Review of The Love Book (Paperback)

These stories of sex and death, attraction and repulsion, men and women, start out in a gritty mode, exposing the less pretty realities of some of life's unfortunates. One triumph of The Love Book is the tenderness Wohlrob reveals in the course of writing each relationship, a raw and recognizable humanity he brings to the surface in places the reader least expects: Compassion for just the characters with whom I was most uncomfortable crept over me in absorbing Wohlrob's deft and distilled prose. The stories in The Love Book are never veiled autobiography, but add up to an original vision all Wohlrob's own, one that has been piercingly and wisely lived, felt, and imagined.

Product Description
Five gritty, absurd and darkly comic tales. Five characters at a crossroads in their lives. While recovering in a New Jersey motel room, an obese female pro-wrestler is confronted by the demons of her past, as old memories she long ago wanted to bury keep surfacing. An Italian man who has a fetish for Asian women meets his match when he starts dating an Asian woman with a fetish for Italian men. A woman who loses her right arm in a car accident tries to return to normal life and subjects herself to the horrors of online dating. A man obsessed with time has recurring dreams that he is always late for odd events and struggles with his psychiatrist to figure out the source of his fixation. An epidemic of suicide hits a retirement community in Ohio and one couple begins to question the value of their final days together. These are very modern fables, with a great heart, a very biting sense of humor, and fully-fleshed out characters that you can sink your teeth into. Hear the audio version at www.kenwohlrob.com.

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Review of A Few Corrections: A Novel (Paperback)

Midway through this exquisite novel the narrator recalls, through an alcoholic mist, that, "the most distant object visible by day--the sun-- lies some eight minutes away at the speed of light.The most distant visible by night--the Great Andromeda Galaxy--lies two million light-years away.In terms of visible boundaries, then, night is some 100 billion times bigger than day."Clearly (or murkily), that leaves much to explore.The primary object of exploration in A Few Corrections, Wesley Sultan, the quintessentially American salesman, has departed for the great darkness beyond life, and the obituary of the man is less than illuminating.The narrator methodically seeks to shed light on this mystery.

While the novel is organized around the attempt to make a few corrections to the memory of this rather ordinary Midwestern life, Brad Leithauser makes more than a few fascinating connections, extending to the extraordinary.Some connections work as metaphor.Of Wesley's sister, the babbling Adelle, he writes, "Her monologue is a wandering creek of so gentle a propulsion, you have to take on faith the notion that you'll eventually get out of the woods and into open waterways."The connections work at the larger structural level of the novel, which will have the careful reader returning to the beginning of chapters and earlier parts of the book to confirm the revelations.For fans of Brad Leithauser, there are even connections to his other works of fiction and poetry.I'm anxious to see where this novel will connect to his future work.

The novel is filled with humorous vignettes and is beautifully written.(It's better when you read it aloud.)Though Wesley Sultan is elusive, the narrator reaches small epiphanies with those who aid him in his quest.Leithauser treats his characters with great warmth and understanding.He also effectively evokes an earlier and lost time.A Few Corrections is fast-paced: it's a good read.At the same time, its richness makes it a good re-read, too.



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Review of Momma's House (Kara's Eyes) (Paperback)

I am an avid reader. Books, words are my greatest passion.This book grabbed me from the first page!I found myself waking up in the middle of the night wanting to read more.The characters are so real, so much so that I felt I knew them and wanted to see how things turned out. I became totally involved.The main character Kara is fascinating, being so young and so determined, I found myself actually rooting her on!
I cried, I laughed, I was enraged. Momma's House is an emotional rollercoaster.I am recommending it to all my girlfriends as a must read!

Product Description
Set during the mid-1960s through the early 1980s, Kara, a girl of multi-racial, multi-culturalbackground, has taken on the task of caring for her family despite her tender years. Blessed with a genius IQ and street smarts. Kara struggles to survive in a household governed by a violent, domineering andphysically abusive mother with an interest in the occult and a chronically alcoholic and self-loathing father. The inner turmoil of Momma's house is in sharp contrast to the outer appearance of the family's seemingly picturesque life.Kara must contend with the horrors of molestation, rape and modern day slavery with a resolve that belies her young years. With an innate sense of God and purpose, Kara is determined to "bend but NEVER break,"Kara's sense of strength is constantly reenforced by her friendship with her one true friend and seemingly guardian angel, herblack German Shepherd Prince, and the only love she's ever truly known or recognized; that of her older sister Dee Dee.Due to necessity of creating something fromvery little to nothing, she discovers a connatural ability and passion for cooking! Many view Kara as an "old soul" in a young body, perhaps it is this possession that enables her to realize that life is about choices and one can either choose to be a victim or not!

From the Author
This is a story about one young girl's struggle to exist; it's her life as seen through her eyes. Narrated in a mature voice, one has but to peel off the many layers that conceal in order to discover or see the child within the child. Although graphic at times, it is a poignant piece about determination, the quest for love, self-acceptance, and the strongest instinct of all, to survive!

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Review of Going Coastal (Mass Market Paperback)

I loved this author's previous book Smothering.I was eagerly looking forward to this one.

Going Coastal is about our main character -working in a diner and hating it - or so she thinks.

Basically, this book is about finding yourself and what you truly love.There are many wacky characters as you would imagine in the diner and our main heroine has some hilarious interactions with most of them. The writing style is fun and breezy and although there is a "morale" to this story, the overeall tone is about being who you should be.

While this book wasn't as "sweet and innocent" as Smothering, I still enjoyed it thoroughly.Great chick lit reading.



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Review of The New Pioneers: The Men and Women Who Are Transforming the Workplace and Marketplace (Paperback)

Reading The New Pioneers is a pleasant occupation.On theother hand, reviewing this book for people who have not yet read it isa challenging task.This is primarily because the book is written to be read and understood at many different levels.

The simplest and most obvious level is as a series of charming stories in the best humanistic tradition that demonstrate that there is good business in being a good human.

At a deeper level, Mr. Petzinger is also telling us that the economy is changing in a fundamental way because of the experiences of small and middle sized business leaders, such as those cited in the book.

Beyond that, he is suggesting something fundamental about human civilization and its potential to create astonishingly positive results.

At whatever level you consider the book, you will be well rewarded for reading it.

I must admit that it is tempting to ignore the book's shortcomings, but that would shortchange the principles that Mr. Petzinger is exploring...

As heart-warming as this book is, it is a scrapbook rather than a vision for individual entrepreneurs. Its value for entrepreneurs is, nonetheless, quite substantial.The benefit comes from stimulating ideas among readers by showing new business examples that have not been widely published and discussed before. I hope all entrepreneurs will read this book for that important benefit.

A fine effort from a talented journalist!END



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Review of Brand X: The Boyfriend Account (Hardcover)

One sick day changes Jordie's life. The day she's sick is the most important day for determining the required school internships. She really wants the newspaper intern, but misses out on the interviews. Instead she's offered one of the more unique internships, which comes directly from the principal's brother. He works for an advertising agency that makes toys for fast food meals. Fighting to let out her creative side, Jordie is happy to take the position. She just needs to get her mom on board.

Once the position is officially hers, Jordie's mouth gets her into a tad bit of trouble. She lets out some personal information about the "perfect" boy in her pre-calculus class. Convinced that she has a zero chance of dating him, she agrees to try different techniques her bosses suggest. Shared milkshakes, a sombrero, a fake pizza delivery, and a push-up bra episode all end up humiliating Jordie. Can she figure out a way to juggle both her personal life and her internship without becoming a social outcast?

BRAND X: THE BOYFRIEND ACCOUNT takes a typical internship and adds high school drama, creating a book not to be missed. In a strictly science and math school, Jordie struggles to fit in and accept her differences. In understanding herself better, Jordie's outlook on life gains a fresh perspective.

Reviewed by:Jennifer Rummel

Product Description
Landing an internship at an ad agency isn't what her principal or her mother wanted for Jordie Popkin, aspiring journalist. At sixteen, Jordie is glad of the chance to collect "real world" experience and finds working with the "creatives" at the agency a nice break from her math and science curriculum. And the team likes Jordie, too. When her new colleagues decide to make Jordie's business their business, Jordie is flattered but skeptical. They will come up with a plan to market Jordie to the hottest guy in her grade. From situation analysis to "sex sells," the team assures Jordie that they know what they're doing.She shouldn't get upset if their ideas cause her an embarassing moment or two. Jordie knows that the course of true love never did run smooth and that the ad game isn't a simple set of rules to follow but she can't help wondering about the advantages of letting professionals try to turn her from Brand X into a hot item. The principles of marketing might apply to a bar of soap, but finding the right guy...?

In this humorous novel, Laurie Gwen Shapiro reveals with candor how one girl who feels like "Brand X" not only learns the secret of a successful marketing campaign but also discovers how to assess her true market value to become the brand of choice.

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Review of The Corporate Cult: More of What Men Know That Women Don't (Paperback)

Who is Zubaty you might ask?Good question.Zubaty followed the American dream: house, kids, business, and he even helped his wife through school.When she graduated, she filed for divorce and got half his stuff and probably most of his dignity.So what does he do?Cut a hole in a trunk of a car and shoot people at gas stations? No.He does what all of us wish we could do under the circumstances and got the heck away from the confused culture we are marinated in every waking hour.He spends his days traveling from country to country, island to island, with not much more than he can carry on his back.
By now you're thinking he's a nut, that he can't cope.Major publishers will not touch his work.He is refused any publicity by the major media conglomerates.So Zubaty is considered not "Disney worthy" and people have attempted to elbow him from the status of, well, being known.
Rich says it best on the book:

"You can't judge a book by lookin' at the cover...
And you sure can't trust reviewers you don't even know!
So flip open to any page and read any sentence.
Yes, NOW!"

Quite a bold statement when most authors just want a flashy cover.So I took his challenge.He's right.You can start on any page, any paragraph, and just read and read.I would classify Zubaty as a social Galileo of our times- he knows the score but people refuse to listen.They refuse to listen because he tells the truth in its dirty, raw, and sobering form.It's too much reality for those who haven't been tested in life.
I spend my days making good money designing tools and parts on the computer.Zubaty calls me a "manhole", a man who spends his days in front of the computer all day, worried about money and toys.And the nut was right.And I like him for his honesty. And I keep reading.
Zubaty goes on to explain that corporations are no longer treating people as people and instead as "units".No new news here, but he keeps going and going, paddling his way further and further from political correctedness, ending up in a place where you are free to think for yourself without worrying about offending anyone.He speaks of a village girl who goes to town every day to try to get a loan approved.She gets her family involved.She lies to her friends.She forges papers.Zubaty hones in with laser-like precision to the observation she's acting like a greedy dimwit who is taken over by American idealism.She wants the money but has no use for it.And then there's Joe the fisherman.
You can decide to not like Zubaty, but I don't think he minds as he's sipping coconut milk or fishing for the families who let him in.Read the book.You'll understand.

Product Description
Are corporations cults? Do they control our behavior, thoughts, information and emotions? Zubaty makes a pretty good case for that. Should the legal status of corporate ?persons? be challenged as a religious violation ? a gross infringement of the supposed boundary between church and state? He makes a pretty good case for that. Have we done a good job of keeping religion out of government but a miserable job of keeping government out of religion? He makes a pretty good case for that. Is Darwinism a science? Or a religion? You?ll get vertigo over his take on that.

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