Bernard Jan's Blog - Posts Tagged "non-fiction"

The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble by Ingrid Newkirk

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The review for the book The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble by Ingrid Newkirk I first wrote on December 28, 2009 and posted on Animal Friends Croatia web page. But there is never enough exposure for good readings and remarkable people, so I decided to repost it here as well.

When I first opened a copy of the latest book by Ingrid Newkirk, The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble, after receiving it by mail, a colleague of mine stood behind me and gazed at it intently. I did not know what he was thinking, I just felt his presence and waited for him to speak his mind or tell me what he needed from me. A few more seconds drifted by before he stated, "I do not know where she finds time to write a book."

I didn't think when I replied to him, "Discipline," like it was self-understanding. But on second thought, I do not think I said something wrong. It takes lots of discipline to be a full-time active advocate for animals and also to find time to do something besides it – like writing a book.

Maybe it won't make much sense to many, but if we are speaking in terms of advocating for animals, discipline for me equals to commitment, dedication, empathy, compassion, kindness, love, perseverance, and patience.

This is what one needs to be a good animal advocate. These are qualities we must treasure if we want to successfully finish our marathon race. And these are features I find in Ingrid Newkirk.

Unfortunately, I did not have the pleasure of meeting Ingrid personally. Exchanging emails with her from time to time is always such a pleasant and encouraging experience though. Whether they carry a concise message as praise in their subject or explain something in length, I always look forward to them. And if I have to say something about Ingrid's latest book, I cannot do that without saying something about Ingrid, too.

Each book, each story, each line reflects the personality of its author. The same is with Ingrid and her books. During the last couple of years I read three of her books: 250 Things You Can Do to Make Your Cat Adore You, Kids Can Save the Animals: 101 Easy Things to Do and Free the Animals. Meanwhile, I read plenty of other books about animals and animal rights. However, Free the Animals along with Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust by Charles Patterson are probably the two books that left the deepest impact on me.

The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble closely follows their footsteps, disarming me with its simplicity, practicality and outstanding message.

I've been an animal advocate for eight years already, after I dropped out of environmental protection. Throughout these years I learned a lot about animals, animal advocacy, and animal rights in general, but also about myself. Most of that knowledge I as a person and my group as a whole owe to PETA and Ingrid Newkirk. Animal Friends Croatia realized many successful campaigns and actions studying PETA's strategy and the way of reasoning, while Ingrid Newkirk proved herself to be more than just a good adviser: she was a real trooper, a helping hand that guided us and brought us into safety when our heads were below the water. Truly, lots of credits for our achievements and victories surely go to Ingrid Newkirk and PETA.

This is why The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble is such an important book. It gives the reader an ocean full of practical advice on how to advocate for animals and how to treat them in everyday life, but it also talks to us. It communicates with us, page after page, sharing with us the rich experience of its author in saving animals and fighting for their rights.

On some 300 pages Ingrid guides us as gently as possible through all imaginable aspects of animal exploitation and abuse. Without holding back anything, she teaches us who are animals and why we should respect them and treat them as our equals. Yes, there are moments when she mercilessly tightens her grip around our hearts when she narrates the true stories of animals who suffered through the worst possible ordeals humans bestowed upon them. Remember the story about Makara the rhino; a downer cow at a stockyard in Kentucky; a polar bear named Gus housed in New York's Central Park Zoo; the Berosini orangutans; a seagull tangled up in fishing line in a Virginia park; Billy, a timid little Silver Spring monkey; a stray dog named Aurora; a hound dog named Cindy; and Hannah, the sheep, to name just a few? Yes, this is Ingrid's way: she shakes us out of our boots, she brings tears to our eyes and makes our hearts bleed. But once we compose ourselves again, we realize that we are not so helpless as we thought we were. There is hope for us, which means there is hope for animals, too. In the "What You Can Do" sections, Ingrid takes enormous efforts in going into the tiniest detail in order to show us that we can make a difference – a huge difference with little effort. And maybe here lies the greatest value of this book. "What You Can Do" is simply priceless if we really set our heart in doing something for animals

Yes, we can make a change, even with the smallest thing. We do not have to be in the front lines of animal rights advocacy doing demos, protests, vegan tastings, holding public speeches, lectures, or going nude for the animals' sake. No, we can sit comfortably in the warmth of our home, pick up the phone and dial our favorite radio station, call the TV news and leave a comment about something we just saw, write a letter to the newspaper editor or browse the Internet posting our comments, or maybe even create an animal rights blog or web page.

True, it is easy to be an animal advocate nowadays. The best thing is that whatever we do, each action we take, every bit of information we share with someone else, everything counts. Nothing's in vain. But the easier it is for us to become an animal advocate, the greater the obligation we have to really become one. There is no excuse for being passive, there is no excuse for doing nothing while animals suffer and are killed. There is no excuse for closing our eyes before the truth and ingenuity of Ingrid's advice. There is no excuse for closing our hearts after closing the cover of The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble, shutting out and denying the cries of those who seek our help.

It is very simple: compassion and kindness are the keys to both human and animal liberation. When we liberate ourselves from the chains of tradition and old-fashioned views, the light that will shine up within us will liberate others, too. Let us light up our hearts and carry our torches in lighting up the hearts and lives of our fellow creatures.

Please, let this remarkable book written by a remarkable woman touch you with its kind message. Let it guide you into a world where there shall be no more death, sorrow, crying, or pain. For anyone.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com



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Bernard Jan

To my fellow authors I want to recommend four books that may transform your life! Reading them, studying them and taking their advice at heart is a must for the successful launch of your books and their fruitful life online. We have to be realistic, writing a book comes easy to the most of us. Handling our books afterward is for most of us a nightmare and enigma.

Why don't our books succeed if they are so good? Why don't readers buy them? What did we do wrong?

Please take time to check the following books. Read them at random order or by choosing your priority and urgency, but skip none of them. Each of them will be helpful to you.

Book Launch: How to Write, Market & Publish Your First Bestseller in Three Months or Less AND Use it to Start and Grow a Six Figure Business by Chandler Bolt

A young man who hated writing turns with his buddy their short productivity guide into a book, launches it on Amazon and goes snowboarding in Austria. While sitting in the chairlift he learns his book became Amazon Bestseller and went on to start a 6-figure business. Book Launch offers you a tried, tested, and proven book launch formula and helps you write your book in record time!

Kindle Bestseller Secrets: 10 Tricks Bestselling Non-Fiction Authors Use To Dominate Kindle by Derek Doepker

Derek wrote a powerful and informative book full of tricks and tips that will save your time and help you keep your spirits up as you pave your way through the overcrowded road to your readers! The step-by-step blueprint will guide you on your way from struggling author with a low budget to the best choice among the competition! And it works both for non-fiction and fiction authors!

Authorpreneur: Build the Brand, Business, and Lifestyle You Deserve. It's Time to Write Your Book by Jesse Tevelow

If you are into a serious business and think of yourself as a big player, this book is for you! Books can be your source of income, success and security, not just your friends. Add your strong will and hard work to your passion of writing, and you are half-way to reaching your goal. Authorpreneur has a mission to turn talented and not recognized authors into influential entrepreneurs.

How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis: A Step-by-Step System for Enticing New Readers, Selling More Fiction, and Making Your Books Sound Good by Bryan Cohen

We all know how to write a book but we suck at writing a capturing blurb! Either it is too long or too boring to hook our readers. Writing a sizzling synopsis is possible if we follow a few simple rules and use the tools to get online book browsers click our Buy button every single day. This book is a gold mine! Dig in!

These authors also have free or paid webinars and online courses so I suggest getting in touch with them and subscribing to receive free updates and latest information. When you are down and feel stuck and lost in your creativity or entrepreneurship, listening to them can be a much needed source of motivation and encouragement.

Happy writing and publishing!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

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Bernard Jan

NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Book Reviews 2018 by Gisela Hausmann

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I beg other authors not to hold it against me for reading and reviewing NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Book Reviews 2018 by Gisela Hausmann ahead of the schedule and before theirs. This book came at the right moment to my attention, when I was on the mission of seeking and hunting new reviews for A World Without Color, the true story of the last three days I spent with my cat, and I was too curious and hungry for good advice. And I got it!

It's not that I didn't ask around and collected information on what is allowed and what is not allowed when asking for a review and posting my own reviews on Amazon before I read this book. I did it by the book, not breaking any rules, which came as a relief.

NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Book Reviews 2018, Gisela Hausmann reminded me of things I could have done better, more thoughtful and... more refined. As a "self-publishing industry veteran, an email evangelist and a top reviewer," as her Goodreads profile says, in her 86 pages long fourth edition (earlier editions were 2015, 2016 and 2017), she offers us her insight and knowledge on how to better understand Amazon's review platform and introduces us to 10 different kinds of reviews.

Spending years in collecting information and studying the shape-shifting of the patterns of Amazon's behavior to its readers and authors and as a response to the actions of its readers and authors, the Amazon top reviewer Gisela Hausmann delivered us a short but well-informed handbook of Amazon dos and don'ts.

I love this book. I love its simplicity of writing and the clarity of advice and examples Hausmann uses to tell us what we should do to get more reviews for our precious books. Like a good teacher or a caring parent she explains her every claim so everyone can understand it. Don't touch a heated oven or you might get burned, don't ride your bicycle over the red light or you might get hit by a car. Reward your teachers with a smile and thank you for the knowledge they gave you because they are also humans and kind words open many doors.

Apart from stating the rules in NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Book Reviews 2018 we should follow, should we want to make our books successful, Hausmann tells us probably the biggest secret of all on how to get desired reviews. I am sure we all know that secret on some basic, primal level, but we somehow forgot it in our rush to count our daily written words, haste to build our launch team or finish the formatting before we catch the self-imposed publishing deadline.

Every successful relationship is built individually, on respect and personal level, with just the right emotion and enough passion to spark it into existence. The same applies to our books and their reviewers, to us and how we treat them.

For further information please read the book.

Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com

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Bernard Jan



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Book Launch Gladiator: The 4 Phase Approach to Kindle Book Marketing Success in 2018 by Jordan Ring

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


New authors, pay attention to this book! If only I had it last year when I was stumbling through the catacombs of self-publishing, trying to figure out what to do, where and when! I had a few good friends who helped me with their advice and experience but not even they knew or used all the tricks of the trade. And there is a lot about it to learn and know, believe me. Writing is the easier part!

Like it or not, you are now in the self-publishing arena. To survive and save your book from sinking into an oblivion of mere statistics (once upon a time there was a book published by an unknown author and read by a few), you need to arm yourself. With as many weapons (books, information) you can get.

Become a gladiator and fight for your books!

Book Launch Gladiator: The 4 Phase Approach to Kindle Book Marketing Success in 2018 by Jordan Ring will help you with that. Consider it your guide, a map about which path to cross and what tactics to use to succeed once you step in the Kindle Colosseum.

Jordan Ring wrote this guide from his experience on the front lines and he wants to help you with the important decision-making. You will get your answers on launching and marketing and everything you need to know about a not so easy journey from a green and insecure beginner to a happy and successful indie author. Isn't that a great starting point?

Good luck!

Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com

Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!

Bernard Jan



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What does it mean to be a black sheep? by Kristina Gallo

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Although Kristina Gallo's short book What does it mean to be a black sheep? is written from a female perspective, it is a book for everyone. Because whether you are a woman or a man, a child or an adult, there will be a time in your life when you will feel—different. When you will seek for your place of belonging and recognition, a safe harbor to be sheltered in.

Whether you are a child or an adult, a male or a female, you hurt equally under the boot of injustice or cuts of sharp tongues or burns of mean looks. You feel abandoned and alone in taking a stand against the world. It is hard to find strength to be who you are, with all your differences and oddness, with your uniqueness which causes you nothing but problems.

In situations like these it is crucial to acknowledge, embrace and accept yourself for who you are. To see beyond the norms of the society, set by imperfect individuals who can be colorblind or deaf to the music of your soul. Even if you lose some of your friends, as in the cases described in Kristina's short book, you will find people worthy of your trust, people who will accept you in their flock despite the black, pink, white or any other color of your personality. I hope and wish Kristina's book helps you with that.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

Disclaimer: I have received a complimentary copy from the author for an honest review.

Bernard Jan



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Volcanic Momentum: Get Things Done by Setting Destiny Goals, Mastering the Energy Code, and Never Losing Steam by Jordan Ring

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Volcanic Momentum: Get Things Done by Setting Destiny Goals, Mastering the Energy Code, and Never Losing Steam is the second book by Jordan Ring I’ve read this year after Book Launch Gladiator: The 4 Phase Approach to Kindle Book Marketing Success in 2018. As it was the case with Book Launch Gladiator, I sailed through it with ease, satisfaction and a healthy dose of humor.

Reaching our dreams is possible as long as we have faith and believe in ourselves and are ready to grow. Although Volcanic Momentum may seem to be a small book, its impact on our lives can be much bigger, if not life-changing. The formula is simple: setting our goals and moving toward them!

In Volcanic Momentum Jordan Ring introduces us to three types of goals: Small Attainable Goals, Big Hairy Audacious Goals and Destiny Goals, of all three the most important. As the author says for our Destiny Goals: “These are the goals that go beyond you. These are the goals that you want to achieve to leave a legacy. These completed goals blow up the entire mountain, changing the view of the landscape for now and generations to come.”

Who wouldn’t want to make such a positive impact on our world and help others to benefit from our existence, right?

There are many takeaways to learn and apply to inspire us to take action and grow until we reach volcanic momentum. I want to share with you the following few takeaways that most impressed me: Move forward because we are never neutral; we are either moving toward completion of our goal or backward away from it. Fail (often and hard) because the best way to grow quickly is to learn from our mistakes. Master our priorities and learn to say NO in order to find time for the things we want to do and to spend time with the right, positive and stimulating people. Read more to succeed and take action on what we learn to move toward a better future.

Dreaming about our goals is great but reaching them is even better. Volcanic Momentum is here to inspire us, to show us how to become motivated and successful and, what’s more important, how to do it today instead of someday. Jordan Ring is genuine in his wish to help us with that.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com



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Bernard Jan