No Strings Attached Blog Hop - Book Feature - There Is No Mrs. Gezunterman: A Corporate Comedy - Kevin Mednick

Title:

There Is No Mrs. Gezunterman

Author: Kevin Mednick

Publisher: Savvy Press

ISBN: Trade paperback: 978-1-939113-04-7

Ebook: 978-1-939113-05-4

Expected Date of Publication: March 1, 2013

Pages: 165

Purchase information:

All on-line retailers including amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com and anywhere ebooks are sold

Praise: “Rollicking consumer rights tale… anyone who’s ever wanted to wring some indifferent corporate functionary’s neck will relate.” -Kirkus

Author website:

KevinMednick.com

Author Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/authorkevinmednick

Giveaway information at the bottom.  One copy of this book will be won by one lucky winner.  Please just comment with your contact information.  This is not strings so that is it.....just leave your email address in the comment section....lisapeters at yahoo dot com  ... just like that.  Thanks

 

About the Author:

Author Kevin Mednick grew up in the Catskill Mountains resort town of Woodridge, NY. He is a graduate of Binghamton University and the University of Southern California law school. His legal career includes stints as an Assistant District Attorney, house counsel for an insurance company, associate counsel for a large personal injury defense firm, and law clerk for a County Court Judge. He is currently a partner in the law firm of Bendall and Mednick, which handles personal injury and medical malpractice cases for plaintiffs. He has three children and lives and works near Albany, NY.

Synopsis:

A manifesto for the ninety-nine percent, THERE IS NO MRS. GEZUNTERMAN is a rollicking, David v Goliath consumer-rights comedy.

            When an exasperated customer is arrested for fighting back against yet another inane corporate rule, it sparks a grass roots rebellion that ends in a climactic courtroom battle.

Mrs. Gezunterman is a laugh-out-loud satire, a balm to the soul of every one of us who has ever had to duck after hearing the words: “Sorry, it’s company policy.”

Book Review - The True Secret of Writing - Natalie Goldberg

Title: The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language

Author:  Natalie Goldberg

Review:  At first I thought this book was a bit to new-age zenny for me…was I wrong.  The author talks about meditation, reading workshops, walking, sitting, authors she has worked with and everyday folks like you and me.  She talks about writing and how it is in you and you need to get it out and write. 

Writing can be therapeutic and cathartic.  I feel that way about writing and was surprised how much I enjoyed reading about what another writer thinks and feels.  You do not have to be published to be a writer.  We all have something to say and even if we are the only ones who read it….write it….write it and love what you wrote.  Write about life, love, hurts, dreams, whatever you want.

I think anyone who writes will love this book.  So much information and so much to love about this book and writing, if you want to write…read this book.  If you do write…read this book.  I plan to share this book with other writers I know and I hope they enjoy it as much as I did.

“Basically, the most raw, deep truth is shut up and write,” she says. “There’s no such thing as a writer’s block. If you’re having trouble writing, well, pick up the pen and write. No matter what, keep that hand moving. Writing is really a physical activity.”  Natalie Goldberg

Published:  Expected publication: March 19th 2013 by Atria Books

 ISBN:  9781451641264

Pages: 256

Quick Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Where I got the book:  Sent from the publisher for review.

Synopsis:   Sit. Walk. Write. These are the barest bones of Natalie Goldberg’s revolutionary writing and life practice, which she presents here in book form for the first time. A whole new slant on writing that she developed since the publication of her classic Writing Down the Bones, True Secret workshops have been limited until now to small, intensive groups at a remote center in the rural Southwest. In The True Secret of Writing, Goldberg makes this popular seminar available to any reader. The True Secret is for everyone, like eating and sleeping. It allows you to discover something real about your life, to mine the rich awareness in your mind, and to ground and empower yourself. Goldberg guides you through your own personal or group retreat, illuminating the steps of sitting in silent open mind, walking anchored to the earth, and writing without criticism. Just as Goldberg cuts through her students’ resistance with her no-nonsense instruction—“Shut up and write”—the True Secret cuts to the core of realizing yourself and your world.

The capstone to forty years of teaching, The True Secret of Writing is Goldberg’s Zen boot camp, her legacy teaching. Stories of Natalie’s own search for truth and clarity and her students’ breakthroughs and insights give moving testament to how brilliantly her unique, tough-love method works. Beautiful homages to the work of other great teachers and observers of mind, life, and love provide further secrets and inspiration to which readers will return again and again.

In her inimitable way, Goldberg will inspire you to pick up the pen, get writing, and keep going. The True Secret of Writing will help you with your writing—and your life.

 

Author Bio:  Natalie Goldberg lived in Brooklyn until she was six, when her family moved out to Farmingdale, Long Island, where her father owned the bar the Aero Tavern. From a young age, Goldberg was mad for books and reading, and especially loved Carson McCullers's The Ballad of the Sad Cafe , which she read in ninth grade. She thinks that single book led her eventually to put pen to paper when she was twenty-four years old. She received a BA in English literature from George Washington University and an MA in humanities from St. John's University.

Goldberg has painted for as long as she has written, and her paintings can be seen in Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World and Top of My Lungs: Poems and Paintings. They can also be viewed at the Ernesto Mayans Gallery on Canyon Road in Sante Fe.

A dedicated teacher, Goldberg has taught writing and literature for the last thirty-five years. She also leads national workshops and retreats, and her schedule can be accessed via her website: nataliegoldberg.com

In 2006, she completed with the filmmaker Mary Feidt a one-hour documentary, Tangled Up in Bob, about Bob Dylan's childhood on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota. The film can be obtained on Amazon or the website tangledupinbob.com.

Goldberg has been a serious Zen practitioner since 1974 and studied with Katagiri Roshi from 1978 to 1984.

  

Other Reviews:
Shambhala Sun Space
Huffington Post

Book Review - Sand Castle Bay - Sherryl Woods

Title: Sand Castle Bay (Ocean Breeze #1)

Author:  Sherryl Woods

Review:  This was a nice story of lost and found love.  Not much happens in the story.  It begins with a hurricane and the excitement is lost at that point.  If you enjoy romances with no sex-behind the door in this book (yes they can be good even without this),  no sexual tension-very little if any (no they cannot be good without this) and excitement, then you will enjoy this book.

I found the story line old and boring along with the lack of any attraction to the characters.  I liked the little boy and the grandma, but the other characters were very stilted and one dimensional.  I was expecting more out of a book this size and from this publisher.  I have to say I was disappointed in the lack of much going on.  The big bad climax was nothing much at all…it was all made up in the mind of the characters and had really no basis in real life.  I’m sure these things happen, but as a climax it was boring and anticlimactic. 

I enjoyed the ending and am glad what happened, happened, I just think we could have gotten there much faster and with less boring items in between.  382 pages are too many for not much excitement or anything for that matter.  I live in the everyday and when I read I want something more than every day.   I will be reading the next one because they came together, I just hope it has a bit more to offer the reader then this one did.

Published:  Expected publication: March 26th 2013 by Harlequin MIRA (first published March 19th 2013)

ISBN:  9780778314363

Pages: 384

Quick Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Where I got the book:  Sent from the publisher for review.

Synopsis:   In a trade-off she's lived to regret, Emily Castle left home years ago to become an interior designer. The youngest of three sisters, Emily desperately wanted to prove herself. Success, though, came at the cost of leaving behind the man she loved.For Boone Dorsett, losing Emily left his heart shattered, but another woman was waiting in the wings. Now a widower with a young son, Boone has a second chance with Emily when a storm brings her home. But with his former in-laws threatening a custody suit, the stakes of loving her are higher than ever.

Will fate once again separate them—or is the time finally right for these two star-crossed lovers?

 

Author Bio:  With two other careers to her credit before becoming a novelist and four states in which she's lived for extended periods of time, Sherryl Woods has collected friends and memories, along with way too much unnecessary junk.

"The friends are the only things I've brought with me through the years that really matter," she says. "I could probably live without one more chintz teacup, another tin-litho sandpail or another snowglobe, but I need those friends."

The theme of enduring friendships and families is always central to Sherryl's books, including her latest Chesapeake Shores series — THE INN AT EAGLE POINT, FLOWERS ON MAIN and HARBOR LIGHTS.

Author of more than 100 romance and mystery novels, Sherryl Woods grew up in Virginia. Over the years she had lived in Ohio and Florida, as well as California. Currently she divides her time between Key Biscayne, Florida and Colonial Beach, Virginia, the small, river-front town where she spent her childhood summers.

A graduate of Ohio State University School of Journalism, Sherryl spent more than ten years as a journalist, most of them as a television critic for newspapers in Ohio and Florida. For several years she also coordinated a motivational program for the more than 8,000 employees at the University of Miami-Jackson Memorial Medical Center.

Her first book, RESTORING LOVE, was published in 1982 by Dell Candlelight Ecstasy under the pseudonym of Suzanne Sherrill. Her second book, SAND CASTLES, under the pseudonym of Alexandra Kirk, was published later that same year by Bantam. She began using her own name when she moved to the Second Chance at Love line at Berkley Publishing. In 1986, she began writing full-time and also began her long career at Silhouette Books with the Desire title NOT AT EIGHT, DARLING, set in the world of television which she covered for so many years.

In addition to her more than 75 romances for Silhouette Desire and Special Edition, she has written thirteen mysteries — nine in the Amanda Roberts series and four in the Molly DeWitt series.

When she's not writing or reading, Sherryl loves to garden, though she's not at her best on a riding lawn mower. She also loves tennis, theater, and ballet, even though her top spin has long since vanished, she's never set foot on a stage, and she's way too uncoordinated to dance. She also loves baseball and claims anyone who's ever seen Kevin Costner in "Bull Durham" can understand why.

Other Reviews:
Miki's Hope
Mysteries Etc.

Titanic Giveaway Hop - Book Review - Angelopolis - Danielle Trussoni

Will they every find happiness with each other?

Title:  Angelopolis

Author: Danielle  Trussoni

Review:  I have read the first one and have posted a review a day or so ago.  I read it when it came out before I started blogging reviews for books I have read.  I gave the first book 3 stars because the ending came so abruptly and at the time I didn’t know it would have a sequel and a sequel to that sequel, so I felt lost of the end of the first book.

Starting this one I had to think about what happened in the last book, some of the story line was clear enough, but I really think you need to read the first book to really understand where this one is coming from.  The author has many characters and many angels of all types that are clearer in the first book.  Reading this book I assume the author assumes I have read book one…so read book one to really enjoy and understand this one.

The story started in the first book is carried forward in this book starting 10 years later.  The characters are there and you still feel for them and their plight.  I do love some of them and wish them happiness, but at the end of this book I have to wonder if that is going to happen…ever.  This book is fast paced and interesting.  I don’t always like this author’s use of words or phrases as I think many of them slow the book down and make you take a second look at the sentence structure.  I like the words to flow more naturally as I read.

If you read the 1^st book then this is a must read so you know what is happening to Evangeline.  You also get more history on angels and why there are on the Earth.  I did enjoy the history she has put together and especially the part about Noah.  You will have to read it to find out.    So pick up book 1 first and then this book….if you are interested at all in angels this is a must read, and if you have no interest in angels (I don’t) I still think it is a good series so far.

Publisher: Expected publication: March 26th 2013 by Doubleday Canada, Viking

ISBN: 9780385678063

Copyright: 2013

Pages: 320

Quick Review: 4 stars (out of 5)- Better ending then book 1

Why I Read It:  Sent by the publisher for review.

Synopsis: An exquisite return to the "breathtakingly imaginative" (People) and seductive world of the New York Times bestseller Angelology.

Hailed by USA Today as "a thrill ride best described as The Da Vinci Code meets Raiders of the Lost Ark," Danielle Trussoni's bestselling first novel, Angelology, wove biblical lore, the Orpheus myth, and Milton's Rebel Angels into a present-day world tinged with the divine supernatural. The novel plunged two endearing isolatoes -- art historian V. A. Verlaine and Evangeline, a beautiful young nun--into an ancient battle between a secret society and mankind's most insidious enemies: angel-human hybrids known as the Nephilim.

Now a decade has passed since Verlaine saw Evangeline alight from the Brooklyn Bridge, the sight of her wings a betrayal that haunts him still. The Nephilim are again on the rise, scheming to construct their own paradise -- the Angelopolis -- and ruthlessly pursued by Verlaine in his new calling as an angel hunter. But when Evangeline materializes, Verlaine is besieged by doubts that will only grow as forces more powerful than even the Nephilim draw them from Paris to St. Petersburg and deep into the provinces of Siberia and the Black Sea coast. A high-octane tale of abduction and liberation, treasure seeking and divine warfare, Angelopolis plumbs Russia's imperial past, modern genetics, and the archangel Gabriel's famous visitations to conceive a fresh tableau of history and myth that will, once again, enthrall readers the world over.

 

Author Biography: Trussoni graduated from University of Wisconsin–Madison summa cum laude with a BA in History and English (1996) and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she received an MFA in Fiction Writing (2002). Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Telegraph Magazine, The New York Times Book Review and Tin House, among other publications.

Falling Through the Earth: A Memoir was chosen by The New York Times as one of the Ten Best Books of 2006. Falling Through the Earth was recipient of the Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award, the Elle Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Award for April 2006 and was chosen as a Book Sense Pick for March 2006 and as part of Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers Program

Trussoni was a visiting writer-in-residence at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point, Wisconsin from September 2008 through May 2009

Other Items:  Book Club Kit here, Angelologist Geocache 

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Informational Post on a new App. from Penguin Group

PENGUIN GROUP (USA) INTRODUCES A NEW WAY TO MEMORIZE POEMS IN A FREE GAME APP FROM PENGUIN CLASSICS

NEW YORK, NY – March 15, 2013 – Penguin Group (USA) presents a memorization game that will challenge you with classic poems from master wordsmiths (including Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, and more) with the April 4^th release of Poems By Heart from Penguin Classics. The app features 24 poems you’ll come to know by heart while racking up high scores and achievements. With recordings you can share online and email to your friends, Poems By Heart includes two new and exclusive dramatic readings and all-new original art for each poem, with two poems available for free. The app will be available in the App Store for the iPad and iPhone on April 4^th.

The works of John Keats, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and fifteen other iconic poets are featured in Poems By Heart’s verses of adventure, romance, and horror, all carefully selected and edited by the experts at Penguin Classics. Using brain-training techniques to make remembering poetry easy, the resulting fast and responsive game doubles as a tool to stay mentally fit in a fun way. “Poems By Heart makes it simple to memorize timeless verses while immersing yourself in a fun interactive game,” says Penguin Classics Editorial Director Elda Rotor. “This app combines beautiful design with an experience that expands your mind’s ability to retain language.” With seven in-app purchase packs of poems available in the app’s poetry store, Poems By Heart lets players share their progress online as they build their skills along five different stages and twenty ranks of success.

Users can confront a haunting, ominous raven, discover the ruins of an ancient, forgotten kingdom, and learn the secrets of true love—all in one app. Poetry experts, literature lovers, and novices just hoping to brush up on their Shakespearean sonnets will all find what they’re looking for in Poems By Heart from Penguin Classics. From the American Romance of Edgar Allen Poe to the nonsensical whimsy of Lewis Carroll, this app from Penguin Classics offers you the tools needed to strengthen your memory while creating and recording memories of your own.

Poems By Heart from Penguin Classics on the Penguin site (features video and images from within the app)

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About Penguin Group (USA)

Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children's trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Viking, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, The Penguin Press, Riverhead Books, Dutton, Penguin Books, Berkley Books, Gotham Books, Portfolio, New American Library, Plume, Tarcher, Philomel, Grosset & Dunlap, Puffin, and Frederick Warne, among others. The Penguin Group (www.penguin.com) is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.

About Penguin Classics

For more than sixty years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, providing readers with a global bookshelf of the best works from around the world, throughout history, and across genres and disciplines. We focus on bringing together the best of the past and the future, using cutting-edge design and production as well as embracing the digital age to create unforgettable editions of treasured literature. Penguin Classics is timeless and trend-setting. Whether you love our familiar black-spine series, our Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions, or our Penguin Enriched eBook Classics, we bring the writer to the reader in every format available.