Books with author Ian Marshall MR

Ever accidentally used your thumb as a hammer cushion while partaking in a spot of DIY?Do you become enraged at the uncontrollable bobbing of the straw in your aluminum can?Are you yearning to find a way to make your toilet paper roll tube enhance your music listening experience?These and dozens of other everyday dilemmas are solved with Life Hacks, your handy guide to tackling little annoyances before they turn into big problems. This fully illustrated manual covers everything from nifty cable management to ingenious cooking methods, and much, much more.Remember: If life throws you a curveball—hack it!

"The International Appalachian Trail runs north from Mount Katahdin seven hundred miles to the end of the Gaspé Peninsula. Inspired by Basho, Ian Marshall hiked it for six summers, probing the poetics of haiku while exploring a vast and beautiful wilderness little known in the US. Marshall is an engaging trail companion and a superb story teller, with a self deprecating wit and sharp intellect that spice up his observations and ideas. Like Basho, he finds the miraculous in the common and elevates the humble walk into a spiritual practice, sprinkling his narrative with lovely original haiku that seem to have condensed in the moment, like droplets of dew. Backpackers will appreciate his pungent descriptions of life on the trail, and ecocritics will savor his abundant insights on poetry, nature, and culture. This lively book serves up a classic blend of high adventure, literary pilgrimage, and self discovery. It tastes as tart and fresh as wild rasp­berries."―John Tallmadge, past-president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment and author of The Cincinnati Arch: Learning from Nature in the City (John Tallmadge)

“Jan’s newest treat is a delightful handbook for getting through difficult times which includes tips and spiritual guidance. Her own survival and whimsy inspire us to view our challenges differently… DR. SUSAN JEFFERS, author of “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway.” Perhaps for some of us, the golden boomer age and beyond has tarnished a bit with health issues, loss in general and major disappointments. Put away the pills; wipe those tears and get over here. There is a way out and it can be fun. Laughter heals and connects us. Dancin, Shmancin shows us the way, painlessly and you do not even have to know how to dance. Jan Marshall turns life’s daily hassles into a ridiculous scenario by using exaggeration, satire and tad of truth; she is not actually seeking a divorce from Siri® who lives in her iPhone but they are in couple’s therapy). Yesterday, Siri advised her lawyer to ask Jan for a clothing allowance and a coffee maker. The book is dedicated to Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly, Wounded Warriors and friends who have lost children yet still manage to dance with life and contribute in spite of horrendous internal pain. This in turn, encourages the rest of us every single moment. Humor is the general theme and Dancin is a code word for anything pleasurable in your world. The Scars, well they are scars and may always remain in some manner but can be minimized by finding the humor and absurdities that surround us. Jan claims when she had her brain tumor surgery, the doctor also found a Whoopee Cushion. Chapters include the best place for seniors to find romance, (it involves prescriptions) and peaceful negotiations between body and mind after she shot her scale (with blanks she told the sheriff). She appreciates the libido of bald men, reveals to Justin Timberlake how she finds her own “Friends with Benefits” and discusses a new way to refer to age (only cheese ages). There is only one serious chapter, “Touched by an Angel in an Inappropriate Place” where she speaks of cancer, brain tumors and other cosmic jokes that were truly not funny, McGee! If you are having your own issues, Jan has techniques to get you through most anything. Though,as someone once suggested; we should all hang out with a goofy friend once in a while. Jan simply asks, “Why can't it be you, this time?”

Secrets, dysfunctional friendships, a girl who wants destroy him-or is in love with him--what's a boy to do? Will wants nothing more than quiet time to read his comic books. Unfortunately, between the mountain he must conquer every day to get to school, the teacher who is out to get him, and the girl who wants to ruin his life, his time is anything but quiet.Humorous, fun, adventure!

Peter Davidson’s short life has been a series of challenges.The troubles began with the loss of his mother, something his father, Big Ed, has never overcome. His brother, Eli, wants only to escape their hand-to-mouth farming existence for life in the big city. Now fate has decided to dry-up the river that nourishes their farm.Help comes from an unlikely source - a small glowing Orb that Peter finds in the river bed. Orb claims that the world was once awash in peace and prosperity under his rule. He needs Peter’s help to regain his power and his throne. In return, Orb will cure all that ails Peter, his family, and the world.Peter joins the quest to help Orb and discovers along the way that there are many different versions of the truth -and very few things in this, or any world, that are purely good.Full of nonstop action, suspense, and adventure, this novel is sure to move readers as much as it thrills!Fans of Marissa Meyer, Suzanne Collins, and Madeleine L'Engle will love The Promise of The Orb...