MSI Press Blog

  Excerpt from A Mo vie Lover's Search for Romance - INTRODUCTION  This book recalls my search for love in my forties and fifties. For several years after my divorce at forty-one, my love life was slim to none. I focused on my career, buying my first home, and settling into it. I dated sporadically, but none of the men I went out with were particularly memorable. I didn’t care. My love life wasn’t my priority. I went to work and to the movies, and I was fine. Then, I saw The Pianist in late 2002, and the performance of Adrian Brody as the main character awakened something in me. My crazy post-divorce, romantic life began with that film. Movies and men became the focus of my wild middle-age dating life. Initially, I fell sway to three ridiculous crushes: first, Adrien Brody; next, my father’s friend, twenty-five years my senior; and finally, my Adonis-like washing machine repairman. As I pondered these crushes, they reminded me of scenes and characters from the thousands of movies

  Joanna Charnas recently won the Pinnacle Books Achievement Awards' memoir category for her book, A Movie Lover's Search for Romance . A Movie Lover's Search for Romance  has also received the following awards: Hollywood Book Festival Honorable Mention Book Excellence Award finalist For more posts about Joanna and her books, click HERE . For more posts about Pinnacle Book Achievement Award winners, click HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter  here  or on our  home page . Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com

  From Joanna Charnas, the author of A Movie Lover's Search for Romance   I found everything about Henry Cooper completely charming. Erudite and cultured, he’d written about the space program for the New Yorker Magazine. I’d encountered my father’s old high school friend when I was forty-four, during a visit to New York City for a family event, when Dad was staying with him. A few months after the trip, I confessed my thing for Henry to Dad, who was surprisingly supportive. To amuse myself, I later wrote a short essay about my crush, and read it to Dad. His response: “You should get that published.” Dad was the most intellectual person I’ve ever met. Hyper educated at Andover, Harvard, and Harvard Law, he read books on architectural theory and the collected letters of Mozart for fun. Based on my father’s enthusiasm, and trusting his judgement, I continued to write about dating and all things romantic post-divorce. These essays turned into A Movie’s Lover’s Search for Romance. Of th

  As a Chanukah gift to our readers, we are offering a 40% discount on A Movie Lover's Search for Romance . Use coupon code ad40 at our  webstore  to get the discount. For more information about  A Movie Lover's Search for Romance , including posts by and about the author and all her books, click HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com. 

  Excerpt from A Movie Lover's Search for Romance (Joanna Charnas) THE NEW GUY   You don’t always know when you’re experiencing burnout until you’re hip deep in its muck. You also don’t comprehend how completely addicting Internet dating is until you’re hooked. So if you find yourself burned out from Internet dating, as I did, the prudent thing is to give it a rest. Although I planned to take a break from Internet dating, I’d become too addicted to stop. It didn’t matter that I was emotionally exhausted from too many blind dates. Which is when Simon entered my life.  I met Simon on an Internet dating site. When we first spoke on the phone, he asked if I’d meet him that evening at a party given in honor of a couple of his friends. Simon explained that his schedule was booked for the rest of the week, but he wanted to meet me right away. The party started in mid-afternoon, and assuming I wouldn’t be enslaved and forced into the sex trade, I agreed to rendezvous at his friends’ house

  Like movies? Like movie stars? Since the publication of her book, A Movie Lover's Search for Romance (a great read, by the way, and winner of two book awards), Joanna Charnas has maintained a blog about movies and stars, much in line with her book, but also somewhat different. In order not to spoil the fun-ness of her blog, nothing is being reprinted in this blog post, but you can get it all with one easy click HERE , which takes you to her blog. Jaonna has authored three other books as well, also award winners. Read more posts about Joanna and all her books HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter.

  Joanna Charnas's award-winning book, A Movie Lover's Search for Romance , has been released in hard cover, joining her paperback and e-book versions. Check out more information about this book . Get a discount on the book at the MSI Press webstore by using the code FF25.

  Congratulations to MSI Press authors whose books placed in the Hollywood Book Festival. Irit Schaffer ( Good Blood ) earned the silver medal in the spiritual category and an honorable mention in the historical category. Andrew Harvey ( Tucker and Me ) earned an honorable mention in the autobiography/biography/memoir category.  MSI Press Blog Joanna Charnas ( A Movie Lover’s Search for Romance )    earned an honorable mention in the autobiography/biography/memoir category.  Betty Sha w and Dave Brown ( One Simple Text… ) earned an honorable mention in the general nonfiction category.

  We congratulation our author, Joanna Charnas, for the selection of her excellently written book and compelling story, A Movie Lover's Search for Romance, as a Book Excellence Award Finalist. For more posts on Joanna and her book(s) click HERE .

  photo by Splash Magazine Library Journal calls it, “The perfect pandemic read for those, “thrown into the dating world and trying to mesh real life with that depicted in the movies.” Read more of the review by Splash Magazine on the holiday suggestion list HERE . Also, read the interview with the author in Splash Magazine: "A Movie Lover's Search for Romance" Review--A Captivating Read HERE . Read more posts by and about Joanna Charnas and her books HERE . 

  Joanna Charnas was interviewed about the topic of divorce by Authority Magazine recently. You can read the interview HERE Joanna is author of four books: Read more posts by and about Joanna and her books HERE .

 In honor of Caturday, we are sharing a picture of Joanna Charnas's foster failure. It probably is difficult to give up a foster cat -- one gets attached. To get a better understanding about Joanna, read her book, A Movie Lover's Search for Romance .  A diverting and informative story of searching for love in mid-life by a divorced social worker, who intertwines entertaining stories of successful love interests with well-known movies containing similar plots and themes. Written as diary entries covering a 15-year period, the author shares openly, in detail, and with insights her experiences with dating, friendships, affairs, and relationships. Written candidly with a light hand and turns of phrase that reflect her personality and make the book hard to put down. Joanna has also written award-winning non-fiction about coping with chronic illness. Check out: Managing chronic illness demands constant mindfulness and management. It’s a process that constantly evolves over a lifetime

  We just received a copy of an Instagram review of Joanna Charnas's book, A Movie Lover's Search for Romance: It’s been so nice to get my mind off things these past few days and just indulge in a lighthearted story — filled with humor, plot twists, and colorful characters ! In the end the need for love is universal and I enjoyed reading about Joanna’s own quest for love. For more information about this book, where to purchase it, and where to read more reviews, click HERE . For more posts about Joanna and her books, click HERE .   

  On Friday, August 28, Deborah Kalb interviewed Joanna Charnas about her new book, A Movie Lover's Search for Romance. Read the interview HERE . For more posts about Joanna Charnas and her books, click HERE .              

  Just in today! Readers' Favorite has rated A Movie Lover's Search for Romance as 5 stars! Here is a piece of the review: one of the most honest dating memoirs I've read Charnas is a delight to read and her optimism and experiences are nothing short of extraordinary. For the rest of the review, click HERE . For other posts by and about this book, Joanna Charnas, and other Charnas books, click HERE .

Dreamland Encouragement Last night’s dream has stayed with me since I woke up. It has hovered in my consciousness throughout the day, first at synagogue, where I intended to focus on loftier matters, then at lunch with friends when it kept popping into my head at odd moments, then at the video and drugstores where it seemed to affect my ability to make correct change, and finally sitting on my couch during the evening, trying unsuccessfully to distract myself with a movie. The dream lingers, and I’m wondering what it’s supposed to mean. The dream started at a wedding—my wedding. Guests lined up outside a modest wedding chapel waiting to enter. Most of them were dressed in t-shirts and casual weekend clothes, as if they were about to rake leaves instead of witness the beginning of a marriage. If anyone ever showed up at a wedding of mine dressed like that, I’d probably nurse my indignation and resentment well past a ten-year anniversary. So, I knew immediately that the dream wa