Teresa Hessler

Originally from New York, Teresa has also lived on the West Coast, in Southern and Mid-Western states and has traveled to Canada, Mexico and the Middle East. Her wanderings through these diverse places has afforded her the opportunity to meet people from a wide variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds and experience a kaleidoscopic of cultures from which to draw colorful characters and often incredible situations for her upcoming books.

Her interests include preparing foods from scratch for improved health and nutrition, homeschooling, gardening, building sustainable communities, the study of religions and history, defending human rights, and holding the media accountable for unbiased news reporting.

Over the years her career passions have included crafting words to move, educate, illuminate and/or entertain; researching markets, behaviors and history; and helping people solve the problems or challenges they face. Teresa has more than 25 years of business and hi-tech experience working with a diverse group of companies, not-for-profit organizations and government entities and has recently decided to dedicate more time to incorporating those rich experiences into creative story writing - her true passion.

Website: http://teresahessler.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/teresahessler

http://www.amazon.com/Teresa-Hessler/e/B0084S1WHK/

• Muslim Inventions in the Islamic Golden Age 750-1500 AD on Aug. 17, 2012
  
  This book is not exactly what I had anticipated, yet it does create an interesting point for further discussion and exploration into the topic of Muslim contributions to society throughout history. Not being a student of Islam myself, I found the many assumptions made throughout the book to leave holes in some of the "facts" presented. For example, the author paints a picture of the entire world living in darkness (with respect to knowledge of everything from science to mathematics, medicine, etc.) until the 20-something years that Islam's Prophet preached (610 to 632 CE according to the author). No factual data is provided that would allow me to draw such a conclusion short of blind faith in the teachings of Islam. In fact, the author wants me to believe that famous scientists, mathematicians, etc. of various religious/secular beliefs stole credit from Muslims for their discoveries centuries later. I'm not convinced. What of Egypt's pyramids? Rome's ancient structures? Ruins of magnificent structures in Israel? - all predating Isalm by many centuries. Over the generations - in every country where scientific discovery is encouraged - there have been/are scientists who stall (or die before their theory is proven) and someone else picks up where they left off. When a theory is proven or discovery is made by these scientists, are they to be discredited because someone else at some point in history had similar thoughts but either wasn't able to reach the conclusion or publish proof for other scientists to test and corroborate? I was prepared to learn about unique contributions to the world by great Islamic minds, but instead I came away feeling that the author had an agenda to rewrite history at the expense of other great minds. I had difficulty finishing the book after that tone was set. I look forward to a world where individual achievements in science, math, medicine, etc. can be documented and applauded without demeaning others or attaching the achievement to religious or lifestyle choice category. A word about Sources: continual reference (in almost every chapter) to The Encyclopedia Britannica left me feeling like I was reading a school term paper rather than an informative book. I hope the author will accept this critique to further improve and find success in her writing career. It is not my intention to hurt feelings, just to provide my honest opinion - my intuitive reaction to this work. I believe that reading this book has helped me to find fault with my own writings; when writing a piece intended to be factual, it's important to remove one's own personal beliefs/agenda and present only the facts (i.e., those that can be proven).