Taking meticulous notes in the face of a very daunting experience is a bit of the background to Michelle Horton’s memoir, Dear Sister. Imagine you get a knock on the door by the police to inform you that your sister is in jail. One can only imagine what went on in the author’s mind. All is conveyed in a nonfiction, "can’t put the book down" account of her sister who managed to hide the physical, not to mention mental, abuse she was experiencing by her boyfriend and father of her two children.
Michelle just accepted her sister, Nicole Abbimando, wearing sunglasses when one would question, “Why?” In retrospect, why did she always wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants? Nicole was incarcerated. Now, the question that arose was, “Who will take care of her two children?” Aunt Michele stepped up to the plate.
The stage is set in September 2017, and the scenario is Nicole shot and killed her male partner. We are taken along on a challenging road: the visits to the jails and the inability of the justice system to recognize the abuse Nicole was experiencing, appellate court sessions, and the surprising results.
Resilience is a key word to describe events and the close bonding of two sisters. If you are interested in nonfiction, run to your favorite bookstore or fire up the computer to purchase a copy ASAP!
In September 2017, a knock on the door upends Michelle Horton's life forever: her sister had just shot her partner and was now in jail. During the investigation that follows, Michelle learns that Nikki had been hiding horrific abuse for years. Stunned to find herself in a situation she'd only ever encountered on television and true crime podcasts, Michelle rearranges her life to care for Nikki's children and simultaneously launches a fight to bring Nikki home, squaring off against a criminal justice system seemingly designed to punish the entire family.
In this exquisite memoir, Michelle retraces the sisters' childhood and…
Personally, I like nonfiction, but Whalefall is one fiction novel that’s a “keeper”!
May I walk you through an interesting journey, to say the least? The stage is set, and a son in the usual ”my Dad doesn’t know anything” mentality, Jay Gardner, embarks on a venture to find the remains of his dad in the Pacific Ocean, where they both were divers.
We are escorted into the ocean underworld and all the challenges that lay in store. In this mission, Jay is tangled up in a “gigantic” octopus; the tentacles surround him, and the next thing we know, Jay is inside the stomach of a whale. He is engulfed by the whale, air tanks, and all. It takes Jay a bit of ingenuity and science to know how to navigate this perplexing scenario.
The Martian meets 127 Hours in this "powerfully humane" (Owen King, New York Times bestselling author) and scientifically accurate thriller about a scuba diver who's been swallowed by an eighty-foot, sixty-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out.
Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool's errand-to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it's a long shot, but Jay feels it's the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad's death by suicide…
Next time you drive by a McDonald’s, think “Ray Kroc,” not McDonald's. That is the reality; at 52 years of age, Ray Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers entity. This book is Ray’s autobiography, a salesman who would call upon the McDonald brothers for his products, i.e., paper cups and plates, etc., in San Bernardino, California. One thing led to another: speak about a man with a “vision.”
If I can summarize the keywords conveyed, they would be perseverance, resilience, persistence, hard work, and entrepreneur.
We learn that the McDonald brothers had the idea to provide food fast, savory and delivered in an efficient manner. Now, does that sound like the McDonald’s that you and I know today? We learn of all the trials, tribulations, hurdles, and hoops he went through, but he believed he could one day turn what the McDonald brothers developed into a large franchise. Quality, service, cleanness, and value were, at the time, innovative concepts. He identified land sites for rental space to house McDonald's
franchises, ultimately across the nation. Product development, marketing, and sales all complement a number of one-line quotes from Mr. Kroc.
Grinding it Out compactly conveys how his incredible mind worked. Emphasis on research and development, what today we would call “conflict of interest,” branding, and ultimately achieving leadership in the fast food industry and happiness are all portrayed in a unique manner. Cudo’s to Ray Kroc for having the courage of his convictions and providing lessons we all can learn.
"He either enchants or antagonizes everyone he meets. But even his enemies agree there are three things Ray Kroc does damned well: sell hamburgers, make money, and tell stories." --from Grinding It Out
Few entrepreneurs can claim to have radically changed the way we live, and Ray Kroc is one of them. His revolutions in food-service automation, franchising, shared national training, and advertising have earned him a place beside the men and women who have founded not only businesses, but entire empires. But even more interesting than Ray Kroc the business man is Ray Kroc the man. Not your typical…
You can’t get pregnant after 1 year if you are a woman under 35 years old or 6 months if you are 35 or older. Speak up, there is so much we can do; the earlier the intervention, the better. Freeze your eggs if you are single and time is marching on. With Cancer, freeze your eggs before chemotherapy. Same-sex couples have a number of options to have children. Stress management for couples going through infertility can solve many problems.
