From my war to your peace, Love Nonna - A letter to my Grandson - by Monika Sears

From my war to your peace, Love Nonna - A letter to my Grandson - by Monika Sears is a long letter written by the author to his first grandson for let him know, in this moment of peace, what it meant to live, discriminated because Jewish, during the latest Second World War conflict. The preface of this book written by Julian Padowics.

It is a moving tale this one. Monika, a little girl during the war-time left by her mom with Pola one of their domestic girls, and later with relatives unable to give her proper love and finding her as an element of disturb in their daily routine life.

Monika in the while saw death, destruction, she lived secluded, she couldn't speak, she couldn't go out, she couldn't live the normal life of a kid because the horror was around. She learned some catholic traditions for not being captured by Germans thanks to Pola, her guardian angel. Her face, everything of her could let them guess that she was Jewish and not catholic.

It's a sad, realistic tale of what it meant for most people the terrible period of Holocaust. Discrimination, death, irrationality.

Sure Monika lived it looking at this situation with her childhood eyes but she knew and she was mature for her age. She knew that if she wouldn't have had discipline maybe she would have been captured and it would not have been fair and pleasant. She knew and she was obedient.

She survived at that horrible experience and she is living e happy and satisfying life.

Her long letter will be the legacy for her grandson but also for all of us and for a future of peace and freedom, without never, never, never forget the atrocities, senseless atrocities man can be able to use for destroying the humanity.
Remembering this is a first step for keeping our Earth a loving and peaceful place for everyone.


I thank Ravenswood Publishing for this eBook.


Anna Maria Polidori

A Web of Friendship By Christina Stead

I requested with great joy weeks ago A Web of Friendship By Christina Stead. The book has been published this February 27th by Melbourne University Publishing.

Introduction by Hilary McPhee, what a precious book is this one if you love Christina Stead, one of the most important Australian's writers and wife of William Blake, or just the epistolary genre.

Reading the letters written by Christina Stead, through 1928 to 1973 so a large period of time in which a lot of things happened in her life, she married William Blake, she left Australia for Europe and America, she published various books, we will discover a beautiful soul. Christina loved to receive and write letters, and truly appreciated to keep contacts alive with long and very felt letters.

What I loved the most reading them was the naturalness of her writing-style, most conversationalist than literary and the lightness of her words.

To her writing a letter a real pleasure, because the other one was a gift and you feel it with intensity.

At the same time she is not pompous, but domestic, I would say and also when she speaks of her books, publications, theater etc, there is great lightness, sincerity, optimism, simplicity.

She was a real lady, relaxed, optimistic, joyous. A picked up one of the first letters after the departure of her beloved husband at the beginning of 1968 for giving to you an idea of who Christina Stead was and who William Blake was for her.
She writes to Kate Stead on 10th  February 1968:

"Dear Kate,
thank you for your letter, so sensitive and discreet...
My time is fully taken up -first with business and correspondence- and after that with fatigue. I think of Billy as little as possible; I do not want to be full of tears; it is not possible with all I have to do- and what is more my life with Bill, so close, was in a way not sentimental, it was a true thing. When all this is over, I shall be able to think about it, as he was, as I was, and as we made each other to be. He was very loving to me, and I was extraordinarily lucky, I know, to have found a man like that. No more of this now."...

You will discover the letters Christina Stead sent to other important writers like  Stanley Burnshaw, Ettore Rella, Nettie Palmer, Clem Christesen, Elizabeth Harrower and A.D. Hope but the most important you will discover a beautiful soul and that was what I appreciated the most, someone encouraging with others, opened, available, gentle and kind.

After the death of her husband, Christina Stead returned to Australia, choosing to spend her final years in England where she died in early 1980.

In a historical moment where our communication is based in few words and where words are used differently and are less precious and more opened to be seen and read by everyone this book will let you re-discover the old-fashioned power of letters.

I highly recommend to everyone this book. It is joyous, human and true.

I love the cover of the book read with the yellow signature of the writer.


I thank NetGalley and Melbourne University Publishing for this book.


Anna Maria Polidori

Byron: A poet Dangerous to Know by Geoffrey Trease

Byron: A poet Dangerous to Know by Geoffrey Trease published by Endeavour Press now as eBook is a captivating reading for all the estimators of the poet and thanks to this eBook you will discover or implement your knowledge about him.

But who was realistically Lord Byron? Born in 1788, dead on April 19 1824 after a life very...lived, he was a capricious, turbulent man, someone who wanted to live largely and in some cases wanted to prove that he could have more than what realistically he had. Someone who loved to cure his body, someone discussed but that had some treats of the character of his dad for what I can imagine reading the portrait of his dad in this book.

His life didn't start well with a physical problem and an existence at first in poverty. A poverty created by his dad who opportunistically married an ingenuous girl for then spending all her money.

I was interested to read a biography by Byron because I admit that if our myth during the high school was Oscar Wilde, treated at school and read and re-read, Lord Byron completely neglected and forgotten.

This biography will give you the main treats of the poet inserting him very well in the historical period of changes he lived in.

Many trips in the most beautiful corners of Italy, Byron knew the meaning of the words: "Living Well."


I thanks NetGalley and Endeavour Press for this eBook.



Anna Maria Polidori

Meditation for Daily Stress 10 Practices for Immediate Well-being by Michel Pascal

Meditation as change of perception of our daily life.
It's this one the main message launched by Michel Pascal author of: Meditation for Daily Stress 10 Practices for Immediate Well-being. The book will be released this April 11th by ABRAMS.


Mr Pascal admit that our society is becoming always more crazy. We are all under stress for a reason or another but stress as also say the author is never, never positive.

What it is important to do is to clean up our mind, to stop our numerous thoughts and focus on what it is primarily important in life.

Sure: problems are many in our society. Money, lack of work, a lot of difficulties, and thoughts. This is absolutely true, but in a plenty life like our life is Mr Pascal suggests to insert also some mediation session everyday for feeling ourselves much better, for stopping the obsessive life we are doing and for restore our body and our soul.

Our world is changed dramatically during the last century. If in the past people were seriously tired because they worked physically now most of us work intellectually and well let's put things like it, dangers are more than not in the past because brain can't stop to work thanks also to the technological devices we use.

At some point it's also good to interrupt this continuous flood of informations and thoughts that the brain elaborate for keeping this organ calm and relaxed and avoiding collateral effects of this super-work.

Meditation is one of the most powerful answers to all your problems.

I have always loved meditation since I was little, and I think that it can be one of the most powerful methods for re-balancing our life.

Michel is extraordinary because after a long introduction at the practice of meditation he will later divide the book in various chapters and they are all spectacularly wonderful!

The first chapter is dedicated at the meditation Like The Horizon.

This one is meditation created for unplug your brain when it runs too much. Isn't it the case of most of us? The chapter starts with a diagnostic, like also the other ones.


The second chapter dedicated to discover our inner peace in moments particularly stressing.

The third chapter is suggestive: meditate like the wind in the desert. Create more time when you are busy.

Meditate like the Sky the fourth one. See inside yourself, develop your intuition and make the best decisions.

The fifth practice Meditate like a mountain while in the sixth practice Mr Pascal will help us to meditate like a wave.

The seventh practice: meditate like the sun. Restore energy, send all your love to others, and discover the power of compassion.

Practice eight: Meditate like a flower. Rediscover the blessing of your desk.

Practice 9 Meditate like a Kiss Feel less stress in a romantic relationship.

Practice 10 Meditate like a broom. Clean your Mind.

Each of these special meditations have special names pretty intuitive. You can guess the reason why they are called in a certain way and why  like also which is the field of your soul, existence or portion of life that certain exercises and meditation will touch.

I fell in love immediately for this book and I strongly suggest it from the bottom of my heart to you all because the exercises you will find are beautiful, poetic, realistically working, and impressive.

For staying well with other people, we must firstly stay well with ourselves but this condition can be found only if and when we permit to ourselves to say: let's stop all of it, and let's start to add more quality time to us, our life, our soul.


At the end of this book explained also the foundations of meditation: Phowa, Tonglen and Hesychia.


Beautiful!

I don't find too much spectacular the cover. I would have imagined something much more poetic. Waves, mountains, dolphins, a patchwork all together for introducing poetically meditation to readers.

I thank NetGalley and ABRAMS for this book.




Anna Maria Polidori

Rosé All Day The Essential Guide to Your New Favorite Wine by Katherine Cole

Rosé All Day The Essential Guide to Your New Favorite Wine
by Katherine Cole is a book that will be released by ABRAMS on April 11.


What is rosé? It's a kind of wine that we can say it's not red and it's not white. For this reason it is not very known and mainly not particularly chosen by people during parties, feasts, lunches or dinner.

Discriminated, no one had previously written a book telling us everything we wanted to know about the rosé but we didn't have the courage to asking for :-)  it's clear that the rosé is loved, and massively produced - thanks also to the good weather - in France with 39% of consumers and the USA. At the end of this list Italy.

The author will start to tell us the story from the old centuries to our days of rosé and the methods for the creation of wine not forgetting history with the main differences we could find now between a glass of wine drunk by Plato and the one drunk by us.

It's a beautiful and fascinating historic book about a wine, the rosé with a turbulent life, and in most cases during History defeated by its cousins White and Red.

You will learn which are the diversified colors of rosé, its 100 fragrances, from allspice to yeast.

It's a technical book plenty of suggestions, advice, and lot of history, with the great invitation of discovering the rosé around Europe, mainly in North and South France. Italy, Spain and Portugal, USA.


Highly recommended for all wine lovers.


I thank NetGalley and ABRAMS for this book.




Anna Maria Polidori 

Obama's Legacy by Michael I. Days

"Yes, we Can" was the motto of senator Barack Obama from the State of Illinois, Chicago. This energetic young man had a big dream: to win the Presidential Campaign of 2008.

Years that ones populated by the Republican George W.Bush Jr. and years of great recession.
It was still close the terrorist attack of 9/11. The country fell for various reasons in a big recession.
Americans were tired, disillusioned and they were searching for new answers, new voices, a novelty.

Obama, plenty of enthusiasm, great staff, great ideas, best technology for the electoral campaign wanted to change the face of the USA.

The small particular of this sunny, smiling, captivating potential President was that for the first time this strong Democrat candidate was black.
A black President in the White House.
The Black Kennedy as I baptized him.

In other countries the news of a potential black candidate would have passed unnoticed but in a country like the USA where there are still many racial problems and a big and heavy slavery history behind a reason for remarking it.

Candidate Obama was irresistible, attractive.

Although also the other candidate, the Republican John McCaine a great man, a veteran of the war of Vietnam and another good chance, no one was in grade to interrupt the long race of hurricane Obama bringing him directly at the White House.

We cried because this dream was realized.
We all cried for the joy, happiness, and for days and weeks because the unthinkable became real because a real pacification now could be born between a country still too lacerated.
We all cried because we knew that it was time for the USA of experiencing the vision of a man like Obama.

He would also  given dignity to all the black Americans who still feel discrimination.
A man like him would have been in grade to change the world for better.
President Obama has been in office for 8 years.

In the book written by Michael I. Days, Obama's Legacy, published by Hachette the editor of The Philadelphia Daily News, the first newsmagazine with the news of the victory of Barack Obama the complete, beautiful portrait of the 8 years of government of President Barack Obama and his innovative ideas and sometimes breaking rules.

From the first time a woman member at the Supreme Court of Latin origin, to the gay rights with the introduction of marriage between people of the same sex,  passing through education.

President Obama has always thought that education should be complete.
Of course wealthier families don't have problems with their children but what to do for the rest of population and for reducing the gap between richest and poorest?
Obama tried all his best keeping colleges affordable for students who in opposite case would have ended their scholastic experience with high school.

Crisis and recession in fact inherited by President Obama changed the face of the USA and what it was necessary to do was working for find in new directions new answers.

Obama bettered the life of children of poorest families thanks to a special program for all families not eligible for Medicaid.

President Obama changed the faces of school signing the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, for nutrition standard programs at school.

The same Presidential couple stimulated the population to paying attention at what they were eating and the first lady Michelle Obama the first one to give a real example to everyone with the creation of a garden at the White House, following the example also of another predecessor of President Obama, John Adams.

Thanks to this garden for a long time and for the joy of the staff of the kitchen of the White House we think there were fresh veggies and other vegetables to eat. Americans thanks to the First American Family re-discovered the art of planting veggies and the culture of eating well and good food.

Obama helped a lot the health of women also the ones who couldn't afford the sanitary system thanks to the Affordable Care Act and The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. New tests and exams could be done by a largest population like mammograms, HIV test, domestic-violence counseling, gestational diabetes. A lot of women discovered to be affected by cervical cancer thanks to this new law.

President Obama encouraged immigration. He has given opportunity at work for disable people, creating special funds for bettering their lives.

He helped Veterans with new funds, ideas, helping them physically, psychologically.
He re-added oxygen to a tired economy.
President Obama has always believed in green energy and climate change, in guns control considering the cases of people, most of them very young who attacked and killed without sense people in various church and schools.

Barack Obama re-opened the dialogue with Cuba...

Barack Obama will be remembered like the President of everyone and the President of inclusion. No  forgotten, no one with him behind in particular if a person in need or if poor.

There would be more to write, about wars closed and opened, diplomacy and frictions and many other voices but I leave to you the joy of this discovery.

It's an impressive book this one by Days, very informative, and it wants to remark what President Obama created during these eight years and what he left at the USA.
His fights, his failures, his goals and first of all his vision. A vision of inclusion, a vision of a country for everyone, a vision of a place where opportunities are not just for few lucky ones but for a large part of population and where democracy means also solidarity and help and inclusion with the poorest part of the country. A country where money mustn't never let us forget humanity. A green country, a country able to see the devastation of global warning, where human rights are recognized, a country opened to everyone, a free America for everyone in an America at the same time assaulted by new terrible dangers.


A celebration of a legacy that won't never be forgotten and will remain in the minds and in the heart  of all the Americans forever.

Highly recommended. It's a touching book.


I thank Hachette book for the physical copy of this book and NetGalley for the eBook.


Anna Maria Polidori

No Limits Blow the Cap off your Capacity by John C.Maxwell

I choose to read No Limits Blow the Cap off your Capacity by John C.Maxwell  because I do strongly believe in the capacity of every man or woman to be successful in this society.

And yes I think that there are no limits although sometimes there are many limits for most of people and John C.Maxwell will help the reader to discover his/her potentialities, suggesting which ones are the strongest caps that must be removed for becoming successful for most of us.

The book will be released this March 7th and it is absolutely interesting for everyone.

It is written for people of success not tired to become more successful, but of course the advice shared in this book can be great for every reader. each of us can become a best person.

First of all Mr Maxwell writes that for becoming more successful in life it's necessary to remove some caps from as said before. Which ones?
All the ones not dictated by the birth of the person.

There are caps that  won't never be removed. Our parents,  relatives, birthplace, the sum of it gives our history.

All the rest of caps are of two types: the ones created by neighbors and so-called friends and the ones created by us.

The work that we must do is to try to destroy these caps for create a best self and a person conscious of his/her value.

In the second part of the book Maxwell analyzes all the capacities each of us possess: energy capacity, emotional capacity, thinking capacity, people capacity, creative capacity, production capacity, leadership capacity, in the third Maxwell will write about Choices, and how we can maximize our capacity.

Mr Maxwell analyzes all these aspects in detail and at the end of every chapter you will find some questions/reflections for you.

A leader and a person with a good personality will be in grade to focus on other people for building great contacts, without to forget to be visionary. Looking forward it's important for every successful person. Without the vision of the future, an organized, logical and structured future it's impossible to create.

A person of success won't think just "the now" but the future of his structure and/or company.

No one can define us and no one including ourselves should put down our self.

Maxwell brings the example of a famous motivator Nick Vujicic without legs and arms. He could have lived devastated because of it, but he choose to live a plenty and a successful life.

The most positive men are the ones who, without any doubt trust others, have a lot of friends and connections because they know that these connections are of mutual help: these men/women become best people thanks to them and friends and connections receive help from them.

The best leaders are the ones able to see the future before its arrival.

An example the one of Ford. Ford thought that maybe life of people would have been better with, well, a car in every house. People of course skeptical because who can see the future is not appreciated and believed.

At that time Ford started a real revolution for the society and for the world. 

Cars simplified a lot the hard life of people reducing distances between cities, saving time.

Mr Maxwell writes that no one can build a great future if a person doesn't take any kind of responsibility. Responsibility means respect for ourselves and the others.

Maxwell speaks also of bad people in our life. People who can sometimes work not necessarily for helping us but the opposite. These people once recognized must be removed from our circle of friends, although we must remaining positive and thinking that it's necessary an expansion of friends and connections, because with them we can grow.

It's important to stimulate people, being helpful for them and vice-versa. It's also important to remember the best moments we are living in this life, creating unforgettable memories.

I loved the anecdotes of the journal written by the author to his wife. Touching.

Maxwell remarks that a person never, never should think that age can be an obstacle.

Mr Maxwell is 70 years and he tell that there is no limits for our person and our personal growth, and that we can learn, appreciate life, better us, continuously, without any kind of interruption.

Sure, add Maxwell changes are fundamental because in opposite case nothing can be possible for improving and becoming someone else,  the real person that sometimes it's hidden in ourself because very comfy to do that.

Not risking, not trying, not living after all is better than to be fully alive for some people but these people will always remain behind if they won't change their attitude.

Mr. Maxwell think positively that each person will read this book is potentially great and can become great in every sector he/she loves.

What it will be necessary to do once not anymore in our comfort zone is to be relaxed. Each of us can lose a battle, the important is to win this first step and start to live in a dimension in the past unknown.

I also love that Mr Maxwell remembers God in a final  chapter of No Limits. God is very important in the American society and the respect for God is to me the engine of the USA and the biggest blessing.

I thank Hachette for the review copy they sent me of No Limits.


Anna Maria Polidori