QUICK REVIEW: Mental Exercises for Dogs by Susan Swanson

Synopsis

Do you feel overwhelmed by the behavior of your energetic dog?

Have you ever wished that your dog would obey commands, stay calm and be the perfect companion in every situation?

Do your dog's signs of stress and anxiety make you anxious?

🐶🐶🐶 If the answer is "YES", then read on because this is the book you have been looking for! 🐶🐶🐶

I get it. Dealing with an energetic dog who never seems to get tired, especially with just the basic exercises, can be nerve-wracking. Perhaps you've tried to train your dog using common sense and personal experience, only to find that he still won't listen or remains problematic. You may not know where your dog came from or how he was treated in his early years. Perhaps past training mistakes have left their mark , making corrections seem more daunting as time goes on.

You're not alone in this challenge. But here's the good there is a way to engage your dog's mind and keep him mentally happy and calm. "Mental Exercises for Dogs" is the solution you've been looking for!

👉 FOR ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS! EVEN IF YOU'VE NEVER OWNED A DOG BEFORE, THIS STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE WILL GIVE YOU REAL, LASTING RESULTS!

⭐⭐⭐ As you read this book, you'll discover: ⭐⭐⭐

✔️ COMPREHENSIVE Dive into effective and proven training techniques curated by a professional dog trainer.

✔️ EARLY & LATE Whether you're starting with a puppy or an adult dog with a history of behavioral problems, you'll find strategies tailored to each stage.

✔️ STAY IN Learn to manage large breeds or particularly energetic dogs to ensure the safety of the elderly or children around them.

✔️ STEP-BY-STEP Follow detailed, easy-to-understand steps for each workout.

✔️ PROFESSIONAL You will benefit from the experience of a professional trainer who has dedicated his life to dogs and has taken his dogs to the highest levels of international competition.

✔️ BUILD STRONG Techniques that focus not just on obedience, but on creating an enduring bond between you and your furry companion.

👉 Imagine walking into a café or a friend's house with your dog at your side, obedient, calm and perfectly at ease in any situation. Imagine the nods of approval, the compliments and the sense of pride that comes from knowing you've given your dog the best training to ensure both his and your happiness.

Now this dream can become your reality. "Mental Exercises for Dogs" is the tool that will bridge the gap between chaos and calm. Thanks to the techniques explained in this book, you can now take your dog with you wherever you go and share every moment of your day with him. Are you ready for this transformational journey?

🐕🐕🐕 IMMERSE YOURSELF IN A WORLD OF EFFECTIVE DOG TRAINING. 

My Thoughts

I wanted to like this book. I have three dogs and would love to learn some tricks to challenge them. Unfortunately, I found it wanting. While it may be a good fit for some who are new to dogs, most of this book just covers the basics of obedience training taught in any introductory class and basic tricks like "Shake", and then just dabbles in things like an introduction to agility training. Additionally, the book would have benefited from a good proofreader, as it is riddled with typos and grammatical errors that I found a distraction (even the synopsis says the author is a trainer who has dedicated "his" life to his dogs. Perhaps the author has opted for the pronouns he/him, but I'm guessing it is instead an error.) Overall, I found it just mediocre for anyone with any experience with dogs and basic training knowledge.

Buy Now:

Amazon

My Rating:

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The Cerebral Girl is a middle-aged blogger just digging her way out from under a mountain of books in the deep south of Florida.

My thanks to the author for the free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

TLC BOOK TOURS: Measure of Devotion by Nell Joslin

 

Synopsis

Set against the tumultuous backdrop of the American Civil War, this intricately woven novel delves into the life of Susannah Shelburne, a thirty-six-year-old woman residing in South Carolina with her older husband, Jacob. Their son, Francis, defies his parents' wishes by enlisting in the Confederate army, sparking bitter familial discord. In October 1863, devastating news Francis has been critically wounded near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Susannah embarks on a perilous journey to bring her son home, finding Francis delirious with fever and haunted by the horrors of battle. Their reunion is overshadowed by the conflicts at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, culminating in Francis being captured as a prisoner of war. As the war exacts its toll and tensions escalate between mother and son, Susannah confronts impossible choices amidst harrowing revelations from home. This gripping narrative explores themes of sacrifice, resilience, and the profound impacts of war on family bonds, painting a vivid portrait of one woman's relentless fight for survival and reconciliation in a time of unprecedented turmoil.

Format 304 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 20, 2025 by Regal House Publishing
ISBN 9781646036134 (ISBN10: 1646036131)

About the Author

Nell Joslin is a native of Raleigh, North Carolina and received her MFA from North Carolina State University. Besides a fiction writer, she has been a public school teacher, medical librarian, copy editor, freelance journalist, stay-at-home mom, and attorney. She currently lives in Raleigh.

Learn more

My Thoughts

It was one of the last nights of October, and cold had settled onto the Tennessee hills.

Nell Joslin’s Measure of Devotion is a quietly affecting novel that takes its time, both in pace and emotional impact. The story centers on Susannah, a woman who seems to focus more on the darker corners of her life, choosing to dwell in sorrow rather than seek out the brighter moments and blessings. This choice— whether an act of resignation or strength— is the emotional core of the book.

Joslin writes with clarity and restraint, which suits the introspective tone of the narrative. There is a certain honesty to the story. Readers looking for a fast-paced plot or tidy resolutions may find the novel’s rhythm difficult, but those who appreciate subtle character studies will find something quietly compelling here.

Susannah is not always easy to understand or even sympathize with—one to whom pain and resentment becomes more familiar than joy-- and I often felt I wanted to shake her! There are moments of beauty in the book, but Joslin doesn’t linger on them, much like her protagonist. Whether this makes the novel feel realistic or emotionally distant will likely depend on the reader.

Five words: slow, melancholy, frustrating, honest, ultimately hopeful (okay, six words)

Buy Now:
Regal House Publishing

My final word: Measure of Devotion is not a feel-good read, nor does it offer resolution in the traditional sense. But it is thoughtful and quietly powerful, offering a portrait of a woman who lives not in spite of her pain, but through it. For readers who appreciate character-driven fiction that resists easy answers, this novel is worth the time and patience it requires.

Warnings:
War, slavery, sexual abuse

My Rating:

I would like to thank TLC Book Tours for including me on this tour.

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The Cerebral Girl is a middle-aged blogger just digging her way out from under a mountain of books in the deep south of Florida.

I received a copy of this book to review through TLC Book Tours and the publisher, in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are my own and based on my observations while reading this novel. The book that I received was an uncorrected proof, and quotes could differ from the final release.  

REVIEW: House on Fire by D. Liebhart

Synopsis

Bernadette Rogers swore she’d never put her father in a nursing home. Does that include euthanizing him to keep her word? Her mother thinks it does. Bernadette isn’t so sure. And even if she were, it’s not like you can walk into a drug store and buy Nembutal.

As an ICU nurse she’s no stranger to the blunt realities of death, but her mother’s request to help her father—who’s disappearing into the abyss of dementia—go “peacefully” blindsides her. Her mother thinks it’s assisted suicide. Bernadette knows better. Even if they do it for all the right reasons, it would still be murder.

Surrounded by conflicting voices, Bernadette doesn't know which way to turn. Her self-righteous sister insists it's a sin. Her magnanimous ex thinks her mother will try it alone. Then her best friend offers to help. What was supposed to be a relaxing two-week break becomes an emotional rollercoaster as Bernadette is forced to make an agonizing decision about her beloved father and figure out just how far she’s willing to go for love.

For fans of Jodi Picoult and Lisa Genova, House on Fire is an unforgettable story of family, friendship, and the promises we aren’t sure anyone should honor.

Format 282 pages, Paperback
Published March 31, 2023 by 9:25 Books
ISBN 9798987461518

About the Author

D. Liebhart is a nurse and writer. She writes (and sometimes lives) stories about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, where they learn that life is rarely predictable and answers to the most complex questions are almost never black and white.

House on Fire, her first novel, won the 2023 Page Turner Award for both fiction and debut. It was long-listed for the 2022 Petrichor Prize and received an honorable mention from Writer’s Digest. Her essay Thalassophobia (a true account of a very out-of-the-ordinary honeymoon) won the 2021 Linda Julian Creative Nonfiction Prize from Emrys Journal.

Learn more about the author

My Thoughts

My mother asked me to kill my father on Christmas.

D. Liebhart’s House on Fire is a deeply affecting novel that offers a raw, unflinching look into the emotional landscape of a family navigating life with a parent suffering from dementia. With tender prose and piercing honesty, Liebhart brings readers into the daily struggle—balancing love and exhaustion, duty and resentment, memory and loss, and the struggle to determine when to let go.

I don't want to disappear in little pieces, like God is crushing stars between his fingers until the whole sky is dark.

Personal note: My mother suffered sudden onset dementia after a terminal cancer diagnosis and went within a few months from someone fully capable of caring for herself and maintaining a household to needing someone with her nearly 24 hours a day. It was both a blessing and a curse that it hit Mom so fast and hard that we didn't have to watch her slowly fade, and since she was terminal, we only suffered through 18 months of mental decline.

Through intimate storytelling and alternating timelines, Liebhart captures the small moments of disorientation and fear that characterize dementia’s slow progression-- not just in the afflicted, but in those left to witness it. The reader is placed in the shoes of adult children trying to make impossible decisions, second-guessing themselves at every turn, as they juggle careers, relationships, and guilt.

Dementia had given him an obstinate streak, like a two-year-old practicing "no" at every opportunity.

This book struck me in an unexpected way. It became something akin to therapy for me, like talking to a friend who's been through the same thing. I felt a kinship with the main character as she navigated the rocky path of dementia watching a parent slowly degrade and debating over how the story will end.

The fervency in his actions was new. Everything was turned up a notch.

What sets House on Fire apart is its refusal to simplify the emotional toll. There is no neat resolution, no sanitized version of caregiving. Instead, we are offered insight into the helplessness that comes when a once-strong parent becomes someone unrecognizable, and the heartbreak of watching that transformation. The novel excels in showing how dementia doesn’t happen in isolation; it happens to a family. Liebhart gives voice to the internal conflict so many caregivers face—the desire to do the right thing against the quiet rage of watching someone slip away. Her characters are flawed, tender, overwhelmed, and real, and they speak clearly to someone who has traversed this hell themselves.

Liebhart’s writing is lyrical without being sentimental, and the story is grounded in an authenticity that suggests lived experience. House on Fire will resonate with anyone who has felt the sting of watching a loved one fade, and it offers a compassionate, cathartic lens for those in the throes of similar trials.

Five words: honest, heartbreaking, human, cathartic, intimate

Buy Now:

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

IndieBound

My final word: This novel doesn't just tell a story—it feels like a lived experience, and in doing so, affirms the resilience of the human spirit, even when it seems on the brink of collapse. It’s a beautifully written, empathetic novel that offers both comfort and clarity to anyone touched by dementia. A valuable perspective for those who haven’t yet had to walk that road, House on Fire is a testament to resilience, and to the emotional complexities of loving someone through the most difficult of goodbyes.

Warnings:

Marijuana use and alcohol, casual references to sex, dementia (can be a trigger for anyone who has had a loved one diagnosed with it)

My Rating:

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The Cerebral Girl is a middle-aged blogger just digging her way out from under a mountain of books in the deep south of Florida.

I received a copy of this book to review from the author in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are my own and based on my observations while reading this novel.