Tag: Book Tour

Join Pat Williams, co-founder of NBA’s Orlando Magic and author of the motivational business and

team leadership book, Extreme Dreams Depend on Teams , as he virtually tours the blogosphere in August and September on his first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion!

Pat Williams is the senior vice president of the NBA’s Orlando Magic. He is a popular motivational speaker averaging over 150 appearances a year. Williams has spent 45 years in professional baseball and basketball as a player and executive. He served as general manager of the 1983 world champion Philadelphia 76ers and managed the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks.

Williams is the author of 55 books. He and his wife, Ruth, are the parents of 19 children, including 14 adopted from four nations. He and his family have been featured in such diverse publications as Sports Illustrated, Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping, The Wall Street Journal, and Focus on the Family as well as all the major TV networks. Pat and Ruth recently received an award from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute for their efforts in adoption. To learn more about Pat Williams, visit www.PatWilliamsMotivate.com.

Human beings are designed for teamwork, and teamwork is the only way to make seemingly impossible dreams and bold visions come true. Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France seven consecutive times, not by himself, but with the backing of his coaches, mechanic, and teammates. Charles Lindbergh may have been called “the Lone Eagle” because of his 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic, but he assembled a first-rate team to make his dream possible.

In his new book, Extreme Dreams Depend on Teams (Center Street, July 22, 2009), Orlando Magic co-founder and Senior Vice President Pat Williams says that teamwork is the key to making extreme dreams a reality. Named one of the 50 most influential people in the NBA (National Basketball Association) after following his dream and helping to build the Orlando Magic from the ground up, Williams gives inspiring accounts of the power of teamwork—many of them personal—in a book that leadership guru Patrick Lencioni calls “the most comprehensive and interesting collection of wisdom on teamwork I have ever read.”

In Extreme Dreams Depend on Teams, Williams points out that extreme dreams are only fulfilled when teams are led with characteristics like respect, empowerment, commitment, trust and passion. “Once you put teamwork into practice in your organization, these principles will begin transforming everything. They will transform how you view the world, including our society and its problems, and the political and environmental issues we face…you’ll begin seeing the world through a lens of extreme dreams, extreme possibilities, and the power of teamwork,” says Williams.

I love books on team building!  I have read quite a few through the years and most of them stay with me on the book shelf for reference.  Pat Williams book will definitely be a keeper.  I am currently working my way through this book and I a finding information and ideas that I can apply in my own life.

… Reading this book I tried to imagine what this had to feel like for our main character Macy…  for that matter, what is must have felt like to Finn and Wyatt…. and you just know that somewhere at sometime in this world, this has actually happened… ~ Sheila

Macy Lockhart’s life shattered in a moment with the news that her husband, Finn —serving in the military overseas — has been killed in the line of duty. Their ardent and devoted marriage is over, leaving Macy alone, empty, directionless. But while she tries to sustain herself with memories of Finn, the quiet, strong man who made her and their small Texas ranch the center of his life, it is wealthy Wyatt Clark who slowly brings joy back into her life. Her love for Wyatt may be less romantic than the breathless passion she’d once shared with Finn, but she vows to cherish him, and their marriage is happy and as solid as a rock. Until the day that Finn, miraculously spared from death, returns home to claim his bride….

Well, as the back of the book states?  Whose wife was she?

I have never read a book on this subject line before and was surprised tor ead about the laws that go with such a situation…. still married to the first husband, would have to divorce him to make new marriage legal…. I guess that all makes sense, I had just never thought about this situation.  Apparently, our author, Julia London had thought about this subject… and out of those thoughts, same this book, Summer of Two Wishes.

I have always had a heart for the under dog – but without giving too much away, I will let you know that this book holds a few surprises.  I recommend this book for a late summer read with a touch of romance.  I have never read Julia London before, but I will read her in the future.

Characters that feel as though they truly live and breathe, London has created a page turner that will leave you at times excited to see what the next page will bring.

Julias Website

Julia at Goodreads

This book is a review copy sent to me by Pocket Books

I rate this book PG13 for some sexual content

I began this book with a little knowledge about a Quinceanera… and ended with a much better understanding and appreciation of all that it means. ~ Sheila

All Ana Ruiz wanted was to have a traditional quinceañera for her daughter, Carmen. She wanted a nice way to mark this milestone year in her daughter’s life. But Carmen was not interested in celebrating. Hurt

and bitter over her father Esteban’s departure, she blamed Ana for destroying their happy family, as did everyone else. A good man is hard to find, especially at your age Ana was told. Why not forgive his one indiscretion? Despite everything, Ana didn’t want to tarnish Carmen’s childlike devotion to her beloved father. But Ana knows that growing up sometimes means facing hard truths. In the end, Ana discovers that if she’s going to teach Carmen anything about what it means to be a woman, it will take more than simply a fancy party to do it..

I struggled a bit in the beginning of the book with the Spanish words that were used in an otherwise english sentence.  In many cases I did not know the words meaning or have a good guess so I had to skip over those parts.  As the book moved forward and I became familiar with the characters and the rythym of the book it became easier not to be stumped by these words as I was already engrossed in the story line.

Author, Belinda Acosta puts together a wonderful read with a story of tradition that takes me out of my own corner of the world and places me in hers.

I have attended a Quinceanera in Honduras this past February, although until this book, I did not know that is what it was called.  Ava had turned 15 and I was told that as Honduras customs this was a coming of age type event where a young girl steps out and is not introduced as a young woman and it is time to put away childish things.  They dressed Ava up in a beautiful gown and did many of the things described in this book, such as replacing her flat shoes for high heels, taking away her teddy bed and replacing it with a beautiful necklace.  It really was something to experience – maybe more so as Ava is a street kid – a child saved from abandonment of her own parents and brought to Manuelito (where I spend time each year) and has been given a life she would have never had.

For my story of Ava, this book had a special meaning for me and I am thankful that Belinda Acosta wrote of Quinceanera’s.

About the Author:

Belinda Acosta has written and published plays, short stories, and essays. As a journalist, her work has appeared in the Austin American-Statesman, The Austin Chronicle, the San Antonio Express-News, The San Antonio Current, and AlterNet. Her short story Tortilla Dough appeared in Saguaro, a publication of the University of Arizona in 1992. In 1993, she produced, directed and performed in a multi-media dance-theater performance of La Llorona. National exposure came in 1995 when she read her personal essay Gran Baile, on Latino USA – the Radio Journal of News and Culture, carried on National Public Radio.

Belinda Acosts’a Blog

I received this book from Hachette Book Group as part of a blog tour

I give this book a PG rating