Arms From the Sea by Rich Shapero

   Every year the city of Los Angeles, in the state of California, holds a Book Festival where publishers and self publishers display their books to the public.

   I have a few to review. They are what would be known as self published stories. As a whole, the area of self publication is fine when one author decides his point of view must be released on the public, and he or she is willing to pay-- sometimes dearly-- for the privilege of being out in the market place.

   This first book is in the genre of science fiction. It is set in the future. 

    It opens with an act of defiance. In this city of salt a young man defiles a monument. In order not to be captured he decides to die rather than be caught and imprisoned. So he decides to bite the capsule rather than to  allow the state to capture and terminate him.   This action  moves him from one state of existence to another.

   He is not dead. Or is he? He has passed from one world to another. Will he manage to fit in?

   And when he wants to redeem the world he came from, will he succeed? Can he change it?

   The book ends with him in the hospital. He has been captured. For his crime he has lost his hand.

    I see this as science fiction in the characters used. They are not all human. There are spirits also. In this sense I see it as science fiction but not quite fantasy.

    The author’s use of the parameters of the genre seem, to me, to be handled poorly. There is so much he could have done, but his message—the purpose for his prose, got in the way. He seems to want to say dreams can have the power to change reality.

   He uses the symbol of the sea as the genesis of all dreams and the force of change.

   Does he succeed in proving his thesis, whatever that is?

   I don’t think do.  Each fiction story must have a reason for existence. This book, in my opinion, only could have seen the light of existence because he author found a vanity press to take his money and publish it.

    To contact the author you can go to richshapero.com.

Talking With God by Adam Weber

   

   As a Christian we are told we have access to God. This means we can talk to Him. When we do this it is called prayer.

   Most of us don’t do it properly. Not that there are necessarily better or best ways to do it. There are just easier ways to do it.

   Weber suggests a simple answer. Look on it as talking to a friend.

Don’t make a big deal about the conversation. Don’t be like a song leader whom I am aware of who is always saying Lord and God and Father every other sentence when she leads prayer in service. You wouldn’t do that to your friend, so why do it with God?

   There is also no formula of words or sentence structure, Weber seems to point out.

   This presentation is written in a chatty way and is enjoyable to relax with.

   The structure is fifteen chapters divided into four sections which include how to pray and the way to pray. As noted above it is not hard to digest.

   Weber is a pastor at a church that has many campuses. He has been blessed with the ability to handle this subject in a way we can read it and come away with insights. He puts the cookies on the bottom shelf, so to speak.

   I highly recommend it as a primer and suggest it be made available for small groups.

   This book was sent to me gratis by Blogging for Books for the purpose of a review and inclusion in a book blog. It is published by WaterBrook and retails for $19.99.

   Adam Weber can be reached at adamweber.com.

Unlock Your Dream by Philip Wagner

   Everyone has a dream. There is no one who hasn’t a dream. We all strive for something.

   As a child it may be to be like our dad. We may wish to someday help others. Or make enough money to be able to finance a big project.

   We soon realize following a dream is hard work. Bur dreams are not unique to us. Everyone has one and that one dream may lead to another.

   Dreamers need others. We are not meant to dream in solitude. Our dreams for significance need someone else to cheer you on- to tell you you can make it.

   You don’t need someone to dowse your dream or add fear. The fear of duplicating the past is a great dream killer. But even with fear you need to know it cannot disqualify your dream.

   This book offers you encouragement. Each one of us has a purpose—an assignment to complete. Wagner acts as a cheerleader if you need one. But mostly, Wagner helps the reader to be able to help others make the dream they have a reality.

   It is written for the Christian who needs encouragement to keep on striving. But the general public would enjoy it also.

   This book was sent to me gratis by bloggingforbooks.com for the purpose of reviewing and posting to my book blog. No obligation was stated to slant the review. The conclusions reached are those of the reviewer and not necessarily those of the publisher.

   The book is published by Waterbrook and sells for $19.99

The Inkblots by Damion Searls

   In the field of psychology there is the testing. I am talking about Myers-Briggs, MMPI, Free Association, and the Inkblots also known as Rorschach.

    All have meaning and all have a purpose. Freud emphasized words and his overlay was sexual repression which was understandable seeing how Freud came from the Victorian period. Another practicing psychologist who wanted to help people was Carl Jung who based his theories on association. And then we have Hermann Rorschach who was interested in perceptions. He was looking to read people.

   He developed what became known as Ink Blots. The ink blots are holistic. Each Inkblot has a meaning.

   Just who was this Hermann Rorschach and how were the ten Inkblots developed and standardized?

 It is an interesting story and this book gives you the up to date findings.

   You start out this book with the biography. Then you move into the fate of the ink blots after the death of Rorschach up to the present day.

    It is an easy to read book and should be of interest to students of psychology and maybe people interested in the Inkblots.

   I enjoyed this book. Having been sent this book gratis from Bloggingforbooks.org to be reviewed I was not required to give a positive review in order to maintain the relationship. All I was required to do was read it and review it.

   It retails for $28.00.

The Wrong Side of GoodBye by Michael Connelly

  

   For all of us Harry Bosch lovers this is another adventure we have been waiting for. No matter how long it is between publishing, it seems to take at least a year or more from the time it is released to the agent who scouts out the book to publication.

   Connelly seems to alternate between Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer in his output. I find the Lincoln Lawyer to be not as good as his Bosch series, although they are related characters. Connelly presents them as half brothers.

   You will find the Lincoln Lawyer in this story helping Bosch with one of his cases.

As in most good novels there are plots and subplots. The plot has to do with a missing heir. The subplot is a rapist.

   For fans of Bosh you know the novels are chronological. In this one he is pursuing the job of a private investigator. He still is able to use the equipment at the station.

   Asked by a dying billionaire to try to locate a possible offspring who can inherit his estate Bosh runs into opposition. At the same time he must find and stop a rapist who is picking on a certain type of female.

   The ending where the two stories are brought to a conclusion is very satisfying.

   I would recommend this book to all fans of Bosch.