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Tuesday - March 19, 2024
 

Book Review: Lost Angel Unleashed: You’ll Be “Gobsmacked” At Ballou’s Third Book in Her Lost Angel Travel Series

April 19th, 2023

Title: Lost Angel Unleashed: Stories from the Heart (Lost Angel Travel Series: Book Three) Author Linda Ballou Reviewed for the NABBW by Anne Holmes Lost Angel Unleashed is the third in Linda Ballou’s Lost Angel Travel Series. The first two are Lost Angel Walkabout: One Traveler’s Tales  and Lost Angel in Paradise: Outdoor Days From L.A. to the Lost Coast of California. Walkabout covers Linda’s travel writing experiences up until about 2010 and Paradise shares 32 of her favorite day trips from Malibu to Mendocino. I have now been privileged to lose myself in all three books,... Read More

Against My Father’s Will: A Memoir

July 15th, 2020

Against My Father’s Will: A Memoir By Jane Morgan Barry Reviewed for the NABBW by Anne Holmes If you’re a Baby Boomer woman, you grew up in the late 50s, the 60s  and 70s, a time of great change and civil unrest. We had Martin Luther King, Jr. leading the cause for racial equality, the strong anti-war movement that grew out of the Vietnam conflict, and, of course, Betty Friedan, the feminist writer and activist who sparked the fight for women’s liberation. As was demonstrated at dinner tables all over the country, and well-portrayed in Norman Lear’s iconic must-watch 70’s... Read More

Barry Silverstein’s Latest Book, “Boomer Brand Winners and Losers,” Is a Fun Read and a Walk Down Memory Lane

January 22nd, 2020

Perhaps all of us have moments when one of our more mundane thoughts crystalizes and remains frozen in our memory forever, though we don’t know why. I’ve had many of these over my lifetime. For example, during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, I recall listening to the news on the radio in my mother’s kitchen, while I baked a cake which was destined to be that night’s dessert. I remember wondering whether or not Russian housewives had access to boxed cake mixes. And deciding they probably didn’t. In an earlier memory – I couldn’t have been more than three... Read More

The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father One Day at a Time

August 17th, 2015

The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father One Day at a Time Author: Jonathan Kozol Reviewed for the NABBW by: Anne Holmes If you know National Book Award winner Jonathan Kozol for his lifetime of work among our nation’s most disadvantaged children, you’re aware of his seminal books like: Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation, or Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America These books, along with about a dozen others, have branded Kozol as a fine writer, a man who, as... Read More

Stuck in the Passing Lane

August 13th, 2015

Stuck in the Passing Lane: A Memoir Author: Jed Ringel Reviewed for the NABBW by: Anne Holmes I’ve not read a book like this before. It’s the memoir of a recently divorced (the divorce actually takes place partway through the narrative) upper class Baby Boomer man, who, as he puts it, has become “trapped on the Internet dating superhighway.” His Amazon.com bio tells us that “In prior lives, Jed Ringel has been an Ivy League drop-out, a failed sculptor, a morally impoverished Wall Street lawyer (seeking salvation in chasing fallen dictators to repatriate what they stole), and the founder... Read More

The Living Memories Project: Legacies That Last

July 18th, 2014

The Living Memories Project: Legacies That Last Amazon Barnes & Noble Authors: Meryl Ain, Arthur M. Frischman, and Stewart Ain Reviewed for the NABBW by: Anne Holmes The Living Memories Project is a collection of inspirational personal accounts from more than 30 people, each sharing their own unique stories of how they have or are carrying on the memories of someone they loved. Some of the storytellers are people whose names you will likely recognize, such as: Lynda Johnson Robb, who writes lovingly of how she keeps alive her memories of her mother, former first lady Lady Bird Johnson Jack... Read More

Project Keepsake: Everyone has a keepsake, and every keepsake has a story to tell

July 17th, 2014

Project Keepsake: Everyone has a keepsake, and every keepsake has a story to tell Amazon Barnes & Noble Kindle Nook Author: Amber Lanier Nagle and friends (Anthology)  Reviewed for the NABBW by: Anne Holmes   Amber Lanier Nagle has always been interested in keepsakes-a glass bluebird, a pocket knife, a dime-store locket, a faded fishing lure, a dented cake pan, a model train car, and so many others. “Why do you keep this?” she asks. “Where did it come from?” And then she listens as the stores and memories pour out. Project Keepsake is Nagle’s crusade to collect and publish the... Read More

Where Do I Go From Here: Creating the Life You Love

June 27th, 2014

Where Do I Go From Here: Creating the Life You Love Amazon Kindle Barnes & Noble Nook Author:  Vicki Lynn King Reviewed for the NABBW by:  Anne L. Holmes Some books just make you feel good. Some have the potential to change your life. This one does both. Author Vicki Lynn King has created an inspirational and motivational book that is part memoir and part self-help book. She begins by taking the reader back home to her roots in a small town in Northwest Iowa in the mid-50s. As she reminds us, back then there were no personal computers, no cell phones, no Internet. Where, perhaps, people... Read More

Tom: A Life Saved – Lives Lost

April 13th, 2014

Tom: A Life Saved – Lives Lost Amazon Barnes & Noble Author: Goffinet McLaren Reviewed for the NABBW by: Anne Holmes The Premise of this Dramatic Biography Could be the Plot for a WWII-focused Action Film Starring Viggo Mortensen or Brad Pitt. Here’s the scenario: It’s April 16, 1943, a night with a full moon — and World War II is in full tilt. You’re part of a seven-man RAF crew, flying a Lancaster bomber, during one of the RAF’s largest Bomber Command sorties. It’s the middle of the night, and your hugely important mission – along with 599 other bombers — is to... Read More

Four Funerals and a Wedding: Resilience in a Time of Grief

April 1st, 2014

Four Funerals and a Wedding: Resilience in a Time of Grief Amazon Barnes & Noble Author: Jill Smolowe Reviewed for the NABBW by: Anne Holmes  Jill Smolowe has written an amazing book. A memoir that covers a seventeen month period of her life, during which she buries her husband, her mother, her mother-in-law and her sister – though the deaths do not occur in that order – it’s written like a novel. What makes the book amazing is that is not maudlin or sad or sappy. It’s actually uplifting – and not just because it ends with the “life goes on affirmation” of a family wedding.... Read More