Review: Standing Tall by Joel & Kathy Soukup

Standing Tall

On One Leg

By: Kathy Soukup & Joel Soukup

Publisher: WestBow Press

When Joel Soukup was diagnosed with osteosarcoma at the age of sixteen, the diagnosis changed him and his family forever. This family traveled down an unknown path and emerged from their journey in a way they never expected. Read how this young patient and his family handled the devastating diagnosis with strength, love, and faith in God.

My Thought’s

Standing Tall is a story of great courage about Joel Soukup’s journey with Osteosarcoma. Currently, Joel is in remission and enjoying as much of normal life as possible. However, due to the location of this type of cancer, it was necessary for the doctors involved to amputate Joel’s leg at the hip.

Reading about Joel’s struggle with Osteosarcoma and his struggle was quite invigorating. Kathy doesn’t just share the good. She talks about the bad, difficult times that her family faced as well. I also liked that she discussed her other son who was living at home at the time and how he managed to cope with what was going on. How all of a sudden the parents’ attention went mainly to Joel.

The only downfall of Standing Tall was the flow of the book. At times I was a little confused at who was speaking Kathy or Joel. Besides that I really enjoyed this book.

abookandalattee gives Standing Tall Four Stars

Buy Links for Standing Tall

Amazon

Barnes & Nobles

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About Kathy Soukup

Kathy Soukup was born and raised in Minnesota and resides near the town of Pine River. She and her husband, Verdale, have raised three sons and now have six grandchildren. Kathy continued to work, mostly part time, during the years her sons were growing up. She now enjoys spending more time enjoying outdoor activities, as well as quilting, gardening, cooking, visiting with friends and neighbors, and spending time with her grandchildren. Joel Soukup grew up in northern Minnesota near the town of Pine River. He is the youngest of three boys. Joel is attending college at St. Cloud State University in central Minnesota and will soon receive his degree in community psychology. He hopes to use his education and experience to help others who have been handed an unforeseen, life-altering diagnosis such as the one he received at the age of sixteen. When he is not busy with school, he enjoys outdoor activities and sports, hanging out with friends, watching movies, listening to music (especially attending concerts), and rebuilding motorcycles with his brother. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 

Review 6: Barcelona Skyline (David C. Hall)

Title: Barcelona Skyline

Author: David C. Hall

Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media

Date Published: 2011

Format: Kindle

Source: NetGalley

Synopsis:

Chicago restaurateur Elso Bari specializes in locating those who don’t want to be found, but in the shadowy worlds of private security and organized crime, it can be hard to distinguish the hunters from the hunted.

Elso Bari runs a restaurant in Chicago, and a sideline in private investigation. A stylish connoisseur of fine wines and gourmet cuisine, he’s also no stranger to the seedier side of city life. His debt to a powerful organization obliges him to investigate the suspicious death of one of its employees, a man with ties to international art trafficking. The trail leads Elso to Barcelona, where he becomes entangled in the hunt for a female contract killer who uses sex as a weapon—and is too smart to be tracked down by just anybody. Elso is comfortable moving in the shadows, but the deeper he delves into the criminal underworld, the harder it is to know whom he’s working for and whom he’s seeking, let alone why.

Award-winning author David C. Hall navigates the murky waters of morality and transports the hard-boiled American thriller to the Mediterranean, giving a cosmopolitan twist to this action-packed tale of murder, sex, and betrayal.

Overall:

            David C. Hall’s Barcelona Skyline first caught my attention because he’s a local author of mine. Yes! He was born in Madison, Wisconsin. I was intrigued right then and there by his short novel. With Barcelona Skyline’s intriguing background and this crazy sexy killer that’s using sex to kill people and Elso the private investigator who’s on the hunt for this madwoman. Who’s this sexy killer knocking off the Chicago restaurant owners? My question is, is who is Elso really working for?

            Barcelona Skyline is good for one of those nights at home as it’s a short novel but I didn’t like the ending. What exactly happened??

abookandalattee’s Rating:

            abookandalattee gives Barcelona Skyline 4 stars.

 

abookandalattee’s Q&A with David C. Hall

Describe the book in your own words.

            Barcelona Skyline is about power, as seen from below. The players are mercenaries, doing a job, but however tough or smart they may be, they are also being played. They never quite know what is going on, or why – which is, I suspect, the way the world works more often than we would like to think. It is an investigation that is also a chase, seen from the point of the hunter and of the hunted. And the deeper the hunter goes, the murkier it gets.

Describe any of the major figures, personalities and characters within the book.

            Elso Bari is a Chicago restaurant owner, a connoisseur of fine food and wine, who does a little detective work on the side. Elso has a certain weakness for sexual adventure, and the woman he ends up hunting uses sex as a weapon. Secondary characters include two British investigators working for a security company, art dealers working a money-laundering scam, an ex-CIA man who works as a “consultant,” the leader of a sect devoted to helping ex-drug addicts recover, a poet with a past and fondness for heroin…

How did you come up with the idea for the book? How did it come to be?

        I always like how on detective series on television years ago, the investigator would run up against “minor” characters who didn’t really have much to do with the plot but in just a brief scene seemed to suggest a whole fascinating life of their own. I wanted, among other things, to do that, to make each chapter rich enough to stand on its own. And I wanted to bring in different themes I’m interested in: Spanish cooking, the art world and its potential for money laundering, and how private corporations are taking over security and intelligence activities that used to be reserved to government agencies. And I wanted to use as settings not just the city of Barcelona, but also the surrounding areas, towns along the coast, developments up in the hills.

How did you come up with the title of the book?

            I stole it actually. A guy I used to play pool with got up before dawn every day for years and took panoramic photos of the city from up in the hills. He marketed the pictures under the trademark Barcelona Skyline. There is a scene at the end of the book with a couple of the characters looking down at just that view of the city. I thought it sounded right.

Author Information:

 

David C. Hall (b. 1943) grew up in the Midwest and lived in different parts of the United States—working jobs that ranged from the Forest Service in the Oregon woods to cooking pancakes in Seattle—before arriving in Barcelona in 1974. In Spain, he became involved in the surge of political activity in opposition to the Franco regime. He worked as an English teacher and later as a translator, and was active for several years as a trade unionist. His first crime novel, written in English, was published in Spanish as Cuatro días (Four Days) in 1984. Billete de vuelta (1990) appeared in the United States in 1992 as Return Trip Ticket. Hall won the Semana Negra short story prize in 1991 and the Pou de la Neu short story prize in 2008. His latest novel, Barcelona skyline, won the 2011 City of Getafe Crime Novel Prize. 

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Review 5: Fyrelocke (R. Christopher Kobb)

  

Title: Fyrelocke

Author: R. Christopher Kobb

Publisher: MoonPepper Press

Date Published: 5/24/2013

Format: PDF

Source: ARC via Publisher

Genre: Fantasy

# of Day's to Complete:  2 Days

Synopsis:

In a cave, deep within the cliffs of Brighton, lies a curious stone. No ordinary rock, the Fyrelocke has a dark and intricate past.

Twelve-year-old inventor Jack Boomershine believes it a practical joke when a mysterious text message directs him to it. But finding this powerful stone sets in motion an entangled clockwork of events that draws him ever deeper into an adventure in wich his inventions are useless.

As things spin out of control, Jack must find his way through a hidden world of magic with vehicles that fly themselves, a telepathic creature—and an ancient evil with an unfathomable plan, determined to ensnare Jack in it. (Cover and synopsis from Goodreads)

Overall:

I would recommend Fyrelocke to any younger children, friends and family that enjoy reading a light fantasy novel. The characters had their own personalities that really stood out throughout Kobb’s novel. The way that Jack and Chase were two best friends and the way they interacted and complemented each other. The characters didn’t feel flat to me at all and the reader really gets to see different sides of them throughout Kobb’s novel. How seemingly nutso Madame Puffin is more intelligent than she lets on, or that extremely creepy Cankrots are more than just evil goons. I really enjoyed the adventurous plot with all the different twists and turns, in which, some I wasn’t even expecting. I couldn’t put Fyrelocke down and had no real problems with the pacing and Kobb was able to paint a picture in my head and I absolutely loved all of the illustrations that were scattered throughout the book.

abookandalattee’s Rating:

            abookandalattee gives Fyrelocke 4 Stars

Author Information:

R. Christopher Kobb lives in North Aurora, Illinois, with his daughter. He’s an avid reader and artist, this is his first novel. To learn more about any upcoming events and new releases, go to www.rckobb.com . If you have a Goodreads account and would like to Fyrelocke add it to your “want to read” shelf here. MoonPepper Press can be found here as well.

            Twitter: @rckobb