Have you ever had one of those weeks when your brain just doesn’t seem to be kicking in correctly? That’s been this entire week for me. To be honest, it started last week when I was informed that my grandmother had died. She’d been ill for quite some time, so in a way the news actually came as a bit of a relief.

And even though we hadn’t been close for years, it still seems odd to realize that she’s not there anymore. I had been meaning to call her for ages, just to touch base and see how she was doing, but never seemed to find the time to do it. And now I can’t. And even though I’ve never been one to be deeply affected by death, I find that I’m having difficulty concentrating on anything now. It’s not that my thoughts are constantly going back to her, just that my mind refuses to stay still, and since it started when I heard the news about her, that’s what I’m attributing it to.

For instance, this week, Maclean’s Magazine held a debate among the leaders of the four major parties. Now that we’re officially in the campaign for the leadership of Canada, such a thing would normally have my full attention. This time, however, I found myself agitated and frustrated trying to concentrate on them. I suppose one could argue that it was because of the moderation, or rather, lack-thereof, that provided little structure and had all four attempting to talk over each other at some points. Or you could argue that it was the paucity of policy put forward by all four of the leaders. Still, these things usually have me rapt. But I’m finding, more and more, that I simply don’t care.

Fortunately for you, the writers for The Voice Magazine certainly do care, and you can see some of the results of that this week. This issue is, however, a little short. It seems writers are people too and the long weekend had its attractions. What this means, however, is that what you have now is a nice, quick read, so you can take your time over the third part of our interview with Dr. Kinshuk, as we look this week into advice he gives as to how you can best prepare for graduate school and tackle your studies.

We also have a new writer, Carla Knipe, who has submitted her first article about the new publishing regime that Amazon has brought into effect for e-books. If you’re not an e-book author, this might not seem that important to you, but as a student, you should take a look at how Carla points out how this could also end up affecting academic texts and even the make-up of the courses that we take. In this era of post-secondary institutions trying to save every penny they can, the change could have serious effects on how course developers decide what materials to use.

We also have Barb Lehtiniemi giving us a look at some light summer reading, and Samantha Stevens and Wanda Waterman provide us reviews of music and books to keep you busy once you’re finally done that essay. Plus our usual set of advice and other articles to keep you focused are all here in this week’s Voice Magazine.

Enjoy the read!