Tuesday, March 24, 2009

MY BIG BOOK OF HEALING:  Restore Your Body, Renew Your Mind, and Heal Your Soul
By Echo Bodine

Due to the current state of chaos in our lives, this book seems so timely.  The author gives practical advice and solutions for "healing" eighteen illnesses, addictions, and "distractions," such as stress and depression, loss and grieving, fear and resentment.

All of us are under a tremendous amount of stress and stress is described as "the fever of burnout."  I found Chapter 7, Negative Feelings and Beliefs, particularly interesting.  There is also healing information from a gender specific standpoint in Section III. 
Not only are stress issues addressed, but also food and weight, relationships, parenting and pregnancy, intuition and so much more.

I enjoyed the interview with Echo very much and her book is one I plan to keep as a reference for myself whenever I need to be reminded of positive steps I can take.  What do you think?  


hear the interview

UNDER THE FIFTH SUN
By Jeffrey Osburn

The novel is characterized as reality-based fiction.  The author jumps headlong into the critical intertwined issues headlining relations between the United States and our neighbors to the South, Mexico.  This rock 'em, sock 'em plot takes on border security, immigration reform, and narco-terrorism.

What starts out as just "another day in paradise" for Border Protection Agent Felipe Vega turns  tragic when a shootout with a rogue Mexican Army unit escorting a drug convoy, ends in death.  Even though Vega is a veteran of the Iraq War, he never imagines that he would fire on a soldier armed with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher in El Paso, Texas.  In a test of political wills, the new Mexican President joins the United States in sending elite Special Forces troops in to topple the brutal Sonora Cartel kingpin.  Intrigue and betrayal compromise the mission, an innocent family is killed and Felipe Vega finds himself stranded South of the Border.

The book is controversial and non-stop action.  I couldn't stop turning the pages.  What do you think? 


hear the interview

Monday, March 9, 2009

BONES OF BETRAYAL:  A Body Farm Novel
By Jefferson Bass

This latest Body Farm novel from the collaborative team of Dr. Bill Bass and journalist Jon Jefferson is captivating from the first page.

The body of an unidentified, elderly man is pulled out of a frozen swimming pool in Oak ridge, Tennessee, birthplace of the Bomb.  Local police call in  Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton for help. 

 The body is identified as that of Dr. Leonard Novak, noted physicist who played a pivotal role in the famous Manhattan Project.  What starts as a routine autopsy to determine cause of death, turns into a nightmare when Brockton, the medical examiner, Brockton's graduate student and Detective Jim Emert are all exposed to possibly deadly levels of radiation coming from Novak's body.

While trying to come to terms with his own exposure to the radiation, Brockton accidentally meets 87-year-old Beatrice Montgomery, an utterly charming and unreliable guide to Oak Ridge and it's world shaking past.  Beatrice alternates between lucidity and dementia as she spins a story about espionage, treachery, and a long-concealed murder committed as the Manhatten Project hurtled toward its cataclysmic conclusion.

Combining fascinating history and cutting edge science, this novel weaves a dramatic story.  The book is meticulously researched and written with such surgical precision, the reader can't separate fact from fiction.  I couldn't put it down.  What do you think?


Hear the interview



CODE OF SILENCE A Ben Reese Mystery
By Sally Wright

1947:  Miriam Gold, a linguist at Arlington Hall, a high-security US decoding and decrypting facility, dies while trying to get information to her friend and colleague, Carl Walker.  Suicide over a love affair gone bad is suggested, but Carl cannot believe this is true.

Fast-forward ten years - Ben Reese is in the midst of mourning the loss of his beloved wife and their unborn son, when he receives a cryptic letter from Carl Walker.  Although Walker is a distant acquaintance, Ben discovers Carl is missing after asking for help in tracking a man by the name of Weisberg.  Carl has reason to believe that Weisberg not only has something to do with the death of Miriam Gold, but that he also is guilty of breaching US security and sharing secrets with the Russians.

The novel is part fact, part fiction.  It weaves a story of love, death, and international intrigue involving the Venona Code, a real Soviet code partially decrypted by the US and Britain.

I really enjoy Sally Wright's writing style.  Her complex plots are fascinating to watch unwind.  The Ben Reese character is based on a real, live person who makes his living as an archivist at a local University.  His experiences as a tracker in World War II are the basis for the novels.  

I really enjoy reading a good murder mystery and I loved this one!  What do you think?  


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DAVE LIEBER'S WATCHDOG NATION:  Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong
By Dave Lieber

This deceptively small book is absolutely packed with information.  I mentally sat up and began to really pay attention when I started reading the story on page 18 ("When they come knocking, you go tappin').   

The story describes  a situation that happened to Doug Black and it actually happened to me as well!  Doug is a much more savvy person than I am and avoided having his money taken.  I guess I still cling to the belief that people might just be who they say they are.  I was taken in by the same scam that Doug was smart enough to avoid and I didn't even realize it until I read Dave's book!

The average person has access to enough tools  via the Internet to "take on" scammers,  utility companies, and businesses when we believe we have been taken advantage of, overcharged, or wronged in some way.  The book gives all of us the information we need to protect ourselves. The book contains literally  hundreds of ways you can do it.

I feel better just having a copy of this handy book.  It has given me so many ideas, it's actually priceless!  What do you think?  



hear the interview