Suspend all expectations when you open Kristy Halvorsen’s memoir, Perfect Unfolding (Coddiwomple Now, LLC 2026). With raw candor, in fragmented “nomadic mosaic” style like Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, she unveils how she finds herself set loose after her boyfriend leaves. Yet her mom helps her realize her dreams are not crushed but parked in her driveway—if […]
“Perfect Unfolding: Seven Years of Life-Changing Solo Adventure, One Year that Broke me Open” by Kristy Halvorsen
May 19, 2026 by Leave a Comment
“Far From Uncertain: One Woman’s Life of Crime & Other Righteous Deeds” by Teddy Jones
May 19, 2026 by 3 Comments
Selfless nurse, defender of the vulnerable, and murderous addict—can one be all of these? Far From Uncertain: One Woman’s Life of Crime and Other Righteous Deeds jumps right smack dab into the life of Margaret Kenyon and keeps you and cub reporter, Charles Bailey, running through her story at a breathless pace. The tale drags […]
“The Mediator” by Robert Bailey
May 15, 2026 by Leave a Comment
The stakes in a rogue divorce mediation couldn’t be higher—life and death for both the shaky mediator fresh out of rehab and the desperate husband who has never confronted an ethical line he will not cross. With that set-up, award-winning, best-selling Alabama attorney Robert Bailey is back with a new one, The Mediator (Max Ringo, […]
Read of the Month: “Kissing the Sky” by Lisa Patton
May 6, 2026 by Leave a Comment
Kissing the Sky (Lake Union Publishing 2026) by Lisa Patton is an engaging historical coming-of-age novel about finding and asserting one’s true self. Set during turbulent times, much of the story takes place at Woodstock—both the original 1969 famous music festival and the 50-year anniversary celebration. In her author’s notes, Patton admits she was too […]
“Charlie-Man” by Thomas Cullen
May 4, 2026 by 2 Comments
Thomas Cullen’s debut novel Charlie-Man (Brandylane 2025) is a slow-burn of a coming-of-age story—a paced, environmental read that takes us into the world of an elite preparatory boys’ school in Richmond, Virginia, in the mid-1990s. We meet protagonist Charlie Stewart, a rising high school senior, as he is about to jump off a dam into […]
“All is the Telling” by Rosa Castellano
May 4, 2026 by Leave a Comment
All is the Telling (Diode Editions, 4/5/25) is a memoir in poems. That’s what made me want to read and review it. But when I opened the book and began to read I understood why so many memoir instructors and instructions suggest that all writers should read poetry—for the language. The language throughout this book […]