#WeekBlast: Live! Love! Rest! God's Plan by Karen Baker

 

The Perfect Person to Get Cancer

Biography/Memoir

Date Published: January 1, 2021

Karen Baker had the perfect life. She had a dashing husband, two beautiful daughters, and two incredible parents who set her up with firm financial foundations. At least, that was how it looked on the outside.

Beneath the surface, Karen’s marriage was in turmoil. To make matters worse, a series of seemingly freak accidents and medical diagnoses put her through trial after trial. Through it all, she took care of everyone around her. Her determination and grit were such that, when her final diagnosis came, a friend said something startling: “Karen, you’re the perfect person to get cancer. Because you’re going to beat it and use the experience to help others.”

Now Karen shares her remarkable story—how she cared for three generations of her family through illness and tragedy, and the lessons she learned along the way. She includes practical tips for financial well-being during life’s storms—and the final and most powerful lesson of all.

#ReleaseBlitz: The Diversity Playbook by @hephzipemberton @equalitygroupgl @authorparul @RABTBookTours #Giveaway

 

Transforming Business with Inclusion and Innovation

Non-fiction / Business / Leadership / Diversity and Inclusion

Date Published: June 8, 2021

Hephzi Pemberton’s first nonfiction, business book The Diversity Playbook provides an empowering and uplifting experience. It contains proven expertise, factual examples and practical tools to transform your business and leadership approach with inclusion and innovation as a central shared goal and priority.

Her book demonstrates with clarity, relevant case studies and the latest research, as well as an applicable exercise in each chapter, to show how leaders and firms who embrace and embed inclusion and diversity into their business will benefit. They will be the businesses that innovate and adapt more rapidly. They will have a workplace culture that the latest talent seeks out and stays with. They will reach a wider set of customers and clients who feel valued and understood. They know that to achieve these benefits and many others besides, leaders and businesses now and in the future will have to take inclusion and diversity seriously.

#ReleaseBlitz: Words on Paper by @mikerosswriter @RABTBookTours #Giveaway

A love story with hard edges

Date Published: Jun 7, 2021

Publisher: SE

Words on Paper From the depths of tragedy it might well be that anything is possible. A moving story based on a real life tragedy where the struggle to survive saps almost every last ounce of energy; a tragedy that divides even further people who otherwise might never have met. However aside from all the pain it might well be that anything is possible. It is easy to forget that in life sometimes two minuses make a plus. Emma and Will have nothing in common other than a mutual tragedy and a pain they share from a different perspective. Anything is possible but the fates are fickle and their lives are on hold. Whilst they try to cope Will’s best friend Ben and his girlfriend Karen have been invited to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe, a chance for Will to join them and break free, at the same time as Emma’s job takes her two hundred miles in the opposite direction. Not the remotest chance of any sort of relationship…but who knows; anything is possible. There is a rocky road that can lead from tragedy to happiness.

#BookReview: A Hobbit Devotional (DiCarta) by Ed Strauss

Synopsis: If you enjoy J. R. R. Tolkien--even if you're new to his classic stories--you'll love A Hobbit Devotional featuring 60 humorous, challenging, and encouraging devotionals. Now a major motion picture series, The Hobbit has fascinated readers for more than 70 years. This tale of humble folk who overcome fear, discouragement, and despair through steadfastness, courage, and hope forms the basis of this beautifully packaged devotional book. Each reading sketches a scene from The Hobbit, relates it to a contemporary life situation you might experience yourself, and brings in the teaching of a relevant Bible story or verse.

#BookReview: When We Were All Still Alive by Keith McWalter

Synopsis: For Conrad Burrell―husband, father, and successful attorney in the autumn of his life―the world has come apart. Having long ago lost his first wife, the mother of his grown daughter and a widow herself, to youth and pride, he’s now lost his second to a violent accident,. “You think you’re finished, that you have no more stories in you,” his ex-wife warns, and he fears she’s right. Within hailing distance of the end of his days, after a lifetime of meeting the expectations of others, none are left but Conrad’s own, and he must discover whether love survives death as well as divorce―whether family memory can redeem individual mortality.

What do we do, then, we widows and widowers for whom there’s nothing left but the world’s permission to stop what we’ve done all our lives? In the cities of his youth, in the deserts of New Mexico, but most of all in a small Pennsylvania town, Conrad finds he has one more lesson in love to learn from the women of his past, and the one woman he's certain he can't live without.

When We Were All Still Alive is a novel of grief and healing, a portrait of a marriage, and a love song to ordinary lives.

#BookReview: Shooting Out the Lights by Kim Fairley

Synopsis: Kim Fairley was twenty-four when she fell in love with and married a man who was fifty-six. Something about Vern--his quirkiness, his humor, his devilish smile--made her feel an immediate connection with him. She quickly became pregnant, but instead of the idyllic interlude she'd imagined as she settled into married life and planned for their family, their love was soon tested by the ghosts of Vern's past--a town, a house, a family, a memory.

Shooting Out the Lights is a May-December love story that explores the ongoing, wrenching aftermath of gun violence and the healing that comes with confronting the past.

#BookReview: Sandwiched: A Memoir of Holding On and Letting Go by Laurie James

Synopsis: Laurie James spent most of her life wondering what it means to belong; loneliness dictated the choices she made. She rarely shared this secret with others, however; it was always hidden behind a carefree and can-do attitude. When she’s in her mid-forties, Laurie’s mother has a heart attack and her husband’s lawyer delivers some shocking news. She suddenly finds herself sandwiched between caring for her parents, managing unruly caregivers, raising four teenage daughters, and trying to understand the choices of the husband she thought she knew. Laurie’s story is about one woman’s struggle to “do it all” while facing the reality that the “ideal life” and “perfect family” she believed could save her was slowly crumbling beneath her. Laurie tries everything to keep her family together―seeks therapy, practices yoga, rediscovers nature, develops strong female friends, and begins writing―but as she explores the layers of her life and heals her past, she realizes that she’s the only one who can create the life she wants and deserves. Sandwiched is a memoir about what it means to let go of the life you planned in order to find the life you belong to.

#BookReview: A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome by Emma Southon

Synopsis: An entertaining and informative look at the unique culture of crime, punishment, and killing in Ancient Rome

In Ancient Rome, all the best stories have one thing in common—murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in the theater, Claudius was poisoned at dinner, and Galba was beheaded in the Forum. In one 50-year period, 26 emperors were murdered.
But what did killing mean in a city where gladiators fought to the death to sate a crowd? In A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Emma Southon examines a trove of real-life homicides from Roman history to explore Roman culture, including how perpetrator, victim, and the act itself were regarded by ordinary people. Inside Ancient Rome's darkly fascinating history, we see how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human.

#BookReview: The Contented Vegan by Peggy Brusseau @HoZ_Books

Synopsis: The one-stop recipe bible for vegan family cooking. 

Looking for delicious, tempting, tasty vegan food to please both you and your fussy family? Look no further.

The Contented Vegan is your essential guide to everyday vegan cooking. With recipes for nutritious breakfasts and school break snacks, lazy weekend lunches and quick weekday suppers, dinner party favorites, and celebratory bakes, this book will provide you with all you need to feed your family.

Peggy Brusseau has been a vegan for over thirty years, raising her two sons on her recipes. In this book she shares her years of wisdom with you, as well as over 200 delicious recipes, helping you make the right choices for you and your family. Includes dual measurements.

#BookReview: The Real J.R.R. Tolkien: The Man Who Created Middle-Earth by Jesse Xander

Synopsis: The Real JRR Tolkien: The Man Who Created Middle Earth is a comprehensive biography of the linguist and writer; taking the reader from his formative years of home-schooling, through the spires of Oxford, to his romance with his wife-to-be on the brink of war, and onwards into his phenomenal academic success and his creation of the seminal high fantasy world of Middle Earth. "The Real JRR Tolkien" delves into his influences, places, friendships, triumphs and tragedies, with particular emphasis on how his remarkable life and loves forged the worlds of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Using contemporary sources and comprehensive research, "The Real JRR Tolkien" offers a unique insight into the life and times of one of Britain's greatest authors, from cradle to grave to legacy.

#BookReview: Energy Healing for Empaths by Lisa Campion

Synopsis: The practical skills you need to keep your energy safe and secure!

Do you struggle with drawing and maintaining boundaries when dealing with the people in your life? Are you highly sensitive and attuned to other’s feelings and energy, to the point where you can’t tell where their energy ends and yours begins? Do you have trouble protecting yourself from “energy vampires?” If so, you’re probably an empath—and in need of some guidance. Fortunately, there are practical ways to stay balanced and keep your energy safe and secure.

From energy healer and psychic trainer Lisa Campion—author of The Art of Psychic Reiki—this healing guide will help you cultivate the energy management skills you need to cope with energy vampires and narcissists, increase your own vitality, and fully embrace your unique gifts. You’ll learn all about:


The three types of energy vampires and how to spot them
Basic energy management skills to keep your energy strong and robust
Practical ways to protect your time, energy, and money from an energy vampire
When to cut your losses and get away, and what to do when you can’t
Psychic self-defense—how to handle a psychic attack
What to do if you’re an energy vampire
And how to diagnose a spiritual issue—not all energy vampires are people!
  If you’re empathic or highly sensitive, it’s almost second nature to put others needs before yourself or take on the problems of the world. But what about your happiness? Energy Healing for Empaths offers everything you need to heal your energy and maintain healthy boundaries with others—so you can be happy, healthy, and in control of you. 

#BookReview: The Teen Girl's Anxiety Survival Guide by Lucie Hemmen

Synopsis: 10 powerful skills to help you deal with anxious thoughts and feelings—so you can get back to being a teen!

In a world where you face academic pressure, social media stress, and countless expectations from every direction, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. No wonder anxiety in teen girls is at an all-time high!  Luckily, there are proven strategies you can learn to feel better, cope better, and live your life with more confidence. 

In The Teen Girl’s Anxiety Survival Guide, you’ll find 10 strategies to help you cope with anxious thoughts and feelings in healthy ways. You’ll learn all about how anxiety works, and why you feel it; how to overcome negative thinking; mindfulness skills for calming your mind and body; and how self-compassion can help you cultivate a more positive outlook on life. You’ll also discover how to balance screen time and social media use; and strengthen relationships with family and friends, so you can get the support you need to be your best.

As a teen girl, sometimes you just need a space to breathe and be yourself. With this fun and friendly guide, you’ll learn to find that space within yourself—a place of your own where you can go anytime life feels a little too extra.

#BookTour: Stress-Free Prosperity by Sneha Jhanb @rabtbooktours

 

Non-Fiction/Self-Help/Mindfulness

Date Published: February 12 2021

 

 

Stress and Prosperity are two sides of the same coin. When you see one face up, you do not see the other. When you reduce stress in your life, you start increasing prosperity. Your outlook towards life changes. When the pressures in your life increase, your feeling of control goes down. Most of us play this coin flip all our lives.

In this book, Sneha teaches you how to feel more prosperous, more joyous and more happy in your life, while making sure that you unburden all that is not needed. Sneha has been through a fair share of stress through accidents, surgery, heart breaks, career setbacks, entrepreneurial setbacks and more. And on that journey of life navigating stress, she has always found a way to bring herself back on the road to prosperity.

When she started writing this book, one thing was clear. The idea of this book was not to send you down the road of positive thinking your way to prosperity or denying your feelings and forcing yourself to feel positive. The idea of this book is to give actionable strategies to help you lower your stress and increase your prosperity.

#WeekBlitz: Healing from Within by @LindenmuthWendi @RABTBookTours

 

A Chakra and Ho’oponopono Healing Guidebook

Non-fiction/NewAge/Spiritual/Meditation

Date Published: March 3, 2021

Publisher: Healing Forward

Discover the Healing Power of Chakras and Ho’oponopono

Healing From Within is a powerful healing guidebook that teaches you how to connect your body, mind, and spirit at a deeper level using chakras, the ancient Hawaiian practice of Ho'oponopono, and journaling. When you implement these tools into your daily life, you will accelerate your emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual growth and healing.

Wendi shares her personal healing journey with multiple chronic illnesses and pain and how these three healing tools profoundly transformed her health and life. Through her experience, she created this book with simple and useful tools to empower you to optimize your own health and energy.

Each chapter focuses on one of the seven chakras and ways to nourish them for proper balance in all areas of your life. It also includes engaging self-reflective assignments, meditation, and when and how to use Ho’oponopono. With the combination of chakras, Ho'oponopono, and journaling, you can solve challenges in your life and health and find the answers you have been searching for.

#BookReview: Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch by Erin French

Synopsis: From Erin French, owner and chef of the critically acclaimed The Lost Kitchen, a TIME world dining destination, a life-affirming memoir about survival, renewal, and finding a community to lift her up

Long before The Lost Kitchen became a world dining destination with every seating filled the day the reservation book opens each spring, Erin French was a girl roaming barefoot on a 25-acre farm, a teenager falling in love with food while working the line at her dad's diner and a young woman finding her calling as a professional chef at her tiny restaurant tucked into a 19th century mill. This singular memoir--a classic American story--invites readers to Erin's corner of her beloved Maine to share the real person behind the "girl from Freedom" fairytale, and the not-so-picture-perfect struggles that have taken every ounce of her strength to overcome, and that make Erin's life triumphant.

In Finding Freedom, Erin opens up to the challenges, stumbles, and victories that have led her to the exact place she was ever meant to be, telling stories of multiple rock-bottoms, of darkness and anxiety, of survival as a jobless single mother, of pills that promised release but delivered addiction, of a man who seemed to offer salvation but in the end ripped away her very sense of self. And of the beautiful son who was her guiding light as she slowly rebuilt her personal and culinary life around the solace she found in food--as a source of comfort, a sense of place, as a way of bringing goodness into the world. Erin's experiences with deep loss and abiding hope, told with both honesty and humor, will resonate with women everywhere who are determined to find their voices, create community, grow stronger and discover their best-selves despite seemingly impossible odds. Set against the backdrop of rural Maine and its lushly intense, bountiful seasons, Erin reveals the passion and courage needed to invent oneself anew, and the poignant, timeless connections between food and generosity, renewal and freedom.

#ReleaseBlitz: Airway is Life by @authorparul @RABTBookTours #Giveaway

Nonfiction

Date Published: February 28, 2021

A national health crisis is stealing your family’s sleep away, one breath at a time. In Airway is Life, Dr. Meghna Dassani, DMD gives you the information you need to spot sleep-disordered breathing and other issues so that you can get the help that you and your family need. Why are all stages of sleep important? What diagnosis might show that sleep is an underlying issue? How can you convince your doctor to prescribe a sleep study? Dr. Dassani’s interesting, accessible work will give you the tools you need to protect your family’s sleep breathing and change their lives.

#BookReview: Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch by Erin French

Synopsis: From Erin French, owner and chef of the critically acclaimed The Lost Kitchen, a TIME world dining destination, a life-affirming memoir about survival, renewal, and finding a community to lift her up

Long before The Lost Kitchen became a world dining destination with every seating filled the day the reservation book opens each spring, Erin French was a girl roaming barefoot on a 25-acre farm, a teenager falling in love with food while working the line at her dad's diner and a young woman finding her calling as a professional chef at her tiny restaurant tucked into a 19th century mill. This singular memoir--a classic American story--invites readers to Erin's corner of her beloved Maine to share the real person behind the "girl from Freedom" fairytale, and the not-so-picture-perfect struggles that have taken every ounce of her strength to overcome, and that make Erin's life triumphant.

In Finding Freedom, Erin opens up to the challenges, stumbles, and victories that have led her to the exact place she was ever meant to be, telling stories of multiple rock-bottoms, of darkness and anxiety, of survival as a jobless single mother, of pills that promised release but delivered addiction, of a man who seemed to offer salvation but in the end ripped away her very sense of self. And of the beautiful son who was her guiding light as she slowly rebuilt her personal and culinary life around the solace she found in food--as a source of comfort, a sense of place, as a way of bringing goodness into the world. Erin's experiences with deep loss and abiding hope, told with both honesty and humor, will resonate with women everywhere who are determined to find their voices, create community, grow stronger and discover their best-selves despite seemingly impossible odds. Set against the backdrop of rural Maine and its lushly intense, bountiful seasons, Erin reveals the passion and courage needed to invent oneself anew, and the poignant, timeless connections between food and generosity, renewal and freedom.

#BookReview: A Visitor's Guide To Jane Austen's England by Sue Wilkes

Synopsis: Discover Jane Austen’s England 

Immerse yourself in the vanished world inhabited by Austen’s contemporaries. Packed with detail, and anecdotes, this is an intimate exploration of how the middle and upper classes lived from 1775, the year of Austen’s birth, to the coronation of George IV in 1820. Sue Wilkes skilfully conjures up all aspects of daily life within the period, drawing on contemporary diaries, illustrations, letters, novels, travel literature and archives. 

•Were all unmarried affluent men really 'in want of a wife'?
•Where would a young lady seek adventures?
•Would ‘taking the waters’ at Bath and other spas kill or cure you?
•Was Lizzy Bennet bitten by bed-bugs while travelling?
•What would you wear to a country ball, or a dance at Almack’s?
•Would Mr Darcy have worn a corset?
•What hidden horrors lurked in elegant Regency houses?

Put on your dancing gloves and embrace a lost era of corsets and courtship!

#BookReview: 400 Years of New York History (Vosk Time Travel Guide #1) by Sasha Vosk

Synopsis: Get to Know the Historical New York that You’ve Never Seen Before
A Time Traveler’s Journey through the Streets of 17th Century Manhattan

The first book in the VOSK TIME TRAVEL GUIDE series, this one-of-a-kind illustrated guide offers readers an opportunity to view the city’s history in a manner that has not been possible until now with the benefit of 21st century art technology.

* How Manhattan looked 400 years ago
* The way of life of Native Americans and the first Dutch settlers
* New Netherland becomes New York when the English take over

Sasha Vosk is an expert in photo-realistic imagery with over 30 years of experience. He created this book for everyone who wants to know much more about New York’s history than meets the eye on the streets of Manhattan.

#BookReview: The Real J.R.R. Tolkien: The Man Who Created Middle-Earth by Jesse Xander

Synopsis: The Real JRR Tolkien: The Man Who Created Middle Earth is a comprehensive biography of the linguist and writer; taking the reader from his formative years of home-schooling, through the spires of Oxford, to his romance with his wife-to-be on the brink of war, and onwards into his phenomenal academic success and his creation of the seminal high fantasy world of Middle Earth. "The Real JRR Tolkien" delves into his influences, places, friendships, triumphs and tragedies, with particular emphasis on how his remarkable life and loves forged the worlds of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Using contemporary sources and comprehensive research, "The Real JRR Tolkien" offers a unique insight into the life and times of one of Britain's greatest authors, from cradle to grave to legacy.