I love stories--especially life stories, so finding new memoirs to share is always so exciting for me! Today, I have a memoir from author Kevin Hipes. Learn about Book of Me: The Life and Times of Kevin Hipes, the New York Forrest Gump and the author, and buy the book on Amazon today! 

The Life and Times of Kevin Hipes, the New York Forrest Gump

Date Published: July 24, 2025

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 About the Book

Book of Me is not your average memoir. It’s a laugh-out-loud, tear-in-your-eye, one-of-a-kind true story collection from a man who has lived more lives than most of us can imagine. Factory worker. Hippie. Banker. Entrepreneur. Rockstar (sort of). Preacher. Politician. Oil tanker owner. Cancer survivor. Bipolar truth-teller. Kevin Hipes has worn all these hats—and more.

Told with warmth, humor, and heart, Kevin’s stories come alive in this unconventional autobiography. Originally recorded as a series of YouTube episodes on his channel Planet Hipes, these 66 episodes have been transformed into a compelling, easy-to-read book that invites you to laugh, cry, reflect, and recognize a bit of yourself along the way.

Whether you're looking for a good laugh, a touch of inspiration, or a wildly entertaining ride through 70 years of true-life adventures, Book of Me will leave you smiling, thinking, and maybe even saying, “Hey, I’ve got a story like that too.”

📺 BONUS: After reading the book, head to Kevin’s YouTube channel Planet Hipes and experience the stories told by Kevin himself—animated, real, and unforgettable.

Because life’s not about the destination—it’s about the journey. And Kevin Hipes has quite a story to tell.

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 Kevin Hipes is a born storyteller, lifelong entrepreneur, and proud New Yorker with a personality as big as the adventures he's lived. Often called “the New York Forrest Gump,” Kevin’s life has taken him from the streets of Queens to the pulpit, to business boardrooms, and even to the deck of his very own oil tanker in the Caribbean. As Kevin often says “Forrest owned a shrimp boat, but I owned an Oil Tanker and my story is true!”

With no formal writing background, Kevin still managed to turn a lifetime of unbelievable experiences into a heartfelt, hilarious, and deeply human book—Book of Me. Rather than writing in the traditional sense, Kevin recorded over 100 personal episodes for his YouTube channel, Planet Hipes, then compiled them into a unique memoir filled with wit, wisdom,determination, and raw truth.

As an uneducated street kid from Queens, Kevin has lived many lives from factory worker to Hippie, to rockstar (almost), banker, preacher, restaurateur, politician and more. He shares not just the ups and downs of a seven-decade journey but speaks intimately about being a cancer survivor who also struggled through and dealt with a bipolar disorder, keeping the high energy manic side while overcoming the devastating depressions that plagued him through most of his life. You will find Kevin’s faith in God, unrelenting positive mindset and sense of humor make for a powerful story boldly told in his own words.

Kevin currently lives in Orlando, Florida, where he owns and runs HCB Real Estate, a retail commercial brokerage and development firm. Book of Me is his debut memoir and a testament to the power of authenticity, faith, and self-deprecating humor.

Follow Kevin’s stories on YouTube: Planet Hipes and experience the animated storyteller in action.

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This morning, I have a science fiction novel in our book spotlight! Learn about Earth's Last Encore and author Logan Peterson--and be sure to enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post.  

Science Fiction

Date Published : 07-24-2025

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 About the Book

Haunted by his failures and mistrusted by those he fights to save, Duck finds an unexpected ally in Hannily, the Stellaran princess who believes in the potential for unity. Together, they must bridge the divide between two fractured worlds, confronting betrayal, cultural rifts, and their own doubts to give humanity a second chance at survival—or risk losing everything to the void.

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Today, I have a new release mystery to share in our release blitz spotlight! Learn about Early Snow and author Kevin Wolf and be sure to enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post. 

Odyssey Pruit paints pictures of the ghosts and spirits she saw in the halls of an old hotel where she worked ten years before. GUY HOGAN doesn’t believe in ghosts. Hogan is hired to guard Odyssey’s pictures for her first art show in the same old hotel. When an early blizzard closes the roads, knocks out the power and telephone, Hogan is trapped in the hotel with Odyssey’s quirky fans. When imps and ghouls make their presence known, Hogan questions his doubts, and the answer could be murder.

Check out Trailridge (Book One in Wolf's Guy Hogan Mystery Series)

About the Author 

For those who’ve ever dreamed in color palettes and seating charts, or for anyone who’s wondered what really goes on in the mind of a wedding planner, today’s spotlight offers a peek behind the clipboard. With equal parts heart, humor, and hard-earned wisdom, this book reminds us that the most meaningful celebrations aren’t about flawless details—they’re about the beautiful, human messiness that makes every love story unique. Learn about From Behind the Clipboard: Lessons From a Wedding Planner and author Shari Zatman! 

From Behind The Clipboard  

Biographical / Self-Help / Wedding Planning

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One of the most interesting and rewarding aspects of being an event planner is the personal relationships I develop with clients with whom I work. For a period of time, I get to be an integral part of their lives as we plan together to create a lifecycle event that will be long remembered. During this process with them, I am often navigating a range of emotion, family and relationship dynamics, decision paralysis and more. Not only am I a wedding planner and designer, but I often feel that I am a coach, mentor and therapist as well.

This book dives deeper than being only a “how to” guide by also including psychological and professional perspective pertaining to the wedding planning process.  It helps address decision making, external influences, financial pressure, stress management, relationship preservation and so much more. I share my advice and pro tips and open up about personal experiences including stories that reflect on what I have learned and the wisdom I can impart to others based upon what I have done successfully in planning and experiences that may not have gone as I had hoped, but became a great lesson for what not to do. I want everyone who is planning a wedding to know that it is absolutely ok for their wedding to be “perfectly imperfect.”

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About the Author

I am a business owner and professional wedding and special event planner.  I have owned Perfectly Planned by Shari for 20 years and have worked in the event industry for approximately 28 years. During this time, I have planned hundreds of weddings and events.

Majoring in design and communications in college, I bring my passion for interior design to my events. I worked with my clients on developing the creative vision and curate the style and aesthetic for all events I plan.

That being said, my greatest achievement is being a mom and raising my twin, almost 21 year old sons, whom I am immensely proud of for being responsible and kind humans. I believe the best thing I have done in my life has been creating my family.

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Sometimes a single dress can tell the story of an entire generation. In The Pink Dress, award-winning author Jane Little Botkin lifts the satin veil on 1970s beauty culture to reveal the grit, heartache, and awakening beneath the glitter. What begins as a whim—a college pageant entry in small-town Texas—unfolds into an unflinching memoir about identity, womanhood, and the power to rewrite one’s own story.

Told with honesty and grace, Botkin’s journey as the first Guyrex Girl captures a pivotal moment in American womanhood: when tradition clashed with liberation, and when beauty itself became a battleground for meaning.

🎧 Press play, settle in, and prepare to see beyond the sequins—this is one memoir that proves the truth behind the tiara is far more compelling than the crown.

Date Published: September 30, 2025

Publisher: She Writes Press/Tantor

Narrator: Ann Marie Gideon

Run Time: 8 hours and 4 minutes

Growing up in West Texas, Jane Little Botkin didn't have designs on becoming a beauty queen. But not long after joining a pageant on a whim in college, she became the first protégé of El Paso's Richard Guy and Rex Holt, known as the "Kings of Beauty"—just as the 1970's counterculture movement began to take off. 

A pink, rose-covered gown—a Guyrex creation—symbolizes the fairy tale life that young women in Jane's time imagined beauty queens had. Its near destruction exposes reality: the author's failed relationship with her mother, and her parents' failed relationship with one another. Weaving these narrative threads together is the Wild West notion that anything is possible, especially do-overs. 

The Pink Dress awakens nostalgia for the 1960s and 1970s, the era's conflicts and growth pains. A common expectation that women went to college to get "MRS" degrees—to find a husband and become a stay-at-home wife and mother—often prevailed. How does one swim upstream against this notion among feminist voices that protest "If You Want Meat, Go to a Butcher!" at beauty pageants, two flamboyant showmen, and a developing awareness of self? Torn between women's traditional roles and what women could be, Guyrex Girls evolved, as did the author.

About the Author

A NATIONAL AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR, JANE...

melds personal narratives of American families often with compelling stories of western women. Jane is a late bloomer as an author. After teaching for thirty years, she was honored by the Texas State Legislature by formal resolution for her work with local history and education in 2008. She edited and directed publishing fifteen volumes of Texas local history with her former students before she decided to write on her own. Jane's first book propelled her membership on the Western Writers of America board and later as its vice president. Jane continues to judge entries for the WWA's prestigious Spur Award; reviews new book releases; authors articles for various magazines; and speaks to groups in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. 

JANE'S FIRST TWO WORKS HAVE WON NUMEROUS AWARDS IN HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY AND WOMEN'S STUDIES... 

including two Spur Awards, two Caroline Bancroft History Prizes, the Texas Book Award, and the Barbara Sudler Award for the best book written on the West by a woman. Jane was also a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award, High Plains Book Award, two Women Writing the West’s Willa Literary Awards, Independent Book Award, Foreword Indies Book Awards, and Sarton Book Award. 

Released in fall 2024, Jane’s third book—what she calls her Covid book—is The Pink Dress, A Memoir of a Reluctant Beauty Queen, a Foreword Indies Book Award winner in pop culture and Women Writing the West's Willa Literary Award finalist in creative nonfiction. The narrative brings far West Texas to life during the 1970s’ American Counterculture era. 

Jane's newest book, The Breath of a Buffalo, A Biography of Mary Ann Goodnight, will be released from the University of Oklahoma Press tentatively in fall 2026. 

Today Jane blissfully escapes into her literary world in the remote White Mountain Wilderness near Nogal, New Mexico, when she is not speaking at various events or preparing for her next nonfiction book.

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Author Julia Shovein channels her real-life sailing experience into sharp, sea-swept mystery Murder on the Squid Row Run — a blend of charm, chaos, and clever sleuthing that will make readers crave both the next clue and the next port.

⚓️ Drop anchor and dive in below for an exclusive peek at the voyage that’s making waves!

Mystery

Date Published: June 10, 2025

Publisher: MindStir Media

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In Murder on the Squid Row Run, oboist Georgiana Quilter is finally hitting her stride—with a dream orchestra job and a new apartment. But when she agrees to pose as a celebrity’s girlfriend during a glamorous international sailing rally, things take a dark and deadly turn.

A body turns up on board. A child disappears. A saboteur strikes. As the Squid Row Run heads from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Georgiana races to uncover secrets buried at sea—all while navigating a fake romance that’s becoming dangerously real. 

Perfect for fans of cozy mysteries, strong female sleuths, and nautical adventures, authentic maritime details inspired by the author’s own seven-year circumnavigation. Suspense, wit, and danger at every port

Love mystery series set on the water? This is your next great read.

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 Author Julia Shovein brings authenticity and edge to her mystery novels, drawn from a life spent at sea and in service. After a thirty-year career as a university professor of nursing (Professor Emeritus), Julia retired and embarked on a global sailing adventure with her husband, circumnavigating the globe over seven years. 

She lived and wrote in exotic locations like New Zealand, Turkey, and London’s St. Katherine Dock. Upon returning home to Paradise, California, Julia and her husband narrowly escaped the devastating Campfire wildfire. These life-altering experiences shaped her writing—and her heroine, Georgiana Quilter. 

Now living in Bremerton, Washington, with her husband Horst and husky Blue, Julia is a proud member of the Poulsbo Yacht Club. She’s truly, as Cruising World puts it, “the real thing.”

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Sometimes the best way to rewrite your story is to stop chasing it altogether. Caila Klaiss’s Kennedy Sloane Gets Scooped is a witty, emotional read about rediscovering purpose, love, and balance when life refuses to stick to the script. If you’ve ever dreamed of trading chaos for coastal calm—or wondered what might happen if you did—this one’s for you. 

🌴 Don’t miss the giveaway at the end of this post! Enter below for your chance to win a copy of the book and a little something to encourage your book buying habit!

Contemporary Women's Fiction/Contemporary Romance

Date Published: November 6th, 2025

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

On a rainy Manhattan afternoon, career-obsessed writer and news producer Kennedy loses the interview that was guaranteed to catapult her to senior producer status. Hours later, revered and feared book editor Muffin Evans, aka the Manuscript Eater, shelves the publication of her promising debut novel.

Over a night of tears and too many glasses of wine, Kennedy responds to an internet ad for a villa on the picturesque island of Hilton Head. She books a five-week “hiatus from life,” to focus on herself, free from distractions. 

However, soon after arriving on the island, J.P. Long catches Kennedy’s hesitant eye. Despite a series of serendipitous encounters around the romantic oasis, Kennedy knows there’s no room in her life for a charming professional golfer turned businessman who is battling his own personal and professional insecurities. 

But maybe he’s worth the trouble.

If there’s one thing Kennedy’s learned, it’s that life rarely happens as expected, and sometimes, the best stories unfold when you stop chasing the perfect headline. 

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About the Author

 A graduate of Fordham University, Caila Klaiss is an award-winning network news producer who spent seventeen years crisscrossing the country to cover breaking and developing stories for platforms across ABC News. The bulk of her career was spent producing true crime documentaries for 20/20. 

Since making the difficult decision to leave a career she loved, Caila has pursued her other life-long dream of becoming a writer. When she is not reading, writing, or researching, Caila recharges by practicing yoga.

Born, raised, and currently living in northeastern Pennsylvania, Caila is a New Yorker at heart whose happy place is a warm sandy beach, under a palm tree.

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Today, I have a children's book to share in our book spotlight! Learn about The Wheels on the Stroller and author Claudia Kramer Kohlbrenner & be sure to enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post.  

Date Published: 2025

Publisher: Serapis Bey Publishing

Illustrator: Brian Dumm

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Ready…Set…Let’s Roll!

About the Author

When teaching at the preschool level, Claudia encouraged busy parents to utilize the time spent carrying out daily routines as language-rich opportunities. Parents were counseled to talk about what was happening in a child’s “here and now” - while getting dressed, brushing teeth, taking a stroller walk! Claudia used available and self-generated rhymes and songs and involved as many bodily senses and movements as possible to facilitate developmental skills in preschoolers. She considers the repetition used in The Wheels on the Bus book and now in The Wheels on the Stroller to be a valuable learning tool for young children. According to early childhood research, repetition reinforces language processing, pattern recognition and a sense of predictability. It also provides children with opportunities to rehearse new sound and word sequences.

After retirement, Claudia’s love of rhyme inspired her to take a few children’s poetry writing classes. She was pleased to have several poems published in “Highlights High Five” and “Highlights” magazines, with two poems also published in children’s anthologies. The joy of reading to her sons long ago and now her grandchildren sparked her desire to write a children’s book as well. One day, after she and her young grandson enthusiastically sang and motioned along with The Wheels on the Bus book, grandma and grandson set out for one of their many adventure-seeking neighborhood stroller walks. As the wheels on his stroller went round and round, they greeted neighbors with tail-wagging dogs, watched squirrels scurry up trees and delighted in the “ding! ding! ding!” of an approaching bicycle along with other encounters- The Wheels on the Stroller was spontaneously born!

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Today, I have a fun children's book in our book blitz spotlight! Learn about Mama Sheep and the Mysterious Cup and author Carlie Guerrier! 

Children's Picture Book

Date Published: March 1, 2025

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 Mama Sheep and the Mysterious Cup is a heartwarming children’s picture book that combines gentle humor, colorful illustrations, and an engaging mystery perfect for toddlers and early readers. Mama Sheep loves to keep her home tidy, but one morning she discovers a mysterious cup of water on her bathroom counter. Determined to solve the puzzle, she asks her little lambs, Daddy Sheep, and even the neighbors if they know where it came from.

This playful story invites children to laugh, guess, and join in on the mystery, while also teaching them about curiosity, problem-solving, and family togetherness. With its cozy farm setting and lovable characters, Mama Sheep and the Mysterious Cup makes for the perfect read-aloud for families, classrooms, and storytime at libraries.

 Meet the Author

 I’m Carlie Guerrier, a children’s book author who writes meaningful and imaginative stories for ages 3–10. My books explore themes like courage, purpose, friendship, and believing in yourself, all while making kids smile and laugh along the way. Inspired by my own children, especially my oldest daughter’s creative spark that brought Mama Sheep to life, I create stories that families can enjoy together. 

When I’m not writing, I love cooking for my family, teaching Sunday School at church, and watching Sci-Fi and superhero movies with my kids. I also enjoy sharing my stories through school visits, storytime events, and online read-alouds. Along with my books, I offer signed copies and fun activity pages so children can keep the adventure going at home.

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