November 2025 Review Issue
Fantasy & Sci Fi
Literature
Mystery & Thrillers
Creed of
Legends
A.K. Kubica
Twin Swords Press
979-8-9923623-0-5 $17.99
Website: akkubica.com
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FNKXFN4N?dplnkId=73ee67c0-4826-4b92-a114-62fe5e67868b&nodl=1
Creed of Legends, Book 1 in the Tales of Fear & Fortitude, is a powerful fantasy of warfare, epic duels fought on fields where legends clash, and plots by both sides to influence and reshape not just the war’s outcome, but the world itself.
A.K. Kubica opens her story with an unexpectedly personal bang:
The eyes never lie even when the mouth will oblige. Xenia watched as the little bastard’s pale eyes darkened
as they rested on her son’s face.
It should be cautioned, at this point, that readers need hold a prior affinity for reading about war strategizing and battle plans, because Kubica emphasizes these facets. However, she also spices the story with the emotional ties and twists of personalities equally under siege, pairing bigger picture thinking about legends and legacies with the intimate perceptions and experiences of those who not only promote battle, but suffer under its yolk.
Passages where magic confronts soldiers and demands novel forms of battle and the recognition of power are particularly well-written, illustrating the differences between sides and those who employ power in diverse ways:
Brudais grabbed the reins and steered Ælon back around to face the soldier who spoke. “If you were expecting magick, Sergeant, why in the name of the gods were you playing dice with an open, unguarded gate? Did you expect that if magick were involved, you were powerless to stop it and might as well let it through? Is this how much your guard duty means to you?”
Issues such as choosing to use cavalry horses or allowing women into the fray are presented through strong dialogue and confrontations that shake preconceptions of all kinds, including revised women’s roles in this evolving new order:
“I am here on behalf of Lady-Governor Loya of Drens,” she said confidently. “She has sent me to follow the troops and prove my worth in battle, so that Your Majesty might reconsider her proposal to introduce women into the military.”
Angry murmurs erupted throughout the room. Tarison raised a hand to silence them. “And why is it that you were chosen by Loya to represent the females of Creet?”
“I have taken the place of my sickly brother in Commander Rydril’s Seasoned ranks. I believe Governor Loya’s exact words were, ‘You have the balls it’ll take to prove yourself to the men in charge.’”
From royal edicts to raising the dead, Creed of Legends reveals many types of interests and influences that meld the special interests of fighters, politicians, and magicians with the perspectives of commoners caught up in the jousts between all forces.
Kubica is notably adept at portraying the changing realizations of major players throughout the saga:
Their allies were turning into enemies all around them. Their involvement in Creetian politics had seemed to be a worthy cause at the time, but now it seemed utter folly.
These revelations keep the story fast-paced, enthralling, and unpredictable as readers navigate this siege-torn realm.
Libraries and readers seeking epic fantasies based on military confrontations, magical developments, and social change will relish how Creed of Legends develops a solid footprint of experience and action to invite all kinds of fantasy enthusiasts into its realm.
Filled with powerful, brutal moments of discovery and shifting alliances, Creed of Legends is a world-builder on par with George R.R. Martin and the best epic fantasy creators. It deserves a place on the reading list of anyone attracted to stories of struggle and change.
Creed of LegendsReturn to Index
Emerald Passage
Aneta Torchia
The Luminary Press
978-1738768783
$19.99 Hardcover/$13.99
Paperback/$3.99
eBook
www.theluminarypress.com
Emerald Passage is an action-packed fantasy adventure that opens with a perfect day gone badly when novice pilot Sarah’s flight in a Cessna, which usually gives her freedom from the repressive Order, turns into a chilling lesson in survival.
One of the reasons she enjoys flying is to cultivate skills she can give to the Order, as well as escaping psychopaths on the ground. But the second reason is that flight skills will expand her ability to unravel secrets - such as where the Order hides the Arachna, the powerful tech that allows it to track down and eliminate their threats. Sadly, she’s no closer to finding it than she was months earlier.
Perspectives shift from Sarah to main character Everest Cleary, whose battle against the Vulturians sends her on a perilous mission through time and space on a mission to reveal the origins of the Order and gain access to the Prism in this second book in The Prism Series.
A host of characters, from Erik to Shahina, consider rifts in space-time and the lasting impact of journeying to the past to confront the deadly enemies and new possibilities that change and impact the present:
But the past is not that simple. There’s no delete button – no trash bin you can empty when you’re done with it. It’s always waiting in the shadows, ready to pounce and haunt you again, often at your lowest moments.
Portals, prisms, mysteries and dreams coalesce in a vivid, action-packed journey that readers of the first fantasy thriller, The Prism, will appreciate for its fast pace. It’s a powerful, ongoing story of how Everest confronts her own magical abilities and the potential of changing not just her world, but several.
Her additional revelations about the Order and its intentions expand and enhance The Prism’s worlds with new adventures and realizations that many readers won’t see coming. These developments are cemented by believable characters whose personal and political dilemmas are thoroughly engrossing.
Libraries seeking series fantasy titles about confrontation, repression, and a “different slice of Earth” will want to add both The Prism and Emerald Passage to their lists of high-octane stories of battles against repressive forces. The tale ends in a cliff-hanger, so further additions to the series will be required, but the sum result of Emerald Passage is to reinforce and expand a gripping saga of harnessing personal powers for the greater good.
Readers who like their fantasies embedded with engrossing scenarios and twists will find Emerald Passage hard to put down.
Emerald PassageReturn to Index
Initial Condition
Ian Domowitz
Casa Muerte Books
ASIN: B0FM672RH8 $2.99
eBook
www.iandomowitz.com
Initial Condition, the third book in the Mechanic’s Diary series, depicts a world in which an AI boy called The Mechanic confronts a religious sanctuary where AIs are forbidden. Too bad, because a kidnapping leads Hanzi Boss not only into this environment, but to challenge its most sacred foundations.
Readers of the Mechanic’s Diary books will have an excellent grounding for appreciating this latest entry in the diary experiences. Virtual environments and reality blends with history, philosophical inspection, and experience in the same vivid manner of reflective action that prior fans will relish.
Newcomers may momentarily flounder as they absorb these sometimes-challenging scenarios, but any effort expended in delving into this world is more than rewarded by a powerful tale of monsters, reality (both virtual and otherwise), and community and individual secrets that come to light with soul-changing results.
Ian Domowitz continues to finely intersect these worlds and nuances as Hanzi delicately dances between forces that would end his existence or kidnap the essence of creativity and soul from the world:
“Your book hints at artificial beings capable of language.”
Hanzi cringed at the squeak in the seated man’s voice.
Notes of contempt covered the unintelligible movement of his lips. Abomination, they said. “Do you have first-hand knowledge of such things?”
“The book is prophecy and open to interpretation.”
“The Chronicles is allegory. Context matters. Will the future require language skills to survive? I’m not the prophet here.” Hanzi had found the last phrase necessary in many conversations. It served to quiet discussion.
“That is not God’s question.” The beard on the young man’s face was too thin to shake with the severity of his head’s movements. “The stage is set at the beginning of time and all things follow from that creation.”
Hanzi had never believed it. His idea of moral responsibility centered on intent and accountability. Time spent with strict Catholics of a nomadic community suggested more of a stochastic form of predestination, with God steering existence with imperfect foreknowledge occasioned by human free will.
From the creations of golems and existential flaws that challenge Hanzi’s love of his creation to his lessons in dreams, transparency, and devices that introduce nightmares, this story of uncertain definitions of life, death, monsters, and heroes creates a vivid march through time and intention. It is as thought-provoking and gripping as the other Mechanic’s Diary books in the series.
Libraries seeking series additions that work well together to add philosophical, psychological, and magical realism components to a dark fantasy for mature teen and adult readers will find this mix of spiritual and ideological reflection to be astute and compelling. These elements make the book a special recommendation for those interested in out-of-the-box thinking and characters whose very existence defy space, time, and possibility.
I’m not the bad guy. We’re good people with a secret.
The wellsprings of that secret and its discovery make for a completely engrossing, creative story that toes the line between magical realism, dark fantasy, philosophical and social inspection, and an exciting foray into human and AI potential.
Initial ConditionReturn to Index
Mission Homo Liberatus: The
Beginning
Marina Vantara
Independently Published
979-8296294968
Kindle $ 4.05; Paperback
$15.99;
Audiobook $10.80
Website:
https://www.russian-marina-vantara.com/homo-liberatus
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FL14166L
Mission Homo Liberatus: The Beginning is a science fiction social examination. It opens in 1943, where a scenario of devastation and destruction brought about by war morphs into a visit by extraordinary beings who appear out of nowhere to reflect on their responsibility in allowing this to happen:
They are barefoot and dressed in light green Greek-style tunics. Their finely sculpted silhouettes look as though someone has cut them out of paper and cynically tossed them in ashes. The strangers bear no resemblance to the fair-haired locals or the blond Aryans. Instead they are dark-skinned and black-eyed, like Gypsies. “Such inhuman cruelty! Could we really not have stopped this?”
As energy vampires confront demi-gods and past and future coalesce in unusual ways, readers will enjoy this vivid tale of mythos, moral and ethical reflection, alien Yan’s mission to uncover the truth about the massacre, and Nazi activities and atrocities.
The intersection of human and Lemurian affairs is illuminated through dialogues that review power and influence in a vivid chronicle of reflection and discovery cemented by thought-provoking dialogues and uncommon encounters between very different forces:
“Then why won’t your people, those up there,” he said, pointing upward, “help you?”
“It’s quite possible a few vampires could be killed as an outcome of the mission. And one needs either fear or hatred to commit murder. Lemurians possess neither, so they’re incapable of killing.”
“Then why are you capable?”
“Am I? That’s not certain either. Even though I’m half homo liberatus and half human.”
As homo sapiens share energy, accept “miracles,” and confront a truth that simmers beyond the reality of their daily experience, readers embark on a powerful journey that reconsiders the essence and hallmarks of humanity itself.
Marina Vantara creates a lively story that blends elements of sci-fi, thriller, political intrigue, and psychological and social revelation into its plot. A probe into the truth contained in Soviet archives leads to the emergence of a host of special interests and characters. These include KGB hypnotist Pavel Pilatov and his nephew Andrei as well as a host of humans who aid in Yan’s mission as he observes humanity at its best and worst:
Like most people, Andrei tended to take easy options and was already beginning to construct a mental excuse to reconcile himself with this sense of inferiority, as there seemed no way to reach the level of the Lemurians anyway. Knowing my friend well enough, I didn’t interfere with his dive into another bout of melancholy. After all, the only thing that really mattered was that he was still walking beside me and had never refused to help, often sacrificing his energy and comfort for the sake of my mission.
Diverse microcosms of purpose and perspective contribute to an intricate story which will cross genres to engross political thriller and fantasy audiences alike.
Libraries seeking thought-provoking stories that tackle bigger-picture thinking and situations will appreciate how Mission Homo Liberatus: The Beginning unfolds a vivid, thoroughly engrossing story that navigates Russian territory and events in unexpected, novel ways.
Replete with unexpected discoveries and connections, Mission Homo Liberatus: The Beginning presents an unexpected journey into a conspiracy that holds its roots in World War II, but stretches them into revised possibilities for the next generation of homo liberatus in approaches quite suitable for book club discussion and thriller audience immersion.
Mission Homo Liberatus: The BeginningReturn to Index
A Raven in the Storm
Alida
Miranda-Wolff
Rainflower Publishing
979-8-9992091-2-2 $28.95
Hardcover/$4.99 eBook
alidamirandawolff.com/books
A Raven in the Storm is the first book in the Gods of Tellus series. This compelling romantic fantasy is Alida Miranda-Wolff’s fiction debut, demonstrating her world-building prowess as she depicts competing gods (both greater and lesser) whose lives intersect in unusual ways.
It’s set in a fantasy universe filled with familiar, real-world issues that might trigger sensitive readers with vivid descriptions of violence and confrontations that include self-harm and suicide, but ultimately crafts an immersive experience. The plot includes situations of anguish and angst to sterling moments of discovery and empowerment.
The story is narrated in the first person by Lyanna, a lady-in-waiting at the Storm Palace, whose uncle is the right hand to a cruel king. From its opening paragraphs, A Raven in the Storm injects emotional responses into its atmospheric descriptions that succinctly capture women’s’ roles and adaptive survival tactics in positions of power and servitude:
The king’s
obsession with her was
decades old, and she had learned to resist him through the strength
of her bearing rather than tears or pleas. She endured him for those
under her protection – the Skylanders who remained in her court and
lived in her territory, her courtiers, and me. Shame flooded me. I
could see that she would take a punishment she did not deserve in my
home territory, the one I was supposedly poised to
inherit,
and could do nothing to stop it. I balled my hands into fists to keep
from screaming.
Lyanna refuses to stand by
placidly
while her beloved Lady Opis is tortured and ravaged. Her response
forces her to run from everything she’s known and into uncharted
territory. She embarks on a journey that takes her through Witcher’s
Woods and into the other side of the world during a storm of physical
clashes and psychological and moral controversy.
Alida Miranda-Wolff’s ability to bring these women’s choices to life makes for a hard-hitting adventure that traverses growth, new opportunities, and revised connections. Lady Lyanna Tempestas and Lady Juno Strabo continue their friendship through letters while Lyanna spies, experiences uncertainty over marriage and her relationships with men, and endures political struggles that test her future. Lord Cassius Coronis adds a strong male counterpoint to Lady Lyanna and Lady Strabo, with a romantic component that also forces Lyanna to re-examine her beliefs and values:
I had no
reason to
trust this man, other than Lady Opis said he would protect me because
I was a member of his court, a court that I had basically admitted I
didn’t think should exist. No amount of exhaustion, hunger, and
dehydration could justify this. What was wrong with me?
Especially notable is how
the politics
and perspectives of the time impact Lyanna’s relationships and
life:
I didn’t so much
as bristle as he
called me “sister” instead of “comrade,” the rejection of my
place here familiar. Nobles, especially ones of my station, had never
been welcome in the Resistance. We were their enemies, no matter our
views.
Miranda-Wolff builds these forces into her story so seamlessly that Lyanna’s first-person experiences come across as completely realistic and thoroughly riveting, cemented in believable scenarios, frustrations, and confrontations.
The different relationships these women develop with one another, which range from romance to political associations, also adds notes of strength and insight into the story, building fascinating associations and twists into Lady Lyanna’s options and encounters.
Libraries seeking a fantasy that is female-centric, heavy in relationship and political quandaries, and packed with emotional and physical action will find it easy to very highly recommend A Raven in the Storm to fantasy readers as a gripping study in relationship-building and social and political transformation.
The fantasy builds a vivid account of women under siege from not just men and social expectations, but their own hearts.
A Raven in the StormReturn to Index
The Seven Souls of
Esmerelda Black
N.K. Brown
Foundations Book Publishing
978-1-64583-153-2
Website: www.nkbrownauthor.com
Ordering: www.FoundationsBooks.net
In order to allow her sister to live, Esmerelda Black must acquire seven souls of others. It’s a devil’s bargain and a challenge that Esmerelda confronts with a twist, because even though this sister is willing to sacrifice her own soul in exchange, the greedy devil maintains that she alone is not enough.
N.K. Brown unfolds the story of magic, sorcery, theft, and power with an intriguing focus on a young woman whose attempts at soul-stealing lets loose a Frankenstein-type threat that begins to stalk her through the foggy streets of London.
Add “atmospheric” to the description of this story of how Esmerelda builds up payment one stolen sin at a time, only to uncover a rebel in the form of a woman who harbors Sloth and is reluctant to give it up to Esmerdelda’s cause.
Readers can also envision the clash when Esmerelda’s only connection to Hell and the possibility of saving her sister, her scrying mirror, is stolen. This forces her to confront the stalker behind her while forging ahead to face the blackmail and secrets of Dorian Rosewood, who harbors his own reasons for wanting to connect with the underworld.
Brown crafts an elegant, evocative fantasy rich in action and thought-provoking moral and ethical questions as the plot unfolds. The descriptions are especially powerful lures as this dark world reveals its secrets:
There are many who say that Barnaby Whiteley, the heir to the Whiteley fortune, has looks that are most handsome. They swoon and murmur unintelligibly whenever he is near. He is a snowy goose, preening and posturing so that he is mistaken for an elite swan. But to me, I see straight through him, and his soul is black. When his lifeless gray eyes fell on mine, penetrating the thick gauze of my veil, my skin crawled, as if suddenly teeming with frantic centipedes, legs scrabbling and pincers tearing at my flesh, but the feeling that predominated was that of whitehot anger. It consumed and terrified me in equal measure, leaving me as pathetic and redundant as when he strolled right through the protective shield I had spent my life erecting and murdered my sister.
Treasure hunts for hidden sins, subterfuge and theft, and all-consuming desire for resolution and exposing secrets drive a story filled with revelations not only about Esmerelda’s situation, but different characters that become entwined in her dangerous web:
Lady Grafton had grown up amongst those who still considered her mother, and therefore her, as a lurker. A cuckoo who ensnared a rich husband and tried to disguise all her offspring as true-born aristocracy. She had spent almost all of her life silencing those people. She married a lord and became indispensable amongst the London elite for throwing elaborate parties, giving to charities—albeit grudgingly and sparsely—and making sure no other paupers dared enter her social circle.
As Esmerelda finds herself imprisoned by Dorian in more ways than one, she fights to achieve her goals, dances on a dangerous edge of disaster with the devil himself, and embraces thought-provoking revelations about the true wellsprings of power and how to wield it.
Libraries seeking supernatural fantasies steeped in intriguing dark atmosphere mixed with ethical and moral questions about life and choice will find The Seven Souls of Esmerelda Black a strong recommendation not just for readers, but book clubs considering works that excel in accounts of ambition and uncertain lifelines after disaster.
Replete with confrontations and action that are thoroughly unpredictable and completely engrossing, The Seven Souls of Esmerelda Black is hard to put down.
The Seven Souls of Esmerelda BlackReturn to Index
Tall Boy Sun
Neal Holtschulte
Haste Publishing
979-8-9858948-2-0
$19.99 Paperback/$5.99
eBook
nealholtschulte.com
In Tall Boy Sun, Sol Linocass is an alcoholic farm mechanic who dreams of going to the stars, a mission that would prove his worth to his family by moving him away from former bad habits into a position they can admire.
It’s not until Sol discovers a technical blueprint for a game-changing starship drive that he has the possibility of achieving this seeming-impossible goal—but only if he can evade pirates, special interests, and forces that would obtain his discovery for their own ends.
It seems a no-brainer for him to solicit help from his sister Trudy to join her crew as a starship mechanic, but the intersection of family and nefarious forces follows him to the stars to challenge his recovery, his moral and ethical compass, and his family. Sol faces more opportunities to prove himself while grasping a second chance that places him in untenable political and social positions.
His stint on the old ex-military spaceship with Trudy, his probe of individuals on different sides of the war (whose interests may or may not intersect with his own), and his confrontation with “spooks” in intelligence and other circles who also hold special interest in his discovery creates a fast-paced, action-packed story. The exploits circle not just around individual recovery and growth, but the protagonist’s real desire to change against all odds despite the forces working against him.
Neal Holtschulte cultivates a tone of self-inspection and revelation throughout the story. This lends three-dimensional appeal to Sol’s character:
If there was a switch he could flip so he would never be short-sighted and selfish again, no matter the cost, he’d flip it. But he had no switch. Life would grind down his will. Fatigue would weaken his resolve. He knew it, and he was afraid. For now, all he had were words, words that were hard to say and harder to live by.
Libraries interested in vivid space sagas that focus on personal redemption, recovery, and growth will find it easy to recommend Tall Boy Sun to audiences who look for more than sci-fi adventure action alone.
Thought-provoking in its survey of Sol’s growth process, Tall Boy Sun is vivid in its clashes, intriguing in its blend of special interests, and enlightening in its attitudes and battles.
Tall Boy SunReturn to Index
Bad Americans: Part
I
Tejas Desai
The New Wei LLC
978-1-7347278-2-1
$30.00 (hardcover); $19.99
(paperback);
$6.99 (eBook)
Website: http://tejas-desai.com
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Americans-Part-Human-Tragedy/dp/1734727829
The fictional collection Bad Americans: Part I is Volume 2 in the The Human Tragedy series and takes place in the first year of Covid in 2020. A billionaire summons twelve very different individuals to his mansion and entreats them to tell their stories at The Gateway, and so emerges a series of American experiences blending the backdrop of the pandemic and the lockdown of New York with explorations of different aspects of the American experience.
As the guests interact, exploring their humanity and connections, and revealing landscapes of love, friends and family, and featuring lives both challenged and normalized, readers receive a diverse set of reflections that are interconnected in some ways and wildly diverse in others.
The short story/novel intersection works great for the purpose of revealing such a diverse set of tales. From hiking, healing, and business illusions experienced by Stephen, who lives in an odd supportive three-way family typical of New York City’s diverse relationships, to explorations of the shifting relationship between Ricard, Nalini, and others who come to view The Getaway as a prism for the world in many ways, these tales expand to not just explore disparate attitudes, but connect them together.
The network that forms between past and present relationships, the differences between daytime associations and nighttime confessions, and the different plots and plans which hatch from these encounters takes the frame narrative format to new possibilities as the stories dance between novel, play, and short story collection.
Librarians seeking literary, accessible accounts of not just pandemic lockdown experiences and new relationships but how narratives can spin and evolve will find Bad Americans: Part I perfect for readers who want not a light read, but a thought-provoking exploration of literary form, intention, and experimentation. They should also realize that the next book will be required to supplement this first part.
With a work which blurs the
fine lines
between narrative and narrator, Bad Americans: Part I
is a
satisfying journey that will prompt literary audiences, classrooms,
and book clubs alike to consider the impact of storytelling,
narration, and the intersection of seemingly disparate American
lives.
Return to Index
Anatomy
of a 66-Year
Marriage
Don Hughes
Independently Published
9798267120449
$6.99
Kindle $15.95 Paperback
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FSLWKW78
Imagine finding lost journals and manuscripts after a father’s death which chronicles family history in an introspective, revealing manner which fills in many blanks. Don Hughes not only discovered previously unknown nuances about his father Ernest’s life and marriage, but realized these journal entries also served as an important blueprint to how to be married and live a good life.
These entries form the foundation of a memoir rich in family experience and devotion, demonstrating how a loving couple made their vows, then lived them daily through adversity and struggle and good times. Any reader interested in following in their footsteps will find in this story the nuggets of wisdom and reflection that encourages similar choices and discoveries.
The experiences unfold with a faith-based foundation that Christian readers will find satisfying and supportive. They embrace all kinds of family challenges, from infirmity to drug abuse, yet also represent love and acceptance in manners readers can learn from.
The family history reads like fiction, with Ernest Hughes and others represented in description, dialogue, and vivid scenarios that come to life, tailored by his son Don Hughes:
“The current plan is to rent a house for Mother, and his son James Allen and his family.”
His forehead creased in disapproval. “James Allen has had a lot of problems over the years with drugs and jail.”
They moved to the couch. “I know,” she said. “But Jim thinks now that he’s married with a family, he’s turned his life around.”
Unconvinced, he said, “I feel this is a temporary arrangement at best.”
Entries from his father Ernest’s writing accent son Don Hughes’s translations of family events and interactions:
Reflecting on my past life and all the mistakes I made, I wonder if given the chance, would I make the same ones all over again? Human nature being what it is, I probably would. If given a second chance, I would certainly try to be a more respectful and loving son, a more sensitive and loving husband, less harsh in my discipline of the boys, and more willing to listen to their side. And also, I would hope to be a better Christian.
These journal entries add personal reflection to the outline of family experience in a rich layer of realization and contemplation that brings not only Ernest Hughes and his family to life, but surveys the vitality and concerns of their days.
Memoir audiences may be used to stories that entirely paraphrase or consist solely of source material writings, but here the juxtaposition of a son and father’s efforts translates to a more powerful exploration than most, holding special messages of reality and inspiration for readers who would also aspire to long, good marriages and family connections.
Libraries seeking memoirs packed with daily detail and life inspection alike will find Anatomy of a 66-Year Marriage an outstanding survey of upswings, downturns, and life events that will prove inspirational for individual pursuit as well as book club and reading group discussions about marriage and family life.
Nicely centered in its focus on various personalities and family members and realistic and immediate in its progression, Anatomy of a 66-Year Marriage is a winning memoir that deserves a place in any library strong in memoir writing, family explorations, and ordinary American lives made extraordinary by their choices, connections, and love.
Anatomy of a 66-Year MarriageReturn to Index
Destination Silicon Valley
Lin C. Wu
Independently Published
9798330276301 $14.99
https://www.amazon.com/Destination-Silicon-Valley-Broom-Supercomputer-ebook/dp/B0FVGF1BKR
Destination Silicon Valley: From Broom Shop to Supercomputer is a memoir of achievement and the immigrant experience that deserves high praise for any collection strong in California’s Silicon Valley culture and individual success stories..
Chinese culture blends with American high-tech insights in a story that follows how Wu wound up at an Ivy League college, honed a career that brought him across America to new opportunities, and explored cross-cultural encounters from the early days of Silicon Valley to Japan..
As Wu’s experiences unfold, so does his capacity for understanding not just technological challenges, but his place in the work world and in American society:
Here I was, at age 28, and I had joined an up-and-coming computer development team to develop the fastest computer in the world. It seemed that my whole past had been preparing me for this adventure. I was finally given the opportunity to do a complete computer design from the very beginning. My Amdahl experience would definitely allow me to gain insight into the big picture, and with that, I would be able to have a top-down view from semiconductor design to computer development. I would understand how the critical technical decisions were made.
Readers will especially appreciate the juxtaposition of personal life ambitions and developments in different kinds of relationships and the business and technology acumen Wu navigates as his career expands.
Lessons about team development and breakthroughs that carry Wu beyond a glass ceiling limiting his advancements will especially intrigue business readers interested in immigrant history and integration processes.
The result is a memoir that surveys the culture of high technology, how people with foreign ties and roots blend with and contribute to its evolutionary process, and how Wu navigates new challenges of both a technical and personal nature.
Libraries interested in adding memoirs about hard work, opportunity, and family ties to their collections will want to point out Destination Silicon Valley: From Broom Shop to Supercomputer to patrons and book clubs as the perfect example of how small choices and endeavors can contribute to bigger personal and community growth.
Destination Silicon ValleyReturn to Index
Just Play Like You Do in
the Basement
Rick Porrello
Next Hat Press LLC
9798987831243 $19.99
www.rickporrello.com
Coming of Age as the Drummer for the Greatest Entertainer in the World is a musical memoir of drumming about a drummer who worked for a superstar entertainer, who began at age 18 and has several years of professional drumming gigs behind him. It follows the family influence of music which led Rick Porrello into this world to foster his early success.
The stories about his life and coming of age in the 1980s cover more than music. From playing cop in the real world to interacting on stage with Sammy Davis Jr. and George Rhodes, life lessons emerge from these encounters, teasing and jokes, and serious pursuits. This will delight readers interested in the entertainment industry and music’s personal connections and opportunities.
Readers encounter the jazz music world through Porrello’s eyes, enjoying “you are here” moments that emerge from his performances:
I had my brushes ready as Sammy kicked off the rhythm section: “Oon chink a-chinka, oon chink a-chinka,” and we were into a vamp led by Frank Accardo’s crisp guitar figure. Sammy whistled his usual eight-bar solo, then started singing. Mr. Bojangles was one of Sammy’s more theatrical numbers—pensive lyrics combined with a dramatic delivery, polished to perfection and wedded with graceful dance moves. The string section breezed in, and I switched to sticks. The arrangement heated as Sammy sang:
“Mr. Bojangles, come back and dance. Dance. Dance.”
Aspiring or practicing drummers, especially, will be moved by the specific descriptions of playing with bands and drumming behind different musicians as events unfold.
Replete with humor, observations of personalities and careers, and vivid on-stage performances, Just Play Like You Do in the Basement brings readers into this milieu with jaunty descriptions and memorable moments that come alive under Porrello’s pen through immersive performance descriptions.
Librarians seeking a music memoir that chronicles great stage performances while detailing a life well lived with off-stage encounters will find Just Play Like You Do in the Basement a worthy addition that can be recommended to a wide audience. This should include aspiring young musicians, who will find Porrello’s story especially lively and accessible reading that offers inspiration for their own musical aspirations.
The “in the moment” reviews of this life are well worth enjoying (even if vicariously), suitable for gleaning inspiration about how drummers operate and interact with other musicians and life in general.
Just Play Like You Do in the BasementReturn to Index
Breakthrough
Judy Kroll
Arborescens Books
979-8-218-69512-5 $14.99
Paperback/$3.99 eBook
Website: http://JudyKroll.net
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-original-suspenseful-obsession-psychological-ebook/dp/B0FTTFZX6X
Breakthrough is a thriller that revolves around a medical device firm run by siblings that is about to run into dangerous trouble, and the efforts of Dr. Charles Emory and his sister Neddy to employ lucid dreaming in new ways.
Sleeping on the job is not only encouraged at their firm, but forges new pathways to innovation. But the intersections of moral and ethical choices, dream research, and applied understanding blur as ideas are weaponized, accusations fly, and lives are at stake.
Judy Kroll opens with the science and political maneuvering of biotech industry concerns, then takes a deep dive into the underlying motivations and impact of a wide cast of characters. This embraces concerns about lead engineer Alex Ruindes, investor Max Sheldon, and the future of a program that evolves as the dream program’s vision begins to crash. The question of whether it will expand or implode becomes as central as the issues swirling around theory and applications as the story heats up.
Readers of medical thrillers who look for wide-ranging suspense and powerful character clashes will welcome how Breakthrough synthesizes a wide range of issues, juxtaposing personal issues with bigger picture thinking in a struggle that challenges Neddy to step up to and beyond her own dreams:
“Medical research is fraught with trade-offs. Have you ever read one of those pamphlets that come with prescriptions? About all the side effects? Nausea, diarrhea, suicidal thoughts. And those are for drugs the FDA actually approved. There's always risk. Every drug, every medical device is imperfect, and so is the research behind them. You have no proof. Get over it.”
I stood and walked closer, never taking my eyes off him. I kept my voice even and low. “Get over it? Charles is making our employees sick, and I'm probably signing Daniel's death sentence by trying to stop that from happening. My brother's going to die, my entire family will blame me for it, and you're worried about a merger? You pompous ass.”
Breakthrough’s dialogues and encounters are realistic and riveting, twists and turns are built into the story that readers won’t see coming, and the changing nature of heroes and relationships that shift between women and men add intriguing food for thought to the story as a proactive woman confronts danger virtually on her own, whether it comes from family, company insiders, or outsiders.
Libraries will want to highly recommend Breakthrough for its built-in surveys of all kinds of strategies, life perceptions, choices and consequences, and technical and social issues. These buffet Neddy from different angles, making perfect fodder for book club discussions as well as a vivid thriller for individual pursuit.
Replete with mystery, manipulation, clues to behaviors in hidden influences, and choices that take no linear path, but evolve in the realistic manner of growth and life experience, Breakthrough is a story as much about rebuilding a family narrative as it is about confronting extraordinary problems despite the cost of their resolution.
All these elements make for a story nearly impossible to put down, cemented by Neddy’s first-person reflections on self, family, relationships, and life goals. Libraries will want to add Breakthrough to their collections as a vivid medical thriller worthy of broad recommendation.
BreakthroughReturn to Index
Class Action
Gail Ward Olmsted
Black Rose Writing
978-1-68513-684-0 $20.95
Paperback/$5.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Class-Action-What-Dont-Know/dp/1685136842
Class Action: What You Don't Know CAN Hurt You is not a how-to legal guide, but a suspense story revolving around law student Lennon Gallagher, who inadvertently receives a message meant for somebody else, then becomes embroiled in a class action lawsuit that tests not only her three years of law study, but her loyalties.
Gail Ward Olmsted builds these legal queries and challenges into the story of a new adult uncovering truth about her family, her chosen profession, and how the world works. Olmsted builds personal reflection into the atmosphere to capture the culture and influences of changing times:
I stripped off my robe, punched my pillow back into shape, and slipped under the covers. I tried to rid my mind of worries about classes and exams and sadness over mothers who failed and fathers who bailed and boyfriends who didn’t understand me. I pulled on my headphones and found some vintage Alanis Morrissette to get lost in.
As she works in a law office as an attorney-in-training, tackles issues caused by systems that disrupt her clients’ lives, and considers various challenges to her own career and momentum, Lennon faces romance and danger with a savvy born of a lawyer’s penchant for detecting lies and a woman’s desire to be loved and respected.
Olmsted takes the care (and the time) to juxtapose moments of revelation with legal intrigue in a manner that keeps events personal, involving, and believable. This contrasts nicely with legal suspense stories that tend to become more mired in legal than personal challenge.
The result is a completely immersive experience that operates on both personal and professional levels, dovetailing suspense and discovery with personal revelation as Lennon edges ever closer to surprising insights about her life’s ambition and trajectory.
Libraries interested in suspense stories that do more than outline puzzles, but create solid protagonists whose hopes, fears, and dreams emerge within a bigger picture of future directions will find that Class Action stands out from the crowd with its personal touches.
Readers who like investigations driven by personal examination, experience, and quandaries will find Class Action a winner.
Class ActionReturn to Index
Crime Writer
Vinnie Hansen
Level Best Books
979-8-89820-027-5
$16.95 Paperback/$5.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Writer-Vinnie-Hansen/dp/B0FSC43CTD
Crime Writer opens in an early, muggy September evening in California where ride-along crime writer Zoey Kozinski is trying to engage a police officer in conversation—to little avail. Zoey hopes to flush out her crime novel’s protagonist, but she can’t do much if nothing happens and her companion has no personality. Her choice of the night shift in hopes of seeing some action seems to be a dud—until Officer Austin decides to give her something to write about. This turns out to be more than either anticipated.
His decision places Zoey in the uncomfortable position of taking center place in her own crime notes, effectively making a rookie out of a bystander/writer.
Imagine being alone, confronting criminals after a shooting with few resources and a long night ahead. Imagine the shooter playing innocent when confronted. Then consider how Zoey’s interest in crime comes alive, sending her on a dangerous journey that dovetails with personality changes stemming not from her writing, but real life. These elements create a simmering story of intrigue and mystery as Zoey confronts not only impossible scenarios, but her own mental twists:
The man hadn’t looked dangerous. Her whole reaction reeked of leftover paranoia—her off-kilter state since the shooting. But he was on the alert for someone unknown in an unknown type of vehicle. Could it be her? If so, she didn’t want to be corralled in her trailer.
Vinnie Hansen excels in creating the kinds of introspections that lead readers to question assumptions and perspectives.
In Zoey’s case, violence crosses police lines to hit too close to home as her mother Camille and weed farm owner Harvey Shaffer are dragged into impossible situations that threaten all their lives.
Tension is well done, the action is virtually nonstop, and strong characterization makes Zoey and her fellow characters living, breathing personalities whose choices, decisions, and quandaries feel frighteningly realistic and all too possible.
Libraries seeking crime stories that sizzle with the unexpected and present a foray into inadvertent criminal involvement will find Crime Writer a thoroughly immersive story. It introduces growing horror and even takes the time to inject unexpected romance into its simmering plot.
Replete with heart-stopping moments, action, and unexpected realizations, Crime Writer is a winner highly recommended for readers who enjoy propulsive action via a down-home wannabe crime writer who initially just wants a good story, but gets much more than she’d intended.
Crime WriterReturn to Index
Expert Witness
Karen Knutson
Warren Publishing
978-1966343271
$31.95
Hardcover/$19.95 Paperback
www.warrenpublishing.net
Expert Witness will reach a wide audience interested in women sleuth and detective stories with its focus on nurse practitioner Elle Larson’s anticipation of Thanksgiving when the attempted murder of one of her clients spirals her into an investigation well above her pay grade.
As other murders linked to
the case
occur, the city of Charlotte, North Carolina becomes the backdrop for
a lethal series of events that places caregivers and elder abuse on
trial in an unusual juxtaposition of personal and professional
challenges.
Author Karen Knutson,
herself a nurse
practitioner, injects realistic insights about the job, the medical
evaluation process, and the world of eldercare as Elle and other
characters find their careers and perspectives spiraling into the
danger zone.
Legal proceedings contrast
nicely with
social, medical, and judicial observations as events reveal many
curious facts that don’t make sense—including an evaluation by an
unreliable physician.
Medical ethics collide in
sparks of
discovery and danger as Elle pursues the truth. Accompanying
hard-hitting realities explain morally challenging decision-making
that holds not just dubious results, but treacherous implications.
Knutson’s ability to
recreate the
medical milieu for non-medical readers, then weave it into the
pursuit of truth and justice for those seeking vivid detective
stories, translates to a work of fiction replete with many
heart-stopping moments, such as:
Charlie
heard the
slap of running
shoes against his deck as the intruder pushed him to the deep side of
the pool. He was reliving his worst nightmare. The tears started when
he saw the water. Water had always been part of his life; and his
pool—he’d swum laps in it for so many years. He closed his eyes
and took a deep breath as he hit the water. He had no fear of water,
until now.
Libraries seeking suspense
stories
nicely grounded in real medical conundrums will appreciate how Expert
Witness cements its action with
believable
characters, scenarios, and contrasts of intention and action. The
issues surrounding elder abuse are particularly notable and
thought-provoking.
Readers interested in
medical scenarios
that don’t detract from the medical realities of struggles with
Alzheimer’s and dementia while building intrigue will relish
how Expert Witness takes
many
unexpected turns.
Filled with discovery and
puzzles, Expert Witness is
an
exceptionally strong story that deserves a place in any mystery
library, well-rooted in a sense of place that is the Charlotte’s
medical community.
Return to Index
Five Roses for Walter
LeeAnne James
Black Rose Writing
978-1-68513-677-2 $21.95
Paperback/$5.99 eBook
www.blackrosewriting.com
Five Roses for Walter adds to the Thin Blue Line series with a kidnapping thriller inspired by true events. It surveys the life and long-ranging impact of a fourteen-year-old kidnap and rape victim whose assailant is still a mystery, even though he held her in a bunker for a year.
Sergeant Steve "Mac" MacIntosh is personally affronted by Joanie’s ongoing nightmare and vows to track down this psycho at any cost. But, apparently it will take a miracle to find him, because he’s shockingly elusive and surprisingly capable of repeating his actions while remaining at large.
At this point, it should be emphasized that readers sensitive to graphic sexual assault descriptions (which are part of this story) should look elsewhere for their thriller reading. LeeAnne James adopts a realistic tone and approach throughout, bringing her subject to life by delving into personalities and psychological motivations. She pulls no punches in describing the warped mental processes of the kidnapper.
As for kidnapper Walt, the strangeness that justifies his actions comes to life as he repeatedly assaults Joanie, then somehow imagines he’s a good guy:
The man who’d kidnapped her, raped her, and stolen her innocence, stood smiling in the doorway.
Mac’s long search for the underground bunker which houses depravity leads to unexpected frustrations and dead ends as Walt moves from Joanie to Gabrielle and Yen, repeating his sordid actions and apparently getting away with them.
The contrasts made between Mac’s investigations, his victims’ entrapment, and Walt’s insights are particularly well done, with each girl’s disparate background lending a different vision of possible resolution:
Gabrielle was more of a fighter and had spent time on the streets, which made her a tougher, more combative hostage. Nonetheless, she was still only fourteen years old, and the tough persona on the outside would crumble when she was alone, especially during the long and lonely nights.
Joanie will be an adult before this case even begins to resolve itself, and the lasting impact of Walt’s predatory ways will change more than one life as he continues unchecked.
Libraries seeking especially vivid accounts of evil, stories of how social monsters are born, and questions about justice and perps who deny reality will relish how Five Roses for Walter powerfully walks a fine line between victim and abuser, documenting impacts on all involved.
Walter’s warped logic is particularly hard-hitting as the story evolves its long-term perspective, creating perfect fodder for psychology and book group discussions as the tale unfolds.
It’s not light thriller reading, but ultimately is a powerful survey of men and women’s rights and how these can become warped and flawed. This pushes readers into considering difficult decisions and perceptions in the process of absorbing compelling characters that are at odds with social convention and possibly their own minds.
Five Roses for WalterReturn to Index
The Goldilocks Genome
Elizabeth Reed Aden, PhD
Spark Press
978-1-68463-254-1 $17.95
Paperback/$12.99 eBook
www.ElizabethReedAden.com
The Goldilocks Genome: A Medical Thriller is set in San Francisco and tells how FDA epidemiologist Dr. Carrie Hediger becomes embroiled in a murder mystery that threatens her FDA career, values, and everything she’s worked for.
Were it not for the death of Sarah, Carrie’s best friend, she might never have found herself in the tenuous position of using her analytic talent to submarine her own future. We are introduced to the “unsinkable” Wendy Watanabe, who marries Jonas, the man of her dreams, only to discover he’s her worst nightmare in disguise.
Elizabeth Reed Aden takes the time to build the characters of Jonas, Wendy, and the unfortunate Dr. Hempsted, who becomes a tertiary casualty to the crime, before introducing Carrie and changing the focus to her investigation.
This structure allows for a deeper sense of all the characters that become mired in the story, from Jonas’s desire for revenge over his partner’s actions to a string of mysterious deaths. These events lead Carrie’s crack team of FDA investigators to consider the “Goldilocks effect” for prescription drugs processed by liver enzymes so the drug is “just right” for some and “too little” or “too much” for others (due to genetic variants). This effect becomes key to understanding the mysterious deaths.
Aden also takes the time to not just unfold an investigation, but present the analytical process of real-world circumstances involved in typical pharmacological and scientific investigations. This reveals not just possibilities, but processes intrinsic to data analysis and discovery, adding a layer of realistic intrigue to the story. The approach will educate readers about a range of applied techniques in psychiatry, genetics, and the concept of “personalized medicine” which is an important challenge for real-world situations today.
These elements add to the thriller heavy doses of realistic thinking, pragmatic investigative choices, and outstanding insider views of testing and extrapolation that pair action with careful case-building logic:
“Yes, we’ve finished, but we found nothing. No positives, nothing,” Kim said.
“That’s not possible. The number of contaminated bottles could be few and the test strips we have are good, but not 100 percent perfect. We must test them again to eliminate false negatives.”
Libraries interested in medical thrillers which thoroughly ground their action in believable processes, choices, and medical world savvy will want to highly recommend The Goldilocks Genome to thriller readers because it’s more than a step above most stories of medical conundrums.
Nicely rooted in a balance of suspense and science, The Goldilocks Genome is a powerful tale of psychiatric applications, pharmacogenomics, and public interests that follows Carrie straight into the murky world of professional, ethically questionable choices made for all the right reasons.
The Goldilocks GenomeReturn to Index
Take It to the Limit Book
Four: The
Stillness of Murder
Linda Opdyke
Independently Published
979-8268147209
$14.95
Paperback/$2.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Take-Limit-Book-Four-Stillness/dp/B0FTSHP8X3
Fans of the Take it to the Limit PI murder investigation series now have another series addition to relish, Take It to the Limit Book Four: The Stillness of Murder. The story opens with a compelling bang whether or not detective fiction readers are familiar with the prior books:
Ethan’s body lay taut, flat across the dirt and rock-strewn ground, his hands tightly clutching Mickey’s as she dangled helplessly over the edge of the cliff. Blood from his scalp ran down his face, threatening to blind him as his calm gaze locked with her terrified one. The hot summer sun mercilessly beat down on both of them, sweat making it more difficult to secure his grip.
With this powerful introduction, it’s almost impossible to stop reading. It’s rare to find a story that begins seemingly in the middle of heart-stopping events, then evolves a logical sequence of encounters that leads readers back and forth in time in a progressive romp through different characters and special interests, but The Stillness of Murder does so with an astute hand to discovery and revelation that proves thoroughly engrossing and easy to follow.
From tracking down a missing grandmother in a venture that attracts unwanted suspicion and attention from diner owner Boomer, whose threat to Mickey keeps unfolding in unexpected ways, to a probe into a suicide’s reasoning that turns into a murder investigation of unexpected events, The Stillness of Murder corners Mickey in circumstances which challenge her investigation and professionalism.
Rookie Mickey also finds herself at odds with Ethan, who refuses to believe Lonnie, who has hired Mickey to probe what turns out to be a dangerous situation, is his father’s son, and is convinced that Hannah Burnett is a liar. The professional conflicts impact those she considers family as well as colleagues, with Ethan’s involvement in her case threatening that family secrets might explode before she can uncover the full truth.
Linda Opdyke specializes in a form of explosive revelations about family, connections, and friend-or-foe tipping points that keep Mickey and her readers on edge, considering a smorgasbord of possibilities.
The story is rich in exploring these connections and a series of dilemmas that evolve from proximity, love, and death. Equally powerful are descriptions which supercharge confrontations between friends, adversaries, and those who lie somewhere in-between:
He grabbed her arm and spun her around. He was so angry he could barely speak. “Let’s get something straight. You believe you’re singled out, that there’s no faith in you, no confidence…the bullshit list goes on.”
She jerked free. “My plan would draw out…”
He blew up. “Your plan will get you killed.”
The result is an outstanding addition to the series that also stands well alone for newcomers interested in a PI investigation that incorporates winning elements of suspense and intrigue into its whodunit plot.
Libraries seeking compelling stories that either stand nicely alone or compliment their series will want to add The Stillness of Murder to their collections, highly recommending it to readers who seek multifaceted stories replete with tense moments of discovery and confrontation, murky psychological relationships that reveal unexpected truths, and plain good reading.
Replete with interpersonal arguments and realizations, The Stillness of Murder revolves around circumstances in which much more than murder is at stake.
Take It to the Limit Book Four: The Stillness of MurderReturn to Index
The Young
Nicholas John Powter
Balboa Press/Hay House
978-1-5043-2164-8 $15.95
www.balboapress.com.au
Father Sven has killed an intruder he views as a pest, causing son Fren, who formerly felt protected, to suddenly feel vulnerable:
“Dad, you promised there was nothing around in these parts which could harm us. You said these lands were purged and free from all evil,” says Fren angrily.
Thus opens a dystopian saga of survival, confrontation, and threats both real and imagined as Nicholas John Powter traverses a world in which monsters and eclipses hold equal impact on the characters:
“What exactly happens during the eclipse, Father?”
“A great force far beyond our own awakens from its slumber,” says Sven, smiling down on the eager eyes of Fren. “The light of the beacon eclipses the universe as the vessel erupts with a glorious beaming aura like no other. Some of the most open-minded folk believe there are beacons in other dimensions, galaxies and great voids of space; for the ones who journey to the Deluge will be guided by the Lanterns, waypoints for the travellers.”
An intriguing journey is undertaken in which gods, belief systems, cults, and dangerous associations are revealed as faith and family work to survive dark times.
The dichotomy of dark and light forces intersects in the course of a story that is presented like a fantasy, but evolves into an epic drama about loyalties, family, and faith in intriguing scenarios about authority and control.
Powter’s language at times falters grammatically, but this is overcome by powerful descriptions of a journey replete with inspections of selfishness, strength, and men who would be leaders against all odds.
As armies bow to Roland and fierce battles embroil the land, father and son stand at a crossroads in many ways which involves confronting not only religious cults, but their own hearts and minds.
Powter’s revealing story of survival, leadership, and ambition will especially intrigue readers of dystopian fantasy who will find this shadowed realm and the two individuals caught up in it to be thought-provoking.
Libraries seeking stories that center on the conflict between darkness and light, as well as evolving family heritage and lessons learned from gods and men, will find the tale’s battles bloody, immersive, and ultimately revealing as young Fren finds his place in the world as a man.
Readers interested in tales featuring supernatural overtones, religious forces, and individual struggles will find The Young an attractive story of growth and survival. It will find a home with a wide audience of dystopian story readers and thinkers.
The YoungReturn to Index
Carroll Gardens Story
Sally Frances
Atmosphere Press
979-8-89132-830-3
$30.99 Hardcover/$18.99
Paperback/$8.99
eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
Carroll Gardens Story is a novel set in 1998 Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, where an Italian-American community faces a grizzly Halloween murder that tests their bonds and perceptions of life in America.
When gentle local handyman and simpleton Helper falls under suspicion, it’s up to his detective nephew to solve the crime and vindicate his uncle, even if Tony has only just made detective and is brand new to the process of solving crimes.
Under another author’s pen, this story might evolve in a usual whodunit fashion, but Sally Frances uses three very different characters to explore the Sicilian-American psyche and neighborhood. Along with Helper is his older brother and housemate, Gino, who has kept long-standing complex secrets, and their nephew, Tony who is grappling with another form of residual trauma and his identity as a detective.
Very different milieus are exposed and explored as the story plays out, bringing to life disparate family branches and influences as well as professional ethical dilemmas that swirl around the involvement of family in crime-busting affairs:
Tony hasn’t run into exactly this kind of problem until now. He knows there are lots of situations where police have to walk a thin line, to remain within the legality or ethics of the system, or to be loyal to fellow cops. What they know because of evidence and what they suspect are two entirely different things. And then, there are moments where information is given only on a need-to-know basis. What gets made into evidence is often at the discretion of the individuals doing the investigation. He is not sure what territory he is in right now. If he tells Nick everything he’s thinking, will he go after Helper?
Frances recreates the living, breathing facets of this community, time, and place in such a way that readers walk not just in Helper’s shoes via his life perspectives and the earth-shattering events which shake his world, but also in the shoes of Gino and Tony, whose personal issues are completely different, but no less critical.
As the feather-ruffling life of the deceased is exposed, her impact on more than a few people creates many possible scenarios of what happened, leading readers into a plot that excels in building characters whose lives evolve in unexpected ways.
Frances keeps her characters firmly rooted in the backgrounds and experiences of Brooklyn. This will delight readers who like their action and insights rooted in New York. She also demonstrates an ability to place Helper and his world into a bigger picture as Tony’s probe forces everyone to re-examine their assumptions.
Libraries seeking a novel that holds the trappings of a murder mystery, the countenance of a powerful cultural examination, and the allure of a psychological probe into personalities and possibilities will appreciate how Carroll Gardens Story maintains its realistic probe.
Outstanding in its approach and immersive in its scenarios, Carroll Gardens Story is a novel that will widely appeal to readers who like their family sagas complicated, yet believable and thoroughly engrossing.
Carroll Gardens StoryReturn to Index
The Grotesque
Sean Foy
Trigon Press
979-8-9996748-1-4
$9.99 digital; $16.99
paperback/$26.99
hardcover
Website: www.YBSeanFoy.com
Ordering: https://amzn.to/47k2Por
Wishing someone dead versus actively taking steps toward that end are two entirely different mindsets. The evolution from one to the other, however, is often a simple matter of motivation.
The Grotesque is a foray into Halloween horror, suspense, and redemption. It portrays three individuals who return to a scene of terror thirteen years later to relive the past, achieve redemption, and move on. Instead, they move into further dilemmas and never-ending threats as they awaken dangerous forces that rise from the trauma of childhood and force them to both relive the past and rethink the present.
Katrina, Jared, and Michael find their lives bound together in a deadly dance of discovery that moves from their shared trauma of the past to disparate reactions and efforts to resolve it once and for all, to move ahead in their futures.
The first brilliant step Sean Foy takes in creating a thoroughly immersive experience lies in how he injects readers into the minds of victims, manipulators, and game-changers alike:
I don’t even remotely blame myself. And if I was the last bit of rain that broke the levee—well, he wasn’t going to make it significantly further in life now anyway, was he? My mind wanders sometimes. Always trying to put together the puzzle. Looking for the corner pieces. Meanwhile, I’m following Jared again, up to the corner, waiting for the light...Jared on the edge of the curb. Light goes yellow and the truck speeds up. A little bump, a tiny nudge could end his misery. A shovel’s edge to the neck. And BOOM.
Vivid descriptions such as this are the apex of a story of intrigue that propels readers into new psychological entanglements, dark thinking, and discovery as the tale unfolds.
Halloween is the focal point in a countdown of events that embraces more than one character’s perspective, which is always clearly identified in chapter headings to clarify the focus so that readers don’t become confused over the shifting personalities.
Foy even follows the mandate of an audition presented during the course of the story as readers vie for the role of shocked audience and engage in the dance alongside its star players:
“All dance must involve the audience. It should make them feel. You make them feel, but you hold them at a distance. Your stories need to include you, Kat. Let the audience share your pain, your joy, your suffering, your hope. You do have hope, don’t you?”
Following this mandate, the plot becomes a powerful, personal series of reflections as the horror grows and new realities emerge from the ashes of yesterday’s impacts.
Libraries seeking a vivid examination of altered realities, an anniversary date that brings with it renewed nightmares and possibilities, and an action-packed story that winds through the hearts and minds of traumatized individuals will find The Grotesque especially recommendable to book clubs seeking engrossing discussion material.
Replete with examinations of guilt and redemption, The Grotesque’s powerful blend of psychological discovery and suspense is gripping, unexpected, and hard to put down.
The GrotesqueReturn to Index
Illegal Gringo Crosser
Paul Edwards
Independently Published
979-8231037179 $5.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Illegal-Gringo-Crosser-Paul-Edwards-ebook/dp/B0FL2Y917R
Illegal Gringo Crosser adopts an unusual countenance, taking the form of a novel about the author’s efforts to pitch his screenplay (of the same title) to producer Harvey Wains. The line between fiction and nonfiction appears to blur as Edwards struggles to market his story about immigrant experience but faces not only a money-hungry producer’s narrowed focus on what will be profitable, but insights about his own estranged Mexican-American mother and his heritage.
The edits Harvey suggests to Edwards aren’t just clarifications, but a complete readjustment of his screenplay’s political and social focus. And so Edwards resists the opportunity to disempower his manuscript, his life, and his heritage even as he battles these possibilities on a personal level.
The cost of selling one’s soul and values for the sake of creating a marketable (albeit shallower) production comes to light as the screenplay about his character Jake takes on unexpected life.
Readers anticipating a novel format receive a screenplay which, in and of itself, represents both the nature of drama and the ironies of pairing the general public’s interests in emotional connections with bigger-picture portraits of immigrant experience.
The screenplay format becomes, itself, a selling point for the novel’s shifting focus as Jake dreams of more than a dead-end job, at the beginning of the tale:
JAKE
Another spreadsheet.
Another soul-crushing day.
He sighs, pushing away the keyboard. He picks up a crumpled travel brochure featuring vibrant images of Mexican landscapes – turquoise waters, ancient ruins bathed in sunlight. He traces a finger along a picture of a bustling marketplace.
Screenwriter Edwards interjects his own writer’s observations, craft, and struggles in the course of evolving his screenplay. This neatly juxtaposes the play’s scenes with its writer’s eye for detail and trouble:
Paul, his eyes burning with a fire that belied his sun-baked skin and threadbare clothes, leaned closer. The glint of steel in his gaze was sharper than any knife. "Poor, Harvey? Yes, we're as barren as this cursed land. But helpless? *Never*. This desert has etched its lessons into our very bones. We've stared down the devil himself, and his name isn't always Smugglers. We've bled for this sand, and it's soaked up more than just our sweat." His voice, low and gravelly, carried the weight of a thousand unspoken battles. The heat shimmering off the sand seemed to amplify the intensity of his words, the very air crackling with the unspoken threat. "This time, the devil will learn what it means to underestimate the fury of a cornered desert viper."
The intersection of fiction, writer, and economic and political pressures to tell a different kind of story creates a fine literary dialogue between creator and production. This will especially intrigue literature readers who are, themselves, aspiring screenplay writers or producers.
All audiences, however, will readily appreciate the moral, ethical, and professional quandaries Edwards faces in the course of his pursuit. They also will relish how issues of immigrant experience wind into an adventure that involves family reconciliation, a new path in Mexico, and Jake’s impossible choice to stay and build a new life or go where he’s really needed.
Replete with powerful interactions and scenarios heightened by the form of a screenplay and the adjunct scenes of the writer’s struggles to create and shape his world, Illegal Gringo Crosser is especially highly recommended for libraries interested in literary explorations of personal, economic, and political struggles where ideals are tested and realities faced.
Filled with thought-provoking moments of change and adaptation, Illegal Gringo Crosser crosses not only physical but mental borders during its astute portrait of a writer struggling with his own best interests on many different fronts.
Illegal Gringo CrosserReturn to Index
Impetus: A Novel
S.J. Leone
Proving Press
Columbus Publishing Lab
978-1-63337-959-6
www.ColumbusPublishingLab.com
Impetus: A Novel is actually a political thriller. It revolves around Jimmy and his girlfriend Alice who, in the opening prologue, is gone. Backtrack six years to find out why, which is the meat of story in which a pivotal concert changes the lives of Jimmy, Alice, and their circle of friends.
Jimmy feels that, with these surprising turns of events, he has reached a dead-end in life:
“This place’s life should be over,” Jimmy mused aloud, “just like mine is.”
As he finds new life in locating targets and returning to old haunts from a vastly different perspective, it feels like the game-changing scenario of his youth will never let him find peace and resolution despite his revised efforts:
He was headed for the headquarters of Priority Health Systems and once more would have to pass by Dawn River. Why was it that every time he came into the city he wound up near it? Was it coincidence? Or was it pulling him back, holding him back, never letting go?
As Dawn River connections evolve into domestic terrorist connections and attacks, bigger pictures come to light. These challenge not just Jimmy, but Elijah Barrett’s bid for re-election and power and his support of The Plan, Ariel’s re-invention of herself after the events of Dawn River into the ‘New Ariel,’ and political struggles.
The intersection between personal growth and reactions to violence and plots, political ambition, and social change create a vivid story of fluctuating interests and ambitions which builds not just suspense, but psychological intrigue and political revelations.
All these reasons are why libraries seeking political thrillers that resonate with realistic scenarios, characters, and outcomes will especially appreciate how Impetus: A Novel moves from one kind of disaster scenario to another.
Its ability to build a thought-provoking series of encounters that blossom from individual experience and intention to broader political struggles results in a tense thriller hard to put down and satisfyingly impossible to predict.
Impetus: A NovelReturn to Index
Lockett’s Innocence
T.J. Johnston
Vivus Historical Press
979-8-9919384-0-2
Paperback: $14.99; Kindle
$4.99;
Audiobook $7.99
Ordering:
www.amazon.com
Lockett’s Innocence is a prequel to the Civil War novel series about Lockett’s experiences that will appeal to both newcomers to T.J. Johnston’s series and newcomers who will find this saga the perfect introduction to Lockett’s life and times.
James Lockett believes, when he leaves Kalamazoo for war, that his fellow companions have no idea of the atrocities they will face. In reality, surprises also buffet wise James, who comes to realize that the assumptions he’s made about the Civil War in general and battles in particular are as far off the mark as his companions’ initial enthusiasm for participating in battle.
His journey leads him into the Battle of Shiloh and beyond, with every experience attacking his idealism, values, and thoughts about not just Confederates and Yankees, but friendship. Johnston couches these revelations in a thoughtful inspection that ties together many threads of connection and experience.
The first of these comes from the perspective of his friend Patrick McManus, who is reliable, steady, and set to first enlist, and then later re-enlist alongside his friend James despite the tragedy of a recent loss still buffeting his life.
As the war’s participants reflect on their ultimate impact on the world around them, readers are brought into the fold of some difficult realizations:
“You’ve already done your bit, Patrick.”
McManus spat irately to the side. “That’s what I think of that! What have we done, James? Chase simple people from their homes? Steal the goods from their general stores in the name of the Union? Run at the first shots at Hallsville? We’ve done nothing! This war won’t end with a bunch of ‘nothing’ being accomplished.”
The emotional realizations power Lockett’s Innocence in a manner rarely seen in Civil War battle stories, lending to the novel’s appeal to a much wider audience than the usual military fiction or American history reader.
Libraries seeking Civil War stories that simmer with inspections of everyday lives and people who step up to life (and death) in extraordinary ways will welcome how Lockett’s Innocence exposes the heart of motivations to fight, surrender, or change.
Filled with satisfying encounters between friends and enemies and ideals shattered on a battlefield where “a million things seem to be happening at once,” Lockett’s Innocence provides a hard-hitting “you are here” feel to the Civil War experience that will prove an enlightening draw for present-day readers whether they are history buffs or not.
Lockett’s InnocenceReturn to Index
Nine Lives of Sadie Briar
Melvin Litton
Gothus Press
979-8-218-77328-1 $14.99
Paperback/$3.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Lives-Sadie-Briar-Melvin-Litton-ebook/dp/B0FTJMH4RZ
Nine Lives of Sadie Briar is a sweeping historical story that opens in the late 1800s on the Kansas frontier to follow the life of Sadie up to the 1960s. It tells of a woman who becomes a mother, a caretaker, a settler, and a survivor whose life is buffeted by adversity and the unexpected, but who always seems to find a path forward.
From the start, Melvin Litton reviews how political events, often from afar, affect family member perceptions and decisions, forcing Sadie to continually adjust her expectations of the future:
...passing to the New Year, the far crisis deepened. Chants for war grew daily. Ultimatums issued and scorned. Spain would neither yield nor concede. Naval forces were sent forth, maneuvered and positioned. McKinley ordered the battleship Maine to Havana to evacuate American diplomats and citizens if necessary. Nightfall, February 15th, amid the glitter of harbor lights the Maine exploded, whether by accident or hostile act, whether the powder magazine or a mine, was only guessed at, never known. But 250 American sailors died, cast into the waters.
“That’s our casus belli,” Hagan said. “Once war is declared, I will go.”
“Surely there’s no need,” I countered, startled by the grave shift of things.
“No, but I must.” His tone firm and I said no more.
From the effects of births and decisions about family which divide her friendships (and sometimes her immediate circle of connections) to how Sadie maintains a stoic countenance and resolution to live her life no matter the actions and influences of those around her, the story is delivered steeped in reflections of how people ultimately grow, survive, and endure:
Yes, they readily agreed, the fruit never falls far from the tree...then it spoils and rots – Hannah’s scandal so ripe that few could resist dipping a spoonful and lapping their tongues. I ignored all and replied to none, closed my ears and walked straight. Hid in task and routine, spending full days at the paper, busy at editing and layout, helped clean and maintain the printer, laid my hands to anything that needed doing.
Sadie’s world comes to life, and because of this attention to social and psychological depth, it becomes real and engrossing even to those who might hold little prior interest in historical fiction or American history. This audience will see the world through Sadie’s eyes and will become entranced by its progression and her attitude.
Libraries seeking engrossing examinations of a span of decades that considers how shifts in experience, politics, social decorum, and personal objectives occur and blossom will find Nine Lives of Sadie Briar not only attractive for a wide audience, but perfect for those who normally eschew historical fiction.
Replete with realizations, endurance, determination and survival in the face of repeated losses of different kinds, Nine Lives of Sadie Briar is a reflective, engrossing story certain to strike a nerve in the wide audience who will become Sadie’s fans.
Nine Lives of Sadie BriarReturn to Index
Not Our Crowd, Darling
Michael Craft
Questover Press
9798218679354
$18.99 Hardcover/$7.99
Paperback/$7.99
eBook
Website: www.michaelcraft.com
Ordering: www.amazon.com/dp/B0FPDQ5H9R
Not Our Crowd, Darling departs from Michael Craft’s previous cozy gay mysteries in presenting the dilemmas of middle-aged Meghan Auric, a straight woman confronting the lasting impact of some bad decisions made in her youth while navigating the challenges of aging.
Alone (even though married) and self-confined to her house, Meghan faces her much older husband’s recent death and vastly revised circumstances while acknowledging that her isolation stems from her own psyche and choices:
Dark secrets and a long-ago betrayal put her there, while debilitating fears and guilt have kept her there.
Is this the perfect opportunity to pursue new social and political truths? Possibly. But the potential of losing what she now has (a lavish lifestyle) feels like an overwhelming cost for the promise of undertaking new risks in life.
Michael Craft crafts a powerful story of a self-described “trophy wife” who seeks to change. He neatly captures the psyche and perspective of the agoraphobic personality, considering how this developed into a viable choice and why it may no longer be a suitable game plan for the future.
Even more compelling are scenarios in which Meghan confronts a mystery outside her usual circle of problem-solving, builds new strengths against all odds, and comes to realize the real impact of situations she’s simply fallen into versus new ones in which she is forced to make reasoned decisions.
Suspense builds through first-person revelations and interactions which inject gay and straight characters into Meghan’s world, prompting new revelations from her efforts and encounters:
With a snort of a laugh, I recalled, “Both parents, military heroes—orphaned before high school—scholarship to Oxford. Talk about claptrap.”
Chase gave me an odd, steady look. “It all checked out.”
Literally, I dropped my spoon. “Impossible,” I said. “I know for a fact that that man’s parents were alive and well after he finished school—at a community college just north of Consensus. Oxford my ass.” I laughed at the thought of it, the absurdity of it.
From schemes involving violations of department protocols to political pushback, detective work that dovetails with creating clever clickbait, and navigating unfamiliar territory far from the youthful decisions she’d once made, Meghan’s character is cemented with a gritty first-person voice that considers how she is forced to take the first, hardest step into a new life.
Libraries seeking novels that explore the dilemmas of middle-aged women who are compelled to walk out of their familiar worlds and habits will welcome Not Our Crowd, Darling’s wry humor, psychological revelations, and simmering mystery.
These elements contribute to the bigger picture of growth and revised choices that Meghan fields in the course of leaving the house and considering new opportunities for her life. The result is a novel that is warmly embracing, thoroughly engaging, and spiced with just enough intrigue and suspense to keep its outcome satisfyingly unpredictable.
Not Our Crowd, DarlingReturn to Index
Painting a Family
Mary Anne Kalonas Slack
White River Press
979-8-88545-029-4 $22.00
Website: www.maryanneslack.com
Ordering: www.amazon.com
Painting a Family is a novel about mother Jane O’Connell, whose daughter Eileen is pregnant, and whose challenging behavior has long tested her family. At several years shy of fifty, Jane is trying to restart her art career, set aside for motherhood, and forge a new future for herself. Instead, she is tapped to step up into unexpected territory as she struggles to gain be in charge of her life, only to see it spiral out of control.
Mary Anne Kalonas Slack opens with Jane’s perspective but weaves in other family members as the story evolves, from Luisa, who hesitates to tell her mother she’s living in a lesbian relationship, to Eileen, whose choices send her on a journey far from home and what she thought she could rely on as being familiar and supportive.
Chapter headings clearly marked with the character, date, and place assure easy transitions between these perspectives and reinforce the shifting places and times in which they evolve.
When a death in the family further complicates their present-day lives with Italian roots that grow new possibilities, the entire family finds their expectations and experiences changing in unexpected ways.
Slack creates an invigorating, absorbing story that is hard to put down and easy to love. Under her hand, not just Jane but her daughters and loves come to life in a realistic manner that is not always predictable and thus feels akin to much of life’s events and impacts.
Libraries seeking a powerful story of family ties, relationships, and life circumstances which are steeped in cultural and social inspections will want to welcome Painting a Family into their collections as a vivid story of adaptation and new beginnings.
Painting a Family holds the power to attract and intrigue a wide audience, and deserves a prominent place in lending libraries interested in novels about family relationships and change.
Painting a FamilyReturn to Index
The Rape of Elliott Roth
D.E. Adler
Atmosphere Press
979-8-89132-819-8
$17.99 Paperback/$29.99
Hardcover/$8.99
eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
In The Rape of Elliott Roth, Dr. Roth is a surgeon vacationing in Mexico when he unexpectedly is called upon to save the life of a child. As he contemplates the long-term impact of the brain surgery he performs and the child’s future, he begins to make the kinds of associations in his own life which lead him into uncharted emotional territory.
Readers won’t expect the social observations which emerge in the course of Dr. Roth’s experiences, but they are present and powerful from the start:
The Uber driver, Vincent, was a Black man, an immigrant from French Guiana, where he had worked as a metallurgical engineer building bridges. I thought of the challenges he faced and why he chose the United States rather than France given his French citizenship. Was it the American Dream? A prospect becoming more distant for everyone and even more so if you were Black. I was lucky. I had the privilege of choosing my path.
Supported in his vacation quest for relaxation by old friends yet challenged by a new relationship with Vanessa and the consequences of his actions, Dr. Roth embarks on a reflective journey that holds many unexpected twists and continues to explore related issues of privilege, chance, choice, and opportunities in the world around him:
Generational wealth and the opportunities it provides. None of us would be here if it weren’t for Liz’s mom and dad. Where would Liz be? At least she was dispersing her wealth. She had a pen pal sister in the Democratic Republic of Congo through letters-of-love to whom she could provide comfort and connection and a ten-dollar bill every month. What else could a white woman of privilege provide the impoverished children of the world?
D.E. Adler crafts a thought-provoking journey as his character considers past, present, and future influences on his life, perceptions, career, and choices. From life metaphors and actions to the good doctor’s newfound obsession with dreaming and considering life’s uncanny ironies, the life and purposes of this character become intimate and revealing. This, in turn, will prompt many a reader to consider life, death, and “the life beneath the life” as Dr. Roth makes his discoveries and considers new possibilities.
Libraries interested in novels about personal responsibility, social injustice, and the cost of survival will find The Rape of Elliott Roth an intriguing story that can be highly recommended for readers interested in how people in privileged situations grow, change, and forge new pathways.
Filled with exciting moments of reflection and social inspection, The Rape of Elliott Roth represents thought-provoking enlightenment at is best.
The Rape of Elliott RothReturn to Index
The Right Time: Back to the
80s
Lena Gibson
Black Rose Writing
978-1685136932 $22.95
Paperback/$6.99
eBook
Website: https://lenagibsonauthor.ca/
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/Right-Time-Back-80s/dp/1685136931/ref
The Right Time: Back to the 80s is a timeslip story about thirty-year-old Andie, who has successfully escaped her abusing husband to make a new life, only to be threatened anew. In desperation, she makes a wish and it comes true, sending her back into a past she never could have imagined.
The 80s may have a reputation for being a simpler, safer time, but Andie doesn’t find this to be true as she rebuilds a new life for herself once again and faces undercurrents of the times that pose unimaginable threats to her future.
One of these complications takes the form of paramedic Zack, who is used to pushing away people and love. Despite Andie’s allure, Zack resists temptation. This is a problem because new relationships and love are several of the main ways Andie seeks to rebuild a better life. And Zack is tops on that list of revised possibilities.
Unlike most timeslip stories in which characters become fixated on changing the future or returning to it, Lena Gibson creates a satisfyingly different perspective in The Right Time. Here, the protagonist is determined to remake the best of her life with new choices and the wisdom gained from knowledge of the future and what could happen.
This translates to a series of thought-provoking encounters that drive the story with not just passion and romance, but new growth opportunities fueled by her unique experiences:
Knowing what the finished house looked like from 2033 gave her a different perspective. Usually, a foundation and concrete-covered hole wouldn’t be enough to help her visualize the final construction. A surge of satisfaction filled her. The house would be beautiful and one day, Andrea would live there.
From navigating an era in which familiar technological assets haven’t yet been invented to Zack’s growing acknowledgement of new possibilities for his own life, Gibson juxtaposes the very different backgrounds of these individuals to achieve a satisfying contrast in realizations and dreams:
Xander’s life seemed a lot fuller than his own. His cousin’s life had changed enough that Zack now felt the difference between them. Perhaps living for work wasn’t enough. It was like a punch to the gut, a betrayal of everything he’d strived for throughout his life. Was it too late to change everything?
Do wishes really come true? Both Zack and Andie find themselves in a dance where their expectations, life lessons, and experiences receive a second chance to change, giving the story far more depth than the usual timeslip novel.
Libraries seeking exceptional timeslip scenarios that meld disparate lives in intriguing ways will want to welcome The Right Time: Back to the 80s into their collections as a warm survey of revised relationship possibilities and choices. Book clubs will appreciate how the tale introduces subjects well suited for debate, from the impact of future knowledge on revised outcomes of the past to how two very different people with diverse life experiences can build something entirely new together.
Readers who choose The Right Time for its promise of returning to a simpler time will find especially delightful the emotional and social changes that translate to two characters who find their current situation anything but simple, even if it benefits from knowing what the future can bring.
The Right Time: Back to the 80sReturn to Index
Soda Lake
John C. Hampsey
Rare Bird Books
978-1644284865 $28.00
Hardcover/$14.99 eBook
www.rarebirdbooks.com
Soda Lake is a locale “expansive, white, shimmering…and nearly unreal in the purple sunlight.” It’s also where the narrator views a man running into the lake and disappearing, sparking a search through time and other characters in which the mysterious vagrant “McCuade” causes different observers to speculate about his life and purposes.
A series of explorations are undertaken in which McCaude proves the impetus for each of these characters to change their lives while participating in investigations whose boundries are sometimes mercurial, laying somewhere between a search for someone and self-inspection:
What if Inishtrahull is the last place he can go, I said, standing up. The northern limit of his world….
From darkness and death-art to a detective story that involves probing the inner sanctum of psychological threads and responses, Soda Lake’s surreal atmosphere and injection of magical realism results in a moving, heady story of transformation that occurs on many different levels:
His final manifestation will not be a manifestation at all but simply living for the lost idea of his own being, rather than for them. They will not understand. If they did, they would call him the true-lord.... Without their knowing, he is the last-lord.
This will simply delight readers interested in stories of transformation and change that operate as literary examinations of duality, choice, and dreams.
The spiritual elements of encountering Him all through life supplement the threads of these diverse characters’ lives, creating a powerful story of becoming and ending that ultimately considers the foundations and impact of faith.
Libraries looking for literary thrillers that are thoroughly steeped in magical realism and inspections of faith will welcome how Soda Lake blends a wide range of inspections into its journey.
Replete with metaphor, allegory, and insight, Soda Lake moves full circle in its saga of a search for love, truth, and resolution, and is especially highly recommended for readers seeking components of psychological thriller reading that are delivered firmly embedded in powerful revelations about finding (and failing to find, sometimes), core values in life and faith.
Soda LakeReturn to Index
Time and Space
Shireen Jeejeebhoy
Independently Published
978-1-7386788-5-3
$17.99 Paperback/$5.99
eBook/.99 Audio
Website: https://shireen.link
Ordering:
https://books2read.com/b/4NnWeW
Time and Space is a time travel story set in the future, where Time is forty and reflecting on her obsession with aging. Where did the time go? As she muses about losses, bosses, and change, she is suddenly kidnapped by a gang of boys who seem to pull things out of nowhere and who pull her into a weird place somewhere between dream and nightmare.
Time thinks she must be dreaming ... but she’s not. Her encounters open the door to new possibilities as a lab in future Toronto changes her life, with the illicit kidnapping causing her to build her own time machine to get back home, even as Time resists the notion of time travel, much less learning about its possibilities.
Unlike most timeslip stories, Shireen Jeejeebhoy departs widely from the norm of routine experience and encounters as modern-day Time struggles with future possibilities that force her to change her life trajectory in unexpected ways.
Abandoned in “The Nasty Time” and forced to make her way, still annoyingly 40 years old, under revised circumstances, Time maintains to those around her that she doesn’t want to cause trouble. But, maybe she does.
Jeejeebhoy crafts a powerful novel about Space, Hope, survival, and wealth that draw readers into milieus not present in other time travel stories. Under her hand, Time becomes fluid, changeable, and an observer of life’s oddities who seeks to connect outward countenances with inner emotional revelation:
What is her life that she feels her very being must be hidden? And behind the isolated woman, what is that girl’s life—for surely she is a girl, a real girl, not a woman being treated like a child and kept down like a child—to want to cover her outward essence in ink and metal pierced into flesh and deadening black leather?
Readers attracted to time travel stories will want to settle back for a wild ride in Time and Space. Replete with unique blends of social and psychological inspections, threads of humor, and insights into youth, aging, and life potential, Time and Space delivers much food for thought in the guise of powerful introspections and creative conundrums that keep readers engaged and guessing about Time’s outcome.
Libraries that add Time and Space to their collections will want to highly recommend it to time travel enthusiasts looking for something different.
Time and SpaceReturn to Index
Virtuality
Derek Cressman
High Frequency Press
9781962931373 $24.95
www.highfrequencypress.com
Virtuality is set in 2065 in Southern California and adopts a high-tech pre-apocalyptic tone as a world replete with technological marvels and possibilities teeters on the edge of complete failure and disaster. With its high reliance on technology come the inevitable hackers who threaten everything, leading four misfits to step up to the seeming impossible task of stopping them.
When Oscar awakens in a San Bernardino convent, he’s immediately cognizant that the “windows in his mind” are gone. The MyndScreen implant that has colored his world is missing. With its absence comes a rush of stimulus about reality that Oscar never received in the virtual world that directed his life and took away all vivid sensations.
The progression and disintegration of “real reality” and visual worlds move ever closer to a brink neither can recover from as those who have long chosen observation over personal involvement find their choices blurred and the results of their decisions stark and damning.
From eating real eggs and learning to chew solid food again to experiencing a brain in the process of reprogramming itself, descriptions vividly capture the nuances of this future and the rigors of living within and moving outside of it.
Libraries seeking dystopian novels about the move from high-tech to real-world experiences will especially appreciate how a variety of characters intersect on a broad playing field of possibilities and problems. This lends the story an immediacy and realistic overtone that embraces psychological revelation, motivations, and frightening possibilities of paradigm-changing actions.
As corporate commercial interests, issues of addiction and recovery, and virtual reality collide, a wide range of characters, from Chase and Vera to Caspian and Luella, find their lives and assumptions challenged and changed.
This transformative novel of the future provides plenty of moral, ethical, and technological fodder for book club discussions, offering much food for thought to individuals who love stories about future quandaries.
VirtualityReturn to Index
Witch
M. Mackinnon
DartFrog Books
978-1965253496 $16.99
Paperback/$3.99
eBook
www.dartfrogbooks.com
Witch, the third book in the Echoes in Time romance series, is highly recommended for prior fans who enjoyed how smoothly Scottish lives and superstitions played out among Fiona and various characters in the previous three books.
This story focuses on how a 1700s curse impacts the present-day world of Adam MacArthur, who confronts a dangerous and impossible liaison with the past.
As in the previous books, Scottish Highlands dialect adds authenticity and flavor to the characters’ encounters. These nicely represent the culture of the Scottish, but create very minimal challenge for readers unfamiliar with these accents:
Duncan Sutherland narrowed his eyes. “Take care who ye’re talkin’ to, son,” he said. “There’s a line ye dinnae want t’ cross.”
Another note is that the story shifts between present and past, but clear chapter headings not only identify settings, but places. This keeps the story both flexible and easily understandable as Adam’s journey forges connections between different times, Scottish locales, and Adam’s world.
A young woman in a bookshop who harbors an odd healing power may be the key to how Adam can confront this curse and not just survive, but thrive. Before that happens, his connection with Màiri blossoms into new possibilities that keep both characters on their toes. Perspectives shift between their worlds and experiences to build a satisfying love story and survival tale.
M. Mackinnon weaves these lives, times, and possibilities in such a manner that no prior familiarity with the previous series titles is required in order to thoroughly appreciate Adam and Màiri’s encounters. Perhaps one reason why the story is so evocative lies in its foundations in real history:
This novel is based on the true story of the last witch of Scotland, Janet Horne. It is not her real name, because that is unknown, so the name given her in history basically means “Jane Doe.” She was, like Doirin Gilchrist in this story, a lady’s maid who came to Dornach with her daughter in the early part of the eighteenth century.
History, magical realism, love, and family ties come together in a satisfyingly original way that introduces characters from the previous Echoes in Time stories in a way that expands their lives and threads of experience.
The result is a vivid foray into other places, cultures, impacts and intentions, and connections, building psychological tension in a way that makes Witch nearly impossible to put down.
Libraries can easily consider it a standalone acquisition, an adjunct to the previous stories, and a top recommendation for readers who enjoy genre-busting blends of history, romance, and cultural exploration.
Filled with many surprises readers won’t see coming, Witch is a winner that both compliments its predecessors and sets the stage for an invigorating new exploration into the roots of love and family connections.
WitchReturn to Index
The Adoption Paradox
Jean Kelley Widner
Ink & Quill
Publishing
978-1-597374-00-0
$32.99 Hardcover/$26.99
Paperback/$9.99
eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Adoption-Paradox-Putting-Perspective/dp/1957374004
The Adoption Paradox: Putting Adoption in Perspective gives voice to a population rarely given perspective and attention in adoption books - adoptees who are impacted long-term not just by their history, but the attitudes and proceedings surrounding adoption.
Jean Kelley Widner interviewed nearly one hundred people including adoptees, birth and adoptive parents as well as other industry professionals, for this book, from domestic and international adoptions to transracial adoptions, to capture all the issues and nuances adoptions hold for everyone involved. This approach not only gives voice to a population too often silenced, but illustrates many surprising issues resulting from the adoption concept and process which don’t appear (or aren’t highlighted properly) in other books.
One example is the legal precedents that deny adoptees access to the information that would answer questions about their birth parents. Widner points out that “The harsh truth is that keeping birth parents powerless and nameless ghosts is convenient.” Her powerful contention of the big impact these processes hold for all involved makes a case for eliminating damaging secrecy and barriers that keep adoptees from better understanding their backgrounds.
She also covers types of adoptions well beyond traditional approaches, pointing out, for one example, that social media is the “wild west” of private adoptions. They can happen on a handshake and involve no legal oversight to assure that prospective adoptive parents actually qualify for the job.
From how adopted children can end up in foster care or in abusive situations to considering all sides of the adoption’s impact on kids, prospective parents, birth parents, and others, Widner creates a dialogue between various forces and factions in the adoptive world. This moves beyond legal precedent and social ideals into the very real nature of impact on adoptive children and their families.
Part history, part biographical sketches, and part social analysis, The Adoption Paradox reveals not one but many interlinked paradoxes throughout the process in an analysis which personalizes the political and idealistic views of adoption, inviting dialogue.
This is why libraries and readers should consider The Adoption Paradox a “must” addition to their collections and reading lists. Certain to spark dialogue, controversy, and insights both within families and among institutions designed to guide and support adoption processes, The Adoption Paradox is a necessary read for anyone who would consider its ultimate impact and better approaches.
Packed with case history examples that personalize all aspects of the adoption process, The Adoption Paradox goes where few adoption guides dare to travel in revealing the underbelly of adoption issues and their ultimate impact. In so doing, it reveals how to mitigate money’s influences on the adoption process as children become commodities and everyone struggles to adapt.
The Adoption ParadoxReturn to Index
An Unrealistic Life
Elena Hiatt Houlihan
Vibrant Images Press
979-8-89587-206-2 $59.97
Hardcover/$18.99 eBook
Website: https://elenahiatthoulihan.com
Ordering: https://elenahiatthoulihan.com/book/
An UnRealistic Life: The Art of Following Your Dream Without Getting a Real Job represents both a departure and a promise. The memoir/example guide format skirts the usual ‘follow your dream’ advice guide which advises the safety of an unfulfilling but steady job while one pursues one’s true vocation on the side (at least, initially) in favor of eschewing the “real job” altogether. The premise is that the “real job” in fact is the dream and obtaining it.
Elena Hiatt Houlihan promises that what seems impossible can, in fact, be reality with only a few adjustments in thinking and approach, which are outlined in her book. This will delight dreamers who want to make their visions reality without diluting them with methods that detract from their efforts or add stress of more work into an already-weighty proposition of realizing one’s dreams and living one’s life.
Chapters delve into the mechanics of self-realization with Houlihan’s own life serving as the backdrop for reflection. This results in a memoir of ups and downs in psychological, artistic, and social success that considers travel, love, mystic and emotional journeys, and the process through which self-realization and success emerge from supportive efforts and new discoveries alike.
The book is visually stunning. The inclusion of vibrant colors and artwork collaged onto the page combine to make a colorful reflection of the artist’s journey. Even the book cover implies that this is an unusual artistic life.
This mixed-genre memoir also includes profiles of creatives living outside the corporate system, as well as themes of travel and dance.
Each chapter represents a foray into territory that will surprise and delight readers, as evidenced by this quote by Rhoda Lurie, an importer of artifacts who has traveled to over 60 countries:
Here in California, I see a lot of wealthy people who have five cars and three houses. For me the moral of the story is: You can only drive one car at a time. You can wear one dress at a time. You can live in one house at a time. If I could afford it, I would help many more people because in a small way you can make a difference in people’s lives. That is really what it is all about: the giving. The giving.
Readers won’t expect such messages for modern times to shine through a memoir that advocates different approaches to living one’s dream life, but these are part of a journey that proves not just inspirational and reflective, but powerful, led by Houlihan’s own life examples.
Librarians and readers seeking memoirs filled with action, adventure, discovery, and positivity will want to choose and recommend An UnRealistic Life to a wide audience. It makes the impossible feel possible, presenting examples and circumstances which will dovetail with a reader’s own innate drive to make life better, move onward and upward, and make their own seemingly impossible dreams possible. This quote is from Elena's journal:
Everybody moves somewhere; they move TO something, like the hermit crabs that do their little dance on the beach scouting out other crabs and eyeing the shells they carry on their backs.
“Oh, I wonder if that shell would fit me? Mine’s a bit small…”
An Unrealistic LifeReturn to Index
The Awakened Body
Ray Walker
Atmosphere Press
979-8891328174
$28.99 Hardcover/$16.99
Paperback/$8.99
eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
The Awakened Body: How I Lost 140 Pounds, Found Myself and Those Magic Shoes surveys an achievement that many struggling with weight loss only dream of - losing a lot of weight and keeping the pounds off. As those who’ve struggled with diets well know, at times this seems an impossible goal.
But one surprise in Ray Walker’s exploration is that becoming thin shouldn’t be the end-all goal of weight loss, but the side benefit of better health and identifying the obstacles that have created a disconnect between body mass and well-being.
Walker’s focus is not just on her weight loss and its process, but her overall path to total health - of which weight is just a part. The language she chooses is part of a transformation in which exercise becomes “joyful movement,” favorite foods become rare treats instead of binge eating choices, and cravings are reduced by purposeful taste bud changes.
Indeed, “purposeful” is a key to approaching both this book and Walker’s insights about diet, exercise, and a better lifestyle, in general. Emotional insights, keys to unexpected choices such as “mindful hydration,” and experiences that held direct connections to attitude and eating adjustments are detailed via precise, hopeful descriptions that encourage readers to consider the same pathways towards not just becoming slimmer, but happier:
Overcoming food addiction, silencing the body bully, and reconnecting with my body’s true needs have transformed not only my health but my entire life. As I embraced fresh, whole foods, the physical weight melted away, along with the emotional armor I had carried for decades.
The process of changing one’s entire relationship to food and life is not an easy one. Walker details the possibilities, pitfalls, and potent results during the course of a journey that ultimately offers hope and resolution for those who struggle with their weight, bodily image, and life.
Libraries and readers will want to acquire The Awakened Body for its promise of a different approach to living, using it to identify and understand health successes while embracing new activities and attitudes that inject joy into life.
Filled with the potential for transformation, The Awakened Body is a blueprint for achievement that requires only a willing mind and action to prove successful. The ‘how’ and ‘where’ is nicely covered in a tool that promises to deliver results on more than just a weight loss scale.
The Awakened BodyReturn to Index
A Boy with a Torn Shirt
Diane Green
DCG Books
9798291954881 $12.99
www.DCGBooks.com
A Boy with a Torn Shirt is a novel that will appeal to a wide age range, from young adults to adult readers interested in stories about resilience, confronting violence and stepping up to be a young hero, and handling the aftermath of difficult choices.
Ten-year-old Christian sits in a principal’s office for fighting a bully, but the attempted shooting that changes his life and those around him becomes the impetus for further anguish and struggle after media attention fades and Chris is left with the aftermath of a traumatic encounter.
Thought-provoking passages delve into the mind of this young hero as he initially considers what he could have done differently only to realize that, really, there was no choice in the matter:
The boy thought about his mother, would she praise his action or tell him he’d risked his life in a situation too dangerous; that he should have fallen to the floor. But a gun shoots upward, straight-ahead, or downward.
As peers and others around Chris struggle with their own increasingly distant but still devastating memories of that horrible day, it becomes evident that the PTSD element of survival extends far beyond the circle of those immediately involved.
Diane Green takes the time to inspect the psyches and long-term effects of a shooting event on everyone, from children to adults. She reveals the logic, survival tactics, and different forms of resolution embraced by different characters, weaving all into a fabric of recovery and discovery to make A Boy with a Torn Shirt outstanding, intimate, and revealing.
Topics of healing, forgiveness, and moving on thus assume a far more personal, powerful countenance than in most accounts of shootings, packing in value with brevity and allowing each character’s perspective to come to light and contrast with others.
Libraries may choose A Boy with a Torn Shirt for young readers, but will want to see that the story is not limited to YA audiences, but receives due attention from book clubs. These audiences, from psychology groups interested in the process of survival and recovery to individuals interested in the social and individual impacts of guns and violence, will relish the many discussion opportunities.
All these audiences, of any age, will find A Boy with a Torn Shirt hard-hitting and revealing.
A Boy with a Torn ShirtReturn to Index
Jesus Who?
S.M. Tesin
Independently Published
979-8291725177 $19.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FKRSRK4L
Jesus Who? is the powerful memoir of a lifelong atheist who has an epiphany that changes her life, leading her to sell everything and embark on a quest for God. What she discovers spiritually and emotionally creates a memoir rich in blend of cross-country encounters and cultural revelation as religious concerns blend with a foray into unfamiliar physical and mental territory.
S.M. Tesin excels in creating a saga that traverses into unexpected territory, including issues of homelessness and the experience of living hand-to-mouth on the streets:
People in San Francisco had money—lots of money—and a few were very generous with their fortune. Even though I never asked or panhandled, people would walk straight up to me and hand me twenties. I didn't spend it but kept the money. I had a feeling that God would be using it for something soon. (I’ve learned that it's best to let God spend our money. Left to our own devices, it usually isn't good...)
Many surprises unfold in the course of Tesin’s journey; not the least of which are the reactions of Christians when she describes her ongoing visions of Jesus:
That vision was no surprise. It was a reassuring confirmation that good will triumph over evil, even now. Why can't people have that much faith? I wondered and grieved. Enough faith to smile and know that the Lord has us, even in our trials and tribulations, and even unto death. The vision of the soldiers stayed with me for weeks. I shared the vision with a few members of my church, but they reacted as if they wanted to reach into their pocket and offer up a business card to their shrink but were too embarrassed to do so.
From her realization about false churches and spiritual leaders to how God chooses her path and encounters so that she can continue to learn and grow, Tesin’s experiences are couched in many different kinds of leaps of faith. This will intrigue Christian readers as well as those who don’t believe in Jesus or God, but are interested in memoirs of how both can enter into and change life.
From applied prophecy to life on the streets in different communities, the story incorporates many eye-opening, revealing moments with an eye to following how faith, love, and social convention intersect, clash, and merge.
Jesus often speaks through the author’s experiences and encounters. This lends further depth and difference to her story as she confronts police officers who try to push her into shelters and off the streets.
Libraries interested in books that capture conversions to faith, homelessness and street living, and experiences that intersect belief with social issues will find Jesus Who? especially suitable for Christian readers interested in ministries that embrace community challenges and disparate personalities.
S.M. Tesin’s ability to intersect and weave biographical, spiritual, and social revelation makes her book a candid, raw, winning story of discovery and growth. It will reach a wide audience, from Christians and non-believers to those interested in homeless issues and experiences and life journeys that reflect efforts to change.
Jesus Who?Return to Index
Life Hikes
Renée Brown Harmon, MD
Many Hats Publishing
978-1-7347917-3-0 $16.95
Paperback/$6.99 eBook
Website: www.reneeharmon.com
Ordering: https://a.co/d/8xAcuvM
Life Hikes: Walking Through Loss to What Comes After comes from a physician who lost her husband to Alzheimer’s. Here she chronicles the progression of grief in a memoir consisting of three sections: “Beginning Again,” “Moving Onward,” and “Coming Home to Myself.” Though her story follows familiar trails and routes of discovery and recovery, Renée Brown Harmon links these progressions to overall life balance and transition points. This allows readers to progress through life decisions and community involvement via a physical hike accompanied by mental redirection.
Dr. Harmon’s reflections on her life’s progression, her relationship before and after husband Harvey’s diagnosis and ultimate demise, and the touchstones of values and foundations are engrossingly revealed:
I was reminded by these memories that the richness of my particular life before Harvey’s diagnosis was molded by my need for balance. This was most evident in my professional and family life. Harvey and I, as individuals and as a couple, achieved balance in our work and home lives because it was a priority. Much has been written about the work-life balance, and few are able to attain it, but because Harvey and I valued each other, our careers, and our family in the same manner, we were able to do it.
Even though a good part of the book is about the physical effort of hiking and participating in hiking circles and community, even when Dr. Harmon is describing nature, readers gain a sense of the bigger picture:
While I’m hiking, especially if it’s a narrow path or uneven terrain, I have to keep my eyes on the ground in front of me. That’s when I spot tiny insects, flowers, or interesting rocks. Every now and then I’ll see a turtle, a toad, or another unexpected animal. This is my “present mind.” Even while on the trail, attending to the ground at my feet, I do look ahead to see where the trail is heading, scanning for obstacles and a trail blaze. I also like to turn around occasionally to see what the trail looks like from that perspective—how steep the ascent or descent was, for example. If I keep my eyes trained only on the trail, I miss things. Important things.
From being marked for life by the Alzheimer’s experience and caregiving and finding paths not just onward, but upward, Life Hikes should be given to caregivers in all kind of situations - especially those who have just experienced the finality of loss.
Libraries will find Life Hikes quite a different approach to grief and recovery which deserves not only inclusion in their collections, but top recommendation to readers who look for more than another memoir steeped in the pain of loss.
Dr. Harmon’s efforts to grow in new directions is simply fascinating, and is highly recommended reading not just for those overcoming their own grief, but anyone looking to hone an upward trajectory in life:
I am marked, but I will continue to grow and reach for the sun, transforming and adapting myself as my circumstances call for it. There will always be a need to mold myself to fit whatever life’s journey has for me.
Life HikesReturn to Index
Now What? How to Ride the
Tsunami of
Change
Dr. Mark van Rijmenam
Dean Publishing
978-0-6489386-9-9
$29.99 Hardcover/$19.99
Paperback/$9.99
eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Now-What-Ride-Tsunami-Change/dp/0648938689
Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change is about navigating transition times in the best possible manner. Part of that wild ride is understanding what types of changes are likely to enter into the picture to change daily life, and that’s where Dr. van Rijmenam’s futuristic thinking comes into play.
Readers might anticipate this would mean an idealistic dialogue about possibilities, but Now What? cements its propositions and considerations in a blend of historic precedent, true-life stories of successful adaptation, and his own experiences transforming his life.
Higher-level thinking is blended into nearly every facet of this journey, offering much food for thought as to why these times differ from any other in the past:
At its core, the age of exponential technologies carries an essential truth: every breakthrough contains duality. AI can democratize knowledge but deepen societal inequalities. Biotechnology can cure diseases while opening Pandora’s box of ethical dilemmas. Quantum computing can unlock new scientific horizons, but it could also dismantle our most trusted encryption systems. Like the Rainbow Serpent, these forces create, destroy, empower, constrain, unite, and divide.
From the convergence of systems that empower or disempower individuals to paradigm shifts in teaching, knowledge bases, social and technological disruption, and and the author’s WAVE framework for cultivating awareness, aligning with change, and moving forward in a revised manner, chapters offer a blend of inspection and action that is enlightening and a force in and of itself.
Also unique to Dr. van Rijneman’s approach is his peppering of what he calls “Tidal Shots” throughout, which pair the latest QR code technology with insights designed to streamline the information and reading process:
TidalShots, concise bursts of clarity of around 280 characters that you can easily share on social media by scanning each QR code. They’re a kind of wave-surfing technique for your reading experience. You can skim them first for a quick mental hook or return to them after the chapter to consolidate what you’ve learned. Think of these TidalShots as a form of shore beacon: short, powerful signposts in the sea of ideas.
Readers interested in self-help and social inspection books that show exactly why and how to adopt more fluid thinking will relish the many tips and observations that make Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change unique.
Not only is it a powerful reassessment of humanity as a whole and individual places in a rapidly changing world, but it provides the toolkits, approaches, and revised thinking keys essential to better understanding life and one’s place in the world.
Librarians will want to especially highly recommend Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change to book clubs interested in cultivating vivid discussions of future thinking and living.
Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of ChangeReturn to Index
Pueblos Mágicos: A
Traveler's Guide to
Mexico's Hidden Treasures
Chuck Burton
Bayou City Press
978-1-951331-12-2 $21.99 Paperback / $9.99
eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Pueblos-Mágicos-Travelers-Mexicos-Treasures/dp/1951331125">
Travelers to Mexico who are interested in pursuing a historical and cultural review of the country before they leave will find Pueblos Mágicos: A Traveler's Guide to Mexico's Hidden Treasures just the ticket for a precursor to a successful trip that heightens understanding of Mexico’s history and hidden tourism opportunities.
Here lies a route less followed through an authentic Mexican experience that avoids either the well-beaten tourist paths of convention or the latest hotspots of the youthful independent traveler, choosing instead the places and experiences where “...it is unusual to see a single light-skinned foreign face in many of them. Such is the irresistible magnetism of modern tourism: A few places get all the publicity, and the crowds follow.”
Those who would venture into places of magic and historical authenticity will relish how Pueblos Mágicos suggests places that have managed to retain their charm even under the onslaught of tourism, such as Palenque:
The modern town is a nice, leafy place to hang out, with lots of crafts for sale and wonderful, fresh food. It is as pleasant a place to stay as any, particularly since it has become quite prosperous. It’s just no longer authentically rural and forgotten by the world.
Chuck Burton presents his personal wanderings through these areas, comments on how they have changed and been revised by tourism and the outside world, and considers the ways in which they have managed to retain a sense of attraction and authenticity beyond the forces which have brought them into the modern world.
Of equal interest are the reflections on “places which no longer exist” from the old Lonely Planet guidebook model of lesser-developed nations.
Presenting as both a guidebook and a travelogue of the author’s journeys through Mexico, many of the dialogues contrast this route with other nations and travel experiences:
Magdalena is an eye-pleasing anomaly tucked away in the monotonous desert, anchoring a sudden and surprising oasis of lush greenery. On a small scale, it reminds me of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. That region is among the driest spots in the world...
Destination visitors seeking a take-along tote also will appreciate Burton’s specific directions for navigating these routes:
If you are a nature-lover like me, this is a fine town in which to spend a couple of days. Likewise, if you are a seeker of the kind of authenticity not offered by touristy venues like Tepoztlán. Overall rating: 6 (Higher, really, if you love trail hikes.)
In summary, anyone with an interest in visiting Mexico and exploring its smaller towns and cultural attractions needs Pueblos Mágicos. It captures the nation’s magic in two ways: though author Burton’s experiences and his insights on how best to travel to get the most from a Mexican encounter.
Libraries that choose Pueblos Mágicos for its collection will find it colorful both in description and the photos peppered throughout, and will want to highly recommend this book to anyone who contemplates venturing from the beaten tourist paths to destinations in towns that are more than a bit out of the ordinary.
Pueblos Mágicos: A Traveler's Guide to Mexico's Hidden TreasuresReturn to Index
Ballerina Garden
Once Upon a Dance
Once Upon a Dance Publishing
979-8-89994-003-3
$24.99 Hardcover/$9.99
Paperback/$3.99
eBook
Website: https://onceuponadance.com/
Ordering:
https://www.amazon.com/Ballerina-Garden-Blooming-Celebration-Inspiration/dp/B0FKNGWSG3
Ballerina Garden: The Art of Blooming: A Celebration of Dance joins the expanding picture book series Ballerina Moments to explore connections between flowers, growth, and dance movements. It presents the blossoming of dancers and flowers, drawing connections between the care of flowers and the human body with evocative, colorful illustrations that enhance these life lessons.
Aspiring young dancers receive important insights and connections. These are delivered in a gentle fashion that celebrates nature’s artistry, unique personal expression in dance and growth processes, and how flowers and dance can convey cultural expression and capture meaning.
From how moving in harmony with nature holds seasonal cycles that plants mimic to how dancers and flowers participate in creating collective beauty, these wide-ranging and lovely thoughts will best be enjoyed by adults and children who work together to understand the deeper significance of creative performance and life meanings.
Your performance, like a flower in full bloom, can spread joy and positivity.
Such reflections will earn Ballerina Garden an important place in any young dancer’s library, on the shelves of adults seeking to read and discuss dance topics with the young, and in libraries where nature and dance are of interest.
Its lovely dance of colorful illustrations and thought-provoking messages intersects life and nature with creative aspiration in a manner not normally seen in picture book for preteens, giving young readers a lovely, encouraging guide for thriving in the art of dance and nature appreciation alike.
Ballerina GardenReturn to Index
Finding Alineade
Mary Walerak
Kirk House Publishes
978-1-968428-10-5 $17.95
www.kirkhousepublishers.com
Finding Alineade is a middle grade fantasy about young Charlie, who is poised to set out on a journey of discovery that will reveal her abilities, truths about her friendships and her enemies, and insights that she likely will carry with her into life.
People have always said Charlie is a dreamer, but her capacity for dreaming big drives her into a bigger picture world when she journeys to Alineade carrying with her some major differences in perception that set her apart from her peers and make her stand out in the world:
Everyone seemed to have all the answers, but I just couldn’t always see them. At least I didn’t always see them in the way everyone else felt comfortable with.
As she tries to answer whether she is extraordinary or a mere oddity, Charlie brings her friends along for a curious ride just as author Mary Walerak brings readers into the excitement of Charlie’s stepping into her strengths and running into a powerful new experience:
That moment was magic. The decision was made. She was all in and willing to take chances and learn everything she could. It felt a little like the first time on a skateboard. She knew she would fall. There would be bumps and bruises, some worse than others, but what a feeling of freedom when she started to get the hang of it! Her confidence grew then, and she could feel it growing now. The only real difference was she wasn’t following what others did before her. This time she was an explorer. She would be the first to walk her own unique path. No one had ever been there before, and that made this journey all the more exciting, exhilarating, scary, and “fun!” Charlie took off running. She couldn’t wait to find her first adventure.
Powered by a magic cloak and perceptions those around her don’t seem to cultivate, Charlie experiences new things which are “exactly her idea of heaven,” stays focused on her ultimate destination, and notes the beauty and illusions of her world as her heart begins to grow and open.
Middle grade readers who choose Finding Alineade for leisure pursuit will find its incorporation of magic and emotional growth and realizations to be compelling and eye-opening. It’s the kind of story that lends well to classroom discussion and middle grade book group inspection, as well as library acquisition and recommendation.
With its wonderful, invigorating survey of novel ideas about support systems and new experiences, Charlie and her adventure comes to life in a thought-provoking, vivid manner that middle grade readers will find extraordinarily compelling.
Finding AlineadeReturn to Index
The FingerNail Moon
Darrell Spencer and Greg
McKenzie
Atmosphere Press
979-8891327894
$28.99 Hardcover/$16.99
Paperback/$7.99
eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
Picture book readers ages 3-8 will enjoy The FingerNail Moon, a vivid story of young Maddy’s musings about the crescent “fingernail moon” which looks like a slice of fingernail in the sky.
Maddy loves science with a passion, but this doesn’t prevent her from dreaming about the impossible, such as going to or hanging from the moon she observes in her night sky. Her love for the moon leads to her desire to educate her fellow classmates about its wonders:
Maddy liked the moon because of its many different shapes and sizes. She was even able to recite the eight lunar phases of the moon to her classmates.
One night, a dream brings the beloved fingernail moon so close to her window, she can actually touch it. And so she does. What transpires is the stuff of not just dreams, but amazing possibilities as Maddy’s moon transforms to become a real, talking character that invites her out for a lunar ride.
Darrell Spencer and Greg McKenzie weave celestial facts into fancy in this warm story of a young girl’s fascination with the world outside her window.
Sarah Gledhill provides inviting, full-page color illustrations to embellish Maddy’s moon and her adventure, with the visual attraction making the story especially compelling.
Libraries and adults who read books to kids will find the intersection of scientific facts, youthful fancy and enthusiasm, and interplanetary adventure to be appealing, fun, and educational, all in one.
The FingerNail MoonReturn to Index
How Flowers Got Their Colors
Scott Sollers
Mascot Kids
979-8891384637 $19.95
https://www.amazon.com/How-Flowers-Got-Their-Colors/dp/B0FC1XT5BS
How Flowers Got Their Colors is a picture book story packed with vivid illustrations by Alejandro Echavez. It tells of a peaceful young shepherd who resides in a valley that comes alive with color every time it rains.
Once upon a time there were only three colors in that valley: the green of grass, the blue of water and sky, and yellow for the sun. Everything else was white. What changed?
Adults who choose this engaging story for read-aloud to the very young will delight at how Scott Sollers moves a shepherd bored by his largely black-and-white environment to observe all the colors of the rainbow, tackling how inject that observation into his everyday, mundane, colorless world.
His journey to where the rainbow touches the ground in hopes of catching some of its colors to bring back into his world makes for an engaging tale of wonder, perseverance, and the frustrations involved in chasing rainbows and dreams.
Between a helpful, wise neighbor who gives him a clue about more effective rainbow-catching to an innovative new approach to solving his seeming impossible problem, the story guides young readers through colorful creative thinking processes.
Libraries and adults seeking stories that are thought-provoking, engaging, fun, and perfect for cultivating interactive discussions will find How Flowers Got Their Colors a delightful foray into new possibilities. It will encourage kids to not only enjoy the fantasy solution to the shepherd’s problem, but the process by which he solves the challenge of a colorless world by contributing something unique to its evolution.
Inspirational and whimsical, this adventure is perfect for a wide audience of young dreamers and doers and their supportive adults.
How Flowers Got Their ColorsReturn to Index
Magnolia and the Gang Save
the Day
George J. Linsenmeyer, III
Atmosphere Press
979-8891326736
$27.99
Hardcover/$15.99 Paperback/$7.99 eBook
www.atmospherepress.com
Magnolia and the Gang Save the Day is a picture book story illustrated by Artsoluki that opens with a perfect day in which Peter Pelican has not a care in the world. Because he prefers to dine on healthier sea oats rather than fish, his friends include fish such as Sammy the Sea Bass.
When the two pals meet, they realize that neither has seen mutual friend Kevin the Crab in quite some time. In fact, as a circle of friends gather, they find out that nobody has seen Kevin. Of the sea group, only Peter can fly, and so he embarks on a journey to locate their friend.
Peter finds Kevin, but there’s a problem only the entire gang can solve. It takes a village (or, in this case, a pod) of sea friends to make a very long, dangerous journey to where Kevin is trapped, and to rescue him so he can return to their lives.
George J. Linsenmeyer, III presents an evocative story of group problem-solving, working together, helping friends, and creatively tackling the impossible.
Kids will love the colorful, large-size sea creatures that occupy this underwater world and face an unusual dilemma, while adults will appreciate a simple story which lends not only to read-aloud pleasure, but interactions with the very young about cooperatively and creatively working on big problems.
Elementary-level libraries that choose Magnolia and the Gang Save the Day for their collections will find its joyful, colorful appeal perfect for kids who love sea creatures and problem-solving tales.
Magnolia and the Gang Save the DayReturn to Index
The Mountain of Dempsey
Molehill
Julie Stroebel Barichello
Stroebel Independent Books
978-1-7330541-0-2 $10.99
www.juliestroebelbarichello.com
The Mountain of Dempsey Molehill outlines how five young Molehill family members transform the nature of staid Pickettstown through actions and choices that not only challenge their small town, but their father’s bid to become its mayor.
For the first twelve years of the young narrator’s life, everything stays the same. The Molehill kids decide to break this mold of familiarity and boredom via plots that embrace mischief-making. This challenges their town to respond with new responses that unexpectedly change everything.
Middle grade readers interested in a tale of hijinks, family dynamics, and creative kids who cause trouble in different ways will relish the zany situations and personalities, from adult to child, that interact on a decidedly uneven playing field of creative problem solving.
Julie Stroebel Barichello crafts images of townspeople and small-town politics which are delightfully humorous in their revelations and insights:
Mrs. Vivian Baxter was present (presumably serving her “secret family recipe” cheesy potato casserole, which tastes suspiciously similar to the Pillsbury recipe), and she took that moment as an opportunity to degrade Harwood Molehill as a parent. She tattled to the monsignor that she had seen the Molehill children trick-or-treating.
Barichello injects a special brand of wry tongue-in-cheek humor into interactions between the Molehill kids and other townspeople:
Mr. Benson nodded. He lifted his camera for Mom to see. “Is it alright with you if I take a picture of your kids playing on their snow mountain?”
“It’s a hill,” I corrected. “Mole Hill.”
Emotional overlays of family support systems and connections also add value to the escapades:
I was torn on what to do first. Apologize to Mrs. Bliss? Try to fix the fallen curtains? Offer to help round up the YH members? But one look in the living room made it clear what the first step was. I was the big brother, and standing there small and miserable was my crying little sister.
The result is an engaging middle grade story that embraces family and small-town dynamics with a flare for the dramatic and a series of unpredictable encounters that kids will find thoroughly absorbing.
Libraries will also want to recommend this story to middle grade classroom reading groups, who will be interested in discussions ranging from the devices of humor in literature to how a small-town family grows, adapts, and embraces new possibilities.
The Mountain of Dempsey MolehillReturn to Index
Orphanland
Lauren Fischer
Mission Point Press
978-1-965278-77-2
$23.95 Hardcover/$16.95
Paperback/$5.95
eBook
https://www.missionpointpress.com/books/orphanland
Orphanland captures the children living at the Southern Ohio Children’s Home through the eyes of eleven-year-old Willa, who maintains that the Home is not a bad place, but a sanctuary which is “...out of a fairy tale, dead mothers and all.”
It’s a place of sad stories, belonging, and friendships that evolve between Willa, Kacey, and Justin. Their stint at the Home fosters unexpected connections that are threatened by the too-real possibility that their sanctuary will close.
Part of the magic of this place is how those who run it are sensitive to youngsters’ emotions and attempts to reconcile past and present:
Mercy would always let me have my thoughts, the same way she and Miss Samantha let me have my feelings.
The contrast between the Orphan’s Home and the Midlands Academy reformatory school is stark. As Willa considers her future and the impact of her choices and perceptions, she brings readers into a milieu in which an overburdened institution, a nonbinary new resident who’s keen kicked out of the house by their parents, and hidden history from secret diaries introduce the kids (and the adults around them) to new, sometimes frightening possibilities.
The usual story of a home for orphans being abusive and its residents laden with sorrow thus morphs into bigger picture thinking as Willa and her friends confront very adult concerns, reflect on new options, and embrace healing and a sense of home that comes from unexpected connections with not just peers, but adults:
“Maybe I don’t want to admit you’re growing up, Willa. None of us can help it, even if we’d rather childhood lasted forever.” Mercy hugged me, which was nice, because when you get a hug from a person who is not a hugger, it feels more important than other hugs.
Upper middle grade and teen readers will find Willa’s story features modern-day concerns, such as drugs and social conditions, while placing Willa and her friends amidst a storm of controversy that is as much about a sense of place and home as it is about safety, recovery, and growth.
Libraries seeking a YA story about orphans which takes a very different approach to its subject will find Orphanland evocatively thought-provoking.
Children’s reading circles, especially those who have absorbed other books where foster homes and orphanages are depicted, will find the contrast lies as much in complex, realistic personalities and situations as it is in showing how an orphan’s sanctuary may not always be a questionable situation, but rests on the intentions and kindness of adults capable of redirecting lives.
OrphanlandReturn to Index
Shaila’s Dance
Mohini Dasari
GFB
978-1-967510-02-3 $9.99
eBook
www.girlfridayproductions.com
Anokhi was adopted from India when she was a baby, so Idaho is the only home she’s ever known. Nonetheless, her visions of an exotic Indian dancer keep her connected to her homeland with a puzzle that moves from dreams into a life in which she feels different from anyone she knows, and somewhat disconnected from either American or Indian culture.
When her best friend drops out of high school, it feels like the perfect time to find a way back to India to uncover her roots and the truth about the beautiful dancer she’s dreamed of all her life.
Wound into this story of cross-cultural encounter and identity are insights into interracial adoptions and perceptions of loving families which, delivered in the first person through Anokhi’s eyes, are often startling and raw:
“Abandoned.” The word felt harsh. Sasha had told me my parents had loved me, had wanted the best for me. Calling me, among my other small playmates, “abandoned” felt like a punch in the chest. I knew she didn’t mean it, but it hurt all the same. To imagine my birth parents abandoning me. I had never blamed them before, because I didn’t know them. But when she said it, I winced. I wondered again, as I had over a decade ago, whether they had left me because they hadn’t loved me.
As Anokhi questions whether her visions of Shaila are real or illusions and probes her past and its connections to her present-day world, readers follow her to India in a journey replete with new opportunities as Jasmine Aunty and others support her journey in various ways.
Not only India but its classical dance springs to life to form an intriguing backdrop of artistic wonder as Anokhi finds ways to move to her own beat and reconcile her disjointed identity.
Libraries interested in novels which bring India to life, probe the underlying concerns and dreams of adoptees from foreign nations, and survey the choices of families both loving and absent will welcome how vividly and evocatively Shaila’s Dance weaves various themes together.
Young adult to adult readers will appreciate how India’s culture and, especially, its world of dance comes to life under Mohini Dasari’s hand. They also will relish how Anokhi’s story brings with it a powerful and realistic examination of Indian culture and affairs which comes to life as vividly as the characters in her novel. All these elements make Shaila’s Dance highly recommendable reading for a wide audience.
Shaila’s DanceReturn to Index
Successful Life Skills for
Teens
Chad K. Smith, MBA
Growth Mindset Publishing
978-1964831107
$27.99 Hardcover/$17.99
Paperback/$.99
eBook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FJ6C3GVQ
Successful Life Skills for Teens is directed not to adults who would guide teens, but to teens who would guide themselves through life by better understanding the process of building and applying self-worth to life encounters.
Chad K. Smith sees building courage, confidence, and critical thinking skills as key to navigating life obstacles in the best possible way. His book addresses many common psyche-building routines and challenges with an eye to helping teens hone the best of their abilities in a myriad of developmental ways.
From understanding the importance of social skills to effective time management, tackling finances and money, and delving into decision-making foundations, this book guides teens through the process of identifying the skillsets needed to strengthen their psyches, become better persons, and apply better knowledge and savvy to life.
Successful Life Skills for Teens holds a wide-ranging footprint that moves from building psychological stamina to digital literacy, setting goals and exploring career options, becoming a leader, managing stress, and more. Each chapter’s insights are delivered with specific guidelines for achievement that embraces a better understanding of how society and routines work, possible setbacks and how to turn them into strengths, and more.
Overall attitudes towards life and adversity are thus built on the foundation of psychological savvy and strength, allowing teens to assemble the building blocks of success through not just revised thinking, but applied problem-solving.
Adults looking to guide teens into new adulthood will thus find Successful Life Skills for Teens not only specific and wide-ranging, but filled with discussion points suitable for counseling, group inspection, and dynamic discussions that can unfold on many different levels.
Another big plus is the chatty tone Smith cultivates, which results in the delivery of these insights in a manner which educates rather than overwhelms:
Now, before we get started with this chapter, I don’t want you to panic. You’re not supposed to have it all figured out just yet, although I’m sure it’s sometimes felt like that if you’ve ever had a careers advisor come in to talk to your class at school. This stage of your life is all about exploring the options and thinking about what you might like to do.
The process of developing a positive, proactive mindset is not an easy one. Many similar-sounding titles don’t actually guide, but admonish. There is a distinction between these approaches, and that makes all the difference between creating a book which is user-friendly and encouraging, versus one which lectures and teaches by rebuke.
Successful Life Skills for Teens is one of the most essential guides an adult can acquire for a teen, placing the process of growth, empowerment, and better choices squarely in their hands by encouraging more mindful considerations of life options, choices, and their consequences.
Libraries, parents, counselors, and a wide group of those who interact with teens will want to place Successful Life Skills for Teens at the top of their lists of recommended reading for encouraging better life skills.
Successful Life Skills for TeensReturn to Index
The Unusual Fart
Marin
Fontreal
9781989661659
Hardcover:
$24.99/Paperback:
$16.99/eBook: $2.99/Audiobook: $2.99
https://fontreal.com
The Unusual Fart is a picture book for ages 5-8 that tells of Earl, a special child in a small town whose farts are unlike anyone else’s.
His ability earns him envy and insult from the other children, so Earl runs away from home and makes a wish on a star -that he’ll be loved for what he is.
Wish granted! But, be careful what you wish for.
The magical butterfly that grants Earl’s wish also sends him on a wild adventure, during which Earl begins to realize what he had, what he’s lost, and that, just maybe, his unusual ability was something that could have enhanced what he already still is - unique.
Marin creates a magical fantasy adventure whose underpinnings offer messages about being gentle, generous, adaptive, and fun. The focus on color, music, and transformative experiences lends excitement to the plot, making it perfect for read-aloud enjoyment and ages beyond its target audience.
The butterfly’s wisdom is especially inviting and thought-provoking, and will spark discussions among families and reading circles:
“The problem is not that you are different; the problem is they are all the same.”
With its lively notes of music, art, and insight, The Unusual Fart is highly recommended. Its underlying insights about diversity and acceptance is just the message that needs widespread deliverance and discussion in today’s world.
The Unusual FartReturn to Index