Editorial Reviews

A blend of color and black-and-white photography, interspersed with inspiring quotations and historical context, Elizabeth Buchmann’s Bengodi: Visions of Capri is an enchanting meditation on the beauty of historic architecture and the natural world. Buchmann decided to visit the island of Capri in Italy at the beginning of the pandemic, seeking both solace and an escape from the relentless news cycle – a relatable and understandable perspective, which gives her photography increased weight and meaning. Her pictures convey a true degree of reverence for what really matters in our often too fast-moving lives, instilling in the reader a sense of […]

The first title in the anticipated solo travel series, Dispatches From Europe, Rory Moulton’s Europe By Milk Run: A Solo Travel Experiment from Copenhagen to Barcelona blends historical information with authentically funny personal anecdotes centered around the author’s travels throughout the Continent. After an acquaintance claims that European travel has become too commercialized, Moulton decides to take a leisurely, off-beat train journey to see what he discovers, and the result is both informative and entertaining – whether you’ve traveled through Europe, but perhaps especially if you have not. His forays include nightlife parties, chance encounters with quirky locals, delectable […]

Caravan of Pain by Scott Alderman is a gritty and savagely honest account of the author’s epic dream come to life – a chaotic collaboration of metal’s biggest names and some of the most legendary tattoo artists on the planet. The author wasn’t just a backstage observer, but the organizer and originator of “Tattoo the Earth,” a tour like nothing that had ever been attempted. From the earliest brainstorming pitch sessions and potential disasters with scheduling to the chaos of rock star egos and downright raunchy tour anecdotes, this book covers ground you might expect – debauchery and all-around bad […]

A sweet, imaginative collection of rhyming poetry for kids, Sherry A. Fraser’s How the Faeries Dance is an enchanting picture book that will entertain children and adults alike. Many of the selections involve faeries from the title, but the subject matter ranges from unicorns and dragons, to epic sailing journeys, and even making cookies as an act of magic, for a wide-ranging assortment of esoteric tales, with illustrator Julia Vasileva’s lively images delightfully enhancing each poem. While some rhymes and poems are more affecting than others, overall this collection is both charming and whimsical.

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Five Pebbles In A Pond may be a work of fiction, but this very human tale reads like a true-to-life memoir. The “pebbles” in question are the members of an all-girl group of immigrants who meet by chance at university and become lifelong friends. While the pace of the book jumps around a bit, the unity between the friends does not, as they face all manner of challenges in their lives and loves, and complex families, with diverse races, religions, and traditions creating both a sense of belonging and friction in this vibrant tapestry of intersectional feminism.

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A boarding school cooking competition creates a matchless atmosphere for rivalry over family traditions in Mary Ramsey’s engaging and original young adult novel, Run It! Elena has big shoes to fill at the top-tier Toshaini-Kai Institute, including the fact that her mom and dad are both celebrated alumni. Elena faces her similarly well-known peers, while a secret about her father simmers in the background. Mary Ramsey’s novel deftly balances themes of personal loss and sorrow with the pressure of career success, making the book a positive, feel-good read overall, with a fascinating fly-on-the-wall perspective on both boarding school life and […]

A sprawling fantasy world of magic, mana, mystery, and mythology, Mirror of Reality by Alexander Schmid is a sword and sorcery adventure like few others. Pulling from myriad sources of legend and lore, along with original godheads, alternate universes, and super-powered technologies, this epic quest to save the Empire of Geb is a nonstop ride. The breakneck pace and action-packed sequences would be far more impactful after a heavy edit to the writing, as grammatical errors, run-on sentences, repetitive prose, cliche, and idiomatic language, inconsistent formatting, and lack of essential exposition all make the reading experience challenging, but the story […]

A comical spree of interstellar hijinks with genocidal stakes, Zeno’s Last Grain by Jay Gaskell is a wonderfully weird launchpad for the out-of-this-world Galaxy Marshals series. Spilling onto the page in a manic flood of sci-fi action, dumb luck, and unwarranted moxie, these are the misadventures of Jon Simmons, interstellar delivery man, as he rampages through space to clean up an epic mess of his own creation. The writing has as many plot holes as wormholes, the characters are goofy, and the prose would benefit from a merciless edit, but the endless stream of near-misses and sharply clever comebacks makes […]