Some people call it ‘survivor’s guilt’, that violent sense of abandonment from reality, that robot-like functioning in a world that carries on, the survivor forever feeling guilty for having survived when all around him or her have died, have been sacrificed. The generation that followed...

One reader of Eric Peterson’s novel, The Dining Car, describes perfectly the nature of its central character Horace Button - a celebrity editorialist on all things cultural but specifically gastronomical - as Falstaffian. Physically huge and attitudinally challenged, a drinker par excellence, Horace provides the...

The Soul of My Son: A Grieving Father's Journey from Skeptic to Psychic Medium is a non-fiction self-help book on grief and bereavement written by Steven Joseph. Joseph and his wife, Karen, had their family planned carefully. Their first child would be walking and potty...

Herb Hughes pens an action-packed futuristic mystery in The Joystick Murders: A Drake Blast Novel. The year is 2042 and Drake Blast is working a security detail. It is seemingly a low-level assignment, until a Secret Service agent murders the front runner for the 2044...

The Tower by Lynn Yvonne Moon is an honest and painful read that gives an excellent insight into the minds of children who think that ending their life is better than being a torment to their parents and friends. They are not sure of how...

The Game Changer by Dave Dröge is a gorgeous read, a beautiful mix of crime, intrigue, and thriller, featuring great and interesting characters. Henk van Wijnen-Swarttouw is a successful entrepreneur, but his business is not without shady dealings and he may not escape charges of...

Wow! Just, wow! That's exactly what I thought when I finished reading The First Lie, which is Book One of the Selkie Moon Mystery Series by author Virginia King. This book gripped me from the very first page and kept me obsessively reading it all...

Beautifully illustrated, The Adventures of Gracie and MonkeyBear - Book 1: Summer revels in the imagination and the marvels of childhood. The narrative is by C.S. O’Kelly and illustrations are by Jordy Farrell. Together they create a delightful book. Gracie and MonkeyBear (her dog) share...

In an interesting and intriguing work by author Steven Burgauer, The Grandfather Paradox is a book that will keep many reading straight through to the very end. Follow the story of protagonist Andu Nehrengel as he careens from the 25th century through history, including to...

The CleanSweep Conspiracy: A Matt Tremain Technothriller by Chuck Waldron is a strong opening for the Dystopian World Chronicles that features a powerful setting, a great conflict, and complex characters. This is the kind of fiction that will appeal to fans of thrillers, crime fiction,...

What do you do when the things that go bump in your dreams take form during waking hours? A normal person would attempt to run away as far and as fast as they could. But if you’re sisters Mia and Jamie, you live through it...

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,...

The Shape of the Atmosphere, the excellent book written by a promising debut author, Jessica Dainty, is a story that I found very difficult to put down once I started reading it. Follow the story of young Gertie MacLarsen, a teenager who has felt ugly...

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 Missing Piece is a romance novella written by Marie Lavender. After waking up on the front lawn of a college fraternity, the darkest of thoughts cloud Alyssa Masters’ mind, which is devoid of any memory of the night before. Interrupting those thoughts is Justin...

The Moose with the Pump by Yerachmiel Altman is about David Jacob, the little blue moose who has type 1 diabetes. His parents tell him that he need not be scared as they will not let him down and, with the right information, he will...

The illustrations by Siera Tomczak in The Color of Beauty are very realistic. She adds so many tones, shadows, and highlights that really give contrast and bring the illustrations to life. The poetry or musings on color by Goob are very well written. The author...

The Siege (A Psychological Thriller) by James Hanna is a fiction novel that follows a prison takeover. The Siege will appeal most to an audience of adults who enjoy prison fiction with all of its raw grittiness. The story takes place in The Indiana Penal...

A breath of fresh air is the description that befits The Mermaid's Carol: A Last Chance for Love in more ways than one. Abigail Keam has written a fantastic tale of love, adultery, family struggles, and the legend of a magical mermaid - yes, a...

When Bill and Cheryl Parker are visited by an aggressive reporter who has recognized them from news footage of an earthquake on Molokai, their idyllic, love-filled lives are turned upside down and inside out by more than the earthquake in this riveting political thriller, The...