How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill isn’t a new release, by any means, and was probably written somewhere before the recession. I only knew vaguely about it, and what I did know saved me from reading this too early. It’s a story that explains that sometimes bad things can happen to good people. Like when the recession hit the American economy last November. It reminded me of so much of what I’m going through right now, and with how many recent lifestyle changes I am making over this past year. I couldn’t have read it at a more perfect time.
I plucked out a seat by the window in Border’s just as the sky turned a pinkish cotton candy swirl and the sun began to fade between the clouds. I set my clear plastic cup (from Starbucks. Sorry, Border’s cafe!) down and already found myself lost in the first few pages. Basically, a middle aged New Yorker seems to have it all: He is a Yale graduate, he has a white collar job, and a nice house in suburbia. Life is groovy, before he ends up with a diagnosis of a brain tumor and the fact that he gets laid off from his previous job. Despite the circumstances, he also has no health insurance now. Desperate to seek help for his brain tumor, he applies for a job at his favorite coffee shop, Starbucks, which offers health benefits, in an African American neighborhood of the city. He then proceeds to narrate his work experience from the other side of the fence (or counter top) with his thoughts on education and race from the life of a working class Joe.
The more I read, the more I became captivated into a wonderful story about an adorable character that you want to root for. I’m also aware of a few people that still wouldn’t root for a character like this. They’ll often say that they don’t know the meaning of the word “struggle” because they haven’t not started with anything themselves. But, this book isn’t so much of a happy one. As much as we wish for life to be smooth, it doesn’t stay that way. This book proves that there are a medley of setbacks and challenges that test our strength and see how far we will go for life, liberty, and the pursuit of…well, that depends on what we want to fight for.
Available at Border’s at KoP, or wherever books are sold.
I am aware that I am new to this arena, as it only recently occurred to me to share my vast knowledge of all things that are right with the rest of the globe. But I already feel a sense of loyalty to anyone who stumbles upon this particular piece of bandwith in their travels through the information superhighway.
To provide you with the best experience that I can here at Rocko’s Reviews, I am making a pledge, nay- a vow. A promise on par with that of Hamlet to his father’s apparition. A commitment stronger than Bruce Wayne to fighting injustice. A bond to match Larry King’s wedding vows. Well, perhaps a lot stronger than that last one, but you get the idea.
Here and now, on this day, now Monday, August 10, 2009, I, Rocko Reynolds, do hereby pledge that as the creator and primary purveyor of quality rightitude, there shall be at least one new post, every day. For a year.
It may not always be from me, and it may simply be a re-printed review from a third-party source that has passed my patented Right Check, but I vow to you to provide quality, interesting, and- perhaps most importantly- new content every single day, for an entire year.
I encourage- nay, beg- that you keep me honest in this quest. Through comments, Facebook, and Twitter, communicate with me so I can better teach you the rightability you’re seeking. If there’s a movie, book, or game you want to be able to utilize to wipe that snarky grin off of Mark, the asshole in Accounts Payable who thinks he’s so smart, let me know and I’ll get right on it.
A Different Kind of Wild by Debbie Alsdorf changes your focus in life. By the end of this book, Debbie’s words will shift you from “horizontal thinking” to “vertical thinking” and align you with God in the center of your life, right where He belongs.
God nudged me into reading this book when I received three pre-release copies at the Design4Living Conference and placed them in my library for future reading. Just as I was completing the final week of the Me, Myself & Lies Bible Study, I discovered these words from John 3:3o
He must become greater; I must become less.
Then I received a request to review A Different Kind of Wild.
In the first chapter I discovered the same verse that I was clinging to all week: John 3:30. The focus of this book is in alignment with the verse I treasured! I was sharing the verse on Twitter all week long, now I discover the same verse in the first chapter of Debbie’s book. God captured my attention and I was inspired to discover the words inside her book.
Inspired by God, I found solitude in my busy schedule and continued reading the pages of A Different Kind of Wild. Within days, I found myself posting some of my favorite book quotes on Twitter. Soon my followers were also enjoying the words of Debbie Alsdorf and “Re-Tweeting” from the book! Her book and words were an instant success and inspiring to those seeking to grow in faith.
My enjoyment of this book was evident. Once I started reading it, I was sharing my new experience with others and could not put the book down. I brought the book to the Leadership Summit and read it during the breaks and at lunch- it nourished me! My faith is too tame and in this book I learned how to be WILD- a Woman in Lifelong Development- with a vertical focus on God. Now I’m looking Up.
In this new Book, Debbie Alsdorf has written 12 chapters, each ending with a call to action: Look Up, Pray Up, Live Up. Specific solutions are provided to enhance your walk of faith with a complete Study Guide at the end of the book. If you want to walk with stronger faith based more on God and less on you, then read this book. Debbie shares her life experiences interwoven with her spiritual growth- you won’t want to miss the intimacy and depth of her words.
I gave a copy Debbie Alsdorf’s book A Different Kind of Wild to my Mom for her Birthday and shared some of my favorite quotes. When I returned home that day, I received another copy of the book by mail, so I gave that one to a friend I met on Twitter.
This is a book you’ll want to share with your Mom, Sister and Girlfriends. Why not have a Wild Faith Party!
Send invitations printed on wild note cards
Tell guests to dress in animal print pajamas, slippers or clothing
Gather together and give each a copy of the book or begin a Bible Study together
Take photos of your time together (send them here and we’ll post them on the blog!)
After reading the book A Different Kind of Wild by Debbie Alsdorf, I’m filled with lasting words to carry in my heart. My favorite is when the author said “Jesus met me at the crossroads of love and hate.” Every chapter and every page is filled with powerful words of inspiration- so fine tune your vision, learn to look up to God with vertical thinking and get a copy of this book! Enjoy.
About Debbie Alsdorf
Debbie Alsdorf is the author of Deeper. As the founder of Design4Living Ministries, she seeks to encourage women to Live Up! in the truth of God’s Word. Since 1997, she has been the director of women’s ministries at Cornerstone Fellowship, where she and her team lead a vibrant women’s ministry. Debbie is a biblical lay counselor and a member of the Association of Christian Counselors. She lives in Northern California.
About the Publisher
Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, offers practical books that bring the Christian faith to everyday life. They publish resources from a variety of well-known brands and authors, including their partnership with MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and Hungry Planet.
Where to Buy A Different Kind of Wild by Debbie Alsdorf
Revell Books
Amazon Books
Amazon Kindle Version
Barnes & Noble
Christian Book
After you read this book, please come back and share you thoughts and experience! We welcome your comments and feedback to inspire more book reviews.
Boomsday, a novel released this year by Christopher Buckley, would make a terrific primer for the future Washington intern. Better yet, must-reading for the parents of a prospective intern’s parents if they want a preview of what their darling may experience in our nation’s capital. That way they won’t be puzzled when he or she returns slightly jaded and much more “educated.” Now, don’t get the idea that I’m only talking about wanton sex. I mean, that’s in there too – it’s a best-seller after all – but it’s not, forgive the term, the meat of the story.
Buckley has taken us to Washington before. He ever so slyly slipped us under the door of the fantasy world of Washington politics in his novel Thank You for Not Smoking, a tale about a lobbyist for the tobacco industry negotiating a hostile political world. In Boomsday we shadow the confident and therefore tragic protagonist, Cassandra, an educated-by-the school-of-hard-knocks female. (And she’d just turned 30!) As Buckley treats us to a little background on our heroine, we see that Cassandra had found herself, not slipped under the door of the DC political whirlpool, but flung through a wall and into the steel cage of the infamous military industrial complex. Although her military career is not the focus of the story, it could certainly become the topic of Buckley’s next satire.
Cassandra is a straight shooter by day, and a blogger with an edge by night. Much like Jekyll and Hyde, she becomes the catalyst for other night terrors, like Congressmen and staff jockeying for position in the power-hungry environment. Although most of us would not consider blogging with the directness exhibited by our 30-something blogger, she doesn’[t seem to give a rat. She cheerfully and directly incites the under-30 set to attack, figuratively, of course, the Baby Boomer generation and their bastions of country clubs and gated communities where they sit sipping cocktails, while the younger generations foot the bill of grossly high federal deficits and huge increases in Social Security withholding. She blames Boomers for erasing any hope of enjoying the same standard of living as they do. The Social Security withholding tax, calculated to be 30% of her income, causes Cassandra to grow more and more incensed at the injustice of her generation having to pay for the excesses of the children of the Greatest Generation.
But wait, there’s more. Cassandra offers a chance for the Boomers to make restitution for these financial ills, by volunteering to “transition” at the age of 70, in return for immediate tax breaks on what they now enjoy in their retirement, as well as estate tax breaks for their heirs. Need I have to spell out what “transition” refers to? But, in case you weren’t paying attention, it’s kicking-off on a date certain.
Cassandra even enlists her Congressional paramour to introduce a legislative bill to carry out her idea . Ah, Washington, where no opportunity is left unexplored, and no legislation is left to others when it might further some lawmaker’s political aspirations!
As I’m sure you can imagine, things get a little out of hand and the resulting madcap backpeddling and desperate deal-making that chronicles Washington so well, satisfies even the most cynical of us. In fact, the characters play their roles so expertly that the reader begins to wonder whether the bizarre scenario may actually have been discussed as a possibility. If hallowed halls could talk.
Without a doubt this story would translate to film in a heatbeat. Already movie stars materialize in our mind’s eye as the descriptive prose leaves us stifling our guffaws so as hot awaken the whole house.
I came across this book for three dollars at a Lebanese restaurant in the McGill ghetto of Montreal. It was worth every penny, and proves that you can find good books for affordable prices.
Jean Toomer was a genius. Cane is part of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s. This book has influenced such writers as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Eric Walrond, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Rudolph Fisher and his other contemporaries of the 20s. When reading the book, there is no wonder that it had a tremendous impact, and should be revisted for some reasons I will point out now.
The book is unique in style. A combination of short stories, with poetry which all have an undercurrent of the racism that existed during the 20s. Toomer himself was a mixed race man, living a borderline life between the black and white worlds, and his characters are sometimes white, sometimes black, probably reflecting his inner feelings.
There’s Esther who lusts after a black man who had a religious experience in the street and she spends years pining for him. And then there’s Becky who had two Negro sons who live in a house by the road and no one knows whether she’s dead or alive.
He writes of sorrow such as this between blacks and whites, but also of beauty of women, and the ugliness of women. For a man, he writes women well.
His description of people and places is so lively, it is like the book is a TV screen where you can hear and see. Here’s one example from his poetry, this one called « Face »:
Hair-
Silver-gray,
Like streams of stars,
Brows-
Recurved canoes
Quivered by the ripples blown by pain,
Her eyes-
Mist of tears
Condensing on the flesh below
And her channeled muscles
Are cluster grapes of sorrow
Purple in the evening sun
Nearly ripe for worms.
His imaginary is startling. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the desperation of living with the race relations of the 20s of the United States. Also just anyone who loves good writing. The sentences are short and clear. He wastes no words to strengthen his point. Just like chewing on sugar cane strengthens the teeth. Cane.
A dual biography focuses on the creation of The Mikado
The Fabulous Feud of Gilbert & Sullivan. By Jonah Winter. Pictures by Richard Egielski. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine, 40 pp., $16.99. Ages 4–6.
By Janice Harayda
Why do publishers bombard us with book-and-CD editions of books that don’t need them and fail to issue them when they might do some good? Does anybody really need that book-and-CD edition of Curious George Goes Camping? C’mon.
But a disk could have added a lot this slightly fictionalized dual biography of the librettist W.S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan, which focuses the storied feud between the two men that ended when they reconciled to create their most popular light opera, The Mikado. Nobody can argue that the music involved – The flowers that bloom in the spring, / Tra la! – is too adult for children. So the omission of a CD seems mainly intended to avoid copyright fees or pander to the library market, where the book might sell fewer copies if it included a disk likely to disappear quickly from a pocket.
As it is, Jonah Winter plays Gilbert to Richard Egielski’s Sullivan in The Fabulous Feud of Gilbert & Sullivan. Winter tells a story that, if lively, gets much of its energy from hyper-italicizing and the use of capital letters and exclamation points. “I refuse to write any more music for Mr. Gilbert’s ridiculous operas,” Sullivan says. “It’s always the same ridiculous story, over and and over over again!” Winter also invests his tale with a whiff of didacticism as he pursues two goals: telling story of the rift and making a didactic point: “Sometimes even the best friends fight.”
But Egielski supplies the missing music with bold paintings that, like Maurice Sendak’s, evoke a mood not through intensely detailed facial expressions or body language but the imaginative use of such elements as tone, color, whimsy and framing. Winter’s opening lines suggest the appeal of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas in their day:
“There was a time when jolly old England was not so jolly. Children worked in factories. Queen Victoria frowned. Everything was grim. Everything was dark – except … in the make-believe kingdom of Topsy-Turvydom.”
Egielski illustrates this passage with a wonderfully balanced two-page spread that evokes the setting through cutaway images of multistory buildings in the rain. On the left-hand page, children work in a sweatshop as a coronet-topped Victoria rides in a carriage on cobblestones below them. On the right-hand page, just across the street, an actress puts on makeup as theatergoers approach the Savoy with umbrellas raised against oversized raindrops. This is late-Victorian London, rendered in terms a preschooler can grasp. And on it goes in the book, which reaches its climax with a wordless spread showing a scene from a The Mikado that blazes with sunny colors thrown into high relief by the dank weather on the first pages.
The Fabulous Feud of Gilbert & Sullivan may have its strongest appeal for Savoyards who want to inspire in a love of Gilbert and Sullivan in children. But unlike many books driven by similar motives, this one has enough drama that it isn’t mainly an appeal to parental vanity and pretense. And an author’s note at the end includes a link to a fantastic Gilbert & Sullivan Web site that has the full text and lets you listen to all the music of the operettas by the pair. (To hear any song from The Mikado music, click on “Mikado,” “MIDI Files,” the title of a song, and the speaker icon.) So even if there’s no CD, you can punctuate readings by singing merrily: “The flowers that bloom in the spring, / Tra la / Have nothing to do with the case.” For some adults, the link to so much beloved music might in itself be worth the cost of the book.
Best line/picture: An example of Eglielski’s imaginative use of frames: On one two-page spread he places his images in two circles against a black background, as though you were looking at them through opera glasses.
Worst line/picture: Winter uses British English inconsistently. He writes “dreamt” instead of “dreamed” but “Savoy Theater” instead of “Savoy Theatre.”
Published: April 2009
Furthermore: Egielski won the 1987 Caldecott Medal for his art for Arthur Yorinks’s Hey, Al. He and Yorinks also collaborated on the new picture book, Homework. Winter lives in Brooklyn, NY. Egielski lives in Milford, NJ. Contact the authors c/o Author Mail, Scholastic Books, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
Reviews of children’s books appear every Saturday on One-Minute Book Reviews, a site for people who like to read but dislike hype and review inflation.
Decades ago, the late singer Marty Robbins recorded an album entitled “Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs.” This would be an appropriate sub-title for this book of essays by Fresno-based writer Mark Arax. In Arax’s world, California is still the wild, wild, west inhabited by gunslingers, drifters, grafters, and others up to little good. On the positive side, a few of the essays read like articles from old issues of New West magazine. On the negative, there’s just a bit too much paranoia in this world, which is why most of the material reads like excerpts from the long-departed Ramparts magazine.
“When I stolled into People’s Park and onto the Berkeley campus and found the steps of Sproul Hall there wasn’t one man raging to thousands about throwing his body into the gears of the machine but thousands, en masse, heedless, staring into the iridescence of their cell phones.” Are we not about 45 years removed from Mario Savio?
For a book that purports to examine the exciting present times and culture of California, this collection was, sadly, too past-directed for this reader’s tastes.
