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Voice of the Mountain Amanda Spink and Steve Gye Clear Mountain Press, New Delhi, India ISBN: 978-0-9805698-4-1 Reviewed By: Emily Decobert
Sometimes a book comes along that changes the reader’s life. Occasionally its for the bad, but most of the time it is a positive change. Something written in the book reaches out and touches the soul of the reader. For me, Voice of the Mountain was one of those books. Daniel Bradley’s life has been totally decimated. His wife was killed in a car accident and he was behind the wheel. Though he was not at fault, the guilt won’t go away. He can’t stand his old job or old life. He decides there is only one choice; to commit suicide. He chose to go to Hawaii to end his life, but instead he finds a new beginning. He discovers a small, sparsely populated island and rents himself a shack. While it is relaxing, the real life change comes from what happens next. As he floats on his surfboard or just sits quietly, voices enter his thoughts. They are not his own, but messages from higher beings he dubs ‘voices’. They urge him to reconnect to the earth and open himself to discovery. They continue to teach him and by following their suggestions he becomes healthy in mind and body. He begins to share this wisdom with people on retreats to his beach and he even finds romance. Things are perfect until a volcano destroys the island. Will the voices of the mountain continue with no mountain? This book is amazing both in message and in the tale itself. Daniel was an ordinary guy who finds that the voices could communicate to him when his mind was open. That gives readers hope, for if he could do it we can too. It opens an exciting new realm, the chance to reach a higher plane. It also is very believable because Daniel isn’t a mystic, but just a guy who is no more gifted than any of us. It gives an example of a real world link to a higher place. The next part that touched me so was the message itself. The voices told him that humanity is slowly dying. Our body is polluted with bad food and drink, we live inside and lack healing sunlight, and we have lost the earth connection that is vital to human existence. We are also killing the planet with our pollution. Only by returning to nature and to the earth can humans find healing and be able to one day hear the messages as well. That is all so true. It made me think of my junk food diet and days of setting inside writing instead of going outside. I realized I was killing myself and I have sworn to change. Very few books have impacted me in this way. Read it and see what truths you find.
The Night is Long Steven Gye Clear Fountain Press, New Delhi, India ISBN: 978-0-9805698-5-8 Reviewed by: Emily Decobert
The Bible in all its splendor is not without its doubters. Many wonder if the true message has made it down to us in an unaltered form over these thousands of years. What if the truth was radically different, so different it contested the Bible at every turn? This is what readers face in The Night is Long. The book is two different stories that start out separate and slowly wind themselves together. Martin Bourke is a devout Christian who has spent years working for a church organization in Australia. One day he goes to his staff meeting and everything is in an uproar. A new book, Chronicles of Heaven, has taken public interest by storm and people are coming to their pastors asking if what the book says is true. To the church organization it can not be, because it goes against the basics of the Bible. Martin is given the job of finding out what the book says and finding its weaknesses. Martin agrees and begins to investigate. He expects to find it easy to refute, but the teachings strike him as just as plausible as Christianity. Slowly, he begins to convert to the teachings in the book. Chronicles teaches that there are many levels of Heavens and many minor angels fighting to become gods. These angels work to block people from the good higher powers. Jesus is listed as a false god and every major religion is slighted. In another part of town, Maggie and Jim Watson move into a new house. Waiting for them there are ghosts who are not friendly. These ghosts lead to possession, death, and finally a run in with Martin and his new found religion. This book is complex and confusing. A large part of the book is spent explaining about another book, Chronicles of Heaven. This isn’t a clever ploy by the author to present another ideal. Chronicles of Heaven is a totally different book stuck into the plot of The Night is Long. As such, The Nigh is Long reads more as a promotion for Chronicles of Heaven than a book in its own right. If radical religion interests you, skip this book and go straight to the source book. Don’t waste time with this segmented version with its muddled plots and unconvincing conversions.
We’ve Always had Paris………….. and Provence
Patricia and Walter Wells Harper Perennial ISBN: 978-0-06-089858-8 $15.99 Reviewed By: Emily Decobert How many of us have dreamed of chucking it all and moving to an exotic local? Most of us have and I must admit, my dream was Paris. Having gone there when I was twenty, I began a love affair with this wonderful city that continues to this day. So, of course, when I heard about We’ve Always had Paris, I had to review it. Patricia and Walter Wells understand the yearning of us Parisophiles. They often talked about the chance of moving to Paris to live. Both were writers for the Times and they dreamed of the day the call would come in offering a job at the Paris branch of the Times, the International Herald Tribune. One day, the dream became reality and they packed up and moved. Now they had to face the reality of living where they didn’t speak the language and were strangers in a world so different it was almost alien. Add to that Walter’s 24 hour a day job and Patricia’s freelance and cookbook career and they were almost overwhelmed. However, they find their way in the strange new world of both Paris and Provence and the book is filled with their memories, experiences, and meals. I began this book with high hopes and found myself slightly disappointed. The tale is very well written and chocked full of tales and recipes, but it lacks lustre. The descriptions of Paris failed to evoke the wonderful sense of the city itself and felt as flat as the pages of the book. When I read a book about a foreign country, I want to get lost in the place and the people and I was sad when these book almost but didn’t quite succeed. The part about Provence also didn’t evoke the sense of place and time. Having never been there, I had hoped for a tale filled with the magic of that unique part of the country. I was looking forward to seeing and experiencing in my mind a trip to this area and I didn’t find it. The story was well told and filled with those unique experiences of French country living, but I failed to make that vital connection with both the place and the characters. There can be no doubt that these two writers are very talented at writing factual information and they created technically sound book, but without the magic of the place shining through the book falters.
Lizzi and Fredl : A Perilous Journey of Love and Faith Dr. Willian B. Stanford iUniverse, 1663 Liberty Dr, Bloomington IN, 47403
The events of the years leading up to andduring WWII are a fascination with historians and history buffs still today. It is a sort of morbid curiosity; how could such evil ever exist and how could whole nations fall under its sway? In truth, many people in the occupied countries did not agree with Hitler and they had no choice but to run for their lives. This book tells of two such people. Alfred and Alice Steiner, Fredl and Lizzi, were living normal lives in Vienna, Austria when the Nazis came and destroyed everything. Fredl was a master jeweller and Lizzi was a talented seamstress and their life had been going well. When Fredl received orders to report to a Nazi factory to help build timing devices for their bombs, they knew they had to leave. They would never assist the Nazis but there was another issue. Lizzi’s family was Jewish. They didn’t practice their faith, but that didn’t matter to Hitler. In the end, Fredl and Lizzi along with his two brothers and their wives fled Austria. However, they didn’t run far enough. They made it to France, but it was taken by the Nazis as well. For the next seven years, Fredl was kept in various work camps as Lizzi struggled to free him. There was always danger, the Nazis were hunting down people who had fled the occupation in other countries to force them back to be interrogated and killed. Many times Fredl and Lizzi almost died and were saved in the last moments. This is a wonderful blend of novel and history book rolled into one. It is an accurate account of the trials of this couple as they fought for survival and not at all fiction. But; it is not at all dry. Stanford creates the real life characters of his parents with such vibrance and tenderness that the reader can not help but become as involved with these two as they become with the couple of a well-written fiction. As a historical account it is very detailed. Here is not a general focus of what battles happened at what time. Instead, readers are given an account of the daily life of people caught in the middle of the hell. Everyday issues like having to register at every address change, learning a foreign language while keeping your true nationality secret, and continually walking past soldiers that could send you to die in a concentration camp are explained. Often historical accounts leave out the life of the common man but this story is centred not on the war but on the survival of two determined people. This wonderful book gives readers a chance to relive the bravery of people caught in this hell. They are not called `The Greatest Generation’ lightly, it is a honor they earned. Dreams of the Fifth Dimension Guy Stevenson Clear Fountain Press, New Delhi, India ISBN: 978-0-9805698-1-0 $19.95 Reviewed by: Emily Decobert Where do we go when our life on earth is over? Most of us say Heaven and hope for streets of gold, but is that just a child’s dream? What of our past life, filled with goodness and sins, does that count in the hereafter? Dreams of the Fifth Dimension spins us a tale of warning about the life yet to come. Our nameless hero wakes into total blackness, lost in a void. He has just died and is now in total darkness and, so he thinks, alone. He is finally led from total darkness to twilight and a sparse room with just a table, chair, and bed, not really a great afterlife, is it? He soon learns that the afterlife is a reflection of the life the person just spent on earth. His is not the worse or the best, but there is hope for all he learns. Through lessons by enlightened elders and his own striving, he can move up in the worlds of the afterlife. He applies himself to study and reflection, even going out into the other worlds to help the less fortunate and he moves up the karmatic ranks. This book takes a great topic and dulls it down to mind numbing boredom. The prose is listless like the first world our hero encounters but, unfortunately, doesn’t get any better. The tale spins out lacklusterly, and the reader plods along on the journeys of the hero more out of duty than eagerness. The text fails to give the readers any sense of excitement or fear and we continue to follow hoping for a higher realm we never find. The great lessons that are included for our education are hopelessly muddled and incomprehensible, page after page of jabbering on what could have been an interesting read in the hands of another writer. These lessons are the supposed to be the words that changes the existence of the hero, but the readers wonders how he even understood them in the first place. I happened to notice tucked away on one of the forepages a mention that this book is based on the work of one G. Franchezo, 1894. Who is this man and where did he get such radical ideals in 1894? I plan to investigate his life and put this book on the shelf of bad reading experiences. Alfred and Alice Steiner, Fredl and Lizzi, were living normal lives in Vienna, Austria when the Nazis came and destroyed everything. Fredl was a master jeweller and Lizzi was a talented seamstress and their life had been going well. When Fredl received orders to report to a Nazi factory to help build timing devices for their bombs, they knew they had to leave. They would never assist the Nazis but there was another issue. Lizzi’s family was Jewish. They didn’t practice their faith, but that didn’t matter to Hitler. In the end, Fredl and Lizzi along with his two brothers and their wives fled Austria. However, they didn’t run far enough. They made it to France, but it was taken by the Nazis as well. For the next seven years, Fredl was kept in various work camps as Lizzi struggled to free him. There was always danger, the Nazis were hunting down people who had fled the occupation in other countries to force them back to be interrogated and killed. Many times Fredl and Lizzi almost died and were saved in the last moments. This is a wonderful blend of novel and history book rolled into one. It is an accurate account of the trials of this couple as they fought for survival and not at all fiction. But; it is not at all dry. Stanford creates the real life characters of his parents with such vibrance and tenderness that the reader can not help but become as involved with these two as they become with the couple of a well-written fiction. As a historical account it is very detailed. Here is not a general focus of what battles happened at what time. Instead, readers are given an account of the daily life of people caught in the middle of the hell. Everyday issues like having to register at every address change, learning a foreign language while keeping your true nationality secret, and continually walking past soldiers that could send you to die in a concentration camp are explained. Often historical accounts leave out the life of the common man but this story is centred not on the war but on the survival of two determined people. This wonderful book gives readers a chance to relive the bravery of people caught in this hell. They are not called `The Greatest Generation’ lightly, it is a honor they earned. Dreams of the Fifth Dimension Guy Stevenson Clear Fountain Press, New Delhi, India ISBN: 978-0-9805698-1-0 $19.95 Reviewed by: Emily Decobert Where do we go when our life on earth is over? Most of us say Heaven and hope for streets of gold, but is that just a child’s dream? What of our past life, filled with goodness and sins, does that count in the hereafter? Dreams of the Fifth Dimension spins us a tale of warning about the life yet to come. Our nameless hero wakes into total blackness, lost in a void. He has just died and is now in total darkness and, so he thinks, alone. He is finally led from total darkness to twilight and a sparse room with just a table, chair, and bed, not really a great afterlife, is it? He soon learns that the afterlife is a reflection of the life the person just spent on earth. His is not the worse or the best, but there is hope for all he learns. Through lessons by enlightened elders and his own striving, he can move up in the worlds of the afterlife. He applies himself to study and reflection, even going out into the other worlds to help the less fortunate and he moves up the karmatic ranks. This book takes a great topic and dulls it down to mind numbing boredom. The prose is listless like the first world our hero encounters but, unfortunately, doesn’t get any better. The tale spins out lacklusterly, and the reader plods along on the journeys of the hero more out of duty than eagerness. The text fails to give the readers any sense of excitement or fear and we continue to follow hoping for a higher realm we never find. The great lessons that are included for our education are hopelessly muddled and incomprehensible, page after page of jabbering on what could have been an interesting read in the hands of another writer. These lessons are the supposed to be the words that changes the existence of the hero, but the readers wonders how he even understood them in the first place. I happened to notice tucked away on one of the forepages a mention that this book is based on the work of one G. Franchezo, 1894. Who is this man and where did he get such radical ideals in 1894? I plan to investigate his life and put this book on the shelf of bad reading experiences.
Between Wyomings Ken Mansfield Thomas Nelson, Nashville ISBN : 978-1-595-5165-8 $14.99 Reviewed By : Emily Decobert
Have you even been at what felt like the bottom of the barrel? Your life that had been the envy of the neighbors is now a nightmare and you don’t know what to do? Ken Mansfield has been there and back and he can help you too. Mansfield hit the music industry’s version of a jackpot when at the age of 25 he got the position of District Promotion Manager for the West Coast with little experience. For the next twenty or more years his life was filled with famous singers, drugs, and money. Then he lost it all and he had no one, no one except his new wife and the friend she introduced him to, God. This book is a wonderful tale of how life is uncertain but God isn’t. He’s always there, waiting for your love and wanting to help. Like Mansfield, we tend to forget God and focus on life. This book reminds us all how capacious life is and how stable God will always be for us all. I enjoyed both parts of the story, the trip all around the country hearing about the wild times that was music in the ‘60’s and the quiet moments about God in the present. Mansfield’s entertaining remembrances are vivid and recreate the hedonistic times that are now legend to those of us not even born. When you read it you felt like you were there also, living the high life. So, when he hits bottom you feel the pain and most important, you feel God and his love.
Designer Women : Made by God Ruth Tuttle Conrad Authentic Publishing, 1820 Jet Stream Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80921 ISBN: 978-1-934068-75-5 $14.99 Reviewed by: Emily Decobert
Anti-feminists have gone back to the beginning of human existence in an attempt to prove their superiority over women. They claim that since God made woman from a man’s rib, she is forever his slave. They like to forget men were made out of dirt. Book after book has been published to prove the right to domineer over women; chocked full of bible scriptures to prove a faulty idea right. Where are the other books, the ones that prove all those men wrong and use the Bible to set the record straight? Designer Women is such a book.
Ruth Tuttle Conrad reminds us all that women are made in God’s image, imago dei, just as men are and therefore are as equal to the gifts and joys of God as any man. Conrad has been at the work of figuring out women’s relationship with God, especially her own, almost all her life. Unsatisfied with the patronizing answers of all male preachers, she has studied the Bible herself and found very different answers.
Designing Women serves to empower women by reminding them of women in the Bible who served God and was as well-treated and respected as any man by the God who loves us all. The book tells about eleven women and how their obedience served God’s will. For example, Zipporah circumcised her own son to save her husband’s life and fulfil God’s design for her. Ruth left her own people to help the person she loved and God rewarded her beyond understanding.
These tales are wonderful not only because of the inspiriting messages, but also by how Conrad takes the Bible and uses it to prove that women are also God’s precious children. She used the ancient texts and translates the truth, often forgotten. Eve is called ezer in the Hebrew texts and this word is only ever used to mean the person is equal or superior to those she aids. When the Holy Spirit filled the followers at the Pentecost, women as well as men spoke in tongues. Conrad goes to great lengths to correct years of repression and does very well.
Even more inspiring is how she uses her stories to encourage women of today. She relates these long ago women to us, showing how they were basically as we are now, struggling in life and seeking God. Conrad also fills the text with reassurances. God loves us all and has a mission for each of us. We are not alone. No matter a woman’s faith, we all need those reassurances.
Read this book with a group of women and revel in your power. Be inspired and uplifted, share with your sisters and pledge to live the life God wants of you.
Wrongsized: Become Chronically Unemployed in 26 Easy Steps Larry Solomon Outskirts Press, Denver, Colorado ISBN: 978-1-4327-2347-7 $13.95 Reviewed By: Emily Decobert
In today’s global market, people are losing their jobs at the rate of hundreds a day as the recession grinds along. Each time, families are left scrambling to try to pay the bills. That is not a very funny issue, but Larry Solomon has taken the depressing and lightened it up a bit. He himself spent some time unemployed and this work is based a little on his experiencen, but mostly on fiction.
Our tale starts off as many similar stories do, with the soon to be unemployed totally clueless as to the pending disaster. He is in his own little world, working away as doom approaches. It arrives in the form of a kid younger than the tie of the worker, a real jerk who still believes that he will solve all the problems of the company. He starts with firing before mentioned hard-working employee.
In desperation, our now unemployed friend turns to a temp agency to find a job. It is there that he embarks on 26 misadventures that are the heart of the book. This is where the story veers off into the unexpected. The title suggests that discussed inside are 26 basic mistakes that a person can make to become unemployed. However, instead 26 jobs are chosen, from the usual to the bizarre, and funny but usually unrealistic ways to lose that job are given. The results are hilarious, but the reader is left wondering how exactly this fits into the basic premise. It is an unexpected turn and while that can be surprising it also gives more chances for laughs, which is the point.
Finally, our much abused author finds a job and his struggles are over. Not the type to leave other suffers without help; the author gives practical advice on getting a new job. There is great stuff here, both doable and result giving. However, the advice only takes up a few pages in the book! This is a pity because the suggestions such as list former jobs for ideals and brain storm for new possibilities to be considered then narrowed down is solid, helpful stuff. The major intent of the book might have been laughs, but that doesn’t exclude good advice.
The book is a good read for the laughs the job traumas of the author gives. Comedy doesn’t mean it can’t be helpful and one can only hope that in the next book the writer gives us more of his wisdom, which is clearly there.
I’ll Make You An Offer You Can’t Refuse
Michael Franzese
Thomas Nelson, Nashville TN (2009)
ISBN: 978-1-59555-163-4
Reviewed by Emily Decobert
Rating: five stars!!!
According to the TV show, mob bosses spend their time ordering around their henchmen, having people ’whacked’ and eating pasta. Michael Franzese assures us that is not so and he should know; he was once one of the top wise guys in the Colombo crime family, a made-man. That meant that he was a top money maker in his businesses and held great power. However he ended up in jail, but before he did he learned how to do business the mob way. Once he got out, he had to learn to do business the legit way and this book is how to take lessons from the mob life and apply them to legal business. The book is an interesting read first off because of the tone. Not formal and high brow, it is causal and friendly. Its as if you and he are sitting at a table, having a casual dinner over that plate of pasta and he’s simply discussing the ins and outs of business, one wise guy to another. The book focuses on two great advisors, Machiavelli and King Solomon, and how they represent the two ways to do business. Machiavelli is the mob way, which is to do what is needed to get the money. Lie, cheat, and yes, steal for ‘the ends justify the means.’ Franzese lived that life and he tells it only leads to destruction. He proposes the only way to do business is by the advice of King Solomon. Solomon advised honesty, truthfulness, and integrity for ‘dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.’ So, what does that advice have to do with the mob? Well, Franzese doesn’t totally disregard mob business. Instead he takes the mob way and applies it to honest business. Each chapter is dedicated to one vital mob rule and how to use it to the advantage of a legal business. My favorite is about the sit-down. That is a mob meeting, but instead of the dithering and time wasting everyone cuts to the chance and focuses on getting the best outcome for themselves. This book was a great read and entertaining as well as educational. I enjoyed the mob stories as much as the advice. Franzese’s through explanations make it easy to understand the point and apply it. He realistically doesn’t promise success, but he gives the tips to build the foundation for a successful business.
2013: Envisioning the World After the Events of 2012 Marie D. Jones The Career Press, Inc. 3 Tice Rd, PO Box 687 Franklin Lakes, NJ, 07417 ISBN: 978-1-60163-007-0 $15.99 Reviewed by Emily Decobert Rating: three stars People are fascinated by the future, especially their own future. One of the future major doomsday events that excites New Age folk is related to the Mayan calendar and the fact it states that the world will end on December 21, 2012. The book 2013: Envisioning the World After the Events of 2012, discusses the theories of what will happen. The book delves into the many theories, giving them a thorough going over, discussing various end of days theories and psychics beliefs. The facts are clearly laid out and not too wordy, very interesting. The work by Ms. Jones uses many technical terms and the average reader might become confused, as I was, by the many foreign terms. Then the book takes a strange turn, describing such things as environment, economy, illness, and the dire predictions for the planet and its people. While the book is based on life after December 21, 2012, the reader is left wondering, how does this have to do with the Mayan calendar and the doomsday prediction? Then another jump back to the theories of other experts on how that 2012 isn’t a doomsday date, but a time of new beginnings. That returns to the topic, but after chapters of facts on the woes of the world, it is difficult to refocus back on December 21, 2012. Anyone who wants a simple explanation of the Mayan calendar and the possible events of 2012 would be better served searching for another book, for while this one is informative, it is also rambling and off task. The Monster of Florence Authors: Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi Grand Center Publishing ISBN: 978-0446581196 $25.99 Reviewed by: Emily Decobert Rating: five stars!!!!! The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston is the perfect example of life imitating art. When Preston moved to Florence, little did he know he was moving into his own thriller. He soon meets Mario Spezi, a journalist, who informs him that the olive grove near his house was the scene of a double murder committed by the Florentine version of Jack the Ripper. As it happens, Mario Spezi is the resident expert on the sixteen slayings and he enchants both the reader and Preston with the history of the uncaught serial killer. Preston and Spezi decide to do their own investigation for a book and then things start taking some weird turns, including criminal charges for both. Preston and Spezi takes this non fiction tale and gives it the excitement of a first rate thriller. The first part of the book gives the history of the case without telling too much, the story so captivating the reader is caught, just like Preston was when he heard it. The second part ties Preston into the web of lies and the total incompetence of the Italian police. The reader by this time is engrossed and he cheers and moans at the right moments. The book is divided between writers, with Mario Spezi writing the history he was present for and Preston telling of his experiences when he and Spezi did their own investigation. It give the tale great authenticity, because the story is written by the one who lived it. This book is enthralling and readers will find it impossible to put down.
Nelson’s Illustrated Guide to Religions: A Comprehensive Introduction to the Religions of the World. James A. Beverley Thomas Nelson, Nashville TN. ISBN: 9780785244912 Reviewed by: Emily Decobert Rating: four stars The Illustrated Guide to Religions is an encyclopedia of the modern religions of the world. It is quite inclusive, including many religions that people have heard of and they would want to know the facts about. There are entries on such religions as the Branch Davidians, Scientology, Witchcraft, and even Satanism. The introduction gives readers a strong Christian base in which to consider the other religions in the book. It discusses how a Christian should look at the religions different from theirs and what to consider when investigating whether a new cult is an actual religion. The overall text is easy to read, including a timeline for each religion and text boxes containing important facts. At the end of each entry are websites and extra reading to learn more on the subject. The text is totally based on the Christian perspective and some readers who are not Christians might prefer a neutral approach to the topic. As a research tool it is useable but teachers would expect the Christian viewpoint to be filtered out.
The Law of Attraction: How to Get Your Man Sally Huss Huss Publishing, PO Box 206, La Jolla CA, 90038 ISBN: 0982262523 $7.99 Reviewed by: Emily Decobert Rating: three stars More than ever there is a subculture of adults, both young and old, who are single. Even with so many, there is still a pressure to be married and the single person misses love and companionship. This book, The Law of Attraction: How to Get Your Man, gives singles a fifty-five page guide to finding a perfect mate and how to have fun doing it. Her method focuses on the single deciding what he/she wants and doggedly going after it. This method centers on not only finding a mate, but treating yourself well. Ms. Huss encourages people to become the best they can become. Pamper yourself! Take care of yourself! Then, you’re in top form and mind and ready to meet your mate. Most of us get bogged down in the rat race of life and forget that. It is wonderful to find a book that reminds us that we have to care for ourselves before we can create change of any sort. Ms. Huss’s own story is interesting and inspiring, but there could have been more focus on the technique itself. It is the system that the reader needs and they will want the process broke down so they can get into the guts of it and learn it well enough to apply it. She Still Calls Me Daddy Robert Wolgemuth Thomas Nelson, Nashville TN ISBN: 978-0-7852-2170-8 $22.99 Reviewed by Emily Decobert Rating: five stars This was a delightful book dealing in a very touchy subject, how Daddy deals with his little girl after she is a wife. While she is still his daughter she is also an adult and she will look to her husband for the support she once depended on her father for. Robert Wolgemuth suggests using seven steps of protection, conversation, affection, discipline, laughter, faith, and conduct do deal with this new woman. Wolgemuth tells that Dad needs to focus on building a new relationship with his daughter, one of support but not meddling. Dad needs to understand his daughter is an adult and she and her husband make the decisions. He is there to be supportive. Dad also needs to become a friend to the new husband, so the young man can feel comfortable trusting in him. This book was wonderful because it gives simple, logical steps for Dad to follow. Also, I enjoyed reading it as a new bride. He hits on the things daughters want to tell Dad but don’t know how. That they still love Dad, but they aren’t a little girl anymore and they want his support and his trust in believing they know what to do. Carve Your Own Road Jennifer and Joe Remling The Career Press, Inc., 3 Tice Rd. PO Box 687, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417 ISBN: 978-1-60163-052-0 $14.99 Reviewed by: Emily Decobert Everyone wants to leave the rat race and try their own dreams. Carve Your Own Road, was written to help us do just that. It is based on the theory, Mindset on Clarity, which states picturing yourself doing successful things build the same neural pathways as doing them. Jennifer and Joe Remling practice what they preach and the first part of the book is how they took the leap and realized their dreams. They wanted to try to do something to change their almost dull existence. They had well-paying jobs and the trappings of the American dream but they felt unfulfilled. They became their own bosses but had even bigger aspirations‘. Jennifer had an wild and crazy dream, to tour America in an Airstream trailer, collecting stories of people who went out and pursued their own fantasy. Their tales enables average readers to perceive the power of the mind. By visualizing with the mind’s eye what their life could be with a few changes, they start on the path to success. Not only is there the promise of pursuing their own path, but by using the methods readers can radically change the jobs they already have. Mindset of Clarity is in itself simple and Jennifer and Joe do a great job breaking down each step so anyone can understand. Readers are encouraged to clarify what they want and to set large goals to be pursued. Then they picture themselves accomplishing this, the brain building the same neural pathways as if they were doing the actions. This leads to determined effect that helps to achieve the major goal. Reflection and thankfulness are used to keep them charged and on track. While this book is geared towards changing jobs, it could be used for anything a person wants to achieve. An example could be weight loss. A reader sets the goal of losing a large amount of weight and visualizes doing just that. This gives her the determination to do what is necessary to accomplish weight loss and by reflecting and encouraging oneself, the dieter continues on the right path. The only confusing part of this book is the fact that some real life stories were stuck in-between the first part, which was Jennifer and Joe’s story, and the instructions on the Mindset of Clarity. Since real life stories are so expertly meshed in the first and second part, the adding of a bulk of extra stories breaks up the otherwise great flow. It Happened in Italy Elizabeth Bettina Thomas Nelson, Nashville TN ISBN: 978-1-59555-102-3 $24.99 Reviewed By: Emily Decobert For stories that must be told, there is a person destined to tell them. So, it was with Elizabeth Bettina and the story of Jewish internment camps in Italy in WWII. She is an Italian-American girl that was raised in New York in a mostly Jewish neighborhood. She was surrounded by Jewish families who were her friends and taught her to love and respect the Jewish culture. She also learned about Italy as well all the summers she went with her family back to the family home in Campagna, Italy. Imagine her surprise when she learned that an Italian internment camp existed in her family’s hometown during WWII. She was consumed by curiosity when she realized how the inmates of these camps lived. They were well-fed, allowed to keep their own clothes and possessions, and allowed to leave the camp! There were no starving people being continually being worked to death in Italy. Betttina wondered how this could be; Italy was an ally of Germany until 1943! So she began the hunt. Bettina used her outgoing personality and untiring desire to find Jewish people who had been in Italian camps and interview them. But, that wasn’t enough, she was determined to help these elderly people fulfill their wish to go back to Italy and thank the Italians who saved their lives. Many trips ensued along with visits to many people in different places, including the Pope! Plans snowballed and soon the goal became a multi-country documentary and, of course, book. It is not only a voyage of discovery for the writer but the reader as well. Be prepared to put aside your notions of Europe in WWII and learn that compassion and love overcame evil.
The Messy Buddha: Dancing on the Soul’s Growing Edge. Kate McLennan, D.Min Outskirts Press, Denver Colorado ISBN: 978-1-4327-3550-0 $16.95 Reviewed By: Emily Decobert
Rev Dr. Kate McLennan is an interfaith minister and artist and has played guitar and sung songs since she was a little child. She has also had a very hard life. Kate McLennan has had many of the same problems that, unfortunately, a lot of people encounter. When she was a young woman she discovered alcohol and its false pleasure. Due to addiction, she had to go to rehab. Then she suffered with a leukemia, a very powerful blood cancer. These atrocious experiences made her think about why bad things happen in your life when you try to be a good person . She says in the book that she was not fulfilled with the rules of the Southern Baptist church. She was interested in other ways of thinking and understanding the world around her. Meeting a spiritual guide, a meditation teacher based in the Buddhist tradition, she saw a new world opening itself in front of her. However, she was indecisive because of her belief in God, a deity which Buddhist people don‘t believe exists. After a lot of practice, she became aware of a way to make any life better. Despite her faith in church and God, what she lived while being sick prompted her to search in her mind for a way to release herself and to appreciate life. She learned how to be self motivated and self tranquilizing with little tricks. She created different kinds of songs, using them as her mantra. The second part of the book is full of songs and is included to help readers to work on their minds and to give them the love, the tenacity, and the motivation to keep going through everyday life. Kate McLennan believes you can practice this peace and she shows readers how to do it. For instance, with the body prayer, which can be just a few words, they can enable the body and connect with the Divine. All throughout the book, she intertwines two religions using each of them as a help and finding connections in both. She thinks religion can help anyone if they are ready to open their heart and master their mind to self discipline. McLennan is the perfect example of what people can do if they get the faith. This book is a testimony on what fate can plan for people and how every one of us can get through these bad periods of our life. Readers will no longer have the same view on what the human mind is and can become, with a little of assistance, after reading the teachings of the Creator and a Zen master. They will instead find calmness where there was struggle and peace instead of chaos.
The Box from Braunau: In Search of My Father’s War Jan Elvin American Management Association, 1601 Broadway, NY, 10019 ISBN: 978-0-8144-1049-3 $24.95 Reviewed By: Emily Decobert “The Greatest Generation,” is dying at a rate of over 1000 per day. Time is running out to collect the stories of these people who stopped evil in its tracks and brought liberty to the world. Jan Elvin was reminded of this when she saw the box from Braunau. It rested on her brother’s desk, a smallish box lovingly carved and dated ‘Braunan 1944’. It prompted her to look into her father’s war life and how it affected him when he returned. She knew he was scarred. Everyone in the house knew not go close to wake him from a sound sleep, that there could be no sudden noises, and that he had a strict firmness that allowed no rebellion. While he loved them, he struggled to show affection to both his wife and his family, prompting her mother to divorce him. With Ms. Elvin’s research, she realized her father was suffering from what many soldiers suffer from, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The book jumps between two stories, the story of Ms. Elvin’s work to learn about her father’s role in the war and her father’s actual experiences. She used her father’s war journal, written after the conflict, so we can read a first hand account of his battles. What parts he didn’t write about, Ms. Elvin fills in the blanks with careful research. It gives a vibrant, living real experience, a snap shot of some of the worst fighting in WWII. The other part of the book is Ms. Elvin’s life with her wonderful, difficult father and her search to discover about those war years. The attention she gives to fairly describing her father’s actions and reactions give the reader a picture of how a person with PTSD and his family suffers. She also tells how the children suffer, giving the uninitiated a view of the life of a child in such a household. She almost started her research too late, her father was close to death when she began exploring the box and the war. While he did discuss some of his experience, Ms . Elvin had a great deal of research to do on her own. Always a private man, near the time of his death he was able to begin to show his daughter his love, but he struggled to open up to the very end. The many blanks were filled in by research, trips, and visiting with men with men who served in the 80th. Jan Elvin’s search gave her so much more than the facts behind the box. It gave her back her father, the man he was and who he struggled to be to his family.
Cannibalism, Headhunting, and Human Sacrifice in North America: A History Forgotten George Franklin Feldman Alan C. Hood & Co, Inc., PO Box 775, Chambersberg, PA, 17201 ISBN: 978-0-911469-33-2 $20.00 Reviewed by: Emily Decobert Most modern Americans believe the Indians were peaceful savages who lived an ideal life with nature that was destroyed by the white folk. To some extent, they did fit into that picture. There can be no doubt of the horrible decimation of the Native Americans by the Europeans who took their land, dignity, and very lives. But, there was also a darker side to the placid natives. George Franklin Feldman, the author, has loved archeology since he was a boy and Dr. Glenn Black let him dig around an Angel Mounds site. His love of American history continued into adulthood and his focus turned to the dark site of the American Indians and their relations with the invaders. He has found people ranging from relunct to even defiant at the suggestion that the Native Americans were anything other than passive victims. They were anything but passive. Before the Europeans meddled into their affairs, the Indians were massacring each other with regular frequency. In warfare, often whole villages were murdered. The gentler option was death to the men and slavery to the women and children. And, of course, let’s not forget the cannibalism and human sacrifice. Human sacrifice and cannibalism served many functions. Some tribes killed their own people for rituals or sacrificed slaves. Cannibalism often occurred in an attempt to gain the bravery of the person eaten or to strengthen the warrior about to fight. And, as European Americans did later, they turned to cannibalism to survive starvation. Cannibalism also was religiously-based. There were gods and goddesses who were cannibals and humans who worshiped them by becoming cannibals themselves. As Europeans met with the headhunting ways of the Native Americans they were at first appalled, then they learned to be as savage. At first shocked by the use of scalp collecting, white Americans took it to new heights. The European Americans wanted to destroy the Indians for various reasons and soon they put a price on the Indians’ head. The average reward was $200 for a warrior, but even a child’s scalp earned money. Vicious men, eager for money, began the slaughter. This led to Indians fighting back, more of a call for scalps, and death everywhere. In his research, George Franklin Feldman found accounts of unspeakable horror and wondered how to find the words to describe it. He wondered whether or not he should even write about those things. In the end, he did pursue the work, using the words of first hand accounts to stay unbiased. He continued because he knew this story had to be told and history should not be censored. He reports the grizzly facts with compassion and detail. It is complex and not an simple read; it takes an concentrated effort but is well worth the time spent. Through and well-written, this book helps fill in the blanks of American Indian history and shed a new light on our country’s past.
Siren’s Feast: An Edible Odyssey Nancy Mehagian Cielo Press, 12400 Ventura Blvd. #733 Studio City, CA 91604 ISBN: 978-0-9799305-0-8 $22.00 Reviewed by: Emily Decobert Nancy Mehagian has lived a life that is the stuff of legends. Wild and free, traveling and tripping on drugs, she lived more before thirty than most of us live in a lifetime. And, we’re so jealous. Nancy was a child of an affluent Armenian family who worked their way into the American dream. Her mother was not only the perfect stay at home mom, she was a world-class chef, and waited on Nancy’s father hand and foot as a Armenian wife should. Holidays were wonderful orgies of food and family. Her father, much older than her mother, retired while Nancy was a child and her father began making good on his promise to give his wife everything she wanted. Soon there were trips to California and Hawaii, lots of decadence and luxury. The cosseted younger daughter she was protected, perhaps smothered, by parents who wanted the best for her. She went to college and was unable to continue the strict life still under her parent’s thumb. She took her first trip to Spain and Morocco, enroute to a semester in Italy, and she could never look back. There was independence, excitement, and drugs. In Morocco she dropped acid and smoked hashish, practicing the free love that was a major part of the 60’s. A wild flower child, she would not be satisfied in the US. She soon answered the Siren’s song and found her way to the island of Ibiza, believed to be the home of Homer’s sirens, where a relaxed hippie community was forming. It was parties, drugs, and people who were kind and generous. Total strangers would offer to take waifs in and Nancy became part of a large, loving community. Living with whoever, she became the group’s chef and soon was encouraged to open a vegetarian restaurant. With the help of friends, she got a place and opened the Double Duck. While life was good, Nancy had the travel bug and rented out the restaurant to go to India, chasing enlightenment and love. She returned to Ibiza, but was unable to settle and fled to Beirut. It would be here her luck would begin to run out. She had an affaire with a married man and while it led to the joy of pregnancy, she was expecting and stuck in the Middle East. Young and trusting, she accepted tickets to London and was arrested for drug smuggling. She hadn’t known she was being used to get hashish into England. Given prison time, she entered prison with her newborn daughter in her arms. A nurturer and chef at heart, she watched over the babies of the other women and pushed to have healthy food for the prisoners. She was so determined she grew her own vegetables, made baby food, and worked to give her daughter, herself, and the other little ones a healthy diet. Finally, her days of drugs and roving over, she settled down in the US with her precious daughter and became a practitioner of Jin Shin Jyutsu. She was still a chef, but she refused to open another restaurant, choosing to feed friends and family and to give to strangers the relief from pain with her healing art. I read this book in one day, unable to put it down. It is an incredible rush as we race along with Nancy, searching for freedom and enlightenment. Everyone will identify with her quest and will envy her bravery that led to the years she spent abroad. Can we find such a life in the 21st century or was it simply a chance of that carefree time? Perhaps because it is not possible, readers will jump at this chance to be an armchair tag along
The Evolution Conspiracy: Vol. 1 Lisa A. Shiel Slipdown Mountain Publications LLC, Lake Linden, MI, 49945 ISBN: 978-1-934631-30-0 $11.95 Reviewed By: Emily Decobert Evolution is an issue that causes everyone to jump on their soapbox. Some people believe that it is totally true and anyone else is crazy. Others believe that God created the world and anyone who says otherwise is a heretic. The rest of us straddle the fence, unable to decide and not wanting to offend the two militant parties. Lisa Shiel is willing to question the scientists. She believes that evolution is not the well proven fact scientists insist it is. In reality, evolution doesn’t even rate the title of theory. Scientists treat the public as if they are too ignorant to understand the arguments and don’t rate the effort to impart the truth. Shiel says anyone can understand the arguments, but they are not sound enough to be convincing. This book starts the argument at the very beginning, how did life begin? After proving scientists don’t actually know, she moves on to evolution, looking for proof. While Darwin gave us his book, The Origin of Species,, Shiel reminds us scientists don’t have the right to call evolution a theory, because it fails all the tests a theory must pass. For example, it can not be reproduced and observed in a lab and theories must be testable. The book then takes us to the study of the first humans and points out that so little of the skeleton is found, the majority of the final image is the conjecture of the scientists. Also, even the so-called experts can’t decide the exact evolution of humans or even how many species or sub-species are between apes and humans. I enjoyed this book a great deal. I’m a writer, so advanced biology is way out of my league. However, Lisa Shiel makes the most difficult issues easy to comprehend. She explains the myriad of complex words, even providing the average Joe a glossary with useful definitions. The Evolution Conspiracy gives us a knowledgeable person in Lisa Shiel, willing to present an educated alternative argument. Even though many of us have doubts, we don’t know enough of the workings of the science of evolution to give intelligent arguments. Shiel takes each of the ‘facts’ and with her own set of facts tears apart the castles in the air. This book also voices the concerns many of us wonder about by silence. For example I’ve always wondered, if humans evolved from apes, why aren’t there beings that are between humans and apes? Apes exist and humans exist, but no middle man walks the earth today. I speak for many when I say that I want some more proof This book is a delight because it encourages questioning and urges readers to think for themselves. Evolution has been taught so much in schools, we don’t think we have a right to ask questions or disagree. Shiel reminds us that we can question, and we should.
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