It's a Brand New Day!

By Donald Leslie Slater and Kenny D. Shaw

Children are reintroduced to the beauty of nature found all around them in the new book It's a Brand New Day by Donald Leslie Slater and Kenny D. Shaw.

This book is aimed at Christian parents and grandparents who are wanting to turn the attention of their young loved ones to "God's creation on display."  Filled with beautiful photographs of nature scenes and wildlife, It's a Brand New Day is a refreshing yet simple reminder of the beauty that can be found if one takes the time to be still for a moment.

Written in both English and Spanish, the words in each short sentence correlates to the song of the same name available on an optional companion CD. As the lyrics of the song repeat, so too does the wording in the book. Initially it might be distracting to see pages repeated, however when realizing it correlates to music, the book will actually seem to flow rhythmically.

An interesting section extolling the virtue of and value of mothers, fathers, grandparents and veterans is located at the end of the book. Each short section is accompanied by a page to write down ideas of ways to honor each. Additionally, the words to three of Shaw’s songs, “Lord of Love,” “Master of the Universe” and “A Song That Has No End“, are also included within the pages of the book and the optional companion CD.

Children and adults alike will enjoy the imagery and simple message found in this short unique book.

This review was submitted by Kristin Pace. Kristin is a wife and mother and founder of The Book-Trotter.  She wrote her first review 20 years ago and has been reading and loving books ever since.

The Fatal Bullet, the Assassination of President James A. Garfield

By Rick Geary

Rick Geary’s new book The Fatal Bullet The Assassination of President James A. Garfield explores an important event in American history in an unusual yet effective manner.

To summarize: the nation, which in recent times had dealt with the horrors of President Lincoln’s assassination, was once again shaken to its core the summer of 1881. On Saturday, July 2 in the near empty waiting room of a train depot, the twentieth U.S. President, Republican James Abraham Garfield was shot in the back. It would take a grueling two months before the President would succumb to his injury.

The assassin, one Charles Guiteau, was quickly apprehended. He announced that he bore no ill-will toward the President but that his death was a “political necessity.” During his trial Guiteau defended himself proclaiming to be an agent of deity. He would go on to state that the President’s physicians should bear the burden of his death. He reasoned this because of the fact that they had decided the wound the President had suffered was not, in fact fatal and that he would soon recover. Guiteau was convicted of the assassination by a jury and was executed by hanging on June 30, 1882.

What sets Geary’s book apart from other historical works is that it was written as a graphic novel. With illustration reminiscent of a comic book, Geary’s book sets out to explore the Garfield assassination as well as to take a closer look at the events leading up to this significant point in the two men’s lives.  Geary examines certain similarities in both lives. Some of these included are in regards to their home regions, the fact that both were the youngest in their family, both considered clergy as a career and that both were drawn to the law and politics.

Robert Frost wrote of two roads that diverged in the wood. This would certainly be applicable to the life paths taken by Garfield and Guiteau. While their lives bore some resemblances they each took different paths. Garfield had a “happy prosperous life” with a strong marriage and a “reputation for honesty, loyalty and fair dealing.” Guiteau, on the other hand, took the “downward path” with a bitter and brief marriage and a reputation as a “cheat, charltan and hum-bug.”

Geary’s book is very interesting and unique. To take a piece of history put it in comic form and stay true to the serious nature of the event is quite the feat. This book will appeal to those young adults and teens who may otherwise have little or no interest in history. Teachers would do well to include this book in their curriculum.

This review was submitted by Kristin Pace. Kristin is a wife and mother and founder of The Book-Trotter.  She wrote her first review 20 years ago and has been reading and loving books ever since.

Click to purchase The Fatal Bullet (Treasury of Victorian Murder (Graphic Novels))

A Broad Abroad in Thailand: An Expat's Misadventures in the Land of Smiles

By Dodie Cross

Living abroad in Thailand is not always all it is said to be as author Dodie Cross quickly realized. The result of her near year-long adventure? A “laugh out loud must-read memoir” called A Broad Aboard in Thailand An Expat’s Misadventures in the Land of Smiles.

When newly widowed Dodie first met and became involved with Dick, she had no idea what lay in store for her. When Dick is offered an incredible job opportunity in Thailand, there is no question that Dodie wanted to go along. Pushed into a quick marriage, the two soon set off for lands unknown.

Their first experiences in Thailand were luxurious. If only the same could be said for the rest of her stay. Dick and Dodie are soon moved into a new company-owned home and begin to realize very quickly that this wonderful opportunity came with some serious strings attached.

Dodie is fortunate to find many allies and friends. Faithful Pon, Dodie’s live-in housekeeper and friend very quickly earned a place in Dodie’s heart, as did the “beautiful orphans” Dodie considered herself fortunate to work with at the Pattaya Orphanage. The ladies from the Pattaya International Ladies’ Club (PILC) also played a large part in comforting Dodie and helping her to keep her sanity but at the same time were part of an on-going problem Dodie had with the boss’ wife, Mrs. Anorexia or Mrs. A for short (named changed to protect the guilty).

While the area and the friends Dodie made would endear Thailand to her forever, problems followed her almost from the beginning of this fateful journey. The primary problem Dodie faced was Dick. Dick suffered from an addiction and had, at times some extreme issues. This would be a large part of their undoing. Competing with Dick for “problem of the trip” was the insufferable control freak Mrs. A. While not an employee of The Company, Mrs. A issued many rules regarding nearly every aspect of the lives - both public and private - of the employees and their wives. To cross Mrs. A or to break one of her and her husband’s rules was to earn an instant trip back to the States. Unfortunately for Dodie, she and Mrs. A were at cross purposes almost constantly. Medical problems, a near fatal accident and probably countless blunders in dealing with the Thai people all plague Dodie as well.

This memoir, though thick, is very difficult to put down. Dodie Cross has achieved a great accomplishment: her readers will feel an almost immediate connection to her. They will feel her anxiety, her stresses, her amusement and most certainly with groan along with her at the mere thought of Mrs. A.
Mrs. Cross is to be applauded.

This review was submitted by Kristin Pace. Kristin is a wife and mother and founder of The Book-Trotter.  She wrote her first review 20 years ago and has been reading and loving books ever since.

Click to purchase A Broad Abroad in Thailand; An Expat's Misadventures in the Land of Smiles

Shattered Dreams, My Life as a Polygamist's Wife

By Irene Spencer

Imagine marrying your sister’s husband while your sister is not only living, but still married to him. Now imagine that through the years, your husband would take an additional eight wives and father a total of 58 children. In her book, Shattered Dreams, My Life as a Polygamist’s Wife, Irene Spencer spins a tale so foreign that it would be unbelievable if one was not assured this was her true life’s story.

The story opens with a young Irene running off to be with her new husband, Verlan LeBaron, and his first wife, Charlotte. The product of four generations of polygamists or “Fundamentalists,” Irene has been brought up with the concept of the Principle, or polygamy, instilled in her. The Principle taught that men were to have as many wives and children as possible. At the conclusion of their lives, they would reap eternal benefits and rewards based on their adherence to the Principle. “Polygamy was all about future glory.”

Giving up the love of a man who loved her desperately in order to follow the Principle, Irene embarks on a life far from what she had envisioned. She shares her first home, consisting of two bedrooms and a primitive kitchen, with her husband, his first wife, and their child. Within a matter of a couple of years, a third wife joins them.

Through the next several years, Irene endures countless moves while fighting poverty, loneliness and depression. She raises thirteen children of her own, while working communally to help the entire family survive. At one point, she is solely responsible for the care of twenty-four children while her sister-wives and husband work outside the home. Eventually Irene makes the decision to no longer share the husband that she loved, telling him “I was a beautiful green plant when you married me, but you neglected me! All I ever wanted, all I ever asked was to be watered with your love.…I’ve been threatened with Hell for so many years, I’m not afraid anymore. No one can send me to Hell, because I’m already there.” Taking her small children with her, Irene leaves Verlan for three years before eventually returning to him.

This is a heart-wrenching tale. Spencer relays her story so vividly that her readers can feel her frustration and her loneliness. Her despair is evident as she asked again and again to give her husband yet another wife, each of whom will take her husband further and further away emotionally.

      

Shattered Dreams... is an excellent book. The story would have been stronger if the epilogue had been left out, however it is interesting to read what becomes of Irene and her children after the death of Verlan. Spencer’s motivation behind the writing of this book was to “tell it like it is.” In this book she did exactly what she set out to do in a very thought-provoking manner.

This review was submitted by Kristin Pace. Kristin is a wife and mother and founder of The Book-Trotter.  She wrote her first review 20 years ago and has been reading and loving books ever since.

Click to purchase Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World

By John Wood

WARNING: If you are not willing to be challenged or motivated to act, do not read John Wood’s new book Leaving Microsoft to Change the World.

In the late 1990’s Microsoft Marketing Director John Wood took a three week vacation in order to go trekking in the Himalayas. At the time Wood had no idea that the 200 mile walk would be the beginning of a radical change, not only in his thinking but in his very way of life.

On his first day of trekking, Wood meets a middle-aged Nepali named Pasupathi, the man responsible for finding resources for 17 schools in the rural Lamjung Province. Invited to join him, Wood soon found himself greeting students in an overcrowded Nepali school. Not only were the students crammed on long benches, they lacked desks, an accurate world map, and most striking, a lack of books in their small library. Four hundred and fifty students were without something as simple and important as books. The headmaster of the school then issued to Wood a challenge that would forever change his life: “Perhaps, sir, you will someday come back with books.”

On completion of the three week trek, Wood sent out a challenge to over 100 people asking them to help the children of Nepal by donating books. Expecting a couple hundred books to be donated, Wood was overwhelmed to find that over 3,000 books were donated as a result of this single mailing.

Back to work at Microsoft, Wood realized a lack of fulfillment in his work. Statistics of illiteracy haunted him. After a second trip to Nepal, Wood knew what he had to do and wondered if he would have the courage to do it. He planned and implemented a radical shift in his life: that of moving from being a well paid corporate executive to an unpaid CEO of a nonprofit company who set up libraries in developing countries.

As a result of John Wood’s courageous decision, the nonprofit organization, Room To Read, has now established over 5,000 libraries, built more than 400 schools and has awarded long-term scholarships to over 3,000 girls enabling them to continue their education. Partnered with the local villages, Room to Read has by donations funded schools in libraries in Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Sri Lanka and India.

It is said that education is the key to escaping the cycle of poverty. The mission of Room to Read is to “provide under-privileged children with an opportunity to gain the lifelong gift of education.” This book, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, encourages its readers to reflect on the impact education has made on their lives, dares them to imagine a life without books, and challenges them to make a difference in the life of a child.

This review was submitted by Kristin Pace. Kristin is a wife and mother and founder of The Book-Trotter.  She wrote her first review 20 years ago and has been reading and loving books ever since.

Click to purchase Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children

Quit Bugging Me

By Karen Laven

Thirteen year-old Emily Lockhardt thought that having her older brother Bud always around bugging her was bad enough. Now though, she has to write a school report on creepy crawlers and Bud is actually trying to help. When he gives Emily a new book about bugs things really start to get out of hand.


With bugs on the brain as she falls asleep, Emily wakes up to the creepy sensation of millions of legs crawling all over her face and body. Thinking the millipedes to have been just a dream, Emily tries to put it out of her mind. The happenings of the next evening, however, makes her realize that something is very wrong and dangerous about the book her brother gave to her.

That night red fire ants attack, biting and leaving welts that surprisingly disappear when adults come near. The next night thousands of horseflies attack, again biting Emily wherever they can. When locust swarm Bud's room devouring everything in sight, he admits that he too was beginning to think something was very strange about the book. His friend, Peter, gave the book to him after telling him the spiders were after him. Bud thought he was teasing, but now that locusts were eating this prize possessions, he was having second thoughts. To make matters worse, Peter has gone missing.

Bud and Emily work together, trying everything they can think of in order to get rid of the book and hopefully the bugs along with it. But it is no use. Moths, killer bees, mosquitoes and cockroaches all continue their torment of the two siblings. When Bud, like Peter, disappears, Emily knows that somehow the book and its bugs are responsible.

Small clues began to surface making Emily realize that not only did the bugs carry Bud off, but that now he is actually inside their cursed book. Understanding that no one would believe this wild tale, it is up to Emily to try and save her brother.

Allowing herself to be carried off, Emily finds herself in a frightening living nightmare. Giant bugs roam free in a world where tarantulas rule and children have been lured or carried off to for centuries. It is up to Emily, armed with little but her spunk and ingenuity to find a way out of the book if she and Bud are to survive.

Karen Laven's new book, Quit Bugging Me, is one that children 8-12 years old will easily get caught up in. Narrated solely by a series of emails, Laven has created a unique and modern way to spin a story from different perspectives without disrupting the flow of the story.

Readers will feel the terror of Emily and the worry of her best friend Joel. While not wanting to admit to being creeped out they, like Joel, will never look at a book in the same manner again. They will be swift to put away any book with the potential to become hazardous. Who knows what book might come alive next!

This review was submitted by Kristin Pace. Kristin is a wife and mother and founder of The Book-Trotter.  She wrote her first review 20 years ago and has been reading and loving books ever since.

Click to purchase Quit Bugging Me

The Gold of Thrace

By Aileen G. Baron

An adventure in the dark side of archeology and ancient antiquities is to be enjoyed in Aileen G. Baron's new book The Gold of Thrace.

Archeologist Tamar Saticoy is distressed to find that an ancient mosaic floor recently discovered at her dig site in Kilis, Turkey is missing. The overnight theft of the valuable mosaic is a reeling blow as it follows closely on the heels of the recent Ephesus murder of one of her staff members.

Determined to recover the mosaic before it reappears as a collector's prize, Tamar traces the mosaic to Basel, Switzerland. Posing as a museum curator looking for new articles for the museum, Tamar soon finds herself in the company of antiquities dealer Gilberto Dela Barcolo.

Meanwhile one of Tamar's British colleagues, Chatham, is hot on the trail of a horde of ancient Thracian gold. While traveling by train through Bulgaria he is approached by the gold's current owner and intrigued by images and pieces of the treasure. Leaving the train, Chatham spends several days cataloguing the beautiful treasure in order that it might be displayed on loan at the British Museum. Double crossed on his way to the museum, Chatham learns, too late, that all is not what it seems.

When Chatham and one more staff member tracing the mosaic is murdered, Tamar also begins to realize that things and people are not always as they seem. The murderer soon sets his sights on Tamar. After several narrow escapes, it becomes apparent that she has entered a deadly game of cat and mouse where the huntress has now become the hunted.

The Gold of Thrace is an entire novel of smoke and mirrors. Few characters other than the heroine herself are what and who they initially appear to be. Trying to unravel this mystery and its players is like following a single thread of a spider's web to it's origin.

The Gold of Thrace flows along at a quick rate and its lightening fast climax does require careful reading if one does not want to be left scratching their head. Understanding who is who is critical at this point as all is revealed and the smoke and shadows are quickly removed.

This fast paced adventure is one difficult to put down. Anyone with a passing interest in archeology and ancient history will enjoy this book and its long hard look at the black market of antiquities and the intrigue that surrounds it.

This review was submitted by Kristin Pace. Kristin is a wife and mother and founder of The Book-Trotter.  She wrote her first review 20 years ago and has been reading and loving books ever since.

Click to purchase Gold of Thrace