The story of Jamaica’s settlement stretches back thousands of years, with roots in the arrival of the first indigenous settlers from South America starting in the shadowy eras of prehistory. Despite the country’s rich past, the story of its artists and their creative expression feels much more condensed, a tale cut painfully short by the […]

There is a fine tradition of philosophy written as poetry going all the way back to Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura in the 1st century B.C. and forward from there through Milton, Goethe, Wordsworth, Emerson and T.S. Eliot. While Rudolph Vanterpool’s work isn’t quite ready for this exalted company, his new book, Speak My Soul, is […]

Photography in Oman delivers more than its title promises. Abdullah Khalfan Al-Sauty, head of the photography department at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, not only offers beautiful photographs, but he describes the technical aspects of still life, portrait, landscape and candid photography, offering explanations about how each of those uses is affected by Islamic law.

Bound […]

She used to cook professionally, so former chef Tracey Lafayette determined to stir up a booklet of homespun philosophy and serve it cold turkey. No fancy sauce.

That’s her no-nonsense approach to life as conveyed in From Within the Hidden Places, a smorgasbord of thoughts, sayings, Bible verses and stories designed to make readers think […]

Take your standard Michael Crichton airport novel that warns of biotechnology run amok. Insert a bank-robbery subplot straight out of Heat, complete with a rogue’s gallery that includes characters named “Rat” and “Kill.” Where novelist Matt Kaiser’s lurid fantasy gets fantastic in every sense of the word is when it lurches headlong and unabashedly into […]

Quincy, the sweet and lovable red horse, is back with a big adventure in Quincy Moves to the Desert. This second picture book in a series by author Camille Matthews is beautifully Illustrated with oil paintings by Michelle Black. The first, Quincy Finds A New Home, published in 2009, was well received, winning several honors, […]

A deeply considered and undeniably compelling science fiction adventure, Patrick G. Cox’s action-packed sequel to his 2006 debut novel Out of Time continues the story of a trio of young seamen who are transported from the 19th century 400 years into the future.

In the first book, a time-space anomaly takes 16-year-old midshipman Henry Nelson-Heron, […]

As someone who, according to this book’s acknowledgments, has shared experiences with those serving in the United States Navy, author Les Sonksen, centers his story on 18-year-old Rose, who works and lives near the Norfolk Naval Station.

Given an ultimatum by her father, Rose has two weeks to move out, even though as a beautician […]

Dr. Pablo Rivera Madera, ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church USA and an Army chaplain, sets out to school non-Hispanic preachers in how to successfully preach to Hispanic congregations.

Given the dramatic growth and intensity of religious devotion among Hispanics in the U.S., Rivera deserves credit for identifying a huge need and a timely topic. […]

Eamon Mathews’ Strano is a coming-out novel that wears its heart on its sleeve – and everywhere else. Both Mathews and his protagonist, Damien, are Irish, which might explain the excess angst that often infuses this uneven but ultimately enjoyable debut.

Sent to live with his maternal grandmother by parents literally overrun with children, Damien […]