book review, Uncategorized, women

BUILD THE FORT by Chris Heivly (book review)

DSCF4111   Well, really, don’t you remember building forts when you were a kid? We were lucky enough to have a small wooded area that we neighborhood kids converged on (and later my own four sons). Actually we built a tree house with connecting logs running to other trees. I cannot imagine how one of us didn’t break a bone in the process.
On rainy days, my brother and I built forts inside, using sheets and blankets incorporating the dining room table and chairs. It was great fun that left me with fond memories of building a fort. Thinking of those days pulled at me with interest to read Build the Fort by Chris Heivly.
This book came to me just in time. I’ve been wanting to spread my wings and help guide readers who want to become writers. I know what I want to do, but need to know how to go about it. This book is all about ‘how to’ in an easy way to follow.
Chris is the co-founder of MapQuest and The Startup Factory, sharing his knowledge with passion, about facing fear, overcoming it, and how to handle building your business with confidence. He breaks it down to five easy steps that he uses building a fort as a metaphor to make the task simple for the reader to understand.
He tells us how to socialize our ideas, choosing who to socialize it to. While he encourages us, he guides us to miss the pitfalls, laying it all out before us so it is clear. He isn’t shy about revealing his weak spots-the ones he doesn’t want to deal with and tells us how to do that, too.
In reading the book, learning about bartering is included, along with giving something back. Really, Chris covers it all. It’s a great little book, one the reader doesn’t get lost in, but finds her way to exactly where she wants to be. Get a copy. Today, if possible.
Oh, and yes, I love the way he lays out the plans for Building the Fort. It brings back memories.

 

 

book review, books, cookbooks, SPEAKEASY, tea,, tea,, Uncategorized

STEEPED IN TEA by Annelies Zijderveld BOOK REVIEW

DSCF4076  THE VARIETY

I confess. I’m a tea drinker. I was brought up on tea with milk and sugar with my breakfasts in the wintertime. As an adult, coffee entered the picture, even espresso (Loved driving to Little Italy on Canal St., NYC in past years) until about ten years ago when I returned to my first love, tea. A small collection of quality tea pots, fine china tea cups, tea mugs with infuser, and tea cups that fit over top of one-person tea pots when not in use, sit on my cabinet shelf, in full view. I LOVE TEA.
Herb teas (tisanes) were unheard of in our household. We drank English Breakfast Tea. Period. No choices.
Steeped in Tea is where Annelies Zijderveld shares her knowledge of a variety of teas, shows us what they look like, where they grow, and informs us on how they can be used in cooking. I also love to cook, especially new, exciting ways, and she offers Mint Pea Soup for these biting-cold days, made with Moroccan mint, green tea and Lapsang Souchong Salt. Recipes for Cauliflower Steaks with Tea Umami Sauce, Chamomile Risotto with Currants, Jasmine Cacao Nib Meringues, and so much more. The color pictures are for drooling over, calling me to get into the kitchen and fire up the kettle.
This is a delightful book for anyone who enjoys tea, cooking the un-ordinary, or who would like to explore in an area they have never been before. It also makes a beautiful, everlasting gift.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.

book review, books

A Year of Summer Shadows by Alice Orr

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Alice Orr was a workshop leader at the International Women Writers’ Guild when I attended annually for ten years. Her book No More Rejections was a fine non-fiction book that I offered to my writing groups. Now she has some top selling fiction under the heading of Romantic Suspense. These books are in a series settled in the North Country, a small town of Riverton.
After reading The Wrong Way Home it was only natural that I would want to follow up with Book 2, A Year of Summer Shadows. These are Alice Orr’s romantic suspense stories on the Kalli family in the North Country. The first book covered the romance of oldest brother Matt, Book 2 is all about Mark and Hailey.
Her childhood friend is in trouble. Even though they have been estranged for years, Hailey is there to help her. Mark comes back into the picture, yet he has no idea that Hailey wants him there. He, in turn thinks she despises him.
The mother in the Kalli family is wise in the way of womanhood as she looks out for her boys, welcomes their loves into her home and does her own to tighten family bonds. A good read for romantic suspense lovers.

book review

CASSANDRA AND THE GI P.I. Vol 2

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Cassandra hones her many skills, beginning with nursing Harry from that nasty bump on his head. Her sensitivity skills heighten as her adventures with Harry Shields intensifies. She acknowledges his past undercover work as it may endanger her life, too. It does. Alfie and Chris, Harry’s closest friends come into the story, adding another layer of mystery.
As Cassandra and her GI P.I.’s wedding date looms, with all the excitement of society and privacy, they find new areas to explore, make new plans, and sometimes get side tracked.
Volume 2 adds new dimensions in excitement for this couple as they plow through, happy to just be together. Highly recommend this continuing mystery at Dupont Circle in the Washington, DC ‘60s.

book review

BOOK REVIEW: CASSANDRA AND THE GI P.I. A Dupont Circle Mystery Volume 2 by Meriewether Shipley

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Cassandra hones her many skills, beginning with nursing Harry from that nasty bump on his head. Her sensitivity skills heighten as her adventures with Harry Shields intensifies. She acknowledges his past undercover work as it may endanger her life, too. It does. Alfie and Chris, Harry’s closest friends come into the story, adding another layer of mystery.
As Cassandra and her GI P.I.’s wedding date looms, with all the excitement of society and privacy, they find new areas to explore, make new plans, and sometimes get side tracked.
Volume 2 adds new dimensions in excitement for this couple as they plow through, happy to just be together. Highly recommend this continuing mystery at Dupont Circle in the Washington, DC ‘60s.

book review, books, First Friday Poetry Night

more on WRITING DOWN YOUR SOUL by Janet Conner

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If you have been awake at all, you must have heard that writing is healing. You don’t have to be a writer, or English teacher, or a good speller, you just have to put your pen/pencil in hand and put it to the paper. No PC or Mac or word processor for this one. Paper & pen. That’s all. No one else is going to read or critique it. You can throw it away when you are finished if you like.

Why write? Because it works. More than the writing, being healing; Conner leads us to do the writing we need. She leads us to emotions even if we don’t know how to get into them, she does. Writing is visual-we see it on the page and what we are writing is pictured in our mind; auditory-we hear what we are saying as we write; and sensory-we feel the pen, the paper, the physical act of writing.

Writing is a mystical experience. Conner takes us into forgiving those who have cut us deeply. You know, the ones that left us scarred for life. The scars may be hidden from the public, but we know they are there. Plus, she shows us why we must forgive, how we benefit by this act as well as the person who hurt you. Conner is extremely honest in her writing, allowing her anguish to fall onto the pages. She holds nothing back. Compassion comes out of that.

If I haven’t convinced you yet, I may do another post on this book. That’s how important I believe it is, to spread the word. It’s my way of helping someone as I have been helped. I uncovered events that I had thought I’d forgotten-thought I’d healed. Surprise! I had just buried them. There is a big difference.

I have had miracles to prove it.

book review, books

WRITING DOWN YOUR SOUL by Janet Conner

writ soulThis book came to me highly recommended. It is so much more than what I expected. Author Janet Conner says: Show up. Open up. Listen up. & Follow up. Miracles will happen. I can attest to that.

Too often, I have read books without doing the writing exercises. Not so with this one. This time I did all the writing exercises requested. I even bought the companion workbook. That’s something else I don’t usually do, thinking that a ruled notebook is sufficient. It may be, if your budget is pinching you. But the workbook offers so much more and it will continue to offer more as I return to it for the quotes, thoughts, and suggestions that will continue to inspire me even now that I have finished the book awhile ago.

This time, I wanted to see if it really makes a difference; if completing the writing exercises in the book is that wee bit extra that makes a giant difference. IT DOES.

Janet Conner put me in touch with my spirit guides. I’ve known for a long time that we all have spirit guides and angels that hang around us, keeping an eye on us and getting us out of trouble from time to time. I didn’t know that they were waiting around for us to actually ask them for help! What a difference that makes!

Thanks to Janet, I found my guide, Timothy who said to me, “It’s about time. I get bored with nothing to do. I cannot do things for you unless you do your job of ASKING for guidance, help, and/or answers.”

Whoa! I never knew that I could actually talk to my guides and get actual answers from them!

There is so much more that I want to tell you about this book. So I am going to end this post and write more in the next post.

A word to the wise, first; when you buy the book be prepared to write on the pages! Yes, this is something else I never allowed myself to do. I’ll be returning to this book over and over again. My writing in the margins, underlining, drawing little attention-getting icons and doodles, are an important part of the education of me, Arlene. WOW!

book review, Uncategorized, women, women's stories

UNEARTHING VENUS: My Search for the Woman Within BY Cate Montana

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I would have chosen a different path if I had this book to read when I was a teen. Montana’s journey through life reads so amazing that I sat up all night to finish it. Her sincerity, brutal honesty, and deeply touching moments jumped off the page and into my heart. It took tremendous courage for her to just pick up and do, trusting in the universe to support her when she wasn’t sure of it herself. Montana’s life reads like a feminine Indiana Jones, yet it is true. Reading of her stamina that got her through the tough parts, followed by the tenderness of cat Grace sitting on her lap at the computer brought home the complexity of a woman; this woman and so many of the women out there, including me. This is the best memoir I’ve read in twenty years!

book review, writing

WRITERS AS PROCRASTINATORS

DSCF3591  Recently I read an article by Megan McArdle, written last year, on writers being the worst procrastinators. Her reasoning declared was, that we were at the top of our English classes in school, by natural talent, without trying.
I carry on her idea by saying, much to my regret now; I didn’t study like the smart kids did. I was a natural test taker, went over the material the night before and always passed with adequate marks. Sadly, one doesn’t actually learn this way, only gets good grades.
As a result, we wind up leaving our assignments to the last possible moments, when the words begin to finally flow. When we do this, we have no time to edit the article, to improve it, to turn in the perfect piece that editors would not have to scour for the errors we just zipped over, thinking that our content is enough. Shameful.
To go one step further, I found a way to ignore that blank sheet of paper staring back at me. I have several projects going at one time. When one of them gets stubborn; fights against me, I pop it off the computer, put it back into its own little document file and move on to another one that I have stashed away, just waiting. Of course, there is a drawback to this method, too. (There are always drawbacks to everything!) It means that projects seem to drag on, deadlines set by me, smudged over. It’ll be ready next week…..which falls into the following week, which…..

book review

CASSANDRA AND THE GI P.I. A Dupont Circle Mystery Volume I by Meriewether Shipley

DSCF3541The words jump out at you, pull you in, and make you part of the story. A refreshingly new narrative that reads like it is happening now even though it is set in the late 60s. Cassandra, frustrated with her college art classes of interior design, hops down to Dupont Circle in Washington D.C. and sits onto a bar stool next to a quiet guy. She strikes up the conversation. This begins the adventure of meeting someone you’ve shared other lifetimes with, in past centuries.
The GI P.I. is Harry Shields of Eastern Shore, Maryland, a Korean War vet who still suffers, at unexpected times, from shell shock 15 years after he has been discharged. Obviously the man has class and style, even though he wears khakis each time she sees him, at least in the beginning. They connect quickly and deeply moving along at a fast pace as they run into serious problems arising from his years as a soldier. Cassandra refuses to leave his side, watching over him like a mama bear, bringing fresh ideas to help that come from her youthfulness.
A highly recommended read that will keep you turning pages, until you uncover what comes next.