Java Davis's Blog, page 5
August 28, 2016
Book Review: Facing Cancer as a Friend, Heather Erickson (5 coffee beans)
Reviewed by me for the Readers’ Favorite website and copied here:
Facing Cancer as a Friend: How to Support Someone Who Has Cancer is Volume I of Heather Erickson’s “Facing Cancer …” series. Facing Cancer as a Friend is a simple and direct look at the many aspects and possibilities of everyone – from closest friends, to neighborhood acquaintances, to a church support system. There is room for everyone. If someone thinks that he or she will only botch things up, or that there is already so much support for the patient and family, there’s valuable information for such an unsure or awkward person. There’s sound advice about “reading” the feelings and points of view of the patient, family, and other caregivers. Some people are fiercely independent while others are happy to accept help and are grateful.
There is also a section on what NOT to do as a friend. This is an important study for everyone.
Heather Erickson, the wife of a Stage IV lung cancer patient and mother of three, has many suggestions for what would be helpful to the patient and the family. Meals, gift cards, movie nights, chores, and more, are things that might not come to mind readily, but the list contained here gives the reader lots to think about. Caregivers shouldn’t be allowed to burn out from exhaustion or excess stress.
Volume I of the “Facing Cancer …” series is a knockout. It’s a pleasure to be able to recommend this book to friends of cancer patients. I’m betting that the follow-up volumes (books and journals) are equally as sensible, helpful, and powerful.
Facing Cancer as a Friend
August 25, 2016
Cowgirl Wins Bronze!
Cowgirl won a bronze medal from the Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA) in their annual EVVY Awards, Fiction-Westerns category. I can’t thank CIPA enough for this honor!
Cowgirl, with Bronze medallion
August 18, 2016
Book Review: 251 Things to Do in Tofino, Kait Fennell (5 coffee beans)
Kait Fennell’s book celebrating the town of Tofino (British Columbia, Canada) is so much more than the list of 251 things to do there. It’s an energetic and passionate paean to her adopted town. She came for the surfing and found a friendly, diverse, environmentally conscious, and lively community. My guess is that this love affair between the author and Tofino will never end. And even though I live at the opposite end of the earth, I want a tshirt!
Tofino’s claims to fame are an outdoor lifestyle, especially surfing and other water sports, commitment to native and local crafts and materials, and a welcoming tourist season. The book starts with a history of the area and explanations of the original native names of certain areas and how the names have been anglicized. There is even a loose glossary section on How to Act Like a Local Tofitian, explaining some of the locals’ hangouts, unofficial dress code, and jargon, e.g., Tofino is referred to as “Tuff City” or just “Tuff.” There are suggestions on taking weather conditions into consideration before embarking on a Tofino adventure.
Eventually, there is the list of 251 things to do in Tofino, broken into categories: Trails & Hikes, Entertainment & Activities, Food & Drink (I want a spiced chocolate diablo cookie), Shopping, Rainy Days & Winter Attractions, and a section by a mother that includes things to do with children. There are silly-fun things and sublime things. There are sunny and rainy things; summer and winter things; ocean, beach, mountains, and town things. There are things you can do alone, and times when you should find a group. You can plan your vacation around the annual events schedule, too.
An interesting chapter includes quotes from other residents of Tofino, answering the questions 1) What do you love about Tofino?, and 2) How would you spend your best day in Tofino? I found these brief vignettes of Tofino life to be charming. Many said how lucky they felt to be raising their children in Tofino.
Throughout the book, and included in several appendices, Kait Fennell is a booster for local businesses, including seasonal tourist businesses, restaurants, the local brewery, the local soap manufacturer, the local artists and artisans, and all the places that facilitate outdoorsmanship, whether guiding or selling equipment. For the unathletic, there are whale watches and spectator opportunities, and, for the brides and grooms out there, a brisk wedding industry.
The grammar wasn’t always perfect, the formatting was sometimes portrait and sometimes landscape, and the “click here” hyperlinks didn’t work on my ereader (I bet they won’t work on a paperback, either), but none of this bothered me. I thoroughly enjoyed Kait Fennell’s 251 Things to Do in Tofino. It sounds like a wonderful place.
251 Things to Do in Tofino: And it is NOT just about Surfing
August 15, 2016
Book Review: Blackbeard’s Daughter, Diana Strenka (1 coffee bean)
It’s extremely difficult to give a poor review to an indie author, especially when they seem very nice, like this author, Diana Strenka. But I have an obligation to steer my readers away from a bad book, like this one written for young adults, Blackbeard’s Daughter. I wanted to like this book. The book’s opening was poor, but I was hopeful that it would pick up. The more I read, the more I disliked this one.
The premise is that Edward Teach, known later as Blackbeard the Pirate, had an abusive childhood, became a good family man, and then couldn’t deny the pull of shipboard life. The reader watches as daughter Margaret grows up in the shadow of a doting father and a loving, but very religious, mother. Although there is a great deal of action, the stories are choppy and abrupt, vignettes rather than one story, and they stretch credulity to a painful limit. No chapter was complete without an obligatory cry, including from Blackbeard, a man who became the most fearsome pirate of his time.
My feeling is that this book’s audience is 8-12 years old, given the simplicity of the writing. But, there are many sexual assaults and one completed rape. I wouldn’t give this to a young child. My other issue is that young people who read, in addition to instilling in them a love of reading, books give children hidden instruction in their own language use. Diana Strenka does not understand the rules of I/me or will/shall, and people from Blackbeard’s time did not say “get it together,” “wow,” or use the word “great” to express excellence instead of size (e.g., “that’s great” versus “a great many”). The book’s ending was astonishingly abrupt. Even the cover is butt-ugly.
I have to conclude by telling all of you parents out there to pass on this one.
August 13, 2016
Book Review: The Shekinah Legacy
http://wp.me/p51aKx-om
Book Review: The Shekinah Legacy (4 coffee beans)
The Shekinah Legacy is the story of religious cabals, sometimes allied, sometimes enemies, and their search for the bones of Jesus. While religion is a huge part of the plot, I didn’t see this book as a religious work. The book is also called Book 1 of the Charlotte Ansari series. The unlikeable and unsympathetic Charlotte, a CCN reporter, leads the action throughout, with her 12-year-old autistic son in tow. Greg’s Asperger’s abilities make him a natural for figuring out how the clues add up. His Asberger’s personality is well-developed.
The action takes place from Minnesota, USA, to India, where one of the lost Jewish tribes supposedly ended up. The story also involves Charlotte’s parents, a missing mother and a religious scholar father. In childish fashion, Charlotte loves the romantic memory of a mother who disappeared, and hates the father who stayed behiind to raise her. But dad has built a rich, full, international life without his family. From the start, Charlotte has been led to believe that she is saving her mother’s life.
In the search for the artifacts, young Greg turns to a Bible he found at a crime scene to help him make mathematical connections to move forward in the adventure. The Shekinah Legacy’s readers meet many characters, both lovable and despicable, who want to help him and who want to stop him.
I found this story to be a riipping good yarn, but I can’t give it the full five coffee beans because of the ending, which was a huge let-down. It was as though you were running a race and near the end of the race, someone took the tape away, and you’re wondering how to cross the finish line when there is none.
August 8, 2016
Ant Remedies
http://theroadtripwriter.com/ant-reme...
Ant Remedies
We have an ant infestation so massive that Iwould have to become the Pied Piper of Hamlin to get all those ants to willingly commit suicide into ant traps, of which I would need 200 or so. On a local Facebook page, I asked people to recommend a good local exterminator. What I got was a surprising number of home remedies “that will save me money, honey.”
The number one answer is ant traps. Next come bleach spray, cinnamon and sand mixtures, peppermint spray, and a sugar/borax combination in open trays. The responses are still coming in, and it’s fun now to collect them. My favorite answer was the name and number of a good exterminator. They’ll be here in two days. My heroes!
August 1, 2016
2016 CIPA EVVY Book Awards
My book COWGIRL is a finalist in the 2016 CIPA EVVY awards competition. Here is the link to the finalists: CIPA EVVY Finalists.
Cowgirl, a 2016 CIPA EVVY Finalist
COWGIRL: Horsebreaking in the Old West
In California at the turn of the century, teenager Risa decides an arranged marriage is not for her. Her younger brother Yani gets expelled from their insular, Jewish community for seducing another boy. Risa decides to leave with Yani and takes charge of their trek east. Together, with Risa pushing and prodding the whole way, they walk to Nevada, ending up at the Smith ranch, where Risa learns to break horses. She parlays that skill into a profitable enterprise. She invests wisely as the silent partner in several joint ventures. But you can’t take the cowgirl out of the girl, and Risa remains a child of the Old West.
July 26, 2016
Skin Removal Surgery
Cosmetic plastic surgery? I never thought I would be one of those people who signed up for some cosmetic surgery, but it turns out, I am. Losing 20% of my body weight and keeping it off for a year makes me a candidate for skin removal surgery. My eyelids are drooping over my eyes a bit, and the excess skin from my arms gets in my way with its wobbling and flapping. The surgeon I saw yesterday also grabbed two handfuls of excess skin around my belly, too, but stretchy pants holds those in, and they don’t bother me.
The cost is staggering, and the scars will be the length of my upper arms. Sometimes I think it would be fun to eat myself sick and gain the weight back (“Hello Donuts my old friend, I’ve come to eat with you again!” with apologies to Paul Simon).
