November 22, 2016
The Stages of Grace Book Review
The Stages of Grace was written out of a desire to share with others who have loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease what I have experience as Grace’ caregiver and friend.
About The Stages of Grace
This book was written out of a desire to share with others who have loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease what I have experience as Grace’ caregiver and friend. I wanted to capture the emotions, the expected and the unexpected issues, the painful times as well as the humorous and loving moments that Grace and I have shared as a result of this disease. This is not mean to be a handbook for dealing with Alzheimer’s disease, but I hope that by sharing my feelings and experiences, readers may recognize they are not alone on this particular journey.
My Thoughts
The Stages of Grace is beautiful, open, honest look into the life of a caregiver and friend. This book had me in tears, laughing and wanting to give both Connie and Grace a hug. Connie writes in such an open and honest manner, that you feel as though you are right there with her having the conversations, talking about the joys and pains of life with a person with Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is not an easy disease for anyone to deal with (not that any disease is but this one comes with its own ups and downs). It can be painful, it can be frustrating but at times beautiful and honest. We watch Grace travel down her road with Alzheimer’s and some times she is there in every moment while others you can feel how alone and scared she must be. I can’t even begin to imagine the fear that must come from not remembering those around you or what happened hours ago. The frustration and fear must be unbearable for the person involved.
The caregiver, in this case Connie, also goes through a great ordeal as they slowly lose parts of the person they love. That person is still there but the glimpses come in bursts. The love Connie has for Grace is beautiful and brought me to tears at many times. She is such a strong, beautiful and kind daughter.
This is the perfect book not only for caregivers but anyone that is dealing with Alzheimer’s disease. It is not a book to guide you on dealing with the disease but instead a way to share emotions, the good, the bad and the ugly. It will leave you smiling, with hope and at times in tears.
You can purchase a copy on Amazon and Amazon.ca.
Rating:5/5
About the Author
Connie Ruben is an entrepreneur with well-developed management skills. She has run several large companies, and prides herself on empowering others to work to their full potential. Connie also has an intimate knowledge of the challenges and joys of caring for a family member with Alzheimer’s disease, as her mother-in-law Grace was diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer’s disease in 2003. While Connie still struggles to balance her work life and home life, her understanding of this disease has made it easier for her to negotiate the demands of being a caregiver, as well as a wife, mother, and employer. She has written this book in order to share the insights she has gained as Grace’s primary caregiver and friend. Most importantly, Connie wants this book to assure others that caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease can be enjoyable, life-affirming, and emotionally significant. You can connect with her on her website.
The Giveaway
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
November 21, 2016
Top Children’s Book Picks From Raincoast Books for the Holidays
I love books – my family tease me daily about my obsession with reading. It started when I was a child and my parents could find me curled up on the sofa with a great book. I want my children to have and know this love of books. Books are magical – they take you on adventures, they help you escape, help you to learn and understand the world around you. Children’s books do this in a very special way and the best part is you get to experience this with your child as you either read along with them or read the story to them.
Here are four of my top children book picks from Raincoast Books for this holiday season:
The Wish Tree
Charles wants to find a wish tree. His brother and sister don’t believe there is such a thing, but his trusty companion Boggan is ready to join Charles on a journey to find out. And along the way, they discover that wishes can come true in the most unexpected ways. The poetic text and heartwarming illustrations evoke the true essence of the holiday season and will inspire wishers everywhere. This gem of a book deserves center stage year round.
The Wish Tree is a beautiful story with gorgeous illustrations about a young boy with a kind heart. He wants nothing more than to find a wish tree, his siblings don’t believe in his dream and don’t support his search. He heads out with his trusty companion and meets many new friends on his special journey. It was a truly beautiful, heart warming story that made the perfect bed time read.
The Story Book Knight
In The Story Book Knight even dragons love a good story. Leo was a gentle knight in thought, word and deed. While other knights liked fighting, Leo liked to sit and read. When Leo’s mom and dad pack him off to fight a dragon, he takes a shield, a sword-and a pile of his favorite books. But can a story be as mighty as a sword?
The Story Book Knight is a truly special story about a gentle knight who sets out to change the image of knights and how to be mighty. He loves his books but it just doesn’t quite fit in with the picture of what a knight should be. He sets off on his first and very important mission to fight a dragon and meets many creatures along the way. Instead of using his sword, he uses his love of reading and books to save the day. A truly special book to show children they are all special in their own unique way – we don’t have to use strength and power to save the day. Instead love, compassion and kindness are the most powerful gifts of all.
The Truth About My Unbelievable Summer
What really happened over the summer break? A curious teacher wants to know. The epic explanation? What started out as a day at the beach turned into a globe-spanning treasure hunt with high-flying hijinks, exotic detours, an outrageous cast of characters, and one very mischievous bird! Is this yet another tall tale, or is the truth just waiting to be revealed? From the team behind I Didn’t Do My Homework Because . . . and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to School . . . comes a fantastical fast-paced, detail-rich illustrated summer adventure that’s so unbelievable, it just might be true!
The Truth About My Unbelievable Summer is a fantastic read for young readers a like. It reads like a conversation that children can relate to and has excellent illustrations. I found we could easily use silly tones in our voices and get very serious to help draw our boys into the story. They were giggling throughout the whole story and trying hard to guess what would happen next.
Curious George, 75th Anniversary Edition
This treasured classic is where it all began for the curious, loveable monkey. Special anniversary cover with foil and spot gloss make this edition a must-have for any children’s book collection. Includes bonus downloadable audio read by the actor, producer, and director John Krasinski. Access code can be found inside the book on page two for the bonus audiobook.
Curious George is a classic that all children love – as well as adults! It brings back so many great memories for me from my own childhood! This edition covers George as he leaves Africa with the man with the yellow hat and sail to the big city. Get ready for laughs as George gets caught up in antics that only George can get caught up in.
What do you look for in children’s books? Happy reading this holiday season!
Disclosure: I received the above mentioned books free of charge. All opinions expressed are my own.
November 21, 2016
Dreaming Sophia Book Review
Dreaming Sophia is a magical look into Italy, language, art, and culture.
About Dreaming Sophia
Dreaming Sophia is a magical look into Italy, language, art, and culture. It is a story about turning dreams into reality and learning to walk the fine line between fact and fantasy. When tragedy strikes, Sophia finds herself alone in the world, without direction and fearful of loving again. With only her vivid imagination to guide her, she begins a journey that will take her from the vineyards in Sonoma, California to a grad school in Philadelphia and, eventually, to Italy: Florence, Lucca, Rome, Verona, Venice, and Val d’Orcia.
Through dreamlike encounters, Sophia meets Italian personalities—princes, poets, duchesses, artists, and film stars— who give her advice to help put her life back together. Following a path that takes her from grief to joy, she discovers the source of her creativity and learns to love again, turning her dreams into reality.
My Thoughts
I fell in love with Dreaming Sophia! My time in Italy when I was sixteen was magical, Italy has this way of drawing you in with its culture, history and people. The streets are alive with history at every corner and instead of hiding it, history is embraced and celebrated. The art in Italy is incredible – I could have spent days just wandering around the cities I visited. You want to touch the walls, visit every Church and just sit in the streets to embrace every moment.
In Dreaming Sophia, we have a young girl who must overcome a great loss and change in her life and in order to do so she must embrace her love of art and history, as well as travelling to the place her Mother loved so much. Her dreams help guide her and encourage her during this difficult time in her life. I love how free Sophia is to love and embrace her dreams and the hope they give her. She embraces her future and we are drawn right into the Italian culture and history. You will feel as though you are with her on the streets of Florence, in the coffee shops and in her art studio. We watch her grow as an individual and as a woman and the transformation is wonderful. You feel almost like her Mother and best friend, wanting nothing but the best for Sophia. I wished the story would never have ended because I just couldn’t wait to see what happened next (to tell you would give away the story but trust me, she leaves you craving more!). Dreaming Sophia is a beautiful story of hope, faith, trust and a love of all things Italian. A truly wonderful novel to treasure over and over again.
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon, Create Space, iTunes, Barnes & Noble and Inktera.
Rating: 5/5
About the Author
Melissa Muldoon is the Studentessa Matta-the crazy linguist! In Italian, “matta” means “crazy” or “impassioned”. Melissa has a B.A. in fine arts, art history and European history from Knox College, a liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, as well as a master’s degree in art history from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She has also studied painting and art history in Florence.
Melissa promotes the study of Italian language and culture through her dual-language blog, Studentessa Matta (studentessamatta.com). Melissa began the Matta blog to improve her command of the language and to connect with other language learners. It has since grown to include a podcast, “Tutti Matti per l’Italiano” and the Studentessa Matta YouTube channel. Melissa also created Matta Italian Language Immersion Tours, which she co-leads with Italian partners in Italy.
Dreaming Sophia is Melissa’s first novel. It is a fanciful look at art history and Italian language and culture, but it is also the culmination of personal stories and insights resulting from her experiences living in Italy, as well as her involvement and familiarity with the Italian language, painting, and art history.
As a student, Melissa lived in Florence with an Italian family. She studied art history and painting and took beginner Italian classes. When she returned home, she threw away her Italian dictionary, assuming she’d never need it again but after launching a successful design career and starting a family, she realized something was missing in her life. That “thing” was the connection she had made with Italy and the friends who live there. Living in Florence was indeed a life-changing event! Wanting to reconnect with Italy, she decided to start learning the language again from scratch. As if indeed possessed by an Italian muse, she bought a new Italian dictionary and began her journey to fluency-a path that has led her back to Italy many times and enriched her life in countless ways.
Now, many dictionaries and grammar books later, she dedicates her time to promoting Italian language studies, further travels in Italy, and sharing her stories and insights about Italy with others. When Melissa is not traveling in Italy, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is married and has three boys and two beagles.
Melissa designed and illustrated the cover art for Dreaming Sophia. She also designed the Dreaming Sophia website and created the character illustrations that can be found in the book and on the Dreaming Sophia websites.
The Giveaway!
Book Trailer
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
November 21, 2016
Falling for the Stars Book Spotlight
In Falling for the Stars, we have a behind the scenes tell all about doubling for celebrity superstars and the compelling life story of an insecure Hollywood arrival who rises to the top of her field but pays a hefty price.
About Falling for the Stars
This behind the scenes tell all about doubling for celebrity superstars and the compelling life story of an insecure Hollywoo arrival who rises to the top of her field but pays a hefty price of addiction, chauvinism and big egos.
Discover the magic and the tragic stories of many great films & TV shows through the eyes of a stuntwoman. Dalton reveals what it took to hang over cliffs, get hit by a moving car, drop from five stories up, dodge an avenue full of speeding cars–and to ignore the Universe’s more gentle prompts that it was time to quit and follow her passion into acting full-time or teaching acting.
The resulting career-ending spinal injury has a story of its own, how she researched medical and alternative paths that form the heart of what she shares with the world today. “What stands out in this book is the indomitable spirit the author has, despite the extraordinary price she paid for her stellar career–including misogyny, a miscarriage, and a life-long back injury. And each juicy story she relays in her fascinating chronicle, brings home an important life lesson for the reader–one that she learned the hard way.
About the Author
From a bullied, dyslexic, messy, freckle-faced, klutzy pixie, Lisa Loving Dalton grew into a statuesque and skillful stuntwoman, actor, director, teacher, author, filmmaker, leadership and life coach, and ceremonial minister. Always seeking and finding the silver lining, she has made the most of whatever life threw at her. She says, “I spill stuff, trip and drip all of the time so I made a career out of it. My advice: Embrace what is as perfect.”
Dalton appeared in more than 200 films, television shows and commercials in New York, Hollywood and Texas, including work in Ghostbusters, Money Pit, Crocodile Dundee, Married to the Mob, FX, Legal Eagles, and Splash on the big screen and ER, HBO’s Carnivale, Dr. Quinn and Melrose Place among her many TV credits.
You can connect with her on her website, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram.
The Giveaway!
This giveaway is open to residents of the USA only. Good luck!
Disclosure: This is a spotlight tour, I did not receive compensation for this product. All opinions expressed are my own.
November 19, 2016
Utterly Amazing Dinosaur Book Review
Visit the amazing world of dinosaurs in the Utterly Amazing Dinosaur from DK Canada!
About Utterly Amazing Dinosaur
Packed with pop-ups, flaps, games, activities, and mind-blowing facts, Utterly Amazing Dinosaur explores the prehistoric world of dinosaurs, from the mighty T. rex to the armored Stegosaurus. See the different stages of how fossils are formed, and study the skeletons of different dinosaurs, and get up close to a Velociraptor with a special pop-up.
Learn about the dinosaurs that swam in the sea, stomped on land, or flew in the sky. Find out what different dinosaurs ate, from herbivore to carnivore to omnivore. The colorful illustrations clearly show the different types of dinosaurs, and the pronunciation guide teaches readers how to say those tricky dinosaur names.
From the biggest predators to the discovery of fossils, Utterly Amazing Dinosaur takes children back to an awe-inspiring era of history using innovate paper tricks to create fun and stunning effects.
Our Thoughts
Dinosaurs have a way of fascinating children and adults alike. They are majestic and beautiful in their own special way. They are powerful and fierce and yet gentle and kind. Movies have sparked the imagination of little ones and it is in books that they find the real good information that makes them want more. Utterly Amazing Dinosaur is an excellent book for children that not only provides information but fascinates and fosters a love of learning of these powerful creatures.
The book is large (roughly letter page sized) with a hard cover and the pages inside are also made up of a stiffer material (so much better for rougher little hands who get excited easily). The book is full of pop ups and flaps that your child can explore – my personal favourite pop up was the long necks (not just because they are my favourite dinosaur!). The hard material of the book helps to ensure the pop ups and flaps wont tear the first few times your little one plays with them because lets face it, kids get far to excite to open flaps and use a stronger force then necessary. The dinosaur facts were age appropriate but still gave enough information to keep us adults interested and it felt natural reading it aloud to our child and easy to make dramatic or silly to help engage our son in the book more. The illustrations are bright and bold that helps to draws you into the story.
Utterly Amazing Dinosaur will be a perfect addition under the Christmas tree this year. I am a firm believer of giving gifts that inspire and educate – Utterly Amazing Dinosaur does this and more. This book will definitely be a hit among the Dinosaur fans in your home. You can purchase a copy of this book here.
Rating: 5/5
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review, all opinions expressed are my own.