Review: Triumph Over Trauma: Find Healing and Wholeness from Past Pain

Triumph Over Trauma: Find Healing and Wholeness from Past Pain by Gregory L. Jantz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Written in three (3) parts, this book looks at how we experience trauma, how trauma affects us and how we can recover from trauma. Each chapter is fairly short, introduces a single concept clearly in easily understood/common language that is generally supported by some research or study and a brief reference to scripture and/or faith in God. It is not as heavy handed as many religious self-help books that I have encountered, but for readers that generally eschew any spirituality, it might be distracting or otherwise difficult to get by. I thought it stuck a good balance. The chapters ended with a “Your Personal Healing Steps” that seemed to be very pointed and practical … making the over all book very well organized. The author was clearly able to comfortably cover holistic/non-traditional medicine such as aromatherapy, acupuncture, biofeedback, et al and included a good review of each in Appendix A and a reference to organizations that can help with trauma in Appendix C. Over all, with my somewhat amateur exposure and limited training to the subject of trauma, I couldn’t find any fault in the material nor did I have any trouble understanding it (which was expected for something targeting people who have either experienced trauma or are supporting someone who has). As such, I have not reservations in giving this book high marks across the board.

Part 1 - Broken: Trauma Strikes Suddenly or Gradually
1. The Truth Will Set You Free
2. Hope amid Heartache
3. Ten Truths about Trauma

Part 2 - Trauma: The Loss of Your True Self
4. Repressed and Depressed
5. Emotional Pain, Physical Problems
6. Interrupted Circuitry
7. Wary and Watchful
8. Crushed in Spirit
9. Bright Future Dimmed

Part 3 - Recovery: The Way Back to Your True Self
10. Restore Your Freedom
11. Revisit the Hurt
12. Revitalize Your Body
13. Reset Your Brian
14. Reconnect with People
15. Revise Your Script
16. Reclaim Your Power
17. Reinforce Your Spirituality
18. A Closing Word

Appendix A - Proven and Promising Treatments for Trauma Recovery
Appendix B - Avoid “Anesthesia”to Soothe Your Pain
Appendix C - Recommended Resources

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#TriumphoverTrauma #NetGalley

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Review: The Pyres: Sword and Sorcery #3

The Pyres: Sword and Sorcery #3 by Dylan Doose
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Performance: ****
Story: ***


Although this is the third book in the series, this story picks up shortly after the events of the first book, Fire And Sword (available on Kindle Unlimited, so I recommend you read that first). The World-building is GrimDark and occasionally more course that I liked, but over all does a fair job navigating sensibilities (although some of the more grotesque/sensational details were a tad off putting). The setting is centered upon a powerful church/religion in a struggle against the corruption dark sorcery (so naturally all magic is condemned). That makes life for at least one of the protagonist a bit dicey, since he is a fire mage and former church monk. The other two are a disgraced crusader (with an iron fist) and a one-eyed rogue that provide the muscle for the teams purported monster hunting activity.

And that is where this story begins … right in the middle of a war between gods (The Luminescent) and demons (Dammar) and their avatars, The Patriarch and the Dog Eater. But this is a dark story, so the good guys have a dark secret and the bad guys seem to have a legitimate bone to pick (they just do it with monsters) … so we get our three (3) antiheroes to walk the line between. And The Pyres … the fires that burn sinners and pagans every “First Day” festival. After each chapter we also get an interlude that provides flash backs, out of sequence dialog and fortune cookie wisdom from some dude's diary/prophesy that may or may not have any direct impact on the evolving storyline. You do get a few surprises along the way … just to keep you motivated to continue. Ultimately it is the narration that saves what is otherwise a fairly typically fantasy.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Shadow Society

The Shadow Society by Jay Bonansinga
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While I am a huge fan of Marvel movies, I am pretty much hit or miss with the comics themselves. The Shadow Society is written more along the lines of a novelized comic book without the cool illustrations. The idea of a team of anti-heroes is pretty standard stuff and the members of the quintet pretty [stereo]typical … so don’t expect a PC story here. Since this is the second of the series, let’s meet the main characters. Spur is muscle bound cowboy that is the nominal leader of the “ very special unit” and has the ability to duplicate or match his opponent’s main advantage. Boo is “petite” ninja assassin who earned her code name from her ability to ambush folks from the shadows (as in Boo, you dead). Pin-up (yeah, they went there) is a sexualized Latina who can shape shift (of course). Ticker is a dapper African American who can stop time and Hack follows the trend with his legendary cyber skills.

The story opens with a little demonic possession and satanic cult weirdness that it hopefully meant as a caricature the exorcism tradition of the Catholic Church. It is designed by be repulsive and it does a fair job without being too silly. Next we get some sleight of hand and the characters all move around the board without any apparent rhyme or reason other than bad guys gotta be bad guys. Frankly that makes Part I a bit of a drag to get through. We don’t get to the actually plot until Part II when we realize that Satan has some very specific plans to bring about Armageddon … and there really are no surprises here … after all, the prophecy is over 2 thousand years old by now. Part III is where the team springs into action to head off the Devil at the pass … with a [moderately] surprising incentive on top. This is where the super hero genre finally comes through and it was just okay when all was said and done. If you are a big comic book fan, feel free to add a star.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Words with God: Trading Boring, Empty Prayer for Real Connection

Words with God: Trading Boring, Empty Prayer for Real Connection by Addison D Bevere
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Prayer in three (3) parts. Part one looks at recognizing the Voice of God vs the Voice of the Adversary. While the concept of the quiet voice is fairly de rigueur the analogy with a Canyon Echo was a bit of a stretch for me. There were a few interesting observation though, such as life on the canyon wall switchbacks, our tendency to want answers immediately (just can’t wait) and the role of pain/suffering in spiritual growth (a common Catholic view point) Part two tries to give us a useful definitions of the Kingdom of God and our place in it (aka there should be no separation of secular and sacred), as well as the need to practice being good. No new revelations for me here; however, I will acknowledge that for most it might be. Part three seems to look a basic characteristics of prayer, presumable to make prayer better. There is no formula or strict steps to take, and this is pitched as a good thing, because reducing prayer to that would actually make it less effective … although the author does introduce at least three (3) prayer frameworks that appear to do just that: The Examen, The Office and Lectio Divina.

As with many personal/anecdotal stories that are used to buttress the concepts the author is trying to teach, they all run the risk that they just don’t connect with a reader that has a markedly different experience and/or world view and that can undermine the point somewhat. One particular example was the idea shared by many christians that you need to [wake up early and] withdraw [into a closet] to engage in structured prayer in silence … none of which is true. To be fair, the author seems tp only hold on to the latter as a requirement … which is strange because he then goes into the pray without ceasing mantra that can only happen the you live your prayer amidst the noise and chaos of life. While I understood the sentiment, the wording was awkward for me because I didn’t connect with the premise. This disconnect was aggravated when he attempted to trace the original of the word “intimacy” to the latin “in timor” (into fear … which is actually the origin of the word intimidate) … and is something that none of the etymologies that I have access to would support. Such word games undermines my faith into the rest of his research (however, despite my misgivings, his research is generally good).

Ultimately there were several observation, opinions and interpretations that didn’t quite resonate with me despite the book having a number of true gems within it. One such example would be when it states that “There’s a sense that God can forgive only what is confessed, so we rack our brains, searching out any wrong done or right left undone. [Only] Once every item is confessed can we be on our way, hopefully feeling bad enough to never do those things again.” This is a decidedly Catholic sentiment that, having grown up in a Protestant tradition, just doesn’t resonate with me very well. That said, there is still enough here to make it worth the read.

Part 1: The Canyon
1. The Voice
2. Into Silence
3. The Prayer

Part 2: The Temple
4. What We Call God
5. Seeing the Kingdom
6. Opening the Conversation

Part 3: The Dance
7. The Integrator
8. I Am Here
9. How Should We Ask?
10. Confession, Sin, and Conscience
11. Me to We
12. Forgiveness
13. Trials, Temptations, and Joys
14. In the Name

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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