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Martha Engber

@marthaengberauthor.bsky.social

Check out my 5 books at MarthaEngber.com and uniting Americans blog, VigilantPositivity.wordpress.com.

151 Followers  |  162 Following  |  252 Posts  |  Joined: 19.09.2023  |  2.1194

Latest posts by marthaengberauthor.bsky.social on Bluesky

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I’m so grateful to Haley Blanchard of Readers’ Favorite for giving me a 5-star review of SCATTERED LIGHT (due out Nov. 25)!

#newbook #bookstagram #newbookalert #booklovers #bookaddict #booklaunch #bestseller #love #bookrelease #bibliophile #bookblogger #vine_leaves_press

19.11.2025 20:37 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Book Review: "Chomp, Press, Pull" Elaina Battista-Parsons’ CHOMP, PRESS, PULL fully immersed me into the life of someone whose senses go off like fireworks!The author talks about growing up in New Jersey with sensory dysfunction befor...

I knew nothing about sensory affective disorder before reading Elaina Battista-Parsons’ “Chomp, Press, Pull,” but now do thanks to her rich, often humorous descriptions about what happens when your senses are supercharged.

Read my review below or on my blog: www.marthaengber.com/post/book-re...

19.11.2025 16:36 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Congratulations to my compatriots at Vine Leaves Press for being nominated for the Pushcart Prize! Ian Rogers, EC Battista, Jocelyn Jane Cox, Jill Amber Chafin, David Hicks and @Nicole Zelniker. I hope you win!

13.11.2025 14:55 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Why People Don’t Vote I was at a farmer’s market recently handing out information about an upcoming election in my state. A man passed by and I asked if he knew about the various issues at hand. He threw up his hands and smiled. “I stopped voting when I was 63,” he said. “I’m 83 now and feeling fine.” I appreciated the brief exchange, because I’ve always wondered why people don’t vote and he gave me a very good reason: his strategy protects his mental health to an apparently significant degree. While his tactic would do the opposite for me by increasing my stress — that my lack of involvement and those of others, deterred a better outcome — the exchange encouraged me to take a closer look at why people don’t vote.

Would you like to feel like your vote mattered?

09.10.2025 09:05 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Fact-checking Resources After Charlie Kirk’s murder, a friend sent me a social media video. I’m glad she did. I was able to send her a fact-checking article published by the Associated Press, “FACT FOCUS: Assassination of Charlie Kirk prompts flood of false and misleading claims online," that dispelled the premise of the video, which had been edited by conflict entrepreneurs for the purpose of inciting rage toward people of the opposite political viewpoint. The interaction reiterated two truths about our times: All social media videos, posts and articles that leave viewers mad at “others” are the work of conflict entrepreneurs and ideally should be dismissed without reading, commenting on or sharing.

Do you fact-check political news on a regular basis?

02.10.2025 11:54 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
How I Became a Braver Angel I recently attended “Dignity Over Violence: A Unified Civic Response,” an online Braver Angels panel discussion about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the growing political violence in America. The event — attended by 1400 Americans — was hosted by Maury Giles, the new CEO of the national nonpartisan organization dedicated to depolarization and civil discussion. The event included twelve speakers from a variety of other bridge-building organizations such as BridgeUSA and CommonSense American. The program addressed the need for all Americans to stand up to say that political violence is unacceptable.

What does it take for us to see that we're all being played?

26.09.2025 09:13 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Citizen Spotlight: Wilk Wilkinson About six months ago someone told me about Derate the Hate, a podcast hosted by Minnesota conservative, Wilk Wilkinson. One episode and I was hooked on his calm demeanor and fierce belief in the ability of all of us to change for the better, especially when it comes to unhooking from negative messaging in order to talk to one another at a time when unity is scare, but increasingly important. Wilk's journey from adversity to success in his career, marriage, and parenting exemplifies the transformative power of perseverance and self-improvement.

Some Americans are trying to change the divisiveness in America. How about you?

18.09.2025 08:45 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Gerrymandering: Where All Americans Lose I live in California, so my state’s fight with Texas’ mid-census redrawing of voting districts, known as gerrymandering, in order to gain more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives is an issue that’s only growing bigger. I didn’t really learn about the practice until I read a Harper’s Magazine article in the early 2000s. I remember wondering how gerrymandering could be legal. The system sounded like an absolute usurping of citizen representation. I assume most of us agree that the voting district boundaries where we live should reflect already-established geographical locations, such as counties, towns or rural areas.

No American should lose their representation because of this kind of political cheat.

11.09.2025 07:15 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
RepublicEN: Can a Conservative Climate Change Org Influence a Republican Government? RepublicEN is a conversative climate change advocacy org that thinks it has a solution. Will Republicans listen?

RepublicEN: Can a Conservative Climate Change Org Influence a Republican Government?

RepublicEN is a conversative climate change advocacy org that thinks it has a solution. Will Republicans listen?

04.09.2025 08:36 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Citizen Spotlight: Media Maven Swati Srivastava View the interview on the Vigilant Positivity YouTube channel. This month’s Citizen Spotlight shines a light on Swati Srivastava who says that to unite the “exhausted majority” of Americans who crave unity, kindness and sanity, we need to narrate a new story of hope. A software engineer turned independent writer, voice-over artist, and filmmaker, Swati is the head of Tired and Beat Up Productions. Two years ago, she established the Long Island chapter of Crossing Party Lines, a common ground movement organization that fosters civil discussion among people with differing viewpoints.

Who else is dying for a more positive narrative for America?

28.08.2025 08:01 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Crime Rates in America in 2025 President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and takeover of the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department after a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee was carjacked in the city got me to wondering three things: Which are the highest crime rate cities per capita? Which of the cities have experienced a drop in crime? Why would the president get involved in city crime rates? Crime rate per 100,00 people Total crime rate The following comes from the FBI Uniform Crime Rate data for 2023 (cities with populations over 50,000):

Would you like the President of the US to take over your local police department?

22.08.2025 09:17 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Collaborating With Our Government: Has the Technology Arrived? I recently attended one of six online meetings held by the new Braver Angels CEO, Maury Giles, in which he sought feedback from members about how the organization should move forward. In the past, the task of asking questions and receiving responses would be no small task, especially when you consider 150 people attended the online meeting. If each of us had received two minutes to answer one question, the meeting would have been five hours long. Then the BA staff would have had to take notes, collate, store and analyze them: easily a week’s worth of staff time.

Have you ever wished someone — anyone — in our government requested our opinion, and then actually listened?

14.08.2025 07:17 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Hope, Kindness, Action: A Review of “The Politics of Contempt” One of the first things that struck me when reading “Beyond the Politics of Contempt” (due out in September) was the authors' fervent urging that Americans return to kindness. That if we can accomplish the feat of reminding ourselves that we’re good people, and those who have a different political perspective, are good people, a lot of the political polarization we’re experiencing will diminish and everything else will fall into place. Namely, we'll build relationships, find common ground and take action to solve the problems our country faces, whether at the local, state or federal level.

In a tough time for America, hope is on the way.

07.08.2025 11:27 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Political Code Wording: Are We all Guilty? Code wording is when we use specific words or phrases that contain hidden meanings to those in our inner circles to convey information discreetly. The funniest example I can think of is that before menstruation could be talked about in public, I and other girls and women would say things like, “I just got my monthly bill,” or “my friend just arrived,” both said with a dose of sarcasm, but that hit its mark by bonding us in shared understanding. I don’t know when I became conscious of political code wording, only that it seeped into my life starting in the 1990s.

It's funny until it's not! The good news: we can stop it!

31.07.2025 09:05 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Scattered Light by Martha Engber “Heartbreakingly real... a unique literary triumph.” Byddi Lee, author of Barren When 36-year-old attorney Mary Donahue of Chicago meets the surprising man of her dreams, she discovers that to love is...

Woohoo! The cover of my forthcoming book just arrived (the sequel to WINTER LIGHT). Thanks Jessica Bell, Vine Leaves Press publisher and cover designer! (preorder link: vineleavespress.myshopify.com/products/sca...)

28.07.2025 16:44 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Book Review: "Remodel Your Brain" by Sherian LeeWell-organized, well-written, kind and hopeful, Sherian Lee, the author of this remarkable book does a fabulous job of talking directly to all of us about a simple truth: we do not have ...

Congrats to Sherian Lee, a psychotherapist who's written "Remodel Your Brain, a great book about how we can change our brains to be happier people. Really compassionate! My review: www.marthaengber.com/post/book-re...

24.07.2025 21:53 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Book Review: “A New Civic Path: Restoring Our Belief in One Another and Our Nation” website: (May 2, 2025) Do you believe America can be saved from partisan divisiveness and policies that swing wildly in both directions, depending on who’s president? Richard Harwood does, and as he states in “A New Civic Path,” he believes the answer lies in building the kind of belief and trust in our communities that can help lead to the concrete change necessary to draw us together and make our lives better. Rather than be a step-by-step manual, the book adheres to its stated claim of being a manifesto, meaning “a public declaration of policy and aims.”

Local is the key, according to this author who sees a future for a united America.

24.07.2025 08:26 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
A Third Political Party: the Answer to America’s Woes? If you talk to many of us Americans, we’ll tell you we no longer feel comfortable in either political party. Many of us would prefer a third party or multiple parties. Yet America just turned 249 years old and in all of that time, no third party has been able to gain a significant toehold with voters. Elon Musk provides the most recent example of that conundrum. Despite spending almost $300 million in the 2024 election to get Donald Trump elected, and despite being given a prominent role in disrupting the government through…

Looking for a way to strengthen democracy? Check out what you can do!

17.07.2025 09:47 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Book Review: "Your Story Starts Here" By Jim ZervanosOur culture is so full of memes — especially about American high school students as being any number of negative things: lazy, spoiled, distracted — that I loved reading about the real ...

Anyone who dispels cliches and shows kindness and curiosity through essays about their life are hero authors to me! One such author is Jim Zervanos, who writes truthfully, and respectfully, about his students and teaching life in “Your Story starts here.” www.marthaengber.com/post/book-re...

16.07.2025 22:17 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Compassionate Citizens Foundation: Civic Hubs to the Rescue Do you feel cared for by your government? That’s the question a lot of organizations in the Common Ground Movement are addressing, whether directly or indirectly. The answer for us citizens — at least myself — is often “no.” That’s where those groups enter. In one way or another, they’re working to create a united society in which we Americans feel cared for, and care for one another. One such organization is the Compassionate Citizens Foundation (CCF), a foundation founded in 2015 by Norlyn Dimmitt of Kalamazoo, MI. He works in concert with his wife, …

Read about good Americans doing good stuff!

10.07.2025 08:07 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Citizen Spotlight: Youth Activist Aanya Ujjval I’ve always enjoyed interviewing people, but I especially enjoyed talking to Aanya Ujjval, 17, who’s not only active in common ground politics, but encourages her peers to get involved, too. Aanya lives in Austin, Texas, and is the national policy director for the High School Democrats of America. A first-generation American of Indian ancestry, she volunteers and advocates to increase youth involvement in the political process. She develops comprehensive research documents to guide policy and hosts webinars with influential political candidates and politicians to spur youth activism. She served as the only high schooler under 20 state representatives for…

Looking for a positive light in our otherwise polarized politics? See how this youth shines!

03.07.2025 07:04 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Braver Angels’ New CEO: Maury Giles Great news from Braver Angels, a national nonprofit working to decrease polarization through civil dicussion and action. The org has just hired a new CEO, Maury Giles! Here's more about him from a letter sent to Braver Network members. About Mary Giles In March, David Blankenhorn announced that he was stepping down as President of Braver Angels after co-founding and leading our organization for nine years. The search process for a new leader for Braver Angels has been successful, and we are delighted to announce Maury Giles as the new 

New leadership means new action at Braver Angels, a national nonprofit dedicated to depolarization!

01.07.2025 16:39 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Ways we Americans can help deter political violence (NOTE: I’d like to thank Karen, a member of the Vigilant Positivity community and my Red/Blue discussion group who suggested this topic and provided much of the research.) I assume most of us are highly disturbed by the June 14, 2025, murder of State Rep. Melissa Hortman, D-MN, and her husband, Mark, and the injury of State Sen. John Hoffman, D-MN, and his wife, Yvette. Suspect Vance Luther Boelter, 57, has been arrested in connection to the crimes. Statistics bear out the fact that political violence has increased in the last 10 years.

Are you feeling like there's nothing you can do about the growing political violence? Not true!

26.06.2025 08:07 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 1
Would You Join a Common Ground Movement? Besides being a journalist and writer, I’m a personal trainer and fitness instructor. The combination has always struck others as unusual. One is introspective, the other social. One is sedentary and the other active. Yet the two share key commonalities: curiosity; the drive to learn more; the ability to distill ideas into simple, understandable messages that inspire people to change their behavior. A Common Ground Movement I think of the Common Ground Movement as one in which the majority of Americans — the many millions of us who are exhausted and discouraged by the extreme partisanship of our country — come together to speak with one voice to our national leaders about what we want:

Are you tired of the political division in American? To cure it, would you be willing to join a common ground movement?

19.06.2025 07:16 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Alternative American Flags: What Do They Mean? When I was a kid in suburban Chicago, my family owned a flag that we stored most of the year in our attic. But on key holidays, such as Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, we unrolled the flag and placed it in a flag holder by our front door. Now I neither own a flag nor display one, and as Flag Day approaches this Sat., June 14, I wanted to think more about why that’s the case. As a journalist, I tend not to want to display my opinion either way.

Flag Day is June 14! Are you going to fly an American flag? PLUS: recommendation for a great flag movie (yes, that's a thing).

12.06.2025 21:05 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Book Review: "Body: My Life in Parts" by Nina B. LichtensteinI’ve never read a memoir with a more unique and organic structure than BODY: MY LIFE IN PARTS. The concept of the author grouping the memories of her life via body parts is just...

I love women who love their bodies, flaws and all, and who understand every inch of the skin they’re in has a story to tell! Such is Nina B. Lichtenstein’s “Body: My Life in Parts.”

Read my review below or on my blog: marthaengber.com/post/book-review-body-my-life-in-parts

05.06.2025 13:26 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Author and former Rep. Doug Teschner: negative messaging, new habits and hope for a divided America
YouTube video by Vigilant Positivity Author and former Rep. Doug Teschner: negative messaging, new habits and hope for a divided America

I also posted my interview with former Rep. Doug Teschner, R-NH, co-author of "The Politics of Contempt" on the Vigilant Positivity YouTube channel. He's a great speaker! www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyhx...

05.06.2025 12:12 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Citizen Spotlight: Author and Former Rep. Doug Teschner, R-NH My Citizen Spotlight for this month is Doug Teschner, of West Lebanon, NH. He’s co-authoring “BEYOND THE POLITICS of CONTEMPT: Practical Steps to Build Positive Relationships in Divided Times” with Beth Malow (see post: “Want to Hop Off the Political Polarization Train?," May 1, 2025) and Becky Robinson. The book will be published this summer.
 Doug has had the opportunity to serve our nation in various ways, including as an elected Republican member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. He represented our country overseas as a Peace Corps volunteer and country director, serving in Morocco, Ukraine, and several African nations.

Need a little plain talk and hope for America's future? Read/listen to my interview with Doug Teschner, a man from the political trenches.

05.06.2025 07:04 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Join this read-along for my IPPY Gold Medal in YA book and be ready for the sequel coming in November! Thanks @sue.wallace1974: www.instagram.com/reel/DKRofh8...

30.05.2025 19:10 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Braver Network: A Database of Depolarization and Bridge Building Orgs Last year after joining Braver Angels, a national nonprofit dedicated to bridging America’s wide partisan divide, I perused the website and found Braver Network, the organization's database of like-minded agencies. But it wasn’t until talking recently with Gary Holland (read Braver Angels Volunteer Extraordinaire), the BA director of field operations, who works with a small team of other volunteers to support the organization’s nationwide activities, did I discover the power of the network, which is free to join and to use. The network consists of 394 organizations that have different political leanings, vary in size, and focus on different audiences, such as congregations, colleges, companies and civic groups.

If you're distressed by America's polarization, have you found it hard to find like-minded people?

29.05.2025 09:09 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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