Samhain by Nuith Lachesis, Seed of Fear by Patrick Seaman, A Woman Between Two Worlds by Kim Brantley

Samhain: Origins, Lore, Ancestor Traditions, and Flexible Wiccan Rituals for Solitary Practice, Couples, Families, and Covens by Nuith Lachesis

Samhain is an important holiday for Wiccans. It marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the winter in the Gaelic harvest calendar. Bonfires play a huge role for practical reasons like protection, gathering, and driving off pests and symbolic reasons like purification and marking the turning of the year. The day carried strong associations with the dead and ancestors. It’s sometimes referred to as a thinning veil. Divination customs are also traditions in modern harvests and Halloween traditions. This book explores the various customs and traditions associated with the holiday including for various types of Wiccans. 

The chapters include “History and Origin,” “Symbolism and Correspondence,” “Planning Your Celebration,” “The Solitary Flame: Rituals for Solitary Practice,” “Two Flames: Rituals for Couples,” “The Family Hearth: Rituals for Families,” “The Circle’s Fire: Rituals for Covens,”and  “Until The Wheel Turns Again.”

One of the most intriguing facets of this book is the emphasis on different Wiccan rituals for solitaries, couples, families, and covens. To do this author Nuith Lachesis mentions specific people who represent those types: Rowan, a Solitary Wiccan who lives in an urban apartment, so has access to only a limited amount of tools to practice her craft, Briar, a Solitary Wiccan with 20 years of experience, Dana and Marlowe, a couple who practice Wicca together, The Hart Family, parents Sam and Jordan and their three children Avery, Quinn, and Wren who represent the Fam-Trad tradition of passing Wiccan rituals across generations, and The Ashgrove Circle, a coven of eight to ten members who engage in elaborate ceremonies. These examples personalize the various rituals and practices that Wiccans can take to honor the holiday. 

For example “The Solitary Flame” chapter includes “Ancestor Altar Ritual,” “First Solitary Samhain Ritual,” “The Dumb Supper,” “Divination Night,” “A Releasing Ritual,” “Veil-Walking Meditation,” “Apartment Friendly Full Celebration,” and the “Full Solitary Rite.” 

 

Seed of Fear: A Biotech Conspiracy Thriller (The Quiet Harvest Series) by Patrick Seaman

Seed of Fear is a tense and emotion driven thriller about a couple separated by the manipulations of others.

DEA Special Agent Sean McCreary is the only survivor of an ambush that left the rest of his team dead or languishing in the hospital. He is filled with Post Trauma and Survivor's Guilt but he has another more personal struggle to deal with. His girlfriend, Grace Liang, a food engineer, has gone missing. Unbeknownst to her, she created a specific pathway design that other more nefarious government representatives and cartels want to get their hands on. Grace tries to survive her captivity while Alec tries to find her while uncovering the ambush and the reasons behind it.

This book has all of the qualities of an effective thriller. It has nail biting action, various methods of torture, clandestine meetings, betrayals on top of betrayals, and physical, emotional, and mental trauma than a real person can possibly take but it’s all in a day’s work for the protagonists. But what really sells it is the emotional journeys that Alec and Grace are forced to take.

Alec’s PTSD from the ambush is very real. There are some moments where he encounters his former teammates and their family members. He recognizes the cost of living a life on the edge for a government that could thank you for your service one minute and then pretend like you never existed in the first place. In some of the worst moments, he experiences betrayal when he learns that instead of helping him avenge their deaths, his superiors and colleagues would rather hush the whole thing up.

Grace also experiences betrayal as well though a more personal kind. She learns that one of her kidnappers is someone that she knows and once trusted. Her moments with this abductor are some of the emotional highlights as she simultaneously hates their actions and misses the relationship that they used to have. 

 A Woman Between Two Worlds by Kim Brantley 

This is a Science Fiction novel about discovering one’s inner power, transformation, rebuilding one’s life after tragedy, self-awareness, searching for and finding a higher purpose.

World governments have been given a message: In 30 days aliens, called the Velari, will arrive and in the meantime they have to prepare humanity for their arrival. After the transmission, the DNA of various Earthlings change revealing a hidden alien ancestry and the ability to communicate telepathically with the Velari.

One of those humans is Cassandra, a divorcee who is embarking on a second happier but unfulfilling marriage. She is selected along with the others to be an ambassador to the Velari and has to spend a lot of time with them. While among them, she has to figure out who she is, who she loves, and what she wants to do with her new abilities.

A Woman Between Two Worlds is a novel about transforming one’s body, mind, spirit, and purpose in life. Those who have been transformed, called Pathfinders, not only communicate with the Velari but share memories, emotions, thoughts, memories, and experiences. This bond changes them physically, mentally, and emotionally so they obtain higher consciousness and enlightenment. It's an experience that is both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

Kim Brantley explores the various aspects from the people going through the changes and those around them. The Pathfinders themselves experience this amazing transformation where they have the mindset of otherworldly beings but are still in the bodies of humans. They might have visions of other worlds but still have to eat, sleep, and live around people. 

This division of ethereal and human can be draining and create a schism within. Cassandra for example shares thoughts and emotions with others, but she worries about how her actions affect those around her. 

Cassandra is already anxious from her Earth troubles. She is shattered by the end of her marriage and still in that phase where she both loves and hates her ex. She floats along in her life feeling detached until the transformation happens.

The transformation turns her into someone more empathetic, compassionate, and intuitive. The visions of the Velari and their home world help her and the other Pathfinders search for ways to save their world. Far from being the drifting troubled woman preoccupied with her own struggles, she finds purpose and meaning in her life.

However no transformation comes without confusion or pain. Cassandra is filled with questions. How does being an alien ambassador change her relationship with her ex? Do her neighbors see an enlightened being, a cult member, or a traitor to her species? Do they want to heed her advice, burn her at the stake, or do both? Becoming a Pathfinder is an illuminating but anxiety inducing experience.

Earthlings around Cassandra and the other Pathfinders are fascinated but also fearful of the changes in their friends and family. Some come to them for advice or want to take part in the new world that they are creating. Others want to exploit them for their own gain. Others fear and want to study them, quarantine them, or execute them out of concerns that they will destroy the planet. 

The Velari gives Earth the answers to their problems in human form but the people have to set prejudice and fear aside and trust the human vessels to listen to them. 

Eyes Behind Belligerence by K.P. Kellenborn, How to Lose The Life You Love A Memoir of Conditioning Collapse and Sovereignty by Mike Karame, Barside Manner by Brian Baleno

Eyes Behind Belligerence By K.P. Kellenborn 

 Eyes Behind Belligerence is a powerful and highly relevant novel about racism, xenophobia, cultural identity, patriotism, and what it means to truly call oneself an American even when others won't define you as such.

The Japanese-American population of Bainbridge Island, Washington State felt the impact of the attack by the Japanese Imperial Army on Pearl Harbor. Suddenly, barely tolerated racist jokes and stereotypes become the norm. Members of the community are ostracized or treated with outright hostility by white neighbors, schoolmates, church members, and authority figures. They are forbidden from having possessions that might be used as weapons or short wave radios believing that they could be used for spying. Finally, they are sent to internment camps.

This is a heartbreaking novel about a shameful time in American history which unfortunately is still in practice today just with new names, faces, and targets for racist and xenophobic abuse. It's staggering how quickly certain groups are seen as enemies and how easily many can be swept up in paranoia and propaganda. 

The moments before and during the times in the camps feature dehumanizing practices used to isolate, divide, and internally destroy the people who are targeted. Some of the more insidious actions result in detainees not only trusting the white officers holding them but in their fellow inmates. Some act as inside informants. Others resort to random acts of vandalism and for mini gangs for survival.

 Sometimes division between Japanese born immigrants who came from Japan and settled in the US (issei) and those with Japanese ancestry but lived in the US their entire lives (nissei) is revealed. If they can be divided, it becomes easier for the American authority to break them.

The book is largely told from the points of view of teenage boys Goro/Russell Hamaguchi and Jimmu/Jim Yoshimura who are swept up in that generational divide within the camps and their own families and the racial and cultural divide from the government surrounding them. 

Both are Japanese-Americans whose parents fled to the US either before they were born or as children. They consider themselves more American than Japanese. They adopted American names, hardly understand their families’ first language, and have fully assimilated into the society around them. 

Russell in particular is fond of the country in which he lives. He mocks his parents’ traditional ways and scoffs at their ideals like honor and family loyalty ahead of individual liberty. He considers himself just as American as the white kids that he attends school with, maybe even more so.

Unfortunately that patriotism serves little use for him in a country that shows right away that it has no love for anyone who was born different. They don't see an American boy. To them Russell is Japanese and is treated like an enemy. Unfortunately his Japanese elders aren't any warmer either. Some like his siblings basically think that he sold out and question his loyalty. A fistfight with one of his closest friends reveals the buried resentment and lack of belonging simmering within him.

Jim also is torn between embracing his cultural heritage and assimilating into the world around him despite its rejection. Unlike Russell who treated assimilation like a calculated strategy for survival, Jim’s dismissal is fueled by personal trauma.

Jim’s journey is probably the most emotional even before the war begins because of his older brother's suicide. His grief over the death, his family's reaction to it, and the reasons for those actions lead him to question and defy his heritage. While many see community, Jim sees emotional abandonment and it takes a long time within the book for him to recover from the loss.

The two young men’s outlook changes inside the camps. Russell goes through periods of defiance such as defending himself from a racist guard, continuing correspondence with a Filipino-American girlfriend, and joining a gang of troublemakers in the camps. He ultimately tries to adapt, adjust, and find ways to ensure his friends and family's survival. 

Jim does the opposite. He starts out as a mostly pacifistic sensitive kid unwilling to fight alongside Russell and the other tougher kids. He tries not to do anything that would result in punishment and be the complacent dutiful detainee. 

Jim eventually tires of the mask of obedience that he is forced to wear because the officers don't care. He will always be considered an enemy and in moments of self-fulfilling prophecy, he becomes that defiant rebellious enemy. They could only push him so far enough by dehumanizing him before he pushes back. When he finally does, it's a moment of catharsis for himself and the reader.

Reading a book like this makes it easy to see the conflicts that are still relevant today so we can study them, read about them, learn from them, and maybe someday do better.

How to Lose a Life You Love A Memoir of Conditioning Collapse and Sovereignty by Mike Karame 

How to Lose a Life You Love: A Memoir of Conditioning, Collapse, and Sovereignty is a meaningful, moving, and inspirational memoir about having and losing it all, and what happens afterwards. Mostly it's about having the resilience to pick yourself up and seize a second life.

Author Mike Karame had a childhood and young adulthood of strife and conflict. His parents’ tense marriage was rocked by bouts of temper, arguments, accusations, and emotional breakdowns resulting in a divorce.

 Karame describes his childhood in war and battle analogies because the arguments felt like a disruption of the peace that he sought. He and his siblings had to navigate their home like a minefield waiting for the next explosion to occur from their father's angry tirades and their mother's tearful silence. 

Karame’s childhood in Beirut was also surrounded by outside wars as well. He describes life in Lebanon as a “simple brutal algorithm. Your religion determines your power. Your sect determines your identity.”

Karame recalled explosions occurring during innocuous moments of watching television or studying in class. Tanks rolling down the streets, soldiers marching in formation, and people sprinting for shelters were commonplace. With wars occurring both inside and outside Karame's home, it's no wonder that he wanted to escape any way possible.

Karame later entered a law career but eventually felt unfulfilled by it. His interest in caring for and riding horses led him to a different path: opening up a horse club. Even though his friends thought that he traded a life of luxury for training horses, he said that he wasn't trading down, “(He) traded up.” It gave him a chance to do something that he loved and gave him personal satisfaction. He loved teaching people to ride and connect with horses and added to his own pursuits by learning kitesurfing, paragliding, deep sea diving, and other outdoor adventures.

This would normally be the end of the story. Someone leaves the life that tied them down and made them miserable and finds the career and life path that makes them happy. In Karame's case however, this is the middle of his story which means there were a lot more changes for him to go through and far more experiences for him to learn from.

A series of problems including a failed romantic relationship, the deaths of his parents, separation from his twin brother, and financial struggles culminated in Karame having to sell the horse club and leaving Lebanon. He had to find the strength and courage to start over in a new country where he was virtually a stranger, Australia. 

Karame described his life in Australia as a “collapse” when he encountered dishonesty from colleagues, unpaid bills, and potential bankruptcy. Despite this he purchased and worked in a bar/restaurant and maintained a relationship with his companion, Kate. He referred to the end as a demolition because a demolition “when you finally stop fearing it, is the beginning of clean ground.”

Karame and Kate traveled by caravan through the Australian outback. The connection to nature, vastness of travel, and the quiet privacy gave the couple a much needed slower pace. They ended up traveling for almost two years heading nowhere in particular. This trip gave them the freedom that they needed.

The tour also helped Karame look at and listen to himself objectively. In the silence, he examined what went wrong in his life and what needed improvement. Sometimes one needs to remove all of the barriers and noise before they can discover who they really are. That is what this tour meant to Karame: an opportunity to find himself.

This book is a memoir that shows readers that a person might have many opportunities and live many lives. They just have to 

be ready to find them.

Barside Manner by Brian Baleno 

 A trend this year seems to be short anthologized slices of life Contemporary Fiction novels set in specific places, usually dining or music establishments, and around ordinary people. The works are short on major plots but long on setting and characterization. This year I reviewed Where The Wave Broke by Robert Rooks, The Travel Man and The Writing Writes, The Writer: Taking Kev to Sizzlin’ Meats and Salads by Kevin Cann. I might even throw in books from years past like Lunch Ladies by Jodi Thomson Carr, The Lindens by Barney Jeffries, Tales From Whiskey Tango From Misery Towers by James Aylott, and The Cabin Sessions by Isobel Blackthorn for sharing many similar qualities with these works.

We can add Brian Baleno’s Barside Manner to this oddly specific subgenre. Just like its predecessors, it captures the immediacy of a small setting and closed circle cast of characters. Despite the small space that confines this specific written universe, Barside Manner presents an intimate close up look that is rich in detail and purpose.

Freddy is the bartender at the local Pittsburgh bar where he greets his regular customers and the occasional new faces. He listens, advises, comforts, provides a sympathetic ear, and sometimes reveals his own personal struggles while his closest associates drink, laugh, joke, bemoan their fate, and engage in friendship and fellowship that are guaranteed until Last Call.

The book itself doesn't really have much of a plot. Mostly it's about characters debating getting rich quick schemes, figuring out the next steps in their lives, changing jobs, changing relationships, moving up, or moving down in life. Plot isn't as important as character and setting. 

We get to know the characters through their dialogue and conversations. They talk about politics, whether AI will take over the world, whether the Steelers have a shot at the playoffs, complain about their jobs or bad relationships, and just about everything else in between. They don't come to agreements but they sure love talking and arguing about it.

The bar is the type of place that is practically a character in and of itself. Freddy makes sure that it's clean and inviting for guests to enter. He knows the usual drink orders and greets both regulars and newcomers jovially. It's cozy, somewhat dim, kind of smoky, has a stench of alcohol but also has a charm and friendly atmosphere that invites characters and readers inside for a few hours.

We also get some insights into the characters that inhabit this confined space. Since there is alcohol involved, they are at their most vulnerable, open, loquacious, reckless, and honest. It is a place where they can forget their troubles for a few hours and someone, usually Freddy, will be there to lend an ear, offer a word, or at the very least fill up another glass.

There is Enzo whom Freddy describes as a “Pittsburgher’s Pittsburgher.” Tough, mouthy, loyal to his family and friends and particularly sports teams. He will be the first to insult the Steelers or the Pirates if they are losing but don't you make the mistake of criticizing them in earshot if you are from out of town. Not unless you have two hours to kill to sit through a lecture about the history of either team.

 There's also Spike, Enzo’s friend. He is a muscular surly man who might strike up a conversation, brandish a fist, or both sometimes during the same discussion. 

Edward LaRoche, AKA Fox Chapel is from a different background than Freddy and the others. His nickname comes from the more affluent area of town in which he lives, a life of wealth and privilege that only exists in his fellow patrons’ fantasies. 

Bob and Jan are a septuagenarian married couple who treat the patrons and Freddy like surrogate children. 

Then there's Freddy who has struggles of his own. At 29 years old, he knows that he has to make changes in his life but is uncertain how to pursue them. He wouldn't mind attending college to obtain a degree but thinks that he is too old.

 He and his girlfriend Lana, a doctoral student trying to get her PhD, have a loving but at times contentious relationship as they discuss their next steps: marriage, moving in together, or breaking up and moving on. As Freddy remarks by quoting U2: “(He) still hasn't found what (he) is looking for.”

There is a complacency that surrounds the characters. It says that things are okay for now. As long as they have a decent job, a roof over their heads, a place to go and destress, maybe some good friends or a loved one then everything is okay. Why aspire for anything better or different? Just stay in the same places, ordering the same drinks, have the same arguments, and remain comfortable.

Many of the situations in the characters' lives involve making changes. They seek money, love, better opportunities, innovation, something new and different. Their actions serve as a reminder to remove from their benign comfort zones to enter different possibilities that test their potential and deliver fulfillment beyond settling. They occur when the characters make changes so they aren't the same people that we met in the beginning.

This book reminds us that we can find pleasure in the ordinary everyday routine but we should also look for the changes that provide the breaks in that routine and challenge us to be different, better people. 

After The Rain: Stories by Dina Sokal ; The Narrow by Dan Cornelious; The Love That Wouldn't Die by Anthony Biren; 200 Things Women Can Do After 50 by Permission Press

 

After The Rain: Stories by Dina Sokal

This is a summary of the review. The entire review can be found on LitPick.

This poignant and meaningful anthology focuses on emotional confrontations, secrets, trauma, memories, and how sometimes it takes adulthood and maturity to understand these experiences.

The best stories are:

“Henry and Sally”- Henry learns that his ailing wife, Sally, has secrets that he never knew.

This story is about how we never know everything about the people that we are around the most, spouses, children, and close friends and family. 

Henry cares for his wife through her dementia and finds out her secret on his own. He weighs his suspicion towards her and his guilt in bringing this outcome forward. He has to address the reality of his marriage, not his romantic rose tinted view.

 “The Ritual Committee Meeting”-Christy weighs religious devotion with her uncertainty about her committee leaders Jonathan and Rivka who are becoming quite authoritarian.

This story is only a few pages long but says a great deal about Christy and the other church members. Christy sees the tight hold that the couple have on the committee and when she disagrees with them, they let her know that she has fallen in their estimation. 

She wonders if they are there to lead others to worship God or themselves.

“Mother's Day”-An accident forces Val to evaluate her marriage, motherhood, faith, and behavior.

Val once held a superficial view of her life. She thought that it was an idyllic home as long as she existed on the surface and lived in benign contentment. 

Afterwards she has to weigh her love for her husband and family. She also has to look at her own troublesome behavior and seek to change it.

“After the Rain”- A woman has a magical encounter that forces her to confront her past.

Most of the story is surreal and yet meaningful as a strange box leads her to several human figures, particularly a baby that beckons her to follow it. They have a lot of symbolic touches concerning security, suppression, and confrontation.

The story’s climax is reached when she names the trauma that was done to her. She confronts her assailant and brings her pain to the forefront. Recognizing it gives her the first step towards healing.

 Sokal’s watercolor illustrations are winsome pleasant landscapes that bring a timeless dream-like quality to the stories and provide light to even the darkest moments.

The Narrow by Dan Cornelious 

This is a suspenseful Science Fiction Thriller that combines monster disasters, alien encounters, and conspiracy theories and does some clever unique things with the concepts.

After surviving an attack by a mysterious creature Eli Merritt investigates the encounter. He sees a sealed passage which leads him to a civilization of reptilians called the Zargata. He bonds with one named Ryznk. When a greater evil approaches Eli, Ryznk, and their human and reptilian allies have to work together to fight it.

Most of the book focuses on typical military science fiction thriller tropes. There are the military figures who try to keep the weird stuff under wraps as they fight against it. The scientists and doctors with the analytical questions, devotion to science, and arguments with the military. 

The salt of the Earth protagonist who stumbles on the strange new world but still kicks ass. The religious supporting character that quotes the Bible and fears the End Times. It's all familiar but also kind of fun as a good action novel read for the summer should be. 

One of the most interesting aspects of this book are the reptilians. Most Science Fiction novels that focus on conspiracy theories treat the reptilians as some unstoppable inhuman evil bent in conquest and destruction. Dan Cornelious however took great care to make the Zargata just as important and multi-faceted as the humans.

 Ryznk is actually a well written character more so than Eli, his human counterpart who is alright but stereotypical and cliched. Ryznk however is a proud member of the Zargata community but has enough intelligent curiosity and empathy towards the humans. He draws Eli and others  into their mutual struggles by sharing thoughts and emotions. It is an interesting touch in what might have been a typical Science Fiction Thriller.

The friendship that develops between Eli and Ryznk is the emotional core of the story as they fight against their isolation, assumptions, enemies both human and reptilian, and mental and emotional blockers to work together. It's a twist that elevates this book from ordinary to potentially exceptional.

The Love That Wouldn't Die by Anthony Biren 

This is a beautiful and sinister short novel about the love between parent and child that survives beyond death.

John is devoted to his daughter, Rocky. He is so devoted to her that his final thoughts before he dies in a traffic collision were to always be with her. After death, he watches Rocky as she becomes romantically involved with Derek, a dangerous stalker.

The horror and mystery aspects are well written. John's attempts to communicate with his daughter can be creepy as he speaks to her through her phone and flickers with lights. Also John's attachment to Rocky could affect his memory of her and human emotions leaving him as an angry vengeance seeking spirit.

Besides the supernatural horror, there is also human horror. It is particularly noticeable when John and Rocky are given a chilling vision of Derek's actions and motives. The lengths that Derek went through because he felt entitled to have Rocky are incredibly disturbing.

Above all, this is a strong story about the love between a father and daughter. The opening chapter features a charming moment between John and his then-toddler aged daughter as she watches butterflies. It symbolizes their relationship as Rocky is as beautiful and fragile as those butterflies and John tries hard to hold onto her until he learns to defend when necessary but also to let her go.

200 Things Women Can Finally Do at 50 by Permission Press

If you are approaching 50, don't look at it as old age or think that it is an end to life. Think of it as a potential start to do new things. This is a funny and uplifting book that suggests that women can find fulfillment by living for themselves.

This book covers various areas like social life, beauty standards, work, family, health, tech, and a bucket list. The items suggest similar messages like “It's okay to opt out.” “It's okay to be less than perfect” “It's okay to practice self care.” “It's okay for others to take care of you.” “It's okay to be behind the times.” “It's okay to meet long term goals that were put off by life situations.” “It's okay to be yourself.”

The suggestions are humorous and heartfelt to remind readers that they should make time for themselves. For example in the social life chapter, one suggestion is “Unfriend the Energy Vampire. We all have that one friend. She only calls to complain about her ex, her boss, or the rash on her leg. You have listened to the same loop for 15 years because you are loyal. You are not a therapist, and you are not a garbage can for your emotional refuse. It is okay to outgrow people who only take. Hit ‘Block’ or ‘Mute’ to lift that weight off your shoulders immediately. Rebel Rule: Protect your peace like it is a limited-edition handbag.”

Where The Streetlight Ends by Bradley Butts; Being Laramie Buchanan Another Boulder Girl by Cynthia L. Clark, The Courage of Two Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer and The Fight For Freedom of Conscience in Early America by Nancy Kelley

 

Where The Streetlight Ends by Bradley Butts

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery 

Bradley Butts’ Horror Anthology is a strange but brilliant combination of classic supernatural campfire tales and postmodern existentialist terror. It reminds us that when it comes to paranormal horror, evil can be found in any form, in any setting, and in any time.

“The Doodle”

Alex, a high school student, has written conversations with a sentient doodled figure on the wall. 

The conflict between The Doodle and Alex are chilling as The Doodle recognizes and uses Alex's loneliness for friends and skepticism against him. The Doodle is a character that intentionally starts out as welcoming and friendly. There are moments where its presence is almost adorable like when it tells Alex that it is his friend. 

It becomes possessive and sinister when it feels abandoned by Alex. For example, it doesn't understand the concept of weekends when Alex is not in school. The smiley face becomes a frown and the wide curious eyes are narrowed in anger. It defaces Alex's notebooks and desks, calls him a bad friend, and threatens to kill him.

Alex's curiosity and eventual terror are multiplied because for a long time believes that he is having conversations with a human who is sending secret messages. His insistence that he is stalked by a human adversary is a means to gain control of this creepy situation. If he attributes it to a human something that can be stopped by normal means like expulsion or arrest. A supernatural presence in the form of a living drawing resists being defeated or contained so could stalk a human in perpetuity.

“The Strange Sound”

A sound affects all who hear it, particularly most of the student body of a high school.

This story recognizes the value of not displaying or telling much and leaving our imagination to do the heavy lifting. We are not given specifics of what the sound is as witnesses compare it to a hum or a whisper. We aren't told where it comes from, why certain students are affected, or what the whispers actually say that upset those who hear it.

The physical, mental, and emotional changes are the focus. The narrator's friend, Sara is one of the first to hear it and she goes from a bright curious teen to a catatonic zombie. She becomes languid, inert, lethargic and is devoid of energy and vitality.

The sound affects other classmates until over half of the student body is afflicted leaving friends, classmates, educators, families, and the entire town at a loss. The physical and mental impact of an unexplained phenomena affecting almost an entire generation cannot be overstated as the kids deal with the mysterious strain of this phenomena and their surviving loved ones have to cope with the loss and aftermath.

“Hangman on the Dark Web”

An innocent round of the spelling game Hangman becomes all too real for the young man playing it on the confidential and exploitative Dark Web.

Many of the stories deal with the fear that can be found through modern technology. This and the next story deal with that subject. This one attacks online fascination with the ghoulish, violence, forbidden, bizarre, and morbid particularly on the Dark Web.

The game goes from a spelling time waster to a psychological trap. The Gamemaster reveals personal information that the Narrator never said. Instead of a generic stick figure in the noose ready to meet its maker, the figure is all too familiar to the helpless Narrator. The only thing that he can do is play to rescue the doomed character.

While many of the stories don't have much of an explanation of where the creepy events originated, this story provides a few hints. The puzzle’s resolution, a famous literary quote, provides a clue. It indicates that the Narrator brought this disaster on himself for being overly curious, not cautious enough, and meddled into dark places where he doesn't belong. To quote the movie Wargames, “The best way to win is not to play.”

“The Filter”

Chloe uses a new filter on her selfie and her picture and face go through painful changes.

This is the second tech related story and covers another online obsession: using AI and filters to improve one's appearance and to make them look more attractive and flawless to followers.  

As Chloe changes her picture, she finds her face becoming painfully distorted to match the image. It does not skimp in describing the torture as her eyes enlarge, her skin is stretched, and her bone structure is manipulated. She is in agony.

Most readers would probably wonder why Chloe doesn't stop altering the filter but it appears that she can't. She is compelled and addicted to changing her appearance and can't stop even when she wants to. She is deprived of her personality and free will and turns into something that only exists to be looked at.

“The Beckoning Call of Black Hollow”

David visits an abandoned wooded area for his forestry studies and is frightened by the local monsters.

After covering modern sensibilities with two tech heavy stories, this one returns to basics. It's a campfire tale about the monsters in the woods with some interesting twists. This story has a strong ominous atmosphere. Everything from the winding trees, the magnified sounds and smells, and the chill in the air already gives an unsettling energy even before the creepy stuff happens. Of course once they start, it gets worse. 

David hears disembodied voices call his name and imitate people in his life to draw him outside to respond. He was warned not to respond to the voices and or go outside to see where they are coming from. This is advice he follows to the letter proving that he has more intelligence and common sense than most horror protagonists. It reminds readers that sometimes what you suspect and hear  can be just as frightening as what you do see.

The monsters themselves are a slight letdown as the approaching feelings and voices were much scarier than their physical presence. However, they are clearly inspired by the most recent infamous monsters that have haunted the Internet and social media communities for a few years now. It adds a current sheen to old tales by saying that the monsters might change appearance but the fears are the same. The fears of loneliness, isolation, the dark, insanity, and the possibility of evil. Those will never leave.

Being Laramie Buchanan Another Boulder Girl by Cynthia L. Clark

Cynthia L. Clark’s Being Laramie Buchanan has a decent lead character with a lot of depth and layers. Unfortunately, it gives her a substandard plot that alternates between too much and not enough.

Laramie Buchanan has plenty of problems. Her mother has died and her father is consumed with grief. She hovers between her job as an events coordinator at an art gallery and Yoga studies. Her love life is also complicated. Her romance with restaurateur Vick ends badly and she is interested in Chance who assists at the resort where she attends her Yoga retreat.

It's an odd contrast when a book succeeds so well with their protagonist but falters so much with the plot that is put around her. The strength of Laramie's character cannot overcome the weakness of the plot or plots. Some things are over explained either in dialogue or narration.The book can't decide whether it's a romance, a family drama, a woman's fiction, a thriller, or a bildungsroman.More twists and unnecessary complications are thrown in a book that didn't need more of them.

It's a shame that Laramie Buchanan does not live in a better book. 

The Courage of Two: Anne Hutchinson, Mary Dyer, and The Fight For Freedom of Conscience in Early America by Nancy Kelley 

This is a review summary. The full review is on LitPick 

Nancy Kelley’s Courage of Two Anne Hutchinson, Mary Dyer, and The Fight For Freedom of Conscience in Early America is a fascinating account of two women who stood for their beliefs, made their opinions known, and refused to be silent in the face of adversity

This is a nonfiction book about Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer, two women who offended the religious establishment in the 1660s with their outspoken views on religion. Hutchinson preached from the Bible during private meetings and Dyer’s embrace of Quakerism put them at the center of controversies in which they were persecuted, arrested, tried, and threatened with exile and death.

Hutchinson showed a lot of spunk and knowledge in sessions and when being confronted by authority. Her Biblical studies were quite detailed and academic. She also had a witty, almost sardonic way of defending herself especially during her trials. Her words offended the Puritan community and she was eventually banished. 

The other deuteragonist, Mary Dyer, had a slow start in the book. She started out as one of Hutchinson’s students and strongest defenders. 

After Hutchinson died, Dyer came into her own. She joined The Society of Friends AKA The Quakers, a sect that Hutchinson would have fit in perfectly. Puritans considered Quakers, especially Quaker women, a threat. They made Dyer an example of their hatred sending her to her death and Quaker martyrdom.

People who are interested in religion will look at women of the past practicing their faith and living according to their beliefs. But even those who are interested in history will be interested in this book about two women remembered for challenging patriarchal authority.

The Sisters: The Saga of The Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell; Engaging Biography of Provocative, Controversial, Opinionated, and Unique Sisters

 

The Sisters: The Saga of The Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell; Engaging Biography of Provocative, Controversial, Opinionated, and Unique Sisters 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

There are many controversial wealthy families in the 20th and 21st century who made news because of their scandalous behavior, illegal activity, political involvement, entertainment value, or even just by having a prominent family name. One of those is the Mitford Family, a wealthy titled English family. Mary S. Lovell tells the story of this eccentric family particularly the six Mitford Sisters in her book, The Sisters: The Saga of The Mitford Family.

 The Mitfords were shocking, provocative, controversial, divisive, opinionated, unique, and captivating women that interested, fascinated, and disgusted people with their behavior and involvement in the mid-20th century political, social, artistic, and cultural landscapes. They were the subject of books, movies, and miniseries. They recently appeared in episodes of Peaky Blinders and the miniseries Outrageous.

This book, The Sisters, captures their fascinating dynamic, diverse personalities, stormy private lives, and different views which drove many apart from each other. (On a personal note coming from a large family with mostly sisters, I have always been fond of reading about that bond between siblings particularly sisters. Those women who alternate between best friend and worst enemy for so many of us.)

The Mitfords were the children of David Freeman Mitford, 2nd Baron of Redesdale, Northumbria and his wife Sydney Bowles. They were a wealthy, accomplished and highly intelligent family whose maternal grandfather founded several influential magazines like British Vanity Fair and wrote historical biographies. They were also related to the Churchills.

The Mitford parents had different socio-political views which inspired their children in various ways, not all of them for the better. David was an ardent Conservative and held very traditional views particularly where women were concerned. Sydney later became a Fascist and spoke admirably about Hitler. This view would influence three of her children to catastrophic results.

The Mitford’s privileged upbringing shaped the children early on as their parents experimented with various approaches to childrearing. They raised eldest Nancy with few rules and restrictions but reverted to becoming more rigid with the younger children when they felt that Nancy was becoming too spoiled and argumentative. Because of David's rigid views about men and women, they home schooled the girls but sent their son, Tom, to public school in Eton. They were also raised largely in their family estate in rural Northumbria where their snobbish parents only wanted them to hang out with children of their class.

Because of the home schooling and isolated upbringing in the country, the sisters were largely self-taught. They were voracious readers and devoured the books in the family library. They also created their own activities like writing The Boiler, their own literary magazine and newspaper, developing their own secret society called The Hons (a nickname for hens), raising farm animals for pocket money, and creating a secret language that they called Boudelage. This busy thoughtful upbringing molded their creativity, shaped their independent thoughts, and honed their self reliance.

The Mitfords consisted of seven siblings, six sisters and one brother. They were:

Nancy (1904-1973)- One of my two favorite sisters in the family. The eldest, Nancy had a troubled relationship with her siblings because of her caustic teasing sense of humor and bossy nature. She took the lead in many of their activities like editing and publishing The Boiler, created various games, and gave her younger siblings nicknames.

Nancy and her sister Diana were part of the Bright Young Things of the Roaring Twenties and had a close friendship with author Evelyn Waugh. Nancy had a stormy love life consisting of a broken engagement with Hamish Erskine, a closeted peer, an unhappy marriage to Peter Rodd, an alcoholic politician, and an ongoing tempestuous love affair with Gaston Palewski, a womanizing French colonel.

 Nancy's relationship with Palewski was particularly toxic as she became obsessed with him but he devalued and belittled her and was frequently unfaithful.

Nancy was a moderate Socialist though acknowledged her aristocratic upbringing. She was virulently against Fascism despite her mother and siblings’ support and took part in relief efforts for the war. During WWII, Nancy denounced her sister Diana who was an ardent open Fascist.

Nancy became a novelist. Her works included Highland Fling, a romp about Bright Young Things on vacation in Scotland and Wigs on the Green, a satire of the British Fascist movement particularly her brother in law Oswald Moseley. Her trilogy, Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate, and Don't Tell Alfred featured fictionalized versions of her family including her father, sisters, and other relatives. Her novels presented light hearted, mocking, and satirical accounts of the times and society in which she lived. 

Eventually she moved to France where she wrote historical biographies about Madame de Pompadour, Emilie du Chatelet, and Frederick of Prussia and various satirical articles and essays mocking British aristocracy. She died of Hodgkin's Lymphoma after years of frequent pain and surgeries cared for by her younger sisters, Diana, Jessica, and Deborah.

Pamela (1907-1994), The second child, she was the more maternal figure in the children's lives when they were younger. She was frail in early years having developed polio but later became physically strong and healthy. 

Nancy and the younger siblings often came to her for advice. Like her older sister, Pamela was a skilled organizer. Nancy influenced her siblings’ creativity but Pamela was more concerned about their practical needs. She began negotiations between her siblings and their father to increase their earnings from raising farm animals to the commercial average that actual farm workers were making. David was impressed by her research and nerve, so he acquiesced to the request.

Pamela married a physician named Derek Jackson which ended in divorce. She had no children but she and Derek briefly raised her sister Diana's children after she was arrested. She was also the subject of a poem by John Betjeman in which he called her “the most rural of them all.” She was flattered but turned down his marriage proposal.

Despite her marriage, Pamela was a lesbian. She fell in love with Giuditta Tommasi, an Italian horsewoman and lived with her for a time in Switzerland. After Guiditta’s death, Pamela remained in Switzerland until the last of their dogs died.

Unlike her involved siblings, Pamela largely stayed out of politics and spent much of her time in the country. She had a vast array of fur and feathered babies and managed farms in Ireland, Switzerland, and England. She became an expert on breeding chickens, even introducing new breeds into Britain. She appeared on television in agricultural themed documentaries and retrospectives about her family.

A lover of animals to the very end, Pamela's final words, before she succumbed to complications from falling down a flight of stairs, were asking which horse won the Derby the day before. 

Tom (1909-1945)-He was the third child and only boy. He didn't get as much attention and wasn't as widely known as his more colorful sisters but was still a large presence in their youth and adulthood.

 Because of his schooling, he was not as close to his sisters. He shared similar views to Diana, Unity, and their mother Sydney and despite very different opinions was very close to Jessica. 

Tom was bisexual and had serious affairs with Eton classmate, James Lees-Milne and married dancer Tilly Losch. He also dabbled in Fascism before his death in WWII shortly before the war’s end.

Diana (1910-2003)-The fourth child and third daughter, she was considered a great beauty and social butterfly. She had a wide circle of friends, modeled, and posed for portraits. She was particularly fond of her cousin Winston Churchill who nicknamed her “Diana-mite.”

 The three younger sisters treated her like the cool big sister that they could have fun with whereas bossy Nancy and motherly Pamela did not always suffice. Unity particularly worshipped her which was a factor in her own problems. Like her sister Nancy, Diana was part of the “Bright Young Things” social set of the 1920’s and had many friends and lovers among them.

Diana eventually married and divorced Bryan Guinness, heir to the Guinness Family. She also embraced Fascism and their views of racial superiority. She eventually met and began an affair with Sir Oswald Moseley, head of the British Union of Fascists. They later married after the death of Moseley's wife and became a very notorious couple. Their wedding was attended by Hitler and they considered him and his girlfriend, Eva Braun to be close friends. At one point, Diana was considered “Britain's Most Hated Woman.”

After the Germans invasion of Britain, the Moseleys were arrested and imprisoned leaving Pamela and her then husband Derek to raise their children. Upon their release, they were exiled and lived in South Africa for a time where their racist and nationalistic views were welcomed by the White Apartheid-supporters.

After Moseley's death, Diana wrote book reviews. One of her columns ended when the editor learned of her previous involvement with Fascism and Nazism and terminated her employment. Her columns and articles then mostly appeared in right wing journals. She also wrote nonfiction works about her husband and her close friends and acquaintances like Wallace Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor.

 She later renounced many of her views but retained others such as her continued administration of Hitler. Many considered her words too little too late. She died of emphysema and heat exhaustion during the Paris heat wave of 2003. 

Unity (1914-1948)-The fifth child and fourth daughter. She resorted to shocking and provocative behavior to be noticed among her loud and busy family and may have had mental health disorders. She did unusual things like release pet snakes and rats in public places to get attention. 

Unity was particularly close to her sister, Jessica whom they referred to each other as “boud.” They communicated in their secret language Boudelage so well that they were not always understood by others. However they also had diverse views concerning the conflicts in the 1930s world in which they were raised.

 Unity supported Nazism and admired Hitler while Jessica became a Communist and devotee of Lenin and Stalin. Supposedly, their bedroom was sharply divided with a German flag, swastikas, and pictures of Hitler on Unity's side and Soviet flag, hammers and sickles, and pictures of Lenin and Stalin on Jessica's. 

There is some evidence that Unity was led to Fascism and eventually Nazism specifically because of her mother, brother, and older sister Diana's influence. That may have been true but her devotion became an obsession and paranoia. She openly spoke about and wrote Anti-Semitic views and was volatile when challenged.

Unity was obsessed with Adolf Hitler to the point of stalking him in Germany. They developed an affair during Hitler's temporary break up with long time lover, Eva Braun. It was a dangerous affair in which the leader infantilized and dominated her and she was submissive towards him. 

Their affair ended when Unity attempted suicide via gunshot on the eve of the German invasion of Britain. She survived and returned to England in the care of her mother and younger sister, Deborah. 

Unity suffered brain damage and amnesia. She fell into a childlike dependent state often requiring care. She may have had a brief passionate relationship with John Anderson, an RAF pilot but it ended quickly when he was reassigned and subsequently killed in battle. Unity eventually died of meningitis caused by cerebral swelling from the bullet. 

Jessica or Decca (1917-1996)-My other favorite Mitford sister. The sixth child and fifth daughter, she was the most outspoken and rebellious child and wasn't afraid to challenge her parents and siblings. She argued with her father when she wanted to go to school and questioned her mother's insistence on only playing with children of their class.

As previously mentioned, Jessica and Unity were close but took directly opposite political views. Jessica read about the Great Depression, the union strikes, racism, and hunger marches. They stoked her social conscience. Her sympathies towards lower income people led her to embrace Communism to the detriment of the rest of the family.

She eventually eloped with Esmond Romily, himself an avowed Communist and a distant cousin of hers and Winston Churchill’s. The Romilys emigrated to Spain where they sided with the Loyalists or Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. They wrote articles denouncing the Nationalists, tested weapons, and argued with their family who insisted on Jessica's return. Eventually the Romilys left Spain and moved to London then the United States.

While in the United States, Jessica became involved in various causes. In lieu of their once close bond, Jessica continued to speak well of Unity, but she was antagonistic towards Diana. After Edmond’s death during the War, Jessica denounced her older sister saying that she and Moseley should be shot. (They only reconciled years later while caring for an ailing Nancy.) 

Jessica eventually remarried a Civil Rights attorney named Robert Treuhaft and became heavily involved in American politics. She took part in protests to stop the execution of Willie McGee and refused to speak in front of the House of Un-American Activities.

Jessica, a self-described “professional muckraker” and investigative journalist wrote books and articles that explored her views in great detail and attacked various institutions and industries in Europe and the United States. Her books included, Hons and Rebels about her childhood, The American Way of Death (considered her most important work), attacking the funeral industry, The Trial of Dr. Benjamin Spock, The Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr., Michael Ferber, Mitchell Goodman, and Marcus Ruskin, focusing on their protest against the Vietnam War and conspiracy to violate draft laws, Kind and Usual Punishment: The Prison Business attacking the American prison system, and The American Way of Birth, which criticized hospital care towards pregnant women, and articles about Southern attitudes about the Civil Rights movement for Esquire and decrying fraudulent correspondence course businesses for the Atlantic Monthly. 

True to her negative views about the American funeral industry, when Jessica died, her funeral cost a mere $533.31 and her ashes were scattered at sea.

Deborah or Debo (1920-2014)-The youngest of the family, she was considered quiet and sweet tempered. She was often babied by her older siblings and went along with many of the older ones’ schemes.

Deborah's sympathetic nature towards her siblings continued through the adversities. Even after her family stood on opposite political sides, she retained close correspondences with all of them often serving as a bridge among them. Similar to Pamela, she largely stayed out of politics and her views shifted from Conservative to Social Democratic. 

She was also the most sensitive and was greatly affected by her parents' separation when her father moved out of the Mitford home to an island off the west coast of Scotland and her mother remained on the estate. They reunited briefly when Unity returned. However they remained separated, unreconciled, but legally married until David's death in 1958.

Deborah eventually married Andrew Cavendish, the second son of the Duke of Devonshire. His older brother, William was killed in action in 1944 and William’s wife Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy died in a plane crash, Yes she was the sister of John F. Kennedy which linked the Mitfords to another wealthy, famous, controversial, and influential family. After the death of Andrew’s father, he and Deborah became the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.

 Deborah took to running her husband's ancestral home, Chatsworth House which was in poor condition upon her arrival. She spent time and money renovating, restoring, and modernizing it. It is now one of Britain's most successful stately homes and is open for tours.

Deborah wrote several books on Chatsworth's restoration, the rooms, furnishings, and gardens and other books about home care. She was frequently interviewed about her sisters, including for Lovell's book becoming an unofficial family historian. When she died in 2014, she was honored as the last of the Mitfords.

The Mitford Family were outrageous, scandalous, and colorful. They were women who were highly intelligent, knew their own minds, and chose their own paths. Sometimes those paths led them down dark roads of prejudice, violence, hatred, and animosity. They suffered heartbreak, loss, separation, and the effects of a world that rapidly changed around them. Lovell's book shows that most importantly the sisters were unforgettable. 

The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith; Recovery and Self-Discovery Through Travel

 

The Purpose of Getting Lost by Tracy Smith; Recovery and Self-Discovery Through Travel

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Tracy Smith's The Purpose of Getting Lost is a detailed and introspective memoir about Smith discovering herself through travel.

Smith survived a childhood of rejection, and an adulthood of divorce, the departure of her kids, the fading of old friendships, extensive surgery, physical pain, and mental health crises. At age 49, she booked a flight to Iceland and kept on going afterwards to other countries. She didn't consider travel an escape but a “way to stitch (herself) together and pay tributes to the part that (she) had ignored for so long.”

One of the most interesting aspects of the book are the icons that appear before each chapter to reveal what elements Smith explored during that particular part of the trip. They consist of mountains to indicate Adventure, fire for Community, a tornado for Risk, an elephant for Acceptance, a lighthouse for Confidence, and a bird for Freedom. These icons indicate that Smith was not traveling just for fun or just to be a tourist. She intended to challenge herself and explore aspects to her personality that helped her become a more fulfilled person.

Smith’s first trip to Norway and Iceland was a risky endeavor. Since it was largely unplanned, she walked around the terminal trying to figure out where to go, how to use her phone, and how to find a bus to Reykjavik. This reveals that a trip made by impulse often has its drawbacks and sometimes relies on guesswork, patience, and asking people.

Since it was her first couple of days, Smith's primary emotions, uncertainty and exhaustion, marred her first views of Reykjavik. She was looking forward to this journey but was also overwhelmed by the choices, the new surroundings, and anxiety. She recovered enough to go to a nearby bar dressed in Buffalo Bills attire and struck up a conversation with a fellow sports fan. This chance meeting soothed her uncertainty by reminding her that seeing new sights and meeting people are worth the risk of traveling alone. 

Smith’s sense of adventure was tested when she visited Doha, United Arab Emirates during the World Cup. Surrounded by people, Smith felt several anxieties about such things as being kidnapped or getting lost. She silenced her fear by pausing and looking at the people and sights around. Instead of returning to the hotel, she stopped to enjoy herself. This was her trip and her adventure so she reasoned that she might as well make the best of it.

The adventure continued as Smith entered a mosh pit consisting of soccer fans. Caught up in the excitement of the crowd, she joined them cheering, clapping, and celebrating. Some men even lifted her up and pushed her over a gate into a restaurant that she wanted to eat at. This was an experience in facing large crowds and finding a sense of adventure in an unfamiliar place and surrounded by unfamiliar people. While she faced many natural elements and risky tours, the fear of crowds and unknown places can be filled by anyone going on any trip. It is an adventure to face those fears as much as mountain climbing or bungee jumping.

Smith’s solo trips were an experience in acceptance. Before, she often made decisions that involved other people, but this journey was a practice in self-care and reliance. Her trip to Costa Rica with her daughter was a relaxing journey but Smith had to accept that her daughter was growing up and therefore so should she. Her journey to Croatia was much more difficult because it involved a fracturing relationship. Her time in Croatia was cut short because she and her boyfriend broke up. She had to accept that loss and move on.

This relationship and its end left her with a choice to visit a friend in Italy who was going through her own issues and risk hurting her with the pace or go to Portugal alone and allow her friend to heal. She chose Portugal recognizing that her friend needed rest and not the stress of travel and that Smith herself needed some time alone to sort through her troubled relationships. This allowed her to accept herself by herself.

Smith was often a planner and often made itineraries and lists. While that can be good for travel especially in the early stages, it can limit the spontaneity and surprises that come with travel. Smith’s time in Koh Samui, Thailand taught her to enjoy freedom. She viewed a waterfall with a tour group that she stumbled upon and was in awe of the sight that she might have missed if she stuck to a plan. 

Most of that time on the island was spent relaxing and not sight seeing. Smith rested in the hotel, read her Kindle, went swimming, shopped nearby, and observed people around her. The relaxation and freedom of living in the moment was just as important for her as the times where she took tours, participated in adventures, and interacted with others. 

Not all of Smith’s trips were solo adventures. As previously stated, she traveled with her daughter, son, ex, and friends. She also interacted with strangers forming a large global community of friends and family around the world. Traveling to Greece with her friends Stacey and Cheryl illustrated the importance of community especially when traveling. The three friends booked separate rooms, had a loose itinerary, and spent some time by themselves. Ironically, their solo time deepened their connections to each other because they had space to breathe and their time together was much more engaging.

Another journey with her friend Carmen also taught Smith about forming community with others. Carmen introduced her friend to her family in Puerto Rico who accepted Smith as one of their own. She had meals with them, conversed with Carmen’s aunts and uncles, and was embraced by their warmth and hospitality. She arrived as a stranger but left as a surrogate niece and cousin.

Smith’s travels were exercises in persistence and confidence. She endured many hard and difficult journeys such as climbing pyramids, hiking through the jungle, and visiting Machu Picchu. She realized that these dangerous trips were tests of her persistence and ability to survive them. 

Many of her experiences tested her endurance. Once in Belize, her group had to climb 130 steps. Even though she sweated, her legs cramped, and she doubted herself, Smith made the climb. She said that “the climb wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t graceful but it was mine.” This was true confidence in herself and her journey.

Traveling around the world gave Smith several opportunities to encounter new places, meet new people, learn some important lessons, test her strength and endurance, take risks, practice self-care, live in the moment, and ultimately to find herself.

Oak Logs and Gasoline Tending Your Internal Fire by Jake Knox, Raising Readers How to Help Your Child Learn to Read by Amy Coffey; The Platinum Workforce: How to Train and Hire For the 21st Century's Industrial Transitions by Trond Arne Undheim; The Divine Feminine: From Awakening to Walking to Union by James Compton

Oak Logs and Gasoline: Tending Your Internal Fire by Jake Knox 

  Jake Knox’s personal development book, Oak Logs and Gasoline: Tending Your Internal Fire, uses fire as an extended metaphor for life and the choices that we make. This metaphor is concrete and poetic as Readers are encouraged to consider whether their lives overwhelm with excess heat, are underdeveloped leaving them in the cold, or provide just the right amount of warmth.

Knox used various analogies such as that people are “simply cold” because they don't know how to start their own fires. He advises Readers to find a “woodsman” or a mentor that will build a fire that lasts and guides Readers to use their talents and choices wisely.

This book encourages inner reflection and considers questions like "Why am I here? What drives me? Who am I here for? Who makes this worth fighting for? What do I want in life?" These questions and the answers help readers shape their journeys. They are the sparks that light the flames.

Each chapter includes reflections and conversations. They ask questions like “When was the last time you said or did something that is truly yours not copied, not influenced but born from what you believe?” 

A unique approach is that the reflections ask from the perspective of both the student and the mentor. Mentor questions include “when in your life did you first find your own voice-the moment you stopped echoing and started speaking from conviction?” 

This allows Readers to focus on where they are in their specific journeys either just starting out and looking for advice or if they are experienced and want to guide others. 

Raising Readers: How to Help Your Child Learn to Read by Amy Coffey

Reading is very important as a necessity and as a pleasure. Unfortunately, many statistics state reading problems or have high basic reading skills but none for pleasure. This book discusses what the brain does to read, why reading is important, and what parents, guardians, and educators can do to encourage a generation of readers.

The brain lights up in all four lobes and enables three jobs: visual process of registering orthographic symbols, translates symbols to sounds, and sounds into meaning and comprehension. Many children that have trouble with that process are dyslexic. Educational methods and technology do their part in shaping this process.

The book suggests different means to encourage children to read like online tutoring services like Reading Adventures, reading out loud with children, have interactive questions and answer sessions about the book, sound out and study hard to follow words and terms, compare books to other pop culture touchstones like movies and television, play games like I Spy or card games with words, have book club parties, and high impact tutoring, and of course work with teachers, librarians, principals, and educators together to create a comprehensive plan from all sides.

The Platinum Workforce How to Train and Hire For the 21st Century's Industrial Transitions by Trond Arne Undheim 

The current workforce is changing because of the abundance of AI and the remaining need for the human element. Futurist and author Trond Arne Undheim suggests ways that workers can adjust to work with and not against AI. There are certain things that AI is unable to replicate like creativity, critical thinking, human to human communication, and empathy. This book takes a look at that changing environment and what employers and employees need to do to adapt and adjust to it.

Among the suggestions that Undheim makes is for employers to revamp their reskilling programs to help employees train skills that they may not have learned or known before. It would also do a lot of good for employers to reskill and retrain as well.

Other suggestions include enhancing human capabilities through scientific and engineering interventions like AI systems, genetic modification technologies, biotechnological innovations, nanoscale engineering, neural interface development, and cybernetic integration. Many of these and other fields are transformative in nature and still rely on human technology interaction.

Undheim also suggests changing the workforce by becoming aware of various skills, managing the integration of these skills and employees, and teaching by using immersive real world learning activities. The Human+ workforce features two core skills: human-AI collaboration and interoperability mindset. The future critical capabilities include eco-awareness, maker skills, mediation, megascale operations, mobility, risk aptitude, agile R&D, psycho-resilience, socio-technological insight, agentic AI management, and systems thinking.

This book shows that it is indeed possible to have a workforce that builds on AI innovation and human interaction and connection.

The Divine Feminine: From Awakening to Walking in Union by James Crompton 

This is a summary of the review. The full review can be found on Reader's Views website. The link is provided above.

James Crompton 's memoir, The Divine Feminine: From Awakening to Walking in Union, is a deeply personal and spiritual memoir about a man’s search for faith and finding it in the form of the Goddess Figure who appears within various mythologies and religions under different names.

Because the Divine Feminine takes many forms and names, she isn't limited to any one specific myth or religion. Crompton speaks of her as Mary, Sophia, Shakti, Kali, Lalitha and others. She can offer wisdom, sensuality, abundance, justice, beauty, maternity, shelter anything. 

This book can be seen as a starting point for those who are interested in other mythologies and spiritual paths to find a connection with a deity who represents some personal struggle. 

Crompton describes his own personal issues, the process of meditation, his vision of the Divine Feminine and in what form(s) she took, the message that she conveyed, and how he implemented it into his life. The solutions or messages weren't all quick fixes. Sometimes it took years to find answers, or led to a separate path than the one Crompton visualized. Mostly it took a lot of study, research, openness, understanding, and acceptance.