Posted in Guest Post, Inspirational, nonfiction on April 13, 2021

 

 

Synopsis

 

Life hit Pat and Tammy McLeod hard when their son Zach collapsed on a high school football field; he had sustained a severe brain injury. Facing the devastating possibility that things would never be the same for their beloved son, they committed to staying strong as a family and finding a way to maintain their footing. But the journey would reshape their faith, their family, and their future in ways they never saw coming.

What would it take for them to navigate the endless fallout of their son’s life-transforming injury? How could they reconcile their grief over the life Zach lost, with gratitude for the life that remained? And how does a couple move forward together in their search for hope, rather than letting indefinable loss drive them apart?

Hit Hard is the true story of the McLeods’ journey through ambiguous loss–both having and not having their son. It’s the story of a family who faced unexpected heartbreak, a story that offers us all glimpses of how we can pick up the pieces, redefine expectations, and trust God for hope in the midst of unresolved pain.

 

 

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Praise

 

“Clarity. That is what this book brings to those searching for meaning in the midst of loss and suffering, or for those who feel caught up in a story that has no last chapter.” – Bob Swenson, ex All-Pro linebacker, Denver Broncos; founder of the Freedom 58 Project

“This book is riveting. I could not put it down. Pat and Tammy McLeod share their story of being “hit hard” by their eldest son’s head injury in a high school football game. With twists and turns, their story moves from sadness to joy and back again, but always informs and provides hope. While this book is about a child who is brain injured, it will be helpful for anyone coping with losses of any kind. The awful challenge is to embrace change–especially a change we loathe. In Hit Hard, the McLeods share their journey of how, with faith and dignity, they are coping with loss. I recommend this book not only for professionals but also for those who want to learn how to live with loss of any kind, clear or ambiguous.” – Dr. Pauline Boss, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota; author of Ambiguous Loss and other books

“A stirring and inspiring story about loss, grief, love, and faith. Pat and Tammy McLeod have much to teach us all about the meaning of ambiguous loss–how they let go of the son they once knew and learned to embrace the son they have today.” – Ben Bradlee Jr., former Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe; author of The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams, and The Forgotten: How the People of One Pennsylvania County Elected Donald Trump and Changed America

“The McLeod family has been on a remarkable journey. By sharing the highs, the lows, and the unvarnished truth of their son Zachary’s serious brain injury, they invite us all to reflect on finding meaning in tragedy, coping with a new reality, and discovering the depth of a family’s love.” – Chris Nowinski, PhD, cofounder and CEO, Concussion Legacy Foundation; author of Head Games: The Global Concussion Crisis

“Spiritual, riveting, compassionate, loving, cathartic, and so much more. A must-read for every parent and parent-to-be.” – Dr. Robert C. Cantu, Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery and Neurology and Cofounder of the CTE Center, Boston University School of Medicine

 

 

Guest Post

 

Hit Hard: One Family’s Journey of Letting Go of What Was–and Learning to Live Well with What Is

 

by Tammy McLeod

 

I wrote Hit Hard seven years after my sixteen-year-old son suffered a traumatic brain injury playing football and became severely disabled for life. After a year of trying dozens of interventions, it was clear that Zach wasn’t going to have a full recovery. I started reading grief books, but they didn’t connect with me. My son didn’t die, but he wasn’t the same.

Meanwhile, the different ways that my husband and children dealt with our loss torqued the relationships within our family. I asked several colleagues and friends for recommendations for books that addressed the type of loss we were experiencing. Finding none, I finally called the librarian at Zach’s rehab hospital to see if he could recommend any books or resources for people dealing with our kind of loss.

The following day the librarian said that the name of the type of loss we were dealing with was ambiguous loss, and he sent two articles by Pauline Boss. I read them and ordered her book. When it arrived I devoured it; finally I felt understood.

At that time I was in graduate school working on a degree in spiritual formation. I decided to write a research paper on the topic. As I processed this research with one of my professors, she told me, “There is a book here.” She planted the seed.

I was compelled by two factors. First, I needed to figure this out for my own sanity and for the survival of our marriage and family. Second, I wanted to write the book that I wish someone could have given to me a year after Zach’s injury—a book that named the type of loss with which I was dealing, that validated my pain, and that helped me better navigate the ambiguity and stresses of this kind of loss.

The book never would have been written without the enthusiastic support of my professor. She offered to be my supervisor for two self-directed grad school courses. The writing assignment for the first course was the book proposal and the second course the first few chapters of the book. For another class assignment, my husband and I attended a writing conference where we pitched the book.

Interestingly, the agent who chose to represent us, the contact at the publishing house who bought the book, and the collaborative writer who got our book in its final form, all had their own personal experiences with ambiguous loss. We saw from the beginning how ubiquitous ambiguous loss is. People wanted to see the book become a reality because it addressed one of the greatest felt needs in their own lives—coping with an ambiguous loss.

Writing the book helped me process the pain of the loss. Through many tears I wrote scene after scene. Writing not only helped me to connect more deeply with my losses, but also helped me to see the good coming out of the tragedy.

Second, writing together helped Pat and I see more clearly why we were having conflict in ambiguous loss, and that led to the resolution of some of the conflict. Consequently, writing the book helped us grow closer in our marriage.

Writing also helped me find my voice in the chaos. We both wrote from our own perspective, and readers enjoyed seeing the ways two people looked at things differently and how our marriage survived.

We also had one of our young-adult sons read the first draft of our book and suggest edits. He encouraged us to be more authentic in our writing, and working together on the book drew us closer to him also.

When our publisher asked for a second draft with more transparency, it helped us be more honest about our emotions.

Last, writing the book helped me see that God could use the tragedy we went through to help others. Hearing people talk about how the book helped them was encouraging.

 

I hope:

 

that people feel validated in their ambiguous loss and are relieved to learn that their loss has a name.

that Hit Hard will stimulate readers to be gentle with themselves and their loved ones as they journey through the world of ambiguous loss.

that it will help repair marriages and other relationships that have been torqued by loss.

that readers are inspired by Zach’s life—one full of joy and still loving God and people though he has suffered much loss.

that readers learn to grieve their losses better.

that readers learn skills that help them become more resilient in ambiguous loss.

that readers come to know God for the first time, come back to God, or stay near God.

that readers find hope.

 

 

About the Authors

 

Pat and Tammy McLeod serve as Harvard Chaplains for Cru, an interdenominational Christian ministry. Tammy is also the Director of College Ministry at Park Street Church in Boston. She received her MA in Spiritual Formation from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Pat holds an MA in Theological Studies from the International School of Theology and an MA in Science & Religion and a Ph.D. in Practical Theology from Boston University. They are founding members of the Mamelodi Initiative in the township of Mamelodi, South Africa—a project that connects Harvard students with at-risk youth in a mentoring and educational program to prepare them for college. Pat and Tammy, certified instructors for Interpersonal Communication Programs, Inc., have been married for more than three decades and are parents to four grown children. They co-authored the book Hit Hard: One Family’s Journey of Letting Go of What Was and Learning to Live Well with What Is in which they share their journey into the world of ambiguous loss that began after their son suffered a traumatic brain injury playing football. Zach’s story received media coverage by ABC, NBC, CBS, and NPR. Recently they started COVID-19 Conversations on their website hoping to help others be resilient in ambiguous loss.

 

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Posted in Crime, Giveaway, nonfiction, Texas on March 22, 2021

 

 

AGGRAVATED

 

By Michael Sirois

 

 

Publisher: Truth Boots Publishing, LLC

Pages: 389 Pages

Pub Date: December 11th, 2020

Categories: True Crime / Criminal Procedural Law

 

 

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In 2006, the author’s brother, Steve Sirois, was sentenced to serve 35 years in a Texas prison for a horrendous crime, aggravated sexual assault of a child — a crime Steve swore he didn’t commit. After the conviction, Michael started helping Steve write his appeals, but what he saw in the trial transcripts made him question how a jury could have convicted his brother based on that testimony.

Steve’s accuser originally gave vague dates for the crime but soon abandoned those dates and even replaced the details of her claims with new ones. There was no forensic evidence, no DNA, no physical evidence of any kind: nothing but his accuser’s words. The author wondered if he could prove that her accusations were false. But how?

Using affidavits, court transcripts, and interviews, along with additional evidence from public information requests and other factual data, the book lays out a devastating portrait of an untruthful accuser, an overzealous prosecutor, a jury that made a deal to swap votes in order to gain a conviction, and the series of lies that led to that outcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Sirois was reading by the age of four and was writing quirky short stories by the third grade. In high school, he added acting to his bag of tricks. After graduating from the University of Houston, he taught writing, drama, and technology in the middle school trenches for two decades, but continued to act and write, placing well in competitions like the Writer’s Digest Short Story contest and the HBO Project Greenlight series. His first novel, The Jagged Man, was published in 2015, and a two-book series, If a Butterfly, is slated to be published in late-Spring 2021.

After running educational outreach programs at Rice University for seven years, he retired and lives with his wife, Minay, in Spring, Texas, where he is hard at work on a thriller, The Hawthorn’s Sting, and a mystery/thriller, Murder Between Friends, hoping to have a first draft of at least one of them by late-2021. Ideas for a few more are also floating around in that scary place called his brain. Stay tuned.

 

 

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Posted in excerpt, nonfiction, self help on March 6, 2021

 

 

Synopsis

 

Everyone longs to be understood in their essence. In “The Missing Element”, author Debra Silverman describes human nature in a compassionate and succinct way, and offers ways for us to get to know ourselves in depth with the wisdom of archetypes. The information in this book stands on the shoulders of our elders, who understood the four directions, the four elements, the four noble truths. Whatever pain you experience is specific to your personality type, based on the four elements. The ‘missing element’ is twofold: it refers to the Observer inside you – the part of you that can stand outside of judgment and see yourself with a more wise and compassionate approach – much like our elders did. And it also refers to the elements that make up your personality and more specifically, to the element which is your weakest. Your issues will repeat themselves again and again until you can see yourself and others from the compassionate vantage point that unites all of us. You will understand that your life and all its stories were designed by your soul to get your attention right now. It is inviting you to seek the wisdom of the ages to help you grow… that’s why you found this book at this moment in time!

 

 

 

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Praise

 

My good friend Debra has a remarkable talent, an ability to see the world the way you yourself see it, as if with your own eyes. This comes as a great relief to someone like myself, who had come to believe that having a singular vision was both a blessing and a curse. Suddenly you don’t feel so isolated, so freakish, so awkward. The important thing is this, she reminds you what fun it is to be you, the singular, freakish, awkward you, but she also reminds you of your potential, of your gifts to the world and your place in it, and that is friendship indeed.”—Sting

“I am honored to have shared my tale of fire in Debra’s book. She used my story to be an example that spirit can heal, that addiction can be overcome. Elemental wisdom is a powerful means to changing your life. Read on and find out which element you are and watch the wisdom unfold.”—Colette Baron-Reid, author of The Enchanted Map Oracle Cards

 

Excerpt

 

In this excerpt from her book The Missing Element: Inspiring Compassion for the Human Condition, author Debra Silverman explains what she is asking of the reader as they embark on a journey of self-discovery and growth.

 

Your Elemental Mission

 

I want to enroll you as an agent of change – and you’ll need two things. One is to become acquainted with the Four Elements as they exist inside you. The other is to cultivate the Observer’s position so that you can stand back and make change by altering the way you see and live your own story.

 

The Four Elements

 

  • WATER: For nine months we surrendered to the awesome feminine power of a womb filled with fluid. Herein lies the wisdom of silence and trust.
  • AIR: Air is everywhere – the universal source of breath and language. No one can live without breathing or communicating. Herein lies the wisdom of wonder and consciousness.
  • EARTH: The patience of a mountain, the generosity of a tree. Earth is the immovable rock, tirelessly waiting for our respect. Will we care for her? If we don’t, don’t worry: she will survive. We may not. Herein lies the wisdom of respect and balance.
  • FIRE: The heat of your heart and the fire of the sun drive your destiny each day. We cannot live without either. Herein lies the wisdom of accepting your mission with full conviction.

 

Learning to Change

 

Modern life is stalking us to change. With so many books being written about it spirituality has never been as popular and commonplace. As individuals and as a species we are growing. It’s an unfortunate truth that we learn the most through mistakes.

It is easy to judge humanity, our neighbors, our human nature, and our own idiosyncrasies. We have danced with evil, played with guns, tried to control and scare the Feminine into submission, and nearly destroyed the Earth. Evolution occurs by learning through our mistakes, and we have a long history of making mistakes: nuclear bombs, the holocaust, 9/11, countless wars, to mention only a few examples. Can we forgive human nature, the species, and its long path down evolution lane? Would I love to change the way we learn our lessons? You bet I would. Would I love to assist people to learn the easy way? Sure.

As a parent I want to offer a positive future to my kids. My work is meant to share what I have found that holds wisdom and hope. What I’m calling the Missing Element is twofold: 1) it is the Observer inside you – the part of you that can stand outside of judgment and see yourself with a more wise and compassionate approach – much like our elders did. And 2) the Missing Element also refers to the Elements that make up your personality and more specifically, the element, which is your weakest. Allow me to help you to see through the eyes of love. All is well, and we are exactly where the prophets of old predicted we would be – that we would reach a time when we had to get on our knees and return to basics. Water is wet, fire is hot, earth is heavy, and air is everywhere.

The Good News: You have the personal power to make a difference. The power to create change resides inside you. It’s so much simpler than you know. And it starts with you.

 

About the Author

 

Debra Silverman is the author of The Missing Element: Inspiring Compassion for the Human Condition. When Debra was just 20 years old, she met an astrologer who blew her mind and changed her world forever. She had officially been introduced to the world of Astrology. It was then that she realized the stars in her own world had aligned just right, and she had found her life’s purpose. Debra went on to deeply study the mind and body, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology & Dance from York University and a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University. Over the past 40 years of professional experience and private practice, she has specialized in helping thousands of individuals achieve emotional health and wisdom based on their unique personality and the four elements: water, air, earth, and fire. Her work with families, individuals, and couples has her standing out in a sea of therapists and coaches. She has taught at the internationally renowned Esalen Institute, and her work has taken her around the globe, practicing and lecturing in places like New York, Los Angeles, London, Vancouver, Seattle, and Boulder, Colorado.

 

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Posted in Book Blast, Giveaway, Motivational, nonfiction on March 5, 2021

 

 

Knock! Knock! Lessons Learned and Stories Shared

 

By Douglas Thompson

 

 

Categories: Nonfiction / Motivational Stories / Positivity/ Relationship Building / Integrity / Time Management / Entrepreneurship

Publisher: Lucid House Publishing

Date of Publication: January 8, 2021

 

Pages: 154

 

 

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Knock! Knock! is a fast-paced, fun-filled journey through the author’s career in sales that not only teaches you how to be better at selling but to also have a ton of fun while you are doing it.

Knock! Knock! invites you to join Doug on what salespeople call “a ride along,” which is where a senior salesperson shows a newbie the ropes. This book delivers a winning sales philosophy learned through years of experience and is illustrated by real-life stories that Doug shares — along with multiple Knock-Knock Moments (or lessons and revelations learned) that have fueled his career and that he believes will help yours.

Every one of us is in Sales. If you deal with people, you are in sales. Knock! Knock! teaches you how to get out of your Comfort Zone to believe in yourself and to believe in the product, services, or message you are trying to sell. But it also teaches you to have a great time while you are doing it.

 

 

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Douglas Thompson’s passion for improving the customer’s experience as well as the sales profession continues to drive him as he comes up with new ideas to answer this question: How can we make the sales process better? Starting out as an insurance agent going down the street selling accident insurance by knocking on doors, Doug quickly moved into the management side of the life and health insurance industry, hiring and training agents to be successful doing the same. His ability to build successful sales teams caught the eye of the corporate leadership of several major companies. Doug became the vice president of sales and marketing for Conseco and was recruited to do the same for Pacificare, UnitedHealthcare, American Republic, Tranzact, and Humana.

Currently, he is the marketing director for a large national insurance wholesaler that recruits and trains insurance agents and agencies in the senior marketplace across the country, and he continues to build his own general agency, which offers life and health products to the senior population. He is known nationally for his innovations in the sales industry and frequently speaks and trains on his favorite topic of sales.

Doug and his wife Shirley own a Bed & Breakfast in Jefferson Texas.

 

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Posted in 4 paws, Giveaway, memoir, nonfiction, Review on February 19, 2021

 

 

At Close Range: A Memoir of Tragedy and Advocacy

By Leesa Ross

 

Publisher: Texas Tech University Press

Pages: 192

Pub Date: April 15, 2020

Categories: Nonfiction / Memoir / Personal Transformation / Advocacy

 

 

 

 

Leesa Ross did not expect to write a book. Neither did she expect the tragedy that her family endured, a horrific and sudden death that led her to write At Close Range. Her debut memoir is the story of what happened after her son Jon died in a freak gun accident at a party. Ross unsparingly shares the complexities of grief as it ripples through the generations of her family, then chronicles how the loss of Jon has sparked a new life for her as a prominent advocate for gun safety.  Before the accident, Ross never had a motivation to consider the role that guns played in her life. Now, she revisits ways in which guns became a part of everyday life for her three sons and their friends.

 

Ross’s attitude towards guns is thorny. She has collectors and hunters in her family. To balance her advocacy, she joined both Moms Demand Action and the NRA. Through At Close Range, the national conversation about gun control plays out in one family’s catalyzing moment and its aftermath. However, At Close Range ultimately shows one mother’s effort to create meaning from tragedy and find a universally reasonable position and focal point: gun safety and responsible ownership.

 

 

 

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The role of guns in our society receives mixed thoughts. There are those that think they should be banned and there are those that believe in the right to bear arms. This memoir shows that there can be a balance between the two and it comes down to understanding the power that a gun can hold and being smart and safe using guns.

 

“I just didn’t believe bad things would happen to people like us, people in the bubble. I didn’t believe Jon would ever be in a room with an unsecured gun and not enough gun safety to survive.”

 

Leesa dealt with a tragedy that no parent should have to endure, the loss of a child through a gun accident. While the truth about what actually happened that night is still unknown due to mixed stories, the end result is the same, a young man lost his life and that impacted his family and friends. From the book, it seems to have affected Leesa the most, and perhaps that is because these are her words and only impressions of what her husband and sons might be feeling after the accident. Reading her words, I could feel her sorrow as she progressed through the stages of grief. What impressed me is that she didn’t try and cover up her own faults and admits to being selfish and feels guilty.

 

“After something tragic overwhelms your life, it takes a while to determine your guilt. I always look for my guilt when anything goes wrong. Those early days were too soon for me though. I wanted a label for what I believe even while my pain was still fresh.”

“I can’t fully explain why our marriage survived. I think it was because while I am selfish, Randy isn’t.”

 

The majority of this book is about their life as a family, the moves they made from Texas to North Carolina, and the fallout from Jon’s death. Leesa didn’t agree with the suicide listing on the death certificate and fought to have it changed, to no success. There are some strong facts that would make me question the diagnosis but no one seemed to think her ideas had merit. Her struggle to accept this shines throughout the book. During her period of grief, she realized there was more that she wanted to do but wasn’t quite sure where to start. She joined several organizations that sought to educate people on gun safety and how to secure them properly. One of those programs is Be Smart and Leesa was a speaker for this organization. Like any advocacy group, there are those that have extreme views on guns. The following came from a review of their book, but Leesa said it predicted what she was about to experience in her own efforts.

 

What I came to see is that Moms Demand Action, the leadership group for Be Smart, is an organization where volunteers “are expected to conform to a set of rigid and condescending rules, not ask too many questions or provide constructive criticisms.”

 

It was during her educational discussions that she realized how she wanted to focus her energies, and that was on older children that were outside what Be Smart targeted. I like that her presentations were about safety and how to ensure that people did not have to go through the pain of losing someone to a gun accident. She created six pillars to educate on gun safety and even created a pledge for young people to sign. She made an impact on those she spoke to and made a difference in their lives by reframing how they think about guns and their safety. I appreciate that she is not trying to stop people from owning guns, just to be safe around them and how they are handled, and for opening the door for parents to have conversations about gun safety with their children.

This book can be a hard one for some to read, especially if they lost someone due to a gun accident, but I think that most will be able to relate to Leesa and what she endured and how she processed her grief. It sends a strong message and the story is not prettied up to make everyone feel good because this is not a feel good story. But it is a story with a message that any reader should be able to obtain after reading this book.

We give the book 4 paws up and will send readers down the path and look at their own lives and what are they doing to educate on gun safety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leesa Ross is a debut author who’s transformed a tragedy into a mission for safety. After losing a son to a shooting accident, she formed Lock Arms for Life, an educational organization teaching gun safety. A Texas mother of three, she leads Lock Arms, sits on the board of Texas Gun Sense, and belongs to the NRA.

 

 

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2/16/21 Review Hall Ways Blog
2/16/21 Review Reading by Moonlight
2/17/21 BONUS Promo LSBBT Blog
2/17/21 Review Missus Gonzo
2/18/21 Review The Clueless Gent
2/18/21 Review The Plain-Spoken Pen
2/19/21 Review StoreyBook Reviews
2/20/21 Review Tangled in Text
2/21/21 Review Jennie Reads
2/22/21 Review Julia Picks 1
2/22/21 Review Book Fidelity
2/23/21 Review The Page Unbound
2/24/21 Review It’s Not All Gravy
2/24/21 Review The Adventures of a Travelers Wife
2/25/21 Review Chapter Break Book Blog
2/25/21 Review Forgotten Winds

Posted in 4 paws, Giveaway, nonfiction, Review on January 22, 2021

 

 

ELY AIR LINES

 

Select Stories from 10 Years

 

of a Weekly Column

 

Volumes 1 & 2

 

by

 

Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

 

 

Genre: Nonfiction

Categories: Short Stories / Short Stories / Aviation

Publisher: Paper Airplane Publishing, LLC

Date of Publication: January 29, 2020

Number of Pages: Volume 1:350, Volume 2: 330 pages

 

 

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Buckle up and fly with Mike and Linda Ely to discover amazing people, interesting places, and the conquest of flight. Since 2007, readers have enjoyed engaging articles weekly in the newspaper column, Ely Air Lines. Now you can step aboard to enjoy a collection of stories that explore the vast realm of the flyer’s world.

 

 

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I have known a few pilots in my life and all of them seem to have the same love and fervor for the craft as is displayed in these stories from Mike and Linda’s column. While these stories are recent tellings (in the last two decades), the history of the pilots spans a lifetime.

Small town airports are vital to the community, and the town of Liberty is no different. It may be close to Houston, but if you live in Texas or have ever visited here, you know this is a large state and it can take several hours to get from one place to another even if they don’t look that far apart on the map. Having an airport within a smaller community can be the difference between life and death in some cases. I enjoyed learning how this airport came into existence and is serving the community to this day.

I was able to enjoy volume 1 of the two books and the stories inside had me enthralled from page to page and story to story. I don’t know if I have a favorite, but I truly enjoyed the stories about those that were bitten by the flying bug at a very early age. There are multiple stories about young flyers and how they would give things up just to be around planes and pilots. I learned so much from these pilots from the different aircraft they flew, dangerous or strange situations they found themselves in, and even how they gave of their time to help others that needed their assistance. There were several pilots that volunteered for organizations that flew those that need treatment to larger cities since their bodies couldn’t handle riding on a commercial airline. I admire and appreciate their generosity.

There are even stories about Mike and Linda’s adventures. I can see why owning your own plane can be an adventure because you can take off any time you wish for a long weekend or even a day and visit another part of the country. The detail that they share makes me want to visit some of these locations in the Northeast and even the Pacific Northwest. I chuckled when they described flying into some of these smaller airports during football season. Knowing how crazy fans can be, I can only imagine how energetic those towns were on game day.  I relished the story that Linda told about a trip to where her mother grew up and the memories she created with her mom and sister. It also sent her down a rabbit hole searching for photos of the house her mother grew up in since it was demolished many years ago.

This book is wonderful when you have just a short time to read and don’t want to dive into a longer novel. These short stories from their column bring to life what it is like to soar through the wild blue yonder. We give it 4 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Ely has logged thousands of hours over more than forty years as a professional pilot. He holds an airline transport pilot certificate with multiple type ratings and a flight instructor certificate. Mike has taught people to fly in small single-engine airplanes, gliders, turboprops, and corporate jets. As a freight pilot and an international corporate pilot, he has flown through all kinds of weather, to many places, both exotic and boring. His love for writing was instilled by his father at an early age.

Linda Street-Ely is an award-winning, multi-genre author and playwright. She also holds an airline transport pilot certificate, a commercial seaplane certificate, and a tailwheel endorsement. She has air raced all over the U.S., including four times in the historic all-women’s transcontinental Air Race Classic. Besides flying, Linda has a keen appreciation for great storytelling. She loves to travel the world, meet people, and learn about other cultures because she believes great stories are everywhere.

Together, Linda and Mike are “Team Ely,” five-time National Champions of the Sport Air Racing League, racing their Grumman Cheetah, named the “Elyminator,” and dubbed “The Fastest Cheetah in the Known Universe.” They live in Liberty, Texas.

 

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1/19/21 Excerpt It’s Not All Gravy
1/20/21 Review V1 Jennie Reads
1/20/21 Review V2 Librariel Book Adventures
1/21/21 Guest Post Forgotten Winds
1/22/21 Review V1 StoreyBook Reviews
1/22/21 Review V2 Reading by Moonlight
1/23/21 Author Interview All the Ups and Downs
1/24/21 Author Interview The Adventures of a Travelers Wife
1/25/21 Review V1 Book Bustle
1/25/21 Review V2 Book Fidelity
1/26/21 Excerpt The Page Unbound
1/27/21 Character Interview Hall Ways Blog
1/27/21 Top Ten Momma on the Rocks
1/28/21 Review V1 The Clueless Gent
1/28/21 Review V2 Chapter Break Book Blog

 

 

 

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Posted in 3 paws, Biography, nonfiction, Review on January 21, 2021

 

 

Synopsis

 

In this inspiring biography, discover the true story of Harriet the Spy author Louise Fitzhugh — and learn about the woman behind one of literature’s most beloved heroines.

Harriet the Spy, first published in 1964, has mesmerized generations of readers and launched a million diarists. Its beloved antiheroine, Harriet, is erratic, unsentimental, and endearing-very much like the woman who created her, Louise Fitzhugh.

Born in 1928, Fitzhugh was raised in segregated Memphis, but she soon escaped her cloistered world and headed for New York, where her expanded milieu stretched from the lesbian bars of Greenwich Village to the art world of postwar Europe, and her circle of friends included members of the avant-garde like Maurice Sendak and Lorraine Hansberry. Fitzhugh’s novels, written in an era of political defiance, are full of resistance: to authority, to conformity, and even — radically, for a children’s author — to make-believe.

As a children’s author and a lesbian, Fitzhugh was often pressured to disguise her true nature. Sometimes You Have to Lie tells the story of her hidden life and of the creation of her masterpiece, which remains long after her death as a testament to the complicated relationship between truth, secrecy, and individualism.

 

 

 

 

Note from Leslie

 

In 1963, when Louise Fitzhugh was thirty-five and writing Harriet the Spy, about an eleven-year-old girl who lived in New York, I was also an eleven-year-old girl who lived in New York. Harriet lived on the ritzy Upper East Side, while my family of five had migrated from the Bronx to rural Long Island, to live closer to my father’s five-acre junkyard. His business, A&B Auto Wrecking, was located across the road from the Speonk train station—and, as I would later learn, about five miles from Louise Fitzhugh’s summer home in Quogue. Speonk was the train stop for Louise’s friends visiting from the city, a three-hour trip. Ursula Nordstrom disembarked there, as did Louise’s other friends, including actors, painters, editors, and all the other glamorous denizens of her intersecting literary and artistic worlds.

Fitzhugh and I were from different sides of the tracks, but we may well have crossed paths at Mrs. D.’s diner, which served as the train station waiting room. Mrs. D. wore 1940s-style housedresses, her hair in a net, as she fried hamburgers and brewed coffee in what had once been the narrow galley kitchen of a working railroad carriage. Whenever my father took me to lunch at Mrs. D’s, I’d order an egg cream and a tomato sandwich (BLT on white bread, hold the toast, hold the bacon), a combo I believed to be entirely my own invention. Now, I think it likely Mrs. D. served the same off-menu meal to others—perhaps even to a crop-haired, petite woman dressed in paint-stained overalls who was waiting for a train.
Harriet the Spy was originally targeted for children born during the end of the Baby Boom, in other words, readers then between eight and twelve, including me. But in 1964, when the novel was published, I knew nothing of its existence, and I would not learn about it for years. In sixth grade, I had left kids’ lit behind. I preferred to read novels that seemed to last forever, like The Agony and the Ecstasy, by Irving Stone, and anything by Daphne du Maurier. I was a devoted reader of comic books and of Mad Magazine. To be honest, the most important literature in my life were the lyrics to Beatles songs.

Such was my tenuous and distant connection to Louise Fitzhugh, a state of affairs that would remain unaltered for another thirty-five years, until 1988, when I was hired to write an adaptation of Harriet the Spy for the Minneapolis Children’s Theatre Company. I read it through several times, stunned at how lucky I was—after all this time, and the many ways our rendezvous might have gone awry—to find her.

 

Follow the timeline of Louise’s life

 

Visual Biography

 

 

Review

 

I was intrigued by this book because while I have heard of Harriet the Spy, I have never read the book. I always love learning about authors and what their life was like and how they came to create their famous works and I now want to read the book that helped girls realize that they do not have to fit into a mold of what society thinks they should do and be in life.

Louise Fitzhugh led an interesting life and I felt like she never quite figured out where she fit in, or if she fit in at all. Her family appeared to be dysfunctional, but then what family isn’t today? Louise liked to have fun and didn’t let anyone bring her down, or at least that is my impression. She had dreams of what she wanted for her life, and it wasn’t to live in Tennessee. Rather, New York and Paris were two locations that called to her.

This book is very detailed about Louise, her writing, her art, and her family. There is a section that shares how her parents met and their relationship, however brief, and how that impacted Louise growing up. I felt that the book was well researched with all of the footnotes. Most of the information came from family and friends since Louise rarely gave interviews, but I felt like the details gave us an insight into her travels through life and love.

This is not a quick read and sometimes I felt like there was too much information, but I can imagine it was hard to know what to keep and what to leave out.

Overall we give it 3 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Leslie Brody is a creative writing professor and well-regarded biographer known for revealing the stories of delightfully complicated feminists in modern history. The San Francisco Chronicle praised Irrepressible (Counterpoint Press, 2010)—her biography of Jessica Mitford—saying, “Brody has made the world a better place by telling her saga so skillfully.” And Maya Angelou stated, “Leslie Brody reintroduced me to a friend I loved so dearly; told me stories about events I did not participate in, and it makes me jealous. Thank you for the book.” Her new book, Sometimes You Have to Lie, is the biography of Louise Fitzhugh, author of the groundbreaking children’s novel, Harriet the Spy. Brody reveals Louise Fitzhugh was every bit as complex, radical, and trailblazing as her beloved heroine.

Born in the Bronx, Brody left home at the age of 17 to become an underground press reporter in Berkeley, CA. After graduating from San Francisco State University, she became immersed in the theater and served as a playwright-in-residence at various theaters in San Francisco and Minneapolis, as well as a librettist for new work associated with both the Minnesota Opera and the Philadelphia Opera. She then returned to journalism, first as a contributing book editor for the Hungry Mind Review and then as a book columnist for Elle magazine.

In addition to her works of biography, Leslie Brody has written a memoir, Red Star Sister (Hungry Mind Press, 1998), which received the PEN Center USA West Award; and co-authored a book of essays with Gary Amdahl, entitled A Motel of the Mind (Philos Press, 2002).

She has held International Writing Fellowships at Hawthornden in Scotland (2004) and the Camargo Foundation (2005) in France. In the U.S. she’s been an artist-in-residence/fellow at the McDowell Colony, Centrum, Yaddo, Red Cinder Colony, Ragdale, and the Virginia Center for the Arts. She received her MA and Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. Since 1998, she has taught Creative Nonfiction in the Creative Writing Department at the University of Redlands.

 

Website

 

 

 

 

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Posted in 5 paws, nonfiction, Review on January 6, 2021

 

 

Synopsis

 

Essential wine pairings for everything from popcorn to veggie burgers to General Tso’s Chicken, based on the wildly popular Grub Street column

Sancerre and Cheetos go together like milk and cookies. The science behind this unholy alliance is as elemental as acid, fat, salt, and minerals. Wine pro Vanessa Price explains how to create your own pairings while proving you don’t necessarily need fancy foods to unlock the joys of wine. Building upon the outsize success of her weekly column in Grub Street, Price offers delightfully bold wine and food pairings alongside hilarious tales from her own unlikely journey as a Kentucky girl making it in the Big Apple and in the wine business. Using language everyone can understand, she reveals why each dynamic duo is a match made in heaven, serving up memorable takeaways that will help you navigate any wine list or local bottle shop. Charmingly illustrated and bubbling with personality, Big Macs & Burgundy will open your mind to the entirely fun and entirely accessible wine pairings out there waiting to be discovered—and make you do a few spit-takes along the way.

 

 

Amazon * B&N * BAM * IndieBound

 

 

Review

 

If you are anything like me, you know you enjoy wine but have no clue what wine should be paired with what dishes. Well worry no more, a book has arrived that answers all of your questions about wine and food pairings.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book when I opened it up. I was not prepared for the wealth of information within the pages that allow a novice like myself to discover what wines really should go with anything from Honey Nut Cheerios to BBQ to Lamb to Halloween candy. There has always been a big conversation in a church group that makes lunches for a shelter, what wine would go best with PB&J. We always thought perhaps a nice Rose or something like that, but I learned that in truth, you should enjoy a nice Lambrusco to go with that sandwich.

This book is such a delight to read and the index allows you to search by the type of wine or your favorite dish. There is even a 2-page Chart-Cuterie that lists various types of cheeses and even suggests the meat or bread and other snacks to serve with it along with the appropriate wine.

This book is sure to delight any foodie or wine lover and makes for interesting reading. Oh and that Halloween candy? There are three pages of wines depending on which is your favorite sweet. I am partial to Reese’s and the proper wine is an Amontillado Sherry.

 

 

Vanessa Price is a columnist for Grub Street and you can read about some of her pairings on their site.  You can also follow her on Instagram.

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Posted in 4 paws, Children, nonfiction, Review on December 22, 2020

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

Freedom Speakz and her friends have a fun filled day in the park, as she recounts the story of how her infamous “Generations” speech came to be. In this true tale, she relives the moments from where it all began. As a tribute to Mrs. Coretta Scott King it was on that day she stood and proclaimed FREEDOM for all to see. No one could have ever imagined that the voice of this little girl in a pink dress would forever change the world!

 

 

Amazon  * B&N

 

 

Review

 

Freedom recounts her experience speaking about Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr’s wife, in an annual event held in Atlanta. She was chosen from her classmates at the Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy. The story is told to her classmates and despite having heard the story several times, they ask her to share her experience as if they had never heard what happened that day. Freedom obliges and weaves the tale and teaches us all a little bit about the woman behind the man that called for change.

Her strength and confidence jump off the page and despite being a little nervous, Freedom was thrilled with the opportunity to share information about Mrs. King and everything she did in her life and to support her husband. I learned from this book that Mrs. King was also a singer and an author.

The illustrations are colorful and depict the Kings and Freedom throughout the book which adds dimension to the story.

This book would be a wonderful addition to any classroom of young readers for them to learn a little more about this time in our history.

We give this book 4 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Authors

 

Freedom Speakz, born Freedom Jah’an Archie, is the petite but larger than life, multi-talented artist and Atlanta, Georgia native. She is a seventh-grader currently attending Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy.

As her name suggests, Freedom Speakz is a free-spirited young lady, who never misses an opportunity to fascinate audiences both big and small.

Freedom’s love for the arts parallels her love of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math). At just twelve years old, she is young yet fierce and confident.

 

Chizelle’ T. Archie, is a native of Mobile, Alabama. She bursts on the literary scene in 2010 when she penned her debut novel, “The Fearfully and Wonderfully Made Diamond, in which the sequel shortly followed. “His Grace, His Blood, His Mercy! ”Chizelle’ is a mother to the joy of her life Freedom Jah’an A.K.A. Freedom Speakz, as well as a Registered Nurse. She currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

Freedom Speakz Facebook * Chizelle’ T. Archie FacebookWebsite

 

Posted in 3 1/2 paws, Historical, nonfiction, Review on December 11, 2020

 

 

Synopsis

 

A fresh exploration of American feminist history told through the lens of the beauty pageant world.

Many predicted that pageants would disappear by the 21st century. Yet they are thriving. America’s most enduring contest, Miss America, celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2020. Why do they persist? In Here She Is, Hilary Levey Friedman reveals the surprising ways pageants have been an empowering feminist tradition. She traces the role of pageants in many of the feminist movement’s signature achievements, including bringing women into the public sphere, helping them become leaders in business and politics, providing increased educational opportunities, and giving them a voice in the age of #MeToo.

Using her unique perspective as a NOW state president, daughter to Miss America 1970, sometimes pageant judge, and scholar, Friedman explores how pageants became so deeply embedded in American life from their origins as a P.T. Barnum spectacle at the birth of the suffrage movement, through Miss Universe’s bathing beauties to the talent- and achievement-based competitions of today. She looks at how pageantry has morphed into culture everywhere from The Bachelor and RuPaul’s Drag Race to cheer and specialized contests like those for children, Indigenous women, and contestants with disabilities. Friedman also acknowledges the damaging and unrealistic expectations pageants place on women in society and discusses the controversies, including Miss America’s ableist and racist history, Trump’s ownership of the Miss Universe Organization, and the death of child pageant-winner JonBenet Ramsey.

Presenting a more complex narrative than what’s been previously portrayed, Here She Is shows that as American women continue to evolve, so too will beauty pageants.

 

 

Amazon * B&N * Kobo * IndieBound

 

 

Review

 

If you grew up watching the Miss America pageant, or even the Miss USA pageant, then this book might be of interest to you. The book is chock full of history about how the pageants came to be, their predecessors, and what has been achieved through the decades to improve the pageant and the women that participated. The pageant world is not without scandal or the whims of what men wanted or expected from such shows. But, as with most everything else, the pageants have improved and are not simply a beauty contest. They focus on real-world issues and the women have had to move along with the times to improve themselves and the society around them.

I vaguely recall the small town that I attended for high school having a pageant. I don’t know if the winner actually went on to compete in Miss Texas or not and since I know a past winner, I should ask her if she competed. I remember the fancy gowns and the talent portion from my attendance at the event and even though I was the same age as these women, I had no desire to be a part of this world. That didn’t stop me from enjoying watching it on television growing up, trying to guess who might be chosen, and being amazed at the talents these women possessed.

The author did a wonderful job of researching the book. There are many notations for where the information was gathered and you could spend hours just looking up the articles and other information. There are a few spots with incorrect information, some I noticed and others I learned from other reviews, but overall I thought the history was intriguing and never would have guessed that P.T Barnum had beauty contests as part of his show.

The book is not fast-paced due to the amount of information presented within its covers. But the look into feminism and how it got its start, women seeking something better, and even the #MeToo movement references are mind-boggling. I enjoyed all of the stories and how this all played into our history.

Overall we give this 3 1/2 paws and if you were ever in a pageant or just curious how it has progressed to what we have today, then this book will definitely fill in the gaps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Hilary Levey Friedman is the author of Here She Is: The Complicated Reign of the Beauty Pageant in America. She is a sociologist at Brown University, where she has taught a popular course titled “Beauty Pageants in American Society.” She is a leading researcher in pageantry, merging her mother’s past experiences as Miss America 1970 with her interests as a glitz- and glamour-loving sometimes pageant judge, and a mentor to Miss America 2018. Friedman also serves as the president of the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Women. Her first book, Playing to Win, focused on children’s competitive afterschool activities.

 

Website * Twitter * Instagram * Facebook

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