What is your guilty pleasure? What do you head for when you’ve had a bad day? A bowl of ice cream, a glass of wine, a bacon sandwich? Well, you can save those calories, just get a hold of Kristy Woodson Harvey’s newest of twelve novels, Beach House Rules (Gallery Books 2025), set it aside […]
Read of the Month: “Resurrected Body” by Elizabeth C. Garcia
August 6, 2025 by Leave a Comment
The opening poem, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” sets the soul-baring tone for Elizabeth C. Garcia’s stunning collection, Resurrected Body (Cider Press Review 2024). No wonder this book won Cider Press Review’s 2023 Editor’s Prize! The phrasing of Garcia’s first poem will cause most mothers to recall those scary, cringeworthy moments in the delivery […]
“What’s Yours Is Mine” by Jennifer Jabaley
August 5, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Most readers have heard of tiger moms and “daddyballs”—those hyper-competitive parents who live vicariously through their children’s achievements. In What’s Yours Is Mine (Lake Union, 2025), Jennifer Jabaley dives into the intense world of Atlanta’s pre-professional ballet, where one mother takes that rivalry to a chilling—and dangerous—extreme. Fans of Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere and […]
August Books of Note: “Damn English!” and “When Time Was Suspended”
August 4, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Damn English! by Gary Sherbell Damn English! (Black Rose Writing 2025) by Gary Sherbell is a witty exploration of why your high school English papers were always covered in red ink. With humor and insight, Sherbell compiles a collection of homonyms, tricky spellings, and the many illogical quirks of the English language—all in one entertaining […]
“The Goddess of Weaver Street” by Joy Ross Davis
August 4, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Review by Deb Bowen Prolific author Joy Ross Davis offers readers both magical realism and a view of societal norms for upper class women during the Eisenhower era in The Goddess of Weaver Street (Wyatt-MacKenzie, July 2, 2024) Women in the 1950s and early 1960s, relegated to rigidly defined domestic roles, cherished their portable hair […]
“The Game” by Brandon Keller
July 15, 2025 by Leave a Comment
In his gripping debut novel The Game: A High-Stakes Conspiracy of Power, Poker, and Profit (Black Rose Writing, 2025), Brandon Keller explores the ruthless race to control artificial intelligence—an innovation powerful enough to reshape the future. With its fast-paced plot and financial intrigue, The Game will appeal to fans of Stephen Frey’s financial thrillers and […]