AboSoLutly AmaZing Book Reviews

I think most of my creative output in my writing stems from a wide variety of resources. This is my year I intend to do the most reading, working and re shaping of my life body and mind.

My choice of books are mostly biography's and writers that have a similar style as mine.  I would like to think my writing is more heartfelt and more biography than anything else. Most dating stories and experiences I write about stem from things, events or people that actually happened in my life, or other people's experiences that they share. If I want to really publish the 5 books that I have started, I think it is mandatory to always learn and keep stimulated by fellow writers. The grammar and English? that's what an editor is for, but I do try ..lol
I am happy to say, it seems I can't get my stories out quick enough for this audience..this is a good thing.

My first book review is:

All Over The Map-By Laura Fraser, Biography

In All Over the Map, the bestselling author of An Italian Affair, buys us the plane tickets and takes us in search of adventure and romance as she wonders whether it’s possible, in midlife, to have it all.

Laura loves being a writer who travels all over the map. She can pick up and go whenever she wants, jumping on a plane to escape a romance gone bad or to taste the world’s best guacamole.

When the sexy Parisian professor who helped Laura get over her divorce tells her that he has a new girlfriend, Laura wonders whether her passion for travel is interfering with what most women seem to want at her age: a husband, a family, and a safe, settled life. She’s further shaken by a trip to the South Pacific that goes very wrong, and for a while she becomes a travel writer afraid to travel.

Searching for love and coping with her ordeal, Laura tangos in Buenos Aires, seeks wisdom from an Amazonian shaman, heads off into the wilderness on Outward Bound, goes on a ten-day meditation retreat, interviews sex-trafficked women in Italy, and reports on the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda. When she’s dumped on her forty-fifth birthday, she’s oddly relieved, and realizes she isn't going to wait for a man anymore. She decides that although she doesn't have the life she anticipated, she’ll create the life she wants.
*reviews on the book*

(My Experience)  Laura experiences the extremes of adventure and emotion that women of all ages will relate to — and she comes out satisfied and happy on the other side. This little book was a quick read with tons of information , this was a fresh glimpse into different areas of the world I'd like to see, clearly Laura should of also been a food writer because some of the stories of food were described so deliciously I actually Google for recipes.
Some of the recipes: Ceuche: Wild sea bass with lime and red onion
Laura describes a meal as; Spicy perfume of pale pink caper flowers Stromboli; pasta with fennel and sardines...
In one country if you say excuse me, it actually means "Suck Me" as in suck me off.
Some of the events, ceremony's and country's I wanted to do some research as I didn't really know much about them. I had post it tabs all over the book.
Laura Fraser touches base on all these places in small detail.

Here is my list of post it tabs:
Samoa Upolu: 
Upolu is an island in Samoa, formed by a massive basaltic shield volcano which rises from the seafloor of the western Pacific Ocean. The island is 75 kilometres (47 mi) long, 1,125 km2 (434 sq mi) in area, and is the second largest in geographic area as well as the most populated of the Samoan Islands. 
Aeocian Islands:
The Aeolian Islands or Lipari Islands (Italian: Isole Eolie, pronounced [ˈiːzole eˈɔːlje], Sicilian: Ìsuli Eoli) are a volcanic archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily, named after the demigod of the winds Aeolus.[1] The locals residing on the islands are known as Eolians (Italian: Eoliani). The Aeolian Islands are a popular tourist destination in the summer, and attract up to 200,000 visitors annually.
Oaxaca Mexico
It is located in Southwestern Mexico.[10] It is bordered by the states of Guerrero to the west, Puebla to the northwest, Veracruz to the north, Chiapas to the east. To the south, Oaxaca has a significant coastline on the Pacific Ocean.
Island of Stromboli
Stromboli (Sicilian: Struògnuli, Ancient Greek: Στρογγύλη, Strongulē) is a small island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the north coast of Sicily, containing one of the three active volcanoes in Italy. It is one of the eight Aeolian Islands, a volcanic arc north of Sicily. This name is derived from the Ancient Greek name Strongulē which was given to it because of its round swelling form. 

Saint Arequipas, Santa Catalina

The Monastery of Saint Catherine (Spanish: Santa Catalina) is a monastery of nuns of the Dominican Second Order, located in Arequipa, Peru. It was built in 1579 and was enlarged in the 17th century. The over 20,000-square-meter monastery was built predominantly in the Mudéjar style, and is characterized by its vividly painted walls. There are approximately 20 nuns currently living in the northern corner of the complex; the rest of the monastery is open to the public.

Colca Canyon Hotsprings
Colca Canyon is a canyon of the Colca River in southern Peru, located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Arequipa. It is Peru's third most-visited tourist destination with about 120,000 visitors annually.[1] It is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the United States at 13,650 ft (4,160 m) depth. The Colca Valley is a colorful Andean valley with pre-Inca roots, and towns founded in Spanish colonial times, still inhabited by people of the Collagua and the Cabana cultures. The local people maintain their ancestral traditions and continue to cultivate the pre-Inca stepped terraces.

Ayahusca ceremony
For centuries, Amazonian shamans have used ayahuasca as a window into the soul. The sacrament, they claim, can cure any illness. The author joins in this ancient ritual and finds the worlds within more terrifying—and enlightening—than ever imagined. 
Kim gives a way more insight to what the drug does and what the ceremony entails-quite interesting:
http://www.maps.org/research/kristensen.html
Cuzco

Cusco (pron.: /ˈkuːzkoʊ/), often spelled Cuzco (Spanish: Cuzco, IPA: [ˈkuθko] or [ˈkusko]; Quechua: Qusqu or Qosqo, IPA: [ˈqɔsqɔ]), is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cuzco Province. In 2007, the city had a population of 358,935. Located on the eastern end of the Knot of Cuzco, its elevation is around 3,400 m (11,200 ft).
Butare

Butare

City in Rwanda
Butare is a city in the Southern Province of Rwanda and capital of Huye district. It was the capital of the former Butare Province, Rwanda, that was dissolved on January 1, 2006. It was the formal colonial capital of Rwanda.

Kigali Rwanda-1994 Genocide-Laura Fraser actually did a post war story and I realized I knew nothing, where was I? Parting?
The Rwandan Genocide was a genocidal mass slaughter of the Tutsis by the Hutus that took place in 1994 in the East African state of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days (from the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira on April 6 through mid-July) over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem- Don't want to visit this, but I did not know what it was in the book.

Yad Vashem - World Center for Holocaust Research, Education ...
www.yadvashem.org/ShareIsrael's Holocaust museum and memorial. Includes information on the museum, its exhibits, collections, resources, programs and publications.

The word-Juxtaposition:In composition, juxtaposition is the placing of verbal elements side by side, leaving it up to the reader to establish connections and impose a meaning.Fa'afafine may be viewed as a third gender specific to Samoan culture.
Fa'afafine are the gender liminal, or third-gendered people of Samoa. A recognized and integral part of traditional Samoan culture, fa'afafine, born biologically male, embody both male and female gender traits. Their gendered behavior typically ranges from extravagantly feminine to mundanely masculine.[1]
The word fa'afafine: Very Wonderful and Interesting story!! in the book
 includes the causative prefix "fa'a", meaning "in the manner of", and the word fafine, meaning "woman".
Fa’afafine are Samoan biological males who behave in a range of feminine-gendered ways. They have been an integrated part of Samoan communities for centuries. ‘Fa’afafine’ translates as ‘in the manner of a woman’. There may be equivalent identities for females who adopt masculine social roles in Pacific cultures, but evidence is scarce.

All over the map was a great start read, from the book collection I received at Christmas on travel.

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness

Book by Susannah Cahalan

One day in 2009, twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a strange hospital room, strapped to her bed, under guard, and unable to move or speak. 

Published: November 13, 2012 Author: Susannah Cahalan I read this book in 5 days, I couldn't put it down. Susannah a reporter for the New York Post.  Susannah starts to go postal, what I mean is, she starts to have mood swings, paranoia  out of body experiences  she even had a hallucination that her apartment was covered in bed bugs and had it fumigated twice.  Deep into the disease Susannah starts have seizures,  lose speech, her body movements are similar to server autism or the exorcist, her thought process is similar to someone with schizophrenia.  After 1 million dollars spend to find out what is causing this rare disorder, the news actually made my hairs on my neck stand on end- not because of the name of the disease, because the doctors think this could be reversible autism...so how many are UN diagnosis  the disease, NMDA-receptor autoimmune encephalitis, better known as "Sick Brain"After deep into the sickness, Susannah also appeared to be that of a chubby girl, it was like she regenerated backwards. The problem today is, money and time. I remember a person I cared for, had a walking psychosis we called it, as soon as they went outside they could not walk, froze with jerking movements. Inside the person was fine. We had several tests done and a specialist come in, after the tests, the specialist said"I do not feel this person has schizophrenia anymore, the diagnoses was over 25 years ago. That was it, it was stated, nothing done about it..so the person continues on 15 pills a day, psychotropic drugs, which I am sure cause other effects in the body in the long term. This book hit me head on, on so many levels. The way Susannah describes her story is really heart wrenching and you feel just as frustrated as she was when going threw one month of madness. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is working in the residential field, mental health field, but anyone really, because it could happen to anyone. The more people are aware, the more can be done to recognize something in a person that may not be a psychiatry issue. Her GP told her parents she was having seizures from alcohol consumption, and bipolar   After she was finally diagnosed  Susannah found out another girl went to the same doctor and he said the same thing, it was proven she had the same disease as Susannah, but died. When Susannah decided to write this story and do research, some of the vocab words she picked out seemed strangely illuminating: Effete: loss of character, strength and virility Teratogenic: of, relating to, or causing developmental malformation. Lazarette-noun, sick room You will understand, when you read the book. The Lost Girls- Biography With their 28th birthdays looming, three friends quickly rocketing towards management positions, mortgages, and marriages, all share a similar fear: Is this what they want, or what they think they should want? Feeling in serious need of perspective, they decide to leave it all behind, quit their jobs, and begin an epic search for meaning and enlightenment. Traveling 60,000 miles around the world, from the mountains and jungles of South America to the beaches of Australia, passing through Kenya, India, Southeast Asia, and New Zealand along the way, the trio will not only find themselves, but a lifelong friendship. The great thing about this book, is "How they did it" we all feel trapped in our careers, they worried about what will happen, but then they just did it and its starts off with the worst happening-lost luggage..so forth. The women plan a year prior, hostels and back packs for most of it. They each have a title in preparation, which helps; The Navigator, The Event Planner, The Booker. This changes during different destinations. This is a cute fun look into areas of the world we all want to see and just how they planned the trip, it also talks about how they dealt with the relationships in their life before they left, bosses, boyfriends, parents..all relevant ..but they did it anyway! http://www.lostgirlsworld.com/category/departments/