Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: deeann-callis-graham

  • 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!

  • HEAD ON – Stories of Alopecia by Deeann Callis Graham – Self-Esteem, Success Self-Help, Dermatology

    HEAD ON – Stories of Alopecia by Deeann Callis Graham – Self-Esteem, Success Self-Help, Dermatology

    Instruction & Instight Blue and Gold 1st Place BadgeMore than 10 years ago, when Deeann Callis Graham went through a second bout of alopecia areata (AA), the first was when she was seven years old, she wondered where she could find pictures and read stories of people who were also losing their hair. She wanted to embrace positive messages amid a society that equates baldness with cancer and sickness. Yearning to relate to people who looked like her, she started writing her own story and soon she had connected with others with alopecia wanting to tell their stories.

    Head-On: Stories of Alopecia, featuring 75 narratives from people of all ages and walks of life with alopecia. Graham’s purpose is to educate and shed light on the illness that affects 6.8 million people in the US, according to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation (NAAF), and help change the world’s attitudes toward hair, beauty, and self-worth.

    In the book, Graham makes it clear that alopecia areata is not cancer, and that hair loss is not any easier for men and boys than it is for girls and women. Alopecia areata is an autoimmune condition where the body gets confused and attacks the hair follicles, which causes hair to fall out. A more severe form is alopecia totalis, where all of the hair on the head falls out. Alopecia universalis, which is less common, is hair loss on the entire body including the head, eyelashes, eyebrows, legs, toes, etc.

    To produce the 216-page book, which features black-and-white portraits and short narratives from each participant, Graham talked to more than 500 people to compile the stories and conduct research. At the end, she includes interviews with Jeff Woytovich, founder of the nonprofit Children’s Alopecia Project (CAP), and Andy Turpen, who started Mondo Baldo to highlight positive messages around baldness.

    Most impressive are the narratives of hope, rebirth and renewed confidence after years of stares, pranks, and bullying in school and misinformed comments, rudeness, and more stares as adults. Being a child with alopecia can be particularly devastating, as the many contributors wrote, being called “freak” or “hairless cat” on the schoolyard. Sophia said she missed going to her junior prom; and Tanya recalls that as a youngster, she felt “ugly and vulnerable.”

    Most of the contributors talk about the countless hours they spent in front of the mirror creatively trying to hide their bald patches with their existing hair. Making the decision to wear a wig in public was a major turning point and a show of independence yet it also came with its own potential failures. Sarah, from California, had a pivotal moment during middle school when a classmate pulled her wig off her head. Sarah was “completely shocked,” but after that incident, she decided to tattoo her eyebrows and leave the wig at home when she entered high school. “I’m just so tired of hiding,” she writes.

    While some of the stories are heartbreaking, they are also uplifting, showing how each person rose from the ashes to use their alopecia for good either for their own self exploration or to help the world understand the illness.

    Steph, a high school swimmer, says when the team gathers for pictures at meets, she proudly displays her bald head. “It’s as if I’m announcing, ‘Here I am. Bald, beautiful, and not sick!’”

    Joyce, who has had alopecia for more than 50 years, had hair loss from age 12 to 24. Her hair fully returned and remained for almost 30 years. “I believed I was cured,” Joyce writes, however there is no known cure at this time although there are treatments. Later, when her son’s hair started falling out, hers did again too and she said she felt relieved she was done with the cycle.

    Not only is Head-On a lovely display for the coffee table, it serves as a resource for parents of children with alopecia and anyone who would like to learn more. Graham has included Alopecia 101 with facts and, at the end, a Resources page listing organizations based in the US, the UK, Australia, and Canada.

     

    Head On: Stories of Alopecia won First Place in the CIBA 2017 Instruction & Insight Awards for Non-Fiction.