SPR’s book reviews of new self-published books
The Inconsistencies: A Comical Tragedy In Two Parts by Ilango Villoth
In The Inconsistencies: A Comical Tragedy in Two Parts, Ilango Villoth has essentially rewritten Tolstoy’s A Confession and Melville’s Moby Dick in his own words. The book’s two parts follow the same basic structure and formula as the original works they reference, but diverge on a line by line basis.
Villoth’s ability to imitate an archaic writing style is quite remarkable, and it’s easy to be fooled in believing The Inconsistencies could have been written over a hundred years ago. The biggest “inconsistency’ here, perhaps, is the fleeting sense that one is actually reading Moby Dick or A Confession[…]
A dark saga of alcoholism, Black Sky: On Addiction and Awakening of the Human Being is inspiring, educational, and at times, horrifying.
Set in the quaint town of Lily Brooke, Magdalena Gottschalk: The Crooked Trail by M. Gail Grant, is a novel filled with intrigue, suspense, and adventure for MALB (The Mystical Alliance of Lily Brooke) who find they need to set the town free from a dark secret. A fun supernatural read, at its core this young adult novel is a heartwarming story about friendship and family.
In Lionhearts by Ray Keating, the seventh installment in the Pastor Stepehn Grant series, readers see their pious hero, Pastor Grant, defending his country, faith and the bedrock of morality in a new setting – his home soil. When radical terrorists begin attacking Christians around the country, this man of God with a loaded Glock puts his own life on the line to fight back against the encroaching forces of evil.
From Napoleon to Thoreau to Edward Snowden to Hollywood, Robert Woolston’s essay collection, Athena’s Owl: Philosophy Articles on Personal Growth, Modern Society & Hollywood Cinema, provides an intelligent and well-observed study of humanist philosophies in their earliest forms, and their transposition into modern culture.
Told in a series of diary entries, Diary of a Dead Dreamer by N.C. Cummings takes us into a world of dreams, obsession, suspense, and murder.
The Lake, the second installment in Amanda McKinney’s Berry Springs series, is a small town murder mystery at heart, seasoned with a side of romance and cyber-espionage. The novel follows FBI agent Ethan Veech, who is ostensibly on “vacation” in a small southern town, and white collar criminal Jolene Reeves, a bad girl with a heart of gold.
Darren is surprised to discover that he somehow volunteered to become the caretaker for his vegetative cousin. He’s even more surprised to find an alien hiding behind his computer. When the alien possesses his brain-dead cousin and demands that his head be put in a microwave, things get weird. When the alien demands rhodium to eat, things get complicated.