Weekend Reads: some ideas

From psychics to forensic psychiatrists: understanding your 'team of light' or seeking the dark side in all our minds, this is the pile of books by my bed right now which may appeal to you.

When I first heard psychic Laura Lynne Jackson on an Australian podcast earlier this year I was fascinated by her theory around intuition. I’m not sure how I feel about psychics but I do believe in listening to your gut instinct. I think there is logic in the idea that your brain is making a million calculated decisions about things every day which you just aren’t aware of and which may feel like intuition. To ignore that seems illogical to me.

After hearing Laura Lynne, a former teacher, on a second podcast talking about the ‘team of light’ (spirits which she believes guide every one of us individually from the after life) I thought I’d get the New York Times best seller she wrote: Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe. I mean who doesn’t like the idea of a team of light subtly guiding us through life? Her book explores the notion that we often ignore coincidences in daily life that could be telling us something. I’ve just started it so I will report back but I sense a tilt towards the mystic and more spiritual this autumn generally and would love to know if you feel that too? Laura Lynne’s premise is that we are all psychic and naturally intuitive but we just don’t use that part of our brain in every day life. Anyway all thoughts on psychics in this day and age welcome in the comments below.

The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry by Dr Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne is an entirely different book. I am half way through and I ricochet between horror and great sadness. This is one of the most important books about how the mind works that I have ever read (and I have read a lot of these in my work as a journalist over the years having written so much on mental health and women’s rights). It’s just extraordinarily powerful, and made me realise how much of our society is based on the idea of punishment and revenge and how wrong that is. How inhumane it is. I have learnt so much about empathy and the patterns that lead people to the places they end up in in their lives from this book and while it is a difficult read I am in awe of the work Dr Adshead has done. It will change your thinking.

I am holding off on Elizabeth Strout’s Oh William! until half term because I read so much fiction when I judged The Womens Prize earlier this year I felt a need for something different, so this novel will be my ‘treat’ book and I’d love your thoughts on it in comparison to her others? And Miriam Margolyes’ book has been recommended to be me by so many people it’s gone in my bag to savour on the train trips I have coming up to visit my Dad, who is not well in hospital 200 miles away. I always keep a cheerful read ready to go when I know I’m going to need it and this one looks like it will fit the bill, let me know which books do this for you too in the comments and we can create a ‘happy list’.