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Jim Cox Report: September 2026
Dear Publisher Folk, Friends & Family:
This month of September 2026 marks the 50th Anniversary of the Midwest Book Review and me as its Editor-in-Chief.
This little book review operation was founded in September, 1976 as a weekly half-hour non-commercial Saturday morning radio show in Madison Wisconsin. Then in 1980 I left radio to launched it as a weekly TV show which ran to 2001. Along the way we began with the monthly book review publication "Bookwatch", which over the years expanded into 9 monthly book review publications primarily aimed at librarians and booksellers, and secondarily at hardcore bibliophiles and the general reading public.
For about 12 of those years I also served as an Acquisitions Consultant for some 19 community libraries in South-Central Wisconsin. I was also given (and I mean for free) a bookstore in Stoughton Wisconsin which I ran for 4 years -- giving me about as well rounded understanding of the publishing industry from the point of view of authors (I'm a published writer in my own right), publishers, publicists, librarians, and booksellers.
I'm also a life long hardcore bibliophile who, before becoming a book reviewer would spend about 30% of my take home pay on books and magazines.
But the success of the Midwest Book Review is a shared phenomena with the scores of volunteers who helped with our incarnations from radio to television, from monthly book review publications to an online website devoted to helping authors to write more effectively, publishers (including the self-published) to publish more profitably, librarians to be aware of good books they might well never know about, and readers of every type and hue of literary interests about what was worth their time.
Then there is the Jim Cox Report -- my monthly column on and about pretty much every aspect of the publishing industry that has had an uninterrupted 26 year run beginning in December 2000. Every one of which is archived on the Midwest Book Review website at:
https://midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/jimcox.htm
Over the years I and the Midwest Book Review have been listed as a desirable resource for writers and publishers in more than 30 'how to' books on writing, publishing, and marketing.
Along the way in 2012 I was also awarded a Life Time Achievement in Publishing award from the late Dan Poynter's Audio Book publishers association which still hangs upon the wall in my office.
We even have a Wikipedia entry at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwest_Book_Review
Now that I'm 83 my work hours have dropped from 12 hours a day, 7 days a week to just 3 hours a day, 7 days a week, my daughter Bethany (who is also my Managing Editor and Webmaster) is taking over more and more of the daily 'nuts & bolts' of the operation. But I still get to answer the phone and respond to incoming emails in person. Fortunately I think I still have a few years left to devote to promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. -- Plus I get to read and share my opinions on anything I want!
Thank you for allowing me to 'take a bow' on this, the 50th Anniversary of the Midwest Book Review!
Quote of the Month
"I'm never a fan of the sociopathic kind of reviewing, people who are sort of self-immolating and have social problems or whatever, and let it out in literary-criticism form. I just feel like book reviewing should be respectful and calm and not filled with bile."
-- Dave Eggers
Websites of the Month:
Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com
FantasticFiction
https://www.fantasticfiction.com
Here are reviews that will prove of particular interest to writers, publishers, and bibliophiles:
When Everyone Reads
Kwame Alexander
Shell Education
c/o Teacher Created Materials
https://www.teachercreatedmaterials.com
9798330916771, $36.99, PB, 184pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/When-Everyone-Reads-Alexanders-Inspiring/dp/B0G1HYHCL4
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-everyone-reads-kwame-alexander/1148720915
Synopsis: With the publication of "When Everyone Reads: Kwame Alexander's Guide to Inspiring a Lifelong Love of Books", educator Kwame Alexander offers K-12 teachers organic, creative ways to center reading across the school day and make it joyful for students and teachers alike.
An award-winning children's author, Kwame Alexander draws upon his experience and expertise to provide easy-to-use grade-band strategies, QR-linked videos, and reproducible tools -- making this Reading Development curriculum resource essential for turning all learners into lifelong book lovers.
The Features include low-prep ideas for busy teachers, real-life stories from educators about what works, quotes from authors and celebrities, curated book lists, as well as:
Real-world solutions supported by research and teacher testimony
Inclusive, joyful literacy practices that transcend test-prep culture
Aacademic instruction to real life through storytelling, identity, and creativity
The solutions in these pages get to the heart of what excites children about reading, as well as showing classroom teachers how to keep that spark burning in older students, too.
"When Everyone Reads: Kwame Alexander's Guide to Inspiring a Lifelong Love of Books" is perfect for getting everyone involved in building a culture of lifelong reading.
Critique: A life long love of books can be instiller in young readers and adaptable to elementary school, middle school, high school, and home-school reading development curriculums at every level. Thoroughly 'teacher friendly' in organization, presentation, and ideal for homeschooling parents, "When Everyone Reads: Kwame Alexander's Guide to Inspiring a Lifelong Love of Books" is an essential pick for personal, professional, school district, and college/university library Teacher Training: Literacy collections and curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, publisher, Emmy Award winning producer and a the author of 45 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night; Black Star; The Door of No Return; J vs. K, an illustrated novel penned with Jerry Craft; the motivational primer for graduates, creatives and professionals entitled Say Yes; Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson); and The Undefeated, a Newbery Honor and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
The Write Thing: 2nd Edition
Kwame Alexander
Shell Education
c/o Teacher Created Materials
https://www.teachercreatedmaterials.com
9798330923564, $36.99, PB, 216pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Write-Thing-Alexanders-Inspiring-Student/dp/B0G1HW7HX6
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-write-thing-kwame-alexander/1148720914
Synopsis: Empower students with lessons that promote authentic self-expression and a love for writing
With the publication of a newly updated and expanded second edition of "The Write Thing: Kwame Alexander's Guide for Inspiring Student Writers", Newbery Medal winning author Kwame Alexander shows you how to inspire students and make writing engaging and fun.
With curriculum style workbook, K-12 classroom teachers will empower their students to discover their voices through writing and publishing. By combining creative expression with the real-world experience of producing published works, this resource nurtures confidence, literacy skills, and a sense of ownership in young writers.
"The Write Thing" is organized into three sections (Writing, Publishing, and Presenting) and emphasizes poetry as an accessible entry point for all. It also offers an inspiring look at the practice of writing along with a practical framework that includes more than 25 step-by-step lessons and mini-lessons, student writing samples, and teacher reflections. You will also find QR codes linking to online videos -- some designed to help educators and others for classroom use with students. With these valuable resources, you can build a writing culture that helps students find their voices.
Additionally, this newly published Second Edition of "The Write Thing" features guidance on expanding beyond poetry to other genres; new approaches, success stories, and tips from experts; and Share Your Story writing ideas for today's classrooms. Part how-to and part inspiration, "The Write Thing" supports educators in promoting self-expression and a love of writing.
"The Write Thing: 2nd Edition includes more than 25 step-by-step lessons and mini-lessons for different forms of poetry; features easy-to-use content such as Quick Tips, success stories, publishing templates and videos (via QR codes); Provides guidance for engaging reluctant writers and supporting English language learners; Centers student publishing as a core instructional element to motivate learners.
Use Kwame Alexander's classroom-tested and student-approved workshop model to guide students as they develop creativity, confidence, and a love of writing.
Critique: This trade paperback (7.25 x 0.44 x 9.25 inches, 1.1 pounds) edition of "The Write Thing: Kwame Alexander's Guide for Inspiring Student Writers, Second Edition" is extraordinary, deftly crafted, and thoroughly 'user friendly' in organization, presentation, and style. While unreservedly recommended for K-12 Creative Writing curriculums and college/university library Educational Instruction: Writing curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for students, teachers, and home-schooling parents that it is also available from Shell Education in a digital book format (Kindle, $29.22).
Editorial Note: Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, publisher, Emmy Award winning producer and a the author of 45 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night; Black Star; The Door of No Return; J vs. K, an illustrated novel penned with Jerry Craft; the motivational primer for graduates, creatives and professionals entitled Say Yes; Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson); and The Undefeated, a Newbery Honor and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
Literary Echoes: Short Story Analyses
Fiza Pathan
Freedom with Pluralism
https://fizapathanpublishing.us
9788194055891, $55.99, HC, 660pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Literary-Echoes-Short-Story-Analyses/dp/819405589X
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/literary-echoes-fiza-pathan/1150749316
Synopsis: Two hundred stories. Two hundred acts of attention. One scholar's decade-long conversation with the world's storytellers.
With the publication of "Literary Echoes: Short Story Analyses", Fiza Pathan has created a landmark literary reference volume comprised of two hundred in-depth analyses of the short story, which were gathered from classical antiquity to the present, and from across the world's literary traditions. "Literary Echoes" is for anyone who believes, as Fiza Pathan does, that the short story format stands among the supreme achievements of the human imagination.
The range of this literary compendium is truly extraordinary. From the Russian masters - Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Gorky, Bunin (whose stories chart the depths of the human soul), to the full sweep of the American tradition beginning with a Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, and running through Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Jack London, Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O'Connor, and Shirley Jackson, to the modern masters representing nearly two and a half centuries of American short fiction spread out across the 250 years of independence the United States celebrates this very year.
From there "Literary Echoes" goes on to range across the globe: the British and Irish - Wilde, Kipling, Woolf, Joyce, Saki, Maugham, Graham Greene, Roald Dahl, M. R. James; the luminous Indian tradition - Rabindranath Tagore, R. K. Narayan, Ruskin Bond, Premchand, Saadat Hasan Manto, Ismat Chughtai, Khushwant Singh; and singular voices from every continent - Yukio Mishima (whose dazzling "Three Million Yen" is among the collection's gems), Shusaku Endo, Stefan Zweig, Rainer Maria Rilke, Cesare Pavese, Dino Buzzati, Knut Hamsun, Ivo Andric, Tadeusz Borowski, Ben Okri, Nadine Gordimer, V. S. Naipaul, and Hans Christian Andersen.
Critique: A masterpiece of literary criticism and analysis by award winning novelist and short story author Fiza Pathan, "Literary Echoes: Short Story Analyses" is an inherently fascinating, occasionally iconoclastic, and always thought-provoking read from start to finish. Of special and particular interest to readers with an interest in the short story as a literary art form and format, "Literary Echoes" is exceptionally 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation. While and unreservedly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library American Literary Fiction Criticism and Analysis collections and supplemental Creative Writing studies lists, it should be noted for students, academia, aspiring short story writers, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that this hardcover edition of "Literary Echoes" from Freedom with Pluralism is also readily available in paperback (9788194055860, $40.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: Fiza Pathan (https://insaneowl.com/feed) has a bachelor's degree in arts from the University of Mumbai, where she majored in history and sociology with a first class. She also has a bachelor's degree in education, again with a first class, her special subjects being English and history. Fiza has written and published seventeen award-winning books and short stories, which reflect her interest in furthering the cause of education and in championing social issues. In over seventy literary competitions, she has placed either as winner or finalist, chief among them being: 2020 DBW Awards; 2020 Writer's Digest Self-Published E-Book Awards; 2018 DBW Awards; Killer Nashville 2018 Silver Falchion Award; 2018 IAN Book of the Year Awards; 2018 Book Viral Millennium Book Awards; Readers' Favorite Book Awards; Reader Views Literary Awards; Eric Hoffer Book Award; Foreword Reviews Indie Fab Book Awards; Mom's Choice Awards; Literary Classics Book Awards; and Dan Poynter's Global E-Book Awards. She writes novels and short stories in most genres and can be followed on Twitter @FizaPathan
"The Midwest Book Review Postage Stamp Hall Of Fame & Appreciation" is a monthly roster of well-wishers and supporters. These are the generous folk who decided to say 'thank you' and 'support the cause' that is the Midwest Book Review by donating to our postage stamp fund.
Ron Smith
George Cag
Adarsh Shettu
Phillip Booker
Strat Andriotis
Ronald Gruner
Franck Prissert
Gary Hardwick
Ronald Gorevic
Ann Braithwaite
Pascoal Clothing
Robert Jaxx -- "Blueland"
Sarah Flocken -- "Be Well"
Stephen Rife -- "Lowriding"
Catherine Mathis -- "Leonore"
Darlene Corbett -- "Mesmerize"
Alan Felyk "The Tatagonian Code"
Trevor Payne -- "The Mechanicals"
Huck Smith -- Boys Bar Becoming"
Daniel Dow -- "He Feeds Dinosaurs"
Amber Hoyem -- "Strawberry Moon"
Douglas J. Ostling -- "Blood Rituals"
Melanie Abed -- "Territories of Tub!"
Michael Tarasev -- "There Be Dragon"
Verna Ferrant Harp -- "Army of Peace"
Bob Adamov -- "Alone at the Hospital"
Giorgio Cittadini -- "Ariel and Beyond"
Nancy Bentley -- " Out of the Shadows"
Richard Barager -- "The Twelve Tables"
Nancy Bentley -- " Lexie and Little Ant"
James Upsilon -- "Eternal Dusk - Part 1"
Katharine English -- "Inside Henry Cato"
Constance Matsumoto -- "Fact & Fiction"
James Harvey -- "Grappling With Ghosts"
Jeannette Belliveau -- "Fleeing Baltimore"
Jacob Anthony Moniz -- "The Pacific End"
Lincoln Lee -- "In Search of Rohan Chang"
Anthony Bradshaw -- "Not Enough Words"
John S. Powell -- "Hunt for the Third Woe"
C. E. Lovic -- "Odyssey of the Dark Realm"
Joe Sarkic -- "Necrocracy Forsaken Guardian"
Wesley Alexander -- "The Chromatic Protoco"
Robin Horstmann -- "The Governed Enterprise"
Joseph A. Cerny -- "The Bootlegger's Daughter"
Phillip Gold -- "The Duchess Would Not Approve!"
Billy Warren -- "Beyond Good and Evil and Murder"
Kristina Chiarello -- "Valedictorian: An Origin Story"
Leslie St. James -- "The Oligarchs' Arithmetic of Plunder"
Fiza Iqbal Pathan -- "Literary Echoes: Short Story Analyses"
Lewis K. Schrager -- "The Radical Radiance of the Fishing Fly"
David Leng -- "Echoes of Fortune: Knights of the Golden Circle"
A. K. Hayat -- "The Final Steep" & "Malanthia: The Dark Violet"
Francis DiClemente -- "Stunted: A Memoir of Delayed Manhood"
Jack R. Taylor -- "Know Jack: Dropping Out! Life Anew at Forty-Two"
Artdog Studio
Science180, LLC
Outskirts Press, Inc.
YellowStudios, LLC
Historycentral.com Inc
American Legacy Media
Mark B. Weiman -- Regent Press
Mark Levine -- Catamount Mountain Press
Helen Cook -- Ascot Media
Craig S. Thurmond -- Peace in Progress Media
Elizabeth Frazier -- Waldmania! PR
In lieu of (or in addition to!) postage stamp donations, we also accept PayPal gifts of support to our postage stamp fund for what we try to accomplish in behalf of the small press community.
Simply log onto your PayPal account and direct your kindness (in any amount and at your discretion) to the Midwest Book Review at: SupportMBR [at] aol.com (The @ is replaced by "[at]" in the above email address, in an attempt to avoid email-harvesting spambots.)
If you have postage stamps to donate, or if you have a book you'd like considered for review, then send those postage stamps (always appreciated, never required), or a published copy of that book (no galleys, uncorrected proofs, or Advance Reading Copies), accompanied by a cover letter and some form of publicity release to my attention at the address below.
All of the previous issues of the "Jim Cox Report" are archived on the Midwest Book Review website at www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/jimcox.htm. If you'd like to receive the "Jim Cox Report" directly (and for free), just send me an email asking to be signed up for it.
So until next time -- goodbye, good luck, and good reading!
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI, 53575
www.midwestbookreview.com
James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
e-mail: mwbookrevw@aol.com
www.midwestbookreview.com
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