A Nation Under Judgement by Richard Capriola

 

Genre: Nonfiction, Christian

     What does it mean to be "one nation under God"? Our Founding Fathers believed the words were more than a political slogan. Have we strayed from their vision? A Nation Under Judgment examines issues currently facing our country, such as hunger, homelessness, poverty, marriage, the environment, income inequality and the power of political campaign contributions in shaping policy. Each of these issues is examined from a social policy and Scriptural point of view, empowering readers to decide whether or not our nation is moving away from God and headed for judgment.   

My Review

     As a Christian and mother to young children, I often worry about the direction in which our nation is headed. As a parent, I am teaching my children to "love thy neighbor" and "Do not judge, lest ye be judged," among other important lessons. There are many other positive teachings in the Bible that everyone should adhere to, not just Christians. So why not our nation? After all, we are "One nation under God," right? 

     Capriola's book brings to light scriptures that apply to our nation and government today. He tells about examples in Biblical history in which nations strayed from God's word, and were punished as a result. Those examples are aligned with examples of modern issues such as abortion, gay marriage, and greed. He quotes many of our nation's leaders, who did in fact seek guidance from God in creating our country and its laws. 

     I would recommend taking your time in reading this particular book. There are a lot of quotes and references to digest. I stand firm in both my Christian and political beliefs, but I think that even non-Christians could gain something from this book. There are many historical quotes and examples which I had never heard before and found quite interesting. 

Author Bio

     Richard Capriola has been a hospital chaplain and completed four years of Clinical Pastoral Education in preparation for chaplaincy work. He has also led a church-based outreach ministry. In additions to his pastoral care experience, he has served as a mental health crisis counselor and has worked at both a regional mental health center and psychiatric hospital.

You can visit his website, or purchase A Nation Under Judgement on Amazon or Bookbaby.

Motherhood Smotherhood by JJ Keith

Genre: Nonfiction, Parenting

     What's the first thing a woman does when she thinks she might be pregnant? She Googles. And it goes downhill from there. While the internet is full of calming and cheerily supportive articles, it's also littered with hyper-judgmental message boards and heaps of contradictory and scolding information. Motherhood Smotherhood takes parents through the trenches of new parenting, warning readers of the pleasures and perils of mommy blogs, new parent groups, self-described "lactivists," sleep fascists, incessant trend pieces on working versus non-working mothers, and the place where free time and self-esteem goes to die: Pinterest (back away from the hand-made flower headbands for baby!)

    

      JJ Keith interweaves discussions of what "it takes a village" really means (hint: a lot of unwanted advice from elderly strangers who may have grown up in actual villages) and a take-down of the rising "make your own baby food" movement (just mush a banana with a fork!) with laugh-out-loud observations about the many mistakes she made as a frantic new mother with too much access to high speed internet and a lot of questions. Keith cuts to the truth--whether it's about "perfect" births, parenting gurus, the growing tide of vaccine rejecters, the joy of blanketing Facebook with baby pics, or germophobia--to move conversations about parenting away from experts espousing blanket truths to amateurs relishing in what a big, messy pile of delight and trauma having a baby is.

My Review

     JJ Keith hits the parenting nail on the head. As a mother of four daughters, I have read just about every pregnancy and parenting book there is. Motherhood Smotherhood is a breath of fresh air. Instead of convincing the reader to parent a certain way, Keith encourages her audience to be confident in their parenting decisions. She touches on many key issues that are widely criticized, such as breastfeeding (in public!), vaccinations, food choices, and more. 

     After reading Motherhood Smotherhood, I feel as if JJ Keith and I could be great friends. Her book gives the best advice about parenting: Do it your way, and don't worry about the judgmental looks you may receive. It's a reminder that we can all be amazing parents without getting sucked into the latest silly trends or sanctimonious mom drama. 

     I definitely recommend this book to parents everywhere. Common sense needs to become, well....more common. This parenting book is a great place to start. 

Author Bio

     JJ Keith has written about being a crappy attachment parent for Salon, explored the disturbing undertones of Thomas the Tank Engine for TheRumpus.net, come out as pro-vaccine for The Huffington Post, interviewed Samantha Irby for Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, differentiated being judgmental and having an opinion for Role/Reboot, admitted to a bare knuckled brawl with a dude for The Nervous Breakdown, examined the phenomenon of "don't touch the bump" t-shirts for Babble, and explained what new moms have in common with teenage boys for The Hairpin.

     Her writing has been syndicated in the Sydney Morning Herald, iVillage Australia, Mamamia, and Alternet, and she's taken her work to the stage with The Moth, Happy Hour Story Experiment, Write Club, and Expressing Motherhood and spoken about parenting issues with APM's Marketplace, HuffPost Live, and on a panel at the 2013 LA Times Festival of Books. Her micro-memoir won a $2,500 prize from Reader's Digest and was anthologized in The Best Life Stories: 150 Real-life Tales of Resilience, Joy, and Hope-All 150 Words or Less!

     She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and her two children.

You can visit JJ Keith's Website, or follow her on Facebook or Twitter. 

Add Motherhood Smotherhood to your GoodReads list, or purchase it on Amazon. 

Review: Greenwoman Magazine

Many of you know that I do book reviews as a part of Sage’s Blog Tours from time to time. This time, Sage has asked me to review a magazine instead of a book. 

Greenwoman Magazine celebrates garden writing in all its forms: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, commentary, biography, art, and comics! 

Daring and fun, Greenwoman is for the hip gardener who loves digging into the world of art and environmental thought that underlies gardening."

Greenwoman Magazine is a completely independent, one-woman-owned-and-run publication.  (Well, two-women, when Sandra’s daughter Zora, who is the Deputy Editor, has time from her full-time college work).

I have always enjoyed gardening. When I was young I would help my grandfather plant his vegetable garden, and then help him pick the veggies when they were ripe. Those are some of my favorite childhood memories. Reading the stories and articles in this magazine brought back some of those memories. 

The entire magazine was a wonderful read. I particularly enjoyed the fictional pieces. “Diary Of a Garden Goddess” was a fun read. 

One of my favorite short stories was “A Generous Season”.

"We’ve warned friends to watch out, that the squash vines may be growing faster than they can run! Savvy friends visiting our ranch know about our squash problem and lock their cars, lest their back seats somehow mysteriously become filled with zucchini, neatly stacked like cord wood.”

Another of my favorite snippets of the magazine was this picture: 

I think I would like to print and hang this in my kitchen. 

There really wasn’t a part of Greenwoman Magazine that I didn’t enjoy. There are so many contributors it takes three full pages to list them! It’s refreshing to read quality content and not have to flip through pages and pages of advertisements to find it. 

This wonderful magazine is available in PDF format for less than $3 an issue. 

You can order your copy on the Greenwoman Magazine website.

You can also visit her on Facebook!

Book Review: Gated by Matt Drabble

Synopsis:

Michael and Emily are a happy and contented 

English couple, a writer and a school teacher. 

Their lives are complete when Emily falls pregnant,

 however their dreams are shattered one cold 

winter night by a car accident that robs 

them of their happiness.

To overcome their loss they up stick and move to Eden Gardens, a US gated community that offers "Heaven on Earth and Twice as Nice". The people are warm and friendly and welcome them with open arms. The town is a beautiful throwback to a bygone age, where the sun always shines and the sky's always blue.

As they settle into their new perfect lives, the circle is complete when Emily falls pregnant. The town is perfect, the weather is perfect and their lives are perfect. But are the stares from their neighbours a little too intense, is the town a little too interested in their happy news, and is Eden all that it seems.

They are about to find out that paradise comes at a cost, and when you sign a lease, you should always check the fine print.

My Review:

    Michael and Emily Torrence are an English couple looking for a fresh start after the loss of their unborn baby. Michael stumbles across some information about a little town in America called Eden Gardens. It claims to be “Heaven on earth, and twice as nice.” It seems like a wonderful place to live, so they sell most of their belongings and move to Eden Gardens to start their new lives. 

    After their arrival in Eden, Michael and Emily quickly get used to living life in their new home. They have a large beautiful home, and Emily has a job teaching at the elementary school. Michael is a writer and stays home to work. Everything is within walking distance. The town is always beautiful and clean. Everyone is extremely nice....maybe a little too nice. 

    Michael starts noticing little quirks and curious goings-on. Emily is so happy in their new home that she dismisses his claims as being the product of a writer’s overactive imagination. She becomes pregnant and begins to notice that her neighbors’ stares tend to linger a little too long. She and Michael begin looking into the town’s history, which is dark and twisted with mysterious disappearances and deaths. The town’s history catches up with them and they land in real trouble. The residents have plans for the Torrences and their unborn baby, and Michael in Emily weren’t included in the  planning part. 

     

   Horrors and thrillers are not my usual genres. That being said, I found Gated to be a well-written book. I couldn’t stop reading it. There are so many twists and turns in the  story that you don’t know which characters to trust. The author includes detailed accounts of the town’s history to help you understand a little bit more about Eden without giving away what will happen next. This story reels you in and keeps you on the hook. Drabble ended the book in such a way that you’ll be wanting to read more about Eden Gardens and the Torrences.

You can purchase Gated in Kindle Edition on Amazon for only $1.49!

Book Review: HerStory

HerStory

by Delaina M. Waldron

Synopsis

HerStory a novel by Delaina M. Waldron is a paranormal/thriller that takes the reader on a journey in the life of a young African slave woman named Ayira who has a dark secret.  A dark secret she does not understand and is beyond her control.

Ayira can see the past and the future and she can also speak to the dead. 

It is the beginning of slavery in America, a Native American tribe rescues Ayira and she struggles to balance her special powers and face her dark past to help the people around her.

Ayira must overcome her fears of her dark past, survive the present and accept her destiny to help prevent the Indian tribes fatal outcomes.

My Review

Ayira is an African woman who was sold into slavery. After she arrived in America and was sold to a slave owner, her group was attacked by Native Americans on the river.  Ayira and the other slaves were taken to live in their village. 

One of the elders of the Native American tribe had foreseen her coming. He knew she was there for a purpose. Ayira, however, was haunted by her past and by visions of the future, so she kept to herself. She rarely left her teepee and didn’t socialize with the members of the tribe if she could avoid it. 

Ayira is a very intriguing character with secrets beyond her control. As the story progresses, more light is shed upon her secrets and the powers which she possesses.  She must deal with the demons from her past who are haunting her as she learns how to use her gift to help the tribe. 

I enjoyed HerStory. It was a great, quick read. Waldron does a wonderful job of keeping just enough secrets to keep you interested as the story progresses. She knows just when to give you a little more information to make you want to see what happens next. 

Author Bio

Delaina M. Waldron is a Screenwriter, Novelist and freelance writer in her spare time.  She wrote two feature length screenplays one of which was adapted to her novel "HerStory" and the other a comedy called "Ghetto Ghost Hunters" was a finalist in the 2011 Hollywood Screenwriting contest.  She also wrote a short screenplay a thriller called "Peeper", which is currently in production.

Delaina M. Waldron is a single mother of one and is currently a city bus driver and a military veteran for the Army Reserves, based in New York City.

Website:  www.herstorynovel.com

Twitter:  @delainawaldron

Blog: http://delainawaldron.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/hello-world/

Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Delaina-M-Waldron/227854963892903?ref=hl

                                                                                   

HerStory

Book Review: The Second Daughter

The Second Daughter
by J. Jeffrey

• www.theseconddaughter.com
• Print Length: 275 pages
• Publisher: Top Press; 1 edition (January 3, 2013)
• ISBN: 1480043214

_____________________

Synopsis

You try turning out all right after you overhear your mother wishing you hadn’t been born.

It had started out well. Umbrellas tangled. A storybook romance followed. A wonderful wedding. A beautiful, sweet first daughter. They were complete, a family, happy.

And then they went and had another daughter.

Her charming and witty father Theodore starts disappearing, then worse, starts coming back. Her once allegedly sweet older sister Regina angrily resents her, and the sisters are at constant war. Her mother Helen is so busy what-iffing about the life she might have had that she overlooks the life she is actually having. Everyone blames Debra for pretty much everything as the family slowly, then quickly, then one day explosively disintegrates. Along the way there are secrets and lies, heartbreaks and betrayals, plus the dramatic unexpected death of a central character at a pivotal moment. The now young woman finds herself living awkwardly alone with her embittered mother when the phone rings—and her mother’s secret past suddenly crashes back into the present.

Their life may be about to change forever; or rather, perhaps, revert back to what it should have been all along.

But not exactly because of that phone call, as it turns out.

Because of the remarkable second daughter. For what Debra Gale has is unyielding determination. What she has is an irrepressible capacity to love. 

And now at last what she has is a chance.

The complex dynamics of a changing family. Mother, daughters, sisters, and the father who both divides and unifies them. That dramatic unexpected death, plus more than the ordinary amount of banana cream pie. Welcome to The Second Daughter: a funny but poignant, unusual but beautiful love story.

_________________

My Review

   I have to admit, The Second Daughter didn’t immediately draw me in. It started out as kind of a slow read for me. I had already read the synopsis, and knew that the story was going to be a good one, so I read on. After a chapter or two, I couldn’t put it down. There was so much going on in this small family’s life that I had to keep reading to see what happened next.

   J. Jeffrey does a great job of creating a complex story that creates a wide range of emotions for the reader. You swoon over their love story, and get annoyed when Theodore shrugs off something important to Helen. You love their new baby, Regina, then feel bad for poor little Deb. You get angry at Regina for constantly getting Deb in trouble, then you are happy when Deb and Helen become best friends. So many things happen in this book that the reader cannot possibly predict what will happen next. Theodore’s character is completely irresponsible and unpredictable, while Helen is proper and organized. They seem to be one of those ‘opposites attract’ couples, but their relationship (and eventually lack thereof) is the source of only half of the family drama. 

   Regina is a calculating, conniving little girl. She is very jealous of her younger sister and frequently conspires ways to get her in trouble. Her personality is more like Helen’s, whereas Deb is more like Theodore. Because of the differences in their personalities, the girls’ parents never believe Deb when she tries to tell them that Regina has done something on purpose to get her in trouble. Their sibling rivalry lasted into adulthood, and is the other half of the family drama. 

   I absolutely recommend this book. One of the qualities I look for in a book is that it completely submerses me into the story. J.Jeffrey did a fabulous job of that. He incorporated just enough drama, romance and conflict into the story to keep me glued to my kindle and wish there was more to read at the end! 

________________

About the Author:

J. Jeffrey stands about six foot three and likes poetry. He has been known to climb the occasional mountain and tame the occasional lion. He sings opera as an amateur but is trained as a masseur, and he is extremely partial to his wife’s green tea perfume. He drinks too much coffee, and gets lost a lot. Two words: Florence, Italy. Pastry for breakfast, over the crossword puzzle, preferably after noon. Soup for lunch, preferably late afternoon, over another puzzle (the first having been solved). His favorite drink (after coffee) is red wine. He knows a word or two but will not play scrabble. Regrettably, he believes he might be happy if only you would think him as funny as he thinks he is. But most importantly, he is not to be trusted. He writes biographies full of lies, or are they novels full of truths? Such a fine line.

____________________________

You can purchase The Second Daughter on Amazon in paperback or Kindle edition. 

   

Book Spotlight: Impossible Compassion

      

Impossible Compassion

by Edward Mannix

Genre: Self-Help

• Print Length: 194 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1480188743
• ______________________________
• Synopsis:
•     How do we end suffering in our own life and on the planet? How do we bring about seemingly impossible outcomes such as miraculously healing our self from a fatal disease, saving the environment or ending violence and war?
  
  
      In his second book, Edward Mannix takes on our assumptions about what is possible and impossible for us as individuals and as a species, and he provides us with a new paradigm and new tools that enable us to achieve that which was previously unachievable.
  
  
      The new paradigm he presents includes two key concepts the author calls metaphysical causation and interlocking karma. 
  
  
      Metaphysical causation at first sounds a lot like the Law of Attraction but ends up being quite a bit different. According to the author it is not our thoughts that create our reality, but rather it is our karma or karmic imprints that are projected onto the movie screen of our life by the powerful projector of our soul. By moving the discussion away from the potency of our thoughts to something more difficult to observe - our karmic imprints - the book reveals to us important hidden aspects of the creative mechanism of life, and offers us the opportunity to intervene in this causal process in a new and powerful way. For those readers who have tried the Law of Attraction and found it sometimes effective and other times ineffective, it is likely that the information presented in this text will illuminate why those techniques often fall down. 
  
  
      Impossible Compassion provides a missing link of sorts, helping us identify and change our karmic imprints through the use of simple tools and processes that fall under the heading of what the author calls directed compassion. By utilizing our own compassion to alter the karmic imprints on the film of our soul - which the book teaches us how to do in specific detail - we can literally re-write the script of our life, leading to rapid and potentially miraculous changes in our external world.
  
  
      And, while according to metaphysical causation we each sit at the center of and in some way create our own universe, we are also all connected to one another and part of each others' created universes. In his discussion of what he calls interlocking karma, the author illuminates this critical paradox that is so often misunderstood or entirely missed by students and teachers of modern spirituality. In so doing, he gives us further insight into the process of reality unfolding, and it is with an understanding of interlocking karma that we can see how giving our self compassion can influence the physical health of a loved one or help bring about major changes in our collective reality, e.g., ending violence and war. 
  ________________________________
  
  
  About the Author
  
  

Edward Mannix has been on a conscious path of personal and spiritual development for over twenty years. He has practiced Vipassana meditation in a monastery in Burma, travelled to Nepal to receive teachings and empowerments from Tibetan Rinpoches, and worked with hidden masters from a number of traditions and geographies, spanning Asia, Europe and the United States. Throughout his journey, Edward has consistently focused on a form of practical spirituality – integrating his spiritual pursuits into ordinary life, not leaving worldly endeavors behind, but instead using them as a vehicle to go deeper into awakening. While on his conscious path and prior to becoming an author, he worked in the private sector as a management consultant and social entrepreneur. He holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University where he studied Sustainability and Social Enterprise, an M.A. from The School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, and a B.A. in Psychology and Economics from Indiana University. Drawing upon unique insight and an unusually diverse set of life experiences, Edward brings fresh perspective to ancient wisdom, and is emerging as an important new voice in the arenas of philosophy, spiritual development and personal transformation. 

  You can visit Edward Mannix’s website or follow him on Facebook and Twitter.