Lead Story | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Under the Orange Blossoms by Cindy Benezra

An emotionally vulnerable, authentic memoir about enduring horrific childhood trauma and learning how to cope and survive, Cindy Benezra’s Under the Orange Blossoms is a testament to human strength and the power of positivity.

When living with her mother and sister in Spain at age 17, author Benezra started having frightening, visceral nightmares about being sexually abused by her father when she was younger. Uncovering these painful memories lead her down a difficult path of emotional strife, suicidal ideation, dissociative episodes, reckless daredevil behavior, and withdrawal from friends and family, all while her parents’ problematic relationship lingered off and on […]

Michelle Hogmire2022-01-06T07:03:09+02:00January 5th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Memoir|

Review: Snowlands: A Blood Moon by Morr Meroz, Illustrated by Collin Fogel

Author Morr Meroz and illustrator Collin Fogel have summoned a beautifully stunning world with their immersive graphic novel Snowlands: A Blood Moon.

Feba the snow-white wolf cub is forced to flee her pack to avoid a curse – or a death sentence – launching her on the journey of a lifetime, as she crosses paths with many other creatures wandering in the wild, some who are keen to join her adventure, and others who aren’t so sure. Gathering allies and making friends along the way, like Batu the monosyllabic wildcat, Usha the grief-stricken leopard seeking the Seeress, a pacifistic […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-01-03T09:55:37+02:00January 1st, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Children's Books, Comics & Graphic Novels, Fantasy|

Review: Ezekiel’s Awakening Into Light by Aubrey Wharton

Take an eye-opening journey through the trials of spiritual enlightenment with Ezekiel’s Awakening Into Light by Aubrey Wharton, a thoughtful meditation on following your own unique path.

Ezekiel left his life and love behind to become a devotee of an ashram on the other side of the world, but it didn’t take long before he struck out again on his own, to the great chagrin and rebuke of his brother monks. Leaving his two-man transcendental band behind, Ezekiel embarked on a “journey to nowhere” – more specifically, to Florida, abandoning the life of pure asceticism and brotherhood for solitude and […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2021-11-30T05:10:05+02:00November 28th, 2021|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Aubrey Wharton, Visionary Fiction|

Review: The Story of You by Gerald Schaefer

In The Story of You, a brightly illustrated book for thoughtful children, author Gerald Schaefer finds straightforward yet colorful ways to help overcome many of life’s negative moments.

Schaefer opens his story with a welcome to our world of flowers, hummingbirds, and other natural phenomena, which help to build the notion of the connectedness of all life. He states that trees and flowers, for example, “appreciate” being looked at; our gaze perks them up in various ways, and makes us feel good, too. Inside each of us is another self, an “invisible you,” Schaefer reveals; though it can’t be […]

SPR2021-12-07T03:49:22+02:00November 17th, 2021|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Children's Books, Jerry Schaefer|

Review: Trump You by Art Cohen with Dan Good

Capturing the deceitful nature and history of greed that has long defined America’s 45th president, Trump You: Promises, Lies, and Corruption: My Battle with Donald Trump’s Fake University by Art Cohen is a scathing personal memoir of one man’s titanic struggle against a capitalist giant.

Not only functioning as a fascinating, and at times painful-to-believe legal thriller, this book is also a detailed unraveling of the Trump University fraud – a clumsy yet lucrative scheme to cheat thousands of people with empty promises. The name “Trump” alone has become synonymous with a great many things in recent years, but this […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2021-10-18T06:16:19+02:00October 17th, 2021|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Art Cohen, Politics|

Review: Of Starlight and Plague by Beth Hersant

A catastrophic spiral of human folly and unflinching perseverance, Of Starlight and Plague by Beth Hersant is a stunning cautionary tale, and an engrossing dystopian thriller. Whether you’re a lover of zombie fiction or a sucker for stories about genetic engineering, this novel is a slow-burning but riveting ride.

After an impossible-to-predict tragedy robs him of his daughter, shortly after losing his wife, Dr. Aaron Pickman turns a corner in his life. Fueled by grief, he dedicates his life to finding a cure for rabies, the rare culprit in his daughter’s case, while also possibly revolutionizing drug-delivery techniques to the […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2021-10-07T03:42:57+02:00October 6th, 2021|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Apocalyptic Fiction, Beth Hersant, Dystopian Fiction, Zombie Fiction|

Review: Unleashing My Superpowers by Dr. Patience Mpofu

Award-winning mining executive Dr. Patience Mpofu has gleaned recollections from her life experience and offers them with advice, instruction, and encouragement for ambitious women, especially those involved in, or considering, careers in the varying aspects of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), in Unleashing My Superpowers: How to Navigate and Succeed in a Male-Dominated Mining Work Environment.

The author believes she was given the name Patience when her parents, rather dismayed at having a third girl and no sons yet, needed to develop this quality themselves. In their African culture – her father was of the Lemba tribe – […]

SPR2021-10-05T06:36:39+02:00October 5th, 2021|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Business, Dr. Patience Mpofu|

Review: Milieu by Jay Green

Twenty-three socially weighted poems become one strong stance on what it means to be a young man in America today, and furthermore, what it means to be a Black man, in Jay Green’s emotive Milieu. This essential part of Green’s identity must be highlighted in the turbulent times in which we live, and his personal experience informs his work to a powerful degree.

In this sharply tuned collection, the poems are varied in form, mostly strong, and very rhythmic. The opening work, “Mortal Games,” channels Ralph Ellison’s work such as Invisible Man, as the rich tapestry of […]