An Abduction Revelation by Thomas HayAuthor website: www.thomaslhay.comGenre: Science Fiction based on memoirISBN: 978-1-4525-5956-8 (e)978-1-4525-5957-5 (sc)

An Abduction Revelation
by Thomas Hay
Author website: www.thomaslhay.com
Genre: Science Fiction based on memoir
ISBN: 978-1-4525-5956-8 (e)
978-1-4525-5957-5 (sc)

 

Reviewed by Michala Teelucksingh orignally BiteMyBook 
Rating: 8.5 out of 10

 

 

Reviewed by Michala Teelucksingh.

I must admit I struggled a bit over this book. I didn't struggle with reading it. Reading it was easy as the author made the story relatable to people, often times reminiscing about his past as he built his way to the meat of the story. Consider it an appetizer portion to the main course. LOL No, what I struggled with was whether the writer intended to make this a ‘real’ memoir, such as creative nonfiction-ish or whether it was all meant to be an attractive fantasy/sci-fi imaginative tale.

The reason why I say this is because the story is so very ‘real’ in the sense of his backstory. I could completely close my eyes and conjure up the scenery and the things he was speaking about. These memoirs are truly very realistic to a point and then you sorta start wading through the murkiness of what is fact and what is fiction. THIS is the true appeal of the entire novel. You’ve been reading so much that sounds real that when the writer throws you a curve ball you have to blink, stand back, and say…is that for real? This was the genius part to the book.

See, the author penned his memoirs and then he seemingly unearthed memories buried deep within his subconscious. He can’t be sure…but he has to trust his mind…and all those memories, but it’s difficult because his memories are telling him he’s been abducted by aliens. Whoa? What? Yeah…really, an alien abduction is sifting through his inner workers and is resurfacing.

Reading through his ‘growing up’ stage in Missouri seems like it’s simply a memoir and nothing but….but it’s really much more. There is reasoning and while you are pondering through his life…and recollecting pieces of your own, the author is setting up for the bigger stage. I can’t tell you exactly how the story takes a wide turn and begins the eccentric and bizarre road that includes aliens, time travel, and more. (Remember, I don’t do spoilers!)

I suggest you set time away and read it as much as you can during one book reading. If you space the readings out you are likely to lose connection with the importance of the smaller plots and how they arrive to the real storyline. Take it on vacation with you, or on that long car ride you have, or the next time you have two or three days off in a roll. Dedicate yourself to it because if and when you do, you’re in for a very unique ride of your life. You’ll be left wanting to explore parts of your own life, search for parts and places around the world, and you’ll be challenged by the question…was this real?

 

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Bengal Book Award Winner Historically Accurate

River Passage
by p.m. terrell
Bengal Book Award


River Passage by p.m. Terrell recently won Best Fiction and Drama for 2010 in the Bengal Book Awards. The Nashville Metropolitan Government Archives has determined that River Passage is so historically accurate they have entered Ms. Terrell's original manuscript into the Archives for future researchers and historians.

River Passage is based on the true story of the Donelson journey that left Virginia bound for Fort Nashborough (now Nashville, TN) in the fall of 1779. Their goal was to bring businessmen and community leaders westward to expand America. Terrell's ancestors, the Neely family, were on that expedition. The trip was expected to take four weeks. Instead, more than four months after they left, a ragtag group of survivors limped into Fort Nashborough with a harrowing tale. Their river journey had taken them through hostile Indian Territory at the height of the Chickamauga Indian War. They also faced frostbite, near starvation, disease, deadly rapids --and a mutiny. The Indians attacked them over hundreds of miles, capturing some of the settlers, killing or wounding others, and leaving a few to tell the tale.

For more information about the journey, visit http://maryneely.com/journey.htm and for more information about the author, visit www.pmterrell.com.

Terrell is also the author of the historical suspense Songbirds are Free acclaimed suspense/thrillers Exit 22, Ricochet, Kickback, and The China Conspiracy and four nonfiction how-to books on using computers.

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using the widget below:

Sensitive Heterosexual Male Shares

Sensitivity 101 For The Heterosexual Male
By Philip Nork
ISBN: 9781438967448 (PB)
ISBN: 9781438967455 (HC)
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Genre: Narrative Nonfiction

Reviewed By Tara Hopkins of Apex Reviews www.apexreviews.net

Official Apex Reviews Rating: 5 stars


The age-old “Battle Of The Sexes” is still going just as strong as it ever was--and chances are it won’t lose any steam anytime soon. So, rather than lament the fact that the game exists, men and women around the world are instead better off learning to play it to the best of their ability.

Such is the premise behind Sensitivity 101 For The Heterosexual Male.

Skillfully penned by author Philip Nork, Sensitivity 101 is less a self-help guide to
relationships and more a vicarious journey through one man’s quest for self discovery.

Along the way, Phil--playing the role of his own protagonist--learns to appreciate the fairer sex and develops a higher understanding of just what it takes to make them happy. In so doing, he ultimately becomes the desire of all women--and the envy of all men--and provides readers with invaluable insights into improving their own relationships.

Straightforward and refreshingly candid, Sensitivity 101 For The

Heterosexual Male is an impressive presentation of a life with a plethora of
helpful lessons to share. Highly recommended for anyone seeking to cut through
the typical facade of relationship “politics” and learn the roots of true, lasting
happiness.
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Follow the author on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Sensitivity101 and on Twitter - @Sensitivity101

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.
And while you're at it, as a courtesy to the author, please retweet this post:

College Instructor Reviews Western Creative Nonfiction

Fly With The Mourning Dove
By Velda Brotherton
Creative non fiction
ISBN 1-4241-5904-0
Publish America


REVIEW by Dr. Loren GruberOriginally published on Publish America's website

Velda Brotherton delivers again. Gleaned from the diaries of Cassie Smith and her daughter Edna, Fly with the Mourning Dove captures the struggles of two women to civilize their portions of the West.

Quoting material from their diaries, Brotherton reconstructs their lives at the beginning of the twentieth century.

They "cowboy up" as tuberculosis ravages the lungs of Finas, their husband and father; as drought ravages their land; as the Great Depression ravages the economy. While butchering a turkey, overcoming frontier loneliness, and eating porcupine, Cassie and Edna each learn to be as tough and tenacious as the West itself.
Brotherton recreates especially endearing scenes when Edna discovers herself. She roars through the boarding house with her Indian-scalping playmates, prepares for her first Communion, lives the life of a cowpuncher, and teaches her first grade school class.

Young Edna asks permission to accompany her father on his trip to fetch water at Taos Junction, New Mexico.

"No," her mother replies, "I said no. You stay here and we'll make some clothes for the fairies. They have missed you terribly and are practically going naked."
Although Edna thought the notion of naked fairies silly, one can imagine that she grew up with Palmer Cox's Brownie Books, Andrew Lang's Fairy Books, and perhaps Art Nouveau semi-nude fairies.

In her later years, Edna writes, "All my life has been packed away in little boxes." Lucky for us, she did.

Still luckier for us, Brotherton carefully unpacks each to display memorable scenes of Edna's life.

Fly with the Mourning Dove is a welcome addition to turn-of-the-century "civilized" memoirs that include Virginia Cary Hudson's O Ye Jigs and Juleps, Dorothy Daniel's Circle 'round the Square, and Clarence Day's Life with Father.

The difference is that Velda Brotherton draws us into the lives of two women who helped shape the West, Edna and Cassie Smith. We are all the richer for it.
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Loren Gruber is former Dean of the Arts and Humanities Division at Missouri Valley College, Marshall, Missouri. He continues to teach English there.

History and A Great Story Rolled Into One

In the Shadow of Suribachi
By Joyce Faulkner
Red Engine Press
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780974565202
Adult/Creative Nonfiction
Author's Site: http://home.comcast.net/~joycefaulkner/suribachi.htm
Contact Reviewer: HojoNews@aol.com
Rating: 5 of 5








Emerging Author Joyce Faulkner
Designs New Kind of Literature

If reviewing were a different sort of animal I could probably pen three lines of 17 syllables, wind up with haiku that would remain with the reader and call it day. I could describe In the Shadow of Suribachi by Joyce Faulkner with words like "heartfelt, consummate skill, emotional and bloody," fool a bit with the caesuras and stresses and--perhaps--give readers a better sense of the soul of the book.

Having said that, there is more to this work than its essence and prose will work better to explain that. Here the author assembles disparate events like the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane in Islmorada, Fl, the infamous kristallnacht, the 1942 circus fire in Cleveland. Each real-life event is told from the point of view of a character and may--at first--feel as if they are separate stories. If the reader listens carefully, however, she will hear the intimations in each of how these young men's futures will connect, how what has gone before will affect them later as Marines fighting and suffering in Iwo Jima in 1945.

This book is neither beast nor fowl. The stories (and story) are based on interviews and careful research so it is nonfiction. They are told with all the craft of a fiction writer; that makes it creative nonfiction. They are assembled in a way that would qualify it as a literary novel. A literary novel, after all, tells of the human condition. Characters in literary novels must be carefully drawn and readers should draw something from one that lives long after the last page is turned. This book, published by a new traditional press called the Red Engine Press, qualifies.
Readers should know that, though they may well be mesmerized by this story (stories), it is not easy reading. Endorsed by professionals from the Army's 101st Airborne Division to history teachers, it captures what Lt. Col. Dave Grossman calls "the reality of human aggression and combat." This is a time when we, as a nation, need to fully understand what we are sending our young men and women to do. To understand it may behoove us to visit--or revisit--Suribachi.

It won a Military Writers' Society of America gold meda.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s first novel, This is the Place, has won eight awards. Harkening, a collection of stories, has won three and her how-to book for authors, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T, is USA Book News' "Best Professional Book 2004." Her new chapbook of poetry, Tracings, to be includes her own childhood memories of WWII. It is also a Militar Writers' Society Award-Winner. She wrote a foreword for another Support Our Troops, published by Andrews McMeel. Learn more about her at: http://carolynhoward-johnson.com or www.HowToDoItFrugally.com.)