Author: John H Manhold

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When Life Doesn’t turn out the Way We’d Hoped It Would

When Life doesn’t turn out the Way we Hoped it Would Volume I ISBN: 9781974032822 Create Space, copyright and written by Tom Wick.

This autobiography is written by an individual who had been born into a family whose roots he had been able to trace to a particular tribe of some of the most “unrestrained and pitiless pagans and savages of all Vikings”. Thus, his particular family were a mixture of Scots, Pics, Irish and Manx who had ultimately occupied a small section of northern Scotland. Further extension of genealogical facts detail the intermixing of the family strains as they move into more recent history. Here it would seem, some of these early ‘unrestrained’ genes carried over to the future generations with occasional episodes providing vicious physical harm. Specific sordid details of the remarkably dysfunctional family’s interrelationships as well as their activity with others are presented along with lengthy descriptions of his personal activity. The protagonist enumerates the fact that by the age of six years he had witnessed people being killed, men beating women as well as other men. He relates seeing and participating in indiscriminate sex. He smoked tobacco and marijuana incessantly, drank liquor heavily, sniffed, inhaled, ingested and injected drugs. However, until later in life, he thought this just was the ‘normal way of life”. His mother had been diagnosed with “agoraphobia, paranoia, multiple personality disorders, and other mental and emotional ailments.” His father had been beaten mercilessly and repetitively by his grandfather. The author had been molested constantly by his older brother, participated in exploratory sexual activity with playmates and had sex with a ‘girlfriend’ at four years of age.

Discussion: The material covered in this first book in the series presents, in quite explicit detail, quite lengthy descriptions of the repetitiously indulgent activities of the author, his family, friends and acquaintances as he moves among several locations. However, there is an overlying tone of a man somehow repentant of much of his activity and, as a result of some unnamed factor, ultimately realizing the ‘error of his ways and being ‘born again’ as a Christian. Although the causative factor is not mentioned per se, when he failed 1st grade a psychiatrist diagnosed him as having ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). This long-standing dysfunction, in combination with being brutally beaten, raped and suffering a degree of PTSD could have left him totally repentant for the meaningless sex, constant drug and alcohol abuse and the rest that caused him intense feelings of alienation, isolation, and loneliness.

Summary: A seemingly most honestly and completely told tale detailing the extent of dysfunctional behavior existent in the author, as well as sections of the general population, is set forth along with a series of factors that influenced change to a direction for resolution for the author. If the extent of explicit description of immorality can be accepted, the level of reader interest for members of the Evangelic religious faith should be high. That for general readership difficult even to suggest.

3* High interest level for some readers; difficult to determine for others.

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The Time Before the Moon

The TIME before the MOON ISBN: 9781718974470 published, copyright and written by Kameron Williams.

In a time of the early beginning of man, the reader is introduced to Omi, a young man living in a small group of hunter/gatherers. The enclave is ruled by an elderly Seer who has contact with the gods and dictates all activities purportedly as they direct. He lives in a somewhat elevated area of the gathered dwellings in a sacred temple. The building, seemingly from an even more ancient period is supported by large stone columns decorated with ancient hieroglyphics. The building also serves as the home of the most beautiful young women of the village, selected by the Seer as the vestal virgins. The rules of living within the group are numerous and strict. Among them are a dictate where each resident must report periodically to the Seer at a set time; marriages are arranged by the Seer and announced only after he has made the partner selection but they are not notified of being selected until the day before, nor do they know who their partner will be until they are revealed to the couple themselves as well as their families and the community at a nighttime firelight ceremony. Even flint for the weapons they needed to survive were obtained from flint forays where the contestants needed to wait to be called to participate in attempting to find the better pieces that could be properly knapped into suitable weapons. The forays including not only finding the flint but then successfully retaining it against the onslaught of other foragers. Then they were expected to give their first real find as a gift to the Seer. The story develops as Omi finds a particularly valuable piece of Flint while unexpectedly discovering a number of unusual aspects of the Seer’s rules and their interpretation that lead him into striking out by himself in an attempt to establish an entirely new way of life. The story of his trip, its trials, effects on family, friends and enemies is the substance of the book and further description would be a disservice to the prospective reader.

Discussion: The author has provided characters with whom the reader can equate in a nicely paced tale that follows the often provided good versus evil plot, this time placed in a simple fantasy situation. It is an unsophisticated tale that offers a pleasurable ‘feel good’ sensation seemingly seldom encountered in these days of constant stress and activity. A time of almost chaotic political- health-social-financial crises that appear to be dictating every aspect of today’s individual thought patterns and parenthetically even seem contributory to the large number of books being published that dwell on depressing thoughts and matters.

5* Unsophisticated tale, seemingly pleasurable beyond modern thought patterns.

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7 Days in Russia

 

7 Days in Russia ISBN: 9781456631796 Orca Publishing, copyright and written by M. G. Crisci.

The book opens with the usual credits, followed by a list of sponsors; acknowledgements; a preface presenting brief biographical data including the raison d’être for the presentation; maps of specific routes taken in the 7-day journey; an amusing (and most appropriate for the Russian language) “Idiot’s Guide to Verbal Survival”; Day 1: “What could go wrong, goes wrong” and each succeeding chapter setting forth descriptions of more enlightening, frequently amusing, activities from each succeeding day. Additionally a photographer of note, the author was able to provide photographs of many of the places and people visited. Thus, the book describes an interesting and eye-opening account of the country and its inhabitants that will surprise many, if not most of today’s Americans.

Discussion: The author has presented a most appealing picture to describe present-day Russia that have strengthened his beliefs that the alcoholism, surveillance, and otherwise general effects of apprehension among the residents now exist only within the beliefs of the average American. Regrettably and most apologetically, this reviewer still retains some measure of reservation in totally accepting the author’s conclusion. He makes mention of the fact that his trip was made during one of Putin’s inaugurations following a first that had preceded it by two years. And from the freedom he noticed, and to a large extent quite ably demonstrated, today’s Russia appears to be one that is far removed from that which long existed. This reader also has travelled to Russia and experienced some similarities to those set forth by the author, but under other circumstances; i.e. not visiting as a tourist, but as a scientist visiting other scientists. We encountered most comfortable accommodations, transportation, excellent food and entertainment and really had no sense of being under any manner of surveillance other than tight restriction with respect to picture taking. (Granted this first trip was made when Gorbachev was struggling to bring the country together following the Troika disasters.) A week later we visited St. Petersburg to see the magnificent Hermitage and had the fascinating added pleasure of attending a performance of Boris Godunov in the city’s gem-like Opera House. Upon boarding our plane to leave Russia, a seemingly inconsequential remark by an In-Tourist representative provided a definite impression that surveillance of our activities actually had been quite extensive. Activities encountered on a subsequent trip a few years later still did not offer any definitive answer causing two other thoughts linger. Within the last 2-3 years this reader has received translations of books by Russian authors to review. None of these offer any clarification of the situation for this reviewer, but in fact strengthen an originally observed observation of a seeming dichotomy in the manner in which different classes or grades of citizens are observed/treated according to their main source of employment and/or activities; the other, a tendency toward observation/treatment according to religion, especially the apparent persistence of a degree of anti-Semitism – a feature one author commented on as having been accurately mentioned in my review. Additionally as continually discussed ‘ad nauseum’ by the media, we still have the involved Russian-American political situation.

Still another possibly unrecognized component in this seemingly benign Russian citizens’ complete freedom – the unbidden thought that this author, as a well-known lecturer as well as friend of the Director of the Russian Cultural Center in Washington D.C., may have received some measure of un-requested and un-recognized aid in his reception and activities in Russia. But then again, and most apologetically, this reviewer is an American who had WW II acquaintances and memories, the Cold War, Cuban fiasco, of the recurring political charges and the rest, as well as a couple of personal visits to Russia as a scientist conferring with scientists. Albeit this individual’s trips were a few years previous to Mr. Cristi’s and the memories may well be influenced by the troubled times not experienced by the author of this book. Trump and Putin seem to understand each other and actually seem to ‘be on the same page’ whereas the old hardliners of the Russian Politburo and those in the U.S. Deep State appear to be unrelenting. Perhaps it would be better if both countries paid a little more attention to China?

But to conclude, the picture the author has provided hopefully is the correct one as he has described it and this book is highly recommended as a most enlightening and interesting read for ALL Americans to further assess and better interpret the barrage of news to which they constantly are subjected.

5* Highly recommended as described.

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Weight of Shadows

Weight of Shadows ISBN: 9781733563123 Mystful Press copyright and written by Ana Domini.

This Dark fantasy is set in a post-Apocalyptic era following a world encompassing pandemic that wiped out an entire generation. Those who survived are immune, sterile and immortal to a degree. A particular group of survivors have been segregated in a large pharmaceutical compound, Wyrmwood Place, some distance outside Washington, D.C. It is the headquarters of the company that was able to manufacture the required vaccine. The compound contains all of the necessary laboratories, professional and support personnel and additional guards, fencing and other necessary features for security. Numbered among the inhabitants are 13 surviving children and 2 women who were discovered to be fertile. This is the story of the children, of Mantis, so named by his ‘friend’ Atticus, and other inhabitants and/or otherwise encountered persons discovered with the help of a fantasy figure as the story unfolds. The plot basically is a fantasy/mystery with psychological undertones that takes many twists and turns.

Discussion: The tale appears to be the product of a somewhat reclusive mystery (?), fantasy (?) author who has presented a rather complicated well-written story that moves at a good pace. The characters are well developed within the context and scenes often sufficiently detailed and well described to offer empathetic credibility. Interesting thoughts, even somewhat emphasized by the characters as set forth by the author, include the fact that death sometimes is a good thing in that it eliminates sadness, fear and pain for those who have lost everything, but that on the other side of grief there are strength and forgiveness, A tangential point offered  is the constant presence of greed and the potential harm it can cause.

Summary: From this reader’s perspective, an interesting, well- written/paced tale regrettably offered at this exact time of today’s unemployment, shortages and controlled social environment resulting from a still uncontrolled world viral situation. Thus, if you are a reader looking for enjoyment or relaxation, this book is NOT for you.

3* 5* well written/paced story; -2* at least for enjoyment/relaxation.

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After Olympus

AFTER OLYMPUS ISBN: 9781733801713 Lone Think Press copyright by Desmond Mascarenhas written by Santiago Xaman.

Description/Discussion: Pragmatically, and referred to by the author as “pseudo-fiction”, this most unusual book follows a rambling plot following the lives of three men besides the story teller and their wives or significant others as their lives play out after discovery of a hitherto unknown/unreported Russian Space craft of unusual components and containment. The tale is a tumultuous mixture of mystery and mythology with overtones of mysticism (?), occult (?), history spread over a wide section of the world ranging from Guatemala to Russia, the Serengeti and other parts of Africa, India, throughout much of the U. S. and Europe. The four protagonists all are exceedingly well educated and from backgrounds (families/cultures/traumatic occurrences) that make them prone to a somewhat different manner of living, employment and in their reactions to these matters. The pages are replete with thought provoking messages on such matters as the fact that every subject deserves empirical, intuitive and pragmatic contemplation; everything good grows from the bottom up (plants, trees, cultures?); everything projected from the top down is bad – organized religions, governments et al. – these latter often ‘dodge’ by forming protocols that ‘adapt’. Good comes from people thinking alone; e.g. Plato, Einstein; bad from organizational groups at the top claiming from their collective decision that they are right and everybody else wrong. And unfortunately, even authenticity is vulnerable if railed against at a high level maintained for a sufficiently long time. The author seems most interesting, but who is the author? The book includes a previously published “Opinion Piece” of interest in itself, as is another “Rebuilding the House” that discusses replacing organized religions, governments, corporations “with better versions of themselves”. Also some notes About the Author are quite fascinating when contemplating the entire book and the thoughts that arise from the ‘experience’ of reading this book.

5* Unusual, divertingly intriguing experience for certain readers.

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Slater’s Vendetta

Slater’s Vendetta Book 4 of 4 in the Slater Mystery series, assumed published, copyright and written by T. J. Jones.

Eric Slater again is the protagonist. He is a quite sizeable, muscular but remarkably supple, relatively handsome guy with a good sense of humor, honor and a huge heart. He is a former Marine with Special Operations as well as Military Police training. In this volume he again is functioning in a couple of his ‘jack-of-all-trades’ roles. He is performing in his PI job investigating a couple of identity authenticity cases, while supervising his construction workers remodeling the homes he then turns over to his real estate agent to sell. The situation becomes totally muddled quite quickly, however. A quite vicious gang begins to invade the neighborhood, he makes friends with a young boy roaming the streets at night. He learns why and decides to do something about it. His PI, building business and live-in partner, lovely but Black Belt qualified Maggie, agrees since she also has a couple of similar friends resultant of the same ‘soft-heart syndrome’. All components of the situations escalate when their real estate agent is murdered with a tool belonging to Slater, causing him, as well as Maggie, to be suspects. Members of the agency he employs, as well as of the company for which he is remodeling houses also become ‘persons of interest’ and one is charged with the murder.

Discussion: This book is another written by an author whose growing number of books invade Mystery, Romance and Fantasy genres. His forte appears to be in producing well-portrayed individuals in character driven plots. The protagonists here are appealing on many levels with abundantly soft hearts. The results are positive and the reader enjoys inclusion of an interesting mystery/detective story within an often amusing modern romance that maintains some of the old, solid components.

5* Mystery/detective/romance highly recommended as described.

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OM: Life’s Gentle Reminders

OM: Life’s Gentle Reminders ISBN: 9781951943028 WSA Publishing copyright and written by Kamini Wood,

This interesting little book’s title is a simple reminder for persons to look at the simplest and most mundane things and ‘happenings’ of life and recognize what lessons they might provide. Each short discussion is titled simply as ‘what it is’ and opens with a pertinent quote followed in turn by a short discussion of what thoughts it may bring to mind. For example, “What my Morning Traffic Jam Taught Me” discusses passing a scene of cars piling up in the opposite lane as the result of two stopped blocking any forward movement. The thought came to mind of how similar this was to “what happens when I get down on myself about something”. At such times when something does not go as planned, it is the only thing on which she can focus. So many others are similar. “Such negative thoughts can paralyze us, much like those cars being stopped in the travel lane paralyzed any other vehicles from moving forward.” The obvious answer simply is to acknowledge the negative thought, and like the offending cars, move them to the side of the road. Another is “Toy Story 4” which opens with a quote from Herbert Bayard Swope; “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure – which: Try to please everybody.” The pertinent discussion follows. Another, “To Each Shell Her Own” that admonishes not to be concentrated upon personal perfection, but to take time to look at what is available and possible with a little more self-compassion, who you are and where you are in life and what possibilities exist from this perspective. Another, “Over the Rainbow” with a quote from Dolly Parton: “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” The author follows with the astute observation that a rainbow consists of a mixture of the darkness of the departing clouds and the advancing sun’s rays, an admixture of light and dark bouncing off the raindrops to produce the beautiful structure. So “what if just for now, we started recognizing that our darker moments mixed with our lighter ones makes us us? And what if we start seeing ourselves as the amazing, smile inducing humans we are?” The book continues providing numerous simple little “gentle reminders” of the constantly encountered situations in daily life from which only the slightest deviation in thought direction can produce a worthwhile lesson to be learned. Thus, as a professional coach in personal aspects of living, the author states “based on the concept of realigning with and rediscovering your authentic self…hence the term I created: AuthenticMe.” And “Because of the prevalence of buzzwords today, the words themselves get tired and overused – in essence they lose some of their impact and meaning.” Here, she proceeds to quote Brené Brown with ““Letting go of who we think we are supposed to be” hits it on the head for me.”” She includes a discussion of this feature among her other offerings at a point approximately sixty per cent of the way through her little book. Directly thereafter in the section entitled PIV…OOOT she quotes Winston Churchill’s statement “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often” and poses a tantalizing question. Another providing a simple, but really necessary subject for thought is “What Does the End Say” that opens with a quote from Aristotle; “Happiness depends upon ourselves”. Still others follow that allow the mind to reach an entirely new plateau of understanding some other facet of living.

Conclusion: An interesting and simply provided collection of discussions of thoughts generated from and/or provided by, daily mundane ‘happenings’ for the reader to review, consider and adopt.

5* “Gentle Reminders” for easy, amusingly worthwhile contemplation.

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Stars on the Oriental Corridor

STARS on the Oriental Corridor ISBN: 9781733957144 Seacoast Press copyright and written by Young-Tae Kim.

According to the author’s preface, this Book 1: Heaven, has resulted from a series of short stories written/published in Korean, rewritten and published in 2010 in six volumes, revised into two books in 2016 before rewriting and publishing in this English version in 2019. The stories detail the activities of heroes and heroines who led their countries in politics, war, fertile fields, religions, sciences, industries and arts. Certain of the tales also concentrate on the deities various tribes/small countries worshiped and the interrelationships among the various units as they continued to grow, inhabit and unify the Korean peninsula.

Discussion: Many of the stories have charming elements and are set forth in a rather quaint fashion especially when employing modern verbalization to describe activity. In Chapter 1, description is provided of two tribe/small country leaders engaging in individual combat as the designated leader of the people of their country, a sensible form of warfare often employed in earlier times that saved many lives. Chapter 2 follows these inhabitants after a successful period has followed the union and they became interested in perpetuating the dynasty. Thus the King’s advisor addresses him: “Your Majesty, now that our country has become stable all in out, people are each doing his or her role very well. We have no problem in our country except for one thing. As we do not have our queen to become mother of the country. It is imminent for Your Majesty to get married.” Other similarly quaint verbalization occurs throughout; e.g. “Give your order to me. I will accomplish your order doing my best.”

Other than these interesting and often amusing features, however, it is this reviewer’s thought that much of this book is directed toward, and will be enjoyed most, by Koreans and other Asian peoples as well as other historians who are interested in the years preceding the AD 7th century. It contains a plethora of material pertinent to through and down the Korean Peninsula. The manner of presentation, especially after that set forth in the introductory material described, makes the overall presentation seemingly somewhat complexly arranged. After the primary material follows an anticipated pattern. Directly thereafter, the reader is presented with “NINIGI-NO-MIKOTO AND PRINCESS OF GAYA (2nd volume of “Stars on the Oriental Corridor”)” divided into several chapters; These, in turn followed by “Gods of WA (Ancient Japan) (The 3rd volume of “Stars on the Oriental Corridor”)”; the 4th; 5th; 6th through 9th  – each similarly divided into several chapters and following the progress of other groups of Orientals. The book terminates with a relisting of the volume’s contents.

Summary: An interesting presentation of assumedly well assembled for those interested in early history of Asian people. Regrettably the seemingly dual explanations of its assembly was not particularly well-received by this reader. However the entire manuscript can be most enlightening for any reader with an interest in the subject matter.

3* 4* pre- 7th Century AD Asian History with quaint/charming areas; 3*- probably for most Americans.

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Plant Food Cookbook for Beginners

PLANT-BASED COOKBOOK FOR BEGINNERS assumed published, copyright and written by Jackie Collins.

Sub-titled 600 Quick & Delicious Vegan Recipes for Busy People on the Plant Based Diet, the book opens with an Introduction that explains the health aiding ability of this plant-based lifestyle in today’s era of busy schedules with concurrent occasionally frenetic periods and follows in a most simply, but amazingly direct and complete manner, to provide the Basic Ingredients required for each recipe, how to blend the ingredients, the time required to complete the item and how to serve and/or store the completed item(s). She supplies these details for Broths; Plant-based Cheese dishes; Breakfasts, including various toasts, twists, muffins, unusual breads; Omelets, e.g. Mushroom & Spinach Chickpea; Waffles, e.g. Lemon-Almond; Pancakes; Puddings and more; Numerous fabulous sounding Smoothies are added; additionally there is an interesting No-Bread Avocado Sandwich that can be very quickly prepared. Next is the section of recipes for Soups and Stews with another large number of individual recipes. Salads and Entrees follow, beginning with a quickly prepared and taste-appealing Greek salad, as well as providing another sixty plus recipes with some thought-producing ideas for seldom thought-of combination of ingredients such as oranges and kale, olives with cherries, millet with olives and cherries, carrots, cherries and pecans. Lunch Recipes consist of the same carefully maintained format of including ingredients, directions for preparation and time required with serving instructions. The section offers close to one hundred recipes that should present any number of tasty offerings for anyone looking for a ‘different’ lunch time repast. As an aside, this reader rarely indulges in midday food, but admittedly, a couple of the chili recipes, hot coconut beans and vegetables and the hot lentil and guacamole recipes appear quite tempting. Dinner Menus are the next and still once more offer another large selection of appetizing recipes. A delicious assortment of Snaks and Sides follow (with a most delicious recipe for Parmesan Broccoli Tots, Maple-Glazed Butternut Squash and one for Dijon Roasted Asparagus this reader tried the last three nights). Desserts & Sweet treats wrap up this incredibly complete collection of some relatively well known recipes, some that are better known but still offered with an unusual twist and/or use of ingredients that presents something ‘different’. AND even more new offerings are added to these selections.

Discussion: Briefly stated, this book is a fantastic presentation of recipes in a complete format not encountered in many years. A suggestion for the prospective book owner: be aware of the need to invest in a larger than normal selection of ingredients and because of the need to refer to the recipe while cooking, purchasing a hard copy as well as digital might be helpful, depending upon one’s construction of cooking facilities..

5* Highly recommended book for non-diet as well as dieters, as discussed.

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Future Proofing Cubed

FUTURE PROOFING CUBED ISBN: 9798638377168 Bookmark Publishing, Copyright Lcubed Consulting, Inc. written by Iisa L. Levy.

Subtitled Future Proofing Cubed the Definitive Guide to Increasing Productivity, Refining Processes and Bolstering Profitability, the book opens with a dedication; the usual disclaimer; a complementary forward; Introduction; Three sections: 1. Hybrid Consulting that contains two chapters -My Why: Enabling Corporate Success and Lcubed; 2. Future Proofing with five that define traditional consulting, initially describe Lcubed’s Adaptive Transformation, Solving recurrent problems, Desired results and Future Proofing; 3. Enabling Frameworks offers the last five, in turn discussing project management, process and performance management, internal controls, organizational change management, and chapter takeaways; Case Studies; References (16); Resources (4); and About the Author.

Discussion: Although the copyright is more stringent with respect to not allowing “any part of this book to be reproduced or transmitted in any form….”, this reader hopes that reprinting of the author’s ‘different’ and amusing Dedication will be overlooked. It reads “I’d like to dedicate this book to my friends and family who are always supportive of my choices even the ones they don’t understand. My hope is that this book will finally help explain to my parents what I do for a living.” Following this charming note of levity, the content of the volume explains her approach to teaching a business how to Future Proof itself against the ever-increasing number of changes they face as time evolves. The overall concept is to look at your business as a Rubik’s cube. You have all of the pieces and need only to position them to interface correctly. Use of the plan allows you to build a culture that embraces the enormous number of existing recent changes and will increase greatly in the business world as time advances. Granted, use of the Rubik’s cube analogy applies to medium sized businesses that have all of the pieces in place and functioning with a management team, money coming in, etc. With this understanding, she continues to explain that she had ‘spent her time in the trenches’ and gradually evolved her projected program after observing  the numerous types of quite disparate software with which companies were faced when attempting to accomplish the various tasks required simply to keep abreast of the changes in the business world as they developed. In fact, most of the time they had been able to assemble the required results only after the data collected were outdated. Thus from her repeated observation, the concept of “Adaptive Transformation” came to mind. The concept, although suddenly appearing to her, perhaps had been un-consciously stored in her mind in that she found a paper on the subject had been published by Stanford Professor Dr. Harold Leavitt in 1964. Regardless, the basis of the concept was to focus energy on building a new project rather than fighting the old, and it fitted well into her line of thinking wherein a series of activities could provide a means for an organization’s structure and culture to survive and advance even when facing tremendous elements of change. Eventually, the whole evolved into her epiphany moment and she decided to construct a software program that would encompass all of the disparate parts and meld them into one bundle.

Summary: The author, has presented details of the birth and evolution of her somewhat unique contribution – the structure, function and successes of a software program that combines and includes all of the usual features considered to be important components of building and maintaining a steady healthy business growth in times of change. There is much redundancy and substantial inclusion of material offered by others in the large number of books covering business maintenance and growth in the seemingly increasingly chaotic business world. However, Lcubed appears to be a knowledgeable organization, founded by a nationally recognized organizational change management authority, with a unique program that offers several advantages not previously made available.

5* Unique offering; -1 for redundancy,  not unusual for lecturers.