Reviewed by Donna Meredith Exquisitely beautiful and eerily wise. Deeply philosophical yet full of magic. An enchanting novel with intriguing characters. Rita Zoey Chin’s The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern (Melville House, October 2022) is all these things—and more. In other words, a work of literary excellence. The novel begins with a disturbing scene. Leah […]
Books In Brief
October 4, 2022 by 1 Comment
“Nostalgic Florida: Iconic Art of the Sunshine State” by Doug Alderson From bathing beauty postcards to toothy gator ashtrays, Alderson’s thoroughly researched, amply illustrated book takes readers on a rollicking ride through Florida history in an entertaining study of its artwork. This pictorial history offers sections on Romantic Florida, Funny Florida, Florida’s Bathing Beauties and […]
“How We Disappear” by Tara Lynn Masih
September 20, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Tara Lynn Masih’s exceptional short story and novella collection How We Disappear (Press 53, 2022) presents a sprawling range of characters, unique voices, and exotic settings. Take the first story, “What You Can’t See in the Picture.” The protagonist is a woman with a most unusual career, stemming from her super power: she can recognize […]
“The Orchid Tattoo” by Carla Damron
September 20, 2022 by 1 Comment
The pages of Carla Damron’s The Orchid Tattoo (Koehler Books, 2022) whiz by so fast, so easily, I have to say it is one of the best nail-biters I’ve read in a while. Not only that, this well-crafted thriller features a smart, likeable hospital social worker—Georgia Thayer—as protagonist. She is pitted against a human trafficking […]
September Read of the Month: “Loving the Dead and Gone,” by Judith Turner-Yamamoto
September 7, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Judith Turner-Yamamoto’s debut novel Loving the Dead and Gone (Regal House, September 2022) is a 2020 Petrichor Prize finalist. There’s more than one aching heart in this excellent story exploring the generational effects of love, loss, betrayal, and redemption. The story opens with middle-aged Clayton finding a young man’s body after someone smashed into the […]
“Hannah and Ariela” by Johnnie Bernhard
September 7, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Providing a blueprint for a rich, fulfilling life after the loss of a loved one was not likely Johnnie Bernhard’s main intent in writing her latest novel, Hannah and Ariela, (TCU Press, 2022). Yet this compassionate novel set near the Texas border does exactly that. Seventy-three-year-old Hannah Duran stars in this story, although the chapters […]