This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
Make It a Double: More Poems From my 10-year Bender Inside Heaven's Dive Bar by Randall McNair is the author's collection of original poetry and the second book in the Bar Poems series, preceded by his first book, Dispatches from the Swinging Door Saloon. Broken down into four parts, The Status Quo, The Descent, Death in the Middle, and The Rising, McNair goes all-in with an unapologetic and wholly unfiltered string of free verse poetry. These range in length, tone, and even the occassional layout, with pieces such as Conversations with a Friend taking the unsteady shape of a jumbled stream of consciousness, to poems like Begin Anew, which portrays a wife in the aftermath of her husband's heart attack and the evolution of a normal life, the trolling of emotions, and the witnessing of all from the vantage point of a now omniscient former husband.
Make It a Double is an exceptionally well-crafted collection that solidifies Randall McNair as a master of allegory and verse. The work is profoundly honest and digs deep into the frailty and flaws of man. My favorite is Die Drunk and Alone, wherein the narrator is ruminating on whether or not they will be able to live an honorable life as a homeless man without resorting to violence. It's an incredibly clever piece that really encapsulates the most basic outlook by a person who has given up and resigned themselves to an eventual death after a hard life lived on the street, but one who still has the capacity to hope that their own failure does not harm anyone else. I've read many books of poetry where profanity is used for the sake of shock value, but McNair's collection is among the few where the verses have a stronger punch than any single word used. Overall, this is a fantastic collection. Highly recommended.
