Memoir Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Silent Spring – Deadly Autumn of the Vietnam War by Patrick Hogan

Silent Spring - Deadly Autumn of the Vietnam War by Patrick Hogan

As one of the darkest periods in America history, the Vietnam War continues to fascinate new generations. In Silent Spring – Deadly Autumn of the Vietnam War, author Patrick Hogan pulls back another curtain on that brutal conflict, and the battles that it is still causing today.

Many people are cursorily familiar with the devastating use of chemical weapons in Vietnam by the American military, including the widespread application of napalm and Agent Orange in defoliation campaigns. Savagely effective, but relatively untested, this attack strategy by America remains one of the dark marks on US history.

In this book, […]

Review: The Little Love That Could by Pamela Capone

The Little Love That Could: Stories of Tenacious Love, Underdogs, and Ragamuffins by Pamela Capone

Autobiographical anecdotes, humorous afterthoughts and messages of faith entertain and inspire in The Little Love That Could: Stories of Tenacious Love, Underdogs, and Ragamuffins by Pamela Capone.

As a self-professed “professional unpaid people watcher and evidence gatherer” by day and “an insomniac dot connector” by night, Capone shares her insights into life and living through a series of autobiographical anecdotes that are candid and humorous. Her tone is conversational, upbeat and quirky, but always heartfelt.

Capone shares her vulnerabilities and fears through her adoption as a child and the uneasy relationship she had with her “bio-illogical” birth parents in “The […]

Marta Cheng2019-03-21T12:58:56+02:00February 17th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Non-Fiction Book Reviews, Self-Help Book Reviews|

Finding Myself in Borneo: Sojourns in Sabah by Neill McKee

Finding Myself in Borneo: Sojourns in Sabah by Neill McKee A former volunteer for CUSO (Canadian University Service Overseas) recalls those halcyon years living and working in Sabah, Borneo in the entertaining travel memoir Finding Myself in Borneo: Sojourns in Sabah.

Author Neill McKee vividly describes his escalating culture shock as he encounters “the East” in its many aspects: sights, smells and, notably, sweltering temperatures. In the sleepy village of Kota Belud, he learns Malay and teaches various subjects in English to students barely fluent in that language, often with no textbooks. Humorously imagining exotic Borneo as the model for Tolkien’s Middle Earth, he and his friends found the […]

SPR2019-02-13T10:36:52+02:00February 12th, 2019|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Travel Book Reviews|

Review: Is God in That Bottle Cap? A Search for Truth by John D. Sambalino

Is God in That Bottle Cap? A Search for Truth by John D. Sambalino

In Is God in That Bottle Cap? A Search for Truth, a lawyer writes about spirituality in an engaging combination of autobiography and philosophical treatise.

Beginning as a child who resisted having to eat fish on Friday, to his adulthood as a world-traveler who sees that God is found not so much in precepts as in experience, John D. Sambalino has always been seeking truth, and so conveys a sense of exploration that is fortunately free from self-congratulation. The first glimmers of this search came with his interest in martial arts and the understanding that such physical practices have […]

SPR2019-03-18T12:08:23+02:00February 7th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Spirituality Book Reviews|

Review: A Chicken in the Wind and How He Grew by Frank South

A Chicken in the Wind and How He Grew by Frank South

Life can be messy and complicated – throw ADHD into the mix and you’ve got A Chicken in the Wind and How He Grew: Stories from an ADHD Dad, a spirited memoir by Frank South.

During his lifetime, South has held many “former” titles: a former English teacher for adjudicated teens, a former Off-Broadway playwright, a former television writer and producer, and a former alcoholic. He writes about what he knows – life as an adult struggling and coping with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, commonly referred to as ADHD.

Together with his loving (and somewhat long-suffering) wife Margaret, they […]

Marta Cheng2020-05-20T05:16:54+02:00January 29th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: Rideshares, Wrecks and Sex by Joe. F. N. Schmo

Rideshares, Wrecks and Sex by Joe. F. N. Schmo

In Rideshares, Wrecks and Sex: Confessions of a Convicted Uber Driver by author Joe. F. N. Schmo – a bold pseudonym in any genre – readers are given a front-seat view to the madness that can unfold between the doors of an Uber ride.

The interesting twist in this non-fiction tale is that the author is not your average ride-share driver: he is a convicted felon with a lot to lose, but knows that Uber may be a good game in town for a steady income that he can control. Gainful employment for ex-felons can be few and far between, […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-03-04T11:56:46+02:00January 15th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Non-Fiction Book Reviews|

On the Margin of the Sky by Dee Plecic

Dee Plecic’s autobiographical account of life in a war-torn city presents a world where racism and religious tyranny gradually replaced multiculturalism and tolerance is an amazing tale of one woman’s endurance.

In 1992, the city of Sarajevo, the capital of the Balkan country Bosnia and Herzegovina, fell under siege in the Bosnian War. The center of a multi-ethnic, multi-national power struggle among Serbs, Croatians, and Bosnians erupted, bringing the term “ethnic cleansing” into modern-day vocabulary. The author lived in Sarajevo during much of that time, and describes the daily conditions in harrowing detail: snipers firing on people getting water at […]

SPR2018-07-05T12:41:04+02:00July 2nd, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Non-Fiction Book Reviews|

From Hell to Happiness by Christopher Cooper

From Hell to Happiness: How to Heal When Your Loved One Is Terminal Sorrow and hope are equally mixed in From Hell to Happiness: How to Heal When Your Loved One Is Terminal, an inspiring memoir about life with a cancer sufferer by Christopher Cooper.

Cooper and his wife Jenn were enjoying a happy, successful life in their early 30s, with two sons and good career prospects. Then Jenn was diagnosed with a serious form of cancer and the long-term outlook was grim: even with heavy chemo treatments and surgery, she might likely have a fatal recurrence of the disease.

Cooper describes his day-to-day struggles: how to tell the boys what was […]

SPR2018-06-19T09:31:44+02:00June 19th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Health Book Reviews, Memoir Book Reviews, Non-Fiction Book Reviews|