Book "The Prayer of Love" by Dr. Mark Hanby and Roger Roth, Sr.

About the Book (from the authors): The Prayer of Love is about a little-known prayer that has the power to bring forth life transformation. Written in the pages of this book is an astounding little prayer that can dramatically change your life. Its words do not merely offer knowledge but, more important, are expressions of truths that have the ability to bring complete and lasting spiritual transformation. Many people today will never reach their full potential or become the person they sense is hidden inside, good people who desire to grow in love beyond their frustrations and weaknesses. They long for purpose, meaning, and fulfillment — to live a life of love — but have difficulty in finding it. I know how they feel. Through much adversity and with the help of God, this is what I’ve found. For all my struggle and disappointment, the answers to life’s most difficult situations are usually simple. In fact, God is a God of simplicity. *** We are often the ones who make life difficult for ourselves. In fact, the answers to life’s most difficult problems are usually simple. Jesus summed up the secret to life in a very uncomplicated, profound statement: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said that doing this fulfills all of God’s requirements of us. That’s where “The Prayer of Love” comes in. Whether you know how to love or you feel that love has eluded you, this prayer will change your life. This is because love is not meant to be an occasional feeling but a daily experience that continually brings peace and joy. “The Prayer of Love” is a little-known yet powerful prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed over the church he founded in Philippi in what is now Greece. The Prayer of Love follows the outline of this fifty-nine-word prayer and is broken down into seven parts that form benchmarks for understanding and maturing in love. The Prayer of Love is a small book with a simple prayer and a memorable, easy-to-follow method for developing the capacity to allow peace and love to rule in our lives every day.

About the Authors:

Dr. Mark Hanby accepted the pastorate of a small church in Fort Worth, Texas, after being a guest speaker for several years. Under his direction, the church later grew to become Truth Church, which was one of the first megachurches in the nation and the largest of its denomination. Internationally known as a dynamic speaker of church government and spiritual order, Dr. Hanby is a prolific author and widely esteemed as an apostolic father to the church at large. He has personally ministered in more than seventy countries, giving oversight and support to leadership in the body of Christ.
Roger Roth, Sr., has partnered with Dr. Hanby in his ministry and writing for many years. Together they oversee Mark Hanby Ministries/Fathers Heart Ministries, an internationally recognized teaching and resource center.

My Review: This is a masterpiece on the interpretation and application of Philippians 1:9-11 of the letter of the Apostle Paul  to the Philippians. In a very simple and straight forward way and full of every day's life examples of situations lived by the authors, they go directly to the meaning of the message and how to achieve this love. And with love comes peace and happiness. The book is divided into Chapters, each one contemplating one small piece of the prayer.

Although small in size, this book is big in spirituality and it is a powerful tool to sharpen your Christianity love to others and to yourself. It took me around 8 hours to read the whole book.

I recommend this book to the permanent library of all Christians how are seeking an improvement in his/her love, so they can reflect better the character of Christ.

This book was written by Dr. Mark Hanby and Roger Roth, Sr. and published by Howard Books in September of 2012. I received a complimentary copy of this book for reviewing. I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.
If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

Book "Last Regress" by Rachael J.Thorne

About the Book: Alyssa Matthews thought she had an explanation for everything. After all, as a slightly sceptical paranormal investigator that was what she was used to doing; researching, observing and explaining. So when she began writing a paper about a long forgotten case of death by Spontaneous Human Combustion, she assumed it would be a run-of-the-mill piece. Little did she realise that she was about to be plunged into a situation that would not only force her to question her own sanity, but also her scepticism about the nature of the paranormal. Not to mention the dreams that just wouldn’t go away...

About the Author: Rachael J. Thorne is trying to make it in the world as an indie author between tending her garden and being a geek! She lives in Essex, UK with her husband and crazy dog. LAST REGRESS is her first novel and she is currently working on her second, RUNNING FOR A LIFE.

Read the Excerpt!

Alyssa had absolutely no idea where she was or more to the point how she had got there. For a fleeting moment it occurred to her that she might be asleep and consequently dreaming, but everything appeared to be so clear in her mind that this possibility seemed highly unlikely. All around her, for as far as she could have seen, was a thick, overwhelming darkness that felt bitterly cold, damp and bleak. It was as though the cold itself was gnawing through her bones, so numbing that it was almost impossible to breathe, like trying to inhale ice crystals. She had the sensation that she was being suspended in mid air although she could not feel anything that could be supporting her there. None of her limbs seemed to be touching anything and yet she was not falling. It took her a while to realise that she was in fact moving forwards. She was certain that she was floating toward something, but in that terrible darkness she could not see what it could be. Confusion surrounded, penetrated and engulfed her. Disorientation made her feel as though she was being pulled at from every conceivable angle, like something was trying to drag her away, off into that awful darkness. She felt lost and she began to worry that she was never going to regain any control. Somewhere in the darkness Alyssa could hear music, muffled and distorted as if the sound was drifting through the cracks in a closed door. The sudden realisation that it was this sound toward which she was floating filled her with an inexplicable sense of comfort and contentment. She now had a purpose, something upon which to focus her mind. As she became aware that it was the doorway that she was headed for – and she was now convinced that it was indeed a doorway, although she had no idea how she could possibly have come to that conclusion in all that darkness – the music began to grow clearer and louder as though it had started to call out to her, to encourage her. There wasn’t just music though, she could hear a voice. In and amongst the notes there was a man’s voice, very deep and strong, chanting and singing over a beautiful haunting melody. He was singing words that Alyssa could not understand, words that should have had no meaning to her, and yet somehow they did. Stranger still, for some reason that she could not fathom an inner voice seemed to speak to her and tell her that she could trust that man’s voice implicitly, and she felt willing to give herself completely, to surrender herself to it – to give herself to him. She felt comfortable and calm, happy to simply float along and let that beautiful music wash over her. She could have stayed like that forever. Suddenly there was a flash of something that looked like lightning and the area immediately around her was illuminated by an eerie blue light. She was sure that she could see something moving out of the corner of her eye. She tried to look around her, tried to see what it was, but beyond the boundaries of that light was the same black curtain of nothing. She didn’t really want to know what was out there, she was quite content to just float where she was and listen to the music, and anyway, she had the distinct impression that whatever it was that she couldn’t see, it wasn’t something good. Ignorance could be bliss and it was better not to know. She lay back and allowed herself to float in the blue haze, carried along by the sounds surrounding her, but without warning her entire body was wracked with unbearable pain, like hundreds of blades all around her burrowing deep into her skin. Whatever was out there wasn’t hidden in the darkness anymore.

My Review: More than a paranormal book, this is one of the best love story books I have read in a long time.The author did a superb job on describing the ambient and the feelings of our main character, Alyssa.

The plot is quite simple: Alyssa is a young woman who lost her parents and after being able to establish herself and finding a job, she left the foster home she was living, without ever creating any bounds with any of the multiple foster-parents she had during the years. As per her best (and only) friend's suggestion (Greg), she started on a job to study paranormal cases and after two years working on that, she was working on a case to study the death of a man from spontaneous combustion from the inside out (Cain Andrews). She is very sceptical with everything related to paranormal, but suddenly she starts having dreams about dark entities trying to grab her. And then someone unexpected appears to protect her, forcing her to question her own sanity. And from there things develop in an unexpected way and you will not be able to put the book down till the end. The description of the "parallel universe" where Nathaniel and Cain Andrews develop a strong friendship and all the plots and nuances that happens behind the scenes compose the secondary drama that is very well linked to the main story.
This book is both a paranormal novel and a tale of love and sacrifice that will be remembered long after the last page has been turned.
I recommend this book to the permanent library of any reader who loves a very well written paranormal/love story. It took me around 8 hours to read the whole book.

This book was written by Rachael J.Thorne and I received a complimentary copy of this book for reviewing in electronic format. I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

Product "Tower of Pisa - 1500 pieces puzzle" by Ravensburger

About the Product:

• Puzzle measures 33" x 23.5"
• Puzzles are fun - on your own, or with family and friends.
• Relax from your busy life and build a beautiful image and a new memory.

My Review: I love the picture selection. This angle from the Piazza del Miraculo, a.k.a. Piazza del Duomo in Pisa is not very well know, as people always take attention to the leaning tower or the duomo itself and pay less attention to the baptistery (not shown on the photo) and this beautiful statue that we have in first plane, which stays in one of the corner entrances into the Piazza.

I am a puzzle maniac, having assembled jigsaw puzzles from 100 to 9000 pieces (a 13200 pieces is in the queue and I am really going to the 18,000 and 32,000 pieces from Ravensburger in the future...). Some of them were 3D puzzles, like the Taj Mahal, US Capitol, Neuschwanstein Castle, Big Ben, etc. This one in particular is a very high quality product from Ravensburger (as usual), all the pieces have an excellent finishing and they stick together very well. I usually assemble this size of puzzles on Foam Boards. They are very light and conveniently cheap. The foam board being 3/16'' (5mm) gives your puzzle enough support. I usually cut the board (easily done with a cutter) after glueing the puzzle, leaving a border of 1'' at each side, so I can pin the board in my garage (that, at this point, is full of puzzles...).
What help me a lot is that my wife and daughters also like the challenge, so we move fast. A 1,000 piece puzzle do not last a weekend, although the 8,000 piece one took us 2 months (most 2 to 3 hours at night work) to put together. It took as 10 days to put this one together. I highly recommend Ravensburger products for the excellent quality to everyone that enjoys challenges alone or with the whole family. It is a guaranteed entertainment for hours, listening to music or talking in family environment.

Amazon.com was kind enough to provide this product for me through their Vine Program for reviewing and I was not request to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

Book "Falstaff's Big Gamble" by Hank Quense

About the Book: This novel is Shakespeare's Worst Nightmare. It takes two of the Bard's most famous plays, Hamlet and Othello, and recasts them with fantasy characters in a place called Gundarland. Hamlet is a dwarf and Othello is a dark elf. Iago and his wife, Emilia, are trolls. If that isn't bad enough, these two tragedies are now comedies with Falstaff, Shakespeare's most popular rogue, thrown in as a bonus. Both Hamlet and Othello are plagued by the scheming Falstaff, a human. Not familiar with Shakespeare? No problem. You'll still enjoy this romp.

About the Author: Award-winning author Hank Quense writes humorous fantasy and sci-fi stories. His motto is fantasy and sci-fi stories told with humor and satire. He has over forty published short stories and a number of nonfiction articles. On occasion, he also writes an article on fiction writing or book marketing but says that writing nonfiction is like work while writing fiction is fun. He refuses to write serious genre fiction saying there is enough of that on the front page of any daily newspaper and on the evening TV news. Hank lives in Bergenfield, NJ with his wife Pat. They have two daughters and five grandchildren.
Hank’s previous works include Zaftan Enterprises, Zaftan Miscreants and Tales From Gundarland, a collection of fantasy stories. Readers Favorite awarded the book a medal and EPIC designated it a finalist in its 2011 competition. His Fool’s Gold is a retelling of the ancient Rhinegold myth and Tunnel Vision is a collection of twenty previously published short stories. Build a Better Story is a book of advice for fiction writers.

He has a number of links where you can follow his work and his occasional rants:

Hank’s Blog: http://hank-quense.com/wp
Strange Worlds website: http://strangeworldsonline.com
Follow him on twitter: http://twitter.com/hanque99
Facebook fan pages: https://www.facebook.com/StrangeWorldsOnline
Purchase Falstaff’s Big Gamble in paperback or kindle format at Amazon

Read the Excerpt!

Hamlet, Crown Prince of Denmarko, paced the castle battlements late on a clear, cool spring night. He walked with hands clasped behind his back and head down. He had a thin nose with brown hair and eyes.

His scrawny build and clean-shaven face gave him the appearance of a starving waif.

He paused, gazed at the multitudinous stars, sighed and continued his pacing. A breeze brought the smells of the harbor: salt water and rotting fish guts. At last, he stopped, thrust one hand to the sky and declaimed, "To bee or not to bee?" He stroked his chin. "Whether 'tis nobler to buy honey from the peasant farmer in the market and thus provide him sustenance and income to support his brood of brats, possibly keeping him from rebelling over high taxes . . . or to grow my own honey thus, gaining coins to assert my independence from my noble family and the sordid court? Hmm."

He paced some more, still troubled by his vexing question. Nothing less than his future depended upon the answer. Because his uncle, and now stepfather, Clodio, had usurped his right to rule the kingdom, he needed a profession and an income.

"Do you always talk to yourself?" a voice said from the shadows.

"Who . . . who goes there?" Hamlet's head snapped from one side to another while his hand grasped the hilt of his dagger.

"'Tis I, the ghost of your father. I bring a message for your ears alone."

Hamlet goggled at the specter who materialized in the shadows of a doorway. "You're not my father's ghost. My father was a dwarf and you're the ghost of an elf. You're an impostor and a dead one to boot."

"Hey, your father is busy and he asked me to fill in."

"Busy? In the underworld? What's he doing?" Hamlet clutched his red tunic and tugged downward as if to hide his shaking hands.

"He met a good-lookin' ghost of a female dwarf and he's wooin her."

"Dead not a month, and he forsakes his wife, my mother?

"You gotta understand. Life on this side — no pun intended — is pretty borin'. When you gotta a chance to do somethin' interestin', you gotta go with it."

Hamlet ran a hand over his face. Why me? he thought. "What's the message?"

"His death was no accident. It was murder most foul. Here is his exact message. 'But know, thou noble youth, the serpent that did sting thy Father's life, now wears his crown.’” The ghost paused then added, "Did your father always talk funny like that?"

"Murdered? By whom?"

"Didn't you listen? The message tells you who whacked him. Your father wants you to send this guy over here so he can talk to him. He doesn't wanna wait until the guy croaks from natural causes."

Hamlet watched in awe as the ghostly figure evaporated. A few seconds later, it popped back into sight. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. Your father says, 'Thy mother the queen is to know naught of this nocturnal visit.’" The ghost disappeared.

His father's murder shocked him. And the murderer had married his mother immediately afterward. Did the world have no morals?

He recalled his first thoughts when he'd heard of his father's death. How he admired the perseverance and tenacity his father must have had to commit suicide by suffocating himself with a pillow. Now all that admiration was wasted; the old dwarf had had help.

What to do? He needed to make decisions about bee farming and now he had to avenge his father. Was there no end to the demands on a prince's time? He said to the stars, "To bee-keep or to avenge? That is the question."

My Review: This is a wonderful and hilarious book. My 16-year older daughter would say that it is hysterically hilarious. The author puts together some characters that we can associate with characters that exist in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Othello. You really do not need to have read those plays to fully enjoy this book. You do not even have to like Shakespeare at all, and you still will enjoy very much this book. The situations created by the author are excellent, with a strong analogy with our current everyday life' situations. The Godmother with all her corruption scheme it is like the Al Capone of Shakespeare's time. The employment of family members in public places, the incompetency, the intrigues, everything is well exploited by the author. And the elements he brings from Shakespeare's plays are appropriate to make the association with the original story, like the ghost of Hamlet's father, asking him to kill his murderer and so on. And finally, our main character, Falstaff, appears as an overweighted human trying to take advantage of every situation. As a con man, he is very good on that!

I recommend this book to the permanent library of any reader who loves a well written novel with a very high sense of humor. It took me around eight hours to read the whole book.

This book was written by Hank Quense and it was published by Strange Worlds Publishing in August of 2012. I received a complimentary electronic version of this book for reviewing and I was not request to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

Falstaff’s Big Gamble Tour Schedule

September 4
Interviewed at Writing Daze

September 5
Interviewed at Paperback Writer

September 6
Book Spotlighted at Bluebell Books

September 11
Interviewed at Book Marketing Buzz

September 12
Guest Post at Literarily Speaking

September 13
Interviewed at As the Pages turn

September 17
Interviewed at Beyond the Books

September 18
Guest Post at Bless Their Hearts
Guest Post at The Book Bug

September 19
Book Giveaway at Bless Their Hearts

September 21
Book Giveaway at The Busy Mom’s Daily

September 25
Guest Post at The Book Connection

September 26
Guest Post at Maureen’s Musings

October 3
Guest Post at Giveaways and Glitter

October 4
Guest Post at Motherhoot

October 9
Interview at Between the Covers

October 10
Book Reviewed at Books and Movies Reviews

October 11
Interviewed at Pump Up Your Book

October 15
Guest post at Books, Books and More Books

October 16
Interviewed at The Writer’s Life

October 17
Guest post at Sprinkle of Books

October 18
Book Reviewed at Sprinkle of Books

October 22
Interviewed at The Story Behind the Book

October 24
Guest Post at Kitty Crochett

October 25
Book Reviewed at Kitty Crochett

Book "Remember Me" by Brian MacLearn

About the Book: While mowing his lawn, a strange storm creates a black hole and pulls Andrew back through time to 1985, leaving behind his new wife and the life he always dreamed of. With no way back he tries to create a life in the past. The technology in his cell phone promises to make him rich beyond his wildest dreams, but a brief encounter with his ex wife causes a ripple effect that erases his daughter from existence. Now Andrew must try and survive the next 25 years in the hopes the black hole will reappear so he can travel back once more and save his daughter, and himself. But making it twenty-five years is starting to seem less likely as he is plagued by bad luck. Is that all it is, or is "time" out to get him for meddling in the past?

About the Author: Brian MacLearn currently lives in Waverly, IA. He has been a passionate writer all of his life. Several of his poems have been published, and many of his song lyrics have been recorded as demos in Nashville, TN. His first novel, "Our Heart," was a 2011 Readers Favorite finalist. "Remember Me" received a five-star review and earned a "Bronze" medal in the 2012 Readers Favorite contest. Brian is currently at work on his next novel, "Ridicule."

My Review: The idea of time traveling is not new, but it is so well worked in an original way in this book that it will turn it into a classic in sci-fi, at the level of "Time Machine" by H.G.Wells. If you liked the movie "Timeline", you will also love this book.
The plot is simple. A man is sent 25 years into the past in a strange black hole, while he is mowing his lawn and because of his interference in facts in the past, his younger daughter no longer exists in the reality he came from. He also uses his knowledge of the future and an object he brings with him to the past to become extremelly rich. Also some moral dilemmas need to be addressed on if he should interfere in major disasters or not, and the consequences of his acts meddling in the past will have interesting consequences for the future.
This book is both a science-fiction adventure and a tale of love that will be remembered long after the last page has been turned.

I recommend this book to the permanent library of any reader who loves a very well written science-fiction.

This book was written by Brian MacLearn and it was published by Outskirts Press in August of 2012. I received a complimentary copy of this book for reviewing and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

Balance of September

During the month of September, I reviewed the following:

Books:
- "Leading Through Hope" by Joseph Okpanachi and Bramwell Osula. Read my review.
- "Not Famous Anymore" by Michael Loyd Gray. Read my review.
- "Latitudes: A Story of Coming Home" by Anthony Caplan. Read my review.
- "Shades of Souls Passed" by Teresa Andrews. Read my review.

Book "Shades of Souls Passed" by Teresa Andrews

About the Book: Turn out the lights, light a candle or two, and get ready for a spine tingling journey into the unseen spaces, the spaces where The Souls of Shades Passed reside. Read the true ghost stories of nine different people from Madison County, New York whose lives were unexpectedly interrupted and forever altered by a chance meeting with the inexplicable.

About the Author: Teresa Andrews is a writer, photographer, and mother of four. She is the author of Shades of Souls Passed and is currently working on her first full-length murder mystery. She divides her time between Cazenovia, New York and St. Pete Beach, Florida.

My Review: This is a very well written book. It is a  nice collection of nine short stories from Teresa Andrews. She writes what 9 different people living in Madison County, NY told her on their experiences with the supernatural, in a conversational manner.
The stories flow with such a grace that it appears as if we were there with the character, living the moment, suffering all the fear with them. Some of the stories you will read at the edge of your chair. As being a short book (less than 100 pages), you can read in one seating. I was hooked from the first story and it took me about 4 hours to read the whole book.
Excellent entertainment, I recommend this book to the permanent library of all readers who love short stories with a good terror/ghost contents, without any unnecessary embellishment. After all, "truth can be stranger than fiction"! My favorit stories were "Dark Night of the Soul" and "Winter Storm".
At the beginning of each chapter there are illustrations by Jacqueline Andrews. The front cover picture was well chosen and is very much appropriate!
This book was written by Teresa Andrews, illustrated by Jacqueline Andrews and it was published in December of 2010. I received a complimentary electronic version of this book for reviewing and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.
If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

Book "Latitudes: A Story of Coming Home" by Anthony Caplan

About the Book: A coming of age novel about a boy overcoming divorce and cultural dislocation. When Father and Mother, a highflying young American lawyer and his party-hard bride, fall prey to the self-destructive lure of alcohol and sexual liberation, Will and his sisters pay the price in divorce and kidnappings that take them back and forth between the rain forest hideaways of coastal Latin America and the placid suburbs of Long Island. Will identifies with the oppressed workers laboring in his father's fast food restaurant and longs for American freedom. Father remarries the daughter of a local aristocrat, and Will is sent off to the hothouse world of a New England boarding school. Swimming in a sea of Fair Isle sweaters and LL Bean boots, Will discovers a core of resilience in himself that allows him to survive, thrive, and ultimately embrace the flawed and varied worlds he inhabits. Will reconnects with Mother, sinking into a New York City world of Irish bars and one night stands he cannot save her from. With a little help from friends, and a high school Shakespeare class taught by the school's closeted gay athletic trainer, Will begins to see the possibility of finding his true path. Latitudes charts the birth pangs of a quest for self and soul - from a tropical childhood to a coming of age on the road.

Read the Excerpt!

This time of uncertainty came to an end before it could gel into something, a pattern, a new beginning or different stamp to the days. It was one day in late August, an ordinary moment that would not have remained in his memory, much as the days that preceded it. In Will’s mind he and his sisters, their new neighborhood friends, seemed born full-blown in the backyard in the midst of some forgotten game. He was immersed again, as in the swimming pool on Margarita Island, in his inner thoughts even with the swirl of kids and dogs and the sun passing through the bright blue sky, as two cars pulled up on the street, low-slung, long and dark, their red brake lights warning to stop and look. Out stepped four or five men in pale trench coats. As they walked up the driveway, Alexa gasped.

“Father,” she said. Will had recognized him at almost the same moment.

“Father,” he repeated and broke into a run as Father smiled and held out his arms. The other men stopped in their tracks. Father hugged the four children. It was unusual, but exciting that he’d come all this way to rejoin them. The other men from the two cars must have been his friends.

“How about an ice cream?” he asked. This seemed unusual and exciting also. They had never known him to offer treats, but maybe this was his way of breaking the ice, start in on a new footing.

“Sure,” Will said, and Alexa agreed, eager as he was, speaking for all three girls. They all four sat in the backseat of the back car. Father sat in the front while another man drove. As the cars sped away, the babysitter emerged from the house and saw a knot of neighborhood children walking down the sidewalk, but not Will or his sisters. Breathing hard, panic struck. She ran back inside and grabbed the telephone.

About the Author: Anthony Caplan is a teacher, farmer and writer living in New Hampshire. He is the author of Birdman, French Pond Road and Latitudes - A Story of Coming Home.

My Review: This book is a masterpiece in terms of analyzing the psychological effects of a broken marriage into the mind of a young boy, how he deals with that and how he finds his way in life in his quest to feel belonging to a community, to a group, to a family.
The author did a superb job creating a set of characters with complex personalities. The plot develops through Chapters alternating life in the USA and Venezuela. Our main character, Will, suffers with the initial separation of his parents and subsequently with the separation from one of his sisters in a half successful kidnapping (his father acting to steal his kids from the mother), followed by another kidnapping (mother stealing kids from the father) in an intense soap opera very well described by the author.
All elements for an excellent book are presented here, including peer relation, showing how Will come to age in a magnificence description of development of survival skills and control of emotions.

I recommend this book to the permanent library of any reader who loves a well written novel with a very up to date subject.

This book was written by Anthony Caplan and it was published by Hope Mountain Press in May of 2012. I received a complimentary electronic version of this book for reviewing and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

If you read this review, fell free to leave a comment!

Latitudes: A Story of Coming Home Tour Schedule

September 4
Guest Posting at WV Stitcher

September 5
Guest Posting at Writing Daze

September 6
Guest Posting at Hollywood Daze

September 7
Guest Posting at The Book Bog-Hogan

September 10
Guest Posting at Bless Their Hearts

September 11
Book Giveaway at Bless Their Hearts

September 13
Book Spotlighted at Bluebell Books

September 14
Guest Posting at Maureen’s Musings

September 17
Guest Posting at Strands of Thought

September 18
Guest Posting at Splashes of Joy

September 20
Book Reviewed at Books, Books and More Books
Book Reviewed at Books and Movies Reviews

Book "Not Famous Anymore" by Michael Loyd Gray

About the Book: Elliott Adrian, a famous actor of questionable skill, drinks too much and works himself to the bottom in Hollywood and emerges from rehab wanting to put the American Dream into reverse: he embarks on a journey to not be famous anymore and works his way back to his hometown of tiny Argus, Illinois. After a short exile in Loreto, Mexico, Elliott's road trip takes him from Arizona to Arkansas and finally Argus, where he discovers the girl he was briefly married to in high school has a daughter he has never met. Along the way, Fox News offers a reward for anyone who can find Elliott and once in Argus he discovers he can't quite escape fame and must learn to straddle both worlds - Hollywood as well as Argus. A story about the value of fame and also discovering true self.

About the Author: Michael Loyd Gray was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, but grew up in Champaign, Illinois. He earned a MFA in English from Western Michigan University and taught at colleges and universities in upstate New York, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Texas. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a Journalism degree and was a newspaper staff writer in Arizona and Illinois for ten years, conducting the last interview with novelist Erskine Caldwell.
He is the winner of the 2005 Alligator Juniper Fiction Prize and the 2005 The Writers Place Award for Fiction. Gray's novel Well Deserved won the 2008 Sol Books Prose Series Prize. His novel Not Famous Anymore was awarded a grant by the Elizabeth George Foundation and was published by HenschelHaus (2012). His novel December's Children was a finalist for the 2006 Sol Books Prose Series Prize and was published by Tempest Books( 2012) as the young adult novel King Biscuit. He has written a sequel to Well Deserved called The Last Stop, and another novel called Blue Sparta. Recently he finished a novel titled Fast Eddie. A lifelong Chicago Bears and Rolling Stones fan, he lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and teaches as full-time online English faculty for South University, where he is one of the founding editors of the student literary journal Asynchronous and sponsor of an online readings series featuring fiction and poetry.

My Review: This is a very well written book, with well constructed characters with very rich personalities. The author explores the theme of superficiality of celebrities making his characters come alive on every page of his book. All dialogues are great. The plot is simple to follow:
Elliot Adrian is a famous actor. When he was young his parents died in a car accident. Still young, while playing with a samurai sword, he had another accident involving his brother. Now, as an adult, fame leads to drinking problems. When he realize the deep hole he was jumping into, he goes into rehab and, after that, he starts a road trip that transforms him from the inside out.
He visit old friends in Loreto, Mexico and Tucson, Arizona, before returning to hometown of Argus, Illinois. In his hometown he met his old girlfriend and find out about her daughter. He also met with his brother. Finally he has to learn how to deal with fame and life in Argus.

After reading this book I start thinking about all the glamour of Hollywood celebrities. Why does our society try to make them hole models? This really beats me...

This is a great read. I recommend this book to the permanent library of any reader who appreciates a good fiction novel and wants to be entertained for some hours. It took me about 5 hours to read the whole book. I look forward reading more novels from this author!

This book was written by Michael Loyd Gray and published by Three Towers Press in December 2011. I received an electronic version of this book for reviewing and I was not requested to provide a positive review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

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Book "Leading Through Hope" by Joseph Okpanachi and Bramwell Osula

About the Book: Few things in life are as important as hope. While love and friendship may set our hearts on fire and inspire acts of devotion and sacrifice, in many ways Hope is the chugging motor that gives meaning to our lives. More than any other quality or force on earth, hope defines who we are, our attitude toward life and, ultimately, what we become.

My Review: This is a small piece of art. The two authors combined with an incredible sensibility to provide for the readers many angles of experiencing and using hope to lead others to achieve their goals with entusiasm and confidence.
Among many different discussions on what is the meaning of hope, the one that touched me the most is "hope is like a shelter and an anchor in the midst of the storm".
The book has a preface and an introduction and four major sections: The Law of Hope, Leading Through Hope, Leading Through Hope in Time of Crises and Uncertainty, and the Sinergy Between Hope and Opportunity. And the book end with a chapter on Reflections and finaly References.
The book was written by Joseph Okpanachi and Bramwell Osula and published in 2012 by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, LLC, and I received  it as a gift from my dear friend and brother in Christ, Mr. Thomas Gadson.

I recommend this book to any Christian who wants to know more about hope and to those who have a leading role in their life and want to try a new approach in their leadership method, one that they will not regret.

If you read this review, feel free to leave a comment.