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Small Press Bookwatch

Volume 5, Number 2 February 2006 Home | SPBW Index

Table of Contents

Reviewer's Choice Sports Shelf Health/Medicine Shelf
Poetry Shelf Self-Help Shelf Religion/Spirituality Shelf
Biography Shelf Mystery/Suspense Shelf Jobs/Careers Shelf
Fiction Shelf Fantasy/SciFi Shelf Social Issues Shelf
Money/Finance Shelf Gaming Shelf Women's Issues Shelf
Children's Shelf    


Reviewer's Choice

A Hike for Mike
Jeff Alt
Dreams Shared Publications
PO Box 18188, Cincinnati, Ohio 45218
c/o KSB Promotions
55 Honey Creek, NE, Ada, MI 49301
0967948215 $14.95 1-800-304-3269

Award-winning author Jeff Alt presents A Hike for Mike, the true-life adventure of a married couple who lost a family member to suicide and then trekked the 218-mile John Muir Trail through the Sierra Nevada as part of a campaign to spread awareness that depression is treatable. The detailed travelogue brings the reader along on a healing journey through three national parks and culminating atop the highest mountain in the contiguous United States. As profoundly philosophical as it is descriptive of the wonders of nature, A Hike for Mike is an immersive experience in the beauty of the wilderness.

Feng Shui / Oy Vay!
Susan Tawil
Steam Press Book Publishers
17001 Jeannette, Southfield, MI 48075
0977294803 $6.99 1-248-483-9797 oyvaybook@yahoo.com

Why hang wind chimes when you can dry salami? Such are the questions, comments, and observations of Susan Tawil in Feng Shui / Oy Vay!: Decorating Your House The Jewish Way, a superbly written satire of those "how to" books on the ancient Asian practice of Feng Shui used for everything from siting the home (which for Susan means proximity to good shopping) to interior design, to effective forms of dealing with troubles. Enhanced with charts and photos, Feng Shui / Oy Vay! is a quick easy read and delightfully entertaining -- especially for those who have overdosed on the real thing!

The Information Revolution
J. R. Okin
Ironbound Press
PO Box 250, Winter Harbor, ME 04693-0250
0976385732 $22.95 www.IronboundPress.com

Written by technology consultant J. R. Okin, The Information Revolution: The Not-For-Dummies Guide to the History, Technology and Use of the World Wide Web is a fascinating modern history of the technology that gave rise to the World Wide Web. From the Web's precursors, to how the technology that created it spread so rapidly, its impact on publishing and broadcasting, its empowerment of individuals, to the "dark side" of the Web that can be used to track information about those who surf it, and much more, The Information Revolution gives a grand tour of stunning, rapid, and very recent changes. Heavily researched, and featuring an index for quick and easily reference, The Information Revolution is an ideal resource for students of modern history seeking to better explore and understand the Web's titanic impact. Also highly recommended are the other volumes in this series, The Internet Revolution and The Technology Revolution.


The Sports Shelf

Ballet Secrets for Skaters
Barbara Denise Files
Artistic Enterprises International
PO Box 8582, Tarrytown, NY 10591
0972672389 $19.95 www.BalletSecretsforSkaters.com

Written by a Russian-trained dancer, teacher, and choreographer, Ballet Secrets for Skaters: How to Hone Your Artistic Competitive Edge is a valuable guide for figure skaters, coaches, dance teachers, and skating enthusiasts of all ages and ability levels. Chapters disseminate basic poise tips of ballet, from how to hold the fingers, wrist, and shoulder to artistic guidelines for the arm and head position, and ballet poses that will add grace and charm to any ice skating routine. Black-and-white photographs clearly demonstrate the positions and, and the text clarifies tips, tricks and techniques for embodying grace. Highly recommended for intermediate to advanced and competitive skaters.


The Health/Medicine Shelf

Cancer
Kevin Molloy
Luck Press, LLC
126 South Maple Street, Lancaster, OH 43130
0976057689 $14.95 www.luckypress.com

Journalist and author Kevin Molloy draws upon his experience interviewing cancer survivors and writing about their experiences overcoming a variety of challenges during their individual battles with the disease in Cancer: How Will I Get Through This?. Molloy arranges these anecdotal stories around the themes of "One Day at a Time; Getting through the Diagnosis"; "First Steps in the Right Direction"; "Triumphing through Treatment"; Facing Other Challenges"; Caregiver Issues"; "All About Support"; and "In Retrospect: Silver Linings and Words of Encouragement". The result is an insightful, candid, and encouraging body of information and example that is enthusiastically recommended reading for anyone having to deal with cancer in themselves, in their families, or in their friends.

Healing Words
Michael S. Woods, M.D.
Doctors in Touch
1100 Lake Street, Suite 230, Oak Park, IL 60301
0975519603 $19.95 www.doctorsintouch.com

Written by a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Healing Words: The Power of Apology in Medicine is a call to doctors and medical professionals everywhere to question the widespread belief that an apology is an admission of guilt and an open door to a costly lawsuit. Woods reveals how the value of a proper apology and cultivated communication skills can actually prevent lawsuits, and promote emotional healing in doctors, patients, and patient's families even in the wake of terrible medical tragedies. Healing Words discusses the components of a proper apology, how doctors can improve their ability to communicate with patients, matters of medical ethics, and much more. Strongly recommended for physicians, Healing Words is a much-needed counterbalance to the defensive hostility widely promulgated by today's modern sue-happy society.


The Poetry Shelf

Images from Hell
F. L. Riker
AuthorHouse
1663 Liberty Drive Suite 200, Bloomington, IN 47403
1420842854 $11.45 1-800-839-8640 www.authorhouse.com

Written by a Vietnam veteran who has coped with post-traumatic stress disorder for years, Images from Hell is as much a story told in verse as it is a work of poetry. The stark, brief lines tell of his suffering, forced into the crucible war as a naive young man, and the long, dark journey afterwards toward hope, love and redemption. A severe and intensely personal narrative, weighted heavily with nightmare experiences, yet ultimately transformative and life- affirming. "Duration": In these closed dark spaces of my mind / I feel the deepening horror, / Digging blood dripping pitchforks / Torture me throughout my whole, / Empty blackened walls they now surround me / Reaching hopelessly for a single blood soaked door, // In this dreadful while of time / I'll now spend with the devil in my soul / Never ending hell is all that's left for me / Nothing left of the world I knew / From now I'll never see.

From Sunshine Road
Arthur Boardman
Vantage Press, Inc.
419 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016
0533150485 $18.95 1-212-736-1767

Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine and speaking only French until the age of ten, Arthur Boardman went on to a career as a teacher of literature in English for forty years (thirty of them at the University of Colorado). Characterized by a poet's flair for images and reflection, Boardman's poetry reflects his life story in the form of luminous vignettes on a wide range of subjects and images ranging from birds to roadside cafes. Once A Rabbit: Behind the truck, some movements on the road/Ahead attract my eye--a cottontail,/I see as I walk on, to no avail/Tugs at a smaller one, clearly to goad/Or drag it to its feet and living mode./When I come near as all the efforts fail,/The rabbit runs, leaving behind the frail/Small carcass, surely once its living load.//The sparrow's fall is watched, a rabbit's too./Maybe, and one September day a fall/From high, down past a many-windowed wall,/In Baghdad a boy carried off, the blue/His jeans were at the seat dark from a small/And obvious stain--fall after fall to rue.

He Claims He Is The Direct Heir
Lazar Sarna
The Porcupine's Quill, Inc.
68 Main Street, Erin, Ontario, Canada, N0B 1T0
0889842825 $14.95 sentex.net/~pql

Lazar Sarna is a quite unique and distinctive voice in Canadian poetry. Tinged with a blend of Jewish humour and surrealism, the lyrics are often as impressively original as they are strikingly memorable with a cadence all their own. The Large Fireman: His neglect to fix his own stairs/led us to buy the plank,/and even install it/for the overblown leg of/his pregnant wife,/for the celery-stalk legs/of his several kids,/for the vein-blackened legs/of his mother-in-law/and for his own white legs/that took such things for granted.//Years after he left/the fire department/(too heavy to climb the ladder)/he realized/each day brings new fires in/tiny windows/that will not permit/even the smallest of men/to help those/most in need.

Throwbacks: Selected Poems
James Bobrick
Spinner Publications
164 William Street, New Bedford, MA 02740
0932027962 $12.95 www.spinnerub.com

Throwbacks: selected Poems is an collection of thirty-seven poems by James Bobrick that share the common hallmarks of elegance, wit, and an occasionally disturbing directness. Here are poems about sex, love, death, aging, the pressures of the marketplace and the ambiguities of human relationships. Life's A Beach: Afternoons down along the shore/you appear around five, slick fashion plate--/J. Press, J. Crew, some upscale store.//Then starting from the bottom line of foam/where waves break and de-escalate,/falling risers flattening to a comb,//you zigzag slowly up the sand,/clutching a plastic scoop with built-in sieve,/metal detector dowsing and//waved over stog and little like a fan./Have margins narrowed that you live/on windfalls from each bottle, coin, or can?

One Thousand Songs Of Earth
Richard Ranier
Aventine Press
1023 - 4th Avenue, #204, San Diego, CA 92101
1593302126 $34.95 1-888-808-5440

One Thousand Songs Of Earth: A Lyrical Journey by Richard Ranier is a 612-page compilation of short poems infused with the vibrancy of author Richard Ranier, whose talents have included serving as a Flying Fortress commander in World War II and a teaching career, among many other occupations. Written over the course of a lifetime, the poems in Songs of Earth applies both traditional poetry forms and experimentation, and speak of the gamut of human feelings from the ecstasy of love to the soul-crushing moments of bereavement. The poems in One Thousand Songs of Earth have a slightly archaic style to their writing, are numbered as well as title, and each is roughly the same half-page length, allowing a singular moment to dwell upon a specific reflection before traversing to the next. "Dichotomy CMVII": Mask'd shadow, monster at the shoulder hoverd / Urging ending; horror opend ravening / Mouth to gorge on all days; this was shadowd / Valley, land of desert blotting greengrowth, / Time that damps eternity with pain; / Onrush of cold with winter's barren threats, / Reluctant emrald losing toehold, plunging: / This then life's tale; he who made you asks / Not contemplation, pressing precipice, / But toil in yoke maturity accepts; / And future holding toil imprisoned; one / Must cope by building new work, fanciful. / Thus taxing that which creates, beckons, asks / The spirit on; for only that would live.


The Self-Help Shelf

Alter Your Life
Dr. Kathleen Hall
Oak Haven
PO Box 1150, Clarkesville, GA 30523
0974542725 $15.95 www.alteryourlife.com

Stress management expert Dr. Kathleen Hall presents Alter Your Life: Overbooked? Overworked? Overwhelmed?, a no-nonsense self-help guide to finding more time in one's life and balancing responsibilities in a manner that reduces tension, cultivates energy, and primes one for the knock of opportunity. Chapters discuss simple changes and mindfulness that can be incorporated into any routine, from the morning shower, breakfast, and commute to daily exercise, shopping, learning to be a more attentive listener, and even turning routine chores such as washing the dishes into a fulfilling experience. The "Ask, Tell, Give" sections condense extended discussion points into simple sentences and precepts; for example, "Ask yourself 'Why do I, or why don't I have a pet?' 'How can I bring more quality to the time I spend with animals?' 'What can I learn from the animals in my life?' / Tell yourself 'Animals support and guide my journey through life.' / Give yourself 'A bird feeder by your favorite window' 'time each day to relax with your animal' 'sponsorship of a cause that supports animals'." An uplifting, motivational guide to lifestyle changes that can make each day richer.

The Subconscious Diet
Hugh B. Sanders
Liberation Press
PO Box 1033, Azusa, CA 91702
0976644401 $12.95 www.thesubconsciousdiet.com

Award-winning speaker Hugh Sanders presents The Subconscious Diet, a companion book for dieters on any program. Focusing on harnessing the power of the subconscious mind, not through hypnosis but rather through positive techniques such as forgiveness, affirmations, and visualizations, The Subconscious Diet stresses the importance of embracing happiness as one's natural state and building helpful new habits to take the place of harmful old ones. Consumable pages offer sample exercises to guide one's motivational journey, and an index allows for quick and easy reference. The Subconscious Diet has relatively little to say about nutrition or dietary food schedules, leaving such matters to other diet books, yet its message concerning the importance of positive reinforcement and high self-esteem is invaluable to anyone striving to lose weight and enhance their self-confidence.

Human Technology
Ilchi Lee
Healing Society
6560 Hwy 179, Suite 114, Sedona, AZ 86351
www.hspub.com
1932843116 $22.95 hardcover
1932843124 $14.00 paperback

Spiritual leader and founder of Dahnhak and Brain Respiration integrative mind-body training programs Ilchi Lee presents Human Technology: A Toolkit for Authentic Living is the sequel to the bestselling "Healing Society" and a spiritual guide to basic principles for managing life's core issues: health, sexuality, and purpose. Human Technology offers twelve guideposts for living a peaceful and happy life that is true to oneself, including "Listen for the voice of your soul until you find your passionate life purpose", "Live as your soul directs with honesty, integrity, and diligence", "Recognize that you are what you choose and what you act". Human Technology also emphasizes the importance of the brain as the master controller in our lives. A guide for fomenting self-mastery and a life lived to the fullest, Human Technology encapsulizes an enlightened way of thinking about ourselves, our fellow human beings, and all aspects of life including birth, sexuality, aging, and death. A profound and positive-thinking guide to self-improvement and personal contentment.


The Religion/Spirituality Shelf

Silken Thread of the Divine
Rajinder Singh
SK Publications
895 Springhill Circle, Naperville, IL 60563
0918224489 $TBA 630-778-0222

Spiritual master Rajinder Singh shares his meditation techniques in Silken Thread of the Divine, a guide to experiencing higher consciousness and the silken thread that connects one to the infinite love and joy of the Divine. Chapters discuss the health benefits of meditation, the relationship between science and spirituality, the moral dimensions of leadership, the power of the human soul, and much more. "There is a healing power of the divine that we can tap into when we shift our consciousness from the physical body to our spiritual side," emphasizes Singh, in this warm, uplifting, and spiritually comforting guide.

Prophet or Madman
Bruce Adams
Trinus Publishing
21286 Hubbard Avenue, Port Charlotte, FL 33952
Talk-Aboutable Media (publicity)
24400-C Walnut Avenue, Suite 101, Newhall, CA 91321
0976484064 $18.00 www.talkaboutable.com

Prophet or Madman: A Bridge Between Worlds presents the direct revelations of God as experienced by author Bruce Adams, an ordinary middle-class man raised in the Catholic tradition. Having experienced an inexplicable epiphany that can only be described as divine, Adams presents the wisdom with which he was endowed in plain terms for others to experience and understand. His insights including understanding of the true nature of love, the nature of God, the definition of sin ("Simply put, Sin is anything that causes you to feel separate from God") and the essence of reality itself. Quotes from scripture help to illustrate the points of Prophet or Madman, a succinctly lucid scrutiny of humanity's search for greater connection with the divine.

A Time Of Fire
Michelle Rios Rice Hennelly & R. Kevin Hennelly
Our Lady of Light Publications
PO Box 6323, Santa Fe, NM 87502
0974216208 $21.95 www.ourladyofflightpublications.com

Several years ago, Mary, the mother of Jesus, began to appear to mystic, visionary, healer, and spiritual counselor, Michelle Rios Rice Hennelly. These apparitional visitations continue to this very day. Mary the Divine Mother revealed momentous changes that our world will experience, along with the reasons for these changes. A Time Of Fire--A Way Of Fire (co-authored by Michelle's husband Kevin) is a compilation on these divine messages beginning with an impressive overview of Mary's revelations to Michelle about events unfolding across the world and where they are leading the human race. Hundreds of messages from Mary and Jesus are then organized into sixty topical categories, culminating in a series of divine teachings that illuminate The Book of Revelations, uncovering the true teachings of Jesus. A Time Of Fire is thoughtful and thought provoking reading, and especially recommended for Christian metaphysical reading lists.


The Biography Shelf

The Hungry and Sick
Stanley W. Raffa
Vantage Press Inc.
419 Park Avenue South, 18th floor, New York, NY 10016
053315071X $21.95 1-212-736-1767

The Hungry and Sick: Notes on My 196 Days in the E.T.O. is the true story of the author's experience as a prisoner of war after being captured during the Battle of the Bulge in Germany in 1944. Subsisting on little more than crackers and often starving, the author lost 45 pounds from his natural weight of 196 pounds, and vividly describes his experience along with other brave men of the 106th Division. The Hungry and Sick is a story about courage, the will to survive, and the triumph of the spirit despite the suffering of the flesh, and tells of the author's enlistment at eighteen to his deliverance at the end of the war. Highly recommended.

The Prairie Tides
Don Larsen
Active Books
358 Lincoln Avenue, Livermore, CA 94550
0974667552 $14.95 www.active-books.com

The Prairie Tides: The Ebbs and Flows of an Era is the saga of the author's grandfather, who emigrated from Europe to find a new life and the changes of the Kansas society around him. Warmly written with gleams of insight into the wry intricacies of human nature, and illustrated with black-and-white photographs, The Prairie Tides is a gentle story of love, determination, finding one's place and raising a family. An exploration of how progress can come and go in cycles, and the satisfaction of hard work that far outshines the fanciest luxury, The Prairie Tides is down-to-earth wholesome American reading.


The Mystery/Suspense Shelf

Cry Havoc
John Hamilton Lewis
Durban House Publishing Company, Inc.
7502 Greenville Avenue, Suite 500, Dallas, TX 75231
1930754744 $22.95 www.durbanhouse.com

Cry Havoc is a suspenseful novel about an impending oil crises that threatens to derail the free world. When a peaceful Israeli jet is shot down over Egypt, it sets off a chain reaction leading to a brutal embargo, and the threat that further military force will cause the destruction of 70% of the world's oil supply. America's first female president and her advisor are offered a shady scheme to sidestep a Middle East morass - by getting chin-deep in Chinese politics. At odds between a possible nuclear war with China and a lethal Middle East showdown, Cry Havoc deftly crafts a scenario in which the all of humanity teeters on the brink of World War III. A nail-biting read to the very last page.

What Lies Buried
Dewey Lambdin
McBooks Press, Inc.
ID Booth Building, 520 North Meadow Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
1590131169 $23.95 1-888-266-5711 www.mcbooks.com

Nothing is as it seems in pre-Revolutionary Wilmington, North Carolina. Respected political leader Harry Tresmayne has been found murdered beside a lonely road in Cape Fear, and the more his friend Matthew Livesey uncovers about Harry's private life, the more he finds motives for murder. The suspect list ranges from the elite to the lowest-born of the region. Matthew Livesey and his family find themselves facing dangerous consequences as a cold-blooded killer is run to ground. Dewey Lambdin is an expert author of historical novels, and once again has employed his considerable talents in creating strange characters, accurate period dialogue, and historical accuracy to infuse this deftly written murder mystery with local color. The result is an enthusiastically recommended novel that is as entertaining as it is engaging from beginning to end.


The Jobs/Careers Shelf

Showin' Ya the Ropes
John Eyres
Kenzie Publishing
12713 Willowyck Drive, St. Louis, MO 63146
0976976234 $14.95 www.ShowinYaTheRopes.com

Showin' Ya the Ropes: A Young Adult's Guide to Navigate Life is a basic guide to the realities of starting out on one's own. Covering the basics how to choose a career, set up a budget, establish credit, buy a house, buy insurance, plan one's finances, diversify one's income, and much more, Showin' Ya the Ropes is absolute "need to know" information especially for young people in today's modern credit-hawking, market-driven society. Written in plain terms, Showin' Ya the Ropes is a "must-have" not only for teenagers and college students, but also older individuals who may be new to the realm of financial basics. Highly recommended.


The Fiction Shelf

St. George and the Dragon
Beth Andrews
Robert Hale Publishers
Clerkenwell House, 45-47 Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0HT
0709078730 17.99 British pounds publicity@halebooks.com

St. George and the Dragon is a romantic novel about two men who wager that they can meet and seduce two beautiful young women. Yet the females they have their hearts set upon are locked behind the walls of a Gothic abbey; one is fair like an angel, and the other is a fierce "dragon". Both have hardened their hearts and raised their guard against malevolent schemes, and so a game of wits and willpower ensues. A delightful repartee of romance, evasion, and motives within motives, St. George and the Dragon is a love story with a keenly whetted edge.

Ignoble
Sturmen Kreig
Cedar Hill Publishing
PO Box 905, Snowflake, AZ 85937
1933324058 $12.95 thewritersplace.org

A joint DEA-Panamanian operation collapses under the weight of internal betrayal and culminates in a fiasco of human devastation. From the decimation of Team Bravo, a U.S. drug interdiction team under the leadership of Captain Alexander Scot Richter, to the elimination of an entire Colombian village, Ignoble is a riveting drama with spellbinding action from beginning to end. The first of a planned trilogy, Ignoble demonstrates and documents Sturmen Kreig's storytelling skills and keen attention to detail and background for his characters, his story, and their settings. Ignoble is highly recommended reading that will leave action/adventure fans looking eagerly forward to the next installment of "The Dark Ages" trilogy.


The Fantasy/SciFi Shelf

Spindle
Ian Taylor
Booksurge, LLC
c/o Karen Hatch Taylor
119 Marshall Street, Fitchburg, MA 01420
1419608738 $18.99 www.spindlebook.com

In Peter Turner's first week with the Space Force, they've gotten his name wrong, assigned him to the worst ship in the sector, and partnered him with Oblun, an anti-social sociopath who can't stand him. If Peter doesn't learn to cope with all these rather quickly, he'll be pounded into the molecular wind, or succumbing to the manifold dangers of the Ataxic sector. When a planet Peter's just visited somehow explodes, he must find out just how good he can be. All he can rely on is a partner who hates him, an enigmatic pair of all-too-helpful aliens, and his own compulsive desire to help everyone. Spindle is a deftly blend of humor and science fiction. Author Ian Taylor has a genuine flair for comedy and an obvious love for space opera style science fiction. The result is a wonderfully entertaining SciFi novel that is a genuine pleasure from beginning to end.

Brave Luck Books
c/o Falbe Publishing
2981 Cohasset Road, Chico, CA 95973
www.falbepublishing.com

Author Tracy Falbe makes a stunning debut in epic fantasy sagas with the first two books of The Rys Chronicles, Union Renegades and the Goddess Queen. Union of Renegades (097622352X, $14.95) tells of a human mercenary and his beloved companion who encounter the rys, a race vastly more powerful than the whole of the human empire. The wicked rys queen Onja spreads her oppression, yet her challenger for the throne, the rys Shan with budding powers, allies with the humans in a bid to incite rebellion and bring about lasting change. Yet to challenge Onja is to risk far more than one's life, for she can imprison souls and is notorious for her genocidal rage! Book two, The Goddess Queen (0976223538, $14.95) escalates the conflict between Shan and Onja - for Shan has become more skilled in magic, and now his amassed armies must face Onja's in the crushing fury of the battlefield. Onja's power is surpassed only by her ruthlessness, and the secrets she has hidden may yet bring doom to the circle that dares to oppose her! A grand saga of intrigue, betrayal, magic, power, and dominance unfolds. An exciting treat for fantasy buffs, who can look forward to the third and fourth volumes in Falbe's dramatic series, Judgment Rising and Borderlands of Power, in 2007!


The Social Issues Shelf

The Anti-Racist Cookbook
Robin Parker & Pamela Smith Chambers
Beyond Diversity Resource Center
7102 Normandy Drive, Mount Laurel, NJ 08054
0971901767 $14.95 www.beyonddiversity.org

Race relations continues to be an important, pervasive, and difficult social issue in this opening decade of 21st century America. Co-authored by Robin Parker and Pamela Smith Chambers, The Anti-Racist Cookbook: A Recipe Guide For Conversations About Race That Goes Beyond Covered Dishes and "Kum-Bah-Ya" basic information on the problem of race relations and the authors' approaches and philosophy. It then goes on to provide practical, applicable information on how to organize and facilitate a small-group discussion on race. There are separate chapters devoted to focusing on an individual's cultural background and early messages about race and ethnicity; the different emotional experiences of race in everyday life and what work individuals can do to improve race relations; conversational oriented intervention strategies that individuals can use to combat prejudiced comments or statements that derail interracial understanding. The Anti-Racist Cookbook is ideal for community activists and non-specialist general readers with an interest in helping themselves, their families, friends, neighbors, and communities in successfully dealing with race relations issues.


The Money/Finance Shelf

Money $marts
Judith Briles
Mile High Press
PO Box 460880, Aurora, CO 80046
1885331193 $25.00 milehighpress.com

Money $marts: Personal Financial Success in 30 Days is an informed and informative, practical and immediately applicable strategy that will enable anyone with a steady job and a reliable income to create financial independence for themselves and their family. Fiscal management expert Judith Briles addresses key concepts to overcoming obstacles that undercut financial planning with step-by-step strategies dealing with a fear of money (moneyphobia), assessing personal financial situations, dealing with credit, setting up a fiscal safety net, finding "kiss off" money, getting the whole family involved, avoiding scams, arranging for retirement incomes, managing kids and money, making savvy investments, and more. Money $marts is particularly recommended to the attention of non-specialist general readers with little or now background in money management, but who seek to eventually acquire a financial sufficiency for the kind of lifestyle they desire.


The Gaming Shelf

365 Winning Bridge Tips
Danny Kleinman
Master Point Press
331 Douglas Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5M 1H2
1897106041 $21.95 www.masterpointpress.com

Expert-level bridge and backgammon player Danny Kleinman presents 365 Winning Bridge Tips, a practical-minded resource for bridge players of all levels from novice to skilled professional. Virtually every tip is actually in the form of a bridge problem, spelled out with a simple black-and-white diagram and bridge notation, while the text walks the reader through the problem, the ideal solution, and possible alternatives. Discussing both issues of bidding and card play, 365 Winning Bridge Tips presumes familiarity with basic bridge rules and conventions but no more than that. A "must-read" from the aspiring bridge gamer seeking to hone his or her skills.


The Women's Issues Shelf

Single Woman Of A Certain Age
Jane Ganahl, editor
Inner Ocean Publishing
PO Box 1239, Makawao, Maui, HI 96768
1930722583 $21.95 1-800-916-3308 www.innerocean.com

Compiled and edited by San Francisco journalist Jane Ganahl, Single Woman Of A Certain Age: 29 Women Writers On The Unmarried Midlife-Romantic Escapades, heavy Petty, Empty Nests, Shifting Shapes And Serene Independence address the challenges and rewards of growing older as a single woman. The contributors address such germane issues as sex, loneliness, motherhood, financial struggles, blossoming careers, menopause, and more. The twenty-nine essays comprising Single Woman Of A Certain Age range from desperation to optimism, from bad moods to good grace, from the glamorous to the mundane, all the while keeping a focus upon the benefits and travails of living solo in a coupled world. This is highly recommended, thoughtful and thought-provoking reading.

A Woman's Guide to Revenge
Greg Clouthier and Ann Clouthier
Select Books
One Union Square West, Suite 909, New York, NY 10003
1590790715 $14.95 www.selectbooks.com

Written by a married couple of private investigators with 25 years experience each, both of whom specialize in infidelity cases, A Woman's Guide to Revenge: Funny True Stories About Getting Even is an eyebrow-raising collection of humorous true stories about cheating husbands and scheming boyfriends - and the wince-inducing revenge taken by their jilted wives and girlfriends! In addition to the shockingly dark and funny stories, all gleaned from the authors' case files, A Woman's Guide to Revenge is filled with tips of professional expertise concerning how to spot a cheating lover, what legal steps one can take, and when to hire a private investigator. A captivating and spicy read from cover to cover.


The Children's Shelf

Piggies
Brian Rock, author; Kate Hudnall, illustrator
First Light Publishing
14402 Twickenham Place, Chesterfield, VA 23832
0975441116 $14.99

Young children who enjoy the ever-popular "This little piggy..." nursery rhyme are sure to delight in Piggies, a cheerful picturebook about a family of pigs who own and run a supermarket. Mr. Piggy owns the market, Mrs. Piggy helps run the market from her home computer, Reggie Piggy works in the deli selling roast beef, Peggy Piggy is a student and a vegetarian, and little Baby Piggy is the youngest of all. Piggies follows the supermarket adventure of Baby Piggy; when Mrs. Piggy get sick, the rest of the Piggies bring Baby Piggy to work, and she gets into one bit of mischief after another! After a long day of fun, just as her family brings her to the front door, she goes "Wee! Wee! Wee!" all the way home. The cartoonish and friendly illustrations add the perfect touch to this modern storybook rendition of a beloved classic rhyme.

The Little Cupcakes
Anthony King, author; Sue Hellard, illustrator
Cupcake Publishing
38 East Ridgewood Avenue, Suite 132, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
0975278614 $15.95 KSB Promotions (publicity)

The Little Cupcakes is a children's picturebook about the value of diversity. When a young girl wants to bring cupcakes from a bakery to her class, her teacher disappoints all the children by taking the tops off of the cupcakes. Why? Because the teacher was afraid the students would be unhappy about eating different kinds of cupcakes. She wanted to make the cupcakes all the same. When the girl comes home to her father, he explains to her that nothing in the world is exactly the same - some people are short, some are tall, some are thin or round, some are white, yellow or black, and the world itself is "egg shaped and funky at the poles". Some people want the world and its people to be all the same because they think it would be better, but it wouldn't be. "If everything in the world were the same, all growth would stop, all learning would stop, and all love would stop. We'd all look alike, think alike, feel alike, and act alike. Would you like that?" The gentle, sketchy color illustrations bring the parable to life, and a one-page guide for parents and teachers at the end offers tips for sharing the message of the story with children and students. Highly recommended.

In Style with Grandma Antoinette
Judith Caseley
Tanglewood Press
PO Box 3009, Terre Haute, IN 47803
0974930342 $15.95 www.tanglewoodbooks.com

Award-winning author Judith Caseley presents In Style with Grandma Antoinette, a picturebook about the bond a young girl shares with her grandmother. Rosie doesn't think that spending the day at work with Grandma will be fun at first, but soon she discovers excitement and adventure at Grandma's hair salon, from a hair color gone wrong to the mystery of a lost boy and a missing wig! The simple color illustrations of a cool, hard-working grandmother and her precocious granddaughter add the perfect touch to this whimsical and joyful story.

Tres Mures Caeci
Dr. David Noe, author; Michelle Thoburn, illustrator
Patrick Henry College Press
One Patrick Henry Circle, Purcellville, VA 20132
0971445818 $11.99 www.phc.edu/press

Tres Mures Caeci is a friendly picturebook retelling of the story of Three Blind Mice. Unlike most children's picturebooks, Tres Mures Caeci is entirely in Latin - there are no English words on the story pages, though the back of the book has an English translation of the text. A simple Latin glossary and cartoony, colorful illustrations by Michelle Thoburn round out this charming picturebook for young and old Latin students alike.

Hidden Pumpkins
Anne Margaret Lewis, author; Jim DeWildt, illustrator
Mackinac Island Press, Inc.
216 East Front St., Suite 205, Traverse City, MI 49684
097491455X $17.95 1-866-500-7737 www.mackinacislandpress.com

Hidden Pumpkins is a children's picturebook about celebrating Halloween. The rhyming text and spooky color illustrations hide the book's secret - 100 hidden "Mr. Pumpkins" to catch! Young readers will enjoy searching the pictures; each two-page spread mentions how many Mr. Pumpkins are tucked away in the artwork, and somewhere in the whole story is one Mr. Cherry from "Hidden Cherries" to find as well! A fun and festive way for young people to get into the Halloween mood. Also highly recommended is the previous Hidden Cherries (0974914517, $17.95).

Upside Down
Jill Lamere
Minikin Press, LLC
PO Box 528, Barrington, RI 02806
097723200X $12.95 www.minikinpress.com

Upside Down is a simple, sharply vertical board book for young readers with a twist - it's meant to be read, then flipped over and read the other way "upside down"! The story is about a young girl who wishes the world was upside down, until she starts to consider the repercussions of such a wish and talks herself right out of it. Upside Down's sturdy construction and whimsical color illustrations make it ideal for beginning readers, including those who may have to share their reading space with even younger friends, classmates or siblings.


James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
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Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
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