"Stay loose." This directive early in the book grabbed my thought process and pervaded every word written thereafter. It is definitely an important directive in this guide to how a beer lover can learn to appreciate the mysterious vino and its people, and perhaps help...

Just how bad can one kid’s life get? When 13-year-old Erik Burks discovers a black lace bra in the glove compartment of his dad’s car his life falls apart. Totally! His mom leaves his father and drags Erik from being king of the hill in...

"The Wooing of Jane Grey" by C.E. Hilbert is a pure and wonderful love story. Jane Grey had it all: a good job, good life, proper church life, loving parents, two sisters and a best friend. But she was thirty-ish and wanted something more from...

In 1967 in Forrest Town, Arkansas, eighteen year old Alison Tillman finds the body of a dead black man, Byron Bingham, floating in the nearby St.Francis River. Alison is ashamed to be white as she is almost certain that white people caused Byron's death. His...

“Screwing Up Love” by James Downton, Jr., Ph.D., is the “Relationship Owner’s Manual” every married couple since Adam and Eve has lamented not having. Better known as Dr. Bob, the Love Coach, the author very cleverly has written this do-it-yourself marital guide from the negative...

“Boo’s Bad Day” by Penny Lockwood is a short tale about a kitten who, after watching outside through the house window for hours, decided he wanted to go outside to play, like the other animals. He was just plain bored of playing with his toy...

“Bound” by Jennifer Dean finds seventeen year old Emma Morgan happily returning to live in the small town of Washington, North Carolina, reuniting with old friends, old familiar haunts and her brother and best friend, Sean. Little did Emma know she would also find true...

Freckle-faced four year old Jason Smith sits on the rooftop of his Craftsman-style home in Ruidoso, New Mexico. Jason has a lisp, a wild imagination and a knack for mischief and now he is pretending he is Batman. He jumps off the roof, a twenty-two...

"Secret of the Crystal Dragon" by Paula Blais Gorgas is a delightful fantasy about two worlds whose histories have been closely tied together since the beginning of man’s time on Earth. Myra Goodfellow, now twelve, has heard the stories of the Dreamkeeper and a place...

Author Joao Cequeira has created an interesting but fictional book looking back at Fidel Castro, the longtime revolutionary leader of Cuba. Cequeria begins by telling the reader that his God, Jesus Christ, JFK, J.Edgar Hoover and even Fidel himself are purely fictional creations. Then "The...

As its title suggests, Manny Pacheco’s “Son of Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History” is a treasure trove second volume of little-known facts about the tireless and ubiquitous cast of character actors who helped establish the Hollywood film industry. Readers may not know these actors’ names but...

Staff Sergeant Larry FitzGerald, code name Reaper 6, was a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier deployed to Vietnam in 1965. As a member of a Special Ops team he reported to only two men: Generals Westmoreland and Abrams, the commanders of all the U.S. Armed...

"Shattered Paradise: Memoirs of a Nicaraguan War Child" is Ileana Araguti's life story. As a child, she grows up in an isolated farm house near a mystical city dubbed as the City of Mist. Her grandfather Abuelo Lalo tells her stories that ground her to...

Martha Stettinius writes so very well in this memoir of how she, her family and caregivers dealt with her mother Judy's dementia as it moved from mild to progressively worsening stages. The author is very forthright in telling readers that she wished she had paid...

"Victim of Shame" delivers its readers a riveting adventure that you just can’t put down! Ryan Campbell is a man on a collision course with a fate which rocked his world. The story is told from his journal which makes it all so real. He...

“Mice in My Tummy” by Andrea Houdek is a clever little tale of 5 year old Sami Rae, who thinks she has mice living in her tummy, because every time the teacher calls on her she can feel them running around in her tummy. Sami...

“Bad News for a Ghost” by Jim Guigli is touted as being a "Bart Lasiter Mystery", implying there are or will be more 'Bart Lasiter Mysteries'. Bart Lasiter is a barely-scraping-by private investigator, formerly associated with the Berkeley Police Department, currently working out of a...

When her grandmother died, Melissa Schwedemann's life changed forever. The old woman left her a mysterious journal and a letter. Also, her grandmother gives her instructions that she has to follow before sunset on the solstice of that year. Not doing so may result in...

In "Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History", Manny Pacheco presents portraits of character actors who were important yet not widely known in the history of cinema in the United States. He ties the works of these actors with events in American and world history, often remarking on...

“Lady Justice and the Book Club Murders” by Robert Thornhill is number ten (10) in his comedy/mystery series of “Lady Justice” tales. In an unusual merger, Robert Thornhill combines the genres of comedy and mystery, and he does it well. It doesn’t seem very realistic...