BOOK 'EM

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

BOOK #8
Monday, 02/19/07 to Sunday, 02/25/07

ISBN-10: 1582701709
ISBN-13: 9781582701707

You can't go anywhere without hearing about The Secret these days.  The book and DVD - with more than a million of each in print - are topping bestseller lists across the United States.  Since the DVD release on October 1, 2006, followed by the book release on November 28, 2006, The Secret has been featured on Larry King Live - twice (November 2, 2006 and November 16, 2006), on the Ellen DeGeneres Show (December 1, 2006), on the Oprah Winfrey Show - also twice (February 8, 2007 and February 16, 2007), on the Today Show (February 27, 2007) and in USA Today (February 14, 2007) and Newsweek (March 5, 2007).  It's getting an awful lot of attention.

So, what's it all about?

The foundation of The Secret is the Law of Attraction.  The concept says that the energy you put into the world — both good and bad — is exactly what comes back to you.  In essence, you get what you think about; your thoughts determine your destiny.  This is not a new idea, but it's new re-packaging, with the support & participation of so many experts across a variety of disciplines is compelling.  I have to admit that the message in The Secret resonates strongly with me (and a whole lot of other people, evidently).  I also have to agree with critics who say that some of the experts are taking it waaaaay too far.  Bottom line: Read it (or watch the DVD).  I expect you will find it well worth your time.

Book Description:

The Secret has existed throughout the history of humankind. It has been discovered, coveted, suppressed, hidden, lost and recovered. It has been hunted down, stolen, and bought for vast sums of money. Now for the first time in history, The Secret is being revealed to the world.

A number of exceptional men and women discovered The Secret, and went on to become known as the greatest people who ever lived. Among them: Plato, Leonardo, Galileo, Napoleon, Hugo, Beethoven, Lincoln, Edison, Einstein and Carnegie, to name but a few.

Fragments of The Secret have been found in the oral traditions, in literature, in religions and philosophies throughout the centuries. For the first time, all the pieces of The Secret come together in an incredible revelation which will be life transforming for all who experience it.

Some of today's greatest teachers will be presented in The Secret and will impart this special wisdom that has been known by so few. They include some of the world's leaders in the fields of business, economics, medicine, psychology, history, theology and science. Each of these teachers is living proof of The Secret; each of them a walking marvel of achievement and success...

Included are; 'Miracle Man' Morris Goodman, who tells his awe inspiring story of how he recovered from paralysis by using The Secret. Dr. Denis Waitley, who used various aspects of The Secret in training Olympic athletes and Apollo astronauts to reach new heights of human endeavour. Best selling authors and philosophers including Bob Proctor, John Assaraf, James Ray and Joe Vitale, explain how they have created lives of phenomenal success utilising The Secret. Doctors in the fields of medicine and quantum physics explain the science behind The Secret.

The Secret reveals amazing real life stories and testimonials of regular people who have changed their lives in profound ways. By applying The Secret they present instances of eradicating disease, acquiring massive wealth, overcoming obstacles and achieving what many would regard as impossible.

The Secret reveals how to apply this powerful knowledge to your life in every area from health to wealth, to success and relationships.

The Secret is everything you have dreamed of... and is beyond your wildest dreams.

Want more information?  Click here to visit the Official Website of the Secret.

Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos

BOOK #7
Monday, 02/12/07 to Sunday, 02/18/07

ISBN-10:0452287898
ISBN-13: 978-0452287891

Since Valentine's Day was this past week, I decided I should review some kind of "love story".  I've already admitted that romance novels aren't my favorite, and neither is chick lit - which is how I would classify Love Walked In.  But, I have seen this book everywhere, the past couple of weeks, and its causing quite a buzz in the bookselling world, so I thought I would give it a try. 

Love Walked In is a sweet, heart-wrenching love story - but not the kind I expected.  It is not just about romantic love, but love in all its various & assorted forms: between friends, in communities, among family members... layered, as life is, with heartbreak, dysfunction, loss & mental illness.  Booklist  says, "All in all, it is a sweet story about what you love and why."  And, according to Publishers Weekly, "rights [have been] sold in at least eight countries, and, indeed, to Paramount — Sarah Jessica Parker will star and coproduce with Sideways's Michael London."  So, be prepared to hear more about this one in the future.

Here's a glimpse:

"Be not afraid of parenthood; some are born parents, some achieve parenthood, and others have parenthood thrust upon 'em."

... In my experience, people love what they love.  They just do.

Or fail to love what they fail to love... I brought up the previous tweaked quotation mainly to discuss how it's only partly accurate because, as far as I can tell, no matter what the circumstances, parenthood is thrust upon a parent.  No one is ever quite ready; everyone is always caught off guard.  Parenthood chooses you.  And you open your eyes, look at what you've got, say, "Oh, my gosh," and recognize that of all the balls there ever were, this is the one you should not drop.  It's not a question of choice.

Before you get your hackles up - and I like those hackles; they're fine hackles, I have a set myself - I should clarify that I'm not talking about choice as we ordinarily use the word.  Not Choice as in Pro-.  I'm talking about post-choice, the embodied baby, the done deal, the child trailing clouds of glory, etcetera.  And of course, because I see hackles rising again, I know there are plenty of people with done deals who are smart and brave enough to recognize that they need to thrust parenthood upon someone else, someone with more resources.  I'm not talking about those people or taking them to task.  If I'm taking anyone to task, and apparently I am, it's those people who have the material resources (and then some; if you can afford a penthouse, more than one signed and numbered Edward Weston photo, and a Mies Van der Rohe chaise, you can afford a child, yes?); who are grown-up; who are in splendid, chiseled, glowing, shockingly handsome health; and who are in all ways suited not to be let off the hook.

I'm talking about Martin.  Obviously, Martin.  Because his eleven-year-old daughter slept the sleep of the spent and brokenhearted in the next room, in a strange bed.  Martin sat next to me on the couch and said, "I'm just not cut out to be someone's parent.  I never was," neatly lifting him of the hook, without so much as a wrinkle in his English custom-tailored shirt.

Except I that I couldn't let it go.  I could have admired his candor.  I could have eaten up the long-awaited snip of self-revelation, savored its sweetness on my tongue, and moved on.  It would have been so easy to let it go, but I couldn't do it.

"Father," I said.

"What?"

"Someone's father.  You said parent, not father," I said.

"Does that matter?  Is there a difference?" he asked, not completely rhetorically, thank goodness...

"Maybe being a father is isn't something you do because you're cut out for it.  Maybe it's something you do because your child needs you to do it."  I said that.  Afterward, there was a long silence.

"We haven't known each other very long, Cornelia.  But we have something.  I think we have something.  Enough so that you are a person on whom I wouldn't  rush to judgment.  I'd give you the benefit of a doubt.  Can you do that for me?"  His voice was so quiet, and there were so many other things he could have said to me.  Things like, "You're the thirty-one-year-old, single, childless manager of a coffee bar, Cornelia.  What the hell do you know about being a parent?"  Or "Let's think.  Have you managed every last thing in your life in the best possible manner?" Or "Must be nice up there on your moral high ground, Cornelia.  Nice clean air up there lets you see other people's faults in crystalling detail."

But he was tender and sad and far more fair than I deserved and, disenfranchised child in the next room or no, I wanted to be in love with Martin, still.  I hadn't given up on that.  I wanted our being in love to remain in the realm of the possible.  Apart from that, I knew that all the things he didn't say but could have were true responses, entirely just, and I felt bad about that.  I don't mind being wrong, but I can't bear to be in the wrong, or on the side of wrong.

"I'm sorry, Martin," I said.  "I'm sorry, and yes, I can do that."...

Book Cover:

When Martin Grace enters the hip Philadelphia coffee shop Cornelia Brown manages, her life changes forever. But little does she know that her newfound love is only the harbinger of greater changes to come. Meanwhile, across town, Clare Hobbs—eleven years old and abandoned by her erratic mother—goes looking for her lost father. She crosses paths with Cornelia while meeting with him at the café, and the two women form an improbable friendship that carries them through the unpredictable currents of love and life.

Love Walked In, the first novel by award-winning poet Marisa de los Santos, is bursting with keen insight and beautifully rendered prose. Invoking classic movies to illuminate the mystery and wonder of love in all its permutations, Love Walked In is an uplifting debut that marks the entrance of an enchanting literary voice.

Others Are Saying:

“This is a book that will be passed from friend to friend with the words, ‘You have to read this.’” —Richmond Times Dispatch

“Love Walked In, by Marisa de los Santos, is the kind of book that makes you want to hunker down on a chilly day in a comfy chair and read straight through ’til dark...This [is a] poignant, heart-tugging story about a single woman and a little girl who develop an unlikely bond.” —The Washington Post Book World

“A bewitching, warmhearted grown-up fairy tale about old movies, charming princes, and finding happily ever after in the place where you’d least expect it.” —Jennifer Weiner, author of Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, and Little Earthquakes

“Marisa de los Santos’s funny and beautifully written love story is as luminous as the silver screen.” —Lolly Winston, author of Good Grief

“A touching, triumphant story of the power and variety and responsibility of love. A joy to read, filled with characters you wish you knew in real life. Love Walked In is every bit as engaging as the classic movies Marisa de los Santos lovingly invokes.” —Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club

“Exquisite and stylish, Love Walked In proves that love in all of its forms—romantic, friendship, familial—is all around us.” —Sarah Jessica Parker

Big-Box Swindle by Stacy Mitchell

BOOK #6
Monday, 02/05/07 to Sunday, 02/11/07

ISBN-10: 0807035009
ISBN-13: 978-0807035009

Big-Box Swindle IS A MUST READ!   And I'm not just saying that because it's our Book Club selection for February.  I consider myself an educated, socially conscious person.  I work at WKDZ/WHVO which is "locally owned, locally operated and locally oriented".  I also own and run a small, independent bookstore in downtown Cadiz.  So, I understand the importance of buying local and supporting other businesses in the community.  But this book raised my awareness a thousand times over.  I never imagined that my everyday choices about spending have such powerful economic, social, political and environmental effects on my community.  This is so much bigger than I ever understood before.  For example:

In 2005 Wal-Mart had $312 billion in revenue.  It operated more than six thousand stores worldwide, including thirty-eight hundred in the United States, each of which averages three football fields in size.  With 600 million square feet of floor space in the United States, Wal-Mart could fit every man, woman, and child in the country inside its stores.  No company has more trucks on North American roads than it does.  Wal-Mart is five times the size of the nation's second largest retailer, Home Depot.  It's bigger than Target, Sears, Costco, JCPenney, Walgreens, Best Buy, The Gap, Staples, Toys "R" Us, Nordstrom , Blockbuster, and Barnes & Noble combined.

Wal-Mart... ranks as the thirty-fourth largest economy in the world, bigger than the gross domestic product of most countries, including Austria, Chile, and Israel... With 1.5 million employees (and millions more who work indirectly for the chain), Wal-Mart stands as one of the world's largest private employers... It has build a computer system so vast it is said to rival the Pentagon's in size.

"So, what's wrong with that?" you ask.  Lots of folks simply see that as progress.

This idea of progress is powerful and pervasive.  It suggests that, while we may regret the loss of our hometown grocer or the neighborhood pharmacy, these are necessary casualties on the path to economic advancement and prosperity.  And indeed, the big chains seem to deliver exactly what most communities want most: economic growth, lower prices, new jobs, and tax revenue.

But the megachains contribute far less to our local economies than they take away... As local businesses disappear, our communities are becoming ever more dependent on a handful of corporations that have no allegiance to the places where they do business.

The bottom line is this:  Our community is precious... and we really must keep that in mind when making spending choices.  There's so much more than I can cram into this blog space.  You just have to read the book.  In case you're not already convinced, here's more info:

Book Description:

In less than two decades, large retail chains have become the most powerful corporations in America.  In this deft and revealing book, Stacy Mitchell illustrates how mega-retailers are fueling many of our most pressing problems, from the shrinking middle class to rising pollution and diminished civic engagement - and she shows how a growing number of communities and independent businesses are effectively fighting back.

Mitchell traces the dramatic growth of the mega-retailers - from big boxes like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Costco, and Staples to chains like Starbucks, Olive Garden, Blockbuster, and Old Navy - and the precipitous decline of independent businesses.  Drawing on examples from virtually every state in the country, she unearths the extraordinary impact of these companies and the big-box mentality on everything from soaring gasoline consumption to rising poverty rates, failing family farms, and declining voting levels.  Along the way, Mitchell exposes the shocking rold government policy hs played in the expansion of mega-retailers and builds a compelling case that composed of many small, locally owned businesses are healthier and more prosperous than those dominated by a few large chains.

More than a critique, Big-Box Swindle provides an invigorating account of how some communities have successfully countered the spread of big boxes and rebuilt their local economies.  Since 2000, more than two hundred big box development projects have been halted by groups of ordinary citizens, and scores of towns and cities have adopted laws that favor small-scale, local business development and limit the proliferation of chains.  From cutting-edge land-use policies to innovative cooperative small-business initiatives, Mitchell offers communities concrete strategies that can stave off mega-retailers and create a more prosperous and sustainable future.

About the Author:

Stacy Mitchell is a senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.  A regular speaker and adviser to communities on retail development and independent business, she is the author of The Hometown Advantage and chairs the American Independent Business Alliance.  She lives in Portland, Maine.

As I mentioned, Big-Box Swindle is our Book Club pick, this month.  If you are interested in learning more, you can buy the book for 20% off at Eldora's and join the discussion on February 27th from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.  I expect it to be a lively one.  For more information, call (270) 522-1995.

YOU On A Diet by Michael F. Roizen, M.D. & Mehmet C. Oz, M.D.

BOOK #5
Monday, 01/28/07 to Sunday, 02/04/07

ISBN-10: 0743292545
ISBN-13: 978-0743292542

Diet & fitness books are always quite popular at the beginning of every year... so I felt somewhat of an obligation to include one in my review.  However, any of you who know me know that I am not a diet girl.  I can't handle all of the rules and lists and measuring and counting or the pedometers and barbells and steps and elastic bands.  It's all too much.  And - let's be honest - diet & fitness books are not typicallly thought of as "good reading."  With all of the above in mind, I set out to find a book that:

1. Had an easy,  real life approach  (i.e. no counting, measuring or fitness equipment involved),
2. Was enjoyable to read - at least as much as possible, and
3. Didn't seem gimmicky or unnatural (like taking certain "supplements" or only eating one food, etc.)

Believe it or not, I found all of those things in YOU On A Diet.  I actually enjoyed the book.  Here's the thing, though: we all know that the bottom line for weight loss or fitness is "eat healthy foods in moderation and exercise."  That's pretty much it.  But the guys who wrote this book, both medical doctors, provide the how and why - in a clear - and often humorous - manner.  Plus, they throw in lots of neat drawings.  And they wrap it all up with a sensible, doable, real life, no-exercise-equipment needed plan.  So, for those reasons, this diet & fitness book gets my vote.

Book Description:

For the first time in our history, scientists are uncovering astounding medical evidence about dieting--and why so many of us struggle with our weight and the size of our waists. Now researchers are unraveling biological secrets about such things as why you crave chocolate or gorge at buffets or store so much fat.

Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, America's most trusted doctor team and authors of the bestselling YOU series, are now translating this cutting-edge information to help you shave inches off your waist. They're going to do it by giving you the best weapon against fat: knowledge. By understanding how your body's fat-storing and fat-burning systems work, you're going to learn how to crack the code on true and lifelong waist management.

Roizen and Oz will invigorate you with equal parts information, motivation, and change-your-life action to show you how your brain, stomach, hormones, muscles, heart, genetics, and stress levels all interact biologically to determine if your body is the size of a baseball bat or of a baseball stadium. In YOU: On a Diet, Roizen and Oz will redefine what a healthy figure is, then take you through an under-the skin tour of the organs that influence your body's size and its health. You'll even be convinced that the key number to fixate on is not your weight, but your waist size, which best indicates the medical risks of storing too much fat.

Because the world has almost as many diet plans as it has e-mail spammers, you'd think that just about all of us would know everything there is to know about dieting, about fat, and about the reasons why our bellies have grown so large. YOU: On a Diet is much more than a diet plan or a series of instructions and guidelines or a faddish berries-only eating plan. It's a complete manual for waist management. It will show you how to achieve and maintain an ideal and healthy body size by providing a lexicon according to which any weight-loss system can be explained. YOU: On a Diet will serve as the operating system that facilitates future evolution in our dieting software. After you learn about the biology of your body and the biology and psychology of fat, you'll be given the YOU Diet and YOU Workout. Both are easy to learn, follow, and maintain. Following a two-week rebooting program will help you lose up to two inches from your waist right from the start.

With Roizen and Oz's signature accessibility, wit, and humor, YOU: On a Diet--The Owner's Manual for Waist Management will revolutionize the way you think about yourself and the food you consume, so that you'll diet smart, not hard. Welcome to your body on a diet.

Related Books:

Here are a couple of other books in the diet & fitness category that are current "best-sellers" at Eldora's:

The Best Life Diet by Bob Greene
ISBN-10: 1416540660
ISBN-13: 978-1416540663

Book Description:

From the bestselling author of Get With the Program! and Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover comes The Best Life Diet, a lifetime plan for losing weight and keeping it off. Bob Greene helped Oprah achieve her dramatic weight loss, and he can help you too. You'll eat the same delicious food that Oprah enjoys, and, just like Oprah, you'll have Bob to encourage you at every step. Unlike a celebrity, however, you don't need to hire a staff of experts to aid and advise you, because Bob's plan, easily tailored to an array of tastes, lifestyles, and activity levels, acts as your personal trainer and private nutritionist. Just open the book and let Bob help you get started down the path toward your best possible life.

30-Minute Get Real Meals by Rachael Ray
ISBN-10: 1400082536
ISBN-13: 978-1400082537

Book Description:

In Rachael Ray’s 30-Minute Get Real Meals, the bestselling cookbook author and Food Network star serves up another helping of creative, hassle-free recipes that are ready to rock your tastebuds in less than thirty minutes. The latest addition to Rachael’s runaway hit series of 30-Minute Meals cookbooks is designed for cooks who want to look and feel great but long for the fun and the flavor that’s missing from their extreme low-carb meals.

Why fill your shopping cart and your stomach with processed, low-carb cereals and breads that taste like cardboard when you can eat the foods you crave? Here, at last, are recipes for those who just cannot and will not live totally carb-free: Pasta dinners made mostly with proteins and vegetables and only a couple of ounces of pasta per servings, fresh Thai and Mexican lettuce wraps, take-out-style stir-frys, and tons of burger ideas—with and without the buns.

And when you’ve just got to satisfy that sweet tooth, even nonbakers (like Rachael) will flip for Nutty Creamsicle Pie, Stuffed Roasted Strawberries, and other surprisingly easy dessert recipes.