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24 March 2025 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

A Trip to Clunes Book Town Festival

This weekend was the annual Clunes Book Town Festival. Two days on the celebration of books and story telling in a rustic town of Clunes which is about two hours west out of Melbourne. We headed off nice and early so that we couldn’t be stuck in Saturday traffic and stopped at a service station […]

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: 2025, Book Town, Books, Clunes

13 March 2025 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

The Genius or Maniacal Man When It Comes To Technology

A recent book review I uploaded (thanks to a recommendation by my friend Fiona who I have some back and forth conversations about AI), was Benjamin Labatut’s The Maniac. I think it’ll be one of the best books I’ll read this year as it’s about how man wants to understand – and overcome – nature. […]

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: 2025, AI, Book Reviews, Books

24 February 2025 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

We Had Our First Book Club Author Event for 2025

Last Wednesday I hosted author, Caroline Petit who wrote the book, The Natural History of Love to our golf club. I started and run the Birdies, Bogies and Books Club at our golf club and every month we have a book to read and discuss. Sometimes I source the books from a local library who […]

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: 2025, Book Reviews, Books

24 February 2025 by Helen Blunden 2 Comments

How I Take Notes When Reading a Book

person holding white ceramci be happy painted mug

A couple of weeks ago, I published this video where I shared how I take notes while reading using note books where I journal my thoughts. It’s got many views and it made me realise how it might be an important topic for some people. I was interested in their comments which showed that we […]

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: 2025, Books, Journaling, Reflective Writing

6 February 2025 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

Creating a Book Club Journal

I’ve been on a roll lately creating a couple of journals that are not only creative to make but also a lot of fun. Recently I made a Reading Journal that I could use to write notes every time I read with the intention of selling it on Amazon. However I keep delaying putting it […]

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: 2025, Book Club, Book Reviews, Books, Reading

13 January 2025 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

The Moon & Sixpence Book by Somerset Maugham Book Review

Here’s the latest video book review which was interrupted by my husband (who does not read my type of books! 🤣)

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: 2025, Book Reviews, Books

4 January 2025 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

My Annual YouTube Analytics

Every couple of weeks or so, as a YouTuber, I get a wrap up of the analytics of my channel. It’s interesting to go through it and see how it’s being received but if I want more details, you can drill down into the analytics in that specific section in YouTube Studio which is the […]

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Filed Under: Books, Lifelong Learning, Vlogging Tagged With: 2025, analytics, Books, Reading, Videos, YouTube

29 December 2024 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

My Year in Books – Reading in 2024

103 books and over 25,000 pages read. It’s been a brilliant year of wonderful reading – and very little television watching. I hope to continue the trend in the new year…..

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: 2024, Book Reviews, Books, Goodreads, Literature

24 December 2024 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

What I’m Reading

When we were in Canberra a couple of weeks ago, we caught up with friends whom we hadn’t seen in years. Over dinner, the discussion started on our favourite books and this one was mentioned. It was published some years back and it was one that had some popularity. Certainly the film also helped to […]

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: 2024, Books, Literature, Reading

19 December 2024 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

Book Review of She and Her Cat by Makoto Shinkai

Here’s the latest weekly video that I uploaded this morning on Makoto Shinkai’s debut novel, She and Her Cat. He’s a well-known Japanese anime film maker who created this story first as anime so I assume that as a novel, it would reach a wider audience….

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: 2024, Anime, Books, Japanese Literature, Literature, Makoto Shinkai, Reading

12 December 2024 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

Book Review of Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss

This week I uploaded this book which is the first time I read this author. It’s written beautifully but the subject makes you feel concern for the main character, a young woman under the power of her harsh father. Lots of themes of personal power, patriarchy and domestic violence.

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: 2024, Books, Literature, Reading

30 November 2024 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

Creating a Reading Journal

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One of the things I’ve been doing in my spare time is creating a Reader’s Journal. I enjoy reading and writing my notes into my journal and I figured, “Why not share what I do?” So for the last week, I planned out the entire annual journal and what will go on each page. It […]

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Filed Under: Blogging, Books Tagged With: 2024, Books, Journal, Journe, Reading, Reflections, Writing

28 November 2024 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

Book Review: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Here’s the latest book review. I was hanging around the Monash University book store one day and saw it. I made a mental note then found it at my local library. I didn’t mind it. It was enough to keep me intrigued but I was slightly let down with the ending.

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: 2024, Books, Reading

24 November 2024 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

Last Book Club Chat for the Year

I run the Book Club called Birdies, Bogies and Books at our golf club. There’s about 20 or so people who are signed up in our WhatsApp group and although we don’t have everyone come along to the meetings every month, there’s about 8-10 people who do. To my surprise, I’ve had positive feedback about […]

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Filed Under: Books, Lifelong Learning Tagged With: 2024, Book Clubs, Books, Reading

17 November 2024 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

New Book Review: Home by Toni Morrison

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: 2024, Books, Reading

13 October 2024 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

Book Review: The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

My latest book review is on this book that was surprising. For a book that is well known but didn’t receive acknowledgement or popularity (much to the annoyance of its author), I’m glad I read it. If you want a book where you will detest all the characters, then look no further. If you’re not […]

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: 2024, Book Reviews, Books

6 October 2024 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

Talking About Books ~ Vlog Q and A

My latest video is a vlog where I answer some questions that no one has asked (let’s get real about that 🤣) The questions are: There’ll be some other questions which I’ll answer on another video (Part 2) and I’m thinking of answering these questions: I’m also thinking of doing a video on how I […]

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: 2024, Book Reviews, Books, Reading

3 October 2024 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

Looking Forward To Book Club Tonight

It’s a bit hilarious to think that the highlight of this week will be Book Club. We are both looking forward to it as an event not to be missed! Why? Well, the book this month was Australian author, Christos Tsiolkas new book “The In-Betweeners”. For anyone who knows his writing, well you can understand […]

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: 2024, Book Club, Books, Reading

1 October 2024 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

Selling My Books

This year, I’ve taken to selling stuff – mainly my business, HR, management, learning and development books to get some pocket money. Nothing too much mind you (it’s a long game) but I’ve realised that I have some great books which could be references that others may need now in the workforce. The only books […]

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: 2024, Books, eBay

26 September 2024 by Helen Blunden Leave a Comment

Book Review of East of Eden by John Steinbeck

This book was brilliant. Just do yourself a favour and read it. (Just found out that Netflix is doing a series on East of Eden! 🙌)

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Filed Under: Books Tagged With: 2024, Books, Classics, Literature, Reading

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Life Lessons Through Books

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My Writing

  • Meet Griffith
  • A Trip to Clunes Book Town Festival
  • Volunteering at Our Charity Event
  • The Genius or Maniacal Man When It Comes To Technology
  • Ladies Night at the French Film Festival 🇫🇷
  • We Had Our First Book Club Author Event for 2025
  • How I Take Notes When Reading a Book
  • Transferring All My Blog Posts
  • Creating a Book Club Journal
  • Our 19th Wedding Anniversary
  • Extracting 1498 Blog Posts One by One
  • Changing Ways
  • The Moon & Sixpence Book by Somerset Maugham Book Review
  • Flâneur Friday ~ Patterson Lakes
  • Spending Time with Mum
  • My Annual YouTube Analytics
  • Happy New Year!
  • My Year in Books – Reading in 2024
  • What I’m Reading
  • Book Review of She and Her Cat by Makoto Shinkai
  • Book Review of Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
  • Visit to New and Old Parliament House in Canberra
  • Futuro House
  • Creating a Reading Journal
  • Book Review: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
  • Last Book Club Chat for the Year
  • New Book Review: Home by Toni Morrison
  • Golf Trip to The Dunes
  • A Week of Golf and Cleaning
  • Book Review: Leonard & Hungry Paul

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