Category: Book Brief

Book Brief: Stumbling Through the Dark

Stumbling Through the Dark
by Thelma Zirkelbach
Genre: Memoir
Word Count: 62,000

In October 2004 Thelma Zirkelbach’s husband was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia and began a journey from which he would not return. As he fought cancer, she battled her own demons: fears of loss and loneliness and the absolute certainty she could not survive without him. But she did survive to record their final year together with all its anger, beauty and pain. An interfaith couple, their different ways of dealing with death added more tension to an already dark year; yet they stumbled along together and after his death she trudged along on her own. Early in her widowhood she discovered a Yiddish proverb that translates to, “When one must, one can.” She resolved to make that her mantra and to strive to fulfill the prediction her husband made shortly before he died: “You’ll be all right. You’ll do something good.”

This book is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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Book Brief: Love’s True Second Chance

Love’s True Second Chance
by Jeff Dawson
Genre: Memoir
Word count: 50,000

Join Debbie and me for the love of a lifetime. From the halls of high school, to the joys of her accepting my class ring. Journey farther through a terrible break-up and the chance encounters in college where the wounds from the past still haven’t healed.

And finally, after thirty years, a reunification that will embark on the most intense love affair I could have ever imagined and the lessons in life, I had all but forgotten.

In the end, is “true love” worth a Second Chance even if it means a tragic end? The answer is an emphatic YES!

This book is available from Amazon and Smashwords.

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Book Brief: I am John, I am Paul

I am John, I am Paul; A Story of Two Soldiers in Ancient Rome
by Mark Tedesco
Genre: Historical novel
176 pages

John and Paul are Roman legionaries in the 4th century, who were forced into exile by their corrupt commander. John ends up in Alexandria where he seeks wisdom and meaning in the worship of Mithras, the god popular among soldiers at this time. During his exile in Egypt John is educated in the mystery cult and meets an Alexandrian woman from whom he learns the Egyptian perspective of life and events. During this time, his counterpart Paul is finding ways to secure John’s return, finally succeeding. The story is a sea of emotion as the two find themselves in Germania to serve. An event takes place that changes their fortunes and leads to them discovering “The Way”.

The nature of the bond of the two men to one another is left to the reader to decide, but their commitment ultimately leads them to a tragic yet beautiful destiny.

This book is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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Book Brief: Dog Water Free

Dog Water Free
A Memoir
by Michael Jay
Genre: Young Adult – Coming of Age
Word count: 70,000

Meet Joe Black visits The Wonder Years in the true story of Dog Water Free. It chronicles the journey of a boy named Mikee, whose coming-of-age search for emotional truth lands a dumbstruck orphan from the unlikely side of Detroit front and center before England’s Queen, America’s Maestro, and the first non-Italian Pontiff in more than 400 years.

A family saga at its core, Dog Water Free is an uplifting story of discovery that celebrates a remarkable hero in the person of an ordinary mom who is thrust into an extraordinary situation, the likes of which few could imagine.

Mikee is eleven when his world turns upside down. His mom is sharing news from her doctor. She has a year to prepare her family for her death. Her passing will leave the man she loves and the four children she cherishes alone to fend for themselves. “At least you’ll always have your dad,” she comforts.

Still on her mission fifteen months later, her focus heightens when her husband drops dead.

With that, Mikee’s improbable coming-of-age journey begins.

This book is available from Amazon, Apple iTunes, and Barnes & Noble.

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