Book Review: “Redefining Success: Still Making Mistakes” by W. Brett Wilson

As a Nashville Predators fan, I follow everyone I can that is associated with the team on Twitter. W. Brett Wilson is no exception. He owns 12% of the team and is a pretty avid Twitter user. So when he tweeted about the need for people to review his book, I jumped at the chance.

You should have seen my face when I opened the package when I received it in the mail…2 hardback copies of the book, both signed…but one was inscribed to me!

So. After I geeked out a little, I began to read the book. And boy does he have a story to tell.

Wilson is the co-star of a Canadian television show called ‘Dragon’s Den’ where entrepreneurs come on and pitch their ideas to venture capitalists in order to obtain financial backing. He is also the host of the Canadian reality show ‘Risky Business’. Wilson is one of Canada’s top investment bankers, and he got to that position because of being driven, willing to take risks and taking opportunity when others might now have seen it. But everything was not always rainbows and butterflies. Wilson had his share of hardships, namely those of priorities and putting them in the wrong order. Working seven days a week for long hours eventually took a toll on his marriage, he wasn’t there to see his kids grow up, and he even let his health go. A diagnosis of prostate cancer at the age of 43 started to put these things in perspective.

Redefining Success takes us on Wilson’s path of redefining his life. Taking care of his health and working on those key relationships in his life helped him to see that things as simple as this can be the foundation for real, true success. This is not just a book for entrepreneurs or business people, but for anyone wishing to achieve success and happiness in their own everyday lives.

Throughout this book, which is a mixture of self-help and business, Wilson gives his stories of trial and tribulation along with his path to righting those wrongs and becoming truly successful with what is important in life. You will read about his business journey and the various paths he did (and did not) choose to take.  He also tells much about his struggle with cancer and the things he learned along the way.

There are chunks of wisdom throughout this book that will make you want to re-evaluate things in your own life and if you’re like me, help you get back on the path to your dreams.

 

Book Review: Drums of Autumn (Outlander 4) by Diana Gabaldon

Well here we are again with #4 in the series. I don’t feel like I should have to say it at this point, but I will so as not to have anyone come at me, brah.

There could possibly be spoilers, don’t say I didn’t warn you, blahblahblah.

So. At this point, Claire has been through the stones not once, but twice. She has spanned the globe basically in her pursuit of the ultimate love.

And now, as they are continuing their life in the American Colonies…someone is coming to join Claire that she never would have guessed.

Prompted by an awful discovery that her friend Roger (a historian) has uncovered, Claire’s daughter Brianna does the only thing she knows to do. She puts everything on the line to join her mother in the past and hope that she can change it and the future too.

The further development of both Roger and Brianna are probably the best parts of this book. Getting to know them and seeing them make their own choices, yet end up in the same path as Claire. Young Ian, Jamie’s nephew is someone else we get to know better…he’s on the roller coaster with us through this quest through the uncharted, undeveloped territories of the American Colonies.

Though it’s not as exciting as Voyager, Drums of Autumn is a fantastic continuation of the story that by this point I hope you’ve started to love deeply. More characters are developed and I can’t get enough of them. There are some stressful points, riding that emotional roller coaster that Diana Gabaldon is so good at. It was an easier read than ‘Dragonfly’ for sure but still a little lacking at points.

 

Book Review: Voyager (Outlander #3) by Diana Gabaldon

Oh, hi. I’m glad you’re sticking with me on this.

Outlander Book 3!! Voyager. I’m not gonna lie. I’m maybe 1/2 way through book 5 right now and still Voyager is my FAVORITE of the series (so far).

Blah blah blah, I can’t promise there will be no spoilers, blah blah, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

One of my favorite things about Voyager is the scenery. We go from Scotland all the way out to the West Indies…and it’s a really, really exciting trip.

Which could also be the way to describe the last, oh, 2 decades of Claire’s life. She travels to the 1700’s, gets married, gets preggo, and then comes back to her time and has the baby believing her husband dead. Then she finds out he may still be alive…and her the little hamster in her mind starts running on its wheel.

Ah, love.

So of course when she finds out that he possibly survived the battle of Culloden, Claire has to choose. Her time, or his.

Well let’s all go ahead and guess what she picks.

And so starts this voyage that takes us around the word of emotions as well as continents. So many characters are introduced and developed and I seriously love them all.

Voyager is to this point the most emotional book in the series. Seriously this thing is like a roller coaster, and at times it seriously stressed me out. There are SO MANY twists and turns. There is one part that I seriously don’t want to spoil…and that is the one place where I seriously thought I was going to completely lose it.

Wee Fergus’ character starts to develop more in this book and I love seeing it. And we also have the reappearance of another character we thought to be long gone (ohhhhhh witchy woman…).

I hope you guys make it through Dragonfly in Amber so you can experience the wonder that is Voyager. Seriously…I can tell you I had seriously thought about putting down Dragonfly because I just couldn’t get through it. I’m SO GLAD I powered through.

 

Book Review: Dragon Fly in Amber (Outlander #2) by Diana Gabaldon

If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you made it through my really long, overly excited post about Outlander…the first book in Diana Gabaldon’s EPIC Outlander series. Well…if that’s the case, Congratulations!

And get ready for part 2.

As I mentioned before, I can’t guarantee I won’t ruin anything for you. So…just think about that whilst reading.

OK OK DRAGON FLY IN AMBER!

This book skips around a little in time and at first I was super confused. I think it might have even been worse if I would not have read the back of the book before starting.  But it quickly starts to fall together and it starts making sense.

Claire has been keeping her secrets for TWENTY YEARS when we meet back up with her in Dragonfly in Amber.  She is going back to Scotland and taking her grown daughter, Brianna, with her in order to reveal her secrets. The story you know by now if you’re read Outlander…involving ancient stone circles, love 200 years apart and (perhaps the biggest of all) the truth about James Fraser, Brianna’s actual father.  We then follow Claire through the courts of Paris, encounters with Charles Stuart and trying to save the Highlands from an uprising.

In Dragonfly we begin to see some of the issues that I was sure Claire would be going through. The fact that she’s not in ‘her’ time and is essentially changing history in small ways, and sometimes big. She tells Jack Randall (her husband Franks ancestor), to his face, when and where he will die. But then it doesn’t happen that way. She also meets the woman who was supposed to become his wife.  Therefore, Frank wouldn’t be born. Right? I don’t know all this time travel stuff… O.o

History overall plays a major role in this book. I think more than it did in Outlander. At times the dates and names and everything kind of overwhelmed me as it was taking away from what is important to me…Claire and Jamie.

Ok so for a minute let’s just talk about something that really got on my nerves during this book….Claire’s INSANE amount of alcohol drinking whilst pregnant. I know she was living in the 1700s and maybe they didn’t know. But she herself was from the 1960s…did they not know then that this was a bad idea? It made me so mad sometimes!

There are lots of twists and turns in this book and overall I enjoyed it. It’s not my favorite, but there are a ton of important things that happen so it’s key to the story.

And this entry is less than 1/2 that of the one for Outlander. So. Just think about that too.

 

Book Review: Outlander (Book 1 in the series) by Diana Gabaldon

Sometime in August, a friend of mine posted a picture of the second book in this series on her Facebook and was talking about she couldn’t wait to start it and was so in love with the story and characters. I decided to read the synopsis and decided I had to check it out. I immediately bought the first and second books and have been hooked ever since. It’s now only the beginning of November and I am 200+ pages in to the fifth book in the series.

I also happened to come across a hardback Book Club Edition signed by Diana! I found it at McKays and I can’t even tell you how much I paid for it or you might be completely jealous.

So. If you follow me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook at all you know that I am pretty much obsessed with this series. Therefore, I can honestly not guarantee that I won’t spoil anything for you in these posts. Especially since at the time of writing I am five books in to the series.

So. It is 1945 and Claire Randall (a nurse) is back from the war and reunited with her husband (Frank) on a second honeymoon of sorts.  She touches a boulder in passing (in an ancient stone circle in the British Isles)…and everything changes. She then becomes the ‘Sassenach’, the ‘outlander’ in Scotland…in 1743.

That’s right…1945 becomes 1743. Just. Like. That.

She lands basically in the middle of Scottish Highland clans and their raids and war. And soon enough she meets one James ‘Jamie’ Fraser (prepare to swoon), a ‘…gallant young Scots warrior’ who shows her love in ways she has never known.  And therefore…she becomes torn between her ‘husband’ from 1945 and Jamie. Two men that could not be more different as we will come to know.

Claire and her husband Frank have an interesting relationship due to the fact that they are not married long before they are both sent off to war. At the time that Claire touches the stone, they have spent more of their marriage apart than they have together. You can tell they love each other…but they are kind of still getting used to each other.

The way in which Claire adjusts to her 200 year time change is freakish and calm. She can recall historical details really well, and use what she remembers in order to blend in as best she can with the word around her of which it is clear that she does not truly belong. She brings her medical knowledge and quickly becomes known as somewhat of a healer. She’s landed in a time of distrust between countries and there are endless questions as to where she has come from and who she is ‘working for’ and is able to use that crazy memory of hers to keep herself safe.

Then…things get more complicated and both Claire and her new (ahem) friend Jamie have situations that in the 1700s are best solved by a quick and painless marriage.  They do not really choose each other but it quickly becomes apparent that they each bring something to the table that the other needs. I find their relationship very interesting because what they are going through at the beginning of their marriage (family background questions, life stories, anecdotes, etc) are what most relationships experience in the first weeks of dating.  It is obvious that Jamie really loves her and has an almost insatiable appetite for her intimate affections.

When given the opportunity to return to Frank and the 1940s (after telling Jamie her true story), Claire stays…being overcome by her love and affection for Jamie. By being with him almost constantly through their relationship, I feel like Claire is better able to bond and connect with him than she was able to do with Frank in her own time (due to the war and it’s affect on their relationship).

Speaking of telling Jamie her truth…I think after that she is able to somewhat relax a little and start to be able to use what she knows about the future to help those around her.  I love when she looks Captain Randall (Franks relative) in the eye and tells him when AND WHERE he will die.  That is an example of her using it to hurt someone who deserves it. But…Claire also tells Jamie’s sister what she knows about the Rising and coming famine in order to help them as much as possible. She ultimately has the knowledge AND the power to decide how she wants to use it…or not.

Frank Randall is a historian, and he was very interested in knowing and researching his ancestors.  At the time of Claire’s disappearance, they had been doing just that.  Imagine Claire’s surprise when she was almost immediately thrust into the arms of one of those distant relatives of Frank. And boy would Frank be surprised to find out that this particular relative is not what (or WHO) he thought.

There is a lot…A. LOT. of sex in this book but I don’t really find it to be gratuitous.  The relationships between Frank and Claire and Claire and Jamie are really important to this story.  They ARE the story. Especially in the fostering of Jamie and Claire’s new marriage.  Mostly the scenes are tame which I feel is important. The sex is a part of the story, but it’s not THE story. Therefore I don’t really describe this book as romance.

Even though at the time of reading this I knew there were multiple books in the series, I still found myself not wanting this book to end.  The other books have just as many pages…and I had them all lined up and waiting on my bookshelf waiting.  And I STILL don’t want it to end.

The last part of the book kind of stressed me out. Like…I was worried and upset for some reason.  I also HATED the way it ended.  All of that…and it ends SO abruptly. Yes yes I know there are more books. But. Still.  Much was left unanswered and it doesn’t get answered…but will it in the next book (A Dragonfly in Amber)…?

Hopefully I do not ruin too much…but I also hope that this will make you want to read it. And if you are going to read it…when you buy Outlander go ahead and at least buy A Dragonfly in Amber because you are going to want to pick it up as soon as you’re done.

 

Book Review: The First Husband by Laura Dave

I was given a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for writing a review. I was not paid for my review, nor was I told what to write.

The First Husband is what I would describe as a ‘beach read’ or ‘chick lit’.  This is a book that ‘…explores how we choose our partners and whether we can trust that choice once we’ve made it.’ The nature of commitment is explored as well as marriage and how and why it works.

Annie Adams is our main lady, a lady who has her life right where she wants it with a career that allows her to travel, a great home in L.A. and a live-in boyfriend (Nick). Oh and let’s not forget her dog who is basically her daughter (I can relate…Merle is totally my son).

And then…everything changes. All at once.  Nick, a filmmaker, takes advice of his ‘life coach’ (how Hollywood…) and leaves Annie. Next thing she knows (oh, 3 months later), Annie is marrying a guy she just met and moving across the country to a small town in Massachusetts.

Can she start her life over again? Does she even want to?

This book will tug at your heart and make you feel emotions that you might not want to. Annie is immediately someone I latched on to and felt everything she was going through. Great, quick read.

Also, let’s be real, it’s gonna be a movie. A few years ago it would have been Cameron Diaz or someone of the like. Now I’m seeing Amy Adams or Anne Hathaway.

 

Book Review: Walking the Amazon by Ed Stafford

I was given a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my review. I was not told what to write nor was I paid for writing.

Ed Stafford decided that he wanted to be the first man ever to walk the entire length of the Amazon. That’s…insane. Who just decides that? In any event, he started his journey on the Pacific coast of Peru, then crossed the Andes Mountain range…all in order to find the official source of the Amazon River…so as to literally start his trek at the very beginning.  Stafford journeyed through parts of Columbia and Brazil, amid dangerous animals, indigenous people with machetes and not to mention weather, injuries, fear, and the doubts that go along with an epic adventure such as this.

It seems in the beginning that this expedition was started ‘just beacuse’, or to gain attention of some sort. But then the need of funding led Ed and his team to include a charity in order to make fundraising easier as well as to give it all some kind of purpose.  The amount of time that Stafford spent preparing should have given him enough time so as to not have awkward situations. But…he comes to a point where he is ill prepared for the weather, something that seems like it would be at the top of your list to be prepared and ready for.  The friend he brings along, very early on, is clearly not the best choice.  Another thing that baffled me was his lack of knowledge for certain areas where he would need VISAs or other such paperwork in order to pass through. Simple steps that ended up costing him money and time while in the midst of travel.

One thing he deals with that I think I would surely have battled as well was a little bit of depression.  It was hard to fully communicate with the others in his party at times because of the language barrier.  He starts to see this affect not only him but also the posts on his blog that he is keeping up with during the trip.  He also feels the overall ‘feel’ of the mission begin to change. It simply takes a photographer who is close in age as well as from the same area as Ed to start turning his feelings around.

This journey was a long, grueling 860 day, 4k plus mile roller coaster through devastating deforestation and everything that it touches including the land and the people. This book is no less than jaw-dropping at times when you actually sit back to think about what all he did and what it took to make it through.

But…

While the expedition and the situations Ed goes through are exciting…the book itself is insanely boring.  So much of the same things are repeated over and over and it makes for a hard time keeping up with how much time has passed and exactly where they are in the journey.  When I read on my Kindle (which I did for this book), I try not to pay any attention the progress bar that shows me where I am in the book.  At one point I got so bored that I decided to look and I was HORRIFIED to find that I was not even half way thru. It was so hard to finish and just extremely tiring.

If you are someone who travels this way or has always wanted to do this…then you might enjoy this book.  But be warned that you will probably get lost in the details.

 

The Drowning House by Elizabeth Black

I was given a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review. I was not paid for my review nor was I instructed as to what to what.

The Drowning House is a novel about a century-old family legacy and how it is still haunting members of that family today. Clare Porterfield is a photographer whose marriage is slowly coming apart due to the strain of an unfortunate tragedy. She is given the opportunity to direct an exhibition in her hometown of Galveston, Texas, a place she has not seen for over 10 years. Clare takes the opportunity, seeming it as a means of escape. She sees it as a chance to have some time to herself and space to think and to search for some answers about her family and their strange past and often times odd relationship with the Carrady family, the epitome of wealthy and influential Galveston.

But she soon finds herself immersed in a local legend that has haunted the town for 100 years…and is tied to her family as well.  And ‘…the closer Clare gets to the answers, the darker and more disturbing the truth becomes.’

The overall feel of this book from the very beginning is overwhelming sadness.  There are some deep, dark secrets that have to be revealed and explored and getting there is a very emotional ride.  Some oft he story gets a little muffled under details or starts to jump around a little too much.  The plot, at times, feels a little spread thin.  There are several story lines that also feel like they get mixed up.  The author focuses on one of the issues and then will completely jump ship to a different one.

The ‘small town politics’ of the islanders of Galveston reminds me a lot of my hometown.  You do not have to tell anyone anything…they already know it.  This plays a large part in the book, tying in to the ‘secret’ that haunts the town.

Clare is very profound in her observations in not only her own life, but those around her as mysteries start to unfold.

I had always believe that because I observed the world through the lens of my camera, because I looked at things in ways other didn’t, I saw more.  Now I understand that I had failed to perceive what other people with no special ability or training had seen at once.

But I think now that time is not a line but a spiral, bending back on itself, delivering us again and again to the same places.

Give this book a chance…you may get stuck or confused at times, trust me. But once you get to the end, everything is revealed and it will all make sense. Great read.

 

Company Aytch or A Side Show of the Big Show, A Classic Memoir of the Civil War by Sam Watkins

In April of this year, I was given the opportunity to work at a rare book dealer called Yeoman’s in the Fork. This book is one that gets suggested to customers in our store quite frequently and so I thought I should read it so I could speak about it more knowledgeably.

Company Aytch is a Civil War memoir told from the point of view of an ordinary foot soldier in an often times witty manner. Sam Watkins was a 21-year-old private in the Confederate Army from Tennessee. Watkins writes from his first-hand accounts and recollections after the fact, talking of famous battlefields such as Shiloh and Chickamauga and even on his encounters with men so historical to almost be mythological, like Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. Watkins does not only tell us of the major events in his life, but also of the things that were often left out of historical descriptions. The tediousness of marches, seeing your enemy eye-to-eye, feeling a rush of emotions as you’re watching fellow soldiers die all around you.

This book offers what has been called a ‘rare and exhilarating glimpse’ in to the Civil War from the eyes of someone who was right there in the thick of it. First published serially in The Columbia (TN) Herald, Watkins held nothing back in his descriptions of exactly what he went through, fighting through some of the most difficult battles of the Civil War. He was wounded not once, but three times and was one of only 7 survivors to return out of the 120 men whom he enlisted with. Often times, his stories are very heartfelt and full of emotion.  When he talks about people being injured or killed, you can almost see the tears staining the page he was writing on. Other times (like the story about refusing butter from a lady), you can just hear the laughter in his words.

The chapters are broken up into anecdotal stories or by certain areas where noted battles took place.  Watkins tells you that if you want the history of a certain battle and the strategy, movements, etc then you should ‘consult history’ and that he is just there to tell the experience of the private soldier. This is what was so different about this book. He’s not giving us the pomp and circumstance that we receive when we read the memoirs of majors and higher people. He’s just speaking from what he knows, simply and truthfully.

At one point after he is shot, Watkins goes to Montgomery to the hospital. He speaks of roaming around the city and noticing that the people seem to be happy and going on with life as if nothing was going on. This is one aspect of the Civil War that I find interesting and would like to read more about…just how the ‘normal’ citizen lived their life while these epic and tragic battles were happening often times not too far from their homes.

I will admit that I do not normally read non-fiction (as you can tell if you follow my blog at all) but I truly enjoyed this book. The way it is presented makes it read more like a novel than a memoir. If you have any interest in knowing what the ‘average’ enlisted man went through during the Civil War I would surely recommend this book.

 

Book Review: Klonopin Lunch, A Memoir by Jessica Dorman Jones

I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review. I was not paid for my review, nor was I instructed as to what to write.

I don’t normally like memoirs, unless they are about someone who I believe really has a story to tell. This memoir, however, is absolutely hilarious and heart-breaking at the same time. With tones similar to Augusten Burroughs, Jessica Jones tell of her ‘wild and self-destructive rebellion from her picture-perfect, straightlaced life.’

Jessica Jones was doing everything she ‘thought’ she should do to ‘live life’ as she had always been taught. She married, got a (law) degree, a great job and a nice apartment. And yet…she was miserable. Though she could not tell you why. She ‘…had grown to hate herself, her life, and all the trappings of success she had worked so hard to achieve.’  She decided that the only way to be happy would be to throw away everything she had worked for and leave her husband for a musician who led her into what could only be described as a rock-n-roll life, replete with sex, drugs and all that.

As I was reading Klonopin lunch, I found myself having sympathy for Jessica. Her marriage was on the rocks and falling apart. I can see how she would want a change from the routine…but the way she goes about it is nothing short of insane. Jessica is not alone in her issues, though. Her husband has some of his own that really should have been addressed long ago but they both chose to ignore them, just to sweep them under the rug.

Gideon, Jessica’s sexy musician, is completely difference from her husband Andrew and I think this is what attracts her to him in the first place. That, and he’s a musician…and they somehow just exude sex. She tries to justify her actions and convince herself that she is in love with him…which leads her to basically do anything that he asks.

Quickly her life becomes more than she can handle. And even in her attempt to come clean she can not address the issues that are really at hand.

I could not turn the pages quick enough…itching to see what she would get herself in to next. To think that someone could actually life like this day to day is just crazy to think about.