Friday, December 30, 2016

2016's Best Books

It's the end of the year and I have enjoyed a wide variety of books. I decided to pick the best and highlight them in a list.

The Indies

Mirth Defects
Clint Forgy
My absolute favorite book of the year. J.D. Ferguson is a hard drinking, hard loving kind of guy and this book tells his back story. Funny, irreverent and sometimes tender, it entertained from start to finish. 


My Children's Legacy 
Clementine Rhodes
Interesting biography about an 'ordinary woman" who decided to record her life for her children. I couldn't put this slice of American down. Fascinating insight into the everyday life of a girl brought up in rural Texas. Reminded me a bit of The Glass Castle.


Old Pops' Last Beer
Dwayne Fry
Great little short story about a beer dive and the people who drink there. Short and lyrical, I raced through it wanted to learn more about his fully developed characters.

The Seduction of Granny
Clint Forgy
The continuation of my favorite rascal, J. D. Ferguson. This is the backstory to his eight marriages and how he finally snagged the one that got away. Don't let this fantastic read get away from you either.

Austism: A Noah City Short Story
Dwayne Fry
A family comes to life in the short story, their hopes, dreams and insecurities so accurately portrayed. Fry creates an entire world in a few short pages that will suck you in and not let go.


Oldies but Goodies


The entire Harry Potter Series
J.K. Rowling

Read this every night from February to September with my oldest grandson.  I never expected to enjoy it as much as he did and will admit I cried a bit when we closed the last book. Enchanting, captivating and much deeper if you look, Rowling is a master storyteller that created a creditable world from the fantastical idea of a school for wizards.
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Roots The Saga of an American Family
Alex Haley
My brother listened to it on audio and told me how much he was enjoying the story of Haley's ancestors. I loved it as well. Compelling and sometimes brutal, it was a fascinating history of Haley's family. I especially loved Kunte Kinte's boyhood in Africa. Unforgettable.

Histories

Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville :A True Romance

Amy Licence
Nobody writes history like Amy Licence. She weaves a beautiful story about the courtship and marriage of Edward of York and the beautiful Elizabeth Woodville. A deeply wonderful way to read history.

Game of Queens: The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe
Sarah Gristwood

A smorgasbord of powerful women from the sixteenth-century who shaped the world. Take a trip through Europe and watch the world develop thought the smart women who knew how to influence the right people.

The Vatican Princess:A Novel of Lucrezia Borgia
C.W. Gortner

Very human treatment about the Borgia family, author Gortner detangles the complex history of both the Vatican and Italy to explain the impact of this notorious family. Fraught with intrigue, dirty politics, and incest, The Vatican Princess offers an insiders look as to Gortner perceptions of the Borgias and the reign of terror




Popular fiction

The Forgetting Time
Sharon Guskin
Compelling and well-written story about a four year old boy who can inexplicably recall a former life. Janie Zimmerman is a single mother trying t raise her difficult son. Unputdownable.

The Widow
Fiona Barton
Excellent book, way more believable than Gone Girl about a woman stuck in a situation leaving the reader to wonder if she was the victim or architect of her nightmare.
Hanging Mary- A Novel
Susan Higginbottom

The back story to Mary Surrat, the woman convicted and hanged as John Wilkes Booths  accomplice in the assignation of Lincoln. Higginbothom fills in the ghosty outlines giving them human substance. I never gave Mary more than a passing thought as a scheming villain when I read about her in history. Susan Higginbottom's Mary becomes another hapless victim swept up in the war that rent families as well as the country.

Happy Reading!
Carole P. Roman

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

A Letter From A Friend

I want to share this with my friends. This was written by playwright and friend Marty Casella

To My Family and Friends -

It’s been difficult to write a holiday message this year. With the sulfurous election, the seemingly endless terrorist activities and some hard-hitting tragedies for close friends, life seems not only dark but mean. Mean as in the Dickensian sense of the word. That is… tough, harsh and larded with an underlying nastiness that is hard to shake. But Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice and other seasonal celebrations are, as always, about light, hope and belief in a better future. As my wonderful mom Shirley often says: “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” With that in mind, here are some photos and thoughts about a seemingly faraway dawn, and how we must, as a society, always have hope.

I took the photos above on my recent trip to Spain. (for those of you who love the play NOISES OFF – “He ain’t home. He’s in Spine!”). They were taken in a recently rediscovered, thousand-year-old synagogue in Barcelona. This synagogue was lost for centuries post-1492, when Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand deported most of the Jews and Muslims in Spain. Many of those Jews ended up in the New World, in Brazil particularly, and later came to the U.S.; that’s another story for another Hanukkah. The magical, tiny, two-room stone synagogue six feet under the surface of modern day Barcelona was located after years of research, using tax records from the Middle Ages. Amazingly, the address on those records matched an address still in use, below a current structure which houses shops and a warehouse. Inside the first room, there is a glass floor which lets you look down onto Roman ruins, which were found under the synagogue. In the second room are many items, including old silver serving plates, silver Torah readers (each with a tiny silver finger attached to it) and, in its own glass display case, the synagogue’s ancient Torah. Which was found a few years ago in a bazaar in Tunisia. And then there was this stitched portrait of a menorah.There’s both solemnity and joy in this glorious creation. What a beautiful reminder it is that even during the darkest times, Hanukkah candles will be lit again and again. What a Hanukkah miracle that Barcelona synagogue is. Rediscovered and brought back to life years after vengeful and anti-Semitic Spanish royals thought they’d crushed it forever.

 These photos are from the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, at dusk, just as the stars and the moon were appearing. The moon and stars were a longtime religious symbol to the Muslim Moors who conquered Spain in the eighth century, and ruled it until 1492. I learned a lot about the Moors in Spain. Probably the most famous Moor that most of us know is Shakespeare’s OTHELLO, a love-struck black general whose jealous lieutenant Iago drives Othello into a murderous rage. The Moors, who were of Arab and Berber descent, came from North Africa. They brought to Spain stunning architecture, including much glorious tile work scattered across the Iberian Peninsula. Two of the loveliest Moorish buildings in the world are the Alcazar in Sevilla, and the enchanting Alhambra in Granada. Granada, by the way, is the Spanish word for pomegranate. Hence the non-alcoholic, sticky red bar syrup known as grenadine. Both stunning structures, which are nearly 1000 years old, include palaces, forts, gardens and endless fountains. The Moors, being Muslims, celebrated many Eids - holidays - ranging from Mohammed’s birth (which took place in early December) to the Arabic New Year. When Spain was united and the Catholic Royal Family banished Muslims, many of the customs the Moors left behind were continued.  Much of their gorgeous architecture also remains.
Speaking of Catholics, families and architecture, here are three photos from the most famous Catholic church in Spain.
 
They’re from Antonin Gaudi’s jaw-dropping Familia Sagrada Cathedral in Barcelona. Construction is still going on after over 100 years. It’s a huge, rough place of worship and wonder, done in the Moderniste style of the early 20th century.  It was also the most crowded tourist site we visited in Spain. To paraphrase a well-known prose writer, I loved it but I didn’t like it. It reminded me of a gigantic Texas mega-church crossed with a surreal Mall of the Americas. I know it’s the masterpiece of a genius, but when I visited another nearby church in Barcelona, a simple stone chapel built in the 14th century, it felt more contemplative and far more spiritual than all of Gaudi’s smoke and mirrors. Familia Sagrada isn’t finished yet; maybe I’ll like it more next time.

The one thing I did whole-heartedly adore though was the western entrance to the church, which is known simply as The Nativity Door. Included there are The Three Wise Men aka The Magi aka The Three Kings. In the above photo, they kneel reverently before the newborn King, parump-pum-pum-pum. They wear cool, butch, medieval clothing in which they look like lost Crusaders. The Three Kings technically didn’t get to the Christ Child until Epiphany, which is on January 6th, but they are an important part of the Nativity, which is what Christmas is really all about, right? One last thing about the Wise Men: their Gifts to Baby Jesus. Gold is what you give a King. Frankincense is used to perfume the air around a King. And in a prescient nod toward the Christ Child’s future, myrrh is used to embalm a King. These Three Wise Guys were really wise.
 
To the many people who don’t celebrate a winter religious holiday, but still like to honor The Longest Night Of The Year, or The Winter Solstice or The Day When The Light Begins To Return, I say huzzah! Celebrations of every kind are always good! And what better what to celebrate the coldest, dreariest months of the year than with chocolate? At the end of my travels, I visited longtime family friends in Brussels, Belgium. We stayed about fifteen minutes from Waterloo, where Napoleon was finally beaten by the English, who had joined forces with other European armies. The battlefield is haunting and ghostly. That battle site is also where we get the expression “to meet one’s Waterloo.” Which is when an enemy - or anyone in general who is a sadistic, war-mongering, egomaniacal autocrat like Napoleon - is finally beaten for good. That expression is also the title of an Abba song. To meet one’s Waterloo. Keep that in mind. Don’t you love words? Anyway. Chocolate. 

In Belgium, and much of Europe, they celebrate December 6th as St. Nicholas Day. Every chocolate shop in town – there are many, many, many chocolate shops in Brussels – is filled with delicious, mouth-watering chocolate versions of St .Nick.  Some are the size of your thumb and some are three feet tall. Who was Saint Nicholas besides a precursor (and the basis for) Sinterklaas and/or Santa Claus? He was born in 270 in Patara, which was part of the Roman Empire.  He was known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker, and was legendary for secret gift-giving. You can see where that led to. Nikolaos… Saint Nicholas… Sinterklaas… Santa Claus. St. Nick is famous for bringing back to life three children who had been killed by a mad butcher and whose bodies – now brining in a barrel – would soon be eaten. Superhero St. Nicholas saw through the barrel, opened it and resurrected the kids. He is also celebrated for saving three orphaned sisters from prostitution by secretly throwing bags of gold through their open window so they could pay their bills and remain chaste. In one version, St. Nick dropped bags of gold down their chimney. Because of these stories, Nicholas became the patron saint of children. He is often portrayed, even when he is made of chocolate, as sheltering rescued children under his cape.


In closing, I must say as I put this missive together, I began to see a pattern in the stories. How saviors, saints, heroes, and wise men and women come to the rescue of the poor and downtrodden of society, especially when tyrants and mad men seem to rule the day. It’s why we light Hanukkah candles. It’s why we have the light from the moon and stars to guide us. It’s why we adorn Christmas trees with lights. Because light is always stronger than darkness. Good is always stronger than evil, and the acts performed by evil people. Just think of that synagogue in Barcelona. Shut down by hate-filled, bigoted, fundamentalists. Lost for hundreds of years. Then rediscovered by men and women of faith. Think of St. Nicholas saving abused children from murder and misogyny. Think of the Moorish palaces, whose beautiful tile walls have outlasted the destruction wrought by short-sighted, ignorant kings and queens.

Don’t curse the darkness. Turn on a light. Be a rescuer. Be a hero. Do good. 
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Good Solstice, a Fine Birthday of Mohammed and a Glorious New Year.
Best and much love,
Marty


Happy Holidays to all of my friends- Carole P. Roman

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

NEW Release: If You Were Me and Lived in...the Ancient Mali Empire (Volume 10)




BUY IT HERE

Join Carole P. Roman as she travels back in time to visit the exciting Ancient Empire of Mali in Africa during the 1300s. Learn about the varied customs and cultures. Travel to the past to discover what you would eat and do for fun. See the land and its rich history through the eyes of a youngster like you. Don't forget to look at the other books in the series so that you can be an armchair time traveler.


About the Author

Friday, December 9, 2016

Awards!!! Click my tab at the top to see a complete list of my books available on Amazon.


Navigating Indieworld: A Beginner's Guide to Self-Publishing and Marketing Your Book - Awards:
  • Foreword Review 5 Star  Clarion

Being A Captain Is Hard Work - Awards:
  • NABE Pinnacle Award Winner
  • New York Book Festival 2016 - Honorable Mention
  • Foreword Review - Five Stars
  • IAN Book of the Year Awards 2016 - "Children's Fiction Illustrated" Finalist
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
Can a Princess Be a Firefighter? - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
Captain No Beard and the Aurora Borealis - Awards:
  • NABE Pinnacle Achievement Award 2014
  • Kirkus Review Star of Exceptional Merit 2015
  • Named to Kirkus Reviews Best of 2015
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
Strangers on the High Seas - Awards:
  • Readers Views Book by Book Publicity Literary Award - Children- Toddler- 5  - 1st Place Winner 2013
  • Readers Views Kids Award for BEST CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE YEAR 2013
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
Fribbet the Frog and the Tadpoles - Awards:
  • NABE Pinnacle Award 2015 Winner
  • Independent Author Network (IAN) Book of the Year 2015 - Finalist - Children's Fiction
  • Readers Views Classics Winner
  • National Indie Excellence Finalist 2016 - Picture Books - Ages 4-8
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
The Crew Goes Coconuts! - Awards:
  • NABE Pinnacle Award 2014 - Best In Children's Adventure
  • IAN Book of the Year 2015 - Finalist
  • Reader's Views Literary Award Winner 2014-2015 Reviews Choice Award 2nd Place- Children Toddler-5
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
The Treasure of Snake Island: A Captain No Beard Story - Awards:

  • Foreword Review 2014 Indie Fab - Finalist - Children's Picture Book
  • Independent Author Network (IAN) Book of the Year 2015 - Finalist
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
Stuck in the Doldrums: A Lesson in Sharing - Awards: 
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
Captain No Beard: An Imaginary Tale of a Pirates Life - Awards:
  • 2013 ERIK Award for Best Children's Book 2013
  • NABE Pinnacle Award 2012
  • Kirkus Star of Exceptional Merit & Kirkus Reviews Best of 2012
  • Indie Reader Approved 4 1/2 Stars - Feb 2016
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
If You Were Me and Lived in... Turkey - Awards:
  • Independent Author Network (IAN) Book of the Year 2015 Finalist
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015 -  Best Series
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
If You Were Me and Lived in... Kenya - Awards:

  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • Foreword Review - Five Star Clarion Review
  • NABE Pinnacle Book Achievement Award 2014
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015- Best Series
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
If You Were Me and Lived in... Norway - Awards:
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015- Best Series
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
If You Were Me and Lived In... Scotland - Awards:

  • NABE Pinnacle Award 2015
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015 - Best Series
  • Independent Author Network (IAN) Book of the Year Finalist 2015 - Finalist - NON-FICTION (CHILDREN'S) 
  • Foreword Review - Five Star Clarion Review
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
A Flag for the Flying Dragon - Awards:
  • NABE Pinnacle Award 2015 Winner & Honorable Mention Children's Books
  • Independent Author Network Book of the Year Finalist 2015 Children's Fiction
  • Readers Views Book Award Classics Winner
  • Los Angeles Book Festival
  • National Indie Excellence Award - Children's Fiction Winner
  • Foreword Review - Clarion Five Star
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
If You Were Me and Lived in... Australia - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • Foreword Review - Five Star Clarion
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015 - Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived in... Elizabethan England - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • 2016 Homeschool Review Crew Blue Ribbon Awards - Favorite History Supplement
  • Shelf Unbound 2016 Contest winner for Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived in... France - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • Rebecca's Reads Choice Award 2013 - General Non Fiction - Second Place 
  • Foreword Reviews 2012 Book of the Year Award Finalist - Best Children's Non Fiction
  • NABE Pinnacle Award 2014
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015 - Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived in... Hungary - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015- Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived In... China - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • NABE Pinnacle Award 2015
  • Los Angeles Book Festival Honorable Mention Children's Books
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015- Best Series
  • National Indie Excellence Finalist 2016 - Children's Non-Fiction
If You Were Me and Lived in... Egypt - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
If You Were Me and Lived in... American West:
  • Summer 2016 NABE Pinnacle Book Achievement Award Winner - Best Book in the Category of "Children's American History"
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • 2016 Homeschool Review Crew Blue Ribbon Awards - Favorite History Supplement
  • Shelf Unbound 2016 Contest winner for Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived in... Middle Ages Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • 2016 Homeschool Review Crew Blue Ribbon Awards - Favorite History Supplement
  • Shelf Unbound 2016 Contest winner for Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived in... Viking Europe - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • 2016 Homeschool Review Crew Blue Ribbon Awards - Favorite History Supplement
  • Shelf Unbound 2016 Contest winner for Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived in... Mexico - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • NABE Pinnacle Achievement Award
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015 - Best Series
  • National Indie Excellence Award - Juvenile Non-Fiction Winner
If You Were Me and Lived in... Russia - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • Foreword Reviews Five Star Review
  • Reader's Views Literary Winner 2014-2015 Reviewers Choice  
  • Independent Author Network (IAN) 2015 Book of the Year Finalist
  • Foreword Review - Indie Fab Book of the Year Finalist
  • NABE Pinnacle Award 2014 - Best in Children's Interests 
  • Foreword Review 2014 - Indie Fab Finalist - Juvenile Non-Fiction
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015 - Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived In... South Korea - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • Readers Views Book by Book Publicity 2013
  • Literary Award Honorable Mention
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015 - Best Series
  • National Indie Excellence Finalist 2016 - Picture Books - Ages 4-8
If You Were Me and Lived in... Ancient China: The Han Dynasty - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • 2016 Homeschool Review Crew Blue Ribbon Awards - Favorite History Supplement
  • Shelf Unbound 2016 Contest winner for Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived in... Ancient Greece - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • 2016 Homeschool Review Crew Blue Ribbon Awards - Favorite History Supplement
  • Summer 2016 NABE Pinnacle Book Achievement Award Winner - Best Book in the Category of "Children's History"
  • Best Book Awards 2016 - Children's Educational - Finalist
  • Shelf Unbound 2016 Contest winner for Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived in... Brazil - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
If You Were Me and Lived in... Colonial America - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • 2016 Homeschool Review Crew Blue Ribbon Awards - Favorite History Supplement
  • Shelf Unbound 2016 Contest winner for Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived in... India - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • BookWorks Book of the Week  (Week of August 3, 2015)
  • Foreword Review - Five Star Review
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015- Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived in... Italy - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • Foreword Review - Five Star Review
  • NABE Pinnacle Achievement Award
  • 2016 International Book Awards - "Finalist" in the "Children's Educational" category
If You Were Me and Lived in... Peru - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • Winner NABE Pinnacle Achievement Award 2014
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015- Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived in... Poland - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015- Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived in... Portugal - Awards:

  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • Foreword Reviews - Five Star Review
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015 - Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived in...Renaissance Italy - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • 2016 Homeschool Review Crew Blue Ribbon Awards - Favorite History Supplement
  • IAN Book of the Year Awards 2016 - "Children's Non-Fiction" Finalist
  • IAN Book of the Year Awards 2016 - Outstanding "Children's Non-Fiction"  Winner
  • Shelf Unbound 2016 Contest winner for Best Series
If You Were Me and Lived In... Scotland - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • Children's Moonbeam Award - Silver Medal Winner
  • NABE Pinnacle Award 2015
  • Shelf Unbound Award 2015 - Best Series
  • Independent Author Network (IAN) Book of the Year Finalist 2015 - Finalist - NON-FICTION (CHILDREN'S) 
Pepper Parrot's Problem with Patience - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!
  • Foreword Review - Five Star Clarion Review
Rocket-Bye - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!


One To Ten: Squirrel's Bad Day - Awards:
  • Back to Homeschool Resource Award winner!

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Support Indie Authors!




Check out the titles that have been selected by the moderators of Support Indie Authors. You can support Indie Authors and add these incredible books to your holiday gift lists!

Find the list HERE!

Interesting and full of history



Comprehensive book about the legendary group of warriors called Samurai. Naing describes their history, how they developed, their code of honor, equipment and suit of armor. He brings up the roles of children and women in this warrior class. Interesting and full of history, it's a great book about a volatile history of Japan and the social codes intwined in the fabric of their society. As a lover of James Clavell's ShoGun, I wish there was more on the feudal history of Japan and the advent clash of East meeting West. I also wish he would have explored the decline of the Samurai's influence as well. I received this book for an honest review.

Happy Reading!
Carole P. Roman