Reviewed by Mamta Madhavan for Readers' Favorite

Dads for Daughters: How Fathers Can Give their Daughters a Better, Brighter, Fairer Future by Michelle Travis is an engaging book for all fathers who have daughters as it will guide them on how to support girls. As we all know, there are many men out there who are very much interested in women's equality and show a willingness to join the gender equality battle. These men can be termed dads of daughters. The father-daughter bonding helps in making men more compassionate, more protective, more committed to being good parents, partners, and providers. This book encourages, inspires, and connects with men who are ready to step up despite the challenges, and the stories, research, and resources also provide techniques to support men to engage in gender equality efforts on both a large scale and a small scale. The book also gives men a wide range of choices to focus their energies on and make a lasting difference.

The topic is fresh and not often spoken about, and the stories of dads and daughters who have already joined the fight for gender equality give good role models to readers. Michelle Travis's approach to the subject will aid in inspiring more dads to change their outlook and make changes by asking themselves if their workplace is suited for their daughters to work in or not. The pictures shared in Dads for Daughters are adorable and perfectly capture the father-daughter bonding. The author discusses the topic in a detailed and structured way, making it easy for readers to connect with her words and the suggestions to dads on creating equal opportunities for their daughters.

Reviewed by Mamta Madhavan for Readers' Favorite

All the Silent Spaces: A Memoir by Christine Ristaino is the author's story after being attacked in the parking lot and her road to self-recovery. She speaks about the immediate aftermath of the attack; how her children were witness to the attack and watched her bleeding on the pavement, how her son could no longer sleep at night, and how her daughter had cried every night before bed for a month. The bruises on her face, the muscles in the arms, the bubble in her eye, and her jaw all required care and fixing, and Christine hoped one day she would be able to take her children to a store where they all felt comfortable without worrying about being attacked. Her story is extraordinary, a woman going on with life after a brutal attack on her; working at the university, and taking care of a family.

All the Silent Spaces is a story of recovery - mentally, physically, and emotionally - and of courage and survival. The author's immense honesty will move readers and will make them ponder about the very fabric of their existence and their safety. Christine Ristaino's story helps to look beyond and tackle the issues of race, color, bias, prejudice, and ignorance rampant in society, and which have not been addressed. The memoir will also make readers realize how the trauma of violence and sexual abuse can change people and their perception about the society they live in. The author's honesty in sharing her story in detail is brave and her journey to healing and recovery is comforting and inspiring. Though her story is painful and traumatic, it also gives courage and hope to many readers out there who find themselves in similar situations and are looking to heal.

Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite

Twitter: Surviving Change is a non-fiction book about social media, its impact, and consequences, penned by author Kurt Seapoint. Part handbook, part social commentary, this guide to all things Twitter provides readers with essential information on the underlying process of Twitter which has seen many users face severe reductions in their visibility and interactions. Sections on shadow-banning, bot purges and Section 230 are engineered to help everyday users, particularly those in writing and publishing, increase their visibility and find out if they have been caught by a glitch preventing them from using the platform to its full extent.

At only a hundred pages, this guide really packs a lot into a comprehensive chapter by chapter approach to the minefield that is Twitter today. Following some very recent changes, author Kurt Seapoint puts together an extensive wealth of research in an easy to understand format, allowing everyday social media users to understand what’s going on among the algorithms, and how that might directly affect their own accounts. I learned a lot from the straight-talking narrative and jargon-busting language, which made everything really easy to follow and helped me to understand how the seller’s market had changed so dramatically over time. I particularly liked the section on shadow-banning, a concept I didn’t even know existed, for its frank honesty and well-researched evidence. Overall, Twitter: Surviving Change will prove a worthy guide for any seller looking to reignite their Twitter power in the new age of the platform.

Reviewed by Ken Stark for Readers' Favorite

With Justice For Some: Politically Charged Criminal Trials of the Early 20th Century That Helped Shape Today's America by Lise Pearlman is an in-depth look at thirteen of the most socially relevant criminal trials of the early 1900s. Some of them were media events, some were landmark cases, and some are all but buried under the dust of time, but each one sent ripples through a US justice system rife with corruption, bias and political maneuvering. No one could have known at the time that these trials were only the opening scenes in a drama that would still be playing out a century later as good people continue to fight for justice for all instead of justice for some.

With Justice For Some is a fascinating read. Where another author might have provided a dry, impersonal history lesson, Lise Pearlman puts us in that time and place with the dexterity of a master storyteller, describing all of the social and racial tensions of the time and letting us peek behind the curtain to see the machinations of politicians, media and power brokers trying to swing public outrage one way or the other. And I particularly enjoyed how Pearlman linked certain aspects of the trials together, weaving them more into a tale of a country coming of age than just a series of individual case studies. With Justice For Some shows how far we've come, but considering the strikingly familiar political rantings, media circuses and endless sources of false information and hate speech we have today, it also shows that maybe we haven't come quite as far as we think.

Reviewed by Christian Sia for Readers' Favorite

Hummingbird in Underworld: Teaching in a Men’s Prison, A Memoir by Deborah Tobola is a book about making a difference and the power of passion. It is 2000 and Deborah is forty-five when she lands her dream job to run Arts in Corrections (the Fine Arts Program at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo). It's the place of her birth and what Oprah had proclaimed to be “the happiest city in America.” It is the same prison her father had worked in when he attended Cal Poly. As she sets about her work, she quickly discovers that the prison has remained stuck in the past; no contact with the outside except via telephone, and then there is the drama, the cliques, and the inhumanity of some officers who don't think prisoners deserve programs. Crime can exist in the very heart of prison and it can be a very dangerous place, especially for a woman. Follow her story as she connects with inmates and works hard to help them find their voices. Can she break ground for them with the innumerable challenges and obstacles, especially from unkind officials?

This is a fascinating story that begins with background information about the author's family, the love between her mother and father and how they met. But Deborah doesn't dwell much on the family drama. She immediately takes readers to the heart of her story, a story filled with lessons. First, she offers a powerful image of what prison life looks and feels like, allowing readers to gauge the dynamics that define it. Second, she explores relationships between prisoners and other prisoners, and prisoners with prison officials. Third, she describes a difficult yet fulfilling journey in helping prisoners connect more with themselves through art. The writing is gorgeous and the voice strong and engaging. It is interesting to have a glimpse of men's prison life through the eyes of a woman. Hummingbird in Underworld: Teaching in a Men’s Prison, A Memoir is the story of one woman's faith in others and how that faith brought out the best in some of them. It is interesting to discover the hidden beauty in characters who, apparently, are criminals.

Reviewed by Vernita Naylor for Readers' Favorite

To live in this environment today, you must pray because every day there is so much tragedy and abuse infiltrating our world, regardless if you are an elderly person, woman, or child. Two Years of Wonder: A Memoir by Ted Neill will take you on an emotional roller coaster ride of what led the author to one day decide that life wasn't worth living anymore by slitting his wrists. As the reader, you will see through the eyes of children - from Oliver, Ivy, Harmony, Mariam, Tabitha, Sofia, and Nea, amongst others - as Ted tells their story and of what he saw during his time working in Kenya for CARE and World Vision International. You will read stories of the despair, survival, sickness and living in a community ravaged by HIV/AIDS. Ted donates his proceeds to all of the Kenyan children featured in the book, as well as organizations that support these causes in Kenya.

This book was really a page-turner yet it was disheartening to see and feel the despair that these children and their families experienced in their daily lives. No one should have to live like this. I can see how mentally overwhelming this was for Ted, an experience that caused his mental psyche to be tested and eventually crack under the pressure and despair that he felt in witnessing the lives of these children and the smell of death on a daily basis. Ted has provided information on some organizations that can use your help as well. As an added bonus he provides a Where Are They Now update in the lives of the featured children that you will enjoy reading about. It's unfortunate that Ted had to consider suicide to ease his pain but at least the story of Kenya, a community of HIV/AIDS and a glimmer of hope is being told and shared.

Reviewed by Tom Gauthier for Readers' Favorite

Don't Expect Me To Cry is a powerful autobiography by Janet Bentley, relating the horrors of mental, physical, and sexual abuse she endured from infancy. In an amazing piece of writing, Janet tells her story, reflecting her thoughts and experiences at critical stages of her life from age four until today. Janet describes the struggles to deal with the pain and fear she experiences as she begins to share her deeply held secret. With the constant thought of ending it all, she fights to hold on. The highs are high, the lows are beyond belief as she learns that it is possible to heal from the depths of the darkest shame and trauma and achieve a life of peace and contentment. Janet Bentley has shared an inspiring life story, cathartic to some, shocking to all, eliciting emotions at once raw and real.

Janet Bentley is an amazing writer. If Don't Expect Me To Cry was a novel it would receive high praise for its drama, raw descriptions of violent assault, and glimpses of hope from skilled therapists which end up dashed time and again. Dramatic arcs in masterful presentation. But it is not a novel. It is Janet’s own autobiography written honestly and directly, with a unique ability to show the evil done to her without becoming maudlin, alongside her learning of the science behind her lifelong struggles. Janet writes with fragility and strength as the victim, and as a unique form of therapist that only one who has experienced the trauma can provide. Her detailed highlights of the professional therapists who began her healing, and the contra events of dependency and transference that her fragility led her to, are true clinical insights and of value to all who read it.

While Janet’s work is obviously a view of catharsis, it is also therapeutic to readers who have shared her experience on any level. Beyond that, it educates us all about the horrific reality of sexual abuse. It will engender anger over the abject failure of society, family, teachers, neighbors, and friends to act on behalf of a toddler, a human being in the deepest distress. Janet Bentley deserves the highest praise for her writing, and for her amazing tenacity to hang on to life and see it through to the goodness and caring that actually exist in the world. I highly recommend this book.

Reviewed by Lucinda E Clarke for Readers' Favorite

On Learning of My Mother’s Death Six Years After It Happened by Lori L Schafer is the true and heartfelt account of what it was like to grow up with a mother who, although in the early years was an average, stable parent, steadily descends into madness. Not written in chronological order, each chapter highlights an episode illustrating ways in which the author’s mother behaved irrationally, from believing her dead father was hiding in the ceiling, to spying on her ex-husband and his mother from a cupboard after she’d entered their house illegally. These outlandish episodes escalate to the extent that the author feared for her own life, and her mother often threatened her. Schafer shares with us the humiliation of living as a teenager, laughed at by her school friends when her mother sat outside the classroom for every lesson after dying her hair bright green. Lori Schafer was known as the daughter of Judy Green-Hair. A few friends did stand by her and she acknowledges their help in finally enabling her to escape. Bravely she waited until after graduation and drove to the next state, but she was always fearful that her mother would find her and drag her back.

I chose to read this book as I thought I could connect with the author and I did. I hope other readers will understand why it is not easy to run away from the only home you have, however terrible it might be. As it’s explained so well in this book, we are conditioned from birth to love, obey, respect and believe our parents. When they start acting in ways that don’t make sense, the confusion is enormous. It was only much later that Schafer questioned her mother’s sanity and attempted to put a name to it. I would like to recommend that this book be on the prescribed reading list in schools as there are thousands, maybe millions (myself included) who live in constant bewilderment, fear, and desperation, whose mothers are unpredictable and even dangerous. A well deserved 5 stars.

Reviewed by Viga Boland for Readers' Favorite

In her sensitive and poignant memoir, You Can't Buy Love Like That: Growing Up Gay in the Sixties, Carol E. Anderson bares her heart and soul to readers so beautifully and intelligently that even if you aren’t gay and weren’t born into a Fundamentalist Christian family in the sixties, you will be deeply moved. The reason you will be moved is because of the basic truths Anderson explores about the social, cultural and religious issues faced by so many of us, regardless of where we live or how we were raised.

What human being, regardless of what struggle with their faith they may have been facing, who has dared to question the teachings of their family’s religion, hasn’t at some point felt, as Anderson did when she recognized her gayness, that “To agree with the church was to defy my soul. To trust myself was to let go of the only God I knew. Either choice was a bad one.” In trying to be what her family and church deemed acceptable i.e. a “normal” female who would love and marry a male, she felt she was fighting a battle she couldn’t win: “The Church was Goliath, and I had no David within me." Anderson tried more than once to have a regular, loving relationship with men, even coming close to marriage. But she could never feel with a man what she felt with a woman i.e. an “emotional intimacy”. After finally finding and identifying with a group of women who weren’t raised in a similarly strict, religious environment, she began to accept that what she felt wasn’t so abnormal or unusual after all. But still, it took years to share how she felt with her family. Sadly, by the time she did, her wonderful father had passed away, but fortunately for Anderson, her mother, who had always been a pillar of strength, took the news surprisingly well and by doing so showed Carol a love that money can’t buy.

Readers will find themselves identifying with the author on various levels, not just that of religion or sexual orientation. When Anderson tells us how much her father loved her and appreciated her “kindness, compassion and determination”, she speaks for every person when she states: "I want you to love me for who I really am, not for who you want me to be.” Is this not what human beings all over would want from their family, friends and associates? Wouldn’t the world be a much better place if we all loved each other for who we are and not for who others want us to be? How much easier it would be to get along, communicate with and love each other. Sadly, that isn’t how human beings, conditioned by generations of religious, cultural and social teachings and expectations, interact. And hence, as Anderson rightly concludes: “Rather than listening to the voice within, people courted the voices outside of themselves, and in doing so lost touch with what most families claimed to be the most important thing: a sense of love and belonging.” You Can't Buy Love Like That: Growing Up Gay in the Sixties by Carol E. Anderson is a brilliant book that deserves your attention. Readers will be enriched by reading it.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Uniquely Dangerous: A True Story is a nonfiction book written by Carreen Maloney. On April 14, 2010, Douglas Spink woke to the commotion raised by a 19-member strong SWAT team as they pounded on the door of his small cabin. His Reese Hill location should have been impregnable, and he was quite careful in timing the rare occasions when he went out to get provisions for himself, his dogs and his horses. Doug, who had been a successful tech entrepreneur and stud farm owner, was on probation for having participated as a mule in a drug smuggling ring. His Reese Hill property, a remote 22-acre spread, was tucked away in Northern Washington, just a few miles from the Canadian border. When he opened the door, he found thirty law enforcement officers waiting for him. Some were from the US Probation Department; others the FBI and US Marshals Service, still others were local: the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office and the Whatcom Humane Society. Maloney first learned of Doug Spink’s arrest through text messages she had received from the Whatcom Humane Society, where she was well-known as a volunteer writer for their animal rescue efforts. She had been advised that a number of animals had been taken from a “bestiality farm.” Maloney had no idea what those texts actually meant. Were those animals being tortured? Were they sex slaves? As someone who loved animals, she couldn’t help but worry; as a reporter, she wanted to learn more.

I’m also an animal lover and am privileged to have two wonderful dogs as animal companions. And while I’ve encountered some poorly reported articles online about drunks attacking their neighbors’ dogs, I knew next to nothing about zoophilia, and those people whose sexual attraction is to animals. Uniquely Dangerous: A True Story was enlightening, disturbing and ultimately thought-provoking. Her dedication to “the animals who are killed by humans when their secret lives with zoos are discovered” resonated quite strongly with me. Maloney’s story flows swiftly and fluently. Her writing kept me enthralled as she handled the thorny issues surrounding the taboo of zoophilia and the irrational, culturally ingrained responses of society.

Maloney addresses zoophilia in a compassionate and professional way, sharing interviews with other zoos as well as those details Doug Spink disclosed during their interviews. Like her, I was infinitely saddened when Doug’s dogs all seemed destined to first be separated from him and then killed, and had trouble understanding how the anger and ignorance expressed toward Spink even reached out to Maloney for her role in interviewing the man. Yes, zoophilia is something most people are totally ignorant about and taboos about it are strongly etched into our culture, despite the mythological traditions and the continuing popularity of the story, Beauty and the Beast. Whatever one’s feeling about zoophilia, Doug Spink’s story is a cautionary tale that shows all too clearly how easily one can lose one’s constitutional protections once one has crossed over that all-too-illusory line. I began reading this book filled with preconceived and sensationalistic notions about people who had sexual relations with animals and finished having learned more about what it is to be human. Uniquely Dangerous is most highly recommended.