Mexican herbalism has often been overlooked by North American herbalists because most remedies have not been written down. Furthermore, many native plants are misidentified even by botanists. This volume of Exploring Traditional Herbal Remedies in Mexico: Learning About Culture Through Plant Use looks at some commonly miscategorized native plants and their traditional uses.
In this book you’ll discover:
◆30 Mexican plants used in traditional remedies
◆Dozens of herbal treatments for common ailments
◆Accurate botanical identification of native Mexican plants
I found Civilianized: A Young Veteran’s Memoir by Michael Anthony to be a sad commentary on the reality that confronts returning vets in the United States. Without appropriate support systems, suffering from trauma, many discharged soldiers struggle to find meaning and purpose. Unfortunately, Michael’s story is far from unique.
This memoir chronicles Michael’s life from shortly after his return to “civilization” from an active war zone in Iraq until the point when he takes up the pen in the name of justice. His experiences are pretty standard, drugs, alcohol, thoughts of suicide, difficulty with interpersonal relationships, and aimlessness.
The writing is coherent with excellent attention to detail, although the subject at times, I’m sure was difficult for Michael to record. It’s not a feel-good book but rather grounded in a reality that shows what a disservice is done to veterans in their home country, no matter which war they were involved in.
The topic of a returning soldier’s life may be too tough for many readers. However, if your life has been touched by a vet, Michael Anthony’s memoir Civilianized will resonate with you.
If you are looking for an inspirational mid-life adventure, you can’t go wrong with Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World by Rita Golden Gelman. She begins her narration with time she spent living alone in a Zapotec village in Mexico recently divorced and wondering what to do with the rest of her life. Then we travel with her to Nicaragua, Israel, the Galapagos Islands, Indonesia, Canada, New Zealand, and Thailand.
Her experiences in each location, and the life lessons she picked up along the way, are well-described. She had experiences most backpackers will only dream about, such as living with a prince’s family in Bali. Most of her travels were done with no more than a wing and a prayer planning, but seemed to work out in the end.
Although this book was published in 1999, the author did stop traveling. You can read more about her continued adventures on her blog. The last post was dated 2019 when Ms. Gelman was 83 years old, recently returned from Rwanda, and took a spill in her home resulting in a hospital stay. What an inspiration for all women to live life to its fullest as long as possible!
I will say that I felt like Ms. Gelman’s narrative only just scratched the surface of her actual experiences. I expect, though, had she gone into more details the book would have been thousands of pages long. So I made do with surface skimming and puddle jumping and enjoyed it just the same.
Powerful You! Little memoirs of inspirational women by Anna Burgess tells the abbreviated stories of five women and the author. It also includes a memorial to an elderly friend of the author, Raymond Farrell. Encouraging commentary is interspersed throughout the book, designed to inspire women confronting life’s obstacles.
It’s not a long or difficult read. The women’s stories are moving. These women overcame challenges that included homelessness, divorce, illness and death of a parent, thriving as a single mother, surviving cancer, and starting a nonprofit.
Although the author repeatedly reiterates that this book is for every woman, it seems as if the target audience was actually the author’s friends and family, rather than for public consumption. For this to be a coaching book, which I’m not convinced it was meant to be, questions after each story to help the reader reflect on her own life would have been good. As it was, the message was, “See these women! They overcame adversity, and so can you!” but without any clear direction on how someone could do that.
Several times, the author states that if just one woman is inspired, then her book will have been a success. I think she sells herself short. The book has the potential of helping thousands of women find direction, with a bit of work.
Each woman’s excerpt was interesting but no more than a few paragraphs except for the author. The author’s own story, while moving, needed some content editing. It seemed that she wrote in a stream of consciousness and then couldn’t bear to go back and edit out redundancies or irrelevant information. The final chapter dedicated to Raymond, the elderly gentleman, seemed out of place in this book geared toward women.
I noticed no grammar or spelling issues in the text, which made it a nice read. Anyone who enjoys reading about others’ life stories would enjoy this book. Those that are looking for help with their in-depth soul-searching processes will need to look elsewhere.
I received an ARC from Reedsy Discovery. You can find my review here.
A recent lot purchase has provided me with an area begging to be landscaped. Not knowing exactly where to begin led me to Master the Art of Garden Design: Uncover the Tips for Enhancing Any Landscape by Kate Molina. The author talked me through the planning process, from ensuring you have the proper tools to being ok if you decide to change your design partway through the landscaping.
The tone was conversational rather than preachy and not highly technical, which I appreciated. There were suggestions for softscaping with plants and hardscaping with architectural features as well as advice on the use of color. Concepts such as scale and texture were new to me. I loved that some online planning tools were mentioned. I need all the help I can get on this beautification project I am about ready to begin.
Another highlight for me while reading this book was the pictures. So many authors shy away from including photographs or images in their books because of the additional formatting needed. Not Ms. Molina. This topic especially lent itself well to the inclusion of illustrations to spark the imagination.
I highlighted tips on grouping types of plants, planting deciduous trees to the south and west, and insect-repelling varieties of vegetation. I was all in when the author said that my new outdoor area should “feel like a sanctuary, a place where you can go to get fresh air and make the most incredible memories with the ones you love.”
Experienced landscapers will find this information too basic. The book is designed for beginners like myself, who want to create a space to enjoy the outdoors but not break the bank. So if that description fits where you are in the landscape design scale, then Master the Art of Garden Design: Uncover the Tips for Enhancing Any Landscape by Kate Molina will point you in the right direction.
I received an ARC from Reedsy Discovery. You can read my review here.
A Russian kingpin wants her dead… the only one who can stop it is the man sent to murder her.
Toni Flores loved her dream job working for a respected US senator until he raped her. She’s determined to bring him to justice, no matter the cost.
For years, Dimitri Valesky, head of a Russian crime family in America, has bought off those in government. Just like the senator responsible for Toni’s assault. When she won’t keep quiet about it and risks Dimitri’s business, he orders his stepson Michael to kill her.
Michael’s a lobbyist not a mafia enforcer. He refuses the insane demand, but Dimitri insists. The power he holds over Michael and his brothers is absolute… or so he believes.
Rather than murder Toni, Michael intends to romance her. Once he convinces her to keep quiet about the Senator, she won’t be a target any longer and Dimitri will back off on the hit. The plan falls apart and now they are dodging mafia enforcers, bullets, and Dimitri’s outrage.
Michael and Toni fight to stay alive and save those dearest to them as they also fall hopelessly in love.
This is book one in the Valesky Crime Family series and has an HEA.
Publisher’s Note: This contemporary dark mafia romance contains elements of mystery, suspense, action, adventure, adult themes, and possible triggers for some readers.
Tina’s an Amazon and international bestselling novelist who writes passionate romance for every taste – ‘heat with heart’ – for traditional publishers and indie. Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, Romantic Times and numerous online sites have praised her work. She’s won Readers’ Choice Awards, was named a finalist in the EPIC competition, received a Book of the Year award, The Golden Nib Award, awards of merit in the RWA Holt Medallion competitions, and second place in the NEC RWA contests. She’s featured in the Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market. Before penning romances, she worked at a major Hollywood production company in Story Direction.
On a less serious note: she’s an admitted and unrepentant chocoholic, brakes for Mexican restaurants, and has been known to moan like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally while wolfing down tostadas. She’s flown a single-engine airplane (freaking scary), rewired an old house using an ‘electricity for dummies’ book, and is horribly shy despite the hot romances she writes.
The How to Be A Necromancer series by D.D. Miers and Graceley Knox contains five novels: Grave Promise, Grave Debt, Grave Mistake, Grave Magic and Grave Chance. Vexa Tzarnavaras’s life changes drastically at her great-uncle Ptolemy’s funeral. An enchanted candle activates her long-buried necromancer powers and she accidently raises all the dead bodies in the funeral home, including her great-uncle. An immortal ancestor tracks her down and the quest begins.
Vexa’s efforts to stay alive while defeating the undead take her to the fae world, the dwarven underworld, and the world in between. She’s joined by a self-cursed werewolf, a derelict demon dabbling necromancer vagabond, a resurrected mutt in need of regular taxidermy services, an exiled fairie, and her great-aunt Persephona.
The steamy romance that blossoms between more than one of the team adds a nice touch to a paranormal adventure series. The only issue I really had was that Vexa is described as having long, curly black hair in the book, but the cover shows a blonde bombshell.
Some sections were geared towards authors who have managed to snag a traditional book publishing deal. Since I have not, although I haven’t given up hope of someday, the information about reading the fine print, making sure you keep your rights to republication, and getting the best deal of the book publishing company, didn’t apply to me.
I did learn about the Amazon Advantage program. However, when I did more research, I discovered that this publishing platform is closed to new publishers (such as myself). Amazon has given no date for reopening, unfortunately. Since I can’t access the Amazon Advantage program, the chapters on finding a decent printer weren’t useful either. To publish on Amazon, currently I need to use Amazon’s print on demand service.
Another Amazon program that has expired but is included in the blooper book is the Matchbook program, where you could offer a digital copy of your print book for a reduced price or free. This nifty feature was taken out of circulation in October of 2019. Phooey.
Not everything presented was obsolete or irreverent though. I really liked the idea of creating a tag line that expresses what my books (or me) do to benefit the reader. I also appreciated the suggestion to add a copyright watermark to images that I have created and share on social media.
Overall, I was disappointed with the amount of useful information I found in this book that had such high ratings on Amazon. Some chapters seemed redundant, others weren’t useful since the feature wasn’t available anymore, and others were irrelevant to my particular writing situation. If you are a first-time author looking for the tricks of the trade, I can’t say that I recommend How to Avoid 101 Book Publishing Blunders, Bloopers & Boo-Boos: how to successful publish a book by Judith Briles.
C.E. Flores 