Title: Building a Bridge Author: JoAnn Early Macken Publisher: Pebble Plus/Capstone Press
About the book:How are bridges made? Put on your hard hat and discover the people, tools, and machines that help drivers get where they need to go.
Title: Demolition Author: JoAnn Early Macken Publisher: Pebble Plus/Capstone Press
About the book:Kaboom! Watch as old buildings crumble before your eyes and discover the people, tools, and machines needed for demolition.
My thoughts: This is a great series of books for preschoolers - either those needing to be read to or early readers. There are not a lot of words on each page and very "in the moment" pictures of buildings blowing up - cranes working - men pouring cement, etc. Each book has a nice glossary at the end of some of the words that would be great for those beginner readers. There is also an Internet site - www.facthound.com - where you can search by grade level - either by subject or by book ISBN number. I put in the ISBN for Building a Bridge and it brought up related sights such as - how to build a paper bridge. Lots of fun for those curious little ones who stumble across something they want to know more about - this can get them started!
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
***Special thanks to Cat Hoort, Trade Marketing Manager, of Kregel Publications for sending me a review copy.***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Harmony Dust founded and leads Treasures, a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles that helps women in the sex industry to make healthy life choices. She and her husband John have a young daughter.
List Price: $12.99 Paperback: 252 pages Publisher: Monarch (December 18, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 0825463092 ISBN-13: 978-0825463099
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
The haze of dusk was a soft blanket over my green Honda Civic as I drove the familiar route to the Los Angeles Airport. How many times had I taken this freeway? This exit? On autopilot, I changed lanes smoothly and rounded the bend towards Century Boulevard. I was going in the same direction I had always gone, but I might as well have been in a parallel universe to the one I lived in six years before.
I glanced at the clock in my car: 5:45 pm… Always early.
My husband’s plane wouldn’t land for another 15 minutes. I decided to wait in the Taco Bell parking lot down the street.
I missed him. For the first year of our marriage I went on tour with him. We traveled from city to city in dusty rental cars, eating lunch at truck stops and fast-food chains. I sold his Pigeon John T-shirts and CDs at the product table, while he rocked the stage for a steadily growing fan base of nerds and ex-nerds, hip-hop heads and youth groups. I was happy to do so. It was a lifestyle that appealed to the bohemian Venice girl in me.
‘I want your dreams to come true, too,’ he said to me on the night of our honeymoon.
My dreams. What were my dreams? Driving through Nebraskan corn fields and the dim streets of Baltimore on our way to shows, I found myself pondering this question. One moment I was exploring the possibilities; the next I was filling out an application to join the program for the Master’s in Social Welfare at the University of California at Los Angeles. My new role as a full-time graduate-school student meant leaving behind the life on the road with my husband.
He had only been gone for a few days, but I couldn’t wait to kiss his handsome, caramel face.
Driving down Century, I saw the sign in the distance. The words ‘Live Live Nude Nudes’ hung in muted, orange and red 1970s-style lettering. You’d think with all the razzle-dazzle strip clubs popping up everywhere, this one would wither and die and go back to being something more functional, as it was when it was a bowling alley. But it’s still there. And so are the girls.
I wondered about my old co-workers. Had they moved on to other clubs, or other lives, or were they still there?
I remembered that life: the suffocating feeling of being trapped, with no end in sight; wanting the money, needing it, but wishing there were some other legal way to get it. The constant pressure to smile, and pretend you want nothing more than to fulfill every wish and fantasy of a stranger, when all you really want to do is lie around your apartment in sweat pants, watching mafia movies like Goodfellas and Casino – imagining you could live some other life.
I remembered, and all I could do was pray: that the women behind those very walls, feeling as I once did, would have a real and true encounter with the loving, gracious, God of freedom and wonder that I have come to know. That they would discover the beauty that lies within them that is more precious than the rarest gem. That they would realize that the dreams of their youth and the passions of their hearts are important, and within reach.
The driver in front of me gently pressed his brakes, snapping me out of the trance I was in. I glanced in my rear view mirror, and saw that I had passed the Taco Bell parking lot I was planning to pull in to. Instead, I parked in a lot directly across the street from the club, turned my car off, and sat staring. There are girls in there right now, I thought.
What are you going to do? A voice whispered to my heart. What could I do? I felt as though I was outside a prison that had once held me captive. I was free, while there were still women feeling trapped inside. There was a stand-off: I was still, waiting for something to happen. For the other guy, for some other person, to come up with something: a solution; an idea; anything.
What are you going to do? What can I do? It’s not like I can waltz up there and tell the bouncer I want to talk to the girls. Even if he did let me in, what on earth would I say?
What do you want to say?
I glanced to my left and discovered a stack of postcards from a recent women’s conference I had attended. The woman pictured was facing away from the camera, looking confidently ahead. Her back was draped with strands of pearls. Tattooed across the warm brown skin of her shoulder blades were the words, ‘Her value… far above rubies and pearls.’
That is what I wanted to say. That is exactly what I wanted the women in that club to hear. Hands shaking, I grabbed the stack of postcards and began writing on the back of each one:
‘I was just driving by and wanted to tell you that you are loved…’
What else?
‘If you are ever interested in going to church, I know of a great one: www.oasisla.org.
You are welcome there!
Love, Harmony
PS: I used to work here too.’
When I first started dancing, even if I wanted to go to church, it would never have occurred to me that a church would have me. Still sitting in the car, my legs were heavy and stiff as I held the postcards in my hands. I wondered if I was doing the right thing. Would people think I was crazy for going back there?
I called my mother-in-law. If I am insane, she’ll tell me so, I thought. Her voice was deep and soothing like a mama bear; her words steady and careful, as she encouraged and prayed with me. It was settled; I wasn’t crazy.
I approached the parking lot and there, scattered between orange cones, were the dancers’ cars. ‘My’ spot was among them. Each night, when the security saw my car pulling into the lot, he removed the orange cone and motioned me into the space nearest the dancers’ entrance. Someone else was parked there now. As I approached the first car, a large man wearing a dark blue security jacket stepped out of the porn shop adjoining the club. Security: I hadn’t thought of that. I wasn’t sure he would let me go through with it.
The words Go in confidence radiated from within me. Before the security guard could even open his mouth, I briskly approached him and stuck out my hand.
‘Hi. My name is Harmony. I used to work here. I just wanted to leave these little notes for the girls.’ I whipped out the postcards and presented them to him. He looked at them and back at me. Tilting his head, he seemed caught off guard by the whole thing.
‘All right; go ahead,’ he said, as he waved me along and went back into the porn shop.
Quickly, before he changed his mind, I placed each postcard on the windshields of the dancers’ cars. I wondered what they would think when they found the postcards at the end of the night. What would I have thought?
As I headed to the airport terminal to pick up my husband, I imagined myself walking to my car after a long night of work: feet aching, head throbbing from six hours of pounding music. How would I feel if I entered the buzzing silence of my car and saw that little postcard sitting beneath my windshield wiper?
‘You are loved… You are welcome here.’ Aren’t those the words I had always longed to hear? That is all I ever wanted… to be loved and welcomed. Isn’t that what we all want?
When I pulled up to the airport terminal, I saw my husband standing there, leaning on his luggage. Always dapper, his vintage-looking Kangol hat was tipped slightly to one side. I hopped out of the car and threw my arms around him, nuzzling my face into his warm neck.
‘Missed you.’
‘Missed you, too.’
We got in the car and headed home.
‘John, you are never going to believe what I just did…’
I recounted the story, and he listened encouragingly.
‘That’s cool, babe. That’s really cool,’ he said, while affectionately squeezing my fingers one by one.
‘Yeah. I mean the whole thing has me thinking… maybe I can do that every time I come to pick you up at the airport. Or every time I pass by a strip club. Do you think other girls would want to do this too? This could be the start of something,’ I rattled on.
We had no idea that within a year a group of volunteers would be going to over 150 strip clubs annually. That we would be walking alongside women, encouraging them to live the healthy, flourishing lives they were created to live. That within two years we would be an official non-profit organization. That four years later we would be training other outreach groups throughout the nation.
The idea I had that night sitting in the parking lot has expanded and become more than I ever dreamed possible. No matter how much it has grown and changed, the message is still the same…
‘You are loved. You are welcome here.’ In our churches, in our lives.
This very message was first breathed like oxygen into my heart during a time when I needed it most in my own life. My passion to share it was born out of my own broken past. This is my story.
Laura and Charlie Rider have been married for twelve years. They share their nursery business in rural Wisconsin, their love for their animals, and their zeal for storytelling. Although Charlie's enthusiasm in the bedroom has worn Laura out, although she no longer sleeps with him, they are happy enough going along in their routine.
Jenna Faroli is the host of a popular radio show, and in Laura's mind is "the single most famous person in the Town of Dover." When Jenna happens to cross Charlie's path one day, and they begin an e-mail correspondence, Laura cannot resist using Charlie to try out her new writing skills. Together, Laura and Charlie craft florid, strangely intimate messages that entice Jenna in an unexpected way. The "project" quickly spins out of control. The lines between Laura's words and Charlie's feelings are blurred and complicated, Jenna is transformed in ways that deeply disturb her, and Laura is transformed in her mind's eye into an artist. The transformations are hilarious and poignant, and for Laura Rider, beyond her wildest expectations.
Here is a Reader's Guide to use also!
1. Laura muses that “she could only be her ultimate self when she was alone.” She isn’t the only one who has a clear “real” self and a constructed self. In what ways do the characters create new personas? Are these personalities convincing? Are they necessary?
2. Does Laura have the talent to be a writer? Are there rules that writers must follow, as she believes? Is Jenna correct when she suggests that it’s impossible to write without a historical knowledge of what has come before you?
3. How does the first interaction between Charlie and Jenna at the side of the road set the tone for their relationship? What changes and what remains the same once Laura is involved?
4. It is made clear during her interview with Jenna and again at the writers’ conference that Laura is not terribly knowledgeable about books and writing. Was she also naïve to involve her husband with another woman? What other characters display inexperience or ignorance?
5. Charlie and Laura are similar to Jenna and Frank in that both couples’ passion for one another has cooled after years of marriage. In what other ways are the couples similar? How are they different?
6. How has e-mail affected correspondence? How has it affected writing in general? What opinions would Charlie, Laura, and Jenna each have on the topic?
7. When Charlie thinks back to his childhood and his life with Laura, he recognizes that Prairie Wind Farm “had never been his goal, in part because he’d never had any particular goals.” If not his job, what else drives Charlie? What other examples are there of the gap between desire and reality?
8. Is a “conscious romance” possible? What kind of relationship would that be like?
9. Is it possible that Laura did, in fact, mean to paste Jenna’s e-mail, whether Laura realizes it consciously or not? Why would she have done it intentionally? Why is her reaction to the e-mail being sent out so different from Charlie’s and Jenna’s reactions?
10. Laura Rider starts a list of what women want. What would be on your list?
11. Who, in the end, has the upper hand in the Jenna Faroli Radio Show interview with Laura Rider? Or do neither or both have the upper hand?
12. Is any character responsible for Jenna and Charlie’s affair? Who or what would be the cause according to Laura? Jenna? Charlie?
13. What is the attraction, either romantic or not, between Charlie, Laura, and Jenna? What does each of them provide to each of the others?
14. In this satire, are all the characters skewered equally?
15. What does Hamilton seem to be saying about the writing life? Are writers necessarily ruthless?
Giveaway
I have three copies of this paperback book to giveaway courtesy of Hachette Books. For your first entry (MUST DO THIS ONE FOR ANY OTHER ENTRIES TO COUNT) tell us if you have ever wanted to be a writer! Oh - and leave your email address.
For additional entries you can sign up to follow (old followers let me know), Twitter or post it on your blog. Each entry must have it's own comment. (Four entries total.)
This giveaway if for U.S./Canada only - no PO boxes and will end Apr 8!
Worst Case by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge read by Bobby Canavale, John Glover, Orlagh Cassidy
One by one, children of New York's wealthiest are taken hostage. But the criminal doesn't crave money or power--he only wants to ask the elite if they know the price others pay for their luxurious lifestyles. And, if they don't, he corrects their ignorance--by killing them.
To Detective Michael Bennett, it becomes clear that these murders are linked and must be part of a greater, more public demonstration. With the city thrown into chaos, he is forced to team up with FBI agent Emily Parker, and the two set out to capture the killer before he begins his most public lesson yet--a deadly message for the entire city to witness.
From the bestselling author who brought you the Alex Cross novels comes James Patterson's most action-packed series yet. With the heart-pounding suspense that only Patterson delivers, WORST CASE will leave you gasping for breath until the very end.
I have three copies of this audiobook giveaway courtesy of Hachette Books. For your first entry (MUST DO THIS ONE FOR ANY OTHER ENTRIES TO COUNT) who is your favorite literary detective (policeman/woman, amateur sleuth, etc). Oh - and leave your email address.
For additional entries you can sign up to follow (old followers let me know), Twitter or post it on your blog. Each entry must have it's own comment. (Four entries total.)
This giveaway if for U.S./Canada only - no PO boxes and will end Apr 7!
Black Hills by Dan Simmons read by Erik Davies and Michael McConnohie
Paha Sapa, a young Sioux warrior, first encounters General George Armstrong Custer as Custer lies dying on the battlefield at Little Bighorn. He believes--as do the holy men of his tribe--that the legendary general's ghost entered him at that moment and will remain with him until Sapa convinces him to leave.
In BLACK HILLS, Dan Simmons weaves the stories of Paha Sapa and Custer together seamlessly, depicting a violent and tumultuous time in the history of Native Americans and the United States Army. Haunted by the voice of the general his people called "Long Hair," Paha Sapa lives a long life, driven by a dramatic vision he experiences in the Black Hills that are his tribe's homeland. As an explosives worker on the massive Mount Rushmore project, he may finally be rid of his ghosts--on the very day FDR comes to South Dakota to dedicate the Jefferson face.
I have three copies of this audiobook giveaway courtesy of Hachette Books. For your first entry (MUST DO THIS ONE FOR ANY OTHER ENTRIES TO COUNT) just leave a comment. Oh - and leave your email address.
For additional entries you can sign up to follow (old followers let me know), Twitter or post it on your blog. Each entry must have it's own comment. (Four entries total.)
This giveaway if for U.S./Canada only - no PO boxes and will end Apr 7!
Title: Scars and Stilettos: The Transformation of an Exotic Dancer Author: Harmony Dust Publisher: Monarch
About the book: Nineteen-year-old Harmony Dust is trapped. Thousands of dollars in debt, struggling to get by, dominated by her boyfriend: things can't get worse. . .until someone tells her how much money she can make as an exotic dancer. For the next three years, Harmony lives a double life as Monique, a dancer in a fully-nude strip club.
Scars and Stilettos is Harmony's stark, honest, and ultimately hopeful story of how God found her in that dark, noisy place and led her back out. She has since married, completed an MA in Social Welfare, and now leads Treasures, an organization helping women in the sex trade discover their true worth.
My thoughts: You start to learn about Harmony at the young age of 13. She is living with her mom and sometimes one of her mom's boyfriends. She pretty much takes care of herself. A friend, Derrick, eventually moves in - he is one of her mom's rescue cases. She tends to take in strays of all kinds to try to help them out - even though she needs a lot of help herself. Derrick eventually becomes Harmony's boyfriend - and by boyfriend I mean that Harmony supports him, does everything she can to make him want to stay with her, but he sleeps around and eventually gets another girl pregnant - and she finds herself supporting this girl and the baby also! It could only be because of God that she was able to pull herself out of this situation and start over.
I flew through this book in about a day - I just wanted to keep reading and see how God was able to change Harmony's situation - and He does, tremendously. To me, this was a very positive read - I think it would be a great one to recommend to someone you feel is searching for something to fill a need. It isn't real preachy, but more down to earth - and shows how God loves everyone - regardless of how they appear, or how they feel about themselves!
Visit the Treasures website to learn more about this wonderful ministry reaching out to women in the sex trade.
Scars and Stilettos Publisher/Publication Date: Monarch, Dec 2009 ISBN: 978-0-8254-6309-9 252 pages
~Special thanks to Cat Hoort, Trade Marketing Manager, of Kregel Publications for sending me a review copy.~
Title: Cole. . .I Love You to the Moon and Back Author: Aaron Dean Ruotsala Publisher: Xulon Press
About the book:Aaron Dean Ruotsala, 24-year-old husband, father, business owner, and pilot shares a true story about a heart-wrenching experience he calls the best and worst experience of a lifetime. This story will provoke you to laughter, tears, and cause you to examine yourself and your role as a human on this temporal journey. His prayer is that all who read this amazing story will learn from the experience in which they had no choice, to realize that when life brings you to the darkest, deepest, loneliest point imaginable, you will recognize what really matters in life. So, please laugh, cry, share, examine, and mostly enjoy this book that is certain to make you ask the question: "What if this happened to me?" The reality is that it could.
My thoughts: The strength and faith of this family is amazing. I am not sure that I would have such grace under these circumstances. They set up a Caring Bridge site and through it received much comfort and strength, but I believe at the same time they also gave as much as they received. Much of the book is the journal entries that were Aaron posted at Caring Bridge as well as many of the entries that guests left. This little boy had over 600,000 hits on his website within 2 months. He touched so many people, many of whom shared their stories of renewed marriages, renewed faith, new faith, due to Cole and his illness - with the majority of these people having never met him or his family. This book makes you take a look at what is important in your life - and realize that these people may not be there tomorrow - so make the most of them and your relationships with them today! I highly recommend reading this book.
The family has set up a foundation at www.colesfoundation.com which provides support to families in crisis, especially those who have children fighting cancer. Everyone, whether they read this book or not, should visit this site. You can also read more about Cole's story at his Caring Bridge page.
As an aside, I had started reading this book before we left to go skiing last week - and finished the book at Big Powderhorn Mountain - in Ironwood, Michigan - where the Ruotsala's are from - if that isn't a strange coincidence, I don't know what is!
Cole. . .I Love You to the Moon and Back Publisher/Publication Date: Xulon Press, May 2009 ISBN: 978-1-60791-444-0 220 pages
~I received this book free for review from Side Door Communications.~
For the Giveaway!
Side Door Communications has provided an audio version of Cole. . .I Love You to the Moon and Back for one of my readers!
To enter the giveaway - just leave a comment here. You can get an additional entry if you follow or subscribe, etc and another one for tweeting! Please leave each entry in a separate comment and leave an email address so that I can reach you!
The giveaway is restricted to US/Canada and will end on April 7th. Good luck!
TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to: Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you have given! Please avoid spoilers!
From the brown paper gift bag from Ofie, Chloe pulled out a set of black Converse sneakers Ofie had decorated using a bleach pen. One shoe had a neat series of dots and dashes, but the other was smeared beyond recognition. (p160, Waking Up in the Land of Glitter by Kathy Cano-Murillo)
Laura Rider's Masterpiece by Jane Hamilton (from Hachette for review)
Laura and Charlie Rider have been married for twelve years, running a nursery in picturesque Hartley, Wisconsin. And though they no longer share a bed they are happy enough: Laura with her writing hobby, and Charlie with his zeal for life in general.
Jenna Faroli is the host of a popular radio show and "the single most famous person in town," in Laura's eyes. After Jenna happens to cross Charlie's path and they begin an e-mail correspondence, how can Laura resist using his identity to try out her literary skill and converse with her hero? Together, Laura and Charlie craft florid, strangely intimate messages that entice Jenna in an unexpected way. . . and quickly spin out of control with hilarious, poignant, and memorable results. (back cover)
Apologize, Apologize! by Elizabeth Kelly (from Hachette for review)
Welcome to the perversely charmed world of the Flanagan's and their son, Collie (yes, he was named after the dog breed). Coming of age on Martha's Vineyard, he struggles within his wildly wealthy, hyperarticulate, resolutely crazy Irish-Catholic family: a philandering father, incorrigible brother, pigeon-racing uncle, radical activist mother, and domineering media mogul grandfather (accused of being a murderer by Collie's mother). It is a world where chaos is exhilaratingly constant and money is no object. Yet it is one where the things Collie wants -- understanding, stability, a sense of belonging -- cannot be bought at any price. Through his travails, we realize what it really means to grow into one's family: to find ways to see them anew, to forgive them, and to be forgiven in turn. (back cover)
Asking for Trouble by Sandra Byrd (For a First Wild Card Tour)
When her family moves to London, 15-year-old Savvy Smith has to make her way in a new school and in a new country. She just knows the school newspaper is the right place for her, but she doesn't have the required experience. Can she come up with a way to prove herself and nab the one available position on the newspaper staff at Wexburg Academy? (back cover)
The Language of Secrets by Dianne Dixon (from Doubleday for review)
Justin Fisher has a successful career as the manager of a luxury hotel, a lovely wife, and a charming young son. While all signs point to a bright future, Justin can no longer ignore the hole in his life left by his estranged family. When he finally gathers the courage to reconnect with his troubled past, Justin is devastated to learn that his parents have passed away. And a visit to the cemetery brings the greatest shock of all -- next to the graves of his father and mother sits a smaller tombstone for a three-year-old boy: a boy named Thomas Justin Fisher.
What follows is an extraordinary journey as Justin struggles with issues of his own identity and pieces together the complex and heartbreaking truth about his family (back cover)
God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life's Little Detours by Regina Brett (from Hachette for review)
Already an Internet phenomenon, these wise and insightful lessons by popular newspaper columnist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Regina Brett are destined to become the inspirational book of the year. (back cover)
The Wild Irish Sea by LoucindaMcGary (from Sourcebooks for review)
Drawn together by a force they can't resist...
The telepathic image of her twin brother fighting for his life sends Amber O'Neil rushing to the rocky shores of Ireland. Desperate to find him, she turns to reclusive local inspector, Kevin Hennessy.
Bound together with a passion as relentless as the tide...
His past full of pain, Kevin has withdrawn from the world. But when the rain-drenched American appears on his doorstep with her wild tales of danger, something more than her sensuous beauty makes it impossible for him to turn her away.
The wildness of the sea, the mystery of a selkie prince, and a dangerous band of ruthless smugglers bring two lost souls together in a connection of mind, body, and spirit that can't be denied. . .(back cover)
Farm Fatale by Wendy Holden (from Sourcebooks for review)
A witty, beloved novel of heart and heartland, Farm Fatale skewers the culture clash of city vs. country in the snappy, observant style that made Wendy Holden famous.
Cash-strapped Rosie and her boyfriend Mark are city folk longing for a country cottage. Rampant nouveaux riches Samantha and Guy are also searching for rustic bliss -- in the biggest mansion money can buy. The village of Eight Mile Bottom seems quiet enough, despite a nosy postman, a reclusive rock star, a glamorous Bond Girl, and a ghost with a knife in its back. But there are unexpected thrills in the hills, and Rosie is rapidly discovering that country life isn't so simple after all. (back cover)
A Certain "Je Ne SaisQuoi" The Origins of Foreign Words Used in English by Chloe Rhodes (from FSB Associates for review)
English is filled with a smorgasbord of foreign words and phrases that have entered our language from many sources -- some from as far back as the Celts. A Certain "Je Ne SaisQuoi," which tells the story of how many of these expressions came to be commonly used in English, will both amaze and amuse language lovers everywhere. You'll be fascinated to learn, for instance, that. . .
ketchup began life as a spicy pickled fish sauce called koechiap in seventeenth-century China?
Honcho came from the Japanese world hancho, which means squad chief? The world was brought to the United States something during the 1940s by soldiers who had served in Japan.
dungarees comes from the Hindi word dungri, the thick cotton cloth used for asils and tents in India?
Organized alphabetically for easy reference, A Certain "Je Ne SaisQuoi" tells the little-known origin of some of these thousands of foreign words and phrases -- from aficionado to zeitgeist. Inside, you'll find translations, definitions, origins, and lively descriptions of each item's evolution into our everyday discourse. With this whimsical little book, you'll be ready to throw out a foreign word or phrase at your next party, lending your conversation with, well, a certain jenesaisquoi. (back cover)
When Turtles Fly: Secrets of Successful People Who Know How to Stick Their Necks Out by Nikki Stone (from FSB Associates for review)
Did you know you have better odds at winning the lottery than an Olympic medal? To bring home one of those coveted medals - or achieve any great personal goal in life - you need a lot more than luck. You need a game plan.
What if you could learn the secrets of success from an Olympian? A Nobel Prize winner? A Fortune 500 CEO? Along with anecdotes from her own dramatic journey. Olympic gold medalist Nikki Stone has compiled a treasure trove of compelling stories to illustrate each step on the path to succss. She's gathered humorous, heartwarming and hugely inspirational tales from some of today's most brilliant business leaders, scientists, soldiers, inventors, philanthropists, musicians, athletes and entrepreneurs. . . a host of people whose very names epitomize achievement. Winners such as:
Designer Tommy Hilfiger
X-Games/Olympic Champ Shaun White
Jazz Musician Branford Marsalis
Special Olympic Chair Timothy Shriver
NFL quarterback Steve Young
Perfect '10' gymnast Nadia Comaneci
Prince Albert of Monaco
Best-selling author Stephen Covey
Olympic skiing Star Lindsey Vonn
Top venture capitalist Vinod Khosta
Celebrity chef Todd English
And many more. . .
Now an acclaimed motivational speaker and peak performance coach, author Nikki Stone helps people in all walks of life to overcome fears, failures and plateaus and realize their full potential. In this step-by-step guide to success, she and her team of high achievers share their stories about reaching for dreams. . . and grasping them. (back cover)
Death of a Cure by Steven H. Jackson (from Yorkshire Publishing for review)
Where an unfortunate side effect of hope is murder. . .
They are the leaders of the largest charities in the world. Living lives of excess and power. They are trusted and believed to be simply better. We want them to be. We need them to be. They are the keepers of our hope.
But is the dream of a cure really their mission? Have they come to see the disease, the enemy, as their true benefactor? How far would they go to protect the enemy?
Would they kill?
Death of a cure is anovel of mystery, suspense, and action. the murder of one good man by a respected colleague is more than a crushing personal deception, it is an unequaled violation of the trust of thousands afflicted by a horrible disease.
In a first person account, the brother of the murdered man, a military surgeon born to wealth and accustomed to success, is thrust into the role of homicide investigator. Quickly discovering that his skills as a detective are frustratingly insufficient, he calls upon a woman from his past for help. Together they unravel layers of evil and organized deception revealing that the true work of this healthcare charity has little to do with curing the terrible disease born by a trusting constituency.
Murder was just another means to a hidden end. (back cover)
The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees (from Putnam Books for review)
For the millions who cherish Little Women. . .
Readers across generations have laughed and cried with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women. And there has never been a more beloved heroine in the history of American letters than Jo March, Louisa's alter ego and an iconic figure of independent spirit and big dreams. But as Louisa knew all too well, big dreams often come at a cost.
In her debut novel, The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, Kelly O'Connor McNees deftly mixes fact and fiction as she imagines a summer lost to history, carefully purged from Louisa's letters and journals, a summer that would change the course of Louisa's writing career -- and inspire the story of love and heartbreak between Jo and Laurie, Jo's kindred spirit.
In the summer of 1855, Walt Whitman's controversial Leaves of Grass has just been released, and the notion of making a living as a writer is still a far-off dream for Louisa. She is twenty-two years old, vivacious, and bursting with a desire to be free of her family and societal constraints so she can do what she loves the most -- write. The Alcott family, destitute as usual, moves to a generous uncle's empty house in Walpole, New Hampshire, for the summer. Here, a striking but pensive Louisa meets the fictional Joseph Singer. Louisa is initially unimpressed by Joseph's charms. But just as she begins to open her heart, she discovers that Joseph may not be free to give his away. Their new found love carries a steep price, and Louisa fears she may pay with the independence she has fought so hard to protect.
Because Little Women borrows stories from Louisa's own childhood, the real-life Alcott sisters depicted in The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott will feel like familiar old friends. But readers will learn how the Alcotts' real life differed from the fictional March family. While Transcendentalist friends like Thoreau and Emerson were fixtures of Louisa'[s youth, Bronson Alcott's philosophical pursuits left the family finances in shambles. Unlike the wise and placid "Marmee," Louisa's mother, Abba, was often depressed and overwhelmed by poverty and disappointment.
The historical facts throughout Kelly O'Connor McNees's debut will be a delicacy to Alcott fans, but first and foremost, The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott is a universal story of love and how it changes us in ways we could never imagine. (back cover)
Real World Parents: Christian Parenting for Families Living in the Real World by Mark Matlock (from The B&B Media Group for Review)
Become a proactive parent (and stop overreacting!)
Real World Parents helps you be proactive, rather than reactive, while raising Christian kids toward lives of faith in a world filled with contradictions. Rather than trying to raise kids who are "good Christians," you'll find the tools to help you live out a faith that allows your children to see what it means to live as a Christian. As a result, your kids will learn about real faith by living it out with you.
Culture expert and veteran youth pastor, Mark Matlock, will help you explore issues such as:
Helping your child make decisions
The importance of failure
Knowing God's story for your family
Changing the story your family is in
The pursuit of wisdom, and much more (back cover)
The Clouds Roll Away by Sibella Giorello (from Phenix & Phenix for review)
Raleigh Harmon's life seems as impossible to solve as the high-profile case she's pursuing.
Closing her assignment with the FBI's Seattle office, forensic geologist Raleigh Harmon returns to her hometown of Richmond, Virginia, expecting a warm welcome. Instead she finds herself investigating an ugly cross burning at a celebrity's mansion and standing in the crosshairs of her boss at the Bureau. And the deeper Raleigh digs into the case, the murkier the water becomes. . . until she's left wondering who the real victims might be.
To make matters worse, Raleigh's personal life offers almost zero clarity. Her former confidant is suddenly remote while her former boyfriend keeps popping up wherever she goes. And then there's her mother. Raleight's move home was supposed to improve Nadine's fragile sanity, but instead seems to be making things worse.
As the threads of the case begin crossing and double-crossing, Raleigh is forced to rely on her forensic skills, her faith, and the fervent hope that a breakthrough will come, bringing with it that singular moment when the clouds roll away and everything finally makes sense. (back cover)
One Million Arrows: Raising Your Children to Change the World by Julie Ferwerda (for a First Wild Card Tour)
Will the world change your children. . . or will your children change the world?
Time is short and lives are at stake. Right now, God is inviting your family to become part of a bigger story -- a vision that will engage your hearts to make a radical difference. One Million Arrows is an inspirational call to raise your kids to impact their culture, community, and world for Christ. If you want your kids to discover their purpose, if you want them to live with a passion for the Kingdom, if you want your family to go down in His-Story, accept the mission. . . and leave a mark for eternity. (back cover)
Vampyre Blood: Eight Pints of Trouble by George Earl Parker (from Pump Up Your Book Tour for review)
When young New Orleans lawyer Bradley Harrington Chester III lies dying in the street after being hit by a speeding car, it seems that his life is over. But as his spirit drifts away toward a distant light, he is approached by an exotic fellow who claims to be both the Count dracula of legend, and a violin player for The Techno Zombies, a Goth rock band on a world tour.
The Count explains that with the aid of a wizard he has abandoned his dark legacy, and now finds himself in need of a legal representative. So he offers Brad a deal -- Brad can shuffle off into the light wherever it may lead, or he can become his lawyer, and be revived by a transfusion of Vampyre Blood.
The very last thing the younglawyer remembers before dying was his wife asking for a divorce, and prior to that he remembered being handed the prosecution of a mafia kingpin on his first day at the district attorney's office. He wondered why the DA was so friendly to him, and so nasty to his star attorney Richard Bleddon, and he wondered why Bleddon had arranged a champagne supper at a fancy restaurant for him and his wife. After which, a speedy midget had snatched his wife's purse and led him out into the street to die.
Impatiently, the Count presses for an answer to his offer, and after being assured that he will not become a Vampyre himself, Brad accepts, hoping to return and make sense of the madness that brought him to the brink of death. Populated by lovable rogues, scheming lawyers, and thieving gypsies, Vampyre Blood - Eight Pints of Trouble is an insane romp through New Orleans, illustrating the intensity of our human desire to get what we want at any cost, and the strange places that desire can lead to. (back cover)
Skin and Bones by D.C. Corso (from Pump Up Your Book Tour for review)
FBI Special Agent Severin Ash lives in a world haunted by people he's never even met -- the missing and the dead. Working out of Seattle's field office, Ash is assigned to coordinate a child abduction investigation in the small island community of Carver Isle, WA. The case at first seems to be open-and-shut, but when another child disappears on Halloween, Ash realizes it's far from over. He teams up with local woman Parker Kelly, who has her own ideas about what may be happening. Together, Ash and Parker must solve this puzzle of deceit, identity and manipulation, exhuming secrets and memories both would prefer to leave undisturbed.
Set against the chaotic backdrop of the days immediately following 9/11, D.C. Corso's stark thriller paints a vivid picture of life in a small Pacific Northwestern town as national tragedy overshadows its own losses. (back cover)
Never Tell Our Business to Strangers by Jennifer Mascia (from Random House for review)
When Jennifer Mascia is five years old, the FBI comes for her father. At that moment Jenny realizes that her family isn't exactly normal. What follows are months of confusion marked by visits with her father through thick glass, talking to him over a telephone attached to the wall. She and her mother crisscross the country, from California to New York to Miami and back again. when her father finally returns home, months later, his absence is never explained -- and Jenny is told that the family has a new last name. It's only much later that Jenny discovers that theirs was a life spent on the lam, trying to outrun the law.
Thus begins the story of Jennifer Mascia's bizarre but strangely magical childhood. An only child, she revels in her parents' intense love for her -- and rides the highs and lows of their equally passionate arguments. They are a tight-knit band, never allowing many outsiders in. And then there are the oddities that Jenny notices only as she gets older: the fact that her father had two names before he went away -- in public he was Frank, but at home her mother called him Johnny; the neat, hidden hole in the carpet where her parents keep all thier cash. The family sees wild swings in wealth -- one year they're shopping for Chanel and Louis Vuitton at post shopping centers in Los Angeles, the next they're living in one room and subsisting on food stamps.
What haver her parents done? What was the reason for her father's incarceration so many years ago? When Jenny, at twenty-two, uncovers her father's criminal record during an Internet search, still more questions are raised. By then he is dying of cancer, so she presses her mother for answers, eliciting the first in a series of reluctant admissions about her father's criminal past. Before her mother dies, four years later, Jenny is made privy to one final, riveting confession, which sets her on a search for the truth her mother fought to conceal for so many years. As Jenny unravels her family's dark secrets, she must confront the grisly legacy she has inherited and the hard truth that her parents are not -- and never have been -- who they claimed to be. In the face of unimaginable tragedy, Jenny will ultimately find an acceptance and understanding just as meaningful and powerful as her parents love.
In a memoir both raw and unwavering, Jennifer Mascia tells the amazing story of a life lived -- unwittingly -- with criminals. Full of great love and enormous loss, Never Tell Our Business to Strangers will captivate and entrall, with both its unrelenting revelations and its honest, witty heart. (inside cover)
Recollections of Rosings by Rebecca Ann Collins (won at Genre Reviews)
Sisters Catherine Harrison and Becky Tate, daughters of Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins, have very different personalities and temperaments. Both grew up in the shadow of Rosings Park, domain of the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, but as adults their paths diverged dramatically.
When a catastrophe at Rosings Park brings Becky back to visit her sister, the two clash about their aspirations for the marriage of Catherine's young daughter, and both women are forced to confront the ghosts of the past 00 in particular, Lady Catherine's cruelty and deception.
As the shocking truth emerges, the Darcy and Bingley families rally. But it may be too late for the sisters to find the love and happiness they were denied so long ago. (back cover)
The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister by Nonna Banister (with Denise George and Carolyn Tomlin) (for a First Wild Card Tour)
The Secret Holocaust Diaries is a haunting eyewitness account of Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister, a remarkable Russian-American woman who saw and survived unspeakable evils as a young girl. For half a century she kept her story secret while living a normal American life. She locked all her photos, documents, diaries, and dark memories from World War II in a trunk. Late in life she unlocked the trunk, first for herself, then for her husband, and now for the rest of the world.
Nonna's story is one of suffering, torture, and death -- but also of incredible acts of kindness that show the ultimate triumph of faith and love over despair and evil. The Secret Holocaust Diaries is in part a tragedy, yet it's also an unforgettable true story about forgiveness, courage, and hope. (back cover)
Title: Building a Bridge
Title: Demolition
