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Work-Life Balance

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by Kevin Wolf Fraud, manipulation, crossing ethical lines, self-interest, younger generation, dishonesty, and casually ignoring serious events are only some of the themes occurring in Work-Life Balance by Aisha Franz (translated from the German by Nicholas Houde). Don’t get me wrong. With all this seeming negativity, I’m recommending this book for its almost anthropological study of half a dozen characters in their work/home environments. There are plenty of medical topics including psychotherapy, unnamed psychotropic drugs, virtual reality therapy, mental breakdowns, sexual harassment/assault, anxiety, asthma, alcoholic self-medication, and a bike accident. The characters include Dr. Sharifi (unhelpful therapist), Anita (potter making… Read More

Dragonslippers: This Is What an Abusive Relationship Looks Like

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By Dr Elżbieta Klimek-Dominiak Lockdowns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic brought renewed public attention to the rise in the level of intimate partner violence (Peitzmeier et al., 2022). Scholars have already established in the 1970s that domestic violence is a gendered phenomenon and that it predominantly affects women (Walker, 1979). The World Health Organisation continues to identify violence against women (including intimate partner violence and sexual violence) as “a major public health problem and violation of women’s human rights” (WHO ”Violence Against Women”). WHO estimates that approximately 30% of women worldwide were affected by it and 27% of them experienced… Read More

The Golden Hour

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Guest review by Lorraine Chun   All too frequently we hear or read in the news about another shooting at a school, but rarely do we hear about its impact on students. The Golden Hour by Niki Smith addresses how an adolescent copes with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after witnessing his teacher gunned down.  This is a story about healing and resiliency, new friendships, and even young love. Manuel Soto is a latchkey middle schooler whose mother puts in long hours as a nurse at a health facility.  He takes solace in his photography art work and is a loner at school with no friends and is by himself when he gets home. The story begins with… Read More