Books That Make You Think About Your Own Humanness as a Writer

As with any art, writing is both a natural talent and a developed skill. Many folks erroneously believe it's all natural, or that storytelling is so ingrained in us that anyone can do it well. So far as we know, no other creature writes. Using the written word to relate stories is a very human endeavor.

Until now.

As everyone has heard by now, large language models like Chat GPT can indeed craft stories. They can help writers with editing. They can help with research and planning like never before.

What does all this mean for writers? For readers? Would you yourself read a book written by AI? Have you already? Can you tell the difference?

In this special edition of The Books That Make You Show, Desiree Duffy discusses the impact of AI on the writing community, and how it has—and will—impact readers, as well as the publishing industry at large.

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Books That Make You Enter A Dark, Political Fantasy Realm

We all love villains we can relish hating, and new realms we can escape into. Mix all this with a dark fantasy world, and political satire, and you might just get The Amber Menhir, the first book in "The Shadows of the Monolith" series.

Debut author Jonathan N. Pruitt is a lifelong educator turned fantasy writer. His redemption arc took him from being a musical child prodigy in a low-income rural county in Florida, to getting his PhD at the age of 24, to an international scandal in 2020 that set its sights on his research methods in behavioral ecology.

But he soldiered on, and has been teaching and traveling the world and, as of late, writing. With his impressive and varied background, and his experience and expertise as a scientist, he brings a unique and insightful eye to his fictional world.

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Books That Make You Try New Things and be…Brave-ish

What happens when you're almost fifty, undergoing divorced and moving back into your parent's home to start from the beginning? If you're like Lisa Niver, you start by taking one "braveish" step at a time. For Lisa, each step took her away from her old world and into a bold new adventurous one.

In her new memoir, Brave-ish: One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty, she chronicles her attempt at trying fifty new things before turning fifty: diving into shipwrecks, swimming with sharks, bobsledding and more. All throughout, Lisa found herself traversing the world on a journey of reinvention and personal growth.

Brave-ish inspires readers to take risks and embrace the unknown, and even the frightening, in order to live a life filled with wonder and excitement.

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Books That Make You Uncover—and Celebrate—Your Cranky Superpowers

Yeah, everyone gets cranky. We all get on one another's nerves, indulge in moments where we grumble, snap or lash out at the ones we love, or whoever's in the unfortunate position of having to put up with us.

But imagine if you could harness that crankiness, use it, even, like a superpower?

With his latest book, Steven Joseph Cranky Superpowers: Life Lessons Learned from the Common CrankaTsuris Chronicles, explores the strange, quirky, unexpected, and utterly normal aspects of life that get under our skin. Hear his advice for breaking repetitive cranky cycles, and learn why he's cautious about forming habits, or where life coaches and therapists go wrong, and more.

With wit as quick as his marathon pace, Steven whips up life wisdom as funny as it is profound. He invites you to embrace the power of your inner 'CrankaTsuris' …

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Books That Make You Rich—Then Send You Walking New York Streets with Madwomen

As with all creatives, authors have many angles and interests. They can cross genre boundaries, producing books that, while superficially different from one another, harbor a thematic through-line—if you look hard enough.

A bestselling author, and founder of the Thought Leader Academy, Sara Connell helps coaches, writers and entrepreneurs become successful, published authors and TEDx/ in-demand speakers.

In addition, she is the author of several books, two of which—The Science of Getting Rich for Women and Ghost House—were released last year. Both were honored with BookFest Awards.

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Books That Make You and Your Kids Better Connect Connecting with their Hidden Potential and Greatness

It's important that kids come to recognize the true depths of their potential, before the world's "limiting stories" begin bombarding them, poisoning them from achieving what they hope—and can—for themselves.

Bestselling author Sarah Vie discusses her children's book, Let Your Inner Golden Sparkle Shine, which allows kids to see that, no matter what might be happening around them, they have a safe refuge in their heart.

In her other book, I Wish I'd Known, Sarah Vie uses wisdom from her own life experience to guide readers through a transformational journey.

For the past 10 years, Sarah Vie has been changing many lives—her own included—amplifying financial abundance, career success, loving relationships as well as health and wellness. She is an well sought-out energy healer and meditation guide, and has been featured on NBC, CBS and ABC affiliates. Her articles have been featured in Huffington Post, Modern Mom Magazine and Thrive Global.

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Books That Make You Enter a World of Old Occult Objects You Definitely Should Not Mess With

We all love cautionary tales that warn of the things that shouldn't be messed with. So what happens when you mix horror and suspense with timeless topics like family, family history and the specter of potentially losing it all? You get one of those page-turners you never want to put down.

Inspired by true events, real history and his own familial lore, Shadowland by P.L. Hampton tells the story of a mysterious Yoruba (Yor-oo-ba) Divination Board. Where did it come from, exactly? What is it its eerie significance? And why does it open an irreversible passage for Aaron Langford and his family?

Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, P. L. Hampton is a college professor who is currently pursuing his JD.

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Books That Make You Envision Agriculture in an Apocalyptic America

If society crumbled and you had to fend for yourself, how would you go about it? Do you know how to grow crops? Or purify water? Or protect the ones you love at all costs?

In her dystopian book series "Asylum," Susy Smith explores these questions. In the gripping world she's created, a young woman must learn to live off the land on her family's farm—until the worst side of human nature darkens her door, forcing her to fight for herself, and for freedom.

Ascendant, the second book in the "Asylum" series, is out now, and continues the harrowing adventure.

Susy is the curriculum specialist of the Kanza Tribe in Oklahoma, where she lives in a small town. She weaves her firsthand knowledge and experience into her stories, giving her writing a compelling level of authenticity.

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Books That Make You…Tune In

Are you an audio book fan? Are your kids? Particularly beneficial for auditory learners, or for those of us who like to multitask while taking in our stories, the industry has come a long way since the days of "books on tape".

Author Kelly Anne Manuel is known for connecting with children through her poetry and her books. She boasts a total of 31 books, one for each day of the month, and all of which span four series.

Also with us is Becky Parker Geist, CEO of Pro Audio Voices, an audiobook production and marketing service that produced Kelly's audio books. The president of the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association, Becky is also the author of The Left Turn: Two Lives, Worlds Apart.

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Books That Make You Venture Across Magical Realms

You're graduating from high school, getting ready to chase your dreams on Broadway—then, the whole shuts down.

We all went through it. Depending on your age and career, though, it struck many of us more profoundly. But under that despair, creatives did what they do best: they created.

Vianlix-Christine Schneider wrote her first book, Seaside Magic, which helped take her out of the real world for a few hours, creating a magical place with her main character: 14-year-old Caroline Smith, who discovers her family has magical powers, She then encounters a mysterious masked man who seeks to put an end to that.

In addition, Vianlix-Christine is the author of Seaside Magic: The World of the Mirror and Puffy Ball. Something amazing about all three books: each one won BookFest Awards, a truly amazing feat!

Vianlix-Christine lives in Virginia with her supporting family, along with her two dogs, Hershey and Oreo.

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