Welcome to 2026 from Diana Raab, PhD - Poetry and More!

 

Dear Glenda, "The New Year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written." ~ Melody Beattie Welcome to 2026! In the Chinese calendar, we are now transitioning from the Year of the Snake to the Year of the Horse. The Year of the Snake was a year of shedding, releasing, inner growth and subconscious healing. The year of the horse is about having clarity, freedom, breakthroughs and momentum. I am wishing you all good things during this transition. I have been reading and hearing a lot lately about how people are coming together and craving the collective. It feels like survival is in the collective. The past number of years many people have focused on self-care but now, many seem to be hungry for a sense of community. No doubt, this need was born after the end of the pandemic when we all had enough of isolation. Thus, I am excited to introduce a new Sacred Circle, a gathering of kindred spirits to discuss, support, share stories, and do some writing together. It will be an empowering gathering. If you are based in California, I hope to see you there. Please see the details below. Until we meet again, I wish you a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year! https://www.dianaraab.com

Carl Brookins, Ongoing Contributor, Brings Two Recommended Books for Consideration!

FAIL DEADLY       

By John Baird Rogers
ISBN: 9798986244204
A 2023 release from
Gotuit Publishing

Even with the scientific and cultural advances we’ll experience in coming decades, the future, according to this author, will be far from calm and peaceful.

Fortunately creative literary talent abounds in our future reading. In this third adventure with Louise (Weezy) Napolitani and Joe Mayfield, that jewel from the author’s mind, Olegarten rises ever higher. Here is a creation of a fine mind, a group of cyber experts loosely organized to help protect the United States against computer hackers who would destroy the nation. It is an organization with strict rules of engagement.

Weezy is a brilliant computer specialist who often thinks outside the box. Her companion and lover Joe Mayfield is a financial whiz, Together, they form an active protective duo against a complex foreign threat to the nation. It is not a task they look for but are thrown into the conflict by circumstance and proximity.

The thread of this well-written and carefully organized novel take Weezy and Joe up and down the East Coast and through the twisted halls of Washington. The story, from page one, moves apace and will often leave readers breathless. From the careful descriptions of action sites travelers would never visit, through the logic of complex communications system and computer uses, the story never flags. The plot thread never descends so deep into technology that readers will become confused, nor does it ever fray into loss of direction.

This is an excellent novel in every sense and will engage any reader who enjoys good thrillers and intense emotional roller-coaster rides. The autocar awaits.

~~~ 

https://carlbrookins.com/

Jamie Sharpe 

And The Pirates of Barbary 

By Gary R. Bush 

2023 Release 

from Three Oceans Press. 

It’s 1803. The US and several other maritime nations are engaged in armed conflict over control of the oceans of the Western world and sea-borne commercial traffic, both legal and not. 

Like the rest of the fledgling nation’s military services in 1803, the U.S. Navy exists more in name than in reality. Jamie Sharpe is a rising junior officer in the Navy who, along with other crew from the armed schooner Barbara Allen, is captured off the coast of Tripoli. She sailed alone into the range of the criminals then in control of the north coast of Africa. Even then, the Navy was known for its courage. 

This entertaining story follows young adventurous Jamie Sharpe on his journey across the oceans and his imprisonment in Tripoli by the evil Captain Kemal Rais, military leader for the Dictator of Tripoli. Sharpe’s attempts to subvert from the inside and to call in help from across the Atlantic is carefully and interestingly documented in this spirited and engaging novel that will interest readers, young and old, and in the bargain reveals an important part of American History that rarely receives much attention in schools. 

It’s a good story, carefully researched and quite enjoyable. I look forward to the third in Jamie Sharpe’s odyssey in American Naval history.

redcircle.com/shows/the-sisters-in-crime-writers-podcast

Please Welcome Carl Brookins, Guest Book Reviewer, Lemons in the Garden of Love by Ames Sheldon AND Thoughts on the Art of Communication

 

By Ames Sheldon

ISBN: 9781647420482

A 2021 print release from

She Writes Press

Many prologues to novels are inept means of trying to solve structural problems in the story. Here, that is not the case. Author Ames Sheldon has created a sharply tuned, intensely moving and highly relevant novel.

Set in the recent past and on the east coast, Sheldon writes with a keen eye for her setting. And while the novel follows a late Twentieth Century married graduate student named Cassie Lyman and her thesis research, Sheldon has used her settings in careful and evocative ways.

In some ways, Cassie’s journey through the American suffrage movement efforts of the late nineteenth and Twentieth Century, is a model for Cassie’s personal evolution. She’s a bright, hard-working PhD candidate in Women’s History at the university of Minnesota when she comes across a trove of records at Smith College. They chronicle the efforts of her relative, one Kate Easton, to support a local women’s rights organization and move ruling politicians in Massachusetts to pass laws allowing women more autonomy over their own bodies through reasonable methods of birth control.

Cassie’s research and her interactions with family members while attending her younger sister’s wedding, help her to resolve personal problems and open positive future possibilities. The characters in the novel are well-defined, the dialogue is always believable as is the blending of influence on Cassie from the letters and actions of her ancestor with her current situation.

Moving, emotional, well and carefully structured, this historical novel could easily find a place in the libraries of thoughtful women and men, and it should.

~~~

Carl Brookins has agreed to join as an ongoing contributor here at Book Readers Heaven! Hip, Hip, Hooray! As you can see from this fun video, Carl is an author, participating in the Minnesota Crime Wave with books of mystery... His latest is on the top of my TBR fiction stack, so watch for that! In the meantime, Carl will be sending gems of wisdom on all things books...or living in America. Note that the book reviewed, Lemons in the Garden of Love, takes on an important emphasis as, now, we are once again moving backward in the constant battle for women's rights!

~~~

 

Some random thoughts on the

art of communication.

Words my mother taught me:

Enter

Carl

look listen, learn.

A long time ago, a very long time ago, when I was a child, my mother, a trained, talented musician, encouraged me, her first child, to read.

Read anything, she said. Not that she approved of my reading salacious novels in elementary grades, but I was never restricted to the children’s section of the local library. My father supported my mother, although his job took him away from home a good deal of the summer months. I had interesting trips with dad, like my first taste of beer on the lap of a farm woman in their yard somewhere in north central Minnesota. That’s where I also learned, as a child to steer a car on a winding gravel road.

In my retirement years, I watch a lot of government activities, such as Senate and House hearings. I am struck by the realization that many, if not all Senators, Representatives and those called before the panels to testify, are unable to logically and precisely articulate their questions—or even their comments and responses. I know that most of our representatives from the President on have speech writers to prepare and carefully calculate the probable response to the language of their statements. And then the elected read them. And then, at hearings, they go on and ask unrehearsed questions. And the people they have called to testify try to answer. And logic and real communication, with a cackle, disappears out the door.

It appears that the American English language, one of the most flexible and difficult in the world, is being ignored in our schools in favor of something called job skills. In a not-too-distant previous era, over 90% of the CEOs of the most successful corporations in America had earned a liberal arts degree in college. At the time, that meant subjects like history, humanities, civics, social studies, mathematics, English and similar topics that could be universally applied to almost every situation were emphasized. Does anybody remember that an effective way to learn a language is through reading of history, of social studies, of fiction?

Today, our colleges supply accountants and business majors focused on the profit line. It is clear that in most corporate and government institutions, output is the measure, not the results or improvement of the lives of people. Just look at recent events across our nation. Derailments, radiation leaks into water systems, explosions of dangerous material stockpiles all lead to even greater suspicion of government. Why? Because silence is suspicious.

It is clear today that any event even with the faint potential that threatens the health or wellbeing of a community should be immediately reported, along with assurances of containment. Every moment of silence leads only to suspicion and often to disbursement of falsity. In today’s environment open communication is of paramount importance. Unfortunately, in government and life, open communication is a lost commodity, a lost art. 

~~~

I totally agree with you Carl. Basic education is lacking and your point that businesses want specialized training seems to be a logical answer as to who and how those skills were eliminated. On a broader scope, I've been concerned about something, which has even been named: The Dumbing of America... I think of more books being presented graphically rather than in just words. I quickly say that I am not opposed to graphic novels. I am opposed to their being used in place of normal book format... Then we move on to movies--Dumb and Dumber has been running for ten years... Is it satire? Funny? Or making poor grammar and mistakes the norm...? BTW, I'd never watch the movie, but the following trailer proves I was right in my assessment based upon the title... But, then, I've been accused of not having a sense of humor... which is probably correct. I hate to see people making fun of other people, bullying, calling names, etc...

In any event, with apologies to Carl, I accidentally, in wanting to highlight a paragraph, I accidentally deleted it... It was about the word Woke and Carl was saying something like... don't even get me started...

Some of you may recognize that I also used the word Woke yesterday, claiming I had been woke most of my life. Sooo, I decided to take a little bit of space and provide a look at a dictionary. My understanding of the word was right, it seems... And it certainly has been corrupted by those trying to use it for purely political reasons, in my opinion...

From the Urban Dictionary

Woke

When this term became popularized, initially the meaning of this term was when an individual becomes more aware of social injustice. Or basically, any current affairs related like bias, discrimination, or double-standards.

However, as time passed by, people started using this term recklessly, assigning this term to themselves or someone they knew to boost their confidence and reassure them that they have the moral high grounds and are fighting for a better world. And sometimes even using it as a way to protect themselves from other people's opinion, by considering the 'outsider' as non-woke. While people that are in line with their belief as woke. Meaning that those 'outsiders' have been brainwashed by the society and couldn't see the truth. Thus, filtering everything that the 'outsider' says regardless whether it is rationale or not.

And as of now, the original meaning is slowly fading and instead, is used more often to term someone as hypocritical and think they are the 'enlightened' despite the fact that they are extremely close-minded and are unable to accept other people's criticism or different perspectives. Especially considering the existence of echo chamber (media) that helped them to find other like-minded individuals, thus, further solidifying their 'progressive' opinion. For instance:

"Damn bro, I didn't realize racism is such a major issue in our country! I'm a woke now!"

"I can't believe this. How are they so close-minded? Can't they see just how toxic our society is? The solution is so simple, yet they refused to change! I just don't understand!"

And, by the way, when I tried to find a video on political discussions, they ALL related to transgender! Talk about miscommunication and misinformation... which, as you can see, has absolutely no relationship to "normal" hypocrisy...if there is such a thing... LOL All I know is that the words coming out of Ron DeSantis' mouth was...just...plain...wrong...

And while I'm at it... Hearing a white person say something is "dope" makes me cringe. I read many books by Black authors so I am fairly attuned to the meanings. The original meaning of "dope" was to mean something good... But there is no way to, in my mind, separate it from comparing it to actually taking drugs. The use of a coined word must be used cautiously. I find it ironic that many discriminate against those who are Black while still adopting their words...to appear cool? or to just adopt a word that can be manipulated in meaning?

Words Matter!

Thanks so much to Carl for these two articles! I'm going to enjoy sharing his words in the future! Watch for him!