Category: E-Books

Traveling in Wonder

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Carolynn, Autumn. Traveling in Wonder: a Travel Photographer’s Tale of Wanderlust. Autumn Carolynn Photography, 2024.

Reason read: As a member of LibraryThing’s Early Review program, I often get to read interesting new releases. Also, for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge, I needed a book in that fit into two genres. This fit the bill with being a memoir and a travelogue.

Traveling in Wonder presents itself as a memoir about a photographer traveling around the world. It is separated into four sections of Autumn Carolynn’s life: Study Abroad, Flight Attendant, Travel Agent, and Autumn Carolynn Photography. At the end of each chapter is a small selection of photographs from a particular trip. More on the photography later. Traveling in Wonder is an honest memoir, revealing situations of childhood bullying and adult mental health challenges. At times throughout Traveling in Wonder I found Carolynn immature (horsing around the Paris metro, sleeping in public places, drinking too much with strangers, leaving instead of clearing the air with travelmates, etc.), but then there are times her wise beyond her years travel savvy comes to the forefront and I am eager to know more. She was only twenty-two years old and brave enough to travel alone around Europe every weekend while in a study abroad program. I enjoyed her honesty and her writing showed signs of lyrical genius, but more often than not, I was suspicious that the whole thing had been written by AI or put through ChatGPT. Some phrasing just didn’t make sense. Here are a few examples: What exactly is a glorious satisfied defeat? Who has a personality like moonlight’s sparkling snow? How does hair become a heap of excitement? What does “bad times make up for the good” mean? How is a waterfall an eccentric beauty? How is rain designated? I just do not know many people who speak like this.
All in all, I enjoyed Traveling in Wonder although I would not recommend reading it on a phone. The photographs, a major draw of the book, were small and underwhelming when viewed on a phone. There weren’t that many of them to enjoy.

As an aside, how do you mistake a Jewish Synagogue for the Roman Colosseum?
Confessional: since she listed food and drink she wanted to try in each foreign country I wish she had written more about those experiences, especially when she decided to become vegetarian.
Contradiction: She claims to want to enjoy the silence in the new places she travels and yet, she listened to Bon Iver as she hiked around a lake.
Confessional: Caryolynn seems to get along better with guys than girls. I could relate. I was the same.

Setlist: Ann Wilson, Beatles, Blink-182, Bob Marley, Bon Iver, Death Cab for Cutie, Dropkick Murphys, Ellie Holcomb, Flogging Molly, George Harrison, Heart, Jack Johnson, John Lennon, John Mayer’s “Stop This Train”, “La Vie En Rose”, Mozart, Nancy Wilson, Paul McCartney, Police’s “Roxanne”, Ringo Starr, Shania Twain, “Strawberry Fields”, Sufjan Stevens, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, “Yellow Submarine”

As another aside, I thought the same thing when she mentioned “Irish” music and mentioned The Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly. As pointed out by another reviewer, they are bands from the United States. When Carolynn mentions the buskers in Dublin, I had to wonder if one of them could have been Dermot. That would have been cool.

I Know This Much Is True

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Lamb, Wally. I Know This Much Is True. HarperCollins, 1998.

Reason read: March is considered Family Month. Brothers are family. Read in honor of brothers everywhere.

Thomas and Dominic. Identical twins.
Dominic’s life reminded me of a country song. You know the ones where anything that could go wrong eventually does. Consider: Dominic spent his entire life worrying about three things. One, who was his father? By not knowing his father Dominic feels he does not know himself. As a child he dreamed of his biological father and fantasized about the day this mystery man would swoop in and save him and Thomas from their abusive stepfather, Ray. Two, Dominic was convinced his mother loved his brother more. Maybe she really did because of Thomas’s mental illness. On her deathbed she makes Dominic promise to look after Thomas, all the while refusing to reveal the true identity of their father. Three, Thomas’s mental illness could be hereditary and sooner or later Dominic would inherit his brother’s schizophrenia. Was he just as crazy as his brother and just not know it? All of these worries weigh on Dominic as he tries to cope. In giving up his own life to fulfill the promise he made to his mother his marriage falls apart and he quit his job as a history teacher (ironically, it is history that sets him free).
In order for this story to be successful the reader needed to be grounded in the current events of the time, otherwise Thomas’s internal angst doesn’t make sense. Eric Clapton’s son falling from a window. Desert Storm. The beating of Rodney King. The world on fire. In addition to these unsettling times, Lamb throws in some equally difficult subjects like racism, AIDS, post traumatic stress suffered by veterans, diabetes, and of course, the complicated system of treating mental health.
I deeply love flawed characters; ones who find a way to change just enough that by the end of the book they are going to be okay, even if it is only somewhat okay. They haven’t gone from devil to angel but their lives are not the disaster they once were.

As another aside, the next time I am feeling threatened by anyone I think I want to try Dominic’s trick of protection – look your tormentor directly in the eye without flinching.

Author fact: Lamb also wrote She’s Come Undone, another fantastic book.

Book trivia: this is a reread for me. I remember being intimidated by the number of pages. Some things never change.

Playlist: Aerosmith, “Age of Aquarius”, Beatles, “Beautiful Dreamer”, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley’s “One Love”, “Cool Jerk”, “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Hunka Hunka Burning Love” by Elvis, Eric Clapton, “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”, “Good Lovin'”, “Happy Birthday”, “Hot Diggity Dog Diggity”, “I Shot the Sherriff”, Indigo Girls, John Lennon’s “Instant Karma”, “Marzy Doats” The Monkees, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”, “Night Moves”, “Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown”, Olivia Newton-John, Question Mark and the Mysterians’s “Ninety-Six Tears”, Rolling Stones, Sam the Sham and the Pharaoh’s “Wooly Bully”, “The Boys are Back in Town”, “Three blind Mice”, Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”, Verdi, “Wild Thing”, Willie Nelson’s “Heartland”, and Yanni.

Nancy said: Pearl called I Know This Much Is True an interesting portrait of therapists. She said more than that but you should check out Book Lust or More Book Lust for more.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Shrinks and Shrinkees” (p 221). Also from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Oh! Brother” (p 180).

Learning to Swim

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Dugan, Shayla. Learning to Swim. Egret Lake Books, 2024.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I get to read some pretty cool books. This is one of them.

Coming off of reading It Was Her New York by Moen, I thought Learning to Swim would be a hard act to follow. The premises appeared to be similar: daughters taking care of their mothers. But that is where the similarities end. Whereas Moen’s story is gritty nonfiction, Dugan’s Learning to Swim tells the fictionalized story of the “sandwich” generation – a woman taking care of her child at the same time as taking care of her parent. Gabrielle moved back home to care for former Olympic swimmer mother, Ida, who needs bypass surgery. In stereotypical fashion the two have never really gotten along. At the same time Gabrielle has thoughtlessly dragged her thirteen year old daughter, Juniper, along completely uprooting her life as well. I don’t think it is a spoiler alert to say through learning to swim, grandmother, mother and daughter learn to accept each other. The ending of the book was very appropriate.
My only complaint is that Learning to Swim could have been a longer book. Dugan does such a great job sketching the characters and making them come alive. By giving them histories she creates depth, but she could have gone further with them. Here is an example: Gabrielle doesn’t know how she likes her eggs. It totally reminded me of a scene right out of Runaway Bride starring Julia Roberts. She didn’t know how she liked her eggs because she was too busy trying to please others. Here is a better example: Gabrielle’s half-brother Chad refused to step up to take care of his mother despite living closer. When he does finally enter the picture it is out of greed and exaggerated indifference to Gabrielle’s grief. Nothing explained the disconnect except to say that the half-siblings were not close growing up.

Character question – Ida’s mother died and wasn’t found for three days because Ida and her father were at an out of state swim meet. Were there no phones? Neither daughter nor husband thought to check in with the woman? At the very least wouldn’t they want to tell her how the meet was going?

As an aside, there was one line that had me scratching my head. Gabrielle said her patience gauge was at “437”. What exactly does that number mean? Have you ever read the poem by Shel Silverstein about the number of teeth in a wild boar’s mouth? The narrator calmly tells someone he will not be impressed by any number thrown at him because he doesn’t know anything about the number of teeth in a wild boar’s mouth. Same with the patience gauge at 437.

As another aside, I loved that someone ate a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. That is my all time favorite.

Book trivia: this was my first book with a AI disclaimer on training.

It Was Her New York

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Moed, C.O. It Was Her New York. Rootstock Publishing, 2024.

Reason read: this was an Early Review from LibraryThing.

Not even fifty years old, Moen is taking care of a mother who rarely recognizes them. Dementia is a cruel disease. Each chapter, each page of It was Her New York reminded me of the tiny whirlpools you see in rivers when the water swirls around jagged rocks and half submerged rotting tree limbs. The vortex of water only hints at what is happening below the surface. The obvious story is Moed’s juggling of taking care of their mother, Florence. The biting humor and loving sarcasm as if the woman was another item on an ever-growing chore list. The subtext is a keen sense of observation and a valiant effort to keep Moen’s sense of self. Around the edges is a portrait of society and sexuality, religion and relationships in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Every page is painted with loving care and uses all the colors. Although there are no traditional chapters and very few proper paragraphs, It Was Her New York packs a punch, especially anyone taking care a parent in the last stages of life. Does it make sense to say there is a warmth to their bite?
As a stubborn librarian who traditionally only borrows books the highest compliment I can pay a writer is to go out and buy their book. When it comes to It Was Her New York, I bought two.

Author fact: I loved Moed’s style of writing so much I want to chase down everything they have ever written.

Book trivia: reading It Was Her New York on my phone was almost a crime. The photographs are not big or bold and some are not even in focus. Instead they are gritty, soul-baring, and brutally honest.

Playlist: “Rock Steady” by Aretha Franklin, Bach, Basie, Beethoven, “Begin the Beguine”, Brahms, Chopin, Cole Porter’s “You’re the Top”, Coltrane, “Too Hot to Trot” by the Commodores, Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”, Duke, Ella, Getz, Linszt, Mozart, Sinatra, and Torme.

Vegan Snack Cookbook

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Riley, Jordan. The Vegan Snack Cookbook.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I sometimes review books. This time, it is an e-cookbook.

A few disclaimers first. I am not a vegan. From time to time I chose a vegetarian meal, but that is far as it goes. I am not pinching my pennies or concerned with the cost of food. That is not to say I am wealthy. I am just not always looking for the most economically recipe. Since Riley mentions writing this book for those audiences (vegan and frugal), I am reviewing this book from a completely different perspective. I want my food to taste good. Period. While the internet is crawling with free recipes I was curious about what The Vegan Snack Cookbook could do for me. Let’s start with the beginning. The cover is delicious. Pun totally intended.
Confessional. Here are my headscratchers: recipes are snacks intended for four people. That surprised me until Riley acknowledged that makes this cookbook different from most snack-based cookbooks. The term “kid safe” also took me by surprise until I realized she meant no knives or fire. Can you tell I don’t have children? I think Riley could have done away with the history of veganism. Chances are, if someone is interested in a vegan snack cookbook, they already know what it means to be vegan. That is something that should come as an insert with the mailing and not take away from the length of the actual cookbook. The Vegan Snack Cookbook is short enough as it is. Same with the repetitiveness of the promises of what The Snack Cookbook will deliver. Riley literally says the same thing twice within a few pages. One last criticism – troubleshooting. How do I know what the original recipe tastes like to determine that my version does or doesn’t come close? I appreciate the pictures so I can make visual comparisons, but the success of the snack is not determined by how it looks on a plate. As I said in the very beginning, I want my food to taste good.
I did appreciate the section on leftovers. I am constantly trying to figure out what to do with them. I also thought the list of vegan essentials was critical. Having said all that, the recipes (finally) start on page 40. After perusing all the recipes I think they all sound wonderful, but I wished they were grouped a little differently. for example, why not put al the nut snacks together? The veggies snacks and dips in one chapter would be nice. Same with beverages.
The total headscratcher was the section on cooking and mental health with references. Why not lead with that information and make the cookbook even more unique?

Animals

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Gray, Ava. Animals: An Adult Coloring Book with Lions, Dogs, Horses, Elephants, Owls, Cats, and Many More! AvaGrayColoring, 2023.

Reason read: This was an interesting win from the Early Review Program for LibraryThing.

Reviewing a coloring book in e-format is a little strange. You don’t get a sense of how well the images are printed or the quality of the paper. Because you print images at home, those elements are dependent on the type of printer you have and the stock of paper you use. One element of Animals I didn’t like: the ability to “unlock” an $85 art activity collection for free. This seemed a little gimmicky to me.

In order of discovery, here are the details I liked about this coloring book:

  1. The zebra test page is a great idea. Test your colors on the stripes of this animal. You will end up with a rainbow beast.
  2. This is a coloring book that supports the adoption of animals. Good idea. Although, which rescue initiative receives the money is not exactly clear.
  3. Every animal you can think of is represented in Animals (and even some you didn’t think of, like water buffalo and meercat).
  4. The illustrations are gorgeous and fun. I could tell (for the most part) what each animal was supposed to be.

Za’atar Days, Henna Nights

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Masood, Maliha. Za’atar Days, Henna Nights: Adventures, Dreams, and Destinations Across the Middle East. Seal Press, 2006.

Reason read: October is hero month and I would consider Masood a sort of superhero for traveling around by the seat of her pants.

Masood straddles that line between American and Pakistani, Pakistani and American. Born in Pakistan, her family moved to America when Masood was in middle school. Now, eighteen years later, Masood is traveling haphazardly through the Middle East. She bought a one-way ticket with no intention of having a specific itinerary. It was a journey just be to on a journey. One could call it a trek to Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Turkey as some sort of spiritual quest to find herself or get back to her ancestral roots. Did she? I’m not really certain. To be sure, Masood had some crazy adventures (some more dangerous than others), she had a few cultural misunderstandings, and she relied heavily on the natives she befriended (I felt bad for the men who fell in love with her). All in all, she survived her seventeen months of travel relatively unscathed.

As an aside, I had no idea pollution was a thing in Cairo.

Confessional: Tommy Rivs got me interested in the poetry of Mary Oliver. Masood includes one of Tommy’s favorites, “Listen, are you breathing just a little, and call it a life?”
Second confession: Because of Natalie Merchant’s album “Keep Your Courage” I have been paying attention to mentions of Walt Whitman. Masood also reads Walt.

Reason read: there is such a thing as za’atar days, the celebration of the spice.

Playlist: “Staying Alive”, U2, Phil Collins, Pavarotti, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Duran Duran’s “Union of the Snake”, Umm Kulthum, “Enta Omri” (as an aside, Masood spelled Umm’s name as Om Khoulsoum and the song as “Inta Omri”. I couldn’t find singer or song with those spellings) Amr Diab (as another aside, this guy is very good looking), Fairuz, Saleh, Wadi al Safi, Jose Fernandez, Elvis Presley, and Billy Joel.

Nancy said: Pearl did not say anything specific about Za’atar Days.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “A Mention of the Middle East” (p 148).

People Person

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Williams, Sandy R. People Person: How to Talk to Anyone, Improve Social Awkwardness, and Communicate With Ease and Confidence. 2023.
Reason read: an Early Review pick from LibraryThing.

I decided I would not try to digest every piece of advice or tackle every suggestion Williams made in People Person. It was good enough to start small: smiling at everyone you meet, saying hello with enthusiasm and practice positive self-talk. I don’t know what constitutes a power playlist or how to surround myself with confident people (they are who they are). One of the best reasons to read a self help book is to discover other self help books that might fit you better. In reading People Person I discovered Ty Tashiro.
Warning – the consequences of not being a people person sounds like the warning label on a prescription bottle: if you are anxious, side effects include misunderstandings and missed opportunities; loneliness and depression.
Confessional: I am wary of any book that uses the word transformation. Another disappointment was a plug for reviews at the end of chapter four. Williams could have at least waited until the end of the book for such a self-serving plug.
All in all, I enjoyed People Person. This is the first self help book I have read in a long that I consider more helpful than not.

Less Than

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Long, A.D. Less Than. Zada Press, 2023.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review program I occasionally review books for LibraryThing. I have to admit, it was refreshing to receive a work of fiction this time around.

When we first meet Evann, he is in the middle of a drug-induced crisis. Memories and flashbacks help explain how he got to this place of desperation. Most of the book is one flashback after another, mostly surrounding the verbal and sometime physical abuse of his mother, a self-centered woman who never wanted him as her first born. Evann’s present life is all about excessive drug use and maintaining an image of normalcy for his oblivious family. It isn’t hard to do. His parents barely notice his existence and his sister, Nicole, is too caught up in being the golden child. Evann is so lost in the sauce he doesn’t have a present-day personality to speak of. His childhood self is innocent, charming, introverted. As a budding artist he shows all the signs of becoming extremely talented. Of course, no one takes this talent seriously. Certainly not, compared to Nicole’s talent as a ballerina.
Towards the end of Less Than, as a means of explanation maybe, Bruce and Ann, Evann’s parents get chapters to justify their lack of love for Evann. Even Nicole tells her story. Their secrets are a little overdramatic and exaggerated, but they prove a point: all families have ghosts; ghosts that could push a good kid into drug addiction. Because of Evann’s lack of adult personality, I wasn’t as vested in his outcome as I should have been.

Author fact: Long has her own website here.

Book trivia: Less Than is Long’s debut novel.

Playlist: Willie Nelson and “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin.

Literary Companion to Sex

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Pitt-Kethley, Fiona. The Literary Companion to Sex: an anthology of prose and poetry. Random House, 1992.

Reason read: July is National Parenting Month. Parenting comes about from having unprotected sex (among other ways) so…

I liked Pitt-Kethley’s approach to organizing The Literary Companion to Sex. It made sense to break the book into five sections according to the ages rather than a strict chronology that could be disputed. First we have the Ancient World which includes the Bible, Talmud and writings from such as Homer and Virgil. Next comes the eighteenth century with excerpts from Dafoe, Milton, and Marvell. (I think everyone knows “To His Coy Mistress”.) The nineteenth century features writings from Richard Burton, Honore de Balzac, and Emile Zola, to name a few. “The Magic Ring” from Kryptadia was one of my favorites. The twentieth century surprised me. Yes, I know Philip Roth, Henry Miller, and John Updike would be included, but what about Edmund White?
I also appreciated Pitt-Kethley’s statement that she “inserted the rude words omitted” like a warning to keep your hands inside the moving vehicle at all times. You have a more enjoyable ride if you know what’s coming. Pun totally intended.
Here is what I got out of reading The Literary Companion to Sex. Like all good pornography, the plot is minimal in most stories. Benjamin Franklin believed sex with an older woman was better because the woman they would be so grateful (among other reasons). Women can be harsh about other women’s bodies describing breasts that hang heavy and “navel-low”.
What I really want to know is how Pitt-Kethley found all of these juicy parts of poems, plays, novels, letters, journals, and essays? I cannot begin to imagine the research that went into compiling the contents of The Literary Companion to Sex.

Editor fact: Pitt-Kethley had a blog here where she lists cats and karate as interests.

Book trivia: I had a really hard time finding this in a local library. I couldn’t even borrow Literary Companion to Sex from any library across the state so I ended up reading it on Internet Archive.

Nancy said: Pearl didn’t say anything about The Literary Companion to Sex except to say it is a collection of the really “good” parts of novels.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Sex and the Single Reader” (p 218) as if the married reader couldn’t enjoy a romp between the pages every once in awhile.

Back to Yoga

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Kelley, Steve. Back to Yoga: A Whole Body Routine You can Do Anywhere in 30 Minutes or Less to Increase Energy, Focus, Relief Stress, Lower Anxiety and Improve Flexibility, Balance and Strength. Amazon Books, 2023.

Reason read: I am a member of LibraryThing and occasionally I review books. This is one of them.

One of the first things you learn when starting to read Back to Yoga is that you will get a free gift if you jump through the tiny hoop of emailing the author. You also learn Back to Yoga is not written by a professional practitioner. All of Steve Kelley’s information comes from someone else. His biggest source of information is an article found in Medical News Today (a health website that pulls primary research from other sources). Did I mention you get a free gift when you email the author? Kelley makes it clear he offers no warranties or professional advice. The standard disclaimer: you must see a medical professional before starting his routine. Instead, the purpose of Back to Yoga is to show busy people that no matter their schedule or lifestyle, they can practice yoga. Despite that goal, Kelley never explains how to carve out that time.
As Kelley admits, there is a little redundancy to the information he does include (I call this stretching the content). Despite the redundancy I felt there was room for more information. I was disappointed by the number of poses included in Back to Yoga. Kelley only includes one routine of 24 poses. Maybe the idea is to practice these 24 poses until you master them? The best part of Back to Yoga is the section of illustrated poses. They drawings are cute and they were accurate and informative. Not sure what the QR code was all about as I did not scan it, but there was one on every illustration. By the way, if you email the author you will get a free gift. He mentions this no less than five times in Back to Yoga.
Author fact: Steve Kelley also wrote the Grow Your Business with ChatGPT book I reviewed last month. As always, I appreciate his humor.
Book trivia: I think I found a typo. Sync does not rhyme with inch so I think he meant to say cinch.

Boy’s Own Story

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White, Edmund. A Boy’s Own Story. Iconic Books, Open Road Media. 2000.
White, Edmund. A Boy’s Own Story. Vintage International, 1982.

Reason read: June is Pride Month.

First published in 1982, A Boy’s Own Story‘s main character has been compared to Teddy Roosevelt and characters from Lolita and Huckleberry Finn. The first in a trilogy and supposedly autobiographical in nature, A Boy’s Own Story introduces themes of desire, coming of age, and identity. The book’s nameless young narrator navigates his own sexuality in an age when parents simply warn their children about predators who seem “oversexed” and “take advantage of younger boys.” Our hero fights his homosexual tendencies while wondering why the adult camp counselor doesn’t rub his back in the middle of the night. Torn between propriety and passion, he struggles to find normalcy in his desires. Will his feelings for other boys fade in time? It this something to grow out of? In an effort to “change” he first seeks the advice of a priest. When that does not work, he convinces his father to send him to an all-boys boarding school. Maybe being in the presence of so many males would normalize his sexuality and set him straight? Not so. Next came a psychiatrist. Maybe he can address the psychological aspects of being attracted to men? Ultimately, he is looking for a way to have sex with a man and then disown him so to disavow his homosexuality. The secret to his longing is power which makes A Boy’s Own Story all at once poignant and sad.

Line I liked, “The subject of this book might be that brief eloquence between the fantasies of a dream-bound child and his implementing through charm, sexuality, his wits” (p 6). The saddest sentence in the book, “I had spent so much of my childhood sunk into a cross-eyed, nose-picking turpitude of shame and self-loathing, scrunched up in the corner of a sweating leather chair on a hot summer day, the heat having silenced the birds, even the construction workers on the site next door, and delivering me up to the admonishing black head of the fan on the floor slowly shaking from left to right, right to left to signal its tedious repetition of no, no, no, and to exhale the faintly irritating vacillations of its breath” (p 126).

Author fact: White lists Proust as one of his influences. I love it when I’m reading a connection to another book.

Book trivia: A Boy’s Own Story is autobiographical.

Playlist: “Dies Irae”, Juliette Greco, “Nothing Like a Dame”, Odetta, “Pat Boone’s “Twixt Twelve and Twenty”, “Now is the Hour”, “Zip-a-Dee Doo-Dah”, “Kitten on the Keys”, “I’ll Be Seeing You in Apple Blossom Time”, “The Tennessee Waltz”, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Liberace, Schubert’s “Unfinished”,

Nancy said: Pearl said Boy’s Own Story was “set prior to Stonewall” (Book Lust p 94). For those who don’t know, Stonewall refers to the Stonewall Rebellion or Stonewall Uprising; a riot in the early morning of June 28th, 1969. Police violently raided an establishment known as Stonewall. The community in and around Greenwich Village, New York, protested the attack.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the too-short chapter called “Gay and Lesbian Fiction: Out of the Closet” (p 93). There are so many other great novels Pearl could have mentioned (like Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden).

Grow Your Business with ChatGPT

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Kelley, Steve. Grow Your Business with ChatGPT: The 5-Step Al Blueprint to Generate More Revenue by Automating and Optimizing Your Business Processes Using Artificial Intelligence. Kindle Edition, 2023.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I am occasionally asked to review interesting books. My institution is getting into ChatGPT and so I thought I would expand my horizons a little with this review.

Confessional: I didn’t read the fine print about how this book would be delivered. Yes, I knew it was an e-book. Yes, I knew the author would send me a link. No, I didn’t know it would be an Amazon-only product (brought to you by Kindle). I don’t own a Kindle. What if I didn’t even have an Amazon account? I have to log into Amazon as if I am shopping in order to read Grow Your Business with ChatGPT. Amazon’s bots must think I’m doing a lot of browsing, but I never seem to buy anything.

Second Confessional: I don’t have a business from which to generate more revenue. I don’t have a business to automate. I don’t have a business process to optimize. I chose Grow Your Business with ChatGPT: The 5-Step Al Blueprint to Generate More Revenue by Automating and Optimizing Your Business Processes Using Artificial Intelligence because I wanted to come at it from the perspective of someone who is interested in starting a business. A business to automate and optimize and certainly from which to generate more revenue (who doesn’t want that).

I found Grow Your Business with ChatGPT to be very straightforward and dare I say, fun? Kelley writes with a conversational tone when his subject matter could be very dry and technical. Confessional Number Three: I did skip some parts, but only when he told me I could. There is a lot of sound advice and solid information in the parts I did read. In truth, I think Grow Your Business with ChatGPT is best suited for the audience Kelley intended – the folks already in business; the people wanting to stay well ahead of the curve.

Over 50 Exercises

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Keilah, Kalina. Over 5o Exercises That Support Cross Training.

I do not pretend to be an expert on fitness. I am not a certified trainer, but I work out every single day with one. I would like to think I know a thing or two about proper form, proper weight, proper number of reps, and so on. This book fell short in all of these areas.

The subtitle of this book is Revolutionary Guide to Prevent Injury. I kept looking for the evidence of revolutionary. What makes this book revolutionary? The why of it all was missing.
Here were the cons for me:
1. The information was cookie-cutter and very abbreviated.
2. The layout of information was confusing. Starts with Rotator Cuff then Abdominals. What is so important about the rotator cuff?
3. Abbreviations were not explained. What is TA, RA, EO?
4. Not a lot of information about proper form except shoulder winging. No explanation about why shoulder winging is so bad, either.
5. There was no prep on what equipment one would need: dumbbells, stability ball, cables (gym membership?), resistance bands (mini and regular), foam roller, small ball for feet.
6. There were inconsistencies with illustrations as well. Back and glute muscles are clearly defined but not abdominals.
7. Some information was repetitious (not helpful when the “book” is only 88 pages long): what is the difference between “angry cat/flat back” and “cat/cow” or the hamstring stretch on page 61 from the hamstring stretch on page 71?
8. Descriptions about how to perform exercises were lacking. How do you do 10 – 15 reps on each side of angry cat/flat back? Illustrations do not match written instructions.
9. What is a subscapularis and why should I care?
10. Someone could hurt themselves if they do not chose the proper weight or use proper form, but there is no guidance on either.

I did like the section on foam rolling, since I hate foam rolling. The Theragun saved my life.
In short, there was so much more that could have gone into this book.

My Race Against Death

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Rao, Shoba. My Race Against Death: Lessons Learned From My Health Struggles. Indie Books, 2023.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I review interesting books.

Rao is fearless. Her need-to-know personality forced her to research the cause of her three different cancers and kidney failure so that she could erase the Why Me pity party from her vocabulary. She needed logic to trump random bad luck. When she found the protein called tumor protein p53 that acts as a tumor suppressor and found a software to read MRI scans, she became my hero. Her ability to stare each death sentence in the eye and not flinch was astounding. She had faith in logic, science, and technological advancements. The downside of such an analytical brain telling the story is that Rao comes across as detached, without much personality. Rao is fearless. Well, except when it comes to cats. Everything she explains is matter of fact. Memories are in fragments. The glimpses of her heart came during the advice section of her book. Her tone becomes warmer when talking about the future. [As an aside, I was reminded of Carrie in Sex and the City when she and the Russian were discussing Samantha’s cancer. Carrie was extremely upset when he compared Samantha’s situation to a friend who did not survive.]

As another aside, when I was reading the part when Rao’s doctor told her not to Google her diagnosis and she does, I was also watching an old episode of This Is Us when the doctor tells Kate’s family not to Google her diagnosis. It is human nature to peek into darkness, not matter how many monsters could potentially be hiding under the bed.

Book trivia: the illustrations are strange. The girl on the toilet is childlike compared to the portraits.