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Category Archives: Book Reviews – Non-Fiction


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How to Become a ‘Fully Alive’ Addiction Warrior

Fully Alive

Using Your Individuality to Conquer Addiction

By Michael J. Surdyka

Non-Fiction

“Imagine yourself as a warrior,” urges author Michael J. Surdyka in this frank, no-nonsense book on conquering addiction, both alcohol and drug. “If you want to keep your sobriety, you are required to fight for your life every single day.”

The author shows you how in this practical hands-on guide to lifelong sobriety.

Indeed, Fully Alive offers a powerhouse of perspective, support, understanding and practical advice for anyone battling an addiction or those who know someone battling same. What sets this book apart from many other resources on the topic is its emphasis on developing a Sobriety Blueprint and recovery plan specially and specifically tailored to each unique individual.

As explained in the Introduction, Fully Alive is:

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‘Immersed in West Africa’: Not Your Average Travel Book

Immersed in West Africa: My Solo Journey Across Senegal, Mauritania, The Gambia, Guinea and Guinea Bissau (Kindle) (Travels With Terry Book 1) by [Terry Lister]

Amazon

Immersed in West Africa: My Solo Journey Across Senegal, Mauritania, The Gambia, Guinea and Guinea Bissau

By Terry Lister

Non-Fiction

Truth? When the author initially requested a review, I wasn’t interested. That’s cuz the last few travelogue/memoir type books I’ve read were redundant and as dull as dirt. Think moon rocks. Without the moon.

But the author was gently persistent. So I reluctantly agreed to read and review. (Which just shows you what I know.)

Turns out Immersed in West Africa is a delightful read. Here’s why:

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ALL ABOARD for Adventure With 2 Unique Travel Tomes

  “Car ride! We’re goin’ for a car ride!!”

Wait. We’re not goin’ for a car ride, Mom? Whaddya mean, “Travel by book?” To where? Can I come? Is there food?

Kimber here. Mom says it’s all aboard for two nifty travel-ish tomes she recently read. One takes us aboard a humongous passenger ship making the New York to England crossing in 1915. (I’d bring a really, really good life jacket ‘fize you.) It’s called Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. The other.is a pert and pretty “travel memoir” about traveling with youngun’s, Passports and Pacifiers: Traveling the World One Tantrum at a Time.

So. All aboard! Let’s go!

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Why Did The Chicken Bus Cross the Road?

Adventure by Chicken Bus: An Unschooling Odyssey Through Central America (Resource Publications, 2019)

 

By Janet LoSole

Non-fiction
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When the author first reached out to me requesting a review, I didn’t know what to think about this book. As in, What’s a ‘chicken bus’?* (Kimber: “Can I eat it?”) I was dangling on the rim edge of Not Interested. As a veteran homeschooler myself, however, I decided to give it a chance.

What a ride.

 

Adventure by Chicken Bus is a thoroughly entertaining, fascinating ride along with a family of four as they travel through Central America over the course of roughly a year and a half. With two little girls in tow, ages then-five and eight, the LoSoles roam all over the region, including the Caribbean coast, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico.

It’s quite the odyssey. Continue reading →


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‘Invisible’ & ‘Unbroken’: Two Remarkable WWII Reads

Combining history and biography can be a challenge, especially when the setting is a world war. But two recently read books do that and more, offering compelling reads that shouldn’t be missed. Both are set in WWII.

Here they are:

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Medical Memoir Majors in Merriment: ‘Playing Doctor, Part One’

  1. PLAYING DOCTOR - Part One: Medical School: Stumbling through with amnesia Kindle Edition

Playing Doctor – Part One

Medical School: Stumbling through with amnesia

(Books Go Social, August 2020)

By John Lawrence

Biographies & Memoirs/Humor

Medical school joke: “What do you call the person who graduates last in their medical school class?”

Answer: “Doctor.”

The line is right-on-the-stethoscope and sets the tone early in this nimble, entertaining medical school memoir. Told in the first person with tongue firmly planted in cheek, Playing Doctor includes twenty-one chapters and an Epilogue covering the author’s four years at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

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A Story That Strengthens – ‘Becoming Elisabeth Elliot’

Becoming Elisabeth Elliot (B&H Publishing, September 2020)

By Ellen Vaughn

Biography/Non-fiction

 

“Is this true? If so, what do I need to do about it to obey God?”

These are the foundational questions that book-ended the life of one of the most influential Christian women of the century. They also undergird Ellen Vaughn’s eloquent and articulate biography, Becoming Elisabeth Elliot.

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Now Go, Cat, Go!

Remember that rockin’ Carl Perkins tune about shoes famously belted out by Elvis?

Well, it’s one for the money

Two for the show

Three to get ready

Now go, cat, go!

We’re giving you the Kimber and Mom Blue Suede Special on three+ recently read books. The first book is a modern retelling of the biblical story of Abraham and Sarah. The other is historical fiction set in the Russia of Peter the Great. Another is a gripping memoir of love, loss and hope. And because we’re so generous and all, we’re throwing in a fourth at no extra charge, set in 1789 France and England. There’s also a fifth set in …. la la land.

So. Without further ado, on with the reviews. Or as Kimber would say, Go cat, go!

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‘A Pilgrim at 60’ Flies High!

A Pilgrim Looks at 60: Life in the Middle of the Christian Bell Curve

Elm Hill, a division of Harper Collins Christian Publishing, 2019.

By James Annable

What happens when a “truth grenade” goes off in your face? How do you deal with it? Who do you tell, and why?

These questions and more saturate this entertaining, engaging, and insightful read by James Annable.

As noted in the Introduction, the author undertakes his “reflective pilgrimage” to explore who he is and how he came to be that way, explaining same to his five children. He discovers something universal along the way. Something worth sharing.

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Move Over, Erma: There’s a New Queen on the Scene

Stand All the Way Up: Stories of Staying in it When You Want to Burn it All Down (B&H Publishing, 2020)

By Sophie Hudson

Christian Life/Self-Confidence/Faith/Humor

Move over, Erma Bombeck. There’s a new queen on the humor scene. Her name is Sophie Hudson. And although she may not be new to you, she was to me. Ditto her hilarious, excruciatingly insightful Stand All the Way Up: Stories of Staying in it When you Want to Burn it All Down.

Talk about a breath of fresh air.

Hooked

Anyone who opens a book with monkeys invading an open air lodge in Kenya and stealing Cajun-flavored Pistachios has me hooked. Ditto an author who candidly admits she’s “having issues” with birthdays where a “nine” rolls over into a zero, and her “stand-offish relationship” with fifty.

I hear ya, sista.

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