Book Reviews

Meet Calvin Wheeler – thirtysomething and unhappily married to Karen, his childhood sweetheart, who in Chapter 1 reminds him that the proper name for his unsightly cold sore is “herpes”. A former actor, one-time traffic school instructor, and presently a courier for Healthfirst clinical laboratories, Calvin’s day consists of driving around Stockton, CA and environs making deliveries and pickups at various labs, hospitals and doctors’ offices.

Calvin hates his job and hates his colleagues even more: they’re all fat, stupid, ass-kissing, job-stealing or, in one case, afflicted with an hilarious speech impediment. Calvin amuses himself with violent road-rage fantasies, listening […]

This is an incredibly hard review to write. Not only because of the subject of the book but because I want to do the book justice. I am the father of a six-year-old so while I know that this topic is vitally important, it is also deeply unpleasant. The author of The Predator Next Door, Darlene Ellison, has been to hell and back. A short description of the book: Darlene Ellison married a successful Dallas-area dentist. One day in 2005 she came home to find FBI agents ransacking her home. It turned out that her husband – who had […]

There is a lot of new fiction that’s heavily influenced by Charles Bukowski.  The U.K. group of writers The Brutalists fits this mold.  In the U.S., the Long Beach, CA press Burning Shore puts out Bukowski-inspired work by Tony O’Neill (also a member of the Brutalists), Dan Fante (son of Bukowski mentor John Fante), and Rob Woodard.  Mark SaFranko, author of Hating Olivia, is another writer to send into this mix.

And now add another writer: Scott Rogers, author of Celluloid Cowboy.  So much so that his small press is called Black Coffee Press, which has echoes of […]

The set-up for The Trouble with Being God is pretty enticing.  On the back of the book is a reader review, stating, “It’s not often that a book can keep you so interested and make you think, You know I’ve never really looked at it like that.”  The dedication inside reads, “For my wife, Hope, who  was so disturbed by the book that she still has not been able to read the entire thing.”  Finally, on William Aicher’s site for the book is a list of suggested reading, which includes many of the recent non-fiction tomes on atheism.

Put […]

It would be impossible to review this book without mentioning two things: the Bunny Museum and a bit about Emmanuel Swedenborg, the focus of this book.  Candace Frazee who wrote this book is a true L.A. eccentric.  She runs the Bunny Museum in Pasadena, CA – listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as being the largest collection of bunny paraphernalia.  The story goes that Candace Frazee’s husband bought her a stuffed bunny as a present and their collection was built and built from there.

From the site: “The 1928, Spanish stucco, Pasadena home of Candace Frazee and Steve […]

Guest reviewed by Susan Helene Gottfried, a writer interested in music-related self-published books.  She’s the author of Shapeshifter: The Demo Tapes — Year 1: “A band’s demo tape is intended to introduce listeners to their music. Likewise, this collection of short pieces allows readers into the fictional world of Trevor Wolff and his band, ShapeShifter.”  Check out her books and other output at WestofMars.com.

What’s not to love about a book whose concept is that a man from the past, cryogenically frozen to thwart cancer, is thawed out and becomes the hero of the ages, a rock star […]

The List by Carmen Shirkey identifies itself fairly quickly as chick-lit (light, upbeat fiction marketed toward young women). I point this out only because I don’t read much (any) chick lit, these days, so I was hesitant, at first, to critique the page. Someone who doesn’t read a particular genre may not necessarily be the best judge of that genre.

However.

Whatever the genre, the author should strive to grab the reader with her or his unique storytelling style, personal (creative) perspective, and grasp on writing.

I’m sorry to say this first page doesn’t really grab me in any of […]