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My Stroke of Insight

By:  Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D 

A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey

Jill Bolte Taylor, PhD teaches us what to pay attention to by telling the story of her experience having a stroke.

In a recent interview, Dr. Taylor says-

“I take you on a very unusual journey into the step-by-step deterioration of my cognitive abilities, as viewed through the eyes of a scientist. As the hemorrhage in my brain grew
larger and larger, I relate the cognitive deficits I was experiencing to the underlying biology. As a neuroanatomist, I must say that I learned as much about my brain and how it functions during that stroke, as I had in all my years of academia.”

Read The information below from Dr. Taylor's website- drjilltaylor.com/book.html

Jill Bolte Taylor was a 37-year-old Harvard-trained and published brain scientist when a blood vessel exploded in her brain.  Through the eyes of a curious neuroanatomist, she watched her mind completely deteriorate whereby she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Because of her understanding of how the brain works, her respect for the cells composing her human form, and an amazing mother, Jill completely recovered her mind, brain and body.  In My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, Jill shares with us her recommendations for recovery and the insight she gained into the unique functions of the right and left halves of her brain.  Having lost the categorizing, organizing, describing, judging and critically analyzing skills of her left brain, along with its language centers and thus ego center, Jill’s consciousness shifted away from normal reality.  In the absence of her left brain’s neural circuitry, her consciousness shifted into present moment thinking whereby she experienced herself “at one with the universe.”

Based upon her academic training and personal experience, Jill helps others not only rebuild their brains from trauma, but helps those of us with normal brains better understand how we can ‘tend the garden of our minds’ to maximize our quality of life.  Jill pushes the envelope in our understanding about how we can consciously influence the neural circuitry underlying what we think, how we feel, and how we react to life’s circumstances.  Jill teaches us through her own example how we might more readily exercise our own right hemispheric circuitry with the intention of helping all human beings become more humane.  “I believe the more time we spend running our deep inner peace circuitry, then the more peace we will project into the world, and ultimately the more peace we will have on the planet.”

Take a look at this video of Dr. Taylor from the TED website:  Click Here

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Great Women Exploring Nature

By:  Linda Taylor

Great Women Exploring Nature: How Wild Florida Influenced Their Lives written by Linda Taylor was released on Earth Day 2008.   The book combines history, travel ideas, nature awareness and art. The reader will discover how a thread of Florida's wild nature wove itself into the lives of ten women. This connection is examined in the stories of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mina Miller Edison, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Zora Neale Hurston, Myrtle Scharrer Betz, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Jackie Cochran, Rachel Carson and Marjorie Harris Carr. Author Linda Taylor developed the idea for this book from her experience of guiding women on nature adventures in the Tampa Bay area through her company It’s Our Nature®. 
 

The Right to Be You

By:  Temple Hayes

Eat, Pray, Love

One woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia-

By:  Elizabeth Gilbert

A New York Times Bestseller

Reviewed by:  Susan Fields

In the best seller, "Eat, Pray, Love"; the journey of Elizabeth Gilbert is a journey to self. Where else is there to go really?  As a published writer and working journalist Elizabeth Gilbert had the opportunity to place herself in three environments; each conducive to her inward travels.

First, she goes to Italy because she needs food and rest! And she seriously needs to contemplate the beautiful. I am so there! Right away I knew I was going to love this book.

After a long drawn out divorce of two plus years fraught with ambiguity, hostility and financial devastation Liz Gilbert spiraled into a clinical depression. And a tumultuous love affair sprinkled into the mix as well. As she is struggling with more pain and angst than I can say here, several events occur in her life almost simultaneously. She begins to learn Italian, a language she loves and wants to speak for the pure joy of it, somewhat as an antidote to her depression. Also, during this period she becomes a follower of an Indian Guru, introduced by a friend to help her as her life is clearly falling apart. (This Guru is a woman, trained in India and educated in the USA) Lastly, she takes an assignment to Bali and meets a medicine man that reads her palm and tells her she will return to Bali.

As events unfold and as Liz herself regains control of her life, she procures an assignment in three countries in exchange for writing a book- lucky for us as her readers. Her travels both inward and outward are as true and entertaining as possible through the pages of a book.  She writes with candor and humor and each page feels genuine. I was thoroughly entertained by her experiences in Italy and envious of her forced discipline in India and completely taken by her journey to Bali; the simplicity, beauty, and of course, as we know from the title, the love.

Elizabeth Gilbert is funny, intelligent, spiritual and the type of person you would like to call a friend.

According to the NY Times Book Review, Liz Gilbert is tall and blond, she doesn't blend well physically in most places; she's lazy about research and prone to digestive woes. "But my one mighty travel talent is that I can make friends with anybody," Gilbert writes. "I can make friends with the dead. . . . If there isn't anyone else around to talk to, I could probably make friends with a four-foot-tall pile of Sheetrock."

At an Indian ashram, she winningly narrates the play of her thoughts while she tries to meditate: "I was wondering where I should live once this year of traveling has ended. . . . If I lived somewhere cheaper than New York, maybe I could afford an extra bedroom and then I could have a special meditation room! That'd be nice. I could paint it gold. Or maybe a rich blue. No, gold. No, blue. . . . Finally noticing this train of thought, I was aghast. I thought: . . . How about this, you spastic fool - how about you try to meditate right here, right now, right where you actually are?"

This is a sample of the funny, disarming, genuine dialogue in this very readable book.

Elizabeth Gilbert's writing is funny and entertaining but never frivolous or cheap. She has something to say, and she has the ability to say it well.

But, don't take my word for it. Read it yourself and see what you think.

To visit her official website and read her bio click here.

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Water for Elephants

By:  Sara Gruen- New York Times Bestselling Author

Reviewed by:  Martha Ann Mobley

This book is an original. Riveting, compelling, scary and funny; an incredible story of love, murder, morals and a life style that is well researched by the author. Sara Gruen has published three novels thus far; Riding Lessons, Flying Changes and Water for Elephants and a soon to be released book titled, Ape House.  Water for Elephants is well written and rich with characters that will stay with you long after you have finished the book.

I would never have purchased Water for Elephants because the subject matter; a 1930's traveling circus didn't interest me. The book was given as a birthday gift from my favorite niece so out of family loyalty, I read it, and I am so glad that I did. You can put this book down but you can hardly wait to pick it up again.

As the story goes; a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus animals.

It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic yet twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

Treat yourself to a really good read and learn a little something about another time and another manner of life.

In an interview with Erin Miller of About.Com, Sara Gruen responds to questions regarding the writing of her book:

ECM: So how do you make that move in your writing process from a body of research to a story?

SARA GRUEN: I stare at the screen (laugh). I pick some music...I guess I figure out what the crisis of the book is going to be and then I sit down and I get my first scene. But once I have my first scene I really just have to keep going. My method is I spend an hour and a half sort of revving up every morning and I'll read what I wrote the day before and maybe do a little revising of it, and then just keep going. I just read that last tiny little bit until I feel like I can continue.

ECM: I read something about a walk-in closet?

SARA GRUEN: (laugh) Well, um, I wrote the first half of the book without any problems, but I had two fairly long interruptions. The first, my horse got very sick and I sat outside her stall for nine weeks. (photo right- Sara Gruen- photo by Terence W. Bailey) Then she actually stepped on my foot and crushed it afterwards, so I was out for nine weeks. That was the first interruption. I was out for 18 weeks. So I wrote the first half of the book and then I took what was supposed to be a short three or four week technical writing contract and it stretched into four months. I was doing 10 and 11-hour days, and it was a fairly complicated SQL server database thing. When I finished it, I was really having a lot of trouble getting my head back into the book and getting my characters and my plotlines back. So, I was shopping on eBay a lot and I painted my family room five times and I actually sorted my rubber bands by size. I'm a slob so this was a real cry for help. So I asked my husband to move my desk into our walk-in closet because I knew I either had to get serious about finishing the book or else just give up on it. And I covered over the window and I wore headphones. I think I was three and a half months in the closet before I finally finished. Of course, if I did it now I would have to rip the wireless card out of my laptop, but at the time I didn't have one, so it meant I was unwired.

To read the entire interview go to this link: Water For Elephants 

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Princess Bubble

By Susan Johnston and Kimberly Webb

Illustrated by Maria Tonelli

Happily Ever After in 2007 - Reviewed by Jean Harper

Are you interested in reading a 35-page book that is sure to make you feel good?  Princess Bubble, written by Susan Johnston and Kimberly Webb, will do just that. Finally someone has created a fairy tale for little girls that is realistic and inspiring. Oh, did I say ‘little girls'?  This book is for girls and women of all ages-in fact, I think it should be required reading for all girls 5-10 years of age.

Princess Bubble is the first in a series of books specifically designed to encourage girls ages 6 to 60 to pursue their own dreams by finding independence and happiness within themselves.  The inside front and back covers of this adorable book are adorned with pictures submitted by young artists from around the country-their interpretation of Princess Bubble.

As the story goes, Princess Bubble, a flight attendant for Royal Heir Lines, bought her own palace and traveled the world making friends and helping others, but she was prince-less and like most girls was brought up to believe that she must find her "prince" in order to live happily ever after.  Even though she was living a happy and fulfilling life, everyone kept encouraging her to find her prince in order to make her life complete.  She took the advice of her friends and joined www.FindYourPrince.com.  She soon realized that, unlike the other princesses that she had read about, she was not trapped in a dungeon, had no wicked stepsisters or stepmother, did not know any dwarfs, and she did not live under the sea. And the most confusing thing of all was that she was already happy.

Both Susan and Kimberly, Authors of Princess Bubble, are flight attendants for Delta Airlines and their extensive travels inspired them to write the book. After some life struggles to find their paths as single women, Johnston and Webb became friends through-of all things-Johnston's ex-boyfriend, finding they shared a common view of the single life. In the spring of 2005 they crystallized their vision to spread the message that although princes are fabulous, a princess must find her security in something much deeper. Johnston and Webb want women of all ages to embrace the truth that "happily ever after" is attainable for everyone.

"We're definitely not anti-Prince," says Johnston (whose college nickname was ‘Bubbles'). "We're not anti-family or anti-marriage; if anything, we're anti-'Damsel in Distress.' Our message-the single life can also be a fairy tale. The End!"

Buy this book for yourself and for every little girl that you know.  I look forward to the next book in the Princess Bubble Series.

Go to: http://www.princessbubble.com/ for details on how to purchase this book.  Also, view their exclusive video interview on the Today Show-NBC.

Visit the Princess Bubble Newsroom for more information.

(Susan Johnston and Kimberly Webb- photo left- Picture taken during interview on The Today Show with Matt Lauer)

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