The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Mermaids by Ammi-Joan Paquette

The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Mermaids by Ammi-Joan Paquette is a fun children’s book that will take kids on an adventure to find mermaids. The illustrations are a mixture of realism and artwork that makes for a beautiful way to give kids a sense of imagination and adventure.

Book Description

“Have you ever walked on the beach and looked for shells or clams? There are creatures, more like you and me, who are even more interesting to look for. Most people don't see them, but they might just not know how to look for signs. That sand dollar - why, that could be a mermaid-size surfboard. Those twisted reeds - a bed for a lovely afternoon mermaid nap. And if you peer closely into the water, you might see a mermaid market.

This is a lovely activity for a fun day at the beach and a way to encourage paying close attention to all the interesting things that can be found on the beach or in the water.” – The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Mermaids

My Thoughts

The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Mermaids is a beautifully designed book to bring an imaginative fun-filled day for children going on a mermaid tracking adventure at the beach. If you don’t live near a beach, or aren’t visiting one soon, you can always alter this to be at a lake or river, mermaids surely live there, too.

This book isn’t just for kids, the parents who read this with their children will enjoy it, too. It is a delightful book, and if you are reading this with a child who is just starting to learn to read, it will be even better helping them through it, and discovering mermaids and magical things with each page.

The creative insight with this book is fantastic. I absolutely love how much fun it is, and how it brings imagination, a sense of wonder and adventure to adults as well as children. I highly recommend it.

* Thank you to the publisher of The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Mermaids, Tanglewood Press, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Know Yourself, Forget Yourself by Marc Lesser

Know Yourself, Forget Yourself by Marc Lesser is a book to help you find out what your life’s purpose really is. Many of us struggle with finding the “right” job, or path in life, and Marc Lesser helps us discover it within ourselves. When reading this book and figuring it out, you might end up surprising yourself by where you end up going in life.

Book Description

“We all yearn for clear-cut answers to life’s problems, yet we rarely get them. Formulas fail and contradictions mount. In Know Yourself, Forget Yourself, executive coach and mindfulness teacher Marc Lesser shows that understanding and embracing the points where life feels most confusing, most contradictory can lead us to more satisfaction and joy.

Lesser provides clear guidance and simple practices for embracing five central paradoxes in life and navigating them to increase our effectiveness and happiness. Influenced by the revolutionary mindfulness and emotional intelligence trainings he helped develop at Google, Know Yourself, Forget Yourself is a profound book about cultivating the emotional skills to understand the right path through difficulties and challenges.” – Know Yourself, Forget Yourself

My Thoughts

Know Yourself, Forget Yourself is a book many of us need to read. We end up doing many things through the course of our lives that take us off the path we were meant to live. Getting back on track isn’t always easy, and many times, we’re just not sure what to do, where to go, and feel stuck. I know I’ve felt this way many times. I ended up rediscovering my purpose on my own, but if I had this book, maybe I wouldn’t have wasted quite a few years in the process of figuring it out.

My favorite part of the book is banishing perfectionism. I am one of those people who usually want to do everything perfect, or not do it at all. It doesn’t really have to be that way though! Also, be confident and question everything. I have had issues with this in the past (and present), and really hope to be able to change this about myself.

This is an incredibly helpful and eye-wakening book. If you aren’t ready to live up to your full potential, don’t read this book. If you want to change and become who you are meant to be, please read this book! I highly recommend it.

* Thank you to the publisher of Know Yourself, Forget Yourself, New World Library, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Splurge or Steal: Nautical Stripes

I love making the "Splurge or Steal" sets on Polyvore, and this is my latest. This just goes to show you that you can look great for less!

Splurge or Steal: Nautical Stripes by starry943 featuring a stone skirting

Feeding the Hungry Ghost by Ellen Kanner

Feeding the Hungry Ghost by Ellen Kanner is about cooking great food, and savoring the experience of a good meal with family and friends. The recipes included are vegan, but that doesn’t mean you have to be in order to enjoy them. Try the recipes, enjoy the stories, and have fun and truly enjoy food again.

Book Description

“What do we turn to for both everyday sustenance and seasonal celebration? Food. Often, though, we’re like the hungry ghosts of Taoist lore, eating mindlessly, wandering aimlessly, and wanting more — more than food itself can provide. Ellen Kanner believes that if we put in a little thought and preparation, every meal can feed not only our bodies but our souls and our communities as well. Warm, wicked, and one-of-a-kind, Ellen offers an irreverent approach to bringing reverence into daily living — and eating. She presents global vegan recipes that call you to the table, stories that make you stand up and cheer, and gentle nudges that aim to serve up what we’re hungry for: a more vital self, more loving and meaningful connections, a nourished and nourishing world, and great food, too. Feeding the Hungry Ghost will challenge you to decide: keep reading or start cooking?” – Feeding the Hungry Ghost

My Thoughts

Feeding the Hungry Ghost is a beautiful mixture of stories with recipes to feed your body and soul. This is a vegan book that reminds us that food is meant to be shared with family and friends, and enjoyed. Food is good and even better when it is bought locally when it is in season.

Although the author does stress going vegan, it is not something that is for everyone. However, everyone can enjoy the recipes and stories included in the book. Make some of the recipes for yourself and see if you like them, and want to incorporate them into your meals throughout the seasons.

Some of my favorite recipes included in the book:

• Lavender Tea
• Down and Dirty Rice
• Unconventional but Seductive Veggie Paella
• Moroccan Carrot Salad

I enjoyed reading this book and discovering some truly new and tasty recipes. If you like food (and honestly, who doesn’t?), try this book and the recipes in it. I highly recommend it.

* Thank you to the publisher of Feeding the Hungry Ghost, New World Library, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

A Guide to Zen by Katsuki Sekida

A Guide to Zen by Katsuki Sekida is a condensed version of the author’s work “Zen Training.” This version of the book was edited down by Marc Allen to include the Zen Master’s original teachings in a much shorter and condensed manner. If you wish to learn more about Zen, and how it can help the quality of your life, be sure to read this book!

Book Description

“Katsuki Sekida was both a great writer and a great Zen master, and his books on Zen are among the most comprehensive ever written in English. In these pages, his former student Marc Allen culls the finest pieces from the original works to create a beautifully readable, brilliantly illuminating guide to Zen meditation. It begins with a summary of Zen, continues with a complete course in Zen meditation, and ends with comments on a Zen classic, In Search of the Missing Ox. Specific practices are featured throughout, such as “One-Minute Zazen” and other gems that are the result of a lifetime of study. For students of Zen both new and old, Sekida’s teachings are an endless source of insight and wisdom.” – A Guide to Zen

My Thoughts

A Guide to Zen is a marvelous little book. It starts off with a summary of Zen that makes it simple enough for someone who knows nothing about it to understand. The Zen meditations included are a great tool for newcomers and practitioners to use.

For me though, I love the stories included, and the teachings of what Zen really is. Just reading this book makes me calmer, and in a highly stressful college major, that is truly amazing.

I love this guide. It is simple, to the point, and contains so much knowledge and help within the pages. It is a book that is perfect for anyone who wants to learn more about understanding Zen, and can definitely impact the quality of one’s life who reads it. I highly recommend it.

* Thank you to the publisher of A Guide to Zen, New World Library, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Gods of Mischief by George Rowe

Gods of Mischief by George Rowe is a look into the author’s undercover mission to help the federal government take down the vicious Vagos motorcycle gang. It is fast paced, dirty, and full of danger. It reads like a season of a television show or a movie that is just too crazy to be true, but for Rowe, it is very real indeed.

Book Description

“The high-octane, no-holds-barred, true story of a bad guy turned good who infiltrated one of the most violent outlaw motorcycle gangs in history to take them down. 

It’s the morning of March 9, 2006, hours before one of the largest motorcycle gang busts in United States history, and George Rowe can’t sleep. He keeps thinking about the past three years he spent as an informant for the ATF, working undercover with the Vagos, one of the most dangerous biker gangs in the country. His fiancée, a struggling heroin addict carrying their unborn child, is asleep next to him. She’s got no idea who he really is, what he’s done, or what’s about to happen. How in the hell, Rowe wonders, did it go so far and get so deep?

A gritty and harrowing memoir about human redemption and self-sacrifice, Gods of Mischief tells the story of the first private citizen to voluntarily infiltrate an outlaw motorcycle gang for the U.S. government. George Rowe, drug dealer, barroom brawler, and convicted felon, never thought he’d work for the feds. But when he watched the Vagos brutally and senselessly beat his friend everything changed. He decided to pay back his Southern California hometown by bringing down the gang that terrorized it. As “Big George,” a full-patched member of the Vagos, Rowe spent three brutal years juggling a double life—riding, fighting, and nearly dying alongside the brothers that he secretly hoped to put away for good. The road to redemption wasn’t an easy ride. Rowe lost everything: his family, his business, his home — even his identity. To this day, under protection by the U.S. government, Rowe still looks over his shoulder, keeping watch for the brothers he put behind bars. They’ve vowed to search for him until the day they die.” – Gods of Mischief

My Thoughts

Gods of Mischief is the type of book that hooks you from the beginning. It is an incredibly well-written account of the author’s life as an informant for the federal government, aimed to take down the violent Vagos motorcycle gang that wreaked havoc on his hometown. However, the author quickly learns that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and he is in way over his head.

Rowe is able to deliver his story with the passion and brutal honesty only someone who has lived it could ever do a memoir like this justice. It cuts out the Hollywood glamorization of gangsters and crime, and shows how things really are. It will leave you with a much different perspective of criminals and gangsters than when you first started reading. Not all are bad, some can change (such as the author), some are worse than you could ever have imagined, and they are much scarier in real life than they are in the movies.

This is a book that is well worth reading. The story is truly remarkable, and is one that I predict could be easily made into a blockbuster movie. I highly recommend it.

* Thank you to the publisher of Gods of Mischief, Touchstone, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Effortless Mind by Ajayan Borys

Effortless Mind by Ajayan Borys teaches the reader about meditation, and how to have an effortless mind. Meditation shouldn’t be hard, and he explains how to do it with ease. This is a great beginner manual for meditating.

Book Description

“Beginners and long-term meditators alike will appreciate Ajayan Borys’s counterintuitive teaching that one needn’t control the mind to experience the benefits of meditation. Instead, as with falling asleep, ease is essential. Effort fuels accomplishment in the world of action, but in the realm of meditation, struggle blocks success. And just as dreams are a natural part of restful sleep, thoughts during meditation are no obstacle to receiving wonderful, revitalizing results.

With clear, user-friendly instruction, Ajayan presents classic techniques that can empower even beginners to experience deep, effective meditation and can help veterans go deeper. Offering eye-opening insights about finding growth and bliss in everyday life, Effortless Mind is filled with the practical and inspirational wisdom of a consummate teacher.” – Effortless Mind

My Thoughts

Effortless Mind is a book that can honestly teach anyone how to meditate. It isn’t just for those who are very Zen and peaceful. Meditation can truly be for anyone, and Ajayan Borys shows that to anyone who reads this book.

In a society where everyone is always on the go and trying to do more, meditation seems like it would be so hard to do. I’ve tried to meditate many times, and often, I’m afraid I’m doing it wrong. To get right down to the truth of it though, as long as you are trying, you are doing it. It isn’t really that hard. The first step is wanting to do it, the second is finding a teacher or a book to help you achieve it. This is the best book I’ve found to do it.

This book covers the basics of meditation, and then eases the reader into learning how to do different types of meditation. Included in the book is chakra meditation, mantra meditation, and meditations to promote health and longevity. You may find that you like certain types of meditation more than others, or that you can only do one or two effectively, at least for now – and that is okay!

I found this book to be incredibly helpful with meditation. It does a fantastic job explaining the types of meditations, and how to do them. I highly recommend it.

* Thank you to the publisher of Effortless Mind, New World Library, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Deadly Stakes by J.A. Jance

Deadly Stakes by J.A. Jance continues the “Ali Reynolds” mystery series, making for the eighth book in the series. Fans of the series will love Ali’s investigation techniques, and close calls throughout the book.

Book Description

“A thrilling mystery from New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance starring Ali Reynolds, who finds herself working against the police to clear two innocent names…with deadly stakes.

In Deadly Stakes, police academy-trained former reporter Ali Reynolds is contacted to investigate the grisly murder of a gold-digging divorcee on behalf of a woman accused of the crime. Lynn Martinson is dating the dead woman’s ex-husband, and she and her boyfriend Chip Ralston have been charged. 

Ali is simultaneously drawn to the case of A.J. Sanders, a frightened teen with secrets of his own. He’s the first to find the body in the Camp Verde desert when he goes to retrieve a mysterious buried box hidden by his absent father—a box that turns out to be filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in poker chips. 

When the body of an ex-con is discovered near the first crime scene, Ali struggles to determine if A.J. and Lynn’s cases are related. Though her friends in the police department grow increasingly irritated by her involvement with the cases, Ali must stop a deadly killer from claiming another victim…before she herself is lost in this game of deadly stakes.” – Deadly Stakes

My Thoughts

Deadly Stakes features the lovely Ali Reynolds, a “police academy-trained former reporter.” She is the type of character who can go through just about anything, and still come out looking fabulous, oh and solve the crime or mystery before the police do.

The characters are a bit unbelievable, so is the plot and subplots of the story, but who really cares? It is fiction and an escape from reality. It is a fun read and continues the Ali Reynolds mystery series. Fans of the series will likely love it, and I think newcomers to the series will enjoy it as well. Just don’t expect it to be very realistic.

* Thank you to the publisher of Deadly Stakes, Touchstone, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley

The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley is a complicated love story that brings up ethical questions when considering life and death. It is written in such a way that showcases the couple’s love for one another, while still focusing on the seriousness of the current situation.

Book Description

“Matt Beaulieu was two years old the first time he held Elle McClure in his arms, seventeen when he first kissed her under a sky filled with shooting stars, and thirty-three when they wed. Now in their late thirties, the deeply devoted couple has everything—except the baby they've always wanted.

When a tragic accident leaves Elle brain-dead, Matt is devastated. Though he cannot bear losing her, he knows his wife, a thoughtful and adventurous scientist, feared only one thing—a slow death. Just before Matt agrees to remove Elle from life support, the doctors discover that she is pregnant. Now what was once a clear-cut decision becomes an impossible choice. Matt knows how much this child would have meant to Elle. While there is no certainty her body can sustain the pregnancy, he is sure Elle would want the baby to have a chance. Linney, Matt's mother, believes her son is blind with denial. She loves Elle, too, and insists that Elle would never want to be kept alive by artificial means, no matter what the situation.

Divided by the love they share, driven by principle, Matt and Linney fight for what each believes is right, and the result is a disagreement that escalates into a controversial legal battle, ultimately going beyond one family and one single life.

Told with sensitivity and compassion, The Promise of Stardust is an emotionally resonant and thought-provoking tale that raises profound questions about life and death, faith and medicine—and illuminates, with beauty and grace, the power of love to wound . . . and to heal.” – The Promise of Stardust

My Thoughts

Warning: The Promise of Stardust is the type of book that will make you cry. Be prepared and have plenty of tissues nearby when reading.

After the tragic accident that left Elle brain dead and on life support, her husband learns that she is pregnant with the child they had both longed to have. However, there is nothing about that in the decision for no life support. Elle’s husband, Matt believes that if she knew she was pregnant, Elle would have wanted their child to have a chance to live. Elle’s mother doesn’t want that for Elle though, and insists to have her daughter taken off life support. The legal issues and love story make for a highly thought provoking and sad tale of family loves and losses.

The characters were all created to be realistic, and as a reader, I had compassion and understanding for all sides of this tale. That isn’t an easy accomplishment, but Priscille Sibley created this story flawlessly. I’ll remember this story and the characters in it for a long time. I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves a good love story.

* Thank you to the publisher of The Promise of Stardust, William Morrow, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Literary Rogues by Andrew Shaffer

Literary Rogues by Andrew Shaffer is a humorous look at how racy, scandalous, and quite wild literary authors can be. Read about real life authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Oscar Wilde, James Frey, and many more.

Book Description

“Rock stars, rappers, and actors haven't always had a monopoly on misbehaving. There was a time when authors fought with both words and fists, a time when poets were the ones living fast and dying young. This witty, insightful, and wildly entertaining narrative profiles the literary greats who wrote generation-defining classics such as The Great Gatsby and On the Road while living and loving like hedonistic rock icons, who were as likely to go on epic benders as they were to hit the bestseller lists. Literary Rogues turns back the clock to consider these historical (and, in some cases, living) legends, including Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Hunter S. Thompson, and Bret Easton Ellis. Brimming with fasci- nating research, Literary Rogues is part nostalgia, part literary analysis, and a wholly raucous celebration of brilliant writers and their occasionally troubled legacies.” – Literary Rogues

My Thoughts

Literary Rogues is a book that literary lovers will enjoy reading. It would make for a perfect gift for a friend or family member that has a bookcase (or more) filled with literary classics and New York Times bestsellers. Book lovers love books, and this is one that is about many of their favorite authors, so honestly, you can’t go wrong!

Andrew Shaffer has a fantastic sense of humor and wit that makes this book easy and fun to read. I learned more about some of my favorite authors, and enjoyed learning that many of them were also quite eccentric and wild. Authors aren’t boring people, and this book really shows how true that is! I love it and highly recommend it for everyone who loves reading, which should really be everyone, right?

* Thank you to the publisher of Literary Rogues, Harper Perennial, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.