Registered Nurse and Psychotherapist Laurie Elizabeth Murphy draws from her own experience working in the field to create a uniquely intellectual and entertaining mystery in her new book, Dream Me Home.
The idea of one’s real life and dreams intersecting into an interwoven story fascinated me. While I expect twists and curveballs involving the main characters, Laurie Elizabeth Murphy brings the reader into different planes and with this psychological mystery and, dare I say, mind’s adventure.
Ms. Murphy’s background as a nurse and in the psychological field enables her to present to the reader a more unique and thought-provoking journey quite different from the regular whodunnits and love/relationship stories. Many authors have combined the two, but Ms. Murphy introduces us into the minds and motives of the main protagonist through several means: her experiences, her conversations with a therapist and through her own dreams – all realized after a traumatic home invasion which gradually changed her life in several ways. The writer also looks more deeply into our own human emotions, desires and failings through the other main characters.
In Dream Me Home, Ms. Murphy offers the reader not only the thrills of a mystery, psychological drama and unexpected turns, she conveys real-life ponderances about marriage, crime, passion vs. true love, control and finding one’s true self.
Jack Warren, Jr’s Freedom: A Deep Dive into the Revolutionary War
The American Revolution did not only lead to the birth of the United States as its own nation, but set the tone for the creation of what would soon become the Free World as many other countries followed suit with roads to their own independence. Sadly, however, political tones controlling the public education system and academia have either failed to teach or purposely minimized the true importance of the Revolutionary War. Historian Jack Warren, Jr. talks with host Chris Cordani on Book Spectrum about the war, its beginnings, the players (famous and not-so-well-known) and why it should be emphasized more to younger generations today and moving forward with his new book: Freedom: The Enduring Importance of the American Revolution
The book provides a profound look into British America, the Revolutionary War, the birth of a new nation, what freedom truly means, and how the events of the past hold significant importance even in modern society.
Freedom delves deep into what planted the seeds for revolution, the Revolutionary War, important figures, and the ideals that the new nation was built upon. Accompanied by a vast collection of full-color reproductions of paintings of the colonies, people, battles, and maps, as well as a multitude of quotes from America’s founding fathers, Freedom is accurate, detailed, and all-encompassing.
For more informatoin on Freedom: Freedom: The Enduring Importance of the American Revolution – The American Revolution Institute
About Jack D. Warren, Jr.: Jack Duane Warren, Jr., is a native of Washington, D.C., whose work focuses on the enduring achievements of the American Revolution. He attended the University of Mississippi and Brown University. He is married to his wife, Janet, and they have three grown children. He has been studying and reflecting on American history since he learned to read. He considers himself a historian of American public life—much more than just politics and governance.Jack Warren has been actively involved in historic preservation and in how the places we preserve are presented. He was one of the leaders in the successful effort to preserve the site of George Washington’s childhood home from development to securing its designation as a National Historic Landmark. He also helped preserve the house where Washington lived in Barbados and was involved in the successful effort to save a large and critical part of the Princeton battlefield, including the land over which Washington personally led the charge that resulted in his first great battlefield victory over British troops. During the summer of 2020, he sat beside a statue of George Washington to talk to protestors about why we have honored Washington and ought to honor him still—Washington challenged a world that was grotesquely unfree and laid the foundations of free society—while protecting the statue from vandalization.
S2 E16 – Jacquie Abrams: Hush Money, A Story About a Woman Who Stood Up to Racism in the Workplace
Politically-charged debates are often passionate, yet at times cloud people’s abilities to agree how and when to right a true wrong. While Crying “wolf,” buzzwords and misinformation have become the norm, they minimized those who are actually suffering or lost in the proverbial cracks. Let’s take the story in “Hush Money,” by my guest Jacqui Abrams, a tale based on a true story of racism in the workplace. Due to many factors – not the least of which is fear of losing job and other people lying about or minimizing such at their own workplaces — racial preferences and racism in companies and other work environments goes unreported or ignored. Through the eyes of the characters in her book – -HUSH MONEY — , Jacquie relays an actually true story of a woman who called this out, won her argument, changed things and kept her job. We at Book Spectrum do not run with the “Woke” crowd, but we are interested in treating everyone with the respect they deserve and calling out wrongdoing when we see it. The story in Jacquie’s Hush Money is rarely told and needs to be heard.
Hush Money tells a compelling and cautionary tale that is all too familiar to Black people across the globe about the rigors of working in a large, highly bureaucratic organization and dealing with covert and overt racism. Levels and types of discrimination are chronicled in the five-year journey of Ebony Ardoin, an ambitious, young, Black woman in search of a fulfilling and rewarding career path that allows her to live the American Dream.
The twisting arcs of Ebony’s story reveal layers of emotional complexity and racial trauma as each new promotion invites praise, jealous rancor, and outright loathing. Organizational politics and protecting turf go hand in hand with discrimination, retaliation, intimidation, and racial hatred expressed in a variety of ways.
Hush Money: How One Woman Proved Systemic Racism in her Workplace and Kept Her Job, by Jacquie Abram, has been selected by the Unity and Equality Alliance, located in Canada, as their next book to read. While the organization seeks to help people of color with issues locally, in Brockville, Ontario, they also see the big picture by pushing their messages far and wide. Abram’s fictional story, inspired by true events, lays bare the struggles against racism many Black and Brown people experience in the U.S. and across the globe.
S01-E14: Kevin Schewe – Bad Love Tigers, a sequel to Bad Love Strikes
Kevin Schewe is back with a new Sci-Fi Time Travel Sequel: Bad Love Tigers, his sequel to Bad Love Strikes (which was featured on our first Book Spectrum show).
Author (and Oncologist) Dr. Kevin Schewe asks “What if you had the chance to go back in time and talk to President Roosevelt about the atomic bomb? What would you say to him?”Schewe explores this topic and more in his much-anticipated time-travel adventure novel, Bad Love Tigers.
After going back in time to rescue people from the Nazis, Schewe’s sequel to Bad Love Strikes sees the Bad Love Gang – Pud, Bubble Butt and the others – taking another trip to the World War II era, this time to warn President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the Germans’ plans to create the atomic bomb. The President would enlist their help to protect The US’ White Hole Time Travel Project, Area 51 and an adventure leading them all the way to WWII China.
Pick up the book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2DPCPGD
Kevin’s website: https://kevinschewe.com/
S01-E06 – Jamie DeNovo: I-M-Possible Muscle For the Mind
Jamie DeNovo, a successful businesswoman and visionary who came back from a nightmare traumatic event which threatened to destroy her company, family and life tells her story. When all seemed lost, Jamie learned how to use the power of #neuroscience and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland to physically adjust her brain to set her mind to get take her life back and become successful once again. Collaborating with one of the world’s top neuroscientists, Dr. Bryan Kolb, Jamie wrote I.M.Possible Muscle for the Mind: The Power To Achieve Success When Success Seems Impossible.
Jamie talks with host Chris Cordani about the book, how she developed the I-M-Possible Mind Muscle concept and how you can learn to adjust your own #brain to soon achieve #success, even if it seems impossible now.
Jamie developed I.M.Possible Muscle for the Mind, a precedent-setting brain change program that will give anyone the power to scale mental walls and achieve successes that now seem impossible. With humor, compassion and insight, Jamie now uses the findings of neuroscience to equip others to reach inside themselves and achieve great things even under the most adverse conditions.
Jamie’s Website: https://www.imakepossible.org/
Find Jamie’s book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3dNwkRU
The Companion Workbook on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3aDuotc