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Book Review: The House Filler

March 10, 2025 1 Comment

2024 NAIWE Literary Fiction Book Winner

 

The House Filler

Author: Tong Ge

Author Tong Ge captures the reader immediately with her first sentence: “I met the man I grew to love and the man I came to hate on the same day.”

Golden Phoenix is a 26-year-old woman living in China. Following the customs of her people for the girls and women, her feet have been bound since she was six, in hopes her beauty will be known through a smaller foot size. Females also were forbidden from receiving a formal education, so Golden Phoenix became a skilled seamstress.

Because of her less-than-ideal foot size, Golden Phoenix is given in marriage to a widower 20 years older than her as a house filler. The author goes into extreme detail about the process of being married off to include the events leading up to the marriage and the celebration to educate and engage the reader, who likely doesn’t know what was typical in 20th-century China.

While Golden Phoenix has inherited a stepson, she desires a son of her own to secure her status. However, her stepson and his wife soon plot against the child.

Written as historical fiction, this book is based on the life of the author’s grandmother, creating a personal relationship between the story and the reader. The language the author uses draws the reader into the story and holds the reader there to feel sympathy for Golden Phoenix and care about the hardships she experiences.

The death of Golden Pheonix’s husband leads to challenges in supporting their five children, and she is forced to give her twin sons to the Red Army. War continues between the Communists and the Nationalists, and Golden Phoenix sees her family ripped apart and a son sent to prison to await execution.

Congratulations, Tong Ge’s The House Filler for being a NAIWE 2024 Book Award winner!

Categories: Book Award Winners, Book Reviews

Book Review: Immune Heroes

February 10, 2025 Post a comment

2024 NAIWE Children’s Book Winner

 

Immune Heroes

Author: Namita Gandhi

Children are naturally very curious creatures, and they usually have many questions. Children often enjoy exploring and learning. And most small children enjoy learning about and discovering their bodies.

Namita Gandhi’s latest book, Immune Heroes, helps kids learn what happens inside their bodies when they fall and get an “ouchie.”

In the book, all of the cells have names that play on their technical names but are also much easier for children to say and remember. For example, Captain T, the helper thymus cell or T cell, leads the team, enlisting the help of the necessary cells to protect the body from the enemy bacteria.

The book describes the entire process of how the body protects itself from bacteria and which cells are called on to perform certain duties. The images in the book aid children in visualizing what they may have read about in textbooks and encourage children to enjoy exploring science.

Immune Heroes brings out the fun in learning with children!

Congratulations, Namita Ganghi’s Immune Heroes for being a NAIWE 2024 Book Award winner!

Categories: Book Award Winners, Book Reviews

Book Review: Gothic Revival

November 22, 2024 Post a comment

Gothic Revival

Michael Mullin

 

Typically when a person finishes a stage in life, they completely move on. No matter how close they were with friends, oftentimes the friends do not move with them to the next stage in life.

While Chris and Anne married after college, the other three friends of the group went their ways and lost touch with one another. However, years later, Eric offers to fly the four friends out to San Francisco for four days of fun—or rather a remake of an iconic 1816 literary event.

Author Michael Mullin writes the book in the third person but writes each chapter from one of the four friends’ point of view. A chapter is not dedicated to Eric’s point of view until near the end of the book. However, even then, the chapter does not specify Eric, but rather his nickname, Gregor, leading this character to be portrayed as more mysterious.

Because the five friends were all pursuing creative writing degrees in college, Eric proposes they write ghost stories as a tribute to Frankenstein, but the events that come about during the four days make the friends questions events and their surroundings.

Because the friends have a lot of history from when they were in college, there is a lot of backstory in this novel. However, Michael Mullin intersperses it with the current action and uses the backstory to build the characters and make them more well-rounded.

Gothic Revival takes five people from their everyday lives and builds suspense by placing them in a remote lake villa. One of the friends, who is clairvoyant, begins hearing and seeing things. And the housekeeper and her husband seem to know more than they should.

This book will grab your attention and be difficult to put down!

Categories: Book Reviews, Member Benefits

Book Review: Hope Has a Code Nose

October 28, 2024 Post a comment

Hope Has a Cold Nose

Christine Hassing

Many Americans hold true to the values of our country and feel a calling to serve our country in the military. However, this military experience can take its toll on our service people, leading to veteran lives with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Christine Hassing, in her book Hope Has a Cold Nose, shares stories of over 20 military veterans and how their service dogs have helped them cope with PTSD. These amazing dogs have been able to sense the onset of a nightmare and wake the veteran before the emotions take hold.

Many of these stories begin with the veteran sharing why they chose to join the military and their commitment to serving their fellow Americans, their low point in feeling lost and unable to reintegrate into society, and then how working with service dogs have benefited their lives.

In these pages, the author uses these powerful and very insightful stories to show how PTSD can change the entirety of a person’s life and how a trained dog can help heal emotional wounds. This collection of stories gives hope to those suffering from PTSD and their families and friends.

Categories: Book Reviews, Member Benefits

Book Review: In the Time of Madmen

September 30, 2024 Post a comment

In the Time of Madmen

Author: Mark A. Prelas

This is a biographical and autobiographical story, primarily about the author’s parents through their struggles of hiding their true identities of Jewish ancestry.

Mark Prelas begins by describing what life was like during the Great Depression when his mother, Katheryn, who was born in 1921, was growing up. Life was hard — bartering was a regular occurrence and using money was a rare luxury — but it was good. And then at the age of 18, his mother was taken from her home to become a slave laborer in Germany.

The author shares a lot of historical information so the reader can understand what life was like for each of his parents growing up before and during the Great Depression, and then the effect of Germany invading Poland. The author describes each parent’s numerous near-death experiences and then the encounter of his parents meeting one another.

While not written in a narrative format, this journey relays important information about historical events that should be captured in time and in words for others to experience and learn from. This book provides remarkable details that the author was able to obtain before his mother’s passing in 2014.

As a special addition to the book, the author includes family photos and further holocaust resource information. The publication of this book is a wonderful tribute to the author’s parents.

Categories: Book Reviews, Member Benefits

Book Review: Unemployable: How I Hired Myself

August 26, 2024 Post a comment

2023 NAIWE Informational Nonfiction Book Winner

 

Unemployable: How I Hired Myself

Author: Alysia Silberg

People grow into one of two mindsets. One group of people are really good at what they do, and they are also good at following directions. Therefore, they are good at being employees. There is another group of people who have a set of skills and are also good at seeing opportunities. They are independent minded, marching to their own beat.

In Unemployable: How I Hired Myself, the author Alysia Silberg describes her upbringing in the poor and crime-ridden side of Johannesburg, South Africa. Alysia’s wise and creative father, a former Hollywood makeup artist, brought light into her world through his pharmacy and costume store. He would lovingly tell her that she was a gifted seller, that she had a “divine sparkle.”

Even beginning at the young age of five, Alysia Silberg could spot an opportunity. Desiring to purchase a pair of roller skates, she decided to highlight a product her father had in his store and sell it on the sidewalk in front of the shop to earn enough money for the skates. She accomplished this goal, and after purchasing the skates she realized that it wasn’t actually the skates she had wanted. She had had a goal, one that seemed unattainable, and she found an opportunity to help her reach the goal.

At the age of nine, she spotted another opportunity and tried to convince her parents to buy a piece of land between two major cities. Her parents laughed, probably in part because it was an unattainable goal with their poor living situation, but she was so convinced of this opportunity that she went to the bank, seeking a loan. Though she did not get the loan to buy the land, she had been correct, and the piece of property became “one of the most valuable stretches of property in all of South Africa.”

As Alysia Silberg grow up, she continues to struggle with the limited opportunities she is afforded, but that doesn’t stop her. She is always open to seeing opportunities and beginning new business adventures. This outlook on life led her to starting her first business at age 11, and this outlook has continued as she has gone through life and spotted bigger and better opportunities.

This book presents a positive outlook to show that it doesn’t matter where one come from, that it is the person’s mindset and the outlook on life that will take someone on an incredible journey. The challenges and the heartaches don’t matter as well, perhaps they even help to mold the person in their natural bent. This is an inspiring and delightful book that helps to encourage one going through the struggles of an entrepreneurial life. Perseverance and love of the American Dream can be desired no matter where one lives.

Congratulations, Alysia Silberg’s Unemployable: How I Hired Myself for being a NAIWE 2023 Book Award winner!

Categories: Book Award Winners, Book Reviews

Book Review: The Scientist, the Psychic, and the Nut

August 23, 2024 Post a comment

The Scientist, the Psychic, and the Nut

Charlene Bell Dietz

 

A scientist is naturally filled with curiosity and a lot of questions, but when Beth discovers that her recently deceased Aunt Kathleen was her mother, Beth is filled with more questions and heartache about never truly knowing her biological mother, nor who her father was.

The Scientist, the Psychic, and the Nut is filled with suspense, history, and science — all happening simultaneously while Beth and her husband leave Colorado to go on a Caribbean vacation!

To escape the sadness of the loss of her aunt–mother (and honor a dying woman’s advice), Beth books a vacation to rekindle the love she had for her husband. However, Beth also plans to use the trip to look into the history of the area where her aunt–mother lived with her lover (and perhaps Beth’s father) for the last 50 years.

The author, Charlene Bell Dietz, captures the mundane in life while also adding a little bit of mystery to keep readers’ interest. She uses both dialogue and prose to show the bantering of two people who have been married for many years.

A book of love, loss, and change, The Scientist, the Psychic, and the Nut brings about mystery through Beth’s many questions and women’s intuition while her husband’s skepticism and the island residents aloofness keep her grounded in reality — but without any answers.

Categories: Book Reviews, Member Benefits

Book Review: Find Me in the Time Before

July 29, 2024 Post a comment

2023 NAIWE Young Adult Book Winner

 

Find Me in the Time Before

Author: Robin Stevens Payes

In Find Me in the Time Before, the author Robin Stevens Payes has succeeded in the challenge of writing in the language used by teenagers as well as in first person and in present tense—and also finding ways to weave in history lessons!

Being that this is book 4 in the series, the reader may not have read the prior three books, but enough information is shared through the storyline to keep the reader from being lost. Also, the references to previous adventures will intrigue readers to enjoy all of Charley’s time travel books.

Payes keeps the plot in her book very close to real life. Charley wants to experience high school life by attending home coming, while Billy would rather be taking college courses, though his parents won’t let him. Charley and Billy are both highly intelligent students, leading them to have some difficulties in school with their peers, teachers, and parents, as well as even more adventures.

Through their time travel, Charley and Billy visit famous happenings of the past. Payes uses an entertaining plot to bring history to life to educate youth on some important events. To enhance the history, Payes uses images throughout her novel. She includes photos of statues, locations, and famous people that are visited or discussed by Charley and Billy. These photographs allow the reader to better understand what or who Charley and Billy are discussing and seeing.

Because Charley and Billy are highly intelligent, sometimes when they speak about time travel the story can become hard to follow, but the passages are never long, and they reinforce the intelligence of the characters.

Even at 400+ pages, this is a quick and entertaining read, in part because Charley speaks as a typical teenager in fragments and with a lot of hashtags and abbreviations. This informative read would be a nice supplemental book to accompany a student’s history lesson. It is representative of the joy of loving learning—being entertained while learning!

Congratulations, Robin Stevens Payes’s Find Me in the Time Before for being a NAIWE 2023 Book Award winner!

Categories: Book Award Winners, Book Reviews

Book Review: Stolen Diary

June 24, 2024 Post a comment

2023 NAIWE Genre Book Winner

 

Stolen Diary

Author: Kathryn Lane

The author Kathryn Lane has a strong grasp of the English language and a vast knowledge of the life and culture of those living in Mexico. In Stolen Diary, the author periodically includes Spanish words and phrases to remind the reader that the characters are speaking Spanish to one another. To keep the reader from becoming confused by the Spanish language, Kathryn Lane includes a glossary in the beginning of the book with all of the Spanish phrases that will be included.

Kathryn Lane does an excellent job of introducing the characters to the reader. She descriptively describes them and skillfully places them into the storyline. Since this novel has many characters, Kathryn Lane also includes a list of characters at the beginning of the novel.

Kathryn Lane is an accomplished writer who draws upon her own life experiences and then builds upon those to develop exciting and intriguing stories. This book makes the reader aware that every family has secrets and what can happen because of those secrets.

Even with over 250 pages, many readers will not put this novel down without first reading it from cover to cover.

Congratulations, Kathryn Lane’s Stolen Diary for being a NAIWE 2023 Book Award winner!

Categories: Book Award Winners, Book Reviews

Book Review: Changing Tides

May 27, 2024 Post a comment

2023 NAIWE Poetry Book Winner

 

Changing Tides: Poetry of Love, Loss and New Life

Author: Katy Hoover

Life includes love, loss, and new life, but it seems unnatural every time a parent outlives a child. In Changing Tides, a collection of poems shares how one mother can feel love, loss, and joy all at the same time. Through the processing of her grief, Katy Hoover has discovered how these emotions can be connected while not allowing one emotion to overtake another. She learns how some choices and some relationships mean more to her now than they once did.

 

You lost a child

I did not know

I said, “so heartbreaking”

And went on to happier things

Now I know

I look to you

to see that I too, can survive

Grief has a way of sneaking up on the living, and Katy Hoover relays just how it has done so during holidays, at a particular location, or while driving down a road. However, as time has passed, the author has learned to control the grief and allow herself to feel joy in the moment.

In a second

I decided

Not to feed the grief

For today

I will feel it

Not share it

Not be overwhelmed by it

The prologue, titled “Journey,” introduces the voyage of the loss of the author’s son, but as one reads the poems, the reader goes on this ride with Katy Hoover as she works through the grief, learns about her son’s unborn child, and helps his other children to not forget their father.

We would be a family

A few weeks later

Kody’s widow sent an ultrasound image

Of their precious unborn daughter

Zoey

As I looked at this miracle of life

I experienced pure joy

In that moment I knew that I had a choice

To mentally review all the reasons

That made her life bittersweet

Or to choose…..Joy

This collection of poems is a beautiful, comforting compilation to help others process their grief. Many of the poems can be read over and over again and bring a bittersweet hug from one person to another, to help one not feel quite so alone.

Congratulations, Katy Hoover’s Changing Tides: Poetry of Love, Loss and New Life for being a NAIWE 2023 Book Award winner!

Categories: Book Award Winners, Book Reviews

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