Book Review: Manifest Moment to Moment

Title: Manifest Moment to Moment
Author: Tejpal, Carrol Mclaughlin
Publisher: Hay House
Publishing Date: June 5th 2014
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
A transcending, spiritual Self-help book, that leaves the reader with a sense of wonder, they might have lost.
Manifest Moment to Moment is of course on of many books about the subject of Manifestation. The tricky part of this path of manifestation is to find the book that resonates with your inner voice, and therefore unlocks something within you, that allows you finally to hear, what is essentially the same message, in the package just for you.
After having read and listened to many speakers and writers on the subject, that has become my conclusion. While the core message is the same, the wording and delivery is what will bring forth in the individual what is needed to finally “get it”.
For those who are spiritually (but not religiously – meaning not bound by dogma) minded, this book is the resonating factor. With the feel of listening to a highly evolved person of the process, it speaks to those who seek the inner enlightenment, while still wanting to manifest abundance, but not only abundance. While I am an action oriented person, a more inward focused individual will feel the truth in these words, as I have felt some of the same draw, even if not as strong as others might.
Laced with exercises, explanations and practical showing of how these principles bring forth the opening needed to manifest, this book is a pleasant and comforting read.
If you are looking for a kick in the rear, you won’t find it, but if you are interested in genuine, gentle guidance, this book is exactly what you are looking for.

Book Review: The Low-Sugar Cookbook by Nicola Graimes

Title: The Low-Sugar Cookbook
Author: Nicola Graimes
Publisher: Watkins Publishing Limited
Publishing Date: August 21, 2014
Rating 4.5/5 Stars

If you are buying this book for the recipes, you are in for a treat. Everything from sweet to savory is covered in this volume, bringing you healthy additions to your table, that are easy to prepare, and to not need ingredients most of us do not usually have in our pantry.

If you are expecting the revelation on how to live with less sugar, you are not going to find anything new. While the information given in the beginning of the book, on the health implications of too much sugar, are true, they are not more than the common person already knows. But this is mainly a cookbook, and in that regard, it has much to offer. From Muesli to Smoothies, light meals to full dinners ( I like the Ribollita, but that is because I love Italian food! – So comforting!) There are vegetarian meal ideas, and those for carnivores, some that take a little more skill, and others that anyone could master.

I am impressed by the variety of recipes, and would highly recommend this cookbook to anyone who wants to eat healthy, but not always the standard fair.

You May Also Like:

Viva Labs Organic Raw Cacao Nibs – Vegan, Natural, And Organic, my favorite nibs to use when creating treats for my hyper-allergic family members.

 

 

Disclaimer: This book was given to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review. The above post contained affiliate links to Amazon, see Disclosure page for full details

 

 

Dean Koontz: The City – A Review

Title: The City: A Novel
Author: Dean Koontz
Release Date: July 1st, 2014
Rating: 3/5
Dean Koontz is one of the reasons I originally wanted to be a writer. I read his new releases in English, when I still needed a dictionary to completely understand every word. I did not care. I held my breath between releases, waiting for more, from whom I considered the Master, better even than Stephen King.

But things have changed. Unlike Steven King, who never let go off the quality work, always delivering as expected, Dean Koontz trailed off, leaving behind the gripping tales for something that reminds me more of a Sunday afternoon movie – it’s there, you are bored, so what the hell, why not?
I miss being gripped and pulled into the story as he managed to do in his earlier stories, boring me half way through, and following the peculiar and not welcoming trend of delivering a story in first person. That choice alone eliminates tension, and that is what I remember Dean to deliver – tension.

It is not an awful book, not by far, if you make it past the first few chapters, it does pick up on speed, but I honestly have read Indie and Newbie Authors who delivered a faster, more enticing story, with a more engaging cast, then Dean Koontz has in this book. Am I going to give away spoilers? No, the few that are in there have to carry you through the story, and are scattered far enough in between, that I mind as well, tell you not to bother reading it all.

If you are a hardcore Dean Koontz fan from before his Odd Thomas times, you will be disappointed. If you liked Odd Thomas (which I loath), then this might be for you.

Invisible – A Dark Slice of Life Flash Fiction

 

No one sees me, no one.

I blend in with the concrete, the lines on my face reflecting those of the lines of the pavement. I am bruised and battered, just like these streets, I call home.

Am I invisible, worthless in the corner of my domain, the bushes keeping me out of sight of the police. I shiver in the breeze, settling around me. It had rained last night, I am wet, I am cold, I am hungry.

No longer human.

Reduced to nothing but the shadow of what I once was. A beautiful young, and vibrant woman, my skin smooth, now laced with dirt and patches, that itch, over and over again. Never to heal. How could they in this filth?

There, a woman passes, her pace accelerates as she glances at m, like I am a piece of rotting flesh to be discarded.

Well, I do smell. But I have gotten used to the smell, it keeps me company, and it keeps those away who still see me, as a woman who could satisfy their sickening need. I smell worse than a dog, and it has become my armor. Ironic isn’t it?

I grin, staring toward the busy street in front of me, knowing that no one would miss me if I were just gone, disappeared.

After all, how can you miss the Invisible?

Copyright Claudia H. Blanton 2014

Groundhog Week – Lessons Learned

Today’s Question is: If you could relive the past week, would you? Would you change anything?

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
John Quincy Adams

A week of obstacles, a week of lessons learned, course directions made, and new bright futures discovered. Could I have lived without the despair of betrayal, of course. Did I learn from that, did we, my husband and I, as we are rising above the trials of owning our own business? Plenty. Our patience and perseverance has taught us lessons about our own strengths, lessons I will not take for granted. These are stepping-stones from which we can build upon.

If you are not willing to accept lessons, learn to see that failure is not that, but an opportunity, then you, my friend, have no business in business.

This is a daily prompt post “Groundhog Week”

New Series “The Last Ship” Comands Attention

I was torn to watch last night between watching “Rising Star” or “The Last Ship” on TNT. Considering that I read the devastating reviews of the former, I am glad I met the decision to commit to the Drama.

And I think you should take a look at it too.

With the presence of a full force action movie, rather than an hour-long drama, the pilot pushed its way into our Sunday evening, never letting go, with dramatically and well performed roles, from the leads, all the way to the minor characters.
The man formerly known as McSteamy, Eric Dane, took control off every frame he stepped in, and not in the cartoonish annoying way he did in Grey’s Anatomy (can you tell I was not a fan?), to my surprise filling this role as the Commander of a Naval vessel with ease, without loosing his charm. Faced with a seemingly impossible situation – a pandemic killed off most of the Earth’s population, while they were on a mission that forced them into radio silence – the Commander and it’s crew, including a CDC Doctor, Dr. Rachel Scott (played well by Rhona Mitra) have no choice but to become a solution to a problem that seems to doom the world. They have become the only hope.

Here is the trailer:

Produced by Michael Bay

Despair – A Dark Slice Of Life Flash Fiction

The following flash fiction is a dark monologue of despair. If you are easily triggered, please do not read on. Thank you.

____________________

I am afraid.
I have lost all hope since he left, leaving me with her, and nothing else. How am I going to feed her? How am I going to take care of this precious little girl, when all I have are the pennies in this jar?
I wish to God, that there were answers, that something would break, someone would swoop in here, and rescue me. All I have left is her, and I can not give her what she needs, what she deserves.
Am I a bad mother? What kind of person am I, if I can not care for her like I am supposed to? Is it my fault that he left, should I have done something, anything to make him stay? After all I am depended on him, and she is depended on me. I should have done something, anything to make him stay.
It doesn’t matter what he did to me. It does not matter how much it hurt, or how many bruises I carry as a result. None of that is important.
All that matters is that now, right now I do not know how to feed her.
What am I going to do?
Copyright Claudia H. Blanton 2014

Book Review: The New Dream Dictionary by Tony Crisp

Book Review: The New Dream Dictionary – A Handbook of Dream Meanings And Sleep Experience
Author: Tony Crisp
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Release Date: Nov. 28th, 2009

The New Dream Dictionary is a comprehensive, detailed listing of the meaning of the clues your dreams entail. While this is not a book on understanding the process of dream interpretation, nor a book that will tell you how to work in greater detail with your dream, it is a handy reference to many impressions that are common in dreaming.

Writing informatively and with care to stay authentic to the traditional interpretations, Tony Crisp has managed to compile a thorough list of the symbols, without making the volume sound like just another one of the many reference books of this type on the market.
If you are already familiar with dream interpretation, this is a good reference guide to keep. If you are new to the art of Dream Interpretation, check out books such as Dream Interpretation for Dummies or How to Interpret Dreams And Visions by Perry Stone.
This post is a part of the daily prompt blogging prompt by WordPress.
If you are looking for a more proffessional interpretation of your dreams, you can contact me via claudiablanton@live.com or via Fiverr. I am a Certified Dream Interpreter with 9 years of professional reading experience.

Following A Trend vs. Finding Your Own Voice

50 Shades of Gray was undeniably a hit. You do not have to like it, to realize the impact it has made in the publishing world. Twilight did the same thing, creating a massive following who was hungry for more of the same. Harry Potter rocked the children’s book world.

But unlike Twilight and Harry Potter, 50 Shades of Gray is written in “first person present tense”. A difficult task to pull off on a a good day, and despite the subject matter, and all of the little details one could argue about and get in discussions over, the Author did it, made it readable, in a filthy sort of way.

I can understand how one would like to copy this success. Who would not want to achieve what the Author of that series achieved? Fame, notoriety and one hell of a paycheck are hard to overlook and not want to have for oneself. At the same time, romance writers need to remember that it takes a special skill to make that voice work for themselves. What sounded authentic, sounds like a wanna-be copy cat in the many other books that came across my desk written in first person present tense. Either you can pull it off, or you should stick with the conventional 3rd person writing style. Most can’t.

Take the following book for example:

A promising premise, sex, tension, erotic, and romance, all that is promised to us in this short blurb:

As a gifted opera singer, Allegra Orsini’s only obsession is music-until she meets him. A strikingly handsome and powerful man with a life splashed across the tabloids, Davison Cabot Berkeley isn’t what she expected. He’s unlike the other wealthy patrons who dine at Le Bistro. Davison sees more than just a coat-check girl working her way through grad school. And from the moment he looks at her, those deep green eyes ignite a fire inside Allegra she’s never felt before.

She craves Davison’s touch-his possession-endlessly. Even though every fiber of her being is telling her to stay away, that it’s best for both of them, she can’t. As his passion consumes her, Allegra can no longer deny Davison’s hold on her. He’ll never let her go. But as much as she wants him, Allegra can’t surrender to his love-not until she faces a painful secret from her past that could destroy them both

Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? What turned me off, was that it was written as if to copy the above mentioned 50 Shades of Gray. It does not have it’s own voice, making the main character sound like an annoying person, in who’s head I really do not want to spend time in. It takes skill, a skill I admire, to take us  readers on a journey through an experience, it takes an extra skill to do this in a first person present tense narrative. What could have been an enjoyable read, was lost because of the need of wanting to jump on the bandwagon of a popular and if well done, enjoyable ride. But not very many Authors are good at this – E. L. James is. Sofia Tate is not.

The Smart Girl’s Guide To Getting What You Want – A Review

Title: The Smart Girl’s Guide to Getting What You Want: How to be assertive with wit, style and grace
Author: Mary Hartley
Publisher: Watkins Publishing
Release Date: April 22, 2014
Rating: 5/5
The Smart Girl’s Guide to Getting What You Want, is an interesting and practical self-help book for the girl who needs more self-confidence and assertiveness.
Considering that I have never been someone lacking the latter (I always speak my mind, and learned early to fight for what I believe in), it is refreshing to see a book who is attempting to teach exactly that. Not everyone is automatically an assertive person, and often have I seen people with these types of personalities run over by a boss, a relative, a spouse.
This book does a fine job teaching how to overcome that, making sure to distinguish between being aggressive and assertive, which is, in my opinion, important.
This volume contains practical advice such as using tone of voice, posture and body language not only to your advantage, but also to recognize other peoples behavior patterns. Learning how to give and more importantly accept a compliment is another thing rarely taught, but shared here.
Overall I think this book is one of the better and more practical self-help books of late.
If you are in need of more assertiveness, this is the book for you.

Happy Reading!

To have your book reviewed or to take advantage of my experienced translating services (German/English) contact me at @claudiablanton@live.com or via fiverr