Klay Thompson: The Incredible Story of One of Basketball's Sharpest Shooters
by Clayton Geoffreys
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The story of NBA basketball player Klay Thompson is a valuable read, not because he had to over come hardship or tragedy to get where he is today, but because of the quiet and calm manner in which he has learned and processed the rules and become the success he is today.
Klay Thompson gives us the inspirational story of a player who listened to his father, learned his lessons well and has his head on straight. He is one that is learning, from his parents, how to budget and live well within his means, setting him up for a future long after basketball is gone. So many players become bankrupt when their careers are over because they never learned the basic lessons of saving money and budgeting.
Klay is also on that you will not find getting into trouble, there is one recorded incident in college and that made such an impact on Klay that he has kept his nose clean and lived an incredibly tame life for a basketball player.
For these reasons alone Klay is a wonderful inspiration and role model for younger children. This is a great book for adults and children to read to get to know more about Klay, where he came from and what he is about.
View all my reviews
The Queendom of Evlantis
by Juliet Y. Mark
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
We've all heard the story of Adam and Eve and their fall from grace, but what if the story was changed. What would the world be like is Adam didn't give in and only Eve was tempted? If only Eve was banished from the garden? Juliet Y. Mark tackles those thoughts and ideas in the book The Queendom of Evlantis (The Unfallen Series Book 1). We find that Eve has been cast out of the garden on her own, and over the ages the story has gotten twisted just a little to where women look down on men. In fact women rule everything, men are mere slaves thought of by some women as nothing more than animals! It's not a perfect place, and there are troubles. Another young girl, a daughter of Adam, Ava is tempted a lead out of the garden. She is given the task to help the other people of the world realize the mistakes they are making, yet she is so innocent she has no idea what she is doing. Entwined in it all is love and hope, is evil and corruption and in the end, what will be the course of the world.
The Queendom of Evlantis at first reads like a great feminist novel. Women rule the world, they keep the men under their boots, but as you go along you realize that this is not the way the world was meant to be and that it is not working out well for these people. There are major problems. Although the author, Juliet Y. Mark never comes out and specifically says that this is the retelling of Adam and Eve, you get enough hints along the way to realize it and to understand the purpose and reason behind the retelling. I found the story compelling and well written. It pulled me along all throughout wanting me to know more and to find the answers, to only realize that there is still more to learn even after the book ends. It is a wonderful read for men and women alike, as well and adults and teens.
View all my reviews
The Quadrant War
by Ann Denton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Imagine growing up in a world that has always been at war. In fact, at war so long that no one actually remembers why they are at war in the first place. This is the world that Ann Denton has created in Kiah's Soul-Shifting Journey: The Quadrant War. Kiah is a young girl that has a unique talent called Soul-Shifting, or as her older brother used to call it Butterfly Dreaming. During these episodes she is able to travel outside her body to see things happening in other places, to other people and at other times, in the past or the future. She and a small group of friends band together against this war, the Quadrant War that has always been going on, but no one even remembers why, and the fighting is far from their daily lives but the effects are seen in the poor conditions of the towns. As they start to fight against the war, and as Kiah soul-shifts they find that nothing they knew about their world, or this war is quite what it seems, and life doesn't have to be as much of a struggle as it is.
Kiah's Soul-Shifting Journey: The Quadrant War brings us to a world that is fighting a war, each quadrant against each other, and it has been this way so long, no one remembers why. The premise of the story is so realistic, it could easily be any country today. The effects of the long-standing war on the towns and villages is seen in daily life, and translates to current life quite well. Ann Denton then brings in the fantasy world with the Soul-shifting aspect. Using this unique concept to discover the truths of the war, the history and the future is top notch. Adult and young adult readers alike will be able to find things that relate to todays life, and moral lessons as well. A merger of fantasy, history and inspiration, this is a book that anyone will enjoy.
View all my reviews
Apocalypse of Angels: Seeing Angels
by Harmony Lawson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Cami has always known that she was different, she has always been much more mature that her peers, but maybe that is more of an effect of the fact that Cami can see angels. Oh they don't look like the pictures in the books, very rarely can she glimpse their wings, usually it is only by the glow of their eyes that she knows they are angles, but she has just always known they were. It's just a secret she keeps to herself. Cami lives with younger sister Beth, and her parents in a small trailer in Winston, Oregon. She is a wonderful artist, but dreams of going to college to study art are not going to happen for her, there isn't that kind of money laying around. Lately Cami has been noticing more angels. The new guy in town Earl, is asking Cami out, and she normally doesn't go out. Then she's having freaky dreams. Finally at the Spring Fair, she sees some paintings that she loves, and when the guy working the booth talks to her, she almost melts at the sound of his voice, only to turn around and notice that he is an angel! She has never talked to one before. What is going on here? In Apocalypse of Angels Harmony Lawson has created a normal all-american teen-ager in a lower working class family and given her a special ability.
Apocalypse of Angels builds from this simple story of Cami, a normal teenager who just happens to see angels, to a teenager that evil demons, or fallen angels want for some reason. As the book goes along Harmony Lawson does a wonderful job of giving Cami a basic knowledge of angels and faith, but without the taint of organized religion, and as she learns more everything is greet with an air of faith with question, giving it a more believable feel. The story revolves around teenagers at the end of high school so you could call it a coming of age story, but I feel the tone and style of writing lends itself to being read by a wide variety of readers. As an adult reader I enjoyed and as I mentioned parts to my own pre-teens, they wanted to read it. That is what I like, and to me that says this is a good book!
View all my reviews
Wildflower
by Janine Carbone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed by Michelle Randall for +Readers' Favorite .
Faith is determined to make it through college without getting close to anyone, and so far she has made it to her junior year with only her freshman dorm mate, Casey. This year is going to be different, Jason is determined to get to know the beautiful girl running on the track. Faith has had a rough upbringing and Jason will have to break through her walls. Professor Jillian has been there all through the years to encourage and help Faith try to take a few steps out into the world and out from behind her walls, and as her relationship with Jason blossoms, she will encourage her even more. At the same time, repressed memories of her childhood will start to haunt Faith. Janine Carbone does a wonderful job of mixing a number of ideas and storylines into one larger story. Wildflower will get darker yet before it gets brighter with the addition of a serial rapist on campus.
Janine Carbone has mixed a coming of age story, with a mystery story and a romance story to come up with a wonderful story that blends the elements and makes the whole story greater than the sum of the parts. Wildflower is prefect name for the book, but you will need to read until the very end to understand the meaning of the name. This book is definitely a young adult book, but adults and even younger readers will get something from the story. Aside from the mention of the rapist, there is no other sexual situations in the book, which is nice for a book these days.
View all my reviews
EDIT:
" Hi Michelle:
Thank you for the wonderful review of "Wildflower"! I loved it so much that I placed it on my personal website, social media accounts and on the back cover of the book!
- Janine"
The Frailty Of Perception
by Joey Rawlings
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed by Michelle Randall for +Readers' Favorite .
Asher Bloom knows nothing of from where he comes, but that doesn't bother him. He has Raglan, and that is all he needs. Raglan found him when he was young, took him in and has raised him and taught him everything he needs to know to survive, or at least up until now that had been the case. Suddenly everything that Asher knew has been turned upside down. Joey Rawlings takes us on a journey into a fantastic world where Asher is not only unique among the normal population, but even among the special population of his type that is trained, he is unique. THE FRAILTY OF PERCEPTION is a fantasy tale that follows Asher Bloom as he learns who he is and what his role in this new world will be.
As you read The Frailty of Perception, you will notice similarities to other fantasy stories, but at the same time you will see differences. Asher enters the training school and is immediately befriended by a young girl and boy, the trio becomes one. Yet this trio is nothing like any fantasy story trio you have ever read about before. Joey Rawlings does a wonderful job of using parts of classic fantasy stories that draw readers in and mixing then with new ideas to make a brand new fantasy that takes the reader to new and better heights. Young adults and older readers both will enjoy this book as both will find different levels of meaning in the book as they read. This is one that parents can share with their children.
View all my reviews
Hidden Agenda
by Peter Berman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book reviewed by Michelle Randall for +Readers' Favorite .
A year after his wife's death, Jeremy Hart, from the DA's office, is attending a fund raising gala at the advice of his therapist. She wants him to talk to at least two single women, when he spots Claire Carlton, he is smitten, after an innocent dance he finds she is married and she will later pay the price at the hands of her husband for the dance. Hidden Agenda follows Claire and Jeremy as they talk, becoming friends and then lovers. Claire wants to leave her husband, but Peter is not a man you walk away from, so they talk about it but you can tell it will never happen. One night Peter is shot in his driveway, and Jeremy is arrested for the murder, but did he do it? Or is he being framed? Author Peter S. Berman introduces us then to Ulysses and Jennifer, the Detectives on the case and what they find or don't find. All the while, there are side vignettes of a stranger that is attacking women. How does that tie into this investigation?
Peter S. Berman does a wonderful job, breaking the book in three main sections, one about each duo of characters as it might be, and telling what is happening from their perspectives. The beginning of the story is all about Claire and Jeremy, the middle is all about Ulysses and Jennifer and the last about another. Hidden Agenda is aptly named in more that one way, as there is more than one hidden agenda going on in the book! As you go through reading you find so many people doing things, just under the surface to right a wrong that the system failed them on in the past. Now that is not an endorsement of doling out justice, but it makes an amazing and captivating story for all readers.
View all my reviews
