Book Review: SUCCESS SKILLS: For High School, College, and Career by Cary J. Green, PhD.

SUCCESS SKILLS: For High School, College, and Career by Cary J. Green, PhD.


Many of us older folks start stories by saying, “If I’d known then what I know now.” For high school seniors and others who are getting ready to start a college career, SUCCESS SKILLS: For High School, College, and Career by Cary J. Green, PhD. is a way to know now what us older people wish we had known when we were going to college.

By now most high school seniors have determined where they want to go to college and what they want to study. This book will actually help these young people obtain their goals. This book really should be given to any high school senior you know because it can help them know what they don’t know, before they know they don’t know it.

Success Skills is well-written and very well-researched. The author gives students a lot of great information regarding how to take a test and how to prioritize what they study. We give it all five stars.

Potential college students will want to read and re-read their copy many times over. Make SUCCESS SKILLS: For High School, College, and Career by Cary J. Green, PhD. the gift you give to the graduating seniors you buy gifts for this year and every year.

We were sent a complimentary copy of this book. We are under no obligation to write any review, positive or negative. We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Notice: This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.
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Book Review: Acts of Kindness: 101 Ways to Make Our World a Better Place By Rhonda Sciortino

Acts of Kindness: 101 Ways to Make Our World a Better Place

By Rhonda Sciortino

Acts of Kindness: 101 Ways to Make Our World a Better Place is a little book with big ideas that anyone can do to share a bit of kindness with others.  

Most of the ideas are easily implemented. Some ideas, though, I think may not have the result that is expected. It really depends on the mindset of the person on the other side of the intended act of kindness.  

Some older people struggling to load or unload their groceries do NOT want a young whippersnapper offering to help them. It makes the older person feel like people think they can’t do anything for themselves. This is one that can go either way. Some folks would dearly love an offer of assistance and so often do not get one.

Another suggestion in Acts of Kindness would be a very bad idea if you’re dealing with a very shy person. Some people do nice things and don’t want to make a big show of it. This author suggests publicly praising them for what they did. In my opinion, this is one of the worst things you can do to those of us that would not like being put on display.  You have to know the personality of the person you’re dealing with on something like this or it may be counterproductive. 

There are many great suggestions and several that I had never even thought about, but hope to put into practice very soon.

Acts of Kindness: 101 Ways to Make Our World a Better Place earns all five stars. It is a short book with great ideas for the long run. I think that you will enjoy it, too.

We were sent a complimentary copy of this book.  We are under no obligation to write any review, positive or negative.

We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Notice: This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.
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Book Review: Friendship Matters: Memoir, Life Lessons, Laughter By Sanda Neshin Bernstein, PSY.D. and Wendy Satin Rapaport, PSY.D., L.C.S.W.

Friendship Matters: Memoir, Life Lessons, Laughter

By Sanda Neshin Bernstein, PSY.D. and Wendy Satin Rapaport, PSY.D., L.C.S.W.

Friendship Matters is a book about interacting with friends in ways that help to grow and deepen the friendship and the individuals themselves. It is about the decades long friendship between the two authors - Wendy and Sandy - and is written in a conversational style.

Friendship Matters is an interesting book and parts are very entertaining. It was written by two psychologists and they talk like you would expect psychologists to talk. Their suggestions are sound, in my opinion, but I just can’t picture having conversations like theirs with any of my friends!

We are encouraged to slow down and think about things rather than reacting on assumptions. Sandy and Wendy give examples from their own lives together and experiences they’ve had with others.

If you want to learn ways to grow your friendships to a deeper level and improve your relationship all around, I think you will enjoy Friendship Matters and find it to be a useful guide.

Friendship Matters is well-written and mostly easy to follow. It earns 5 stars based on all the thinking it made me do!

We were sent a complimentary copy of this book.  We are under no obligation to write any review, positive or negative.

We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Notice: This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.
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Book Review: Mastering the Art of Success by Jack Canfield, Steven L. Blue and others

Mastering the Art of Success

By Jack Canfield, Steven L. Blue and others

The Law of Attraction is a well-known phenomenon.  Many people feel that living a life expecting positive results will reap great rewards and success.

Mastering the Art of Success is filled with forty-four chapters each written by a different author.  Each one of these authors has been a success in their field.  Each one attributes The Law of Attraction to their success in one way or another.

However, it is more than just the law of attraction that is discussed in this book.  Mastermind groups, positive thinking, goal setting, prioritizing, proper nutrition, exercise, and more are discussed.

We give Mastering the Art of Success all five stars.  We think the book carries a good, positive message, which may very well be helpful to the reader.

We were sent a complimentary copy of this book.  We are under no obligation to write any review, positive or negative.

We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Notice: This post may contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.
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Book Review: The Ripple Effect By Greg Wells, PhD

The Ripple Effect

By Greg Wells, PhD

 

If you are looking for a good all around way to improve your life, The Ripple Effect by Greg Wells, PhD., is one way to do it.

This book takes the idea that we can make significant improvements in our lives by getting the proper things in our lives working together.  

The Ripple Effect tells us how to get our lives working better by making small improvements (1%). We are told how proper diet, exercise, breathing, and thought patterns all work together to improve our lives.  

This book works very well as a companion to Eat Wheat. Many of the foods suggested in The Ripple Effect are suggested in Eat Wheat.  The two books work very well together.

We give The Ripple Effect all five stars.  It is entertaining, informative, educational, and eye-opening.

If you are looking to improve your health (physical, mental, or both), The Ripple Effect can help you with that.

We were sent a complimentary copy of this book.  We are under no obligation to write any review, positive or negative.

We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Notice: This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.
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I respond to all comments on this blog, ideally within 24 hours.  Please check back here for a response to your comment.  Thank you!
 
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Book Review: Change Starts Within You: Unlock the Confidence to Lead with Intuition By Cortney McDermott

Change Starts Within You: Unlock the Confidence to Lead with Intuition

By Cortney McDermott

 

Change Starts Within You is a book meant sort of like a wake-up call. Way too often we are chasing the buck and not realizing that what we truly want is being left unattended.

The author, Cortney McDermott, realized that she was living the life many thought was everyone’s dream while missing out on her young daughter’s life.  

Throughout the book, McDermott provides encouragement to be the best you that you can be and offers tips on how to achieve that.

Change Starts Within You is well-written and has tons of advice and encouragement for anyone seeking to improve who they are.  We give it all five stars.

We were sent a complimentary copy of this book.  We are under no obligation to write any review, positive or negative.

We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Notice: This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.
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I respond to all comments on this blog, ideally within 24 hours.  Please check back here for a response to your comment.  Thank you!
 
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Book Review: Creative Thursday: Everyday Inspiration to Grow Your Creative Practice By Marisa Anne Cummings

Creative Thursday: Everyday Inspiration to Grow Your Creative Practice

By Marisa Anne Cummings

Creative Thursday is such an inspiring book! Marisa Anne Cummings is a gentle cheerleader, encouraging us to explore and expand our creative sides.

In her opinion, we are all creative, and I tend to agree with her. Maybe your creativity is in the form of painting, or writing, or performing, or sewing, or any number of other things.  It doesn’t matter what form your creativity takes; it just matters that you allow that side of you to live, too, regardless of what other people think about it. You are doing this for YOU!

Marisa discusses forms of procrastination or resistance - otherwise known as fear - that keep us from giving life to our creative side. She offers ways for us to find our creative voice and get beyond the resistance.

We can find inspiration everywhere, if we don’t fight against it and we can find the encouragement that we need to move forward in Creative Thursday by Marisa Anne.

Please visit her website for more inspiration: Create Mixed Media.

Click the images below to view these related products on Amazon.

   

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Book Review: Seed to Vision

Seed to Vision: How God-Inspired Ideas Become Reality

By Steve Finn with Trey Dunham

Seed to Vision: How God-Inspired Ideas Become Reality is an inspirational book. It shows the attempts of the author and his wife to start a ranch for troubled boys.

Seed to Vision is full of fun and interesting stories. We think these stories are great and are well-told.  It would be nice to see the author expand on these entertaining stories while building up the information he seeks to share with his readers regarding the care and feeding of a ministry.

There are also several stories that show Mr. Finn’s frustrations with all the setbacks and obstacles he and his staff have faced while trying to get his ministry off the ground.

We wish Mr. Finn all the best and hope this boys’ ranch will prosper and provide a safe place for many boys for hundreds of years to come.

We were given a prepublication version of Seed to Vision in the Kindle format for the purpose of writing this review. We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255

Update Disclosure:  This review has been updated to reflect the fact that issues with the book were indeed corrected before it went to print.


Notice: This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.
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Book Review: Eat Wheat By Dr. John Douillard

Eat Wheat

By Dr. John Douillard

We were sent a copy of Eat Wheat, written by Dr. John Douillard, for the purpose of writing this review.

Many people stop eating certain foods because they cannot tolerate them any longer.  They feel relief, but that does not last long.  Soon, the problems return.

Eat Wheat addresses why that happens. Dr. Douillard gives us good, healthy choices that will help detox and reset the body so that we can again eat the foods we love.

This book is well-written and well-researched.  It is a very entertaining read as well.  Often times we find ourselves zoning out when reading books that are medical in nature.  Not so with Eat Wheat.

Why certain things have happened to us because of food is addressed in Eat Wheat.  Once David stopped drinking a name brand diet soda water for awhile.  His blood sugars improved. Then, he treated himself to one 20 oz. diet soda water.  His blood glucose went crazy.   Dr. Douillard explains why that happened.

If you are having health problems of any kind, we suggest you get a copy of Eat Wheat and see if it might be caused by diet.  Of course, ALWAYS consult your medical provider before you start any nutritional  program.

We give Eat Wheat all five stars and two snaps up in a circle.  We would give it a bag of chips, too, if they are baked, not fried, and do not contain preservatives or overly processed ingredients.

Notice: This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.
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Book Reviews: Removing Your Shame Label By Eddie Capparucci

Removing Your Shame Label

Eddie Capparucci

We were sent a review copy of Removing Your Shame Label: Learning To Break From Shame And Feel God’s Love by Eddie Capparucci LPC free from the publicist for the purpose of writing a review.

Removing Your Shame Label is designed to assist people who have a difficult time dealing with their past and feel ashamed of it.

Different people are affected by their past in different ways.  Many feel ashamed of their past even though they had no control over much of it.

Removing Your Shame Label is well-written and is backed up by years of experience the author has had as a counselor.

The author is a professing Christian and uses many Biblical references throughout the book.  We recommend Removing Your Shame Label for anyone who is dealing with shame from their past. 

Notice: This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.
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I respond to all comments on this blog, ideally within 24 hours.  Please check back here for a response to your comment.  Thank you!
 
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Book Review: Happy Tales by Diane de Mere

Happy Tales

By Diane de Mere

We were sent a copy of Happy Tales by Diane de Mere in order that we might review it.

I was excited to receive this book when I was first contacted about it. What could be better than going back to nature to live as stress-free a life as possible?

The book wasn’t exactly what I expected. For approximately the first 40 pages, it was entry after entry describing sunrises and sunsets and a brief discussion of their move from Los Angeles to Washington State.  The text is very descriptive and detailed, telling colors and measurements and all sorts of things. But, this part got very tedious and I had to make myself read it.

Aside from going on about the sunrises and sunsets, there is a very negative, maybe even resentful, tone when she talks about attending to the needs of her aging parents. This part was very frustrating to me. Who wants to feel like they are a burden to their loved ones?

While this tone is there any time aging parents is brought up, the rest of the pages did get better in regards to the descriptions of her surroundings. We get to read about a pair of eagle parents and their babies and about other animals that live in her area. She also talks about how blessed she is to be able to walk her dog safely in the area in which she lives.

This author is great at painting word pictures. I could visualize the scenes that she was describing. It made me wish that I could paint so that I could have such beautiful scenery around me, too. She made me want to move to Puget Sound!

At the end of the book, she makes suggestions for how to lead a more stress-free life and stresses that giving to others is one way to feel good about ourselves. I think that giving is only truly giving when your heart is onboard with it, too. Giving for the sake of going through the motions or praise here on earth is not really true giving at all. True giving is done with a happy heart, not one that resents the doing of the good deed.  

A list of animal and people-related charities is included. Some are specific for her area, but they can give you ideas of what to look for in your area if you want to share your financial blessings and/or time with others.

There is also a list of books that the author feels would help us to reach our goals and lead a better life. Some of those look very interesting.

I would recommend this book to others, if for nothing other than the beautiful visualization opportunities that it gives.

This book is available in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle versions.



Notice: This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.
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Please be sure to visit David over at Random Thoughts and Observations.

I respond to all comments on this blog, ideally within 24 hours.  Please check back here for a response to your comment.  Thank you!
 
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