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Allan Jenkins' Bookshelf
One Tough Out, Fighting of Life's Curveballs
Rod Carew and Jamie Aron
Triumph Books
https://www.triumphbooks.com
9781629377643, $26.95, Hardcover, 324 pages
https://www.amazon.com/Rod-Carew-Tough-Fighting-Curveballs/dp/1629377643
This is a book about the legendary Career and life of one of the most decorated players in baseball history, Rod Carew. Rod
Carew become very famous because he was a great baseball player who was inducted into the baseball hall of fame in
1991,Rod crew also become very famous in baseball history, because he played major league baseball for 19 seasons, this
was during the time of 1967 to 1986. During his great baseball career, while playing with Minnesota and the Los Angles
Angels, he became very famous, for becoming a great baseball hitter. The way he was able to do this, was to guide the
baseball wherever he wanted to while hitting the baseball, this is something that this book mentions. During his great Major
league career, he was able to achieve some great accomplishments These included, winning the 1967 rookie of the year, and
being a winner of the 1977, American league MVP, he was also selected to play in 18 Major League, all-star games. And
during his great baseball career he was able to get 3063,baseball hits, this is something, that many other major league
players are not able to do. The 2nd Author of this book is a Texas sports editor for the Associated Press who name is Jamie
Aron. Jamie Aron has written six other books and lives in the city of Dallas with his family. Know here is the story of Rod
Carew life.
Originally Rod Carew grew up in a small town in a place called the Panama zone canal, this was outside of the of United
States of America. While living in this small town, the book does a great job of describing how Rod Carew was able to hone
the skills that would eventually make him a great all-star baseball player, before he moved to New York city. In this Book
he not only is able to reflect on developing the baseball skills, but also, he reflects on the relationship he had with his father,
which was not a very good one. But in this book, it is great to read about, the relationship he had with mother, and how that
would help him to make him have and continue his relationship with God even during the many difficult challenge's he has
had during his life. The other great thing to read about in this book is the many examples of how God always has helped
Rod Carew, handle good things in life or hard challenges in his life. There are many times in this book When Rod Carew
shares a sentence, about how putting faith in God, will help you deal with something you are struggling with. This can be
very encouraging to remember
Despite having such a great baseball career, Rod Carew would end up having to handle two of the hardest challenges, in his
life after retiring, from the game he had loved to play, which was baseball. He shares those challenges and reflects on how
he handled them at the end of this book. The first challenge that Rod and his wife had to face was the health challenge, of
their youngest daughter, Michele passing away from Cancer. Despite trying to fight cancer, for one or two years, Michele
still ended up passing away when she was only 19 years. The passing Away of his daughter was obviously very difficult on
their entire family. In the book he reflects on this, and then mentions that he was able to put his faith in God, and how that
helped him and all his family handle this. At the very end of this book, he then shares and reflects on he was able to handle
near fatal heart disease. In this book he shares the reason he is alive today, this is probably because of some good doctors,
and it was also because of a 29-year-old NFL football player, named Konrad Ruland, who was the person that Rod Carew
received a heart transplant from. In this book Rod Carew then explains the astonishing connection and unique bond that him
and his wife where able to make with Konrad Ruland's family. Originally Rod and his wife where very nervous about how
this situation would turn out. But once again just like in most of the other situations that Rod shared in this book. Rod and
his wife where able to put their faith in God, by praying about this. And in this book how Rod then shares how situation
turned out better then excepted, because of Rod and his wife, and their faith in God.
In conclusion this book is great to read. because it helps remind you that having a relationship with God in life can help
everyone whether you are famous or not. Even though Rod Carew was a very well-known and famous Baseball athlete, he
still has needed God to help deal with the difficult situations he shared. In my opinion, that is what made this book so great
to read. Also, If I had to rate this book, I would give it an A+.
Allan Jenkins
Reviewer
Ann Skea's Bookshelf
Scary Monsters
Michelle de Kretser
Allen & Unwin
https://www.allenandunwin.com
9781761065101, A$32.99 PB, 320 pages
https://www.amazon.com/Scary-Monsters-Novel-Two-Parts/dp/1646221095
Scary Monsters is really two novels in one book. The publishers decided to print each novel so that it starts from the
opposite end of the book. You can choose which to read first, then flip the book over and start the second. It is a gimmick
but the advertising blurb suggests that it represents the upheaval migrants experience when they move to live in an
unfamiliar culture, and both novels are voiced by migrants.
Lili and Lyle have both lived in Australia for many years and have learned how to assimilate themselves to the cultural
differences. Lily, however, has now taken a seven-month teaching job in France and is experiencing yet another
culture.
Lyle and his family, who migrated to Australia from Asia, have made great efforts to be 'Australian'. 'People like us', says
Lyle, 'will never be invisible so we have to make a stupendous effort to fit in'. His wife, Chanel, chose new names for them
when they first arrived and told him not to look back, because 'That's not the Australian way. It's a modern country that
looks to the future'.
Lyle's account of his life in Melbourne is funny but worrying. It quickly becomes apparent that he lives in the near future
when everything which is happening now in Australia has become more extreme. Fires frequently blanket the city in smoke;
'Severe Weather Events' are common, and Sydney-siders who 'had it sweet before their homes fell into the sea' are all
moving to Melbourne; deadly viral infections constantly crop up and mask-wearing is a normal part of daily life. Islam is
banned and Muslims are repatriated. So, too, is any immigrant who transgresses the many new laws. Lyle comments
sardonically that
Our prime minister is a strategic genius. Since seventy-five percent of the population have a grandparent born overseas, his
repatriation policy had an immediate effect on dissent.
Dissent or protest in any form, be it about ecology, aboriginal rights, government policies or other critical issues, is
punished. 'The Department', where Lyle works, keeps records of everything. Lyle, who has access to some records, because
his boss (who is often away from the office for dubious 'family reasons') finds it convenient to let him know his secure
password, becomes dangerously involved in doctoring his brother-in-law's tax record when it is highlighted for 'potential
investigation'.
'The Amendment', too, has changed the right-to-die' legislation and made the process 'entirely straightforward' and easier to
implement.
Once the service fee is paid you receive a PDF called 'Moving On Emotionally', along with e- vouchers for discounted
bunting and champagne. Then it's a matter of setting the date... That's not the only benefit it's brought: the economy is
perking up as inheritances are spent, the housing shortfall has been alleviated.
This throws Lyle into a quandary when his elderly mother (who lives with his family) becomes ill with suspected
bowel-cancer but refuses all medical investigation. At the same time, he and Chanel have the chance to invest in an exciting
new 'once in a lifetime' housing development but must sign up quickly before others buy all the units. It is clear that his
mother must make a decision, and the chance of a farewell party with all her friends and family, and where she will be the
centre of attention, will be attractive to her, but no-one wants to be the one to discuss it with her.
Lyle and Chanel have been able to afford a good education for their two children. They are proud of their daughter, Mel,
who is now studying architecture in Chicago. However, she has decline their offer to pay for her to come home for
Christmas, because she has let her friends think she grew up in New Zealand and 'Being Australian is so, like, shameful.
Everyone just assumes you're a racist, Islamophobic climate vandal and coffee snob'.
Sydney, their son, is more of a worry. He has 'taken leave of absence' from the final year of his Ph.D and joined a 'Green'
community called 'Shaking the Grass'. This is too close to dissent and activism for Lyle's comfort.
There is one trans-gender character in the book. The exotic, Lyric, has 'half his hair shaved off, and the rest might be blue
with orange spots', he also changes his eye colour frequently. Lyric's chosen pronoun is 'they', which caused me some
confusion when I read that Lyle has been called to a meeting and 'they got to the huddle space first'. 'They' and 'huddle' made
me assumed, wrongly, that the huddle space held a group of people until it become clear that Lyric was the only other
person present.
De Kretser makes Lyle's life, his family, his worries and the world he lives in quite like our own. We recognize the pitfalls
in some of the choices he makes, even if he does not. The ending of the book, however, leaves major events unresolved and
offers, instead, a cryptic story, remembered by Lyle, which left me baffled.
Lili's story, at the other end of the book, is very different. She looks back on her life as a twenty-two - year old who arrived
in Montpellier to teach English at a French high-school for seven months. She speaks French fluently, having studied it as
part of her degree, but it is text-book French: asking the way or opening a bank-account 'I'd listen to myself reproducing
sentences from grammar books. I relished the strangeness of it'. French novels have provided her with a wide vocabulary but
unlike her friend Minna's boyfriend, Nick, who had spent holidays on France, she did not 'know the name of the leader of
the Communist Party, or that 'une clope' was slang for 'une cigarette'.
Lili first met Nick and Minna at a colleague's party and she and Minna had 'plunged into friendship' like 'addicts immersing
ourselves in a drug'. They spent their free afternoons listening to music, smoking, snacking on chocolate and sugary biscuits,
and scanning the fashion magazines that Minna used as inspiration for her own unconventional style.
Minna's favourite shirt was bubblegum pink with orange leaves. 'I love this shade of pink', she told me. 'It goes with
everything. Neon colours are modern joy'.
Her aim, she tells Lili, is the 'uglification of clothes'.
One of the first things Lili notices about the French is what she calls a 'flick-flick' - 'the lightning, down-and-up glance' with
which they 'assessed, classified and dismissed her'.
The flick-flick grew frenzied around Minna. She stirred a special mix of horror and pity in the breasts of French men. They
wished to save her, but how? They might have been watching a mountaineer step wilfully off an alp - it was tragic, and there
was nothing to be done. Whenever the sight of Minna induced that look of appalled bewilderment, we'd cry, 'Goal!', wet a
finger and mark a strike on the air.
Lili's own dark skin-colour, inherited from her Armenian grandmother, often causes a problem when the Gendarmes swarm
in to the flea-market where she likes to browse. They start checking people's papers, looking for illegal North African
immigrants, and they always ask for her ID, but when she shows her own Australian passport she is deemed 'not
ang-ter-es-sung'.
Lili finds furnished accommodation in an ancient apartment building in the historic centre of Montpellier. 'Furnished', she
concludes, is 'only a label used to evict tenants without fuss'. The furnishing is adequate, but the toilet is up a flight of steps
at the top of the building and the lights on the stairs have an automatic timer which usually times out before she is ready to
walk back down to her rooms. She has recurring fears about murderers (scary monsters) lurking on the dark stairs and these
fears begin to focus on Rinaldi, a man who lives on the floor below hers and who has taken to lurking about so that he can
speak to her.
Apart from these fears, Lili's life is calm. She makes new, interesting friends, settles into the French way-of-life and has fun
with Minna but without 'the scaffolding of study' which had come down when she graduated, 'things felt makeshift'
Being young and clever and streaked with unfocused ambition. I was given to panic. Life was a bridge strung across a
ravine: I was moving over it fast, and it was collapsing behind me like a scene in a film...My days were pure suspension
neither before nor after, a tireless now.
Michele de Kretser draws the reader easily into the lives of people whose thoughts and actions provide insight into their
character. In many ways their worries, ambitions, joys and fears are like our own and the world is much as we know it but
with subtle differences. Lyle's world reflects that of any hard-working man trying to do the best for his family, his migrant
status is apparent and adds to his feelings of insecurity but it is just part of his worries. Lili, too, is occasionally made aware
that her skin-colour is different to that of those around her, but this it is not a major theme in her story. De Kretser is too
good an author to dwell on any of the barely-concealed issues which prevail in their worlds and ours. Instead, she creates
lives which are interesting, stories which are humorous and enjoyable, and, at the same time leave the reader with some
unsettling facts, possibilities, and questions to ponder.
Dr. Ann Skea, Reviewer
http://ann.skea.com/THHome.htm
Brice Maiurro's Bookshelf
Open Secrets: The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Your Book
Tupelo Press
https://www.tupelopress.org
9781946482570 $18.95 pbk / $9.99 Kindle
https://www.tupelopress.org/product/open-secrets-the-ultimate-guide-to-marketing-your-book
When I stepped into Denver's literary community about ten years ago, I was entering a big world doe-eyed and ill-prepared
as I could be. I didn't have a college degree, I knew nothing about how to get published, and I'd never hosted a literary event
in my life. For what it's worth, I did find my way. I started attending open mics and listening to what the poets were saying,
how they promoted their works, and I watched what they were doing on social media. When I decided I wanted to publish
books, Google was a good friend. Over the course of that ten years, I went from a scrub to running a well-known local press
having published eight titles and hosting hundreds of events both locally and across the United States. What I wish I'd had
from day one is a guidebook like Tupelo Press' new release Open Secrets: The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Your
Book.
Tupelo is the perfect press to release a book like this. Founded in 2001, their twenty years of knowledge shines through, as
does a pragmatism that I'm afraid could be lost if one of the big five publishers attempted to publisher a similar book. It's
apparent that Tupelo has a history of what they refer to on their website's call for submissions as "energetic publicity and
promotion." That energy is contained in the dense sixty-some pages of Open Secrets.
Open Secrets acknowledges the necessity in our times for an author to also be an avid marketer, extra timely in its
considerations of publishing in the age of COVID-19. They approach their strategy of marketing in the three sections of the
book: image, industry, and the publisher's role. The book emphasizes how an effective marketing strategy should begin long
before your book is in the world, and in swift segments breaks down the blueprint for making this happen. The guide looks
at so many questions I myself had as a young person entering the literary world, such as how do I diversify my efforts? How
do I find my people? Does word-of-mouth really work? It also answers some common curiosities, such as how long before a
release does a press promote a book?
The book functions not only as a go-to for best marketing practices, but also as a road map to other valuable resources. Open
Secrets is the kind of book I'll keep beside me at my desk, ready to reference a plethora of websites and other resources for
further expansion on things such as pre-launch strategy, online and in-person communities to engage with, and a full-on
"Review, Interview and Submission Directory." In the later chapters of the book, Tupelo even expands to draw on the
resources and wisdom of some great Tupelo authors', sharing quotes and successful manners of approaching the
often-intimidating world of publishing and the marketing that inherently comes along with it.
As I look to my next ten years in the literary world and onward, I find myself grateful that Tupelo's best kept secrets have
been released out into the open, accessible to those who need them the most. Open Secrets serves as an excellent companion
to any author, publisher, or book marketer looking to be in conversation with a press of proven merit.
Brice Maiurro
Reviewer
Carl Logan's Bookshelf
Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US and Canadian Transit
Christof Spieler
Island Press
2000 M St NW Suite 650, Washington, DC 20036
www.islandpress.org
9781642832136, $45.00, PB, 344pp
https://www.amazon.com/Trains-Buses-People-Second-Opinionated/dp/1642832138
Synopsis: The first edition of "Trains, Buses, People" was dubbed "a transit wonk's bible" and guided "a smarter
conversation about urban transit" in the US. This second edition is fully updated and expanded to include eight Canadian
cities and two new US cities (Indianapolis and San Juan, Puerto Rico).
In this new, updated and expanded of "Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US and Canadian Transit", transit
expert Christof Spieler provides a new section on inclusivity to help agencies understand how to welcome riders regardless
of race, gender, income, or disability. Select cities include new maps overlaying transit and poverty data, and systems that
have started construction since the first edition in 2018 have been added. Other new sections address network typologies,
guideway types, station types, and fares.
Spieler has spent over a decade advocating for transit as a writer, community leader, urban planner, transit board member,
and enthusiast. He strongly believes that just about anyone (regardless of training or experience) can identify what makes
good transit with the right information. In this fun, accessible, and visually appealing second edition of "Trains, Buses,
People" Spieler shows how cities can build successful transit. He profiles the 49 metropolitan areas in the US and eight
metropolitan areas in Canada that have rail transit or BRT, using data, photos, and maps for easy comparison. Spieler also
ranks the best and worst systems and he offers analysis of how geography, politics, and history complicate transit planning.
He shows how the unique circumstances of every city have resulted in very different transit systems.
This new second edition of "Trains, Buses, People" is specifically intended for non-experts as it will enable any citizen,
professional, or policymaker with a vested interest evaluate a transit proposal and understand what makes transit effective. It
shows that it is possible, with the right tools, to build good transit.
Critique: Expertly written, thoroughly 'user friendly' in commentary tone, organization and presentation, this new second
edition of "Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US and Canadian Transit" is especially and unreservedly
recommended for personal, professional, community, college and university library Travel collections.
Editorial Note: Christof Spieler, PE, AICP, LEED AP, is a Vice President and Director of Planning at Huitt-Zollars and a
Lecturer in Architecture and Engineering at Rice University. He was a member of the board of directors of Houston
METRO from 2010 to 2018.
Carl Logan
Reviewer
Carolyn Wilhelm's Bookshelf
Dark Truths: A Thrilling Romantic Mystery (Angel Falls Series Book 6)
Charlene Tess and Judy Thompson
Independently Published
http://simplestepstosentencesense.blogspot.com
B09DHQ3ZQR, $3.99 Kindle
9798463787064, $8.00 Paperback, 260 pages
https://www.amazon.com/DARK-TRUTHS-Thrilling-Romantic-Mystery/dp/B09FNR73XM
Peyton, a successful writer, had recently lost her grandfather and found her writing friend dead. She was going through a
very emotional time as she meets Jonas again. Book 6 is about the interesting characters in Angel Falls. There is a new
doctor in town, also. Several relationships revolve around Cecil's death as it becomes apparent it was a murder, although the
autopsy was confusing. The storylines weave together nicely. The other books in the series are not required to enjoy this one
but are recommended reading.
I enjoy the details added by the authors, such as descriptions of the restaurants and menus. New Mexico is the setting of the
book, with scenes painted in vivid words. Jonas successfully helps his parents' ranch and tracking clues even with his ribs
bruised. Cecil's mother arrives to take care of his things. The characters work through some difficult life situations with
courage.
Carolyn Wilhelm, Reviewer
Wise Owl Factory LLC
https://www.thewiseowlfactory.com
Christy Martin's Bookshelf
All Bleeding Stops
Michael J Collins
FriesenPress
https://www.friesenpress.com
9781525598388, $19.99
https://www.amazon.com/All-Bleeding-Stops-Michael-Collins/dp/1525598392
Dr. Michael Barrett is on his way to Vietnam in the 1960s. He is assigned there as a surgeon. He is not the typical surgeon
or doctor. He cares a lot about his patients. He sees so many dead and dying. He sees even more maimed and scarred
mentally and physically. He himself is forever changed and is mentally and physically exhausted by the unending surgery,
violence, tragedy, and poor leadership in his field hospital. He isn't sure he can make a year there in this place he feels is
Hell.
Somewhere in the present time, a plane is attacked by terrorists. On that plane is a man who is mortally injured. The influx
of patients to the hospital makes treating one with no chance of survival relegated to an untried intern. She listens to his
story. It is one of triumph of the human spirit over horrible circumstances. It is the story of love and compassion. It is the
story of Michael Barrett.
To say more of the plot would be a spoiler to the reader. I will say that it is an important book. Any book that reveals the
tragedy of war, the horrors of it to its citizenry and soldiers is important. It does not matter why the war is started, one must
examine the human cost, the long-term effect of its worth. The characters in this book are well developed. The plot and
explicit narrative hold the reader's interest.
The legal aspect of Dr. Barrett's journey were interesting but at first, confusing to me as the reader but it did not distract
from the story and added to Dr. Barrett's stresses in the end. The book was well-researched and while fiction, it displayed a
raw reality that only a surgeon could tell. The book will make you think. It is a heartfelt accounting of an era that is still
painful in the hearts and minds of many of our citizenry and one we all should be aware of. I hope to read more books from
Michael J. Collins, the author. I highly recommend this one. Thanks to #AllBleedingStops#NetGalley for the opportunity to
read this important book.
Christy Martin
Reviewer
Cindy Roesel's Bookshelf
I Mean You No Harm
Beth Castrodale
Imbrifex Books
https://imbrifex.com
9781945501715, $16.00 pbk
https://www.amazon.com/Mean-You-No-Harm-Novel/dp/1945501715
"The enemy of my enemy is my sister."
Layla Shawn always thought her estranged criminal father, Vic "Thundercloud" Doloro would be killed in a hail of bullets.
In Beth Castrodale's novel, I MEAN YOU NO HARM (ImbrifexBooks),Vic serves ten years in an Ohio prison for a three
state burglary ring he ran and when he gets out, he dies of heart disease.
Layla's mom died when Layla was young and her grandparents raised her. The cause of her mother's death was listed suicide
but that's always been questionable. She has a picture her mother drew of a man years ago, and remembers being told stories
about a man called "The Wolf" with dark vacant turned downed eyes and a widows peak.
Layla shows up for her father's funeral where she's greeted by her half sister, Bette with a hand shake, her father's sister's
ex-wife, Marla and her son, Jake who has Downs Syndrome. Layla takes this opportunity to study all the men at the funeral
and see if and resemble "The Wolf."
After the funeral, Bette gives Layla fifty-thousand dollars her father left her, and a note of apology, but she doesn't accept
the money because she thinks it's dirty. Bette says she's taken hers and Layla should sleep on it.
Bette says she must drive the next day to Phoenix and pick up something else her father left her. She's not quite sure what it
is or who has it. Layla says she'll go with her. Bette and Layla begin to mend fences, but Layla finds herself caught in the
middle of a potentially deadly score between her dead father and a man who knows more than he should about her mother's
death. Is he "The Wolf?"
I MEAN YOU NO HARM will have you flipping pages as the plots get deeper and more complex. It's full of tension and
bursting with twists and turns that'll surprise you. A good thriller for summer reading.
Beth Castrodale worked as a newspaper reporter until her love of books led her to the publishing field. She was a senior
editor at Bedford/St. Martin's and is the founding editor of Small Press Picks. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in
such publications as Live Write Thrive, Printer's Devil Review, the Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, and Writing
and Wellness. Her debut novel, Marion Hatley, was a finalist for a Nilsen Prize for a First Novel from Southeast Missouri
State University Press, and an excerpt from her second novel, In This Ground, was a shortlist finalist for a William Faulkner
- William Wisdom Creative Writing Award.
Cindy Roesel
Reviewer
Clint Travis' Bookshelf
The Creature: A Trilogy Chronicle
Erik Gonzalez
Rosebog Books
c/o Dorrance Publishing Company
585 Alpha Drive, Suite 103, Pittsburgh, PA 15238
www.dorrancepublishing.com
9781636615691, $23.00, PB, 382pp
https://www.amazon.com/Creature-Trilogy-Chronicle-Erik-Gonzalez/dp/1636615694
Synopsis: Raiders took everything from Archie Hughes. They broke into his home, stole his family's valuables, and killed
his parents while he hid in the cellar. In Infernus, grizzly scenes like these are common, and Archie's future consists of
roaming the town's scorching streets. Without a safe place to call home, barely living on raw scraps from the butcher's
storehouse, Archie's life has become tortured and pointless. In a twist of fate, he finds himself with a difficult decision:
accept lifelong servitude to the queen's mysterious advisor (where a dark, arcane ritual is prepared for him) or to kneel at the
executioner's axe, ending his life.
Critique: An inherently entertaining and original dark fantasy novel by an author with an impressive flair for the kind of
narrative driven storytelling style that rivets is reader's total attention from beginning to end, "The Creature: A Trilogy
Chronicle" is unreservedly recommended for community library Science Fiction & Fantasy collections. It should be noted
for the personal reading list of dedicated fantasy fans that "The Creature: A Trilogy Chronicle" is also readily available in a
digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Sunshine Blues
Bob Calverley
bobcalverley.com
Independently published
9798733615332, $16.95 pbk / $4.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Sunshine-Blues-Bob-Calverley/dp/B091PR84KG
Synopsis: 1968. Jimmy Hayes, once a killer guitar player, is a real killer on a helicopter gunship. Someone, besides the
enemy, is murdering his comrades in the gun platoon. At least he doesn't have to worry about Sunshine, his teenage
girlfriend. She's safe and sound in Detroit and her songs are on the radio. Okay, she's pregnant and just found out she had a
black father. She needs to grow up, fast. Lurking in the shadows is a murderous Thai human trafficker who thinks he owns
her. He likes to cut off fingers. The heart-pounding sequel to Purple Sunshine comes with more sex, more drugs and more
rock 'n roll. But the peace and love are dying along with Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. And they aren't the
only ones.
Critique: Sunshine Blues is an intense novel of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll, and the sequel to Purple Sunshine. Jimmy Hayes
is a guitar player caught up in the Vietnam War, and his pregnant teenage girlfriend Sunshine is being stalked by a
murderous human trafficker who thinks he owns her. Gritty, suspenseful, and harrowing, Sunshine Blues reflects the
darkness lurking in the end of a decade, and keeps the reader riveted to the very end. It should be noted for personal reading
lists that Sunshine Blues is also available in a Kindle edition ($4.99).
Editorial Note: Bob Calverley has been an award-winning newspaper reporter and a writer, editor and communications
executive and consultant. In 1968-69 he served in the 187th Assault Helicopter Company in Vietnam as company clerk and
occasional door gunner. He is the author of the '60s novels, Purple Sunshine: Sex & Drugs, Rock & Roll, War, Peace &
Love and its sequel, Sunshine Blues. He also authored the murder mystery, Hyperventilated Underwater Blues.
Paradise, WV
Rob Rufus
www.robrufus.net
Turner Publishing Company
https://turnerbookstore.com
9781684426706, $29.99 hc / $13.49 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-WV-Rob-Rufus/dp/1684426707
Synopsis: Despite being bullied and ostracized, the siblings maintain their father's innocence. But now, a popular true-crime
podcast is coming to town, and their presence turns all eyes to the Blind Spot Slasher's case... and Henry and Jane.
Meanwhile, an eager young officer, Lieutenant Elena Garcia, is put on the case of a missing girl. Despite warnings from her
superiors, Garcia begins to dig deeper into the case and realizes there may be other mysteries buried in the flood of
opioid-related crimes. With many deaths quickly labeled as overdoses, or "No Human Involved," she fears the drug
epidemic has created the perfect storm for a Blind Spot Slasher copycat to thrive. Unless that is, they never caught the real
Blind Spot Slasher.
An amateur private investigator is also on the case: Henry's new friend, Otis. A home-schooled genius with his own family
issues and a suspicion their father might be innocent, Otis makes it his mission to help Henry and Jane find the real killer.
As the three probe into the evidence, they discover a possible connection between the killings and a doomsday,
snake-handling cult - propelling them all down the dark backroads of Appalachia to find justice for Hollis and
themselves.
Critique: Paradise, WV is a gritty mystery set in Appalachia, where poverty and an opioid drug crisis are the backdrop to a
series of murders. A father of two has been convicted of multiple murders as the "Blind Spot Slasher", but could he be
innocent? His two children and an amateur private investigator uncover clues that link recurring deaths to a doomsday,
snake-handling cult. A tautly written work of edge-of-seat suspense, Paradise, WV is utterly compelling from cover to cover
and especially recommended for fans of the genre. It should be noted for personal reading lists that Paradise, WV is also
available in a Kindle edition ($13.49).
Editorial Note: Rob Rufus is an author, musician, screenwriter, and advocate. He is the recipient of the American Library
Association's prestigious ALEX Award. His literary debut, Die Young With Me, was named one of the "Best Books of the
Year" by Hudson Booksellers and is currently being developed as a major motion picture. His follow up, The Vinyl
Underground, was named one of the Junior Library Guild's Gold Standard Selections. He lives with his dog in East
Nashville, Tennessee. Catch him on the road with his bands The Bad Signs or Blacklist Royals, and learn more at
www.robrufus.net
City Problems
Steve Goble
Oceanview Publishing
https://oceanviewpub.com
9781608094431, $26.95 hc / $11.49 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/City-Problems-Ed-Runyon-Mystery/dp/160809443X
Synopsis: Ed Runyon bolted from the NYPD after a runaway teen case fell through the cracks and turned into a nightmarish
murder. Now, he's learned to bury the rage that consumed him, cope with depression, and enjoy life as a Mifflin County
sheriff's detective in rural Ohio.
Ed is trying to relax on his day off when Columbus PD Detective Shelly Beckworth comes to Mifflin County in search of a
girl who vanished after a pop-up party. The clues are scarce - a few license plates, a phone shattered on the roadside - but
the trail leads to Ed's neck of the woods.
He tries to shove everything else aside to keep this case from ending in another tragedy, but a cop can't pick and choose
which calls to duty he'll answer. Frustrated, Ed watches a happy ending slip beyond sight - this one he cannot run away
from.
Charging forward, Ed breaks rules and takes risks leading to a bloody confrontation where everything he believes as a cop
and every ghost in his head clash - a moment of avenging violence that will ultimately change his life to the core.
Critique: City Problems: An Ed Runyon Mystery is a gripping mystery novel about Ed Runyon, a sheriff's detective drawn
into the case of a disappeared girl, which has disturbing similarities to a runaway teen case he encountered as a member of
the NYPD. That past case culminated in a horrific murder, a vile tragedy that still haunts him with feelings of rage and
depression. Now Ed has very few clues and vanishingly little time to work with, before the history repeats itself in an
unthinkably horrible way! City Problems is a choice pick for connoisseurs of the police detective genre, highly
recommended. It should be noted for personal reading lists that City Problems is also available in a Kindle edition
($11.49).
Editorial Note: Steve Goble is a lifelong Ohio resident and a former journalist. He now works for a digital investigations
firm as he reinvents himself as a mystery novel writer. His Spider John historical mysteries are known for darkly humorous
characters and salty dialogue. City Problems is the first in the Ed Runyon Mystery Series.
Alchemy Of Revenge
Athan Noel
TriMark Press
https://www.trimarkpress.com
9781943401857, $24.95
https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Revenge-Athan-Noel/dp/1943401853
Synopsis: Being killed off can change a man. Treachery, betrayal and disaster catalyze the collapse of Leo Vitali's world and
the loss of everything he loves, his life forfeit. Dead to the world. But not dead. Physically and emotionally changed by
misfortune, fate grants him the ultimate opportunity to exact an exquisite revenge on those who betrayed him.
Author Athan Noel creates a compelling adventure of a man who witnesses the loss of his family, business and life, stolen
by those he trusted the most. Within the darkness of oblivion fate creates the flicker of hope, an Israeli ex-assassin who
guides Leo along a strange path to the rightful infliction of retribution and to win back the love of his lost family.
Critique: Alchemy Of Revenge is a keenly intense novel of betrayal and retribution. Leo Vitali is a man who has lost
everything - his family, his business, the life he cherished. Yet he clings to existence, and the potential for revenge on those
who stole his life. Alchemy of Revenge is gripping, tautly written work of suspense that keeps the reader riveted up to the
last page.
The Castle
Anne Montgomery
https://annemontgomerywriter.com
TouchPoint Press
https://touchpointpress.com
9781952816666, $14.99, PB, 210pp
https://www.amazon.com/Castle-novel-Anne-Montgomery/dp/1952816661
Synopsis: Maggie, a National Park Ranger, is back at the Castle - an ancient Native American pueblo carved into the face of
a limestone cliff in Arizona. Maggie, who suffers from depression, has been through several traumas: the gang rape she
suffered while in the Coast Guard, the sudden death of her ten-year-old son, and a suicide attempt. As part of her therapy
Maggie volunteers at the local rape crisis clinic.
Maggie has several men in her life. The baker, newcomer Jim Casey, always greets her with a warm smile and fills pink
boxes with sweet delicacies. Brett Collins, a scuba diver, is doing scientific studies in Montezuma Well, a dangerous
cylindrical depression that houses a deep spring filled with strange creatures found nowhere else on Earth. Then there's
Dave, with whom she's had a one-night stand, and her new boss Glen.
One of these men is a serial rapist, and Maggie is his next target.
Critique: A deftly written and riveting read from cover to cover, "The Castle" effectively showcases author Anne
Montgomery's genuine mastery of the Romantic Suspense genre. While especially and unreservedly recommended for
community library collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Castle" is also readily available in a
digital book format (Kindle, $3.99).
Clint Travis
Reviewer
David Beatty's Bookshelf
We're Doomed!: A Humorous Exploration of Humanity's War Against Life
Scott Erickson
https://scott-erickson-writer.com
Azaria Press
9780989831192, $14.99 PB / $9.99 Kindle, 309pp
https://www.amazon.com/Were-Doomed-Humorous-Exploration-Humanitys/dp/0989831191
Perhaps it's because of the latest IPCC report on catastrophic climate change. Perhaps it's the growing number of news
stories about the ongoing drought, water shortages, and increase in megafires. Perhaps it's the COVID pandemic.
But whatever the reason, "doomism" is in the air. Jared Diamond's 2011 book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or
Succeed was a frightening wake-up call for millions. There are a growing number of groups on Facebook and Reddit, with
names such as Near Term Human Extinction and Deep Adaptation.
It was in one of these groups that I discovered We're Doomed! A Humorous Exploration of Humanity's War Against
Life.
We may be tempted to ask the question: If we really are doomed, then why a humorous exploration? And what about the
weighty claim that humanity is at war against life? Doesn't that deserve a non-humorous exploration? Is this book meant to
be taken seriously?
The book even takes on the weighty philosophical question of What is life? The topic is explored with humor, but begins by
asking a serious question: If we consider life to be such an important thing, why do we put almost no attention into the
question of what life actually is? The author continues, "It would probably be a good idea to know what life is, just in case if
we ever got the crazy idea to live in harmony with it or something."
Which is precisely our problem. We have yet to adopt the crazy idea of living in harmony with life. As a result, we're at war
with life. And as a result, we're doomed. Therefore, why take anything seriously? Why take philosophy seriously?
If the author had written the book as a "serious exploration," would it have made any difference? The answer is: probably
not. Plenty of other serious books have been written, which are making little or no difference. And they aren't touching the
roots of the problem. So why write a serious book that nobody would take seriously?
Yes, the book is funny. At times, laugh-out-loud funny. The book is filled with jokes, limericks, random characters who
enter the book to argue with the author, a fictional conversation between Freud and Jung, a conversation with a mother
explaining to her daughter why she needs to sell her soul to a corporation, and an essay by a lawn. Yes, an essay by a
lawn.
Our only hope would be a radical re-imagining of literally every aspect of human civilization including energy, agriculture,
and economics. The author's exploration of economics is especially insightful, as it describes some serious problems - most
notably our addiction to economic growth - that mainstream economists refuse to even discuss. And if we refuse to even
discuss a problem, how can we hope to solve it? We can't.
For the growing number of people that are beginning to agree that the situation is hopeless, there's the question of how to
deal with it. How can we live with this awareness while going on with our daily lives?
This is the main reason the book is written as a humorous exploration. In the conclusion, the author explains how humor can
help with psychological survival. He compares his approach to that of Stanley Kubrick's dark comedy Dr. Strangelove. Or:
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which used humor to help people cope with the possibility of nuclear
Armageddon.
The author makes it clear that he's not recommending that we give up on the world. He suggests that we adopt the Buddhist
concept of nonattachment as a way to approach activism as end in itself, while letting go of expectations about the effects of
that activism.
In the author's most heartfelt advice, he says: "It may sound counter-intuitive, but the best way to cope with a life-defying
culture is to affirm life to the best of your abilities. In the big picture, we're doomed. So focus on the little picture. Focus on
the differences you can make in your personal life. Add something life-enhancing to every moment."
But what does it mean to affirm and enhance life? This brings us back to the question of What is life? It's an excellent
question. Funny that we don't consider the question to be important.
David Beatty
Reviewer
Israel Drazin's Bookshelf
Maimonides' Hidden Torah Commentary
Leviticus
Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel, author of Maimonides' Hidden Torah Commentary, Leviticus, has made a significant
contribution to posterity by writing this beautiful book and bringing the thinking of Maimonides and many dozens of others,
ancient and modern, Jewish and non-Jewish, rational and mystic, to his readers. Among many other sources, he focuses on
the writings of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, his Guide of the Perplexed, his commentary to the Mishnah, his ethical work
Shemoneh Perakim, as well as his Responsa, and even the Commentary on Exodus that his son Abraham wrote. This
volume follows his successful books on Maimonides to Genesis and Exodus. He reveals much that many people do not
know and does so in a clear easy to read and engaging fashion. There is much in these books that we can learn.
The opinions of all people should be examined and Rabbi Samuel who is a very knowledgable person on many subjects
gives us the understandings of numerous people. Maimonides taught in his introduction to his Guide of the Perplexed, that
the truth is the truth no matter what its source. Therefore, Maimonides said he had no scruple about generally accepting the
philosophy of the Greek pagan Aristotle (384-322 BCE), one of the most influential thinkers in the history of Western
thought.
Not only rational philosophers, but even mystics stressed Maimonides' teaching about learning the truth from all sources,
Jewish and non-Jewish. The famed kabbalist Rabbi Haim Attar (1696-1743) asked in his book Or Ha-Haim, in his
commentary to Exodus 18:21, why does the Bible tell us the story of the Midianite pagan priest Jethro offering advice to the
law-giver Moses and accentuates the fact by adding that Moses implemented the priest's advice? Isn't there enough
knowledge among Jews? Why seek out non-Jews for advice? Rabbi Attar answered, the Bible is teaching us that in all
generations there are non-Jews with greater knowledge than Jews.
The word "Leviticus" is ironically Latin, the language of the Romans who destroyed the second temple and exiled Jews
from Israel in 586 BCE. "Leviticus" is a more apt title of the book than the Hebrew Vayikra, "And he called." The Latin
word refers to the tribe of Levi that was assigned activities in the temple.
Also ironical is that despite the fact that the laws of the temple and sacrifices take up much space in the Torah, and was an
integral part of how the ancient Israelites observed each of the holidays, without exception, Maimonides minimizes both the
temple and its sacrifices. Referring to the views of prophets, he taught that God neither needs nor wants sacrifices, He also
said that the purpose of forbidding Jews from entering the temple when they were "ritually unclean" is not because they
were carrying something unseemly. He explained that the law recognizes that people frequently come in contact with objects
that make them "ritually unclean," such as being near a dead body, and this seclusion diminishes the overzealous mistaken
"pious" notion that God desires frequent visits by Jews to the temple. Maimonides stressed study instead of sacrifices, for
study leads to personal and social improvements. Yet, despite this view, Maimonides saw many lessons in the biblical laws
of the temple and its sacrifices.
Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel features every major dispute that the rationalist Maimonides had with the mystic
Nachmanides (Ramban) as well as his disagreements with other scholars of his day such as Abraham ibn Daud, Rashi, and
Abraham ibn Ezra, and of scholars that preceded him such as Philo and Saadiah Gaon, as well as even talmudic rabbis, and
he contrasts Maimonides and their views. Whereas Nachmanides argued, for example, that God did not care about the
feelings that animals have for their young, Maimonides stressed the opposite. So too Nachmanides felt that doing repentance
was one of the 613 biblical commands, but Maimonides denied this. Nachmanides, to cite a last example where he and
Maimonides differed, was convinced that the messianic age would be a miraculously changed period when even lions would
be tame like well-trained dogs today, while Maimonides felt certain that there would be no alteration in humans or natural
laws.
Among the many dozens of other ideas that Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel clarifies for us are the following: He explains
Maimonides' thinking about the scapegoat ceremony, the shofar, the sukkah, and many other ceremonies. He also examines
the role of the high priest, the regular priests, and Levites; whether there is a need to have the right intention when making
an offering and when doing anything else required by the Torah; does scripture present matters in a chronological order,
why do sages differ on this issue, and what difference does it make; is there a position in the Torah about reward and
punishment and how does it differ from what many people think today; how distant must Jews be from non-kosher foods,
can they feed it to animals who must rest on the Sabbath like humans; why must animals rest on the Sabbath; why did God
kill Aaron's sons when they seemingly did what scripture required when they brought a sacrifice; what is "holiness" and a
"holy life," what does it require, and does it change us; why of all possible behaviors are Jews circumcised; ibn Ezra's
thoughts about hand washing; the meaning of "an eye for an eye;" and dozens of other interesting and eye-opening
subjects.
If these items were all that Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel addressed, we would be ever thankful for his gift to us, but they
are a small sample of the treasures he accumulated and placed before us.
Dr. Israel Drazin, Reviewer
www.booksnthoughts.com
Jack Mason's Bookshelf
Prince: A Portrait of the Artist
Paul Sexton
Welbeck Publishing
c/o Welbeck Publishing Group Ltd
9781787391642, $24.95, HC, 144pp
https://www.amazon.com/Prince-Treasury-Portrait-Paul-Sexton/dp/1787391647
Synopsis: Eccentric and flamboyant with an impressive vocal range, Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 - April 21, 2016)
influenced many other musicians with his trademark mix of funk, rock and R&B. In addition to his remarkable musical
output, Prince helped other performers on their path to stardom, written songs for a variety of artists and even directed (and
starred in) his own movies. He produced over 35 albums, including ten that went platinum in a career that spanned 5
decades, with 100m records sold worldwide. Fans around the world mourned his untimely death in 2016 but continue to buy
records, books and memorabilia.
Critique: Beautifully and profusely illustrated throught, "Prince: A Portrait of the Artist" by British journalist Paul Sexton is
an impressively informative coffee-table style (9 x 0.75 x 11 inches) biography of a now legendary musician. A 'must' for
the legions of Prince fans, "Prince: A Portrait of the Artist" is recommended as an enduringly popular addition to personal,
community, college, and university library Pop Culture and Music collections. It should be noted that "Prince: A Portrait of
the Artist" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $10.49).
Jack Mason
Reviewer
John Burroughs' Bookshelf
A Portrait of Walt Disney World
Kevin Kern, Tim O'Day, and Steven Vagnini, authors
Fabiola Garza, iIllustrator
Disney Editions
c/o Disney Book Group
https://books.disney.com
9781368052849, $60.00, HC, 320pp
https://www.amazon.com/Portrait-Walt-Disney-World-Editions/dp/1368052843
Synopsis: Walt Disney's vision for the "Florida Project" begins with Disneyland and the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair.
After an imaginative and expansive design, a unique land acquisition process, and an innovative construction period, Walt
Disney World celebrated its opening in 1971. It featured a theme park dubbed the Magic Kingdom and three exquisitely
themed resorts: Disney's Contemporary Resort, Disney's Polynesian Village, and Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort &
Campground.
As Walt Disney World consistently grew and evolved through the five decades that have followed, certain themes keep
reverberating: there's an appreciation for nostalgia, a joy in fantasy, a hunger for discovery, and an unending hope for a
better tomorrow. Inspirational and memorable theme parks, water parks, sports arenas, recreational water sports options,
world-class golf courses, vast shopping villages, and a transportation network unlike any other in the world resulted in fun
and familiar characters, traditions, spectacles, merchandise, and so much more.
The Walt Disney World resort has come to represent the pulse of American leisure and has served as a backdrop for life's
milestones both big and small, public and private.
Critique; A perfect memento for anyone who has enjoyed a visit to Walt Disney World, and the next best thing to actually
being there for the armchair traveler, "A Portrait of Walt Disney World: 50 Years of The Most Magical Place on Earth" is a
joy to browse through one page at a time. This coffee-table style volume (9.75 x 1.3 x 13.15 inches") is unreservedly
recommended for personal, community, college, and university library American Theme Park History collections in general,
and the reading lists of Walt Disney World fans in particular.
John Burroughs
Reviewer
Julie Summers' Bookshelf
The Diet-Free Revolution
Alexis Conason Psy.D.
North Atlantic Books
https://www.northatlanticbooks.com
9781623176198, $17.95 pbk / $12.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Diet-Free-Revolution-Yourself-Mindful-Self-Acceptance/dp/1623176190
Syopsis: Diets don't work--and it's not your fault. As a culture, we're told (and tell ourselves) that if we just lose the
weight--try a little harder, have a little more willpower, or deprive ourselves for a little bit longer--we'll be happier,
healthier, and more confident. But it's not true.
Clinical psychologist Alexis Conason debunks the myths we've been sold about food, nutrition, health, and weight loss, and
offers an antidote to the pain and harmful health consequences that result from yo-yo diets, untenable food regimens, and
quick fixes. Conason, who is also an eating disorder specialist, shows readers how radically shifting our relationship to food
and our own bodies can be incredibly healing, nourishing, and can help us to better love and care for ourselves. Enriched
with case studies, practical meditations, stories, lessons, and activities, her 10-step program will help you:
Challenge your assumptions about weight and health
Understand the ways that our emotions can impact how and why we eat
Embrace your "yum" and tune into taste with mindful eating
Trust your body to be your guide and find real fullness
Reframing dieting and diet "failure" as pervasive aspects of our culture--not individual failures--The Diet-Free Revolution
offers a roadmap to healing, self-acceptance, and radical new ways of relating to and loving our bodies.
Critique: Clinical psychologist and eating disorder specialist Alexis Conason presents The Diet-Free Revolution: 10 Steps to
Free Yourself from the Diet Cycle with Mindful Eating and Radical Self-Acceptance, a ten-step self-help program to
transforming one's relationship with food. Chapters focus on better understanding why and how emotions can lead to
unnecessary eating, and how mindful eating can help one feel truly full and satisfied. Accepting and taking better care of
oneself, both physically and emotionally, can lead to better health habits overall. The Diet-Free Revolution is highly
recommended for anyone seeking to change bad habits and emotion-fueled eating. It should be noted for personal reading
lists that The Diet-Free Revolution is also available in a Kindle edition ($12.99).
Editors Note: Alexis Conason, PSY.D., CEDS-S is a clinical psychologist and eating disorder specialist in private practice
in New York City. She is the founder of The Anti-Diet Plan, a weight-inclusive online mindful eating program available
worldwide. She was previously a research associate at the New York Nutrition Obesity Research Center in affiliation with
Columbia University. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, she is a frequent speaker at conferences,
and she has been featured widely as an expert on the topics of mindful eating, body image, and diet culture in the media.
You can find her on social media @theantidietplan
Writing Down Your Soul
Janet Conner
Conari Press
c/o Mango Publishing
https://mangopublishinggroup.com
9781642504750, $16.95, PB, 268pp
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Down-Your-Soul-Extraordinary
Synopsis: Janet Conner is a writer, poet, and spiritual field guide, but first and always a deep spiritual soul explorer. Since
she discovered how to activate a divine Voice by slipping into the theta brain wave state (the border between the conscious
and the subconscious) while writing, Janet has dedicated herself to exploring and sharing what it means to live at the vibrant
intersection of the visible and the invisible.
After hitting rock bottom while escaping domestic abuse, Janet's inner voice told her to start writing. As she wrote, she
gained clarity and strength, and felt an incredible connection to the divine. Miracles began to happen. Today, research
scientists are providing peeks into consciousness and how it works. Their findings give intriguing clues about what is
happening in and through our bodies, minds, and spirits as we roll pen across paper. "Writing Down Your Soul: How to
Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within" explores this research and instructs how to access the power and
beauty of our deepest selves.
Of all the ways to get in touch with God, why take the time to write? Because it works and works amazingly well. If you
want to engage in a vibrant conversation with the wisdom that dwells just below your conscious awareness, write. Write
every day, at approximately the same time, with passion, honesty, and the intention of speaking with and listening to the
voice within
Critique: Ordinarily "Writing Down Your Soul: How to Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within" would be
approached as a self-help/self-improvement instructional reference -- and it is both appropriate and recommended for
personal and community library collections accordingly. But it is also so inspired and inspiring for aspiring writers wanting
to get over 'writer's block' that it is an ideal read for that specific purpose as well. The old admonition of "Write What You
Know" is exemplified by this new paperback edition of Janet Conner's "Writing Down Your Soul". It should be noted for
personal reading lists that "Writing Down Your Soul" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle,
$10.99).
Jesus Led Me All the Way
Sadie May Free
Westbow Press
https://www.westbowpress.com
9781664207776, $24.95 pbk / $6.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Led-Me-All-Way/dp/1664207775
Synopsis: Although author Sadie May Free was raised in the church, she didn't know she needed a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ. At age twenty-six, she accepted Jesus Christ as her savior and began a journey that would include over
fifty years of mission work in the United States, the Middle East, North Africa, and Southwest Asia. In Jesus Led Me All the
Way, Free narrates the story of that sojourn.
This memoir offers a testimonial of her moment-by-moment walk of faith, training teachers, building relationships, and
teaching children. It is the story of God's protection, faithfulness, and provision to meet every need. It encourages believers
to have a bigger picture of who their heavenly father is as well as presents the gospel for the unbeliever to be saved.
Critique: Jesus Led Me All the Way is the true-life memoir of a devout Christian who spent more than five decades doing
mission work across the world. Author Sadie May Free tells of a lifetime spent in faith, learning different languages,
teaching children, and sharing the gospel. "Prayer is not a mysterious practice only for clergy, missionaries, and those you
may think of as spiritually mature. Prayer is for every believer. Prayer is simply communicating with God - listening and
talking to Him." Jesus Led Me All the Way is inspirational reading, highly recommended especially for church library
collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that Jesus Led Me All the Way is also available in a Kindle edition
($6.99).
Editorial Note: Sadie May Free, MA, earned both a bachelor's and master's degree. She accepted Jesus Christ as her savior
at age twenty-six. The Lord called her to live by faith, and she served him in the inner city through street, jail, and rescue
missions. Free began mission work in the United States and later across the Middle East, North Africa, and Southwest Asia.
She has more than fifty years of sacrificial service as a missionary.
Julie Summers
Reviewer
Margaret Lane's Bookshelf
Bias Is All Around You
Erik Bean, author
Sherry Wexler, editor
Gail Gorske, illustrator
Ethan Bean Mental Wellness Foundation
https://healthymindexpress.org
9781734474466, $32.95, HC, 57pp
9781734474411, $22.95, PB
https://www.amazon.com/Bias-All-Around-You-Inspecting/dp/1734474416
Synopsis: "Bias Is All Around You: A Handbook for Inspecting Social Media & News Stories" is an ideal DIY guide for
inspecting all the information you are exposed to in social media today. If you cannot properly assess information bias it
could: Lead you to follow a false cause; Leave you feeling foolish; Tarnish your credibility; Attract the wrong people;
Create undue stress; Compromise your values; Harm your mental health.
These undesirable outcomes need not occur! For it's time to read between the lines and assess bias now! Together, we can
chart a new discourse, one that uses information wisely, with prudence, and goodwill.
"Bias Is All Around You" takes you on a rigorous yet introspective journey to snuff out bias, to understand algorithms that
affect internet and social media information and provide you simple assessment tools that allow you to be more confident if
you use the information and share it.
Critique: We now live in the age of "Fake News" and the impact of Social Media spreading untruths, misconceptions,
propaganda, and worse is only growing stronger and more pervasive with every passing year. The continuance and survival
of our democracy relies on a competently informed public. This is why it is vital and unreservedly recommended that "Bias
Is All Around You: A Handbook for Inspecting Social Media & News Stories" be included in every highschool, community,
college, and university library Media & Communications collection. It should be noted for personal reading lists of students
and members of the general public that "Bias Is All Around You: A Handbook for Inspecting Social Media & News Stories"
is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $17.95).
Coffee Coma
Sheree K. Nielsen
Shanti Arts LLC
9781951651961, $25.95, PB, 108pp
https://www.amazon.com/Coffee-Coma-photos-affair-coffee/dp/1951651960
Synopsis: A true staple of modern life, coffee is always around no matter the weather, situation, or location. Whether it's
latte with friends at a cafe, a cappuccino on the front porch during a misty rain, or a mug of Americano in hand while
admiring the sunrise, coffee positively affects our lives in so many ways. In the pages of "Coffee Coma", author and coffee
enthusiast Sheree K. Nielsen as she shares her love affair and life with coffee through poems and photographs that will
warm the heart and arouse the appetite. Of special note is the inclusion of Sheree's list of her favorite coffeehouses around
the country.
Critique: Combining and matching poetry with photographic images, "Coffee Coma" is a delight to browse through --
especially with a good cup of coffee at hand. "Coffee Coma" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community
library collections in general, and the personal reading lists of all coffee fans in particular.
Editorial Note: Sheree K. Nielsen finds inspiration in travel, nature, pets, and food -- especially coffee! As a survivor of
Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia lymphoma, she believes in cherishing every minute of life. Sheree is
author/photographer/poet of 2019 Royal Dragonfly Book Award Winner Mondays in October (love songs for the beach),
having received First Place in Poetry, Fine Art and Photography and Honorable Mention for Coffee Table Books. She is also
the 2015 Da Vinci Eye Award Winner for Folly Beach Dances (inspired by the sea and her lymphoma journey), the
Chanticleer Little Peeps First Place Category Winner and Montaigne Medal Finalist in 2019 for Midnight the One-Eyed Cat
(a picture book with co-author Pat Wahler), and the Chanticleer 2019 Finalist for Ocean Rhythms Kindred Spirits-An
Emerson-Inspired Essay Collection on Travel, Nature, Family and Pets. Her other works are well represented in many travel
magazines and publications.
Finding the Right Words
Cindy Weinstein, & Bruce L. Miller, MD
The Johns Hopkins University Press
www.press.jhu.edu
9781421441269, $22.95, HC, 216pp
https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Right-Words-Story-Literature/dp/1421441268
Synopsis: In 1985, when Cindy Weinstein was a graduate student at UC Berkeley, her beloved father, Jerry, was diagnosed
with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He was fifty-eight years old. Twelve years later, at age seventy, he died having lost all
of his memories -- along with his ability to read, write, and speak.
"Finding the Right Words: A Story of Literature, Grief, and the Brain" follows Weinstein's decades-long journey to come to
terms with her father's dementia as both a daughter and an English professor. Although her lifelong love of language and
literature gave her a way to talk about her grief, she realized that she also needed to learn more about the science of
dementia to make sense of her father's death. To write her story, she collaborated with Dr. Bruce L. Miller, neurologist and
director of the Memory and Aging Center at the University of California, San Francisco, combining personal memoir,
literature, and the science and history of brain health into a unique, educational, and meditative work.
"Finding the Right Words" is an invaluable guide for families dealing with a life-changing diagnosis. In chapters of
profound and sometimes humorous remembrance, Weinstein relies on literature to describe the shock of her father's
diagnosis and his loss of language and identity. Writing in response to Weinstein's deeply personal narrative, Dr. Miller
describes the neurological processes responsible for the symptoms displayed by her father. He also reflects upon his own
personal and professional experiences. In a final chapter about memory, Weinstein is able to remember her father before the
diagnosis, and Miller explains how the brain creates memories while sharing some of his own. Their two perspectives give
readers a fuller understanding of Alzheimer's than any one voice could.
Critique: Of special interest to both academia and the non-specialist general reader on the subject of the medical condition
known as Alzheimer's. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Finding the Right Words: A Story of
Literature, Grief, and the Brain" combines both the intensely personal and the universally applicable -- making it especially
and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Psychology of
Dementia collections and supplemental studies curriculum lists. It should be noted that "Finding the Right Words: A Story
of Literature, Grief, and the Brain" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $21.80).
Margaret Lane
Reviewer
Mark Walker's Bookshelf
Solitude & Company: The Life of Gabriel Garcia Marquez Told with Help from His Friends, Family, Fans, Arguers, Fellow
Pranksters, Drunks, and a Few Respectable Souls
Silvana Paternostro, author
Edith Grossman, translator
Seven Stories Press
https://www.sevenstories.com
9781609808969, $26.95, 336 pages
https://www.amazon.com/Solitude-Company-Gabriel-Pranksters-Respectable/dp/1609808967
I picked up this book in search of a similar presentation of a writer's life to a book I'm working on, The Moritz Thomsen
Reader to strengthen my proposal to attract a publisher. Moritz wrote Living Poor, and my book will be an anthology of the
writers who knew him best. And "Gabo" is one of the great writers of Latin America recognized with the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1982. Both irreverent and hopeful, the book recounts the life of a boy from the provinces who decided to
become a writer. This is the story of how he did it.
A note in the first chapter reveals much of the author's political persuasions in life. He reportedly changed his date of birth
to coincide to the "Banana Massacre" in 1928, when the Colombian Army killed workers of the United Fruit Company who
were protesting poor working conditions. He wrote about it in his classic, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and according to
the book, 3,000 workers were killed, and this account entered the annals of Colombian history in a twist of "magical
realism," for which he's most known.
Close to fifty friends, family and writers share their stories about the author - some of which seem somewhat frivolous, but
some real gems appeared, such as which writers impacted his work. Guillermo Angulo, a Colombian writer, orchid grower
and a close friend of the author reveals the influence of one author from the South of the U.S., "...He sees the true Faulkner.
He sees him in images. But he already knows Faulkner as a twin soul. I think he's his most important influence from a
technical point of view because afterward he invents an entire world..."
William Styron, an author from the southern U.S. who wrote Sophie's Choice, received a Pulitzer Prize, and included both
Gabo and Carlos Fuentes among his friends, went on to say,
Well, I think that's the reason for his great admiration of Faulkner, because Faulkner, without the tag of magic realism,
nonetheless visualized and created an entire world, a universe based on an actual world, which was the Mississippi he made
his own and called Yoknapatawpha. Macondo is the equivalent of Yoknapatawpha. And I think that was an important
contribution of Faulkner to Gabo's own sense of literary creation.
Styron tells of an interesting conversation between Gabo and President Clinton, in which Gabo says that without Faulkner,
he wouldn't have been able to write a single word; that Faulkner was his direct inspiration as a writer when he was just
beginning to pursue real world literature in Colombia. And that he had made a pilgrimage to Oxford... (Oxford, Mississippi
where many of Faulkner's stories took place).
Margarita de la Vega, a Carrageenan academic and film producer whose father was a close friend of Gabo says the
following about what sets the author's work apart from many writers. She admires One Hundred Years of Solitude
because,
...it's a vernacular, universal, and encyclopedic book all at the same time. That's why One Hundred Years of Solitude sells so
well and is read so much; because you can be a Colombian janitor...and understand it on a level different from the level of
the scholar who looks up all the references and all that nonsense. He lives the story, the tragedies, the family, the evolution,
the historical context, because he's somebody who has lived it and suffered it and heard it talked about in his family. It isn't
something they read in books. It's part of our culture.
She goes on to describe where and how he developed some of the characters in One Hundred Years of Solitude, "It's the part
about being a person from Cartagena from a traditional family, insofar as the families of Cartagena were traditional, because
when I look at the families of my friends and others, there was always a little bit of everything. When I saw him, I said: "No,
but the character from Love in the Time of Cholera isn't my father." Then he said to me, "No, Florentino is my father. We
won't take that away from him. "Then he said to me, "I was interested in somehow transforming the love story of my father
and mother." (I think that's the time when his father is sick) .... "I see my father's influence more in the style of the novel,
which is a nineteenth-century tale with lots of characters, written in the style of Balzac. It has a huge number of characters.
It's the portrait of an age. The love story is important, but it isn't fundamental. It was his source of inspiration. He always
wanted to write something new and different." Santiago Mutis elucidates, "The Gabo of today is a Gabo who works things
out. He tells his story. Which is literary. It doesn't mean it isn't true. It's literary." Mutis is a Colombian poet and godson of
Garcia Marquez.
Styron describes a very important relationship of Gabo, which impacts how he sees the world. "I believe Gabo has become a
very close friend of Castro's, and I believe it's the kind of friendship that was molded fairly early in the years of Castro's
ascent. I'm using the world "ascent" here as a climb to power in Cuba. A process that has caused such a shower of violent
criticism to fall on Garcia Marquez's head. But I think their friendship is very solid and that Gabo is determined to make the
best of it."
One of the highlights of this book is Silvana Paternostro's ability to obtain statements and stories from close to fifty people
who knew Gabo. Including Emmanuel Carballo, the Mexican editor and writer who was part of the group that embraced
Gabo when he settled in Mexico City and founded a literary magazine with Carlos Fuentes; Maria Luisa Elio, also part of
the intellectuals in Mexico City and a refugee from Spain, who produced a film, "On the Empty Balcony," directed by her
husband - One Hundred Years of Solitude was dedicated to her and her husband, Hector Rojas Herazo, a Colombian poet,
novelist journalist, and painter who worked with Gabo at the newspaper "El Universal" in Cartagena, and Rose Styron, a
poet and human rights activist from the U.S. and part of the Amnesty International board who worked with Gabo on several
Latin American causes.
Among the most revealing review statements on this book:
"Solitude & Company captures Gabo - the man, the times and the places that created him. How a man from the Caribbean
made a universe that the world embraced. Everyone who loves Gabriel Garcia Marquez's work will enjoy this wonderful
book." - Benicio Del Toro
"If I may be allowed to mix up a metaphor: This is a kaleidoscopic cocktail of voices - vibrant, eloquent, intoxicating -
inspired by that endlessly fascinating literary magician, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (a.k.a. Gabo/Gabito/etc.). And the cocktail
has been mixed and shaken, expertly and knowingly, by Silvana Paternostro. Salud!" - Gerald Martin, author of Gabriel
Garcia Marquez: A Life
Author and prize-winning journalist Silvana Paternostro grew up in Barranquilla, Colombia, home to Garcia Marquez's
fabled literary group, La Cueva. In 1999, she was selected by Time/CNN as one of "Fifty Latin American Leaders for the
Millennium," and is the author of In the Land of God and Man, nominated for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award, and My
Colombian War. She is a frequent contributor to English and Spanish publications including the New York Times, the Paris
Review, the New York Review of Books, Vogue, and El Malpensante and Gatopardo. She lives between New York City
and Colombia.
Translator Edith Grossman is one of the most renowned Spanish-to-English translators of our time. In addition to translating
seven of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novels, including Love in the Time of Cholera and Memories of My Melancholy
Whores, she has translated works by Miguel de Cervantes, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Ariel Dorfman, to name a few. A
member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a PEN Ralph
Manheim Medal, an Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and many other awards and honors. She teaches at Columbia
University in New York City.
The Scandal of the Century
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Knopf
http://knopfdoubleday.com
9780525656425, $27.95 hc
https://www.amazon.com/Scandal-Century-Writings-Vintage-International/dp/0525566805
"I don't want to be remembered for One Hundred Years of Solitude, nor for the Nobel Prize, but rather for the newspaper. I
was born a journalist and today I feel more than ever that I am a reporter. It's in my blood." After all the accolades of his
fiction writing, few appreciate how important journalism was to Marquez and overlook the importance to journalism to
learning to tell a story and writing fiction.
The author's strong political sensitivity and involvement was impacted by the political violence which interrupted his
academic. In April 1948 the assassination of the charismatic politician Jorge Gaitan in Bogota triggered a conflict known as
"la Violencia," which lasted a decade and took the lives of 200,000 people. I lived in Bogota for several years and soon
realized how this period impacted so much of what Colombia today. In the author's case - he was forced to move to
Cartagena on the Caribbean coast to study at the university and collaborate with a new local daily paper, "El
Universal."
The author was more than a novelist and was affectionately known as "Gabo" by many in the Hispanic world. His
friendships included Fidel Castro, Bill Clinton, and Carlos Fuentes among others. Like many Latin American writers, Pablo
Neruda, Borges and Mario Llosa, he held strong political views and causes which he wrote about and promoted.
He wrote about the early years of revolution in Latin America in a piece entitled, "I Can't Think of Any Title,", "...during the
whole of 1958, Venezuela was the freest country in the entire world. I seemed like a real revolution: each time the
government glimpsed some danger, it immediately consulted the people by direct channels, and the people took to the street
against any attempt at regression..."
He admits that "Before the revolution I was never curious to see Cuba. Latin Americans of my generation imagined Havana
as a scandalous brothel for gringos where pornography had reached its highest category of public spectacle..." Until, in 1955
in Paris, he first heard the name of Fidel Castro and eventually would meet him and become a lifelong friend.
Like many of the most accomplished writers in Latin America, he declared his special affection for one city in a chapter
entitled, "From Paris, with Love." "When I arrived in Paris, I was nothing but a raw Caribbean. I am most grateful to that
city, with which I have many old grudges, and many even older loves, for having given me a new and resolute perspective
on Latin America. The vision of the whole, which we didn't have I any of our countries, because very clear here around a
safe table, and one ended up realizing that, in spite of being from different countries, we were all crew members of the same
boat..."
Each of the fifty short articles bring together reportages, news reports, columns, features and profiles which not only offer
insights into the real world of the author used to create the worlds of his fiction, but more importantly, they reveal an
essential way in which the heart, mind, and intent of this giant of twentieth century literature.
When he died in 2014, multitudes of people thronged to his funeral which was held in the spectacular palace of Bellas Artes
in the capital of Mexico, where he lived for many years. He was a global citizen much beloved by Latin Americans and
readers around the world.
As writer Salman Rushdie correctly put it, "This brilliant collection...puts his journalism one the same level as his fiction,
which is quite some level."
According to respected Latino reporter of "Univision," Jorge Ramos, "This book brings us Garcia Marquez the muckraker,
well grounded in reality. In a time of 'fake news,' this is an indispensable book for understanding what a real reporter
is."
About the Author: Marquez was born in Colombia in 1927. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. He is the author of many
works of fiction and nonfiction, including One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, Of Love and Other
Demons and The General in His Labyrinth. He died in 2014.
Mark D. Walker, Reviewer
www.MillionMileWalker.com
Mark Zvonkovic's Bookshelf
Kissing The Wind
A.E. Hotchner
Anchor Books
c/o Knopf Doubleday
www.knopfdoubleday.com
9780593313763, $17.00 pbk
https://www.amazon.com/Kissing-Wind-Hotchner/dp/0593313763
A romance fueled by Chet's Charles Bonnet syndrome and Emma's Maniere's disease, offers comedy, inspiration, and a
scoop of "creative chaos" in a heartwarming story.
Whoever says "seeing is believing," hasn't read this novel. The hallucinatory episodes that accompany Charles Bonnet
syndrome are magnificently depicted in this story by Hotchner. As a sufferer of the syndrome, he would know. But few
people possess the talent and the empathy to weave them into a character's life as he does.
The underlying plot of Kissing The Wind is ordinary: an illness creates a career crisis, boy meets girl, and love creates the
impetus to succeed in the face of seemingly impossible odds. But the strength and beauty of the narrator's observations are
extraordinary. Chet's hallucinations are laced with the mundane and the stunning: a rubber plant in an elevator, a bathtub
full of Geraniums, and Chet's kidnapping in his Subaru while on his way to his wedding. And his real experiences run the
gamut from humorous to lugubrious: a hotel in Kathmandu named the Yak and Yeti, a professional jhankri named Hari
Karki who performs a blood ceremony with a live water buffalo, complete with "camera bearing tourists . . . invading the
area, snapping their hungry cameras at everything," and, in Chet's past, a scene in which a Chris-Craft is split in two by a
large ferry, killing his father. In the scene where the water buffalo is butchered, Chet is overcome by guilt and self-anger,
which perhaps adds a touch of absurdity as Chet is, after all, a lawyer. And, late in the novel, what a reader expects to be
hallucinatory becomes frighteningly real: Emma falling into Charlie's pool upon a bout of her ManiŠre's disease and the
fierce electrical storm later in Chet's cottage. These are a part of the penultimate movement in Hotchner's symphony.
The serious and the facetious in Kissing The Wind are twins, or a kind of emotional schizophrenia. Chet's
cross-examination of Ms. Celluci in the courtroom is not to be missed. He defines "Cacca e Pipi" as "a statement on how not
all love is forever. No, not everyone gets to be that lucky." For him, this is prescience of its opposite, of the rondo that
suffuses the final chapters of the novel.
The disheartenment, the romance, and the triumph over adversity in Kissing The Wind are delivered by Hotchner with his
patented "creative chaos," making an enticing story that demands to be read in a single sitting. If there is a tragedy here, it is
that Hotchner died at the young age of 102 before he had the chance to convert Kissing The Wind into a screenplay.
Mark Zvonkovic, Reviewer
https://www.markzvonkovic.com
Marlan Warren's Bookshelf
Buzz Kill: A Toni Carey Mystery
Kate Thornton
http://katethornton.net/index.html
Independently published
B095GLPWB4, $4.99 Kindle
9798740493138, $12.99 paper, 360 pages
https://www.amazon.com/BUZZ-KILL-Carey-Mystery-Mysteries/dp/B095GLPWB4
"The next time the flowers nod in the summer breezes, and I see honeybees busily going about their business, I'll try not to
think of corpses, betrayals, bludgeoning, and death."
-Buzz Kill, A Toni Carey Mystery
If Killer Bees didn't exist, mystery writers would have to invent them. Fortunately for Kate Thornton they do exist, so she
grabs their scary potential and runs with it in the first book of her Toni Carey series, Buzz Kill.
Blessed with a spunky, horny heroine, this un-cozy mystery unfurls enough red herrings to keep readers guessing,
exquisitely detailed moments of horror and revulsion, and plenty of wink-wink humor. Thornton gives us a world so real,
it's hard to believe that it's fiction.
Having received an urgent note from her Uncle Horace to visit him in the fictitious California burg of Loma Vista "on a
matter of Great Importance," Toni Carey arrives to find his house trashed; a weird pile of smokey ashes in the closet; and a
strapping good-smelling small-town-detective type investigating the fact that her uncle was found alone in a coma.
A semi-retired "bug expert" professor who specializes in butterflies at the local college and tends his own beehives at home,
Uncle Horace is an unlikely candidate for leaving himself vulnerable to anaphylactic shock.
So what happened and who is responsible?
When a man Toni never heard of turns up dead in her uncle's shed - undeniably done in by bees - the story officially turns
into a Murder Whodunit. Is it only one perp or more than one behind the coma and the death? Who can be trusted? Who
should not be believed?
A seasoned magazine article writer, Toni is adept at research. As she cautiously investigates, she encounters enough
suspects to remain suspicious of nearly everyone she encounters: Should she take at face value Uncle Horace's
well-preserved lady friend or his "beehive assistant" teenage neighbor boy with the weirdly nonverbal mother? And what
about that cheeky, sexy receptionist at the university's Biology Department?
Stirred by the electric lust she feels at the touch of a handsome man's compassionate hand or the sight of a holstered Barretta
pressed up against his warm body or the sudden kiss in a biology laboratory from a biologist she just met, the
too-long-celibate Toni struggles to sort the truth from illusion when it comes to her feelings vs. her "who's who?" need for
insight.
Will she end up in bed with the soap-smelling detective or the lightly fragranced bee researcher? Or neither? Or both?
Thornton's witty writing keeps all these juggled balls aloft. Her skill with turns of phrases gives jolts of pleasure
throughout:
"After I finished throwing up in the bushes, I ran into the house and started to dial 911, then thought better of that. The guy
in the shed wasn't going anywhere and an ambulance would just be a formality."
Oh, and yes, there is a great deal of fascinating information about Africanized bees and bees in general for avid bee-lovers
and the bee-curious.
I recommend Buzz Kill for anyone looking for a fun getaway from their boring life.
Marlan Warren, Reviewer
http://roadmapgirlsbookbuzz.blogspot.com
Matthew McCarty's Bookshelf
Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier
Bob Drury and Tim Clavin
St. Martin's Press
https://us.macmillan.com/stmartinspress
9781250277626, $29.99, 381 pgs
https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Treasure-Daniel-Americas-Frontier/dp/1250247152
America has a long and storied history. Heroes abound throughout the American Revolution, the Civil War Era, both world
wars, the Civil Rights Era, and the modern age. However, this history can also be horrific, poignant, and bloody. One of the
heroes of America's early years, and a constant focus of young adult literature for many years was the trailblazer and scout
Daniel Boone. Boone is known as a skilled navigator, hunter, Native American antagonist, and friend to politician and
landowner alike. Boone's life and career as a pathfinder is the central focus of Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the
Fight for America's First Frontier, (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2021, v, 381 pgs, $29.99, $39.99 Can), by Bob Drury and
Tim Clavin.
Blood and Treasure tells the story of the westward movement of the American frontier in the years prior to and during the
American Revolution. Daniel Boone and his family figure prominently in this progression of the desire to explore the
unknown and settle in territory that had been unexplored for centuries. Drury and Clavin do a masterful job of relating how
Boone and his family, both his siblings, children, parents, and in-laws, satisfy that inner yearning by moving from
Pennsylvania to North Carolina and eventually to Kentucky and Missouri. Boone's story is told with kindness, a healthy
dose of historical knowledge, and a willingness to write about Boone in the context of America in the years both before and
after Independence.
Blood and Treasure reads like a novel. It can be read in one weekend or over numerous evenings as the reader ponders what
early America would have been like without Boone, his colleague Simon Kenton, and others willing to explore the
unexplored. Drury and Clavin tell a great story and an important history through a narrative that is engrossing and human in
its' journey. Blood and Treasure should assume a central place on the shelf of any American History enthusiast, as well as
engaged researcher. It fills a needed void in the literature of America and one of its' earliest heroes.
Matthew W. McCarty, EdD.
Reviewer
Michael Carson's Bookshelf
River Planet: Rivers from Deep Time to the Modern Crisis
Martin Gibling
The Dundurn Group
www.dundurn.com
9781780460994, $45.00, HC, 240pp
https://www.amazon.com/River-Planet-Rivers-Modern-Crisis/dp/1780460996
Synopsis: ""River Planet: Rivers from Deep Time to the Modern Crisis " by Professor Martin Gibling introduces readers to
the epic geological history of the world's rivers, from the first drop of rain on the Earth to the modern environmental
crisis.
The river journey begins with the first evidence of flowing water four billion years ago and continues with enormous rivers
on the first supercontinents, after which terrestrial vegetation engineered new river forms in the Devonian period. The
dramatic breakup of Pangea some 200 million years ago led to our familiar modern rivers as continents drifted and collided,
mountains rose, and plains tilted.
Among many remarkable cases, ""River Planet: Rivers from Deep Time to the Modern Crisis" explores the rapid carving of
the Grand Canyon, the reversal of the Amazon, and the lost rivers of Antarctica. There are gigantic meltwater floods from
the Ice Age, which may be linked to accounts of the Deluge, and river systems drowned by rising sea level as the ice
melted.
Early human civilizations sought to control rivers through agriculture and irrigation, leading in the nineteenth century to
hydraulic mining, the rise of big dams, and the burial of rivers below cities such as London. Rivers are now endangered
worldwide, and ""River Planet: Rivers from Deep Time to the Modern Crisis" celebrates people who preserve rivers around
the world, bringing hope to river ecosystems and communities.
Critique: "River Planet: Rivers from Deep Time to the Modern Crisis" is deliberately designed to be accessible for a general
audience ranging from advanced high-school students to mature readers. "River Planet: Rivers from Deep Time to the
Modern Crisis" will also interest professional scientists and students of geology, geography, and environmental science. A
scientifically sound but personal account of rivers from the beginning of Earth history to their present predicament, "River
Planet: Rivers from Deep Time to the Modern Crisis" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal,
professional, community, highschool, college, and university library Geology collections and supplemental studies
curriculums.
Editorial Note: Martin Gibling is the Emeritus Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie
University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and has studied rivers and river sediments around the world..
Michael J. Carson
Reviewer
Michael Kleiza's Bookshelf
Tension: Rupture
Cutter Streeby and Michael Haight
Tupelo Press
www.tupelopress.org
9781946482587, $21.95, PB, 62pp
https://www.tupelopress.org/product/tension-rupture
First there was the initial dialog, the back and forth: poems and paintings by two friends. Two voices - distinct on their own
- searching for union, that brief intersection where connection is everything, where their creativity tests the limits of
expression. But the process continued; one collaborator unsatisfied with the words he had chosen, the other looking within
his paintings for a fractal of truth.
A kind of reverse ekphrasis seems to have been the initial idea when the poet, Cutter Streeby, proposed the project to painter
Michael Haight. By "reverse ekphrasis," I mean that the watercolor paintings were tailored to the text. With traditional
ekphrasis, the writer fits the text to the artwork. In this respect, Tension : Rupture offers a provocative reversal. But, as the
dialogue evolved through many iterations, text and image become more ambiguous. In fact, the poet claims, " ... I saw in the
borderlands between our works an opportunity to push forward into an even more honest, legitimate dialog. It was the
tension I felt in reading his paintings that persuaded me to go further than simple ekphrasis.". And yet, according to William
Empson, who writes in The 7 Types of Ambiguity, "A sort of unity may be given by the knowledge of a scheme on which
all the things occur; so that the scheme itself becomes the one thing which is being considered." This "scheme" is the focus
of Tension : Rupture.
Thus, in Streeby's first poem, Framework: A Vessel - Notes on a Grecian Urn, the poet considers the circumstances of the
text and its composition. It is too simplistic to say that he is merely evoking Keats's poem. However, Streeby describes the
fashioning of a vessel " ... one teaching control,/ one teaching release ..." where "control" can be interpreted as tension and
"release" as rupture. It is here that Streeby lays out his plan. Ambiguously, Streeby follows this poem with Alcoholic
Crepuscule #5 (Cambridge Ave.) along with a painting of figures in a type of beautiful, nightmarish torment. There is little
in the painting that points to the fashioning in clay other than the malleability of the colors and the figures themselves.
Questions that Streeby and Haight raise include: Does the poetry evoke the paintings? Do the paintings conjure the poetry?
Or is there more? Despite this purposeful ambiguity, one certainty can be gleaned from the Streeby's introduction to the
book: it is partially a history of the poet's and the painter's relationship in California, where they were attending college.
Haight - at that time - was an alcoholic and names his series of paintings: Alcoholic Crepuscules. It seems that the speaker
of Streeby's poems was also suffering from an addiction, although he does not state explicitly which one. Addiction might
be considered another connection that sustains their relationship. So, should we consider these poems and paintings
intersections in their friendship, rather than the initial ekphrasis contemplated by Streeby? This seems a valid interpretation
since it removes the rigidness associated with the definition of ekphrasis to the looser, more fluid compositions evoked by
the poems and paintings.
So, let's look at one of the most interesting poems (in my opinion), [SEAside Graffiti] -i.m. Steve Cofagno 1986 - 2019. The
poem was originally titled: (Letter from a New City to an Old Friend -i.m. Ronny Burhop. (Note that the parentheses in the
following quoted lines of the poem indicate strikeouts.). In fact, the poem is interesting in that it displays the poet's editorial
process with strike-outs and margin notes throughout. The poem is almost a regretful love letter to Los Angeles. Streeby, in
a way, laments his move to a new city, beginning with a description of where he currently lives, "Even the white noise here
is different - / there's no boulevard, no blue (and breathing)/ ocean. The streets - quieter now, winding/ through (rain,
hidden) parks and open markets - / are cobbled, and twist off into alleys/ less sinister than ours." He goes on to describe the
ocean where he lives now as concrete that is "tame, bloodless". Later in the poem, he reminisces about how he "turned his
back on California" and has " ...thought about nothing else, since." Streeby finishes with the rather cryptic recollection,
"Damn - it's been over/ (NoV16, 2009)- 6.16.2019 a (ten) years now". Turning the page, there are two of Haight's enigmatic
paintings, the first Alcoholic Crepuscule #8 (Insomniacs PC Lounge) seems to show people in cubicles looking at computer
screens with cans of beer (I can only assume) somehow linked and floating in a blue haze. The second Alcoholic Crepuscule
#9 (Hangover Junction) is a rather cartoonish drawing mainly of someone carrying another who is apparently passed out.
Arms and legs are splayed or hanging limp, deadened. If there is an immediate connection between the poem on the
previous page and the paintings, it is fragile.
Again, I believe we have to turn to the history of the two contributors to make sense of this collaboration. It is through their
history that all of this: the paintings and the words come together. What was initially an attempt at ekphrasis in the present
pandemic, where words were to be matched to paintings has turned into an exploration of the past and the histories of two
friends in a particularly difficult phase of that past.
A note on the book
In all my deciphering of the relationship between the two authors through their work presented in the book Tension :
Rupture published by Tupelo Press I have omitted the fact that it is a truly beautiful book with glossy color reproductions of
the paintings of Michael Haight.
The introduction by Cutter Streeby is essential, I think, to understanding how the book came to be and the Afterword by
Jane Ursula Harris provides an in-depth description of Haight's paintings as well as some interesting takes on Streeby's
poetry.
Michael Kleiza
Reviewer
R.K. Singh's Bookshelf
ADRISHYA KA A
Swadesh Kumar Bhatnagar
Prakash Book Depot
9789391984038 $TBA, 175 pp.
Beautifully printed and tastefully got up, Swadesh Kumar Bhatnagar's hard bound book, ADRISHYA KA A, is a readable
collection of short lyrics, micropoems and free form poems the poet calls 'prose poems'. Rajiv Saxena views them as
metaphysical, confessional, and genuine in his rather long Introduction. Rakesh Raj Bhatnagar, in another introductory,
distincts them as unique, unparalleled, and rich in imagery with "spiritual surrealism ".
I appreciate Swadesh Bhatnagar's sense of poetry, compactness, instantness, and formal flow without wasting words. One
will hear echoes of his knowledge, experience, reflection, and viewpoint. He provides readers a lot of space to connect with
our complex time and deeper issues with a sense of empathy.
Highly recommended to lovers of current poetry in Hindi.
Professor R.K. Singh
Reviewer
Robin Friedman's Bookshelf
The Summer of '63: Vicksburg and Tullahoma
Chris Mackowski and Dan Welch, editors
Savas Beatie
http://www.savasbeatie.com
9781611215717, $29.95 hc
https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Gettysburg-Perspectives-Historians-Anniversary/dp/1611215714
The Summer Of 1863 at Vicksburg And Tullahoma
In these difficult times, Americans may look to history to remind themselves of their ideals and of the sacrifices they have
made for their country and for freedom and democracy. One of the best ways to think about the United States is through the
Civil War which remains the pivotal event in our history. Two recent books from the Emerging Civil War, a public history
forum devoted to bringing the Civil War to a broad, non-specialist audience, present an excellent way towards
understanding crucial moments of the Civil War. The books celebrate ECW's 10th anniversary and examine campaigns
from the Civil War in the summer of 1863. The first book, "The Summer of '63: Gettysburg", edited by Chris Mackowski
and Dan Welch, covers the famous battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1 -- 3, 1863 between Robert E. Lee and George Meade
in Pennsylvania. This second volume, also edited by Mackowski and Welch, "The Summer of '63: Vicksburg and
Tullahoma" follows the crucial events of 1863 to Vicksburg, Mississippi and to Tullahoma, Tennessee, the sites of Union
victories which, particularly for Tullahoma, are not as well-known as the Battle of Gettysburg.
General Ulysses Grant accepted the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, after a lengthy siege and an even lengthier
campaign. The surrender of Vicksburg gave the Union control of the Mississippi River and divided the Confederacy in two
The Tullahoma campaign conducted by Union General William Rosecrans against the Confederacy's Army of Tennessee
commanded by Braxton Bragg was an action of maneuver more than bloodshed. The campaign captured middle-Tennessee
for the Union, setting the stage for Chickamauga, the Atlanta Campaign, and Sherman's March to the Sea.
This book consists of a series of essays from ECW historians, most of which are revised versions of essays which were
published on ECW's blog. Some of the essays offer brief overviews of the two campaigns for readers new to them, but the
majority of the essays focus on particular aspects of the campaign, including people, places, and human interest stories. The
essays are short and readable and accompanied by maps and photos.
In the Gettysburg volume, Caroline Davis contributed an essay on a poem by Herman Melville about Pickett's Charge.
Davis continues her exploration of Melville's Civil War poetry with her essay in this volume discussing Melville's poem
about the Union's running of the batteries at Vicksburg. Bringing Melville to bear in this book of public history is a
welcome and creative addition.
The running of the Vicksburg batteries by Admiral David Porter has always been one of the most fascinating aspects of the
Vicksburg campaign, and it is discussed by several essays in this volume in addition to Davis's exploration of Melville.
Other subjects that the volume treats well include the two large scale and costly assaults on Vicksburg that Grant ordered on
May 19 and 22 before settling down to the siege. These assaults often are not covered in detail in studies of Vicksburg. The
essays explore the suffering caused by the siege to the civilian population of Vicksburg, the meeting surrendering Vicksburg
between its commander, Pemberton, and Grant, and many human interest stories focusing on individual participants in the
battle. The essays offer an excellent approach to understanding Vicksburg and its significance.
The shorter portion of the book is devoted to the Tullahoma Campaign, which tends to be known only to serious students of
the Civil War. Following the success of the campaign, General Rosecrans worried that the Union would "overlook so great
an event because it is not written in letters of blood." Unfortunately, history has proven Rosecrans correct. This volume in
addition to some recent detailed studies may help give Tullahoma the attention it deserves. Rosecrans out-maneuvered his
opponent decisively, driving the Confederacy from most of Tennessee and setting the stage for the famous events which
followed. The essays in this volume give an overview of the campaign and describe the squabbling and divisiveness of the
Confederate leadership. They explore the geography of the campaign, some its actions, and the brilliance of Rosecrans's
strategy turning and almost capturing the Confederate Army. These essays will help the new reader understand an often
overlooked action in the Civil War.
This volume and the companion volume on Gettysburg offer an excellent way for non-specialist readers as well as for
readers with a strong interest in the Civil War to better understand and appreciate the critical events of the summer of 1863.
The volumes may also remind readers of the valor and values of our country in defending liberty and democracy, and thus
offer a vision of hope, strength, and ideals as we move forward.
Passing Through the Fire: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in the Civil War
Brian Swartz
Savas Beatie
http://www.savasbeatie.com
9781611215618, $14.95 pbk
https://www.amazon.com/Passing-Through-Fire-Lawrence-Chamberlain/dp/1611215617
A Soldier From Maine
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1828 -- 1914) commanded the 20th Maine in its stirring defense of Little Round Top on
July 2, 1863 during the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. His heroism and that of his soldiers became the stuff of
legend following Michael Scharaa's novel, "The Killer Angels", Ken Burns' documentary "The Civil War", and the film,
"Gettysburg". Studies of Little Round Top have tried to separate the facts from the embellishments.
Brian Swartz's recent book "Passing through the Fire: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the Civil War" (2021) is a short
biography of Chamberlain that places his actions on Little Round Top within the context of his life and Civil War service.
The picture of Chamberlain that emerges is one of a dauntless commander, devoted to the Union, and, with his flaws and
tendency toward self-aggrandizement, a hero. Swartz is a reporter, editor and journalist from Maine and a lifelong student of
the Civil War. Thomas Desjardin, a historian who has written extensively about Little Round Top, wrote the Foreword to
this volume.
Chamberlain had been a minister and college professor at Maine's Bowdoin College when he volunteered for service in the
Civil War and found his calling. Swartz portrays Chamberlain's military service leading up to Little Round Top before
devoting a chapter to that famous fight. But Swartz's book is most valuable for the attention it gives to Chamberlain's
service after Little Round Top. On June 18, 1864, Chamberlain led a bold attack at Petersburg. He was severely and
painfully wounded and almost lost his life. With his wounds and his earlier exposure to malaria he went home to Maine
where he could have stayed and lived a quiet life. But he returned to battle and played a large role in the climactic battle of
Five Forks at Petersburg and in the Appomattox Campaign. At Appomattox, Chamberlain presided over the surrender
parade of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Swartz writes eloquently and well. He describes the complex military actions, especially at Five Forks, together with
Chamberlain's roles. The book moves from the battlefields to Maine and Chamberlain's family and his decision to return to
the War following his injury. Swartz describes Chamberlain's role in the Army of the Potomac as it proceeded to
Washington, D.C. and learned of the assassination of Lincoln. A concluding chapter briefly describes Chamberlain's
post-Civil War life as a four-term governor of Maine and president of Bowdoin College. Appendices on a driving tour of
Chamberlain's presence in Maine, his difficult relationship with his wife, Fanny, and on Chamberlain's continued
significance and on the historical debate about Little Round Top enhance the text. The book concludes with a short
annotated bibliography.
"Passing Through the Fire" is part of a series of books on the Civil War in the Emerging Civil War series which aims to
present the conflict to a broad audience. This book is suitable for students and for those readers with little prior background
in the Civil War as well as for readers with a strong interest in the subject. In a time of trouble for our country, Chamberlain
remains an inspiration.
Sleepless Nights
Elizabeth Hardwick
New York Review Books Classics
http://www.nyrb.com
9780940322721, $14.95 pbk
https://www.amazon.com/Sleepless-Nights-Review-Books-Classics/dp/0940322722
I first read Elizabeth Hardwick's short novel "Sleepless Nights" (1979) on a long trip early in the 1980s during a time of
change for me. I was greatly moved by the book at the time. The factors which first drew me to the book have prompted me
to read it again. The book is a beautifully sad evocation of memory and loneliness and loving one's life.
Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Hardwick (1916 -- 2007) became a New York intellectual who was a co-founder of the New
York Review of Books. She is known for her sharp wit, her essays, and for this novel. Hardwick also endured a long,
difficult marriage to the American poet, Robert Lowell. Although "Sleepless Nights" is partially autobiographical, it is
unnecessary to know much about Hardwick in order to respond to the book.
Hardwick's novel is plotless. The story is told as a series of episodes disconnected in place and time with no underlying
theme but memory. This was a deliberate decision on the author's part as Hardwick thought that the modern novel had to
mirror modern life in its episodic, shifting character without the distraction of a contrived set of events. The book is told in
the voice of an aged narrator, a "production of a broken old woman in a squalid nursing home", as she remembers or tries to
remember events from her past. "Make a decision" she says, "and what you want from the lost things will present itself." A
substantial part of the story is told in letters or other communications to the narrator's otherwise unidentified friend, M. The
time frame of the story is from the 1930s to the early 1970s.
At the end of the book, the narrator offers a summary of her reflections as she remembers "the torment of personal
relations", "the reading glasses and the assignation near the clammy faces, so gray, of the intense church ladies. And then a
lifetime with its mound of men climbing on and off." The narrator concludes that "I love to be known by those I care for ....
those whom I dare not ring up until morning and yet must talk to throughout the night."
Besides its lack of plot, "Sleepless Nights" is full of beautiful lyrically introspective writing. The writing is terse, reflective
and poetical. The novel has sometimes been compared to a prose poem. It has a stream-of-conscious flow as the narrator
recollects and tries to understand her experiences.
The book is at least as much about the people and places important to the narrator as it is about the narrator herself. While
Hardwick was known for her ability to be sharp and caustic, the tone of "Sleepless Nights" is mellow and sad. Virtually all
the characters experience sorrow and loss. Although there is a great deal of literary allusiveness in the book, the narrator's
focus is not on her formidable intellect but is instead on love, sexuality, and attendant loneliness.
Much of the book is about down and out individuals: lonely men in Kentucky who take sexual advantage of the young
narrator, prostitutes, bag women, cleaning ladies, and young lonely working women. Other characters include frustrated
intellectuals, both male and female, who partake of the New York cocktail scene in the 1940s and 50s. An extended late
chapter of the book describes the romantic adventures of a distinguished Dutch physician. The narrator describes a young
gay man who was her roommate at Columbia at a sleazy hotel called the Hotel Schuyler, and who explored with her the jazz
clubs of 1940s New York. The book includes an extended portrait of Billie Holiday. The narrator says of her:
"Somehow she had retrieved from darkness the miracle of pure style. That was it. Only a fool imagined that it was necessary
to love a man, love anyone, love life. Her own people, those around her, feared her. And perhaps even she was ashamed of
the heavy weight of her own spirit, one never tempted to the relief of sentimentality."
The scenes of the book shift from the Kentucky of the narrator's youth, to New York City, Maine, Amsterdam, Boston,
Connecticut, and elsewhere.
"Sleepless Nights" is a sad, eloquent meditation by a person on her life as seen in memory and on transience. Lyricism,
reflection, and acceptance of experience, even when unhappy, can bring meaning to life. Hardwick's little book may well be
remembered when other louder and longer American novels of the late 20th Century have been forgotten.
Robin Friedman
Reviewer
Suanne Schafer's Bookshelf
Harlem Shuffle
Colson Whitehead
Doubleday
http://knopfdoubleday.com
9780385545136, $28.95
https://www.amazon.com/Harlem-Shuffle-Novel-Colson-Whitehead/dp/0385545134
Colson Whitehead's newest effort is a genre-bending blend of historical fiction, family drama and noir-ish crime drama. It is
a multi-layered look at New York City's Harlem neighborhood during the 1950s and 1960s. The cast of characters is
well-developed and diverse. Whitehead manages to capture the vibrance of the area during an era of social change while
also shining a light on race, race riots, political corruption, white privilege, mob bosses, and the Civil Rights movement. The
heaviness of these subjects is lightened by comic relief. This nuanced story is a pleasure to read.
Ray Carney is more or less a decent family man. He has moved on from his low-brow past, has married Elizabeth, and is
running his own furniture store. The couple is expecting their second child, and finances are tight. He walks a tightrope
between being a legitimate business man while "not seeing" the origins of the stolen goods his cousin brings him. Carney
treads the streets of Harlem, showing the down-and-out hotels, the greasy spoon coffee shops, and the worn-out houses in
which people struggle to survive.
I enjoyed being transported back to this historical time and place which Whitehead so lovingly depicts.
A Better Part of Valor (Valorie Dawes Thrillers Book 3)
Gary Corbin
Double Diamond Publishing
B09BLQJG7S, $4.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Better-Part-Valor-Gary-Corbin/dp/1734615249
A Better Part of Valor is the third installment of the Valorie Dawes Thriller series, but it works well as a stand-alone book
as Corbin drops enough hints of her backstory to keep the reader informed. Valorie Dawes has followed in her Uncle Val's
footsteps and becomes a policewoman. As a rookie, she's faced the usual harassment of any younger cop by older
policemen, not to mention the sexual harassment endemic in the department. Corbin manages to integrate childhood sexual
abuse, sexism, and workplace harassment into a police procedural. Our heroine is not readily accepted by members of the
force, though she has connected with a few, such as her partner Gil, now sidelined with an on-the-job injury. When a serial
rapist/killer of teenaged girls ravages the city, the search for the killer is politicized. Rookie Val is asked to join a special
task force that emphasizes the safety of the city's women.
The book, with its emphasis on #MeToo situations, is en pointe with current events. Valerie's struggles seem real as do
things like racial profiling which, along with sexism, wanders throughout the book. Social media's influence on policemen
and on the population is also timely - especially lies spread by a blogger with inside information on what is going on in the
PD.
The Long War: The Inside Story of America and Afghanistan Since 9/11
David Loyn
St. Martin's Press
https://us.macmillan.com/smp
9781250128423, $26.99
https://www.amazon.com/Commanders-Generals-Fought-Americas-Longest/dp/1250128420
As someone who traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the mid 1970s, arriving just after Mohammed Zia-Ul-Haq's
military coup in Pakistan and leaving just before the Soviets arrive in Afghanistan, I have followed politics in the region
avidly. Loyn, an award-winning foreign correspondent and US Funded Afghan Government Strategic, writes a definitive
history of America's longest war, the war begun after 9/11 and ending when President Biden evacuated the troops. Loyn also
served as an advisor for Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, giving Loyn a unique perspective. He writes well of what we did
right, did wrong, and what could have been improved - America's resolution not to be a nation-builder and the poor insight
US politicians had into the Afghan soul.
Loyn divides the book - and the war - into five phases. The first looks at America's entrance into the war from 9/11/2001. In
the second, the Taliban returns after being quiescent since the departure of the Soviets. Phase three looks at the surge of
troops and the tribulations of coordinating the involvement of the various NATO countries. The fourth phase looks at
NATO withdrawing its troops. And the fifth and final phase looks at the changing roles of the American military and the
aftermath of its departure.
Inhabitants often pay the price of a country's war, and this is certainly true in Afghanistan. Civilians took the brunt of the
damage and, as the Taliban moves to consolidate its power in the post-withdrawal phase, women continue to lose rights as
the country moves toward more extreme beliefs in Islam.
This is highly recommended reading for anyone who is interested in military operations and who wants to understand why a
quick military involvement turned into America's twenty-year war.
Persephone's Children: A Life in Fragments
Rowan McCandless
Rare Machines
c/o Dundurn Press (distribution)
https://www.dundurn.com
9781459747616, $19.99
https://www.amazon.com/Persephones-Children-Fragments-Rowan-McCandless/dp/1459747615
Rowan McCandless uses a lovely, unique manner to create her memoir; she uses scaffolding of various types, including the
alphabet that begins the book (A is for...), followed by a screenplay, poems, and crossword puzzles, along with essays. In
this creative yet unorthodox manner, Ms. McCandless lays out all the hardships she endures in her lifetime, ranging from
poverty, childhood and domestic abuse, an eating disorder, depression, anxiety, and institutional racism.
After eating three pomegranate seeds in the Underworld, Persephone must spend part of her year there and part on the
surface of the earth, thus effectively straddling two worlds. Ms. McCandless, a biracial woman, must do the same, existing
between her white and her black families. The alphabet that begins this work gives a baseline from which she and her
readers explore her life. Though the timeframe isn't chronological, the bouncing around gives some sense of how memories
are explored and reframed over time. Overall, this was a powerful, moving book.
Blue-Skinned Gods
SJ Sindu
Soho Press
https://sohopress.com
9781641292429, $26.00
https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Skinned-Gods-SJ-Sindu/dp/1641292423
I read Blue-Skinned Gods in one sitting, broken only by a telephone call from a friend. The characterization was
compelling-populated by everything from a child-god to rock-and-roll stars. S.J. Sindu intertwines these characters' lives in
such a compelling manner that I had difficulty putting the book down. The reader meets the above-mentioned child-god,
Kalthi Sami, his manipulative father, his depressed mother, his boyhood best friend, and his first love. Kalthi lives with the
constant pressure of having to live up to his future as the tenth human reincarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu while really
wanting to run and play like a normal ten-year-old boy. It is only when Kalthi realizes he has lost everyone and begins to
realize how unscrupulous his father is, that Kalthi breaks free. A totally unexpected twist occurs when Kalthi learns of the
circumstances of his birth.
Sindu's prose is lush and poetic and carries us from the deceptively idyllic ashram in India where Kalki is raised to the
drug/alcohol soaked post-punk music scene in New York. The book tackles tough topics: spirituality, faith and doubt,
family, trauma, gender issues, sexuality, and finding one's true self. An absolutely gorgeous book.
The Archivist
Rex Pickett
Blackstone Publishing
https://www.blackstonepublishing.com
9781538519646, $29.99
https://www.amazon.com/Archivist-Novel-Rex-Pickett/dp/153851964X
Initially I had mixed feelings about this book. In the beginning I felt the author was trying too hard to be literary. I frequently
had to look up words in the dictionary (not that this is a bad thing, but it took me out of the story to do so).
The Archivist is a disturbing work with a great story of a twisted romance and the murder of the female in the relationship.
In essence, Nadia Fontaine, the archivist working on the papers of Raymond West, a writer short-listed for the Nobel Prize.
She and West fall in love, co-author an Anais Nin type sexually explicit book. Shortly thereafter, Nadia is found dead,
presumably drowned while surfing. Emily Snow, another archivist, is hired to complete the cataloguing of the West papers.
She soon comes to feel that Fontaine was murdered rather than drowned and embarks on the quest to learn the truth.
The Archivist is a dark work that required considerable effort to read. Then I stumbled into a sex scene that I considered
putting up for The Guardian's Bad Sex Awards and nearly quit. However, I persevered and, towards the last half of the
book, I couldn't put it down and stayed up at 4:30 a.m. to finish it. I enjoyed it too because it was about writing and how
authors (and other artists) feed off each other.
Chouette
Claire Oshetsky
Ecco
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9780063066670, $24.00
https://www.amazon.com/Chouette-Claire-Oshetsky/dp/006306667X
My attention was captured within the first paragraph of this delightful, unique, somewhat weird book. Tiny, a human, has
intercourse with a female owl and becomes pregnant with an owl-baby.
Tiny's husband repeatedly tries to reassure her that their child is not an owl, but Tiny knows the fetus is. As he tries to
reassure her, he's also repelled as Tiny has started to smell - her scent becoming that of an owl. She also knows when the
ultrasound machine's noises are disturbing her baby but is unable to convince either her husband, the ultrasound tech of that
fact. uniquely, alluringly strange book this is! Though the author never deals with the biology behind this bizarre union,
interspersed through the book are bits of real biology, such as when Tiny follows the fetus's development through the
developmental stages of a poppy seed sized embryo at two weeks of age until it joins the phylum Chordata.
Chouette is about motherhood, that giant leap into the unknown women face when they become pregnant. Tiny's love for
her infant (once she gets used to the idea of being an owl-mother), becomes all-consuming. Chouette is a wild thing,
unconventional, and violent at time. Tiny's husband, on the other hand, wants her to be an ordinary child, at the cost of her
individuality.
As Tiny is a cellist, music is a recurrent theme in the book. There's a playlist on the author's Goodreads page.
Written in the present tense, Chouette contains an urgency that makes the novel seem quite intimate. You're always in Tiny's
point-of-view. This debut novel is poetic, often lyrical, yet disturbing, engaging, and absolutely unique. I haven't read
anything as unique since Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado.
Suanne Schafer, Reviewer
www.SuanneSchaferAuthor.com
Susan Bethany's Bookshelf
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Honeymooners... I Had a Life
Jane Kean, author
Kris Paradis, author
BearManor Media
PO Box 71426, Albany, GA 31708
www.bearmanormedia.com
9780971457096, $20.00, PB, 140pp
https://www.amazon.com/Funny-Thing-Happened-Honeymooners-Life/dp/0971457093
Synopsis: Jane Kean (April 10, 1923 - November 26, 2013) was an American actress and singer whose career in show
business spanned seven decades and included appearing in nightclubs, on recordings, and in radio, television, Broadway and
films. Among her most famous roles were as Trixie Norton on The Jackie Gleason Show, and as the voice of Belle in the
perennial favorite Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol.
With the assistance of Kris Paradis, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Honeymooners... I Had a Life" is Jane
Kean's frank and funny memoir of a show business life in the form of a loving first-hand account of what growing up among
Hollywood's Who's Who was like. From funny accounts of her time in Hollywood to revealing stories of her experiences on
Broadway, she tells all - and tells it like it was.
From starring roles on stage in Early to Bed, Call Me Mister, and Ankles Aweigh, she also appeared frequently on American
television on shows, such as The Danny Thomas Show, The Lucy Show, Love, American Style, The Dean Martin show,
Dallas, and the soap operas Days of Our Lives and General Hospital. Jane also worked as a voice actress, notably in the
perennial animated Christmas holiday classic, Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962) starring Jim Backus, in which she
spoke and sang the part of Belle. She also voiced roles in Disney's Pete's Dragon (1977) with Helen Reddy.
Jane finally became a household word when she appeared with Shelia MacRae in the 1966 television version of The
Honeymooners. Because of The Honeymooners complete series released on dvd, she is best known nowadays as Trixie, the
wife of Ed Norton, in Jackie Gleason's unforgettable award-winning series.
Jane's autobiography is concise and pulls no punches. You'll love how she has generously overfilled the book with many
rare photos and illustrations from her life and career. For Jane, a funny thing happened on the way to The Honeymooners . . .
she had a life, and the fascinating personal story entertains and informs as only a first-hand account can. In Jane's personal
words, she was "the Lady Gaga of the Stone Age."
Critique: An absolute 'must read' for the legions of Honeymoon fans, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the
Honeymooners... I Had a Life" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, college, and
university library Theatre/Cinema/TV history and biography collections.
Coffee Coma
Sheree K. Nielsen
Shanti Arts LLC
https://shantiarts.co
9781951651961, $25.95, PB, 108pp
https://www.amazon.com/Coffee-Coma-photos-affair-coffee/dp/1951651960
Synopsis: A staple of the civilized life form the past three centuries, today coffee is always around no matter the weather,
situation, or location. Whether it's latte with friends at a cafe, a cappuccino on the front porch during a misty rain, or a mug
of Americano in hand while admiring the sunrise, coffee positively affects our lives in so many ways. In the pages of
"Coffee Coma: poems and photos about our love affair and life with coffee", author and coffee enthusiast Sheree K. Nielsen
shares her love affair and life with coffee through poems and photographs that will warm the heart and arouse the appetite.
Of special note is the inclusion of Sheree's list of her favorite coffeehouses around the country.
Critique: A coffee lover's delight and an inherently fascinating read from cover to cover, "Coffee Coma: poems and photos
about our love affair and life with coffee" is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal reading
lists and community library collections.
Editorial Note: Sheree K. Nielsen is the author/photographer/poet of the 2019 Royal Dragonfly Book Award Winner
"Mondays in October", having received First Place in Poetry, Fine Art and Photography and Honorable Mention for Coffee
Table Books. She is also the 2015 Da Vinci Eye Award Winner for "Folly Beach Dances", the Chanticleer Little Peeps First
Place Category Winner and Montaigne Medal Finalist in 2019 for "Midnight the One-Eyed Cat", and the Chanticleer 2019
Finalist for "Ocean Rhythms Kindred Spirits". Her other works are well represented in many travel magazines and
publications. She also has a website at www.shereenielsen.wordpress.com
Susan Bethany
Reviewer
Willis Buhle's Bookshelf
How to Lose the Information War
Nina Jankowicz
I. B. Tauris Publishers
www.ibtauris.com
c/o Bloomsbury Press
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us
9781838607685, $27.00, HC, 288pp
https://www.amazon.com/How-Lose-Information-War-Conflict/dp/1838607684
Synopsis: Since the start of the Trump era, the United States and the Western world has finally begun to wake up to the
threat of online warfare and the cyber attacks from Russia. The question no one seems to be able to answer is: what can the
West do about it?
Central and Eastern European states, however, have been aware of the threat for years. Nina Jankowicz has advised these
governments on the front lines of the information war. The lessons she learnt from that fight, and from her attempts to get
US congress to act, make for essential reading with publication of her detailed study, "How to Lose the Information War:
Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict..
"How to Lose the Information War" takes the reader on a journey through five Western governments' responses to Russian
information warfare tactics - all of which have failed. She journeys into the campaigns the Russian operatives run, and
shows how we can better understand the motivations behind these attacks and how to beat them. Above all, "How to Lose
the Information War" shows what is at stake: the future of civil discourse and democracy, and the value of truth itself.
Critique: Timely, exceptionally well organize and presented, "How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and
the Future of Conflict" is an impressively informed and informative read and one that should be brought to the attention of
all government policy makers and legislators. An extraordinary work of meticulous research, "How to Lose the Information
War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community, college,
and university library collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist
general readers with an interest in the subject that "How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of
Conflict" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: Nina Jankowicz currently a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'
Kennan Institute. Previously, she served as a Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellow, a role in which she provided strategic
communications guidance to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. Her writing has been published by The New York Times, The
Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, Foreign Policy and others. She has lived and worked in Russia and Ukraine, and speaks
fluent Russian and proficient Polish and Ukrainian. Nina was a 2017 Foreign Policy Interrupted Fellow.
Willis M. Buhle
Reviewer
James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
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