SPR’s book reviews of new self-published books
Not Just Talent: The Millennials Redefining Talent and Human Capital Management by Philipe Bruce
Philipe Bruce has a passion for human resources and how to maximize potential in a diverse workforce. Millennials, otherwise known as Generation Y, are changing – and breaking – the rules of business, and talent management heads are going to have to learn how to make the most of this resource, as millions of young workers enter the job market.
Bruce tackles the dilemma of how to demograph and analyze this new skillset. There are some generalizations that can be made and proven to be true: Generation Y are “digital natives” and have skills that come naturally other generations had […]
Author Finn Bell’s exciting New Zealand thriller about a missing girl and a suicidal disabled man on a mission opens with a quote from Hitler about God. This powerful start is surprisingly the exact scene-setter for what can only be described as an unforgettable, cutthroat fable that examines ego and self-obsession in the face of murder. All of this in a book set in New Zealand, it’s unlikely readers will have picked up anything quite so original in this genre for some time.
In The Tale of Miss Berta London: “Recollections of Accomplishments,” readers experience the turmoils of the eponymous character as she overcomes adversity with shocking resolve, and demonstrates an ability to roll expertly with life’s many punches in her role as a fashion editor for the international E-Fashion Magazine and then onto becoming a nanny for the Williamson children.
Woodiss is Willing, edited by George Dalrymple, is a fictionalized account of the life of Henry Woodiss, who gained notoriety in the 1920s in England due to his high-profile affair with the wife of Sir Coningsby Coningsby-Clarke, Lady Edith. Penned by Woodiss himself in a manuscript supposedly finished in the 1960s, he presents his story as comical fiction at the expense of both himself and the myriad figures involved in the debacle.
The Assyrian Girl by Thomas W. Devine is a terrorist thriller following Matt Couper, a security contractor who’s stationed in Iraq in 2003. There he saves the life of Tara Nasrim, an Assyrian teenager, a memory which haunts him years later. When she shows up in New Zealand five years later, their lives become as complicated as war-torn Iraq – thrust into a struggle with a Islamic terrorism. It’s a book about the power of faith versus the seductive pull for many of fundamentalist dogma, and how to maintain love in this increasingly complicated and dangerous world.
In Blanket of Hearts, poet Robert A. Cozzi explores themes of love and memory and the bittersweet nexus of the two when a union ends. He captures the pain of seeing an old lover with their new flame, the chances not taken and still remembered years later, and the all-too-human desire to “hit the rewind button.” In other poems, he recalls the ecstasy of new love, “when everything tasted of ice cream” and desire is like an all-consuming riptide, pulling him toward oblivion. He charmingly describes the beloved’s voice as “the cinnamon in my hot chocolate.” The final poem […]
Jayne is on the run – from the law, from her past, from herself. Unlikely events conspire to face Jayne with everything she’s tried to put behind her, for better or for worse. Making unlikely friends with a former victim of her crimes, Jayne only has one compass to lead her forward: her heart. She drives north, perhaps to face the family to which she once belonged, or to another life entirely…
Sean Goes To Barcelona by Tanya Preminger is a book aimed at middle-grade readers about a mom and son’s visit to Barcelona to see the Barca soccer team play, explore the city, and maybe meet the boy’s hero, Messi. Expertly illustrated by Elettra Cudignotto, it’s a spirited adventure through a foreign city, and an ode to the world’s most popular sport.