Life Lessons - A Book Review of "The Ultimate Gift"

Are you feeling sorry for yourself? What if your problems were reasons to rejoice? Can you imagine that a crisis might be an opportunity or even a gift in disguise? That's just one of the lessons Jason Stevens learns in The Ultimate Gift, an inspirational novel by Jim Stovall.

Wealthy patriarch Howard Red Stevens has died, but he still has one last trick up his sleeve. The decedent's estate plan provides a living for all his greedy relatives. But the benefactor reserves a special gift for his great-nephew Jason, "the last great vestige of hope" for his family. He loves Jason too much to make him an instant millionaire.

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In his revised will, Stevens entrusts one final task to his longtime friend Theodore J. Hamilton. The attorney is charged with the oversight of Stevens' ultimate gift. Webster defines ultimate as final. It can also mean utmost, the best or fundamental. Stevens' gift to Jason meets all of these criteria.

Life Lessons - A Book Review of "The Ultimate Gift"

Over the course of a year, Hamilton shows Jason a sequence of videotaped messages produced by his great-uncle prior to his death. These messages challenge the spoiled young man with a series of tests and launch him on a hero's mythic journey in quest of his treasure.

Our hero encounters obstacles along his path. He grows and matures as he learns the meaning of a well-lived life. For some readers, the videotaped directives may feel a bit contrived. Swept up in the saga, I journeyed along with Jason, attempting to guess the nature of the gifts. There are no big surprises nor anything esoteric in this tale. Simple truths are often the most profound and always worth remembering.

The Ultimate Gift will probably appeal to readers who enjoyed Tuesdays with Morrie or The Five People You Meet in Heaven. The book refers to a merciful God. It affirms that "life is a gift from The Good Lord." Yet it does not put forth any religious creed or dogma. Its message is universal. The core values and life lessons are applicable to people of any religious persuasion and to those with no religious affiliation. I imagined the character Red Stevens as a wise and kindly elder like Jim Rohn sharing his philosophy of life.

Crafted as a novel, The Ultimate Gift is a tender allegory. It would make an ideal graduation present. The gifts granted by Stevens resemble an ethical will, a meaningful way to pass on core values, beliefs and cherished memories. Legal and financial professionals may choose to share this resource with clients who want to bestow more than material wealth upon their progeny.

The quaint illustrations and sepia tones give this book an old-fashioned feel that connotes a treasure map. In this case, the treasure lies within. The short chapters allow readers to digest the message in small bites, reflect and apply the lessons in their own lives. This is the type of book that is passed along by word of mouth. The topics and format make it ideal for a family reading circle or a book club.

The imaginary character Red Stevens teaches his great-nephew, "In the end, a person is only known by the impact he or she has on others." With his book, The Ultimate Gift, real life hero Jim Stovall has made an impact on millions. He has faced the challenge of total blindness and made it possible for us to see into our own hearts.

(c) 2008 Michele A. Nuzzo

Life Lessons - A Book Review of "The Ultimate Gift"

Life transition coach and freelance journalist Michele Nuzzo is the founder of Midlife Menu. Michele guides baby boomers on a path to a more conscious and joyful life as they juggle careers, caregiving and retirement life-planning. She inspires midlife men and women to reinvent themselves and ignite the spark of passion and purpose in their second act of life.

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Valley of the Fools: Turkey

The recent Turkish movie "Valley of the Wolves: Iraq" is, yet, another worthy picture in the collection of the Deranged Mind Gallery.

The Washington Time reports that, "Valley of the Wolves" is not the work of independents or amateurs. With a budget of million, it's the biggest-spending Turkish film in history. The international cast includes Hollywood actor Billy Zane of "Titanic."
Within three days of its release, the movie had been seen by 1.2 million people, a 40 percent increase on the previous viewing record. At a gala performance earlier this month, the actors rubbed shoulders with Turkey's elite.
"I feel so proud of them all," said Emine Erdogan, wife of the prime minister, comfortably ensconced in a seat next to the actor playing Alemdar."

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The movie opens with a real-life incident: the arrest in July 2003 of Turkish special forces in Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq. The soldiers were led out of their headquarters at gunpoint, with hoods over their heads. America later apologized, but it appears the offence ran deep. At the time Turkey took the incident as national humiliation. In this film the fictional hero sets out for revenge.

Valley of the Fools: Turkey

It depicts Americans as bloodthirsty villains who massacre civilians at the wedding (wasn't that Muslims in Jordan who did that?), kill innocent Iraqis for the sport of it and occasionally blow up a friendly neighborhood mosque during evening prayer. There are multiple summary executions. And for the first time, the real-life abuses by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison are played out on the big screen, (most likely, a product placement for ACLU.)
Then there is naturally a Jewish doctor, (you knew that was coming) who sells organs of killed Iraqis to clients in New York, Tel-Aviv and London (the Western axis of evil).

The movie is a box office success all over Europe, especially in Germany, which has a huge Turkish-immigrant population. The Muslims all over Europe are inspired by the message of the movie. Not "Wizard of Oz kind of" inspired but quote "If I see an American when I get out of here I feel like taking a hood and putting it over their head" inspired.
The outraged Turks and Muslims come out of the theatres with tears in their eyes looking for an American tourist to behead. This should be some movie, ha? It is really in touch with people's feelings and their everyday life. Certainly George Clooney can learn a lot from his Turkish colleagues.

At the end of the movie an outraged and righteous Turkish hero (note: righteous Turkish hero cannot be translated into Greek) eventually sticks a dagger into a heart of an American GI. As rightly calculated, in Berlin, this scene resonated with disenfranchised Turkish-immigrant audience, which at that moment cheerfully exploded in applauds while shouting, "Allah is Great!"(Or as the Greek say, "Give me a break".)

The Turkish producers are pushing this "new cinematic triumph" off to America to the theatre near you. So, if you tired of movies written by gay writers about gay cowboys getting into accidents with transsexual terrorists in Munich, there finally comes a breath of fresh air- a movie about how bad American GI's are and that Iraq is the new Vietnam.
I am sure everyone in America is eager to see this movie, except, perhaps, for Michael Moore and Oliver Stone. This piece of work is going to put them out of business. This is sad, indeed, because then the Jewish doctor must replace Michael Moore's shrinking stomach with an Iraqi one, and that, unfortunately, will require half-the city of Karbalah executed.

I should say though that this Turkish film should not be stopped, after all everyone is entitled to his or her mental syphilis. We here in America, especially, have no right to stop this film from destroying more Muslims minds. Remember, that it was our brave and outspoken American political filmmakers who inspired them to challenge the authority. The Turks simply followed. They are challenging the authority...the American authority (not their own of course.)

Even in its agony, Hollywood continues to inspire half intellectual filmmakers all over the world. It sets the tone. It is the endless America-bashing and vilification that creates these ugly film entities in other parts of the world. These weapons, which are used against us, are animated in the labs of Hollywood drawn with pencils of hate on boards of lies. The Turkish franchise is simply a secure investment in the devaluating market of confused images, a market that used to be a beautiful temple.

My fellow Americans, citizens of the most guilty country in the world, we should be ashamed for the examples we are setting for countries like Turkey which massacred one million and a half Armenians within two weeks in 1915.
By trying to protect ourselves from people who beat up a flag with a stick over a cartoon, we make the Turks angry, and we should not, because the last time they got angry they systematically wiped off their entire non-Muslim population. (If there are no Armenians around, ask a Christian Greek for facts, he's got a lot, keep your children's ears closed, though.)

After a screening of the movie in Germany, an inspired 18-year-old Turk told a reporter that,
"America is evil (the Muslim standard). Look what they did to Native Americans and people in Vietnam, and now in Iraq."
I wish there was someone to remind the young Turkish boy about the whole generation of Armenian orphans who grew up in the slums of Marseilles with images of their mothers raped and sisters thrown off the cliff by drunken Turkish soldiers shouting, "Fly, infidels, fly".

I wish the young Turk would be reminded of Turkish soldiers slitting the wombs of pregnant Armenian women open to stab a baby in front of a dying mother and, finally, I hope that one day the Turkish boy will grow up to become a filmmaker and make a movie that criticizes his own government, which still denies the Armenian Genocide and dumps billions of dollars and enormous political pressure on the US Congress not to accept it either. I hope the 18 year old Turkish boy who so sincerely cares about the extinction of the Hopi Indians in the US, will care about his history as well and make a movie about the genocides of many Christian Balkan nations by the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
I hope so, but I am afraid that by the time the boy enters his prime and chooses a subject for his first movie, there will be a whole herd of USC and UCLA film school graduates creating enough generic marxist garbage to clog the poor young Turks pipe to the truth of his own history.

Valley of the Fools: Turkey

Yervand Kochar is a director/writer. He is the author of a documentary about Abraham Lincoln, "The Wounded Warrior" and a founder of RebelLight Comm, a multi-media company based in LA. info@rebellight.com
http://www.thewoundedwarrior.com

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Summary

Henrietta Lacks was an African American migrant in Baltimore, a mother of five, who met with unfortunate death at an young age of 30 in 1951 due to cervical cancer.

The book 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' by Rebecca Skloot is an honest and moving story of Henrietta Lacks.

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During the treatment of Lacks, before her death, her doctor took medical samples of cancerous cells from her body. They were safely kept in the Lab where the tests were done. Normally taking cells for analysis during treatment is not uncommon but such cells can't live longer. But the cells of Henrietta Lacks not only survived beyond her death, but also got multiplied in millions in the lab environment.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Summary

During subsequent years, the cells of Lacks got distributed to various colleges and laboratories for the purpose of research and learning and these cells are called HeLa Cells, derived from the name of Henrietta Lacks. By estimate, the developed cells across the world would weigh 50 metric tonnes compared to her small fragile body.

HeLa cells helped medical scientists discover the nature of various diseases and also helped in finding out vaccines and medicines for polio, cancer, fertility and many more. Obviously the HeLa cells became a boon for great developments in medical sciences.

However the family of Henrietta Lacks was not aware of the existence of theses cells and their vast distribution across the globe. They came to know about this much later, and they were angry and resentful over the whole development. The family remained poor despite the fact that they were indirectly helpful for many medical innovations. The author of the book Rebecca Skloot, who is a science writer, met Lacks' family, while investigating the background of HeLa Cells. She helped the family, won their trust and had many conversations with them. She worked for a whole decade with the Lack's family and came out with a complete and true account of Henrietta Lacks life story.

This is not just a life story that gives inspiration but also raises questions on various matters related to medicine, race, ethics and many more. Is it right for doctors to take Lacks' cells without her consent? Should they not have compensated their family when the cells were extensively used for various medical discoveries?

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has been selected as one of the best books of Amazon during February 2010.

Alan Ball along with HBO team and Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Films combined together to make a film based on this book. The book is also being translated in to twenty languages.

The contribution of HeLa cells to medical science is immense and Henrietta Lacks has become immortal through this book by Rebecca Skloot.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Summary

minso is a web-writer interested in various topics such as spirituality, health and books.
Check information about similar books at Inspirational Books For Women and Best Inspirational Books

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