Book Review: Conscious Calm by Laura Maciuika

Conscious Calm

Title: Conscious Calm: Keys to Freedom from Stress and Worry by Laura Maciuika, Ed. D.
Tap Into Freedom Publishing (October 26, 2011)
Genre: inspirational, health

Conscious Calm advocates self awareness as a means to combat stress and worry. The book explores Emotions - what they mean, how to recognize them, practicing having a comfort level with your emotions. It calls for deep breaths to control stress from the inside out, and focusing on the present, both Eastern methods of relaxation. Conscious Calm has its own methods - hitting the Pause Button on Motor Mind; taking Being Breaks from daily activity and from Autopilot, using Personal Power 180.  The book offers tips and exercises in each chapter.

Finding calm and greater centeredness requires awareness, especially when starting out in a more stressed or worried state.(ch. 1)

What I took away from the book: Conscious Calm emphasized to me that chest breathing may not decrease stress, may increase stress, and that only a series of very deep breaths that seem to fill your stomach and expand it, will work for calming and reducing anxiety.

What I also found interesting was a "Stress-Busting Power Tool" called EFT, developed in the 1990s by Gary Craig. The process involves tapping on specific parts of the head and upper body with your fingers, an Energy Psychology technique that is nevertheless controversial among practitioners. Another component of EFT is the Brain Balancing Section, where you use tapping, eye exercises, counting and humming to activate several different sections of the brain all at once. The controversial part of EFT for me is the calling up of your self defeating or negative emotions in the exercise, emotions which may intensify during the exercise and which must be confronted and  lessened with more tapping.  Personally, I would use the finger tapping to distract myself from whatever thoughts might be stressful. at the moment. The fact that you are also using several parts of your brain at once in the exercises I think of as a plus.

I can recommend this book for those looking for alternative ways to handle stress and worry. The book is well worth looking at.

About the author: Laura Maciuika, Ed.D. is a clinical psychologist by training and integrative healer in practice. Laura writes about and teaches practical ways to develop inner freedom for greater happiness and success. She lives in northern California. See Author interview with Laura Maciuika.

For other tour stops, author interviews, and reviews, visit Conscious Calm Book Tour

Thanks to Pump Up Your Book promotions and the author for a complimentary review copy of this book.

Book Review/Tour: Shore Excursion by Marie Moore

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB and asks you to choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

"Jumped overboard. Is that what you said, Jay? Jumped overboard? He wrote this handy dandy confession and then jumped overboard? He was overcome with remorse, I suppose. His poor little old heart was just broken all to pieces?"

"Right. So now we don't have anything to worry about, do we?" (ch. 11)

Title: Shore Excursion by Marie Moore
Paperback by Camel Press (April 1, 2012)

Comments: Ruth, one of the seniors on a tour from New York to Europe for a cruise on the North Sea, complains to Sidney, the tour leader, that a man had tried to take her red suitcase from the carousel at the airport. On the ship from Scandinavia to Russia, one of the seniors on the tour is found strangled in her room. Sidney decides toget to the bottom of the crime, especially when other murders occur on the cruise and her own safety is at stake. Her business partner Jay adds some comic relief to the novel while he helps Sidney, who tries to solve the murders while keeping an interested eye on the handsome captain of the ship, Captain Vargo.

There is a twist to the plot that prevents the mystery surrounding Ruth's red suitcase from being predictable. Jay is amusing at times as Sidney's sidekick, though I thought some of the seniors actively helping in the crime solving would have been an added interest in the plot. Re the book cover - Death with a scythe and a dark cloak is a cliche, but the red suitcase on the cover does stand out! A good mystery to enjoy on a rainy day, on the beach, or maybe on a cruise!

Shore Excursion is the first book in a new mystery series featuring amateur sleuth Sidney Marsh.

About the author: Marie Moore, a native Mississippian, worked for a weekly newspaper as writer and Managing Editor, and won MS Press Association awards for her stories. She later ran a retail travel agency, using her experience to write Shore Excursion. She lives in TN and MS. Visit her at http://www.mariemooremysteries.com/.  

This tour runs March 1-30. For a list of stops and other reviews, visit Shore Excursion Blog Tour Site, sponsored by Tribute Books Blog Tours

I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.

Sunday Salon: Spring and Books

Welcome to the Sunday Salon.

It's slightly foggy and misty in the Midwest and warmer than the 57 degrees in Los Angeles, where I have relatives. The garden loves the sprinkling of rain here and my cherry tree is blossoming. So are the service berry trees that line three blocks on our street with white blossoms!

 from www.botanikfoto.com

I am reading Lucifer's Tears by James Thompson
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Shore Excursion by Marie Moore, for a blog tour

Three books that I won from my fellow bloggers:
Paris My Sweet by Amy Thomas,
The Yoga Club by Cooper Lawrence, and
77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz

The latest books in my mailbox are
The Greatest Love Story of All Time, a romance by Lucy Robinson
The Patchwork Marriage by Jane Green
Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers
Before the Poison by Peter Robinson

What are you reading these days and have you read any of the books I listed? If you have, which do you recommend?

Happy Spring!

Daughters by Elizabeth Buchan

Opening sentences in a novel can set the tone and help readers decide about a book. Here are the opening sentences for Daughters by British author Elizabeth Buchan.

Curious how much pleasure she took from saying, 'My daughter...actually my stepdaughter...is getting married.' It ran against the grain of her own experience but her pleasure was not to be underestimated...that visceral need to see a child settled.

She had got used to answering questions such as 'What sort of wedding?' and 'Do you like him?' (To the latter she would reply, 'Yes, I do.')
Did she like Andrew? The little she knew of him, yes. She could list the plusses :affable, well-mannered, liked a joke, normal. He was also - she was assured on all sides - brilliant at his banking job, and unusual because he was a man who took the long view.(ch. 1)

Title: Daughters by Elizabeth Buchan
Publisher: Penguin, paperback

Book description: It is a truth universally acknowledged that all mothers want to see their daughters happily settled. But when Lara begins to fear that her daughter Eve is marrying a man who will only make her unhappy, and her other daughter Maudie reveals something that shocks the entire family, Lara faces the ultimate dilemma. Daughters explores the impact of secrets and betrayal within a dysfunctional but loving family.

So, what do you think, based on the opening sentences?

The Real Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Andrew Marr

Title: The Real Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II

Author: Andrew Marr
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co., January 3, 2012

"Why should Americans be interested in Queen Elizabeth II, monarch of the United Kingdom and fifteen other countries, from Canada and Australia to tiny Tuvalu? It is a good question. She is a kind of anti-celebrity, a woman happiest in scarf, old coat and rubber boots, out with her dogs or horses. Thought enormously wealthy, she eats frugally, keeping her breakfast cereals in plastic boxes and switching off unnecessary lights as she passes through rooms....Her formal power is very small, and almost entirely irrelevant to the lives of those who are her subjects. (Preface to the U.S. Edition)

In time for the celebration of the Queen's 60th anniversary as Britain's monarch, here is Andrew Marr's biography of  Elizabeth II.

"She is a small woman with a globally familiar face, a hundred-carat smile - when she chooses to turn it on - and a thousand years of history at her back. (Prologue: What the Queen Does)

Publisher's description: A very personal biography of a woman who may be the world's last great queen, published to coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of her reign. Elizabeth II, one of England's longest-reigning monarchs, is an enigma.

Andrew Marr tells us the fascinating story of the real Elizabeth. Born shortly before the Depression, Elizabeth grew up during World War II and became queen because of the shocking abdication of her uncle and the early death of her father. Only twenty-five when she ascended to the throne, she has been at the apex of the British state for nearly six decades. Brought up to regard family values as sacred, she has seen a steady stream of family secrets poured into the open. Yet she has never failed to carry out her duties, and she has never said a word about any of the troubles she has endured.

About the author: Andrew Marr is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author. His best-known book is A History of Modern Britain. He lives in London.

Thanks to the publisher for a complimentary review/feature copy of this book.

Book Review: Cruising Attitude by Heather Poole

Slowly, slowly, bit by bit, we dwindled down from a class of sixty to forty-five.We never saw anyone leave - people were there one minute, gone the next....The instructors had to be watching our every move and listening to our every word. Why else did classmates suddenly disappear for no reason during a five-minute bathroom break? (ch. 3)

Title: Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet by Heather Poole
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, March 6, 2012
Genre: memoir

Comments: Lest anyone is still under the delusion that flying the skies as an airline stewardess is always a glamorous job, Heather Poole's tell-all book on the profession and how she got into it and why she has stayed will reveal a lot that may be surprising.

Grueling training when trainees may be dropped at the slightest hint that they might be unsuitable for the rigorous life of a stewardess, the problem of finding suitable accommodations for layovers in multiple cities, being on call and having to drop whatever you are doing to head for a flight at the last minute, dealing with demanding and sometimes totally crazy passengers, and working holidays if you are a junior stewardess -these are just a few of the realities on the job.

Heather Poole doesn't gloss over telling us about the hard work on the planes, feeding, catering to, and managing and controlling all the passengers all the time. True, there are perks later on in a stewardess's career, such as long layovers in great cities like San Francisco, New York, Boston, Los Angeles. Having seniority also means traveling international flights to Paris, Tokyo, the Caribbean, Delhi, Frankfurt. Without the seniority, however, you head for places like Jacksonville or short hops on domestic flights on smaller planes.

"If I made as much money as passengers thought I made, worked as little as my neighbors thought I did, or had as much fun on layovers as my friends think I do, I'd have one helluva of a job!" exclaimed one of my friends after he heard me trying to explain what it's like, really like, to work for an airline without enough seniority to hold the good trips."

After all, this is probably why most young people opt for a career with the airlines - the chance to visit cities around the world.

Things changed after 9/11 when the airline world was turned upside down and everyone became more serious, training included karate and other defensive measures. Flight attendants lost jobs, took pay cuts, had shorter layovers, and had to deal with the new reality of cutbacks.

"Even now, ten years later, whenever I hear about any accident involving an aircraft I'm taken back to that day in September. Most people don't have to think about it every time they go to work the way I do."

One of the positive outcomes of Heather Poole's job as a stewardess was meeting her future husband on a flight, shortly after a psychic told her she would. Just four months after seeing the psychic, "he walked on board my flight to Los Angeles." (ch. 15)

Heather is still flying and she says the stories keep getting better.

About the author:
Heather Poole has been published in The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2010. Her regular online column, “Galley Gossip: Confessions from the Jumpseat with Heather Poole,” has received more than two million views and is featured on AOL’s award-winning travel website, Gadling.com.


Visit the TLC Book tour stops for more reviews of Cruising Attitude.
Thanks to TLC and the publisher for a complimentary review copy of the book.

By the way, here's Heather's blog on being a stewardess: http://hpoole.wordpress.com/


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB and asks you to choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

Sunday Salon: And Now for Something Completely Different

Welcome to the Sunday Salon.

It's been a week of trying new things and having fun doing it.

I found out about burpees, exercises that have you jumping, and though I can only do a modified version, without the push ups, it still was great to be able to jump from bending over to a plank.
Click on the link to see the video: Burpee Exercise and then tell me if I'm crazy. By the way, I only do the very first one, the easy basic move.

A vegan dish was a hit with my spouse, who loves meat normally. I tried it after reviewing The Sexy Vegan Cookbook and featuring one of the dishes: Curry Tofu Salad, which has no eggs or cheese or milk, and no meat of course. It was pretty good, and I especially liked the grated fresh beets and carrots in the dish.

My yoga class is progressing nicely. I have trouble with balance and upper body strength so  standing with one foot only and arms streched out for balance, are exercises I'm practicing!  I am working up to the crocodile, a very low plank with your body straight and supine off the floor, with only hands and toes touching the ground. It will take a while to get there!

We went to see a touring company, one of three traveling groups, Shen Yun Performing Arts, classical dances of China, and I found myself watching all the leg, arm, and body movements, which reminded me of some yoga positions. The costumes and digital background scenery were magnificent, as was the dancing. I only wished they had kept the politics out of some of performances.

I'm reading Cruising Attitude for a TLC tour next week and plan to pass on the book to my niece, who was an air stewardess in her younger days. I bet she has her own stories to tell about flying the skies!

What have you been doing this past week?