The Wandering Falcon - A Novel by Jamil Ahmad

The Wandering Falcon: A Novel. Jamil Ahmad. Riverhead Trade Paperback. October 2012. 256 pp. ISBN #: 9781594486166.

Put aside the stereotypical depictions of people from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Whether or not you believe what you hear from media, perhaps and probably there are a huge host of peoples who have lives that are different from you and me and yet in some ways they are just like us.  Jamil Ahmad has written a novel in which he introduces us to men and women who live by a code of honor that is as powerful as any law in Western society.  They seek to profit as businessmen.  They exhibit a cleverness in making treaties that is remarkable. They demonstrate passion and love of country and family/tribe. Their story is clear, honest, heart-rending, and difficult in a society that is just beginning to offer the chance of living beyond the cusp of poverty!

Here you will meet the "subedar" who will not violate tribal rules and laws but will offer shelter and food for a couple who are being hunted for violating an honor code. That simple act of mercy results in five years more of life for the parents and the birth of a boy who will rise to be a well-respected leader, Tor Baz, trained by wise and practical mentors.

Consider the behavior of Sardor Karim Khan Kharot who for years has guided people in and out of the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, respected by all until progress arrives and there is no job.  The respect he loses with this job is the ubiquitous state of the elderly who no longer find purpose once they are no longer employed.  We are rooting for him on every page.

Read about how different tribes and groups were pulled hither and yon by the Germans and British, leaving these native men wondering how to choose the right side and in a sense rise above living like tools of the occupiers. And what about woman sold to save their family from total starvation and the way they come to love, as well as yield, to their new spouse and family?

There is so much in this brief but potent and poignant novel.  What a refreshing, revealing canvas of characters lies herein, a work of art that will leave readers deeply moved and greatly informed of a whole slice of life that has for too long been hidden in darkness.  Jamil Ahmad is a master of words who has gifted the world with a unique group of literate stories.  This is award-winning writing and a must read for those who would like exposure to a larger picture of life in the Mideast countries of Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. Splendid!

Just Remember to Breathe by Charles Sheehan-Miles

Just Remember to Breathe. Charles Sheehan-Miles. Cincinnatus Press. November 2012. 290 pages - paperback. ISBN #: 9780988273608.

Alex and Dylan had what seemed to be a promising love affair while they were both foreign exchange students in Israel a long time ago.  The stint in Israel ended and each went their separate ways, believing they'd had a good thing but that it might not continue.  However, they stayed in touch until one day Dylan sees something that absolutely devastates him.  He totally switches off email and Facebook and joins the Army.  There the tragic sequence of events escalates when he and friends run over a bomb in Afghanistan, one that kills his good friend and shatters his leg in multiple spots. But the inner wounds are far deeper than that!

Chance throws Dylan and Alex together at Columbia University, where they are forced together in a work-study program for a drunken professor seeking research for another book. It's quite clear they still are absolutely mad over each other, but they agree to a set of "Rules" in order to keep their work life together separate from their past relationship.  Rules, it is said, remember, are made to be broken!

To say more would spoil a poignant story of love surviving trauma of the highest order.  For Dylan has a past haunting his present behavior, a past he doesn't ever want to repeat or inflict on a loved one.  Add to that the tremendous fury and guilt resulting from his Afghanistan time and what we clearly know to be post-traumatic depression and more.

In spite of the heavy background and tension-ridden scenes, this is a novel of hope and forgiveness.  The theme of healing and wholeness is stronger than the wreckage of war, stronger than the havoc of family misunderstandings.  The characters get stronger.  No naive scenes fill these pages; sheer cusp-cutting dialogue cuts through the nonsense, avoiding annoying repetition and insisting on change rather than pity.  The romance is hot and honest as well!

It's a refreshing, necessary point of view that we need to hear more of in this decade when soldiers are returning from single or multiple tours of duty, some to be treated in a similar manner and others to be ignored.  Kudos to you, Charles Sheehan-Miles, for taking on this topic and creating a novel that should be read by a wide audience!!! Just Remember to Breathe is a must read!

Sad Sack Salad by Jessica Grose

Sad Desk Salad: A Novel. Jessica Grose. Harper Collins Publishers. October 2012. 304 pages - paperback. ISBN #: 9780062188342.

Chick Habit is a sponsored website where a group of women are paid to write what others refer to a "gossip" column, posting comments on contemporary social and cultural items of high interest throughout the entire day.  Their success depends on the number of hits they achieve each day for the advertisers and promoters, and the ceiling rises with time.  Alex Lyons works for this site, known as "Chick Habit."  Alex works from home in a smelly mu mu and leaves the apartment only to get her lunch of the title name of this novel.  Her life is consumed on getting the dirt that will really capture her reader's attention and increase their large audience.  It's one website that is multiplied dozens and dozens of times elsewhere, sometimes under the guise of news and at other times being equivalent to a sleazy paparazzi-haunted newspaper or TV scandal sheet. 

So just when Alex's quota seems unreachable, a "source" hands her a provocative story on a silver platter via email and some quick chat texts with photos. The news is an explosive expose about the behavior of a daughter of a woman who has written a book about perfect parenting.  What follows is not just cute, inane comments about social events or notable people. Some interpret the expose as a violation of civil privacy and some treat it as a necessary statement about those who don't live the talk of perfection.

The responses are even more devastating as one particular writer decides to get even with Alex and begins to post pictures and comments that are hugely embarrassing to Alex.  The writer even threatens to tell a story about Alex's father that would shame her immensely and which even make her wonder how much she did or didn't know about her father. At the same time her relationship with her boyfriend is deteriorating and he challenges her reasons for spending innumerable hours on such a sordid career, which offends her but causes her to question her own career goals.  

She and her friends decide to track down this attacker and find out why this response is so vitriolic.  And, as usual the media are having a frenzied heyday with the whole sordid series of exposures.

Sad Desk Salad is a timely novel about an issue of immense significance in today's media onslaught of "bad" behavior on the part of stars and notable persons.  Where is the line between privacy and public right to knowledge of those who hold themselves up as public models?  How far is "too far?"  Light in tone in just the right spots, serious where such an issue should be, this novel is one that deserves higher attention and discussion.  Although it's a surface treatment, it's the beginning of a necessary conversation.  Nice intro, Jessica Grose!!!

Nicholas Cooke: Actor, Soldier, Physician, Priest by Stephanie Cowell

Nicholas Cooke: Actor, Soldier, Physician, Priest. Stephanie Cowell. West End Productions, Inc./Amazon Digital Productions, Inc. August 2012. 371 pp./571 KB.  ASIN B0094KFHJQ. 

In the late 1500's a young man, whose father was hung as a thief and mother a woman forced to sell herself, is traumatized by a brutal childhood.  He dreams of becoming a priest but due to his volatile temper he reacts before he thinks and must flee his boyhood village because he believes he has murdered the man to whom he was apprenticed.  So begins the story spanning over thirty years in which this tortured young soul seeks love and guidance from others older and wiser.  Yet always on the cusp of seeming to attain maturity, his yearnings and guilt arise and propel him elsewhere, frequently inflicting great frustration and pain on others who forgive him far beyond the threshold point of most human beings.  

Arriving in London, he becomes an actor apprentice, falling in love with Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and other great writers and actors of the time who at the time are fledglings in their craft and subject to the favor of Queen Elizabeth and those who fawn at her throne for power and riches.  He must learn swordplay, tumbling, and other necessary skills and that he does very well indeed, also exhibiting an intellectual curiosity unusual for one in his social class.  Years pass and after betraying his master's trust he flees to become a man by fighting with Lord Essex against the Irish who are rebelling against the Queen.  Although he makes a great friend, Toby, he grows up fast after seeing the horrors and stupidity of warfare, a scenario of unprepared soldiers outnumbered and out-skilled by rebels passionate for their cause.

Returning to London, he takes up acting again.  The coming of the plague begins to bring out his compassionate desire to be a healer and find a cure for this devastating illness that he himself will survive.  Then follows a period of aspiring to be a deacon where his wife follows him into a bleak and lonely existence, compounded by a terrible, unspeakable loss that will scar and yet form him anew.  He will thus meet scientists and clergy who will lead him back to what they believe is his clear call to become a priest.

The plot seems simple, yet Stephanie Cowell is a master at exposing every conflicting and inspiring thought that transpires in our hero's mind and soul.  Multiple riveting details fill out the synopsis briefly stated above. Historical events of the times are cleanly and clearly interwoven naturally into the plot. One meets the grand and the poor in all their glory and squalor, scenes where the lines frequently cross mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. The reader feels he or she is right there in England as the theater develops from its shameful beginnings into its final professional status, when new discoveries in learning and science are thrilling the minds and spirit of this revolutionary century, and when men are learning to think for themselves about spirituality even in the midst of the "darkest" hours of their lives.  The outcome is painfully positive and yet one couldn't imagine it any other way, and there are twists and turns that keep the reader alert and flipping the pages for more...more...more! There is so much more to say about Nicholas and his friends/ foes and the only way to catch it all is to read this magnificent historical story!

This reviewer loved this novel from beginning to end and believe it to be a true classic of historical fiction! Highly, highly recommended!

Wendy Wax's Ten Beach Road - Penguin Group USA's 2012 Read Pink Program

WENDY WAX'S TEN BEACH ROAD IS FEATURED IN PENGUIN GROUP USA'S 2012 READ PINK

INITIATIVE

 October 2012, New York Metro--Wendy Wax's TEN BEACH ROAD is part of the third year of Penguin Group USA’s Read Pink program with The Breast Cancer Research FoundationR , undertaken in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In addition to a donation of $25,000 for ongoing research, the company is raising awareness of the search for a cure by featuring Read Pink and the fight against breast cancer on the covers of fourteen novels by prominent authors. The message is seen nationally via hundreds of thousands of books. For more information please visit the Read Pink site.

In addition to TEN BEACH ROAD, Read Pink features novels by Nora Roberts, Carly Phillips, JoAnn Ross, Eleanor Brown, Madeline Hunter, Karen White, Jayne Ann Krentz, Jodi Thomas, Natasha Solomons, Kathryn Stockett, Catherine Anderson, and Jillian Hunter.

Wendy is reaching out to readers with the Read Pink message via her web site, e-mail, social media, and book blogs and sites. She's also hoping to spur conversation about the program by offering book clubs the opportunity to enter for a chance to win ten copies of the Read Pink edition of TEN BEACH ROAD for their group and a visit with Wendy at an upcoming meeting via Skype or by phone.

Commenting upon her participation in Read Pink, Wendy says "Breast cancer never touches just one life. It touches family and friends and even strangers, and its ripples extend through time regardless of the outcome. The amazing strides in treatment and the many who have overcome this disease are welcomed reasons for celebration, but we can't forget there is still no cure. I am proud to be part of Read Pink and the effort to raise awareness of the need to keep the research and the hope going strong. I'll be Reading Pink in October. I hope you'll join me."

###

Award-winning author Wendy Wax has written eight novels, including Ocean Beach, Ten Beach Road, Magnolia Wednesdays, the Romance Writers of America RITA Award finalist The Accidental Bestseller, and 7 Days and 7 Nights, which was honored with the Virginia Romance Writers Holt Medallion Award. Her work has sold internationally, been excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine and been featured in publications such as USA Today and Women’s World.

A Florida native, Wendy lives in Atlanta.

www.authorwendywax.com ● facebook.com/AuthorWendyWax · @Wendy_Wax

LINKS--

READ PINK http://penguin.com/readpink?CMP=OTC-PINK

CONTEST http://www.authorwendywax.com/contest.htm

TEN BEACH ROAD http://www.authorwendywax.com/tenbeachroad.htm

CONTACT: Joan Schulhafer, Joan Schulhafer Publishing & Media Consulting, joan@joanschulhafer.com, 973-338-7428

Changing Fate Through Reincarnation by Gerald Sze

Changing Fate Through Reincarnation: How the Fusion of Responsibility, Freedom, Karma and Meaning of Life Can Set You Free. Gerald Sze. Two Harbors Press. November 2012.  327 pp. paperback. ISBN #: 9781938690150.

Karma - is usually defined as the fate one merits in a future life or present life based on one's good or bad behavior in the past.  But what if it were possible to change one's life in the present rather than waiting for a life after this one?  This is the premise of this nonfiction book by Gerald Sze.  Initially, the author discusses a person's basic mental, emotional, physical and spiritual make-up based on one's connection to society and culture.  In other words, we are what we have heard, seen, etc. that come to form a basic mental construct to which we act and react most of our lives. We are told that we have choices but those choices again are pre-programmed so to speak by our training from birth.

For example, there are secular and sacred laws created by government and Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Hindu religions as well as others not named here.  Buddhism, Chi, and Taoism are older constructs that have regained attention and practice but which are also programs that regulate one's life.  We say we are free but Mr. Sze proposes that we need to be free of even these acceptable standards and regulatory constructs.

In this generation we now live in a new and rapidly evolving construct known as technology, best understood by the massive use of computers and other devices on which people spend a majority of their time and effort.

New age spirituality and existentialism told everyone to get rid of all of the above and posed a new methodology or way of being in the world.  Gerald Sze now says there is a law of attraction and repulsion that is learned by connecting to the energies of people and the objects around us as well as in the entire universe. All relationships, events and ways of living in this mode can free each and every person to be the determiner of one's fate and learn how to relate to our living moments in a new way that is self-serving in only the positive aspects of that term.

This is a theoretical book that is very credible and possible, although few live this way "all" the time.  Another book should be written with practical exercises as the majority of readers will find the reading of this book more academic than do-able.  This text, in this reviewer's opinion, is also not for those who are looking for a light read as it is quite theoretical in a complex fashion.  It might work very well for a group to read and discuss bit by bit. But the premise is more than valuable and so is quite worthy in that sense.  More Mr. Sze in either exercises or places where readers could pursue the practice of changing to reincarnate now!

E-BOOK SPECIAL FROM FOREVER ROMANCE

EBOOK SPECIALS FROM FOREVER ROMANCE IN OCTOBER!

October 1 through October 29^th

THE GUARDIAN—Margaret Mallory’s award-winning historical romance is the first book in her popular

 Return of the Highlanders series.  It introduces Ian MacDonald, who returns home from war

 to claim the bride he’s long resisted.

$2.99

October 15 through October 29^th

SHIVER OF FEAR—The second of Roxanne St. Claire’s The Guardian Angelino contemporary suspense novels takes former FBI agent Marc Rossi to Northern Ireland to pry evidence from the daughter of an infamous fugitive, whose search for her missing mother mires them in secrets, lies and threats—and makes them the target of a deadly terrorist.

$2.99