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Tag: new books

Books you can read instead of doomscrolling – Mental Health Awareness Month Edition

Posted on by simransingh

This Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re not here to tell you to think positive or be mindful.

In a world overflowing with endless feeds and fleeting updates, it’s easy to fall into the trap of constant scrolling, especially when life feels overwhelming. If you’re feeling frayed, restless, or just plain tired lately, you’re not alone. Doomscrolling might feel like control, like staying informed—but mostly, it just wears us down. But this month, we’re offering an alternative: start reading.

Not because reading will magically solve anything.
Not because you need another thing on your “self-care” checklist.
But because your mind deserves better than an endless scroll of anxiety, outrage, and distraction. Each book here, whether fiction or nonfiction, offers insight into the human experience, mental wellness, and self-discovery. Here’s what we recommend flipping through instead of your social media feed.

Buy here||

Through the powerful stories of her clients, Clinical Psychologist Dr. Cassandra Aasmundsen-Fry explores how buried experiences shape our feelings of being stuck, in our careers, relationships, and personal fulfillment. This book is a journey of embracing our most difficult parts to rediscover hope and reconnection. It is about unearthing and embracing the difficult parts to reconnect with ourselves and with hope.  

Buy here||

The story follows its disturbed protagonist over two nights. She is a Harvard-educated mother who struggles to find an outlet for her loaded brain. Meanwhile, her marriage with an asexual husband unravels and she goes through familiar motions of motherhood for their child. She lives entrenched in her mind, facing demons whispering that the love she gets from this family unit won’t make her own life less devastating. 

Buy here||

This book is not a prescriptive roadmap to being more efficient in life. Instead, it will guide you to create your own manual to get things done through the power of self-awareness. It will ask you confronting questions that only you can answer; it will show you how to look inward and dig deep into yourself and how to look outward so that you can understand your surroundings. 

Buy here||

Woman Turning F*fty is a collection of savagely personal as well as eclectic experiential essays from a former journalist on the margins of middle age. The author ponders timeless questions about life, maturity, and loss, and dips into universal truths that not even hormonal changes can alter. 

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Beautifully illustrated and easy to dip into, this book provides a toolkit for self-reflection that honors your unique journey. It’s not about fixing yourself—it’s about discovering who you are and embracing your own path to progress. With bite-sized writings and illustrations, it aims to help get us to know ourselves better and appreciate our unique way of progressing in life through self-reflection and evaluation. 

Buy here||

Tracy was at the start of her law career and at the cusp of life when she got a debilitating brainstem stroke that affected her breathing, swallowing, speech, eyesight, and severely weakened her left and paralyzed her right. She found herself effectively a thinking statue at the age of thirty-five. In this memoir, author rebuilds her life, she learns life’s basics all over again, discovering the deeper meaning of faith, resilience, and healing.

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A vibrant collection of seventeen stories rooted in Malaysia, Tapestry of the Mind introduces you to characters navigating everything from family loss and legal injustice to spiritual crises and societal stigma. Each story is a rich exploration of the mental and emotional threads that bind us.

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A charming and wealthy young man who is grieving, begins to hear his late sister’s cat speak, and the conversations change his life. This touching and surreal novel explores grief, memory, and the strange comforts that help us survive loss.

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This book demystifies the process of how to come up with effective, problem-solving ideas. It will help you discover how to unlock the transformative power of creative conflict. You will become an expert at sparking creativity. By the time you get to the end of this book, you will have all the tools to brainstorm like a champion. 

 

Mental Health Awareness Month isn’t just about awareness—it’s about action. Choosing a book that speaks to your experience or stretches your perspective can be a small but powerful act of care.

So here’s your challenge: put the feed down. Pick one of these books up.
And start feeling a little more like yourself again.

Which one are you starting with?

Read an exclusive excerpt from B.E.S.T. Marking

Posted on by simransingh

B.E.S.T. Marking presents a powerful new Leadership Paradigm to navigate the complexities of this new normal environment- and win it big. It’s more than a framework; it’s a revolution in leadership. A call to action for leaders to conquer emerging challenges. 

*** 

Why is trust important in leadership and followership?  

Trust is essential for great leaders, especially in the post-pandemic world. The pandemic has created a number of challenges for leaders, including:  

  1. Increased uncertainty and complexity: The world is more uncertain and complex than ever before. Leaders need to be able to make decisions quickly and effectively in the face of changing circumstances. To do this, they need to be able to trust their team members to provide accurate information and to execute on their decisions.  
  2. Greater need for collaboration: The pandemic has shown that leaders need to be able to collaborate effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, and government officials. To build and maintain successful collaborations, leaders need to trust their partners and to be willing to share information and resources. 
  3. Increased focus on employee well-being: The pandemic has also highlighted the importance of employee well-being. Leaders need to create a work environment where employees feel safe, supported, and valued. To do this, leaders need to trust their employees and to be willing to give them the flexibility and autonomy they need to succeed.  

 

In the post-pandemic world, leaders who are able to build and maintain trust with their team members and stakeholders will be more likely to succeed.  

 

There are many benefits to trust in leadership and followership. Some of the key benefits include:  

 

  1. Increased employee engagement: When employees trust their leaders, they are more likely to be engaged in their work and to feel motivated to do their best.  
  2. Improved productivity: Trust allows employees to work more efficiently and effectively. When employees trust their leaders, they are more likely to take initiative and to go the extra mile.  
  3. Higher-quality decisions: When leaders and followers trust each other, they are more likely to make better decisions. This is because they are more likely to share information openly and honestly, and to consider all sides of an issue.  
  4. Reduced turnover: Trust helps to create a more positive and supportive work environment. This leads to lower turnover rates and higher retention of top talent.  

 

*** 

Learn more about the importance and benefits of trust in leadership and followership along with other crucial information in B.E.S.T. Marking by Jerome Mangadap.  

 

Get your copy today.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read an exclusive excerpt from Sarah Silvestre’s Travel Blog

Posted on by simransingh

Sarah goes on a quest for seven waterfalls all over Philippines- from Tanay, Rizal all the way to Lake Sebu, South Cotabato. She documents her adventure in her journal which she then turns into a travel blog called Sarah, the Seeker. 

We are sharing exclusive snippets from her blog updates.  

*** 

Captivating Kawasan Falls, Cebu  

Amid the verdant canopies of Cebu, where the sun plays hide and seek with the leaves, lies a spectacle of nature’s artistry—Kawasan Falls. The journey to its basin is as much a part of the experience as the destination itself, with each step through the winding paths and each breath of the moist, earthy air heightening the sense of anticipation. 

As I followed the trail, I could hear the distant sound of rushing water filling me with excitement. The sound grew to a crescendo, from a quiet murmur to a powerful roar, a clear call that I was nearing the heart of the falls. The air grew cooler, the mist more pronounced, and then, suddenly, the canopy parted to reveal the majestic cascade of Kawasan Falls.  

The water was an astonishing shade of blue, reminiscent of a gemstone freshly unearthed. It cascaded down rocky tiers, each layer a different note in the harmonic masterpiece of the landscape. Each drop that hit the water’s surface sent ripples that danced in the sunlight like liquid crystals.  

The main pool is a natural amphitheatre, with water crashing down into it from the cliffs above, sending up plumes of spray that catch the light like diamonds against a sunbeam. To stand in the basin of Kawasan Falls is to stand in the midst of a perpetual rainbow. The spray creates a fine mist that surrounds you, and as the sunlight filters through, the colours of the spectrum come alive.  

I dipped my toe in, and the chill of the water sent a tingling sensation up my spine. The atmosphere was tranquil, only punctuated by the music of nature—the rustling leaves, chirping birds, and the constant hum of the waterfall. The latter is all-encompassing, a sound that reverberates through your body and insists on a moment of reverence.  

Even the air had a unique character. It was thick with moisture but also refreshingly cool. Each breath I took felt cleansing, like inhaling the essence of the Earth itself. 

The water was so inviting, cool, and refreshing against the skin, a welcome respite from the heat. Swimming in the pool beneath the falls, you’re at the mercy of the current, pulled into the rhythm of the water. It was a powerful reminder of nature’s gentle strength and untamed beauty.  

As I left Kawasan Falls, the sensation of water droplets on my skin evaporated, but the imprint of the experience stayed with me. It was a reminder that sometimes the most beautiful places on earth require a journey, physical and spiritual, to truly understand their magnificence.  

And, of course, let’s not forget the local flavours. I thoroughly enjoyed my little picnic of lechon, pusô, and Coke. The lechon itself will be the topic of a totally different blog on its own. After that, sipping fresh coconut juice from a husk, the nutty sweetness perfectly complemented the sensory spectacle of Kawasan Falls. 

So, why I did I go to Kawasan Falls in the first place? It’s all thanks to @MaverickMarley [Check out her awesome blog here]. A month ago, I would never have dreamed of setting foot in these falls. My baby brother introduced me to Marley, hoping to cheer me up after a couple of setbacks (in life and in love). At first, I thought I just wanted to get moving, get fit. But it became more than that. After I visited Batlag Falls in Rizal and successfully completed my first river trail ride with her to Kinabuan Falls (also in Rizal), I was obsessed. There’s just nothing like the exhilaration of finding a waterfall. It’s never an easy hike. You have to go down a trail and go up again. But it doesn’t matter. Just being in a waterfall basin is the best feeling in the world.  

After Batlag and Kinabuan, I asked myself, ‘What if I visited five more waterfalls?’ Everyone said I was crazy. 

But here I am. 

I hope you, dear readers, can one day experience this wonder for yourselves. Until then, let’s keep seeking the extraordinary in the ordinary world.  

Happy travels,  

Sarah, the Seeker 

*** 

Read more about her adventure in Steady Sarah. Available online and at bookstores.  

 

 

New Books Releasing This August

Posted on by simransingh

The month of August brings to you a variety of stories ranging from grief, loss, self-discovery and fantasy to romance, horror mystery, memoirs and more. It’s an absolute treat for readers looking to add new books to their TBR and especially for those who love reading different genres of books.  

Here are the books releasing this month: 

 

Worship The Body

Worship The Body||

Written by the two-time Philippine National Book Award winner Alvin Yapan, this book explores human relationships and sexualities. Told from different but interlocking points of view, the story becomes a song complete with recurring refrains and a coda, intimating that there are silences to the body that are essential to our understanding of happiness. 

 

The Summer of Letting Go  

The Summer of Letting Go||

Written by Catherine Dellosa, this story is about loss, grief and self-discovery in a heartwarming way. When eighteen-year-old Kali’s uncle dies in a car accident, her world stops. She begins to see the ghost of her uncle at a tea shop where she gets a job to stay close to him and is faced with the cute but aloof owner. Things start to go array when the landlord of the tea shop condemns its demolition.  

 

Veins of Power  

Veins of Power||

Award-winning writer Mica De Leon is back with Book 2 in her Seed Mage Cycle series. Just as in Book 1, Winds of War, you can expect treacherous twists and turns in this Filipino fantasy. The returned gods of Kayumalon are the new currencies of power. In Kayumalon, seed mages are a coin a dozen, but the god vessels are infinite. It would take more than a legend, more than a good king, more than a mage, to navigate the Kayumalon court. 

 

Me In Your Melody  

Me In Your Melody||

Deborah Wong tells us a story about a heartbroken and unemployed FMC who struggles to contend with her past and rebuild her present, she learns that to get a grip is to find courage and strength in spite of the adversities; by replacing attitude with self-respect—from coping with the bad faith of a long-time friend to a near-death experience, she realises the importance of family and unconditional love. 

 

Ascension  

Ascension||

Written by Philippine National Book Award winner Eliza Victoria here is a horror mystery about a group of friends who reunite after years at a wake. Told in two timelines with the present and flashbacks from the friends’ youth, this story delves into themes of spirit possession, betrayal, secrets, bizarre rituals and mass hysteria that takes place in a small town.  

 

The Gumption of Mr. Toilet  

The Gumption of Mr Toilet||

Written by Jack Sim, who is widely known as Mr. Toilet and who broke the global taboo around toilets and sanitation, this life-changing inspirational book that you will benefit from abundantly while reading it. The story talks about how Jack Sim who was born poor and failed academically, became a successful serial entrepreneur and an ultra-successful serial social entrepreneur, changing the world by mobilising global movements. He also eventually became a professor with an Honorary Doctorate Degree. 

 

And For the Record  

And For The Record||

Here is a page-turning memoir of the Filipino writer-musician Yugel Losorata. He has extracted salient points from his many years making music, being in a band, writing news and features, and keeping up with the euphoria and struggles of being a writer-musician in the Philippines. He unabashedly shares his story and pop culture through his eyes, especially how his life mirrors that of a dreamer facing difficulties and surviving the whole shebang with dignity intact and without regrets. 

 

Found something you love already? Get your copies now.