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Marisol, an illegal immigrant living in Washington Heights, New York, hatches a daring plan with her neighbor to marry for a Green Card, in Maria Rivera’s entertaining Christian romance novel, Chasing The Wind. The hapless Marisol attempts to seduce her new husband using an advice column from Cosmopolitan magazine, while her neighbor also needs to get married to keep his inheritance, with predictable but satisfying results, as their marriage of convenience blossoms into something much more. Religion is kept at the forefront of this romantic melodrama, through a regular sprinkling of earnest prayers and quotes from scripture, heightening the […]

An inspiring collection of lessons from women who made an indelible impact on their time, The Secrets of Women Who Never Give Up: 11 Resilience Building Strategies Learned From Remarkable Women in History by Dr. Katja Lindemann MD is an original work of self-help that also acts as a fascinating work of social history. Along with activist icons such as Rosa Parks, Florence Nightingale, and Emmeline Pankhurst, Lindemann introduces the reader to less celebrated and yet no less compelling historical figures, including the explorer Alexandra David-Néel, the marathon runner Katherine Switzer and the romantic comedy screenwriter Nora Ephron. Alongside short […]

A well-researched portrait of artist Billie Lawless and his controversial sculpture “Green Lightning” is revealed in Michael F. Rizzo’s Fifteen Minutes: Bamboozled in Buffalo. Rizzo analyses the process by which the infamously lascivious sculpture was mistakenly commissioned by Buffalo city officials who were offended by the finished product, and swiftly ordered it to be dismantled, resulting in a court case that Lawless eventually won. Revealing in part the conventionality of the staid art establishment, as well as Lawless’s singular vision, this book not only exposes how an artist tricked a powerful clique of public art commissioners, but also […]

Adrian Green, an American software engineer, plans to “free himself from the endless noise of the States,” in Michael R. French’s eclectic and engaging Ghost with Two Hearts. Having relocated to Japan, Adrian indulges in a tantalizing romance with a resident ghost, and attempts to reconcile past wrongs by returning the Samurai sword his grandfather stole from a Japanese officer during WW2. Throughout the story, French seamlessly weaves fascinating facts about Japanese culture and Shintoism into his insightful and original narrative. A novel that is both character-rich and page-turning, this story will have readers yearning to explore and discover […]

A recently jilted designer wakes up confused and covered in her best friend’s blood in Reasonable by K.T. Carlisle, a dark and dramatic first installment of the What Happened to Mia Davis? series. The lives of four friends who were rocked by collegiate tragedy and then bound by a joint business make for an interesting emotional foundation, and their explosive dynamics are the driving force of the plot, which moves forward at a quick pace. Leaping forward and back in time, this character- and dialogue-driven drama will keep readers guessing as the full sinister scope is revealed. Unreliable narrators, spectral […]

Part social commentary and part motivational manifesto, Cloak of the Living Dead by Ernest Johnson demands the reader to look at the world and decide if they are simply going through the motions of existence or actually living their lives to their fullest potential. By discussing his own life’s tribulations and experiences, Johnson aims to show the reader how to be “alive” and aware rather than “dead” and oblivious to the world around us, pointing out the many deadening aspects of life that keep us down – bad relationships, pointless jobs, unhealthy diets, and more. At times difficult to follow […]

A clever dystopian novel with a big splash of humor, The Odyssey of Fletcher by Erik Dargitz is a satirical novel about a socially-awkward young man who finds himself to be the last man on Earth when a global pandemic wipes out the rest of the male population. As he ventures out of his basement sanctuary, Fletcher discovers that the world has changed dramatically, and he is the focus – some women want to worship him, some want to study him, and others want him dead. While this premise could lend itself to insensitivity in the wrong hands, Fletcher is […]