Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: The Puddingstone Well by William Westhoven

Glancing at the cover of this book we know right off the bat something is up with that well. There are too many historical writings about fountains of youth to count, not to mention the legendary island of Avalon and utopian villages such as Shangri-La. In The Puddingstone Well, the second novel from William Westhoven, variations of these myths are indeed relied upon, but with a contemporary spin. In the Prologue to Part One, the phrase “what history does not recall” lets us know this is Westhoven’s tale for the telling.

Our first protagonist is a freelance writer for […]

Lela Michael2019-01-22T07:12:18+02:00December 20th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Mystery Book Reviews|

Review: Travels With A Road Dog: Hitchhiking the Roads of the Americas By R.K.

Rajam, named after a distant Indian friend, decides, on a whim of teenage wanderlust to leave it all behind in her small Alabama town and take to the road to follow the hippy festival trail across the country and beyond. Giving away all her “stuff” she takes off to the famous Rainbow gathering and falls in love with the vagabond lifestyle as she hitches with truck drivers, do-gooders and other drivers of questionable motive with only a pan and a tarp to get by and becomes a “road dog”: a hitchhiker living free on the open highways with only her […]

Cate Baum2014-05-09T21:17:07+02:00December 17th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Travel Book Reviews|

Review: Colt O’Brien Grows Up by George M. Cole

The book, a sequel to Colt O’Brien Sees The Light centers around Colt O’Brien, a student who takes an internship as an IT helpdesk assistant as part of his college studies, and follows his career in IT and his personal life as he discovers more about life.

An unusual format is used as emails between Colt and his colleagues head up each section to lead into the next part of the tale. This is a nice touch and could have been used even more.

Having worked in IT development I found the helpdesk scenario and process is well described. I […]

Cate Baum2014-05-09T21:18:15+02:00December 13th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Young Adult Book Reviews|

Review: Saving Grace by Ann Grant

If you heard that Saving Grace by Ann Grant was the story of a perfectionist who tanks after a debilitating fall and ends up leaving her husband and kids, you might think you didn’t want to read that story. You’d be making a big mistake. With humor, insight into the human spirit and, well, grace, Ann Grant tells a captivating tale of love, frustration, anxiety, and (no spoilers here) an attempt at recovery.

Grace and her husband, Rob, have been married almost ten years and have two sons and a daughter. She’s a high-earning corporate lawyer and he is a […]

Elaine L. Orr2014-05-09T21:19:19+02:00December 12th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Women's Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Points To Ponder: Pathways to Self-Discovery by John D. Mosley

This book is the ponderings on life by pharmacist John D Mosley, a thinker who has written several of these monologue style works on his opinions about life, with handy points to remember at the end of each section.

Written in the Kahlil Gibran style, the book is separated into several themes, including how to make your life better by best action, simplifying goals for focus and how to be aware of those around you and how to cope with diversity in the modern world around us, including what we eat, how we treat each other and how we deal […]

Cate Baum2014-05-09T21:20:38+02:00December 7th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Self-Help Book Reviews|

Review: 5 Core Methods Of Innovation by Sanjeev Sharma

Did you know bees can smell bombs? Or that it could soon be possible to fly from the US to Japan in 30 minutes? Would you like to know exactly how your Kindle works? How could a tree be related to a laptop? Did you know there is a handshake invented to combat Swine Flu? And is SMS more popular in Asia due to people having thinner fingers? Would you like to know how to build a well without going down a hole?

Sanjeev Sharma, a New York-based consultant and US citizen who moved from India in the 90’s, gives […]

Cate Baum2014-05-09T21:21:37+02:00December 5th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Business Book Reviews|

Review: You Are Not A Planet And Other Stories by Sean Manseau

It is not often that I pick up a book of short stories with a song in my heart because the genre is just so damn difficult to get right – and when a writer succeeds he then has to stand against the greats such as H.P. Lovecraft, Saki, Angela Carter, Roald Dahl. Why do I mention these names? Because Sean Manseau, the author of You Are Not A Planet could easily line up against them.

Bijoux grotesques flank classic modern Gothic and stripped fairytale prose to reveal a universe not content to exist, but to thrive with crafted language […]

Cate Baum2014-05-09T21:22:34+02:00December 3rd, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Short Stories Book Reviews|

Review: Hannah Singer, Celestial Advocate by Peter G.

In life, Hanna Singer, protagonist of this unique fantasy, was a rare individual: a medieval atheist. After she dies, she finds out just how wrong she was. As it turns out, the Christian villagers who had tried so hard to convert her didn’t have it quite right either.

In the afterlife, Hannah becomes a Celestial Advocate, someone who argues the cases of souls petitioning for admittance to Heaven. The concept alone is falling-off-the-chair funny, and the book lives up to that promise, with slapstick, puns, and wry cultural references scattered throughout. The Archangel St. Michael is a delightful trickster, with […]

Avery Hurt2014-05-09T21:23:33+02:00November 29th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Short Stories Book Reviews|