Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro Lush, mystical, and complex, Midnight at the Tuscany Hotel by Kentucky author James Markert is a stunning book. It begins with a foundling child abandoned at an orphanage in Florence, Italy, 1866, and ends on a California cliff in modern times—but oh what a journey the author takes his readers […]
February Read of the Month: “Midnight at the Tuscany Hotel,” by James Markert
February 19, 2020 by Leave a Comment
“Handkerchiefs and Handcuffs,” Essay by John S. Maguire
February 13, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Essay by John S. Maguire I woke up Saturday morning, early as usual, so I could have the one TV in the house to myself. I was an avid cartoon watcher and I wanted to watch the Saturday morning cartoons that I looked forward to every other day of the week. Entering the living room […]
“Chita: A Memory of Last Island,” by Lafcadio Hearn (edited by Delia LaBarre)
January 8, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Adele Annesi The nineteenth-century novella Chita: A Memory of Last Island, by Lafcadio Hearn, blends fact with fiction in a lavishly haunting tale of a Louisiana isle whose serene beauty is destroyed, leaving a legacy of sorrow, joy, and warning. The real L’Île Dernière (“Last Island”) is gone, but her story remains. Set […]
January Read of the Month: “The Moonshiner’s Daughter,” by Donna Everhart
January 1, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Philip K. Jason It’s 1960 in Wilke’s County, North Carolina and sixteen-year-old Jessie Sasser has a problem. In fact, she has several problems. One is an awkward and demeaning relationship with her father. He seems remote and silently critical. Jessie has asked him over and over to explain the death of her mother, […]
“Catacombs,” by Mary Anna Evans
December 24, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro Below the surface in Oklahoma City, a vast system of catacombs exists where a community of Chinese people once lived underground in the early twentieth century. These catacombs are not fiction, though the book Catacombs (Poisoned Pen, 2019) is. Mary Anna Evans, the author of Catacombs, explains, “The parts of […]
“Never Have I Ever,” by Joshilyn Jackson
December 18, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro With her debut novel some fourteen years ago, Joshilyn Jackson established herself as a phenomenal author. In that debut, gods in Alabama (Warner Books, 2005), pathos, suspense, and humor were well balanced in a story about a young woman gone north, only to return home to Alabama to confront the […]
December Read of the Month: “The Alexandria You Are Losing,” by Yasser El-Sayed
December 5, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by David Madsen Yasser El-Sayed, the author of this unique collection of stories, is well traveled, with a stack of hometowns in his carry-on, which he pulls out with nuance, humor and psychological precision, as he explores the landscapes and emotional terrain of immigrants and emigrants, travelers and settlers. We humans are a seeking […]
“Their Houses,” by Meredith Sue Willis
November 27, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith The richly drawn characters in Meredith Sue Willis’s latest novel, Their Houses, are stumbling about in an effort to meet one of the most basic needs Maslow identifies in his famous hierarchy, a need which must be met before people can move on to find love, esteem, and self actualization. They […]