Welcome to Issue 93 of the SUPERIOR BOOK PRODUCTIONS newsletter!
Happy Summer, Everyone!
My favorite summer book-selling event is the Outback Art Fair in Marquette, just four blocks away from my house on beautiful Lake Superior. You can join me there this year on Saturday, July 30 from 10-6 and Sunday, July 31 from 10-5. My tent is usually near the entrance into Picnic Rocks/Shiras Park. I’ll have all my titles for sale. There are several other authors at the sale as well as people selling jewelry, food, photography, T-shirts, woodworking, and just about any kind of art and craft you can imagine.
Come get a good book to curl up with in the hammock before summer is over, or check out one of the great books below in the latest Superior Book Productions newsletter.
Take time to enjoy summer. Here in Upper Michigan it always goes by much too fast!
Tyler Tichelaar
This Month’s Great Book Quote:
“If I could always read, I would never feel the want of company.”
— Lord Byron
What would you do if your husband and best friend wanted to get married? That question might seem absurd, but it isn’t for Adrian Riley. You see, Adrian died in a car accident, and now her spirit is watching over her husband Jake and her best friend Cassie, who have come together, largely out of their love for her, and become a couple themselves. That’s the situation that begins Anne Miller’s new novel Having Faith, which is the sequel to her previous book The Last Photograph.
Adrian has become a guardian angel to her husband and best friend, and after overcoming a bit of jealousy in the previous book, she is their biggest cheerleader in trying to bring about their happiness. She also has a little help from Jake’s dad, Kevin, who is also a guardian and trying to make up for some of his past mistakes as a father by helping his son and showing Adrian the ropes of being a spirit and guardian angel.
Adrian and Kevin definitely have their work cut out for them. Cassie’s family is, to put it mildly, a piece of work.
To read more, visit Having Faith.
Today, more than 60 percent of college students are interested in starting their own companies. Fortunately for them, Courtney Gras has written The Student Startup Guide: Real-World Advice for Launching Your Company in College. In this guide, Courtney has assembled a plethora of advice from actual student company founders. They share their expertise, success and failures, what motivated them to begin their companies, and best lessons learned to make it easier for future student entrepreneurs to follow in their footsteps.
While some may be surprised by the thought of starting your own business while still in college, as entrepreneur Brad Feld states in the foreword:
“Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about what makes an entrepreneur successful. It has nothing to do with age, where you went to school, or what you studied. It has everything to do with your character, what you are obsessed about, and your willingness to focus a lot of energy on creating a new business where one didn’t previously exist.”
Feld adds that you must follow one key lesson to be successful: “Create something people will buy from you.”
To read more, visit The Student Startup Guide.
Suzanne Goodwyn’s debut novel, Wrightsville Beach, is a compelling love story set against the backdrop of Wilmington, North Carolina. We watch love spark and develop between the two main characters, Hank and Jess, and then we see how misunderstandings and the interference of other people threaten their relationship.
Hank Atwater is a young man with a reputation in town, one he is trying to overcome. He is an overall upstanding young man until his older brother and role model dies, causing Hank to spiral into alcohol abuse. During one of his drunken episodes, an incident in a bar lands him in jail, then on probation, which results in his being treated like a social pariah. Fortunately, Hank’s good friend Mike stands by him, and eventually, Mike introduces him to his girlfriend’s roommate, Jess. Hank and Jess immediately feel an attraction for each other, but complications ensue when Hank has a run-in with John, his boss’ privileged son who loves to rile Hank. When John discovers that Hank is dating Jess, John sees yet another opportunity to show his disdain for him.
But Jess sees something in Hank that others in Wilmington aren’t willing to see.
To read more, visit Wrightsville Beach.
In her new book, The Pursuit of Momminess: How to Walk an Authentic Love Journey With Your Children, Linda Cross shares her stories about being a mother from raising babies and toddlers to having adult children. Her purpose in writing is to encourage other mothers on their journeys, including inspiring their children to pursue their dreams.
The book opens with a rather scary moment. Linda’s twenty-year-old daughter has gone out for a walk, and after it gets dark, she still hasn’t returned. Linda goes out looking for her, stating, “Never mind that she was now twenty! I am still, like many moms, passionately in pursuit of momminess, doing my best to do what’s right by my kiddos.” Fortunately, she finds her daughter safe and sound. But she realizes that being a mommy never ends.
Successive chapters cover various parts of the mom journey; they cover diverse topics from feeling like you are just the tour guide for your children to maintaining a democracy in your family. Rather than offering a step-by-step, how-to guide to being a mom, Linda writes with the voice of a friend, gently guiding the reader along.
To read more, visit The Pursuit of Momminess.
Dr. Gladys Chepkiru Ngetich’s new book The PhD Journey: Strategies for Enrolling, Thriving, and Excelling in a PhD Program is the book every prospective or current PhD student will want as a tool to help them get through their PhD program with grace and success.
Dr. Ngetich earned her PhD at the University of Oxford in England. She was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship for her studies and completed her degree in 2019, so her experiences are recent and applicable. While she earned her degree in the field of engineering, she includes interviews with fifteen other students who studied in various fields at different universities worldwide. Most of them earned PhDs, but a few of them share why they chose not to pursue this higher degree. In fact, the first topic Dr. Ngetich explores is how to determine whether a PhD program is right for you.
After discussing that topic, she dives into choosing which program to attend. In some cases, this decision may largely depend on funding. Dr. Ngetich received the Rhodes Scholarship, which is only taken at the University of Oxford, so that helped make the decision for her.
To read more, visit The PhD Journey.
Mike Amato’s The Better Way to Win: Transforming Your Organization by Putting People Over Profits tells the dynamic story of how Amato did exactly what his book title recommends, and he saw his company experience a dramatic turnaround as a result.
The story begins when Amato had recently taken on an executive role at Barclays Bank in London. Thinking he was off to a good start, he thought nothing of it when he received a call from the BBC saying that Barclays would be featured in a story the next day. Amato assumed they wanted to interview him for the story, but he was stunned when the producer revealed they were going to expose Barclays’ bad business practices on their program Whistleblower. The BBC had actually had three reporters working undercover at the bank who were now going to reveal how Barclays had a toxic culture and was mis-selling to clients to hit financial targets. Of course, Amato immediately realized this story would create a crisis for Barclays. Worse, when he watched the story, he was appalled, despite some obvious fancy footage cutting, by the truths it revealed.
To read more, visit The Better Way to Win.
In Secrets of a Serial Networker: Connect, Serve, and Attract More Clients, Anne Garland shares her nearly half-a-century of experiences working, networking, and connecting with people. These secrets are hard-earned, but Anne reveals how simple and easy they are to apply so you can meet the right people and grow your business.
Anne’s sense of humor and outgoing personality will have you laughing and nodding your head at her Lucille-Ball-style antics that have resulted in a wealth of knowledge you’ll benefit from. For example, her signature joke is: “So, why did the chicken cross the road? The chicken crossed the road…to meet other chicks!” That play on a familiar joke exemplifies networking’s whole purpose for Anne. Networking is about meeting other people and connecting with them in a way that will help you help them and help them help you.
While many people dread the thought of networking, Anne states that she’s always approached networking with a sense of fun because of the relationship benefits that can result. She states, “my purpose in maintaining those relationships is always to serve people, never to sell, even though I have held professional ‘sales’ positions.”
To read more, visit Secrets of a Serial Networker.
