Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: The Journey of Christopher by Michael J. DiSalvo

The Journey of Christopher, a new novel by author Michael J. DiSalvo, presents a refreshing new parable of wavering faith and personal challenges that has the potential to engage a new generation of believers.

The character at the center of this story is Christopher, a young man experiencing his first real crisis of faith as a loyal Christian. Following a series of unexpected, but emotionally challenging events, he is suddenly wracked by doubt in the meaning of Christmas, and some of the fundamental tenets of his beliefs. Asking himself the classic questions of why a merciful and loving […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-10-31T05:10:26+02:00October 1st, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Religious Fiction|

Review: The Winter Sisters by Tim Westover

Most people know the fundamental bones of America’s past, but with thousands of hidden corners scattered across that massive nation, there are countless secret histories tucked away in unexpected places. In The Winter Sisters by Tim Westover, the strict edge of semi-modern medicine is met by the fierce roots of traditional healing in the hills of northern Georgia, a place of mysticism, old beliefs and stubborn minds.

This entrancing slice of early, and eerie, Americana begins as a classic story of two worlds colliding: the past and the future creating a nexus of human drama and progress. Centering on the […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-09-30T09:31:01+02:00September 28th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Historical Fiction|

Audiobook Review: The Dragons of the Storm by George Robert Minkoff

Making history come to life in an engaging way is a daunting challenge for many authors, but with his impressive career as a historian and a lifelong lover of the written word, author George Robert Minkoff delivers The Dragons of the Storm, an outstanding second installment of his historical trilogy. Following onwards from The Weight of Smoke, the first book of the In the Land of Whispers series, this second novel delves deeper into storytelling and myth, as well as the historical realities surrounding Captain John Smith’s legendary journey and tenure as the president of the Jamestown colony.

Whereas […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-10-30T09:53:24+02:00September 27th, 2019|Categories: Audiobook Reviews, Book Reviews|Tags: George Robert Minkoff, Historical Fiction|

Review: 90 Days to Live by Rodney and Paige Stamps

A cancer diagnosis is one of the most dreaded pieces of news to receive from a doctor, and with more than 1 million new cancer cases each year, this disease feels like an unavoidable part of modern life. In 90 Days to Live: Beating Cancer When Modern Medicine Offers No Hope, authors Paige and Rodney Stamps pull back the curtain on their own lives and Rodney’s diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Unlike so many other memoirs or books about patient journeys through endless rounds of treatment, remission, heartbreaks and breakthroughs, this is a story of hope via alternate methods, and […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-10-23T14:17:52+02:00September 26th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Health, Medical|

Review: My Ugandan Hill by C.H. Colman

C.H. Colman has written a heartwarming memoir in My Ugandan Hill, providing middle-grade readers with a glimpse into the author’s unique early childhood growing up in Uganda.

Colman left Britain with his parents at the age of two, spending his early to middle years in the British Protectorate of Uganda during the twilight of British Imperial rule. His father, a former air force pilot, was a teacher who got a job at the British college in Uganda. His mother, also a teacher, opted to stay at home and devote her time to raising the author with the help of […]

Marta Cheng2019-10-23T14:00:20+02:00September 25th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Africa, Memoir|

Review: Paddle to Paddle by Lois Chapin

Offering readers a brutally honest mirror, Paddle to Paddle is a surprising new collection of poetry from Lois Chapin, a therapist who has channeled her ample wisdom and experience into a raw display of truth-telling and wise insight.

When most poets embark on releasing a new body of work, it is with a general theme in mind, an intention for their verses, some message they want to share, even if that message is opaque or buried in metaphor. There are other poets, however, like Chapin, who touch on life in all of its messiness and truth without a clear focus, […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-09-20T09:56:20+02:00September 20th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Poetry|

Review: Sweetiebetter by Terry Minchow-Proffitt

In the broad and varied tradition of American poetry, there has always been room for aspirations right beside hard truths, for optimism and darkness. In Sweetiebetter, the latest collection of poetry from Terry Michow-Proffitt, this tradition is upheld in stark and surprising fashion, through simple language, deep cultural cuts, and simple themes that percolate into much larger ideas.

Like a mystical journalist, Minchow-Proffitt firmly grounds these poems in the tangible, but there is a surreal subtlety to certain selections, where his thoughts meander outside the real, into the shadowy realms of memory and belief. There are people and muscles […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-09-19T09:45:50+02:00September 19th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Poetry|

Review: A Lady in Havana by Ashley Morgan

A torrid love affair, a pretty young wife, and a country on the brink of revolution…Peel away the facade of glitz and glamor of 1950s Cuba and you have A Lady in Havana, Ashley Morgan’s explosive work of women’s fiction.

Beautiful Dorothy “Dimple” Duncan, heads to Havana with her husband, Dallis, intending to lend support – as a good wife in the Fifties does – to his risky venture to sell school buses to President Batista, Cuba’s sitting president. Their go-between in Cuba is the very handsome and wealthy Latin attorney, Roberto Montero.

Roberto makes no secret of the […]

Marta Cheng2019-09-19T09:52:07+02:00September 18th, 2019|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Women's Fiction|