How to Face the Challenges of Life, by Mike Wash

A book that may change you and your life.

Never judge a book by its cover… unless it is this book by Mike Wash. If ever a book cover could so rightly convey its contents, 54 Simple Truths With Brutal Advice this is it. The book is like its cover: enjoyable, simple, straight-to-the-point. A non–preachy self-help book, devoid of the frequent airy-fairy baloney aura of the genre.

This book consists (as the title may suggest) of 54 simple truths that will affect you sometime in your life. Whether its work, mis-trust or injustice, life is sure to bowl you over with one of them. Mike Wash discusses some of the certainties in our lives and makes sure that we are open to them, realising that although some things are inevitable, it is our openness and understanding of them that we control.

54 Simple Truths With Brutal Advice, is made up of mostly short, one-page chapters that feed the readers rather than drowning them. The considerations are well measured  and tend to avoid the whining, overbearing tone of the books of this kind.

Mike Wash is more than qualified to write such a stimulating and moving book. He’s a trained psychotherapist and has spent most of his adult life helping those in need of healing. Through a personal account of the unfortunate certainties that he discusses in his book, Mike Wash makes clear how an open heart and mind can ensure you can deal with most things.

Ben Johnson's illustrations give the work an even more attracting aura. They melt long with the words, becoming a natural representation of them. Drawn with mixed styles and techniques, they add a personal and quirky touch to the book.

This book does not claim to save your life, and nor does it want to. What you can be certain of is that it will you give you a good talking to.