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Sacred Life: Healing from the Virus in Consciousness
Bedri Cag Cetin has lived nothing short of an amazing and awe-inspiring life. From his teen years and a harrowing experience with first-love and a chance encounter with extortionists, gang activity, and trafficking in illegal weapons, Cetin has met with challenges that would strike down most people and leave them looking for a way out. Cetin, however, survived by means of different tactics–he turned to spirituality and the search for inner peace. Himself a student of brain sciences, even Cetin had to warm to the idea of seeing a true inner peace as the answer to the problems that plagued his life.
Sacred Life: Healing from the Virus in Consciousness is the autobiographical account of author Bedri Cag Cetin’s life of turmoil and eventual peace and happiness. He begins his journey in much the same way as the rest of us, but he is plagued by traumatic events from which many are unfortunate enough to never recover. His quest begins with doubt, skepticism, and a lot of second-guessing, but he soon sees the light through a much different and clearer window than he ever dreamed possible.
The idea of complete surrender is pivotal in Cetin’s story. This is a difficult concept for so many, however, he takes readers along on his journey and makes the idea of reaching the point of surrender seem much more attainable. His passion for inner peace is almost palpable and at the same time feels quite magical. I have never been an overly spiritual person, but the accounts of Cetin’s are striking and full of hope.
Cetin tells a poignant story of his battle with OCD and panic attacks. His feelings are relatable on so many levels, and the way in which he faces these obstacles will resonate with many a reader. Self-study is incredibly important to the way Cetin copes with his challenges, and he gives readers something toward which they, too, can work.
Many self-help books focused on finding inner peace and happiness delve only into the how-to aspect of changing your life. Sacred Life, on the other hand, reaches out to readers via Cetin’s own personal stories and provides proof of the way he has been able to turn around many horrific circumstances. I highly recommend Cetin’s work to anyone feeling lost spiritually and emotionally.
Pages: 260 | ASIN: B08R7M6SNL
Those Were the Days: Memories of an Aspen Hippie Chick
![Those Were the Days: Memories of an Aspen Hippie Chick by [Jill Sheeley]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51lxDs+-d6S.jpg)
Aspen in the 60s and 70s was like a whole other world. And from an early age, Jill Sheeley knew it was a world she wanted to be a part of. What began as a couple of visits turned into living there between semesters at the University of Denver, and that eventually morphed into living there full time, and loving it more than she could have ever imagined. Surrounded by skiers, hippies, tourists, and a slew of eccentric locals from all walks of life, Jill found lifelong friends, true love, and hobbies that became passions. Her experiences have given her a mesmerizing collection of memories and stories to tell.
In Those Were the Days, Sheeley recounts her early days in Aspen, detailing what drew her to the city in the first place, as well as what made her fall head over heels in love once she finally arrived. She paints a picture of a bucolic wonderland so far removed from the hustle and bustle of today’s world that it does seem almost foreign. At times, the stories read as conversational, seeming to exist more as a catharsis for Sheeley’s memories than anything else. Other times her creative use of language makes her experiences and the landscape come alive, making images of lakeside hikes and mountain top vistas as vivid for the reader as they were for her. The reader can easily imagine the scenes as she lived them. The diversity of jobs she held adds to the vast topics covered throughout.
Sprinkled throughout the collection are a variety of recipes from the places Sheeley worked and frequented in Aspen. (In the past she has compiled entire cookbooks and these were considered, in her words, “old favorites” from those collections.) The inclusion of these, randomly wedged between chapters, deepens the personal feel of the book and makes it a more intimate snapshot of those years in Sheeley’s life. Not to mention, many of them seem easy and delicious! Old grainy photos are included as well to the same end.
Those Were the Days is an invigorating memoir, filled with enough laughter and life experiences to rival any literary journey put to paper.
Pages: 186 | ASIN: B0963DTRKF
Through A Lot of Adversity
Life of a Lounge Lizard is the insightful and authentic memoir of your life on the road as a musician and things you learned along the way. Why was this an important book for you to write?
The era of the cover band in America is pretty much forgotten now. But it was a way of life back in the mid-60s through mid-80s. For entertainment, people of all ages, (i.e. twenty-one to fiftyish), went out to a club, hotel, or restaurant to watch and dance to a band. This was before home theatres and VCR tape players and it was the perfect time to earn a living as a musician. Nowadays, unless you’re famous, you’re lucky to have a gig or two a week. You need a Real job!
I appreciated how candid you were. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
I did not want any person mentioned in the book to have their feelings hurt by my words. I wanted to be honest but not vindictive.
What were some ideas that were important for you to explore in this book?
In addition to the whole cover band phenomenon as stated above, I wanted to show the reader that you can reinvent yourself as you go through life. Keeping a positive attitude gets you through a lot of adversity.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from your story?
I think everyone should write their own life story. Each of us have had many life-defining experiences that would make for a very interesting memoir. It’s very important to leave “Little Memories of You.”
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon Music | YouTube
Life of a Lounge Lizard
Life of a Lounge Lizard by Mike Shields tells the expansive story of Mike’s life through music. We follow him from the sixties all the way to the present day as he reminisces on the unique experiences that shaped his growth. Set to the soundtrack of classic bands like The Beatles, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, and Metallica, this book transports the reader to different eras. From Shields’ days as a kid trying to start his first band, to his hippie years, to spanning romantic trysts, the reader travels with Shields and watches his world unfold.
Life of a Lounge Lizard is a whirlwind of hippie-life and on-the-road adventures. The first half of the book carries us through Shields’ early years, where starting new bands, writing songs, and traveling around the country with barely any money was the norm. Simultaneously, Shields suffers from stereotypes against hippies and a strained relationship with his father. The second half of the book goes into sporadic and passionate romances alongside numerous bands and gigs that eventually end up in a beautifully happy ending. The life of a musician is shown to be glamorous at times and a struggle at others, and this story feels raw and real.
I loved the vulnerability in Life of a Lounge Lizard. Topics like grief, divorce, familial strain, marriage, and childhood are all explored with an open mind. Shields tells the story of his life without leaving out the harder parts, and the story benefits from that raw honesty. You feel like you’re a part of this world with him, experiencing life on the road and all the adventure that comes along with it.
I loved learning about Shields’ experience writing and playing songs, and I thought the photos included in the book were amazing. I found myself trying to imagine what their music was like throughout the story. I think the inclusion of notes, lyrics, or even more photos as we read would have helped me imagine the sound of the band and what they were creating.
If you want to feel like you’re living life on the road in the prime years of music, this book will provide you with beautiful nostalgia and inspiration while also giving you hope for the future. As a reader, you can almost feel every moment of Shields’ life. You’re a part of the romance, the joy, the struggle, and the excitement. Life of a Lounge Lizard is the perfect story for music lovers and dreamers around the world.
Pages: 197 | ASIN: B092PZ2HQ9
Discovering Twins: no secret is safe forever
![Discovering Twins: no secret is safe forever by [Stella ter Hart]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xydVGJVKS.jpg)
Discovering Twins by Stella ter Hart is a memoir, a biography and a short fictional stories all-in-one. It blurs the line between memory and imagination, and that’s what sets it apart. It takes us through the life of ter Hart’s family. With more than 20 short stories exploring different characters and their lives, Discovering Twins is a magnificent debut by Stella ter Hart. It talks about the life of a Jewish family under an oppressive regime; it celebrates life and explores motherhood, childhood, and families in fascinating ways.
The book explores various themes and has something to interest everyone. It talks about the small celebrations of life, taking us through incidents like childbirth, the discomforts and joys of pregnancies, a girl becoming a woman and the fear of the unknown that strikes when you menstruate for the first time. It later talks about Stella’s ageing mother, who suffers from mental illness in the later stages of life. It truly represents life and its various color and shades.
Divided into unconnected short stories about several people in no particular order, one would expect the book to be rather chaotic. However, the author surprises us by making the book feel coherent and rather beautifully connected from one story to another. The stories themselves do not follow the standard format of a story with an introduction, climax or ending. Instead, they narrate instances, some monumental, some mundane, but each brilliantly described. It feels like a window into Stella’s family that we peak into from time to time.
The book also gives us rare insight into the Holocaust and its horrors. How sometimes, parents were even forced to choose between their children. It talks about how her mother and their generation were forced to lie because the truth could get them killed. Stella brings out the horrors of war and genocide without letting the story become a book about the Holocaust, but rather how the scars have a ripple effect.
Discovering Twins is a must-read for anyone looking to get an intriguing and insightful look into the life and struggles of Jews during times of war contrasted with the warm, happy, bright life of ter Hart’s family.
Pages: 256 | ASIN: B094F8WYDT
The Long Blue Walk
![The Long Blue Walk: My Journey as a Philly Cop by [Norman A. Carter Jr.]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517rHOZnh7L.jpg)
The Long Blue Walk by Norman A. Carter Jr. chronicles the deplorable behaviors committed by the Philadelphia Police Department over many years. Serving as a Police Officer, Norman Carter recounts his lengthy career with the Philadelphia Police, starting with his brief stint in the United States Army prior to entering the police academy and ending with his eventual retirement from public service. The book details Carter’s life as an honest, upstanding officer in a setting where corruption, dishonesty, and misconduct are seemingly the norm. Officer Carter fights against this degradation of what he holds to be an honorable position protecting and serving the community, while struggling to keep his own integrity intact as he fights to expose unacceptable behavior from his fellow officers and elicit positive change.
The writing is raw and engaging and the author is articulate. It was fascinating to get an insider’s view of how a police department operates, though with all of the problems and corruption illustrated in Carter’s narrative, it’s a little disheartening at the same time. While reading through the account of events in this memoir, I was immediately reminded of the movie The Departed and while the two stories are each different and unique, there are some striking similarities. Due to the autobiographical nature of the story, the only consistent character in the book is Carter himself, but as you follow him through his years as an officer, it’s easy to develop an affinity for his “character.” I found myself rooting for him at every turn.
The story itself is narrative driven, with only a few lines of recalled spoken dialogue. This makes for a straightforward reading experience, but nonetheless the story’s events were still interesting and entertaining.
Other than a few pesky typos that only momentarily pull you out of the story I was able to quickly move past these due to the high level of intrigue inherent in the story. One thing the author does very well is to end each chapter or section with a cliffhanger that leaves the reader with the promise of more intrigue and succeeds in getting you to read just “one more page” until you find you’ve read another chapter when you didn’t intend to. This made the book a fairly quick read.
The Long Blue Walk is a grounded and engaging biography of a man who spent his life in service. If you’re interested in “cop dramas” or you simply want an insider’s look at police operations, this compelling memoir is for you.
Pages: 210 | ASIN: B0794PHZ59
Golden Throat : My journey With Family In Faith
![Golden Throat : My journey with family in faith by [Paul Francis Bickert]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51N47YlIJTL.jpg)
Golden Throat: My Journey with Faith in Family by Paul Francis Bickert is a heartwarming memoir full of valuable life lessons. Golden Throat is the life story of Canadian news broadcaster Paul Francis Bickert. He walks us through his family tree and faith by sharing stories of their lives from the time they are born and into adulthood. Bickert demonstrates through his stories the importance of faith and how it can help bring us together and thrive no matter your sector of Christianity. If you’re looking for a book to lift your spirits, Golden Throat is a must-read!
Bickert is a genius when it comes to tantalizing descriptions! He takes small but crucial details and crafts them into beautiful descriptive sentences. Information that would otherwise seem mundane takes on a certain romanticism that I adored! His descriptions of the Candian Prairie were some of my favorites. Even if his story does not interest you, his writing style will keep you engaged throughout this emotionally-charged memoir.
I also want to touch on the uniqueness of the narrative flow of this memoir. Unlike many memoirs, Golden Throat does not solely focus on the author’s life experiences and story, but it also delves into his family’s. At the beginning of the book, we mainly focus on the upbringing of his parents and gain some insight into his grandparents. It was almost like the real-life version of a fictional family saga series. This unique approach is one of the main draws of this book for me.
And last but certainly not least, I want to touch on one of the most important lessons this book conveys. Bickert’s take on acceptance and unity despite diversity is a message that is much needed in today’s time. His thoughtful and experienced approach to the subject was sincere, genuine, and thought-provoking. Even if you are not a believer, this powerful message still stands.
Golden Throat: My Journey with Faith in Family by Paul Francis Bickert is an impassioned story of an intriguing family, and life, told in the most riveting way. Paul Francis Bickert has created a fantastic non-fiction book much deserving of its Plume Award for Literary Excellence. It’s a book that will soothe your soul.
Pages: 368 | ASIN: B08TTT2341
Missions of War: A Personal Journal of World War II Mission
Missions of War details Robert Brodersen’s real-life experience as a co-pilot during World War II. As a combination of Brodersen’s diary entries and his daughter’s own memories of the aftermath, Missions of War serves as an intriguing look into our country’s history through a personal lens.
While reading Missions of War, I couldn’t help but feel grateful to have the opportunity to read a different and more personal perspective of World War II. Other books I come across talk about the war on a global scale, but this feels much more in the trenches. The memoir includes recollections of raids and missions that Brodersen and the crew were a part of. He discloses how they were given escape packets that were small enough to fit in their pockets. They included money, from the country they were flying over so that they could buy themselves help if shot down. These small details really ground the story and make it very engaging. Another memory that stood out to me was when he recollects being out on the streets of London and hearing air raid sirens and finding shelter in the nearest subway station. He describes that the station was full of English civilians, most were asleep, and some had rolled up beds. He had found that many of them would sleep there because it was a good place to take shelter and then in the morning they would go home and then go to work. It just really struck me because I had never heard of anything like that, and just imagining having to leave my home at night to find shelter in a subway station for safety sounds terrifying.
Missions of War is an intimate account of war that was enthralling and hard to put down. It provides riveting first hand account of situations you only see in movies. This riveting memoir is for anyone who is looking for a short but potent personal story.
Pages: 74 | ISBN: 1637908431
LITERARY TITAN 