TR's Book Reviews

S easonal Symphonies by Zowie Norris, is a lovely poetry book that explores our world's 4 seasons of weather and the different emotions each season brings. Zowie brings each season to life with her beautiful words and imagery about the flowers, the sunsets, the golden leaves and the snowy Christmas.  This poetry book is divided into 5 sections, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter have their own sections and the last section is Four Seasons in One. Four Seasons in One, the final part of the book wraps up each season and how each season holds different moments, memories and how the sights around us change and how we change with it. My personal favourite part was Winter. I loved reading about the joy of the snowfall and the laughter and contentment Christmas brings. The poems that danced with the happiness that family brings made me smile as it reminded me how much I enjoy Christmas with my family too.   My favourite poems were; Song bird, The Haunted Poet and Remembering wit...

The Unfinished Muse written by Hazel S. dives deep into all the artists and dreamers' worlds, the beauty of what they can create and the depth into what their creations mean. It explores the emotions of writers' words, painters' artwork, actors' performances and singers' lyrics as well as other forms of art and emotions that go into everything, one's job and daily life.    “When art bleeds, silence speaks and creators burn.” - Hazel S.  Hazel S. truly has a way with writing, her words creep into your heart and make you truly feel whatever she writes about. She has a consistent style with her writing, she uses clear imagery and excellent rhyming. Her lines and poems make you go in depth into what it means to be an artist. She shows the pain that is turned into something beautiful through a person's art.  As a writer myself and a complete art lover, her appreciating and honest words for each form of art was truly moving. Her understanding and uplifting words a...

Love is like a coin. It has two sides, one where your heart sings from joy and the other is hardships and pain. Unfortunately when you flip for love you don’t know what side you are going to experience or when. Sometimes the coin will land on beautiful moments and other times you have to hope that the love won’t be stolen away, this is what Bittersweet Symphony explores.  Bittersweet Symphony is a collection consisting of 14 short stories surrounding tragedies of love and how love is like the books namesake, bittersweet. There are 2 stories written in English and the rest is written in Filipino with a mix of English in a few stories. A group of talented authors and writers collaborated together and each wrote a narrative for this anthology. The book's theme was brought to life by Miss Maxi Aurella, the founder of a writing community called INKWELL. I unfortunately was not able to read all the stories as I sadly don't understand Filipino, however I was privileged to read The Ha...

Harmoniously Hopeful, a poetry book by Zowie Norris, an excellent author who has published two other poetry books. This book transports us into a story of hope, hurt and growth. The poems fly like butterflies over fields of topics, one topic that was lovely to read about was family. The author wrote many poems about her family. It was so beautiful to read about her love for her two daughters and husband as well as her love for her sister and their fun hiking adventures and memories.  Her style of writing is consistent and her rhymes work incredibly well, they don't feel forced and they make the poem flow beautifully. Zowie writes honestly and adds a lovely personal touch to her poems which make the book more unique and relatable, not all writers can bring such a strong message of hurt, growth and hope while making it personal and connecting it with the readers.  She shares truths and experiences as a woman and as a mother, and this makes it so relatable for all women and mothe...

Tears into Stars by Rose. R Sales is a painful and memorable read as it goes diving into the depths of struggling with depression and not wanting to live anymore. It explores the feelings of what it's like to struggle with how cruel the world can be and how demotivation can overtake you and you feel there is no escape. It’s a thought provoking read and incredibly relatable if you have gone through this yourself or if you have seen someone go through it. Even if you have not, it's eye opening and there will definitely be a poem that will connect with your heart and experiences.   This book has two chapters: Tears and Stars. Tears walks through the journey and feelings of when one is in an incredibly bad space. Stars explain what it's like when one is bravely coming back and is trying to heal from the scars left behind. What stuck with me at the end in the Stars chapters was how not everything was solved, not everything was okay but the person knew they would be okay, they we...