Book Review: The Ultimate Guide of Fun Things to Do in Retirement: Enjoyable and Stimulating Activities to Make New Friends, Improve Mental Clarity, Find New Passions and Dive Into Global Adventures by Victoria Blaine

  

 

The Ultimate Guide of Fun Things to Do in Retirement: Enjoyable and Stimulating Activities to Make New Friends, Improve Mental Clarity, Find New Passions and Dive Into Global Adventures by Victoria Blaine

What I like about this book are the so many different things to consider when you are done working. First take care of yourself, discover things you used to do and  explore new things to try and learn. Love travel section and how to keep track of everything.

Love volunteering items and also many resources to tap into to meet new friends and old ones alike.

Very useful and fun, entertaining. 

Book Review: The Ultimate Greenhouse Gardening Guide for Beginners: From Design to Harvest, Build Your Sustainable Haven for Growing Diverse, Pest-Free Plants Affordably All Year by Sandy Brundle

  

  

The Ultimate Greenhouse Gardening Guide for Beginners: From Design to Harvest, Build Your Sustainable Haven for Growing Diverse, Pest-Free Plants Affordably All Year by Sandy Brundle 

What I like about this book is that it tells you exactly what you need for the zone you are in.  Not only what to use for the greenhouse materials but everything else to consider, water and heat if needed in your zone.  There are many sections detailing tools, seeds, dirt, and a larger section on composting. Not only that but how to troubleshoot if your kitchen waste is not producing dirt like compost for you. Very helpful information there.  Has pictures of the greenhouses in other areas of the US along with what to look for and when to start planting.  

References included at the end.

Keep this one handy. Very useful. 

Book Review: Understand Your Gut Microbiome: Relieve Digestive Issues, Boost Metabolism, Improve Mood, Strengthen Immunity and Restore Balance for More Energy, Better Health and a Happier You by Sandy Brundle

  

Understand Your Gut Microbiome: Relieve Digestive Issues, Boost Metabolism, Improve Mood, Strengthen Immunity and Restore Balance for More Energy, Better Health and a Happier You by Sandy Brundle

In this book there are discussions, some are quite intense and technical. I can follow along with most of it and appreciate what it's teaching me about gut health. Like the tips along the way.

There are so many things you gut has a connection to: brain, heart, etc  There are so many suggestions into getting your gut back to being healthy again. Love the exact things to avoid and those that you should be eating. Even sleep and stress play a big part in the health of your gut. Follow the suggestions and you should get back  to haveing a healthy gut.

References are included at the end.

Keep this one handy and make your own foods at home where you control what goes into the meals.

 

Book Review: The Posture Reset: A Starter Guide to Improve Your Posture, Address Tech Neck, Ease Pain, and

    

 

The Posture Reset: A Starter Guide to Improve Your Posture, Address Tech Neck, Ease Pain, and Work Better From Home by Mallory Morrison  

Have tried with exercising to straighten up a lot more. I also with walking sticks am able to wait with back straight. I remember my grandfather would run his fingernail up my mothers back so she'd straighten up. I even tried back braces to help. Now I just do exercises, many of which are outlined in this book.

Dived right into this book and appreciate all the technical things dealing with pecs and back muscles and the spine.

Like the analogy of stretched muscles, so easy to understand what's going on.

Book also shows diagrams of where these are all located making it easy to follow along.

There are specific parts of the spine along with their real name and how to tend to them.

Major sections describe what to do at work for not only exercises but the desk, chair and mouse an, keyboard and monitor to help you sit up straight. Also a list of different brands of seats are discussed.

Parts I like the best are where the exercises are. I already do exercises to strengthen bone density and some of the exercises are what I have been doing 3 times a week. 

Even sleep positions is discussed in detail. I do sleep on my back which is what they prefer you to do.

Breathing and mindfulness is also a major thing for your back.

Lots of exercises for you to do while at work when you have a break. You can easily do them at home as well.

Each exercise has a title with brief summary paragraph of what part it targets. A section where it states what muscles are targeted.

How to do it is simple words and tell you how to do the exercise and there is a sample of a person doing the exercise so you can make sure you have it right.

Definitely some to add to my normal routine. Book finishes with references.

A KEEPER, keep this one handy for daily movements. 

Book Review: Spellbound Freshman: A Slice Of Life Magical Academy Harem Marko Duskborn

  

 

Spellbound Freshman: A Slice Of Life Magical Academy Harem (Spellbound University Book 1) by Marko Duskborn

I enjoyed this book because of the theme. It's not my usual genre so it was easy to follow everything as the story progressed.

Story starts out with Marcus and he acquires abilities he didn't know he had.

He ends up going to an academy where he can learn more about his abilities and how to control them. Nobody even knew the level he was at.

The team consists of Sage who's a brilliant researcher with master in magical theory, Kira half fae  and like Marcus, trying to find her place among them all, and Elena who's family has connections.

Besides them all becoming friends they learn of others who want to expel Marcus because he wasn't born with the magic in his bloodline.

With help from them all Marcus is able to show enough power to take one assassin down and leave another unconscious in front of the elite party who are trying to expel him.

There are just a few involved and the researcher has found all the underlying evidence in plain sight and Victor goes under scrutiny from the panel...

Very entertaining book with sides of human, sci fic and magic and mystical overtures. 

Children's books Jun 15

 

Hip and the Sharing Shells by Sandra Blake

Colorful, children's educational book.  Book starts out with about the author. 

Book starts where the chapter has its own title. There are color pictures and then more is explained, about the title. 

Hip and his friends head the beach for the day. Hip spots  a shiny shell and claims it as his. He collects a bunch more and they are all for him. Ellie wants to see them by Hip tells her no they are all his. She walks away. Now Hip feels lonely. He has a talk with Marvin  and one shell tumbles out of the pile into the water. He still feels lonely but others are laughing and having a great time.  He decides he needs to share the shells with other. They all build  a cstle and put shells on it. 

Love hearing more from the animals in the jungle.

Moral: sharing really does make everything better. 

  

 

Hip and the Wiggly Tooth  by Sandra Blake

Colorful, children's educational book.  Book starts out with about the author. 

Book starts where the chapter has its own title. There are color pictures and then more is explained, about the title. 

In this book Hip finds he has a loose tooth. He doesn't want it to fall out during story time. Tessa the Toucan explains what is happening with the tooth, it meals you are growing up.

 He wiggles it a bit and declares nope it's not ready.

 Ellie the elephant talks more to him to not be afraid.

Love hearing about the tooth fairy again.

Love hearing more from the animals in the jungle.

 

Hip and the Day We Remember (A Memorial Day Story) by Sandra Blake

Colorful, children's educational book.  Book starts out with about the author. 

Book starts where the chapter has its own title. There are color pictures and then more is explained, about the title. 

Hip notices in the jungle thee is peace and calm and why does it feel so different. He goes to investigate.

He notices the little flags planted. Ellie explains it all to him what Memorial Day is really all about.

Jungle animals all gather and pause, feel and remember.

Love hearing more from the animals in the jungle.

Memorial Day: A day to pause. A day to feel. A day to remember.

 

 

Hip and the Great Jungle Race by Sandra Blake

Colorful, children's, educational, fun story to read with another.

Book starts out with about the author. The story is set up where the chapters are titled and in each chapter is the title, color photo and the words to the picture, story.

This story is centered around the great race. All the animals can  participate.

When Hip gets going he does fine and keeps up with others. Then he notices One animal that can't go further and he helps them out.  Hip continues to run and helps another with a problem. By the end of the race he can see many ahead of him but he's just happy to have finished the race. He has a big surprise when he is finished. Whole gang is there to witness it. He is a true winner.

 

Book Review: The Complete Excel Bible 2025 by Excelwise Press

   

The Complete Excel Bible 2025 by Excelwise Press 

Book intro tells you about the different types of skills you can learn from this book. I use excel myself and love a lot of things about this book.

It explains how to set up the ribbon task bar and how to remove things you don't want there.

Loe that it explains how to create your first workbook and actually has you do everything yourself. You can take your time and if you get interrupted you can restart where you left off. There are step by step instruction making it so easy for anybody to use. It also explains how to input data and what to type, as examples so you can become familiar with the layout.

 It has you do a few tasks also with the data, rearranging things and how to save, open and close files.

There are chapters about how to display the data as a chart as some are visual learners. There are so many more instructions to use that format or many others in the program.

There are a few things I would never use as I don't have a business but some things like a grocery list is very helpful.

What I love the best are the 104 shortcuts they tell you about at the end of the book. I never learned all but 'sum' function so this is new to me and so very helpful.  Macros would be helpful to others and those instructions are included also. 

References are included also.

A KEEPER, one to keep close by til you get used to the shortcut keys.