December 2016 Review Issue
The
Biography of Mose Jones Jr., Lawrence County Commissioner District 1
April L. Jones, PhD
Visionary Consulting Services, LLC
9781508670599
$36.88
www.amazon.com
www.barnesandnoble.com
www.vcsllc.co
Mose Jones Jr., the father of author April Jones, cultivated values and
actions
that supported both his political role and his religious, family, and
community
focus. In The
Biography of Mose Jones Jr.,
Lawrence County Commissioner District 1, a
daughter's view of her
father's political career receives loving attention as she recounts the
history
and actions of a man who ultimately left his mark on everyone and
everything he
touched in the 30 years he served as the Lawrence County Commissioner
and in
his prior activities as a civil rights leader.
Jones made it his mission to end the racially discriminatory voting scheme being used in Lawrence County. His victory came when he sued under The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and successfully obtained a federal court order striking the discriminatory system. Under a different hand it would have been too easy for this biography to focus on his numerous achievements in adulthood, but in the interests of providing a full coverage that includes his roots and influences, Dr. Jones begins with her father's childhood and moves forward in her review of the entirety of his life and times.
Readers follow Mose Jones Jr. from his family's roots as poor sharecroppers in a small Alabama town under Jim Crow laws to his determination not to fall victim to abuses and fate, but to become a productive, giving and positive person for himself and those around him. Perhaps this is the most powerful aspect of her biographical sketch as it considers how the messages of hard work, resourcefulness and the importance of both self-reliance and of working with others were cultivated at home and reinforced by church and community.
A foreword by David L. Martin, County Attorney for Lawrence County, who has known Mose Jones since 1984 when he entered his first race for the position of Lawrence County Commissioner, provides a fitting introduction to April Jones' account, while news articles from 1986, covering the election, add further details.
In covering these roots, The Biography of Mose Jones Jr., Lawrence County Commissioner District 1 embraces the overall evolution of civil rights struggles and challenges and places her father's legacy in not just a personal, but a historical perspective in the overall evolution of civil rights changes in this country.
His early interest in politics was fueled by a combination of observations of his community and an interest in history: "He was concerned with things like the poor condition of the dirt roads that he and most other black families lived on. Anytime it rained, those roads turned to mud. He was also very concerned about voting rights and how blacks in Lawrence County and throughout Alabama were often prevented from voting through legalized discrimination in the form of tests and other barriers due simply to the color of their skin. His interest in politics was also fueled by a love of history."
A combination of factors brings this entire effort to life for readers likely unfamiliar with Mose Jones Jr., from the inclusion of interviews with the man's associates in all walks of life to small color photos throughout that capture key moments of his life: a bridge named after him, awards received, certificates and honors, newspaper clippings, and more.
Dr. Jones makes certain that each page of her father's life is backed by essential information about his purposes, influences, the social and political milieu he operated in, and why these achievements are historically significant events that go far beyond a family's pride in their patriarch.
The result adds a key note to the annals of civil rights history and is highly recommended for any library holding strong in this subject and particularly in powerful biographies of individuals who may not be household words in national civil rights circles; but who should be.
The Biography of Mose Jones Jr., Lawrence County Commissioner District 1
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The
Butcher's Daughter: A Memoir
Florence Grende
Madison
Literary Press
978-0-692-80361-5
$16.95
www.amazon.com
https://www.goodreads.com/
The Butcher's Daughter: A Memoir is not a story of meat-cutting, but of survival on its most basic level - and of the impact of that survival on family members generations later.
Florence Grende's parents survived the Nazi invasion in the Polish woods. She grew up in a house filled with ghosts. Images of martyred relatives haunted their lives: "In my home, framed photos of dead relatives stared out from our walls. Images of the martyred many spilled over from albums and shoeboxes, apparitions rising into the ether like ghosts. I was raised with them, the slain, the lost."
Grende brings readers into this world, which opens on an immigrant ship where a child clutching a doll knows that America - and hope - lies only an ocean away. She introduces her audience to a broken world where hopes for the future are in stark and sharp contrast to a too-immediate past filled with death and struggle, and emphasizes this immediacy using stinging, biting language that fully captures despair: "I haven't discovered yet that Mameh wonders why she's still alive, still gets up each morning tasting bitterness, choking on air, while the men in her family, her brother, father, uncle are all dead. I haven't discovered yet that Mameh views her own womanhood as less than: less than men, less than intelligent, less than worthy."
But hers is also a magical place of family members healing from the anguish of their past, brought to life in passages that simultaneously affirm life and death and the importance of these connections: "Carrots, fried onions, raw eggs, pike, and carp form a milky mixture. My grandmother’s kerchief covered head bends low over the wooden bowl as she chops, shapes dumplings, then, with thick fingers, drops gefilte fish into boiling water. Opening her prayer book she faces east, whispers familiar words while the big pot bubbles, steam rising, then disappearing into air. The day before, the carp swam lazy circles in our tub, its mouth a slow series of o's. Bubbe grasps the chicken by its yellow legs, holds on tight, swings it high over my head three times, reciting a blessing with each revolution. I watch its flurry of feathers spread wide, the snow white of wing. I am eight or nine, awestruck that this wild creature, appearing like an angel, is in our apartment."
Many family memoirs and memoirs of survival and struggle fall short of depicting the very nuances they seek to bring to life; but this isn't so in The Butcher's Daughter. Florence Grende's ability to lift the moments, impressions, thoughts, and passions from experience and capture them in their crystalline seconds of agony and ecstasy elevates her story above and beyond similar-sounding accounts, creating an singularly striking piece that doesn't have to hammer home its message, because every whisper is a powerhouse of passion.
"Here's how I feel it still …" is a phrase replete in every chapter and throughout her story, running swiftly and slowly like a river of emotion that turns into a stream, then rages.
Florence Grende is a witness, safekeeping memories and dreams for herself, her family, and future generations. Come along with her on a journey that winds from a family's struggles not just to survive, but with survival's aftermath. It’s a journey centered in ancient customs and rituals and modern translations and dilemmas and, under her hand, is one which evolves from being nobody's business to being everyone's business, reaching deep into closely-held memories to pluck out the gems of wisdom that keep life meaningful.
The Butcher's Daughter: A Memoir
Return to Index
The
Conversations We Never Had
Jeffrey H. Konis
Outskirts Press, Inc.
ASIN: B01IL61MWY
$4.99
https://amzn.com/B01IL61MWY
The Conversations We Never Had is about the regrets of a son who wishes he'd probed more of his family history while its elders were still able to tell him about the past; but it doesn't end with the burial of his Grandmother Olga, the last person to have known his father's Holocaust experiences in Europe.
Instead, it blossoms into an investigation of what was, a realization of what could have been, and a family history that incorporates not only conversations made; but those which should have taken place.
How did the family matriarch make the kinds of decisions that would allow her family to survive, adopting and bringing her nephew (the author's father) to a new country? How did his father survive under impossible conditions, and how did she find him after the war to bring him to a new life? The author's regrets of not asking the right questions, only to piece together truths from a patchwork of possibilities decades later, is wonderfully portrayed: "Grandma Ola was the only person in the world who could give me some insight into my father, what he was like as a child, a son - to an extent - as a student, though I knew he must have been exceptional in this regard, given that he overcame a language barrier, simultaneously learning English and the sciences, among his other courses; he did this successfully enough to go to medical school. And yet I never had an in-depth conversation with Grandma about my dad and, for the life of me, I have no idea why I didn't. At least I could, and did, ask my father these questions as I navigated my way through the biased nature of his responses, to get as much truth as possible."
Many Holocaust family stories come from the horse's mouth in the form of reminiscences of parents and grandparents translated through the memories and notes of their descendants. Jeffrey H. Konis adds a new twist to this approach in covering not only the conversations that took place; but those which were unsaid.
As he surveys issues of Jewish livelihood and independence (among many other subjects), Konis comes to realize the forces that shaped and led to his career and life choices, and brings readers into a world enlightened by these discussions of Jewish heritage past and how they were passed down and, in turn, translated into life decisions made by future generations.
The precise links between these translations and applications past to present are enhanced by the author's introspective assessments of what is presented to him, and what it means for his own life: "If I couldn't find a Jewish girl to marry, the selection would be greatly enhanced were I to allow myself to marry someone who converted. But what about everything Grandma was just telling me, that even one who has converted is still not the same as one who was brought up Jewish? It made me think of something my dad once said about Grandma Ola. He told me that, yes, she had raised him like a son, but she wasn't his mother. He said it wasn't the same."
The result is more than another Holocaust survival story: it's a perceptive and examining survey of how ideals, thoughts, traditions and culture are handed down in families, surveying the types of questions asked and those left unsaid, and their impact.
Readers of Holocaust literature and biography will find themselves drawn to the family and personalities surrounding Jeffrey H. Konis and will be particularly delighted to understand how Jewish traditions and family messages helped him shape his own decision-making process.
The Conversations We Never Had
Return to Index
Groovin':
Horses, Hopes, and Slippery Slopes
Rich Israel
Sandra Jonas Publishing
978-0-997487138
www.sandrajonaspublishing.com/
Many memoirs take a trip down memory lane when it comes to experiences of the 1960s; but Groovin': Horses, Hopes, and Slippery Slopes is a horse of another color, and comes from a father who had been telling his stories for years before the birth of his child prompted him to put them in writing.
His passion for adventure drove many of his encounters, while his memories of these years are backed by the reflections of old friends whom he contacted during the course of penning this memoir. In true keeping with the 1960s, readers should expect a story of drugs, sex, gambling, risky impulses for change, and living on the edge ("The thought of being someone‘s dinner sent shivers down my spine. Bears? Why so much fear about bears? Had it always been there, and I just wasn‘t aware of it? I was a rational person and often looked at my feelings in a therapeutic way, weighing what was fact and disregarding irrational emotions and reactions. Even in my far-from-normal state, a soft voice told me my fears were foolish. Standing in the bathhouse, I decided to confront this nagging dread and walk off into the woods.").
While his mishaps and forays into fears, limitations, and freedoms aren't unusual revelations for a memoir of life in the 1960s, what is different is Rich Israel's attention to capturing the sentiments and perspectives forged by these explorations into alternative lifestyles and states of mind—along with matters of the heart. Everything in Groovin' receives a magical perspective, spiced with drugs, but Israel's ability to document different adventures and their results incorporates a practical bent to a memoir that pulls readers into the 1960s and its free-styling attitudes. When horses become a part of this unexpected journey, Israel finds his drive to freedom powered by an equine influence as well.
As chapters present the counter-culture of the time, readers are brought into the rationales and consequences affecting a life lived on the fringes of social acceptance. Israel’s travels also take him to Mexico, so cross-cultural experiences become part of an open-minded, spontaneous individual unafraid to test the waters outside the comfort zone of American society.
The result is a spirited story of evolving independence and growth that takes the milieu and zeitgeist of the 1960s and translates them into a romp through psyche, soul, and dangers the author is not unaware of, even as he participates: "I was indulging more than I normally did, but it didn‘t worry me. I had seen enough dopey people who took too much acid. Their choice, but I preferred my brain cells intact. Once this summer was over, I‘d cool it. But for now, I was hell-bent on living life to the max."
Readers seeking an evocative, "you are there" feel to a series of often-zany 1960s encounters will relish the tone and presentation of Groovin': Horses, Hopes, and Slippery Slopes, a saga of hippie days gone wild.
Groovin': Horses, Hopes, and Slippery Slopes
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Growing
Old with Grace
Ramakrishna Michaels
Moana Publications
978-1-5151-9514-6
$14.99
https://amzn.com/1515195147
Growing Old with Grace: How a Shakti Guru Transformed My Life is unexpected in its approach, documenting the life of a child who exhibited early musical genius, became involved in a dysfunctional relationship with his mother, and turned into a troubled adult with numerous addictions.
All this changed when author Ramakrishna Michaels met guru Babaji Shambhavananda and began to confront and change his karma and destiny in life; a process that led him on a psychological and spiritual journey replete with growth and newfound insights and directions.
Spiritual readers of autobiographies who seek to understand the exact nature and progression of transformative experiences will relish this story of how a musical child prodigy, who as an adult found himself physically and emotionally crippled, came to take charge of his life and discover a newfound purpose through yoga and meditation.
As chapters evolve, readers receive a healthy dose of Eastern spiritual philosophy and perspective, and will experience an unexpected dose of humor in vignettes that often incorporate a wry humorous observational style even as they consider the ironies and inconsistencies of life.
What are first presented as barriers to growth and obstacles to enlightenment become, ironically, the very vehicles by which lasting change and spiritual insights are delivered. As chapters evolve to cover this process, readers receive many insights on how the author's evolving spiritual practices spilled over into home, work, and greater life purposes: "I soon began to take my newly found meditation practice into my everyday life at the phone company. It wasn’t long before I noticed a subtle shift at work. Before I began meditating, I would see certain people who I perceived did not like me, and I would just tighten up. If there was to be any interaction with them, it was nearly certain to be negative. With meditation, I came to realize I was not only the star in my own life’s “movie,” but was also writing the screenplay and producing and directing it with my thoughts. As my meditation practice took root, occasionally I would see the same people, and poof! My tension toward them would dissolve."
From the challenges of living in an ashram and dealing with the concept of physical work and its lessons ("I first learned the importance of doing seva (or service) at Gurumayi’s ashram. The first few days I avoided it. “I don’t want to work,” I told myself. But seva was considered an important part of the ashram experience, so after a few days, I volunteered to help clean one of the public areas. It was a room filled with tables and chairs, next to the dining hall. As I went from table to table, cleaning each one, I became filled with energy, and the experience became quite magical. I discovered that doing seva took me to a very deep place within myself.") to translating these insights from his guru to broader and deeper life experiences, Ramakrishna Michaels provides a powerful testimony of not only his own growth, but to the influence a guru can make in the process of achieving transformative, lasting change.
Readers of Eastern philosophy and autobiographies of growth and enlightenment will find that Growing Old with Grace charts the precise pivot points of transformation with more insight and preciseness than most spiritual titles, and will find within in its pages much food for thought on how to "…navigate the worldly plane while remaining centered and focused within," while freeing oneself of the life-death-rebirth cycle of karma.
Growing Old with Grace
Return to Index
The
Lucky One
Sherry V. Ostroff
CreateSpace
9781523956210
$9.99
www.amazon.com
"The Lucky One" is Ita, a young girl born in a world about to be turned on end from pogroms against Jewish people on Russian soil in 1918 and the years that followed. At first this memoir's name seems to be a misnomer. How could any child facing the terrors of those times be deemed 'lucky' in any sense of the word? The answer to this question lies in the fact that she survived and eventually even thrived. This process forms the crux of a memoir that takes its readers into the world of revolutionary Russia, when Jews were marked for death and an onslaught of horror evolved.
Sherry V. Ostroff is the now-adult Ita's daughter, so is in the perfect position to blend her mother's memories with her own insights on family stories about life in Russia, Romania, and the long journey Ita undertook to get to America. Ostroff's mother was a storyteller, starting her daughter on Bible stories and eventually moving into the saga of her family's struggles in the "old country".
Luckily, Ostroff realized the treasure trove in her mother's memories and encouraged her mother to work with her to craft them into a book. The Lucky One is that book: a testimony to the survival of children and Jewish people, and the saga of a country torn asunder by civil war. Ten years after her mother handed her a 100-page manuscript in response to her daughter's request, Ita was gone. It fell upon Ostroff to preserve this story for future generations.
It should be noted that Ita's manuscript has not been heavily revised. To fully capture the cadence and personality of her mother's voice, Ostroff chose to make only minor corrections to make the memoir readable ("Although the grammar is poor, her story is clear."). That her immigrant mother struggled with the English language is evident, but in the interests of capturing her mother's voice, Ostroff points out that "If a word was omitted, I have used brackets to show my addition; this was done only to improve meaning." Readers should not expect perfection, therefore; and if the brackets throughout sometimes prove a reading challenge, they do help to reinforce Ita's real voice.
As a mother's words alternate with her daughter's insights, Jewish traditions and encounters are described from two generations' experiences. The vivid words and travels from Russia to Romania and then to America capture a young girl's observations and create a "you are there" atmosphere that explores and contrasts the social climate and feel of three countries: "Fire was the feared dread of the people and when a fire broke out all differences and religions were forgotten and everyone helped each other." Another example of this: "If you had asked me at that time how God made rain I would have explained it this way. God had a bigger water barrel then the water carrier on a cloud and when God pulled the plug, it rained."
Readers who enjoy memoirs, and especially those who look for sagas of struggle to survive and flourish against enormous odds, will appreciate Sherry V. Ostroff's attention to bringing her mother's words to life, and Ita's vivid descriptions of that world. Given America's newfound attention to immigration issues, one could not hope for a timelier read than The Lucky One.
The Lucky One
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Spirituality
The
Alphabet Prayer How
can being newly disabled contribute to spiritual development? Ask
author Peter
Le Var, who was on the cusp of an inviting vacation when he herniated
two discs
in his back just by bending over, which disrupted not just his vacation
plans,
but his entire life. Le
Var was a Quaker, and his newfound condition influenced to an extended
form of
spiritual contemplation that grew to embrace a new ritual of prayer for
Bible
reading based on the alphabet. The
result is The
Alphabet Prayer,
co-written with his wife, author Dr. Linda Seger, which is written
partially in
calligraphy (the alphabet letter and its simple one-line prayer) and
juxtaposed
with text exploring the meaning of each prayer. Having
an A-Z arrangement allows form and structure to guide the prayer
rituals and
provides a sense of continuity to the book and its purposes. It's meant
to be
used as a prayer book, but the comments accompanying each calligraphy
prayer
help guide readers on the meaning of the words and each prayer's
potential for
uncovering a deeper relationship to God. Take
'Q' for example. The prayer here is "Quintessential God, Quiet Me,
Quicken
Me, in Your Quest for Quality," and this is backed by a supporting
Scripture passage, while the accompanying meditative reflection
admonishes
readers to consider the empowerment of a close relationship with God: "When we run to God, not only are
we protected, but
God can empower us and change what we need changed in order to restore
us to a
right relationship with ourselves and with those we perceive as our
enemies." Artistic,
thought-provoking, and filled with new possibilities for understanding
one's
relationship with the Divine, The Alphabet
Prayer is more than another spiritual tool. It's
a creative approach
to translating prayer to deeper purpose in Biblical reading, and is
recommended
for any Christian thinker who would use the Scriptures to revise
attitudes
about life's events and their connections to God. Reflections
with God While Waiting to Be Healed Chronic
pain and serious illness not only taxes the body; they take their toll
on the
spirit, as well. How does the devout Christian address the theological
challenges that come with devastating or repeat physical blows, and how
does
that process translate to a new (possibly improved) relationship with
God? All
this and more is addressed in Reflections
with God While Waiting to Be Healed, a blend of
spiritual discourse
and autobiography by a woman on the fast track to success and
achievement when
she was diagnosed with two disabling physical conditions that lead her
to
question her relationship with God and his purpose in changing the
positive
course of her life. One
might expect a scholarly discourse from a theologian, based on the
book's title
and its author's credentials; but in fact Dr. Seger's story is very
straightforward and moves from a happy, successful life to one of
struggles
with her own body's course (a neurological ailment, dystonia, and
breast
cancer). Her
journey toward healing is also a journey towards a different kind of
relationship with God, as Dr. Seger discovered; and that concurrent
journey is
charted in an autobiography about healing body and spirit which comes
from the
perspective of a Christian, Quaker, and Doctor of Theology. Chapters
offer strong assessments linking body and spiritual growth and document
how the
journey towards healing is also a sometimes-frustrating journey of
spiritual
understanding that often reveals troubling, fundamental questions and
concerns
about faith: "From
a spiritual
perspective, the underlying question is often: “What does God want from
us?
What is the possibility for our future? And, do we have a future? Is it
possible that our illness is God’s will? Where is the Holy Spirit in
all this?” The
equation of physical and spiritual death, the quest to build a
supportive
spiritual community in the face of challenging illness, and the process
of
creating a 'spiritual team' as well as growth-inducing concepts that
arise as a
result of illness are all outlined in a spiritual discussion that will
enlighten and encourage anyone else who suffers from ongoing, chronic
conditions. Dr.
Seger's observations are easily accessible by all because she employs a
tone
devoid of technical terms or scholarly discourse in favor of a personal
approach that well connects her words and experiences in language
accessible to
all: "Surrender
might mean coming to
terms with our situation. Surrender might mean recognizing that this is
how
things are at this point. Surrender might recognize that this is the
New Normal. Surrender might
mean getting into the rhythm of our illness. It might mean we recognize
that
there are certain processes going on and we can no longer live our
daily lives
in the same order with the same structure and with the same
determination we
used to have to achieve other life goals. There is something else going
on and
attention must be paid to this fact. We try to get into the new rhythm,
recognizing that even the rhythm of illness might have something to
teach us
about slowing down, watching the flowers grow, nurturing ourselves,
letting go
of some areas in life that create irritations, trying to take more
moments for
our spouse, friends, and pets, and letting a few other things slide.
And always
listening for the Still Small Voice and trying to see the Hand of God." Christian
readers challenged to see God's purpose in pain, suffering, and change
will
find Reflections
with God While Waiting to
Be Healed is an inspirational roadmap to a
different kind of
success: one that requires no special degrees, knowledge, or skills;
but only
an altered awareness of God's hand in the world, provided
here. Reflections
with God While Waiting to Be Healed
is very highly recommended as an inspirational, uplifting testimony of
not just
survival, but spiritual growth and different kinds of
miracles.
Linda Seger & Peter Le Var
Clovercroft Publishing
978-1-942557-85-2
$12.99
https://amzn.com/194255785X
The
Alphabet Prayer
Return
to Index
Linda Seger, Th.D.
Clovercroft Publishing
978-1-942557-70-8
https://amzn.com/1942557701
Reflections
with God While Waiting to Be Healed
Return
to Index
The
Tower Below The
Tower Below, book three in the
Morus
Chronicles, continues the saga begun in The
Hunter Awakens and The Spirit of
Steel with the story of a boy who has newly
embraced his role as a treasure
hunter, having escaped the clutches of the demon Maura, and who faces
new
dangers as he is hunted in the woods by a massive bear that is
controlled by a
Dark force. But
Ethan has powerful friends who journey with him, throwing all caution
to the winds
despite the fact that the Dark will do anything to achieve its goals.
Ironically, it's not just the Dark that covets Ethan's treasure hunting
abilities: the Light also wants to prevent him from finding anything
else that
could prove deadly, and the police want him for blowing up part of his
high
school. With
everyone after him for different reasons, Ethan must toe a dangerous
line
between self-preservation and a greater good, and must identify what
that
greater good could be and what sacrifices he's willing to make in its
name. Warriors
and monsters, sword attacks and sorcery, a long journey with friends
and
supporters that's replete with struggle and threats from all sides, and
a
greater vision of purpose all coalesce in a fantasy action quest that
requires
little prior familiarity with its predecessors in order to prove
accessible to
newcomers of all ages. Replete
with strong characters and evocative encounters that speak to this
greater good
and the evolution of strength and purpose in young Ethan's world ("Remember my failure, boy. I, who
was the protector of
all, lost my way and turned to darkness. Selfishness was my downfall.
It cannot
be yours.”), The Tower Below
is every bit as powerful and well done as the preceding books in the
series;
and though prior familiarity with them is not a requirement, any
newcomer who
steps into this world will surely want to go back and fill in the
blanks as
they follow Ethan's evolving path and purpose, which leaves the door
open for
more in the series.
J.R. Roper
CHBB Publishing, LLC
ISBN:
9781540481900
$12.99
https://joerroper.com/books/
The
Tower Below
Return
to Index
Healthspan
- Live Long, Die Young
Dongxun Zhang, Bob Zhang, and David Kincade
Prepublication
Manuscript
There's much talk of lifespan and efforts to expand it, but as humans age, concurrent discussions increasingly revolve around quality of life; and Healthspan - Live Long, Die Young stands at the forefront of this discussion with its focus on applying concepts of intended evolution fitness to modern health challenges.
The Intended Evolution metabolism program was originally developed by this book's co-author, Dr. Dongxun Zhang, for a patient who wanted to take charge of and direct her genetic predispositions for disease and illness. His program is a synthesis of health and fitness routines designed to actively encourage and direct better health throughout one's lifespan.
This isn't just an idealistic dream: Healthspan acknowledges that the body's ability to be flexible is encoded in DNA and that efforts to build or change its flexibility isn't entirely under a patient's control. However, everyone has different degrees of flexibility which, when identified and used wisely, can protect and enhance the body's natural ability to recover and stay healthy.
The Intended Evolution concept applied in Healthspan is about identifying, assessing, and nurturing these systems; and while a great deal of scientific backing is provided to support its theories and contentions, it's important to note that lay readers can easily skip through the volume and pick up the more succinct points about this process.
The case history examples throughout temper research studies, while discussions are lively enough for lay readers to access and offer much food for thought: "During the course of human evolution, newer functions and relationships often arose as updates to current systems were needed due to environmental demands. New needs were often met by the current cells or systems changing their size or functions or taking on a support role for a newer system. The human brain has many examples of newer functions and structures being “layered over” old ones, so to speak, or by co-opting structures for new functions."
With its holistic discussions of health-preserving approaches to understanding not just longevity but human evolution and quality of life, Healthspan - Live Long, Die Young stands at the crossroads of science and quality of living choices and is a 'must' for readers who contemplate longevity and its costs.
Healthspan - Live Long, Die Young
Return to Index
The
Thinking Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer
Janet Maker, Ph.D.
Jane Thomas Press
Paperback: 978-0-9976619-1-0
eBook:
978-0-9976619-2-7
Hardcover: 978-0-9976619-0-3
www.JaneThomasPress.com
The Thinking Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer: Take Charge of Your Recovery and Remission comes from an author who was surprised to be diagnosed with breast cancer (a shock because she had no family history of the disease) and who immediately faced a plethora of medical choices about chemo, radiation, surgery, and aggressive treatment options.
Though she admitted ignorance on the subject, she wanted to make her own informed decisions outside of immediate recommendations, and so she began a research process which was to ultimately translate not just into a personal program of treatment, but a series of strategies for filtering through and understanding cancer research information. These approaches form the foundation of The Thinking Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, which should be read by any woman diagnosed with breast cancer.
Readers should anticipate not a 'how to' title, but a blend of autobiography and investigation as Janet Maker, Ph.D. discusses her journey through the world of medical diagnostic procedures and cancer treatments. Chapters discuss how she made her own choices and, even more importantly, highlight the knowledge she holds today that might, in hindsight, have influenced or changed these decisions. Perhaps most telling of all comes from the author's own words in her preface: "This is the book I wished I had when I needed it."
Including details on specific kinds of tests that yield helpful information and yet are often not a part of the diagnosis process (such as the Oncotype DX, specifically recommended for select postmenopausal women with invasive breast cancers, or the Caris test (where tumor slides receive genetic analysis), the wealth of specifics offered here demand slow reading, as they hold much information that likely will be new to readers.
Janet Maker didn't just question her oncologists: she rooted out information from oncology nurses and professional resources, read about new theories and research, and thus offers many specifics lacking in similar-sounding cancer books, such as insights on the value of anti-angiogenesis programs: "If the markers go up, an anti-angiogenic program could be reintroduced. This, of course, is very relevant to me, with my high tumor markers. I was unfortunately not started on an anti-angiogenesis program before surgery, but I should be on one now."
After treatment with surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and hormones is over, conventional oncology considers its work finished. The only thing it offers is tests to see whether the cancer has come back. The problem is that, if it has come back, it will likely have metastasized to other organs and no longer be considered curable. Therefore, it is important to prevent from returning, and conventional oncology offers very little in that regard. Because Janet is at high risk for recurrence and metastasis, she works with an integrative oncologist to try to keep herself in remission. Integrative oncologists believe that there is a second part to cancer treatment: to make the body resistant to cancer. Based on regular blood tests, Janet follows an individualized program of diet, supplements, exercise, stress reduction, and avoidance of environmental carcinogens. This information is shared with readers who may want to make similar choices.
As Janet learned about environmental carcinogens and began making the lifestyle changes required to avoid them, she became aware of the corporations responsible for the carcinogens in the environment, research funded by the corporations, legislators who rely on corporate contributions to keep their jobs, and the cancer charities that take corporate money in return for pinkwashing. She works only with breast cancer charities that focus on corporate and government accountability and cancer prevention, and she avoids those that blame the victims' genetics or lifestyle for getting cancer.
The
result is far beyond an autobiography of experience and delves into the
worlds
of latest research applications, best practices, and treatments every
breast
cancer patient should know about before they make decisions. This
highly
recommended pick should be in every general lending library and in
every health
or women's issues collection.
The
Thinking Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer
Return
to Index
The
Chemist
Alan J. Field
ThrillRide Media
ASIN:
B01J0KFN5M
$3.99
978-0-9980508-0-5
http://a.co/4SZfDmx
Book 1 of The Chemist opens the thriller series with a bang as an unusually powerful weapon of mass destruction threatens the world, causing Delta Force veteran Daniel Strong to emerge from a fog of addiction to respond to an unprecedented danger: a neurotoxin in the process of being auctioned off in New York.
This weapon wasn't created in a government lab or by terrorists, but is homegrown form by a genius heroin addict. Her knowledge of its formula and the efforts of forces on all sides intent on tracking her down places Danny in an uncertain role as he joins the search for her while battling those on both sides who would use her knowledge for their deadly games.
It's rare to see a protagonist so tortured by his role in an international hunt, which pulls forth his own deeply buried secrets and angst in the process. Thrillers usually formulate plots where there are distinct friends and enemies, with the protagonist on one side or the other, but not here. One of the delights of The Chemist is that there are no clear boundaries of black and white or good and evil. Instead, it places the protagonist on a tightrope of tension as he tries to figure out his place within a tale of stunning plot twists that builds into something much more than just another obvious effort to save the world.
Readers who enjoy international intrigue and spicy confrontations will appreciate the fact that scenes in The Chemist wind from Beirut to New York City, Afghanistan to Israel, and from hackers and hostiles to would-be rescuers and failed missions.
As more characters become involved in decision-making processes that hold conflicting logic and ethical frameworks, readers receive a powerful story as men and women operate on equally potent grounds and struggle with their own evolving perspectives, agendas and dark secrets in the face of a world-changing responsibility: "It’s just business, Kate. You’ve been working on this since graduate school and only now it occurs to you? It’s not about ending lives. Think of it as saving them. The balance of power in the world must be preserved. Once everyone has access to the same weapon—and they will--the balance of power will keep the players even and the global economy rolling.” “I don’t need a geopolitics lecture. I need money. Right now. I need a place to stay. Bad things have happened to me because of what I know. I just can’t take it any more.”
Drug addiction, personal and political motivation, and terrorism and anti-terrorism all wind into a package backed by strong character development and a frighteningly vivid, realistic story line to make for compelling reading for even the most seasoned thriller audience. (It should also be noted that 20% of all profits from The Chemist’s sale will be donated to an organization that aids victims of the Syrian crisis.)
The Chemist
Return to Index
Dicer
Heist
John Dixson
John Dixson, Publisher
Ebook ISBN: 9780692791974
$2.99
Paperback ISBN-13: 9781532808906 $7.99
Amazon ASIN:
B01E9NMEJI
Amazon Kindle Version: https://www.amazon.com/Dicer-
Amazon
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Dicer-
B&N
Nook Book: http://www.barnesandnoble.
B&N
Paperback: http://www.barnesandnoble.
Apple:
https://geo.itunes.apple.com/
CreateSpace:
https://www.createspace.com/
Kobo:
https://store.kobobooks.com/
Rigged sports games, high stakes gambling in Las Vegas, a professional sports gambler who becomes involved in building a team, and a bigger bet than Daniel Sanders has ever faced, involving real-world consequences, are just a few of the vivid elements that make thriller Dicer Heist an engrossing production.
Dan's early love of sports has naturally led to his involvement in the sports arena as an adult; but the routes he's chosen for this involvement, using his math degree and expertise in probabilities and statistics to build a professional sports betting career, skirts the boundaries of ethical behavior. These choices pale in comparison to a project that involves some of Vegas' biggest political figures and the most money ever spent to support a team, and Dan starts to find that everything - too much, in fact - rides on a sequence of events that he can't predict.
In some ways, Dicer Heist is a gambler's dream story. Dan likes the idea of owning a team, his expertise and connections fit in well with team-building and stadium-building efforts, and at first his investment appears a success.
It's when he conspires with the team pitcher for even bigger money and becomes involved in a rigged game that ultimately abandons the very dream he's built and invested in, that things get complicated. The story spreads across the U.S., follows Dan to Russia, involves the FBI in his apprehension, and brings a host of investigators into Dan's choices and methods.
It's a heist story that moves from Vegas to an international arena, done with finesse and a panache that brings readers not only into Dan's mind, but the thoughts of those who pursue him.
Spiced with financial data and sporting an international flavor, Vegas atmosphere, and a touch of romance, Dicer Heist holds much for thriller readers who enjoy a good heist story that evolves to embrace a myriad of lives, special purposes, and other countries; all firmly rooted in sports team politics, processes, and high-stakes financial arrangements.
Dicer Heist
Return to Index
Hell's
Wrath
Alex Siegel
Amazon Digital Services
ASIN: B01LXPT0R5
$2.99
http://a.co/cMda4Tq
Renegade demons from hell are invading Chicago, and the First Circle Club, comprised of Virgil and his team, are tasked with stemming the tide of deadly opponents that are the result of a war between heaven and earth in Book 5 of the series.
In Hell, the Archduke Thammuz holds black magic powers that are unrivaled; but here on Earth, his special abilities are more limited. He's not the kind of leader to let physics stop him from conducting a deadly insurgence, however, and as he leads hundreds of demons on a search to kill angels and harvest souls, a quest for glory turns into something far greater - and something Virgil's powerful forces may not be able to thwart.
Hell's Wrath is an adept, compelling addition to an evolving war saga and holds a special ability to capture newcomers as well as prior series fans. From demons intent on recruiting Satanists for their cause to the evolution of magical abilities, Siegel dashes in a bit of humor at times; an unexpected and fun embellishment to the story: "A strong odor caught her attention and drew her gaze to a mountain of garbage. It appeared modern society produced plenty of trash after all, but they were good at storing it in one spot. She eagerly flew down and landed on top of the pile. The stench of rotting food reminded her of certain parts of Hell. Even though it was the middle of the night, and the air was cool, countless flies buzzed the air. This is perfect for my new nest, Lilith thought."
There's nothing funny about events to come, however, and fans of supernatural fantasy and horror blends will find Hell's Wrath is seat-of-your pants reading, heady in its moves between demons and angels and extraordinary fighters to magical robots, terrorists, and changing angels that place Virgil and his First Circle Club on the brink of eternal damnation and a bizarre afterlife.
Does the Lord have a plan? If so, Hell's Wrath reveals just a hint of what it could be in a rollicking adventure read that adds to a series and which will delight prior fans and newcomers alike.
Hell's Wrath
Return to Index
Homegrown:
The Terror Within
Cialan Haasnic
Bournos Press
0615265391
$17.95
www.bournos.com
It's hard to believe that a decade after 9/11, the action and realistic challenges presented in the thriller Homegrown: The Terror Within remain as relevant to the world as they did in the past. Perhaps this is because the underlying elements of this terrorism (psychological uncertainty and threats) remain alive in society, operating within the trappings of politics, big business, and homegrown plots to thwart or contribute to society-disrupting forces.
It's these latter elements that are explored in Homegrown, which traces the events and motives behind the development and deployment of a fast-acting bio-weapon that thwarts any scientific efforts to cure its effects.
Today there is almost as much concern and fear about bio-weapons as nuclear weaponry; perhaps because the unleashing of an incurable, spreading plague promises a much more wider-ranging, lasting impact than a local destructive event. Humanity itself could be obliterated with such a weapon; so what group in their right mind could consider this a method that would serve their best interests?
Add the unlikely 'hero' of a mathematician who strives to predict the path of the pathogen, the relentless course of a manmade, mosquito-borne virus, and a focus on warheads, containment struggles, and confrontations on all sides for a riveting thriller that's complex and heady reading.
Subplots, characters operating at different levels of social and with different special interests ranging from the personal to the political, and the thought that "…nothing ever happens here" contribute to a chillingly realistic scenario that's hard to put down. Minor grammatical flaws throughout periodically give pause for thought, but don't significantly deter from Homegrown's dual strengths in plot development and characterization.
Fans of Robin Cook, Michael Crichton, and others who excel in placing personal characters into political and life-threatening social scenarios will find Cialan Haasnic joins them with a story that promises to unfold further, in future books (Homegrown concludes with an open ending as additional danger is hatched).
Homegrown: The Terror Within
Return to Index
Inside
Moves
Walter Danley
www.walterdanley.com
"We're losing him!" an EMT shouts as the ambulance careens down the streets of Santa Barbara carrying Bobby Wainwright, who's fighting for his life. The EMT knows that Bobby's been injured on the job as he inspected a construction site; the novel's ultimate focus isn't on Bobby, but on his brother Garth, who is left with many questions.
Garth and his lawyer wife Lacey leave the funeral determined to search for truth and closure when a jeep drives them off the road and careens Garth and his wife over the edge in Topanga Canyon. Nobody should or could have survived that accident - but a determined sheriff succeeds in rescuing Garth against all odds, and then the real mystery begins as Garth struggles to recover, sans wife and memory, and piece together what happened not only to his brother, but to him.
Inside Moves joins The Tipping Point in Walter Danley's 'Wainwright Mystery' series, but that doesn't mean that prior familiarity with the first novel is a prerequisite to enjoying this one. Flashbacks neatly put together the prior story of Lacey and Garth's relationship and lives while the central them of Garth's uncertain recovery and his ability to investigate without the tools of even his own memory makes for a gripping story of recovery and determination.
Kidnappings and murder plots, a wife indicted by her actions and damning evidence, and lost memories replaced by new knowledge that one's biggest loves in life are questionable - all these are elements of Inside Moves that keeps readers on their toes and in the grip of an affair that is part relationship and part intrigue.
As motivations on all sides grow murky and Wainwright finds himself tested by his own investigative prowess and what it uncovers, readers who appreciate complex stories of prisoners, jailers, and rescuers will relish the many layers of complexity that come between Garth and Lacey in the aftermath of Bobby's accident.
Tests of sanity, goons with murky intentions and deadly, precisely executed plots, and a husband and wife's separate trials all coalesce in a story that is intriguing and hard to put down. This gripping read is highly recommended for audiences who relish solid characterization, series titles that don't rely on one another for support, and approaches that add to the excitement of the prior book without requiring special knowledge.
Inside Moves
Return to Index
A
Minor Deception: A Joseph Haydn Mystery
Nupur Tustin
Foiled Plots Press
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-9982430-1-6
$14.95
Ebook ISBN-13: 978-0-9982430-0-9
$4.99
ntustin.com
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/
Barnes
& Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
Kobo:
https://store.kobobooks.com/
iBooks:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/
The subject of a musical mystery revolving around classical artist Joseph Haydn already poses something different to mystery readers; but pair this with the enticing atmosphere of 1766 and the characters of empresses, archdukes, and princes with political and social ties for a truly delightful blend of history and mystery.
A Minor Deception is actually no minor affair, but a compelling saga revolving around real-life musicians and their families, political figures, a network of spies and special interest forces, and an added dash of fictional supporting characters whose disparate flavors add to an attention-grabbing atmosphere.
An 'Overture' sets the scene and prepares the stage for a flurry of action and intrigue that deftly captures the atmosphere and turmoil of Hungary in the late 1700s, while chapters waltz through musicians and officers of the Esterházy court who display the surprisingly feisty, eccentric personalities of musical genius even as they form uneasy alliances in the name of musical accomplishment.
As bad behaviors, conflicts and strife, querulous encounters, and a principal violinist's disappearance turn high society on end, readers are treated to a stellar performance that revolves around the discovery of a battered violin case in an unusual place, musician Haydn's unwilling assumption of the role of investigator to discover what happened to his best performer, and the true identity of a virtuoso who had his fingers on more than violin strings.
Add political overtones to a story steeped in music and mystery ("Could the emblem on Albert’s violin case be a raven? He must remember to examine all the violin cases in the Rehearsal Room on the morrow. The uneasy sensation that he had managed somehow to hire yet another dissident took hold of him.") for a command performance that revolves around Hungarian nobility and a compelling enigma.
Well-written
and exquisitely developed, A Minor Deception
is a standout in the genre of historical mysteries. An encore is
requested! Money
Can't Lie
A
Minor Deception: A Joseph Haydn Mystery
Return
to Index
Anna Schlegel
Schlegel Press Association
9780998185330
$6.63
https://amzn.com/0998185337
A deal with a sleeper agent that leaves no identifiable trace because it dissolves upon completion … a sleeper agent who knows all the players in a high-stakes money game … and a deal that takes place in the ramshackle suburbs of Berlin that opens with a seemingly-innocuous discussion over a grill, of sleeper agents and the assumable, fluctuating identity of one 'Vlad Holt'. All these form the nexus of a thriller that begins with a couple's discussion about intelligence processes and evolves to a cat-and-mouse game played out across the streets of Europe.
Money Can't Lie is replete with intrigue and heavily laced with a dose of reality (author Anna Schlegel's background lends to a frighteningly realistic atmosphere in the events that unwind in her story). It's also infused with a sense of atmosphere through descriptions that bring readers right into the protagonist's world: "There was still a chance he’d just left his wife or chosen to lie low. He may be deep into debt, and just made this appointment because he wanted some money? You never know, things do happen. But he would surely come for this appointment with Vlad. Victor and I went out of the taxi about two blocks away from the meeting point. My face was instantly frozen peppered with the prickly salt-like powder snow. Victor turned up his coat collar and gathered his scarf around his neck up to his nose, and tilted his wool hat over his eyebrows. It was a quiet bare park, deserted the way it may be in wintertime only, with its pathways covered in snow a bit melted under the feet of the passers-by and then iced-up. The snow was blinking my eyes with its piercing white so that my closed eyes could still sense the white dazzling trace of it. We separated and started to detour on the park circle-wise."
Money Can't Lie is translated from Russian, events are very well done, and the intrigue throughout lends to a story that is hard to put down.
Money Can't Lie is the first volume of 'The Sleeper' series, presenting financial international intrigue at its best as it journeys from the Berlin suburbs to the pinnacles of chess-like moves between American and German intelligence and counterintelligence and examines thieves, middlemen, bankers and secret services. How does a person vanish into a new persona without a trace? What are the possibilities that someone from Moscow will identify the subterfuge? And who are the real pawns in the game of high-stakes bank takeovers?
Readers needn't have a financial degree in order to fully appreciate the moves made in Money Can't Lie; but those who look for a fast-paced thriller firmly rooted in banking and espionage activities will find they're in for a compelling read steeped in Russian intelligence and circumstances surrounding forgotten agents.
Money Can't Lie
Return to Index
Nazi
Saboteurs on the Bayou
Steven Burgauer
Battleground Press
978-0692808122
$14.95
http://sites.google.com/site/
Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou comes with an intriguing author disclaimer: that the CIA and U.S. Department of Defense continue to deny that the events outlined in this book ever happened - which makes it all the more intriguing a piece of fiction that skirts the line between factual history and a thriller.
The story centers around an event that took place in 1942. It's not set in the usual military battlefields of Europe or the Pacific but in New Orleans, where the Higgins boat landing craft key to military operations in the Pacific is being manufactured.
A fictional Nazi plot to disrupt the manufacture of these boats involves world arenas as disparate as New Orleans, San Diego, North Africa, and beyond. Winding this series of events into a short, two-week period may seem ambitious, but in this case it serves to heighten tension, condense the action, and results in a terse story that excels in detailing a tightly-crafted series of events where no word is wasted.
From a half-drunk aristocratic German's death in a brothel and the discovery of a book that holds a map of the naval facilities nearby (indicating he might be a spy, to other German presences in America and the forces they represent), chapters unfold with the staccato precision of an intrigue and adventure saga spiced by Louisiana dialect and military encounters alike.
It's a desperate race for all sides as time runs out, and readers will find themselves immersed in the desperate search for a hidden book that involves death and individuals who come from disparate backgrounds: "Deputy Marshal Nolan Greeley was new to the Gulf Coast area. His previous assignment had been in the Colorado Rockies, not far from where he grew up, the oldest son of German immigrants. His parents and kin still spoke the language at home. So did he. But that job in the mountains had gone south on him when he kept showing up in the field half-drunk. So the U.S. Marshal Service transferred him down here, to the Gulf Coast District. For the moment, Greeley rented a home from a woman he met in a local bar his first week on the job, a ramshackle house near New Orleans on the so-called “German Coast.” If he screwed this up, the Gulf Coast would be Greeley’s last stop before a forced retirement."
An important strength to this story lies in Steven Burgauer's ability to not just describe a scene, but to take readers aboard ships and land alike for a kind of action that translates well to "you are there" impacts: "Now the big guns onboard the taskforce ships let go a salvo. The cruiser USS San Juan (CL-54), the destroyers Monssen and Buchanan. The sound blew away the last vestiges of sleep. Brock was instantly awake and alert. Now came the deadly symphony of artillery. Booming cannon fire. Banks of deadly rockets. Shells launched from armored tanks on deck. All from a menagerie of Navy ships positioned in and around the LSTs in the sea. “CRA-A-ACK!” Again from the San Juan. Sixteen, five-inch guns. Sixteen, one-point-one-inch guns. The ship heeled over following each discharge from its big guns."
This attention to detail embraces characters, plot, subplots, and different settings, lending an authentic and riveting feel to events. From boat contracts and naval forces to sabotage efforts, genuine World War II history is deftly woven into the story line to the point where it's hard to separate fact from fiction. In a war that rips apart entire worlds, who can truly be the winner? Add a dash of romance to the intrigue for a solid World War II thriller that's intricate, frighteningly realistic, and hard to put down.
Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou
Return to Index
Weighing
the Truth
Christine Z. Mason
Hillrow Editions
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-9897958-3-8
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9897958-0-7
ePub ISBN:
978-0-9897958-1-4
www.ChristineZMason.com
Email: HillrowEditions@gmail.com
Weighing the Truth's legal suspense story opens with Natalya Drummond and her colleague's visit to their client in San Quentin Prison as they work on his death-row appeal case.
Even in the beginning, all is not as it seems: Nat's determination to do a good job as a defense lawyer for some of the most dangerous people in prison is offset by the recognition that her job holds conundrums and special challenges that other kinds of lawyers don't face every day: "Nat was trying to figure out how they could get through the visit efficiently and spend the least possible time in the company of the pugnacious rapist-murderer they were supposed to get off of death row. None of the inmates she’d represented in the past were as vicious as Hegner, even though they’d all committed serious crimes. And this was her first visit to a death row inmate—and one who was threatening them besides. Despite Hegner’s hostility, though, Nat wanted to do a good job on his case; she didn’t do things half-assed. A man’s life was at stake, after all."
It's this determination to not just perform a duty but do it well that lands Nat in trouble as events spiral out of control and begin to challenge her values and best intentions. From little annoyances to big issues, Nat finds that her carefully honed façade of control and efficiency is being attacked on different levels ("She took several deep breaths, reminding herself she had to act composed, unruffled. That was the way women attorneys were supposed to act, despite any stray emotion—at least from her observation of the older female lawyers she knew; they never seemed to flinch at anything that was sprung on them, however humiliating or outrageous."), to the point that her professionalism and goals begin to erode.
From how appellate lawyers handle issues of guilt and innocence and develop a "natural sense of justice" to Nat's suddenly questionable drive to be conscientious against all odds, Weighing the Truth is more than a legal thriller. It's a close inspection of morals, ethics, and values in the face of threats, gang involvement, attorney interactions, and a level of professional involvement that suddenly turns all too personal, unexpectedly placing Nat on the other side of the witness stand.
When Nat's situation leads to a series of nightmares and a brutal attack, she finds herself moving away from everything familiar and everything she's believed about life.
Fans of legal thrillers are in for a treat: where competing books are driven by legal cat-and-mouse courtroom encounters, Weighing the Truth instead provides a riveting focus on the motivations, psychology, and sometimes-conflicting special interests of the criminal defense lawyer, surveying how this can spill into and alter personal lives and choices.
Far
more character-driven than most legal thrillers, Christine Z. Mason's
approach
will delight readers who look for more personal touches and
psychological
development in their legal fiction.
Weighing
the Truth
Return
to Index
The
Absence of Evelyn
Jackie Townsend
SparkPress
978-1943006212
$16.95
http://gosparkpress.com/
www.jackietownsend.com
https://www.amazon.com/
Imagine you're newly divorced. Imagine you decide to confront your dead sister's former love - and that you're willing to journey to Rome to do so; only to find he's vanished. Then imagine your adopted adult daughter has been lured in the opposite corner of the world to meet with the same man - a man she's only overheard about from secretive family whispers.
By now it should be evident that The Absence of Evelyn is not a novel of romance, intrigue, or adventure; but cultivates elements of all three, winding them deftly into the saga of a stormy relationship between an almost-fifty adult mother and her daughter which leaves each wondering who "her people" really are in the world.
Sharply defined and challenged, Olivia's journey leads her on an unpredictable route just as Rhonda's separate search takes her in a seeming opposite direction; each filled with connections to the other.
One of the fine devices in Jackie Townsend's story is an attention to motivation and psychology that keeps the actions of each character logical and clear: "Olivia sat down to write her email, opening up Yahoo!, but then she just sat there. She had nothing to say. Had it really been two days since she’d called her mother from the bathroom stall, frightened like a child? She’d come here to hurt her mother, but also to prove to herself that she was not her mother, that she was, in fact, far from being anything like her mother, and her frustrating ambivalence about love. So now would be the moment, Olivia thought, staring at the blank email, to follow through with the plan to hurt her mother, to let her mother know where she in fact was, here, with Evelyn’s lover. And yet, now that Olivia was actually here with Evelyn’s lover, on this road to the Bay of Dragons, none of that mattered anymore. Something else was taking form. Shape. “I miss you, Mom,” Olivia typed finally, which was not what she had expected to type. Would she always miss her mother? This big looming, massive beast of a presence. Her lioness and protector?"
No matter what their motivations, whether it's to connect and discover, love, hate, or reconnect, Olivia and Rhonda find their lives inexorably tangled as they face their own separate meanings in life and confront long-distance challenges to maintaining the family ties that bind them: "Perhaps their present financial situation was Rhonda’s only chance at tough love. Perhaps it was what both of them needed. Because they weren’t that different, Olivia and her. Both of them had been spoiled."
With the absent Evelyn the pivot point of their dance, a mother and daughter's thoughts and feelings flow through a story line that is compellingly crafted. Readers of women's fiction and leisure beach reads won't find that it neatly fits into the usual genres of a romance or action story; but is filled with psychological insights and interactions in the course of exploring two diverse, entwined lives and their separate and concurrent journeys through self-destructive and enlightening impulses alike.
The Absence of Evelyn
Return to Index
Catherine's
War
Denise Micka
Goleta Press
978-0997211009
$18.99 paperback, eBook will be in three parts at $3.99/each
eBook Part I ISBN: 9780997211016
eBook Part II ISBN: 9780997211023
eBook Part III ISBN: 9780997211030
www.amazon.com
Catherine is fiery, temperamental, and determined. Henry is handsome, debonair, and her twin brother Caleb's friend. He also delights in knowing "how to spark the fire that would appear in her normally ice blue eyes": a habit and skill that doesn't necessarily ingratiate him to Catherine. It's clear that there are fireworks between these two disparate personalities even in the first sentences of Catherine's War; but things heat up in an unexpected manner as events drag Catherine and Henry into something far greater than a stormy relationship between the two.
Cat and her brother are committed to fixing up the old family homestead; a venture that taxes their strengths after full-time work during the day and places them at odds with each other when Caleb needs some time away.
But Cat's bristly nature - especially around Henry - doesn't just come from his ability to press the wrong buttons, but from his talent at bringing up memories of a past Cat is working hard to forget. While the nutshell of their encounters appears early in the story ("Her icy blue eyes met his in a strong visual battle. She found his closeness unsettling and fought hard to maintain the barriers to her heart."), events will spiral them both away from their set courses in life and headlong onto a road neither anticipated.
Catherine's War is a romance, on the face of it; but it's also a story of friendships, family ties, long journeys, and the juxtaposition of the glories of enlistment over the sacrifices of love. Catherine and other women face tough times as their objects of affection and sources of support vanish, leaving them both vulnerable and strong in new ways they couldn't have anticipated.
Separation, war, and the uncertainty of a familiar home to return to beset Henry and his fellow fighters as much as they do Cat and those whose lives are forever changed by events wider than their relationships and family ties.
How does a man leave everything he loves, descend into the pits of hell, and return again to pick up the pieces? How does the woman he loves cope with challenges that have changed the course of their lives and forced upon each a maturity that in turn creates a new vision of the future?
Catherine's War delves into these transition points and their meanings and impact on love, and though its characters are not deeply presented as complex psychological creatures, they are understandably human in their efforts to survive war, peace, and love. As Denise Micka's characters dance through the compulsions and controversies in their lives, so readers are drawn into a heady saga about what impacts the evolutionary course of love in a leisure read recommended for anyone who enjoys a good love story laced with the lasting impact of war.
Catherine's War
Return to Index
Dance
to the Devil's Tune
Adrienne deWolfe
ePublishing Works
eBook:
978-1-61417-992-4
$4.99
POD:
978-1-61417-888-0
$15.99
https://ebookdiscovery.
Dance to the Devil's Tune is the second book in the historical Western romantic suspense series, 'Lady Law and the Gunslinger'. The story is a lively sequel that continues the dance between Pinkerton Agent Sadie Michelson and her ex-outlaw lover, William “Cass” Cassidy.
Sadie is hot on the trail of the jewel thief and deadly perp, Maestro, who uses music to transform his victims into thieves and murderers, who follow his command. This is rather heady super-science for a Western novel: it brings to mind the satisfying feel of the TV classic, The Wild, Wild West. The descriptions of these puppet perps are very well done and bring the story to life. ("One hour ago, she’d had a name. A conscience. A keen intellect and the heartfelt desire to save the world. But all that had changed the moment the clock chimed the midnight hour, and the music box with the enamel peacock began to play. Now she was staring blankly at her reflection. The mirror hung in the master bedroom of the silver-mining tycoon she'd come to rob.")
Sadie is a savvy, raunchy, determined character. Her latest undercover assignment, as a widowed Italian contessa, attracts more than the intended killer. ("By accepting this mission, she'd also had to accept that her emerald bait would attract opportunistic riffraff."). Her evolving challenges on both a personal and professional level test her determination to rid the world of an especially evil and cunning opponent. But her lover, Cass, complicates matters when he seemingly goes rogue, hatching his own plot to send Maestro to the gallows.
A host of supporting characters adds their own special flavor to this spicy read: a rascally baker, who fences stolen gems; a comical octogenarian, who talks to spooks; an ambitious Italian opera diva, who threatens Sadie’s cover; and a mischievous raccoon, who adds levity by complicating Sadie’s mission.
Maestro's relentless pursuits, which include disposing of witnesses, bring Sadie her greatest challenges. The ever-rising tension will drive readers to the edges of their seats. This winding, gripping Western moves in satisfyingly unexpected directions in a style that few genre reads can equal.
The result is not your typical Western, not your typical romance, and definitely not your typical detective story. Think Wild Wild West with a spicy heroine. Dance to the Devil's Tune is a special, highly recommended, genre-busting adventure.
Dance to the Devil's Tune
Return to Index
Deborah
Rising: A Novel Inspired by the Bible
Avraham Azrieli
HarperLegend
978-0062563552
$2.99
http://a.co/gIj1jeL
www.AzrieliBooks.com
A great read will ideally let the reader know this quality in the very first paragraph; but a truly superior one will achieve this rare prize with its very first line. Deborah Rising stakes its place in the world of Biblical literary retellings with its very first sentence ("The girls came early to the stoning.") and follows up with a one-two punch that keeps the compelling imagery and focus moving at a fast pace.
This means that readers of Bible-based Christian fiction who may have seen their enthusiasm for the subject tempered by slow writing or predictable plot development in other books are in for a real treat with Deborah Rising; and not just because Avraham Azrieli has selected for his focus a relatively minor player on the field of Biblical events.
The fire and passion imparted to readers comes from a combined flair for vivid description ("With their brown wool dresses and bent backs, they looked like an army of weary squirrels gathering nuts for the winter."), intriguing twists of plot, and a focus on expanding the social, political, and cultural worlds of Biblical figure Deborah, the first woman in recorded human history to lead a nation.
Deborah initially didn't have this dream. It was her father's vision that she'd become a leader of the Israelites, before his murder. But it isn't just his death that gives her impetus for change; it's the looming fate she faces (marriage to an abusive man) that leads her to not only escape, but form a much greater goal for her life.
Under a different hand, these events could have become overburdened with religious inspection and history; but Azrieli cultivates two special approaches to help make Deborah Rising a standout in its genre: an attention to building a compelling character with all her perfect and imperfect ways, and a special attention to detailing her environment and the logic of motivations and expectations on all sides.
This all lends to a dramatic retelling of her story that injects new angles and provides new food for thought even for readers already familiar with the Biblical Deborah. Under such a hand, early Hebrew traditions, sacred and social realms, a society where Yahweh is always present and influential, and a young girl's realization of her loss and uncertain future ("She cried for herself, knowing that from this day on she would always be alone in the world.") all coalesce to create an especially compelling story that's hard to put down.
From how women live and how Deborah learns to weave both baskets and the path of her future to fallen gods, military presences in daily lives, Deborah's ability to appreciate her world, as in the beauty of the Jordan River, even in the midst of strife, and her choices and their consequences, Deborah Rising is well steeped in the geographic, social, and political descriptions of its times. Whether he's describing a stoning or Deborah's precarious escapes, Azrieli doesn't just tell his story; he steeps it in the fictional approaches that give it not just drama, but an in-the-moment, you-are-there flair to set its approach apart from and above any other.
The additional pleasure here is that one needn't have prior any familiarity with Biblical events, the figure of Deborah, or her world. Azrieli provides it all. The only prerequisite is an affinity for historical fiction and an interest in the kind of religious inspection that injects action and adventure into visionary and religious processes. Anyone who wants a superior, heart-pounding and inspirational read based on Biblical events will find Deborah Rising not just a solid representation, but a thoroughly compelling saga that's hard to put down and ends neatly (but open-ended, holding out the hope of more stories).
Deborah Rising: A Novel Inspired by the Bible
Return to Index
Deliverance
Mary Fields, First African
American Woman Star Route Mail Carrier in the United States: A Montana
History
Miantae Metcalf McConnell
Huzzah
Publishing
Paperback:
978-0-9978770-0-7
$21.95
eBook:
978-0-9978770-1-4
Author Link: amazon.com/author/miantae
Website: www.miantaemetcalfmcconnell.
The time frame is from 1885 to 1914. The place is Montana. The protagonist is Mary Fields, an Afro-American frontier woman who demonstrates a rugged, feisty independence from the very first paragraph, when she snaps a shard of wood from the woodpile from the palm of her hand and keeps on working, viewing her injury as a mere annoyance in the greater scheme of things.
Mary often is labeled by her color in this rugged world ("Adjusting temple ends across his ears, he added, “That’s all, Black Mary. Tell Mother the girls’ fabric is backordered. Sugar and everything else.”), but she's succeeded in earning respect despite being a black frontier female; perhaps because Montana in the late 1800s is an unforgiving environment that challenges all races to survive and leaves little time for prejudice - at least during seasonal periods of struggle. Racist attitudes and behavior are inevitably launched at Mary Fields: “You think you’re so high and mighty. Coming into the Q & L like you’re what? One of us? You’re trash. To be used and thrown away. As we please. Any of us.”
What brought this emancipated slave from Toledo to Montana was her friend's impending death. What keeps her there is a newfound commitment to helping a group of nuns survive their harsh world. And what fuels her passion “to gain equal rights, same as any white man,” including the vision of placing her vote, will lead her to change everything she touches in this passionate saga of a frontier woman's engagements and evolving purpose in life.
How can a woman born into slavery develop the determination to defy social norms to gain freedom for all women? How does Mary rise to the occasion to become a formidable legendary figure during a time when Blacks and other minorities were murdered without recompense?
There are early indications that Mary's strength enables her to feel compassion for more than women's issues or Afro-American status. Her concern for the plight of Native Americans and her tendency to defy convention even in the smallest of ways ("Knowing she would be tired from standing at a grill day after day, Mary prepared a window sign to her liking. Instead of the conventional posting, “Closed for the Sabbath” or “Closed Sunday” she used the last of her green paint to print on her placard, “Closed Today, Open Tomorrow”.") leads Mary to craft a life fired with purpose and passion.
Readers sensitive to prejudice should be warned that Miantae Metcalf McConnell's story doesn't bow to modern convention, but strives for a realistic feel; so expressions and interactions that would be considered offensive and prejudicial today are precisely portrayed, pulling no punches for the sake of modern political correctness: "Postmaster Joseph Kauffman, who went by Joe K., was first to arrive each morning—his greeting, predictable. “Nigger Mary, could I get a cup of coffee?” This approach represents a breath of fresh air, as it captures the subtler nuances of daily interactions alongside the wider social changes sweeping a young nation.
Under McConnell's hand, the atmosphere, frontier challenges, and landscapes of Montana come to life. Mary Fields is a true historical figure, dramatized in novel format. Her story will delight readers who look for a blend of accurate historical facts, hard-hitting drama, and realistic scenes powered by a feisty protagonist whose values and concerns become part of the social changes sweeping the nation.
Deliverance Mary Fields, First African American Woman Star Route Mail Carrier in the United States: A Montana History
Return to Index
In
a Gilded Cage
Mia Kerick
Evernight Publishing
978-1-77339-025-3
$4.99
https://amzn.com/B01MA6NZ7Q
Fairy tale retellings usually add a twist into the story - sometimes major; sometimes minor - but Mia Kerick's approach is darker and more striking than usual as she takes the Rapunzel story and adds a notably tragic element which embraces everything from a child's sale (a strange kind of "win-win" situation which gives his needy parents both money and a better life for their son) to the evolution of a strange relationship that can only be changed by a handyman's intervention.
The vision of Rapunzel as being a young man in need of rescue is indeed quite a different perspective, and as the story line evolves, readers will come to realize that a change in gender isn't the only difference between this Rapunzel and its classic predecessor.
From insights on dysfunctional family relationships and the experience of being a victim in a gilded cage (which also holds its benefits) to the efforts of an outsider to change the destiny and entrapped position of the alluring, damaged Lucci Grimley, In a Gilded Cage requires of its readers a flexibility and liberal outlook. Those without such attributes who unsuspectingly pick up the novel might find its tenants challenging and possibly offensive; but Mia Kerick's intention isn't to shock or disgust; but to provide a powerful story that winds family relationships, interpersonal connections, and the concept of a gilded cage's allure and dangers into a compellingly different vision of the Rapunzel mythos.
If you never leave your mansion-cave, what could you possibly need or desire outside of it? As an evolving friendship brings with it deeper questions, both characters move out of their self-imposed gilded cages and into uncharted territories.
Readers who pick up In a Gilded Cage expecting another predictable retelling of a fairy tale will be amazed - and delighted - by how far this author stretches the original story line's concepts in a dark social and psychological challenge to the innocence of the original Rapunzel story of seduction and love.
In a Gilded Cage
Return to Index
Mark
the Dwarf
Jack D. Harvey
PublishGreen
322 1st Avenue North,
Fifth Floor
Minneapolis, MN 55401
ASIN: B019KGW0F2
$2.99
http://a.co/4IzhPP7
Mark is a seventy-three year old Idaho dwarf living in a small rented house in Arizona, who leads an isolated life surrounded by the parakeets he raises and trains and the books he so loves. It's unusual for him to have any human contact at all, so when two letters arrive in the mail and entice him into the outside world to attend a bowling alley's celebratory event, he makes an uncommon decision to fling solitude to the winds and attend the show.
Quickly he comes to find that the bowling alley is anything but mundane or familiar, and the world much more complicated than he could have imagined as he gets pulled into a virtual rabbit hole of quantum proportions and encounters sinister space clowns from another universe who propose an unusual bargain.
Readers won't expect the adventures of Mark's lifetime to begin so late in his life, along with the special challenges of physics, language, and complicated scenarios involving time dislocations that defy logical progression or linear thinking:
"Like Tweedledum and Tweedledee in Alice, we complement rather than contradict each other's attributed meaning until we are overpowered by our identical squawking and darkness descends- the monstrous black crow in that nursery rhyme. You get what I mean? Now there is substantial agreement among so-called experts and even among us unruly Naturkinder here in the valley of samsara that the idea of any meaningful neural counterpart of what we may call linguistic noise is worthless for any clear and useful understanding of the statistical probabilities underlying what we take for granted as the bedrock of reality, the hard cast-iron bottom of things that we think we are sitting on."
Indeed, it should be mentioned that there's little staid or predictable about Mark's character, encounters or the world he finds himself traversing. The dialogue is lively and challenging and very adult in its choice of words, as Mark explores a very strange universe indeed:
"The voice went on: "And of course these heads, like you, are just an inexpensive trick; a trick from way back and less than a treat for them or for you.... We know what you people need. We sell our services or trade them for what we want that you have and you have something we want and you don't want. Now before I begin to talk turkey and get down to brass tacks, trading metaphor for metaphor, some background is in order. As you know, there are many stars and other unseen forces in the sky. Rings of heavenly spheres, which make a strange music in ears that can hear."
Mr. Harvey builds a surreal tongue-in-cheek atmosphere in his story that skirts the edge of sci-fi and fantasy without quite wandering into this familiar genre's territory. He presents a classic Faustian bargain with the powers of darkness and evil, represented by malicious and sinister clowns from another universe, interested in trading good for evil, as he portrays an unlikely hero in the form of a doppelganging, dogged and enduring dwarf who has little to lose towards the end of his life and, for that matter, in his desolate and barren middle age. The effort excels in creating a racy, demanding, sharp-edged parody, placing Mark in his various metamorphoses in a series of dubious positions and chronologies, where the lessons he learns from both his logical and loony choices end up spilling over into what he will make of his life back on Earth and his ultimate redemption.
Clowns and chaos, cursing and cavorting, language that draws the reader in and then misleads him with linguistic ambiguity and multifarious zany passages, bristling with caustic observations, factitious science and pornographic parodies, where nothing is sacred, where nothing is what is seems to be, not even the bizarre impressions and experiences of a dwarf transported to a strange and unpredictable world. This makes for a novel that is not recommended for the staid reader, the prudish reader or a reader whose education has been neglected. This is a book for the sophisticated post-adolescent as well as the educated adult, tired of the same old predictable plots and one-dimensional protagonists and who are patient enough and savvy enough to enjoy some clowning around with language and culture.
Part of the beauty of Mark the Dwarf lies in its ironic perspectives on the world and its parodic and idiosyncratic style; part of its power lies in its vivid language and unusual imagery:
"The sooty engine of all evil, the motoring Adversary or simply the Devil, whatever you name it or him, has large horsepower. We want it and can use it and you it don't do no good. So here's the deal. Remember Jesus Christ? The divine semi-conductor? Remember the vicious little girl who made fun of your dwarfhood in the third grade? It's the same job, except we have ways of drawing it on you that your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ or that little girl never thought of. Peccata mundi, pecking away at your peace of mind and your once and future third grade humiliation and the other humiliations at the hands and feet of the drugstore bad boys."
Literary references ('Donna Juan', for one) pepper the story line and demand from its readers a higher level of education and literacy than the normal leisure read requires, but college-level students, properly educated in western culture and literature, social inspection, literary allusion, physics and psychology will find delightful the author's ability to comment, joke, and spoof on more than one level through multiple disciplines and universes. Yes, the language and description are dense - but this isn't meant to be a casual leisure reading choice, but a challenging unsettling parody that operates on more than one level and plays no fair with any of the characters, let alone the reader.
"The real subject includes the heart, but when you consider any object in phase space, you have to get into the question of formal and substantive universals. Like I didn't say earlier. Descartes had his finger up his ass with his je pense donc je suis. Better what the French school kids used to say, je bande donc je suis. Makes a lot more sense and makes a statement about a physical state or condition in terms of space-time."
As far as the snippets in numerous foreign languages, scattered throughout the book (see above quote for an example), the author has provided a "Brief Glossary" at the end of the book, which is extremely helpful.
Ultimately, Mark the Dwarf is a racy allusive read that defies genre categorization and even flaunts and refuses neat audience categorization, providing a complex and hilarious chase through time and space as it spoofs even its own constructs. Readers who like their novels unexpected, spicy and intriguingly philosophical will appreciate the special language and no-holds-barred story of Mark, who, on any level and in any of his metamorphoses, is anything but a stock hero, or more accurately, anti-hero.
Mark the Dwarf
Return to Index
Maximum
Impact Minimum Effect
A. H. Kent
CreateSpace
ISBN: 9871540372369
How do you create a covert business that operates right under the nose of everyone?
Readers who are interested in how a innovations come to market, and particularly in how a disparate group of non-business individuals come together to form such a company and create a winning product, will find Maximum Impact Minimum Effect just the ticket, continuing the story begun in volume one, The Fine Society, where an ambitious college student on track for becoming a teacher finds herself inadvertently immersed in the technological discovery of a lifetime.
The Fine Society, Volume 2, MI,ME continues the story, alternating its focus between a wider cast of characters, how their disparate interests coalesce, and the business and development processes involved in seeing their idea become 'live' and marketable.
At times the story seems almost too smooth: barriers fall without many setbacks and serendipity plays a major part as everything needed on the road to success seems to fall neatly into place with a minimum of angst and problems. Perhaps because many of the characters do not come from business backgrounds, their naïveté on the subject is evident - and often refreshing. Who says success must come only to those with degrees or decades of experience in marketing and development? Or is there another reason for the relatively smooth sailing?
The result of their efforts follow a clear path to achieving an objective that embraces the process of idea and discovery and its translation into a marketable product through a group effort, and is recommended for those who enjoy stories of innovation and development from the perspective of non-technical individuals who fall into an exciting business opportunity. All of that while still under the radar, their secret process still secure.
Maximum Impact Minimum Effect
Return to Index
Tiger
Pelt
Annabelle Kim
Leaf-Land LLC
9780997609004 $18.00
www.leaflandpress.com
Tiger Pelt is set in Korea during World War II, when the Japanese occupied the country, followed by the Korean War, and probes the life of a farm boy and a beautiful girl who each embark on separate journeys through countryside and futures vastly changed by the war.
Relatively few historical novels are written about this region during this period of time: a fact that sets Tiger Pelt apart from many other World War II sagas right from the start.
A young soldier opens the saga; one who was "…meant to be a student, not a soldier. He was meant to study, not march." He's lost everything; but when he sees a struggling young woman, he acts almost instinctively to save her and make a difference in a life that has been altered so much that it's been stripped of all powers and dreams.
Instead of gratitude, she responds in anguish ("You should have let me die!"), and at this moment two very different worlds and war experiences collide.
The book reveals the worlds of women forced to perform "wifely duties", the experiences of boys drafted into service who see the destruction of everything familiar, and vivid descriptions of place ("During the war, the stench of gasoline, burnt rubber, over-flowing latrine trenches, and putrid corpses had assailed his respiratory tract without a moment of respite.").
It's a candid, vivid story of two very different lives and the trajectories they journey when they are blown off course by events wider and more demanding than any dreams they had harbored. It's a hard-hitting, gritty work that takes the experiences of Koreans, Japanese, Americans, and urban and rural peoples alike and adds the personalization of two particular individuals and their concerns.
In the end, Tiger Pelt is far more than another historical novel about World War II and the Korean War, presenting a unique opportunity to understand the cultures and lives changed in the course of showing how two disparate souls enter hell and come out the other side. It's a highly recommended pick, and a standout in the genre of literary and historical fiction.
Tiger Pelt
Return to Index
Transformations
James Foley Smathers
James Foley Smathers, Publisher
978-0692649022 $15.95
http://a.co/9qvP1ID
It only takes a mysterious phone call to shake a marriage; one made by a desperate stranger who advises Jackson Andrews that his wife is playing games. The anonymous call could have been dismissed as a prank were it not for the hesitant and convincing tone of the caller, who casts a seed of doubt that soon blows up into a full-fledged confrontation as Jackson investigates the truth.
Transformations isn't just about a wife's transgression, however. The sequence of events that follows from that one phone call, spreads dissention and change through Jackson's previously-stable life like ripples in a pond.
What does Jackson's experience have to do with a CEO who seeks refuge and anonymity on a little Caribbean island? Plenty; because he's a pilot who has flown into Walker's Cay and into his own drama; and he too is in flight, in more ways than one. A similar sequence of events also gives impetus to an awakening process in his life even as both struggle to protect their psyches from further blows.
A story embracing two broken marriages isn't unusual; nor is the scenario of these two individuals getting together. What is satisfyingly different here is a winding tale of subterfuge, conspiracy, clashing egos and Minnesota atmosphere that permeates a story which moves neatly between two individuals' past and present lives.
Affairs gone wrong, the revenge of jilted love, feelings of anger, regret, and dismay on all sides permeates a story that moves from U.S. soil to the Caribbean and back.
James Foley Smathers imbibes his characters with realistic characters that aren't above a certain degree of subterfuge as they both flee their lives and attempt to exert some manner of control over their changing situations. The story line reads smoothly and vividly.
There's much to like about a chronicle that holds no black-and-white or good and evil and attends to tracking the mercurial emotions of all sides that it's hard to put down, making Transformations a fine saga of evolving romance and changes which take place on more than one level.
Transformations
Return to Index
True
Colors
Anonymous
Express Image Publications
9781495208683
$14.99
http://a.co/bsb9pgc
It's rare to find a novel whose publication so eerily coincides with current events, but the political novel True Colors is frighteningly akin to modern times and should find a ready audience in any American immersed in the current political atmosphere.
In True Colors, the protagonist is half Native American and half Caucasian. His swift move through political circles in only thirteen short years leads to a series of serendipitous successes that helps this Illinois city worker with little money or connections to move more swiftly up the ranks than any seasoned politician.
Illinois politics, behind-the-scenes deal-making, and intrigue permeate a story that sounds too true to be fiction, and whose Anonymous authorship lends to speculation about whether all of the political discussions are, indeed, really fictional in their foundations.
To call True Colors a "novel of politics" is actually to over-simplify its many facets, which include social commentary, mystery, intrigue, and a healthy dose of American history and political analysis.
All this might not have succeeded nearly as well under a lesser hand, but attention is given to interpersonal relationships and interactions as much as it's focused on Thomas Oglala's political evolution; and these facets contribute to an eyebrow-raising adventure that closely considers the American election process and its underlying interconnections and support systems.
Anyone who enjoys multi-faceted political fiction will relish the deeply provocative scenarios crafted in True Colors.
True Colors
Return to Index
Twelve
Bells
Bridgett B. Leslie
Amazon Digital Services
ASIN: B01M0QNGUF
http://a.co/at2qSOP
Twelve Bells is a novel about finding love through speed dating, and tells of Lynette Frank's decision to boost her recovery from a bad relationship by attending a speed-dating event. As she moves through the Australian speed dating event, so readers join her for a series of emotional revelations that make Twelve Bells a thought-provoking piece probing women's psychology and underlying beliefs about romance and how to find it.
Lynette didn't set out to speed date: she was given a ticket to the event. She actually didn't know how to recover from her bad breakup, much less re-enter the dating game with new vision and goals of better assessing a potential partner. But the speed dating arena gives her more than she bargained for: new processing tools, different opportunities, and revised dreams - and that's the crux of a novel that proves fresh and fun in its approach to romance.
As readers move through 12 male candidates with Lynette, they learn about how an 8-minute "date" can lead to a much-condensed process of attraction and elimination. Condensing such a journey into a relatively short period of time may sound impossible, but as Twelve Bells reveals, the structure and intention of speed dating actually creates a process that shortens and refines one's romance needs.
From different views about strength and sexuality to disparate methods of presenting one's purpose and psyche in the least amount of time, Twelve Bells follows a series of encounters between Lynette and her possible matches that grab reader attention and explore unusual possibilities.
One needn't be familiar with the concept of speed dating in order to appreciate this story. It should also be mentioned that Bridgett B. Leslie's choice of the novella format is the perfect tool, reflecting the novel's theme of condensing choices to eliminate the superfluous and time-consuming explanations inherent in too many a romance read.
The result is a perfect rhythm of action that delves into and moves through worlds of sex manias, egotistical applicants, philosophical reflection, attempts to impress and identify human nature, and, ultimately, one woman's quest for love. Female readers will relish the spirit and descriptions of a woman who takes a speed dating risk, only to uncover more possibilities - and more revelations - than she bargained for.
Twelve BellsReturn to Index
Immigrants
Coming to America Immigration
has always been an intrinsic part of American history, beginning with
the
Puritans who fled England and continuing to modern times; yet the
current state
of social and political affairs, tempered by worries of terrorism and
overcrowding, have led to its premises being questioned by those who
would
close many doors currently open to new immigrants. That's
why Immigrants
Coming to America,
written by an author who interviews two immigration law experts in the
course
of her examination, provides some clear and remarkable insights at an
especially troubling moment (and possible pivot point) in American
history. Its
special blend of history and social and legal analysis clarifies many
potentially murky areas of immigration law which all Americans should
understand; from the differences between green card bearers and
citizens to
fact-based, history-backed discussions of America's immigration process
and
its pros and cons. Chapters
reveal many thought-provoking insights about the overall effects and
approaches
of this process ("This
"melting
pot" assimilation of many waves of immigrants to America implied a
weakening of their own identities as the immigrants themselves pressed
their
children to adopt American values and lifestyles.")
as they
discuss influences on immigration, immigrant status in American
society, the
cases of "reluctant immigrants" and their experiences, and
more. Jo
Condrill's interviews create a personal touch to these immigrant
experiences,
offering firsthand accounts that form the background of a diverse set
of
individual experiences about the process of coming to this country and
its
special challenges. While at times readers might think some of the
interviews
could have been condensed by eliminating chattier passages ("Well, Diana, this has been a
very, very interesting
and rewarding conversation."), the purpose here
is to inject a
personal feel for not only immigrant stories, but to the interview
experience
itself. The
collection of revelations from twelve immigrants from various parts of
the
world, each with very different perspectives on and experiences of the
immigration process, is recommended reading for those interested in
modern
immigration stories and the different roots and perceptions of
newcomers to
America. Anyone who wants insights on both the legal and personal
processes
involved will find this absorbing. Justice
Restored While
readers will expect that Justice
Restored:
10 Steps to End Mass Incarceration in America
would provide an
indictment of the criminal justice system in this country, the book's
true
surprise lies in an approach that goes beyond outlining justice system
problems
to consider concrete solutions. Backed by Howell W. Woltz's lifelong
work specializing
as a journalist on Constitutional issues, Woltz's call for reform
produced an
award-winning documentary, Justice Denied,
that represents more than another indictment of the system's fallacies
and
issues. Justice
Restored opens with a shocking
revelation: that in the 1970s, Woltz observed the writing on the wall
of
American democracy and its erosion of freedoms and eventually left the
U.S. for a former Soviet Bloc nation in Central Europe. Perhaps most
eye-opening of all (and a
major motivation to read past the book's preface) is his assertion
that: "Ironically,
I live with more freedom as an expatriate
in a strange land than I could ever hope to experience in my own country." "Things need to change,"
Woltz
asserts, "and
this is the roadmap." As
readers travel down a road carefully constructed with a blend of
history,
personal case history examples, and legal insights, they receive a
healthy dose
of "what went wrong" and "how to fix it" that considers the
traditional guardians of liberty and the processes that have attacked
and
diluted it. Chapters
document Woltz's involvement with justice systems and professionals,
while each
case history is linked to specific admonitions that reinforce concepts
such as
the need to limit plea bargains or the need to reign in government
bodies
determined to "win no matter what" in courts of law. From
why judges and prosecutors are not held accountable for criminal
actions to how
to end government immunity and restore jury rights, Justice Restored
goes beyond history or political
generalities to delve into the heart of what specific justice systems
and
processes have failed and how to restore them. With
all discussions presented in easy lay language that focuses on
remedying
situations, Justice
Restored is a
key acquisition highly recommended for anyone already concerned about
the
erosion of civil liberties in this nation. The
Politics of Unity The
Politics of Unity: An Invitation to the High Road offers a
refreshing perspective that counters the
divisiveness of current American political and personal lives,
promoting a
simpler perspective of not just political encounters but life itself.
It's
directed to those who would create a better world based on cooperative
processes and it embraces an integrative process that stems from
Michael
Cuddehe's interest in the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The
Politics of Unity is not just a
political treatise; it's about altering a life philosophy that seems to
be
individually, regionally, and globally headed for a breakdown. Cuddehe's
involvement in both political campaigns and spiritual reflection in the
1990s
included a run for Iowa's
U.S. Representative in its First District under the Natural Law Party.
This led
to ideals that stemmed from his opponent, developing the notion of
public
service and loyal opposition even against the odds of pervading
corruption and
divisiveness. This
revelation led to a closer examination of the forces at work in
creating
divisions and dead-ends, and the crafting of processes, values and
ideas are
presented here in the form of short essays packed with insights, but
easily
digestible. From
disparities in wealth and income to a pragmatic approach to
problem-solving,
each essay includes historical references, an overview of the issue(s),
and
survey of best practices for cultivating alternative courses
of action,
supporting an overall ethic of public service. It also considers why a
balanced
outcome to issues of public concern is so often lacking or
blocked. One
needn't have a spiritual bent or even a political preference in order
to absorb
this clarification of how to remedy modern social and political
approaches that
no longer work. Cuddehe's discussions are balanced and rational
invitations to
constructive thinking: "A
circus-like
media environment featuring headlines reminiscent of carnival barkers
and
one-sided, conflict provoking coverage of political issues and events
have
become the norm, feeding a trend of polarization that has reached
levels not
seen since the Civil War. The result has been a schism in national
consciousness and competing, incompatible narratives on all matters in
the
public sphere, making it impossible to find resolution on any of an
ever
growing list of critical issues. It is not too much to ask to have
honest,
informative debate on the issues and decide collectively on our course
of
action. Nor is it too much to expect follow-up to that initial decision
with a
structured, unbiased method of measuring and reporting outcome over
time, so
adjustments can be made as needed." Especially
recommended for readers working in political circles in a cooperative
effort
for positive change, The
Politics of Unity
provides a formula for remedying the paradoxes of our times, and
incorporates
responsibility and consequences into a discussion of duty and human and
natural
law. Forces on all sides that work in various capacities on the edges
of moral,
ethical and legal boundaries and what can be done to foster unity and
encourage
service-oriented characters will find it a thought-provoking call for
change. Presentation
Skills for Managers, 2nd Edition Business
books for managers often assume a dry format that may be suitable for
reading
on planes or on the way to a meeting, but which rarely make good
leisure
reading choices and often pose a challenge for recall. Presentation Skills for Managers
offers a
different approach that blends new insights on the presentation process
with a
lively delivery that not just tells, but shows managers how to spice up
their
presentations. This
is done by applying acting techniques to delivery processes and
focusing on
audience engagement in the book through the use of sidebars of
information such
as 'Tricks of the Trade' or 'For Example'. Basic
parts of a stage and movements upon it translate surprisingly well to a
presentation pursuit, and are imparted in an effortless and engaging
manner to
help managers understand the key points of their discussions and how
best to
display them through a process that blends delivery with visual aids
and,
sometimes, compelling drama. It
should be noted that this second edition has been fully updated,
revising
principles and strategies, and reflects the author's own background in
both
business and acting arenas, which are used to take presentation skills
to
another level. Succinct
in appearance, compelling in its descriptions, and practical in its
applications, Presentation
Skills for
Managers may cut to the point in its clear
title, but adds
unexpected spice in covering the types of acting techniques that will
help
managers create and deliver business content more effectively than
traditional
business approaches usually offer. Recommended
for all business managers who are tapped to give presentations, Presentation Skills for Managers
will
prove a treasure trove even to the seasoned business leader.
Jo Condrill
GoalMinds, Incorporated
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9740970-4-6 $19.95
Ebook
ISBN:
978-0-9980921-0-2 $
9.95
https://amzn.com/0974097047
Immigrants
Coming to America
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to Index
Howell M. Woltz
HybridGlobal Publishing
Paperback: ISBN: 9781938015472
$14.99
Ebook: ISBN: 9781938015489
$ 4.99
www.howellwoltz.com
Justice
Restored
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to Index
Michael Cuddehe
Three Worlds Press
P.O. Box 168, Fairfield, IA 52556
978-0-9975771-0-5
$9.95
www.threeworldspress.net
The
Politics of Unity
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to Index
Kerri Garbis
McGraw-Hill Education
9781259643965
$19.00
www.mhprofessional.com
Presentation
Skills for Managers, 2nd Edition
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Felicity
and the Fire Stoppers
Loralee Evans
Loralee Evans, Publisher
9780692793978
$2.99
www.loraleeevans.com
https://www.amazon.com/
Felicity the sparrow loves reading books about bird heroes, courage, and communications between bird and man, but one particular book about a thrush's courage has her so enthralled that she's re-read it many, many times.
When a lightning storm brings a bolt down onto the mountain, Felicity finds herself involved in a strange force of nature that moves her into a world of wizards, new words, and encounters well beyond the sparrow-sized books she digests which sends life lessons from reality; all stemming from venturing out and getting to know Mister Yellow Horse, among other influences.
As Felicity hones her skills beyond the book and begins to realize her own special talent, she encounters snakes and sorcerers, opportunities for bravery or foolhardiness, and the threat of a fire that could change everything she knows and loves.
Advanced elementary-grade readers will relish Felicity's pluck and determination as she moves beyond the adventures of her books to confront those challenges.
Her bird's-eye view of the world is fun, charming, and traverses the magic of human and nature alike, while the evolution of her courage and her longing for adventure is very well done. Can a little bird stop a big threat? A plucky saga evolves, perfect for chapter book readers who relish animal protagonists.
Felicity and the Fire Stoppers
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Gasparilla’s
Gold
Sandra Markle
Tumblehome Learning, Inc.
Paperback: 9781943431205
$9.95
Cloth:
9781943431199
$18.95
http://tumblehomelearning.com
Twelve-year-old Gus has been sent to live with his aunt on a Florida wildlife refuge after the family suffers from the loss of his older brother, but it's just one more change in a life filled with new things: an absent brother, the sale of their Manhattan home, and his father's relocation to Seattle.
But some things don't change: his fears about the unfamiliar and unpredictable world and the memories of his brother, which can arise from even innocuous life events like being caught in the rain.
Middle grade readers follow Gus as he encounters the unfamiliar at every step: bats, coyotes, a spunky girl named Fiona, and an aunt who reveres the wildlife she lives amongst.
About halfway through the book, Gus begins to realize where he really belongs - just as he's on the cusp of leaving. Add a mystery revolving around wild animals, rancher rights, the plight of the vanishing Florida panther to the saga of a boy beginning to realize his place in the world and you have a story line filled with courage and confrontation. Sandra Markle weaves a compelling story that holds many different attractions, promising to interest high/low readers who enjoy mysteries and animal tales couched in the attraction of powerful personalities.
Gasparilla’s Gold
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Sarafina
and the Not-So-Wonderful Day
Carol A. Bacon
Himari Publishing
978-0-9981543-0-5
$9.99
Ebook: 978-0-9981543-1-2 $7.99
carolabacon.com
Picture book readers ages 4-8 years will delight in the pairing of Marvin Alonso's colorful art with Carol A. Bacon's story of young Sarafina, who experiences a fun day of shopping alongside her parents for a necklace with her name on it, all in preparation for her first day at a new school.
This makes her feel special and loved - but when everyone laughs at her long name and teases her, Sarafina realizes she's not really special; but odd. Nobody else has a name with so many letters … nobody but the teacher.
How can Sarafina feel better about herself? And how can she deal with class bullies determined to bring her down?
The array of animal protagonists (all gussied up in human clothing) and their encounters lends a whimsical and fun feel to a story where a young schoolgirl struggles to find her place in a new classroom.
Kids receive many lessons from Sarafina's story; from self-esteem and the differences between parental and peer approval to how to handle conflict and turn bad experiences into good ones.
It's an early primer on facing life's conflicts head-on and with a positive attitude. Parents choosing it as a read-aloud will find that the story of Sarafina offers many jumping-off points for discussions of courage, conflict, and crafting win-win situations from ego-bashing encounters.
A surprise revelation enhances the powerful message of this delightfully uplifting, simple picture book story, which is highly recommended for ages 4-8 and especially for parental read-aloud and interaction.
Sarafina and the Not-So-Wonderful Day
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The
Sound Prince and the Pocket Dragon
K M Kennedy
Wynnpix Productions
Ebook:
ASIN: B01JV7R20I
$2.99
Paperback:
9780692718858
$9.95
www.amazon.com/Sound-Prince-
The Sound Prince and the Pocket Dragon represents Volume 1 in 'The Sound Prince' series for middle school readers and is set in the San Juan Islands, where a wizard's accident leads to magic leaking from past to present and undersea to land worlds.
A crevice in the undersea Dim World contains a strange little explorer who becomes the recipient of a dubious gift. Fast forward to many years later, in Puget Sound, where eleven-year-old Prince Devon seeks riches from the sea. When he stumbles on a strange globe containing an even stranger creature, all hell breaks loose.
In Prince Devon's world there are talking dragons, magical opportunities, and unusual friends, from Cali-coon the grizzly-cat to a quest through bogs and beaches. Prince Devon's courage is tested in many ways both large and small as he develops a teasing relationship with a tiny dragon companion who guides him with infinite wisdom and finds himself in the midst of an adventure he never could have imagined.
Pocket dragons, bog monsters, winds that speak, and parents that change: all these are accepted by the young Prince as he traverses a very strange land, indeed.
Quests, clues to a mystery, magical wings, lost souls, and increasing danger permeate a delightful read that many parents will want to consider for an extended bedtime read-aloud narrated over a period of evenings. Even though the story's winding complexity is most definitely not a light picture book production, it includes gorgeous drawings and a plot replete with humor, fantasy, adventure and fun, making it a recommendation beyond its middle school readership, extending to elementary levels, as well.
Young adults - indeed, anyone young at heart who enjoys a rollicking good fantasy adventure - will enjoy the blend of whimsy and action in The Sound Prince and the Pocket Dragon.
The Sound Prince and the Pocket Dragon
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Vampire
Boy
Aric Cushing
Grand & Archer Publishing
9781929730018
$8.99
www.carpathiaworld.com
Vampire Boy is the first in a projected series for middle grades and introduces young readers to the world of Carpathia, where Alex Vambarey is attending the first year of the Carpathian Academy, educational home to vampires and a host of related creatures of whom he has little knowledge (nobody he knows has ever met a gargoyle, for example).
Alex will learn many things during his first year of school: why vampires and humans are important, why humans are elusive creatures, and why all the janitors at school are collecting dirt.
Think Harry Potter without the angst of an older protagonist facing impossible odds, add more than a light dash of humor into the mix, and toss in a riddle and a school prize that leaves the students of the Carpathian Academy scrambling to unveil secrets that go deeper than even the school instructors can know to get an idea of the essence of this adventure.
As Vampire Boy builds its setting, characters, and quite often a whimsical perspective ("The hall monitors in which Otis was referring to were itty bitty bats. Little colored pests that flew at you the minute you were late - their tiny bat teeth snipping at your heels and yanking your hair from its roots."), readers of all ages (including adult audiences looking for refreshingly original reads enlivened by a powerful blend of strong characters and mystery) will relish Alex's increasingly complex involvement in a mystery that reaches well beyond Academy walls.
Refreshingly fun and well-steeped in the trappings of fantasy, horror, mystery and intrigue, Vampire Boy is a fine introduction to what promises to be a series on par with Harry Potter.
Vampire Boy
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