New Self, New World: Recovering Our Senses in the Twenty-First Century by Philip Shepherd

New Self, New World: Recovering Our Senses in the Twenty-First Century. Philip Shepherd. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California. August 2010. 512 pp. ISBN #: 9781556439117

Imagine for a moment living in a completely “balanced” world where mind, heart, and body are synchronized and no dominance is present to distort life as we know it. The premise of New Self, New World moves even beyond that idea, laying out the possibility that life as we know it will take on an even greater experience, a fifth dimension as it is explained.

Philip Shepherd takes the reader through mythology, various ideas about consciousness, what occurs when we place too much focus on the mind without consciousness, of just what encompasses an idea, of a lack of connection to the core of our heart and “pelvic” intelligence, several suggestions to reacquire our innate sensitivity that is meant to operate in balance with thinking and other parts of our existence, such as through the process of restoring consciousness of the body to awaken that pelvic intelligence.

It also challenges previous understandings of male and female activity and passivity, a misunderstanding of true logic, the importance of perspective (also redefined) on experience, and the power behind “being present” in the moment within this new type of balanced living.

Exercises are provided for the body, mind and being to begin this process. This is not a light-weight book and scientific, literary, mythological explanations galore fill these pages. This reader would have liked to see more examples of how this new self and new world operate; in spite of its premise, the book is quite heavy on a logical, “head” presentation. Still, for those seeking wholeness of living, this is a new presentation of old and new ideas that offer a map leading to an altogether different way of living, one that seems to this reviewer to be healthier, happier, and more productive than what most find in day-to-day living. Fascinating!

Falling Home by Karen White

Falling Home. by Karen White. November 2010. NAL Accent Trade/New American Library/Penguin. 352 pp. ISBN #: 9780451231444.

Cassie has escaped a small town in Georgia she found absolutely stifling and has joined the world of a successful career and boyfriend in dynamic New York. But one phone call changes it all. Her father is dying and he wants to see her. Worst yet, she gets the message from her sister, who married the man Cassie once loved; and now they tell her she is needed. How can she return home and bear the pain of betrayed love and how will she respond to the town busybodies who feel they have the right to know the family’s entire story?

But Cassie’s life is about to be turned upside down. For as many gossips and busybodies she meets, she is surprised that an old friend, Sam, the town doctor, a man she didn’t even recognize as an old high school peer, takes an interest in her present circumstances. He’s not about to be insulted or literally take her rebuffs as she repeatedly reminds him and everyone else that she’s only back for a visit and her real life lies elsewhere.

Wounds hide the love we all hold deep down for a place called “Home,” a place with precious memories, a place that forms the fabric of who we become and will always be. What will the future hold for Cassie once those veneers of defensiveness and pain dissolve with a lot of patience and dedicated attempts to break down the walls of escape?

Falling Home is even better than On Folly Beach, the author's most recent novel, and that’s saying a lot!!! Get ready to curl up with this terrific novel and enjoy an unpredictable, engaging, and revealing story! Wonderful!

The Fun of Dying: Find Out What Really Happens Next! by Roberta Grimes

The Fun of Dying: Find Out What Really Happens Next by Roberta Grimes. 2010. Greater Reality Publications. Pb. 149 pp. ISBN #: 9780980211115.

The title of this book is bound to grab many readers. After all, who doesn’t wonder whether there is an afterlife; and if so, what is there, what is it like, etc., etc. Roberta Grimes has combed all the research out there to attempt to provide answers to every human being concerned with the life beyond the one in which we now live. Some of what she offers is common knowledge and other ideas are quite astounding!

The evidence covers science, religion, and other psychological phenomena that the author clearly indicates need not be opposed to each other but which actually consists of a continuum of experience that is impossible to contradict. It involves experience coupled with cutting edge knowledge, such as quantum physics, that is actually comforting, albeit challenging to those with rigid, dogmatic notions of the afterlife. Suspend disbelief while you read this book and take in the plethora of possibilities, such as the reality of energy that is not measurable as matter or time.

A considerable amount of space is given to the healing one needs after the death of the earthly body and how precise that is to each individual who passes over to the afterlife. Possible learning lessons, reincarnations, cravings satisfied, the necessity of forgiveness, the sense of awareness now being a part of our eventual passing, the role of religion in our passing and afterlife, and so much more fill these pages in a concise, clear and intriguing manner that keeps one’s interest through every single page. An appendix includes the author’s sources which the reader may seek to explore for greater detail about this common but unknown world – a process that is meant to be joyful and as normal as our current living.

The Fun of Dying… is a comprehensive, fearless guide to a world all will one day enter, as well as one which offers so much comfort, healing, and grace concerning our thoughts and feelings for those who have gone before us. Engaging and a complete account of what may become one’s own future!

Lost Island Smugglers by Max Elliot Anderson

Lost Island Smugglers. Max Elliot Anderson. SharksFinn: A Port Yonder Press Imprint. 2010. 263 pp. ISBN #: 9781935600022.

Sam Cooper is moving again because his Dad’s work as a research biologist takes the family to new exciting places, this time to the Florida Everglades. But the hard part is making friends and having to leave them, although Sam has no problem with that part of the move. If anything, his friends have a harder time because Sam’s a fun and reliable guy; he’s used to leaving but they’re not used to losing friends. On arrival to his new home, he quickly makes friends with a very funny “doughnuts” story.

Next thing that happens very quickly is that Sam is invited to learn scuba diving for free as his friend’s father owns a marina and rents boats and equipment. Sam, Tony, and Tyler quickly master this sport which they all love. Pretty soon they are ready to go beyond the training area, but they are about to explore where it’s dangerous to go!

Sam is having plenty of scary dreams about diving, especially now they are going out for their first solo dive, a fact that Sam has neglected to tell his parents. Off they go on a catamaran, which is a totally new experience for Sam, riding along with the motor to propel them instead of the wind and using sails to course through the water. An unexpected storm is about to turn their plans haywire, and they wind up on Lost Island, unable to leave and unprepared with no food or shelter. That’s nothing compared to what they soon see on the island, some mysteriously-dressed men who don’t look very friendly and who are taking extra care to hide a secret.

Lost Island Smugglers grips the reader’s interest and continues to hold it until the very last page. Max Elliot Anderson describes the boys’ adventures so realistically that the reader feels like he or she is right there participating. This novel, which is part of the “Sam Cooper Adventure” series is a terrific addition to the exciting books Anderson continues to write for young adults! Very nicely done, Mr. Anderson!

River Rising by T. P. Jones

River Rising. T. P. Jones. Synergy Books. September 2010. 392 pp. ISBN #: 9780984235889.

Off the record, Walter tells Chuck, “I think the Corps of Engineers has got it wrong. I think what we’re likely to have here is the worst flood in the history of the white man on the Upper Mississippi.” Jackson, Iowa is a place in physical and financial crisis!

It rains and storms frequently and severely here, and the levee and flood wall system aren’t up to par with the needs of another flooding system.

But several items are definitely awry, as it seems some water in the town’s water plant which no one seems able to solve. The town project of building a dog track that could save the town’s economy is failing because of union and management conflicts and bad relationships between black and white construction workers. Politics prevail, as usual, and the ever looming media search, dig, and probe despite being treated like the town pariahs they are. They’ve picked up on the story that the flood wall just can’t handle another big one. Instead of seeking a solution, the blame game continues, lawyers shadow for coaching all company and city responses, and now the story of the prediction of a devastating flood is hitting the national media beyond local interests. That means a bevy of unanswerable questions and blame-gaming enough for everyone involved. There’s even an aside to the plot about a priest being transferred to another parish because he’s been too successful, while in reality his faith and the system under which he works are spiraling downwards faster than the anticipated flood.

By the time everyone stops arguing and agrees that emergency flood services are to be top priority, it seems it might just be too late! While at times the debating and nasty comments being flung to and fro loom large and last far too long, the shoe falls with a fuel explosion in the river and the dreaded storm arrives, everything turns to flood fight mode.

River Rising is an all too true tale, as we know from similar stories throughout the United States. It’s a cautionary piece of fiction, with realistic depictions that highlight the need to address beforehand the conflicts, lies, exaggerations, understatements, predictions, and underhanded business practices. The rebels are the true heroes herein! Read it before it happens to you!

A Hellion In Her Bed by Sabrina Jeffries

A Hellion in Her Bed. Sabrina Jeffries. Pocket Star Books. September 2010. 384 pp. ISBN #: 9781439167540.

Lord Jarret Sharpe carries a literally grievous burden, his parents’ untimely, horrific deaths. He craves security and wants only to run the family brewery business. But his grandmother has sent him away to be educated, to grow up and not be a baby. But this Lord has an uncanny gift in winning at the card tables of school and later elsewhere. For nineteen years, this penchant has served him well, earning him respect up to now.

For it seems Granny has set her mind on marrying him to the “right” girl, and his desperation is now beginning to show at the game tables. Everyone knows that desperate men are losing gamblers! He finally gets her to agree to let him run the family brewery business without interference and rescinds her demand to control who he marries. So it seems he has gotten what he wanted, right? Ah, what was that gleam in Granny’s eyes all about as she assented to his terms for full control of his own life.

Annabelle Lake is not at all what Jarret thinks a woman should be – or could be! Entranced by her presence and totally disarmed by her wit, he begins the role of getting the upper hand – and more – which completely undoes the two of them. Attempting to restore some reason into their relationship, Annabelle poses a bet, after realizing that her own family brewery is in very deep trouble. Mismanagement and a secret have led to her to this daring challenge, one albeit with hotly imagined success, that proves to be initially unpleasant for Jarret.

But Jarret is not only sharp at cards and business but also at knowing when a change of cards and strategy is absolutely necessary. The process might not be that easy and Jarret has some dark family secret of his own to learn and deal with, one that makes him stronger in his new found goal. The ability to remain reasonably objective begins to melt away, leaving the reader with a thrilling, seductive, sexy and successful ending for this second “The Hellions of Hallstead Hall” series!

Getting There: A Novel by Gerry Boylan

Getting There: A Novel. Gerry Boylan. Synergy Books. July 2010. 368 pp. ISBN #: 9780984387922.

For Luke Moore, hitchhiking starts out as a grand lark, another adventuresome chance that might land just about anywhere. A broken family and horrific tragedy in the very beginning of this adventure throws Luke into two states, one bordering on a frantic need to escape the pain of reality and the other a shadowed minuscule voice telling him to honor the promise he made to a fellow wayfarer now gone.

But that tale is preceded by the older, settled down Luke in his later years who is taking his daughter to college and picks up a hitchhiker. How can he tell his tale to this younger wanderer without glorifying the life and at the same time recommending a lifestyle that could threaten his treasured daughter’s life now she is no longer to be under the guidance and protection of her doting father and mother. So the tale begins.
In spite of being named after one of the four New Testament gospel authors, Luke develops a hunger for thrills, a “no-risk meter” way of moving through his world. Off he goes, thrilling to the beat of 1970s music, preached at by some well-intentioned nuns, a “one true love” experience, a drug event that made heaven and earth become one, and so much more. Luke manages to cross many states and meets a collection of characters one expects, with even wilder stories than his own to tell.

Redemption and reconciliation come in many forms. Luke is fortunate enough to find a lady who is steady, loving, and thrilling, a woman just similar and different enough to guide him through the end of his “lost soul” phase. Their turn to use what's been learned with friends and a long-lost father ends this novel on a realistic and moving note sure to touch the hearts of all readers.

Very nicely done, Gerry Boylan!