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EXXEL PUBLISHING
Just Laugh About It

MIRACLE PUBLISHING
The Inconvenient Child

SANDRA SCHOCKET
My Life Closed Twice

Just Laugh About It

By Sid Baron
Exxel Publishing Co.
ISBN 9780970346902
166 pages, paperback
$14.95

In the tradition of Norman Cousins, who revealed in Anatomy of an Illness that he found laughter to be a better medicine than the concoctions cooked up by Big Pharm, entrepreneur Sid Baron has compiled a series of humorous episodes taken from his own life that are intended to evoke healing chuckles. Baron knows whereof he speaks, being a survivor of multiple sclerosis who has “experienced nearly every devastating symptom of the disease…. There is no doubt in my mind that my lighthearted sense of humor was, and is, a very important component of surviving MS.”

That said, Baron’s sense of humor may not appeal to everyone, as many of his stories involve pranks and practical jokes that were no doubt funnier to him at the time than his friends and colleagues who involuntarily played along. But as a prescriptive memoir, this book otherwise does everything right: the writing is crisp, clean, and episodic, the design is professional and inviting, and the overall intention is right on. One hopes that author Baron is advertising this work via the AARP. – P.MILLER • 10/10

The Inconvenient Child
An Abandoned Australian Child Struggles to Survive and Find Her American Father

by Sharyn Killens & Lindsay Lewis
Miracle Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-0646487823
416 pp., paperback
$22.99

Fathered by a nameless black soldier and borne and reared, sort of, by a woman she called Princess Mummy (later Ice-Princess Mummy), Australian singer and memoirist Sharyn Killens has led a fairytale of a life — sometimes a dark one. Like all good fairytales, it’s a rags-to-riches saga, but since it’s also a twentieth-century tale, the riches are those of the spirit. The inconvenient child Sharyn Samuels transforms herself into Sharyn Crystal, elegant popular entertainer — and woman on a quest — and ultimately into Sharyn Killens, who at last knows her own story.

Unwanted and neglected by her white mother and grandmother, despised for her brown skin, Sharyn was sent at age five to the Aussie equivalent of Ireland’s notorious Magdalene Laundries, those convents where unwanted girls were locked up to atone for their “sins” with hard work. (Sharyn refers to her caretakers as the “Sisters of No Mercy.”) The outcome was inevitable: juvenile detention centers, strip clubs, drugs, a too-early romantic career, children, husbands, and the search for self-respect in a country that despised people of her color.

Her eventual success as a cabaret and luxury cruise singer offered Killens a partial salvation, as well as her devotion to her sons and her second husband. Most significant was Sharyn’s determination to find her father, the mysterious American G.I. who had wooed and won her mother in 1948, and then sailed away, promising to send for her, but never came back.

Co-written with Lindsay Lewis, a businesswoman and former entertainer who is Killens’s  long-time friend, The Inconvenient Child makes for lively reading, although the prose is seldom more than serviceable, and the book as a whole lacks the sort of deeper insight that makes for a truly resonant autobiography. Nonetheless, The Inconvenient Child is an absorbing book with a great storyline and memorable scenes. It’s also a vivid look back at postwar Australia, as well as a moving reminder of the sons and daughters of overseas servicemen, too many of whom still become inconvenient children. — M.LAWRENCE • 10/10

My Life Closed Twice:
Surviving a Double Loss

By Sandra Klamkin Schocket
Monroe Press
ISBN 0-9760917-0-4
256 pages/photo illustrations
$14.00

The loss of a one loved one is always tragic, but the loss of two family members within a very short period of time must be devastating. Such was Sandra Schocket’s loss when both her husband Jay and her thirty-year-old son Barry died within twenty-four hours of each other. In the memoir My Life Closed Twice, Schocket recounts in painstaking detail the healing process she underwent in the days, weeks and months after their passing.

Schocket admits she went into automatic pilot and tried to keep up a normal pace by taking care of the funeral arrangements, handling her husband’s estate (she never found his will) and dealing with her finances. She admits that as a career woman during the era of stay-at-home moms she was used to an independent lifestyle and making her own decisions, but the sudden loss of her spouse still brought on indecision and second-guessing. Added to the grief of losing her spouse and learning to manage as a single woman, she had to deal with the agony of outliving a child, probably the worst thing any parent can contemplate. What would Barry have done with his life? What would become of his young wife? How would his younger brother cope minus his best friend? How would she remember Barry’s birthday and her and Jay’s anniversary?

My Life Closed Twice might have been written to help those who have experienced similar bereavement issues. However, its strength doesn’t lie in practical advice (although the appendix does contain helpful information on support groups) but in the mirror Schocket provides into the everyday life of a woman who is widowed unexpectedly. Random connections between past and present events give the reader insight into the thinking processes of the grieving mind. Reaching into her past, she looked for solace in her Jewish faith that she had not really practiced since she lived at home. The deaths of her husband and son brings personal emotional growth and understanding, showing that there is purpose to all life events, both heartrending and happy. — C.MATHEWS • 1.11