Book Reviews
Travelling in the Mind
Daniel Micheal Hermon
(Reviewed: May, 2012)
Some poetry is casual and off-hand, a matter of vivid observations of, and quick insights into, the world right here in front of us. With its short pieces accompanied with facing photographs, Daniel Hermon’s Travelling in the Mind falls comfortably into this style, with an added charm that comes from the fact that Hermon is […]
Seizing the Essence
Hamilton Priday
(Reviewed: May, 2012)
Seizing the Essence: A Value Cosmology for the Modernist criticizes dominant metaphysical views in philosophy (e.g. that the universe is a deterministic and materialistic system), defending instead a vision of reality as essence (an ultimate source of reality beyond the phenomenal world, possibly synonymous with God).
The author asserts that humans are not best defined […]
Dear Mom and Dad
Susan Kessen
(Reviewed: May, 2012)
Most people living in today’s crazy, dual-income, married-with-children world have plenty of funny stories to share. But no matter how delightful these tales from suburbia may be to friends and family, it’s another matter to assume everyone will share in the hilarity.
Susan Kessen, author of Dear Mom and Dad, is probably a great raconteur […]
The Diamond is Mine
Olateju 'Molaji Ojomo
(Reviewed: May, 2012)
In Olateju ‘Molaji Ojomo’s novel, The Diamond is Mine, Denise Jasper loves her country of Nigeria but hates its rampant corruption, so she sets out to change things by enrolling in the police college and later joining the Crime Investigation Department. But gang raids of parties are common, and while Denise celebrates her birthday at […]
Go Father, Go Daughter
Pat Fahy
(Reviewed: May, 2012)
In 2009, Pat Fahy and his then-31-year-old daughter, Emmie Cardella, crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon within a second of each other. The road to Boston was a long one, starting with the two deciding to run together in 2005. Fahy was a national Master’s track and field champion with no desire to […]
The Dark Land
Bob Sharpe and Bobbi Lynn Zaccardi
(Reviewed: May, 2012)
The Dark Land, a Western tale turned organized crime saga, packs a lot of action into a slender volume.
The unnamed boy at the center of the story seems to have the perfect childhood on a Colorado ranch in the early 1900s. His father Jack is strict but loving; his mother Elizabeth is still playful, […]
The Flaming Sword
Folayan Osekita
(Reviewed: May, 2012)
Folayan Osekita knows his Bible, and the devout Christian wants to share what’s he’s learned and experienced over the years with the masses. “I can no longer keep this Great Joy, this overwhelming Light of Your Love to myself,” Osekita writes in the opening of The Flaming Sword. “I must speak out.”
And with the […]
Almost Armageddon
Neil Pollack
(Reviewed: May, 2012)
Neil Pollack knows how to tell a story; Almost Armageddon is a gripping read from beginning to end.
The spy thriller begins with a prologue in the present and ends with an epilogue back in the present. The two bookend a story that’s essentially a long, engrossing flashback told as an omniscient narrative and including […]
Kissing the Enemy
Julius I. Ebetaleye
(Reviewed: May, 2012)
A member of the Royal Society of Literature in England, author Julius Ebetaleye has written a short book (108 pages) that blends suspense and romance in a slim, character-driven story.
While the introduction and first chapter are confusing and don’t relate to the rest of the story (characters are introduced here who are never mentioned […]
Interview: The Man Who Loves His Computer, Invented the Electric Highway, and is Running for President
J.R. Pierce
(Reviewed: May, 2012)
When J.R. Pierce published Interview four years ago, the United States was in the midst of transitioning to the presidency of Barack Obama. Because of his ethnicity and unusual path to politics, Obama would have seemed unelectable in the not-so-distant past. His election gave politics an air of unreality, a quality that permeates Pierce’s unusual […]