The New Book Review

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Showing posts with label Nonfiction: Autobiography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nonfiction: Autobiography. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Book Tour Includes Life with Mr. America


What's it like behind closed doors with Mr. America?
Step into the world of Lindy Tefft. Being raised by controlling parents that demanded perfection, she thought she was getting “Mr. Perfect” when she married body building superstar Greg Tefft. She soon found herself immersed in a world of duplicity, all-consuming competitiveness, violence, and greed. Her life was a roller-coaster of physical abuse and financial ruin. She crawled through a tunnel of terror she thought would never end and was forced to reach into the depths of her soul and finally break free. Lindy finds peace beyond the illusion of fame and riches. and offers an insightful hand-up to others facing the aftermath of abuse and despair.
Don’t miss this riveting, inspirational true story of personal redemption beyond trauma.


 

"This is an extraordinary story of personal courage and ultimate triumph over some of humanity's obstacles and betrayals. To take this journey with Lindy - who withholds nothing - is sometimes harrowing, sometimes absurd, sometimes incomprehensibly mean...but ultimately wonderful as we walk with her through too many years of living in the darkness of fear and abuse...to finally emerging into the sunshine of enlightenment, joy, and freedom. It is a truly remarkable story of our times and our culture." Jeff Rense, Host of the Nationally Syndicated Jeff Rense Radio Program


"Lindy Tefft's book is simply a literary jewel. It brings an electrifying charge of spirituality that empowers women to break out of the enclaves of silence. The author's revealing life, marked almost since birth by the hand of abuse, shows us how fragile we all can be when faced with fear. Her decisive struggled against domestic violence represents a shining light at the end of the tunnel and hope for all of humans." Salomon Gill, Move Producer

Submitted by:
Denise Cassino

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Sunday, November 20, 2011

A Cancer Experience Turns into a Page-Turner

Title: Getting It Off My Chest, A Journey Through Breast Cancer
Author: Sandra Fikus
Author's website: www.sandrafikuswrites.com

Genre: Autobiography/Health
ISBN: 9781456885052
Reviewer: Matt Joseph
Link: matt@josephlaw.com

Originally reviewed by Matt Joseph at Amazon. Rating: 4.0

You're cruising through life young and healthy, managing a busy and complex family, you have a career, children, are a success and you have a great future. Out of the blue one morning, "I brushed my hand across my chest and felt a lump."

Thus begins the engaging book "Getting It Off My Chest," a past-paced
chronicle of one Canadian woman's experience with Stage II breast cancer and its lingering aftermath. Sandra Fikus lives in Vancouver, B.C., and
seemingly has it all. She has no family history of breast cancer. She's done
all the right things and she's made all the right choices.

Then, discovery of a lump in her breast one day after Christmas in 2007
upends her life forever.

"Getting It Off My Chest" is presented in a diary format. Day-by-day, week
in and week out, the author describes, in often humorous and earthy
language, her immediate shock at first, her formal diagnosis, the vast
support system she depends on, the grinding treatments and her subsequent
healing. While there is perhaps more than we care to know about her family's internal dynamics, we learn much about the biology of cancer. Fikus is deeply grateful for her doctors, but the reader watches her dissatisfaction
with the traditional medical profession grow stronger with each passing day.


As the author recounts her story, there are interesting and important
detours along the way. We learn about nutrition, wellness, spirituality, and
yoga. We come to value second chances, and how surviving a serious illness
allows one to reevaluate the way they live and care for themselves. Fikus
raises many important questions about cancer. The answers to her questions
are beyond the scope of this book - or any book, really.

This was one of those rare reads I simply couldn't put down. A slim 165
pages, I finished "Getting It Off My Chest" during a single cross country
flight. My own family has been devastated by cancer and I could strongly
relate to this story. Fikus's testimony should be read by men as much as by
women. Hers is the voice of our mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, aunts,
nieces, cousins and friends. Through the gritty challenges of one breast
cancer patient and survivor, we can perhaps better understand how the women battling cancer in our own lives are doing - what they may be thinking, feeling, and how they are coping.

~Review Matthew Joseph is a lawyer living in San Mateo, CA.  Learn more about him at www.josephlaw.com

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Entertainment Host Reviews Eric Clapton's Autobiography

Clapton: The Autobiography
By Eric Clapton
New York: Random House, 2007



Reviewed by Wesley Britton. Originally for Wesley Britton’s Entertainment Scrapbook


Every once in a while, I have time to pick up a book not related to radio interviews or my other projects. As a result, this review is a bit behind the curve. Well, perhaps your own bookshelf is like mine—here is a pile of must-reads, here are titles that just arrived in the mailbox, and over here are books I’m eager to read when I’m caught up with all the obligatory work. Ah, the desk is clear tonight—why not spend a few hours with ole EC who, even if he’s not God, is at least in the pantheon of those who once seemed to be messengers from above?

Of course, the story of Eric Clapton is more than well known—and he’s not alone. Memoirs of rock stars, especially those written by icons of the ‘60s, tend to follow a similar arc. First, we’re often told about the working-class backgrounds of young boys sparked into life when they heard the records of their idols. For British youth, these usually meant blues masters like Robert Johnson or early rockers like Chuck Berry and Little Richard. Then, the autobiographies trace how the devotees bought their first instruments, practiced diligently on them, knocked about with friends in various ensembles, and then recount how they came to fame with hit records and life on the road.

Then, too often, fame brings the excesses of sexual, alcoholic, and/or drug addictions. Years, decades go by with music taking a back seat to the pursuit of the highest highs accompanied by the lowest lows. Finally, the addictive cycle is broken and the musician finds peace, stability, self-awareness, and rehabilitation. And gratitude they survived at all.

Such is the tale of Eric Clapton who candidly admits, again and again in his memoirs, that his road was one paved with bad choices. Sharing all but the most graphic of details, “Slowhand” (who gives new meaning to the moniker by revealing he typed out the MS using one finger on his computer) talks about his painful childhood as a virtual orphan raised by his grandparents and how the blues became his lifeblood. From his earliest days, Clapton was a mix of a strong ego—being such a purest he left the Yardbirds when they went commercial—and a man plagued with deep feelings he was unworthy of romantic relationships that could blend sex with friendship. The latter would become a recurring pattern in his life, resulting in a string of liaisons doomed by first heroine and then alcohol.

As a result, the story of Clapton’s life begins with a slow building of energy filled with youthful excitement, idealism, and then stories of playing with the legends of his day, Cream, John Mayall, Jimi Hendrix. The rise in his fortunes hits its top with the Delany and Bonnie-inspired first solo album and the powerful creativity of Derek and the Dominoes. From that point forward, twenty years go by as nearly as painful to read about as they must have been to experience. One wonders how Clapton was able to produce any music at all during these years and it’s not surprising much of his output from the late ‘70s forward was so lean and limp in both the studio and on stage. Clapton himself expresses little pride in much of his work during this period. For example, he spends more time talking about his affair with Yvonne Elliman than the hours he spent in the studio producing 461 Ocean Boulevard. Then again, considering the amount of intoxicants in his system, it’s difficult to see how much he could remember as his abilities declined and his obsession with Patti Boyd Harrison went every which way but right.

Finally, with age comes wisdom and freedom from the old patterns. After kicking his sexual and substance dependencies, Clapton turns his attentions to helping other addicts and investing time and money in genuinely making this world a better place. Once again, Clapton’s writing style takes on an uplifting tone even if the final chapters are filled with descriptions of sailing, beaches, and fly-fishing that read like extended blog entries.

Frankly, this is an autobiography likely to interest Eric Clapton fans and few others. Fortunately, Clapton has legions of admirers and rightly so—but they’d be better rewarded playing the music than delving into the missteps of an obsessed lover who confesses to sleeping with an overweight “witch” because she claimed to have the power to return “Layla” to his bed. Did we really need to know this? Perhaps it’s just me, but I’m not interested in the details of sexual dysfunction—it’s the music I want to know about. There are nuggets, as when Clapton shares the humorous origins of “Wonderful Tonight,” his response to Patti taking too long to get ready to go out. But the humor dissipates when we learn Clapton had difficulty playing the song after his break-up because of its associations with “Nell”—the name Clapton gave Patti to distinguish his Pattie from the person once wedded to George Harrison. I was happy to learn Clapton thought as little of “I Shot The Sheriff” as I did, a song I never thought was worthy of the airplay it earned. Of course, it’s impossible not to feel the pain Clapton suffered over the death of his son, Conner. But such anecdotes and revelations are scattered in between lengthy descriptions of revolving bed-mates and drinking binges, making much of the book easier to skim than digest whole. In the end, I was filled with relief—both for Clapton himself and for me, the reader

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Reviewer Dr. Wesley Britton is co-host of online radio’s “Dave White Presents” which features interviews with a wide range of entertainers. Past programs are archived at www.audioentertainment.org/dwp. He is also author of four books on espionage and runs www.spywise.net. Wes teaches English at Harrisburg Area Community College.

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using the widget below: