In this honest and poignant memoir, The Last Leadholders: Quest for Fulfillment, author Richard Deatherage discovers that after a lifelong career as an architectural draughtsman, computers are taking over and he is one of the last pencil holders in the industry. Looking back at his military father’s career, and his resulting nomadic childhood growing up in the heart of Jim Crow’s segregated America, Deatherage draws from his life’s lessons to find peace and fulfillment for the future. Editing slips and a generally shaggy-dog-style tale slow the read down, but the author’s intention is all heart, for an intriguing portrait of […]

California poet Thea Rosemary cultivates a dreamlike collection of lyrical verse in The Los Angeles Gardening Guide, a title that reflects the artful inventiveness inside. Reminiscent of recent work by Lana Del Rey or Marisela Norte, this is an accomplished pouring of emotion in words exploring the journey of a woman’s transformation at the end of a relationship, finding her feet through an understanding of loss and anger, and then transcending these losses through the beauty in the cycles of nature around her. With subtle eloquence and a keen use of symbolism, this poetry collection is a probing and […]

The horrific but gripping subject of women accused as witches being burned at the stake is set alight in Burning The Witches, the first installment of Penn Fawn’s probing historical fantasy saga, the Underworld Series. Following a young woman, Hespatia, living with her grandmother in an unspecified era, she struggles with accusations of witchery in the face of a growing league of various toxic belief systems and the rising powers of her time. The author has gone full throttle with world-building throughout the novel, but it does remain somewhat murky as to the history that forms the basis […]

In Female Prisoners of World War Two – a fascinating, and sometimes heartrending work of history – author Nikki McDove pays tribute to five women kept as prisoners of war during WWII. Women’s stories of heroism are often overlooked in military annals, but here, McDove deftly relates the terrifying conditions these females POWs lived through to tell their tales. The accounts are well-written with a fluent and journalistic touch, which can be devoured in one sitting, for a broadly appealing work. A recommended and eye-opening read for anyone interested in learning more about the female side of war and its […]