The Instruction and Insight Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Guides and Self- Help Non-Fiction. The I&I Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring HOW-TO, Guidance, Travel Guides, Cookbooks, Instruction, Insight, Self-Help, and more.
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2025 I&I Non-Fiction entries to the 2025 I&I Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for the I&I Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalist positions. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC26).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2025 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the Bellingham Yacht Club sponsored by the 2025Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 I&I Book Awards novel competition for Guiding and How-to Non-Fiction!
Join us in celebrating the Long List authors and their works in the 2025 CIBAs.
Albert Jung – What’s Your Name
Alejandra Acuña – Stones, Flowers, and Lessons Learned
Ana María López Jimeno – Vademecum of English: a Complete Reference Guide for Teachers and Learners
Andrew Cooper – The Ethical Imperative: Leading with Conscience To Shape the Future of Business
Ashlee Piper – No New Things
Darryl Arrington, PhD – Epilogue: Now We Rise Above the Trafficking Experience
Dawn Madelon Barclay – Vacations Can Be Murder: a True Crime Lover’s Travel Guide To New England
Evan M. Butterfield – Copyright for Creatives: a Practical Guide To Copyright Law for Creative People Who Make Stuff
Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, Mba Jd – Seeking Fairness at Work: Cracking the New Code of Greater Employee Engagement Retention Satisfaction
Holly Thorton – The Hardest Help: Supporting a Loved One Through Addiction
Jack Wolf – Critical Thinking for Go-Getters
Jerome Puryear – The Art of Thinking: Critically with Clarity for Optimal Health Your Longevity Is Determined by How You Think
Judy Taylor – Magpie Times Marshmallow World
Kathleen Lockyer – Wild Inside: How Nature Protects Your Child’s Mental Health and Restores Yours
Leslie Bains – Birds, Monarch Butterflies, and Short Hikes in the Santa Barbara Area
Luella Goethals – Resonance Chakra Balance and the Law of Attraction
Léonie Rosenstiel – They’re Coming for Your Elders and Your Inheritance: Ways To Protect Your Family Mitigate the Damage and Change the System
Stephen Rue – Must: Becoming the Person You Are Meant To Be
Tak Salmastyan – The Life’s Theater: Book One: Echoes That Suffocate, Art and Essays
Tissa Richards – Rethinking Resilience: Fueling Your Competitive Advantage
Tony Jeton Selimi – Climb Greater Heights
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
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Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.
The Instruction & Insight Awards are here to help!
The Insight & Instruction Awards celebrate exceptional books that provide valuable knowledge, guidance, and enlightenment across a wide range of subjects. From alternative remedies to self-help, these awards acknowledge authors who have made significant contributions to the fields of education, self-improvement, and understanding the world around us. This diverse collection of books foster learning, personal development, and a deeper understanding of the world around us. Enrich lives and contribute to the non-fiction landscape by submitting today!
You have until September 30th to Share your Book and Submit to the 2025 CIBAs!
Looking for something to learn? The I&I Awards have what your looking for! We’ve got categories for Travel, Crafts, Cooking, Motivation, Self-Help and More!
Honoring the Grand Prize Winners of the Instruction & Insight Awards!
Success with Hydrangeas- A Gardener’s Guide
By Lorraine Ballato
Our review for the newest Grand Prize Winner is forthcoming. Here’s an excerpt from Amazon:
Finally, a Book with All the Secrets to Growing Great Hydrangeas!
This book reveals all the ins and outs to growing hydrangeas. If you’re at all confused about pruning this shrub – and who isn’t? – this book will clear things up. If you’re worried about how much water to give it especially when it droops in the sun, this book explains it all. And what about transplanting: when is the best time to do that? Chapter four has the answers to that one and covers it all.
How to get your plant to bloom
Let’s not forget the most common issue people have with this plant: how can I get it to flower reliably? You’ll get the scientific insight needed to better site your plant, and how to care for it. Then you can just sit back and watch it flower for you.
Eating Together, Being Together
By Julian C.E. Clauss-Ehlers and Caroline S. Clauss-Ehlers
Eating Together, Being Togetheris a rare, enlightening book that teaches the importance of family dining, both on the culinary side and in its benefits for childhood and young adult development beyond the kitchen walls.
Co-authored by master Chef and Dad, Julian C.E. Clauss-Ehlers, and Ph.D. Psychologist and Mom, Caroline S. Clauss-Ehlers,Eating Together, Being Togetheroffers up their parental wisdom and expertise from the heart of the home—the kitchen.
With informative but relaxed conversations about food choices, preparation, and related activities, the two provide great insight into how family mealtime promotes well-being in a child’s life. As involved adults, they incorporate thoughtful discussions about spending quality time with their children, sharing and mitigating bad feelings, and making wonderful memories. Ultimately, they showcase family meals as nourishment for both the body and soul.
Within the pages of the book readers will find ways food can serve as a message of care and support, as well as a way to model kindness in the face of questions and concerns.
Emotional Magnetism: How to Communicate to Ignite Connection in Your Relationships is a self-help and marketing book in one—in fact, it’s a self-marketing book.
A seasoned marketing professional, author Sandy Gerber uses common elements in marketing theory to aid those who wish to enhance their communication skills and ability to get along with people around them. It’s easy to be misunderstood or unheard, and it’s even easier to be at cross-purposes, leading to frustration and animosity. But using Gerber’s SAVE technique, understanding what we mean and what we need becomes clear.
In this work, we learn what emotional magnetism is, and how well we can communicate when we learn how to harness it. We also learn about how emotional magnetism can be repelled when it’s not done right. But in order to use emotional magnetism, we must first learn what the emotional magnets are, using the acronym SAVE—short for safety (S), achievement (A), value (V), and experience (E)—and how they are reflected in our personalities.
The Black Foster Youth Handbook By Ángela Quijada-Banks
The Black Foster Youth Handbook: 50+ Lessons I Learned to successfully Age-Out of Foster Care and Holistically Heal is a distinguished compilation of award-winning author Ángela Quijada-Banks’ insights, seeking to assist those in foster care to stay optimistic and triumph over traumatic experiences.
The text features the author’s candid revelations regarding the disarray she encountered in foster care and the overwhelming emotional roller coaster she underwent through family upheavals and a heart-breaking rift between her siblings.
Foster care had seen her forget her goals and aspirations, as traumas and emotional misfortunes spread their venom in her soul. Banks had found herself misplaced, perplexed, wounded, irate, and unloved. Her background, past wounds, and pessimistic beliefs ruled over her. In a painful recap, she reveals how she became accustomed to constant alarming incidents, creating in her a perpetual state of survival.
Independent Living with Autism By Wendela Whitcomb Marsh
Author and autism counselor Wendela Whitcomb Marsh has created a specialized guide for those with autism, seen through the eyes of five characters of different ages, with differing needs and aspirations in her book, Independent Living with Autism: Your Roadmap to Success.
Boldly launching her work with the ambitious chapter, “Solutions,” Marsh depicts some of the possible departure points for her readers: those just out of school, those who were diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder or who self-diagnosed, and all who face the challenges of ASD, whether alone or with family or social supports.
Marsh relays her story, focusing on the lives of five individuals with ASD.
Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of I&I Winners is to submit today!
Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!
Submit to the CIBAs Today!
Now is your chance to touch the hearts of readers everywhere. Your Non-fiction story deserves to be discovered, and you can submit to the 2025 Instruction and Insight Awards by the end of the September. Don’t miss this chance to give your book the recognition it deserves.
The Instruction and Insight Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Instructional Non-Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Lorraine Ballato’sSuccess with Hydrangeas: A Gardeners Guide, will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the I&I contest page year ’round!
The best part about being a Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Winner is the love and attention you get all year ‘round!
Tropetails is the world’s first cocktail (and mocktail!) book centered around all your favorite bookish themes and literary tropes!
Featuring a whopping 50 carefully curated specialty drinks, Tropetails is the perfect book to add to your bar cart, coffee table, nightstand, heck, you could even snuggle with it in bed! Is that appealing? Perhaps you’d be better off leaving it in the kitchen…but I won’t tell anyone if you decide otherwise 😉
Each page of Tropetails has a hand-drawn illustration from “Chosen One”, to “Enemies to Lovers”, and “Who Done It”—all from your favorite genres across fiction and a unique recipe mixed to match the vibe of each different trope!
Foster resilience in the face of political polarization
Unsettled by provocative news, clashing politicians, and social fragmentation, Americans struggle to navigate the challenges of living in a divided country. Facing the Fracture offers a path out of the distress and disempowerment plaguing everyday people. Grounded in psychological research, this book offers readers strategies to foster resilience in the face of political polarization.
In this valuable book, Israel moves beyond explaining the problem of polarization to demonstrate how individuals can cope with the political divide, which seems widen with each passing day. Readers will find guidance to reduce toxic input from media, manage polarizing thoughts and feelings, and engage effectively with others. And they will learn that they have the power to improve their personal wellbeing, relationships, community, and country.
She controls, criticizes, and butts into your life constantly. Then, when you try to set boundaries, the pushback and resulting guilt is so bad that you tell yourself… it’s just not worth it.
Is your mother narcissistic, borderline, or just plain difficult?
Are you empathetic, sensitive, and kind?
Do you feel stuck in your relationship with Mom:
Trying to please her but never feeling good enough?
Feeling responsible for Mom’s emotional well-being?
Struggling to set boundaries without feeling guilty or getting so much pushback that you end up thinking… it’s just not worth it?
If so, chances are you have fallen into the hidden psychological traps that constitute The Good Daughter Syndrome.
Many self-aware daughters of narcissistic, borderline, or just plain difficult mothers know they need to stand up to their mothers and set healthy boundaries. Yet, they can’t bring themselves to do it and don’t know why.
They are caught in unconscious traps they can’t see or fully understand… Trapped by their difficult mother’s needs, the empathetic daughter can’t see a way to break free and still feel like a good person.
She can’t see these traps that keep her parallelized with guilt… or going round and round having the same arguments and getting nowhere with Mom, but I can.
Bob Dahms has had a long and diverse career in business and in business advisory roles.
In this book he shares 50 Things You Need to Know About Starting and Managing a Small Business. Everyone who reads this book will learn something that they didn’t know before. Actually, it’s way more than 50; check it out.
For decades, the hero’s journey has had a major influence on storytelling and story structure. Now, Douglas A. Burton presents a groundbreaking new paradigm for writers everywhere. Sourced entirely from heroine-led fiction—a unique narrative arc has been hidden in plain sight, complete with recurrent patterns and powerful archetypes. Burton offers writers a full fledges alternative that’s both original in its presentation, yet stunningly familiar. Discover the dynamism of story, conflict, and character development in a fresh new light. From myth to literature to TV to film, The Heroine’s Labyrinth explores story structure as modeled by heroic women in fiction. Burton’s theory on story has the potential to turn prevailing views of story structure upside down.
Inside, you’ll encounter 18 archetypal designs that form a distinctive narrative arc, each one rich with profound insights and powerful new perspectives. Discover the Masked Minotaur, the Sacred Fire, the Beast as Ally, the Poisoned Apple, and more. Novelists, screenwriters, RPG gamers, and memoirists will gain immediately useful insights in The Heroine’s Labyrinth.A must-read for writers.
Also the Chanticleer 2024 Harvey Chute Award Grand Prize Winner!
Take control of your money, avoid common financial pitfalls, and prepare for whatever life throws at you
In Stop Worrying about Money, Jacqui Clarke, Australia’s best-kept money secret, delivers smart and sure-fire guidance that will see you through life’s financial ups and downs. You’ll learn to clarify your values, set goals, and be upfront and honest about your money―both with yourself and with others.
Fact: Money comes in and goes out. The cost of living is ever increasing, big changes can come as big surprises and sometimes you’re stuck just trying to keep on top of everything. It’s time to hit pause on the distractions and get wise with your finances. With Stop Worrying about Money, you’ll re-assess what financial independence and freedom mean to you. This is the guide that will help you build a less stressful, more empowering relationship with money, starting today.
From Chanticleer:
Stop Worrying About Moneyby Jacqui Clarke serves as a lucid and candidly insightful guide to understanding the cornerstones of financial literacy, whether for a working professional, business owner, or anyone seeking to better manage their savings and investments.
This practical and insightful approach to financial awareness endeavors to decode the mystifying fundamentals of financial freedom, wealth management, and money psychology. Rather than merely presenting facts on numbers and investments, it adopts a holistic perspective, covering principles of earning, understanding, and wisely managing money.
Written by an experienced professional and fiscal guardian to many, Clarke’sStop Worrying About Moneypaves a clear and accessible roadmap for navigating the often-chaotic terrain of financial planning.
Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 I&I First Place Winners!
Watch for our Spotlight and Hall of Fame Articles that will feature incredible books, including Lorraine Ballato’s amazing Success With Hydrangeas: A Gardeners Guide!
Only 10 days left to submit your books to these prestigious CIBA Divisions and embark on an extraordinary journey to success.
The Chanticleer International Book Awards provide ongoing recognition that amplifies authors’ digital footprints through high-traffic website features, social media promotion, newsletter spotlights, and long-tail marketing that continues promoting winners throughout the year and beyond!
Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Mind & Spirit Awards for Spirituality and Enlightenment!
Shari Biery –It’s Your Turn How To Rediscover Yourself Prioritize Your Well-Being Thrive with Purpose
Damian Fozard –Disbelief
Eileen Marlowe –The Call to Connect With Spirit
Anne Kiehl Friedman –Higher Love: A Psychedelic Travel Memoir of Heartbreak and Healing
Jane Kim Yu –Journey of Awakening and Higher Consciousness
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Mind & Spirit Grand Prize Winner:
Naked in the Now
By Marijke McCandless
Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the I&I Award for Guides and How-tos!
Margaret C Beeler – Tropetails: A Cocktail and Mocktail Book for Bookworms
Tania Israel – Facing the Fracture How To Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided Nation
Katherine Fabrizio – The Good Daughter Syndrome: Help For Empathic Daughters of Narcissistic, Borderline, or Difficult Mothers Trapped in the Role of the Good Daughter
Bob Dahms, MBA, CPA, CMA – Let’s Talk About This: 50 Things You Need to Know About Starting and Managing a Small Business
Douglas A. Burton – The Heroine’s Labyrinth: Archetypal Designs in Heroine-Led Fiction
Jacqui Clarke – Stop Worrying about Money
And a huge round of applause for our 2024 I&I Grand Prize Winner:
Success with Hydrangeas: A Gardener’s Guide
By Lorraine Ballato
Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Harvey Chute Award for Business and Enterprise!
Roger Spitz –Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World
Jenny Li Fowler –Organic Social Media: How to Build Flourishing Online Communities
Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel –Cultural Intelligence for Marketers: Building an Inclusive Marketing Strategy
Neal Schaffer –Digital Threads: The Small Business and Entrepreneur Digital First Marketing Playbook
Melina Palmer –The Truth About Pricing
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Harvey Chute Grand Prize Winner:
Stop Worrying About Money
By Jacqui Clarke
The CIBAs provide a ladder to success with a range of achievement tiers and expert long tail marketing strategies. From the highly anticipated Long List to the prestigious Overall Grand Prize Winner, the CIBA lists energize both authors and readers, maximizing your digital footprint and expanding your fan base.
We are always eager to support the Best Books through the CIBAs. Join the ranks of celebrated authors who have already taken this critical step in their publishing.
Your book deserves to be discovered, celebrated, and shared with the world. Don’t miss the chance to showcase your talent and gain valuable exposure at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (April 17-19, 2025) where Winners from all 28 Book Award Divisions will be announced and honored.
In a world hungry for good books, your story deserves to be heard. Submit now and leave a lasting impression.
In an era where knowledge is power and practical skills unlock new possibilities, readers are seeking guides that deliver real results. From mastering specific crafts and hobbies to developing personal growth strategies and exploring the world through informed travel, the best instructional works combine expert knowledge with clear, actionable guidance. The Instruction & Insight Awards for How-To and Self-Help celebrate the exceptional authors who transform complex subjects into accessible learning experiences, empowering readers to expand their capabilities and enrich their lives.
Celebrating Our Grand Prize Winner!
We’re proud to celebrate our 2024 I&I Division Grand Prize Winner, Lorraine Ballato for her comprehensive guide Success with Hydrangeas: A Gardener’s Guide. This expertly crafted work addresses one of gardening’s most beloved yet challenging plants, providing gardeners with the scientific insights and practical techniques needed to achieve reliable blooms and healthy growth. Ballato, who serves as the resident hydrangea expert at the New York Botanical Garden and has been teaching hydrangea classes for over a decade, brings both professional expertise and real-world teaching experience to this thorough guide.
What makes Success with Hydrangeas exemplary is its comprehensive approach to solving common gardening challenges. The book features over 150 photos and illustrations across thirteen color-coded chapters that cover everything from propagation and fertilizing to pruning techniques, pest management, and achieving desired flower colors. Ballato addresses the most frequent gardener concerns like proper pruning timing, optimal watering practices, and transplanting strategies paired with clear scientific explanations and practical solutions. The inclusion of garden design applications and a detailed index ensures readers can quickly find answers when they need them most. Ballato will receive a Chanticleer Editorial Review and be invited to participate in an Author Interview, offering deeper insights into her expertise and approach to hydrangea cultivation.
The I&I Awards recognize the remarkable breadth of instructional and self-improvement literature, encompassing categories from Travel Guides and Culinary arts to Health & Fitness, Writing Guides, and Home & Garden expertise. This comprehensive scope reflects our understanding that learning takes many forms, whether through Arts & Crafts tutorials, Nature & Environment education, Psychology insights, or Business & Money strategies that enhance personal and professional development.
Explore All Business & Self-Help Divisions
The I&I Awards are part of Chanticleer’s comprehensive celebration of transformative non-fiction:
We’d love for you to join us in reading about some of our favorite guides that we’ve reviwed!
Eating Together, Being Together
By Julian C.E. Clauss- Ehlers and Caroline S. Clauss-Ehlers
Chanticleers 2023 I&I Grand Prize Winner!
Eating Together, Being Together is a rare, enlightening book that teaches the importance of family dining, both on the culinary side and in its benefits for childhood and young adult development beyond the kitchen walls.
Co-authored by master Chef and Dad, Julian C.E. Clauss-Ehlers, and Ph.D. Psychologist and Mom, Caroline S. Clauss-Ehlers, Eating Together, Being Together offers up their parental wisdom and expertise from the heart of the home—the kitchen.
With informative but relaxed conversations about food choices, preparation, and related activities, the two provide great insight into how family mealtime promotes well-being in a child’s life. As involved adults, they incorporate thoughtful discussions about spending quality time with their children, sharing and mitigating bad feelings, and making wonderful memories. Ultimately, they showcase family meals as nourishment for both the body and soul.
Within the pages of the book readers will find ways food can serve as a message of care and support, as well as a way to model kindness in the face of questions and concerns.
Albert Jung’s What’s Your Name?, subtitled How to Write Your Name in Han’gŭl Without Learning the Korean Language, is more than a primer for learning how to write in the Han’gŭl script — it’s a study of the evolution of the Korean writing system and, through it, the history of Korea itself.
What’s Your Name? offers a crash course in how to write your name in Han’gŭl for anyone who attends international conferences, hosts Korean exchange students, or simply has Korean speakers in their social sphere. Although the reader quickly plunges into the components of the Han’gŭl alphabet, Jung suggests a light read for the basics, and a comprehensive read for those seeking a deeper understanding of Han’gŭl and its evolution.
From absolute beginners to linguistics scholars and students, readers will find valuable reference material and guidance for practice in this extensive text.
InDisability is Human: The Vital Power of Accessibility in Everyday Life,Dr. Stephanie W. Cawthon advocates for the rights and needs of a group that is often underrepresented, ignored, or misunderstood.
Disability is Human offersa broad scope of examples and advice that has proven to enhance lives through accessibility, whether implemented in programs, institutional practice, or daily life. The book also has a companion workbook for those interested in incorporating its ideas into programs, institutional practice, or daily life.
Cawthon contrasts ableism against accessibility, including her own experiences as a person born deaf who uses hearing aids and sign language to communicate. She tells of a time before anti-discrimination laws were enacted to protect disabled peoples’ rights and make the world available to everyone.
Cawthon comes to this conversation with deep, personal knowledge of the issues faced by disabled people.
Dementia Home Care: How to Prepare Before, During, and After, by Tracy Cram Perkins, offers the lived experience of a caregiver, sharing the experiences that impressed upon her the enormity of the physical, emotional, and psychological task she undertook.
These same experiences made Perkins aware of the dearth of practical resources for the novice embarking on this journey. She hopes to fill that gap with this comprehensive, “user-friendly” guide that goes well beyond the limits of a self-help book, impersonal how-to manual, or clinical tome. From Dementia Home Care, readers will gain new insights into human behavior and how to become an effective caregiver without sacrificing their own well-being.
Perkins’ written voice captivates from the beginning. Her first-person accounts of caring for afflicted loved ones are both relatable and authentic. The reader will find themself laughing aloud, or filled with dread, as the author recounts actual experiences that are otherwise hard to imagine happening to oneself.
These reviews represent just a glimpse of the practical expertise and transformative guidance waiting to be discovered in today’s instructional and self-help literature.
See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!
We’re excited about all the outstanding instructional and self-help works we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. Throughout this year’s I&I Book Awards, we had the pleasure of promoting numerous valuable guides as they advanced through our competition tiers. The Chanticleer International Book Awards provide ongoing recognition that amplifies authors’ digital footprints through high-traffic website features, social media promotion, newsletter spotlights reaching thousands of industry professionals, and long-tail marketing that continues promoting winners throughout the year and beyond!
This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each advancement tier is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter! Your book deserves to be discovered.
Don’t Let Your Expertise Go Unrecognized!
The instructional and self-help market continues to thrive as readers seek trusted guidance for improving their skills, expanding their knowledge, and enhancing their quality of life. Whether your work provides step-by-step craft tutorials, transformative self-help strategies, comprehensive travel insights, or specialized knowledge in areas from cooking to psychology, the I&I Awards provide the recognition and promotional platform your expertise deserves.
Instructional literature has the unique power to unlock human potential, solving problems and opening new worlds of possibility. From practical guides that help readers master tangible skills to self-help works that facilitate personal transformation, every well-crafted instructional book has the potential to become an indispensable resource. Don’t let your knowledge remain untapped—submit to the I&I Awards today and join the skilled authors who’ve found their eager audience through Chanticleer!
Think about your favorite place to read a good book. It could be a beach with swaying palm trees and the back and forth rhythm of the ocean. Or maybe it’s a silent forest, where every bird’s chirp can be heard from far away.
Now, open the first pages of a new book and relax as you escape into another world.
Are you relaxed? Of course, you are! Study after study has concluded that one of the best activities for your overall wellness is reading a book. Not a screen—a story. Something that allows you to momentarily escape reality and live in another’s shoes—or slippers, sandals, high-heels, loafers, or boots.
August is National Wellness Month, and we at Chanticleer want to honor the far too overlooked, yet massively important, value that reading provides to a person’s overall well-being. Using the mind, body, and spirit model, we’ll explore how the act of reading has positive effects in ways science is only now coming to understand.
A 20% reduction in mortality was observed for those who read books, compared to those who did not read books. Further, our analyses demonstrated that any level of book reading gave a significantly stronger survival advantage than reading periodicals.
Reading Encourages a Focus on Health Information
Understanding and being able to comfortably read sometimes complicated health information is called “health literacy,” and people who exhibit good health literacy are better able to prevent, protect against, and manage health problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Being able to prevent illness in the first place offers the best benefit of reading for self-care. And it’s not only health-related information that helps you become more health literate. Many memoirs tell incredible health journeys, and fiction often relies heavily on scientific information or personal accounts of navigating illness. Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to ask for book recommendations that would empower you when you want to improve your health. Reading is part of the health journey.
The Mind of a Reader
Slow Down Cognitive Decline by Reading
It’s not hard to imagine that brain-stimulating activities help reduce signs of cognitive decline. Putting your thoughts, imagination, and analytical talents to the test keeps those neurons firing. When you read, you’re exercising the mechanics of your brain—pushing your memory further, processing information to analyze it in different ways, strategizing how to use new knowledge.
Reading makes your mind run its obstacle course so it stays in peak condition. Over time, your brain better handles the effects of aging and improves its ability to remember, reason, learn, and pay attention. Studies continue finding evidence that active readers show slower rates of memory loss and less decline in thinking skills. Stretching the brain’s multifaceted abilities creates cognitive reserve that may help offset age-related changes or damage to the brain.
Go team brain!
Reading Boosts Intelligence
You’re probably not shocked by this revelation. It only makes sense that the more you read, the more intelligent you become. Your vocabulary increases, your knowledge base grows, you become more comfortable with complex thoughts and strategy, you become a faster reader, and reading can actually increase your IQ. Throughout life, a reader’s intelligence can continue growing as they absorb more information through reading.
Reading Refreshes the Spirit
Reduces Stress
Give yourself a moment to relax by escaping into your imagination. It’s a healthy way to unplug and escape from everyday stress we all share in life. Fiction carries greater benefits when it comes to emotional health and overall well-being.
Shines Up Your Social Skills
Reading can enhance your social skills by providing examples of social interaction to learn from. Research shows that people who read often have stronger social and behavioral skills compared to non-readers.
Specifically, reading fiction may help people become more empathetic by giving them opportunities to understand what others think and feel. It may also promote self-confidence and assertiveness, essential components of wellness and self-care.
Wellness Reading Recommendations from Chanticleer Authors
Are you ready to get healthy by reading more? Based on the wellness benefits we’ve explored, here are book recommendations from award-winning Chanticleer authors, organized by the type of wellness support you’re seeking:
For Building Resilience and Overcoming Challenges
A Path to Excellence By Tony Jeton Selimi First Place in the CIBA Journey Awards
On the belief that life isn’t just the random cards one is dealt,A Path to Excellenceby Tony Jeton Selimi offers a blueprint—the octagon of excellence—to succeed personally, professionally, and spiritually.
Transcending the pitfalls and spontaneous stumbling blocks along the path of life can open the door to self-actualization and progression. As someone who experienced bullying, sexual abuse, early disability, and homelessness, Selimi sets on to become a beacon of light to the hopeless and marginalized.
Guided: Lost Love, Hidden Realms, and the Open Road By Kirsten Throneberry
First Place in the CIBA Journey Awards
In her stunning memoir, Guided: Lost Love, Hidden Realms, and the Open Road, Kirsten Throneberry weaves together the highs and lows of a road trip packed with life wisdom, where she explores grief, spirituality, and rekindled hope.
Throneberry’s achingly vulnerable memoir splits its readers’ hearts and tenderly sews them back together.
In the aftermath of the devastating loss of her husband, Kirsten sells her home and takes her two small sons, two elderly pups, and eccentric mother on a year-long road trip around the United States in their new-to-them Bigfoot RV.
Andy Becker, a small-town lawyer in Washington State, found solace from the demands of his career through the joys of gardening, the forests of the Pacific Northwest, and the spirituality of Judaism. He shares this sensibility in The Spiritual Forest
In this sequel to The Spiritual Gardener, Becker delivers a quiet, meditative offering that showcases the special connection between ancient Biblical values and the modern concepts of environmentalism.
The narrative is both informative and thought-provoking. To show the connection between our spirituality and the sacredness of our planet Becker uses questions for the reader as a guide, provides resources to take action in protecting natural treasures, and encourages us to share this knowledge with future generations. In a nod to Dr. Seuss’ cautionary tale, The Lorax, Becker stresses the importance of teaching youngsters about a love and respect for the Earth.
For Emotional Intelligence and Relationship Health
Psychological Secrets for Emotional Success By Dr. Kelly Rabenstein First Place in the CIBA Mind & Spirit Awards
Do you often feel that you sabotage your personal and work relationships? In Psychological Secrets for Emotional Success, Dr. Kelly Rabenstein teaches readers exactly what psychological techniques will help them strengthen and maintain their interpersonal connections.
Dr. Rabenstein is a licensed psychologist offering her extensive knowledge of how to make sound, conscious changes in mindset and perspective to help you thrive in relationships across the board. If a person can thrive, then they can be fully authentic to themselves and to those who surround them.
Patience Insanity and Wisdom By Anna Casamento Arrigo
Patience Insanity and Wisdom, Anna Casamento Arrigo’s poetry collection, dances seamlessly between reflective, philosophical, whimsical, colorful, and especially therapeutic.
In her author bio, Arrigo shares that she turned to poetry as part of her recovery from a stroke. This gives a glimpse into the true depth of these poems, which offer healing to the reader as well. Arrigo deals with issues of love and loss, depression and survival, and life itself. Her poems carry the echo of her struggle, softly alluded to, but not blatantly laid bare.
Celebrate Wellness Writing with Professional Recognition
Whether you’re writing a personal story or sharing another person’s incredible journey, professional recognition celebrates the craft behind transformative narratives. Your wellness-focused writing deserves the same recognition as the authors featured above.
Chanticleer International Book Awards recognizes outstanding nonfiction that supports readers’ wellness journeys through specialized divisions:
Instruction & Insight Awards: Perfect for non-fiction that teaches, guides, and empowers readers with practical wisdom
Mind & Spirit Awards – Ideal for works exploring spirituality, enlightenment, self-help, mindfulness, well-being, meditation, and personal transformation
These awards recognize the skillful writing behind memorable, impactful nonfiction that genuinely helps readers improve their lives.
Wellness writing is about creating emotional connections that resonate long after the final page. Professional recognition validates your contribution to readers’ wellness journeys.
Chanticleer Editorial Book Reviews also provide the professional third-party validation that wellness-focused authors need. Our comprehensive reviews serve as powerful marketing material while demonstrating that industry professionals recognize your work’s value to readers seeking personal growth and healing.
A Huge Congratulations to all of the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards (CIBAs) Division Non-Fiction, Book Series, SEA Shorts, and CCDAs Grand Prize Winners!
Every tier of the CIBAs is an important one, though few rise to be one of the coveted Division Grand Prize Winners!
All First Place and Grand Prize winners were announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference at the CIBAs Ceremonies on Saturday, April 5th at the Chanticleer Banquet.
Now, presenting the Non-Fiction Awards Grand Prize Winners!
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2024 I&IAwards is:
Success with Hydrangeas
A Gardeners Guide
Lorraine Ballato
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2024 NELLIE BLYAwards is:
The Sing Sing Files
One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a 20 Year Fight for Justice
Dan Slepian
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2024 HARVEY CHUTE Awards is:
Stop Worrying about Money
by Jacqui Clarke
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2024 MIND & SPIRIT Awards is:
Naked in the Now
Juicy Practices for Getting Present
By Marijke McCandless
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2024 HEARTEN Awards is:
Elk Love
A Montana Memoir
By Lynne Spriggs O’Connor
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2024 MILITARY & FRONT LINE Awards is:
Memoirs From The Frontlines
Four States, Two Years, One Pandemic
by Kim Sloan
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2024 JOURNEY Awards is:
Unfollow Me
by Kathryn Caraway
Now, presenting the Shorts & Series Awards Grand Prize Winners!
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2024 SHORTS Awards for Novellas and Long Prose:
Something About Lizzy
by Robin Elizabeth Kobayashi
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2024 SHORTS Awards for Short Stories and Essays is:
Dream Rut
Navigating Your Path Forward
by Dr Yumiko Shimabukuro
illustrated by Jieyu Deng
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2024 SERIES Awards is:
A Vengeful Realm
by Tim Facciola
Last, but certainly not least! The DEBUT Chanticleer Cover Design Award Winners for Fiction and Non-Fiction!
Our First ever Grand Prize Cover Design Award Winner for Fiction is
Luna
By Strider S.R. Klusman
Our First ever Grand Prize Cover Design Award Winner for Non-Fiction is
Teaching in the Dark
By Genét Simone
We have badges available starting with the Short List. If you need a digital badge reflecting your tier level, please email info@ChantiReviews.com with your division and rank, and we will send you one as soon as possible.
The 2024 CIBA Grand Prize Winners!
Make sure your Award gets the attention it deserves on Goodreads.com
In the Librarian Manual on Goodreads, you can go to your Book Edit Page — Literary Awards.
You want to list the Award for Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBA) Winners, and be sure to include the year and what place you received. For example:
The year Long List, Short List, Semi-Finalist, Finalist, First Place, Division Grand Prize, or Overall Grand Prize Winner
Note from Goodreads: “To add a new award or edit an existing award, you’ll need help from one of our volunteer librarians or a staff member.” For assistance, post in the Goodreads Librarians Group.
Always double check that you’ve written everything correctly before posting it. The search function for Awards on Goodreads is both case and punctuation sensitive.
The Overall Grand Prize Winner for the 2024 CIBAs was Reenita Malhotra Hora‘s Book Vermilion Harvest: Playtime at the Bagh
The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.
See Non-Fiction, Series, and Shorts Grand Prize Winners here!
See the Official Overall Grand Prize winner Post here!
Well done climbing the CIBA Levels of Achievement!
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, for Facebook to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.
A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting inMay. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.
Thank you for participating in the 2024 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.
The I & I Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Instruction and Insight non-fiction that are self-help, how-to, guides, or explanatory. In non-fiction works, the author assumes responsibility (in good faith) for the truth, accuracy, people, places, or information presented. The I & I Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best Instruction and Insight books featuring How-To, Guidance, Travel Guides, Cookbooks, Self-Help, and more. We will put books about true and inspiring stories to the test and choose the best among them. See our full list of Non-Fiction Divisions here.
1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners were announced at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony by Leslie Liautaud on Saturday, April 5th, 2025 at the Bellingham Yacht Club in beautiful Bellingham, Wash. The CIBA Banquet and Ceremonies were sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
This is the OFFICIAL 2024 LIST of the I&I BOOK AWARDS for Instruction & Insight First Place Category Winners and the I&I Grand Prize Winner.
Join us in celebrating the following authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.
Margaret C Beeler – Tropetails: A Cocktail and Mocktail Book for Bookworms
Tania Israel – Facing the Fracture How To Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided Nation
Katherine Fabrizio – The Good Daughter Syndrome: Help For Empathic Daughters of Narcissistic, Borderline, or Difficult Mothers Trapped in the Role of the Good Daughter
Bob Dahms, MBA, CPA, CMA – Let’s Talk About This: 50 Things You Need to Know About Starting and Managing a Small Business
Douglas A. Burton – The Heroine’s Labyrinth: Archetypal Designs in Heroine-Led Fiction
Jacqui Clarke – Stop Worrying about Money
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2024 I&IAwards is:
Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, for Facebook to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.
A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting inMay. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.
NOTE: We will post at least two 2024 CIBA Divisions’ OFFICIAL Winners per business day starting April 14, 2025. We do a final sweep and reconciliation prior to making the Official CIBA Posts for the 2023 First Place and Grand Prize Winners. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. There are many moving parts involved with the Chanticleer International Book Awards Program.
Thank you for participating in the 2023 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.
The Instruction and Insight Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Guides and Self- Help Non-Fiction. The I&I Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring HOW-TO, Guidance, Travel Guides, Cookbooks, Instruction, Insight, Self-Help, and more.
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2024 I&I Non-Fiction SEMI-FINALISTS to the 2024 I&I Book Awards FINALISTS.All FINALISTS will be recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC25).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 5th, 2025 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the Bellingham Yacht Club sponsored by the 2025Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the FIRST PLACE and GRAND PRIZE WINNERS of the 2024 I&I Book Awards novel competition for Guiding and How-to Non-Fiction!
Join us in celebrating the Semi-Finalist authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.
Margaret C Beeler – Tropetails: A Cocktail and Mocktail Book for Bookworms
Lorraine Ballato – Success with Hydrangeas a Gardener’s Guide
Karen Gross – Mending Education Finding Hope Creativity and Mental Wellness in Times of Trauma
Melina Palmer – The Truth About Pricing
Mary Deal – Advanced Self-Hypnosis Techniques Hypno-Scripts Book 2
Tania Israel – Facing the Fracture How To Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided Nation
Elizabeth Fulgaro – Soul Care-Song Prayers: A Spiritual Practice Toward Resilience and Well-Being
Katherine Fabrizio – The Good Daughter Syndrome: Help For Empathic Daughters of Narcissistic, Borderline, or Difficult Mothers Trapped in the Role of the Good Daughter
Katie Myers – Being Seen
Nuala Walsh – TUNE IN: How to Make Smarter Decisions In A Noisy World
Natalie Kohlhaas – Hello Anxiety My Old Friend: Harness Your Invisible Superpower
Léonie Rosenstiel – Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp
Bob Dahms, MBA, CPA, CMA – Let’s Talk About This: 50 Things You Need to Know About Starting and Managing a Small Business
Douglas A. Burton – The Heroine’s Labyrinth: Archetypal Designs in Heroine-Led Fiction
Jacqui Clarke – Stop worrying about money
Angela Lomenzo – Wisdom of Wildly Creative Women
Matthew J. Louis – Hiring Veterans: How To Leverage Military Talent For Organizational Growth
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.
Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.
The Instruction and Insight Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Guides and Self- Help Non-Fiction. The I&I Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring HOW-TO, Guidance, Travel Guides, Cookbooks, Instruction, Insight, Self-Help, and more.
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2024 I&I Non-Fiction SHORT LIST to the 2024 I&I Book Awards SEMI-FINALISTS. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC25).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 5th, 2025 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the Bellingham Yacht Club sponsored by the 2025Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the FINALISTS of the 2024 I&I Book Awards novel competition for Guiding and How-to Non-Fiction!
Join us in celebrating the Semi-Finalist authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.
Margaret C Beeler – Tropetails: A Cocktail and Mocktail Book for Bookworms
Lorraine Ballato – Success with Hydrangeas a Gardener’s Guide
Karen Gross – Mending Education Finding Hope Creativity and Mental Wellness in Times of Trauma
Mary Deal – Advanced Self-Hypnosis Techniques Hypno-Scripts Book
Tania Israel – Facing the Fracture How To Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided Nation
John M. O’brien Ph.d. – Rudeness Rehab Reclaiming Civility in the Workplace and Your Home Space
Elizabeth Fulgaro – Soul Care-Song Prayers: A Spiritual Practice Toward Resilience and Well-Being
Katherine Fabrizio – The Good Daughter Syndrome: Help For Empathic Daughters of Narcissistic, Borderline, or Difficult Mothers Trapped in the Role of the Good Daughter
Katie Myers – Being Seen
Kimberly Harms – Are You Ready? How to Build a Legacy to Die For
Anna Brooke and Vindy Teja – WRITE! Your Guide to Revealing the Writer Within
Nuala Walsh – TUNE IN: How to Make Smarter Decisions In A Noisy World
Jane Kim Yu – Journey of Awakening and Higher Consciousness
Natalie Kohlhaas – Hello Anxiety My Old Friend: Harness Your Invisible Superpower
Léonie Rosenstiel – Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp
Bob Dahms, MBA, CPA, CMA – Let’s Talk About This: 50 Things You Need to Know About Starting and Managing a Small Business
Douglas A. Burton – The Heroine’s Labyrinth: Archetypal Designs in Heroine-Led Fiction
Jacqui Clarke – Stop worrying about money
Angela Lomenzo – Wisdom of Wildly Creative Women
Holly Swenson – Stop, Drop, Grow, & Glow
Matthew J. Louis – Hiring Veterans: How To Leverage Military Talent For Organizational Growth
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.
Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.
The Instruction and Insight Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Guides and Self- Help Non-Fiction. The I&I Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).
