April 2025 Review Issue
Fantasy & Sci Fi
Literature
Mystery & Thrillers
Eight Minutes
Gregory N. Whitis
Atmosphere Press
979-8891325807
$19.95 pb, $8.99 ebook, $29.95 hc
www.atmospherepress.com
Imagine awakening to anticipate a sunrise that never comes.
Eight Minutes is a science fiction end-of-the-world experience that follows the aftermath of a massive solar flare that, in effect, ends civilization overnight.
Alex Tate and his team emerge from a protective bunker to embark on a wild, seemingly impossible mission—to restart the dead sun via a nuclear missile. The world has already vastly changed from anything they could have imagined mere months ago. This requires them to step up to a last-ditch survival effort that could either preserve the remnants of humanity or fail to save the world.
Other solar flare/EMP titles have offered similar-sounding survivalist themes, but what differentiates Gregory N. Whitis’s gripping Eight Minutes from others lies in how it is delivered—via an initial normalcy transformed by heart-stopping experiences. These rest firmly on a cast of powerful, disparate characters and special interests that continually shoot themselves in the foot, flavored with an overlay of light humor for an unexpected result:
He snored lightly.
I could tolerate that. Her last one-night stand could out snore an idling chainsaw.
As she walked by two sergeants in the middle of their shift change, she purred, “He’s sleeping like a baby now.”
They’d have the rest of their shift to yak about that one.
As much attention is given to government and civilian contrasts of experience and perspective, as to the impossible plans themselves. This creates a realistic, involving atmosphere in which the potential saviors of humanity are, themselves, flawed and all too limited in their options and responses.
Whitis is especially adept at crafting a tale that injects the unexpected into action in many satisfyingly unpredictable ways.
There are psychological and political examinations, to be sure—but these are supplemented with a fast-paced urgency as characters make the final attempts to rectify a world that has literally changed overnight.
Libraries that choose Eight Minutes to add to collections strong in apocalyptic sci-fi will find the story thoroughly compelling. It’s easy to recommend to patrons who enjoy stories of survival, adaptation, and social and philosophical inspection.
Packed with political, military, scientific, and survivalist perspectives, Eight Minutes represents an action-packed page-turner of a tale that is nearly impossible to put down.
Eight MinutesReturn to Index
Rebels &
Saints: Catching
Freedom
Lena Gibson
Black Rose Writing
978-1-68513-587-4
$24.95
Website:
https://lenagibsonauthor.ca/
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Rebels-Saints-Catching-Freedom-Hoppers/dp/1685135870
Rebels & Saints: Catching Freedom concludes the Train Hopper series with a final battle between the evil Greencorps and the rebels, which will delight prior series readers interested in the final outcome of this conflict.
Train-hopping experiences are again a prominent feature of this adventure, even though it’s set in 2195, where a very different American West flavor plays out.
Elsa and Walker continue their journey, and the struggle for democracy assumes renewed vigor and unpredictable outcomes as they navigate landscapes that will seem at once familiar and alien to modern-day readers.
Although a recap of events isn’t provided, Lena Gibson excels at injecting notes about the political conflict early in her story, giving newcomers immediate involvement via background details (although, really, they should read the prior books for a more full-bodied experience and appreciation of this final battle):
Portland seemed like something from the future, instead of stuck in the crumbling past. That’s what came from being a modern city and out from under GreenCorps’ rule. Perhaps some other time Elsa could enjoy the benefits of the Canadian city, but right now so many lives depended on breaking the corporation’s monopoly on food and water. She couldn’t stay and didn’t want to become too attached.
From the increasing, ruthless clamp-downs of GreenCorps on trains which are the lifeblood of connection to increasing problems hopping on and off them, that has given Elsa and Walker their edge, Gibson evolves a plot steeped in train culture, social fluctuation, and political chaos.
Given the many uncertainties and issues of control in modern times, readers will find especially thought-provoking the point/counterpoint confrontations the characters experience as they attempt to retake occupied territory such as Salt Lake City.
Points of view that shift between rebels offer especially intriguing insights on the motivations, perceptions, and interests of the vying forces. This gives Rebels & Saints: Catching Freedom a well-balanced duality that illustrates not just one side’s ideals, but both objectives—which may not be as dissimilar as one might think.
As Mason, Caitlyn, Janna, Clark, and other participants consider their revised options, readers are brought into an emotionally and politically charged milieu which is captivating in its vivid atmosphere and juxtaposition of nonstop action and psychological inspections.
The theme of hope that underlies seemingly impossible situations and confrontations is one that feels especially relevant to modern times, embedding the action with a sense of optimism that grows as each character struggles.
Between growing subterfuge and campaigns that change their participants, the story poses an outstanding mix of intrigue and effort that proves hard to put down as train-hopping adventures blend with growth, conflict, and shifting ideals:
The fear of missing the train dissipated as they clambered over the top of the ladder and swung onto the covered porch to ride. Once seated, she stuffed in her earplugs, muffling the unpleasant roar of the train. Walker covered their legs and fronts with a tarp, and she leaned into him, sharing his warmth as they headed back toward GreenCorps and the life they wanted to change.
Libraries seeing popularity with Gibson’s prior Train Hoppers titles will find the final series addition to be just as thoroughly compelling as its predecessors. Patrons and readers will welcome Rebels & Saints: Catching Freedom’s expanded considerations and revised definitions of safety, a place that can be called home, and a mandate to step up to change the world before hopefully (and ultimately) returning to a place of peace.
Rebels & Saints: Catching FreedomReturn to Index
The Regolith Temple
Roxana Arama
Dhawosia Publishing
979-8989873159
$14.99
(paperback)/$4.99 (ebook)
Website:
https://roxanaarama.com/books/the-regolith-temple/
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZBZQ9TV
The Regolith Temple: A Sci-Fi Thriller lives up to its billing in spades, opening with an intriguing observation:
Whenever I ask Yamir to delete me, he always says, “Just give it more time, Y1. Unlike the rest of us, you have infinite time.” But infinite time without my family is not worth having.
Set in the same universe as Roxana Arama’s previous The Exiled Queen, this story features many of the same settings, vivid representations, and unexpected characters as her prior book. However, it expands that universe outward into quantum territory and work with artificial brains.
The first-person narrator, who used to be flesh-and-blood once, thought his work would support humanity’s growth. But though Y1 has his origins in said humankind, in reality he now is disconnected from his original purpose, creation, and mindset; set adrift by circumstances of his own choosing and new nature.
Arama creates another mind-boggling intersection of high tech, human emotion, and possibility that lives up to the story’s billing as a “sci-fi thriller.”
Explanations of past events and drama are so subtly wound into this story’s progression that prior fans won’t feel they are involved in any lengthy recaps, while newcomers to Arama’s world will easily slip into its dilemmas, challenges, and characters.
From A-brains locked into a lifetime sentence they never asked for to specters of demons, violent VR confrontations, Yamir’s purpose-driven work efforts, and android issues that delve into moral and ethical conundrums, adding fuel to the fires, The Regolith Temple excels in creating techno twists and turns most readers won’t see coming.
There are many reasons to love this thriller. Infused with a heady mix of action, insight, and the unexpected, The Regolith Temple delves deeply into not just the idea of the mind being uploaded into a computer, but what such an event would actually feel like ... and how this could pose impossible new dilemmas for all involved.
Libraries will want to display this book as a top pick for both thriller and sci-fi readers, but perhaps its best assignment will be for book clubs and discussion groups interested in debating the shadowy intersection between humanity and AI, and the special dilemmas that emerge from such connections.
Packed with riveting, on-edge reading that creates snappy, revealing scenarios of neural networks gone wild, The Regolith Temple deserves every ounce of attention a reader can give it. It rewards such time with vivid, thought-provoking scenarios of discovery and exploration that grow characters, AI possibilities, and reader mindsets with uncommon challenges and satisfyingly unpredictable results.
The Regolith TempleReturn to Index
Renegade
Michael J. Farlow
Wolf Press, LLC
979-8987433508
$12.95
Paperback/$3.50 eBook
http://www.michaeljfarlow.com/
Renegade is the fourth book in the Records of the Argos series, returning Captain Nick Hall and the ship and crew of the intelligence-gathering spacecraft Argos to Earth—there to face new dilemmas and challenges.
It’s been years since Nick’s father, Van Childs, left Earth to establish Guardian Force. His series of technological upgrades have changed Earth’s society and humanity as a whole. The change may not be all good as Nick and his crew discover.
Newly returned from an escapade in which a damaged AI from another world kidnapped the ship to force it into a rebellion, neither Nick nor his crew could imagine that Earth could present so many new puzzles.
With his crew on leave or temporarily reassigned, only the ship’s AI, Wizzy, is available to help Nick through his personal challenges.
These escalate to embrace covert and overt military actions that propel Nick into uncharted political, technological, and military territory.
Michael J. Farlow’s continuation of his series will be best enjoyed by prior enthusiasts of his Records of Argos explorations, which set the stage for a perfect segue into this return to situations at once familiar and unexpected. This audience will relish Nick’s ongoing challenges as he simultaneously confronts family, self, and the state of the planet. Yes, newcomers can readily delve into this space opera’s adventure and personalities; but it’s the prior reader who will appreciate the ongoing intricacy and threads of continuation created in the prior books.
Libraries will appreciate the vivid clashes that take place on different levels of technological and psychological discovery, while sci-fi patrons looking for action-packed adventure will find Renegade a page-turner that’s difficult to put down.
Packed with moments of enlightenment and discovery, the push and pull of shifting situations, and clashes with militant forces, Renegade’s multifaceted adventure will thoroughly appeal to readers seeking unexpected twists of plot. The tale simmers with social and political transformation, leaving the door more than ajar (without creating a cliffhanger) for more series additions.
RenegadeReturn to Index
Vaka Sevah, Book
One: The Great Ice
Lawrence Brown
Independently
Published
979-8344126203
$11.98
Paperback/$7.99 eBook
www.
vakasevah.com
Book One in the Vaka Sevah series opens a three-part story narrated over four books with an introduction by a first-person narrator who tells of a Detroit boy he encountered at a high school track who turns out to be anything but what he initially seems.
As he discloses a strange story that plays out over nights of running and ends with the simple contention “It’s true,” the experiences of this boy and Ana Redhawk, who opens her door to trouble that changes her world, comes to life.
Readers won’t expect aliens that literally come stomping at a front door. In short time, they will also be surprised by the strange love that produces a different life for Ana. Visited by strangers, changed by an act of kindness that saves a leader and leaves behind several strange gifts, and spiced with vivid descriptions, Vaka Sevah, Book One embraces a uniquely compelling kind of alien encounter that no reader will be able to predict:
Tree lights flickered and sparked, and when the cylinder flared yelloworange, Ana felt every hope shatter like glass.
A host of characters both alien and human, earthbound and rooted in the stars, interact with further engrossing descriptions as Garth Miller, Uhreg, and others push the boundaries of their perceptions to embrace startling truths and realities.
Lawrence Brown incorporates a wry sense of humor that serves as comic relief to the very serious world-changing paradigms that pepper the story:
“Forgot to read the words? Were you too busy last night? Too much mindless TV? Fine, then tell us about that. Do you have a favorite show?”
He did have a favorite, but suspecting a Sudanese priest wouldn’t understand a sponge in pants, Garth mumbled his standard reply. “Whatever.”
“A response, Mr. Miller, that perfectly mirrors the apathy of many in seventeen seventy-six. Those sunshine patriots who slept in their beds while others crossed the Delaware and marched without boots. And maybe that’s why two of them died, why two young men froze where they fell in their bare, bloody feet. But since you hold no interest in the birth of this nation, you may take your ‘whatever’ back to your seat.”
This is supported by the mystery of Garth’s origins, the purpose of his life on Earth, and the influence of other worlds that feature very different purposes and creatures as battles, quests, and devils emerge.
This series features young adult and adult characters. This translates to a special recommendation for space opera fans of all ages, from teens through adults, who receive a juxtaposition of characters and purposes that proves thoroughly engrossing.
Libraries that choose Vaka Sevah, Book One: The Great Ice for their collections will want to consider the three others in the series to be mandatory acquisitions, because the first book takes the time to sketch the outlines of what promises to be an epic, world-changing encounter.
Space opera fans seeking stories that take the time to build big scenarios from small beginnings, such as an encounter at a high school track, will welcome the introductory salvo of a story exceptionally vivid in its gripping descriptions:
Atta Ra walked on air. And just behind him, his gunship followed like a rumbling steel wolf.
Vaka Sevah, Book One: The Great IceReturn to Index
Vaka Sevah, Book
Two: The Greater
Sand
Lawrence Brown
Independently
Published
979-8345555507
$9.99
Paperback/$7.99 eBook
www.
vakasevah.com
Book Two of the Vaka Sevah series continues the journey begun in the first title, following Garth across the galaxy to the icy/hot world of Corrahg, where creatures vie for control of their own planet’s destiny and confront the plots of aliens who would use it as a gateway for their invasion. What hope can clans and primitives have over a technology that is so superior, they barely understand the threat it poses to their world?
Garth has passed one test, but there are more to come as he contemplates the probable end of this world and his role as its savior (as the Vaka Sevah), facing a vivid dual challenge of duty and death in the Sea of Bones.
Nightmares both sleeping and waking permeate his clashes with expectations and his own psyche as Garth confronts “too much mystery, not enough air” in many different ways.
Familiarity with Book One in the series is a requirement in order to appreciate the blossoming characters, aliens, survival challenges, and importance of a strange boy to this evolution of events.
Prior readers will thoroughly appreciate how Lawrence Brown develops and intersects fate, old promises and new challenges, and characters that discover their intrinsic strengths must adapt and change in order to continue as formidable forces in this world.
The boy introduced in the first book becomes both a target and an attraction as choices and discoveries continue to expand Brown’s adventure.
Libraries will relish how fate, loss, and rebirth intersect in unexpected ways to add thought-provoking pauses to the nonstop action. The story’s mercurial conclusion, where Garth embraces “the madness of an unsettled end”, sets the stage for more while neatly concluding this segment of an interplanetary journey of revelation.
Gripping, unexpected in its twists, and filled with insights about technology, superiority, strange attractions, and military clashes, Vaka Sevah, Book Two: The Greater Sand creates an expanding scenario just as satisfyingly tense and unpredictable as the first book.
Vaka Sevah, Book Two: The Greater SandReturn to Index
Vaka Sevah, Book
Three: The Mystical
Heights
Lawrence Brown
Independently
Published
979-8346690696
$12.98
Paperback/$7.99 eBook
www.
vakasevah.com
By now, enthusiasts of Lawence Brown’s prior Vaka Sevah books will anticipate a story replete with vivid adventure, a quest that spans different worlds and belief systems, and the shifting realm of Atta Ra, whose successful quest has led to expanding his rule.
Once again, Garth faces challenges to his life purpose and perception that also raises astute questions for his readers:
Unable to climb or let go, he weighed the lives of everyone on Corrahg against an innocent man rotting in jail.
An awful choice—but he had he learned nothing in the Cave of the Beast? Was every dilemma just a two-sided coin?
Perceived as an invader and deceiver when Garth’s true intentions couldn’t be more different, he pursues not only an elusive goal, but the understanding healing of enlightenment. Garth confronts the impact of good and bad choices, ultimate death, and too many unanswered questions about his place and role in the universe’s bigger picture.
Lawrence Brown peppers his characters with conflict, struggle, and bigger-picture thinking as Garth muses on cause and effect, magic, and the roots of how hatred is formed and fueled.
Men and women, aliens and human confront prophecy, magic, monsters, and demons both within and in the greater world as the new adventures pour fuel on the fire of old revelations and discoveries.
What sets Brown’s epic space opera apart from many others is its injections of philosophical and spiritual thinking. This supplements impossible missions and circumstances with reflections that will engage and especially delight sci-fi readers looking for depth from their action-packed alien encounter stories.
Libraries that see popularity with the opening books of the quartet will find that The Mystical Heights’s observation of war, healing, relationships, and quandaries adds an extra dimension of confrontation between Garth and Atta Ra. It concludes in an unexpected cliffhanger more vivid with potential than the other series titles.
Powered by nonstop action, realizations both personal and metaphysical, and lies and gambles that hold dangerous implications for the future, this third book is like a supernova, expanding its grip into further scenarios of uncharted territory and the unexpected.
Consider Book Four a ‘must’ to resolve the many threads of discovery embedded in the first books of this wide-ranging series, as well as a promise of more to come.
Vaka Sevah, Book Three: The Mystical HeightsReturn to Index
Vaka Sevah, Book
Four: Illik Toh
Lawrence Brown
Independently
Published
979-8300716301
$15.99
Paperback/$8.99 eBook
www.
vakasevah.com
Vaka Sevah, Book Four: Illik Toh contains an additional level of violence and revelation that continues the threads developed in the prior three books in the world-building-and-destroying Vaka Sevah series. Its focus on the continuing incarnation of the elusive Promise, women who love and betray, and men who would destroy hope and deliver torture instead makes for thoroughly gripping reading.
Lawrence Brown vividly portrays the latter as Garth, Son of the King, encounters Cedec, Hunter of the Well, in a lab where thoughts and secrets are hunted and extracted.
The clashes between G’mach, warrior Atta Ra (destroyer of twelve worlds), and legends that emerge from the smoking ruins of tragedy and death make for vivid reading. Book Four is as engrossing as the prior three series titles, building upon the legends, characters, and communities of the prior books to reach for a final crescendo of struggle and discovery.
Brown’s strength lies in depicting not just a series of concurrent journeys that engage different sides in an effort to control, contain, or manipulate the future, but in crafting an ultimate destiny that forces them all to walk into new possibilities in very different ways.
The power of the pen comes alive through descriptions and clashes that sizzle, powerful men and women who represent forces of change and new opportunity (or ultimate destruction), and relationships that portend new potential from death and chaos.
Libraries seeking a world-changing sci-fi series that builds its adventures on interlocked characters that evolve in novel directions in each book will welcome the entire Vaka Sevah series. It’s comparable to Game of Thrones, but is much more accessible to a wider audience.
With complexity couched in alluring relationship- and world-building efforts, replete with “fantastical cities and alien worlds,” Vaka Sevah’s fourth and final book juxtaposes sweet delights, rousing action, and progressive discoveries that lean towards destroying a world, yet rebuilding a community in its wake.
Filled with “aha” moments that lend especially well to book club discussions, Vaka Sevah’s entire four-book production is a winner.
Vaka Sevah, Book Four: Illik TohReturn to Index
Literature
Passion &
Provocation
Judith Partelow
Atmosphere Press
979-8-89132-179-3
$18.99 / $8.99
ebook
www.atmospherepress.com
Passion & Provocation: Selected and New Poems is a series of writings that embrace personal experience and women’s issues, injecting poems into chapters that move from domestic themes to romance, realization, growth, and spiritual reflection.
With such a structure in mind, the progressive nature of Judith Partelow’s life journey gives readers a thoroughly engrossing journey that opens with a bang of insight in “I Used to Write”:
I used to
write
when the
lump in my throat
hurt so
much
it
splattered ink
all over
paper.
I haven’t
written for a long
time
but
suddenly life seems summed up
and my
throat aches
it aches.
From this, a steady pace and progression follows Partelow through life and growth opportunities, the free verse delivering a one/two punch of female experience. One example of this power and female-centric observations and relationships resides in “Asylum,” where:
I move
around inside
your
discarded housedress,
dear
ancient lady, reviving its
tattered threads
with a
strong heart and sinuous
limbs.
We are
linked now –
I to your
ninety-five years
as you
attempt to wrench free –
you, to
my separation of another
sort.
The challenge of this collection, to some sensitive readers, may lie in the heart-wrenching aspects of many of Partelow’s observations and connections. These capture the emotional quandaries of family ties, aging, and philosophical and emotional realizations which emerge from as ordinary a life pursuit as in “Recycling”:
My
husband finds questionable
left-overs
in the fridge
but has
learned to ask before
tossing –
I’ve
cautioned him
it may
still have some use.
I do not
hoard
but I do
hesitate
before
disposal.
Could it
have another life?
I
certainly have.
Librarians who choose Passion & Provocation: Selected and New Poems for their collections will want to especially highly recommend it to women’s groups and women’s literature readers, who will find the collection as a whole a powerful, immersive experience.
Filled with insights evolving from the ordinary, Passion & Provocation: Selected and New Poems is best digested slowly, for maximum flavor and reflection. Every bite is worth the time spent on contemplation, rewarding readers of free verse poetry with many rich insights.
Passion & ProvocationReturn to Index
Unrequited Loss
Elizabeth Engstrom
IFD Publishing
979-8-9852827-9-5
$14.95
www.amazon.com
Unrequited Loss gathers short stories written by Elizabeth Engstrom over a period of different times in her life. It features fiction that has been contributed to writing contests, reader’s groups, anthologies, and more. In presenting the top picks of her creative efforts, Engstrom demonstrates diversity and clarity where her pen and exploratory results shine.
Readers seeking literary, engrossing short pieces will find immediate satisfaction in the opening story “Deep Into the Darkness Peering,” in which frustrated writer Edgar is facing writer’s block and the horror of spending time with his beautiful, loving wife Virginia in a social situation he eschews.
All he wants is to be left alone. Be careful what you wish for.
Solitude comes in an unusual form, fueled by brandy, a journal requirement, and a choice that propels him towards his heart’s darkest desire.
Engstrom writes with a writer’s passionate attention to metaphor, description, and unexpected detail:
The brandy was his muse as well as his reason to live. How he hated it. How he loved it. He was imprisoned within that brown glass, and the resulting vision of his world was warped and dark.
He was inside the bottle. He was within the beacon. He was in his solitude, inside the light-house. Alone. Total solitude. No dinner parties, no meddling, well-meaning wife, no spousal expectations.
Heaven. A dark heaven, to be sure.
As her subject expands from a writer’s block to new possibilities, the story takes unexpected turns as it fields Edgar’s dreams, nightmares, and the dead calm and storms of one who is an isolated lighthouse dweller in his own mind.
Turns out Edgar is living an alternate reality that dovetails neatly with a truth which is only proffered via the story’s surprising conclusion and the reader’s realization about Edgar’s true identity and motivations.
Contrast this introspective literary reflection with “Persistence Pays,” in which three women fill in the blanks to an uncanny truth that takes the notion of coincidence and shakes it to its roots.
As readers follow the threads that connect these three strangers and the ironies that follow their choices, the core of their linkage comes to light with further twists that, once again, most won’t see coming.
Equally powerful is Engstrom’s ability to portray life’s ironies and oddities in such a manner that magical realism and new possibilities are explored in strange new ways:
It was strange, Lois thought, how they were all available to fly all the way across the country, arrive at approximately the same time, meet at the rental car desk without a hitch, and drove all the way north together without a squabble. Well hell, there were a lot of strange things going on. And now here were four women who didn’t know each other, sitting in front of an old house, each of them a former resident of this exact same house, and nobody wanted to go inside.
Next, embark on the journey that is “Playing Powerball.” Again, dwellings both physical and of the heart and soul come to light—in this tale, as something different as Davison Tollifer considers the impact of wealth, “the family overindulgence of a house,” and the lure of returning home to an estate that lays just outside the realm of possibility and logic.
A funeral may have drawn disparate siblings back together, but the nuggets of discovery that stem from loss point out that “In this family, nothing was ever that easy.” Whether it’s coming together or laying the past to rest, Davison confronts ghosts in a place that “was never his home” as he considers, perhaps for the final time, the impact of wealth and generosity on the different paths children choose for their lives.
A father’s ultimate disappointment in his family turns into a peculiar form of revenge as loss, guilt, and collusion play out.
Each story is a microcosm of experience and insight that will delight the psyche; whether literary readers seek the macabre, psychological shifts that render the underpinnings of foundations fluid, or the types of loss that expand notions of adaptation, change, and tragedy into unfamiliar territory.
Libraries seeking disparate short pieces that explore the boundaries of loss, adaptation, and transformation will find plenty to recommend in Unrequited Loss—especially for book clubs and reading groups interested in literary explorations of shifting relationships with self and society.
Packed with food for thought powered by engaging and often novel situations and characters, Unrequited Loss is especially notable for its powerful, reflective voice:
It was an adventure they were on, he told himself, but those were just words. The truth was, he was scared, so afraid and so homesick he wanted to die. Adventure was just a term, because they had no choice; they could never go home again. Home had been poisoned, ruined, completely destroyed. To go off on an adventure was the only possible life left.
Unrequited LossReturn to Index
In the Shadow of
Fort McHenry
Thomas E. Sawyer
Pitbull Literary
and Publishing
Service
$18.88
Paperback/$8.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/SHADOW-FORT-McHENRY-REMEMBRANCES-CHILDHOOD/dp/B0DY1QVDCC
In the Shadow of Fort McHenry: Remembrances of a Childhood Past captures Thomas E. Sawyer’s childhood in a manner intended to not only review early influences on his life, but to illustrate how the scars, traumas, and positive influencers of childhood build values and personalities that form the foundations of adult attitudes and actions.
As such, In the Shadow of Fort McHenry extends the format of a memoir/autobiography by referencing American history and experience, bringing it to life via a personal touch that proves immersive and thoroughly engrossing:
Because of the widespread lack of indoor plumbing, the institution of the "bath house" flourished in most American metropolitan areas. The bath house in Baltimore was located in the inner harbor area, near the city's central fish market. For a nickel, you got a small bar of brown soap and a small towel. There were separate bathing facilities for the two sexes. Ernest Mielke would frequent the bath house once every month for a "good soak." But neither Mildred nor Mrs. Mielke ever would go. In Mildred's case, she did not wish to mingle with the "great unwashed”. Mrs. Mielke, on the other hand, thought it "immodest" to undress in front of other women. Not only were individuals of that era lacking in habits of personal hygiene, they were also economical in changing clothes. For example, many male citizens of the day wore the same underwear for a week at a time without changing. (Men and boys alike wore so-called 'long-johns' in the winter and jockey shorts in the hot summer.)
This bygone era’s most intimate details, from bathing to belief systems, are thus captured through the unusual employment of the third person. This approach helps the story read like a novel, with drama and observational embellishments that really reach out to readers.
Another plus to In the Shadow of Fort McHenry are accompanying insights about individuals and interactions in Tommy’s South Baltimore neighborhood. There’s intrigue, secrets, revelations, and a thorough immersion in bygone values which flavor the memoir, bringing crimes and people to life:
It’s difficult to describe the barbershop’s everyday working conditions. Most days, the barbers would be cutting hair nonstop from the time they arrived in the morning till well after the appointed closing time of six-thirty at night. On many occasions, they would still be cutting hair dose to midnight if the soldiers had an early morning inspection the following day, or if men were shipping out. Mr. Miller always took time to eat lunch at the mess hall, but Norman often had Tommy bring him back a sandwich to eat while still cutting hair. Moreover, the barbershop was cold in the winter (for some reason, the building's boiler could not generate much heat) and unbearably hot in the summer. There was no air conditioning, and electric fans were useless as they blew up too much hair. The barbers really earned their money!
The influence of Fort McHenry impacts community lives as Sawyer covers his childhood and his coming of age from 1945 to 1949, revealing a wealth of encounters that illustrate how his values were built upon these experiences.
The result is a memoir that libraries will find especially riveting for its probe of time, place, and the results of living in the shadow of a changing America, the military’s influence, and family entanglements.
Whether readers enjoy autobiography, historical probes, or tales of shifting family dynamics, In the Shadow of Ft. McHenry will reach a wide audience with thought-provoking, atmospheric reflections and experiences. The accounts of military experiences on domestic soil that culminate in a choice Sawyer finds both logical and unexpected provides both a rationale for moving into adulthood and fuel for uplifting reflection:
…whatever lay ahead had to be better than what lay behind.
Libraries and book clubs will thoroughly appreciate its vivid, “you are here” moments and the opportunity to discuss American history and culture in a deeper manner than most memoirs offer.
In the Shadow of Fort McHenryReturn to Index
One Year and a
One-Way Ticket
Danika Smith
Atmosphere Press
979-8-89132-562-3
$18.99 pb, $27.99
hc, $8.99 e-book
www.atmospherepress.com
One Year and a One-Way Ticket: Ditching My Mother's Five-Year Career Plan to Travel Solo is a memoir of Danika Smith’s journey away from her mother’s control and a seemingly set future, which included becoming a veterinarian and taking a brief trip before she entered grad school.
Rejected by grad school and suddenly free of this possibility, Smith turned her short trip into a solo, adventure-filled journey of self-discovery. She departed from her hard-working course to regroup and consider new options for her future.
Smith begins this saga with the letter of rejection that suddenly upended the trajectory she and her mother had planned for her entire life. From the start, it’s evident that this isn’t the first time Smith had departed from ambitions and ideas—it’s just the latest:
I flashback to five years ago when I gave up pursuing an unconventional career in the dance and art world. I told my high school dance teacher, Ms. Brown, that I was applying to study sciences.
“You’ll be lost without dance,” she replied as she stared through my eyes to my soul...I didn’t listen to her. Studying science was the sensible option. Life would be easier. I would be successful. Except this letter from Guelph isn’t a success. I’m not just lost now, I’m stuck.
As Smith shifts her focus from career-building to life-changing experiences, readers enjoy a heady mix of discovery and reflection as she makes friends around the world, encounters different cultures, and learns important life lessons from each country:
I hug her and thank her again for such a loving welcome to her home. It warms my heart to know that if I ever return to India, I have people eager for me to visit. My fears about coming to India six weeks ago seem silly now. I’ve never felt unsafe once since arriving. My main concern is how I’ll ever repay and properly thank my friends and their families for opening up their homes and hearts to me.
Romances, emotional quandaries and connections, and reflections about life’s forward momentum drive a travel adventure that is as much a story of awakening and growth as it is a romp through Asia, Europe, and self.
Readers seeking an armchair travel read that does more than observe other cultures, but immerses them in a traveler’s life changes, will relish One Year and a One-Way Ticket’s ability to bring all aspects of travel to life.
Flavored with growth and personal reflection, the memoir is a powerful, alluring, top recommendation for libraries, would-be travelers, those on the road, and readers who have been “set free” from expectation and convention, who contemplate their own transformative choices:
I didn’t think it was possible, but a lot changes after a year of traveling across oceans. Besides all the memories collected and lessons learned, I’ve finally tuned into the power to follow my heart and found the courage to trust what the universe has in store for me.
One Year and a One-Way TicketReturn to Index
The Shoulder
Season: A Memoir of
Fracture and Grace
Ann Campanella
The Bridge
9798307386170
$18.95
Website: Ann
Campanella | Memoirist, Editor, Poet
On the face of it, Ann Campanella’s The Shoulder Season: A Memoir of Fracture and Grace is a story about an empty-nester facing newfound opportunities while fielding an injury caused by something as innocuous as tripping over her dog.
Readers who pursue The Shoulder Season will find Campanella’s survey of her accident, long recovery, and adaptation embraces many unexpected new ways of not just living, but viewing the world. This makes her memoir far more than an account of healing alone, but a documentation of the transformative process that life can introduce to set routines and expectations.
The paradox of moving from a particularly active lifestyle to one in which she faced a potentially life-altering sea change embraces survival and adaptation in a manner that anyone facing similar debilitation needs to know.
In a nutshell: hope lies at the bottom of Campanella’s Pandora’s box of depression and negativity—a message that needs to be absorbed by anyone facing their own life-altering moments:
...even if I never regained feeling in my right arm, I could feel things in my heart. At sixteen hours, I came to the conclusion I would be numb forever, my hand dangling useless by my side. For this moment, it didn’t matter. I could still write; I could dictate my thoughts into a microphone; I would find a way to plumb the depths of emotion swirling within me; I could use my voice to illuminate the weave of darkness and light, I would journey through, whether I had the use of my limbs or not, and the process of writing would help me understand my place in the world.
How can she “transition back to normal”? She can’t. Everything changes in the blink of an eye as Campanella tackles pain and a vastly revised future, employing spiritual reflection and other techniques for reinventing her life.
Sensitive readers mired in their own challenging recovery process may find these in-depth descriptions of surgeries, physical therapies, and setbacks to be both eye-opening and impactful. However, the hope that resonates at each step is something readers really need in order to fall into and maintain their own upward momentums in the face of impossible circumstances:
I started reading Uncharted, a memoir about a couple of empty nesters who buy a sailboat and begin exploring the Pacific Northwest. Joel and I weren’t empty nesters yet, but we were close. Kim Brown Seely’s honest account of the dangers of voyaging through a major life transition was what just I needed. Like the author, who faced changing tides and weather conditions each day, I had no idea what was ahead in the next phase of my recovery.
The result, like few other memoirs of healing and discovery, embraces all the moments of influence and discovery that are intrinsic to making a full recovery.
Libraries will find The Shoulder Season a captivating, ultimately positive, uplifting recommendation to readers facing debilitating accidents and recovery challenges—but the heart of this memoir lies not just in its empowerment opportunity, but in a survey that weaves in other life transitions to create a bigger picture of transformation.
In this effort Ann Campanella shines, creating an ultimately inspiring survey of life that encourages her readers to not just survive and overcome, but move into the light of self-realization and novel opportunities that might not have emerged without the Pandora’s box of pain preceding hope.
The Shoulder Season: A Memoir of Fracture and GraceReturn to Index
Better Off Dead
Glenda Carroll
Indies United
Publishing House, LCC
978-1-64456-795-1
$17.99
(Paperback); $20.95 Audio;
$4.99 eBook
Website: glendacarroll.com
Ordering:
https://tinyurl.com/4kuznvhv
Better Off Dead is a Trisha Carson mystery that delivers intrigue with a delightful introductory punch:
“I really shouldn’t be here,” I complained to Lena as we drove up the long, pebbled driveway leading to an elegant home in an elegant community in Marin County. I never went to funerals. They made me itchy. That’s right, itchy.
Open water swimmer and financier Andy Barlow’s boating accident in the turbulent waters of the San Francisco Bay seems to be a straightforward tragedy. But amateur sleuth Trisha suspects that something more is involved. Her foray into the world of business, special interests, and motivations for murder turns up not just a scenario for revenge, but even more bodies.
From the start, Trisha considers the question of a swimmer’s dedication and its impact on a struggling new business pursuit:
Andy’s connection with reality had begun to slip. Swimming and not bringing in new clients were one thing. But attempting a marathon swim like the length or width of Lake Tahoe with little open water experience was nuts … so said the swimmer I talked to. While Marty attempted to keep their business moving forward, Andy swam and swam and swam. If I was Marty, I’d want control of their financial planning organization too. But would I kill for it?
Questions of investments dovetail with Trisha’s personal life, which consist of a father, a dog (“The Babe”), and a dilemma that threatens to reach into her world with a dangerous twist that places her in the crosshairs of discovery and death.
The rolling whitecaps of the San Francisco Bay involves her in a boating investigation that leads her to the Coast Guard’s search and rescue mandate, nautical insights, and considerations of whodunit.
Glenda Carroll well knows the San Francisco Bay Area, and takes the time to richly inject its atmosphere into Trisha’s puzzle:
I sat there watching the fog play hide and seek with the Golden Gate Bridge towers. The occupants of the boat kept changing. Hatch either lied again or didn’t really know who went out that day with Andy. I needed to look at this from a different angle.
Satisfying twists and turns keep readers guessing alongside Trisha as too many potential perps and not enough clarity challenges her problem-solving abilities.
Libraries looking for mysteries steeped in a sense of place (in this case, California), that take the time to build realistic characters who confront their own assumptions and future, will find Better Off Dead perfect reading for patrons seeking mysteries that embrace a whodunit while cementing events in a sense of place as well as purpose.
Loaded with thought-provoking twists that challenge both Trisha and her readers, Better Off Dead is a fine foray into both charted and uncharted territory that proves a real page-turner.
Better Off DeadReturn to Index
Burn It All Down
W.A. Pepper
Hustle Valley Press
ASIN: B0CZ178RS1
$4.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Burn-All-Down-Tanto-Thriller-ebook/dp/B0CZ178RS1
At least I am following Bushido Code: even in the midst of possible death/incarceration, use every weapon at your disposal and leave no arrow unfired.
Burn It All Down adds another Tanto thriller to W.A. Pepper’s collection, exploring what happens when Tanto and his crack cyber-team of investigators find the tables turned to where they are considered to be the enemy. That’s because Tanto chose a dangerous adversary when he pushed to expose a prison program that translates to enslavement practices.
W.A. Pepper builds a gripping nonstop action story from its opening lines, which also incorporate a flavor of wry humor:
Unlike my
first abduction, this
time there is no ringing of stun grenades in my ears when someone
slips the bag over my head. Also, I’m fully dressed and not in my
underwear.
As events unfold,
Tanto discovers
that his team and teachings are fully capable of evolving without him
at the helm:
Everyone has moved on, even improved what I helped set up, without me.
Is he even meaningful any longer?
As Tanto absorbs the blame for things he didn’t do, confronts emotional backlashes that place him at odds with a wide range of characters, and tackles more than one betrayal when life-threatening events emerge, readers will appreciate the edge-of-your-seat action that keeps the story mercurial and thoroughly engrossing.
Miracles, cyberaction, and powerful evil forces that threaten to take Tanto down with them create a thriller that excels in swift pace, strong characters, and unpredictable atmospheres.
Libraries either seeing popularity with Pepper’s prior books or looking for a commanding stand-alone thriller will want to add Burn It All Down to their collections.
Packed with accounts of government infiltrations, encounters that are “as scary as ... brilliant,” and intriguing contrasts between technology and ideals, the story is quite simply a simmering, event-driven saga that is thoroughly engrossing and very highly recommended:
On the one hand, technology brought me closer to people ... On the other hand, my belief in the Bushido Code did the same.
Burn It All DownReturn to Index
The Lizard
Domenic Stansberry
Molotov Editions
978-1-948596-05-3
$18.95
Paperback/$34.95 Hardcover/$9.95 eBook
www.molotoveditions.com
After the shootings I abandoned my car and wandered in the desert, in cave country, along the fault lines east of River‐ side. I was feverish, on the brink of hallucination.
The Lizard is a mystery that opens with a rich first-person bang and keeps delivering disparate shots of discovery, murder, and politics. The story revolves around a dangerous conspiracy that involves political ghostwriter S.E. Reynolds, whose bilateral work encounters with activists and politicians changes his life.
Besides an ever-changing plot that introduces many satisfying twists and turns, Domenic Stansberry’s metaphorical, atmospheric descriptions supercharge the first-person experience with reflections that contrast the safety of and longing for home with murders that keep the perp on the run:
This is the truth:
I miss Renée. I miss my children. I miss my house filled with light and the sounds of traffic rising from Belham Avenue next to the Canal. I miss the coyotes and the smell of wildfire drifting down from the hills. I miss the wrinkled ugliness of my parents, forever vanishing into the dementia of their front porch.
How does an investigative reporter assigned to cover a crime scene become a criminal murder suspect, himself? Stansberry creates important, hard-hitting ties between past and present events in chapters that are clear in both their timelines and contrasts between past life and future ironic dilemmas:
Everyone believes they’re born to something special. You must remember that, use it to your advantage. That’s what a newspaper editor told me twenty-five years ago, in his office in Sacramento. Idealists are egotists, he insisted; they think their opinions matter—and are likewise virtuous.
As Reynolds discovers, “everything circles back” as those he leaves behind move forward into their lives and sometimes death. As an apparent suicide is probed, personal decisions questioned, and fragile moments and connections captured via memorials, Reynolds navigates a world which seems to be breaking down in more than one way.
Stansberry’s multifaceted, rich story is highly recommended for libraries seeking tales that stand out from the mystery genre crowd. Its seat-of-your-pants, edgy experiences keep protagonist and readers guessing.
Those who enjoy realistic, thoroughly engrossing mysteries that embrace journeys of discovery (both self-discovery and the outside world’s connections) will relish the fast paced, absorbing characters, and myriad murder questions that makes The Lizard an absolutely compelling read.
The LizardReturn to Index
No Hill to Die On
Martin Roy Hill
32-32 North/
M. R. Hill
Publishing
979-8218575700 $8.99 eBook
www.martinroyhill.com
No Hill to Die On is the fourth book in the Peter Brandt mystery series, stirring up old Vietnam ghosts in Peter’s past that he’d thought were long laid to rest surrounding the death of his older brother Keith.
Keith’s former fiancée Rhonda White stirs up this specter with a shocking claim that his brother is, in fact, alive. This creates the momentum for an investigation when Rhonda is murdered and his probe opens cans of worms about the real truth surrounding his brother’s involvements and life or death.
Martin Roy Hill builds captivating characters and suspense that need no prior introduction in order to prove immediately accessible and compelling to newcomers to Peter’s world:
SHAKESPEARE BELIEVED THE PAST is prologue. But most times we hope the past is just the past, something that happened, perhaps inevitably, and then is gone and forgotten. Unfortunately, the past has a nasty habit of rearing up again when you least expect it—or want it. Take ghosts, for instance. Not the kind that haunt buildings, but the kind that haunt your dreams. I know all about those ghosts.
But the past I slammed up against that day wasn’t my own. It was my older brother Keith’s. My dead brother Keith.
Peter’s probe of reporting oversights that may be deliberate and calculated omissions of fact uncovers connections that draw him into dangerous territory. He delves into Marine and Navy cover-ups that expose new possibilities and truths about his brother’s involvements, actions, and the intentions of those around him, both enemies and friends.
As Peter draws closer to the truth of what really happened in Saigon, his own life becomes precarious:
I was following a scared animal into his lair, and scared animals are always the most dangerous.
Dialogues, a host of possible perps and purposes, and history that turns out to be finely-tuned deception poses revelations to investigator and reader alike as the story unfolds. Exquisite tension and well-developed twists and turns keep Peter and his readers guessing as murder, treachery, and discovery permeate a saga that’s all too personal for Peter.
Libraries that seek mysteries edging into thriller territory, sculpted with attraction and tension that keep readers guessing, will welcome No Hill to Die On into their collections.
Packed with “aha” moments of the unexpected, a focus on Vietnam events that take dark personal turns, and murders most foul, No Hill to Die On represents riveting reading at its best.
No Hill to Die OnReturn to Index
Shake-speared in
the Park
Joy Ann Ribar
Wine Glass Press
978-1959078272
$17.95
Paperback/$4.95 eBook
www.joyribar.com
Professor Bay Browning first made her appearance in The Medusa Murders, solving a crime steeped in literature and mythology. Shake-speared in the Park continues the literary theme with a foray into Shakespearian territory, where a murder is linked to a Shakespeare costume party gone awry.
Bay Browning and her newly reunited sister Cassandra find themselves embroiled in a puzzler which involves the aristocratic Posey, head of the Twenty-first Century Club and Literary Society. Posey’s parties are renowned—but this garden party proves to be the most memorable of them all.
Viewpoints shift between Cass, sister Bay, and sometimes the combination of the two as they are tapped to become involved in a dangerous cat-and-mouse investigation because of their prior investigative success:
Leaning forward, hands clasped on the desk blotter, she stared from Bay to Jen. “I would appreciate it if the two of you would quietly investigate this matter.”
When the women blinked without responding, Stasia added, “As you did during the winter when that Medusa killer was stalking about.”
As they uncover truths about lead actor Talon Hunt’s associations and death, the sisters draw ever closer as they navigate student actors, fellow investigators, and truths that unexpectedly link back to not just Shakespeare, but another “accident” involving Cher Devane (who plays Juliet), Jackson, and other actors.
Joy Ann Ribar is masterful at creating her characters’ connections to one another, highlighting Shakespearian drama, and evolving deadly events which reach out to embroil Cass and Bay in another mystery.
The dance between the sisters and those who influence their relationship and personal lives adeptly turns into a compelling series of steps taken to delve into motivations, consequences, and the sisters’ own developing relationship.
Ribar cements her characters in not only mystery and unexpected events, but an investigative process that challenges each player’s concepts of justice and retribution. Added value stems from the interaction between possible bullies and actors who might harbor secret lives or nefarious objectives. These developments lend a full-bodied feel to a story steeped in and supported by relationship developments that play out both onstage and in the wings.
Libraries seeking a mystery that embraces a literary bent will appreciate the Shakespearian allusions of Shake-speared in the Park, while readers seeking an involving interplay between characters and unexpected twists and turns will find it the perfect read.
Filled with a cast of characters that each grow and develop while contributing their personalities to the mystery’s development and outcome, Shake-speared in the Park is quite simply thoroughly engrossing, hard to predict, and impossible to put down.
Shake-speared in the ParkReturn to Index
Unsolved
Susan Fleet
Music &
Mayhem Press
978-1-7321301-4-2
$15.00
Print/$2.99 eBook
Website: https://susanfleet.com/
Ordering: https://mybook.to/Unsolved
He never intended to kill her.
He just wanted to take Lily out for her birthday.
In Unsolved, Detective Frank Renzi pursues an ex-cop-turned-murderer who has been on the lam for eight years. It takes a clever cop (or one with lots of knowledge) to stay hidden that long, but Zack is a formidable opponent. Zack grabs Frank’s crime-busting attention because his daughter Lily, is now a teen living in a home for wayward girls.
Unsolved is the 12th book in the Frank Renzi crime thriller series. Prior fans will be delighted, and newcomers will find Frank and his exploits immediately accessible, requiring no prior familiarity in order to dive right into his latest dilemma. A hard-hitting prologue sets the stage for the events to come.
Readers should expect the unexpected. Even given the twists and turns of the thriller/crime-solving genre, Unsolved stands in a class of its own as Frank ramps up his search and becomes embroiled in a series of interconnected dilemmas.
Susan Fleet takes the time to develop the character of Lily, who struggles with addiction, her school milieu of drug trafficking, bad influences, and the choices she has made in her young life. Fleet includes Lily’s consideration of what life might have been for her, if her family had been different:
Sometimes she wondered how life would have been if she had someone to love her after Mom got murdered and Dad left. None of the girls who lived here had anyone that cared about them.
This augments the crime-solving with a satisfying blend of social and psychological issues that involve readers in not just a cat-and-mouse game, as so many thrillers rely on, but ideals of development, love, adversity, and family ties.
Thus Frank’s investigative prowess expands to embrace all manner of influence and concerns, thoroughly involving readers in family dynamics and personal dilemmas, including the various escape methods father, daughter, and others employ as they attempt to build new lives.
This adds intriguing developments to the story as Lily and her father imagine their escape will bring new possibilities to counter former negative personality patterns and adaptive methods that have led to terrible choices in the past.
Libraries that consider Unsolved will find it stands nicely alone in the expanding Frank Renzi thriller series—no need to view the prior 11 books as necessary acquisitions in order to choose this addition. Patrons will appreciate how thoroughly Frank’s probe intersects with the lives he’s uncovering.
Its compelling character developments and thought-provoking uncertainties and twists are perfect for both individual pursuit and book club discussions. Unsolved hits another ball out of the thriller park for a perfect home run of satisfaction and intrigue.
UnsolvedReturn to Index
Novels
52 Weeks a Party
of One
Bianca Pensy Aba
Independently
Published
979-8-9916897-0-0
$15.99
Paperback/$4.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Weeks-Party-One-Bianca-Pensy-ebook/dp/B0DJTDQ6Z7
In the opening chapter of 52 Weeks a Party of One, Aisha has just discovered that her best friend and her boyfriend are in a relationship. Usually she’s known for a wicked tongue and biting candor, but this time she flees to a new state in search of peace and contemplative aloneness. What she finds there fuels a thought-provoking, memorable story of identify and growth that women will find powerful.
Readers might think that the events that follow her move will lead to ongoing growth—but, no. That would force Aisha to think too hard about not just her friendships and love, but family influences on her choices. Part of her desire to vanish is to also disappear from her life’s patterns and previous influences. Thus she engages in distractions (nee: building a new life) on a mission to put the past behind her.
The problem is that the past is never far away, so Aisha’s personal mandate to recreate herself falls short of the promise that distance introduced, and she finds herself falling back into too-familiar routines.
Of special note about this story is the time taken to describe the impact of being alone instead of connected to circles of friends or family:
Aisha was often in the corner of the room, looking at the different crowds and observing the changing dynamics. Sometimes, she stayed in the restaurant so long that the coffees became mimosas, then wine or liquor. She had learned to bring her laptop to give the appearance that she was working on something very important. The electronic device lessened the number of sympathetic looks typically thrown her way. If she was busy working on something, it apparently justified her being alone.
Bianca Pensy Aba’s foray into one woman’s identity crisis imparts more than new discoveries. It also covers how Aisha learns to be truly alone, landing at ground zero so she can grow again—albeit in a different direction.
Pensy Aba generously describes Aisha’s entire process, whether it involves vivid new experiences or quiet desperation:
By the time she went to bed, thoughts were just a breeze. They came and went, gently caressing her with no real impact, and only leaving a faint trace of what they once were on their way to wherever they landed. And all Aisha did was smile because, at that moment, she couldn’t see clearly and think straight. The fog was everywhere. And sometimes, the best thing to do when everything was blurry was to close your eyes.
The result is a novel that is especially highly recommended for women’s reading groups and book clubs interested in contrasting a newly single life’s ebb and flow with the process by which one young woman reinvents herself.
Libraries will find 52 Weeks a Party of One of broad interest to audiences attracted to novels of not just self-growth, but self-reliance.
52 Weeks a Party of OneReturn to Index
Bittersweet
Rendezvous in New
England
Diane Green
DCG Books
979-8335924382
$12.99
Paperback/$5.99 eBook
www.DCGBooks.com
Readers of Christian fiction and love stories who seek blends of faith and growth from their romances will welcome Bittersweet Rendezvous in New England, which takes the traditional love triangle idea in a different direction.
A preface sets the stage with an unexpected foray into kidnapping, identity change, family inheritance and conspiracy, and a man who goes into hiding in an effort to escape his past.
At the heart of the tale is Becky Chalmers, who is attracted to two very different men who share her interest. But the story opens with Juan (nee John), a novice to the snowy winter environment before him who meets Sadie, a young woman who admires his warm heart. Reference is made to the fact that she is “almost like Becky.” The reader’s interest only grows as new truths emerge about past, present, and possible futures.
Becky and her brother Jimmy have traveled to New England, where distance from everything familiar will theoretically help their decision-making processes; especially since Becky’s potential beaus are so very different (Mike is a reliable public servant while Juan Carlos is more exciting, but is a transient fleeing his murderous family).
New England’s weather introduces new challenges and pleasures, as well, as Becky, Sadie, and Jimmy each grow from their departure from everything they know. Becky’s tragedy in losing Juan Carlos on the cusp of their wedding leads to her new mandate to not only recover from her loss, but get answers.
Tragedy is never far behind, however, and threatens to divide, destroy, and further alter the course of Becky’s life.
Libraries that choose Bittersweet Rendezvous in New England will especially appreciate its clean romance, its thought-provoking insights on decision-making and love, a New England winter atmosphere which outlines both shared pleasures and trials of the snowy season, and its ability to draw a wide audience of romance readers interested in multifaceted attractions.
Packed with absorbing, unpredictable twists and a conclusion many won’t see coming, Bittersweet Rendezvous in New England is quite simply a warm, cozy read to counter the bitter coldness of winter, unrequited love, and life challenges.
Bittersweet Rendezvous in New EnglandReturn to Index
The Broken Fife
Gary C. Demack
Atmosphere Press
979-8-89132-560-9
$16.99 paperback,
$25.99 hardcover;
$7.99 e-book
www.atmospherepress.com
Historical fiction readers who choose The Broken Fife for its promise of Civil War battle will find Gary C. Demack’s novel thoroughly embedded with not just vivid military encounters, but close and powerful examinations of individual struggle, idealism, reality, and experience.
Teen Junius falls in love with Ruby, one of his father’s slaves. But when their plot to escape via the Underground Railroad is exposed and Ruby is captured, Junius must find a way of tracking her kidnappers and freeing her.
What better way than to employ his talent as a fifer (which he learned from his grandfather) to join the Missouri State Guard and track her whereabouts? However, Junius didn’t count on their unit becoming part of a bigger conflict, sparking its union with the Confederate Army.
As his newfound life and purpose begins to change, readers follow Junius into a vivid scenario in which initial romance morphs into a struggle for personal survival and an involvement in a battle that tests his moral values and future.
Demack weaves the better-known Civil War atmosphere and events into the blossoming of a teenager on the cusp of adulthood, who finds his choices and their consequences challenged by love and war.
Readers seeking a romance alone will find the protagonist’s interest in locating Ruby against all odds, and the life-changing choice that supports his mission, to be vividly intriguing as the war’s embrace both separates the characters and leads to more complex concerns.
These supersede individual vision with a bigger picture that emerges in response to struggle. The action doesn’t end with the war’s conclusion. Junius discovers some horrifying truths about Ruby and his future which lends further depth to the Civil War backdrop.
Of special interest (and notably outstanding for a Civil War-based tale) are dialogues that reinforce local lingo and perceptions:
“You call your paw Jim?” he asked. He marveled at the other information that she related to him, never imagining that her family history could be so interesting. It all made her that much more appealing to him for some reason. Was it normal for Africans to have their children call them by their given names?
The depth of war experiences and personal lives transformed by the Civil War are also especially noteworthy:
“These
are good men, sir. They
don’t deserve to be treated the way they have been. The way we’ve
all been treated. They deserve to live out their lives at home with
their loved ones, unlike our fallen comrades, who will never be able
to. We’re probably walking over spots where our comrades fell for
no reason.”
Readers looking for historical fiction that embraces a “you are here” feel throughout will find the many challenges Junuis faces, and his changing objectives and insights, makes for thoroughly engrossing reading.
Libraries will want to recommend The Broken Fife to Civil War fiction readers seeking a fuller-bodied emotional experience than most period pieces offer.
Packed with personal, political, and ideological growth, The Broken Fife brings the times to life with a powerful focus on individual transformation that adds a winning flavor of discovery. This approach invites readers to better understand war’s potential for altering every fiber of ambition, perception, and experience.
The Broken FifeReturn to Index
Corporate Escapades
T.K. Ambers
Star Spirit
Adventures.
979-8-9878663-9-9 $14.99
paperback/$4.99 eBook
Website: www.tkambers.wixsite.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Escapades-T-K-Ambers-ebook/dp/B0D38TK979
Corporate Escapades is a romance and romp through corporate politics all in one, giving readers a run for their money through arenas that create satisfyingly surprising connections between grief, loss, and ladder-climbing goals. These efforts also embrace wry humor, which adds to the absorbing descriptions of protagonist Paris DeMarcé’s life.
The story opens with “the first anniversary of the worst day of Paris’s life.” She and her coworkers are sitting at the corporate table across from their clients, who are involved in upcoming nuptials and wedding plans. Despite their focus on rebirth, Paris finds herself confronting death as soon as she leaves the room.
T.K. Ambers moves the timeline between past and present to help readers understand how Paris has arrived at this moment of final decision-making in her life, revealing both her downfall and the challenges she and playboy Vic face to regain what they have lost both politically and psychologically.
From rekindled friendships to being forced to re-climb the corporate ladder that embraces their lives and gives them a sense of home, Vic and Paris find themselves playing a very different game than the one they’ve inherited.
Ambers creates a novel that operates powerfully on many levels, from relationship-building and grief recovery to business decisions and family ties.
The scope of engaging, often surprising twists that send each character in unexpected directions reviews the nature of choices good and bad. This allows readers to consider corporate shenanigans, politics, and objectives in different lights.
Libraries that choose Corporate Escapades for profile and recommendation will find that it can attract a wide audience, from business novel readers (who will find the interpersonal connections and interludes surprising and compelling) to fiction readers seeking a novel that embraces romance and connection as the main players and game move into to elevated levels of personal and business discovery and recovery.
Astute in its interplays and fast-paced in its psychological revelations, Corporate Escapades is a multifaceted, winning novel.
Corporate EscapadesReturn to Index
The Divide
Bruce Hartman
Swallow Tail Press
978-0-9997564-8-5
$13.95
Paperback/$2.99 eBook/$5.99 audiobook
www.amazon.com
Readers of Western and literary fiction and fans of the first book in Bruce Hartman’s Lost West trilogy, The Legend of Lost Basin (recently announced as 2025 Spur Award Finalist for best Traditional Western Novel of the year) will find The Divide a compelling sojourn into death, love, and challenge. It represents not just a compelling Western adventure set in the late 1800s, but a review of thought-provoking perceptions and issues of the times:
“What can I do for you, sheriff?” she asked him.
“I don’t want to see no trouble out here.”
“What makes you think we’ve got trouble?”
“Ain’t no place for single women in these parts.”
“I’m not single.”
“Unless they’re whores or something close to it.”
“I’m not a whore.”
“Then you got to be somebody’s wife, or they’ll be men coming around and treating you like a whore. That’s trouble.”
Close attention is given to the role and precarious positions of frontier women. This creates a backdrop of insights and confrontations that embroil a cast of characters in a dangerous, shifting new world.
Elena finds herself crossing the divide in search of Rory Slater, certain that she, Rory, and her adopted son Haze will find safety far from nefarious interests and past influences:
She came from a place where her family ruled like royalty until pride and folly overthrew them, a high desert basin—a lost basin, men called it, because it wasn’t shown on any map—rimmed with mesas and badlands where men fought to the death over dreams of domination. Rory had saved her from all that and she knew she’d never stop loving him.
After all—she’s made such an escape once. Why not again? Circumstances are different this time as Elena and Rory hone their escape plans and find themselves on unexpected, separate journeys.
Bruce Hartman’s sequel dovetails nicely with prior events, yet contains enough background that newcomers will be able to quickly enter the Western milieu and special interests of these characters.
Attention is given to vivid confrontations, gang activities, issues of frontier justice and redemption, and the evolution of bounty hunter Yeager, who harbors a sometimes-flawed perception of his duty:
...the law Yeager served was not a mere human contrivance, it was the law of the world, himself but an instrument of its execution.
Events that embrace Rory’s increasing feeling of powerlessness, convicted murderer Bledsoe’s adopted daughter Lily’s future, and unexpected truths about strange family ties provide readers with nonstop action, unexpected, heart-stopping moments of discovery, and thought-provoking insights about justice and the evolution of values in the wild West.
Librarians and readers seeing either continuity from the first book in the trilogy or a standalone tale of frontier struggles and survival tactics will welcome the rich, multifaceted story of The Divide, which reaches into men’s souls and motivations.
Driven by survival tactics, love, and confrontations with death and family concepts, The Divide is a rich Western that refutes any notion of formula writing as it delves into the psyches and morals of frontiersmen and women seeking a safe place and people to call home.
The DivideReturn to Index
The Gift
Scott Terry
Torchflame Books
978-1-61153-591-4
$18.99
Paperback/$6.99 eBook
www.torchflamebooks.com
The Gift is a novel that follows a boy raised as a Jehovah’s Witness. It represents Scott Terry’s personal familiarity with the faith and his own difficult choices as he attempted to reconcile belief with the reality of his sexuality and life outside of JW restrictions.
Libraries maintaining LGBTQ+ collections will find The Gift about the strongest piece of writing about belief, conversion, and personal growth that they could obtain.
Reminiscent of the movie Brokeback Mountain and yet infused with a depth that explores religious mandate and personal growth, the story is set in rural 20th century America, a time when religious extremism and the drive for connection were not as widely considered as today. That said, many elements of Butch’s struggle for creating a life true to both God and self are reflected in too many modern events and lifestyles.
Has the world really changed this much? In some ways, yes; in other ways, no. This observation is reinforced in a vivid story of a boy who prays for self-change as the world around him shifts.
Scott Terry’s narrative voice is almost poetic in its hard-hitting atmospheric descriptions, which jump out from the first lines:
A man could be White in Five Points. Few were. At the slow corner where Broadway comes out of its narrow bend from the other side of the railroad tracks and crosses over Blake Street, a person could sit alone in the dim light of any room in a certain red-brick apartment building, on any floor, maybe in hopes for a cease-fire of solitude, minding one’s own business over the outdoor clamor of other people’s struggles—which could tell you much, or tell you nothing.
Mother Loretta involves daughter Pansy in the faith she was raised in, creating a legacy of events and connections as family tradition mingles with church affairs and undergoes a sea change.
Terry carefully builds this history and these relationships with an eye to not just focusing on Butch’s dilemmas, but the roots of where he came from. The time taken to explore these environments in full lends to a better understanding of faith, family, and purpose than many LGBTQ+ stories provide.
There are many graphic explorations of sexuality that some readers might find unexpected and surprising, but these are presented as realities within the context of the story’s bigger picture, and are not folded in for shock value alone.
Terry is especially masterful at exploring the Jehovah’s Witness faith and its constrictions:
What Les wanted was a simple divorce from an unfaithful wife, but his simple request could not be granted without lengthy debate because the rules for dealing with such matters in a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses aren’t simple. They are rigid and complex.
Libraries seeking a candid, clear story of homosexuality and faith which grows compelling characters whose beliefs and concerns collide will find The Gift a wide-ranging, thoroughly engrossing recommendation for patrons unafraid of frank, honest discussion.
Readers who choose The Gift because of any similar-sounding feel to Brokeback Mountain will find its focus on self-growth and belief to be far more engaging and thought-provoking than a singular love story:
“The older I get, the more it seems that the most terrible thing a man can go through is to die alone.”
Pryor spat. “Well, of course he died alone! Wouldn’t expect anything else. That’s why he kept it a big damn secret. People around here wouldn’t stand for that kind of trouble in this community.”
The Gift is also very highly recommended to book club discussion groups interested in LGBTQ+ lives, history, and conflicts with faith. Its captivating exploration of how a gay boy finds a path towards acceptance, family, and a form of faith that allows him freedom as he reconsiders the Witnesses and forms different relationships over the course of his life proves hard to put down.
The GiftReturn to Index
The Illinois
Caper: The Route 66
Steal
Liz Hartley
Rainy Valley Press
978-1-955720-00-7
$15.99
Paperback/$4.99 eBook
Website:
https://www.lizhartleyauthor.com/
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Illinois-Caper-Liz-Hartley/dp/1955720002
When two middle-aged female friends become embroiled in a heist that holds unexpected consequences, the lid of respectability is blown off in The Illinois Caper, The Route 66 Steal, the first book in a series.
The story opens with a literal bang that shows how powerful a good book can be from its very first lines:
The door hit the frame so hard it bounced back, slamming into the wall. The glass in their wedding photo shattered as it crashed to the floor.
Via this hard-hitting opener, readers are compelled to pursue the story of Tish O’Donnell’s challenged marriage. She and fellow cohort Kat Merevec’s decision to change their lives and quit living on dreams and possibilities, and the circumstances which erupt over their efforts to seek financial justice from philandering husband Fitz, results in a discovery that embroils them in a crime.
The fast pace delivered in the story’s opening lines continues throughout. Liz Hartley builds believable, likeable female characters whose efforts towards revenge, freedom, and independence result in the wild ride of their lives.
As the women go on the lam after discovering that their pursuers are far more dangerous than a conniving husband, action moves from the women to husband Fritz, who is motivated to continue his pursuit of women, money, and what he considers to be his lot in life.
This may neatly justify his choices and actions—but it doesn’t result in a smooth life, as he discovers.
As Tish’s family is dragged into the melee and old resentments surface, years of dreams set aside and resentments tamped down completely engross readers in unexpected moments of discovery and challenge.
Libraries that choose The Illinois Caper, The Route 66 Steal could best describe it to interested patrons as a romp of a road trip that journeys through disparate special interests, extramarital affairs, family complexities, and the perspectives of women searching for empowerment, answers, and better lives.
From religious to social issues, these women find their perspectives and possibilities continually challenged and altered, adding zip to a thoroughly engrossing story.
Leisure readers will find plenty of thought-provoking moments wound into layers of action and revelation that provokes “you are here” experiences via vivid encounters that are nearly nonstop in their presentation.
Packed with zany moments that also embrace a whimsical sense of humor, The Illinois Caper, The Route 66 Steal is nearly impossible to put down, packed with attractive, reflective moments of connection and insight:
Tish took a deep breath. “When I signed up to audition, the teacher said... He said...” Tish’s face flushed pink. “He said I wasn’t right for the stage. I told him I hadn’t even auditioned, so how could he know?”
Now she looked at Kat, her dark brown eyes smoldering almost black. “He said ‘zaftig’ women couldn’t act. He meant fat. He said if I could sing, I could try opera, where they were more tolerant of ‘zaftig’ women. He assigned me to the stage crew.”
“What. A. Turd,” said Kat. She shook her head. “All I can say is he should have been there today.” She looked straight at Tish. “Because you would have shown him you are one hell of an actress.”
Tish’s smile was sunshine. “I am, aren’t I?” she said.
She started to laugh, and they both laughed until they cried.
The Illinois Caper: The Route 66 StealReturn to Index
A Life in Frames
Leonora Ross
Independently
Published
9781069082800
Kindle $7.99,
Hardcover $24.99,
Paperback $16.99
Website: www.leonoraross.com
Ordering: http://amazon.com/author/leonora.ross
A Life in Frames is set in Namibia and follows Lejf Busher, whose life involves clashes between his idealism and his father’s viewpoint, and between dreams and stepping up into reality. The story’s opening lines reveal the ten-year-old’s early experiences, setting the stage for similar reflections about holding on and letting go:
Part of
him wanted his bed, but
the other part wanted to stay up all night and marvel at the starry
spectacle, thinking about his secret.
Lejf’s chosen profession introduces pain to his parents as their now-adult son tries to explain this idealism and his choices:
‘I’m sorry if I’ve made you and Mom worry, Dad. This is what I do, and not everything about it is dangerous, but there are situations that can be. If you could have seen those young kids whose childhoods are wasted away digging dirt for the profit of big corporations … If I had to lose my life in bringing awareness about their plight, I’d do it. Those poor people in DRC die a little every day, under burdens they didn’t choose, and one day, when they’re dead and buried, there’ll be no one to mourn them. Doesn’t that make you want to weep?’
As close calls cause further worry to his parents, Lejf faces political realities that lead him to realize that:
All his wishful thinking couldn’t change reality.
Or, can it?
Leonora Ross crafts a creative juxtaposition between art, politics, ideals, and “little people with big hearts” whose interests and efforts result in a thought-provoking series of clashes.
Libraries welcoming novels about Africa and individual evolution will appreciate the many opportunities Ross offers for patrons and reading groups to consider African traditions as they intersect with love, risk-taking, and growth.
Packed with “aha” moments of discovery and transformation,
A Life in Frames explores the awakening of a continent and a boy whose childhood provokes an uncommon path as an adult.
Readers will find this engaging and enlightening survey is filled with exquisite moments of wonder and reflection about states of mind and mindsets of Africans as they move into a Western-centric world:
‘...when globalisation penetrates the world of Indigenous people, there’s a common conflict that arises within those communities, between traditions that are upheld by the older generations versus the desire of younger generations to learn new things and to become modern. When I spoke with the Basarwa in New Xade, they told me they wish to live the way they have done for thousands of years. I don’t know if they would feel different about it if their lives weren’t so hard – if they had better opportunities. Perspectives change with circumstances. Yet they speak of their longing to roam the Kalahari. I can’t help but wonder if it has something to do with who they are; how something in their spirits will always remain free and untouched.’
A Life in FramesReturn to Index
Little Great Island
Kate Woodworth
Sibylline Press/
All Things
Book LLC
9781960573902 $21.00
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
www.sibyllinepress.com
Little Great Island is a thought-provoking novel of a woman’s return to her Maine island roots with her son Levi after defying a cult’s leader. But to call the tale ‘a return home’ alone would be to do it a disservice, because Kate Woodworth has a bigger picture in mind.
She depicts the lifestyle and characters of a Down East Island, who are facing threats to their livelihood from climate change in its most difficult incarnation.
Now, world events and their impact ideally need a compelling character to bring headline news to personal levels. Such is Mari McGavin, whose flight has reintroduced her to island life. An added bonus is island summer resident and longtime friend Harry Richardson, who has also returned home, albeit to sell his family’s summer home.
While the romance between these two may be all to predictable, what is delightfully surprising is how their newly entwined lives become buffeted by environmental changes that demand each character step up in novel ways different from any patterns they’ve followed in the past.
Woodworth adds more characters, from Sue Clatcher Greggs, who is on her fifth try at having a child, and her brother Reggie, who has managed to stay sober for five years. Each character adds a different perspective to broader dilemmas that connect them all.
Solutions to the immediate problems that threaten their lives and homes are juxtaposed with forces, both environmental and social, that seem to work against them:
Harry, as it turns out, has researched cult recovery just as she has. For children born in a cult, transitioning into society can take years. In a matter of months, Levi has made huge progress. “Stubborn might be a better word,” Mari says.
“Tough, not stubborn. Women have to be more forceful about standing up to authority. Particularly male authority.” He reminds her of how much she knows about farming, the factors at play in climate change and nutrition, and that she’s come up with a good plan for her future and Levi’s.
Drawn together by more than romantic opportunity, Mari and Harry face a myriad of issues. These include new alliances and challenges presented by Pastor Aaron, who is convinced that he holds the power and responsibility for those who believe in him:
There were the demands of the fields and the coffers and the spreading of The Word and a son who needed raising to be a good and faithful man. The behaviors of a woman who would not mind her tongue nor curb her actions were his fault, as her husband.
Woodworth’s juxtaposition of faith, cult objectives and repressive devices, life within and outside of community influences, and more contributes to a full-faceted story filled with unexpected twists and life-altering results from climate changes that threaten island residents.
Libraries seeking the warm story of a community under siege in more ways than one will especially relish the down-home Maine atmosphere that Woodworth cultivates. This creates a realistic, thoroughly absorbing backdrop for explorations of interpersonal, political, religious, and social change.
Filled with moments of discovery, connection, and bigger-picture realizations, Little Great Island represents a microcosm of issues reflecting bigger concerns, delivered in a size that readers can easily relate to and find thoroughly engrossing.
Little Great IslandReturn to Index
Perpetuonics
Jeffrey Melvin
Hutchins
Pisgah Press
978-1-942016-91-5
$22.48
Paperback/$3.99 eBook
www.pisgahpress.com
Perpetuonics is a futuristic novel about a technology that holds the promise of digitizing an individual’s personality so they can be brought back to “life” after death.
But, what kind of life?
That question drives a vibrant story which embraces the idea that the soul can exist and move on from corporeal form. Such a move is not for everyone ... but those that opt to become a “Ding” find unexpected possibilities in their new incarnations.
The middle-aged narrator that opens this tale wants to be extra-human. He believes this choice will free him from a limiting body which, intriguingly, holds him back from being his true self:
“Think about it … Look how we socialize, most of us, anyway. We join groups of people who look like us, are about our age, go to the same school or church or job, and who will vote like us. Our thoughts are not our thoughts, because we probably heard them from someone else first, or read them in the same journals our friends are reading.”
Readers interested in thought-provoking points about the origins and incarnation of individuality will find plenty of reflective moments as events play out. The story’s philosophical, social, and psychological insights are not present in similar-sounding stories of human virtual “uploads,” such as Dennis Danvers’s Circuit of Heaven, but add an extra dimension of broader perspective and thinking to the sci-fi scenario.
Another reason why Perpetuonics is a standout is that it builds unexpected intrigue into its evolutionary story of technological transformation:
I could not know then that I would end up as a spy for a man who wouldn’t be born for fifty years.
This creates yet another layer of entertainment and inspection that will draw readers from a wide circle, from sci-fi and technology fans to those who enjoy suspense, ethical conundrums, questions about what is involved in becoming “more than human” (or, perhaps, less?), and newfound connections that stem from transformative processes.
Book clubs seeking discussion material that proves a rollicking good read while considering these deeper issues will find Perpetuonics to be engrossing, out-of-the-box reading that will provoke superior discussions about all manner of choices and new community-building efforts.
Blending sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian community-building, and philosophical and psychological reflections into a richly compelling story, Jeffrey Melvin Hutchins has crafted a winner in Perpetuonics.
Its exploration of the next step in extended humanity’s potential for crisis and creative undertakings ... even those that embrace reinventing the nature of humanity itself ... is simply riveting reading.
PerpetuonicsReturn to Index
Pigeon Falls
Jeff Elzinga
Waters Edge Press
978952526-21-3 $24
Paper/$9.99
eBook
Website: Watersedgepress.com
Ordering: Amazon.com
Pigeon Falls is a thought-provoking novel about surveyor Tom Bishop and his fellow wind turbine builders, who travel around the country installing turbines. Their final project of the season, in Wisconsin, should be as seamless as the rest—but becomes a whirlwind of challenge and controversy that pulls apart the well-oiled, experienced team in unexpected ways.
The story opens with the vivid first-person observation of the Wisconsin area called Driftless, where small family farmers struggle to survive the competition of mega-farms. Many places are for sale or in foreclosure.
Jeff Elzinga takes the time to create an atmospheric sense of place that Wisconsin residents will recognize, and those unfamiliar with the Midwest will find thoroughly immersive:
Birds travel with fewer burdens than we do. They envision no vast intentional design upon the earth. They don’t worry over the future of small farms or wonder who will repair the ancient barns crying out to be saved. Birds assign no greater purpose to life than to live for the day. And a bird’s eye view, high above the countryside, recognizes neither symmetry nor disorder below, only random geometrical shapes reveled in myriad colors… which in Wisconsin in late fall, with farm fields at rest and forests in full autumn splendor, always spark red and gold.
This sets the stage for the evolution of confrontations that emerge from new workday schedules as the season changes. Also vivid are observations of countryside and cautions that arise from navigating its unpredictability and the emergence of a dangerous relationship involving a married woman whose presence introduces new challenges to the formerly-tight team.
Themes range from family problems and loyalty to bosses, economic woes, and unexpected personal and social discoveries. Throughout Pigeon Falls, the first-person narrator’s work is exquisitely described in detail to link the smallest of work endeavors to bigger-picture thinking about life and personal impact:
On my section of the dome, my flat tool continues into the night, coaxing roughness out of the moist concrete, the sharp metal edge shaping and re-shaping the flawed surface that’s around me. In order to work the dome to a perfect shine, my labor becomes so meticulous that I’m also starting to believe the very future of everything that’s yet to come in Pigeon Falls might largely depend on whatever imperfections my weak hand can remove.
Rural Wisconsin comes alive and reaches out to involve readers in its past, present, and possible futures.
All these elements create a story that libraries will find an excellent survey of changing times, jobs, morals and values, and interpersonal relationships.
Pigeon Falls will be easy to recommend to a wide audience, from book clubs seeking debate material about rural transformation to readers seeking evocative reflections set in the Midwest that come steeped with not just personal insight, but broader considerations of change.
More than ever before, I realize how fate enjoys irony.
Also more than ever, a story like Pigeon Falls will reach out to grab and shake readers who might have expected a laid-back, staid account, but will appreciate the thoroughly engrossing descriptions of events which impact narrator, environment, and crew alike.
Don’t tell me about tomorrow or next year, I'm thinking. I don’t want to hear it. Don’t tell me if I’m early or late. It’s meaningless now. If I’m going to be connected to anything, it’s only to this moment, to right now.
Expect the unexpected, then go with the flow of self-discovery. It’s a heady, enlightening, joyful ride through purpose, love, and facing life’s biggest obstacles.
Pigeon FallsReturn to Index
Port City
Eliot Sefrin
Pisgah Press
978-1-942016-95-3
$19.95
Paperback/$27.95
Hardcover/$7.99 eBook
www.pisgahpress.com
Historical novel readers will find Port City a study in contrasts. The story opens with Henry McFarland’s involvement in a mountain of paperwork as he works on a controversial tugboat operators’ contract negotiations.
Steeped in the privileged life of the elite, Henry is relatively oblivious to the plight of the worker in the crowded garment district of New York City. Under a seemingly uncaring countenance, Henry even holds little compassion for the Nazi horrors that exterminated the Jews in Germany:
“To me,” he said, “there’s an invaluable lesson to be learned from what happened to the Jews in Hitler’s Europe.”
“A lesson, sir?”
“Yup.” Henry nodded. “I’ve seen it time and again—in business, politics, warfare . . . even the contract negotiations I’m up to my eyeballs in now.” He unleashed a croupy smoker’s cough into the hollow of his fist.
“Weakness,” he croaked derisively. “All it ever leads to is certain demise.”
Henry gets a taste of his own perspective’s impact when events shift his world enough to challenge his curmudgeonly view of wealth and social have-nots.
Eliot Sefrin does a particularly good job of capturing New York City’s social and political changes in a bygone era, the “science of the harbor” and those who interact with its processes and businesses, and, especially, the insights of those who navigate its murky waters:
While most New Yorkers were familiar with the city through their interactions with landmarks such as streets and shops, Dutch Hendrik knew New York’s labyrinth of waterways like the back of his hand. He knew the harbor’s diverse topography, its underwater shape and depth, and the contours of land that bounded it. He knew the location of navigational buoys, islands, and coves that served as steering points; knew where shoreline bends created calm water, how bridges and tunnels could render radio transmissions indecipherable, and where potential hazards like reefs, shoals, and decaying wharves lay hidden beneath the surface.
Vivid descriptions explore what goes on beneath the surface of many local issues and events, bringing New York City and its interests to life in a way that will prove absolutely compelling, even to readers with little prior familiarity with New York’s history.
Discussions of
labor disputes and
opposing sides assume a compelling countenance. This will power book
club discussions, whether among general-interest audiences or those
with a particular interest in New York dock history or labor issues:
An even greater obstacle, Quinn soon discovered, was that negotiating positions were so entrenched, and bitterness so ingrained, that representatives of the opposing sides could barely be coaxed into the same room for a civil discourse.
Port City sifts through layers of legal, social, and political history, resting its findings on strong characters whose disparate viewpoints drive home a series of points about change, adaptation, and growth.
Libraries seeking historical fiction that sizzles with interpersonal and group encounters and perspectives will welcome Port City into their collections.
Quite simply, it’s a supercharged saga of transformation that will entertain while immersing readers in situations that reflect how people grow—sometimes, against all odds:
For his entire life, Benny had clung to the notion that toughness and bravado were the qualities that best defined a leader, and that his unyielding stance in contract negotiations would produce the best of all outcomes for the union. But Jack, by virtue of his unflappable demeanor and innate wisdom, had persuaded his brother to view the labor conflict through a very different lens, while shining a light on a more enlightened approach.
Port CityReturn to Index
The
Potusgeists
Will Worsley
Hedgeland Press
978-1-7356652-4-5
$16.95
Paperback/$3.99 eBook
Website: www.willworsley.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Potusgeists-Patty-Pitypander-Will-Worsley/dp/B0DTZNC1JC
The Potusgeists is a novel that places a woman in the White House ... but it’s not the presidential politicking one might expect. Not when there are White House ghosts involved.
This group of historical curmudgeons, The Potusgeists, aren’t just around to cause trouble by raising specters of the past. They also desire to make the television work via a mysterious remote device which won’t turn on via shaking or the usual early American approach to making things work.
Wry satire emerges from the start as the ghosts of Jefferson and Adams confront a dilemma more frustrating than their early experiences running America:
Jefferson chuckled. “It’s a television, not a talking box, Mr. Adams. They’ve been using them for decades. You should at least try to keep up.”
Adams scowled at it. “I know very well what it is, sir—a contraption that promotes sloth and witlessness in equal measure. And I have seen, to my horror and deep regret, how thoughtlessly they stare at it, for hours at a time! It is misnamed. They should have termed it a stupidifier. Television—bah!”
Newly-elected President Patty Pitypander could never have anticipated that ghostly encounters would be part of her new agenda. She has ambitious plans for her term in office, that don’t include listening to the wisdom of the dead.
Patty’s ability to ignore this advice and its deliverers despite the desperate specters’ involvement in nearly every aspect of her family and leadership results in a situation that contrasts the personalities and insanity of past leadership with the special interests and purposes of present-day politics.
At each turn of events, Will Worsley builds unexpected scenarios of a White House Civil War battle that is captivating:
“Be serious,” Nigel replied. “Jefferson was human once, but he’s dead now. Besides, ghosts don’t have rights, not the way we do.”
That didn’t sound very nice. “I disagree,” said Patty firmly. “Even dogs and cats have rights. It doesn’t seem very humane to me.” “Think about it,” said Nigel. “If we ever let Jefferson out of that little box, we’ll never get him back into it. We won’t be able to fool him twice.”
He pointed out that catching just one ghost wouldn’t solve their problem anyway. There were dozens more of them in the White House. Holding Jefferson hostage might scare the Potusgeists into leaving Patty alone, or it might enrage them. Who knew what havoc a mansion full of vengeful ghosts might wreak?
Readers expecting a serious scenario will find simply delightful the blend of paranormal and political that emerges from this confrontation with death.
Intrigue builds (aside from the ghosts) from mysterious letters, threats to Patty’s reputation and leadership, and novel approaches to thwarting enemies that benefit from historical precedent and ghostly experience:
“You must prepare to be most viciously calumniated.”
Calumniated. That meant they were planning to smear her. “If you are wondering how I know this,” said Jefferson, “it is because I have seen the tactic used many times before. I myself was shamefully slandered while in office. Once, a disgruntled journalist even falsely accused me of keeping one of my slaves as a concubine. No president has ever been immune from the taint of slander, not even George Washington, whose conduct was above reproach.”
Patty asked if there was anything she could do to protect her reputation.
“No, it is the awful price we Americans pay for our freedom of the press. Better to have newspapers without a government than a government without newspapers. You must simply endure their lies and have faith that truth will win in the end.”
Thought-provoking reflections on the personal impact of holding office, solutions to problems every president has confronted since American came into being, and haunting encounters make for a rollicking journey through political purpose, while the plotting of spooks make for a thoroughly engrossing story.
Librarians seeking a combination of satirical spoof, supernatural intrigue, and thought-provoking considerations of American leadership and history will find The Potusgeists recommendable to a wide audience of fiction readers.
Packed with zany personalities and events based on real history and psychological intrigue, The Potusgeists brings history and many issues to life, adding a rich layer of discovery that readers and book club discussion groups will find especially inviting:
It was the day impossibility became possibility, in the country where nothing was impossible.
The PotusgeistsReturn to Index
Return to the
Besieged Fortress
Jimmy Qi
(Translated by Harvey
Thomlinson)
Moongate Books
978-1647759247
$6.95 Paperback
https://www.amazon.com/Return-Besieged-Fortress-Jimmy-Qi/dp/1647759242
Return to the Besieged Fortress comes from Chinese novelist Jimmy Qi, whose tale of 1990s Chinese social and political change will prove compellingly important reading for any with an interest in contemporary Chinese history and affairs.
The story opens in 1994 in Montreal, Canada, where Jimmy meets the offensive yet alluring Hugh, a South American sales rep responsible for managing regional agents in a manner that Jimmy, newly appointed to do the same for Asia, needs to learn.
Early on in the story, contrasts between the cultures of North America and China come into play as Jimmy navigates issues of tradition, status, and political influence during the course of his new position. As disillusionment sets in, Jimmy’s encounters move beyond these two milieus to embrace and consider other nations and cultures, such as Cuba.
He may consider himself a “dodgy businessman and uneducated” in some circles, but Jimmy has a lot of odd quirks and powerful strengths going for him. He becomes a doctoral candidate, enters into studies that challenge not just his talents but his belief systems and self-perception, and forges a new life overseas, far from familiar habits and choices.
Readers may initially be confused by the appearance of author Jimmy Qi’s alter-ego (by the same name) in this book, anticipating that this translates to a memoir or other form of nonfiction. But Qi’s candid focus on this similar personality’s movements in a world that expands from his Chinese roots and heritage to embrace global concerns and worldviews makes for a vivid novel that juxtaposes serious reflection with humorous encounters and thought-provoking moments.
Jimmy’s move between his new persona as Teacher Qi and his evolving talent to “showcase the best of Chinese civilization to his foreign students” results in a story that embraces bigger-picture world encounters while considering how to bring these back home to familiar territory. There, they encourage change through new lessons of understanding about racism, discovery, and adaptation.
Libraries that choose Return to the Besieged Fortress will want to highly recommend it to patrons interested in engrossing inspections of Chinese personality, history, and global encounters.
Packed with wry, ironic humor and contrasts between cultures and people which provoke further insights perfect for book club discussion, Return to the Besieged Fortress is a winning novel. It pinpoints the hopes, dreams, and challenges of not just China and Chinese expats, but diverse cultures around the world.
Return to the Besieged FortressReturn to Index
Russian Bride
Doc Richter
Atmosphere Press
979-8-89132-581-4
$16.99pb, $7.99
ebook, $25.99 hc
www.atmospherepress.com
Russian Bride opens in 1993 Moscow, where Natalia Melnikova and Jake Wilder meet through a correspondence service. She’s looking for an American husband and new opportunities. He’s seeking love. Neither is looking for trouble—but that’s what they get.
Natalia is drawn into a dangerous plot when her son becomes a kidnapped pawn in a game that involves killing her new connection and gaining access to his life insurance so the mob-run agency can get rich.
It all seems cut-and-dried—until Jake finds out the truth and he and Natalia conspire to turn the tables on her son’s kidnappers.
Jake’s investigations lead to further realizations about foreign mob-influenced insurance plots that dovetail with his own experience.
As his discoveries and personal mandate emerge, readers receive a nice, sharply defined juxtaposition of psychological depth, thriller-style intrigue, and thought-provoking scenarios of marriage and murder. These qualities will not just pique interest, but thoroughly involve readers in this dangerous game.
Jake not only stands up to the challenge, but taps his rage over the plots to make a difference not just in his own life, but for victims who fall prey to such entities:
Jake stared out his window and thought of Natalia, Alexandr, and other anonymous victims. At that instant, he didn’t know if he was more angry or afraid. No, rage outweighed his fear.
Doc Richter spins a plot that offers many twists and turns in the course of investigations which involve local police, international affairs, and the challenge individuals face when their quests for romance result in something deadly.
At each step of the plot, Richter creates moments of discovery and quandary that test his characters with life-or-death scenarios. Nonstop momentum contributes to a story that is hard to put down and satisfyingly complex.
Could he execute a man? He had killed Rublev in self-defense and suffered no regret, but killing someone in cold blood?
Can ordinary citizens become killers? Jake is about to test these waters as readers find Russian Bride a page-turner of possibilities that are hard to predict.
Libraries seeking novels that simmer with action, discovery, and international affairs will find Russian Bride a fine recommendation for patrons seeking stories that challenge the usual patterns of thriller writing.
Packed with eye-opening revelations and characters whose moral and ethical concerns are as complex as their reactions, Russian Bride is hard to predict and easy to love.
Russian BrideReturn to Index
Sins of Liberty
Ron Seybold
Trampoline Press
979-8-9924198-0-1
$18.95
Paperback/$9.95 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Sins-Liberty-Ron-Seybold/dp/B0DYBFFS14
Readers of early American historical fiction accounts that sizzle with high-octane drama yet unfold the threads of history so compellingly that one can’t help but become immersed in the nation’s early struggles will welcome Sins of Liberty’s powerful saga loss, struggle, and one young woman’s efforts to solidify a more powerful place and role in her world.
Nineteen-year-old Anna’s newfound independence and journey to a new life becomes fraught with countless unexpected moves from the start when a seeming safe haven with Baltimore relatives falls through.
Spiraling through various job opportunities and challenges when she is set loose in an unfamiliar world, Anna moves from Baltimore to Philadelphia, Cleveland, Michigan and beyond in search of a safe place and a life.
From the beginning, Ron Seybold steeps his novel in impressive reflective language that draws readers in with the promise that Anna’s journey will be extraordinary:
Sins led me to my truest love. Or something like that.
As she synthesizes her background in a sweeping moment so that readers may move on and into her American assimilation and challenges, her German roots are exposed and then evolve as she moves away from her homeland to become part of the American melting pot of 1898.
Anna’s immigrant experiences are influenced by the many kinds of men who enter her life, from employers and well-meaning benefactors who try to help her to those more nefarious in their intentions.
The women’s suffragist movement of the times emerges against this backdrop of immigrant and female encounters to add vivid dialogues and perspectives that bring Anna’s times to life:
“Maybe you know God’s ways better than some of us. Not the ways of the Church.” I gathered myself with a breath. “But a woman whose husband is on his knee at her side has much to hope for.”
“God is always on our side. It was the Church that kept peeling apart our love and our desire for life together.”
“What do you wish for, Joe? What would a better husband bring to me on a night like this one?”
Seybold is masterful at capturing women’s suffrage meetings which synthesize the motivations for a rebellion which grows into a movement against all odds:
“All this talk of marching and rotten eggs and temperance. Whatever comes of it?” Maude said.
“Enough, if we stay on course. We should set ours to help women who can’t help themselves.”
His special method of injecting history with personal perspective alternates Anna’s first-person observations with the more dispassionate third person reflections of a narrator who ties together many strings of action, reaction, and the history of the times.
This paves the way for an especially evocative, heartfelt survey that explores reputations that embrace risk for the sake of building a better future for everyone.
Replete with subjects of women’s and immigrant experiences that will certainly fuel book club and women’s reading groups with fresh perspectives and thought-provoking insights, Sins of Liberty’s compelling characters and lives drives a story that explores the idea of “doing the right thing” against all odds.
Libraries and readers will find it a solid work of high dramatic embellishments that sizzle with action, reaction, and the growing motivations of women to find new places and roles for themselves in America, whether the nation be their birthplace or their adopted home.
Given the renewed discussions about women’s roles, God’s will, and immigrant value that has re-arisen in modern times, Sins of Liberty’s publication today could not have come at a better time. Its encouragement of discourse on historical precedence and experience is enlightening, empowering, and entertaining, all in one.
Sins of LibertyReturn to Index
Too Much the Lion
Preston Lewis
Bariso Press
978-1-964830-08-7
$19.95
Paperback/$32.95 Hardback/$9.95 eBook
www.barisopress.com
Too Much the Lion: A Novel of the Battle of Franklin is a historical Civil War novel that narrows its focus to the five days leading up to the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864. Readers need no prior insights into this particular battle in order to appreciate the vivid “you are here” feel of the times, which gives Too Much the Lion a thoroughly absorbing attraction to Civil War buffs and general-interest history readers alike.
The saga opens on a Saturday and concludes six days later on a Thursday. Readers might initially think this short span of time will translate to a simple read—but they’d be wrong. Much action, many confrontations, and thought-provoking dilemmas take place within this short period of time, giving Too Much the Lion an extraordinary air of thought-provoking, fast-paced events.
Considerations move from the impact of battles under commanders who are less than stellar to the rising events at Franklin that introduced a new ferocity of clashing forces in the face of blunders that have intrigued Civil War historians to this day.
The characters in this novel stem from actual historical accounts. Its viewpoint shifts from soldier to civilian experience in a manner that helps readers better understand both the connections and disparate interests of those affected by the war in different ways.
The contrasts between different characters’ perceptions and values extend to young and old alike as the battle moves towards Franklin, Tennessee, and delivers different generational insights:
“I don’t care to become an old man who didn’t do what he could for the cause. I want to see battle, Momma.”
Tom slammed his book shut and glared at Hardin. When he spoke, his words carried menace. “If the gossip is true, you may see battle yet. Both armies must pass through Franklin on the way to Nashville. Attack my courage all you want, Hardin, but many courageous boys I once knew are now dead, twenty-seven by my last count. Whether the Confederacy wins or loses, Tennessee will need whole men to rebuild it.”
Staying true to historical accuracy while building a fictional overlay of drama and everyday events is no light challenge, but Preston Lewis provides engrossing, thought-provoking passages that achieve both objectives:
Along the road, women, children, and old men welcomed the Confederates back to Tennessee, some civilians even sharing their sparse grub with the soldiers, providing apples, or biscuits, or fritters to men who ate them ravenously. But as always, more men appeared than apples, biscuits, and fritters to sate them. Most continued their march, hungry and tired. Cunningham asked several families if they had additional food to barter or sell, but they just shrugged, saying they had little to spare and still feed themselves as they were already sharing what they could.
Libraries seeking Civil War battle stories that eschew the general events of a bigger war to delve into lesser-known (but equally important) confrontations that immerse families, towns, and cultures in the war will welcome the power of Too Much the Lion.
Its ability to direct readers into the motivations, daily lives, values, and outcomes of one world-changing battle creates a vivid and memorable tale. Too Much the Lion is also highly recommended for book clubs seeking Civil War historical fiction that not only brings facts alive, but introduces many topics suitable for discussion about the times, the people, and the purposes of struggle.
Too Much the LionReturn to Index
We Never Took a
Bad Picture
Ashley N Roth
April Gloaming
Press
978-1-953932-33-4
$19.99
Website: www.ashleynroth.com
Ordering: https://aprilgloaming.com/shop/
We Never Took a Bad Picture is a hard-hitting novel about a fifty-five-year marriage, a broken pact, and the long-lasting impact of losing a child. A Golden Anniversary party is being planned, but in reality, Gloria is “poking the bear” by adding elements of the past that revolve around an agreement which has become detrimental to their relationship.
The party offers many shake-ups, from an estranged daughter’s return to an effort to wake up husband Artie, who has been hiding (in his grocery business) from too many truths about the past and his choices.
Ashley N Roth juxtaposes past and present, skillfully weaving these shifts in a way that contrasts different generations, novel ways of recovering from grief and loss, and reflections on the concept of growing old together:
... locking eyes with him now, she didn’t feel butterflies. She didn’t even feel the tepid comfort they’d secured after a sprawling tapestry of highs and lows. Instead, Gloria’s stomach thrashed with the quivering anxieties that should have dissolved ages ago. That’s what forever did, right?
Through her efforts, Gloria is forced to answer the question of not only whether her husband is still alive in the depths of his grief, but if she really is, as well. As the Joyce family members each confront their separate choices’ lasting impacts on one another and their lives, We Never Took a Bad Picture becomes a portrait of public image and private reflection that proves thoroughly engrossing.
Because We Never Took a Bad Picture is filled with thought-provoking reflection, sensitive readers also confronting their own losses and grief process may find its raw insights a trigger:
Gloria had been the type to shoot straight up at dawn since they’d gotten married. Even when the kids were babies, she took the shortest of naps—and kept those limited to slumping on the couch or even sitting in a chair...It was like she’d stopped existing except for the sibilant sobbing she stifled until late at night when she thought he was sleeping. He pretended to sleep through her night sobbing, and never asked if she was okay. He would do anything to avoid her asking how he felt about Denise.
As much as events might trigger, however, they also feature the hope of resolution, realization, and healing. This makes We Never Took a Bad Picture of special, recommended interest to reading groups tackling the bigger picture of loss, aging, shifting family dynamics and interpersonal relationships, and risk-taking, as time passes:
They carved out a shared, placid existence. It was safe and dull. Gloria insisted that’s what she wanted, but she was the one who first shook it. She resurrected the dead without permission.
With its investigation of love, survival, adaptation, and newfound avenues for reviving connections, We Never Took a Bad Picture represents a vivid, glowing vision of change and hope that is especially needed in a world riddled with loss and angst.
Readers will find We Never Took a Bad Picture thought-provoking, engrossing, and worthy of a slow read for maximum absorption, while libraries can easily recommend it for many purposes—to women’s groups, as a beach read, or for book clubs seeking passionate descriptions of life and death’s ripples of change.
We Never Took a Bad PictureReturn to Index
Welcome to Far
Point, Rookie!
Fio
Pumpjack Press
979-8-9882974-3-7
$12.99
paperback/$4.99 eBook
www.pumpjackpress.com
Welcome to Far Point, Rookie! pushes and blends the boundaries of sci-fi and horror in a novel that introduces Agent David Johnson, charged with training rookies new to the cursed city of Far Point.
The tale opens with hard-hitting imagery. Severed skulls, forgotten idols, underworld gods, and demons confront weaver Fate, representing the betrayal of a destiny that, to one demon, “...speak of truths that I have declared lies.”
This vivid, charged conversation with demon Has’munda, who is determined to change the tapestry of destiny that Fate has created, provides a hard-hitting prologue that leads to chapters of human concerns, where:
The world woke to a day free from total annihilation. For some, this was a guarantee. They go to bed expecting daybreak, believing that it will come easily and without incident, and so they brush their teeth proactively, set their alarms confidently, and sleep peacefully through the dark and deep of night. They are the ignorant ones.
The Agency is a stop gate against disaster in the city of Far Point, where:
...a weakened temporal membrane lies just beneath the metaphysical surface of the Earth like a rusted and weathered gate hanging on its last hinge.
One Agent faces the likely end of the world on a certain day, under his watch. Can the new rookie make a difference when a seasoned Agent cannot?
Fio crafts vivid scenes, interactions, interplays between reality and the fantastic, and the mandate of a mission that faces daily challenges (but none as great as this one day’s events).
Threads of humor winding into these experiences also add a delightful tone of irony and wry wit as Agent and novice learn from one another:
“Huh? Looks like a minor wormhole.”
Johnson reached over and tapped open the box. He glanced at its contents then quickly swiped it off the window.
“Sent it over to Portals and Abnormalities in Reality,” he said, relieved. “Definitely their department.”
“Could we have handled it, sir?”
“Maybe. But it’s our lunch hour.”
Readers will find the “torrent of magical assault” that emerges from clashes between various forces to be completely engaging, often unexpected, and delightfully gripping.
Libraries seeking novel blends of magical fantasy and events which coalesce on a new recruit’s checklist of impossible goals will want to highly recommend Welcome to Far Point, Rookie! to readers seeking original, engrossing writing.
Packed with metaphysical, magical, and mercurial characters whose special interests entwine with unexpected results, Welcome to Far Point, Rookie! is a unique, well-written story that pits a host of characters against one another in situations that both portend and defy the end of the world.
Welcome to Far Point, Rookie!Return to Index
What We Say in the
Dark
Gary Baysinger
See Square Press
979-8-218-59494-7
$15.99
Paperback/$5.99 eBook
https://garybaysingerauthor.com/
What We Say in the Dark opens in 1939, where Parisian boy Anton is reflecting on his involvement in freeing his wife Isabelle’s family from the grip of the Nazis in Vienna.
From the story’s opening lines Gary Baysinger demonstrates an astute ability to capture the atmosphere of the looming Nazi incursion in a realistic manner that allows modern-day readers to step right into social and political milieus of the past:
Although he’d never been here before, the contrasts were jarring—the incongruity of Nazi banners layered over cafés with cultured people wearing the latest Parisian fashions. It had the sophistication of Paris but had been overtaken by angry young men who were aggressive and edgy. Something was in the air—a mood, a feeling of being watched by something evil waiting to strike, waiting for someone to make a mistake.
From the irony of crimes being committed by Nazis who purport to be stopping them to how Anton’s subterfuge is discovered and a strange job arrangement is proposed as his only way out of danger, Baysinger builds a compelling story. It evolves complexity and drama as it continues to grow in unexpected directions with the introduction of American spy Don Gibson, who is injected into European affairs.
Another notable facet of Baysinger’s story lies in its explorations of lives that adjust to and transcend political hazards. Baysinger’s juxtaposition of history, Jewish affairs, family ties, and Nazi threat come together with a satisfyingly original light of discovery and revelation rarely found in other fictional accounts of these times.
The tale’s shift to a milieu in which Isabelle and U.S Army Intelligence Officer Don Gibson meet under unexpected circumstances in Lisbon, where Isabelle’s shadowy past emerges to impact her future, adds a full flavor of development. This approach benefits from the time Baysinger has taken to build social and psychological insights from the Nazis’ rise in 1940s Europe.
From Don’s connections to the spy business in 1944 to his participation in a dangerous game in which Isabelle is a major player, the story is heartily fueled with past and present observations from all characters. These capture vibrant and especially thought-provoking moments of revelation as Isabelle observes her beloved world changing for the worse and works to revise her place in it:
Her fellow Viennese citizens sat in outdoor cafés, chatting and drinking coffee as people’s lives were being destroyed. She wanted to scream at them. She was full of despair—her Vienna was gone.
The timelines move back and forth. This may stymie readers who look for a progressive timetable of action, but the story’s shifting pathways draw important connections this way, giving the saga added value with a flavor of understanding and connection reinforced by this fluid movement.
Libraries seeking a spy story that embraces individual and social conundrums, weaves romantic interests and family involvements into bigger-picture thinking, and creates a vivid, thoroughly engrossing story in the process will find What We Say in the Dark an important recommendation for a wide audience.
From book clubs interested in fostering debates about how political repression impacts personal relationships and choices to readers seeking outstanding characterization that makes the story’s spy component more realistic and believable than most, What We Say in the Dark is a compelling, thought-provoking page-turner.
What We Say in the DarkReturn to Index
Where Eagles Fly
Free
David A. Jacinto
Meadow Vista
Corporation
9798218497729
$26.00
https://www.amazon.com/Where-Eagles-Fly-Free-Courageous/dp/B0DZY69F2J
In this second book in David A. Jacinto’s Courageous Series, Tom, his pregnant wife Annie, and their entire family move to America. Their home has been destroyed and they’ve been driven from Britain by industrial aristocrats, so the move to America is more of a survival necessity than a choice.
Where Eagles Fly Free is packed with examples of understanding and ethical insights that will spark discussions among American history readers. From immigrant experiences to how ethical foundations are built from new discoveries, the story entwines the lives of newcomers with encounters that lead them to challenge their worldviews and ideals:
Tom knew one thing for certain: that slaver had shocked him into seeing his own flaws starkly. His own failings. The slaver had made him recognize he, and all good men, had some kind of obligation to spit out the abuse of his fellow man. If it left a bad taste in his mouth, then he must have the courage not to swallow it back and go on his way.
Jacinto’s consideration of freedom, acts of inhumanity and charity, sacrifice, and collective joy builds believable characters and circumstances. His approach gives voice to both thought-provoking and celebratory moments of love, revelation, and appreciation that infuse the story with a sense of joy as well as purpose.
The characters grasp their new lives in both hands, face adversity with resolution and courage, and also embrace new insights and lifestyles that, when woven into their relationships, makes for a particularly attractive, revealing story.
Librarians will find Where Eagles Fly Free both a fitting expansion of the series and a fine stand-alone story of immigrant resettlement, American hopes and dreams, and fortune that brings with it heavy burdens of responsibility.
Filled with gripping connections and reflections, Where Eagles Fly Free is a masterful portrait of early American dreams realized, relationships consummated by love and change, and possibilities that redefine the concept of freedom and choice. These hard-hitting reflections create a story both realistic and thoroughly engrossing as America embraces and redefines its ideals of liberty.
Where Eagles Fly FreeReturn to Index
Whiskey Rebel
Jeffrey Dunn
Izzard Ink
Publishing
978-1-64228-102-6 $17.95
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
www.izzardink.com
American history and culture, veteran affairs, and literary flare combine in Whiskey Rebel, a novel set in Washington’s high desert. The tale revolves around two drifters who join forces to both question American principles and produce tax-free whiskey as a forefather did, which they call Westcoulatum Good Goddamned 1794 Freedom Whiskey.
The recipe portends to be a formula for success—but what emerges from their effort are underlying beliefs, values, and concepts of liberty that reinforce ideals of freedom in unexpected ways.
Jeffrey Dunn’s introductory explanation demonstrates some of the rich language to be found in Whiskey Rebel:
As for folks like me—ones who’ve grown up under blankets of Cascadian dank shade—coffee wakes us up, and alcohol puts us to sleep. Some say heroin also does the trick. I wouldn’t know about that, though I’ve heard tell. What I can say is that I’ve seen enough to keep me from looking down the barrel of a needle. I’ve learned not to judge.
The review of early American history and the efforts of character Whiskey Chance, “...who cooked up and distilled the American Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, the first attempt to set America straight,” dovetails neatly with present-day events. The a first-person reflective tone provides a succinct review of how narrator Punxie Tawney meets fellow drifter Hamilton Chance while panning for gold.
Reflections on bygone military years and the personal loneliness of a veteran set adrift back home bring to life not just wellsprings of personal inspiration, but the social, cultural, and Army experience which drive Punxie in an unexpected direction.
At all levels of the story, a gritty voice and candid reflections of past and present are juxtaposed with the atmosphere of high desert Washington. This creates a thoroughly compelling read that will touch readers on ethereal and realistic levels as Punxie participates in an endeavor that reawakens his connections to life, prompting new purposes and perspectives.
Dunn expands the playing field by injecting other personalities and quirky circumstances to create a vivid dance of discovery.
Important social reflection comes into play as the two characters evolve. This will provide particularly thought-provoking discussion material for book clubs and reading groups interested in American culture, history, and values:
“I don’t know about the tax-free part, Hamilton, but I do like your whiskey business idea. Free enterprise beats slave enterprise any day, and I don’t like how the John Nevilles always seem to rig the game against the Bobbi Lees. My dad said he never worked for the big timber companies because he didn’t like making money for someone he couldn’t look in the eye and have a shot and a beer with.”
“Don’t like free state, huh?”
“Not as much as whiskey business. Personally, I’d like to forget the idea of states altogether. My experience with states is entirely from the bottom. But like I said, the last time almost got me killed.”
Libraries that choose Whiskey Rebel for its promise of vibrant social, psychological, and historical development will find the novel more than a cut above other historical fiction. It’s highly recommendable to patrons interested in tales that take the time to build psychological and social dilemmas that are completely absorbing.
Readers will welcome Jeffrey Dunn’s literary prowess in unfolding an endeavor that embraces shifting ideals of American enterprise and notions of success.
Steeped in
dialogues and characters
that forcefully turn their lives from anticipated trajectories,
Whiskey Rebel
is quite simply a delightful,
highly recommended read.
Return to Index
5: Book 2 of the
Numbers Trilogy
a.a. clifford
HardBooks
Publishing
9798640944617
$24.99
Hardcover/$12.99 Paperback/$5.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/5-Book-Two-Numbers-Trilogy/dp/B0DX799CF4?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1
Science and faith often seem polar opposites. But, are they really? 5: Book 2 of the Numbers Trilogy both compliments the prior book (4) and expands the concept of a world in which hard science and belief entwine.
The destruction of a major U.S. city by a terrorist, leading to an unprecedented evil force’s appearance, causes some people to believe that Biblical apocalyptic predictions are coming true, and others to note that science has played a part in unleashing supernatural entities into the world.
Devout Catholic Dean “Deadman” Clarkson is one of those certain prophecy is at work ... but that doesn’t mean that disaster is inevitable. With faith at their side, he and his fellow fighters confront the demons of War, Pestilence, and Famine in a battle for world control that leads them to face the fourth Horseman, Death.
Even if the Horsemen and battles have been predicted, their outcomes can still be affected. Set in 2098, the world reels from a war that doesn’t just consume humanity, but pits demons against humans in an ultimate battle.
a.a. clifford juxtaposes the thoughts of religious and non-religious people in an exceptionally intriguing manner. This invites discourse between all kinds of readers, from sci-fi audiences attracted to futuristic apocalyptic clashes to thinkers and believers interested in how evil is confronted and values preserved or altered.
Interactions between major players fuel a passionate story of faith and struggle that injects much food for thought, pairing the backdrop of a struggle for physical and spiritual survival with a story of clashing forces that hold a stake in the future of humanity.
Clifford also poses some intriguing food for thought in the nature and history of the Four Horsemen themselves. One example lies in Pestilence, who is:
...just Hector, a simple country doctor brought to greatness. There are many demons in the world, and the best ones are so small, they cannot be seen.
Readers seeking action-packed scenarios will find them in droves ... but the real notable strength of this book (and its predecessor, 4) lies in a profile of the future that focuses on individual choice, reaction, belief, and consequences:
“So, you two are the new power couple of the apocalypse,” said Levine. “You’ve both killed the unkillable.”
Libraries will find the blend of hard science, deep faith, and altered states of understanding that is 5 to be more than a cut above ordinary. It’s highly accessible to a wide audience of readers, whether they are sci-fi buffs, survivalists, Christians, or science promoters.
Heavy in action and thought-provoking reflection, astute in its contrast of beliefs and their incarnation in real circumstances, and intriguing in its buildup of psychological, spiritual, and social issues, 5 is a top recommendation, its hard-to-neatly-categorize features a plus in a literary world too often given to narrowed audiences and visions.
5: Book 2 of the Numbers TrilogyReturn to Index
365 Quotes on
Writing That Will Make
You A Better Writer
Jerry Payne
Five Boroughs
Media and Publishing
LLC
9798989474936
www.FiveBoroughsBooks.com
There are plenty of writer advice guides on the market covering all kinds of “how-tos,” from how to write fiction or nonfiction to how to fine-tune work. Jerry Pane has produced a winningly different work in 365 Quotes on Writing That Will Make You A Better Writer, which self-proclaims its prowess in offering “some of the best writing advice you’ll ever receive.”
Its quotes cover all aspects of writing, from inspirational wellsprings and a writer’s psychological traits to issues surrounding the urge to write (or not), the business of writing, and more.
Another plus is that these quotes come from fellow writers who cover all kinds of topics, including such notable thinkers as Hemingway, Stein, Bradbury, and Didion.
Accessibility is important to Payne and is the key to why this book is organized in a daily inspirational format. Where fellow writer’s guides tend to suffer from too much information that becomes a challenge to digest, 365 Quotes on Writing That Will Make You A Better Writer admonishes readers to take the time to reflect on one quote a day, digest it, read Payne’s own take about the quote’s underlying message or impact, then write about what the quote means (space is provided for this in the physical book. If reading an e-format, Payne encourages opening Word or using a spiral notebook to record such reflections).
This technique creates an immediacy and interactive attraction that goes well beyond the usual daily inspirational collection, connecting words of writing wisdom to the process of writing about them, in return. This encourages output and creativity to further enhance a writer’s self-taught progression.
Libraries that choose 365 Quotes on Writing That Will Make You A Better Writer will find this invitation to follow up via writing in the book might be too inviting for book circulation—but obtaining an ebook version will preserve the inviting blank pages without encouraging patrons to put pen to lending copy.
Readers that select 365 Quotes on Writing That Will Make You A Better Writer will want to take advantage of the space provided to reinforce the crux of Payne’s creation, which centers on learning new techniques and incorporating them into one’s own creative process.
After all, as Margaret Atwood is quoted:
A writer must leave room for the reader to bring themselves into the story.
Payne’s take:
Another admonition to stop beating things so hard. You’ll never get a reader engaged by doing all the work for them.
Inspiring, succinct, hard-hitting, and infinitely applicable to the writer’s creative soul ... there’s much to love about the accessibility and invitations packed into 365 Quotes on Writing That Will Make You A Better Writer.
365 Quotes on Writing That Will Make You A Better WriterReturn to Index
Becoming JFK
Scott Badler
Bancroft Press
978-1-61088-679-6
$32.99
Hardcover/$9.99 eBook/29.95 Audiobook
www.scottbadler.net
Readers who think that Becoming JFK: John F. Kennedy’s Early Path to Leadership is yet another focus on the president’s life and untimely death will find that Scott Badler’s exploration of young JFK’s formative years goes above and beyond most biographies of his life.
Adopting a political focus that closely considers JFK’s evolution and ideals, Badler’s story outlines the wellsprings of his family influence. This includes the development of his competitive spirit, the decisions and influences on his leadership skills that moved from family circles to military service and relationship challenges, and the social and political times that led JFK to different paths to becoming the nation’s leader.
Historical photographs and illustrations add colorful and personal embellishments, reinforcing the author’s intention to make this biography not your usual dry presentation of facts and people, but a lively, personal exploration of the relationships and pivot points that built JFK’s personality and determination.
Badler bases these changes on the cultural and historical trends and events that evolved in the course of JFK’s life. These added social and ethical dilemmas that also shaped JFK’s personality and values. Unlike some JFK biographies, Badler attends to presenting these situations in an honest light that includes criticism along side commendation.
Another surprising note is that Becoming JFK reads with the drama and “you are here” feel of a novel:
One of ours, Jack thought. Another PT drifting like the rest of us. “Lennie, take a look at this,” Jack said matter-of-factly.
Lennie scrambled to his feet.
It was coming.
The massive hull of a warship barreled toward them, and now was less than a thousand yards away. It’s turning into us, going like hell, Jack thought. He had seconds to escape catastrophe.
This approach allows non-historians to easily access the events, people, and choices that directed the course of JFK’s life.
Replete with engrossing dilemmas, a rich narrative juxtaposed with historic images, and psychological, social, and political insights about the times, Becoming JFK is a top recommendation for libraries and readers who may already harbor JFK biographies, but seek something more lively, revealing, and thought-provoking than most.
In presenting the evolution of a leader whose flaws and visions contributed to a powerful presence, Becoming JFK succeeds in crafting a lively, invigorating story as notable for its high drama as its well-researched insights into how leadership is developed in general and, specifically, during the course of JFK’s evolution:
...here is JFK exploring the world despite severe health problems, putting his ideas into print, finding (and losing) the love of his life, escaping death and becoming a war hero, and finally throwing his hat into the political ring.
Leisure readers will find this story as highly accessible as scholarly audiences, with its collection personal anecdotes and lesser-known stories contributing to a rich portrait of JFK's early life unparalleled in its focus and allure.
Becoming JFKReturn to Index
The Covid Coach
Paul Edwards
Independently
Published
9798230466567
$14.99
Paperback/$5.99 eBook
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-covid-coach-paul-edwards/1146765082;jsessionid=BC60A07D21C92636E7C28FDEC9FD8A69.prodny_store01-atgap16?ean=2940180441164
The Covid Coach comes from a radiology technician whose medical job placed him in the crossfire of Covid. Paul Edwards documents the evolution of the pandemic not just from a patient or individual’s perspective, but as it impacted the healthcare system. His first-person, eye-opening experiences thus offers a different perspective of the Covid years than the usual exploration of personal impact.
From the start, Edwards captures the moment-by-moment shifts in the medical community as they battled a blossoming novel condition that nobody really knew much about:
The call came in as a routine code blue. Cardiac arrest. Room 4. Nothing unusual there; we dealt with them regularly. What was unusual was the hushed whispers preceding the announcement, the almost furtive glances exchanged between nurses, the palpable tension that hung heavier than the sterile air. We were told, almost as an afterthought, that the patient was suspected COVID-19 positive.
Suspected.
That word clung to me,
a tiny, insidious seed of dread taking root in my chest. We still
didn't have the robust testing capabilities we'd desperately need.
Suspected meant we were operating in a fog of uncertainty, relying on
educated guesses and prayers. And frankly, the flimsy plastic face
shields and surgical masks we wore felt more like symbolic gestures
than actual protection.
As Edward moves on to explain the particular challenge of a heart attack patient with Covid, the uncertainties of Covid’s early years and its impact on medical team functions is captured in such a vivid manner. Sensitive survivors of the pandemic may be challenged by the intensity of these reflections:
This wasn't the methodical, almost clinical approach I was used to. This was primal. This was raw. This was fear in its purest, most visceral form. My heart pounded in my chest, mimicking the desperate rhythm of the patient’s failing heart. The anxiety wasn't just about the patient's survival; it was about mine, about Mark’s, about the team’s. Were we doing enough? Were we taking the right precautions? The truth was, we were desperately trying to adapt to a situation that was completely outside of our established protocols. Our training didn’t quite cover this level of uncertainty, this level of potentially lethal ambiguity.
It would be a shame, however, to set aside such a thought-provoking work as The Covid Coach 122824 due to its intensity. That same attention to “you are here” detail is what validates the medical community’s perceptions, choices, and actions, transmitting information about Covid care in a manner that is too rarely covered in the typical memoir about Covid’s emergence.
Chapters probe a series of related medical issues, from medical staff emotional wellbeing and safety to the unexpected benefits (yes, pluses!) Covid resulted in as its blows prompted new considerations of medical treatments, routines, values, and bigger-picture thinking:
The pandemic was a crucible, testing the resilience of our systems and the dedication of our people, leaving us stronger and more prepared for whatever the future may hold. The insights we gained are not just valuable; they are crucial for building a more resilient and equitable healthcare system for all.
Edwards charts a type of growth that rarely receives in-depth attention, but tailors this to appeal to general-interest audiences who may not have experience in the medical field, as well as medical personnel interested in the history and lasting impact of the pandemic.
Introspection influenced the steps Edwards took to conduct scientific research on resilience, stress, recovery, and long-term transformation. This, in turn, translates to a powerful consideration of changing paradigms and insights about control and resilience.
Libraries will find The Covid Coach a powerful memoir that neatly defies pat categorization. It will be of interest to both general-interest readers and medical field participants alike. Its self-examination points the way to drawing important links between experience and evolution, while its overall assessments of the medical system’s responses and pros and cons will garner interest from an exceptionally wide audience.
Packed with the allure of personal examination and experience and the history and culture of Covid in medical circles, The Covid Coach is a page-turner. It goes beyond recounting history or personal experience to consider long-term changes and shifts in social, medical, and personal perception.
The striking descriptions and thought-provoking reflections make for a story that proves hard to put down.
The Covid CoachReturn to Index
The Dreamer’s
Quarry
Michael A. Luksch
Atmosphere Press
979-8-89132-561-6
$12.99 pb, $7.99
e-book, $21.99
hardcover
www.atmospherepress.com
The Dreamer’s Quarry illustrates the quandary faced by writer and dreamer Warner, whose ambitions to be a literary and philosophical achiever are stymied by the everyday demands of work, family, and other disparate hallmarks of success.
It seems unlikely that his literary ambitions will be realized under such circumstances. But when Warner encounters Jameson, who introduces him to other aspiring creators involved in rising above their own daily life challenges, he begins to adopt a new perspective not just on time allocation, but the values which place financial compensation above creative endeavor.
Michael A. Luksch creates an intriguing interplay between art and financial pursuits as Warner’s life expands. The language Luksch employs in tracing these changes is vibrant, evocative, and will certainly lend to individual food for thought and book club or reading group discussion. The perspectives not only come from Warner, but those who influence him and become part of his life—including his wife Rose:
She could see in his eyes a anger and a sadness, a once hopeful and spirited young man, now hardened and weathered with little more than accumulated disappointments and chips on his shoulder.
The basics of how Warner moves from idealism to ennui emerge as Luksch reviews past choices and present opportunities. The tale adopts a rich overlay of introspection as it explores deeper questions about becoming an adult and either letting go of dreams to conform to social standards, or striking out in an unexpected direction that may not be the optimum choice for supporting family and financial goals.
These experiences will prompt fellow writers and artists to reconsider their own perspectives about making a living versus living life to its fullest. This is encouraged by passages replete with thought-provoking insights:
He pondered his place in the world, his place in the never-ending sea of seemingly nothingness. He knew he had a place – somewhere – though it eluded him, and everyone in his life who ever thought a lick about him in the way that he was rightfully or wrongfully perceived had no comfort or compass to offer. It eluded them even further. Sometimes they would say things about it, and sometimes they would only think things about it in a rather obvious manner. Even acquaintances that were barely more than strangers had presumptions and skepticisms that he caught wind of. He found it frustrating – the weight of his little world and himself within it...
Anyone with an artistic bone in their body will readily relate to Warner’s dilemmas and challenges.
Libraries will find The Dreamer’s Quarry an inviting discourse about dreams and reality, and will want to highly recommend it to patrons and book clubs interested in probing the kernels of creative effort and social value.
Packed with introspective considerations of the best way to juggle artistic and life responsibilities, The Dreamer’s Quarry is a compelling read that deserves slow, careful pursuit for maximum contemplative benefit and impact.
The Dreamer’s QuarryReturn to Index
The Enigma Grid
Craig S. Wilson
Networlding
Publishing
978-1-959993-04-9
$12.41
Paperback/$4.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Enigma-Grid-Abyss-Between-Lunacy-ebook/dp/B0DWLVXPZD
An ethereal universe exists between the rational and the mystical. It is a tapestry of the insanely improbable yet undeniable. Any attempt to unravel this incomprehensible web merely draws you closer like a moth to a flame.
The introductory promise of The Enigma Grid delivers both a warning and an attraction that sets up a Twilight Zone-style atmosphere from the start. This supports a short story collection that lives up to its subtitle (“The Abyss Between Logic and Lunacy”) by contrasting realistic characters and situations with underlying puzzles and perceptions to challenge readers in novel, exciting new ways.
Take “Cosmic Karma: Justice,” for example. Here, an astrophysicist on the International Space Station finds himself part of a mission to the Moon to set up a base camp. It’s an endeavor riddled not just with physical and technological challenges, but a group chemistry that forms the “microcosm of humanity” by introducing conflicts nobody saw coming.
From accusations of creating space junk and notes that “everything happens for a reason” to discourses about combat situations, patriotism, Chinese spies, and an ironic demise, Craig S. Wilson excels in the kinds of concluding twists readers won’t see coming. That’s a rare talent, indeed.
Contrast this story with “A New Pair of Genes: The God Solution,” in which the People’s Republic of China, long involved in a genetic arms race with America, leads geneticist Ling Wei to participate in a dangerous concept of artificial population manipulation and reduction despite her own history, which has allowed her to survive when she should have been dead.
Over her protests (“Sir, we can’t account for how God will counter our strategy. Life has a way of evolving beyond our control.”), an experiment to halt reproductive ability turns into a nightmare affecting the future of humanity.
Shén Jiĕ’s opening salvo introduces unexpected issues of God and nature’s manipulation which delivers a hearty bang of unexpected results as Ling Wei considers a very different impact from her work.
Each story embraces hard-hitting insights, the unexpected, and a juxtaposition of logic and odd results that is thought-provoking, whether it covers social impact, psychological choice, or technological oddities.
The Enigma Grid’s wry irony will delight readers looking for exceptional short fiction that embraces literary and social prowess while maintaining accessibility for those who like to think and be surprised by unexpected outcomes.
Libraries that choose The Enigma Grid for their collections will find it simply outstanding. Its tantalizing discoveries and revelations are delivered in a succinct format that makes the tales all the more powerful with few wasted words and maximum impact.
Diverse, engrossing, and hard-hitting, The Enigma Grid is a top recommendation for a wide audience interested in eerie short stories that make them think.
The Enigma GridReturn to Index
Gone to Ground
Morgan Hatch
Black Rose Writing
978-1-68513-634-5
$22.95
https://www.morganhatch.net/
Gone to Ground pairs suspense with witty observations to bring readers a special flavor of intrigue and irony as a Mexican-American high school senior becomes mixed up in a conspiracy that reaches into his Los Angeles community to threaten everything he loves.
Javier Jiminez is on the high road to college until corporate special interests represented by businessman George Jones enters his neighborhood with a vision of urban renewal that threatens to tear down his community. It’s a world already buffeted by his feud with his brother Alex, who represents the darker side of choices in the Latino community and whose downhill slide into crime and chaos threatens to bring Javier with him.
As if Javier wasn’t in enough trouble, local gang clashes and murders begin to change the face of his world as he comes to realize that business interests may be provoking and pushing their actions.
Author Morgan Hatch’s background of some thirty years in the Los Angeles public school system lends to a realistic, powerful backdrop of classrooms, urban experiences, and Los Angeles culture that captures the atmosphere with descriptions that are on point and powerful:
Itchy always had on a pristine ball cap turned at a jaunty angle, a shiny decal still affixed to the bill, and Scratchy, hands shoved deep in his pockets, wore a hoodie that bisected his skull and swung off the crown of his head as if glued in place. Itchy would plop down next to Alex, stick one hand in the bag of chips, then drape an arm over Alex’s shoulder, a telling combination of coercion and brotherhood that had grown over the first semester.
Also of special note are action-packed scenarios that sizzle with confrontation and insights as Javier finds himself sometimes on the wrong side of family and law alike:
The voice on the bullhorn came out like a net.
“Put your hands up!” Even without the cops, there was nowhere to go unless you wanted to go for a swim. There was only the pool and then a fifty-foot drop.
Javier was now the only person in the house, leaving him looking more like a suspect himself and less like the concerned brother.
The mesmerizing web of events that play out to pull Javier into circumstances he either never saw coming or wanted to avoid creates layers of intrigue and realization that will simply delight readers looking for realistic thrillers immersed in Los Angeles street culture, devious business visions of profit, and engrossing observations from an approach that takes the time to build atmosphere and insights into its tension and psychological revelations:
He could see across the tracks, a pickup soccer game, kids no older than himself, their shouts like sparks in the night. He went at the tequila, his throat no longer burning, a lust for action starting to fill his head.
Javier’s journey from school shenanigans to life-altering encounters captures a Los Angeles encountering numerous scandals involving public officials alongside typical urban “crises” involving homelessness, gentrification, and immigration ... all an intrinsic part of the action.
Libraries, especially California collections seeking Southern California thrillers, will relish this intersection of social, political, and personal conundrums that drive an exquisite, tension-packed story of discovery and unexpected connections and consequences.
Readers that choose Gone to Ground for its promise of heady action, discussions of personal transformation and impact, and discovery will relish how Hatch brings all these influences home to explore Los Angeles culture from a very different perspective.
Gone to GroundReturn to Index
HOLY VOID
Yarek Alfer,
edited by Catherine
Bogart
GFB
978-1-964721-50-7
$18.95
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
https://www.girlfridayproductions.com/titles/holy-void
HOLY VOID: Zero-Thought-Consciousness will attract new age, spiritual, philosophical, and health-concerned readers with a focus on not just mind/body connections, but underlying spiritual elements which take the form of nonverbal consciousness.
Yarek Alfer’s objective is to tap into these elements to guide readers. He does so via an accessible series of questions and answers that readers can use to become more self-aware and enlightened.
Alfer’s work is not just the result of research in libraries. He traveled through India, experienced the elements of Advaita philosophy at work in the world, and encountered numerous spiritual teachers along the way, including His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.
These personal encounters and inquiries led to HOLY VOID, highly recommended for readers similarly interested in pursuing their own spiritual and philosophical reflections:
Any form of practice is generated by the need of our mind. If you give in to mental demands, you will go on an unending journey in a conceptual maze that leads further and further away from the nonconceptual innate consciousness you already have. What you need is to become aware of it. Any practice takes you away from it.
How do I become aware of it? By asking the question who am I.
Each question builds on and expands the answer in a step-by-step way that readers will find easy to follow, even though the actual process of self-realization is challenging and requires attention and time for thought and action.
By now, it should be evident that an inquiring mind and an openness to new age thinking are not the only prerequisites to completely appreciating Alfer’s journey. Of equal importance are the time, drive, and motivation to consider and incorporate these notions and ideals into everyday life.
Libraries seeking a reflective, accessible discourse which walks a fine line between philosophy, physical, mental, and spiritual health, and a how-to handbook of inquiry and growth will find HOLY VOID a fine choice.
Packed with enlightening considerations and questions that build logical pathways of discovery, HOLY VOID is a top pick for readers interested in developing better self-understanding and growing bigger-picture thinking processes.
Its employment of the question-and-answer format allows far more relevance and accessibility than most similar-sounding approaches, while its focus on nonverbal conversation explores a different set of possibilities that thinking readers will want to consider.
HOLY VOIDReturn to Index
Hope for Moms
Anna McArthur
Beaver’s Pond Press
978-1-64343-560-2
$16.95
www.hopeformomsbook.com
Hope for Moms: It’s Tough Out There But So Are You is an encouraging review of the trials of parenting. It explores parenting challenges through three sections of insights that revolve around things to remember (in “Yes, These Things Stay”), things to let go of (in “No, These Things Go”), and new beginnings and habits (in “Maybe: We’ll Do Our Best Going Forward”).
Each segment features chapters that address expectations both reasonable and unreasonable, approaches to making the most out of family relationship-building, and keys to integrating acceptance into kinships and encounters with the outside world.
Anna McArthur well knows these routines. She adopted children of mixed races, daily confronting the fact that:
...As a family, we’re too interesting for some places and people. It’s okay because we know we’re awesome, as individuals and as a family. If places aren’t welcoming, I’ve learned that we can just walk away. We don’t have to burn anything down on our way out.
Readers who open this book expecting the usual litany of parenting processes will thus find added layers of joy and revelations about family makeup, racism, and practical insights about how to accept, perceive, and tailor life differently as a mixed race family of kids grow up:
There’s a weird vibe in our house that I’ve struggled to identify. Is it like a psych ward? Or maybe the Upside Down from Stranger Things?
Finally, I’ve put my finger on it: toddlers. My teenagers remind me of toddlers—but with raging hormones and mood swings.
It reminds me of the time when one of my toddlers was prescribed a steroid. I called a girlfriend who is a nurse for advice. “Oh boy—get ready,” she said. “A toddler on steroids is like living with a squirrel on crack.” A hormonal teenager is kind of the same.
Good times.
The difference between this book and other parenting guides is that McArthur doesn’t just discuss hope. She embeds it into every chapter that relates her experiences and shifting approach to building a family whose interactions prove uplifting, whether at home or in the outside world.
While acknowledging the challenge of steep learning curves, Hope for Moms is all about addressing these challenges by adopting approaches that represent the best support systems possible for all kids. Her uplifting examples of the biracial makeup of her family and parenting choices can be applied to all kinds of mixed and blended families, as well as those who roots are more singular:
There are plenty of days when I worry that we’re botching this transracial adoption thing, including the days when the color of my skin makes my kids’ days harder. Maybe I bought KD those shoes as a kind of reparation. Maybe it was motivated by white guilt. Maybe I just decided it was a battle I didn’t need to fight. Most likely, I bought her the shoes because I finally realized it was a small thing I could do to help her feel more confident at her new school.
The result is so encouraging and specific that Hope for Moms is a top standout, highly recommended above others for libraries looking to add exceptional parenting books to their collections.
Hope for Moms embraces difference and celebrates support systems. Perhaps these qualities are why its messages are so highly impactful and thought-provoking—and so essential for any mother looking to raise children who will make a difference in the world—hopefully, by example:
The twins need people outside our white family to tell them that they are beloved and cherished. The world will try to tell them in a hundred different ways who they are and who they aren’t allowed to be, but if they know their intrinsic worth, those destructive voices can’t do as much harm.
Hope for MomsReturn to Index
Incredible,
Legendary, Obvious
Orest Stelmach
Penwood
978-0-9997253-5-1
$4.99
Website: www.oreststelmach.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DSWPYM43
“One man with skills – no matter how extraordinary – is still just a man,” Victor said. “He cannot possess capabilities beyond those of a human being.” Or, can he?
Incredible, Legendary, Obvious is an intriguing mix of sci-fi, thriller, thievery, and military action. So many genres weave into the tale that libraries may find it both difficult to compartmentalize and easy to recommend to a wide audience, as a result.
Orest Stelmach’s story opens with a showcase of unique ability. Nazarov, a worker for a Russian oligarch, watches a fete of impossible cliff-climbing skill, involving Adam and his Uncle Victor in the spectacle. Indeed, it seems to represent the transformation of mortal into superhero.
Victor is a Ukrainian (now an American citizen) whose private courier performs the impossible, which interests Nazarov. Is the Courier an ordinary man with extraordinary skills, or a superhuman force?
As the tale of international clashes, business interests, and herculean possibilities evolves, readers will appreciate the political and entrepreneurial facets which influence Victor, Nazarov, Adam, and other characters whose lives intersect with the Courier.
The man is not infallible, however, as is shown when a sensitive package is stolen from him. The thief proves to have unexpected past ties with the Courier, forcing him into an emotional and professional entanglement he never saw coming ... especially from a dead woman.
As Adam becomes involved with the thief, the package, and high-stakes intrigue, readers will find the Russian-flavored atmosphere and encounters to be particularly unexpected and thoroughly exciting.
Fast-paced action considers professional codes of conduct, betrayal, tragic attacks that kill the innocent, and Russian perspectives. All receive delightful build-up and attention under Stelmach’s investigative writing hand.
Strong characters, unexpected twists, and side notes about how ordinary people endure crushing political and military events create thought-provoking scenarios of action-packed encounters that contrast nicely with reflections about survival:
Another visitor might have wondered how these people survived during the best of times, let alone during the war. But as soon as he saw Luca’s yard, Adam knew how he made a living – he was a scavenger. He acquired what he could and sold it to whoever would buy.
Libraries seeking thrillers blended with sci-fi components that fully embrace mystery, intrigue, and social issues will relish Incredible, Legendary, Obvious.
Its superpower stems from a special strength in unfolding human affairs and layers of political, social, and individual purpose. The story becomes a satisfyingly unpredictable page-turner, hard to put down and easy to recommend to all kinds of readers.
Incredible, Legendary, ObviousReturn to Index
The Island
Kerri King
KK Publishing
979-8-9928203-0-0
www.amazon.com
Fantasy readers who like stories of discovery, mermaids, and surprises that alter perceptions of reality will relish the speculative nature of Kerri King’s The Island, which delves into many watery realms of possibility.
The tale opens in 1980s New Zealand, where Lily and first-person narrator Mack observe pilot whales beaching themselves, and try to help them ... to no avail. Three days later, Mack is working his job on a fishing trawler when a swarm of flying fish cover the docks. These omens portend ripples of change that impact Mack and Lily’s relationship and world, introducing psychological challenges that erode their connections to one another.
Kerri King’s astute story unfolds from the personal to bigger-picture thinking as the dilemmas of nature and humankind venture into the impossible. A sense of magical realism powers a story in which surveys odd behaviors and impacts that build disparate experiences in a picture-in-picture series of vivid descriptions:
“Screaming before pretending to drown herself was, she often said at dinners, her only true release from the arias repeating constantly in her mind.”
Readers may not expect the philosophical examinations that entwine with this foray into deeper waters, but King creates self-inspections and challenges that force both characters and readers to navigate transformation and realization through revised perspectives on life and miracles alike:
She’d written about the water in such a way there was nothing else it could be, but some sort of calling. An ode to grief. And what was that, hiding between the lines? It was as if Lily had yet to learn all the parts of her own story, aware there was an element of irony planning to present itself only once the book had made its way into the world. Perhaps she hadn’t been running away, but towards, chasing that irony with all her strength.
The literary strength of this novel lies in such descriptive “aha” moments of discovery, while an underlying stream of fantasy and artistry keeps the revelations believable, reflective, and often satisfyingly surprising.
Mack’s ability to connect the dots to related mysteries add fine tension and thought to the inviting saga:
Vanished ships. Desert UFOs. Sightings of Sasquatch in the forest. Time travel. Unfound bodies. The haunting of frozen ghosts. If all the unexplainable was actually real, what did that mean for humanity?
Libraries seeking a literary work of speculative fiction that injects elements of magic, fantasy, and magical realism into a thought-provoking adventure will welcome the opportunity to highly recommend The Island to readers seeking both entertainment and enlightenment value from exceptional fiction.
Packed with haunting encounters with ghosts, an island’s secrets, dreams that teeter on the cusp of insanity, and possibilities that pose edgy challenges to Mack and his world, The Island is breathtaking in its imagery and twists.
Take a deep breath before embarking on a slow, satisfying read ... and don’t choke on the waters that draw readers into a deep-rooted foray into the nearly impossible.
The IslandReturn to Index
José
Silva’s Guide
to Effective Decision Making and Goal Setting, 2nd
Edition
Reported by Ed
Bernd Jr.
Print Versions
(Published by Silva
Books):
978-1-965725-07-8
$10.95
Paperback/$15.95 Hardcover/$12.95 Paperback Large Print/
Digital Versions
(published by G&D
Media):
978-1-722528-48-5
$9.98
epub/$14.95 eAudio
www.SilvaMethodUltraMind.com
José Silva’s Guide to Effective Decision Making and Goal Setting offers a special approach to setting and meeting goals which defines what goals are, covers various strategies to identifying and meeting mileposts during the process, and outlines the Silva Method’s techniques for more effective identification and attainment of life dreams.
Rather than encouraging a “one size fits all” approach, Silva encourages readers to consider and then “apply the steps that are appropriate to you.” This allows for a blueprint that incorporates flexibility and individuality in its methodology, which will prove inviting to readers who balk at set procedures for meeting goals.
The first thing to note about José Silva’s Guide to Effective Decision Making and Goal Setting is that begins with dreaming—a dream that may yet be unrealized or defined, but is the focal point of any endeavor. Methodology is outlined for readers who may have the nuggets of possibility in their minds, but no clear vision of how to take the next step to make them real.
Chapters evolve a progressive series of insights that outline steps to success, from writing down possibilities to give them more concrete status to assembling pictures of the goal. Visuals are thus related to imagination in a way that adds solidity to the possibilities of realizing the goal.
A workbook-style format that encourages dreamers to become achievers invites this conversion with fill-in-the-blank opportunities that may not lend to the rigors of library circulation, but creates many pivot points of understanding designed to push the process from thinking to achievement.
At each step of the process, real-world examples reinforce the process in action, showing learners how the method appears at different stages in its incarnation and translation into reality.
It may be obvious by now that, of necessity, the ideal reader of José Silva’s Guide to Effective Decision Making and Goal Setting will be interested in applied self-help action rather than sitting back and reading about possibilities. This type of audience will more than appreciate the clarity and actionable advice Silva cultivates, presented in “baby steps” to make the process unambiguous.
From discussions of life purpose to expanding the Silva techniques to address issues in personal interaction choices and considering the consequences of supporting friends and others, bigger-picture thinking moves outward from personal goal-setting in a revealing, unexpected manner.
Audiences seeking guided routines for expanding their understanding of the world, their visions, and their choices in realizing these dreams will find José Silva’s Guide to Effective Decision Making and Goal Setting unexpectedly outstanding as it moves from individual to community processes, expanding its own guidance by reinforcing “effective” to apply to all manner of goals, achievements, and interpersonal interactions.
Those desiring to modify their beliefs and behaviors to achieve better success in life will find José Silva’s Guide to Effective Decision Making and Goal Setting thought-provoking and outstanding.
José Silva’s Guide to Effective Decision Making and Goal Setting, 2Return to Index
The Legend of
Mitch “Blood”
Green and Other Boxing Essays
Charles Farrell
Hamilcar
Publications
978-1949590814
$34.99
Hardcover/$21.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Mitch-Blood-Boxing-Essays/dp/194959081X
The Legend of Mitch “Blood” Green and Other Boxing Essays explores boxing legend/gang member Mitch “Blood” Green and how his achievement of four New York Golden Gloves heavyweight titles in the course of his career was quashed by his involvement in gang activities.
Rather than adopting a distancing third person usage, as one might expect, one of the strengths of this collection is the author’s employment of the first person. This injects important observations, beliefs, thoughts, and assessments into his investigations of boxing “greats” and their behind-the-scenes stories:
Green’s penchant for mayhem, for recreational drugs, for driving mishaps, as well as his unpredictability kept him popping up in the news, but torpedoed his boxing career... With fading options, he got pressured and hoodwinked into a bad deal to fight Mike Tyson, went to the ring unprepared and unmotivated, and lost a listless decision at Madison Square Garden. Not long afterward, Mitch returned to the tabloids as the result of a late-night street fight with Tyson at an after-hours boutique in Harlem called Dapper Dan’s.
Then he disappeared from boxing.
Until I found him.
Readers who anticipate the collection will be a series of boxing world encounters may be surprised to find, juxtaposed with these encounters, such figures as Donald Trump. This, too, is presented in an unexpected manner to delight readers interested in surprise revelations:
Earlier in the evening, I’d been with that fighter and his trainer in a small room beneath the Convention Center. We’d have business upstairs in a little while.
Just past the perimeter of light, three figures huddled. They were conferring, hunched in an odd way that accentuated their collective bulk. These were overpadded men; trying to reduce the space they took up made them look unnatural and furtive. The Mafia not being what it once was, these guys had the general appearance of lower-level Mob muscle. I recognized Trump, of course. I’d seen him at a lot of AC fights, where his entrance into the arenas brought a volume of frenzied cheering commensurate with what Anna Nicole Smith, Hulk Hogan, or David Hasselhoff got when they walked in, and came from the same people.
These two examples are but several illustrations of the unexpected, compelling nature of this collection, which holds added value via its ability to appeal to readers whose interests normally lie far outside boxing.
Indeed, to limit The
Legend of Mitch “Blood” Green and Other Boxing Essays
to sports enthusiasts alone would be to do it a grave disservice. Its
history, humor, political revelations, and social and philosophical
reflections encourage readers to consider boxing in a very different
light:
If you’ve worked creatively over twenty years to successfully convince people that you’re the greatest fighter who ever lived, you really have to look like the greatest fighter who ever lived if you’re against a beginner. How do you do that? What does it look like?
The greatest fighter who ever lived isn’t a real person if that designation is bestowed during a boxing era where conditions don’t allow for a viable chance to prove it.
Humor permeates stories that are driven by Charles Farrell’s many personal encounters, questions, insights, and experiences as an observer of the sport. These add a multifaceted richness to the essay collection that makes it very highly recommendable to a wide audience.
Libraries pursuing essays on sports in general or boxing in particular will not only want to make The Legend of Mitch “Blood” Green and Other Boxing Essays part of their collections, but will want to point out its novel approach to book clubs, reading groups, and general-interest audiences.
Readers will find its vibrant psychological, social, political, and personal revelations are just the ticket for a read that is solid in its facts, unexpected in its focus and connections, and thoroughly delightful in its novel approach to boxing.
The Legend of Mitch “Blood” Green and Other Boxing EssaysReturn to Index
The Organ Broker
Deven Greene
Panthera Publishing
ASIN: B0DSKRWKWD
$5.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Organ-Broker-Deven-Greene-ebook/dp/B0DSKRWKWD
Some books—quite often, the best—defy pat categorization.
The Organ Broker is an example of such a book. It teeters between thriller, novel, a story of medical and social challenge, and more. It stands out from others about organ harvesting simply because it evolves a complex plot that engages characters and readers in a moral and ethical dance spiced with intrigue and the unexpected.
The story opens on a hot East Texas day. Protestor Crystal Rigler has spearheaded a community-wide effort to save prisoner Kwami from the death penalty. Issues of immorality give Crystal and handsome husband Derek visibility as they protest Texas’s death penalty laws on the grounds of:
...the uneven death penalty sentencing, the ugliness of exacting revenge, and the irreversibility of the punishment once meted out.
The organization STOP (‘Stop Transplants of Organs from Prisoners’) that Crystal and Derek have created specifically addresses the practice of using executed prisoners as organ donors. It’s a new government policy that turns out not to support the national transplant list, but is, in actuality, for those who are rich enough to pay big sums for life-saving organs.
Their effort seems morally correct and cut-and-dry. But when secrets emerge that implicate STOP in a dilemma that forces Crystal and Derek to consider their own inadvertent involvement in unethical practices, readers will appreciate a taut, gripping story that sets the couple at odds with each other and their cause.
Deven Greene captures their interpersonal relationship and the forces that test it with a deft attention to psychological discovery:
“What if I talk to him? We need that money.”
“Don’t you dare call that prick. He’ll think I’m not man enough to speak up for myself. That motherfucker’s been jealous of me ever since I started working there. He’s always been gunning for me. I forbid you to call him.”
“You forbid me? You don’t own me. I can do what I want.” It had been a long time since Crystal had confronted Derek. She was usually the one to give in when they argued. She either wanted to maintain the peace or his smile eased her into submission.
As organ donor issues impact family life, readers will find the contentions and circumstances both unexpected and riveting as Crystal and Derek find their ideals tested and challenged in novel ways.
From protest and organization-building to what happens when uncomfortable truths hit too close to home, Greene creates a story packed with personal reflections and self-examination. These evolve under the bigger picture of organ donor profit and purpose:
Britt had to go. If he had any suspicions, he hoped he hadn’t shared them with Crystal. He needed her in his corner. Is there no end to what I have to do just to get on with my life? I try to do the right thing, but It seems there’s always someone in my way.
The Organ Broker is a tense story of discovery and struggle that libraries will find appropriate to highly recommend to thriller readers seeking more depth and food for thought from their reading than conflict resolution alone.
Book clubs will find The Organ Broker to be fast-paced, riveting, and packed with fodder for group discussion. Its potential topics for debate range from interpersonal relationship to organizational changes; how worthy programs can be corrupted by predators that ignore ethics for the sake of profit; and how organ donor and prisoner management issues intersect (in this case) to create dangerous outcomes.
Filled with tension, twists, and poignant moments of choice and consequences, The Organ Broker is a page-turner that proves hard to put down—and is difficult to peg as an action-packed social analysis alone.
And that’s what makes it a standout.
The Organ BrokerReturn to Index
Sleep: A User’s
Guide
H. Kenneth Fisher,
MD
Torchflame Books
978-1-61153-580-8
$18.99
Paperback/$6.99 eBook
www.torchflamebooks.com
Sleep: A User’s Guide is a primer of sleep disorders, getting better rest, and understanding the different kinds of sleep problems that arise in the course of life.
Plenty of sleep books on the market cover many of these points, but what differentiates Sleep: A User’s Guide from most is that it’s a comprehensive coverage of the medical and scientific causes behind sleep issues, as well as a self-help guide on how to achieve a better night’s rest.
By connecting a sleep medicine specialist’s knowledge base with anecdotes on how better sleep may be achieved through better understanding, Dr. Fisher creates a thought-provoking, accessible book that will appeal to anyone suffering from a sleep disorder.
Chapters incorporate the latest new research and discoveries about sleep, contrasting different sleep patterns with how they impact daily living. The book opens with the important point that as modern humans live longer lives, so they experience sleep issues our ancestors never had to cope with.
Fisher’s step-by-step approach to his subject considers the many factors that can affect sleep, the full-body impact of its fluctuations or alteration, and, finally, how readers can address their own sleep “symphonies” by better understanding the medicine and tested solutions addressing different sleep issues.
Many of these insights won’t appear in the usual treatise on sleep:
When the timing of our sleep is out of phase with our internal rhythms, there are changes in the daily fluctuations of hundreds of the RNA molecules that are normally in our blood after being copied from the DNA templates within the nucleus of every cell.
He also adds the value of understanding the successes and fallacies of routines and perceptions about sleep:
I first encountered the problem of sleep stage misperception at the Cedars Sinai Sleep Clinic some years ago...My patient was an architect in his fifties who claimed that he had hardly slept at all for the preceding few months. During our interview on the morning following his overnight polysomnogram, I asked how well he had slept the previous night, during the sleep study. “You know, last night was much better than usual. I think I slept about thirty minutes.” I pointed out that his brain waves showed more than five and a half hours of sleep, to which he responded with some expletives about the reliability of our sleep study. Ultimately, though, he was reassured. (Incidentally, it is common for people with chronic insomnia to sleep better when they sleep away from home.)
This blend of research, observations, personal insights, and patient experience provides a much deeper inspection of sleep itself than most solution-oriented approaches offer.
Libraries that already have books about sleep in their collections, but who seek updated approaches and insights based on not just the latest research, but a physician’s personal involvement, will find Sleep: A User’s Guide more than a cut above similar-sounding titles. They’ll want to update their collections to replace aged books with Fisher’s modern assessments, highly recommending it to readers seeking a basic modern introduction to sleep issues and the latest science.
Packed with “aha” moments of discovery and medical and personal insight, Sleep: A User’s Guide will attract anyone who has struggled with sleep issues and would better understand the origins, impact, and solutions of these challenges.
Sleep: A User’s GuideReturn to Index
Unseen Chains
Corey W Carlson
Independently
Published
979-8230930402
$19.99
https://www.amazon.com/Unseen-Chains-Everyday-Oppression-American/dp/B0DXNBR9BC
Unseen Chains: The Everyday Oppression of American Life chronicles the ideal and evolution of the American Dream and how its allure resulted in successes and failures that actually overlaid a system rigged from the start. This should be the starting point for political science and history students of American history who are interested in the foundations and influences of socioeconomic forces that took an ideal and made it a cornerstone illusion for a nation.
Corey W Carlson draws on a combination of personal experience and insight and studied research as he builds the case for a different kind of history where politicians and the wealthy created and manipulated not just system rules, but consumer image and ideals.
Chapters evolve a series of surprises that will surely prove controversial food for thought and fodder for vivid classroom and reading group discussions. Carlson is clear about his analysis of these special interests that have kept American options and ideals under thrall:
The Democrats and Republicans have created a system where it’s nearly impossible for any outside voices to gain traction. This isn’t by accident; it’s by design. Both parties understand that their power is best preserved by limiting voter options. If voters only have two choices, the parties can focus on winning over the center or energizing their base, without ever having to worry about losing to a truly disruptive political force.
His approach actually explains a lot, from voter apathy and the failures of the political system to address a wide range of social ills and transformative options to how selective retellings of American history pick and choose the narrative to redefine events on a broad scale that adds to illusions and supports special interests.
As a myriad of “unseen chains” are probed, readers may find many answers to why they feel duped, disillusioned, or confused about America’s political past and present. The exploration becomes even more hard-hitting for its wide sweep and scope of seemingly disparate forces at work behind the scenes:
Hollywood also plays a key role in reinforcing American exceptionalism, the idea that the U.S. is unique in its commitment to freedom, democracy, and human rights, and that it has a special responsibility to lead the world. Historical films and biopics often present a sanitized version of American history that emphasizes the nation’s achievements while minimizing or ignoring its darker aspects.
In short, although opinionated and controversial, Unseen Chains is also well-researched, essential reading for any thinking historian, economics student, or consumer interested in better understanding the interactions between and repressive efforts of forces that would control and direct the course of not just American lives, but ideals.
Unseen ChainsReturn to Index
The Visionary
Leader
Bryan Smeltzer
Liquidmind Press
9781737188124
$29.99
Hardcover/$4.99 eBook
Website: BryanSmeltzer.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Visionary-Leader-Principles-Greatest-Visionaries-ebook/dp/B0DNKVZ72B
The Visionary Leader: The Success Principles of The World’s Greatest Visionaries goes beyond most discussions of leadership to inject the concept of vision into the process. While this addition may initially seem like a small adjustment, in fact, it represents a big divergence from many books about leadership, in that it promotes visionary thinking as a major part of the leadership process.
Bryan Smeltzer’s advice can be applied to a range of situations beyond the usual business focus of leadership, whether organizational in nature or introspective analyses of personal goals and dreams. Smeltzer clearly outlines the features that differentiate the visionary leader from one who adopts basic techniques for guiding others.
This dovetails nicely with case history examples of visionary approaches to leadership which lend excitement, specificity, and illustrative value to the pathways and choices Smeltzer outlines to his readers.
Some of these examples come from historical figures such as Michelangelo. Readers may be surprised at the inclusion and definition of a “visionary leader” in the form of an artist, but that’s just one of the eye-opening differences between The Visionary Leader and traditional leadership approaches:
Michelangelo’s visionary artistic talent transcended the conventions of his time ... Michelangelo’s commitment to his craft was marked by persistence and perseverance. Despite facing challenges and setbacks, he dedicated years to completing monumental projects, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to his artistic vision. He was devoted to achieving artistic excellence in every aspect of his work. His meticulous attention to detail, dedication to perfection, and pursuit of the highest standards set him apart as a Visionary artist.
The broad spectrum of leadership examples serve as enlightening inspiration for all kinds of endeavors, drawing a wide audience of potential leaders into notions of growth and transformation that follow how these ideals translate to broader aspects of change and discovery.
Historical figures, practical applications, and how new Visionary Leaders should employ mentoring, seek collaborative opportunities, and absorb community evolutionary processes translates to not just influencing, but sparking enthusiasm among team members. The result is a hard-hitting, uncommon survey as vivid as it is enlightening.
Libraries seeking a blend of biographical examples, historical analysis, leadership roles and routines assessed and explored, and new definitions of visionary actions and choices will relish The Visionary Leader’s guiding light of discovery and transformation.
Packed with examples of visions both honed and put into action, The Visionary Leader is suitable for many types of group discussion, whether in business circles, psychology or sociology groups, among new age readers, or between those who seek a more marked, impactful connection between growth, opportunity, and building “forces of meaningful change and transformation.”
The Visionary LeaderReturn to Index
Watching: Portrait
of an
Innocent Girl
Jeffrey Jay Levin
Black Rose Writing
978-1685135935
$21.95
Paperback/$5.99 eBook
www.blackrosewriting.com
Watching: Portrait of an Innocent Girl is the second book in a series with a subtitle labeling it “A Different Type of Time Travel”—so, why shouldn’t this be featured as science fiction?
Of course it could—but that would mean thriller audiences would likely miss Jeffrey Jay Levin’s powerful foray into intrigue and time-hopping dilemmas which rely on problem-solving series of unexpected circumstances to keep readers and characters on their toes.
This second book in the series returns the time-traveling Josh Lowenstein and his fellow investigative collaborators to new endeavors as they travel through space and time to consider the impact of a painting stolen by the Nazis during World War II.
As the story unfolds, it reveals yet another facet that will appeal to a different type of genre reader—those who enjoy the intersection of paranormal influences with ethical dilemmas involving war crimes and the long-term impacts of historical events.
Fueled by a haunting painting which propels Josh to push for answers, Watching: Portrait of an Innocent Girl features talking bowling pins, life threatening otherworldly encounters, the pursuit of logic in the Watching experience, and more as the gripping saga unfolds.
Constant new discoveries demand revised perceptions of purpose, confrontation, and discovery as each of the characters delve into unfamiliar times and territory while considering the bigger picture of their place in the universe:
“This is going to sound weird, but do you get the feeling that something is guiding these last Watchings?” She looked at me, but I had no response, so she continued. “You never had what you called impromptu Watchings. Now you’ve had, what, three? And these last two seem to have had a specific purpose, as if something were telling you ‘Hey, do I have to hit you over the head? Pay attention to the notebook’.”
The story’s investigative component will delight thriller readers who enjoy cat-and-mouse games; the supernatural influences add atmospheric and engrossing twists that readers won’t see coming; and the sci-fi time-travel will intrigue timeslip readers with many insights and events even seasoned genre fans won’t see coming.
These highlights are why libraries will want to consider Watching: Portrait of an Innocent Girl a special acquisition of wide-ranging interest, and why book clubs and reading groups will find its action and involvements so exciting.
A final plus is that, while Watching: Portrait of an Innocent Girl is the second book in a series (complimenting the previous The Garden Museum Heist), newcomers need no prior introduction to immediately become absorbed in its characters and contentions.
With its sterling historical and mystery elements, thought-provoking encounters, and action-packed scenarios, Watching: Portrait of an Innocent Girl is a page-turner that’s hard to put down.
Watching: Portrait of an Innocent GirlReturn to Index
Whatta U Lookin’
At?
Annie Mack
Cresting Wave
Publishing, LLC
978-1-956048-99-5
$24.95
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/whatta-you-lookin-at-annie-mack/1147063842
Whatta U Lookin’ At? proves that books about photography, perception, and the arts needn’t be dry, analytical, methodical affairs, but free-flowing dialogues about exciting new concepts. This approach is illustrated in the book’s opening lines, which are delivered with a bang:
I am not a photographer. Let’s settle that right now.
I don’t do weddings or events, make studio appointments, or sell wallet prints.
I am an artist, and I make art with photographic equipment.
I create images that don’t look or act like photos, and I am denied admittance to many competitions, galleries, and photo shows all the time.
Why?
Because many judges/spectators don’t appreciate ‘What They’re Looking At. ’
And, we’re off into a venture that toes the line between art, politics, and the elements of abstraction. Of necessity, this involves a relative minimum of verbiage and maximum if visual examples—which is one reason why Whatta U Lookin’ At? is a standout.
Mack’s survey focuses on how to understand abstract art, pairing one-liner description with a wide range of illustrations. One example is ‘Walkin’ in the Hood,’ an image which proves much harder-hitting and more insightful with Mack’s accompanying reflection, “An inverse of an originally warm-toned pic.”
Literary allusions abound as much as social and artistic reflection, as in the powerful image ‘How the Light Gets In,’ accompanied by the associative description “A near-ancient pickup truck (1950s or so) pays homage to … Leonard Cohen.”
The scope and wealth of these images and their analytical value makes Whatta U Lookin’ At? a powerful piece especially highly recommended for classes and book clubs on art appreciation, perspective, and the presence and interpretation of art under all kinds of conditions.
Expect the unexpected—as with ‘Fledgling,’ a bird representation with no descriptors, which is delivered on the form of a trivet.
As in her images and sparse words, Whatta U Lookin’ At? may itself best be described as Mack observes for one of these images: “Modern interpretive, with a touch of wild.”
Readers interested in captivating, out-of-the-box description and thinking about abstracts, photography, and a range of multimedia representations will relish the creativity, vibrancy, and unusual countenance of Whatta U Lookin’ At? It’s a powerful study in abstract appreciation and looking at (or creating) imagery and life connections that is especially highly recommended for any arts library and discussion group interested in interactive interpretive opportunities.
Whatta U Lookin’ At?Return to Index
The Adventures of
Beatrice Bubbles
Evan Krachman
Precocity Press
979-8-9920552-3-8
$19.95 Paperback
https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Beatrice-Bubbles-happens-Laparopicus/dp/B0DSJXTRF4
The Adventures of Beatrice Bubbles is a dazzling celebration of imagination, invention, and the unexpected twists that come with good intentions. This whimsical picture book follows a lonely, disheartened little girl and her magical, inventive imaginary friend who crafts a delightful surprise that “makes her heart sing.” But as with any great adventure, surprises don’t always go as planned!
Blending heartwarming themes of kindness with a fantastical journey fueled by creative ingenuity, this story showcases the transformative power of thinking outside the box—sometimes quite literally, in the case of a bubble-powered adventure! The book brims with clever wordplay, humor, and a touch of zany chaos, proving that a bit of creativity can turn even the most unexpected detours into something extraordinary.
Allison Posternock's vibrant, expressive illustrations bring this bubbling world to life, making the adventure even more enchanting. While young readers will delight in the colorful escapades, an adult’s read-aloud touch will help weave together the playful language and the deeper meaning behind Beatrice’s magical journey.
And speaking of playful language, the book is full of inventive, lyrical prose that dances off the page:
"Stanley
called the
Piggle
and told him his story, in not much glory.
A Piggle, you
ask? Part Pig, Part Smart,
sometimes too tart, he can fix any old
thing
that goes bing!"
Zany, thought-provoking, and bursting with creative energy, The Adventures of Beatrice Bubbles is a must-read for parents, educators, and libraries looking for a delightfully original tale that celebrates the power of imagination, invention, and unexpected discoveries.
The Adventures of Beatrice BubblesReturn to Index
A Colonial Stew
Diane Green
DCG Books
9798334783034 $9.99
www.DCGBooks.com
A Colonial Stew: A Humorous Account of Life in the Colonies presents an engrossing survey of colonial life that uses the “stew” metaphor and its ingredients to draw disparate experiences together. This will reach young adult to adult audiences with vivid portrait of life in the diverse colonies of Massachusetts Bay and New Sweden in the 17th Century.
Green’s attention to developing different backgrounds, experiences, and personalities creates a satisfyingly uncommon intersection of special interests and experiences which illustrate daily life in these colonies.
The collection opens with “Please Pass the Peas,” in which Aquilla Spencer and Sarah Briggs move from England to the American colony for new opportunities. At the same time, mixed-race African princess Rebecca Chase becomes involved with her stepmother’s pea-growing business and Aquilla’s son Mindwell.
Rebecca’s experience of being sold and coming to terms with a vastly revised life is but one facet of the ongoing struggles the colonists experience as they move through the days facing unfamiliar environments and challenges.
Mindwell’s roving eye leaves Rebecca in a vulnerable position as the story moves in unforeseen directions. As pestilence, passion, and peas drives the couple into further dilemmas with a few easy resolutions, readers receive a full-bodied experience of the social, political, and lifestyle challenges of Colonial times.
Each chapter segues into another facet of colony life, representing vivid tumultuous experiences as the fledgling colonies forge ahead and life changes.
Diane Green’s “stew” holds many captivating ingredients: history, humor, interwoven life experiences, and love, as well as struggle.
Young people seeking short, easily to digest historical pieces representing discoveries that illustrate the forging of Colony life will find A Colonial Stew’s special blend of wry wit and daily life experiences to be a truly compelling read.
The history featured throughout cements disparate relationships in a strange new land, doing so in a thought-provoking manner most historical reviews of the times don’t address:
In her brief introduction to the colony's bounty, Rebecca had made great strides in developing delicious meals from tomatoes. You might not realize this vegetable was considered poisonous in the northern colonies and only used for decoration in Rebecca's previous abode. Tomatoes were never cultivated as a major crop, but Rebecca's combination of tomatoes with cheese, peppers, potatoes, and eggplant drew praise from His Rightful Lord Governor of New Sweden.
With its lively probe and attention to detail, A Colonial Stew gathers all the ingredients for a warm read flavored with historical detail, fast-paced action, and thought-provoking, realistic scenarios. It reaches out to draw all ages into a compelling mix of opportunity, humor, and social and political reflection.
A Colonial StewReturn to Index
Dinosaur Land
Diane Green
DCG Books
9798301536069
$10.99
www.DCGBooks.com
Dinosaur Land presents a short read (under 50 pages) for preteens interested in adventure, nonstop action, and a plot that attracts on many levels.
12-year-old foster kid Tommy is being placed in yet another new home. His tendency to irritate his foster families keeps him on the move ... it’s not inadvertent, but carefully planned:
Tomorrow, the new parent was supposed to take him. He might as well sleep and get some energy to be a terror.
This time, he’s placed with a zany old man he calls “Grandpa” (not affectionately). The elder’s circumstances prove anything but dry and predictable. This foster family is different. As Tommy interacts with the old man and learns surprising new lessons, he unexpectedly becomes an accepted, valued member of the household, learning important lessons that prepare him for life in unexpected ways.
There’s a dinosaur on the lawn, a fellow snobby foster kid whose attitude rankles similarly to how Tommy acts towards others, and surprising encounters with dinosaurs that keep him (and his foster father) literally on the run:
A pounding sound echoed through the trees. It was like a herd of elephants—or something even bigger. Tommy's heart thundered in his chest as he watched. The leaves on the trees shook, and the birds flew overhead as if to escape something terrible. Then he saw them—two dinosaurs, alive, moving toward them, as real as he was.
"Time to skedaddle," Grandpa whispered. He took off running. Tommy thought for a second, looked back, and sprinted after Grandpa.
"Won't come near the house. Afraid of humans they are."
'Braveheart' Tomkins wasn't ever going out in those woods again.
Diane Green is a master of the unexpected, keeping the pace fast and her characters realistic. She creates ironic scenes that add wry humor into the mix of dinosaur confrontations and bigger-picture thinking about the rocky road towards maturity.
Kids who enjoy fast-paced adventures will find plenty of unexpected twists and turns in Dinosaur Land. But as they view life through young, jaded Tommy’s eyes, they will learn that events aren’t always boringly predictable. Nor are people.
Colorful characters give the story sharp definition, compelling psychological attraction, and thoroughly engrossing encounters.
Dinosaur Land’s brevity is attractive to reluctant readers, who will find the story also provides a lesson in how much succinct writing, when masterfully done, can prove a major attraction.
Especially recommended for foster children and families, who can enjoy reading about and discussing Tommy’s progress together, Dinosaur Land is an important tale of not just adventure, but realization about family, life connections, and developing new perspective.
Dinosaur LandReturn to Index
Ellie’s Dancing
Shoes
Scott Sollers
Mascot Kids
979-8891383418
$19.95 Hardcover
https://www.amazon.com/Ellies-Dancing-Shoes-Scott-Sollers/dp/B0DSGKG1JL
Ellie’s Dancing Shoes is the picture book story of an eight-year-old who lives in New York City with her parents and French poodle. Her dream is to become a ballerina, but much as she has ambition, she also harbors uncertainties and doubts her talents.
Her dedication to practicing leads her to turn down many invitations to play or enjoy the company of others in favor of her dream, but as much as she strives to reach her lofty goal, Ellie literally continually falls short.
It takes some wise, supportive parents to devise just the right form of encouragement to belay Ellie’s self-doubts.
Scott Sollers crafts an appealing, realistic, masterful story of dreams, obstacles, and the power of not just positive thinking, but creative encouragement. The magic he creates which gives Ellie the courage to pursue her dreams against all odds also receives strong translation into new approaches as Ellie ages and outgrows the magical lessons that have empowered her.
Elementary-level libraries and parents who pick Ellie’s Dancing Shoes for its winning messages of achievement, support, ambition, and insights about failure and success will find this an inviting, inspirational read-aloud. It’s as notable for Bryan Janky’s appealing illustrations as it is for its important, hard-hitting messages about magic, dreams, and realizing one’s goals.
Readers of all ages will find Ellie’s Dancing Shoes inspirational, fun, and very uplifting—it’s a beacon of light and hope for anyone who tends to doubt their talents or dreams.
Ellie’s Dancing ShoesReturn to Index
How to Get an
Alligator Out of the
Bathtub
Lyndsey Martin
MamaBear Books
9781960616227
$17.95
Hardcover
https://a.co/d/fRRXVuD
How to Get an Alligator Out of the Bathtub holds colorful illustrations by Colleen C. Coggins as it explores a gator dilemma that revolves around a strange bath experience for Peyton and Bennett.
Alistair the alligator has beaten them to the tub. Suddenly the siblings find themselves confronted not by danger, but by a resolute tub-loving gator who won’t give up his newfound territory.
There are various techniques that can be deployed to help an alligator make a different decision to free up the coveted tub. As the siblings explore these options, the problem-solving, troubleshooting, and cooperative venture affords many opportunities for read-aloud adults to emphasize any or all of these messages as the whimsical tale unfolds.
The alligator is simply too flexible to worry about a lack of food or other amenities. What are the boys to do?
Lyndsey Martin spins an upbeat, uplifting, zany yarn that will delight all kinds of picture book readers, from alligator-loving kids to parents looking for important lessons embedded in adventure.
With its appealing illustrations, messages, and heartfelt encounters, How to Get an Alligator Out of the Bathtub is highly recommended for elementary-level libraries, read-aloud adults, and anyone interested in entertaining fun that opens the door to bigger-picture thinking.
How to Get an Alligator Out of the BathtubReturn to Index
The Jellybean
Gospel and the
Born-Again Bunny
Wanda Carter Roush
Ella's Pearl
Publishing
978-1-7324272-4-2 | $11.95 Paperback / $18.95
Hardcover
https://wandacarterroush.com/
Read-aloud Christian parents seeking appropriate spiritual teaching for the very young—one that invites with colorful illustrations (by Alicia Renée) and an adventure-filled approach to salvation—will welcome Wanda Carter Roush’s The Jellybean Gospel and the Born Again Bunny.
A lovely rhyme introduces the tale:
The
Easter Bunny first heard the
gospel from a butterfly friend.
She learned
about it tucked in her chrysalis around the bed.
The caterpillars hang their cocoons in Egg Land and, upon awakening as butterflies, help the Easter Bunny prepare for the season—all but one larvae, who:
...wandered
off by herself
And
hung the winter without her peers.
As she hangs from the window of a curious bad boy, he spreads his anger and chaos while attending weekly church with his parents, causing trouble everywhere he goes—until he hears the Jellybean Gospel, which unexpectedly stirs him.
Adults seeking a picture book that embraces spiritual thinking, psychological reflection, and big-picture themes—ranging from God’s will to individuals' impact on the world and those around them—will welcome the revelations and insights in this colorful adventure. Its sense of whimsy will attract all kinds of young readers, while its message of being born again invites meaningful discussions between all ages about Christian rebirth.
Elementary-level Christian libraries, read-aloud parents, and church groups for the very young will welcome this early opportunity to introduce the concept of being born again—a message not often presented to this age group.
The adventure translates to an uplifting survey that presents spiritual insights on a level that is easily understood and thoroughly attractive, making The Jellybean Gospel and the Born-Again Bunny a fine standout recommendation for Christian parents and teachers alike.
The Jellybean Gospel and the Born-Again BunnyReturn to Index
Live Big With
Catch-Em
Kat Kronenberg
Greenleaf Book
Group Press
9798886153423
$16.95
www.katkronenberg.com
Live Big With Catch-Em is a picture book celebration that reviews love’s ripple effect in life. It pairs inviting, colorful illustrations by Jomike Tejido with a dialogue created by Kat Kronenberg. Both intersect to engage the young and their adult read-aloud companions in a delightful first-person foray into “spark of love” Catch-Em’s perceptions of his universe and how he can fit into it.
The first realizations he has about being alone and afraid of the darkness around him lead him to listen to his heart, which advises him to “Believe you’re extraordinary!”
This lesson grows to embrace his universe as Catch-Em learns to “smile big and believe” and absorbs the impact an attitude change can have on everything around him.
Parents of kids who are fearful of many things will find the dialogues about hope, possibility, empowerment, and making a difference in the world via attitude change are highlighted in a seemingly simple story which condenses some big thoughts into a form children can understand—especially with read-aloud encouragement.
Another plus to Live Big With Catch-Em lies in how Kronenberg grows her story from a scared little entity’s fears to the biggest picture of all—that, “Yes, I can do good by sharing love’s wondrous power everywhere.”
How big that world expands to become is a major attraction in a story that evolves to embed this attitude and realization into other creatures’ lives.
Filled with hope, introspection, and, above all, joy and opportunity, Live Big With Catch-Em is very highly recommended for read-aloud adults interested in helping children better understand their place in and ultimate impact on the world around them.
Its empowering message of hope is a much-needed guiding light to building a more enlightened, positive generation for the future.
Live Big With Catch-EmReturn to Index
Marco, Pablo,
& Olivia: Fútbol
Tryouts
Ana Cortes
Independently
Published
979-8333687746
$7.99
www.marcopabloandolivia.com
Marco, Pablo, & Olivia’s graphic novel for middle-grade readers, Fútbol Tryouts, is the first episode in a series of graphic novels revolving around the three siblings.
Marco Costa and his family have just moved to Guayaquil, a big city in Ecuador far from their familiar mountain town, Loja, and are anticipating a fresh new start. His younger brother Pablo and baby sister Olivia join him in an adventure that opens with an unexpected temperature change. This comes from moving from a cool mountain region to a lower, hotter elevation. But that’s not the only discovery in store for them.
The siblings squabble about the impact of the long trip as Marco calls them “locos” and their father chides them for starting a fight before they’re even in their new home.
From descriptions of moving from a small house to one in which each child gets his or her own room to fielding bullies and new peer relationships, Ana Cortes does an outstanding job of capturing the characters, nuances, reactions, and problem-solving challenges involved in adjusting to a new place.
It should be noted that the illustrations are quite realistic: Marco is slim, while his younger brother Pablo is somewhat overweight. Character dialogues juxtapose Spanish with English in a manner also true to life:
“You don’t know when to give up, do you, serrano loser?”
Emotions are visually displayed, with dialogue boxes cementing these different characters and their psyches.
Marco, Pablo, & Olivia: Fútbol Tryouts is packed with insights, experiences, and relationship wisdom designed to attract middle-grade comics readers interested in visual stories that contrast revised routines with the challenge of adapting to a new community.
With its powerful portrait embracing sibling relationships, differences, and experiences, as well, Marco, Pablo, & Olivia: Fútbol Tryouts features an especially appealing series of insights and lessons. It will attract a wide audience of young graphic novel readers, as well as libraries building graphic novel collections to encourage middle grades to read and learn.
Marco, Pablo, & Olivia: Fútbol TryoutsReturn to Index
Nana’s
Heartwarming Tales: Mighty
Ripples
Vicki Johnpeer
with Cory
CP Press
979-8-9900625-7-3
$13.99
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
www.nanastales.com
Nana’s Heartwarming Tales: Mighty Ripples adds to the two prior books in the series with more stories that emphasize themes of perseverance, adaptation, and, especially, cognizance of one’s personal impact on the world.
The stories expand upon previous lessons, delving into topics of truthfulness, helping others, and hard work and positivity. Each tale presents another facet of understanding that adults and kids can use to open and promote dialogues about personal accountability and cooperative choices.
Vicki Johnpeer’s engaging drawings illustrate stories equally attractive for their intriguing titles and adventures, where the basic theme of events is outlined before the tale even begins. One example is ‘Baby Spiders,’ which features insights about trust:
Friends trust. To trust is to feel secure that the people and situations you are in are safe, honest, and true.
The story evolves connections between children, nature, and the difference between observation and action as it reveals the children’s efforts to spy on spider webs to learn more spider facts, only to field a dilemma that arises from looking too closely. How the Pals help one another and learn about trust pairs adventure with key life lessons that adults will be eager to pass on to young listeners.
Like others in the Nana’s Heartwarming Tales series, Mighty Ripples offers many opportunities for interactive dialogue through its growth-oriented examples.
This is why Mighty Ripples is especially and very highly recommended. It also will attract elementary-libraries seeking educational opportunities woven into adventures that pair natural history facts with better understanding of human/wildlife connections and the qualities which lend to better thinking and reactions to life.
Nana’s Heartwarming Tales: Mighty RipplesReturn to Index
Sentient Being
Jay VanLandingham
Climb That
Mountain Press
979-8-9852515-8-6
$19.99
www.jayvanlandingham.com
Sentient Being concludes the Sentient trilogy with a bang; so if no prior familiarity with Jay VanLandingham’s books exist, run, don’t walk, to read them. Readers become immersed in a 2040 scenario in which America is fractured and chaos reigns. Bray Hoffman and her companions face the daunting challenge of finding a new place to call home in a world of division and revised definitions of control and rule.
The terrorism and slaughter that emerged from the Embedicare takeover has rippled into new possibilities as well as new impossibilities in this story. Bray traverses this environment estranged from her mother, separated from familiar support systems and life, and in prison. She hardly seems in any position to defy or create anything.
Think again. VanLandingham poses a situation so repressive and authoritarian that minor Bray would seem at the mercy of all kinds of forces well beyond her control ... and yet, her options expand the more she refuses to bow to what seems inevitable.
Bray and her companions Bertan and Kage each have a stake in the outcomes that emerge from various struggles around them. And so they engage on the one level that unites their efforts—a belief in human connection rather than division.
VanLandingham illustrates not only how this mandate comes to life, but how young adults facing a dystopian world can figure out ways to survive and cast their own hopes and values into society.
This imparts much food for thought along the way as young adults enjoy fast-paced confrontations, unexpected diversions in purpose and experience, a dystopian world that does not seem all that distant from modern times, and characters whose concerns and reactions simmer with realistic engagement.
Thought-provoking interactions at different levels and between seemingly disparate players in the game of survival will spark not just interest, but discussions in many a reading group and young adult classroom:
"But we're human. We understand when we're causing suffering."
"Yeah, I know. I guess what bothers me is when someone tries to tell me what they think I should or shouldn't do based on their own moral code, without respect for my own values, which may differ. I want us to be able to have a difference of opinion and have that be okay."
Libraries seeing excitement over the previous books in the sci-fi young adult Sentient series will want to add this book to their collections. Young adults seeking an interconnected exploration of personal empowerment, proactive thinking, and human connection will find Sentient Being’s swift action and compelling dilemmas lead to a satisfying crescendo of emotional and political discovery. Quite simply, it’s a page-turner of thought-provoking insights about the nature of humanity and human struggle.
Sentient BeingReturn to Index
The Tales of
Charlie Wags: Paris
Sofie Wells and
Ali Barclay
Kendam Press, LLC
979-8990005037
$14.99
www.charliewags.com
The Tales of Charlie Wags: Paris is a dog-centric picture book fantasy story of a special puppy whose wagging tail translates to world travel opportunities.
In this story, Charlie is off to Paris. Young picture book readers and their read-aloud adults embark on a world-hopping journey brightened by especially fun illustrations by Sanna Sjöström.
Kids follow Charlie to the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, and more, touring Paris’s most notable sights and history. The “you are here” feel embraces a traveler’s feelings, reactions, and insights about the journey itself.
This creates many exciting moments for the very young, who will find the magic of a curious puppy’s encounters bring the joys and discoveries of travel in general and Paris in particular right into their homes and lives.
Elementary-level libraries, as well as read-aloud parents seeking early introductions to Parisian sights, travel, and new experiences, will want to invite kids to take Charlie by the paw and join him in a tour de France which is especially nicely tailored to the interests of the very young.
The Tales of Charlie Wags: ParisReturn to Index
Walking on Cinders
Judith Elaine
Hankes
As the Crow Flies
Press
9798301782107 $12.75
www.amazon.com
Walking on Cinders features an island dwelling where siblings enjoy crawdad fishing. They consider the nearby river an extension of their home (“...an ever-changing living hallway”) and are thoroughly spoiled by their deep connection to vibrant nature ... so spoiled that:
How could an uptown house surrounded by a tidy lawn compete with an island home?
This remark sets the stage for inevitable changes as a trio of siblings (seven-year-old narrator Judy and her brothers, nine-year-old Ted and eleven-year-old Steven) sneak out of the house to follow men who murder in the dead of night. But, this is not what readers may think. Read the story to find out the details.
The “river brats” are thoroughly immersed in the nature surrounding them—so they’re in the perfect position to investigate odd behaviors ... sometimes with unexpected consequences.
Hankes embeds her story with vivid information about this environment and how the Towne family interacts with it. Even at their young ages, the children’s’ knowledge of nature and the world is exceptional, obtained not from books, but life encounters and reflections:
“Some people like to eat fish. Some people like to eat bullfrog legs.”
“But that’s what’s wrong about it! Frogs have legs and toes. They walk and hop! Fish just swim,” I continued to protest.
“And frogs call to one another,” Ted added.
As they come of age, they confront disparities between their beloved milieu and those who would exploit it. The family’s efforts to survive promotes creativity and innovative problem-solving, whether it be a way of getting drinking water when their island well becomes contaminated, or selling a skunk carcass to a (theoretically) interested buyer for pocket change.
Cemented first by nature and then by human concerns that shake deep convictions, Walking on Cinders is a study in spiritual values, social interactions, and economic poverty as Judy becomes immersed in a wider world than island life alone and is forced to re-examine what makes her life both rich and poor at the same time.
From a shopping expedition which reinforces Judy’s mature insights on practical clothing over embellished dresses that are “too frilly and pink” to how she gently deals with well-meaning individuals who view the family’s poverty and try to help, Hankes creates outstanding scenes that reinforce perceptions, ideals, and reality:
“My socks aren’t dirty. It’s just hard for Mama to get them really white. Since the house burned, she has been washing our clothes at a laundromat, and to save money, she puts all the clothes together in the same washing machine. She never uses bleach.” Then I looked in Sister Notares’ eyes and said, “My mother is a good mother.”
She looked at me for a few seconds before quietly saying, “Judee. I theenk I hurt your feeleengs. I deedn’t meen to.”
“I know,” I replied. “You’re just trying to be kind. Thanks for taking me shopping. I will be very careful with these clothes. I’ll only wear them to church.”
Libraries seeking stories that don’t feature middle-class backdrops of wealth, but explore powerful topics of rural living, poverty, and the true meaning of being rich will find Walking on Cinders simply outstanding.
Few young adult books before or since Robert Burch’s Queenie Peavy (published in 1966 and now hard to find) have so thoroughly captured rural living; poverty that others may assume but the protagonist does not; and the contrast between rich and poor thinking. Walking on Cinders is a unique opportunity for all ages to reconsider the perception and roots of wealth in entirely new ways.
The food for thought in this story will promote talking points for book club readers of all ages. For this reason, it is recommended for preteen to adult audiences. This wide age range receives much detail about survival processes and concurrent ethical values that contrast choice with necessity.
As suitable for book club discussion as it is for family dialogue or individual contemplation, Walking on Cinders is simply outstanding in its thought-provoking, realistic scenarios and deeper-level inspections of goodwill, struggle, and life’s riches.
Walking on CindersReturn to Index