The world is noisy. Everywhere we turn we see what is expected of us, including in business. Messages about powerful women entrepreneurs bombard us: Boss Babe! Supermom! Mom Boss! We are taught to envision a life of prosperity, push ourselves to succeed, do whatever it takes, and strive for recognition. Those channels promise success and prosperity, yet what happens when the promise is unfulfilled? Not because we didn’t succeed, but in the midst of our success.

When I found myself hitting this successful-yet-something-was-missing wall, I was left feeling like there must be something wrong with me. Was I not focused enough? Did I not want “it” badly enough? Was I not willing to work hard enough? Was I not cut out to be an entrepreneur?

These lies are just what the enemy wants us to believe, as he seeks to distract us from God’s purpose by planting seeds of discouragement, doubt, and discontent in our minds. When some major setbacks led me to seek answers, I encountered Jesus. And that changed everything I knew about business.

This book is for you if any of these resonate with you:

•You are a successful entrepreneur (even if you believe you were, but aren’t now), who feels she’s lost her joy for the business
•You feel like you’re chasing the money but losing fulfillment, and you wonder what to do next
•You’re formerly of the corporate world, now translating all that drive, discipline, competitive edge, and resilience into your own business in search of hope and freedom
•You seek to keep your relationship with Christ in the forefront as you build a business in the midst of drivers and strivers all around you.

I wrote this book to bring hope to women like you and me, who desire to make an impact for God’s glory but aren’t sure if it’s possible (or even appropriate) to bridge faith and business. God gave us businesses to live out His purpose for us and to steward wisely. The only way to do this is with Him at the center, and that’s how we Hustle with Heart.

About the Author

Erin Harrigan is a follower of Christ, wife, mom, and entrepreneur, known as the Hustle with Heart Coach. She is a sought-after coach and speaker for groups of three to thousands. Her personalized coaching focuses on entrepreneurs seeking to build a God-centered business and pursue success God’s way by helping entrepreneurs align results to God’s truth. Erin also helps people live healthier inside and out as brand ambassador for the global wellness brand Arbonne.

Erin hosts The Hustle with H.E.A.R.T. Podcast, distributed through all major podcast channels. She also shares the Hustle with Heart message through her Daily Dose Facebook live videos, and in the Success God’s Way Facebook community.

Erin is the founder of the Elaine’s Gift Foundation, which honors the memory of her mom Elaine by awarding scholarships to the children of single mothers to bring higher education within their reach.

Erin and her husband Brian live in Chesapeake Beach, MD, enjoying empty nest life with their two Bichons while cheering on their two adult daughters who are pursuing their dreams as an entrepreneur and an artist.

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Postcards from Lonnie

How I Rediscovered My Brother on the

Street Corner He Called Home

by

Lisa Johnson

Biography / Photo Journal / Poverty

Publisher: Rand-Smith LLC

Date of Publication: January 14, 2020

Number of Pages: 200

Scroll down for the giveaway!

It all started on Christmas Day 1993. Lisa and Lonnie were sitting on their mom’s rickety yard swing, when Lisa’s curiosity took over. She asked Lonnie questions about his life on the street, about being homeless. To her surprise, he answered honestly, humorously, and thoughtfully.

That conversation continued throughout the next four years as Lisa wrote questions on postcards addressed to herself, then mailed them in packets to Lonnie at the flower shop on his corner. He wrote his answers and mailed them back. Lonnie answered a lot of questions and even asked a few, too. His detailed, matter-of-fact responses gave Lisa an unfettered view of a population living on the fringes of society and the issues they face every day.

Postcards from Lonnie is a dialogue between Lonnie, who speaks through the postcards, and his sister, who not only learns a lot about her brother but also about herself. Intimate and revealing, this is a unique family memoir and a universal story of love, respect, family, and ultimately hope.

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About 3 years ago, I watched a documentary called Signs of Humanity that addressed the homelessness situation across the country.  It really opened my eyes to those that are homeless and their situation.  No two people are the same and their reasons for living on the streets vary.  This book shines a light on one man’s story and how living on the street impacted him and his family.

Lonnie’s story could be the story for many of those that are homeless.  He had a family – parents, a sister – many that loved him.  But through various circumstances, he found himself living on the street.  But this is a life he chose and he made it work.  He still had a relationship with his family and once a year would visit them.  This was when Lisa had the brainstorm to work with Lonnie to tell his story through postcards.  She would pose questions to him and he would answer them and that became the framework to share his life with us.

There are 94 postcards in all and the answers and comments from Lonnie range from the simple to complex.  He even drew pictures on some of the cards.  I appreciated that the postcards were included in the book because it really put his story into perspective and gave me an insight into Lonnie’s mind.  The one thing that never wavered was Lonnie’s faith in a higher power and doing what was right to protect children and those that were weaker around him.  Lonnie may have been living on the street, but he never shunned his family or lost touch with them, even if that communication was sporadic.  Lisa recounts various stories from their childhood until his passing of the good times they had together.  Not everything was great and there were some dark days for Lonnie, but he persevered throughout it all.  I would challenge anyone reading this book to think about the question that is posed to Lonnie and how you might answer the question yourself.  Would you be as selfless, open, and caring as Lonnie?

It is easy to become jaded in this world when we see people on the street begging for money since some are not in need and are just out for an easy buck.  But those that are truly homeless might just have an interesting tale to tell as I discovered in this book.  And it wasn’t just Lonnie’s story, but Lisa’s as well.  Her journey through life wasn’t easy but the thought to work with Lonnie to understand his story was genius.  I’m sure she is glad that she went through this effort over the four-year timeframe and that she learned much about Lonnie, his life, and his thoughts on life.  They say we should ask our parents for the family history before they pass away and that is just what Lisa did with her brother.  Now his life is here for us to understand and appreciate.

This book might open your eyes to those around you and that maybe there is more to the story than you could even imagine.

This book touched my heart in various ways and I am sure it will touch your heart too.

We give this book 4 paws up.

Lisa Johnson was born in Middletown, Ohio, at Middletown Hospital, where her brother, Lonnie, was born almost five years earlier. Two years after Lisa was born, they settled in Houston, Texas. In a couple more years, they moved to Baltimore, Maryland. Before Lisa started elementary school, they moved again, to Atlanta, Georgia. Lonnie was in fifth grade and was starting to misbehave in his classroom, not “applying himself.” A new first-grader, Lisa applied herself big time, and, once she got a taste of the praise and affirmation that came with high grades, she was hooked for life.

By the time Lisa was in junior high, they had moved again, to Topeka, Kansas, and as she started high school, they moved back to Houston.

Lisa went to college, Lonnie got married. Lisa got married, Lonnie’s daughter was born. Lonnie got divorced, Lisa got divorced. Lonnie’s daughter drowned in the bathtub. Lisa graduated from college, went to graduate school (where she got a good taste of misbehavior but lived through it). Lisa moved to Houston to mooch off their parents for a year or so. Lonnie remarried. Lisa moved to New York to teach at Queens College, CUNY, but soon found her dream job as a copywriter in a large New York ad agency.

Lonnie got divorced and disappeared onto the streets of Houston. Lisa moved to Atlanta. Their dad died. One Christmas Day, Lonnie and Lisa dreamed up an idea for a book. She started sending Lonnie questions on postcards, and he answered every one.

Lisa quit the advertising business to go to seminary — loved seminary, hated being a church-based chief executive officer. She returned to Houston, where their mom still lived. Lonnie died. Lisa found a job writing corporate stuff for a large oil-related company.

Then Lisa finished the book she and her brother had dreamed up: Postcards from Lonnie: How I Rediscovered My Brother on the Street Corner He Called Home.

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Synopsis

The first book to validate the meaningful dreams and visions that bring comfort as death nears.

Christopher Kerr is a hospice doctor. All of his patients die. Yet he has cared for thousands of patients who, in the face of death, speak of love and grace. Beyond the physical realities of dying are unseen processes that are remarkably life-affirming. These include dreams that are unlike any regular dream. Described as “more real than real,” these end-of-life experiences resurrect past relationships, meaningful events and themes of love and forgiveness; they restore life’s meaning and mark the transition from distress to comfort and acceptance.

Drawing on interviews with over 1,400 patients and more than a decade of quantified data, Dr. Kerr reveals that pre-death dreams and visions are extraordinary occurrences that humanize the dying process. He shares how his patients’ stories point to death as not solely about the end of life, but as the final chapter of humanity’s transcendence. Kerr’s book also illuminates the benefits of these phenomena for the bereaved, who find solace in seeing their loved ones pass with a sense of calm closure.

Beautifully written, with astonishing real-life characters and stories, this book is at its heart a celebration of our power to reclaim the dying process as a deeply meaningful one. Death Is But a Dream is an important contribution to our understanding of medicine’s and humanity’s greatest mystery.

Excerpt

Tom was only forty when he arrived at Hospice Buffalo with end-stage AIDS. Unlike most of my patients, he was not surrounded by loved ones. Not a soul came to visit, ever. He was rather stoic, so I wondered if the absence of visitors was his choice rather than an indicator of his loneliness. Maybe that was his way of refusing to give death an audience.

I was puzzled but, wanting to respect his privacy, did not inquire. Tom’s emaciated body showed traces of once-chiseled muscles. He had kept fit and was still quite young, which gave me hope. In light of his age and physical conditioning, I thought that his body would be more likely to respond positively to life-prolonging treatment. Not long after he was admitted, I went to the nurse’s station and decreed, “I think we can buy Tom some time. IV antibiotics and fluids should do it.”

The charge nurse, Nancy, had been at Hospice Buffalo for much longer than I had. She knew her job, and everyone looked up to her. She was also not one to mince words. Still, her response took me by surprise: “Too late. He’s dying.”

I said, “Oh really?”

She replied, “Yep. He’s been dreaming about his dead mother.” I chuckled awkwardly—equal parts disbelief and defensiveness. “I don’t remember that class from medical school,” I said.

Nancy did not miss a beat. “Son, you must have missed a lot of classes.”

I was a thirty-year-old cardiology fellow finishing my specialty training while working weekends at Hospice Buffalo to pay the bills. Nancy was an exceptional veteran nurse who had limited patience for young, idealistic doctors. She did what she always did when someone was out of their depth—she rolled her eyes.

I went about my business, mentally running through all the ways modern medicine could give Tom another few weeks or even months. He was riddled with infection, so we administered antibiotics. Because he was also severely dehydrated, I asked for a saline drip. I did all I could do as a doctor to prolong his life, but within forty-eight hours, Tom was dead.

Nancy had been right in her estimation of where he was on the downward slope. But how could she have known? Was it just pessimism, the numbing effect of having watched so many people die? Was she truly using a patient’s dream as a predictor of life-span? Nancy had worked in hospice for more than two decades. She was tuned in to aspects of dying I knew nothing about: its subjective dimensions. How patients experienced illness, particularly dying, had mostly been ignored throughout my training as a doctor.

Like many physicians, I’d never considered that there might be more to death than an enemy to be fought. I knew about blind intervention—doing everything possible to keep people conscious and breathing—but had little regard for the way any given individual might wish to die, or for the unavoidable truth that ultimately death is inevitable. Because it had not been part of my medical education, I failed to see how the subjective experience of dying could be relevant to my role as a doctor.

It was ultimately the remarkable incidence of pre-death dreams and visions among my dying patients that made me realize how significant a phenomenon this was, both at a clinical and a human level. As a hospice doctor, I have been at the bedsides of thousands of patients who, in the face of death, speak of love, meaning, and grace. They reveal that there is often hope beyond cure as they transition from a focus on treatment to notions of personal meaning. As illness advances, grace and grit collide and bring new insight to those dying and their loved ones, insight that is often paradoxically life-affirming. This experience includes pre-death dreams and visions that are manifestations of this time of integration and coming into oneself. These are powerful and stirring experiences that occur in the last days or hours of life and that constitute moments of genuine insight and vivid re-centering for patients. They often mark a clear transition from distress to acceptance, a sense of tranquility and wholeness for the dying. Patients consistently describe them as “more real than real,” and they are each as unique as the individual having them.

These end-of-life experiences are centered on personal histories, self-understanding, concrete relationships, and singular events. They are made of images and vignettes that emanate from each person’s life experiences rather than from abstract preoccupations with the great beyond. They are about a walk in the woods relived alongside a loving parent, car rides or fishing trips taken with close family members, or seemingly insignificant details such as the texture or color of a loved one’s dress, the feel of a horse’s velvety muzzle, or the rustling sound of a cottonwood’s shimmering leaves in the backyard of a childhood home. Long-lost loved ones come back to reassure; past wounds are healed; loose ends are tied; lifelong conflicts are revisited; forgiveness is achieved.

Doctors owe it to their patients to incorporate this awareness into our practice. End-of-life experiences ought to be recognized as evidence of the life-affirming and inspiring resilience of the human spirit that drives them. They are proof of humanity’s built-in, natural, and profoundly spiritual capacity for self-sustenance and self-healing, grace and hope. They help restore meaning at end of life and assist in reclaiming dying as a process in which patients have a say. They also benefit those left behind, the bereaved, who get relief from seeing their loved ones die with a sense of peace and closure.

This subjective experience of dying is also a powerful reminder that beauty and love in human existence often manifest themselves when we least expect it. The patients who summon up comforting processes at life’s end are beset by symptoms of a failing body over which they have limited control. They are at their most frail and vulnerable, existing within suffering states of aching bones and hunger for air. Catheters, IVs, and pills may now be part of their every day, sometimes literally functioning as extensions of their bodies under the daily medical management that is their new and irreversible lot. They may experience various degrees of cognitive, psychological, and spiritual dissonance. Yet even as the inexorable march of time is taking its toll on their bodies and minds, many also have pre-death dreams and visions in the context of which they display remarkable awareness and mental sharpness.

Herein truly lies the paradox of dying: patients are often emotionally and spiritually alive, even enlightened, despite a precipitous physical deterioration. The physical and psychological toll of dying may be undeniable, but it is also what makes the emotional and spiritual changes brought about by end-of-life experiences border on the miraculous. Doing justice to end-of-life experiences means accounting for this paradox, one in which death and dying transcend physical decline and sadness to include spiritual awakening, beauty, and grace. Or, as the title character in the acclaimed Tuesdays with Morrie puts it, “Aging is not just decay, you know. It’s growth. It’s more than the negative that you’re going to die.” This is also true of the dying process, which often functions as a summing up, culmination, and capstone, an opportunity to recognize and celebrate our humanity in all its complexity and dignity rather than just as an ending.

Excerpted from DEATH IS BUT A DREAM by Christopher Kerr, MD, PhD and Carine Mardorossian, PhD. Published on February 11, 2020 by Avery, and imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2020 by William Hudson, LLC

About the Author

Christopher Kerr, MD, PhD, is the author of Death Is But a Dream: Finding Hope and Meaning at Life’s End. He is the CEO and chief medical officer at Hospice Buffalo. Born and raised in Toronto, Kerr earned his MD as well as a PhD in neurobiology and completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Rochester. His research has received international attention and has been featured in The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, and the BBC. He lives on a horse farm in the small town of East Aurora, New York.

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Book Title: DECONSTRUCTING ANXIETY The Journey from Fear to Fulfillment by Todd E. Pressman, PhD

Category: Adult Non-Fiction (18+) (336 pages)

Genre: Self-Help/How To

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Release date: January 2020

Synopsis

In Deconstructing Anxiety, Pressman provides a new and comprehensive understanding of fear’s subtlest mechanisms. In this model, anxiety is understood as the wellspring at the source of all problems. Tapping into this source therefore holds the clues not only for how to escape fear, but how to release the very causes of suffering, paving the way to a profound sense of peace and satisfaction in life.

With strategically developed exercises, this book offers a unique, integrative approach to healing and growth, based on an understanding of how the psyche organizes itself around anxiety. It provides insights into the architecture of anxiety, introducing the dynamics of the “core fear” (one’s fundamental interpretation of danger in the world) and “chief defense” (the primary strategy for protecting oneself from threat). The anxious personality is then built upon this foundation, creating a “three dimensional, multi-sensory hologram” within which one can feel trapped and helpless.

Replete with processes that bring the theoretical background into technicolor, Deconstructing Anxiety provides a clear roadmap to resolving this human dilemma, paving the way to an ultimate and transcendent freedom. Therapists and laypeople alike will find this book essential in helping design a life of meaning, purpose and enduring fulfillment.

Guest Post

LETTING GO OF JUDGMENT AS A CURE FOR ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION

by

Todd E. Pressman, Ph.D.

Any good path for healing and for growth teaches about the importance of letting go of judgment.  A course in miracles, one of my favorite teachings, puts it this way: “You are not really capable of being tired but you are very capable of wearying yourself.  The strain of constant judgment is virtually intolerable and exhausting”.  Our judgments not only cause us to become exhausted, but they are responsible for creating our entire idea that we live in an attacking world. When we judge, we become locked into that world, believing there is no escape.  In this way, judgment causes our anxiety and depression.

How exactly does judgment do this?  Classical psychology would say that we “project” our negative feelings about ourselves–guilt, shame, greed, jealousy and so fort–onto the world when we judge.  We do this in the attempt to absolve ourselves of these feelings and our responsibility for them.  The result: victimization and helplessness, anxiety and depression.  For once we project these feelings onto the world, believing they are someone else’s fault and not our responsibility, we give up our only chance for making real change in our lives.  When we recognize that we are responsible for these things, we can withdraw the projection and discover that the “attacking” world is actually a blank canvas upon which we can project whatever we like.  Therein lies the opportunity to project more positive experiences and live in the world of our choosing.

This is where forgiveness, the antidote to judgment, comes in.  Forgiveness, properly understood, is not about “letting someone slide” for the terrible thing they have done.  In fact, this attitude only strengthens the belief that they have indeed done something terrible and they are the case of the problem.  True forgiveness, instead, is the understanding that we made up the whole idea of what we thought someone else did to us.  Again, A course in miracles puts it this way: “Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother [or sister] did to you has not occurred”.  Of course, they may have performed the action we observed, but our judgment of it is solely ours.  We have no access to their mind, no way of  knowing “for sure” that they intended to slight us or pull one over on us or in some other way cause us harm.  Our judgment of their actions is purely a creation of our own thoughts and feelings, based on our unique set of  learned assumptions.  What a revelation!  With this, the responsibility, happily, is thrown right back upon us—happily, because now all the power is in our hands.  We can correct our mistaken idea, and see that our brother, sister, friend, parent or boss has no power over us.  We don’t know what they reallymeant by their actions.  And so they have not actually done anything to us; they were simply playing out some learned assumptions from their past about how best to deal with life.  They have not done anything that requires us to be anxious or depressed and to try to defend ourselves in an unfruitful way.  We simply projected our own ideas of attack upon them so we could blame someone or something “out there”.

“But I know them!  They really did mean to hurt me”.  The power of our conviction in such a statement is a testament to how thoroughly we don’t want to look at ourselves.  It’s really no concern of ours whether the other person meant to cause us harm or the situation truly does threaten to take away what we hold near and dear.  The only thing that matters is how holding these judgments hurt us.  They cause our anxiety and depression.  The key to freedom from anxiety and depression is to look only at how we have created these judgments and to let them go!

When our objection to these ideas is strong and we simply cannot let go of our certainty about “how things are out there”, we need to understand that our attachment to our judgments comes from the hope that we will get the other person or reality to change according to our wishes.  Isn’t that the hidden thought behind all judgments?  “So and so should behave differently or such and such should look differently to make me happy!”.  We want all things to comply with our wishes, our idea of how the world should be.  This is our most coveted strategy for how to be happy, and we invest all of ourselves into it over and over again.  But the world and people will never comply fully with our wishes…especially because everyone else is trying to impose their wishes on us at the same time!  The key to healing and growth, the release from anxiety and depression, is to “let go”–let go of our judgments about how things should be and accept things as they are.  Then we are free to flow with whatever comes along, peacefully, gracefully, finding our good in what is available to us, rather than insisting things change before we can be happy.

We will never become happy by trying to arrange the puzzle pieces of the world to our liking.  This is the great source of suffering in the world.  Let us instead recognize that it is up to us to take back this projection and correct the idea that we must judge and attack others in order to be happy.  Let us instead turn our eyes inward and discover that, in fact, we are already whole and complete and have access to everything we need for our fulfillment.  Only when we project our need for others to fulfill our wishes, judging them if they do not do so (in the hope that they will feel guilty and begin to comply), can we believe otherwise.

A subtlety comes up here.  We must not judge ourselves as guilty for judging others.  This is a projection of the same kind, making ourselves the enemy and thereby making correction perhaps twice as hard to see.  It is imperative that we include ourselves in the forgiveness process, seeing that we are, indeed, whole and complete.  Often, it is necessary to start with forgiving ourselves before we can do so with others.  In the end, however, the two are the same, and as we let go of our judgments about others we spontaneously recognize that we who have forgiven must be free from guilt in order to recognize guiltlessness in the other.

A patient of mine once attended a weekend retreat I was holding.  During this retreat, she visited a painful aspect of her life—her 21 year old son, who had been suffering with Bipolar Disorder, would often threaten to kill himself.  My patients’ great anxiety was that she would return home from work one day and find him dead.

Certainly, her anxiety was understandable.  And yet in the course of our work together, it became clear that she was subtly imposing a demand on her son by dreading his taking his life.  Rather than offering him the love he so desperately needed, he was receiving from her the implicit demand that he put away his own pain so as not to scare her.  With this recognition, my patient was able to courageously empathize with her son’s pain, and even to accept that if he wanted to take his life, there was nothing she could do to stop him.  She could, however, offer him her love.

This brought an extraordinary relief to my patient, who promptly went home from the weekend and began relating to her son in a new way.  His transformation as a result was remarkable and he has since found a place to live, gotten a steady job and moved up to the position of manager.  Both mother and son enjoy a new way of communicating in which they are able to give and receive each others’ love, free from the anxiety which had them trying to get that love by projecting their unrecognized need.

About the Author

TODD E. PRESSMAN, Ph.D., is a psychologist dedicated to helping people design lives of fulfillment. He is the founder and director of Logos Wellness Center and Pressman and Associates Life Counseling Center. An international speaker and seminar leader, he has presented at the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, and numerous professional conferences, including the prestigious Council Grove Conference, sponsored by the Menninger Foundation. He has written dozens of articles, educational programs, and two highly acclaimed books, Radical Joy: Awakening Your Potential for True Fulfillment and The Bicycle Repair Shop: A True Story of Recovery from Multiple Personality Disorder. He earned his doctorate in psychology from the Saybrook Institute and an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, has studied under renowned leaders in the Consciousness movement and Gestalt therapy, and has traveled around the world to study the great Wisdom traditions, from Zen Buddhism to fire-walking ceremonies, providing a cross-cultural perspective of the extraordinary capacities of the mind and spirit. He makes his home in Philadelphia.

Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram

Synopsis

Your Future Depends on Your Decisions

Sorting out our lives amidst chaos, confusion, and innumerable options is a process we all have in common. The decisions we ultimately make can affect our lives and the lives of others. It’s not always easy. In this empowering guide, an expert in business strategies shares the choices of notable, visionary decision-makers–from Harry Truman and Henry Ford to Marie Curie and Malala Yousafzai–and explains how you can apply their principles to your own personal and professional real-life scenarios.

Resolve, patience, and practical thinking–take it from these politicians, scientists, economists, inventors, entrepreneurs, theologians, activists, and commanders of war and peace. Their inspiring counsel will give you the tools you need to help change your life. Both big and small, your choices can shape the minutes, days, weeks, and years ahead. This book is the first motivating step in the right direction.

“Upgrade your daily decisions with the wisdom of two dozen renowned influencers who changed history.” —Mehmet Oz, M.D., New York Times bestselling author of You: The Owner’s Manual

“A truly inspiring book about how to become a leader. Highly recommended!!” —Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author of American Moonshot

“The best decision you will make today is to read and learn from this array of bold thinkers.” —Harvey Mackay, New York Times bestselling author of Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive

Excerpt

But there was no decision to make. This was my calling. Some powerful force had come to dwell inside me, something bigger and stronger than me. —Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai, as the world knows, was shot in the head by the Taliban on October 9, 2012, as she rode home on the school bus in the Swat Valley, Pakistan. Malala was fifteen at the time. She survived the attack, recuperated in England, and has continued her education. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for her “struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.”

Can a child, an adolescent, a young person—make a world-changing decision? Is someone ever too young?

Let’s take a look at Malala’s story, because none of this came out of the blue. The “struggle” the Nobel Committee cited, was a decision that was so deeply embedded into her character that, at age fifteen, it had already become her way of life. And continues to be.

Seemingly from birth, Malala loved education. Her biographical material makes much of the fact that she sought to emulate her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, who was so dedicated to education that he had founded his own school, the one she attended. Such “private” schools are not uncommon in Pakistan.

But Ziauddin’s school and his outspoken daughter became special targets of the Taliban. The fundamentalist group had issued an edict against educating girls and death threats against the entire family (mother Toor Pekai Yousafzai and two sons). The school was forced to close for a time and had re-opened shortly before Malala was shot.

You might say that the child was merely following the example—or the dictates—of the father (who was supported in all endeavors by the mother). That the child made no decisions on her own. That happens in families all the time. I can think of many examples in my own life—involving my parents and the decisions they made for me when I was young, and about how my wife and I did the same for our sons. None of these decisions involved defying the Taliban and bringing danger to our family. But, that may not be the right way to look at what Ziauddin did. Were his decisions part of doing what parents claim we always try to do—leading by example?

Do you ever think about the phrase “an accident of birth”? It means that none of us are responsible for the circumstances of our birth—who our parents are, our family, our nationality or state or town, our genetic make-up, economic status and so on.

Among the things that Malala was not responsible for: That she was a first-born daughter in a culture that values boys over girls; that she was born into a troubled country being over-run by violent extremists. But it was also an accident of birth that she had two parents who were, by all accounts, as dedicated to her welfare, education, and growth as they were to that of her two younger brothers. It seems to me that Malala took what she was given and decided to run with it.

By the time she was shot in 2012, Malala had shown by her own example that she recognized her “accident of birth.” Her dedication to education for girls was in fact her own decision based on parental example. Consider her words, written just a year later in her autobiography:

“I was very lucky to be born to a father who respected my freedom of thought and expression and made me part of his peace caravan and a mother who not only encouraged me but my        father too in our campaign for peace and education.”

At an even younger age than fifteen, Malala was already an ardent activist. She blogged for the BBC on the oppressions of life under the Taliban and was the subject of a New York Times documentary. She made speeches often, including one entitled “How dare the Taliban take away my right to an education.” The year before she was shot, she won both the International Children’s Peace Prize and Pakistan’s first Youth Peace Prize. As the Taliban’s noose ever tightened around her country, her family, and her safety, Malala’s outspokenness and visibility grew. As she wrote in her autobiography, “I decided I wasn’t going to cower in fear of [the Taliban’s] wrath.”

In the years since she survived the Taliban assassination attempt, Malala has become a global symbol for the cause of education for girls specifically and for the welfare of all children. Not even a year after she was shot, she addressed the “Youth Takeover” at the United Nations. Two years almost to the day after she was shot, the Nobel Committee announced that she would share the 2014 Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi, who made his name with international peaceful protests on behalf of children. Even with constant visibility while traveling the world to event after event, she completed the studies necessary to be accepted in 2017 into Oxford University (which fact she announced on her new Twitter account). Also in 2017, Malala was designated a United Nations Messenger of Peace “to help raise awareness of the importance of girls’ education.”

Malala is still enveloped in the support of her family, which left Pakistan to settle in the UK. The Economist, noting that “Pakistani education has long been atrocious,” included the following in a detailed and dismal examination of the current status:

“From 2007 to 2015 there were 167 attacks by Islamic terrorists on education institutions . . .    When it controlled the Swat River valley in the north of the country, the Pakistani Taliban closed hundreds of girls’ schools. When the army retook the area it occupied dozens of them itself.”

Malala has written two books. The first, I Am Malala, was published a year after her shooting and tells, with the help of writer Christina Lamb, of her early life in Pakistan and the event that put her onto a new trajectory. Published in 2017, the second book is for children, Malala’s Magic Pencil. In it, young Malala yearns for a special pencil that would let her do all sorts of special, interesting things, including drawing “a lock on my door, so my brothers couldn’t bother me.” I think every child wants a lock like that. Eventually, she describes what we adults will recognize as an intention, a determination, a decision: “I knew then that if I had a magic pencil, I would use it to draw a better world, a peaceful world.”

Time will tell us how Malala’s decisions as a girl, a teenager, a young adult, and into the future will all play out, how world-changing they will be. My hope is that the answer is— immensely.

Malala’s story offers all of us one overarching lesson about decision-making that will help us all lead better lives:

If you are a parent or other adult in a position to influence children and young people, remember how important your own example is. The decisions you make on behalf of others may turn out to be the template that helps form their lives.

If that’s all you glean, that’s enough. But there are many other lessons to take:

1. Have courage to do the right thing, whether it is large or small.
2. Understand you may be attacked and plan for that in advance. I mean physically attacked, as well as the more expected verbal criticisms.
3. Recognize you may be a symbol for others and prepare for that in ways they will embrace and admire. And behave that way.
4. Follow your decision. Give it a chance to shape your life.
5. Do not give up.
6. Depend on each other. Know whom you can trust, and be that trustworthy person to others to the best of your ability.
7. Seek education and take every other opportunity to broaden your knowledge of the world and its people.

Excerpted from DECISIONS by Robert L. Dilenschneider. Reprinted with permission from Kensington Books. Copyright © 2020 Robert L. Dilenschneider.

About the Author

Robert L. Dilenschneider has hired more than 3,000 successful professionals, and advised thousands more. He is founder of The Dilenschneider Group, a corporate strategic counseling and public relations firm based in New York City. Formerly president and CEO of Hill & Knowlton, he is the author of the bestselling books Power and Influence, A Briefing for Leaders, On Power and newly released Decisions: Practical Advice from 23 Men and Women Who Shaped the World.

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The Permanent Weight Loss Plan: A 10-Step Approach To Ending Yo-Yo Dieting

by Dr. Janice Asher; Jae Rivera

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

Release date: January 2020

Synopsis

Diets come and go, and the scale needle swings as you drop pounds and then gain them back. But what if there were a weight loss solution for forever? Not another fad diet based on deprivation and restriction, but a holistic system for shedding pounds and maintaining your weight?

In The Permanent Weight Loss Plan, Janice Asher, MD, and Fulbright Open Research Fellow, Jae Rivera, reveal (from their own first-hand experiences) that it’s not just about the food you eat or don’t eat—it’s about a mindset and lifestyle change. After collectively losing 170 pounds and maintaining their weight for years, Janice and Jae share scientific evidence, personal experiences, and practical insights on how you can successfully reframe your relationship with food.

It’s about stopping the shame associated with body size, recognizing instances of disordered eating, equipping yourself with the knowledge of what behaviors contribute to lasting weight loss, and making use of proven strategies. Get actionable tips on how to:

*Overcome barriers like stress, shame, and emotional eating
*Escape the comfort food circle of hell
*Eat food that nourishes your intestinal microbiome and brain
*Replace unhealthy habits with new ones that will treat your body well
*Boost your metabolism by eating during the right times of the day
*Commit to an exercise regime you can enjoy
*Transform your kitchen from danger zone to a safe space
*Survive potential landmines like holidays and parties
*Develop strategies for not gaining back the weight you lose
*Stop the cycle of fat-shaming and treat yourself with kindness

Complete with 26 recipes for cauliflower quinoa puttanesca, “umami bomb” roasted portabella mushrooms, blueberry breakfast smoothie, curried lentil salad, and more, The Permanent Weight Loss Plan encourages readers, with gentle humor and compassion, to embrace a paradigm shift and transform their lives for good.

About the Authors

Janice Asher is a gynecologist at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to being a clinician there, she began the MILE (mindful, intuitive living & eating) Program, and the PANDA (Physicians And Nurses Domestic Abuse) Program. She is a co-author and co-editor of a textbook on sexual assault.

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Jae Rivera is a biological anthropologist specializing in human osteology. She received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and continued on to work at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Presently, she is living in Peru analyzing human remains with a Fulbright Open Research Grant. and will begin her PhD when she returns in 2018.

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Road to Hope

How One Woman Went From Doubting Her Path
to Embracing Her Inner Journey

By

Dena Jansen

Genre: Memoir / Inspirational / Christian Life

Publication Date: November 15, 2019

Number of Pages: 240 pages

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Have you ever felt stuck? If so, you are not alone. As a 36-year-old wife, mother, and corporate executive, Dena Jansen’s life looked successful by society’s standards. But she found herself at an intersection—stranded at a real-life crossroads in her life.

Over a matter of years, darkness and doubt slowly crept in, leaving her unsure and unsettled in her life, marriage, and career. And after stalling out multiple times and nearly wrecking everything, she finally grabbed hold of a life-saving truth:

She had a choice to make. She could stay stuck, or she could try and find new roads that would lead to the peace and joy she was looking for.

With a glimmer of hope, Dena embraced the gifts of curiosity and grace and began a journey of self-discovery. And she chose to believe in a new truth:

She was meant for more and could no longer settle.

In Road to Hope, Dena invites you to join her as she wanders the roads she traveled and take anything you need from her story to help you in yours. She shares how she grew from a woman who doubted her path to one who is confident and ready for the next adventure. And she wants you to experience a similar shift. And more than that, she believes you can.

Excerpt from the Introduction

of Road to Hope

by Dena Jansen

I think you picked this book up because you want to feel enthusiastic and energetic about your life, but you can’t seem to find your way there. You have all the pieces of the puzzle – marriage, kiddos, career – but when you put them together, you still don’t feel whole. There must be missing pieces, but you can’t find them. You wonder why you can’t make it work when so many other women appear to be able to do it so effortlessly. And so you give in and get stuck in a roundabout of doubt.

I’m here to tell you I have been there. I’ve been stuck in that same gloom and doom loop. And the only way I got out was to get in my own way.

While I was starting to figure out where exactly I wanted my life to go and the best route I should take to get there, I realized that me, myself, and I was the only place to start. For the first time in my life, I had to make it all about me. Being the center of my own attention was something I was apprehensive about off the bat. But I had to focus on myself. I had to try all the things that I thought mattered to help me create the life I said I wanted.

And you will have to do the same thing.

At the time, I didn’t see my journey as part of a more significant movement – one of feminism or female empowerment. But looking back, I can see how it was part of a rising tide. Maybe you have felt it, too. My 70-year-old aunt always said to me, “You girls these days. Y’all just don’t settle.”

She was right. All around me there were strong-willed women pushing for more in their own lives. Like them, I believed that I was meant for more than what I was at the time, and I wasn’t going to settle until I searched out exactly what that more was.

Navigating through my life the last few years has been an adventure. Learning how to get back in the driver’s seat of my own life felt like learning how to drive all over again. At the beginning, I needed lots of direction. I made some wrong turns and found dead ends. But the more experience I gained behind the wheel—the more knowledge and confidence I developed in myself—the more equipped I became to try out the freedom these new lanes opened up for me.

~~~

So before I speed off into the sun-kissed horizon toward the life of my dreams, I owe it to myself to spend time in true reflection. To look back in the rearview mirror at the living and learning that occurred on the road all over again. To honor the amazing growth and healing that happened along the way and share it with the next brave woman looking for hope.

And my gut tells me that woman is you.

I want to share my journey with you. You can sit right up here next to me while we wander the roads I traveled. Please take anything you need from my story that might help you in yours. I know that our lives might not look exactly the same from the outside – different home and family situations, career paths or trajectories, personal successes or struggles – but I genuinely believe that our dreams are very much the same. We share dreams of deep love and connection in our marriages, our families, and our work.

And we desperately want those dreams to become our realities. But in order to make those dreams come true, we have to get on the road and go. We have to go and find ourselves first.

But I’ll be honest with you. While I was out finding myself, I also found that the road can get lonely. That’s why I pray you’ll take the risk and hop in the car with me this time. It would give me a ton of comfort to know I had a friend alongside me. That the words I’m sharing won’t go into the darkness, but rather, find you right where you are in your own journey and give you the hope you’ll need to keep going.

I’ve grown from a woman who was lost and alone to one who is confident and ready for the next adventure. I want you to experience that exact same shift. And more than that, I believe you can. But first, I can’t wait to tell you how I got here.

Are you ready to hit the road? I know I am.

Buckle up, friend, and enjoy the ride. I know I did.

Dena Jansen’s calling to lift others up is profoundly personal. She understands the fears and doubts that hold people back because she has them too. Her own path to fulfillment is a real-life journey that’s still very much in progress. As a CPA and retired partner from Austin-based CPA firm Maxwell Locke & Ritter, she launched Dena Speaks to inspire potential seeking individuals and businesses. Dena shares life and love with her husband, JP, and their two children, Trace, and Elizabeth in Buda, Texas. She loves romantic comedy movies, listening to podcasts, and spending time with her family and friends.

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A highly opinionated, vibrantly illustrated wine guide from one of the country’s most celebrated—and unorthodox—sommeliers and winemakers

In this entertaining, informative, and thoroughly unconventional wine guide, award-winning sommelier, winemaker, and wine educator André Mack presents readers with the 99 bottles that have most impacted his life. Instead of just pairing wines with foods, Mack pairs practical information with personal stories, offering up recommendations alongside reflections on being one of the only African-Americans to ever work at the top level of the American wine industry. The 99 bottles range from highly accessible commercial wines to the most rarefied Bordeaux on the wine list at The French Laundry, and each bottle offers readers something to learn about wine. This window into Mack’s life combines a maverick’s perspective on the wine industry with an insider’s advice on navigating wine lists, purchasing wine, and drinking more diverse and interesting selections at home. 99 Bottles is a one-of-a-kind exploration of wine culture today from a true trailblazer.

Review

If you are a newbie to wine and don’t know where to start, this book is what you need.  Andre Mack shares his life in wine starting with the ones we remember from our youth like Boone’s Farm (no?  just me?) and gradually growing in brands, type, and price as he worked in various restaurants and worked his way up as a sommelier in some high-end restaurants.

As I read through the various chapters, I noticed that not everything is wine in the book. There are some references to lagers, spirits, and more.  But each chapter reflects a different part of his life and what he was learning during those times to share with patrons and friends.  Because this is Andre’s life, he shares with the reader what his happening in his life from work to relationships and so much more.  I liked one of his comments from an earlier chapter that he didn’t need to tie up cash in wines he might drink later, but to drink them now and enjoy the wines, their flavors, and the experience.  That is so true with anything, don’t save it for later, enjoy and use those special items now.

A later chapter gave me a chuckle when he said that one of his greatest pleasures in life: really salty fries with old German Riesling.  I never would put the two together, but salty and sweet – yeah I can see that!

Andre has gone on to create his own line of wines and you can see those on his website (link below) and in the book he mentioned trading cards for wine but I’m not sure where you can find those (and no google search turned them up.)

Ultimately the best advice Andre has to give in regards to wine is this – “I want to empower you to trust your own palate, and to be your own judge of what tastes good to you”.

I recommend this book for anyone that wants to enjoy one man’s journey through wine and perhaps find your own joy in the wines you enjoy.

About Andre Mack

Despite having a successful career with Citicorp Investment Services, André Hueston Mack decided to leave his “desk job” to pursue his passion for wine. While working as a sommelier in San Antonio, Mack discovered the joys of introducing guests to the little known vineyards that first attracted him to the business and “the instant gratification of a guest’s reaction.” While still in Texas, Mack was awarded the prestigious title of Best Young Sommelier in America by the highly regarded Chaine des Rotisseurs. This recognition propelled him into the opportunity to work as a sommelier at Thomas Keller’s world-renowned The French Laundry in Yountville, California. Mack went on to accept the position of Head Sommelier at Keller’s equally famed Per Se in New York City, where he managed an 1800 selection award-winning wine list and consulted with Chef Keller on menu and pairing development regularly. Winemaking has always been a dream of his and came to fruition when he set up shop under the moniker of Maison Noir Wines. Throughout his career, Mack has forged unique relationships with luminary growers and winemakers from around the planet. It is with this prestigious group that Mack currently creates his wines.

Mack has been featured in major publications, such as Food and Wine, Wine & Spirits Magazine, The New York Times, Women’s Health, Ebony, and Wall Street Journal. Mr. Mack was honored in 2007 with The Network Journal’s 40-Under-Forty Achievement Award for his outstanding contributions to business. Mack is a zealous wine educator who has been invited to host seminars as well as conduct panel discussions at numerous esteemed food and wine events. He enjoys sharing his fondness of wine with others.

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Synopsis

The Shared Death Experience (SDE). Most people know of the Near Death Experience (NDE), but very few have heard of the SDE. The SDE is similar to the NDE except that it occurs not to the person who is dying, but to a loved one who is physically well. That person could be sitting right next to their loved one, sitting across the room, or even across the globe unaware of the impending death of someone they love. Location or activity level is of no consequence to the SDE. That person is “invited along” to witness the aftermath of physical death. The invitation extended has no RSVP–the person accompanying the dying individual can neither accept nor refuse–they are just “taken” or “given” the experience by powers outside of their control.

Becoming Starlight is one of those stories. Deeply embedded in Starlight is an ongoing war with death, faith and hope– and with God–a war most of us have experienced or will experience in our lifetimes.

Becoming Starlight is a story that has been written, in one way or another, since the beginning of time. The war between life and death–who lives and who dies is at the heart of this deeply personal experience. It’s a life-and-death struggle with spiritual darkness and loss of faith. It is a story not unlike the stories of anyone who has loved and lost, grieved and sorrowed, felt anguish and rage, fallen from Grace and questioned the very existence of God. The specifics are different, but the humanity splattered on every page is the stuff of life. Some find redemption more easily than I. It took a complete fall from grace for me to awaken from the darkness that had found its way into my life, and an unexpected encounter – a SDE — to bring me into the very arms of a compassionate God. “Becoming Starlight” is the “Lifting of the Veil” that led to a peek into foreverness.

Praise

“Becoming Starlight is truly sensational; everybody who is seriously interested in the question of life after death should read it.” — Raymond Moody, M.D., Ph.D., author of Life After Life, Reunions, and Glimpses of Eternity

“In Becoming Starlight, Dr. Sharon Prentice describes the deeply human losses and hurts that gave birth to a vision of our true identity and place in this universe. Her life-changing—and life-giving—encounter with the divine simply had to be shared. This book is a gift.” —Seth J. Gillihan, Ph.D., author of A Mindful Year and The CBT Deck, and Psychology Today contributor

“Dr. Sharon Prentice, in her book Becoming Starlight, assists all of humanity by transmuting our collective fear of death into love when she journeys to that mysterious place we call Heaven and returns to share her experiences with us. This messenger is worth listening to.” — Tim Miejan, editor of The Edge Magazine

“In Becoming Starlight, the author teaches us the most important lesson of all—that love is the eternal fiber connecting all existence, living and beyond. Her extraordinary true story provides faith and ease to all who wonder what happens when our loved ones or we die.”  —Randi Fine, Author of Close Encounters of the Worst Kind, Podcast Host of A Fine Time for Healing

“A magnificent reckoning with love, death, God, and the unexplainable universe that surrounds us all. From living through devastating heartbreak to cracking wide open with indescribable awe, Becoming Starlight is a deeply personal story on where we can find peace, solace, and stillness in the world of grief.”  —Shelby Forsythia, Intuitive Grief Guide and Podcast Host of Coming Back: Conversations on Life After Loss

“Sharon’s experience is probably the most extensive and beautiful shared-death experience I’ve come across. And the struggles she experienced in her life demonstrate that no matter how hopeless life seems, all of us are loved by God, infinitely. Becoming Starlight is more than just the missing link in near-death literature (which it is), and more than just powerful evidence of the afterlife (which it also is), it’s a testament to the power, potential, and infinite worth of the human soul.”  — Chas Hathaway, Host of the Near-Death Experience Podcast

Guest Post

The Myth of Closure After Loss

by Sharon Prentice,

Author of Becoming Starlight: Surviving Grief and Mending the Wounds of Loss

“This wasn’t supposed to happen! Tell me why this has happened!” These are the spoken words of countless bereaved parents throughout countless years in countless languages. A never ending and always present wound in the Souls of those who have buried their children.

Parental grief is forever boundless; an ever present, deep-seated wound that has no name. There’s a reason no label has been ascribed to those who have lost a child — it is too foreign a concept, a much too chaotic form of brain freeze, an enormously frightening emotion for any language in the world to even consider naming.

Within that foreign concept lies the heart of the matter — losing a child is the most frightening, unspeakable, unresolvable and ultimately the most devastating deprivation of a lifetime. It is disorienting, unimaginable and is the most unacknowledged universal trauma of them all.

It is the very nature of this grief that makes the concept of “closure” almost laughable. Psychology tells us to look to “closure” as a way to live within this boundless grief. Finding the “certainty” we need to make things whole again is supposed to exist within this concept so easily spoken of by well-meaning friends and therapists. The need for cognitive closure (NFCC) is supposed to provide us with an ending to all ambiguity and bring us certainty. Within that certainty, we should find freedom from all the questions that live and breed in our lives as to “why” our child had to die. Problem is — most parents see their child’s death as multi-factional. It wasn’t just the child that was lost, it was the parent as well. The parents lose their way in the world and the entire premise of how the universe operates is shaken to its core. There is a natural order in life, a death order, if you will. First, it’s the grandparents, then the parents. All should pass from this world in the natural order of life events. At least, that’s what we think. But it doesn’t happen that way in “real” life.  Children die and the overwhelming loss that becomes the new way of living in the world is never one for which “closure” exists. The feeling of having “lost a limb” becomes a life wound, a Soul wound that never heals.

There truly is no definition for exactly what this form of grief “feels” like. It is a wrenching sadness and a despair from which recovery cannot be found in any form of what we call “closure” except that which can, somehow, reach deep within the recesses of what we know as Spirit and start a healing process that acknowledges the fact that life isn’t fair, that we never really “get over” this kind of loss, that we keep on breathing and that children do die. Trying to accept our, and our children’s mortality, trying to accept all that has been or will be or can never be again, deciding how we will honor our child and keep them “alive” within our family, and trying to accept the fact that death is part and parcel of all life may be the key to survival for those parents who suffer endlessly with questions for which there are no answers. But there is never certainty, never total acceptance and never closure in our collective human condition that keeps us from fully accepting all these things. And, perhaps, an even larger impediment to consider can be found within the parents need to “keep and maintain” the relationship with the lost child. Holding onto the grief, many times becomes a staple in the need to maintain that relationship. As if letting go of the grief means letting go of the relationship and losing their child all over again. Maintaining the relationship within the grief experienced at the time of death can become all important to a bereaved parent. Those final moments may be all that can be “felt” because anything else — memories of the good, the bad, and everything-in-between can become tangled up with unanswerable questions and lead to the could of’s, should of’s and if only’s of having no future with the lost child. Losing a future together can be and, often is just as devastating as is the actual physical death of that child. Even thinking of closure as a possibility then becomes some foreign notion that will never be considered because it is seen as a complete loss of all relationship, past and future.

Healing from the death of a child is a lifetime journey. If there is any healing at all!  And looking for “closure” does one thing and one thing only — it simply grounds you in the very thing that you are trying to heal within your very damaged and wounded Soul. I mean, life is hard stuff. It presents itself in the light of day and the dark of night in varying shades of joy and despair-all in the same day. Life is amazing. Then it’s not. It’s mundane. Then it’s horrific. You can’t out-run it any more than you can defeat it. You can’t change it without changing yourself, your environment and your very Spirit. You can deny it and try to hide from the realities of it for a while until it catches up to you, which it always does! Life can be messy and painful and joyful and filled with grief and laughter all at the same time! Don’t try to plot it on a straight path, you will lose every time!

All you can do is look within and try to accept the mortality of all things. Then decide how you will be “in this world’ and how you will honor those you love while trying to figure out how to honor yourself again. Forgetting isn’t an option. No drug, no mind-bending herb, no (as the song says) “wishing and hoping and thinking and dreaming” will take you back into that “before time.” That moment in time is forever gone. There is now only the “after time” to be dealt with and incorporated into what is remaining…and what that “remaining” stuff is, well, that’s up to the survivors to decide for themselves.

About the Author

Dr. Sharon Prentice is a psychotherapist and spiritual counselor whose work focuses on helping patients process the grief of losing a loved one. Becoming Starlight is her memoir of healing from the devastating loss of her daughter and husband. She experienced a unique spiritual experience, known as a Shared Death Experience (SDE) which gave her a peek into foreverness and a sense of peace that was otherworldly.

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Santa Claus Bank Robbery

A True-Crime Saga in Texas

by

Tui Snider

Genre: Nonfiction / Texana / Texas History

Publisher: Castle Azle Press

Date of Publication: December 8, 2019

Number of Pages: 146 pages + black & white photos

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When Marshall Ratliff dressed like Santa Claus to pull a Christmas-time heist, he thought it would be easy. Unfortunately for him, when the citizens of Cisco heard Santa was robbing a bank, they came running – with loaded guns in hand!

But can you blame them? In 1927, the only way to earn the $5000 Dead Bank Robber Reward was to kill a bandit while the crime was in progress.

This bungled bank robbery led to a wild shootout and a getaway with two little girls as hostages. And that is only the beginning!

Tui Snider’s true-crime tale reads like a comedy of errors as the consequences of the Santa Claus Bank Robber’s actions escalate to include a botched car-jacking, one of the biggest manhunts in Texas history, and a jailbreak leading to a deadly conclusion.

Meanwhile, it’s up to readers to decide whether or not a mysterious blonde helped these gangsters escape. And if so, did she get away with murder?

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I first heard about the Santa Claus Robbery on Drunk History (season 5 episode 9).  I can’t speak for the accuracy of that episode but what I will say is that Tui did some massive digging into files, newspapers, and other sources to get to the bottom of what really happened that fateful day in Cisco Texas.  She became a detective for the truth.

This is a masterfully told story of a bank robbery, the innocent victims, the criminals behind the robbery, and a few others that we may not know the full extent of their participation in the sequence of events.  The book is filled with newspaper clippings, photos, and other memorabilia that help depict the time and the events during the 1920s.  Texas may have been a little tamer than during the Wild West era, but there were still scoundrels and thieves running around the state robbing banks and committing other crimes.  Apparently it got so out of hand that they raised the bounty on anyone brought in dead that robbed a bank from $500 to $5000.  Either way, that was a lot of money in the 20s and I’m sure a few might have been killed erroneously.

I was surprised at the bravery of some of the victims in the bank that day.  The mother who rushed out the back with her daughter and was unharmed.  That took some moxie!  And Woody Harris, the teen that foiled a carjacking, he too took a chance on being killed or more by not giving in to the thieves.  There were others that helped or hindered along the way and I wonder what was going through their mind during the sequence of events.

While the book is non-fiction and peppered with thoughts and comments from the author, it is engaging and I enjoyed learning about this event in Texas history and it almost reads like fiction in places.  Tui mentions that she doesn’t think that everyone was brought to justice and that there is more to research to try and get to the ultimate truth.  I was surprised to learn that another book about this event by A.C. Greene is fictionalized and has errors or doesn’t tell the whole story to the reader.

I appreciated the Places of Interest listing at the end that provides us with an opportunity to see for ourselves the various locations that Tui visited in her search for the truth.  There is also a list of books and newspapers that she utilized for her research.

I think the only thing I would have done differently was to omit all of the subchapters in each chapter.  I think either making each subchapter its own chapter would have been wiser.

But overall this was a fascinating book about an incident that I might never have known about had it not been for this book and that episode of Drunk History!

We give this book 5 paws up.

Tui Snider is an award-winning writer, speaker, photographer, and musician specializing in offbeat sites, overlooked history, cemetery symbolism, and haunted lore. As she puts it, “I used to write fiction, but then I moved to Texas!”

Tui lectures frequently at universities, libraries, conferences, and bookstores. This fall, she will speak about the Great Airship Mystery of 1897 at this year’s UFO Congress and teach a course on Understanding Cemetery Symbols at Texas Christian University. She also shares weekly info-videos based on her research on her YouTube channel.

Snider’s writing and photography have been featured in a variety of media outlets, including WFAA TV, Coast to Coast AM, LifeHack, Langdon Review, the City of Plano, Wild Woman Waking, Shades of Angels and many more. She has several more books in progress.

  Website  ◆  Facebook  ◆  Twitter

 Amazon Author Page  ◆  Goodreads

 Instagram  ◆   YouTube

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  December 12-22, 2019

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