Book Reviews

Melanie Haney is a great writer and she masterful at the what makes short stories strongest: the last sentence.  In Melanie Haney’s collection, The Simplest of Acts and Other Stories, you’re often left at the end of the story wishing it would go on, but knowing that it ended perfectly: concise and alive, as if you know the characters will go on living even if you’re not reading.  These stories are quiet, deep, and powerful.

In a way, the book is not well-advertised on the back.  The back copy says these are “carefully wrought tales of loss and love […]

Last week, I got the most amazing submission yet at the Self-Publishing Review. Tessa Dick, last wife and widow of Philip K. Dick – author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the basis for the movie “Blade Runner, the short-story, “Minority Report,” and many others – submitted a novel for review and request for an interview. I am a huge Philip K. Dick fan and I’m currently working on a novel that is heavily-inspired by Philip K. Dick – a novel that I plan on self-publishing.

I’m especially influenced by his late novels, which were a mixture of […]

Remember the movie “Fatal Attraction”?  And the movie “Basic Instinct”?  And the movie “Play Misty For Me”?  Toss all three of the movies in a blender, hit frappe and stand back.  What comes out would be Gary Taylor’s new book – Luggage By Kroger.

LBK is the story of Gary’s intimate relationship with Catherine Mehaffey, which began way back in 1979.  As the story opens, Mehaffey is suing her live-in lover for half of everything he has.  No, they weren’t married.  Mehaffey claimed they were some bizarre version of common-law husband and wife, therefore, she was entitled to sue […]

One of the interesting things about buying a book site unseen on the internet is that when the book arrives it can be much different than what you might have pictures. How many people check the dimensions of a book before buying it? Broken Bulbs is a small book – 4 x 6 and only 132 pages, but the writing itself is anything but small: it’s as authentic as they come, experimental without trying to be intentionally obscure, dark without making you doubt humanity, smart and energetic. In short, it’s great writing.

Anyone who doubts the usefulness of self-publishing need […]

I’m a bit loathe to be critical of this book because I sought out the book myself – convincing the author to send out a book at his own expense, rather than an author doing that voluntarily.  But of course it wouldn’t speak to well about the objectivity of these reviews if I was totally biased.

The reason I sought out to review this book – which I’d seen reviewed highly favorably on Odyssey Reviews – is because I’m interested in how occult subjects are tackled in fiction.  Interestingly, many of these books that tackle more esoteric subjects (such as […]

Interestingly, this book arrived with the stamp of the International Print on Demand award, given out by Podler reviews. It’s a good example of putting a book award to good use. The Podler award is not the biggest award for self-published books (read SPR’s post on self-published book awards) but no one who picks up this edition of Chion will know the difference – they’ll only see that is was stamped with an award. The book has one of the better book covers you’ll see on a self-published book. The interior is well-designed as well.

And the book […]

Take-Charge Living arrived via amarketingexpert.com, a publicity firm that represents self-published books, as well as other authors – signifying that this book is a more serious entry than your average self-published book. The book has a fair amount to recommend it, but it has some problems as well.

The bad: first off, though the book is represented by a PR firm, the character is decidedly unprofessional. It has that blurred effect that is common to some self-published printing. This is surprising, as the book is part of iUniverse’s Star program – which requires that the book is an “Editor’s […]

I should preface this review by saying that I am not the audience for this novel. I’ve never read an entire romance novel. I’ve picked books up to see what the writing was like and was fairly amazed at how pornographic the writing can be – so that’s what people are reading. The point of reviews on the Self-Publishing Review is not necessarily to judge how a book fits into the overall scheme of published books – but how successfully it achieves what it sets out to do. And To My Senses achieves what it intends to very well.

To […]