March 2025 Review Issue
Fantasy & Sci Fi
Literature
Mystery & Thrillers
Ferren
and the Invaders of Heaven
Richard Harland
IFWG Publishing International
978-1-925956-90-0 $17.99
Paperback/$5.99 eBook
Website: www.richardharland.au
Ordering:
www.amazon.com/Ferren-Invaders-Heaven-Trilogy/dp/1925956903
Ferren and the Invaders of Heaven, Book Three in the Ferren Trilogy, completes a captivating fantasy adventure and begins with the end—the Apocalypse is coming. It’s not just hell on earth, either. The earth residents have built a tower to heaven and an army to invade it, creating a dangerous new commander whose knowledge supersedes even that of heaven’s angels.
Ferren and his fellow Residual tribesmen, some of the last original humans left (in contrast to the artificial Humens who have replaced them), have a difficult decision to make. Should they journey up to heaven to fight alongside the angels who have become part of their lives, or should they focus on the divisions in their own group? Either choice comes with dire consequences that will reset the stage whether Ferren and his band become hunters or prey.
As in his two other Ferren stories, Richard Harland builds upon the foundations of events that shape not just Ferren, but the entire world. Newcomers will find the introduction, “The Story So Far…,” presents a fine overview of the past, but ideally this audience will have read the prior books to recognize the deep flavors and influences that have placed Ferren and others at this crossroads in life.
Such readers will especially appreciate and smoothly intersect with the ongoing dilemmas of Humens, Residuals, and angels as the final battle tests all involved.
Various elements vie, here, including the paradoxical Zonda, who saved Ferren’s life in a previous adventure, then betrayed him. All these characters hold vivid special interests which bring to the table disparate and intriguingly thought-provoking perspectives about the future and their roles.
Ambitions and ideals don’t just reside with the life-seasoned characters surrounding Ferren. Newer, younger participants also express their (perhaps naive) hopes for the future:
Then they talked about the forthcoming meeting, for which Ferren had high hopes but no definite plans. Kiet was confident that the representatives and People had come round to the young Nesters’ way of thinking.
“Everything’s going to change!” she declared. “You’ll see!
Fast-paced action revolving around battles, sabotage teams, the powerful Stone of Wrath that emerges during confrontation to possibly lead Zonda and her team to victory, and efforts born of desperation and courage contribute to a fast-paced plot that holds no easily predictable outcome.
While the Ferren series as a whole is written with young adults in mind, Ferren and the Invaders of Heaven is featured in this general fantasy section so that adults won’t miss its alluring strengths.
Libraries and readers seeking fantasies that sizzle with action while remaining true to deeper-level thinking about what the real prize is in a world-altering apocalyptic situation will find Ferren and the Invaders of Heaven a compelling choice—especially for those familiar with the prior Ferren adventures.
The conclusion that rests on happiness, home, and unexpected newborns and reunions ultimately crafts an uplifting, thoroughly compelling saga that will please readers seeking full-bodied, vibrant fantasy series titles.
Ferren and the Invaders of HeavenReturn to Index
Makings
of a Monster
Charlie
Freelander
978-9529493524
e-book $5.99, paperback
$14.99
Website: https://charliefreelander.com/index.html
Ordering:
https://books2read.com/b/3nPje9
Makings of a Monster blends fantasy with gripping psychological discovery. It follows the life of Velimir, who has survived the mass murder of children, but relives the nightmare in his dreams.
This first book in the Legacy of Wrath series sets the stage for the makings of a rebellious survivor powered by lethal forces from childhood. These influence his psyche as he grows into a dangerous warrior himself.
At the heart of this exploration is a question readers will be challenged to define: is Velimer a hero, or a monster?
At this juncture, it’s appropriate to point out that the story’s growth process and dichotomy may impact sensitive readers. Stark descriptions of surviving childhood horrors are hard-hitting and thought-provoking from the start:
When he stirs in his sleep and wakes up, panting, pale and sweating, he has an odd wish. He would like two soft, warm and comforting arms to protect him. But he merely clutches his knees and comforts himself with a rocking motion. He has long since ceased crying when he awakes in pain, or frightened. No one will ever come.
Charlie Freelander creates masterful connections between reader and characters in a way that encourages understanding and connection to the characters’ evolutionary process. She also sets action on the stage of literary, philosophical and mythological references to reinforce the psychological components of the story. The energy embedded into the tale from these facets will especially intrigue and attract literary readers who will readily understand the references and techniques Freelander employs.
As for the action—powered by psychological quandaries and questions, it’s fast-paced and hard to set aside:
The man was preoccupied, hardly paying attention to his family, or to Kiril. Great plans. More power. Something like that. At times Kiril wondered if such things were important after all. If the only thing living a good life would take would be living as a family, with Jelena as wife and Velimir as their child, and just trying his best. His best at what? He wondered. Oh, and they’d have to kill Radek. Yeah, great plan. Velimir’s darkness would not go away just by pretending that it wasn’t there. He had to find out. They had to discover the truth.
Vulnerability, commitment, and love and hate entwine in a tale that libraries will find packed with depth and wonder. It will be easy to highly recommend Makings of a Monster to book clubs and discussion groups seeking fantasy that offers far more depth and insights than most.
Readers seeking a combination of classic psychological and philosophical reflections about the ultimate impact of violence on a child’s life, choices, and growth process will find Makings of a Monster utterly compelling and nearly impossible to put down.
Makings of a MonsterReturn to Index
The
Spring Dragon
Natalie
Wright
Menaris
Books
979-8-9921521-0-4
$33.99
Hardcover/$19.99 Paperback
https://www.amazon.com/Spring-Dragon-Dragos-Primeri/dp/B0DPR8TRNM?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1
The Spring Dragon, Book Two of the fantasy Dragos Primeri series, opens with a series of maps and detailed character lists (of human and dragon, gods and spirits, and clans). These may give the initial impression of a complex reading road ahead, but they actually pave the way for an immediate understanding of and involvement in a thoroughly engrossing read.
The tale opens with an inviting poem that introduces atmosphere before turning to Aldewin’s immediately-captivating thought:
Aldewin hadn’t slit a throat in two days. A record for him, at least since he left Volenex. Since Ishna, the Winter Dragon, erupted from Quen’s body.
A sight I cannot unsee, Aldewin thought.
As a member of Druvna’s pod, Aldewin faces the impact of prior loss with a mandate to probe the secrets of the legendary Heart of Magic, keeper of the mysteries of life and the kingdom’s power.
Aldewin just wants to regain what he’s lost, without the intrigue and drama that plagued his journeys in the prior book. Alas, his desire doesn’t meld with his concurrent yearning for a simpler life; for he has to go through the eye of the storm in order to achieve what seems like an impossible objective.
His journey, made with a few good friends, involves the usual quest to reach the goal—but with a difference. The Winter Dragon, too, seeks the Heart of Menaris. Her goal is to free her Tribal Siblings and confront the humans who have grown into power since she and her kind slept away the years.
As their similar purposes evolve, readers are treated to a vibrant, vigorous story replete with fast-paced action, thoroughly immersive fantasy backdrops, and understandable objectives and limitations of human and dragon alike.
These challenges are displayed in revealing language that builds an atmosphere of engrossingly unexpected developments. Natalie Wright is especially adept at juxtaposing moments of battle and confrontations with the mandate for the characters to ramp back their passions and enthusiasm so they can take care of the results of their actions:
“Do you see anyone?” Aldewin whispered to Omma.
Her eyes squinting, she scanned the terrain. “Though I don’t see anyone, I sense a presence here. Its intentions toward us are—uncertain.”
Not comforting.
As they joined the pod, Aldewin asked, “Should we investigate? Or wait for whatever lurks in those shadows to show themselves?”
Dio and Imbica both said at once, “We wait.”
This delightful balance between tension, action, and caution immerses readers in a story that proves nearly impossible to put down.
Another note is that even though this is the second book in the series, newcomers will easily slide into the characters and world that Wright has created. The emotional ties and inspections that wind into these surroundings and choices make for gripping reading.
Whether libraries already have the first book of this epic series, Season of the Dragon, or search for standalone series additions that represent the best development of a compelling story, selecting The Spring Dragon will attract a wide audience of fantasy enthusiasts.
Its attention to vivid detail, an exciting buildup of atmosphere and characters, and its evolution of a quest presented from the viewpoints of dragon as well as human participants make for unusually creative scenarios.
The Spring DragonReturn to Index
The
Surgeon Who Dreamed He Was a
Knight
Éric
Renaud
Atmosphere
Press
979-8-89132-534-0
$16.99
paperback, $7.99 e-book, $25.99
hardcover
www.atmospherepress.com
The Surgeon Who Dreamed He Was a Knight comes from a medical doctor with a penchant for fantasy, philosophical reflection, and classic medieval chivalry.
These elements combine (along with a medical slant based on real-world expertise) to create a fantasy which opens on the real, busy world of an Quebec orthopedic surgeon Nicolas Renault, who falls asleep one night only to awaken as Merik, a knight whose quest also involves medicine … albeit in a very different manner than the approaches and treatment options of modern times.
Magical realism evolves in a story that spans not just space and time, but connections between cellular memory and events that join the personas of Nicolas/Merik in unusual, unexpected ways.
Seasoned fantasy readers who believe they’ll be embarking on a timeslip tale or one with roots in an alternate universe will find that The Surgeon Who Dreamed He Was a Knight defies pat categorization.
Indeed, the medical thinking and processes of its protagonist are almost reminiscent of Robin Cook thrillers … but with the added value of a fantasy theme that weaves important connections between dreams, spirituality, and modern thinking. Against this backdrop, thriller-type action does not take center stage, but is a satisfying adjunct to intellectual and spiritual reflection.
Readers receive much discourse about medical procedures and atmosphere. This differs from the usual fantasy approach in which career takes a sideline to action.
Also unexpected are emotional components that demand pause for thought about all kinds of decision-making and psychological processes:
“Friendship implies respecting the other even if you don’t know everything about them.”
“And
to trust them enough to open
up, knowing that our friend will not judge us,” added Célèste.
This example may seem like a simple observation, but such undercurrents of discovery and discussion create threads of connection that enhance the story as a whole as Merik faces Célèste’s kidnapping and issues of loyalty and engagement.
Mages, dark forces, and dangerous bargains inject fantasy and magic into events that evolve to challenge not just Merik, but the unfamiliar world he navigates.
From the special interests of King Adrien (one who is “proud and stingy, preferred to seize others’ wealth rather than ask for help from his neighbor”) who falls under the wing of black magic teacher Adel to a young woman whose destiny dictates that she neither marry nor bear children, Éric Renaud creates an engaging story filled with revelation, personal sacrifice, and growth:
Célèste looked into his eyes with such coldness that it sent shivers down his spine. He felt sad for her. Perhaps she should have run away with Merik. But one does not easily escape their destiny, and that path is generally not the easiest.
Libraries will find the entwining of magical realism, fantasy, and real-world medical history and modern quandaries to be thoroughly engaging, making for a book recommendable beyond the usual fantasy audience. Patrons, in turn, will find its thought-provoking scenarios, characters, and journey to be captivating.
Immersive, creative, and packed with unexpected twists, The Surgeon Who Dreamed He Was a Knight employs a novel situation and atmosphere to mix elements of intrigue, thriller, and fantasy in a thoroughly absorbing, creatively unexpected manner. This translates to a highly recommendable story featuring out-of-the-box adventures—and thinking.
The Surgeon Who Dreamed He Was a KnightReturn to Index
The
Trial of Rooker Flynn
A.R.
Witham
Nepenthe
House
979-8-9874072-4-0
$4.99 eBook
www.arwitham.com
The Trial of Rooker Flynn, the second book in the Locke Institute trilogy, continues where the story left off in The Crimes of Rooker Flynn. This makes it of special interest to prior fans of Rooker, who will appreciate the return to this rebel pirate’s fantasy world.
That doesn’t mean that newcomers won’t have the foundation to absorb his latest adventure. A.R. Witham’s succinct recap of prior events allows easy entry into Rooker’s world and personality.
The first book placed Rooker at odds with the magic school that tried to bind him into a rigidly controlled environment. Rooker and his friend Jack Swift fall under the eye of an evil headmistress who tries to trick Rooker into releasing a special power into her control, promising he will be able to return to his beloved pirating life if he does. Rooker must literally cut the cord tying him to his buddy Jack in order to escape—which might involve him falling to his death. The first story ended with this cliffhanger.
The Trial of Rooker Flynn continues the saga, employing the same fast pace, unexpected confrontations, and battles. These embrace merchants, pirates, and nefarious magical influences in a dangerous dance through survival efforts and evil interests.
Witham cultivates a sense of immediacy that moves from a prologue about Pip, a battle, and a discovery to Rooker, who is suffering immensely from having literally cut the ties to his best friend Jack:
He heard the rush of air like the moan of a freshly dead ghost, but it meant nothing. He smelled the sour sweat slathering his body, tasted coppery blood in his mouth, but he was numb to it. All he could feel was the emptiness of his hand that had been warm just a moment ago.
The sense of immediacy that holds the power to bring readers right into Rooker’s moment-by-moment reflections is one of the strengths of this story. It’s one of the many reasons why readers will find this adventure hard to put down:
High in the sky, Rooker felt small. He was nothing, an insect hovering over a map. Miniscule. Insignificant. With every beat of Xeusia’s wings, the land fell further away, diminishing him just a little bit more. And still the great wyrm beat its colossal wings, soaring ever higher.
Emotional overlays to the action give the story a powerfully alluring draw. Readers navigate Rooker’s return to Jack under vastly revised circumstances that force him to once again confront evil Headmistress Gerba Whipmarples.
She considers their deal null and void, since only part of the magic staff was recovered. And so the very pits of hell open up to consume what’s left of Jack as they both confront Gerba and face the possible end of their lives and freedom.
Witham juxtaposes Jack and Rooker’s perceptions with their insights about this evil force in their lives, creating added value and understanding:
Rooker Flynn would make an excellent new informant for Jackal. He was slipperier than an eel, but Gerba Whipmarples had never met a greedier man, and the pirate understood who buttered his bread.
My creature. My slave.
The tension is exquisitely developed as readers face a series of dilemmas and encounters through Rooker’s choices and assignments. He reports to Gerba on events in Jackal even as he wonders “who she had spying on him,” he recognizes that being in thrall is not the same as being in a position of making even the most minor choices about his life, and his confrontations and self-examination power the story’s vivid progression.
Fantasy readers seeking fast-paced action, extraordinary backdrops that seem to offer almost subliminal “you are here” feels, and events that take unexpected twists will appreciate the lure of The Trial of Rooker Flynn.
Even when he returns to sea, is he ever fully free?
The fantasy’s ability to examine the nature, roots, and challenges of friendship, adversity, escape routes, and the true nature and impact of the Locke Institute’s shadow makes for a story that is hard to put down or predict.
Libraries seeking series fantasy titles that are as powerful in each book individually as they are in a set will welcome the addition of The Trial of Rooker Flynn to their collections.
Its unique ability to paint not just vivid action, but equally compelling self-inspection, makes The Trial of Rooker Flynn simply outstanding.
The Trial of Rooker FlynnReturn to Index
The Body
Leads the Way
Mary
Lane Potter
The
Liminality Press
979-8-9891640-2-8
$27.00
Website:
www.liminalitypress.com
Ordering:
The
Body Leads the Way a book by Mary Lane Potter - Bookshop.org US
The Body Leads the Way: Ritual, Liminality, and Imagination is a literary essay collection that takes both an academic and spiritual approach to identifying and defining liminality in rituals and other practices.
From these descriptions, some readers might anticipate the book will be a scholarly, demanding reading. Not so. As Mary Lane Potter states from the opening sentence, “This book was born of dancing.”
Through a powerful, sacred experience that occurred at the intersection of dance, music, and joy, Potter was propelled on a journey of discovery. This led her into disparate, unexpected avenues of self-examination and spiritual reflection.
Her revelation that “in a flash of insight I saw that in bodies moving, ritual, liminality, the sacred, and art were all connected” guided her next steps in a bigger dance that took her research into rituals and movement into new directions.
Each essay is a step of understanding which builds upon the last, leading readers into nature and through changing landscapes and personal inspections:
…one by one, I lay down the remaining broken pieces I have collected, overlapping them, weaving them into a lush, unbroken wreath round the hallowing center.
Who knows what those who walk this labyrinth after me will make of this wreath of scraps? Soon it will turn brown and brittle, and someone will clear it away. Yet I leave it here, the trace of my journey—a confession of pride, my ungenerous heart, my diva spirit; a thanksgiving offering for the signs others left behind, pointing the way to true emptiness; a pledge to keep opening my spirit to love; a token of love; a cry of the heart, I once was lost but now am found.
This is why I came: to join the chorus.
The rituals and studies that expose Potter to revised observations of life and her place in it prompt readers to consider their own possibilities in building rituals and connections that encourage emotional growth and new connections.
The passion by which these essays impart these lessons will belay any thoughts of a dry, studious book, despite The Body Leads the Way’s scholarly-sounding subtitle.
Here are the elements of wonder to be found in different kinds of rituals, nature, and quiet environments. These are essays that enlighten, gently nudge readers into self-analysis, and promise enchantment for a wide range of audiences, from those involved in the sociology of other cultures and rituals to readers interested in weaving spiritual threads into their own lives.
Libraries that choose The Body Leads the Way for their collections will want to especially point this out to those interested in the spiritual components of ritual choices and how they are created.
With its sense of wonder, personal engagement, and greater participation in collective understanding and connection, The Body Leads the Way is nothing short of outstandingly thought-provoking, intimate, and heartfelt.
The Body Leads the WayReturn to Index
Home and
Away
The
PATHfinder and POPS Clubs
Amy
Friedman, Editor
Out of
the Woods Press
978-1-952197-16-1
$21.95
Paperback
www.outofthewoodspress.com
Home and Away: Stories, Poetry and Art is a reminder to all of its readers that high school students can produce works as evocative and powerful as many an adult. It features all kinds of art, from photographs to drawing, that are as expressive and hard-hitting as the prose and poetry that accompany them. What results is an extraordinary synthesis of art and raw life experience that will appeal to a wide audience.
The first thing to note about Home and Away is its diversity. What at first seems a structural diversity of topics and artistic examinations expands to represent a multiplicity of emotions and experiences. The central feature of the The PATHfinder and POPS Clubs is to cultivate a safe, creative space where students can explore their individuality and creativity without judgment or condemnation. Home and Away is proof positive of their success in achieving this mandate.
The volume’s focus is on places of home and safety in the world. Writings identify the features and flavors of these spaces for teens whose lives are in flux. In such a safe place, teens were able to explore their sense of alienation, distance, and differences from home and society, creating powerful works that mesmerize with evocative phrasing and connections.
One example is Kimberly Romero’s “Sol y Luna,” a prose reflection on addiction and discovery which charts the process of losing oneself and finding a way back to a central core of identity. Her candid reflection on her life and her mother’s achievements in raising her were written during her mother’s struggle with cancer:
I crave your forgiveness, for this was never my intention. I’ve never been an addict, you protected me, like the greatest of all eclipses. Thank you for bearing me, birthing me, for I don’t know where I would be otherwise. No one understands addiction better than the addict, but I find that hard to believe.
A moment of silence is requested for absorbing this piece, at the end.
Then there’s “Gleaming Reflection” by Deangelo Gonzalez, which considers pros and cons of transitioning, transgender identity, and the social backlash of prejudice which impacts transgender individuals.
The hope and struggle immersed in Deangelo’s art and prose is strikingly thought-provoking:
For me, it’s not only a struggle to be transgender in this world but also a learning process about how life throws you so many challenges that push you back into life.
Ultimately, these are accounts of transformation and survival that embrace the highest of highs and lowest of lows in a teen’s life.
Libraries choosing Home and Away for collections seeking literary representations of teen art, experience, and survival tactics will want to recommend it to high schoolers, students of literary achievement, and any reading group interested in diversity, survival, and raw, hard-hitting reflections of savvy young people.
Readers will find Home and Away explosively compelling, filled with succinct, hard-hitting passages that linger in the mind long after reading.
Home and AwayReturn to Index
The Lost
World
Celia
Drill
Atmosphere
Press
979-8-89132-494-7
$13.99
paperback, $7.99 e-book, $22.99
hardcover
www.atmospherepress.com
The Lost World is billed as a poetry collection, but literary audiences who anticipate either the usual form of free verse or the metered rhyme of traditional poetry will find its poetic paragraph format defies pat categorization.
This actually proves a powerful strength of the collection as themes wind through nature, explorations of self, and world connections.
Take “Being Alone,” for one example. Its metaphors and atmosphere are captured in a paragraph of revelation that both defies and supports the notion of poetic expression:
Radio croons about a pure love. The kind where soul goes flying into space. To meet its counterpart. That’s what you can find at midnight on Earth: kind voices prying open the closed door, revealing starlight. Here where I can’t see. Where my body is a cloud of aching, a constellation jumbled, trying to form. Here where I mine for a music I can recognize, a tune to sing through me. A structure that supports me. Gift of wings. To flow me to you.
The piece is presented here in its entirety, because to pick any single line (or series of lines) as reflective of its power would be to sever its uniformity and strength.
Each poem adopts such a structure, capturing. in paragraphs of hard-hitting observation. the nuances and connections in life which embed lyrical observation with emotional depth.
Each work is succinct. This will especially appeal to audiences who appreciate smaller discourses where every word counts.
Celia Drill moves from concrete world observations and experiences to moments captured as if under the glass of deep inspection. One example is “Rest Stop,” where:
At a refuge where the sun won’t burn through clothes, a man atop a motorcycle swears with cigarette, mutters, This country’s gone to hell, you all deserve to die. It’s easier to back away, to turn around, return to rush of highway where light tattoos our foreheads, brightens eyes to lasers, spills gold into our pockets, reddens us to devils.
Expect the unexpected in Drill’s journey through lost worlds of nature, materialism, and ethereal expression and thought.
Libraries seeking modern literature that expands the definition of poetry while remaining true to atmospheric, rhythmic reflection will find The Lost World a powerfully compelling collection addition.
Readers used to the linear structure of free verse will find, in these paragraphs of reflection, an unusually powerful attraction that grabs attention, demands thought, and ultimately celebrates both life and poetic expression.
Via a work “painted in oracles,” Drill delves deeply into the spirit and passages through life with all its variants, challenges, and discoveries. The vibrant, resonating tone of these reflections will linger in the mind long after their reading.
The Lost WorldReturn to Index
Malipolitan
Christopher
Dainton
Saturnine
Press
978-1-0692920-0-1
$8.99
https://www.amazon.ca/Malipolitan-novel-Christopher-Dainton
Malipolitan is a literary novel set in West Africa. It explores the historical development of Mali while bringing its people, society, and influences together, embracing its atmosphere via vivid descriptions that create “you are here” moments:
Harmattan. That was the season outsiders would translate as winter; those blustery months when dry winds blew into Mali from the northeastern Sahara. He and Quinn, the two pale newcomers to this world of dust, walked where the air smelled like beach, side by side towards their meeting with a charismatic stranger.
Main characters include Paul, a Canadian doctor who struggles with both debt and questions about his ultimate impact on life and whose journey reflects a contrast between ideals and dissatisfactions with life; American diplomat Quinn (whom Paul follows to Mali); and local doctor Abubakar. Each character contributes to dilemmas about professional and personal intersections as Mali struggles against the grip of war. Diatourou is hired to teach Quinn better French (the language of Mali), but also introduces wisdom and insights, for added value.
The story is one of disillusionment as well as transformation. Paul comes to see that his pursuit of love and professional success are as at odds with Mali’s reality as they were in the West, while the idealistic Quinn finds her values challenged and often shattered.
Paul also faces new issues over an unexpected houseguest who may be staying long-term, then faces the fact that he needs to leave Mali for good.
Christopher Dainton is as adept at revealing Paul’s emotional ties and quandaries as he is at probing the cultural and political turmoil that has Mali in thrall:
Never go to bed angry, his mother always used to say. But he was angry and broken, and Abubakar had disappeared into his bedroom. And so, he sprawled out on the remaining couch, stayed awake all night perpendicular to the inhaling and exhaling form of Aminata on the neighbouring couch, and resigned himself to what the French would surely call a nuit blanche.
Sleepless night. Foolish pride.
Paul cultivates small lies for the sake of a non-confrontational life as he navigates Mali’s war-torn countenance. Mali cultural norms also emerge as each character makes compromises to their values and character in different ways:
“This is my wife,” said Paul. Already, a lie. He was present now for propriety, for his reassuring maleness. Lovers and consorts didn’t exist, so telling Diatourou that Quinn was his wife was simplest. Being a bachelor made him suspicious at best, a child at worst.
Thought-provoking passages comment on Western and African perceptions, relationships, and ideals. This provides book clubs and reading groups with many topics of interest that reach into the heart of diplomacy and relationship-building with third-world nations in general and Mali in particular:
Maybe he had hoped for a different abstraction. That maybe she would say she had absorbed the culture, and the culture had also absorbed her. He folded his arms across his chest.
“Part of me had hoped it was more than that,” he continued. “That Africa was somehow a jewel hidden in sand. But maybe it is just the people, as you say. The danger comes when you try to change the people and the land to put America in its place.”
Dainton does more than just build vivid characters. He places each of them in positions designed to challenge their lives and values, unfolding each threat of social, political, and psychological discovery against the backdrop of an emerging nation’s special concerns and perceptions.
Libraries and readers will find Malipolitan replete with unforgettable impact and moments that demand the reading go slowly, so as to thoroughly absorb Mali’s lessons on place, people, and love.
Malipolitan’s literary, historical, and cultural reflections make it a thoroughly engrossing exploration that will leave readers considering their own vision of Africa, world relationships, and rethinking their inherent prejudices about the continent and Mali in particular:
“West Africans are not children,” he said. “For me, it is only strange that we ask ourselves if our colonizers should speak French, English, or Russian. Or that we ask ourselves if our religion should be the European one, or the Arab one.”
MalipolitanReturn to Index
Otherwise
Wretched: Stories
William
Burtch
Catamount
Press (Sunbury Press imprint)
9798888193068
$19.95
Website: https://otherwisewretched.com/
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/William-Burtch/author/B09ZGYJT8H
Otherwise Wretched: Stories is a literary gathering of fictional stories depicting and contrasting a disparate cast of characters. Each struggles heavily with their lives and choices.
As literature goes, Otherwise Wretched represents diversity at its best, whether capturing the experiences of the addicted, ordinary line cooks and workers, or juxtaposing the rural and urban settings. William Burtch’s attention to both psychological and social inspection in each of these pieces dovetails experience and life lessons that will prompt many a discussion among not just literature readers and classes assigned this book, but book clubs seeking to spark avid discussions about life trajectories, impacts, and consequences.
The first two sections compile stories by settings (“Across the Allegheny Plateau,” “Westward”), while the last, “The Book of Will,” summarizes son Will’s journey and life. Depictions are presented in sterling, startling language designed to draw with vivid scenes:
The mining equipment company that the father worked for had a genetic repulsion to regulatory oversight and a talent for union busting. It was a reckless drinking culture. He was in financial management and hopscotched his family all over the country as he clawed his way up the rungs with pickled stumps—eight houses and five states before Will’s sixteenth birthday, three different time zones.
Each of the stories profiles characters struggling to come to odds with their lives. Take “Animal Crossings,” for one example. Its narrator confesses:
I design missiles for Uncle Sam, at the New Mexico Proving Grounds, in White Sands. Swaths of humanity in distant lands have come to know my work. While drafting schematics for these flying greeting cards, a haunting will suck me in, like a dust devil. I will dwell upon a life’s work measured by the degree of destruction I can pack into an ever-shrinking container, hurled across ever-increasing distances. As if these are actions mere mortals should undertake.
What do
mice, snakes, and reptiles have
to do with this character’s life and perspective? These would seem
incongruous additions to a fairly straightforward profession and
character reactions, but under Burtch’s hand, these connections
weave into a tapestry of “…treachery into which one can
become
trapped, taken—a monolith of bleakness, the pulse of life long
evaporated.”
Drinking, dust storms, deer, and a journey evolve in unexpected ways. Burtch’s approach will delight creative writing and literature teachers seeking to point out how forceful writing may be honed and expanded into questions of absurdity, compassion, and responsibility.
Philosophy students, as well, will appreciate the directions these stories take as they unfold:
I fling the flask, striking one of the birds squarely. They both launch skyward in a frantic fury of feathers. I know it is all futile. They will return, true to the way it all works, the unwavering way of our universe. The animal world accepts this from birth and lives with this knowledge in their DNA.
Humans fight it to the end.
In contrast is the title story “Otherwise Wretched,” in which two elderly West Texas trailer residents, Otie and J.L., revel in lives that are:
“Still breath’n. Otherwise wretched.”
The subtle joys and appreciations under this overlay of angst emerge as the two (and Weasel) contemplate the end of the gravy train of oil work. Circumstances are presented using dialogue that embraces a wry sense of humor:
“Too many dry holes,” Weasel said. “Need more dinosaurs to croak.”
“Ain’t like we should be surprised,” Otie said. “Everything comes to an end. At some point.”
These are hard-hitting, reflective literary works that each take a piece of life and consider, via various characters, the elements that make life wretched, wrenching, and often strangely satisfying even amidst conflict and new challenges.
Libraries seeking literary short stories holding the ability to appeal to a diverse audience, from students and teachers to philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, and general-interest readers, and book clubs seeking thought-provoking short works, will find Otherwise Wretched: Stories a diverse, clear winner delivering unmatchable impact.
Otherwise Wretched: StoriesReturn to Index
Barbara
Ann Scott: Queen of the Ice
Ryan
Stevens
Independently
Published
9781069170521
$15.99 Paperback/eBook -
$7.99/Hardcover - $34.99/Audio - $12.99/Large Print - $33.99
https://www.amazon.com/Barbara-Ann-Scott-Queen-Ice/dp/1069170526
Barbara Ann Scott: Queen of the Ice is a biography of Canada’s first great ice skater that will prove a ‘must have’ for any library strong in ice skating history, and for many a follower of figure skating events. Not intended for general-interest, casual readers, Stevens provides a wealth of history designed to attract and engross those who already hold experience and special interest in the skating world.
Ryan Stevens attends to capturing the full-bodied flavor of Scott’s life, probing beneath the sweetness of her facade for a focus on the realities of her persona and motivations to create an ultimately uplifting contention:
Barbara Ann's life was marked by both challenges and triumphs, ultimately illustrating the timeless truth that sometimes “nice people finish first”.
Facts and figures about skating mark the progression of Scott’s story to add much value to all kinds of ice skating enthusiasts. While anyone with an interest in this history may know Scott’s name, few would already know of all the background of the art of skating which is embedded in her life.
Stevens packs the story with black and white photos of Scott at all ages and in all kinds of situations, from skating to dancing. The wealth of images in the public domain accompany specifics on how Scott’s fame rose in the media:
Barbara Ann's rise to stardom came at a unique time. When she won the Olympic gold medal in 1948, there were less than three hundred and fifty television sets in Canada, but from 1948 to 1952, thousands more were sold. However, it wasn't television that first introduced many Canadians to her skating.
The promotional focus of her career sometimes takes interesting twists:
Newsreels of her skating were shown in theatres before movies, and two short films were released by the National Film Board of Canada ... These short films, which were seen by thousands, were rented out by mail to theatres and skating clubs across North America. They were also loaned out to people in over fifty countries abroad, through the Departments of External Affairs. Barbara Ann, as it turned out, was a big hit in Pakistan. Unfortunately, the Sri Lankans returned the films with a note that said the Sinhalese people weren't interested in ice skating because they had never seen ice.
Not a detail of her influence is omitted, here. Quotes from her words and reflections pepper political, sport, and competition history that not only explore her life, but the era in which she rose to skating fame.
The depth of these details do more than present a portrait of Scott. They reveal the processes and insights through which she and ice skating as a whole became more familiar to enthusiasts around the world.
Appendixes offer references to her Skating Sensations of the 1950s tour, competitive records, and a list of the ‘firsts’ she achieved throughout the 1940s (and a couple in more modern times).
Any skating lover will thoroughly appreciate the tone and approach of this vivid story. Skating facts are thoroughly researched and documented, Scott’s interactions on and off the ice are vivid and engrossing, and her story springs to life as a triple Axel of achievement that sets the stage for better understanding the evolution of ice skating as a whole.
Libraries and readers will find Barbara Ann Scott: Queen of the Ice the perfect choice for expanding knowledge of one of ice skating’s greatest figures while enjoying the history and statistics which reflect her life and values:
Giving back was something she believed strongly in. Debbi Wilkes recalled, “I complimented her once... and she said something like, 'Skating has given me my life. I owe it something back.' It was very touching how she had a real perspective on the sport, her contribution to it and its contribution to her life.”
Barbara Ann Scott: Queen of the IceReturn to Index
Blackbird
Betsy
Thibaut Stephenson
GFB
978-1-964721-29-3
$18.00
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
Website:
https://www.blackbirdbetsy.com/
Ordering:
https://www.girlfridayproductions.com/titles/blackbird
Blackbird: A Mother’s Reflections on Grief, Loss, and Life After Suicide chronicles a turbulent, life-changing six weeks in 2022 in which Betsy Thibaut Stephenson lost her son to suicide, mother-in-law to dementia, and the family dog to cancer.
Rather than struggle silently with her grief, she created a cathartic in-the-moment chronicle which may challenge sensitive readers who are also in the throes of grieving even as it illustrates responses, survival tactics, and ways to reach for the light of life even in the deepest darkness.
Everyone has experienced depression, heartbreak, and loss. The crux of returning to life lies in finding revised meaning and ways out of these pits, which can either consume or serve as life-altering opportunities.
One of the strengths to Blackbird is how Stephenson experiences the patterns that tie her down even as they propel her through grief:
My previously crisp brain is now on a treadmill. I know Charlie is gone, but it feels as if I can’t hold on to that fact. Each day, I endure the excruciating exercise of losing him again and again.
These emerge from a step-by-step walk through the grieving process and the stigma of suicide, which affects relatives and everyone close to the deceased.
The value of the raw immediacy of these descriptions, which make Blackbird a standout, can also translate to very difficult emotional reading. This is why readers need to take their time to slowly absorb Stephenson’s experiences and emotions, both to protect their own psyches and to thoroughly understand the battles, rituals, and revelations that accompany the process of recovery.
Libraries that choose Blackbird will want to highly recommend it to parenting, self-help, and reader discussion groups interested in a hard-hitting account of guilt, grief, and healing.
Blackbird: A Mother’s Reflections on Grief, Loss, and Life After Suicide is no easy read, but its walk through Stephenson’s shoes and life for immersive “you are here” experiences pays back richly in a very specific, enlightening, and ultimately uplifting story of recovery and understanding.
The environment in which dead can transform the living (or not) is beautifully captured, and is reflective of the back-and-forth movements of grief as a whole:
Without fail, February pushes my tulip freak to the brink. Wildlife and weather turn my flower beds to muddy mush. I can’t see evidence of new growth yet, but it’s happening. That swirl of dirty ice, decomposing leaves, and splintered twigs are either the killing field of winter or the ideal environment for nurturing transformative change. We shall see.
BlackbirdReturn to Index
Chasing
Spirits
Maya
Logan Eileraas, Karina Eileraas
Karakuş, and Annelise Eileraas
Atmosphere
Press
979-8-89132-518-0
$25.99
paperback, $9.99 e-book, $34.99
hardcover
www.atmospherepress.com
Chasing Spirits is a memoir about runaway Maya Logan who, during the height of COVID, flees into the pandemic world with her girlfriend, feeling they have “nothing left to lose” at the ripe age of fourteen. Rebellious, artistic Maya and her girlfriend committed suicide six months after they vanished.
This is their story, transmitted via journal entries and art for the world to see and absorb. It captures the vivid feel of a world gone mad both internally and externally, prompting the two to leave family and love in what turned out to be a dead-end quest for meaning. Ironically, Maya created and captured these questions in a way that now imparts meaning to her peers and readers.
The collaboration between a mother and child’s siblings lends a particularly poignant, fascinating edge to Maya’s story that a journal alone couldn’t capture. Adding family impact and struggles to the tale translates to a vivid, compelling saga that’s hard to put down.
There are many facets to this memoir. These include revelations about gender identity struggles, art, family dynamics, bullying, and more. All are outlined in an introduction which also is a caution for sensitive readers who might seek to avoid some of these considerations:
While our family’s experience involves a powerful narrative of teenage rebellion and toxic romance, it also highlights painful challenges around gender identity, sexual orientation, body image, and school bullying; the harmful impact of smartphone and social media use for teen mental health; the fragility of social support systems in the US; the infinite complexity of the human heart and mind; and the pervasive loneliness and disconnect that punctuate our lives in the digital, post-Covid era.
This note aside, it would be a shame to avoid Chasing Spirits for any of these difficult subjects. So much information and insights are revealed in such a dynamic and alluring manner that this book will also provoke family, book club, and group discussions on many different levels. That effort actually remains true to Maya Logan’s values:
Maya Logan passionately advocated for the importance of sharing difficult experiences and feelings with others as a means of catharsis.
Supplementing Maya’s writings and art are various forms of family communiqués about their flight, from radio segment transcriptions to reflections on Maya’s disappearance and its impact on their lives.
Maya’s own writings are like gems flashing with moments of clarity, self-analysis, and raw pain. Again—this level of self-examination might challenge sensitive readers; but hopefully the result of reading these reflections is that better understanding will prevent a similar tragic ending. Maya’s pen sizzles with a teen’s view of the world they’re about to enter as an adult, and feelings about where they do or don’t fit in:
The little kid inside of me has been brutally murdered, crushed down into a million, bloody pieces. I’ve lost all of that childhood innocence. Every little bit of the twinkle that was once present in my eyes is now gone, dulling the darkness of the outer expression of my soul even more. Back then, I was afraid of the night because the nights would get too dark; because the monsters would come out at night. Now I find myself afraid of the daytime, when the sun comes out and I cannot hide in the darkness anymore.
Libraries that choose Chasing Spirits for all these strengths will want to assure that it doesn’t fade into obscurity on shelves already laden with stories about coming-of-age, gender identity, or runaways; but is profiled to book clubs and reading groups from all walks of life.
These include groups devoted to self-analysis and gender questions, book clubs looking for a powerful story packed with individual and family dynamics during Covid’s lockdown, and more. Chasing Spirits is a top recommendation for prompting not just important, but essential questions about navigating life, family, and self-identity crises.
Maya’s blistering entry into memories that form the crux of personality later in life is particularly notable, contributing to the book’s “can’t-put-it-down,” multifaceted attraction.
Chasing SpiritsReturn to Index
Cycling
70 Years: Once World
Champion
Gordon
Neale
Austin
Macauley
9781398486089
$16.95 Paperback/$4.50
eBook
Website:
www.cycling70yearsonceworldchampion.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Cycling-70-Years-World-Champion/dp/1398486086?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1
Cycling 70 Years: Once World Champion is a memoir of cycling achievement and culture that follows Gordon Neale’s participation in cycling clubs, solo cycling travels, and both competition and adventure.
As such, his memoir is more than a singular approach to cycling, but links career and competition to discoveries and experiences, crisscrossing Europe in an effort that involves both team and personal efforts.
Those outside the cycling world won’t be left out by these professional explorations. Gordon Neale includes many insights about the nuances of competition cycling that explains its processes while celebrating its routines, connections, and unique opportunities for cultural discovery.
Chapters sometimes read like a travelogue of journeys and new experiences, and other times like a competitor’s diary of cycling challenge and achievement.
Reinforced by the first person, Cycling 70 Years imparts a vivid series of observations in a “you are here” tone that captures not just individual relationships and other cultures, but shared concerns and emotions that connect disparate worlds.
Fellow cyclists, especially, will appreciate these candid observations of the costs and experiences of competition cycling:
Tom having regained the bunch, then set about reeling us in; he was soon on his own. After what was said to have been a long hard difficult chase, he duly made contact. It appeared to us that he was in a bit of a state; in fact, he looked terrible, he must have thought we looked fresher than we felt. Rather than take any chances on the track finish, he put in a big successful attack on the last climb before the stadium. He had found something from out of the depth that only he could do, I have never seen anybody hurt themselves as much as he could.
The racer mentioned above is Tom Simpson, a racing legend. Those interested in the Tour de France know that he died in the Tour on the Monte Ventoux in 1967.
Language and descriptions can be stilted, at times, as in the opening sentences above; but their impact in capturing the cycling experience supersedes any wish that some of the descriptions could have proved even more powerful with better editing.
Libraries seeking to add an experiential cycling travelogue to their collections that runs through Europe with an exciting air of experience will welcome Cycling 70 Years: Once World Champion’s many immersive moments.
Readers who are cyclists aiming for competition will find the candid reflections revealing and inspiring, while those outside the cycling world can participate of its highs and lows via an armchair read that captures personalities, discoveries, and insights in a vivid manner.
Its immersive experience and explorations of the processes of tour operations, competition organization, and participation emerges from Neal’s life and efforts:
The main thing to do is to make sure you do not crash, another difficulty in this area of Russia was that the road edge was not straight but rather wavy. Unusually for me in this type of race I lost contact with the lead group. Since I have been a veteran, distance has never been a problem as I have been doing the training and eating correctly. Not only did I lose some ground but had cramp as well. However, I persevered finally getting over it, attaching to a strong group who rode very hard kilometre after kilometre.
Cycling 70 Years: Once World ChampionReturn to Index
PATRICK
SWAYZE: Still Inspiring!
Sue
Tabashnik
Passion
Spirit Dreams Press
978-0-9894086-8-4
$24.99
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
www.likedirtydancing.com
PATRICK SWAYZE: Still Inspiring! is an unabashed testimony to the actor’s ongoing relevance and importance long after his death. It gathers memories, stories and tributes from the entertainment industry and those who participated in his life.
Sue Tabashnik reveals, from the opening lines of her exploration, that:
When I remember Patrick Swayze, the first thing I think of is not Johnny Castle, the sizzling dance instructor in Dirty Dancing; Sam Wheat, the loving spirit in Ghost; James Dalton, the Zen bouncer in Road House; or Bodhi, the rogue skydiver and surfer in Point Break. What comes to mind, first and foremost, is what I hold most dear about Patrick: his strength of character and spirituality that still shine so bright.
This comment sets the stage for chapters which delve into Patrick’s life and impact through a diverse set of personal associations, from childhood friends to acting and beyond.
The breadth of memories come from many walks of life and reflect Patrick’s expansive interests, from Arabian horses to stage productions, movie-making, dance, and more. This paints an unrestrained portrait of the “Renaissance Man”’s creativity and ability to engage with life and individuals on many from many walks of life.
Take the reflection by stunt skydiving cameraman Tom Sanders, which was written in 2013 and updated in 2023. Sanders points out just why Patrick’s unusual insistence on doing many of his own stunts sans a double was so memorably outstanding:
It is a BIG deal that Patrick trained and became a proficient skydiver to do some of the actual stunts involving skydiving. This is unheard of in Hollywood. I have been a SAG stunt skydiving cameraman for nearly forty years and he and Tom Cruise (Tom in recent history) are the only ones I recall doing their own stunts. They all say they do, but they don’t. Patrick was a skydiver. He was the REAL DEAL in all aspects of life.
Contrast this with Tabashnik’s in-depth interview with Swayze’s lifelong friend Larry Ward. The long-term nature of their relationship provides many insights about “Buddy” and his early years, from why and how they formed such a strong bond to Swayze’s early participation in martial arts, dance, boxing, and more.
Each individual contributes a different piece to the complex life of Swayze that highlights his personality, talents, and choices. Each reviews the many transformations Swayze undertook in his life and career, providing a full-bodied, admiring view of the man which goes beyond the typical coverages of his fame profiled in other publications.
Sue Tabashnik has written a number of books on Swayze, but PATRICK SWAYZE: Still Inspiring! is, by far, the most wide-ranging for its inclusion of all kinds of adjunct friendships and relationships that reflected his life.
Libraries adding to their Hollywood biography collections in general and looking at surveys of Swayze in particular will find PATRICK SWAYZE: Still Inspiring! a vivid, inspirational collection addition. It should intrigue both fans of Swayze and readers who might know relatively little about the man; especially with its inclusion of some 19 rare photos.
Readers will find the juxtaposition of relationships, stories of growth and achievement, and sense of fun and discovery major draws to a biography embedded in real experiences and powerful memories.
Lively, informative, and multifaceted, PATRICK SWAYZE: Still Inspiring! is a “must have” for Hollywood historians and Swayze fans.
PATRICK SWAYZE: Still Inspiring!Return to Index
Songs
from Fern’s Pond: Composing
a Life with Courage, Gratitude, and Joy
Sheryl
Pothier Harmer
GFB
978-1-959411-15-4
$17.95
Paperback/$26.95 Hardcover/$9.99 eBook
https://www.girlfridayproductions.com/titles/songs-from-ferns-pond
Songs from Fern’s Pond: Composing a Life with Courage, Gratitude, and Joy details the life of Sheryl Pothier Harmer’s mother Fern, who was born in 1913 in rural Oregon into poverty, but led a rich life filled with laughter, love, and family.
Harmer’s mother was an artist, a weaver, and a woman forced to reinvent herself at the age of sixty-one when her long-term husband and love of her life Oscar passed away. She created the world of her dreams both before and after she died, serving as an inspiration first for her close family and now, thankfully, for readers facing their own elder years wondering about the possibilities remaining for building a positive, revised life.
The first question readers might have is: why should a relatively unknown mother’s life be of interest? The answer lies in Fern’s personality and vibrant attitude, which influenced generations of her family and those whose lives they undoubtedly touched:
My mother inspired me to live fully and optimistically. She taught that every life has obstacles and opportunities to see oneself as either a victim or as a participant in creatively navigating a new path. Using a lifetime of problem-solving skills, sheer grit, and good humor, she learned her way through each new challenge.
Another attraction lies in the makeup of Fern’s story, which is not just a collage of connections between mother and daughter, but a dance of relationship- and life-building skills. These are vivid expressions juxtaposing mother and daughter’s writings and reflections.
Songs from Fern’s Pond contains the essence of not just surviving, but thriving. Herein lie the keys to adaptation, positivity, and joy that readers can easily learn from.
Poems and prose add observations of nature and self to this dance. One example lies in the poem “Beauty in the Blight”:
Do not look for perfection.
There is beauty in the blight—
badges of resilience;
stories told in scars.
Another powerful example lies in the running thread of memoir that captures Fern’s life, filling in details about her emotions and choices:
Something stirred within her—a longing to embrace the forlorn land; to wrap her arms around it, gather it in, nurture it, and bring life into its dry and neglected soil. Maybe it was a connection to her childhood, or maybe it was the nurse in her with an instinct to care and soothe and heal. Whatever it was, she sensed both a familiarity and a wild calling of new possibilities as she breathed in the clear air and surveyed the landscape.
Libraries can call it a memoir, an artist’s journey, a celebration of nature, a learning opportunity that supports ongoing life education, or an uplifting story of adaptation and joy, as they will, as they recommend it to patrons from all walks of life.
One thing is evident: Songs from Fern’s Pond: Composing a Life with Courage, Gratitude, and Joy provides an uplifting example of how life weaves together circumstances that rest on individuals to interpret as either opportunities or adversity. The clues to “how” lies in Fern’s story, which is highly recommended for a wide audience seeking joy and purpose in their own aging lives. Songs from Fern’s Pond also will provoke uplifting discussions of values and resilience among groups ranging from book clubs to psychology circles and those facing their own aging.
Songs from Fern’s Pond: Composing a Life with Courage, Gratitude, and JoyReturn to Index
Mystery & Thrillers
Guardian
of the Ages
Henry
Hoffman
Independently
Published
979-8300092986
$16.99
Hardcover/$4.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Guardian-Ages-Henry-Hoffman/dp/B0DRTLBGGR
Guardian of the Ages combines romance with the crime thriller genre, adds a warm dash of historical backdrop with the culture and events of the 1970s, and follows the life of Sean Doyle, who is recovering from his father’s death in Vietnam, a romantic breakup, and a temporary heart problem that has stalled his venture into a criminal justice career.
His interim job as a security officer at a large urban public library introduces a serial killer into the mix, who has chosen the library as the perfect place to locate and stalk his victims. The peace Sean expected to find in the library setting turns into a deadly collection of cat-and-mouse games played amidst books that is anything but quiet and relaxing, as he envisioned.
His supervisor at the library is the beautiful Alicia Barnes, who proves a formidable boss. As Sean and Alicia delve into the mystery, Sean uses the library’s resources to get at the heart of matters surrounding not only the murderer, but those who report on crime:
During his evening break, Sean made a quick trip to the periodical room to check the day’s paper to see if there was a Cox article on the latest killing. He found one tucked below a lengthy account of the successful recovery of the Apollo 13 crew. Basically, it was a rehash of the morning radio report. Confident there was a connection between the crimes and Cox’s hurried visit to the library, one question rose to the fore. Did it relate to the anonymous messages admitted by authorities, and in particular, the taunting aspect?
The juxtaposition between library atmosphere and looming threat is nicely developed. Readers who might think that a library holds little opportunity for becoming a crime scene will be immersed in Sean’s dilemmas as he becomes increasingly drawn into Alicia’s world and the threats to its existence.
Tension is nicely done, events are realistic and often unpredictable (except for the romantic twist, which can be predicted), and library and personal codes of conduct come to light as Sean equates reading tastes with relationship insights and development while fielding a killer.
Libraries that choose Guardian of the Ages will find plenty of depth in the story, between its emotional growth and development and the finely-tuned tension of tracking a clever killer through the stacks.
Readers will find the story captivating on different levels of emotional, career, and investigative intrigue.
Quite simply, Guardian of the Ages is a killer of a story that pairs a rule-maker with a rule-enforcer in a creative, unexpected manner that stands out from the crowd.
Guardian of the AgesReturn to Index
Mayhem
on Mulberry Book Two: Fall of
an Empire
Vincent
deFilippo
ViennaRose
Publishing
978-1-960299-57-4
$19.99
Paperback/$7.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Mayhem-Mulberry-Empire-Vincent-Defilippo/dp/B0DS1LJ6DY?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1
Mayhem on Mulberry Book Two: Fall of an Empire returns to the milieu so engrossingly begun in the first Mulberry book, Rise of the East. The continuation is just as thoroughly detailed and captivating as the original work, even though lovers and gang family members Enzo and Jen appear to be at the end of their lives.
The prologue opens with Deputies Johnson and Fitzsimmons, who have found a faceless body on New York’s streets that seems to be the missing Jen Mo-Li. Li’s notoriety as a Chinese gang leader and a busy human trafficker made her public enemy number one. Her love Enrico Corrozzio lies close by, killed execution-style.
The officers consider the possibilities … which include the thought that the headless lady might not be Li.
At this point, it should be noted that the dialogue between the officers is reflective of the gruff, streetwise, underlying prejudice harbored by some white men in authority. It’s deliberately delivered in a candid form that some readers might chafe at. However, the talk works tightly (even if there is a shock value involved), creating believable characters that represent New York’s various personalities in the early 1990s:
“What the fuck is that all about, Joe? Jesus Christ, if this horseshit doesn’t put the Chinks and the Goombahs at loggerheads, I don’t know what would. What in Christ’s name was that fucking goombah doing there in the "frst place?” He cocked a thumb at Rico’s corpse.
Racism, prejudice, and lingo that reflect these beliefs are thus unusually straightforward and candid. These reflects the overall atmosphere in a story that continues a heavy march into gang operations, urban psychology and social struggles, and the aching impact of gang leadership.
After the prologue, fast forward to 2020 for some surprising revelations. What seems cut and dried in the introduction proves to be anything but set in stone as an identity change is blown by an inquisitive, arrogant brother who is undeterred by the carefully constructed cover story.
A myriad of new characters emerges from these entwined gang relationships. Two are gang leader Nicky DeCarlo and Julia, who would do anything to remain part of the Sun family. She is charged with fulfilling her family duties and obligations by drawing close to him and, thus, closer to the family’s target—Enzo DeCarlo.
Nicky and Julia become the story’s focus as the pawns in another dangerous game between the vying empires.
Issues of boundaries and control, both personally and politically, emerge as Nicky and Julia become engaged not only with one another, but in ventures that reflect and sometimes defy their family’s ideals:
Julia’s mind snapped to her own kin, and just what Mother or Big D would say if they ever caught her daring to step out beyond the family’s tight borders.
Readers who may know relatively little about gang activities need have no prior knowledge of these or New York in order to appreciate the disparate, complex avenues of competition, success, and death the gang members employ in the course of turf wars and special interests.
deFilippo creates fine tension through a combination of dialogue, believable characters that confront their own shifting values and goals, Chinese and Italian families that clash both on the streets and sometimes in the bedroom, and more.
The tension is fine-tuned to provide edge-of-your-seat thriller reading as shifts in focus send different gang forces in novel directions.
Libraries seeking crime thrillers with excellent characterization, ethnic contrasts between gangs, and vivid scenes that draw readers into unpredictable twists and turns will find Mayhem on Mulberry Book Two: Fall of an Empire a winner.
The story begins with Enzo and Jen, expands their story and worlds into those of Nickey, Julia, Danny, and other characters who are powerfully developed, and ultimately delivers a one-two punch of revelation and shock. Fall of an Empire delves into the mechanics of creating revised lives and confronting the full impact of family expectation and connection.
What’s not to love?
Mayhem on Mulberry Book Two: Fall of an EmpireReturn to Index
Ruby Red
Flaws
Joe
Golemo
Level
Best Books
ASIN:
B0DW9HS275 $5.99 eBook
https://joegolemo.com/
Ruby Red Flaws is the second book in a trilogy about murder, adoption, and discovery. It adds further details and draw to the initial story of two adult brothers who discover, upon their father’s demise, that they were adopted.
The prior book in the series, Design Flaws, introduced Dean and Grayson Dyle, involving them in both murder and self-discovery. Their second encounter with murder comes from a different direction—the murder literally takes place right before their eyes during an evening of entertainment at Ruby Ray Dixon’s Supper Club.
This time the prime suspect isn’t a Dyle brother, but Grayson’s girlfriend Kate. Family ties, muddy pasts, and involvements in death come to light in their efforts to prove her innocence. Joe Golemo exhibits a penchant for cases that juxtapose family history and mystery with forces clearly beyond the brothers’ control. This results in a story both similar-sounding to the prior book, yet satisfyingly different as Kate’s world unravels.
Dean’s expertise as a product engineer and Grayson’s position as co-owner of a small design firm would not seem to translate to a prowess in crime-busting or solving murder cases. However, the brothers’ ties and connections supersede their business abilities in ways that make them perhaps the only people able to reach beyond what’s apparent and into the reality of the murder scene.
Golemo peppers his latest case with religious figures and involvements. These call into question various facets of the brothers’ past and its impact on their present-day world. From cult symbols to collateral damage and casino special interests, the twists and turns represented in Ruby Red Flaws encourages a series of questions about identity, nefarious connections, and ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events that seem to hold little connection or logic.
Libraries seeking a murder mystery that excels in stand-alone high drama while expanding upon and complimenting a prior book will find Ruby Red Flaws not just inviting, but immersive.
Readers that choose Ruby Red Flaws for its promise of additional insights about adoption and adaptation will relish the story for its vivid first-person encounters, sometimes-zany characters, and inviting, thought-provoking twists on the typical whodunit.
Ruby Red FlawsReturn to Index
Shaken
Jill
Amber Chafin
Vine
Leaves Press
978-3-98832-137-4
$17.99
Paperback/$5.99 eBook
Website:
www.jillamberchafin.com
Publisher:
www.vineleavespress.com
If ever there was a thriller that offered a thought-provoking event with a high possibility of delighting audiences with a controversial mystery (while possibly affecting sensitive readers), it’s Shaken. The story features the dilemma of young mother Sally, who faces seemingly impossible obstacles trying to handle her one-year-old son Morgan, resulting in her shaking him soundly in a fit of anger.
Teen babysitter Alyssa is charged with caring for Morgan, later that night, but as his condition deteriorates and doctors become involved, the finger of justice points to Alyssa as the likely abuser of this baby.
Sally can stay silent and let justice run its course, or she can stand up and confess, threatening her ideals of being the perfect mother to her child and possibly leading to his removal from her care.
Moral and ethical dilemmas combine with social perspectives about motherhood and childcare in a rich journey in which Alyssa and Sally find their lives and futures unexpectedly entwined in a dangerous way.
Jill Amber Chafin supercharges her story with emotional hurdles and understandable situations that bring both characters to life. Her focus on presenting the situation with all its emotional facets creates a progression that embraces the joys and challenges of being a young new mother:
Yes, of course she cherished the good moments with Morgan— when he babbled into an old paper towel roll, clanked measuring cups together like musical cymbals, or helped pop the bubble wrap, jerking with surprise at each snap, pop. She loved the sweet snuggles, and his endless obsession with Green Eggs and Ham (he insisted she read it to him at least five times a day).
Sally’s partner Charles, who wants them to consider more children and a big family, readily admits that Sally is an ideal mom:
“And would you say she’s been a good mother?” Jameson asked.
His answer was a resounding yes. Morgan had changed Sally for the better. He saw the way she read story after story to him at bedtime, on the random nights he was home. How she rushed to his room to soothe him during his middle-of-the-night wakings, refusing to try the cry-it-out sleep-training method. She even taught Charles how to rephrase words to be more aligned with the gentle parenting movement—“Don’t say ‘no, you can’t have that.’ Instead, offer an alternative he can have.”
He’ll testify to that in court—as he does to a detective who suspects something is wrong with the idea that teen Alyssa has harmed young Morgan.
Chafin does an excellent story of building these contrasts. There are no easy answers or predictable “good or bad” characters, resulting in close examinations of social support systems that too often fail to offer concrete solutions to parental burnout and shifting needs.
This gives Shaken added value, exploring events from all sides of the complex picture of child endangerment, safety, and parenting choices.
Yes, the novel’s thriller component and search for discoveries and answers will draw genre readers—but to identify Shaken as a thriller alone would be to do it a grave disservice. Its in-depth coverage of psychological makeup, rationales, perceptions, and parental pressures deserves deep inspection and discussion among book club and parenting circles alike.
Libraries that choose Shaken because of all these facets will find a novel thoroughly engrossing, filled with thought-provoking insights suitable for reflection, and packed with twists readers won’t see coming.
The story’s embedded themes of guilt, loneliness, new motherhood’s pressures and a terrible choice over moral and ethical behavior and the consequences of breaking down makes for a shocking, revealing, complex read that is well-written, more than believable, and nearly impossible to put down.
ShakenReturn to Index
Two
Sisters
Marcel
Marquié
BookBaby
9798350968323
$2.99 (eBook); $13.99
(paperback)
https://www.amazon.com/Parisian-Detective-Tales-Trilogy-Sisters-ebook/dp/B0DGQP44XT
Parisian Detective Tales is a trilogy that opens with Part One, Two Sisters, which takes place at the end of World War II.
Former POW Toni Bonnet has returned from his incarceration in Germany to open his own fledgling detective agency in Paris, a city just beginning to recover from the impact of war. Because the city is still in flux and shock, Toni finds it hard to drum up business.
When he receives a job from a butcher who suspects his wife of being unfaithful (despite her protests that she’s spending time with her sick sister), Toni becomes involved in their lives. A completely unexpected series of discoveries marry suspicion and murder with family secrets and vanished children.
Readers won’t anticipate many of the twists and turns Toni experiences as he probes the puzzling lives of these two sisters.
Marcel Marquié creates a thoroughly immersive story by taking the time to reinforce mystery with history, flavoring all with a personal touch that helps readers easily absorb not just the intrigue, but the mixed bag of choices that emerge during these times:
As a child, Toni had been an aficionado of the comic strip and its heroes, Ribouldingue, Filochard, and Croquignol, the most popular French cartoon characters since the beginning of the century. They were three con artists, burglars, scoundrels, and liars, who always managed to outwit the police, though they never hurt anyone. Funny how the French had a fondness for smart criminals elevated to the ranks of national heroes . . . Americans preferred demi-gods like Superman. Go figure. Come to think of it, their dishonesty may have had a bad influence on him, which would explain his propensity for lying to conduct business more efficiently.
Passages such as this explore the subtler nuances and cross-connections between post-World War II culture and experience, connecting the dots of discovery with thought-provoking reflections. These bring Toni and his world to life as he probes the lives, truths, and deceits of the sisters:
...the key to that little enigma lay in the two sisters’ relationship, and it occurred to him that he should perhaps start over by looking into Claudine’s personal life. She lived close to Fontainebleau and had moved into the house at Seine-Port fairly recently; in fact, immediately after the Liberation, Marchand had said. Coincidentally, her pretty sister had married the less than attractive butcher at that time, which was rather odd, although when he thought of his own relationship with Rose, he had to admit that it was also on the unconventional side. And not just because she was a prostitute.
Libraries that choose Two Sisters to enhance their detective fiction sections will find that it is filled with historical and cultural references which elevate the novel well beyond a standard formula whodunit.
Readers that enjoy historical fiction will relish not only these in-depth explorations, but the gripping intrigue that exposes the special interests, secrets, and survival tactics of different characters.
The mixture of investigative piece, cultural and historical exploration, and psychological depth and discovery makes Two Sisters not just thought-provoking, but a completely immersive post-war experience. It holds value for many different genre readers, operating well beyond a traditional historical fiction novel or detective piece alone.
Two SistersReturn to Index
The
Writer in Tuscany
Richard
P. Wenzel
Atmosphere
Press
979-8-89132-531-9
$18.99
Paperback/$8.99 eBook/$27.99
Hardcover
www.atmospherepress.com
The Writer in Tuscany sports a Tuscan vineyard setting and embraces a mystery that seems right up the alley of crime reporter Erik Swanson—even if he didn’t necessary come to Tuscany in search of a new case.
Early in the story, the atmosphere (and wine) of Tuscany sparks Erik’s writer’s instinct for spinning a good story with a realistic backdrop. However, before he can write fiction, he must deal with real-world puzzles that emerge from his first day in Italy and only become more complex as time marches on.
Dialogues between characters compliment atmospheric descriptions, also bringing Tuscany and Erik’s intentions to life:
“I’m a reporter, part-time English teacher, trying to be a writer.”
“Are you seeking a beautiful location to write an inspired book?”
“Yes.”
“Why Italy? Are you running from something? A geographical fix?”
Erik coughed. “I just need to fire up my writing engine. It was slowing down at home.”
“My analyst would ask if you’ve confronted the central issue?”
“I hadn’t framed it that way.”
The last thing Eric expected was to be kidnapped, his life hanging by a thread as his writing ambitions and nose for trouble lead him on the most dangerous quest of his life.
Readers will find Richard P. Wenzel does an outstanding job of creating unexpected twists and turns of plot. These lead Eric and his readers from Tuscany’s vineyards to a helicopter ride powered by assailants with assault weaponry, for one vivid example.
The story heats up with fellow lodgers at his Tuscan escape as a connection develops with lovely cellist Illiana, who has her own secrets to maintain over an abusive relationship’s lasting impact. Other characters emerge with their own reasons for choosing this Tuscan retreat as an opportunity to either heal or flee from forces buffeting their lives.
The complexity of special interests and interactions proves a delightful supplement to the thriller component which reveals many unexpected relationships and “aha” moments of revelation and danger.
Libraries seeking a thriller replete with emotional ties and surprises, cat-and-mouse games that emerge against the backdrop of Tuscany and individual pursuits, and an overall theme rich in landscapes of connection and danger will welcome the opportunity to add The Writer in Tuscany to their collections.
It’s highly recommended reading for individuals seeking thought-provoking emotional discussions and action-packed, shifting scenarios. Book clubs, too, appreciate The Writer in Tuscany’s ability to get under the writer’s skin to expose explosive truths behind motivation, success, and influences on possible epic, life-threatening failures. Superb tension and character development make The Writer in Tuscany a clear winner over other Italy-based tales.
The Writer in TuscanyReturn to Index
Counting
Backwards
Jacqueline
Friedland
Harper
Muse
978-1400347308
$32.99
Hardcover/$18.99 Paperback/$9.99
eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Counting-Backwards-Novel-Jacqueline-Friedland/dp/1400347300
Counting Backwards is a captivating novel that blends thriller elements into its stories. The first tale, set in 2022, features a woman whose legal career and convictions about the justice system face a major change. Lawyer Jessa Gidney pursues pro bono work and becomes involved in the ICE processes that are endangering the life of a young woman.
The last thing Jessica expects from her routine case is the evolution of a medical dilemma that holds strong ties to her own situation. The last thing she wanted was to be forced to reconsider not just definitions of justice, but her integrity in pursuing it.
Flash back to 1927 Virginia, where ordinary young woman Carrie Buck finds herself at the center of a eugenics legal battle that takes her all the way to the Supreme Court. An adopted girl with few resources and a humble nature, Carrie’s moment in the limelight unexpectedly delivers paradigm-changing results that ripple into the future to affect Jessica’s own case and life.
Jacqueline Friedland’s juxtaposition of these very different lives and times introduces a satisfying complexity to her story. This creates many subjects and issues suitable for book club discussion and debate.
Women and legal thriller readers who choose this immersive experience will find that Counting Backwards’s focus on legal ramifications of controversial cases and actions and social programs that support sometimes-dubious ideologies will impact their thinking. They’ll eagerly follow characters whose lives are upended by their choices and the limitations of their environment and involvements.
Friedland’s movements between past and present events are clearly delineated by chapter headings, so it’s nearly impossible to get lost. The revelations each woman experiences are powerfully and succinctly delivered to support each personality, as during Carrie’s entrapment:
“This one is perfect,” he said. “You’ve done well.”
His words surprised me, and I looked up from my feet. He was smiling bright, as if something excellent had just occurred. And I’m embarrassed to admit that I misunderstood all over again. He was so clearly bursting with delight that I began to hope again that they might be considering my release. Well, shame on me. If I thought anything good could come from meeting with that man, maybe I was just as dim-witted as Dr. Preston wanted to believe.
In the future, Jessa faces her own family challenges and struggles with her mandate to help her client (and, unexpectedly, herself) despite emotional turmoil and loss, which takes its toll:
I marveled at how everywhere I looked, every last thing suddenly seemed to be about babies. God seemed to be taunting me, making me think about reproduction all day every day, all while withholding the grand prize.
As issues of illegitimate children, regulatory practices that disguise prejudice and predatory behaviors, and loss of opportunity, ideals, and control emerge, Counting Backwards gives rise to all kinds of questions and considerations while building exquisite tension from social, political, and psychological storms.
Libraries that choose Counting Backwards for their collections will find it especially enlightening, impactful reading for women interested in women’s rights, justice system operations, and issues of childbearing and loss.
Readers will find both characters in the story exceptionally well developed. These lives not only dovetail and entwine in unexpected ways, but deliver a one-two punch of realism and shock that pave the way for a thoroughly engrossing story.
Counting BackwardsReturn to Index
Discovery
Christopher
Ryan
Better
Than Starbucks Publications
979-8-9886211-3-3
$18.00
Paperback/$5.00 eBook
www.betterthanstarbucks.org
Discovery is a novel about ghosts with riddles. 85-year-old Helen Bryan embarks on an unexpected adventure when her dead husband Ed presents her with a puzzle at the same time as a new species of bird visits her feeder.
Circumstances propel Helen into what likely will be the last adventure of her life, fueled by unexpected revelations that belay her advanced years and the notion that old age is largely devoid of novel experiences.
The morning rituals she’s performed for years are now conducted with much pain from arthritis and aging. It’s clear that she’s in no shape for adventure. But there’s more than one kind of adventure, and the opportunity presented to her is one she can accept.
Birders will find the threads of bird habits, observations, and pleasure that run though Discovery just one example of the many kinds of revelations that Helen discovers as she nears the end of life. They will appreciate the story’s observational details, the thrill of unexpected sightings, and the opportunity to vicariously appreciate both birds and the notion of a strange “mistake” her husband points out in his mysterious message to her.
Ornithological details lend the story a realistic air of natural history pleasure as Helen grapples with recording everything she sees. This, she applies to life events, emerging puzzles, and unexpected reprieves from guilt and conflict that resurface in the present day to challenge the notion of a pleasant life trajectory.
Christopher Ryan does an outstanding job of capturing the emotional and physical pain of old age—but he doesn’t stop there. The title of his novel is, after all, Discovery. These moments emerge from unexpected encounters with ghosts, birds, and self to give the plot an intriguing countenance of growth that embraces the lightness of truth, however difficult it may be.
Readers will become immersed in Helen’s life, which in turn encourages her followers to consider their own aging process and reflections. These are delivered through encounters with nature which emphasize life and diversity:
Up ahead, higher on the mountain, she could see a large aspen grove that had overtaken a burn area, hiding it like a bandage. She’d read that aspen groves shared one root system, so all the trees in it were intimately connected. The grove was one organism, with the individual trees only appearing to be independent above ground. An aspen grove, known as a clone because the trees are genetically identical, could live for thousands of years. She liked knowing that something could survive so long.
Perhaps one reason why Discovery is especially vivid is because it is fiction based on real people and circumstances. Christopher Ryan builds a biographical sketch laced with fictional drama and embellishments which make Helen and her relationships quite accessible to audiences:
The story as I tell it is fiction, but much of what happens to the characters is true. Fiction is wishful thinking about the good that could be, but it can’t get around the bad that has been and will be.
What circumstances could force Helen to correct a longtime mistake by eschewing the ornithological limelight and hiding her discovery?
Libraries interested in moving stories of aging, reconciling past with present events at life’s end, and birding objectives carried out in unusual manners will find it easy to recommend Discovery. The novel will appeal to audiences looking for emotionally compelling stories of old age and the special forms of self-examination and revelation that can emerge at the end of life.
And then, there are birds…
DiscoveryReturn to Index
Doctor
Robert
Bobby
Lopez
Independently
Published
978-1-63337-880-3
$9.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Robert-Bobby-Lopez-ebook/dp/B0DVB4YG1P?sr=8-1
Doctor Robert is a wry, satirical consideration of the psychological profession in general and the power and peril of treatment in particular. It opens with a poem detailing the negative effects of therapist Dr. Robert, which segues into a prologue about the good (or bad, as it were) doctor’s modus operandi for impacting those he is tasked with helping.
The introduction comes from the memories of first-person narrator Robbie, who reviews his childhood, the trauma of losing his mother, and the dreams of his past that affect his present.
Early in the story, Bobby Lopez introduces the sensitive topic of student suicide:
A few suicides had occurred in the graduating class. But I didn’t really know the students. When I heard about their deaths, it was no different than reading an article in a newsfeed about students killing themselves. Death became so omnipresent in my world that it didn’t make a difference to me. But for the rest of my classmates, it became a topic of gossip and speculation, a game of guessing which mental illnesses they suffered from. At least, that’s what I’ve gathered from overheard conversations.
Robbie faces growing, not diminishing, angst over so many things in his life that he seems a prime candidate for therapy:
...the events of the day continued to creep into my thoughts, nagging at my mind. It reminded me of the countless times I had been unable to share my true thoughts, of how no one seemed interested in understanding who I truly was or what I believed. I carried the weight of my thoughts alone, putting on a brave face and pretending to be content. But there were moments when the weight became too much, when the cracks in my soul deepened and I felt as though I couldn’t go on.
These events and emotions lead Robbie to seek help from the much-acclaimed, renowned Dr. Robert. As he and his doctor explore philosophy, thought processes, new worldviews, and disparate pathways towards healing, Dr. Robert’s impact and interactive choices become thoroughly compelling:
“You’re not a freak. There’s nothing inherently wrong with you. When I look at you, I see a reflection of myself. However, you possess certain differences that set you apart from the rest of the population. One must understand their differences to journey through life more smoothly. Then they can fit in, find friends, and find love. It’s something anyone would want, but it requires effort and self-reflection. And that’s where I come in. I help you reach your full potential, so everyone can see what I see in you.”
While general-interest readers looking at coming-of-age stories that touch upon sensitive subjects about life purpose, suicide, and growth and death will relish Doctor Robert, it’s the psychological student interested in therapeutic approaches who will especially appreciate this novel’s focus.
The characters emerge as realistic and compelling, Robbie’s psychological conundrums come to life not only in relation to his experience, but the guidance of Dr. Robert, and the emerging personalities and underlying motivations of a dangerously deceptive doctor add criminal insights and unexpected tension to the journey.
Teachers of psychology seeking fictional explorations of the profession will be especially delighted by the story’s progression and insights, which lend to not just attractive leisure reading, but potentially avid reading circle debates.
Libraries that choose Doctor Robert for their collections will find the novel a strong recommendation for a wide audience. Its insights are also strengthened by juxtaposing Dr. Robert’s perspective for maximum understanding and contrasts between experiences, ideals, and underlying motivations.
Lopez’s deep dive into physician power, nefarious plotting, and counseling’s potential for dangerous relationships creates a thoroughly thought-provoking, unexpected scenario readers will find hard to put down as they follow Robbie into the therapist’s office and beyond the power of self-examination into dangerous territory.
Highly recommended for its juxtaposition of suspense, coming-of-age experiences, and inviting discourses on life and death, Doctor Robert is a winning page-turner that’s hard to neatly categorize and equally difficult to put down.
Doctor RobertReturn to Index
Indelicate
Deception
V.S.
Kemanis
Opus
Nine Books
9781737847939
$19.99 Paperback/$7.99
eBook
Website:
https://www.vskemanis.com/books/indelicate-deception/
Ordering:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/indelicate-deception/c5aea1ad362d27dc?ean=9781737847939&next=t&
Indelicate Deception is the novel of a daughter raised without a mother. Caty (real name Delicate Soul Robertson) invents a colorful fantasy about where her mother is and why she left her father when Caty was young, never to be heard from again.
It feels inevitable that Caty will confront a harsh reality when she comes of age and wants to know more about Lenore. She embarks on a truth-finding mission to locate her mother and learn what is real … and that’s where things become surprisingly complicated.
Caty’s sleuthing reveals only so much information. The rest needs to come from her mother. Her effort is destined to test her love for her father, but Caty has come far enough in her probe that she can’t help but continue—even if it threatens everything stable in her life.
V.S. Kemanis crafts an absorbing tale that simmers with love, unresolved questions, and surprising twists and turns, centered in California and presenting a personal and cultural journey into possibilities Caty never envisioned.
Lenore and Roy’s story emerges in contrast to Caty’s life, filling in the blanks with an alternate perspective that contrasts nicely with the quest and the impact of Lenore’s choices.
Kemanis is especially skilled at drawing important connections between idealization and reality as Lenore, Delicate, and Roy evolve, and deception becomes one of the foundations of their life together. The focus on father Roy’s life and the sense of commitment he feels in building family is nicely done:
Home, fatherhood, friends. Lenore. This is Roy’s life, and it isn’t bad. Len works hard all week—and some weekends—while he cares for their baby … everything’s different, nothing like their early days. He accepts this life, the responsibilities and joys of family.
Lenore’s sense of commitment, in contrast, only goes so far. Readers immersed in these lives slowly gain a sense not only of underlying deception and clouded interests, but the influences that could drive a mother to leave her relationship and family, never to return.
As issues of injustice, money, and career buffet their family, Len and Roy both make difficult decisions. Readers brought into this scenario will especially appreciate the questions it raises, from the makeup of a family when marriage is not part of the deal to a daughter’s later probe of its impact on her life.
Libraries choosing Indelicate Deception for its strong characterization, thought-provoking moral and ethical considerations, and psychological depth as a daughter risks everything she’s known and loved to seek out difficult truths will find it easy to recommend the novel to book clubs.
With its many facets moving beyond a compelling read and into discussion points of family makeup, childrearing’s impact, and the elements and roots of deception, readers will thoroughly appreciate a story which doesn’t just deliver a completely involving plot, but encourages deeper-level thinking about love, deception, and lifetime consequences.
Indelicate DeceptionReturn to Index
The Last
Patient
Tudor
Alexander
Boyle
& Dalton
978-1633378841
$16.99
Paperback/$7.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Patient-Tudor-Alexander-ebook/dp/B0DWTCMYY1/
The Last Patient opens with a 1993 Maryland setting in which wife and mother Clara lays dying, her husband Kostea and son Toddy caring for her in her final hours. The main story embraces Clara and Kostea’s past, however, with the first chapter returning to 1950s Bucharest and elsewhere, which is experiencing political turmoil and the raise of the proletariat.
The dangerous environment has been building for a good while, Dr. Kostea Bardu notes, with the contagion of political repression now infecting people they know:
“...we are small potatoes, but it doesn’t matter. What started at the top extends now to everybody. Simply put, it’s terror.”
In this past, Clara is nine months pregnant, still working as an intern in the hospital as she awaits their first child. A rap on the door brings more bad news on the cusp of her welcomed first child:
“Comrade Bardu, your apartment has been subdivided,” the policeman informed Kostea, handing him an authorization with the emblem of the precinct. “These are Comrades Sorin and Marta Ionescu, and their five-year-old son, Radu. Your second bedroom was assigned to them, with access to your kitchen and bathroom.”
Kostea paled. Haltingly, Clara had followed him, and he heard her breathing behind him. He turned and pointed at her rounded belly. “There must be a mistake. We need the space. We’re expecting a baby.”
The policeman shrugged. “I’m merely executing an order. You know there is an acute housing shortage after the war. All of us make sacrifices.”
By now it should be evident that Tudor Alexander pays close attention to the juxtaposition of personal and political climate, bringing characters to life that are experiencing the blows of decisions they no longer make for themselves, which are imposed upon them from above.
Their assertive, demanding new “roommates” introduce further adversity and struggle to the young couples’ lives, illustrating the divide that comes from Communist activists who are as passionate about their patriotic purpose as they are about their newfound rights under this repressive regime.
As Alexander unfolds this couple’s shifting world, uncertainty, changes, unreliable happinesses, and affairs emerge that further impact their lives and perspectives about relationships, faithfulness, and life under the hand of Ceaușescu.
Readers receive thought-provoking, realistic insights about this period of time and how people not only survived, but sometimes flourished (albeit in unpredictable ways) as they raised families, faced the usual concerns of aging and change, and forged new pathways of discovery and life against a political backdrop that was anything but kind.
As the decades unfold, shifting viewpoints between Clara and Kostea reinforce differences in ethics, values, and experience that inject intriguing, thought-provoking reflections for readers:
At the trailhead, the driver turned his truck around. “Happy trekking,” he said. “And enjoy the time with your son.”
The path led uphill through the forest. The air was velvety and fragrant, the light borrowing a green hue from the trees. Kostea walked ahead. As the incline increased, so did the distance between him and Clara.
From Toddy’s emigration and profuse letter-writing over a five-year period to Clara and Kostea’s dangerous decision to escape the culture and place they have long called home, Alexander weaves social, political, and personal struggle in a compelling manner.
Readers may think they’ll need prior familiarity with the politics and regime of the times—but they do not. The backdrop and history are intricately referred to and woven into a story that proves deeply compelling even to those who may know little Eastern European history or culture.
Libraries that choose The Last Patient for their collections will find it worthy of book club and reading group recommendation for its outstanding blend of personal and political reflection.
Given modern times and questions about survival, fascism, freedom, and life trajectory, The Last Patient is especially relevant, important reading that should be chosen and discussed by any thinking readers interested in past precedent, history, and future possibilities.
The Last PatientReturn to Index
Mother
Mac’s Boarding House
Trisha
Sugarek
Independently
Published
9798303750487
$12.95
www.writeratplay.com
Mother Mac’s Boarding House is a prequel to Trisha Sugarek’s Ain't Nuthin' Gonna Separate Us, and will especially delight readers seeking for more “origin” detail about the Georgia backwoods orphaned siblings.
The story opens with a literal bang:
Martha ‘Marty’ McBride never would have believed that a man would have gotten past her defenses and knocked her silly.
Spunky, determined Marty MacKenzie is planning an escape from her abusive husband Hank, despite the major challenges of money and locating a safe haven. In 1949, there were few resources for women who wanted to flee such circumstances.
As in her previous book, Sugarek is adept at capturing the thoughts and lingo of the South to bring these Mississippi characters to life:
One more meal in this house. One more night with that summa’bitch. Hopefully, this heavy meal will put him to sleep early. Then, tomorrow, if Ah’m lucky̶̶̶̶ and as Mama used to say˗˗’the creek don’t rise’, Ah’ll be gone for good.
When Marty stumbles across an abandoned once-grand house for sale, her new life begins to take shape. Again, Sugarek’s talent for capturing atmosphere, dreams, and realities springs to life through descriptions and reflections which impart a “you are here” feel to her story, where Marty:
“...didn’t see the peeling paint, the knee-high weeds choking the grass out, the broken windows, or the hole in the front porch floor. Oh no, all she saw was her future home, and the home of the boarders she would rent rooms to. The meals Ah will make for the lonely traveler. The vase of wildflowers on Mah kitchen table. Marty’s heart skipped a beat as she gazed at the house. She could almost hear the laughter of the boarders, smell the aroma of home-cooked meals, and feel the warmth of a home filled with people and purpose.
How Marty confronts the “old world and its rules” with her own special brand of determination makes for an uplifting, evocative story of transformation that brings the Old South alive.
Marty’s chance encounter with Hannah Mae and her brother Jerry thus becomes fuller-bodied with the backdrop of events that come full circle for previous readers while welcoming newcomers to the extraordinary coincidences and self-determined life of a woman whose dreams reach out to embrace everyone around her.
Teens, young adults, and many an adult will relish these strong female characters, which expand from Marty’s world to embrace the circumstances of Elenora Parks, an Army nurse veteran newly returned from the war who finds a new life as a teacher and a home that offers an unexpected sanctuary for a pregnant, grieving woman.
Mother Mac’s Boarding House is an exquisite read not only for its realistic Southern setting and characters, but for its uplifting display of female characters whose actions inject positivity and new options into the world around them.
In stark contrast to the “me first” sentiments that seem to permeate modern times, Marty’s desire to escape results in a creation that offers safe harbors to others, as well.
Additionally, the political and social milieu of the times, which passed many restrictive rules on African Americans, comes to life in the light of personal experience. This is a far more intimate, compelling manner of absorbing civil rights and American history than any nonfiction text could achieve, immersing readers in the life of Marty’s journey.
Marty’s confrontations with social and personal repressive elements, and how she rises above them to influence others’ lives, results in a thoroughly compelling story that is hard to put down.
Libraries choosing Mother Mac’s Boarding House will find its impeccable historical research and equally powerful mix of dialogue and atmosphere makes it a top recommendation for book clubs and reading groups interested in women’s and African American experiences in the 1950s Deep South.
It stands nicely on its own but also serves as an important prequel to the events of Ain't Nuthin' Gonna Separate Us, merging history and social inspection in an uplifting, revealing manner that circles around questions of safety, home, connections, and self-determination.
Mother Mac’s Boarding HouseReturn to Index
Mothers
of Fate
Lynne
Hugo
Blank
Slate Press/Amphorae Publishing
Group
9781943075911
$18.95 Paperback/$9.99
eBook
www.amphoraepublishing.com
Mothers of Fate is a powerful novel about adoption and the different impact it has on all involved. Unlike most stories of families and adoption, it holds added value in considering issues of disability, abandonment, and workplace sexual encounters that give rise to food for thought about all these subjects and their ultimate impact.
Readers might think that weaving these disparate elements into a novel about adoption and the search for an adopted child might prove too complex or detailed. However, one of the strengths in Lynne Hugo’s writing lies in her ability to blend seemingly disparate topics and influences into a unified examination of choices, consequences, and resonating hardship and revelations.
This isn’t the first time Hugo has tackled some of these subjects. But to have them entwine in a hard-hitting novel of connection results in a gripping saga that approaches its topics from many accessible angles of experience.
What was Monica Connell to do when unwanted workplace advances force her literally against a wall with no support?
Monica has replayed scene after scene in her head. Could she have averted Darcy’s advances? Had this happened to other women? There were no women senior partners; one associate was a woman, but she was severe, buttoned-up, her straight-line mouth like the top of the T, not a bit of a come to me if you need any help aura about her. And she didn’t have power with regard to a senior partner. Nor, of course, did the couple of women secretaries, obvious mothers and grandmothers who bustled out at five every weekday, pushing away from desks littered with pictures of children like so many bright flowers. Talking with them about it was unthinkable.
Attorney Monica now knows she’s gay, and has moved on from the past, but it is reintroduced to her through the dilemma of new client Deana Wilkes. Deana is a disabled woman forced to give up her child in a closed adoption thirty years prior. She has developed a new mission, as an adult, to now locate that child.
Themes include different reasons for adoption, withdrawal, engagement, and revised objectives. All these elements draw Monica into a dispute with wife Angela, who maintains the firm conviction that closed adoptions must remain so forever.
Moral and ethical conflicts emerge between them, attorney and client, and past and present choices. The case turns into a series of twists and turns that force each of the characters to re-examine not just their choices and motives, but their lives and choices.
Hugo’s ability to evolve these conflicts into bigger-picture thinking results in vivid passages of realization and understanding. They will prove particularly engaging to readers seeking more depth than the usual novel about adoption.
Part of this comes from juxtaposing the perceptions and objectives of not just the birth mother, but the adoptive family:
Jennie really didn’t like the idea of her son having two mothers. She wanted a simple, exclusive claim on his heart.
“I wonder if she’s sad or relieved. It must be so hard.” If she is sad, how can I be happy at someone else’s expense?
“Most likely relieved, but don’t think about that,” Brian said. “She’s not you. She had a choice. Just like we had a choice. Anyway, this baby is ours.”
The relationship connections, building and re-building, and shifting status comes from many directions and characters’ lives, but builds an authoritative foundation of examination. This invites readers and book clubs to consider their own expectations and definitions of family, closed and open circles, and how life changes result in challenges to past decisions.
Libraries will find the addition of Mothers of Fate both expands the topic of adoption’s influences and challenges and offers a completely engrossing story. It will reach leisure readers in addition to book clubs and women’s groups interested in all kinds of related, interconnected family issues.
Readers will especially appreciate Mothers of Fate’s ability to contrast very different ideals of love, family, and poverty on a level that sings with emotional connection and resonates with life questions and values.
Mothers of FateReturn to Index
The
Other Book
Alexey L
Kovalev
Atmosphere
Press
979-8-89132-550-0
$15.99
paperback, $8.99 e-book, $24.99
hardcover
www.atmospherepress.com
Imagine reading a book at work, only to find that each attempt immerses the reader in an alternate universe. Now consider that this revisionist history is pursued by a young physician working in a hospital during the apex of the Covid pandemic.
This is the opening premise of The Other Book, which presents an electronic book that takes on a life of its own and begins to draw in and rewrite reality itself.
If this plot sounds complex, be advised that The Other Book is not a choice for light reading. It will simply delight those who look for mind-boggling concepts, shared experiences that blossom into a world no reader could have anticipated, and premises that shift not only the plot, but the reader’s perception of what is real and what is ultimately being created from this encounter.
Alexey L Kovalev employs language that is hard-hitting from the story’s opening lines:
Boisterous prophets, rakish boys and girls of The Avant-Garde and Deconstructivism announced that human history is over, all its laws have ceased to function, and the “Great Arts and Masters” paradigm has played out and become obsolete. They put their trust in an “intuitive attainment of the existence’s vertical dimension.” But it seems they also feel that the earth under their feet is shaking somewhat in its own fashion, not a modern way, so they thickly blow the gaff on an impending new myth, a radically different Gilgamesh.
This drives readers into a plot that delves richly into evolving World Storylines, encounters between participants trying to make sense of their revised roles in this strange new milieu, and the impact of literary and social interpretation on new and old worlds alike.
Kovalev’s language is always a cut above the ordinary. This challenges readers to move slowly through the scenario in order to thoroughly absorb its reinterpretations of history, impact, and contributors to shifting paradigms:
I would not dare interpret the Author’s intent in using the name of the famous medieval chant and even citations from it as epigraphs, but this text has mysteriously fascinated composers, and around two hundred of them wrote its musical versions. Among them were such names as Vivaldi, Haydn, Schubert, and Verdi—not incidental figures in the history of world culture, were they? I think we would not be wrong to assume that they all were haunted by the main topic of the poem—compassion for the Holy Mother’s sufferings and the exigency of feeling her pain. For some of them, that urge corresponded with personal crises. And it began right with the poet.
Various conversations between characters emerge in the form of letters and communiqués, adding further richness to the story’s reflective tone.
World-building as a collective process is reinforced through many unexpected twists and turns as Paul and many other guests (often unidentified) in this environment reinterpret the function and impact of scientists, thinkers, literary and arts figures, philosophers, and politicians who have influenced or defined reality.
Libraries will appreciate the novel’s depth and literary attraction as it moves from philosophical reflection to pointed insights about how worldviews are created, challenged, or dissolved.
Readers that choose The Other Book will find its deep-layered conversations and debates offer thoroughly thought-provoking, reflective reading that delves into sci-fi circles, but embeds its progress with references to philosophers who all are (in a sense) revising the history and reality of the world by being authors, creators, and thinkers.
The uplifting thoughts that come from considerations of how this transformation impacts life will delight readers attracted to potent, reflective writing:
Hot on the heels of taciturn young readers, utterly fresh sprouts were on the rise, which apparently knew something that they had not started learning yet. They shouldn’t even be taught new stories—just set them loose, and they would cover everything with apple blossoms. True, not right away they will take in their gentle hands the Earth damaged by their parents. But unlike them, and as sovereign characters of the new World’s Storyline, they would know how to burburate it.
The Other BookReturn to Index
A Season
in Saigon
Dorothy
Love
Leaning
Oaks Press
979-8-9920162-0-8
$15.99 print/$5.99 eBook
Website:
www.dorothylovebooks.com
Ordering:
www.amazon.com/dp/B0DTM7N2SM
Why does a once-successful fashion writer head to Saigon, of all places? In A Season in Saigon, Tallis Reed makes a last-ditch effort to salvage her shattered career by nosing out some good war stories to report on. When she arrives in Saigon, she discovers that hidden influences and close-held secrets thwart her efforts to become an investigative journalist, which proves a far cry from fashion reporting.
Tallis embarks on a journey that involves re-inventing herself as well as confronting the ravages and legacy of war. Unexpectedly, a romance opportunity forces her to make difficult choices between a partnership and staying true to her newfound career focus.
Underlying this fictional exploration is the real history of the few female reporters who found themselves in Vietnam navigating cultural, social, and political obstacles that clouded understanding and threatened their personal safety. This element makes A Season in Saigon of special note and recommendation to women’s reading groups interested in historical accounts of the Vietnam War that focus on women’s’ experiences.
Another big plus to Tallis’s story lies in how Dorothy Love develops the dichotomy between personal and career objectives. Her protagonist navigates entirely new territory as she reconsiders her options, life purpose, and revised moral values.
Vivid connections between the requirements of reporting and ethical quandaries bring circumstances and their underlying choices to life:
“This story may make you famous, but don’t let fame harden you. Write the things your heart tells you to write. Take the pictures your heart tells you to take.”
The novel is no casual read, but sports a wide cast of characters, from new love Nick Landry to a host of military men, nuns who head the Sacred Heart Orphanage, and a number of Vietnamese characters who add their own cultural flavors to the mix. Other women enter the bigger picture as Tallis begins to realize the real cost and impact of her choices:
She couldn’t remember ever lying to Kay. Not even when they were kids. But the contours of their friendship had changed now. And she had a job to do.
The result is an exceptionally vivid, engrossing story of one woman’s journey to Vietnam and search for justice. This personalizes reporting encounters and experiences, adding a special focus on its challenges. A Season in Saigon invites women to discuss the impact of the times and some of the issues that arise as Tallis confronts friends, lovers, Vietnamese from all walks of life, and military interests:
“A story like this will destroy troop morale. It will cause more dissent back home at a time when the president, and General Abrams, have enough on their plates already. For the life of me I can’t understand what’s happened to good old-fashioned patriotism. Where’s your love of country?”
Libraries will find A Season in Saigon an exceptional acquisition that deserves recommendation to all kinds of patrons, from those interested in women’s perspectives during the Vietnam War to others who will readily see that the in-country experience from a woman reporter’s viewpoint contrasts well with the many Vietnam novels already on the market.
Thoroughly engrossing and rich in atmosphere and psychological connection, A Season in Saigon is a winner that demands slow reading for maximum thought.
A Season in SaigonReturn to Index
Solitary
Walker
N.J.
Mastro
Black
Rose Writing
978-1-68513-561-4
$22.95
Website:
https://www.njmastro.com/
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Solitary-Walker-Novel-Mary-Wollstonecraft/dp/1685135617
Solitary Walker: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft is a novel set in the 1700s covering the life of Mary Wollstonecraft, who was raised in an abusive home, eschewed the mandate of women to marry, and cultivated an independence that drove her to become a writer.
Mary finds she is not immune to the lure of love when she falls first for married man Henry Fuseli as the French Revolution is breaking out; then for Gilbert Imlay, with whom she has an affair, then finds herself pregnant and alone.
N.J. Mastro is adept at capturing the perceptions and follies of women of the times, injecting dialogue, observations, and insights that gives modern women rich, detailed historical insights into the time’s social mores:
“He’s a naughty one,” Helen said to Mary when the evening was done and Captain Imlay had departed into the night. “But isn’t that what women ultimately adore in men?”
Mary’s openness to “mischief” and her defiance of the social constrictions placed on women contributes to an intriguing milieu in which her determination to remain free and independent is continually tested.
As events swirl between Paris and London, Mastro captures and contrasts these disparate environments. Somehow, they prove frighteningly similar when it comes to expectations of women’s behaviors and prospects.
Mary’s ability to maintain not just independence but critical thinking is particularly notable as conflict rises both around and within her:
“Your fixation on wealth is unbecoming,” Mary said, boiling inside at his self-interest when all around them friends were waiting for the executioner, dying for their convictions. Those were the people she admired. “There’s more to life than having fine things.”
The many discussion points which arise from this story will especially intrigue book club reading groups. Topics up for debate include considering women’s strengths and weaknesses; the political and social morals of Mary’s times; and the methods by which she maintains and supports her independence. The novel is beautifully written, covering many intriguing points that will especially please readers of women’s historical fiction.
Libraries that choose Solitary Walker for its promise of historical and biographical strength will also appreciate its ability to navigate the undercurrents of women’s experience, perception, and rights. These elements make for a strong recommendation to patrons interested in women’s history and issues, as well as powerful biographical figures.
Solitary WalkerReturn to Index
Songs My
Mother Taught Me
Helen
Winslow Black
Four Elk
Press
979-8-9904180-0-4
$18.99
Paperback/$14.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Songs-My-Mother-Taught-Me/dp/B0DL3J8QLF?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1
Songs My Mother Taught Me is a novel about second chances, family ties, and relocation. It revolves around accomplished lawyer and cellist Kim’s reinvention of her life for herself and her son as she escapes an abusive marriage, divorces, and remarries in a healthier way. Or, so she thinks.
In reality, the patterns and familiarity of the past are never far behind. As Kim learns one shocking truth after the other about her second husband’s world, she again confronts the impact of her choices and how she can forge new beginnings on the foundations of too-familiar adversity.
Music and insights permeate this story in a delightful manner designed to attract readers interested in atmosphere and depth from their reading choices. One example lies in the professional and social tests that emerge in the chapter ‘Invisible Boundaries’:
I compressed my lips and got very, very still, to give him time to back out of his mistake. He was not picking up on it. The whole host of possible reasons this obviously intelligent, experienced business professional had been booted to the hinterlands rose again on the horizon, but now was not the moment to indulge in idle speculation, deliciously spiteful though it might be. Right now I was trapped against my chair. There was no way I could wriggle out of this by a graceful slide into my seat.
John looked pointedly at Tom’s hand on my arm, inches from his own, and then at Tom, who merely grinned and tightened his grip.
“Get your hand off my wife,” John barked. “She’s not part of the deal.”
The air currents in the nearest concentric ring of tables shifted, and into this conversational lull, Tom dropped two words.
“What deal?” he said, then sauntered off, smirking.
All kinds of boundaries are tested in the course of Kim’s evolution, from personal to business, psychological, and social encounters. Unexpected revelations and discoveries keep the characters realistic, their dilemmas absorbing, and their evolutionary process both enlightening and thoroughly engrossing.
As sisters Karen and Kim, who now reside near each other, find their present lives entwined with the decisions and growth of other women in their family, each chooses important, thought-provoking changes that absorb lessons of the past, yet convert them into new approaches for the future.
Kim’s voice and perspective traverses decades of encounters in this novel, creating a timeline of expectation and events that successfully immerses readers in the extent of her growth process. Unexpected developments and winds of change buffet her relationships, but she continues on an upward trajectory while interacting with her family in a manner that will prove inspirational to her readers.
Libraries that select Songs My Mother Taught Me will find it especially recommendable to women’s fiction reading groups and book clubs seeking life journeys that travel into unexpected milieus, bringing with them greater understanding, ambition, and seasons of joy and adaptation:
My mother once told me: The past is just the present of another day. If that were true, then the same could be said of the future.
Songs My Mother Taught MeReturn to Index
That’s
Lovely
Toni
McBride
Atmosphere
Press
979-8-89132-521-0
$19.99
pb, $9.99 e-book; $28.99 hc
www.atmospherepress.com
That’s Lovely is literary fiction that will especially appeal to women attracted to strong characters and romances that focus on growth opportunities within relationships.
Samantha initially resists the notion of romance. She’s fostering a life and business which holds no room for new friends, experiences, or thinking. As part-owner (with her brother) of a successful nightclub, Samantha has managed to combine her love of dancing with a job that actually supports the community. This creates unexpected new strengths and revelations about her future which reinforce Samantha’s determination to do things her way:
I should change Gabe’s name to Switzerland; he’s always trying to be Mr. Neutral. Although I’m really annoyed at my brother, I like what they’re saying. My interest is piqued by the thought of us having our own club. My stupid brother is right, I do like to go out dancing. I hate it when he’s right like that.
The excitement and challenge of being a small business owner is challenged by the alluring and fun DJ Andrew, whose very different approach to life, flexibility, and engagement is in stark contrast to Samantha’s desire for structure, control, and independence.
As the two draw closer, growth (perhaps predictably) grows from her increasing involvement with not just a very different personality, but a novel approach to life that proves both formidable and an alluring contrast to her carefully constructed life.
Toni McBride does an outstanding job of depicting how Andrew addresses and breaks down Samantha’s barriers. Sexual descriptions are somewhat explicit, but do an excellent job of building passion between characters without venturing into risqué territory.
The sexual descriptions conclude with further insights on Samantha’s broadening horizons:
It feels good to finally give in a little with him and not act on guard all of the time. Being with Andrew was everything I could have imagined. Everything.
Just when things feel inevitable, betrayal enters the picture to provoke further revelations and insights, adding a cautionary note.
McBride brings Samantha’s experiences to life, employing the first-person to involve readers in Samantha’s achievements, logic, and relationship challenges.
Libraries that choose That’s Lovely for its tasteful romantic journey will appreciate the story’s focus on an already-strong female personality who knows (or thinks she knows) just what she wants from life.
Readers will find That’s Lovely engaging, sporting a powerful protagonist whose life progression includes making choices and decisions that both educate and propel her into novel directions. The possibility of growth and disillusionment, as a discovery continues to push Samantha into unpredictable territory, makes for a story that is thoroughly engaging and hard to put down.
That’s LovelyReturn to Index
To Those
Willing to Drown
Mark
Matthews
Wicked
Run Press
978-1-7377021-3-9
$15.99
Paperback/$5.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Those-Willing-Drown-Mark-Matthews/dp/1737702134?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1
To Those Willing to Drown is a Torch Lake Souls literary horror novel that is highly recommended for readers of deep horror that revolves around physical and psychological quandaries rooted in pain. Sensitive readers usually don’t pursue the horror genre for just these reasons—but avoidance would translate to missing out big time, because Mark Matthews creates a powerfully thought-provoking, multifaceted story that proves nearly impossible to put down.
Its horror component rests on tragedy, a mother’s guilt, mythology, and depth. Depth is not just emotional, here, because Matthews has his protagonist literally delve into a lake of revelation that runs far deeper than can be anticipated by readers or imagined by any of the story’s characters.
For example, a solid Civil War history component opens the first chapter with the first-person observations of surgeon Lucas Lamia, who was with the 100th Infantry Union Army and now, post-war, is seeking solace far from bloody battles in the majestic blue waters and rolling green hills of Michigan.
Once a soldier, always a soldier. Lucas brings the war with him in his experiences and heart, presenting vivid memories of the scars and atrocities of battle that haunt his days.
These stark (but also unexpectedly hopeful) insights on how courage emerges to battle against darkness are creatively rendered, grippingly presented, and thoroughly immersive:
I matched their intensity and waged my own battles to comfort the dying and heal the wounded. Under intense heat, sweat and blood beading on my brow, soldier after soldier was placed on the scaffold and put under chloroform while surgeons performed the operation. Separating the inflicted body part so that the spirit could live on—an empty sleeve but a patriot’s heart.
The influential questions and considerations Lucas experiences from his tour of duty create reflections about choice and consequences that prove as applicable to a divided nation today as they were in the heart of Civil War battle:
The question I did not share with any surgeon nor any man of God was this: Did I also sever part of a man’s soul by performing an amputation? If they die with their body disconnected, are souls also split forever, the way our country seemed split, North and South, Rebel and Yank?
Lucas survived the war—but the real horror is about to begin, based on what he introduces to the world.
The next chapter moves to the experiences of Sharon Murphy at Camp Waakwing. (Is this modern times? A timeline under the chapter titles would have provided a more immediate sense of movement and place.)
As Lucas is further challenged by a sick son and decisions are made that open the door for forms of horror that hold lasting impact as well as moral and ethical dilemmas, it’s evident that to label To Those Willing to Drown a horror story alone would be to do it a disservice.
Libraries will find its riveting descriptions, unexpected twists, and interconnected lives to be psychologically engrossing. It’s so thought-provoking that book clubs and reading groups will find it holds many facets worthy of avid debate and discussion.
Horror readers may choose To Those Willing to Drown for its promise of deeper horror (which it delivers in droves); but under the waves of its deep roots in Civil War events and dilemmas lies a beating heart of discovery that will prove not just gripping, but enlightening.
Readers seeking a different approach to the horror genre—one which combines history, mystery, psychological agony, and superb tension—will find To Those Willing to Drown more than a cut above the typical horror story.
...we never need to leave.
Because the lake has so much of us we can never get it all out?
The lake has all of us now, and we will never want out.
To Those Willing to DrownReturn to Index
War and
Preservation
Karen
Lynne Klink
She
Writes Press
978-1-64742-866-2
$17.99
Paperback/$12.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/War-Preservation-Book-Texian-Trilogy/dp/1647428661
Historical fiction readers interested in Civil War events will especially appreciate the continuation of the Texian Trilogy in Book Two of the series, War and Preservation.
Here, the war evolves on two fronts: through the battles of Adrien Villere as he fights with Terry’s Texas Rangers and at home, where his family faces additional hardship and struggle.
At the heart of these events is a forbidden love that influences all involved. This adds a LGBTQ+ component to the times that rarely is explored in Civil War historical fiction.
As in her previous book, Karen Lynne Klink builds a sense of realism through disparate characters that harbor their own special interests and reasons for fighting. These influences emerges in the opening lines of the novel, set in 1861 Houston where Ethan’s choices are backed by secrets:
If a fellow asked Ethan Childs how a man from Louisiana ended up in Terry’s Texas Rangers, he said it was because he lost his Houston enterprise in a card game. Truth: his partner caught him in an indiscretion that meant he must sell his partnership in the saloon and leave town. “Indiscretion” my great-aunt’s fanny—he mentally kicked himself in the behind. He had let desire overcome caution.
Influences which are different from idealism or politics, that could also lead to battle, thus emerge from the start. These broadening Klink’s character development, encouraging readers to examine their own beliefs about how and why individuals may choose to become involved in greater issues than their singular lives.
The story’s forbidden love component creates a solid foundation of interests and experiences of the 1800s which lends to both realistic action and settings and insights that juxtapose personal objectives with battlefield experience.
As Adrien Denys Villere and other characters reconsider their options for the future in an increasingly dangerous world, Klink creates the kinds of connections, self-discoveries, and military encounters that encourage readers to think about and debate various Civil War preconceptions.
Families, from plantation owners to those with Creole and abolitionist backgrounds, also bring diversity to the issues which arise as war progresses. This comes from both traditional sources and personal relationships as Ethan one day discovers that the past year’s limitations, trials, and his repressed gay longings can no longer be ignored.
Tasteful love scenes entwine with bigger-picture thinking about the war’s ultimate impact:
“This war. I figure caring for a person is not the worst thing a man can do.”
With uncommon love comes a frightening vulnerability which leads Adrian and Ethan to ponder their futures, both together and apart.
Klink draws close connections with every breath of change that her story takes.
Libraries looking to enhance their LGBTQ+ fiction holdings with historical fiction that embraces Civil War times will find War and Preservation a powerful recommendation.
Reader seeking Civil War or LGBTQ+ fiction that sizzles with not just combat action, but interpersonal moments of discovery and transformation, will find War and Preservation satisfyingly hard to predict. It’s packed with insights suitable for reading group discussion and individual contemplation alike. Klink takes the time to weave together disparate lives that face hard choices in the name of love, community, and self-acceptance, doing so in a completely riveting read.
War and PreservationReturn to Index
We Are
Made of Stars
Rochelle
B. Weinstein
Lake
Union Publishing
9781662520884
$16.99 Paperback/$4.99
eBook
www.apub.com
We Are Made of Stars opens with a French dinner menu before moving to Chapter 1, where Jean-Paul De La Rue is preparing extraordinary dinner for Vis Ta Vie Inn guests. The mouthwatering ingredient descriptions portend a story steeped in atmosphere and favors, creating an immediate “you are here” smorgasbord of taste, smells, and description that bring classical writer Marcel Proust to mind ... albeit in a less ethereal manner.
Jean-Paul and his wife Reneé have created a bed-and-breakfast from their farmhouse that is not only picturesque (it’s nestled in the hills of Vilas, North Carolina), but attractive to the guests who add their own intriguing lives to the husband-and-wife team’s world.
All this is about to change. Not only has the world become overly complicated over the food they serve versus guest allergies and special diets, but the ideals they originally brought to life in creating the inn seem dated and challenging:
Entering the glass doors is like slipping inside a cloud swaddled in sunlight. He wants their guests to feel the same buoyancy, a sanctuary in which they can escape the pressures of life. Recharge. Reboot. But now he feels it all slipping away. Building a life around a passion for food, wine, and breathtaking scenery once seemed romantic. Creating a place to unplug and restore diminished reserves now feels terribly foolish.
Readers will readily understand and appreciate how a dream can evolve into something akin to a nightmare. But We Are Made of Stars is about much more than one couple’s disillusionment. Each of the guests currently staying at the inn faces their own sea changes in life choices.
Rochelle B. Weinstein introduces a host of characters who each struggle with their own futures and revised ideals. She juxtaposes these different personas, concerns, and revelations with finesse so that readers become thoroughly immersed in their lives and futures.
This immersive experience shifts as stories emerge and dovetail. An ebb and flow atmosphere of discovery and struggle is created that retains the sense of purpose and immediacy that opened with the inn owners’ dilemmas.
Betrayal, breakthroughs, and fine tension develop, springing to life through different characters’ experiences and perspectives.
Libraries seeking a realistic, involving story of change and redefinition will want to direct readers to We Are Made of Stars for its powerful narrative on adaptation and new directions.
Readers will find this week-long foray an exceptional portrait of survival and reinvention that reinforces its characters and their lives with thought-provoking messages of life, death, and the challenges that lie in-between:
He
hasn’t felt awake or alive in a
while, drowning in resentment ... Like the dying stars he studies,
he’s crashing at an inordinate speed. If he can’t get himself
under control, he too will burst.
Return to Index
How to
Win a Million Dollars and
BEEP Glitter!
Luke
Stoffel
Cinderly,
LLC
ASIN:
B0DNM4K5HW $8.99 eBook
www.lucasstoffel.com
Readers who may have thought Catcher in the Rye and other coming-of-age stories held wry humor along with insights will find these classics must take a step back for contemporary authors such as Luke Stoffel. His How to Win a Million Dollars and BEEP Glitter! takes a hilarious romp through adolescent dreams and nightmares that will draw all kinds of audiences, from young adults to adults.
Those who see the reference to ‘million dollars’ and assume this will be a story of obtaining wealth may want to pause. As Stoffel candidly presents in the book’s introduction:
The pages ahead are a mostly true account of my misadventures—think of it as reality with a fistful of fairy dust.
No wealth-building schemes are fostered in the making of this story. What is promised is a madcap adventure through adolescent efforts as well as a critical probe of the perspective that money can be made quickly and easily if enough scheming is involved.
Stoffel points out:
This is about the hustle—the real kind. The one that involves getting knocked down, dusting yourself off, and figuring out the next move. It’s about questioning the system because while the world might love a Cinderella story, most of us are stuck scrubbing the floors (or a urinal) without a fairy godmother in sight.
What kid (or many an adult) hasn’t dreamed of winning a million dollars? The first-person narrator in this story (based on the author’s experiences) has success in mind and has honed pathways towards it … but with the dreamy, idealistic mind of a young adult, not the practiced questioning of a seasoned adult with life experience supporting him.
Readers who join in on this adventure will relive their own youth, in which anything feels possible and nothing is impossible. The narrator opens this story with his first plunge into the possibility of obtaining wealth at the ripe old age of seven:
It was during that unforgettable summer when Cap’n Crunch went missing, and panic spread across the nation like wildfire. Supermarkets were packed with towering displays of Cap’n Crunch, a mountain of yellow and blue boxes stretching to the ceiling. But when you looked up, there was no Captain. The commercials made it sound so simple: find the Captain, restore him to his cereal kingdom, and win ONE MILLION DOLLARS. For a kid like me, the stakes couldn’t have been higher. A million dollars wasn’t just a number—it was a golden ticket, a way out of this tiny Mississippi River town.
This is just one of the get-rich-quick options that draws a young man determined to obtain big bucks that will change his life. As he probes the underlying reason he wants this money (“It meant a chance to escape this town, this life, and find something more.”), readers will be prompted to draw important connections between money and reality.
As he grows and journeys through life in search of these missed opportunities, even Paris introduces a sense of loneliness and alienation. This leads him to come full circle and return home, even if he feels untethered from a life purpose, like a “stranger in a strange land.”
The narrator considers wellsprings of inspiration both artistic and financial while searching for “that bit of magic” in himself that can grow a new life resilient enough to field a wild ride into adulthood. He cultivates a relationship with Indonesian boy Ethan, navigates Ethan’s hospitalization, hones financial and personal dreams, and moves away from his blue-collar Catholic boyhood into world travels, stepping into his gay identity more openly and confidently.
How to Win a Million Dollars and BEEP Glitter! contains a special, rich value that immerses readers in all kinds of bumps, dreams, life successes, and perceived failures.
The resulting lively ride from jackpot to growth will thoroughly engage readers seeking a vivid story of evolution. It moves from a small Mississippi town to shifting worldviews and encounters abroad.
Libraries seeking literature for their collections that focus on gay identity and schemes to navigate life in all kinds of ways will relish How to Win a Million Dollars and BEEP Glitter! for its exceptionally vivid, action-packed discoveries.
Readers from young adults into adult circles will find it easy to walk alongside the narrator’s world of art shows, relationships, and cultures that embrace (and ultimately create) new dreams, definitions, and ideals of wealth. The journey is especially recommended for books clubs seeking lively writing with multiple reflections on worldviews, other cultures, and ideals that encourage self-examination:
Winning a million dollars would have made life easier—yes—but more often than not, my best moments in life were giving the things I created away, raising money for classrooms, and staying open to each new adventure—even when it meant rewriting the dream.
How to Win a Million Dollars and BEEP Glitter!Return to Index
A
Passionate Pilgrimage
Charles
Beadle
Dominantstar
Publications
978-1-963363-30-2
$19.95
www.robcouteau.com
A Passionate Pilgrimage was first published in 1915, when it earned the acclaim of being one of ten books blacklisted for years by Britain’s Circulating Libraries Association. Modern readers may be puzzled by this fact when they read this novel; but its descriptions of free-ranging sensual encounters between the protagonist and a host of consenting women made it a scandalous piece at the turn of the century.
Fast forward to today’s literary audiences. What can modern readers expect from this sojourn into passion? Nothing worthy of being banned from a library—this can be assured.
By studying Jim’s focus on free expression (both sexual and emotional) and how his relationships evolve into explorations that test the boundaries of social mores, much fodder for classroom discussion is created that will spark lively debates and contrasts between bygone times and now.
Jim’s unconventional views and actions, which even include a romantic relationship with an African native, is revealed via a thought-provoking journey. This has been edited (and is introduced) by Rob Couteau, who also provides an Afterword which does a fine job of synthesizing why A Passionate Pilgrimage is special and important while providing further background about its author and Victorian times.
Why reissue A Passionate Pilgrimage now? The introductory notes (which are extensive and vital to understanding the novel’s continuing importance), states that the novel: “provides a variety of clues about Beadle’s early life.” In so doing, it reveals the essence of social and psychological transformation, toeing the line between autobiography and a fictional discourse containing many topics vital to understanding not just these times, but modern morals and values.
Books are rarely written (it is noted) by “men of action.” The fact that Beadle thoroughly interacted with his society, making journeys that forged new pathways into social mores and personal morality, makes it all the more essential reading.
As Jim’s transgressions (if one must call them that) evolve, readers are invited into a world that spices events with local lingo and dialogue to reflect ethnic roots and class differences. Jim’s ability to self-examine his motivations for living and making choices outside the norm are particularly eye-opening:
“I know something now. I’m no longer a fool,” said Jim. “I’m absolutely fed up with civilization – everybody stiff and formal, hollow and artificial. Yet perhaps it isn’t exactly that. I suppose I’ve got the Wanderlust or the Call of the Wild. It’s the best life, after all. I wish I’d never come back. Ugh! Fancy getting up every morning at the same time, meeting the same people, doing the same things all one’s life!”
Sounds familiar? Turns out Victorian times are not far behind the modern dilemmas facing young people and those who don’t quite fit into today’s values and expectations.
Because the density of topics and flavor of experiences is so multifaceted, it is recommended that A Passionate Pilgrimage be read slowly for maximum absorption, thought, and preferably book club or classroom debate. Its subjects and considerations make for thoroughly engrossing reading, presented in a way that builds the character’s focus, emphasizes his differences, and ultimately creates a thoroughly captivating tale of transformation and insight.
Libraries that choose A Passionate Pilgrimage will find it highly recommendable to students of literature; teachers seeking novels that hold lively debates about not just banned literature, but banned ideas; and book clubs that will find A Passionate Pilgrimage exquisitely involving as well as thoroughly thought-provoking.
A Passionate PilgrimageReturn to Index
Pray for
the Bear
Carly
Fauth
FitFunCarly
979-8-218-51109-8
$14.95
Website:
www.fitfuncarly.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHHXWL61
Pray for the Bear: An Ordinary Person's Guide to Unlocking Extraordinary Personal Strength begins not with Carly Fauth’s breast cancer diagnosis, but the childhood experience of observing her grandmother’s own struggles with cancer and well-meaning efforts to help her by limiting her (potentially dangerous) choices, such as driving a car.
The odyssey unfolds as Fauth considers the roots of her strong “sense of self” and concurrent growth into realizations about life and people that influenced her personality. Readers won’t expect her wider-ranging assessments of how these encounters translate to bigger-picture thinking, but such insights are the perfect tool for combating assumptions and prejudices about others:
The political landscape of this country favors division over unity, so it’s easy to stereotype. I realized I was guilty of doing exactly what I get so frustrated about other people doing: I had built up a wall. I forgot that underneath it all, this woman was just as human as me and was made up of a lot more than just her political opinions.
From the foundations and incarnation of kindness and love to better understanding the loneliness that accompanies cancer struggles and survival efforts, Fauth draws on her life encounters to provide concrete examples of support systems, presumptions, commitments, and the elements which must draw together to absorb strength from community engagements.
Friendships hold such lessons. Fauth navigates an emotional and fitness journey of recovery and discovery, introducing readers to new approaches to life, people, and expectations that reinforce positive pathways to physical and mental growth.
The short lessons she builds from these encounters helps readers consider and create their own tactics for revising their lives, illustrating strategies in action. This contrasts nicely with other books that may promote avenues of growth without taking the time to illustrate them in action.
Libraries that choose Pray for the Bear for its promise of hope and revised thinking will especially appreciate how these vignettes reinforce and display empowerment.
Pray for the Bear is quite simply a very accessible approach presented through succinct, hard-hitting examples designed to emotionally appeal to readers—especially those who balk at lengthy, overly complex discussions.
Pray for the BearReturn to Index
Apparently:
This is
What Parenting Feels Like
Sue
Dvorak
GFB
978-1-964721-82-8
www.girlfridayproductions.com
Apparently: This is What Parenting Feels Like covers emotional experiences and coping methods from the moment of birth onward. It reveals experiences and management strategies for bringing the new baby home, adapting to a new routine, enjoying a baby’s many “firsts,” and understanding the pros and cons of baby’s first years.
Sue Dvorak focuses on emotional responses as well as shifting situations. This gives her book added value for parents who would better understand how their emotions shift as their infant grows.
A wide range of tools help new parents adjust more quickly to their revised roles: Would you set off on a climbing expedition without preparation? No, you would not. Well, no more should you blithely think you can just “make a phone call” with a toddler or two around. Ha! You must prepare Diversion Tools. Collect three or four odd things, not overtly dangerous, that children do not normally play with.
One must be an old remote control, preferably one that doesn’t operate anything. If the remote still has batteries, causing lights to illuminate, or beeping to happen, consider yourself blessed. Young children love things that are clearly made for adults. Toddlers and preschoolers somehow know that the good stuff, the real stuff, is usually black or metallic, shiny, and often sharp, like remotes, real tools, keys, and external hard drives. We insult their nineteen-month-post-utero sensibilities with the condescending, primary-coloured plastic crap made for babies. The baby toys piss them off. They want the good stuff.
From everyday life to the unthinkable (a child’s death), Dvorak covers all possibilities and experiences with an eye to enlightening new parents about better ways to embrace life, their revised jobs, and their child.
The blend of emotional support and practical advice exhibited in This is What Parenting Feels Like is in stark contrast to parenting guides that tend to be dry or idealistic. Perhaps this is because many of the keys to better understanding come from the author’s own experience with children and family members, giving the book a rich underlay of reality intrinsic to powerful, better guidance.
Libraries and about-to-be-new parents may have plenty of other childrearing and birth guides on hand—but none will hold the perfect blend of personal experience and enlightening alternative management and childrearing tools profiled in This is What Parenting Feels Like.
This is why Apparently: This is What Parenting Feels Like should be read, given to forthcoming parents, and placed high on reading lists and parenting or book club discussion groups—above all others.
Apparently: This is What Parenting Feels LikeReturn to Index
The
Unseen Goddess
Sangeetha
Shinde
Villa
Magna Publishing, LLC
978-1-940178-74-5
$18.99 Paper/$9.99
eBook
www.villamagnapublishing.com
The Unseen Goddess surveys a young Indian woman’s life and opens with abandonment before moving to themes of spiritual discovery, the presence of goddesses in everyday life, and the options this belief introduces to Madhuri, who is born into poverty and ejected from an abusive home.
Readers who anticipate Madhuri’s story to be one of nonstop abuse and challenge will be pleased to learn that amid the hardships are small joys of childhood that balance her life in unexpected ways. The immediacy of these descriptions bring readers not only into the milieu of India’s culture, but offer a personal perspective of daily life that narrows its focus to the seemingly small experiences that build and support Madhuri’s psyche as she ages:
I recollect playing with some marbles I had found in a dustbin. They were two of them, one blue with red cloudy stripes running through it, and the other a wonderful transparent green. I remember looking through the green marble, with one eye tightly shut. Through the marble the world looked wonderfully distorted and blurred, and all of it seemed to be bathed in a green light. That’s when green became my favourite colour I think.
From sibling rivalry and friendships that come and go to perspectives that encourage Madhuri to move beyond her upbringing to survive repeated hardships, readers are immersed (for better or for worse, as sensitive readers may find this immersion psychologically challenging) in a story that grips with personal reflection and survival tactics.
The very features that make The Unseen Goddess compelling also make its journey a mixed bag of discovery. This may not be for every reader, but will thoroughly delight those who appreciate blends of cultural experience, personal struggle, and the challenge of navigating an onslaught of trouble while finding the nuggets of purpose, joy, and logic in perseverance.
Shinde’s portrait of these expressions and experiences of delight permeates the story to juxtapose the good and bad days in an intriguing, realistic manner:
“I will be leaving after this lunch. Today was my last day, and I wanted to say goodbye to all of you. I hope I’ll see you at my wedding.”
We stared at her, unprepared for the immediacy of her departure, and I must confess my heart plummeted from my chest deep into my stomach, as I absorbed the news. I realised only then how safe she made us feel with her no-nonsense ways and her bluff kindness. She nodded at Revathi who came forward with a pile of boxes. Madam Nalini took the boxes from her and came over to each of us, giving a box to each. We opened them curiously and our expressions of curiosity changed to expressions of joy and wonder rapidly. Inside each of the boxes were pattu pavadas in gorgeous jewel colours. Mine was a bright blue with a peacock green border and a gold edging, with a pink and green scarf to wrap around it. I stared at it in utter delight, and then looked up at Madam Nalini, who smiled at me, and then addressed all of us again.
“Please wear these clothes to my wedding.” And with that she was gone and we never saw her at the ashram again.
These moments are like jewels sprinkled through India’s world, culture as seen through eyes of a protagonist who regularly prays to her invisible goddess to bring good things and people into her life.
As much a story about cementing faith as it is about survival and even blossoming, The Unseen Goddess represents a rich, balanced distribution of life experience that will especially lead libraries to purchase and recommend it to a wide range of readers, from book clubs with a special interest in Indian characters and experiences to reading groups considering the evolution of faith as life impacts grow.
Readers not stymied by stories of ongoing onslaughts, individual focus, or disparate methods of rising above life’s challenges will find The Unseen Goddess a beacon of possibility that will prompt many inquiries surrounding the nature of belief, poverty, and the circumstances which either support or repress life.
Uplifting, or ultimately depressing—the reader gets to decide in an intriguing inquiry into growth, change, faith, and life’s ups and downs.
The Unseen GoddessReturn to Index
The Way
of the Wave
Daniel
A. Miller
Ebb and
Flow Press
978-0-9828930-7-4
$2.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Way-Wave-Natures-Navigating-Currents-ebook/dp/B0D9HZY1GR
Self-help readers of books about self-actualization will find The Way of the Wave: Nature's Model for Navigating Life's Currents a satisfying blend of memoir and example that will serve as a beach-themed probe of how to navigate transitional moments in life.
Daniel A. Miller had been continually battered by adverse life events. He was watching the waves at the beach when his transformative thought emerged ... his control-driven life had led him to the brink of bankruptcy and major health challenges without actually controlling anything at all.
As events spiraled well beyond anything he could either predict or begin to address, an epiphany emerged on how to create a new direction in his life:
Sitting on the rocks, I intuitively knew that the way of the waves held the keys to a better life for me. They were a metaphor for a vision of the life I was seeking: one with less stress, worry, and conflict and greater peace and serenity—and, unlike before, one in which I could meet whatever challenges that may lay ahead with acceptance, trust, and even grace. Like waves, life is in a constant state of motion; it’s fluid, shifting and always changing, sometimes quickly, sometimes smoothly, other times bumpily and abruptly. We can’t control or predict what might happen at any given moment despite our best-laid plans and desires.
Where other self-help books provide worksheets, exercises, and blueprints, Miller cements such guidance with examples from his own life encounters:
I often tell the story of how I pressured my youngest daughter, who was in middle school at the time, to adopt the same study habits that had been successful for me in school: take good class notes, study in a quiet area, sit up straight, and prepare well in advance for upcoming exams. As a controller, I didn’t hesitate to ask her to do the same many times over.
These bolster the exploration of adopting new behavior patterns for inserting more flexibility and acceptance into life and views of other people. Thus, memoir is juxtaposed with advice in an accessible, engrossing manner.
Where other books lecture, The Way of the Wave adopts an ebb-and-flow pattern that blends example and experience with important reflections on choices, outcomes, expectations, and the fundamentals of lasting change.
Another difference between The Way of the Wave and similar-sounding self-help books about control lies in Miller’s ability to capture changes in action. These ripple into all aspects of his life and relationships:
I am mindful to hold my tongue with respect to my adult children’s career choices and paths. On many occasions, I badly wanted to offer my opinions when I witnessed the emotional tolls their jobs were taking on them, or felt their job wasn’t a good fit for them or that they should try something different and not put up with this or that. At the same time, I realized that my advice might quash an opportunity that leads to deeply rewarding career and life experiences.
The result is more example-driven than most, more intimate in its revealing passages about Miller’s life and how he revises it, and more accessible than books that simply create a step-by-step blueprint for readers to follow. Inspired by surfing and ocean waves, the nature theme which threads through this delightfully immersive experience expands the boundaries of self-help thinking in an appealing, unexpected manner.
Libraries will want to not just add The Way of the Wave to their collections, but especially highlight its value to reading groups ranging from book clubs interested in self-help and self-healing to psychology discussion groups that would enjoy the memoir format that invitingly blends with actionable advice.
In short, The Way of the Wave is a gem of a title that is easy to read, delightful to absorb, and should be considered for improving any reader’s approaches to life.
The Way of the WaveReturn to Index
The
Courageous Forrest Brothers:
Sticking Together
Sami Ke
Independently
Published
978-988-70821-0-1
$16.99
Website:
www.theforrestbrothers.com
Ordering:
www.amazon.com
The Courageous Forrest Brothers: Sticking Together is the picture book story of brothers Milo and Sheldon, who are always up for adventure.
Sheldon’s latest goal is to find the Golden Acorn so he can be crowned “the bravest adventurer in all the land.” His little brother Milo is the sticking point … he tends to ruin Sheldon’s plans. And this latest goal is too lofty to suffer from a younger brother’s tagalong snafus. Sheldon needs to do this on his own.
And so he sets out, marching bravely into the woods, sword held high … until a snapping twig introduces a big problem.
It takes an uncommonly wise (and creative) mother to solve the bigger problem of little Milo’s wannabe relationship with his older brother. With a dose of her own special perspective and magic, she sends Milo off into the world, too, and an unexpected adventure embraces both brothers with new possibilities.
Sami Ke creates a warm story of sibling relationships. Her focus on centering their experiences on a quest for adventure and the unexpected emotional ties it brings to both offers a warm outcome and excellent discussion points. Families can use these to encourage better understanding, connections, and love between siblings. Bright, colorful drawings accent both the action and the two brothers as they interact and grow from their encounters.
Read-aloud parents will find The Courageous Forrest Brothers: Sticking Together’s blend of adventure and revelation proves just the right mix for an early understanding and appreciation of family ties and how true discovery may present itself in more ways than one.
The Courageous Forrest Brothers: Sticking TogetherReturn to Index
Dragon
Stone
Brigitte
Dempsey
Independently
Published
979-8310483576 $11.95
https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Stone-Ms-Brigitte-Dempsey/dp/B0DX2MLSR3
When you grow up, remember—our family line reaches back to when Cymru belonged to the Celts and our people believed in dragons.
Dragon Stone attracts young adult audiences with a vivid, thoroughly engrossing story in which Rosetta’s family moves into a neglected sprawling medieval Welsh house, Rhosyn Manor; there to encounter people, events, and perspectives that seem far from their prior England home.
Her mother has grown up in that house, so it’s not entirely alien to her; but to her children Rosetta and Daniel, it contains a few childhood memories and a lot of cultural differences that now threaten to separate them from their former lives.
The beauty of the wild grounds that surround the manor also harbor a secret that transports Rosetta into impossible encounters, feeding YA readers a steady stream of discovery and revelation as the heroine explores new friendships, interesting encounters with falconry and other eye-opening experiences, and a birthday present that expands her world.
Brigitte Dempsey’s inspiring juxtaposition of nature, human endeavors, and a young girl’s coming of age in some challenging situations, creates a compelling novel that YA readers will find a page-turner that’s hard to set aside.
Through Rosetta’s eyes, the Welsh countryside and people come to life, as well as myths and initiations that demand she step up into adult decision-making and recognition of not just the consequences of her choices, but the impact of her heritage and Welsh mythology’s lessons.
These give Dragon Stone a multifaceted feel as a quest, a learning curve, and an opportunity to embrace both her aging grandmother and the folklore her presence imparts, helping YA readers better understand their own family and heritage connections.
Libraries will find Dragon Stone more than just a fantasy. It comes packed with growth and revelations that link natural and human endeavors, myths with reality, and family ties with moving past loss. Readers become cognizant of the importance these roots have in influencing future goals and life.
Filled with thought-provoking moments suitable for YA reading groups or classroom discussion, couched in an adventure that adds riveting twists and unexpected discoveries to the story, Dragon Stone is a winner that defies pat categorization and delivers solid characters who are forced by circumstances to grow in new directions.
Dragon StoneReturn to Index
The
Fires of Birth
J.A.
Enfield
Waygoose
Press
978-1961953260
$14.99 Paperback/$4.99
eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Fires-Birth-Time-Alleys/dp/1961953269?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1
The Fires of Birth, Book 3 of the young adult Time Alleys timeslip series, continues Mick Conway’s efforts to prevent the time alleys of Victorian London from falling into nefarious hands. This time, he confronts a formidable enemy whose penchant for subterfuge and trouble challenges Mick and his allies on levels that seem impossible to control.
Mick’s “Squad” consists of Mick and his closest friends Alison, Leech, and Dolly. Their patrols are key to keeping the time alleys open and safe—but their activity becomes increasingly subdued because monitoring reveals that all is well.
Or, is it?
Just because there’s a lack of activity doesn’t mean something isn’t brewing in the background. A series of discoveries challenge Mick’s Squad and portend disaster. Only further information about what the time alleys really do and how they work can prevent a deadly outcome. But it’s hard to get reliable data when tests of honesty and courage seem to place the group at odds with one another.
J.A. Enfield builds another compelling adventure that is accessible to newcomers, but which will prove especially attractive to prior readers of the Time Alleys series. Those who arrive at this third book with such familiarity will better appreciate the psychological and moral growth opportunities Mick experiences as he uncovers new information about his heritage, relationships, and purpose.
Phenomena like the “birth flame” pose new challenges, and characters evolve in new directions. One is the familiar (to prior readers), powerful aristocrat Lady Penbrook, who may have been involved with the Realignment. Another is Catherine Collins, whose motives are questionable. Actions embedded into analysis and psychological discoveries are swift and compelling:
Lord Harrowgrave had taken his motivations to the tomb, but it was a safe bet that he had thought the Realignment would make him even richer and more powerful. Catherine Collins’ motives—and loyalties—were unclear, and nobody could find her to ask her. She had disappeared the day the Realignment failed…
Steampunk and time travel combine in a satisfyingly illuminating manner that will especially attract young adults familiar with and appreciative of both genres. Solid action pairs well with characters that turn out to be different than initially anticipated.
Libraries and readers seeking a vivid story of adventure, evolving life purposes and cross-purposes, and characters that interact on a playing field that proves anything but level or predictable will find The Fires of Birth replete with many different kinds of fire. These range from anger to the challenges of maintaining good “alley sight” and operating with the greater good in mind.
Engrossing in its twists and turns, complex in its confrontations and evolving discoveries, and thoroughly gripping in its romp through time and characters, The Fires of Birth is a powerful tale that enhances the series as a whole while adding another riveting standalone story that newcomers can fully appreciate.
The Fires of BirthReturn to Index
I Know
What UFO Did Last Summer
Kevin
Garone
Temor
Press
979-8-9913284-0-1
$19.99
(hardback), $12.99 (paperback),
$8.99 (ebook)
Website:
https://www.kevingarone.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Know-What-UFO-Last-Summer/dp/B0DJWMS2XY/
It’s an alien invasion! Readers aged 10-12 will find I Know What UFO Did Last Summer to be a thought-provoking adventure of alien takeover. The problem is tackled by twelve-year-old Marv, who knows just what to do when an alien spacecraft lands in the woods behind his house. His trusty alien invasion guidebook has prepared him for all possibilities and survival tactics … or so he thinks, until the real thing hits the ground.
What his guidebook doesn’t cover is a host of questions about human interactions with the aliens, including their mysterious connections with the neighbors next door and the idea that the alien invasion may not be as straightforward as Marv thinks.
As unfolding events prove Marv both right and wrong, I Know What UFO Did Last Summer provides a quirky, fun, intriguing story of suspense that will keep preteens on their toes and guessing about identities, subterfuge, intentions, and outcomes.
Kevin Garone does a masterful job of injecting humor into Marv’s first-person observations from the story’s opening lines:
Aliens were moving in next door. I tightened the focus on my binoculars. My worst fears were being confirmed right before my eyes … the few boxes I had been able to identify as they were carried in all had labels like computer room and spare parts. Perfect for setting up a transmission station to beam reports back into space. It also didn’t help that the side of their U-Haul had a picture of a green, bug-eyed alien.
As Marv’s imagination takes over, passages from his wise manual for survival, How to Survive an Alien Invasion, introduce discovery, assumption, and the real possibility that something is seriously awry.
The humor runs through even active encounters as Marv and his friends attempt to save themselves and, perhaps, even the world, despite a few linguistic (and other) snafus:
I turned and ran. “Evasive maneuvers!” I yelled. “Go, Baller One, go!”
Jace took off in the direction of our houses, crashing through the underbrush and dragging Nora along with him as she said, “Evasive what?”
As kidnappings and other dilemmas rise, Marv and his friends struggle to be proactive, effective, and fluid in their response to what is going on during the too-real invasion scenario.
Garone’s account of Marv’s decision to try to convince authorities of what is going on against all their belief systems is just as engrossing as the action which permeates the story with nonstop adventure. Realistic characters exhibit their own limitations and strengths in contrast to Marv’s special brand of intellect and novel approaches to problem-solving.
Libraries seeking vivid, action-packed adventure for preteens that combines unexpected twists and turns with reinforcement from a “guidebook” that covers most (but not all) possibilities in an invasion situation will relish I Know What UFO Did Last Summer’s special, thought-provoking, and appealing blend of zany humor, impossible situations, problem-solving challenges, and alien encounters.
I Know What UFO Did Last SummerReturn to Index
Nana’s
Heartwarming Tales: Little
Echoes
Vicki
Johnpeer with Cory
CP Press
979-8-9900625-5-9
$13.99
Paperback/$9.99 eBook/$18.99 Hardcover
www.nanastales.com
Nana’s Heartwarming Tales: Little Echoes again features tiny hummingbird reporter Cory, whose observations of four children (Cara, Aimee, Buddy, and Cousin Jed, whom everyone calls ‘The Pals’) lends understanding and insight to their encounters and friendship experiences.
Like Vicki Johnpeer and Cory’s previous Nana collection Tiny Whispers, the tales embrace themes of camaraderie, caring, cultivating forgiveness, and more. These are illustrated via encounters that bring the children enlightening lessons about life that read-aloud parents can use to reinforce early ideas of how to navigate the world and one’s peers.
Lovely line drawings by Johnpeer accompany stories that open with definitions of their themes. ‘Being Caring,’ for example, states:
Being caring means helping others by freely giving your time, abilities, and the things others need without expecting anything in return.
As Buddy and Jed climb trees and learn about nature and themselves, the birth of a baby bird provides opportunities for young reader or listener enlightenment as Mama Bird and the Pals explore different ways of protecting the newborn and understanding its basic needs.
Packed with appealing tales backed by important lessons, Nana’s Heartwarming Tales: Little Echoes expands on the stories introduced in the first book. Each tale concludes with food for thought that adults and kids can consider with one another as reflective reporter Cory offers additional insights.
Elementary-level libraries that choose Nana’s Heartwarming Tales: Little Echoes will find it key to helping kids understanding cooperative thinking, problem-solving, and reacting to life events with care and concern for others.
Nana’s Heartwarming Tales: Little EchoesReturn to Index
So Where
Does Magic Sleep?
Cynthia
L. Clark
Outskirts
Press Inc.
978-1977278869
$19.95
Paperback/$9.99 eBook
Website:
https://cynthialclark.com
Ordering:
www.outskirtspress.com
So Where Does Magic Sleep? features farm cat Magic, who stumbles into Jake and Axel’s life one day, seemingly from nowhere, and earns this name from them. The cat seems to like his adopted family and wants to stay, but each evening he vanishes.
Where does he go?
Picture book readers and read-aloud parents receive colorful, engaging images from Blueberry Illustrations as the entire family becomes involved in solving the new cat’s mystery.
Cynthia L. Clark’s rollicking rhymes are filled with vivid description and emotional observations as the relationship develops between humans and cat.
As the story explores the possibilities of where the cat hides and sleeps, read-aloud adults will have a fun time guiding the very young to think about domestic and not-quite-domesticated creatures, freedom, problem-solving, and family interactions.
So Where Does Magic Sleep?’s simplicity masks many deeper perspectives while delivering a delightfully questioning story that gently invites adults and kids to partake of and discuss the possibilities.
Elementary-level libraries that choose So Where Does Magic Sleep? for their collections will find its depth and differences makes it a standout among other picture book stories of cats and their adopted tribe.
So Where Does Magic Sleep?Return to Index