Book Review Monday!

I've been a bad friend.

That's because three of my good friends have recently written books, and I've done little to help in the promotion of said pieces of genius literature.

So, I'm hoping to make up for that today, and I'm hoping you guys will you do your parts in also spreading the word, plus buying all three books, if that's possible.

First off, Bryan Allain recently wrote a book called Actually, Clams Are Miserable. The book is insanely clever, and if you're not smart, you won't like it.

"Clams" takes 101 ridiculous old cliches to task and picks them apart in a very funny way. It's a silly, lighthearted book, and it isn't like any of Bryan's other books. It's straight humor, but I really think you'll love it. I did.

It's a great book, and you can pick it up for only $4.99, HERE.

Here's where I need to be honest. I haven't had a chance to read the next two books. Life has really taken a dump on me within the past month. It's cool, but I haven't had a lot of time to read. I plan on reading them ASAP, but for disclosure purposes, I needed to be honest about this fact.

With that said, my friends Shawn Smucker and Ed Cyzewski are both quality dudes and amazing authors. I enjoy everything they write, so I have no reason to believe their latest offerings are not sensational.

Shawn's new book, How to Use a Runaway Truck Ramp: And Other Tales From Our 10,000-Mile Adventure, which tells the story of Shawn's recent cross-country voyage with his wife, four kids and a bus named Willie.

It releases TODAY, and you can buy it HERE! It would make a great Christmas present for basically anyone in your life! Buy it today!

Last, but certainly not least, Ed Cyzewski's new book, Creating Space: The Case for Everyday Creativity, is available for a mere 99 cents! Are you kidding me?? 99 cents?!

The book is a "manifesto on creativity" and will be an encouragement, as is everything Ed puts to pen. I don't care how broke you are, you won't miss 99 cents, but you will miss out on a great blessing if you pass on Ed's book!

Buy it HERE!

Got anything you want to plug?

Looking for my Childhood Behind the Old Church

If you're seeing this post, I'm either at the hospital with Kim or recovering from the birth process of our son Aidan Robert Haggerty.

Today's guest post is brought to you by Shawn Smucker of ShawnSmucker.com. Shawn is also the author of "Building a Life out of Words" which is an AMAZING book that you can download for only $3.99 HERE! Check out his blog HERE. Follow him on Twitter HERE.

Enjoy!

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Photo used courtesy of Creative Commons user 12story 

The last time that man (me) went behind the church, he was ten years old and armed with a dime to extricate fools’ gold from the old macadam. The graveyard provided a perfect hide-and-seek spot. The woods were a mysterious grove he always hoped would lead to Narnia.

In those long ago days he often carried a shovel and a fishing pole down through the woods to the massive creek, digging for worms, casting for trout. In those long ago days the creek and the church and the graveyard were the universe, and God was there. A God who was easy to understand. A God that fit on flannel graph boards and lived in isolated Bible verses.

* * * * *

The man (me) drives his minivan behind the church and turns it off. He stares at the graveyard and wonders how many folks have been buried there since his last visit. His two oldest children clamber out of the back, the side doors crashing open.

“I’ll carry the fishing poles,” his son shouts.

“Can I carry the shovel?” his daughter asks.

The sky is blue and hot. The trees are thicker than he remembers, and the three of them make a new path through old memories. The field that used to line the creek had been pastureland when he was a child, but the farmer made changes, and now a cornfield sits at the bottom, growing right up to within six feet of the bank.

“This is where I used to fish,” he says, clearing the tall grass, using the shovel like a scythe. “This is where your grandpa used to bring me.”

The two children look at the ground, saints hearing that the dirt was holy. They argue over who gets to use which fishing pole. He baits both hooks, and casts them into the water. They splash into currents of the past.

* * * * *

On the way home, he drives up the long farm lane that leads to his boyhood home. Lightning had crashed into the huge oak in that front yard when he was eight. It was the place he and his father used to throw baseball back and forth, the red seams spinning through a green summer. The place he used to mow the front yard for $2 and the backyard for $3.

But the old farmhouse has been split into apartments, and a row of beaten up cars line the driveway where he learned how to ride bike. All the old trees are gone, even the one that had survived the lightning strike. The two-story shed, where he and his friend created an adventurers club and scared away their sisters: gone.

Everything was so different.

* * * * *

Sometimes I try to recreate my own childhood for my kids. I want to give them everything I had, and if I don’t, I feel like a failure. Some of it’s okay, I guess – there are really good things that I’d like to give them.

But most of the time I need to get out of the past. It’s gone. I need to help them create their own childhoods, not relive mine.

* * * * *

The man and his children caught a few small fish that day. Later, after they had lost both lines to low-hanging branches, they decided to walk along the creek a little ways, do a bit of exploring. They fought their way through the brush, along a barely discernible path. Then, out of no where, an opening in the trees. A wide, slow place in the creek.

A beautiful spot for fishing, much more accommodating than the man’s old spot. The three of them stood there for a minute, then decided that the next time they came fishing, this would be their new place.

It would be the perfect spot to cast into the future.

Books I Believe In

Today's post is a short one but a very important one.

Every now and then, you read a book that really changes your life. Within the past year, I've been fortunate enough to read several that qualify as such.

I'd like to share my list with you. Here it is:

TheIsleOfMan.Net Book Review: 'Building a Life out of Words' by Shawn Smucker

Every now and then, I find a blogger and his/her site that totally floors me and makes me wonder how I'd been oblivious enough to miss them. Other times, I'm lucky enough to have that person be a friend to me.

I've recently found both of those things in Shawn Smucker, a guy who is not just an incredible writer, but he's also a really cool, down-to-earth guy. If you don't like Shawn and the words he writes, I don't like you. True story.

Shawn blogs (almost) daily at http://shawnsmucker.com. He is currently traveling the country for four months with his wife and four children in a big, blue bus named Willie, looking for service opportunities as well as other writers to meet up with. You can find him on Facebook (Shawn Smucker, Writer) and Twitter (@shawnsmucker).

Mr. Smucker just wrote an e-book called "Building a Life out of Words," and he blessed me with the opportunity to read and review it.