Nonfiction Book Review your fitness questions answered

Get the Skinny

Answers to 45 Frequently Asked Health & Fitness Questions

Kimberley Payne

copyright 2017

nonfiction

Health and Fitness

63 pp

$2.99 eBook

$5.99 Print

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Amazon Canada 

Amazon Australia 

About the Book

Get The Skinny debunks the myths and promotes the practices that contribute to healthy living.

Kimberley tackles frequently asked questions such as:
* Does muscle change into fat when I stop exercising?
* Will lifting weights make women bulk up?
* Should I take vitamin supplements?
* Is a flat stomach a realistic goal?
* Can I still exercise after an injury?
* Should I take vitamin supplements?
* Is it possible to spot reduce fat?
* Can ankle weights help burn more calories?
* Are fresh fruits more nutritious than frozen?
* Is fruit juice good for me?

And many more

Lisa Lickel's Review

Wow, this is a great little book! I rarely get excited about non-fiction, but Kimberley Payne’s fitness books are packed with great advice and practical tips. Get the Skinny is an excellent addition. Filled with common-sense information and personal observation, Payne truly does answer, realistically, questions many of us feel too stupid to ask, or didn’t realize there was even an option.

Some of my favorites are about how muscle turns to fat when we age and stop working out (it doesn’t), and whether walking with weights makes a difference (it does but probably not in the way you think). Why can’t I spot-reduce, and how to buy a sports bra—just great advice, backed not just by the most reputable medical research results, but experience. Personally, I’m more likely to follow tips by someone who’s walking the walk; not just telling me how, but explaining why. Get the Skinny is a practical guide for today’s practical lifestyle choices.

About the Author

Kimberley Payne is a motivational speaker and writer. Her writing relates raising a family, pursuing a healthy lifestyle, and everyday experiences to building a relationship with God. Kimberley offers practical, guilt-free tips on improving spiritual and physical health. Visit her website www.kimberleypayne.com

Book review Amish fiction by Linda Maran

The Stranger 

Linda Maran

c. 2017 Pelican Book Group

Inspirational Fiction

Contemporary

Amish

$4.99 EBook

$16.99 Print

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Buy on Barnes and Noble

About the Book

When Kristen Esh loses her mom in a tragic accident months before her 18th birthday, she suddenly finds herself among Amish relatives she never knew she had. The dramatic change from the Jersey Shore to remote upstate New York is difficult enough, but abiding by the Amish rules and lifestyle is a challenge unlike any other. As she discovers secrets that unravel her true identity, she finds an unlikely ally in John Wagler, the step-son of her aunt. He lessens Kristen's fears and encourages her faith. Interwoven with gradual revelations is the growing love between Kristen and John. One that encourages forgiveness and helps seal Kristen's fate.

My review

Maran’s debut book length fiction is well done, with coming of age elements. A young lady recently orphaned discovers the truth behind her identity and must come to terms with life-changing, life-challenging decisions on the cusp of adulthood.

Little about life for Kristen was anything like her friend’s lives—those with two parents, siblings, and a home of their own. Kristen lived with her mom and her mom’s boss in his large, empty home. She was usually alone and had learned to fend for herself and traverse high school, doing well enough with the help of her best friend’s stable family life and a boyfriend.

The news of her mother’s death, along with that of her boss in a tragic accident left her numb. What left her reeling was her mother’s instructions—after high school, she was to live with her aunt and family until her eighteenth birthday. Her aunt’s Amish family. Kristen’s mother had been raised Amish, but Kristen went as a stranger to her hopefully temporary life. When Kristen’s boyfriend disappeared, Kristen had to decide whether to stay or leave and be truly alone. Her new shirt-tale relative who lives with the family, John, makes that decision easier. More complications arise when Kristen’s mysterious father’s identity is uncovered.

The Stranger is contemporary new adult fiction, set in an Amish environment. Recommended for those who enjoy Amish fiction and romance with post-high-school-age characters. Told from multiple viewpoints, both male and female main characters, The Stranger is a story of finding home and family no matter who you are or how far removed you’ve been.

About the Author

I am the author of: Confronting the Bully of OCD. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.) A beneficial step-by-step self-help book with techniques taught to me by a leading NYC OCD specialist. I enjoy reading, writing, praying, nature, NYC jaunts, walking to keep fit, cooking, playing drums, and good phone conversations. I don't eat animals.

Review of a personal memoir Bringing Hope by Debbie McKinney

Bringing Hope: A Disaster Relief Journey

Debbie McKinney

c. August 2017, eLectio Publishing

$4.99 EBook

$14.99 Print

Buy on Amazon

ISBN 978-1632134066

Memoir

About the Book

Sometimes the UNTHINKABLE happens!

When terrorists attack, tornadoes make homes disappear, or hurricanes have communities tumbling like building blocks, our hearts weep for those in need. With insight into a world most people are unaware of, Debbie McKinney brings us along on the true story of her volunteer adventures. Travel with her through both uplifting and emotionally challenging experiences. An engaging, honest, and heartfelt account of bringing hope to people after 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, northern New Jersey flooding, and Hurricane Sandy. Her daily journals provide a unique view behind-the-scenes of what a volunteer does, experiences, and feels.

My Review

If you’ve ever wondered what it was like for those who drop everything and purposefully run into trouble, McKinney’s book is for you. The author was a long-time Red Cross volunteer with understanding bosses in her field of college administration who allowed her leave time to go and help. Although no one could respond to every disaster when called, and McKinney didn’t, she was part of the recovery efforts of some of the worst natural and man-made disasters in modern American history. Bringing Hope chronicles her time rendering aid.

McKinney shares how she became a Red Cross volunteer, a little history of the organization, and the typical responses in both her large urban community of Milwaukee, and the smaller, rural community in northern Washington County. Then she shares her personal journals and recollections from heart-wrenching major disasters such as the terrorist attacks on New York in 2001, and two of the formerly worst storms to strike American coasts.

The book is personal as well as matter-of-fact, a tell-it-like-it-was account of her role in the aftermath of tragedy. Not an immediate responder for the biggest disasters, McKinney was part of the team to go in a week or more after the event and help people mitigate their losses. Some were easy to take care of; most involved hours on the phone, deliberate decisions of how much money to give, where to find the basic necessities, or counselors, all while living away from family sometimes for weeks in situations little better than the victims.

McKinney’s story doesn’t end with her personal account, it’s a call for action, encouraging readers to respond by finding ways to help others where they are. Bringing Hope is a great story that will touch your heart, make you see red, cry, and laugh even when it feels as though things will never be the same.

About the Author

Debbie McKinney is an accidental author, convinced to share the journals of her volunteer experiences after 9/11 in Washington, D.C., Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi, and Hurricane Sandy in New York. She grew up and began her twenty years of volunteering in Milwaukee. A former Financial Aid Director with a BA in Interpersonal Communication from Marquette University, McKinney currently lives in rural Wisconsin with her husband. She enjoys gardening, model trains, and traveling.

The Little Girl Inside with Tonya Barbee

This is one of my stops during the two month tour for The Little Girl Inside: Owning My Role in My Own Pain by Tonya Barbee. This virtual book tour is organized by Write Now Literary Book Tours. This tour runs October & November. Follow the tour here.  Book your own tour here WNL

ASIN: B00VJFVN5Q

ISBN-10: 0692564802

ISBN-13: 978-0692564806

Genre: Non-Fiction

The Little Girl Inside is a prolific story of triumph and discovery of inner peace. With each page, the reader will be captivated while the author uses the writing pen as a sowing tool-seaming a garment of praise, banner of victory and fabric of joy. With imaginative color, the book is a perfectly designed combination of patterns expressing the maturation of a woman.

A uniquely designed transparent jewel every woman should own in her jewelry box. The Little Girl Inside is a ministry resource tool for women in search for transparency in the human heart. The author shows us how to overcome the inner battle of doing the right thing the wrong way, going from finding love in the wrong places to allowing love to be revealed in the right time and in the right place.

I made room for Sir Intellectual to bring what I thought were the remainder of hi things. I also made room on my health insurance policy just in case he didn't have any. Too bad it didn't occur to me to ask him. My ability to confront was non-existent. I decided not to wait until I returned to work to handle it. I contacted my carrier and updated my policy to include my new husband. 

The whole time I felt sad that he wasn't contacting his carrier to include me. I had a husband, though what caliber of husband, I wasn't sure. Sometimes I wanted to slap myself for being so needy that I overlooked important things and ignored flags, bells, and whistles.

TONYA BARBEE is a novelist and aspiring playwright. Her most recent published work is titled, The Little Girl Inside Owning My Role in My Own Pain. She is currently working on another project that complements this book. Tonya grew up in Durham, NC, a family of four daughters and one son. Her father, Woodrow served his country for twenty years as an Army officer, retired then taught ROTC for another twenty years and her mother, Doris, a college administrator. She is a proud 1980 graduate of Frank W. Ballou High School in Washington, DC. She worked in operations and management for Department of Agriculture for twenty years. For the past ten years, she’s worked as a project manager for Department of Defense in Washington, DC. She studied at National-Louis University where she earned her Masters in Business Administration in 2009.

Although she’s worked her way up the ladder in the federal government, she had no idea she would end up writing professionally however she has always enjoyed sharing her personal life through story telling with those she thought she could help. Then something clicked. As she writes, she is in hopes that her work reaches her readers that have been through something and have contemplated giving up. Her goal is to enable her readers to become empowered to keep moving forward to accomplish their dreams no matter what challenges they have been faced with.

Tonya resides in Bowie, MD with two of her youngest children, Christian and Zachary. Her eldest two, Andrew and Jessica left the nest years ago and have blessed her with seven beautiful grandkids.

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