Jasmine Jackman is studying for her PhD at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Recently she was recognized by OISE as part of Black History Month. ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

Here is a book recently published by new WEN member Aviva Mayers.

**If Only I Had Known (Book) - Aviva Mayers**

ORDER FROM FRIESENPRESS | AMAZON.CA | AMAZON.COM | AMAZON.CO.UK Aviva Mayers was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008. Like millions of women throughout the world, she initially agreed to a conventional treatment out of fear and confusion. But she began View Post

This is a book about options… options for treatment, management, and prevention of breast cancer outside of mainstream medicine. It is the result of the journey that Aviva Mayers took back to health, and many of her choices outside of mainstream medicine are discussed here. Aviva was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008. Like millions of women throughout the world, she initially agreed to a conventional treatment out of fear and confusion. But she began to question those choices as the treatment progressed. Following her treatment she took herself on a journey to learn about gentler, less invasive, treatments outside of conventional medicine. Aviva attributes her current state of good health to the integrative and alternative paths she ultimately followed.

The book includes interviews with patients who followed a path to recovery, much of which they attribute to alternative treatments. And it includes interviews with a range of health care practitioners working with patients with breast or other cancers. The professionals share their thoughts on mainstream treatments, discuss integrative and alternative interventions that can help with recovery, and in some cases even replace conventional treatments. The book also offers advice on how to prevent breast cancer in the first place or how to avoid a recurrence.

*[If Only I Had Known](amzn.to/2MsEQcx)* is essential reading for anyone diagnosed with breast cancer. It provides a unique perspective on treatments that your doctor may not tell you about. Knowing about these options could improve your life both physically and psychologically. The information contained here is also relevant to people suffering from other cancers, since many of the same inflammatory processes may contribute to their cancers. Available on Amazon or FriesenPress.

The author, Aviva Mayers, is a psychoanalyst and psychotherapist in private practice in Toronto. To find out more about her new book, call (647) 282-3943, email: [amayers@rogers.com](mailto:amayers@rogers.com), or visit her website at: [www.avivamayers.com/book](www.avivamayers.com/book) ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

Its nice when a reader says something nice about a book, when your not expecting it.

More Matata - Love after the Mau Mau

Braz Menezes’ writing in this second part of The Matata Trilogy has ingeniously become more mature and ‘andragogic’ than in his first part, which is more innocent and pedagogic. Having read both parts, I have unconsciously been given an amazing history lesson and one not to be forgotten. This in itself just proves how The Matata Trilogy is revolutionary. Is the reader really reading historical fiction? Has Braz Menezes reinvented the rules of historical fiction or has he transformed them? Or both? These are just some of the questions that literary experts or ‘aficionados’ will be asking themselves about this Trilogy. And with good reason, too. With the publication of More Matata - Love after the Mau Mau, Braz Menezes not only rocks the cements of historical fiction he also proves that he is multifaceted: he is a historical fiction writer and a poet. What more literary traits has Mr. Menezes got up his sleeve?

For Kenya (as a melting pot) it is a breath of fresh air to hear the voice of such a knowledgable Kenyan born Goan. More so, it is just as stimulating for me as a white British, born in Kenya, to find a story of Kenya that isn’t written by rich privileged colonial Mzungus or Europeans as in White Mischief or Out of Africa.

As for little Wageni (new Mzungu) me, humble daughter of Britannia, I have learnt so much about Nairobi, above all it’s devastating racial feelings and facts. Mr. Menezes description of Kenya’s flora and fauna and topography is exceptional and made it easier for me to imagine the scenarios in my mind. His simple brilliancy in interweaving personal, social, historical and political threads is beyond magnificent. It would be very difficult for a ‘woolnager’ to find any flaws. Mr. Menezes has instantly become my writing mentor. I am truly in awe.

The matata(problem) Braz Menezes reveals to his reader is not a laughing matter, and, sadly, universal. With such political instability, social injustices are brushed tidily under the carpet and forgotten about, even if trodden on. Braz Menezes has the ‘know-how’ and ‘say-so’ to make sure they are not forgotten. And he is dead serious about it. As a human being, I struggle to come to terms with tribal warfare, which is one of the underlying horrors of the Mau Mau. Freedom, at what cost? What about the scars? Could they last for generations?

Sensitive, intelligent, adolescent Lando has arrived back to his birthplace Nairobi (a city since 1950) from his short but intense Goan boarding school experience, escaping a possible religious vocation in Goa. He finds Kenya is changing fast: politically, socially and economically. The reader finds that the sheltered young Lando, who had never spoken to a white Mzungu of his age until he was ten, is now being taught by newly arrived Mzungu British white teachers, whom, he surprisingly finds, treat him with respect. Lando has started to study at the newly opened multiethnic Nairobi Technical High School - a symbol of the changing times.

However, not all the changes in Nairobi are positive after his year and a half absence. One Saturday going for a walk with his friend Savio and his dog Simba, all three stumble upon Kenya’s dark reality. They make their way down to the river near Ainsworth Bridge and just behind the Norfolk Hotel the boys see the bloated body of a dead black man on the other side of the riverbed. It was the beginning of 1952 and by September 1952 “The Nairobi newspapers report Kikuyus loyal to the Government have been attacked and murdered, their cattle and goats taken away and their huts burnt to the ground.” The Mzungus up-country were receiving their fair share, too.

As Lando grows, he keeps the reader very informed about the political, social and his family’s goings on in Kenya before Uhuru (1963). We are continually informed via Lando’s visit to his local Goan Gymkhana or his listening to the BBC. It becomes dangerous for his sister and himself to go to class, in fact, there is a nasty incident on the premises of Lando’s Technical School. When Lando’s family houseboy Mwangi, his boy Stephen and his family are taken away the reader realises just how much the Mau Mau uprising must have affected ordinary Nairobi citizens. Historic Old Imperial landmarks like Treetops were destroyed. The list of destruction and human suffering is never ending when reading about Operation Anvil.

After such desolation is love possible. Or is all Hope tainted by blood shed? The symbol of the coco-de-mer, from the Seychelles, reaches its climax (for me) when Lando, who has fallen in love with Saboti, visits her in Eldoret ”That weekend we discover that colour, caste and creed get blown out of the water when there is an underlying feeling of true love at its purest and most passionate.” Saboti is a nusu-nusu, half Mzungu-half native Kenyan. Lando and Saboti have broken all the rules of race, tribal identity and colonial politics and power - they have been freed. Unfortunately, Saboti’s is a story shared by too many women in the old colonial world. Braz has brilliantly and eloquently given her a very important voice. The reader warms to her. I was in tears reading about what happened to her at a Nairobi cinema on a date.

Lando is slowly finding his ‘vocation’ throughout these unsteady years. He decides to study architecture and is declared the “outright winner” of the Architectural Design Contest for Kenya’s Independence Celebrations and is offered a place to study in Britain with an urban planning scholarship. Just as bloating Nairobi and other larger towns in Kenya are experiencing the massive influx of agricultural workers to urban areas. Will this population explosion effect Lando and his future ‘vocation’? What new feelings will His British experience install in him? As a reader, I want to know more.
Lucinda Cook, Granada, February 2020 ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

Hello Everyone, I hope you are all enjoying the day. I am just wondering if, anyone, can tell me where, I can get a copy of this book by Max Layton. Amazon is selling it however, it will not arrive until late August.
I have purchased Braz Menezes, books both, at the same time in June however, one book for some reason, is not arriving until the end, of July. Looking forward to reading these incredible books soon.

Since, the Covid-19 pandemic in March, I have found time to read almost 40 books.

Anyway, thank you, in advance for any guidance on how, to purchase a copy of Max Layton’s book.

Have a Wonderful Day, Full of Awesomeness!❤️🙏🏼 ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

I would like to share my thoughts, my feelings, on Black Lives Matter! With everyone, at WEN because, I feel that we all need to come together even, when we are apart; and stand-up, speak-up, and write, about what is important in this world. Thank you, Be Well! Be You! Just Be! ~Wendy ComeauIt Matters What Your Heart Sees!

Your heart is not open, your heart is not kind, if you cannot see from your heart, instead of your mind. You, do not see clearly, you, do not see me, when you open your mouth and say, I am not me. Colour, is not, what makes me, it does not break me, I am who I am, because, of my heart. The colour you see, is only a small part. I am me, I am love, I am peace, I am joy, and I am pure heart. That, is what I carry inside of me. I will not be like you, oh no! I will always be me; the unique person I am. My heart is pure love. My skin colour is not the same as yours, however, you see, I am as, unique as, I can be, I am me. I see with my heart, my heart does not look at you, and see the colour, I think you, should be. I look at you, and I see that unique person I would like to be. The person who loves, to inquire and say, I wonder how, a heart can be that way? Kind, and loving, deep to the core, I do not look with my eyes and say, I do not love you, I do not care, simply because, of your skin colour, and hair. There is a much deeper, view to see, what makes you, you; and what makes me, me. The lens you use, to view me, and the lens I choose, to view you; I choose the perspective of love, that is the lens I use to view you. So, please do not, tell me, that you cannot see me, from the same perspective I view you. You, are just as unique, as, I am you see. I know, that when, you choose to open your heart, you, will see me. Not, my colour, not, my flaws, not, my clothes, not, my value, and not, my status. When, you open your heart, your eyes will see, exactly the same heart that I see in you. Your heart, will see the uniqueness, from a love point of view. Your heart, will see, we are all one, not two. We can all see clearly, when, we look from the hearts point of view. The lens is as clear, as clear can be, there is no colour, there's only love for you, and for me. For the heart does not see, anything but, love, from the lens, of an open heart, and the perspective, of me. It matters what your heart sees, because, the person who died saying, “I CAN’T BREATHE,” he mattered and he had a heart as, unique, as, you, and me. George Floyd’s Heart Mattered! Black Lives Matter! People Matter! Stand up, and open your heart because, it matters what your heart sees! ❤️ ~Wendy Comeau © 2020 ... See MoreSee Less

Photo