Kudos to Dr. Karen Hutchins Pirnot, Winner of the Tales2Inspire Reviewer-of-the-Month Award

TITLE OF YOUR BOOK: 

Tales2Inspire ~ The Diamond Collection - Series I

NAME (AUTHOR OF BOOK): 

An Anthology of stories collated by author/editor Lois W. Stern 

GENRE OR CATEGORY:

Non-fiction anthology of short stories

FORMATS:

Paperback, Kindle

NUMBER OF PAGES

230

ISBN-13 : 978-1505558166

ISBN-10:  1505558166

PUBLISHER:

Self-published by Tales2Inspire viaAmazon.com

AMAZON LINK:

https://www.amazon.com/Tales2Inspire-Diamond-Collection-I/dp/1505558166/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=Tales2Inspire+Collection&qid=1669911629&s=books&sr=1-4

REVIEWED BY:

Dr. Karen Hutchins Pirnot 

YOUR BEST REVIEW:

The short story continues alive and well, and Tales 2 Inspire ~ The Diamond Collection - Series I. The overriding factor which struck me while reading Tales2Inspire ~ The Diamond Collection - Series I was that these writers were living, breathing people with relatively ordinary backgrounds. At the time of their experiences, they were everyday people struggling to understand their own circumstances. No one was paying them millions of dollars to act on the silver screen or to throw or catch a ball on a field of athletic play. Rather, these were ordinary people who faced challenges that came their way. What made them courageous and/or heroic was that they did not back away; they did not cower in the face of adversity. They accepted what was not asked for and they made their way through to moments of personal victory.

MORE ABOUT LOIS W.  STERN

After twenty years as an active educator, Lois continued to pursue her love of writing, soon becoming co-editor of a popular Long Island web-zine. As she created and authored her column Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives, she began to solidify her special niche of investigative journalism, and put those same talents to work while writing Sex, Lies and Cosmetic Surgery, for which she interviewed over 100 women about some of the most intimate aspects of their lives. She followed up with her second book, Tick, Tock, Stop the Clock. Getting Pretty on Your Lunch Hour  to address many of the less invasive paths to beauty. 

Tales2Inspire began a whole new chapter in her life. 

Visit her website at: https://www.tales2inspire.com to learn about her he Tales2Inspire® books, contest and ghostwriting services..

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER:

A clinical psychologist until retirement and prolific author. (See more about thus reviewer following this review, below)

YOUR FAVORITE LINKS: 

https://www.tales2inspire.com

www.twitter.com/tales2inspire2

wwww.facebook.com/tales2inspire

ADD THIS ASSURANCE TO SATISFY COPYRIGHT LAW: 

 X Yes, I previously received permission from the reviewer to reprint their review in its entirety. 

REVIEWER’S BYLINE

Clinical psychologist, author

BOOK COVER

 

ABOUT THIS REVIEWER:

Dr. Pirnot has worked with children and their families through the Department of Human Services, the Juvenile Justice System and in private practice. Until her retirement she treated special needs children as well as those with transitional life issues.  Dr. Pirnot established  a thriving private practice in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but eventually relocated to Sarasota Florida to be close to her family. A prolific writer, she has published over forty books, many of which reflect her personal experiences in and out of private practice. Several titles include: Nothing Left To Burn, a journal of sorts, detailing her experiences with her husband during his slow decline with Alzheimer’s disease;  Benny and the Butterfly, the story of an eight-year-old boy, unable to use his hands, who used a laser device affixed to his head to make pictures on the computer; The Blue Penguin, a great lesson to young readers that it is okay to just be YOU! The Ghost of Gasparilla: A Silky and Sly Adventure, is an imaginary tale of an old offshore shipwreck and the adventures and courage of the  children who discover it; Just a Common Lady, a story of the weathering process of tragedy and opportunity. When not writing or gardening, Karen takes great pleasure in her grandchildren and the many projects and adventures they share,

Kudos to Ellen Lenox Smith, Winner of the Tales2Inspire Reviewer of the Month Award

TITLE: Tales2Inspire ~ The Diamond Collection - Series III 

(This book is the double header compilation of two individual T2I books: 

The Garnet Collection and The Pearl Collection

SERIES TITLE: Tales2Inspire

AUTHOR: Anthology of authors of contest winning inspiring stories

AUTHOR'S WEBSITE: https://www.tales2inspire.com 

GENRE: Inspirational, non-fiction personal stories 

AGE / INTEREST LEVEL: 14 + 

PAGE COUNT: 236

PUBLISHER: Independently Published

PURCHASE LINK: https://www.amazon.com/Tales2inspire-Diamond-Collection-Moonstone-Collections/dp/B09MBVRB2S/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Tales2Inspire+Collection&qid=1649016550&s=books&sr=1-3

REVIEWED BY: Ellen Lenox Smith

REVIEW: 

 Feel Inspired and Add A Smile to your Day

If you want to have a reason to smile, feel inspired, and be in awe, read these true stories of inspiration and adventure in this series. You will not regret the time it takes to read and enjoy these stories that will impress you and bring joy to your heart.

 

LINK: https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AF3GIOZ5BOE6DTVHDYOMDPBOGBFQ/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_gw_tr?ie=UTF8

Reviewed by Ellen Lenox Smith for Amazon.com

About the reviewer: 

Ellen Lenox Smith has emerged as a leading voice for patients living with pain in Rhode Island. Featured in local and national press accounts, Mrs. Smith brings a reasoned and compassionate perspective to the need for safe patient access to medicine. Mrs. Smith suffers from two rare conditions. One is a degenerative collagen disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. This crippling disease allows her joints to become easily subluxed, causing vice-like pain and that confined her for four years in a wheelchair.  In 2006, she was accepted into the Connective Tissue Research at the National Institute of Health to help search for a cure to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Her second condition is called sarcoidosis, which has allowed enlarged lymph nodes and granulomas in her lungs. Both these conditions are presently not curable. She presently has endured twenty-seven surgeries and countless visits to her doctors.

 Mrs. Smith has enjoyed a long and distinguished career, predominantly in the field of education. The last position she had before needing to resign, due to health, was teaching middle school social studies. Presently, she is a Rhode Island ambassador for the US Pain Foundation as the Co-Director for Cannabis Advocacy, on the board of both the US Pain Foundation and the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition (RIPAC) as media coordinator, appointed by the governor to the ATEL Program, (Adaptive Telephone Equipment Loan Program), is appointed on the Medical Cannabis Oversight Committee representing patients, helps with media exposure for the five-year-old EDS RI Support group and brings in speakers to educate the group and recently was selected to represent patients on the Oversight Panel in RI that will oversee the medical marijuana program. She was a staff writer for National Pain Report and 1000 WATTS Magazine before their shut down, was a former staff writer for Pain News Network and with her husband, speaks out to educate others about her condition and pain management. Some places she has spoken to are the FDA, Brown Medical students, Blue Cross nurses, and physical therapy students in RI and Ct along with speaking at the EDS national conferences. She is also the author of two books: It Hurts Like Hell!: I Live With Pain-- And Have A Good Life Anyway and My Life as a Service Dog! Mrs. Smith is a resident of Scituate, Rhode Island with her husband, Stuart. They have been married for  49 years!  They are proud parents of four adult children and three grandsons and two granddaughters. Ellen is also an organic gardener and prior to her disability, was a master swimmer and high school swim coach.

Attention Authors: We're Here to Help You Stand Out from the Crowd

Attention Authors: If you're looking for an opportunity to stand out from the crowd by touting your  accomplishments to a large audience of followers right here on our award winning blog, TheNewBookReview, here's a golden opportunity for you. And there's more. Get a FREE personalized banner to use for all your marketing needs, and a gold star emblem right next to your name on TNBR Review Wanted charts. 

See genre charts. 

(The banner would look like the prototype pictured above, but with your full color book cover and headshot in place of the black silhouettes. The sky is the limit when it comes to touting you personal accomplishments. Just look at how Carolyn and I do that at the end of every blog posting, including this one. This is your opportunity to brag a bit about your accomplishments, so be honest but don’t be shy.)

We now have over 150 books listed for authors seeking reviews, a wonderful outpouring of requests for a wide variety of titles. Can I count on you to become one of our Authors Helping Authors, join in this effort, write a review for a fellow author, and get a FREE banner as a thank you. 

Just follow these steps:

Click here or copy and paste https://thenewbookreview.blogspot.com/2021/01/free-books-to-read-and-review.html

into your browser) to select a book listed in the genre of your choice.

Then Click here or copy and paste https://thenewbookreview.blogspot.com/2021/11/how-to-get-freebooks-to-read-and-review.html into your browser) 

to learn the easy steps to contacting that author, writing and submitting your review, and doing a bit of self promotion at the same time.

I’ll be doing a happy dance for each author who gets a newly posted review through this “Authors Helping Authors” project.  

Be a Hero: Make Some Magic for Yourself

Be a Hero: Make Some Magic For Yourself

Add Some Subtle Self-Promotion to Your Book Reviews 

👉 Write a catchy heading for your review in 10 words or less. (HINT: Use strong words for your title as that is what other readers will see first, and sometimes the only part they read. So make it pop!)

👉 Sincerity counts. Give the book the number of stars you think it deserves.

 (1 is the lowest score, 5 is the highest. A 5-star rating means that you really liked the book, 4 stars means it was very good, 3 stars, just okay, etc. ).   

                                                         

👉 Try to promote yourself a bit while writing your review, but be subtle about it. 

(One example: If you are an author or editor, you can say something like, "As an author myself, I appreciate books with messages that . . . ", BUT DO NOT name the titles of your books, publishing company etc. or your review is likely to be turned down flat! )

(Another example: If you are an expert or professional in any field, and somewhere in the book the author speaks favorably about that subject, you can say something like: "As a dedicated ___ myself, . . ., I particularly appreciated the way the author depicted . . . ")

👉 Ask the author to provide you with a few questions about their book to help you create your review. (I include Book Discussion Questions at the end of each of my Tales2Inspire books, but you can always ask the author to send you some questions as suggestions for topics they would like you to address.)

👉 Ask the author to suggest page numbers from one section of their book to give you its flavor. (Of course, if you have the time and desire to read the entire book, that's great! But we all have busy schedules, and readers should be able to get a sense of the author's style and writing skills by reading a section of 100 pages or less.)

👉 End your review with your actual name, not a pseudonym. Readers will take more notice of your words if written by a person with an authentic name.

👉 Read over your review to correct any errors before posting it on Amazon or any other credible online book review site.

👉 And once your review is posted, send the link to me at: tales2inspire2@gmail.com with the words Book Review for TNBR in the subject line.

Kudos to Cami Ann Green, PhD, Winner of the Tales2Inspire Reviewer of the Month Award

TITLE: Tales2Inspire ~ The Diamond Collection - Series V

SUBTITLE: St
ories of Turning the Page 

SERIES TITLE: Tales2Inspire ~ The Diamond Collection 

AUTHOR: Anthology of authors of contest winning inspiring stories

AUTHOR'S WEBSITE: https://www.tales2inspire.com 

GENRE: Inspirational, non-fiction personal stories 

AGE / INTEREST LEVEL: 21 + 

PAGE COUNT: 236

PUBLISHER: Independently Published

PURCHASE LINK: https://www.amazon.com/Tales2inspire-Diamond-Collection-Moonstone-Collections/dp/B09MBVRB2S/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Tales2Inspire+Collection&qid=1649016550&s=books&sr=1-3

REVIEWED BY: Cami Ann Green, PhD

REVIEW LINK: https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AF3GIOZ5BOE6DTVHDYOMDPBOGBFQ/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_gw_tr?ie=UTF8

Reviewed by Cami Ann Green, PhD for Amazon.com

About the reviewer:

Cami Ann Green holds two law degrees and a PhD. Her professional career included serving as a law school administrator and university professor. Venues for her academic writing (under "Green" as well as "Hofstadter") range from two law reviews to three books on the nature of foreign consuls, all of which serve as a foundation for her ongoing lectures on these foreign officials who function in communities throughout the United States.

 

In her most recent book, The Yellow Star That Wasn't: Scandinavia, Miami, and Me, Cami interweaves facts about the wartime Jews in Scandinavia with pieces of personal memoir. Set against the backdrop of Jewish history in Scandinavia during WWII, she traverses the road as a post-war, Protestant, Swedish girl in Finland to her American obsession with what happened to the Jews in Scandinavia during that time. In this Amazon Bestseller (in four categories; Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden history0, Cami blends historical facts with personal anecdotes about her growing awakening to the existence of a Jewish people, while showing her own desperate need to belong. This search takes her to Miami through a marriage with a Catholic-American to falling in love with a Jewish-American man with a medical diagnosis of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). More information about this historical memoir can be found on her website: https://chofstadter.com/the-yellow-star-that-wasn-t-scandinavia-miami-and-me/, available on Amazon and  Barnes & Noble in both paperback as well as digital formats. 

 

Particularly drawn to human interest stories both as a writer and reader, Cami has been a three-time winner  in the Tales2Inspire Book Series, including for her story  about being the caregiver of an­­ OCDer.  

Today Cami continues to lecture on the nature of modern consuls functioning in communities throughout the United States, including one written about being the caregiver of an OCDer. 

Don't Just Dream About Getting More Book Reviews - Here's a Way to Actually Get Them

I had a dream. I knew traditional publishers were turning down the works of talented authors, so I started my Tales2Inspire® project to help give them the recognition I felt they deserved. And Tales2Inspire® has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations.

I have another dream: I know how hard it has become for authors to get reviews for their books, so I volunteered to help Carolyn Howard-Johnson with a second Authors Helping Authors project. That’s how I became TheNewBookReview Book Review Acquisition Coordinator. 

We now have over 150 books listed for authors seeking reviews, a wonderful outpouring of requests, but sadly only a few reviewer offers to date. Yet I still have that dream that we can build a NewBookReview community of Authors Helping Authors. I just need a little help from each of you to make this happen.

Can I count on you to become one of my Authors Helping Authors, and join in this effort? 

And by the way, we offer some really neat thank you payoffs for our reviewers:

 

A personalized banner, like the one at the top of this screen, with your book cover and headshot, for you to use for all your marketing endeavors

A Gold Star Reviewer Badge named for you on our genre chart, right next to the book you reviewed

It really isn’t hard to become a gold star reviewer if you just follow the steps below. 

• Go to: http://bit.ly/FreeBookstoReadandReview
• Click on a genre of interest to you.
• Select a book you would like to read and review.
• Contact that author to request their book and follow through by writing a review within 30 days. 

NOTE: (All the information is posted on each genre chart: book title and description, author’s name and email address, page count, interest level and more. Just follow the chart from left to right.)

Yes, I have a dream, that we can help one another get more reviews, and wouldn’t it be awesome if one of our authors contacts you to review your book!

Some Quick and Easy New Ideas for Getting More Book Reviews

A Fresh New Approach to Getting Reviews for Your Book

BY LOIS W STERN 

YOUR ADVOCATE FOR GETTING NEW REVIEWS FOR YOUR BOOKS!

Hi, I'm Lois W. Stern here, your Review Acquisition Coordinator for Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s THE NEW BOOK REVIEW BLOG. I have a fresh new idea for those of you on my list of book review requests to help you get more reviews for your book. 

I just initiated a mini review writing contest for Tales2Inspire, which I want to share with you, so that you can adapt it to initiate your own mini review contest.

Lois W. Stern Reviews Write Right by Joy Lynn Goddard

Write Right is a book packed with clearly defined, easy to digest relevancy. Although primarily geared toward striving novel writers, I discovered much within its covers of equal relevancy to more experienced writers - writers of both fiction and nonfiction. And since TheNewBookReview has a huge audience of writers of all genre and levels of expertise, I wanted to point it out to our readers here.

Once you open this book, first check out the GETTING STARTED section. In her chapter, What’s Your Big Idea, Ms. Goddard writes, “Readers are drawn to a book by the way it makes them feel.  . . .”  Such a simple concept, perhaps easy to overlook, but Ms. Goddard brings it home with her personal reminiscent of the day her mother witnessed blatant racial discrimination and took action against it to right the wrong. And this is the mantra of all polished authors, SHOW, DON’T TELL.

Ms. Goddard continues to SHOW her readers by citing excerpts from well proven treasured works, such as those from To Kill a Mockingbird, The Push, and her own Charlie’s Song, along with pithy statements from beloved authors as J.K. Rawling, Stephen King and even Ernest Hemingway, on what makes strong characters. 

The final section of Write Right, with its chapters on Perfect Punctuation, Parts of Speech, Effective Editing, might appear a bit simplistic for the seasoned writer, but her final chapter offers something of value to them as well. Techniques from alliteration and allusion to symbolism and understatement, are topics even the most seasoned of authors might incorporate into some of their well crafted works, just to give them a bit of extra punch. 

It gives me much pleasure to recommend this book to seasoned authors and aspiring newbies alike. 

Books, Book Reviews and Hens' Teeth

James Gilmore, a mid nineteenth century American, is said to have coined the phrase, Scarcer than Hen’s Teeth. Well, since hens don’t have teeth, in effect he was saying that something was so scarce as to be nonexistent.

 

Let’s not have that happen to our books posted here on TheNewBookReview blog.

We all want those FREE Amazon posted reviews, so let's make it easy for the reviewer. Here’s how:

 Be ready to select a small section of your book listed here on The Book Review blog - perhaps 25 to 50 pages - just to give the reviewer its flavor. And potential reviewers, don’t be afraid to ask.

I have spent the last few weeks updating my Tales2Inspire books, to make it as easy as pie for potential reviewers to write those reviews. But you can develop some of these same features and have them ready to e-mail to potential reviewers, even if they’re not printed in your book. 

For example, I’ve included:

• A brief synopsis of each short story on the Contents pages at the front of each of my Tales2Inspire books. (You can write synopses for chapters or book sections of your book instead.)
• Thoughtful Book Club Discussion questions, at the end of each Tales2Inspire book, targeting the specific stories, so readers can pick and choose those of particular interest to them. (You can write some thought provoking questions now to e-mail to any reviewer from our list who contacts you .) 
• Some really great hints for helping your potential reviewers write reviews, without breaking a sweat, (while showing them how to do a bit of self-promotion along the way.) Click here to check them out.
• And don’t forget, there are some rewards just waiting for each reviewer, to heighten your visibility. Click here to see how we honor our reviewers.

It’s a New Year. 

Go here to select the genre of your choice, choose a title of interest to you from our treasured book listings, contact that author for a free book, and do your stuff.

And here’s why:

No Hen’s Teeth for us!  

As caring, responsible authors, let's each do a little bit to help a fellow author.

Your NewBookReview Coordinator,

   

 

Lois W. Stern