Book Reviews by Stacey J. Miller

Sample 1 How Smart Is It to Take Smart Drugs?   (From Dr. Lynn R. Webster's blog: http://www.lynnwebstermd.com/how-smart-is-it-to-take-smart-drugs/ .)   The Myth of Brain Power If you hear something often enough, you may start to believe it. Most of us have come to believe the common myth that we use only ten percent of our brains. The truth, according to Medical News Today , is that "fMRI scans show that even simple activities require almost all of the brain to be active."   However, Hollywood still enjoys imagining what would happen if people could use more of their brain power. In the 2011 action-thriller " Limitless ," a writer takes an experimental (and fictional) pill called NZT that allows him to use one hundred percent of his brain. He evolves into a superman and is targeted by assassins.  Using Smart Drugs to Increase Brainpower A 2014 movie, " Lucy " -- which had a female protagonist -- also suggests that taking a mind-enhancing ...

S. J. Miller Communications Book Promotion P.O. Box 834 Randolph, Massachusetts 02368-0834 www.bookpr.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                            PRESS RELEASE   Contact: Stacey J. Miller, bookpromotion@gmail.com           How Stormy Daniels and the Adult Entertainment Industry Have Changed Our Tastes, Behaviors, and Culture Stormy Daniels has become front page news. Some people have reproached her morals. There were those who admired her astute business sense. Still others wondered how the president of the United States could have let himself become involved, both physically and financially, with someone who had built a thriving career in the pornography industry. Comedian Chels...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                    PRESS RELEASE             C           Contact:         Stacey J. Miller                       Email:           sjmiller at bookpr dot com            Andy Williams Performing Arts Center Wins Beautification Award The Andy Williams Performing Arts Center is proud to announce that it has won the City Beautification Award. The Tree Board presents Beautification Awards to commercial properties that have ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                      PRESS RELEASE                  Contact: Stacey J. Miller, S. J. Miller Communications, Email: sjmiller at bookpr dot com                         Free Food Distribution at Powers Farm in Randolph, MA Is Now a Weekly Event  RANDOLPH, MA, May 14 — Free Fresh Fruits and Produce Distribution takes place every Thursday from 2:00 to 3:00 PM at 592 North Main Street, Powers Farm, Randolph, Massachusetts. The initiative started during the government shutdown when a few concerned Randolph residents reached out ...

Feline Operation Barfitty Blues: The College Emissions Scandal Visit the  book's page  on Amazon  S. J. Miller Communications Book Promotion 10 Turning Mill Lane , Randolph , Massachusetts 02368 www.bookpr.com email: sjmiller at bookpr.com Feline Operation Barfitty Blues: The College Emissions Scandal "Everyone's heard of the college admissions scandal by now. It's time to learn about the college emissions scandal. It also stinks." So says Stacey J. Miller, author of the new book, Feline Operation Barfitty Blues: The College Emissions Scandal (BPT Press, March 2010). Stacey, along with practically everyone else in the U.S. , was startled to hear that some of the rich and famous celebrities of Hollywood had cheated to get their children admitted to elite colleges. "I understand there are serious repercussions of an unfair college admittance system, and I hope the lawsuits to come will help create accountability and tran...

Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin may be trying  to hide  on social media, but famous felines are coming forward in a new  tell-all book  to confess about their roles in the college emissions scandal:  Feline Operation Barfitty Blues: The College Emissions Scandal.

In Pieces by Sally Field Raise your hand if you thought Sally Field might be the one person on the planet who had been blessed with a perfect set of life circumstances. Me, either.  Her lifelong challenges were as real and profoundly disturbing as those of many other people. The good news is that Sally's wisdom and self-awareness turned her experiences into a candid, compelling memoir that all of her fans -- as well as everyone who appreciates autobiographies, as I do -- should read. Candid and compelling, " In Pieces " is a story that deserved to be told, and Sally should be gratified that she had the ability to tell it so well. Solid, poignant writing by a gifted and highly skilled actor. She is as good at parsing words as she is at working a stage (and screen). Five stars! See my full review on Amazon. 

How can catatonia be a major psychiatric illness when no-one knows what it is? Could it be that psychiatry has lost touch with the real mental disorders? The question is important because catatonia is probably more treatable than anything else in psychiatry. And it affects one patient in every ten with a serious illness — but first it has to be recognized. It is not a form of “schizophrenia,” and does not respond well to the anti-schizophrenic drugs that many doctors might be inclined to use.   In his novel, The Winter Soldier, Daniel Mason writes of a World War I soldier's body that is curled up among a pile of roots: "Alive...But it doesn’t move. It doesn’t speak." The fictional soldier's body only twitches when someone touches his shoulder. "The man’s eyes were wide, his nose flared, as he tried to take in breath. But no words, nothing save the flinch, the stare," the novel continues. That is a fair description of catatonia, a bodily cond...

The "Mama Mia, Part 2" movie was supposed to be the cultural highlight of my summer. That let me down, bigly. I am not easy to please. There are 844 books downloaded onto my Kindle and another 2,197 archived items. (I call my Kindle "Cokie" for a reason.) That's 3,041 ebooks, and I don't even want to tell you how many actual printed books I have stacked in every nook and cranny (in fact, I may be wearing several of them). The point here is that I have way too much reading material to whine that I have "nothing to read." But, for much of the summer, I flitted about from book to book, taking a few sips of one and lingering for a couple of days at another, but savoring few of them for very long. Nothing captivated me. It was not a good season for beach reading. Until Ace Bryant's The 25 came along. Ace Bryant, you rescued me from a summer of aimless meandering. You gave me a book that I could sink my pointy, over-sized, nearly imp...

Writing Samples  by Stacey J. Miller You can see my latest two books on Amazon.  1. Getting Past Childhood Bullying: How Adults Can Recover From Trauma That Began at School (BPT Press, 2018) 2. Feline Operation Barfitty Blues: The College Emissions Scandal (BPT Press, 2019) Writing Sample 1 The Truth About Root Canals Meta : You may associate the phrase "root canal" with intolerable suffering. Ask yourself, though, which is likely to hurt you more: intractable tooth pain, or having a root canal. What Is a Root Canal? A root canal, which means removing an infected nerve, is a generally accepted way to relieve serious tooth pain. Since the tooth's nerve serves no vital function, you can eliminate it with impunity in the event of severe tooth decay, injury, or infection. Most of the time, root canals are relatively safe and effective. There are few risks associated with having the procedure, while there are many potential drawbacks to avoiding it...