February 2026 Review Issue
Fantasy & Sci Fi
Literature
Mystery & Thrillers
Daniel Rirdan
Corino Press
979-8-9926090-5-9
$25.95 Hardcover/$16.95 Paperback/$2.99 eBook
www.danielrirdan.com
Areta is a novel in which tens of thousands of humans were brought aboard a celestial ark around 300 BCE to make their home among the stars. A century passes, bringing war and then peace, during which the knowledge of this journey, their home, and their connections is lost.
That’s just the opening salvo of Areta, in which countless generations have evolved on ship for two thousand years before its true nature is discovered, along with the fact that its course set to collide with a sun.
Scholar Angora, former millwright Sargon, and adoptive daughters Lilit and her twin find themselves enmeshed in a dangerous dance of realization, revised purposes, and scientific and technological investigations and advancements. The story probes this society and its greatest challenge to survival, which involves unexpected forms of innovation and adaptation.
Daniel Rirdan creates a novel rich in a delightful blend of hard science and social inspection. The characters, their roles in this space-faring society, and evolving mysteries that come from the Age of Genesis permeate a plot in which each character is called upon to step up into a new role and possibilities for the sake of everyone’s survival.
Equally astute are passages which chronicle the dichotomy between perceptions of lifesaving decisions and society-destroying choices:
“You believe the world will come to an end. In case it doesn’t, can we agree that the secrets of this disruptive technology”—he pointed at the compressed air sphere—“and whatever else we may end up contriving won’t be shared with the broader community?”
Accompanying issues of seduction, empowerment, awakening new powers that hold no precedent of experience, and social disorder contribute to a moving saga of world-building, possible annihilation, and the emergence of new abilities that might prove the saving point of humanity.
Librarians and readers seeking sci-fi that involves social inspection as well as survival issues and growing empowerment struggles will find Areta satisfyingly replete with the unexpected. It’s wonderfully populated with realistic characters and conundrums and is packed with bigger picture thinking opportunities that will lend to book club and discussion group action.
AretaReturn to Index
Ascendants
Don Schechter
GFB
9781967510344
$19.95 Paperback/$9.99 eBook
Website:https://ascendantsbook.com/
Ordering: https://a.co/d/8TMsCEd
Ascendants is set in 2060 and provides a twist to a futuristic afterlife scenario. Here, afterlife has been proven, but is only available to a genetic elite. Everyone else faces oblivion upon death.
An overseeing entity called The Jacobs Institute is tasked with managing this new era of Ascension, but three individuals become caught up in processes which represent twists of science and ethical behavior. These diverse characters with their very different perceptions of reality, purpose, and immortality drive a story that is far more than a struggle over the right to ascend to an afterlife.
From the start, Don Schechter embeds his novel with elements of a thriller’s tension and psychological foundations as the story opens not with afterlife, but with a surprising death:
“I’m supposed to be dead!”
Sam screamed. They
pulled me back,
Alexandra. But I won’t stay. Not without you.
Truths emerge from these investigations:
Studios created massive complexes where films were replaced by immersive experiences doled out to audiences with eyes glassy and still. The experiential stories would play out in their minds. They did not just observe the thrills and chills of action and suspense, the terror and delight of horror, or the expansive wonder of science fiction, but genuinely experienced the full breadth of sensations that came with their chosen narrative.
Incongruities, such as a dead wife’s reappearance on databanks, emerge to challenge each of the characters in different ways as the puzzles and conundrums arise.
Ascendants cultivates its intrigue through futuristic opportunities and ethical conundrums. It builds its connection through the in-depth psychological probes of those who uncover strange processes and impacts from ascendancy, and its power through a combined force of personalities and possibilities that keep readers guessing.
Libraries will find that whether patrons are interested in futuristic sci-fi, philosophical and ethical pursuits, or the edgy action of a powerful thriller, Ascendants satisfies all three pursuits. It can be highly recommended to readers interested in frighteningly believable scenarios that pit not only life, but the afterlife, against even those who command its accessibility and potential.
As for the man who discovered Ascension and ushered in a new era for humankind – he’s in for his own surprise, too, in a story that sizzles with twists that keep the plot satisfyingly mercurial and totally unpredictable.
AscendantsReturn to Index
A Beginning: Where
We Stand Now:
Book Three
Brandon Pawlicki
Independently
Published
979-8-9860506-6-9
$19.99
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
https://a.co/d/cOX4z0e
A Beginning: Where We Stand Now: Book Three adds to a series that flavors a post-zombie survival saga with the elements of thriller writing and intrigue to add mystery and fantasy into the mix. Thus, the story may be hard to neatly categorize, but rewards fans of all these genres with a fast-paced, unpredictable tale of survival that opens in the aftermath of horrible loss and world-changing events.
Two survivors of this apocalypse, Vallerie (aka ‘The Black Wolf’) and Emily, cope with trauma, nightmares, and recovery from the past which demands they adjust to a very different world and future.
While many view Vallerie as a hero for her role in changing the world, others consider her damaged goods, too volatile to be predictable or effective in this revised milieu. They are wrong, because the same strengths and determination that allowed her to survive in the past are still present as she confronts the new dilemma of a murderer who has made her a target.
Vallerie’s leadership is tested by not just men, but women as she assumes a commanding position that leads her to make difficult decisions about those around her:
“Every time… Every single fucking time I’ve come here, you’ve been the louder voice in the fights. I had my suspicions. You almost got me this time. But no dice. People like you got away with it in the old world, but not anymore. Think about where you wanna go. Just know that if you wanna come at me again, I’ll throw you out on your ass.”
As she investigates murder victims and contemplates possible perps, Vallerie is tested by new alliances, relationships, and legal constraints that place her on the list of possible criminals:
“You killed people, Vallerie. And not on your grounds where you can simply…hand wave it away. Injured many more. Some of those men may never walk again without a cane, and that’s if they can even walk at all.”
“Oh, you mean the guys that tried to kill me instead of the crotch-stealing murderer? That they let get away? How do I put this politely?” She shrugged. “Fuck ‘em.”
Readers familiar with Vallerie’s story in the prior book will especially appreciate how she steps into a leadership role during uncertain times and shifting social and political landscapes. Her dual challenges of simultaneously recovering and leading create an involving story in which survival leads to unexpected new roles in what is now the wilderness of North America.
Especially engaging is the addition of murder, killing, and moral consequences as Vallerie tackles a killer and defends her own choices. Readers familiar with apocalyptic survival stories will find A Beginning: Where We Stand Now satisfyingly different in its focus on not just survival and food, the stuff of typical genre stories, but what kinds of decisions and command forces are necessary to build new communities in a much-changed world.
Libraries and readers interested in thriller components that add value to their dystopian or fantasy worlds will relish how A Beginning: Where We Stand Now juxtaposes strong characters, world-building conundrums, and a search for renewed meaning into its plot.
I used to think that what mattered most to me was fixing the world.
The insights about revised goals and ideals are thoroughly thought-provoking and perfect for book club discussion.
A Beginning: Where We Stand Now: Book ThreeReturn to Index
Fae and Fallen
Hearts
Amy Wolf
Lone Wolf Press
Ltd.
9798274557177
Website: www.lonewolfpress.com
Ordering: www.amazon.com
Fae and Fallen Hearts combines the genres of romance and fantasy, opening The Shattered Bonds series with the powerful story of Princess Eleanor, who longs to escape her sheltered life. She moves from childhood to become a lovely adult and fodder for potential suitors, but wants to become more than destiny has handed her.
Eleanor finds she must be careful what she wishes for, because her initial resentment over court processes that meddle in her life turns into an encounter with the fae, possible real romance, and difficult decisions that push her to step up into her destiny in unexpected ways.
At this point, the gorgeous illustrative color plates throughout should be mentioned. From the frontispiece to pictures of Eleanor, Gabriel, Alaric and others, lovely images add visual reinforcement to the drama, helping readers absorb characters and plot as they follow Eleanor into encounters with horrors, angels, death, truth, and lies.
Fae and Fallen Hearts lives up to its billing as a “romantasy,” juxtaposing fantasy milieus and encounters with very different beings with an alluring development of personal growth and love that makes the characters compelling and realistic.
Adventure stems from clashes and atmospheric settings, from erupting geysers to the games of Hades. From fallen friends to battles between gods and Watchers, Eleanor finds herself far from court politics as she becomes immersed in a battle that brings other worlds to life.
Readers will appreciate how deftly fantasy and romance emerge from Amy Wolf’s pen, how sharply intriguing and contrasting are the characters that swirl around Eleanor and her revised ambitions and perceptions, and how unexpectedly the plot evolves, blazing a trail of discovery and connections as it moves between these worlds.
Librarians and readers seeking a story replete with battles, struggles, and discoveries, cemented by a powerful female protagonist who finds her concerns at the center of change for not just herself but everyone around her, will find Fae and Fallen Hearts a study in building and breaking bonds that proves hard to predict or put down.
Fae and Fallen HeartsReturn to Index
Hello Humans
Momoko Uno
Manhattan Book
Group
978-1-966799-61-0
$25.99
Hardcover/$17.99
Paperback/$.99 eBook
www.manhattanbookgroup.com
Hello Humans is the first book in a sci-fi humor series that follows an unusual invitation by an Intergalactic Committee which has decided it’s time for humans to join the fold, despite the opinions of opposition forces trying to do everything possible to delay that invitation for humanity to join the wider universe.
Lofty and interconnected, the Committee holds many disparate forces, from Felines from the planet Tzar whose mission is to help guide humans towards love to the enigmatic Greys, who help humanity by predicting disasters.
This cast of characters is outlined before the story opens with “Biscuits for Humanity,” set in 1981 in both Tennessee and Planet Tzar, where Princess Cupcake, leader of the Feline Federation, accepts the mission to heal the darkness in humanity, albeit through unusual devices:
“Through one biscuit at a time, we will lighten the hearts of humans to make the world a kinder and more peaceful place. Our goal is to purr in the face of anger and meow to resolve hatred.”
Momoko Uno’s wry sense of humor unfolds scenarios in which all characters take place in scenarios which inundate Earth with both well-meaning, lofting ideals and nefarious forces.
The wide cast of aliens may prove challenging to absorb at first, but Uno builds her story based on not just intrigue and events, but delightfully disparate personalities and peoples whose perspectives are engaging and fun. This makes it easier to absorb these conflicting species and interests as well as the greater impact of decisions made on various levels.
The character observations of these special interests and forces provide satisfying contrasts that are easy to absorb and intriguingly connected with many an Earthly concern despite their extraterrestrial origins:
For years, I ignored what my people said about my sister, but within two years, she had ten thousand followers. It frightened me, the power a group of stupid, disgruntled people could have, fueled by untruthful beliefs and collective anger.
This approach lends a multifaceted feel to the story which will keep readers on their toes with fast-paced action combined with shifting special interests and perspectives.
There is a dearth of sci fi humor in the genre which Hello Humans fills in a creative, unique manner that will earn it librarian interest for adding to collections strong in humor or alien encounters.
Whimsical, thought-provoking, and unpredictable, Hello Humans offers a special style of social, political, and alien inspection that makes it a unique offering and a standout.
Hello HumansReturn to Index
The Midnight
Croissant
Bonnie Solomon
Bonsol Press
979-8992613346
$4.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Pearly-Gates-Midnight-Croissant-Romantic-ebook/dp/B0FHVPZTG6
The Midnight Croissant is a standalone sequel to Bonnie Solomon’s Pearly Gates fantasy novels, and follows a spirit guide from the afterlife who is tasked with helping three individuals who are facing spiritual conundrums in their lives.
Pearly Gates adopts unorthodox methods of leading her charges to spiritual realizations – methods her boss is not fond of. In this case, Pearly leads them to join a group tour of Paris, then tags along to inject further realizations into their experience of the City of Love.
A frustrated boss informs her that if she doesn’t succeed in the mission, her afterlife will be terminated. And then there’s the issue of her ex-soulmate Thunder, who has become the tour group leader in an effort to reconnect with Pearly, bringing with her personal dilemmas of growth and transformation that also influence how Pearly operates.
Whimsy abounds from the novel’s opening:
What she does not consider telling is the truth—she got caught up in conversation with her manicurist. But only because her department’s new supervisor doesn’t understand the important spiritual guidance a manicurist has to offer. Who better to ask about reaching out to her ex-soulmate, Thunder, now that they’re both back in the spirit world after their most recent incarnations?
These threads of irony, observation, and wry humor are part of the attraction of The Midnight Croissant, which propels readers on a romp through afterlife intentions, spirit guides gone wild, and good intentions that sometimes go awry. Pearly’s careful consideration of choices and outcomes gives the LGBTQ+ inclusive story a serious perspective about redemption and consequence, as well:
Pearly studies the two of them—the hesitant grandfather, the hurting grandson—and feels that ache she’s come to know too well: the knowledge that grace can start here, but it won’t be finished here. Not yet. Back home, there will be fallout. Conversations. Maybe a reckoning that’s long overdue.
The result is a fantasy story that incorporates all kinds of elements from fictional possibility. It’s at one a cozy story of relationship-building and change, a fun tale of a well-meaning guide who has lost her own way and is finding new roads to romance again, and a thought-provoking survey of the dilemmas humans and spirit guides face as they make their way through life – and the afterlife.
As a continuation of the Pearly Gates series, the story dovetails nicely with Solomon’s setting and protagonist, yet creates a novel that stands nicely alone for newcomers (who likely will want to pursue more Pearly Gates adventures after enjoying this tale).
The result is a hilarious and thought-provoking romp through life, death, and the lives that are lived in-between, pairing romance and discovery with the misadventures of a meddling but benevolent spirit whose choices don’t always fall on the side of her assignment or convention.
Librarians seeking a whimsical, inviting story of Paris’s romantic allure, new beginnings, and magical outcomes will want to highly recommend The Midnight Croissant to those who look for ultimately uplifting reading that’s filled with psychological depth, surprising twists of plot, and just plain fun.
The Midnight CroissantReturn to Index
The Swan’s Arrow
Holly M. Jenkins
Atmosphere Press
979-8891329324
$31.99
Hardcover/$18.99
Paperback/$8.99 eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
The Swan’s Arrow is a fantasy revolving around the classic Swan Princess fairy tale. It will delight fairy tale readers with its story of a princess who is forced into a relationship with a man she despises due to political influences and alignments. Odette’s future seems set, but one cursed sorcerer with a bad reputation (Ren) can change that trajectory - if she’s willing to ignore his past.
It seems unlikely that Odette could form a relationship with one legendary wicked man while avoiding politically required connections with another that she actually hates, but fate places Ren and Odette on complimentary paths, and their purposes become strangely entwined as the years pass.
From moral conflict to betrayal, love, and twists of the tale, Holly M. Jenkins creates a fabulous story powered by first-person self-inspections, moral quandaries, and revelations that stem from unexpected alliances:
I glance at him, taking in the breathtaking allure he exudes. He’s an incredible sight to behold, and I can’t shake the feeling that my attraction to him will only grow in this bizarre situation. Am I losing my mind for still finding him appealing after he’s just mentioned his intentions to kidnap me?
A powerful side note to Ren and Odette’s choices and challenges is that Jenkins switches perspectives between them for maximum impact. Chapter headings clearly identify which character is narrating the event, making it easy for readers to neatly step into the shoes and possibilities for both Ren and Odette as they navigate different obstacles. Their dance between acceptance, curses, and condemnation within themselves, between each other, and from the world around them is exquisite.
From the heritage of witch queens and the lasting impact of dark magic to the possibility of breaking a spell via an impossible cure-all, Odette and Ren confront not just challenges in their lives and choices, but the fate of romance and the future of the world.
Readers who re-familiarize themselves with The Swan Princess legend first will especially relish how The Swan’s Arrow both stays true to and deviates from this classic, and will find renewed appreciation for Jenkins’ approach and story.
Librarians that seek fantasy fairy tales retold will want to place The Swan’s Arrow high on their acquisition list, alongside such celebrated authors of the genre as Marissa Meyer, Jane Yolen, Neil Gaiman, and other masters of fairy tale retellings. The exquisite detail and dilemmas in The Swan’s Arrow join with the best of fairy tales retold for modern times.
The Swan’s ArrowReturn to Index
Witch in the Wall
Quinn Hodshead
Atmosphere Press
979-8891329119
$34.99
Hardcover/$22.99
Paperback/$2.99 eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
Witch in the Wall is a vivid fantasy adventure about fairy worlds, an entrapped wicked witch, and what happens when a civil war envelops Everwatch in a conflict that leads half-sibling Gavriel Hall to consider releasing a terrible witch from her confines in order to gain a new life.
Evil makes promises – but they don’t emerge in the manner that Gavriel expects. As the story unfolds, the first facet of Quinn Hogshead’s talent that becomes evident is the intense descriptions which are at once vivid and horrifying:
I shouldn’t have looked. Mom was bloated from decay. She was pallid and pockmarked, naked save for the ragged remains of her grey funeral shroud glued to her skin by pus and blood. Rats had eaten her eyes. The bravest tongues of firelight glinted on the gore dripping from her pitted scythe.
“Lovelies,” she cooed. “Where are you, my lovelies? Mommy wants to give you all a kiss.
Past events and influences and present-day magic coalesce in a riveting story that marches through family discord and relationships, trials and opportunities, and dialogues and struggles. These foster Hogshead’s proclivity for thoroughly absorbing plots, dialogues, and clashes:
“I don’t care what you think.” I crawled my way towards that damn fucking crown. It was the reason that everyone around me was dying. My focus narrowed until all I could imagine was breaking it.
Many fantasy stories strive for the goals of fast-paced action, unexpected encounters, and atmospheric descriptions that place readers in the thick of the action. Few can match the tone, impact, and immersive structure of Witch in the Wall, which is heavy on moral and ethical impact as its characters consider releasing a legendary evil back into the world in the name of freedom.
Libraries and readers seeking tantalizing fantasy stories that erupt with tension and clashes yet are nicely centered in dilemmas that make sense will find Witch in the Wall extraordinary.
If The Star Thief is set free, if she wins, sooner or later she will lose control of her magic, and it will crack the sky.’
What is the cost of freedom – and is it worth chaos? This story’s focus makes it especially recommendable to fantasy book clubs, which will find much fodder for discussion within its fast-paced plot.
Witch in the WallReturn to Index
365 Sonnets:
Celebrating Each Day
with a Little Song
Paul Buchheit
Independently
Published
979-8992339604
$20.00
https://www.amazon.com/365-Sonnets-Celebrating-Each-Little/dp/B0F9956Q75/
365 Sonnets: Celebrating Each Day with a Little Song is a collection of sonettos (Little Songs) with uplifting daily reflections. Its structure, format, and themes are needed in modern times more than ever, while its literary roots in the sonnet form, rarely seen in modern poetry endeavors, will especially please poetry lovers seeking rhythm and structure from their reading.
Paul Buchheit provides a notably excellent introduction that explains the sonnet form and his choices in rending it accessible and especially inviting:
Most of the poems in this volume adhere to the basic rules of the sonnet: 14 lines, iambic pentameter, and either a Shakespearean or Petrarchan rhyme scheme. However, the sonnets are Miltonian in rejecting strict quatrain/couplet and octave/sestet rules in favor of expressive freedom and continuity, much of it through the use of enjambment, which allows the uninterrupted flow of a sentence structure from one quatrain to another. Some of the sonnets are rendered in a prose-type format to enhance readability and clarify meaning.
Public domain images accompany the poetic inspections, which are thought-provoking enough to deserve slow reading and daily reflection that belays the haste of too many modern reads.
Many of the poems capture nature and a sense of place with atmospheric, inviting description:
With dawn unfolds a painted panoply of lily, duster, poppy, pear, and plume, a pink and purple palette, potpourri afloat in minty lavender perfume.
Other pieces are headier inspections of life purpose, philosophy, spirituality, or myth. Buchheit celebrates different kinds of days, from “International Panic Day” to “Tax Day” or “World Students Day.”
These guided themes give students, literature readers, and general-reading audiences a foundation with which to navigate the poems and embedded themes which are both overt and subliminal.
Libraries interested in contemporary sonnet writing will welcome the rare chance to show how traditional patterns of expression still relate nicely to modern times and readers, while book clubs interested in literary works will find Buchheit’s work both inspirational and worthy of group discussion.
Steeped in the experiences of man and nature, reflective of changing days that bring with them special challenges or thoughts, and inspirational in its succinct presentations, 365 Sonnets: Celebrating Each Day with a Little Song is more than a literary celebration. It serves as a panacea for depression, daily woes, and smaller-picture thinking. Its approach and power are to be not just applauded, but celebrated.
365 Sonnets: Celebrating Each Day with a Little SongReturn to Index
The Blueberry
Society: A Schoolyard
Novella, Misguided Short Stories, and Other Ramblings
Zeebo
Thawland Creative
Studios LLC
979-8-9901616-3-4
$14.00
Website: www.thawland.com/zeebo
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Blueberry-Society-Schoolyard-Misguided-Ramblings/dp/B0GGQB28KC/
The Blueberry Society: A Schoolyard Novella, Misguided Short Stories, and Other Ramblings is a thought-provoking reflection on life, experience, and irony. It’s delivered with a dash of humor that inspects “the sweet nectar of the blossom we call the truth” about which, “Sadly, these days, it exists dimly in a haze of noisy distractions.”
The vignettes open with an encounter in a diner over grits:
“Can I try just one or two grits? I don’t know what they taste like, so I don’t know if I want a full order.”
She had teased hair, a kind, sweet smile, and had over-sprayed herself with a tad too much Obsession perfume. I was sure she was sick of rude city boys like me who think a large tip will excuse all crimes against those in the food service industry. Her voice was gritty and coated in her southern twang. “You can’t have just one or two grits,” she replied, rolling her eyes upward, possibly reading the diner rules tattooed inside her eyelids.
Each story is a study in social inspection, humorous observation, and life encounter that presents fun inspections of Zeebo’s world and the forces that move it. Each offers nuggets of wisdom, whether they stem from an experience taking peyote, from “many shades of darkness,” or from reflections of the son of an immigrant who experiences his own puzzling journey through American culture and diversity.
Part memoir, part fiction, and fully embedded with wonderfully surprising, hilarious life observations, these “ramblings” represent pieces of experience delivered with the wry inspection of youth, maturity, and life ironies, all wound into one intriguing, hard to define package of literary inspection.
Libraries and readers seeking short stories that sizzle with magic, mayhem, and life possibilities will find all these forces and more at work in a gathering of wry experience that will leave readers feeling connected to the beauty and impasses of life.
The Blueberry Society: A Schoolyard Novella, Misguided Short Stories, and Other RamblingsReturn to Index
Awakenings in Real
Life
Dan Cohen
Current Words
Publishing
978-1-957224-47-3
$4.99
eBook
www.currentwords.com
Awakenings in Real Life: Family Stories of Inspiration, Meaning, and Hope collects stories of transformation that stem from an unusual source: not the usual spiritual roots commonly associated with an awakening; but from dementia’s impact on individuals and the family structure.
To associate such a positive thought as an awakening with such a devastating diagnosis as dementia may seem a stretch, but Dan Cohen’s journey embraces a heartfelt emotional experience that frames “awakening” in a new manner. This will prove surprisingly uplifting and positive in a manner that adds extra dimensions of possibility and understanding to the dementia experience.
Chapters follow how Cohen’s father “woke up” from his dementia, which in turn triggered an awakening in his son. The surprises which emerge from the book’s introduction reflect the overall tone and unfolding of these revelations:
...without his awakening I may never have realized all the others that had already happened in my life. All of these events, when looked at through the lens of my father’s awakening, inspire me to be reflective in my own life, and realize how many blessings life brings to us that we are too asleep to see.
Those who would see such opportunities in their own lives would do well to read this memoir whether or not their own path involves illness, dementia, or other big life changes that may feel overwhelmingly and completely negative.
Cohen’s ability to pinpoint the wellsprings of this awakening process translates to a series of surprises – such as how dementia cured his father’s lifelong OCD.
Family stories, space for journal notes accompanied by the author’s gentle guidance for readers to fill in their own blanks based on these insights, and psychological and philosophical wisdom accompany the warm-hearted story of a father and son’s lifelong shared connections:
Sometimes finding humor in a hard or sad situation can supply a moment of emotional relief and give you some perspective.
Laced with a selection of black and white family photos throughout, Awakenings in Real Life goes beyond the usual spiritual or clinical reports of transformation to pinpoint just how these revelations can emerge from adversity.
Librarians and readers seeking a powerful account of revised thinking, emotional intimacy, spiritual and psychological revelations, and detailed insights into just how “awakening” manifests, is interpreted, and leads to transformative thinking will relish how intimately and precisely Awakenings in Real Life reflects this journey.
Awakenings in Real LifeReturn to Index
Belonging to the
World
Barry Hoffner
GFB
978-1964721415
$32.00
Hardcover/$18.95
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
www.girlfridayproductions.com
Belonging to the World is more than a story of grief over a man losing his love and travel partner. It’s about developing a new drive and purpose in life. In this case, Barry Hoffner’s sudden and devastating lack of connection to life resulted in his determination to visit all 193 countries on Earth in an effort to find renewed meaning in his efforts.
That he did – and more, making Belonging to the World more than another probe of grief and recovery, but a broader search for what makes humans feel part of the world and the homo sapiens community.
His travel observations make for a vivid read for armchair travelers interested in physical and psychic transformations as he visits Yeman, home of the most striking architecture (which he deems the “Manhattan of the desert”), Bhutan for the best spiritual experience (“Land of the Monks”), Palau’s natural wonders (“underwater Serengeti”), and more.
From confronting tides of grief in Jamaica and family life in Russia to facing rapids and primates in Uganda as he officially undertakes ‘Project 193’, Hoffner imparts many revelations to his readers that stem from ordinary and extraordinary encounters with cultures and individuals:
The world was not smaller than I thought, but simply more familiar than I had allowed.
Another big attraction for armchair travelers is the contrasting observations made by a man who sojourns through different cultures around the world and thus is in a unique position to discuss their similarities and differences, as in his Eritrea experience:
For a guy whose favorite country in the world is Italy, Asmara was the next best thing to being in la bella Italia. And the fresh-made pasta was not bad here, either. The next day brought a completely distinct kind of foreignness when we traveled to Keren. There, we visited the monthly camel market, where Arabic-speaking men in white robes, with keffiyehs covering their heads, offered hundreds of camels for sale.
Step by step the process of honing new connections is made and transmitted to readers. The memoir hones a crisp, clear set of observations and wide-ranging contrasts that are rare even in the world of adventure travel literature, placing Belonging to the World in a class of its own.
Delightful in its travelogue, pointed in its psychological and philosophical observations, and totally immersive in its approach, Belonging to the World is a treasure highly recommended for libraries, individuals, and book clubs alike.
Its ability to explore experiences, contrast urban and rural environment and cultures, and pinpoint the moments that build not just understanding, but lifelong friends makes for an uplifting account highly recommended for a wide audience of travelers, thinkers, grievers, and readers seeking extraordinary encounters:
They weren’t just guides, and now friends; they were teachers and witnesses to this journey’s unfolding purpose. Like a spectacular sunset that lingers in memory, Obed’s role in Project 193 will remain with me always.
Belonging to the WorldReturn to Index
Dementia Man: An
Existential Journey
Samuel A. Simon
Independently
Published
978-1-7379097-3-6
$14.99
Paperback/9.99 eBook
www.DementiaMan.com
Dementia Man: An Existential Journey is a memoir that reflects on a journey through an incurable disease: early-stage Alzheimer’s. It reviews the personal challenges of living with such a diagnosis, the forces that drive some into suicide and families into poverty, and offers a critical analysis of “urgently needed changes in how people with cognitive disorders are perceived, treated, and supported in our society, as well as how their families and loved ones are supported throughout the process.”
With its eye towards personalizing the diagnosis, treatment, outcome and progression of Alzheimer’s, Samuel A. Simon takes an important step in demystifying the condition and considering its impact and the response of friends, family, and medical systems to the disease.
Of special note is how the diagnosis is delivered and the inevitable outcome seemingly set in stone:
The doctors’ words echo in the now-empty room, or maybe just my head: “There is only one road for you, Sam, down. Down! You will only get worse.”
Simon embarks on a journey to refute the notion that his life will be just one downhill experience, offering insights, definitions, and reviews of the differences between memory loss, cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s.
His path leads him in some unexpected directions, including political activism, while his health dictates choices he must acknowledge as being limiting and a factor in what and how far he will pursue justice and change:
I don’t know whether, currently, with my Alzheimer’s, I have the energy or capacity to take on that issue. I would like to see it fixed.
From his initial goal of living his life as authentically as possible and tapping into and listening to his inner voice of wisdom to fielding the changes of Alzheimer’s, Simon offers nuggets of not just wise reflection, but revised purpose into his life that will resonate with others who have received such a diagnosis:
I need to leave this world with those values at play. I want to be a force for change, to be authentic to my core self within the milieu of my life. As I travel along this final journey with Alzheimer’s, I am witness to a broken system, a system tied to a history of misunderstanding the nature of cognitive disorders and which heavily discounts the core value of the lives of those with the disease.
The result both embraces and goes beyond the trials of initial diagnosis, medical mishaps, and psychological reflection, delving into the courses of action and purpose that refuel Simon’s life and will inspire his readers.
Librarians and readers seeking a different Alzheimer’s memoir that charts not just a progressive deterioration, but the purposeful decisions that challenge everyone to lead better lives, will find Dementia Man surprisingly uplifting, realistic, and ultimately inspirational.
It’s just the ticket for learning new coping and survival skills in the face of the inevitable and impossible life revisions.
Dementia Man: An Existential JourneyReturn to Index
Making God Laugh
R.C. Goodwin, MD
Secret Harbor
Press, LLC
978-1733143974
$16.95
Website: https://www.rcgoodwin.net
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Making-God-Laugh-Psychiatry-Electric/dp/1733143971
Making God Laugh: A Memoir of Psychiatry, Dublin, and the Electric Chair is a memoir about career achievement, life ironies, and survival. It comes from a psychiatrist whose perspective is embedded in a sense of humor and morbid curiosity. The latter leads him to not just examine an electric chair in the prison he works in, but to experience it himself. His wry observation of this is an early example of the wry sense of life inspection that permeates his tale:
Apart from the thick leather straps and ankle restraints, it wouldn’t have looked too bad in someone’s den.
Lest readers think these experiences will be a barrel of laughs, it also should be noted that serious realizations are often the result of these inspections:
They unstrapped me and I stood up, slightly shaky. No reason for shakiness. The electric chair, unplugged for decades, was as innocuous as a Barcalounger. Despite that, though, it was an unsettling experience. It took a while for my heart rate to go back to normal. This field trip had made the chair more than a symbol or a point of law. It was quite real.
Why should an ordinary person write a memoir about their life? Because perhaps that life embraces important reflections that mirror others’ experiences, values, and discoveries:
Writing a memoir smacks of chutzpah. Then I remembered my time in the electric chair. It occurred to me that perhaps my life hasn’t been as humdrum as I’d supposed.
Dr. Goodwin progresses through his training, marriage, divorce and remarriage, patient encounters, and therapy snafus with an attention to the moment that will immerse readers in his world. From issues of taking personal safety in professional settings for granted to the inherent desire to be useful that drives many of his choices, the good doctor reveals the influences and direction of his life with the precision of a surgeon, extracting the moments from it that will resonate with his readers’ lives in different ways.
From medical training to travel, Dr. Goodwin explores the boundaries of his life and what he’s learned from it with an attention to dramatic details that add vigor and reflection to the results.
Libraries and readers seeking a story of adventure and travel which takes place on different levels of work, leisure time, and life experience will relish how Making God Laugh traverses Ireland and inner sanctums with equal attraction and vigor.
Making God LaughReturn to Index
Aftershock
Keith Spence
Midnight Cipher
Publications
979-8-9935642-1-0
$27.99
Hardcover/14.99
Paperback/$4.99 eBook
www.keithmspence.com
Espionage thriller readers will find Aftershock an engrossing international chain of events that opens in 1980 with the North Korean hostage crisis. David Jourbet knows this situation has been going on for far too long. Selena Walsh is waiting to execute (literally) her deadly plan of revenge for childhood abuses. What do the two seemingly disparate lives of a savvy new female killer and Belgian man hold in common? Plenty. The story is powered by a cat-and-mouse game of pursuit, attack, and ultimatums that change not just politics, but individual lives.
Keith Spence carefully constructs a story replete with edge-of-your-seat encounters with a variety of characters that face East German assassins, psychopaths, a deadly woman who has become “an arterial Jackson Pollock,” and a revised definition of “killer” versus “traitor.”
Spence is particularly adept at pointing out the similarities between seemingly disparate characters and intentions that shake the definition of good and bad guys on an overall playing field of political intervention. The search for “a clean ending for a very messy story eighteen years in the making” and the sacrifice and judgment which embroil David and Selena in conflict and connection emerge alongside a host of special interests.
From the threat of nuclear inferno to the aftermath of those who lose control of their assets, morality, and efforts to survive, David and those around him experience a whirlwind of Russian associations and CIA connections that challenge their families and values.
Libraries seeking thrillers replete with Russian subterfuge and encounters and satisfyingly unpredictable cat-and-mouse games will relish how Aftershock builds a set of glowing possibilities from the very different lives and perspectives of a man and woman caught up in circumstances beyond their control.
Readers looking for international intrigue, suspense, and confrontations that form gripping examinations of contrasting realities will appreciate how the interactions between Popov, David, and others builds to a crescendo of action and realizations that many won’t see coming.
AftershockReturn to Index
Born on Monday
Richard R. Becker
Copywrite, Ink.
979-8-9888816-5-0
$31.99
Hardcover/$17.99
Paperback/$7.95 eBook
www.byrichardrbecker.com
What does an ordinary person do when they are accused of committing a brutal crime? Born on Monday captures the dilemma of quarry worker Billy Stevens, who finds himself being hunted; Jessica Michaud, who is tracked by a vengeful ex; and journalist Andrea Kearney, whose investigation into local corruption takes an unexpected turn.
The three disparate individuals are drawn into a web of deceit and danger in a small Maine town as each struggle with their lives and the forces that impact them.
Richard R. Becker provides astute observations that include reflections on each character’s choices:
What booze really does is open doors while you feel like your best self, and then it slams those same doors closed without warning.
As Jessica becomes wrapped up in another case while caretaking her mother (who is ill with cancer) and Billy faces a reunion with Autumn that leaves him ecstatic, the adjustments each makes and the deals made with their own particular devils make for a tense thriller that edges into unpredictable territory for everyone involved.
It should be noted that moments of violent confrontation emerge as Autumn confronts an assailant with tragic results. This might trigger sensitive readers. This caution aside, the descriptions are fully in keeping with the novel’s atmosphere and progression and add to Billy’s angst and realizations as he becomes a suspect.
As the evidence stacks up against him, Billy finds an important and uncertain new relationship with Derrik and Metcliff, police officers who consider him both a possible suspect and a victim.
Becker’s ability to embed these characters in a changing small town’s political and social milieu results in an atmospheric read that is thoroughly engrossing and realistic. Readers follow Billy’s quandaries and relationships through the lens of past experience and moral shifts as he is continually called upon to redefine his relationships and identify his enemies.
Ironically, the back story of money laundering and murder provides a breathing and healing space to Billy and Jessica, who probe the foundations of small town secrets only to discover the story of a lifetime. This engages readers in a series of conundrums and supporting characters whose lives and purposes intersect in satisfyingly unpredictable ways.
Librarians and readers seeking engrossing tales of victims, survivors, and small-town conundrums will relish how Born on Monday crafts suspense and psychological growth. The finale, in which two surprising heroes save each others’ lives while navigating the raging storms of passion and tragedy, creates a powerful conclusion that most readers won’t see coming.
Born on Monday is highly recommended for thriller readers seeking intense psychological probes and connections in stories about small towns and big problems. Its ability to draw characters that walk a fine line between hero and flawed personality makes for a thought-provoking approach.
Born on MondayReturn to Index
Chasing the
Bangkok Dragon
K. E. Karl
Kurt E Karl
Consulting, LLC
979-8-9870141-7-2
$15.99 Paperback/
$7.99 eBook/$29.99
Ingram Spark Hardcover
Website: https://kekarl.com/
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Bangkok-Dragon-Sebastian-Thriller-ebook/dp/B0FZNJ92G7
Chasing the Bangkok Dragon is a thriller set in 1980s Bangkok, where DEA analyst Thomas Sebastian is assigned to go underground to fight an international drug syndicate. At the heart of the battle is a new drug called “The Bangkok Dragon” which draws drug enforcers, gangs, and special interests into a tangled web of deceit and corruption.
The story is compelling from its opening line:
“You mean I’d have to carry a gun?” Thomas asked, his voice cracking.
At age thirty-five, Thomas is being tapped as much for his ability to speak fluent Thai as for any investigative skills. That, and his high security clearance, make him the perfect choice to participate in a special undercover unit of the DEA, investigating a drug syndicate that has thus far eluded them.
The short-term assignment becomes a long-term dangerous affair as Thomas (aka Robert Jordan) pursues answers and criminals against all odds.
Thriller readers will find the intrigue fast-paced and Thomas a likable character. The conundrums in his new job in Thailand spill into operations where his involvement in police situations becomes more and more entangled with subterfuge.
Fellow agents Andrea and Sakchai know who Thomas really is - but even a great plan, a good cover, and a strong team can fail when confronted with forces as strong as the Dragon and Scorpion gangs - especially when an agent’s death leads local police to suspect that Thomas and his group are behind the mysterious operations.
Fans of espionage stories and international crime scenarios will relish how Thomas follows a string of clues that lead into an ever-more tangled web of relationships and possibilities.
Libraries and readers interested in adding thrillers to their collections and reading lists that take bigger picture politics and gang relationships and juxtapose them with one man’s mission to stop illicit drugs from proliferating will welcome how Chasing the Bangkok Dragon represents both a survival effort and a transformation.
Thomas steps into his new role more effectively than he could have imagined, and the process by which his life and perspective are also transformed makes for thoroughly engrossing, unpredictable reading. These features make Chasing the Bangkok Dragon a compelling thriller standout.
Chasing the Bangkok DragonReturn to Index
French Toast
Corinne LaBalme
Independently
Published
979-1095525035
$15.99
Paperback/$3.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/French-Toast-Paris-Writer-Chronicles/dp/B0FSQ78P4N
French Toast reveals a dilemma in which ghost writer Melody Layne is looking for a low-key assignment to take her mind off of her recent breakup. What she gets seems ideal – working on the cookbook memoir of a TV celebrity – but the menu but the menu gets murky when crime curdles the crème brûlée.
Suddenly, Melody finds herself caught up in a cook’s vision as well as a nightmare; both of which receive intense and evocative description:
“My vision of French cuisine is revolutionary and not easily understood.” His eyes shone. “This book will bring my work the respect and validation that it deserves.”
Comic relief, as in a reference to “cannibal cookbooks,” abounds, as does the wry sense of humor that accompanies Melody’s reflections on her past connection to Carlos which are hard, surprisingly alluring memories she must set aside – but cannot. When Carlos re-enters her world to introduce further complexity and personal dilemmas, Melody finds herself falling into the same seductive trance that led her into trouble with him in the first place:
Why did my love affair with Carlos always play like some ill-starred Cinderella storyline? The fairytale factors couldn’t be faulted – music, wine, and designer dresses – but there were always setbacks.
As threats mount and strike the International Food and Wine Society’s members, Melody must marry her observational and deductive skills with her writing prowess in order to reveal the truth:
I checked my notes on the Cuisine Idol videos I’d binge-watched on YouTube. Muriel brought her fire-breathing mom on the set for the season finale. However, it was hard to visualize Mommie Dearest using party drugs to avenge her daughter’s loss. She looked more like the type who’d use store-brand rat poison... but who knew? I’d have to scan those episodes again. Now that I was on the look-out for malicious intent, maybe someone’s body language would reveal their true feelings as well.
Corinne LaBalme’s delightful story can be read as mystery, a romance, or as a tale of one woman’s attempt to reconcile the people and influences in her life with her personal and professional goals.
The novel cultivates an astute, powerful, first-person voice that is filled with emotional connection and reflections that draw readers deeply into the world of French food and affairs, charismatic men, and delightfully unexpected interplays between “the first oohs and aahs of gourmet delight” and the screams of disaster.
Striking twists and turns of plot and a number of relationship developments keep readers engaged in Melody’s constantly-shifting world. These elements make French Toast a special, top recommendation to libraries and readers seeking culinary and cultural mysteries more than a cut above others.
Filled with exciting moments of revelation and surprise, French Toast holds the ability to attract well beyond the murder mystery genre audience. It will reach into the circles of women who enjoy gourmet food, love stories, and unexpected developments. These elements make the story impossible to predict, and a real page-turner.
French ToastReturn to Index
Killer Urge
Steven Fisher
Atmosphere Press
979-8891329409
$28.99
Hardcover/$16.99
Paperback/$8.99 eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
Killer Urge tells of a hiker killed in a park, an investigation that stymies local authorities, and the expertise and participation of outsider Kevin Mathers in the search for a savvy killer.
The story opens with a first-person dialogue from the killer’s perspective. This gives the story a powerful personal perspective from its opening lines:
I had
known for a long time that
I needed to kill someone. There were so many things in my life that I
was angry about. Someone needed to be punished. My feelings simmered,
waiting to explode out into the world. I knew that I needed to tap
this volcano inside me, or it would implode. But who should I kill?
The loner’s encounter with “Chatty Cathy” results in the woman’s death. This leads to the introduction of Kevin, a Philadelphia celebrity who has already solved a major crime puzzle – without being either a P.I. or a police officer. He may have stepped into the world of crime when that serial killer turned out to be his girlfriend, but when he inadvertently becomes involved in yet another homicide case, Kevin finds his problem-solving abilities tapped in an unusual way.
The perspectives of the story’s characters keep changing, but headers with their names leave little room for confusion as the story evolves. These viewpoints add to the story’s complexity and satisfyingly psychological twists and turns as Anna, Leonard, Jennifer, and others step into a pressure cooker of death and nightmare confrontations.
Each character contributes thought-provoking experiences and insights into the mix as the original killer’s rage builds into an explosion of action. Each adds to the evolution of the “Valley Green Killer” as the victims mount and questions about death and connections emerge from their lives, leading Kevin and the homicide team on a lively chase that appears to hold no logical conclusion.
Libraries and readers who like their action fast-paced, their characters multifaceted and complex, and their murder mysteries steeped in an air of psychological connection and discovery will relish how Killer Urge focuses on and fine-tunes the killer instinct for a totally unpredictable outcome.
Filled with satisfying twists powered by revelations on the part of perp and investigators who become entwined in these deaths and lives, Killer Urge is a winning saga that is a real page-turner.
Killer UrgeReturn to Index
A Perfect Year?
Ruth Foster
Ollerford
Publishing
978-1068777301
$12.99
Paperback/$6.56 eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
A Perfect Year? presents an intriguing English setting in the 1990s. The scenario involves three very different families navigating life and the strange twist taken by an annual “good news” holiday letter that, in this year, proves anything but easy to write, what with a local murder mystery impacting everybody’s life.
Ruth Foster employs a different approach to building her story, taking the concept of a “round robin” collage of events and lives and melding them into a sequence which explores the inhabitants of fictional Upley Rising. The plot follows how the undercurrents of their lives unfold beneath the public descriptions they publish about the events buffeting their worlds.
This lends an intriguing atmosphere to not just the mystery, but the story of how people perceive, live, and represent their lives.
As the story progresses, Ali, Caroline, Robert, and their families experience different threads of connection and quandaries. These are represented not only in snapshots of the round robin letters, but by inserts of news reports from various large and small magazines and newsletters. These provide realistic backdrops for the personal touches of each character and family’s lives, narrated through letters reflecting events that emerge to shake the foundations of belief, propriety, and strength:
There was a scare with Colin in September. A young newspaper reporter appeared at our house asking questions about the murders that took place in Paradise View back in the 1960s. Everyone in the road has got used to people turning up at intervals, either from the papers or just those with a morbid interest in tragedy. At Neighbourhood Watch meetings we have regular discussions about how to handle them; the usual consensus is to be polite and do nothing to upset property prices.
From British politics and the impact of the murder and new revelations to threads of humorous observation that connect the dots between individuals, families, and social order, Ruth Foster provides an entertaining story of murder and impact. A Perfect Year? is unexpected in its progression and completely involving in its insights:
It was all meant to end there, our family demo: modestly exercising our democratic right to point out that there are more important things in the world than tea parties and unelected aristocracy swanning around on taxpayers’ money. Even at that level it would have been the biggest upset in Upley Rising since the witch-ducking riots of 1659 that led to the Wellspring Festival.
Libraries and readers seeking a murder mystery that is more than a whodunit will thoroughly enjoy the personalities and progression of A Perfect Year?
The story’s ability to draw readers with the concurrent experiences of a wide circle of British subjects and the mystery which influences and enfolds their perfect lives makes for a wonderful tale that proves hard to put down.
A Perfect Year?Return to Index
Poetry Slammed
Joy Ann Ribar
Wine Glass Press
978-1-959078-36-4
$17.95
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMQWT27N?
Poetry Slammed is the third Bay Browning Mystery in the series, returning Cassandra Browning and her sixth sense to a new case that opens with housekeeper Fanta Sweet rummaging through the house seeking Posey’s treasure, which might contain a dangerous truth that could destroy lives.
Posey’s murder has cast a wide cloud over much of life. Cass has found herself spending more and more time at Spirit Gardens, drawn by reflections on Posey’s murder and the puzzling letter she left behind for the living to solve even as unresolved grief continues unabated.
Cass thought she’d gained an uncertain form of peace by revealing her special abilities to a chosen few around her, making them fearful and wary of her company and affording her some relief from their interactions. Instead, she’s just opened the door to a bid for justice. Posey’s promise of a treasure that will unlock that door to peace is the only thing left to hold on to.
The story evolves intrigue, supernatural elements, suspense, and confrontations as Cass confronts the mysterious (and missing) Daniela while her sister Bay embarks on her own journey for the truth.
As more characters join the fray, from Cliff Marsden, investigators Downing and Harris, and Cass’s supporter Abigail, Joy Ann Ribar uses poetic, compelling descriptions to create evocative, lovely scenarios:
Abigail patted Cass’s knee. “Naturally, it must be true. Those gifts are passed on, Cassandra. Your sister’s a prodigy scholar— literature runs through her veins. And you, you make poetry in your teas. Flowers and herbs are your words, and your tinctures are the verses.”
As philosophical reflection blends with extraordinary abilities, kidnappings, undercover operations, and clues left in literature, readers will appreciate the fine dance between cozy mystery, clashing personalities and special interests, and literary references to Jane Austen. These elements drive a mystery that widens with a bigger embrace of special interests and Posey’s legacy.
Libraries and readers need have no prior familiarity with Cass and her world in order to delve into and thoroughly appreciate her psyche and life in Poetry Slammed. The story’s rich set of clues requires no introduction to prove thoroughly immersive, the characters dovetail and dance through their special interests and abilities in extraordinary ways, and, ultimately, how Posey’s life is revealed and interpreted serves as a point of intrigue and healing that provides a satisfying conclusion to a number of character dilemmas.
Filled with satisfying discoveries, a tone of revelation and realization, and a series of encounters that draw Cass and her readers ever deeper into the mystery of Posey’s legacy, Poetry Slammed is an evocative, cozy read that is warm-hearted and hard to put down.
Poetry SlammedReturn to Index
Removal of the
President
Peter Van Oossanen
Atmosphere Press
979-8891328624
$32.99
Hardcover/$19.99
Paperback/$8.99 eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
Removal of the President is the final book in the Sam Stanton saga, following The Extraterrestrial and When Mercy Died. It considers what would happen if the U.S. President undertook a course of action that could destroy the world. It’s set over twenty years after the last story, so stands nicely alone for newcomers to Sam and his world as it outlines the dilemma of Sam’s son Junior, who has stepped up into his father’s shoes and is working with him when they uncover a deadly conspiracy involving the president.
At first they try to expose and politically thwart him, but when democratic options fail, father and son are forced to consider the unthinkable as they face the choice of either becoming killers or seeing the world explode.
Thriller readers will find plenty of action and tension as the duo consider these options and make efforts to stop what seems inevitable. Add a romance between Junior and the President’s daughter for an even more compelling, thought-provoking dilemma.
Lying press secretaries, Jocelyn’s discovery of what Junior really does and her struggle to accept this, a father who locks up his daughter (who just longs for life to return to ‘normal’ afterwards), and the struggle of leaders to take over White House operations and turn back the rush towards disaster create a grippingly realistic story of politics and special interests.
Peter Van Oossanen’s engaging story rests firmly on psychological interplays and engrossing character dilemmas. These drive the tension - but even more important is timing. Given the questions and controversies of the modern American political landscape, the premise is frighteningly realistic and especially convincing, making Removal of the President nearly impossible to put down.
Librarians and readers seeking frighteningly realistic fiction surrounding presidential power gone awry will find Removal of the President a relevant, outstanding choice certain to spark book club and group discussions. Packed with twists and exquisite tension, Removal of the President represents thought-provoking, action-packed thriller reading at its finest.
Removal of the PresidentReturn to Index
Tidal Overlook
Helen Montague
Foster
Atmosphere Press
979-8891329249
$30.99
Hardcover/$17.99
Paperback/$8.99 eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
The psychological thriller Tidal Overlook is the sequel to the award-winning Lost Graces. It continues the story of psychiatrist Nancy Thomas’s foster daughter Soolie, who is still suffering from PTSD. This challenges Nancy, who doesn’t have the energy she wishes to devote to parenting. When Nancy, Mack, and Soolie come across a body in the road, Soolie bolts into the forest and Mack runs after her, leaving Nancy to deal with hunters who show up and demand that they leave the property.
Important psychological insights emerge from the beginning:
It no longer surprised me that traumatized people acted in ways that brought about what they feared.
New insights keep evolving as the story progresses from family angst to Nancy’s decision to treat a famous author against her own instincts, a series of intriguing incidents that lead them to wonder about the true nature of the secretive bed-and-breakfast conference facility nearby, and Nancy’s concealed weapons case. The latter threatens to expose the truth about the hunters who had seemed unconcerned about their injured friends or Nancy’s missing family.
As a potential malpractice suit further challenges Nancy’s ability to pursue the truth, readers receive a fast-paced thriller that excels in juxtaposing murder with writer’s block and psychiatric conundrums about treatments and outcomes.
Helen Montague Foster does a fine job of dovetailing personal life with investigative intrigue. Her story traverses mishaps of the past with present-day twists and turns of events, creating a novel replete with many different psychological and thriller twists.
Librarians and readers who look for a breath-taking dance between family life and community involvement will find the solid characterization, fast pace, and layers of subterfuge and psychological challenge in Tidal Overlook makes for a story hard to predict and thoroughly rooted in personalities whose special interests rise to the forefront of dangerous challenges and affairs.
Filled with unexpected moments and revelations, Tidal Overlook is a tale of narcissism, discovery, dreams, and nightmares which incorporates a wide range of flavors as Nancy pursues the truth and employs her professional acumen to the best of her ability – and against all odds.
Tidal OverlookReturn to Index
The Usual Suspect
Neil Turner
Neil Turner Books
ASIN B0G3MKFTH6
$5.99 eBook/$14.99
Paperback/
Website:
https://www.neilturnerbooks.com
Ordering:
https://books2read.com/u/mqAwMe
The Usual Suspect adds to Neil Turner’s Tony Valenti thriller series with a case against military veteran Van Booker, accused of murdering her husband. The evidence against Van stems from many circumstances which point to her guilt, so for a struggling small law firm to defend her translates to a big risk of losing.
Tony Valenti of Brooks, Valenti & Williams is a man on a mission – and a budget. His quest for the truth seems to implicate his client even further - to the point that he himself begins to doubt her innocence. How ironclad does the case have to be to prove indefensible?
A strength of this novel lies in its presentation in the first person. This allows readers to enter into Tony’s thought processes and self-analysis:
It’s not that we necessarily need to believe a client is innocent to represent them to the best of our abilities; we all ascribe to the belief that every criminal defendant is entitled to a robust defense. That said, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that we bring a little additional fire to the task when we truly believe in our client’s innocence. I like Van, but do I believe in my little heart of hearts that she’s innocent?
The story’s reflects on societal problems, legal challenge, and personal dedication:
It seems that the only thing the bean counters running the world focus on is how to pick everyone else’s pockets so they can plow the booty into their personal investment portfolios.
These elements enhance the legal and investigative process to the point that Tony’s efforts, convictions, and revelations become a personal draw for his readers.
From his personal life and parental duties to ethical conundrums and business challenges, Tony comes across as a three-dimensional, likeable character that is in it for more than the money. The result is a satisfyingly complex journey through a maze of courtroom and personal conflicts as Tony edges closer to an impossible truth and the reality of his client’s life and choices.
Libraries and readers who enjoy not just mystery and legal thrillers, but the added value of psychological growth and ethical considerations will relish how The Usual Suspect goes the extra mile. It creates situations that encourage readers to think about not just outcomes and possible perps, but values and motivations.
Replete with excellent tension, strong characters, and intrigue, The Usual Suspect is a winner.
The Usual SuspectReturn to Index
The Book of
Reservations
Laura Buchwald
Radiance
979-8892990776
$31.99
Hardcover/$9.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Reservations-Ghost-Table-Trilogy/dp/B0FY22CLJ8
The Book of Reservations, the second book in the Ghost Table Trilogy, blends fantasy, ghosts, and romance into the vivid, ongoing story of Josie Gray, who can commune with the spirits and who is undertaking the challenging venture of running a restaurant at the same time.
The tale opens with a reflection about seasonal access to ghosts:
As autumn descends, the veil between the living and dead grows thin. Those who want proof of an afterlife are sure to find it. Those who don’t will have to ignore the clearest of signs. It takes effort not to believe because evidence is everywhere—a tingling on the back of your neck, a high-pitched hum you might be imagining, a creeping sensation you’re not alone in the room.
Josie’s relationship with the dead takes a toll on her relationship with Derek Mangus, who would rather not share her with a host of ghosts. That’s why they are consulting Dr. Quentin Bannister and seeking therapy that will heal their relationship and hopefully reconcile their differences.
From the first chapter’s opening lines, Laura Buchwald creates an inviting series of insights that connect psychological conundrums and disparate personalities with life events and perspectives:
Josie’s innate optimism was a relatively new trait, and a hard-earned one after years of unhappiness. But once she realized she could turn her struggles into opportunities to grow, she began to view the world in a different light. In hindsight, she realized even in her gloomier younger days, part of her had always believed good things lay ahead. Now she joked she was a “glass half full” girl, while Derek was a “glass is broken” guy.
This will attract readers to Josie’s paranormal dilemmas as they begin to interfere not just with her relationship, but her entire life. Conflicts boil down to Josie’s gift, which Derek wants nothing to do with, and how it spills over into their business and personal affairs to impact them both.
Readers will be delighted at how the romance develops in fits and starts as setbacks and progression emerge from ghostly encounters. Between issues of unexamined pain and denial to facing a visiting father who has a reputation for disappointing her, Josie has her hands full. Readers interested in how various life struggles dovetail and coalesce will find the notes of discovery and growth embedded in Josie’s story to be revealing and often delightfully unexpected.
As she delves into the possibility of different lifetimes, Josie and her readers enter into revised perceptions of life’s meaning as a whole and the place of romance and change within those lives.
The juxtapositions of messages from the dead, insights gained from dealing with them, and surprising roads to recovery and change makes for a story that takes a typical ghostly encounter and turns it on end for an expected result.
Librarians and readers interested in series titles that blend supernatural encounters with romantic fantasy will relish how The Book of Reservations both expands Josie’s paranormal world and increases the real-world connections she feels with Derek and those around her.
Realistic in its psychological connections and review of relationship and business stress, thought-provoking in its consideration of how and why spirits communicate with the living, and replete with personal changes and discoveries,
The Book of Reservations traverses grief, loss, gratitude, and love with a powerful eye to intriguing developments. Readers will relish and reflect upon these notes long after the story concludes. These attributes will lend to avid book club discussions, as well.
The Book of ReservationsReturn to Index
The Castle
Vincent Mooncastle
Independently
Published
ASIN: B0GFQ5BQJN
$4.49 eBook
www.vincentmooncastle.com
The Castle opens in 1766 with a prologue that introduces the Mercenary’s trek through a forest to reach a dark, towering castle that looms from its depths. Shrouded in mystery and darkness, the castle commands fear from all who enter its shadow. In this instance, that would be the Mercenary and Basileo, who dare to approach the gates of the castle no matter the consequences.
The next chapter opens a year later in 1767 where Vinicio, an apprentice to a traveling trader, arrives in town to herald an attack on the townspeople that awakens a long-repressed voice in his head. The voice forces him to enter the Castle, where he discovers the curiously trapped Basileo and a puzzle that involves a mirror, a madman trapped in a tapestry, and a series of bloody confrontations that test not only Vinicio’s endurance, but his very sanity.
Besides the supernatural touches, intrigue, and forces affecting a host of characters, Vincent Mooncastle develops a sense of self-examination and questioning to his story that adds to its Gothic atmosphere to create thought-provoking moments for his readers:
He touched his face again. Flesh. Bone. His nose felt the same. His jawline, too. He scanned the chamber for mirrors but there were none. Was it? Was he himself? Basileo's fearful eyes suggested he wasn't.
From questions about madness and illusions to the influences of the Castle and its special form of insanity, Mooncastle builds superb tension as the story ripens into one of not just discovery and confrontation, but personal conviction and mental and physical survival tactics:
Those are not your memories. They weren't and yet they were. Like the rest of his recent memories, they'd entered into that blurred state, like the bustle of the market, where anything was possible. He was only certain of one thing, for now. 'We're alive,' he said out loud.
The dance between the Mercenary, Basileo, and Viniceo creates a dangerous, edgy series of Castle encounters and experiences which tests each character in different ways.
As readers follow their journey, the cat-and-mouse games of purpose, entrapment, survival, and the pursuit of sanity make for a full-bodied experience that is more than a Gothic horror story, engaging readers in thought-provoking questions about choices, death, and rescue attempts.
Librarians and readers seeking a vivid, fast-paced read that weaves the elements of Gothic fiction into magical realism with a touch of horror and suspense will find The Castle riveting reading.
Filled with satisfying twists and turns many won’t see coming, this intriguing story concludes with a scenario in which some of the characters will likely reappear in a follow-up story, yet creates an ending which neatly winds up the threads of discovery.
The CastleReturn to Index
The City of
Shadows: A Romance of
Morocco
Charles Beadle
(Rob Couteau, Editor)
Dominantstar
978-1-963363-07-4
$19.95
www.robcouteau.com
The City of Shadows: A Romance of Morocco returns to print Charles Beadle’s first novel (originally published in 1911), which vividly portrays the 1908 Battle of Marrakech that led to the defeat of Morocco’s Sultan Aziz. The story is embedded in real history that brings the times, place, and politics to life with characters such as adventurer Paul, who falls in love with Moroccan woman Zahra.
These characters and elements will attract readers who may hold little prior familiarity with the politics and Moroccan culture, but who will find plenty of insights and attractions woven into the Moroccan backdrop and events.
The first thing to note about Charles Beadle’s style is the inclusion of local color and dialect. This may prove somewhat challenging to read, but creates atmosphere and authenticity:
As the cry of the Muedhin broke the lazy murmur, Towers glanced up with a faint suggestion of welcome recognition of an old friend. The boat glided to the jetty, and amid an excited altercation he mounted the steps, irritably pushing aside the clamorous offers of assistance. A gray-hooded figure, that had remained placidly leaning upon the rail, stepped forward.
“You come along me, Mister. I take you ‘otel Savoy?”
Towers stared contemptuously at the native tout.
“You come along me, ole chap,” urged the other confidentially. “Me best man. Me show you plenty dancing girl, ole chap.”
Editor Rob Couteau provides numerous footnotes that reference background history. This also is unusual for a novel, but proves perfect as a reference for historical fiction readers interested in the background supporting these events.
Between romance and sharpshooters to urban conflict and confusion, Beadle brings to life the people, purposes, and politics of these times in a way that invites all kinds of readers to appreciate the people and movements of early Morocco.
Paul’s encounters with the Baron are nicely detailed, inviting readers to observe and participate in court processes, including dueling:
“I exceedingly regret the absence of seconds,” said the Baron, precisely, “and also the extreme irregularity of the affair, but you will, I feel sure, act with me in observing the usual etiquette as far as possible. So, with your permission, I will measure the ground.”
The Baron proceeded to pace the distance, pausing for a moment to ostentatiously observe his cigarette, held out between two fingers; he smiled grimly in satisfaction.
As Paul risks death for courting Zahra and social and religious rules are broken, the characters must consider the impact of their choices in a moving story that traverses hearts, minds, and political traditions.
The result is a historical novel rich in Moroccan culture and revealing in its exploration of a forbidden love against the backdrop of change.
Librarians and readers looking for novels of Middle East history that bring these times alive through characters that make important decisions that affect the world around them will relish the opportunity to see Morocco through the eyes of a man and woman who risk much to achieve their vision of happiness.
The City of Shadows’s blend of high adventure, risk-taking, and immersion in Moroccan affairs is cemented by characters whose lives and concerns are realistic and thoroughly engrossing.
The City of Shadows: A Romance of MoroccoReturn to Index
DUCK redux
Nic Bettauer
Atmosphere Press
979-8-89132-910-2
$15.99
Paperback/$7.99 eBook
www.NicsPics.net
DUCK redux tells of Arthur Chase, a man “who had loved deeply and well, but whose loving had come to an end.” As he sits in his Los Angeles apartment looking at his wife’s urn, then performing the simple daily tasks of life, he feels loneliness, disconnection, and a careless inattention to his own mortality when he leaves that apartment and walks through the streets ignoring cars and danger.
This period in his life is when “the curse of age” turns the present unbearable, leading him to reflect on life’s meaning and how he has come to feel so disconnected from it:
...a ripple can take hold in a life and grow to encircle others. But the touch that creates this ripple is a light one and can oftentimes be mistaken for no touch at all.
It’s a perfect time to enter the park, relive uplifting or toxic encounters of the past, and confront a sea change in his perspective that stems not just from philosophical and emotional contemplation, but the appearance of a duckling.
Duck “Joe” unexpectedly pushes Arthur into a world of purpose and life meaning through its vulnerability, pulling him back into a world where “discovering light through the darkness ever depended on one’s approach.”
Nic Bettauer builds a contemplative voice in character Arthur that considers all kinds of topics, from building trust and relationships to thinking about what is worth fighting for in life. She encourages readers to contemplate a range of life encounters and issues, from family conception and the impact of rolling blackouts both physical and emotional to the uncommon relationship Arthur builds with a duck that has imprinted on him and considers him its parent.
Threads of humor run through the novel, as when Arthur tells an evaluating psychiatric team what language he uses to communicate with Joe, providing comic relief to offset the serious encounters and topics.
How do humans survive isolation and sadness in life? As Arthur demonstrates different ways of forming new connections, his experiences impart lessons to readers interested in life developments and the survival tactics of people in crisis and pain. The novel is an allegory that reflects Bettauer’s work as a crisis counselor, drawing astute and powerful connections between two disparate beings who, against all odds, save each other’s lives:
Joe saw Arthur. Because he, too, understood visions of sorrow. And Joe heard Arthur. Because he, too, understood sounds of sadness. Joe felt Arthur. Because he, too, understood feelings of grief.
Libraries and readers seeking literary, philosophical, psychological examinations of life’s meaning and survival tactics will find DUCK redux an outstanding tale of discovery, recovery, and growth. Its ability to interconnect the lives of two species and personalities makes for an uplifting survival story that will soothe and attract a wide audience.
DUCK reduxReturn to Index
Fallout of War:
Ukraine: Year One
H. Peter Alesso
Independently
Published
979-8272219855
$24.98
Hardcover/$19.98
Paperback/$4.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Fallout-War-Ukraine-Year-One/dp/B0FYNMLBPN
Fallout of War: Ukraine: Year One is an epic war novel centered around the actions and experiences of Lieutenant Commander James Fairbanks, a naval submarine officer who becomes a military attaché to the American embassy in Kyiv in late 2021.
Journeying to Ukraine with his wife, they are introduced to simmering political and military tensions with Russia at a pivot point in the relationship between Ukraine and Russia. They find themselves in the center of a battle that erupts to make or break leaders like the former entertainer-turned-President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The first thing to note about this sweeping epic story is its foundations in real-world events and people. From the politics of Kyiv’s expat community and the relationships that develop between politicians, ordinary people, and military attaches and leaders to immersive programs and educational opportunities that impact the players on all sides, H. Peter Alesso builds an atmosphere of exploration and insight. This approach creates a foundation for understanding the growth of military actions and the participation of all levels of people in the nation’s survival:
"What about approach tactics?" he asked. "How are you planning to get these close enough to strike without being detected and engaged?"
"That's where we need help," Serhiy admitted. "We're engineers, not naval officers. We can build these things, but we don't really know how to employ them tactically. We've been operating on intuition and whatever we can learn from video games and open-source intelligence.”
Also striking and revealing is the “you are here” feel that places readers in the center of evolving conflicts:
The sky turned black with smoke. An artillery shell landed close enough to shower James with dirt and debris, snapping him back to the present. The memory dissolved, replaced by the immediate reality of Ukrainian mud and Russian artillery. He was pressed into the bottom of the ditch, his body trembling with adrenaline, the taste of earth in his mouth. How long had he been lost in that flashback? Seconds? Minutes? The barrage was still ongoing, shells falling in a pattern that suggested the Russians were walking their fire across the field, searching for targets.
Much more than a “military novel,” Fallout of War: Ukraine: Year One crafts a story that rests on the insights, decisions, perceptions, and choices of a wide range of players from all walks of life. This translates to a thoroughly engrossing interplay between ideals and reality, choices of war and peace, and impacts on society and individual as the Ukraine situation plays out.
How a small nation struggles with looming war and impossible odds of survival makes for a story steeped in discovery, thought-provoking confrontations, and historical and social insights. These will enhance any reader’s understanding of the circumstances, peoples, and events impacting not just Ukraine, but the entire region.
All these elements translate to a novel that librarians will want to whole-heartedly recommend not just to the usual military fiction reader, but to anyone interested in Russia, Ukraine, and events impacting the entire region.
Filled with action, insight, and impact, Fallout of War: Ukraine: Year One attracts with realistic dilemmas, evolves unexpected new situations that test the ideals and might of its participants, and creates a thoroughly immersive experience to place its readers not just on the battlefield, but in the homes and hearts of all involved.
Fallout of War: Ukraine: Year OneReturn to Index
The Good Mother
Test
Michael R. French
Mango Moon Media
978-1-948749-90-9
$21.99
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
Website: thegoodmothertest.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Good-Mother-Test-Trying-Raising/dp/1948749904?s=books
Emily and Doug are on their way to the hospital for the birth of their baby as The Good Mother Test opens. They aren’t married. Emily is balancing impending motherhood with her final year at UCLA and Doug is at her side for the duration. Emily wants only one thing for her daughter Violet—for her child to always trust her. That may be an order too big to deliver upon.
Time passes quickly as Violet turns one and Doug and Emily contemplate a foreign vacation either with or without her. The divide between Doug and Emily rises as Emily embraces her maternal role to the point where she sees her job and its responsibility and stresses as being much more demanding than Doug’s day job as a broker.
When he leaves, she wonders if she is drowning her daughter in too much love. This feels impossible. Three years of effort and what she has to show for it is a baby she’s going to raise herself. Still, Emily is determined to be the best mother to her daughter no matter what happens in their lives.
The rigors of being a separated couple jointly raising a beloved daughter come to life as The Good Mother Test unfolds. Doug and Emily’s psyches and responses to parenting come to life with satisfying contrasts that will keep readers involved in familiar-sounding relationship scenarios.
Michael R. French builds a triangle of despair and conundrums which create a different kind of family structure than will be familiar to many a reader. He takes the time to create strong dialogues between characters to cement their personalities, struggles, and intentions:
“At this point, who cares? You have to apologize. It’s the only thing that will calm the waters.”
“I believe in apologies if they’re warranted,” Emily said.
“Don’t you think peace is warranted? Can’t we all count our blessings with Violet and call it a day?”
“You can’t sell me, Doug.”
“Oh, this is a matter of ironclad principle?”
“This is, yes.”
“If you can’t be pragmatic, Em, I’m bowing out of your war with the woman I’m married to. For good.”
“You can’t. You have to stay involved. You’re Violet’s dad.”
“Violet and I have our own relationship. It’s different from the three-way with you and Amanda.”
As Violet grows up to evolve her own personality and matters wind up in court, readers will find absolutely compelling the juxtaposition of flawed characters, good intentions gone awry, and the impact of divided families on children who come to reflect their own special brands of division and mistrust.
Libraries seeking powerful stories of relationships, child-rearing, family makeup and breakup, and accompanying considerations of what makes for good or bad decisions will welcome The Good Mother Test into their collections.
It’s a highly readable, relatable novel about ordinary people interacting, clashing, and blending their lives in however a messy or successful manner they can, and will attract readers interested in the psychological dovetailing of family and relationship-building which all boils down to luck and trust. These elements move full circle to guide characters and readers in an unexpected journey towards new beginnings and hope, making for a hard-hitting, satisfying read.
The Good Mother TestReturn to Index
The Grace Writers
Heather Morse
Alexander
St. Helen's Press
978-1963467079
$14.99
Paperback/$6.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1963467078
In The Grace Writers, Claire Baldwin lies wide awake in a next to her husband, Will, “in a house steeped in years of vacancy” on her first night in a new town. A year ago, he’d awakened her on a similar night with the news that her parents had been killed in a car accident. She hasn’t moved on from that event, when her good life came to a halt:
She mourned the little things—her mom’s laugh and her dad’s optimism ... Then, as always, grief turned to anger. That one detail—the drunk driver was a deacon at their church, a pillar of righteousness.
She’s moved to Walters Bluff to get away from memories and grief, awakening to a newfound determination to let go of both. She also needs to find her faith again, because God seems to have abandoned her following the death of her parents.
The Grace Writers is about finding all these things and more. From reluctantly visiting the First Community Church to try to form a new connection with God to being drawn into and embraced by The Grace Writers, a group of church ladies who share friendship, stories, and scones, Claire moves from uncharted territory into something familiar, yet different, as she regains her belief and forges new connections in the community.
The small town processes of Walters Bluff force her to make changes in her approach to life – but not before tragedy strikes again, threatening the new foundations she’s struggled to rebuild.
The Grace Writers is exceptionally good at employing realistic dialogues between these women, who identify problems in their community, faith, and relationships. This injects a full-bodied, realistic feel to the unfolding events that test Clare, adding the perspectives and dilemmas of other community members who form bonds around faith, sisterhood, and life purpose.
The cast of auxiliary characters, from Harley and Bertie (who are also struggling with issues of forgiveness and death) to Josephine and the daughter she’s never spoken of, hold their own experiences and insights into God and develop changed paths in life as a result of their interactions.
As Waters Bluff comes to life with undercurrents and relationships that prove unexpected and thought-provoking, readers receive a warm, cozy introduction to the presence of faith and friendship in their community. The insights on how ties are forged, tested, and redevelop are especially thought-provoking.
Librarians and readers seeking an ultimately uplifting story of change and new beginnings will welcome how The Grace Writers brings all these facets to light in a journey that focuses on female friendship-building and connection. Cemented with a spiritual undercurrent, the plot leaves readers with profound lessons about connection and the power of hope.
The Grace WritersReturn to Index
Hearts and Bones
Lawrence D. Bub
Atmosphere Press
979-8-89132-942-3
$29.99
Hardcover/$17.99
Paperback/$8.99 eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
Hearts and Bones is a novel of love, mental illness, and heartbreak that simmers with tension, discovery, and change. When college freshman Maya meets Peter, she enters into a romance that coincides with her newfound determination to try different things. The takeaway lesson about mental illness that she ultimately receives instead changes her life forever.
Years later, now a medical student, Maya regrets some of the choices she made in that relationship – and the heartbreak she caused, as a result.
As chapters develop, the timeline alternates between Maya’s present life as a medical student in 1997 and her college life in 1989, contrasting a maturity process which impacts her decision-making and its consequences. This gives Hearts and Bones a particularly thought-provoking perspective on how mental illness affects all aspects of life as Maya matures both as a medical student and as a person.
Also evocative and well-done are scenes in which Maya flashes back to this past even as she moves forward with her revised future goals and persona:
Felix’s black leather motorcycle jacket hung from a hook on the wall. Even from six feet away, she could smell the leather. But then something on his desk caught her eye. Winnie the Pooh, dressed in a Chinese shirt, stood serenely, flying a yin and yang kite. Maybe the innocence of it reminded her of Peter. Maybe it was something else, but a part of her consciousness awoke, and she took a step back, looking at the floor.
As for Peter – love is still alive, albeit in a manner that leads Maya to opt for distance and self-preservation:
She knew what she was doing, and it felt awful. He was two thousand miles away. They hadn’t been close for years. She was busy, and he no longer needed her. They both had to move forward with their lives, and so, she gently pushed him away.
Libraries and readers seeking astute examinations of hope, fear, mental illness, and moving on will appreciate the finely tuned relationships that Maya develops in Hearts and Bones. The novel draws with emotional revelation, educates readers about mental illness’s impact on relationships, and immerses its audience with a heartfelt, close inspection of what that maturity looks like in relationship-building choices.
Filled with moments of reflection and discovery, Hearts and Bones is especially highly recommended to readers who like their romances more contemplative and thought-provoking than most. It delves beneath the surface of possibility to consider the lasting impact of heartbreak and what it means to truly move on.
Hearts and BonesReturn to Index
Katy: The Woman
Who Signed the
Declaration of Independence
Betty Bolté
Mystic Owl
Publishing
979-8-9860450-7-8
$4.99 eBook
Website: www.bettybolte.com
Ordering:
www.MysticOwlPublishing.com
Katy: The Woman Who Signed the Declaration of Independence is a historical novel about Mary Katharine Goddard, who risked hanging to sign the Declaration of Independence in 1700s America. The story will reach not only adults, but into young adult circles with its considerations of women’s issues, political struggles, and relatively unknown American history that deserves a place in any reader’s mind no matter their age.
The story opens with twenty-four-year-old Katy facing a new life in a different colony than the New London world of her childhood. When her younger brother William finishes his printing apprenticeship and sets up shop in Providence, his invitation for his widowed mother and his sister to join him changes all their lives in unexpected ways.
Katy finds herself not just settled in a new home, but following her brother’s impulsive business ventures and learning the printing business so she can keep work running while he pursues bigger dreams.
Betty Bolté unfolds the story with an attention to the details of Katy’s growing abilities, political awareness, and the forces that simmer revolution under the public countenance of daily business:
She had a new awareness of the city in which she lived, as well as the political divide simmering beneath its genteel population. Would the simmering pot ever boil over?
Katy’s observations, her growing political awareness, and the concurrent development of a special form of daring that stems from having the right skills to apply at a pivotal moment in history makes for an engrossing story about how the Declaration of Independence emerged and how Katy became a key force in its creation - even under the threat of committing treason.
History comes to life through her eyes and personal experiences and makes more sense, providing an emotional connection and overlay to evolving political changes that draw her into plots and her own journeys far from home.
Of special note is how lives on all sides dovetail to create a logical progression of events. Even though readers may think they know the outcome, the details of how hearts and minds are challenged and changed makes for a riveting story.
Librarians seeking historical fiction that explores American experiences will relish the many insights and opportunities for discussion created in Katy: The Woman Who Signed the Declaration of Independence.
It’s a vivid tale of the times that is replete with vibrant insights and descriptions, offering an immediacy of perspective and emotional response that most stories about those times don’t embrace:
Patriots in nearby Annapolis on the nineteenth of October had seized and burned the brigantine Peggy Stewart when its owner had actually paid the import tax on the tea it carried. Granted, in order to unload the merchandise and the fifty-three indentured servants from what was characterized as a leaky ship, Anthony Stewart, representing Thomas Charles Williams & Company, had to pay the hated, banned taxes. But to have smuggled, under blankets, over two thousand pounds of tea into harbor? What were they thinking?
Katy: The Woman Who Signed the Declaration of IndependenceReturn to Index
Lady of Lincoln
Rachel Elwiss Joyce
Hedgehog Books
978-1-9193379-0-6
$17.99
Paperback/$4.99 eBook
Website: www.rachelelwissjoyce.com
Ordering:
https://books2read.com/u/4980nW
Lady of Lincoln is a novel set in 12th century England, where noblewoman Nicola de la Haye chafes at the thought of having to marry in order to secure her inheritance. All has been arranged for her, but Nicola refuses the chosen suitor and instead marries a lowly knight. Trouble deepens when she then faces betrayal by her husband, who sides with the opposition to royalty in a brewing civil war.
Court politics, women’s roles in positions of power and circumstances of disempowerment, and medieval culture come to life under Rachel Elwiss Joyce’s hand in a manner that presents the many ways women navigated their lives during those times.
Historical fiction readers will find Nicola’s character (based on a real woman) a powerful example of the choices and conflicts medieval women in positions of semi-authority faced in these times. They confronted not just social norms and political strife, but expectations and trouble from their own families and marriages. This comes to life as Nicola defends Lincoln Castle against impossible odds, stands nearly alone in defying conventional expectations of royal women to carve a place for herself in a constricted world, and perseveres to realize her vision against all odds.
Vivid descriptions capture her determination and involvement in all kinds of causes:
Nicola intended to attend the court—if allowed. She needed to speak about the attack on the Jews, and she burned to see justice for Suardinc’s death.
These are reinforced by dialogues between characters in which Nicola interacts with those who surround and sometimes support her:
“That was Deormod. Alured’s coming. He wants the castle—and me.
He stared at her. “Lady Nicola, Alured’s a slimy, ’ellspawn snake, but he’s a king’s man.”
“I know. But I think he’s been sent to claim the castle. And me!”
He stiffened. “Claim the castle?”
The romance between Nicola and Fitz also receives close inspection and strong descriptions as she ventures into family life while holding the reins of what authority she can claim as a leader and role model for those around her.
As issues of honor and freedom clash with social and political perceptions of women’s’ roles in this world, readers gain a vivid, realistic examination of the times. This is delivered in the immersive form of a woman who struggles, on many fronts, to lead others and remain true to her beliefs and objectives. These contrasts between personal goals and broader social and political constraints are particularly engrossing, offering book clubs and reading groups much fodder for debate about women’s strengths and choices.
Librarians and readers looking for stories about women interacting with and defying court standards in 12th century Europe will especially appreciate the close attention to women’s roles and issues of the times that brings Lady of Lincoln to life. Though the novel is the first in a series, it stands nicely alone as a winning introduction to these religious, social, and political times, considering the demands of duty and the constraints of staying true to one’s heart.
Its epic story of Lady Nicola’s journey to building family, love, and her own empowerment lingers in the mind long after reading.
Lady of LincolnReturn to Index
Long Lost Midwife
Skye Smith
Mindstir Media
978-1-966799-21-4
$26.99
Hardcover/$18.99
Paperback/$6.99 eBook
www.skyesmith-author.com
Long Lost Midwife opens in 1934 Missouri where young white girl Pamela is about to give birth. She searches for the African American midwife Miss Minnie, who assisted in her own birth in 1911. Her determination stirs a pot of underlying racial prejudice in her family and community, even though her motivation to have a home birth and not opt for the popular hospital birth is the motivator for her quest.
Even though her own mother admits that “Miss Minnie knew more than the doctor. If Miss Minnie hadn’t been there, I don’t know what might’ve happened,” Pamela receives no support there, either. She feels alone and abandoned by everyone.
As the story evolves, readers come to realize that Pamela’s mission and determination is about more than home versus hospital birth. It’s about vulnerability, relinquishing control, empowerment, and breaking down the barriers between races. Though the story begins with Franklin’s birth, it moves far beyond birth issues to probe the undercurrents of social repression and women’s’ roles as mothers and midwives.
Skye Smith gathers a host of issues, personalities, and conflicts to add intrigue to the story, from the nature of Minnie’s relationship to Dr. Forrest to Pamela’s decision to make a place for Minnie in her home against all social decorum.
Vivid scenarios of Pamela’s turmoil and descent into trouble permeate a story rich in social and psychological inspection:
Pamela both labored to relive and evade that moment. She resisted, folded into it, resisted. Who was that diminutive girl? Thinking about her made Pamela freeze, but then she forced herself to glance toward the mantel. What did she see? The girl’s outline? Was she there? Again? Now, in the dark? Pamela screamed.
Her interactions with Minnie’s physician, John Henry Forrest, and his reactions to her increasing agitation, husband Frank’s growing resentment over her seeming demands and decisions, and the evolution of lives around her, from widow Miz Lucille and her live-in maid Edna to mysterious attackers who leave a threatening note (“Whoever owns this house, why all the high nigger traffic? This neighborhood is WHITE!!!!”), the racial confrontations of the times literally come to roost in this home. They are represented by Pamela, Frank, and everyone who comes into contact with them.
The result is not just a book about midwifery or even African American interactions with whites in 1930s Missouri, but a powerful story of women and men confronting and defying social norms against all odds, risking death in the course of pursuing their freedom as a murder places each one of them in the legal and social crosshairs of justice.
Librarians and readers seeking a thought-provoking, engaging novel steeped in history and mystery will find Pamela’s struggles dovetail nicely with those around her in a story that simmers with unsettling truths and new perceptions.
Long Lost Midwife is especially highly recommended for book clubs seeking evocative discussion material about the role of women and prejudice in 1930s America.
Long Lost MidwifeReturn to Index
Must Be Friends
Corey Johnson
Izzard Ink
Publishing
978-1-64228-134-7
www.izzardink.com
Must Be Friends is a coming-of-age story about the friendship between two girls who disguise themselves as boys in order to participate in the world of 1920s Midwestern America. It’s a world where “...the worth of a boy, as determined by his peers, was based on his bat, his mitt, and his arm.” This world commonly doesn’t admit girls to the table of broader choices - until now.
JoAnn and Samantha first meet at the ballgame which opens the story. As they reveal raw, candid experiences to one another, their friendship is jump-started by honesty:
Everyone in my life already knows where my mother is, so I’ve never had to answer that question. Look, I’m going to say some words I’ve never said before, and I’m going to hear myself speak the truth out loud for the first time.” Jo took in a deep breath and then let it out. “My mother is in prison, and my stepdad beats me when he’s drunk. That’s my life. That’s who I am.” She picked up the sack and walked away. Sam, undeterred, ran to catch up with her. “No, Jo, you’re wrong. That’s not who you are. That’s just what happened to you.”
Interactions between boys and girls cement not just the characters and their relationships, but the attitudes and psyches of the two sexes. This sets the stage for insights about control, empowerment, and ambition which grow in theme and appearance as the plot unfolds.
When Sam saves Jo, new revelations and connections emerge from to propel them both into uncommon choices and directions in life.
Corey Johnson creates a powerful, moving story filled with thought-provoking insights between adults and children, philosophical reflections in impact and connection, and astute moments of revelation:
“I believe what you are describing is beauty. Your edges perhaps represent the clarity that comes when something beautiful enters your life...When we are better acquainted, you can tell me about your life, and I will share with you about mine. But I promise you this: Life without beauty is a grueling struggle. But together we will find it. That is my promise to you. We will find the beauty.”
As reflections on music, mothers, and life connections grow, the friendship between these two girls envelopes readers in a cloak of revised perceptions, understanding, and experiences. Philosophical discussions about love, hate, baseball, and art create new levels of understanding as the story progresses.
Interactions with the different adults in their lives also provide points of reflection and discussion as the two friends navigate life changes.
Librarians and readers interested in a coming-of-age story about girls, friendships, and growth will find Must Be Friends warm and inviting.
Its attention to small-town experiences, community and individual connections, and life-saving encounters makes for an evocative tale that all ages will find reflective and attractive.
Must Be FriendsReturn to Index
Navigating Her
Next Chapter: A Retro
Novel
Jean Burgess
Apprentice House
Press
978-1-62710-627-3
$22.99
https://www.amazon.com/Navigating-Her-Next-Chapter-Retro/dp/1627206272
In Navigating Her Next Chapter, aspiring writer, 26-year-old Margie Stevens, moves to New York City in the early 1980s in search of her dream. There, she discovers that her anticipation of a magical world of artistic license and creativity instead introduces the manic world of East 65th Street and beyond.
What’s a small-town girl doing in the big city? It’s not like her savvy father didn’t try to discourage her - but still she persisted in leaving the tiny Maryland enclave of Church Creek for something she imagined would be better and more stimulating. And now she’s paying for it.
Jean Burgess crafts a powerful saga in which an Eastern Shore non-city girl defies tradition and family edict to do something different. What she discovers is not only intellectually challenging and attractive, but spawns romantic possibilities (with the considerate Miguel) which Margie never anticipated.
Margie adapts, adopts some of the tools from various new perspectives and programs around her, and begins to hone a revised vision for her future as a result of not a singular drive, but influences past and present:
Just as Amy stated that she still had work to do to resolve her Twelve Step program, I knew my positivity plan would be ongoing. Dark feelings toward Amy’s treatment of me would flare up from time to time. And I still held on to fears and worries about my career choices, and Dad’s pressure, and other decisions I needed to make, and…well, you name it. One step at a time.
The positivity cultivated during this journey is just what is needed for modern readers. Margie’s progression is realistic, thought-provoking, and involves a vast reassessment of her life values and trajectory. These neatly play out against the backdrop of encounters with addicted people, evolving new friendships and support systems, and the big-city conundrums and attractions which work together to change her course.
The story isn’t just about change, however. It’s about how life transitions are navigated. The focus is exquisitely sharp, producing a novel of discovery and revised life choices that ultimately prove interesting, revealing, and thought-provoking.
Margie makes some difficult decisions, comes to candidly review her faults and options, and encourages readers to do the same as she grows. This approach produces a novel replete with “aha” moments that can lend readily to book club discussions.
Librarians and readers seeking novels steeped in New York City culture and down-home personalities will welcome their intersection in Navigating Her Next Chapter: A Retro Novel. It’s about navigating the process of getting to a new place physically, emotionally, and intellectually as much as the end result - which is what makes the story so appealing and easy to love.
Navigating Her Next Chapter: A Retro NovelReturn to Index
That Other Family
Lis Angus
Next Chapter
9784824150080
$15.99
Paperback/$24.49
Hardcover/$3.99 eBook
https://books2read.com/thatotherfamily
When librarian and mother Julie is confronted by a previously unknown half-sister, Frances Boyle, with the fact that her beloved deceased father had two families, at first she can’t accept the notion. He’s long dead and the idea that he led two lives feels wrong, despite Frances’s photographic evidence that indicates otherwise.
To further complicate an already-impossible situation, Frances warns Julie that their brother Dominic has no knowledge of this, and will seek vengeance if he find out. Vengeance on a dead man and his secret family? It doesn’t make sense, Julie thinks. To make matters worse, waters become murky over who is having the most issues accepting the reality of her father’s double life.
Lis Angus builds a powerful plot and unexpected confrontations between three siblings as events spiral into disasters, explosions, hired hit men, and alter egos.
The delight of this story lies in its questions. Who is good and who is evil? Who is the saving personality and who would destroy everyone?
Another plus to Angus’s approach is the shifting viewpoints (clarified neatly by chapter titles) that explore each family member’s perspective. These contrasts in experience go far to inject satisfying tension, strong character development, and clashing motivations for actions into a story that keeps moving between redemption and disaster.
The skepticism of authorities who investigate the house explosion and threats creates a realistic dance between possible motives and investigators who can’t quite believe the wild ride Julie and her family has taken:
“My husband told you who we think was likely responsible for the explosion.”
“Ah, yes. A family of American criminals who have it in for your family?” He raised his eyebrows, and a sardonic expression crossed his face.
I frowned and leaned forward. “I don’t think you took in the whole picture. This … didn’t my husband tell you—we’ve just learned that my father already had another family when he married my mother. And yes, his other wife’s family is involved in criminal enterprises in the U.S.”
Librarians looking for action-packed stories where a family’s division is carried to the extremes of reaction and dysfunction will relish how suspense integrates with psychological revelation in this delightful dance.
Filled with satisfying twists, clashing personalities, and shifting understanding as perspectives change, The Other Family is a heart stopping story of intrigue and action that juxtaposes nonstop confrontations with surprises many won’t see coming.
That Other FamilyReturn to Index
The Other Side of
the Coin
Ci Ci Soleil
Independently
Published
979-8-9850660-7-4
$20.99
https://beachreadsbooks.com/
"Everything led to everything else. How did she end up here?"
The Other Side of the Coin opens with a question and then delves into the life of Jane Donahue, an American in Paris who is honing both her French and her skills at navigating a vastly different culture.
Jane's unexpected opportunity to impress an Englishman thanks to fate and the efforts of French friend Claudine Bellarose results in a validation of Claudine's perception that "love is like the toss of a coin. Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes… eh." Jane wants someone to love her. And Paris and fate seem like the perfect dovetailing of opportunities and events to make that happen.
Jane appears to get her wish, but it arrives with a dose of unwelcome realizations about family history, influence, and dysfunction. These lead her to pull back unexpectedly from an opportunity for romance that she's wanted for much of her life: "So many pieces were falling into place about his family. They were so damn dysfunctional and finally she understood why. She pulled her hand out of his."
Despite the warning signs about those who enter her life with different baggage, Jane pursues her dream against all odds. She finds herself both lost and found in a series of challenging relationships that each offer and take away something different.
Nick, Giovanni, and the choices Jane makes between them and in her life result in not just the flip of a coin that decides her fate, but in another choice that drives her decisions in an unexpected direction.
Ci Ci Soleil is exceptional at outlining the paths of life goals for happiness and satisfaction that buffet Jane and those around her, changing their perceptions of goals, outcomes, and possibilities.
The psychological depth exhibited in The Other Side of the Coin is tempered by surprising intrigue and mystery that also permeates Jane's decisions and the outcome of her life goals and trajectory.
Nothing comes cheaply. Especially not love.
Libraries and readers who choose The Other Side of the Coin for its promise of international encounters and growth won't be disappointed. Jane's move from predictable to unpredictable realms in her relationships and life creates a compelling story. It will serve equally well as a beach read or a discussion point in book clubs and reader's circles devoted to women's lives and the influences on their decision-making processes.
The Other Side of the CoinReturn to Index
A Quiet Little Town
Dorothy Love
Leaning Oaks Press
979-8-9920162-2-2
$15.99
Paperback/$5.99 eBook
Website: www.dorothylovebooks.com
Ordering: www.amazon.com
A Quiet Little Town is a small-town mystery set in 1956 Texas that cultivates several viewpoints as events unfold: half from Hutch Joyner and the other from Ruth Harnett.
A range of characters is presented which embraces a diversity of heritage and perspectives. These include Sheriff Hutch Joyner, whose distant Native American ancestors handed down stories through the generations that challenge modern times even though “Blood memory lived in his soul and his bones,” and the murder of Sonny Guthrie that draws retired Texas Ranger Melvin Young from his staid fishing interests to a new case that returns him to the coveted limelight of a world he thought he’d left forever.
Ruth owns the town newspaper and is the mother of a young boy unwittingly caught up in the case, and her efforts to support Hutch as he investigates two murders offer satisfying contrasts in background and focus. Her decades-long friendship with Hutch and their shared concerns and values gives each support during their public and private struggles.
As Hutch and Young probe Sonny Guthrie’s death, they reveal the nuts and bolts of a life filled with controversy and methodical repression:
Before the mass deportation, he’d paid his ranch hands and his citrus pickers down in the valley less than the government required. When the men complained, he kept them in line with threats. He had a reputation for skipping out on his bills. Those who protested and tried to collect were invited to sue him. He could be charming. He could be crude and incredibly cruel. People were admitted to his circle on a whim, and dismissed just as easily, any perceived slight or any hint of disloyalty being the number one reason for exile.
There was plenty of motivation for murder, but when a man confesses, it turns out to be a situation that especially challenges Hutch, who strives to uphold the law against all odds while “fixing anything that goes wrong” in the small town as he pursues justice and reinforces the law.
As Dorothy Love reveals the personalities, influences, and attitudes of this quiet little town, readers gain thought-provoking insights about its makeup, family lives, and special interests as Hutch and Ruth increasingly move into danger and quiet needs translate into further intrigue.
Readers will especially appreciate how the 1950s atmosphere and small-town lives and special interests dovetail in unexpected ways, lending to bigger-picture thinking about small town life, big attitudes, and dangerous choices.
Librarians will want to acquire A Quiet Little Town for its outstanding mystery, combined with social inspections of a myriad of characters who find their quiet worlds challenged by noisy trouble. Hutch, Ruth, and others face unexpected deaths, questionable confessions, and new realizations that challenge their friendships and carefully built lives.
The riveting tension builds slowly and realistically, creating a compelling portrait of a quiet little town’s big secrets and the individuals who become committed to keeping them hidden.
A Quiet Little TownReturn to Index
The Soul’s
Reckoning
Shireen Anne
Jeejeebhoy
Independently
Published
978-1997847007
$2.99 eBook
Website: https://shireen.link
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G3DW3DH9
The Soul’s Reckoning is the second book in The Q'Zam'Ta Trilogy, and though it will attract fans of Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy’s introductory book, The Soul’s Awakening, newcomers receive a handy recap of events that allows them to enter this world backed by a review of its foundations.
The afterlife here is not an ending, but a new beginning filled with tests of faith, loyalty, and substance that lead Christians into new realms of possibility and belief.
Christian readers will find the story’s premise provocative and interesting, and will appreciate the plot’s immersive approach to protagonist Charlotte Elisabeth’s new focus as she finds her faith, relationships, and belief system tested in novel ways.
From her realization that she’s not dead, but alive, and is being transported by her “soul family” to an unknown world past the Earth-Heaven Interdimensional Expanse to the dangers facing her both on Earth and in Heaven, Charlotte finds her choices permeated with new approaches to faith. These test her ability to survive, adapt, and embrace basic concepts about God and the universe.
Interesting character interactions in this afterlife’s ethereal milieu keep readers thinking, with dialogue reinforcing the tasks Charlotte must undertake in order to maintain her momentum and build new relationships and purposes:
“God wants her to succeed. She needs to learn how to exist as an energy being. She needs to learn the concepts of spirits and ghosts and what she can do here and on Earth before she leaves for Earth.”
Those she encounters in this realm, such as a strange woman who helps her explore, also expand her concepts and mind in ways that encourage readers to consider their own boundaries and ability to break barriers to form new perceptions:
“You and I seeing the same thing, our nascent minds creating the same environment, it must mean we’re simpatico.”
Each encounter brings to the table another piece of realization about growth, faith, and experience. Each offers readers the opportunity to consider Christian concepts on a far different level in which fantasy and faith intermingle in surprising, revealing ways.
From how and why death doesn’t seem to be final to the purposes of Heaven School, new awakenings, and new possibilities, Charlotte’s journey reflects a blend of life review, reconciliation with the past, and an altered perspective of what the future could bring.
Christian readers will especially appreciate how The Soul’s Reckoning offers the opportunity for vivid discussions about the reckoning process and the growth that can stem from revised considerations of God’s unconditional love.
Librarians seeking Christian concepts embedded in fantasy adventure scenarios about the afterlife will find it easy to welcome The Soul’s Reckoning into their collections. Its many adjunct discussions of the nature of God, purpose, redemption, afterlife, and growth makes it not just compelling fictional reading, but perfect for group debate.
The Soul’s ReckoningReturn to Index
Black Meridian
Sean Patrick Sayers
Independently
Published
9798317827984
www.seanpatricksayers.com
Black Meridian: Piracy & Empire is a sweeping history of piracy and pirates that is highly recommended to any readers looking for epic, exciting reading filled with the facts of nonfiction and the passionate flavor of action-filled fiction.
Sean Patrick Sayers tackles four centuries of history in chronicling how pirates, rulers, criminals, and politics intersected on the high seas to result in worldwide struggles for dominance. He embeds this complex history with elements of drama and discovery that will lend to an appreciation of forces influencing all sides, employing language that is vivid in its descriptions of intersecting political ambition:
Ching Shih argued her case forcefully. She likely invoked the Emperor’s benevolence and the chance for his government to peacefully rid the seas of the pirate menace. She assured them that the pirates under her command would abide by the law henceforth, if given the chance to make an honest living. The Governor General, meanwhile, was under immense pressure to end the pirate war. Each day the blockade and the naval operations continued was a drain on the imperial treasury and a risk of further embarrassments. He had tens of thousands of pirates bottled up and desperate, if negotiations failed and the pirates fought to the death, the coast would bleed for months more, and victory was still not guaranteed. And if by some ill fate the pirates slipped the noose, the whole nightmare would begin again.
Especially notable are the passages where pirates and privateers are created from circumstance, ambition, and events that influence their development and choices:
Only a few years before, the man now known as Blackbeard had been just another sailor seeking fortune amid the gunpowder chaos of empire. Born in England, Bristol by some accounts, Teach went to sea as a young man, learning the mariner’s trade and the art of war in Queen Anne’s War. When that war ended in 1713, thousands of privateers were cast adrift with little more than their hunger and their guns. Teach was among them, a seasoned privateer without a cause, an Englishman far from home in a West Indies suddenly at peace. But peace was not a method in those waters. The merchants and governors called it piracy when these unemployed fighting men continued taking prizes for themselves.
From how alliances are built around the world to chronicles of significant naval battles, national coalitions, the myths and realities surrounding piracy and slave traders, and the methods and influences of notable pirates, the story offers many revealing insights that will educate even readers who come to the story with much pirate history under their belts:
In Blackbeard’s decision one can read the pirate’s pragmatism, he neither slaughtered the captives nor particularly saved them, they were simply not his concern except insofar as they affected his speed and profit.
Black Meridian: Piracy & Empire is very highly recommended to libraries interested in world history, individuals who like their histories steeped in a sense of people and influences, and even those who may hold little prior interest in piracy, but look for action-packed epic reading.
These audiences will find Black Meridian: Piracy & Empire a delightful standout, perfect for individual or book club pursuit and hard to put down.
Black MeridianReturn to Index
Chasing Success in
High Heels
Dr. Miral S. Mehta
Clever Fox
Publishing
978-93-6707-348-3
$19.99
Hardcover/$12.99
Paperback/$4.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Success-High-Heels-Fundamental/dp/9367073488
Chasing Success in High Heels: 12 Fundamental Rules Power, Influence, & Success for Women is highly recommended for ambitious women who would reach pinnacles of success with new skill sets and the empowerment gained by assuming a leadership role. It teaches the fundamentals of navigating that new role with integrity and individuality, encouraging women to adopt their own style and approach to transform the leadership role in ways only a woman could do.
These lessons dovetail nicely with a woman’s revised life expectations and originated with Dr. Miral S. Mehta’s own ambitions and experiences:
From tears and complaints and uncertain steps, to facing challenges with a belief in myself, no matter the outcome, I have come a long way. Each challenge has taught me invaluable lessons. Sometimes the victory was sweet, other times futile. Sometimes the failures felt bitter, other times pivotal. Every single rule in this book has come to my rescue at some point in time.
This translates to a practical guide that backs its ideology and philosophy with real-world encounters. Biographies of women honing their own remarkable journeys through political and business environments expand the dimension of experience and applications. They rest on concrete examples of achievement that often contrast male/female encounters, such as the life of Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first female prime minister:
As a mother, she is often asked about the tension between political life and motherhood, a question rarely ever posed to a man in the same position. However, her ability to transform this critique into an opportunity to illustrate the ability of women to balance both, is a sign of prudence and strategic thinking.
Contrasts between perceptions of males and females in roles and positions of power in all kinds of arenas are illustrated by capsule biographies of a wide range of women, such as tennis champion Serena Williams:
She was either too timid or too strong, too weak or too aggressive. She was either too ambitious or too unfit. From being labeled as “unprofessional” to being criticized for her muscular build and strength, to being questioned about her actual capabilities, her treatment by media was often derogatory when compared with male players in similar situations. She was also often reprehanded for her apparently “nonfeminine” physical features. Ignoring all of these damned reviews and opinions about herself, she cultivated and nourished her sense of confidence and stayed calm in the face of the storms. She may have been aggressive on the field and in the heat of the moment, but she kept her communication and public interaction professional and limited.
Each example reinforces a leadership role and rule, provides concrete information defining success and illustrating how the subject conquered many obstacles, and creates a portrait of courage, determination, and achievement. These transmit important lessons to female readers forging their own paths to success.
The result is more than a memoir or a study in how to be a leader. It’s a study in adaptation and proactive behaviors that will inspire readers to overcome personal and societal obstacles to success to reach for their own stars.
Libraries and readers seeking a thought-provoking, reality-cemented, inspirational book about women in positions of power will find Chasing Success in High Heels offers not just a formula for success, but the tangible examples of how to get there that will help them revise their own mindsets and lives to get a leg up in whatever endeavor they pursue.
Its invaluable insights are immersive and will especially lend well to women’s groups, business leadership, and general book club discussions.
Chasing Success in High HeelsReturn to Index
Civilization
Kevin Bohacz
Independently
Published
978-0-9791815-5-9
$18.99
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
kevinbohacz.com
Civilization weaves science fiction into a thriller that is engaging, surprising, and adds dashes of romance, mystery, and intrigue into its bigger-picture thinking. This creates a thought-provoking deep dive into the history of humanity and the roots of civilization, pairing an Indiana Jones-style staccato-action atmosphere with intellectually satisfying discourses about the past, present, and future of humanity.
So many subplots and issues coalesce here – transhumanism, ancient technology, artificial reincarnation, and classic clashes between good and evil forces – that readers may anticipation that Civilization will be a weighty read. However, despite all its thought-provoking moments, powerful characterization and swift action supplement its intellectual reflections to create utterly compelling dialogues and events that make the story impossible to put down.
At the heart of investigations is Dylan Smith, an archaeologist who stole an ancient artifact years earlier, going against the ethical and scientific constraints of his profession. Stealing a small gold ring from a dig was a snap. Maintaining control over it? That’s another matter.
As Dylan pursues the relic’s enigma, he wanders into uncharted territory but builds references to past precedents and events, from the monster that was his father (who may still be alive) to the politics of digs in other countries and the quandaries of discovery.
From changing relationships with Jenny, Nina, and other participants to an enigmatic Teacher who provokes Dylan’s vivid lucid dreaming and points out the path to reclaiming lost knowledge, Dylan’s journey takes many twists, but builds blossoming relationships with a number of individuals who influence his progression and choices.
Dylan’s growing abilities are tempered by his decisions on how to employ them in a variety of confrontations and situations:
What he lacked in confidence in perception warps was made up for in physical assurance. He was twice the size and weight of any of these punks. He wondered if he could warp their perceptions just enough so that they would think he was so big and dangerous that they would pee them‐ selves and run. He doubted it. Trying to warp the perceptions of a single receptor would not be easy. Trying to do it to so many receptors without going into a deep trance was pure foolishness.
Even physical battles are augmented by growing special forces that place Dylan in often uncomfortable, untenable positions. He confronts those who are unevolved, the Teacher who guides him in novel directions and his own professional drive for uncovering truths from the past.
Kevin Bohacz crafts a story rich in vivid descriptions that capture the extent of Dylan’s amazing journey:
Even with all the nanotech enhancements and lifetimes spent with avatar teachers in alternate realities, memories of his past lives were still a fragmented, knotted-up ball of rotting yarn that kept breaking as he tried to unravel it. When Dylan was a young prodigy with languages, he had sensed all this raw potential in himself that hungered to be developed. He now had those same feelings once more.
The result is a powerful sci-fi thriller that will appeal to an exceptionally wide audience on many levels, creating an exciting juxtaposition between intrigue, evolutionary growth and revised perceptions, and moral and ethical quandaries that accompany Dylan on his ever-widening probe of civilization, human roots, and human potential.
Libraries and readers that choose Civilization will find it thoroughly compelling. It’s packed with twists and turns they won’t see coming as well as “aha” moments of transformative discoveries on the part of Dylan and others around him.
Civilization’s ability to juxtapose seemingly diverse themes of artificial intelligence, symbiotic relationships, and what it means to be transhuman makes for a vivid story. It will especially lend to book club discussion and debates over creation, growth, and the influence and impact of evolutionary forces beyond human ken.
CivilizationReturn to Index
The Crucible
Principle
Jeremy Hess
Independently
Published
979-8273611474
$12.99
Paperback/$3.99 eBook
Website: www.leadwithjeremy.com
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/Crucible-Principle-Adversity-Purpose-Leadership/dp/B0G1KKT55L
The Crucible Principle: How Adversity Shapes Purpose, Leadership, and Legacy is about adversity, pressure, stepping up to leadership, and understanding the connections between challenge, angst, and growth.
The survey opens with an especially powerful, thought-provoking contention:
Pressure doesn’t break a leader. It reveals one.
The method of delivery used to reinforce this principle and its impact takes the form of a fictional fable in which Jackson receives unusual guidance on how to be a leader. He learns how to not just cope with the demands of guiding others, but realize how adversity shapes the strongest leadership responses. This assumes the form of lessons that Jackson absorbs as events unfold and insights develop:
“Leaders wrap themselves in what they do so tightly they forget who they are. We don’t do that here.”
Forced to consider the presence, impact, and outcome of control, fear, failure, shame, and distance, Jackson evolves a new series of responses to his role and responsibilities that resonates into life with newfound intentions and approaches.
Because these lessons are couched in an overlay of experience, they will prove far more accessible and inviting than the usual motivational self-help guidebook. They offer all kinds of leaders in all kinds of roles the chance to re-assess their own actions, intentions, and impact on the world.
The striking lessons that teacher Ronan imparts to Jackson will provoke much discussion and food for thought in all kinds of reading groups, from self-help to business and political audiences:
Father Ronan stood slowly and walked to the window, hands in his pockets. “You’re a fighter, Jackson. But right now, you’re losing a battle you don’t need to win.”
Jackson’s voice was low. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Ronan turned, his gaze steady. “It means the first rule of leading through a crucible is simple.”
He stepped closer. “Lead without needing to win.”
The Crucible Principle’s series of revelations are couched in one man’s journey. They will prove especially thought-provoking and inviting because their appearance in the form of guidance and lessons is less admonishing and more revealing.
Libraries and readers interested in motivational guidebooks will find The Crucible Principle contains far more impact and attraction than the usual motivational nonfiction book. Filled with passages that give pause for thought and accompanying group discussion, The Crucible Principle offers a powerful series of insights and lessons that can be applied under many conditions and incorporated into a plan for life attitude revision and better approaches to not just leadership, but human interactions.
The Crucible PrincipleReturn to Index
Feisty Deeds II:
Historical Tales of
Batches and Brews
Carolyn Korsmeyer,
et.al., Editors
Carolyn Korsmeyer,
Publisher
979-8-9912002-5-7
$3.99
eBook/$11.99 Paperback
https://buy.bookfunnel.com/hv51sg2w3u
Half (more or less) of the people confronting any memorable moment, be it a battle or a famine or the toppling of an empire, were female. That’s decades, centuries, eons of women experienced history not as some distant story but as life, the backdrop and the foreground for their every thought, word or action.
Feisty Deeds II: Historical Tales of Batches and Brews is the second book in the Feisty Deeds anthology to celebrate women. This story delves into the potions, brews, medicines and foods women concocted in the course of supporting families, their lives, and their objectives.
Lest readers think these tales will comprise some sort of cooking memoir, be advised that what’s being cooked up are connections to life, death, and survival. These shatter the notion that women of the past were less thinking, proactive, or empowered than those in modern times.
Take “Snowberry Season” by Ashley E. Sweeney, for example. Flora McTavish’s 1800s Oregon life is vivid as she struggles with loving another woman in an era where such love is not only forbidden, but unknown. How this connects with Scotland, faeries, forbidden unions, and clever plots makes for an engrossing tale of discovery, determination, and action that draws with personal revelation and cements with a sense of revenge and betrayal.
“Love Happily Ever After” by Patty W. Warren is set in North Carolina in 1969, offering a more contemporary view of women’s lives and mettle. Here, modern witches with love potions and Ada’s determination to help her fellow woman coalesce in a warm description of fabulous meals, wellsprings of happiness, and a lasting legacy one woman concocts out of her own life successes.
N.J. Mastro’s “Breadline” is set in 1939 Minnesota and captures the unwritten rules of being women during those times as the first-person narrator offers her younger protégée words of wisdom for survival:
“The first lesson is this: bread is like money during hard times like these.”
It turns out that bread is more than a food as the story builds an evocative structure that reflects on survival tactics, politics, and hunger.
Each story crafts a different place, time, and circumstances of feisty women interacting on levels that both drive and support their strengths as they make choices that impact their worlds. Each offers a sense of enchantment as these revelations transmit to readers different sensory perceptions of women who employ their powers and abilities in new directions. These embrace culinary and herbal wisdom in building the kinds of connections that make a difference in their worlds.
Librarians and readers seeking stories that are heartwarming, tender and purposeful, and evocative will find
Feisty Deeds II: Historical Tales of Batches and Brews provides diverse lessons in history and experience that are cemented by women’s experiences and approaches to life.
Touching in its personal lives, powerful in its diversity and scope, and satisfyingly thought-provoking for book clubs and reader group discussion, Feisty Deeds II: Historical Tales of Batches and Brews both supports the prior Feisty Deeds short story collection and stands alone as a compelling exploration of women’s experiences and perceptions as they reach for new inner strengths and transmit them into the world around them.
Feisty Deeds II: Historical Tales of Batches and BrewsReturn to Index
Little Edna's
War
Janet Bond Brill,
PhD
Amsterdam
Publishers
9789493418634
$19.95
Website: www.LittleEdnasWar.com
Ordering: https://amzn.to/4rqzKQ7
Who will tell our story? We will.
These words reflect the grit, determination, and survival stories of Holocaust survivors as they die out as a group. Their experiences would otherwise be lost to history were it not for the efforts of groups such as the USC Shoah Foundation, which is dedicated to acquiring and preserving these memories lest they be lost to time and shrouded from history.
Little Edna's War joins the Holocaust Survivor True Stories series of Amsterdam Publishers to outline the life of Edna Szurek who, at age seven, was smuggling food into the Warsaw Ghetto to help feed her family. Disguised as a Catholic girl, she participated in anti-Nazi efforts the youngest soldier in the Polish Home Army. She defied all odds for her own survival, and was even recognized and decorated by Pope Pius XII, who was unaware of her true identity as a Jewish child.
Five hours of Edna’s firsthand testimony was recorded and turned into this gripping, stark account of not just survival, but determined resistance. The account is written by her daughter-in-law, Dr. Janet Brill.
Edna’s story is a result of Brill’s meticulous weaving of fragments of Edna’s memory, what she heard in over thirty years of family gatherings, intimate conversations with her mother-in-law, and supplemental insights from her brother Yakov, who narrated his side of the story to the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum in Israel.
Another powerful note that sets this Holocaust survival story apart from others is its employment of the first-person, which allows readers to step into Edna’s thoughts, psyche, and the environment around her. This adds an intimate “you are here” feel that usually is presented in novels and not memoirs written by other than the subject. It allows readers to step into that world and understand not just resistance and survival efforts, but the cost of carefully orchestrating a life of lies in order to remain free and effective:
We recited our practiced narrative – born in Lublin, moved to Warsaw as small children, parents killed during a bombing raid, surviving on the streets through our performances. The story contained enough truth to be convincing, with key omissions to conceal our Jewish identity.
As Edna progresses through the days and times, readers join her hopes, dreams, and observations on how to remain covert in a dangerous world:
In past months, there had been several moments when we thought liberation was imminent, only to have our hopes dashed. The Germans would reinforce their positions, or the Soviets would halt their advance, and we would continue our shadow existence.
Little Edna's War preserves a sense of purpose, place, and the fine art of staying alive even as her family fractures and forces beyond their control dictate difficult choices:
I understood the desperation that drove such decisions. I had seen the corpses in the streets, watched children my age waste away until they resembled ancient, withered dolls rather than living beings. If there was any chance of improvement, any possibility of eventual escape from the ghetto’s slow death, how could Papa not pursue it?
Libraries and readers seeking immersive experiences about the Holocaust and what it means to live under Nazi rule will find Little Edna's War outstanding. It is heads and shoulders above many other Holocaust survival accounts with its attention to the daily details of survival and resistance, and in its powerful portrait of a young girl who does everything she must in order to not just survive, but thrive.
Little Edna's War is highly recommended as a “must have” for collections seeking firsthand accounts of Jewish people surviving under Holocaust conditions.
Little Edna's WarReturn to Index
Managing Mad Mast
Cells
Joy Schweizer
Greener Pastures
Books
978-3-9526273-0-3
$32.99
Hardcover/$26.99
Paperback/$9.99
eBook
Website:
www.
MCAS-book.com
Ordering: www.amazon.com
Managing Mad Mast Cells: A Practical Guide to Living with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) is not just an important guide, but is an essential read for anyone struggling with acute or chronic hives, allergies, and a body response which involves ongoing reactions to a host of environmental and food triggers.
As these sufferers likely know, there is little published about this condition that so many suffer from. Head to a library or bookstore and you’re likely to come up empty-handed. One reason why Managing Mad Mast Cells is and will become increasingly relevant to a wider audience is because, as chemical triggers and allergens in everyday food and environments increase, more and more are being forcibly introduced to new knowledge about what a mast cell is, how it reacts, and how heavily it can impact daily life and choices.
Those who face years of struggle just getting back to a place of relative health will appreciate knowing that just consulting Managing Mad Mast Cells provides a kick start to solutions that work, having been backed and tested by both medical research and Joy Schweizer’s own experiences. Recovery may no longer take years of trial-and-error thanks to this book.
Those who have experienced long-term allergies well know about their ongoing impact. Diagnosis of the allergens is half the battle; but addressing them is the other, often more difficult piece of the health equation. An understanding of what mast cells are, how they operate, and what happens when they flare up is one of the keys to maintaining health - thus the importance of this book.
As Schweizer states about her journey:
I hadn’t yet found anything on how I could learn to live with this disease, let alone how to heal it. I was hoping to find a book that would provide some real insight and a few clues on how to move forward, but it increasingly seemed that I’d have to find my own way.
This book can serve as a guidepost for those who want to know more than what mast cells do, how they can impact health, and the science behind them. The all-important tips on living with allergies and mast cell impacts are essential to better health and health management.
Most readers will find they perhaps aren’t as ill as Schweizer, with the wide-ranging symptoms she exhibited and the ongoing puzzles over how to identify and resolve them. Thus, the descriptions of all these symptoms and reactions won’t be a ‘one-size-fits-all’ situation for all mast cell sufferers, but provide pieces to the overall health puzzle to a wide audience.
Section 1 is the author’s memoir of her many health challenges and journey from doctor to doctor in search of answers; Section II focuses on understanding MCAS and its triggers (this is where the meat of the book’s science lives); and Section III, about managing a diagnosis, holds the nuts and bolts of how to live with these conditions. Section IV reviews daily survival tactics, while Section V covers one of the foundations and impacts of mast cell management: diet.
Readers who don’t have this condition but want to better understand its physical and emotional impact will also benefit from Schweizer’s self-analysis, “Becoming Hypersensitive,” which explores what it feels like to go through life with a mast cell condition.
Libraries and readers will, in short, find a treasure trove of personal, scientific, and medical details under one cover that demystifies the process of understanding mast cell issues. Given that little exists on library or home health shelves about this condition and its variances, Managing Mad Mast Cells will offer education, coping strategies, and hope to an exceptionally wide audience.
Managing Mad Mast CellsReturn to Index
The Naked Communist
W. Cleon Skousen
Izzard Ink
Publishing
978-1-64228-126-2
$34.95
Hardcover/$19.99
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
www.izzardink.com
The Naked Communist: Exposing Communism and Restoring Freedom is a treatise on Communism that goes beyond competing books that seek to define it or review its history. It redefines the presence and nature of Communism in action around the world.
This revised edition of a classic work considers the impact of Communist ideology in various ways, from its incarnation in Russia to its appearance in the United States - but of particular interest here are the insights about the covert manner in which Communism infiltrates societies. Those insights about how its ideology contrasts with others and how it is spread cast a thought-provoking light on how Communism conquers not just nations, but hearts.
The study is heavily footnoted with historical references, which will delight scholars that seek source materials and contentions backed by facts.
Political clashes and incidents between nations, questions designed to provoke reader consideration and group debates, and reviews of history which consider nuances of Communist history that readers may not draw from other books make The Naked Communist a standout:
While communist espionage channels were being perfected in the United States, similar subversive networks were being built throughout the world. Soon Stalin found the state secrets of all the major powers pouring in so fast that he was able to play the worldwide game of power politics like a professional gambler who sits at the poker table carefully planning his strategy as he reads the marked cards held by each of the other players.
The book not only redefines history with an analytical eye to exploring Communism’s rise and impact, but delves into the choices and events that either thwart or support Communism. The Naked Communist reviews not just national clashes, but social programs and approaches to social issues that illustrate how even democratic governments may unwittingly participate in advancing Communist ideals at home:
Distancing children from home values is the basic theme in many sociology experiments underway today. The policies underlying federally funded childcare programs and pre-schools perpetuate those themes of “it takes a village to raise a child.”
Students of history and economics will especially want to consult The Naked Communist, while high school to college teachers of political science courses should consider assigning the book as supplemental reading.
It would be a shame to acquire this book for a library or assign it to a class without using it for debates and discussions. In order to be fully gainfully employed as a tool for deeper understanding, The Naked Communist will benefit from the avid discussions that surely will emerge in history, book club, and political science reading groups.
This is why The Naked Communist is very highly recommended for libraries, readers, educators, and book clubs. Its ability to not just review the past, but spark discussions about Communism’s contemporary incarnation in modern times makes it a unique winner.
The Naked CommunistReturn to Index
Powerful Mind: 12
Simple Keys
Bill Harvey
The Human Effectiveness Institute,
Publisher
978-0-918538-23-9 $19.95
Paperback/$8.99 eBook
https://www.HumanEffectivenessInstitute.org/powerful-mind-12-simple-keys/
Powerful Mind: 12 Simple Keys is a guide to the kind of life-altering self-actualization and empowerment that is oftentimes associated with life-altering chemicals or sudden life changes. The difference, here, is that psychotherapy and self-examination marry in a survey that teaches readers how they can probe beneath the surface of ingrained habits, patterns, and assumptions about self and the world to enact these powerful transformations in a drug-free manner.
An introductory “owner’s manual for the mind” reviews states of consciousness, the processes involved in altering and/or reaching them, and bigger-picture thinking about how humanity arrived at its current state, before delving into the heart of matters: individual and social change.
Bill Harvey focuses on identifying higher mental powers that are possible for all, considering their presence, impact, and potential for transformation. If this sounds like lofty thinking, it should be clarified that, high-minded though these ideals may seem, they are infinitely achievable.
Harvey himself identified paths towards higher-level thinking in thirty years of study, work, and pursuit. Whereas his previous book, Mind Magic, covered much of this journey and thinking, those who have absorbed the prior introduction will find that Powerful Mind delves more deeply into why the techniques work.
Chapters that cover this journey are important not just for self-help readers (the typical audience for such a blend of philosophy, psychology, and account of change), but for those interested in enacting political or social change on a broader platform than individual encounters or experiences.
These readers will discover that Harvey outlines these paths towards bigger changes with an astute eye to defining why this book stands out from others:
What if we could tap into the power of our minds with greater reliability? Not just with pep talks or woo-woo but through logical and proven steps, using methods of learning, thinking, and understanding that have been solidly established by science, but have simply not been used by enough people enough of the time. If enough of us discover these methods and use them consistently, we can become more effective at collectively solving our real problems.
Harvey unfolds a blend of memoir, psychological and social examination, and road map to change through a combination of self-reflection that succeeds in injecting compelling visions of past, present, and future into the possibilities he crafts for not just choosing different paths, but understanding their foundations:
Thinking back to kindergarten and elementary school, I can see that the Status and Prestige motivation became essential to me. Power became vital because I grew up in pre-gentrification Brooklyn during a peak time of bullies, switchblades, and zip guns.
Especially intriguing are reflections on how “locked-in ideological dogmas” are connected to personal robotic reactions to life, self-enslavement perceptions, and the connections between Observer and other states of mind, and the routines that lead to altering consciousness in fruitful, purposeful ways.
Harvey is a master at creating observational lenses through which readers can consider the extent of their backgrounds, lives, ideals, and learning process. This will prove essential – as will his twelve tips for enacting change – to anyone considering assuming a more effective role in their lives and in the lives of others.
Librarians seeking a motivational book that goes beyond “self improvement” to tackle some bigger issues of social ripples of change will want to add Powerful Mind to their collections, highly recommending it not only as a tool for self-empowerment, but for social change as well. As such, it lends to group discussion and book club debate on many different levels and for a much wider audience than the usual discussion of empowerment strategies.
Perhaps this is because Powerful Mind isn’t just about improving oneself. It’s about improving the world around us.
Powerful Mind: 12 Simple KeysReturn to Index
Predators,
Reapers, and Deadlier
Creatures
Matthew James Jones
Double Dagger Books
978-1-998501-12-0
$14.99
Paperback/$6.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Predators-Reapers-Deadlier-Creatures-Matthew/dp/1998501124
It’s hard to neatly categorize Predators, Reapers, and Deadlier Creatures. Thriller? Magical realism? Military fiction? Call it all three, then take another step into cross-genre possibility, because the story is also powerfully thought-provoking and action-packed from its opening lines:
I’D BEEN IN AFGHANISTAN FOR THREE MONTHS when I saw the woman in the marketplace die.
In short order, drone operator and narrator Jones encounters a talking Bigfoot, finds himself caring (against his better nature) for Sahar, a teenager he’s tasked with monitoring, and faces the incongruities of a violence-wracked nation in which creatures struggle to survive military clashes and crises.
Sounds like a thriller? Matthew James Jones’ literary voice isn’t stilled by the task of depicting this environment. Indeed, its unexpected atmosphere is one of the novel’s strengths:
I could see men on the rooftops. Sittin’ on lawn chairs, gabbin’ into cell phones, long snakes o’ smoke charmed upwards by the stars. Seemed like each guy had a kitten on his lap or a dog beside him, same as home, but when I crept closer turns out they were rifles.
Readers will be enthralled by the surprising contrasts between violence and violent thinking and between decorum and fierce pathways:
“She wanted to futh, Jones—gave me all the signs.” [“futh” being a mispronunciation from a smashed mouth.]
“And she beat the shit out of you with her helmet, didn’t she? Then the female doctor and dentist refused to treat you, right?”
“They said we were in a war. That there were real soldiers to look after.” He wept harder. I saw into the wound that was his mouth; his teeth were broken shards. “She made me ugly.”
As tales of monsters, the Taliban, American soldiers, and those altered forever by war and adversity emerge, Jones crafts an emotionally charged, high-octane action piece that doesn’t just create a scenario, but hits readers with the two-by-four of ethical quandries:
Did the wheels of justice grind this miserable wretch, too? Halfheartedly.
The result is a gripping novel replete with supercharged imagery, heart-stopping insights that will provoke book club discussions, and tense moments as the fighting season ramps up.
Librarians and
readers seeking
exceptional literary quality, eye-popping moral and ethical
conundrums, and soul-searching moments of confrontation and
transformation will find all these elements and more in Predators,
Reapers, and Deadlier Creatures. Thriller?
Magical
realism? Military fiction? Just call it amazing.
Return to Index
Side Hustle
& Flow: The Daily
Grind
Cliff Beach
Please &
Funk You Publishing
ASIN: B0GDW12379
$5.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GDW12379?
Side Hustle & Flow: The Daily Grind: 365 Days to Shine is about juggling “passion projects” with full-time work that pays the bills. It offers daily motivationals for a year which readers can use to stay inspired and focused on a long-term goal despite the rigors of effectively working two jobs at once.
Each day takes a step towards realizing that dream, with Day 1’s “Start Before You’re Ready” pairing a motivational thought with a reflective exercise that workers can apply to that day’s effort:
Reflection: What’s one thing you’ve been waiting to start? Take one small step toward it today.
The admonitions and reflections change as the months progress, as in Day 138, “Stay Committed to Your Dreams,” which advises:
Your dreams require commitment. Stay dedicated, even when the path seems uncertain.
Reflection: What’s one action you can take today to stay committed to your dreams?
Each day offers a different reflection that encourages the worker/dreamer to keep advancing their “side hustle” project, tackling the nuances of success, defeat, and change that can derail a dream. One such example is represented in Day 228, “Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable”:
Growth happens when you step outside your comfort zone. Learn to get comfortable with discomfort.
Reflection: What’s one thing that makes you uncomfortable, but that would help you grow?
By now, it should be evident that Side Hustle & Flow: The Daily Grind offers more than a series of progressive encouragements. It requires of the reader a dedication to self-examination, change, and attitude adjustment in the process of honing in on one’s dream.
The advice can be applied to a wide range of projects, attitudes, efforts, and conundrums which arise during the process of balancing work life, offering a serious opportunity for self-advancement that requires only a willing, open mind to apply properly.
Librarians and readers interested in the nuts and bolts of not just realizing a dream, but adopting the kinds of habits and life approaches to make it possible will relish how Side Hustle & Flow: The Daily Grind creates opportunities for self-reflection and advancement that accepts the rigors of trying to balance a double work life while realizing one’s real dreams.
Filled with easy insights delivered on a daily basis, Side Hustle & Flow: The Daily Grind is the ultimate cheerleader for tackling work life’s daily challenges in a more productive, insightful manner. It is highly recommended to anyone interested in pursuing their dreams while paying the bills with non-inspirational jobs.
Side Hustle & Flow: The Daily GrindReturn to Index
At Least I’m Trying
Tara Hodgson
Independently
Published
978-1069617705
$18.95
Paperback/$4.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/At-Least-Trying-Tara-Hodgson/dp/1069617709
At Least I’m Trying is a teen novel about self-esteem that opens with unexpectedly mature reflections as Reese considers her past and future:
Every night, I fall into the memories that I spend all day trying to outrun. It’s like there’s a giant portal tying my bedroom to them and they hunt me down while I’m at my most vulnerable, abducting me against my will.
The stuff of nightmares stems from a reality that won’t let her go. This becomes all too real as her friendship with Cassie Brentwood leads her into relationships that prove deadly on many different levels.
Reese’s nightmares force her to confront what she’s desperately hiding from:
Through the dreams, I’m forced to not just remember, but to relive. And all I want to do is forget. But I can’t. I remember too much.
The prelude, set in Reese’s future, builds a foundation of intrigue and possibility for the story that unfolds in ‘Before’ to lead young adults on a strange journey of in-person and internet relationships.
More than a story of online dangers, however, At Least I’m Trying adds insights on self-esteem, accomplishment, co-dependency, and independence. These reflect realistic scenarios of infatuation, the repetition of dangerous patterns of thinking and choice, and deadly attractions which prove to be something other than head-over-heels love.
As her relationship with Willow (a friend with whom she was inseparable before everything changed) shifts, Reese reflects on interesting contrasts in her relationship choices that will involve teens reconsidering their own life choices and connections:
She knows me and understands me so well, it’s scary sometimes. I don’t feel like the broken one around her like I did with Willow, and she’d never understand that.
Especially poignant and powerful is the connection between romantic infatuation and compromise. This offers insights and lessons many an adult has yet to learn:
Even though I’m suddenly terrified of this guy and certain he can’t be trusted, I still love him. And whether I want to admit it or not, he holds a part of me that I can’t get back.
The result is a lesson in co-dependency, independence, and choice that is highly recommended for teens seeking stories that ultimately consider the foundations of choice and love.
While librarians will want to highly recommend At Least I’m Trying to leisure readers, ideally its important, immersive subject will lend to reading groups, classrooms, and book club discussions led by adults interested in exploring the fundamentals of healthy and dysfunctional relationships with teens.
At Least I’m TryingReturn to Index