New Releases

SPR’s book reviews of new self-published books

The Waste-Wise Gardener by Jean B. MacLeod

The Waste-Wise Gardener by Jean B. MacLeod

Author Jean B. MacLeod is a peerless maven of making do, as she proves with this well-constructed catalogue of gardening strategies, The Waste-Wise GardenerTips and Techniques to Save Time, Money, and Natural Resources While Creating the Garden of Your Dreams.

MacLeod begins with a brief introduction revealing her own gardening troubles and triumphs, then provides an alphabetical list of simple solutions for some of the thorny problems involved in home horticulture, which are generally easy to use, and some quite eye-opening.

For example, materials for the staking required for a variety of crops can be ribs from […]

2018-03-21T12:57:18+02:00March 21st, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Scipio Rising (Scipio Africanus Saga Book 1) by Martin Tessmer

Scipio RisingIn Scipio Rising, the first book in the Scipio Africanus Saga, Martin Tessmer has done an expert job of weaving historical fact and narrative into a well-structured plot. The mirroring of Hannibal with Scipio works to weigh them both as military geniuses, bringing the forgotten Scipio to the historical stage that Hannibal has dominated for so long.

The novel is well-paced with carefully drawn characters, which gives the book the entertaining flow of fiction, rather than seeming like a dry retelling of historical events. The prose is clean and smart; Tessmer’s background as a former university professor shines through […]

2018-04-30T11:01:12+02:00March 20th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

The Pinochet Plot by David Myles Robinson

The Pinochet Plot by David Myles Robinson

Historical fiction often lends itself to a time that unfamiliar to the modern age. However, when historical fact is blended with modern fiction, as it is in The Pinochet Plot by David Robinson, a truly special book can be born.

With a rich cast of characters embedded within well-researched contexts, this book exceeds its categorization as a thriller and becomes an endlessly fascinating drama. As an ex-lawyer, Robinson imbues Will Munoz with brilliant believability, and the sheer depth of the main character carries this novel through its slower moments.

This novel tackles difficult topics like parental betrayal, suicide, nationalism, corruption, […]

2018-11-08T13:24:38+02:00March 19th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Buffalo ’99 by Chris Stucchio

Buffalo '99 by Chris Stucchio

In Buffalo ’99, Chris Stucchio has created a moody, hard-boiled world in which punk rock, cocaine, and sleeping around are a way of life.

Miles Sterling, the narrator, opens the story nonchalantly with his infidelity, setting the tone for the rest of the book. There is Vanessa, the caring and a little too attached girlfriend. And then Taylor, the rambunctious babe who flirts and knows how to use it.

The narrator has a way of speaking reminiscent of Philip Marlowe, but with more sex and less crime. The voice is powerfully visceral, constructing a narrator that you love to […]

2018-04-30T11:01:13+02:00March 19th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Beyond Borders by Ngozi Iwuoha

Beyond Borders by Ngozi IwuohaBeyond Borders by Ngozi Iwuoha is a touching story of belonging, identity, and family. Borders can separate us and time can keep us apart, but what keeps us together, as shown touchingly by Iwuoha, is love.

Iwuoha tells the narrative with a distance and breeze that at first might catch the reader off guard, but it is clear the effect Iwuoha intended. By keeping the reader at arm’s length, the reader is able to feel what Valeria feels – almost as if life is experienced from behind a pane of glass – clear yet detached and devoid of some vital […]

2018-05-09T10:16:26+02:00March 16th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: , |

Raptor Ray by Brent Reilly

Raptor Ray by Brent ReillyRaptor Ray by Brent Reilly is an eccentric show of imagination. It opens on the strange birth of Ray, the poor scaly dino-kid doomed to ridicule, and it gets stranger and stranger from there on out, telling a story that blends together a huge number of sci-fi tropes (time travel, space travel, dinosaurs, cataclysms, the list goes on), as well as non-fictional elements, for a completely inventive read.

The book is rich in information, with facts from the real world and the author’s imaginative fictional world giving the atmosphere of the novel a wholly unique texture. This strange pastiche of […]

2018-04-30T11:01:14+02:00March 15th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Afterlife Code by J.M. Erickson

Afterlife Code by J.M. Erickson

Sci-fi novels often give readers a distant glimpse into a potential future, but Afterlife Code by J.M. Erickson may provide a peek into future events for this generation. In this story, neural implants have been designed to treat many different diseases and disorders of the brain, but for Dr. Melanie Sage and Robert Cobb, her therapist, an unexpected malfunction of this new technology tosses them into another world…a world they each possess in their own mind.

This thrilling novel combines religious philosophy, scientific exploration, and the limitations of the human mind with brilliant clarity. Rather than giving one picture of […]

2018-03-16T11:20:10+02:00March 14th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

The Fat Girls Club: Paris Bound by Lila Johnson

The Fat Girls Club: Paris BoundThe Fat Girls Club: Paris Bound is the sequel to Lila Johnson’s Fat Girls Club, a fun and emotional novel about a group of friends who gather together to lose weight. As the title suggests, Paris Bound finds the group traveling to Europe, and all of the temptations it provides, as well as a scenic backdrop for the women to bond more deeply.

The three ladies from Kansas City hop over the pond for their first stop in London, where Lila Johnson has taken extra care to guide the reader along with William, Sissy’s brother, while he gives an […]

2018-03-08T10:36:50+02:00March 8th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: , |
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