Deep Roots

 
Book Review by Kam Williams

Deep Roots

How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics

by Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell and Maya Sen

Princeton University Press

Hardcover, $29.95

296 pages, Illustrated

ISBN: 978-0-691-17674-1

“Despite dramatic social transformations in the United States during the last 150 years, the South has remained staunchly conservative. Southerners are more likely to support Republican candidates, gun rights, and the death penalty, and southern whites harbor higher levels of racial resentment than whites in other parts of the country. 

 

Why haven't these sentiments evolved or changed? “Deep Roots” shows that the entrenched political and racial views of contemporary white southerners are a direct consequence of the region's slaveholding history, which continues to shape economic, political, and social spheres. Today, southern whites who live in areas once reliant on slavery—compared to areas that were not—are more racially hostile and less amenable to policies that could promote black progress.”

Excerpted from the dust jacket 

 

William Faulkner is the only Nobel prize-winner born in Mississippi, which is where most of his stories are set. One of this preeminent Southern writer's most memorable lines is, “The past is never dead. It's not even past.” 

 

That quote comes to mind while reading “Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics.” That's because, after conducting painstaking research, authors Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell and Maya Sen arrived at a conclusion (“History shapes contemporary political culture.”) which sounds like a paraphrase of Faulkner's famous saying. 

 

Over the course of the 150+ years since Emancipation, the descendants of slave owners have continuously operated to prevent blacks from pursuing the American Dream. In the face of the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th Amendments, southern municipalities, cities and states passed Jim Crow laws denying African-Americans the right to vote, travel, buy land, possess a gun, get an education, and so forth. 

 

The punishment for even the slightest of infractions ranged from whipping to lynching in order to strictly maintain the region's color-coded caste system. “Racial violence was an important component of the development of anti-black attitudes, even among poor whites.” Furthermore, “White children were often present... and, in some striking cases, they were also active participants.”

So, is it any surprise that, “As of the 2016 election, all of the former states of the Confederacy had implemented some voter identification law” in an effort to deny as many black citizens as possible access to the ballot box? Advocates of Confederate monuments and memorials continue to claim the Civil War was waged over states' rights, conveniently ignoring the assertion of the designer of the rebel battle flag that, “As a people, we are fighting to maintain the heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race.”

A timely tome which explains why, from neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville to Virginia politicians donning blackface, when it comes to the South, the more things change, the more they remain insane.

To order a copy of Deep Roots, visit: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Roots-Southern-Princeton-Political/dp/0691176744/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549991450&sr=8-1&keywords=deep+roots+how+slavery+still+shapes+southern+politics

The Truths We Hold

 

Book Review by Kam Williams

The Truths We Hold

An American Journey

by Kamala Harris

Penguin Press

Hardcover, $30.

336 pages

ISBN: 978-0-525-56071-5

“We've seen... [the Trump] administration align itself with white supremacists at home and cozy up to dictators abroad; rip babies from their mothers' arms in grotesque violation of their human rights; give corporations and the wealthy huge tax cuts; derail our fight against climate change; sabotage health care and imperil a woman's right to control her own body; all while lashing out at... the very idea of a free and independent press...

Americans know we're better than this... But we're going to have to fight for it... This book grows out of that call to action, and out of my belief that our fight must begin and end with speaking [the] truth... that racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and anti-Semitism are real in this country, and we need to confront those forces.”

Excerpted from the Preface (pages xiv-xv)

Kamala Harris has officially thrown her hat in the ring for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, launching her campaign with a spirited rally in her hometown of Oakland attended by over 20,000 enthusiastic supporters. The first term senator from California's bid is reminiscent of Barack Obama's in that she's racially mixed and has conveniently published a very timely autobiography which also lays out her political platform.  

In it, we learn that Kamala's father, Donald, was from Jamaica and taught economics at Stanford, and her mother, Shyamala, a cancer researcher, was born in India. The book is very engaging and reads like she actually wrote it herself, unlike most celebrity bios nowadays.

She reflects fondly on a culturally rich childhood growing up in the Bay Area until the age of 12 when her mother took a job in French-speaking Montreal. In high school, Kamala developed an interest in becoming an attorney, and decided to attend Howard University (where she would join the debate team and pledge AKA sorority) because it was the alma mater of her hero, Thurgood Marshall.

After graduation, she returned to Oakland to study law at UC Hastings before kickstarting her legal career. She enjoyed a meteoric rise from assistant prosecutor to San Francisco District Attorney To California Attorney General to U.S. Senator.

Because she spent so much time representing the state in criminal cases, Kamala positions herself here as a political progressive, ostensibly to convince skeptics of the criticisms she now levels at the justice system as racist. Overall, I'd say this opus serves as a persuasive introduction to a charismatic candidate likely to be in the presidential race for the long haul.

To order a copy of The The Truths We Hold, visit: https://www.amazon.com/Truths-We-Hold-American-Journey/dp/0525560718/ref=sr_1_1_twi_har_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1548684708&sr=1-1&keywords=kamala+harris+the+truths+we+hold

A Perilous Path

 

Book Review by Kam Williams

A Perilous Path

Talking Race, Inequality and the Law

by Sherrilyn Ifill, Loretta Lynch, Bryan Stevenson and Anthony G. Thompson

The New Press

Hardcover, $14.99

126 pages

ISBN: 978-1-62097-395-0

“We are definitely in challenging times. A lot of things so many of us fought for are being deliberately and actively rolled back, trampled on.

But what we're really seeing, which we have not seen in fifty years, is the peeling away of the role of government--the move away from protecting the disenfranchised, the move away from speaking to those who don't have a voice, [and] the move away from lifting up people who have been pushed down."

--Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch (pages 10-11)

 

This book is basically a candid conversation among talking heads revolving around the issue of racial justice in America. In fact, A Perilous Path is literally an edited version of a spirited chat which took place on February 27, 2017, during the launch of NYU School of Law's Center on Race, Inequality and the Law.

On the dais were four African-Americans luminaries of considerable stature: former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, President of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Sherrilyn Ifill (cousin of the late Gwen Ifill), MacArthur Genius and best-selling author Bryan Stevenson, and NYU Professor of Law Anthony C. Thompson. 

 

The topics they explored ranged from the historical, such as why emancipation of the slaves failed to usher in an era of freedom and true equality; to the visionary, such as assessing the prospects for minorities in the age of Trump. 

 

In terms of the former, Stephenson asserts that "The North won the Civil War but the South won the narrative war. The South was able to persuade the United States Supreme Court that racial equality wasn't necessary." He laments the thousands of lynchings and other forms of terrorism which ensued that no one was held accountable for. 

 

Similarly, he says, "We won passage of the Civil Rights Act. But we lost the narrative war." Consequently, the segregationists waving Confederate flags were still able to maintain de facto white supremacy, evidenced by schools named after disgraced rebels like Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. 

 

I doubt you'd find any statues of Hitler and his henchmen scattered around Germany. Why not? Because not only did the Nazis lose World War II, they also lost the subsequent cultural war, which explains why Stephenson concludes for our purposes, "The challenge we face is a narrative battle."

To order a copy of A Perilous Path, visit: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1620973952/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20

Win Bigly

 

Book Review by Kam Williams

 

Win Bigly

Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter

by Scott Adams

Portfolio/Penguin

Hardcover, $27.00

304 pages

ISBN: 978-0-7352-1971-7

“On August 13, 2015, I predicted on my blog that Donald Trump had a 98% chance of winning the presidency based on his persuasion skills... Persuasion is all about the tools and techniques of changing people's minds, with or without facts and reason...

Why did I say Trump had exactly a 98% chance of winning... Trump is the best persuader I have ever seen in action. The wall is a perfect example. Consider how much discipline it took for him to... be willing to endure brutal criticism about how dumb he was to think he could secure the border with a wall...

During the presidential campaign, it seemed that candidate Trump was making one factual error after another. Social media and the mainstream media... called him a liar, a con man, and just plain stupid... [But] Trump often stuck to his claims after the media thoroughly debunked them...

It was mind-boggling. No one was quite sure if the problem was his honesty, his lack of homework, or some sort of brain problem...

I am a trained hypnotist... Based on my background in that field, I recognized his talents early... Trump is what I call a Master Persuader."

-- Excerpted from pages 1-2 and19-23.

How did Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election? All the experts confidently predicted he would lose only to serve up an unconvincing explanations like low Democrat voter turnout in swing states when they were shocked by the outcome. 

 

But there was never a doubt in the mind of Scott Adams who confidently predicted a Trump landslide soon after he declared himself a candidate. And who is Scott Adams? Not a pollster or a political pundit. No, he's a syndicated cartoonist. 

 

If the name rings a bell, that's because he's the creator of Dilbert, the popular comic strip revolving around a beleaguered white-collar worker. But Scott is also a hypnotist, and he knew who would win when he observed Trump skillfully employing all the tricks of a master persuader.

Adams argues in Win Bigly that, by design, Donald would sprinkle his speeches with seductive catchphrases like, "Believe me," "It's true," and "Many people are saying..." It didn't matter that he often contradicted himself and outright lied. 

 

For, according to the author, humans have a design flaw in that we are terribly susceptible to manipulators well-versed in mind-control techniques. And sure enough, Trump did enjoy a lopsided victory, at least in terms of the Electoral College. 

 

A sobering post mortem on the presidential election suggesting that half the American populace might be under the spell of a modern-day Machiavelli. 

To order a copy of Win Bigly, visit: 

 

When They Call You a Terrorist

 

Book Review by Kam Williams

 

When They Call You a Terrorist

A Black Lives Matter Memoir

by Patrisse Khan-Cullors with asha bandele

Foreword by Angela Davis

St. Martin's Press

Hardcover, $24.99

272 pages

ISBN: 978-1-250-17108-5

“We have joined the rest of the country in protesting in order to get Trayvon Martin's killer charged. We have gone to meetings and held one-on-ones with community members. We have painted murals. We have wept.

We have said publicly that we are a people in mourning. We have demanded they stop killing us. But we have harmed not one single person nor advocated for it. They have no right to be here!”

And yet I was called a terrorist. The members of our movement are called terrorists. We--me, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi--the three women who founded Black Lives Matter, are called terrorists...

We are not terrorists... I am not a terrorist... I am a survivor."

-- Excerpted from pages 8 and 190

Patrisse Khan-Cullors is one of the last people you'd ever expect to be a founder of the Black Lives Matter movement. It's not a question of her commitment to the cause but rather the host of personal issues that would have crippled the average person. 

 

But this 5' 2" lesbian managed to survive a challenging childhood in a drug-infested ghetto where she and her siblings were raised by a single-mom who worked 16 hours a day to keep a roof over their heads. She didn't even meet her crackhead of a father until she was twelve, as he divided his time between rehab and prison. 

 

One of her brothers not only smoked crack, but was schizophrenic to boot. Consequently, Patrisse became intimately familiar with both the mental health and criminal justice systems. Meanwhile, at school, she was routinely teased and physically attacked for being gay. 

 

To paraphrase Langston Hughes, life for Patrisse ain't been no crystal stair. Nevertheless, when she learned that Trayvon Martin's killer hadn't been arrested by the police, she was so outraged that she created the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter which soon exploded into a nationwide movement.

Although the African-American community appreciated her efforts, the same couldn't be said for the LAPD which labeled Patrisse a terrorist and fabricated a flimsy excuse to conduct a SWAT team raid of her apartment. All of the above is revisited in riveting fashion in When They Call You a Terrorist, a fascinating combination autobiography and blow-by-blow account of the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

 

A must-read memoir by a beleaguered grassroots organizer with greatness thrust upon her.

To order a copy of When They Call You a Terrorist, visit: 

 

Invisible Ink

 

Book Review by Kam Williams

 

Invisible Ink

Navigating Racism in Corporate America

by Stephen M. Graham

CreateSpace

Paperback, $11.95

220 pages

ISBN: 978-1-5411-7117-6

“It has always been a struggle for the relatively few African-Americans in corporate America who do exist, and it is made all the more difficult because we tend to operate in isolation. We are nearly always alone, with no one to fall back on... as we deal daily with an unending stream of slights real and imagined.

Even those who do care don't really understand. This is all played out in an environment where we are subjected to a debilitating undercurrent of bias that too many, on both sides of the divide, pretend does not exist...

The point of this book is not that the world is an awful place where things never go right but that institutional racism is a virus that is alive and well and needs to be eradicated if fundamental fairness is to be achieved. Black lives matter, and we must take issue and demand change, whether these lives are literally snuffed out in the blink of an eye or figuratively snuffed out in the polite confines of corporate America.”

-- Excerpted from the Prologue (page xiii) and Epilogue (page 199)

By any measure, Stephen Graham's would be considered a success story. After earning a B.S. from Iowa State University, he went on to Yale Law School en route to an enviable career as one of the country's top attorneys in the field of mergers and acquisitions. 

 

So, one might expect that when he decided to write a book, it would basically be about how he managed to achieve the American Dream. But he opted to focus more on the impediments he encountered on his rise up the corporate ladder than on the satisfaction of making it to the top of his profession. 

 

That's because he's black and he doesn't want any African-American attempting to follow in his footsteps to think that the struggle is over once you receive an Ivy League degree. For, as he points out in Invisible Ink, a pernicious pattern of prejudice persists in the business world from the bottom rung all the way up to the rarefied air of the wood-paneled boardroom. 

 

The author makes the persuasive case that there's no reason for the U.S. to rest on its laurels just because it elected Barack Obama president. He also says that it is shortsighted to worry only about the plight of poverty-stricken blacks stuck in inner-city ghettos. 

 

No, Graham argues that insidious forms of institutional racism have continued to frustrate members of minority groups, too, long after the demise of de jure discrimination. What he finds troubling is the fact that the favoring of whites is now very subtle indeed, making bigoted behavior often difficult to identify, let alone challenge. 

 

Overall, an intelligent, eye-opening opus relating a riveting combination of touching personal anecdotes and sobering advice about what needs to be done to finally achieve that elusive ideal of a colorblind society.

To order a copy of Invisible Ink, visit: 

 

We Were Eight Years in Power

 

Book Review by Kam Williams

 

We Were Eight Years in Power

An American Tragedy

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

One World

Hardcover, $28.00

394 pages

ISBN: 978-0-399-59056-6

“For so much of American history, the fact of black people is a problem... The demonstrable truth has been evaded in favor of a more comforting story...

[But America is] a country trying to skip out on a bill, trying to stave off a terrible accounting... It's clear to me that the common theory of providential progress, of the inevitable reconciliation between the sin of slavery and democratic ideal [is a ] myth.”

-- Excerpted from the Chapter 1, (pages 66-73)

                            [Photo Credit: Gabriella Demczuk]

In 2015, Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Between the World and Me" earned the #1 spot on my annual Top Ten Black Books list. And, after reading the equally-remarkable "We Were Eight Years in Power," there's a good chance he's about to repeat that feat.

William Faulkner once observed that, "The past is not dead. It isn't even past." That unsettling sentiment courses through the veins of Ta-Nehisi's latest opus. 

 

The title ostensibly implies that it's about Barack Obama's being followed in office by a President with diametrically opposed values when it comes to the welfare of black folks. After all, Trump seems to believe there are good and bad Nazis and good and bad Ku Klux Klansmen. Isn't that's like suggesting there are good and bad rapists and good and bad murderers?

The book does bemoan the fact that the dramatic difference in administrations has been marked by a revival of the dormant white supremacist movement. However, Ta-Nehisi's genius rests in his putting that resurgence into proper perspective. 

 

There is a chilling precedent for what transpired last November when the nation elected the candidate running on the slogan "Make America great again!" The author cites how, in the wake of the Civil War, the ex-slaves were bitterly disappointed when the egalitarian Reconstruction plan for the South was dismantled by the former Confederate states and replaced by the Jim Crow system of segregation. 

 

That devastating development inspired black South Carolina Congressman Thomas Miller (1849-1938) to lament, "We were eight years in power" in reference to the brief period of African-American optimism in terms of securing equality under the law. The quote serves a dual purpose, here, as it talks about a dream rudely deferred while simultaneously issuing a dire warning that history might very well repeat itself.

Thus, We Were Eight Years in Power serves as a clarion call for vigilance about the possible erosion of African-American advances presumed sacrosanct. Consider these riveting, well-reasoned ruminations of the most-prodigious black visionary around a must-read indeed.

To order a copy of We Were Eight Years in Power, visit: 

My Grandmother's Hands

 

My Grandmother's Hands

Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to

Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

by Resmaa Menakem

Central Recovery Press

Paperback $17.95

332 pages

ISBN: 978-1-942094-47-0

Book Review by Kam Williams

“For the past three decades, we've earnestly tried to address white-body supremacy in America with reason, principle and ideas--using dialogue, forums, discussions, education and mental training. But the widespread destruction of Black bodies continues.

And some of the ugliest destruction originates with the police. Why is there such a chasm between our well-intentioned attempts to heal and the ever-growing number of dark-skinned bodies... killed or injured?

My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for Americans to recognize that racism is not only about the head, but also about the body. [The book] introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide and takes readers through a step-by-step healing process based on the latest neuroscience and somatic healing methods.”

-- Excerpted from the Bookjacket and Chapter 1 (page 4)

"Grandma's hands
Used to hand me piece of candy
Grandma's hands
Picked me up each time I fell
Grandma's hands
Boy, they really came in handy
She'd say, 'Matty don' you whip that boy
What you want to spank him for?
He didn't drop no apple core'
But I don't have Grandma anymore

If I get to heaven I'll look for
Grandma's hands" --Grandma's Hands by Bill Withers

Like Bill Withers, Resmaa Menakem had a wise grandmother who played a pivotal role in shaping him during the formative years of his life. For that reason, he acknowledges the debt of gratitude owed to Addie Coleman, whose tenderhearted spirit permeates his new book, "My Grandmother's Hands."

But the groundbreaking opus isn't merely a fond memoir about a late loved one, but rather a sobering how-to tome endeavoring to identify and alleviate deep-seated traumas afflicting blacks and whites alike. For the author, a veteran therapist who has appeared as a guest on such TV shows as Oprah and Dr. Phil, fervently believes that racism can't be eradicated by conversation across the color line alone, as so often suggested by well-meaning political pundits.

He asserts that race-based trauma is so embedded in our bones that it can "alter the DNA" and thus be passed from one generation to the next. Consequently, his innovative recipe for recovery incorporates a hands-on approach to healing the body as well as metaphysical measures for soothing the soul.

The book is basically a mix of diagnostic discussion, anecdotal evidence and invaluable exercises designed to enable the reader to recognize his or her need for treatment and then get themselves started on the road to recovery. Though the highly-charged subject-matter might ordinarily be controversial in nature, this text is written in a non-confrontational style apt to disarm, engage and enlighten readers, regardless of color or political persuasion. 

 

Kudos to Resmaa Menakem for such a sorely-needed seminal work which couldn't be more practical or more timely, given this bitterly-divided country's current state of race relations.

To order a copy of My Grandmother's Hands, visit:  

Pretty Powerful

Book Review by Kam Williams

Pretty Powerful

Appearance, Substance and Success

by Eboni K. Williams

Viva Editions

Hardcover, $21.99

224 pages

ISBN: 978-1-63596-662-6

“Pretty powerful is the understanding that, as women, we have the duality of both 'pretty' and 'substance' that can (and should) be maximized to achieve any success we set our minds to... While there are significant challenges along the way... we have incredible choice around how we utilize our appearance, coupled with our substance...

This book... is for women who know they are exceptional, who desire to be successful, and who strive toward greatness in all the opportunities life presents to them. This book is for those who understand that womanhood is a strength that, when fully embraced, is unstoppable.

This book is for and about the Pretty Powerful.”

-- Excerpted from the Preface (pages xv-xvii)

Remember you heard it here first: Eboni K. Williams is well on her way to becoming the next Oprah Winfrey. So, appreciate her now and avoid the rush! Like her role model, who represented the State of Tennessee in the Miss Black America contest, Eboni got her start in pageants, from vying for the coveted Miss Cinderella crown as a child to finishing as the first runner-up in the Miss North Carolina competition as an adult.

As brainy as she is beautiful, the attorney-turned-talk show host has admittedly leveraged both her intellect and looks into a promising career on WABC radio and Fox News TV. You can now add "author" to this rising star's impressive resume, as she has just released her first book: Pretty Powerful 

 

The groundbreaking how-to tome puts forth the proposition that it's perfectly respectable for females to be as sexy as they are cerebral in pursuit of professional success. That unorthodox advice flies in the face of the conventional thinking which would have women downplay their pulchritude while climbing the corporate ladder in order to avoid being dismissed as bimbos.

Here, however, Eboni reflects upon her own experiences walking back and forth across the line between fierce and flirtatious personas. She's assisted in making her case by anecdotal evidence furnished by a number of accomplished colleagues who share her daring approach: Johnson Publishing CEO Desirée Rogers, OJ prosecutor Marcia Clark, and conservative political pundit Monica, to name a few.

Don't hesitate to purchase this practical primer so full of priceless pearls of wisdom it amounts to the literary equivalent of buying in bulk!

To order a copy of Pretty Powerful, visit: 

 

The Seven Commandments for Happiness and Prosperity

 SEVEN COMMANDMENTS FOR HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY

When Shari Sharifi Brown enters a room one immediately senses a unique presence, an intuitive sense that  the joy within her is the infallible sign of the presence of God.  

Why 7  Commandments when we all have been taught there were 10 Commandments.  Because in fact Shari has created an active faith  formula to enable those who are confused and overwhelmed by the task of reading scripture (any scripture, the Old and New Testament excluding the Qur’an ) that there are only really  7  when you eliminate repetition and redundancy. Her vision is a phenomenal new tool to  help us better understand scripture to enable us to pray more often, thereby enhancing our personal faith in God, which would increase happiness, which in return  increases  our odds at achieve prosperity. It’s a formula that only someone with Shari’s unique background and outstanding abilities  could arrive at that make her a definitive  authority on both science and spirituality.   

The perfect trifecta for today’s world, Shari is part Muslim (born) Christian (converted) and Jewish American (married) and the author a provocative new book SEVEN COMMANDMENTS FOR HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY  which challenges the reader to re-see the world with more tolerant eyes. Blessed by universal wisdom, she is proof of  living all three of the Abrahamic religions which has given her a profound understanding of their innate compatibility. She has absorbed the great prophets of Einstein, Mohammed, Moses and Jesus, and so her book is a testament to her lifetime of studying all three major religions to make us whole and secure. Understanding the similarities of the three outweigh the differences. Wisdom is searching not only the roots of our past, but the roots of our future, that humanity prospers. Shari’s  book seeks nothing less than a global shift in consciousness and perspectives of the human condition and current needs

Understanding God takes tolerance: as a  religious scholar,  Shari’s book clearly illustrates that the Quran and Islam regard Jews and Christians as children of Abraham:  first the Jews through the prophet Moses and then to Christians through the prophet Jesus. They recognize many of the same biblical prophets, in particular Moses and Jesus, and those are common Muslim names. Another common Muslim name is Mary. In fact, the Virgin Mary's name occurs more times in the Quran than in the New Testament; Muslims also believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. However, they believe that over time the original revelations to Moses and Jesus became corrupted. The Old Testament is seen as a mixture of God's revelation and human fabrication. The same is true for the New Testament and what Muslims see as Christianity's development of "new" and erroneous doctrines such as  Jesus is the Son of God and that Jesus' death redeemed and atoned for humankind's original sin.

There are, of course, great similarities between the world’s two largest religions. Both point to a holy book, allegedly inspired by God, for faith and practice. Both call for high moral standards and serious personal commitment. Both share common traditions, since Muhammad learned from Jews as well as Christians. And both have a vision to spread their faith around the world.

Shari emphasizes that it is important that each faith is represented fairly and that each faith stands on its own merits, that Christianity is not judged for not being Islam and Islam not portrayed as  deficient when compared with Christianity. They are different with similarities or similar with differences, we can and should acknowledge both and not make what is different difficult. Shari explores Christian Muslim identity and explains  the differences creatively, and, of course, positively. True Christians and Muslims are not a threat to each other.  By consolidating the 19 total commandments from all 3 major world religions into 7 Commandments that embrace all 3, Shari creates a “Faith Formula” to bridge the human to human divide. The focus shifts from perceived spiritual and religious differences to what we have in common, and how focusing on these 7 commandments along with the habit of positive praying begets happiness.

Born and raised  in Iran, Shari completed her engineering studies at Harvard University in Tehran. In 1967, Shari immigrated to America and ever since been on a roll: currently President of TransGlobal Consulting Engineering Corp. Shari was employed as a structural engineer by the prestigious international engineering company Ralph M Parsons, Pasadena California from May 1974 to September 1976.  She was assigned to work on the underground building  called "SarCheshmeh , the  secret nuclear project for the Iranian government because she was able to bridge an understanding between the two countries. Her requirements to fulfill were very specific: design and analyze various steel-reinforced concrete structures to make them impenetrable from any bunker-busting bombs or crazed suicide-bombers. While there was absolutely no harness on her budgets, her sound engineering abilities assured that the beams, columns, slabs and footings met all the rigid American ACI 318-71 code specifications which virtually guaranteed they were fail safe. Shari is very empathic that the Americans are incomparably the best engineers in the world, and that the Iranians are at least 32 years behind as far as science and technology is concerned.

Shari converted to Christianity in 1998.  For Shari, success and spirituality are two sides of a coin: a balance of both sides of  life’s path, Shari says “It is not the clothes we wear or the cars we drive, or a dry empty rhetoric we belch, nor is it the churches we attend that gives us spirituality, happiness and prosperity”.  In the pendulum of existence, spirituality gives us a oneness with God that will lighten the darkest of days. Without spirituality and faithfulness to prayer , we erect an iron curtain around the soul.  Following Shari’s  Seven Commandments and her prescription for positive prayer  will help handle life’s difficulties with  optimism, happiness, and faith, encouraging one’s life and  soul to prosper.  In the dark of night, listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.

The great gift of Shari’s new book The Seven Commandments for Happiness and Prosperity is that  one learns the power of positive praying because prayer begets happiness and prosperity. Shari’s life is proof positive that her faith formula works.

Extraordinary women are usually married to extraordinary men. Shari’s spouse is the legendary Edward G. Brown, Record and TV producer, songwriter, restaurant and nightclub owner, a founder of banks and a real estate developer, a financial manager and co-owner of the Cohen-Brown Management Company with clients in over 50 countries and 12 languages. Shari and Mr. Brown live in Malibu and have a Penthouse on the Wilshire corridor.

Media Contact, Ilene Proctor

310-858-6643 Cell: +1 310-721-2336

E-mail: ilenepr@sbcglobal.net

ilene@taghollywood.com

www.ileneproctor.com

http://www.taghollywood.com

Skype: ilene.proctor1