The Seaboard Review of Books September 1, 2025
Volume 2, Issue 33 of The Seaboard Review of Books, September 1, 2025
In this issue:
A Place For People Like Us by Danila Botha
The First Thousand Trees by Premee Mohamed
A Sense Of Things Beyond by Renée Belliveau
Coastal Healing by Bruce Graham
Also, in Poetry:
We’re Somewhere Else Now by Robyn Sarah
NMLCT: Poems by Paul Vermeersch
Review of the Week
Fiction
Poetry
Michael Greenstein Reviews:
Hot Takes: Brief Notes on Books Present & Past
(Note: clicking on the underlined link takes you to the book’s publisher page or Amazon.ca for more information or for purchasing purposes. Support your local bookseller or independent publisher if you can.)
In the introduction to The Kingdom of Heart: A Pet Loss Journal, Patty Luckenbach, M.A, D.D., notes, “When our animal companions die, we grieve; but our society does not give us permission to mourn.” The Kingdom of Heart addresses this issue by offering insights and exercises that can help us through the mourning process. Among other things, the book addresses topics like accepting an animal’s loss, the Grief Wheel, working with a child grieving the death of his or her animal, expressing your feelings of grief and loss through journalling, and celebrating your animal friend’s life. Space is provided in the book to write responses to the journalling prompts.
Though pet parents shouldn’t have favourites, when my border collie Emma died, it hit me hard. The Kingdom of Heart brought an easing of sadness, and some different perspectives and insights. Exercises like “A Letter to Your Pet” and “Your Animal Friend’s Letter to You” were particularly helpful. While, as the book notes, “emotional pain, known as grief, is different for each person,” anyone who has lost a pet and is open to exploring their feelings and seeking greater solace through journalling might find this book worth a look. (Contributed by Lisa Timpf)
News:
TSR Contributor Melanie Marttila is going to be reading in the Apposite Poetry Series in London, Ontario on September 10th.
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Thanks for reading this issue of The Seaboard Review of Books!
James M. Fisher, editor-in-chief