SPR’s book reviews of new self-published books
Seventeen-year-old Sebastian Weiss is a certified genius who started attending Columbia as a child, but he’s feeling restless and unhappy with his life. He’s destined to matriculate at an elite university, but he’d rather spend time with his best friend Nicholas Howell – the young star of “Heights High,” a soap opera about a Brooklyn Heights school. Sebastian’s life is the […]
The anonymously-named Bohunk was at the lowest stage of his life, viewing suicide as the only option. Using his knowledge of medicine he gathered while being a resident physician, he took a concoction of pills one night to end his own life. A fortunate intervention by his wife saved him […]
Janet Roberts is destined to be an architect because it’s the family business, but she would much rather study nineteenth-century literature. When she lands a spot in a prestigious seminar on Austen, she jumps at the chance to learn in Bath, England, far away from her father and his assistant’s prying eyes. However, her plans suddenly change: after a chance encounter with a famous painting and a nasty head wound, […]
Merchey’s work springs from the idea that wisdom is currently underappreciated, particularly in the United States. The text highlights the necessity of balancing the American tendency to focus on individual exceptionalism with concern for the collective common good. Drawing on the importance of “the wisdom of crowds,” Merchey ends each chapter with an extensive list of quotes aimed at provoking questions from readers.[…]
Themes of longing for love and the touch of his adored are visceral as each short piece brings forth emotions awash with reverie. Although each piece is meant to be read independently as a work in its own right, the book holds a narrative journey as each page turns, pushing the reader to explore cosmic ideas of time and space. A mystical love affair expands as the seconds tick down, and the poet pays tribute […]
Most Americans have some image, opinion, or high-school recollection of Thomas Jefferson, but this biographical tome offers a different glimpse into his life, focusing on a less-discussed era of the 3rd US president. Charming scenes of high-ranking visitors arriving at Monticello to find barefoot children underfoot give the aging president a humanness […]
When Alan dramatically descends to Earth in an ultraviolet explosion, covered in tattoos of hammers, few people can believe he’s the same boy who disappeared in a plane crash twenty years earlier. His odd arrival is also a harbinger of something much worse: chaos is organizing itself in deadly and demonic ways, and long-dormant powers are awakening to face them. Finding unlikely allies along the way – from curmudgeonly […]
This installation of the Chaussier adventure series continues to challenge ideas of traditional family structures, and explores bold new forms of love after loss. Returning to New Orleans with his children and Bryna – his almost wife and sometimes lover – Jeff puts his Sherlock instincts to good use, putting together threads of sinister connections to his recent tragedy, while she dives into a bayou mystery of her own. […]