The New Book Review

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Carl Hiassen's YA Novel Gets Heads Up

Title: Chomp

Author: Carl Hiassen

Author's Web site link: http://www.carlhiaasen.com

Genre: Young Adult Urban, 10 and up

Hardcover: 304 pages

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (March 27, 2012)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0375868429

ISBN-13: 978-0375868429

Reviewed by Jack B. Downs

The Story

Wahoo McCroy is your average bemused middle schooler, minus a thumb lost in a feeding accident to a family pet. Distracted as he offered Alice the alligator a whole chicken, he noticed too late that she’d mistaken his appendage for part of the meal. Such is life growing up in a reptile zoo.

Wahoo’s dad Mickey is also suffering the effects of an animal attack – of sorts. Seems he was beaned by a frozen iguana as it tumbled from its tree roost. Life running a reptile zoo creates challenges both logistical and financial. Running low on flow because of his extended recuperation, Mickey takes a contract with Expedition Survival, and uber-popular man-dropped –in-the-wild-to-pit-himself-against-nature story. Then the fun truly begins.

Derek, the star of the series, is a schizophrenic showman, who doesn’t hesitate to down roadkill for his audience, but uses stunt doubles for some of the dangerous stuff, and whose contract includes being airlifted out of the backcountry every night to a five-star resort. When he falls in love with the Everglades on location and decides to use all-wild animals, rather than the yawning reptiles in Mickey’s zoo, he drags along Mickey and Wahoo to assist. Wahoo brings along his friend Tuna, a girl suffering abuse at the hands of a drunken and deranged father.

The escapades that fill out the book as the drunken father chases his daughter and crew into the swamp, the star of the show is bitten by a bat and has a hallucinatory conversion, and Wahoo and Mickey first are the hunters, and then the hunters, lead to a surprising climax. Let’s just say the characters we thought we knew assume more….character.

Downs' Review

I Read it in two nights. That’s probably my equivalent of five stars. I should say I’ve been reading Carl Hiassen for years, ever since I stumbled across the unforgettable and provocatively titled “Skinny Dip.” This author always delivers, and I am reminded of a younger Tom Robbins, without the author intrusion, but with all the clever pacing and the quirky characters that seem to be goofy to be totally fictionalized. The young runaway, Tuna, for example, is predictably dodgy, suspicious, and proud. But she is also an expert at the Latin names for the dazzling flora abounding in the deep Everglades.

Derek the “survivalist,” who turns out to be anything but, is a contradiction in the book. He is in many spots a simpering, egotistical fool. When he leaps onto Alice though, for what turns out to be the ride of his life, he displays his reckless, extreme side. They are a little hard to reconcile for me.

This is the second novel for young readers of Hiassen’s I have read. To tell the truth, when I read “Flush,” another of his young adult novels, I’m not sure I even realized it was young adult. Hiassen’s clever characters and rapid-fire dialogue migrate well from such adult works of his as “Nature Girl” and “Strip Tease” to the high-action pacing of his YA works.

Hiassen also manages, in the manner of “Rivers of Grass,” the rallying cry to save the Everglades by Marjorie Douglas, to paint his action on a rich, Technicolor backdrop of a land he clearly loves and yearns to protect. Hiassen’s main characters are those very close to the bottom of the 99 percent, whose resilience, bravery, and inventiveness cause me to look more closely at what I think I know. In that sense, “Chomp,” like the rest of his writing, is subversive. The world I see is more clearly focused, and that’s not a bad consequence of a good read.

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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.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Recommended to Children of the First Half Of Last Century

Title: Amidst The American Dreams
Author: Stephan James Gathings
Website: http://noveltimes.webs.com
Category: Fictional Love story
ISBN: 978-1-4560-5774-9 (Softcover)
ISBN: 978-1-4560-5773-2 (Hardcover)
Book Link: http://www.amazon.com/Amidst-American-Dreams-Stephan-Gathings/dp/145605774X/
Pages: 448

Reviewed by Doc originally for Amazon
Reviewer's rating: 5.0 stars

I don't usually do this, but I wanted to recommend this novel to anyone who is a child of the first half of this past century. Not only is this book a great read, but also it is the type of novel that makes you want to get back to it as soon as you can to find out what's going to happen next. It is truly an emotional roller coaster, moving back and forth between comedy and epic-level tragedy -- from the high-jinx of high school to the gruesome carnage of the Vietnam war, from the innocence of first love to the heartbreak of divorce and the spectre of untimely death.
Steve Gathings is an excellent storyteller, who in this novel weaves the threads of a number of lives into the fabric of fiction, a fiction that is very real to so many of us from the "baby boomer" generation. Readers will find a little of themselves in this mirror of a time long lost and much missed, a time when we were young but didn't know it
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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.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Jeremy Griffith Seeks to Transform the Human Race

Title: Freedom

Author: Jeremy Griffith
Author’s website: http://www.worldtransformation.com/freedom/
Genre/category: Science/Philosophy
ISBN: 978-1-74129-008-0

A book for our time

The front cover boldly claims, ‘At last, the Liberation and Transformation of the Human Race Through the Finding of Understanding of the Human Condition’ (http://www.worldtransformation.com/freedom/).

Confrontation and compassion, exposed and liberated, discomfort and defensiveness, explained and understood, shock and excitement. These are the range of emotions I encountered reading Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith’s latest work, ‘Freedom’ – a book for our time with deep significance for all humans. It is the zenith of Griffiths 30 years spent studying, unravelling and explaining the human condition.

As early as the fourth paragraph Griffith gives context to and insight into the realm being explored - a realm few have dared penetrate. It reads, ‘To briefly explain what the human condition is, it arises from our species’ capacity for what has been called ‘good and evil’. Humans are capable of great kindness, empathy and love, but we are also capable of horrific atrocities like rape, murder and torture. Our human predicament or ‘condition’ has been that because we have never before been able to explain and thus understand where our species’ capacity for acts of shocking inhumanity comes from we each carry a deep, now almost subconscious, insecurity and sense of guilt about our value and worth as humans. Are we good or are we bad? Even in our everyday behaviour, why are we humans competitive, aggressive and selfish when clearly the ideals are to be the complete opposite, namely cooperative, loving and selfless?’

‘Freedom’ is our story, both as a species and as individuals told in first principle biology, truthfully, compassionately and comprehensively. It may leave you in a state of initial shock and awe; such is the nature of the subject matter and the power of the explanation being presented.

However these works cannot be dismissed. The importance of the claims and the implications for our future warrant full consideration and debate as Professor Harry Prosen, former President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association stated, ‘I have no doubt this biological explanation of Jeremy Griffith’s of the human condition is the holy grail of insight we have sought for the psychological rehabilitation of the human race. I cannot urge you strongly enough to listen to what Jeremy Griffith has to explain’.

Griffith’s vitae is impressive. Raised in rural New South Wales, Australia, Griffith- a biologist began writing about the human condition in 1975. Since then he has written six books, including the 2003 Australasian bestseller, the revealingly titled ‘A Species in Denial’. ‘Freedom’ the subject of this review, is Griffith’s definitive work, his comprehensive and complete treatise on the biological explanation and amelioration of the human condition. It was first published as an e book in 2009 with extensive additions and editing in 2012.

‘Freedoms’’ timeliness and significance cannot be underestimated. As Australian journalist Richard Neville ominously and accurately described the state of the world, ‘The world is hurtling to catastrophe: from nuclear horrors, a wrecked ecosystem, 20 million dead each year from malnutrition, 600 million chronically hungry…All these crises are man-made, their causes are psychological. The cures must come from this same source; which means the planet needs psychological maturity…fast. We are locked in a race between self - destruction and self-discovery’. (Good Weekend Magazine, Sydney Morning Herald, 14 Oct 1986).

We live in a world with levels of anger, desperation and despair not seen before; where greed is endemic and the gap between the have and the have nots has never been wider, a world where religious wars rage, where the left and right wing in politics seem irreconcilably polarised, where the nightly news is too horrific to watch, where children as young as seven are being prescribed ADHD drugs and where new age movements, band aid solutions and ‘causes’ have become rife, proclaiming to save the environment, save your soul or save the world.

For all of our species collective achievements in science, religion, philosophy and psychiatry in their endeavour to understand and explain our world and the polarities of life - good and evil, love and war, science and religion, men and women, left wing and right wing, instinct and intellect, socialism and capitalism our destructive..., the stark reality is we are still ‘locked in a race between self - destruction and self-discovery’.

The world is in desperate need for unifying and real answers and solutions to the underlying cause of these problems we face.

From this seemingly hopeless and despairing path to ‘self-destruction’, ‘Freedom’ presents this long sought after and desperately needed ‘self-discovery’. It presents the complete solution to real ‘peace on earth’ – through full biological explanation and understanding of our human condition that leads to the amelioration of that condition.

‘Freedom’ is broken into a number of sequential and easy to navigate parts taking the reader on a fascinating journey of discovery and enlightenment. Its explanatory power, grounded in first principle biology leads the reader through the psychological maturation of humanity, both collectively and individually. To try and summarise the close to 1000 pages in this short review can in no way do justice to the content but what I will say is that the profound questions such as what is the meaning of life, how we acquired our conscience or ‘moral soul’, the development of consciousness and the origins of the human condition are completely explained. Explained compassionately in a way that will deeply resonate with you about what it is to be human. Equally significant are the transforming implications addressed by Griffith in subsequent sections. The ability to now understand our human condition, in particular the dark side of our nature, liberates us from our underlying insecurity and sense of guilt, relieving and healing our condition, which ends the cycle of destruction plaguing our planet, transforming our world as we know it.

There are a handful of books that have withstood history’s litmus test – literary works that strike a deep chord in our psyche and transcend our day to day lives. They cut a swathe through life’s clutter and become timeless through generations by enlightening us, adding meaning to and explaining the world we live in and who we are. They leave a lasting imprint on the reader. Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection’, the ‘Bible’, Plato’s ‘Republic’ and the ‘Iliad’ attributed to Homer have all contributed to humanity’s knowledge bank.

In time ‘Freedom’ will not only stand alongside these literary monuments, it will have such a profound and transformative effect on humanity that its importance will be unsurpassed. This claim may sound preposterous, however it is only upon reading ‘Freedom’ that you are able to comprehend and experience the depth of truth that Jeremy Griffith has explained about our human condition.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Who Needs A Man? Reviewed for UK Amazon

Title: Who Needs A Man?

By E.J. Russell
Authors Web site: http://emmajanerussell.wix.com/books
Genre: Chick lit/humour
ISBN: 978-1481833844
Available on Amazon UK

Reviewed by Maggie May, originally for Amazon

I read this second offering from E.J. Russell with delight! From the serious and fascinating notes on the growth of your baby inside you, to the hilarious and, at times, painful honesty of the way all of us must have felt at least some of the time in regard to men! More please!!!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Thought of PREtirement? This Book Will Help

Title: Ready for PREtirement

Subtitle: Everything You Need To Know Now So Your Money Is There When YOu Need It

Author: Kris Miller

Genre: Nonfiction/Finance/Business

“Ready For PREtirement: Everything You Need To Know NOW So Your Money Is There When You Need It is a comprehensive guide designed to help you plan for retirement NOW. Retirement planning can be scary, confusing and overwhelming, especially if you wait until you’re faced with a family medical emergency. It is during these unexpected situations that people often make foolish decisions because of the stress and pressure to make a quick choice.

But a little planning goes a long way. The worksheets and tools included in “Ready For PREtirement” make it easy to get started. Learn how to create a Living Will and a Living Trust. Designate Guardians for your young children and make sure that your family is cared for, even if you can’t be here to take care of them yourself.

While older people have pressing financial planning issues related to age and health, retirement planning isn’t just for Seniors. Author Kris Miller taps into her vast Estate Planning experience and explains why you should get started now – even in your 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s.

“Ready For PREtirement” is designed to offer – in easy-to-understand terms – an overview of all the financial decisions that everyone will need to make at some point in their lives. From writing a will to creating a trust, from the proper way to hold property to selecting low-risk investments, this book provides necessary financial guidance for everyone. For those who haven’t even started their PREtirement planning yet, “Ready For PREtirement,” will serve as the first step.

So get started and get “Ready For PREtirement.”

Submitted by:
Denise Cassino

"Make your book an Amazon #1 Bestseller"
Publicist & Book Marketing Specialist
skype: denise.cassino
www.BestsellerServices.com
www.mybestsellerlaunch.com

----- 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.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

World Traveler Reviews What Foreigners (and Americans!) Need to Know About America From A To Z

Title: What Foreigners Need To Know About America From A to Z

Subtitle: How to understand crazy American culture, people, government, business, language and more

By Lance Johnson

Author's Web site: http://AmericaAtoZ.com

Available Amazon US: http://amzn.to/ForeignersAmericaUS
Available on Amazon worldwide

Reviewed by Kristin Johnson
Five of Five Stars

As an American traveler, I have often been asked questions I found difficult to answer. Luckily, there is a resource, for me and for the people I have met in different countries.

This guide, What Foreigners Need to Know About America From A to Z, answers questions such as: what would you do if...

...you were from another culture and had to negotiate a business deal but you found your American counterpart direct and rude (especially if you are from Japan)?

...you were a student at a university baffled by American students who talked back to professors?

..you disliked a particular food or could not eat it but didn't want to offend your American host?

...you were courting and dating an American?

...your friends from your culture living in the US criticized your attempts to dress like an American?

...you were invited to an American's home for dinner in Hawaii* or in the Midwest?

Our world may be global, communication instant, but this only ramps up (increases) cultural misunderstandings among cultures. As a businessperson, actor, author, teacher, and world traveler, Lance Johnson realizes that making sense of our "crazy" American ways can be a challenge for immigrants, tourists, and businesses from other countries doing business with their American counterparts. What he has done in his book America From A to Z is take the equivalent of several university courses' worth of information on America and present his information in an informal, conversational one-on-one manner, as if he were talking to a friend, such as a Vietnamese guide Lance met during an eye-opening *enlightening) trip to Vietnam.

Each of the book's four major sections stands on its own (if you are wondering about the construction of this sentence, check page 477), and depending on what aspects of American culture you want to learn, you can look at the particular section you would like to study. Each section is available as its own separate book, but to get the most out of Lance Johnson's lessons, having the complete book is ideal.

Section I: America's Heritage

Useful for: Understanding US History, US Law, US Government (baffling to all), where the Bible Belt is versus Dixie, the American Dream, contributions of/history of immigrants as well as Americans of foreign descent (such as Governor Piyush "Bobby" Jindal of Louisiana), national parks, religion (baffling) and measurements (an even more baffling subject made simple here).

Section II: America's Culture

Useful for: Understanding American painters, writers, sports, film (easily one of our biggest exports), how to get along in American social situations, greetings, navigating high school and college, dating/marriage guides, formal to fast food dining tips, dressing tips, Americans' views on themselves and other cultures, and foreigners' experience of America.

Section III: America's Business

Useful for: giving you all the information to understand how Americans do business (straightforward), negotiate, hire, fire, do finance, start a business, and so on.

Section IV: America's Language

Useful for: Foreigners AND Americans who want to speak better English by avoiding common errors, learning the alphabet, grammar and vocabulary, learning from famous sayings, understanding slang and abbreviations, recognizing most commonly used words, and getting speaking tips (my favorite: "Do not be afraid to try").

Appendices:

--Lincoln's Gettysburg Address ("Four score and seven years ago our founding fathers...")

--Top 50 Liberal Arts Colleges in America (#1 Williams College)

--Top 50 Universities in America (#1 Harvard University)

--Colleges With Largest Percentages of Foreign Students (New School, NY)

--Sample Income Tax Form

--The Pulitzer Prize for Literature (1937-2011)

--Academy Awards for Best Picture (1927-2011)

--Newspaper Column: "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus"

--The 50 US States

--US History Government Quiz (Hint: You might ask that your American friends take this, too!)

EASY FEATURES

This book has "a ton of" (many) lists and tables (I counted 278). The lists, tables and charts make the text easily readable. Another equally helpful feature are the numerous hints and tips, as well as "Here's an assignment for you" exercises sprinkled like gems throughout the text.

Some of my favorite hints...

Hint: As another example of our crazy language that we discuss in Section IV on America’s language, coins are minted (made) at the U.S. Mint. Something is in mint condition if it appears to be brand new. We have a green aromatic plant called mint that is used in teas and to flavor foods. And we have candy after-dinner mints made with chocolate and the flavoring from mint plants.

Hint: It is also fine to bring unwrapped gifts with only a small gift card attached, especially for items like flowers, candy, and wine.

Hint: Just as women like men who are confident, most American men like women who are confident. If a woman is shy and unable to express her opinions and wishes, as some foreigners can appear to be, she will not impress most American men. On the other hand, if she is controlling and domineering, she won’t either. Try to strike a good balance.

Hint: You will learn in Chapter Y on using better English grammar that we have three levels of grammar: formal, general, and informal. I suppose you could say we have the same levels for table etiquette based on who you are eating with. I must admit I do not practice all of the good manners, especially when I am with close friends or in a fast food restaurant. Just be aware that the more of our rules you practice the more favorable you will appear. Over time you will note the manners used by your counterpart and will see which ones are most important to him or her.

A WEALTH OF INFORMATION AND WIT

Surveys on American morals and values reveal our character. Personal stories humanize the American experience, whether from the point of view of a Frenchman, foreign exchange students and Muslim-Americans, an Englishman (the delightful Alistair cooke), or a Vietnamese immigrant as well as a Chinese teacher of English. The message: We all can learn from each other. This is the most enduring message of the book, and Lance Johnson's commitment to his vision shines.

This book should be a staple in: US embassies, foreign embassies in the US, high schools and colleges, corporate libraries, travel agencies...the surface has barely been scratched (meaning there's much more to share).

* In Hawaii, if you are invited to someone's home for a potluck or party it is a huge gesture of respect and inclusion. In Hawaii social activity typically revolves around the family (ohana). Ask the host/hostess what you should bring in terms of food. Take your shoes off before entering someone's home.

~Special Offer:
This book and a Valentine booklet are available as free e-books with only a couple clicks. All you do is go to http://amzn.to/12JoVsa on Jan 13, 14, 15, or 16^th and click and then to http://amzn.to/UabAn7 and click. Both e-books will come directly to your computer or your Kindle.

~ More About the Reviewer:
As a screenwriter, journalist, author (BUTTERFLY WINGS, CHRISTMAS COOKIES ARE FOR GIVING, co-writer of THE HIGH-TECH GOOSENECK PUTTER), blogger, award-winning poet/short story writer, and traveler, Kristin Johnson has spent time in exotic lands such as Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan,and Texas (more than a state--a state of mind.) She has also spent considerable time in various Canada locations such as Ontario, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and France. She works on creative projects with people based all over the world. View her Amazon.com profile at https://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1ZCYC0RHTRMZF?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0 .

Friday, January 11, 2013

The Best Kind of Valentine Gift--Early and Free

Title: Cherished Pulse
Subtitle: Unconventional Love Poetry
Genre: Poetry/holiday/Valentine's
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball
Available FREE for Kindle or PC/Mac download
Available paperback
Poetry Chapbook o Valentine Greeting Card
ISBN: 9781449546052
Authors' Web sites: http://magdalenaball.com http://howtodoitfrugally.com/poetry_books.htm

Valentine’s Day may be the holiday best made for poetry. A rose, a poem and thou. Trouble is, many that we find on the inside covers of commercial greeting cards may be just a little too-too for many of us. Multi award-winning poets Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball to the rescue with Cherished Pulse, a chapbook of poetry just right for tucking into an envelope or sending off as an e-mail attachment to loved ones.

And right now, Cherished Pulse is available free with the KDP Select free e-book feature. All you do is go to http://bit.ly/Vs07hV

on January 11, 12, 13, 14 and 14^th and click. And you don’t need to have a Kindle reader to benefit! It may be downloaded as a pdf to send to loved ones, or let Amazon do the work for you by sending directly from their site.

It takes only the click of a mouse!

And there is plenty of time for you to schedule delivery before February 14^th.

It's a mini gift and greeting card in one!

Cherished Pulse includes many of the science-inspired poems Magdalena is famous for as well as Carolyn’s nostalgic poetry. Chapbooks in the Celebration Series have won many awards including MWSA’s highest honor of gold and several from USA Book News.

It’s you who had me dreaming

lilacs, breathing April’s sweetest

tears…

Magdalena Ball runs the highly respected CompulsiveReader.com review site. She is the author of the poetry book Repulsion Thrust, which was published to unanimous five-star reviews. Her novel Sleep Before Evening was a Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist and she just released a new novel set in Australia. It is Black Cow.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson's poetry appears frequently in review journals. She is listed in Poets & Writers and her chapbook of poetry, Tracings ( ), was given the Award of Excellence by the Military Writers Society of America. One of her poems recently won the Franklin Christoph Poetry Prize. She is also an award-winning novelist and short story writer and instructor for UCLA Extension Writers' Program.

For more information on the Celebration Series chapbooks, contact either author, or visit media rooms at http://howtodoitfrugally.com or http://magdalenaball.com.

Vicki Thomas contributed the watercolors used on the cover and interior. To see her selections of her work, go to http://www.vickithomasartist.com .

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Support material available electronically or by post on request.

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