January 2026 Review Issue
Fantasy & Sci Fi
Literature
Mystery & Thrillers
Hypocrisy Hypocrisy
is a sci-fi
thriller about deception, a trio of unlikely investigators, and an
experience that blends alien technology with a deeper consideration
of whether or not humanity is worth saving. More so than most books,
it doesn’t just cross genres, but breaks boundaries and forges new
territory to attract a wide audience, from readers of thrillers and
espionage sagas to sci-fi enthusiasts of near-future scenarios who
appreciate cat-and-mouse intrigue in their plots.
A.J. Thibault
Independently
Published
979-8268900415
$13.99
Paperback/$4.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Hypocrisy-J-Thibault/dp/B0FV94VYP7
The story opens in the first person with counterintelligence agent Ché Anaconda discussing the “big lie” that dominates his world, and how it evolved. The truth involves individuals with remarkable, seemingly magical powers, a portal, and the realization that those in power who have buried knowledge and an impossible truth can no longer keep the lid on the presence of ultradimensional beings.
This is a world of directed energy weaponry, laundry robots, and futuristic daily life that has managed to evade some important revelations and truths. Much like our own, this future scenario is managed by those who have a vested interest in lies. Their motivations are elusive and important as the truth unfolds.
Scientist Alen Innocent takes center stage as his world dissolves. His intimate impression of what unfolds before him in various ways is transmitted through reflections vividly attached to emotional response:
It was haunting. Beautiful. Terrifying.
This keeps readers thoroughly engaged in not just events and conundrums, but atmospheric and cultural impacts as Alen navigates strange new worlds and relationships changed by his sudden appearance and newfound knowledge:
“I need to take her back home.”
“Home. Where exactly is that Alen?” Charisma asked, her voice low and sharp. “Where is home now? You vanish for sixteen years. No calls. No email. Call yourself her uncle and guardian, and now you think you can just waltz in and whisk her away?”
“She can’t stay here,” Alen said. “It’s too dangerous. For her. For you. For everyone.”
As issues of humanity’s amnesia, denial, and motivations emerge, readers will appreciate reviewing new interpretations of humanity’s origins and future through Alen and CIA asset Charisma’s eyes as they struggle to effect change and find places for themselves in a dangerous new environment.
A.J. Thibault blends futuristic sci-fi and intrigue so delightfully that readers of either genre will be drawn into a thoroughly unpredictable plot. Hypocrisy simmers with tension, unexpected confrontations, and new realizations that add satisfying twists just when an outcome seems inevitable.
Librarians and readers seeking crossover blends of thriller and sci-fi which do an extraordinarily good job of incorporating elements of both genres will delight in Hypocrisy’s ability to dovetail all this with bigger-picture thinking about social denial and humanity’s future choices. What is real and what is illusion? The truth sometimes evades even the most astute investigator. The result is a story hard to put down or predict - thoroughly engrossing.
HypocrisyReturn to Index
Outbound: Meta Mars
Richard M. Anderson
Precocity Press
979-8992055290
$54.95
Hardcover/$19.95 Paperback
Website:
www.richardandersonauthor.com
Ordering:
www.amazon.com/Outbound-Meta-Mars-Richard-Anderson/dp/B0FWZH3MZY/
Outbound: Meta Mars is the second book in the Outbound series and opens in 2260, as Dr. Virgil Greenly and his sentient implant, Ofelia, arrive on Mars to oversee a massive program to terraform and transform its habitat. Characters from the first book, Islands in the Void, return to highlight this story, making it particularly inviting for prior fans interested in more space colonization action and adventure.
From the start, Dr. Greenly faces new challenges in not just overseeing a massive project, but in addressing the physical and mental requirements involved in adapting human needs to a taxing environment.
Ofelia watches over and protects Dr. Greenly (sometimes from himself) as artificial intelligence and human ambition coalesce, with sometimes-different purposes and perceptions of success and failure.
Readers who appreciate themes of AI and robotic interactions in their futuristic stories will find especially compelling the manners in which human activities and decisions are augmented and affected by their own creations.
Also intriguing is how young son Lucien asks important questions about machine purposes and possibilities, introducing new thoughts to Dr. Greenly as he answers his son’s questions about what it ultimately means to be either human or robot.
These inspections create interesting dichotomies and contrasts in ability and action as the story unfolds to consider bad decisions based on good rationales, small crimes with big impacts, and ultimately, what it means to be human.
From aims of perfection to different forms of intelligence and the impact of poorly kept secrets, Outbound: Meta Mars represents more than a sci-fi adventure about Mars, robots, or intelligence. It considers the ambitions and logic of what it means to be human and complacent in a conspiracy that grows to embrace all of Mars.
Librarians and readers interested in a story that embraces philosophical and social reflection, as well as introducing intrigue and new possibilities for human life on Mars, will welcome this second book in a thought-provoking series examining technology, new possibilities, and the human condition.
Outbound: Meta MarsReturn to Index
Spark In the
Underground City
T.L. Shane
Independently
Published
979-8-9929402-2-0
$2.99 ebook
Website: www.tlshane.com
Ordering:
https://amazon.com/dp/B0G229NLRS
Spark In the Underground City is a dystopian sci-fi story centered around humanoid sexbot and human interactions.
Sexbots are active participants in this future world, but a vintage model like Alaska, with her vivid Mohawk and nine-foot stature, stands out too much. Narrator Drill found Alaska in a tech-industrial trash heap and restored her, adding protective weaponry to make her a lethal killing machine as well as his companion.
An encounter with thugs wouldn’t seem to be a humorous thing, but under T.L. Shane’s hand, it becomes one as Alaska uses sexual lures to attract and confront their would-be attackers.
The first note is that graphic sexual scenes (of the uncommon kind) may offend sensitive readers. An addendum to this note is that while the story involves sexbots and sexuality, shock is not its only thread of attraction.
As the two encounter Spark, who is selling a non-flying jet bike, the three join in an adventure that involves humans who are not what they seem, sexbots who have the capacity for proactive, dangerous thinking, and Mian and his sister, who try to help Spark rescue her brother Bee.
A sense of camaraderie and purpose grows between sexbot and humans as a mission embraces them all, warps their purpose, and enfolds them in a blend of sexual and emotional connection that lends vibrancy and surprise to this semi-dark dystopian future.
Shane creates a fast-paced adventure in which confrontation and sex run hand in hand. The arrival of a host of supporting characters, from Bikey to Freedom, Bee, and Bang, creates an adventure which reaches out to draw together seemingly disparate individuals and interests.
The shifting perspectives of Drill and Spark are represented by names that open each chapter, making it easy for readers to quickly identify the central narrator for that segment of the story.
The result is a warm, embracing, sexually charged tale of new connections and revelations which comes immersed in emotional moments:
“I can feel that you’re anticipating a profound change. You’re leaving this underground world for your home, but you’re a different person now. Things that were once familiar won’t mean the same thing to you anymore. You’re wondering how our relationship will change.”
Libraries might use caution when recommending this sci-fi adventure because of the graphic sexual encounters sprinkled within, but ultimately Spark In the Underground City is a thoroughly engrossing tale of group dynamics and developments which translate not just to survival tactics, but building new connections, whether between human or bot.
This creative,
vivid, unexpected
story is packed with action and twists readers won’t see coming.
It’s a spark of light in the wealth of sci-fi writing that lends
high drama and interest to the urban dystopian future.
Return to Index
The
Artificial
Elephant
Eric J. Hull
Independently
Published
979-8-9932356-0-8
$4.99 (eBook),
$15.99 (trade
paperback)
www.erichull.com
The Artificial Elephant - Stories of Loss, Magic, and Hope collects stories of magic and struggle that excel in presenting diverse scenarios of the unexpected.
Take the opening story, “Deep Enough.” Here Sarah has fought off a predator that is destined to regenerate when daylight arrives. Eric J. Hull’s description of this dark realization and encounter embraces thought-provoking insights:
She stared at him, her head and heart aching. A hollow masculine echo, wooden form breathed with not-life and twisted into the shape of her desire. Was she so lonely then, out here with only her daughters and her craft, that she would risk it all? For this? For the company of a homunculus, grown from mandrake and witchweed? Clearly, she had been that lonely, that stupid.
As element of grief, rage, survival tactics, and dark magic move through Sarah’s encounter and choices, readers are treated to a powerful juxtaposition between the dark side of magic and good intentions.
Can demon spirits be changed for the better? Sarah attempts to find out, and as readers follow her into the rabbit hole of difficult choices, issues of pride, power, and consequence emerge in an inviting consideration of mixed-up feelings and a surprising triumph.
Compare this with “Duet.” Here, Sarah lives in a world that ice has covered, separating her from love and forcing her to revisit a frozen lake in hopes that life will somehow be different.
Dances begin and dances end.
As she finds unexpected ways to survive, a new safe haven emerges from the darkness.
These stories contrast with others such as “Gleaners” by C.M. Stultz and Eric J. Hull, which offers different viewpoints and perspectives.
The result is a commanding dance between survival tactics, revelations, magical realism, and shifting emotional and physical seasons and worldviews.
Libraries and readers seeking short stories filled with magic and life adaptations will love this intersection between fantasy and psychological realms. It sizzles with insight and survival tactics – perfect reading for modern times.
The Artificial ElephantReturn to Index
Bad Americans:
Part II
Tejas Desai
The New Wei, LLC
978-1-7347278-6-9
$19.99
http://tejas-desai.com
Bad Americans: Part II, the second in a two-part anthology novel of stories and the third volume of the Human Tragedy series, returns to the scene of the summer of 2020 when the Covid pandemic raged and a reclusive billionaire calls twelve diverse people to his mansion, each tasked with telling one story per night. This second volume presents the next six of these tales as, by the end of the first collection, six nights have passed.
The setting of Bad Americans: Part II is reminiscent of the Middle Eastern classic the One Thousand and One Nights, albeit with a contemporary twist on storytelling. It depicts a human experience that centers around a shut-in situation and the despair and diversity of individuals placed in impossible situations in more ways than one.
Love, secrets, and mishaps permeate experiences which open with Lisa, who struggles with issues of individual and group failure, revenge, justice, and the aftermath of an assault.
Khassan, the latest chosen storyteller despite Lisa’s perception of all the storms he has created within the group, enters the fray with controversy as group dynamics among animals and humans are contemplated and the group divides over various conflicts and issues.
Ideally, readers will have prior familiarity with Bad Americans: Part I, because these books evolve in lockstep, building upon a foundation of relationships, social inspections, and currents of understanding between characters. They expand here to explore new territory as the characters and their stories change.
Each story is wildly diverse, from reformed prostitutes and killers of women to tales that trigger listeners and participants in various ways. These microcosms of humanity pose threats to one another in different ways, reinforced by the stories which emerge from their experiences, attractions, and the sordid lives of a struggling humanity.
While each story links to the other, its storyteller, and the group in a different way, it also reflects aspects of the human condition pre-Covid that lead to greater understanding of the psychological trials endured by those locked down in more than one way.
Tejas Desai’s contemporary masterpiece of social inspection and literary achievement is highly recommended for readers of the prior volume, and for libraries looking for exceptional collections of short experiences that encourage book club or group discussion. Poems are injected into the dialogue and stories to add interesting contrasts.
Each character’s story, life, and their perspective dovetails nicely with the rich events and past experience that has influenced how they came to be in this mansion today. Each tale provides a jumping-off point for greater reflections on the human condition and choices that drive struggle, change, and adaptation. These include reflections that the stories may be taking the form of real life in unexpected ways:
She hoped reality wouldn’t mirror her story, but she wasn’t sure. Was it inevitable?
Suitable for group discussion, library acquisition, and prompting discourses on social issues, Bad Americans: Part II is a strong study in violence, redemption, and repression that lingers in the mind long after the stories unfold.
Bad Americans: Part IIReturn to Index
Lotus in the Tide:
Prose and
Poems
Karan Kapoor
Hawakal Publishers Private
Limited
978-93-49541-62-7 $15.99
Website:
https://karankapoorauthor.com
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FN3BHZ2D
Lotus in the Tide: Prose and Poems is a minimalist gathering of poems and prose that entreats readers to bask in the ebb and flow of life and philosophical inspection. Karan Kapoor creates an internal and external dialogue through queries that consider the impact of “hollow pursuits” (“They fill their lives with illusions until phantasm/and substance intertwine,/Surrounded by plenty, yet starving for meaning.”) and connections to earth and life.
The works move between succinct prose observation and poetry that reads with the impact and brevity of haiku, yet delivers the one-two punch of quiet understanding often seen in Zen philosophy and meditative styles of poetic contemplation.
Many of these writings move from personal to philosophical and spiritual reflection. One example is “Infinity’s Gaze,” in which Kapoor contemplates, “As I stare into a grain of sand, infinity stares back. Am I the infinite, or just a grain of sand?”
As the poems consider constraints, patterns of joy which emerge against the “burden of being,” and a sense of self in the greater landscape of a big universe, they lead readers to a special form of contemplation and understanding that is supported by the writing’s minimalist structure.
Nature, science, and belief entwine in these works, which are written not by an Eastern thinker, as many would assume, but by a Boston biophysicist and poet whose work hold the uncanny and uncommon ability to bridge the rigid discipline of science with the flexibility and emotion of spiritual and psychological reflection.
These elements contribute to a collection especially highly recommended to libraries and readers interested in contemplative literary works that challenge mind and heart with the least amount of verbiage.
Lotus in the Tide: Prose and PoemsReturn to Index
Playgrounds
& Battlegrounds: 4
Novellas
Robert Scott Leyse
ShatterColors Press
978-0982171080
$15.95
Website:
https://robertscottleyse.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Playgrounds-Battlegrounds-Robert-Scott-Leyse/dp/0982171080
Playgrounds & Battlegrounds: 4 Novellas appears, along with a bonus story (“Why Waste English Setters on Dog Shows?”), to present urban adventure and unrest that evolve on disparate playing fields. Characters facing altered situations based on seemingly simple decisions or reactions come to life in these inspections of place, circumstance, and action.
Take the first novella, “Nighttime Euphoria and the Field of Reeds, or One Can Get Away with What One Dares.” Here, law-abiding homeowner and working citizen Perry is out on the town in late July in Manhattan, intent on having the time of his life with new friend Akila. They’re building a sense of adventure together, when his wild evening out turns into a series of reflections on love and danger.
Dialogues between the two embrace visions, dreams, and different forms of frolic in New York as sexually charged experiences move into workplace efforts where the protagonist “has no intention of sacrificing freedom on the altar of promotion.”
Contrast this escapade with the second novella, “Playgrounds & Battlegrounds,” in which Steve wanders the streets of Manhattan at night after a Puerto Rican adventure, searching for something similarly invigorating. He’s enamored of the contrast between these vastly different worlds:
Manhattan’s streets juxtaposed with the sea and tropics—Puerto Rico’s uncaring calm giving way to wariness, stress, strife.
Each novella captures a moment in time where life shifts, contrasting New York with Puerto Rico, work and play, love and death, and new possibilities that emerge from adventures domestic and foreign. Each builds contrast and interest upon a foundation of experience which leads Steve, Perry, and others around them into shenanigans and realizations involving the ad industry, life, and risky connections.
The novellas are replete with social and psychological inspections that will especially attract and interest readers interested in thought-provoking considerations of responsibility, social expectation, and living life to its fullest - crazy or not.
The result is a collection that librarians interested in literary works of social contrast will find especially easy to highly recommend to novella readers interested in stories about identity and risk.
Filled with enlightening and fiery moments of contemplation and discovery, Playgrounds & Battlegrounds demonstrates how thin the line is between work, play, and revolutionary life changes – and how characters who dance between these worlds wind up in circumstances that alter their life trajectories.
Playgrounds & Battlegrounds: 4 NovellasReturn to Index
Boxes
from the
Attic—An
Immigrant’s Story
Miriam Kurtzig
Freedman with Susan
Wolfe
Independently
Published
979-8-987-7206-0-8
$36.95
Hardcover/$17.94
paperback/$9.95 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/Attic-Immigrants-Miriam-Kurtzig-Freedman/dp/B0DFM7J2KL
Boxes from the Attic—An Immigrant’s Story is told by a daughter raised in a comfortable Holland family who moves to Palestine and a life of adventure. She marries, but as World War II brings conflict to the region, Thea is widowed and driven to escape war-torn Europe to bring her children to the safety of America.
The letters, journals, and writings Thea made in the course of her life form the backbone for a powerful, realistic saga that moves from a comfortable life in Holland to an immigrant’s experiences and struggles to find a new home.
Jewish history and culture come to life in the course of this family’s journey. Footnoted references will satisfy more scholarly readers interested in clarifications and additional information that support the journal entries and family experiences, but the general-interest reader will find that these do not interrupt the smooth flow of the narrative.
Of special note are numerous illustrations – old photos, want ads, pictures of buildings and people featured in the story – that bring Thea’s world to life.
Gentle acknowledgements of Thea’s times and their differences in comparison to modern women also permeate her story:
Thea was of the generation that believed a woman was not complete without a man.
Another note is how many of this story’s reflections about the interactions between Jewish and other cultures pose food for thought for modern times:
I believe that Abba knew instinctively that the future of Israel would be filled with conflict, though my mother never explained this to me. She didn’t need to. Several facts were obvious to me. For example, at the risk of being naïve, there’s what may be viewed as a minor matter—but which I see as major—language. What if we children had been taught Arabic as our second language in elementary school from the very beginning? As I see it—and I’m guessing as Abba saw it—if you want peace with your neighbors inside the country and across its borders—let’s not forget that Israel sits in the middle of the Arab world—as a first step, you must learn your neighbor’s language. Otherwise, how can you possibly understand each other?
The result is a memoir that becomes more than one individual’s life and times, but holds important messages for present and future generations.
Librarians and readers will find it easy to absorb these insights as they are presented within the confines of one woman’s well-lived life.
Boxes from the Attic—An Immigrant’s StoryReturn to Index
Lost Founder Finds
Herself
Harriet Rossetto
AuthorHouse
979-8823051606
$16.99
Paperback/$3.99 eBook
https://authorwebservices-gem2.net/AuthorHouse/868176/
Lost Founder Finds Herself is the memoir of a woman who became known as a Jewish savior of souls and lived through several rejuvenating processes as she continually reinvented herself, confronted her fears, and unexpectedly became a beacon of hope for those around her.
Harriet Rossetto’s memoir stands out from the start, embedding a stark self-assessment into its opening lines:
For a person like me, diagnosed in Social Work School with unresolved adolescent authority conflicts, whose psychological survival is dependent on a sense of terminal uniqueness, Del Webb Sun City, when I first moved here, was hell... We used to refer to this leisure world as a seizure world. It took me almost half my life to find myself, and now I felt lost again, wandering in the desert. How did I become a cliché? Living in a community of over fifty-five year olds.
This immersive,
personal reflective
tone continues throughout the book as Rossetto considers evolving
relationships and their influence, assesses her life goals and
strengths, and involves her readers in new choices that direct her
life work and paths:
Would we be able to balance and borrow each other's energy, or would we fall into the blame trap, our differences becoming right, wrong. Worse? Why is it so difficult for humans to accept differences? Why do we compare and compete so compulsively?
Especially intriguing are the inspections of core life values and how these are developed and fine-tuned. At each juncture of her life and growth, Rossetto shares the motivations and changes she experiences with family, friends, and others.
The special nature of these inspections is revealed via a confiding, analytical tone that will not only resonate with her readers, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, but offers all readers important opportunities to incorporate such dialogues into their own encounters and experiences:
I heard those words as a passive-aggressive condemnation of me for not finding my fulfillment in her. But maybe she was just revealing herself to me, and I heard judgment. I think there's an unusual auditory system between mothers and daughters, a high-pitched alert waiting to be hurt.
Lost Founder Finds Herself is the kind of memoir that inspects life changes with an eye to better understanding the forces that cumulatively result in a sense of wholeness, harmony, and positive impact in the world. It inspires through example, often considering some of the ways people not only connect, but inadvertently disconnect from others.
Lost Founder Finds Herself is not the usual quick-read memoir, but a life inspection that deserves slow, methodical consideration that, ideally, encourage family or group discussions. Thus, it lends particularly well to book clubs interested in Jewish memoirs in general and inspections of life-changing decisions that can lead to becoming a force in one’s world even if this goal was not originally envisioned.
Libraries and readers that choose Lost Founder Finds Herself should be prepared for a story of “piercing wisdom” that takes the Jewish social and spiritual experience a step further in examining the passion and purpose a life well lived:
Harnessing the power of our shadow in service of the good. Accepting brokenness as an integral part of life. Understanding opposites doesn’t negate; they need one another. Faith and reason, science and spirit are complementary, not adversarial. The paradigm shift from either/or to both/and is the secret to emotional and spiritual sobriety.
All these features place Lost Founder Finds Herself in a special category that makes it a highly recommended read for Jewish, philosophy, and life-inspecting enthusiasts alike.
Lost Founder Finds HerselfReturn to Index
With You in the
Moment
Marcus Batterbury
Atmosphere Press
979-8891329225
$30.99
Hardcover/$17.99
Paperback/$8.99 eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
With You in the Moment is a family memoir about dementia and God that offers spiritual readers a soul-satisfying delve into not just loss, but the new relationships and discoveries that emerge for one family. Can a family not just survive, but actually live well with dementia? Marcus Batterbury shows how.
His memoir begins with a family moment at the airport. Events feel straightforward until his confession, as they drive away:
You see, many of the details that are being described didn’t actually take place. Other than the fact that we had visitors from overseas, the circumstances, the specifics, and the surprise that both my dad and I are validating in our conversation with Mum are not true. The fact is, at the time of this journey, in September 2006, my mum is in the early stages of dementia, and to be more specific, most likely Alzheimer’s disease.
What seems to be a typical encounter turns out to be somewhat extraordinary as the process of not just living in the moment, but participating in the moments of potential confusion that dementia brings, dictates the course of shifting family relationships.
From new landscapes and journeys to shared experiences that bring delight to everyday life, Batterbury explores the routines, adaptations, and insights that dementia brings to his family with an eye to showing how life can still be well-lived despite a devastating diagnosis.
Insights about how his mother copes also permeate the broader spectrum of family experience:
Mum is feeling positive about this holiday because the excitement of seeing these cherished friends far outweighs any concerns she may have about where we will stay, what we shall eat, etc. She knows she is in safe and riskfree hands with us, but I’m pretty sure that when the departure date draws closer, she will become preoccupied with the details and perceived risks.
From “nuggets of fun” to the challenging process of valuing and living in the moment, With You in the Moment is recommended not just for those struggling over a dementia diagnosis, but for general readers who would better understand how to get the most out of each day.
Librarians seeking ultimately uplifting memoirs that embrace the dementia experience and diagnosis while pointing towards better ways of interacting will find With You in the Moment is just the blueprint for positivity and adjusted values in a situation most commonly defined by loss, grief, and helplessness.
Readers won’t expect the sense of empowerment that is transmitted by these lives and touchstones of change – but it’s vivid, and is an important part of what makes With You in the Moment special.
With You in the MomentReturn to Index
Deadly Gold
Rush
Landis Wade
Lystra Books
979-8-9921363-5-7
$18.95
Paperback/$5.99 eBook
Price Paperback:
$18.95
Website: www.landiswade.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FTNX22GY
Deadly Gold Rush, An Indie Retirement Mystery depicts a wild ride through Charlotte’s gold rush history, but opens with a murder and odd phone instructions on how to dispose of a body. This sets the stage for the second chapter, which opens with lawyer Craig Travail’s receipt of an odd email message threatening his friends.
It’s the anniversary of three years since he lost his love Rachel, and despite filling his days with the crimes, court cases, and historic mysteries Harriet, Yeager, and he have navigated since he arrived at the Indie, Travail feels empty. Perhaps the latest conundrum will provide more connections for him. The email threatening his loved ones pulls him from his grief to enter a new mystery in which old threats and new situations coalesce to provide yet another intriguing scenario.
Landis Wade takes North Carolina history and uses it as a powerful backdrop for present-day discovery as Craig navigates new worlds, from murder to making landscaping choices for his new residence.
Yeager, Harriet, and Craig join forces in a brutal examination of their homes, community, and the forces that lead to murder as forged coins, court proceedings, and the future of the Independence Retirement Community introduce new challenges to life.
The promise of treasure that emerges, and then vanishes, blends with the promise of redemption and healing that does the same as three disparate sleuths find their futures entwined with the past in their deadly search for truth and justice. As possible appraisal fraud and other accusations emerge from the fray, readers receive a cat-and-mouse game of special interests and dangerous decisions that keeps the action swift, the characters realistic, and the tension ever-rising.
Libraries and readers seeking a blend of legal thriller and historical murder mystery delivered with a firm sense of a North Carolina community and people whose lives teeter on the edge of vast changes will find Deadly Gold Rush a compelling story that keeps readers guessing to the end.
Filled with unexpected twists and challenges of heart, ethics, and soul, Deadly Gold Rush is a satisfyingly complex entwining of events and personalities that proves hard to put down.
Deadly Gold RushReturn to Index
First Descent
Mike Pace
Foundations Book
Publishing
978-1-64583-155-6
$5.99 eBook
www.FoundationsBooks.net
First Descent heats up from the start as father Virgil risks a future with his eleven-year-old son to pursue a dangerous discovery in the Canadian Arctic. The guide who has some knowledge of what he is getting into has insisted Virgil walk through a blistery storm to find answers. Instead, he walks into fate.
Billed as a “contemporary fantasy holiday adventure,” First Descent is a thriller of executive status that explores father/son relationships, Siberia, an old, secret formula that could threaten Christmas, and an ancient revelation.
The injection of a touch of fantasy into this adventure gives just the right balance to a story reminiscent of Indiana Jones, but with a thriller’s edgy political connections that keep the discovery and its major characters realistic and intriguing.
All the elements are present for an engaging read, from Nick’s romance with Anna, who is still married and living in a castle, to mysterious fissures that open and close, expelling red curtains of light.
Diamond caves, stories of Saint Christmas, sleighs and gifts, and valuable red diamonds that represent Christmas in an unusual way contributes to a fast-paced, thoroughly unpredictable thriller made all the more compelling for its injection of fantasy.
Thriller readers will find First Descent hard to put down. It’s packed with satisfying twists, characters whose interactions are sometimes mercurial and intriguing, and situations that depart from the usual predictable outcomes that many thriller sport to delve into situations most readers won’t see coming.
Libraries and readers seeking an unusual form of holiday entertainment that is the first book in a trilogy (the Crevasse Trilogy), and the first that should be chosen for holiday entertainment, will find First Descent a creative winner. Its unique classic Santa who emerges from Coke ads to become a central figure makes the tale delightfully accessible to adults rather than kids who are the usual recipients of Santa tales.
First DescentReturn to Index
Imminent Risk
S. Lee Manning
Misbehavin’ Press
978-1-970286-00-7
$19.99
Paperback/$5.99 eBook
Website:
https://www.sleemanning.com/
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Imminent-Risk-Petrov-Feinstein-Thriller-ebook/dp/B0G5N1DTH1
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When lawyer Alex receives a phone call from sobbing friend Yael McMillen, who informs her that the police have taken away her baby, she never expected to be drawn into a deadly drama where a husband’s friend’s overdose involves far more than a bad drug choice. Imminent Risk is a thriller that evolves on different levels to propel Alex and her readers into a milieu in which people abuse power, hurt children, and divide families.
Father Brody McMillan is helping Victor Forest fly under the radar, so it’s a bad time for him to contemplate returning home to help his wife.
American intelligence operative Kolya Petrov becomes immersed in his wife-to-be Alex’s new effort and this personal mess from the start, even though he’s still recovering from the physical and psychological injuries of torture on a previous assignment.
As domestic terrorism again rises to complicate matters, readers are treated to a story packed with emotional connections, characters whose special interests entwine in unexpected ways, and new risk-taking ventures. Alex, knowing full well that Forest is dangerous, stumbles into plots and plans that leads Koyla into increasingly dangerous realizations. A conversation between Kolya and his best friend/partner Jonathan, when Kolya finds out that the American government was stupid and careless in planting dangerous weapons in civilian areas and forgetting about it, brings this milieu to life:
"You knew that Forest was dangerous. You knew that he and Brody were planning attacks. What difference does it make that you know about the bunkers?"
"The difference is knowing the level of crazy. The difference is knowing that the government for which I work and on whose orders I have repeatedly risked my life, stashed dangerous weapons around the country, even though they could and would kill multitudes of Americans if anyone ever used them. Then after massive negligence, which is what I'd call this, the President sends us out to clean up the mess while ordering you to lie to us.”
As Yael’s dilemma threatens Alex and Koyla’s life, readers will come to appreciate how S. Lee Manning builds a powerful cat-and-mouse game into her evolving story of friendships, relationships, and discoveries about who is really pulling the strings in life.
Librarians seeking a powerful addition with this fourth book to the thriller series, especially those who have seen popularity in the other books about Kolya Petrov’s escapades and terrorism encounters, will relish how smoothly Imminent Risk both supports past stories and evolves a new conundrum that place Alex, Yael, and Kolya in difficult positions.<
Filled with engrossing moments of realization and surprising twists, Imminent Risk is a gripping thriller that proves hard to put down.
Imminent RiskReturn to Index
In the Wrath
of
Legends
David Buzan
Black Rose Writing
978-1-68513-719-9
$24.95
Hardcover/$18.95
Paperback/$5.99 eBook
Website: www.davidbuzan.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Wrath-Legends-David-Buzan/dp/1685137199?s=books
In the Wrath of Legends is Book 2 in The Winterhawk Saga series, a historical crime thriller that excels in a fast-paced story. It follows Chenoa Winterhawk, a member of Oregon's U.S. Army Indian Scouts charged with protecting travelers on their journey through the wilderness.
Chenoa is bound to two very different worlds. As the daughter of an Indian Chief, she is well aware of the injustices brought upon the Nez Perce even as she is charged with protecting a white military leader carrying a mining map of an underground river hidden deep inside the Blue Mountains. When the group is ambushed by a rogue Army led by a traitor from her past who is determined to destroy her, Chenoa discovers that what she is fighting against may include truth, legends, and matters of her own heart and alliances.
As the story unfolds, other characters step up to introduce their own conflicts over special interests and the status quo:
Must I remind you, that this same government of yours has already threatened to deport your own halfbreed daughter? Your people care very much about themselves, but very little of those who might be shaded differently.”
The entire Civil War contradicts that statement.”<
Yet, the genocide against my own people affirms it.”
Are you referring to the same tribe that you’re now planning on murdering? Is drowning innocent people how you make restitutions for their past treatment?”
I have my reasons,” Akando answered coldly.
The questions that arise in the course of determining or cementing alliances provides thought-provoking historical insights to readers as the characters face torture, courage, confrontations, and bigger-picture thinking about the status and future of Indians in the U.S.
David Buzan crafts an evocative story that rests on the shoulders of a female warrior whose enemies are not as straightforward as she’d initially presumed. The injection of supernatural forces as well as life-changing influences from the past creates a novel rich in battles that also inject historical precedent complexities into evolving events:
Two years after the Nez Perce War had ended, the Sheepeaters began embarking on violent raids across ranches and settlements throughout eastern Oregon and southern Idaho. They were also responsible for dozens of murders of American and Chinese miners. Then, the group had become hunted by the military.
Libraries that recommend In the Wrath of Legends to their audiences will find that it stands nicely alone, but also compliments its predecessor, In the Lair of Legends. The outstanding saga is highly recommended reading for historical fiction audiences who like their characters challenged by the issues of their times, the psychology of torturers and leaders, and the demands of stepping step up to their roles, only to find that their destinies are entwined with forces beyond their ken.
In the Wrath of LegendsReturn to Index
Lightning
Michael Ray
Ewing
Grand Canyon Press
9781963361063
$6.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G1VTVZ24/
Lightning is Michael Ray Ewing’s second thriller novel, and opens with the literal bang of a crackling lightning strike on mountain bike rider Adam Barnett, who finds most of his memory has instantly vanished. Why is he riding on a mountain trail during a storm? The dog that rescues him has no answers, but furthering Barnett’s angst is a wavering howl as an invisible attacking creature rushes past him in the storm.
Now he has two mysteries to solve – and the questions keep piling up as he is pursued out of the canyon.
What does this have to do with Biodosius, a hidden gated research lab, or rancher Victoria Stewart, whose family has been targeted by killers?
Arizona backdrops, history, and culture come to life in this vivid thriller, which possesses a nonstop fast-paced series of encounters. The action moves from lightning strikes to homicides, missing dogs, experimental labs that force participants to give up their ethics, self-respect and even their career goals, and the growing threat from one called The Nightmare.
Lightning’s special talent for cultivating intrigue and lightning-fast twists many readers won’t see coming gives it more than an edge in the thriller genre, creating connections and inspections that are creative, thought-provoking, and impossible to predict.
Ewing draws together disparate personalities and special interests, placing them in the backdrop of Arizona culture and atmosphere that will also delight any reader familiar with the Phoenix area.
As blue forks of lightning dance of questions of who would deliberately construct a malevolent evil and release it into the world, and why, readers and book club discussion groups will find plenty of rich thought-provoking considerations evolve alongside Adam’s choices and reactions to his vastly revised world.
Librarians and readers will also find delightful how Lightning leaves the door open for more action, but neatly concludes its primary story in a logical, compelling manner.
Sparked by a growing relationship between a dog, a lightning-struck man, and a much-changed world, Lightning is a sizzler of action that’s hard to put down.
Margarita
Malevolence
Tanya Westlake
Impractical Press
979-8985642599
$4.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Margarita-Malevolence-Kalliope-Brooks-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0FKZJWG72
Margarita Malevolence joins others in the Kalliope Brooks series of mysteries, and sees bartender Kalliope and her best friend Tess aiming to move from amateur sleuths to become professional P.I.s. Their logic is impeccable:
And as long as we keep finding ourselves in the middle of murder investigations anyway, we might as well go pro.”
Their first professional case involves a death at the Celebration of Sandcastles festival, which feels like an unlikely scenario for angst, much less murder. As they discover, though, the murder opens the door to further community angst, secrets, and danger as their investigation begins to hit too close to home.
From secret-keepers and hidden lives to contrasts between the bar scenes of the familiar Lazy Gecko and other establishments, Tanya Westlake takes the time to build atmosphere and fun into the serious subject of murder. This includes a thread of humor that underlies the routine aspect of daily life:
"I'm going to try this 'Pompei Pommie' – pomegranate juice with lime and soda water, and it comes with a sparkler burning in the glass."
Tess laughed. "Of course you want the drink that arrives on fire."
"The perfect camouflage," Kallie added with a laugh. "What are you getting?"
Tess took the menu and quickly pointed at the top of the page. "Mocha Anthill. No question."
"It's not on fire," Kallie complained.
"No, but it says it's thirty-two ounces," Tess explained. "That means it'll be in a glass the size of my head.”
Fun interludes of comic relief and everyday decisions intersect nicely with intrigue to keep the plot flowing with realistic encounters. These reinforce the idea that Kallie and Tess are as much products and part of their community as they are P.I. investigators.>
Readers seeking plots embedded with realistic backdrops will especially appreciate how Margarita Malevolence builds its characters, premise, and mystery to embrace different friends, mentors, and possible perps.
Libraries seeking a strong stand-alone mystery that compliments prior series events while needing no prior introduction for newcomers will appreciate Margarita Malevolence’s attention to detail, description, and dangerous turns of events.
Driven by two likeable women whose latest assignment propels them into the crime world, Margarita Malevolence is a winning story that is immersive and hard to put down.
Tracking
Ariana
Larry Terhaar
Hat City
Publishing
979-8990036284
$5.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Tracking-Ariana-Investigative-Government-Corruption-ebook/dp/B0FYZNJ81B
Tracking Ariana is a Dan Burnett P.I. investigative story that combines the contemporary issue of ICE processes with an overlay of detective work. Colonel Joseph Wilkinson returns home from deployment to find his house empty and his wife and children gone.
Turns out they’ve been taken into custody, where they vanished. This leads Wilkinson to employ seasoned sleuth Dan Burnett to track them down, an effort that drives them through detention centers across the country in search of impossible clues to her whereabouts.>
The story opens with Ariana’s abduction in 2025 before moving to the clues about her fate, which binds Wilkinson and Burnett in a dangerous venture to expose a covert deportation program.
Courtroom proceedings and legal processes blend with the human aspect of a family disrupted as Wilkinson and Burnett fight to not only get back his wife and children, but find themselves delving deeper into the processes of politics, the legal system, and ICE than they’d ever imagined.
Larry Terhaar keeps the politics and social inspection vivid, but maintains a fast-paced series of confrontations and action that leave readers guessing as to intentions, outcomes, and those consigned to prisons and immigrant hell.
Texas PI Bobby Lee, Dan’s romantic interest Mia, and close friends Jim and Matt, who’d helped rescue Hannah previously, each enter the fray bringing with them different strengths and perceptions that enhance the action over what is going on.
Meanwhile, Ariana is struggling to resist deportation and survive long enough to see her family reunited.
Terhaar builds a fast pace based on strong characters and chapters which alternate between Dan’s first-person experiences and third-person injections of others’ perspectives. This makes the story changing and realistic as Dan finds himself troubled by his search for Ariana.
The result is a conspiracy thriller embedded with thought-provoking, mind-stretching quandaries and revelations that many readers won’t see coming.
Replete with bigger-picture thinking about racial cruelty, love, military operations, and legal precedent, Tracking Ariana builds lives and interest with a series of alternating perspectives that result in a thoroughly compelling saga that librarians and readers will find perfect for book club discussion.
Treacherous
Hack
Kevin G. Chapman
First Legacy
Publishing, LLC
978-1-958339-30-5
$4.99 eBook
www.KevinGChapman.com
The seventh book in the Mike Stoneman thriller series, Treacherous Hack, has the NYPD homicide detective and his sidekick Jason Dickson tackle the murder of electronics store owner Lou Palazzo on the streets of Manhattan. Their investigation turns up more bodies from Shanghai at Palazzo’s shop that are linked to a cybercrime ring. The circle of possible perps and connections widens from there.
The story opens with Lou’s current encryption project, which is close to completion. Too close, apparently, for somebody’s comfort, because being a whiz at computer hacking doesn’t translate to safety. Not when the hacked data proves to be a gold mine that somebody wants to tap.
The insights that evolve about Lou in the first chapter don’t solve all the questions that Mike Stoneman faces later in the story. Instead, they set the stage for further intrigue and connections that lead from encrypted files to robbery, murder, downloaded investigation files, and the involvement of NYU student Ryan Gelb, who supplied the hacked data to his uncle Lou and now finds himself in the crosshairs of a murderer.
Mike and Jason face their most puzzling case yet because nobody is talking – not the possible witnesses, relatives, or special interests that hold keys to the missing file. The intrigue surrounding the Chinese government’s efforts in the case creates international dilemmas, including cybercrime operations, that Mike and Jason are forced to face even though they’re a stretch for their investigative skills.
Fast-paced action rings from gunshots, confrontations, theories about who is responsible and who is running operations, and more as heroes shift alliances. This leads readers to also experience sea changes in their perception of good and bad characters.
The secrets and conflicts that immerse the characters also impact relationships. Rachel and Jason find their love tested by what evolves both outside of and between them. Readers will appreciate how romance and intrigue dovetail to create new dilemmas and moral and ethical quandaries.
As conflicts between New York and Chinese gang operations and interests raise the body count, readers will appreciate a police procedural that also considers the operations and interests of dueling bad guys as Mike, Jason, Rachel, and Michelle find their lives impacted by decisions made on all sides.
Libraries and readers that like their thrillers fast-paced and tense, augmented by challenges to interpersonal relationships and information about New York gangs and international influences, will find Treacherous Hack develops intrigue on different levels. The character-driven events and intersecting personalities and special interests are thoroughly compelling, making the story hard to put down and satisfyingly impossible to predict.
Without a
Shadow
of a Doubt
Kathleen Bailey
Rhino Publishing
978-1-956270-18-1
$31.99
Hardcover/$19.99
Paperback/$6.99eBook
www.kathleenbaileyauthor.com
Without a Shadow of a Doubt is an Olivia Penn mystery that opens with the specter of two brutish men squaring off for a midday duel with ax, claymore, and shield in the small town of Apple Station. The Highland Games are here! But they introduce an unexpected side dish of murder, pulling advice columnist Olivia Penn away from her quiet small-town world and into an investigation that leads her to consider motives of historic proportions.
As the mystery unfolds, so does history and family secrets, making the plot fast-paced and satisfyingly unpredictable. Olivia navigates town personalities, secrets, and clues that hit too close to home as she once again falls into a quandary that becomes too personal for comfort, as in the previous four mysteries she tackled in the past.
As an ex-beat reporter, Olivia has the skills to probe deeply into a given situation, but in her new job as an advice columnist, she’d hoped to remove herself from danger and deadly confrontations. Instead, her openness to doing something completely different professionally dovetails with her nose for trouble as family tartans, the Highland Games that opened the saga, and further entanglements lead her straight into the kind of danger she was hoping to avoid for the rest of her life.
Kathleen Bailey creates an intriguing mystery that moves among small-town residents with a quick step, yet leaves no reader behind as the clues unfold and the puzzle deepens. She builds Olivia’s past, present, and possible future in a way that keeps readers engaged in not just the mystery, but the outcome of Olivia’s changes, adding delightful possibilities that engage readers in Olivia’s thought processes as she speculates on possible perps, motivations, and outcomes:
What if the shots, the missing gun, and the wreck were all part of an elaborate setup? She imagined the sequence of events: Mack went to Fiona’s house late at night, then supposedly found himself on the wrong side of a gun. Later, he wrecked his car, perhaps to make it look like he’d been injured. But then, where was he? Could he be hiding? Was he covering up a crime, buying himself time?
This approach will delight mystery fans who will enjoy the blend of Scottish connections, small town attitudes and actions, and a murder that raises further questions about a wide range of characters – including the protagonist.
Libraries and readers seeking mysteries that include cozy small-town settings, horses, cats, and other animals, evolving family connections, and historical backdrops will find Without a Shadow of a Doubt a powerful draw. It promises and delivers an outstanding consideration of not just motives for murder, but the impact of treasure and family secrets on the greater community.
Without a Shadow of a DoubtReturn to Index
Becoming
Felicity
Jan Stites
Mumblers Press LLC
978-1-963221-09-1
$17.95
Paperback/$7.99 eBook
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/becoming-felicity-jan-stites/1148017369
Becoming Felicity tells of Cass Enger, who longs to feel more connected to people, but actually is much more comfortable and connected to canines. The fictional character she longs to emulate is the brave, proactive, socially connected Felicity. When Cass fearfully stops a stranger from shooting his dog in the park, she inherits Caesar, a dubious beast, and an adventure she can’t wait to share with Jonas, her sixty-one-year-old librarian friend.
But he’s got news for her. The mayor of the town, Loon, is threatening to shut the library, Cass’s favorite place. It turns out the town also is threatened (by bankruptcy), and so Cass has a daunting opportunity to step up and save everything she loves ... if only she can muster her courage, like she did with Caesar and like her hero Felicity would do in a heartbeat.
Cass’s effort to dig up her courage and make a difference in not just her own life, but the lives of those around her, creates a wonderfully uplifting story of empowerment, courage, and facing seemingly impossible obstacles to enact changes that benefit not just herself, but the community as a whole.
Now, more than ever, these kinds of messages are needed; but even more compelling is how various obstacles are resolved through Cass’s effort, and how the town’s personalities adjust to all kinds of differences in the course of becoming more viable and vibrant:
Rebecca was flawed, of course, just like everyone else, herself included, but surely Mack would have to agree that this shirt proved people really could change.
References to the fictional Felicity’s special formula for confronting and changing her world create thought-provoking insights into the options Cass considers in facing similarly unworkable situations as the town evolves:
In Passion, Felicity tells a man who continually discounts his son’s problems, that anyone who chooses to keep his head in the sand, has to be careful not to bury his heart along with it. Maybe she needed to start paying more attention, to take her own head—and heart—out of the sand.
Jan Stites creates an outstanding interaction between fiction and reality, showing how mentors, heroes, and examples, however fictional, can spill over to real-world decision-making processes and personal reinvention. This adds depth and texture not just to Cass’s character, but the personality and conundrums of the entire town around her as everyone grapples with tough economic choices that hold ramifications for the town’s survival.
Librarians and readers seeking rural settings, stories of small-town friendships and enemies, and lives lived alongside animals will relish the dovetailing of all these personalities and perspectives, which lend a rich appeal to the town and Cass’s dilemmas and fears.
Readers seeking stories about mustering one’s courage and making a difference will love how Cass steps up into new opportunities for herself and others, thanks to the examples and paths posed by the fictional Felicity. It’s a story that embraces the extent of rural experience, small-town survival tactics, and the values of those who live outside the big city.
Becoming FelicityReturn to Index
Bianca’s Cure
Gigi Berardi
She Writes Press
979-8-89636-070-4
$17.99
Paperback/$12.99 eBook
https://shewritespress.com
Bianca’s Cure is a historical novel set in 1500s Italy. Noblewoman Bianca Capello flees Venice, where experimentation with herbal remedies is forbidden, for Florence, where the royal family has embraced alchemy. There, she finds a position which introduces her to love and danger far beyond her abilities to heal.
Gigi Berardi unfolds a moving drama in which Bianca’s search for acceptance involves her in politics and the underbelly of conflict in Renaissance Florence. Bianca is a professional herbalist who is drawn into a world of subterfuge, killers, and crisis:
If Francesco was going to be part of her future as a scientist, he’d find out sooner or later how she practiced, and how it sometimes ended. That would threaten her work more than would her relationship with Piero, but was the threat greater if she revealed all tonight? She’d tell him what he needed to know for now, Bianca decided. If he discovered more himself later, hopefully he’d see her as a scientist, not a killer.
Medici science blends with Medici romance in a tale whose circumstances challenge the clever Bianca on many levels. Bianca’s Cure holds its foundations in historical fact, making the intriguing story all the more vivid for its basis in reality. Even more notable is how Berardi captures this milieu, embedding Italian backdrop and history with one determined woman’s personal courage and ambitions. Bianca faces moral and ethical quandaries as she struggles to find a cure that is perhaps impossible to administer without facing political and personal repercussions from her decisions:
After watching the rhythms of Francesco’s disease, she wondered if waiting for any next stage of it was pointless, and that she should just give the cure now. All this she’d devised from observing Francesco, the man who lay before her, in pain. All this she’d learned so that, ultimately, she could save him.
The result is a novel of adventure, discovery, personal tests and trials, and an almost impossible quest for a malaria cure that will bring readers into the heart of Renaissance Italian society.
Libraries seeking historical novels that blend mystery and romance will appreciate how vividly and remarkably Bianca’s story and conundrums appeal to even those with little familiarity with those times and its history.
Replete with moments of reflection over the Medici heir’s fate and the events that immerse Bianca in concerns bigger than her herbal alchemy talents, Bianca’s Cure is thoroughly engrossing and realistic, fueled by a strong female character whose objectives and talents shift under forces she can neither control nor predict.
Bianca’s CureReturn to Index
Bloom Again
Marybeth Holleman
University of
Alaska Press
978-1646427062
$84.05
Hardcover/$21.95
Paperback/$17.95 eBook
Website: www.marybethholleman.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Bloom-Again-Novel-Alaska-Literary/dp/1646427068
Bloom Again opens with Elyse unloading her cart in the grocery store. An art show is coming up that she’s ill-prepared for, her adult children are set to visit, and Elyse is struggling with dire environmental news that portends the end of polar bears.
Her connections to nature and the dreams she’s embraced are part of her life in Alaska.
Her distant friend Astrid, now a paleobotany professor in North Carolina, holds similar connections to nature and the world - but from a different vantage point and in a different state.
When both find their worlds shaken by evolving new situations, each recall their childhood connections to nature and each other. They take different leaps of faith and change to confront the forces that threaten the world of their past, which they’d taken for granted would always be around them.
Marybeth Holleman’s ethereal story of challenge, rejuvenation, and shifting purposes juxtaposes the lives of these two women with the nature surrounding them. Descriptions of these worlds and connections are evocative: “...the boundaries between her, the pine, and the sky dissolve like wisps of a magician’s smoke.”
As an artist, Elyse finds new purpose in depicting this loss of nature and connection in her work:
“This,” she says after a long but not uncomfortable silence, “this is what I want to reveal with my paintings...the place, but what’s beneath that, what it means. This unnatural death. It is so hidden, so abstract, to the rest of the world. If I could make it more tangible, then the world might wake up and do something.”
As she surveys the wellsprings of power in nature (which humans are destroying) and comes up with a way of addressing and reflecting these events to add meaning to her art, Elyse discovers that she has effectively changed her own world in the pursuit of changing others.
Astrid, too, finds herself involved with polar bears and environmental issues that include the requirement for her to step up and change in different ways.
Holleman’s contrast between these two women, their childhood and adult connections, and the blossoming climate change issues that embrace and redirect their lives makes for a thought-provoking, suggestive novel of transformation and renewed purposes. Bloom Again deserves attention not just from individual readers, but book clubs and discussion groups interested in literary fiction that embraces environmental issues and personal responsibility.
Librarians and readers seeking stories that offer bigger picture revelations about the effect of climate and habitat on their everyday lives and choices will find Bloom Again’s special brand of literary presentation and social inspection to be a potent blend of idealism and practical approaches to making a difference in the world.
Its special brand of wonder, transformation, and life-changing adaptations and actions makes for an encouraging story of hope:
The tusks, their lines, reminders of all the life that has lived on this planet, all the beautiful things gone. And all the beauty that remains.
Bloom AgainReturn to Index
Criminal Lu
Yanshi
Geling Yan
New
Song Media
Gmbh
978-3910769120
$32.99
https://www.amazon.com/Criminal-Lu-Yanshi-Geling-Yan/dp/3910769128
Criminal Lu Yanshi is a powerful novel about Chinese politics, history, and expats. It centers on Lu Yanshi, Lu Yanshi, who leaves a wealthy Shanghai family to earn his Ph.D. in the United States, but cannot escape family or political pressures. When revolution and strife hits China, Yanshi enflames a rebellion over intellectual integrity and freedom. He winds up imprisoned in a labor camp for his beliefs and daring to advocate such changes.
Readers won’t anticipate the story’s compelling prologue. It opens on the plains of Mongolia, which is being invaded by curious creatures from beyond the mountains called “trucks.” Prisoners have arrived from afar, changing the natural order of this grassland environment. The group includes prisoner number 2868, Lu Yanshi, who has been imprisoned for life as a counter-revolutionary.
That man, the prologue explains, was the author’s grandfather. The story that unfolds thereafter captures Lu Yanshi’s life, his impressions, his request of Commissioner Deng to go to Headquarters Assembly Hall for clemency, and the events that bring him full circle from prison back to the fold of family.
From the story’s opening paragraphs, Geling Yan attends to creating a powerful, moving saga that gives all readers insights into the psychological and political environment of China’s systems:
If he had learned anything from years of incarceration, it was not to stand up to a cadre. The refusal had been clearly stated, and you wouldn’t get a milder reaction by trying to discuss it.
From family jewels and ties to the contrasting perspectives of everyday people, politicians, the privileged, and the poor, Criminal Lu Yanshi brings to life the minutest concerns of the populace and the forces that influence value and shifting lives:
Yanshi had a sudden urge to bang his fists down a couple of times on the Eight Immortals table. How many people were dying at this very moment, and all of us were about to become the humiliated subjects of a conquered nation, and still the loss of a couple of pieces of jewelry was a major incident for these women.
Of special note are the varying forms of imprisonment and torture that Yanshi endures, the changing adaptation methods he uses to keep surviving, and the odyssey he experiences from a return journey from Chungking to Shanghai.
The juxtaposition of incarceration experiences and relationships between prisoners and those who oversee them, the expanse and impact of this journey, and the political and historical revelations it embraces are thoroughly engrossing. These are supplemented by author notes that bring a grandfather’s perceptions and experiences to vivid life:
When my dirty, disheveled and shabbily dressed grandfather disembarked in Shanghai, this city, not known for its moral virtue, presented this type of image to him: many buildings were empty, sealed with paper tape from all sorts of government offices. The buildings were all “recovered” Japanese property, with the property rights surreptitiously transferred.
The result is a novel of historical and psychological importance which ideally should be in any collection strong in 21st century Chinese literature. Criminal Lu Yanshi holds the feel and excitement of an epic story of survival, offers intriguing scenarios of labor, intellectual, and social reforms that made criminals out of big thinkers, and captures a fluid personal journey that requires no prior background in Chinese history or culture in order to prove accessible and thoroughly engrossing.
Libraries looking to add powerful literary inspections of Chinese events to their fiction collections will find that Criminal Lu Yanshi, made all the more powerful for its roots in author family experience and historical fact, is an essential addition. It can be highly recommended to readers seeking a more personal presentation of the lives, thoughts, and experiences of those whose connections and life choices created powerful impacts on family, love, freedom, and values under the siege of political transformation.
Criminal Lu YanshiReturn to Index
Emma
Madison,
Master Meddler
Patricia Michener
CML Publishing
978-1-7381987-0-2
$19.99
Paperback/$3.99 eBook
www.emmamadison.ca
Emma Madison, Master Meddler is a novel driven by powerful characters and interesting dilemmas that centers on widow Emma Madison and the small town shaken by the return of her scandalous niece, Jasmine Holmes.
Patricia Michener involves readers in Emma’s previously-charmed life from the novel’s opening lines:
It seemed for a long time her life had been blessedly peaceful and trouble-free. In view of her advanced age, though, Emma Madison slowly became suspicious of such good luck. Some sixth sense was warning her, telling her to prepare for a bump in the road. Nothing too serious, she hoped. She guessed it might be an illness, or an accident.
Historic houses, intrigue, and lovely descriptions permeate the story to bring Emma, Jasmine, and a host of characters to life:
Jasmine could see how such a house might sink into your bones. When this happened over successive generations, she thought, the distinction between the owner and what was owned would fade. Soon the house might possess you, its needs fashion yours, and to a greater or lesser extent, it could devour you.
Romance blends into the history as Emma advises Jasmine that “love will find a way” even though Jasmine’s experience tells her that “fairy tales don’t come true.” Who is right? As the story unfolds, it turns out that both of them are correct.
Michener’s attention to building powerful female protagonists whose interests and growth dovetail and contrast with one another creates a wonderful story that is involving, thought-provoking, and adventurous, all in one.
As families grow and information is absorbed, the happiness, struggles, and discoveries made about fate, happenstance, and the normal twists and turns of life evolve into a rich tale of explorations of love, discovery, and connection.
Readers are hungry for the type of engagement this book offers.
Libraries seeking an epic historical romance novel couched in the experiences of already-strong women who take charge of their lives, decisions, and trajectories will find much to highly recommend in Emma Madison, Master Meddler. It’s a tale replete with twists, changes, and revelations that will move readers to contemplate the impact of the past on present-day affairs and new possibilities.
Emma Madison, Master MeddlerReturn to Index
Going to
Zossen,
or the Capitulation
of Vasily Mikhailovich
A.V. Pankov
The 122 Home
9781919168463
$17.99
Website: Going
to Zossen: A novel of moral reckoning and survival in 1990s Russia |
Official
Ordering: https://amzn.eu/d/fPtJVvm
Going to Zossen, or the Capitulation of Vasily Mikhailovich is set in 1993, where an unemployed Soviet Navy veteran becomes the warden of a juvenile prison colony in a remote Arctic locale. For Vasily, the move from being a commander to entering prison service is a big move downward - but better than nothing. His stipend is for “getting the colony in working order,” not caring about its young residents. And yet, care he does.
That’s the crux upon which Going to Zossen evolves as Vasily seeks to improve the lives around him but discovers there is little support, either internally or externally, for his endeavors:
Vasily quickly allayed the train of negativity running through his head. They will respond and they will help, he thought. Just give them some time. Then you’ll get your provisions. Then you’ll get your paycheck. Everything will be fine.
Readers anticipating an action-packed adventure or a foray into Russian politics receive both, tempered by the moral, ethical, and social conundrums revealed as Soviet lives come under scrutiny:
The doctor had now left Vasily’s scope of knowledge. And this was precisely his game; to engage in the woolly language that had already debased his hardworking countryfolk, deracinated them, made them invisible in their own country. It was language, above all, that had formed the frontier in the war happening around them, a vessel for the disruptive ideas that spread around their country like an untamed parasite. Heretofore-unheard lexicon acquiring such potency. Repression, independence, identity.
More so than most novels about Soviet experience, Going to Zossen uses personal conundrums and reflections to propel readers through the choices, sadness, and turmoil that permeates all levels of Russian society. These elements come to reflect Vasily’s consciousness as he seeks to reinvent not only his career and future, but new possibilities for his wife and others around him.
College-level classrooms interested in Soviet literature and experience will find that A.V. Pankov captures, in a nutshell, the experience of an ordinary worker who finds himself injected into an extraordinary situation of responsibility and angst. They will especially appreciate how Pankov offers many opportunities to understand this nation and its people.
Hard-hitting connections between the character and other social impacts of political perception evolve in unexpected directions as one boy caught up in the mechanisms of rehoming and imprisonment forces Vasily to reconsider his loyalties and political connections:
‘These snot-nosed bureaucrats. The amount of scat I’ve wiped up for them. If my batya could see what’s come of this place ... They used to douse him with cold water in fifty-degree colds in those camps and he never mouthed a single unkind word about this country! I used to think it was a strange nobility the old generation possessed. Now I realise it was because they had a meaning – for their suffering, for everything. What do we have now? “Loans for shares”, “market corrections”, “The Plan”. No loyalty, no respect. My dad was lucky not to live to seventy, he would have ended up like those pensioners in Krasnoyarsk: conned into signing away their apartments and then dumped down a well after having their throats slit. Fucking “democrats” ...’
The novel’s passion, perception, and conundrums will reach out to embrace even readers who hold little familiarity and interest in Soviet affairs. No prior expertise is needed in order to walk alongside Vasily as he makes hard decisions, seeking to change a future which may prove immovable.
Libraries looking for hard-hitting literary examinations of politics, power, and individual strength will find it easy to highly recommend Going to Zossen for its consideration of democracy, the price of freedom, and the cost of choice.
Replete with thought-provoking moves and consequences throughout, Going to Zossen is the kind of story that will provoke avid book club discussions about the roots of complacency and responsibility. This will prove especially significant, given the challenging political landscapes of modern times.
Going to Zossen, or the Capitulation of Vasily MikhailovichReturn to Index
The Gossip
Columnist
Martyn Burke
Darkspur Press
979-8-9930245-1-6
$19.99
www.martynburke.com
When does an ordinary citizen become dangerous to authorities? This happens to one columnist whose dangerous family secret can be used against the Nazis in 1945 Germany.
The Gossip Columnist takes a different approach than most fiction about Nazi Germany, considering how ordinary citizens become influential participants in social change under extraordinary conditions.
It follows life during these times using a first-person perspective that adds social commentary and political insights to daily life in Germany:
Silliness annoyed her. Even though everyone else was telling her it was all such fun! But the kind of fun that was being had in those days was relentless, the kind that only presents its bill when the laughter is the loudest. And for so many, that bill had to be paid wrapped in regret or even shame at what they had done. And not merely because so many of those people seeking all that free and fun life soon became Nazis.
Karin’s astute observations of underlying power and prejudice in everyday German society take the form of insights that will prove hard-hitting to readers who likely well know the progression of Nazi sentiments and activities of those times.
Even more enlightening is the attention given to small details of growing repressive powers. These eventually reach into newspaper circles to affect Karin’s life, her job, and her formerly-free speech:
“Be very careful Frau Bella,” he said.
“You’re firing me but you want me to be careful?”
“Please. It is not me. It is their new Treachery Law.”
“Is this a joke?”
“I wish it was. But please understand that it’s not me doing this.” He was almost squirming behind his gleaming desk. “They have sections in this law for what they call ‘malignant’ remarks about the Reich.
“And I am malignant?”
“Not you. it’s what you write. They say you have been weaving sarcasm into your columns. And you use remarks that can be taken two ways.”
The insidious rise of Nazi influence in German society, the deep dark secrets housed by citizens such as Karin, who can change the course of Nazi power, and the effect of repression on family, work, friendships, and secrets creates a powerful story. The Gossip Columnist should be part of any consideration of not just Nazi German history, but how social repression begins, spreads, and impacts individual life.
Martyn Burke crafts a one-two punch in a novel replete with tension, growing realizations about self and safety, and changing life in a formally free society.
The Gossip Columnist is a book worthy of high praise and recommendation to a wide audience, from libraries interested in involving historical fiction that offers a different take on Nazi influence and activities to book clubs cultivating active debates about individual choice, action, and impact. Readers will find the novel thoroughly engrossing, hard to put down, and filled with much food for thought for modern times.
The Gossip ColumnistReturn to Index
My Sister’s
Keeper
Ralph Dellapiana
Independently
Published
978-1-63337-983-1
$17.95
https://www.amazon.com/My-Sisters-Keeper-Ralph-Dellapiana/dp/1633379833
My Sister’s Keeper joins attorney author Ralph Dellapiana’s prior book, Twice a Victim, to present another novel based on real-world events. It features the Sisterhood, a secret band of vigilante women who work on behalf of abused women.
The suspicious disappearance of a teenager leads to discoveries about human trafficking that challenges the Sisterhood to tap all their resources to rescue the missing girl and stop the violence.
This is a good moment to point out possible triggers to readers sensitive about the topic of human trafficking and violence against women. However, vivid descriptions are presented in keeping with the plot and nature of the story, and mitigate any shocking revelations with legal and social pursuits that are realistic rather than overly dramatic.
As Bella’s involvement with Johnny plays out, it’s evident that this is not a helpless young woman, but a near-adult who considers herself both savvy and powerful:
He had always done his best to prepare her for the darkness of the world. Of course, he had signed her up for martial arts starting when she was only six years old and constantly told Bella about the survival tips he had gleaned from his line of work. And she had taken it to heart. She had earned a black belt and heard enough horror stories for a lifetime. But now she also considered herself to be basically all grown up; she was, after all, only two years short of becoming a legal adult. She was old enough to decide if she thought a guy was dangerous or not, and she didn’t think Johnny was.
As Bella, Mia, and others face adversaries such as the pimp Chacho, accompanying investigations by detectives and others swirl around victims, would-be rescuers, and the damage inflicted upon those who have been part of that world:
“Sometimes trafficking victims who are given favors start to relate to their captors differently. Eventually, some even grow to trust them, and help them. But LaToya is a victim, nonetheless. We should treat her as such.”
As the women confront death, trauma, and the evil done by Hispanic woman Nita, who participates in the trafficking and promises women “a good life,” the story embraces all manner of legal, psychological, and social struggle. This lends it a full-bodied flavor of realism.
The story is action-packed, but takes the time to develop the psychological responses and viewpoints of a variety of women who operate on all sides.
The result is a powerful story of human trafficking which is highly recommended for libraries and readers seeking action-packed, realistic scenarios of discovery, confrontation, and a quest for justice. The heart of that struggle, the nature and force of The Sisterhood, is exquisitely presented in a tale that comes full circle to pose exciting new possibilities for everyone involved.
My Sister’s KeeperReturn to Index
No One You
Know
Emma Tourtelot
She Writes
Press
9798896360483 $18.99 Paperback/$12.99 eBook
Website:
https://emmatourtelot.com/
Ordering:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/No-One-You-Know/Emma-Tourtelot/9798896360483
No One You Know depicts a mother/daughter relationship and family changed by the death of a daughter’s best friend. It vividly captures the process by which each family member grieves, strives for connection with self and life - and fails.
The philosophical and psychological first-person inspections of mother Kate are powerful draws from the novel’s first paragraph:
This is what it looks like when a mother loses her teen daughter. Not the way you lose a toddler, in a supermarket or at the county fair or some other place where an intercom announcement brings her back to you, the damage no more than a stranger’s disapproving glance—and, seriously, fuck them for that, like they never misplaced an inquisitive child?—but lost in the world.
When a daughter searches for reasons to live, what impact does this have on her family? Plenty, because Kate joins Indie on her search for meaning, in the process disrupting the careful construction of love, marriage, and career that have been the balancing points of her own life.
Emma Tourtelot’s powerful story is made especially poignant via shifting character perspectives, which are clearly presented in each chapter’s header. This allows readers to juxtapose characters who each examine their hearts to explore points of confusion, angst, and the ways people mask their grief with familiar routines, such as a birthday party which mother Kate wants and her daughter Indie eschews.
An angry daughter and parents who try to be helpful interact in realistic ways, with dialogue and everyday encounters cementing their struggles:
“Do you think Maddy would understand what you’re going through right now?” Dad says, I guess to prove he’s one of the adults in the room, despite the laugh-burp. “What if you imagined telling her how you feel? Can you imagine what she’d say back?”
As Kate embarks on her own physical and mental journey in response to her daughter’s grief, readers will especially appreciate the philosophical interludes which encourage thoughts about life, death, and meaning:
Standing at a window, you can admire the world beyond, or you can adjust your focus to examine your own reflection in the glass instead. In the same way, understanding the true nature of reality is just a matter of how you look. You don’t need to stand at a window for twelve hours, waiting for the glass to offer up your reflection—you just need to change your focus.
From relationships lost and found again to young people reinventing their world, No One You Know offers poignant, thought-provoking reflections about life that encourage group discussion and individual contemplation alike. It delves into community connections and the different ways men and women experience and express grief, it promotes considerations of different generations and how they handle life changes, and it contrasts the perspectives of adults and near-adults with an astute eye to promoting understanding.
Librarians and readers seeking a powerful novel about loss, family impact, growth opportunities, and life changes will find No One You Know a saga made especially impactful for its juxtaposition of women at vastly different stages of their lives. Each finds meaning and connection in the most unlikely of circumstances:
Something happened as we faced down eighth-grade graduation. We figured out how to piece ourselves together into these legible human beings. We each became a single version of ourselves, one that made sense to our classmates. We started saying, “Oh yeah, that tracks.”
No One You KnowReturn to Index
Payback
Molly D. Shepard
and Peter J. Dean
Atmosphere Press
979-8891329492
$28.99
Hardcover/$16.99
Paperback/$8.99 eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
Payback explores the developments of and connections between three long-time female friends whose lives change as they pursue different careers and hone new life skills.
The story opens with a thought about what it takes to drive a person to take another’s life and meticulously plot a murder, building intrigue into the story from the start.
Readers who think the tale thus will be a mystery or one of suspense will be surprised to note the developments that lead the plot in a different direction, incorporating business politics, savvy, and gender bias into a story that begins with executive Samantha fielding an assault by her superior.
The first-person perspective shifts between chapters may be difficult for some to follow, as there is no indication of who is ‘speaking’. Readers will just have to connect the dots between these fluctuating characters as the story evolves.
A special strength of the plot revolves around a desire for revenge that blend into business affairs and savvy so seamlessly that readers receive real-world concerns and business wisdom that dovetail nicely with the story line.
From the perceived rights of Executive Vice President Archer Dunne to act in any way he desires, given his high-level position, to the efforts of lawyers, therapists, and others who lend their particular professional wisdom to situations, readers will enjoy how the unexpected events develop.
Samantha faces not just business conundrums and adversity, but the possibility of love with Todd, who appreciates her strength and how her focus differs from the other women he’s had in his life:
She made it clear that she wasn’t searching for a man to be the breadwinner; she could do that for herself. While Todd was building his business and felt secure in his ability to eventually carry the financial burden to provide for a family, it was a relief to meet a woman who wasn’t so focused on his earning potential.
From well-meaning friends’ advice about ambition and purpose to how different women rise above business conflicts and office politics, Payback is an involving story with many threads of understanding. It can be read in different ways: as a women’s novel about friendships; as a business story of gender barriers and women’s struggles to define and achieve success; and as an involving story of growth and intrigue.
Libraries will find it easy to recommend Payback to readers seeking thought-provoking, involving stories about women’s lives and definitions of success.
PaybackReturn to Index
Pictures of
My
Desire
Caroline Goldberg
Igra
Köehler
Books
979-8-88824-849-2
$29.95
Hardcover/$19.95
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
www.koehlerbooks.com
Pictures of My Desire is a novel about recovering from the impact of the Holocaust, and follows Nate’s search for a lost painting stolen from his Jewish ancestors. His mission is driven by his family’s long-lasting PTSD from the trauma, fueled with the thought that if he can just get back one precious family relic, healing will take place.
When he meets art consultant Emily at an auction, Nate’s intentions become romantic. His growing feelings for her get in the way of his original intention to heal his family's decades-old trauma.
For Emily’s part, her initial attraction turns into worry as she perceives Nate to be a flawed, troubled character whose concerns and damaged family are beginning to impact her life and professional acuity:
Those same nerve endings that had been buzzing with anticipation hardened to stone. I was on full alert. My body—previously soft, pliant, and desperate to be touched, absolutely seeping with want— now stiffened, all business. The beautiful fog in which I’d been pleasantly enclosed dissipated, the gangplank raised. I was up on the ramparts ready to do anything it took to defend my castle—client and job at the forefront.
As revelations about past and present buffet them both, Emily begins to realize that her confusion over her ultimate goals and the revelations which grow from them indicate that “there is a time and place for everything.” And the timing for her increasing connection to Nate may not be right.
Caroline Goldberg Igra creates a moving, thought-provoking novel as she juxtaposes two very different characters whose involvement in the art world reflects separate goals and life values. The trauma that both leads to and impacts love connections is very nicely presented, as well as the dance between past events and present-day identity crises. Most of all, the connections between two individuals that cross the line from healthy to challenging contributes to a riveting read.
The intriguing relationships between Emily, Julia (a gallery owner who enters the story midway), and Nate, the considerations of the differences between friends and lovers, and the story’s contemplative moments will engage and engross a wide audience.
Libraries interested in stories that embrace family trauma, Holocaust impact, and the art world will find all these elements and more drive the plot into unexpected directions that flow from Emily and Nate’s relationship.
Pictures of My DesireReturn to Index
Simplicity
by the
Sea
Jennifer Vido
The Wild Rose
Press, Inc.
978-1-5092-6421-6
$19.95
Paperback/$4.99 eBook
www.thewildrosepress.com
Simplicity by the Sea is the third book in the Gull Island Series, expanding the atmospheric romance and strong sense of place of its predecessors. The story opens with Delaney Huger’s sister and best friend, who are celebrating the wedding of childhood friends. Delaney is not with them – she imagines the festivities unfolding, but is distant enough not to partake of the wedding moment that is the “social event of the season” in a second-chance romance that reads like a love story.
You would think a rising market executive could be punctual to an event of this magnitude, but Delaney has been distracted by the very business that gives her an important role. The result is listening to the ceremony on her phone rather than personally witnessing the union.
Delaney’s return home immerses her into old friendships, lingering dilemmas, and new quandaries as she is charged with saving Wine Haven while preserving her own dreams and the life she’s built outside of Gull Island.
As she attempts to solicit assistance from Will, perhaps the only islander who can really help her, and becomes involved in his turmoil over his new business, Delaney finds herself pulled back into the friendships and associations which once were part of her world.
Island newcomer Luke Sullivan (“Gull Island’s most eligible single dad”), the future of Delaney’s sister’s Wine Haven business, her on/off again boyfriend (corporate attorney Nate), and the process by which the small community becomes the center of Delaney’s life makes for a warm story of business and personal conundrums. Delaney makes a big leap into realizing just what kind of place she should be calling “home.”
Readers drawn to stories of island getaways, close-knit communities, and ties that reach out to enchant those who have tried to make their homes in very different environments will find Delaney’s immersive involvement in Gull Island to be attractive and thought-provoking.
Libraries that choose Simplicity by the Sea as either a stand-alone story or one that expands the other characters and situations of prior Gull Island novels will find Simplicity by the Sea a powerful consideration of family ties and connections that finally ground Delaney from her outward and upward-bound trajectory.
Filled with powerful insights about how personal change occurs, Simplicity by the Sea is a fine mix of community politics, personal interactions, and growth which leads Delaney and her readers into new (and old) situations.
Simplicity by the SeaReturn to Index
Threads of
Light
Leena Rentz
Riderentz LLC
979-8-9999113-8-4
$26.99
Hardcover/$14.99
Paperback/$4.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Threads-Light-Leena-Rentz/dp/B0FN718FVJ
Threads of Light is a contemporary Christian novel that blends elements of romance and mystery for a thought-provoking foray. It probes life of Alexandria-Maria (“Alex”) Ricci, whose faith follows her from Italy to the strange new world of New York and beyond.
Alex’s involvement with a faith-based app draws her into alien worlds that ultimately test her mettle and convictions as she engages in a relationship with Rhys while fielding increasing concerns about the future:
This dinner was only the beginning. There were deeper currents at play here and she was determined to get to the bottom of it.
Storms brew when father Weston shows up, re-entering Rhys’s life after a twenty-one-year absence, questioning Alex’s relationship with his son and her intentions:
“You think a few months of dating means anything? I’ve seen women like you come and go. I’m telling you now, if you’re not in this for the long haul, walk away.”
Alex isn’t just signing up for love. She’s set to become involved in a family whose stormy connections are just starting to emerge.
Leena Rentz creates an outstanding story of challenge, discovery, and reconciling family threads and difficult personalities. As Alex becomes cognizant of just what kind of situation she’s fallen into, the story spins an attractive, appealing set of subplots that revolve around catching a criminal and falling in love.
By juxtaposing the different personalities and characters with events that buffet their ideals and morals, Rentz produces a novel replete with psychological, social, and religious strengths that are all tested in novel ways.
Librarians and readers seeking clean stories that excel in their depictions of individuals who seek both connection and answers from life will find Threads of Light the perfect mix of intrigue, revelation, and insight. The story will keep them engrossed with characters whose lives are determined and strong individually as well as together:
She had known him as steady, protective, and quietly brilliant, but this was something else entirely. The intensity with which he moved between groups, aligning each part of the plan, was startling. He listened and redirected, made fast decisions, and when needed, he was ruthless. It was in these long hours that she understood how he had built so much from nothing. It wasn’t luck. It was clarity, vision, and a refusal to let anything stand in his way.
Threads of LightReturn to Index
The Truest
Son of
France
Patti Flinn
Gilded Orange Books
97989860600095
$16.99 Print/$1.99
eBook
https://gildedorangebooks.com
The Truest Son of France is the third book in the Last Favorite’s Page series, and takes place as the French Revolution is coming to an end and the Reign of Terror is beginning. It concludes a trilogy dedicated to Louis-Benoit Zamor, opening in February of 1820 with a prologue where he lies on his deathbed reflecting on his life and the political events which buffeted it:
I’ve become a cautionary tale. A life lived—wrongly.
Destined to live alone and die in poverty, Louis-Benoit thinks he is “hell-bound” from at least one big mistake. These reflections lead to a history that dovetails nicely with the prior books in the series, expanding the events, circumstances, and choices that have led up to this point.
Patti Flinn creates a historical novel rich in insights on the times, from revolution and counter-revolutionary decisions and moves, to Zamor’s sadness over losing one woman and his reflection on not just his choices, but value to others:
I have nothing to offer, and I don’t like to fall short of expectation.
Zamor’s search to find his family, the consequences of his actions, and questions of loyalty under changing regimes juxtapose personal endeavors and values with bigger-picture confrontations about these changing times.
Flinn writes with a hand heavy to incorporating emotional reactions to these historical events. This approach gives her story a compelling atmosphere that will attract even readers not normally interested in historical fiction or 1700s French affairs.
While The Truest Son of France can serve as a standalone novel, its strength lies in how it supports and expands the prior series titles. Ideally, it will be purchased and presented in light of its predecessors.
Librarians will want to highly recommend The Truest Son of France for its tone of struggle, change, and hope – a compelling message for modern times that book clubs, too, will find revealing.
The Truest Son of FranceReturn to Index
What It All
Means:
Book 1
Ralph Riccie
Independently
Published
9798999002105
$14/.99
Paperback/$4.99 eBook
https://www.whatitallmeansbooks.com
After a person falls asleep, they are only aware of having fallen asleep when they wake up.
“Damn, it’s the same shit when you die,” was Millie’s first thought.
The first book in a planned trilogy, What It All Means should have opened with this hard-hitting passage, because though Ralph Riccie builds a fine introduction of a selfish mother, unhappy wife, and adulteress sending her son Robbie to school before succumbing to the lure of wine, a bottle of pills, and a bath, the power of this introduction commands readers to want to learn more.
Millie becomes a ghost observing the aftermath of her last choice. This leads to various reflections about what people do with their lives, how to reach her son Robbie through dreams, and the revelation that the dead do talk to the living in various ways.
Advised to become “the best version of her earthly self” before attempting to contact or help her son, Millie undergoes a sea change in attitude with the help of, in effect, a guidance counselor who leads her to consider her choices and emotions in a new light.
Libraries and readers interested in novels about suicide and its aftermath will find What It All Means: Book 1 insightful, potentially triggering (for those with trauma over a loved one’s demise), and thoroughly engrossing as Millie begins a process of self-discovery that can lead to new things even when all seems lost and done.
The story’s ability to raise further questions about choice and consequence makes for a powerful account of new beginnings, new attitudes, and the ability of one special boy to make a difference. As Robbie grows up with newfound knowledge and abilities, so he, too, holds the power to change the world by his choices.
Astute, hard-hitting, and holding the power to provoke book club discussions and debates, What It All Means: Book 1 is a winning story of redemption, new beginnings, and changing old patterns that winds a tale of the afterlife into something greater than ghosts.
What It All Means: Book 1Return to Index
Where the
Heart
Meets the Sea
Kimbra Drake
Bleecker Street
Books
979-8-9993544-0-2
$5.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Where-Heart-Meets-Sea-Novel-ebook/dp/B0FTKHZHJD
Where the Heart Meets the Sea is a novel of Norwegian heritage, following the journey undertaken by Ella Nilsen in her late twenties to find her heritage and the parents she never knew.
The grandmother who raised her has never wanted to talk about them. When Hilda dies, Ella’s inheritance from her includes a distant cottage on a remote Norwegian island. Her decision to pursue clues about her heritage clashes with townsman Leif Arnesen, who harbors his own grief about his family.
As Lief and Ella find themselves on similar paths of discovery, their lives entwine in unexpected ways that lead them into the past and contemplating a far different future than either anticipated.
As questions about drowning, death, and what really happened to their parents emerges, the community and family ties that have alienated each from the truth appears to shake them once again – this time from building connections that portend new possibilities.
Kimbra Drake’s story may be predictable in building romantic connections, but is satisfyingly unpredictable in how they emerge. Both individuals become stranded in literal and metaphysical ways as each struggles differently to accept what they can and cannot change.
Attention is given to building each character, which adds a deep level of realistic events and reactions to the tale.
Libraries seeking a powerful story of heritage, the influence of past decisions on future generations, and what two individuals do when the truth emerges to change and challenge their lives will find Where the Heart Meets the Sea compelling. It’s easy to recommend to women, in particular, who look for heartfelt stories of transformation and discovery.
Where the Heart Meets the SeaReturn to Index
Bend, Don’t
Break
Matt A. West
GFB
978-1-967510-26-9
$19.95
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
www.girlfridayproductions.com
More so than most workplace or business books about getting ahead or surviving one’s job, Bend, Don’t Break: How to Adapt in the New World of Work is especially essential reading for workers who face changes from AI, restructuring, and revised demands on their time and energy. Readers expecting the usual admonitions about flexibility in the face of change may be surprised at the perspective presented in this book, which advocates creating a system (The Adaptability System) that reinforces changing response patterns that keep employees stuck in old paradigms during new times.
Matt A. West’s system considers the realities and illusions of forward thinking and movement in business circles. He includes plenty of real-world examples and accompanying exercises designed to not just pinpoint fallacies in thinking, but continually analyze situations for upgrades in thinking or approaches that actually rest on the foundations of old habits.
Chapters pay close attention to the strategies and perceptions of bending and breaking, giving team leaders, workers, and business people at all levels new tools for adopting strategic thinking and understanding what it means to become “stuck” in a mindset or position.
Particular care is taken to identify many common fallacies of achievement. One of these is keeping busy, but equating busyness with upward momentum – which isn’t always the case:
Safely Busy is the loop where activity becomes its own reward. You’re not avoiding work. You’re drowning in it. And the busier you stay, the harder it becomes to notice that you’re no longer growing. You’re just surviving. This isn’t the kind of busy driven by chaos or external pressure. That’s Urgently Drifting, when shifting priorities, market demands, or company changes send you scrambling without clear direction. Safely Busy is something else entirely. There is no urgent demand to adapt. No burning platform. No external shakeup.
Packed with eye-opening examinations of workplace challenges, shifting priorities and approaches to the job, and growth opportunities which extend from better applications and knowledge of adaptability strategies, Bend, Don’t Break is essential reading for managers, leaders, entrepreneurs, and everyday workers. It’s for anyone wants to not just get ahead, but assure their jobs and life perspectives remain relevant, dynamic, and inspired.
Libraries seeking business books that advocate systems of change and adaptation will want to place Bend, Don’t Break at the top of recommendations to business readers and, especially, book clubs. This audience will find its inspiring suggestions and actionable strategies might well translate to the difference between staying employed or standing in the unemployment line wondering what happened.
Bend, Don’t BreakReturn to Index
Big Boob
Emily Jungblut
Holy Crow Media
979-8901830024 $.99
https://www.amazon.com/Big-Boob-Finding-Optimism-Inflammatory-ebook/dp/B0G826VYZK/
Big Boob: Finding Hope and Optimism Through Inflammatory Breast Cancer is a memoir that follows Emily Jungblut’s survival process when, at age thirty-five, she was first diagnosed with breast cancer. Her search for survivor stories which were positive and hopeful resulted in few inspirational guides, so as she underwent treatment, she decided to provide the kind of story she so desperately needed herself.
The first important piece of information she provides stems from the breast self-exam which indicated a fast-moving problem. The indicators that something was wrong were sudden, and not what many who hear about “lumps” may expect. Thus, this provides important practical information to women that most medical coverages don’t reveal.
Also significant is how Jungblut chronicles medical responses to her initial self-diagnosis:
The vibe was off. Way off. You know that feeling when someone has already made up their mind before even talking to you? This was that. I instantly knew my concerns were about to be dismissed, and I was terrified. I felt my defensive guard rise.
Another important point that arises early in the story is how Jungblut knew something was wrong and pushed – even against her own nature – to engage medical professionals in making a diagnosis rather than accept the “wait and see” attitude they promoted. This likely saved her life, even though it went against her nature to be pushy:
Pushing back like this felt incredibly unnatural. I wasn’t a rebel, but when your intuition knows, it knows. I felt in my guts like this could be my life on the line, and I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. This choice to firmly say no, and mean it, was the best decision I could have made.
As Jungblut moves through her journey, the information, insights, and personal experiences keep readers not just engaged, but learning new information about their own health and interacting with the medical system.
This contributes to a memoir which stands out from the plethora of cancer survivor stories, making Big Boob a top pick for women’s health groups, breast cancer survivors, and those who would absorb the routines essential to redefining lives and futures.
Libraries and readers that choose Big Boob will want to assure that it widely circulates among women’s reading and health groups. Its special blend of personal experience and medical system encounters expands the knowledge of inflammatory breast cancer, options, and proactive health management.
Big Boob is highly recommended above many others for its ability to spin a compelling, real story and marry it with the attitudes and examples that contribute towards not just cancer survival, but a better outcome and life.
Big BoobReturn to Index
Bodaciously
True
& Totally
Awesome Episode 1: Bad Boy
Chris Orcutt
Have Pen Will
Travel
9781965999028
$19.99 Paperback/$35.99
Hardcover (Ingram)/$7.99 Kindle eBook
https://a.co/d/2xQniWl
Bodaciously True & Totally Awesome Episode 1: Bad Boy introduces a 9-book epic novel about American teens in the 1980s, setting the stage for future episodes that explore coming of age amongst the social and political climate of modern times. The first episode will be published in January 2026, with a new episode following about every 12 weeks.
Readers of coming-of-age stories will find this exploration quite different from the norm, which makes it a standout. Its hero, Avery “Ace” Craig, aims to capture the nuances of suburban teen life in the 80s in a fresh, original manner. Chris Orcutt succeeds in this goal by injecting elements of suspense, adventure, action, romance, and growth into the plot that dovetail nicely to flush out Ace’s personality and times.
Another note about why this novel comes across so startlingly realistic is the mixtape culture and musical notes that invite readers to set their own stages for the story by playing the 1980s music referenced throughout as a way of turning printed word into a quasi-musical.
Indeed, the feel of a show is displayed through scene-setting devices that open with atmospheric notes:
Fade in. A blizzard rages, shrouding the landscape in a gray haze...Far in the distance, a shape approaches and Van Halen’s “Eruption” begins to play, the otherworldly guitar solo rising in volume and drowning out the storm...It’s February 1986, and as we zoom in on our hero, he’s exulting in the bitter cold and the malevolent wind...
As Avery’s personality and adventures unfold, the rich nature of these dramatic scenes introduces many unexpected moments. He’s no ordinary teen, but hobnobs with political personalities, the rich, and forces beyond his generation’s years and interests.
These intersect in a satisfying series of encounters in which Avery not just observes, but interacts with his world in a playful, often wryly humorous manner:
“Hello, Miss Shapely. You look terrific. You must do aerobics.”
The corners of her lips form a faint smile. “Now, Mr. Craig. I’ve told you—it’s Miss Shipley, not ‘Miss Shapely.’”
Replete with student assemblies, trysts and field trips, musical notes and footnotes, and the return of Halley’s Comet, the 1980s comes to life in a way few other novels could achieve as Avery propels readers on a journey packed with close encounters and revelations.
Libraries looking for coming-of-age stories that bring the 1980s to life, adopt literary devices atypical of the traditional Catcher in the Rye style of social inspection, and are filled with “you are here” moments that will spark those growing up during those years to relive the past will find Bodaciously True & Totally Awesome Episode 1: Bad Boy an outstanding choice.
Highly recommended for its “you are here” inspections and vivid encounters with all levels of society and propriety, Bodaciously True & Totally Awesome Episode 1: Bad Boy is a different coming-of-age novel that simmers with discovery.
Bodaciously True & Totally Awesome Episode 1: Bad BoyReturn to Index
Conflict as
a
Revolutionary Force
Carol Hwoschinsky
PDH Press
979-8-9934945-0-0
$14.99
Website:
www.conflictasanevolutionaryforce.com
Ordering: www.barnesandnoble.com
Conflict as an Evolutionary Force presents Carol Hwoschinsky’s lifelong inquiry into the nature of conflict, from fearing it as a child to understanding how to work with it as a vehicle for dynamic change.
While many books purport to teach conflict resolution in one form or another, Conflict as an Evolutionary Force reveals the process by which mediation of conflicting elements, whether within oneself, with another, or between individuals or groups, can lead to new outcomes.
The book is both a memoir and a record of the influences that led Hwoschinsky to develop her philosophical and social vision. An essential element in conflict becoming evolutionary is bringing the broader view to bear on the situation, recognizing common ground the conflicting forces share.
A major turning point for Hwoschinsky was when she learned about the work of the Compassionate Listening Project, which in the late 1990s began taking delegations of North Americans to Israel and Palestine to promote dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis. Hwoschinsky describes how deeply she was struck when she first heard the project founder, Leah Green (who wrote the foreword for the book) bring the words “compassion” and “listening” together. She realized she needed to be part of this work, in which she participated for a decade:
Listening with compassion, she [Leah Green] explained, calls for peacemakers to initiate respectful contact and cultivate compassion for all parties involved. The purpose of this next delegation would be to listen to people from all sides of the conflict, understand their grievances and their suffering, and bring those impressions back to the delegates’ own communities. Most Americans, she said, did not understand what was really happening in the region, as the media did not provide an unbiased account. Compassionate Listening could be a powerful form of nonviolent activism.
The process by which Hwoschinsky’s personal transformation became political transformation is particularly notable. How her work as teacher, therapist, and mediator moved from individual to group and national scales as workshops encouraging change through compassionate listening to one another makes for a powerful read. Conflict as an Evolutionary Force is essential for understanding the interconnectedness of emotional, spiritual, social, and cultural experience and how conflict that seems irresolvable can in fact encourage new connections that create opportunities for all involved.
Ideally, Conflict as an Evolutionary Force>will be chosen by librarians, teachers, and listeners from all walks of life as an important toolkit for encouraging positive change. Its actionable insights and awareness that can contribute to truly evolutionary change make the book a powerful testimony to Hwoschinsky’s vision and its potential for transforming all kinds of “irreconcilable” conflicts, people, and situations.
Though Conflict as an Evolutionary Forcewill appeal to individual thinkers, it’s especially highly recommended for discussion groups, book clubs, classrooms, workshops, and any place where conflict resolution is of interest.
This insightful book offers a unique approach to resolving conflict and promoting mutual understanding.
Conflict as a Revolutionary ForceReturn to Index
Crimson
Mirage
Babujee
Independently
Published
979-8262852826
$14.99
Paperback/$2.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Crimson-Mirage-Red-Road-Romance/dp/B0FP97MPW7
Readers of Indian literature will find Crimson Mirage: A Red Road to Romance an engrossing story of small town young man Manush’s journey to college in hectic big-city Calcutta, where he finds himself a stranger in a world both familiar and alien.
The story opens with a mountain meditation experience in which Manush has a vision of murder and his involvement in another’s death, and is forced to confront his role in the outcome of these tragic events:
“Stop fooling yourself. Open your eyes. All your life, you’ve been deceiving even yourself. See where it has taken you. You’ve just killed somebody.”
Invited by his (dead) friend to “wash away the darkness,” Manush’s vivid nightmare of the first blood he’s seen spilled in a growing battle invades his waking life in Chapter 2, reviewing a scenario where he went from initial dreams of changing the world to confronting the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), a federal counter-insurgency paramilitary force, with deadly results.
The mandate to create destruction and chaos to grow a better world has failed, leading Manush into alluring but terrifying undercurrents in Calcutta which twist his beliefs and passion while enticing him with love and revised possibilities for his future and society as a whole.
Although Crimson Mirage’s cultural and political milieu will be new to most American readers, the story touches on the universal human emotions and experiences that makes it understandable and touches the heart. Thus, American readers will find Manush’s experiences and trajectory understandable even if they have little prior familiarity with India’s social and political history. Babujee crafts the story with an emotional draw that requires little of readers other than the ability to absorb and understand how a boy from a smaller town with the best of intentions becomes involved in dangerous undercurrents of violence and revolution in the big city.
The emotional turmoil and ultimate spiritual disintegration of the protagonist is another prominent theme in the story.
Political ideals struggle against the reality of death:
“When India is liberated, everyone will know of the brave fight these comrades put up against the landowners. They’ll be the beacon of revolutions for centuries to come.”
Babujee also holds an extraordinary ability to pinpoint some of the undercurrents of social angst that buffet his character above and beyond political clashes:
INSURANCE AGENTS HAVE THE COMBINED STALKING POWER of lice and leeches. No matter how much one tries, one cannot shake them off. They nourish and fatten themselves on clients’ premiums no matter what.
From trying new things to acting on his passion, Manush grows to maturity amidst a stormy backdrop of revolution and inner change. His readers grow with him, coming to better understand both the sentiments and influences of society and a young man’s coming of age to find his place within it as he buries secrets and enters a new life, only to find the past rising to confront him from unexpected places.
Librarians and readers that choose Crimson Mirage will appreciate how Indian society, politics, and individual pursuits come to life under Babujee’s hand. The novel is replete with insights that will also lend nicely to book club discussion, making it a top recommendation for libraries seeking a multifaceted story of transformation and confrontation:
He did not know where he was heading or how long it would take him to get there. Still, he could not get out of the deadly cloud that had cocooned him.
Crimson MirageReturn to Index
I (Think) I
Want
Out
Becky Whetstone,
PhD
Health
Communications, Inc.
978-07573-2539-7
$15.73
Paperback/$45.20 Audio/$12.99
eBook
www.hcibooks.com
I (Think) I Want Out: What to Do When One of You Wants to End Your Marriage addresses marital crises, decision-making processes, and how to dissolve a connection financially, emotionally, and socially. This is the item of choice for anyone contemplating ending their marriage.
More so than most books about couples in crisis, it addresses the nuts and bolts of dissolution, from the basic question of “should I stay or should I leave” to how to make either happen.
Dr. Whetstone tackles common issues and challenges in a manner that encourages self-help and insights, requiring readers to be willing to address their own prejudices, assumptions, and personalities in the process of making decisions:
The question the Leaning-In partner should ask is “Knowing what I do now and that what I may learn in the future may affect the outcome of this marriage crisis, am I willing to be proactive in my self-care and address the issues I have not yet addressed in my life?” This question and the answer will weigh heavily in the days and months to come. My advice to you is to get to work, and don’t ever stop.
This places the onus as much on the decision-making person as the partner facing the consequences of behaviors and choices.
Exercises and worksheets reinforce this guide’s self-help component, creating opportunities for self-analysis, reflection, and insight that help readers understand the roots of marital discord, what can be fixed and what is perhaps unfixable, and how to separate peacefully (if that is the ultimate conclusion).
Librarians and readers seeking books about martial assessment, dissolution, and self-help receive an important key to better understanding the progression of a marriage over its rockiest moments. Filled with important insights on how families can function in healthier ways, both together and apart, I (Think) I Want Out ideally should become part of psychology and reader discussion groups, to be referenced by married couples no matter their status long before the question of exiting arises.
I (Think) I Want Out: What to Do When One of You Wants to End Your MarriageReturn to Index
In China’s
Crosshairs
Eli Kerr Rudine
Independently
Published
979-8-218-88970-8
$8.99
www.rudineinc.com
In China’s Crosshairs: Sanctioned Voices from Tibet (Dalai Lama), Washington (Marco Rubio), and the Philippines (Francis Tolentino) reviews the experiences of government repression in three nations, drawing together a wealth of details about sanctions, threats, and oppression that assumes different official sponsorship in diverse ways.
The highlight of China’s policies might seem to limit this study and its three voices to scholars of Chinese affairs, but in reality In China’s Crosshairs is a history of repressive techniques that deserves widespread attention for its guide to why such systems are in place, how they work, and the tools that can be employed to confront oppression.
The first three chapters provide extensive reviews of the Dalai Lama, Marco Rubio, and Francis Tolentino’s worlds, focusing on how each found themselves in the crosshairs of Beijing, in very different ways. These aren’t just overviews: each chapter offers many sections that review Beijing’s propaganda machinery, admonitions and their historical and political impacts, and focus on individual actions.
This makes the book of special, important interest to all kinds of readers, from students of political science and Chinese history to those considering civil rights, justice and legal system operations, and the fine lines between formal sanction and outright bans.
This book is not meant to be a comprehensive history of Chinese affairs. It “shows how person-focused coercion functions across three theaters—exile identity, great-power politics, and regional gray-zone conflict—and what that means for people who speak, legislate, teach, and report for a living.” Its approach allows for a narrower definition and lens of inspection that translates to specific analyses of seemingly singular (but connected) events, relating them to bigger-picture thinking.
Official tactics and their impacts thus receive a close eye to outlining how they ripple from individual experience into society as a whole, permeating attitudes, approaches, and ideals with an overlay of sanctioned rules and repercussions:
An entry ban can mean missing a funeral, losing a field site, or being cut off from a community. A smear can close doors you’ll never see. And yet, there’s the other edge: speech amplified, allies rallied, and values clarified. This book lives in that tension—between punishment and signal, between fear and resolve.
Chapters document speeches, edicts, and history, presenting in bold the key takeaways from each experience. This allows readers to quickly understand the significance of statements, policies, and approaches to official proclamations. Even more importantly, they also embrace the culture and psychology of each group (the Philippines, Tibet, China) and present the impact of these actions in context of the social milieu of its people.
Also of special note are the kinds of tools and approaches which may be employed at different levels to combat repression:
Precision also matters in preparing defenses: for instance, knowing whether a Chinese action is under the AFSL, under the blocking statute, or just an informal boycott guides how to respond (through legal challenge, WTO case, or public exposure). Keeping a clear lexicon – and educating stakeholders on it – is a subtle but important way to reduce Beijing’s narrative leverage and to choose the right tool in return.
Footnoted references offer scholarly readers the source materials to research further, while close inspection of China’s new rules, shifting propaganda narrative, and approaches provide specific insights on present-day trends and possible future impact:
...as China’s hard tools (laws and regulations) expand, its soft tools (narratives and selective diplomacy) will operate in tandem – requiring vigilance on both fronts.
In China’s Crosshairs is about China’s influence and approaches, but the study takes an additional step into contrasting these with other nations and forces, showing how China is shaping the legal and political systems of other nations.
Librarians and readers interested in the intersection of political science and history, social justice and freedom, and the lessons about employing sanctions domestically and abroad that these hold for other nations will find In China’s Crosshairs a rich, invaluable study that’s surprisingly accessible to general-interest readers as well as scholars.
Eli Kerr Rudine’s In China’s Crosshairs offers sharp and compelling insights that place China on the world stage - a must-read for anyone studying the nation’s policies, global influence, and social impact.
In China’s CrosshairsReturn to Index
Life Switch
Joel Steele
Amplify Publishing
Group
979-8-89138-425-5
$28.00
Hardcover/$9.99 eBook/$99.00
with Audible subscription
www.amplifypublishinggroup.com
Life Switch: How to Experience the Power of Living On by Discovering Your Potential, Passion, and Purpose follows author Joel Steele’s footsteps in reinventing his life. It opens with the basic contention that powers this guide: “You can live your life at a higher level regardless of where you are right now.”
Steele transformed his life from ordinary to extraordinary “with the flip of a switch.” This process involved identifying, locating, and using that switch to effect positive life changes, and encourages transformative experiences and results. His contention is that anyone can do the same - but more than outlining a vision and a promise, Life Switch tells readers how to get there themselves.
Chapters encourage proactive behaviors which embrace all kinds of strategies, from creating, rather than awaiting, life plans and changes to cultivating a mindset that involves “a high activity level stemming from excitement to seize each day.”
This process involves embracing and learning from failures, becoming unafraid, turning setbacks (such as recovering from surgery) into advantages and opportunities, and more.
Readers could call Life Switch a memoir, for it’s filled with examples of moments when Steele took a step back from patterns and old habits to re-examine and turn his life around. In reality, it’s a motivational self-help guide to success based on attitude adjustment that takes common life situations and turns them on end to make them creative opportunities for growth and change.
Librarians and readers seeking a self-help guide with the personal touches and appeal of a memoir, the practicality of applied business savvy, and the promise of guidance through potentially challenging life events will find Life Switch just the ticket for an accessible, inspirational overview of how to create a new attitude about life.
Life SwitchReturn to Index
Living to
Relate
Dr. Dermot Casey
Atmosphere Press
979-8891329010
$29.99
Hardcover/$17.99
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
Living to Relate: Cultivating a Deeper Connection with Yourself and Others in a Digitally Driven World surveys the special challenge of what Dr. Dermit Casey calls “relational living” in a wired world. It outlines the small daily interpersonal interactions that build connection (or disconnection) in life, reviewing how relating is different from a relationship, and is actually the same process as living.
Managing relationships successfully is one of the foundations of a life well lived. Dr. Casey explores not only why this should be a priority, but how to achieve the end goal of a fulfilling life.
Chapters outline common disconnections between relating to and living in the modern digital world, including misconceptions about what makes for meaningful interactions, the influence of digital devices and mindsets on relationship-building, and how rapid changes in technology and culture have negatively impacted the vital connection between life and relating effectively.
They also provide many keys to not just better understanding, but mitigating the impact of digital disconnections and absorbing the source of basic life unhappiness and frustration:
Something doesn’t add up here, because if we’re relating more, why are our needs not being met sufficiently? This is mainly for reasons I have already mentioned: quantity- vs. quality-focused relating, more virtual relating and less face-to-face relating. Many of us have become very much burned out relationally due to the hundreds of relationships we engage in daily, predominantly online. People today are relating so much more but getting less of their needs met.
The result provides a touchstone for better understanding and effective change. Living to Relate will ideally will be utilized in group or book club settings to facilitate discussions and connections that lead to growth and solid realizations about the social importance of relationships and more effective relating processes.
Libraries and readers seeking a self-help title that goes beyond individual understanding to delve into group connections and social impact will find Living to Relate can open up important discussions and dialogues between all kinds of people.
This makes Living to Relate of high value not just for personal growth, but to society as a whole.
Living to RelateReturn to Index
Quickbooks
Online
Bootcamp
Alicia Katz
Pollock, MAT
Royalwise
Solutions Inc.
978-0989399265
$23.97
Paperback/$21.97 eBook
www.royalwise.com
QuickBooks Online Bootcamp: From Setup to Tax Time is for anyone looking to get up to speed quickly on the QuickBooks accounting software. It features a manual of best practices that have been employed by professionals and newcomers to QuickBooks since 2015.
A read-and-watch format embeds a video tutorial within the manual, linked to the RoyalWise OWLS online site. This reinforces the manual’s guidelines and processes with step-by-step visuals that display exactly how each procedure is done. Note: the “read and watch” format is optional, requiring a separate purchase of the video course.
In effect, this serves as an at-home (or at-office) classroom, pairing the best of written and visual worlds to reinforce the QuickBooks lessons. Quizzes concluding each chapter offer further reinforcement of how the QuickBooks lesson translates to real life situations, testing a user’s ability to apply the nuts and bolts of QuickBooks accounting to client needs.
From terms such as equity, liability, and inventory assets to making calculations correctly, the purpose of this guide is not to rehash the QuickBooks user guide, but to teach how these routines work in the accounting and real business world. Examples link what is presented in the program with the best way to juggle the numbers so they make sense and accurately reflect financial reality.
The fun, eye-catching “Hoot tips” add clarifications that are specific to the work being done:
NEVER itemize your charges in an Expense form to make a credit card payment. Individual charges should be imported by connecting your credit card to the Bank Transactions feed.
Discussions also embrace advanced QuickBooks versions and applications as well as basic business savvy:
It costs much more to gain a new client than it does to reach out to existing clients. When a customer pays an invoice, send them a satisfaction survey. The form includes an opportunity for the client to tell you when they want you to contact them again in the future.
More so than almost any other manual on QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online Bootcamp stands head-and-shoulders over other approaches for its specific tips, visual and video reinforcement, and business and financial savvy.
Librarians and QuickBooks learners will find this approach lives up to its promise of ease and everyday applications, and will want to make QuickBooks Online Bootcamp a basic, highly recommended reference above others for all these reasons. It is geared not just to one program’s abilities, but applying accounting basics to real world situations in a manner that reflects and makes the best, most accurate business sense.
Quickbooks Online BootcampReturn to Index
Quiet Money
Mark Hallink
Springwell
Publishing
979-8992303247
$19.95
Hardcover/$9.95
Paperback/$2.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Money-Important-Lifetime-Financial/dp/B0DYZZJ71Y
Quiet Money: Growing Wealth Quietly - and Why It's Super Important comes from an executive who has owned and run his own business for three decades, founding it in 1988 at age 23 and leading it for over thirty years.
Ten chapters cover the basics of “quiet wealth accumulation,” which covers the usual goal-setting with an added layer of understanding. The focus is on the impact of acquiring money, the psychology of building relationships based on wealth, and both the opportunities and detriments of placing wealth acquisition at the center of one’s life goals.
Chapters survey ideals of success, how the drive for monetary accumulation can overcome one’s values and basic pleasures in life, how to set financial boundaries and build trust in money-making endeavors, and how to add humility into a money-making picture.
These are topics not usually seen in the course of wealth-building strategies, but are every bit as important to the goal of building wealth as are the mechanics of making wealth grow.
Case history examples contrast the experiences and perspectives of a variety of individuals, from “The Borrowers” to “The Opportunists” and “The Sob Stories” (people who employ different routines to get what they want). Even more important are warnings about displaying one’s wealth, as in “loud money”:
If you’re loud with your money—showing off expensive cars, extravagant vacations, or luxury homes—people will assume you have more than you need, and worse, they’ll assume you owe them a piece of it.
The side effect of acquiring wealth thus goes beyond the acquisition process to consider the impact of what to do with such wealth. From living within one’s means and establishing financial boundaries which don’t restrict freedom but enhance it to developing a habit of gratitude for the people and resources that support financial wealth, Quiet Money offers readers the opportunity to assess the outcome of their goals and attitudes in addition to ways of increasing their assets.
The result may incorporate more psychology and philosophy than business readers are used to, but offers thought-provoking inspections of the wealth management process that are largely unavailable in books about wealth strategies.
This makes Quiet Money a standout. It’s the perfect choice for book clubs, libraries, and financial groups interested in discussing the basics of growing wealth in a more thoughtful manner.
Quiet MoneyReturn to Index
Real Estate
Investing in the New Era
Paul M. Getty
New Insights Press
979-8-9894926-3-3
$49.95
Hardcover/$29.95
Paperback/$2.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Real-Estate-Investing-New-Era-ebook/dp/B0FW7MXC5P
Real Estate Investing in the New Era: Smart Strategies to Build Wealth focuses on real estate as a key vehicle to create long-term generational wealth. It offers a comprehensive assessment of the many types of real estate in which one can invest, and contrasts the old versus new real estate investing strategies of investing adapted for modern times and new tax considerations and legal regulations
Paul M. Getty began his real estate career at age fourteen, has an MBA in finance from the University of Michigan, and has founded several companies involved in real estate investment, operating as either a buyer’s or seller’s rep in numerous deals.
Chapters cover both traditional and creative real estate investments with an eye to contrasting past versus present best practices. This approach sets Real Estate Investing in the New Era apart from advice guides that are mired in one approach or the other. It gives readers a fine foundation for better understanding how real estate investing has shifted over the decades, allowing them to develop up-to-date strategies.
Readers receive a range of insights on various forms of investment, from single-family homes and apartments to office buildings, data centers, self-storage buildings, senior living facilities, student housing, net lease properties, and more. The book contains extensive information on Section 1031 Exchanges and Delaware Statutory Trust investment structures. The wide range of topics covered identify smart strategies for wealth that many investors may not have fully considered, reviewing the pros and cons of each.
Of significant note are also discussions about the growing use of AI in many areas of the real estate industry, from home design to identification of worthwhile properties to invest in. The book also covers the rationale for the increasing use of blockchain technology, stablecoins, and Smart Contracts.
The result is a guide to the real estate world that leads readers through the ups and downs of different kinds of investments as well as changing attitudes, laws, and approaches to real estate acquisition and management.
Libraries and readers seeking a wide-ranging review of the past, present, and possible future of real estate investing will find Real Estate Investing in the New Era outstanding. It’s a cut above most beginners’ introductions on the subject because it goes beyond taking into account the fact that times have changed, tailoring specific strategies directed towards these shifting real estate atmospheres.
Real Estate Investing in the New EraReturn to Index
Tee Ball:
Myths
& Solutions
Marty Schupak
IngramSpark
9798993541501
$14.99
Website: MartySchupak.com
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Myths-Solutions-Marty-Schupak/dp/B0G1L8ZP28
Tee Ball: Myths & Solutions is a guide that tee ball coaches will want to pick up and run with. It reflects author Marty Schupak’s thirty years of coaching experience, providing specific insights about the sport that don’t involve rigid schedules, mindsets, or approaches. Indeed, one of the refreshingly unique aspects of this coach’s guide is that it invites innovation from its opening lines:
If this is your first step into the world of tee ball—or even your third season—you’ll walk away from this book a better coach. That, I guarantee. You might not agree with every word. Good. Think, challenge, invent. Carve your own coaching path.
Schupak begins with ten myths that plague tee ball coaches, dispelling them with realities and alternative thinking that lend to not just better coaching, but better playing. He infuses these guidelines and insights with the kind of joy he urges coaches to pass on to their kids. This, too, sets Tee Ball: Myths & Solutions apart from the usual coaching guide that focuses on strategizing and winning alone (though these goals are, of course, a part of the learning process and game, and are also covered in depth here).
That joy is reflected even in the instructions on how coaches can build a foundation of achievement in their young charges:
I love this drill and begin with the fielders using only their bare hands. Afterward, we transition to gloves. This is a one-skill drill, focusing solely on catching. After making the catch, the player simply flips the ball aside without throwing it.
As chapters progress, parents and novice coaches receive a wealth of ideas on how to capture and impart the joy of tee ball to all ages. Diagrams and comments compliment the advice, discussing teaching options that typical coaches may not consider:
Remember what I said earlier: if you continue to coach baseball or softball, practice baserunning. Most coaches won’t, and this is your chance to get a competitive edge.
Libraries and readers interested in books about not just coaching kids and teams, but building opportunities for finding joy and achievement in tee ball, will welcome how enthusiastically and specifically Tee Ball: Myths & Solutions approaches its subject.
Filled with examples, illustrations, and uplifting success stories, Marty Schupak doesn’t just incorporate, but embraces the standards and approaches that build teams and joy into the sport. These attributes make Tee Ball: Myths & Solutions a fervent winner in a playing field replete with less passionate coverages.
Tee Ball: Myths & SolutionsReturn to Index
The Temecula
Massacre
Gary P. DuBois and
Lisa L. Woodward
Great Oak Press
9781942279396
$21.98
Website: www.greatoakpress.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Temecula-Massacre-Lisa-Woodward/dp/1942279396/
The Temecula Massacre: A Forgotten Battlefield Landscape of the Mexican-American War is a “must have” for any library seeking a history that fills in the blanks about Native American culture and events. It’s also highly recommended for history buffs looking for uncommon accounts of largely overlooked struggles on American soil and their lasting impact.
The Pechanga Band of Indians holds this history, and here share it so it can be added to the chronicles of California and American events that have been largely hidden from or warped by non-Native viewpoints.
The Temecula Indian Cemetery, one of the last vestiges of the disastrous tumult of 1846-1847, is evidence of preservation efforts and the effort to chronicle one of the biggest losses of Native in California during the Mexican-American War. After the slain were initially disposed of in a mass grave, the efforts of this tribe to return history and dignity to their rightful places in American history are represented by this cemetery and in the oral histories handed down and preserved in The Temecula Massacre.
Connections are made between events that modern-day Californians may know differently from their history and those of the past which have been largely hidden until now.
From social undercurrents that permeated California during the Mexican-American war to firsthand accounts of the massacre, collected for use as source material in other books, the sentiments and experiences of those times come to life in a blend of scholarly historical assessment and personal experience.
Maps, handwritten notes, and other illustrations accompany extensive footnoted references alongside interesting dialogues about past historical interpretation. Oral accounts of why the Cahuilla agreed to fight against the Temecula Indians, with whom they had “longstanding familial connections” is described in detail.
The authors do an exceptional job of analyzing the times, providing a sense of place and culture, and describing social and political interactions. This assures that the tribal knowledge is presented in conjunction with a greater understanding of the history and feelings surrounding these experiences.
Libraries and readers interested in expanding their knowledge of Native America and its tribal history will find The Temecula Massacre a winner. Its blend of intricate scholarship and social and political insights, its attention to supporting documents, maps, and details, and its lively survey of the pressures and issues that resulted in disaster are suitable for classrooms, individual pursuit, and reading group discussions alike.
The story is very highly recommended as a “must” for anyone interested in California or Native American history, and as a strong testimony to how California entered the Union and expanded its poor treatment of the Native population.
A side note: Great Oak Press is owned and operated by the Pechanga Band of Indians which publishes books related to tribal interests such as traditional language revitalization and local history and culture.
The Temecula MassacreReturn to Index
Vold Book’s
Oceans
of
Curtains
John T. Trautman
Vold Book
979-8999752208 $18.99
Paperback/$2.99 ebook
Website:
https://www.oceansofcurtains.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/John-T.-Trautman/author/B0FVJFJ6DH
Vold Book’s Oceans of Curtains is a multimedia blend of book and accompanying music to be enjoyed as the book is read, and features original compositions by John T. Trautman which are excellent garnishes to a novel set to music. In effect, the result is an audiobook that tantalizes the eye with print and the ear with compositions written and performed by the author.
Set the ethereal music to play in the background, then pursue reading the chapters.
“I am all that hath been, and is, and shall be...” The story opens with an echoing, commanding audio statement that follows an instrumental introduction.
Drama is built into the music, heightening the listening experience of a story which opens with lovers Pandara and Koravo’s discovery of a book which depicts their present and portends the future.
The audio’s narrator is as vivid and ethereal as the music that creates the background. At times, the music volume threatens to overcome the narrator’s clarity – but that’s only because voice and music prove equal in strength. Were the music a tad lower, the voice might be a bit clearer, but the end result is a high-impact listen.
As the book is written, Pandora and Koravo are “pulled into the book for a lifetime” - as are readers who will quickly become enchanted by its audio descriptions.
The story itself adopts the tone of magical realism with a science fictional backdrop as it pursues bigger picture events surrounding leadership, servitude, and a mystery over a great explorer and philosopher.
The wisdom the characters uncover through their journey, a mysterious book, and events which push them into new realizations and discoveries about the world and each other makes for thought-provoking reading, especially when enhanced by narrator and emphasized by musical drama:
“Here I am, on the precipice of discovery. I don’t know what I will find at the top of this mountain, but I know that I am on the right and noble path. The question that has driven me: how to free the universe of suffering, has led me to this juncture. I stand humbled and amazed that all who came before me helped me in the ways that they did. I feel as though a spectator, watching myself make the choices that have resulted in this eve of finality.”
Ignited with the flame of musical embellishment and emphasis, Vold Book’s Oceans of Curtains is best enjoyed in its audio format, though the book itself can be a standalone read sans audio support. The passion of events, characters, and philosophical inspections of moral and political threats to ways of life is captured by the narrator and music so seamlessly that the slower pace set by audio listening (versus, perhaps, a speed reading ability by a reader) becomes almost a requirement for the complete appreciation of the story’s premise.
Libraries interested in engaging audio books will find Vold Book’s Oceans of Curtains not only a fine acquisition, but a surprisingly powerful recommendation for book clubs that may be open to considering audio books.
If only one example of a superior audio book were to be chosen for illustration of its special strengths, it should be Vold Book’s Oceans of Curtains.
More so than most, Vold Book’s Oceans of Curtains is a fine example of the power of audio, when properly paired with appropriate music and narrator, to not just enhance, but supercharge the experience of understanding the book’s important narrative.
Vold Book’s Oceans of CurtainsReturn to Index
With Love
Shari Hofer and
Shabnam Kazmi
Namari Press
979-8-9932089-0-9
$9.99 eBook
www.girlfridayproductions.com
With Love: A Practical Guide to Caring for Aging Parents Through the End of Life is an end-of-life discussion for the children of aging parents that addresses many hard topics of preparing for a parent’s demise. These include estate planning, legal decisions, creating care teams and choices that work for parent and loved ones alike, and other situations which can become obstacles to communication and love at the end of life.
Shari Hofer and Shabnam Kazmi provide important insights on not just healthcare concerns, but legal and financial paperwork and decision-making particular to life’s end, which can be sticky barriers to discussion between parents and their adult children.
Chapters address the realities of such modern-day discussions:
The truth is that preparing for caregiving is no longer a should-do but a must-do.
Insights are accompanied by practical suggestions for all income levels and situations, which encourage understanding and are reinforced by author experience. This shows readers they are not alone in being caught between their own life obligations and caregiving demands:
I was in budget season at work, on deadline for creating all kinds of financial projections about how resources should be allocated for the year ahead. It was a competitive process within the company, and one that stressed everyone out. And suddenly the reality hit—I was going to have to drop everything and fly to Malaysia to manage the crisis there.
This approach offers invaluable insights into balance and building support systems that go beyond identifying caregiving professionals and needs, delving into how to juggle more than one life simultaneously.
The book also tackles underlying presumptions beyond family history and caregiving needs that affect how, why, and when help is provided, as well as the effectiveness and acceptability of that help:
When we enter caregiving, we bring a variety of assumptions, expectations, and biases to the task. The way we were raised, the religious and cultural norms that have shaped our worldview, our socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as our place of origin are all significant. All this background shapes how we think about caregiving and how we go about the task itself. This matters because all these various factors can be at odds with the perspectives of our parents and the other stakeholders in our caregiving journey.
Libraries and readers interested in a positive approach to opening new dialogues between aging parents and their adult children will find that With Love stands out from the crowd, offering insights, dialogues, and approaches designed to not just foster understanding, but create new pathways of support systems – and love – between parents and children.
This opportunity is as invaluable as the explorations of how to maintain love via better understanding.
With LoveReturn to Index
You Matter
Too!
The Teachings
Rabbi Mark Borovitz
AuthorHouse
979-8823051576
$16.99
Paperback/$3.99 eBook
https://authorwebservices-gem2.net/AuthorHouse/868176/
You Matter Too! The Teachings is about how to live a purposeful life. Though it comes from a Rabbi, and thus will be of special interest to Jewish audiences, its message ideally won’t be limited to this group alone, but will attract a larger readership of thinkers looking for spiritual and social guidance.
The book opens with a revelation:
Too many of us are unaware of the joy of living. We are spiritually bankrupt and go to therapists for what a member of the clergy would be better able to help us solve.
While there is no quick fix, and God will not strike all the pestilence and negativity from outside of us -- or within us - - spiritual counseling will help us rekindle and raise up our souls.
It then mixes Rabbi Mark Borovitz’s personal life experiences and pivot points of revelation with the bigger-picture thinking that led him to teachings that not only transformed his life, but those around him. These lessons form the foundation of this book, which takes Biblical stories and translates them into thought-provoking insights about how God’s message and works in daily life:
We learn that God admonished Cain by not accepting his offering. We don’t learn in religious school that this is God teaching us that when we do something, we must do the best we can at that moment, not resort to tricks.
You Matter Too! The Teachings incorporates these life-changing observations as a series of vignettes and examples linking Borovitz’s work with self and others to bigger-picture thinking. This gives the reader access to loftier ideas though ordinary daily experience and encounters, opening the door to understanding.
Thus, self-help ideals arrive via the experiences of ordinary folk, tempered by the blend of 12-step recovery principles and Jewish spiritual wisdom to create an unusually accessible, understandable inspection of the process of transformation and change.
Whether readers are considering the difference between response and reaction or honing new life paths that embrace forms of interaction that encourage better encounters for everyone, You Matter Too! The Teachings delves into the nuts and bolts of how to achieve more and live better through revised understanding and adjusting one’s engagements with the world.
The result is a blend of Jewish spiritualism, recovery, religious inspection, and psychological self-inspection that will prove especially fruitful for reading groups of all kinds as well as individuals seeking examples of exactly how changes are made from deeper considerations of impact and choice.
Libraries and readers interested in Jewish teachings, spiritual connections to personal growth, and the process of not succumbing to indifference and inhumanity will find You Matter Too! The Teachings an outstanding key to making a difference in the world.
You Matter Too! The TeachingsReturn to Index
Zen and the
Art of
Dog Training
Adam Halleck
Pure Ink Press
979-8-9875866-4-8
$17.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FY26DWXM
Zen and the Art of Dog Training: What Dogs Can Teach Us About Ourselves explores the connections between animals, humans, training, and Zen ideals. It is highly recommended for canine lovers interested in wider-ranging philosophical examinations.
Readers might not believe that dog training has much to do with Zen concepts, but Adam Halleck draws important connections between the structure of dog training and the kinds of impulse control, understanding consistency and reactivity, and addressing expectations that is part of a trainer and Zen follower’s model for better choices.
Chapters are dog-centric in their discussions of bad habits, traumas, and other influences on behavior, but add the value of bigger-picture Zen concepts and perceptions into the mix:
There is no endpoint in dog training, which is the same for our path of growth. There is never a point where the relationship will stand on its own without putting in the work. Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh gives us this wisdom when he writes, “You follow the North Star, but your goal is to get back home; it’s not to arrive at the North Star.” We can have a vision of our perfect life with our dogs, but it is equally important to realize that our goal is not to arrive at perfection; it is to create balance.
The movement from individual habit, action, and “seeing the whole situation for what it is” offers trainers and philosophical readers important insights into applying Zen concepts far beyond their original focus, creating important insights into human and animal conditions.
The result is, yes, a dog training guide; but it’s also a formula for better living that incorporates applied Zen concepts into not just training, but viewpoints about life and its progression.
Libraries interested in books about dogs will want to encourage dual interest in this book about Zen and habit management because Zen and the Art of Dog Training is far more than another dog training guide, but a blueprint for better living.
With its insights into animal and human behavior, Zen and the Art of Dog Training offers many ideas and options that neither competing dog training nor other Zen philosophical guides consider. It stands out with a balanced focus on behavioral change and revised expectations that will hold meaning for dog owners and everyone else.
Zen and the Art of Dog TrainingReturn to Index
ABCs
of NASCAR
Racing
Andy Amendola
Red Racer Books
979-8-218-76910-9
$19.99
www.redracerbooks.com
Picture book readers who love car racing or are new to NASCAR will appreciate having an early introduction to the racing world with ABCs of NASCAR Racing. Here is an ABC primer linked to car racing science, personalities, and events that opens with A for Aerodynamics and moves through P for Pit Stop and W for White Flag. Each alphabet letter and topic receives several sentences of detail that help explain car racing in general and NASCAR in particular.
Wei Ren adds inviting, colorful illustrations that capture the action and processes of the car racing world, from how pit stops are conducted at lightning speed to details about intermediate tracks (one of four types of tracks that NASCAR races on), with accompanying illustration containing visual explanations and contrasts between super speedways, short tracks, road courses, and intermediate tracks.
The book is designed with two objectives in mind: to capture the excitement and processes of a typical NASCAR event, and to provide a different ABC primer for the very young.
Adults who choose ABCs of NASCAR Racing will appreciate how both educational opportunities dovetail in a rich, inviting survey of the world of car racing that will educate and enthrall young picture book readers and their read-aloud adults.
ABCs of NASCAR RacingReturn to Index
Eliza Jane
Finds
Her Dog Squad
Eliza Kelley and
Debra Whiting
Alexander
Luminare Press
979-8-88679-872-2
$12.95
Paperback/$4.95 eBook
Website:
www.debrawhitingalexander.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FL4BJ85G?binding=kindle_edition&sr=1-1&ref=dbs_dp_awt_sb_pc_tkin
Eliza Jane Finds Her Dog Squad adds another book to a series about an Oregon cowgirl who is quirky, intelligent, and has Tourette syndrome. Eliza Jane is about to be eleven, but she’s no stranger to romance – she fell hard in love at age five with Archie, a Chihuahua, and couldn’t imagine at the time why her usually-understanding mother rejected the possibility of their marriage.
Now she’s so much older and is facing new struggles – entering fifth grade against her wishes. She’s fine with remaining a fourth grader forever because the prospect of a new school ties directly into her feelings about how much she hates change and new things. She just wants everything to stay the same.
Her understanding talking “wonder dog” Archie tries to help her adjust, but it takes making new friends and having new experience to get her over the hurdle of fear that threatens to keep her from the things she loves.
Information about Tourette’s is imparted through Eliza Jane’s eyes as she experiences her world. This is an important note because, where many books for young people tell about special needs, Eliza Jane Finds Her Dog Squad adopts an experiential outlook that helps readers understand Eliza Jane’s emotions, fears, and her different way of perceiving the world. It also adds the perceptions of others as they enter Eliza Jane’s world:
“My brother has the same thing. You don’t look like you have Tourette’s, though. You’re lucky.”
“Lucky? Hardly. Just because you don’t always see my tics doesn’t mean I don’t have them. Or that they don’t hurt.”
“My brother’s tics always show.”
“It might be because he’s a boy. Tourette’s is different for every single person, but girls usually try and ‘mask’ all the ways they feel different. I did too. I wanted to fit in so I tried to hide my tics. But not anymore.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to be seen and understood for exactly who I am.”
From dog Archie’s love for his friend Lucy and a conundrum which emerges from that to how Eliza Jane involves others in her world, Eliza Jane Finds Her Dog Squad is a uplifting, informative, interesting story of finding one’s place and people in the broader, scary world beyond familiarity.
Its lessons and adventures will engage a wide audience of middle grade readers not because it enlightens about Tourette’s or special needs, but because it focuses on the growth and empowerment of a precocious young dreamer and her dog who enjoy adventures as they confront fears, hopes, and dreams.
This is why librarians need to highly recommend Eliza Jane Finds Her Dog Squad to elementary-level and middle-grade readers as an inviting, fun story of a girl who finds not just her “dog squad,” but her place in a changing world.
Eliza Jane Finds Her Dog SquadReturn to Index
The End of
the
Sidewalk
Nancy Schutt
McCorkle
Independently
Published
978-1-63337-988-6
$14.99
Paperback/$6.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/End-Sidewalk-Nancy-Schutt-McCorkle/dp/1633379884
The End of the Sidewalk will attract middle grade readers with a story, set in the 1960s, that opens with twelve-year-old Gertrude Scuffer’s encounter with the Freedom Riders and prejudice. She lives in Jackson, Mississippi and her mother is on the civil rights commission, so events are starting to hit her home and familiar life.
From her opening encounter with civil rights issues, which lands her into trouble, Gertrude absorbs differing views about civil rights and social attitudes:
“The policeman told us that too. He also said you were on the commission to rile up the Coloreds.”
“The commission is a committee to hear the wrongs that the Negroes have endured and to report them to Washington DC. The Freedom Riders are working for equal rights in transportation. I’m not trying to rile up anyone. I’m trying to help.”
How these blossoming issues divide the family and entwine social action and revelations with personal values and choices makes for an especially absorbing tale as seen through the eyes of a girl who ventures past familiar boundaries (the end of the sidewalk) and into another world.
Middle grade readers will relish how Gertrude absorbs new relationships and social issues, and how the impact of very adult situations spreads among family and friends to flavor everything she does and values in her young life.
As Gertrude considers what her role could be in the civil rights movement, she contemplates becoming a Freedom Rider for Friendship. Her parents shift from wanting to protect her from the movement’s possible violence to appreciating how Trudy might support it.
Nancy Schutt McCorkle creates a realistic backdrop of events, politics, and social conundrums which arise from 1960s issues. The world she paints is realistic, compelling, and informative as she integrates the fictional story of a young girl’s community and choices with bigger-picture thinking.
Libraries and readers will find The End of the Sidewalk’s survey of the times to be enlightening, emotionally compelling, and hard to put down as Trudy interacts with her friends and world in novel ways that absorb and reflect the true meaning of equality, choice, and social engagement.
Young readers who view this Southern experience through Trudy’s eyes will also find much to think about (and many moments worthy of book club discussions), making The End of the Sidewalk an important addition to middle grade book lists.
The End of the SidewalkReturn to Index
The Fire on
Slate
Fell
Warren Cabral
Lakeland Mysteries
Wilton Books Ltd.
978-1-0686043-0-0
$12.99
Paperback/$6.99 eBook/$9.99
Audiobook
www.wiltonbooks.com
The Fire on Slate Fell is a middle grade adventure illustrated by Corryn Webb that features primary school detectives and sisters Mae and Isla Donaldson. An exceptionally vivid, fiery cover attracts attention, good-size maps introduce the story with geographic visuals, and an attention to detail represents the tale’s England setting:
It was very annoying. Twelve perfectly good eggs lay
smashed on the tarmac, just behind the car. Somebody had not put the shopping bags in the boot properly. And that somebody was definitely not Mae Donaldson.
A mysterious hooded stranger who seems to be a spy has captured mischievous sister Isla’s attention. Even as the eggs are being cleaned up, a mystery cooks. Thundering, brilliantly painted motorcycles enter the tale a few paragraphs later to add further intrigue and atmosphere. Readers are attracted by puzzles that involve several mysterious strangers and an exceptionally long supermarket receipt filled with strange purchases. How are all these connected?
As readers ages 9 and older pursue several threads of inquiry, the mystery deepens with action, compelling characters, and the efforts of two sisters who become involved with the “Fells Angels” gang - who are not what they first appear.
Isla’s drawing talent proves invaluable as the sisters are drawn ever deeper into the mystery surrounding a hooded stranger, possible buried treasure, vanished people, and a case of fraud.
Complementing the intrigue is the emotional attraction of two very different siblings whose approaches to life serve to solve problems neither could tackle alone. Bound by the ability to share their thoughts and the fact that their differences result in a solid investigative force, the adventure stems as much from their interactions and growing abilities as it does from the results of fell walking, discoveries, and an eventual threat that separates the sisters and portends disaster.
Warren Cabral creates a powerful, uncommon story of siblings and a family whose interactions and insights make for a compelling story. The Fire on Slate Fell reaches out on an emotional level that most children’s mysteries can’t touch.
Libraries and young readers will appreciate how family dynamics develop as strongly as the intrigue component of the tale, as well as how the two sisters interact and grow as they tackle a mystery that winds up hitting too close to home.
Attention-grabbing illustrations throughout contribute to an overall sense of discovery and achievement that makes The Fire on Slate Fell an involving read.
The Fire on Slate FellReturn to Index
Humphrey's
Hum
Sophie Hyndman
Barleyfrog Books
978-1-0687811-0-0
$10.50
Paperback/$2.99 eBook
Website: https://barleyfrogbooks.com/
Ordering:
https://tinyurl.com/57u645wr
Humphrey's Hum envisions what happens when Humphrey is happy and hums, offering picture book readers a fine connection between musical output and activity.
Humphrey is always busy, and he’s always humming as his day unfolds. One day he finds himself frustrated with his many ambitious projects. He is frustrated until he identifies the block to his creative talent – he has no hum.
What develops next is a lovely musical note that links activity, achievement, and rituals that reinforce and support creative output.
Sophie Hyndman’s lively, appealing story will attract a wide audience of young readers who will find Humphrey’s dilemma unusual, appealing, and filled with insights about supporting one’s creative process.
The colorful pictures throughout offer many considerations of humming, searching for one’s lost muse, and growing into one’s talents. This will prove delightful for adults reading Humphrey’s Hum to the very young, as well as new readers pursuing stories about inspirational output.
Elementary-level libraries that choose Humphrey’s Hum will find the tale colorful, revealing, and suitable for individual pursuit, family time, or group listening.
Humphrey's HumReturn to Index
The Lad in
the Lane
Warren Cabral
Wilton Books Ltd.
978-1-0686043-2-4
$12.99
Paperback/$6.99 eBook/$9.99
Audiobook
www.wiltonbooks.com
The Lad in the Lane, Book 3 in the Lakeland Mysteries series for young readers, involves sibling detectives Isla and Mae in yet another conundrum. The English family confronts a new mystery in the form of a boy that apparently only the clairvoyant Isla and Mae can see. What does this specter have to do with the threat to their grandmother’s home?
Corryn Webb again provides eye-catching color drawings throughout that depict family members as they go camping and interact on different levels. Isla and Mae’s special ESP abilities occasionally challenge even their own parents:
Sometimes his daughters seemed to be having utterly different conversations from the one he thought he was having with one or other or both of them.
Nana Parton’s sorrow and fear over losing her beloved home draws her family into the situation of a strange boy, a cold case, and a hot dilemma. A developer bent on acquiring Nana’s property and those around her, to turn her street into a business center, coincides with the appearance of this boy, posing not one but several mysteries.
Warren Cabral illustrates his story with realistic problem-solving efforts that reveal not just the girls’ strengths, but their unique ways of building upon their skills for additional support and power:
Mae keened her head sideways so she could read what was written on it, committing as much of it to memory as possible. Or, rather, she converted what she read to verse, which was her way of remembering complicated things.
This not only enhances the story’s realistic development of girls who step into their abilities while honing new skills, but offers interesting possibilities to young readers developing their own coping skills.
While the language and descriptions are British, kids will find that the differences between Americans and the British are easy to understand and the descriptions thought-provoking:
It was a brisk day for brisk people to do brisk work at Blelham Bog. Jim and the Volunteers for the Lake District National Parks were hard at work repairing the paths around the tarn.
Another plus is how the entire family becomes involved in solving dilemmas together, joining their strengths in different ways to achieve solutions, look at the world with diverse eyes and talents, and create cooperative paths of discovery and interaction.
As for the mystery itself: what young person wouldn’t appreciate a story that involves ESP, detective work, family feuds and stolen deeds, and the possibility of a ghost?
Librarians and young readers that choose The Lad in the Lane as either a standalone mystery or part of the series will find the story as fresh, original, and as compelling as Isla and Mae’s previous adventures.
The Lad in the LaneReturn to Index
Lola
Gillette and
the Summer of
Second Chances
Kimberly Behre
Kenna
Willow River
(Between the Lines
Publishing)
978-1-965059-74-6
Paperback:
$14.99/Ebook: $3.99
https://btwnthelines.com/product/lola-gillette/
Lola Gillette and the Summer of Second Chances is a story about grief, recovery, and honoring the dead. Thirteen-year-old Lola Gillette is determined to complete the last project she’d had with her dearly departed sister, the Perfect Pairs Collection, at all costs – even stealing coveted Supergirl bobble head dolls from old man Webber’s shop. When she’s caught and sent to live with agoraphobic Uncle Milo in his old Connecticut mansion for the month, Lola finds herself in what she considers “lockdown.” Her parents view this as time out from her life and helping an aging relative. Lola doesn’t think much of what she considers their over-reaction to her thieving ways:
You’d think I’d robbed Tut’s tomb and twisted history forever.
She views her time with her aging uncle as a waste of a perfectly good August, but as she meets Kya, a woman who yodels, and develops a mission to help her uncle, Lola discovers that second chances arrive in different ways.
As she reconsiders the importance of the Perfect Pairs Collection that once ruled her life, Lola also reassesses luck, choice, and the rituals that she has chosen to honor her sister’s life.
Lola Gillette and the Summer of Second Chances offers a wonderful opportunity for middle grade readers to appreciate how a grieving girl comes to look outside her connections, complete a goal, and experience new relationships and options.
The characterization is well done and the contrast between Lola and her Uncle Milo’s approach to grieving and coming to terms with loss is particularly insightful. The injection of mystery and action into the plot, including holographic messages from a dead aunt and mishaps in a Zen Garden, add value with dimensions of discovery and realization that are insightful and exciting.
Librarians and readers interested in a heartfelt story of adventure, discovery, new experiences, and coming to terms with the past will welcome how Lola Gillette and the Summer of Second Chances creates a thought-provoking story of change.
Lola Gillette and the Summer of Second ChancesReturn to Index
The Mystery
of the
Chemic Tavern
Warren Cabral
Wilton Books Ltd.
978-1-0686043-3-1
$12.99
Paperback/$6.99 eBook/$9.99
Audiobook
www.wiltonbooks.com
Young readers ages 9 and older who have imbibed of Warren Cabral and illustrator Corryn Webb’s engaging detective stories will find yet another attraction in the ongoing adventures, continued in Book 4 of the Lakeland Mysteries series, The Mystery of the Chemic Tavern.
Here, clairvoyant siblings Isla and Mae confront their mother’s artistic cousin, the formidable “Aunt Mary,” whose arrival coincides with much of the town falling ill with a mysterious ailment. As the siblings follow clues that stem from their aunt’s drawing and lead to unexpected plots involving a famous local family, they become embroiled in a situation that involves seemingly disparate clues. These involve a tattoo, the mysterious Rudd family (that should have been chased out of town years ago), and suspicions that stem from Mary’s drawings.
As art from the Jennings collection sparks a memory that connects Mary to the rich people, Isla’s sharp artist’s eye provides the clues to not just the source of stomach troubles, but the broader origins and implications of long-held family secrets.
Cabral once again creates a fine mystery whose strength lies in the developing relationships of young Mae, Isla, other family members, and their newfound connections to the world around them, as well as discoveries about their own strengths and problem-solving abilities. The interactions within and outside of this family reinforce its differences, connections, and involvements in a satisfying manner that will prove engrossing to young readers.
Librarians and young readers can choose The Mystery of the Chemic Tavern as either a standalone read or as a supportive addition to the series. Its ability to reach out and embrace not just all of its characters but fans of young detective sleuths makes for vivid attraction that marries colorful drawings by Webb with clues that lead to revelations most young mystery enthusiasts won’t see coming.
All this translates to a thoroughly engrossing read.
The Mystery of the Chemic TavernReturn to Index
Raining
Robots
Book One: A Boy and
His D.O.G.
Jordan Hines with
Jerri Hines
Hines Publishing
979-8988668251
$18.00
Hardcover/$12.00
Paperback/$4.99 eBook
Website: https://aboyandhisdog.blog/
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Raining-Robots-Boy-D-G/dp/B0DFLN15GB
Raining Robots Book One: A Boy and His D.O.G. reaches middle grade to young adult sci-fi readers with an exciting plot that stems from imaginative games and creative storytelling sessions between Jordan Hines and his grandmother, Jerri Hines. This produces an ongoing saga about a boy and his unusual dog which opens with a familiar observation:
Every boy wants a dog. It has been a scientific fact since the beginning of time. Sure, I might not have ever read that in a book, but trust me, it’s as true as the sky is blue because, well, I’m a boy, and I want a dog.
Raining Robots Book One: A Boy and His D.O.G. is anything but your typical boy-meets-dog story. Cyborgs, a Chief Councilor of the Luminal Vanguard, the resistance against the Consortium, and confrontations with malicious code, attacks, and enemies supercharge the boy/dog scenario to the point where the action and animal connections are thoroughly entwined and satisfyingly unpredictable.
Jordan Hines and his grandmother Jerri Hines produce a winning combination of science, aliens, action, and relationship-building confrontations. The young first-person narrator is engaging, the plot ripe with twists readers won’t see coming, and the lure of a boy and his extraordinary D.O.G. is not only unpredictable, but often funny:
My mind raced with all sorts of wild scenarios before D.O.G. appeared for our training session. I imagined D.O.G. with sunglasses and a leather jacket. He would be known as Dog-nator, chewing bubblegum and kicking butt. Then, I pictured myself in the same outfit next to him. Boy, did we look cool.
Elementary-level libraries seeking a sci-fi tale that is vivid, creative, and thoroughly absorbing will want to highly recommend Raining Robots Book One: A Boy and His D.O.G. to young audiences. It’s a standout, both for its creative plot and its down-to-earth characters and their evolving relationships.
Raining Robots Book One: A Boy and His D.O.G.Return to Index
The
Vanishing
Young of Rydal Cave
Warren Cabral
Wilton Books Ltd.
978-1-0686043-4-8
$12.99
Paperback/$6.99 eBook/$9.99
Audiobook
www.wiltonbooks.com
What elementary-level mystery fan wouldn’t be attracted to The Vanishing Young of Rydal Cave, with its promise of intrigue and cave exploration built right into its title, alongside colorful cover art by Corryn Webb?
The tale opens with a compelling question:
“Do you believe in Unidentified Flying Objects?’’
Isla’s query to her sister Mae opens the door for a clash between practical and creative thinking as the oscillating lights outside their window prove that practicality can run headlong into scientific explanation and improbability. The sisters investigate the strange phenomenon, only to discover that possible shape-shifters and aliens may be involved in local disappearances.
That’s only the tip of the investigative iceberg as the siblings confront not only the impossible, but their own perceptions of UFOs, newcomers to town, and secret codes that could provide clues to the disappearances that took place when others tried to investigate.
England’s Lake District once again is the backdrop for adventure and discovery as Isla’s acceptance of the natural world and its puzzles clashes with practical Mae’s proclivity for doubt. The contrasts between Isla’s inclination to find oddities beautiful and Mae’s determination that they could pose threatening new possibilities makes for particularly rich, insightful reading as the young detectives square off over what’s impossible.
Equally thought-provoking is how Isa and Mae work with the adults around them to consider and identify ghosts and real problems, confronting the adults’ tendency to calm the kids’ fears without really addressing the problem.
As a mysterious building with a modern appearance proves to have a basement that appears ancient and reeks of fish, presenting the girls with dangerous possibilities, kids will appreciate how the mysteries accumulate to provide involving, tense revelations.
Adults will appreciate the inclusion and interactions of parents and characters whose age, guidance, and maturity contribute to the action in unexpected ways.
Librarians and young readers alike will be drawn to The Vanishing Young of Rydal Cave’s special abilities to explore the unexpected, create connections between different mindsets, and evolve a mystery that enters supernatural realms as a pair of clairvoyant young detectives pursues answers.
The Vanishing Young of Rydal CaveReturn to Index
The Wolf of
Ennerdale
Warren Cabral
Wilton Books Ltd.
978-1-0686043-1-7
$12.99
Paperback/$6.99 eBook/$9.99
Audiobook
www.wiltonbooks.com
The second book in the middle grade Lakeland Mysteries series, The Wolf of Ennerdale, enjoys the same vivid color illustrations by artist Corryn Webb as it explores the conundrums and new intrigue posed by the arrival of Uncle Bill, whose presence introduces a mercenary and diamond smuggling into the lives of siblings Mae and Isla.
Once again, their ESP and family connections prove the key to tackling a wide-ranging issue that tests their problem-solving ability and tenacity.
The story is not limited to diamonds and thieves. The circle of intrigue and impact widens to embrace an international terrorist plot and a strange device that could lead to a nuclear catastrophe – heady problems for a young person to confront and equally challenging for them to solve. But Mae and Isla are up to the task, given their extraordinary detective abilities and interpersonal connections.
Young readers receive an adventure that does not “talk down” to them but presents complex, yet thoroughly engrossing, understandable scenarios that keep readers engaged and guessing.
Slightly crazy Uncle Bill adds color and high drama to the adventure. Ordinary daily life, including cauliflower curry, is depicted alongside the hair-raising encounters. Warren Cabral again takes the time to fully develop not just the situation and the problem solving savvy it demands of these young characters, but the supportive family background and involvement of parents who assume secondary but important roles, and are present in the lives of their kids. These are reinforced by dramatic dialogues:
“I really don’t know what happened in the store and I can’t get any sense out of the girls. They seem to think she was kidnapped. In Cockermouth! More like she went back in to get something. Anyway, we rowed about it all the way home. And you know the rest!”
“We know what we saw, Daddy,” said the girls, their arms crossed and brows furrowed.
Another strength to The Wolf of Ennerdale lies in how Volkov the Wolf, the “monster man of the marina,” threatens them all, yet proves to be the key to recognizing a form of sabotage which is high-tech and only resolvable by a pair of exceptionally clever young detectives.
Librarians and young readers will appreciate the complexity of these encounters, which asks a certain degree of problem-solving acuity from young readers as they grow to understand the bigger threat that the Wolf represents to Sellafield, his connection to the Congo and overseas concerns, and his various involvements.
Young readers step into the mystery through the family interactions and involvements that Cabral cultivates, along with the peppering of colorful drawings by Webb. They will appreciate how the exquisite tension and strong characters not only spins a fine yarn, but invites kids to join Mae and Isla in better understanding the world and their place in it.
The Wolf of EnnerdaleReturn to Index