The New Book Review

Monday, January 30, 2012

Book for Writers, Linguists, Anthropolgists and Lovers of Language

Euphemania
Subtitle: Our love affair with euphemisms
By Ralph Keyes
Little Brown and Co.
ISBN: 9780316056564
Nonfiction/ (Writing/Language)
Contact Reviewer: hojoreviews@aol.com

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson originally for MyShelf.com

If you don’t love language, it’s a good bet you aren’t a writer. But if you’re a writer, reading more about language (linguistics (?)) may not be high on your list of priorities. It’s so integral to the way you think, you believe you don’t need it.

I believe that Euphemania by Ralph Keyes will change your mind. Written with humor (because euphemisms are just naturally funny?) this book will certainly entertain. If you’ve ever wondered about the intricacies of our euphemisms—the origins as an example—this is the book for you. But who would have guessed that it also might be the perfect book to hone the skills of writers of dialogue and humor?

Academic writers? Use it as a quick-study on how to write a book that will sell to a wide market. The secret? Voice. Humor. Colloquialisms. Yep, and euphemisms. A book does not have to have the lack of moisture content (dry!) of a text book to be a textbook. I know about academic expectations. My daughter is a Ph.D. candidate. She explains it to me all the time. Having said that, if you’d like to actually sell something rather than giving everything away to unappreciative academic journals, try rewriting your brilliant theory for the general public!

Anthropologists and linguists will love this book, too. But mostly, it’s just fun learning why we use asterisks for words like sh*t and the euphemisms like the f-word. It’s also tons of fun to identify phrases we’ve stopped thinking of as euphemisms (love handles, anyone?), just because they are so part of our everyday language.

If I were rating this book for an Amazon review, it would give it a true (not a fake) five-star rating. For usefulness. For fun. For the love of language.

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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 :

Friday, January 27, 2012

Five-Star Review for Book Set in New York

Title: Fixer
Author: Ed Brodow
Author Website: http://www.fixerbook.com
Genre: Historical Fiction
ISBN: 978-1432717032

Reviewed by Erika Borsos originally for Amazon
Reviewer's Rating: Five Stars

This book provides a great visual representation of life in New York city at the turn-of-the-century. The author uses his words like an artist uses paint on canvas. This book leaves a great visual and colorful impact on the reader. The story is energetic, fast paced and filled with great human interest, overall a fascinating read. This is an historical era novel about a powerful charismatic politically connected figure who wielded a great deal of influence in New York city during the height of his career. It was a time when various people from Europe and Russia were clashing as they fought to create a new and better life for themselves and their families. They escaped the political forces and prejudices which held them back in the "old world" but faced new and different enemies and circumstances instead. Sometimes, the new circumstances were nearly as daunting as the old but as time marched on, the powerful walls which kept people of different cultures from achieving their potential cracked and broke apart. Times created situations where someone with a powerful personality who had major chutzpah and intelligence could work the system and become highly influential. This book is about such a man, his name is Harry Leonoff, a man of Jewish descent who beat the odds and made himself into a success. He become politically connected and indispensable to the politicians who needed major jobs done around the city. He hung around Tammany Hall with the Irish who got Harry hooked on politics. Harry's reputation grew as he strove to maintain his values and integrity while he got jobs done. Unfortunately, his strong need to maintain his integrity prevented him from backing down from a position once he took a strong stand and this became his undoing after clashing with Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who also possessed a similar ego and style of behavior.

Harry Leonoff's rise to power and his fall from grace makes for a fascinating novel. Harry's early life began on the Lower East Side of New York in Jewish tenement houses and apartments. This milieu provided the foundation for Harry's developing a strong character. His character was tested when he developed polio and underwent rigorous stretching exercises, without benefit of analgesics. Fortunately, he eventually received more humane treatment from Andrew Craig a Scotsman who developed a successful home treatment for polio victims. Harry retained a limp due to this childhood illness. Perhaps this is where Harry learned to care so much about the poor and less fortunate. Harry's fearless reputation got him hired by a local group of Jewish leaders who wanted some anti-Semitic thugs taught a lesson. By age 23, Harry realized he needed education and hung out at a local Democratic Club, where he overheard Big Jim Connolly express that lawyers ran the city. This gave Harry the grand idea to become a law clerk. At the time there were several avenues to entering the legal profession, one was attending law school, another was graduating from college and preparing for the bar exam, and a third for those with little formal education, as was Harry's case, was to become a law clerk. Harry was hired to apprentice for Mr. Levine who had won some rather famous cases. This is where Harry's sense of fair play arose as he noticed not everyone was getting justice under the legal system ...in fact, the rich and powerful seemed to receive most of it. He concluded only those with political influence could correct the deficiencies in the system so Harry attempted to do just that. He returned to Tammany Hall to work for Big Jim Connolly. Harry's success continued as he gained experience and grew to have a reputation for getting the job done.

The author does a superb job of describing the rise and fall of Harry's fame. The stories are realistic and believable, most are serious, others are humorous. The author does a particularly excellent job of drawing the reader into the story from the beginning when Harry's grandson visits at the hospital where Harry resides. The description of the harbor, the weather, the landscape and views and then the inside of the mental hospital are very visually realistic and appealing. The author's description of how Harry's frame of mind flips from current reality into the past is highly accurate of how confused elderly people behave and react. The book was inspired by the life of the author's own grandfather. This book is most highly recommended. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Valentine Gift that Lasts Better Than a Greeting Card

Cherished Pulse
A Chapbook of Unconventional Love Poetry
By Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Genre: Poetry
Available on Amazon at http://budurl.com/CherishedPulse
Available for Kindle

After throwing out another batch of high priced Christmas cards, I’m ready to put a formal ban on wasteful, expensive greeting cards in my house. With Valentine’s Day pending, it’s time we started giving real gifts that last and forget about fancy expensive packaging and syrupy cliché cards that make landfill.

For those looking for a deeper and more sustained gift for Valentine's Day, an inexpensive chapbook of poetry is perfect. Poetry has a transformative effect and it lasts. Cherished Pulse, a book of unconventional love poetry by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball, is pretty enough not to need any embellishments with beautiful artwork by watercolorist Vicki Thomas. It doesn’t have any calories, fits snugly on the shelf or looks lovely on a coffee table, and at only $6.95 for a paperback, or $2.99 for the Kindle version, it won’t more (or as much!) as a card on its own. Pair it with your own beautiful poem or a hand-picked flower from your garden for the most memorable and powerful Valentine’s Day gift you’ve ever given.

Review by Molly Martin:

Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s poems begin with the delicate refrain found in ‘A Woman's Heart.’ ‘Dreaming Lilacs,’ moves the reader into a scented, heart felt remembrance before moving on to a playful stanza ‘Hallmark Couldn't Possibly Get This Right.’ Poet Howard-Johnson’s last offering is a poignant introspective ‘Loving Lance.’ Other titles by this poet include; "Watching My Daughter Say Goodbye To a Fleeting Love," and " LA Love Story."

Magdalena Ball presents the first 10 poems; from the haunting lyric found in ‘The Ocean,’ strength of ‘Great Sky,’ and stark reality of ‘Dark Matter,’ poet Ball moves the reader toward her final though provoking reflective work; ‘Baker’s Dozen’. Other titles by poet Ball include; "Event Horizon," and "Oubliette."

Cherished Pulse :Unconventional Love Poetry is a pleasurable collection of buoyant, spirited poetry sure to pique the interest of the most discerning reader who is looking for a nice afternoon’s read. Each of the verses is a true delight. There is something for everyone. Language use is not predictable, nevertheless Cherished Pulse is an invigorating read of agreeably constructed stanzas presented in a satisfactorily rounded assortment. The reader will be drawn into the verses’ rich stitching of sentiment, passion, and sensation.

Pick up a copy at http://www.budurl.com/CherishedPulse. Add a grosgrain ribbon book mark and an early spring flower and you'll have a never-forgotten gift.

----- 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 :

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

New Book Is What Donald Trump and Dr. Oz Have in Common

Title: 5 Minute Motivator

Author: Dr. Eric Kaplan

Both Donald Trump and Dr. Oz have Dr. Eric Kaplan's books.

This story is unique in that it is a love story, a story of survival, dedication and positive thinking. After Dr. Kaplan and his wife were 100% paralyzed by Botox injections (Dying to Be Young, #1 Bestseller.

The couple were recently featured on Dr. Oz and hopes to appear on the show again with his new book. They have also appeared on Good Morning America, Primetime Live, CNN Anderson Cooper, Montel Williams, andThe Insider, just to name just a few. With his new book again he is expecting to do many shows which will be mutually beneficial.

The 5 Minute Motivator clearly demonstrates the power of goal setting, affirmations, positive mental attitude, love, commitment, while being of service to others. The 5 Minute Motivator is a book about self-empowerment, self-actualization, and success manifestation using spiritual short stories to portray the principles and conscious tools and techniques.

From Such Seeds of Adversity Can Come your Greatest Triumphs...

5 Minute Motivator was the result as they turned tragedy into a dream come true. It includes simple yet powerful steps you can follow to infuse your own life with treater abundance, joy, and happiness.

Dr. Kaplan believes you were born with everything you need to heal yourself. After millions of years of evolution, your body is equipped for any challenge that comes its way: germs, cancer cells, you name it. But a huge, profit-driven medical establishment has been built around healing from the outside in, instead of inside out. When you buy this book today, you'll also receive Dr Kaplan's other book - Imagine two books for the price of one plus 150 bonus gifts! 5 Minutes to Wellness will open up your power of self-healing and The 5 Minute Motivator, will motivate you to do so. Dr. Kaplan outlines a step-by-step, approach by committing "5 Minutes a day."

CHECK OUT THE GREAT BONUSES!

In "5 Minutes" a day:

you can live the life you dreamed.
you can be healthier.
you can be happier.
you could remove the toxins that are in your body.
you could lose 10 pounds--and more.
you could help others.
you could own your own business.
you could make a difference in your life and the lives of others.

Take that one step further. Follow in the great steps of Michael Jordan, and make winning a habit. This book will teach you how. Check it out now! http://bit.ly/y0nJVi

~ Book Tour by Denise Cassino
Publicist and Book Marketing Specialist
303 838 3399
skype: denise.cassino
www.BestsellerServices.com
www.spiritoftheseasoncatalog.com
www.mybestsellerlaunch.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 :

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Best Books for Writers To Read in 2012

Obviously, I haven't read every new book out there for writers. Consider this a good little "get started" list for your 2011 reading.

Agni, a literary journal. Literary writers might pick any full book-size issue and study the selections to improve your poetry and short stories.. Published by Boston University. www.agnimagazine.org.

Outwitting Writer’s Block and other Problems of the Pen by Jenna Glatzer, Lyons Press, ISBN: 1592281249

Ignite the Genius Within: Discover Your Full Potential (with CD), by Dr. Christine Ranck and Christopher Lee Nutter, Dutton. ISBN: 9780525950943

Surviving Depression with Art Therapy by Joyce White, AuthorHouse, Really for artists of every ilk, but an interesting take on what the arts (writing) can do for our psyches. ISBN: 9781434320667

Concerning E. M. Forster by Frank Kermode. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book is for very literary types and really avoid Forster fans. ISBN: 9780374298999

The Essential Don Murray, edited by Thomas Newkirk and Lisa C. Miller, Heinmann Boynton/Cook. Don Murray is deceased. His sage advice to writers live on. ISBN 9780867096002

Writers’ Tricks of the Trade: 39 things you need to know about the ABCs of writing fiction by Morgan St. James, Marina Publishing. A new book by the queen of mystery writing. ISBN: 9780983779001

Spice Up Your Writing: Write to Entice by Billie A. Williams. Published by Filbert Publishing. Williams is a mystery writer with several self-help books for writers to her credit. I especially love the chapter on perseverance in this, her newest. ISBN: 9781932794168

Note: For more outstanding books—not necessarily books for writers—please see Carolyn's MyShelf Noble (Not Nobel!) Prize list for 2011 in her Back to Literature Column (http://www.myshelf.com/backtoliterature/column.htm.)

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Monday, January 23, 2012

A Brand New eBook Women's Poetry Anthology

Title: Fire on Her Tongue Subtitle: An eBook Anthology of Contemporary Women’s Poetry Editors: Agodon, Kelli Russell, and Spaulding-Convy, Annette Editor’s Website Link: http://www.ofkells.blogspot.com/
Genre: Poetry
ISBN-13: 978-1-937860-24-0Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Her-Tongue-Contemporary-ebook/dp/B006R8Q9JK
Two Sylvias Press, 2012
E-book

Reviewed by Paul David Adkins

Fire on Her Tongue: An eBook Anthology of Contemporary Women’s Poetry, (, ISBN: 13: 978-1-937860-24-0, 491 kb, approximately 460 pp) is an eBook edited by Kelli Russell Agodon and Annette Spaulding-Convy. The editors present the work of 73 poets, both well known and emerging artists. This first-of-its-kind collection, available on Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Sony Reader, and twenty-eight other eBook retailers such as eBooks.com, IndieBound.org, Powell’s and many others, provides an exciting overview of some of the best American writing today.

Fire on Her Tongue should not be confused with earlier comprehensive anthologies such as Hayden Carruth’s The Voice That is Great Within Us, or a college textbook published by Norton, lugged to every introductory American literature course known to woman. Agodon and Spaulding-Convy present the poetry of contemporary women exclusively: there is no Robert Frost, W.C. Williams, Carl Sandburg, or Robert Creeley here. The collection is vivid and immediate, and the writers are all still living. This eBook captures the incredibly varied talents of the women included.

Anthologies are normally associated with canonical writing. With the usual exceptions of Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Bishop, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Gwendolyn Brooks, general anthologies almost universally neglect the presence, much less importance, of women poets. The adage that one must be dead to be a famous author seems especially fitting for these types of collections, many of which stop at Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. It is as if American women suddenly ceased writing to eternally mourn the deaths of these twin icons. The fact that the press publishing this work is named Two Sylvias is doubly significant here. It marks the definitive passing of women’s poetry from the enigmatic, suicidal Plath to her matrilineal descendants, so to speak. Deference is paid to America’s colossal literary martyr, but it’s time to move on, the editors declare.

And move on, they do! Though the poets are presented alphabetically, Kim Addonizio is a perfect opening writer for this groundbreaking collection. Members of the canon such as Alicia Ostriker and Patricia Smith stand alongside deserving lesser-known authors including Ivy Alvarez and Kate Lebo. Rachel Contreni Flynn and Annie Finch comfortably coexist. This is a collection for people who love poetry. And while academics will certainly find it an invaluable tool for mapping current literary trends women are exploring, the real worth is in its ability to share wonderful work with other readers, not dictate what is canonical or worthy of scholarly attention.

Some people might consider the heavy concentration of writers linked to Seattle as a weakness. Over 30 of the authors are indeed directly connected in some way to this city and surrounding area, as, too, are Agodon and Spaulding-Convy. The question might arise as to why Two Sylvias did not simply present the anthology exclusively as a showpiece of the incredibly vibrant Seattle poetry scene; there is certainly enough material to do so. Such criticism misses the point of the collection, however. The anthology has more of a conversational than authoritative feel. Essentially, here are two highly knowledgeable women from the Pacific Northwest respecting their audience with questions such as, “Hey, have you read THIS writer? She’s awesome! This one, too. Do you know her? She’s really fantastic!”

Fire on Her Tongue is a celebration of women’s poetry, a party, not a granite monument. It’s not the work of two editors showing off how smart they are, but instead how excited they are about the current state of women’s poetry in America. Buy it! Read it! You’ll find their enthusiasm is catching.

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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 :

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Writer Advises This Book as Brushup for Writers

Title: Punctuation
Author: G. Miki Hayden
Link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Punctuation+by+G.+Miki+Hayden
Non-fiction ebook on writing

Reviewed by Joy V. Smith originally for her writing blog

Reviewer's link: http://pagadan.wordpress.com/

Reviewer's rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Writers need this book!

As a writer, I take advantage of opportunities to refresh my knowledge of the basic rules of writing. Even though I’m an English major, I’m occasionally unsure of whether to use a comma or a semi-colon, etc., so I was grateful for the opportunity to read Punctuation by G. Miki Hayden. Btw, look carefully at the punctuation mark on the cover. It is not what you think. At least, it wasn’t what I thought. I confess I just glanced at it and thought I knew what it was. I was surprised to learn that I was wrong–and what it means.

The rules of punctuation are to make it easy for the reader. You don’t want to trip him up and stop his enjoyment of your story, because writing isn’t just words; it’s about how to emphasize them. I appreciated not only the easy-to-understand rules, but also the examples, which help you to understand them. I’m less fuzzy now about which punctuation marks go inside the double quotes and which don’t, among other things. And I won’t be puzzled when reading a book published in England.

Learning that you don’t need to use italics when writing thoughts was a relief. And I learned only recently that we probably don’t need to underline words to be printed in italics, and we now only put one space at the end of a sentence. That is a hard habit to break! (And you’ll notice that I’ve only used one exclamation mark so far. I tend to overuse them, along with parentheses.) Be sure to study the section on apostrophes, please.

The ellipsis explanation really helped me, and the serial comma explanation made me feel better. (I had never given up the last serial comma, btw.) A number of things were clarified for me, including what to use inside a parenthesis (brackets); I’ve been using more parentheses. And there are quizzes at the end, if you want to test yourself. This was an easy and enjoyable read, and the author was firm, but not dogmatic. Highly recommended for those who write, whether it’s fiction or reports or a blog. And it was a fun read.

Joy
My writing blog
http://pagadan.wordpress.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 :

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