Lead Story | Self-Publishing Review

Review: The Art of Making Bread by The Editors of CakeChatter

The Art of Making Bread by The Editors of Cake Chatter

A consortium of enthusiastic cooks have contributed to this lively look at baking just about any kind of bread you can think of, with recipes designed for real people, and a generous helping of commentary, jokes, poems, and added information, in The Art of Making Bread: An Anthology of Thirty, Down-Home Bread Baking Recipes!

Second in the Dough-Punchers eBook Series from CakeChatter, The Art of Making Bread invokes the past – both the cowboy cooks who fed the hard-working cattle herders, and Grandma, with an apron tied securely around her voluminous long skirts. Each of the thirty recipes was […]

SPR2020-09-23T04:46:59+02:00September 23rd, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Home & Garden Book Reviews|

Review: The Art Stone by Jesse A. Ellis

The Art Stone by Jesse A. Ellis

An unlikely group of young heroes converges for an epic quest to defend an ancient artifact in The Art Stone by Jesse A. Ellis, the first book of the Echoes of Elybion series. In classic fantasy fashion, the stakes are infinitely high, and the odds of success are incredibly slim.

The transformation of these adolescent characters over the course of the novel is remarkable; managing a coming-of-age story for multiple main players is ambitious, but Ellis pulls it off well. As their mystical world continues to crumble, a long-lost stone – one of the first twelve creation stones from the […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-09-16T09:08:44+02:00September 15th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews, YA Fantasy Book Reviews|

Review: The Secret Diaries of Juan Luis Vives by Tim Darcy Ellis

The Secret Diaries of Juan Luis Vives by Tim Darcy Ellis

Steeped in court drama, forbidden love, and the tension of dark history, The Secret Diaries of Juan Luis Vives is the swirling, beautifully penned new novel from Tim Darcy Ellis. Based largely on true events and figures, this intense tale shines a new light on the motives and machinations of English royalty in the mid-16^th century.

Juan Luis Vives, a “New Christian” fleeing from the shadow of the Spanish Inquisition, and the anti-Semitism that flowed so freely in the 1500s, is trying to survive and stay outside of suspicion in Bruges. A chance encounter with Sir Thomas More upends […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-09-24T07:10:10+02:00September 3rd, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Historical Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: The Happiness Journal by Viet Hung

The Happiness Journal by Viet Hung

Author and entrepreneur Viet Hung offers an engaging collection of astute observations, motivations, and encouragements aimed at promoting a calmer, more enlightened perspective in The Happiness Journal.

As Hung reminds us in his Foreword, throughout our lives, we generally “plan to get one thing done, but then usually something different happens.” To accept the ever-changing array of events requires inner preparedness. Hung believes this can often be achieved through the practice of self-examination and mindfulness. The helpful selections he has chosen were originally composed for himself – mostly short essays or commentaries – divided into three sections: “Sensing Happiness,” […]

SPR2020-09-03T02:51:06+02:00September 2nd, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Self-Help Book Reviews|

Review: Providence in the Fall of a Sparrow by Robert Judge Woerheide

Providence in the Fall of a Sparrow by Robert Judge Woerheide

In this inspired collection, composed over seven crucial years in the life of poet Robert Judge Woerheide, we learn what it is like to be a prisoner and what it is like to be free, from within and without.

The first selection in Providence in the Fall of a Sparrow: A Journey of Poems, “Neanderthal Love,” pictures a prehistoric tribe carefully watching over a wounded comrade, his broken legs necessitating his cradling and foretelling his death, after which they will dig a grave a meter deep: “perhaps the first to ever be loved in this way.”

“Elegy for the […]

SPR2020-08-26T05:40:57+02:00August 25th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Poetry Book Reviews|

Review: Newton’s Cradle by Robert Valdin

Newton's Cradle by Robert Valdin

Humanity’s desperation for survival clashes with its fatal hunger for power in Newton’s Cradle by Robert Valdin. What begins as a corporate and international espionage story over power generator prototypes and mineral contracts becomes a fascinating and existential thriller about the fate of the human race, and the steep price such salvation will demand.

Terence and Duncan want to save the world by mitigating the use of non-renewable fuels, but Terence soon discovers that Duncan hasn’t been entirely forthright, and may already have the ultimate solution in hand. Pitting these allies against one another, yet also unifying them in a […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-08-24T08:29:05+02:00August 23rd, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: The Albatross: Contact by Connor Mackay

The Albatross: Contact by Connor Mackay

Author Connor Mackay makes an impressive debut with his epic space adventure, The Albatross: Contact. With precise language, unforgettable characters, and a twisted plot that feels primed for the big screen, this knockout of a novel wrestles masterfully with alien forces and some of humanity’s darkest demons.

Forged in the crucible of war, Will is one barfight or drunken night from ending his painful stint on Earth, perhaps even at his own hand, but when an opportunity to escape to the stars presents itself, he and his ride-or-die vet pal Frank decide to join a much grander battlefield. There […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-08-20T02:53:42+02:00August 19th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews, Space Opera Book Reviews|

Review: This Book Is The Longest Sentence Ever Written And Then Published by Dave Cowen

This Book Is The Longest Sentence Ever Written And Then Published by Dave Cowen

Author Dave Cowen releases an epic text upon the world in This Book Is The Longest Sentence Ever Written And Then Published. An ambitious, self-reflective, and impressive achievement, this book is a stream-of-consciousness sprawl that is both addictive and admirable, exploring the writer’s insecurities, goals, personal history, and philosophy, without ever dropping a full stop.

Setting out on a seemingly mad and quixotic quest to write the longest sentence ever written, the author is determined to dethrone the endless sentences of James Joyce, Jose Saramago, and Jonathan Rotter – though Lucy Ellmann may have outdone him with the thousand-page Ducks, […]