Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Reclaiming the Sacred by Jeff Golden

With the masterful pen of a mystic scholar, Jeff Golden delivers a profound assessment of the modern world and a bold schematic for salvation in Reclaiming the Sacred: Healing Our Relationships with Ourselves and the World.

To explain the discipline of a book like this, it is perhaps easiest to use the author’s own words – “The science of happiness, abundance, and belonging.” Explaining the instability and corruptibility of today’s world, as well as the path that led us here, Golden attempts to redirect the course of society through positive adaptation and intentional shifts in our belief structures, artfully […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-10-31T18:37:08+02:00September 29th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Social Science|

Review: Invisible Threads by Margaret Carpenter Arnett

Margaret Carpenter Arnett’s heartfelt memoir, Invisible Threads, is the story of a woman, a mother, and an artist that unfolds in an intimate journalistic style, embedded with dreams, poems, paintings, Bible passages, and I Ching texts – the invisible threads that stitch the artist’s tales together.

Carpenter Arnett’s story begins in 1935 in Southwick, England where she was born, quickly followed by her brother and sisters. Their sheltered childhood in idyllic rural England was soon shaken by WWII, as Carpenter Arnett recalls hiding under the stairs while the Luftwaffe roared in the sky and bombs dropped all around her. […]

SPR2022-10-28T15:42:48+02:00September 28th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Art, Memoir|

Review: Birdie Pesky Was Here by Andrew Augustine Connor

A spiraling account of a fictional historical heist, Birdie Pesky Was Here: The Story of the Big Bad Buxom Blonde Boston Bank Boost by Andrew Augustine Connor is a rowdy and unpredictable thriller that teeters on the edge of believable from start to finish, making it easy to forget that this novel is a wildly creative piece of imagination.

Cash and Cary make for an unforgettable duo of safe crackers as they scheme their way around their debt to a dangerous don, with a dazzling balance of laissez-faire larceny and daring deeds. They are a delightfully odd couple, and genuinely […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-10-10T17:29:21+02:00September 28th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Andrew Augustine Connor, Historical Fiction, Thriller|

Review: One Last Song For My Father by Edwin Fontánez

An elegant elegy for an imperfect man, Edwin Fontánez’s One Last Song For My Father: A Son’s Memoir is a gorgeous blend of alliterative prose, lyrical poetry, and lush metaphoric writing.

Growing up in Puerto Rico, author Fontánez always struggled with his often neglectful and financially irresponsible father, Modesto. A tinsmith metalworker who dropped out of school before the third grade, Modesto enjoyed playing music with friends in his spare time, but his alcoholism left his family in a constant state of impoverishment. Fontánez resented his father’s lack of empathy, particularly for his mother, but his dad did have a […]

Michelle Hogmire2022-10-27T16:56:23+02:00September 23rd, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Biography, Memoir|

Review: Hunted by LaBrie James

Author LaBrie James plunges readers into a tangled nightmare in her gripping debut novel, Hunted, a character-driven dive into dark family drama and deadly small-town secrets.

Stalked by a vengeful shadow, one with a face eerily resembling the chief of police, Lennox Rose is slowly recovering from a gunshot wound sustained during a horrific attack, but that brutal night in the snow is only the beginning. After watching her best friend violated and killed, Lennox is shattered both physically and mentally, and has to somehow find a way to rebuild herself.

Finn Holland is the young officer assigned to […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-09-30T09:44:47+02:00September 22nd, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: LaBrie James, Thriller|

Review: The Happy Valley by Benjamin Harnett

The Happy Valley by Benjamin Harnett is an innovative and genre-bending work that reveals startling truths about an idyllic rural community in upstate New York.

Separated into two parts – “The Farm” and “The Key” – an unnamed narrator embarks on a journey to find June, his ex-lover who has disappeared. Moving back and forth between the historical and more recent pasts (the 1800s, the 1990s) and a futuristic present (2036 and beyond), the novel is part historical novel, part science/speculative fiction, and part self-reflexive meta-fiction.

In “The Farm,” our narrator recalls junior high, where he first met and fell […]

SPR2022-10-17T16:01:09+02:00September 19th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Speculative Fiction|

Review: Lady Garland Tames Her Dragons and Brings Peace to the Kingdom by Jane Garland

Author Jane Garland welcomes readers into the messy realm of her life in Lady Garland Tames Her Dragons and Brings Peace to the Kingdom, a clever, heartfelt, and deeply revealing memoir. Though pitched as a fairy tale for adults, this metaphor-laden memoir is playful and nakedly honest, but also academically appealing and philosophically rich. Garland can recount a painful anecdote in one breath, and then impartially dissect her relevant reactions and emotions in the next.

As the title implies, Garland has had a great many battles in her past, and now having found something akin to peace, she has […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-10-12T11:18:16+02:00September 19th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir|

Review: The Eagle That Drank Hummingbird Nectar by Aneace Haddad

Reading like a long-form parable for business professionals, The Eagle That Drank Hummingbird Nectar by Aneace Haddad is like no other book in its genre. Blurring the line between fiction, allegory, and self-help, this masterfully penned book probes into the stagnation that can strike anyone, from any life path, and then gently nudges readers into revelation.

Aidan Perez had risen to the top of his industry, achieving the coveted position of CEO, but after his personal life collapsed in tragedy, it radically changed his perspective on wealth and the pursuit of happiness. With his daughter in Singapore and looming loneliness […]