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 […]
“The Physicist’s Daughter” by Mary Anna Evans
September 21, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Author Mary Anna Evans often infuses her popular, award-winning Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries with science. With her new novel, The Physicist’s Daughter (Poisoned Pen Press, 2022), Evans steps away from that series. She expands her deft use of science-as-plot, all the while dishing up suspense and mystery in a novel peopled with compelling characters in […]
“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 […]
“The Murderous Sky: Poems of Madness and Mercy” by Rosemary Daniell
September 19, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Steven Croft Its possibilities for expression limitless, poetry can evoke many things, but as an art form it reverberates especially affectively within crisis: take for example the poetries of Homer or Sylvia Plath. Rosemary Daniell, who identifies as a Southerner, has been one of the South’s bravest poets and nonfiction writers for decades. […]