Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: cyndy-sheldon

  • SPOTLIGHT on I&I AWARDS for NON-FICTION, HOW-TO, INSIGHT, INSTRUCTION, and more!

    SPOTLIGHT on I&I AWARDS for NON-FICTION, HOW-TO, INSIGHT, INSTRUCTION, and more!

     

    Are you gifted in the art of puzzle making? Do you have the ability to flip houses for profit? Are you a fervent advocate for renewable energy and want to share your knowledge with the world?

    Do you have a unique and interesting way of doing something? If so, and you choose to write an instructional manual, a travel guide, or shed some light on a subject, we would like to say, “Welcome!”

    We need your input, your advice, your manuals and manuscripts for the CIBA 2019 Instruction and Insight Awards.

    The deadline is fast approaching, so don’t delay, enter your work and let us judge it against the other entries to sus out the best!

     

     

    The categories are:

    • The Arts: Music, Photography, Performing Arts, Fine Arts,
    • Cookbooks, Home and Garden
    • Motivational: Career, Business, Sports, Self-help
    • Arts and Crafts How-To
    • Nature and Environment
    • Travel Guides
    • Science
    • Pets and the Animal World
    • Health, Diet, and Fitness
    • Writing Guides
    • Pop Culture and Social Issues

     

    If you have a published book or manuscript of Instruction & Insight, enter it before December 31, 2019! Who knows, you may bring home a First in Category – or even the Grand Prize Award!

    But you have to enter in order to win. Don’t delay, follow this link and enter today. 

    Cassandra Overby entered and won the I & I Grand Prize in the CIBAs for her Travel Guide, Explore Europe on Foot

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Here are the titles and authors who won First in Category in the 2018 I&I Awards: 

    • The Suburban Micro-Farm: Modern Solutions for Busy People by Amy Stross
    • God Answers Science by Gary W. Driver
    • Retire Securely: Insights on Money Management from an Award-Winning Financial Columnist by Julie Jason
    • Physician: How Science Transformed the Art of Medicine by Rajeev Kurapati
    • Do You Have a Catharsis Handy? Five-Minute Writing Tips by Kathleen Kaska
    • Klee wyck Journal by Lou McKee          

    The CIBA 2017 GRAND PRIZE I & I Award Winner: 

    Kari Rhyan for Standby for Broadcast

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Here are the titles and authors who won First in Category in the 2017 I&I Awards: 

    The I&I Awards were new in 2017. Before that, the instruction and Insight books were included in the Journey Awards for NonFiction. Here are some of those books that made the grade – and are true I&I Winners!

    Here are some titles that fit nicely into the I&Is from 2016:

    The Grand Prize Winner for the Journey Awards in 2016 came from the Self-Help Category, Destiny Allison’s The Romance Diet: Body Image and the Wars We Wage on Ourselves.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Here are some titles that fit nicely into the I&Is from 2015:

    The Grand Prize Winner in the 2015 Journeys, from the Enlightenment/Historical category, Grant Harper Reid‘s Rhythm for Sale

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Some of the Category Winners from that year: 

    Our First in Category Winners in 2014 Journey Awards that are definitely I & I Contenders: 

     

    In 2013, Christine Smith won the OVERALL Grand Prize in the Chanticleer International Book Awards for More Faster, Backwards: Rebuilding David  

    All of these outstanding authors entered the I&I Awards – or, the earlier, Journey Awards and were chosen as the best books of the year! 

    The deadline is fast approaching! December 31, 2019, is almost here.  

    The Chanticleer Non-fiction Book Awards First Place Award-Winning
    Authors Awards Package Includes:

    • ALL First In Category Award Winners will be given high visibility during the Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Gala.
    • First in Category award winner will compete for the Non-fiction Book Awards Grand Prize Award for Chanticleer Non-fiction Book Awards’ Grand Prize Ribbon and badges.
    • A coveted Chanticleer Book Review valued at $425 dollars U.S. CBR reviews will be published in the Chanticleer Reviews magazine in chronological order.
    • A CBR Blue Ribbon to use in promotion at book signings and book festivals
    • Digital award stickers for on-line promotion
    • Adhesive book stickers
    • Shelf-talkers and other promotional items
    • Promotion in print and online media
    • Review of book distributed to on-line sites and printed media publications
    • Review, cover art, and author synopsis listed in CBR’s newsletter

    And the 1st Place Award winners will automatically be entered into the NON-FICTION GUIDEBOOKS AND HOW-TO BOOKS GRAND PRIZE AWARD competition 2019!

    Don’t delay, follow this link and enter for your chance to win a prestigious CIBA 2019 I & I Awards today!

  • GESTALT as a WAY of LIFE: Awareness Practices as Taught by Gestalt Therapy Founders and Their Followers by Cyndy Sheldon – Gestalt, Self-Help, Psychotherapy, TA & NLP

    GESTALT as a WAY of LIFE: Awareness Practices as Taught by Gestalt Therapy Founders and Their Followers by Cyndy Sheldon – Gestalt, Self-Help, Psychotherapy, TA & NLP

    Word of warning: I’m a bit of a self-help junkie, so Cyndy Sheldon’s Gestalt as a Way of Life is right up my alley. As one of the movement’s founders, Ms. Sheldon provides a valuable and instantly useable advice in this approachable introduction to Gestalt Therapy.

    The word Gestalt derives from the German word for “form.”  The group’s antecedents intended to create a holistic way of attending to human potential by, in Sheldon’s words, “… attending to the whole human being, including the physical, emotional, mental and intuitive or spiritual aspects.”

    The book came out of a series of seminars that the writer had been offering beginning in 2007 in the Pacific Northwest. It became clear to her that recording the information and making it available to a wider audience would allow not increase exposure to the ideas, but would allow people to refer back to sections of value as needed.

    Ms. Sheldon’s time spent among the Navajo Tribe, over ten years, clearly impacted the work. The overlap between Buddhist teachings, Navajo spiritualism, and Gestalt practices make an intriguing mix. The varying influences appear to really ground the suggested exercises or “experiments” as the author refers to them. Those experiments are intended to help the reader fully realize the benefits of the program as if one had attended the seminars as a participant. It’s in the experiments where the book shines, offering real-world practices the reader can revisit.

    The book is broken up into six sections with letter identifiers A through F: Awareness, Growing Up, Get Out of Your Head, Authenticity, The Magic and Sacred in Gestalt, and Final Thoughts. I found the section on Authenticity (D) particularly apropos. As the reigning Queen of Conflict Avoidance (Ask my friends! Okay you can ask absolutely anyone who has ever met me!), the exercises intended to assist with becoming more direct in interactions with other people target my style of using nearly any tactic to prevent trouble from brewing – even if it leaves me furious, frustrated, angry and resentful. The sample experiment below helped me recognize some of my favorite dodging language, used when trying to avoid hurt feelings at the cost of being clear:

    EXPERIMENTS (p. 83)

    1. Watch people in restaurants, in parks, wherever you can hear them, and listen for their qualifiers.
    2. Listen for your own. Exaggerate using qualifiers with good friends—see if they notice. Then experiment with not using them.
    3. What other ways do you use to be indirect? Exaggerate these, which will help you become more aware of doing this…
    4. Now be direct and clear without judging.

    That last instruction alone proved so valuable. Being clear without indulging in a knee-jerk urge to start a self-shame-athon (at my deplorable display of selfishness) helped increase my awareness of the automatic pilot way my mind works when trying to avoid hurting others’ feelings.

    Like most books of the genre, you benefit to the extent you are willing to engage in the suggested experiments. Gestalt as a Way of Life delivers on two levels: it provides a fine introduction to the Gestalt movement and a gentle method for applying it in your life.

    5 Stars! Best Book Chanticleer Book Reviews