Dear Mom / Mama's Got a Fake I.D. Blog Tour

Every mom knows how communicating with a teenage girl cn be difficult, even impossible at times. One-word answers. defensive conversations. Daily arguments. How typical for teens to put up with barriers. All the while, moms truly long to know what their daughters really think.

Best-selling author Melody Carlson, whose books for women, teens, and children have sold more than three million copies, bridges this chasm with trusted insight. She speaks frankly in the voice of the teen daughters she's written for and she tells it like it is: struggles with identify, guys, friendship, and even parents--it's all here. The straight-talk to moms covers such things as "I need you, but you can't make me admit it," "I'm not as confident as I appear," and "I have friends. I need a mother."

Instead of focusing on outward behaviors, Dear Mom looks at a young woman's heart and reveals to moms:

• how to talk to teens so they hear,
• how to connect despite the differences of perspective or years and experiences,
• and how to strengthen the bond every mom and daughter ultimately wants.

The lively chapters in Dear Mom can be dipped into topically or used as a read-through tool by moms and daughters alike to understand what motivates or deflates, troubles or inspires--and just in time for Mother's Day and all the Mother's Days ahead.

Author's Bio:

Melody Carlson is the award-winning author of more than one hundred books for adults, children, and teens, with sales totaling more than three million copies. Beloved for her Diary of a Teenage Girl and Notes from a Spinning Planet series, she's also the author of the women's novels Finding Alice (in production now for a Lifetime-IV movie), Crystal Lies, On This Day, These Boots Weren't Made for Walking, and A Mile in My Flip-Flops. A mother of tow grown sons, Melody lives in central Oregon with her husband and chocolate lab retriever. She's a full-time writer and an avid gardner, biker, skier, and hiker.

Dear Mom: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400074914&ref=externallink_wbm_dearmom_sec_0330%20_01

Mama's Got A Fake I.D.

Formula for identity loss:

1. Take one multifaceted, intriguing human being
2. Bless her with a child
3. Mix with today's cultural assumptions
4. Add the demands of motherhood
5. Presto! all identity escept Mom disappers
   

For every woman wondering what hapened to the unique combination of gifts and abilities she was knwon for beforekids came long. Caryn Dahistrand Rivedeneira has good news: in Mama;s Got a Fake I.D. Rivendeneira helps moms reclaim their full identity as creative beings, gifted professionals and volunteers, loving friends, children of God--and mothers.

This inspiring and practical guide shows women how to break free from false guilt, learn a new language to express who they really are, and follow God's lead in sharing their true self with others. After all, motherhood doesn't have to mean losing one's identityu. Instead, being a mom makes it possible for a woman to discover a more complete identity as the person God made her to be.

Author Bio:
The former managing editor of Marriage Partnership and Christian Parenting Today, Caryn Dahistrand Rivedeneira has been a trusted voice writing and spreaking to women for more than a decade. Today she is the managing editor of GiftedForLeadership.com on line ommunity for Christian women in leadership. Rivadeneira works from home in the Chicago suburbs, where she lives with her husband and their three children.

Mama’s Got a Fake I.D.: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400074938&ref=externallink_wbm_mamasgotafakeid_sec_0330%20_01

The Noticer by Andy Andrews

Andy Andrews new book "The Noticer" is a work of love from his very personal life experiences. Orange Beach, Alabama is a simple town but the impact of one person on the whole citizenship is amazing. We keep hearing that one person can make a difference, but Andrews actually put it in perspective so we can actually see how it can be put into practice.

The central character in the book is a man named Jones, just Jones, no mister or sir. He has an uncanny knack of meeting people at the just right time for just the right purpose, when they need a friend. That's someone we could all use from time-to-time.

We are introduced to several people along the way:

There is the Wayward, the Lover Lost, the Worrier, the Lustful Youth, the Workaholic, and the Useless.

Each of us can find ourselves in the book at any given point. Perhaps we can find portions of our life in several instances as we move along the highway of life. But the object is to not just see ourselves but to see how we have overcome, to recognize the needs of other people to whom we can speak and encourage through our own experiences and residual knowledge.

For those of us who have lived a pretty lengthy life and experienced many things, it is a great look at where we may have been, where some of our friends currently are, and a perspective on how we can do friendly intervention. Younger adults and teens can glean some interesting points inside of a really easy to read and entertaining book.

One of the parts I really enjoyed are the pages of questions at the end where we can do a personal review, or even use it in a group sifting through the characteristics. Being a recovered workaholic, I saw so much of my life, do-do-do and do-it-now. But it all starts with Andy, the Wayward Youth whose parents have passed on, or as he describes it, they died. What an interesting point of discussion--have things in your life died or passed on? I had to do some real introspection on that question.

But the central character, Jones, explains that he has what is called "a little perspective," a gift of noticing things that others miss. In this simple interactions, Jones speaks to that part in everyone that is yearning to understand why things happen and what they can do about it. The Noticer is based on a remarkable true story that is beautifully blended with fiction, allegory, and inspiration.

Words help us define us. In the bullet point list above do you identify with any of the points that are woven within the story of this delightful book?

I hope you will be encouraged to read The Noticer, and then become one yourself. We all win when others take notice, can speak encouragement to us, and take a genuine interest. Perhaps the way society has become cold and uninteresting to so many is because people have stopped caring, sharing and just taking notice of their surroundings.

Author Bio:

Andy Andrews, hailed by a New York Times reporter as someone who has "quietly become one of the most influential people in America," is a best-selling novelist and in-demand corporate speaker for the world's largest organizations. He has spoken at the request of four different U. S. Presidents and at military bases world-wide. Andy is also the author of The Traveler's Gift, The Lost Choice, Island of Saints and Return to Sawyerton Springs. He lives in Orange Beach, Alabama, with his wife Polly and their two sons.

Product Information:

ISBN: 0785229213
ISBN-13: 9780785229216

Available on Amazon.com

Incredible Rex

Let me say first and foremost, Rex is not just another book about overcoming disabilities. Cathleen Lewis takes the reader on an incredible journey into what most people simply do not understand--the world of autism, blindness, and relationships for a disabled person. Truly an amazing gift the world has been given to have something written so well that the reader gains a new appreciation for all the "Rexes" in the world.

It is often said and noted that when a person is blind, deaf, or has some other disability that other parts of the body become more sensitive and somehow compensate. His parents, of course, are disappointed that their child is born blind; thinking that their precious and beautiful son is looking intently at them, but instead can't see them at all. That would rock anyone's world. Then to find that other skills are missing as well.

Rex is first taken to the Blind Children's Center where his behavior has striking contrasts of a child who can't see but also refuses to touch almost everything, and to whom noise is a terror attack to his nerves. Music being the only thing that calms the tsunami of thoughts and ideas trying to process in his mind. Ms. Lewis then begins the years of searching for what will eventually become the chains breaking on her child from what would have been a silent sentence of despair and loneliness.

I don't want to tell too much about the actual journey because that would spoil the book for the reader. It is a delightful read that keeps you turning the pages. Rex moves from lonely intolerance to a socially competent young man who is willing and desiring to share his extraordinary gift with the world.

Ms. Lewis shares a dual journey, mother and son, in finding what makes both of them whole. For Ms. Lewis it is in assisting her son to become fully integrated into the sighted world, while she found the comfort that God so fully gives. If you're interested in being a world changer, this is an excellent addition to your library. Hopefully it will add sight to your world as it did to mine.