New Releases | Self-Publishing Review

Happiness is Fleeting by Andrew E. Crowley

The fragile ideal that happiness is the ultimate pursuit of life is forcefully challenged in Happiness is Fleeting: The First Steps To Fulfillment, a quick and motivational read by author Andrew E. Crowley.

There is no denying that our modern society has resulted in widespread addiction to happiness, or at least the idea of it. The things we buy, the way we are told to feel, and our standard metrics for success are largely driven by our hunger for this abstract emotion. As an alternative, Crowley suggests a greater level of personal accountability and focus in order to seize […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-12-09T08:08:42+02:00December 8th, 2019|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Self-Help Book Reviews|

Molls Like It Hot by Darren Dash

Molls Like It Hot from author Darren Dash is a fast-paced and oddly heartfelt thriller, featuring a cabbie with a surprising toolkit, a worldly gangster, a trigger-happy target, and a decidedly dangerous offer.

A young woman lies at the heart of this tangled mess of a story, as one so often does, but Toni is far from a plot device. She’s a hard-drinking badass with a psychopathic soft spot for violence and a dangerous temper. Protecting this gangster’s lover in the seedy streets of South London leads Eyrie Brown into a weekend of gunfights and bloodshed that he’ll never forget […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-12-09T07:18:56+02:00December 6th, 2019|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Crime Fiction Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|

1969: A Brief and Beautiful Trip Back by Sea Gudinski

1969: A Brief and Beautiful Trip Back by author Sea Gudinski is an authentic and immersive journey back to the sixties heyday.

When the enigmatic Dave rolls back into town with a legendary stash for sale, Rhiannon Karlson has no idea that her life is about to change forever. Thrown thirty years back in time in the midst of a wild DMT trip, Rhiannon finds herself tuning in, turning on, and dropping out in San Francisco at the peak of the Love Revolution. From Grace Slick buying her a beer to an epic trip to Woodstock ’69, this book is […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-11-27T09:27:01+02:00November 26th, 2019|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Historical Fiction Book Reviews|

Purposeful Evolution by Ron Deming

The age-old conflict between undirected randomness and intelligent design gets a new referee with the thought-provoking Purposeful Evolution by Ron Deming.

Deming argues that many examples of rapid, seemingly reactive adaptations in species must be the result of some interaction or assessment of the environment, rather than the gradualism of natural selection, which can often take thousands of generations and hundreds of thousands of years. This “purposeful evolution” theory attempts to break down the binary of Darwinian evolution vs. creationism, instead considering the relationship and reactivity of organism to environment over a much smaller time scale.

Backed up with dozens […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-11-22T08:56:14+02:00November 22nd, 2019|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Science Book Reviews|

Hidden Talents by Maryanne DiMarzo, Amy Acker and Rodica Ceslov

With decades of leadership experience between them, authors Maryanne DiMarzo, Amy Acker and Rodica Ceslov deliver a full-on master class in Hidden Talents: Practical Tools and Inspirational Stories to Unleash Higher Levels of Leadership Performance, exposing the fundamentals of leadership and stripping away the business jargon for a clear and engaging read.

The world is changing rapidly, as is business and industry, and in order for leaders to remain on the cutting edge and avoid becoming obsolete, professional evolution is necessary. The authors also understand that some skills are timeless, and must be adapted, rather than forgotten. Their book […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-11-20T11:07:05+02:00November 20th, 2019|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Business Book Reviews, Leadership Book Reviews|

Urgent State by Larry Pratt

It often feels like the end of the world is fast approaching, and Urgent State: One Route to Saving our Species by author Larry Pratt is a pragmatic piece of fiction that may help readers understand our imminent global crises a bit better.

In this third book of the Urgent series, an effort to save mankind from itself is launched – a small coterie of thinkers and philanthropists hole up in secret to fund critical research and push science forward in the hopes of rescuing the planet from annihilation. However, to overcome the fundamental crises of corruption, greed, narrow-mindedness, and […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-11-15T09:27:45+02:00November 15th, 2019|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Contemporary Fiction Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|

Ivory Tower by Grant Matthew Jenkins

Timely and fearless, Ivory Tower by Grant Matthew Jenkins is a resonant meditation on power, family, and sexual predation that rings particularly poignant in today’s social climate.

Margolis Santos is a woman who isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers. As a respected film professor, a protective mother, and wife to the head football coach of Athens University, she is used to her voice being heard. However, when she chooses to raise it in defense of young women being taken advantage of on campus, she becomes embroiled in a vicious battle against tradition, money, and character assassination. When Margolis’ own sexual exploits […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-11-12T10:45:12+02:00November 11th, 2019|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Contemporary Fiction Book Reviews|

Shackles and More Gripping Tales by James Hanna

Digging into the intimacies of life, with an authentic and striking voice, author James Hanna has curated an excellent collection of tightly edited stories in Shackles and More Gripping Tales. Cutting into the heart of the American experience, ranging from teenage angst to the pain of losing those you have loved, these stories swing from heart-wrenching to inspiring, demonstrating his great flexibility and empathy as a writer.

Set in different times and places, this collection moves at a quick pace, and each story is distinctly separate. Some stories tackle social issues from a more philosophical angle, such as “USA,” […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-11-04T07:15:55+02:00November 3rd, 2019|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Short Stories Book Reviews|