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Tuesday, March 28, 2017

4 Great Travel Books for 2017



4. Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey

Colin Dickey’s haunted travelogue Ghostland roams New York, New England, the Midwest, the South, the Southeast, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific Coast in search for ghost-ridden homes, businesses, cemeteries, asylums, and prisons. Whether or not you believe in life after death, Dickey explains, the folklore connected to certain geographical locations often tells us more about the anxieties of the living than it does about the concerns of the dead. I'm fascinated by Dickey’s analysis and by his conclusion that the public’s interest in ghost stories is keeping alive the important work of historical preservation.

3. Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton

Starting with the premise that with identical chains of store franchises in every village and hamlet across the land, America is no longer a place that holds any mystery, the authors of Atlas Obscura began by wondering what they could do to reclaim some of the world’s lost wonder, starting in their Manhattan backyards. They were amazed to find more weird, obscure, bizarre and - well, amazing places had been right under their noses. Around the world, the authors found wherever you go, something weird is going on just out of the public eye.

2. Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London by Lauren Elkin

Virginia Woolf called it “Street Haunting,” and the French poet Charles Baudelaire termed it flânerie: the art of inhabiting the crowd of a city street. In Flâneuse, Lauren Elkin writes specifically of what it means to inhabit the street crowd, a traditionally male-dominated public space, while inhabiting a female body. With keen and often cutting powers of observation that would have made Woolf proud, Elkin shares with us the kind of woman-on-the-street experiences men might miss.

1. The Joys of Travel: And Stories That Illuminate Them by Thomas Swick

Thomas Swick is a seasoned travel writer who’s seen more than 60 countries, and in The Joys of Travels he names the seven joys of travel by name. Like a modern-day Canterbury Tales, each joy has a corresponding tale full of humor and insight.

Monday, March 13, 2017

8 Great Quotes From Literature

[Guest Post] It is not uncommon for some phrase to be memorized out of the whole book of our favorites. It was so catchy, so memorable or simply was in the fullness of time. Users of a popular social network gathered together just some out of those, which are the most popular ones. Here are the eight quotes on the top of the list:

“That's the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well it is important and WORTH the doing.”
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451


“No”, he said quickly. “Never. Stay friends? Try to grow a small rose garden on the ashes of broken feelings? No, this will never work for you and me. It happens only after small affairs and it looks fake. Love should not be spoiled by friendship. The end is the end.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, Arch of Triumph


“I don`t care what you think about me. I don`t think about you at all.”
― Henri Gidel, Coco Chanel


“I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves...”
― Oscar Wilde, Picture of Dorian Grey


“I won`t think of it now. I will think of it tomorrow.”
― Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind


“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.”
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye


“I don`t ask you to love me always like this, but I ask you to remember.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender In The Night


“That is the most difficult thing of all. It is far more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself correctly, then you are truly a man of wisdom.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince


About the Author: Melisa Marzett is a young lady who nevertheless has gone through many books, met lots of people, and can come up with an opinion on anything, really. Working for bigpaperwriter.com at this time, she is eager to write more and more. She has passion for writing and it would be delightful to her to get to know more. She is never tired of what she does and will gladly accept a challenge to write a guest post whatever the topic would be.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

EBook Discounts and Specials for #ReadAnEBookWeek 2017 - March 5-11

FREE for Read an Ebook Week 2017


Use code RAE75 to get The Erotica Anthology free through March 11, 2017 at Smashwords.


"Josephine Baker in Berlin" is also FREE through March 11th.

50% Off Through March 11



You Add the Rainbow Adult Coloring Book is only $1.37. Download and print your favorite coloring sheets as many times as you like! So easy and fun!


Cut is down to $1.50 with discount code RAE50.


Beltane, the first novel in the Pagan Spirits romance trilogy, is also down to just $1.50.


"Oliver's Good Night Kiss" is on sale for only $1.50 this week. 


75% Off


Eminent Domain is actually 75% off - down to just one dollar!


Sunday, March 5, 2017

In a Different Key: The Story of #Autism by John Donvan and Caren Zucker

In a Different Key: The Story of AutismIn a Different Key: The Story of Autism by John Donvan and Caren Zucker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoy good writing about science topics, and I'm especially interested in books that explore the scientific and social history of medical conditions. This book hit all the right notes with me. It explored the topic of autism from the first modern diagnosis onward, then went back and looked at what could be historical examples of individuals with undiagnosed autism.

Lest you think this book is nothing but dry scientific facts, however, please note that the authors have done an excellent job of humanizing the condition of autism. In the final analysis, this is the story of people, from young Donald Triplett (actually he's going to turn 84 this year, but when we meet him in the book, his mother is pregnant with him) to the famous Temple Grandin.


We meet parents of children with autism, the good, the bad, and the ugly. (And I do mean ugly - there's a case of a parent who murdered his autistic child in a misguided act of "mercy killing.")

This is a fascinating read, and more importantly, it's a reminder that autistic and "neurotypical" people alike can work together to improve education and quality of life for children and adults with autism.



View all my reviews on Goodreads

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.