Welcome to BOOK READERS HEAVEN! Books, Reviews, Short Stories, Authors, Publicity, a little poetry, music to complement...and other stuff including politics, about life... "Books, Cats: Life is Sweet..."
Kayla sat in a semi-circle with Yumi, Nia, and Allison. A few other kids who were deemed “uncool” by Mandy joined the circle as well. “Today, we hereby form the Cool Kids Club.
We'll be real and true cool kids,” Kayla explained. “We'll stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves. We won't back down to bullies. We'll celebrate our differences.” “Here here!” the other kids shouted. Kayla, who was almost as well known for art as she was for standing up for the innocent, handed each kid a badge made of construction paper.” “Cool Kids Club, Member Alex,” Alex read. “I like it.” “What's the meaning of this?” Mandy demanded as she walked toward Kayla. “I formed a club. It's called the Cool Kids Club. You don't have to be cool by Mandy-Standards to be a member . You just have to help others and stand up for those who are bullied.” “You can't just decide who is cool and who isn't. That's my job!” Mandy protested. “We're not. We're just called the Cool Kids Club. You can't stop us from using the title.” Kayla smiled. Mandy ran back to her girls. She wasn't sure what to do now. Kayla Littlebe kept making her look bad. If anyone was a bully, it was Kayla Littlebe, that's for sure.
~~~
Cool Kids Wear Glasses
By Teddy O'Malley
Author-Illustrator O'Malley hits hard into an issue that confronts most children--if they are the least bit different... Of course, being different means that you are different from the bully that claims you are, right?
Sometimes a child, in this case Mandy, might not really know that they have turned into a bully. A child might have some basic leadership skills that has resulted in her having friends that seem to automatically follow and accept what she says. Sometimes that is based upon their beauty, or that they wear the right clothes... Once Mandy was deemed a leader, she proclaimed herself the coolest kids in school. The problem was that she immediately started placing herself as the model upon which "cool kids" were accepted to be her friends.
“Write that down, Tasha,” Mandy ordered. “Kayla Littlebe is not cool.” Tasha quickly scribbled , “Kayla Littlebe = out” in her journal.
~~
“Pshaw, cool kids have to be this tall.” Mandy held her hands up way above Allison's head. Allison broke into tears and ran away crying. Kayla walked up to Mandy. “Do you know what you're doing?” ...“Yes, I'm deciding who is in and who is out,” Mandy explained. “Do you even know what the word cool means, Mandy? You're not friendly and nice to others. You're not cool at all. You're making fun of people who are different. Someday, you'll be different too. Then somebody will make fun of you for it. You'll be the one in tears.” “As if,” said Mandy. “Oh , by the way, Kayla, you're officially not cool.” “I would never want to be your definition of cool,” Kayla said and walked away..."
~~~
Kayla was somewhat of an activist--if Mandy didn't change, she would counter her actions with her own. She formed a "Cool Kids Club" for everybody that Mandy had declared uncool! Hey, a very cool idea in my opinion! Kayla was also a leader, but that came because she was always nice and tried to help people. And she even tried to help Mandy, but Mandy just wouldn't listen... But...was it too late... According to her own rules, Mandy was about to become "uncool!"
The illustrations in the book are line drawings, colored, which I thought matched the story line, since Kayla was into art as well. You will meet most of the main characters in pictures throughout the 62-page book. The writing is of particular interest since the author has matched the style of talking to age-appropriate children who will probably be reading the book themselves! O'Malley has actually slid in a great lesson, while providing a great story that most children will immediately relate to for one thing or another... Mandy quite easily decided what made a child "cool," including height, whether they wore glasses, and other simply silly things that hurt when you're the brunt of being declared uncool! By simply being Kayla, as she was, the story comes full circle with everybody, including me, quite satisfied! Better check it out and find out who the really cool kids are! Highly recommended...
GABixlerReviews
Teddy O' Malley was born in in Saint Louis, Missouri. She has traveled all over the United States and enjoys learning about new things and other cultures. She has enjoyed studying Spanish, German, and now Italian as well. She dreams of visiting a foreign country. Teddy O'Malley has also worked as a nurse assistant, aiding the disabled and the elderly.
For this book, parts of the back cover are provided for immediate reference...
In the case of the little known American poet, John, he was a highly acclaimed poet. In reading his sonnets, the reader quickly realizes that John has more than mastered the art form of poetry. His sonnets are among the more beautifully written, and very powerful in imagery. Yet, it seems, John never mastered the art of love or lovemaking, or of life itself, or life's values. He complains about his shortcomings as well as those of the women with whom he had coitur or intercourse--never a satisfying experience, though he was the father of five legitimate children... Laura Lee, on the other hand, was sexually extraordinaire. She did not write about an ideal lover, and her virtue was not in writing Petrarchan or Shakespearean sonnets. Her strength was in acknowledging her libido, and in knowing, acquiring, and appreciating what she got and what she gave...By indulging in love-making, she also delighted her partners. And, her poetry flowed out of her in a language that continues to be cohesive, natural and beautiful... The Sexuality of Two 1970s American Poets
My Last Mistress, By John
Naked in Your Eye, By Laura Lee
In many ways, the poetry of John is unusual. Whereas, for me, at least, I think of poetry as romantic, sometimes sexy, but mostly that it is beautiful to read and enjoy. Not so, in the book called My Last Mistress by John. Was it written in the later years of his life as somewhat of a memoir? Had he learned, realized, how he had lived his life and felt some compulsion to seek, perhaps, forgiveness?
The book is divided into 5 sections: The Will to Wander, To One Too Near, Exploration and Defeat, At Last the Dawn, and Ending and Aftermath... A number of poems are entitled as if they were written for specific people and indeed sometimes are answers to an individual as if he had received some missive from that individual and chose to respond in poetry form. But the reader only gets to know the Initial: H, P, etc. I was therefore somewhat hesitant to read, to try to understand, and often read only further because I was compelled to read on... This was the first one which really quite my attention...
Musings at a Lakeside Inn
When the antique flute had played
a midnight knell to pleasure's end,
And, reluctant partings made
Each to his stuccoed cell condemned,
Embalmed in scent of pines and must,
The lake's dark circle watching over,
I saw despairing in the west
A chalk-white moon fall into Dover.
How like children when we parted,
Scolded by the curfew pipe,
Whose play must end when barely started!
Must short bars short hours keep?
Would the silver flute had blended
Into full orchestral gladness
And canoes were newly mended,
Set adrift in new-found madness!
Great porch bright with lanterns hung,
Floorboards creaking, whirling dancers.
Would that joyous songs were sung!
Joyous questions, joyous answers!
Dark reflections would conspire
In the mirror of a cove,
Star conjoin with water lilies,
Trembling petals echo love,
But onr Inn sleeps by still waters,
Moldering in summer's sweet decay,
Entombing all her sons and daughters
Called untimely from their play
Nights long past are one with this one
And a sadness none can tell,
When he views his soul unchanging,
Each knows in his stuccoed hell.
~~~
From the poignancy of young love in Musings at a Lakeside Inn, or Night Over Jersey, we follow John through the beginnings of temptation such as with:
Secretaries!...
To the Devil, 1969
Satan, cursed be your serpent schemes
That coil on themselves. What irony
When evil ends employ such modest means
To weave false hope on summer's tapestry.
Is this your Marguerite to tempt my Faust,
Personifying paradise on earth?
It seems your corporate office, counting costs,
Trades but such beauty as the soul be worth!
Progressive fiend, you know the times demand
Your fictions with our fashions change apace--
The spinning wheel is gone; her maiden hands
Now ply electric keyboards in its place,
And air-conditioned corridors as well
As leafy lanes may lead the way to hell.
Then the cynic starts to appear as he has passed from temptation on to feelings of rightness, or desire...or need.
Jealousy
My wife resents my mistress,
Who in turn resents my wife,
And the ladies both are jealous
Of a third,
For they share a common envy
Of the muse who rules my life
And begrudge the metered whispers
I have heard.
They would have my substance wasted
On their interwoman strike,
Leaving not a cent to publish
These poor words
~~~
But reality starts to enter when he pens
Adultery
Who supplements his wife
May claim
To have autmented life
But shame
Increases too with career
Of error
And aggrandizes fear
To Terror
~~~
But like the publisher suggests on the back of the book, John's words are found through his muse indeed, but with love, he's still the worse... For me, this was clearly demonstrated as he wrote the title poem, "My Last Mistress" which appeared earlier this week...Check it out if you haven't yet read... At this point, he has lost all sense of emotional stability, as he discusses his last mistress with a woman he is now trying to seduce. If she was disgusted as I was with what he said, she didn't have dinner with him that night...
But is there hope for John? Is this unique book really his life story in poetic form? And does he end life still looking for something--a fantasy he will never find? Or does he one day reach a point when he has no choice but to look backward and reflect on his failings, his joys, his triumphs? Readers will be intrigued to follow John's road--some of his stories are sad, some will amaze you with his inability to see himself at that time, others will be funny, such as the adultery poem--if it wasn't so close to reality...
Funny, you know, the poetry of the 70s might just have led to what is routinely occurring in today's world... Except most hide it, deny it, or else Instagram it to the world! I think it was brave of John to create the story of his life--or, if not biographical, to be able to look at the lives of men and put it before readers in such delightful verse! While John is the more thought-provoking of the two writers, Laura Lee presents as a bold, unapologetic woman who happily shared her thoughts. I was most intrigued by her poem regarding her death which was posted earlier this week. I would admit that was probably due to my age and love of books, LOL! Frankly, Lee's poetry is too allegorical for my taste. I've become so literal in reading so many books that I have come to dislike having to figure out what the author wants the reader to understand about her words. Take for instance,
Pop the Cork
take out my cork
I've been bobbing around in the waves
for so long
phosphorescent nights
unreal purples at the bottom
when I dared to venture down
the bends coming up again
fast, brutal, but, oh
the sky is above me
and clouds form faces I have known
and want to follow
but they dissolve into nothing
all my loves are wrong for me
destructive
they want to crack me open
and drink my blood
so I stayed for all these centuries
locked in this bottle
you passed me on the beach and i cried--
help! I felt your need, too, your gentle
beauty reached out to me, but you walked on by
I am still bottled up floating around this
universe waiting for you to pull off my cock
and help me emerge the whole me
not what other want to see...
pop the cork
even if it breaks
and I die from pollution
for this air tight container
restrains my growth
cripples
ships are locked in bottles
not people
not me
i want to go to the veldt [as below?}
and watch the lions
drink and play
I want to go to big sur
and dance at nepenthe, [drug]
drinking hot buttered mm while the phoenix burns
so i, too, can fly into a tomorrow
smelling of redwoods, streams
and fresh forest air
where I can return to the womb
at night
in a water bed
sandwiched in satin sheets with you.
~~~
Sure, I get the gest of it--the romantic tale in which she shares her feelings and desires... but when I read, I don't want to guess...so, please, could anybody help me understand what "Pop the Cork" means if it doesn't mean what I think it means...LOL... Still, when you read such a verse, it does tend to haunt you, wanting you to explore whether this is really, after all, just a story about a genie in the bottle perhaps??? Wanting to be taken home by the Captain! But then when she got explicit, it was very explicit...
Desire
When you fumbled my girl breasts
I burned with desire.
our hips learning, pressing, covering.
The small of your back made room for my fingers.
Your neck was salty.
Woman was my name.
Later, alone, licking my lips,
I wished I hadn't let you.
~~~
And, of course, I was pleased to read about Midnight, with quite a different story... my favorite, of course...
Midnight
His black velvet, impossible skin
wraps itself around my arm
while he burns holes through me with his
golden eyes and witchcraft.
My little sultan of the rooftops
is a male chauvinist
who patrols the sky by night
awaiting any female prey
But I forgive him,
for he crawls into my bed each morning
and serenades me with a lullaby of purrs.
This book of poetry is refreshing in its honesty, its depth of emotional sharing, and its topical interest. While some poems are erotic, most, instead, are a revelation of the writers' personal emotions about their individual lives and those within their surroundings. Nothing is sacred, yet it is in no way a form of content that is not suitable for adults and some young adults.
If you enjoy poetry, I wholeheartedly invite you into this memorable merge of the lives of one woman and one man, speaking out to readers in the best way they know how to express their feelings. Their sexuality is the reality of being wholly man and wholly woman, sharing what has been important to them, respectively. For me it was revelatory...and memorable...
GABixlerReviews
Yes
Come into the lily, tarry
relishing the petals.
Drink deep the juice and revel. Take care our stems don't choke. I love you best when my roots can stretch to heaven or to hell. ~~~
A self-help book is one that is written with the intention to instruct its readers on solving personal problems. The books take their name from Self-Help, an 1859 best-seller by Samuel Smiles, but are also known and classified under "self-improvement", a term that is a modernized version of self-help. Self-help books moved from a niche position to being a postmodern cultural phenomenon in the late twentieth century. I've read self-help books most of my life and, in some situations, like with the books of Dale Carnegie, have combined their reading with classes. So I'm very familiar with content, style, material normally presented, etc. Most self-help books are written by an individual that has had a personal experience and/or expertise which he or she is willing to share in the hope of helping others. Even some poetry books, like those I've recently read on aging, could be also classified as self-help since they share that personal experience that provides the empathy with which they can share their knowledge. I also worked with a poet who used his experience, living with AIDS, to share his own pain with others having the similar experience. This type of book is considered non-fiction, did you know that? It also has one of the highest sales of all genres... You should therefore do your shopping when considering buying this type of book, especially in these days in which it is so very easy to publish... I found the this book on the wall at my Face Book Reviewers Roundup Group. I have Restless Leg Syndrome so was interested to see what was being said. The book is just 17 pages long and sells for $2.99. Another book cost $12.99 and had 256 pages... So depending upon what you want to gain from a book, consider this difference...
Restless Leg: The Ultimate Guide to Eliminating Restless Legs Syndrome and Getting a Good Night's Sleep (Restless Leg Syndrome Treatment Book 1)
By Nick Bell
If you are a serious reader, the title of this 17-page book should alert you...
If you have never heard of Restless Leg Syndrome and know you have some type of physical feeling that is bothersome in your legs, then this book may be sufficiently long enough to make you aware that something could be medically wrong and can be treated.
The booklet is well-written and has presented sufficient researched material to make it worthy of your consideration. However, any author that claims to be providing the ultimate guide is...frankly...lying. This booklet may be helpful, but it cannot take the place of sound medical advice and may result in your not taking the time to talk to your doctor about what could be something much more serious. Yes, the author does constantly refer readers to your doctor...But why then write the booklet and title it as something that will totally solve your problems?
For a long period of time, I struggled with restless Legs Syndrome. At first, I didn't even know what it was or why it was happening. I found this whole situation very frustrating to say the least. After finally researching the problem, talking to friends who had it and even consulting various doctors, I came up with a plan of attack to eliminate it from my life. My plan wasn't perfect at first but after a few tweaks and small changes, I began telling my RLS suffering friends and family how to eliminate it from their life...
Restless leg syndrome is a disorder associated with the nervous system that primarily involves one or both legs. The condition causes a person...to have the urge to move around one or both legs with no apparent reason. It often causes restlessness in the legs that can result to difficult in sleeping at nice...
As I said, this booklet is well written, presenting as a paper you may write for school based upon topical research. If you prefer somebody else doing that research, then this may be just the book for you. For myself, there were too many references to other diseases--chronic renal failure, diabetes, iron deficiency and Parkinson's disease, to make me feel comfortable about following advice purely from the book.
Patients have been recorded to complain about unwanted and involuntary movement of the legs that can be quite bothersome. In these cases, the condition can be diffuclt to diagnose since the phenomenon can be masked by the day to day activities that a person goes through. Even the pain, aching and tingling sensations felt by the patient can be easily disregarded as stress and muscle pain from a hard day's work...
I can only assume that this information was copied out of some other book, perhaps by a doctor, since the writer uses the word patients, diagnoses, and other references which are easily identifiable as those that would be written by a doctor. Normally in a book such as this that is not written by a physician, you would get references from which the writer is getting his information. You would also normally read about it in first person...
For instance, "I have found that my right leg is more likely to go into restless leg activity. Since my sister and I both have the disease and we both have a body deformity that shows that our right side is lower than our left side, there may be a correlation between that.
However, once I identified that I was experiencing the syndrome...all I did was start moving my legs. By constant extreme motion for a short or sustained time period, I am able to feel relief..."
Now in no way would I claim that I have the ultimate guide to eliminating this disease...I am merely stating that I did not research it, I did not consult with a doctor...I just applied some basic logic that if my legs were restless, then I needed to get them moving...
Frankly I really got nervous, when the writer started talking about medications...
As all of you know, when an individual chooses to write about something that required education and/or experience, I want to know that individual's credentials.
Needless to say, I was not satisfied with this book or the author. It is clear to me that the individual is a writer that has chosen the self-help arena in which to make a living...Do check out the range of topics for his books, especially the one on yeast infections written under a female pseudonym... Sometimes this type of booklet can at least give you information that you did not previously know. But, really, do you want to learn about health issues from an unknown? You decide...
GABixlerReviews
Hello, my name is Nick Stevens.
Thank-you for taking the time to check out my books and allowing me the opportunity to introduce myself.
So, who is Nick Stevens?
I'm just a regular person who has seen a lot and experienced a number of different things. I think one of my greatest assets is that I'm a big observer of people and situations. Being a middle child, I had to learn to observe others and act in a certain way in order to thrive in whatever environment I was in. I carried this trait into my adult years and now use it as a strength for the books I write.
In fact, my ability to observe has been mostly focused on people and situations. In particular, I've learned to model people that are successful. Also, I have looked at certain problems and negativity in my own life from the viewpoint of someone trying to solve a problem. Through the course of my trial and error experiences, mentors and my own research, I have developed a number of books that speak directly to where I've come from and where I'm going. My goal is that you take some positives out of each book and that it helps you in some way. I get no greater satisfaction than when someone I know tells me that one of my books helped them in some way. It's really an unbelievable feeling and the main reason why I do what I do.
So, in closing, thank-you for reading my bio page and I wish you all the best on your unique path in life.
