New Releases

SPR’s book reviews of new self-published books

Bright Moon Ridge: A Search in China by Linus Treefoot

Bright Moon Ridge: A Search in ChinaBright Moon Ridge by Linus Treefoot is a literary adventure about Johnny Bartooth who’s dropped a bombshell at 19-years-old – he learns, via a journal brought to him by an aging hippy, about the origin of his parents, who he’s never known. His father once traveled through China and met the beautiful Mei, a doctor tending to his wounds after a vicious attack. They start a love affair, but Mei is trapped in China, so Johnny’s father must go back to save her. Years later, Johnny follows in his father’s footsteps to China to finally discover his parents’ fate.

It’s […]

2018-07-20T09:47:09+02:00December 6th, 2016|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Must be Relevant to Make Some Money by Dr. Phil Copeland

Must be Relevant to Make Some Money by Dr. Phil CopelandMust be Relevant to Make Some Money by Dr. Phil Copeland (“The Other Dr. Phil,” as it says on the cover) is a comprehensive guide outlining long-term planning for businesses, focusing on such important facets as leadership, innovation, sustainability, marketing strategy, and effective engagement with consumers.

The book is exhaustive about sound business practices, yet Copeland never completely defines what “relevance” is in terms of business production, even if he begins each chapter with the same sentence: “You must be relevant to make some money.” While relevance obviously means “connected” or “pertinent,” these in themselves are vague and open-ended terms. […]

2016-12-06T12:49:33+02:00December 6th, 2016|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Not Just Talent: The Millennials Redefining Talent and Human Capital Management by Philipe Bruce

Not Just TalentPhilipe Bruce has a passion for human resources and how to maximize potential in a diverse workforce. Millennials, otherwise known as Generation Y, are changing – and breaking – the rules of business, and talent management heads are going to have to learn how to make the most of this resource, as millions of young workers enter the job market.

Bruce tackles the dilemma of how to demograph and analyze this new skillset. There are some generalizations that can be made and proven to be true: Generation Y are “digital natives” and have skills that come naturally other generations had […]

2016-12-02T05:10:02+02:00November 29th, 2016|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Dead Lemons by Finn Bell

Dead LemonsAuthor Finn Bell’s exciting New Zealand thriller about a missing girl and a suicidal disabled man on a mission opens with a quote from Hitler about God. This powerful start is surprisingly the exact scene-setter for what can only be described as an unforgettable, cutthroat fable that examines ego and self-obsession in the face of murder. All of this in a book set in New Zealand, it’s unlikely readers will have picked up anything quite so original in this genre for some time.

Finn Bell, the protagonist and author of the book you are reading, takes us on a journey […]

2016-11-28T07:14:09+02:00November 23rd, 2016|Categories: New Releases|Tags: , |

The Tale of Miss Berta London by Jihan Latimer

Miss Berta LondonIn The Tale of Miss Berta London: “Recollections of Accomplishments,” readers experience the turmoils of the eponymous character as she overcomes adversity with shocking resolve, and demonstrates an ability to roll expertly with life’s many punches in her role as a fashion editor for the international E-Fashion Magazine and then onto becoming a nanny for the Williamson children.

As a character, Berta is compelling and interesting to read, but she is theatrically so , and the book is written in a journalistic style. The writing is also highly declarative, as Berta reminisces on her working life in a diary […]

2016-11-28T04:18:12+02:00November 19th, 2016|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Woodiss is Willing by Henry Woodiss

Woodiss is Willing by Henry WoodissWoodiss is Willing, edited by George Dalrymple, is a fictionalized account of the life of Henry Woodiss, who gained notoriety in the 1920s in England due to his high-profile affair with the wife of Sir Coningsby Coningsby-Clarke, Lady Edith. Penned by Woodiss himself in a manuscript supposedly finished in the 1960s, he presents his story as comical fiction at the expense of both himself and the myriad figures involved in the debacle.

Despite the comic bent the book takes on the incident, Woodiss writes with sincerity, with glimpses into his genuine feelings. If not for the highly satirical tone and […]

2016-11-15T08:53:10+02:00November 15th, 2016|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

The Assyrian Girl by Thomas W. Devine

The Assyrian Girl by Thomas W. DevineThe Assyrian Girl by Thomas W. Devine is a terrorist thriller following Matt Couper, a security contractor who’s stationed in Iraq in 2003. There he saves the life of Tara Nasrim, an Assyrian teenager, a memory which haunts him years later. When she shows up in New Zealand five years later, their lives become as complicated as war-torn Iraq – thrust into a struggle with a Islamic terrorism. It’s a book about the power of faith versus the seductive pull for many of fundamentalist dogma, and how to maintain love in this increasingly complicated and dangerous world.

The two biggest […]

2018-07-05T09:52:51+02:00November 8th, 2016|Categories: New Releases|Tags: , |

Blanket of Hearts by Robert A. Cozzi

Blanket of Hearts by Robert A. CozziIn Blanket of Hearts, poet Robert A. Cozzi explores themes of love and memory and the bittersweet nexus of the two when a union ends. He captures the pain of seeing an old lover with their new flame, the chances not taken and still remembered years later, and the all-too-human desire to “hit the rewind button.” In other poems, he recalls the ecstasy of new love, “when everything tasted of ice cream” and desire is like an all-consuming riptide, pulling him toward oblivion. He charmingly describes the beloved’s voice as “the cinnamon in my hot chocolate.” The final poem […]

2019-02-22T11:45:38+02:00November 3rd, 2016|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |
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