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Anash you are the winner please contact me at clsherrard(dot)bookaddict(at)gmail(dot)com

The Freshman Survival Guide(Book Review)

0it doesn't have to` If this is your first year of college there is no need to fear The Freshman Survival Guide is here.
No longer do you have to  navigate rocky terrain  each and every chapter has a survival strategy for example
Chapter 1 Survival Strategy #1 Making good friends in college is important but it takes time. Be patient, be smart, and stay connected to your support network- the friends and family who helped you get this far.

Chapter 4  Survival Strategy # 4 Homesickness is a fact of college life ,but it doesn't have to defeat you.  Develop habits and relationships that will help  ward off your longing for homr.  Also through each chapter are real life stories  of actual college students themselves as wellas tips you can find online.  Here's a few other
Cchapters I thought were helpful:

Chapter 8 Real stats and strategies on mental health
Chapter 11 How to be a college student and Time management
Chapter 13 The care and feeding of the college professor
Chapter 19 Am I Safe,Don't be Paranoid just be Smart
chapter 23  there's no vitamin C in orange  soda and doritos aren't a food group.

I even went to The Freshman Survival guide website for the study budget.  Go to the link that says Listing  by Chapter then click chapter 11.. I gave copies to my oldest daughter who is already taking dual credit courses
at her high school.0.  While this resource is good enough for my daughter, I would never mislead her or your
the reader that this a a go to guide in terms of how to remain a Christian while you're at college.  This isn't that boook.  Nothing of course  will replace the bible and believe me when I tell you my child has 3 already.  What I was hoping  for was a supplemental guide in  a language  and perspective that a young adult could
rrrelate to.  I still give this book 4 stars out of 5 only in terms of a resource guide.  I would like to thank Center Street for allowing me the opportunity to review the book.  I am an Amazon Associate but I don't recieve money to review the book.

Contest Giveaway: 2 copies of Home and Away

I am giving away 2 copies for
1. The followers of this blog.
2. US and Canada residents only
3.Please leave an up to date email address in the comment section of this post.Deadline to enter will be
June 28,2011 @midnight.The winners will have 48 hours to respond so please check back her next Wed to see if you won.

Book Review Home and Away by David and Nancy French

 David French graduated from David Lipscomb University and from Harvard Law School with
honors.  This native Kentuckian became the lead attorney in the federal court case against the unconstitutional
speech code at Shippenburg University(with the Foundation For Individual Rights in education and won so why give all this up  to fight in Iraq? How does the spouse left behind deal with the ups and downs of suddenly having to raise the kids alone?  Was the year long deploement worth it  to them?  The aspect of this memoir I enjoyed the most was the fact that it was written from both sides of the coin.  So many times we may only get to see army wives on tv. or only from the soldiers point of view. If you have ever been curious as to what it's like then I highly recommend this book. I gave it 4 and 1/2 stars out of 5. I would also like to thank Center Street for the opportunity to review this book.

A Lonilness by Haki R Madhubuti(aka Don Lee)

looking thru the commerical
glass of the holidays or
howard j's
(I failed to make a distiction)
after a long day at  luther college
the one in iowa
listening  to the impressive.
trying to impress

I stood there
watching myself   feel
feeling
my own eyes checking
my dark reflection against
the day sounds.
standing there listening
as the raindrops dropped
over the dead leaves that
rested on greenless grass
as the tree's shadow
played dodge with the
slow wind
at night the distant
street light is the brightest sun
and I go to bed feeling
a part of it.

I wore the ocean in the shape of a girl by Kelle Groom

Kelle Groom is the author of 3 poetry collections in addition to this memoir.  Five Kingdoms released in 2010,Luckily (2006) and Underwater City 2004. but before reaching  sucess in the literary world she
had alot of personal demons to fight and conquer first.   In the memoir we go back to 1982 when the author
is a  a pregnant teenager living with her parents.  She is unable to raise the child in spite of the support she
received from her mother who was a teacher at the time and her father who was in the military.  So she will make  what will turn out to be a one of the most difficult decisions in her life by giving her son, Tommy up for adoption to her aunt and uncle.  Fourteen months later she loses him again to  cancer. It's here that we witness
the not so slow  fall into alcoholism as her means of coping with the loss.Even though the author did foreshadow her recovery I have never wanted to see someone recover so badly!  The benefit to reading a memoir  written by a poet is their skillful use of imagery. I felt like I was there with her every step of the way.  It's usually the use of metaphors, etc.. that sets this apart from celebrity memoirs.  The only drawback is the creative license the author sometimes uses that makes it a little incoherent from time to time but still a pretty good read I am giving it 4 stars out of 5.

FTC DISCLOSURE: I would like to thank Free Press(Simon and Schuster) for allowing me the opportunity to review this book, which I don't receive money to do and yes I am a Amazon Associate.

Swerve by Kelle Groom

I think of the man who sat
behind my grandmother's sister
in church and told her
the percentage of  Indian
in her blood calling it out
over the white pews.
I wonder what made
him want to count it
like coins or a grade.
I wish I could hear him
Now when I think her saying
that all of her  Wampanoag blood
in her body would fit in one finger,
 discounting the percentage it seemed, but why was she
such a historian, tracing the genealogy of the llast
Wampanoag  up to her own
children typing it all
on see through paper?
Maybe like me
she felt self conscious
caring about what we're made simpley being satisfied dressing our bodies
and driving them around.
Maybe she felt shy for loving someone
she'd never met, I mean
I do. I think of the knife
cutting into the flesh
and the fork carrying it
to your mouth
I always think of that, the sythe-like movement
single motion, a swerve.
I think of my relative,
the last Wampanoag in the town
walking the streets
with a dollar the town gave him.
Even then what would a dollar buy
a finger of land? If an Indian could have bought land
I think of walking into the almshouse.
The alms falling like figs from trees
something to gnaw on.
I think of the first time  of thanks
before it had a name
when it was just some
relatives of mine keeping
some relative of yours
alive through a cold winter
people stupid enough
to take food from a graveyard
food meant for the dead.