tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-388951022024-03-14T01:08:36.716-07:00WANDA LYNNE's BOOK NOOK news, reviews and interviewsI'm a professional freelance writer and blogger. My repertoire includes book reviews, author interviews, women's issues and autism in the news. My website is www.bookalicious.ca
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Erica Ehm's Yummy Mummy Club www.yummymummyclub.caWanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-30889319589199233082009-11-03T09:40:00.000-08:002009-11-03T10:28:31.476-08:00Grisham Goes from Courtroom to Country<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SvBx3WrciPI/AAAAAAAAAqM/U9BM8ppYyJk/s1600-h/JohnGrishamandbook.jpg8176"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 378px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399941149011773682" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SvBx3WrciPI/AAAAAAAAAqM/U9BM8ppYyJk/s400/JohnGrishamandbook.jpg8176" /></a> Since publishing A Time to Kill in 1988, Grisham has written one novel a year. His other books - The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The Brethren, A Painted House, Skipping Christmas, The Summons, The King of Torts, Bleachers, The Last Juror, The Broker, Playing for Pizza, and The Appeal - have all become international bestsellers. There are currently over 225 million John Grisham books in print worldwide and translated into 29 languages. Nine of his novels have been turned into films; The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Chamber, A Painted House, The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas and original screenplay, The Gingerbread Man. The Innocent Man marked his first foray into non-fiction. Below is an excerpt and video clips from Grisham's new book of short stories Ford County.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Fetching Raymond</strong></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Excerpted from <a href="http://www.blogger.com/isbn=9780385532457&ref=externallink_gen_fordcounty">Ford County: Stories </a>by John Grisham<br /><br /><em>Mr. McBride ran his upholstery shop in the old icehouse on Lee Street, a few blocks off the square in downtown Clanton. To haul the sofas and chairs back and forth, he used a white Ford cargo van with “McBride Upholstery” stenciled in thick black letters above a phone number and the address on Lee. The van, always clean and never in a hurry, was a common sight in Clanton, and Mr. McBride was fairly well-known because he was the only upholsterer in town. He rarely lent his van to anyone, though the requests were more frequent than he would have liked. His usual response was a polite “No, I have some deliveries.”<br />He said yes to Leon Graney, though, and did so for two reasons. First, the circumstances surrounding the request were quite unusual, and, second, Leon’s boss at the lamp factory was Mr. McBride’s third cousin. Small-town relationships being what they are, Leon Graney arrived at the upholstery shop as scheduled at four o’clock on a hot Wednesday afternoon in late July.<br />Most of Ford County was listening to the radio, and it was widely known that things were not going well for the Graney family.<br />Mr. McBride walked with Leon to the van, handed over the key, and said, “You take care of it, now.”<br />Leon took the key and said, “I’m much obliged.”<br />“I filled up the tank. Should be plenty to get you there and back.”<br />“How much do I owe?”<br />Mr. McBride shook his head and spat on the gravel beside the van. “Nothing. It’s on me. Just bring it back with a full tank.”<br />“I’d feel better if I could pay something,” Leon protested.<br />“No.”<br />“Well, thank you, then.”<br />“I need it back by noon tomorrow.”<br />“It’ll be here. Mind if I leave my truck?” Leon nodded to an old Japanese pickup wedged between two cars across the lot.<br />“That’ll be fine.”<br />Leon opened the door and got inside the van. He started the engine, adjusted the seat and the mirrors. Mr. McBride walked to the driver’s door, lit an unfiltered cigarette, and watched Leon. “You know, some folks don’t like this,” he said.<br />“Thank you, but most folks around here don’t care,” Leon replied. He was preoccupied and not in the mood for small talk.<br />“Me, I think it’s wrong.”<br />“Thank you. I’ll be back before noon,” Leon said softly, then backed away and disappeared down the street. He settled into the seat, tested the brakes, slowly gunned the engine to check the power. Twenty minutes later he was far from Clanton, deep in the hills of northern Ford County. Out from the settlement of Pleasant Ridge, the road became gravel, the homes smaller and farther apart. Leon turned in to a short driveway that stopped at a boxlike house with weeds at the doors and an asphalt shingle roof in need of replacement. It was the Graney home, the place he’d been raised along with his brothers, the only constant in their sad and chaotic lives. A jerry-rigged plywood ramp ran to the side door so that his mother, Inez Graney, could come and go in her wheelchair.<br />By the time Leon turned off the engine, the side door was open and Inez was rolling out and onto the ramp. Behind her was the hulking mass of her middle son, Butch, who still lived with his mother because he’d never lived anywhere else, at least not in the free world. Sixteen of his forty-six years had been behind bars, and he looked the part of the career criminal—long ponytail, studs in his ears, all manner of facial hair, massive biceps, and a collection of cheap tattoos a prison artist had sold him for cigarettes. In spite of his past, Butch handled his mother and her wheelchair with great tenderness and care, speaking softly to her as they negotiated the ramp.<br />Leon watched and waited, then walked to the rear of the van and opened its double doors. He and Butch gently lifted their mother up and sat her inside the van. Butch pushed her forward to the console that separated the two bucket seats bolted into the floor. Leon latched the wheelchair into place with strips of packing twine someone at McBride’s had left in the van, and when Inez was secure, her boys got settled in their seats. The journey began. Within minutes they were back on the asphalt and headed for a long night.<br />Inez was seventy-two, a mother of three, grandmother of at least four, a lonely old woman in failing health who couldn’t remember her last bit of good luck. Though she’d considered herself single for almost thirty years, she was not, at least to her knowledge, officially divorced from the miserable creature who’d practically raped her when she was seventeen, married her when she was eighteen, fathered her three boys, then mercifully disappeared from the face of the earth. When she prayed on occasion, she never failed to toss in an earnest request that Ernie be kept away from her, be kept wherever his miserable life had taken him, if in fact his life had not already ended in some painful manner, which was really what she dreamed of but didn’t have the audacity to ask of the Lord. Ernie was still blamed for everything—for her bad health and poverty, her reduced status in life, her seclusion, her lack of friends, even the scorn of her own family. But her harshest condemnation of Ernie was for his despicable treatment of his three sons. Abandoning them was far more merciful than beating them.<br />By the time they reached the highway, all three needed a cigarette. “Reckon McBride’ll mind if we smoke?” Butch said. At three packs a day he was always reaching for a pocket.<br />“Somebody’s been smokin’ in here,” Inez said. “Smells like a tar pit. Is the air conditioner on, Leon?”<br />“Yes, but you can’t tell it if the windows are down.”<br />With little concern for Mr. McBride’s preferences on smoking in his van, they were soon puffing away with the windows down, the warm wind rushing in and swirling about. Once inside the van, the wind had no exit, no other windows, no vents, nothing to let it out, so it roared back toward the front and engulfed the three Graneys, who were staring at the road, smoking intently, seemingly oblivious to everything as the van moved along the county road. Butch and Leon casually flicked their ashes out of the windows. Inez gently tapped hers into her cupped left hand.<br />“How much did McBride charge you?” Butch asked from the passenger’s seat.<br />Leon shook his head. “Nothing. Even filled up the tank. Said he didn’t agree with this. Claimed a lot of folks don’t like it.”<br />“I’m not sure I believe that.”<br />“I don’t.”<br />When the three cigarettes were finished, Leon and Butch rolled up their windows and fiddled with the air conditioner and the vents. Hot air shot out and minutes passed before the heat was broken. All three were sweating.<br />“You okay back there?” Leon asked, glancing over his shoulder and smiling at his mother.<br />“I’m fine. Thank you. Does the air conditioner work?”<br />“Yes, it’s gettin’ cooler now.”<br />“I can’t feel a thang.”<br />“You wanna stop for a soda or something?”<br />“No. Let’s hurry along.”<br />“I’d like a beer,” Butch said, and, as if this was expected, Leon immediately shook his head in the negative and Inez shot forth with an emphatic “No.”<br />“There’ll be no drinking,” she said, and the issue was laid to rest. When Ernie abandoned the family years earlier, he’d taken nothing but his shotgun, a few clothes, and all the liquor from his private supply. He’d been a violent drunk, and his boys still carried the scars, emotional and physical. Leon, the oldest, had felt more of the brutality than his younger brothers, and as a small boy equated alcohol with the horrors of an abusive father. He had never taken a drink, though with time had found his own vices. Butch, on the other hand, had drunk heavily since his early teens, though he’d never been tempted to sneak alcohol into his mother’s home. Raymond, the youngest, had chosen to follow the example of Butch rather than of Leon.<br />To shift away from such an unpleasant topic, Leon asked his mother about the latest news from a friend down the road, an old spinster who’d been dying of cancer for years. Inez, as always, perked up when discussing the ailments and treatments of her neighbors, and herself as well. The air conditioner finally broke through, and the thick humidity inside the van began to subside. When he stopped sweating, Butch reached for his pocket, fished out a cigarette, lit it, then cracked the window. The temperature rose immediately. Soon all three were smoking, and the windows went lower and lower until the air was again thick with heat and nicotine.<br />When they finished, Inez said to Leon, “Raymond called two hours ago.”<br />This was no surprise. Raymond had been making calls, collect, for days now, and not only to his mother. Leon’s phone was ringing so often that his (third) wife refused to answer it. Others around town were also declining to accept charges.<br />“What’d he say?” Leon asked, but only because he had to reply. He knew exactly what Raymond had said, maybe not verbatim, but certainly in general.<br />“Said thangs are lookin’ real good, said he’d probably have to fire the team of lawyers he has now so he can hire another team of lawyers. You know Raymond. He’s tellin’ the lawyers what to do and they’re just fallin’ all over themselves.”<br />Without turning his head, Butch cut his eyes at Leon, and Leon returned the glance. Nothing was said because words were not necessary.<br />“Said his new team comes from a firm in Chicago with a thousand lawyers. Can you imagine? A thousand lawyers workin’ for Raymond. And he’s tellin’ ’em what to do.”<br />Another glance between driver and right-side passenger. Inez had cataracts, and her peripheral vision had declined. If she had seen the looks being passed between her two oldest, she would not have been pleased.<br />“Said they’ve just discovered some new evidence that shoulda been produced at trial but wasn’t because the cops and the prosecutors covered it up, and with this new evidence Raymond feels real good about gettin’ a new trial back here in Clanton, though he’s not sure he wants it here, so he might move it somewhere else. He’s thinkin’ about somewhere in the Delta because the Delta juries have more blacks and he says that blacks are more sympathetic in cases like this. What do you thank about that, Leon?”<br />“There are definitely more blacks in the Delta,” Leon said. Butch grunted and mumbled, but his words were not clear.<br />“Said he don’t trust anyone in Ford County, especially the law and the judges. God knows they’ve never given us a break.”<br />Leon and Butch nodded in silent agreement. Both had been chewed up by the law in Ford County, Butch much more so than Leon. And though they had pled guilty to their crimes in negotiated deals, they had always believed they were persecuted simply because they were Graneys.<br />“Don’t know if I can stand another trial, though,” she said, and her words trailed off.<br />Leon wanted to say that Raymond’s chances of getting a new trial were worse than slim, and that he’d been making noise about a new trial for over a decade. Butch wanted to say pretty much the same thing, but he would’ve added that he was sick of Raymond’s jailhouse bullshit about lawyers and trials and new evidence and that it was past time for the boy to stop blaming everybody else and take his medicine like a man.<br />But neither said a word.<br /><br /><br /></em></span><span style="font-size:100%;">Excerpted from Ford County by John Grisham Copyright © 2009 by Belfry Holdings, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House of Canada Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. </span><br /><br /><br /><p><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></p>Below is a series of conversations with John Grisham about his first collection of short stories, FORD COUNTY. Visit the official John Grisham website at <a href="http://jgrisham.com/">http://jgrisham.com</a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woX268iHjBk">Part 1</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MBJRHG_NhE">Part 2</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWK3aMkx2Fw&feature=related">Part 3</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOKiA3ejOzs">Part 4</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-85801187950261794512009-10-30T20:13:00.000-07:002009-10-30T20:39:11.399-07:00Frank -Love Him or Leave Him?<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SuusXXzuXxI/AAAAAAAAAnw/edYxqd-v3j0/s1600-h/Loving+Frank+book+pic.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 260px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398598095861604114" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SuusXXzuXxI/AAAAAAAAAnw/edYxqd-v3j0/s400/Loving+Frank+book+pic.jpg" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;">It just occurred to me that I’ve been <a href="http://www.blogger.com/about">blogging for almost a decade</a>. The madness all started for me back in the year 2000. The AOL "You've got mail!" Internet connection lead me to forums and message boards and then, of course, <a href="http://www.oprah.com/entity/oprahsbookclub">Oprah's Book Club</a>.<br />For an avid reader and writer, this outlet was a Godsend! I tried to join a local Oprah book club in Newmarket, Ontario but they had a full membership. Drat! I didn't let this stop me from reading books on the Oprah list but I found it very difficult to find other readers who wanted to discuss the books. Sigh! I desperately needed an expressive outlet! The Internet chats barely filled the gap and then there was that nagging urge to write. I'd heard about blogging and decided to check it out. My first blog was SAHM Rants and Raves. I began writing book reviews and it was all going very well with positive feedback and even the occasional hate mail! After 5 years of blogging and home schooling my oldest son, my husband took a work transfer and we moved to London, Ontario.<br /><br />Somehow with the change in Internet servers I ended up deleting my blog. You know when it asks, "Are you sure you want to delete this post?" well, I think it actually said something more like, "Are you sure you want to delete this BLOG?" (Insert curse word of your choice here!) This was devastating at the time but looking back on it now it actually served as an opportunity to venture out of my comfort zone. Out of habit, I started up a new blog and on the advice of a few supportive friends, I decided to check out the opportunities available with local magazines. It was then that I went from a SAHM blogger to a book reviewer for a regional women's magazine. Flash forward to 2009 and I'm blogging for Erica Ehm's Yummy Mummy Club! I'm getting my fill of books, opportunities to write reviews and now book club chats! The Yummy Mummy Club has a Twitter book club that goes by <a href="http://www.twibes.com/group/YummyMummyBookClub">Yummy Mummy Book Club</a>, a.k.a. #YMBC. The virtual book club has been a joy for me to organize and I find all the invaluable insights to be a source of inspiration. Eureka! The club doesn't meet in person but there is a friendly connection with ongoing tweets and I've actually met some YMBC members during a tweet-up or two. Bonus! It's the best of all three worlds for me; reading, writing and camaraderie!<br /><br />The first Yummy Mummy Book Club selection, <a href="http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780345495006&ref=externallink_YMCw_LovingFrank">Loving Frank by Nancy Horan</a>, was suggested by <a href="http://yummymummyclub.ca/the_great_race_of_the_year_2009">The Yummy Mummy Queen</a> herself, Erica Ehm. I was pleased with this selection since I had read it a while back due to my interest with modern architecture. The book title’s ‘Frank’ is the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright and the object of Mamah Borthwick Cheney's illicit love. The novel is a work of fiction based on real people involved in a forbidden love affair over a century ago. Both have spouses, children and prominent standing in society, just to add complications. You don’t have to agree with the couple's choices to get drawn into their lives. <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/lovingfrank/">Nancy Horan </a>sets the stage with a colorful cast of characters and scintillating settings. The author gets right into her characters heads with descriptive and intriguing dialogue. Alternating between drama and navel-gazing, the self-proclaimed soul mates spend years trying to be together, all the while hoping for public acceptance instead of notoriety in society. The novel is ripe with juicy gossip taken from actual newspaper clippings and personal notations. </span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;">Nancy Horan spent years researching and writing the novel and this is presented in her meticulous attention to period details. Each chapter tell the story about the growing love affair between Frank and Mamah and even more, their growing egos and self-absorbed lives. Both characters held grandiose visions of their self-importance. The affair actually served as a catapult to launch the couple into public infamy. There's no doubt in my mind that Frank and Mamah would relish the attention from the tabloids and paparazzi if they lived out their saga in today’s world.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;">The story brings up the age old conflict - should you be with your true love at all costs or love the one you're with? Will you love Frank? The man -maybe not. Whether you see Frank as an arrogant egomaniac or a creative genius, he will leave an impression on you! Mamah is a bit more difficult to understand. Mamah is an eccentric, intellectual personality who uses deception and rationalization to justify her personal growth. Mamah saw herself a Frank's muse and used him as an opportunity to As a mother myself, I found it difficult to fathom most of her choices. If I was to sum up the novel in two words they would be scandal and sacrifice. That's all I'm going to say for fear of slipping out some spoilers! Fair warning dear reader, you might find the book unsettling or even disturbing, yet somehow very hard to put down!<br /><br />Rumor has it that the novel is slated to go from the page to the stage. The rights to the screen version of Loving Frank have been attained by <a href="http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117997403.html?categoryid=13&cs=1">Lionsgate</a>. I'm very curious to see which actor and actress will play the potentially career changing lead roles of Frank and Mamah. </span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-53091789706827840502009-10-30T19:49:00.000-07:002009-10-31T21:02:40.655-07:00Take a Look - Spooky Books!<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/Suu9qR2FXgI/AAAAAAAAApI/gH5F261ljz8/s1600-h/Halloween+Random+House+books.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398617112376073730" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/Suu9qR2FXgI/AAAAAAAAApI/gH5F261ljz8/s400/Halloween+Random+House+books.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Scream-Worthy Thrillers & Supernatural Page-Turners</strong><br /><br />Reading by moonlight while waiting for The Great Pumpkin? Face your fears this Halloween with a bestseller (and a bag of chocolate!).<br /><br />If you fear…a missing child:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.booklounge.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385668026&ref=externallink_Halloween_Oct09">Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay </a><br /><br />Seventeen-year-old Sydney Blake’s summer is shaping up to be typical for a teenager: she’s spending it with her father, and she has landed a part-time job at a local hotel. One night, Syd fails to come home from her shift, and her father Tim is a bit alarmed. However, that alarm turns to full-on panic after he visits the Just Inn Time hotel and the manager claims that Syd has never worked there. Grilling his daughter’s friends for clues leads Tim nowhere — except to threats against his life — and as he frantically chases every lead, he can’t help but wonder if Syd is even still alive. Despite a growing list of unanswered questions, all Tim knows for certain is that he must continue searching for his daughter — no matter how high the stakes become.<br /><br /><br />If you fear…a pack of werewolves:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.booklounge.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780679314875&ref=externallink_Halloween_Oct09">Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong </a><br /><br />New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong returns with the tenth installment of the Women of the Otherworld series.<br /><br />The Alaskan wilderness is a harsh landscape in the best of conditions, but with a pack of rogue werewolves on the loose, it’s downright deadly.<br /><br />Elena Michaels, the Pack’s chief enforcer, knows all too well the havoc “mutts” can wreak. When they hear of a series of gruesome maulings and murders outside Anchorage, she and her husband, Clay, journey to Alaska in the dead of winter in order to hunt down the dangerous werewolves. Trapped in this savage, untamed winter realm, she and Clay learn more about their own werewolf heritage than they bargained for, tapping a little more into the wild nature of the beast within. With Elena back in the starring role, this is the book Kelley Armstrong fans have been waiting for.<br /><br /><br />If you fear…a body under water:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.booklounge.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780771088988&ref=externallink_Halloween_Oct09">The Taken by Inger Ash Wolfe </a><br /><br />DI Hazel Micallef is still recovering from back surgery when a report comes in that a body has been found in a nearby lake, snagged under several feet of water. But as DC Wingate says, the whole thing is way too eerie. The first installment of a story has just been published in the local paper: a passage that describes in detail just such a discovery. Real life is far too close to fiction for coincidence.<br /><br />The second novel featuring Hazel Micallef is a stunning and suspenseful exploration of the obsessive far reaches of love. It will confirm Inger Ash Wolfe as one of the best mystery writers there is.<br /><br /><br />If you fear…an arranged murder:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.booklounge.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780553807158&ref=externallink_Halloween_Oct09">Breathless by Dean Koontz </a><br /><br />In the stillness of a golden September afternoon, deep in the wilderness of the Rockies, a solitary craftsman, Grady Adams, and his magnificent Irish wolfhound Merlin step from shadow into light…and into an encounter with enchantment. That night, through the trees, under the moon, a pair of singular animals will watch Grady's isolated home, waiting to make their approach.<br /><br />A few miles away, Camillia Rivers, a local veterinarian, begins to unravel the threads of a puzzle that will bring all the forces of a government in peril to her door.<br /><br />At a nearby farm, long-estranged identical twins come together to begin a descent into darkness…In Las Vegas, a specialist in chaos theory probes the boundaries of the unknowable…On a Seattle golf course, two men make matter-of-fact arrangements for murder…Along a highway by the sea, a vagrant scarred by the past begins a trek toward his destiny…<br /><br /><br />If you fear…a ghost story:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.booklounge.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307397454&ref=externallink_Halloween_Oct09">Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger </a><br /><br />Another brilliant, original and moving novel from the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife.<br /><br />Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers — normal, at least, for identical “mirror” twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn’t know existed has died and left them her amazing flat in a building by Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin … but they have no idea that they’ve been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the OCD-suffering crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt’s mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the mother of the girls — her own twin — and who can’t even seem to quite leave her flat….<br /><br />Discover your next great (spooky) read at </span><a href="http://www.booklounge.ca/"><span style="font-size:130%;">BookLounge.ca<br /></span></a><br /><br /><em>Printed with permission from </em><a href="http://www.randomhouse.ca/"><em>Random House Canada</em></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><span style="font-size:100%;">.<br /><br /></span></em><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-34790994866558024542009-09-17T08:33:00.000-07:002009-09-17T08:39:54.493-07:00Spread the Secret!<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SrJXkNDLQuI/AAAAAAAAAiI/5YvKVjVAlWs/s1600-h/No+Matter+What+book+pic.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 265px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382460784151053026" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SrJXkNDLQuI/AAAAAAAAAiI/5YvKVjVAlWs/s400/No+Matter+What+book+pic.jpg" /></a><br /><div><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Let me state up front that I don't consider myself an athlete. I would be the first to admit that I tend to veer more toward being uncoordinated and accident prone. I should also note that I'm not very graceful. I’m sometimes the gal with toilet paper dragging from my shoe or the hem of my skirt stuck in the waist of my pantyhose. My husband affectionately jokes that I have the habit of tripping over imaginary objects on flat surfaces. </span></div><span style="font-size:130%;"><div><br />When Yummy Mummy Club founder Erica Ehm started recruiting members for a Yummy Mummy team to attend the </span></div><a href="http://www.amidsummernightsrun.ca/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Midsummer Night’s Run</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> in Toronto, you might imagine that I received this invitation with a certain amount of trepidation. Running is not my forte. I belong to a gym where I use the weight machines and the elliptical - if I feel like it, which is not too often. When I read all the Twitter tweets about the #TeamYM run/walk I decided it was finally time for me to step up to the plate. (Being a left-handed hitter in grade school was not too cool.) Keeping in mind that this was my first running event and my limited time to train, I signed up for the 15km walk.<br />Let me tell you, panic did set in! The phrase, “What was I thinking?” crossed my mind a few times. For a month I alternated between running on the treadmill, using the elliptical trainer and the occasional run around the University of Western Ontario campus with my very fit and supportive husband. I needed him to scout out those phantom objects that invariably trip me up. The one thing I was lacking was confidence. I desperately needed to psych myself up for this challenge! I knew the physical training wasn’t going to be enough since part of the race to the finish line is mental. This is where I decided to draw on what I’d learned from </span><a href="http://wandalynnesbooknook.blogspot.com/2007/07/cougar-sitings.html#links" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">reviewing</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> </span><a href="http://www.thesecret.tv/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Secret</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> a few years ago. The Secret teaches about the law of attraction and positive thinking. It’s the adult’s version of the children’s classic </span><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Little-Engine-Could-Original-Classic/dp/0448405202" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Little Engine That Could</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">, with the mantra “I think I can, I think I can!” Every day I had to tell myself that I was going to finish the 15 km route. I envisioned myself crossing the finish line and getting a medal. It doesn’t seem like a big idea but it served me as quite a motivating image. I mentioned my goal to my sister </span><a href="http://karabana.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Kara</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> and she jumped on board joining me for the 15km walk. She wanted to keep up her momentum after participating in various Carabana events. In addition, she thought it would be a good way to mark her fortieth milestone. </span><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />During my training, I was introduced to the book </span><a href="http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/No-Matter-What-Steps-Living-Lisa-Nichols/9780446538466-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3a+%" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">No Matter What!</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> by Lisa Nichols. Nichols is one of the contributors to The Secret and a co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul. In No Matter What! the author and motivational speaker expands on The Secret’s Law of Attraction to include her Law of No Matter What. Nichols believes that in order to succeed we need to have a positive mindset of intention and commitment. Nichols says that an individual can turn a breakdown into a breakthrough by following her nine steps. If we use our mental muscles we can go from sadness and stress to self-fulfillment and success. If you feel you need to find motivation or inspiration then Lisa Nichols’ message can help you to drive and strive for your dreams.<br />Yummy Mummy Club is promoting a </span><a href="http://www.yummymummyclub.ca/win_a_mexican_vacation.php" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">contest with yummy prizes</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> on behalf of </span><a href="http://www.newaspiration.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">New Aspiration</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> and </span><a href="http://www.lisa-nichols.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Lisa Nichols</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">. Be sure to check out the contest and the </span><a href="http://www.nomatterwhattour.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">No Matter What Tour</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">. To read more see the </span><a href="http://www.yummymummyclub.ca/no_matter_what_lisa_nichols" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Lisa Nichols interview by Kathryn Bechthold</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> and pick up a copy of the book, No Matter What!<br />After participating in the 15km event, I feel eager to run in my next event. My friend Brenda says that my enthusiasm has inspired her to do a 6km run in the </span><a href="http://www.autismontario.com/client/aso/ao.nsf/london/londonhome" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Ride and Stride for Autism Ontario</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> at the end of the September. I think I’ve found my next challenge! One thing I can suggest to anyone who finds they are hitting a mental roadblock is the need to be your own personal cheerleader. I’ve learned that the secret to success is to believe in yourself, no matter what!</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-49601220349584539722009-09-17T08:01:00.000-07:002009-09-17T08:31:10.410-07:00Neuroscience Meets Nirvana<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SrJSDXRMV0I/AAAAAAAAAiA/i09AUM49egs/s1600-h/My+Stroke+of+Insight+book.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 264px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382454722400376642" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SrJSDXRMV0I/AAAAAAAAAiA/i09AUM49egs/s400/My+Stroke+of+Insight+book.jpg" /></a><br /><div></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;">On a recent visit with my dear childhood friend she asked me what I was reading and we ended up taking about her health. At age of 40 my friend Denise had a wakeup call, but it wasn’t one of those ‘what should I do with the second half of my life?’ moments. One day while at work she didn’t feel quite right. She felt strange, woozy and a bit off-balance so she sat down. A co-worker asked her what was wrong and when Denise tried to speak it was gibberish that came out. This ‘blip’, as she puts it, only lasted a few moments and the symptoms passed. Like a typical busy mom she decided to carry on with her day and made a mental note to visit her doctor the next day. Denise described her symptoms to her doctor and he immediately sent her for tests. The tests confirmed that she had experienced a Transient Ischemic Attack (T.I.A.) or colloquially referred to as a ‘mini stroke’. She had several blood clots in her brain which were later revealed to be caused by a congenital heart defect. In laymen’s terms Denise had a hole in her heart. She was put on heavy duty blood thinning drugs to break up the clots. In the next few days it became noticeable to Denise that her left side was slightly weaker than her right side.<br />Denise was very fortunate that her stroke was mild and that she decided to seek medical attention for her vague, fleeting symptoms. It took about 6 months to fully regain the strength in the weakened side of her body and she is on blood thinning medication for the rest of her life. It’s been three years since her stroke and Denise is doing well. She practices yoga, watches her diet and takes her medication. Denise wants to stress the importance of recognizing the signs of stroke and the urgency for immediate medical attention.<br /></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;">You might be wondering what my friend's story has to do with a book review. Well, the book I picked up was a copy of the New York Times Bestseller </span><a href="http://www.penguin.ca/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780452295544,00.html?MY_STROKE_OF_INSIGHT_Jill_Bolte_Taylor,_Ph.D." target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ffcc00;"> <span style="color:#ffcc66;">by</span> </span><a href="http://drjilltaylor.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> <span style="color:#ffcc66;">(</span></span><a href="http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780452295544,00.html?My_Stroke_of_Insight_Jill_Bolte_Taylor,_Ph.D." target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Published by Plume, a member of Penguin Group USA</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ffcc66;">)<br /></span>In </span><a href="http://www.mystrokeofinsight.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">My Stroke of Insight</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> the author takes the reader on an amazing and hair-raising journey through her stroke, recovery and self-discovery. In December of 1996 Jill Bolte Taylor, an accomplished Harvard trained neuroscientist, awoke to a day she would never forget. It’s actually incredible considering her circumstances that she can recall this day at all. At the age of 37 the brain scientist, researcher and teacher got a lesson of her own. She found herself having a stroke. Over the course of four hours Taylor was in a discombobulated state, flitted between lucid thoughts and mental blankness. She managed to challenge her increasing deficits from the brain bleed and call a colleague for help. In this short period Talbot was aware that she was losing her ability to walk, talk, read, write or recall memories or thoughts for her future. Talbot was living only in the moment and noticed the quietness and a sense of peace in her existence. There was an absence of what she calls “brain chatter.” She had a general feeling of well-being. Her brain was in a state of bliss! You might ask how is this? Well, Taylor had experienced a rare stroke in the left hemisphere due to a congenital malformation of blood vessels in her brain. The stroke on the left side gave way to her right side so it could take precedence.</span></div><br /><div><br /><strong><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ffcc33;"><span style="color:#ffcc66;">“Your left mind might be rushing</span><span style="color:#ffcc66;">, thinking, deliberating, and analyzing, but your right mind is very mellow.”</span></span></em></strong></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The two lobes of our brain have different personalities so when Dr. Taylor “stepped to the right“, as she puts it, she found inner peace. This peaceful existence was interrupted only by the pain from her increasing headache which brought her back to her grave situation. If you want to know more about Dr. Taylor’s recovery and revelations then you should read the book. I will mention that after years of rehabilitation which included surgery, it took Talbot eight years to fully recover from her stroke. Compared to most stroke victims, Talbot knows she isn’t the norm. Dr. Taylor mentions that she had the advantage to understand how to repair, retrain and recover her brain. She is in the invaluable position to teach from the knowledge gained in her field and from her personal experience. Taylor is grateful for the opportunity to explain what happened to her brain and the insights she has gained!</span></div><br /><div><br /><strong><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ffcc66;">“Wow, how many scientists have the opportunity to study their own brain and mental deterioration from the inside out?”<br /></span></em></strong></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;">Taylor wishes to offer hope and inspiration to those who are dealing with a stroke or a brain injury. Taylor also mentions that trauma and disability doesn’t necessarily mean disaster. Dr. Taylor writes about her stroke as a miraculous recovery and a metaphysical revelation. My Stroke of Insight is a unique combination of science and omniscience; the physical and metaphysical. </span></div><br /><div><br /><strong><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ffcc66;">“As a neuroanatomist, I must say that I learned as much about my brain and how it functions during that stroke, as I had in all my years of academia.”<br /></span></em></strong></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;">Taylor wants us to pass her story on to our family and friends. My Stoke of Insight is a must read for anyone who works with stroke patients or family members caring for stroke victims. This is not a woe is me tale. Dr. Taylor is grateful to her experience, noting that she gained a shift in consciousness and a new appreciation for life.</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">If you wish to see a webcast of Jill Taylor’s presentation then check it out on </span><a href="http://www.oprah.com/article/spirit/inspiration/pkgoprahssoulserieswebcast/20080512_oaf_oss_jboltetaylor" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Oprah.com</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">.<br />Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor created a mnemonic device to help people remember the most important signs of stroke. She suggests we commit these to memory and share them with everyone you know. Remember, stroke is a medical emergency: Dial 911</span></div><br /><div><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Warning Signs of Stroke<br /></span></strong></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ffcc66;">S</span> = Speech, or problems with language</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ffcc66;">T</span> = Tingling, or numbness in your body</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ffcc66;">R</span> = Remember, or problems with thinking</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ffcc66;">O </span>= Off-balance, or problems with coordination</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ffcc66;">K</span> = Killer headache</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ffcc66;">E</span> = Eyes, or problems with vision<br /></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;">Dr. Taylor recommends theses sites:<br /></span><a href="http://www.americanstroke.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">American Stroke Foundation</span></a></div><div><a href="http://www.strokeassociation.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1200037" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">American Stroke Association</span></a></div><div><a href="http://www.stroke.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">National Stroke Association</span></a></div><div></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;">In my Google research I found these sites and links to be helpful:<br /></span><a href="http://ww2.heartandstroke.ca/splash/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Heart and Stroke Foundation </span></a></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;">CanadaFive Signs of Stroke</span></div><div><a href="http://www.stroke.org/site/PageServer?pagename=SYMP" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Act F.A.S.T.</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> -test list for stroke victim</span> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-75528431350426324672009-08-20T12:45:00.000-07:002009-08-20T12:56:10.878-07:00Facing Forty with Fear and Foibles<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/So2p27whM1I/AAAAAAAAAhw/jAcf-bOfvt8/s1600-h/Aging+With+Grace+book+pic.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372136691742094162" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/So2p27whM1I/AAAAAAAAAhw/jAcf-bOfvt8/s400/Aging+With+Grace+book+pic.jpg" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;">When men approach the age of 40 they tend to be just hitting their stride. When women hit age 40 things start going downhill or at least this is what the popular perception is in today’s culture. When we reassess, regress or mull over our regrets, inevitably we try to make changes like a new career, hobby or mate. For men it’s called a mid-life crisis and for women it’s the change of life! Men get better looking as they age, this is true, but women just look older, or is this accurate? It really is a shame that women are only being compared to teenaged models and young actresses. Why is this measurement our only hallmark of beauty? Our society values youth, being young, looking young and staying young is encouraged and even demanded for some jobs. Examples of this trend can be seen with the advent of Botox parties and the popular term ‘cougar’ for older women who pursue younger men. There’s an ad that plays on my local radio station that encourages their ‘mommy makeover’ with an insulting jingle that sings out, “Fall in love with yourself, Blue..... Surgery.”<br />What a wonderful message. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">In the novel </span><a href="http://www.booksurge.com/Aging-with-Grace/A/143923681X.htm" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Aging with Grace</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> by Greg Liberman the heroine is a middle-aged, middleclass housewife. Grace finds herself in a race against time trying to regain her looks on the cusp of 40. Grace is self-absorbed. Always pretty and popular in her heyday, Grace feels her looks are fading and her abdomen needs tightening. She looks to the superficial world of plastic surgery for her answer to happiness. Grace has regrets. She’s always wanted fame and fortune. She dreams of being an actress and a model. Grace is bored. She doesn’t appreciate her life or her family and she doesn’t have any true friends. Grace refers to Jim, her husband of 14 years, as a wimp. Grace is bitter. As a mother Grace has a strained relationship with the oldest of her two daughters; a belligerent teenager who is taking notes from her mother.<br />Grace’s recipe for disaster starts with reconnecting with a high school friend on a social networking site called MyFace. Grace, being a competitive gal, finds herself jealous of April. Her fashion photographer friend has a lavish lifestyle full of celebrities, parties and glamour. She meets Victor at one of April’s parties, dabbles in illicit drugs and eventually involves herself in leading a double life. Victor presents himself as a powerful man with serious connections in the movie biz but it’s not the movie connections that Grace should be concerned about. Victor is not the man she believes him to be. Grace is lured into his lair with a lifestyle of luxury and promises of fame and fortune. Grace weaves a web of deceit and rationalization and eventually gets caught up in her own lies. </span><br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:130%;">“Just two weeks ago, she was whiling away her time as bored housewife. Today she had flown across the country too ready to have an affair with some rich Hollywood type she barely knew.”</span></em><br /><em><br /></em><span style="font-size:130%;">Grace does not live up to her name. Grace is self-absorbed, catty, vindictive, spiteful and basically a heartless, hateful biatch! She's a character that can be hard to take but you’ll love to hate! Do you remember Joan Collins as Alexis in the 80’s drama Dynasty? That's who comes to my mind. Isn’t everything 80’s coming back in style? I can imagine Aging with Grace being developed into a movie with the now 40-something Heather Locklear playing Grace and someone like heartthrob Antonio Sabato Jr. in the role of Victor. Locklear starred in a recent movie called </span><a href="http://www.mylifetime.com/on-tv/movies/flirting-with-forty" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Flirting with Forty</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> based on the book </span><a href="http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780446697262.htm" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Flirting with Forty</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> by </span><a href="http://www.janeporter.com/bookshelf/flirting.php" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Jane Porter</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">. In Flirting with Forty the newly divorced Jackie sets off on a much needed vacation to Hawaii. She meets surf instructor Kai and falls for him despite the age gap between them. Who cares right? He makes her feel desired and young. Back at home in Seattle, Jackie's bubble bursts with the reality of her new role as a single parent and fielding the flack from her judgemental friends. Book or movie, worth the read or watch. </span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Back to <a href="http://www.booksurge.com/Aging-with-Grace/A/143923681X.htm">Aging With Grace</a>, I won’t give any of the plot but I can say that I kept waiting for Grace to get what was coming to her! Eventually reality hits, right? Much like chick lit is set up to do - take the reader away on a fantasy ride- Grace lets Victor take her on a ride but where is he taking her? Aging with Grace (Booksurge, 2009) is a cautionary tale; a warning to watch what you wish for or you might just get it!<br />As we age we also hope to sage with time. Grace needs to look a bit closer at herself and not in the mirror for flaws but inward to find her truth and happiness. I must say that Author Greg Liberman writes chick lit like no man’s business! It’s encouraging to hear from the author that he's been giving some thought to writing a sequel to Aging with Grace. It seems Grace has not quite learned her lesson! Liberman has set up a </span><a href="http://agingwithgracethenovel.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">blog</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> where readers can provide feedback. Liberman was featured as a guest author at </span><a href="http://tbfreviews.net/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Book Faery Reviews</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">. The novel is available on </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Aging-Grace-Auth-Greg-Liberman/dp/143923681X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1248899337&sr=8-2" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Amazon.com</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> and also available on </span><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Aging-Grace-Greg-Liberman/dp/143923681X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249061937&sr=8-1" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Amazon.ca</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> so get yourself a copy and enjoy getting to know Grace!</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-53086270128951276852009-08-18T08:56:00.000-07:002009-08-18T09:20:07.107-07:00Books With Bite!<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SorULXPwZ2I/AAAAAAAAAho/ORKAq2_hSwg/s1600-h/Living+Dead+In+Dallas.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 372px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371338797276489570" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SorULXPwZ2I/AAAAAAAAAho/ORKAq2_hSwg/s400/Living+Dead+In+Dallas.jpg" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;">I thought about using the titles <em><strong>‘books with blood on them’</strong></em> or <em>‘<strong>books you can really sink your teeth into’</strong></em><strong> </strong>or even <em><strong>‘books that really do suck’</strong></em> but as you can see I went with the title <em><strong>‘books with bite’</strong></em>. What’s this all about you ask? Well, I’m talking about vampires, blood and yes, even romance!<br /></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">If you follow me on </span><a href="http://twitter.com/WandaLynneYoung" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Twitter</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> or you’re a friend on </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/wanda.lynne.young" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Facebook</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> then you already know that I’m a big fan of vampires. On any given Sunday night my twits and I are all a-twitter waiting for the new episode of True Blood to air. I don’t know where my fascination with vampires started but I know I’m not alone in this fixation! From way back I’ve always been drawn to vampires. It may have all started with </span><a href="http://www.annerice.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Anne Rice</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">’s book Interview with the Vampire from the Vampire Chronicles. Then there was the movie </span><a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/132032/Interview-With-the-Vampire/trailers" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Interview with the Vampire</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">. The pre-Scientology crazed Tom Cruise and pre-Brangelina Brad Pitt were an irresistible combo in my younger years! </span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Last year when HBO started airing it’s </span><a href="http://www.hbocanada.com/trueblood/index.php" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">True Blood</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> series, I found myself in vampire heaven, but then again vampires don’t really die, so there’s no heaven for them right? The </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qufAFY7FL0U" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">True Blood television series</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> is now in its second season and happens to be based on the Sookie Stackhouse series of books written by </span><a href="http://www.charlaineharris.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Charlaine Harris</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">. Sookie Stackhouse is played by the Oscar winning talented actress Anna Paquin. Paquin’s character is an intriguing mixture of curiosity and vulnerability as a telepathic waitress with a penchant for ‘fangbanging’. Since I’ve already established that I’m a big vampire fan it won’t surprise you that I’m recommending the Sookie Stackhouse books for the adults and, just for good measure, the Twilight series for the tweens or teens. Note: HBO’s True Blood is not for the youngsters! Oh, my word, no! You might want to Tivo the show because you just know one of the kiddies will wander by in the middle of a sex scene!</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The Sookie Stackhouse series is available in boxed sets of 7 or 8 titles: Dead Until Dark, Living Dead In Dallas, Club Dead, Dead To The World, Dead As A Doornail, Definitely Dead, All Together Dead, From Dead To Worse and don’t forget the most recent book Dead And Gone. Also worth noting is the collection of short stories A Touch of Dead. So far I've read Dead Until Dark and Living In Dallas and I've found they're hard books to put down. Kudos to you if you manage to read them all!</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The Twilight book series is the genius of author </span><a href="http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Stephanie Meyer</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">. The list includes: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn and the yet to be released Midnight Sun. Stephanie Meyer is also the author of </span><a href="http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/thehost.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Host</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">. Unfortunately an unedited draft of Midnight Dawn was leaked on the internet. The author has posted chapter one of Midnight Sun for fans to read on her website, along with a few words for the person who leaked the draft as well!<br />I’ve heard that the Twilight books are geared more toward the female species but I do know a few young males who've read and enjoyed the series too. The Twilight movie was a blockbuster success and now quick on it’s heels comes the much anticipated </span><a href="http://www.twilightthemovie.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">New Moon movie</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> slated for the theaters on November 20, 2009. There’s a variety of ages and interests in my testosterone infused family but for a change we all managed to enjoy the same movie; Twilight. Go figure! With this in mind I would highly recommend the Twilight movies for a family with teens. The younger dudes might squirm at the romantic parts but overall it will hold their interest and believe me it’s far better than having to endure a Fast and Furious movie marathon. BTW, thanks for that guys, not!<br />Just for fun, if you like vampire movies then check out this list I found for the </span><a href="http://snarkerati.com/movie-news/top-70-vampire-movies-of-all-time/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">top 70 vampire movies of all time</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">. It’s bloody good! </span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-84027179699840596382009-07-25T13:11:00.000-07:002009-07-25T13:41:17.892-07:00Life is a Series of Books<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SmtoA22b5PI/AAAAAAAAAfg/0N_fiOw_ETM/s1600-h/Archie+and+Veronica+to+wed.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 259px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362494145247831282" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SmtoA22b5PI/AAAAAAAAAfg/0N_fiOw_ETM/s400/Archie+and+Veronica+to+wed.jpg" /></a><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc9933;">"The books one reads in childhood, and perhaps most of all the bad and good bad books, create in one's mind a sort of false map of the world, a series of fabulous countries into which one can retreat at odd moments throughout the rest of life..." George Orwell</span></em></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;">In a recent post I set you up for the summer with a selection of chick lit reads. The books should be keeping you busy unless your kids are home and won’t leave you some time alone! The recent movie release of <a href="http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthehalf-bloodprince/">Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince </a>from the book series inspired me to recommend other collections available for the tween and teen scene.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;">News flash: the notorious <a href="http://www.james-frey.com/james-frey/">James Frey </a>is being taken off the backburner and back into the Frey-ing pan! You might recall his book <span style="color:#ffcccc;">A Million Little Pieces</span> creating quite the kafuffle in the literary world. Frey went from the pan to the fire soon after Oprah put <span style="color:#ffcccc;">A Million Little Pieces</span> on her book club list. Oprah proceeded to tear Frey into a million little pieces after it was revealed that his autobiography was a bit more imagination than realization! Frey was panned but now he’s on fire! All the hullabaloo didn’t hurt Frey’s career since he went on to write <span style="color:#ffcccc;">My Friend Leonard</span> and <span style="color:#ffcccc;">Bright Shiny Morning</span>. Now it appears that Frey is venturing into the teen scene with a sci-fi series for the younger set of ravenous readers. Frey is pairing up with a new novelist, Jobie Huges, to write four books. The first book is titled <span style="color:#ffcccc;">I Am Number Four</span>. Are they going to work backwards or what’s the deal? It’s also been reported that <span style="color:#ffcccc;">Transformers</span> director, Michael Bay has bought the film rights to <span style="color:#ffcccc;">I Am Number Four</span>. Let’s hope the books and the movies do well or we’ll be hearing reviews that I Am Number Two stinks! Phew! Sorry, I just had to add that. With the recent release of the latest <span style="color:#ffcccc;">Harry Potter</span> movie, I can’t help but wonder if Frey is switching gears desperately trying to be the next <a href="http://www.jkrowling.com/en/">J.K. Rowling</a>? Maybe it’s just the cynic in me but we can’t blame him for trying, right? Maybe Frey is looking for a million little dollars? Cue song: <span style="color:#ffcccc;">Barenaked Ladies</span> singing <span style="color:#ffcccc;">‘If I Had A Million Dollars’</span> </span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;">If you have kids at home this summer and you’ve already heard “I’m bored” a million little times and feel as if you are going out of your freaking mind then maybe I can help. If your kids spend the majority of their waking hours starring at a screen or glued to a game controller then I might be able to assist. I have a 13 year old son. Need I say more? What’s a parent to do you ask? Get your kids into reading a good book, or better yet, a book series! I’m all for children reading whatever they’re into, even if it’s <a href="http://www.archiecomics.com/index.html">Archie Comics</a>. BTW, did you hear Archie and Veronica are getting hitched? OMG! I thought I’d share a Twitter tidbit there!</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;">After a few years of disinterest in reading, my “I’ll wait for the movie” son turned out to be an avid reader and now actually enjoys spending time in Chapters with me. Sometimes ‘DS’ likes to go it alone but that’s not the point and I don’t take it personally, really. (Sniff, sniff.) He is a teenager after all! This summer he’s discovered a series of books by <span style="color:#ffcccc;">Michelle Paver</span>. For grading day I gave him a bag full of books that made him grin from ear to ear! I’m always asking him, “Whatcha reading?” and he always answers with the name of a book and looks forward to reading the next one. That’s my boy! I’m all for recommending the <span style="color:#ffcccc;">Harry Potter</span> books but if your kids have ‘been there and done that’ so to speak and eager for a different series to get into then check out these titles.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ffcccc;">Chronicles of an Ancient Darkness by </span><a href="http://www.michellepaver.com/">Michelle Paver</a>: Oath Breaker, Outcast, Wolf Brother, Soul Eater, Spirit Walker. </span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ffcccc;">Chronicles of Narnia</span> by <a href="http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/kids/gamesandcontests/features/princecaspian/">C.S. Lewis</a>: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Magician’s Nephew, The Horse and His Boy, The Silver Chair, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Last Battle. </span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ffcccc;">Inheritance Series</span> by <a href="http://www.alagaesia.com/index.php">Christopher Paolini</a>: Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ffcccc;">Pendragon</span> by <a href="http://www.thependragonadventure.com/">D.J. MacHale</a>: The Merchant of Death, The Lost City of Faar, The Never War, The Reality Bug, Black Water, The Rivers of Zadaa, The Quillan Games, The Pilgrims of Rayne, Raven Rise, The Soldiers of Halla. </span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ffcccc;">Artemis Fowl</span> by <a href="http://www.eoincolfer.com/books/">Eoin Colfer</a>: Artemis Fowl, Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident, The Eternity Code, Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception, Artemis Fowl the Graphic Novel, Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony, Artemis Fowl The Time Paradox, Airman. </span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ffcccc;">A Series of Unfortunate Events</span> by <a href="http://www.lemonysnicket.com/">Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket</a>: The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill, The Austere Academy, The Ersatz Elevator, The Vile Village, The Hostile Hospital, The Carnivorous Carnival, The Slippery Slope, The Grim Grotto, The Penultimate Peril, The End.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;">So this summer encourage your kids to spend some time in the library or a book store and then bask in the quiet solitude as they immerse themselves in their books! </span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-43651945411789903782009-07-24T21:07:00.000-07:002009-07-24T21:14:11.843-07:00The Color of Love<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SmqGQubrCsI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/iVYYieN8kT8/s1600-h/Pig%2520Candy%2520Book%2520Pic%2520Crop.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 266px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362245928238123714" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SmqGQubrCsI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/iVYYieN8kT8/s400/Pig%2520Candy%2520Book%2520Pic%2520Crop.jpg" /></a><br /><div><br /></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;">Writing a blog can be an intensely personal and revealing experience. It can be like passing your diary around for all to see but of course to a lesser degree! Funnily enough I’m usually a very private person. I tend to be more of a listener in most social settings, but one-to-one I’m all about telling you like it is. I’m stealing a phrase from my sister that goes, “everyone is entitled to my opinion!” (Special shout out to </span><a href="http://karabana.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Kara</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> - Holla!) This is one of the reasons why I started reviewing to compliment my love for reading and writing. At times I pick a book for purely selfish reasons instead of sticking to the tried and true bestseller list. Sometimes I discover a real gem!<br />A while back on a trek to the book store I noticed the book </span><a href="http://www.lisefunderburg.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home: A Memoir</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> (Free Press, 2009) by Lise Funderburg. I found myself compelled to read it after perusing the book’s covers. Lise Funderburg is a freelance journalist and the acclaimed author of </span><a href="http://www.lisefunderburg.com/?page_id=4" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Black, White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk About Race and Identity</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> (Quill, 1995) and </span><a href="http://www.lisefunderburg.com/?page_id=4" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Color Purple: A Memory Book</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> (Carroll & Graf, 2006). I recalled Oprah, the book maven herself, giving the thumbs up to Black, White, Other and read Funderburg’s insightful contributions to </span><a href="http://www.oprah.com/article/oathome/200809_oah_book_club_tips" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Oprah’s O Magazine</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">. Why was I so draw to reading this memoir? Lise Funderburg is the mixed- race daughter to a black father and a white mother. Funderburg’s novel Black, White, Other is a collection of forty-six stories told by adults from black- white unions. Like these individuals and the author, I share this similarity. My father is from West Indian descent and my mother’s heritage is French Canadian. I can relate to being in the ‘Other’ category.</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">In Pig Candy Lise pays tribute to her terminally ill, stroke-impaired father, recalling their annual trips from his retirement community in Pennsylvania to his summer farm house in Georgia. George Newton Funderburg was a complex man with a colorful background and a thorny past. His life experiences are marked by times of segregated schools, ‘White’s Only’ signs and KKK threats. Lise wondered why she and her two sisters had such restricted childhoods but more than that she wanted desperately to get to know her father after years of disconnect. As an aside here, I can relate to the strict upbringing, but now that I’m a parent myself I can look back on it as a form of protection.</span></div><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><div><br />Lise reflects on her father’s skewed psyche,<br /></div><div><em><span style="color:#ffcc66;">“My father won’t let Margaret close all of the sunroom blinds to August’s wilting midday heat. You can close most of them, he says, as long as you leave two or three open. I want to be able to see the Klan sneaking up on us. He is joking and he is not joking.”<br /></span></em>Lise puts on a brave face and deals with her father’s cancer and cantankerous manner, all the while trying to gain some much needed closure to their strained relationship.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;">George’s e-mail is a good example of his headstrong nature.<br />Subject: Eddie Frank’s Ungracious Behavior.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="color:#ffcc66;">dear Jackie and Eddie,<br />it is distressing to have to write this e-mail about eddie’s confrontational, ungracious behavior toward one of my guest invited to fish on our lake.<br />it may be that we can straighten this outwhen i return in about two weeks, I hope so, how ever to emphaxize my position, let me suggest that eddie not, fish on our pond until we do straighten this out. also, it might be a good idea for eddie not to take any of my liquor, vodka or wine,until that time I am not an Indian giver and realize that there may be some wine I had given Jackie that she should feel free to take home if she likes.<br />by copy of this writing to francees smith [Dorothy’s sister] i am requesting she pass it along to troy eugene johnson so that he may reassure his nephew that my permission for him to fish on our lak is still in tact and he is welcome to come back.the nephew should know that his grandmother was most gracious to me over sixty years ago when i spent a weekend at their house in the Glades.<br />Keep well, continue your good work and enjoy life.love<br />uncle george<br />k<br />Best Wishes<br /></span><br />Don’t get me wrong, George isn’t all bad; he has a likeable quirkiness about him. He likes the challenge of inventions and helpful gadgets. The special order pig box is right up his alley! Lise, family and friends, help him in his mission to make pig candy; a slow cooked barbecue pork delicacy. George is a collector of hobbies. He’s a master of dabbler, if you will. He dives into a new endeavor and inevitably loses his enthusiasm when a new interest comes along. I can relate to this habit myself with a studio full of half completed projects. Don’t get me started!<br />Endearing and amusing, </span><a href="http://www.lisefunderburg.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Pig Candy</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> is a book to be slowly savored, like the succulent, slow barbecued pork. Just like southern hospitality and home cooked flavor, Pig Candy leaves you feeling warm and wanting more. The themes of mortality and race are treated with dignity and grace. Lisa’s recounting of the Funderburg’s layered family history will leave a legacy for generations to come. In Lise’s search for her own racial identity she discovers a blurring of the lines between race and family. Growing up in a family with assorted colors the one message I can send is that love has no color. I can imagine that Lise Funderburg would agree with me wholeheartedly.</span></div><br /><div><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">News flash: It was recently announced that </span><a href="http://www.lisefunderburg.com/"><span style="font-size:130%;">Pig Candy</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> made it on the </span><a href="http://www.authorsroundthesouth.com/bestsellers/7717-southern-indie-bestseller-list-05312009"><span style="font-size:130%;">Southern Indie Bestseller</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> (SIBA) list. So much for recommending a little known gem! </span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-77159372449955863002009-07-24T20:56:00.000-07:002009-07-24T21:05:51.889-07:00The Girls of Summer<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SmqD7Qw3guI/AAAAAAAAAfI/x8SHMFUMes4/s1600-h/BestFriendsForeverBook.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 149px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 225px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362243360473449186" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SmqD7Qw3guI/AAAAAAAAAfI/x8SHMFUMes4/s400/BestFriendsForeverBook.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SmqDxXzDINI/AAAAAAAAAfA/muhG9yd-X9w/s1600-h/My%2520Sisters%2520Keeper%2520Book%2520Pic.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 146px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 225px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362243190562955474" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SmqDxXzDINI/AAAAAAAAAfA/muhG9yd-X9w/s400/My%2520Sisters%2520Keeper%2520Book%2520Pic.jpg" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;">If you’re looking for some cool summer reads to take to the cottage or beach then read on dear readers, read on! This summer I’ve noticed a fabulous selection by some of our favorite chick lit authors. There’s so many fresh reads that are just ripe for the picking, and ready for us to devour!<br /></div></span><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;">At the top of the list is</span><a href="http://www.jodipicoult.com/my-sisters-keeper.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;"> My Sister’s Keeper </span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">by </span><a href="http://www.jodipicoult.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Jodi Picoult</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">. Sara and Brian have a son Jesse and a daughter Kate. All is well until Kate becomes very ill. In desperation, the couple decides to have another child to help their sick girl live a better life. The book introduces a controversial topic. Ethical and moral issues are brought forward when the youngest daughter Anna decides to challenge her parents in court. Anna wants to sue her parents for the rights to her own body. The recent release of the </span><a href="http://www.mysisterskeepermovie.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">screen version</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> starring Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin is bound to harvest some more interest and popularity for novel. If you haven’t already read the book then you might be interested in the movie tie-in edition. Word of warning: whether you read the book or take in the movie make sure you have tissue at hand!<br />When I say The Devil Wears Prada what do you think of first; the novel or the movie? If you’re a fan of either of these guilty pleasures then you should know about </span><a href="http://www.laurenweisberger.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Laura Weisberger’s</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> recent novel Chasing Harry Winston. The narrative introduces the reader to three best friends, each on the verge of turning thirty. Two of the gals make resolutions and they give themselves one year to change their lives for the better. Can they all remain friends forever? There’s so much at risk and so much to lose. Talk about drama! Do I smell a movie sneaking around the corner? You heard it here first, people!<br />Did you read the book Lipstick Jungle or watch the now defunct television series of the same name? If you answered yes to either then you might want to pick up a copy of </span><a href="http://www.candacebushnell.com/books.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Candace Bushnell's</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> new novel One Fifth Avenue. BTW, did you see Brooke Shields speaking at Michael Jackson’s memorial? Heart wrenching! So, getting back to the book One Fifth Avenue, just imagine a Manhattan backdrop, swanky living accommodations and five women on the make. Need I say more? This book is sure to indulge your voyeuristic side!<br /></span><a href="http://www.emilygiffin.com/buy.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Emily Giffin</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> is a bestselling author of Something Borrowed, Something Blue and Baby Proof. Now she’s penned a new novel. Love The One Your With is the tale of a woman’s journey in search of true love. Does she stay with the man of her dreams or go with her soul mate? Is it love or is it lust? There’s too many questions and no clear answers. What’s a gal to do? This book is sure to tug at the heartstrings. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Author </span><a href="http://www.jenniferweiner.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Jennifer Weiner</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> is a personal favorite of mine. Hola, twitter friend! I so enjoy her terrific tweets! This summer she offers us the paperback version of her popular book Certain Girls: A Novel. This book is the sequel to Weiner’s bestseller Good In Bed. Certain Girls is appealing just like the 40 something character with all her charms and flaws. This read is both romantic and realistic! You might remember Weiner’s popular book In Her Shoes. Didn’t Cameron Diaz star in the movie In Her Shoes along with the talented Shirley MacLaine and the quirky Toni Collette? Side note: if you get the chance to see Collette in Showtime’s </span><a href="http://www.sho.com/site/tara/home.do" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">United States of Tara</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> then you are in for a great rollercoaster ride!<br />BFF’S listen up! What better than spending time with your BBF? How about reading about BFF’s? Jennifer Weiner’s new book Best Friends Forever: A Novel is about to fly off the shelves on July 14. Lifestyles and distance can get in the way of a friendship but some childhood friendships can withstand the test of time. Full of adventure and angst, Best Friends Forever is a tribute to loyalty in friendship. Reading can be more fun if it’s shared so pick this one up and pass it along. Heads up Denise I’m throwing this one your way soon! The unstoppable </span><a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/kinsella/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Sophie Kinsella</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> brings a new novel to the Shopaholic series. In Shopaholic and Baby, Becky’s back and now there’s a baby on the way! Everything is better than ever or so it seems. Does Becky finally have it all or are there complications on the way? No spoiler here; only the pages will tell!<br />Twenties Girl is Kinsella’s captivating new narrative about a young woman who finds herself haunted by a ghost; her very feisty and opinionated great-aunt. Great-aunt Sadie just won’t rest until Laura finds the heirloom necklace. Laura goes on the hunt but ends up finding something more than she bargained for in her search for the treasured piece of jewelry. Fans of Sophie Kinsella might already know about the author’s alternate nom de plume </span><a href="http://us.macmillan.com/author/madeleinewickham" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Madeline Wickham</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">. Under the pen name Wickham the author brings her fans a fantastic collection of reads. In Wickham’s novel The Gatecrasher, we meet a mysterious woman who has a penchant for a lavish lifestyle and wealthy men. She knows just how to meet her needs; funerals! I've heard of wedding crashers, but funerals? Are you shaking your head too? Wickham’s writing is wonderful and will leave you wanton or at least wanting more Wickham!<br />In Sleeping Arrangements, Wickham weaves a tale involving secrets and surprises. Picture this; two families forced to share accommodations while on vacation in a Spanish villa. Add to this uncomfortable situation the fact that Chloe is with her beau and the other man is her former boyfriend. Yikes! If you want some intrigue then this is the novel for you to read.<br />If you liked Wickham’s novel Remember Me then you might want to try Cocktails for Three. Three friends meet in a bar, and no it’s not the start of a joke but the setting where juicy secrets are revealed! It’s the London, UK fashion scene where gossip reigns supreme and boy these girls can be mean!<br />Heads up dear readers! Be sure to check out the audio book versions for these titles. They would be perfect for those summer walks or a long drive. Better yet, just grab your beach chair, take in some sun, enjoy a frothy drink and read at the same time! Gentle warning: don’t forget the sunscreen! I should mention that recently I’ve been visiting </span><a href="http://shortcovers.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Shortcovers</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> to check out popular books and find both the website and the smart phone application very helpful. You can read the first few chapters of a book on-line or from your phone and then have the option to purchase the entire e-book if you so desire. Isn’t technology grand? So dear readers I hope I've given you a good sample of reads to hold you over for the summer. Feel free to send me your feedback or suggestions if it moves you to do so! </span></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-69776629745924230722009-07-24T20:44:00.000-07:002009-07-24T20:53:46.098-07:00Father's Day Message From Author Kevin Alan Milne<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SmqBwnLY4PI/AAAAAAAAAeo/YGuJy3PHTiE/s1600-h/the+nine+lessons+book+pic.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 225px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 246px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362240978488451314" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SmqBwnLY4PI/AAAAAAAAAeo/YGuJy3PHTiE/s400/the+nine+lessons+book+pic.jpg" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;">Dad’s Day Message from Kevin Alan Milne Author of<br /></span><a href="http://kevinamilne.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Nine Lessons</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">: A Novel of Love, Fatherhood, and Second Chances<br />(Center Street- Hachette Book Group, 2009)<br /><br />Recently I picked up a copy of The Nine Lessons by Kevin Alan Milne. I had planned to tuck it away and give to my husband for Father’s Day. (Note to my husband if you’re reading this ~ surprise!) Instead of wrapping the book I started to read it and then proceeded to check out the author’s website. To my delight I discovered a very frank, funny man who writes with a fine finesse! Milne is also the author of the novella </span><a href="http://kevinamilne.com/kevin_alan_milne_007.htm" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Paper Bag Christmas</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> (Center Street-Hachette Book Group, 2008).<br /><br />Milne is a businessman by day and a writer by night. He has four daughters, one son and a devoted wife. As an aside, I noticed the son (a.k.a the boy) was named Kyler. My husband and I have two boys named Kyle and Tyler. If you blend the two names together it forms a very efficient moniker to yell, um, I meant call, when they are needed at once! I asked the author if he would share with us some words of wisdom and inspiration. He has a message to share about his book The Nine Lessons, “a novel about fears, joys and foibles of being an imperfect parent, and the truths passed on from one generation to the next.”<br /><br /><br />After graduating from high school in 1991, I attended a public event where all recent graduates were asked what we wanted to be when we “grow up”. I have to admit, I took exception to that question. I’d just graduated from high school, for Pete’s sake, and what could possibly be more grown up than that? Still, I knew what they were really asking: what career will you pursue? I tried to play along, but for the life of me, I didn’t know what I wanted to be. One by one my friends stepped up to the microphone and predicted their future successes. Most wanted to be doctors, lawyers, and the like…nothing wrong with that. When it was my turn, however, I chose to address my parents directly, explaining that I had absolutely no clue what job I would fulfill as a full-fledged adult (I’m sure at that moment they wanted to slink beneath their chairs). “Eventually I’ll figure out how to earn a living,” I said. “But if you really want to know what I’ll be when I grow up, I can tell you: I want to be just like my dad…and if I’m even half as good at being a father and husband as he is, I think everything else will work out just fine.”<br />Cheesy, I know, but one wife and five kids later I’m living the dream! Jobs have come and gone since high school, but along the way nothing has been quite as satisfying—or scary or challenging or downright frustrating!—as marriage and parenthood. With Father’s Day right around the corner, I sincerely hope that fathers, mothers, and children of all ages will appreciate the message of The Nine Lessons, and will seek to share their own lessons from one generation to the next.<br />Happy Father’s Day!<br />Kevin Alan Milne<br /><br />(Printed with permission from the author Kevin Alan Milne.)<br /><br /></span><a href="http://kevinamilne.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Nine Lessons</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> is a touching tale that should be a must-read for any father and son. To learn about the author’s inspiration for writing see his story </span><a href="http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/7674D73ED4954FA2BD3C4EDF4934EE5D.htm" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">How Corporate America Ignited My Inner-Author</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">. Check out Milne’s </span><a href="http://kevinamilne.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">blog</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> for updates and his </span><a href="http://kevinamilne.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">website</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> for future projects.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-41100085820455950972009-06-18T07:57:00.000-07:002009-06-18T19:31:31.912-07:00Father's Day Book Picks and Free eBooks!<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/Sjr4clg0HyI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/TPxKpbE7fbY/s1600-h/bow+tie+book+pic.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 174px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348860677445656354" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/Sjr4clg0HyI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/TPxKpbE7fbY/s400/bow+tie+book+pic.jpg" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;">If you're searching for a great book to give dear old Dad for father's Day then look no further. You've definitely come to the right place! Below is a list of my Daddy's Day picks. To read the full descriptions follow the link to my <a href="http://yummymummyclub.ca/wanda_lynne_young:_bookalicious">Bookalicious Blog </a>in the <a href="http://yummymummyclub.ca/index.php">Yummy Mummy Club</a>. Please leave comments if it moves you to do so!<br /><br /><br /></span><a href="http://kevinamilne.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Nine Lessons</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> (Center Street- Hachette Book Group, 2009)<br />Author: Kevin Alan Milne<br /><br /></span><a href="http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Chris-Mancini/60776477" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Pacify Me: A Handbook for the Freaked-Out New Dad</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> (Simon & Schuster, 2009)<br />Author: Chris Mancini<br /><br /></span><a href="http://us.macmillan.com/author/ianfrazier" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">Lamentations Of The Father: Essays</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> (St. Martin’s Press, 2009)<br />Author: Ian Frazier<br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.family-studies-arena.com/books/What-Every-Man-Should-Know-About-Being-a-Dad-isbn9780415486170" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">What Every Man Should Know About Being a Dad</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> (Routledge, 2009)<br />Author: David Cohen<br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.danhill.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">I Am My Father's Son</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> (Harper Collins Publishers, 2009)<br />Author: Dan Hill<br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.jeremyadamsmith.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Daddy Shift: How Stay-at-Home Dads, Breadwinning Moms, and Shared Parenting Are Transforming the American Family</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> (Beacon Press, 2009)<br />Author: Jeremy Adam Smith<br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.harpercollins.ca/books/9780061724459/Its_the_Best_Day_Ever_Dad/index.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">It's the Best Day Ever, Dad!</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> (Harper Collins Publishers, 2009)<br />Author: Brooke Shields<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.thelastlecture.com/">The Last Lecture </a>(Hyperion, 2008)<br />Authors: Randy Pauch, Jeff Zaslow<br /><br /><a href="http://mitchalbom.com/">Tuesdays With Morrie </a>(Doubleday, 1997)<br />Author: Mitch Albom</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><strong>Free eBooks!</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /></span><a href="http://talebooks.com/images/bs/957.pdf">HER FATHER'S DAUGHTER</a><br />by Gene Stratten-Porter<br /><br /><a href="http://talebooks.com/images/bs/854.pdf">FATHER AND SON</a><br />by Edmund Gosse<br /><br /><br />Get Dad to check out the <a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/TheArtOfManliness">free 32-page ebook</a> by Brett McKay from <a href="http://artofmanliness.com/" target="_blank">The Art of Manliness</a>.</span> <span style="font-size:130%;">They've also compiled 100 books they call the </span><a href="http://artofmanliness.com/2008/05/14/100-must-read-books-the-essential-mans-library/"><span style="font-size:130%;">Essential Man's Library</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">.<br /><br />Just in case you can't resist giving Dad a tie, that old standby, then check this out for fun! How do you tie a tie? See the link below:</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://artofmanliness.com/2009/06/05/how-to-tie-a-tie/">http://artofmanliness.com/2009/06/05/how-to-tie-a-tie/</a></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-43982322364512623832009-04-23T19:16:00.000-07:002009-04-23T19:45:17.583-07:00Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SfEnrU-dJuI/AAAAAAAAAdA/EEE3R6Fyz4M/s1600-h/10-10-10-suzy-welch.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 268px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328083459474532066" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SfEnrU-dJuI/AAAAAAAAAdA/EEE3R6Fyz4M/s400/10-10-10-suzy-welch.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;">When I was invited to review the book <strong>10-10-10</strong> written by Suzy <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Welch</span> I must admit that I was a bit skeptical about a self-help book claiming to solve our decision-making dilemmas. Suzy <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Welch</span> is a bestselling co-author of <strong>Winning</strong> along with her husband Jack <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">Welch</span>, former Chairman and CEO of General Electric. As a journalist, author and public speaker, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Welch</span> has a list of credits to her name as the former editor of the Harvard Business Review and columnist as a life /work balance for O, The Oprah Magazine and Business Week Magazine, just to name a few.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Suzy <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">Welch</span> has developed a strategy she’s dubbed 10-10-10 to help us make decisions. The 10-10-10 system is a guide that breaks up time into three frames of 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years. These time frames are not to be taken literally, but suggest the immediate present, mid-term and distant future. <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">Welch</span> felt that she had been making decisions based on her immediate circumstances and living too much in the present with little consideration for the long term consequences. <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-error">Welch</span> knew that her life was off-kilter and after a disastrous business trip she experienced a eureka moment. It was after this pivotal experience that she developed the 10-10-10 approach as a decision-making guide for life.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />When making decisions, we sometimes get hung up at the onset with too many options, too many choices, too many unknowns and too many questions. Suzy <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-error">Welch</span> says the first thing we need to decide is how to frame our dilemma with a defined question. We can seek out advice from family, friends, co-workers. Sometimes we rely on our gut instincts or we let guilt guide our lives. In some instances we can leave the decision-making up to fate as if to say, what will be, will be. <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">Welch</span> warns about the influences of stress, impulse and expedience in the decision-making process.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Another crucial part of the 10-10-10 system involves defining one’s core values, beliefs, goals, dreams and needs. This can be easier said than done, but <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-error">Welch</span> gives tips and questionnaires to help guide us in this personal analysis.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />The 10-10-10 decision-making process purports to help the 10-10-10<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" class="blsp-spelling-error">ers</span> in all areas of life including, family, parenting, love, friends and career. <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_11" class="blsp-spelling-error">Welch</span> shares candid examples of her personal struggles and supplies a broad variety of 10-10-10 stories from her ever-expanding circle of followers. <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_12" class="blsp-spelling-error">Welch</span> provides practical advice on how to implement the 10-10-10 process whether it’s in the form of a written list or an internal dialogue. </span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>10-10-10</strong> claims that following the decision-making process can be transforming and make us more at peace with our decisions, in turn leading to an authentic existence. It <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_13" class="blsp-spelling-error">doesn</span>’t report to be an easy process and the author mentions that the process can take time in some instances where more data is needed to make an informed decision. The 10-10-10 system requires emotional work, discipline and commitment. 10-10-10<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_14" class="blsp-spelling-error">ing</span> will give insights and an understanding of how and why your decisions and choices are made.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><span style="font-size:130%;">Suzy <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_15" class="blsp-spelling-error">Welch</span> puts it all into perspective when she states, </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">“…beginnings and endings are part of the human condition. We are all living; we are all dying. In between we have the gift of deciding how.”<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Would you rather make decisions based on gut and guilt or would you prefer to guide your decisions with the clarity and confidence of living an authentic life? If the latter sounds better, it would be a good decision to pick up a copy of <strong>10-10-10</strong>. Then when you hit another proverbial fork in the road, instead of complaining decisions, decisions, decisions, you can now exclaim 10-10-10! </span></div><br /><p><span style="font-size:130%;">See the link and video below for more info.<br /></span></p><br /><p><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.suzywelch101010.com/">http://www.suzywelch101010.com/</a></span></p><br /><p><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/mAMAREB12J9GF">http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/mAMAREB12J9GF</a></p></span><br /><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-72596553134380740032009-02-26T09:03:00.000-08:002009-04-07T08:23:47.260-07:00Wanderlust and Wine<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SabPMIHAvsI/AAAAAAAAAZw/36nS2_Hivzo/s1600-h/pic+loaded+women+and+addiction.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 264px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307157018144980674" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SabPMIHAvsI/AAAAAAAAAZw/36nS2_Hivzo/s400/pic+loaded+women+and+addiction.jpg" /></a><br /><div><span style="color:#ffcccc;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>An Author & Addicts Autobiography </strong></span><br /><strong></strong><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;">So many lives are touched by addictions, whether it is from personal habits or the influence of an addicted spouse, family member, friend or co-worker. Some take on the role of enabler in a futile attempt to help or hide the loved one’s addiction. The addicted person might go to great lengths to hide their addiction from the world but the real truth is they are hiding from them self in their addiction.</span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;"><br />In the autobiography <strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#ffcccc;">Loaded: Women and Addiction</span></strong>, author <span style="color:#ffccff;"><span style="color:#ffcccc;">Jill Talbot </span></span>gives a candid account of her struggles with addiction. Talbot takes the reader back to her family history and relays the influence of her family legacy- alcoholism. Talbot’s mother attempted to shield her family from the grandmother’s alcohol addiction. Her father held a distain for anything connected with booze or bars and aimed to give his children a tea totalling upbringing. Talbot’s parents considered her to be a “wild child” with an obsessive compulsive nature and prone to risk taking behaviours. In the typical style of a self fulfilling prophesy, “Jilly” started drinking at age 15 and moved on to experiment with pot and drugs. To add more drama to the picture, the author reveals her addiction to sex with a particular affinity for married men. In her twenties, the wanton Talbot admits to enjoying the fleeting nature of her affairs and the infamous status of being the other woman. Talbot eventually swears off married men after her partner leaves her for another woman a few short months after she gave birth to their daughter. </span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Talbot’s poison is, and probably still is, wine. She describes herself,<br /><br /><span style="color:#ffcccc;"><strong>“I am a college professor, a mother, a wanderer, a distant person. I am ritualistic, fearful of confrontation, a runner, a heavy drinker.” </strong></span><br /><span style="color:#ffcccc;"><strong></strong></span><br />She tries to function as a reliable and responsible adult stating, “I’ve always been good at living in two worlds- the halls of the English department by day, the bar stools of some joint by night.”<br />Talbot has a sense of wanderlust, a need to escape and “get away from herself.” She states, “We don’t know how far we can go until we’ve gone too far”. She has an insatiable drive to do just that- drive. The author recounts a dizzying number of alcohol fuelled road trips zigzagging across borders in Colorado, Mexico, Nevada, Texas, New Mexico, Utah and Oklahoma.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;"><br />When Jill Talbot finally sinks to the bottom of the wine bottle she checks herself into a rehabilitation centre. She finds the writing exercises difficult and refers to the experience as “a writer’s workshop for drunks.” Talbot’s intellectual status as an English professor and an accomplished writer hinder the truthfulness in her writing. She struggles with sharing her autobiography and reflects that “It was hard for the rehab to get past the writer and get to the wino.” The impression here is that the author needs to dig deeper to find her truth. I sense that Talbot is just starting to graze the surface and not telling the whole story of what really fans the fires of her addictions. Talbot leaves the reader as she approaches the milestone age of forty and claims that she has a “firm hold on her drinking” and limits herself to moderate drinking. I imagine that Talbot’s blame and shame strategy to dealing with her addictions will undoubtedly lead her to back to rehab. </span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;"><br />Talbot doesn’t come up with any clear answers in her quest for sobriety; a clear head as it were. How can she find the answers without asking herself the difficult questions?<br />Something to think about...<br /><br />Wanda Lynne Young<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;"></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-64388826596209115872008-12-28T16:42:00.000-08:002009-02-26T12:01:52.386-08:00COFFEE TABLE WORTHY BOOKS<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SVgklDZSLuI/AAAAAAAAAWw/mCVP9uyrQTg/s1600-h/oprahs+big+big+book.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5285014381704392418" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SVgklDZSLuI/AAAAAAAAAWw/mCVP9uyrQTg/s400/oprahs+big+big+book.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#66cccc;">Coffee table books might not be something you think to buy as gifts to give let alone buy for yourself. Whether they’re for gift giving or decorating, coffee table books are a great idea any way you pile them! Coffee table books are not meant to be tucked into book shelves and best strew about on any surface that draws a passerby’s attention. More than frivolous picture books, good coffee table books should be over sized hardcovers, capture your attention and be hard to put down. No matter the subject, it should have plenty of visuals to stimulate more than just your eyes. Coffee table books should be informative but not too wordy and bonus marks if they have an element of entertainment. Imagine throwing a dinner party and then serving after dinner drinks to your guests. A good selection of coffee table books can help get the conversation going. Recently I had a gathering and found my copy of <strong><span style="color:#ffcccc;">Deepak Chopra’s Kama Sutra</span> </strong>floating among the guests.<br />Another handy idea for buying coffee table books is to give them as gifts. For instance, you can pair up the book’s topic with the gift receiver’s hobbies. A few years back my brother started his own tradition of giving coffee table books as gifts and as a recipient I can appreciate the personal attention he gives to my particular interests.<br />So with these thoughts in mind I would like to suggest a few current coffee table books for you to peruse.</span><br /><br /><br /></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color:#660000;"><strong><span style="color:#9999ff;">Life: The Classic Collection<br />Life Magazine</span></strong> </span></span></span><br /><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color:#660000;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;">This collection of the 100 best Life Magazine images should conjure up memories from past eras. Like the old adage says, a picture is worth a thousand words. Do you recall the poster of the sailor kissing the nurse? This book contains plenty of recognizable photos and to sweeten the deal, they’ve also included 25 frame ready pop-out prints. This book is perfect for anyone who likes to take a trip down memory lane. I recommend you buy two copies, one to give and one to keep!<br /><br /></span></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color:#ff6666;"><strong><span style="color:#9999ff;">Legends of Rock: The Artists, Instruments, Myths and History of 50 Years of Youth Music<br />Ernesto Assante</span><br /><br /></strong></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;">This book displays a wonderful montage of pop culture music icons and influences spanning the past fifty years. Like a catchy chorus that you can’t get out of your head this book will be hard to put down. Whether candid or posed, the photos of music idols, album covers and rock memorabilia will surely drum up some of your own memories and tunes. Definitely a choice for the rock music buff but be warned this heavy hitter hogs the coffee table!<br /><br /></span></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color:#660000;"><strong><span style="color:#9999ff;">O’s Big Book of Happiness: The Best of O, The Oprah Magazine, Wisdom, Wit, Advice, Interviews, and Inspiration<br />O, The Oprah Magazine</span></strong> </span></span></span><br /></span></span></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color:#660000;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;">The third collection of Oprah’s successful Best of O, The Oprah Magazine Series. The title basically says it all! Based on the monthly O, The Oprah Magazine, the media maven has amassed a collection of her favourite 100+ articles. The topics deal with relationships, career, and health issues plus the life lessons from an esteemed list of writers, artists, politicians and entrepreneurs. If you enjoy all things Oprah or want to learn about women’s issues then this book is for you or for you to give to any lucky female.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:180%;color:#9999ff;"><strong>One Hundred Greatest Canadian Sports Moments<br />James Bisson</strong></span><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color:#66cccc;"><strong><span style="color:#9999ff;"><br /></span></strong><span style="font-size:85%;">Assisted by a panel of eighteen sports media personalities, sports Journalist James Bisson has listed and ranked a rich collection of 100 memorable sports moments in Canada. Bisson highlights 25 sports that showcase Canada’s diverse history in sports. The sports fan will no doubt gravitate toward this book and the list picks might draw some debate! No matter your sport preference, there’s something in this book for every proud Canadian. </span></span><br /><br /></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:180%;color:#9999ff;"><strong>Deepak Chopra Kama Sutra<br />Deepak Chopra</strong></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="color:#9999ff;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;">Spiritual guru Deepak Chopra gives his unique spiritual view of sex and sensuality. This book is a far departure from the instructional manual of kama sutra poses. Chopra gives the reader plenty of history and wisdom in his modern interpretation of the kama sutra, balancing the images of beautiful artwork. Far from pornographic, the sensual images wouldn’t make the average adult blush. There should be no concern about this book falling into the wrong hands but if need be then keep it on the bedroom nightstand! </span></span><br /><br /></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:180%;color:#9999ff;"><strong>Independent Spirit: Early Canadian Women Artists<br />A.K. Prakash </strong></span><br /><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><strong><br /></strong></span><span style="font-size:130%;">This concise collection of art showcases early Canadian women artists and celebrates both the trailblazers and the masters of their art. This book contains descriptive artist biographies, full page images of beautiful works of art and an annotated index of 564 Canadian female artists. This book is a must for collectors, scholars and anyone who has an appreciation for Canadian art.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:180%;"></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-14763440788929167092008-11-22T10:32:00.000-08:002009-02-26T12:06:46.694-08:00Treat This Book Like A Bad Date: Forget It And Move On!<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SShR0MS1GXI/AAAAAAAAAWo/pPpiA92B7Bg/s1600-h/datingbookscan+-+Copy.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271553320932415858" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 274px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SShR0MS1GXI/AAAAAAAAAWo/pPpiA92B7Bg/s400/datingbookscan+-+Copy.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">As a freelance writer I was recently tasked with reading and reviewing a current book on the subject of dating. I picked up <strong><span style="color:#ffcccc;">Dating Makes You Want to Die</span></strong> <em><span style="color:#ffcccc;">by Daniel Holloway and Dorothy Robinson</span></em>. By all accounts it looked interesting with the title exclaiming “dating makes you want to die but you have to do it anyway” and adds “getting through the absurdity of dating with your soul intact.” This sounds promising right? As the old saying goes, you can’t judge a book by its cover. </span></div><br /><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">This dating advice book is aimed at both sexes in the late twenties and thirties age bracket. Holloway and Robinson mention that their dating audience might be dealing with baggage like roommates or divorce fallout that might hinder their dating prowess. As I read it is obvious that the tag team duo authors are trying to copy and profit with their diluted imitation of the bestselling book <span style="color:#ffcccc;"><strong>He’s Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Guide To Understanding Guys</strong> <em>written by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo</em></span><span style="color:#66cccc;">. </span></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">The authors try to make their dating advice fun and witty with sections of back and forth “He Says / She Says” opposing views and Quizzes that question whether you are you ready to meet the parents, move in together, etc. They hit all the dating dilemmas but desperately fall short on giving good advice. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="color:#66cccc;">One statement that the authors come up with is “we date for one reason: so we don’t have to do it anymore.” This trite piece of observation might be true for most people but not very helpful. Another statement that annoyed me was their declaration of “a fundamental truth about relationships: they all end.” Maybe it’s the foolish romantic in me but think about how this comes off; the reader might as well put the book down and give up already!</span></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">The most disappointing part is that this book is littered with the authors low brow attempts at humour. They poke fun at dating with slurs against homosexuals, autistics, physically challenged and Muslims. I won’t repeat the actual “jokes” since they are too asinine to put into print here. I will say however, that they suggest declaring a jihad to get out of a relationship, mock Dustin Hoffman’s autistic character in the movie <strong><span style="color:#ffcccc;">“Rain Man”</span></strong> and insinuate latent homosexuality if you don’t want to have sex by the third date. Politically correct, I think not!</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">Another popular expression mentions that “there’s plenty of fish in the sea”; so take my suggestion that there’s plenty of books on the shelves. You should take a pass on this read and see what else the book store has to offer. I will suggest to the female daters that you read the afore mentioned <span style="color:#ffcccc;">He’s Just Not That Into You</span> series of books spawned from the <span style="color:#ffcccc;">“Sex And The City”</span> television show. These books help empower women with a no-nonsense approach to figuring out the difference between Mr. Right and Mr. Right Now. If you’re looking specifically for dating advice then you might want to look for a copy of the recent book <span style="color:#ffcccc;"><strong>It’s Just a Freakin’ Date!: A Guide To a Sane Dating Life</strong> <em>by Greg Behrendt and Amiira Ruotola-Behrendt</em><span style="color:#66cccc;">.</span><br /><br /></span><strong><span style="color:#ffcccc;">Dating Makes You Want To Die</span></strong> is basically an insipid waste of time and money with little redeeming substance or value. The advice the authors give is more snarky than sage and might even be considered insulting or offensive to some readers. I would recommend that you save the cost of <strong><span style="color:#ffcccc;">Dating Makes You Want To Die</span></strong> and buy a ticket to take in the movie <span style="color:#ffcccc;">"<strong>He’s Just Not That Into You"</strong></span> coming to theatres in February. </span></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">Something to think about...</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">Wanda Lynne Young</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-21914871676874127002008-11-03T20:41:00.000-08:002009-02-26T12:10:21.501-08:0010 QUESTIONS WITH AUTHOR SUSAN VANDERBURG FENTIE<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SQ_YR6F27jI/AAAAAAAAARU/ZNmrb3I0xJM/s1600-h/don%27t+buy+that!.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264664291582602802" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 280px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SQ_YR6F27jI/AAAAAAAAARU/ZNmrb3I0xJM/s400/don%27t+buy+that!.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#339999;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#ff6666;">Susan Vanderburg-Fentie is the author of </span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#339999;"><span style="color:#99ff99;"><strong><span style="color:#ff6666;">Don't Buy THAT, You Clueless Wonder! How To Raise Your Man's Gift Giving IQ<br /></span></strong></span><span style="color:#66cccc;">The book is a gift-giving guide written to help communication between men and women. A Registered Nurse and co-founder of the <span style="color:#ff6666;">Ontario Autism Coalition</span>, Susan is a mother to four sons, two of whom have autism. Susan has several media credits too numerous to list here. Her more recent contributions as a TV Cogeco host, TVO producer and a research assistant for the movie Sicko show that Susan is a real dynamo! Susan is dedicated to bettering society in any way she can and believes that her sense of humour keeps her spirits alive! </span></span></div><div><span style="color:#66cccc;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;"></span></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#ff6666;">How would you describe your book?</span></strong></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#99ff99;"><span style="color:#ff6666;">Don’t Buy That, You Clueless Wonder! How to Raise Your Man’s Gift Giving IQ</span> <span style="color:#66cccc;">is a practical yet entertaining handbook for men and women alike. Ladies can identify with the gift giving horror stories and guys can hone their gift giving abilities by utilizing the helpful how-to tips. You’ll laugh, cringe, and rejoice at the examples and information in this handy and humorous read.</span></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#99ff99;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#339999;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#ff6666;">What inspired you to write about the gift-giving dilemma?</span></strong> </span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">I received a gag gift one Christmas. I’m a nurse and all I wanted was a plain gold wedding band to wear at work so my diamonds wouldn’t get wrecked. Instead, I got a $400 snowmobile helmet. It was addressed to me but clearly meant for him! He thought it would be funny. It wasn’t. I never did get that gold band, either!</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#99ff99;"></span></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#ff6666;">How long did it take to research and write the book?</span></strong></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">It took almost four years. I was on-call for work and was in the staff lounge at the hospital. I got a pen and paper, and the book was born! I came up with the title that night and it stuck. I’ve been working at it diligently in the middle of a life with four sons. Finally, I get to see it in print!</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#ff6666;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>How did you go about getting published?</strong> </span></span></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">I have a literary agent in Toronto, and after much discussion, I decided to self-publish this book. My publishing company is <span style="color:#ff6666;">Puzzle Piece Publications</span> and I look forward to this being the first of many books to be published by them. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#339999;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#ff6666;">What kind of feedback have you received surrounding your book’s topic?</span></strong> </span></span></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">Every person I’ve discussed the book with, both male and female, thinks it’s a great idea. When I conducted my research, even perfect strangers had the same reaction. Women say, “It’s about time!” while a lot of men say, “I could use a book like that.” There’s really something for everyone in it. Many people will see themselves in the book. It’s intended to help both genders.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#339999;"></span></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#ff6666;">What advice would you give a woman who knows she has a clueless wonder for a mate?</span></strong></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">Well, my first piece of advice is to buy my book! I have many tips on how to get through to a clueless wonder. While the stories are constructed with humor, there are some constructive tips to use as a way of getting the message across. I’ve also included examples of rather dastardly deeds that have been utilized, complete with a disclaimer. Truly, women can be very resourceful.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#99ff99;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#339999;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#ff6666;">What advice do you have for a man who thinks he might be a clueless wonder?</span></strong> </span></span></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">Did I mention I know of a great book about shopping for women? The book has a chapter that speaks straight to the men. It’s the straight-to-the-point tips they’re looking for in order to be a success. There are stories about the guys who get it right, so they can also learn by example. My friend has already transformed from a clueless wonder to a genuine gift guru after adhering to the advice in my book. He’s reported tremendous success with his last gift purchase for his girlfriend. That’s why I wrote this book in the first place. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#339999;"></span></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#ff6666;">Where will the book be available for purchase? </span></strong></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">It will be in stores throughout southwestern Ontario this holiday season, as well as some retailers and boutiques in the GTA. Check your local bookstores, or visit my website </span><a href="http://www.help4cluelesswonders.com/" target="_new"><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#ff6666;">www.help4cluelesswonders.com</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;"> to order a copy today. It’s out just in time for the holidays, too. Ladies, I suggest you buy the book and then pass it along to your mate. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#339999;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#ff6666;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>What are your plans for the future?</strong> </span></span></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">I plan to continue to research and write about the male/female shopping dynamic and I’m eager for feedback from readers. They can visit my website and share their views and comments about the book. I’m also working with a couple of TV producers out of Toronto to produce a reality show version of the book, so be sure to keep a lookout for that.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#339999;"></span></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#ff6666;">Do you have any final words for those who might feel it’s just a hopeless situation?</span></strong></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;">I want people to know that it’s not hopeless if you can’t seem to get on the same page with your partner about gift giving. I saw very common themes in the way that men and women go about gift giving and purchasing, which is why I put all the information into a handy guide. It has tools to help and is presented in a really fun medium. Also, lame gifts aren’t an indication that men don’t care. They do care but they’re just “clueless wonders!” Help has arrived in the form of my book so you don’t have to suffer needlessly.<br /></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-27324589500862702762008-09-30T17:36:00.000-07:002009-02-26T12:12:00.697-08:00Libby Znaimer: From Broadcaster to Bosom Buddy<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SQqMKjbD4UI/AAAAAAAAARM/2XR0YTYcu7Q/s1600-h/Libby+Znaimer+book.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5263173227471167810" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 131px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SQqMKjbD4UI/AAAAAAAAARM/2XR0YTYcu7Q/s400/Libby+Znaimer+book.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color:#ff99ff;"></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color:#ffcccc;">The C-Words<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#66cccc;">First you dread to hear the word</span> </span><span style="color:#ffcccc;">CANCER</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color:#66cccc;"></span></span></div><div><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-size:130%;">and then you wait to hear the word</span> <span style="color:#ffcccc;">CURE<br /></span><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><strong>Libby Znaimer's </strong>book<strong> <span style="color:#ffcccc;">In Cancerland: Living Well Is the Best Revenge</span></strong></em>, is the author and journalist's candid account of her experience with breast cancer. The accomplished Canadian media personality doesn’t like to refer to her treatments as breast cancer battles nor does she want to be viewed as a survivor. These words are too politically correct for her and they don’t seem to ring true for her own breast cancer experience. There’s the word, experience. Znaimer tells the reader about the two C-words that changed her life forever. First she dreaded the word CANCER and then she waited to hear the word CURE. Znaimer reflects on the fateful night, “the discovery of the lump that night started a chain of events that overtook my life.” The breast cancer diagnosis, surgery, genetic testing and treatment decisions left Znaimer feeling as if she was Cancergirl visiting Cancerland. The cancer experience was somewhat of an out of body experience for the typically healthy, physically fit, self-proclaimed party girl. During her treatment, Znaimer wrote a column about her cancer experience for the National Post and eventually decided to write a book. Znaimer approached her surgery and doctor visits with her journalistic skills; researching, asking questions, and journaling. The author shares her story as if she’s speaking to a good friend, a bosom buddy if you will! She writes with a good mixture of medical information, personal candour and yes, humour, but just enough to break the tension. Znaimer speaks about the women she met who shared her experience, </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;"></span><br /><span style="color:#ffcccc;"><span style="font-size:180%;">“The breast cancer sisterhood makes for fast friendships, even though it’s a club no one wants to join.”<br /></span><br /></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Znaimer reveals in detail what frightened her and what reassured her during her cancer experience. Each chapter deals with a subject that can be affected by the breast cancer diagnosis. She weighs in on family, friends, career, couple hood and self esteem, just to list a few. Znaimer’s mother had a mastectomy and died later in life from ovarian cancer. She regrets being a bit cavalier about her testing regime and waiting for her family doctor’s referral to a high risk breast screening program. Znaimer notes that her navigation through the health care system was haphazard but she’s also grateful for the socialized system. The spirited Znaimer serves up words of warning to women about being vigilant; keeping to a mammogram schedule and adhering to extra breast screening monitoring where recommended.<br /><br />After her lumpectomy, a positive genetic test for the BRCA-2 mutation, chemotherapy, radiation and a prophylactic removal of her ovaries, Znaimer remains optimistic about her prognosis and looks forward to the possibility of breast reconstructive surgery. She’s been through her fair share of trials and tribulations but considers herself lucky! Determined to live her life as normal as possible Znaimer feels as if she’s gained “a new zest for life” to go along with her new hairstyle and color.<br /><br />My mother is nearing her 20th year as a breast cancer survivor. At the early age of 47 she was diagnosed with cancer after her first routine mammogram. I'm 42 and anxiety doesn’t even begin to describe my feelings about my ever present threat. My mother insists that I “need to get a grip, just live your life and stop worrying so much!” Libby Znaimer sums up her attitude toward her “new normal” life by stating the old adage that “living well is the best revenge.” </span></span></div><div><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Something to think about...<br /><br />Wanda Lynne Young</span></span></div><div><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></div><div><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /><br /></div></span></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-86559719855123350992008-08-14T18:48:00.000-07:002009-02-26T12:16:05.101-08:00From Oprah To Chopra<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/Sab4ctzEIjI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/04Cq1tk2KPI/s1600-h/why+is+god+laughing.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307202383116509746" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/Sab4ctzEIjI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/04Cq1tk2KPI/s400/why+is+god+laughing.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="color:#ff9966;"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#66cccc;"><strong>Self-Help On The Shelves</strong></span> </span></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ff9966;">If you’ve visited a book store lately and tried to navigate your way through the self-help isles then you might feel the need to take a meditation break from the dizzying number of categories and subject matter available to choose from. You can find anything from daily affirmations to the kama sutra to help spice up your sex life!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ff9966;">If you like to follow along with popular culture then I’ve included a few<strong> <span style="color:#66cccc;">Oprah Book Club</span></strong> picks. I have to admit that <strong><span style="color:#66cccc;">Oprah</span> </strong>is the go-to -gal for guru interviews and good reads! Read on for a list of current, still relevant or soon to be released books in the self-help section. </span><br /><br /><br /><span style="color:#ff9966;"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#66cccc;">Eckhart Tolle’s <strong>A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose</strong></span> is a profound read that tells the reader how to shift consciousness and deal with power of the ego. If you got anything out of The Secret then you might enjoy this book but you do need to be in the right frame of mind to let the ideas sink in and be open to the messages. Eckhart tells the reader up front “this book is about you” so you need to be ready for self reflection.</span></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="color:#ff9966;"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#66cccc;">Mitch Albom’s <strong>book For One More Day</strong></span> is a story about second chances and the importance of family. After his mother’s death the main character Charley goes through a period of drinking and depression. His family is torn apart and he eventually commits suicide. Charley goes through a “rebirth” and gets a chance to spend a day with his mother. He gets to ask her questions, tell her how he feels and have the much needed closure that he longed for since her passing. If you recently lost a loved one or just want to have a good cry then this book is for you.</span></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="color:#ff9966;"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#66cccc;"><strong>The Last Lecture</strong> by Randy Pausch</span> is the inspirational true story told by the terminally ill professor and author. The book is especially poignant in lieu of his recent death. Through his stories and memories the author leads the reader to question his or her legacy asking what life lessons would you have to hand down to your children? Living life to the fullest and appreciating the little things in life is the author’s perspective and recommendation. </span></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ff9966;">If you are a fan of the popular <strong><span style="color:#66cccc;">Chicken Soup For the Soul</span></strong> series of books then you would be pleased to know about this month’s release of <span style="color:#66cccc;"><strong>Woman To Woman: Women Sharing Their Stories Of Hope, Humor, and Inspiration </strong>by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen</span>. This collection promises to be full of inspiring stories, advice and tips for women. The strength of the book is women supporting each other through sharing. The book is full of laughs and tears and sure to be a good bedtime read. </span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ff9966;">If you are looking for a book with a more of psychological slant then <span style="color:#66cccc;"><strong>What Happy Women Know: How New Findings In Positive Psychology Can Change Women’s Lives For The Better</strong> by Dan Barker PhD. and Cathy Greenberg PhD</span>. might be more your cup of tea. Happiness is the goal in this book and it concentrates on using the newest research and discoveries in psychology, stressing that women’s brains are wired to “feel more” so to speak. The focus is for women to draw on their own strengths to take control, avoid the self sabotaging traps and ultimately achieve a healthier and happier life.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ff9966;">In the book<span style="color:#66cccc;"> <strong>Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World</strong> written by Craig Kielburger and Marc Kielburger</span>, the Toronto brothers try to motivate the reader to live a less materialistic life. They give practical advice on how to change the world around you and live a communal life. Their message is self-help through helping others. The Kielburger brothers share a great philosophy and their outlook can be an eye opener. </span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ff9966;">If you like the writings of <strong><span style="color:#66cccc;">Deepak Chopra</span></strong> then I can suggest his new book <strong><span style="color:#66cccc;">Why Is God Laughing? The Path to Joy and Spiritual Optimism</span></strong>. The fictional tale of a comedian on the road to recovery appears to be loosely based on Canadian comedian <span style="color:#66cccc;"><strong>Mike Myers</strong></span>. You can read it just for the laughs or look for the deeper meaning in the story. This book is a good mixture of both entertainment and enlightenment.</span><br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;">There is one thing that all these books have in common. Either the book or the author has been endorsed in some way by <strong><span style="color:#66cccc;">Oprah</span></strong>. The mighty Oprah might just be the Dalai Lama of pop culture!<br /></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-37554275371866337582008-07-18T08:36:00.000-07:002009-04-07T08:25:54.891-07:00LIES, LOSS AND LESSONS IN LOVE<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SIC5mSsqDvI/AAAAAAAAAPY/TzebkZs0lwU/s1600-h/At+A+Loss+For+Words+cover.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; DISPLAY: block; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224379635255086834" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SIC5mSsqDvI/AAAAAAAAAPY/TzebkZs0lwU/s400/At+A+Loss+For+Words+cover.jpg" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;">Have you ever overanalyzed a relationship after a breakup? Have you watched in dismay as a girlfriend pines over a guy who’s not worth her time? Well then, read on for a glimpse into what I would call “the eternal sunshine of the lovelorn mind.” </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;"></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#ff9966;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Diane Schoemperlen’s<span style="font-size:180%;color:#00cccc;"> At A Loss For Words</span> is a love story told in a cathartic manner through a candid character. It’s a first-hand account of a woman addicted to being in love. All the love cliches apply here; “Love is blind,” “Love conquers all” and “It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,” just to name a few. The novel is very readable with its “he said, she said” back and forth banter between unnamed characters. “She” is a well-known author who rekindles a romance when “he” comes back after a 30-year gap. The reunited couple carries on a long-distance relationship that serves as a distraction and catalyst for her writer’s block. She uses horoscopes, crossword puzzles and writing exercises to help find a cure for the common literary euphemism. In an attempt to keep the relationship alive, the couple tries to communicate through e-mails and phone calls. Things start off hot and heavy (literally and figuratively) but soon Jack and Jill roll down heartache hill. His sketchy contributions turn oblique, ambiguous and passive-aggressive in nature. Her frequent e-mails come off as desperate, needy and pathetic. He says their relationship is “a work in progress.” She says it’s too much work and not enough progress and sums it all up when she writes, “I am thinking about how often I hated myself for loving you. I am thinking about how it proved to be a very short leap from thinking I am crazy about you, to thinking I am just plain crazy.” In her lovesick angst, she realizes that he is stringing her along and letting their relationship die a slow death. The mementoes from the misbegotten romance just become detritus reminders of failure. As the relationship ends, she talks about the D’s: despair, despondant, desolation, desperation and depression. Don’t get me wrong; it’s not all depression talk, there’s plenty of witty thoughts and insights to keep the reader laughing whether it’s at the character or your own “been there, done that” recognition. The not-so-surprising ending adds to the theme about lessons in love that serves as a warning to women everywhere. <em>Something to think about.</em></span></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-58867399621451281462008-05-26T09:42:00.000-07:002009-06-27T10:24:34.893-07:00Summer Suggestions: Current Books<span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;"></span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SDrpwjH0n2I/AAAAAAAAAOY/AU5gqFXLtB4/s1600-h/remember+me.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; DISPLAY: block; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5204729339651071842" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SDrpwjH0n2I/AAAAAAAAAOY/AU5gqFXLtB4/s320/remember+me.jpg" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;">If you're looking forward to delving into a few good books this summer and eager for reading suggestions then look no further! You might want to pick up a book that's fresh off the presses or get into one of the tried and true classic books on the proverbial must-read list.</span></div><br /><div><br /><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#99ff99;">CURRENT BOOKS </span></strong></div><br /><div><span style="color:#00cccc;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;">REMEMBER ME by Sophie <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Kinsella</span></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;">The author of the Shopaholic series of books takes the reader on Lexi <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Smart's</span> intriguing tour to retrieve her memory. She awakes in a hospital bed after a car accident but the kicker is she's missing three years of her life. The story is an adventure filled with schemes and secrets, hilarity and hope.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;">CHANGE OF HEART by Jodi <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">Picoult</span></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;">The critically acclaimed author writes a dynamic novel about justice, retribution and salvation. June Nealon has an empty heart after the tragic loss of her daughter. Shay <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bourne</span> has lost his reason to live but finds truth and connection in an unlikely situation. The story addresses the literal and metaphorical meaning of having a heart.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;">THE THIRD ANGEL by Alice Hoffman</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;">The author's novel Here On Earth has the distinction of being on the Oprah Book Club list. In The Third Angel the reader is introduced to women with the common bond of being in love with the wrong man. Madeleine is headstrong and in love with her sister's fiance. Freida is a free spirit who vies for the attention of a rock star. Bryn is torn between her fiance and her ex-husband. At the heart of the story is the tragic character Lucy who is looking for the third angel to help renew her faith. The novel is a testament to the griping nature of love. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;">HELPLESS by Barbara <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">Gowdy</span> </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;">Bestselling author Barbara <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">Gowdy</span> writes a story about obsessive love. It's not a romance novel but rather a troubling tale. Celia is a single mother to nine year old Rachael who goes missing during a blackout. Stricken with guilt and terror, Celia's worst nightmares come true in the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-error">form of</span> a misguided abductor. Suspenseful and provocative, the novel takes the reader down an uncomfortable path into a disturbing world. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;">CERTAIN GIRLS by Jennifer <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-error">Weiner</span></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;">A sequel to Good In Bed, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">Weiner's</span> Certain Girls takes up where heroine <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-error">Cannine</span> Shapiro started her new life. Content in her happily ever after life <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" class="blsp-spelling-error">Cannine's</span> world is shook when her daughter Joy discovers her novel. Joy begins to question everything about her family and herself. The novel is about lies, loss and love in a family that just wants to be happy. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;">SUNDAY AT TIFFANY'S by James Patterson</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;">Jane is a lonely girl who wishes her busy mother had more time for her. She has a friend named Michael. He's a funny, handsome and comforting man. If that's not unusual enough there's also the twist that only Jane can see him. Later in her thirties Jane becomes reacquainted with Michael but for reasons unknown to her. Sunday At Tiffany's is a novel about the power of love and the child inside of us. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;">A NOVEL ABOUT MY WIFE by Emily Perkins</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;">Tom Stone is madly in love with his wife Ann but she's a mystery to him. He wants to understand her; get into her head. The couple has a complicated and emotional relationship as they deal with their new home and a new pregnancy. The novel explores the meaning behind the term "love makes you blind" as Tom discovers his wife's darker side.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#00cccc;"></span><span style="color:#ff9966;">LOVING FRANK: A NOVEL by Nancy <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_11" class="blsp-spelling-error">Horan</span></span></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#00cccc;">A mixture of fact and fiction, the author tells the tale of the clandestine love affair between <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_12" class="blsp-spelling-error">Mamah</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_13" class="blsp-spelling-error">Borthwick</span> Cheney and the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Cheney narrates her personal struggle between her responsibilities and her desires. Cheney's influence on the greatest American architect of his time is given it's full weight despite the scandal <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_14" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">they're</span> involvement brought to Chicago's society. A fascinating and provocative read with a stunning conclusion.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-62900231354612205332008-05-23T05:58:00.000-07:002008-07-18T08:59:32.530-07:00Summer Suggestions: Classic Books<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SDrqwTH0n3I/AAAAAAAAAOg/2rbBoUacDJo/s1600-h/Anna+Karenina.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5204730434867732338" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/SDrqwTH0n3I/AAAAAAAAAOg/2rbBoUacDJo/s320/Anna+Karenina.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#66cccc;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#336666;"><br /></span><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#99ff99;">CLASSIC BOOKS</span></strong></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#99ff99;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ff9966;">THE HANDMAIDS TALE by Margaret Atwood</span><br /><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">In this futuristic science fiction novel Atwood writes about sex slavery in the former United States. The heroine Offred recalls a different time when her life was her own. Now she is only viable as long as she can produce children. The novel inspired a movie which shocked society as much as the novel.</span><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#336666;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;">TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ff9966;"><br /></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">An instant best seller set inthe Depression era's American South, To Kill A Mockingbird continues to be an all-time favorite. The story is told through the eyes of eight year old Scout Finch. The author gets to the root of human behavior dealing with issue of race and class and tackles views on humanity, dignity, justice and freedom.</span><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ff9966;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens</span><br /></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">Set in London during the American revolution and Paris during the French Revoution, A Tale Of Two Cities takes the reader back to a time when spies were thought to be everywhere. Considered a classic and brimming with quotable lines such as "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Dickens' novel captures the readers attention from start to finish. </span><br /><br /></span><span style="color:#ff9966;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy</span><br /></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">A passionate but misguided love affair introduces issues of morality. The author own soul-searching journey asks many questions but leaves it open for the reader to interpret and answer. Still relevant in today's world, this intrguing novel still stands the test of time. </span><br /><br /></span><span style="color:#ff9966;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">THE LIVES OF GIRLS AND WOMEN by Alice Munro</span><br /></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">A coming-of-age story traces Del Jordan from awkward adolescence to wanton womanhood. Vivid and touching in it's details the highly acclaimed novel is a must read for every woman. It's well worth reading any books written by Alice Munro since they're sure not to disappoint. </span><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ff9966;">The Complete Novels Of Jane Austen</span><br /><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">If you're drawn to romances then this author will get you swooning. While away the summer days with the complete collection of Jane Austen's novels Sense and Sensibility, Pride And Prejudice, Emma, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey and Lady Susan. Connversation driven and full of dialogue suited to a play, several of Austen's novels have been made into movies which are worth watching as well.</span><br /></span><br /><span style="color:#ff9966;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell</span><br /></span><span style="color:#66cccc;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">A satirical political allegory about the uprising of mistreated farm animals. The animals take over the farm in a revolution toward justice and equality. All goes well until the pigs gets out of hand. The quote "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" rings true for this novel. </span><br /><br /></span><span style="color:#ff9966;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald</span><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#336666;"><span style="color:#66cccc;">A novel set in the Jazz Age wrought with excess and greed. Jay Gatsby has money and all it can buy but he's not satisfied. What he really wants is Daisy but she's married to Tom. The story is a testament to Fitzgerald's generation but also a timeless cautionary tale about the pursuit of the American Dream.<br /><br /><br /></span><br /></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-91035876241750280412008-02-04T11:16:00.000-08:002009-03-01T11:06:47.276-08:00The Mother Loade<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/R8MuZn0mMQI/AAAAAAAAAIY/20FwzsOst8g/s1600-h/the+bad+mother%27s+handbook.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5171027814872658178" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/R8MuZn0mMQI/AAAAAAAAAIY/20FwzsOst8g/s400/the+bad+mother%27s+handbook.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ffcccc;">“The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent.” </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ffcc99;"><span style="color:#ffcccc;">Erich Fromm</span> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ffcc99;"><span style="color:#ffcccc;">Kate Long’s novel</span> <span style="color:#ffcccc;">The Bad Mother’s Handbook</span>, introduces three generations of women trying to exist in the same household. Set in working class England, the novel presents three distinct women’s voices. The family dynamics are both entertaining and heartbreaking. With cramped quarters and one bathroom, the three women find themselves butting heads on a regular basis.<br />We meet Karen at age 33 as a divorced teaching assistant. She finds herself sandwiched as a caregiver to her mother and a battleaxe to her pregnant teenage daughter. Karen’s mother, known as Nan, is an 81 year old widow prone to bouts of senility and lucidity. She hides food, steals the mail and supplies a good amount of the comic relief. Nan’s childhood flashbacks serve to both fill in the family’s history blanks and cement the bonds between the three women. Karen’s daughter, Charlotte is an intelligent 17 year old who is desperately trying to find her place in the world. Her mother tells her, “You spend too much time in your own head”. Feeling neglected and bored, Charlotte becomes easily distracted by boys and the party scene. In an awful twist of fate both mother and daughter find out they both dated the same man. Both mother and daughter find themselves stubbornly closed off from each other, all the while wishing for a stronger relationship. When Charlotte finds herself heartbroken and pregnant, the tension between mother and daughter grows even more strained. When Karen tells her she’s not fit to be a mother, Charlotte yells, “At least I won’t try and make it responsible for my own shortcomings!” Karen sees her daughter’s potential and future as “squashed dreams”. Karen sees Charlotte repeating her own history of teen pregnancy. Nan’s enthusiasm toward the upcoming birth makes Karen grow even more frustrated as she feels her control slipping away.<br />To add to the household upheaval, both daughter and mother find out that Nan has been keeping an adoption secret. This revelation poses several challenges for the women as they search for Karen’s birth mother and their own identities. With feelings of regret and resentment, Karen questions her loyalty and ability to be both a dutiful daughter and a decent mother. Karen acknowledges her shortcomings and jokes to herself that she must be taking notes from the imaginary “Bad Mother’s Handbook”.<br />Long’s novel is mainly about the mother-daughter relationships but there are good male characters namely Karen’s ex-husband Steve and Charlotte’s boyfriend Daniel. The author manages to write a story that is both heart wrenching and humorous; a story about drifting apart and coming back again. A “robin hood” good read with plenty of cockney slang; you can hear the accents that go with the dialect.<br />Mother’s really only want what’s best for their children. Karen’s wish was for her daughter to learn from her mistakes. Karen later apologizes to Charlotte, “I’ve been rotten to you over this pregnancy. I only wanted you to have a happy life.” Truth be told, mothers can’t prevent their children from making their own mistakes. As they make their way in the world it can be hard to just stand by and not interfere. The key to a good mother-daughter relationship is to be supportive and try not to judge your daughter as a reflection of yourself.<br />Something to think about...</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ffcc99;">Wanda Lynne Young<br /></span></span></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-45624614608550831442008-01-29T13:40:00.000-08:002008-09-23T19:57:37.199-07:00Inheriting the Holocaust<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/R5-eAMpvkKI/AAAAAAAAAGU/Y7n3rg3OPwE/s1600-h/Book+Pic+Four+Girls+From+Berlin.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5161017424223375522" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/R5-eAMpvkKI/AAAAAAAAAGU/Y7n3rg3OPwE/s400/Book+Pic+Four+Girls+From+Berlin.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#99ff99;"><span style="font-size:130%;">National Memorial Holocaust Day falls on April 30th this year. I thought it befitting to review a book selection keeping this topic in mind. In Marianne Meyerhoff’s book <span style="color:#ff9966;">Four Girls From Berlin: A True Story of a Friendship That Defied the Holocaust</span> the author writes a stirring memoir of her mother and her three friends growing up in Nazi ruled Berlin. Marianne’s mother Charlotte (Lotte) is Jewish and her friends, Ursula, Ilonka and Erica are Christians.<br />Meyerhoff was born in America and grew up in Los Angeles with her mother Lotte as her sole family connection. Lotte the only person in her family to escape Hitler’s grasp. Marianne’s father survived as well but remarried after the war. He was not a significant presence in her life. Lotte was a proud American who maintained that she never wished to return to the homeland that rejected her. Traumatized by her past, Lotte was silent about the details of her early life in Berlin. Meyerhoff writes, “The lips of people whom war afflicts so often remained silent...”<br />Meyerhoff has always had an insatiable drive and determination to connect with her past. She wanted answers and details. She was compelled to fill in the gaps of her family history and strived to collect every bit of knowledge about her Jewish heritage. Meyerhoff muses, “What sort of future could I have with no sense of the past?” She managed to draw out some names from her mother but none of their stories. Then there was a break in the silence. There was an awakening for Lotte and Marianne when a box arrives from Berlin. The box contained a cache of family treasures. Lotte’s friends had risked their lives to collect and hide her family keepsakes. The box of mementoes fuelled Marianne’s curiosity. As a young woman, Meyerhoff eventually travels to Berlin and re-connects with her mother’s friends and their families. She gains insight about her own family history and finds herself adopting them as her own extended family.<br />The book is presented like a journal and a scrapbook all in one. It includes photos of family, friends and scenic locations like the Black Forest along with documents, letters and heirlooms. The author’s detailed dialogue scream out for a movie script which is no surprise since Meyerhoff also dons hats as both a director and producer for television and cinema. Meyerhoff’s research called her to become involved as an interviewer for Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust oral history project called Survivors of the Shoah.<br />The author’s family history is a story of persistent human spirit and enduring friendship triumphing in the wake of tragedy. The friendship between the four heroines withstood the tests of time, distance and the horrors of humanity. Meyerhoff writes her story as a plea for the victims of the Holocaust. The author sounds off about dwelling on guilt, giving forgiveness and the need for catharsis but stresses more the importance of acknowledgement and remembrance. All of humanity is responsible for the Holocaust. It’s a world of shame indeed. The children of Holocaust survivors have inherited both the history of the Holocaust atrocities and the legacy of silence. The author exclaims that we need to “break the silence with which history cloaks it’s violence.” If we fail to speak, teach and learn about this epochal dark period of “humanity” then the silence will continue from generation to generation. This reminds me of the popular quote from the philosopher George Santayana states “those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it.”<br /><em>Something to think about...</em></span></span></div><div><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#99ff99;"></span></em></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#99ff99;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#99ff99;">Wanda Lynne Young</span></div><div></div><div></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#99ff99;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Inheriting The Holocaust</strong> was published in the April '08 issue of <strong>Real Women Magazine</strong> in the <strong>Reader's Corner</strong> column. </span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38895102.post-38147752071177008272008-01-11T12:35:00.000-08:002008-09-23T20:01:04.432-07:00Tête-à-tête<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/R4fUaGmeFrI/AAAAAAAAAF0/T4P6b4Jh8WM/s1600-h/The+Girls.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5154321843462477490" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8nusDncOXro/R4fUaGmeFrI/AAAAAAAAAF0/T4P6b4Jh8WM/s400/The+Girls.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#ff9966;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><strong>Imagine having a twin sister. Now, imagine having a conjoined twin sister, a craniopagus conjoined twin sister at that!<br /><br /></strong></em>In the fictitious novel<span style="color:#33ff33;"> </span><span style="color:#66cccc;">The Girls</span> author Lori Lansens introduces sisters, Rose and Ruby Darlen. Set in rural, southern Ontario, the girls are born in 1974 during a destructive tornado. Their unwed teen aged birth mother was passing through their town and eventually fled after giving birth to them. The sisters have separate bodies and minds, save for a bonding of their heads. After their whirlwind entrance into the world, Rose and Ruby are raised on a farm by Aunt Lovey, the nurse who attended their birth, and her husband Uncle Stash. The conjoined sisters or "the girls" as they are called, share an extraordinary but surprisingly ordinary life.<br /><br />Lansen's intuition and imagination help her portray a sensitive account of the girls' shared life experience. The author tells each sister's story as a narrative memoir. The reader alternates from chapter to chapter, bouncing back and forth between both sets of eyes just like the way people look and stare at them. Rose is the writer and the avid sports fan. Ruby is the collector of native artifact. Rose is strong and carries the weight (literally) of Ruby, the sickly sister. Their personalities are very different which lead to conflicts and pinching episodes. Even with their different perspectives and distinct voices, the pair of inseparable sisters love, respect and support each other. They have jobs, experience love and sex, oh yes, and they live relatively normal existences despite their situation as they call it. At the age of 29, they get the distinct notoriety of being the oldest living craniopagus twins in history. The sisters struggle with their declining health and their impending demise as they race the clock to finish writing their book "Autobiography Of A Conjoined Twin" Rose hopes to make it to the ripe old age of 30 and Ruby attempts to plan a surprise birthday party for her sister. The lives of Rose and Ruby might make the reader rethink what it means to be independent, brave and strong. The girls are true survivors and heroines, determined to live life to it's fullest and not as sideshow freaks mind you! Rose muses, "There has never been a possibility of my being separated from Ruby. We have know it could not be, and declared that ever if we could, we wouldn't."<br /><br />The author has strong empathy for her characters as she describes their lives, family, friends and neighbours. The characters are well developed and very believable. As a point of special interest, the author was born and raised in Chatham and also wrote the critically aclaimed novel Rush Home Road. She slips in the local charm and references locations and landmarks from her "neck of the woods". As I was reading, I just kept thinking that there's so many layers to Lansen's writing. Chronologically speaking, there's a bit more jumping around than I would have liked to have experienced, a sort of reading turbulance, but nonetheless a worthwhile read. Touching and hilarious at times, The Girls is like a rare flower or gem to be cherished and admired just like Rose and Ruby. Their connection isn't purely of a physical nature but a deeper, entwined meshing of their souls. How fortunate it would be to share such a bond! Whether a life is considered ordinary or extraordinary, just being human is our shared experience and we're all connected in some way afterall.<br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#ff9966;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>Something to think about... </em></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="color:#ff9966;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><br /></em></span></span></span><em><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;">Wanda Lynne Young</span></em><br /><div><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;"></span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;"></span></em></div><div><em><span style="color:#ff9966;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Tête-à-tête</strong> will be published in the March '08 issue of <strong>Real Women Magazine</strong> in the <strong>Reader's Corner</strong> column.</span></span></div></em><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/</div>Wanda Lynne Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743462654608113041noreply@blogger.com0