John Staughton, Senior Reviewer

A painfully relatable story of family, loss, and perseverance in the face of Covid-19, Losing Your Mum in the Apocalypse by E. Mycroft is a confessional story for our times. Written with unflinching honesty about the author’s struggle, grieving process, and guilt surrounding mortality and survival, this is far from an easy book, but it does feel essential. The global pandemic has blanketed the world with grief in all different forms – for people, for the past, for stability and certainty – giving this story broad appeal. While the prose is deeply personal, the relevance is universal, boosted by splashes […]

On the hunt for a brutal highwayman and a local scourge, William is a classic anti-hero on horseback in The Western Bounty Hunter by Samuel Ludke, a hugely entertaining classic western. This novella traces an exhilarating chase for justice, but the protagonist’s strict code when it comes to killing makes the story more nuanced and original than you’d expect. With a small cast of supporting allies, including the fiery Mauer, and brief side plots that add emotional depth, this is a compelling tale of morality, self-control, and redemption. Some of the dialogue needs polishing, as the characters are occasionally too […]

Mary Ann V. Mercer, Psy.D delivers an authoritative guidebook for surviving and thriving in Bouncing Back from Difficult Times. This well-researched and data-driven book not only examines contemporary beliefs and science surrounding personality, group dynamics, self-esteem, and mental health, but also humanizes these delicate subjects with a deft narrative pen. The general tips for optimism, and other practical strategies, balance the theoretical and more abstract elements of the book, for a well-balanced overview that reaches far beyond traditional self-help. For those who have suffered difficult times or will in the future – namely, all of us – this book […]