Guest Post: My Life Abroad by Chaithanya Sohan @america_deconst #amreading #culture

Mar20

The Opinionated Woman’s Musings gives a warm welcome to Chaithanya Sohan

Chaithanya Sohan

She shares her thoughts today in a guest post entitled

My Life “Abroad”

As a child growing up in India, one often heard about people going abroad as we called it. Abroad, a term that loosely meant the United States of America and United Kingdom almost always showed the glamorous life behind the western world. One never heard about what it entailed to live in a new culture. Like most fairy tales with happy endings, you saw the person leave one day and return years later with gifts, chocolates and a twang to their Indian accent. They had left an Indian and returned an NRI (Non Resident Indian). One heard the never-ending stories of what life in the US or UK entailed, how the streets were clean and people ate with forks and knives. One rarely heard about struggles one faces in a new culture, or the hard work involved in living the American dream. As a child, I thought moving to USA meant getting on a flight and a guaranteed easy life with a bonus twang in my accent.

In 2001, I moved to California with my family. As I walked out of the flight into San Francisco, I believed the hardest aspect of my journey was over. My first brush with culture shock happened when I walked into the streets of Pleasanton and saw no one on the sidewalks. Suddenly, I missed the chaos of the streets of India. When I moved from India to California, I hardly thought the chaos of the streets or the thousands of strangers walking beside me would mean so much to me. Somehow that chaos represented familiar which I now realize.

America Deconstructed was born in those moments. As life continued, I met several other immigrants including my coauthor Shaima. We shared our experiences as immigrants, the goof-ups with culture, weird restaurant experiences, etc. America Deconstructed is made up of those moments.

  • What happens when someone mispronounces your name?
  • What do you do when an entire menu baffles you?
  • How do you react when someone asks you, ”Did you take your shower on the street back in your home country?”

Sixteen immigrants through their own experiences have tried to answer these questions and more. Please pre-order the book if it interests you. We have 24 days to gather our pre-orders!

Crowdfunding Link:
https://publishizer.com/america-deconstructed/

America Deconstructed

Social media links:
https://www.facebook.com/AmericaDeconstructed/

https://www.instagram.com/america_deconstructed/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34234648-america-deconstructed
https://americadeconstructedblog.wordpress.com

About the Authors:
Chaithanya Sohan immigrated to America from India in 2001. She currently works as an Electrical Engineer in the Silicon Valley. Chaithanya graduated from San Jose State University with Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University.

Chaithanya Sohan has worked as a writer since 2002 when she started writing content for various websites. She free-lanced as a writer until 2013 when she decided to write her book America Deconstructed. Some of her works are published in websites such as http://www.rethinkreality.com. Chaithanya enjoys traveling and runs her own blogs http://www.nomadicsue.wordpress.com & http://www.wordspeare.wordpress.com.

Shaima Adin came to the United States as a refugee in May 2000 at the age of 16 with her mother and sisters. She is originally from Afghanistan but has lived several years of her life in Pakistan as a refugee as well. Currently, she works in an engineering management position at a Safety and Quality-testing laboratory in Union City, CA.

In light of recent times and all the debate about immigrants and refugees around the world, Shaima joined forces with Chaithanya to put forth the stories of immigrants from different backgrounds that have called America home. Her purpose in doing so is to paint a different picture of immigrants and refugees by displaying their side of the stories and the struggles of starting from nothing.

Synopsis of the Book:
Naseer was nine years old when he escaped Taliban and fled Afghanistan. His story, “There are some people who are coming to take me away”, chronicles the resilience of a nine year old boy as he traveled from Afghanistan to America in his quest for the American dream. “I saw a ripe mango I’d like to pluck” showcases the love story of Chidibere and Ifeyinwa and their struggles with language, culture and being African in America. In the story “Kosovo, really…cool”, Lisian takes us through his journey to America and often being asked his identity in spite of being white. In the story “I am exotic, mocha, P-Diddy”, Parag describes his journey from a young sixth grader who hid his attraction to boys in conservative India to embracing his sexuality in America. America Deconstructed follows the journeys of sixteen immigrants as they maneuver cultural differences, accents and uncomfortable situations while feeling a sense of belonging in America.

Try It Tuesday: Daily Goodie Box #freebies @dailygoodiebox #TryItTuesday #review

Mar14

I was excited to be chosen to receive a Goodie box and once received, I was not disappointed. There was a nice mix of products for me to try. I also liked that the portion sizes are bigger than other sample boxes.

For March’s edition of Try It Tuesday, I decided to give my honest opinions of the products that I tried.

Here are some of the products in my February box:

JustChill – Stress Relief Drinks 

I had the ginger flavored drink. I do not usually like zero calorie drinks because I don’t like sugar substitutes. I liked this because it had a strong ginger flavor which I think helped to mask any of the possible after taste of the sweetener. It was definitely refreshing. I believe this is best served cold and is a great alternative to ginger ale. I recommend it and would buy this again.

Vermont Smoke & Cure – Cracked Pepper Beef & Pork Sticks 

These are pretty tasty and full of flavor. I think these make a good snack.

Nature’s Bakery – Raspberry Fig Bars 

The pack came with two fig bars that are just a little bit thicker and wider than the fig bars your grandmother might be used to eating. While I could not taste the raspberry flavor, I did think these were delicious. I ate these as my breakfast one morning and was surprised how filling they were. These are so-o-o-o much better than another well-known national brand that I will not name.

Jack N’ Jill – Natural Toothpaste 

I cannot remember using kiddie toothpaste when I was little. I am so used to using regular toothpaste that the first time I tried this, it seemed like it was not strong enough to clean my teeth. I realized that I was not accustomed to natural toothpastes and decided to keep using it. For example, I had to remember it was not going to foam up in my mouth because that chemical was not present in natural toothpastes. A foamy mouth is one of those things that I have always come to associate with “clean” feeling. Once I got over my initial hang ups, I started to enjoy the qualities of the product. This is a very mild teeth cleanser. Because it is all natural, I think definitely would use this for my children’s teeth.

Nellie’s All-Natural – Laundry Soda Packs 

I could look at the packaging and imagined that this would be a quality product. I was not disappointed. These laundry packs cleaned my clothes like they I figured they would. I like the fact that this is a natural product. All natural does not mean I have to walk around with dingy clothes. Great stuff!!!

Coffee Blocks – Butter Coffee 

I have heard so many good things about bulletproof coffee (coffee with butter) that when I saw this, I was excited. I do not usually drink coffee. Regular coffee makes me sleepy. I was hesitant to try this because of that fact. I tried it one morning…I. Was. Hooked. I followed the directions and it was too strong at first. Instead of 12 ounces of water, I used 16. It was still strong but not so bitter I could not drink it. I added a teaspoon of honey to sweeten it. I drank it at 9am. At 6PM, I felt like I was still hyped up from that cup of coffee. I had so much energy. By the end of the day, I was tired and went to sleep with no problem. RECOMMEND!!!!! I already told my bulletproof coffee loving friends that they have to buy this.

Aloha – Daily Good Greens 

This is my least favorite product of the box because I am not a fan of protein powder shake mixes. And the only chocolate I like is milk chocolate. I mixed this packet with water because I do not like milk. I don’t know if that affected the flavor. I can say that Aloha brand was better than most, but I probably won’t be buying this flavor. Overall, it did not taste like minerals and vitamins. I think I could drink the vanilla flavor mixed in juice or a smoothie with no problem. I do like the fact that it is full of a lot of good, healthy ingredients. It would make a great addition to anyone’s healthy regimen.

Gorilly Goods Coast

This is was so delicious. Ingredients include organic cashews, organic raisins, organic coconut nectar, organic coconut, organic curry, sea salt, and organic cayenne. I have never had a curry flavored snack and was curious how it would taste. I loved it. Great balance of flavors. I ate it slowly because the small package was almost 200 calories! But the flavor made it worth it. I savored every morsel.

TOW Final Word: Overall, I am glad to have been introduced to these neat products that I am now adding to my regular shopping list! Let me say again that I am in love with Gorilly Goods cashew nuts and the Coffee Blocks!!!!

This post is full of Amazon affiliate links. Support my blog by clicking those links if you are thinking about ordering any of these products. Thanks!!!

Cover Reveal: I’m Only Here for the Beard by Lani Lynn Vale @LaniLynnVale #MCromance

Mar3
Title: I’m Only Here For The Beard
Series: The Dixie Warden Rejects #4
Author: Lani Lynn Vale
Genre: MC Romance
Release Date: May 31, 2017
Photographer: Furious Fotog
Model: Hankins Fitness
Sean is a man with needs—needs that a lot of women were ready and willing to fulfill. Yet, the only woman that he wants to fulfill them dumped him for another man. A man who’s a member of his MC and is someone he has to see every single day and twice on Sundays.
He’s bitter and angry. He’s definitely not in the right frame of mind when it comes to dealing with women. Which is unfortunate for his new partner, Naomi, a fresh-out-of-school and totally green paramedic. 
—
Naomi’s got enough problems on her plate. A brother who’s self-destructive and doesn’t care who he takes down with him. A man who she’s in love with but who doesn’t love her. A job that she hates because it is a constant reminder of what she can’t have.
Desperate to distance herself from her problems, she runs, taking the first job in her field that she finds willing to take on someone with so little experience.
The last thing she needs is a perpetually pissed off partner, especially when he sets her blood on fire.
But life doesn’t ask how much you can handle when it dishes out challenges. It just keeps piling them on until you’ve bested them or you’ve buckled under them.
—
Sean really doesn’t want to like his new partner, Naomi. He just wants to be left alone to live his life however he damn well pleases and without complications.
Naomi doesn’t care what he wants, she can’t be anything but herself. It isn’t long before she’s breaking down his walls and making him feel again. She’s trying to pull him closer and he’s pushing her away.
It’s not long before Sean sees the error of his ways.
It’s too bad, though, that by the time he realizes she’s the one, Naomi’s already gone.
“What was all that?” he wondered.
I turned to find him standing in the entranceway to my room, watching me zip the final length of zipper.
“Uhhh,” I hesitated.  “Papers I was going over.”
His eyes lit up.
“I know medical supplies when I see them,” he drawled. “I’ve been a paramedic for ten years now, and I was an EMT in the Marines for a few years, too.”
So he realized I was lying to him.
Nice.
What do I say now?
He must’ve realized that I didn’t want to say anything, though, and let me out of it.
“If you don’t want to tell me, don’t tell me,” he drawled.
I bit my lip.
“I don’t want to tell you.”
His grin got wider. “Fine. Let’s go eat.”
“Let’s,” I scrambled up and shoved my phone into my pocket as I headed for the door.
I snatched my purse along the way, which happened to have an emergency supply of supplies needed for stoma care, my Kindle, a few chargers, and my wallet.
“You should really fear for your back’s health when you carry that thing around,” Sean said as he held open the door.
My mouth tipped up into a grin.
“Yeah,” I asked. “I’ll have to file that under my ‘I don’t care’ tab.  It has a lot of shit in it I need.”
“You haven’t read that Kindle once,” he said. “I can see it in there, too. It’s that new Oasis one. Do you like it?”
I walked to the back of the medic, and would’ve picked up the baggie, but Sean started the medic up and put it into reverse before I could.
I bit my lip, wondering if he’d see me take it to the trash or not, and decided to get it when we got home.
I did manage to kick it to the side so it didn’t get ran over, however.
The moment I was in the passenger seat, I let my bag fall to the floor between my feet and tried not to stare at my trash that I’d left in the grass.
Sean didn’t seem to notice, thank God, and backed out of the garage before shutting the door with practiced ease.
“Do you ever let others drive if you’re not in the back?”  I questioned him.
He shrugged. “No.”
My mouth twitched.  “Did you get wet on the way to work today?”
My eyes took in the gray skies that’d been pouring down water for the last six hours.  It’d been raining when I’d woken up and now, four hours into my shift, it hadn’t let up once.
The poor city, I’d heard, wasn’t very accepting of the rain due to a flood that’d hit Mooresville about a year ago. A flood that the people of Mooresville, Alabama were still trying to clean up after.
Luckily, the rain wasn’t meant to continue much past the late evening hours, and it was supposed to dwindle down into drizzling rain—a paramedics worst nightmare—very shortly.
“Yeah,” he grunted. “Though my leather covered me most of the way. I just had to change my pants—which I planned to do anyway.”
“Gotcha. That must’ve been your first forty-five minutes in the bathroom this morning.”
His eyes narrowed as he turned his head and glared at me.
“I can’t help it. It takes as long as it takes.”
My mouth twitched.
“Hmm,” I murmured, reaching down for my phone as an idea hit me.
“Hey, today I saw something on Facebook about a squat potty,” I told him. “Have you heard about that?”
“No,” he grunted. “Can’t say that I have.”
My grin spreading, I pulled out my phone and started typing.
“What are you doing?” he asked nervously.
I batted my eyes at him, causing his own to narrow on my face.
“There’s something weird going on with your eyes,” he said in a monotone voice. “Would you like me to check them out for you?”
I stuck my tongue out at him and went back to my typing.
“Google is my friend,” I informed him, and grinned as I typed into the search bar ‘things that will make you go to the bathroom faster.’
And there, at the very top result, was the Shark Tank invention ‘Squatty Potty.’
I clicked on the first link which took me to Amazon, and started reading the description to him.
“This evolutionary invention is your new best friend.  It will encourage bowel movements, and cut your bathroom time in half.” I stopped and turned my eyes to look at him.  “That’s what you need.”
He flipped me off and continued driving, heading straight for Taco Hell.
“This is a different concept at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’ll become like second nature,” I continued. “What used to take forty long minutes, with butt tingling numbness about halfway through, now is a quick in and out process that you won’t have one single complaint about.  Satisfaction guaranteed!”
He was shaking his head furiously, his cheeks becoming pink.
“You buy that for me and I will literally kill you. I’ll bury your body in the woods outside my parents’ place, too,” he informed me.
I bit my lip and started laughing inwardly as I clicked the ‘Buy It Now’ option on my phone.
In two quick pages of buttons and clicking, I had it shipped next day, and closed my phone.
I’m a married mother of three. My kids are all under 5, so I can assure you that they are a handful. I’ve been with my paramedic husband now for ten years, and we’ve produced three offspring that are nothing like us. I live in the greatest state in the world, Texas.

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Spotlight Tour: Losing Grace by Allie Little @_AllieLittle #romance #amreading #giveaway

Mar2
Title – Losing Grace: A Falling Away Stand-Alone Novel
Author: Allie Little
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: February 12, 2017
Grace is on the run. With her marriage in tatters and a possessive ex-husband tracking her every move, Grace needs all the help she can muster to rebuild her shattered life. With Grandma Bess as her only family, Grace allows restaurant boss Riley to whisk her away to the picturesque town of Shoal Bay on Australia’s east coast. Secluded in the beauty of the bay, Grace fights their inevitable attraction, hoping that days full of sunshine and nights full of stars will be enough to heal her heart. 

 


Riley is looking for love. Successful and single, Riley is tired of being his corrupt father’s lackey in the family-run business. Having branched out on his own with a string of lavish beachside restaurants, Riley embarks on a mission to leave the pressure of family expectation firmly behind him. Or so he thought…

From the white sands of Manly to the glistening shores of Shoal Bay, Riley is determined to fix Grace’s predicament. But Grace is on a collision course with her past – one that could easily end in heartbreak.

A Falling Away spinoff novel.

 

“What I can say is how much I absolutely LOVED LOVED LOVED it, and devoured it in one sitting.” – The Power of Three Readers

“This is the first time I have read this authors work, and goodness, I am certainly a new fan!” – Wendy’s Book Blog

“There was also some shocking moments that really surprised me.” – Amazon Reviewer


Allie is a Sydney-based writer who believes in telling stories that resonate with the heart. Allie is the author of Falling Away, a young adult contemporary romance, and now Losing Grace, a standalone spinoff in the Falling Away series. Allie is also the author of Cloud Quest, a fantasy quest adventure story for middle-grade readers. 

 


Allie found a love for writing at the age of seven, and years later as a university student completed her first novel. She filled journals with short stories and poems, using writing as an emotional outlet for the experiences she encountered on a day-to day basis. 

Born and raised in Sydney, Allie spent her summer holidays on the beach in Port Stephens, an idyllic marine area on the east coast of New South Wales. Now, juggling motherhood, part-time work as a hospital social worker and mostly nocturnal writing habits, Allie still spends her holidays on the white sandy beaches of Port Stephens. Allie believes the ocean is essential for her soul and her love for the sea is featured in her work, where coastal scenes and settings are integral to the stories. She also has a penchant for drinking way too many Chai lattes and has an unfortunate chocolate addiction. Dark, of course.

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Cover Reveal: Hitched by Christine Manzari @Xenatine #NAromance

Mar1
Title: Hitched
Series: Hearts of Stone #2
(can be read as standalone)
Author: Christine Manzari
Genre: New Adult Romance
Release Date: March 21, 2017
For aspiring journalist Harlow Ransom, life is just a well-oiled machine, and if she plans well, all things will go accordingly. And that is exactly why Harlow lives her life by perfectly polished to-do lists that she refuses to stray from—even when she’s celebrating her 21st birthday in Sin City.
1. Visit the Boom Boom Blues Lounge
2. See the water show at the Bellagio
Things can’t possibly go askew if she crosses things off her list one by one. But after a night of celebrating leads to waking up in bed with a sexy stranger and a ring on her finger, Harlow realizes that in no point in time did she ever have “Get Married” on her trusty to-do list. Yet that’s exactly what she did. 
Professional snowboarder Trace Stone loves a good challenge—he’s all about the win. And this time, he’s going to find a way to win over the feisty, meticulous Harlow. The wedding may have been spontaneous and impulsive, but when he said “forever,” he meant it. Now, the only thing he wants on Harlow’s to-do list is him—from this day forward.

I released a defeated breath as I felt my body collapse further into the seat. “Why do you even want to stay married to me, Trace?” He was cocky and impulsive and charming. I couldn’t understand why he was fighting so hard to hold on to someone as prickly as me.

 

His eyes met mine—possessive, dark, and hungry. I was caught by surprise when he leaned forward to press his mouth against mine. His tongue and lips pulled a smoldering kiss out of me, and I didn’t even try to stop him. I was burning—absolutely burning from the inside out—from the fierce way his mouth clung to mine. Trace pulled back to look at me. 

 

Wow. A kiss like that in less than three seconds? No wonder the hotel room was littered with condoms. No wonder I married him.

 


“Because,” he said, holding my gaze. “I want to be able to do that any time I feel like it.” He ran his thumb across my bottom lip. His voice dropped, low and husky. “And because I like the idea that you’d be mine.” 

 

His. To do that to any time he wanted. I could almost hear my body singing the “Hallelujah” chorus in response. I wanted to beg him to move that hand lower and push me into the final crescendo. Make me see stars. I should be pissed that he was trying to lay claim on me, but no matter how much I tried to deny it, I liked Trace. And trying to say no to him got harder each and every time he charmed me.

For a moment I wondered if being his would be such a bad thing. 

 

His?


I was in so much trouble.

The first thing Christine does when she’s getting ready to read a book is to crack the spine in at least five places. She wholeheartedly believes there is no place as comfy as the pages of a well-worn book. She’s addicted to buying books, reading books, and writing books. She even turned her dining room into a library—reading is more important than eating. She also has a weakness for adventure and inappropriate humor. Christine is from Forest Hill, Maryland where she lives with her husband, three kids, and her library of ugly spine books. 

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