Nineteenth-century America teemed with social reformers like the fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, who called the Constitution “an agreement with Hell” because of its compromises on slavery. But none were like the sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimke. What made them unique was that they had been raised in a South Carolina slaveholding family but became […]
Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/03/09/the-remarkable-grimkes-kerri-k-greenidge/
When Jorge Luis Borges was asked if he’d forgiven the Peronists of Argentina, he replied, “Forgetting is the only form of forgiveness; it’s the only vengeance and the only punishment too.” For Borges, forgiveness and vengeance were siblings because both make use of oblivion—as does the creation of art. “You should go in for a […]
Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/03/09/the-dream-of-forgetfulness-primer-for-forgetting-lewis-hyde/
“Posterity, stand here upon your ground and never rely on outside help,” reads the inscription on King’s Gate, the entrance to the imposing linked-island fortress of Suomenlinna in the Gulf of Finland, built in the eighteenth century, when Finland was part of Sweden. This dictum could be said to have guided Finnish foreign policy since […]
Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/03/09/finlands-turn-to-the-west-gordon-f-sander/
In the fall of 2020, images of a woman using the toilet in her own home, taken by a Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, began circulating on Facebook. How they ended up on the social media site was not surprising: someone with access to the company’s data files had leaked them. How that person came to […]
Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/03/09/private-eyes-the-fight-for-privacy-citron/
“A better future for Ukraine and Europe is possible,” writes Timothy Garton Ash in the Review’s February 23 issue, summing up a sentiment he draws out in an essay that he filed after visiting Ukraine at the end of 2022. Taking in European history, interviews with Ukrainian civilians and soldiers, and recent work by historians […]
Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/02/18/second-time-as-tragedy-timothy-garton-ash/
Nonna’s Corner is a special feature where I share books I’ve reviewed with my grandchildren, affectionately referred to as the “Royals” here at Caffeinated.
The Royals and I are back with a cute dog story. Diego the Smelly Dog by A.G. Russo shares the story of Ava and her grandfather who find an elderly dog, or perhaps he finds them?
DIEGO THE SMELLY DOG
by A.G. Russo
Illustrator: Alona Baulina
Genres: Childrens
Pages: 30
Purchase*: Amazon *affiliate
Rating: 
Ava is a feisty little girl who loves dogs and likes bandaids. One day a large old dog follows Ava and Gramps home. Ava’s mom won’t let her have a pet so she can’t keep him. But she does name him Diego. He is smelly. They take him to the rescue shelter the next day but Ava and Gramps visit him there every week. Who will give Diego a home? A heartwarming adoption story of unconditional love.
{
“@context”:”https://schema.org”,
“@type”:”Review”,
“datePublished”: “2023-02-18T05:00:00+00:00”,
“description”: “The Royals and I are back with a cute dog story. Diego the Smelly Dog by A.G. Russo shares the story of Ava and her grandfather who find an elderly dog, or perhaps he finds them?”,
“publisher”: {
“@type”: “Organization”,
“name”: “Caffeinated Reviewer” },
“url”: “https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2023/02/nonnas-corner-diego-the-smelly-dog-by-a-g-russo.html”,
“itemReviewed”: {
“@type”: “Book”,
“name”: “DIEGO THE SMELLY DOG”,
“author”: {
“@type”: “Person”,
“name”: “A.G. Russo”,
“sameAs”: “” },
“isbn”: “” },
“author”: {
“@type”: “Person”,
“name”: “Kimberly”,
“sameAs”: “https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/” },
“reviewRating”: {
“@type”: “Rating”,
“ratingValue”: 4,
“bestRating”: “5”
}
}
Illustrated by Alona Baulina, Diego the Smelly Dog introduces us to Ava and her Gramps as they return from their walk and discover a dog following them. Later, they find him sitting in their yard. The dog is quite smelly and covered in scratches, but they give him some food and the next morning take him to the rescue center.
Ava, of course, wants to keep the dog, whom she names Diego. Her Gramps reminds her that her mom said no pets, but the two visit the center each day. Diego gets a checkup and bath as my grandchildren hoped for a happy ending. They loved Diego and wanted Ava to keep him. You’ll have to read it yourself to discover what happens.
The book taught the kids about abandoned animals, rescue shelters and older animals. We had some discussions and as pet owners of a dog and a cat; they got emotionally caught up.
This is an early reader and suitable for children five years of age and up. Each page is illustrated by giving context clues and allowing the children to follow along. It’s perfect for small groups, the classroom and the family bookshelf.
Amazon
Never miss a post by adding Caffeinated to your Inbox
Source
Original source: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2023/02/nonnas-corner-diego-the-smelly-dog-by-a-g-russo.html
Quest for the Emerald Crystal follows the Seekers on a quest to uncover the ruins of Atlantis and defeat the dangerous Diana Daggert in a thrilling spiritual journey filled with philosophical discussions. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Past readings of a spiritual nature preceded my writings. Notably, these were the writings of Betty and Stewart Edward White and specifically the book “The Unobstructed Universe.” Adding to that, the stories told by Jane Roberts and specifically the book “Seth Speaks” established my organized spiritual thoughts, more or less permanently.
For the first seventy-five years of my life, I read many books. Most of the fictional novels were science fiction, and many of my favorites had to do with various “Universes” created by authors such as Frank Herbert, who created the “Dune Universe.
As I jumped into my eighties, I wanted to create a fictional Universe before leaving for my scheduled one. A Questing Universe formed in my mind, and the Quest For The Emerald Crystal books and my website came into being.
What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
All of my characters came into being within my imagination. The characters are creations based on personalities I would like to see in the storyline’s specific roles. I love my protagonists and antagonists equally in my books but tend to root for the nice guys and gals, even though I am often attracted to the not-so-nice ones. But remember, The Questing Universe had been created to serve the highest Spiritual goal, so I am restricted from offering too much favoritism to my naughty but nice characters.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I tried to introduce many contrasting spiritual themes that humans must get involved with. But essentially, my compositions are central to those factors that are popular in most fictional books. As in all thrillers, we must have greed, sexual interests, friendship, adversarial relationships, spiritual evolution, battles, love affairs, etc. There are a few ordinary folks like us, but most of my characters are extremely beautiful, handsome, and well-built. Why would we create anything else when the author is the creator and has that opportunity?
What can readers expect in book 2, Spiritual Warriors In Belize?
Like everyone who has been to Belize, any reader will get immersed into the beauty and uniqueness of that tropical country. Our protagonists are there to attempt to thwart the intentions of the antagonists to take over the economy of the world from that and other locations. But what a fantastic place to do this in. I have been to Belize many times and fell in love with it the first time there. So now, just as readers in Book#1 learn a lot about what the Bahamas is like, they will join this venture into Belize and, at the same time, follow the major conflicts that the Spiritual Warriors on both sides of the competition will be involved in.
Author Links: Website | Amazon
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/02/18/a-questing-universe/
The Lady of the Mirrored Lake by Jennifer Ivy Walker is the exciting sequel to The Wild Rose and the Sea Raven. It follows our heroines, Tristian, a disgraced knight, and Issylte, a powerful girl with the gift of healing. After fleeing Avalon, Issylte struggles with losing her previous life and lover. As time passes, Tristian and Issylte must navigate their feelings for each other and learn who they can trust as dark forces threaten to tear them apart. After becoming the Lady of the Mirrored Lake, Issylte finds herself questioning everything as she works to find an object that calls to her beneath the surface. Together, Tristian and Issylte must work to save their lives as they know it– and each other.
The author has woven a gripping plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat as the characters navigate through their personal and external conflicts, which have high stakes and much depth. One of this book’s standout features is how the author handles the relationship between the two main characters, Tristian and Issylte. The added element of Tristian being pursued by someone else adds a layer of complexity to their dynamic, allowing for a deeper exploration of their feelings toward each other while also creating mistrust among some of the other characters. The characterization of the characters is well done, and there are a number of subplots worked into the main storyline. These allow the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the characters and how things work in the world while adding to the overall enjoyment of the book.
The Lady of the Mirrored Lake is a wonderful addition to the series, filled with adventure, magic, and complex relationships. I would recommend this book to fans of fantasy, medieval stories, and mythical creatures, as they will undoubtedly find it thrilling and captivating.
Pages: 338 | ASIN : B0BKYHZGFJ
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/02/18/the-lady-of-the-mirrored-lake/
Margaret Anne is a multi-perspective journey through society, spirituality, and history, following the life of a powerful and determined woman during the American Civil War and her quest for redemption and unity. What inspired you to write this story?
My writing has strong spiritual undertones that come from my faith in God. In today’s society, many stories are created with this notion of things being black and white in terms of deciphering right from wrong. While that is ultimately true, understanding the circumstances that influence a person’s intentions is never that easy. To keep things brief, I would say that there were three primary reasons why I wrote Margaret Anne in the way that I did: The first is simply that the story and its messages were in my head and bursting to be told; the second is that I hoped to use the story to convey the hidden prevalence of our Divine Creator in the world around us; and the third is that I was always fascinated by the societal underpinnings that surrounded the Civil War and the political motives behind that trying time in American history.
Margaret Anne’s life is set against the backdrop of the American Civil War. What were some challenges you felt were important to developing her character?
Margaret Anne is an amazing woman. I hope that I will come across another like her when the time comes to write my next novel. In modern terms, the closest description I can provide for her essence is that she was “touched.” For much of her life, she could see things beyond the scope of our customary human senses. She could also heal people and read their emotions. While I found it to be an exciting challenge to convey the behavior of a spiritual being of a slightly higher order, it was often difficult to keep her in the realms where the darkness is pitted against the light and away from making her plight strictly the result of her skin color and the taboo nature of her existence at that time in our country’s past.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The biggest theme for me was coming to terms with the fact that racial and ethnic division is generally something that belongs to the seedier realms of humanity and beyond. People are never born to hate or exclude, so the question for me has always been: where did those traits that defined the colonial age come from, and how were they nurtured so successfully? As an American born in the post-Nixon Shock Era, I was always fascinated by those cultures that esteemed the ability of selfless leaders to provide for their people before themselves. While I thank God every day for what remains of my freedom and my ability to write stories of this nature, the amount of idolatry and indifference to the importance of community and our fellow man that has been programmed into the American psyche is almost beyond belief. Self-reliance has become a thing of the past in the era of big government, big banks, and big corporations. That is why I like to revisit and write about simpler times and see where those traditions began to evolve because you are able to incorporate a romantic angle that fits with the historic pageantry, chivalry, and proper decorum of the pre-industrialized world.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I wrote a series of books called Redemption prior to writing Margaret Anne. Those books are a continuation of Margaret Anne’s story. The writings cover the history of the Basseterre family and the final resolution of things left undone by Margaret Anne’s predicament. The original manuscripts are available presently, but I will be publishing the revised and edited versions over the coming year. I published those volumes early for my mother, who passed away while helping me organize and revise the story from the onset. The first book in the Redemption series is titled Angel Ascending and will be available sometime this spring. The other three books are titled Convergence, Reckoning, and Watchword. They will not be too far behind.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Website
As the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy plantation owner and a colored Haitian woman in a time of slavery and great upheaval, Margaret Anne Basseterre’s life is anything but easy. From the moment of her birth, she has been coveted by the same dark forces pushing the country toward war. For every moment of despair, an unsuspecting lost soul is given the chance for redemption by helping her to safety.
Through divine will, Margaret Anne and some of those ordained to protect her end up residing on the majestic estate of her father.
As the ethereal girl grows up on the Calhoun plantation and the country farm of her natural mother, the lives of those around her are tested by deep family secrets and the will of wickedness. She is set to prove that her unification of this dangerously illicit and blended family during the societal unrest surrounding the Civil War was ordained from on high. She is their guiding light in this most turbulent storm of the American age.
When it comes time for her to confront the devil who has tainted her family, she’ll discover just how powerful the light within her truly is.
Margaret Anne is a bold walk through the many societal and spiritual battles raging during the years that America fought to establish both its identity as a nation and its identity under God.
A deep and poetic read, Margaret Anne is a multi-perspective view that leads into the Redemption Series.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/02/18/margaret-anne-is-an-amazing-woman/
Self-Actualization in the Age of Crisis offers a transformative perspective on reality and humanity by combining cosmology, physics, and spiritual wisdom to provide a roadmap for systemic reformation and individual transcendence. Why was this an important book for you to write?
The human species is surrounded by crises and the institutions guiding local and global societies only serve to further our descent. At the same time we’re witnessing a renaissance of coordination mechanisms designed to support more regenerative communities, economies, and ecologies. This reimagining of human experience is occurring in a variety of directions, but lacks a foundation from which to build upon and will ultimately struggle to take form if forced to grow within the confines of hierarchical meaning and value structures. Cosmology and physics have revealed a nature-rooted authority that binds human beings around a single truth, a shared commonality that supports the spiritual renaissance necessary to empower systemic reformation. Self-Actualization in the Age of Crisis was an important book to write because it conveys a message that has not been said and does so in a practical framing of spirituality that more fully encompasses human divinity in the moment.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges that humanity faces in achieving transcendence?
Humanity’s biggest challenge is not a specific set of problems, but rather that the vehicles of change available to us resist it by design. This is especially true for the spiritual technologies (religions) that guide our available frameworks of meaning and value. For example, the very notion of ascension into heaven is hierarchical, and spiritual hierarchies pave the wave for mortal hierarchies as evidenced by history and the present. These spiritual philosophies have guided the development of human behavior and systems for millennia, and now the vast majority are left powerless within arrangements that prioritize the few over the majority. They have brought the crises to our doorstep but offer no alternatives. Human transcendence is rooted in our confrontation of dogmas of a past we had no say in choosing, the biggest challenge is if we possess the individual and collective courage to do what must be done.
What were some key ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
Change is the single truth – this is evidenced by our most advanced cosmology and physics, which tells us that we inhabit a reality of continuous (infinite) universes. Nothing has ever not been changing, solidifying the ultimate reality of existence as momentary totalities. All human knowledge, imagination, and system is bound to the single truth. The material nature of the universe exists in perpetual change.
We inhabit a relational universe. All exists in relation to all else within the moment. The human experience is that of the fractional observer within an informational universe. Observers and information are a single happening within the moment.
There are two observable infinities within the universe. The universe itself and human imagination. The alignment of these two represents human divinity within the moment.
We redefine the self to more accurately represent the relationship between the individual and their circumstances within a given moment. Self-actualization refers to the combination of individual and systemic actualization. Individual actualization is the development of the self. “I” Systemic actualization is the development of the collective. “We”
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your book?
It is my hope that readers will take away a profound sense of purpose and urgency towards transforming the human condition. We are more than our circumstances allow us to be, but a greater vision of humanity is both possible and desirable if we are willing to choose. Self-Actualization in the Age of Crisis is a public work designed to evolve alongside its community of practitioners. SpiritDAO serves as our non-profit community organization, if the message within the next or this interview resonates with you please visit https://spiritdao.org to learn more.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Website
Self–Actualization in the Age of Crisis is a living document intended to evolve alongside its community of practitioners.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/02/18/reimagining-of-human-experience/