NetGalley Reviewer nix21230

"a truly uplifting and very true story of how one woman set out to start a business and ended up preserving the dignity of so many women" (the heading is a quote from Huffington Post) Title: The dressmaker of Khair Khana   Author: Gayle Lemmon Kamila has just finished her teaching degree when the Taliban take control in 1996. The Taliban quickly restricts the lives of women living in Kabul; they may no longer work or go to school. If they need to leave the house, they need a male relative with them. Her brothers and father are forced to flee the family home to try to stay alive. Left behind are Kamila and her female relatives. To survive and somehow bring some money in, Kamila learns to sew and soon turns her new skills into a little business where she also engages other women in the local community. Using her teaching skills she starts a sewing school from her home. Once the women know how to sew, they are assigned work from real customers.  Amazingly, Kamila manages to empl...

Enjoyable, festive read, with a few interesting twists.  Title:  Christmas at the Log Fire Cabin Author: Catherine Ferguson Harrison proposes to Poppy in a very unplanned manner, but then quickly suggests a cooling off period over the Christmas period; 12 days for Poppy to think about the proposal even if she's already said 'yes'. Harrison heads off to Spain to be with his mother and Poppy spends her Christmas with her mother. Harrison seems incredible busy with flamenco dancing and Poppy has her hands full as she embarks on her first proper cooking engagement to a group of strangers in the Log Fire Cabin; a gorgeous, secluded cabin in the middle of nowhere near a lake. With memories coming back from her childhood and Harrison being elusive, Poppy tries to keep herself busy, without worrying too much about Harrison or her own mother.

Feel-good story with three cousins who all meet a new man in the process of making a round robin quilt for their fourth cousin Title:  The Christmas Wedding Quilt Authors: Emilie Richards, Janice Kay Johnson and Sarah Mayberry  The Christmas Wedding Quilt is split into three different sections, each written by a different author.  The story starts off in  Let It Snow  by  Emilie Richards . Jo's aunt Glo has recently passed away but due to work commitment Jo didn't make it to her funeral. With the deal gone to pot, it's a rather deflated Jo who returns home to a find a parcel from her deceased aunt waiting for her. Inside is a quilt block and spare fabrics which Glo asks Jo to turn into a quilt together with two of her cousins to give to Olivia, their fourth cousin (and Glo's daughter) as a wedding present. In the second part, called  You Better Watch Out  and written by  Janice Kay Johnson , we meet one of the cousins, Ella. Coming back to wh...

A world without you is a world not worth living in Title: Look after you   Author: Elana Matthews This book packed in more twists and turns than you usually expect in the same book; prematurely born baby whilst dad is away in Afghanistan, male gay best friend supporting the new mum, a recently qualified male doctor fighting for the premie's life, a very dark past for the mum, a shocking funeral, a bloody knuckles fight, a controlling brother, a romantic proposal, a brutal kidnapping, a forceful police raid and moving in together. Heavy content After reading the book, I noticed that Amazon's warning included "for ages 18+ due to heavy subject matters, explicit language and sexual situations". Still, the reading level in the listing is set to 17-18 years. Please also note that the "sexual situations" include rape between siblings.  Further books by the author This is the first book in a series of three. Book two tells what happens to Sebastian whereas book thr...

Make Christmas Special for the people you love. Tell us about your dream Christmas event. Title: Christmas on Main Street  Author: Leeanna Morgan Expect lots of Christmas magic in this feel good story.  Emma is a single mum with six year old twins Molly and Dylan. Leading up to Christmas she sees a drawing by Molly describing her Christmas wish to see her Dad. Emma has previously tried to find him; he walked out on them when the twins were just babies.  Jack is visiting family and as he runs a missing persons company (and rather likes Emma...) he offers to help her find Mark.  More by the author This is the first in a series of five books about Santa's Secret Helpers: Christmas On Main Street (Emma and Jack) Mistletoe Madness (Kylie and Ben) Silver Bells (Bailey and Steven) The Santa Express (Shelley and John) Endless Love (The Jones Family) Morgan has also written another five series of books, so if you like her style there's plenty more!

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give Title: Don't Wait For Opportunity - Create It! (success habits, millionaire success habits, psychology of winning, gorilla mindset, self-help - Book 1)  Author: Sue Baker Reading motivational self-help books, I LOVE the highlighting function on my Kindle! This books was no exception as I have quite a few pages of highlights.  You really need to read the book, and with only 140 pages it was a quick read but with lots of useful and inspirational take-aways.  To get us motivated, Baker asks questions like 'why do some people want to change while some resist change?' and 'why are some people able to wake up early and work harder compared to some?' She makes us think about what we may want to change and why.  I found this sentence thought provoking; Successful people talk about ideas, average people talk about things and small people talk about other people. Another one which caught my eyes; “Formal edu...

When the first love never leaves your heart despite him being engaged to your step-sister Title: Merrily Ever After (Second Chance Fairy Tale Book 1) Author: Julia Keanini Feel-good story perfect from the Christmas season.  Eliana hasn't been home during the last fifteen years; since then she's got married, had a daughter and got divorced. Returning home for Christmas, rather than spending it on her own whilst her daughter is with her father (Eliana's ex-husband) is going to be painful. What's worse is that Eliana's step-sister i getting married to the man Eliana has never forgotten during the last fifteen years. This is the first book in a series of four second chance fairy tale stories, each about Eliana and her best friends; Merrily Ever After Snow and the Seven Teenagers A Royal (Fake) Engagement Bella and the Billionaire Beast

Governments manage countries, but they don't lead them. More and more power is with corporations, corporations who are only answering to their share holders Title:  Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow  Author:  Yuval Noah Harari ' Sapiens  showed us where we came from. In uncertain times,  Homo Deus  shows us where we're going' Looking through my Kindle highlights from this book, which I read back in 2017 when it was first released, I am instantly reminded of the brilliance that is Harari. He has a way of bringing up crucial ideas and thoughts and then presenting them in an easily accessible way. This is a great, thought-provoking book encouraging us to question and re-think the world around us.  Take for example Harari's comment about the possibility of logical bombs already included in codes of our key infrastructure assets. What happens when 'the baddies' (people, corporations or even countries) decides to access these codes and modify them? Many...