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The 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War approaches. Sound the trumpet for a novel where justice, personal liberty and self-reliance are celebrated by a writer who has the savvy to make her voice ring.

An obscure 1842 Supreme Court Case is the backdrop for this compelling book. All Different Kinds of Free, a historical fiction novel based on true events, is really the story of Margaret Morgan, a free woman of color from Pennsylvania who is abducted and sold into slavery. The court case received moderate visibility in historical records. The author states that the details of Margaret’s life are frustratingly omitted from historical documents; however McCann has created a gripping tale of Margaret and her fight for freedom.

Stolen freedom is appalling. “Don’t lose hope,” Margaret reassures her children who are also kidnapped, “…when something’s lost, it can be found again.”

Jessica McCann, an established non-fiction writer and editor broadens her talents and becomes a historical fiction author to watch. All Different Kinds of Free won the 2009 Freedom in Fiction Prize, an international award recognizing the best unpublished work of fiction championing the values of a free, truly compassionate society.

Some detail about the Supreme Court Case is woven into the narrative to give us proper perspective. Even there, the author is careful to tie in the plight of victims like Margaret. “Better a thousand slaves escape,” says the civil rights litigator, “than should one free man be thus carried into remediless slavery.” Margaret’s story, however, dominates the novel. Her experiences are as horrendous as the reader can imagine, but she uses courage, indomitable strength and faith in God as weapons against the inhumanity heaped upon her. McCann expertly endears us to Margaret’s heart. Somewhat overdone are the extensive use of questions and Margaret’s internal thoughts.

McCann could have highlighted a landmark, albeit obscure Supreme Court case that spurred us toward the Civil War. Instead, using vivid storytelling, she enlightens the more salient issue through an unforgettable character “demanding” to be treated as a human being who safeguarded her soul against all onslaughts.

For a century and a half, people have argued over the Civil War being about state’s rights or freedom of the enslaved. All Different Kinds of Free weighs heavily on the human side- the preservation of the dignity of the individual. Does Margaret prevail? Read the book to find out. Does McCann succeed? Strikingly so. She is an author venturing into a new genre with boldness and heart and has given us a riveting read.

I thank Bell Ridge Books for supplying a copy of this book. The opinions in this review are unbiased and wholly my own..

The Conscious, Unconscious, & Super-Conscious
Mind
By Gurdip Hari

Jasmine Publishing House (2005)

Reviewed by Irene Watson for Reader Views (3/06)

Gurdip Hari, in the beginning of his book, explains in understandable
terms the conscious, unconscious, and the super-conscious aspect of
the mind. He iterates that only 10 percent of the mind is conscious,
that the remaining 90 percent is unconscious. Hari, in simple terms,
explains that the conscious mind is our truth, while the unconscious
mind is the part that is unaware, yet is detected and understood
through dreams, behavior, or hypnosis – either while asleep or in a
trance.

Hari makes clear that our growth is governed by a cycle of number
seven, first being our seven bodies: Physical, Etheric, Astral, Mental,
Spiritual, Cosmic, and Nirvanic. Second being the body is governed by
the seven Chakras: Root, Navel, Solar Plexus, Heart, Throat, Third
Eye, and Crown. He also explains that in the first seven years of life,
the Physical body and the unconscious mind are developed when the
Root Chakra is activated. The cycle continues as each Chakra is
activated, and the body developed, until the age forty-nine.

During the first seven years of development, Hari details not only do
the parents play a role in conditioning the child’s unconscious mind
with personal beliefs, but also with their fears and insecurities. This
conditioning continues to rule the person until they make a conscious
effort to change the ingrained belief system and transition into
sustaining the super-conscious mind, commonly known as
enlightenment.

Hari takes the reader on a step-by-step understanding that before
transitioning into super-consciousness one must first heal the inner
child, the unconscious mind, where all the hurts, anger, unfulfilled
desires, and fears reside. Until these aspects are healed one is
prevented from rising to a higher consciousness. In the latter part of
the book, Hari explains methods to attain super-consciousness.

“The Conscious, Unconscious, & Super-Conscious Mind” is well put
together giving an understanding for someone embarking on a spiritual
path. Writing in simple terms, Hari gives the impression that attaining
super-consciousness is possible for anyone that desires to do so.

10. Cowboy. I think Emilio Estevez in ‘Young Guns’ ruined me for life. For me (a woman), very little could be more sensual than the thought of a roll in the tumbleweeds with a dusty cowhand. But it’s not just that: for my sensibilities, anyway, there’s a certain drama, a romance even, to imagining the cowboys together. Brokeback Mountain was just the beginning. The eleven tales in How the West Was Done (edited by Adam Carpenter, Ravenous Romance, 2009) portray a range of cowboy fantasies, from rough-and-tumble stories from the dusty trails of the 19th century to contemporary romance at the rodeo. What they all have in common is lust between two buff, beautiful men, at least one of whom is always of the bronc-riding variety.

9. Stay-at-home dad. A young dad who’s lost his baby-mama through no fault of his own is sexy precisely because he’s responsible, gentle, and loving. If a romantic heroine is lucky, that DILF (Dad I’d Like to Fall in love with) is ready to love again, and has room in his heart for a new baby-mama. As a bonus, she gets to experience the joys of parenthood without the morning sickness and hospital bills.

8. Fire fighter. What’s not to love? He’s smoking hot, brave, strong, and he can throw you over his shoulder and carry you.

7. Nurse/Doctor. We romantic types love a man in uniform, and it’s sexy when the uniform happens to be scrubs or a white lab coat. Witness only the wavy-haired, Victorian hero of “Hysteria” by Rushmore Judd.

6. Soldier. Case in point: ‘On Leave’ by Lois Bonde. As we meet Lea Martin, she’s in the most heart-grabbing situation: saying goodbye to her older brother Ward as he goes off to war in the Middle East. She expects she’ll miss Ward and worry about him every day. She doesn’t expect the goodbye kiss she gets from Ward’s best friend and fellow soldier, Mike Holt. Lea had never thought of Mike in that light before. His kiss is so unbelievably sensual, Lea makes Mike promise to come back to her. Ten months of pent-up fantasies later, Mike comes home on leave, and paying Lea a visit is high on his to-do list. Will he be the man she’s been imagining while he’s been gone? Could things between them ever be as good as that first kiss? In On Leave (Erotique Press, 2006, $3), Lois Bonde answers these questions with a moving (and totally hot) portrait of a friendship becoming much more.

5. Vampire. Okay, vampire isn’t a job, per se. The Count Dracula type is usually mysteriously, independently wealthy, probably from all the hundreds of years he’s had to accumulate wealth…and take it from the people he’d eaten for breakfast. Edward Cullen doesn’t need a part-time job after school to afford to buy Bella Swan a new ride. Sometimes vamps have jobs: Charlaine Harris’s Eric Northman runs the Fangtasia night club, for example. But even if he isn’t fabulously wealthy and/or his job isn’t super-glamorous, vamps still make my blood run hot.

4. Contractor. Whether he’s a carpenter, a home remodeler, or the guy you hired to clean the pool, there’s something astoundingly sexy about the working-class hunks who work with their hands.

3. Police officer. Fire fighters get all the glory, and cops get all the blame, right? Well, that psychology is part of what makes them such intense romantic heroes. Like their brethren in the big red trucks, the guys in blue run toward danger when everyone else is running away. They put their lives on the line to be real-life heroes. Case in point: Butch in J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Though not traditionally handsome, the gray-eyed police officer is some complex, so charming, he wins the heart of the most beautiful, utterly devoted woman in his world.

2. Kindergarten teacher. What’s not to love about a guy who gets along great with the little tykes? It speaks to his potentially for excellent parenting skills, which of course go body part-in-body part with excellent baby-making skills. (See #9.)

1. Bartender. I may be a little biased on this one, having been a bartender myself at one point (heck, I’ve been a contractor, too, for that matter…but I digress), but even if you’re not a big fan of Tom Cruise in ‘Cocktail’ there’s something mysterious and sexy about the guys who sling those colorful bottles of liquor behind swank bars. In her “God of Wine,” Dianne Fox modeled sexy-as-heck bartender Dean after the Greek wine god Dionysus.

The books that we have known for thousands of years made a very unprecedented turn in its format. What is great about it is that the move is cheap – audio versions. NO more printing, no more expensive storage, no more out of stock frustrations for book lovers. You are not “reading” it, per se, but listening to the written content, very cool indeed. There are many cheap audio books that can be secured online. The resources for these books are almost limitless. But a cheap audio book is not all good news. You also need to know about the traps that many Internet sites do that can really turn into a very nasty experience.

If you are new to the passion for audio books it would be just natural for you to look around Internet sites to get free titles of audio books online. The problem with these is that sites can just give you previews instead of just letting you have the whole copy. But because you though that you are having the full content you end up frustrated and even irritated especially if you are beginning to really enjoy the book.

Another blunder in getting audio books online is signing up in trial periods for sites that offer a good library of audio book titles. Of course you would sign up to get the opportunity to browse their list of books as a “preparation to buy audio books from the site. But you also need to be careful of this good deal especially when your trial period ends. These Internet sites need manual cancellation of your original registration and sign up.

To get away from these very traumatic experiences from your effort to either sure free books or buying books, you can choose to rent audio books instead. Renting books is like a Netflix service for audio books. Because you will not actually own the copy if title then this route is cheaper at the same time, lesser “tricks” are involved as the transaction is very clear (with renting).

Cheap audio books might be anywhere and can easily be secured but you have to be careful to the many schemes in the Internet that will only get your money. To lessen you exposure to this you can source your book through Ambling Books. This is a safe site and can guarantee an experience that is regret-free.

Once in a rare while, I read a book and think that even an experienced writer could learn from it. “Whale Season” is such a book, a murder story yet highly literary, full of twists and turns, myriad characters all well-drawn, and a storyline that pulsates with excitement. Added to all this, the author’s very unique voice and fun-loving style make “Whale Season” a successful novel highlighted with sarcasm and satire.

Satire because the setting is in Florida where I live; therefore, I can chuckle at the playful handling of the setting and the characters. The author writes as if she is delivering stand-up comedy, but her words are sharp and serious with a lot of truth in them. It is impossible for a reader not to care about the characters, the setting, or the tiny details like that of a panther family promenading on a deserted beach. Each character, even a villain, is very human, and the writer plays masterfully with their quirks, scars, longings, and dreams.

Whale Harbor resembles a lot of towns in Florida in the sense that the locals are desperate to lure the tourists. Inside it is the Pink, a strippers’ paradise club where the mayor Bender is also the bartender. Bender believes people have to recognize their inner dog and bark accordingly, succeeding to pull some people into barking. Most of the characters in the club are somber, wounded people finding wacky solutions to their problems.

Far from being somber, the story is entertaining with numerous off-the-wall characters like the RV sales locale owner Leon. In the beginning of the story, on a Christmas night, Jesus–a.k.a the Cuban doctor Ricardo Garcia who is not really Cuban–talks Leon into a game of poker. Jesus has parked his RV, the Fleetwood American Dream worth 250,000 dollars, in Leon’s lot to surrender it to Leon by purposely losing the poker bet. He has acquired it when he killed its elderly owners.

Jesus is a demented serial killer, killing in order to save souls, but only a few people catch on to him until later. The one who finds out about it first is Sheriff Trot Jeeter, Leon’s best friend. Trot likes Leon’s girlfriend Carlotta but also has a past with Dagmar, the owner of the Pink and Leon’s ex-wife.

Jesus has his heart set on killing or rather saving the soul of Jimmy Ray, a Buddhist blues musician at the Pink and also Dagmar’s biological father who underplays his paternity. After many unexpected twists and turns, the story comes together effectively at the end.

I cannot rave enough about the author’s delightful yet fearless way of storytelling that bonds fantasy to reality. Her style and voice are distinct, metaphoric, and high-spirited. Still, the book is very easy to read. Since a possible movie for Whale Season is in the works, one hopes that the movie industry remains loyal to the spirit of the book.

The author, N.M. Kelby is a Floridian who lives in Sarasota. She has worked as a print and television journalist for more than twenty years. Her other books are In the Company of Angels and Theatre of the Stars.

Whale Season is in 304 pages in hardcover with ISBN-10: 0307336778 and ISBN-13: 978-0307336774.

This is a delightful book that is full of life, and I can’t wait for this writer’s next story.