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Made the front page today. You can find it at www. the brandon gazette. com  (remove spaces of course)

I haven’t quite figured out how to announce that I’ve become the official book reviewer for The Brandon Gazette over here on my blog. However, today I had the priviledge of having my first author interview published and I’m thrilled about it because I loved the book.  I am posting the original review from The Brandon Gazette here below.  But you can check out my new writing gig!  The one I haven’t quite announced here until now!!

Also, you’ve just got to read this book!  It’s fantastic.

Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood – Melissa Hart(Memoir) Seal Press

I love this book! Buy it; read it, I’m sure you will love it too.  If I haven’t convinced you yet, keep reading…First they were a normal family in the 1970’s, living happily in Southern California.  And then they become fractured and multiplied and Melissa Hart has to flip flop herself between her father’s lavish lifestyle with his new wife, her stepmother, and her mother’s bohemian lifestyle in a Hispanic neighborhood.  These influences shape her as she grows, but during that shaping and molding there is a push and pull within her to learn and determine where she fits in the world.  And isn’t that always largely based on how you were raised and your cultural influences. 

I love this book! Buy it; read it, I’m sure you will love it too.  If I haven’t convinced you yet, keep reading…First they were a normal family in the 1970’s, living happily in Southern California.  And then they become fractured and multiplied and Melissa Hart has to flip flop herself between her father’s lavish lifestyle with his new wife, her stepmother, and her mother’s bohemian lifestyle in a Hispanic neighborhood.  These influences shape her as she grows, but during that shaping and molding there is a push and pull within her to learn and determine where she fits in the world.  And isn’t that always largely based on how you were raised and your cultural influences. During her parents divorce a judge determines that her lesbian mother and her lover are not good influences on Melissa and her siblings and therefore Melissa, to her chagrin, ends up living with her father and wishing desperately she was with her mother, who she can closer relate to throughout the years. 

Melissa’s frank language, honest re-telling, and innate comical mind make this book so much more than the above two paragraphs can parlay.  I picked this book up and did not put it down.  I devoured it in one sitting, staying up into the wee morning hours doing so.  I cheered Melissa on, and frowned at the judge’s determination and remembered fondly things from my own childhood.  Melissa’s penchant for recall of time and place and her ability to put you there made this book a trip to a different time and place.  This memoir reads like fiction, not because the authenticity is not there, but rather because Melissa’s retelling is not a factual list you must read but rather a story you become a part of.

This book was enchanting, engrossing and more so happily entertaining.  There are lessons to be garnered here as Melissa finds her way, but the real joy in this story is the value of family, the realization that we all belong…somewhere.  In this memoir there exists a strong confident female voice.  This would be an especially fantastic gift to give a college aged girl to read as she navigates through her newly found freedom and realizes she has many choices in life. 

Her book is available at most retail booksellers and at Seal Press who so kindly provided the book to be reviewed at The Brandon Gazette. 

Many thanks to the publishers at The Brandon Gazette for allowing me to fully maintain ownership of the reviews and articles I write.  They are fantastic! 

Let me reveal a secret, I personally love poetry and find that when I read it, it can serve as an escape from the stresses of this world.  As if you didn’t know this? But this occurs especially when you read a volume that is so liquid and beautiful like “Bird Eating Bird”.  The best way to describe how beautiful this volume is, is to refer you to an image in your mind of beautiful birds lined up on a wire.  This image is how I relate to this book.  It’s beautiful, awe inspiring and a gift when you encounter a wire line of birds chirping at the beginning of a new dawn. Kristin Naca can weave a sentence like a snake-charmer can coax a snake from a basket, fluidly and with a skill that makes the process look so easy.  This book touches on culture, is written both in Spanish and in English, but don’t fear that if you are not bilingual you will not appreciate this one, as it is in full English on one side, Spanish on the opposite page.  However, if you are bilingual you will love this one.  It’s got a flow and rhythm throughout that makes me see colors and feel vibrant with it’s ode to Asian and Latino styles and flairs.  Naca’s poems are lyrical on the page, a dance for any reader’s soul to swirl with. 

“Once a bird pecked her  lover’s hand With such sincerity that she lost 

Can be purchased from http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/35596/Kristin_Naca/index.aspx who so kindly provided a review copy.

Remember when I told you to go buy this book right away? Well..here’s my proper review so you know why I was so excited about this title.

Did you read the Twilight series and love it?  Were you surprised that you read the Twilight series because you might not be a tween?  Was it the sappy love story that you got caught up in?  If you answered yes to any of these questions you might want to read this title and meet Alexander and Tatiana.  You will not forget them.

This is a love story set in Russia during wartime.  Tatiana lives in a small two bedroom apartment with her family and everything is falling apart in her home country due to war.  And yet she meets Alexander.  Alexander is an officer with the Red Army and he’s all things that every girl dreams of.  He’s perfect for Alexander but at every turn there is a new obstacle for their love.

Wartime is a time of much angst and personal trying times for Tatiana and her small family.  She endures a great deal and we get to see her grow up due to these difficult times.  Throughout it all, there is the underlying love story.  A seemingly impossible love and all the things that can conspire to keep us from the one we love.  This constant struggle might appear to be irritating but not with the way that Ms. Simons writes.  She has an engaging style.  I greedily read through 832 pages and wanted to lick my eyes to taste every last word I read.  Yes, that may seem a bit much, however I absolutely fell in love with this book and I hope you too will pick up a copy and give yourself a break from every day life and let yourself get lost in Alexander and Tatiana’s love story.  This novel is a bit more grown up and not suitable for tweens, but if you loved Twilight and felt a bit foolish being a grown up reading a silly love story then The Bronze Horseman is for you.  Paullina Simmons is a fantastic descriptive writer and if you love character driven novels, then you will adore this one.

Happily this novel is #1 in a trilogy!  That means if you fall for Alexander and Tatiana you can look forward to two more full novels about their love.

I personally bought this book all by myself.  But it is available from Harper Collins.
 

Obstacles Welcome - How to Turn Adversity into Advantage in Business and in Life – Ralph de la Vega

(motivation and self improvement)

I just have to give this one two thumbs up!! I expected one of those relatively mundane business management books, and what I got was pure and utter inspiration and a whole new way of looking at what most of us commonly refer to as roadblocks, problems, or as Mr. de la Vega refers to, obstacles. I now see obstacles as opportunities to outshine competition at work as well as in my personal life. Obstacles are now not bad, they are actually exciting. I encounter an obstacle now equals “I can overcome, learn and become better!” That’s a massive shift in viewpoint for sure.

Mr. de la Vega’s personal story inspires. He was an immigrant from Cuba and arrived on US soil a few years prior to his own parents. What he learned from those experiences served him well as he saw his own life obstacles as opportunities for personal growth.

This book is engaging rather than boring. At the end of each of the chapters is a page of takeaway messages. I think those pages alone out value the price of this book. I learned so many things and had quite a few moments where I felt that I had learned more about how to approach my own obstacles in the workplace. C’mon we all have them, or will. Those moments of self doubt and self examination are opportunities to excel once you have read through these easy to read 262 pages. It should be noted that Mr. de la Vega is the President and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. I used to have a management leadership crush on Jeff Bezo’s, the CEO of Amazon, my leadership crush just shifted a bit to make room for Mr. de la Vega. Thanks must go out to him for the fantastic and inspiring look at how the day to day mundane and exasperating life at work can really be the foundation to greater things personally and professionally.

If you’re a manager of people, time, family events or you just want to take advantage of life’s obstacles instead of fearing them, then you too can benefit from this book.

pre-order here