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Stories of Endurance

Guest Post by Ann Graham.

Eleven short stories mostly first published in well-known literary journals delve into the sinewy reality of our being human animals. The first story explores the emotionally precarious time for female teens. In the second story, “Feast,” Rayna’s miscarriage causes her to experience hallucinations. “I saw the first baby part in a bouquet of marigolds. . . .”

In “Tongues” Zeyah thinks for herself and endures the anger of their pastor and her parents. Gloria is dying of cancer in” The Loss of Heaven,” and Fred doesn’t understand her refusal of more treatments: “He wanted to shake her, grip hard into those bird-boned shoulders until [ . . . ] only a monster would treat a dying person like that.”

In “The Hearts of Enemies” complex mother daughter relationships are derailed with each one’s own private emotions.  In “Outside the Raft” the guilt after a near drowning, “I didn’t know how to apologize for wanting to save my own life.” “Exotics” is the shortest story and, for me, absolutely accusatory of our animalistic capacity for cruelty.

Despite some of the subject matter, the stories are uplifting in that we learn about endurance. Moniz exposes truths about our animal-ness that nobody wants to admit or accept as reality and shows us how we might survive anyway. Dantiel W. Moniz is an author unafraid to poke our corporality and the way it blends with our psyches.

Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz. Grove, February 2021.

Reviewer bio: While trying to remain hopeful that democracy will survive, Ann Graham reads and writes in Texas. Once in a while, she comments about a short story on her blog: www.ann-graham.com.

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A Dash of Poetry

Guest Post by Kristina Pudlewski.

I read a poem recently called “Dash Poem” by Linda Ellis. Only the Poet Rupi Kaur has ever amazed me with her words but then this poem came along and changed my outlook on life.

The “Dash Poem” is one of beauty. It reminds us that all of the years we are alive, we should live them well. We should not live for materialistic objects but for memorable moments, and we should love ourselves and those around us. “Dash Poem” also reminds us to create a life we will be proud of and I think a lot of people in the world want that.

This poem brought tears to my eyes and power back to my soul. I advise everyone to read this poem once, because that is all you will need to do to change your outlook on life.

“Dash Poem” by Linda Ellis. 1996.

Reviewer bio: I am a freelance writer from Illinois. I love to write fiction novels, short stories, and poetry. I am currently writing my first novel.

‘The Cousins’

Guest Post by Jiya Ahuja.

This novel revolves around the Story family residing in gull cove island: a grandmother who owns the entire island, and parents who were disinherited by a mysterious “You know what you did” letter.

Jonah, Aubrey, and Milly are cousins who hardly know each other and have never met their grandmother. So when they receive a letter from their long-lost grandmother inviting them to the island, they aren’t particularly thrilled to go but, their parents see this as a golden opportunity to get back in their mother’s good graces. When they arrive on the island, the cousins realize their grandmother has different plans for them. Here they uncover secrets that lead them to their family’s dark and mysterious past. The entire family has secrets that they wish remained buried.

The story is told from three main points of view and is filled with a lot of twists and turns that keep readers hooked until the very last line. Although some parts felt a little slow-paced, this is still satisfying and entertaining enough. The Cousins is a highly recommended young adult mystery to readers of age 13 and above.

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus. Delacorte Press, December 2020..

Reviewer bio: Reach Jiya Ahuja here.

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‘Horodno Burning’

Guest Post by Julie Christine Johnson.

Jews were attacked in a series of pogroms and subjected to systematic oppression during the late nineteenth and early 20th century, scapegoated as the cause of political and economic upheaval. These pogroms and the long history of limiting Jewish movement in Eastern Europe foreshadowed the Holocaust. These awful conditions intensified as nationalist movements and state-sanctioned violence grew.

Textbooks can present us with facts, but literature allows us to feel the stories history hopes we will hear. In his absorbing and graceful debut novel, Horodno Burning, author Michael Freed-Thall brings us into the heart of a family forever transformed by persecution. Continue reading “‘Horodno Burning’”

Board the Bus with Van Horn

Book Review by Katy Haas.

Sometimes it’s important to slow down and not only enjoy the ride, but take in the details and really sit with them. Erica Van Horn does this in her collection of short essays, By Bus.

In By Bus, we’re transported to the bus transporting Van Horn as she describes what she sees from where she sits. “Horse” is just one paragraph long and explains an interaction between two passengers. In “Stuck in Inchicore,” we’re privy to one half of a phone conversation, the caller’s dialogue making up a majority of the essay. “A Never-Married” describes a “Ring-A-Link” bus, basically a phone-ordered bus ride which can take you “fairly straight into town” or “you ride along in the bus as it meanders through the countryside [ . . . ]. It can take as long as one hour to get to town.” We hear about it through Van Horn’s friend of a friend, Carmel, who sometimes takes this bus to meet a man—a man who is stuck on a bus for an hour with nowhere else to go. There is a variety in what the essays cover that keeps the short collection fresh throughout.

By Bus is a book for those of us who take out an earbud at the coffeeshop to eavesdrop on the gossip unfolding at a nearby table of strangers. Every interaction is a tiny glimpse into the window of a stranger’s life. Van Horn’s observations are clear and simple. She sits, she watches, she shares, and then moves onto the next one, never pausing to criticize or question. This is the perfect Sunday read, a reminder to slow down and sit with the changing landscapes and passengers of our own lives with the same gentleness Van Horn does.

By Bus by Erica Van Horn. Ugly Duckling Presse, March 2021.

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“Finding the Light in the Dark”

The Summer 2021 issue of Kaleidoscope features one book review. Sandra J. Lindow’s “Finding the Light in the Dark,” covers An Eclipse and a Butcher by Ann-Chadwell Humphries (Muddy Ford Press, 2020).

The review begins:

Consisting of thirty-eight poems, and an “Introduction” by Ed Madden, Poet Laureate of Columbia South Carolina, Ann-Chadwell Humphries’s poetry collection is well-wrought and accessible to any educated reader. As an adult, Humphries lost her vision from a genetic disorder called retinitis pigmentosa. Her website, ann-chadwellhumphries.com, describes the process of her loss “I went from (seeing through) a hula hoop to a donut and then a straw.” Her poem “My Blind Obsession” delineates how she struggled with advancing disease and at first and tried to ignore it, chase it from her yard,

but it would not leave.
So blindness and I shook hands, became friends.

Becoming friends with blindness seems a nearly impossible process, but although Humphries admits to drawing “blood” in her fight with the disease, she is convincing when she asserts that her life has become better because of her blindness (website).  Her other senses have become stronger, and she claims to have “at least sixteen” of them including “sense of memory, sense of organization, sense of concentration, sense of movement, sense of orientation, [and] sense of humor” (website). Her sense of humor, in particular has been “an asset when forced to change” (41). Her wry wit peeks from many of her poems, especially when she announces that “love is blind” (41). Scents of Listerine and linseed oil wander into her poems, exemplifying her sensory grounding in the physical world. She feels the vines and flowers gilded on the cover of a rare book as if she is actually seeing them. Her powerful sense of visual organization, part memory, part something else, allows her to “imagine how people look” when she talks with them (41). All these talented senses become apparent to her readers and listening audiences, especially when she recites her poetry from memory.

Kaleidoscope‘s issues are free online, so visit their website to check out the rest of this book review.

‘The Body’

Guest Post by Kirpa Bajaj.

The centerpiece of The Body is an aging playwright who accepts a very tempting offer to have his mind transplanted into a younger physique. He obviously then faces the extreme consequences of his decision to chase his vanished youth.

Hanif Kureishi’s insights into the human condition are on point. This novel is very well written and carries a hint of rare warmth and humanity. Kureishi has this certain intensity and integrity of vision which makes this book ten times more impressive. This volume of fiction is a must read!

The Body by Hanif Kureishi. Scribner Book Company, April 2011.

Reviewer bio: I am Kirpa, a bibliophile and student who loves to dive in the sea of books and reviewing them for others. I also write as it’s one of my major interests. I hope I was able to help you out!

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A Tale of Two Giraffes and a Dust Bowl Boy

Guest Post by Cindy Dale.

Occasionally, you come across a book that is so unusual, so original that it stops you in your tracks. Case in point:  West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. The novel was Inspired by a true event—two giraffes in transit aboard the SS Robin Goodfellow from Africa to America shipwrecked in the 1938 “Long Island Express” hurricane. The tale is narrated by 105-year-old Woodrow Wilson Nickel from his VA hospital room as, in a race against time, he records the events of a short, pivotal period from his early life.

The year is 2025 and many species of wildlife, including giraffes, are near extinction thanks to us humans. At 17 Woody was orphaned, escaped the Dust Bowl, and made it to New York City where he got wind of the plan to transport the two stranded giraffes from New York to the San Diego Zoo. The novel recounts the audacious ocean to ocean odyssey. Woody steals a bicycle and takes off after old man Riley Jones who has been hired by San Diego Zoo doyenne Belle Benchley to transport the “towering creatures of God’s pure Eden.” Also hot on the tail of Riley Jones and the giraffes is “Red,” a pin-up pretty, young redheaded Margaret Bourke-White wannabe.

Part road trip, part coming of age story, part unrequited love story, the novel is studded with meticulously researched historical references.  Woody and Riley’s journey takes them on the southern route through the Jim Crow south and across the Texas panhandle where Woody must face memories from his own tragic past. At the heart of the novel is the concept of home. As Riley says to Woody, “Home’s not the place you’re from, Woody. Home’s the place you want to be.” A wonderful, heart-warming story perfect for these dark times.

West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. Lake Union Publishing, February 2021.

Reviewer bio: Cindy Dale has published over twenty short stories in literary journals and anthologies. She lives on a barrier beach off the coast of Long Island.

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Poets in Space

Guest Post by Susan Kay Anderson.

The Space Poet is written in well-researched prose-like stanzas so it appears scientific, logical. There are some list poems. The premise for this book is so super intriguing, that’s why I am writing something here so more people know about it!

A poet is sent to a space station to do research on what it is like (space) and write poems. This book could have been sparked by more recent projects about space (besides 2001: A Space Odyssey) Laurie Anderson’s Moon project, and Duncan Jones’ movie, Moon, but there are lots of space inspired books of poems, it seems (by looking around this book at the endorsements and epigraphs and such). I like this book because the idea of it is so strange and reading it does put one into the mood of the weirdness of space. The language of science is so weird. It can be. Enter advertising language of hype and sell.

From “Planet Hop from Trappist-1f!”

Planet hop from Trappist-1 f, the terrestrial Earth-sized planet
smack-dab in the habitable zone of our galaxy’s newly
discovered solar system and your new home amongst the stars!

These poems are kind of sad. It is melancholy in space.

From “The Cupola”

[ . . . ] the space poet cannot work with this, out here where nothing
is what you think it ought to be, where there is no rage [ . . . ]

[ . . . ] student loans or credit card debt, nothing is late for work,
nothing misses someone, nothing is late for work,
nothing misses someone, nothing loves or lives or leaves—
and what’s poetic about that?

I don’t want to say it but I will: the Pandemic. Plus, going to space to get rid of debt is kind of cruel, but I can easily see millions doing so.

The Space Poet by Samantha Edmonds. Split Lip Press, February 2020.

Reviewer bio: Susan Kay Anderson lives at the headwaters of Sutherlin Creek in southwestern Oregon’s Umpqua Basin. She is the author of Please Plant This Book Coast To Coast (Finishing Line Press, 2021) Virginia Brautigan Aste’s memoir. Anderson is a poetry reader for Quarterly West and Lily Poetry Review. Her poems are forthcoming in Barrow Street Journal, Heron Tree, and Wild Roof Journal.

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Write Like a Human and Other Pithy Advice from Kurt Vonnegut

Guest Post by Lisa Graham-Peterson.

“Write like a human” has been my advice to university students for years; imagine my delight to see those same words from Kurt Vonnegut to his pupils in Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style. For any writer, novice or not, advice on the craft from someone like Vonnegut is well worth your time. Fans of his will wince a bit at my purposeful use of a semicolon in my opening sentence.

The book’s cover lists Kurt Vonnegut and Suzanne McConnell as authors, though he’d been dead for 12 years by the time this book was published. The attribution is appropriate. McConnell includes so much of his work and words, it’s only fair he gets top billing.

McConnell was a student of Vonnegut’s at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and went on to a lifelong friendship with the storied writer and his family. Not meant to be a biography but so much of his life and personality inspired or surfaced within Vonnegut’s writing, this book wouldn’t be complete without those details. With her close connection to the family, McConnell includes rare photos and reproductions of letters, marked-up drafts and—my favorite—assignments and notes to students. I now need to up my game with my university course materials.

McConnell gives us bite-sized reading, with attention to page layout that would bring a sly smile to Vonnegut. It’s an organized primer—inspiration, mechanics—up to and including how to build community and take care of oneself in this solitary business we call writing.

Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style by Kurt Vonnegut & Suzanne McConnell. Seven Stories Press, 2019.

Reviewer bio: Lisa Graham-Peterson is a freelance writer and adjunct professor at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. More about Lisa at lisagrahampeterson.com.

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Too Young To Know

Guest Post by Susan Kay Anderson.

Poet Kevin Ridgeway dishes it out in seemingly endless amounts of true grit in his poems of loss and despair in Too Young To Know. His poems are a cross between Richard Brautigan and Denis Johnson and we can read the pathos of “Kool Aid Mustache,” “The 1988 Sears Christmas Catalog,” “My Drug Dealer’s Girlfriend,” and “The Original Unsung Hometown Zero” because less is more, because we get pulled down and are entertained, because we fall in love with Ridgeway, and because we survive along with him no matter what.

These are short poems written in lawn mower narrative chunks like Dean Young’s. I have heard this style called “new narrative” or “street style.” What is new about Ridgeway’s work is that his white trash experiences and escapades are just the setting for heroics of living when everything else comes crashing down in the world of alcohol and drug dependence.

From “Two Dimensional Lovers”:

. . . my sweetheart
that I secretly called Sharlena, her never
ending smile making out with me when I
saw the shell shocked faces of other sons,
frightened refugees smoked out of their
cavernous mall video arcade hideouts

For all the depression and desperation here, Ridgeway lifts us up because he just barely escapes with his biggest weapon. His scraggly Nordic looks? His jolly underwear? His nine hundred lives? All these? What passes for pathos and gutter writing is none other than beauty and connection.

Ridgeway’s poems are on Facebook and he posts short videos of himself reading. You’ll find yourself seeking him out again and again, addicted and craving more. His new chapbook is called In His Own Little World (Stubborn Mule Press) out now.

Too Young To Know by Kevin Ridgeway. Stubborn Mule Press, July 2019.

Reviewer bio: Susan Kay Anderson lives at the headwaters of Sutherlin Creek in southwestern Oregon’s Umpqua Basin. She is the author of Please Plant This Book Coast To Coast (Finishing Line Press, 2021) Virginia Brautigan Aste’s memoir. Anderson is a poetry reader for Quarterly West and Lily Poetry Review. Her poems are forthcoming in Barrow Street Journal, Heron Tree, and Wild Roof Journal.

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Cynical & Whimsical

Book Review by Katy Haas.

I’ve had Mary Biddinger’s Partial Genius on my “to-read” shelf of my bookcase for two years now. While participating in this year’s Sealy Challenge—reading 31 books of poetry in 31 days—I finally was able to sit down and read it (and reread it).

In these prose poems, Biddinger’s voice is both cynical and whimsical. I found humor throughout in lines like “I’d have to move back to Northern Michigan in order to be beautiful,” and “Your favorite part of the Bible was that story about the flood, but it was mostly the thought of luxuriating on a ship between camels and zebras and cranes and their vast, auspicious futures.”

But then suddenly there are lines that sober like these from “Untamed Thickets”:

I did a lot of really dumb things, like jumping out of cars and allowing my feelings to seep into the pad under the carpet. [ . . . ] Certain nights were so hot I just loomed on stairways waiting for someone to push me aside, which isn’t a punishment like making out with a man who hurt you, in a closet filled with electrified metal hangers, and then missing it.

It’s impossible to guess where Biddinger will take us. In “Voir Dire,” the paragraphs jump back and forth between scenes—one a thread linking religion to a diamond ring to the idea of ownership and freedom, and the other thread carrying us through a story of a robbery and being in court. In most other poems, we read one sentence and are immediately whisked off to another thought, and this unpredictability is what I love about this collection. Every poem is fresh, exciting, and beautifully crafted.

Biddinger has another book, Department of Elegy, forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press next year. I promise it won’t have any time to collect dust on my to-read shelf.

Partial Genius by Mary Biddinger. Black Lawrence Press, August 2019.

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No One Is Safe in Sager’s New Page Turner

Guest Post by Lauren Mead.

Survive the Night by Riley Sager is a twisted psychological thriller that will leave readers biting their nails right up until the end. It’s your classic girl-meets-boy story, but with serial killers and revenge. Awesome. When Charlie accepts a ride home from Josh Baxter, she is nervous, but no way could he be anything other than a nice guy. But as they journey farther towards their final destination, Charlie begins to discover that Josh isn’t who he says he is. She starts to think that he is the serial killer who murdered her roommate two months ago. Now she’s trapped in a car, in the middle of nowhere with a murderer and she’s got a suspicion that she’s next. In Riley Sager’s new page turner, no one is who they appear to be and, certainly, no one is safe.

Riley Sager’s books are all gripping, but Survive the Night turns up the heat as the reader tries to guess who the serial killer might be. It’s an insightful look into the idea of safety. Who can we trust? What does a “safe person” look like? This is a particularly resonant discussion given the current #metoo reveals. As a reader, inhabiting the mind of a terrified girl trapped in the car with a maybe serial killer made me think hard about the ways that women learn not to trust their instincts even when they feel like a situation is bad. At every turn, Charlie was terrified, but second guessed herself. In Survive the Night, Sager asks the question: If not yourself, who can you trust?

Survive the Night by Riley Sager. Dutton Books, June 2021.

Reviewer bio: Lauren Mead has been published in The Danforth Review, The MacGuffin, Soliloquies and Forest for the Trees. She also writes for her blog, www.novelshrink.com.

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A Fresh Look on Historical Events

Guest Post by Stephanie Renee dos Santos.

Eleonora and Joseph by Julieta Ameida Rodrigues elucidates the fascinating connections between eighteenth century Portugal, Italy, and the United States, exploring revolutionary voices, supporters, and contributors to the European Enlightenment movement. The characters, former United States President Thomas Jefferson, Portuguese priest and scientist Joseph Correia da Serra, and Portugal descendant aristocratic poet and royal librarian Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel, bring to life this tumultuous and radical time of conflict and change. Each of these plays a different and distinct role in this Revolutionary era on both sides of the Atlantic.

Through these three characters, Rodrigues fleshes out a unique story, revealing the international complexities and connections in Europe and in the United States. This book allows the reader into the inner workings of this radical time where many opposing ideals were fought and died for. This is an original historical novel highlighting Eleonora, whose life story connects all three protagonists in surprising ways. Courageous Eleonora, who risked her life for the ideals of equality and freedom for all. In addition, the author recreates the historically celebrated and controversial male characters, President Thomas Jefferson and botanist Joseph Correia da Serra, whom she skillfully shows their inner motives and drives that propel the novel forward in complicated and tragic ways.

It is refreshing as a lover of historical fiction to read an original story like Eleonora and Joseph that brings to life important historical characters and events from a fresh new angle and lens.

Eleonora and Joseph by Julieta Almeida Rodrigues. New Academia Publishing, July 2020.

Reviewer bio: Stephanie Renee dos Santos is author of Cut From The Earth, a Semi-Finalist for the Chanticleer International Book Reviews Chaucer Book Awards. To learn more: www.stephaniereneedossantos.com.

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Clarence Major’s Lurking Place Found

Guest Post by Susan Kay Anderson.

The newly published novel by Clarence Major is a straightforward narrative from the point of view of its protagonist, James Eric Lowell, a studious young poet of the 1960s. As I read this plain spoken and gentle portrait of the Love Era and how Beats and Bohemians morphed into the hippy movement with its profound activism for civil rights, I noticed how I felt right at home with the sensibilities and customs of that world. Why? Because The Lurking Place portrays exactly the lifestyle of many iconic writers and artists. While cultural eras cannot be broken up into neat decades, at the same time I find that The Lurking Place shows us the early beginnings of academic programs in a way that is organic and appealing.

Now here we were, the bohemians, the artists, and the poets—the new tenants—taking up residence in these dilapidated apartments.

Many “whys” get attention in The Lurking Place:

Why? Because we were not rich, and they were affordable. Being here together also gave us a community, one held together by the idea of creativity and intellectual pursuit.

In mid-June, I was invited up to Harlem to read my poems to a group that turned out to be composed mostly of young militant black 17 men and women who were, like me, aspiring poets.

What is stark in this is how poets and artists run around with their good intentions and before the world of digital instantaneousness, running around was physical and included a lot of exploration of the world in a physical way and of course interaction with other people. This, the world of writing via pen, paper, envelopes, typewriters, is represented by objects of solid weight instead of being “typed by thumbs, ugh” and we can read about that world here.

The Lurking Place by Clarence Major. Manic D Press, 2021.

Reviewer bio: Susan Kay Anderson is the author of Please Plant This Book Coast To Coast, Virginia Brautigan Aste’s memoir, and Mezzanine (poems) both by Finishing Line Press.  She has poems forthcoming in Barrow Street Journal, Heron Tree, and Wild Roof Journal.

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Return to 221B Baker Street

Guest Post by Joyce Bou Charaa.

Robert J. Harris reintroduces the famous detective fictional character, Sherlock Holmes, in a new murder mystery story that takes place in 20th century London. In this novel, Sherlock Holmes is facing a murder case that takes him back to the shadows of the Victorian period of England.

A Study In Crimson narrates the murder of two young women found by the Scotland Yard police in the streets of London. Near their dead bodies, the killer leaves his name: “Crimson Jack.” Both Holmes and his close friend, Dr. Watson, are in search of the killer’s identity. The two believe he is impersonating the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper, who marked the year 1888 with his terrible deeds by attacking young women in the most savage way and strangling them to death. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, along with Inspector Lestrade and other inspectors from Scotland Yard, go through a wide range of investigations filled with suspense, hidden secrets, and new discoveries. Continue reading “Return to 221B Baker Street”

A Smart, Comforting How-To

Guest Post by Betsy Boyd.

I teach writing in an MFA program and have recently begun using Kathy Flann’s book WRITE ON: Secrets to Crafting Better Stories in the classroom. I appreciate the readable humor, relatability, and stealthy brilliance of her advice. Flann’s creative observations and essential recommendations make writing a strong, authentic narrative more achievable—sooner.

One grad student told me that her instruction helps him to ask the big story questions earlier than he might otherwise. I use the book in my own writing life as well. It’s a smart, comforting how-to for anyone drafting a new work, which all writers, at every career stage, must do.

WRITE ON: Secrets to Crafting Better Stories by Kathy Flann. Stay Thirsty Publishing, August 2020.

Reveiwer bio: Betsy Boyd directs the Creative Writing and Publishing Arts MFA program at the University of Baltimore. Her fiction has been published in Kenyon Review, StoryQuarterly, Shenandoah, Eclectica, Del Sol Review, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, and elsewhere.

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Reviewer’s Note: I know Kathy Flann as a Baltimore-based colleague and friend. We are in a longstanding writing group together. Because I admire her work and her critique methods so much, I feel comfortable both using them in my teaching realm and writing a review—totally unbiased. I am especially picky about the craft books I’ll bring into a workshop.

The Real Housewives of Namibia

Guest Post by Cindy Dale.

First, a confession. I had to look Namibia up on the map. That’s where Katie Crouch’s fourth novel, Embassy Wife, is set. This funny, insightful, thought-provoking romp will entertain you, inform you, and get you thinking about things you might not normally think about.

The novel follows three women—newly arrived former Silicon Valley COO Amanda Evans; Persephone, the tipsy former southern belle queen bee of the Expat crowd; and Mila, the statuesque, ebony skinned wife of the Minister of Transportation. All are what’s called “trailing spouses.” Add to the mix their respective husbands, children, and household staffs, and you’ve got quite a cast of characters. Not surprisingly, their lives intersect in surprising ways both in the present and the past.

There’s a lot of commentary on everything from the legacy of Colonialism to marriage to genocide and gem smuggling embedded in the story. One key driver of the plot: animal poaching, one rhino and one stake-out in particular. The story is told from the third person omniscient point of view, allowing the author to deftly dance between the characters.

Part satire. Part Expat story. Always surprising. You will laugh out loud at some of the references (“the Great Orange Oompa Loompa”) and find yourself quoting many of the lines, including the acronym FIGJAM (read the book to find out).

Embassy Wife by Katie Crouch. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, July 2021.

Reviewer bio: Cindy Dale has published over twenty short stories in literary journals and anthologies. She lives on a barrier beach off the coast of Long Island.

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An Original & Gripping Tale

Guest Post by Megan Riann.

The Scorpio Races pulls the reader into an immersive, sharp-edged world where our main characters have everything at stake. Puck and Sean, both teens on a fictional island off the American west coast, are competing on unlikely steeds in a deadly race across an unforgiving beach.

The premise and the ensuing story are original and gripping. Keltic-inspired water horses, red sea cliffs, and a deadly race to change your life? A perfect mix of familiar and fresh.

Additionally, the language in this book is phenomenal. Maggie Stiefvater’s prose is incredible and indulgent. Similarly, all the dialogue was purposeful, in-character, and clever. Not a single line was wasted.

This author absolutely nails character and development. All the motivations are clear and intense. The dual first-person perspectives allow the reader to get lost in the mind of the characters. As we root for Puck and Sean, the supporting casts’ contrasting goals add to the tension and stakes.

I would recommend this book to those who appreciate strong prose and powerful stories. With light magical realism, this story includes characters to root for, antagonists to hate, and stakes that will have you holding your breath.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. Scholastic Inc., 2013.

Reviewer bio: Megan Riann is a Creative Writing major from West Michigan. When not writing, she’s watching superhero movies with her cat and hanging out on #writestagram.

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‘The Enemy’

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

Charlie Higson’s The Enemy is the first of an eight-book series, and it really starts off with a bang! It follows a group of children who have worked together to try to survive after a disease has either completely wiped out all adults, or turned them into bloodthirsty creatures content on eating the kids. There is a very large cast of characters, but they’re surprisingly easy to keep track of despite this. They have very distinct personalities and are quite loveable for the most part.

That being said, the end result for a lot of them is heartbreaking to read, and the struggles and hardships they all must face forces the reader to sympathize with even the most unlikeable of them. There are a lot of strange, scary, and bewildering things sprung upon these children that left me gasping. This story was very well told and I cannot wait to see what book two has in store!

The Enemy by Charlie Higson. Disney-Hyperion, May 2014.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

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The Best “New” Writer You Haven’t Heard Of

Guest Post by Cindy Dale.

I love discovering a new writer, especially one who, IMHO, has been overlooked. Introducing Derek B. Miller.

Miller’s first novel, Norwegian by Night, introduced Sheldon Horowitz, an 82-year-old former Marine who served in the Korean War. Still crippled by the death of his only son in Vietnam, Sheldon sets off to track down a young boy who has been kidnapped by the Serbians. This is an excellent, fast-paced mystery set in—you guessed it—Norway. (Miller is American married to a Norwegian).

This was followed by The Girl in Green. Spanning two decades, this is an ambitious, thought-provoking commentary on the Gulf War. At the center of the story: a war-weary British journalist named Thomas Benton and an aimless American private named Arwood Hobbes. A quick Google search reveals that Miller’s CV makes him eminently qualified to write about the complexities of war. You will at times think Catch-22 and will be haunted by how little the world has changed.

Miller next returned to the realm of crime with American by Day, an excellent mystery packed with a lot of social commentary. Main character Sigrid Odegard (introduced in Norwegian by Night) leaves Norway and heads to up-upstate New York to track down her missing, long absent brother Marcus. Miller nicely juxtaposes Norwegian society and policing tactics with our own.

Miller’s newest, How to Find Your Way in the Dark (not yet read by this reviewer), will be released July 27 and is a prequel to Norwegian by Night. Perhaps this is the book that will bring attention to this under-the-radar author who deserves to be more widely read. While reading Miller, I was reminded of Ward Just, another writer whose work crisscrossed the globe, who wrestled with the consequences of war, and who never quite got the acclaim he deserved.

Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller. Scribe, 2012.

The Girl in Green by Derek B. Miller. Mariner Books, January 2017

How to Find Your Way in the Dark by Derek B. Miller. Mariner Books, July 2021.

Reviewer bio: Cindy Dale has published over twenty short stories in literary journals and anthologies. She lives on a barrier beach off the coast of Long Island.

‘The Mindset’

Guest Post by Manjusha Sreedharan. 

The Mindset by Ace Bowers is a memoir of one who was brought up in a dysfunctional family but reached where he is today through sheer hard work. The book depicts the life of the author from janitor to a millionaire in Silicon Valley.

Bowers spent his early years in the constant fear of his friends finding out the circumstances at his home. His father, a machinist who learned his skills from the Navy, and his mother, a homemaker, were high school sweethearts, but as time progressed, fights became a routine. This was mostly because of the continuous use of alcohol. The economical situation at his house wasn’t the best as the family struggled to make ends meet mainly because most of the money went into buying alcohol and cigarettes. Frequent visits to prison by his brother and his sister leaving for college left him all alone with his parents. The book revolves around his struggles as a teenager dominated by anxiety and loneliness and how he overcomes them as he faces unexpected challenges. Continue reading “‘The Mindset’”

A Solid Conclusion to a Trilogy

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

Fox Forever is the conclusion to the Jenna Fox Chronicles. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this given that I really enjoyed the first book, and didn’t care much for the second, but this was a solid conclusion to the trilogy.

The story follows Locke as he tries to fulfill a favor he owes in Boston, which involves Miesha’s long lost husband, and a girl Locke accidentally falls for who is tied to the favor in a way that she doesn’t even know. As in the other two books, the characters are the best part of this story by far, but the plot is really good as well. There are reveals and plot twists around every corner, and they are quite unpredictable for the most part. Pearson constantly adds pieces to the puzzle and it grows more complicated as the situation reveals itself.

If you enjoyed the first book, and even if you didn’t enjoy the second book, I definitely think this is a series worth continuing!

Fox Forever by Mary E. Pearson. Square Fish, February 2014.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

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A Gentle & Ambitious Journey

Guest Post by Stephanie Katz.

New-Hampshire-based poet Amanda Lou Doster’s first chapbook Everything Begins Somewhere is a gentle yet ambitious journey across the poet’s life. The first poem, “Actually,” sets in motion the idea of loss mixed with returning home, a theme which threads throughout the chapbook. Doster writes: 

here, have this poem which all my life I thought
would be big enough for the languages and the countries
and the drugs, but which is really just a basket
woven from hay. Fragile stuff from the farm
I never thought I’d live on, but where it turns out I do.

The poems that reference children or motherhood paint stark pictures of the experience. In “A mother dreams of more babies” Doster writes: 

In my friend’s belly grow tiny teeth,
perfect little knives. She says
they’re eating her alive.

One of the most vivid and raw poems in the collection is “You are expected to be more decorous than linoleum.” Doster writes: 

It is unseemly to wash your hair in snowmelt. Impolite to discuss
your lover with your husband, but since you asked
in sixty-four years we will dissolve. All of us.

The themes of loss and quiet self-destruction play heavily throughout the poems, but the last poem “Next time I’ll ask someone else” hints at self-acceptance with the final line “I can collect everything / inside that green trunk—some vintage clothes, / paisley, and other lapses in judgement.” 

This chapbook was published by Slate Roof Press, a unique member-run letterpress based in Massachusetts. New poets are selected through their annual contests and spend the next three years a member of the press learning and helping to produce their own title.  

Everything Begins Somewhere by Amanda Lou Doster. Slate Roof Press, 2020.

Reviewer bio: Stephanie Katz is a librarian with the Manatee Libraries and editor in chief of award-winning litmag 805 Lit + Art. She was selected as a Library Journal 2020 Mover & Shaker and is the author of Libraries Publish: How to Start a Magazine, Small Press, Blog, and More. She blogs about creative library publishing at LiteraryLibraries.org. 

The End of a Breathtaking Duology

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

This sequel to Strange the Dreamer was absolutely phenomenal. It picks up right where the first book leaves off as Minya tries to force Lazlo to do her bidding, with the threat of releasing Sarai’s soul and letting her evanesce if he does not comply.

There are so many twists and turns throughout all 500 pages of this masterpiece. There are high stakes. There is whimsy. There is Laini Taylor’s gorgeous writing. There are the extremely lovable characters. And most of all, there is an amazing conclusion to this duology.

Throughout the entire story it seems as if there is no way to solve all of the major problems, even as more are being introduced, but somehow it all comes together for a spectacular ending that leaves the reader with so much emotion. I would highly recommend this duology to everyone, because it is absolutely breathtaking.

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor. Little, Brown and Company, October 2018.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

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Suspense, Twists, and Heartache

Guest Post by Allison Kaminski.

The Wife’s House by Arianne Richmonde is a psychological thriller full of suspense, twists, and heartache. A widow lives alone on the edge of the Big Sur cliff tops, home to her modern glass refuge Cliffside. Little does she know, her lavish paradise is going to become her worst nightmare.

Triplets. A psycho ex-wife. Creepy notes. A dead husband. What could possibly go wrong?

Richmonde does a fantastic job of conveying suspense while building a main character who learns how to find confidence and strength in order to overcome the obstacles in her life.

Personally, I haven’t read a thriller quite like this. Its uniqueness in plot and suspicious characters had me hooked from the very beginning. I loved not knowing what characters I could or couldn’t trust. And let’s not forget the ending. Wow!

Overall, if you’re looking for an unputdownable thriller that will send you through a hurricane of emotions, The Wife’s House is the perfect read for you!

The Wife’s House by Arianne Richmonde. Bookouture, August 2020.

Reviewer bio: Allison Kaminski is a YA author who writes gripping mysteries and romance stories. She spends her days working to achieve a Bachelor in English with an emphasis in creative writing. When she’s not writing, she can be found reading and watching old movies. Connect with me on social media: https://www.instagram.com/author_allisonk.

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‘The Rotten Beast’

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

This is the short story in the Jenna Fox Chronicles that comes after The Adoration of Jenna Fox. I absolutely loved this! The story follows Allys, Jenna’s friend, who is trying to cope with the fact that she is made mostly of bio gel which is a sort of replicating technology that can be used to replace vital organs, and therefore save lives. The problem, though, is that Allys has an extremely large amount of this inside her, making her illegal.

I can’t say that very much happened in this story, considering it was only 12 pages long, but it was still extremely enjoyable. The way that Mary E. Pearson writes is really beautiful and makes something that could be very boring and insignificant into something gorgeous and impactful, and it very much has to do with the events in the rest of the series. I would highly recommend this series, and this short story, especially to people who really enjoy sci-fi.

“The Rotten Beast” by Mary E. Pearson. Tor Books, November 2011.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

A Labyrinth of a Novel

Book Review by Katy Haas.

Adam McOmber’s Jesus and John takes place in the days following Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus returns from the dead as a shell of himself, unable to speak and seemingly unable to stop walking in a specific direction as if being pulled by a magnet. The man who was his lover, John, is assigned the duty of protecting Jesus as he walks. This brings them to Rome, to a mysterious house called the “Gray Palace.” Once inside the palace, John’s journey becomes much more than he bargained for.

The deeper John travels into the labyrinth of a house, the looser the definition of reality becomes. John has no idea what lies around the next corner, and readers are kept just as unaware, constantly discovering new details. Each question answered unearths another question. I stayed up reading for hours, completely unable to set down this thriller/fantasy/horror/something-else-entirely novel.

McOmber writes John’s inner thoughts and feelings so vividly, a reader can’t help experiencing these feelings along with him: his love, his uncertainties, his growing fear and desperation. It’s been a long time since a novel has kept me so entranced and I welcomed getting lost in this fantastical world and queer storyline.

Jesus and John by Adam McOmber. Lethe Press, June 2020.

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The Trail Of Many Trails

Guest Post by Susan Kay Anderson.

This book of long poems/poem series by Joe Safdie begins with a section called “Retirement” which sounds boring but isn’t because it poses interesting questions of the existential mode and ends with a section called “Yachats” as in Yachats, Oregon. There’s also an interesting section about Hermes; the wheel figures in all of these inroads to his personal mythology, poetic studies, and creative expression in the form of messages from the trail and to the trail.

Overland, the people offered land at no cost needed to dump a lot of stuff on their journeys West but it seems that Safdie shows us what he’s kept, collected.

Safdie tells us a thing or two or three or four. He is sitting around the ‘ole campfire spinning yarns; he is also a camera or a lens of a microscope that looks into past/present/history/future with a basket full of findings modern and ancient and everything in between.

Safdie tells us where he’s been in his life. From “The Invisible Enemy”:

I thought that was death
putting me on notice
but it had a larger audience
in mind, to be everyone’s
enemy, killing by what’s
known but not seen,
the sensitive spots—

This book is enjoyable because it is so dense with found material and phrases, making it a poetry of such staggering depth that it does feel like a ride on something at once land-bound but also dreamy and useful as a raft to float across rivers and streams, much like the prairie schooners that overran the country. Even their ruts can still be seen where the grass has not grown back. To study these poetic documents with Safdie is an engrossingly epic and jolting ride. You may choose to walk alongside it for a few miles and then jump back in.

The Oregon Trail by Joe Safdie. Spuyten Duyvil, 2021.

Reviewer bio: Susan Kay Anderson lives in Oregon’s Umpqua River Basin. Her newest book is Please Plant This Book Coast To Coast, available from Finishing Line Press.  She was a recent volunteer for the Tupelo Press 30/30 Project.

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A Beautiful Mess

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

The concept of Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea is so unique and different. It follows Zachary Ezra Rawlins who discovers some strange books and a mysterious painted door. He must protect the books and learn about them, while also fulfilling his destiny in the strange place beyond the door. Beyond that, it’s honestly difficult to even figure out what else went on in this story. There are so many layers, and stories within the story that are all connected in some way. It is mind-blowing and so much fun.

The fact that this story is really confusing is part of what makes it so enjoyable. Nothing makes sense about the world beyond the painted door, but whatever is going on is absolutely beautiful. None of the characters seeming to know what’s going on just makes it even better.

This is certainly a roller coaster of a story. If you like to know what’s going on in a book, then I don’t think you would enjoy this. But if you like being left with more questions than answers, and reading about a beautiful mess of fantastical elements, this is definitely the book for you!

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. Anchor Books, August 2020.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

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‘Ancient Promises’

Guest Post by Neelima K E.

Jaishree Misra’s Ancient Promises can easily serve as a beginner’s guide to arranged marriages in India. The patrilocal toxicity of Indian domestic framework permeates the novel’s narrative and can be nauseating. Janu, the protagonist is a survivor and in a way the novel is her coming of age story. She makes mistakes, gets out, and finds purpose and will to live again all along the course of the narrative.

The Malayalam phrase ‘manam pole mangalyam’ frames the myth of an ideal marriage where love and affection dance to the tunes of matchmaking aunties and uncles from every nook and corner. The novel attempts to place familial loyalty, affection, and virtue in this mire of duty and stifling morality. Every action has its consequence and Janu learns to fight for her share of happiness in this world of do’s and do not’s.

Within the complicated narrative, the novel conceives a string of unanswered questions. Fate and predestiny elude the protagonist as she struggles to find her place moving against the tide in unforeseen circumstances. Is it wrong to covet pleasure and love outside a frigid marriage? What is it that connects two hitherto strange individuals in a supposedly sacred ritual? The fine lines between love, affection, and commitment makes for an interesting read.

The reader will be moved to tears, choking in helpless agony time and again as the protagonist is loved and betrayed repeatedly. The light at the end of the tunnel couldn’t have come sooner for Janaki and the novel remains a gaping wound for many a day forward, reminding the reader to never give in.

Ancient Promises by Jaishree Misra. Penguin Books, January 2000.

Reviewer bio: I am an Indian girl in love with words. People and life in general fascinate me and I look forward to publishing my books someday.

Lannie Stabile Strikes Lightning Back at Zeus and Men Who Name Their Dogs After Him

Guest Post by Chris L. Butler.

In poetry, you often see the connections between people and animals in a way that demonstrates the humanity that can be found in animals. With Good Morning to Everyone Except Men Who Name Their Dog Zeus, Stabile explores the opposite: why men name their dogs Zeus and how that connects to the god’s often overlooked abusive legacy.

What I love about reading Lannie Stabile’s work is that I always learn something. This is absolutely the case with her debut full-length collection, published this month (June 2021). I was immediately drawn to the book because I truly believe the title itself is a poem. I also love dogs and reading mythology.

Stabile places toxic masculinity on trial by unearthing the havoc Zeus reigned among his fellow godly peers as well as humans; while connecting it to modern patriarchal society. With lines like “the beast will burrow himself into the gentlewoman,” Stabile shows many men have a tendency for god-complex thinking and believe that they can do whatever they wish, as Zeus did.

I believe this collection is important not only for the genre of poetry but also could be utilized in women’s and feminist literature courses. We are in a time when we look at art and society for the entire truth, and not the parts we favor most. Good Morning to Everyone Except Men Who Name Their Dog Zeus is a collection that pushes us in that direction by exposing Zeus and the impact he continues to have on the modern male.

Good Morning to Everyone Except Men Who Name Their Dog Zeus by Lannie Stabile. Cephalo Press, June 2021.

Reviewer bio: Chris L. Butler is an African American and Dutch poet and essayist from Houston, Texas living in Canada. He is the author of the microchap BLERD: ’80s BABY, ’90s KID (Daily Drunk Press) which is set to be released on August 2, 2021.

Heartbreaking & Exhilarating Depiction of Real Life

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

The emotional impact that Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower had on me from the very beginning was incredible. This story is told through letters to an anonymous friend, and it depicts the life of Charlie, a teenage boy, who is simply growing up. Everything about this novel is so real.

Chbosky does not try to sugarcoat the hardships of life and what it’s like to discover those hardships and have to live with them. Charlie experiences everything from the death of a loved one, drugs and alcohol, and sexual assault, to building different kinds of relationships with people and learning to trust and be there for them. Charlie (as well as many side characters) go through so much, and it’s similar to what so many real people experience all the time, which makes this read heartbreaking and exhilarating and confusing and amazing and miserable all at once. But it’s life. And this book did such a good job of depicting real life that I would highly recommend it, especially for those of us who still have some growing up to do.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Pocket Books, February 1999.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

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A Delightfully Spooky Treat

Guest Post by Lawrence Scales.

Even if you’re an avid reader of graphic novels, The Dylan Dog Case Files won’t be on your radar. Yet it’s billed as a book with over fifty-six million copies sold. That’s your first clue: it should be. The decades long Italian series about “nightmare detective” Dylan Dog and his Watson, cast as Groucho Marx (literally), is still releasing new issues. Overseas, Dylan Dog, created by Tiziano Sclavi, is sold in one hundred page black and white editions for a few American dollars.

Stateside, the only English copy of Dylan Dog’s cases— dealing with everything from zombies to invisible men— is this trade paperback collection from Dark Horse Comics released in 2009. The Case Files is a seven hundred-plus page tome containing several stories, with cover art by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. It’ll set you back fifty dollars used. But it won’t be a penny wasted. The first story, drawn in a style akin to Egon Schiele, is the 1986 classic “Dawn of the Living Dead.”

The Case Files is the best drawn depiction of a pulp movie genre from Italy known as giallo. Like much Italian fare of the time, giallo was as known for its slashers and prog soundtracks as much as it’s looseness with copyright.

Likewise, The Case Files is a fast read that goes down like the best popcorn flicks. In print the best comparison would be Tales from the Crypt. Even horror fans unfamiliar with giallo will find a comforting familiarity with the material. The Dylan Dog Case Files may have a niche audience. But for those of us who fit within it, this collection is a delightfully spooky treat with some real scares.

The Dylan Dog Case Files by Tiziano Sclavi. Dark Horse Comics, April 2009.

Reviewer bio: Lawrence Scales is an artist living in Philadelphia. When he isn’t making art, he’s daydreaming about cats. You can find his work here and here.

A Thousand Times Over

Guest Post by Harry Okorite Joy.

After reading Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the most endearing became the phrase, “For you, a thousand times over”, first voiced by Hassan, inarguably the most sympathized with character in the novel. The simply titled yet convoluted novel narrates the coming-of-age story of two boys, discusses the state of a nation, celebrates the bond of friendship and, most importantly, the height and depth love could attain.

While at first, you might perceive Hassan as gullible, Amir as being undeserving of the love Hassan bestows on him, Baba being an impartial father, and Ali a loyal to a fault servant; soon you realize Hassan is an embodiment of selfless love Amir realizes all too late, Baba’s fairness is out of familial piety, and Ali’s loyalty is part due to his debt to Baba and a part special bond he feels with Hassan.

The Kite Runner questions reality and the nature of truth. The reality between the two main characters might be cold but it is the fact: one would always be there, the other loves but would never measure up. And at the end of the novel, only guilt allows Amir to return the favor to Hassan’s offspring. In reality, we also see the box of revelations opened at crucial points about characters like Baba. The nature of truth is tricky—some might say relative—but the unwavering answer is you cannot really judge the lies told in this novel as right or wrong.

While this piece has an optimistic ending, Hassan’s turbulent short-lived life could justify it as a tragedy, and just like me, you might begin to wonder if he died directly or indirectly from being there a thousand times over.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Riverhead Books, March 2013.

Reviewer’s bio: Harry Okorite Joy is an avid reader, budding writer and fashion enthusiast. She adores owls. Reach her via Instagram @o.k.o.r.i.t.e or Facebook @ Harry Okorite.

Into the Unknown

Guest Post by Anne Richter Arnold.

There is a bigger difference between taking a hike, which almost everyone can do, and thru hiking. Thru hiking, tackling an entire long-distance trail over a period of months, takes a special kind of hiker. Celia Ryker is just that, one with dedication, perseverance, curiosity, and a sense of humor. Walking Home is a memoir of her epic experience hiking the 279-mile Long Trail from the Massachusetts border through Vermont to Canada. Along the way she entertains us with childhood memories and reflections on her life off the trail, interspersed with poetic references to the transforming experience of being in the woods.

With her milestone 60th birthday approaching, Celia decides to hike the Long Trail in Vermont, one of the most challenging trails in the United States, along with her friend Sandy. While Celia has been on some ‘practice hikes’ back in her home state of Michigan, nothing can prepare her for the grueling weeks of hiking through the Green Mountains. From torrential rain, disastrous falls, sickness, and everything in between, she and her hiking partner Sandy are tested daily, yet never fail to meet the challenges head on.  Through all of this, she keeps us smiling with her can-do attitude and humorous anecdotes.

Walking Home is not just the story of Celia and Sandy’s multiyear section hiking of the Long Trail; it is a personal journey that the author shares with us as she looks back at her past and, literally and metaphorically, forward to the path of the unknown. We share in her reminiscences on how the woodlands brought her joy as a child and the self-knowledge they bring her as an adult. What lies ahead on the path, who she will meet and what she will discover, keeps the reader eagerly awaiting the next page.

While hiking the Long Trail may not be on everyone’s bucket list, Celia inspires us with her memoir to try something that will truly challenge ourselves, to take risks and to go forward into the unknown. She invites us to find our own way to leave the world behind and see what we can discover about ourselves, as she does, on our own challenging adventure.

Walking Home: Trail Stories by Celia Ryker. Rootstock Publishing, June 2021.

Reviewer bio: Anne Richter Arnold has been a journalist for various publications in New England for a decade, focusing on business and lifestyle topics, including wine and travel. She makes her home on the New Hampshire Seacoast, with her husband, two dogs, two cats, and a multitude of friendly chickens.

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‘Scavenge the Stars’

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

Tara Sim’s Scavenge the Stars is a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, which follows a girl named Amaya who was sold to a shipowner when she was a small child in order to pay off a debt. She escapes from the ship and is helped out by a rich man who also appears to be landless. He helps her disguise herself and go back into the city she grew up in so she can get revenge on whoever sold her. I was a bit disappointed because I really loved The Count of Monte Cristo, but this novel was still quite entertaining.

There are plot twists I didn’t see coming, and there are some exciting action scenes, with romance that didn’t take over the whole story. It was particularly interesting to find out how some of the characters were acquainted with one another at the end of the story, and that was an unexpected and enjoyable aspect. This was a fairly average book though, and I gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim. Little, Brown and Company, January 2020.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

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An Epic Western

Guest Post by Carla Sarett.

Just when you think that no one’s writing epic poetry, beat hero Larry Beckett comes to the rescue with his entertaining Wyatt Earp. Wyatt Earp is a legend and Larry Beckett has captured the lonely dusty trails, the saloons, the gunfights, all of it with verve and humor.

This collection is a sublime mash-up of legal records, histories of Tombstone and Earp, Western folklore, and oh those Western movies—Dodge City, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and my favorite, John Ford’s My Darling Clementine. Beckett is a songwriter as well as a poet, and it shows in the musicality of these poems, as well as in the wonderful “Ballad to Maddie.”

Kudos to the publisher for a beautifully designed edition.

Wyatt Earp by Larry Beckett. Alternating Currents Press, March 2020.

Reviewer bio: Carla Sarett’s recent poems appear in Blue Unicorn, San Pedro River Review, The Remington Review and elsewhere.  She awaits publication of her chapbook woman on the run (Unsolicited Press) and her novella, The Looking Glass (Propertius) later this year. Carla lives in San Francisco.

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A Dreamy Adventure

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

What an incredible novel. Laini Taylor’s writing is so beautiful and dreamy and adventurous, which makes this book so much fun. All a reader needs to know about the plot going into it is that it follows a boy named Lazlo Strange who has an obsession for this city referred to as Weep, the real name of which has been lost. Someone from Weep comes to find people who can help the city out of trouble, and Lazlo finally gets to visit this city of his dreams and discover what it truly means to be a dreamer.

Readers make discoveries alongside Lazlo; see the beauty of Weep and what it could be, as well as the horrible things that have happened there; and learn about the past of all the characters. We truly get to know these characters and care for all of them, even the “bad guys,” creating such a roller coaster of emotion and wonder and longing for all of it to be real. Every single aspect of this book was mind blowing and I absolutely cannot wait to read the sequel!

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. Little, Brown and Company, March 2017.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

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A Collection That Opens Windows on the Stark Realities of India

Guest Post by Milena Marques-Zachariah.

India is a paradox. To harness the nuances that create its vast and varied canvas and give them life in print can be challenging. But not for a gifted writer like Murzban Shroff, who chose to get embedded in India’s remote villages to unearth India’s heart. It is against this background mostly that his haunting stories play out. Shroff tells his stories with a visceral understanding of human behavior, reeling you in page by page, to mirror the lived realities of people: in villages, in slums, in hill towns, in cities. For further heft, he draws on ancient Indian epics and texts to reveal the spiritual truths of India.

Shroff’s prose is skillfully layered, yielding stories that are gripping and thought-provoking, while exploring issues and social tensions rooted in caste and communal identities. Starting with the first story, the “Kitemaker’s Dilemma” and ending with “An Invisible Truth,” the collection uncoils with an agonizing sense of drama and inevitability. With insights as powerful as Shiva’s third eye, Shroff forages through the attitudes, quirks, and insecurities of his characters to create situations that are uncomfortably real. His women are strong and unafraid, empowered and empowering, as evident in stories like “A Rather Strange Marriage” and “Third Eye Rising.” My personal favorites: “Bhikoo Badshah’s Poison” for its exploration of caste and migrant identities, “Diwali Star” for its family politics, and “A Matter of Misfortune” for its gritty depiction of human greed. By inviting readers into unseen spaces of India, Third Eye Rising makes for a compelling read—from the first story to the last.

Third Eye Rising by Murzban F. Shroff. Spuyten Duyvil, January 2021.

Reviewer bio: Milena Marques-Zachariah is an accomplished advertising writer, columnist, and blogger, whose writings are hugely popular with the South Asian immigrant community in Canada. Her blog ‘Canadian Chronicles’ documents the challenges and successes of immigrants to Canada, while ‘Chasing the Perfect Curry’ is a food adventure blog, where she explores off-the-beaten-path places to enjoy authentic cuisines of the Konkan Coast. She is also the founder of Radio Mango, a Toronto-based broadcast service, and has interviewed eminent authors such as Pico Iyer and Anosh Irani.

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An Expansive & Intimate Novel

Guest Post by Tanushree Baidya.

Set in Havana, Cuba, The Playwright’s House is an expansive yet intimate novel about a young lawyer Serguey and his family when their father Felipe, a notable theater director, is detained by state security, disrupting the mirage of personal ambition and stability that Serguey has worked towards. The novel delves deep into the history and socio-political landscape of Cuba in the early aughts and highlights the fragility of individual rights under an authoritarian and oppressive regime. The seamless confluence and meditation of art, history, architecture, the power of social media activism, and the influence of the Catholic Church makes this political thriller an intriguing and illuminating read.

This is an impressive debut novel and second book by Cuban-American writer Dariel Suarez. It was nice to read a novel about a country often mischaracterized and exoticized in American culture. Along with Serguey, Suarez renders the multi-dimensionality of other characters, be it the hot-headed brother Victor, or the headstrong sisters Anabel (Serguey’s wife) and Alida, or the absent father Felipe, with incredible nuance and specificity. Leaving Cuba seems like an inevitable decision that Serguey will have to eventually make, for his choices are grim. But whether or not he does keeps you hooked until the very end.

The Playwright’s House by Dariel Suarez. Red Hen Press, June 2021.

Reviewer bio: Tanushree Baidya is a writer and an analyst. Her work has appeared in WBUR, Kweli, Creative Nonfiction, and elsewhere. She grew up in India and now lives in Cambridge, MA.

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Inside the Night Circus

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

All I can say is wow. The amount of whimsy and magic in this book blew my mind. It follows a girl named Celia and a boy named Marco who are forced to fight each other in a magical competition which they are bound to until someone wins. Here’s the catch: neither of them are told any rules or boundaries and this competition takes place in a circus which travels all around the world, and is only open at night. This circus is so magical and mysterious that it captures the attention of all who are introduced to it, making them want to revisit it as much as possible, including the reader.

The way Morgenstern describes every little detail brings this world to life so much, and I couldn’t help but wish it were real. Even the simplest things are described as so mysterious and fascinating that this book is impossible to put down. And the relationships between some of these characters are very eye-opening and make you question the morals and intentions of those around you, while others are just flat out wholesome and amazing. Everything about this book was beautiful, stunning, captivating, and I fell in love with it. Definitely a 5-star read, and every fantasy-lover should pick it up.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Anchor Books, 2021.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

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Lifting Stones with Doug Stanfield

Guest Post by Mandi Greenwood.

Doug Stanfield’s poetry is an unfurling of wings and a fanning out in every heartfelt direction, reaching all of life’s heights and depths. There is humility and there is enormous bravery. Within the pages of Lifting Stones there is no finite limit to Stanfield’s poetic skill, nor to his quality.

He owns the journey that is Lifting Stones. He owns it with “bare courage and risk”—his words—and to read this book is to step from one stone to the next in the sometimes calm, oftentimes tumultuous river that he has forged between its covers.

Upon one stone I behold the relatively fresh wound of “Love in the Time of Corona.” Atop another stone I discover the fierce elation of “Borrowed Dust.” I skip to yet another smooth muse of stone and I find “As It Was.” I pause at times, to wipe away the tears, but always I progress to the next verse with intrigue and joy.

It’s difficult to do justice to the raw tenderness of Lifting Stones without falling into cliché. Suffice to say it is a singular collection of clarity, warmth, grief, humor, agony, mortality, recollection, despair, and rebirth. It is an expedition, not a journey’s end. It is a unique work of life via poetry, a kaleidoscopic gallery of this poet’s genuine experience laid bare.

Stanfield writes with a dignity. He writes with a frank self-respect that is, to borrow his exquisite words, “eternally becoming.”

Lifting Stones by Doug Stanfield. Rootstock Publishing, June 2021.

Reviewer bio: Mandi Greenwood is the author of Six Steps Down, Caught Inside, and The Silver Renoir.

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Finland Is Full Of Saunas, Berries, Lakes, and Interesting People

Guest Post by Susan Kay Anderson.

Enticing though it may be to dream of cold landscapes when summer days get a bit too warm (already) it does not exactly seem wonderful to imagine taking a sauna during the pandemic and sweating out life even more, getting exhausted even more. That’s not the point of the sauna, as Cheryl J. Fish seems to report in her book of poems/memoir/travel journal.  The sauna is the sacred space for contemplation and just plain bathing and, well, for everything under the sun in order to be close to the sun in the darkness.

Cheryl J. Fish’s The Sauna Is Full Of Maids is an adventure to Finland told with poems, photographs, and lines from the Kalevala, Finland’s origin story/epic/saga.

It is great to look through this book and daydream about journeys and berries and boggy lakes. These are prose poems and travelogues in poem form, told with the sparse flavor of the North. I am really attracted to the ancient lifeways in this book:

“His journey paralleled birds and reindeer. Spread his culture, migrating.”
from “Another Round Of Heat”

“In the Kalevala, birds lay eggs in a barren water-mother’s knee. The bottom half of a smashed egg becomes earth.”
from “Unreliable Snowpack”

It isn’t all ancient lore here. There are meetings with fellow artists and travelers, foragers, dreamers, and recent immigrants to Finland. It is amazing to realize (yet again) that we live on a tiny planet and its inhabitants have been following the flow of the elements forever and that during our lives we get glimpses of what is important, what helps us to be alive. Those things could include the sauna, the icy cold water, vasta birch sprigs, and the steam.

The Sauna Is Full Of Maids by Cheryl J. Fish. Shanti Arts Publishing, June 2021.

Reviewer bio: Susan Kay Anderson lives in Oregon’s Umpqua Basin, author of, Please Plant This Book Coast To Coast, available from Finishing Line Press.

‘Bless the Birds’

Guest Post by Linda C. Wisniewski.

Silver crescent
April moon glimmers anew
clear as your eyes
—Bless the Birds

During this pandemic year, I’ve been reading stories of people living through hard times, successfully or not.  I am less judgmental these days of how people handled things: My mother during the Depression. My father fighting in the Pacific during WWII. A friend with terminal cancer. Maybe it’s a gift of age, but I crave witnessing the journey over advice for a good life.

In her memoir of grief, author Susan J. Tweit writes eloquently of the two years preceding her husband’s death from brain cancer. She ends each chapter with a haiku about a day from that time. Not at all depressing, the book is the story of their attempt to make the best of each day together, sometimes failing but always holding onto love.

Tweit, a plant biologist, and her husband, Richard Cabe, an economist turned sculptor, are settled into a happy marriage and fulfilling work when one day on a road trip, he sees thousands of birds that are not real. The vision was actually a gift, leading to a quick diagnosis and treatment that probably gave them more time together, time they spent intentionally.

They talked about their love, their marriage, their families and their work. They hoped for a cure. They took a long road trip through the American West, enjoying their natural surroundings—the plants, animals, and yes, birds in each stopping place. It was the kind of road trip where you allow yourselves to take time, to stop when you see something interesting, knowing the destination will still be there at the end.

When the end finally comes, you feel you’ve gotten all you can from the trip.

We can’t escape the scary parts of life, though we surely try. This memoir reminded me that facing them head on, with honesty, acceptance, and love makes meaning of even the worst of circumstances.

Bless the Birds: Living with Love in a Time of Dying by Susan J. Tweit. She Writes Press, 2021.

Reviewer bio: Linda C. Wisniewski is a writer, reader, quilter, knitter and happy trail walker in Bucks County, PA, where she guides people writing memoirs. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Shattered Triangle: Impending Fate

Guest Post by Manasi Patil.

Impending Fate is the third book in the series, Shattered Triangle. This novel is told through the point of view of Giovanni Lozano, and progresses with the plots of the other protagonists of the series: Lt. Tom Moran, Giuseppe Lozano, and Giovanni himself.

Three determined people, one genius murderer, and an ‘impending fate.’ After the identity of the murderer of Giuseppe Lozano’s family is revealed in A Consequential Murder, and the story is followed in Beleaguered Truth, I was beyond obsessed with the Shattered Triangle series. William P. Messenger is my new favorite author, and I’m so glad to have had this opportunity of reading the trilogy.

Giuseppe’s relationship with Jackson progresses and it’s a cruel twist when the former first kills Jackson’s partner in order to be with him, and then kills Jackson himself, when he sees him as a potential threat. Giovanni is ready to break the sacrament in order to save the country and do the right thing. He may get banished from his church for doing so, but after three years, he is prepared for the consequences.

Impending Fate is a riveting combination of religion, politics, and mystery. The story of ‘Shattered Triangle’ progresses further and also ends, unfortunately, in this edition. After reading the series, the question is: will the broken shards of the shattered triangle survive?

Impending Fate by William P. Messenger. Black Rose Writing, December 2017.

Reviewer bio: Manasi Patil is a young author with a passion for writing.

Shattered Triangle Trilogy: Book Two

Guest Post by Manasi Patil.

Beleaguered Truth is the second book in the series Shattered Triangle. In this second installment, the identity of the killer is known, and they are present right in the front seat, but there is no way to capture them.

Lt. Tom Moran knows the identity of the murderer of Giuseppe Lozano’s family. But there’s no evidence through which he can prove it. And he’s frustrated. Fr. Giovanni Lozano also shares the fate of Tom when the murderer successfully silences him by confessing his sins in a sacred confession in the church. Giuseppe Lozano, in order to fulfill his ambitions, stops at no extent. For him, everything is expendable. Even his family. And the fact that he orders his family to be killed proves him to be an ambitious, but ruthless and cruel person.

After the identity of the murderer of Giuseppe Lozano’s family is revealed in Shattered Triangle: A Consequential Murder, the story left me speechless. It was so unexpected, and yet seemed so real. Beleaguered Truth adds more to the story with Giuseppe’s point of view and how he feels about the consequences he created. William Messenger has done very well in writing out this book, especially in capturing a new point of view. It certainly makes the story more intriguing, as I felt a need to know how Giuseppe feels after murdering his own wife and three children.

Beleaguered Truth is a great political thriller and very captivating, to say the least. The book deals with the impact of the truth on Tom and Giovanni and delves deep into the story that is Shattered Triangle.

The triangle is being shattered. This book questions: will it be broken into pieces, or is it possible to mend them together and reconstruct the once beautiful triangle?

Beleaguered Truth by William P. Messenger. Black Rose Writing, August 2015.

Reviewer bio: Manasi Patil is a young author with a passion for writing.

Elemental Witness

Guest Post by Michael Hettich.

Perhaps the most striking characteristic of Blood Aria, given its poems’ formal dexterity, nuanced tonal shifts, and emotional depths, is that it is Christopher Nelson’s first full-length book of poetry. In its range of subject matter and at times harrowing emotional risk, as well as in the sheer dexterity of its strategies and tones, Blood Aria is a deeply powerful and necessary book, one of the richest first books of poetry I have read in years. This is work that reminds us of the depths of insight and feeling that are unsayable except in the most dexterous, courageous, emotionally capacious poetry; it reminds us as well of an essential human need that finds expression only in the best poetry’s capacity to speak through the blood and guts of being, balanced against the scintillating engagements of the formally-adept mind. Continue reading “Elemental Witness”

Shattered Triangle Trilogy

Guest Post by Manasi Patil.

A Consequential Murder is the first book in the series, “Shattered Triangle” by William Messenger. This is an uncommon and unique book with complex characters and plots.

The blurb of Shattered Triangle: A Consequential Murder was enough to hook me right in the book. I was certainly expecting a lot from this read, and am glad to say that I had a fulfilling time, and the end left me speechless. It was very unexpected and made me want to read the whole book again just to understand how and why the plot twisted in such a manner. Continue reading “Shattered Triangle Trilogy”

Antsy Anticipation in ‘Leave the World Behind’

Guest Post by Julia Wilson.

The sense of dread the reader experiences starts with the first sentence of Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind.

“Well, the sun was shining. They felt that boded well . . . ” In fact, it does not.

Alam uses a few methods to keep the reader on edge. He intersperses somewhat alarming but sketchy details haphazardly, and doesn’t always return to explain. For instance, the narrator tells the reader one of the characters always has his epi-pen within reach, then moves on, leaving the reader to wonder: Why is it mentioned? How will it fit into the story? This keeps the reader filled with antsy anticipation.

Then there are the layers of possible menace facing the characters. The first is suspicion based on race. But are there larger threats facing them all as a group? Should they unite and put aside their differences? Alam reveals these details throughout the novel in a slow, tantalizing thread.

And finally, and most impactfully, there is Alam’s use of the omniscient narrator. In this novel, the narrator is used as a technique to impart to the reader information that none of the characters know. For instance, the narrator tells us a tick has burrowed into a boy’s skin, unbeknownst to him or anyone else. Later, when he falls ill, the reader is sure they know what has made the boy sick. But is that really the culprit, or is it something else, with the tick serving as a distraction?

Alam pulls the reader along, dropping asides from the narrator, making it clear that something really big and really bad is going to happen. And the reader watches as the characters try to catch up.

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. HarperCollins Publishers, 2020

Reviewer bio: Julia Wilson is currently pursuing a Masters in Writing at Johns Hopkins University.

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