Making Light of Being Heavy-Kandy Siahaya

This title tells it all. This is a very charming and enlightening book about one woman's battle with the bulge.

Ever since she was a little girl, Kandy has always had a weight problem. Like many kids her age, this was a tremendous struggle for her during her school year. As her family tried to help her, she was still picked on in school, like so many other kids who are heavy. But, she took it and developed a unique sense of humor about it.

Kandy explores all the avenues of diet and exercise in this book and why they never worked for her. She also explains the stigma surrounding heavy individuals in our society. She takes us through the possibilities of genetic predisposition and that sometimes people are heavy because it is beyong their control.

This is a remarkably entertaining book and a great source of information. If you are looking for a good read from a humorous woman, this definitely is the one. Nice job.

Shattered Reality-Kimberly Cheryl

How does any mother try to handle the fact that her 14 year old daughter has been sexually abused?

Kimberly Cheryl is stunned when she finds out that one of her favorite uncles has been abusing her daughter for the last five years.

She takes us through every emotion she feels as this nightmare unfurls for her and her family. In stark, descriptive language, you will feel like you are taking this journey with her, as appalling as it is. She will tell you about all the bumps in the road she had to face and the utter sense of loss that she felt when she couldn't get satisfaction for this horrible violation that was done to her daughter.

Chalked full of an extreme amout of information and resources, this book is a must-reat for any parent of a minor child. This book is a very brave undertaking for this mother and many will be grateful that they have read it. Good luck to you, Kimberly, and you family and thank you for your honesty.

No Experts Needed-Louise Lewis

About the Book:

Losing a job always delivers a hard blow, but it was especially hard for forty-something author Louise Lewis, one of many victims of the technology industry’s dotcom implosion. No Experts Needed: The Meaning of Life According to You! tells the story of how she pulled herself together and discovered a new life of meaning.

Just minutes after being “set free”, Lewis, a single woman with a mortgage to pay, sits in the San Jose, California, airport panicking over her future. While toying with the option of giving into depression, she receives a powerful message from God that instantly releases the weight of her worries. “This is just a new chapter in your life. You hold the pen, I’ll guide your hand, and together we’ll write one hell of a chapter.” through Spirit’s continued involvement, Lewis is inspired to ask normal, everyday people to answer Spirit’s question: what is the meaning of life?

No Experts Needed: The Meaning of Life According to You! weaves through a vast collection of spontaneous, thought-provoking answers and inspirational stories that demonstrate how the simple act of listening to Spirit can add meaning to every moment of your life.

My Review:

After being permanently laid-off from her administrative job, this author decides to "take time off" to decide what she would like to persue next. She asks "Spirit" for some guidance and gets an answer that tells her to pick up a pen and he will guide her.

Curious as to what she is suppose to do, "Spirit" leads her to the ultimate question to ask people---"What is the Meaning of Life?" And for the next two years she starts to travel and asks this very question to people that she meets along the way.

She covers a tremendous amount of ground in our own country and abroad and gets some remarkable answers. Every patter of life she seems to cross, poor and rich, urban and rural, black and white (and every race in between), and every age. She certainly gets some interesting responses to a question that seems to be too broad to answer, but everybody has an answer, not one seems to not know their own personal take on why they are here on this earth.

This is an astonishing and surprising book to read. I wasn't sure I would like it at first. It seemed to "inspirational" and "spiritual", but I changed my mind pretty quickly.

Grounded in her own self-assurance, this author holds a very unique balance between her spirituality and her wickedly entertaining sense of humor. It is a very enjoyable booke to read with alot of insight that makes you think. Delightful!

About the Author:

Louise Lewis’s twenty-year career in marketing and advertising sales in the high-tech industry ultimately led her to write her debut book. A Louisiana native, she now lives in Southern California, where she spends her time writing and volunteering at a local children’s hospital.

Thanks to Tracee and Pump Up Your Book Promotion for the chance to review this book!

Recovering Me, Discovering Joy by Vivian Eisenecher

This book is a wonderful and honest account of this author's battle with social anxiety disorder and alcoholism.

I, also, was diagnosed with a panic disorder and agoraphobia in 1980. So, I truly understand the "devastation" of the catastrophic experience. I also agree, that with the right medication and proper counseling this battle can be won. I can thankfully say that I, too, have beat this disorder. But, for those who have not, this book will definitely be of some service to you.

She also explains her self-destructive addiction to alcohol for self-medicating purposes. This, too, I could relate to. You would do anything to take away your pain and unfortunately this demon "seems" to have the answers, temporarily.

This is a very informative book for those who need some help and guidance. There is nothing like hearing it from the horses mouth, so to speak. She offers many solutions and suggestions for you to help you become a more successful and happy person.

I applaud this author for her brutal honesty and compassion for her fellow man as far as these disorders are concerned. It takes a very strong woman to lay out her life so that she may help others. Thanks for the encouragement and support and keep up the good work.

Amazing Grays by Maggie Rose Crane

About the book:

Balanced somewhere between a memoir and a how-to, AMAZING GRAYS is a uniquely refreshing and candid look at midlife for those unwilling to become feeble old women with boobs in their laps, dreams on the shelf, and Memory Lane their only destination.As a leading edge boomer, Maggie uses her own journey through midlife to shatter stereotypes about aging. At the core of her message, she exposes the fears and anxieties that often haunt maturing women and reveals how to mindfully navigate the turbulence with wisdom, perspective and practice. She encourages women to relish their roles as Amazing Grays and not waste time and energy trying to hang on to the past.

For women who are entertaining the possibility of life without hair dye, Maggie shares her story of going gray. She outlines several strategies to take you from colored to natural and includes photos and stories of women who have taken the plunge.

Hers is not an anti-aging message. This book is a little about going gray and a lot about aging mindfully and joyously (with a healthy dose of kicking and screaming) from an everyday woman s perspective.

Review:

This book is a wonderful compilation of how to successfully and gracefully move through your 50's and beyond. This is a difficult time in a woman's life, at best, and this author has certainly provided us with all the information we need to survive and become fulfilled during this time.

She reminds us that we are the "boomer" generation who has never taken anything lying down and that we can change the stigma of what it means to get "old."

I truly give her credit for deciding to let her hair "go gray." She explains in great detail how much damage hair color can do physically to a woman. She has done much research in this area and as a hairdresser myself, I can tell you that her findings are a accurate. Unfortunately, I can also tell you that I'm not as gutsy as she is because I still color my hair. This truly is the one thing woman seem to think they can "control" as far as getting older. But, if we were all honest with ourselves, we would realize that it never looks natural because it isn't.

She also goes into a deep and very informative description of the cause and affects of menopause. I learned so much by reading these chapters. Every woman should be informed about this very crucial part of their lives and the affects it has on all of us. So many unasked questions were answered for me that I actually felt empowered.

There is also a lot of emotional and spiritual suggestions that can certainly pump up any woman who is trying to smoothly move through mid-life. If you feel like you don't know where you "fit" anymore it will become clear after reading this book.

This book is also peppered with anecdotes and quotes throughout. It is a great resource for any woman and I thank this author for making me see things more clearly. This book is highly recommended and you will keep going back to it for encouragement.

About the author:

Maggie Crane was born on the leading edge of the Baby Boom generation, and has had the quintessential boomer experience: she worked her way through college, married, had a child, divorced, thrived in a few careers, survived as a single mom, remarried and struggled with blended family issues.

After traveling the country for nearly a decade delivering leadership and life skills workshops for women, the demands of her travel schedule and the onset of menopause collided with the big 5-0. She was moved to press the pause button on her life and reassess her priorities. She watched in astonishment as her skin began to lose its elasticity, and was mildly horrified when her tummy morphed into a permanent flotation device. Smile lines etched in deeper and she found it necessary to color her hair more often. When she made the decision to stop dyeing her hair, she came face-to-face with her fears about aging in a youth oriented culture. And so began her not-so-graceful quest to age mindfully.

Gradually, Maggie learned that her frustrations, fears and anxieties about aging grew quiet when she faced them directly. She learned to refocus her energies on the people, things and activities that brought a smile to her face and a song to her heart. By letting go of old identities and rediscovering new passions, she has gradually (but not always gracefully) hitched her rope to a growing movement of Amazing Grays.