Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: 21 Erased by Barbara Rayne

The code is your identity, your bank account, your credit card, the bus fare… your existence. When they take it away, you disappear like you never lived at all. All it takes is a moment and you’re no longer a human being…you’re nothing. Everything you thought you owned is shattering into pieces in front of your eyes, you’re disappearing without leaving a single trace of your existence. You were that insignificant. The system had you that much, nothing was yours but the illusion. They own your life. When you got in their way, they spat you out like a chewing […]

Review: Black Flies in the Backyard with Snowshoes by Kevin Brian Carroll

I read through the opening pages, called “Before We Get Started” and I had the feeling I was going to be reading a book about a Blues Band from Albany. I wanted to research the material, but the link given to the band was wrong… http://WAlbanyStBlues.com should be https://WAlbanStBluesBand.com. And I am thinking, oh, boy, we need an editor here, stat.

I then started getting into the book itself; the first chapter. I thought, oh my, Hunter S. Thompson’s final work? Or maybe this is his protégé? This is soooo Gonzo Journalism; but the author is no journalist. The author […]

Boudica Foster2013-06-19T10:21:32+02:00January 26th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Non-Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: One-Hit Willie: A Classic Rock Novel by William Westhoven

As an art critic says to an artist in the 1850 Charles Reade novel Christie Johnstone, “Art is not imitation, but illusion.” In fiction, it’s challenging to tell a story using archetypal themes and characters without descending into cliché. When you tell a story involving rock and roll, this feat becomes even trickier.

William Westhoven, who has covered the performing arts as a journalist since 1989, makes the leap to fiction successfully with his debut novel. He accomplishes this by using a compassionate, humorous narrative voice, interspersing his journalistic observations about the music business with a light enough touch […]

Lela Michael2014-05-19T22:23:13+02:00January 25th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Men's Fiction Book Reviews, Music Book Reviews|

Review: Freedom and Circumstance by Oswald Sobrino

For me, poets and philosophers are like cake and ice cream: they go together. Both wed disparate elements of reality, sometimes explosively, always in startling ways. Both go beyond the words to a place bone deep. When I read or listen to them, my eyes pop. My mouth goes all WOWy. My spirit is cleansed, refreshed, and I’m able to write on. You might say that, like cake and ice cream, poets and philosophers are important human resources.

Take Ortega y Gasset, an influential twentieth-century Spanish philosopher. That’s all I remembered about him from a course I took on existentialist […]

Susan Russo Anderson2019-01-22T18:27:35+02:00January 23rd, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Non-Fiction Book Reviews, Philosophy Book Reviews, Social Science Book Reviews|

Review: Sleeper’s Run by Henry Mosquera

When Eric Caine is found wandering the streets of South Beach, dishevelled and mumbling Arabic, he’s taken for just another of Miami’s homeless. But when someone notices his military ID card they promptly take him to the local VA hospital. He’s crashed his car and has no memory of the last eight days, save that he’d been drinking and was probably involved in a bar fight. Recently discharged from the Air Force, Eric is a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan where he worked as a pararescue jumper, providing medical support to anti-terrorist forces caught in hostile zones. The doctor suspects […]

Steven Reynolds2018-04-05T10:56:45+02:00January 19th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: The Hunting of The Bubblenuff by Joshua Goldfond

The Hunting of the Bubblenuff follows the adventures of Fabian Vermeer, an eccentric 19-year-old who lives in the fictional world of Lornholm. He is both a Priest and Inquisitor by profession, acting in the service of the Church of Solomn, god of Justice and Fluffy Clouds. Yet Fabian’s true, lifelong passion is “Cryptonaturalism”: the study of hidden, mythical beasts like the Sugar Moose (a rare but friendly creature whose candy cane antlers are treasured by hunters), the Solardillo (a bioluminescent armadillo used to replace campfires), the Hamsterdon (a 40-foot high hamster that runs around in a giant bamboo ball and […]

Majanka Verstraete2012-01-17T15:21:40+02:00January 17th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews, Satire Book Reviews, Young Adult Book Reviews|

Review: The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann (And Other Stories) by Ken Brosky

A great read, often moving, The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann (And Other Stories), by Ken Brosky is a collection of ten short stories and one essay. The writing is true, the voice unique, the stories, literary gems.

Except for the title story, all works have been previously published. The list of their publications is impressive—The Barcelona Review, Santa Fe Writers Project, Gargoyle Magazine, Pif, Cream City Review, and others.

Reading this book gave me my own journey.

Not content with the proffered PDF*, I bought the book on Amazon because I wanted to experience the ebook the way […]

Susan Russo Anderson2014-05-19T22:25:46+02:00January 16th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews, Short Stories Book Reviews|

Review: Raising Rufus by Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold

Raising Rufus: A Maine Love Story by Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold is about a couple in their sixties who choose to leave their hectic lives behind in New York to live in their dream retirement home in Maine along the coast. Gus and Maria Sundergaard have survived forty years of marriage and their relationship has been full of love and devotion. However, Gus has kept a couple of secrets that cause discord in the relationship and Maria senses that there are issues but is fearful to push for answers. To complicate matters, Gus struggles with depression, which frightens Maria.