Review: The Cross Worked.: Why You Can Have Confidence On The Day of Judgment

The Cross Worked.: Why You Can Have Confidence On The Day of Judgment by Zach Maldonado
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Zach Maldonado is the young author of "The Cross Worked: Why You Can Have Confidence On The Day of Judgment." Obviously, this sits squarely on the Religion shelves of the bookstore and therefore might have been disregarded by me had it not been for something bristling inside me at the dreaded "Judgment Day" portion of the Christian religion. Judgment Day being the only aspect of Christianity that pisses me off more than tithing. J Day takes top billing when used to scare the hell out of followers (pun absolutely intended) for disregarding some twisted interpretation of one part of a collection of myths translated about a thousand different ways, six thousand years ago by people who still thought the world was flat. Never mind that it's probably contradicted in the same book at least a dozen times and just ignore the rest of the absolute absurdity throughout as well. Grimm's Fairy Tales are more realistic than the Bible. Yes, I'm a Godless heathen, I've accepted it.

Something I will admit to is the positivity contained in "The Cross Worked." I was kidding when I said I was Godless but my idea of God has zero to do with any 'religion' and is about love, acceptance and positivity - all of which Maldonado captured perfectly here. For that, I am grateful.

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Review: Song of Mornius

Song of Mornius by Diane E. Steinbach
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Song of Mornius" is the first in what will be author, Diane E. Steinbach's, The Talenkai Chronicles series. Based on this introduction to a world bursting with sensational fantasy, enchanting sword & sorcery and breathtaking adventure, fans will surely be waiting with bated breath for each new installment to be released. Four hundred plus pages can either seem tortuously long or entirely too short, depending on where the reader might fall on the love it or hate it scale. This went too quickly for me and many others, I imagine. Everything from the characters, both good and evil, to the flawless momentum of the plot made "Song of Mornuis" a pleasure to read.

I have to point out Steinbach's use of words like 'hie', an old fashioned verb left-over from Shakespearean era literature, and the way she uses dialogue to bring a sense of renewed fullness and life to a genre that can easily get bogged down for readers like me.

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Review: The Prince of Manhattan

The Prince of Manhattan by Alexei Iskander
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"The Prince of Manhattan" is a young adult, romantic, fantasy/time travel novel (though at 148 pages, nearly a novella) featuring Miranda Hazelgrove, a modern day college student, who meets Leofric, a portal jumping prince from a thousand years in the past. I believe this is author, Alexei Iskander's first book - it was published first anyway, if Goodreads can be believed. Despite my desire to support new writers, this was not ready for publication based on need for editing alone. I admit I am not this book's audience and that is not where my negativity comes from. I can easily forgive the absurdly multi-layered genre and even the at times cringe worthy dialogue but come on, the term is not "saddled up", it's "sidled up", sentences should not be eight lines long and for crying out loud, sync up the tenses within paragraphs at the very least. Okay, I'll take off my editor hat now.

Iskander has the bones of a good novel here. I would like to see that potential fulfilled.

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Review: PARAHAN, 2nd Edition: The Earth We Live on Has Been an Imprisonment System

PARAHAN, 2nd Edition: The Earth We Live on Has Been an Imprisonment System by Kevin Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well, simply reading the summary, I would have had zero idea what "PARAHAN" is about beyond it being in the science fiction genre. After finishing Kevin Brown's South Korean written novel, I continue to be baffled as to the true meaning. There are a lot of philosophical and political type themes winding through the plot. The plot itself is intricate to the point of convolution. Being that this is a translation, I tried not to be so harsh but I just didn't get there with this novel. I felt no connection with any of the characters, I cared not one iota what happened on either planet and I fought a general sense of discombobulation through all 246 pages.

I feel guilty ripping this to shreds because if the blurbs are true, "PARAHAN" has been a hit with readers from South Korea to the United States. It could be that I am not the intended audience Brown was writing for, and that's okay. Based on positive feedback from others and overall good press surrounding this sci-fi book, I am settling on an intermediate rating.

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Review: Dolph the Unicorn Killer & Other Stories

Dolph the Unicorn Killer & Other Stories by Martin Lastrapes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When the cover image is animated/cartoon, my mind jumps to the conclusion that this is a kid's book. Pretty dead wrong assumption here and this one is, in a word, unnerving. I mean I know the title of the book is "Dolph the Unicorn Killer" but rainbow blood dripping from the neck of a decapitated unicorn head is a bit extreme, isn't it? But hey, to each his own.

I have found that I am enjoying books of short stories more and more. I am a self-proclaimed novel junky but sometimes a story idea can be fully explored in a much shorter venue such as a short story or a novella. Martin Lastrapes proved it here with this collection of short stories bound by a few characters, the Dolph comics series and the backdrop of Vas Vegas; cleverly linked, I thought.

For those of us who have a hard time getting back to the business of real life when in the middle of a good book, short stories are the perfect tidbit for the literature breaks in the day. I will recommend this widely.


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Review: The Walker on the Cape

The Walker on the Cape by Mike Martin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Walker on the Cape (Sgt. Windfower Mystery #1)
by Mike Martin

*This first portion is specific to GoodReads, not Audible.com or Amazon.com/Kindle*

I'm sorry but I have to call out Goodreads or whoever entered this audiobook there because as you can see above, the title character is spelled W-i-n-d-f-o-w-e-r not WindfLower (or it was as on the date of this review). I noticed that it was an odd but perhaps clever opportunity for the author to go a bit off the reservation with something as simple as a character's name to set his aside from hundreds of other detective series. So... when I began listening and heard the Sgt.'s name pronounced WindfLower, I was thinking, shame on the narrator, that's a big mistake. But it is NOT the fault of the narrator and before you know it, I, as a reader, am thinking more about that discrepancy than what is happening in the story I'm listening to. That is something I think, I, as an author, might be fairly perturbed about.

Beyond that, I thought this story was.. cute. I know that's probably not what the author wants it described as but that's where I am. The townsfolk were quirky and fun, perfectly fleshed out for their role in the plot. Sgt. Windflower felt, to me, like your second choice for prom date but not your "ugh, if no one else asks me I'll go with...". I just didn't really care about him personally, beyond his role in the mystery. The mystery the plot is surrounded by was not necessarily tightly spun but it was enough where I wanted to know the ending. And speaking of the ending, I will admit I thought it was deeper than I expected. In fact, overall, the entire thing felt deeper than its individual parts - meaning that I found the characters to be so so, the mystery level to be so so, peripheral plots to be so so... And in the end, when I sit to think about The Walker on the Cape, I definitely cannot say I hated it. I have many friends I would recommend the book to.

*Something it did take me a while to get past - the Canadian accent of the narrator. I am quite sure it is perfect, but I'm a Southern American and I'm not sure two dialects could be more different than American South and Newfie.

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Review: Piper Robbin and the American Oz Maker

Piper Robbin and the American Oz Maker by Warwick Gleeson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

You had me at homicidal aliens... Okay, not really. Usually that is a phrase where I would be lost, actually. Then I spotted Oz in the title and couldn't resist. Note: I craft my overall impression and subsequent review very much around my first impression with the title, cover image, and summary of a novel and how that either differs wildly or is right in sync with my experience reading the book and feelings afterward regarding the story/book. There are things along the way that can alter that impression, like egregious editing errors, moronic characters and/or a plot that goes nowhere or way off the grid of even fictionalized reality.

Beyond nefarious aliens, sorcerers and witches abound - as would be expected from an Oz based narrative - Piper is hardly a Dorothy, in my opinion. What I mean by that is, I found Dorothy to be weak and annoying in The Wizard of Oz and in Piper Robbin and the American Oz Maker, Piper is anything but weak. I mean, Dorothy defeated the witch by accidentally spilling water on her. That's not the heroine of a story for me. Piper is, simply put, a badass.

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Review: The Chemist: A Cale Van Waring Adventure

The Chemist: A Cale Van Waring Adventure by Janson Mancheski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Chemist: A Cale Van Waring Adventure
by Janson Mancheski

Okay, that opening scene? Brutal. The rest of the book, also a little brutal, though in other ways. These characters felt brutally one dimensional - but somehow it worked here. Several aspects of the plot were brutally unrealistic - and yes, I know, its fiction and therefore all unrealistic but 'super criminals' in novels don't work for me any more than 'super cops' do. No one can pull all of that off that flawlessly.

The Chemist is a rather long novel, weighing in at 479 pages. I am usually the one complaining a book isn't long enough so I have no complaint here but people do love their 'quick reads'.

Somehow all of those negatives came together to form a pretty taut thriller that I didn't hate and would probably recommend to select friends.

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Review: Garry's Upside-Down Adventure

Garry's Upside-Down Adventure by Karin Vardaman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Look no further for a fun, wickedly smart children's book for bed time, car rides or any free time. Karin Vardaman has written this fun adventure for intermediate readers about Garry the Gargoyle leaving his UP world to explore the DOWN. Page after page filled with gorgeous, vividly detailed illustrations by Paisley Hansen, Garry's Upside Down Adventure is sure to grab the attention of even those young ones who are most determined to not enjoy reading a book.

The glossary at the back of the book is a brilliant feature for this reading level, when vocabulary can expand so quickly and easily with little more than exposure. I don't know where Vardaman and Hansen met but together, they have created a world and characters that are perfectly ripe for a series every bit as successful as Llama Llama or Pete the Cat. My own kids are too old for this but I have 2 nieces who are going to LOVE Garry!

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Review: Cut Reality: A Novel

Cut Reality: A Novel by Zack Hacker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

You almost lost me when plastered on the cover is a blurb from Jonny Fairplay of Survivor infamy. God, that guy was a *insert forbidden word*. As it turns out, Cut Reality is a pretty clever mystery novel built around the reality TV craze that started with Survivor. The story line includes Jason's diary entries during game time, which were interesting to read while we are also learning about how he is currently dealing with the after effects of the game, the death of Billy and his ever increasing paranoia surrounding that death and the show. Zach Hacker manages to bring the excitement of reality TV to a fiction novel containing fairly complex characters and weaving a mystery in a psychological manner via Jason. I found that I enjoyed it more than I expected to, though I did think there were parts that got a tad convoluted. Cut Reality is surely a good choice for fans of reality TV.

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Review: The Dar Lumbre Chronicles

The Dar Lumbre Chronicles by Don Johnston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The premise of The Dar Lumbre Chronicles by Don Johnston is that 116 years in our future, not too much has changed; our government is corrupt, our healthcare system is in shambles, there are practical ways to fix these issues but those might cost rich people too much money so nothing gets done, people die and the cycle continues. At least in works of fiction, there can be some retribution and positive change and Johnston delivers in the regard.

Science fiction featuring medicine and genetics is a fascinating genre but where I fell some authors drop the ball is in developing characters who matter to the reader as much as whatever medical or genetic problem the plot is based around. Annie and Crane are an exception in that they are singularly focused yet complex enough to be interesting. That can be a difficult balance to achieve, though it seems effortless in The Dum Lumbre Chronicles. I found this novel to be a quick but fulfilling read.

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Review: Unshelled: A Tale of the Nutcracker

Unshelled: A Tale of the Nutcracker by M. J. Neary
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Let's just start with the author, Marina Julia Neary. Her bio states she is "a self-centered, only child of classical musicians..." and that she is "notorious for her abrasive personality and politically incorrect views that make her a persona non grata in most polite circles...". So basically, she is who I want to be when I grow up. I thought I might like this book based on that alone but I was wrong. I enjoyed Unshelled for many more reasons.

I love the way Neary wrote this Nutcracker adaptation. When she has Marie actually speaking to the reader, she is punchy and playful; 'What's the matter? I see your eyebrows creeping upward. Do you have a problem with a German nurse reading articles in English?' Those exchanges help me bond with a character and I appreciate writers who use that tactic.

The themes in this novel are deep and dark but there is plenty of hope and light to appease the Pollyannas among us.

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Review: Real Leadership: Waken To Wisdom

Real Leadership: Waken To Wisdom by Susan Robertson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For all the books you can find on leadership skills, they are all kind of blending together for me. Yes, of course a leader must be charismatic and be able to make people believe them and want to follow them and their ideas. Hitler was a perfect example of this but we all know how that turned out. I don't think the basics of leadership are in question and Susan Robertson focuses on that natural leader and how he or she can personally improve for overall positive momentum.

Real Leadership: Waken To Wisdom takes this theme of inner improvement and applies it in the business world where, naturally, leaders tend to come in handy. The author's command of the subject matter is obvious, the chapters are arranged logically and the wording is straight forward and in layman's terms. So yes, this is another leadership book but it also happens to be a good one for those in business to take a look at.

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Review: Redfish Oak

Redfish Oak by George Putnam
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"A White girl, a Negro boy, and a young Indian warrior make a dangerous pact."
Redfish Oak
by George Putnam

The first sentence from the summary of this post-Civil War era novel, which encompasses topics from racism to romance to history, could not be more broad and yet it truly is a sincere abbreviation for this work of fiction - you almost cannot imagine where this might lead. George Putnam has written characters that feel as real to me as my own neighbors for the level of validity they have been given. The southern setting works both the explain and exacerbate the degree to which the prejudice, racism and customs that frame this plot.

There are many instances of brutality vividly portrayed in these pages so be forewarned. However, how could a book written about this time in history not be violent? In my opinion, inaccurately depicting those historic years would have been far worse.

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Review: Start Selling: A Guide For Survival And Success In Sales

Start Selling: A Guide For Survival And Success In Sales by M. Patrick Campbell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Start Selling: A Guide For Survival And Success In Sales
by M. Patrick Campbell

Whether you are considering a career in sales, have been toiling in marketing for several years or are a hands on CEO looking for ways to streamline the efforts of your sales staff, Start Selling is a no nonsense manual with real life applications delivered in a straight forward manner. Included throughout the text are personal anecdotes from the author gleaned from his many years in business along with specific, step by step outlines and realistic projections. Mr. Campbell delves into the psychology behind both the seller/selling and the buyer/buying as well as discussing a broad range of topics from difficult customers to branding yourself within your field. I think it is important to note the "survival" part of the title here because sales is not just about success but surviving the failures. All in all, this book can go on the must read shelf for people in business.

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Review: Ripple Effect: Because Of The War

Ripple Effect: Because Of The War by Jenny Ferns
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ripple Effect: Because Of The War (Ripple Effect, Book 1)
by Jenny Ferns

The terrors of war are as universal as they are devastating and in Ripple Effect the reader gets another heartbreaking - if fictional - example of this. In the British ruins of World War II, we meet sisters, Veronica and Rachel, Richard - Veronica's husband and Susie - Rachel's illegitimate daughter. Themes of abandonment, hunger, PTSD, alcoholism, and many other ravages of war are explored in varying depths but all with grand effect and tailored perfectly to the story. Jenny Ferns portrays these characters and their circumstances with heartfelt reverie, searing them into the minds and souls of her readers.

Though I am notoriously vicious about editing errors - the term "grammar Nazi" has been thrown about - in this case, I almost hesitate to mention them. They are there; misspellings, words in incorrect tense, etc... Obviously, though, the heart of the story was not lost so I can't be too harsh.

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Review: The Silver Lining of Cancer: 13 Courageous Women Share their Inspirational Stories After a Life Changing Diagnosis

The Silver Lining of Cancer: 13 Courageous Women Share their Inspirational Stories After a Life Changing Diagnosis by Tracey Ehman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I never want to know the heart dropping feeling of sitting in front of a doctor and being told that I have cancer and could very well die from that terrible disease. The Silver Lining of Cancer: 13 Courageous Women Share their Inspirational Stories After a Life Changing Diagnosis is a collection of accounts of that very event and how thirteen different women chose to handle it. With a name like "The Silver Lining of Cancer" you can imagine that the stories are overwhelmingly positive and you would be right. Some accounts are more detailed than others, some more heart wrenching than others but all are inspiring in their own unique way. The author herself, Tracey Ehman, received her own devastating diagnosis and managed to not only beat the disease but create a vehicle for others in the same predicament to focus on positivity. I believe whether or not the disease is beaten physically, it can always be beaten mentally and that affirmative state of mind can make any outcome better.

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Review: Cursed: The Hunter Inside

Cursed: The Hunter Inside by Casey M. Millette
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fantasy novel by teen author, Casey M. Millette, Cursed: The Hunter Inside has good bones that only just holds up the meaty 354 page body. Ms. Millette is a seventeen year old with a rather remarkable grasp of literature. Cursed: The Hunter Inside is in the vein of Lord of the Rings and/or Game of Thrones in terms of fantasy story. Overall this is a good book though it could be a little more streamlined plot-wise and at times the dialogue felt somewhat stunted and unrealistic. What this teen author holds in ability to create characters and creativity regarding the world the characters reside in is immeasurable and overshadows those negatives. This can be enjoyed, especially by younger readers, as is but it wouldn't take much to turn Cursed into a commercially successful series, catapulting Casey M. Millette into the fantasy fiction world wide stage in a leading position. I expect to see more from this talented author.

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Review: Debating to Win Arguments Mastery: The Debating Trilogy

Debating to Win Arguments Mastery: The Debating Trilogy by R. L. Greene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Debating to Win Arguments Mastery: The Debating Trilogy isn't just a book about debate in the clinical sense; Two people at podiums arguing the intricacies of long forgotten, ancient, philosophical theories in front of an audience and racking up affirmative or negative points for the win. What Greene and Donovan have presented is an outline for simply dealing on a day to day basis with people who disagree with you while avoiding devolving into a preteen-esque word riot. I'm sure I'm not the only one made it to adulthood and realized grown ups are no different ego-wise than school children. Debating to Win should be senior year required reading because we all need the information and the heads up. As long as humanity exists, so will debate/difference of opinion and having the skills to handle yourself in a mature manner while wading through fake news, propaganda, outright fraud and difficult people in general can make life a lot easier.

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Review: The Last Gathering

The Last Gathering by Norbert Monfort
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Last Gathering: Where Tragedy Takes a Twist Through Time by Norbert Monfort

This is a very short, just over one hundred pages, fiction novel in the genre of religion (specifically Christian, more specifically Catholic )/suspense/magical realism. In short, the main character is a 'lost soul' who has shunned God because she has had such a rough life. She is shown, through divine intervention, that all of her suffering was actually HER fault and how dare she expect a good and merciful God to shield her from pain that SHE caused. Magically this makes her believe and serve God again (this being where I see the magical realism portrayed in the novella).

Look, I'm not an atheist. I believe in... something. I don't know exactly what it is but at the core of whatever it is, is love. What I do know is it's not the vengeful at worst and neglectful at best God that any organized religion shoves down my throat. However, when looked at through the religious lenses of believers, I see the lesson/moral in the plot. Aside from some editing issues, I think the faithful would enjoy The Last Gathering and that alone earns the three stars.

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