Book Review #21: The Year of Needy Girls
The Year of Needy Girls by Patricia Smith was released in 2017 by Akashic Books. The concept is good, a lesbian couple living a small New England town where a horrific murder of a young boy occurs. There are so many ways to build a story around this. Though I was ultimately disappointed, this is […]
Book Review #20: Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences: The Janus Affair
The Janus Affair is the second installment of the six-part The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series of Steampunk Fiction by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. In this book, agents Books & Braun have to determine why and who is kidnapped suffragists via a steampunk transporting device. Sophia Del Morte and the Ministry Seven are back […]
Book Review #19: Destroy All Monsters
Published in 2018, Destroy All Monsters by Jeff Jackson is a strange tale of musicians being murdered onstage while in concert. It appears to be an epidemic of violence throughout the country. It’s unclear if these are random acts or part of an organized effort. I had the opportunity to hear Jeff talk during a […]
Book Review #18: To Kill A Mockingbird
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee takes us to a small town in the deep south of America in the 1930s, and shines light onto the inequalities of race and class. Lee has the story narrated by the young girl Scout, interweaving the lives of three inquisitive children, the trial of a black man […]
Book Review #17: Seraphs from the Rogue Mage Trilogy
Seraphs by Faith Hunter is the second book of the Rogue Mage fantasy trilogy. Hunter brings us into a world about 100 years after a quasi-apocalypse when the seraphs broke out a can of angelic whoop-ass on the human species nearly wiping them out. An unexpected outcome of the apocalypse is the creation of neomages, […]
Book Review #16: Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences: Phoenix Rising
The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences is a six-part series of Steampunk Fiction by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. From Pip’s website, the premise of the storyline is: “The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, with its head office located at the heart of the Empire, London, solves mysterious happenings that leave normal law enforcement officials baffled. Located […]
Book Review #15: Tequila Mockingbird
Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist by Tim Federle is a riot! I’m jealous I didn’t think of this idea. This book came in a raffle gift basket I won during one of the James River Writers Writing Shows. There are five sections to the book, including information on bartending tools and techniques, and […]
Book Review #14: The Power To Write
The Power to Write by Caroline Joy Adams is intended to encapsulate what you can learn during a writing workshop. The material focuses on “seven keys to discover your writer within.” In her opening, Ms. Adams states that “The Power to Write is intended for everyone who wants to write but who may need a […]
Book Review #13: Chicken Soup-Life Lessons from the Dog
At some point during the past 26 years, you’ve likely heard of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series. Until now, I’d never taken the time to read one and was pleasantly entertained by this book. Released in 2019 by Amy Newmark, Life Lessons from the Dog: 101 Tales of Family, Friendship & Fun […]
Book Review #12: Zombies Need Brains 2018 Anthology Threesome
Zombies Need Brains (ZNB) ran a Kickstarter campaign in 2018 for a three anthology collection: Portals, Alternate Peace and Temporally Deactivated. I supported ZNB’s 2017 campaign and was excited they were running another one. What has interested me most is the ZNB approach to getting several authors to apply their interpretations to a single concept. […]
Guest post: A Photograph of My Father by Dean Robertson
The photograph of my father arrived in mid-March—less than a month ago–sent in an email by one of my cousins. The subject heading of the email, innocent enough, “Your Daddy Fishing.” It was an old black and white photograph but, even scanned and emailed, it was perfectly clear. What I see: My father is standing […]
Book Review #11: One Of Our Thursday’s Is Missing by Jasper Fforde
In this sixth book of the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, Thursday is supposed to attend the Racy Novel Peace Talks, but she’s missing. Yup. Gone. Poof. Where and why is what we want to know. Written Thursday, a.k.a. Thursday5, or as I call her – T5, is the one who must sleuth it […]