This blog is the place where I post reviews of the books I have read. I review audiobooks, regular books and eBooks for authors and publishers as well as any other book or audiobook that catches my eye.
Infusing cannabis into drinks can be done in a variety of ways. Learn all about it as you craft delicious cocktails, smoothies, lattes, and spirit-free mixed drinks.
Maybe you’re curious about CBD or perhaps you’ve tried a store-bought sparkling cannabis drink already. Either way, you’re here because you’re ready to learn the ins and outs of making deliciously infused drinkables.
This guide, written by Jamie Evans (author of The Ultimate Guide to CBD), will serve as the go-to resource for anyone interested in incorporating phytocannabinoids into a variety of recipes.
Inside, you’ll start your journey with infused mixology. You’ll learn the most essential how-tos and infusion methods, including decarboxylation and heating techniques for those who want to do it all.
Different from other books in this category, this book offers something to both beginners and experts—and crucially, to both those who only want to use CBD and those who want to infuse with THC—presenting many approaches to enhancing drinks.
From adding CBD oils and tinctures to a variety of recipes to crafting more complex cannabis libations behind the bar, you can choose the path that’s right for you.
With an exploration of cannabis terpenes, this book also provides the author’s signature techniques for evaluating cannabis aroma and flavor profiles to curate flavor pairings. As a Wine Enthusiast, 40 Under 40 Tastemaker and Certified Specialist of Wine, Jamie applies the same sensory evaluation techniques she used in the wine world to cannabis, helping readers fine-tune their senses to better understand it as an ingredient—and use it to craft the perfect infused drinks.
Including recipes and tips from leading industry experts, this book has it all.
MY REVIEW:
As a person who suffers from chronic pain due to Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, Hypothyroidism and Degenerative Disc Disease, I am always on the lookout for pain remedies.
The CBD found in the Cannabis plant has been proven again and again to help reduce pain levels, as well as to offer several other health benefits.
CBD and THC are the two most understood ingredients of cannabis. THC is the ingredient that gets the user “high.” CBD, however, DOES NOT result in the user feeling “high.”
I do not fault anyone who wants to use marijuana in any way. That is a personal decision and, here in Canada, cannabis is legal as long as you are of age.
My interest in CANNABIS DRINKS is in being able to make the recipes that are high in CBD to try to alleviate some of my pain. I have been to several Cannabis stores here in Ontario, Canada – both online and in-person, yet I have found it nearly impossible to find cannabis drinks with high CBD levels and little, or no THC, and the few drinks I did find were horrible tasting.
So, it should come as no surprise that when I discovered this book, I was extremely excited.
RECIPES INCLUDE:
Basic infusions: Infused bitters, shrubs, honey, sour mix, simple syrups, and an alcohol-based tincture
JUICES, SHAKES, ANDSMOOTHIES: Green Goddess Canna-leaf Juice, Garden of Eden Juice, Chocolate Banana Protein Shake, PB&J Shake, Superfood Smoothie, Vitamin CBD Smoothie
SPIRIT-FREE MIXED DRINKS: Raspberry Rickey, Sparkling Rosemary Greyhound, Fuzzy Ginger Fizz, Apple Spice CBD Mule, The Jolly Cranberry, Infused Feisty Mary
I can’t wait to try out this recipe. The photograph makes it look so delicious.
COCKTAILS: Blood Orange Aperol Spritz, Spicy Melon Margarita, CBD Limelight, Strawberry Lime Shrub Soda, Blackberry Bramble, Pisco Papaya Sour, Laid Back Manhattan, Toasty Toddy AND SEVERAL MORE.
I am extremely excited to try out several of these very yummy looking drinks.
I love that there are photographs of the drinks so that I know what they are supposed to end up looking like. The list of necessary items for each recipe is terrific and very helpful. The ingredients are clearly listed and the instructions are easy to follow.
I rate this Cannabis Cookbook as 5 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to try either THC, CBD or both in the form of drinks.
*** Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book. ***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jamie Evans is the founder of The Herb Somm, a culinary-meets-cannabis blog and lifestyle brand that’s focused on the gourmet side of the cannabis industry. She is an author, entrepreneur, and writer specializing in cannabis, CBD, food, recipes, wine, and the canna-culinary world.
As a well-known CBD and cannabis personality, Jamie is best known for her literary work and signature canna-culinary events. She’s also a contributor to POPSUGAR, MARY Magazine, and The Clever Root magazine, specializing in lifestyle features for the modern consumer. Jamie is the co-editor of GoldLeaf’s acclaimed cannabis Cooking Journal and the author of the CBD lifestyle book, The Ultimate Guide to CBD: Explore the World of Cannabidiol (Fair Winds Press).
As an industry leader, Jamie was named as one of Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 Tastemakers in 2018 and as a 2018 Innovatorby SevenFifty Daily. She was also recognized as one of Green Market Report’s “Most Important Women in Weed” in 2020.
Alongside her work in the cannabis space, Jamie is a Certified Specialist of Wine with over a decade of wine industry experience. Having represented a wide array of organizations and wineries including Jackson Family Wines, Folio Fine Wine Partners, Napa Valley Grapegrowers, and more, she is well known for producing high-end events and developing top-notch public relations, marketing, and hospitality programs. Jamie has been featured in dozens of different articles and TV segments including Food & Wine, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Cheddar TV, Wine Enthusiast, Robb Report, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, ABC, and High Times, among many others.
To learn more about this author, visit the following links:
A quick, easy, and educational comic book guide that will help change the way we talk about sex and sexuality for all bodies.
“This guide can help disabled people (and their partners) on their journey toward self-love, better communication, and confidence.” –– Alice Wong, Founder and Director, Disability Visibility Project
All different kinds of bods want to connect with other bods, but lots of them get left out of the conversation when it comes to
S-E-X.
As explained by disabled cartoonist A. Andrews, this easy-to-read guide covers the basics of disability sexuality, common myths about disabled bodies, communication tips, and practical suggestions for having the best sexual experience possible. Whether you yourself are disabled, you love someone who is, or you just want to know more, consider this your handy starter kit to understanding disability sexuality, and your path to achieving accessible (and fulfilling) sex.
Part of the bestselling and critically acclaimed A Quick & Easy Guide series from Limerence Press, an imprint of Oni Press.
MY REVIEW:
So, why read a book about sex, and specifically disabled sex, by someone who is not an “Expert?”
The answer to that is: To avoid the typically clinical and frustratingly BORING books on this topic written by supposed “experts.” I have read many books and magazine articles written by non-disabled “experts” and those were all so ‘dry’ they even managed to make sex seem boring and much of the information is, at best irrelevant, at worst dangerously flawed. To take the advice of someone who has never had to live with a disability, is unwise in my opinion. Realistically, how could they know anything about it?
As a queer person living with a disability, A. Andrews is much more qualified to discuss issues surrounding sex & disability than any able-bodied ‘expert.’
I love that the author acknowledges that many people do not think of disabled people as sexual beings, and that they acknowledge the squeamishness with which some people react to this topic. It is a ridiculous notion and I am happy that the author confronts it head-on.
According to the author, “All disability presents differently. They are all valid, real, and have unique needs and considerations.”
That said, this book focuses on sex for people with physical disabilities. After all, that is what the author deals with personally, which is why they are qualified to discuss it. It would have been a ridiculously long book if sex for every type of disability were to be discussed.
The emphasis placed on communication is great advice which applies to everyone, disabled or not. Included are some suggestions as to how not to offend a disabled partner. The illustrations depict a person asking or saying something offensive and offers a way to ask/say it in a nonoffensive way. I have never seen such awesome advice so succinctly shown before. I have to say that I am extremely impressed. Kudos to Author/Illustrator A. Andrews for including such valuable advice.
Let’s face it. There are many different types of people and therefore there are many types of sexual partners. This book is designed as a resource for all genders, races, and for any and all sexual persuasions. The illustrations reflect that reality. They depict many different body types, genders, races, as well as different types of physical disabilities.
The illustrations are not sexually explicit, but sex positions are depicted. When positions are shown, there are no views of genetalia. In most illustrations, the people depicted are wearing underwear or are fully clothed. There is a single page containing illustrations of sexual aids, some of which are shaped like male genetalia (but in a tasteful way.)
In my humble opinion, I believe every physically disabled person who is thinking about and/or planning to become (or continue to be) sexually active needs to purchase one or more copies of this graphic novel. It could be casually placed on the coffee table where the potential partner(s) is sure to see it, thus creating the perfect opportunity to begin the dialogue necessary. It would also be an amazing resource to share with anyone who participates in your care. This graphic novel should be available in every local library and every physical rehabilitation center in North America and beyond. In fact, I am planning to speak to my local library as well as at the few physiotherapy clinics near my home.
I rate A QUICK & EASY GUIDE TO SEX & DISABILITY as
5+ Out Of 5 STARS (The highest rating I Can Give.) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
A. Andrews is a queer and disabled cartoonist living and working in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a near decade stay in New York City.
They grew up in the Pacific Northwest sketching in hospitals, and are the creator of the Autostraddle webcomic Oh, Hey! It’s Alyssa!
When they’re not drawing their guts out, they are hanging out with their dog, George, and drinking too many coffees.
To learn more about this author, visit the following links:
Oni Press is a premier comic book and graphic novel publisher located in Portland, Oregon.
Established in 1997, Oni Press’s curated line includes a variety of award-winning original and licensed comic books and graphic novels, including: Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty™, Nickelodeon’s Invader ZIM, Scott Pilgrim, Queen & Country, Courtney Crumrin, Wasteland, The Sixth Gun, Stumptown, Wet Moon, Letter 44, The Bunker, The Life After, The Coldest City, and Kaijumax.
To learn more about Oni Press, visit the following links:
The Dragons, the Giant, the Women by Wayétu Moore, left, All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson and Fairest by Meredith Talusan (Photo credit: Graywolf Press, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Viking)
I love a good memoir. Though the ever-expanding genre has been criticized over the decades by people who view them as egotistical and insular, memoirs can be transformative.
Tapping into a person’s unique experience and seeing the world through their eyes for a few hundred pages can expand our individual worldview, help us better understand our own experiences with broader issues—including grief—and introduce us to powerful voices who articulate and excavate their lives in ways that so few of us can.
Among the many memoirs slated for release in 2020, these 17 represent the very best of the genre.
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By: Adrienne Miller{ Ecco }RELEASED: FEB. 11, 2020 $28.99 PreOrder It Now
If you love fascinating memoirs about women navigating male-dominated industries, then Adrienne Miller’s book should already be in your cart. Miller began her career in media as an editorial assistant at GQ magazine in the 1990s before becoming the first woman to serve as Esquire’s literary editor. Given that media is still an industry run by men—many of them white, many of them powerful, and way too many of them drunk on their own power—Miller’s 30 years’ worth of reflections show, alas, just how much hasn’t changed for women finding their footing in an industry that allows only a few of us to break through.
Stephanie Land, author of the bestselling 2019 memoir Maid, says that Strung Out “will change how we look at the opioid crisis and how the media talks about it.” I agree.
Often, media stigmatizes the very people it aims to cover because there’s still so much we don’t understand about the development and impact of addiction. Erin Khar’s gift of a memoir examines her 15-year journey as a heroin user—and, perhaps more important, what brought her to drugs. Addiction stories are often linear (got hooked, hit bottom, got clean), but Khar instead offers a humanizing portrait not just of her own experience but of an issue that impacts more than two million people in the United States.
{Penguin Random House }RELEASED: MARCH 10, 2019 $26.00 Buy It Now
Prolific essayist Rebecca Solnit has long written about pop culture, politics, and mansplaining by weaving together her personal experience with a broader analysis, but it seems that Recollections of My Nonexistence is her first full-on memoir. Solnit brings readers to 1980s San Francisco for a comprehensive look at how she found her voice and her feminism amid discovering punk rock, witnessing rampant gender-based violence, and negotiating a culture of disbelief about everything from street harassment to rape. Recollections of My Nonexistence is also a memoir about writing, which is a gift from a writer as talented and transformative as Solnit. What shaped her perspective? How did she find the confidence to write with such stark honesty? These questions and more are answered.
{Belt Publishing }RELEASED: MARCH 10, 2020 $26.00 Buy It Now
Raechel Anne Jolie (who has contributed to Bitch) grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1990s, finding herself amid an alternative subculture of “race cars, Budweiser drinking men covered in car grease, and the women who loved them.” After her father is killed by a drunk driver, Jolie and her mother struggled to stay afloat: facing eviction, going days with electricity and water, and hurting each other to escape the pain of financial uncertainty. Rust Belt Femme follows Jolie as she leaves the neighborhood she called home for Cleveland Heights where a subculture with a lot of personality welcomes her, helping to define who she is and where she’s headed next.
By: Tanya Selvaratnam {Henry Holt and Co. }RELEASED: APRIL 7, 2020 $27.99 Buy It Now
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, nearly 20 people per minute in the United States are physically abused by their romantic partner, which breaks down to more than 10 million people suffering abuse in the course of a single year. It never becomes easier to read about intimate-partner violence, but it’s always necessary. Tanya Selvaratnam’s heart-wrenching memoir explores her volatile relationship with former New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, which included controlling behavior, death threats, and violent sex that she felt powerless to stop given that her partner was the state’s top-ranking law officer.
Assume Nothing isn’t an easy read, but it’s an important window on how power insulates even the worst among us.
Crystal Rasmussen, born as Tom, never knew a life before drag queendom. Even as they grew up in northern England, Rasmussen knew they weren’t meant to blend in—standing out was a given. By the time Rasmussen leaves London for a fashion job in New York, they’d come into their own, and this hilarious memoir follows them through a year of adventures, from being onstage to being in bed to realizing the fashion world is even more cutthroat than pop culture portrays it. Diary of a Drag Queen is equal parts inspiring and funny as hell.
By: Marisa Meltzer {Little, Brown and Company}RELEASED: APRIL 14, 2020 $28.00 Buy It Now
According to the Boston Medical Center, an estimated 45 million adults in the United States embark on a diet every year, and for an increasing number of adults, an obsession with losing weight begins in childhood. Marisa Meltzer, a contributor to the New York Times and the New Yorker (who has contributed to Bitch), began her first diet at the age of 5, and since then has been on the familiar rollercoaster of losing and gaining weight. When Meltzer read the obituary of Jean Nidetch, the Queens housewife–turned–flamboyant founder of Weight Watchers, she realized how much her own journey ran parallel to that of the woman whose business became an emblem of our culture’s quest for thinness at any cost. This Is Big is an inventive memoir that examines Meltzer’s own experience with weight loss alongside Nidetch’s lucrative belief that community, not secretive shame, could transform people’s bodies and lives.
{Dey Street Books}RELEASED: APRIL 21, 2020 $27.99 Buy It Now
There comes a moment in many people’s lives when they realize that their parents or other guardian figures have lives, dreams, hopes, and goals outside of raising them and/or being a spouse. Comedian Sopan Deb’s revelation came as he approached his 30th birthday: He knew the basics about his parents, who’d immigrated, separately, from India to the United States in the 1960s and ’70s. He knew their marriage was arranged, and that his father returned to India several years into their marriage, leaving his children and his wife in suburban New Jersey, but he didn’t know much else. After the 2016 election, which found Deb juggling stand-up comedy and covering the Trump campaign for the New York Times, he decided to journey to India to reconnect with his father and in the process reconnect with himself.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux }RELEASED: APRIL 28, 2020 $17.99 Buy It Now
Award-winning journalist and activist George M. Johnson is one of my favorite people to follow on social media. His insights about everything from representation in pop culture to sexuality and health keep myself and many others engaged, and he brings that same level of introspection to his powerful memoir-manifesto. Johnson’s book is geared toward young adults—a market that needs this level of realness about everything from finding and harboring joy to bullying to navigating queerness. All Boys Aren’t Blue is a game changer.
When Nina Renata Aron began dating her boyfriend, K, it didn’t take long for him to relapse. Addiction is a disease; it can come upon those who are afflicted without warning and the effects are felt by the person addicted as well as those who love them. Good Morning, Destroyer of Men’s Souls explores how addiction transforms K, transforms their relationship, and transforms Aron’s relationship to herself and to her childhood. It’s difficult to tell someone else’s story of addiction with empathy and understanding, but Aron balances it all beautifully.
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I first learned about journalist and author Meredith Talusan in 2016 when she spearheaded Unerased, Mic’s award-winning multimedia project that chronicled the crisis of transgender women in the United States being murdered. Talusan has since been an integral part of them’s inaugural editorial team, where she still works as a contributing editor, and has been one of the strongest voices holding newsrooms accountable when they offer lip service to inclusivity but do not actually prioritize it. In Fairest, Talusan brings that same determination and brilliance to her own story, with recollections of immigrating to the United States, unlearning the gender binary, and, most important, coming into her own.
In Open Country By: Rahawa Haile {Harper}RELEASED: JUNE 2, 2020
On October 3, 2016, Rahawa Haile announced on Twitter that she’d successfully hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine with a photo that captured the triumph. Since then, she’s published a canonical piece in Outside that detailed her experience and an incredible essay in BuzzFeed about leaving books by Black authors for other hikers to discover. Her upcoming memoir considers “what it means to move through America and the world as a Black woman.” Though there aren’t too many details on In Open Country, we know what Haile is capable of as a writer—and that alone has us thirsting to dig into this book.
Is it possible to find home again after being unexpectedly uprooted during a political upheaval? That’s one of the questions at the center of Wayétu Moore’s second book, which chronicles one of the most difficult experiences of her young life. At the age of 5, the civil war in Liberia forces Moore and her family—minus her mother, who’s studying at a university in New York—to flee the country. After a three-week journey on foot, Moore and her family are smuggled to the border of Sierra Leone and, from there, travel to the United States to reunite with her mother and begin a brand new life. The Dragons, the Giant, the Women is a beautifully written book about the experience of migrating—a story, particularly in this moment, that can never be told enough.
{Bold Type Books}RELEASED: JUNE 16, 2020 $16.99 Buy It Now
Recent years have brought us an array of memoirs and essay collections that specifically center the experiences of gay men negotiating the tenacious homophobia of the United States: Michael Arceneaux’s I Can’t Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I’ve Put My Faith in Beyoncé, Darnell L. Moore’s No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America, and Saeed Jones’s How We Fight for Our Lives come immediately to mind. The success of these books feels like an assurance that we’ll continue to see stories like theirs move out of the margins of the literary canon. In The Groom Will Keep His Name, Matt Ortile, managing editor of Catapult, offers up his unique experiences as a Filipino immigrant figuring out how to date in a world where we’re all encouraged to be curated versions of ourselves. The book’s clever title reflects its witty and captivating takes on everything from one-night stands to dating apps and beyond.
{Little, Brown & Company}RELEASED: JULY 14, 2020 $28.00 Buy It Now
Many of us have fragmented memories that cause us to question what’s real and what we’ve imagined. But when St. Paul’s School, an elite boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire, was deemed a “haven for sexual predators” in a May 2018 lawsuit filed by two of the school’s alumnae, Lacy Crawford realized that her hazy recollection of being assaulted at age 15 by two fellow students many years earlier—and the efforts of the school’s administration, including faculty and clergy, to shield her attackers from consequences—wasn’t something she’d invented or imagined. Once St. Paul’s extensive history of burying crimes and harming victims became national news, Crawford got access to files about her case that she’d never seen before; her experience of revisiting the trauma, realizing just how far the school had gone to protect her assaulters, and coming to terms with the cost of that injustice is the foundation for this incredible memoir.
Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Natasha Trethewey has long said that her mother’s 1985 murder at the hands of her ex-husband propelled her into the art form and has continued to haunt her even as she’s found extraordinary success that includes being named U.S. Poet Laureate in 2012 and 2013. Trethewey told the Chicago Tribune in November 2018 that she thinks of herself as “someone who has lived in a state of bereavement my whole adult life,” and in Memorial Drive, she explores the loss and lingering grief that has shaped so much of her work. Trethewey’s heartbreakingly beautiful memoir honors her mother, Gwendolyn, while also indicting a culture that fails to protect abuse victims as they try to retrieve their lives from the clutches of their abusers.
{Flatiron Books}RELEASED: AUGUST 4, 2020 $26.99 Buy It Now
Since the #MeToo movement spotlighted predators in Hollywood, journalism, and beyond, a number of memoirs have taken stock of how power dynamics can shape—and exploit— an array of relationships, including platonic ones between teachers and students (Donna Freitas’s Consent: A Memoir of Unwanted Attention) and those where the boundaries of friendship are betrayed by rape (Jeannie Vanasco’s Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl). Allison Wood, winner of the inaugural Breakout 8 Writers Prize and a creative writing teacher at New York University, adds to this growing canon with a chronicle of her two-year relationship with her high-school English teacher.
There’s more…
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Book Launch for Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability and Making Space by Amanda Leduc.
Join Amanda Leduc for the launch of Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability and Making Space. Sarah Jama co-founder of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario (DJNO), an organization committed to building the political and community power of people with disabilities, will be moderating.
Disfigured challenges the ableism of fairy tales and offers new ways to celebrate the magic of all bodies. In fairy tales, happy endings are the norm – as long as you’re beautiful and walk on two legs. After all, the ogre never gets the princess. And since fairy tales are the foundational myths of our culture, how can a girl with a disability ever think she’ll have a happy ending?
By examining the ways that fairy tales have shaped our expectations of disability, Disfigured will point the way toward a new world where disability is no longer a punishment or impediment but operates, instead, as a way of centering a protagonist and helping them to cement their own place in a story, and from there, the world. Through the book, Leduc ruminates on the connections we make between fairy tale archetypes – the beautiful princess, the glass slipper, the maiden with long hair lost in the tower – and tries to make sense of them through a twenty-first-century disablist lens. From examinations of disability in tales from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen through to modern interpretations ranging from Disney to Angela Carter, and the fight for disabled representation in today’s media, Leduc connects the fight for disability justice to the growth of modern, magical stories, argues for increased awareness and acceptance of that which is other – helping us to see and celebrate the magic inherent in different bodies.
Amanda Leduc’s essays and stories have appeared in publications across Canada, the US, and the UK. She is the author of the novels The Miracles of Ordinary Men and the forthcoming The Centaur’s Wife . She has cerebral palsy and lives in Hamilton, Ontario, where she works as the Communications Coordinator for the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD), Canada’s first festival for diverse authors and stories.
Event Details:
Wednesday, February 12 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. First Unitarian Church, 170 Dundurn Street South, Hamilton, ON
Admission is free, all are welcome The Unitarian Church has wheelchair accessible entry and wheelchair accessible washrooms. Accessible parking is available on either side of the entrance doors. For more accessibility information on the venue, please visit their website. https://uuhamilton.ca
Please note that the venue is a nut-free and scent-free space.
………………..
PARKING
Ample car parking is available for most people in our own parking lot with additional space available at the Fortino’s plaza nearby at Dundurn and Main.
Parking spots for differently-abled are reserved near both doors. ……………………………
Matthew Heneghan weaves an intricate web that is his life, in a style all his own. Once a medic in the Canadian Forces and a paramedic in the civilian world, he has a varied and traumatic past. Facing childhood abuse, addiction, suicide ideation, incredible loss, mental illness, he finds himself left rudderless, Matthew chronicles his journey towards a better way of coping.
If you have spent time in the military, paramedicine, or just love devouring an exquisitely written tale, this book is a must-have. Learning how Matthew transitions from the stereotypical position of “hero” to becoming the hero of his own life is nothing less than inspiring.
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MY REVIEW:
“At a certain point, the very best of humans will finally break, with long-lasting implications.”
– Todd McGowan, Chief Warrant Officer (Retired), Canadian Armed Forces
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Sitting on the edge of an overpass, haunted by the demons of trauma and loss, Matt is ready. Ready to end his life, and along with that would be an end to his pain and suffering. However, when an ambulance passes on the road below, he realizes that he doesn’t want the EMTs inside to be traumatized because of him. He can’t bear to be the cause of someone else’s suffering.
Thank goodness he didn’t go through with his planned suicide attempt, or A MEDIC’S MIND would not exist and that would be a terrible shame.
This book might just be the catalyst for others who are experiencing the symptoms of PTSD to seek treatment – thus saving their lives, or at the very least, helping to identify and possibly alleviate some of their symptoms.
A MEDIC’S MIND is a memoir written by an extraordinary man who has served our country and saved many lives. Although I am sure he would disagree, it is my opinion that he is the very definition of a “Hero.”
So, if he is a hero, and a distinguished retired member of the CAF (Canadian Armed Forces) then shouldn’t his life be perfect? Shouldn’t he be happy and healthy in the knowledge that without him, many more families, military and otherwise, would be mourning their losses?
You might think so, but that would be a very simplistic view of what happens inside the human brain.
I don’t believe anyone who hasn’t experienced the trauma of war has the ability to understand the emotional, physical, or psychological damage such experiences can cause.
After leaving the military, Matthew became a paramedic which further exposed him to more and more trauma. It has only been within the past few years that our society’s first responders have had their psychological health taken into account and that it has been acknowledged that PTSD is not limited only to soldiers.
Matthew Heneghan may have been a fantastic medic and EMT, but his true calling, in my opinion, is writing about his experiences. In A MEDIC’S MIND, he opens his mind and heart and lays everything bare. The bravery this takes is monumental. In a recent blog post, where he writes about the suicide of his close friend, Matthew states:
“Living with a fractured mind can be torturous. Living with a fractured mind and a broken heart… that’s torture of the rarest kind.”
Matthew, at one point in his life turned to alcohol to cope and to try to fill the pain he was feeling. He is now clean and sober and still damaged. He has learned a hard truth which he shares with the reader, that just because you kick an addiction, does not instantly mean you are “cured.” Life can, and does, kick you in the ass, but you have to hold on, even if, at times, it feels like you are only hanging on by the tips of your fingers.
I truly believe that A MEDIC’S MIND is an important memoir. This book needs to be widely read and distributed.
I have read many biographies and this one is one of the few that will stay with me for a very long time. I wholeheartedly believe A MEDIC’S MIND will become a book that anyone and everyone who wants to understand the psyche of a PTSD sufferer needs to read. This includes others suffering from trauma, their friends and families, as well as those who seek to understand and/or treat this disorder.
I rate A MEDIC’S MIND as 5 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and I sincerely hope that the author continues to blog and podcast and to speak out his truth. I think he is an important advocate for informing people about PTSD and it’s ongoing effects.
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****Thank you to the Author for providing me with a free copy of his book.****
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Born in England, Matthew and his family emigrated to Canada when he was five years old. He is now thirty-six years old. Everything written in his book and on his blog are true.
Matthew was an army medic for 6 years and after his time in the army was finished, he became a paramedic for a busy city ambulance service. Most of what he writes comes from these experiences. The Good, the Bad and the Tragic.
He was diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and major depressive disorder in 2017.
He started writing his blog because he thought he was going crazy. Wanting to shout but not knowing how to do so. Not knowing where to direct it. So, this place, his blog is “Droplets of blood from an aching mind.”
To learn more about this author, visit the following links:
One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down.
Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in
whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come
straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.
As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients’ lives—a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life
on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can’t stop hooking up with the wrong guys—she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell.
With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient,
examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love
and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is revolutionary in its candor, offering a deeply personal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly revealing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.
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MY REVIEW:
Listening to YOU SHOULD TALK TO SOMEONE by Lori Gottlieb on audiobook was the perfect way to experience her witty writing style.
Lori truly brings readers into her world. Not only does she allow us to be a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ of her therapy sessions with her patients, but she also does something that I don’t think has ever been done before. That is, that she not only invites the reader into the intimate details of her patient’s lives, she also welcomes the reader into her own world and her own therapy sessions. This allows the reader to feel a deep connection with the author, one that is unique in the realm of memoirs and biographies.
Speaking about her expertise, Lori Gottlieb says, “I believe that of all my credentials, my most significant is that I’m a card-carrying member of the human race.”
That might sound strange to some, but it is Author Lori Gottlieb’s gift of humanity/empathy, and human connection, as well as her education and study of psychology that allows readers to emotionally connect with her.
Lori navigates the story-telling aspect of her patient’s therapy sessions with respect and is still able to tell their stories in detail. She also admits that even though she is a therapist, she is also a patient who attends therapy herself.
In my opinion, the fact that Lori participates in therapy sessions with her own therapist means that she is better equipped to understand the experience from both a clinical and a personal perspective.
Narrator BRITTANY PRESSLEY is the perfect choice of narrator as she has a gift for making the reader feel as if she is talking directly to them. Her inflections are spot on, and she narrates the humorous portions of the stories with professionalism. Brittany’s experience (she has narrated over 100+ audiobooks) allows the reader/listener to relax and enjoy each tale.
My favorite quote from the book is:
“We can’t have change without loss, which is why so often people say they want change but nonetheless stay exactly the same.”
I purchased this audiobook at AUDIBLE.COM
I rate the narration as 5 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I rate the story/content as 5 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall, I rate this audiobook as 5 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author of “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone”, which is being adapted as a television series with Eva Longoria. In addition to her clinical practice, she writes The Atlantic’s weekly “Dear Therapist” advice column and contributes to The New York Times and many other publications.
A member of the Advisory Council for Bring Change 2 Mind and a contributing editor for the Atlantic, she has written hundreds of articles related to psychology and culture, many of which have become viral sensations.
She is a sought-after expert on relationships, parenting, and hot-button mental health topics in media such as The Today Show, Good Morning America, The CBS Early Show, CNN, The New York Times, and NPR’s “Fresh Air.”
To learn more about this author, visit the following links:
Talking about doing therapy via Skype LORI GOTTLIEB says “It’s like doing therapy with a condom on.”
For film or television inquiries, please contactMichell Weiner(film) orOliviaBlaustein(television) at CAA.
For speaking or event inquiries, please contactCharles Yaoat The Lavin Agency.
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ABOUT THE NARRATOR:
BRITTANY PRESSLEY is an Audiofile Earphones award winning narrator in NYC.
She has recorded over 100 titles and has received several nominations for American Library Association’s annual list of Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults.
She is also an accomplished singer/songwriter and voice actress.
Her voice can be heard on national and international TV and radio commercials as well as several animated series and video games.
AGE & GENDER REPERTOIRE:
– Female young adult
– Female adult
– Female teenager
– Child
Additional vocal abilities:
– Child voices
– British accent
– Russian accent
– Southern accent
– valley girl
– New York including: Long Island and Queens accent
– Britney Spears
EXPERIENCE:
– Working professional voice actor. – 100+ audiobooks.
– Awards including Audiofile Magazine Earphones award
– Commercials for Wendy’s, DSW, Speedo, Target.
– Cast member on multiple animated children’s television shows.
TRAINING:
– Commercial and voice over training @ Actors Connection, NYC
– Music Production techniques, @ Columbia University
EQUIPMENT:
My home studio is well equipped with:
– a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.
– Sound isolation booth
– Logic Pro
BRITTANY is also a very experienced singer, songwriter and session vocalist.
Click HERE to listen to Brittany narrate a section of THE CROWN by Kiera Cass
Want to listen to Brittany narrating a terrific middle-grade novel called THE LAND OF YESTERDAY by K.A. REYNOLDS? Click HERE.
To learn more about this Narrator, visit the following links:
Both a personal story of living with chronic pain and a positive guide for anyone who suffers regular physical pain and related stress.
Anne Welsh has lived with chronic pain all her life. As a sufferer of sickle cell disease, she is no stranger to the everyday struggles and mental anguish that can come from living with an invisible illness.
Like so many who suffer from painful and life-changing conditions, Anne has battled with depression: times when she believed that she could never lead a normal and happy life. But thanks to the support of many people along the way, she has discovered that life can still be wonderful, no matter your challenges.
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Click HERE to read about Anne Welsh’s press junket on AFRICAN GLITZ.
Photos By: @danielsync
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MY REVIEW:
Do you know anyone who suffers with Chronic Pain?
If your answer is no, then you are extremely lucky.
I have been living with debilitating and demoralizing pain since 2009. It has affected and still affects all aspects of my life.
“I am often asked what sickle cell pain feels like and for me there are no words to describe it, but if I must try, all I can say is that it is like someone using a hammer to knock on your bones over and over again.”
Anne’s pain is caused by Sickle Cell Disease and she has been dealing with it’s effects her entire life. I admit to having heard of this disease before reading this book, but I knew next to nothing about it’s symptoms.
After reading Anne Welsh’s memoir, I feel that I am much better informed about Sickle Cell Disease and it’s details.
This book contains terrific tips and ideas of how to live with a chronic illness, as well as wonderful ideas for the families and friends of those of us who have an invisible illness as to how they can assist and support us. These ideas can be applied to any chronic illness, and are not specific to Sickle Cell Disease.
Anne’s upbeat attitude and her determination to live life as fully as possible despite her terrible and debilitating condition is inspiring and offers hope to the rest of us. The following quote really spoke to me.
“Finally I had come to understand that to become a better me, I had to accept help as well as not be afraid to ask for it. This is a realisation that all of us who live with a chronic illness need to come to. We cannot do it on our own, so accept the help offered, and it will make an enormous difference to your life.”
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I rate this book as 4 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐
***Thank you to #NetGalley and the #publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book.***
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Watch “Anne Welsh – Living with Sickle Cell (Part One)” on YouTube:
Anne Welsh is an author, entrepreneur and philanthropist. She was born in Nigeria and emigrated to the United Kingdom when she was very young. She was diagnosed with sickle cell anaemia at the age of four, and, after returning to live in her homeland while still a child, faced many of the problems that come with living with a life-threatening disease in a developing country.
Since returning to the UK in her late teens, and with the support of her family, Anne has created her own path to happiness through her academic studies and her career. After completing a degree in Accounting and Finance, Anne went on to achieve an MA in International Banking before starting her career in investment banking. She now runs her own consultancy firm, specialising in business development in Africa and beyond.
Anne is a tireless advocate for sickle cell disease and her memoir, Pain-less, was borne of her determination to raise awareness about the impact invisible diseases such as sickle cell can have on individuals, and also to give support and advice to other sufferers and their families. Having frequently battled with depression, Anne is all too aware of the difficulties faced by sufferers of life-threatening illnesses. By writing this book, she hopes to help others improve their mental and physical wellbeing and enable them to achieve a joyful and fulfilling life.
Anne is married with two children – something she once thought may never be possible – and two stepchildren and lives in London.
To learn more about this author, visit the following links:
Talking about this book? Be sure to tag it using #PainLess #NetGalley
#ChronicPain #Fibromyalgia #CFS #ChronicFatigue #constantpain #pain #sicklecell #sicklecelldisease
SOME EARLY REVIEWS/ADVANCE PRAISE
“A powerful account of Anne Welsh’s own journey with her ‘invisible illness’.”
– Dr Tedros AdhanomGhebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization
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“An honest and insightful account into a world unknown to so many.”
– The Most Revd and Rt Hon. Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York
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“Any help for people to learn how to avoid pain triggers and handle their pain better is to be welcomed, as in this book based on the life and experience of Anne Welsh.”
– Professor Dame Sally C Davies, Chief Medical Officer UK
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ABOUT SICKLE CELL DISEASE:
– In 2008, the UN established WORLD SICKLE CELL DAY. It falls on June 19th each year and is marked with various events worldwide.
– In 2018, the National Institute of Health launched it’s CURE SICKLE CELL INITIATIVE.
As a Yale School of Medicine physician, the New York Times bestselling author of Every Patient Tells a Story, and an inspiration and adviser for the hit Fox TV drama House, M.D., Lisa Sanders has seen it all. And yet she is often confounded by the cases she describes in her column: unexpected collections of symptoms that she and other physicians struggle to diagnose.
A twenty-eight-year-old man, vacationing in the Bahamas for his birthday, tries some barracuda for dinner. Hours later, he collapses on the dance floor with crippling stomach pains. A middle-aged woman returns to her doctor, after visiting two days earlier with a mild rash on the back of her hands. Now the rash has turned purple and has spread across her entire body in whiplike streaks. A young elephant trainer in a traveling circus, once head-butted by a rogue zebra, is suddenly beset with splitting headaches, as if someone were “slamming a door inside his head.”
In each of these cases, the path to diagnosis—and treatment—is winding, sometimes frustratingly unclear. Dr. Sanders shows how making the right diagnosis requires expertise, painstaking procedure, and sometimes a little luck. Intricate, gripping, and full of twists and turns, Diagnosis puts readers in the doctor’s place. It lets them see what doctors see, feel the uncertainty they feel—and experience the thrill when the puzzle is finally solved.
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MY REVIEW:
Author Dr. Lisa Sanders is the doctor whom the television show HOUSE was based on. She is well-known for her diagnostic prowess as well as for her column in the New York Times. Now, Netflix is filming a series based on her case files. I am very much looking forward to watching this new series. I LOVED watching HOUSE and was sad when the television series ended.
DIAGNOSIS is a fascinating and informative read, as well as being chock-full of information that most doctors (and patients) are unaware of. In my opinion, everyone, especially doctors need to own a copy of this book.
I am well aware of the theory known as “Occam’s Razor” which is a principle from philosophy that states that the simplest explanation is usually correct. However, sometimes that theory does not apply. In medicine sometimes a zebra masquerades as a horse and because the disease is so rare, it is unknown to the doctor and/or because of it’s rarity, it is dismissed as a possibility.
If you have any interest in medical mysteries this book should be at the top of your ‘TBR (TO BE READ)’ List. Once I started reading, I was unable to put it down.
Not only does the author do an exceptional job of describing the symptoms each patient is experiencing, she also gives a brief description of the person’s home and work life which provides a perfect balance between the technical and the personal aspects of each case.
Dr. Lisa Sanders also provides the reader with an update as to how each patient is faring at the present time. This is something that I find many medical books leave out. It is as if many doctors see only the medical mystery and view the patient as callously as they would view a lab rat; ignoring them once the mystery is solved and leaving the follow-up to others. Lisa Sanders does NOT do this. In fact, several of the cases were diagnosed years earlier and yet she has taken the time to call each patient and ask after their current help.
This book is worthy of more than just 5 Stars, however, since five stars is the highest rating I can bestow upon a book, 5 STARS will have to suffice. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The world is lucky to have diagnosticians such as Dr. Lisa Sanders and she has saved multiple lives and livelihoods. She is an inspiration to women everywhere.
*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book.*
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Lisa Sanders is a clinician educator in the Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Program. In addition to her work as a physician and teacher, she writes the popular Diagnosis column for the New York Times Magazine and the Think Like a Doctor column featured in the New York Times blog, The Well. Her column was the inspiration for the Fox program House MD (2004-2012) and she served as a consultant to the show. In 2010 published a book titled Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis. Currently she is collaborating with the New York Times on an 8 hour documentary series on the process of diagnosis. It will air on Netflix in the summer of 2019.
Sanders’ path to medicine was anything but traditional. As an undergraduate at the College of William and Mary, she majored in English, wrote for The Flat Hat, the college paper, and served pints of ale at Chownings Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg. After graduation she took a job with ABC at Good Morning America. Less than 10 years later, while working for CBS News, she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story for coverage of Hurricane Hugo as it slammed into her hometown of Charleston, S.C. But by then, Sanders said, she was ready to move on professionally and decided that of all the subjects she covered as a journalist, medicine intrigued her most. After two years at Columbia University’s Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program, Sanders was accepted to the Yale School of Medicine “as part of the 10 percent of the class they reserve for weirdos,” she said. In addition to her time in the hospital, Sanders is currently researching clinical decision making and the way diagnostic decisions and errors are made. She has published two books previously — “The Perfect Fit Diet: Combine What Science Knows About Weight Loss With What You Know About Yourself” in 2004 and “The Perfect Fit Diet: How to Lose Weight, Keep it Off and Still Eat the Foods You Love” in 2005.
To learn more about this author, visit the following links:
Price: $16.95 USD (Softcover) AND WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!!
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Rating: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
DESCRIPTION:
A woman’s handbook to demystifying the world of weed, whether it’s being used for pain relief, a moment of calm, or a fit of giggles.
Women of all ages are using cannabis to feel and look better. For rookies and experienced marijuana users alike, this lively, information-filled book is just the supportive guide you need to find the right dose to relieve anxiety, depression, and inflammation, and mitigate the onset of dementia and other signs of aging. Plus boost moods, ease aches, even lose weight, and get restful sleep. And a dose just for fun? Well, that works, too!
Here’s how to navigate the typical dispensary, with its overwhelming options of concentrates, edibles, vape pens, and tinctures. Understand the amazing health-giving compounds found in cannabis—THC, CBD, terpenes, and more—and how to use topicals to reduce pain and give your skin a healthy glow. There’s even advice on how not to get high but still reap all the amazing health benefits.
Plus over twenty recipes, from edibles like Classic Pot Brownies and Netflix and Chill Caramels to self-care products like Radiant Glow Serum and Happy Body Bar.
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MY REVIEW:
In the introduction to “A Woman’s Guide to Cannabis” the author states:
“Now that I am in my forties, cannabis makes me feel prettier and more relaxed than I ever was in my twenties or thirties. Even after a car accident fractured my spine and created permanent back pain, medical marijuana makes me healthier and happier than I’ve ever been before.”
This quote, especially the part about her permanent back pain struck a chord with me. I have spent the last ten years in constant pain. I have to take pain medication just to be able to get up and have a shower in the morning. Anyone who lives with debilitating pain will understand me when I say, “I am willing to try anything to reduce my pain.”
With the booming marijuana industry in both Canada and the United States, books are finally being written and research is finally being conducted out in the open on this plant that was once a staple in society. Hemp has been used for hundreds of years, and now that same plant that is used to make items such as rope and even clothing, can be openly studied for its medicinal qualities.
“Sure, there are lots of books about marijuana – cookbooks and gardening books and books about the history of marijuana legalization – but I couldn’t find a book that could take my mother through her first shopping trip at the dispensary and her first time getting high.” “So I wrote this book for anyone who wants to feel better, look better, and sleep better. Everything we teach new patients at the dispensary is in these pages, including how cannabis works, why it works, and how to make marijuana gummies at home. Plus there are a few surprises in this book that you won’t learn at the dispensary.”
“Cannabis doesn’t just make us feel high and happy; it also has powerful analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, antianxiety, and antidepressant qualities.”
I have been searching “high” (pun intended) and low for a book about cannabis that actually answers all my questions. My goal has been to find a book that I can use as a guide to assist me in deciding what form, what strength, and what strain of marijuana might be able to help reduce the crippling back pain I suffer from on a daily basis. With all the hype surrounding cannabis lately; especially since October of 2018 when marijuana became legal for both medical and recreational use in Canada, I thought I would have no problem finding multiple books containing the information I was seeking, but wowzer, was I ever wrong. I have bought and read over ten books on this subject and this is the first and only book that was not a complete waste of my time and money.
I knew I was onto something special by the end of the first eight pages. Why? Because of the following few sentences: “Legal cannabis is curative and restorative. It makes us sleep better, eat better, and feel better. But it’s important to have realistic expectations, so no, I will not tell you that cannabis cures cancer … [also, to] be perfectly clear: I am not suggesting you change any medication unless you discuss it with your doctor.”
Author Nikki Furrer has impressed me tremendously, her vast knowledge of the cannabis industry is not merely academic, nor is it solely based on other people’s experiences. Her nearly encyclopedic knowledge of the various methods of ingestion and of the different strengths, mixtures, and ratios of THC to CBD is exactly the type of information that I had almost given up on finding. I am so glad that I didn’t give up.
My advice to other people (both men and women) is that if you are planning to spend some of your hard earned money on a book about marijuana, make sure this is the book you choose. I received a free eBook copy of “A Woman’s Guide to Cannabis” through the Publisher and NetGalley, but I was so impressed that I also bought a physical copy of the book so that I would always be able to look up certain points whenever I want to, as well as to have the included recipes to hand at all times.
I highly recommend that you purchase your own copy of this book whether you are planning to partake of cannabis yourself or not. Because there is so much misinformation floating around currently, it is important to have a solid, reliable source of information, especially if you are a parent, or just a concerned member of society. If you are informed, you will be able to better understand both sides of the marijuana debate.
I rate this book as 5+ OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. If it were possible I would rate it even higher. Very few books receive my coveted 5+ Star rating but this book clearly deserves the highest rating possible. I would like to personally thank Author Nikki Furrer for creating THE DEFINITIVE BOOK ON CANNABIS.
Now, you’ll have to excuse me, I am off to partake of some cannabis myself.
** Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book.**
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nikki Furrer grows legal cannabis in several states. She works as a consultant for dispensaries, cultivators, processors and edible makers, and has created edible and topical products for both medical and recreational markets.
Nikki Furrer is the CEO of Fleur, a cannabis company that develops strains and products with a focus on women’s health. Nikki is a cannabis lawyer, cultivator and budtender. Before joining the marijuana industry, Nikki owned Puddn’head Books, an independent bookstore. She currently lives in St. Louis, MO.
To learn more about this author, visit the following links:
Hard candies are a sweet, discreet way of medicating on the go, and they can be made in any dose, color, flavor, size or shape. Hard crack temperatures and pouring syrup as fast as you can seems intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it you’ll be making professional looking, gourmet marijuana hard candies in your own kitchen.
Hard crack is the hottest stage of candy making, and the temperature is a precise 300 degrees. If the syrup does not get heated to 300 degrees, the candy will be sticky and soft. If the syrup is cooked over 305 degrees, it will caramelize and turn brown. Heat the sugar syrup on a high heat. Longer cook times increase browning of the syrup. Heating the solution as quickly as possible keeps the color clear and prevents caramelization of the syrup.
We do need a few tools and supplies. The most important is a candy thermometer. Hard candy must reach an exact 300 degrees, and if you try to make suckers without one, I promise, you will make a mess.
I have sucker molds that make each pop perfectly, but you can make suckers without molds. Spread parchment paper out on the counter. Then, when your syrup is ready to be poured, simply pour out dollops of syrup onto the parchment paper and roll a sucker stick into each dollar of hardening syrup.
The flavor of a lollipop comes from whatever flavor you add. LorAnn oils are perfect for flavoring suckers.
I love to play with color, so I have a rainbow supply of food coloring. Add food coloring one drop at a time.
Once you have all of your supplies and tools, get everything ready before you start boiling sugar. Once the syrup hits 300 degrees, you have to work fast.
Rose petals and other edible flowers make elegant, beautiful lollipops. Fill half of a sucker mold with syrup, then place a rose petal, lavender, carnation, honeysuckle, violets or candied lilacs in the mold and cover with enough syrup to finish filling the lollipop. Add cardamom to rose petal pops. Use ginger or mango flavoring with mint leaves.
Skip the coloring if you want to use flowers, but you can add a drop of coloring for a hint of color around the flower.
A gram of cannabis concentrate (like wax, shatter, live resin, etc) can have from 500-900 milligrams. This recipe makes 22-24 lollipops, so they should be between 30-40 mg THC. For strong pops, look for the highest THC potency you can find. For mild pops, try a half gram of concentrate.
Put the concentrate in a small glass dish, or the pyrex cup you plan to mix your syrup in, then place it in the oven for 30 minutes at 250 degrees to fully convert THCA to THC and CBDA to CBD.
CANNABIS LOLLIPOPS RECIPE:
Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (a Martha Stewart touch. You don’t have to, but the cream of tartar makes the finished sucker smoother and more professional looking)
1 teaspoon flavoring oil
1 gram cannabis concentrate
2-3 drops coloring
edible flowers or colored sanding sugar
Spray molds with nonstick cooking spray or spread parchment paper on the kitchen counter.
Over high heat, mix sugar, corn syrup and water in a heavy pot. Stir until all of the sugar dissolves. Use a small brush to wipe sugar from the sides of the pot and into the mixture.
Add food coloring. Attach a candy thermometer to the pot and bring the mixture to a boil. Do not stir as the temperature rises.
At 300 degrees, remove pot from heat and place in an a ice bath to stop the cooking process.
When the syrup has stopped boiling, add flavoring and concentrate. Use a small silicone spatula and stir well.
Pour syrup into lollipop molds or pour round dollops on parchment paper.
Press and roll a small stick into each lollipop. Leave them for an hour to set.
When the suckers have hardened, they will pop out of the molds. Wrap in plastic or sucker bags and store in a cool, dry place for several months.
I spent years making a mess of hard candy. When it comes off the stove the sugar mixture is a hot 300 degrees, and we’ve only got a few minutes before it cools down and hardens. In those few minutes we need to add the perfect amount of color and the right amount of cannabis concentrate, stir it well and pour out 24 perfectly shaped suckers. And then add edible flowers or a sprinkle of glitter for fun.
It can’t be done.
The syrup hardens up before all the suckers are evenly poured. The syrup hardens all over the pyrex cup so we waste a sucker or two. I had given up on hard candy when Martha Stewart offered a tip that saved my lollipops – the oven.
So now I can take my time and complete each step perfectly, which results in perfect pops. Since the oven is already at 250 degrees from the decarboxylation process, we can simply put the pyrex cup of syrup in the oven whenever it hardens. The heat in the oven will warm up and smooth out the syrup so it can be poured.
And remember, suckers can be made with honey instead of white sugar, too.
Happy Medicating!
QUOTES:
“Because the more we know about cannabis, the easier it is to use it in a way that’s effective for us.”
“After decades of reefer madness propaganda, we’re now learning about how good this demonized plant is for our health and happiness. Cannabis doesn’t just make us feel high and happy; it also has powerful analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, antianxiety, and antidepressant qualities.”
“… prescription pills are handed out like candy, it’s not surprising that the opioid epidemic has hit every suburb in the country … Swapping out the medicine cabinet for marijuana can prevent that downward spiral to rehab.”
⭐⭐⭐ ” My fortysomething friends have just as many questions as my mother’s friends, because the marijuana in dispensaries today is so different from the marijuana we remember from our youth.”
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Amie's Book Reviews 