Reviewed by Erin Nicole Cochran for Readers' Favorite

Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life by Luke Burgis reads like holding the physical representation of an epiphany or the holy grail. The amount of knowledge it imparts is staggering, revealed in a way that flows naturally. As the pages continue to turn, Wanting feeds the brain, igniting synapses. On page 64 Burgis states, “Mimetic desire is the real engine of social media. Social media is social mediation—and it now brings nearly all of our models inside our personal world.” Burgis embeds into Wanting viewpoints and quotes from many that had a hand in describing mimetic desire in their own works as well as the founding father of the mimetic theory itself. A man who wore many professional hats, René Noël Théophile Girard was a philosopher, an author, and a professor. The utmost respect that Burgis holds for Girard is undeniable.

Luke Burgis’ Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life opened my eyes in a way that they have never been opened before. Not only is the knowledge in Wanting a gift, but it feels on the level of bestowing a superpower upon someone. You learn how to look at the world around you and your place in it and change for the better. And changing yourself will change your world. Wanting by Luke Burgis is one of those books that makes you wonder why you’ve been reading fiction when the reality that we live in is so much more intriguing.

Reviewed by Pikasho Deka for Readers' Favorite

Emotional Magnetism by Sandy Gerber is a self-help guidebook to help readers improve their communication in their personal and professional lives and forge better connections. A marketing expert who founded one of the fastest-growing companies in British Columbia, Gerber used to have problems co-parenting with her second husband and often struggled to communicate with her ex-husband. That is until she applied her professional strategies in her personal life. Emotional Magnetism is all about what people need. Through this book, you will discover the Four Emotional Magnets, Safety, Achievement, Value, and Experience, in great detail and learn how to utilize aspects of those Magnets in your everyday relationships. While Emotional Magnets can shape your life, they may also shift as you age and your priorities change into something other than when you were younger.

Author Sandy Gerber outlines some valuable principles to help readers increase their personal intimacy and strengthen the bonds of their relationships. Emotional Magnetism also showcases how Empathy, Authenticity, and Positive Regard work together to create positive relationships. At the end of each chapter, there are questions to engage the reader with the relevant Emotional Magnet topic discussed within the chapter. Gerber's writing style is crisp and concise, and the narrative structure feels well organized. Apart from the informative content, Gerber also provides citations to various other books and articles that deal with the emotional aspects of relationships. Overall, I found Emotional Magnetism to be an enlightening read. If you're having trouble communicating or connecting with others, I highly recommend it.

Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite

Oh, Lords! Who We Date, Why We Date Them, and What We've Learned is a work of non-fiction in the dating and relationships subgenre. It is best suited to the mature adult reading audience and was penned by author team Jes Averhart and Terresa Zimmerman. As the title suggests, this is an enjoyable and concise work on the world of dating as told by the two central authors, who unfolded an honest and charming account of their dating lives to see what vital lessons can be gleaned from experience. Focusing specifically on women who date men, the different ‘Lord’ archetypes of the world are categorized and put under the microscope with humor, pathos, and some clever words of warning.

Dating can be extremely difficult in the modern world as gender roles shift and change, and staying empowered as a woman in a world full of men is no mean feat. It’s glorious that author team Jes Averhart and Terresa Zimmerman can engage in this topic openly and powerfully to show women how to retain their power in such situations and to look out for the red flags and danger signals that might try to take their power away in the dating world. I’ve certainly met all of the ‘Lords’ that these authors discuss through different situations in my life. The work is well-organized to take readers through each concept in an accessible and enjoyable way, and also without losing one's optimism for dating at all. Overall, I would certainly recommend Oh, Lords! for people at all stages of their dating life as a fascinating insight into the typicality of human behavior.

Reviewed by Sheena Monnin for Readers' Favorite

Invisible Wounds by Kay Douglas is an empowering guide for women who have been in an abusive relationship or who know someone who is in an abusive relationship. The author carefully covers the ways abuse can look and feel, as well as the stories many victims can tell themselves to cope or try to protect themselves or their children. Any woman who reads this book will benefit from understanding the warning signs, learning to see abuse in its early stages, and knowing how to be there for women they know who might be in an abusive relationship but haven’t reached the point of acknowledging their own abuse. The author provides a comprehensive and compassionate look at very sensitive and painful topics and provides a path of hope and healing for victims.

Kay Douglas’ Invisible Wounds is powerfully written and full of useful information that every woman should read and understand. Abuse can happen at any time in a variety of relationships. Learning many of our own tendencies to deny abusive words or actions, or tolerate more than we should, can save lives and help women to leave these situations earlier than they might otherwise. I appreciate how the author explores the history of abuse in society’s treatment of and expectations placed on women in decades gone by and how society today still does not offer full support for women on the path out of an abusive relationship. The author does a fantastic job of outlining the problems, the signs and symptoms, the setbacks, and the solutions to the problems. Each part of this resource is invaluable and very well communicated.

Reviewed by Tammy Ruggles for Readers' Favorite

Nadeem’s Journey: A Heart Wrenching Story of a Loving Mother Losing Her Son to Cancer, by Sherine Anniruth, is a moving memoir. As with any memoir involving a family member or loved one with cancer, especially a mother losing a child, there is sadness, bitterness, but happy times recalled too. It's a raw account of how a life can be so ordinary one moment and so shaken the next. Each mother handles a medical crisis differently, and this is how Sherine handled hers. No one can really understand the challenge unless they've gone through it, and that is why this book is so important and valuable. It could very well prepare you or someone you know for a journey you may have to take someday.

As a former hospice social worker, I really appreciate the insights this book offers to individuals, families, and even helping professionals. Nadeem was young when he received the diagnosis: Twenty-five. So even though he didn't live a long life, he lived a memorable, meaningful one. Memories are precious, and you'll find the memories that Sherine shares precious too. It takes strength to endure and do your best in the face of a cancer diagnosis, but through her words, we get to know her son, his personality, character, and the legacy he left behind. I also like the message of hope and strength that the author passes on to the reader. One of the most touching parts was when Nadeem had tears in his eyes, not because he was told he had stage-4 cancer, but because of the look on his mother's face. Each milestone will tug at your heartstrings, and the photos add so much. Nadeem’s Journey by Sherine Anniruth gives you an inside view of what it's like for a mother to fight cancer with love and determination, and to recognize the beauty of a brief life well-lived.

Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite

There’s something special about decorating a Christmas tree that ignites memories of treasured moments in the past, memories before everyone grew up and started to leave. But, for Joanne Nelson, much of the leaving in her growing up years was tragic: family members leaving to escape the reality of life at home, but really leaving to escape the loneliness of life itself; some family members finding their escape in a bottle; and then the final straw, family members leaving through that portal known as death. Growing up in a dysfunctional family where abuse, both emotional and physical, was the norm, it wasn’t unexpected that some family members would seek a venue to escape. Leaving is a part of life, as much as coming home and seeking memories, both good and bad, and finding reason in all those memories, the reason for one’s singular existence.

Joanne Nelson’s memoir, This Is How We Leave, is a touching tribute to her life and the memories she helped create and nurture. Full of compassion and love, the author remembers happy times, troubling times, and sad times, but the family photo that starts her flashbacks is the one in which she posed with her brothers in front of a candle-lit birthday cake. The eyes, there is so much one can read into a story through the eyes, and that’s where the author notes how, at the tender age of 5, she’s already feeling the hurt, the fear, the anger of her brothers who stand protectively beside her. The memoir is told with care and precision, with a great deal of descriptive narrative to thoroughly set the scenes. The author has a talent for describing places, people, and events, and the story rings through the 1960s and 1970s with accurate acknowledgment of the finer details of each era, from the clothing and the hairstyles to the expected behavior of young people growing up in this time period. Nostalgia, pain, and sorrow blend together in this touching memoir of a troubling childhood that also had moments of glory and love. Beautifully told.

Reviewed by Tammy Ruggles for Readers' Favorite

The award-winning Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging by Julie Ryan McGue is a compelling, poignant memoir about the search for truth and belonging. The premise is right out of a Lifetime movie. The author is a twin who is adopted, but the adoption was closed, meaning that the records are sealed and she can't find the details surrounding her adoption or birth parents. But she desperately needs to know her health history at age forty-eight when dealing with a biopsy. This prompts the twins (her sister's name is Jenny) to find out together. They decide to talk to their adoptive parents, who don't like the idea of them learning of their birth history. Things get a little more complicated when they enlist the help of a search agency, a private investigator, the court system, and a genealogist. What would seem to be a simple process of unearthing records turns into a revelation of secrets and lies, with the truth being closer than they realized.

At some point in our lives, our minds and hearts turn toward our origins: Who are we, where do we come from, what were our ancestors like? Imagine yourself in your late forties, sick, and in need of your medical records, but you don't have access to them due to a closed adoption. What determination and resilience would it take for you and your twin sister to prevail? As you read this awesome journey, you will feel the emotional ebb and flow of the author's story, the emotions experienced by the twins, the disappointments, and the surprise twist. McGue uses dashes of wit to balance the somber notes. And, besides the compelling subject matter, she is a natural storyteller. Being a former social worker, I know how difficult it can be for adult children of adoption to uncover their origins, so this book can serve as a great advocacy tool as well as a thoroughly engaging autobiography. If you like memoirs that can move as well as inform, you have to read Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging by Julie Ryan McGue.

Reviewed by Divine Zape for Readers' Favorite

A Grownup Guide to Effective Crankiness: The Crankatsuris Method by Steven Joseph is a fun book that teaches readers how to understand their crankiness and their family members' crankiness, and how to use this trait to create spaces for growth, deeper and more meaningful connections, and acceptance. It is a relevant book from the author who wrote The Last Surviving Dinosaur: The TyrantoCrankaTsuris. He makes the bold claim that humans are descendants of the smallest and most dangerous dinosaur known as the TyrantoCrankaTsuris. Our crankiness can sometimes spill over to family members — kids, spouse, parents, and siblings — and this can create a vicious circle of retaliatory crankiness. In this book, readers will learn to take control of their crankiness, find the best approach in handling the crankiness in others, and a lot more.

This book will appeal to any reader who wants to improve their communication with others, pay attention to how their cranky behaviors can affect those around them, and find the best approach to handle people with excessive crankiness. A Grownup Guide to Effective Crankiness: The Crankatsuris Method is written in a lively, humorous tone that grips the reader right off the bat, and the author has the uncanny ability to recreate scenes from the day-to-day experience of readers, making it easy for them to understand the message of the book and to find compelling resonances in their own lives. Steven Joseph speaks in language that is upbeat and engaging. This is a book with a compelling message and is an effective guide on how to defuse the tensions created by our human clumsiness and crankiness.

Reviewed by Lesley Jones for Readers' Favorite

In Unglued: A Bipolar Love Story by Jeffrey Zuckerman, Jeffrey and Leah had enjoyed thirty years of marriage until 2015 when their relationship descended into a vortex of chaos. Leah's behavior started to become uncharacteristically erratic leaving Jeffrey confused and concerned. Although Jeffrey tried to hide his feelings of helplessness and bewilderment from their children, family, and friends, soon he could no longer escape the truth. As Leah's volatile tirades and bizarre behavior intensified, Jeffrey sought help from medical professions, support groups, and loved ones. Jeffrey charts his five-year journey through the maze of diagnosis and treatments and the realization that asking for help was paramount not only to Leah's recovery but his own mental and emotional healing. Unglued is a heartbreaking and humorous story of one man's journey to gain a better understanding of his wife's illness and ensure her recovery while trying to retain his own mental and physical health.

Unglued: A Bipolar Love Story offers incredible incredible insight into bipolar, its symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment and was immediately compelling. Jeffrey Zuckerman's brutally honest account of his emotions throughout was both inspiring and heartbreaking. I admired his patience, non-judgmental attitude, and unwavering conviction to fight for his relationship, even though Leah's behavior confused and frightened him. I was astounded to learn that 20% of all Americans suffer from mental illness too. The scene during his daughter's wedding when he made the comparison between mental and physical illness was extremely profound. I thought the therapist pointing out to Jeffrey the difference between caregiver and caretaker was a turning point for him as he realized the importance of Leah taking responsibility for her actions. I absolutely adored What Does Depression Bleed? by Kay Radfield Jamison; it described the darkness around mental illness perfectly. The Diagnosis chapter was really interesting and such an awakening on the illness. I also found the section around DBT, a technique to control your emotions and manage distress, very interesting.

There were many heartbreaking and emotional scenes that were hard to read because of the upsetting content, but the journal entry from November 2016 was the most hard-hitting and brought a tear to my eye. Throughout the entire emotional rollercoaster of his journey, Jeffrey's fantastic optimism and humor shone through. I think my favorite of his observations was, "I wished I'd never seen The Exorcist." The support group directory at the end of the book was a fantastic addition to further help others going through a similar experience.

Reviewed by Vernita Naylor for Readers' Favorite

Relationships are hard and incorporating the elements of love makes it extremely difficult. You see someone who you're immediately attracted to and desire to spend the rest of your life with, then three months later everything changes. Why? If you are looking for answers to understand why this initial attraction fizzled out so quickly, you've come to the right place. Love biologist Dawn Maslar unfolds the mystery about the various phases of love, the power of love, falling in love, the impact that love has on the brain, the essential elements of real love, the difference between how women and men process love, and the role that Mother Nature plays in her book Men Chase, Women Choose: The Neuroscience of Meeting, Dating, Losing Your Mind, and Finding True Love. Through extensive research and personal experiences, the author pulls no punches in helping the reader to dig deep in understanding what it takes to find true love and how to maintain it.

Men Chase, Women Choose is a must because it allows the reader to go on an odyssey of love. This book is ideal if you're really curious, want to improve how you love, and see the process from the man and woman's perspective. Once you discover these precious gems, you'll have a better chance of making a solid connection. I was floored when Dawn Maslar revealed how love is not an event but a process with distinct biological phases. This statement alone answers why so many of us fail at love and the divorce rate is so high due to a lack of knowledge. If love is a process, this means that we must be ready for the long haul and not a sprint. This is why the information contained in this book is necessary for making a paradigm shift in our lives. Love can become a beautiful experience and last a lifetime when you learn the rules. Highly recommended. Enjoy!