When I set out to write a book about the natural history of breasts, I knew I'd have to answer some awkward questions about my book topic. At a...
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The Unseen by T.H. Hines is a thriller that kept me awake one night. The main character, Lucas, is slowly revealed to be a gentle, flawed person that I grew to care about.
Lucas lives in the unclaimed parts of Washington D.C.—empty buildings, maintenance areas of Howard University. He knows the back way into every transit station and routinely hops on mass transit to navigate DC. He seems to be a loner and a renegade, working odd jobs, stashing cash in hiding places throughout the city. And spying on people. Watching them while they were at work from a small hole he would drill in the wall of a closet, or in the ceiling. He could watch people for hours, and loved it when they got that feeling they were being watched. He often took something from the people he was watching, and had a small collection of these special objects—photographs from their workstation, a scarf, you get the idea.
Lucas meets someone from a group that spies on people like he does, but they go a step further: they videotape the people in their homes, edit their films and show them to one another. Lucas is both attracted and repelled by this idea, and begins watching the group, until he discovers that they are also watching him.
Lucas is drawn into a complex plot involving U.S. Intelligence, murder, and foreign spies. Among the most chilling of his pursuers are two men who look just like him. He finds his face plastered on the news and is no longer the anonymous watcher he used to be.
For a thriller, the ending is quite satisfying. I found myself thinking about this story for days after I finished it.
This book by Marcus Buckingham (published by Thomas Nelson) has an excellent message for students, people seeking a career change, and people who have that nagging sense of something missing in their lives. Marcus Buckinham describes and then explodes some of the myths we all tell ourselves, and then shows concrete ways to change your life. He begins with helping you to identify where your strengths and interests lie, which aren’t necessarily the same things you are “good” at.
Buckingham gives very specific ways to identify those things that give you juice, and those things that drain you. He shows you how to come up with what he calls a Strong Plan for the Week—gradually moving toward what you want, and moving away from what you don’t care to be doing.
Buckingham helps you to define how you would answer, “What are your strengths?” and in so doing, you develop an answer to this common job interview question to really present your best side in interview situations, as well as point you on your path to your best future.
Buckingham’s book give clear strategies for moving away from what you don’t want to be doing, and moving toward what you do want. The book is accompanied by a DVD that explains the principles of the program, and includes by a memo pad to carry around with you for the book’s exercises.
I teach a class at a community college and found this book to be a tool I can use in helping my students to work toward a new life for themselves.
Alethea Eason’s Hungry features Deborah, or Dbkrrrsh as she is known on her home planet, as she discovers that her Home World intends to invade the Earth and consume the humans as their newest food source. Deborah learns that her race has historically used up a planet’s resources until there is nothing left, and then they locate another food source on another planet. Deborah has something she’d like to teach her race about eating, and about managing the resources. Her parents want her to prove her loyalty to the native race by consuming her best friend, Willie.
The story is told with Deborah’s 6th-grade voice, which is strong and funny. Clearly the issues of eating aren’t meant to be taken literally or seriously, but more as a parody of our consumption-based society. Hungry never gets preachy, though. The reader is free to draw their own conclusions.
Deborah has a humorous voice, and her dilemma as she wrestles with the conflicting loyalties to her best friend and to her family is handled sensitively and realistically. I found myself on both sides of the fence more than once, and felt the characters and their behavior rang very true. When Deborah is “tested” in a purgation ceremony ritual from the Home World, the extraordinary and vivid world is hypnotic in its scenery and action.
Hungry is an excellent book for parents and teachers to talk about values and right choices. It is also very entertaining, and a page-turner. Hungry is altogether a superb read.
What Men Still Don’t Know About Women, Relationships and Love is one of the books I wish I had read in high school, before dating, and certainly before marrying. This book subtly planted seeds in my mind that took root and grew like zucchini in the hot summer. I saw my first marriage in here, and my husband’s first marriage, and my best friend’s niece. . .as the days have gone on since I read this book, I see confirmation of Dr. Goldberg’s theory on gender relationships several times a day. When I read that the end of a relationship can be predicted by its beginning, I thought, “Oh, come on, he can’t be serious!” And then I read the list of the beginnings, and how those beginnings morph into a relationship that is destined to end, and I had to groan in recognition. Dr. Goldberg lays out how a woman’s relationship with her mother –not her father—is primary in setting the stage for her romantic patterns. Now that I have read this book once, and have started reading it a second time, my eyes have been opened and I can’t look at relationships in the same way anymore. The title may cause women to think they don’t need this book, but any woman who passes it by is missing the chance of a lifetime to see things in a whole new light.
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The Unseen by T L Hines
Mary Benson, December 24, 2008
The Unseen by T.H. Hines is a thriller that kept me awake one night. The main character, Lucas, is slowly revealed to be a gentle, flawed person that I grew to care about.Lucas lives in the unclaimed parts of Washington D.C.—empty buildings, maintenance areas of Howard University. He knows the back way into every transit station and routinely hops on mass transit to navigate DC. He seems to be a loner and a renegade, working odd jobs, stashing cash in hiding places throughout the city. And spying on people. Watching them while they were at work from a small hole he would drill in the wall of a closet, or in the ceiling. He could watch people for hours, and loved it when they got that feeling they were being watched. He often took something from the people he was watching, and had a small collection of these special objects—photographs from their workstation, a scarf, you get the idea.
Lucas meets someone from a group that spies on people like he does, but they go a step further: they videotape the people in their homes, edit their films and show them to one another. Lucas is both attracted and repelled by this idea, and begins watching the group, until he discovers that they are also watching him.
Lucas is drawn into a complex plot involving U.S. Intelligence, murder, and foreign spies. Among the most chilling of his pursuers are two men who look just like him. He finds his face plastered on the news and is no longer the anonymous watcher he used to be.
For a thriller, the ending is quite satisfying. I found myself thinking about this story for days after I finished it.
The Truth about You: Your Secret to Success by Marcus Buckingham
Mary Benson, November 28, 2008
This book by Marcus Buckingham (published by Thomas Nelson) has an excellent message for students, people seeking a career change, and people who have that nagging sense of something missing in their lives. Marcus Buckinham describes and then explodes some of the myths we all tell ourselves, and then shows concrete ways to change your life. He begins with helping you to identify where your strengths and interests lie, which aren’t necessarily the same things you are “good” at.Buckingham gives very specific ways to identify those things that give you juice, and those things that drain you. He shows you how to come up with what he calls a Strong Plan for the Week—gradually moving toward what you want, and moving away from what you don’t care to be doing.
Buckingham helps you to define how you would answer, “What are your strengths?” and in so doing, you develop an answer to this common job interview question to really present your best side in interview situations, as well as point you on your path to your best future.
Buckingham’s book give clear strategies for moving away from what you don’t want to be doing, and moving toward what you do want. The book is accompanied by a DVD that explains the principles of the program, and includes by a memo pad to carry around with you for the book’s exercises.
I teach a class at a community college and found this book to be a tool I can use in helping my students to work toward a new life for themselves.
Hungry by Alethea Eason
Mary Benson, September 23, 2007
Alethea Eason’s Hungry features Deborah, or Dbkrrrsh as she is known on her home planet, as she discovers that her Home World intends to invade the Earth and consume the humans as their newest food source. Deborah learns that her race has historically used up a planet’s resources until there is nothing left, and then they locate another food source on another planet. Deborah has something she’d like to teach her race about eating, and about managing the resources. Her parents want her to prove her loyalty to the native race by consuming her best friend, Willie.The story is told with Deborah’s 6th-grade voice, which is strong and funny. Clearly the issues of eating aren’t meant to be taken literally or seriously, but more as a parody of our consumption-based society. Hungry never gets preachy, though. The reader is free to draw their own conclusions.
Deborah has a humorous voice, and her dilemma as she wrestles with the conflicting loyalties to her best friend and to her family is handled sensitively and realistically. I found myself on both sides of the fence more than once, and felt the characters and their behavior rang very true. When Deborah is “tested” in a purgation ceremony ritual from the Home World, the extraordinary and vivid world is hypnotic in its scenery and action.
Hungry is an excellent book for parents and teachers to talk about values and right choices. It is also very entertaining, and a page-turner. Hungry is altogether a superb read.
What Men Still Don't Know about Women, Relationships, and Love
Mary Benson, September 21, 2007
What Men Still Don’t Know About Women, Relationships and Love is one of the books I wish I had read in high school, before dating, and certainly before marrying. This book subtly planted seeds in my mind that took root and grew like zucchini in the hot summer. I saw my first marriage in here, and my husband’s first marriage, and my best friend’s niece. . .as the days have gone on since I read this book, I see confirmation of Dr. Goldberg’s theory on gender relationships several times a day. When I read that the end of a relationship can be predicted by its beginning, I thought, “Oh, come on, he can’t be serious!” And then I read the list of the beginnings, and how those beginnings morph into a relationship that is destined to end, and I had to groan in recognition. Dr. Goldberg lays out how a woman’s relationship with her mother –not her father—is primary in setting the stage for her romantic patterns. Now that I have read this book once, and have started reading it a second time, my eyes have been opened and I can’t look at relationships in the same way anymore. The title may cause women to think they don’t need this book, but any woman who passes it by is missing the chance of a lifetime to see things in a whole new light.(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)