The Shores of Our Souls by Kathryn Brown Ramsperger follows a romantic affair between a forty-year-old Muslim diplomat in New York City and a young, fresh-out-of-college stunning beauty from the South, a story that explores the dynamics of family, war, and religion. The young beauty,...

Teenage Mosaic: A Story of Murder, Revenge, and Forgiveness is a young adult and new adult contemporary fiction novel written by Dewey Pasquini. What started out as teens acting out in a restaurant and harassing their waitperson until they got him fired would turn out...

The Unexpected Daughter by Sheryl Parbhoo is a very captivating story of how the lives of three people can be so opposite, and yet so similar. Jenny is a young professional from the old South, who carries with her the burden and baggage of a...

Tiger Pelt by Annabelle Kim takes us into the story of a time that was a savage and sometimes unforgiving time. You are taken into Korea when Japan was an occupying force. A young boy from a farm goes on a quest that will lead...

Books having to do with the Middle East always interest me, and especially those set in Iraq. This is a region that the author says is “older than the flood.” It is a land that has been ruled at one time or another by the...

Taco: A Brooklyn Tale is a young adult coming of age novel written by John E. DeJesus. Taco and his family moved to Brooklyn, New York, just before he began first grade. His real name was Juan Ortega, but Percy, a class clown, promptly named...

I had the great privilege to review Theodore Jerome Cohen’s Book 2 of The Road Less Taken, and I mentioned there the primary descriptive word for his great skill at short story writing: Gripping. Actually, I may have said: Utterly Gripping. Having the honor then...

The Other La Bohème by Yorker Keith is aptly labeled literary fiction, an interesting story that explores the life and career of the Dolci Quattro. After their breathtaking performance of Puccini’s well-known opera, La Bohème, during their graduation, four friends form a band called the...

Threshold by Susan Feathers is a compelling novel with a powerful prophetic message, a story that is purpose-driven and that should speak to contemporary readers with an irresistible eloquence. It’s a story set in the near future, a story about a city that is rapidly...

One perfect word quickly comes to mind when trying to distill the effect of Theodore Jerome Cohen’s collection of short (truly short) stories in The Road Less Taken. The word is: Gripping. And I do not use that word lightly. I mean, utterly, sometimes devastatingly,...