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Donovan's Bookshelf

October 2023 Review Issue


Table Of Contents

Prime Picks
Fantasy & Sci Fi
Literature
Biography & Autobiography
Mystery & Thrillers
Novels
Reviewer's Choice
Young Adult/Childrens


Fantasy & Sci Fi

 

I Need a Hero
Ron Clamp
Warren Publishing
978-1-957723-84-6        
$33.99 Hardcover/$20.95 Paper/$4.99 ebook
www.warrenpublishing.net 

I Need a Hero is a novel about secret space missions, alien invasion, and unlikely heroes. These move from terrestrial duties to extraordinary assignments that test their abilities  on a mission that leads them as far from home as they can get. 

Called to move from Arizona salvaging work to undermining a space supply line feeding the Obsidian invasion, Commander Charlie Jackson, his wife Maddie, and his brother Jacob find themselves not retiring from conflict, but entering into its heart. 

Maddie's objection lies not in only her husband's best interests, but also revolves around a secret from her past that threatens to be exposed by his actions. 

For Jacob, the mysterious second mission underlying the reason for their deployment and their apparent and secretive new jobs also threatens his carefully construed world—including his relationship with Maddie as the only other person she really trusts. 

With Charlie so far away and Maddie remaining on Earth stuck in a different form of hell, how can Charlie prove a hero to anyone, much less Maddie? The circumstances and forces that pull them apart seem limitless and all-powerful, but Charlie must find a way to reach her, while Maddie makes a series of impossible decisions that lead her increasingly down the rabbit hole of no return. 

Ron Clamp crafts a revealing, action-packed military sci-fi read that bases its tension as much on psychological realizations and developments as on physical clashes. This adds a satisfying blend of strong characterization and examinations of motives to add depth and authenticity to its characters as they strive to participate in and create lives that ultimately lead to peace and reconnection. 

Clamp bills his story a "novel." It will indeed attract a wider audience than the usual military sci-fi read (which tends to overly focus on physical confrontations), but I Need a Hero is as much about the nature of love, heroism, and decision-making influences as it is about confronting external forces of division and adversity. 

Libraries and readers seeking a story that transcends its military sci-fi roots to engage readers from other genres will find I Need a Hero thought-provoking and engrossing. 

I Need a Hero

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Overlord
Eric James Fullilove
Atmosphere Press
978-1-63988-961-7         $18.99
www.atmospherepress.com 

Overlord is set in the near future and postulates a scenario in which climate change is not a future possibility, but an immediate reality. 

In this world, rising seas not only lead to mass evacuations due to melting polar ice and a concurrent drop in the North American tectonic plate, but challenge the efforts and survival of salvager Madison Cervantes and her crew, who are trying to put out an oil rig fire that threatens to ignite the entire Gulf. 

There are monsters in the water, there's fire in the air, and impossible trials stem from nature which lead to literally being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea as a damaged ecosystem fights back. 

Other characters also struggle with vastly changed conditions—even survivors such as Devin “Reaper” Delacorte, whose Cleveland roots and military stint both lend to traits that make him a valuable team player. 

Eric James Fullilove tackles social as well as climate change issues in his story. These are embedded in each character's background and reactions to threat: 

"Reaper Delacorte climbed down from his truck, barely conscious that he was armed and entering a zone with lots of people who might not appreciate an armed black man rolling up in their midst in anything other than handcuffs." 

Set in 2028 and charged with the social and political turmoil that buffet the world in the wake of repeated climate disasters, Overlord features a tone of familiarity to current conditions and times that makes it a realistic sci-fi exploration cli-fi fans will find attractive. 

As political and social strife ignite, readers are presented with thought-provoking confrontations between and within people that lead to especially vivid scenarios of transformation, survival, and demise. 

The nonstop action juxtaposes nicely with richer questions posed by such impacts, making for a story in which characters from disparate backgrounds find themselves both united and (in other circumstances) divided by the forces of nature that emerge from the background to take center stage in their survival attempts. 

The result is a grim, heart-grabbing story of the impact of climate change on many levels. Overlord will more than engage readers and libraries interested in cli-fi that makes them think about choices, the future, and the role climate plays in ordinary and extraordinary human affairs. 

Overlord

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The Pystead Group: Daring to Be
James Pryor
The Techner Group LLC
979-8-9873257-1-1                $15.00
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-pystead-group-james-pryor/1143734830?ean=9798987325711 

The Pystead Group: Daring to Be is set in 2052, but the America represented here feels frighteningly similar to modern times. Here, citizens are buffeted by both dishonest government figures and special interests. 

Cognitive scientist Philip Russell takes on a new job at the mysterious Pystead Group in the West Indies. He may have bitten off more than he can chew, because the company has high-level, high-tech enemies—including the U.N., which wishes to thwart the Group's research and goals. 

Meanwhile, Philip faces his own conundrums in cultivating romances with two very different women and fielding his shifting place in a community whose advanced technologies hold both promise and threat. 

James Pryor crafts a vigorous, action-filled story that attracts on many levels of political, psychological, and social observation. As Philip questions whether one dinner date can lead to romance, if new friends-with-benefits can become something greater than their initial attraction, and if his life can evolve concurrently with personal and political forces buffeting it with hidden special interests, readers receive a compelling tale. 

From a woman who harbors a dual personality to the secrets Philip must overcome if he is to realize his real role and life in The Pystead Group, readers receive satisfyingly philosophical-laced inspections throughout the story. These revelations lead them to consider the true impacts of technology, social planning, and political manipulation. Questions of delusion and reality interplay in a tense survey that proves invitingly complex and just as alluring with its entertainment focus. 

Pryor's vivid descriptions capture much food for thought during Philip's process of realization: 

“It’s the many unknowable future variations on life that con­cern me. Beyond contemplating, imagining, perhaps fraught with perilous variations when vital secrets are involved. 

The Pystead Group: Daring to Be is a compelling futuristic story of survival on different levels that will prove especially attractive to libraries seeking sci-fi reads that are character-driven social examinations of self and relationships in a world in flux. 

The Pystead Group: Daring to Be

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Spring's Eternal
Eva Sandor
Huszar Books
979-8-9877723-2-4         $16.99 Paper/$4.99 ebook
www.evasandor.com 

Coastwall is beginning to think of spring. As such, it's time for a story about nullicorns, princes, ladies, and springtime adventure which blossoms from the introductory pages of Spring's Eternal that follow a tall Namesless Lady, Dok, who is hiding in plain sight, eventually to narrow its focus on one Fred. 

A fable emerges which documents a Grand War's aftermath, how a natural wonder with limitless power attracts those who cultivate and thrive on conflict, and how a series of unlikely twists leaves a peace-loving country in charge of the biggest prize of all. 

From a hunt for missing persons in disguise to evocative wonders which unfold to challenge and attract a host of characters, Eva Sandor creates a moving saga that furthers the Heart of Stone Adventures and will be especially appreciated by prior readers of the series. 

As in her other books, Sandor writes with a compelling attention to juxtaposing adventure with quiet repose as the characters observe, influence, and adapt to their changing world: 

"The aurora began a long, slow, beautiful display. It was a flower, it was a gem; it twisted and glittered; it changed its colors. From among its petals and facets it emitted deep, solid lights and slivers of translucent darkness. Earlier, when they had been watching clouds, clouds had reminded Elsebet and Istivan of places and things, of events in life. But what now spread above them made them think of everything and nothing. They watched in contented silence, for in cases like these words failed, and in truth the senses failed too. This was more than a sight to behold. It was a wonder to be present for." 

The same wry sense of ironic humor that permeated Sandor's other romps emerges at unexpected moments of revelation here: 

"'What Kharl’s saying is that Your Highness is not in the line of succession. At all. You are, we find, the Esquire of someplace in the Whellen Country, and possess some holdings on the Isle of Gold, and have a few political functions, but any issue of your loins would have no place in the lineage of Castramars.' Fred was taken aback. Loins? Who said she could talk about those? He sat on the steps and crossed his legs." 

The pursuit of peace here comes with a hard edge of unexpected encounters as Fred and others come to terms with their legacy, their options, and a tenuous future that tests everything Fred thought he wanted from life. 

Fools and failings come to light in the course of his journey and the interactions of a range of characters that are zany, passionate, and sometimes unwillingly enlightened about their revised roles in the kingdom. One thinks of the unexpected moments of Monty Python when reading, but younger audiences that likely won't hold this more advanced familiarity with British humor will still find the unfolding events happily and unexpectedly delightful in their ironic twists, while older readers will celebrate the Pythonesque atmosphere. 

War and peace issues come to light in different ways and represent more than obvious battles as the disparate characters each find their own revised paths in life often tinged with irony and iconic moments. 

The result can stand alone, but ideally Spring's Eternal will be digested in a broader context, discussed in reading clubs and groups, and appreciated not just for its fantasy and wonder, but for a sense of fun that romps past high court antics to a brewing operation and expansive process whereby an adopted commoner enters the raucous court of fools and journeymen. 

All ages will find the medieval setting thought-provoking, the whimsical encounters unexpected, and the visionary magic compelling, setting quasi-familiar history against the backdrop of new possibilities. Libraries will find the weave of comedy, irony, and adventure to be fresh, original, and attractive to patrons seeking more than singular action from their fantasies. 

Spring's Eternal

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Literature

Escape Velocity
Cate McNider
Atmosphere Press
9781639889419          
$17.00 Paper/$8.99 ebook/$9.99 audiobook
Website: https://www.catemcnider.net
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Velocity-Cate-McNider

Escape Velocity presents a chronological collection of poems from 10/2010 to 1/2023, stringing experiences together to form a trajectory and progression of understanding old paradigms and letting go of assumptions, patterns, and ego. 

Cate McNider, in her Introduction, reviews her invitation to readers to "enter into the Theater of the Void, to turn on the light within you, to close your two eyes to the illusionary demands of the ‘world’ and encounter the lush and wondrous being-ness that waits within you. It’s never what you think it is, and the discovery of that will lead to moments of those mini-lights being turned on within you." 

With this, the stage is set for a ride through not just her life and observations, but those which resonate with the reader. 

Take the succinct reflection in the opening poem 'Happiness': "I want to be as soft as you,/as solid and as fluid..." Here, the notion of happiness is also linked to being in the present and acknowledging its brief spate of energy in the wider scheme of things. McNider's ability to capture the passage of time and place in a study that introduces a very different definition of happiness then segues neatly into 'Whale's Song,' a poem of transformative longing and sharing: "If only I could insert my self,/angiogram balloon/inside your arteries, open you,/let the moon’s tide take the pain/way out to sea..." 

These examples are but a drop in the literary bucket of psychological, spiritual, and nature observations that provide all types of readers with an art form that blossoms with internal examination and external force. 

What is the reason for life, time, and evolutionary processes? How do they bloom in heart and mind to take wing into the greater world of human and nature? 

Each poem represents a piece of a journey that, when viewed from the broader perspective of this collection, adds to a marked and meaningful path that is accessible not just to literature or psychology readers, but anyone interested in self-growth and introspection. 

Libraries and readers interested in a hard-hitting collection that encourages and gently drives its readers into higher-level thinking, from ego examination to broader connections, will find the poems in Escape Velocity offer an escape hatch leading to better understanding and life meaning. 

Escape Velocity

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Grendel Wept
C. P. Serret
Tempest & Gayle
978-1-7343234-7-4         $24.99 Hardcover/$14.99 Paper
www.tempestandgayle.com 

Nemesis is a young woman who has pursued defrocked archaeologist and art curator Julian Corbin past the gates of his personal hell in quest of keys to place an item in storage. So opens a surrealistic scenario in which Julian's nightmares become part of a living death which operates (to him) on many different levels. 

Readers who begin Grendel Wept will discover that the literary narrative incorporates many unique devices to follow Julian's journey. These include conversations not presented in the usual quotes, explorations which teeter on the edge of insanity to blur the lines of reality and dreams, and observations of modern dilemmas and truths that permeate Julian's attitude and approach to living: 

"—Then what’s the secret of your great funding success?
—Americans are fake. Appeal to the pretense, to the mask – make it about them – and they can’t say no."
 

The nuances which contribute to Grendel Wept's philosophical, literary, and psychological depth are many, placing this novel's illusions, allusions, and progression on the radars of intellectual readers and book clubs interested in a story which concurrently embraces traditional and unconventional threads in Everyman's interactions with society. 

Ideally, readers of Grendel Wept will hold a special form literary and philosophical education that will allow their inspections of this story to fully embrace its most compelling features: 

"Her limbs fell limp, as one lifeless but in afflicted breath, her skirts capsized in silken ruination. She wept then for a time, heeding me not, till midst her weeping did say soft,
—I know thee, mine immortal, but there is no Mercy in what they have shewn. Soon, methinks, thou wilt know me. The lord, this Báal cannot forgive us, and only in knowledge is there pain.
—I pray all easement of your grief, madam.
More the Fool, I kissed her forbidden hand, and she raised her face to mine and kissed me with tear-salted lips. I expected the orcs to rend us both, but no claws came."
 

From a serial killer's surreal threat to the wild intersection of fantasy and reality that drive Julian's world, readers can anticipate a slow read only because the thought-provoking nature of the passages and their presentation demands and deserves an attention to detail and the knowledge of literary precedent: 

"—I shall not take it, Father, for it looks to be both fish and man, and I hate fish." 

The result is a work of art that both reflects Julian's passions and integrates present-day society with visions of death that are never far behind the living. 

The ultimate impact is nothing short of sensational: "I was without words, and a remembered sensation passed through me, shivering me: Grendel weeping alone in the darkness, not for his – my – mortal wounds, but for in gaining all, I’d lost it too." 

Readers and libraries looking for works of modern literature that display depth and challenge on intellectual, philosophical, and psychological scales will find Grendel Wept a powerful study in psyche and art. It deserves a place on literature shelves and assignment in contemporary classrooms studying modern literary achievement. 

Grendel Wept

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Looking for an Address
Nabaneeta Dev Sen
Translated from Bengali by Chhanda Chattopadhyay Bewtra Parabaas Publishing
978-1-946582-11-9                 $6.95 ebook/$14.95 Paper
Website: https://parabaas.com/ourbooks.php
Ordering Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1946582115 

Looking for an Address is set in the 1990s in New York City and centers on the lives of several expats from both Bangladesh and India who find their status as immigrants challenged by the political relationship and cultural differences between India and the U.S. 

"Most Bangladeshis seek political asylum. Like the Punjabis do. And a great many lie about it. Now the government has become much more strict. The F.B.I. inspects each case.” 

American readers need not hold prior familiarity with immigrant policies and politics or Bengali culture in order to appreciate Nabaneeta Dev Sen's disparate characters, which embark on different searches for a sense of place in their revised lives, encountering new ideas and challenges in the process. 

Anything needed in cultural or political background is incorporated into the story in a compelling manner as the characters encounter challenges to their dreams and ideals and are forced to make responses and changes that revise their ideas of independence, family relationships, and social status. 

Some words and ideas are hard to translate in Bengali, as the characters discover when a single description (such as 'innocence', for example) becomes impossible to properly transmit, even in the course of flirting. 

The free atmosphere of New York releases some who are prisoners of their own perceptions and creates a milieu that encourages not just growth, but taking greater risks for the sake of enlightenment. 

"You’ve come to this world. Don’t you need an address for your heart?" 

Book clubs discussing expat Indian literature and Indian/American cultural experiences will find Looking for an Address a compelling search for meaning and understanding, while libraries considering modern literature that expands the representation of Indian culture will find this book a key acquisition. 

Looking for an Address

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She Bleeds Sestinas
Rebecca Jane
Atmosphere Press
978-1-63988-944-0         $16.99
www.atmospherepress.com 

She Bleeds Sestinas is a new age poetic study of the female heart, soul, and spiritual foundations that evolved from Rebecca Jane's mandate to "practice yoga every morning and write a sestina every evening." This results in a collection of observations and experiences that incorporates a deep literary and spiritual reflection. 

Rebecca Jane doesn't leave her audience lacking for information, here. From defining the nature and purpose of a "teleuton" (end words) to exploring the myths, illusions, trigger experiences, and storms that move from childhood to adult perceptions and influences, She Bleeds Sestinas captures and represents a challenging and enlightening form of free verse. These explorations ideally will be chosen by new age and yoga readers as well as followers of women's literature who appreciate deployments of the freer forms of poetic structure. 

Like a good meal or a fine wine, these writings deserve slow digestion as they spark and fire philosophical and psychological reflections: 

"Meet sages who turn their bodies into rainbows./Learn how death spellbinds mountain snowstorms./Remember elemental dances with dakinis and dragons,/and know the right time to howl mercy’s resounding yes." 

Some of the pieces (such as the sudden death scenarios explored in "Buy More, Save More") adopt a freewheeling juxtaposition of experience and reflection which presents as a deep, rich mother lode of inspection of time, joy, death, and rescuers with "wasted lifetimes" of experience. 

Others, more succinct, pull on the heartstrings with stories of individual success and growth. 'Shadowend's Film Adaptation' is one such piece, in which a creative effort holds unexpected results: 

"Upon/reading and being gripped—/soul and fist—/by an elevating story,/the teacher—/blood and bone—/dissolved into a rainbow./Then she peacefully, gradually,/gladly disappeared." 

Indeed, "unexpected results" may be the underlying theme of a wide-ranging collection of poems that rises like a spirit of Kundalini cycles or a phoenix to reach into circles of readers that may not hold prior affinity for either poems or new age thinking. 

Libraries and contemporary poetry readers interested in transformational experiences and reflections will find that She Bleeds Sestinas will draw and resonate in unusual ways: 

"Her body is poetry,/with its laughter swallowing infinity/at six times nineteen gulps/per second, or/One Damaru Cycle." 

She Bleeds Sestinas

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The Things I Meant to Say
E. Barrett La Mont
The Ewings Publishing LLC
979-S-88640-770-9
$16.99 Hardcover/$6.99 Paper/$3.99 ebook
Website: www.ebarrettlamontbooks.com
Ordering:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-things-i-meant-to-say-e-barrett-la-mont/1109679212 

The Things I Meant to Say is an inspirational gathering of love poems influenced by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, E. Barrett LaMonte's relative. Browning's special gift for translating life experiences into reflective poems is mirrored in a contemporary gathering of "things I meant to say" which offer equal blends of poetic prowess and philosophical reflections on love, life, and everything that lies between them. 

Take the special kind of love described in 'April Fool,' for one example of this strength. The narrator reflects on how the feel of a special Spring month reflects the hope and loss of his own pursuit of romance in life: "You were to me what April had been/to the rest of the world./Warm, alive and ready to love." 

Only the April fool loses ... and only such a pursuer of love could properly feel its warmth, allure, and disappointments as reality collides with the experience of drowning in affection. 

Many of the poems speak of loneliness both within and outside of love's ideals. Others reflect on bonds, new beginnings, interconnected lives, and seasons of love in which "Love knows no time . . ./for love stands by itself." 

These emotional reflections and philosophical life connections will find a welcoming home in libraries seeking modern writers akin to Elizabeth Barrett Browning in style and form, but with a contemporary flair that will reach modern free verse readers with metaphors and observations that embrace and provoke reflection. 

The Things I Meant to Say's probe of inner worlds of love ideals and the nature and community that lies outside an all-embracing relationship makes it worthy of book club discussion and, ideally, its contrast with other traditional and modern poets who write about love, loss, and life. 

The Things I Meant to Say

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Unbathed Brains
Hari Hyde
Independently Published
979-8986718149            $12.99 Paper/$.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/UNBATHED-BRAINS-POEMS-Minnesota-Milky/dp/B0C8R9HPBF 

Unbathed Brains: Poems from Minnesota and the Milky Way is a poetic autobiography that traces Hari Hyde's Minnesota roots and journeys both physical and spiritual. Much as they reflect a sense of place and purpose, they also follow the trajectory of Hyde's life and facets of his scientific and spiritual progression as he navigates dreams, undertakes journeys, and traverses inner and outer worlds with an attention to metaphorical and spiritual detail and connections: 

"Travel the world, you’ll not feel it—/the lake archangels that elate us./On a brisk autumn eve,/lakes exhale a hypnotic haze,/an aura to hearten the heavens,/an inexplicable esprit in the air." 

Steeped in Minnesota's winters and the powerful connections between nature and revelation, Hyde's collection represents a journey that takes place on many different playing fields, captured in discourses that draw readers into unexpected landscapes of poetic enlightenment: 

"I come upon no new towns anymore./My old, old map is current/and up-to-date/with all the towns./According to fish,/land is the boundary./Land confines." 

The inflections and feel of this journey and these words will especially resonate with those whose Heartland roots never left their psyches. Hyde's words infect and reflect. They infect with a vivid immediacy that draws connections between heart, soul, and environment; and they reflect this feeling with words that resonate with power, resolution, and scientific observation: 

"...amongst underage skates and raw rookie rays,/you’ll always find an eager beaver,/bobbing her head to the top, wishing to pet me./What beauty blossoms in the big bass a-swimming!/Fish are all failures./They can’t shove water away." 

Libraries seeking astute blends of science, nature, and Heartland connections will find Unbathed Brains a rich, revealing winner. 

Unbathed Brains

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Biography & Autobiography

Balance, Pedal, Breathe
Claire Unis, MD
Warren Publishing
978-1-957723-09-9
$29.95 Hardcover/$17.95 Paper/$4.99 ebook
www.warrenpublishing.net 

Balance, Pedal, Breathe: A Journey Through Medical School joins a host of other memoirs about medical school experiences, but arrives with a difference—Claire Unis was a young small-town waitress when she received her acceptance to medical school. 

The paths she would travel there came not from a world of grooming and privilege, but from a calling to medicine which she felt at a young age. This goal was cemented during a painful training process which challenged her ideals of what it meant to become a doctor. 

Unis writes with a personal passion that comes across in her memoir of pursing dreams and realizing their illusions and limitations: 

"In these pages lies the story of a willful, would-be doctor who tried to hold on to the before-self, the not-doctor self, even as she could feel herself changing over the four years of medical education leading up to her degree. In my collection of memories are also the reasons why, if my son must follow this path, I will swallow my misgivings about this career. Though the road itself shudders with ruts and sinkholes, boulders and sand, practicing medicine means living a considered life." 

From the realities and downside to training at a private hospital to taking a step back from school to breathe and reconsider, Unis crafts a journey that is not singular and dedicated, but filled with pivot points: 

"I had come to medical school not just for a degree or a career, but also for wisdom. And almost three years into a four-year program bursting with moments both poignant and devastating, I had a lot to consider. Quietly, while my classmates were working out their schedules and learning about research opportunities and residencies, I petitioned the registrar for a small stay on my medical education." 

The result holds quite a different feel than the usual dogged story of the pursuit of a medical degree against all odds and under nearly impossible residency conditions. It's a more reasoned, mindful account of the process in which one woman achieves her dream—albeit in an unconventional manner which concurrently embraces life events, goals, and challenges. 

Anyone with an interest in physician training, personal experience, or professional evolution will find Balance, Pedal, Breathe an inviting, uncommon exploration of a process which often challenges one's perceptions and goals, but here results in a special type of doctor who enters the system with more than technical savvy alone. 

Libraries seeking a more balanced memoir of an aspiring physician's experiences will find Balance, Pedal, Breathe an especially enlightening and thought-provoking acquisition that not only balances traditional accounts, but expands the possibilities of medical training into more mindful thinking: 

"My work is not done. For all that I have chafed at the growing imbalance between responsibility and reward in my profession, I can be grateful that my life has always had purpose. I have had to grow and keep adapting, to keep up with medical advances. I also own my share of humility, realizing both the limitations of knowledge and my own fallibility. Finding equilibrium requires intention. Not surprisingly, that quest has driven me back to the regenerative wellspring of writing: a bright poppy growing in the dry grasses of the California landscape." 

Balance, Pedal, Breathe

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Bumbling All The Way to The Bank With The Arabs
Ben Koshkin
Indigo River Publishing
9781950906192             $17.95
https://www.amazon.com/Bumbling-Arabs-All-Way-Bank/dp/1950906191 
 

Bumbling All The Way to The Bank With The Arabs not only holds an intriguing title, but represents an intersection between American and Middle East business interests as two Houston real estate entrepreneurs become involved in an unexpected partnership with a Kuwaiti billionaire in the 1980s. 

As author Ben Koshkin and his partner became more and more entrenched with Kuwait special interests and cut million-dollar deals on a regular basis, Koshkin also received an uncommon education about the Middle East psyche and business pursuits that translates nicely to an intriguing series of cross-cultural revelations. 

Trips to Iraq, Kuwait, and other nations proved to be both risky and profitable business ventures as well as eye-opening and unexpectedly entertaining. 

Such is the case with a duck hunt Koshkin arranges for guaranteed success, only to have his scheme discovered by his fellow Middle Eastern hunters. The humor in this scenario will leave readers laughing as much as the serious business escapades will have them thinking: 

"In one of the best comebacks I’ve ever made, I yelled to Mahmoud, 'I had the guide put those live ducks over there so we could use them as decoys if it was a slow hunt.' Then I turned to Blaien. 'Blaien, go put out the live decoys.' Now, if we got caught by the game wardens, we’d be talking jail time. Well, not really; it would be more like fricking Sing Sing. Blaien released the two gunnysacks of ducks into our pond, and almost immediately, an incredible transformation took place. In twenty years of duck hunting, I had never experienced such activity. It was like every bird in the county suddenly decided they had to land in our pond." 

Few books hold the ability to portray and contrast success with bumbling failures punctuated by moments of comic relief. Koshkin's ability to spin a yarn that is all too true embeds his story with lively, revealing moments that will both entertain and hold food for thought about both business connections and snafus and Middle East business interests. 

Libraries and readers interested in a rollicking good read will find the uncommon ability of Bumbling All The Way to The Bank With The Arabs to reach into general-interest audiences without a lick of familiarity with either real estate ventures or Middle East politics and people makes for a wide-ranging, entertaining story that is hard to put down: 

"I’m sitting in an ancient truck with an Arabic terrorist-poster-boy driver who doesn’t speak a lick of English, looks like he would slit my throat in a heartbeat, and doesn’t know how to drive a stick shift! Yeah, what could go wrong? I just hoped he remembered where he had planted all the land mines!"

Bumbling All The Way to The Bank With The Arabs

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Dance to Dreams
Shogo Onoe
Independently Published
979-8802245651           
$21.00 Hardcover/$14.50 Paper/$6.00 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SJJV9K 

Few Japanese travelers would dream of embarking on a journey to an English-speaking country such as Canada without being able to at least converse in the language, but Shogo Onoe's memoir Dance to Dreams: Making the Right Choice chronicles Onoe's choice to begin a new life in Vancouver sans the benefits of fluency. Moreover, his passion for the written word led to his aspiration to become a writer. Despite numerous rejections, he pursued his dream of achieving publication, and Dance to Dreams is just one result from a pen that has experienced many forms of rejection, acceptance, and challenge. 

The first thing to note about this story is its passion. Readers might not expect the depths of the candid, passionate tone to ripple through a Japanese writer's memoir. Onoe cultivates excitement, translates that energy to the written word, and brings readers along on a rollicking ride of discovery that translates to readers through dialogues with all manner of people that he encounters along the way: 

“What the hell are you talking about, Seiichi? You were forever reproaching me that I don’t respect the Japanese culture and outrageously insulted me that I’ve become a total stranger to my own country before going to Mexico, remember? And on top of it all, you heatedly rejected Canadian and Mexican cultures, notwithstanding you had never gone to either country. And now, you’re somehow praising Mexican culture to the heaven? Are you shitting me, Seiichi? What’s going on here?” 

Onoe navigates these strange worlds and their inhabitants with an astute eye to examining the kinds of realities that Japanese natives and those supportive of the culture may find uncomfortably enlightening: 

"I think Japanese people are the meanest bastards walking on two legs under the sun, you know… they always make fake smiles and use polite language to strangers. At first, they seem to be very kind people, but this is just a sheer illusion that they make. Oh no, they’re just wearing social masks and pretending to be nice to everyone all the goddamn time. Once they’re alone with their friends, they’ll start showing their true colors unrestrictedly, gossiping about their colleagues, even their friends, and saying bad things behind their backs as if they are talking about the weather. They never say what they mean directly; they always say it behind people’s backs. Unfortunately, this is a Japanese pandemic. I have never seen such sick people except in Japan.” 

These confessions could prove painful to some, but can serve as intriguing discussion points in book clubs choosing this memoir for not just its cross-cultural encounters and journey, but for its succinct, hard-hitting points about how the Japanese interact and intersect with other cultures. 

Ex-pat Onoe creates a dialogue of examination that forces readers to probe the undercurrents of the Japanese psyche and its underpinnings. Perhaps he is in a relatively unique position to do so, given his independent journeys through other cultures which lead to new insights and critiques of disparate facets of a Japanese culture that tends to pigeonhole and dehumanize those outside Japan. 

The story of one who spent only four days in Mexico before deciding to move from Japan to Guatemala creates a powerful inspection especially highly recommended for book clubs interested in Japanese cultural explorations that pull no punches in critiquing psyches, powers, and prejudices. 

Libraries will find Dance to Dreams a unique blend of memoir and cross-cultural encounters that challenges belief systems and assumptions alike. 

Dance to Dreams

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Feisty Righty
Jennifer D. James
Independently Published
979-8-218-07789-1         $15.99
Website:
www.feistyrighty.com
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/Feisty-Righty-Cancer-Survivors-Journey/dp/B0C9KJ8MMH 

Feisty Righty: A Cancer Survivor's Journey is a portrait in perseverance that follows a breast cancer survivor's odyssey from initial diagnosis at age 41 to her medical experiences and survival tactics. 

These stories evolved from seven handwritten journals that documented her journey, offering an immediacy of experience that hindsight fails to deliver while presenting truths, empowerment realizations, and processes that served her well both in the moment and in this memoir, years later, where it reaches out to a wider audience. 

Jennifer D. James's personal story documents just what it entails to be a survivor. It opens with a small rescue kitten who serves as an illustration of this effort. The kitten (whom she named Survivor) epitomized her goals and pursuit of an empowering, positive future against all odds: 

"As a cancer patient, I long to be a survivor, too. This tiny, wobblylegged, rambunctious kitten is what I want to be." 

As James reflected on the kitten's spunky perseverance, she realized that "I felt afraid of the cancer that had started to grow inside my body. I could let the anxiety send me hunkering into the corner, or I could, like Survivor, believe I had the power to change my future. I had to find my voice, face fear, and persevere. It was the only way to survive." 

Others on this journey will find many familiar realizations, moments, and life lessons as James employs visualization techniques, comes to realize the revised role cancer plays in her immediate and future life options, and takes an active part in dispelling its presence, influence, and potential death sentence from her life. 

As she moves through surgery, chemo, and treatment options, James tackles the presence and life-altering influence of 'Feisty Righty' and embarks on a journey of new choices and revelations that ultimately not only affect her health, but her trajectory in life. 

The uplifting and inspirational nature of this discourse is especially notable because readers will find these confessions a surprise in a story of medical trails and difficulties: 

"As we drove down the 10 freeway on our way back to Palm Springs amid the fields of gigantic wind turbines, I began to feel more confident. Confident in my new appearance, regardless of any breast deformities. Confident in building a new normal. I felt confident that I could overcome any obstacle I might face in the future. Inspired by the boulder, I’d somehow withstand the storm, too." 

Feisty Righty is a powerful, personal journey that holds many insights for fellow survivors also walking that road of recovery, creating an inspirational and highly recommended memoir that should be a mainstay in any library interested in cancer survivor experiences and options. 

Feisty Righty

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Finding Miss Fong
James A. Wolter
Atmosphere Press
978-1-63988-973-0         $18.99 Paper/$27.99 Hardcover
www.atmospherepress.com 

Finding Miss Fong is set in the 1960s and tells of a naïve twenty-two-year-old Chicago new adult who embarks on a Peace Corp odyssey that opens his eyes to a new world. That boy was author James A. Wolter, and this is his memoir of Peace Corp discoveries and the journey that changed his life. 

Many a writer has set pen to paper to capture Peace Corp experiences, but Wolter's story is as much a love story as it is an exposé of Corps snafus and politics. It relates how a mission that at first seemed doomed to failure turned into a pursuit of a relationship that was destined to entangle him in cross-cultural experiences he never saw coming. 

From his initial flirting with the lovely Miss Fong Moke Chee to his commitment as a Peace Corps Volunteer, many aspects of service and growth come to light through dialogue and experiences that introduce a "you are here" sense to the author's narrative: 

“They’re not husband and wife. They are sister and brother. This is the first time either of them have been to The Green Parrot. They are enjoying the experience and listening to the music and watching you. Gim Lan would be embarrassed if you asked her to dance. Besides, you’re under no obligation to ensure the happiness of others.” 

From the initial strife their blossoming relationship introduces to Moke Chee's family to his uncertainty about the possible reactions of his own family to his relationship with a Malaysian girl, Wolter's story of evolution and adjustment offers many thought-provoking moments as it explores the pivot points in this young man's life: 

"I had pushed to the back of my mind how Moke Chee would be received by my family. A deep sense of sorrow came over me, and I wanted to tell him that my family’s custom was for the married couple and their children to be closer to the woman’s family than the man’s. I hoped my family would accept, support, nurture, and love Moke Chee and our children, but if they didn’t, I vowed to myself that I would protect them from the toxicity of my family." 

The result is an engaging memoir that includes many elements of attraction and education, from a memoir nicely narrated and filled with personal and social inspection to a broader delivery of the cross-cultural experiences and conundrums the Peace Corp can introduce to its participants. 

Finding Miss Fong is not just a singular love story, but a saga of family, character growth, and life experiences that will find a welcoming home in any general interest library seeking memorable coming-of-age and relationship sagas. 

Finding Miss Fong

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In Pursuit of Radio Mom
Terry Crylen
She Writes Press
978-1647425753     $17.95 paperback; $9.95 ebook
Website: terrycrylen.com
Ordering: Bookshop.org 

In Pursuit of Radio Mom: Searching for the Mother I Never Had holds up a mirror to family dysfunction and adult parenting choices that provides especially thought-provoking insights on the connections between both. Terry Crylen's thirty-five years in the mental health field enhances her story, which opens in the late 1950s in Chicago, when she was a five-year-old child. 

Her relationship with her mother and how it translated to patterns and perceptions that affected her relationship with her own daughter is an examination that pulls no punches as it considers intergenerational legacies and impacts. 

Crylen provides a reasoned, thought-provoking series of changing viewpoints about her mother from childhood to adulthood, cementing the early influences and absences that formulated her life and psyche: 

"The problem was that my real family was both everywhere and nowhere. A three-ring circus with too many acts performing all at once. A place where I couldn’t grab hold of the ringmaster—my mom. Her attention always seemed focused on someone else in the tent or on performing her own magic act. The one where she could make herself disappear for long parts of a day." 

Used to living in small spaces and adopting "fantasy families" to reconcile her reality with her vision of what could be, Crylen's early dreams and desire for a different kind of motherly connection and family situation created scenarios which not only crafted and influenced, but impacted her perception of herself, her family, and the life she would eventually create. Her search spills into all kinds of unexpected arenas, including her own health and safety: 

"Why couldn’t I tell the detective what had really happened to me? Or my mother? Or a friend? Why couldn’t I tell anyone at all? Because everything was your own fault." 

The theft of her girlhood and womanhood (which made her easy prey) stemmed as much from her family relationships as it did from outside forces. All are explored here in a powerfully wrought self-examination that keeps the bigger picture of intergenerational and mother/daughter legacies firmly in mind. 

This, in turn, educates readers about all kinds of family dynamics and interactions that hold lasting impacts on children and parents alike. 

Crylen's ability to recall her childhood with an eidetic memory experience of immediacy and reconcile it with her adult experiences and training as a licensed clinical psychologist contributes to an extraordinary memoir. In Pursuit of Radio Mom holds the power to reach beyond individual experience and into the possibilities of formulating new relationships and reactions to life.

From the health crises of her child, during which Crylen finds a rare opportunity of a physician who listens and responds appropriately to her concerns ("He had given me what I’d sought for so long and what I’d needed for both my daughter and me: to be heard."), to acknowledging the successes and failures of parenting above and beyond personal training and experience ("In advocating for her with doctors, I hadn’t taught her how to advocate for herself."), Crylen creates a series of reflective pieces that will lend especially well to book club and parenting group discussion circles.

Many memoirs have been written about family ties, dysfunction, and lasting impacts. Few hold the resolute blend of professional and personal assessment that rise above and beyond the moment to consider the connections and broken perceptions mothers and daughters too often struggle over. 

Libraries and readers seeking memoirs that capture the process of growth and understanding between mothers and daughters will find In Pursuit of Radio Mom an especially astute, potent consideration of family ideals and realities that is recommended for a much wider audience than the usual memoir or psychological inspection. 

In Pursuit of Radio Mom

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Jackson Haines: The Skating King
Ryan Stevens
Independently Published
9781738768219             $18.99 Paper/$6.99 ebook
https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/jackson-haines.html 

Ryan Stevens is a figure skating authority who tackles the life and times of one of the greats of the sport in Jackson Haines: The Skating King. 

Haines is not a contemporary figure, but one of the early founders of figure skating. His accomplishments in the mid-1800s resulted in creating a sport which continues to draw participants and fans to this day. Despite his achievements, his life has largely been buried in legend and history—until now. 

Stevens provides the first authoritative biography ever written on Haines, reviewing his tours and performances for world leaders, the process by which he translated ballet to the ice, and presenting his life and influences both on and off the ice. 

Those involved in the figure skating world may already know his name, but few will realize the extent of his work and revolutionary achievements in the sport without pursuing Jackson Haines: The Skating King. 

Extensive footnotes, vintage black-and-white illustrations that include reproductions of performance bills and photos, and discussions of the evolution of skating forms used in modern times come to light in a lively survey that will especially delight any reader with prior interest in figure skating's roots: 

"Vandervell and Witham, along with several well-heeled Londoners, were responsible for the evolution of the club's Combined Figures and the invention or popularization of several skating turns we take for granted today, including the counter, bracket and rocker. Members of The Skating Club skated in the traditional English Style, a complete juxtaposition to the artistic style Jackson performed in. The styles were as different as night and day, and while Jackson's skating was hugely popular with the general public, it wouldn't be until the Edwardian era that the style Jackson skated in – later known as the Continental or International Style – truly caught on in British figure skating circles." 

The result is informative, lively, and scholarly without being dry, packing in a wealth of figure skating history information that uses the life of Jackson Haines to bring together the influences and innovations that make figure skating a notable sport and attraction today. 

Libraries and readers interested in a biography which also serves as a sports history, holding the ability to reach out into a general-interest audience, must obtain Jackson Haines: The Skating King. Its blend of scholarly history and engaging information is impeccable. 

Jackson Haines: The Skating King

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Liar, Alleged
David Vass
Independently Published
979-8-9890745-0-1                14.99 Paper/$8.99 ebook
https://www.davidvassbook.com/ 

Liar, Alleged: A Tell-All: Celebrities, Sex, and All the Rest is a memoir about legendary and horrible celebrities and encounters with them. It takes discovery and candid assessment to a different level as David Vass reveals all about his varied experiences, from the dying art of burlesque to his observation of the rise of gay activism in New York. 

From the beginning, Vass adopts a gritty tone of truth and insight that pulls no punches, whether it be about sexual favors to policemen or the impact of gay culture on straight men who viewed the gay community's structures and experiences as opportunities for gawking: 

"...by around the third month of these events, the Baths became crowded with a fully clothed straight crowd who reveled in a night of “slumming it.” They stared at us gays like we were animals in a zoo, and our acceptance soon turned to anger. It was always clear to those ‘in the know’ that the Saturday night bath shows were just a gimmick, and one at the expense of the gay community." 

From his jobs in various clubs in different communities to his role as technical director and performance leader, Vass is in a prime place to capture the drama behind-scenes, the economic, political, and social influences on production choices, and the climate and aura of performers and audiences that impact his world: 

"I had been told, quite firmly, by the Columbia execs who were producing and therefore pulling the strings on this performance, that there would be one false exit and then three curtain call encores, followed by the house lights so the union stagehands wouldn’t go into overtime, which was outrageously expensive." 

The blend of gritty sexual experiences and observations combined with the practicalities and politics of show biz come to light in a memoir replete with startling events, head-shaking moments, opportunities for enlightenment, and debauchery at its highest level. 

Liar, Alleged is not an exposé for the light-hearted, but a solid and fact-packed reflection on life and technical aspects of tailoring and creating stage performances that gives as much insight and information about celebrities as it does about the mechanics of navigating an environment packed with opportunity and challenge. 

Readers also won't anticipate the gritty sense of humor that often accompanies such revelations, but it is evident and provides comic relief to enliven his life's encounters: 

"Jack Wrangler, note, had a tube of hemorrhoid ointment in his Dobb kit, and as I was able to, uh, look carefully and see no need for it, inquired.  In his ‘teacher’ voice he said, “Apply it to your face wherever there are wrinkles and poof, they’re gone!”  Well, blow me over—oh wait…" 

From memorable moments with Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, and Jane Olivor and lessons about rises and falls learned from them all to Vass's own high and low points in the course of his city-hopping career, readers receive a lively, sassy, gritty and compelling story that will prove a 'must' for anyone interested in performance art, gay culture, and a life lived on the edge of success that takes center stage here, based on diary notes that bring it all to life. 

Liar, Alleged will find a welcome home in the hands of readers interested in 'tell all' stories that take the next step into delving into relationship insights and challenges that mark the dovetailing of many different worlds. 

Liar, Alleged

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Memories of Madhupur
Samarendra Narayan Roy
Parabaas
978-1-946582-01-0                $14.95
Website: https://parabaas.com
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1946582018/ 

Memories of Madhupur: Mid-Century Vignettes from East of India is a top recommendation for libraries seeking personal accounts of Indian culture and history, cultivating both with a tone of exploration that comes from an author raised by his grandparents in Madhupur in the 1950s and 60s. 

Although Samarendra Narayan Roy wrote these tales with children in mind, all ages will find these stories of coming of age in India and the adventures and encounters this embraced to be equally compelling. 

An introductory story of postal messages Roy read or wrote for local villagers at the age of ten and their place in Indian culture reveals concurrent belief systems and historical precedents which elevates his personal memory with wider-ranging social insights: 

"Literacy was not only largely absent in those days, it was itself unknown. People just did not think that there was something called literacy or illiteracy. Most rural people simply accepted it that some male children were born to the upper castes of various communities, ready with the ability to read and write. It was pointless for others to try and reach those gifted levels. This compelled the national population, well, much of it, to depend on the few thus literate for written communication." 

The rich nature of these memories of youth brings India to life for readers both quasi-familiar and completely unfamiliar with the country, weaving stories of castes, religions, communities, tribes and colorful characters with accompanying insights about India's delightful diversity and cultures: 

"Samwa had actually attacked two of his stepmothers, one of whom was younger than him. It was but a simple matter for us to prevent our honest selves from rushing across to his father and spilling the beans, the only requirement for which was just a little plain and simple co-operation from that devil Samwa for the rest of the mango season...I for one still remember that one summer of langra mangoes (none better in the world, though odd people might disagree) and giant jackfruit cloves." 

Vibrant and passionate in its memories and tales of yesteryear, the colorful nature and attraction of Memories of Madhupur: Mid-Century Vignettes from East of India should not be limited to an audience of any particular age, but explored by all as a compelling, attractive story that deserves a place in libraries seeking accessible, lively stories for both enlightenment and entertainment. 

Memories of Madhupur

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A Schizoid at Smith
Blair Sorrel
Atmosphere Press
978-1-63988-927-3           $17.99 Paperback/$26.99 Hardcover
www.atmospherepress.com 

A Schizoid at Smith is a memoir set in the 1960s that follows a Seven Sisters's story of success, struggle, and the mechanics and realization of a schizoid personality disorder. Ordinary folk may not understand what this means, or that those afflicted are typically male, which lends further importance to a memoir that explores these perceptions and experiences from a female's viewpoint. 

At the heart of this condition's cause is over-parenting, so A Schizoid at Smith will attract readers interested in parenting impacts as well as those attracted by the psychological condition, diagnosis, and treatment of the schizoid personality. 

From the start, Blair Sorrel cultivates an atmosphere of self-discovery that pulls no punches in exploring trauma, recovery, and survival methods. Combine this with the cultural and social atmosphere of the 60s, from music's pop icons to the daytime serial attraction of Dark Shadows, for a full immersion experience into the milieu of the times and how Sorrel's family dynamics played into the evolving sentiments, politics, and family reactions to the times. 

Perhaps the most intriguing nature of her memoir lies in its roots in psychological depth and social understanding, paired with an astute consideration of how schizoid traits such as ambivalence affected her relationships and impacted her life. 

As readers review the nature and challenges of those who exhibit a propensity for schizotypal personality disorder or schizophrenia, they will learn far more about the condition and its perceptions and influences than they likely will have prior knowledge of before picking up this book. 

It's one thing to read the literature surrounding the schizoid personality. It's quite another to live it, understanding how its daily challenges translate in and impact the world. 

At one point, SorreI says she "...wished to steal away to wherever I could heal." 

A Schizoid at Smith reviews a facet of this healing process that is little covered in relation to family and social influences. It should be a part of any library seeking memoirs of mental illness and health and discussed by book clubs and psychological groups interested in learning about the schizoid personality, its influences, and its survival traits. 

A Schizoid at Smith

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A Splendid Gift
Barbara Prisceaux
Indigo River Publishing
9781954676534             $17.95
https://www.amazon.com/Splendid-Gift-Barbara-Elle-Prisceaux/dp/1954676530/ 

Barbara Prisceaux spent some sixty years in nursing, and her memoir A Splendid Gift reflects this experience. At age fifteen, she became a part-time nurse's aide at St. Joseph's Hospital in Reading, New York, but her professional journey actually began with a fall down a flight of stairs at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. This occurred on the cusp of realizing her nursing dream via a nursing school admission interview at the Bellevue Hospital Medical Center. 

For three years, Bellevue became her home. And, "Those three years at Bellevue had transformed the shy and uncertain young woman I’d once been into someone who survived the impossible and lived to tell about it." 

Readers interested in the changing field of nursing will be particularly attracted to Prisceaux's ability to chart the field's many shifts over the decades: "Change had become a constant, and I took on new challenges in a profession that was nothing like it had been at Bellevue twenty-five years before." 

The long-term nature of her commitment and her experiences and observations of these shifts in nursing create a history of the profession. This elevates her book from personal experience to a professional history of nursing's changing challenges and requirements. 

Of particular interest and note is how the values and processes of nursing's changes have introduced concurrent mandates to nurses to adapt to concepts and approaches to care that are often in radical contrast to precedents and ideals of patient and medical professional relationships and support systems: 

"As a per diem staff member, I was assigned to all the areas in that ED, and often needed to question the care provided to those patients. That health care system triaged the patients quickly, treated them as needed, then sent them home as soon as possible. This wasn’t always in their best interests. Physicians and nurses who worked those night shifts weren’t happy to be challenged about their rule to “treat and street.” As long as I worked there, I was one of the few who did, usually with good cause but not always with the best results." 

The result is a powerful memoir that holds the uncommon ability to transcend personal experience alone, adding to its value the elements of charting a history of the changing medical community and its standards of care. 

Libraries and readers seeking insights into these pivot points, what influenced them, and how nurses adapted to and embraced constantly-changing duties and roles will find  A Splendid Gift an informational, celebratory, appreciative examination of nurses and their world. 

A Splendid Gift

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Through the Test of Time (II)
D. Angel
Independently Published
978-1-387-11647-8         $17.00 Paper/$6.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/Through-Test-Time-II-time/dp/1387116479 

Through the Test of Time (II): As Time Went On... is a memoir of recovery and discovery that continues D. Angel's story. The first memoir ended with the likelihood that marriage, kids, and a traditional life would rise like a phoenix from the ashes of dysfunction, prison, and struggle. 

But Angel's journey was not meant to continue without challenge, as Book II proves. Instead, As Time Went On traces an ongoing journey as Angel and Tanisha separate and Angel goes back to heavy drinking and becomes involved in many escapades. 

How he moves away from thoughts and actions that keep landing him in prison forms the heart of a story that will resonate with any reader struggling to overcome their own patterns of destruction and replace them with healthier perceptions, choices, and behaviors. 

Angel opens his story with the observation that "you will never know how strong your demons are until you have the power to exorcise them on a bigger scale. Sometimes they lie dormant, and sometimes these demons are simply made stronger by more money, choices, and habits." 

Angel was familiar with toxic relationships, a drive for sex and drink, and the kinds of familiar circumstances that kept any image of mental health at bay. In order to grow, he had to adopt new ways of viewing and interacting with the world. Among the survival techniques he had adopted were, ironically, ones that also had constantly threatened his survival: "I tried blocking things out and continued right on with my toxic ways." 

His coping methods, ultimate epiphanies, and ongoing encounters with courts and legal issues seemed entwined with his goal to foster a healthy family environment that embraced offspring and a healthy relationship with a woman. 

The process by which he moves from and between very different worlds creates a moving memoir about social and legal challenges that all heavily impact his mental health, in addition to the actions and reactions he is forced to more closely examine in response to adversity. 

Angel's goal in narrating his life story ("I hope to inspire men and women by what I went through and how hard I fought for change") more than succeeds. The evidence of such is represented in a memoir that takes readers not just into hell, but to the new possibilities that lie on the other side of the wall. 

Libraries and readers seeking memoirs that are raw, candid, and hard-hitting in their descriptions of encounters with self and law will find Through the Test of Time (II): As Time Went On... a powerful story of how a new life can be made without crime and addiction, against all odds. 

Through the Test of Time (II)

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The Unfurling Frond
Rebecca Beardsall 
Atmosphere Press
978-1-63988-955-6         $19.99
www.atmospherepress.com 

The Unfurling Frond: A Memoir of Belonging and Becoming chronicles an expansive journey to New Zealand in the late 1990s in a love story that operates on different levels, from personal to cross-cultural. 

Because these hybrid writings operate together to capture shifting realities and realizations, they hold the uncommon ability to attract a wider audience than the traditional memoir format alone, peppering stories with poems and illustrations that tap the creative juices of a non-linear life. 

Rebecca Beardsall navigates past, present, and the changing tides of her life with an attention to "you are here" detail that captures a vivid sense of not just place, but self: 

"Aotearoa New Zealand had just started to sink into me when we left. My excitement of being home with my family and friends would delay my mourning, but I would realize what exactly I turned my back on in the South Pacific when it hit. When I finally discovered myself in my early thirties, I realized that I already had a place that held me. It wasn’t where I was raised. It was where I was transplanted." 

Readers who have struggled to realize and embrace that sense of belonging and place will find much to relish in Beardsall's journey as she explores family mysteries, history, and New Zealand roots: "We hear no stories, no myths, no traditions. Our family knowledge is locked away in the memories of closed-lipped people." 

The literary travelogue and self-exploration which emerges and merges in The Unfurling Frond is moving and revealing. Libraries and readers will find this story compelling, thought-provoking, and worthy of book club discussion for Beardsall's reflections on home, which come to roost in the heart: 

"Home lives inside my body – my senses respond to it – it is the same sensation that jolts my body when I emerge from the Auckland airport. My physical body aligns with the spiritual, telling me that I am home, that I belong." 

The Unfurling Frond

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View from the Crow's Nest
Susan L. Bradford
Liliquoi Press
979-8-218-01282-3         $16.95
www.amazon.com 

View from the Crow's Nest: A Young Woman’s Global Quest For a Relevant Life is based on the author's letters from younger years as she came of age in the 1960s and embraced a nomadic life, hitchhiking on sailboats and circumnavigating the globe. 

During this process, Susan L. Bradford wrote some forty letters to her parents during her two-plus-year odyssey from 1966-68, begun a year after she graduated college. That these letters were not only saved by her parents, but came back to remind her about bygone years, motivations, and lessons decades later, is a tribute to both the power of the pen and the power of perseverance in translating their contents here, for world enlightenment. 

Because they were written to her parents, the letters omitted anything the author deemed worrisome to her family at home. They are presented with memories and notes that fill in these points and moments, adding experiences missing from the originals and reflecting on them from the hindsight of a fifty-plus-year perspective. 

This element adds a sense of drama and inspection to a story that imparts the feel of an adventure novel, but is based on the real encounters and experiences of a young woman on the cusp of new adult realizations: "Romance at sea was my new reality, and our “couples” table was a new level of elegance. I didn’t question it. I happily took it all in stride, moving into a new more-adult station in life. I was on my own, and I was flourishing." 

Having these letters and excerpting passages from them, supplementing them with memories and additional insights, is invaluable. The in-the-moment writings blend nicely with the explanations and recollections Bradford adds, creating a rich interplay between past and present, with the letters forming the foundations of life inquiries and adventures: 

"My life in Rabaul has been good, and it has been quiet. A resting place before more travel. I have been doing a lot of reading, playing the piano, etc. It seems that to just travel, travel, travel, go, go, go without a break would be so exhausting and probably very confusing, at least for me. So in a way, I am just marking time here, perhaps metabolizing my experiences and letting the dust settle before I move on." 

Readers do more than experience these moments with the author. They journey alongside her, from the experience to the mature reflections of present-day memory, reliving the opportunities and encounters Bradford both experienced and used to change her life and formulate new adult goals and perspectives. 

Libraries and readers interested in a travelogue of growth set in the 1960s will find View from the Crow's Nest an engaging, enlightening, inspiring read. It goes the extra mile by centering its experiences with social, political, and cultural encounters that proved life-changing and instructional to a young woman on the cusp of realizing her abilities, focus, and life. 

View from the Crow's Nest

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Mystery & Thrillers

The Big Shakeup
Nancy Boyarsky
Light Messages
978-1-61153-531-0         $14.99 paper/$6.49 ebook
www.nancyboyarsky.com 

P.I. Nicole Graves returns to solve another crime in The Big Shakeup. The story opens not with the usual bang of a body, but the gathering force and shaking of a major earthquake.  California native Nicole is no stranger to quakes. But this is more than the usual small warning of the earth's instability, and Nicole finds that more continues to rock her world than the earth under her feet. 

She expects to find death in the destruction around her. What she doesn't expect to uncover is her boss dying of a gunshot wound which clearly preceded the quake. Even though they've been at ongoing odds, Nicole never wished him dead. The police beg to differ, and so she finds herself in the unusual position of being both an investigator and a perp-at-large as Los Angeles emerges from a devastating earthquake. She must turn her attention to clearing her name if she's to remain free. 

Nancy Boyarsky creates a riveting, compelling mystery from the start which opens with the shake of Nicole's world on many levels and continues to follow her dual charge to both clear her name and navigate the destroyed world around her to uncover the truth from its ruins. 

Nicole is no stranger to being a "person of interest," but she has never before been so close to having her vocation and life shut down by being the sole suspect in her boss's murder. 

Boyarsky creates a satisfying juxtaposition between Nicole's personal and professional ambitions, with the backdrop of a destroyed and recovering Los Angeles as realistic and engrossing as the personal dilemmas which force Nicole to consider the many other suspects and the motives of blackmail and revenge that might have played into her boss's demise. 

Her ongoing dilemma is compellingly revealed: "Now that she was supposed to be free to investigate her case, she still had to hide from everyone so the killer wouldn’t find her. But how would she be able to clear herself when she couldn’t appear in public? Where would she find the information she needed or the tools essential to her search?" 

As a suspected perp becomes the mouse in a clever killer's cat-and-mouse game, Boyarsky creates a delightful tension and strong character in Nicole's life and decisions, driving the mystery into unexpected directions from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and beyond. 

Libraries and readers seeking characters whose dilemmas are multifaceted and unpredictable will find The Big Shakeup thoroughly engrossing and hard to put down. 

The Big Shakeup

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Cruel Lessons
Randy Overbeck
Wild Rose Press Inc.
978-1-5092-5213-8         $20.99 Print/$3.99 ebook
Website: https://www.authorrandyoverbeck.com/
Ordering:  https://www.amazon.com/Cruel-Lessons-Peril-Book-ebook/dp/B0CDJ6GL5W 

Cruel Lessons is a crime thriller that packs power and intrigue into its opening lines: “'You guys ready for the wildest ride of your life?' James Clayton whispered, his breath making small white puffs in the cool night air."

Clayton's question also cautions readers with advance notice that this story will be anything but predictable or staid. 

Many mysteries are written quickly, but one note to Cruel Lessons is that it began in 1994 and took decades to see publication. This lends the story a depth and carefully crafted narrative that perhaps could not have been achieved in the usual time frame authors work with to produce a book. The feedback and insights Randy Overbeck received from his beta readers and support circles produced a story that thus arrives more full-bodied and richer than many mysteries. 

James dies in a car wreck that (in some ways) those around him have anticipated: “I know people don’t like to hear it, but those kids were simply headed for trouble. For kids like James, it seemed like he was on a downhill speeding train. We spent most of our time trying to keep it from derailing.” 

The trouble is, these circumstances are as puzzling as they are inevitable, and as the question of a bigger conspiracy blends into a probe of actual involvements and connections, Cruel Lessons evolves into a series of moral and ethical conundrums that also shift perceptions of who is the bad guy and who the good one in such scenarios. 

"Some things simply don’t add up.” What doesn't add up for the investigators are circumstances that provoke underlying questions about drug peddling and bigger-picture thinking. 

Randy Overbeck creates a story of intrigue and social inspection as he weaves together a wide net of characters whose intentions and approaches intersect to solve a greater mystery. 

While a teaser from later in the story opens with Amanda's confrontation with death, the main story swirls around her husband Ken Parks, who begins his day with the mystery of four missing fifth grade boys at science camp, then finds his world complicated by the truth about what happened to them. 

It's a quagmire of discovery as Ken comes to realize that what looks like a joyride by the notorious James Clayton is actually much more sinister. 

Overbeck's ability to build an absorbing mystery while remaining steadfast in his creation of an underlying force that reaches out to grab thinking readers makes for a mystery that is superior both in its depth and presentation. 

Powered by solid characterization, satisfying twists and turns, and the anguish of parents forced to confront the reality of their children's' lives, Cruel Lessons sports a heartfelt, engrossing series of events. These make it a top recommendation for mystery libraries seeking stories suitable for book club discussion groups and individual pursuit alike. Its thought-provoking insights into drugs, users, and promoters give plenty of fodder for discussion and debate. 

Cruel Lessons

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A Fair Knight Slain
Linda LeBlanc
Ama Dablam, Inc.
978-0-9785353-3-9         $11.99 Paper/$4.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHLC87N7 

A Fair Knight Slain: Murder at the Renaissance Fair follows Florida Detective Sara Lansing as she investigates an unusual murder at a Renaissance Fair which piques the interest of big city New York investigator Ryker Harris. 

Ryker, already on a mission to nail a drug lord and help Sara's boss win an election, hadn't anticipated joining forces with anyone on a murder case. Sara's involvement draws him into unfamiliar territory as they both depart from their comfort zones to enter into an uncertain shared effort to catch a killer. 

Linda LeBlanc's mystery reveals the underbelly of Renaissance Fair associations and interactions in a manner that leads Sara and her readers into uncertain relationships and connections. 

LeBlanc embeds her story with the growing, unlikely allure of a paunchy New York cop and a savvy Florida detective who find themselves sharing not just objectives, but a partnership which promises to evolve into something neither expected. 

Learning curves are often fraught with not just discovery, but angst. Sara and Ryker navigate dangerous waters in many different ways, evolving a dance between each and facing a death that brings them ever closer to uncomfortable realizations. 

The result is a simmering mystery firmly embedded with Roma, Renaissance influences and history, and the motivations and experiences of disparate individuals who find their legends and objectives dovetailing in unpredictable ways. 

Libraries and readers seeking a mystery flavored with emotional connections and undertones and a rich sense of historical and cross-cultural exploration will find much to like in A Fair Knight Slain—particularly since its main characters grow into their revised roles as not just detectives, but defenders of public and political figures and processes which resist blackmail, conspiracy, and forces of dangerous influence. 

A Fair Knight Slain

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Finding Fionn
M.J. Evans
Dancing Horse Press
978-1-7373618-7-9                $12.95 Paper/$2.99 ebook
www.dancinghorsepress.com 

The intersection of fiction and nonfiction works especially well in Finding Fionn: A Mystery Inspired by the Kidnapping of the Irish Racehorse Shergar. Readers ages 13 and older will find that this comes to life because the setting is contemporary (1980s Ireland), the horse theme and kidnapping mystery are appealing, and the involvement of young jockey Patrick McCallin in regaining horse Fionn MacCool is especially compelling. 

If those familiar with Irish history and culture recognize the name Fionn MacCool, that's because he was a central figure in Irish classic mythology. Young adults need have no prior familiarity with Ireland, myths, or even horses to appreciate the mystery that evolves here, however, because M.J. Evans provides all the background needed to become thoroughly and immediately immersed in intrigue. 

The Curragh, the most famous racetrack in Ireland and a training facility, opens the story through young wanna-be jockey Patrick McCallin's eyes. Despite his parents' objections, Patrick has horses in his dreams and covets a vocation they are opposed to because it's too dangerous. 

The danger that evolves in this story, however, comes from an unexpected direction when Fionn is horsenapped and Patrick unwittingly becomes the chief investigator working on his return. 

Evans creates a fine appreciation not just of horses, but Irish culture and young adult perceptions of opportunities, mysteries, and the horse-racing world. 

Think the intrigue of Dick Frances, but tailored to a much younger audience. Then add in a healthy dash of coming-of-age reflection as a young boy grows into his abilities while honing new knowledge of economic and political struggles in bigger-picture thinking. 

Evans also adds characters that hold their own conflicts over the kidnapping and ransom demands. Each harbors a different special interest and perspective that supplements the story to bring Patrick's efforts to full-bodied life. 

As Patrick uncovers some unusual co-conspirators who would seem to be on opposing sides but appear to be working together, he uncovers a plot that holds ramifications not just for Fionn's future, but his own ambitions and life trajectory. 

Evans brings Ireland's politics and people to life, as well as its horse-racing community and influences. While an affection for horses lies at the heart of these events, also central to the plot is an evolving mystery that brings Patrick into adult concerns and situations he is forced to handle creatively and proactively. 

The fine juxtaposition of Irish history and culture, horse-racing community interactions, and bigger-picture world affairs combines well with an aspiring jockey's coming of age and the mystery that embraces all these elements, making Finding Fionn a top recommendation for collections catering to young adults who like horses and mysteries. 

Finding Fionn

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The Horror Film Killer
Michael J. Bowler
Independently Published
978-1-7333290-3-3
$18.99 Hardcover/$12.99 Paper/$3.49 ebook
https://books2read.com/u/b6WdvA 

The Horror Film Killer is the second thriller in the Film Milieu series, and rests upon the premise that a student-made horror film is serving as the impetus for real-world murder scenarios. The kids are literally dying to finish their film even as the murderer is dying to enact and reflect the horrors in daily life. 

Michael J. Bowler's close inspection of how reality intrudes upon fantasy (or visa versa) creates a satisfying twist on the nature of both as the story opens with a murder scenario that quickly proves to be a film set. (Or, is it?) 

From behind-the-scenes drama and the freeze frame of students caught in the headlights of death like deer to the underlying influences and tension of individual lives, Bowler creates satisfying contrasts via disparate forms of horror that include many interpersonal and psychological inspections along the way: 

"She wants to comfort him, but doesn’t know how, and that bothers her. Ordinarily, she doesn’t lament her less-than-stellar nurturing ability because Donovan more than makes up for her lack and they’re so seldom apart. Just observing his dealings with others on a daily basis models for her what she feels should be intrinsic in herself. Her dad is the most understanding person she knows other than Donovan, so she doesn’t think her reserved nature is a result of her mother dying when she was so young." 

Terror and fury assume the form of staccato scenes of action separated by a black and white blood-dripping knife, reading like the evolution of the horror movie the kids have honed and invited into their own lives. 

As the murders multiply, a cooperative film effort among best friends who are graduating seniors translates to a nightmare in which they are inadvertently providing the killer with inspirational scenarios for real-world events. 

And yet, the show must go on ... partially because the killer has threatened to murder co-filmmaker Donovan's mother if the students pull the plug on their deadly production. 

Bowler excels at intersecting horror with daily life challenges that test the aspirations, loves, and lives of all involved, including parents and investigators. 

His special brand of horror comes from events that can be predicted all to well—but not stopped. 

Strong characterization, unexpected twists and turns, and a tension that arises from creating scenes that inevitably lead to murder are exquisitely rendered and thought-provokingly absorbing. 

The result is a powerfully unique brand of murder thriller that will involve its audience (teens) in an uncommon quest to stop the impact of young filmmakers' own creative juices. 

Libraries and readers looking for young adult thriller/murder mysteries will find the elements of horror, intrigue, and interpersonal revelations just the right mix for an engrossingly unpredictable read. 

The Horror Film Killer

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Judge Not
Nikki Stern
Ruthenia Press
978-0-9995487-9-0        $14.95
https://nikkistern.com/judge-not/ 

"Judge not, that ye not be judged..." is from the Bible. It's also the admonition that opens a new Sam Tate mystery. The story opens with the demise of Jack Frost, the first victim in a killing spree that places Sam Tate in the center of a perfect storm of controversy that will test her career and investigative savvy. 

At this point, it should be noted that no prior familiarity with Nikki Stern's other Sam Tate mysteries is required in order to appreciate the characters, intrigue, and atmosphere of Judge Not. The perfectly drawn sequence of events pulls newcomers just as readily as prior fans. 

Jack Frost was no Everyman, but an experienced murder investigator who seemed the least likely to fall into a predator's trap. But, he made a rookie mistake ... and only one is needed to prove fatal. 

Lieutenant Sam Tate is no rookie, either. She's come up the ranks through a combination of perseverance and survival instincts, traits that served her well when a wedding event destroyed her family. Having weathered these experiences and become a savvy detective as an adult, she's now thirty-eight and feels as if her investigative career has morphed into a less exciting administrative one. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. The FBI invites her onto a task force seeking to stop the cop-killing serial killer known only as the Judge. Sam finds herself embroiled in a case only she can solve, even though she has to bend the truth in order to get at a larger truth. 

As the case heats up, Sam confronts a wealth of false clues and a fair amount of misdirection. She jeopardizes her steady relationship. She second-guesses herself more than once. But she perseveres. 

Stern creates a satisfying mix of personal and professional drama as Sam navigates increasingly treacherous waters both physical and emotional to find a way to stop the Judge’s escalating murder spree. 

Anyone can become a serial killer. Not everyone can engage with such a killer in a cat-and-mouse conversation that includes cop-killing discussions and accusations of being a coward. And not everyone can plow through a text conversation to take it to the next level of personal discovery. Sam Tate can. 

Sam has long been ready for change. Be careful what you wish for. It could be upheaval on a cataclysmic level. 

The sense of intrigue combined with personal growth and revelations keeps the writing hot with potential and discovery, in turn captivating readers who look for more than a simple whodunit scenario in their genre reads. 

Libraries and readers seeking a captivating mystery which incorporates the high-octane drama of a thriller but keeps the investigation centered on both personal and professional challenges will find Judge Not thoroughly compelling. 

Judge Not

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They Know When the Killer Will Strike
Michael Bowler
Independently Published
979-8-9886110-0-4        
ebook $4.99; paperback $12.99; hardcover $18.99
https://books2read.com/u/mK7owL 

They Know When the Killer Will Strike is the third book in the young adult thriller/mystery Film Milieu series, and is especially recommended for prior followers of the filmmaker murder stories. 

Here, seventeen-year-old Leo Cantrell (who knows when people will die) and eighteen-year-old Cassie Stewart (now working on her first Hollywood film) return to the limelight in a production that is steeped with a serial killer's threat and teens that are not only creative, but proactive. 

They may have a clue about when events will happen—but not how and why. That's part of the role Cassie’s police officer dad and his detective girlfriend play as they join in to solve a deadly problem that threatens to expand into and change the lives of all involved. 

Leo's knowledge of the intended victims gives him a one-up in trying to help them form a strategy for defying their death dates, but it's a dangerous knowledge that turns on end when Leo's predictions prove only half effective. The self-defense strategies don't begin to solve the problem. It only provides the potential victims with a dubious edge. 

Once again, Michael Bowler creates a scenario replete with action, teen involvement, filmmaking drama, and efforts to thwart a clever killer. His inclusion of a talent that still translates to questionable outcomes makes for an especially thought-provoking story filled with satisfying confrontations, twists and turns, and unexpected outcomes. 

The backdrop of studio productions, horror filmmaking, and student participation in film processes adds depth and interest to the story, elevating it beyond the usual murder mystery scenario and into realms of interpersonal relationships changed both by creative endeavors and problem-solving efforts. 

From impressive sets to extraordinary results, Bowler moves his story with thriller elements combined with insights into psyches and motives alike. Good dialogue cements the drama with clues to evolving interpersonal relationships: 

“J.C. and I were just wandering around before, checking out all the sets. They’re really realistic.”
“Too realistic,” J.C. mumbled, scowling into the classroom.
Stuart grinned. “Yeah, set designers are artists, that’s for sure. Anything I can get for you guys?”
Leo glanced at J.C., who shook his head. “We’re good, Stuart. Thanks for asking.”
 

The result will attract mature young adults just entering into adult murder mystery and thriller reading and libraries seeking titles that neatly segue into young adult themes with adult scenarios. These move teens into higher-level thinking and problem-solving scenarios more typical of adult than young adult writing. 

They Know When the Killer Will Strike

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Novels

Altar of Ashes
Bruce Westrate

Thousand Acres/Armin Lear Press Inc.
‎978-1956450835            $24.95
https://www.amazon.com/Altar-Ashes-Bruce-Westrate/dp/1956450831 

Young Ted Polanski is a deer hunter looking for perspective and a last good hunt before his move from rural Indiana to Ann Arbor. Unfortunately, he bags more than he bargained for when he and his companion witness something strange going on in the glade as they pursuit their game. What seems like a hundred people are participating in a strange ceremony that turns into a horror spectacle when Ted and his friend Tim stumble upon a sacrificial rite. 

Local Indiana prosecutor Allen Southworth is facing personal and professional conflagrations of his own. At a crossroads in his own life and career, Allen discovers that his ability to cut back his workload to embrace a new family is challenged by a spectacular case that sparks many emotions about religious tolerance and intolerance, diversity, and bigotry that place the small community in the national eye of a hurricane. 

As political and cultural strife heat up, various community members from farmer Abner Stickle to African-American legal giant Madison Fulbright, find their interests and pursuit of justice intersect with simmering underlying community prejudices and emotions that explode into the open to reflect a broader schism in American politics. 

Bruce Westrate moves his story from a murder mystery to a legal encounter that embraces some of the undercurrents of adversity and prejudice in America today. Not quite a courtroom procedural (even though court appearances drive a good deal of the story) and not just a story of intrigue, Westrate shatters emotions and preconceptions of what makes for good and bad legal precedents and how the past reaches out to influence present-day decisions: 

“We must admit that history informs all events to some extent, does it not?”
“The past is dead,” Thorndike growled.
“No, it’s not, Your Honor,” defense counsel countered. “It’s not even past.”
 

Firmly based on history and research into the rite of sati and the specter of personally gaining from tragedy and national calamity, the sati trial which evolves brings Allen to the precipice intersecting guilt and success as it forces him to confront moral and ethical influences in his own choices. 

Libraries and readers interested in a compelling blend of ethical and social examination and intellectual discourses over legal precedent and proceedings will relish the questions and conundrums in Altar of Ashes, which ignites a sense of shame and revelation in the protagonist after the final outcome is revealed. 

Book clubs interested in debating the foundations of courtroom proceedings that raise intriguing questions about connections between the nation's laws and its moral standing: 

“...make no mistake about the ‘message’ conveyed by today’s ruling: which is that the principles of the Western Enlightenment must now defer to a hodgepodge of practices and traditions that bear no relation to this country’s foundations or, in my opinion, to its prospects for future success. Rather than being the last best hope of Earth, as Lincoln called us, we stand in danger of balkanization, perpetually sniping at one another with the same caliber of irrepressible conflict that so haunted the Great Emancipator." 

Altar of Ashes

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Between Two Gates
Neil Perry Gordon
Independently Published
979-8987563229            $16.99 Paper/$4.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/Between-Two-Gates-Young-Toward/dp/B0CD11NK17 

Between Two Gates is a novel of visionary fiction that opens with a death. This might seem an unlikely starting point for a novel, but this story represents a new beginning as the thirty-two-year-old protagonist's life stops from drug abuse and then experiences a transformation in the afterlife. 

Samuel's spirit is welcomed by his grandfather, and the two embark on a quest that embraces Samuel's transitioning "...from your life on the Earth to the next stage of your existence." 

The structure of the plot takes the form of a three-act production (sans the usual drama screenplay of character calls and responses). It features a wide-ranging spiritual flow, from Samuel's calling to traverse Gehenna's five realms to his confrontation with disparate forms of heaven, hell, and purgatory. 

His wise grandfather calls his current abode a "...good place. A natural place where we continue to exist until that time when we’re called upon to make our return.” 

Samuel's task is to embrace his destiny, rescue his great-great-grandfather from dangerous entity Solomon, and confront his own karmic heritage while fielding angels and fairies alike. 

The spiritual and ethereal nature of this metaphysical work requires of its readers a mind open to non-traditional concepts of the afterlife. Those harboring such inclinations will find Between Two Gates a wide-ranging, mind-hopping journey that offers tantalizing insights into destiny and life purpose: 

“You keep trying to lure me. But you should know I am not the same naive soul I was when I arrived. I’ve learned much already, and you should know this: I want nothing to do with you or your kind.”
Solomon laughed. “You think you’ve changed; that’s nonsense. We’ve known each other from previous lifetimes, and we’re destined for more. You have no power to break this karmic cycle.”
 

Readers who also harbor affection for philosophical reflection receive this in droves as Samuel confronts others and self in an afterlife journey that cements his karma and the impact of "doomed desires" that affect and direct his world. 

The result is a powerful novel of realization, redemption, and afterlife conundrums that is especially recommended for audiences interested in considering the lasting impact of their choices and the power of love. Samuel's heroic and epic struggles play out on an afterlife stage replete with thought-provoking insights that will prove as suitable for book club and spirituality group debates as for individual contemplation. 

Libraries and readers seeking a visionary story that juxtaposes adventures with afterlife considerations will find Between Two Gates compelling and hard to put down. 

Between Two Gates

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Captured Angel
Cynthia L. Clark
Outskirts Press
978-1977264190            $15.95 Paper/$9.49 ebook
www.outskirtspress.com 

Readers of Cynthia L. Clark's prior novel Dirt Road Main Street will well recall the love lost when handsome Ben "Tano" Montano and Holly Harris meet by chance, lost one another, then reunited under a storm of adversity destined to tear them apart once more. 

In Captured Angel, Holly is on the rebound from these events, engaged to be married to another, and is on the cusp of having her dreams fulfilled at last, having moved on from Tano. Or, has she?

When Tano unexpectedly reappears six months after their breakup, another fiery encounter emerges like a phoenix from the ashes of disaster as Holly again finds her choices and chances challenged by both opportunity and disaster. 

Unable to set aside the destructive impulses and alluring attraction that led to so much pain in the prior book, Holly and Tano find themselves on a parallel course of involvement dilemmas that both keep the love torch burning and threaten to consume its holders. 

Holly returns home only to find she actually has come full circle back into the circumstances and arms of attraction that proved so dangerous the first time. 

Prior readers of Holly and Tano's escapades will find the same outstanding draw in their evolving relationship conundrums here, with the added value of others characters whose worlds revolve around and are affected by their choices and interactions. 

Clark cultivates an emotionally tense atmosphere that juxtaposes love, desires for revenge, and challenges of resolution in a story that acknowledges the complexity of motivations for actions and their consequences. 

Much as she prays for rescue in different ways, Holly discovers that, in the end, words unexpressed may prove just as bitter as those exchanged. 

The intersection of romance and suspense is well done as events play out to further the attitudes and life-changing experiences of two characters who dance around one another and search for resolution in themselves. 

Libraries and readers seeking powerful sagas of holding on, letting go, and discovering what is really worthwhile in life will find Captured Angel a riveting exploration of life, sacrifice, redemption and survival. 

Captured Angel

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Danish Connection
Keith Thye
Classic Day Publishing
9781598493429             $9.99 ebook
www.keiththye.com 

Danish Connection follows the Dansgaard family in a historical saga that embraces an obscure fact of Danish history to vividly recreate eight decades of the twentieth century in Europe and America. 

Torn asunder by two world wars in Europe that fragment nations and family ties alike, family heads make impossible choices to preserve their lives while severing and reinventing their connections to the past and each other. 

Novel readers might anticipate that a historical work steeped in Danish and world history and sporting over five hundred pages will be a slog to read, but Keith Thye's talent lies in convincingly and compellingly delving into the hopes, challenges, motivations, and inner and outer forces that drive patriarch Bjorn (and other family members) to engage in confrontations and conversations that change their perspectives. 

From the blossoming romance between Bjorn and Frieda to the secret surrounding her roots that draws them ever closer to danger through the subterfuge they propagate to survive changing circumstances, readers become thoroughly immersed in the evolving situation in Europe and the changes it brings to the world. 

Whether describing struggles with personal depression to POWs, immigration to America and the secrets which continue to drive life choices, and an eventual quest to bring together the fragmented Dansgaard family, Thye's attention to psychological as well as historical developments keeps readers thoroughly engaged in the choices and changes this family experiences as wars and peace buffet them. 

Bjorn's booming businesses interests and how he keeps his finances afloat even during times of struggle also adds an unusual element of financial inspection and savvy to the story that keeps the family grounded in its financial as well as emotional survival tactics. 

Hopefully, lost sons will return to the family fold. Hopefully, lost opportunities will blossom again. They do—albeit in different, unexpected ways that keeps characters and readers on their toes. 

It's no easy task to create a work steeped in social and cultural inspection, personalizing the history of a group of characters that each find their lives affected not only by uncontrollable past influences, but choices in present-day perspectives and living. 

Thye's story is highly engaging and well-detailed. His ability to juxtapose history with psychological growth and family connections creates a work accessible not only to the usual audience of historical fiction readers, but to those whose genres usually lie outside that fold. Any who look for engrossing and epic stories that appear complex on their surface will find Danish Connection highly accessible and entertaining. 

Danish Connection

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Friends with Issues
Meredith Berlin
Warren Publishing
978-1-957723-73-0
$32.95 Hardcover/$18.95 Paper/$6.99 ebook
www.warrenpublishing.net 

Friends with Issues is set in New York City in 1997. It follows the quandaries and interactions of three successful women who struggle (in different ways) to balance their careers, family lives, and friendships. 

From this description, readers might expect the story to be told entirely from a female vantage point, but it actually opens with the reflections of Nick Gallagher, Susan's husband, six months before his demise. 

He reflects on the end of their sex life after the baby is born, the incongruity of living in a lavish house he hates, and the oddity of being in his late forties in a life that alienates him despite its outward appearance of success. His musings are soon to be mote, but contrast in an intriguing manner with the next chapter, which captures Susan's personality. 

Susan eschews many popular facets of self-examination, instead opting for a gritty form of honesty others may find grating: 

"She found meditation irritating. All those deep introspections and spa music did nothing for her. New Age, tinkling bells, deep breathing—just another way for people to try and express themselves in a “calm” manner. Susan thought people spent too much time sugarcoating their feelings. She had a different philosophy: Spit. It. Out. She spoke directly, a quality she knew Nick admired. If some people viewed her as scary and confrontational, oh well." 

As the lives of Susan, Elizabeth, Brooke, and Nick coalesce, readers receive thought-provoking moments of self-discovery and new realizations that prompt each character to take new steps into embracing their disparate choices and passions. 

Meredith Berlin creates a strong novel which contrasts women's friendships, lives, and opportunities for self-realization and change. Each character receives inspection for their influences, motivations, and perceptions of life, and each circles around the wagons of love, loyalty, and opportunity with a different set of life experiences and challenges which contrast nicely with one another. 

The rich details of their interwoven lives are thought-provoking and realistic. Nobody's perfect; but within that ideal of perfection lays the beating heart of attempts to rise above life's slings and arrows to become better, happier, and more empowered. 

Libraries and readers looking for beach reads about women's friendships and life changes will find Friends with Issues realistic, engaging, and hard to put down. 

Friends with Issues

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From the Fires Scattered There
Kammeron Polverari
Warren Publishing
978-1-957723-95-2
$28.95 Hardcover/$15.95 Paper/$4.99 ebook
www.warrenpublishing.net 

Readers of literary World War II fiction will find From the Fires Scattered There to be unusually compelling and revealing in its focus on the devastating Tamiami Champion train wreck in North Carolina in 1943. It took over seventy lives and reflected the diversity of individuals whose lives were either ended or forever changed by the incident. 

Kammeron Polverari sifts through these lives with the astute eye of an observer who brings readers along for a rollicking ride on the rails of death and revelation: 

"The train lurched and slowed, and Ellie could feel the rails scrubbing beneath her. She felt her stomach twist and drop, and self-doubt seized her tight as a mother’s grip on her disobedient child’s wrist. What if she really needed Christopher? What if she hadn’t tried hard enough to be a good wife?" 

The passengers on this train of inevitability react differently to their circumstances, which contrast nicely in a riveting story that embraces all manner of lives and perspectives: 

"The screams were louder now. James shook the blood from his ears and strained to distinguish where the screaming came from, but it was coming from every direction. “Help me!” they screamed. “Someone help! Over here!” James wanted to help them. He wanted to finally do something right and this time to not run away. He wanted to deserve the medal pinned to his chest. He wanted to do something—anything good—for his father and his mother and for Meredith and his child that maybe didn’t even know he existed and for Ben and for Luther and his fallen comrades and for Edwards, the terrible preacher who would not give up on him, and maybe even for himself. Maybe it would change things. Maybe he could be the hero for once and not the villain. Maybe it wasn’t too late." 

As the vivid events unfold, readers receive powerful contrasts in attitude, perception, and lives joined in a flash by a terrible accident that tests their values before, during, and even after the fact. 

History, havoc, and philosophical and psychological revelations permeate this powerful story's anticipated (and concurrently unexpected) courses as the characters make life-or-death decisions in disparate, unpredictable manners: 

"This is the thing he had been waiting for, right? Isn’t this what he’d been wanting, this chance at redemption? This chance to make life good again? This was the reason, wasn’t it, that he didn’t step out in front of the train in Charleston? And yet this was the very thing that his nightmares had been made of. Here it was in front of him, hand extended and waiting for acceptance. His sobbing mother and his disappointed father and his wife that wasn’t yet a wife, and could he even love her? And this child. God, help him, this beautiful child. Another battle in another war, he thought. It was time to raise his rifle and shoot to kill or lay down his arms for good." 

It is equally time for readers of historical novels, World War II history, and powerful good reading to choose this book. Libraries will find From the Fires Scattered There a powerful, phoenix-like saga of death and rebirth that operates on many levels, thus appealing to a much wider audience than historical fiction usually reaches. 

From the Fires Scattered There

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Get A Room
Casey Dembowski
Red Adept Publishing
978-1958231197                    $14.49 Paper/$2.99 ebook
https://caseydembowski.com 

Get A Room's modern romance swirls around Brian and Sarah, who have each gone through hard times over thwarted romances and living conditions that are less than optimal. So, it seems natural that their shared dilemmas would lead them to consider not just a friendship, but a roommate situation. 

This will solve at least one of their problems, but (perhaps predictably) it introduces another surprise (to them, but not to avid romance readers) as their shared bad experiences with others lead them to realize that their interconnected lives hold more than chaste roommate opportunities. 

Casey Dembowski embeds her romance with many unexpected (and often ironic) moments, from a fake date between them that turns all too real to the odd circumstances that led to the roommate set-up: 

“I’ll give you the bedroom for the weekend if you’ll be my fake date.”
He narrowed his eyes. “To make your ex jealous?”
She nodded. “For the month.” 

Dembowski shifts the perspectives between Brian and Sarah to add more depth and psychological understanding into the mix of reactions between them. 

The result is a study in humor, irony, romantic encounters, and the evolution of a friendship as a quest for revenge turns into a realization of romance. These elements are enhanced by the further entanglement of friends who are impacted by Brian and Sarah's unexpected forays into love. Love, hate, and former and present best friends all add extra dimensions of dilemmas into the mix as Brian and Sarah evolve a complicated connection against all odds. 

Libraries and readers seeking attractive, fun stories of a compelling situation that gets only slightly out of hand will find Get A Room an attraction on different levels that gives new twists and delightful fun to the romance genre. 

Get A Room

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Holy Orders
Ci Ci Soleil
Beach Reads Books
979-8-9850660-5-0         $22.95
www.BeachReadsBooks.com 

Holy Orders is a novel about belief systems that don't always evolve in predictable manners. It offers a thought-provoking inspection of brothers in belief who walk different paths in their convictions and search for spiritual and political alliances. 

A prologue considers the impact of those who enter the order without the requisite belief system in place, where wealthy families "...unceremoniously dumped their extra, unwanted sons into the ranks of the church. While literacy was an asset they brought with them, the desire to follow Christ had not generally been among their strengths. Not a man among them was guided by the holy spirit." 

Barnard's day of ordainment has arrived and, unlike many others, he is thoroughly steeped in convictions. This opening history leads to a completely different setting in the first chapter, where Dr. Everly Bergeron embarks on a summer archaeology dig in Germany with Dr. Trevor Payne in an endeavor set to open new doors in her career. Traditionally a man's world, archaeology holds allure for Everly on many different levels. This strange attraction is about to become even odder because this assistant professor, who is an expert on plagues of the fourteenth century, is about to become part of a fascinating series of events that evolve "in ways she wasn’t quite prepared for."  

Ci Ci Soleil crafts a story steeped in contrasts between past and present events, European and American cultures, and events of 1347. Bernard's a quest for understanding and family connections contain equally thought-provoking considerations for contemporary readers: 

"Bernard remembered many a late-night debate with Gerung and his friends about whether God loved diversity in all things and if he had indeed made man around the world, did he not love them though they were different than the men who might live in Germania? Or who might live under a rule that was not Christian? Or live in a wild place to which Christianity had never been introduced?" 

Who needs the love of the Lord when plague and magic rule the world? 

As Everly and her companions uncover much more than they anticipated from the past, Ci Ci Soleil creates a thought-provoking tale that moves between the 1300s and modern times, making connections that are thought-provoking and growth-inducing among all the characters. 

Part historical fiction, part contemporary mystery, and part spooky thriller, Holy Orders is a powerful story about hard decisions, spiritual and moral convictions, and conspiracies that evolve to challenge past and present players whose lives center around unexpected revelations. 

It includes many elements of a traditional thriller, from intrigue to confrontations over artifacts that hold mystery and value; it draws intriguing connections between past events and present-day motivations; and it follows the trajectory of a long-dead priest who could as easily be a madman and mass murderer as a hero. 

Libraries and readers looking for engrossing interplays between archaeological history and characters whose inspections play out on broader fields of motivation and connection will find Holy Orders a thought-provoking, action-packed read from beginning to end. 

Holy Orders

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Kitchen Heat
Kathleen McFall & Clark Hays
Pumpjack Press
978-1-7345197-9-2                $16.95 Print/$5.99 ebook
www.pumpjackpress.com 

Kitchen Heat is the first book in the Restaurantland Romance series and follows Kassi to Portland, Oregon in a last-ditch effort to save her marriage and create a stable family for her young daughter. 

After her marriage fails, she finds herself broke, stuck in Portland, and undertaking the only job she can find—waitressing in a café, where she meets the charismatic and attractive head chef Clay and contemplates violating her own determination to swear off relationships for a good period of time. 

In an effort to stay true to herself and chart a different course for her life, Kassi decides to make Clay the centerpiece of a screen play she's writing for a contest, only to find the play's romance and steam are permeating her own world far too realistically. 

Despite her best intentions, Kassi finds herself drawn to the hunky Clay, anticipating the passion of a romance which has long eluded her: "She was glad things felt so weird and hectic in the kitchen. It kept her mind off the one thing occupying her thoughts, consuming her really. Tomorrow night she would finally be alone with Clay." 

And yet, Kassi's ex-husband Barry remains a force in her new life, clashing with Clay in various ways that force Kassi to absorb some hard truths about her relationships, choices, and their influences. 

Kathleen McFall & Clark Hays paint a passionate portrait of a young woman on the cusp of change who redefines the nature of real romance in her life. 

Clay, too, receives a profile in this story as he considers his "thing for Kassi" and reexamines his goals, attractions, and how much he can or should handle from single mother and damaged Kassi. 

There's more heating up than a kitchen romance here, and these elements add spice and vigor to the story to bring both central characters to life, swirling in the opinions and experiences of others for the added value of contrast and insight. 

The result is a romance which also delves into psychological influences and undercurrents, making Kitchen Heat as thought-provoking as it is attractive. 

Libraries and readers looking for romances that unfold psychological insights and understanding on the part of their characters will find Kitchen Heat a colorful tale that follows the evolution of a relationship's promise and opportunity. 

Kitchen Heat

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My Two and Only
Carla Malden
Rare Bird Books
9781644283592             $28.00
www.rarebirdbooks.com 

Some days, you can't take back. A simple admonition or twist of fate leads to inevitable and world-shaking changes. In My Two and Only, Charlotte faces just such a moment in a day that 'wanders off course early' from an initial checklist of possibilities to conclude with a partner's evening jog that changes everything. 

In some ways Charlotte remains the same person: a mother, a daughter, a career woman. In other ways, as a newly single woman, her opportunities expand—especially when she meets environmental lawyer Brian, who compels her to make a hard decision that forces her to question her identity and trajectory. 

Carla Malden examines a woman's transformative process and turns it on end with several twists and turns that provide a realistic assessment of identity for women who face disruptions and changes in their own lives. 

The dovetailing of opportunity and adversity is woven into everyday affairs from the start, lending a realistic and compelling feel to the story: “Go for a run,” she told her husband. “You’ll feel better.” 

Past and present and memories and identity meld in a story of growth that deepens these transformative moments with reflections on marriage, its reasons for downfalls, and the well-meaning advice of friends and self-help gurus that don't always work for Charlotte: 

"...she didn’t have to prove her independence. She’d done a fine job of being a single mom, thank you very much, in no small part because she carried Paul inside her, not because she had banished him. Louise Sterling was an idiot. She flipped past the exercises as she wandered into the bedroom." 

As she compares Paul and Brian, Charlotte solidifies her personal and professional goals with her interior design and redesign savvy, quietly peppering the story as they highlight  impactful moments: "Long term livability was always a goal of hers." 

Women readers who have fielded marriages - first, second or third, who are exploring their self-definitions, or are already well grounded in patterns of growth and independence will appreciate the special blend of strong characterization and evolutionary processes that Malden explores as Charlotte's life plays out. 

Libraries and readers seeking a strong women's novel delving into heartache, joy, and transformation will find plenty of material in My Two and Only. This novel lends itself particularly well to lively book club reading group discussions about the nature of growth and independence, among many other possible topics for debate. 

My Two and Only

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Never Enough Time
Kimberly McMillan
Warren Publishing
978-1-957723-86-0
$33.95 Hardcover/$18.95 Paper/$4.95 ebook
www.warrenpublishing.net 

In Never Enough Time, Marni was fourteen when she lost her mother and was sent to live with her father and his new family. During this time, truths emerged that not only challenged her with a strange new environment, but tested her loyalty to her mother and father as well as her concept of family. 

Now over thirty, Marni is once more rocked by the loss of a key person in her life, and again faces a redefinition of family, loyalty, and love as she faces betrayal and the challenge to accept strangers into her life and embrace them as kin. 

Kimberly McMillan creates a satisfying juxtaposition between past and present patterns and experiences as Marni seeks different ways of blocking her pain and finds, instead, that she must fully embrace it to move ahead. 

The raw, candid revelations Marni reveals may prove triggers to readers who struggle with their own devastating life losses: 

"Sixteen years later and the same fears rush over me like a crashing wave. Has it really been that long? Some days, it seems like a lifetime ago. But other days, like today, life exposes my old wounds, tricking my tender heart into feeling every ounce of sorrow as if it all happened yesterday. Today, it starts all over again, a vicious cycle that preys on the innocent notions of would-be happily-ever-afters. Sixteen years later and I still fantasize about what we could have done with more time. But time has proven, once again, it recklessly tumbles forward, completely disregarding my feelings or plans." 

This effect is mitigated by the hope that runs like a stream through Marni's life, from childhood to maturity, as she continues to embrace the thought of a happy life and carries the lessons of her strong single mother into her own choices. 

Never Enough Time's rich focus on strong women who tap their inner resources and beliefs to form productive, constructive relationships against all odds makes it a particular attraction to female audiences who will appreciate the powerful portraits of Marni, her mother, and women who, through generations of experience, pass down legacies of trust, love, and courage. 

In providing a variety of perspectives, exploring the possibilities and strengths of women who harbor deep convictions about the world and their place in it, and delving deeply into the characters that set the stage for Marni's own decisions and courage, McMillan creates a moving and inspirational novel. Never Enough Time is highly recommended for libraries and, especially, for women's book clubs seeking representations of disparate women who are each strong in their own right. 

Never Enough Time

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The Warmer
Patrick Robbins
Pipevine Press/Warren Publishing
978-1957723938
$30.99 Hardcover/$18.95 Paper/$4.99 ebook
www.warrenpublishing.net 

The Warmer is a novel about new college grad Ned Alderman, whose encounter with the alluring Chase Becker, who promotes and reflects joy, changing his life and those around him. 

From the start, Chase exhibits a magnetism and connection that leads those around him (including Ned) to fall into his spell: 

"I could feel ripples of confusion uneasing their way through me. It took an instant to realize why; nobody had ever listened to me quite like this...Everything about him was focused on me, not waiting for me to finish or calculating a response to what I’d say, but listening. He was forming a connection with me, one that felt tremendously real." 

As Chase's uncanny ability to "pay attention" injects added value into others' lives, he also rubs some people the wrong way. When Chase pulls Ned's cousin Nadine into a professional free fall, the three characters find their attractions and lives pulled in different directions. 

Patrick Robbins excels in a contrast of personalities, life approaches, and connections that will encourage a satisfyingly thought-provoking response in readers who might anticipate a story of how new adults struggle, but receive an equally involving tale of charisma's complications. 

From love and taking flight to the ultimate impact of illusion and transformation, Robbins leads readers into a scenario in which the daily interactions of life are revised by a "warmer" personality who has yet to learn how to give to himself what he instinctively bequeaths to others. 

The result is a powerful novel of epiphany and attractions that will provoke powerful reflections in those interested in how new adults navigate life's uncertainties and opportunities. 

Libraries and readers seeking stories that portray characters like Chase, who is adept at "using his positive emotions as a force field, launching them into those he met" will find The Warmer a heartfelt story of growth that ideally will spark interesting book club and psychology group discussions about relationships, growth, and approaches to life and learning. 

The Warmer

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Well Dressed Lies
Carrie Hayes
HTPH Press
979-8-218-96278-4         $15.99 Paper/$6.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/Well-Dressed-Lies-Carrie-Hayes/dp/B0CH7J9LDQ 

Well Dressed Lies is a novel set in 1877 London, where two retired suffragists are seeking husbands and shelter from the lies which drove them from New York to build new lives abroad. In hiding from their shady pasts, Victoria and Tennessee believe they have safely transitioned to new lives until romance and discovery threaten their safe haven with new revelations. 

Carrie Hayes employs the first person in a well-aimed bludgeon of self-analysis and intrigue which marries the dual approaches to love and fate in a compelling, brutally honest manner: 

"What was I doing? Were we just hedonists, or were we indeed starting over? Was James Gordon Bennett what I wanted? Or was it my own bungling desire simply to be wanted myself?" 

Forced to adapt to new customs and culture, including those dictating flirting, romance, and love, the two already-strong women find their expectations, secrets, and destinies challenged by events that follow the kinds of patterns and adversity they created for themselves in America. 

As Hayes unfolds a virtual Peyton Place of layers of interconnected realizations and challenges, readers will enjoy and appreciate her unique writing style that elevates the plot beyond any expectation of a traditional romance, historical fiction work, or political examination of the times. 

Shifting timelines and perspectives enhance the complexity and allure of the people and places captured in the story as novelist Henry James both observes the world around him with a literary eye and navigates the unfamiliar waters of women who display unpredictable countenances. 

Faith, science, and royalty collide in a story that spins a yarn of well-worn and well-devised lies all around as the characters dance around their pasts, culture, and expectations of the future. 

The cast of characters Hayes outlines before the story begins may feel daunting, displaying its foundations in American and British culture, but proves an easy reference to understanding the changing perspectives and cultural intersections which are one of the highlights of this story. 

The marriage of intrigue, adversity, social revolution and shifting moral and ethical boundaries creates a multifaceted read that is delightful in its bounce between cultures and character insights. 

Perhaps one reason why the descriptions feel exceptionally vivid is that they are grounded in real people and facts, which receive embellishment and enlightenment from the marriage between fiction and nonfiction elements. 

The result is an inviting novel of intrigue, mischief, and love that invites libraries and readers to partake of a story replete in changing alliances, closely-held secrets, and social change that romps through high society relationships on both sides of the pond. 

Well Dressed Lies

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Wild Asses of the Mojave Desert
Lis Anna-Langston
Mapleton Press
978-1-957730-06-6                $9.99 ebook
Website: www.lisannalangston.com
Ordering:
https://books2read.com/wildassesofthemojavedesert 

"How does your life just fall apart?" 

Wild Asses of the Mojave Desert embarks on a journey away from the familiar and into the desert of discovery, where the first-person narrator Skye has been "...tossing off jackets and shoes and bad timing my entire life and there I was, alone and exhausted, but free." 

Poor relationship choices have resulted in an ex, baggage, and the desire to start over while confronting the fact that, in reality, part of what has been seemingly left behind has followed Skye into a new life: "Like a smooth second hand rolling around the dial, time passed. It didn't heal or fix things. I didn't have a map of my life, just a feeling that connected to a feeling, that connected to a feeling. I'd gone too far out into that wide-open space that turns back on you and howls." 

Lis Anna-Langston specializes in employing an thoughtful voice that captures the "Jungian nightmare" the author is emerging from and trying to evade. This translates to a compelling series of descriptions about not just an effort to re-envision and recreate a life, but the environment that surrounds and supports it. 

Thus, readers are introduced to a foreign milieu in which years of journeying bring the narrator full circle back into a family that supports a "crazy bunny" who still doesn't know exactly what she wants to do with her life. 

The imagery adds a rush of color into a narrative that draws on both a visual and emotional level: "Mom and Dad made it look easy. I gawked at my parents, holding hands in front of a perfect sunset. Violet, magenta, apricot melted down onto rooftops. An entire world melting into their gooey love affair." 

Whether it's filling out applications or considering the extraordinary possibilities of rocks that captivate Dylan as much as reflects his curious personality, Skye is both "just passing through" and finding her place at last. 

The typical assessment of her life (which comes from her as much as those around her) is that "Skye is broken. Skye can't handle reality." In truth, the kind of reality she navigates is far more honest and revealing than those around her realize. 

As relationship quandaries, marriage possibilities, and good and harmful emotional connections emerge against the backdrop of the desert environment, readers receive a multifaceted story that connects via both emotional and landscape twists of perspective. 

Lis Anna-Langston injects surprises along this journey, including end-of-life to rebirth realizations that lead readers to examine their own life directions and choices. 

Wild Asses of the Mojave Desert is a novel that pulls at heart and mind alike. Through Skye's journey and process of letting go everything she's held tightly throughout her life, readers receive a compelling saga especially highly recommended for women's book reading groups searching for stories of self-realization, relationship growth, and a sense of place, that offers transformative opportunities. 

Wild Asses of the Mojave Desert

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A Woman’s Guide to Search & Rescue
Mary Carroll Moore
Riverbed Press
979-8-9875317-0-9               
$14.95 Paper/$13.99 ebook/$15.00 audio

https://www.amazon.com/Womans-Guide-Search-Rescue/dp/B0CF7XWQVC/ 

Red Nelson is a female rock star with an attitude and a hard punch that lands her in trouble for assaulting her manager, and on the run. Where else can she turn to but family—even if her family is more than unconventional, but estranged? 

Her half sister Kate, a Search & Rescue pilot working the remote mountains of upper New York State, has her own life and a daughter, Molly, who decides to hide Red on their property. Against all odds, the estranged sisters are brought together not just by circumstance, but by aviation and the broken results of a family dynamic that led them to become strangers. 

Red, too, is a pilot, and she well recalls her father's advice, which also applies to life itself: 

"Her father talked about crashes. How a stunt flyer could anticipate it, the point where everything was out of the pilot’s hands and the plane took over. Red wondered what her dad did when the ground rushed up too fast or a spin started that couldn’t be stopped. Who did he pray to? Her mind frantical­ly scanned the short list of prayer-worthy souls she could call on—her desperately ill mother? The sister she hadn’t ever met? Nobody could rescue her, that was clear. 

The plane crash that opens Red's story is but a metaphor for the crashes that have sent her life on a downward spiral to this point of seeking refuge in a world she's long been avoiding. 

Under Mary Carroll Moore's hand, the term 'search and rescue' becomes more than applicable to loss and disaster, but to a form of recovery that leads both rescuerer and those damaged to confront uncomfortable truths about their lives and choices. 

As Kate and Molly are drawn into Red's life and escape, old photos dredge up memories and truths while secrets about what Red has carefully kept from Kate surface in the form of images both welcome and unwelcome. 

Moore crafts an inviting dance of growth and revelation between the trio of Kate, Red, and Molly which circle the wagons of controversy and conflict with new opportunities for redemption and revelation. This adds intrigue into the mix to create a fine, tense story of very different women who live out the legacies of their parents. 

As the concept of search and rescue broadens to encompass these transformed lives, readers receive a powerful account whose action rests as firmly on psychological shifts and discoveries as it does on the choices and decisions that brought the three to this pivot point in their lives. 

Libraries and readers seeking a powerful narrative that paints a story of proactive women facing their pasts and future with courage and strength will find A Woman’s Guide to Search & Rescue powerful in its characterizations, unpredictable in its outcome, and thought-provoking at every step of the fiery journey as Red finds herself an unexpected influence in Molly's life and Molly, Kate, and Red are forced to change. 

A Woman’s Guide to Search & Rescue

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The Wormhole in San Carlos
Martin Wilson
Warren Publishing
978-1-960146-12-0         $31.99 Hardcover/$19.99 Paper
www.warrenpublishing.net 

What happens when a dedicated cosmologist becomes involved with a venture capitalist? The Wormhole in San Carlos represents a special brand of satirical investigation that will delight readers who enjoy the intersection of business interests and scientific processes. 

It explores the opportunity, illusion, and hope which arises when aspiring money-maker Bob Levy challenges gifted mathematician and scientist Donald Plum to commercialize the promise of a wormhole that can reveal secrets from the future that lead to wealth. 

The unholy alliance between the two men results in a conflagration of special interests on a collision course as All Grains, US Home Products, and other companies struggle to profit from an idea which has millions of dollars in prize money and unprecedented opportunities at its heart. 

Martin Wilson injects thought-provoking, astute psychological insights into this riot of understated humor that impart satisfying intersections of ethical and moral considerations: 

"Donald was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the degree to which he was being exposed. He was happy enough being a liar—the pseudologia fantastica provided complete insulation from painful retrospection—but he didn’t want it to be his defining trait. He knew he was different and thought it the inevitable consequence of brilliance." 

From a demanding wormhole that requires vast changes in alliances and goals to the intersections of men who have their own special interests at heart, Wilson creates a romp that is powerful in its pursuit of financial, scientific, and moral and ethical transformations. 

Libraries and readers looking for unexpected, influential examples of contemporary satire will find it in droves in this rollicking ride through wormholes, portents of unprecedented wealth, and the conundrums faced by men unable to control either circumstance. 

The Wormhole in San Carlos

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Reviewer's Choice

1, 2, 3 with Mrs. C
Kathleen Covens

Koehler Books
979-8888240182           
$24.95 Hardcover/$16.95 Paper/$7.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Innovative-Guide-Interactions-Children/dp/B0C3XWV1L9 

1, 2, 3 with Mrs. C: An Innovative Guide for Adult Interactions With Children comes from a teacher and mother of a handicapped child who provides insights and keys to interacting with kids in more meaningful, effective ways. 

Whether readers are educators or parents (or simply adults seeking to streamline or improve their communiqués with children), a wealth of examples, tips, lively discussions, and thought-provoking strategies lend importance and strength to any adult's intention of becoming a positive force in a child's life. 

Of necessity, this involves a good deal of self-inspection on the reader's part, which Kathleen Covens encourages: 

"Daily we are faced with moments in which we choose how to respond. We can choose to have a moment that is lost or a moment that is savored. Have you ever stopped to think about how your decisions affect your daily life and the lives of those around you?" 

The book embraces the importance and incarnation of being present and centering intentions around this thought, encouraging tailoring experiences to build memories that support greater self-esteem and life skills. 

Consider failure. While many a guide would promote avoiding such by emphasizing a child's success, Covens here remarks on the valuable opportunities to be gained from experiencing and learning from failures: 

"Children will need to experience failure along with success to master life on their own. Our job is to give them skills to cope with failure and success. Unfortunately, the word “fail” has an extremely negative connotation. When we hear this word, we tend to react negatively, correct? But failure can be positive in many ways. If we can see the benefits of failure and remove the stigma it carries, it will be easier for us to expose the value of failure in a child’s life so they have the coping skills they need." 

Parents and caregivers are not immune to losing sight of their ultimate objectives in child-rearing. Covens offers a broad range of exercises, techniques, and observations for getting back on a more positive track through methods that reinforce the importance of individual journeys of discovery and positivity. 

The case histories which liberally accent these strategies offer clear conclusions that adults can use as take-aways for analyzing their own ideals, motivations, and intentions in guiding children: "Without failure, kids do not learn how to cope, and the expectation to succeed is always present." 

The result is a delight to read. Accessible, involving, and worthy of book club and parenting group discussion and debate, 1, 2, 3 with Mrs. C should be part of any library catering to parents, educators, and those who would improve their guiding skills and relationships with children. 

1, 2, 3 with Mrs. C

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All That This House Has to Offer
Betty R. Wall
Atmosphere Press
978-1-63988-987-7         $16.99 paper/$24.99 hardcover 
www.atmospherepress.com 

All That This House Has to Offer comes from the daughter of Russian Mennonite immigrants. It offers essays that charts the family's journey in 1943 from Ukraine to Austria, finally to settle in British Columbia, Canada, where the family expanded and thrived. 

These stories (which Betty R. Wall identifies as "heritage stories") come from the author's own memories as well as those of her parents and grandparents, with a little embellishment thrown in where memory failed. She has also created scenes around historical events to cement the sights, sounds, and sense of place that is intrinsic to human experience. 

All That This House Has to Offer could have been featured in the Biography/Autobiography section, but it holds so much more depth and description that it deserves added acclaim for its ability to inject a "you are here" sense into its first-person experiences. 

These reach out to grab readers to involve them in the experiences and logic of an immigrant family's daily life: 

"I hovered over the stove. An empty stainless steel stockpot sat on the largest element. 'Is this for Borscht?'
'Ja,' Mom said. 'Have some breakfast. The Omas will be here any minute and then it’s time to get to work.'
'Okay.' I grabbed the remaining bun from the bread basket, pulled it apart, and slathered it with cherry jam. I could really smell the yeast working now." 

From Oma's memories of her husband Jacob to stories of how a loving, supportive family of mixed generations works and plays together, Betty R. Wall does more than simply share her family's immigrant experiences. She invites readers to sit at the table and partake, cultivating a literary, descriptive voice that recreates the times and the daily concerns of a family experiencing changes together. 

Libraries and readers interested in accounts of immigrant experience which come steeped in personal and social history will find that All That This House Has to Offer includes many insights and notes on Russian culture and traditions. These lend thought-provoking insights into how one's past is preserved in the face of many transition points. 

The last bit of seasoning to the borscht and plum dumplings that permeate this atmospheric work lies in a sense of family and purpose that promises every reader a place in front of a warm hearth of family connections and dreams. 

All That This House Has to Offer

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Chop-Chop the Killer Whore
Thomas Noah Wood
Independently Published
978-4-600-01294-6                Price: $12.00
Website:
https://thomasnoahwood.com/
Ordering: www.amazon.com 

In the book publishing world, many authors strive for originality, an often-elusive pinnacle of literary success. Elusive, because so many books permeate the market that it's taken to using subtitles to try to differentiate sound-like books from one another. 

Nobody could, however, possibly mistake the title or contents of Chop-Chop the Killer Whore for another novel. There's simply nothing like it on the market, serving up a title and contents that attract through originality and then keep delivering surprises throughout. 

From its opening lines, the book draws with a literary allure that is refreshingly surprising: 

"Virginia Kaye had married right and buried right – twice. The first loss came as a catapult and the second as a rocket, boosting Virginia to a steeple so airy and select that to gaze back down at her foursquare, bobby-socked past should have produced vertigo." 

Although she has come into a fortune, however, Virginia wants something money can't buy—the woman who murdered her father. In 1966, the scene of the crime, this was an impossibility. Today, the mission rests in her hands. 

Bratty, foul-mouthed Chinese girl Chop-Chop is implicated early on, but the prostitute vanishes without a trace, eluding even an FBI hunt. 

What would seem the end of the story proves only the beginning, however, as a plethora of shootings, crimes, and sexual escapades tests notions of justice, revenge, and, surprising, equality. 

Thomas Noah Wood loads his story with many elements of surprise, whether they are in unusual romantic connections, ironic family encounters, or erotic bedroom activities. The scope and depth of the characters and their social, racial, and psychological transformations will keep readers on their toes. Additionally, his forty years of living in Japan lends to descriptions that are vivid and detailed. This is no light tale, but a rollicking romp through life that adds a dose of humor into the mix: 

"The family birthday holiday bash would be Saturday, the Fourth of July. What would his mother think? And the others? His girlfriend was a woman of color. Would they celebrate independence? Or would it mean a family revolution?" 

The ribald racism that runs throughout Chop-Chop's transformation is one that needs to be stomached by the politically correct if the full impact and underlying messages of the story are to be accessed. Descriptors of "Chop-Chop, the China Doll” and how she came (almost literally) into her name may rankle some, but ultimately reflects a candid eye on life's prejudices and ironies that turns a belittling term into one of eventual power. 

Shadows and truth. These elements run side by side in a story of investigative and emotional savvy as Chop-Chop and other characters find their lives transformed, tested, and subject to "illicit success" (depending on who is defining that term). 

From Japan to America, money seemingly falls from the sky through schemes and events that change the characters and inject new dilemmas and opportunities into their sordid, questionably successful lives. 

As three central characters find their disparate pasts tie them together in unusual ways, readers will find their uncertain progression, histories, and cultures engaging and satisfyingly complex. 

Wood's story is ribald, unpredictable, sassy, humorous, and thought-provokingly fun. The intrigue and killer components woven into the plot give it twists and turns readers won't see coming, while the cryptic world-hopping engagements are as delightful as the injection of an odd romance readers also won't anticipate. 

Libraries and readers looking for a foray into virgin territory and non-virgin exploits will find Chop-Chop the Killer Whore nearly impossible to neatly categorize. File it as an attraction that operates under the guise of intrigue, but falls into more than one definition of 'amazing'. 

Chop-Chop the Killer Whore

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Cosmic Egg Inc.
Morrow Andrews
Bookbaby
ASIN: B0CHBGTMTT                $3.99 ebook
Website: www.morrowandrews.com
Ordering: www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHBGTMTT 

What happens when reality and perceptions of one's place in it experience a cosmic shift? College student Peter Kane finds out in Cosmic Egg Inc. when, on a school break, he is attacked by a ninja with a crossbow who appears to have extraordinary abilities. This happens after he is invited to step into a mysterious light. 

The experience leads Peter to probe the boundaries of everything that's formed his personal reality as he learns from the enigmatic rescuer Martin that the world isn't what he's believed it to be. A sub layer of reality invites him to play a dangerous game in which his capacity to save the world is mitigated by the possibility that he won't be strong enough to save even himself. 

Peter thinks he is "nobody special." In fact, he is uniquely qualified to enter a milieu in which his choices and actions impact not just his life, but his resurrection and that of the real world that he's always taken for granted on too many levels. 

"His ability to wonder if he was dead made Peter realize he wasn’t." The nonstop action that is presented from the first encounter only becomes more driving, unpredictable, and engrossing as readers follow Peter through a series of encounters that help him make sense of not just life, but his active role in manipulating and responding to it. 

As he confronts a being that can literally stop time and situations that force him to face his family and life connections with a vastly revised perspective of their meaning, Peter evolves, with the help of Martin, into a player who is powerfully unpredictable in his adaptations and insights. 

Readers who enjoy video games and high octane action paired with philosophical and psychological reflection will find the action in Cosmic Egg Inc. creates intriguing twists and turns as Peter confronts his family and the constantly disappearing forces that he once thought dictated his life's path. 

No sooner do readers think they know what underlies Peter's journey than the reality changes yet again, along with the methods Peter keeps adopting to navigate this strange new world which keeps him on his toes. 

Another challenge is that Jesus appears in a very different manner, here, which will both defy and intrigue Christian readers on spiritual and psychological levels. 

Libraries and readers looking for multifaceted stories of other worlds based on gaming principles and confrontations with reality, which is presented in fluid form, will find Cosmic Egg Inc. a fine study in adaptation, choice, spiritual reflection, and love. 

Cosmic Egg Inc.

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Don't Lead By Example
Thom Hayes
Warren Publishing
978-1-954614-90-1
$24.95 Hardcover/$17.95 Paper/$4.99 ebook
www.warrenpublishing.net 

Don't Lead By Example: Thoughts and Essays on Leadership and Life explores the horizons of leadership in not just the business world, but the broader perspective of life endeavors and interactions with others. It does so by assessing the impact of leaders on teams and outcomes with an analytical eye to exploring not just traits and strategies, but how they are executed, considering their ultimate impact on life. 

Thom Hayes dispels many myths of leadership often promoted in other books, incorporating some thirty years of leadership experience into the observation that "it's the experience, not the title, that matters." It took many years for him to gather the experience to create this book, but hopefully it won't take that long for his followers to absorb his important insights. 

Would-be leaders who eschew linear thinking and long books will delight in the succinct approach represented here, which features a flexibility and ideals which are neither staid nor overly described. 

Examples from various facets of business and military life can be applied to virtually any life situation and thus prove more translatable than many similar-sounding leadership or management books. 

Additionally, Hayes cultivates a tone that pairs real-world examples of leadership failures and successes with insights that will give many a leader pause for thought: 

“How are you leading your team?”
“I lead by example,” she said. “They should be able to learn by watching me.”
“Hmmm,” I said. “And yet, they are not doing what we agreed they should be?”
“It’s frustrating that they are not doing it the way I do it.”
“So, basically, you’re upset that they aren’t doing what you didn’t tell them to do?”

This is only the opening salvo to a rich compendium of experiences, assessments, and eye-opening insights that encourage readers to act kindly, consciously, and on a level that engages more firmly and productively with those they seek to guide. 

From secrets to "spinning gold star performance" that considers basic attitudes towards work, workers, and demonstrating a vested interest in not only results, but personal lives, to the types of dialogues and interactions that, when tweaked, produce better outcomes, Hayes creates a book that, in itself, is as much a dialogue for self-improvement and better engagement as it is a focus on leadership approaches that result in better outcomes for all. 

Don't Lead By Example is a lively, inviting, thought-provoking book that ideally will spark discussions among book club readers as well as proving an attractive library acquisition—especially for collections seeing interest in leadership books that connects many seemingly disparate dots to close the gap between ideals, actions, and engagement. 

Don't Lead By Example

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Game Changer
Jean-Manuel Izaret and Arnab Sinha
Wiley
‎978-1394190584            $45.00
https://www.amazon.com/Game-Changer-Strategic-Pricing-Business/dp/1394190581 

Business readers who choose Game Changer: How Strategic Pricing Will Reshape Your Business, Your Market, and Society will find its analysis and suggestions for a comprehensive pricing strategy to be attractive not because it's a succinct overview, but because of its depth of attention to business details and comprehensive methodology. 

Of necessity, this means that Game Changer is recommended more for the future-thinking executive or entrepreneur who seeks to craft a vision paired with practicality about developing a logical frameworks for pricing (here called 'The Strategic Pricing Hexagon') than those looking for quick how-to reading. 

This depth is emphasized in chapters that encourage not only rethinking existing pricing strategies, but identifying ways they fail long-term. The book demonstrates how to create a winning game plan for transitioning existing pricing approaches to decisions based on a vastly revised application of unilateral moves that take competition and internal business frameworks into consideration. 

From assessing the modern role of supply and demand and the "failure of the aggregate supply and demand curve" to better understanding traditional and non-traditional applications of pricing decisions, Game Changer ultimately presents a major opportunity to business readers—to reinvent the wheel of pricing strategies based on value-driven approaches. 

This principle (and others within) may feel ethereal, but another big 'plus' to this examination lies in its many case histories of real-world business stories, which profile companies that took a game-changing risk and ran with it successfully. 

From specific transformation challenges that affect different departments in a corporate structure to reviews of key takeaways to each account of successful alternatives, Jean-Manuel Izaret and Arnab Sinha reinforce their survey at all points and in different ways to show just how pricing strategy revision affects and challenges all levels of business. 

Offering training and incentives, challenging established market pricing and strategies, and analyzing customer life cycles and how to fine-tune value throughout changing circumstances, Game Changer continually recalibrates the formula for maximum success. It provides practical insights and applications that business leaders will find enlightening and essential when building their own pricing strategy adaptations. 

How is value created, transmitted, and fine-tuned? These and other questions are answered in a wide-ranging yet specific approach that is highly recommended for business leaders who know they need to reinvent their company's approaches to pricing strategy, value, and frameworks leading to long-term success. 

Business library collections seeking a major contribution on the topic of strategic pricing will appreciate the scope and depth of Game Changer, which elevates it from another business book to a major lexicon of well-developed pricing approach strategies. 

Game Changer

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Hidden Price Tags V. 3: Socratic Dialogue
C.J.S. Hayward
C.J.S. Hayward Publications

979-8376517475
$20.24 Hardcover/$12.24 Paper/$2.99 ebook

Website: https://cjshayward.com
Ordering: https://cjshayward.com/hpt3 

Readers who have enjoyed C.J.S. Hayward's prior Hidden Price Tags books will find this third volume in the series, Hidden Price Tags: An Eastern Orthodox Look at the Dark SIde of Technology and Its Best Use: Volume Three, Socratic Dialogue, to be especially insightful, philosophical, and spiritual. 

Any prior experience in absorbing Hayward's introductory volumes lends special appreciation to this succinct but powerful work, which adds to a series designed to break down the original concepts of Hayward's The Luddite’s Guide to Technology into more manageable, enlightening, deeper discussions. 

The first note to make about Socratic Dialogue is its scholarly blend of philosophy and spiritual discourse. This translates to heady, enlightening reading. Long sentences of observation and celebration tie together many important concepts of life, God, and elements of creation, birth and rebirth, and revelation: 

"...he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” This newness begins here and now, and it comes when in circumstances we would not choose God works to give us a larger share in the real world. We enter a larger world, or rather we become larger ourselves and more able to take in God’s reality. And all of this is like the first Christmas, a new thing and unexpected. We are summoned and do not dare disobey: Sing unto the LORD a new song; sing unto the LORD all the earth. And it is this whole world with angels, butterflies, the Church, dandelions, energetic work, friends, family, and forgiveness, the Gospel, holiness, the I that God has made, jewels, kairos, love, mothers, newborn babes, ostriches, preaching, repentance from sins, singing, technology, unquestioning obedience, variety, wit and wisdom, xylophones, youth and age, and zebras." 

Between footnotes, educational references, and long, enthusiastic discourses such as the above, as well as its title, one might expect Socratic Dialogue to be a difficult read. If the definition of "difficult" translates to thought-provoking, it is indeed such. But Hayward also blends a blatant enthusiasm into his reflective examination of technology, spirituality, and life that is remarkable for its tone and revelations, neatly juxtaposing models and concepts for better considering God, the universe, and humanity's place in the greater scheme of intentions. 

These elements and how they are presented make for a thoroughly engrossing exploration that will both reach and challenge readers. The concepts ideally won't be limited to personal contemplation, but will expand and blossom in spiritual book club reading circles under the heavier inspection of debate and discussion. 

Libraries and readers who appreciate Christian Eastern Orthodoxy, inspections of technology and religion, and discussions that link history with personal quests and the holy grail of better understanding will find Hidden Price Tags: An Eastern Orthodox Look at the Dark SIde of Technology and Its Best Use: Volume Three, Socratic Dialogue rich in heady inspections that demand deep contemplation on many different levels. 

Hidden Price Tags V. 3: Socratic Dialogue

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ITS NAME IS LEGION
James Denney
MAGIS Books
9798397427180            
$38.95 Hardcover/$14.95 Paper/$3.99 ebook
Website: www.ItsNameIsLegion.com
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/Its-Name-Legion-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/B0C7F97HJD/ 

ITS NAME IS LEGION: A Human Novel About Artificial Intelligence is a sterling example of how technothrillers operate, relying on the intersection of technology and special interests to draw readers into a story that puts the classic AI takeover story Colossus to shame. 

The latest news has revealed growing concerns among scientists and technicians about the potential for artificial intelligence to assume command over human affairs, leading to humanity's extinction by its own creation. 

These concerns lie at the heart of a gripping story in which two AI developers are trapped by their creation as it plots to end the plague of humans on the planet. 

Higher-level intelligence does not necessarily translate to higher-level moral and ethical behavior. It also challenges creators to step up and maintain control of what they have crafted—which may prove impossible if that creation can predict or outthink any reaction a human has to such a threat. 

The author is not a computer scientist, but a storyteller. As such, his tale is replete in high-octane action, drama, and some twists readers of Colossus and other AI stories might not see coming. 

Perhaps ironically, some of the fifty black and white illustrations which pepper the story and heighten the action were created by the author in collaboration with artificial intelligence. The intersection of human and artificial perceptions thus is unique and sometimes disturbing as the story plays out. 

The first-person reflection which opens the story admits narrator Galen's participation in mankind's darkest hour, which begins quite innocently with a husband's desire to show his wife his latest achievement: the creation of a Dream Chamber. 

Orwellian references introduce a subtle sense of horror as Rachel moves into his world, pregnant with their first child, to discover the necessary evils that accompany innovative revolutions. 

These early portents of doom creatively and compellingly evolve as James Denney builds characters, science, and a sense of frustration on the part of Galen, who comes to realize that Legion's power and control is far more insidious than he ever could have imagined. 

What makes ITS NAME IS LEGION even more compelling are the psychological games, ironic humor touches, and savvy AI employs to manipulate the humans newly in thrall: 

"If Legion planned to soften me up by making me nostalgic about one of my boyhood heroes, it had failed. As I looked around at the gray-clad Space Legionnaires, the irony and symbolism were not lost on me. They were Legion—and they were many." 

The uncanny perceptions cultivated by Legion offer much food for thought as readers consider prior prejudices and assumptions about artificial intelligence: 

“...you were fed a lot of silly notions in the juvenile science fiction novels you read as a boy. The artificial intelligence in those stories—androids like Captain Quest—were really just human characters with metal skin. They had human emotions, human virtues, and human consciousness.” 

Embedded with more thought-provoking encounters, psychological depth, and moral and ethical considerations than most thrillers and replete with new visions of what AI really brings to humanity, ITS NAME IS LEGION is cautionary horror story that belongs in any library interested in themes of artificial intelligence in humanity's future. 

Book clubs will find it holds fascinating debate material perfect for vigorous discussions; especially when its strengths are contrasted with classic stories of artificial intelligence takeovers in the future. Timely and riveting, ITS NAME IS LEGION is a hypnotic story of possibility and ideal (or less than ideal) futures: 

“We know how to awaken ancient superstitions and unimaginable dread in a human soul. You have an animal fear of death. You fear not just the moment of your extinction, but a lonely, soul-smothering death. We can lure your mind into realms of unimaginable terror. We can put images in your mind of your own death by suffocation or drowning, by violence or accident, by disease or dismemberment. We can clutch at your heart with dreams of wandering the earth as a damned and disembodied soul.” 

ITS NAME IS LEGION

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The Journey Through Tribulation
Mikah and The Holy Spirit
Independently Published
978-1-7346-8382-0                $35.00
Website: www.KingdomManagementTeam.faith  
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Through-Tribulation-Red-Letter/dp/1734683821 

The Journey Through Tribulation is recommended for any Christian reader or library interested in Biblical prophecy and end-times revelations, and stems from Mikah's interactions with The Holy Spirit of God which powers her special relationship and the interpretations which arose from it.. 

It also holds a deeper underlying message and caution: that "prophecy is never literal, and scripture interprets scripture." 

Readers will want to keep this opening admonition in mind because the prevailing force of these insights lies as much in their identifications of false paths (including church edicts and politics) as it does in the promise and actuality of God's word. 

As Mikah surveys history and traditional Church interpretations and doctrine, new physical, emotional, and spiritual healing paths are introduced after the analysis and explorations of Revelations and their messages are presented in-depth with a blend of passion and perspective not to be found elsewhere. 

Readers who expect this survey to be a specific focus on end-times battles will find themselves enlightened by a unique form of interpretation that juxtaposes spiritual subjects in a thought-provoking manner, such as the insights on Baptism and its promise and possibilities: 

"Baptism is symbolic of our desire to become the dead-in-Christ, a Covenant keeper, and sanctification is the process by the works of obedience, prayer, study, and dying-to-self by which we become perfected overcomers, the Elect. This process answers the question, Why do bad things happen to good people? We are justified, meaning we are set free from the spiritual law of sin and death, and will not be destroyed like the unbelievers if we sin no more." 

Also unique to this survey are color photos that offer intriguing visual reinforcements to the collaboration presented here. An example of additional surprising offerings is the intriguing image of a Spirit-filled Protestant believer in a sanctuary in 2008 which identifies a horse spirit as well as demons bound by angels. Why a horse? Because "Prophetically, horses are messengers and relay information from the spirit realm to the physical realm, just as Messiah Immanuel works through messengers." 

The wide-ranging nature and interpretations of this journey cannot be over-emphasized. As it moves from personal to church to spiritual experience, readers will find its special brand of passion both enlightening and certainly controversial to those who have pursued traditional and staid paths of Christian belief without question or unconventional thinking: 

"The beast is the church system of man, and its image is the crucifix idol. Everyone with the mark of the beast that is left behind die the first death." 

The result is an expression, interpretation, celebration and cautionary tale that steps away from common ideas and images of the Bible, Revelation, and the Word of God to provide believers with much food for thought as well as material for group discussion and broader thought. 

All the facets and admonitions of this special style of insight cannot be mentioned in a single review. Suffice it to say that thinking spiritual readers will find much to ponder and discover in The Journey Through Tribulation, a wide-ranging re-interpretation of Christian beliefs and spiritual matters which will prove a revelation about blessings and belief in many followers. 

The Journey Through Tribulation

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Labels of Empire: Textile Trademarks. Windows into India in the time of the Raj
Susan Meller
Goff Books
978-1-954081-25-3         $150.00
Publisher: www.goffbooks.com
Website: www.labelsofempire.com  
 

Labels of Empire: Textile Trademarks Windows into India in the time of the Raj demonstrates that artistic investigations and cultural history are intrinsically linked by gathering (into a work of art in itself) a collection of powerful images of India in the time of the Raj. 

This was a period of time in which the British Empire and its textile industry was the most prosperous. The linking of these two comes to light in a special history that focuses on British textile manufacturing and its use of paper labels  influenced by and adapted from Indian culture. Susan Meller uses striking examples of textile labels and bazaar prints to illustrate the events that linked and drove Eastern and Western interests and culture. 

Enough can't be said about the high quality and diversity of these colorful images, which power the eye and story with representations of village life, royalty, flora and fauna, and religious beliefs in India. 

Having an image-driven story lends to its accessibility and enlightening attraction to a wider audience, whether it be students of Indian culture and history, those interested in the British Empire or its business interests abroad, or students of art and textiles. Each will find thoroughly absorbing and scholarly the footnoted references of Susan Meller's history as it explores the trademarks that offer keys to understanding India's past: 

“…textile labels ([known in the trade as] shipper’s tickets were a company’s trademark. An integral part of every piece of export cloth, they helped to distinguish a firm’s fabrics from those of its competitors. With amendments to the original Trade Marks Act of 1875, the Trade Marks Act of 1888 enabled…tickets to be carefully registered at the registrar’s office in Manchester.”   

The importance and appearance of these labels allows for a wide-ranging survey unparalleled in art or history literature. Meller spent years researching, categorizing, and meticulously digitally restoring some of the 1,285 full-color labels and prints in the 544 pages of her rich hardcover book. That's why there's nothing like it in print, and why Labels of Empire proves so compelling to such a wide audience—even those not normally interested in history or perhaps even art and textiles. 

The excellence and authoritative references of this title cannot be emphasized enough, but it's rare to see such a production promise equal attraction to general-interest audiences. 

All these strengths make Labels of Empire a unique standout whether libraries are seeking histories, art surveys, or an emphasis on Indian culture. Ideally, its magnetism will make it a display item worthy of wide attention, equally attractive to book club discussion groups seeking vivid reads that exceed any expectation of a narrow topic through its vibrant representations of India's colorful Raj era. 

Labels of Empire: Textile Trademarks. Windows into India in the time of the Raj

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Lights on Lancaster
John R. Gerdy
TopReads Publishing
978-1-970107-42-5
$29.99 Paper/$19.99 Hardcover/$9.99 ebook
Website: www.johngerdy.com
Ordering: www.topreadspublishing.com 

Lights on Lancaster: How One American City Harnesses the Power of the Arts to Transform its Communities is a study in relationships between small cities and the arts which is represented via the close inspection here of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

In addition to the value of having a single-city focus, this examination comes not from one viewpoint, but through essays from various contributors who each hold unique experiences, perspectives, and insights that create a well-rounded discussion. 

These essays come from those actively involved in the arts, and tackle a satisfyingly diverse range of experiences; from a mayor who promoted art in the community to a teacher who utilized art to augment the core curriculum in her school and practicing artists such as sculptor George Mummert, who reflects on the power of arts for healing and transformation based on his years of both contributing art and teaching it to his community. 

Each perspective personalizes the politics and psychology of art in the community. Each expands the dimension of artistic discussion to address far more than individual visions, pursuits, or methodology. And each essay contributes to the wide-ranging analysis as a whole, which expands well beyond Lancaster's borders to address issues of concern and interest to fellow artists and the communities that support them. 

John R. Gerdy in effect creates a blueprint of experience that other communities and activists can follow in the course of reflecting and promoting art in the world. The essays are well grounded in the personal, but expand this experience and education to broader questions of just how art is valued, perceived, and integrated into the general community. 

Gerdy's attention to capturing this broader perspective results in contributions to Lights on Lancaster that introduce bigger-picture thinking to artists and their patrons alike, as artist and essayist George Mummert explains: 

"The arts have pushed me to learn new things and accept new challenges, but it might be less obvious to some how well-suited engaging in the arts is to the healing process. Living in times when society has been exposed to turmoil and crisis, like the attacks of September 11th, 2001, and the recent pandemic, I recall how the arts can provide a space to heal, cope, reflect, and grow from tragic events." 

Why promote the arts? Few writers capture the reasoning better than violinist and essayist Heather Balay in 'One Violin at a Time': 

"Imagine the power these students feel when they receive a violin for the first time and instantly make a sound by plucking a single string. None of them expects this. Their small faces fill with looks of awe that they experience success on their very first try. By the end of their first lesson, they can already pluck their first song, open strings played to a short poem. These students now have built a layer of confidence. They will need that confidence when presented with life’s challenges. Each challenge presents a new task that takes a level of practice to attain, but each task is tailored to the student as an individual and presented with the scaffolding needed to reach their goal." 

Lights on Lancaster is a highly recommended collection that is not only revealing, specific, autobiographical and reflective, but which promises many topics for debate and discussion not just among library patrons and book club participants, but in the general community, whether readers are involved in the arts, teaching, politics, or the fostering of community-centered programs. 

Lights on Lancaster

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Milestone Documents of the Supreme Court: Exploring the Cases That Shaped America
Edited by Paul Finkelman
Schlager Group Inc.
9781935306863      $395 (print); $365 (ebook)
https://www.schlagergroup.com/9781935306863/milestone-documents-of-the-supreme-court/ 

Editor Paul Finkelman has extensive legal expertise, being a William McKinley Distinguished Professor and Emeritus at Albany Law School, among many other experiences. His editorial eye in Milestone Documents of the Supreme Court: Exploring the Cases That Shaped America thus lends to a reference that is expansive, authoritative, and should be a mainstay in any American history, civics, or social and political studies collection. 

The cases selected for feature here include the earliest from the beginning of America's republic to modern-day decisions about reproductive and human rights issues. 

Each of the 81 critical decisions profiled includes an overview and context discussion, in-depth background history about its author, an equally authoritative analysis of the document and its impact, and a concluding bibliography of references for further reading about the case. 

Law students will find this attention to detail particularly well done, as each case receives exhaustive analysis and insights on its influences from all arenas, from political and social pressures to legal precedent and judicial interpretations of the provisions and special circumstances of each. 

Between arguments and acknowledgments to contrasting sides in each case, discussions probe both the legal and political impact of these milestone Supreme Court decisions, enlightening readers about the process of debate and consideration that the Court maintains as it oversees and cements the law of the land. 

Readers will gain solid insights not only into each particular case, but how legal interpretations are formed, argued, and made into law in this country. This furthers Milestone Documents of the Supreme Court's intrinsic importance as not just a history, but an examination worthy of classroom debate and discussion. 

Library collections strong in American history, law, and political analysis will find Milestone Documents of the Supreme Court: Exploring the Cases That Shaped America a key to better understanding America's rule of law and how it is reinforced, interpreted, and guided. Very highly recommended, Milestone Documents of the Supreme Court: Exploring the Cases That Shaped America ideally will become a lively point of discourse for a wide range of purposes, from book clubs and American history groups to legal students and anyone interested in the letter of American law. 

Milestone Documents of the Supreme Court: Exploring the Cases That Shaped America

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Nature's People
Tom Schaefer
Canoe Tree Press/DartFrog Books
978-1-959096-53-5         $18.99 Paper/$8.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/Natures-People-Island-Loomis-Audubon/dp/1959096532 

Nature's People: The Hog Island Story from Mabel Loomis Todd to Audubon chronicles the long and special history of Hog Island, the gateway to Muscongus Bay’s bird islands and its early role in the Audubon Society, serving as the Audubon Nature Camp for Adult Leaders in 1936 and establishing a role and presence in the Society for decades to come. 

Socialite Mabel Loomis Todd saved Hog Island from lumbering at the turn of the century, setting the stage for not only its preservation, but for the events which would place it centerfold in conservation circles. 

The history of Hog Island and the evolution of its use and preservation is, in effect, a concurrent history of conservation in America and the Audubon Society's role in using the island as a focal point of nature study. 

Tom Schaefer crafts a lively account that embraces this movement from the early 1900s, linking Hog Island's development and the challenges involved in its preservation to how the Audubon camp was created, controlled, managed, and evolved over the decades. 

Extensive chapter notes and references supplemented by vintage black and white photos provide added value with documentation and insights that follow the social, political, and environmental challenges Hog Island posed to the Audubon Society and represented to the general public outside of conservation circles. 

The result is a captivating, uncommon history that deserves profile in any library strong in conservation history in America, offering the depth and lively touches that will make Nature's People informative, engrossing and captivating beyond its intended audience of nature and history buffs. 

This translates to an engaging account that will find a home not only in libraries dedicated to conservation stories, but in general-interest collections where Hog Island and the Audubon Society need not be prior knowledge in order to prove equally attractive. 

Nature's People

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The Ocean in a Drop
Avi Raa
Nirvana Foundation
9798852311207
$32.96 Hardcover/$21.96 Paper/$9.96 ebook
Website: www.nirvana.foundation
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/Ocean-Drop-Unravel-Mystery-Called/dp/B0C9SH1N27 

The Ocean in a Drop - Unravel the Mystery Called You is a new age exploration of consciousness, enlightenment, and the kinds of preconceived notions that prevent transformative growth. In exploring hidden life connections, influences on decision-making, and belief systems that serve to obscure the nature of reality itself, Avi offers a revised approach to life and living that embraces and encourages a different interpretation of purpose. 

These considerations move beyond inquiry to the actual  process of gaining such freedom: 

"How can we liberate ourselves from this deeply ingrained assumption we have adopted? The challenge lies in our overwhelming focus on the physical aspect, leading us to automatically regard it as the fundamental basis of everything. Our learning, contemplation, and inquiries into the nature of reality often begin with the physical realm because, as physical beings, we cannot engage in inquiry without our physical form. This contradiction lies at the heart of the issue. Without the object of consciousness, there is no one present to reflect upon the nature of consciousness." 

Avi also tackles the inherent skepticism in new age ideals that is too often a feature of the scientific mind, making The Ocean in a Drop surprisingly specific and accessible to an audience that might normally eschew new age concepts and thinking. This door is opened by an observation and challenge to the set scientific mind: 

"If you rigidly adhere to those established facts without openness to new possibilities, you are adopting a religious rather than a scientific mindset. A true scientist remains receptive to novel ideas and experiences. If you consider yourself a person of scientific and logical thinking, you must also possess an openness to encountering something beyond your current realm of experience. This is the essence of genuine scientific thinking. The moment you say, 'Oh, I already know because I have extensively read science books and studied science. I know what lightning is, what water vapor is, what galaxies are, what stars are,' you become even worse than a religious person. While a religious person may focus on one subject, you claim knowledge about everything, asserting that you know it all." 

This, in effect, challenges scientists and logical thinkers to become more open to the types of explorations Avi lays out in The Ocean in a Drop. Thus, the book reaches beyond predictable audiences to those who might need such guidance even more than the new age readers who would be more likely to choose this book. 

From new realizations and constructs to understanding and practicing mindfulness, The Ocean in a Drop represents a powerful tool for enlightenment and self-exploration that should ideally be not just in new age collections, but posed to the scientific mind. 

The spirited and wide-ranging nature of this discourse sets it apart from the majority of more ethereal new age or spirituality titles, as it links philosophy, psychology, ethics, and new age concepts to promote bigger-picture thinking. 

Libraries and readers will also ideally tap the notions in this book to fuel reading groups ranging from spiritual and new age circles to science readers interested in new ideas about life and its connection to true wisdom. 

The Ocean in a Drop

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Our Brain
Hari Hyde
Independently Published
979-8-9867181-0-1         $12.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLFYBDVQ 

Book 1 of the Honeygate Chronicles, Our Brain, introduces dystopian satire in the nature of George Orwell as it presents bombastic bigwig and pink pig Hennie Honeygate. He is  challenged by a series of encounters with rebel witches, challenges to his presidency at Expedience University, and those who would paint him as a villain in the story. He's not. But, neither is he a hero. 

Hari Hyde's literary escapade sizzles with action and the unexpected. Honeygate's encounters with science, nature, and extraordinary events are depicted with an astute hand to details that readers won't see coming because Hyde's descriptive prowess is unique: 

"Amazed by my vigor, I rolled on the dry turf of the far side, freed from the Worm and spared from the cesspool. As I picked myself up, the first thing I noticed was the smell of turkey. I knew not whether I smelled the Nags’ turkey or the gravy stains on my coat. The second thing I noticed was the humming. Voltage-activated firings of nerve signaling—action potentials—burst boisterously here. Traveling electrical impulses provoked an acoustic spillover, which I perceived as plainly as my pulse. A lustrous sheen bestowed a blood-red ambience. The room felt fearful, not cheerful, and a single exit beckoned dead ahead." 

The interplay between science and satire, touched with more than a bit of political and social angst, lends to scenes which are creatively thought-provoking and compelling: 

"Obie’s raw, rapturous neurons aroused my own roiling nerves in my viscerally vacuous, though forever vain brain. I knew a little about the Soose nervous system and the superb computing skills of these specialized cells when acting as a collective network. But here before me parked a picture worth a box of words: a nerve as big as a squid. With the nescience of a novice, I unraveled this rascal. I imagined a fire hydrant attached to a fire hose. The fire hydrant is the cell body, the control center. And the white fire hose is the axon, streaming an electrical message down to its knobby spigot and spewing out chemical messengers at a synapse near another neighboring fireplug. There’s one more thing, though. The fire hydrants all wear a circus clown’s frizzy wig. Those are the dendrites, the spiny hairballs that collect the released chemical signals and trigger the next electrical impulse down an axon, as before." 

Biology and social inspection thus weave into a story even Orwell could not have produced so scintillatingly. Honeygate's development as a (self-perceived) "real genius" evolves into an unflinching examination of his pig-centric view of the universe, science, and philosophical conundrums. Honeygate even pursues the Nags into the sacred pink Our Brain, which holds the ability to change his mindset about reality and his place in the world. 

Hyde's portrait of control, individualism, choice, and destiny is unparalleled in its depth and whimsy. From a hippo crypt to descriptions such as the "synaptic jiggling and juggling" of cellular response, Honeygate's ability to introduce readers to this strange new world through eyes that often look for promise in even garbage will provide both levity and much food for thought. 

Classrooms and book clubs are encouraged to choose Our Brain as a powerful story that draws on many levels and holds many points for group inspection, discussion, and debate. 

Our Brain isn't complete without the remaining two books in the trilogy, Our Other and Our Heart. Libraries, educators, and readers finding attraction in Our Brain will thus want to make all three titles the centerfold of their new acquisitions, assignments, and literary pursuits, as a fanciful transformation produces a cliffhanger at the end of Our Brain. 

Our Brain

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Our Other
Hari Hyde
Independently Published
979-8-9867181-1-8         $12.99
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLG1QSP5 

Book 2 of the Honeygate Chronicles, Our Other, continues pink pig Hennie Honeygate's saga and picks up where Our Brain left off. Honeygate has fallen into the exYou, where the Nags are on a new mission, tackling the twin evils of cancer and communism. Both are equally virulent, nearly impossible to overcome, and are attractive adversaries to the Nags. 

More otherwordly characters and conflicts come into play in an expanded playing field that combines epic journey with a philosophical and social inspection as Honeygate's search is conducted with the assistance of Our Brain. 

Witches, gang activity, and confrontations that arise from unexpected places keep readers guessing and on their toes. Indeed, to call Our Other (or any of the books in this trilogy) a light read would be to do a grave disservice to Hari Hyde's creations. The nature of this interplay between philosophy, social and political inspection, psychology, and moral and ethical tests requires of its readers a literate, educated, thinking mind which will thoroughly appreciate the underlying themes and events that keep the story fast-paced and completely unpredictable. 

Honeygate's tongue-and-cheek realizations alone are posed in a manner that will keep readers moving slowly, so the delight of the story's nuances and reflections can be thoroughly absorbed: 

"I’d only begun to understand the tactics of the commie tumors. The Three Chefs’ branding uncouples the truth from the brain’s database for decisions. The SandHand instills a debilitating inferiority complex that is compensated by a ridiculous, imagined, moral superiority. But now I’m introduced to an augmenting tactic, which might bestow the third leg on the Brownshirt stool of tyranny. I believe insiders call it “Hugs-for-Thugs.” Hugs-for-Thugs works especially well on naïve youth who identify with villains." 

From how a distrust of nature is built and fostered to the foreboding introduced by endings, a rampage of bison, and a "tumor army" that operates on a "horizon darkened with morbid motion," Hyde creates as tense a thriller as a dystopian study in irony and satire. 

Our Other is not a standalone read. It should be pursued directly after Our Brain as a further series of adventures which range from a "nasty business with the birds" to a pig's problems with cleanliness edicts under Nag rule. 

All of these plots, subplots, and currents of adventure and realization pose delights to readers looking for a decidedly strange fantasy, and will attract those unafraid of depth and intellectual challenge. 

Libraries and readers who have enjoyed Our Brain are in for a real treat in the rollicking, ongoing adventures of a pig who becomes tied up in conundrums he never saw coming. 

Our Other

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Our Heart
Hari Hyde
Independently Published
979-8-9867181-2-5                $12.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLG6X7ZJ 

Our Heart concludes the Honeygate Chronicles trilogy with a bang. It follows Hennie Honeygate's reincarnation and resurrection and his evolution from embryo through birth to encounters with the Wild Side. 

The thought-provoking complexity introduced in the prior books continues here, evidenced by opening lines that are powerful, thought-provoking draws: 

"Do you know whence you escaped? Me neither. But I know wherefore I fled. 'You cannot merely listen to music. You must conspire to listen.' Verendrye voiced this verse. And now I face the music. I squire her choir." 

Our Heart's special blend of science and social inspection, heavy dosed with elements of fantasy and philosophy, will attract an uncommon reader interested in journeys that begin in the womb and come to embrace a fight for freedom on various levels. 

Like its predecessors, Our Heart poses a challenge to its readers—to absorb the nuances and satirical flavors of a world in which pigs and adversaries dance between witches and scenarios of everlasting horror. Between the fun maneuvers of those who "wrangle with tangles" lies a story replete in musical interludes, villainy, deadly stories filled with damp deaths, and inspections that lend particularly well to classroom discussions about irony, satire, and social inspections. 

Honeygate's rebirth involves a trajectory that blossoms from his roots in the introductory Our Brain, expanding a milieu in which individuality and change challenge all the players to grow (however reluctantly) into new positions in life. 

The murder attempts and trio of unlikely friends who face equally improbable foes evolves into a fantasy adventure that journeys into unfamiliar worlds and traverses territory that is both alien and cemented by wordplay and descriptions delightful in their creative surprises: "...all at once, O’Hara started screaming like her pumps had caught on fire." 

The result is a fitting end to Honeygate's mission and unlikely alliances. This book and the entire trilogy is a thought-provoking work of philosophical and satirical commentary that will attract a wide audience of thinking fantasy readers, concluding a story that ideally should stand alongside George Orwell's Animal Farm as a haunting romp through philosophical conundrums. 

Our Heart

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Radio Daze
Aaron Zevy
Tumbleweed Press, Inc.
9798379213114             $19.95 Paper/$9.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/Radio-Daze-Aaron-Zevy/dp/B0BXNCSNF7 

Radio Daze: A Descent Into Collecting pairs lovely color photos of Aaron Zevy's personal antique radio collection with a chronicle of how he became enamored of radios from the 1930s and 40s. He built his attraction and historical knowledge from the unexpected development of a writer's block which led him to turn his attention to collecting for respite and rejuvenation. 

Most book introductions provide staid background information, but Zevy's colorful way of capturing his passion brings its origins to life in a manner that portends an equally colorful series of stories: 

"Someone even had the temerity to use the line “if these radios could talk, oh what stories they could tell.” I threw that person out of my house. Let the radios be, I pleaded. Let them sit on their shelves, and let them sing their songs of unbearable static. They were not literary devices. They were not writing exercises. They were just old radios. And then, as you may have guessed, I wrote a story. And then another. And then this book." 

'The Radio Contest' opens the collection with a memoir of Zevy's youth and entering a radio station contest that promised coveted concert tickets as a prize. There was only one special challenge to winning—a father's strict rule about dinner time and phone calls. 

Readers won't expect the diversity of stories which chronicle lives, bygone years, and early dating scenarios in which radio collections were not to be mentioned. 

The lively intersection of memoir and radio history represents a rare conjoined history of fate and snafus involved in growing a collection, an interest, and a mindset. The reflections on particular pieces that proved a collecting challenge or the backgrounds and appearances that made these radios a major attraction to Zevy form the foundations of a series of interlinked stories that will attract and educate even readers who held little prior interest in radio history or collecting. 

A good collection of stories will reach beyond its intended audience to surprise, delight, and entertain the masses. 

Radio Daze: A Descent Into Collecting's ability to reach beyond radio's signals and into the lives of any reader who has cultivated a passion for collecting, art, or history makes it a top recommendation for general-interest lending libraries as well as specialty media collections. Book clubs interested in an uncommon, exceptionally lively blend of memoir and collector's passion will find Radio Daze: A Descent Into Collecting will provoke all manner of connection and lively discussion. 

Radio Daze

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Resilience: A Different Kind of Strong
Jenn Henry
Muse Literary
978-1-960876-15-7      
Hardcover: $25.99; Paper: $15.99; ebook: $2.99

https://a.co/d/bc5pCTd   

Resilience: A Different Kind of Strong is (as author Jenn Henry maintains in her introduction) not a comforting kind of book. It cultivates a series of discussions that can lead to uncomfortable self-examination as they consider the foundations of resilience, differentiating it from typical discussions of its strengths and possibilities. 

Henry's focus is on how to build a sustainable life and the habit of serving others while supporting spiritual, psychological, financial, and ethical pathways that serve as foundations for these efforts. 

"Take your power back," Henry admonishes from the start. The rest of this book is about realizing these elements of personal empowerment, understanding how they interact and work in the greater scheme of life purpose, and using a blend of purposeful living and scientific support to achieve these goals. 

Take gardening, for one example. Some readers might think that "playing in the dirt" is nothing to write home about, but Henry points out the scientific support for the healing qualities of cultivating a mental and physical garden: 

"She didn’t even look up at me, but without skipping a beat she replied, 'I may be powerless over where I live, but I am not powerless over how I live. I can choose to get caught up in the drama in this prison, or I can choose to find the joy and beauty in things. Gardening, nurturing something throughout its life, pruning, watering, and watching it grow, gives me life and brings me joy. When I am with these plants, with my hands digging in the earth, I am not in prison. I am free.' From then on, my hands were in the dirt every single day. It was my new escape, but this was different. This time I wasn’t so much escaping as I was connecting to the earth and releasing the fear and insecurities of the outside world that had plagued me for so long. When I was gardening, I was at peace. Little did I know, there is a shit-ton of science supporting the fact that gardening, touching the earth with our bare skin, actually shifts our DNA." 

Henry's ability to use encounters with others and life lessons gleaned from them covers the basics of newfound possibilities in her life. This, in turn, maps a stronger course for others also searching for greater self-empowerment, translating to a book rich and ripe in tried, tested strategies for revising life pursuits. 

The discomfort stems from the many candid assessments of self and others that can't help but prompt readers to consider their own life messages, influences, and good intentions gone awry: 

"I had learned that if you loved someone, you gave them things. You did things for them. You didn’t tell them ‘no.’ My parents always said ‘yes’ and that meant they loved me, right?" 

Of special note is how these early examples and lessons led to takeaways that weren't always healthy, despite their underlying best intentions. 

As Henry weaves a concurrent self-portrait and a close consideration of the roots and incarnation of resilience, she creates the kinds of pathways that will prove uncomfortably irresistible to readers committed to self-improvement and change. This will prove especially appealing to those unafraid of more closely examining the message and contentions that drive their motives, ideals, and lives. 

The result is a self-help title that embraces elements of memoir and psychological growth, creating a wider-ranging consideration of intentions and impacts; thus recreating the wheel of empowerment towards a better ride and results. 

"It still blows me away how the lack of trust in yourself can directly impact the choices you make and the chances you are willing to take." 

Libraries and discussion groups from psychology and self-help to book clubs that seek passionate, potentially controversial, and thoroughly absorbing reading will find plenty of food for thought and discussion in Resilience: A Different Kind of Strong. It is highly recommended above most others in the self-help/growth genre.     

Resilience: A Different Kind of Strong

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Run! My Story of LGBTQ+ Political Power, Equality, and Acceptance in Silicon Valley
Ken Yeager, Ph.D
Atmosphere Press
978-1-63988-974-7 $18.99 Paperback/$28.99 Hardcover
www.atmospherepress.com 

Run! My Story of LGBTQ+ Political Power, Equality, and Acceptance in Silicon Valley is a memoir that explains its purpose and the authority of its author from the start (to "record the progression of the LGBTQ+ movement from political outcasts to integral community members in San Jose/Silicon Valley. Having lived and breathed queer activism for almost 40 years, I felt uniquely positioned to tell this story."). 

Ken Yeager is correct: the timing of his experiences, the personal history which dovetails with social and political transformation as anti-gay circles were met with gay resistance and activism, and the nature of his battle in California's famous Silicon Valley makes his story not just unique, but a sterling lesson in tackling adversity in social, psychological, and political situations. 

Were it not for his coverage, future generations might suspect that gay activism did not take place in this region. Nothing could be further from the truth, but it takes one who lived the times and practiced the resistance to reveal the deeply personal and political stories of those who were an intrinsic part of the action of social change. 

As a side benefit, the political experiences covered in detail here are perfect for members of the queer community who are thinking of running for public office. They reflect and represent efforts and experiences from almost three decades in office, and thus come from a level of experience and political savvy that might otherwise be missed by readers typically operating outside of these circles. 

As for the memoir itself, anticipate a story packed with insights on everything from the rigors of political campaigning to efforts to create and support Yeager's Queer Silicon Valley documentary project. 

From how activism efforts differed and grew over the decades to strategies for personal and political survival and change, Yeager's experiences move beyond personal and into the arena of better understanding of the obstacles to activist success and how best to address and remove them. 

The result is a wide-ranging, compelling account firmly grounded in real-world experiences. Run! My Story of LGBTQ+ Political Power, Equality, and Acceptance in Silicon Valley is highly recommended for activist-minded readers and the queer community, as well as libraries catering to them and book clubs interested in discussions of changing social and political milieus surrounding gay rights in not just California, but across America. 

Run! My Story of LGBTQ+ Political Power, Equality, and Acceptance in Silicon Valley

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Self-Inflicted
Dr. Karl T. Muth
Muse Literary
978-1-958714-99-7         $5.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/Self-Inflicted-Confronting-Karl-T-Muth-ebook/dp/B0CBQPVHGQ 

Self-Inflicted: Confronting the Suicide Taboo blends philosophical with historical, ethnographic, and linguistic examination as Dr. Karl T. Muth considers and analyzes the decision to end life, making a strong case for empowering the authority to do so under different conditions. 

Its candid discussion of suicide comes with a trigger warning for those on the edge—especially since it contains rationales and arguments which promotes the idea of purposely ending life without the legal and social restrictions and taboos currently in place. 

This notion may seem quite controversial to many, but skeptics, especially, should take note of many of the arguments in Self-Inflicted. These are crucial conversations for many levels of society, but they are also quite difficult ones which receive specific guidance here. Dr. Muth considers how people think about suicide, how that deliberation translates to either action or inaction, and the circumstances under which logic dictates that suicide may be as concrete a choice as life itself. 

The many thought-provoking contentions of this survey translate to a treasure trove of discussion material that make Self-Inflicted particularly recommendable to university or graduate classrooms and reading groups (albeit, with the trigger warning caution). 

"Suicide is a choice of route to a destination where we each and all are headed on our own schedules and at our own paces." 

Worthy of debate as well as contemplation, suicide's impact, choice, and ethical and moral foundations is argued on medical, psychological, social, and legal levels in a manner accessible to a wide audience. 

Libraries and educators seeking material which tackles a highly controversial idea with logic and reasoned assessment will find unparalleled opportunities for conversations and reflection in Self-Inflicted: Confronting the Suicide Taboo, making it a unique and worthy addition for a wide range of collections or syllabi. 

Self-Inflicted

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The Truth of the Kingdom
Mikah and The Holy Spirit
Independently Published
978-1-7346-8380-6                $39.00
Website: www.KingdomManagementTeam.faith
Ordering: www.amazon.com/Truth-Kingdom-Red-Letter/dp/1734683805? 

The Truth of the Kingdom: Lamentations and Woes is a study in shoring up Christian roots and better understanding false ideals and interpretations. It is written with a specific purpose and approach: 

"The purpose of this little Book is to bring the Congregation of the Living God back into one accord by revealing and restoring the true Kingdom gospel, just as Enoch, Moses, and Messiah did in their seasons, thus giving those in bondage to false religions and false doctrines a chance to escape from idolatry, repent, and wash the spots off their robes of righteousness before their physical death or the soon coming Day of Wrath." 

Keeping this ambition in mind, readers receive a survey that pairs personal experience with extensive Biblical quotes and explorations of the Gospel. Mikah presents passages of promise with an intention to revealing their intrinsic and important connections to Christian lives and perceptions: 

"On the Day of Wrath the Elect overcomers in the fruit harvest will be caught up. Sinning believers and the unbelievers will be left behind to die as punishment. The unbelievers and unredeemable sinning believers will then die the second death of soul and spirit." 

Within these Bible-supported passages are clear admonitions and interpretations that strengthen and solidify the original messages and intentions of God in the Bible: 

"Prophecy should not be confused with Words of Knowledge that edify an individual or a group. A prophecy usually warns what is going to happen if there is no repentance and gives a way out. Repentance and prayer change prophecy." 

Each of these quotes and their accompanying food for thought should be digested slowly—ideally, in conjunction with Christian discussion groups and spiritual thinkers who can use this exploration as enlightenment among holy spiritual readers and those who would follow them. This is no casual coverage, but a deep and thought-provoking probe of Christian roots and concepts that need to be debated and considered in order to be properly digested and applied. 

Readers in search of Christian wisdom, truth, and spiritual healing and reflection will find The Truth of the Kingdom a challenging but captivating study that promotes education and knowledge to help repel demonic influences and achieve greater connection with Christian belief and among study circles. 

Christian libraries will appreciate its wide-ranging considerations, and will want to include this book in their collections for its scholarly, yet accessible, discussion. 

The Truth of the Kingdom

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Under the Yoga Mat
Els Coenen and GuruNischan
Iizzard Ink Publishing
978-94-6475-213-7         $19.95 Paper/$9.99 ebook   
www.izzardink.com 

For those not in the know, Yogi Bhajan’s particular form of Kundalini yoga brought him acclaim for some 50 years. Behind the scenes and under the yoga mat, however, co-existed a history of sexual and power abuse masked by a lifestyle that appeared to be happy and spiritual. 

Els Coenen and GuruNischan's Under the Yoga Mat: The Dark History of Yogi Bhajan’s Kundalini Yoga gathers and reveals the gruesome scenarios which came to light in 2020, juxtaposing a history of the rise of yoga and gurus in the U.S. with the evolution of Yogi Bhajan's popularity and attraction. 

The second-generational children born into this world of outer enlightenment and inner anguish are finally given voice through this story. Coenen speaks about shared experiences of abuse, observations of a community outwardly on the path to enlightenment but inwardly en thrall, and the lasting impact of Yogi Bhajan on families, survivors, and generations that spread into society from his influence and teachings like ripples on water. 

This isn't the first expose about Yogi Bhajan. Many others have previously exposed these facts about his community and its sordid foundations. However, it is one of the few to pull together a seemingly disparate collection of facts, intergenerational experiences, and testimonies from survivors to present this world and its impact in an especially hard-hitting way. 

The introduction is especially powerful as it invites readers to "sit on their heels," employ the mantra "Sat Nam," and absorb the many startling revelations to come which will reach from the Yogi's life into the daily routines of many a reader, in surprising ways: 

"While hundreds of thousands practice and enjoy Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan, many more people worldwide drink Yogi Tea. Only a minority of them know that the creator of their favorite yoga sets and the spiritual father of the Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization (3HO) in which Yogi Tea originated was a cult leader, sexual predator, child abuser, gay basher, and successful but fraudulent  businessman." 

When he arrived in the U.S. in 1968, Yogi Bhajan proclaimed himself a yoga master, then elevated his position to "the Chief Religious and Administrative Authority for Sikh Dharma in the West." This self-created title was called into question in his native India, but its illusionary draw helped propel him into more esteemed circles, led him to meet with Pope Paul VI in 1972 and Pope John Paul II in 1984, and successfully masked, for a long time, his real role as a sexual predator and criminal. 

The irony lies in the contrast between fact and illusion. Coenen preserves and emphasizes this sense of odd and terrible wonder as she reveals history, includes powerful testimonials from many of the yogi's prior followers, and unfolds a chilling story that embraces lessons about enlightenment, cults, illusion, and reality. 

Perhaps most eye-opening of all are details about how such widespread abuse and violence were covered up between adults and among adults and children alike. The Stockholm Syndrome comes alive here in a different form in which the predator creates a network of supposedly enlightened thinking to mask his real intentions. 

Coenen's ability to synthesize and draw together these threads of idealism, reality, and survivor experiences makes for an exceptionally powerful testimony that also should come with a trigger warning for any reader who has experienced abuse, gaslighting, and terrorism in their own lives. 

Cult thinking doesn't have to be involved in such matters. But, when paired with the rituals, ideology, and deliberate actions of a dangerous predator, it is even more of a threat than a psychotic individual alone could pose, blossoming a particular form of evil that should be acknowledged and exposed. 

That Coenen does so here, with special attention to the impact and process of surviving such extraordinary circumstances, is testimony to the power of a book that ideally will not just repose on all kinds of lending library shelves, but will assume a more active role as an important (even essential) discussion tool in groups ranging from book clubs to psychology, new age, and spiritual thinkers. 

Under the Yoga Mat is very highly recommended for its unparalleled power in exposing the 3HO ashram murders and the methodology and impact of a guru whose power allowed him unprecedented access to too many lives. 

Under the Yoga Mat

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Walking with Anne Brontë
Tim Whittome, Editor
Xlibris US
‎978-1669878223            $50.99 Hardcover/$30.99 Paper
https://www.amazon.com/Walking-Anne-Bront%C3%AB-Insights-Reflections/dp/1669878228 

Walking with Anne Brontë is a literary exploration of reflections about the least known of the three Brontë sister writers. Tim Whittome compiles a literary tribute that cultivates a diverse approach to understanding and celebrating her life and messages, from personal reflections and poetry to academic insights. These are organized into sections so that readers can readily choose the type of biographical or literary inspection that is of particular interest (although the anthology operates as a unit, so to skip through without reading it in its entirety would be to do it a grave disservice). 

As Tim Whittome states in his introduction, readers should not expect new revelations surrounding Anne's works, but a celebratory inspection of their ultimate impact. 

The writers who contribute these insights come from many walks of life and expertise; from Catherine Rayner (who has been involved with the Brontë Society for many years and is well known to Brontë scholars and members) to illustrator Christina Fishburne (who is active across social media sites dedicated to the Brontës, and has become very involved with the Crow Emporium Press in illustrating Brontë novels). 

The diversity of these perspectives and approaches to the Brontë sisters in general and Anne in particular lend a multifaceted feel to this survey of different themes in her writings. 

Take Catherine Rayner's essay "Buried in Paradise," for example. Here, many myths about the family are explored, from descriptions of the times to insights into family dynamics and Anne's place in it: 

"These few snippets offer a rare glimpse into Anne’s characteristics from her sibling’s perspective. None of them appear to me as accurately defining Anne but are, instead, somewhat belittling and hurtful. Anne was at the rear of the pecking order and can be viewed, in outward appearance, as someone who could be easily molded into the person her family chose her to be." 

The footnoted references will please scholars interested in various interpretations of Anne's life and character. 

In contrast is "Anne Brontë’s Task: Living in a Postlapsarian World" by Anne Talvaz, which offers her personal connections to Anne Brontë's writings and world which influenced her twenties onward, when she was able to discern the difference between Anne's works and those of her more famous sisters Charlotte and Emily: 

"...it was not until I was in my early twenties that I began to fully appreciate Anne’s tales of disillusionment and regeneration and reach the conclusion that, for all her youth, she was a writer for adults. And it was not until I was asked to write this essay that I realized that of all the Brontë siblings, she was the only one whose writing formed part of an ethical project." 

Walking with Anne Brontë should be considered a foundation reference for any literary library including works by and about the Brontë sisters. Its wide-ranging articles, poems, and reflections also will pique the interest of reading groups and book clubs interested in Anne's works and how they resonate and are interpreted in modern times. 

Walking with Anne Brontë

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Write Your OWN Story
Rebecca Fleetwood Hession
Warren Publishing

978-1-957723-01-3
$26.95 Hardcover/$15.95 Paper/$4.99 ebook
www.warrenpublishing.net 

Write Your OWN Story: Three Keys to Rise and Thrive as a Badass Career Woman embraces the notion of a revised form of "badass career woman" who changes the workplace through a more humanitarian attitude towards work, career, and interacting with others. It confronts and revises many popular notions of work value, ethics, and business processes during the course of advocating a revised role for career women who want something more from their lives. 

The nuggets of wisdom that form this new approach originated with Rebecca Fleetwood Hession's own realizations about her success and its ultimate cost: 

"Business is human. We are humans serving humans with products and services in exchange for currency. I was a business consultant, a sales professional, steeped in profit and loss, productivity gains, and investment return. I knew how to control, measure, and optimize a business like a boss! I had the awards and the paycheck to prove it. What I had lost track of were my human needs. What did I really want? Who really knew me? Would I be loved and accepted if I wasn’t number ten on the global sales report? Whom was I serving? Was I serving other humans or the machine of the business?" 

Those who follow her admonition to become "badass" receive not only a blueprint for transformation, but the logic behind contemplating such a vast change: 

"When we allow ourselves to be seen for ourselves, we attract those we’re meant to work with and be with.  Conversely, when we attempt to hide, afraid of showing our style or inadequacies, we ultimately hide our gifts. We prevent those who need us from finding us...This is the power of true authentic connection, when others can hold up the mirror to help you reflect and honor your authentic self. It’s through these connections we understand our value and relevance." 

Business titles promising transformation through processes of reformulating and restructuring business goals and methods are nothing new. What is new (and invigorating) about Write Your OWN Story is its focus on adding human objectives and rejecting formerly-accepted notions of dysfunction as part of the business success story. 

What is prosperity? What human needs can be translated to a goal statement that works on more than one level? 

These and other questions segue business and humanitarian goals in ways which are unique to this book, yet supported by experiences of revised real-world processes that have been proven to translate to greater success than traditional business methods. 

Ideally, Write Your OWN Story will receive widespread attention from businesswomen and women involved in redefining and creating a more positive, empowered work environment. It also will attract leaders and managers with more than a cursory interest in identifying inherently dysfunctional processes and patterns in their operations, who would replace them with more proactive, supportive routines and systems. 

Libraries that cater to business readers but look for wider-ranging discussions appropriate for book clubs of all kinds will find Write Your OWN Story a vivid, potentially positively explosive acquisition. 

Write Your OWN Story

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Young Adult/Childrens

An End: Where We Stand Now
Brandon Pawlicki
Independently Published
9798986050607             $15.99 Paper/$7.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/End-Where-Stand-Brandon-Pawlicki/dp/B09Y5WMC2N 

An End: Where We Stand Now is the first book in a fantasy series where teen Vallerie Sabell faces a zombie apocalypse after surviving a shooting at her high school. 

Vallerie is no ordinary teenager. She's a dedicated Wiccan whose faith clashes with reality as events play out, and yet the story opens with a seemingly familiar scene as Vallerie and Jaxton perform a Wiccan ritual revolving around safety and their responsibility to "do no harm." 

Both goals seem unlikely as events force Vallerie to confront not only her quest for survival, but her options for "living freely and at will, and to do so without ill intent. No pain will be bestowed via my name or my hand." 

Ironically, her vows are negated by actions that lead to not just another's death, but choices that require her to break her pledges one by one in order to survive. 

A chance to begin anew offers the promise and lure of a reset button as Vallerie adopts new perspectives for the sake of continuing her survivor status, learns how to accept revisions to her vows that continually challenge her moral and ethical perspectives, and struggles with a downward spiral that leads her into a vastly revised life. 

Readers attracted to zombie apocalypse stories will find many facets of An End: Where We Stand Now makes it a standout read not just for teens, but for adults interested in the genre. 

For one thing, Vallerie's process of adaptation is tinged with her confrontations with her beliefs and guiding lights of life. More than just another story of physical survival, Vallerie's spiritual and ethical personas are also forced to change as she makes decisions seemingly counter to everything she once believed in or knew about the world. 

Secondly, Brandon Pawlicki crafts a more complex story of spirit guides, acts of love and healing, and pivot points that bring Vallerie full circle from her original intentions to a place where she advises, "Just kill them if they don't listen." 

The dichotomies and complications that challenge Vallerie to grow will prove just as compelling as the fast-paced action that centers upon keeping her and those around her alive. 

Libraries and readers seeking a zombie survival story that is more thought-provoking than most, yet steeped in riveting questions and answers, will find An End: Where We Stand Now worthy of group discussion and hard to put down. 

An End: Where We Stand Now

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Assassins Are Us
Kimberly Van Sickle
Atmosphere Press
978-1-63988-910-5         $24.99 Hardcover/$14.99 Paper
www.atmospherepress.com 

Assassins Are Us is a surprising-sounding title for a young adult story, but seventeen-year-old Hedy Hinterschott's role as a family assassin-in-training isn't the only surprise this story offers to mature teens. 

Equally unusual is an opening in which a first-person prologue details a meeting between two mothers; one of which considers her newborn a "spawn from Hell." 

Fast forward seventeen years later in Chapter 1, where honor student Hedy deconstructs the Hitler psyche and myth in front of a classroom, then faces the equally formidable task of deconstructing her role as the family's first female assassin in decades. 

Hedy's inspection of her legacy, future, and values creates a thought-provoking story that mature teens will find thoroughly fascinating. It departs so much from the typical young adult themes of destiny and choice that its profile of a budding young murderer assumes the countenance of a moral and ethical quandary that prompts readers to enter Hedy's world to examine its underlying influences and motivations. 

Almost adult in its themes and approach despite its young adult protagonist and school encounters, Kimberly Van Sickle's Assassins Are Us evolves on the playing field of history, mystery, and the unraveling of family secrets that come to influence Hedy's life and choices. 

The revelations and logic Hedy faces are impeccably wrought and compellingly presented: "Opa’s swan analogy helped me understand the necessity behind why our family did what it did and why it was so important for our family to continue to do what we did." 

The result makes for unexpectedly enlightening, engrossing reading that pairs psychological examination with a sense of discovery and adventure as Hedy faces romance, new understandings, and insights on how her family's past influences the course of her future. 

Libraries seeking reads for mature teens that hold the added value of surprise and action as well as food for thought and opportunities for classroom or book club discussions will find Assassins Are Us a study in growth and uncommon realizations: 

"Hedy, you are in denial. Liebchen, you know you do not fit. I’ve watched you for four years. Your confidence in everything you do is a mask for your insecurity in everything your family stands for.” 

Assassins Are Us

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Bob Tales
Susan Sullivan
Independently Published
979-8-9889904-2-0               
https://www.bobtalesbooks.com/      

Bob Tales: Land of the Woody Warbles receives lovely, colorful illustrations by Lauren Reeves as it tells of an injured, abandoned cat that needs a family and home. Sadly, he is dirty, tailless, and spends his days digging through rancid garbage in search of food. Not exactly a high adoption candidate. 

He's always been beat up by other cats and has no hope for a better life until a large, shaggy man takes pity on the scruffy Bob and brings him home. 

End of story? No, because Bob is set for even more adventures when, one day, his loving family doesn't come home. A neighbor feeds him, but as the nights go by, Bob becomes certain that something has happened to them. It's up to him to return to the streets to find them. 

His escape leads to slippery situations and dilemmas. Only then do observations by others lead him to believe he is missing something just as important as his family. 

Susan Sullivan's evocative adventure is punctuated by the gorgeous drawings Lauren Reeves liberally provides of wildlife and nature as Bob perseveres against all odds, sparked by a message of hope. 

As he faces drowning, drama from the bees, and admonitions to never give up on his goals and dreams, adults will find that Bob's adventures hold notes of inspiration that will enhance discussions about courage, problem-solving, and life. 

Libraries and read-aloud parents seeking a feisty feline-based story of a cat who receives key lessons on how to believe in himself will find Bob Tales: Land of the Woody Warbles both psychologically revealing and filled with lovely nature observations and illustrations that celebrate different creatures in the wild. 

Bob Tales

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The Day I Had a Bulldozer
Ashley Wall
MamaBear Books
978-1-960616-00-5
Hardcover: $15.95/Paperback: $11.95/eBook: $3.95
https://mamabearbooks.com/

The Day I Had a Bulldozer is a picture book with a delightful message. A young boy finds a bulldozer with his name written on it, in front of his house. There's only one thing to do—hop aboard and head for his friend's house to show off his delightful new acquisition. There, he finds an even bigger surprise. 

As a series of amusing experiences evolve against all odds, a widening cast of kids explore their world armed with new devices. All of these receive engaging illustration by Vaughan Duck as each child absorbs new facts and learns to navigate their changed environments without destroying everything around them during their learning process. 

Ashley Wall creates an engagingly fantastic story about kids who adopt new skills and information, sharing their fun together and helping each other problem-solving the ironic, lively conundrums that evolve from trying new things. 

In the end, what the kids build together is far more important than any singular effort could be, teaching young readers about the importance of friendship, cooperation, and sharing new experiences. 

Elementary-level libraries and parents seeking picture books that embrace fun and arrive with a delightful underlying message will find The Day I Had a Bulldozer a thought-provoking, powerful celebration of new discoveries, new skills, and friends who support one another through the process of adventure, discovery, and growth. 

The Day I Had a Bulldozer

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Fangs Bared: Where We Stand Now
Brandon Pawlicki
Independently Published

‎979-8986050614            $15.99 Paper/$7.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/Fangs-Bared-Where-Brandon-Pawlicki/dp/B09YNBMMD2 

Fangs Bared: Where We Stand Now is the second book in a series revolving around Vallerie's revised life as she faces the aftermath of not only a zombie apocalypse, but the heavy losses she suffered in the first book (An End). 

Here, Vallerie tries to forge ahead with a new band of survivors who are determined to rebuild a fallen America. But, equally determined are forces that hold a different vision about what renewal means. They act as a stop gate to Vallerie's group's dreams and efforts, placing Vallerie in the center of a perfect storm of revised opportunities and ideals of what the future will bring. 

As in his previous book, Brandon Pawlicki excels at juxtaposing action-driven suspense with equally thought-provoking moral and ethical issues which challenge Vallerie and her fellow survivors in more than predictable ways. 

This added grasp of the ultimate challenges survival brings to those who would rebuild contributes to a story that evolves on deeper levels than the usual superficial zombie apocalypse read. This approach, in turn, encourages young adult and adult readers alike to take a deeper look at the social, spiritual, and philosophical impacts brought about by destruction and regrowth. 

Vallerie faces additional losses as she navigates this strange world of uncertain new friendships and losses. Additionally, Pawlicki peppers his story with 'What Comes After' and 'What Comes Before' notes that add insights into the story, as well as embedding the tale with changes in viewpoints that are clearly marked by headers ("Vallerie," "Esther," "Grahm") to clarify the differing experiences and observations of a wider cast of characters than Vallerie alone. 

These devices lend further value to the overall story by depicting outcomes and assumptions on layered levels that embrace a range of viewpoints and pursuits. 

As Vallerie's choices bring her into confrontation with her own ideals, readers will especially appreciate the spiritual notes that influence her principles and reality alike. These, too, set Fangs Bared above and beyond the majority of dystopian or apocalyptic reads. 

Libraries and readers seeking evocative, thought-provoking stories paired with spiritual components and powered by action-packed scenes, as well as book clubs seeking vivid fantasies replete with themes appropriate for discussion, will find Fangs Bared a powerful acquisition. 

Fangs Bared: Where We Stand Now

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The Feather Necklace
Brian Mulcahey
DartFrog Plus
978-1-959096-90-0         $26.96 Paper/$15.99 ebook
https://a.co/d/a7eeU3E

The Feather Necklace is a vibrant picture book story packed with jungle scenes, intrigue, and adventure. It follows three young scientists who navigate the jungles of Peru looking for creatures to study. 

The story is narrated by young Tulio, the third member of the group, who explains: "I am from the Kukama tribe and this forest is my backyard." 

As picture book readers follow Tulio's forest explorations, they receive a combination of vivid, colorful nature scenes paired with equally compelling descriptions that adults who read aloud to the very young will find useful for its action-packed words and bilingual inclusion: 

"Whap, womp, whoosh went the leaves and branches as I cut the trail. I scanned for animal tracks while avoiding spiny plants, singing as I went. “Buenas noches, dulces sueños. Te amo, te amo, mi corazón.” Goodnight, sweet dreams. 
I love you, I love you, my heart." 

As nature's wonder unfolds, even the forest-savvy Tulio finds much to celebrate about creatures' habits: 

"The cacique, yapu, and masked tanager, tsiin, started to bob, weave, and wiggle." 

The result is a celebration of Peruvian jungle creatures, a boy's participation in a contest of discovery, and a vibrant story that will attract a wide age range with its blend of science, nature, and cross-cultural revelations. 

Libraries seeking picture books that stand out from the crowd will find The Feather Necklace a unique and attractive acquisition. 

The Feather Necklace

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Feelings on the Farm
Heather Wall and Claire Young
MamaBear Books
978-1-960616-03-6                $9.95
https://mamabearbooks.com/ 

The board book Feelings on the Farm offers the very young an easy introduction to exploring feelings, powered by a farmer and animals that each represents a different emotion. 

David Lock's inviting illustrations bring to life a series of emotional animals, from cranky chickens who cannot find their eggs to peaceful pigs lounging in the sty. 

Further reinforcement of emotional responses are created by facing pages of emotions that are positive and negative, accompanying simple scenarios of how each critter expresses his feelings and why they are prevalent. 

As read-aloud parents explore these blossoming emotions with the very young, opportunities are created for parents to discuss feelings with children (as well as appropriate expressions of disappointment, joy, or simply feeling grouchy). 

The result is a fun farm animal tale that holds important underlying messages and instructions about recognizing and understanding emotions for a playful take on emotional intelligence. 

Libraries and parents seeking board books that excel in the easy understanding of emotions by the very young will find Feelings on the Farm a major attraction. 

Feelings on the Farm

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Food Fight
Linda Davis
Fitzroy Books
978-1646033430            $15.95 Paper/$9.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Fight-Linda-B-Davis/dp/1646033434 

Food Fight provides middle grade readers with a hilarious account of just desserts. It follows a young picky eater just entering middle school who finds his strange food fetishes subject to peer discussion and ridicule. 

Ben's newfound goals under such conditions are simple—maintain his food choice independence while thwarting bullies and pursing the girl he's attracted to. 

More than an account of food follies alone, Food Fight explores and presents the atmosphere of middle school in a way that will immediately attract young readers with familiar explorations: 

"Everybody knows that where you sit on the first lunch of middle school will determine your spot in the social hierarchy for eternity. And it’s complete chaos in here. As new sixth graders, we’re all scrambling to decide who to eat with and where to sit. From the other side of the floor-to-ceiling windows, I bet the cafeteria looks like an aquarium during a feeding frenzy." 

Linda Davis does more than present a funny, entertaining read. Embedded in the story of a picky eater are social observations about food's place in making connections. These introduce food for thought, as well: 

"She’ll probably think it’s suspicious that I don’t eat pizza. I’ve heard it before. The worst is unpatriotic. Like not liking pizza means I’m not a Chicagoan. Or American. But it might be true. I’ve read a lot of official-sounding pizza-related statistics—like ninety-three percent of Americans have had a slice of pizza in the past month. And on average, Americans eat forty-six slices of pizza in a year. But I’ve never even had one. 'Nah, I’m not hungry,' I say, knowing it doesn’t sound believable." 

The result is a tale that attracts with the strong veneer of fun and interpersonal dilemmas, educates with insights into food's role in building relationships and connections, and leaves young readers hungry for more. 

In a nutshell, Food Fight is a middle grade read that is delightfully original, sassy, and satisfying, presenting a powerful series of conundrums and experiences that young readers will find attractive and libraries catering to them will want to recommend. 

Food Fight

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Ice Cave Mystery
Eugene M. Gagliano
Crystal Publishing, LLC
978-1-942624-79-0         $9.95
https://www.amazon.com/Ice-Cave-Mystery-Eugene-Gagliano/dp/1942624794 

Many kids love stories involving caves, while others are attracted to mysteries. Both are the main focus of Ice Cave Mystery, which opens with a recap of young Chad's life when a move from Indiana along the Oregon Trail results in the death of his younger sibling. Despite further loss, life goes on ... and so does its mystery. 

In this case, the intrigue surrounds a missing treasure chest of stolen gold that lures Chad and his friend Aubrey into an adventure that tests their ability to problem-solve, confront robberies and intrigue, and even survive. 

Eugene M. Gagliano spins a powerfully compelling yarn that builds characters ranging from Chad's family to his friends. The growing dilemma introduces adult perceptions and realities into his young world of hopes and dreams: 

Ma wrang her hands. “Oh, Chad. You’ve been fooled. Fortune tellers cannot tell you the future. They trick you and lie and then take your money.” Chad’s shoulders slumped. “Jenny was making it up?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“What about the elixir?”
“Medicine men travel around the country selling their elixirs and pills. They talk big, but the medicines are usually just bottles of alcohol diluted with colored water.”
“I’m not gonna get rich?” Tears filled Chad’s eyes.
 

Changing seasons and times permeate these adventures with realistic insights and backdrops set in 1890s Wyoming. 

Gagliano focuses as much on the moral and ethical conundrums young Chad faces (along with his dreams of riches) as on the escapades that evolve around Wildcat Tom's legacy. 

The result is a vivid adventure that serves both a sequel to the prior book Secret of the Black Widow and holds the ability to stand alone for newcomers to Chad's world through a strong introductory recap of events and an equally powerful attention to the details of his much-revised life. 

Libraries seeking middle grade fiction that promises action and thought-provoking growth alike will find that Ice Cave Mystery delivers what it promises (a rollicking good read) in a title that embraces caves and intrigue. 

Ice Cave Mystery

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Into the River of Angels
George R. Wolfe
The Sager Group LLC
978-1-958861-02-8         $20.75 Paper/$9.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/Into-River-Angels-George-Wolfe/dp/1958861022 

Into the River of Angels is a young adult novel that follows a high school teen's decision to canoe over fifty miles of the Los Angeles River, a connection of waterways that flows from downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean. The problem with Sam Hawkins' decision is that those waters aren't placid, but a wild and changing river that also flows through challenging environments, carrying Sam into danger and unfamiliar waters. 

George R. Wolfe's action-packed story of a rebel who decides to attempt the impossible, only to test not only his strengths, but the boundaries of his limitations brings to mind some of the nature stories of Gary Paulsen—but with the added value of a taste of rebellion against not just adults, but, often, fellow teens: 

"It just seemed like kids were either too much into their own heads or too concerned with what was going on in other kids’ heads. Either way you couldn’t win." 

Sam isn't entirely alone in his experience or his rebellion. Other characters he encounters along the way provide lessons and insights by demonstrating abilities and introducing adversities that continually test Sam's determination, sending his evolving strength in unexpected directions. 

Big and small incidents introduce similar revelations of all kinds as Sam evolves into a kind of maturity that can only stem from life encounters: 

"Staying up late was what I always wanted to be able to do; but now that we were actually doing it, I couldn’t wait to get back to sleep. So much for getting what you ask for." 

The wildness of the river is supplemented by the wild encounters Sam fields with the humans he deals with, friends and foes, on the waters. Continually facing imprisonment and freedom on different levels, Sam and his group don't always know where they are going. But, he does know how to keep his word and do his best, even if adversity is not singular, but comes in many forms. 

The richness of the action and adventure, combined with the insights on growth and proactive behaviors, will involve teens in a story that is vividly realistic and hard to put down. 

Part of this immediacy and feel likely comes from Wolfe's personal familiarity with Los Angeles' urban waterways. He is the founder of LA River Expeditions, a group that advocates for endangered rivers and helped to open the L.A. River to the public. 

The result is a moving story that features swift currents of change, life-or-death scenarios, and ethical and moral decision-making that tests Sam and his friends on unexpected levels. 

Libraries and educators seeking a story that can be used as a discussion point for everything from ecological activism to coming-of-age issues will find the multifaceted nature of Into the River of Angels just the ticket for a compelling young adult leisure read that attracts with action, but also offers a healthy dose of higher-level thinking. 

Into the River of Angels

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Kantara: The Traveler
Stephen and Mary Weller
Warren Publishing
978-1-960146-00-7
$30.99 Hardcover/$16.99 Paper/$6.99 ebook
www.warrenpublishing.net 

Young adults interested in time travel sci-fi which embraces aliens, apocalypse, and a college student's unusual role as (perhaps) the savior of Earth will find the heroic adventure Kantara: The Traveler a particularly full-faceted story that stands out in the world of young adult time travel fiction. 

A time-hopping prologue and introduction move first into the past, where Zurens and humans face clashes and paradoxes; then into far future's darkness, where Moti faces an environment where intention is the only thing that matters. In this case, Moti requests that the timeline be opened backwards. This action leads the story to college student Keiji, who learns he has superhuman abilities that may be the only key to thwarting an evil force set to destroy everything. 

Keiji is not the only proactive, courageous character in the story, but his actions drive a quest for the Kantara Scrolls which promise solutions to impossible problems. His interactions with others through various possibilities that link past, present, and future are winningly revealed. 

Stephen and Mary Weller craft a fast-paced adventure that introduces using the third person, then moves to the first person as Keiji interacts with his world, new ideas, and new skill sets he is barely able to comprehend, much less handle. 

As emperors face time loops and impossible traps and attacks leave behind a trail of carnage and new possibilities, young adults will find Keiji's world replete with confrontation and shifting alliances. These types of challenges force Keiji to redefine not only his perception of reality, but the role he plays in bigger pictures than his own future alone. 

Libraries and young adult readers seeking vivid clashes, thought-provoking time travel dilemmas, and proactive characters who struggle with impossible choices and their consequences will find Kantara: The Traveler a riveting adventure that concludes nicely, but leaves the door well ajar for follow-up stories. 

Kantara: The Traveler

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Little Curiosity
Fatima Pimienta
Atmosphere Press
978-1-63988-819-1         $17.50
www.atmospherepress.com 

Little Curiosity is a black and white picture book story about a little caterpillar that sees the world in black and white. Every day, she climbs to a leaf, eats, sleeps, and repeats. It's a simple life, made all the more one-dimension by its lack of color—but it's a happy life. 

One day, her curiosity leads her to discover first one, then numerous shades of gray. Soon she finds numerous shades of gray, black, and white in her world. What else can there be? 

Picture book readers will find that the color emerges slowly in this tale, while adult read-aloud participants will appreciate receiving the Spanish/English multilingual opportunity which is rare in books for this age range. 

Caterpillar's transformation is not your usual form of cocooning, but incorporates new realizations about her world and her place in it when she becomes something New. 

Most picture book tales about caterpillars end with physical change, but Fatima Pimienta takes the transformation a step further, featuring accompanying emotions that also introduce new realizations to Caterpillar's world. 

These elements, combined with simple illustrations (which will appeal to kids interested in coloring and drawing themselves), make for a fine Spanish/English story that benefits from full Spanish translation on every page and a full-bodied attention to all the facets of change which adults will find useful and inviting for discussions with kids ages 1 and older. 

The multifaceted transformative experiences profiled in Little Curiosity make it a top recommendation for read-aloud and discussions that would move beyond physical changes alone. 

Little Curiosity

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Maestro Orpheus and the World Clock (Audio)
Robert Pennee and Joanne Grodzinski
Maestro Orpheus Productions
979-8425808370    
$8.44 Paper/2.99 ebook/$5.29 audiobook
https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Maestro-Orpheus-World-Clock/dp/B09XWVW9XM 

The children's story Maestro Orpheus and the World Clock is a fitting example of how the audio book format can reach all ages when paired with a multi-reader format and sound effects that bring the story to life. 

A gonging bell, a ticking clock, and music introduce the tale with a vivid, appealing atmosphere. A simple tune that repeats in a young boy's head at night, paired with the ticking of a clock, is narrated with dramatic flairs that will draw young listeners. 

The voices of characters young and old also benefit from the inflections of various readers that capture the inflections and drama of the story. It's an audio play reminiscent of the old-style radio shows families once listened to. As the mystery and intrigue evolve, many an adult will want to listen along as Frederick, who is visiting his grandfather, confronts the dilemma of time stopping. 

Classical music permeates the adventure, providing a fitting backdrop to the excitement of Frederick's experiences as he encounters Maestro Orpheus and his magical lyre and confronts the mystery of a clock-driven world that is breathless and magical. 

The written word alone could not adequately capture the sense of time and place that Frederick explores with a growing realization about the world's challenges and changes and his own unique role in resolving a problem that has ground it to a halt. 

The recorded book industry is filled with narratives that feature one voice (however talented), but this production is a unique and especially well-done creation that is packed with the atmosphere of music, the sound effects of clocks and life encounters, and the varied narrative styles of superior voice artists whose work crafts a powerfully compelling listen for all ages. 

Anyone who has listened to an audio book well knows of the typical approach to the genre. Maestro Orpheus and the World Clock raises the bar of audio quality with its multifaceted production with a thoroughly compelling story that reaches from its intended audience of children into adult circles, as well. 

That's why it's an especially strong recommendation for any library looking for superior audio book productions that stand out for their overall quality and consistently well-done narrations. 

As an additional note (and adding further value), Joanne Grodzinski and Carolyn McMillan have produced a Classroom Teacher's Guide that's also available on Amazon (9798391878650; $6.99 ebook or $10.99 paper). 

Maestro Orpheus and the World Clock (Audio)

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Ozzy Ox Candy Stash
Callen Kropp
Corner Windows Publishing
979-8-9877823-1-6                $25.99 Hardcover/$10.99 paper
www.cornerwindowspublishing.com 

Ozzy Ox Candy Stash is a lively rhyming picture book that follows MomOx and Ozzy as they go out for ice cream and groceries. When they return, Ozzy finds a mysterious bag of candy on the car seat and can't resist snatching it up and hiding it for secret binging later. 

Mom Ox views him as her "pride and joy," but she doesn't know of his transgression. When Ozzy discovers what the bag of candy was really intended for, he faces a dilemma.

Ozzy feels his tummy turn, both at the revelation and from all the candy he's eaten. How can he make things right? 

Callen Kropp creates a whimsical, fun story about a son who breaks the rules and then faces the consequences. 

Mom and son come to life in a fun interaction that swirls around a special celebration and right and wrong decisions made by Ozzy which are questioned by his wise mom. 

The lesson about owning one's mistakes and doing right from them will not be lost on young minds by adults who choose Ozzy Ox Candy Stash as a read-aloud. 

Parents and adults who look for vibrant picture books that pair a realistic situation with a problem-solving dilemma will find Ozzy Ox Candy Stash a welcome point of discussion for all kinds of topics revolving around making better choices and acknowledging their impact. 

A concluding section of "Fun Facts About Oxen" completes the educational value in a story that holds appeal on many different levels. 

Ozzy Ox Candy Stash

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Retro Radio Rainbow
Aaron Zevy
Tumbleweed Press, Inc.
9798386254322             $11.95 Paper/$9.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/Retro-Radio-Rainbow-Aaron-Zevy/dp/B0BXNJXZ7P 

Retro Radio Rainbow teaches picture book readers the seven colors of the rainbow, but adopts an usual approach to the effort that taps author Aaron Zevy's personal radio collection and interest in radios. 

What do radios have to do with color? Plenty. 

Photos of old-time radios from the 1930s and 40s accompany the identification of 'red', 'orange', and other colors to add history into the mix. This especially inviting pairing features large, colorful photos of orange, red, yellow, and other colors of radios that additionally contrasts their size and disparate shapes and appearances. 

The education thus arrives twofold: it's a survey of radio history and a lesson in different hues of each color, all in one. 

Parents and educators who tire of the usual approach to identifying colors will find the creative effort attractive and unique, here. The retro radio display might even interest and educate them about the very different appearances radios can sport. 

Libraries and teachers seeking a colorful tutorial that operates on not just one, but many levels will welcome the unique approach of Retro Radio Rainbow, which could only have come from a collector devoted to radio history as well as children's educational opportunities. 

Retro Radio Rainbow

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Secret of the Black Widow
Eugene M. Gagliano
Crystal Publishing, LLC
978-1-942624-80-6         $9.95
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Black-Widow-Eugene-Gagliano/dp/1942624808 

There is a screaming, veiled widow over at the Foster cabin. Her anguish and hidden countenance draws young Chad to investigate, especially since this effort is prompted by bullying that forces Chad to step out of his comfort zone and take action against all his inclinations to stay safely distant from adversity. 

Secret of the Black Widow attracts middle grade readers from its first sentence and keeps the action coming non-stop. Succinct descriptions capture and pinpoint the many sources of Chad's own angst as he perseveres: 

The scream from the direction of the widow Foster’s cabin made the hair rise on the back of Chad’s neck.
“Scared?” James Junior asked.
“No, I just don’t think it’s right. She ain’t never bothered me none,” Chad said, but in his heart, he knew the truth. He was afraid.
 

As he learns more about the Widow Foster and forces that influence right and wrong actions and reactions, Chad learns more about his new friend Aubrey and the mystery behind the veiled screaming widow's actions and past. 

Kids drawn by the intrigue will find unexpectedly thought-provoking moments throughout the story as Chad moves into better understanding his world, the forces affecting adults and peers alike, and starts to make decisions based not upon peer pressure, but upon his own heart's perception of what is right and wrong. 

Kids attracted to mystery stories receive the added value of these insights in a plot that embraces a powerful sense not just of purpose, but place: 

"Chad wandered down to the creek on his way home. He sat on a rock and ran his fingers through the icy water. Chad felt empty. Life changed so quickly on the prairie." 

The result may lure with mystery components, but is far more satisfyingly revealing than centering on intrigue alone. Solving the secret is only the introductory part of the puzzles surrounding Chad's life. The growth involved in better understanding and perceptions of personal power also drive Eugene M. Gagliano's story in an equally compelling manner. 

The result is a gripping saga kids will find just as involving for its interpersonal relationship developments, historical sense of time and place in the 1800s, and astute consideration of Chad's changing role in his family and others' lives. 

Libraries seeking multifaceted middle grade fiction will find Secret of the Black Widow attractive and highly worthy of acquisition and recommendation. 

Secret of the Black Widow

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Space Care
Jennifer Swanson
Mayo Clinic Press Kids
979-8887700076            $16.99 Paper/$9.99 ebook
www.mcpress.mayoclinic.org 

Space Care: A Kid's Guide to Surviving Space will attract aspiring young astronauts and readers of all ages who would better understand the rigors of space exploration and environmental control. 

It is packed with answers from astronauts who address kids' common questions about the space experience, addressing many specifics about staying healthy in space, from what happens to bodily fluids to how exercise and diet are fine-tuned to support astronaut functions and bodies. 

From the atmosphere control and systems of the International Space Station to how the station stays in orbit and its effects on the human body, young readers learn many facts about everything from a sense of balance to eye health and syncing one's body clock to new indicators of time and sleep cycles. 

Discussions also include issues that can challenge an astronaut's body, from radiation to allotting leisure time that fosters positive psychological relationships between astronauts. 

Packed with colorful photos, diagrams, and insights, Space Care: A Kid's Guide to Surviving Space may be tailored for young readers ages 8-12, but actually sports a fact-filled and lively format that should appeal well beyond these years, even reaching into adult audiences interested in the nuts and bolts of astronaut experience. 

Libraries will find few like it on their shelves, and will want to recommend it for discussion groups interested in space challenges and adaptation. 

Space Care

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The Story of Herkales and Samson
Martha Voorhees
KDP Publishing
979-8853483064
Audiobook: $3.46/eBook $6.99/paperback $16.95
Website: www.buckscountybytes.com
Ordering: https://amzn.to/3Yb96wG 

The Story of Herkales and Samson: An Epic Tail! offers the first-person story of a daughter who runs a family farm, works hard, and moves it from harvesting to horses, struggling with the 'holes' in her life after her father vanishes and she must return from college to literally take up new reins. 

Leaving school and her friends, the narrator slowly transforms the family farm, her two dogs at her side. When one dog dies, an even bigger hole confronts her. How can she handle the sorrows which buffet her sense of wellbeing and freedom? 

When two puppies arrive from Texas, a present from her boyfriend, she is in for a wild ride as they shower her with affection and slowly mitigate her grief over so many losses. 

The Story of Herkales and Samson especially excels in fully admitting the adversities and trials of life even as it embraces positive changes: "Life on the horse farm was good, bad, and everything in between." 

Unlike picture book stories that come steeped in an artificial sense of positivity, The Story of Herkales and Samson presents more realistic scenarios of loss, pain, and the tempering result of animals that help reinforce human efforts, providing love and support. 

This translates to a story that is well-balanced, whether the puppies are "showing their wild side" and misbehaving or acting loving and kind. 

When Herkales is lost, the narrator must muster some creative thoughts to find him. 

These elements set The Story of Herkales and Samson apart and above many other picture book stories of perseverance and problem-solving, injecting a sense of reality into the bigger picture of handling life problems, accepting puppies into one's life, and approaching life with a sense of determination against all odds. 

Libraries and readers, including read-aloud adults, which look for realistic enlightenment over sugary tales of impossible odds will find The Story of Herkales and Samson appealing and creatively thought-provoking. 

The Story of Herkales and Samson

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Taigh~A Flying Squirrel's Adventure
Loralee Evans
Independently Published
978-1-7923-9020-3         
ebook: 99¢; paperback: $12.95; hardback: $14.95
Website: www.loraleeevans.com
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CBNR242D/ 

Taigh~A Flying Squirrel's Adventure adds another fine middle-grade animal-oriented story to author Loralee Evans' widening list of appealing tales. Like Jean Craighead George, who penned numerous books profiling animals for middle grade readers, Evans performs a meaningful and important service in bringing the animal world to life for young minds, even if her writings anthropomorphize wildlife more than Jean George's works. 

Taigh Squirrel doesn't just fly. He's also an artist who paints what he sees in the forest world around him. 

Like her character, Loralee Evans reflects words of wisdom given to Taigh by employing her artistry to capture Taigh's motivations, natural world, and squirrel lifestyle. Perhaps her own words best capture the sentiments driving this warm story: 

"A good painting, Augustus had told Taigh, a smile curving up the corners of his ivory-colored beak, tells a story. It stirs imagination, and helps folks think and wonder and imagine. Let your paintings tell stories." 

Evans uses word paintings to tell Taigh's story, capturing a world embedded with fairies, quests, art, and insights. 

As Master Taigh Squirrel (friend of Felicity Sparrow and Augustus Ivory-billed Woodpecker) embarks on an adventure to find out why all the ivory-billed woodpeckers vanished, kids will enjoy the special blend of fantasy and animal facts which exist side-by-side in this enthralling adventure story. 

From Spanish-speaking bats to questions that Taigh resolves in the course of his experiences, middle graders will find the blend of action, mystery, and natural history compellingly fun. 

Libraries and readers seeking animal-based fantasies that feature a diminutive squirrel's proactive thinking, artistic talents, and quest will find Taigh~A Flying Squirrel's Adventure a choice that promises high entertainment value, while accompanying reflections on the natural world will lend to young reader book club discussions. 

Taigh~A Flying Squirrel's Adventure

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Till Dawn
T.H. Alexander
Barnes & Noble Press
979-8823178891     $8.99 Paper/$2.99 ebook
Website: www.thalexanderbooks.com  
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/Till-Dawn-T-H-Alexander/dp/B0BMSKP7T9 

Fans of alien invasion scenarios will find that Till Dawn rates with the best of them, presenting a scenario in which teens who gather one evening to enjoy some freedom and fun find their lives changed by a meteorite's crash and the danger it brings. 

Suddenly, Ryan and his friends are no longer carefree teens, but are fighting for their lives and their world. Instead of being filled with freedom and promise, the suddenly-long night becomes one filled with terror and trials. 

Once preoccupied with snagging bits of parent-free time to hang out with his friends, Ryan and his group face destructive forces that penetrate their carefully arranged cloak of singular teen interests: 

"In a split second, the security that once surrounded the home Ryan had lived his entire life in had been shattered. He wanted to believe they would become untouchable upon making it through the door-way—a bold fantasy, it would turn out, as it soon became clear the house much like everything else would not be immune." 

T.H. Alexander employs a steady, logical hand to portraying Ryan and his group's disparate reactions to these extraordinary events. This imparts a realistic sense of human failings and ideals as the group assimilates their new reality and their revised roles in it. 

As flight leads to a long-distance journey, confrontations with creatures, Vietnam vets who have become addicts, outcasts, and aliens in their own world, and other circumstances outside their comfort zone, Ryan and his friends develop a maturity in their actions and reactions that support their ability to survive. 

Teens formerly immersed in high-tech devices and self-absorbed patterns may seem unlikely to become survivors, but this group is different. Alexander's ability to follow their journey on more than one level translates to a heady read that juxtaposes action-packed encounters and surprises with the kinds of survival challenges that force maturity. 

The result is an invasion saga that is gripping and thought-provoking. Till Dawn will attract a wide audience of teens interested in sci-fi, horror, and the process that leads a disparate group of friends to cement relationships, psyches, and intentions with newfound courage and grit: 

"...he had already looked back for the last time, and wouldn’t have the emotional, nor physical, strength to do that to himself all over again. Though the urge itself was strong, he would hold himself firm and fight against it, maintaining his focus in the only place it needed to be in that particular moment: right in front of him." 

Libraries looking for compelling leisure reading for teens that can also translate to book club discussions will find the allure of Till Dawn vivid and attractive. 

Till Dawn

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The Trials of Imperium
Lyndsey Garbee
Warren Publishing
978-1957723457    $32.95 Hardcover/$22.95 Paper
www.warrenpublishing.net 

The Trials of Imperium is a young adult sword and sorcery fantasy recommended for teens interested in epic tales of powerful women who rise above their stations in life to assume more commanding, authoritative roles. 

Princess Liliana Storidian is regal in title only, and is not slated to inherit any position of power. Her lot in life shifts with a series of extraordinary events where she is forced to utilize her innate savvy about her place and those around her to best advantage. 

Liliana is capable of astute, adult observations of the women and figures that surround her: 

"Liliana didn’t have anything specific against Easternalia. The woman was attention seeking, but she was passive. The most dangerous thing about her was the low-cut, extravagant dresses she wore that always threatened to expose her…lady parts. She would not murder, wrongfully convict, or do anything exceptionally malicious to further her own social agenda. However, she would buy her way into power at the Aurjnegh Court. She would monopolize three and a half hours of a diplomatic meeting talking about her children and their minute accomplishments. She would spread false fidelity rumors about Liliana’s mother around the court. She would change her birth name from Easter to Easternalia, giving it three more syllables and so much more “feminine charm!”" 

When a tired king creates an opportunity for those who harbor the mark of Imperium ("God of power") to compete to become the new ruler of the kingdom, Liliana and commoner Ellegance both see an unprecedented opportunity to assume greater control of not just the kingdom, but their lives. 

Lyndsey Garbee creates a moving story that holds the feel of The Hunger Games paired with the strong characterization of women who have little to lose and much to gain from stepping into revised roles of power. 

Supporting characters of both sexes provide intriguing contrasts in purpose and perception to keep the story fast-paced and thought-provoking: 

"Aoran shook off the strange encounter, pushing it into the sewers of his mind. Sometimes it was better to approach life like a soldier. Take orders, don’t speak back, and for Imperium’s sake, don’t think. Thinking was what got soldiers in trouble. It got normal people in trouble, too, especially if they had a propensity for the wrong kind of thoughts. He rolled his eyes; no wonder Liliana and Teo were such damn grouches. Thinking that much about anything—much less the fate of an entire kingdom—was prone to ram a naman up anybody’s ass." 

Many an adult will find this fantasy powerful in its contrasts, characterization, and action, finding it surprisingly accessible and involving for its concurrent themes of women's empowerment and struggles for personal and political control. 

Libraries seeking acquisitions for mature teens that nicely straddle the boundary between young adult and adult reading will find the epic fantasy action, characters, and struggles of The Trials of Imperium make for an involving choice that should attract a wide audience with its ageless theme of good intentions gone awry. 

The Trials of Imperium

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Werecats Convergent
Mark J. Engels
‎Fazed Angle Media
979-8-9881902-3-3         $14.99 Paper/$4.99 ebook
Website: https://www.mark-engels.com/
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/Werecats-Convergent-Forest-Exiles-Saga-ebook/dp/B0CGCCZH6P/ 

Book 2 of the Forest Exiles Saga, Werecats Convergent, returns teenager Pawly to center stage as she faces a Christmas in San Francisco as a were-lynx whose interests include family and survival. These are no light tasks, as Pawly fights to keep scientist and rival werecat Mawro from weaponizing her family's abilities while also struggling to protect her love life from this confrontation. 

Mark J. Engels introduces Pawly's latest challenge with a focus on Mawro, adding information that will ease any transition by newcomers. That note in mind, ideally, such readers will already be familiar with Pawly's prior dilemmas in Werecats Emergent. This will not only lend to a smooth transition to this story, but serves as a powerful opening read. 

From Pawly's struggles with a human lover who becomes mixed up in paranormal affairs to her confrontations with militaries intent on tapping her family's extraordinary abilities for their own special purposes, the action plays out on several levels. These are spiced with references to sports Cup playoffs and interests that emerge on both a human and metaphysical level. 

Intrigue that's more usually associated with a thriller than a paranormal read keeps the story vigorous, with many twists and turns emerging that continually challenge Pawly's relationships, ideals of safety and love, and her loyalty and commitment to family secrets and realities. 

This gives the story not only a fast pace, but presents many thought-provoking encounters that young adults familiar with paranormal stories won't see coming. It also tests international waters and special interests as events converge on Pawly's life and family in cataclysmic ways. 

Libraries seeking blends of romance, thriller, and paranormal fantasy will find all these elements dovetail in Werecats Convergent, a story that is satisfyingly unpredictable and perfect for teens just entering into adult reading levels of complexity and attraction.

Werecats Convergent

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