Holly’s life has not always been the easiest.  Yet through it all she has clung to a story her grandmother had told her a long time ago when she was a little girl,

She tells of the precious string that connects all women.  She tells her great grand-daughter that the string is so pure and light that most women cannot see it.

“The string is a powerful force my sweet girl.  It allows women to lean into one another and find a sister when they need one.  The string can never be broken.  You can use it to pull yourself up, to pull yourself forward, or to steady the place where you must remain.”

Page 4, Hearts On A String

When a storm hits that strands Holly in an airport with four other women all from very different walks of life, they agree to share one of the women’s (Nan’s)  luxury hotel suite.  As the story unfolds the women meet some interesting characters along the way.  What starts out as an inconvenience becomes a life changing experience for each of the women as they share stories, admit their fears, and start to see the strings that bind friendships.

I do enjoy books on women’s friendships and that was the draw for me to this book.  Reading the synopsis and knowing how important my friendships are to me, I really wanted to sink into this book.  Plus…. of course, total cover love.  It looks like bubble gum or cotton candy…  🙂

And how do you bring together a motley crew of women such as Nan who is in Banking Investments(and owner of the cell phone and toilet scene that brings the women all together (oops…. did I say too much?  ;)), Cathy the sexy blond, Patty the Lounge Singer, Margo the mom, and of course Holly, who is a hairdresser together?  That is the story that is about to unfold…

It took awhile for this book to really get started.  In the beginning you learn quite a bit of each of the women and the conversations during this part of the book didn’t flow for me and somehow felt choppy.

That being said, once you get through this bumpy section, the book picks up a pleasant pace that left me overall satisfied with this read.  I appreciated the ending of the book and felt it wrapped up nicely and made me consider those bonds, or strings if you will, of friendships that I am thankful to have in my life. Hearts On A String is the perfect title for a book about opening your heart up to others and letting in the possibilities.

My Amazon Rating

Book Journey has updated the 2010 reading map to include Hearts on A String

When in Tampa Florida, be sure to stop in for a great cup of coffee at Sacred Grounds

318 pages

Cover story:  As I said in my review – the cover stopped me in my tracks and made me want to know more about this book… and that – is what you really want in a cover.  Fun and lively – it fit my mood.

I received this book for review as part of the TLC Tour

I received my review copy from JoAnn@LatinoBookTours.com

When I read For Women Only, I was brought to several “ah ha” moments that made a difference for me.  The one thing that stands out for me in that book was that Shaunti pointed out that event the Bible says that husbands are to love their wives and wives are to RESPECT their husbands.  What Shaunti pointed out was that when interviewing 100 men and asking them if it was more important for them to feel loved or respected, 98% came back as saying respect was more important to them.  That blew me away.  And she was right, I tested it myself by showing more respect to Al and the business we own and the man….. blossomed.

All this I mention in prelude to The Male Factor.  I am not a fan of self-help books or advice books…. but Shaunti has won a hard-earned spot with me from the book mentioned above so to read The Male Factor was not ever of question.  And?  She delivers again.

In this book, Shaunti once again goes right to the source, this time interviewing 1,500 men.  She asks the questions and then gives us the answers.  Digging in to the minds of business men she brings back the difference between women being able to go to work and still keep playing in the background of our minds, where the kids are, what is the agenda for later as well as meal planning.  The men, according to Shaunti’s surveys have two different worlds – work world and personal world.  AT work world – it is all about work and their personal things are shut down to this.  Due to the brain function of men, they can become hyper focused on the job at hand and everything else is screened out.

Many topics are covered in this book that explain the differences of the internal wiring between men and women.  How mens brains work compared to women’s.  In this particular book by Felghahn I felt this would be an excellent read for women in the workplace who work alongside many men as this book is oriented towards men n the workplace.

Shaunti has a way with words and I find her book intelligent and well written.  I was engrossed in the learning of how men see things differently than women.  Arming yourself with this information could reallyc hange your work place environemt for the better.

Millions of women gained eye-opening insights about the inner lives of men through Shaunti Feldhahn’s best-selling book For Women Only. Now with The Male Factor, Feldhahn brings her pioneering research approach to the workplace to help women understand their male colleagues. Based on a nationwide survey and confidential interviews with thousands of men whose anonymity was guaranteed, her book reveals the private thoughts and attitudes that men rarely show but every woman needs to know.

Never before has an author gotten inside the hearts and minds of men in the workplace—from CEOs to nonprofit managers, from lawyers to factory workers—to discover what they commonly think about women on the job, what their expected “rules” of the workplace are, what “managing emotion” means, and what factors improve or harm a man’s respect for a female co-worker.

Among the little-known but critical insights The Male Factor reveals are:

o  how men, with rare exception, view almost any emotional display as a sign that the person can no longer think clearly (as well as what men perceive as emotion in the first place)
o  why certain types of trendy attire may actually sabotage a woman’s career
o  which little-known signals make sure that a man’s perception of a strong female colleague is positive (“assertive and competent”) instead of negative (“difficult”)

Even women who have navigated male-dominated work environments for years have expressed surprise at these and other revelations in the book. Some readers may find them challenging. Yet The Male Factor delivers a one-of-a-kind opportunity for women to understand how male bosses, colleagues, subordinates, and customers privately think, and why they react the way they do. These vital insights enable each woman to make informed decisions in her unique workplace situation.

Shaunti Feldhahn began her career as an analyst on Wall Street and today is a bestselling author, speaker, and nationally-syndicated newspaper columnist.  Her recent bestsellers have sold more than one million copies and have been translated into 18 different languages.  The books in her popular “Only” series, including For Women Only: What You Need to Know About the Inner Lives of Men, and For Men Only: A Straightforward Guide to the Inner Lives of Women, For Parents Only and For Young Women Only (both of which were co-authored with youth speaker Lisa Rice), and For Young Men Only (co-authored with husband Jeff Feldhahn and Eric Rice, husband to Lisa Rice) have led to great life-change—and plenty of fascinating conversation—for men, women, parents and teens around the country. She has also authored two true-to-life spiritual thrillers. Shaunti’s newest book in the works is for women in the workplace, to be released December 29, 2009.  This book is a startling exploration of what men privately think in the workplace but rarely share; perceptions that often fundamentally affect their female colleagues.  Shaunti is now speaking to corporate groups and sharing this new research, so that women in the workplace can avoid unintentional self-sabotage and be particularly effective and influential with male bosses, colleagues, clients or subordinates.

This book is counted in the following Challenges:

2010 100+ Reading Challenge

My Amazon Review

I received my copy of this book fromWaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

Author Jonny Bowden looks at what he calls “The Four Horsemen of Aging”—free radicals, inflammation, glycation, and stress—and shows how they can harm your health and shorten your life. Bowden then unveils an arsenal of anti-aging strategies culled from cutting edge research and lessons learned from the longest lived people on the planet. He examines how the major organs, such as the heart and the brain, age and how you can prevent damage to these vital parts of the body. In total, readers learn what they can eat, do, and take to feel great, avoid illness, and live a long life.

It is never to early to start putting healthy habits in place and this book is a wonderful example of just that.   Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S., is a nationally known expert on weight loss and nutrition.  In The Most Effective Ways To Live Longer Jonny focuses on what he calls the four horseman of aging:

• Oxidative Damage
• Inflammation
• Glycation
  
• Stress

As the book says, the four horseman of aging is anything that’s happening to your body that you wish were not happening, from the beginning of disease to the breakdown of systems to the loss of functionality… all this is being driven by the engine of these four processes.

Yes the above paragraph is depressing.  This book is all about taking these four steps and through diet and exercise how to keep the horses at bay.  And this…. I love.

Foods like wild salmon (a perfect anti aging food) to blueberries (filled with antioxidants and cancer fighters)…. we are walked through delicious choices that keep you young and healthy – inside and out.  Exercises like crunches for the abdominal muscles, squats for legs and lower body, weight resistance and more.  This book is a wealth of knowledge.

The Blue Zone chapter was fascinating!  Every so often, a team of researchers will discover a little corner of the globe where- inexplicably- people routinely live to 100 or more. These areas have come to be known as “The Blue Zones” and scientists have spent hundreds of research hours trying to uncover their secrets.  Some of these secrets are reveealed within the pages of this book.

This book is a wonderful reference that with slight adjustments to our everyday lives we can apply. Through these steps we can slow even stop the aging process.  What is not to like about that?  Big bold pictures and written in an easy to follow, even funny tone… page by page you are going to eat up this knowledge and truly be better for it in the end.

Who Is Jonny Bowden?

He has been featured in The New York Times, The New York Post, Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune, Time, GQ, Cosmopolitan, Oxygen, Remedy, Family Circle, Self, Fitness, Allure, Essence, Men’s Health, Pilates Style, Prevention, Woman’s World, In Style, Fitness, Natural Health and Shape and has appeared on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC and CBS as an expert on nutrition, weight loss, and health..

*My Amazon Review

I received this book from Pump Up Your Blog Promotion

It’s the summer of 2004 and Freddie Holtzman can’t wait to get to Camp Mason, a summer camp for eggheads or rather, gifted teens. He hopes to reconnect with Ginny Haig, a girl he met at camp last year. Freddie’s old friends, Logan and Monty, are there along with some new faces. He tries to win Ginny’s affection, but every time he tries to talk to her, he says-and does-nerdy things.

At Camp Mason, a science fair pits the eggheads against one another for the top prize of a five thousand dollar scholarship. But, when the projects go missing, friendships are put to the test, relationships get put on hold, and everyone’s a suspect. To make matters worse, the camp is haunted by young Billy Mason who died there decades ago. The boys are determined to solve the mystery of the ghost and the missing science projects.

Freddie’s quest to win the scholarship—add the girl of his dreams—are constantly in jeopardy. There are complications at every turn: the ghost, a creepy caretaker, Freddie’s high school nemesis, a cantankerous camp manager, and a saboteur all threaten his chance to win the prize and Ginny’s heart.

For a book with an extremely unusual title (that gave me flashbacks of A Curios Incident Of The Dog In The Night) I found the whole read fascinating!  I felt like a kid again buried eye balls deep in Hardy Boy and Nancy Drew Mysteries.  Larry Sweitzer’s book was a great reminder of books of my past.  The setting of a camp is an excellent fit  for a book that revolves around the importance of friendships.

Many different elements make up this book that would be wonderful for the 7 – 10 age group.  I liked the fact that Freddie was extremely smart but also a jock.  This really brought together two groups that are usually quite separate the jocks and the…. well the eggheads.  I liked that about this book as it shows that you don’t have to be one or the other. Once I  started the book I did not put it down until on that last page our main character Freddie…. oh – that’s right, I can’t tell you!  Guess you will just have to read it for yourself!  😉

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Larry Sweitzer is a writer, musician, and avid baseball fan. He was born and raised in western Maryland and now lives in Virginia with his wife and two daughters. The Ghost, the Eggheads, and Babe Ruth’s Piano is his first novel. Visit him at www.larrysweitzer.com.

My Amazon Review

I received my copy fro review from Pump Up Your Book Promotion