Book Review - The Briar King By Greg Keyes

Dark sorcery, fearsome supernatural beings, and a potent history combine in the fantasy world created by author Greg Keyes in The Briar King, the first book in the Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone fantasy series. Published in 2003 by Del Rey books, The Briar King welcomes fantasy readers into its adventure with familiar themes but without being overly formulaic.

It Opens With A Curse

The setting of the fantasy novel is twenty two centuries into the Age of Everon that began when humans defeated the Skasloi, a powerful and mysterious race that enslaved humans and put them through cruel labors and tortures. The Skasloi were defeated after much epic struggle by the Born Men, who were people from outside the enslaved societies of the Skasloi. Genia Dare, known as the Born Queen, led her fighters beyond the killing fields of grim struggle and used the sedos power to defeat the Skasloi.

In her moment of triumph, though, the Skasloi lord beneath her boot heel declared that she had cursed her heirs by using the sedos power. The day would come when the world would rot and consume humanity. Genia Dare cares little for his prophecy because the Skasloi are despicable and to vanquish them is good.

Faded Legends Come To Life

After a stunning opening in which this crucial scene between Genia Dare and the Skasloi is revealed, the novel begins anew over two thousand years in the future. The power of the sedos still exists in certain places, but the curses of the Skasloi have faded into legend. Keyes does a good job of weaving into the novel bits of folklore and songs that describe the ancient forces that are soon to trouble the land. For example, the Briar King is known in some regions as Baron Greenleaf, which is a nice touch that adds to the depth of the story because regional differences in myth and legend typically occur.

It is within the vast King’s Forest that the first rumblings of trouble emerge. This forest was originally set aside as a reserve for the Briar King, and if his forest is violated by human encroachment – which has been happening – he will wake and crush humanity and remake the world.

In this forest Aspar White, a gruff and dependable character, serves as the guardian of the land and enforces the law of King William Dare. When Aspar begins to investigate the mysterious murders of some forest squatters, he assumes it will be a routine mission. But then he finds the gruesome leavings of human sacrifices and encounters a beast called a greffyn. Its very image is poison and even touching those who were killed by the greffyn can kill a person.

Meanwhile, as supernatural horrors are brewing in the King’s Forest, multiple conspirators plot against the Dare Dynasty, led by King William. His younger brother Prince Robert presents himself as a fairly obvious villain, but men apparently under the direction of the Church are plotting the deaths of the entire Dare family as well. They want to kill the Queen and all the Dare heirs, especially the female heirs. Presumably this ties in somehow with the belief that a queen must be present when the Briar King wakes. Whether the presence of a queen will help, it is not made clear and the motives of the assassins are murky.

The youngest daughter of King William, Anne Dare, is a major character in the book. She has appeal as a headstrong teenage female character. Anne’s strong will should be endearing to readers because the author managed to create a spoiled princess that is not annoying.

The rest of the characters also come across as genuine and several are interesting and entertaining, especially Stephen Darige and Cazio. In some instances, however, a character will fall flat and feel like just filler, like Winna, the love interest for Aspar White.

A Fantasy Novel With Light Wounds

The Briar King has more complexity to its plot than what can be described in this review. The story unfolds comfortably as Keyes lets the reader know just enough to stay interested without getting frustrated. This book blessedly avoids the propensity of many fantasy novels to keep everything a mystery until the fourth book. Yes, you will get to see the Briar King.

Although this is an enjoyable and intelligent fantasy novel, my main criticism is the author’s overuse of the device in which a character reaches a crisis and then the narrative jumps to the person waking up in someone’s care who then explains how the character escaped death. It would have been better to simply read how the action played out. This happens several times in the book.

Then, near the end, the narrative gets choppy. Some of this is understandable because it is difficult to interweave action sequences of numerous characters in multiple locations all in crisis on the same night. However, there was an overuse of the device of leading up to an interesting conflict or meeting and then switching to something else. The narrative was trying too hard to force me to keep reading when I was already interested in reading. I would have preferred fewer interruptions and bouncing around. Whether Keyes did this or an overzealous editor had at it, I don’t know.

Aside from a few forgivable flaws, The Briar King is an exciting story placed within a well thought out and creative world of magic, religion, politics, and myth. I would call it an above average fantasy novel but not place it in the awesome category.

Book Review - The Briar King By Greg Keyes

A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

There’s no denying that there are many negative forces at work in today’s society. We have battles in court, battles on soil belonging to neighboring countries’, gang warfare, crazy people walking into local fast food joints and randomly spraying machine gun fire, police brutality, overpopulation, starving people, AIDS, cancer, pollution, dwindling resources, abusive and neglectful families, so many people caught up in material priorities, drugged from crack to Valium, from Ritalin to Prozac. We have destructive emotions like selfishness, fear, misery, envy, depression, jealousy, distrust, hate, racism, and anger. Just thinking about all the negative influences surrounding us is depressing. Pass the Prozac, please. It’s easy to overlook the existence of positive elements in our society. We need to know both extremes in order to have something by which to base our standards. There needs to be a balance. The Yin and the Yang must co-exist. This is not to say that the scales cannot tip toward one side or the other, and in a world where the scales seem to be tipping towards the bad side, who wouldn’t want to add a little weight to the good?

There have been and continue to be visionaries among us. The definition of Utopian is “ideal, but impractical”. The Utopia in A Brave New World boasted physical comfort and “happiness” ensured by genetic manipulation and postnatal conditioning. The inhabitants of this new world were essentially slaves, bound not by literal chains, but by mental ones.

On the subject of happiness John says to Bernard, ” Well, I’d rather be unhappy than have the sort of false, lying happiness you were having here”. The happiness of the new world was not true happiness since it was conditioned. Just as one who has been hypnotized to walk around clucking like a chicken may think he is a chicken, he is not actually a chicken. Similarly, a woman regularly abused by her partner, being told that she is “worthless” and “stupid” eventually comes to believe it, whether it’s true or not. One who is told he is happy often enough to believe it is not actually happy, he has just been brainwashed into believing so.

Based on his research, Abraham Maslow, a Philosopher of Humanistic Psychology, formed the theory of “self-actualization”. He found that in order to obtain happiness, we must first satisfy the “needs” on the lower rungs of the ladder in order to progress up the ladder to the top.

Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” in ascending order: 1) Physiological needs (hunger, thirst, shelter, rest) 2) Safety needs (protected from illness, elements) 3) Love (receiving and giving love, affection, trust, acceptance, family, friends) 4) Esteem needs (esteem, respect of others and self) 5) Cognitive needs (knowledge, understanding, curiosity) 6) Aesthetic needs (art, nature, balance, order) 7) Self actualizing (successful development and use of personal talents and abilities).

In accordance with Maslow’s theory, Brave New Worlder’s don’t have the potential to be happy. They couldn’t progress much past the 2nd rung of the ladder. Love was denied to them due to the “appalling dangers of family life”. Their cognitive needs were not fulfilled. They could be brainwashed, but not actually learn anything. The example given was of the little boy who could recall from his sleep teaching the statement about the Nile river being the longest in Africa, but not knowing which river in Africa was the longest. They did not have independent thought. In fact, they did not have most of Maslow’s characteristics of psychologically healthy people: “an objective perception of reality, independence, need for privacy, empathy, resistance to conformity, democratic characteristics, or the keenness to be creative”.

Today’s society is slowly but surely creeping towards being more and more controlled. Big business and Government are two powerful forces united, driven by money and power. We’re still giving fingerprints as a form of ID; will DNA be next? Our spending is monitored. We have credit and debit cards; even our paper money contains a metallic strip, for tracking. We are constantly being watched by cameras on every street corner, the highway, the park, work, shopping. Animals’ whereabouts are tracked by microchips that have been implanted in their bodies. Are we next? How about cloning?

Like the “orgie porgies”, “feelies” and “soma”, we’re being given distractions to divert our attention from realities such as these. To keep independent thought at bay, Ritalin, Prozac, TV “news”, soap operas, talk shows, and the internet are given to us. Advertising is stuffed down our throats. Catchy tunes reminding us how much we need this or that. The power of suggestion is strong. Mass production needs mass consumption. In A Brave New World the statements “Ending is better than mending”, “I love new clothes..”, “The more stitches, the less riches” were drilled into heads. Another form of distraction in A Brave New World was the constant groups of people, of strangers. This is similar to our city life. Masses of people lose individually, making them easier to lead. Churches have known this throughout history.

In A Brave New World, the Controller spoke to John of their nine year war and of how the masses were “ready to have even their appetites controlled then. Anything for a quiet life”. Are we heading toward a new society? A society slowly and methodically being reformed to better serve the needs of someone in a position of power? Will we soon be willing to give up our freedoms in exchange for physical safety as in the Brave New World?

A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

The Millstone by Margaret Drabble

Rosamund Stacey is the first person narrator of her own story in the Millstone by Margaret Drabble. Rosamund is a single mother – nothing strange about that, perhaps, at least in a twenty-first century Britain where now half of births are outside of marriage. But in the early 1960s, when The Millstone was written, unmarried mothers were not so common and it was a status to which considerable stigma was attached.

Consequently, when Rosamund visits hospital for her regular check-ups, she is summoned from the waiting room with a call of Mrs. Stacey in an attempt to maintain the privacy of her status. She longs for the day – and not too distant – when her thesis on Elizabethan poetry will be complete and she can prefix her name with Dr., thereby avoiding the deception.

The Millstone is written in Margaret Drabble’s conversational, yet dense style. The characters are highly complex and seem to live their lives with a devotion to intricacy. Not much happens to them, however, and events are few and far between. Rosamund’s life is a case in point. It was Cambridge, of course, followed by the relative comfort of a flat in central London, an apartment provided by her parents calculatedly close to the British Museum, where she does most of her research. She is definitely not the run-of-the-mill young lass who attends university nowadays, our Rosamund. She has a boyfriend at college, of course, but they never sleep together, not even on the occasion they jointly plan to accomplish the act.

Rosamund is not really into sex, she thinks. She has a tendency to see herself as an object from without, and her observation of the absurdity of various aspects of being human lead her to a life slightly removed from reality, lived apparently at arm’s length from experience. Though she sees quite a lot of Joe and Roger – both quite different but eligible males – the idea of anything other than a chat and a drink appals her. Each of the two men, of course, think that the other is the boyfriend and so are loath to raise the subject.

Then, for some reason hardly known to herself, she takes up with George, a gay radio presenter, and sleeps with him. Just once. And yes, Rosamund is definitively pregnant. As ever, she cannot decide what to do and, even when she eventually plans her course, she is blown off onto a different tack. She has read that drinking a bottle of gin in a hot bath might do the trick. She sets an evening aside. And then, just as the bottle is opened, friends turn up, she offers them a drink and they share the otherwise-ntended gin between them.

Rosamund is thus never really in control, despite appearing to have a strangle hold on her life. Circumstances always seem to conspire to prevent her getting precisely what she wants. But this is eventually seen as an illusion. Perhaps she does get precisely what she wants, but does not tell us, or herself.

And so Octavia is born. The baby is a life that Rosamund contemplated ending, but when the child is ill, the thought of her coming to harm is too painful to admit. A friend, Lydia, moves in, shares the costs and sets about writing a novel. When this is complete, an unsupervised Octavia tears much of it up, though perhaps not disastrously. Rosamund reminds us that babies are persistent, not thorough, so most of the pages are preserved. It becomes the mother’s trauma, however.

Rosamund could be described as measured, always apparently in control, yet always feeling she is swept along with the tide. Passionate she is not. When George, who still does not know he is Octavia’s father, says she might do well with a husband, Rosamund agrees, but only because it would be nice to have someone who could help to fill in the tax return. George is no better, since for his the purpose of marriage seems to be to provide someone to iron his shirts. It’s all terribly British.

But the characters are beautifully drawn, expertly pitched against themselves and their relationships. The Millstone, thus, explores motivation and achievement, and the relationship between selfishness and selflessness. In the end, we are who we are.

The Millstone by Margaret Drabble

I Too Had A Love Story - Book Review

I Too Had A Love Story is the debut novel of young Indian author Ravinder Singh. What makes a love story truly exceptional is the honesty of it and Ravin exemplifies this with this brilliant piece of work. The USP of this book is the honesty with which it is written – a tale of true yet painful love. It touched a chord deep within my heart and also that of readers worldwide. It has gone on to become a national bestseller with thousands of copies in print.

One always remembers that first touch, that first kiss, that first of every relationship. All this has been captured very beautifully by the author. While reading it one can almost feel the emotions that are penned down in the book and honestly I was close to tears by the time I reached the end of I Too had a Love Story.

I too had a love story starts with a reunion of four college friends who are meeting each other after a long time. Like all male discussions, the topics ends up on girls and each of the four friends discuss their future plans on the girl of their dreams. After the reunion though, Ravin sees an ad of a matrimonial site and inspired by the discussions registers on the same on an impulse. And as fate would have it, he ends up talking to a girl named Khushi. And even though, both of them don’t meet for a long time, their friendship starts over the phone and soon blossoms into love after many late night chats and phone calls. The beauty in which the author captures these conversations is commendable and makes one smile after every page.

The story continues forward when both of them meet for the first time and then take their relationship onto the next level. Readers of this book are bound to fall in love with the two main characters and the sweet and cute conversations between them. I too had a love story is one that is filled with pure innocence and that is what makes it even more special.

The climax of the story is one that will move you to tears. I will not reveal the climax but it is commendable in the way in which the author touches those painful chords inside all of us. I too had a love story is definitely a must read book for every person who has been in love and especially for those who have loved and lost someone special. I Too Had A Love Story is a must read book for everyone!

I Too Had A Love Story - Book Review

Home Staging - How to Dominate Your Market in 1 Year by Zoe Zhao

If you want a high-paying, creative career and have an eye for designed then this book is for you. The book is written for two different groups of individuals interested in a home staging business. The first group is for designers who are currently running a home staging business. The second targeted group is individuals who want a home staging business without the burden of storing, moving, and setting up and working with contractors.

The information in this book will help designers to increase the quantity and quality of leads and customers. It will teach those who do not want the burden of the day-to-day operations how to control the market and find designers who will do the actual work.

The business of home staging has moved from the realm of realtors to work-at-home moms, interior designers and other entrepreneurs. It has become a very profitable and global business which transforms homes and adds value to the property.

The book defines and teaches you how to develop systems of: lead generations; process, manage and follow up on leads; selling and referrals. This book will not teach you how to design and/or how to stage. Its focus is purely on how to develop the steps to a successful home staging business.

The author identifies eleven steps to a successful home staging business and details how to implement each step. You will learn how to: find your marketing niche; design your company signage; setup your portfolio; get your own website; develop a collection of Realtors’ names and location of Real Estate offices in your area; design marketing materials and develop business forms; how to use a reliable e-mail contact management service; and how to use media to market your business. The author provides many time tested marketing strategies on how to increase your referrals.

Along with the eleven steps to success the author provides instructions on effective time lines. The time lines are presented in daily, weekly, monthly and yearly lists. The author details the tasks for each of these lists and discusses the importance of the lists.

The book provides step by step instructions on how to: prepare presentations for Realtors, how to get insurance for your company, and how to post advertisements on free web sites. It covers the does and don’ts for meeting potential clients; what to say and how to structure your first meeting.

The book addresses the cost to home staging which includes information on the consultation fees as well as the staging costs. The author then discusses what to do after the staging and sale of the home.

Along with the eleven steps to success the book provides information on indicators of a high-quality service. It details how to market and attract high-end clients; why it is important to your business to pursue this clientele; the pros and cons of working with this population; and what extra services might be expected. There is a chapter dedicated to building relationships for success: what relationships you should form; how to recommend other services to clients and whether there might be additions referral fees.

Chapter 5, “Choosing Designers 101″ is written for individuals who do not want the burden of the day-to-day burdens of staging. This chapter details how to find the designers; how to evaluate and verify their work; the benefits of subcontracting; where to focus your time and energies; setting up an agreement; how best to work with them; how to conduct the actual consultation with the client; how to manage more than one designer; how to find a salesperson and how to determine the commission rate; and what are your responsibilities when working with a designer.

The review of the top nine qualities highlights additional information on great marketing; loyal customers; low overhead; limited debt, recurring revenues; paid in advance; operate with in a niche; keeping it simple; and developing a business that the average person can run. There is a section containing examples of referral forms, marketing postcards, thank you postcard, and other suggested forms.

In conclusion, the book provides the information, strategies and indicators of a business which will assist you in creating a winning business.

Home Staging - How to Dominate Your Market in 1 Year by Zoe Zhao

Book Review - The Plot Against America by Philip J. Roth

The Plot Against America is an unusual alternate history fiction novel by Philip J. Roth. It is set in an early 1940s, principally in Newark, New Jersey, (the time and location where Roth himself grew up), and tells the story of an America which is increasingly turning towards fascism and anti-semitism.

The novel’s main viewpoint character is a young Jewish boy named Philip. It is from his perspective that we see the rise of anti-semitism, but we also learn many other details of Philip’s childhood. As a result, the book is not just about the changes to history, but also about growing up – and these details are one of the things that gives the book its very unique flavor.

According to Roth, he was not aware of the alternate history genre at the time he wrote this novel, and while that seems surprising in many ways (and some reviews and critics have questioned this claim), it does seem possible that Roth’s claim could be true, especially since there are a number of aspects of the story which don’t follow the normal conventions of the alternate history genre. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is the ending (and what happens after America’s fascist period) – which I won’t reveal in this review – but which I am confident that anybody with even the slightest belief in the butterfly effect will find unbelievable and perhaps even contrived, and which in my opinion is more along the lines of secret history than alternate history. That said, I personally did not find the ending detracted from the novel as whole – because I felt the novel was really about what Philip’s feelings and life in the situation described, rather than the specific historical details of the political background story.

It is probably worth mentioning as well that the book has attracted some criticisms, especially from some sections of the conservative press, for its portrayals of real life characters (such as Charles Lindbergh), and for the apparent ease with which anti-semitism becomes common in th United States. Addressing the second criticism first, Roth has actually written in his autobiography about the anti-semitism that he himself encountered during his childhood, and many of the anti-semitic incidents he describes in the novel seem to be clearly based on the anti-semitism that he found in our timeline’s non-fascist America. As for the portrayal of historical characters, I don’t think that you would want to read any alternate history if you were highly sensitive about that sort of thing!

Over all, this is one of my favorite alternate history novels, not in spite of the differences from most of the genre, but because of them. Yes, I could make many nitpicking criticisms about flaws that I perceived in the plausibility of the historical events described in the novel – but as I’ve already said, the book isn’t really about historical events or even alternate historical events, rather it’s a high quality work of literature, largely about growing-up, in which alternate history simply provides the background.

If you’re the kind of alternate history fan who is only interested in the historical details such as specific battles, weapons and leadership decisions, then this book is not for you. On the other hand, if you have a broader appreciation of good and interesting writing, and want something different from the glut of run-of-the-mill alternate history novels, then this books is for you.

Book Review - The Plot Against America by Philip J. Roth

Debt Cures Book Review - Is Kevin Trudeau's Latest Book A Scam? Part 2

It would be nice to believe that there is some magic ‘cure’ to all our debt problems. Kevin Trudeau would like you to believe that in his latest book Debt Cures They Don’t Want You to Know About. In the first article in this series, I described what happened when I ordered Debt Cures online and my initial review of the first few chapters. In this article, I will continue my review of Mr. Trudeau’s latest book.

Picking up where we left off – chapter seven – a chapter that should have just been left out of the book entirely. It covers the basics of credit scoring and credit reporting. Chapter eight is similar, it tells you what goes into your credit report. You can go to the Fool, Bankrate or Yahoo Finance website or a host of many other sites and get this same information.

Debt Cures rehashes much of the same information already found in most debt, credit and finance books. Despite Kevin Trudeau’s claim that it is groundbreaking and never before been released secrets, you can find the same info by doing your own research online. So it all depends on how much you value your time. You can spend time searching for this same info or you can find it all in one resource such as Debt Cures. Having said that, he does adds some tips and tricks and if you use just one of those tips then the book will have paid for itself in spades.

And when it comes to credit card debt and curing our debt problems, when the amounts of money involved can be quite substantial, using one of these tips can potentially save you thousands of dollars. The only question is are you willing to put in the work to get it done and make it happen? Are you going to make the calls to your credit card companies and ask them to lower your interest rate? Are you going to order your credit reports and credit scores and dispute the inaccuracies?

So no matter which financial book you read, if you do nothing and do not take action, you cannot call any book a scam. Even if it comes from Kevin Trudeau.

Moving on to chapter nine and ten. These chapters continue on with getting copies of your credit reports and credit scores and getting rid of errors. Once you fix the errors in your credit report, your credit score will go up and you will save money on any loan you take out – home, auto, refinance, etc.

He also recommends monitoring your credit report. This will protect you from identity thieves and make sure no new surprises appear on your credit report the next time you check it.

Chapter 11 offers tips for improving your credit score overnight. One of his tips include boosting your credit score by using less of your available credit on each credit card. He recommends you only use 35% of your available credit on each card you have. Using more than this will lower your score.

One tip from chapter 11 offers a strategy to eliminate negative items on your credit report. This tip has about a 50% chance of succeeding when dealing with debt collectors and erasing negative items off your credit report. If this one tip works then you’ll have easily paid for the cost of Debt Cures several times over.

Chapter 12 is only six pages long but it contains the 2 magic words that several people have asked about. I have a feeling that you may be disappointed about what the 2 words are. But then again, if you know someone who has been affected by this then you’ll understand why Kevin hyped these two words up so much. There are few things that can ruin a credit report and credit score faster and wreck havoc on your life than these 2 words.

Kevin recommends checking your credit report and monitoring your credit to protect yourself from I_ _ _ _ _ _ _ T_ _ _ _. It is the fastest growing crime in America and affected 9.9 million Americans last year and cost them roughly $5 billion.

Chapter 13 covers cutting your mortgage loan payments down. Money saved is the same as money earned. Kevin offers tips on getting rid of your PMI, making biweekly payments and refinancing your variable rate mortgage for a fixed rate now that interest rates have gone up.

Rising interest rates is a recent topic so Kevin Trudeau including it in this book is a timely addition. He offers a few tips on dealing with lenders who do not want to be flexible with you.

If you need to refinance your variable loan to a fixed loan, do it and save money each month on your payments.

This article covered the middle section of Debt Cures. In the third and final upcoming article, I will finish the review of the book and highlight Kevin’s tips for getting free money from the government, how to rebuild your credit, how to stop debt collectors, and how to build wealth. Stay tuned.

Debt Cures Book Review - Is Kevin Trudeau's Latest Book A Scam? Part 2

Golden Age Hawkman Remains Excellent DC Comics Character

Although he may not be as famous as Superman or Batman, Hawkman has been a major DC Comics superhero since the Golden Age of comics. Not only is he a great character visually, he sports an interesting origin, too. And while there have been more than one Hawkman, the Golden Age Hawkman is the best.

I am not going to spend hours explaining Hawkman’s past. A great place to read about it is at Wikipedia. However, I need to sum up Hawkman a little. Hawkman first appeared in Flash Comics in 1940. He was Carter Hall and, later in the series, his fiancee Shiera became Hawkgirl. They flew using wings and a metal-called ninth metal in the Golden Age and Nth metal in the Silver Age-harness that defies gravity. This was all courtesy of ancient Egyptian secrets. They were reincarnated Egyptians.

In the 1960s, Hawkman and Hawkgirl were reintroduced as Katar Hol and Shayera Hol (Thal was her maiden name). They were alien police officers who came to Earth from the planet Thanagar. Although they have a different history, their costumes look almost exactly the same as the original hawks. There are twists and turns to the history of Hawkman and Hawkgirl, but, basically, these are the four main hawk characters.

Growing up in the 1980s, I was most familiar with the alien hawks. It was Katar and Shayera who were on the SuperFriends and featured in DC Comics at the time. Carter and Shiera Hall were still around in DC Comics, too, but not as prominently in the 1980s. In the 1990s, the entire Hawkman franchise was revamped, in a way, through the Hawkworld miniseries and the Hawkworld ongoing series. Although fans were split on some decisions made with the Hawkworld stories, I loved them. The Hawkworld ongoing series was excellent. Some issues featured all four hawks, which made for some great tales.

Hawkman was once again reintroduced in the early 2000s. Carter Hall was back as the main Hawkman and Kendra Saunders (grandniece of the first Hawkgirl) was Hawkgirl. But, it was not really Kendra. It was Shiera’s soul in Kendra’s body, using Kendra’s memories. Thankfully, Shiera is back completely now, memories and all! She returned in DC Comic’s Blackest Night No. 8 in early 2010.

Carter is my number one choice for Hawkman. The reincarnation angle of his character makes for some good stories. His adventures are a mix of Indiana Jones and Mummy movies with science fiction thrown in. Plus, he’s the first Hawkman. He gets kudos for that!

Haters who say Hawkman is pointless because all he does is fly are missing the point. Sure, he flies. And while Superman can fly and do a hundred other things, Hawkman is unique. Hawkman is about adventures in ancient worlds, lost civilizations, and even on other planets. Also, unlike other heroes who fly, Hawkman embodies the idea of flight. His wings are a symbol of man’s dream of flight. And they just look darn cool!

Another important aspect of Hawkman has also been the equality and partnership between Hawkman and Hawkgirl (sometimes called Hawkwoman). The first Hawkgirl, Shiera, appeared in Flash Comics (1940) No. 1 as an non-costumed supporting character in the Hawkman story. She becomes Hawkgirl later in the run. But, that is a subject for another article.

Golden Age Hawkman Remains Excellent DC Comics Character

Interview with Bud Bilanich, Author of Straight Talk for Success

Bud Bilanich is The Common Sense Guy. His pragmatic approach to business, life, and the business of life has made him one of the most sought after speakers, consultants and executive coaches in the USA! Dr. Bilanich’s work focuses on helping individuals, teams and entire organizations succeed. Bud is Harvard educated, but has a no-nonsense, common sense approach to his work that stretches back to his roots in the steel country of Western Pennsylvania.

In addition to “Straight Talk for Success,” Bud has authored six books on business and leadership. He is a regular guest on talk radio and podcasts. He writes two popular blogs: , which focuses on career and life success and monSenseGuy.com that is devoted to advice for leaders and small business owners.

His clients include Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, PepsiCo, General Motors, Citicorp, JP Morgan Chase, UBS Financial Services, AXA Advisors, AT&T, Pitney Bowes, and The Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

Bud is a cancer survivor who lives in Denver with his wife Cathy. He is a retired rugby player and an avid cyclist. He likes movies, live theatre and crime fiction.

Tyler: Welcome, Bud. I’m glad you could join me today. We all want to know how to be successful. To start out will you tell us what made you feel the need to write “Straight Talk for Success”?

Bud: Thanks Tyler. I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me today. As you know, I’ve been in business as a consultant and speaker since 1988. About five years ago, many of my clients began asking me to help them out by coaching some of their senior executives and high potential employees.

As I began my coaching work, I decided that I needed to put together a model of career and life success. I wanted to identify the characteristics that all successful people have in common. After about a year of research-on line, reading every success book I could find, and interviewing successful people-I came up with my five point model of success. This model says that successful people have five things in common.

Successful people are self confident.

Successful people have positive personal impact.

Successful people are outstanding performers.

Successful people are great communicators.

Successful people are interpersonally competent.

My coaching clients told me that they found this common sense model to be very helpful.

Several suggested that I should turn it into a book. So I did.

Tyler: Who do you think will most benefit from and enjoy reading your book?

Bud: There are three main audiences for this book. The primary audience is young people, 20 to 30 years old, just beginning their careers. The second audience is people who have just received their first promotion and are beginning to advance in their life and careers. The third audience is people who are feeling stuck in their careers and who are looking for some advice on how to get it moving forward again.

In short, anyone who is interested in becoming more successful in their life and career can benefit from the ideas in “Straight Talk for Success.”

Tyler: Bud, how will the book help people who feel stuck in their careers, or who are having difficulties at work?

Bud: Well Tyler, I’ve learned that the biggest mistake people make when it comes to career and life success is thinking that good performance is enough to guarantee success. Outstanding performance is important, sure. It’s at the heart of the model. However, I have found that the people who become truly successful are more than good performers.

People who read “Straight Talk” will learn how to put the other four key success factors-self confidence, positive personal impact, communication skills and interpersonal competence-into play to build a great life and career.

Tyler: What do you define as success?

Bud: My definition of success is two part. First success means being happy with yourself, your life and career. Second, success means doing something-no matter how small-to make the world a better place.

Tyler: Bud, will you tell us a little bit about how the book is organized. Is there a specific path you outline to help a person reach success?

Bud: Tyler, as you might have guessed the book is organized into five main sections:

Self Confidence

Positive Personal Impact

Outstanding Performance

Communication Skills

Interpersonal Competence

Each section has three chapters.

The self confidence chapters focus on: 1) Becoming optimistic, 2) Facing your fears, and 3) Surrounding yourself with positive people.

The positive personal impact chapters focus on: 1) Developing and nurturing your personal brand, 2) Being impeccable in your presentation of self, and 3) Knowing and using the basic rules of etiquette.

The outstanding performance chapters focus on: 1) Becoming a lifelong learner, 2) Setting and achieving high goals, and 3) Getting organized for success.

The communication skills chapters focus on: 1) Becoming an excellent conversationalist, 2) Developing your writing skills, and 3) Becoming an outstanding presenter.

The interpersonal competence chapters focus on: 1) Becoming self aware, 2) Building long lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with the people in your life, and 3) Learning how to resolve conflict positively.

Tyler: Bud, one of the aspects of success you focus on is that a person must have good communication skills. How can a person develop these skills?

Bud: As I mentioned, there are three types of communication skills important for career and life success: conversation skills, writing skills and presentation skills.

Here’s some simple, common sense advice on each of them. Questions are the main secret to conversation skills. If you ask other people questions, you will become known as a great conversationalist. Writing is easy. Use the active voice, small words, and simple sentences and you’ll become a clear concise writer. Practice is the key to making dynamic presentations. The more you practice, the better your talks will be.

Tyler: You also talk about self-confidence. How does one go from feeling fear, for example, of public speaking, to being self-confident?

Bud: My suggestions for dealing with fear are also simple and common sense. To best your fears you need to do four things. 1) Identify it. 2) Admit it. 3) Accept it. 4) Confront it and take action.

So, to use your example, if you’re afraid of public speaking, making as many presentations as you can is the best thing you can do to overcome this fear.

Tyler: What about interpersonal competence? How do you define it, and how does one master it to become successful?

Bud: Interpersonally competent people excel at three things. First, they are self aware. They understand themselves. They use this self understanding to understand better the people in their lives. By understanding how others are similar or different from them, interpersonally competent people are able better to alter their communication styles. This helps them relate well to all sorts of people.

Second, interpersonally competent people are good at building strong, mutually beneficial relationships with the people in their lives. They do this by using their conversation skills, and by being willing to help others with no expectation of anything in return. This giving mentality allows them to make regular deposits into the emotional bank accounts they have with others. When you make regular deposits, you have enough emotional capital to make the occasional withdrawal.

Finally, interpersonally competent people resolve conflict in a positive manner. They do this by identifying the points where they agree with someone with whom they are in conflict. They use these points of agreement-no matter how trivial to build a solution that is acceptable to both parties.

Tyler: How would your advice for achieving success differ if for example, you had a male college student who views success as being a well known brain surgeon, versus a senior citizen woman who views success as staying physically active?

Bud: Not much. I believe that career and life success are a function of the five factors I’ve mentioned several times as we’ve chatted: self confidence, positive personal impact, outstanding performance, communication skills and interpersonal competence.

Successful brain surgeons need all of these, just like my mother-who is a senior citizen, suffering from COPD – that’s Chronic obstructive Pulmonary Disease, what they used to call Emphysema.

Tyler:”Straight Talk for Success” contains many stories as examples. Would you share one of these stories with us?

Bud: I love stories because they make the points I want to make in the book come alive. Here’s a favorite because it is about a time that my self confidence helped me succeed against some pretty tough competition.

Mark Twain once said, “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, then success is sure.” I love this quote. To me, it says you’ll be amazed by how much you can accomplish (success) if you don’t know (ignorance) how hard it is to accomplish it. If you don’t know that it’s hard or impossible to do something, you are more likely to be able to do it.

Here’s an example from my life. When I was a junior in high school, the local paper sponsored a writing contest. The winners got to spend two weeks at Kent State University during the summer participating in a seminar sponsored by the High School Press Institute. Only two students from all of the high schools in our county would win the contest. I decided I was going to win-because winning was the only way I was going to get to go to the seminar.

Funny thing is, I thought that two students from each school in the county were going to be selected. In other words, I was ignorant about the difficulty of winning. I was sure that I was one of the two best writers in my high school; I was sure to win if I wrote the best essay I possibly could. I wrote a kick-ass essay, sent it in, and waited to hear that I had won.

Which I did. However, I was shocked when I realized I was one of two kids from the whole county-not just my school-to win. It was just like Mark Twain said. All I needed was ignorance and confidence. I was ignorant of the difficulty of the competition-we had about 25 high schools in our county. It was 25 times more difficult to win than I thought. And I was confident. I knew the competition in my school, and I was pretty sure that if I wrote my best essay, it would be better than the essays of the other kids (I knew this because I was editor of the yearbook and newspaper and regularly edited their writing). My ignorance allowed my confidence to flourish, and I wrote well. Had I known that I was in a county-wide competition, I might have been more tentative in my writing, and I might not have won.

The common sense point here? When you are faced with a challenge, focus on your skills and talents, not how difficult it is-and you’ll be likely to succeed.

“Straight Talk” is filled with these types of stories.

Tyler: Bud, would you say success also depends on listening to yourself and not other people? If people had started to tell you that you had a slim or no chance of winning, would that have stopped you?

Bud: Success absolutely depends on listening to yourself. That’s why self confidence is the first point in the model. All successful people are self confident. They believe in themselves – even when others tell them that they can’t be successful.

The 2008 Super Bowl is a good example. If the Giants had listened to all of the experts, they wouldn’t have even made the trip to Arizona. They would have just conceded the championship to the Patriots. But they believed in themselves, and ended up winning the game in one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history.

Tyler: I mentioned earlier that you’ve written several other books in your career. Will you tell us a little about them?

Bud: All of the other books I’ve written have been in the leadership arena. I’ll give you a quick list of the titles here:

4 Secrets of High Performing Organizations

Supervisory Leadership

Using Values to Turn Vision Into Reality

Leading With Values

Fixing Performance Problems

Solving Performance Problems

I’ve also written an e book called “Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success”. It was sort of a rough draft of “Straight Talk.”

Besides that, I’ve contributed chapters to several books:

Conversations on Success

One Great Idea

The Handbook of Business Strategy

180 Ways to Walk the Customer Service Talk

Tyler: Besides writing books, Bud, you teach success through coaching. Will you tell us a little bit about that work?

Bud: I began my career as a trainer. From there I moved into consulting and speaking. Speaking is a lot like training. You just have less time to make your point. Most of my talks last 45 minutes to an hour. Most training courses are usually a full day at a minimum. My coaching is done one on one. My typical coaching engagements last six months. During that time, I usually meet face to face with the person I am coaching three or four times. I speak with him or her via the phone every week, and I am available by email to answer questions as we go forward.

As I mentioned before, the five points in “Straight Talk for Success” are the starting point for my coaching. I begin by assessing how well my coaching client is doing in each of these five areas. Then, we jointly develop objectives for the coaching and a plan to make sure we meet those objectives.

Tyler: Bud, do you plan to write any more books?

Bud: Sure. I’m planning a follow up to “Straight Talk for Success.” I’m thinking about calling it “More Straight Talk for Success.” I’ve been interviewing thought leaders in the self confidence, personal impact, high performance, communication and interpersonal competence fields. My plan is to make the new book a compilation of the best thoughts of the best people in these fields.

Tyler: Bud, you’ve obviously been extremely successful yourself. To what do you attribute your own success, and what put you on the right path through life?

Bud: My parents gave me a great start in life. Their greatest gift to me was a strong work ethic. Also, I’ve been blessed with a good mind and a love of learning. However, most importantly, I attribute my success to my self confidence, positive personal impact, outstanding performance, communication skills and interpersonal competence.

Tyler: Bud, how did you get to be called The Common Sense Guy?

Bud: As you know, Tyler, a strong personal brand is an important element of the second success factor, positive personal impact. Several years ago, I decided to create a personal brand. I began by asking people close to me-friends and clients-what came to mind when they thought of me. The term “common sense” came up a lot. I agreed that common sense is one of the terms that defines me pretty well. I also thought that it made sense as a brand because it differentiated me from my more theoretical competitors.

Once I settled on common sense as the core attribute of my brand, I had a little trouble coming up with the third word. Common Sense Guru sounded too pretentious and new age all at the same time. I considered Common Sense Doctor-a play on my educational credentials, but it ran the risk of being confused with a medical doctor.

I settled on Common Sense Guy because, when you come right down to it, I’m just a regular guy. Common Sense Guy struck the right chord with me because it captures the essence of who I am as a person.

Tyler: Will you explain the role of common sense in becoming a success?

Bud: I think that we tend to overcomplicate things. I believe in looking for time tested principles and applying them. That’s where common sense comes in. Most common sense has stood the test of time-that’s why it’s called common sense.

My five success principles – self confidence, positive personal impact, outstanding performance, communication skills and interpersonal competence-resonate with people because they make sense. They’re just common sense. The hard part is putting them to work. You have to commit to doing the work necessary to reap the rewards that will come from applying them.

Thomas Edison once said, “Most people miss opportunity because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.” The same is true for common sense. Most people know what to do in most situations. Their common sense tells them. However, many people don’t do what their common sense tells them for any number of reasons-it’s too much work, they may make someone angry, it takes too long.

So to me, the role of common sense in becoming a success is simple. Listen to what your common sense tells you-and then do it, no matter how hard, or unpleasant.

Tyler: Thank you, Bud, for joining me today. Before we go, will you tell us about your website and what information readers can find there about “Straight Talk for Success”?

Bud:

Also, my blog, is a great place for people to go to learn more about the five success factors in “Straight Talk.” I write about one of them every day: Monday, self confidence; Tuesday, personal impact; Wednesday, performance; Thursday, communication skills; Friday, interpersonal competence.

Tyler: Thank you, Bud. If our readers want to be successful and they have Common Sense, then I hope they’ll read your book.

Interview with Bud Bilanich, Author of Straight Talk for Success

The Dog Days Of Charlotte Hayes By Marlane Kennedy - A Review

Twelve year old Charlotte Hayes is a nice kid but not a dog person. Charlotte’s dad brings home an adorable Saint Bernard puppy and she is not happy about it. She is the one who is supposed to help care for it and she could care less about it. However, as time goes on, Charlotte finds that she is the ONLY one to take care of this pup. Mom is too tired from taking care of and chasing after her little baby brother, while her older sister cares for only one thing-herself!…well, and boys! Charlotte’s father really does intend to help care for this puppy but he is always off to do something else and forgets about his commitment. So what is Charlotte to do?

The puppy is named Beauregard and Charlotte knows that he needs a better home. He needs a place where there will be someone around to love him, play with him, and care for him. She realizes he is a pretty nice dog and it isn’t fair to chain him in the back yard and with his too small dog house.

Charlotte comes up with an idea of what she can to help and it isn’t that hard but she will need her friends to help her. While making these plans and working toward a better life for Beauregard, Charlotte finds out something about herself. Surely, by know you know what that is.

Charlotte might just like this puppy dog after all. Her compassion and friendships are admirable and good role models for young children to read about. Every age group will enjoy reading or hearing this story. Even adults, especially dog lovers will enjoy reading about the growing relationship between Charlotte and this gentle giant. Fans will shout when Charlotte comes to Beauregard’s aide and helps him to have a happy life while in turn, improving the lives of those around her. Kennedy has herself a winner in this story. A puppy and a little girl’s love aren’t hard to care about. Kid’s Book by Karen Haney, March, 2009

The Dog Days Of Charlotte Hayes By Marlane Kennedy - A Review

Grier's Almanac: 200 Years of Service

One of my favorite “reads” are almanacs. From the formerly named Information Please almanac to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, these handy paperback books contain a wealth of information on virtually any subject, particularly the more generalized tomes such as Information Please.

In November 2005, I visited my locally owned drugstore and found that they had free copies of Grier’s Almanac available for customers. Similar in design to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, I took a copy home with me.

Although not peppered with stories such as can be found in the Old Farmer’s Almanac, Grier’s contains the usual “zodiac” information which farmers in time’s past would rely on to help them determine when to plant. In addition, you can find information on daily weather predictions, a fishing calendar, an exhaustive list of holidays for the year, and interesting chronological information on events that happened on particular dates throughout history. In the back of the almanac is a section devoted to all kinds of classified ads.

As with most almanacs in this particular genre, Grier’s has its share of ads. Some are helpful and include ads for insurance and gardening, while others are bizarre and include ads for oils and candles to help make your opposing lawyer stupid. Okay, if it works than that is great!

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Grier’s is that 2006 represents their 200th anniversary edition. For two straight centuries the almanac has been published including throughout the Civil War period, a remarkable feat indeed.

Grier’s is written for the southern states only from Virginia to Texas. As mentioned, copies are free and can be found in many drugstores, feed and seed establishments, and retail outlets throughout the south. Annual circulation reportedly exceeds three million copies.

Congratulations to Grier’s Almanac Publishing Company of Atlanta for 200 consecutive years of service!

Grier's Almanac: 200 Years of Service

Reunion by Fred Uhlman - Book Review

This isn’t so much a novel as a novella, and a brief one at that being just 93 small pages in length. But don’t let that put you off for this is a superb read.

It opens in 1930′s Germany in a smart senior school where 15/16 year old boys, young men, are making friends, ostensibly for life. How were they to know that so many lives would be cut so tragically short?

After a hesitant beginning the shy Hans Schwarz becomes pals with the more confident and aristocratic Konradin. Hans comes from a Jewish background and that factor eventually invades their friendship.

This period of history has been chronicled a million times, and rightly so for there are lessons there that resonate down to the present day. All the characters are sharply drawn and memorable and for the most part, decent human beings. So where did it all go so wrong?

The book also contains a two page introduction written by the late and much missed Arthur Koestler, and that is well worth reading on its own.

Reunion is beautifully written and easy to read, and this is certainly a book for anyone who can’t abide the huge tomes that so often dominate the bookstores. It isn’t a new book either, but don’t let that put you off because it is a very memorable one, and a story that lives long in the memory.

Jeffrey Archer wrote of Reunion: “I wish I had written this”. He certainly is not alone in that, not least from your correspondent.

Reunion is published by Fontana books on ISBN: 0006151647 and is available from most internet bookstalls.

Reunion by Fred Uhlman - Book Review

The Mayor's Wife Wore Sapphires

The nucleus of a cell is fragile and needs to be protected from harm. Like the yoke of an egg before the egg is cracked, the outer shell stays strong and protects the inner yoke from harm. Life has many fragile and delicate moments that need protection as people do. Changes in our lives often bring resistance to the fragile outer shell of that egg or stretches that cell and its nucleus, so the shape and form no longer remains the same. But, when the changes that are needed to make that nucleus stronger and that shell harder to protect and create something better, we often need to go to great lengths to make sure it happens.

Visions are more than what psychic sees when they give you a reading or tell the police or a government agency what they see in their minds in order to help solve a crime. Visions are often the long rage goals that you might have for a city’s growth, your own life to more ahead or for an entire community to flourish. It takes a person who believes in the extraordinary and does not sit back and settle for the usual to have strong visions, strong convictions and carry them out. Mel Tate was such a man. On September 9, 1981, Melvin Tate, the Californian Mayor of Compton was struck down by a bullet not only meant to kill him but his goals, values and ideals for his community. Black communities such as his were riddled with drive by shootings, drug wars, and little or no opportunity for jobs or expansion of their economy and little or no help to educate teens and young adults about life in general. Martha Tucker brings these issues and more to light in her groundbreaking first novel, The Mayor’s Wife Wore Sapphires.

When you take your visions and you stretch them to make that nucleus of that cell wider and the yoke of that egg stronger, you sometimes find a lot of resistance as did Indigo Tate did in this novel that makes a real statement about changing society and the way people think about each other and how we achieve our goals.

Although the time period might be the 80′s the message that the author is driving home is still prevalent and even more vital today. Our schools need to be improved, drugs need to be a thing of the past in our cities and states, corruption in government needs to be eliminated and guns need to be off the streets and not readily available. As our new President stated before he was elected, now is the time for change and it will take all of us to make sure that happens.

Mel Tate was a man with a vision for the people of Compton, California. He believed in change and he was a unique politician and wanted to create a special training program called World Hub for the people of his city. When he found out that millions of dollars that were appropriated for this project was missing, his goal to become his state’s Congressman were shattered. Deciding not to run and see his dream through, he tells his wife, that living their life outside of Compton was no longer an option. Convincing him to change his mind would have probably stopped the horrific chain of events that followed. All Indigo wanted was a better life and to leave Compton and live in Washington and help her husband create a better life for her and her family.

What did the City Planner, the Chief of Police, the District Attorney, the most powerful Congressman in the city and a Councilman have in common, the belief that Melvin Tate’s way of thinking was not their way and he had to be stopped at any cost. Standing on the podium to unveil his new World Hub Project, Melvin Tate was gunned down in cold blood injuring his wife too. But, what was the real motive for this shooting? Who was the real target? That will require looking deeper into the nucleus of this fragile cell and the now broken shell of this fragile city whose outer shell was shattered when this powerful man was killed.

Martin Luther King believed in racial equality for everyone and that every person of every race should have the same opportunities in life. Indigo Tate believed in his vision and wanted the same for the people of Compton and she would go to undying lengths to complete what her husband had started and any cost.

There are many ways to increase the economy of a city. You can create jobs, opportunities for students to be able to attend college, and open doors to people who would ordinarily have nothing by helping to eliminate drugs, corruption, crime, drive by shootings and government conspiracies where you live. But, for those who hate change and feel the only way to increase and inflate the economy is to sell drugs to teens for profit, help a foreign country in its war by making sure they have the guns they need and using a city for South American Drug Lords to bring in their drugs and make a hefty profit, someone needs to stop them and someone tries.

Indigo Tate loses everything when her husband is killed. Her entire world comes falling down and she needs to rebuild not only her life but protect her children too. But, when you find out that there is no one you can trust except yourself and your own instincts, you really need the courage and fortitude not to break apart even further.

Watching her husband shot right in front of her and then getting shot herself, Indigo Tate was not going to let his murder go unsolved or the mystery behind why he was targeted go unpunished. But, how far will she have to go and at what expense. Proud of what her husband wanted to do for Compton by creating World Hub, which would not only bring jobs and businesses to her city, but would help bring technology, manufacturing, marketing, training and more in order to help change the lives of the people there for the better, she would do all she could to make his dream come true.

Indigo ‘s goal was to create rid her city of drugs, stop the drive by shootings of innocent children, help the homeless and raise the level of education for the children in the city in order to create not only a safer environment for the people, but to erase the barriers between Black and White too. What a great and wonderful objective and goal. But, there were those, close to her and to her late husband who pretended to support his ideals and her goal to follow through with his mission to end poverty and crime in her city through World. Hub.

Thinking that she would have the support of many of her husband’s backers and constituents she decides the only way to succeed is to become Mayor of Compton and continue his work. Never think the ordinary always go for the extraordinary is what her father told her growing up. Never settle for mediocre when you can be the best and never let them know you are afraid. Do not let anyone see the fear in your eyes and keep strong.

Indigo belonged to a group called the Diamonds. A group of Black women who were the Who’s Who of Beverly Hills and were powerful not only in the decisions that would be made in her life but in the lives of others too. Dupree Pascal, her husband Congressman Frank Pascal would play an integral part in the events that would shatter her life and those of others too. Congressman Kahn, who wanted to be Mayor and hoped that she would back him and his ideals for Compton. John Varner, the most sought after campaign manager in the country, wanted his piece of the pie too. Each having their own secrets to hide and each with his or her own agenda, no one wanting her to succeed.

World Hub would create a better life for everyone in Compton and would help educate young mothers in childcare. It would create jobs in manufacturing, commerce, technology, marketing and more. Eliminating drugs from the streets, getting rid of guns and lowering the crime rate, this project would change the way people lived for the better. But, her so-called friends had other ideas and the people she thought closest to her and hoped to protect her did not.

As deadly as the war in Iraq and any World War, Indigo Tate launches one of her own against crime, corruption, hate, conspiracy and deceit at any cost. With no one to trust and everything to lose she works relentlessly to find out who killed her husband and why a young teenage drug seller was framed for his murder.

What happens sends a message that is so powerful and so strong it keeps the reader transfixed until the very last word of this book that sends a strong message. The ending will send you wanting for me and leave you thinking: Can this really happen? Is the fight for justice and to keep our kids safe ever going to end? What does happen to the project that Indigo fought so hard to make happen and at what cost does she become Mayor of Compton and at whose expense besides her own? You need to read this first time novel by Martha Tucker who definitely has a voice that needs to be heard and a pen that has to write the next chapter for Indigo and the people of Compton. The story does not end on the last page and this reviewer wants more.

I would definitely give this book FIVE PERFECTLY CUT BLUE SAPPHIRES placed in that circle and nucleus to make it stronger. The sapphire is the Stone of Destiny. The stone provides and holds within its power mental clarity and perception and financial rewards. It symbolizes truth, sincerity and faithfulness and all of the attributes of Indigo Tate. By wearing that stone around her neck it drew protection for her, increased her wisdom and oversaw her destiny. It is truly the stone of prosperity and worthy of our Indigo Tate who brought that to Compton and more.

Reviewed by Fran Lewis

The Mayor's Wife Wore Sapphires

Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne - Foreigners in Sri Lanka and London, All in Conflict

Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne presents a vast project. Its story crosses the globe, beginning in Sri Lanka and ending in Britain. Great events befall its characters, but throughout their lives seem to be writ small against a backdrop of history.

The novel opens with an apt quote from Jack Kerouac – All life is a foreign country. This idea forms substantially more than a theme, in the no matter how secure the book’s characters might appear – and equally however insecure – they never really seem to be at home with themselves.

We meet the Fonsekas in Colombo. They live near the beach in this frenetic city. Alice is a nine-year-old. Her parents, Stanley and Sita are a mixed marriage, Tamil and Sinhalese. Alice’s grandparents, Bee and Kamala, are happily married in their own way. Bee is something of an artist. The grandparent show significant wisdom.

But things are stirring in Sri Lanka. There is a smell of conflict, a hint or war. A mixed marriage is hard to sustain, and its offspring don’t fit into anyone’s interests or desires. Alice grows into a rather isolated child. She has friends, but then she doesn’t. She does well at school, and then she doesn’t. She makes things, shares her grandfather’s artistic bent.

Lives in paradise grow steadily more complicated, apparently less sustainable. Stanley, Alice’s father, decides that his future, and eventually his family’s, lies in Britain. He books a sea passage and an unscheduled stop-over in Greece opens his eyes to ancient cincture and provides other activities that always threatened, but until then never materialised.

In Britain he ekes out an immigrant’s lot, doing whatever he can. When Sita and Alice eventually join him, he has changed and they don’t fit in. They can’t. Perhaps no-one ever does, anywhere. Sita mourns the child she lost to her own destruction as she works from home on her sewing machine. Alice doesn’t get on at school, except with a chain-smoking art teacher. And so life progresses, from one mistake to the next, with an idealised past becoming a new paradise, a place that it perhaps never was. But there is no going back. Conflict has intervened. Lives have been lost and there will be more to follow.

Marriages fail. There are short passionate affairs. There is much imagined longing. Roma Tearne’s story thus meanders through its themes, but without ever concentrating on any particular one to create a lasting impression. The characters seem more confused than reflecting, more victims of events than their instigators. Wherever they are, they remain foreign.

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Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne - Foreigners in Sri Lanka and London, All in Conflict

Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne - Foreigners in Sri Lanka and London, All in Conflict

Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne presents a vast project. Its story crosses the globe, beginning in Sri Lanka and ending in Britain. Great events befall its characters, but throughout their lives seem to be writ small against a backdrop of history.

The novel opens with an apt quote from Jack Kerouac – All life is a foreign country. This idea forms substantially more than a theme, in the no matter how secure the book’s characters might appear – and equally however insecure – they never really seem to be at home with themselves.

We meet the Fonsekas in Colombo. They live near the beach in this frenetic city. Alice is a nine-year-old. Her parents, Stanley and Sita are a mixed marriage, Tamil and Sinhalese. Alice’s grandparents, Bee and Kamala, are happily married in their own way. Bee is something of an artist. The grandparent show significant wisdom.

But things are stirring in Sri Lanka. There is a smell of conflict, a hint or war. A mixed marriage is hard to sustain, and its offspring don’t fit into anyone’s interests or desires. Alice grows into a rather isolated child. She has friends, but then she doesn’t. She does well at school, and then she doesn’t. She makes things, shares her grandfather’s artistic bent.

Lives in paradise grow steadily more complicated, apparently less sustainable. Stanley, Alice’s father, decides that his future, and eventually his family’s, lies in Britain. He books a sea passage and an unscheduled stop-over in Greece opens his eyes to ancient cincture and provides other activities that always threatened, but until then never materialised.

In Britain he ekes out an immigrant’s lot, doing whatever he can. When Sita and Alice eventually join him, he has changed and they don’t fit in. They can’t. Perhaps no-one ever does, anywhere. Sita mourns the child she lost to her own destruction as she works from home on her sewing machine. Alice doesn’t get on at school, except with a chain-smoking art teacher. And so life progresses, from one mistake to the next, with an idealised past becoming a new paradise, a place that it perhaps never was. But there is no going back. Conflict has intervened. Lives have been lost and there will be more to follow.

Marriages fail. There are short passionate affairs. There is much imagined longing. Roma Tearne’s story thus meanders through its themes, but without ever concentrating on any particular one to create a lasting impression. The characters seem more confused than reflecting, more victims of events than their instigators. Wherever they are, they remain foreign.

Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne - Foreigners in Sri Lanka and London, All in Conflict

Book Review: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

The year is 1861. America is on the brink of a civil war. In the South everyone seems to be talking about nothing else, which is not to the liking of the sixteen-year-old Scarlett O’Hara, a feisty daughter of a plantation owner who finds all this talk about war and politics boring — especially when she has more important things to worry about, such as how to profess her undying love to Ashley Wilkes, the handsome heir to the neighboring plantation. The opportunity presents itself at a barbecue held on a warm April Sunday at Wilkes’ place, but as Scarlett finally manages to steal some alone time with Ashley and charges through with her plan, fully certain that she’ll be a married lady by the end of the day (elopement is an integral part of her scheme), the actual outcome comes to her as a shock: although Ashley is not immune to Scarlett’s charms, he turns her down as he is already engaged to Melanie, his cousin from Atlanta. And as if the humiliation of being rejected were not enough, it turns out that there is an involuntary witness to the whole scene in the shape of one Rhett Butler, a ruggedly handsome Charlestonian with dubious reputation. Thus one of the most fabled love triangles of all times comes into existence.

Out of spite, Scarlett marries the first boy that crosses her path — purely by accident this happens to be Melanie’s brother — and as the war erupts and her young husband falls victim early on she is left a widow and a mother of an infant at the age of seventeen: not a very bright perspective for a young girl who was just a few short months ago the belle of the county with a surplus of beaux lavishing her with attention. To snap her out of the depression she has fallen into the family sends her to Atlanta to stay with Melanie, and Scarlett spends the better part of the war there playing the role of a bereaved widow — albeit not very successfully. Bound by the promise she has made to Ashley, Scarlett is forced to stay in Atlanta (taking care of Melanie who is pregnant and cannot be moved) until it is almost too late; the two young women manage to escape the Sherman’s advancing army in the nick of time.

Back home at the O’Hara plantation, however, they find nothing but devastation and despair: Scarlett’s mother had succumbed to an illness and her father, unable to cope with it all, has turned into a broken old man. Instead of finding refuge and comfort as she hoped, Scarlett is forced to take charge of the situation herself — and she is not one to choose the means or balk at anyone or anything when it comes to bringing her birthplace out of ruin and ensuring survival for herself and the few remaining residents of the plantation.

Gone with the Wind has been widely hailed as one of the finest achievements in American literature. First published in 1936, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, the novel is set in the period of Civil War and Reconstruction, depicting those turbulent times in American history from the point of view of the defeated side — which, given that history is always written by the victors, makes it that much more intriguing. The book is a portrayal of the collapsing of the Old South and its values — some good, some bad — and gives a remarkable account of the once ruling class and its former members as they struggle to conform to the harsh new reality: some adapt and survive, others perish…

Book Review: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Your Successful Career as a Mortgage Broker By David Reed

Book review: Your Successful Career as a Mortgage Broker By David Reed, Amacom: American Management Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, ISBN 0814473709 , 978-0814473702 , $18.95, 240 Pages, 2007

David Reed’s newest mortgage title; Your Successful Career as a Mortgage Broker rounds out a successful on-going mortgage banking career and his previous three mortgage-related books. Based in Austin, Texas, Mr. Reed writes mortgage columns for Realty Times and Mortgage Originator. For those considering a career as a mortgage broker, banker, processor, or underwriter, this book is chock-full of everything you need to know before taking the plunge into this exciting field of work.

Chapters cover: The Mortgage Loan Officer and His Team, How Do I Get Started?, Mortgage Banker versus Mortgage Broker, The Loan Application Process, Types of Mortgage Loans, Loan Prequalification and Approval, Loan Documentation, Interpreting Credit Reports and Credit Scores, Interest Rates: How They’re Set, How to Quote Them, How Brokers Make Money, Marketing Yourself, and Marketing Secrets From the Pros. Additional features include a preface, a glossary, an index, and a thorough resource appendix The 1003 and Disclosure Forms, Ten Steps to Becoming a Successful Mortgage Loan Officer, Ten Steps to Becoming a Megaproducer ($250,000 + per year), Sample Marketing Pieces, Industry Resources, State Licensing Chart and Payments Per Thousand Dollars Financed.

I found the chapter on Loan Documentation especially informative. In an age where borrowers can choose to have all or none of their income or assets verified to secure a mortgage, Mr. Reed does an excellent job describing the process and alternatives for new or potential mortgage bankers or brokers.

Your Successful Career as a Mortgage Broker By David Reed

Batman Villains - The Story Behind Poison Ivy

It’s sad that Pamela Isley, or Poison Ivy, became the way she did because of experiments. While she was taking Biology, her professor seduced her and injected her with poisons and toxins. This caused Poison Ivy to transform into a plant-like menace to society. One of the Batman villains, Poison Ivy started out as a wealthy girl with parents who could care less.

After this has happened, her boyfriend suddenly passes away, and she drops out of school. She is gradually changing from Pamela Isley to Poison Ivy. Moving from Seattle to Gotham City, she threatens the city with toxic spores unless they meet her demands. Batman, who has just entered the city the same year, is the only one who can stop her. She is one of the Batman villains that uses her potions to make other super heroes fall in love with her. Batman stops her from hurting the city, and Poison Ivy gets locked inside a mental institution for the criminally insane.

Over the years, her plant-like powers develop until she is super human. One of her weapons is the fact that her lips are poison, so she is the only one of the Batman villains who can literally give the ‘kiss of death.’ She was introduced in the Batman comics for a better female super villain when people began to identify with Catwoman, and even sympathize with her. Poison Ivy gave readers and audiences another sexy female nemesis to hate. Clothed in leaves, with flaming flower bedecked red hair, she was one of the greatest villains that Batman ever had.

Batman Villains - The Story Behind Poison Ivy

Book Review - The Bridge - The Life and Rise of Barack Obama

“The Bridge” describes the very personal details of the family and life of Barack Obama as well as the political and social conditions which allowed him to become the first African-American President of the United States. The author, David Remnick, who is a journalist, traces the historical aspects of the civil rights movement which began in slavery, advanced to a Bloody Sunday race confrontation in Selma Alabama and climaxed in the 2009 inauguration.

Much of the personal story of Barack Obama could be found in his autobiography or in the numerous biographical snippets found and presented by the media throughout his rise to political power. His family situation as a lone black child living with his grandparents in Hawaii while his abandoning father returned to Africa and his mother resided in Indonesia helped to develop independence and strength in the man who would be President. He struggled with identity issues and as a teenager made some poor choices but, his intelligence and desire to make a difference in the lives of others encouraged him to take risks. His work as a community organizer in Chicago and then as the first black head of the Law Review provided valuable experiences for him to build upon.

But Barack Obama would likely have not been President if it had not been for the sacrifice of others who went before him to open doors for him. People like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and Andrew Young fought for the things that were denied African-Americans but commonplace for the white population.

And the political climate which had evolved through George Bush’s Presidency opened the door even further. Economy difficulties, lack of trust in government and the drain caused by two wars, made Obama’s motto of “Change we can believe in” very appealing to voters.

The fact that Obama had a young team who knew how to use the internet to organize a movement, left his opponents at a disadvantage for both financial and manpower resources.

This book is not just a biography. It is a story which offers details about the environment, historical context and circumstances that allowed an individual to rise to the most powerful position in the world.

The story itself is 586 pages but each one presents well-researched data that is wound into a fascinating narrative. This is a great read and I enjoyed every line!

Book Review - The Bridge - The Life and Rise of Barack Obama

A History of Violence

Yesterday, one of my co-workers who shares my enthusiasm for comics loaned me ‘A History of Violence’. I took it with an open mind, willing to read it and give him my feed back. Once I started into the story, it was a slippery slope, and I couldn’t put it down until it was finished. What an amazing tale! One thing that stands out is the lack of a hero in the story. In essence, its about a bad guy who does some bad things to some other bad guys, and then he hides and turns into a good guy, and then the bad guys find him and he has to defend his new family. Make sense? The point I am making is that even the protagonist is actually just a bad guy. Sure, he’s changed, but all of his problems would be non-existent if he wouldn’t have murdered and crossed the mob to begin with.

The art is black ink, in “From Hell” or “Walking Dead” fashion. To be honest, the art isn’t the real vehicle of this tale. You could almost take away the art and this would make a riveting short story. Basically, don’t buy this comic if you are looking for beautiful art, buy it for the story. It is hard to read sometimes, there is a very heavy macabre feeling that permeates the entire story. Themes of tainted innocence, cruelty, revenge, and fear are the backbone of the novel. It reads fast, but it is entertaining the whole way because the pacing is superb. Even in the duller sections of the story the pages go quick and there is a constant changing of scenery and unfolding of the plot. I don’t know if I’ll buy it, but I will recommend it as a good read none the less.

A History of Violence

You Have an Internet Business But Know Virtually Nothing About How the Internet Works

Did you know that 12% of all Americans own a small business of some type? Many of these businesses are home businesses, nearly 35% and of those over a third are Internet businesses. It’s amazing how many people have businesses on the Internet or derive at least some of their income through website sales or other Internet endeavors; such as selling stuff on eBay, consulting over the Internet or selling content. It’s a huge industry.

Still, most people do not even know how the Internet works and yet they derive income from doing business online. If you do any type of business online you should know exactly how the Internet works, how things are connected and how the flow of information actually happens. Perhaps, this is why I recommend that Internet entrepreneurs and people that sell online do a little reading so they understand the dynamics and all the behind-the-scenes of the Internet.

Therefore, I’d like to recommend a very good book for you. Although this book was printed some time ago, over a decade ago; it still has very good information about the inner workings of the Internet and its history. This will give you a good basis of knowledge and then you can catch up on the latest and greatest things the Internet has to offer, all of which came later. The book is titled;

“The Internet Business Book,” by Jill H. Ellsworth and Matthew V. Ellsworth; John Wiley and Sons; 1994.

On this book subtitle, it claims it is also a Complete Guide to;

1.) What the Internet is and how to gain access;
2.) Marketing and creating a corporate presence;
3.) Sales, advertising and customer support;
4.) Business, marketing and sales resources

Indeed the book lives up to this claim and I highly recommend it, as I have a copy in my own personal library and every once in a while I take a peek to remind me exactly how the Internet works when I am scheming up some new type of entrepreneurial endeavor online. So, please consider this.

You Have an Internet Business But Know Virtually Nothing About How the Internet Works

Two is Enough - A Couple's Guide to Living Childless by Choice

I just wanted to give a shout out to Laura Scott, who just put out this very intelligent and thought provoking perspective of couples who have made the decision NOT to have children. Two is Enough: A Couple’s Guide to Living Childless by Choice, is really a statement that just because couples have chosen not to have children, they are not selfish or uncaring (which is what society tends to teach).

My wife Diana and I had felt strongly about explaining our point of view regarding this issue, and we sought other couples who feel as we do. That’s when we came across Laura Scott, who set out to do a documentary on the subject and asked us to be interviewed for the project. It was a marvelous opportunity for us to say that, we love each other, and we also can love all people of the world with out personally creating more. We believe that plenty are being created everyday, and we could not even really understand why some people are so driven; to the point of feeling that their life would not be complete unless they have children.

We respect people who have that drive. We also don’t believe that the human race is in any danger of extinction due to a lack of reproduction. We have observed so many friends and relatives, who had their children, then, all they could talk about for the better part of 20 years is how they couldn’t wait until the kids got out of the house so that they could enjoy their time together. We wanted to have that right away, we didn’t want to have to wait 20 years so that we could go travel and experience life without the kids. We also did not have any need to live vicariously through miniature clones of ourselves.

Anyhow, it’s an interesting perspective, I know that for some couples, especially married couples who have made the conscious decision not to have children, it can feel a bit lonely. My advice is to reach out and research it on the internet, and find others out there who feel the same way. And, never, never succumb to pressure from family or friends that you should have children if you truly do not want them. Live for yourself, do what feels good, and your life will unfold just as it was meant to.

Two is Enough - A Couple's Guide to Living Childless by Choice

Book Review - Nicolae

The third book of the Left Behind series focuses on the rise of the man known by Christians to be the AntiChrist in the last days on Earth. Of course, the story is not told from Carpathia’s perspective, but from that of the believers we already know and love – Chloe, Buck, and Ray. Ray and Buck struggle with the most evil boss in the world, the Tribulation force grows larger (and smaller), rescue missions take front and center, and intense Internet proselytizing begins. Just another chapter of the end of the world.

The characters in the novel are as consistent as they have been in earlier books of the series. Buck and Ray lead out, taking jobs respectively as journalist and pilot working for Nicolae. Of course, in Buck’s case, it is virtually impossible to NOT work for the supreme whatever-his-new-title-is, as Global Community has taken over all media outlets worldwide (oh, the damage that was done, the poor politicians moan, under the guise of “freedom of the press”; it does certainly give us some perspective as we moan and groan about how critical the press has become today of world leaders). Rayford, of course, is flying the big man around the world, and the information he gleans helps keep the Tribulation Force ahead of Satan.

Also in danger are poor Tsion Ben Judah, who earlier declared to all Jews that Jesus is the Messiah and now suffers from persecution and the loss of his family. Buck must sweep in and, at great risk, save the day (with, of course, a little help from God). You have to hand it to Buck, and his faithful pilot, of course -poor Ken never knows just what it is he is risking his life for when Buck is around.

By the close of the novel, the group has begun its online publications, spreading the gospel to anyone who will listen. Of particular interest is Ben Judah’s prediction of a worldwide earthquake, which experts disavow as an impossibility. Not surprisingly, the Book of Revelations trumps the experts by the close of the novel.

Hattie also winds in and out of the picture, and there is some dispersion cast on one of the members of the Tribulation Force. The dispersion actually really annoyed me, as it continues to do in the next novel, and the truth doesn’t even come out until Book 5, Apollyon. I’ll save my thoughts on the traitorous leanings for that review, but suffice it to say that waiting not one but TWO books in a series is rather annoying.

Overall, Jenkins pulled off another good read. The storyline is enough to keep you reading, and the characters three dimensional enough to get on each others’ nerves. More engaging and enjoyable (and, yes, also thought-provoking) writing by the authors!

Book Review - Nicolae

Review - The Skinny On Time Management

The Skinny On Time Management: How to Maximize Your 24-Hour Gift, Jim Randel, 2010, ISBN 9780984139392

Here is another in a series of books that attempts to boil down a large subject area into an easy-to-read format. Intended for busy people who want just the bullet points, this book looks at how to best manage your time.

Write out a time journal for an entire week to see just how you are spending your time. You may think that you are being efficient and productive, but seeing it on paper may change your mind. Can changes be made in your schedule, with more time given to more productive activities? You need to set goals for yourself, whether long-term or short-term. Then you will know how to get from where you are to where you want to be. If your goal is important enough to you, then some other thing you are doing may have to be dropped totally. Choices were never meant to be easy.

The book then covers many ways to maximize your time. Fight the urge to procrastinate. Touch a piece of paper, or email, only once; either respond to it, get rid of it or put it in your file to be worked on later. Are there gaps in your day, like when you are sitting in a waiting room, when you could be working on your Blackberry? Are you a “morning person” or a “night owl?” Work on your hardest and most unpleasant tasks when you are most alert and awake. Learn to plan your day, but don’t go overboard with the planning. Prioritize your tasks; which ones come first, and which ones can wait. Break a huge task into smaller, more manageable pieces. Can you batch several appointments, for instance, and get them done in one day? Doing crossword puzzles is a good way to improve your memory. Learn how to focus when you are on a task, and not let distractions get in your way. De-cluttering your office, and your email inbox, will always help. The act of writing a daily To Do list helps focus your mind on what you need to do that day.

Instead of reading a bunch of books on how to manage your time, read this book. It can be read in an hour or so, and does an excellent job of telling the busy person just what they need to know. It is a gem of a book.

Review - The Skinny On Time Management

Review - The Skinny On Time Management

The Skinny On Time Management: How to Maximize Your 24-Hour Gift, Jim Randel, 2010, ISBN 9780984139392

Here is another in a series of books that attempts to boil down a large subject area into an easy-to-read format. Intended for busy people who want just the bullet points, this book looks at how to best manage your time.

Write out a time journal for an entire week to see just how you are spending your time. You may think that you are being efficient and productive, but seeing it on paper may change your mind. Can changes be made in your schedule, with more time given to more productive activities? You need to set goals for yourself, whether long-term or short-term. Then you will know how to get from where you are to where you want to be. If your goal is important enough to you, then some other thing you are doing may have to be dropped totally. Choices were never meant to be easy.

The book then covers many ways to maximize your time. Fight the urge to procrastinate. Touch a piece of paper, or email, only once; either respond to it, get rid of it or put it in your file to be worked on later. Are there gaps in your day, like when you are sitting in a waiting room, when you could be working on your Blackberry? Are you a “morning person” or a “night owl?” Work on your hardest and most unpleasant tasks when you are most alert and awake. Learn to plan your day, but don’t go overboard with the planning. Prioritize your tasks; which ones come first, and which ones can wait. Break a huge task into smaller, more manageable pieces. Can you batch several appointments, for instance, and get them done in one day? Doing crossword puzzles is a good way to improve your memory. Learn how to focus when you are on a task, and not let distractions get in your way. De-cluttering your office, and your email inbox, will always help. The act of writing a daily To Do list helps focus your mind on what you need to do that day.

Instead of reading a bunch of books on how to manage your time, read this book. It can be read in an hour or so, and does an excellent job of telling the busy person just what they need to know. It is a gem of a book.

Review - The Skinny On Time Management