This review is also posted on my book blog Captivated by Books

In Cinch! Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds, and Lose Inches Cynthia Sass puts across a whole new way to enjoy food while losing weight and as part of a healthy lifestyle. While some may call this a ‘diet’ Sass states that it’s a change of habit, rather than a fad diet, and I have to agree with her. The basic idea is eating four small meals a day, each consisting of five food groups to give your body the nutrition it needs without expanding your waistline, though it is more a way of being healthier, than simply a weight loss regime. I am not interested in diets, but I do love learning how to live healthier, and I feel that reading Cinch! expanded my understanding of food, cravings and how my choice of food will affect my body.

While many will likely love the fact that chocolate is an everyday part of this diet, personally I’m not sure if the Cinch! diet is for me; but I still found it fascinating to read about how Sass came to create this lifestyle. I particularly enjoyed that she includes the science behind her choices in an accessible way, making it easy to understand and learn what our bodies need.

The book is also filled with examples of how it has changed people’s lives (which I skipped over), as well as lots of side notes full of interesting facts and thoughts relating to whatever Sass is talking about. I found these side notes great but they disrupted the flow of the narrative, often appearing within a sentence, making it harder to read and follow the book.

One thing I loved about Cinch! is that Sass includes a breakdown of how to create your own meals, as well as over a hundred recipes, and how to adapt restaurant meals to follow the plan. I feel this is really useful as most people aren’t able to always make/carry their planned meal to eat at the set time. Having a breakdown of the meals also allows the readers to discover and adapt meals to their own tastes and dietary needs

One way in which Cinch! differs from diet books, is the chapter exploring why we feel the need to overeat. This includes worksheets to fill out to help us understand and conquer our cravings. While it is only a chapter and therefore not extensive, I feel it is a good introduction to food psychology and, as well as being accessible, is easily personalized, making it a great tool for the reader, whether or not they choose to follow the 5 meal plan.

I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in what we eat and how it affects them and their health. Cinch! is highly flexible so the reader can take from it what they need, and while reading there is never the feeling of having to stick rigidly to a set meal plan, making it an enjoyable, as well as an informative read.

This review is also posted on my book blog Captivated by Books

When Earth becomes uninhabitable due to nuclear war, humanity continues on spaceships. These spaceships have strict rules, with crime being punished by death for adults and prison for those under 18; now 100 of those young convicts are being sent to Earth to find out if it’s habitable once again. While Clark, Wells, Bellamy and 97 others are trying to survive the dangers of Earth (including each other), Glass manages to escape back to her life on the spaceship only to find that has dangers of its own.

I watched the first season of the series a while back and quite enjoyed it, so when I saw the book at the library I had to pick it up to see if it was as good/better than the TV show. Honestly I was surprised at how truthful to the book the series was, though it moves at a much faster pace (something that doesn’t really surprise me) to the point that

the current inhabitants of Earth don’t appear in the book til the very end, whereas I remember them appearing quite quickly in the series

. The characterization and back stories were pretty much as I remembered them, to the point that at certain points it felt as if I’d already read the book.

The book is written through the viewpoints of 4 young people, all from different walks of life (guess I shouldn’t be surprised to know in the future the class system is more pronounced than ever). It took me a while to work out who was who as I was reading as the narrative doesn’t change style and to begin with everyone is in the situation and it was only as the story unravelled I was able to distinguish which name went with who. For me this spoilt the book, especially at the start, as I was spending more time trying to work out which story I was following.

To be honest by the end of the book I didn’t feel I knew or connected with any of the characters, meaning I didn’t feel invested in the story enough to want to keep constantly reading. I think if I hadn’t already seen the TV show, I probably wouldn’t have bothered from reading the book. While the scenario was interesting, the entire book felt more like a lead up to the main story – I know it is the first in the series, but in my opinion needed a little more action or emotional turmoil for the book to be able to stand on its own.

I don’t know if I’m going to continue reading the series, though will likely watch the next season when it becomes available. Overall, I liked the idea behind it, but just didn’t find the story or characters particularly engaging. However, if you are looking for a quick, light read and enjoy teen futuristic books, you might still want to check this one out.

This review was also posted on my book blog Captivated by Books

Harry’s War is nothing more than a diary kept by a soldier during the First World War; yet it so much more than that as it’s one of the few (if not only) vivid and descriptive firsthand accounts written by a soldier who not only survived the War but went back and edited his diary accounts. Recently rediscovered and edited, Harry’s War was published for the centenary anniversary of the start of The Great War.

I have an interest in history, particularly accounts and memories of those who lived, rather than just names and dates. Because of this I’ve always felt a little annoyed there wasn’t more than metaphoric poetry to describe what life was like at the front during the First World War (I now know diaries were forbidden on the front which no doubt is why there are so few accounts). Perhaps it’s because so much is written about WWII that the utter lack of description from the First World War bothered me; though it is also the need to learn and understand. Shortly into Harry’s War I understood why so many chose not to actively remember and discuss their experiences.

Harry Drinkwater honestly recorded as much of his experiences as he could, which in itself. However, I felt a lot of it lacked emotion, with gruesome details being plainly described (the one that will always stay with me is when his arm literally sunk into a dead German as Harry tried to use him to lever himself out of a hole). I expect this is because to survive living through something as horrific as the frontline during the First World War, the men must have dissociated themselves from what was happening on a day-to-day basis; but it makes reading this diary not only very uncomfortable and disturbing, but sometimes causes the reader to dissociate from the experience as well, making it an effort to truly accept the terribleness of what actually happened.

One thing I particularly liked about Harry’s War is that the diary doesn’t stop when Harry was on reprieve, so that it covers all of his experiences as a soldier rather than simply what happened to him on the front. In fact, Harry himself often comments on how the time spent away from the front is like heaven compared to the hell of being in the trenches, showing he had clarity and could understand how bizarre his situation was.

To bring together the diary, the editor Jon Cooksey includes notes which put the situations and places into context in regards to the war, and important events that were happening at the time. I found this really useful as it gives the reader information to understand how Harry’s experiences related to what else was happening at the time. This, along with Harry Drinkwater’s voice, is gratefully the closest any of us can get to imagining what The Great War was like.

I would recommend Harry’s War to anyone with an interest in social history or the First World War, though I think almost everyone could benefit from reading this detailed account of man’s fight to create the world we live in today.