Navigating Recovery Ground School

12 Lessons to Help Families Navigate Intervention and Recovery

by Adam Banks

#NavigatingRecovery #NetGalley

Is someone to whom you are close using alcohol or substances in a way that is harmful? Do you, as a person who cares deeply about them, find that you are unsure about your role and what you could/should do? If you answer yes to these questions, this title is worth a bit of your time.

As indicated on the cover, the author offers twelve lessons for families who are concerned about an addicted person. A few of these include Assume Recovery is Possible; Understand Addiction; Treatment; Create a Recovery Plan, and up to lesson 12, Post-Treatment. I am sure that it is no accident that there are twelve lessons, just as AA uses 12 steps.

This book wants to offer help and hope to the AP and their family. I It seems to be based on offering effective intervention strategies and long term planning. The stories of families offer readers a way to identify.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 16 September 2022

Welcome to the blog tour for Perpetual West

​“Stunning . . . A forceful addition to the literature of the U.S.-Mexican border and its ongoing history of tragedy and joy.”
—Jennifer Clement, The New York Times Book Review 

“Suspenseful, seductive . . . A thrill ride from cover to cover.”
—Oprah Daily, “The 50 Most Anticipated Books of 2022” 

The riveting new novel by the acclaimed author of Sugar Run, Perpetual West is a brilliant and evocative story of borders—between countries, between lovers, and between facets of the self.

When Alex and Elana move from smalltown Virginia to El Paso, they are just a young married couple, intent on a new beginning. Mexican by birth but adopted by white American Pentecostal parents, Alex is hungry to learn about the place where he was born. He spends every free moment across the border in Juárez—perfecting his Spanish, hanging with a collective of young activists, and studying lucha libre (Mexican wrestling) for his graduate work in sociology. Meanwhile Elana, busy fighting her own demons, feels disillusioned by academia and has stopped going to class. And though they are best friends, Elana has no idea that Alex has fallen in love with Mateo, a lucha libre fighter.

When Alex goes missing and Elana can’t determine whether he left of his own accord or was kidnapped, it’s clear that neither of them has been honest about who they are. Spanning their journey from Virginia to Texas to Mexico, Mesha Maren’s thrilling follow-up to Sugar Run takes us from missionaries to wrestling matches to a luxurious cartel compound, and deep into the psychic choices that shape our identities. A sweeping novel that tells us as much about our perceptions of the United States and Mexico as it does about our own natures and desires, Perpetual West is a fiercely intelligent and engaging look at the false divide between high and low culture, and a suspenseful story of how harrowing events can bring our true selves to the surface.

From the Publisher

Perpetual West, Mesha Maren
Perpetual West, Mesha Maren
Perpetual West, Mesha Maren
Perpetual West, Mesha Maren
Perpetual West, Mesha Maren

About the Author

Mesha Maren is the author of the novel Sugar Run. Her short stories and essays have appeared in Tin House, The Oxford American, The Guardian, The Southern Review, Ecotone, and others, as well as in Hobart, Forty Stories: New Writing from Harper Perennial, and elsewhere. She was the recipient of the 2015 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, a 2014 Elizabeth George Foundation grant, an Appalachian Writing Fellowship from Lincoln Memorial University, and fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Ucross Foundation. She was the 2018-2019 Kenan Visiting Writer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is an Assistant Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing at Duke University. She also serves as a National Endowment of the Arts Writing Fellow at the federal prison camp in Alderson, West Virginia.–This text refers to the audioCD edition.

Many thanks to Algonquin Books and Pearl Cadigan for this opportunity.

#PerpetualWest

Who is the: Queen of the Flowers

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries #14

by Kerry Greenwood

I recently read and reviewed a “Modern Miss Fisher” mystery which led me back to the original novels by Kerry Greenwood. Phryne is a wonderful character and readers could do far worse than spending time with her in this historical mystery set in Australia.

Just as a parade is being organized, Phryne’s adopted daughter Ruth disappears. Is she off in search of her father? Will she be okay? And, what of another missing young woman?

Phryne is NEVER defeated so readers can be pretty sure that all will be well. Spending time with Phryne, Dot and other favorite characters makes this title most enjoyable.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 07 November 2017

We could all benefit from: TA Little Dose of Nature

by Alison Greenwood

#ALittleDoseofNature #NetGalley

This title includes twenty-five activities for kids and their adults, all of which are about spending time in nature. The author begins by noting that there are five active nature elements that help people; these will give us more energy, better concentration and sleep, will help us to relax, and to be in a better mood. These elements inclde fractal patterns, nature sounds, phytoncides, soil bacteria and sunlight Don’t know what all of these mean? Turn the pages of this colorfully illustrated title to find out. Everyone will benefit and enjoy time spent away from screens.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 07 March 2023