Book Review: Twitter Girl

Katie November 28, 2014 0 Comments

Our story starts with Twitter Girl, Cassidy Shea, getting fired for a tweet that she sent out that was considered controversial.  This also leads to her boyfriend breaking up with her.  But – it also brings to her a new opportunity as Presidental hopeful Will Becker wants to add her to his staff to send out snarky tweets about the President and his competition during the votes.  Becker is also single, good looking, and every woman in America wants a chance to be his First Lady.

Cassidy takes the job and then starts getting mixed signals from her boss.  Is he interested in her?  The thought of being First Lady is always in the back of her mind, but her career comes first.  Once she gets involved with the campaign, she starts getting anonymous texts telling her to look more into Becker’s life – specifically in 2005.  At first she casts it aside, but when she starts to date Becker and her brother has a funny feeling about him (and his gut is always right) she starts to dig a little deeper.

And what she finds is more than she bargained for.  Not only does she find dirt on the would be President that could bring his campaign to the ground – but she also finds the meaning of love.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the witty tweets that were posted throughout the book so you could follow along, so to speak, with what Twitter Girl was tweeting throughout the campaign trail.  While the love aspect of the story was a bit too perfects and not all that realistic, I did enjoy reading it and found it endearing.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book
Meet America’s Tweet-Heart.

She’s network reporter Cassidy Shea, better known as @TwitterGirl, with more than a million followers thanks to her sarcastic tweets. One hundred forty characters that can take anyone down a notch.
But while brevity may be the soul of wit, it can also get you fired.
When a controversial tweet goes viral the snarky redhead finds herself locked out of the career she loves… and watches her boyfriend take a hike.
Alas, no industry values sarcasm more than politics, and Cassidy becomes a marketable commodity for Presidential candidate Will Becker, a squeaky-clean, stone cold lock to be the next occupant of the White House. This candidate is unlike any other; he’s the country’s most eligible bachelor. He’s also looking for a running mate, and we’re not talking about a Vice President.
Twitter Girl has caught his eye.
Cassidy finds herself swept up in a whirlwind romance that turns her into the next Jackie Kennedy and becomes the favorite to be the next First Lady. The country can’t get enough of America’s First Couple… will Cassidy and Will Becker bring back Camelot?
But an anonymous tip triggers her journalistic curiosity. Is Will Becker all that he seems? The search for the answer teaches Cassidy the meaning of love.

Book Review: Out of the Shoebox: An Autobiographic Mystery

Katie November 28, 2014 0 Comments

Out of the Shoebox was a great mystery – and best of all – it is a true story.  Yaron Reshef gets a phone call unexpectantly asking about his father who had passed away when Yaron was a child.  They ask him if he had purchased a plot of land with a friend and in order to claim it, Yaron would need to prove that it was indeed his father who purchased it by providing his address in 1935 as well as his connection to Mordechai Liebman.

Yaron then takes us on the journey that he took in order to try and uncover this information.  Most of his parents families were murdered during the Holocaust.  His mother is still alive as he begins the journey but not in the condition to be able to help him too much so he must rely on stories that his mother has told him over the years and his own research.

As the story unfolds it just becomes more and more interesting and of course the best part of it is that this is true and really happened. It’s hard for me to truly recap it, but I really loved reading it and uncovering this mystery with Yaron – which seemed to become more and more unbelievable and wonderful as the pages kept coming.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

About the Book

Did you ever get a phone call that changed your life?

That is what happened to author of this book.

A mysterious unexpected phone call hurls Yaron Reshef into an intensive two-year journey, during which he has to solve a mystery that took shape in the 1930s and gradually unfolded in the present. A mysterious lot, a forgotten bank account, a people long gone ”” along with their memory which were obliterated during the Holocaust. All of these rise to the surface, bearing with them memories and emotions previously hidden away in the shoebox.

Out of the Shoebox is a fascinating journal that reads like a detective story, comes across as an imaginative quest into the past, yet is the true personal story of the writer, Yaron Reshef.

“I had no intention of writing a book. I had no need to write a story in general nor a story about my family and the Holocaust in particular. But life being what it is, sometimes things happen in mysterious, even surprising ways. Stuff that used to take center stage moves to the background, and background stuff moves downstage and center. That’s what happened in my case.”
Yaron Reshef

Book Review: Mom Made Us Write This In The Summer

Katie November 21, 2014 0 Comments

Mom Made Us Write This Is The Summer is the journal of Maggie and Max, twins who are ending 4th grade and gearing up for 5th grade.  Their Mom wants them to learn to communicate with each other better so she decides that they will keep a journal throughout the summer – in ONE journal that they have to share.  The rules are that they have to write 12 entries throughout the course of the summer.  They alternate who starts which entry – and they get to pick the topic (unless Mom tells them what to write.) So there are entries about ice cream, baseball, doctors visits, the zoo, etc.  The book is done in Max and Maggie’s handwriting so it is just like you are reading their journal.  They also read each others entries and leave notes and drawings / doodles on each other’s entries which was a cute addition.  Mom picked the last topic where they needed to go over what they learned.

This is a super cute book for kids and would be perfect to have kids read as a summer reading book (and maybe even then have them start a journal of their own afterwards!)

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Mom Made Us Write This In The Summer is a children’s book by Ali Maier, written for ages 8 – 12.

A sister and brother, forced to write in the summer, and share ONE journal? Ugh.

This is exactly what happens to 10-year-old twins Maggie and Max Pruitt. When Mom comes up with a plan for them to keep a summer journal, Maggie and Max can’t believe it. Worse yet, they have to share!

Through their writing, Maggie and Max find out they have very different (and hilarious) views about growing up, family and life – a conclusion they only discovered because, as Max and Maggie say, “Mom Made Us Write This.”

Mom Made Us Write This In The Summer is a journal-style book for children that captures the essence of sibling relationships. Anyone with a brother or sister will identify with the fun and struggles that Max and Maggie experience this summer! From a trip to the zoo to the annual check-up at the docs – read all about the life adventures of Maggie & Max.

The series also includes ‘Mom Made Us Write This: Write Your Own Shared Journal’ and ‘Mom Made Us Write This Family Quiz Book’.

Book Review: Breaking All Her Rules

Katie November 21, 2014 0 Comments

Breaking All Her Rules is about a financial adviser named Grace who meets an artistic cowboy when they are sharing a cab in New York City.  They accidentally swapped cell phones, so of course that meant that they had to meet up again after their first chance encounter.  Grace has a lot of rules that she has made for herself which she lives by – which basically means she is not spontaneous, she doesn’t do anything that might be outside the box and is trying to make her family proud of her.  All that goes out the window when she meets up with Zack and he is in a towel.  She decides that she can throw her rules away for one day – but then it becomes a one night stand time two… three… can you even call it a one night stand anymore? (Nah.)  Zack has his own baggage as well – his daughter died and he ended up divorced and doesn’t want to ever love again.  Will the two go against everything they think is right for themselves to be together?

This was another one of Cosmo’s Red Hot Reads – this is one of the better ones that I have read.  It was nice to see Grace sort of come undone and let loose a little bit throughout the book.  It was also nice to see how Grace made Zach let his guard down a bit and try to let her into his heart – even though he was trying so hard for that to not happen. A cute and quick read.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Buttoned-up financial consultant Grace Song lives life by her own strict rules. Spontaneity leads to chaos. Always play it safe. So when she shares a Manhattan cab with a handsome stranger and they accidentally swap cell phones, her first instinct is to track him down and put things right. Stay on track. Stick with the plan.

But when beyond-gorgeous Zack Camden answers the door draped only in a towel, Grace is suddenly inspired to ditch her rules for a day…and a night. Indulging in one delicious encounter with a perfect stranger is just the break she needs. But one turns into two, then three mind-blowing nights—and soon Grace is in danger of breaking the biggest rule of them all—never fall in love….

Book Review: Hard Drive

Katie November 21, 2014 0 Comments

Hard Drive is written by the cousin and mother of Shane Todd, an American Engineer who took a job in Singapore.  He was supposed to be leaving his job and coming back home to the US – but he is found hanged in his apartment and several suicide notes were written for his family and friends on his computer and it is figured it is just a suicide.  By Shane’s family knows better.  Earlier he had mentioned that he thought his life was being threatened to his family. The suicide notes don’t add up.  They are not written by Shane. If he didn’t write them – he didn’t commit suicide.

A break in the case comes when Shane’s parents find a hard drive with the backup of a lot of Shane’s files on it.  The police seem to think that there is nothing important on it and claim that they checked it out and gave it to his parents.  His parents story suggests otherwise. His parents use it to try and prove that Shane’s death was NOT a suicide.

This book would have been great if it was fiction – but the fact that it is non fiction just kind of blew my mind.  Shane seemed like he was very bright and had a great future ahead of him.

I received a free e-copy in order to write this review and was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

For the First Time in Print!
THE CAPTIVATING, TRUE STORY OF THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF YOUNG AMERICAN ENGINEER, DR. SHANE TODD
–Shane’s family’s grueling battle against powerful forces that have sought to conceal, destroy, or discredit evidence surrounding his murder

On June 24, 2012, Dr. Shane Truman Todd, a young American engineer, was found hanging in his Singapore apartment, just a week before his scheduled return to the United States. Although Shane had repeatedly expressed apprehension about his work with a Chinese company and fear his life was being threatened, authorities immediately ruled his death a suicide. His family initially didn’t know what to believe. However, upon arriving in Singapore, they realized the evidence suggested not suicide, but murder.

Shane’s family later discovered that what they thought was a computer speaker was actually an external hard drive with thousands of files from Shane’s computer. The information in those files transformed this story from a tragic suicide to an international saga of mystery, deceit, and cover-up, involving three countries. “Hard Drive: A Families Fight against Three Countries” is the captivating story of Shane’s mysterious death and his family’s grueling battle to reveal the truth against powerful forces that have sought to conceal, destroy, or discredit evidence indicating homicide. This story, which is told from the unique perspective of Shane’s mother, Mary, recounts the family’s painful, arduous, and unwavering endeavor to reveal the truth about what happened to Shane Todd in Singapore

Book Review: High Notes

Katie November 21, 2014 0 Comments

High Notes is a book by Richard Loren that documents working with various rock legends over the years. It all started with Liberace and he was working as a music agent.  There are mentions of a local venue – Toad’s Place in New Haven,CT. (Not that I’m sure I’ll ever step foot in there again, unless it’s a Hanson show, of course) and of course the infamous Doors concert that was held there.  Part 1 of the book focuses on when Richard was based in New York.  Part 2 is much shorter and focuses on Richard’s time in Los Angeles.  Part 3 & 4 focus on the grateful dead.  And of course, based on the title, there’s lots of mentions of drugs!

Found it funny, or maybe ironic? that he mentioned that he had an “old hippie brain” and that therefore may have left some out in his book. That’s code for I messed up my brain with drugs and now can’t remember stuff, right? 😉

It was nice to read, once again, a bit of an insiders experience on the music industry from back before everything was so fabricated like it is now!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Richard Loren recalls his journey through the turbulent eras of rock‘s ascendancy in his new book, High Notes: A Rock Memoir, Working with Rock Legends Jefferson Airplane Through The Doors to the Grateful Dead. With never-before-told stories, Loren offers a humorous and heartfelt account that illuminates music history and provides telling insights into some of the most notable entertainment personalities of the late twentieth century. Eminently readable and authentic, readers will find Loren’s inside look fascinating and satisfying. 

“High Notes is part history, part travelogue, part cultural coming-of-age tale,” explains Loren. “The rock ‘n’ roll icons that inspired and shaped a generation were my personal mentors, business partners, and friends. Through my experiences, music and pop-culture lovers gain a reflective insider’s perspective on these amazing artists in one of the most compelling periods of American history.”

High Notes is broken up into four colorful, story-filled sections:

· Part One: New York City – My life with Jefferson Airplane, The Doors and the Chambers Brothers
· Part Two: Stinson Beach, California – David Grisman, the Rowan Brothers, Garcia-Saunders, Old and in the Way
· Part Three: The Grateful Dead – Politics, Grateful Dead Movie, Garcia Bands, Egypt, Saturday Night Live, Alaska, Radio City Music Hall
· Part Four: The Grateful Dead Merry-Go-Round – Germany, Mississippi River Boat, Watch the River Flow, Sirens of Titan, Garcia-Grisman 

Uniquely personal, Loren provides insight and revelation with his singular take on the rich, famous and powerful people he encountered during his days as an agent, manager and promoter. High Notes is must read for those who lived through the times and for those who want to share a personal perspective on one of rock’s most formative and fascinating eras.

Book Review: Singing to a Bulldog

Katie November 14, 2014 0 Comments

Singing to a Bulldog is an autobiography by Anson Williams – who is probably most known for his role as “Potsie” on Happy Days. The book is subtitled “From Happy Days to Hollywood Director, and the Unlikely Mentor Who Got Me There”.  The book is broken down by “lessons” and not chapters which was an interesting approach.  I liked how he wanted to get in to the business so he went to an agents office and just waited until someone could see him! He also talked about how he almost missed his audition for Happy Days.  He was having car trouble and of course back then there were no cell phones! He ended up getting there late but it was a good thing he did end up getting there because they wanted him for the role!  I Also didn’t know that there were 2 pilots for Happy Days.  The first one did not get picked up!

Anson’s mentor was a janitor – who “talks” throughout the book and Anson hears him giving advice whenever he needs him.  Anson said that it was Ron that kept the group on the show normal, since he had already been a successful actor for many years.  Also through Happy Days he was able to meet people like John Wayne and John Lennon!  I also didn’t realize that he was very involved with CP and involved with telethons because his cousin has CP. Now I love him even more!  When he met Elvis he told him he sang “darn good”

Another great story (and probably only because it is a bit timely) was that Happy Days decided to have an alien on after Garry Marshall’s son had seen Star Wars and decided that there needed to be an episode about Aliens.  Anson writes that this was the “worst script ever” and the alien was called “Mork” and played by a character actor.  When he left and they needed to find someone else – a comedian called Robin Williams got the part of Mork.  He immediately came up with a back story and a language for Mork (Nanu Nanu!) and from that appearance on Happy Days, Mork and Mindy was born!

The end of the book Anson goes back to meet with his mentor, Willie.

I thought this was a really sweet book and I really enjoyed reading it!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Growing up in 1950s California, young Anson Williams was clumsy and unsure of himself. He started working odd jobs as a teenager to help support his family and met Willie, an aging, uneducated, African-American janitor who unexpectedly became a mentor. In Singing to a Bulldog, Williams relates both the life lessons taught by Willie and the never-before-revealed stories of the famous (and not-so-famous) folks he’s encountered during his 40 years in Hollywood, including:

– the day Robin Williams woke up Happy Days
– being directed by Steven Spielberg in his first dramatic role
– getting kidnapped by Gerald Ford’s daughter at the White House
– being inspired by Shailene Woodley on the set of The Secret Life of the American Teenager

Book Review: Excess All Areas

Katie November 14, 2014 0 Comments

Excess All Areas is “A Lighthearded Look at the Demands and Idiosyncrasies of Rock Icons on Tour”.  Band riders are always interesting to me.  I was also drawn to this book because the illustrations are pretty awesome. The book is just a compilation of various demands that bands have when they are on tour.  Some are your typical things that make sense – tea for after the show to sooth their throat, maybe a little bit of oxygen… but then some of the demands are really out there.  The Eels for instance ask for a Furby Toy and a Telletuby Toy?

Some other interesting requests were a used paperback (probably better for the environment that way), stuff that is non-polluting, non-GMO and organic… enough ice to take a bath in… James Brown asked for a golf cart… the blood hound gang asked for a fridge magnent from somewhere local (maybe they were a collector or maybe one of their kids was! This is actually a pretty neat idea and if I’m ever a rock star I may have to add that to my rider!)  One band wanted a disgruntled house monitor engineer. Um, ok?

I think that this book is also UK based – a lot of the bands that were featured I had not heard of – but I of course had heard of Elton John and Ozzy Osbourne that were included.  Oh – and Eminem – who had an intersting request of Taco Bell and Mountain Dew imported from the US.  While I can’t fault him for this meal – it is one of my favorites as well – how good can it really be if you’re importing it from the US? How does that even work?  And doesn’t the UK have any decent food that is easier to get?

I do also think (or hope) that some of these outlandish requests are just to see if people actually read the riders or not…

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Excess All Areas takes readers on a roller-coaster, backstage ride into the surreal and unpredictable world of the band contract rider. A rider is a shopping list of items, usually food and drink, requested by the band, which forms part of the contract for the concert venue. If you think Van Halen’s ’80s demands to remove all of the brown M&M’s from the sweet bowl in their dressing room was a tad precious, think again.

Excess All Areas delves into the dressing rooms of our favorite musical acts, from Black Sabbath to Usher, and has a good old rummage around, discovering a penchant for expensive champagne, enough towels to dry an army, the odd boa constrictor, inflatable sumo outfits, ice without square edges, water from the top of Mount Olympus, white tube socks (12 pairs, to be exact), and soda water – just for spilling on the floor.

This colorful volume includes illustrations that are equally as entertaining as the outlandish 100 featured riders and will leave you amazed, stomping your feet, and shouting for more.

Book Review: Elvis Presley

Katie November 14, 2014 0 Comments

Elvis Presley was not exactly what I was expecting. It was listed under “Arts & Photography” so I thought it would be more of Elvis’ life through photographs (which would have been really, really neat) instead it was just a biography of him.  Which was not disappointing – but just not what I thought I was getting into when I downloaded the book.  Elvis has had such an impact on music and its history and evolution, it was nice to get a chance to read a bit more about him in one central location rather than just mentions of him here and there.

The book did not appear to have any photographs in it at all (I am not sure if the final product will include an insert or not) but it did tell a great story.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

In Elvis Presley, one of the most admired Southern historians of our time takes on one of the greatest cultural icons of all time. The result is a masterpiece: a vivid, gripping biography, set against the rich backdrop of Southern society–indeed, American society–in the second half of the twentieth century.

Author of The Crucible of Race and William Faulkner and Southern History, Joel Williamson is a renowned historian known for his matchless ability to write compelling narratives. In this tour de force biography, he captures the drama of Presley’s career and offers insights into the social upheavals following World War II. Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley was a contradiction, flamboyant in pegged black pants with pink stripes, yet soft-spoken, respectfully courting a decent girl from church. Then he wandered into Sun Records, and everything changed. He first went onstage in 1954. “I was scared stiff,” Elvis recalled. “Everyone was hollering and I didn’t know what they were hollering at.” Girls did the hollering–at his snarl and swagger. Williamson calls it “the revolution of the Elvis girls.” They took command, insisting on his sexually charged performances. They lived in an intense moment, this generation raised by their mothers, when men had been at war. The first Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education occurred two weeks before Elvis’s first gig, turning high schools into battlegrounds of race. Explosively, white girls went wild for a white man singing a black man’s songs, “wiggling” erotically. The book illuminates the zenith of Presley’s career, his period of deepest creativity, which captured a legion of fans and kept them fervently loyal throughout years of army, wine, and women. Williamson shows how Elvis himself changed–and didn’t. The deferential boy with downcast eyes became the bloated, demented drug addict who, despite his success, never escaped his sense of social inferiority. He bought Graceland in part to escape the judgment of his wealthy, established neighbors.

Appreciative and unsparing, musically attuned and socially revealing, Elvis Presley will deepen our understanding of the man and his times.

Book Review: Riddles In Mathematics

Katie November 14, 2014 0 Comments

I don’t even know what to say about this book.  It is a book of paradoxes – a paradox is “conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality should be like” and has a bunch of brain teasers in it.  A lot of them made me crazy trying to figure it out.  A lot of them blew my mind.   I really don’t know how to write about this book – but if you want your mind blown then you have to read it.  If you’re interested in Math and crazy brain teasers you have to read it.  The only notes I wrote about this book was “mind blown”.  I can’t even explain it but these paradoxes definitely made me rethink everything I thought I knew about math!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Two fathers and two sons leave town. This reduces the population of the town by three. True? Yes, if the trio consists of a father, son, and grandson. This entertaining collection consists of more than 200 such riddles, drawn from every branch of mathematics. Math enthusiasts of all ages will enjoy sharpening their wits with riddles rooted in areas from arithmetic to calculus, covering a wide range of subjects that includes geometry, trigonometry, algebra, concepts of the infinite, probability, and logic. But only an elementary knowledge of mathematics is needed to find amusement in this imaginative collection, which features complete solutions and more than 100 black-and-white illustrations.
“Mr. Northrop writes well and simply. Every so often he will illuminate his discussion with an amusing example. While reading a discussion of topology, the reviewer learned how to remove his vest from beneath his jacket. It works every time.” — The New York Times