. In these conversations, the young woman explores the ideas of love, and how her life is like a card catalogue. The outside, her body, but inside, many cards shuffled around to indicate her thoughts, experiences and desires.

    The greatest strength of this engrossing read is the description of the sea, and how Neika a female surfer, examines the movement of water and how her passion is to master each wave.

  • No One Is Home 

    No One Is Home 

    No One Is Home begins with a yawning lion, who welcomes the day because it is his best friend’s birthday. He decides to give Kimbo a surprise, by visiting him and wishing him a happy day. The traffic is so bad that he decides to walk and stop on the way at the bakery. There is a huge queue and Ladybug and Beetle are debating what they should buy, so Leo decides to walk on. He is mulling over what his friend would like for a gift, “A giant lemon? Nah, too sour.”

    Ultimately the Lion decides to write a poem to his friend but can’t find a word to rhyme with orange. The Penguins run a rhyme shop and can help with any difficult phrases, so off he goes to complete his poem. After picking some flowers, Lion arrives at his friend’s place and rings the bell. Oh dear, no one is home. It seems that Kimbo has gone to visit Lion and been delayed along the way. How will they find each other?

    This is an entertaining story with very detailed drawings to peruse. The characters and insects are quite unique and full of expression. The artwork is sure to beguile children into searching and studying the drawings. As a hardback picture book this will withstand many readings and much examination.

  • The Path Through the Coojong Trees

    The Path Through the Coojong Trees

    Author of seven books Leonie Kelsall has once again focussed her settings in the Australian bush. As a child raised in outback towns and has a knowledge of small-town characters and mentalities. This keeps her tales and characters based in reality. The Path Through The Coojong Trees looks at many aspects of small town living and some of the perks and draw backs.

    Natasha is a young 16-year-old who is desperate to escape her home and town. She has a plan, and it involves studying hard and moving to Sydney to university. Her home life is horrendous. Her parents, one Aboriginal, one Australian, are happy for her to work two part time jobs and pay the bills.

    They do not believe she will ever leave and are not that interested anyway. Natasha is different. At school as she is deaf and comes from the wrong side of the railway line, she has very few friends. Then a family moves into town. They are from Turkey and viewed with reservation by most. The young man, Tarik, and Natasha become close.

     We skip about nine years and Natasha has moved to a small town as a classroom teacher. She has her daughter with her. The town mimics others in its suspicion of newcomers, however, being a teacher affords Natasha acceptance. She gradually meets and befriends different people. Then one day a new shop announces its opening. It is a Turkish bakery. The story unfolds as chance and fate play a hand in the resolution.

    Definitely one for the romantics.

  • Looking for You: A Novel

    Looking for You: A Novel

    The Perfect Passion Company

    Looking For You is the second book in the Perfect Passion Company novel series from Alexander McCall Smith where Katie has taken over the running of the dating agency. Her cousin Ness, who’s business it had been, decided to go to Canada for a year’s break and Katie has stepped up to take her place. The story is set in Edinburgh which is lovingly described by the author.

    In the first book, we saw Katie show herself as a sensitive and caring manager, who listened carefully to the people who asked for her help. She was able to match several people cleverly and was always intuitive about what would be best for her clients. Working in the next office was William.

    He is a young man from Melbourne, who hopes to break into the fashion industry. He specialises in knitting and designs. Each morning, William comes into Katies office and makes coffee for them and while Katie finds herself very attracted to him; after a disastrous relationship, William is disinterested in committing to another.

    The author has designed this series around the concept of love. In the beginning, Katie goes to a lecture which reveals what it is that attracts one person to another. As with most of his works, McCall Smith has many asides in the story. He digresses and shows many different scenarios of lost love, missed opportunities and unrequited love.

  • The Missing Links Of Tannadee 

    The Missing Links Of Tannadee 

    The Missing Links of Tannadee is the second book about Tannadee and hopefully not the last as Maurice Gray has spun a very, very funny tale based around well, people and the choices made in life.

    This tale begins with the abduction, or maybe the rescue of a little terrier by Billy Pung, a young lad who took exception to the man with the Maserati threatening to kill it. Absconding with the dog he goes straight to Chizzie Bryson, parttime teacher and part owner of a Hotel, to find out what the best option is for hiding the dog, followed by the man with the Maserati who by this time is very angry.

    One lie leads to another and before long Chizzie and his wife Yolanda become embroiled in a situation involving the little dog Peggy’s deceased owner’s daughter, the local gang of not very nice men and what seems to be some sort of seriously dangerous treasure hunt for stolen goods.

    In the meantime, Yolanda’s father the Billionaire Gordon Weever, a man who has everything he could desire, has decided he wants to be a Clan Chief, that of the Clan Mc Shellach; a Clan which has no Chief, is so tiny it is almost non-existent but will do the job.

    All is not going to plan, anyone’s plan, as Weever is failing at learning to dance, essential for Clan Chiefs to be able to accomplish, the thugs are not about to give up on finding the dog or the  hidden loot, and a challenge to Weevers claim to becoming the next Chief is being mounted by Lord Tulloch.

    Skullduggery of the worst kind is undertaken by Weever until it comes down to a challenge, a football match, to decided in true Highland style who will be the new Clan Chief. From this point onwards, and if you have made the correlation that is glaringly obvious, the rules go out the door, or off the pitch and it is game on.

    Enjoy this gently satirical, carefully crafted and very well delivered time in the Highlands in pursuit to nothing but goodness as you join the band of misfits and a few others that make up the wonderful people of the Village of Tannadee.

  • The Buried Life

    The Buried Life

    Award winning author Andrea Goldsmith has not disappointed her reading audience with her ninth book, ‘The Buried Life’, in which her three main characters, Adrian, Kezi and Laura have caused to evaluate their ‘buried lives’.

    When the reader first meets the main protagonists, forty years plus Melbourne University academic Adrian Moore (renowned authority on death in the modern age), is ruminating about the end of his ten-year relationship with Irene, while his 28-year-old lesbian friend, vivacious Kezi is struggling with her fundamentalist upbringing and its community, which cannot accept her differences.

     Meanwhile beautiful 58-year-old Laura Benady, accomplished town planner, who is devoted to Tony, a mediocre academic believes that her long marriage is perfect. Despite their age difference, the three develop an unlikely deep friendship, which allows each of them to uncover his/her ‘buried life’.

    Music can have a profound effect on people; after hearing Mahler’s music Adrian comes to understand himself differently. On the other hand, for Kezi, who is still troubled by faith and its complexities, it is a change in her circumstances, which allows her to review her relationship with her parents. For Laura it is cheese! The meeting with Adrian in a cheese shop, and a careless lie are the catalysts for her to reflect on what she believes to be a wonderful husband, and perfect marriage; can she live happily without him?

    As the narrative unfolds the author gently explores Kezi, Laura and Adrian’s feelings, their relationships and the power of friendship.

    In this novel the author exposes her readers to love, faith, coercive control and the power of art and music. No doubt some readers will find themselves chasing up the references to music, books and poetry.

  • More or Less Maddy

    More or Less Maddy

    Lisa Genova is a neuroscientist who has written about people who “Tend to be ignored, feared and misunderstood because of what is going on in their brain.” She has previously written about Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury and autism, to name a few.

    When she spoke at a book launch and said that she would like to research and write about Bipolar disorder; many people came to her and expressed their interest and support. Her beginning research showed that this brain disorder was hidden in plain view and affecting many, many people.

    The story of Maddy will be familiar to people who are close to a sufferer. For those who don’t know about Bipolar disorder, this is the reality!

    After completing High school with good grades, Maddy finds the pressure of college challenging. Her parents expect high grades and are demanding that she work harder. This begins a series of slip and slides in Maddy’s life, which see her going from doctor to doctor, drinking heavily and doing drugs with friends. The downward slide continues with the young woman becoming suicidal and self-harming.

    The way Lisa tells Maddy’s story involves the reader in the day-to-day life experiences faced by the young woman. Not so different to many of our own stories, except for the way Maddy’s brain reacts.

    More or Less Maddy makes one feel compassionate and more understanding of this debilitating and horrific complaint. Lisa has done a brilliant job of exposing how the brain reacts, and how we can support people and their careers. She has done a great service to expose and discuss such an expanding issue.