Stolen Innocence - Elissa Wall with Lisa Pulitzer - print book

My darling cousin Karen, from California, gave me this book to read when I visited in May 2011, and boy am I glad.


You may have gathered by now that I enjoy a read that looks into other people's psyches, why they do what they do, and this book was certainly revealing in that department.


As someone who regularly hides from the religious door knockers, I often wonder how people get caught up in stifling religions in this 'enlightened' day and age, in those religions where the disciples have to live in a manner so different to the rest of the world around them. What is it that these organisations do to a person's mind that means a teenage girl will be willing to wear clothes more suited to a girl living 200 years ago? How do these organisations get people to live in a manner so alien to the rest of us? Stolen Innocence goes a long way to answering those questions.


This is the story of a young girl brought up in the Fundamental Church of Latter Day Saints, her marriage at the age of 14 which was dictated by the church's leader, Warren Jeffs, and of her subsequent fight to free herself of the constraints of the church as she opened her mind to other ways of living her life and questioned what was happening to her.


If you're a parent, you will find this story horrifying in part, but you will also cheer for this brave girl who, with limited life experience, knowledge and education, stood up for herself and for others.


Available at the usual outlets, this isn't just recommended reading, it's a must read.

Open - An autobiography - Andre Agassi - print book

This is a brilliantly titled book because, yes, Mr Agassi is extremely open. Open, honest and entertaining, he opens the doors into a world where very few of us live and hence have any idea of how it operates in there.


Get behind the mind of a young boy too scared to disappoint his father. Of a young man trying to work out who he is in an artificial world of celebrity. Of a slightly more mature young man who finally meets someone with the grounding he needs to help him find his feet in this world.


Andrea Agassi's life story could serve as a manual for those parents who think it's good for a child to be pushed to their outer limits. Yes, there is the odd child who can handle it, but who really knows what goes on inside their mind? And is it really fair to push a child that far when they have no other lifestyle to compare with it?


Available at the usual outlets, this is highly recommended, even if you don't like tennis, or Andre Agassi. Because after reading it, I dare you to continue not liking him!

The Happiest Refugee - Anh Do - print book

I'm so glad I read this book. I don't go to comedy nights and only know Anh Do through TV, yet I've always been impressed by his smile and the way he comes across. Happy to say, what you see is what you get - Anh Do is a genuinely happy person, a positive influence on the world at large, I'm sure. 


Here's a man who, as a little boy, suffered the trauma of being a 'boat person' along with members of his family. Yet there is no self pity here. No victim mentality. Just an attitude of 'It could be so much worse, so now it's so much better, so that's just great and I'm going to make what I can of it'.


They say that you're the sum of the five people you spend the most time with. I know quite a few who would benefit from spending a little time with Anh Do. In fact, we all should. And the good news is, there is now a children's version of the book available - get 'em while they're young to help instill Anh's great attitudes!


The Happiest Refugee is available in bookstores and online pretty much everywhere - as it should be! 


Highly recommended.

The Wolf of Wall Street - Jordan Belfort - print book

It's not right to glorify drug taking, living a life of excess at other people's expense, and general financial fraud, but I have to say I really did find Mr Belfort's book hard to put down - possibly because I could barely believe that anyone could live such a life. Apparently, there are people out there who live like this, but most of them end up in an early grave.


Mr Belfort has been lucky to get a second chance, following multiple divorces, drug rehab, the loss of his company and a stint in jail. That the normal mortal should be so lucky!


Still, it's interesting to see how a relatively 'normal' person who is so incredibly intelligent can get sucked into wayward and self-destructive behaviour. And Mr Belfort seems able to write about his past without any hint of 'woe-is-me I'm a victim' - he seems to take responsibility for his actions, and with a reasonably healthy dose of humour, too.


Enjoy, but don't follow in his footsteps!!

The Long Way Home - Kate Shayler - print book

When Kate Shayler visited our office and asked if we'd be interested in publishing her third book, Burnished, it led to a path of new knowledge - about children's homes, about the institutionalisation of children, about resilience, and about the buildings on Pennant Hills Road in North Parramatta that I had passed so often as a child, wondering who might be lucky enough to live in those castles. Little did I know.


The Long Way Home is the story of one Forgotten Australian who will now never be forgotten and who, as a result of taking the brave step of talking about her childhood, has paved the way for others to do the same in Burnished.


Yes, The Long Way Home is confronting, especially as a mother. I couldn't bear the thought that either of my children might have had to live the way Kate did due to my untimely demise. But it should be compulsive reading for anyone in children's services anywhere in the world today.


It's no longer in print, but can be bought second hand through the usual online channels.


Burnished: Burnside Life Stories is a compilation of life stories from other residents of Burnside between the 1920s and 1970s, brought to us as a result of other Burnie kids asking Kate when she was going to write their stories. These unique and inspiring tales from 26 Forgotten Australians are a must read for anyone remotely interested in Australia's social history.


Burnished is available in print, PDF and ePub from The MoshShop.

If You Ask Me - Betty White - print book

While I enjoyed Betty's thoughts on life, love and laughter, it was a bit of a let-down. I think her prior books may have had more in them, and I felt a bit cheated, as if I was getting the left-overs that didn't make it into her other books.


Having said that, Betty is an inspiration. To do what she's done in her life, her attitudes, her zest - we could all do with a little more of what makes Betty, Betty.


So if you're a Betty White fan, don't ignore this book, and if you've not read anything of Betty's before, this is a good place to dip your toe in the water.


If You Ask Me is available in bookstores across the world, and the usual online shops. (Read: Amazon, eBay etc!)

Nailed - Patrick Jones - print book

What a great little story this was!


As a parent of two girls who have managed to traverse the teenage years relatively unscathed, I found this compulsive reading. And it should be compulsory reading for all parents - you can't learn to drive without lessons and I really think we shouldn't be allowed to reproduce without some lessons, too!


This book, written from the teenager's viewpoint, is about disenfranchisement with everything - school, society, parents, you-name-it. And it is so logical, you just want to reach into the book, pull him out and hug him until he gets better.


Not written for adults, but teens, I still found it incredibly revealing and am eternally thankful that I didn't cause my children as much pain as I could have done just by being me. Brilliant reading.


Find out more at http://www.bloomsburykids.com/books/catalog/nailed_pb_486

Fast and Louche - Jeremy Scott - print book

This autobiography was entertaining due to the fact the Mr Scott has lived a life that most of us can only imagine. Wealthy background, wins, losses, women, travel, copious quantities of alcohol, not necessary a life we would envy, but it certainly makes for an eye-opening tale.

It's not a recent book (first published 2002) but I bought it to read on the plane to San Francisco (from Sydney) and it certainly served me well on that long haul!

It's readily available on Amazon, in new and used versions, just search the title name from above. And enjoy!

Doing Max Vinyl - Frederick Lee Brooke - ebook

For sheer entertainment value, probably one of the best books I've read all year.



Mr Brooke's writing is direct, intelligent without being pretentious, and thoroughly entertaining. His ideas and characters are modern, including his theme of corruption and subterfuge in business and recycling, and it's all tied together with just the right blend of humour, violence and irony.


How he managed to come up with this plot, the characters and the events is beyond me, but he weaves a great tale which I will one day re-read. (And that's a big compliment coming from me - read a book once, find out how it ends, and that's usually it - give me the next one!)


Highly recommended.


Click here to buy it on Smashwords.

It's OK to Laugh - Nancy Santa Lucia - ebook

This book was self-published, and the copy I purchased showed - it definitely needed some judicious editing and proofreading - but as far as enlightening me, it certainly did.

Nancy tells the story of her first marriage, one littered with domestic violence and the psychological mess that occurs as a result. But this is no book by a victim. This lady has looked at herself and her life, and managed to take steps to get out of her situation.

People that have never been exposed to a domestic violence situation will often say that they don't understand why people (generally women) don't just up and leave. This book takes us one step closer to understanding why not.

As well as enlightening me, this book also entertained me. Nancy is funny, honest and self-deprecating, and I am sure she would be a hoot at the office Christmas party!


Recommended for those that can forgive some typos and just want to enjoy someone else's ability to get up, dust themselves off and move on.


Click here to buy it on Smashwords.

Last Suppers: Famous Final Meals from Death Row - Ty Treadwell and Michelle Vernon - ebook

What an entertaining little treasure this one was! The beauty of it was that it was also peppered with items about the inmates, and other incarceration anecdotes designed to entertain those of us unlikely to ever experience this other world.


It is not a 'should we, shouldn't we?' book about the issue of capital punishment but a compilation of interesting items about life on the other side of the wall.

Entertaining, enlightening and enjoyable!


Highly recommended.


Click here to buy it on Smashwords.

Surviving an American Gulag - Edward C Patterson - ebook

This book was really enjoyable. Occasionally a character or an event would be a little larger than life, and lack a little realism, but then a good story always has components that are a little beyond what the average Joe is likely to experience.


The beauty of this book is that although it's a story about the issue of being gay in the forces, it plays out in a way I didn't really expect. I would read certain passages and think 'Should I be interpreting it this way, or that, or am I just reading stuff into this?' and those questions weren't answered until I got almost to the end. (For the record, I SHOULD have been interpreting the way I thought, but didn't want to jump to conclusions at the time of reading.)


Mr Patterson's writing champions gay rights and an understanding of gay issues with subtlety and dignity and I really must make the effort to acquire some more of his books.


Highly recommended.


Click here to buy it on Smashwords

Getting into a NOOK

In April/May this year, I had a holiday on the west coast of the USA. It was brilliant - nothing like I imagined. 


But one of the best parts was visiting the Barnes and Noble bookstore on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. It was there that I first held a NOOK Color. And the next day, I bought one.

Why a NOOK Color and not an iPad? Well, the iPad is still on the list, but I couldn't justify the expense when all I wanted was a device on which I could read ebooks. The beauty of the NOOK is that you can do other things such as email, websurfing etc. It just doesn't have any computing power as such, so you can't use it to create documents etc. No biggie for me - I just wanted to read!


Mind you, I grilled the poor sales assistant for the best part of an hour: would it work in Australia? What sort of things could I do on it? What about the power cord issue? And on and on. But he was a lovely, lovely man, with endless patience, and as part of the sale he gave me a list of web addresses where I could buy ebooks, download them to my PC, then transfer them to my NOOK.


One of those addresses was for Smashwords, and that has proven to be a boon to my business, my access to ebooks, and my understanding of electronic publishing.


We now have a MoshPit Publishing page at Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=moshpit+publishing where you can download a whole range of things that we publish in a whole range of formats - including for Kindle.


I love what we can do with computers, systems and the internet these days!

All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Remarque - print book

So I was thinking the other day, I really should do a list of all the books I've read this year, now that I'm getting back into reading for me. And then the thought occurred - where do I keep the list so that I don't lose it? Answer: a blog.


So while I'm thinking about it today, I'm currently reading 'All Quiet on the Western Front' by Erich Maria Remarque.


The writing is surprisingly modern, clean and direct, despite the fact that it was translated from the German many years ago. Very readable, very enlightening, and amazingly relevant, even today. Looking forward to finishing it to see how it all pans out.


Over the next week or so I'll start listing the year's other reads. Feel free to argue with me if you don't like my opinions!


Update 18 November 2011


Well, I finished All Quiet on the Western Front this morning and I truly believe this should be compulsory reading for all school children, politicians, economists, psychologist and psychiatrists, and war mongers in general. Sadly, while we have humans on the planet, we will have wars, human nature being what it is. There will always be someone willing to bully someone else into doing or giving whatever, but after reading this book, which is not maudlin by any means, I was all too painfully aware of the evils of war. 


I bought this book in paperback in a department store for just a few dollars. If you should ever see it yourself, or can borrow it from the library, then do.


Highly, highly recommended.