Title: Brandywine’s War: Back In Country
Author: Robert Vaughan
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Skyward Publishing
Pages: 264
ISBN: 1-881554-41-4
Price: $19.95
Publishing Date: 2005
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
In tones of “Catch 22”, this sequel to the immensely popular Vietnam War iconoclast, “Brandywine’s War” is thoroughly funny and heartrendingly sad all at the same time. The protagonist, Chief Warrant Officer Brandywine, is coerced by his Battalion Commander to take leave and involuntarily extend for six more months in Nam in order to go back to the States to sign a book deal. This sets the stage for a rollicking contest of Army bureaucratic wit and manipulation. Brandywine takes his leave, goes back to find his wife is divorcing him, signs the book deal, and returns. Vengeance becomes hilariously sweet and a new love is discovered; however, there is much sadness as well.
This is a wonderfully written novel that will tie up your funny bone with your heart strings. We rated it a max five hearts.
Title: Gypsy of the Sea
Author: Helen Dean Brewer
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Lost Coast Press
Pages: 272
ISBN: 1-882897-87-0
Price: $15
Publishing Date: Aug 2005
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
Sophia, a young American woman fulfills a promise to her dead father to visit his old world home village in Albania. She finds the village’s simplistic, poor life a temptation, especially after she becomes the secret lover of Abraham. At the same time, her father’s old best friend, a recluse by the name of Arseni, explains the complex politics and ethnicities of Albania and Greece.
The author does a superb job of making central European politics and history understandable at the grass roots level. We rated this book four hearts.
Title: Dark Water Stories
Author: Koji Suzuki
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Vertical, Inc.
Pages: 281
ISBN: 1-932234-10-1
Price: $21.95
Publishing Date: 2004
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
Koji Suzuki, the “Steven King of Japan,” has put together a cogent collection of Japanese-based horror tales that will curdle your spine. His stories are so macabre, yet so plausible, which is what makes them so scary. The author of the chilling “Ring” and “Spiral,” Mr. Suzuki is worthy to stand alongside King and Koontz when it comes to writing horror stories. In fact, we could call them the three Ks of the horror genre. This collection has story lines centered on water. For example, imagine the horror of a single mom who discovers the water she and her daughter have been drinking for months comes from a water tank on top her apartment building—a tank she just discovered is holding the corpse of a little girl who disappeared two years before. And this story is just for starters; it gets better. Koji, the third K, is a suspense master and Vertical, Inc. is to be congratulated for translating and publishing his works so well. We give this book five hearts.
Title: Torture the Artist
Author: Joey Goebel
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: MacAdam / Cage
Pages: 250
ISBN: 1-931561-77-X
Price: $23
Publishing Date: Oct 2004
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
New Renaissance is a new entertainment company which talent searches among children, sends them to school to grow and develop as writers. What the public doesn’t know is that the experimental company hires managers who purposely pull strings behind the scenes to insure their charges will grow up feeling totally alienated and frustrated. The story focuses on a young writer, Vincent Spinnetti, and his worldly wise, burnt out musician manager, Harlan Eiffler, to make Vincent’s life as miserable as possible so he will gain and keep a creative edge over all others.
This has got to be the most quirky, kinky, strange look at the artistic scene I have ever come across. Harlan keeps making life miserable for Vincent, while pretending to be his friend, and Vincent keeps pumping out hit songs and writings oozing with artistic angst. The author does an excellent satirical expose of what is wrong in the writing world today. We rated this book five hearts.
Title: Trespassing Time: Ghost Stories from the Prairie
Author: Barbara J. Baldwin, Jerri Garretson, Linda Madl, & Sheri L. McGathy
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Ravenstone Press
Pages: 240
ISBN: 0-9659712-6-0
Price: $7.99
Publishing Date: 2005
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
It is always a pleasure to find a fine collection of short stories by an excellent group of authors. As a professional storyteller, I am always on the lookout for good ghost stories, and these are some of the best. The title story is similar to “Brigadoon,” except it is set on the old Santa Fe trail in Southern Kansas. My favorite story is about a man’s beloved border collie that is cremated when it dies of old age. Its ghost comes back to watch over his old owner, along with the ghosts of ten other dogs that were cremated at the same time.
The authors write poignant, as well as scary, stories. Their skills are polished enough for the stories to have seemingly flowed from one pen. There is just enough of an element of terror mixed with “ah gee” moments to appeal to a wide body of readers.I rated this book five hearts.
Title: Seeds of Hope
Author: Soecy Gummels
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Tigress Press, LLC
Pages: 233
ISBN: 0-97408488-3
Price: $13.95
Publishing Date: 2004
Reader: Judy Schuler
Rating:
Sharisa Wentworth, single mother of five-year-old Lisa, does not want to get involved with another man. Ever. She has made a successful life for herself and her child as a writer. She is reasonably happy, if lonely. Why mess it up? Handsome Shane Gallagher has other ideas. He is determined to win Sharisa, whether she agrees or not. But how can he get past her demons and convince her that, together, he, she, and Lisa can make a family?
Seeds of Hope by Soecy Gummels, is a heart-warming love story about a woman, scarred by violence, and a man who loves her enough to refuse to give up on her, in spite of her resistance. We give it four hearts.
Title: Mysteries of the Ozarks Vol. 1
Editor: Ellen Gray Massey
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Skyward Publishing, Inc.
Pages: 259
ISBN: 1-881554-36-8
Price: $14.95
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
The Ozarks (southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, and a slice of eastern Oklahoma) is a region known for its craftsmen. Just go to Silver Dollar City or Branson, Missouri to see what I’m talking about demonstrated. Whether it be blacksmithing, glass blowing, or mountain music instrument making, there are masters at each specialty. The same is true of the region’s writers. Mysteries of the Ozarks is a masterfully edgy collection of short stories from members of Ozark Writers, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing and showcasing the Ozarks’ top writing talent. There is nothing backwoods about these writers’ tools. Coming from a cultural heritage of storytelling, these authors present gripping and ironic vignettes using very sophisticated literary techniques in the instinctive manner of natural born writers. We rated this collection five hearts.
Title: Spiral
Author: Koji Suzuki
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Vertical, Inc.
Pages: 281
ISBN: 1-932234-06-3
Price: $24.95
Publishing Date: 2004
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
This is the sequel to “Ring”, an incredible horror novel, which was made into a highly successful movie. Spiral retains some horror elements; however, it is primarily a medical thriller. What we learn in this follow-on is that the first novel misled its audience somewhat. Closure takes place here with an entirely new twist. Genetics play a role and the evolution of a new species through the occultic manipulation of a virus is the direction this new novel travels.
It is clearly evident why this author has been labeled “the Stephen King of Japan.” In this novel he illustrates how versatile he is with genres and writing styles. His science makes sense and the pace will leave you dizzy. We rated this book five hearts.
Title: Harry’s War
Author: D. Edward Bradley
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Wexford College Press
Pages: 263
ISBN: 1-92914-822-4
Price: $14.95
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
It’s 1941 during the Battle for Britain. Thirteen-year-old Harry Lockwood is beginning education at an English public school, Markham College. The public school system isn’t anything like those in America. First, British public schools are all private, boarding institutions. One cannot hope to get a decent career without graduating from the right school. Anything less will doom one to the trades. These are not the caring places of Harry Potter, but tyrannical environments overseen by sadistic, bullying senior students and housemasters. Harry has to somehow survive his schooling and the German buzz bombs and V-2 rockets flying over and landing amidst the school’s grounds. At the same time, he discovers the love of his life, forbidden fruit at a neighboring girls’ school.
Having listened to many war stories of one of my best friend’s English mother, I can attest to the realism of this story. The author brings forth the details of his own wartime experiences to enrich this story’s setting. The characters are real and believable, as is the dialogue. The pace was much faster than I had expected. In all, this was a delightful book. We rated it five hearts.
Title: Oslo in April
Author: John Slade
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Woodgate International
Pages: 197
ISBN: 1-893617-11-4
Price: $12.95
Publishing Date: 2004
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
Wow, what a wonderfully touching positive story! Eight members of a fictional Oslo symphony orchestra live their lives throughout the day just prior to an important concert. One member, their conductor, has emotionally fallen apart because his wife has just left him for another man. His breakdown has affected the whole orchestra, but especially an important young Estonian guest piano soloist, who feels ignored and insulted.
The author handles the interplay of their lives in a masterful manner. Each character becomes very real to the reader, contributing in small and not so small ways to the salvage of the conductor and the orchestra. The story is emotionally touching and leaves one with a sweet ah ha feeling at its end. The author was so bummed out by the start of the Iraqi war last year that he set out to write the most positive, uplifting story he could instead of whining about it. He succeeded beyond expectation. This is one of the more uplifting stories of the decade. We rated it five hearts.
Title: The Prophecy—2024
Author: Kirt R. Poovey
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Huntington House Publishers
Pages: 384
ISBN: 1-56384-197-5
Price: $19.99
Publishing Date: 2002
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
Prophecy 2024 and its sequel, Tragedy and Hope, are today’s equivalent to 1984. These speculative fiction books chillingly describe an America where the government and a power-hungry President manipulate laws and regulations to reduce the country to a bare shell of mockery to the principles our founders established it upon. Using the Nazi model for government takeover, the President makes patriotic Christians the societal scapegoats, similar to the Jews in World War II. Just as Hitler burned down his own governmental center, the Reichstag, and blamed it on the Jews. This President blows up the Kansas City Federal Building and blames it on the Christians.
The book is chilling enough, conceptually, but the author builds extensive events into the story that are made more horrific when he points out in his endnotes they are based on real life events that have already taken place but have not received media attention. One should read these two books to understand what has been happening in our country right under our noses for several years without the public’s realization how so many controlling regulations and events are connected with a sinister purpose. We rated these books four hearts.
Title: Her Immortal Soul
Author: Julien Longo
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Lost Coast Press
Pages: 220
ISBN: 1-882897-83-8
Price: $16.95
Publishing Date: 2004
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
Her Immortal Soul is difficult to categorize. The protagonist, Justine, is a young woman of privilege in post-Rome occupation England. Her Italian mother has run their estate since she was widowed and Justine has learned to be independent as well, especially since she has studied the healing arts under a Jewish lady. A Catholic priest greatly desires their land and holdings, so he can rise within the Church. Justine’s mother is tortured as an accused witch until Justine euthanizes her with poison. Then Justine is burned as a witch, except she is rescued at the last minute by a mysterious nobleman and made immortal by an elixir. She eventually becomes the ward and mistress of a powerful prince, whom we later learn is Lucifer. We follow her through the centuries and learn she and other characters around her are reincarnations from Atlantis, who are bound together from life to life.
Whether this is fantasy or a strange kind of historical fiction or a New Age novel, it is a very good read with some unusual and interesting viewpoints of biblical characters. The author is a good storyteller, using descriptions to good effect. The story pulls the reader along. We rated the book four hearts.
Title: Love Notes
Author: Reginald Dunlop
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Maxamillian Books
Pages: 252
ISBN: 0-9632749-0-2
Price: $7.99
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
Love Notes is a lovely inspirational love story about Hosea Brown, who loses Marlena, his wife of many years, in a needless car crash. As part of his grieving process, Hosea begins playing free-form piano jazz, which seems to speak with Marlena’s emotions from beyond the veil. Hosea, who gave up a promising musical early on for the security of a career in the postal service, now regains his playing skills while taking his music to an unearthly plane.
This is a well crafted, touching story with interesting twists and turns. The author makes it seem so real, so poignant, by capturing the feelings of this talent, grieving husband. This is a love story for all music lovers. We rated it five hearts.
Title: The Race
Author: Dave Shields
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Three Story Press
Pages: 214
ISBN: 0-9748492-0-0
Price: $14.95
Publishing Date: 15 May, 2004
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
The Race is the ultimate novel on professional bike racing. The story is about an American who accidentally causes a bicycle pile-up in which a favored French competitor is killed. Now Ben, the American, is in the Tour de France on a team with the dead biker’s brother. Ben is vilified by the fans along the way, but gets an unexpected boost from the brother. Ben has to overcome the machinations by his team’s xenophobic French director, the physical and emotional interventions by the spectators, and even himself.
The author is a master of description. The physical and emotional trials of these ultra-athletes come alive with a feeling of total realism. His characters are powerful and the emotions are raw. The story is about both the unfairness of people and the generosity of others. We rated this gripping book five hearts.
Title: Waiting for White Horses
Author: Nathan Jorgenson
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Flat Rock Publishing
Pages: 492
ISBN: 0-9746370-0-9
Price: $16.95
Publishing Date: 2004
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
Waiting for White Horses is a romantic novel for both men and women (a macho chick book?). Yes, that’s what it is. Take a sportsman who has experienced the untimely loss of a wife and father to devastating illnesses; add an old flame and a new love interest plus the very best of a male hunting buddy. Then mix with some of the best descriptions and philosophies of duck hunting and fishing. Finally cook with the seasoning of emotional conflict, misguided misunderstandings between a father and his maturing daughter, and the flavorings of the Northern Midwest and Washington DC with its politics. What comes out of the literary oven is one of the most interesting and touching novels I’ve had the pleasure to review.
The author is an experienced journalist and, more importantly, one heck of an outdoors sportsman. He manages to balance an understanding of man’s natural hunter psyche with a sensitivity for women’s emotional needs. There is something for everyone, even dog lovers. His characters are real and understandable. His use of dialogue definitely captures the nuances of the regions. His settings are very visual. An added plus is a superbly designed book cover and a gorgeous interior design of the book. We rated this book a max five hearts.
Title: Of Their Own Accord
Author: Gary E. Dolan
Illustrator: Samantha Wall
Publisher and/or Distributor: The Writers’ Collective
Pages: 307
ISBN: 1-932133-21-6
Price: Softcover: $16.95/Hardcover: $24.95
Publishing Date: 2004
Reader: J. Patrick Fitzhugh
Rating:
Based on real incidents, this is a quintessential Vietnam war novel about the role Army Ranger units played conducting raids by small teams on the ground and directed and supported by their officers in the air. This book tracks the experiences of a young West Point graduate who volunteers for a Ranger unit in-country, learns his trade, takes care of his men, accomplishes his missions, and deals with a macho posturing, cowardly martinet of a company commander. The young officer’s thoughts and emotions while coping with these challenges and his longings for the young wife left behind in the States are aptly represented.
The author does a superlative job of presenting a setting in which the reader can easily experience the jungle, understand the challenges of accurate map reading over a sea of green jungle canopy, while directing troops on the ground, calling in artillery strikes, and air-to-ground fire support. Mr. Dolan was there and did that, and it shows. We rated his book five hearts.
Title: The Ponder Legacy
Author: Robert O. Barclay
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Beaver Pond Press
Pages: 232
ISBN: 1-931646-72-4
Price: $14.95
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
The Ponder Legacy is a romance set in rural Minnesota. Marianne and Matthew have lived next door to one another all their lives. Now middle-aged, she has loved him since she was eight. He has loved her too, but just doesn’t know it. He comes over for breakfast everyday and they talk as if they were an old married couple, but there has been no romance and no sex in their relationship. Matthew is more than willing to continue on with business as usual. Marianne’s biological clock is ticking and about ready to wind down. The lengths she is willing to go to awaken a semblance of romantic awareness in her old friend is laughable, matched equally by his extreme case of naiveté. We rated this novel three hearts.
Title: White Midnight
Author: Dia Calhoun
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Pages: 304
ISBN: 0-374-38389-8
Price: $18.00
Publishing Date: October 17, 2003
Reader: Judy Schuler
Rating:
Fifteen-year-old bondgirl, Rose Chandler, fears everything, especially the dark and the red-haired, blue-eyed Dalriadians from the Red Mountains. All the dark-eyed valley folk fear the Dalriadians and the two groups have been at war for years. Rose loves her home in Greengarden and dreams of saving it from the neglect of its owner, Mr. Brae. To do that she must face her fears, marry the “Thing” that lives in Mr. Brae’s attic, uncover its secret, and finally travel to the heart of Dalriadian country in the Red Mountains.
White Midnight is a mystic story about a young woman coming to grips with her fears and prejudices to save what she loves. We give it four hearts.
Title: The Journey from Kamakura
Author: Glen Allison
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Ten World Press
Pages: 312
ISBN: 0-9719644-1-6
Price: $21.95
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
The Journey from Kamakura tells the story of a young man who finds his true love early on and spends years destroying that love with his incessant search for fame and fortune as an architectural photographer. His relationship blows up over his inability to come to grips with having children (based on his own abuse as a child) and his driving ambition. Bankrupt and leaving behind a failed marriage, he rebuilds his life as a travel photographer. After becoming highly successful at that, he realizes he’s still not happy, until he meets a startling woman who causes him to turn his life around.
The author’s experience as a photographer and world traveler lends instant credibility to his story. His tale is fascinating and moves at a steady clip. The reader is allowed to glimpse the insides of a highly competitive career field, which has photographers going to extreme ends to take just the right photos under the very best light conditions. The symbolism and emotional conflict makes this a very good read. We rated it four hearts.
Title: Popular Music from Vittula
Author: Mikael Niemi
Translator: Laurie Thompson
Publisher and/or Distributor: Seven Stories Press
Pages: 240
ISBN: 1-58322-523-4
Price: $21.95
Publishing Date: Oct 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
Take a community in Northern Sweden right on the border with Finland. Add in a group of manic, cabin-fevered characters of early teen years, which are desperate to create their own identity within the rigid confines of this multiethnic culture. They do so by discovering and aping rock and roll. Surround them with some of the most stoic, macho (even the women) adults in the world, who have brought new meaning to the terms, “suffering in silence”. Take an author who is a combination of Patrick McManus and the author of The Last Kid Picked, and you have the recipe for a wonderously funny novel. This book has sold over 700,000 copies in the small country of Sweden. The author has obviously struck a resonant chord. We rated it a very high four hearts.
Title: San Remo Drive
Author: Leslie Epstein
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Handsel Books / Other Press LLC
Pages: 244
ISBN: 1-59051-066-6
Price: $24
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
This is a novel based on facts taken from the author’s life. It is about two brothers growing up among the movie-making society of Los Angeles in the 50s totally surrounded by talented people. The film-writing father is highly successful until he is caught up in the communist witch-hunting period of McCarthy. Fired by the studios and shunned by friends, the father commits suicide by car accident, leaving behind his rather quirky wife and the two boys. One boy is severely emotionally damaged and the other, the narrator, becomes a highly talented painter with problems of his own.
San Remo Drive is a literary novel of the first rank. The author uses the emotional conflict of the boys’ inability to come to grips with their Jewish culture and ethnic background and their political and cultural liberality bounced against the harshness of the real world. This is a finely crafted book. I would recommend it to all wannabe writers as an example of the penultimate of the trade. We rated it a very high five hearts.
Title: Blind Dates
Author: Kristin Billerbeck * Colleen Coble * Denise Hunter * Bev Huston
Illustrator: N/A
Publisher and/or Distributor: Barbour Publishing
Pages: 352
ISBN: 1-58660-757-X
Price: $9.95
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Jane Deskis
Rating:
Blind Dates is four endearing stories about a Grandmother and her four granddaughters that haven’t found their true love, yet. Short stories about each granddaughter and her run in with a blind date set up by Grandmother. Each tale lightens your heart and endears you to the characters. It is so nice to read a romance story with God at its core. Each couple must lean not unto their own understand but depend on God for their guidance in life. I couldn’t wait to finish each story, but it was then nice to move onto another story of love in the same book. The authors did a great job weaving their stories together.
Title: Broken Things
Author: Andrea Boeshaar
Illustrator: n/a
Publisher and/or Distributor: Barbour Publishing
Pages: 346
ISBN: 1-58660-756-1
Price: 11.99
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Jane Deskis
Rating:
Andrea Boeshaar does a great job of weaving and intertwining the lives of her characters. She shows the life in reality as it is for most people. People burn bridges in their lives and later wonder if there is any possibility of putting them together again. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. The hope and spiritual truths weaved throughout the story are heartwarming. You feel for each character as their life struggles bring them to life and you cheer when the Holy Spirit opens their hearts. This is a page turner you won’t want to put down until you know the final outcome.
Title: Buddha Volume One: Kapilavastu
Author: Osamu Tezuka
Illustrator: Osamu Tezuka
Publisher and/or Distributor: Vertical Publishing
Pages: 288
ISBN: 1-932234-43-8
Price: $24.95
Publishing Date: Oct 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
This is a graphic novel (adult comic book) of the origins of Buddha written by the Godfather of the manga comic style. Although it includes full frontal nudity, it is in keeping with the hot climate of central India, where the story takes place. The story’s pace moves quickly from frame to frame. This is a fascinating translation from the Japanese version. If you have an interest in manga or in the religion, you should find this book of great interest. It is the first in a series of eight volumes. It is a unique offering, which we rated five hearts. Vertical continues to amaze us with its mission to bring the best of Japan literature into English.
Title: Outlet
Author: Randy Taguchi
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Vertical, Inc.
Pages: 272
ISBN: 1-932234-04-7
Price: $15.95
Publishing Date: Oct 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
This is an adult-level Japanese metaphysical novel about a young freelance journalist covering the financial sector. She finds herself thrust into a whole new world of perceptions and understandings when her older brother’s body is found decomposing in an apartment from starving to death. Seeking help from a past professor/lover, the young lady, Yuki, also comes in contact with other old acquaintances from her student days. A lady anthropologist begins watching over Yuki, believing she is a new kind of Shaman designed for the needs of our modern, high-tech society. Meanwhile, Yuki begins questioning her own sanity as her dead brother keeps visually appearing to her, and she keeps smelling his decomposing body on those people with whom she comes in contact who are slated to soon die.
Vertical brings us a delightfully edgy novel from the island of Japan. The reader is shown microcosmic snapshots of modern Japanese culture along with interesting speculations that some of us need to “plug into, literally, the master computer’s chosen “outlets”. The author does a great job of explaining esoteric spirituality concepts in high-tech terminologies better suited for modern society. We rated this novel four hearts.
Title: Strangers
Author: Taichi Yamada
Translator: Wayne Lammers
Publisher and/or Distributor: Vertical, Inc.
Pages: 208
ISBN: 1-932234-42-X
Price: $14.95
Publishing Date: Sept 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
What a touching novel!!! A 48-year-old Japanese freelance TV scriptwriter, Harada, is newly divorced, living in his office, and feeling totally depressed and lonely. A spark of nostalgia leads him to wander back to his old neighborhood in Tokyo, where he had lived until he was twelve. His parents were killed by a hit-and-run and he left to be raised by other relatives. Walking his old streets, he runs into a couple who look, talk, and act like his dead parents did right before their death. He keeps coming back to spend time with them, with unexpected consequences. Each time he visits, they inadvertently drain more of his life force to maintain their own corporeal existence. His condition becomes so critical he has to tell them. Will they continue to drain him to maintain their existence, or will they sacrifice themselves for their son. The ending has some unexpected twists, which will grab the reader’s emotions and yank them like a chain.
The author, one of Japan’s best scriptwriters, tells a story about what he knows best. This is an interesting glimpse into Japanese pop culture. His storyline is so poignant, so emotional, it will have you hoping every character will come out ahead. The author is famous for having redefined Japanese TV drama to the better. This book is a clear indication as to why. We rated it a high five hearts.
Title: Angels in the Morning
Author: Sasha Troyan
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Permanent Press
Pages: 176
ISBN: 1-57962-083-3
Price: $26
Publishing Date: March, 2003
Reader: Judy Schuler
Rating:
Angels in the Morning is a poignant novel told from the viewpoint of a precocious ten-year-old girl. Set in France, the rhythm and images evoked memories of my own childhood more than fifty years ago in Oklahoma. Gabriel and her deaf younger sister Alexis share a summer of companionship and heartbreak at their summer home in Provence. She yearns for her father, who is occupied with a new love, and tests her nanny in imaginative, childlike ways. Her mother is smitten by a neighbor, her nanny by the chauffer, Luis. Her grandmother, whom she relies on for guidance and love, is dying. Gabriel has a hard summer, but she comes out of it determined to be responsible and care for her sister. In many ways Gabriel is much more mature than the adults in her life.
Ms. Troyan captures the innocence of childhood as it faces the complexity of adult behavior. The characters are very real and we ache for the two little girls whose life is shattering. Angels in the Morning is a compelling autobiographical novel. We give it five hearts.
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Title: Channeling Biker Bob II: Lover's Embrace
Author: Nik C. Colyer
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Henrioulle Publishing Group
Pages: 337
ISBN: 0-9708163-1-6
Price: $15
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
This novel is also a superb men/women relationship book in disguise. Its principles are embedded within the story, which is not for the faint of heart or the prudish. It is life in its most realistic, rawest form with no holds barred. A very troubled, violent cop does a good job of trashing his career, his marriage, and his life. Much to his surprise, he is taken in by a group of reformed bikers, who, with the help of a biker ghost, turn him inside out to find a new attitude. We follow his rebuilding process over several years and watch how he and his friends learn to deal with their relationships among themselves and with their women.
This is a tough, no nonsense combination of Men are from Mars/Women are from Venus, Iron John, and Promise Keepers. The novel is a great story, but more importantly, the principles behind it strip the truth of relationships to the bare essentials in a manner that makes complete sense. We rated this excellent story five hearts.
Title: Twinkle Twinkle
Author: Kaori Ekuni
Translator: Emi Shimokawa
Publisher and/or Distributor: Vertical, Inc.
Pages: 170
ISBN: 1-932234-01-2
Price: $19.95
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Judy Schuler
Rating:
Shoko and Mutsuki got married to get their parents off their backs. Shoko suffers from depression and is mentally unstable. Mutsuki is gay and has a lover. What kind of marriage can these two make? Does it have a chance of success? What about children? Shoko's parents want to be grandparents. Neither set of parents knows about the problems of the in-law child. Shoko wants it that way, but Mutsuki is beginning to think honesty might be better.
The challenges these two very different people face and how they meet them makes for an enthralling novel. Ms. Shimokawa captures the characters deftly and makes us root for this unconventional marriage to succeed. Twinkle is an excellent literary novel. We give it four hearts.
Title: Whimsy Street
Author: Hal Reichardt
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Deutsa Power Press
Pages: 202
ISBN: 0-9715890-0-3
Price: $10.95
Publishing Date: 2002
Reader: Judy Schuler
Rating:
Hal Reichardt takes us on a whimsical tour of everyday life in this collection of humorous essays. Whimsy Street begins with an essay on Mr. Reichardt's love for things Irish, so much so that he attempts to claim Irish customs as his own, not an easy thing for someone named Reichardt. He takes us through charity donations of $3, matching, or mismatching socks, thank-you notes from and to car salesmen, and computer problems. Whimsy Street covers slices of life with gentle humor. We give it three hearts.
Title: An American Sin
Author: Frederick Su
Illustrator: N/A
Publisher and/or Distributor: Bytewrite LLC
Publisher Website: www.bytewrite.com
Pages: 335
ISBN:
0-9711206-0-9
Price:$15.00
Publishing Date: 2001
Reader: Andrew Firth
Rating:
Written by a Chinese-American veteran of the Vietnam War, An American Sin chronicles the recovery of an ex-Marine with a painful background. This gives an electric authenticity to the book, steeped as it is in the pain and anguish of a man whose very identity was affected by his experience of modern combat. It is impossible not to feel the sharp sense of loss that Frederick Su tries to portray, as David Wong, the antihero protagonist, searches for so long in vain for the ability to put his actions behind him. That he cannot forget, and cannot forgive himself for what he has done during the war, means that David Wong cannot move on with his life.
The turning point comes when Wong confronts his past and links his physical and spiritual life by falling in love with his fitness instructor. The second half of the book deals with Wong's subsequent journey across America; the torment of over twenty years is exorcised as he meets friends old and new, writes poetry and digs deep into his soul to find the humanity that he remembers from his youth. An emotional and unexpected conclusion brings Wong's initial recovery to a close and one shares his consequent sense of hope for his future.
This is a story of trauma, growth and contemplation. It will give comfort, inspiration and resolve to all who read it. The Vietnam experience touched so many lives that it changed the very heart of America. As a vehicle for describing Wong's experience on one level, it is a metaphor for the nation's own recovery on another. This is a fascinating work that is highly recommended as a thought-provoking contribution to anyone's philosophy of life. We rated this book three hearts.
Title: Baggage
Author: Emily Barr
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Plume/Penguin Putman, Inc.
Publisher Website: www.penguinputman.com
Pages: 327
ISBN: 0-452-28382-5
Price: $13.00
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Judy Schuler
Rating:
Lina Prichett has a secret. No one in the small Australian town of Craggy Rock knows it, not even her husband of three years, her ten-year-old son, or her in-laws. Her life starts to unravel when an English woman approaches her and calls her Daisy. Lina is now pregnant. She can no longer run from her past, but owning up might mean prison and loss of her family. As she reluctantly faces her past, she learns that her former family isn't as bad as she thought, and that living with truth is always better than living a lie.
Emily Barr's characters are so real they'd bleed if you cut them and I could almost feel the heat of the Australian desert. Baggage is a fast-paced and funny story. We give it four hearts.
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Title: The Master Butcher's Singing Club
Author: Louise Erdrich
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: HarperCollins
Publisher Website: www.harpercollins.com
Pages: 389
ISBN: 0060532939
Price: $25.95
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Kate Fox
Rating:
That Louise Erdrich has a gift for fiction writing is an understatement. More accurate would be she is a master at fiction writing. What she creates is believable characters with quirky, personality traits that so resemble real life we are intrigued. She is not afraid to discuss gross personal habits, point out flaws, or describe wretchedness. In this novel, our heroine is the legitimate but unwanted daughter of an obese newlywed who gives birth to her in an outhouse. Her life rambles through relationships with drunks, a homosexual gymnastic showman, an undertaker best friend turned murderer and finally love with a hardworking former German sniper become butcher.
Only in America could such a panoply of people come together in a tiny town, form decent lives; and only from an American writer, could we get such realism, pathos and joy in one place. Another wonderful novel from a very gifted writer. I highly recommend it and rated it three hearts.
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Title: Three Star Fix
Author: Captain Joseph Jablonski
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Gardenia Press
Publisher Website: www.gardeniapress.com
Pages: 342
ISBN: 0-9722349-2-6
Price: $16.95
Publishing Date: March 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
This is an incredible read! I couldn't put it down. With so many books out there on young men's military experiences, this was a welcome addition to the genre with the story of Jake Thomas, Maritime Academy Cadet. Jake leaves the plains of Nebraska for the ocean during the late 1960s. The story tracks his first voyage out of school on the SS Gulf Trader down the western coast of South America. We learn who does what on merchant ships; the dynamic relationships among its officers and crew; the joys and dangers of foreign seaports; and the philosophies of men who go down to the sea.
The author, a highly experienced Captain of container ships, writes convincingly about the things he knows so well. He has a lyrical approach to his settings. He captures the hopes and fears of young men out on their own for the first time. His descriptions of exotic places and cultures, his treatment of characters, and dialogues leap off the page and into our hearts and minds. This book's pace was such that I read it straight through and remained hoping for more. If Captain Jablonski follows this young protagonist's career through many more voyages, he will carve out a second career as an author of respect. We rated this book an almost perfect five hearts.
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Title: Way Down South
Author: Beverly Williams and Nina Sally Hepburn
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Moonstruck Press
Publisher Website: www.moonstruckpress.com
Pages: 200
ISBN: 0-9728408-0-X
Price: $12.95
Publishing Date: July 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
I don't know what it is about the deep South that creates such a rich source of stories and wonderful storytellers to pass them on. Way Down South is a short story collection filled with rich stories told wonderfully by the authors. There are stories to please and rile just about everyone. They will make you think, leave you with a pleasant glow, or leave you thinking about the oddities of mankind. This is one of those books that should carry a warning label: Do Not Begin Reading Late At Light! If you do, you're going to lose some much-needed sleep. I promise you won't be bored.
The authors use all the tools of good writing to portray a picture of the South that comes alive on every page. Their characters are quirky; the dialogue is sassy; the settings and situations are believable; and the pace is relentless. These stories hold their own against all comers. We rated this collection five hearts.
Title: Dardedel: Rumi, Hafez, & Love in New York
Author: Manoucher Parvin
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: The Permanent Press
Publisher Website: www.thepermanentpress.com
Pages: 253
ISBN: 1-57962-082-5
Price: $26
Publishing Date: Feb 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4
Dardedel is a most unusual romp through modern New York by the spirits and resurrected bodies of two of Persia's top poets. Written in a surprisingly readable free verse format, this novel tells the story of an Iranian college professor who is burnt out and depressed. The two poets take him under their wings, although Hafez discovers true love in the form of a fifteen-year-old girl along the way.
Not normally a fan of free verse, I found the format to work better than much of which I have seen of modern poetry. The author is erudite; quoting appropriate stanzas from major Persian poets in a manner that moves the story along. Very few authors could have taken on a project like this and pulled it off in such a successful manner. We rated this book four hearts.
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Title: Gossip Hound
Author: Wendy Holden
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Plume
Publisher Website: www.penguinputnam.com
Pages: 352
ISBN: 0-452-28393-0
Price: $13.00
Publishing Date: March 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5
Gossip Hound is another rollicking adult romp by the very humorous British author, Wendy Holden. This time she takes on the publishing and public relations communities. Grace Armiger, a publicist for a small, so-called literary British publisher is stuck with interesting a jaded media community in authors whose inferior writing skills and subjects are matched in scope only by the immensity of their egos. The characters are hugely funny. This wonderfully prescient author trammels stardom, as a lifestyle, regularly. Grace must learn to become happy with who she is while finding a soul mate. Along the way she discovers that which may become dear to us may also be right in front of us all the time. In her case it takes a wonderfully kooky cleaning lady to point it out to her.
The best spoofs are the ones which come closest to the reality mark. Gossip Hound does that so well. We predict this will find a high degree of acceptance among the hip, urban society of readers. Her treatment of sex as a career tool and recreation is hilarious. We rated it five hearts.
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Title: Hard Sleeper
Author: Jennifer Scheel Bushman and Jean Artley Szymanski
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Lost Coast Press
Publisher Website: www.cypresshouse.com
Pages: 272
ISBN: 1-882897-73-0
Price: $24.95
Publishing Date: 15 April 2003
Reader: Jane Deskis
Rating: 5
Hard Sleeper is an intriguing, suspenseful novel written with a pull on the emotions. You take a seat on the train through China and listen as the story unfolds before you, as if you were a journalist looking for a story to document. You are mentally taken back into China's culture in the 1930's and watch as history unfolds before your eyes. You are allowed to see the bond between a mother and daughter who were separated for over sixty years build in strength, as they get to know each other, as they add their parts to the story. The mystery involving the murder of Jane's parents and how it all came about leaves the readers with their mouth dropped open.
You will experience love, hate, jealousy, loss, redemption, and a closeness of family all within the pages. You will believe you know the ending and then be thrown for a loop when the truth is revealed. The strength is the bond between a mother and her child shows itself within the characters of the book and between the two authors. We rated it five hearts.
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Author: Bonnie Hearn Hill
Illustrator: N/A
Publisher and/or Distributor: Mira Books
Publisher Website: www.mirabooks.com
Pages: 320
ISBN: 1-55166-691-X
Price: $23.95
Publishing Date: February 2003
Reader: Allan Lechner
Rating: 3
This story has been taken from the headlines. The story evolves around four people; a senator, his female intern, his wife, and the girls mother. The setting is California. One of the senator's interns ends up missing and foul play is suspected. The story has sex, intrigue, and duplicity.
The story was broken down and intermingled describing the four characters mood and personality. I found it annoying the way the author would have a character talking on one line and on the next line you read what they were thinking. The story needed more continuity and should have brought the reader to closure about the missing intern. There was too much gratuitous sex in the story for my taste. We rated this book three hearts.
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Title: The Legend of Ron Anejo
Author: Ed Teja
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: NovelBooks Inc.
Publisher Website: www.novelbooksinc.com
Pages: 133
ISBN: 1-59105-078-2
Price: $15
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 3
The Legend of Ron Anejo is a rollicking story of men who prove without any doubt that it is possible to screw up anything they try, even in a Caribbean paradise. Join the gang on the good ship (well, maybe boat), MeinGott (My God). If you like boat bums, blues, and freshly made rum, you're going to love this one. Just when it looks like the characters couldn't screw up any worse than they have, they do so. We rated this one three hearts.
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Title: Sweet Hush
Author: Deborah Smith
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Little, Brown and Company
Publisher Email: nberlandpr@nancyberland.com
Pages: 336
ISBN: 0-316-80650-1
Price: $23.95
Publishing Date: February 18, 2003
Reader: Judy Schuler
Rating: 5
Hush McGillen struggles to make a life for herself after she's orphaned at sixteen. She manages to convince a judge she can run the family apple business and a banker that she can make a success of it. And then she gets pregnant. She marries the baby's father and builds a thriving business, but her family life isn't all that it seems. Her husband dies and her son, Davis, grows up and goes to Harvard where he meets and elopes with the daughter of the President. When Davis returns with his pregnant bride to Sweet Hush Farms, Hush's life is suddenly a fish bowl. And then she meets the bride's black-sheep uncle and tangles with the First Lady.
Deborah Smith breathes life into the characters in Sweet Hush. They are uniquely real. I kept turning the pages to find out what would happen to them. The plot is funny and heartwarming and the information on apples is fascinating. We give Sweet Hush five hearts.
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Title: Trust Me
Author: Bruce Forman
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Lost Coast Press
Publisher Website: www.cypresshouse.com
Pages: 288
ISBN: 1-882897-75-7
Price: $16.95
Publishing Date: April 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4
Trust Me is about a jazz guitarist who is willing to sacrifice himself and his friends to obtain fame and fortune as a star. His longings for stardom cause him to sign a contract with the most demonic agent/manager I have seen in many years. In the process, he loses all his material goods and all his friends, including a new love in his life. Will he ever get them back?
This is a tongue-in-cheek romp through the seamy side of the jazz music scene on the West Coast. The story carries overtones of Faust throughout, coupled with Native American shamanism. This was an excellent read, especially for the author's characterizations and intimate knowledge of jazz guitar. We rated it four hearts.
