Welcome to Issue 90 of the SUPERIOR BOOK PRODUCTIONS newsletter!
Happy Holidays, Everyone!
I’m wishing you a healthy, happy, and merry holiday season. Of course, books are something I always associate with Christmas. I have pleasant memories of finding so many books under the Christmas tree over the years from Baum’s Wizard of Oz books to classic Gothic novels, history tomes, mysteries, and countless others. I hope there are plenty of books in your holiday season.
If you’re looking for great books, you will find some below. You can also get some from me in person if you are in Upper Michigan. I’ll be at the TV6 Christmas Craft Show at the Superior Dome in Marquette on Friday, December 3 through Sunday, December 5. It’s wonderful that we can have a Christmas show again this year and I look forward to seeing old friends and faithful readers.
Enjoy the holidays and keep reading. I’ll see you in the New Year!
Tyler Tichelaar
This Month’s Great Book Quote:
“I still buy books faster than I can read them. But again, this feels completely normal: how weird it would be to have around you only as many books as you have time to read in the rest of your life.”
— Julian Barnes, A Life with Books
Ben Neil’s new fantasy/action-adventure novel The Initiate takes readers on a wild ride that includes time travel and exploring the deepest depths of the human soul.
The novel opens with its main character, John Fullman, recovering after having lost his wife and daughter in a car accident a few years previously. Since then, John’s life has been difficult. Once a financial guru, John was devastated by the loss of his family, and for a long time, he has been barely able to function. Searching for a means to remedy his mental condition, John begins to study various subjects all pertaining to the mind, which is when he stumbles upon the wisdom of the ancient mystery schools.
As John continues to research the wisdom of the ancient mystery schools and the methods they used thousands of years ago to develop themselves, he discovers a code within the temples of the past, and its connection to Egypt’s ancient mysteries. He believes the code may be the key to understanding the most profound secrets of the mystery schools. He also believes the code has a much deeper meaning that will affect him personally, and by deciphering the code, he may find the healing he’s desperately been needing.
To read more, visit The Initiate.
In Alicia Reece’s new book Driven to Thrive: 10 Proven Strategies to Excel, Expand, and Elevate Your Career and Life, readers will learn how to manage and overcome the obstacles they face in their pursuit of career and life satisfaction. Reece, who has had a successful career in HR and today coaches Fortune 500 executives and serves as a business consultant, shares her own personal career tribulations and triumphs as well as stories of how she helped her many clients take control of the steering wheel for their careers.
Reece knows many business, self-help, and career books are already out there; what sets her book apart is she believes the solutions to job stagnation and dissatisfaction are best resolved when you learn to harness your own voice and deepen your self-awareness while cultivating the skills needed to improve or change your situation. She advocates for increasing your emotional intelligence, which includes becoming more self-aware of who you are and what you want.
Being self-aware is not easy. Too often, people try to be what they believe others, especially bosses and colleagues, want them to be. Reece discusses how this leads to imposter syndrome—feeling like you’re pretending to be someone you’re not.
To read more, visit Driven to Thrive.
In her new memoir, Broken Vows: How I Lost My Husband to the Church, Patricia Fitzmaurice shares the story of a happy marriage that ultimately led to an annulment. While the book tells the story of one Catholic marriage, it also reflects a larger story of changing times in the United States in the late twentieth century.
Patricia met and married her husband John in the 1950s when America was a different place, when men and women were expected to get married and have families, and Patricia and John both wanted to do exactly that. However, John had first considered becoming a priest. He had even been in the seminary for many years. But when he got close to the time to take his final vows, he decided he wanted to have a family instead. After leaving the seminary, he met Patricia, herself a Catholic, and they set about fulfilling what they believed was God’s plan for them by having a family.
To read more, visit Broken Vows.
Jim Jacobs’ Driving Lessons for Life 2 is a follow-up to his first book that used driving lessons as metaphors for ways to improve our lives. The ride continues in this sequel, which contains fifty short essays on how we can all improve our lives by applying the lessons we learn on the road to our daily situations.
Jim notes that the average person spends nearly twenty-five hours per week in the car. Rather than have this be dead or mindless time, Jim advocates “using our drive time to improve our lives and relationships and really develop our potential.” For him, an experience on the road can become a “driving lesson for life.”
The book is chockful of advice to get us all to think about the various aspects of our lives. I believe it will be enjoyed by everyone from beginning to seasoned drivers, and Jim addresses drivers of every caliber. For example, to the new drivers, Jim offers, “please don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Be afraid of never getting to the places you want to go. Everyone makes mistakes. It is what you do with them that counts.”
To read more, visit Driving Lessons for Life 2.
Christine Miles’ What Is It Costing You Not to Listen?: The Power of Understanding to Connect, Influence, Solve & Sell is a true tour-de-force that puts listening first as really the secret to successful relationships in all aspects of life. Christine provides examples of how listening to customers can help salespeople, how listening can mend relationships, and how listening can bring people together in amazing ways. Filled with practical steps and colorful stories that model listening, this book may well be the one every business and person needs to enhance their relationships.
Of course, we have all heard about the value of listening, but unfortunately, most of us do not listen well. We often end up in conflict or confusion as a result. However, as Christine points out, this is really not our fault because no one has taught us how to listen. She even cites sources that show we get more training in speaking than listening. In fact, only 2 percent of people have ever had any kind of training in listening. Christine is determined to change that.
To read more, visit What Is It Costing You Not to Listen?
Renée Marino’s Becoming a Master Communicator: Balancing New School Technology with Ol’ School Simplicity is a refreshing look at the communication issues that have arisen for many of us because of the newer forms of technology. Renée shares how to use that technology to communicate better and when it is preferable to return to earlier communication techniques.
We’ve all been there—thought someone was mad at us because of a sentence in an email or text that didn’t come through with the tone intended. Before we go down the rabbit hole of endless texts or silence from a friend or loved one, sometimes it’s best to try another communication technique. As Renée lyrically states: “When my brain starts spinning like a ball, I must stop and give them a call!”
Becoming a Master Communicator is divided into ten chapters about communication techniques and situations. A bonus to the reader is that Renée shares personal stories from her own life to illustrate the points. In case you didn’t know, Renée has been a very successful Broadway performer and she even landed the lead role of Mary Delgado, wife to Frankie Valli, in the film Jersey Boys, after playing the role on Broadway. Renée’s story of how she mastered communication skills to achieve her career success convinces me that the tools she offers not only work but can lead others to great success.
To read more, visit Becoming a Master Communicator.
