Reviewed by Donna Meredith The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes, by William Rawlings, would be a great read if only because it presents a richly layered mystery and a wronged protagonist deserving of much more than the world has handed him. But the novel is so much more than that. Rawlings took the historic Savannah setting […]
“Falling Apart, Radiant,” by Mary Jane Ryals
May 13, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro In her newest chapbook, Falling Apart, Radiant, Mary Jane Ryals offers us poems of resiliency which resonate with tenderness and intimacy about what it means to live, suffer, get up and do it all again. Ryals invites her readers in for a close look at her fight against cancer, but […]
May Read of the Month: “Fly Fishing in Times Square,” by William Walsh
May 7, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Claire Bateman …[C]onsciousness needs the world and other people to develop, but then it can grow and exist on its own; once external relations become internal, the universe exists from within…” Marcello Massimini and Giulo Tononi, Sizing Up Consciousness “What happens when imagination confronts the universe?” Walsh explores this instigating question by revealing […]
“Meg & Jo,” by Virginia Kantra
April 30, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Tamatha Cain Virginia Kantra’s latest novel, Meg & Jo, plays on the beloved story of the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, imagining the sisters as millennials navigating through both the internal and external pressures of modern womanhood. Kantra is New York Times best-selling author of 30 novels and winner of […]
“Swimming Between Worlds,” by Elaine Neil Orr
April 24, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Kathleen Thompson Elaine Neil Orr’s novel, Swimming Between Worlds, can be judged by its cover. The time is January 1958. This cover depicts a large swimming pool, so crowded with swimmers, in the water or sunning on the sides, that one might surmise it a special day—maybe the last day before school starts […]
“Legacy of Lies,” by Robert Bailey
April 22, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro Make no mistake, Robert Bailey knows how to write a dynamic, riveting legal thriller with depth and emotional integrity. He’s proved this before with his award-winning, best-selling McMurtrie and Drake legal series. As Southern Literary Review previously noted, this is an author who knows how to put the thrill back […]
“Weathering,” by David Havird
April 8, 2020 by 1 Comment
Reviewed by William Walsh Generally, when I read a book, for pleasure or review, I thumb through the weighted pages to feel the texture, the heft of what I can expect. Some may say that I harp on the tactile too much, but there is always the importance of the physical connection between the book […]
April Read of the Month: “To the Bones,” by Valerie Nieman
April 1, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Edgy suspense, Scottish paranormal legend, and a beautiful river transformed into a wicked orange brew—these ingredients in the skilled hands of journalist Valerie Nieman create a whip-smart novel, To the Bones (West Virginia University Press, 2019). The story presents a classic hero’s quest in which an ordinary person discovers new strengths […]