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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Apr 21, 2008 - 05:05am PT
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hey there roger... say, perhaps you can get your reading group to give my JAKE SMITH RANCH SERIES a go.... one novel at a time, of course... here is a recent right up... also, after that i will add the press release....
FRUITPORT AREA NEWS (MICHIGAN) (APRIL EDITION)
Another Kind of Hero
By Mary Weimer
Muskegon author Lizzy Gonzalez has written several books which highlight “hidden” heroes: Those family members and friends who deal with a disabled individual, as well as the disabled person himself.
The author writes under a pen name, Neebeeshaabookway. Although the books are works of fiction, they provide insight into epilepsy, seizures, and head injuries as well as the inability to speak due to tongue loss.
The story is a fascinating case study of family and friends facing traumatic events with courage and determination.
The Jake Smith Ranch Series is comprised of four novels, JAKE (‘I’m thinkin’…’), Jake And Sofia, Jake Hugs Texas, Jake’s Ranch And The Second Gate. Another title by the same author, “INTRODUCING..” is a collection of short stories on a wide variety of subjects (all based on the novels).
Throughout the series, Jake and Jade Smith, who are twins, demonstrate a love-bond that should be the envy of every brother and sister, twins or not. Jake has lost his tongue to an accident with a bull, as well as suffering a head injury.
The endearing characters take on a personality which makes them come alive for readers. The obstacles they face may be different from yours, but the way the characters deal with them is inspirational.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Apr 21, 2008 - 05:12am PT
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hey there... here is the press release.... take the challenge... maybe on of you will dive on in and test the series out.... you will never be the same... and you will surely have something mighty different to share in the reading circles, and it just may get someone else interested in helping folks learn more about head injuries:
Neebeeshaabookway's Jake Smith Ranch Series Sheds Light On The Haunts Of Head Injury, Seizures, And Tongue-loss, And The Hidden Heroes That Live With Such.
The Jake Smith Ranch Series, done in modern-day cowboy theme, leads readers into a strong fictional look at a hidden hero, fighting the head injury trail and why this is a highly personal fight, yet, also one involving ones entire family. Even if you are in the winners circle, it takes more than guts to overcome such aftermath.
The Jake Smith Ranch Series, by Neebeeshaabookway, delves into the heart of the matter of overcoming head injury, siezures, or tongue-loss. Survivors sift through a vast array of feelings never even suspected by the public that so easily pass these folks by--folks that seem less than perfect by so-called public standards, in the way they fuction.
Being that millions of families are affected by head injuries, behind-the-scene knowledge is highly needed. This is a new and unique fictional family saga, portrayed by simple-living ranch folks, in Montana, who used to ride the rodeo circuit. Their tenacity and loyalty to each other are part of the main ingrediant to get their buddy Jake Smith, into trying to face a new way of life.
Major brain changes are all too common to head injuries (though all are seen at different levels of intensity, depending on the survivors) amd all too often success is too hard to grasp. One cannot just stand up and decide their past guts-and-glory will make their life exactly the same again.
Jake daily tackles lost spells, the possibility of having more siezures, and accepting that he is no more able to read, write, or use numbers, in any way that leads to success. Not only is his ranch life and work changed, but Jake's association with the public is, as well, since Jake did trail-rides for local youth groups, and he now can't talk, either. The bull that led to his head injury, ripped-up his tongue, and he now faces life without one.
Jake's twin sister, Jade, is the initial ingrediant that pushes her brother back out into the limelight by teaching him to use American Sign Language to communicate. Something he resist, until adversity with the law, due to his muteness, gets Jake moving.
After his first year of recovery, Jake begins to reach out beyond his ranch again, and then seeks to court a gal, and finally feels he can face his Texas roots, and another group of buddies that have not met the "new Jake". This series shows head injury and seizure aftermath (as well as tongue loss) from a perspective rarely seen in any other novels.
It is touching the heart through a writing style that will make you step aside, and think deeply on these issues, and spur you to more dedication to your friends, or family, that face these issues.
It can be found at http://stores.lulu.com/neebeeshaabookwayreadjakeanddonate and at the author website, http://neebeeshaabookway.com and, http://jj-ns.read-jake-and-donate.com
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(royalties go to muskegon food bank) as--its hard, being hungry...
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Apr 21, 2008 - 05:46am PT
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hey there all... say, i posted this for lynne... as she was curious how some of us writers write---i will leave it up for a bit, and then take some of it down...
NOTE---THE ITALICS DID NOT SHOW UP... JAKE DOES NOT TALK---HIS DIALOG IS THOUGHT
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Apr 21, 2008 - 07:58pm PT
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hey there lynne... would you like the free novel that deals with the older-years and death and passing on, after life? ... it is the conclusion, but it may still help you release your feelings, etc....
email me, if i can help in some way...
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Social climber
valley center, ca
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Apr 21, 2008 - 11:08pm PT
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Hey, Neebee I really appreciate your offer. I'm not really a reader when it comes to dealing with my life. People, places and writing have been my touchstones. You are kind and special to think of me.
Peace and Joy,
Lynne L.
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samg
climber
SLC
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Apr 25, 2008 - 05:51pm PT
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I never really got into Willa Cather, but I agree that it is good writing, in fact I'd say some of the best American writing there is.
I'm not sure about Cather being able to outwrite any of the other great authors, as all their styles are so distinctive and unique to themselves and the environments that they lived in. I enjoy them all.
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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Bump for Raydog. Bukowski, Hamsun, Doig, Chomsky, Carlin for comic relief.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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May 17, 2014 - 12:39am PT
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bump this.... too
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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May 17, 2014 - 08:07pm PT
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"His true Penelope was Flaubert"
 Ezra Pound
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ms55401
Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
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May 17, 2014 - 08:33pm PT
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there you go again, Ed, bumping stuff that's irrelevant
can't stop global warming. can't stop illiteracy.
my 401(k) is in good shape though. And my dog pretends to like me enough.
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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May 17, 2014 - 09:13pm PT
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What an interesting thread. I'm a reading addict, myself. 2-4 books a week, on average.
One way to find new authors is the "Best American" series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_American_Series
I had not read the series until one of my essays was published in "Best American Essays", and I was generally quite impressed with what I wrote by other authors.
Another place to look is the Pulitzer Prizes. While there is some stuff that is too obscure in meaning, I've found some astonishing literature. For example, Gene Weingarten:
In 2008, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for his Washington Post story "Pearls Before Breakfast",[11] "his chronicling of a world-class violinist (Joshua Bell) who, as an experiment, played beautiful music in a subway station filled with unheeding commuters."[12] In 2010, he won a second Pulitzer for "Fatal Distraction,"[13] "his haunting story about parents, from varying walks of life, who accidentally kill their children by forgetting them in cars."[14]
these two stories are amazing, just amazing. The funny thing is that Weingarten is primarily a humorist, but neither of these stories are about humor. And you can read both online.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html
HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L'ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED HIMSELF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was nondescript: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play.
On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an unusually public way. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022701549.html
The defendant was an immense man, well over 300 pounds, but in the gravity of his sorrow and shame he seemed larger still. He hunched forward in the sturdy wooden armchair that barely contained him, sobbing softly into tissue after tissue, a leg bouncing nervously under the table.
In the first pew of spectators sat his wife, looking stricken, absently twisting her wedding band. The room was a sepulcher. Witnesses spoke softly of events so painful that many lost their composure. When a hospital emergency room nurse described how the defendant had behaved after the police first brought him in, she wept. He was virtually catatonic, she remembered, his eyes shut tight, rocking back and forth, locked away in some unfathomable private torment. He would not speak at all for the longest time, not until the nurse sank down beside him and held his hand. It was only then that the patient began to open up, and what he said was that he didn't want any sedation, that he didn't deserve a respite from pain, that he wanted to feel it all, and then to die.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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May 18, 2014 - 08:53am PT
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Not an expert, just a bookseller.
Who stared for years at collections of classics on the upper shelves where no one bothered them.
Two or three editions/bindings of the collection above.
The Harvard Classics.
The Everyman Library.
The list continues, of course, and not just in American versions.
Such a tremendous waste of paper and binding and it's because of what?
You tell me. I'm no expert.
I eschewed reading classics most of my life until my stepson sent me a copy of Heart of Darkness and A Tale of Two Cities.
I really enjoyed the dickens out of the French revolution, but my heart was not in Conrad's novel as it unfolded (confusedly).
I staggered through and felt ashamed to have continued when it was done. I was no more enlightened than when I had begun.
Then I read the Nigger of the Narcicuss (some writers deserve a second chance--he was Polish and became American and I know a guy...).
Not every novel of a writer will appeal, but try telling that to a lady who is buying her tenth John LeCarre hard cover for her library display in her living room (so American, so middle class, to display books in the living room and to not have a "library," so essential to middle and upper class in the last several centuries).
In in our ideal existence we humans must try to treat others by certain standards or we all seem to suffer. Classics function as such, providing whatever they may provide for the alert reader. It may be dull, but sometimes we must bend and read "something good for us."
The style content of an author either appeals or not. Don't concern yourself so much with this because you DON'T need to read a stylist who does not entertain. Remember, authors beg US to read their books, WE are in control here, and we are not students reading a "must read by end of term" list.
In this search for fit subjects for our limited time, it is important to realize that, as others here have said, YOU are the primary judge of a work, and that that author may or may not have a message for you.
I think this is why collections of classics are published, aside from the fact no royalties need be paid to dead men: If you find Pliny obsolete, turn that book in and go find another in your collection.
What often happens, too, is that a concatenation takes place, whereby you read one thing which leads you to another and yet more of the same. And this makes for enjoyment. The classics are but a stepping-off point for the rest of your reading.
I know that I don't care for Mr. Bloom. He's not Berkeley enough.
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