Book Review: The Glow by Jessie Gaynor

In Jessie Gaynor’s novel, The Glow, protagonist Jane Dorner is in a funk; her life seems to be going nowhere. Though Jane had aspirations of being a poet, she ended up dropping out of her grad program, and is now working in public relations for a New York City firm. Working in public relations may sound glamorous and lucrative, but Jane can barely care about her work and her output is slipshod at best.

And on top of her less than exciting job, Jane is now without a boyfriend after a break up and due to an emergency surgery, Jane is now drowning in medical debt (something I bet a lot of my fellow Americans can relate to). Jane is trying to hold onto her job so she can pay off her nearly six figure medical debt.

Needing a boost to her career, Jane seeks out something to inspire her so she can publicize it and perhaps save her job. And Jane thinks she’s found the perfect thing when she discovers Fort Path, a wellness retreat. At the helm of Fort Path, is Cass. Cass is beautiful, ethereal, and has a huge following on social media. Her Instagram passages promise wellness, healing, and the ultimate journey of self-fulfillment. Jane is drawn to both Fort Path and Cass, and she believes if she can connect with both of them, she will find not only a higher state of being, she will also amplify her career and keep her job.

Jane makes a sojourn to Fort Path. At first she has a hard time fitting in with the retreat’s strict diet and weird rituals, which includes group masturbation and refraining from showering. But still, Jane can’t help but be drawn to Cass. Cass just radiates self-confidence, wholeness, and true enlightenment. Perhaps if Jane follows Cass and Fort Path’s strict guideline, she, too, will achieve these lofty goals.

Whereas Cass may be the face and inspiration for Fort Path, it is her husband, Tom, who handles the business side of running the retreat. Jane gets closer to Cass and Tom, and often wonders about their marriage, especially since Tom doesn’t exactly seem 100% straight. Is it true love or a marriage of convenience. And once Jane loses her PR job, and finagles her way into a job with Fort Path, she finds out more and more about Cass and Tom’s marriage and the behind the scenes of running Fort Path.

Jane comes up with a plan. She figures with her public relations experience, she feels she can sell Fort Path on a grander scale (even if she herself, isn’t a true believer of Fort Path’s mission and practices). If Jane can put Fort Path on the wellness map and make Cass a major health guru on par with Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop. And to do this, Jane does some rather nefarious and less than savory things that are more about making the big bucks and exploiting Cass, Tom, and Fort Path than actually doing something positive for the the two of them, the retreat, and its clients. Will Jane make Fort Path a health and wellness a huge success and become a huge success herself? Or will everything tumble like a house of Tarot cards?

The Glow is a fascinating look at the rarified world of wellness and the people involved even though some of these people aren’t exactly good people. Sure, Cass and Tom may have an odd marriage. And I’m not a fan of Cass’s dietary and hygienic habits, but for the most part these are two well-meaning characters who are sympathetic.

However, Jane is a walking red flag. Though I empathize with her work and money troubles, I found her behavior towards Cass and Tom, and Fort Path to be appalling. Her exploitation is truly offensive. But I wondered is she truly an awful person or is her behavior due to the huge pressures, challenges, and set backs she has dealt. And I also questioned if our seeking out of enlightenment and a better life via a wellness retreat, a yoga class, or a candle smelling like Gwyneth Paltrow’s vagina is a panacea for the true systematic obstacles problems we face in modern society. The Glow prompts us to think a bit about those things.

Book Review: The Social Climber by Amanda Pellegrino

Social Climber: One who attempts to gain a higher social position or acceptance in fashionable society.-Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Eliza Bennett appears to live the ideal life. She has a glamorous career with a New York PR agency. Her closet is filled with designer frocks. She works out at the best boutique health clubs. And she lives in a gorgeous penthouse apartment with her fiancé Graham Walker who comes from very rich old money family. Their high society wedding is just a week away.

So what’s the catch? Well, Eliza isn’t exactly what she claims to be, and some much of this unfolds in Amanda Pellegrino’s delicious novel The Social Climber. And as this story unfolds, people in Eliza’s well-heeled circle aren’t exactly what they seem either.

Unlike Graham, Eliza did not grow up wealthy and privileged. She grew up quite the opposite. Born Elizabeth, Eliza came from a deeply religious and some would say backward farming family. Money was tight, and Eliza was often clothed in hand-me-downs and poorly fitting clothing sewn by her mother. Mostly homeschooled, Eliza dreamed of a better life and this comes to fruition when she goes to Covenant College.

Now Covenant College is hardly Berkeley. It’s ultra religious and very conservative. There is a slew of rules and regulations the students must abide by or else they will receive demerits. Of course, the students do find away to have their fun. Eliza’s roommate is Ruthie. By Covenant’s standards, Ruthie is a bit of a rebel. But she and Eliza become true blue friends. Ruthie helps Eliza break out of her shell, and her less than stylish wardrobe. Eliza does well academically, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t get up to all kinds of merrymaking-partying, drinking, smoking weed, and losing her virginity. But the fun and games end when Ruthie disappears. Eliza is crushed, not knowing what has happened to her bestie. Will she ever know?

Years later, Eliza is kicking ass and taking names in the Big Apple. She’s made the best connections, and has a big rock on her left hand. But she is still haunted by Ruthie’s disappearance, and has something up her designer sleeve. Hmm, could it be revenge?

The Social Climber’s chapters take turns telling of Eliza’s background and college life at Covenant and the current time leading up to her wedding to Graham. Though Eliza is desperate to hide her past even though she’s gone to great lengths to ingratiate herself to the upper crust, and appears to move in their circles nearly seamlessly. Yet, as the wedding date approaches, Eliza soon realizes there is something not quite right with the family she’s marrying into, and possibly her fiancé, Graham. And in the end, there was a twist that I did not see coming.

Though Eliza is probably not the most upfront protagonist you’ll come across, you are compelled to learn more about her and how her story plays out. And though at first The Social Climber comes across as just another chick lit book, it ends up being a very satisfying thriller.

We Interrupt This Blog for this Special and Important Announcement

Born in Wisconsin and raised in Illinois, Patrick Canning now calls California home where he lives with his dog Hank. Canning has written several books, a collection of short stories called Five Fantastic and a novel named Cryptofauna. Canning’s latest offering is novel The Colonel and the Bee.

The Colonel and The Bee is about an explorer and an acrobat who travel the globe on a huge hot air balloon. On their spectacular journey, the duo search for a treasured artifact and a deadly treasure hunter who also desires it.

Canning sums up The Colonel and The Bee with the following:

“Beatrix, a spirited but abused acrobat in a traveling circus, seeks more than her prison-like employment offers. More than anything, she wants to know her place in the world of the halcyon 19th century, a time when the last dark corners of the map were being sketched out and travel still possessed a kind of magic.

One night in Switzerland, the mysterious Colonel James Bacchus attends Beatrix’s show. This larger-than-life English gentleman, reputed to have a voracious appetite for female conquests, is most notable for traveling the world in a four-story hot air balloon called The Ox.

Beatrix flees that night to join the Colonel, and the two of them make a narrow escape—Beatrix from her abusive ringleader, the Colonel from a freshly-made cuckold. Beatrix, feeling the Colonel may have the answers to her problems, pledges to help him catch the criminal he seeks in exchange for passage on his magnificent balloon.

The criminal seeks a precious figurine, The Blue Star Sphinx, but he’s not alone. The Sphinx’s immense value has also drawn the attention of the world’s most deadly treasure hunters. A murder in Antwerp begins a path of mystery that leads all the way to the most isolated island on Earth.”

Here is more information about The Colonel and the Bee:

Author’s Website

Author’s Instagram

Amazon Link

Good Reads

 

 

 

 

We Interrupt This Blog for This Special and Important Announcement

 

Josie Jaffrey resides in Oxford, England with her husband and two cats. She is a lawyer, focusing on intellectual property and commercial property. A lover of books, Jaffrey runs a video book review club, The Gin Book Club, through her website.

You can now add author to Jaffrey’s impressive credits with the release of her book The Gilded King-Sovereign: Book, the first in an installment of a three-part series. FYI: The Solis Invicti series (a prequel series to the Sovereign series) is available now, along with other books by Jaffrey.

Here is a brief description of The Gilded King:

“In the Blue, the world’s last city, all is not well. Julia is stuck within its walls. She serves the nobility from a distance until she meets Lucas, a boy who believes in fairytales that Julia’s world can’t accommodate. The Blue is her prison, not her castle, and she’d escape into the trees if she didn’t know that contamination and death awaited humanity outside. But not everyone in the Blue is human, and not everyone can be contained. Beyond the city’s boundaries, in the wild forests of the Red, Cameron has precious little humanity left to lose. As he searches for a lost queen, he finds an enemy rising that he thought long dead. An enemy that the humans have forgotten how to fight. One way or another, the walls of the Blue are going to come down. The only question is what side you’ll be on when they do.”

Here is more information about The Gilded King.

Book Info
Author: Josie Jaffrey
Cover Art: Martin Beckett Art
Publisher: Self-published
Page Count: 292
Word Count: 100,000
ASIN (Amazon): B07D3BZGR6
ISBN (Print): 978-1719204866
Release Date: 25 June 2018
Rating: Young Adult
Series: Sovereign
Series number: Book 1
Books in series: 3
Genre: Dystopian, Young Adult, Fantasy

Important Links
Author’s Website
Amazon
Good Reads

For more information please contact Josie Jaffrey at josiejaffrey@gmail.com

On the Books: An Interview With Elizabeth Jahns

For quite a long time I have been very fortunate to have book-related professionals reach out to me to read and review various books among other things. These people have inspired me to start a new series called “On the Books,” a Q & A feature with authors, publicists, editors, publishers, interns among others to tell me about their experiences in the book biz. My first interview is with Elizabeth Jahns, who interned with Beacon Publishing Group. Ms. Jahns was instrumental in getting my interview with Kip Addotta. She impressed me with her professionalism and enthusiasm and I thought she would make for a good interview.

First, can I get some background information on your college education, major and work history.

I attended Sarah Lawrence College and received a Bachelor of Arts degree, concentrating in English and Creative Writing. Ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted to work with words. However, when I got to college, I wanted to explore different subjects and see what else was out there, just to make sure that books/writing was really what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing, since I’d never really done anything else. I considered majoring in Political Science, in Philosophy, and even (very briefly) going Pre-Med. What I wanted to do, above all, was make the world a better place. Becoming a writer or a literary agent seemed a trivial thing in comparison to following the path of, say, Mother Teresa. I completed internships with Student World Assembly (a now defunct nonprofit whose main goal was to raise global awareness regarding human rights issues and to get college students involved in the process) and the Mary J. Blige Center for Women (a center in Yonkers, NY that offers programs for women that empower them to pursue personal goals and become self-sufficient). However, after a couple years of this, I realized that what I truly wanted to do was work with words, either by writing or in the publishing industry, or both, and that I would strive to make the world a better place by whatever means were available to me through those channels.

After college, my husband and I moved to Columbia, Missouri, where I got a job as a barista and wrote during my free time. I am currently working as a Financial Associate at a bank here in Columbia. We are planning to relocate to Kansas City within the next few months, where I believe that more publishing opportunities will be available to me.

How did you get your internship and why Beacon? What were your duties? Describe a typical day. What challenges did you face and what was the best thing your internship? What advice would you give to other interns?

This is the very first publishing internship I’ve done. I had been searching for a remote internship on Indeed.com, as I was eager to gain experience in publishing and build my skill set, and I saw that Beacon Publishing Group had posted a position that would allow me to do just that. My duties so far have been to query book bloggers and reviewers who may be interested in reviewing our recent publications and/or interviewing our authors. Since I am completing this internship remotely, I can’t really say what a typical day looks like. Usually, I’m sitting at my laptop sending out these queries on my lunch hour at work or after I get home in the evening.

The best thing about my internship has been the experience I’ve gained by seeing how a small publishing house gets their publications in the public eye. Media coverage and bestsellers don’t just happen; a lot of work goes into it behind the scenes.

As far as pieces of advice for other interns, I have two that I think are important. Number one: do your best. This may sound trite, but it is something that will set you apart from others. If you are consistently pleasant and upbeat, while delivering impeccable work that you’ve obviously spent valuable time working on, you are going to catch someone’s eye. Number two: keep in touch with your internship supervisor(s) after the internship is over. Add them on LinkedIn and other social media, and regularly like/comment on their posts. Send them articles that you think they would enjoy. Keep on their radar. Building relationships like this is crucial in any industry. No one can get to the top alone.

 What are your future plans?

My future plans are to move with my husband to Kansas City within the next few months, where I hope that I’ll find more opportunities to pursue a career in publishing. I want to continue gaining experience by completing remote internships, eventually transitioning to paid online work, such as freelance writing. I would love to get back to New York City at some point, although this is more of a long-term goal right now.

Favorite books and why?

My two favorite books in the world are The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I read them over and over again. The sense of disillusionment and loss that permeates The Great Gatsby is something that I relate to more and more as I grow older. I don’t mean that that’s all my life is–definitely not! But those are sensations that I think many people feel at some point in their lives. The characters in the novel are also larger than life (as were F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald themselves), which is why I think it has translated so well into film, and which is something that I enjoy in general. My friends would not hesitate to describe me as “extra,” an adjective that I proudly embrace, so it’s not surprising that this is the kind of novel toward which I gravitate.

As for The Bell Jar. When I first read it in high school, I couldn’t believe that Sylvia Plath, a woman who had died over a quarter century before my birth, had somehow reached into my consciousness and plucked out these secret feelings and thoughts that I thought were just mine. It was a realization that I wasn’t alone in my particular darkness. (Like Plath, I also dropped out of college temporarily due to my declining mental health.) Each time I read it, I feel the same way. I’m comforted by the fact that I’m not imagining this patriarchal oppression (even now, 55 years after the novel’s original publication), and by the fact that another female head has housed these same dark and self-destructive thoughts. And, most of all, I’m consoled by the fact that this well-educated, twenty-something young protagonist, with whom I seem to have a lot in common, also struggled with anxiety and doubt on her journey toward selfhood and fulfillment.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you so much for your thoughtful questions!

 

 

 

We Interrupt This Blog for This Special Announcement

Meet Tal Gur. He is truly a 21^st Century Renaissance man. Gur is a blogger, entrepreneur and adventurous spirit whose curiosity inspires him to travel all over the globe. Now you can add author to Gur’s accomplishments with the release of his book The Art of Fully Living: 1Man, 10 Years, 100 Life Goals.

The of Art Fully Living can be summed up in this singular passage:

“In this stirring book, author, blogger and lifestyle entrepreneur, Tal Gur offers his own transformational journey as an inspiring example and practical guide to implementing the art of fully living to its fullest potential. You’ll learn how to actualize your potential by forging all aspects of your life through the process built into your life goals. “

Gur’s idea for his journey, and later this book, was motivated by a late night conversation with his friends and our idea of “success” in the modern age. Never shy to accept a daunting challenge, Gur decided he would accomplish 100 of his life goals in 10 years focusing on things like fitness, love, adventure, wealth, creativity, relationships and so much more. Among Gur’s goals included paying off his student loans, completing the New Zealand Ironman challenge, and learning ancient Thai martial arts. He also learned how to surf and dance the salsa.

Now Gur wants to encourage readers to focus on their own goals and how to recognize and achieve them. The Art of Fully Living is a blueprint on how to

• Finding your calling.
• Defining your life goals.
• Discovering how to leverage your strengths to achieve your dreams.
• knowing what it means to be truly free.
• How to be fulfilled by the path you have chosen to take from this point on.

To learn for about The Art of Fully Living, please click on the following links:

Author’s Website: FullyLived

To buy buy links: The Art of Fully Living

Author bio: Tal Gur, a blogger, entrepreneur, and devoted adventurer, has spent a decade pursuing 100 major goals around the globe. But his journey had its challenges. Like most people, he faced crippling self-doubt and struggled for a sense of purpose. Behind every difficulty he discovered a life-changing gift, and now he’s passing what he learned onto others. Find out more about Tal and his 100 life goals project at www.FullyLived.com

 

 

For Immediate Release! ***Update***

Writers are amazing people. And as a passionate reader and lover of books, I can’t thank writers enough  for enriching my life.

In the past six months so many writers, authors, editors, publishers and publicists have reached out to me to read and review all kinds of books, many of which you have read at here at The Book Self ( thanks to Good Reads, various Social Media and my presence on Book Blogger List for leading these bookish types to my blog).

I still have quite a few books to read and review-a bounty of riches! So I can’t possibly get to all book review requests. (Plus there is my off-line life I need to handle).

So I’m announcing a way to help writers market and promote their work. If interested please do the following:

• 1) Please send me a brief synopsis of a book you’d like to promote (3-5 paragraphs) with any important links (website, social media, Amazon, IndieBound, etc.)
• 2) Send to the email thebookself@yahoo.com with Book Marketing/Publicity in the subject line
• 3) If possible please send me a copy of the book jacket, a photo of yourself and a brief bio about you and your writing history.

And here is a great list of international book fairs to help you publicize your books (thanks to Reem from https://www.kotobee.com/blog/ for alerting me of this list)

International Book Fairs 2019

You might also want to order TC Michael’s Book Short Literature Pro Market 2019 to your writing library

Once again, thank you for reaching out to me regarding your books. I will do my best to get your entries posted at The Book Self.

Warmest regards,

Bookish Jen

***Due to some increased activity in my life, I can do only around 1-2 marketing and publicity pieces per month. As for book reviews, I prefer to read books in old school form and have them mailed to me via the post office.***

 

 

Book Review: We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement by Andi Zeisler

I’ve always considered myself a feminist, ever since I was a little girl. I’ve seen feminism evolve over time, having most of my feminism honed by the third wave of feminism when my fellow Generation X-ers began to make their mark in the early 1990s. This was a time of Riot Grrrl, ‘zines, girls picking up instruments and kicking out the jams in bands like Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy and Bikini Kill. Young women read books like Backlash and The Beauty Myth, and realized when it came to feminism, we still had a lot of work to do. A new teen magazine called Sassy celebrated feminism and soon two other magazines, both which can be found at any major bookstore in 2016, emerged. One magazine named Bust and the other named Bitch: A Feminist Response to Pop Culture.

And that brings us to Andi Zeisler’s latest book We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement. Zeisler is a founding member of Bitch. And boy (um, grrrrl) does she have a lot to say about the current state of feminism, and how it has evolved and devolved in the last twenty-odd years.

Yes, women today definitely have more rights than they had as little as a hundred years ago. We can vote, run for office, get an education, run a company, compete in a sport, get credit in our own names, make reproductive choices and so many other things our foremothers couldn’t even comprehend. But for all the rights feminism has gained, these hard won rights are being contested and chipped away on a daily basis, one being our access to proper reproductive health services. And still others scoff over our concerns regarding rape, sexual harassment, equal pay for equal work, and domestic violence. To make sure we don’t lose these rights we have a lot of nitty-gritty work to do, which includes everything from contacting our political representatives to raising funds for our favorite female-friendly causes.

And believe me, none of this is easy, fun or pretty. It’s a lot of hard work and can be very frustrating. So why worry about doing any of hard work of feminism when we can justify our feminist street cred by using market place feminism to become empowered women? And we become empowered not by voting or writing an op-ed in favor of feminism, but by purchasing the right yogurt, underpants or following celebrities via social media, many who seem to use feminism as a way to further publicize their “brand.”

We Were Feminists Once is divided into two wonderfully written and well-researched parts. Part One, The New Embrace, focuses on how feminism is seen through the lens of Hollywood, celebrity worship, the products we buy, and various forms of pop culture. Part Two, The Same Old Normal, revisits the waves of feminism and how all this market place empowerment is harming women in the long run even though it’s supposed to make feminism look fun and cool because apparently wearing a pair of panties with the word Feminist on them is more empowering than maintaining my access to birth control.

Still, Zeisler is quick to point out, marketplace feminism isn’t exactly something new. It’s been around since the advent of Madison Avenue and furthered sharpened by unfettered capitalism and neo-liberal thinking. Several decades ago market place feminism was expressed by Virginia Slim cigarettes telling us “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby” and perfume ads for Charlie and Enjoli. Today we have Dove soap’s “Real Beauty” ad campaigns, Sheryl Sandberg’s admonishments to “Lean-In” and Beyoncé, Emma Watson and Lena Dunham’s embracing feminism as the thing all the cool girls are doing,. Yea, it’s great so many celebrities identify as feminists, but feminism goes much deeper than the fame, wealth and privilege these ladies all share. Feminism also encompasses the intricacies of race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation none of which market place feminism examines.

Zeisler writes in a way that is audience-friendly, but not dumbed down. She writes in a way that is never preachy but explains in depth the harm of market place feminism and how it impedes the actual hard work of feminism. Zeisler doesn’t offer any clear cut solutions but recognizing there is a problem is a first step, and I’m sure I’m not the only person who read this book and said, “I thought I was the only one bothered by market place feminism!”

In the end We Were Feminists Once fully exposes how marketplace feminism is nothing but “you go, girl” advertisements, a collection of hashtags and sound bites, celebrity worship, pop culture slim pickings and more power at the cash register than at the voting booth. Feminism, women and society as a whole deserve so much more.

Book Review: Trust Me, PR is Dead by Robert Phillips

PR is Dead; long live PR could be an alternative title to Robert Phillips’ book. Trust Me, PR is Dead is a book I felt compelled to read because I have spent some time in the trenches of public relations. But as someone who has also done some time in the journalistic trenches, I also look at PR with some very jaded baby blues.

And apparently Phillips is also a bit jaded when it comes to PR because he has been a PR professional for most of his working life, most notably with the PR powerhouse, Edelman. He knows the world of PR—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Now, you might be thinking, “Wait a minute! Phillips worked in PR and is now telling us PR is dead? Is he biting the hand that fed him (and fed him very well)? Or has he learned a few things on his PR journey and now realizes PR is dead (or at least on life support), and seriously needs to change…or else?”

Well, after reading Trust Me, PR is Dead, I can safely say Phillips’ is definitely in the latter camp; and his book is a treasure trove on how PR has made major missteps and how it can change in a time where people are developing finely tuned BS detectors when it comes to media, politics, business and entertainment.

In other words, PR peeps—You can’t crap on a cone and expect people to call it ice cream.

In Trust Me, PR is Dead each chapter is dedicated on how  PR has to change as society changes, using key components of evidence such as quotes from PR professionals, business leaders, advertisements, journalists, social media and various PR tools of the trade like press releases, professional profiles and interviews. Some of the names of various parties Phillips uses in this book have been redacted using heavy black bars. Phillips probably did this to protect the innocent and not-so-innocent. And perhaps to cover his bum so he doesn’t get pulled into court for possible “libel” charges.

For the longest time PR has been about making an organization look good to outside parties. In theory, this sounds good so—put your best foot forward, stamp out a great impression, and make the most of what you got. We often do this as individuals when we do our very own personal PR, right? But often organizations slip up. Instead of traditional PR owning up and taking responsibility for an organization’s missteps and misdeeds, some which are harmful and often lead to death and destruction, PR ignores them or tries to cover them up with a lot of PR glitter and gloss. This glitter and gloss does nothing to rectify the situation. And this is in a time where the public is becoming more educated on organizational BS (or at least should) and wants solutions and carefully chosen actions, not meaningless words.

Today’s PR professionals must realize the most important component in PR is trust. The public wants to trust a company or organization and the products and/or services they provide. Not only does the public require trust, the public also requires authenticity, engagement and honesty. Or what Phillips calls public leadership.

Now how have we come to this point? Simple, in the past few years we have experienced an economic meltdown, the worst since the Great Depression, one that still affects us today. We have dealt with Wall Street greed, corporate malfeasance in the forms of Lehman Brothers, Worldcom and Enron, political misbehavior and other forms of detestable conduct. People are fed up! And many of them are learning about this not just through traditional media, but also through social and alternative media and good old-fashioned word-of-mouth.

To rectify this PR professionals must now employ several key strategies to gain the public’s trust. Among them include the following.

1) Embrace data and specialists
2) Focus on different skillsets and talents to better serve clients and the public
3) Look at the general public as citizens, not merely as consumers
4) Strive for excellence and eschew bureaucracy
5) Advertising is one thing; it is not the whole thing

Trust Me, PR is dead is well-written in an audience-friendly way that even non-PR types will find valuable. I hope it finds a wide audience and is embraced in a time when politics, media, business, entertainment, sports, charities and other organizations need to keep it real. Believe me, we as a society not only want this; we demand it!

I have to give a shout out to Jeff Abraham, a wonderful PR professional from Jonas PR. Jeff has been instrumental in sending me galleys and advanced copies of books for me to review including In the Company of Legends by award-winning documentary filmmakers Joan Kramer and David Heeley and Kelly Carlin’s memoir A Carlin Home Companion-Life With George. Jeff’s work has always been professional and without hype. He respects my work and never pressures me to write positive reviews. He truly values my input. Jeff is a total mensch and is what PR should be. Thanks Jeff!