Welcome to Issue 88 of the SUPERIOR BOOK PRODUCTIONS newsletter!
Hello, Everyone!
I hope you are enjoying summer and getting back to life as normal as the pandemic hopefully winds down.
No big news here at the moment, but yes, I am working on another book. I always prefer not to say much about the books I’m working on until I know I’m going to pull them off, and I do tend to work on two or three at a time until one demands my full attention. Writing is definitely a process. In any case, while I can’t say yet what my next book will be, I can assure you there will be one more and probably several more, so stay tuned.
That said, I am happy to say I will be at the Outback Art Fair in Marquette, Michigan at Shiras Park/Picnic Rocks this coming weekend, July 24 and 25, so if you’re in the area stop by to visit and/or buy one of my books.
And, as always, some great books are in this issue of the Superior Book Productions newsletter, ranging from nonfiction books to help you become a better person to novels that will entertain and inspire you at the same time. I hope you find one or more you will enjoy!
Have a wonderful rest of the summer. I’ll be back with the next newsletter in the fall.
Tyler Tichelaar
This Month’s Great Book Quote:
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
— Jorge Luis Borges
Virginia Cantorna’s Dark on the Inside is a long overdue novel. The Philippines is an often-overlooked topic in World War II studies as well as fiction. Dark on the Inside fills that gap wonderfully, and it helps that Cantorna is herself Filipino, her parents being immigrants to Hawaii from the Philippines after World War II. Consequently, Cantorna grew up hearing stories about the war and her ethnic background makes her the perfect person to tell the compelling story of the Ugale family during the Japanese invasion.
Dark on the Inside opens with the dramatic moment when the Japanese invade the Philippines. Cantorna, however, rather than giving us a dramatic invasion scene, shows us how the war affects one family who live on another part of the island where the invasion occurs; they learn the news by word of mouth and the radio. The Ugales consist of an aging mother and father, two daughters, Liling and Glory, who are our main characters, and their two brothers, Bartolome, who is married and lives separately from the family, and Felipe “Boy”, who has gone to work in Hawaii. Liling and Glory are both well into their twenties and past the typical age of marriage. Liling has a fiancé, Raul, in the village, while Glory has a secret lover.
To read more, visit Dark on the Inside.
The world is rather a messy place these days—political unrest, a pandemic, global warming. It’s enough to make anyone wonder if there is anything anyone can do to make it better. Well, spiritual teacher, entrepreneur, and yogi Daniel Aaron has the answer for that. He believes we each need to be a leader, but not just any kind of leader—we need to be spiritual leaders. He opens his new book The Art of Spiritual Leadership by saying, “activating your potential to become an extraordinary spiritual leader is the most practical, magical, and valuable step you can take right now. It’s the key to manifesting what you want most in your life: meaning, impact, success, abundance, love, and happiness.” I couldn’t agree more, and I’m thrilled that Daniel is willing to share in these pages his journey of how he became a spiritual leader in his own life so we can follow his example and become the same in our own.
Not surprisingly, then, the book’s subtitle is “40 Laws to Transform Your Life (and the World).” That statement makes it clear that changing the world has to begin with changing ourselves. We can’t remove the speck in someone else’s eye until we remove the beam in our own so we can see clearly. The Art of Spiritual Leadership is a mix of Daniel’s personal spiritual adventures and those of other spiritual leaders with the purpose to share their combined hard-earned wisdom.
To read more, visit The Art of Spiritual Leadership.
Chandra Ziegler’s new book Extraordinary Endurance: A Training Plan for the Marathon of Life is a unique book that gives the reader a look into the beauty of its author’s soul as she tries to juggle the many aspects of life. While Ziegler is a marathon runner, hence the book’s title, running is only part of the content here. Ziegler shares stories about her many other sports-related activities, such as skiing, but she also shares experiences from other aspects of her life, including being a teacher and parent. Her purpose in offering this potpourri of material is, as she states early on, to “help propel you into living your best life. I want you to live your happiest life and achieve all your dreams. You know why? Because when each of us collectively is full of positive energy, we can change the world!”
Ziegler has been an endurance sports fanatic from the beginning. In fact, she began training while in her mother’s womb—her mother actually won a ski race while pregnant with Ziegler. But beyond endurance sports, she realizes we must endure through the marathon of life, and we all, including athletes, need tools to stay positive and grounded through the ups and downs that come our way. By enduring and encouraging others, we can be that positive example that changes the world.
To read more, visit Extraordinary Endurance.
Chris Stark’s new novel Carnival Lights offers up a wild ride like no other in the history of Native American literature. Set in 1969, it plays fast and loose with time, continually juxtaposing the present with the past, fulfilling William Faulkner’s statement that “The past is never dead; it’s not even past.” The two main characters, teenage cousins Sher and Kris, exist in a world where everything is a reminder of the tragedies, but also of the family, love, and cultural teachings of their Ojibwa heritage in their native Minnesota. As they try to flee the past and create a new future for themselves without any preparation for the real world, they find threats surround them on every side. Even the dazzling carnival lights of the Minnesota State Fair hold little promise, though they are attracted to them like moths to a flame.
While Sher and Kris’ story is a fairly straightforward narrative about leaving home, because Kris is abused by her father, and striving to make a living working at the fair, while trying to avoid the many dangers that surround them, primarily from white men, layer upon layer of history, meaning, and pain is added to their story. Throughout the novel, we meet many of the girls’ relatives, some alive, some long dead, and learn their stories—stories adequately described in Sher’s memory, yet mixed up with popular culture images of Native Americans.
To read more, visit Carnival Lights.
Pacific Northwest evangelist and author Nathan French is well-known for his prophetic ministry and his books in which he shares the conversations he has had with God. Now he has produced his third book, ONE: The Power of Unity, which continues those conversations.
Nathan begins by sharing his testimony, which readers of his previous books, It’s NOT Meant to Be a Secret and Rushing the Flood Gates of Heaven, will be familiar with. He shares how in his youth he engaged in less than godly behavior that led to a suicide attempt, how he survived, and how God began to communicate with Him. Nathan has become a master at learning to listen to the quiet, still voice of God, but he also knows God wants to talk to all of us; we need only listen. ONE: The Power of Unity, like Nathan’s previous books, is a model for how such conversations with God may go.
In the book’s introduction, Nathan encourages the reader to talk to God. The book is written in a diary format, providing Nathan’s almost daily conversations with God from May to December of 2012. Each day has a subtitle that speaks to a specific topic or theme. These conversations show how personal of a relationship God wishes to have with us.
To read more, visit ONE: The Power of Unity.
Arin Halicki’s new book Your Emergency Brake: Powerfully Shift the Direction of Your Career and Life is a surprising, refreshing, insightful, and practical look at what to do when you feel like you’ve taken all you can take and you’re about to crash. It’s at such times that we wish we had an emergency brake to pull. In truth, we can pull the emergency brake on most situations, but doing so has consequences. Arin shows us how to pull it with thought and preparation so we can glide into the next stage of our life or career with grace.
Arin knows what she writes about. She has reinvented her life and career several times. She has written this book to help others avoid the painful mistakes she made as well as to provide tips for how to pull the brake successfully.
One of Arin’s major transitions was completely exiting corporate America to become an entrepreneur. She tried to build a startup from the ground up, thinking her degrees, experience, and relationships would lead to success. What she learned instead is that what mattered most was who she was being in the process of entrepreneurship.
To read more, visit Your Emergency Brake.
Erin Elise Kiu’s new novel One Transforming Love tells the story of Aubrey, a late-twenties manager working in public accounting who has decided it’s time to stop looking for love in all the wrong places and discover her life purpose. Aubrey has recently moved to San Diego from Chicago, and she is hoping to find a decent boyfriend and new friends, as well as move on from her past mistakes. Although raised in a Christian family, Aubrey never really listened in church or understood about the concept of what God was calling her to do. She let drinking and dating distract her, but now she wants to start over and discover the plans God has for her.
Two things happen for Aubrey soon after she moves to San Diego. She begins going to church and talking to her Christian friend, Tina, about God, and she meets Jake, an attractive man who lives on the beach not far from her.
Aubrey and Jake begin seeing each other, and she feels very attracted to him. Even though Jake is eight years older than her, Aubrey enjoys his company and feels they could be a good match. She is understanding when Jake explains that he’s getting divorced, and she is willing to believe he could be ready for a serious relationship once he moves on from his divorce. Like her, Jake obviously wants to start over and Aubrey is willing to give him a chance. After all, Aubrey has made her own mistakes, having gotten herself into trouble as a result of drinking too much at a work party that led to her probation.
To read more, visit One Transforming Love.
