Rod Raglin's Blog, page 20
January 8, 2021
The perfect anecdote if you’re taking yourself too seriously
Review: 
It’s Not You, It’s BFJ, one of the eleven humorous short stories in Gregg Greenberg’s collection, F*cking Argentina and 10 More Tales of Exasperation, has the protagonist breaking up with the love of his life because he can’t abide she’s a huge fan of Billy Joel. The author cleverly works seven of the artist’s hit song titles into the story for emphasis.
This is only one example of Greenberg’s whacky wit that will have you chuckling with relatable moments. “You may be right, (he) may be crazy”, but since “(I) Didn’t Start the Fire”, I’m using the occasional lyric or title from a Joel song where appropriate in this review.
“Honesty is something seldom heard”, but it rings true in Weinberger’s Back-to-School Night, a tortuous tale of a father attending back-to-school night for parents of children in kindergarten.
In F*cking Argentina, the South American country is anthropomorphically depicted as a deadbeat trying to hit up a wealthy acquaintance for a loan. Historically it appears that’s “Just the way (they) are.”
Greenberg is “Only Human” and “allowed to make (his) share of mistakes” and he does. You have to be a Broadway buff to understand the significance of Officer Krupke Strikes Back and even then it’s not funny.
Likewise, it’s a double fault for A Journeyman Tennis Player’s Prayer. A very select audience may enjoy this but not being one of them I can’t attest to their sense of humor.
Malodor on the Number Five Express is also a bit off. The whiff of intolerance and elitism emanating from the protagonist isn’t appealing.
But Greenberg recovers with The Last Couples Dinner. It’s about the guy we all know, the “Big Shot”, who has to have “the last word, last night … know(s) what everything’s about”.
A dutiful son accompanies his elderly mother to a stage performance only to discover upon leaving the theatre she’s forgotten her handbag. You may have “Seen the Lights Go Out On Broadway”, but it’s nothing compared to the pandemonium created by a lost purse, effectively conveyed in Panic in Shubert Alley.
A Side of Exasperation on the NJ Turnpike could be described as a high-maintenance-family, fast food fiasco exacerbated by the “Pressure” of “you never-ever-ever stop the car when you are making great time”.
In Back Off Baxter! the author missed the opportunity to develop this frustration into a “Karen” pet confrontation. Instead, it’s the protagonist’s daughter who challenges the pet owner and “Tell(s) Her About It”.
Little Timmy’s Birthday Battle is presented as texts between parents, one at home and one in the car with his son trying to find the location of Timmy’s birthday party. Not being a rabid texter like the rest of the world, I had to go on online to look up the meaning of the text abbreviations and acronyms. Suffice to say, that kills the spontaneity of humor. BOMEI (But others might enjoy it).
The stories in F*cking Argentina are flawlessly written, well-structured, and a welcome respite. Something I haven’t seen “For the Longest Time”. The perfect anecdote if you’re taking yourself and your circumstances too seriously.
Original post:
rodraglin.booklikes.com/post/3889016/the-perfect-anecdote-if-you-re-taking-yourself-too-seriously
January 2, 2021
Free Ebook – The Bird Whisperer – Mattie Saunders Series – Book 3
The BIRD WHISPERER – Mattie Saunders Series – Book 3
Save a bird. Save the world. save your soul.
Free ‘til Jan. 3 at
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU
“A very entertaining story with plenty of action and a strong female main character.”
“The storyline is very good and contains several subplots.”
“All the characters “gets” are realistic”.
“A highly recommended novella that was very enjoyable.”
Oiled seabirds
Two freighters have collided in the harbour. One has a ruptured fuel tank and is spilling toxic oil onto the beach. Seabirds are mired in this toxic muck.
The Saunders Exotic Bird Sanctuary is dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of exotic birds. A seagull is hardly exotic but it’s still a bird and Mattie loves birds.
She’s never rehabilitated an oiled bird. It’s more involved than just giving them a bath in dish detergent–a lot more.
She might as well learn how since there’s likely to be more of them.
The reporters want to do know if Mattie supports a ban against more oil pipelines? More pipelines mean more oil that has to be shipped which amounts to an increase in oil tanker traffic in local waters.
Mattie supports whatever is good for the birds.
Does she have to take a stand on bigger issues to have any hope of resolving the smaller ones?
Do you?
Free ‘til Jan. 3 at
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU
#books #bookworm #twitterbooks #readers #interracial #romance
#newbooksnetwork #goodreads #amreading #readingcommunity
#parrots @birdsrescue #birdwatching
#birding #birdlovers
#BirdsUp @BirdBooksChat
Original post:
rodraglin.booklikes.com/post/3861102/free-ebook-the-bird-whisperer-mattie-saunders-series-book-3
Free E-book, Loving the Terrorist ’til Jan. 3
What would you risk to save a very special wild place? Everything?
LOVING THE TERRORIST
“…a wonderful and thrilling tale.”
“I loved this book! It had everything from romance to action,
and it also addressed some important environmental issues.”
“You are captured from the first page until the last and want more when it’s over.”
Fill your new E-reader. Download your FREE e-book now at
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU
Original post:
rodraglin.booklikes.com/post/3860752/free-e-book-loving-the-terrorist-til-jan-3
December 30, 2020
Fill up your new E-reader with these #FreeBooks
The BIRD WHISPERER
Free ‘til Jan. 3 at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU
Mattie doesn’t believe in love at first sight, maybe not in love at all, so what’s going on with this guy who has been hired to meet her at this remote airport in The Rockies?
Simon is there to take her to a remote cabin in the wilderness to do fieldwork on the Rufus Hummingbird while Bodine, her rock-star partner is on tour for three months with his protegé, Ellwyn, promoting her new album he produced and co-wrote. Mattie’s thinking maybe absence will make the heart grow fonder, but she doubts it.
It’s over, it just hasn’t ended.
She began falling out of love about a year ago. Nothing specific, just a lot of little things; she’s sick of seeing her life portrayed on ET and in tabloids; she can’t stand his pretentious, self-absorbed friends; and except for Pickles and Manny, their two macaws, they have nothing, zero, nada in common.
Regardless, Simon, the only First Nations person she’s ever had a conversation with is igniting sparks without even trying. But why him and why now? Could it be opposites attract; big-city white girl, small-town indigenous boy?
Free ‘til Jan. 3 at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU
#books #bookworm #twitterbooks #readers #interracial #romance
#newbooksnetwork #goodreads #amreading #readingcommunity
#parrots @birdsrescue #birdwatching
#birding #birdlovers
#BirdsUp @BirdBooksChat
Original post:
rodraglin.booklikes.com/post/3851673/fill-up-your-new-e-reader-with-these-freebooks
Fill up your new E-reader with these #FreeBooks
END OF THE ROPE – A Play in 4 Acts
Letting go is not an option – or is it?
When you rope up you put your life in the hands of your climbing partner. But what if you’ve just ruined his?
Craig, Whit and Milt are friends, have been for a long time. They’ve grown up together, but the friendship forged as young boys are getting tested as they grow into men – men with different perspectives and priorities.
Their love of climbing has kept them together. On the rock faces of the mountains they are as they once were – a team, a unit, loyal and committed. The ambiguous world of careers and relationships is left below – or is it?
End of the Rope – A #Play in 4 Acts.
Free 1 day only. Dec. 30 at
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU
Original post:
rodraglin.booklikes.com/post/3849233/fill-up-your-new-e-reader-with-these-freebooks
December 20, 2020
The American dream is still alive for those determined to pursue it
Review:
For those of us who have only known life in an affluent country with a stable, democratically elected government, it’s hard to imagine the danger and drama of regime change in other parts of the world. Everything you believed in and all you’ve worked so hard to attain, can abruptly become a liability, and the peace and security of your loved ones suddenly put at risk.
This is the fate that befell so many South Vietnamese the day after the fall of Saigon in 1975, which marked the end of the Vietnam War with victory for the communist North Vietnamese forces.
One such person was Tim Tran, who relates his experience in the memoir, American Dreamer: How I Escaped Communist Vietnam and Built a Successful Life in America by Tim Tran with Tom Fields-Meyer.
To make that historical event even more personal and painful, Tran, a native-born Vietnamese, had experienced life in America on a scholarship and attained a degree in business from the University of California, Berkeley. He’d only returned to South Vietnam less than a year before the country fell to the communists.
In American Dreamer, Tran describes his childhood in a loving family that thrived through hard work, determination and amazing resourcefulness that emerges out of necessity. And how his father provided the motivation and the training for him to succeed academically.
Chapters about his immersion into American culture during his university years are a testament to his outgoing personality and the gracious, friendly, and helpful reception he received from almost all the Americans he interacted with.
Accounts of navigating day-to-day living in a totalitarian regime, harrowing experiences trying to arrange an escape from Vietnam, life-threatening confrontations as boat person beset by pirates, and volunteering with agencies while in a refugee camp are gripping and told with candour and humility.
Once back in America, career success is achieved with a combination of effort, excellence, enthusiasm, and integrity The author just doesn’t abide in America, he embraces it, holds it to his heart, then magnanimously gives back by creating an endowment that will for many years support the library operations at Pacific University. In these pages, Tran also pays tribute to all those who have supported him in fulfilling this dream.
Entertaining and inspiring, American Dreamer, attests to the fact the American dream is still alive for those determined enough to pursue it. And furthermore, there’s no need to make America great again, for people like Tran, it still is and always has been.
Original post:
rodraglin.booklikes.com/post/3805795/the-american-dream-is-still-alive-for-those-determined-to-pursue-it
December 12, 2020
Free E-book. The Rocker and the Bird Girl
An Early Christmas Present
The Rocker and the Bird Girl, Mattie Saunders Series Book 1.
“… a seriously non-traditional #lovestory”.
Romance and action combine with environmental themes for an exciting exploration of contemporary culture.
Free ‘til Dec. 16 at
WATCH THE VIDEO
The Rocker and the Bird Girl video trailer
Original post:
rodraglin.booklikes.com/post/3777953/free-book-the-rocker-and-the-bird-girl
Free #-book. The Rocker and the Bird Girl
An Early Christmas Present
The Rocker and the Bird Girl, Mattie Saunders Series Book 1.
“… a seriously non-traditional #lovestory”.
Romance and action combine with environmental themes for an exciting exploration of contemporary culture.
Free ‘til Dec. 16 at
WATCH THE VIDEO
The Rocker and the Bird Girl video trailer
Original post:
rodraglin.booklikes.com/post/3777953/free-book-the-rocker-and-the-bird-girl
December 1, 2020
Succeeds as a testament to equine-assisted psychotherapy, stumbles as a work of literature
Unexpected Healers is a collection of easy to read, feel-good short stories primarily about horses as mediums for psychological healing. Author, Laurie Ingebritsen, a therapist and avid horsewoman has recounted touching episodes where women and children suffering from the trauma of abuse make rapid and remarkable progress toward positive behavioural change with equine-assisted psychotherapy.
Though her grammar is flawless, Ingebritsen’s prose leans toward being didactic. She sets up the scene and then tells the reader what the character is feeling, not unlike a psychologist’s case book, leaving no room for reader interpretation. She even summarizes the endings making sure nothing is left to our imagination. And when it comes to imagination, there’s not much of that with each story similar to the next; a person arrives with a problem and a horse resolves it. No surprises.
Presented in a linear fashion, all the stories are narrated in a passive voice, told rather than shown, denying the reader the opportunity to experience events as they unfold. Indeed, two stories have no dialogue whatsoever.
Unexpected Healers succeeds when read as a testament to equine-assisted psychotherapy and a tribute to the beautiful and noble horse, but stumbles as a work of literature.
Original post:
rodraglin.booklikes.com/post/3732689/succeeds-as-a-testament-to-equine-assisted-psychotherapy-stumbles-as-a-work-of-literature
November 14, 2020
Cleverly conceived and well-considered dystopian fiction
Review: 
The government of England is one of appeasement. Furigans, misfits who thrive on violence and anarchy are deemed not responsible for their criminal behavior because of being disadvantage and marginalize. Indeed, to condemn them is to commit an act of Nastiness, be harried by Compassion Stewards, and come under the scrutiny from the Commission for Fairness. All parties adhere to this Political Consensus. Debate is empty and meaningless.
Roger Tyson, a business magnate, is a solitary voice calling for a return to truth, justice, freedom of speech, and an end to mandated Niceness. He’s being vilified for it until his dire predictions of economic collapse begin to manifest.
But are Roger’s tough-love politics and bare-knuckle tactics enough to save England from the shadowy Muhonin who are preparing to violently overthrow the decaying, corrupt government and reinvent this Green and Pleasant Land by imposing their own violent and radical ideology?
Steve Shahbazian’s novel, Green and Pleasant Land, is cleverly conceived and well-considered dystopian fiction similar to George Orwell’s classic in that the government seeks to gain consensus not through violence but by influencing the cultural milieus of the masses. If you disagree with the policies of the government of the day they don’t make you disappear, they use their unwitting operatives to shame you into silence.
However, the strength of this novel is also its weakness. Replete with political machinations and characters launching into philosophical diatribes it is dense, plodding and much of the dialogue is didactic. Real action, the exciting kind that builds tension is scarce, and similar scenarios of debate, discussion, and ultimately indecision, are presented again and again with little or no consequences.
Well-developed characterization is also lacking with the host of characters only defined by their political affiliations.
The author has also chosen to use Japanese greetings and political terminology throughout the story. Perhaps it is a metaphor to indicate how far the birthplace of the Parliamentary system has drifted from its roots. If so, it’s an unnecessary impediment.
#amreading #readingcommunity #booklovers
Original post:
rodraglin.booklikes.com/post/3657188/cleverly-conceived-and-well-considered-dystopian-fiction
