"The Last Mrs. Parrish"

     Amber Patterson is determined to become "The Last Mrs. Parrish."  Mr. Jackson Parrish, however, appears to be a happily married man with an adoring wife Daphne and their two daughters.  Amber uses cunning, ingenuity, and manipulation to go after this man who has limitless wealth and can provide a lifestyle where she would be pampered and envied by all.
     Part I reveals Amber's story, Part II Daphne's, and part III the resolution.  Thinking you know what you want and doing whatever it takes to get it may bring many unexpected results.  After you get what you think you wanted, it may turn out to be something completely different.  "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!" (Sir Walter Scott, 1808)
     The black cover of the book could be a warning this novel has a dark side.  The cover also states: "Some women get everything. Some women get everything they deserve."  Liv Constantine is the pen name of sisters Lynne Constantine and Valerie Constantine.

   

"Necessary Lies"

   
     Everyone needs help sometime in their lives, and many of us can provide help either personally or through social services.  But who decides the best way to help and thereby benefit society as a whole?  Even with the best efforts, some people can barely survive.  Even with the best intentions, the type of help offered may not be what others really need.
     The causes of poverty are numerous including being born into a family of meager means, low intelligence, insufficient education, and lack of a family support system.  The results of poverty are also numerous including insufficient housing, nutrition, and medical care.
     Diane Chamberlain's "Necessary Lies" is based on real conditions in rural 1960 North Carolina and reveals how poor families lived and how social workers helped and hindered their situation.  Tenant families on a tobacco farm, dependent on the owner, had to struggle to survive.  Two sisters and their family living and working on the farm needed help.  A social worker assigned to them realized that the family and the agency needed to change.
     For those of us not born into poverty, our understanding of the situation is meager and even prejudicial.  We might feel that if they only tried harder, worked harder, and lived a moral life, they could escape the situation.  Some even feel that the government helps too much and even slows their progress toward independence.  "Necessary Lies" shows how revealing the truth serves us best.

Why We Believe

   
     We believe what we trust: our bodies and minds, people we honor, and other  sources of information.  A helpless baby cries out for survival needs, nourishment, comfort, and human contact.  It then learns to trust the parents or caretaker who provide these needs.  Later, the parents' beliefs are incorporated into the developing brain.  Additional people also become influential and trustworthy.  As we observe, listen to and read the words of more people, our beliefs are reinforced, altered, or changed.
     As a result, our parents' beliefs often remain our own.  Because we trust and honor them, going beyond their beliefs is very difficult.  When we learn from other sources of information which continually bombard our minds, we have the power to choose what we  believe.
     Religious, scientific, and political beliefs develop and hopefully evolve.  Some believe God has influenced the authors of religious texts like the Torah, the Bible, and the Koran, and that He continues to influence us directly.  Trust is also given to the experts, the scholars, the devout, to help interpret and reinforce religious beliefs.
     Scientific discoveries expand our beliefs about the universe.  The methods used by scientists to make these discoveries seem logical.
     Political beliefs also develop from parents, other trusted individuals and sources of information.  Some people give more honor and trust to those who reinforce their long-held basic beliefs.  Others try to keep an open mind and increase their ability to consider a variety of opinions.
     As we mature, we become responsible for our own survival.  We listen to our bodies and minds to stay healthy physically and mentally.  We form our beliefs based on many factors.  Our minds have the power to trust wisely, absorb many sources of information, and decide what we believe.