Dec 31

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

The Bloody Battle for Suribachi: The Amazing Story of Iwo Jima that Inspired Flags of Our FathersI’m a great Richard Wheeler fan, having read his Sherman’s March: An Eyewitness History of the Cruel Campaign That Helped End a Crueler War and A Rising Thunder: From Lincoln’s Election to the Battles of Bull Run: An Eyewitness History; so was surprised to find this World War II-era book, based on the fact that I know Wheeler only through his books on 19th century American history.

However, once I read that Richard Wheeler enlisted in the Marine Corps during World War II, and was a corporal in the 250-man company that raised both flags on the summit of Mount Suribachi, I understood his need to tell the story.

Wheeler’s The Bloody Battle for Suribachi: The Amazing Story of Iwo Jima that Inspired Flags of Our Fathers is a first-hand WWII narrative that chronicles the Marines’ savage struggle to wrest Mount Suribachi from its tenacious Japanese defenders during the 35 day battle for Iwo Jima in 1945.

Revised with a new introduction by the author and recently discovered photos, this book served as invaluable source Continue reading »

Dec 29

Grady Harp is an Amazon Top 10 Reviewer

The Source of Leadership: Eight Drivers of the High-impact Leader Too often self-help books stimulate the reader while the pages turn, but after the back cover closes the session is over and on we go.

David M. Traversi avoids that route in publishing The Source of Leadership: Eight Drivers of the High-impact Leader , the result of his years as a motivational speaker and writer and coach, that on the surface is a primer for executive search teams to determine who among the hundreds of applicants for CEO jobs deserve to be termed ‘leaders’, but for the average leader, Traversi has written an extremely user friendly manual that allows the reader to open the potential of personal lives to be everything each of us can be. It is stimulating reading and an enormously helpful guide for self-improvement.

Traversi talks about the ‘persona’ and the ’shadow’ aspects of our personalities: the ‘persona’ is Continue reading »

Dec 28

ivoryr.jpgDo Pantyhose Lie? is an intimate collection of poetry about life, love, emotions, creativity, sensuality and spirituality. With an unorthodox yet contemporary style, Vincent Ivory engages the timeless questions of purpose and passion while admiring the tangible and intangible beauty of mature women in pieces like Women & Wine.

Every reader will find themselves in at least one of the creations as they discover a collection of poetry that definitively makes you go … hmmm.

Do Pantyhose Lie? is also a book that examines the truth versus how things look or appear and our ability to answer difficult questions about various areas of our lives. Hence, the cover, a woman with what appears to be a good looking pair of legs in fishnet stockings next to the question, “Are your legs that good looking or … Do Pantyhose Lie?”

Listen to the author discuss his book.

In those stockings, her legs appear to look great, but only she knows the truth about the scar from shaving in the shower or other imperfections.

I have performed some of my own marketing test and have taken the book with me into restaurants and simply laid it on the table while waiting to be seated. The cover and title always grab attention and starts a conversation. Without fail, a woman will read the title aloud “Do Pantyhose Lie?” She then leans over to me and answers, “Yes! They do.”

On the other hand, any smart man will never answer the question in front of a woman. The cover and the title are definitely a contrast.

Pantyhose are simply a small component of the makeup that is used everyday. Some of the makeup we apply to our lives goes beyond cosmetic. Everyday, the foundation of a fake smile is applied just before leaving home and its not just women who are using these products. There are people who are fit physically and appear to have it all together yet their emotional health is bordering death. The lies they live only add to their disdain. Contrary to popular belief, some of the best actors do not reside in Hollywood. They are the people that you meet and work with every day. In the poem entitled, “Skipping Emotions” the charade is uncovered concerning the inability to deal truthfully with one’s self.

About the Author
Unique, innovative and thought provoking are just some of the words used to describe Vincent Ivory and his literary work.  A poet, author and screenwriter, Vincent provides a telescopic view into aspects of his own life and others in his new book entitled, Do Pantyhose Lie?

Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Vincent has always been a lover of books, writing and reading.  At the tender age of six, his enthusiasm for reading was rewarded when he was removed from one of his regular first grade classes and placed in a unique program called Junior Great Books.  In this venue, reading and vocabulary skills were honed as well as exposure to other great literature.

“As a child I loved Curious George and the normal kid stuff but Rudyard Kipling’s Rikki Tikki Tavi and classics like Beowulf and Grendel always captured my imagination.”  Vincent also grew up as an avid comic book reader.  “We didn’t have a lot of money so brand new comic books were out of my reach at the time.  But in Detroit they had a three pack of comics in plastic and the covers were cut off so they were not worth as much and sold for cheap.  I had stacks of those.  I started working at age eleven sweeping and mopping floors at a hair salon with my Dad and a significant portion of that money went to comics.  This trend continued well into my teens and twenties.”

Today, Vincent is happily married, has three children and resides in a suburb of Columbus, OH.  He works on his books, screenplays and marketing every single day (sometimes to his wife’s dismay).  Vincent has always loved and written poetry throughout his childhood and adult life.  “Writing is very therapeutic for me and I believe it can be that way for everyone.

Never say I can’t write.  That is simply not true.  You can write.  You may not write up to other people’s expectations or standards but you can write and you should.  Journal your life, your feelings and experiences.  Writing is a great way to express joy and relieve anger or unhealthy emotions and thoughts because you can then look at how you are feeling and thinking. You literally release those thoughts and emotions onto paper instead of keeping them in.”

Dec 27

Grady Harp is an Amazon top 10 Reviewer

LearntLearnt is for this reader one of the most powerful, engaging, poignant, and learned books of the year. These may sound like excessive praise for a first major novel by Edward M. Baldwin, but if this novel gains the readership it deserves over the next year it likely will make its way to the top 10 list: reading Learnt is ‘time invested, not spent’!

Edward M. Baldwin is an African American writer whose background as a high school English and literacy teacher in Florida provided the seeds of inspiration that drive this novel.

The book not only tells a perfectly formed and molded and executed story, but it also addresses many important concepts that are necessary to face and even more necessary to mend.

Dealing with contemporary attitudes and prejudices concerning education, racism, interracial marriage, crime, abusive parenting and the coexistent abusive response from the victim children, Baldwin stirs this hefty stew with the Continue reading »

Dec 19

By Janet Grace Riehl
Sightlines: A Poet\'s Diary
A beautiful collection filled with 90 poems, 190 pages, 25 photos and tribute to a loved family.

Sightlines offers a frank portrait of a family not only coming to terms with its grief, but also celebrating its past and difficult present. Although deeply personal, these poems strike poignant and universal chords. They offer a vision of life filled with little treasures that carry us back to what is truly important in our lives.

As the author of this book, I want to share some of the creative process behind writing Sightlines. The book evolved over a year, following a secluded retreat, in response to my sister’s death in a car accident.
Continue reading »

Dec 18

Grady Harp is an Amazon Top 10 Reviewer

The Tree with no BranchesThe Tree with no Branches, the title of Ella Race’s fine little novel, refers to the Family Tree, the concept of the known origins of a family being the trunk and the various children born to the initial couple forming the first branches which then spread out as each family child continues the growth of the tree. But what, Race asks, of the childless members of the family?

Does their fruitless branch mean the end of their influence/existence when they die? The manner in which Race poses this age-old conundrum forms the basis of her deftly woven tale of life in England in the 1960s.

Leila, a child of a poor couple, serves as the main character. She is from a family with traditions and history despite the fact they are without means. Leila is sent to Northern England stay with her mother’s more monetarily fortunate sister - Aunt Dotty and her solicitor husband Fred.

In their more gracious home Leila becomes used to the better things in life, yet there is one aspect of the home that is missing: Dotty and Fred are childless, a situation that grows into a schism in their relationship, each blaming the other for the barren marriage. Leila’s visits over time witness Dotty’s obsession with having children, Fred’s desperate need for a family, the dissolution of the household, the eventual divorce, and the consequences that befall both Dotty and Fred.

Dotty becomes an alcoholic bitter woman who feels that no one will tend her grave once she passes. Leila grows up watching the differences between her parents ‘branches’ and the ‘branchless’ dead-end lives of her Aunt and Uncle and in her observations finds a life of her own that reflects and appreciates the spectrum of life’s trials, be they monetary or emotional.

Ella Race may be a new novelist but her style is well developed: she is facile with writing observations of nature and with creating credible characters. Time passes in this novel and some of the sequences are memory and some are actively happening: there are times when Race fails to makes this clear and the story tends to meander into paths that are not additive. But her gift with words is so exceptional that these minor flaws are barely noticeable. There is significant evidence in this first novel that Ella Race is an author from whom we will be receiving more works!

Dec 15

Rosie's Daughters: The In Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Woman To” Generation Tells Its Story, Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett have written an inspiring collective memoir of the generation of women who excelled at “firsts.” These women, born during World War II, were shaped by and then helped to shape the American historic, economic, political and socio-cultural landscape.

They were the pioneers who charted the paths for the Boomer generation. From the vantage point of their sixties, they share their experiences and insights with their own and younger generations.

The figurative mother of this generation, Rosie the Riveter, is a mythic figure in our culture, with good reason—she built ships, flew bombers and filled thousands of other essential wartime jobs, upending traditional views of “women’s work.” When the war was over, however, American industry thanked Rosie and sent her home.

Rosie, who had known the economic dislocations of The Depression and the employment and service opportunities of the war period, Continue reading »

Dec 07

Blog Mastermind Yaro Starak has put together a nifty blogging program for anyone who wants to increase traffic to their blog. Yaro is becoming the guru of blog traffic, and the materials we’ve reviewed contain nuts and bolts information for bloggers of all genres and all industries.

His program closes on Monday December 10, so if you’re interested in signing up or learning more, best get over there right now.  Yaro produced an informative video that tells all about his program.  Check it out here.

Dec 06

Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing, 57 Word of Mouth Marketing Challenges for the Entire Workforce, by Ron McDaniel

Buzzoodle Buzz MarketingI had the pleasure of reading Buzzoodle on a long, bumpy flight from Houston to Tallahassee. I’m not a great one for reading on flights (preferring instead to catch up on my marketing podcasts) but I looked forward to digging into Buzzoodle because of Ron’s innovative approach to the topic.

The premise of Buzzoodle is that every member of an organization can do something everyday to create buzz, without spending big bucks on a pricey marketing campaign. Many of the 57 ideas take less than 5 minutes to complete, and pack a powerful punch.

My favorite feature of Buzzoodle is the way each Buzz Challenge is displayed, making it easy for the reader to tell at a glance if a challenge is difficult, time consuming, has any associated cost, or technology requirement. In addition, the facing page has space for notes, comments, and suggestions for implementing the Buzz.

For example, Buzz Challenge #24: Trivia is rated Simple, Quick, Minimal Cost, Simple Technology. For this Challenge members are asked to create interesting trivia points about their company, then use the trivia to create more interest about the organization.

McDaniel’s own example was the trivia that Buzzoodle was created because of his own frustration that members of the team weren’t willing to create buzz because it wasn’t their job! Continue reading »

Dec 04

Trouble at Fort Lapointe (American Girl History Mysteries)by Kathleen Ernst

For over a decade, while I was developing my writing skills, I had the great good fortune to work at a large outdoor ethnic museum near Milwaukee called Old World Wisconsin. This historic site includes a crossroads village and ten working farmsteads, with restoration dates ranging from 1845 through 1915.

Old World Wisconsin is a place where Interpreters get their hands dirty, so my knowledge of historical domestic and agricultural processes grew exponentially. I learned how to warp a loom, how to milk cows, how to make rennet and lye soap. I prepared wine, sauerbraten, hops yeast, and Finnish egg coffee. And I’ve passed many of these skills, of course, on to my characters.

But hands-on experience brings much more to a writer’s toolbox than technical understanding. Living history sites and events can provide the specific sensory details that bring a scene to life. Continue reading »

Close
E-mail It