Writer, recent graduate and complete bookworm. I also have a lot of opinions and try to write about them coherently.
I saw this wonderful idea from Zulie Rane and Danny Forest so I thought I would make my own too — and I would encourage everyone to do so too!
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Bio
My name is Violet Daniels. I am 23, a recent History graduate, a part-time Barista/Bookseller and a newbie writer.
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, and I was the editor of a student media outlet at university, but have only been…
How books can relieve stress and anxiety for the elderly
Millions of people in the United States deal with anxiety and depression, and the ongoing pandemic has made the situation even worse for everyone. Unfortunately, one of the worst impacted groups among them has been older people living alone in retirement communities or assisted living facilities and already dealing with pre-existing mental health problems.
If you are suffering from an anxiety disorder, the tunnel of mental illness can seem like a daunting and neverending pathway, but there are things you can do to feel better. Reading is one of the best practices that you can adopt to deal with them…
All book recommendations are equal, but some are more equal than others
Who are you more likely to accept a reading recommendation from, me or Barack Obama?
Nine times out of ten, it will probably be from Obama. In this instance, I don't blame you. The man’s got pretty good taste in books.
But for over a week, my feed has been drowned in articles concerning the reading recommendations of celebrities or public figures. Most notably, Elon Musk, Emma Watson and Bill Gates.
Although I don’t doubt these recommendations come from a good place, I naturally worry people will read them solely because a celebrity has recommended them.
What does that mean…
If the English government were serious about learning to live with the virus, they would be taking measures to control it.
Currently, 52.4% of the UK’s adult population has received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccination. However, on Tuesday 13th July, just shy of a week away from the ending of all legal restrictions introduced to curtail the virus, there were 36,600 new recorded cases.
From Monday 19th, despite rising cases, deaths, and hospitalisations, there will be no legal requirement in England to wear a facemask or social distance. Hundreds of doctors and scientists criticise Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to take this path as “ criminal “ as he hopes to lead the British public on the path to freedom.
And how we can apply these Tudor sentiments to our modern lives
You may have noticed I can’t stop talking about Hilary Mantel at the moment. In the first lockdown in England, I read the Wolf Hall trilogy and have been somewhat enthralled ever since. After a lengthy break from the Tudor world that Mantel has created, I recently finished the second instalment, Bring up the Bodies.
Mantel has a unique way of re-creating the past with so much richness that as a reader, you think you are a fly on the wall in the Tudor court, as well as providing us with nuanced commentary on our own world, she tells a…
The stories we are looking for throughout July and August
Calling all readers, writers and reader-writers!
A Thousand Lives has enjoyed a lot of success since we started back in December 2020, and it’s been a joy to watch this bookish space grow over that period.
I have learned so much from editing and reading articles written by so many talented and like-minded writers.
Now that we have gotten the ball running and are starting to have more of a presence, I would like to start doing a specific call out for submissions.
I’m not planning on doing this every month (I wish I had the spare time!), …
It’s simple, realistic and straight to the point
If you don’t know who Hilary Mantel is — you should. She’s a two-time Booker Prizer winner and the first woman to win the prestigious award twice. Known for her highly acclaimed Cromwell trilogy, documenting Henry VIII’s England through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, this writer has sold millions of books over the years and knows how to write.
Upon finally catching up with the Cromwell series and finishing Bring up the Bodies, I found myself listening to the Waterstone’s Hilary Mantel podcast. …
Our lives will never be permanent, but writing can be
We may not be able to answer in a single sentence why so many of us are attracted to writing. People turn to it for various reasons, and our own individual circumstances largely shape it.
But our existence is more straightforward. We may not know the exact shape of what’s to come, but we are all on track for an endpoint. We know with certainty there will come a day where we cease to exist.
We can live on in the memories of others, but there will be a time where our physical existence on earth will be no more…
Am I kidding myself with an unrealistic dream, or could it one day be a reality
I have a confession to make. In the depths of media law revision and wondering why on earth I’m putting myself through it all, I’ve been thinking more about packing up my journalism ambitions altogether.
Yes, I know, I’ve only just started.
But once you get the ‘ick’, it’s hard ever to feel the same again. So I turned to journalism when I was at university and fell in love with writing, and I grew a real interest in politics, current affairs and writing book reviews. It was my escapism from a heavy history degree.
In my final year, journalism…
Big books are beautiful too — and these are definitely worth your time
Big books have a special place in my heart. Naturally, you spend more time with them. After finishing, it will often feel like you have to say a sad and final goodbye to all the characters you’ve spent time with for so long.
With smaller, shorter books, this often isn’t the case. You don’t expect to be in it for the long haul, and you can cut ties without much pain because you spend less time reading them, and the experience is more short-lived.
Upon recently finishing the masterpiece The Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, I had to go through…
