New Humorous collection from Greg Peck

                                      

Snakes, Squirrels & Bears, Oh My! Finding Humor Amid Life's Frustrations
Greg Peck
Essay, Humor
CK Books, April, 2023
Paperback: $13.95, 178 pp
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About the Book:
Life can be full of frustrations. These might not happen daily, but then again, something frustrating might block your path to bliss more than once in a single day. Finding ways to make light of these annoyances, mining the nuggets of humor in these situations, can file the edge off these trouble spots and keep your life from going off the rails. Ride along as retired journalist Greg Peck recounts examples in a life filled with irritations and pratfalls on the road and in the wild but especially at home.

My Review:
We all have moments when we feel caught in a giant spiral spinning daily events out of our control. How we react is what character is all about. Greg Peck is quite a character! From keeping a frozen snake in his mom’s refrigerator for show and tell, to the squirrel in the living room, to encounters with bears on various hiking and fishing trips, Peck’s humorous essays are a peek into the foibles of contemporary life.

Peck pokes fun at long-time friends and gets as good as he gives when his grandson’s car seat buckles nearly defeat him, and his kids try to help swap sim cards in phones. A dream of owning a fishing boat has unintended consequences. Through all the remodeling, vacations, pet tales, grocery shopping hell, and wisdom of babes, Peck’s 46 tales will resonate with each reader. Recommended for readers of short story personal humor.

About the Author:
Greg Peck spent his career working for three Wisconsin newspapers and won numerous journalism awards. He’s a longtime member and former board member of the Wisconsin Writers Association and in 2017 won the association’s Jade Ring for nonfiction. His previous nonfiction books: Death Beyond the Willows, How a Wedding Day Turned Tragic in America’s Heartland, (2005, republished in 2013) and Memories of Marshall, Ups and Downs of Growing Up in a Small Town (2020).

How to move from partisan bickering

 

 

Seeking Truth: How to move from partisan bickering to building consensus

Elgin L. Hushbeck, Jr.

Inspirational, Epistemology, 292 pp

April 26, 2022, Energion Publications, Gonzalez, FL

ebook $8.99

Print paper $24.99

Buy on Barnes and Noble

Buy on Amazon

About the Book:

We live in a world that is not governed by Truth. Disagreements surround us. Recent Presidential elections are hotly contested and won by the narrowest of margins. Charges of misinformation, fake news, and bias abound. Everyone claims they are correct; they have the Truth.

Seeking Truth looks at both the philosophical and practical issues of Truth to understand how we come to know what we know and why we disagree so much. More importantly, it lays out how we can disagree in ways that avoid division and polarization and instead move to build a consensus on the Truth.

Seeking Truth addresses things like how to think about what you believe, how to handle disagreement and errors positively, how do you know if you are open-minded, and how to make better decisions.

Seeking Truth uses a lot of examples to make this case. To avoid current disputes, most are drawn from history, as people in various times and settings sought to understand how nature works, what happened in a particular event, or what is the best way to proceed or govern ourselves. Science, history, politics, business, all of these areas involve Truth in one way or another.

Get Seeking Truth to become a better thinker, a more critical thinker, and one who moves closer to the Truth.

My Review:

Using examples from our past in science and philosophy, politics, and communication, Hushbeck sets out to show us a more perfect way to disagree while not having to be of the same mind in his compelling book, Seeking Truth. It’s a big topic and timely as the world has become more polarized in action and reaction. Hushbeck’s approach to guiding readers on this journey out of the pit of partisanship is a thoughtful, pedagogical study of applying critical thinking to distill “absolute, objective truth.”

The book is not terribly long but well detailed and covers considerable ground from the antiquities to recent US polls of opinion. The book is divided into three main parts with digestible chunks: one – a study of history to set the table for establishing truth; two – how disagreement and error shape society and understanding; and three – a reasonable guideline for purposeful discussion. It’s not an easy read, but honest and forthright and best of all, sensible and objective.

I appreciate the examples from science and history about how theories of elements, disease, and energy have evolved as the methods of testing improved; how the Lincoln-Douglass debates of the mid-nineteenth century US show that complexities of context shape public opinion, echoing down through the generations.

Moving beyond bickering can only happen when people are willing. “Reason does not work on those who embrace irrationality,” Hushbeck points out. “For some, truth is just a power structure, a tool for oppressors to use on the oppressed.”

Offering plenty of advice for defining and refining disagreements and errors and avoiding repression and censorship, Seeking Truth is not an answer, but a process. Reaching a common goal is a commitment, a constant testing of theory and practice, and keeping communication open. “Hopefully, if a side consistently loses because of bad arguments, they will seek to develop better ones. As a result, the level of discussion will improve.”

We are fallible, Hushbeck concludes, but learning better arguments “can only improve the process of seeking and bringing us all closer to the truth.”

 Recommended for readers interested in learning more about applying and practicing critical thinking.

 

About the Author:

Elgin L. Hushbeck Jr. has been many things over his life, author, hardware engineer, software developer, manager, small business owner, educator, lecturer, and family man. He wears many hats, but there is a common thread throughout. Mr. Hushbeck has been an Evangelical Christian for over 40 years.

Mr. Hushbeck's background includes academic studies in religion, history, and engineering, culminating with a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, and Master's degrees in both Christian Apologetics and an MBA/Technology Management. As an engineer, he worked for several engineering and technology firms, including five years at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. There he was part of a team developing a high accuracy GPS receiver. He was also part of the Voyager Flight Team for the encounter with the planet Neptune. His wife Hanna also has dual Master's degrees, one in Nursing with an emphasis in Informatics, and the other in Applied Computer Science. From 1999-2007 they owned their own company, which designed and developed databases and custom software applications for small businesses.

Mr. Hushbeck has taught at the University of Phoenix, and most recently for Rassmussen College. He has taught, among other things, classes in Information Technology, Computers Science, and Business. He also taught critical thinking both to students and to other faculty. http://www.hushbeck.com

v

Book Review WWI Canadian fiction with Jenny Knipfer

 

Silver Moon, By the Light of the Moon series, book 3 by Jenny Knipfer

Inspirational Historical fiction

self-published, June 30, 2020, 409 pp

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Print: $15.99

EBOOK: $2.99

About the Book

Silver Moon, the third book in the series: By the Light of the Moon, paints a stunning and poignant picture of life on the home front in Webaashi Bay, Ontario, and of three men who are a part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during WWI.

Shamed into joining the war, the tide turns for Luis Wilson when he is steered into the depths of espionage. Injured and presumed missing, will he lose his heart to the very woman who presented him with a white feather?

Oshki and Jimmy offer a grim perspective on life in the trenches. They despair of ever returning home to the women who hold their hearts.

Meanwhile, Lily fights for the cause in her own way and rallies the female troops at home as prejudices run high and the local cafe owner is accused of being a spy.

Will the women of Webaashi Bay receive their men back unscathed? Can the power of love win out over insurmountable odds? All this drama and more plays out under the light of a silver moon.

My Review:

The third book in Knipfer’s By the Light of the Moon series draws the reader into World War One on the European front and at home in Webaashi Bay, Canada. Although this story stood alone quite well, readers will be intrigued to see how the family drama developed in the first two stories plays out. This story felt comfortable for a first-time reader to the author, more like being welcomed by new friends. The setting, a time of need, camaraderie and survival, brings the large cast and reader together. I enjoy history, and Knipfer’s research and literary replay put me in place in Canada and the trenches of France and Belgium. 

Told from a dramatic starting point, Knipfer leads her readers through a web of time and place that slowly draws us toward a meeting point when all the timelines and character threads meld and move forward together. Three soldiers share their stories from the war front while the reader is pulled back in time to explain what led up to the events. I admit that the number of family members of each character and the time jumps from the start of the war at home to periods in between up to 1917 were somewhat jerky until I settled into intimacy with their unique voices and perspectives. In this case, I recommend that the reader simply let the stories unfold in their own time.

Luis is an artistic soul who joins up when challenged by a stranger, much to the surprise and dismay of his family. His First Nation friend Oshki then jumps on the bandwagon primarily to make sure his buddy stays safe. Their stories twine is precious ways. The third hometown boy’s story comes about some ways into the story when Luis’s sister Lily takes up a community effort to support the valiant men and begins not only a letter-writing campaign, but establishes a women’s civic club for mutual benefit among the citizens of the small Ontario community.

Knipfer’s sense of place and era were lovingly recreated as little-known facts emerge, such as placing citizens of German descent in internment camps during the war, much like was done to Japanese-descent citizens during World War Two.

Ultimately, Silver Moon is a story of forgiveness, second chances, prayer and patience. Although told through multiple characters, Lily and Luis carry the main threads. An epilogue wraps up this story line. Harvest Moon, the fourth in the series, is scheduled for release later this fall and I look forward to reading it.

About the Author

Jenny Knipfer lives in Wisconsin with her husband, Ken and their pet Yorkie, Ruby. She is also a mom and loves being a grandma. She enjoys many creative pursuits but finds writing the most fulfilling.

Jenny’s education background stems from psychology, music, and cultural missions. She spent many years as a librarian in a local public library but recently switched to using her skills as a floral designer in a retail flower shop. She is now retired from work due to disability.

She authored and performed a self-published musical CD entitled, Scrapbook of a Closet Poet. Jenny acquires joy in the journey as an author. Ruby Moon, the first title in her historical fiction series: By the Light of the Moon, earned a five star rating from Readers' Favorite. Her books are available in eBook and paperback formats through Amazon and Ingramspark.

Jenny holds membership in the: Historical Novel Society, Wisconsin Writers Association, and Midwest Independent Booksellers Association.

Jenny’s favorite place to relax is by the western shore of Lake Superior, where her novel series is set.

Kim Suhr shares short stories

Wisconsin author and director of Red Oak Writing Studios announces her new release, Nothing to Lose, a collection of short stories that take place around Wisconsin. Welcome, Kim Suhr. 

                       

Cornerstone Press, Dec. 2018
ISBN 9780984673971
Paperback: $14.95
E-book coming soon
Buy on
Indie Bound
Amazon

About the book:
Drawing on the rich complexity of the American Midwest, Kim Suhr peoples her debut book of fiction with characters that we know, carved out of the Wisconsin landscape and caught between expectation and desire. An Iraq war veteran stalks the streets of Madison. Four drunk friends hunt deer outside of Antigo. A mother tries to save her son. A transplanted New Yorker plots revenge against her husband. A man sobers up and opens a paintball range for Jesus. A woman with nothing to lose waits for her first kiss.

Personal and powerful, Kim Suhr’s Nothing to Lose shows us a region filled with real people: less than perfect, plagued with doubts, always reaching.

A brief interview with the author:

Introduce us to your most difficult character.
That’s a tough one because I love all my protagonists—even the unlovable ones—for their complexity and brokenness. Perhaps the most difficult for me to get inside of was Anna, aka Ellen Wilkinson, from the story titled “Brush Strokes.” I wanted to help readers identify with her even as they become increasingly uncomfortable with her. Who is the “good guy” and who is the “bad guy?” I like to keep the reader guessing.

Can you share two things you learned from your research during the writing and publication process?
I learned that there are artists who actually paint with human blood. (I don’t even want to think about what my Google search history looked like on the day I learned that!)

As for a publishing tidbit, I learned the truth of the adage: “I’m a great believer in luck. The harder I work the luckier I get.”

What do you hope readers will tell others when they’ve finished the book?
This book made me see something in a different way; it made me compassionate for someone who is different from me.

What’s next for you?
I am working on the audiobook version of Nothing to Lose, then probably an e-book as well. I have a couple of short stories in process and a few chapters of something that wants to be a novel. (Ssshhhh! Don’t tell anyone.)

What are you reading now?
I just finished Besotted by Melissa Duclos (which I loved) and have cracked the spine on Saving the Scot by Wisconsin author Jennifer (Rupp) Trethewey, the fourth book in her House of Balforss series.

Lisa---I'm a big Rupp fan, too, but shhhh! Don't tell anyone.

Thanks for sharing, Kim.

About the Author:
Kim Suhr lives and writes in southeastern Wisconsin. Her work has appeared in Midwest Review, Stonecoast Review, Rosebud and others. She holds an MFA from Pine Manor College, where she was the 2013 Dennis Lehane Fellow in Fiction. She is director of Red Oak Writing and a member of the Wisconsin Writers Association Board of Directors. You can follow her at:

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