Book Reviews
Scarata Mia
Helene Lapaire
(Reviewed: October, 2011)
Scarata Mia is an ambitious novel. It has an ambitious plot, encompassing romance, mystery, Sioux spiritual traditions and race relations. It also has an ambitious page count: 700. But in the end, Scarata Mia proves too ambitious an undertaking to live up to its aspirations.
Author Helene Lapaire’s novel tells the story of Katteya Gray, […]
Dancing With Nature
Peter Beamish
(Reviewed: October, 2011)
Peter Beamish’s Dancing With Nature makes an adventure out of explaining new theories in human-animal communications. The narrative begins aboard the vessel Ceres, with Beamish and five others departing their home in Trinity, Newfoundland to travel along the island’s east coast to Labrador. The motley crew of scientists, naturalists, one teenager, and a photographer set […]
A Momentary Lapse of Reason
Henryk Behr
(Reviewed: October, 2011)
Rooting for the underdog is a satisfying endeavor, especially when the purported villain is a multinational pharmaceutical company. That means most readers will want to root for Henryk Behr, resident of a small town in Scotland. In his book, he explains the sudden ruination of his health during September 2010 after he ingested two capsules […]
Storm Frost
P. M. Sabin Moore
(Reviewed: October, 2011)
It is 592 AD, and two young princes from the East Anglians have set out to forge an alliance with the king of Wedresfeld, father to the lovely princess Niartha. Older brother Eni (also known as Wulf) falls hard for her, but his brother Raedwald is chosen to be betrothed. Niartha and Wulf meet secretly, […]
The Long Road to Paris
Ed and Janet Howle
(Reviewed: October, 2011)
Claiming to have invented a groundbreaking clean automobile engine, Dietrich Otto contracts Ed Talbot’s startup company to test the invention in an around-the-world car rally from New York to Paris. (The rally includes un-timed days to transport the cars overseas.) When one of Ed’s business partners is murdered, Ed winds up driving the car — […]
E-mails to My Grandchildren
David Nagle (Grandpadavid)
(Reviewed: October, 2011)
Though physically distant from his grandchildren during their formative years, David Nagle wanted to share the wisdom he had acquired in his decades of living. So he mentored them through a series of e-mails during their teens and early 20s as “grandpadavid.” This book compiles his personal musings, as well as his practical advice for […]
OH, The Lovely Words I Have Heard
Elmer S. Binion
(Reviewed: September, 2011)
In this short book of poems, Elmer S. Binion celebrates love, faith and God. A devoted family man, Binion worked for years as a mechanic on the electric trolley and diesel buses in Dayton, Ohio until his retirement in 1991. His poetry is rooted in simple devotion, and his verses attempt to capture the spiritual […]
Southern Families
Michael V.C. Alexander
(Reviewed: September, 2011)
This novel describes what happens during a quiet decade in a small Southern town. Lucy Summerlin, poor and unmarried, works for the richest family in Perquimmons City, North Carolina. She is ordered about by the odious Mrs. Merritt, made to clean and tutor the woman’s obnoxious children. She eats meager meals in the servants’ quarters […]
To Cast the First Spell
John A. Buttrick
(Reviewed: September, 2011)
To Cast the First Spell is a fantasy adventure set in a realm ruled by hierarchal guilds of Aakacarns: “Melody wielders” who can create powerful magic through music. It follows a young man with extraordinary latent magical abilities and his struggle to find his place in a world on the edge of an ultimate war […]
Democracy on Trial
Dr. Richard Lasso
(Reviewed: September, 2011)
After receiving a law degree in his native Panama, studying at the London School of Economics and settling in the United States as a political refugee because of persecution by a dictator back home, Ricardo Lasso furthered his already extensive education–as an autodidact.
Fascinated by the divergent evolution of government philosophies in the three countries […]