Literary Fiction

Tides by Philip J. Moss

Tides by Philip J. MossSam Tinker lives in a small town at the edge of the ocean, teetering on the cusp of change. The world isn’t the same as it was thirty or fifty years back. Fishermen and lobstermen have to work harder to keep financially afloat, and environmental changes foreshadow an even grimmer future. When new opportunities appear, they bring their own risks, especially to the lobstermens’ way of life. Perspective is a funny thing, though, and it may be that the world as Sam Tinker remembers it has never been exactly what he thought.

Much of Tides by Philip J. Moss reads […]

2018-01-16T07:04:57+02:00January 16th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Mr. Wonderful by Daniel Blake Smith

Mr. Wonderful by Daniel Blake SmithMr. Wonderful by Daniel Blake Smith delves into the life of an academic, juggling family and his teaching career. Concerned about his aging father who is dealing with medical issues, Brian is faced with an adopted adult son who just can’t seem to find his way in life and inevitably ends up returning home while on the run from a dangerous situation. The sudden arrival of his son adds to the upheaval and adds further strain to what seems like an already threadbare marriage.

Between the phone calls from his younger brother about their father, the wishes of his father’s […]

2019-01-11T14:51:54+02:00January 10th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: , |

Review: Carpenter’s Bluff by James Sanders

★★★★ Carpenter's Bluff by James Sanders

Our adult lives are largely influenced by the uncharted events of our youth and nowhere is this more evident than in Carpenter’s Bluff, James Sanders’ moving literary tale of youthful indiscretions and dark secrets.

Henry “Hank” Anawatty is a young attorney with some serious problems in his life, the most pressing one being that the woman he’s been seeing has disappeared. In desperation, he goes to see a shrink and little by little, her pointed questions chink away at Hank’s armor, revealing a less-than-idyllic childhood spent dodging an abusive father, not to mention harboring lingering guilt over his […]

2018-01-10T11:03:53+02:00January 6th, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: |

Review: The Gods Wait by John von Dorf

★★★★ The Gods Wait by John von Dorf

In The Gods Wait by John von Dorf, you’ll find pessimists fighting to be optimistic about romance, a waitress’s vivid inner world, an internet troll’s thoughts on philosophy, and many other slices from diverse, scattered lives.

A collection of well-drawn characters seek fulfillment and meaning through various mediums, including film, insults, and food. Each obsession demonstrates the individual’s need and desire for grander meaning than their obsession actually delivers. The only voices with new ideas are shut down by the intentional defamation or self-congratulatory ignorance of other would-be intellectuals. Each character is defined as much by their hates as […]

2018-02-06T07:05:04+02:00December 21st, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: Love Letters by Shaun Locke

★★★½ Love Letters by Shaun M. Locke

In Love Letters by Shaun Locke, the narrator is one of the wordiest protagonists in English literature, and he’s supposed to be. After introducing himself through an archaic tide of words, the narrator’s strange and sordid tale begins.

The narrator’s words continue to stretch the mundane into obscenely long sentences as the story unfolds. He finds his daughter has beautifully mastered the art of curse words. He hits a cat on the way to see the mother of his child, but he can’t see the mother of his child because she is locked away in an asylum for women. […]

2017-12-18T11:21:14+02:00November 6th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

The Inconsistencies: A Comical Tragedy In Two Parts by Ilango Villoth

The Inconsistencies: A Comical Tragedy In Two PartsIn 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[…]

2017-09-25T12:10:52+02:00September 23rd, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Review: Incognolio by Michael Sussman

★★★★½ Incognolio by Michael Sussman

For readers who are eager to have their imaginations shattered into a thousand pieces, this bizarre and fascinating novel by Michael Sussman is sure to please. Incognolio, both the title of this novel and the ultimate goal of anyone trying to shed their conscious mind, is a strange journey with unreliable narrators who seem to be having a perpetual identity crisis.

From the very first page of this novel, you can tell that the read will be an unusual one to say the least. The subtle style of writing in surreal details, or breaking the fourth wall of […]

Review: Bebette by Joseph Barone

★★★★ Bebette by Joseph Barone

Joseph Barone’s existential novel, Bebette, tells the story of Lily, a 12-year-old girl with a rare form of blood cancer, as she grapples with her own mortality. After her family’s move from the allegorically named town of Reverie to the equally metaphorical town of Salvation, Lily develops a relationship with an imaginary friend named Bebette.

Bebette is a 5-year old child who looks like Alice in Wonderland but who speaks with the knowledge, insight, and wisdom of a much older person. The conversations held between Bebette and Lily are not those you would expect to encounter between two […]

2017-09-15T12:45:16+02:00August 3rd, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
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