NEW REVIEW January 30, 2012
STOP CALLING HIM HONEY– AND START HAVING SEX! HOW CHANGING YOUR EVERYDAY HABITS WILL MAKE YOU HOT FOR EACH OTHER ALL OVER AGAIN
Maggie Arana and Julienne Davis
Health Communications, Inc., 2010
Congratulations to these women for breaking through the thick wall of silence and strutting through the lace-edged whisperings of the girls’ salon. Despite the title, which suggests another “how-to” book for unhappy wives, the authors are serious, intelligent, and smart to publish under the imprint: Health Communications.
One major point they make is that we need to cultivate our sexuality to be physically (not just emotionally) healthy individuals. This is such a well-kept secret that the miracle is, almost by accident, they discovered they had mutual feelings of dissatisfaction with their own sex lives, and then found out that many of their acquaintances also felt deprived. On investigating further, they realized too many lovers too soon turn into roommates. They felt they had to offer their advice even though they are not therapists. (Julienne is an actress and Maggie a publicist.) Someone had to – in support of the institution of marriage.
I would say Maggie and Julienne qualify as “intimacy coaches.” Their hope is to persuade other women to make some very specific and perhaps difficult changes in the way they communicate with their partners. Stop calling him honey is one. “Honey” is one of the many generic, sexless names husbands and wives call each other without making eye contact. Eye contact is missing from our conversations with each other. And flannel nightgowns should be missing.
I don’t want to give away their “commandments,” because you will find this book fun to read, and you will see yourself reflected in the stories they tell of individuals and couples they interviewed. Even I find it useful, at the age of 73, because at the very core of the argument is the urgent matter of appreciating yourself, and accepting your body and using it to advantage, which is to say, to get close to your partner in a way that is permanently bonding. Don’t lose each other prematurely.
I wish I had read this book fifty years ago. I was coming into womanhood during the June Cleaver, twin bed era that they say was so destructive to marriage. (Have you ever heard that before?) We were never told sex is “fun.” We were told it could be “good,” but only with someone you love. I still believe that, and I’ll bet I am not the only old lady who can say they wish they had “gone to bed” with a number of boys and men they loved but did not marry, and would have had there not been so many dangers lurking about at the time.
This book shares many provocative insights, and while it is targeted to women who are premenopausal, and to men who are not yet taking prostate medications, it would not be a waste of time to make it bedtime reading even if you are over 65. In fact, I hope, sooner or later, Maggie and Julienne will come out with a book on expressing sexuality for aging couples. If anyone can do it, they can.
There’s only one idea I could not agree to, and that is freely employing the F-word. To someone with 1950s sensibilities, it evokes other images in the rhyme, such as muck, truck, and good luck. Besides, it seems to me to be an example of onomatopoeia. You might as well call the ultimate act of love “grunting.” And that leads to other thoughts they disapprove of our sharing, so I’ll stop here.
END OF REVIEW
REVIEW January 24, 2012
originally published on bookpleasures.com http://goo.gl/3KLD8
THE NEW HEALTH AGE: THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA
David Houle and Jonathan Fleece
New Health Age Publishing, 2011
THE NEW HEALTH AGE presents a positive outlook on the changes in our health care system that are terrifying both patients and practitioners. The authors discern game-changing developments that they say bode well for our future. David Houle, a popular futurist, and Jonathan Fleece, a leading health care attorney, introduce nine “directional flows” indicating what we can expect 20 years from now.
First they remind us that medicine and health care were not national issues until American elitists demanded “the best” of everything, including doctors, and certification came into the picture (1847). Contract medicine was conceived after the Civil War, expanding to companies post-1900. Government-provided health coverage for all has been debated only since the 1930s, long after it was adopted in Germany and Great Britain. The compelling argument for our government to be involved was summed up in Teddy Roosevelt’s remark: “No country can be strong if its people are weak and poor.”
The authors’ bête noir is absent or reverse incentives. We’ve been experiencing a spiral downward with the current pay-for-service model: There are no financial rewards for providers to keep us healthy; there are hefty out-of-pocket costs for preventative care. We need a new vision and they have one.
These authors clearly sense it’s an uphill battle, as they ask readers to put aside prejudices and keep open minds. They lean very hard on their ability to “inspire” us and count heavily on our “engagement” in reform. Our first step is to accept that change is continuous and fast-paced. We must embrace “The Shift Age,” to realize we are in “The New Health Age.” (I am usually skeptical of motivational seminars, which this nomenclature calls to mind, nonetheless I continued reading, already mesmerized.)
The nine forces Houle and Fleece believe will turn our sorry condition around are divided into three categories: “How we THINK about health care,” “How we DELIVER health care;” and “The ECONOMICS of health care.” Some of the concepts are familiar: wellness, as opposed to sickness, and holistic healthcare versus episodic treatment. They go on to conceptualize medicine reorganized so that everyone wins. Doctors will continue to be the leaders, in charge of “medical homes.” These are not buildings but collaborative care networks. Our access to care will expand due to both simple changes, like extended hours, and more sophisticated ones, e.g., communication technologies.
Now comes the hard part: health insurance. The authors say coverage will be affordable through stratification of employees by health risk factors. Once a worker’s risks are known, appropriate preventative actions will be taken. I say: First, we have seen negative reactions to revealing medical histories to employers, especially prospective ones. Then, even if the Health Information Privacy Protection Act were set aside, it would require tightly-budgeted organizations to spend up front to reinvent their employee health benefits. (The authors do not discuss homeless and alien populations because they are “outside the scope of this book.”)
Chapter 13, “Transitions Are Difficult,” warns us of resistance, but still asserts that by 2020 we will have “integrated delivery systems” (IDS), “accountable care organizations” (ACOs), “employer accountable care organizations” (EACOs), the “medicals homes” mentioned above, and “health insurance exchanges.” Kaiser Permanente and Mayo Clinic are examples of integrated delivery systems. Okay. Good. “Accountable care systems” are already being tested. Hmmm. In my mind, these sound somewhat like “accountable schools.” If a school fails it gets to start all over again under new leadership in the following year — but the students haven’t improved.
The authors lose me here because they so limply defend ACOs and trust EACOs will be championed by employers like Virgin Healthmiles, whose web site advocates incentive programs that pay workers to “get active and healthy.” It allows a CFO to calculate how much money her company could save, but the math is invisible. To be fair, there are employee testimonials, too.
On to “medical homes” that depend on “wellness physicians” who profit by patient volume: A doctor talks to 100 patients about heart disease prevention; attendees pay $20 for a ticket; doc gets $2000 an hour instead of $400 for four, one-on-one, 15-minute, patient visits. If a company’s employee obesity rate decreases, the doctor earns a bonus. As for “insurance exchanges,” the authors compare them to online Travelocity, Expedia, and Cheap Tickets.
I like the idea of turning the Titanic around, but, well, gosh, I don’t know. Perhaps my mind isn’t open wide enough yet. Or perhaps the Extreme Enthusiasm with which this book is written undermines its seriousness.
REVIEW September 30, 2011
THE TOOLS YOU NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
Joshua McDowell
Xlibris, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4535-4201-9 (HC), 978-4535-4200-2 (PB), 978-4535-4202-6 (Ebook)
Making just $7.50 an hour, a young father has launched a book in hopes of bringing his hard-won expertise to other men facing an uphill battle to gain custody of their children. His struggle in the courts of Ohio reveals an American civil justice system badly in need of reality check. Think about it: Nationwide, in only 5% of custodial cases do fathers win. What’s going on here?
I was privileged to receive Joshua McDowell’s original version of THE TOOLS YOU NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL. The tagline is: “Never Give Up, Never Back Down.” The photo on the cover shows a clean-cut young man wearing glasses, his chin on the shoulder of his smiling little boy, Alex. How they came together is the substance of the story between the lines, a story that radiates honesty, determination, fierce love, and outrage.
Josh pulls no punches. He starts Chapter 1 with: “In this day and age, everyone is having sex.” He rants about “baby mama drama,” the tricks of women who want to keep their children even when they are too immature to care for them properly. That was the situation Joshua got into when he entered into first-time sexual intercourse as a teen, and tried to assume responsibility for the outcome, Alex. It took him three years and thousands of dollars while he worked as a karate instructor. He even went to jail.
He also shows love. He mentions the proud moment when he first heard his son say, “I love you, Daddy,” and committing himself to be a better father than his own father was. McDowell is clear in his praise of his mother, stepfather, uncle, and others, along with his church community, whose support meant everything to him as he tried to have to have the original custody ruling overturned.
In the first version, McDowell rails at “crazy, psychopathic women who have too much time on their hands,” and blames a society that has lost “love, patience and passion,” that allows people to “just get by” and “to make a quick buck.” He is seething with anger. He gets closer to his objective when he writes, “Every day, fathers seem to vanish into thin air,” due in part to a “crooked” judicial process so stacked against fathers that they give up fighting for their rights.
I can agree that the system is stacked against fathers, even if they are shown by psychological evaluations to be the responsible parent, and the mother is deemed immature and irresponsible, in our case likely to have a mental illness. Without getting too personal, I would like to suggest that the American culture of mom, the flag and apple pie has vanished. It’s time to look at the economics that drive a woman to cling to her baby as a source of income.
Thirty years ago, my teenage daughter brought home this wisdom: “I think girls get pregnant because they don’t know what else to do with their lives.” That certainly seems the case of Joshua’s “ex” and our family’s “ex” as well.
But blaming is not the author’s core intention. McDowell has made lists of things fathers should know, from the moment they hire an attorney to fight their custody case, through the many years of bringing up a child alone. He presents forms they will have to fill out in the process. He provides legal and family resources, and leaves pages blank on which the reader can make notes.
In the new edition, the rage has been suppressed for a more orderly progression of thoughts and advice. Perhaps this is good. Nonetheless, I am glad to have read version one, and I urge McDowell to give all remaining copies to organizations working with teenage boys, even prisons. I am giving my copy to my 17-year-old grandson. He’s a great kid, no trouble at all, but the rawness of McDowell’s story and the heart he puts into it will resonate with him, and that’s good protection.
Buy this book for someone. Every dollar McDowell makes counts toward his and Alex’s future. Josh is taking courses toward a degree in family law. He had encouragement from a Hollywood producer, but he needs $20,000 to make a Hollywood book trailer. Meanwhile, he is speaking to groups close to home, and hanging onto his job as a karate instructor. Best of all, he’s raising Alex.
******
REVIEW July 18, 2011
(Reviewed for www.BookPleasures.com)
ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND OTHER DEMENTIAS:
THE CAREGIVER’S COMPLETE SURVIVAL GUIDE
Nataly Rubinstein, MSW, LCSW, C-ASWCM
Two Harbors Press (Minneapolis), 2011
ISBN 13:978-1-936198-13-9
I rushed to the chapter on diagnosis in this badly needed, authoritative, and comprehensive guide to dementia. My mother was declared “probable Alzheimer’s” in 2000. It was my job (I decided) to prove the doctor wrong, and to take my mother under my wing and restore her to a practically normal 80-year-old with vascular dementia. I believed her main problems were depression and fear.
Nataly Rubinstein has confirmed my position. My mother died in 2005, but she died a relatively contented woman. I don’t want to make this review personal, however, because, as this expert geriatric social worker says, each person is unique and there are many different kinds of dementia.
This author admits that the guide is four books in one, as every category of caregiver needs its own manual. She focuses as best she can on what all caregivers have in common. The chapter titles are geared toward someone unfamiliar with the complexities of this aging issue (which in my experience includes agency caregivers whose training and wages are insufficient relative to the task).
We know a lot more about the brain and about aging than we did in 2000. Advances have taken us closer to viable treatments. Still, families will cherish this book and probably use it over and over again.
One of the first “lessons” Rubinstein outlines is Know Thyself. She urges the reader about to take on the role of caregiver to understand who the person with dementia is, and — I find this critical in retrospect — what your relationship with him or her has been in the past. She also insists on an understanding of WHY you are choosing to be the caregiver. Let’s face it: often we feel there is no choice. Siblings may live too far away or be caught up in other problems and cannot help. In my case, knowing how my mother would behave in an institutionalized setting, I felt it would be easier to have her in our home. Fortunately, my husband encouraged me, and the prospect of having a man in the house was comforting to her.
Rubinstein is concerned about our recognizing when the time has come to step in, and she has terrific advice about how to navigate the health care system, what to ask for (and sometimes demand), and what the flaws in the system might be. Sometimes this involves changing insurance providers, and it might mean changing doctors. She describes side effects of popular medications, so you can be aware of them when a doctor prescribes one or more or there are several doctors involved. She discusses the value of light therapy (getting out of doors). She warns that the age of some diagnostic tools can misrepresent the situation; this is a question most of us would never think to ask.
Another extremely useful chapter is on communication. If the individual we are caring for cannot or will not express themselves in words, we have to be more sensitive to body language. We also have to be careful about how we express ourselves. The person with dementia is confused and fearful; they will seek the safety of what is familiar. Facial expressions and tone of voice become all the more important tools where words may fail.
Family dynamics create landmines. One example Rubinstein mentions is a person who confused her daughter with her own sister, for whom she had a complete dislike. In the realm of spousal relations, Rubinstein warns that for a couple who has had “a close physical/sexual relationship in the past, memory issues are not the major concern; the loss of physical intimacy is.”
Suggestions for coping are very specific, ranging from legal matters to respite care. Of course, the rules and resources vary from state to state. No doubt, the lists at the back will be kept up-to-date as this book is revised again and again for future generations. (I hope the index is better designed in future editions; this one is hard to read.)
The author’s insights are grounded in her practice, where she works with 800 clients a year, but equally impressive is what comes from the author’s heart. Her final chapter begins as a memoir of childhood; being taught how to live in the wilderness three months a year. If they had an emergency and needed to get to town, they had to flag down the occasional freight train, sometimes at night, using a flashlight. This becomes a metaphorical reminder that we cannot do everything by ourselves. After caring for her own mother with Alzheimer’s, she knows that each of us in that position will have times when we have to wait by the tracks with a flashlight.
This freight train of a book has a very strong beam that sweeps the countryside watching out for you.
REVIEW July 12, 2011
REVIEWED FOR: BookPleasures.com
GET TO KNOW YOUR KID
Shana Connell Noyes
Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2011
ISBN 978-1-59479-862-0
GET TO KNOW YOUR KID is a workbook and a memento. Each 6×9-inch page has one question to ask a child, leaving enough room for the child’s answer — or the inquisitor’s notes.
Two psychologists who wrote the foreword suggest it promotes positive parenting skills, something along the lines of Carl Rogers’ idea of “active listening.” Carl Rogers is considered the founder of client-centered therapy.
The author is a lawyer who explains that she wanted more than a one-word answer when she asked her child about his school day. She experimented with open-ended questions, focusing on the child’s pure interest, and without “right or wrong” answers. It yielded stunning insights.
She includes 100 questions, such as: What do you like most about yourself? — .Have you ever been really scared of something? — What is your most prized possession? Where did you get it? What makes is special? Would you ever sell it? For how much? — Do you have any secret abilities that no one knows about? — Do you know what I do all day while you are at school?
DISCLOSURE: I am 73 and have reservations about the ethics of this. Thus I have respectfully stepped back to ask two teenage granddaughters to critique the book, which is intended for use with kids aged 4-10.
Sophie, a bright 16 (straight A’s in a charter school just ranked number 3 in the nation) likes the book, and thinks the concept is one more parents should adopt. It would “strengthen family ties” and “give [a parent] understanding into lives led by kids today.” FYI, she has gone to a counselor much of her life. Her parents are divorced. She has many close friends. She writes:
“As a teenager, I ask myself these questions a lot. I know my answers have changed frequently over the years, but talking about them is always a great idea. These questions are creative and some remind me of college application essays. Some of them I have never asked myself, and I wish I had. They are questions that keep the imagination going.”
I approached Emilie (12) differently. She is an incredible athlete, but she quietly defers to others for ordinary decisions. When she expresses her ideas, she surprises us with her maturity.
I first asked Emilie to be a critic of the questions. I read 50 of them to her while she marked on a card whether or not she would be willing to answer them. She could say yes, no, or maybe, and she was to star those she really liked. Out of 50, she said “maybe” to 12 questions; “no” to 2, and starred 4 of the 36 “yes” answers.
All I will say about the “no’s” is that both are borderline scary.
Then I asked her if she would be willing to talk to me about those she gave stars to, and she did: (#17) What animal would you like to be? A dog, because they have fun OR a bird because it can fly (the athlete). (24) What are your favorite things to do as a family? Stay at a house on the beach and cook and do things together. (31) When you think about everything in your life, what are you most thankful for? That I can go to college, that I have the kind of family I have, and that I don’t have to live on the street. (47) If you could invite anyone in the world . . . to come over and play …, who would it be? Her best friend who moved away last fall.
Maybe the book fills a void. I was given a diary with a tiny key when I was 8, and as far as I now my mother never looked at it. In fact, there probably wasn’t much there. Later I wrote poems, infinitely more revealing. Last May I watched a 6-year-old grandchild start her own diary on lined notebook paper. The advantage to that method is that it cut to the chase, starting where the child’s mind already is. The drawback (assuming she keeps it up) is that her parents may not purposefully take notice.
I think the deciding factor here is how much a parent needs to know about a child’s inner life. In GET TO KNOW YOUR KID, some of the questions are merely fun (“What are rainbows made of?”) but some seem intrusive (“Do you ever talked to your dolls . . . what do you say to them?”).
However, the book got four thumbs up from the girls, because Emilie stressed it should have no age limit. She was thumbs down on asking about school, though, because “nothing ever happens” worth telling about. She added that she doesn’t ask her parents about their work, either.
REVIEW June 21, 2011
THE HONORED DEAD: A STORY OF FRIENDSHIP, MURDER, AND THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH IN THE ARAB WORLD
Joseph Braude
Spiegel & Grau (New York, 2011)
ISBN 978-0-385-52703-3 (Hardcover), ISBN 978-0-679-60432-7 (eBook)
THE HONORED DEAD has received respectable notice, including an interview with the author on PRI’s The World (NPR, June 14). Joseph Braude’s true adventure is riveting and timely. The journalist is an expert on Arabic and Islamic history.
NPR notwithstanding, Americans tend not to analyze current affairs. Except in the case of our immediate domestic problems, we listen to the nightly news believing that everything in the world will change — or never changes — so why become invested? Maybe that’s why this book is marketed as a “murder mystery,” something more engrossing than today’s headlines.
Braude’s novelistic style is the hook of THE HONORED DEAD. After all, who cares about the small country that is the only one in North Africa currently not rebelling with violence? Morocco seems a nice place to visit, a slender 172,402 square miles along the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea with a backdrop of two fantastic mountain ranges. We embrace its cuisine and decor. Europeanized by the French, it still has colorful bazaars where we can learn to barter prices and ignore beggars. So what if the place is ruled by an authoritarian king, as long as his ongoing efforts to keep the people content are moving in the right direction?
Braude fills in the blanks with engaging prose. It is 2008. Embedded with the police, he takes you on his search for truth — the hidden reason his new friend’s friend was murdered in a warehouse. You see the tin roofed shantytowns of the poor and enclaved villas of the rich; you ride in red taxicabs, admire “pencil-thin” palm trees; notice barbed wire and satellite dishes; are invited into sumptuous courtyards and empty concrete rooms. You meet his informants in colorful or ragged garments; you smell their kitchens. The dialogue is so refined as to make the characters appear simultaneously suspicious and honorable. You are conscious of many personal stories unfolding. And you become sharply aware of eggshell politics.
Corruption exists at every level of society in Morocco. Braude explains: “…it’s a kind of state policy emanating straight from the top. . . .Down at the bottom, the sprawling informal sector of the economy — rife with drug deals large and small — has long been a space in which people take their cues from the upper echelons, constructing smaller patronage pyramids of their own . . . ” Everything requires a bribe, including seats at universities.
As Braude relentlessly pursues the facts, we become immersed in a society shamelessly secretive and misleading. We are confounded by the goodness that resides underneath deviousness in the same individual. There is a poignancy in the Moroccan news consistently reporting crimes without revealing names or locations.
The uneducated poor have little opportunity to improve their lives unless they attach themselves to one of the jihadists groups operating among them, or, more likely, to the production and export of cannabis resin (hashish). Braude says 760,000 Moroccans live off this crop. The versatility of the organized traffickers has made Morocco “a significant transit point for the global drug trade.”
Discontent is knocking at the palace gate. Braude tells us the tape cassette first opened the ears and eyes of many ordinary people. Individuals were drawn into various existing regional movements to make change. Now, appealing and unsettling ideas of how life should be lived are traveling by increasingly sophisticated, globe-circling, communication devices. Meanwhile, “Islamists living humble lives and preaching the Qur’an’s message of egalitarianism and social justice, present themselves as the vanguards of clean government.”
In Morocco, 33 million people occupy mainly cities. At one point Braude refers to the Casablanca “melting pot,” which I learned in school to mean our United States, where diverse people can become one, yet enjoy personal freedom. A “stew” seems more appropriate a metaphor for Morocco, bits and pieces tossed into a steaming pile of spiced lentils. Braude names five distinct ethnic groups that coexist in this kingdom. They may speak Arabic, but it will be nuanced. Not all are devout Muslims. There are in fact 8,000 Jews, 3,000 natives whose families were protected from Nazis by the current ruler’s father. Today, they cannot feel safe.
I understand now why the only Moroccan I know emphasizes her Berber heritage. (Her father was half African of unknown descent; the country’s Blacks’ ancestors were parked in West Africa as slave material.) The loyalty of a proud Berber family is to traditions formed in the remote mountain villages of their indigenous ancestors who believed in magic. Arabs arrived late, in the 7th century. Berbers outnumber them.
The final sharp twists in this story will shake you and challenge your assumptions.
REVIEW JULY 5, 2011
(Reviewed for www.bookpleasures.com)
MARÍA JUANA’S GIFT
T. Lloyd Winetsky
BookLocker.com, Inc, 2011 (Second Edition)
ISBN 978-1-60910-747-5
A lot has happened between 1976 and 2011 that a reader of MARÍA JUANA’S GIFT has to keep in mind, yet this novel, based on real events, resonates with present day themes and emotions. The “borderlands” is that part of our geography that belongs to the people of both the southwestern United States and Mexico, where apprehension and deeply felt humanity coexist and intermingle in ordinary everyday lives. In broad strokes, our “borderlands” experiences are repeated all over the world.
This direct narrative — no stylistic frills — has enormous implications. The plot is simple: A nice man is trying to save the life of his newborn child and he cannot get the cooperation of the people who have authority to help him. The story opens in suspense and action, where every decision and attitude count, we discover later.
Alternating with the race for help in Part I are delicately detailed scenes leading up to this crisis, when two idealistic young teachers from California fall in love and decide to teach in a small Arizona border community, predominantly Spanish speaking. They are welcomed because they know the language and are determined to serve local needs.
In 1976, the 200th year of American Independence, retirement communities were just beginning to appear in southern Arizona. Mexicans who had immigrated to what was originally part of their native land, but changed into a U.S. Territory with the Gadsden Purchase, frequently visited their relatives left behind in Sonora. Sonorans shopped regularly in Tucson. Tucsonans played on the beaches in Sonora. There was almost no difference in culture in the 150 or so miles straddling the political boundary — much of it was nearly uninhabitable — yet there were a few crucial differences.
One was the way the young people in Mexican American families had begun to distinguish themselves as Hispanic, and sometimes distanced themselves from their ancestors. Another was the improvement in economic circumstances once new arrivals from Mexico became U.S. citizens and educational opportunities opened doors for them. They became middle class and even prosperous, while back in Mexico their relatives were living close to poverty.
I first felt irony between the lines of this story when I understood that so many young people in the borderlands wanted what Jake and Tina had turned their backs on to lead more authentic lives.
Where there is poverty there is scarcity of services; any health care available on the Arizona side of the border was (and is) important to Sonorans. On the border there were (and are) clinics where well-educated doctors were (usually temporarily) assigned. Or, depending on their networks and beliefs, sick people trusted women called curanderas who had inherited knowledge of how to treat ailments, and whose great gift was to learn to observe their patients closely.
Against this reality, the author writes of Jake and Tina Friend who could afford the best of care if it were available. Tina has had two early miscarriages, but in her first year teaching at this school is pregnant again, and all goes well until it is time to deliver at the small local hospital. The author here exposes a flaw in the credentialed medical system — arrogance. The first individual to concur with Tina that something was wrong with the baby is the least-credentialed hospital worker, whose Mexican heritage stands in the way of her knowledge being taken seriously.
But María does have power, and among the surprises in the denouement is how she uses it.
Although the author made this fiction, along with his first book, Grey Pine, set in the aftermath of the volcanic eruption on Mt. St. Helens, I believe he is a trustworthy documentarian, and the information he imparts is vitally important for us to understand.
T. Lloyd Winetsky grew up in Los Angeles, joined the Peace Corps, then went to teach 7th grade among impoverished families in 1968. His life thereafter was deeply influenced by the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. After four decades in education, he retired, but continues in his mission to teach English to those who lack access to quality education. Currently, he serves adult farm workers in Wapato, Washington.
REVIEW June 2, 2011
GOLDEN STATE
by David Prybil
iUniverse, 2010
ISBN 978-1-4502-7304-6 Hardcover), ISBN 978-1-4502-7303-9 (PB), ISBN 978-1-4502-7302-2 (Kindle)
Intersecting paths to surprising destinations will keep readers breathless.
This is a book format I like: parallel stories connected to an historical event, where the reader is taken from one individual’s identity crisis into another’s masterminded plan for success; from a tanning salon to an upscale kitchen to a striptease joint in Sacramento and even to Russia (for love).
At about the middle of this tightly and colorfully written novel Arnold Schwarzenegger gets elected Governor of California, and each major character has a stake in this. After all, Arnold’s the action man, and the people desperately need his powers.
Will Missy Carver, the rags-to-riches Realtor who so badly wants to sell Arnold and Maria a house get to know them? Will Todd Tisdale, the lonely tuxedo salesman make a fortune furnishing eveningwear to luminaries in the new Governor’s circle of friends? Will journalist Spencer Brine, lover of literature, but stuck writing obituaries, stab himself in his brain with his own pen before he gets a feature assignment? Will 30-year- old Rowena Pickett, who breaks away from a dead-end job to find a career path, be held back by needing to care for a mother with dementia?
By these questions, the reader is drawn into a narrative that races toward the election and Inauguration of the Governor of California (2003) at a breathtaking pace, studded with comic situations and touching self-revelations. Picture ambitious Missy Carver after a setback, holed up in her house and bulimic, until, on Halloween night, hearing her father is dying at a hospital emergency room, waits for the outcome, surrounded by mummies and vampires. And that’s the beginning of her recovery.
The author’s genius is getting inside the heads of such common people who, critics might say, appear to represent “types.” I’d say they represent dreams. These dreams happen not to be unique, because we all respond to the siren songs of places that are seats of government, commerce or the arts — magnets for people needing a fresh start. Specific geography and history aside, this work is not about place so much as our human inability to see around corners.
I was reminded of crime novelist Jonathan Miller, who exposes the underbelly of “The Enchanted Land,” New Mexico. After reading his rattlesnake lawyer novels the name Santa Fe no longer conjures up images of turquoise jewelry and Pueblo Indians, but rather the grim prison beyond the hills, and lap dancers as reliable sources of information. Likewise, hearing the name “California,” we think incredible surf, Hollywood movies, and Bel Air mansions. GOLDEN STATE shows us the real people, whose day-to-day decisions are made from shabby shop fronts and crumbling bungalows with glimmers of hope, warm hearts, and fear and failure dogging their heels.
As the PR on the book proclaims: Arnold Schwarzenegger has been in the scandal sheets recently, so the novel is called “timely.” I wondered at first about its shelf life if the man goes down. Now having read the story, I care less about the political backdrop than I do about the social issues, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, eating disorders, low wages, and poor choices in mates. Call GOLDEN STATE a time capsule (2003-2006) of heartbreaks and errant ways. It could encourage the next generation. They also can survive.
I had one problem with this book, and that is that I, too, have a life, and had to put GOLDEN STATE down from time to time; I found it difficult to recall what happened a few chapters ago to the character on stage when I picked the book up again. Therefore, I suggest you buy the book on a weekend without any other obligations and just keep reading to the end.
This book is much better than I expected it to be, the author deeper and wiser than his topic and characters originally suggested. He’s a great craftsman. It will be interesting to discover how or if David Prybil will follow up on this debut novel, because he doesn’t really have to; he’s been a producer/writer of films for 15 years. We look forward to another novel, but need more writers of films, too, who show that they care about the rest of us.
NOTE: This review was written for www.bookpleasures.com, a community of 40 readers from all over the world organized by Norm Goldman. It is a popular site for those looking for critiques and peeks at new writing in all genres. The link is:
http://goo.gl/56iCi
REVIEW May 15, 2011
SELF-PUBLISHER’S COMPANION; EXPERT ADVICE FOR AUTHOR’S WHO WANT TO PUBLISH
by Joel Friedlander
Marin Bookworks, San Rafael, CA, 2011
ISBN 978-0-936-385-11-2 (PB, $14.95), ISBN 978-0-936-385-12-9 (Ebook, $4.99)
This book was my stimulus to learn the underlining feature of Kindle, and it got me in trouble. I have underlined so much of Joel Friedlander’s text that it would take just as long for me to sort out his premier points as it will take YOU to read the book. Therefore, I will personalize my comments.
First, I suspected Friedlander wrote this book to attract clients to his book design services. I started reading with a jaundiced eye, having already tested the waters with a POD “publisher” and got in over my head. Well, as it happens, Joel’s mission is to warn people like me of the hazards likely to be encountered on the self-publishing, print-on-demand route — while convincing us that this is the route to take! He had a blog that is encyclopedic and free; but the “Companion” is that octopus reduced to spider size.
Joel takes his reader gently by the hand. Acknowledging the chaos in the publishing industry today, he attempts to make each discouraged writer feel better about wanting to see her/his ideas in print. Once Joel wins the reader’s trust — see how quickly he got me on a first-name basis? — he gets down to business.
Mr. Friedlander repeatedly asks readers to analyze themselves and their intents. (That is a courtesy that writers’ workshops should adopt.) Almost every chapter includes a new challenge — but you can close the book at any point you feel self-publishing isn’t for you. If you stick with him, you will be enlightened: about the ever-evolving industry of book publishing, and where you can comfortably fit into the scheme of things today.
I consider myself fairly well informed about what’s happening to print, trained in both journalism and creative writing, but I appreciate his fine distinctions, say, between writers’ services and vanity presses.
His advice favors nonfiction. Experts with knowledge to impart will learn about the process of producing a book and what affects its cost. Friedlander alerts them to additional ways of reaching their audiences. He’s very detailed on what and how and when to blog (or not). He explains why indexing will die off.
Fiction writers will enjoy Friedlander’s tone – that of an insider, but not smarty-pants. He is literate, an able historian, a veteran in publishing, and fellow scribe. We may think we can avoid all of that other stuff, some of which only cutting edge, social-media maniacs know about. Squidoo lens? Ning networks? I’m dumbfounded. But I am grateful to know that the few choices I’ve made to publicize my book are on track. And, by Jove, he’s got me thinking about Twitter, which previously I considered twash!
I will not ruin your tour by revealing more about mine. Each writer is unique, and there’s something here for everyone. Travel with Joel to places you want to go. (His chapter headings help a lot.) What you do with what you learn comes down to what you’ll settle for.
One concern: Friedlander is not a kid (though he mountain bikes); still I wondered if he hadn’t noticed that probably 8 in 10 attendees at writers’ conferences are 65 or older. (I am 72.) We have a great deal to say, but with limited energy and financial uncertainty. He warns of the danger of letting ourselves be gobbled up by the complexities of the electronic world. Does he mean $$$$$? He even admits that self-publishers are usually exhausted. So at location 1885 (about 85%) in the Kindle version, he leaves us with “just” two things to do: Create better content, bring it to people’s attention.
Joel: I had flagged long before then, where you started naming all the ways to get known. But I kept on because you are a businessman and a philosopher.
He sends us off with basic assignments: find resources online; build our platforms; be aware of the multiple paths of publishing and choose one based on whether it fits our style; then take out our credit cards.
In a nutshell: This ambitious lad distinguishes between his new title and the many “how-to” books on self-publishing by calling it a “why to;” and I believe its ultimate value is in showing you that, if you are a writer, there is no turning back, whether you leave letters or Letters, and that it is easier than ever to make a good job of it.
NOTE: This review was written for www.bookpleasures.com, a community of 40 readers from all over the world organized by Norm Goldman. It is a popular site for those looking for critiques and peeks at new writing in all genres. The link is:
http://goo.gl/56iCi
REVIEW April 26, 2011
IN UNEXPECTED PLACES; Death and Dying – Building up a Picture
by Ray Brown
O-Books (John Hunt Publishing Ltd.), Winchester, UK, 2011
ISBN 978 1 84694 418 5
200 pages
Ray Brown points out that our information avalanche contains little to help us probe the nature of death. I would agree. Our obsession with longevity seems to preclude it. Not since Elizabeth Kubler-Ross wrote Death & Dying (1969) has there been a widely acceptable context in which to bring up the subject. The Swiss-born psychiatrist nudged us toward hospice care with her analysis of the emotional stages we can expect to go through expecting to die. A more specialized audience welcomed Death to Dust (1994, 2001), by Kenneth V. Iserson, M.D., who wrote about the physical process, which he felt had been treated as a kind of “pornography.
Universities offering studies in gerontology usually include a course named something like the title of the Kubler-Ross book. When my father was dying, I enrolled in one, and found myself among young coeds, mainly. When we were given the exercise of drawing death, several responded with depictions of gravestones flanked by flowers. Sad, indeed.
This author goes beyond the grave with an impressive number of spiritual guides to enlighten us with what might be called an integrative approach. Brown examines death as part of a continuum, not the end of a short period of worthwhile (or not) activity. He bases 16 short chapters on prevalent questions, weaving wisdom from “unexpected places” into each. The reader is likely to have many “aha!” moments.
Brown deals first with the overarching concept of “what happens next.” The biggest divide is between the “one lifers” and those who embrace reincarnation. He reminds us that historic treatises chose images to capture the attention of their immediate audiences, so whether Paradise has fountains and temples, or trees and rivers, is of little consequence. The important distinction among the interpretations of afterlife is the length of time one remains there. For some it is forever after, and for others a mere 1,500 years.
Science has sanctified ancient teachings. We are not solid matter but a formation of distinct molecules, invisible to the naked eye. Therefore, is it not reasonable that when we lose breath we lose our form but remain in existence? Aha!
Still, the big question remains: What is the soul? After bodily disintegration, can personality remain intact? Do we have feelings? Are souls individualistic or do they join pulsating choirs of shared experience?
My favorite “aha!” occurred in Chapter Six (“Reaching for the Self”) where Brown distinguishes between the individual and the Soul or Self. The individual reflects personality, the way we want to be seen, but that changes, while Self is our core identity, based on our ideals. Futhermore, Self is receptive to communication from a higher authority. Brown continues in Part Two to discuss “permanence”, the ability to reach the Self. Permanence requires a journey out of the individual into the realm of the mysterious. He moves on to “reconstruction” (of beliefs); and he discusses good and evil and of making a constructive life to mitigate the fear of death (aha!).
Brown demonstrates that one must put considerable intellectual effort into understanding what it means to die. His focus on the continuum and discovery of Self is especially valuable because most books about death help caregivers cope and comfort loved ones left behind, but rarely expand our imaginations as we come to terms with our own good-byes. In Part Three he urges us not to repress thoughts of dying. Having a clearer idea of what we believe will improve our quality of life.
I have two complaints about IN UNEXPECTED PLACES. One is that it lacks an index, so isn’t a “keeper” unless you mark it up or use sticky notes for those “aha!” pages. Secondly, the author is shy of providing credentials except to say that he has been for two decades close to a spiritual advisor.
The publisher makes this statement about the imprint (O-Books):”We aim to publish books that are accessible, constructive and that challenge accepted opinion, both that of academia and the ‘moral majority’.”
Winchester (where the publishing house is) happens to be the final resting place of many important bodies, including those of Alfred the Great, Jane Austen, and Swithun. The latter was an Anglo-Saxon bishop whose reputation for posthumous miracle-working includes forecasting the weather. I would be more at ease recommending this book if the author were to stand up wherever he legally resides and reveal his profession.
Reviewed by Karen Dahood
Author, Sophie Redesigned; A Sophie and Sam Mystery