Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Uplifting

The 2021 HEARTEN Book Awards for Inspiring & Uplifting Non-Fiction – CIBAs Long List 2021
The Hearten Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Uplifting & Inspiring Non-Fiction and Memoir. The Hearten 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 true stories about adventures, life events, unique experiences, travel, personal journeys, global enlightenment, 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.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2021 Hearten Non-Fiction entries to the 2021 Hearten Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2021 Hearten Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalist positions. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22).

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 24 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, June 25h, 2022 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2021 Hearten Book Awards novel competition for Uplifting and Inspirational Non-Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2021 CIBAs.
- Rick Avery with Tom Bleecker – A Life at Risk
- Mark Allen – Based on a True (Traumatic) Brain History: a Short Memoir
- Bruce Rowe, MD – Everything Under the Sun: A Family Doctor’s Reflections on Life, Love, Loss and Renewed Hope in Medicine
- Lisa Smith Molinari – The Meat and Potatoes of Life: My True Lit Com
- Cheryl Troxel – The Inexplicable Gypsy
- Jean-Philippe Soule – I, Tarzan: Against All Odds
- Wendy Sanford – These Walls Between Us: A Memoir of Friendship across Race and Class
- Richard Jespers – That I Do Not Lose You: One Man’s Family Roots
- Heather Haldeman – Kids and Cocktails Don’t Mix: A Memoir
- Burl Harmon – Combat Missions
- Jeremy Rhyne – His Name is Cwiz
- Frederick Douglass Reynolds – Black, White, and Gray All Over; a Black Man’s Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement
- Meredith Wargo – DAWGS: A True Story of Lost Animals and the Kids Who Rescued Them
- George Farag – Unbecoming My Father’s Son: A Memoir
- Carolyn Lee Arnold – Fifty First Dates After Fifty: A Memoir
- Leah Witman Moore – Loving You Big: Embracing the Unexpected
- Shelby Wagner – Learning to Dance in the Rain II
- Cheng Wang – From Tea to Coffee
- Rod Baker – Unexpected Treasures – Running a Mental Health Nonprofit
- Linda Jamsen – Odyssey of Love: A Memoir of Seeking and Finding
- Evelyn LaTorre – Love in Any Language
- Meg Nocero – Butterfly Awakens: A Memoir of Transformation Through Grief
- Jim Enderle – Fight, Flight, or Freeze: A Love Story
- Richard Jespers – That I Do Not Lose You: One Man’s Family Roots
- Robert E. Lofthouse – Honor Through Sacrifice
- Judith Briles – When God Says NO – Revealing the YES When Adversity and Loss Are Present
- David Soh Poh Huat – Care Giving Gift of Unconditional Love
- Jane Eden – Nail Soup
- Allison Hong Merrill – Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops
- Julie Ryan McGue – Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging
- C.L. Olsen – The Home for Friendless Children
- Fred Guttenberg – Find the Helpers
- Meghan Caughey – Mud Flower
- Kim Fairley – Shooting Out the Lights: A Memoir
- George Kohn – Vector to Destiny: Journey of a Vietnam F-4 Fighter Pilot
- Sara Easterly – Searching for Mom: A Memoir
- Linda Morrow – Heart of This Family – Lessons in Down Syndrome and Love
- Lisa Dailey – Square Up: 50,000 miles in search of a way home
- Betty Jean Craige – Ruminations on a Parrot Named Cosmo
- Audrey Stelzig and Norman L. Johnson, MD – Grandpa, Were You Ever a Kid
- Judy Taylor – The Boy Who Wrote Poetry
- Abe Streep – Brothers on Three: A True Story of Family, Resistance, and Hope on a Reservation in Montana #2
- Dr Kate Dolan – Beating Drug Addiction in Tehran: a Women’s clinic
- Colonel Van H. Slayden, USAF, with Patrecia Slayden Hollis – Normandy to Nazi Surrender, Firsthand Account of a P-47 Thunderbolt Pilot
- Richard Lui – Enough About Me: The Unexpected Power of Selflessness
- Labar Laskie – Above the Din: Diary of the HepC Wonder Drugs
- Bedri Cag Cetin Ph.D. – Sacred Life: Healing from the Virus in Consciousness
- Carole Bumpus – Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table, Book Three
- Marcus A. Nannini – Midnight Flight to Nuremberg: Capture of the Nazi Who Put Adolph Hitler into Power
- Rosemary Keevil – The Art of Losing It: A Memoir of Grief and Addiction
- Gerri Almand – Running from Covid in our RV Cocoon
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews. FB rules — not ours.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

Good luck to all as your works move on the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the 2020 HEARTEN Awards is Judy Gaman for Love, Life, and Lucille

Click here to see the 2020 Hearten Book Award Winners for Uplifting Non-Fiction

We are now accepting submissions into the 2022 Hearten Book Awards for Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction & Memoir. The 2022 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2023.

Please click here for more information.

See our Full List of Non-Fiction Divisions here!

Winners will be announced at the 2021 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

VIRTUAL and IN-Person – June 23 – 26, 2022! Register Today!

FLEXIBLE REGISTRATIONS ARE AVAILABLE for these challenging times.

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.

Join us for our 10th annual conference and discover why!

Featuring: International Best Selling Author Cathy Ace along with A+ list film producer Scott Steindorff.
January 20, 2022
Spotlight on the 2021 Hearten Book Awards for Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction
Hearten – “To Make More Cheerful or Confident”

Life is full of ups and downs, but you know that it’s those things that inspire and uplift us, that hearten us so we can make it through each day and onto the next. This doesn’t mean every day is easy, but it does follow the idea that every cloud has a silver lining.

You can do it! Submit to the Hearten Awards before the end of November!

The Hearten Awards came into existence thanks to the Journey Awards. In addition to burgeoning submissions of narrative Non-Fiction and Memoirs, our six Non-Fiction Awards have been exploding in popularity. The competition has never been steeper, and the time to submit has never been better. You can see the full list of Non-Fiction Awards here.

We saw the Hearten Awards as a necessary addition due to the high number of stories we receive that inspire us to live a life full of love and joy as best we can. These stories are heartwarming, empowering, and help show us a world where we are our best selves.

Tenets of Uplifting Fiction

While this fiction often has religious undertones, that isn’t alway the case, and even when there is religious inspiration at work in the text, it doesn’t proselytize or distract from the narrative at hand. The work is still meant to engage and delight readers with or without a faith background.

Handholding is a-okay in Heartwarming Non-Fiction

What the work does not include is violence, profanity, or explicit sexual content. Despite this, the emotional impact and journey taken in most inspirational texts can often lead the reader to tears, so don’t take that light-heartedness lightly. Also, don’t count out romance! Inspirational fiction has it all!

Tastes Like Chicken

Part of the inspiration for this Awards Division was the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Other popular examples are Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, You are a Badass by Jen Sincero, or The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. Interested in reading more about the ins and outs of inspirational fiction? Check out this article from DIYMFA.

If you love writing inspirational fiction or are interested in learning to write more of it, reading it is a great way to learn more. Here are heartwarming books that we’ve read and would recommend!

A YEAR of LIVING KINDLY
By Donna Cameron
First Place Winner in I&I Awards

Donna Cameron’s guide, A Year of Living Kindly: Choices That Will Change Your Life and the World Around You, invites readers to live more richly, thoroughly, and fruitfully.

Perhaps the best way to enjoy Cameron’s guide to kindness is to drink it in slowly, for a year, as its structure suggests. Savoring one of its 52 meditations – thoughtful, introspective, resonate, and wide-ranging discussions – each week. She turns to a new topic grouping with the advent of each new month, traversing the four parts, the “seasons,” as the year progresses.

Keep reading here

WALTZING A TWO-STEP
By Dan Juday

Dan Juday’s memoir Waltzing A Two-Step is a humble and compassionate look at his formative years.

Born a few years after the second world war, Dan experiences a peaceful and happy childhood in rural Indiana, moving frequently before the family settles on a rural area of land named Springwood in Clinton County, Indiana. The Juday family were devout Catholics and enrolled Dan and his siblings in Catholic schools until the family moved to Springwood. Public school became the only option for the siblings. There Dan does his best to fit in but his status as a minority Catholic in a mostly Protestant community in the 1950s brings its own challenges.

Keep reading here

THE BREAST IS HISTORY
By Bronwyn Hope

A realistic, up-close look at life as a cancer patient and survivor. The Breast Is History is a strong tool of hope and humor in the darkest days of any woman’s life.

In September 2011, Bronwyn Hope received her initial diagnosis of breast cancer; by March 2013 she had had both breasts removed, had gone through numerous chemo and radiation treatments, taken thousands of pills, and come out of it with a gritty, positive philosophy.

Keep reading here

ODYSSEY of LOVE
By Linda Jämsén

Odyssey of Love: A Memoir of Seeking and Finding by Linda Jämsén is an utterly charming Eastern European take on Eat – Pray – Love.

This odyssey begins with its 40-something author exchanging her job and dead-end relationship in Boston for two years in Budapest. The goal? To explore new career opportunities, live an adventurous life as an American expat in Europe, and, possibly, hopefully, find her soulmate.

Keep reading here

Have a book that Inspires and Uplifts? Submit by the end of November for the 2021 CIBAs!

See the 2020 Hearten Award Winners Here!

Looking to submit to our other Non-Fiction Divisions? See them all here!

When you’re ready, did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services? We do and have been doing so since 2011.

Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).

If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.

We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top-editors on an on-going basis. Contact us today!

Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.
- A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information available here.
- And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn more here.
- If you’re confident in your book, consider submitting it for a Editorial Book Review here or to one of our Chanticleer International Awards here.
And remember! Our 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22) will be April 7-10, 2022, where our 2021 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up, so sign up today! CAC22 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. Sign up and see the latest updates here!

Writer’s Toolbox

Thank you for reading this Chanticleer Spotlight Article.

Important Links from this Article

Beyond Janette Oke: A Look at Inspirational Fiction

The traditional publishing tool that indie authors can use to propel their writing careers to new levels? The Seven Must-Haves for Authors – Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Publishing Series by Kiffer Brown
November 30, 2021
Borrowed Time: 75 Years & Counting by Carolyn Leeper

In Borrowed Time: 75 Years & Counting, A Memoir, Carolyn Leeper shares with her readers a heartwarming and uplifting memoir. Mrs. Leeper intersperses her own poetry with short prose pieces throughout her book. She recalls memorable experiences, the variety of caring relatives who raised her, and what times were like when she was young. She writes of coming of age passages and of how she continues to treasure each day—her borrowed time.

Books and workshops abound that offer guidance to seniors and social workers in evoking life review memoirs. Mrs. Leeper’s Borrowed Time is an excellent example of a life review memoir that is well-written, succinct, and a pleasure to read.

Leeper begins with the story of her birth, and her mother’s death just two weeks later. The tragedy is tempered by the author’s appreciation of the relatives who stepped in to raise her with love and care. Following sections focus on her early childhood memories, her grandparents, and her father, whom she did not meet until she was seven years old.

Her pieces entitled “Money” and “More Money”—where she describes understanding the concept of money, her pride in earning it, and discovery of how to save it— would make Suze Orman’s heart sing. Leeper’s respectful attitude in regard to money reflects that of many children raised by parents who lived through the Great Depression.

Mrs. Leeper, a freelance writer and newsletter editor in Bellingham, Washington, has a clear, conversational writing style. However, reading her memoir had me wishing that she would add more details along with expanding on her life experiences instead of the brief summaries. Clearly, she has led (and clearly, is leading) an interesting and fulfilling life. I wanted Leeper to share with me and her readers more references such as the ones about saddle shoes, the cost of candy, and how she learned to swim. These details and reference points would place her life more vividly in an historical perspective and engage the reader. And I do believe that the reader would enjoy reading more about her experiences.

While Borrowed Time will be most appreciated by Leeper’s family and friends, it stands as an uplifting and heartfelt example of life review and life lessons lovingly rendered.

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Editor’s note: Upon my first reading of Leeper’s memoir, I easily envisioned it as an illustrated children’s book that could share with young children what life was like for their elder grandparents, aunts and uncles when they were young. After my third reading, I am sure that properly “translated” it would make a cherished story for young children who are curious about how their elders dressed for prom, how much they paid to see a movie, what life was like before TV, cell phones, or computers. Her vivid description of the Seven Dancer Daughters had me imaging them in my mind’s eye. Her memoir would also impart lessons to be learned and applied in the young readers’ lives. I do hope that Mrs. Leeper will give consideration to this suggestion because I would love for my young nieces to read it if she does. ]

[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

March 13, 2012
Vicarage Bench by Mimi Barbour

Anyone looking for a heart-warming mix of romance and the new frontiers possibilities of time travel and body sharing will find The Vicarage Bench an endearing and engaging mix of the two. Add suspense and the zing of strong sexual attractions and the result is a real winner. (more…)

January 5, 2012