Category Archives: Books
It’s March – Celebrate Reading Month with a Family Reading Challenge: Learn A Skill From A Book #motownmoxiemom
Click here to go to Amazon’s How To Section and find a book there to challenge yourself.
or find a great fiction book and learn a skill from there?
Either way, find a book that will challenge yourself to learn a new skill and then come back and let us know!
It’s March – Celebrate Reading Month with a Family Reading Challenge: Learn A Skill From A Book #motownmoxiemom
Click here to go to Amazon’s How To Section and find a book there to challenge yourself.
or find a great fiction book and learn a skill from there?
Either way, find a book that will challenge yourself to learn a new skill and then come back and let us know!
#MotownMom: 5 Business Books Every Woman Needs For Success via #blackruby | #momboss #mompreneur
Have you been looking for a little motivation for work or business? Well, we came across a few books to enlighten, inspire and guide you in the direction of success.
read more https://medium.com/blackruby/5-business-books-every-woman-needs-for-success-81864822c546
Raising resilient kids in the age of social media, cyber-bullying, and other 21st century challenges—new book #motownmom
Along with the classic challenges of generations past—divorce, abuse, educational struggles— kids today face a host of new issues: cyber-bullying, the fear of school shootings, and unrelenting access to inappropriate content online, to name a few. Dr. Rick Capaldi, the founder of Outreach Concern, one of the largest school-based counseling agencies in the United States, has written 21st CENTURY PARENTING: A GUIDE TO RAISING EMOTIONALLY RESILIENT CHILDREN IN AN UNSTABLE WORLD (Central Recovery Press; August 2019), to offer parents the insights he’s gained from creating and implementing a program that has successfully counseled over half a million kids nationally.
Capaldi based 21st CENTURY PARENTING on his school-tested Outreach Concern method, the Behavior Performance Management model, and it shows parents how they can be more effective in creating the behavioral changes they want to see in their kids. In the book, the 3 R’s receive a modern upgrade: reading, writing, and arithmetic become Reading a child’s environment, Regulating their emotional temperature, and Redirecting their behavior. Unlike many parenting books, the ideas in 21st CENTURY PARENTING are based on decades of in-the-trenches work with real school-aged kids.
Capaldi is media-trained and available for interview. He can speak to the topics in the book, as well as on the following:
—insights into school shootings and the potential role of expanded mental health services
—what parents can do to prevent their kids from bullying, and being bullied
—how parents can better tune in to the emotional and behavioral challenges their children face
ABOUT THE AUTHOR | Get the Book
Dr. Rick Capaldi has been a practicing family therapist for 40 years, specializing in working with children, adolescents, and parents. He is a former adjunct professor in Pepperdine University’s graduate M.F.T. counseling program and former instructor of psychology and sociology at Saddleback and Irvine Valley Community Colleges. In 1993, Dr. Capaldi co-founded Outreach Concern, Inc., one of the largest nonprofit, school-based agencies in the country providing counseling and support services to children and families throughout Southern California. Dr. Capaldi is also president of Capaldi & Associates which provides executive management assessment and organizational development services worldwide.
ADVANCE PRAISE
“In this guide to raising emotionally hardy children, Capaldi, founder of a nonprofit school-based counseling agency in Southern California, offers a new take on the three Rs: he advocates Reading children’s environments, Regulating their emotional temperatures, and Redirecting their behavior.” — Publishers Weekly, Helping Kids During Troubled Times: New Parenting Books 2019
Q&A WITH RICK CAPALDI
You lead Outreach Concern, which has provided in-school counseling for a half-million kids across the country. What insights have you gleaned from that on-the-ground work about the new issues kids are dealing with today?
We’ve worked with children, adolescents, and families for over 27 years, seeing kids come to school whose emotional backpacks are filled with various family, societal, social media, and mental health issues. In addition, school shootings, online predators, cyberbullying, and various learning and performance issues further impacting their school participation and success. As a result, we’ve learned today’s parents all need to pay more attention to what’s going on in their child’s lives, who and what’s influencing them, and how that’s affecting their homelife, academic, social, emotional and behavioral success. Parents need to equip their children with the tools to respond effectively to circumstances and emotional challenges that make them question their competency. They need to direct them toward accomplishments that result in a positive impact to their self-esteem, self-concept, and motivation.
When are kids referred to Outreach Concern? How do the services compare to other counseling services available in schools?
Kids are mostly referred to Outreach Concern by teachers, administrators, parents based on behavior, social, emotional, and mental health issues. Ten years ago, I became dissatisfied with traditional in-school counseling methods that required lengthy time commitments but had no specific goals. I sought to develop an intervention model that focuses on behavioral change through a more direct, strategic, and controlled approach with measurable results. Our process, known as Behavior Performance Management, is the basis of 21st CENTURY PARENTING. The method differs from traditional counseling methods that are either “insight” focused or “non-directed”.
The BPM model emphasizes is not on the lack of self-esteem, confidence, or motivation that impacts a child’s success, but the lack of performance and accomplishment that drives feelings of inadequacy and negative Core Development Competency in a child. We teach parents to redirect their children’s behavior in order to achieve positive outcomes, helping their child accomplish relevant goals that lead to a heightened sense of self-worth, self-assurance , and a strong drive toward future success. Since 2009, we’ve implemented this model in 894 schools and produced an accountability study that incorporates over 30,000 referrals demonstrating an 87% success rate for children in elementary, middle and high schools focusing on improving academic, behavior, emotional, social and mental health issues that negatively impacted their performance (see study www.outreachconcern.org).
What makes 21st CENTURY PARENTING different from all the other parenting books out there?
First, this book is based on a study incorporating over 30,000 counseling referrals and our experiences with those cases. We find that a child’s issues are not a problem of self-esteem, concept, and motivation, but the lack of accomplishments that gives way to a child questioning their competency and capability. Additionally, a key difference in 21st Century Parenting is that it supports parents’ willingness to make tough unpopular decisions that are in the best interest of their children’s safety, security, and success.
How has the internet and social media changed how children should be raised?
Social media can, of course, make our lives easier, however, it can also negatively impact kids and adolescents, especially when you recognize the average kid spends 5 ½ hours a day online. Parents need to take certain steps, like closely monitoring their child’s tech use and using apps that help with that monitoring. You also want to create a healthy balance between screen-time and real-life activities like playing with friends, being outside, playing sports and other extracurricular activities. And discuss technology use and misuse with your children and set up and reinforce clear consequences for irresponsible technology use.
As someone who works in schools counseling kids and teens, what insights do you bring to the ever-more-frequent school shootings?
Since 1990, there have been 195 school shootings in elementary and high schools across the United States. And the rate has increased exponentially recently. During the thousands of hours of media attention after these awful shootings, the discussion is myopically focused on beefing up security in schools and with suggestions of arming teachers and stricter gun control laws and enforcement. It’s disappointing to see so little attention paid to the role of mental health, which could help prevent these tragedies in the future.
In most of the school shooting cases, the young perpetrators clearly demonstrated extreme emotional instability for years, and it went unaddressed or inadequately addressed. We need to find and work with the kids that are falling through the cracks. We need to pay attention to these kids before their problems metastasize with horrific outcomes.
You talk a lot in the book about parents that are checked out from their kids’ emotional lives. Are you concerned about the opposite issue, about helicopter parenting?
Helicopter parenting focuses on parents who are overly involved in their kids’ lives, which doesn’t allow children to make independent decisions and doesn’t support their development. Our method includes an overall philosophy where a parent is very involved and alters their behavior in direct relationship to the behavior or performance of the child. But it is not about micromanaging or stifling the child’s independence and growth.
The subtitle of the book is “A Guide to Raising Emotionally Resilient Children in an Unstable World.” Can you speak to the concept of resiliency?
Resiliency is a learned behavior. It needs to be taught by parents who model it through their behavior, actions, and direction. A child doesn’t learn resiliency from having things done for them or having excuses made for their behavior. Learning how to bounce back from setbacks is a key skill. Children and adolescents also need boundaries, so they know where the starting block is as well as the finish line. They look for this stability at home, and it occurs when parents establish a sense of social norms and expectations.
Nessel to file on behalf of #Detroit kids’ cause in literacy case #motownmom @detroitnews #literacy #detroitreads
Mackinac Island — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said she will file in opposition to the governor’s position in a lawsuit alleging that the state deprived Detroit students of their right to literacy due to deplorable conditions at the facilities and dwindling numbers of teachers and textbooks.
At the Mackinac Policy Conference Wednesday, Nessel told The Detroit News that while her office has a duty to represent the governor she also is an independently elected official with an obligation to represent the people of the state of Michigan.
She intends to file parens patriae, or on behalf of the residents of Michigan, “to do what I think is best for them personally.”
It’s March – Celebrate Reading Month with a Family Reading Challenge: Learn A Skill From A Book #motownmoxiemom
Click here to go to Amazon’s How To Section and find a book there to challenge yourself.
or find a great fiction book and learn a skill from there?
Either way, find a book that will challenge yourself to learn a new skill and then come back and let us know!
#MotownMom: The Art of Juggling by #MichLit Author @SylviaJordan
There is a lot of talk these days about work-life balance, and no wonder. Cultural and technological shifts – not to mention economic need – has us running around like proverbial hamsters on the wheel.
Humanity seems more stressed than ever before, and the marketplace has responded with a plethora of books, lectures and modalities on how we can balance our obligations with fun in order to maintain our mental, physical and spiritual well-being.
Dr. Sylvia Jordan’s The Art of Juggling: The Successful Women’s Guide to Balancing Life is a refreshing, no-holds-barred take on life balance. She does not rely on the popular lingo of the day, but uses plain language – and a healthy dose of tough love – to demonstrate how we can lead very full but efficient, purposeful and joyous lives.
What sets Jordan apart from other experts is her willingness to tell the unvarnished the truth – juggling takes mental discipline, not only when our pins are in the air, but when we are choosing those pins. It begins with an honest assessment of our lives as they currently are.
Do we lack the time to go back to school, volunteer at a charity or fulfill some other goal we have? While this many seem to be the case, an examination of our routine will likely reveal that a portion of each day is spent on burdens that are not ours to carry.
Chock full of practical advice and a-ha! moments, The Art of Juggling encourages us to get clear on what matters most. Becoming an expert juggler is not about that “superwoman” label often bandied about, but about understanding that we have the capability and the right to achieve and maintain everything life has to offer.
What I found most compelling with Jordan’s telling of her own mother’s story. What greater juggling act can there be than raising nine children?
Her book is a must-read! Get the book on Amazon or at www.SylviaJordan.com
—
Pam Perry, PR Coach
www.pamperrypr.com
Office: (248) 426-2300
Mobile: (248) 690-6810
SOCIAL links on website
“Must Read” #MichLit Author, @DesCooper, Know The Mother…. will touch the soul! #MotownMom
Detroit, Michigan, journalist and author, Desiree Cooper, has released her wonderful book of poems and prose with Wayne State Press called Know The Mother. A beautiful literary work of art that will touch the soul.
Buy your copy now : http://amzn.to/1VKxXTS
ABOUT THE BOOK:
While a mother can be defined as a creator, a nurturer, a protector-at the center of each mother is an individual who is attempting to manage her own fears, desires, and responsibilities in different and sometimes unexpected ways. In Know the Mother, author Desiree Cooper explores the complex archetype of the mother in all of her incarnations. In a collage of meditative stories, women-both black and white-find themselves wedged between their own yearnings and their roles as daughters, sisters, grandmothers, and wives.
In this heart-wrenching collection, Cooper reveals that gender and race are often unanticipated interlopers in family life. An anxious mother reflects on her prenatal fantasies of suicide while waiting for her daughter to come home late one night. A lawyer miscarries during a conference call and must proceed as though nothing has happened. On a rare night out with her husband, a new mother tries convincing herself that everything is still the same. A politician’s wife’s thoughts turn to slavery as she contemplates her own escape: “Even Harriet Tubman had realized that freedom wasn’t worth the price of abandoning her family, so she’d come back home. She’d risked it all for love.” With her lyrical and carefully crafted prose, Cooper’s stories provide truths without sermon and invite empathy without sentimentality.
Know the Mother explores the intersection of race and gender in vignettes that pull you in and then are gone in an instant. Readers of short fiction will appreciate this deeply felt collection.
Buy your copy now : http://amzn.to/1VKxXTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A 2015 Kresge Artist Fellow, Desiree Cooper is a former attorney, Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and Detroit community activist whose fiction dives unflinchingly into the intersection of racism and sexism. Using the compressed medium of flash fiction, she explores intimate spaces to reveal what it means to be human. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Callaloo, Detroit Noir, Best African American Fiction 2010, and Tidal Basin Review, among other online and print publications. Her first collection of flash fiction, Know the Mother, was published by Wayne State University Press in March 2016. Cooper was a founding board member of Cave Canem, a national residency for emerging black poets. She is currently a Kimbilio fellow, a national residency for African American fiction writers.
Check her out at descooper.com.
Buy your copy now : http://amzn.to/1VKxXTS
Connect with this author at:
http://www.facebook.com/descooper
(see upcoming events and signings on facebook)
http://instagram.com/descooper
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW
New Michigan Literary Network podcast w/guest @DesCooper, author of “Know the Mother” at http://tobtr.com/s/8790883.
Get YOUR book at: http://amzn.to/1VKxXTS
Author of AbandonedProperty, Kai Mann’s Writing Life & Family Support #motownmom #motownlit @kaiology #mwn
Welcome Readers to our Featured Author Blog tour for:
Kai Mann
Author of her second release: Abandoned Property.
Get your copy, click here.
Abandoned Property
By Kai MannRating: Not yet rated.
Published: June 09, 2013
Words: 92,516 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9780984828135
Short Bio
Kai Mann is the author of 30 Day Notice and her newly published book Abandoned Property. She is an independent contract writer forExaminer.com as Detroit’s Best Friend Examiner,a member of the Motown Writers Network, and a contributor to the online poetry community. Kai’s purpose is to inspire thoughts pertaining to the themes of love, friendship, self-love, and self-progression.
Author’s Website
About Abandoned Property
These characters all have something in common; they’ve been abandoned.
Even though their issues of abandonment stem from some of the same situations, how they play out is different in nature.
Will they go to the extreme opposite to ensure that the cycle ends with them? Or will they realize the blessings in being abandoned by people who never knew how to care for them in the first place?
Get your copy, click here.
WRITING LIFE & FAMILY SUPPORT
Writing has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I can’t remember a time not being supported in my writing. When I was young, my mother’s support began when she bought me my first composition notebook. Now, as an adult and being in a relationship, I think that my partner understands the importance of me getting thoughts and ideas out of my head. I do a lot of writing at 2 am or 3 am. That could be a problem in most relationships because I literally wake up reaching for my phone to write. I used to have a notebook and pen by the side of my bed until one day when I couldn’t understand what I had written I decided to do something different. Evernote and I are inseparable now.
I use Evernote to place my wee hour thoughts there. When the thoughts are flowing faster than my fingers can type on my phone and I know that my writing may disrupt my partner’s sleep, I’ll get up and get to my laptop in my office. Earlier in our relationship my partner didn’t understand what I was doing; the writing in the middle of the night, getting up, moving around but as I was publishing my first book she understood that was just my writing style.
My children support me and think it’s cool that their mother not only writes but is a published author. It’s important to me to have my children see that even at my age that you can begin your dreams, work hard, and bring them into fruition. I’ve since found out that my children too are writers. I support them just as much as they support me.
~~~~~~~~Please post a comment below about Kai Mann’s article! ~~~~~~~~~
Get your copy, click here.
Blog Tour for Kai Mann, Author of Abandoned Property.
- JULY 8TH – Author & Book Interview with Kai Mann on Motown Writers Network… Michigan Literary Network http://motownwriters.com #mwn #michlit #motownlit
- JULY 11TH – Kai Mann’s Writing Life & Family Support Article on Motown Mom Musings http://motownmommusings.com #motownmom #motownlit
- JULY 15TH – Going The Opposite, but Getting The Same w/Abandoned Property Article by Kai Mann athttp:/LoveABlackWoman.tumblr.com #labw #motownlit
- JULY 18TH – Writing – An Essential Part of Me Article by Kai Mann at Michigan Murder & Mayhem http://michiganmurderandmayhem.com#motownlit #mmm
- JULY 22ND – Book Feature of Abandoned Property by Kai Mann at 3Chicks and Some Books. http://3chicksandsomebooks.com #motownlit #3dchicks
- JULY 25TH – Author Feature of Kai Mann at Literary Voicehttp://facebook.com/literaryvoice #literaryvoice #motownlit
- JULY 29TH – repost Friday 1st Chapter of Abandoned Property by Kia Mann at Motown Writers Network http://motownwriters.com #mwn #motownlit #michlit
- AUG 1ST – ANNOUNCEMENT : Winner of $25 Amazon gift card! on Motown Writers network http://motownwriters.com
Books by this author:
Ways to connect to Kai Mann
- Website: http://kai-mann.com
- Twitter: kaiology
- Facebook: Facebook profile
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kai-mann/22/27a/685
- Wattpad: KaiKaiologyMann
- MySpace: https://myspace.com/243971422
- Blog: http://kaiologywetyourintellectualtastebuds.blogspot.com
GET TO IT! by Chris Lee @lifepathllc. From Frustration to Fulfillment #FF2F #michlit #blogtour #mwn
Today we have our first male author on our blog and Chris Lee gives us great advice in his first sentence. GET TO IT! How many times we as mom’s tell ourselves this advice and how many of us listen.
You’ll love what Chris has to say and at the end, please take a moment to comment and join him on his blogtour through the Michigan Literary Network!
Get To It!
BY Chris Lee
I had taken mini-getaway’s and overnight trips to light the
fire of creativity. I’d set aside entire days to writing my
story. I would get up in the wee hours of the morning to
write. About 14 months later I was 90% done with my book.
I had visions of packed book signing events and hundreds
of ebook sales. I was truly excited. What I did next was
something really incredible…I sat on it…for two whole years!
“See, what had happened was…”
I had spoken with several vanity publishers (a publisher that
charges a fee to produce a book) and several authors that
had published through vanity publishers and I was scared
off by the vanity publisher’s five-figure cost of design,
publishing and marketing of my book.
I totally shut the project down, until I got a package in
the mail. A couple of weeks earlier, I had spoken with my
cousin Harold. Harold is a retired, high-level executive.
He’s also a jazz enthusiast. We had a brief conversation and
he promised to send me a few CD’s that he made for me.
Included with the CD’s was a not that said in part “…there is
so much that you can offer to the world, your family and to
God…get to it”
Those words had a huge effect on me. I realized that
I really did have a purpose to fulfill and that purpose
was bigger than any of my issues; including my fear of
publishing my book.
I also set forth the intent to publish my book, this time
around I decided to let God work out the “how” and I stayed
focused on the end result of a book that I was proud of and
a book that would help a lot of people.
I forwarded a draft of “From Frustration to Fulfillment” to
Harold. He read it and forwarded it to a couple of friends
that knew a thing or two about writing. All three people
offered some great suggestion about how to improve the
book.
Around the same time I connected with my publisher,
Literary Loft, and was able to reach an outstanding win-win
agreement to get the book published for a fraction of the
prices quoted to my by many of the vanity publishers.
I credit my cousin Harold for helping me find my “why”.
Why did I write my book? Why do I want the world to hear
my story? Why should I keep going when I’m ready to quit?
Once again, my purpose is bigger than me or any of my
problems, so as suggested by Harold I’m ‘getting to it’!
We all need that little push toward our dreams and goals
to get us started. I knew I had something important to
share with the world, but I had talked myself out of it. I
needed a reminder. The most reassuring part of it is that
the reminder and encouragement to ‘get to it’ came from a
family member.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
On a sunny July morning a freak accident changed Chris Lee’s life forever. In addition to physical injuries, Chris was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury. Years of alcohol 
abuse, poor eating habits and a newfound addiction to prescription pain-killers thwarted his recovery efforts. His days became filled with group therapy, prescription drugs and the red-tape hassle of an inefficient and inept healthcare system. He felt hopelessly trapped until he discovered a positive approach to life that would shape and mold him into a better father, husband and person.
Chris gives the reader a brutally honest, soul bearing glimpse into the day-to-day recovery efforts of a brain injury survivor. Follow the author on his gripping journey of self-discovery, self-acceptance and ultimately self-love. Learn how alternative health and energy therapy changed Chris Lee’s life and how he empowered himself to change his reality for the better.
JOIN THE BOOK TOUR ON MICHIGAN LITERARY NETWORK
Readers can join us through blogs revealing in Chris Lee’s book, From Frustration to Fulfillment.
Writers can learn from Chris Lee’s experiences of being a first time author and learning to ins and outs of the literary world.
Authors can connect with Chris Lee’s struggles and frustrations, not only in his writing, but life as well.
You can also connect with Chris Lee below and if you’re interested in your own blog tour through our Michigan Literary Network, please see below at the end of the post.
Would you like your copy now of From Frustration to Fulfillment?
Connect with Chris:
“I was riveted by Chris’s story, he had me reading as fast as I could to see what was going to happen next. Anyone who feels they have something more to give will benefit by hearing Chris’s story. If we choose not to hear our inner guidance when it’s a whisper, it may take a whack upon the head to get our attention!”
“Chris’ story and book not only moved me but also inspired me to continue evolving and expanding. I feel very fortunate to have had the pleasure of working with him in person. He is a gifted and talented human being that the world is blessed to have.”
About Chris Lee
Chris Lee, the author of “From Frustration to Fulfillment”, has a passion for helping people 
to identify and successfully manage the self-imposed limitations that hold us back from pursuing and achieving our dreams, goals and ambitions.
Chris wrote “From Frustration to Fulfillment” to help anyone that has ever faced a seemingly hopeless situation. The book started as a diary to help him cope with his brain injury. He found the writings to be a vital part of the healing process and thus decided to share his story with the world.
Using warmth and humor to help people to ‘open the doors of change’, Chris is a dynamic speaker and energetic workshop facilitator. Chris has put his unique skill set to use helping numerous people throughout the United States and Canada. He combines the Law of Attraction and the philosophy of energy medicine to offer a very unique and powerful experience for those that attend his various workshop and coaching sessions.
Chris is a Specs Howard School of Media Arts graduate that currently holds certifications as a 365-Degree Manifestation Consultant, Certified Law of Attraction Facilitator, Certified Natural Health Professional and Body Talk™ Access technician.
Chris loves spending time with family including his son, daughter and granddaughter. He loves fine food, baseball and is a music enthusiast. He can occasionally be spotted around town enjoying live jazz.
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LaCharmine (L.A.) Jefferson
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Motown Mom Musings 