Gustave Whitehead: First in Flight, by Susan O’Dwyer Brinchman (Apex Educational Media, La Mesa, CA, 2015, 432 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

July 23, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) - I was absolutely astounded and flabbergasted after reading Susan Brinchman’s Gustave Whitehead: First in Flight, for all my life and throughout elementary school and into college I had been taught that the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were the pioneers of modern aviation. In this fascinating and well documented and researched book, Brinchman states: “Paul Jackson, Editor-in-Chief of the century-old Jane’s All the World Aircraft (2013), often referred to as ‘the bible of aviation history’, announced in its Centennial Issue, in March, 2013, that Whitehead was ‘first to fly’, ahead of the Wrights, and was the inventor of the airplane, based on the mountainous evidence accumulated over the previous eight decades.”

        "47th NAACP Image Award Nominee in Literature"

The Audacious Woman: Blaze Your Own Path To Prosperity, by Pamela Y. Toussaint, MBA (Courageous Women Publications, 2015, 118 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

“Looking and acting like a leader depends on getting three things right, a trio we refer to as Appearance, Communication, and Gravitas. Individuals who nail each of these elements exude true executive presence.”

~ “Executive Presence” By the Center for Talent Innovation

July 8, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) - Pamela Y. Toussaint, MBA, the president and founder of Ultimate Image Coach, has authored with her daughter, Tamara Toussaint, JD, the quintessential book on women’s empowerment; The Audacious Woman: Blaze Your Own Path To Prosperity. A personal branding consultant, corporate trainer, author, and keynote speaker, Toussaint came from humble beginnings to write this well researched and documented book. Born and raised in a small village in Jamaica with three sisters and brother, her mother was widowed when Pamela was 10 years old. Against all odds, motivated by the values her mother instilled, Toussaint achieved success as a corporate executive and community leader in the United States. She took an audacious step to re-write her life’s story, and re-branded herself as The Ultimate Image Coach. Click to view.

Trails To The Stream: Poetry and Inspiration for Everyday Living, by Priscilla Koranteng (Poised Publishing LLC, 2014, 136 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

July 4, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) - Priscilla Koranteng, author of two earlier books reviewed by this writer in the East County Magazine; Janju: The Voice of One Girl and Janju: A Village Girl in a City World, and the owner and publisher of Poised Publishing LLC, as well as an HR consulting firm; Poised HR Solutions LLC, has written a moving and insightful book on poetry: Trails To The Stream: Poetry And Inspiration For Everyday Living.

By Mimi Pollack

June 25, 2015 (San Diego)--There are two camps in the world: dog lovers and cat lovers. However, there are many, who like me, love and appreciate both. The popularity of cats has grown and today more households have cats, and they have questions about their cats.

Cats can be such mysterious creatures! We wonder what they are thinking when they stare at us. To help clear up this mystery, Gary Weitzman, president of the San Diego Humane Society, and Aline Alexander Newman have co-authored an informative book  called How to Speak Cat.

Writing The Killer Treatment: Selling Your Story Without A Script, by Michael Halperin, (Michael Wiese Productions, Studio City, CA, 2002, 171 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

May 8, 2015 (San Diego's East County) - Who better to write a book about screenwriting and the movie and television industry, than Michael Halperin? He has been called “the foremost authority on screenwriting in America.” Halperin has written for television, screen, and stage, and has published both fiction and non-fiction books. Halperin’s Writing the Killer Treatment: Selling your Story without a Script, sets the standard for advice and instruction in modern storytelling for those aspiring to be screenwriters.

The Tempting: Seducing The Nephilim, by D.M. Pratt (BroadLit, Sherman Oaks, CA, 2015, 345 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

The children of the supernatural beings who had married these women became famous heroes and warriors. They were called Nephilim and lived on the earth at that time and even later.

• Genesis 6:4 – Contemporary English Version

April 8, 2015 (San Diego's East County) - This gripping and riveting work of fiction by renowned author D.M. Pratt, The Tempting: Seducing The Nephilim, has the tone and theme of this well-written book set in the dedication of the book, as the author states: “And to all the women who have been taught to want the happily-ever-after dream, but courageous enough to face reality and still be willing to fight for true love”, and in the very first paragraph in the first chapter, when she states; “That dance led to the greatest seduction she had ever experienced in her life and ended with an orgasm so intense she was told she arched back and hit her head hard enough to give herself a concussion – which left her unconscious and in coma for over a year.” Pratt actually admits jokingly and with a smile, in a YouTube video: “There is a lot of sex in this story, I guess I have to get myself a boyfriend!” The author's attached BIO says a lot about this book and the author here.

Love Marathon (“La marathon del amor”), by Nuria Garcia Arteaga (Smashwords, 2013)

Book Review by Dennis Moore

‘A writer does not learn how to write … a writer is born to tell stories’

March 15, 2015 (San Diego's East County) - Nuria Garcia Arteaga, this accomplished author and musician from Lima, Peru, now living in The Netherlands, has written and compiled a work of art that explores romance and intimacy; Love Marathon (“La maraton del amor”). Love Marathon is a trilogy that follows the lives of three women, Malucha, Maniro and Magnolia. The three women hail from disparate socioeconomic backgrounds and exemplify the novel’s epigraph: “Latin American women are like their nations, some self-destruct, others are destroyed and a few survive.” This trilogy of stories in Love Marathon; Between Drizzle and Hate, Menkori and Of Sun and Moon, captures the essence of human endeavor and frailty. The book is written in English and Spanish. Click to view video.

Old Magic - Lives of The Desert Shamans  - Nicholas Clapp (Sunbelt Publications, Inc., 2015-209 pages).

Book Review by Jacqueline Carr

February 17, 2015 (San Diego's East County) - The title of this book piqued my interest.  I was engaged from the start and wanted to know who the Shamans were and what sort of magic they performed.  I immediately looked up the meaning of the word Shaman, and in accordance with the Oxford English Dictionary - a Shaman, is a priest or priest-doctor among various northern people of Asia—applied by extension to similar personages in other parts, esp. a medicine-man of some of the north-western American Indians.

NAKED ADDICTION – CAITLIN ROTHER (Wildblue Press, Evergreen, Colorado, 2014, 415 pages).

Book Review by Jacqueline Carr

January 27, 2015 (San Diego's East County) - The story takes place in the wealthy La Jolla California area.  It’s a story that holds your interest from start to finish.  Ms Rother is a superb story teller who writes fluidly, and vividly.  She has a canny way of introducing her characters into the story line so one gets a vivid description of the person. The use of imagery helps the reader relate to the role each character plays in the story.

A Selected Few Just For You, by Jacqueline Carr (Jacqueline Carr, Middleton, DE, 2014, 178 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

“Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.”  - Buddha -

January 22, 2015 (San Diego's East County) - Jacqueline Carr, an author and Adjunct Instructor at York College (CUNY), and literary enthusiast, has written a novel which is an expression of her innermost thoughts and observations; A Selected Few Just For You. One that stands out to me is that of Ralph Waldo Emerson, which states:

Akram, by Akram Arastehjoo (The Scriptory, Stacy Thunes Krieger, Menlo Park, California, 2014, 115 pages).

Screenplay Review by Dennis Moore

January 7, 2015 (San Diego's East County) - Akram Arastehjoo, a descendant of the great Persian Empire, which we now know as Iran, tells her own and personal family story that encapsulates the long and illustrious history of kings and queens, in a screenplay written by Stacy Thunes Krieger, Akram. The author actually derives her name from the Holy Quran; meaning generosity, or “most generous.” This is pointed out by Krieger in this well-written and warm story.  Arastehjoo is unabashed in her pride for everything that is Persian, and rightfully so. It comes across in my interview of the author and throughout the story. I have been made aware that Iran actually converted from the original name of Persia to Iran in 1935, but it did take some getting used to. Many seem to prefer that bygone era of Persia, and all it stood for, including the iconic Darius the Great.

What Mama Said, by Gladys Seedorf (Seedorf Publishing, Battle Creek, Michigan, 2013, 91 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

December 7, 2014 (San Diego's East County) - In dedicating this book to her mother, Willie Jewel Peterson, first time author Gladys Seedorf writes a heartfelt memoir that will resonate with many readers; What Mama Said. It certainly resonates with me, as it brings about poignant reminders and experiences I had with my own mother. Having interviewed the author over the phone, also contributed to the affinity that I have for Seedorf’s writing style.

The Healing Shower, by Eloise Laws (Knowledge Power Books, Valencia, California, 2012, 131 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

When all the odds say there’s no chance,

Amidst the final dance,

I’ll be your comfort through your pain

I’ll be your shelter in the rain.

• Stevie Wonder

Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter, musician, political           activist and philanthropist.

November 13, 2014 (San Diego's East County) - Eloise Laws, an award-winning vocalist, Tony-nominated actress, author, and breast cancer survivor – in her debut book The Healing Shower, shares her personal journey, surviving the “ups and downs’ of breast cancer. Inspired by the outpouring of love and support she received from family and friends, prompted her to write this thought provoking and deeply moving book. In this thoughtful and well-written book are all the tools one who is suffering from a life-threatening illness will need as a guide when considering a “Healing Shower” before or possibly returning home from surgery. As East County’s Jamie Reno attested to in his book Hope Begins in the Dark, which this writer also had the honor of writing a review of in the East County Magazine, cancer can be a never ending battle. San Diego City Councilwoman Marti Emerald is also fighting this debilitating disease of cancer.

Sticks and Stones and Broken Bones: What a Charmed Life I Lead, by Linda Lee King (Abbott Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 2014, 269 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

October 17, 2014 (San Diego)--Linda Lee King, a recovering Catholic, news reporter, and publisher of a weekly newspaper, the Free Press News, who has struggled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) since childhood, encapsulates that and all her experiences in a riveting book, Sticks and Stones and Broken Bones: What a Charmed Life I Lead. Growing up in 1950s America where children did not speak until spoken to and when the Catholic Church concealed many occurrences of inappropriate behavior, one moment in her young life caused trauma that would haunt her into adulthood. That sets the tone for this well-written book.

100+ NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD, by KB Schaller (Peppertree Press, LLC., 2014, Sarasota, Florida, 213 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

“Be ashamed to die before you have Won some battle for humanity.”

 - Horace Mann (1796-1859), spoken to a college graduation class  a few weeks before his death.

September 26, 2014 (San Diego's East County)--Generally when we think of Native American women and their contributions to history and society, Pocahantas and Sacagawea come to mind. That is, until this groundbreaking book by Cherokee/Seminole heritage author KB Schaller, M.Ed., 100+ Native American Women Who Changed The World. Warriors, educators, an aerospace pioneer, a Catholic saint…100+ Native American Women Who Changed the World is a stellar collection of historical and contemporary women of indigenous heritage who have contributed to the survival and success of their families, communities – and the United States of America. This book is destined to be in classrooms throughout the country.