Choices is happy to host MARLA J. ALBERTIE'S WOW! WOMEN ON WRITING TOUR OF: The Ultimate Brag Book About Yourself Book Summary Can you imagine all the things you like, love, and adore in one book? All your favorites captured at one time with space to write more. So, why did I write this book? How often do we brag about ourselves, take time to think about what makes us happy, or do the things we like? If I had to guess, not as often as you would like. This book has been on my heart for years and I am finally getting it out to the world. You deserve to brag about yourself, so why not? Not only is this a bragging book, but it is a book of ideas you can use to start your next project, business, career move, or anything your heart desires. So how does it work? Each topic/list has a “number” to reach because the goal is to get you to stretch your thinking. Need more space? Don’t worry, there are extra lines per number so you can add more and there are extra pages in … [Read more...]
What I read in 2019
2019 This is my journey in books for 2019! TOTALS I read 7,023 pages across 27 books SHORTEST BOOK: 64 pages The Love Poems of Rumi by Rumi LONGEST BOOK: 624 pages My Life So Far by Jane Fonda AVERAGE LENGTH: 260 pages MOST POPULAR: 602,483 people also read Educated by Tara Westover LEAST POPULAR: 0 people also read When We Almost Drowned by Jessica Barksdale MY AVERAGE RATING FOR 2019: 4.7 HIGHEST RATED ON GOODREADS: Mindful Dementia Care: Lost and Found in the Alzheimer's Forest by Ruth Dennis it was amazing 5.00 average MY 2019 BOOKS MY LAST REVIEW OF THE YEAR Saving Papa’s Tales by Richard Ebner is an extremely strong example of good memoir writing. His story of a father son relationship that includes conversations about their past history and events of the present times – including the … [Read more...]
I’ve read a couple of great books lately
I'm sure you've heard me say from time-to-time that I am very compulsive. Once I set my mind to do something, I have to go all the way. Reading is one of those somethings. I signed up on Goodreads to read at least twenty-five books this year. That's really not a lot, but with my writing regimen, it's not easy. I did it in 2018, and so far this year, I've read eleven book - two ahead of schedule according to Goodreads. Right now I'm reading Jane Fonda's autobiography, My Life So Far. Please don't give me a hard time about Jane. Since she became my exercise guru way back in the day, she's been my hero. And she writes about and apologizes a lot about her visit to Vietnam during the war. Besides she's a great actor. So here's a bit about two books I've recently read. The Boston stories in Don’t Mess with Tanya, by Ken Tangvik, are beautifully and expertly portrayed. I liked every one – especially the story about Tanya, the young black woman, who gets back at a store keeper … [Read more...]
How not to ask for a review
I thought this piece in today's New York Times magazine, in The Ethicist section by Kwame Anthony Appiah, is something all of us authors should think about. My husband pointed it out to me, and I totally agree. The Question More and more of my friends are self-publishing books; some I purchase just to support their writers. In this new situation, a dear old friend wants me to give him a five-star review on Amazon and post it on Facebook. I've seen a few pages of his book, and it's a piece of self-indulgent drivel. I don't want to hurt my friend's feelings, but I don't want to sell out either. What do you suggest? Name Withheld Appiah's Answer If you are such good friends, wouldn't it be better to give him, gently, your opinion of some of the book's weaknesses? Possibly without actually using the words self-indulgent drivel? Self-published books have taken a long dive since the days of Jane Austen, and the new ease of making them, in the digital era, has turned a river of … [Read more...]
Review number 214!
Thank you so much Christine L. Miller, Ph.D for this wonderful review of my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother's Memoir of Living with Her Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide. Dr. Miller has an enormous sense of what my family and I went through during our son/brother, Paul's battle with bipolar and after his suicide death seventeen years ago. Though it has been that long, Paul is still missed - forever. Thank you, Dr. Miller, for your sensitivity and understanding. Madeline Sharples' book about her son Paul's suicide and its aftermath is a searingly honest portrayal of the most intimate details of family life, encompassing everything from mundane daily events to the emotional vortex they were all thrown into. There is no sugar-coating how difficult the onset of his psychotic bipolar disorder made their lives, no shying away from the occasional resentment she felt about his mental illness dominating their daily existence, or how his unapologetic … [Read more...]
The jazz age, Chicago, and murder – read Sugarland
I'm happy to introduce Martha Conway and her new book, Sugarland: A Jazz Age Mystery, to my Choices readers as part of her WOW! Women on Writing virtual book (blog) tour. About Sugarland: In 1921, two women, a black jazz pianist named Eve and a white nurse named Lena, join forces after a drive-by shooting nearly kills them. Eve is looking for her missing stepsister, and Lena wants to find out who murdered her brother, a petty bootlegger killed in the shooting. Sugarland recently received a Reader's Favorite Book Award. Genre: Historical Fiction Hardcover: 314 pages (also available in paperback and e-book) Noontime Books: June 1, 2016 ISBN: 978-0991618552 About the author: Martha Conway's debut novel 12 Bliss Street (St. Martin's Minotaur) was nominated for an Edgar Award while Thieving Forest won an Independent Publishers Book Award, the Laramie Award, a Reader's Choice Award and the 2014 North American Book Award in Historical Fiction. Her short fiction has … [Read more...]
Book reviews – a roller-coaster ride
This week my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, received six new reviews for a grand total now of 198 reviews since its release in 2011. However, the reviews were not all good - three 2-stars and three 5-stars. Happily though, the week ended with two of the five-star reviews, leaving me with a huge sigh of relief. Even after all this time, my stomach turns over every time I see that a new review has been posted. I don't suppose that feeling will go away as long as I put my writing out in public. Here are the two five-star reviews that came in, in the last two days. Thank you so much Sara and Joanne. Thank you for sharing your lives with my readers. Your words honor me and my book. A Must Read: I found this book when I was still in the early stage of my son being diagnosed, fighting the struggle of his almost everyday behaviors, and at that point I was open to anything. Even with my son being substantially younger than Madeline's son, the book touched me and although I am … [Read more...]
Saying thank you to a reviewer pays off
After three years since its launch, my book, Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother's Memoir of Living with Her Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide, is still getting some wonderful reviews on Amazon. I can't help sharing this latest one: Incredible Book! This memoir is simultaneously heart-wrenching and incredibly hopeful. Madeline's story is a true triumph of the human spirit's ability to endure even the most nightmarish of scenarios. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone - whether you live with mental illness, have a loved one who does, have lost someone to suicide, or just looking for a beautiful story illuminating the human condition, you should read this book. Exquisite. This review touched me so much that I was moved to thank the reviewer. In doing so I found out more about her and her family: Oh wow, it's an honor to have you read my review and reply back to me! Your book has had such an impact on my life, being diagnosed with bipolar disorder … [Read more...]
Why LA?/Pourquoi Paris? – a perfect holiday gift book
Although I've lived in Los Angeles since 1961, and I've visited Paris many times since 1969, it never occurred to me to compare the two cities. Fortunately author Diane Ratican has. In doing so she has created a wonderful book, Why LA? Pourquoi Paris?: An Artistic Pairing of Two Iconic Cities that highlights the features of both cities with short prose pieces and colorful and whimsical illustrations by Eric Giriat and Nick Lu. This is a book to treasure on your coffee table and use as a resource when visiting either city. I've found out about places in LA that I've never visited and must and places in Paris that I can't wait to return to. The information in this book is invaluable. Ms. Ratican has divided her book into seven sections having to do with cityscapes and landmarks, culture, fashion and style, sports and leisure, art and culture, cuisine and dining, and how people get around in each city. For example, in her section called Cityscapes and Landscapes she pairs the LA … [Read more...]
Company is coming tomorrow – Linda Appleman Shapiro
Linda Appleman Sharpiro will join me here tomorrow on the first stop of her WOW! Women on Writing blog tour to promote her memoir, She's Not Herself: A Psychotherapist's Journey Into and Beyond Her Mother's Mental Illness. To give you a little advance information about her memoir I've posted my review here today. As you'll see I was very much taken by her book. My review of She's Not Herself: A Psychotherapist's Journey Into and Beyond Her Mother's Mental Illness I love survival memoirs and this is certainly one of the best I've read. It resonated with me and touched me in many ways: the author and I both grew up in the 1940s and 1950s, we were both children of immigrant parents hers from Russia, mine from Eastern Europe. And most important of all we both had to find a way to grow up and thrive while our mothers were never themselves. The author's mother suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and depression, my mother battled with borderline manic depression (undiagnosed). … [Read more...]
My review of Lifting the Curtain by D. A. Russell
When I posted D.A. Russell's essay about how our urban high schools do not provide even minimal education on September 10, I hadn't yet read his book, Lifting the Curtain: The disgrace we call urban high school education. I have since remedied that. I found Lifting the Curtain fascinating, an eye-opening expose of how teachers and administrators, parents, and the students themselves have all played a role in the recent demise of quality education in our high schools. Here's my review of Lifting the Curtain: The recent convictions of high school teachers and administrators who changed students' test scores drew me to D.A. Russell's book, Lifting the Current: the disgrace we call urban high school education. And as I got into the book I found that changing test scores is just the tip of the iceberg. All involved students, teachers/administrators, and parents cheat just so the students will pass and the schools will continue to receive the funding they need to stay … [Read more...]
Reviews are powerful
Ever since my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, received its first review, I've felt how powerful reviews can be. Whether good or bad, what a reviewer says directly affects the author of the book reviewed and its salability. I found the following quote recently that I think all reviewers (besides book-review-editors) ought to think about when they write a book review: "Nearly every writer writes a book with a great amount of attention and intention and hopes and dreams. And it's important to take that effort seriously and to recognize that a book may have taken ten years of a writer's life, that the writer has put heart and soul into it. And it behooves us, as book-review-editors, to treat those books with the care and attention they deserve, and to give the writer that respect." - Pamela Paul, New York Times Book Review editor in a "Poets & Writers interview. My Choices guest today, Nina Guilbeau, the author of God Doesn't Love Us All the Same, discusses her thoughts about … [Read more...]
Summer reading blog hop
I'm so pleased that Susan Weidener invited me to participate in this blog hop and was so generous in her praise of my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On. I'm now paying it forward by recommending a few traditionally and independently published books for your summer reading enjoyment. Please include some of your favorite reads in the comments below. Adventures in Mother-Sitting by Doreen Cox. In this love story Author Doreen Cox shares her experience as a "care bear" during the last three years of her mother's life and how she learned to live with her mother's slow progression from a viable, interesting, lovable, and happy woman to a woman overcome by dementia unable to handle even her most basic bodily needs. And Doreen doesn't shirk away from those details. She repeatedly quotes her mother's mantra: "You just do what you have to do." Doreen gave up her as a career group counselor at an alternative school for at-risk and SED high school students to care for her mother, and she never … [Read more...]
Five star review number 105
The 105th five star review arrived on my Amazon page on January 29. I was so impressed with what Stace of Australia wrote about Leaving the Hall Light On and her sensitivity to our son Paul's and our family's struggles, and the different ways people react to physical vs mental illnesses, I wanted to share it with your here. The gist is: mental illness is an illness just like a physical illness and needs to be recognized as such. "I really related to this book. Having experienced major depression I knew a lot of the scenarios and can imagine how Madeline's son Paul felt. How scared and alone he would have felt. This book is so heart felt and detailed. It's a real life experience that they can't take back but have learned so much from. I felt so sorry for Paul's family and friends. In some places in the book I felt angry with the parents for criticizing their son after he'd passed away, but at the same time I knew that they're hurting and angry that he left them. It hurts to hear … [Read more...]
Company is coming: Dr. Heather Friedman Rivera
Heather Friedman Rivera, Ph.D. in Parapsychic Science and co-founder with her husband Mark of the PLR Institute, an organization for advancing past life research, will be my guest here on Choices this coming Wednesday January 22 and next Sunday January 26. She'll discuss how her second book, Quiet Water a past life novel, released in September 2013, and the first of a trilogy called the Golden Raven Series, came about. It's a fascinating story. Please come back for Parts One and Two next week. I read Heather's first book Healing the Present from the Past: The Personal Journey of a Past Life Researcher (January 2013) last year. It is about her recent research and her healing journey through past life regression. Here is my review. As you will see I am still skeptical about this whole subject matter, but I am drawn to it as well. I give author Heather Friedman Rivera huge kudos for getting this reader to read and finish Healing the Present from the Past: The Personal Journey … [Read more...]
Book reviews matter
I've written about book reviews before. Frankly I wish they'd all go away. But since I'm an author I have to live with them. I also know that reviews matter. Good ones help sales. Bad ones hurt author's egos. I reblogged a post about reviews from Kristen Lamb last June. She and I are on the same page about writing bad reviews. We just won't. We know how much they hurt, and why hurt our author friends and colleagues? And, I've had some reviews of my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On that were pretty ego-hurting. However, I'm fortunate that most been very positive. Like the one posted on Amazon yesterday. It is so in tune with my sentiments and what I wanted to get across in my book, I have to share it here. My only connection to the reviewer is she contacted me about how to get permission to use a Paul Simon song quote in her own book, and I gave her the information. When she told me she read my book, I asked if she'd write a review. Yesterday she contacted me again to tell me she … [Read more...]
