SPR’s book reviews of new self-published books
The Reluctant Caregiver by Joy Johnston
With an open heart and a sharp sense of humor, award-winning writer Joy Johnston chronicles both the reward and the heartache of caring for her parents in their last days in The Reluctant Caregiver.
Suffering through back to back hardship, Johnston’s father passed first from Alzheimer’s, and not long afterward, her mother developed colon cancer. Johnston lived with her mother for lengthy periods in the early stages of her cancer, coming back when death was imminent. Seeing these two strong people endure their final days was inspiring, harrowing and poignant, and Johnston eloquently expresses their strength of character, while […]
Katlin and her father have escaped the moon after their harrowing adventures, but now they find themselves facing new threats in a world that Katlin doesn’t fully understand. How is she supposed to protect her friends on the moon when she has trouble dealing with Earth’s gravity? Meanwhile, her friends have problems of their own. Not only must the nexgens deal with the decaying systems left by their parents and leaders, but they also have to figure out how to maintain their independence when it seems everyone on the planet below is fighting for control.
In Stoicism 2.0: How Stoic Philosophy Can Improve Your Life in the 21st Century, author Robert Woolston advances his belief that the ancient Greek philosophy known as Stoicism can ameliorate the stresses of modern life.
In The Inconsistencies: A Comical Tragedy in Two Parts, Ilango Villoth has essentially rewritten Tolstoy’s A Confession and Melville’s Moby Dick in his own words. The book’s two parts follow the same basic structure and formula as the original works they reference, but diverge on a line by line basis.
Set in the quaint town of Lily Brooke, Magdalena Gottschalk: The Crooked Trail by M. Gail Grant, is a novel filled with intrigue, suspense, and adventure for MALB (The Mystical Alliance of Lily Brooke) who find they need to set the town free from a dark secret. A fun supernatural read, at its core this young adult novel is a heartwarming story about friendship and family.
In Lionhearts by Ray Keating, the seventh installment in the Pastor Stepehn Grant series, readers see their pious hero, Pastor Grant, defending his country, faith and the bedrock of morality in a new setting – his home soil. When radical terrorists begin attacking Christians around the country, this man of God with a loaded Glock puts his own life on the line to fight back against the encroaching forces of evil.
From Napoleon to Thoreau to Edward Snowden to Hollywood, Robert Woolston’s essay collection, Athena’s Owl: Philosophy Articles on Personal Growth, Modern Society & Hollywood Cinema, provides an intelligent and well-observed study of humanist philosophies in their earliest forms, and their transposition into modern culture.