AvidBards
Reflections

Self-Help Books: Do They Work?

Carrying on with the theme of Mental Health Awareness Month, and Mental Health Awareness Week which starts today in the UK, today’s post is looking at self-help books. The self-help genre has become a multi-billion dollar industry around the world. In the United States alone, self-help books earn around $2.5 billion a year. So, what is it about self-help books that make them so popular and do they actually work? Quite often when I talk about self-help books to other people, I am confronted with a more than healthy dose of cynicism, with the words “a load of hogwash” or…

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Reflections

5 Best Podcasts to Check Out: Mental Health Awareness Edition

May is Mental Health Awareness month. This month, we’re actively pushing ourselves to branch out and check out new media, be it books, shows, music, podcasts or film, that centre around mental health awareness and the destigmatization of mental illness. Today’s post is a bit of a First Impressions post: I’m highlighting five podcasts that I’ve only heard an episode or two from, that I’m looking forward to completing. These are podcasts that actively centre on mental health and illness as its subject matter, and do so in vastly different ways. Most importantly, these podcasts emphasize an importance on recognizing…

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Poems

“she must be mad” by Charly Cox

Poetry is a genre that I don’t often find myself reaching for, but I walked passed Carly Cox’s new collection of poetry and prose at the bookstore and I couldn’t resist. she must be mad is 22-year-old Cox’s first book, a compilation of her poetry and lyrical prose written from her teenage year onwards. At first glance, it had the same feel as Rupi Kaur’s writing, which, though controversial in the poetry world, I have enjoyed. I honestly can’t pinpoint exactly what it was that had me reaching for she must be mad. But undoubtedly, it had something to do…

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Reflections

A.I. in Sci-Fi

Book Review: Lexi Author: Heidi J. Hewett       Rating: 4/5      ASIN: B07KT8TDXY I have always wanted to branch out into reading more sci-fi books. It’s a genre that, for some reason, has never been at the top of my list, but one that has always intrigued me – and Heidi J. Hewett’s Lexi was a great, albeit new age, introduction into this world. The book centres on a robotics engineer named John Michael Kirkpatrick, whose father is famous in the robotics world. John Michael and his team have perfected a female robot called LX8000, who is “built to mimic humans”. However,…

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Reflections

5 Books on Mental Health I Want to Read

I’ve made it a point this year to branch out and read books on different topics. It can be so easy to fall into a particular genre of books and never branch out. Particularly when, if you are like me, working or studying, or doing both full time, and reading becomes your get away from the stress of everything else. You get comfortable in a particular genre that you know is exciting and enjoyable, that forcing yourself to find something new can be daunting. Additionally, my case, a part of me gets scared that I am going to be disappointed…

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Reflections

Art Appreciation Gallery

Happy Sunday, readers! There are some exciting things are on the horizon for AvidBards, but I can’t reveal anything yet, so stay tuned! However, in lieu of looking forward to a new chapter, today’s post is something a little out of the ordinary for us. Though we’ve previously put up gallery posts like 15 Beautifully Aesthetic Bookshelves, or its sequel, Mesmerizing Bookshelves Part 2, today I’ve decided to display a small portion of my visual art portfolio. Visual art has been a passion of mine since the beginning of time. In fact, both S and I love to express ourselves…

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