Gifts for Readers with Inquiring Minds

Born To Return The Gift (BTRTG) and End All To Be All (EATBA) are novels which realistically address ALL the headlines in the side bar of this site.

• Depression
• PTSD 
• Alcohol & Drug Abuse / Recovery
• Domestic Violence
• Discrimination / Racial & Sexual Profiling
• Faith & Spiritual Awakening

Both books would make perfect gifts for readers with inquiring minds.  

* Not recommended for those under seventeen.

BTRTG

Nyima's world crumbles as she is diagnosed with clinical depression and post traumatic stress disorder. How can that be? She's never been to war or combat, she confides to psychiatrists. Warped in denial of a fragmented history selectively chosen for dismissal, she believes she's just burnt out from overwork and sleep deprivation . . . until the constant previews of a nightmare that's been haunting her for five years unfolds to reveal a childhood incident that has perpetuated her imprisonment to the past. Will the revelations free her to make a change for her future?

EATBA

Michael's addiction to alcohol and pain pills lands him on skid row. After detox and checking into a male only safe house, he becomes involved in the development of a coed residential recovery facility. As the Program Director for End All To Be All, he has a new lease on life until the founder  secretly begins frauding the court system for easy money. Despite the deceit and daily drama, Michael  keeps things moving in the right direction until his estranged father passes away. As he tries to purge their resurrected history from his mind with alcohol, will he be able to drop kick his own demons while dealing with the demonic activity surrounding him?

Use the following discount codes when ordering paperback books from this site:

2WK9GR57   =   $3.00 off single purchase

4NYQPRUE   =  15% off bulk orders.

Links to purchase ebooks:

Amazon.com:                    BTRTG | EATBA

Barnes & Noble:       BTRTG | EATBA

Smashwords.com:             BTRTG | EATBA

Turning The Tide

 Turning The Tide?, September 30, 2013

By 

John R. Dizon

This review is from: Born To Return The Gift (Paperback)

Born To Return The Gift by Catherine Johnson is a compelling, incisive novel focusing on a series of episodes in the life of a middle-aged mulatto woman facing the crossroads of her journey. The strains of Irish blood in her veins prove as difficult to redeem as her college education as she seems trapped in the ghetto existence she struggles desperately to transcend. The temptation of substance abuse lurks on every corner, threatening to engulf her at any given time, but the power of her spirit resonates with the message of Scripture as the author takes us along this rocky road of redemption.

Nyima Robbins finds herself trying to free herself from the mire represented by the Oasis Hotel in California, her place of refuge from the chaos of the Oakland suburbs. She is enrolled at City College where she finds difficulty in relating to students half her age, fighting battles over which she long prevailed. Her spirit is exhausted by watching the next generation wading through issues of race and class, though it seems that she is being forced to walk that road over and again. She ends up taking a job at Platinum Financial, a check-cashing company that caters to the type of clientele that she needs desperately to avoid. Johnson provides us with a vivid account of how someone with the maturity, education and best intentions can still be trapped beneath the glass ceiling in a clinging, suppressive environment.

The author's work is reminiscent of Toni Morrison in bringing us into the black experience of ghetto life with an authentic narrative. Nyima's relations with Steffon, a philandering manipulator, demonstrate a need for companionship and to establish a social network. Yet she realizes that it is her dark side that is attracting the kind of people who dragged her into this very quagmire. The storyline eventually brings us into a segue towards the ontological discussion as Nyima experiences an epiphany during a nightmare sequence. A demonic figure appears to her, using the very `hunh hunh' idiosyncracy of speech that we find throughout Steffon's dialogues with Nyima. The demon tells her there is no way out, that the negative energy of her life serves to enhance the ontology of the ghetto experience. She is suddenly able to see the `lines formulating between the dots of her life', and how the events of her life have led her to this time of reckoning with the dark forces absorbing her very spirit.

Johnson's work is an essential piece of black literature that may well act as a guidepost for the next generation of African-Americans struggling with racial and economic issues in finding their own place in today's society. This glimpse into a visceral environment and the story of one woman's battle to transcend it is both uplifting and inspirational. Born To Return The Gift by Catherine Johnson is a modern-day parable you won't soon forget.

An Insightful Work of Christian Fiction

5 Stars out of 5 Stars

‘End All To Be All‘ by Catherine E. Johnson is an insightful work of Christian fiction providing a revealing look into the world of substance abuse and the rehabilitation process. Unlike most of works within the genre, Johnson takes a realistic approach in ripping away the insulation that often compromises the validity of such novels. We are left with an unblinking look at the lives of patients in the Antoine Reed Alcohol and Drug Foundation, and their personal conflicts in navigating along that crossroad in their lives.

Michael, the major protagonist, is a college-educated upwardly mobile black man whose life is turned upside down after a car accident that results in a car wreck that costs the life of his girlfriend. He is sent to the facility at the behest of Turk, a close associate realizing that Michael is in need of help. It is discovered that Michael has developed an addiction to Demerol over the years after an old neck injury grew aggravated over time. Michael, like a significant percentage of the population, is in denial but soon realizes there is a problem that must be resolved.

The author’s insertion of Scripture at the beginning of chapters is a clever reminder that the answers to our problem is often in plain sight. It would be very interesting to conduct an exit poll to see how many readers in her audience are skipping over the passages, just like the characters in the novel. Most Scripture is based on common sense and Divine logic, and we often circumvent the argument to rationalize our actions and justify our mistakes. Michael meets Antoine and Jerry, two fellow shooters who personify the internal conflict facing him. Antoine is reassessing the value of the connections being brought in off the street, while Jerry remains dedicated to slamming the front door on them. Michael eventually turns to Jerry in rejecting his past, and Jerry becomes a beacon of hope in helping Michael find a way out of the abyss.

Johnson’s story winds along a rocky road of hard knocks as Michael eventually begins a relationship with Nyima, a borderline alcoholic. She realizes that the success of their friendship will depend largely on their ability to slay the dragons in their life. When she learns of the circumstances surrounding the death of Michael’s fiancee in the fatal car crash, it helps forge a bond of trust that helps them find resolution over a three-year struggle.

The themes of perseverance and redemption resonate throughout the novel, and End All To Be All reminds us that God is always there to pick up those who are willing to get back on their feet.

by John R. Dizon (Author of ‘The Standard‘)