Bulls Island by Dorothea Benton Frank Is the story of two people deeply in love but separated by a tragic event in their past. Twenty years ago Betts McGee left Charleston and took a secret with her; she never intended to return. That all changed...

Lin and Larry Pardey lived an adventurous, free gypsy life on the seas for over a decade before deciding to build a new yacht and focus on writing. Their decision to move to a friend's stone house in Bull Canyon, a desolate place without power...

The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea is advertised as the story of 26 men who crossed the Mexican American border into the desert of Arizona to Devil’s Highway. Twenty six entered the desert, but only twelve came out alive. Urrea discussed...

In this collection of poems, David McDonald lays out the ugly truth of war and its negative effects on soldiers and on our planet. The poem, "A Poppy," was heartwarming in that it expressed the feelings of a flower who wanted to honor the fallen...

In The Christmas Singing, author Cindy Woodsmall places an Amish woman named Mattie in Ohio. Three years prior to the setting of the book, Mattie and her childhood sweetheart, Gideon, broke off their long-term relationship. Mattie was convinced that Gideon preferred the fancy English women...

Treasuring Emma gets off to a brisk start as main character Emma is confronted with her mother's death from cancer. Emma and her grandmother's farm, in the heart of Amish country, is cared for by neighbor Norman Ott, but it needs care and repair that...

Six children at Jefferson Elementary School are sitting on stage preparing themselves for an upcoming spelling bee. Each of them has his/her own special way for remembering how to spell a word. Chloe loves long and complicated words, Ryan spells by rhyming, Juan uses knock-knock...

What a pleasant surprise that there were actually three stories in this book! I was not expecting that when I first picked it up. Just 59 pages long, I would encourage author Tim Kizer to add several more short stories and make it a larger...

Gifted, young writer Chad Douglas has created a rollicking, action-filled tale of pirate/werewolf Captain Thomas Crowe, who sails from the Caribbean to London and onto Spain, fighting off government officials and the far more dangerous clans of vampires back in the 1700's. Cleverly using aliases...

. I don’t normally give 5 stars. When I do, it’s because the book blew me away. Such a book has great, fully fleshed out characters that become as real as my next door neighbor; it keeps me hooked with an intriguing plot that flows...

The Gargoyle In The Seine; A Victorian Mystery is a thrilling mystery novel written by Dee Garretson. Clary Ashton is an art student studying in Paris, 1878. Her brother, Sam, tells her that there is a gargoyle lurking nearby the Seine River, whose job it...

In 1973 I was invited to be a guest speaker at the Creative Problem-Solving Institute (CPSI) at the State University of New York in Buffalo. Dr.J.P. Guilford, Professor Emeritus in Psychology at USC, recommended me as the best interpreter and teacher of his theory of...

In this 19th novel by Michael Connelly, Los Angeles lawyer Michael "Mickey" Haller returns to work after treatment for drug addiction. He inherits murdered trial lawyer Jerry Vincent's case loads, the most outstanding one being the double-homicide case against movie mogul Walter Elliot. Mickey finds...

In what could be the beginning of a new mystery series, three good friends from Grand River, Texas, fiesty, mouthy 80 year old Millie, more reserved 65 year old Edna, and 48 year old divorced Trisha are the Silver Sleuths. They set about proving the...

Joseph has spent most of his life in anguish due to tormenting, graphic nightmares that he cannot shake when he's not sleeping. In fact, sometimes he daydreams and they come to him: still the same scene, just as graphic and certainly as disturbing. Using karate...

Living in Chicago fourteen year old Howie Smith always looks forward to the time that he and his family head to his grandparents farm for the summer. While Howie and his brother Bill who is nine and his mother Anne spend the summer at the...

In her new mystery series entitled "Stolen Hearts", author Jane Tesh introduces private eye David Randall. He is a twice married and unfocused individual who harbors a deep loss that continues to haunt him years after the event. It is unclear what exactly makes Randall...

In "Going Cowboy Crazy" by Katie Lane, we meet Faith Aldridge, one of two identical twins, who was adopted at birth while her twin sister remained home with the parents in Bramble, Texas. After the death of her adoptive parents, Faith decides to seek out...

The small Ohio town of Crystalton is the setting for growing up in the 1970's. A group of boys in their teens and an event that lasted less than 10 minutes altered their lives forever. Petey was an insane pain in the butt who tormented...

It's now almost 100 years since the Unsinkable Titanic sunk. This book is based on some true rather sad facts of what happened on this doomed cruise. The story opens with Tess Collins escaping her job, supposed to be a seamstress, but is more of a...