Q. Is it true you left a career in Software to go back to University for a BA then a MFA? A. Not only that I also sold my 4-bedroom house to finance that life-change. It was a move I needed to make. My goal was to be happy for the rest of my life. So I inventoried myself to see what that required – and the realization I came up with was a complete surrender to that happiness. No half measures. No short cuts, or waffling by offering up rationalization and why-I-cant’s. For a while there, I thought I could incorporate coaching & writing into being a counselor, specializing in Art Therapy – but even that had a wiff of equivocation so I nipped that in the bud, and switched majors: first from Special Ed to Psychology, and finally to English with an Emphasis in Creative Writing. It made all the difference – committing like that. I got into a great Low-res MFA program out of Vancouver, but then I found out that distance programs like that one – out of the US – aren’t covered by school loans – so I had to rework my base-plan and find…

In 1901 the country woke up to a shock, the previous day 16 October, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to have dinner at the executive mansion (known today as the White House) with the First Family. Not only black, but a former slave, the invitation created fodder for news papers, vile cartoons and vulgar songs.

A very strong part where three of the principal players in the novel, Andrei, Nikolai and Pierre all go under different crises.

Henry M. Littlefield, a high school teacher, imaginatively linked characters from the Wizard of Oz storyline book to the political landscape of the time

About: Akhmed and the Atomic Matzo Balls by Gary Buslik is a fictional comedic book. The story spans the globe and includes tyrants, professors and even… conservatives. 370 pages Publisher: Travelers’ Tales/Solas House Language: English ISBN-10: 1609520696 My rating for Akhmed and the Atomic Matzo Balls – 3 Buy this book in paper or in elec­tronic format More Books by Gary Buslik Thoughts: I really don’t know what to think about Akhmed and the Atomic Matzo Balls by Gary Buslik. Some parts I found really funny, others not so much, yet at times it seemed as if Larry David was in my face trying too hard to make me laugh. This is a wacky novel, as you can tell from the wonderful title; the good news is that it’s wacky on purpose. The plot is over the top and the dialog is mostly funny, some of the jokes were not akin to my humor, but many others were. I like the sarcastic sense of humor, absurd humor sometimes passes me by. While the characterization is good, there is not one nice, sympathetic or relatable person in the whole book. That’s what the author wanted to do, I believe, and that’s what we got but…

Based on a true story, Mary has been a slave to the Van Lew family in Richmond, VA. Bet Van Lew, the daughter and abolitionist, frees Mary and sends her to school in Philadelphia.

Welcome to another edition of Tightwad Tuesday. While looking around for non-fiction books, I saw some really cool free ones and thought that you might like them as well. Authors: If you’d like your book to be featured on Tightwad Tuesdays please email me. For the Kindle: Thompson’s Lucky Star: The Story of a Stalag Survivor [Kindle Edition] by Tony Thompson, Brendan Gisby When Corporal George Thompson of The Buffs was walking to freedom from Stalag IVB after the camp’s liberation in April 1945, he most probably stopped for a moment, looked up at the sky and thanked his lucky star again. That star had kept him alive through five long years of war, the last eighteen brutal months of which he had spent as a prisoner-of-war. As he passed through the huge, intimidating gates of the camp for the last time, George carried with him some mementoes from his time in captivity, among them a very small, dog-eared notebook. The notebook was George’s prisoner-of-war diary, which he had begun the day after he was taken prisoner and in which he had made the final entry on the day of his liberation. Reproducing the actual diary entries and supplementing them…

I bought The Puppy Place #22: Bella by Ellen Miles (website) as part of the nook Daily Find, which I check out daily…being an owner of a nook. My daughter, 7, loves dogs and have been begging for one for years. One day we’ll get one. Buy this book in paper or in elec­tronic for­mat through the Man of la Book Affil­i­ate Account More Books in The Puppy Place series Combined my daughter’s love of dogs, love of reading, price deal and the title of this book which happens to be her nickname, how could I pass it up? I didn’t and I’m glad I bought it. Even though my daughter had an amazing improvement in her reading during first grade (going from level 1 to chapter books and top of her class in mere four months) she brings home books because she “has to” not want to. Of course we make a big deal about books and her reading, but it seems more like a chore. Her school is part of the LINKS program; the students must bring a new book every night and read it with the parents. This is not only important for the children, but has the added benefit of…

Yesterday was the birthday of Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM (9 May 1860 – 19 June 1937) better remembered as author J. M. Barrie who created the beloved Peter Pan.

Clark Rockefeller has never existed, yet he was the pinnacle of success of a con man. Born in a small village in Germany, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter came to the United States on a student visa and began his voyage of trickery.