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Destiny Lives On Fairhaven Street
Used to an environment of violence and lovelessness, a young boy named CJ went about his days in resignment and acceptance that this is the life he will experience until his last breath. In school, he was either bullied or ignored. At home, he and his older brother got beat up by their alcoholic father, and their mother was no exception to the treatment. When CJ’s mother decides to end the marriage, he meets the person who will change the course of his life forever, Danielle. Their blissful three years as friends-to-lovers end when the divorce of CJ’s parents leads him to Michigan, leaving Danielle with only a heart-shaped pendant, and his promise to return. With eight years between his departure and arrival back to the love of his life’s door, CJ recalls his journey and the lessons he learned along the way.
Destiny Lives On Fairhaven Street is a compelling memoir of CJ’s journey from a fragile and abused boy to a strong and empowered man, all through the power of love. The author’s story tells us that we are the masters of our own fate, and no matter what world we live in, we can choose to be different. From the very start of the story, we are immersed into the harsh world the author lived in. CJ was expected to be just like his father by everyone around him, but in the end, he promised firmly to himself that he is going to break the cycle, and with the proper drive, he was able to prove it. It may look like a typical story of perseverance, but understanding CJ’s experiences and seeing how it affected him in the present, his life is very admirable. He saw the good during times of hardships and he was still able to build a life he envisioned.
From the beginning, I found it endearing that he told his story in a narrative manner to his two children, because I felt that it gave the book a conversational feel. Although there are some events that are unimaginable for some readers, such as the abuse, I was able to grasp just how heavy these parts are with the way the author described it. Furthermore, this may not be the first time I read a book that features domestic violence, but the fact that these stories are publicized is crucial in our world today, and every single one of these stories must be heard.
Destiny Lives on Fairhaven Street is a captivating and motivating memoir that will push its readers to believe in three things —love, fate, and hope. I highly recommend this to people who are going through a lot in life and are looking for a sign to continue on, because CJ is living proof that we can be triumphant. I hope this memoir can help readers to accept that we deserve this one thing, no matter how we measure it —happiness, and that we must not be afraid to seek it.
Pages: 258
Letters from Vietnam
The United States entered the Vietnam War conflict in August of 1964, though the US had been involved in the conflict in a limited capacity since the end of World War II. After an American battleship was allegedly attacked, President Lynden Johnson called for air strikes, thus taking a stand in the ongoing conflict. The United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War was heavily criticized for many reasons, but despite that, hundreds of thousands of US troops made their way to Vietnam to fight.
Letters from Vietnam by Dennis Hoy is an autobiographical account of Hoy’s time in the United States military during the Vietnam war. He details his time from basic training to the jungle swamps of Vietnam and provides a first-hand account of the dangers and perils for a young man at war. However, Hoy keeps a thread of hope alive by sending letters back and forth to the love of his life, Beth.
Hoy and his wife, Beth, kept every letter they exchanged during Hoy’s time in Vietnam. Encouraged by some friends, Hoy wrote down his experiences in Vietnam to preserve the story of a dark time in the United States and World history.
The oddest thing about this book is that there are no actual printed letters between Dennis and Beth, which could have enhanced the book’s drama by showing their thoughts and feelings straight from the time of the war. However, Letters from Vietnam is a well-written book in a very conversational tone that helps an average reader understand this point in history without the language being overcomplicated. As the reader, you can tell that Hoy’s time in Vietnam affected him profoundly and continues to affect him even to this day. I highly recommend Letters from Vietnam to anyone who loves history and wants a first-hand account of a soldier’s days in Vietnam.
Pages: 164 | ASIN : B09GXQMCJD
You Can’t Get A Time Refund
The Villains Who Snapped My Spine: A Memoir tells your story of diagnosing and coping with a rare nervous system disease. Why was this an important book for you to write?
It seemed pertinent to write a hospital journal, even though I wasn’t sure why. I recall thinking I had to record what happened or wait for my literary genius of a sister to pen a version after I’m dead (assuming she gets bored with fiction). Since I’m impatient, I gave it my best shot. If I wasn’t the author, it’d probably be ten times better, an award contender, and eventually adapted to film by the Hallmark Channel.
Honestly, though, if anyone else gets hit with an unexpected health crisis, I’m hoping they might read The Villains Who Snapped My Spine and be inspired—maybe even laugh. In a hospital, you can only read Jalopnik, the Bible, or Twitter for so long, and any medical-themed memoir I picked up made me want to put it down. I’m not really into reading tearjerker sob-smut, so I felt compelled to produce something a little more upbeat.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
My wife, because I want to be with her for a long time. This diagnosis was a stark reminder that life is just a countdown clock to death, there are no guarantees, and you can’t get a time refund even if you have a good credit score or subscribe to Prime.
What is one piece of advice you wish someone had given you when you started the process of getting a diagnosis?
Don’t think you are dealing with something as harmless as everyone else just because there is a 99% chance that the diagnosis won’t be a worst-case scenario.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?
Never downplay how bad you feel. Often it’s nothing serious, but sometimes the issue is as life-threatening as playing on a Twister mat over an open grave.
Life is short, so don’t waste any of it working at places like the Post Office or putting off that one crucial thing until tomorrow. Maybe read a memoir.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
The humor-laced and nostalgia-infused debut memoir follows A. H. Nazzareno in his attempt to make sense of a rare diagnosis. Written in a hospital bed and in the immediate weeks following major surgery, courtesy of Dr. Summeroff, an uncertain yet hopeful future emerges from a villain-riddled past.
I Decided To Be That Voice
Living in the Gray is your personal story about surviving cancer and what life now looks like for you day to day. Why was this an important book for you to write?
The importance of this book for me was twofold: 1) I wanted to provide something for others, so they know they’re not alone; and 2) It gave me somewhere to express, in an authentic voice, everything I’m dealing with. I love to read so when everything went down, I was just looking for something by a younger-ish person that I could relate to. Everything I could find was written by someone older who had already lived most of their life, or who was really optimistic about “pulling through” and “never giving up”. Those are important messages, but I wanted something more real. When I didn’t find that, I decided to be that voice.
Speaking of voice, one thing I love about writing is that it allows me to say whatever I want to say and in whatever way I want to say it. As I discuss in this book, I have facial paralysis, which greatly affects my speech, and I think surgery did something to my vocal chords, so my speech is very slow and hard to understand. Part of my persona before was adding (often snide) comments to a conversation, and talking a lot (too much?). Since I can’t do that anymore, writing creates an outlet for me to exercise that part of myself. Writing this book gave me the chance to say some of the things I’m already thinking about.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
Mainly that I think it’s okay to be sad or angry, but that there CAN be some good things in all that sadness. Some days, it’s enough. Some days, it’s not. I also think so many people look at cancer survival as inspiring or as making you a better person, so it can make you feel bad when you’re not the 1% that comes out unscathed or when you just want to be sad and upset about all of the things cancer takes away. I spend so much time beating myself up, like “You should be grateful, there are people without access to clean water!” and it’s like, yes, sure, but suffering is suffering is suffering.
Another important idea for me is this idea of choice. Choice is a very big deal in the cancer community, because cancer takes away so much of your agency. There are so many choices I can’t make, but I CAN choose what to think or how to say something to another person. I don’t always make the BEST choice (just ask my husband), but it’s nice to know that I do have control over that. So much of life is out of our control, it’s important to recognize what we DO own and what we CAN change.
What is a common misconception you feel people have about living with cancer?
I think a lot of people think of it as this sort of “one and done” thing. Like, you get cancer. You go through surgery/treatment. You die, they get rid of it, or you go into remission. You’re done. But it doesn’t always work like that. It’s not always cut and dry, and what’s acute for some people can be chronic for others.
The other thing I think people think and talk about the most is the physical stuff: the hair loss, the nausea, the exhaustion. I never quite know how to answer the question “So, how do you feel?” Well, what do you mean? Cause physically, I feel fine. But mentally, not so much. I don’t think enough is said about the mental effects of cancer.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?
Life can be messy, but it can also be beautiful. You’ve just got to know where to look and be willing to pivot.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads | Website
This is a cancer memoir, because it’s about and written by a young woman who gets cancer, but it’s so much more than that. In many ways, cancer causes us to ask all of the same questions about life any of us ask, but at a much faster rate. Questions about meaning and existence that just don’t seem to have clear answers. Katie especially lives in the gray right now, but really, we all do.
In Living in the Gray by Katie Weber, we learn that the gray is something we all need to be comfortable with, because uncertainty is the only thing we can ever be certain of.
Appreciate your children the way they are!
A Schizophrenic, Tapped & Skipped is the true story of your battle to remain hopeful in the face of overwhelming pain, fear, and destruction. Why was this an important book for you to write?
I felt called to write it. I didn’t want to expose my family, but after talking with them and praying about it, I spent many nights pouring over the horrifying situations over and over. I still can’t understand the lack of available long term care for persons with severe mental illnesses. I still care for my daughter every day. I want her to have a better quality of life. I will never give up being her advocate. I’m speaking at my local library and trying my best to do what I can. Being this vulnerable is extremely uncomfortable. My prayer is writing about the reality of loving a person with severe mental illness will reach the people who CAN bring about change.
I appreciate how candid you are in this book. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
The time when my daughters were both homeless. That was such a hopeless dark time. To put myself back in that mindset in order to make it authentic was incredibly difficult.
What is one piece of advice someone gave you that was very helpful?
Write with your heart. Edit with professionals. Lol.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your book?
Never give up!
Celebrate the good things in your life!
Appreciate your children the way they are!
PEOPLE WITH SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS NEED LONG TERM AFFORDABLE CARE WITHOUT A PHYSICAL DIAGNOSIS. (It’s hard to pick just one)
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Website
Follow My Journey
Rocky Mountains: A Self-Portrait is a biography about your life as a photographer as well as teaching readers some of the nuances of photography that make a great photographer. Why was this an important book for you to write?
This book is an overview of my interests and creative efforts in the high Rockies. It offers a look into a short lived community that no longer exists which I feel strongly needs to be acknowledged and documented for others to see.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
I am a photographer, not a natural writer. But with a lot of effort and persistence I feel I have presented an interesting story and insights not previously available about the lives of those living and working at the Colorado ski resorts.
What is one piece of advice you wish someone had given you when you were younger?
I’ve always been told I can achieve whatever I want to do. I wish I had truly believed that and acted on that earlier in life.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?
I want readers to follow my journey and see what I saw while experiencing life in a community that no longer exists.
Author Links: Website | Facebook | Smashwords
The Villains Who Snapped My Spine
The Villains Who Snapped My Spine: A Memoir by A. H. Nazzareno recounts the experience of the health crisis that the author suffered, which culminated in 2021. The book begins when he is admitted to the Boston hospital for surgery in June. As he prepares to undergo the operation, he wonders how long he has left to live. The following chapters switch back and forth from his time in the hospital to descriptions of several previous events the author refers to as “villains.” Showing these snapshots of various points in the author’s life over the preceding ten years provides insight into the past to help the reader understand what contributed to bringing him to this current point in his life.
The author of this memoir has a unique and interesting writing style filled with unexpected and often amusing descriptions and metaphors that I enjoyed reading. I liked that he avoided using typical cliches and found original ways to describe events and express his feelings throughout his experience dealing with what he eventually learns is a rare medical condition. The introduction to the book provided hints about the significant event that affected the author’s life, and these hints had me interested in continuing to read to find out exactly what happened. I liked the hopeful tone at the end of the book, especially given the author’s uncertain prognosis.
There were sections of the book that were a little hard to follow for me because the narrative did not always progress in chronological order and jumped forward or backward on the timeline in several places or went off on seemly insignificant tangents. I would have liked a little more clarification at the very beginning of the book, when the author was being admitted to the hospital in Chapter One, as to the details of the surgery he was about to undergo to better understand why he had such a grim view of the outcome. Without this information, I found my focus pulled away from what was happening in the present to wonder about the things that had not been fully explained. It wasn’t until later chapters, after the author went back to describe some of the previous events in the past, that the reader finally learns what had led up to that moment.
The Villains Who Snapped My Spine: A Memoir is a personal account of rare nervous system diseases and what life is like living with this condition. The author is candid, and readers will get to know him and develop an understanding of the life-changing impact this has had on him and others with similar conditions.
Pages: 191 | ASIN : B09ZF1GJTD
The Intuitive Detective
From the title, you might think that Stacey Webb’s The Intuitive Detective is a 1950’s Hollywood B-movie. On the contrary, though, it’s a captivating memoir by successful police detective, Stacey Webb, that catalogues her life and times when she was guided by her intuition — whether she chose to listen to it or not.
The reliance on instinct by professional investigators has become legendary among fictional characters, from Sherlock Holmes tracking down murders to the alien-chasers Mulder and Scully. Webb unashamedly credits her intuition with leading her to answers she might otherwise have discounted. Something is certainly working for her, considering she has developed a successful career and has been promoted to the level of detective in spite of being a woman and raising her children at the same time.
The Intuitive Detective isn’t all about Webb’s police work, either. A kind of sixth sense guides her in her personal life, too. For example, she recounts a time when she was involved in a serious car accident. Thanks to the guidance of her inner voice, before crashing she manages to take some precautions that ensure she is easily found and even walks away from the battered car uninjured. Subsequently people told her that her dead father somehow protected her from harm on that occasion — a comforting belief that’s common when people survive difficult circumstances when it looks like they shouldn’t. But Webb doesn’t subscribe to that, saying, “Several people said my dad was looking out for me that day. But what I believe was that I was listening to my intuition.”
The Intuitive Detective is an engrossing memoir that Webb has conveniently structured to make it easy to dip in and out. This is an inspiring and intimate look into a fascinating person’s life that will appeal to readers who like their true crime with a spiritual twist.
Pages: 170 | ASIN: B09X9VYMVT
LITERARY TITAN 