If you’re noticing the 1921 date in the subtitle of Hell Put to Shame (Mariner Books 2024) and thinking debt “peonage” is a past atrocity, forget it. Also known as debt slavery, the practice lives on, often targeting poor, unemployed, and homeless people. Today, it’s often immigrants. In 2010, a federal grand jury, author Earl […]
“Hell Put to Shame, the 1921 Murder Farm Massacre and the Horror of America’s Second Slavery” by Earl Swift
May 15, 2024 by Leave a Comment
“Because I Loved You” by Donnaldson Brown
May 14, 2024 by Leave a Comment
In some ways, the broad scope of Because I Loved You (She Writes Press 2023) by Donnaldson Brown never fully transcends its opening chapters about the impact of a first love. The novel spans several decades in a relationship between a couple who first fall in love as adolescents. The novel’s early sections which involve […]
“Night Watch” by Jayne Anne Phillips wins Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
May 14, 2024 by Leave a Comment
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia, stands at the center of Jayne Anne Phillips’ latest novel, Night Watch (Knopf 2023). It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, is long-listed for the National Book Award in Fiction, and is a New Yorker Best Book of the Year. The Civil War’s aftermath of wounded men and […]
“Glass Cabin” by Tina Mozelle Braziel and James Braziel
May 14, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Glass Cabin (Pulley Press April 2024) is a singularly beautiful book, radiant with life-affirming prose and poetry from husband-and-wife team Tina Mozelle Braziel and James Braziel. In alternating voices, Jim and Tina tell a vivid, engaging story of how they built a house. Not just any house, mind you, but a cabin constructed in the […]
May Read of the Month: “Treatment Plan” by Darryl Bollinger
May 1, 2024 by 1 Comment
Gripping—because the story is expertly crafted to grab you by the neck and not let go. Horrifying—because the very people who should be helping drug-addicted patients are instead motivated to make sure they stay addicted. Important—because even though Treatment Plan, by Darryl Bollinger, is fictional, similar events are happening to real families. Yes, Treatment Plan […]
“Green Canvas” by Andrew Nance
May 1, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Andrew Nance is a fine writer with a keen eye for plot twists and for creating rising tensions. He excels at writing suspenseful, complex, and intriguing mysteries as he’s demonstrated before with All the Lovely Children and Red Canvas. With his newest book, Green Canvas (Red Adept Publishing 2024), he proves he’s yet at the […]