99¢ BOOK OF THE WEEK

Saving Spirit Bear -  Eco-Warriors Book 1

‘til Aug. 18 at

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

 

 

Kimberley James hopes her new assignment will jumpstart her stalled career with a New York corporate relations firm. Her client wants to develop a mega ski resort in northern Canada. Her job is to convince the current owners of the land to sell. With millions of dollars to be made, it seems like a done deal. Until she runs up against Jonah Baker.

 

Baker is part owner of a lodge on the land and an ardent environmentalist. He's not about to permit a development that threatens ancient rainforests and the habitat of the rare and endangered Spirit Bear for any price.

 

Kim begrudgingly respects his principles before profit, but cannot allow a tree-hugging, bear-loving zealot to derail her fast track to success. Jonah admires her determination and worldliness but will fight to the end to stop a materialistic corporate climber from destroying something rare and unique.

 

Spirit Bear is the first in the stand-alone series ECO-WARRIORS.

 

"I loved Spirit Bear and was hooked by the second page. Raglin paints spectacular landscapes with his words. His knowledge, work and support of the wilderness made it that much more real. I felt compassion for both the main characters and was very happy the way Raglin ended the story. I really felt the promise of something great. I will be reading the next book immediately." - FIVE STARS - Reviewed by Bitten by Books
"I liked the concept of Spirit Bear. It was unique.. something I haven't read a million times before. I wanted to read it because of the environmental aspects... the conflict between the corporation wanting to build a ski development and Jonah trying to save his family lodge for an eco-tourism location. The descriptions of nature and trees were wonderful. Kimberley's inner struggle between doing what was right for the environment and doing what was right for her career was a great element. Jonah's patience and acceptance of her ... made his character stand out." - Reviewed by Tina Gibbons at Readers' Favorite Book Reviews
"An exciting read ... I couldn't put it down." - Lewis Dakin, Goodreads Review "... beautiful description of the landscape and wildlife ... really is a joy to read." - Elspeth, Goodreads Review
A strong preservation message with a side of romance The ecological preservation message underlying the story really resonated with me and Raglin presents it in a way that identifies the problem without preaching. We need more stories like this, which show the real communities, both animal and human, and ecosystems at stake when an area that should be treated with respect and reverence is threatened by overdevelopment. - Hayleigh Sol - author of Unexpected Find, Book 1 in the Silver Falls Series

 

WATCH THE VIDEO TRAILER HERE

https://animoto.com/play/3s6oDePiIg0QowsLxJsuWQ

Going to the hospital is a scary experience, especially for children. Larry Broutman has used his photography skills to brighten the walls at the Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and brighten the days of young patients. He created cheery and chuckle-inducing photographs for each floor of the hospital by digitally combining the photographs of animals that he had taken on safaris across the world with photographs he had taken of beloved places in his hometown of Chicago.

 

 

His unusual images of wild animals running amok in Chicago were so well-received that Larry Broutman decided to make enough photo mash-ups to fill a book. In Chicago Unleashed, wolves howl at the moon at the Adler Planetarium, hippopotami bathe in the Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain, a flock of colorful parrots dodge skyscrapers, and many more creatures, large and small, get into mischief at well-known Chicago destinations. Plus, each amusing photograph is supplemented with fun facts about the featured iconic location.

 

 

TO BUY THE BOOK:

 

 

Purchase your copy of Chicago Unleashed at www.everythinggoesmedia.com, Amazon, and at bookstores and gift shops in the greater Chicagoland area.

 

All author proceeds from the sale of this book are donated to the Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Disabled, and Access Living.

 

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER/ AUTHOR:

 

 

Larry Broutman is a passionate and accomplished wildlife and landscape photographer and has traveled all over the world to photograph his subjects. He has published his work in magazines such as Africa Geographic and BBC Wildlife. Broutman has completed photographic projects for the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Children’s Memorial Hospital Clinic, and The Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. His project for the Lurie Children’s Hospital developed into the publication of Chicago Unleashed.

 

Broutman attended MIT where he received his S.B., S.M., and doctorate degree in the field of Materials Engineering and Science in 1963. Specializing in Polymer Engineering and Science and Composite Materials, Broutman has vast experience writing college textbooks, reference books, and technical articles. In fact, he was inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame.

 

 

 

Spirit Animals, Book One: Wild Born - Br...

The fantasy elements were strong, but the whole Zhongese - Asian - and pseudo African nations made me think the world was set up to exploit other cultures.   Let me explain, instead of using China or Japan, where one could call into question whether or not the author has researched properly, instead they have Zhong: faux Asia, where one can cut corners.   If things are different?   Well, duh, it's Zhong, not actually part of Asia!  

 

It seems slick, although once I thought about it, it felt like appropriation - or like an excuse for appropriation if any came into play - while that excuse felt... lazy.   (Note, I didn't see any appropriation, but I don't know enough about Asian and African culture to actually say.   This however seems to backup my point.   Because I don't know, it's easier to exploit that ignorance of cultural details, and even claim it doesn't matter because I know.)

 

Now, if the world building had called for these differences, if they made it clear that they needed a Western/Eastern fusion, and that the story wouldn't work without this, then I would have expected the author to be knowledgable in both, and for that reason to become clear at some point. 

 

It didn't.   It still feels odd that the word is so similar to ours, and yet not be ours.   Why?   I asked this question all throughout the story.   Which is a shame.  I liked the characters, I really liked the way the animal spirits were set up, and it was action packed. 

 

I liked it more than I disliked and am eyeing the e-book version of the second book.   So three stars seemed fair to balance out my enjoyment versus my issues with the world building. 

What can I say about Wild Justice? Nothing great, that is for sure. I should be the target audience for Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals. I hold a degree in Biology and I am a vegan on moral/ethical grounds. But I found this book to be dull, dry, slow, basic and extremely repetitive. Oh boy was it repetitive.

The preface itself is an extremely long winded summary of the book that seemed never ending. It literally seemed by the writing choices to be on the verge of ending a dozen times or so but you turn the page and it is still going and going and going. *sigh* Then you think you are going to get into the nitty gritty when the chapters start but all you get is dull repetition and bland attempts at covering the topic at hand. Circles, so many circles we traveled in. I cannot even count the number of times we were told an example was coming up only for no example to come. THEN we would be told "for example" and it wasn't even necessarily the example we were promised. At this point though I just could not come to care.

The lack of science was also a major hangup for me. The only times scientific data was even mentioned was during brief summaries of studies they noted. Unfortunately many of the studies they used employed animal testing to support the claims of empathy or other evidence of morality. For some crazy reason I just cannot get on board with injecting mice with acid to cause them incredible pain just to see how the other mice react (who subsequently also get injected). So let me get this straight, Mark Berkoff who supports animal rights uses vivisection cruelty in his book to support this philosophical crap? Way to go.

Perhaps I am not the target audience, perhaps the target audience is actually philosophy fans as this book was extremely heavy on the philosophy and extremely weak on science. It had far too much philosophy, turns out I really am not much of a fan of philosophy. Are philosophers naturally repetitive? If so I'll avoid any such topic in the future.

This book is an insomnia cure, duller than most biology and other class textbooks I've read over the years. If you enjoy reading a grad student's thesis in philosophy by all means, read this and you'll get about the same amount of enjoyment.

If you offer them corn cakes, they will come. A reissue orginally published in 1985.