By Gary Roen, Author, Reviewer and Agent

Special to St. Cloud In The News

BABY STEP THRU SEARCHING & SURFING THE NET FOR SENIORS

Char Wood the Computer Granny

2028 Pine Tree Drive

Edgewater Fl 32141

386 424-6768

ISBN 0-9719613-7-9

www.computergranny.com

$19.95

In this third installment of the “Computer Granny” series, the author now shows seniors how to maneuver their way through the Internet.  She again writes simply and explains what a website is, how to go to one, the term ‘search engine’, the meaning of the word spam, creating your own website. Those are some of the things she deals with here.  Unlike many computer geeks I’ve known who don’t translate their information to me, Char Wood talks to readers in language they can understand.

THE POETESS WITHIN

Stacia Saina Star

Jeffery Lamb

Outskirts Press

www.outskirtspress.com

ISBN 1-932672-87-7

$17.95

Star has a gift of picking things we take for granted and writing very interesting poetry that anyone can read and enjoy.  I was also amazed at the many forms she uses including haiku, and free verse: Haiku being one of the hardest types of writing to really pull it off.  She does it very well here and she has a unique gift with words in her other poems. 

THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE

Nancy Ann Zrmyi Long

The Florida Historical Society Press

435 Brevard Avenue

Cocoa, Florida 32935

321-690-0099

www.floridabooks.net

ISBN 1-886104 14-X

$12.95

Long has done a first class job of telling the story of how Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida was founded and how Mary McLeod Bethune was the driving force behind this major black institution in the country.  Bethune’s life story is an inspiration because she overcame so much to accomplish the remarkable things she did.

WHITE MAN’S JUSTICE, BLACK MAN’S GRIEF

Donald Goines

Holloway House Publishing Company

8060 Melrose Avenue

Los Angeles, California 90046

www.hollyowayhousebooks.com

ISBN 0-87067-885-X

$6.99

Though this book was written in the 1970s, the issues it deals with are still prevalent today on how the criminal justice system treats black defendants.  Goines tells the story of Chester Hines who is taken in after being pulled over for a minor traffic infraction and the abusive treatment he receives from the officers who take him immediately to jail.  It is there that Hines encounters the real world of prison life.  My only complaint is that there should have been a glossary for those of us who do not know the jail terms Goines uses.  The writing is strong otherwise, with well-defined characters that are as fresh and alive as they were when the author wrote this so many years ago.

PRISONER OF ROMANCE

Selwyn J. Mills Ph.D

Jameson Publishing Company

1240 Shady Rest Lane Suite 102

Naples, Florida

www.Jameisonpub.com

ISBN 1-41205023-5

$19.95

Hopefully many will read this book before they get involved with someone they think is their “soul mate.”  There are many lessons one can learn from Paul Mitchell who thought he had met the woman of his dreams over the Internet.  They met and hit it off pretty well.  She appeared to love him and seemed committed to the relationship but Mitchell had many red flags that he chose to ignore.  Paul was so into this woman that he married her and moved them both to Naples, Florida.  Then many things began to change.  Paul had many more warnings that he overlooked.  He was arrested and taken to jail and his life became an utter hell.  He began to dig deeper into this woman he had married and found there were a number of men she had been married to who went through the same progression.  Mills has told the story of one man’s wrong choice and its effect on a person’s life. 

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