SPR | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Is God in That Bottle Cap? A Search for Truth by John D. Sambalino

In Is God in That Bottle Cap? A Search for Truth, a lawyer writes about spirituality in an engaging combination of autobiography and philosophical treatise.

Beginning as a child who resisted having to eat fish on Friday, to his adulthood as a world-traveler who sees that God is found not so much in precepts as in experience, John D. Sambalino has always been seeking truth, and so conveys a sense of exploration that is fortunately free from self-congratulation. The first glimmers of this search came with his interest in martial arts and the understanding that such physical practices have […]

SPR2019-03-18T12:08:23+02:00February 7th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Spirituality Book Reviews|

Review: All Fall Down (Furnass Towers Trilogy Book 3) by Richard Snodgrass

In All Fall Down, the epic conclusion to Richard Snodgrass’s Furnass Towers Trilogy, the characters and families that loyal readers have come to know so well all come together for one final piece of the puzzle – centered dramatically around the murder of Dickie Sutcliff.

The Sutcliff family, specifically Dickie and his brother Harry Todd, have featured heavily in this trilogy, being at the center of the real estate market in the mill town of Furnass. However, over those many decades and deals, Dickie has certainly made enemies along the way, so when he turns up dead, it is […]

SPR2019-03-11T12:05:00+02:00February 4th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews, Mystery Book Reviews|

Becoming a Whisper by Joe Odey

Nigeria-based poet Joe Odey presents 100 poems touching on human hopes, connections and failings in Becoming a Whisper.

These short works occupy one page each, most examining what Odey calls “flawed human experience.” The five-part “Letters to Ada” laments that after a beginning in which “the whole world felt like a fairytale,” it becomes clear that “Fate had dealt us the worst of the deck.” “Our Guardian Angel” poignantly recalls an infant brother’s passing. In “That We May Live Again” a woman scorned turns to “a bottle in hand and a strange man for company.”

Odey uses language deftly […]

SPR2019-01-28T13:07:35+02:00January 25th, 2019|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Poetry Book Reviews|

Accepting Life on Life’s Terms: Taoist Psychology for Uncertain Times by Chris L. McClish

Basing his advice on the Eastern philosophy of the Tao Te Ching, counselor Chris L. McClish presents an appealing guide to self-help psychology in Accepting Life on Life’s Terms: Taoist Psychology for Uncertain Times.

An explanation of Taoism winds through the narrative, with an emphasis on accepting what is and what isn’t doing harm. McClish declares that it may be relatively easy to accept that we can’t control circumstances, but it is harder to control ourselves. Always exploring the roads less traveled, McClish has established a list of self-limiting factors he calls ACE: Avoiding, Controlling, and Escaping. He counters […]

SPR2019-01-23T12:06:30+02:00January 22nd, 2019|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Non-Fiction Book Reviews, Psychology Book Reviews, Self-Help Book Reviews, Spirituality Book Reviews|

Review: Love, Time is Gone by Joseph Bartley Haltom III

In Love, Time is Gone, a new collection of poetry by Joseph Bartley Haltom III, loneliness and heartbreak are encapsulated in raw and powerful verse. Written for a long-lost love, April, a woman whom he has not encountered for many years, this book is weighted down by pain and regret, yet there are also some moments of hope that sporadically push through.

Saudade is a Portuguese word, commonly used in Brazil, that represents the feeling of nostalgia, longing, or desire for something that has been lost. There is no direct translation of this word in English, nor does it appear […]

SPR2019-03-11T12:28:13+02:00January 15th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Poetry Book Reviews|

Review: Creating Christianity: A Weapon of Ancient Rome by Henry Davis

Since there is very little historical evidence of the existence of Jesus of Nazareth, many researchers, including author Henry Davis, assert that not only his person, but also the religion founded around him, were invented after his passing. Such is the case the Creating Christianity: A Weapon of Ancient Rome, a fascinating and thoroughly researched examination of this contentious topic.

Davis’s main thesis is that the gospels and other New Testament books were written not by Jewish/Christian scholars such as Matthew, Luke or Paul, but were fabricated by an aristocratic Roman family with the name Piso, notably Arrius Flavius […]

SPR2019-02-25T13:17:13+02:00January 10th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Religion Book Reviews|

Review: Unlocking the Natural-Born Leader’s Abilities by Salar A. Khan, MD, MBA

A successful example of what he wishes to convey, award-winning author Salar Khan uses his own life as an illustration of what constitutes leadership in Unlocking the Natural-Born Leader’s Abilities: An Autobiographical Exposé. Carefully presenting an objective picture, Khan shares his own memories to demonstrate the sorts of qualities a natural-born leader (NBL) would have, both innately and from training and experience.

Khan’s early life was rigorous: His parents were forced to migrate from India to Pakistan a few years before he was born, and six of his eleven siblings died by the age of four. When he was […]

SPR2019-01-22T10:28:25+02:00January 8th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Business Book Reviews, Leadership Book Reviews, Non-Fiction Book Reviews|

An Interview with Salar A. Khan, MD, MBA: Author of Unlocking the Natural-Born Leader’s Abilities

Salar Ahmed Khan, MD, MBA, FACA, FCCP, DTCD, MCPS, worked as an internist and pulmonologist at Karachi, Pakistan, from 1985 to 1987; as the chief of medicine, the acting director of medical services, and acting hospital director at Al-Midhnab General Hospital under the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia from 1988 to 1993; as an associate professor of medicine at Baqai Medical College and Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, from 1993 to 1994; as a surgical assistant, material management, and acting central processing supervisor at Edgewater Medical Center in Chicago from 1996 to 2000.