When I asked for Hyperion to send this to me for review I was expecting a riveting read. I knew the name Pat Brown, but was not placing her face or accomplishments. After reading The Profiler, I can only assume that I have seen her on Nancy Grace or one of the other HLN shows that discuss crime and often have various guests on to weigh in on the topics being discussed. Things start out good. In fact, I had no complaints in the beginning. It’s hard to complain when a book starts out with a murder.

Things are good in The Profiler for a few chapters although the doubts of the success of the entire book start very soon. This is a book about crime. Not only that, it is a book about a housewife that becomes a modern day Sherlock Holmes type (or so Brown likes to put it). The problem is that there are many differences between the fictional Holmes and the real life Brown. Among those differences is one appears to be a concerned, yet occasionally meddling former housewife and the other is a clever detective.

From the start, we learn things about Brown that we don’t need to know. Things like her breastfeeding habits (until her children were two, if you were wondering), the activities she participated in at church, and how she went to a school where girls didn’t get pregnant are completely unrelated to her job as a self-employed profiler. These things are mentioned as well as a thoughtful paragraph about her ex-husband who was a great father, but didn’t understand his wife enough to keep her after 25 years of marriage.

In the beginning of the book Brown is married and living with her husband and kids. She rents out a room in her home to a boarder named Walt Williams. Walt is the kind of guy that most people would suspect was a criminal. He was one of those unsavory types that wore fishnet tops to church and couldn’t keep a job. He lied constantly and everyone, even his own daddy, said he was weird. So, when the one murder that rocked the community where Brown lived occurred, she set out on a path to become a profiler and prove that he did it.

Did he do it? Based on the evidence there is a good chance. After over 20 years Williams remains the only suspect in the case, but there is not enough evidence in the physical sense to prove that he did it. Much of the book follows this path. The first half is dedicated entirely to Brown’s journey becoming a profiler and on Williams and her need to prove that he was the murderer. Things go back and forth until it is pretty much proven that he did it and beat the system. By the end of the first half of the book, Brown has finally become a working profiler.

From here we get a chance to read up on cases that Brown has worked on throughout her career. Many of these cases, it appears, she sought out on her own or at the urging of one other person. Often the cases are old and the evidence is no longer readily available to her. In some cases, the victim’s family and/or the police officer do not even want Brown to be involved. Still, she continues to do what she thinks she does best and profiles the crime.

Unfortunately, if you are looking for information about an average person that becomes a profiler and how that is done, you’re not going to find it here. Even the descriptions of the cases and the information that Brown offers is general. If you have had any lower level college Criminal Justice courses this will not be that interesting and you will not gain any knowledge from what Brown has to say. The same could probably be said for anyone that has watched enough Criminal Minds or true crime television.

The writing style is exceptionally dry for crime writing. While something like this might normally be exciting, by page 70, I was telling myself I still had hundreds of pages to go. Later still, by page 150, I was telling myself that sometimes as a reviewer we are forced to review bad things, too, as that is part of the job.

If you like crime novels for the excitement often found in them you will want to skip this one. Additionally, if you read autobiographies (or memoirs) for the conversational tone and closeness to the subject this probably won’t be for you. Sure, Brown manages to offer a conversational tone, but her egocentric style of storytelling leaves much to be desired. You can find plenty of better books, so if you have to read The Profiler, you might want to see if your local library is carrying it.

The Profiler: My Life Hunting Serial Killers & Psychopaths by Pat Brown hit bookstores May 18, 2010. It is available at most chain retailers that offer books and online through stores such as Amazon.com, which sells it in multiple formats.

Technorati Tags: Criminal Profiling, Book Review, The Profiler, My Life Hunting Serial Killers & Psychopaths, Pat Brown, Nancy Grace, True Story, Nonfiction

To enter you need to be at least 18 years of age and a resident of the US. If you have won a contest within the last 30 days you are not eligible. Winners will be sent an email shortly after the end of the contest. To claim your prize all you will need to do is send us your address in a reply to the congratulation email that you will receive. If we do not receive a reply from you within three weeks, your winnings will be forfeited and your prize will be offered to another contestant.

We will begin emailing winners for this the week of September 12, 2008, which means you have until September 11, 2008 at 11:59 to enter.

About the Book:
KEEP THE FAITH: A MEMOIR

Biggie’s wife, Lil’ Kim’s rival, Tupac’s rumored lover, and Platinum-selling R&B queen; Faith has kept her secrets and her silence… until now.

KEEP THE FAITH: A MEMOIR is Faith Evans’ first person account of life at ground zero of hip-hop’s greatest generation.

Faith Evans, with Aliya S. King, shares the truth about the love affair that changed her life, and the innuendo that rocked the hip-hop world to its core.

Technorati Tags: Book, Giveaway, Rap, Hip Hop, Faith Evans, Biggie, Lil Kim, Tupac, Aliya S. King, Love Affair, Ground Zero, Literary Illusions

To enter you need to be 18 years of age and a resident of the US. If you have won a contest within the last 30 days you are not eligible. Winners will be announced here. If we do not hear from you within 3 weeks from the date the winners are announced you forfeit your prize and we will select another winner. Prizes will be shipped within 45 days from the day you win.

We will begin choosing winners for this the week of May 25, 2008, which means you have until May 24, 2008 at 11:59 to enter.

From the Yes, You’re Pregnant, But What About Me? Book Page

Now, in his first-ever book, Nealon tells the outrageous story of how he battled through aching joints, Milano cookie cravings, and a rapidly receding hairline to become a first-time dad at an age when most fathers are packing their kids off to college. Offering hysterical commentary about his fickle, often hormonal, road to belated and bloated fatherhood, Nealon guides you through the delivery room and beyond, discussing how his past, his wife, and his neuroses all converged in a montage of side-splitting insecurities during the months leading up to the birth of his son.

In Yes, You’re Pregnant, But What About Me?, Nealon details his trip through all the emotional stages of pregnancy—uncomfortable, denial, hungry, sleepy, self-conscious, hungrier, confused, cranky, not-quite-as-hungry but still craving something, sweaty, covered in cookie crumbs—all while struggling to keep his blood pressure down and find the time to read the latest issue of the AARP Bulletin. Wrestling with the dilemmas and fears that fathers have been dealing with for centuries (Can I duct-tape a crib together? How often can I reuse a disposable diaper? What if the baby looks like me and not my wife?), Nealon never fails to entertain with the frequent lunacy and inevitable joy that punctuate his story about parenthood.

Laugh-out-loud funny and remarkably poignant, Nealon’s entertaining perspective and his wealth of sarcasm provide a take on fatherhood that is as fresh as it is universal, always reminding you that half the fun of being a parent is getting there.

Technorati Tags: Contest, Giveaway, Book, Comedy, Non-Fiction, Literary Illusions, Harper Collins, Entertainment, Kevin Nealon, Fatherhood

To enter you need to be 18 years of age and a resident of the US. If you have won a contest within the last 30 days you are not eligible. Winners will be announced here. If we do not hear from you within 3 weeks from the date the winners are announced you forfeit your prize and we will select another winner. Prizes will be shipped within 45 days from the day you win.

We will begin choosing winners for this the week of May 25, 2008, which means you have until May 24, 2008 at 11:59 to enter.

From The Scandal Plan Or: How to Win the Presidency by Cheating on Your Wife Book Page

A presidential candidate behind in the polls concocts an outrageous scandal to improve his chances in this hilarious political satire in the spirit of Primary Colors

Senator Ben Phillips is the perfect man for the presidency. If only he weren’t such a straight arrow. He’s getting battered in the polls, and with only a few months until Election Day, his staff is growing desperate. Enter Thomas Campman, political guru. On a sudden inspiration, the eccentric Campman is convinced he can revitalize the candidate’s image by creating a fake sex scandal for him. Nothing too over-the-top—just a little scandal to make Phillips seem more human. Maybe even cool.

Though it takes some convincing, Phillips gives Campman the green light. The plan is set in motion, and, right on schedule, a phony former mistress steps forward to accuse the senator of infidelity. But scandals—even the premeditated kind—rarely go as planned. Before long, Campman’s scheme snowballs into a three-ring circus complete with a linguistically challenged Mexican chauffeur who thinks he’s James Bond, a highly sexed middle-aged woman who’s convinced she’ll never land one of the really good guys, and a political cub reporter for TeenVibe magazine who’s sure he’s on the trail of the biggest story since Watergate.

For those too well acquainted with politics-as-usual, The Scandal Plan is the perfect antidote. It’s a witty political farce in the tradition of Jon Stewart and Dave Barry that will have readers—and even candidates—laughing all the way to the polls.

Technorati Tags: Contest, Giveaway, Book, Comedy, Fiction, Literary Illusions, Harper Collins, Reading, The Scandal Plan, Bill Folman

British comedian and talk show host Graham Norton emceed the New York GLAAD Media Awards at the Marriot Marquis on Mar. 17, 2008. The ceremony honored the best in film, television and journalism to an audience of 1,600 people. Celebrities such as Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Tim Gunn, Barbara Walters and Alan Cumming were in attendance as Brian Graden, President of MTV Entertainment and President, Logo, was honored with the Vito Russo Award. The Vito Russo award is presented to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for the LGBT community.

Kathy Griffin opened the Los Angeles GLAAD Media Awards at the Kodak Theatre on Saturday, Apr. 26, 2008. There was no shortage of star power at the ceremony which honored outstanding drama series, comedy series and reality program. Cindy Crawford, Sharon Stone, Rufus Wainwright, Tom Ford, Zoe Saldana, Sally Field and many others attended. Ellen DeGeneres presented Janet Jackson with the Vanguard Award, which honors media professionals who, through their work, have increased the visibility and understanding of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

This CBS News on Logo Special Report promises to take viewers inside this year’s GLAAD Media Awards with exclusive red carpet coverage, interviews with the nominees and winners, and much more. CBS News on Logo Special Report: GLAAD Media Awards Backstage Pass will premiere Saturday, May 3 at 9:00 PM ET/PT. Additional content can be found on AfterEllen.com and AfterElton.com. For more information visit LOGOonline.com.

Technorati Tags: CBS, LOGO, GLAAD, Awards, Ellen DeGeneres, Janet Jackson, Sally Field, Kathy Griffin

A deeply personal memoir by Emmy(r) winner Irene Taylor Brodsky, HEAR AND NOW chronicles her deaf parents’ decision to undergo risky cochlear implant surgery, following their touching journey from a comfortable marriage of silence into a new, complex and challenging world of sound. Winner of an Audience Award at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, the documentary debuts THURSDAY, MAY 8 (8:00-9:30 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.

Other HBO playdates: May 8 (5:25 a.m.), 11 (7:30 p.m.), 15 (9:30 a.m., midnight), 19 (2:30 p.m., 10:15 p.m.), 24 (12:30 p.m.) and 27 (6:30 p.m.)
HBO2 playdates: May 10 (6:00 p.m.), 12 (12:30 p.m., 12:10 a.m.) and 18 (11:00 a.m.)

Both age 65 and deaf since birth, husband and wife Paul and Sally Taylor led rich lives filled with jobs, hobbies, passions and the support of a devoted four-generation family, including their own three hearing children. Pioneers in the deaf community, Sally worked as a teacher and a college secretary and lent her expert lip-reading skills to law enforcement investigations, while Paul, an engineer and retired professor, helped develop the TTY, a widely-used telecommunication device for the hearing-impaired.

When the Taylors announced just before retirement that they planned to get cochlear implants – a breakthrough technology that could restore their ability to hear – their decision was met with mixed feelings by their daughter. “After this surgery, who will they be?” she asks. “Will they still be deaf people, or hearing people, or will they be something in between? What if the implant doesn’t work? What if one of them can hear and the other one can’t?”

At its core, HEAR AND NOW is a love story about two people who found one other and grew together in a world of silence, their bond strengthened by the challenges they faced and overcame as a couple. Undertaking the journey together, they cannot foresee the ultimate impact of this change on their relationship, or the emotional and neurological challenges of adapting to a world of sound, especially when one appears to have more success with the procedure and it looks like their paths – so long the same – might diverge.

The film offers fascinating “before-hearing” and “after-hearing” windows into the lives of Paul and Sally Taylor, recounting childhood years learning to communicate in a special school, experiencing the stigma surrounding deafness in mainstream high schools, and overcoming the challenges of being deaf parents of hearing children.

The three-hour operation is seen from a fascinating surgeon’s-eye view, as a tiny computer is placed into a recess carved out of the skull and multi-tentacled silicone transmitters are threaded into the cochlea, like microphone cables leading to a microscopic amplifier.

A month later, they visit their audiologist to have the implants turned on and hear their first sounds. Paul struggles to describe the experience; Sally is speechless with emotion.

HEAR AND NOW explores the psychological dimensions of adapting to the challenges posed by a restored sense of hearing and reveals just how subjective the sense of sound can be. “It’s like a hammer in my head – bang, bang, bang!” Paul says of a flock of geese flying by. Sally, enchanted by her lakefront surroundings in upstate New York, delights in the sound of water gently flowing over rocks and in waves.

Sally stands in a hallway of her home flipping light switches, stroking and patting the walls and flushing the toilet, astounded by the everyday sounds she’s wondered about for years. Like a kid in a candy store, Paul drives to the car wash twice in one day just to experience the strange noises he finds there.

The film raises compelling questions about the ease of obtaining cochlear implant surgery. No psychological evaluations were required of the couple – just medical insurance and proof of a working auditory nerve. Likewise, as people age, the elasticity in the brain tends to decrease, making implant surgery for people 65 or older less than successful in many cases.

In the end, there are highs, such as a family Christmas when Paul winds up on his back playing air guitar to a CD he’s received. There are also lows, like the couple’s follow-up visit to their audiologist, when they discover they cannot hear any of the test words read to them. As time passes, Paul and Sally struggle with their newfound hearing and begin to wonder if it’s better to live in their familiar silent world or face the frustrations of their new, sound-filled one.

HEAR AND NOW is Irene Taylor Brodsky’s first feature-length film. As a producer and cinematographer, she filmed polygamist Alex Joseph and his nine wives in the Utah desert, investigated the fragile state of American health care, followed a fetish clothing designer (HBO’s “Real Sex”) and produced TV documentaries and shorts on subjects ranging from Bollywood to bluegrass music. In 2004, Taylor Brodsky won an Emmy(r) for “The Rural Studio,” her portrait of late architect Samuel Mockbee and his legacy in the American South.

HEAR AND NOW is a film by Irene Taylor Brodsky; supervising editor Geof Bartz, A.C.E.; associate producer, Crofton Diack; senior producer, Eve Epstein; original music, Joel Goodman. For HBO: supervising producer, Sara Bernstein; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.

Technorati Tags: HBO, Documentary, Upcoming Release, Hear and Now, Premium Channel, Cable, Movie, Deaf, Operation

From the Hyperion Book Page:

Sinatra. Streisand. Dylan. Pavarotti. McCartney. Sting. Madonna. What do these musicians have in common besides their super-stardom? They have all worked with legendary music producer Phil Ramone.

For almost five decades, Phil Ramone has been a force in the music industry. He has produced records and collaborated with almost every major talent in the business. There is a craft to making records, and Phil has spent his life mastering it. For the first time ever, he shares the secrets of his trade.

Making Records is a fascinating look “behind the glass” of a recording studio. From Phil’s exhilarating early days recording jazz and commercial jingles at A&R, to his first studio, and eventual legendary producer status, Phil allows you to sit in on the sessions that created some of the most memorable music of the 20th century — including Frank Sinatra’s Duets album, Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, Ray Charles’s Genius Loves Company and Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years.

In addition to being a ringside seat for contemporary popular music history, Making Records is an unprecedented tutorial on the magic behind what music producers and engineers do. In these pages, Phil offers a rare peek inside the way music is made . . . illuminating the creative thought processes behind some of the most influential sessions in music history.

This is a book about the art that is making records — the way it began, the way it is now, and everything in between.

Good Luck!

We’ve chosen our winners – They are:

Charlene Kuser
A. Ashley
Ruth Utterback!

Congrats Folks! Please contact us with your mailing address so we can send you your prize!

Technorati Tags: Making Records, The Scenes Behind the Music, Phil Ramone, Charles Granata, NonFiction, Novel, Literary Illusions, Book, Contest

Please Forgive Me

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
–Howard Thurman

If you feel stuck in any area of your life, if you’re not attracting the car, house, job, mate, or anything else you really want, it could very well be due to a lack of forgiveness.

Maybe you didn’t forgive the other person. Maybe you didn’t forgive yourself. It doesn’t matter. Holding on to past emotions, memories, or stories is guaranteed to tie up your energy and block your ability to attract what you want.

What you have to do now is forgive.

I used to struggle with this one. I was afraid that if I forgave someone, I would not learn the lesson they gave me and I would be suckered again. But as I looked at that belief, I realized it was just that: a belief. It wasn’t reality. It wasn’t factual. It wasn’t true.

I remember when a client owed me a great deal of money. He wasn’t paying, and it was clear he was going to rob me of what was due to me. In those days my mind-set was still that of a victim. I thought my client, and much of the world, was out to get me. I had read so many books about robber barons in history, and about survival of the fittest, that I felt unless I became greedy and cutthroat in business, I’d always fail. However, I refused to become something I didn’t like. I refused to become one of “them.” So I lived with my pain and resentment.

Of course, the only person this hurt was me. The client who owed me money never felt my pain. I have no idea if he felt anything at all. So my holding a grudge kept only one person down: me.

As I began to read self-help books, I began to realize that I could let go of my resentment. I could forgive my client. I could forgive myself.

I did just that. And — you probably guessed it — my client surfaced and paid me the money he owed me. But I didn’t forgive in order to collect the money. I forgave and forgot and let it go.

But let’s look at this more closely so you understand forgiveness and the power of it as a clearing method.

Forgiving another person is, in part, an ego trip. When you say “I forgive you” to someone, you are saying you had some sort of hold over them. You were the King or Queen, and by the “I forgive you” decree you could pronounce them “free” of your resentment. That’s not forgiveness. It may even be a form of manipulation.

What’s more powerful is to say “I’m sorry” to the people you hurt. If you’ve never seen the television show My Name Is Earl, watch it sometime. It’s about a petty thief who awakens to the idea that if he does good things, good things happen. He makes a list of everyone he ever hurt in his life. He then works to do something to erase his wrong.

A couple of decades ago I did something similar. I made a list of people I felt I had hurt. I then went to them and paid them money if I owed it, returned tools or objects if I had walked off with them, and told them I was sorry for my behavior. I did my best to make peace with my past. It was a wonderful feeling.

I also know there is a level of forgiveness beyond being forgiven by others or forgiving others. The forgiveness that becomes one of the most powerful clearing methods you can use in an instant is the one where you forgive yourself.

It’s your perception of a situation or person that is an error. It’s not the other person. Yes, they may have done something you prefer they hadn’t done.

But it’s your judgment of them that causes the friction. When you let go of your judgment, you free yourself. And often, when you free yourself, the other person does what you wanted all along. But your motivation has to come from forgiveness of you.

Copyright C 2008 by Hypnotic Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.

Technorati Tags: Joe Vitale, Hypnotic Marketing, Please Forgive Me, The Key, Book Excerpt

Contemporary high school history teachers might just want to prescribe The Dead Guy Interviews to hook their more reluctant students. Sardonic wit and irreverent quips characterize the tone of Michael Stusser’s historical treatise in which he “conducts interviews” marwith deceased historical figures. In addition to the basic dates, significant accomplishments, downfalls, etc., Stusser provides salacious peeks into the personal lives of the humor-invigorated, rigomortized celebrities.

Laid out in alpha order, Stusser covers Alexander the Great through Mao Zedong, from pharaohs to presidents, philosophers to plain ol’ pop culture figures. He moves through 45 historical notables with whom even 21^st century adolescents would be acquainted, and if they weren’t, the introductions to each larger-than-life figure would surely spark further interest…in at least most of the characters.

The bottom line of The Dead Guy Interviews is that it is the most entertaining historical text I have ever read, with most of the three-to-five-page interviews striking chords of interest in learning more about the characters. In most historical texts or biographies of Albert Einstein, there is surely something included in the text that explains how Einstein struggled in school. However, few would put it the way Stusser does in his interview:

Stusser: Some people say you may have actually had a learning disability.

Einstein: Yah, I haff a disability to learn vat zey vant to teach me. My problem vas zat I clashed at times with my professors – unt vas usually correct in my argument, I might add. Zen I began to skip classes to study vat I vanted. School vas a bit of, how you say, bust.

Charles Darwin would probably turn over in his grave if he read Stusser’s paraphrasing of his ideas. In response to a question about switching majors in school, Stusser has Darwin reply, “Aw, the anatomy lectures sucked canal water, mate, and the surgery at the time was complete butchery. Blood and gore and a hacksaw. I couldn’t stand it. Made my stomach turn.” Uh, did I mention Stusser was irreverent?

Some might find The Dead Guy Interviews just a bit over the edge in some instances. For example, in his chat with Catherine the Great, known for her prolific sexual exploits according to Stusser, he asks, “Gotta ask: You? The horse? Yay or nay?” Catherine denies the implied allegation and asks Stusser if he has pets. When Stusser replies that he has a cat, Catherine asks, assuredly with a twinkle in eye, “Do you sleep with her?” Stusser replies, “Well sure. I mean, not that way.”

So the fresh, informative, and often funny, 291-page text of “history by character” goes. The Dead Guy Interviews is definitely worth the read regardless of your age…unless irreverence rubs you the wrong way.

Technorati Tags: Book Review, The Dead Guy Interviews, Michael Stusser, Alexander the Great, Catherine the Great, Albert Einstein

If you want to win a copy it’s as simple as can be. All you need to do is leave us a comment letting us know you are interested. If you link to this contest we will give you two entries and up your chance of winning. In order to win you must reside in the US or Canada and have not won a contest on Literary Illusion in the last month. This contests ends on November 8, 2007 at 11:59 PM EST. A winner will be announced in this post and by email on November 9, 2007.

RULES:
TO RECEIVE ONE ENTRY INTO OUR CONTEST SIMPLY POST A COMMENT RESPONDING TO THIS ARTICLE.

TO RECEIVE A SECOND ENTRY, LINK TO THIS SPECIFIC ARTICLE ON THE CONTEST ON YOUR BLOG, MYSPACE, FACEBOOK PAGE, OR WEBSITE.

From the Cat Deck the Halls book page on Harper Collins:

The cats who saved Christmas . . .

The charming seaside village of Molena Point, California, leads one to expect a quiet traditional Christmas surrounded by family and friends—but not this holiday season. Instead of singing carols and climbing into Christmas trees, Joe Grey, feline P.I., is faced with his most difficult case yet—and that’s saying a lot for a wily tomcat who for years has been solving crimes the police can’t even crack.

At midnight in the deserted gardens of the shopping plaza, a stranger lies dead beneath the village Christmas tree; the only witness to the shooting is a little child. But when the police arrive, summoned by an anonymous phone call of feline origin, both the body and the child have disappeared. As police scramble for leads, the grey tomcat, his tabby lady, and their tortoiseshell pal, Kit, launch their own unique investigation.

Together Joe Grey, Dulcie, and Kit face their most heartbreaking case yet as they care for the child who may be the killer’s next target. Trying to sort out perplexing clues amidst the happiness of the season, they shadow a cast of colorful characters. But neither the police nor their unknown feline assistants are aware that they might have stumbled over the murderer and never known it, until an electrifying final scene when the killer’s identity is revealed.

For years, Shirley Rousseau Murphy has written tales that have delighted readers and critics alike. With her lyrical prose and fast-paced plotting, Murphy has created another delightfully absorbing trip to a magical place populated by unforgettable characters whom readers have come to think of as friends.

Technorati Tags: Cat Deck the Halls, Novel, Fiction, Shirley Rousseau Murphy, Cat Mystery, Joe Grey, Feline PI, Contest, Free Copy, Literary Illusions