Reviewed by Donna Meredith In The Velvet Hours, Alyson Richman explores two different eras in Paris, the Belle Epoque and the lead-up to Hitler’s Nazi invasion, each rendered with meticulous attention to detail. The novel would be a fine read as a multi-generational romance, but it soars beyond that convention because it was inspired by […]
“Rise and Shine,” by Johnathan Scott Barrett
January 18, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl Our late friend Bill Borland was from Eudora, Arkansas; he loved to cook gumbos and such and hush puppies. Once, before we were on our way to his home for dinner, my wife asked me what a hush puppy was and I said cornmeal, wheat flour, eggs, salt, baking […]
January Read of the Month: “The Ocean’s Edge,” by William Bernhardt
January 4, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Carl Sennhenn No one perhaps would suspect, surely not expect, the author of acclaimed and prize-winning mystery novels to write and publish poetry. But William Bernhardt, the author of the successful Ben Kincaid series, has done just that with two volumes of poetry, The White Bird and now The Ocean’s Edge. If The […]
“Watershed Days,” by Thorpe Moeckel
December 29, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl One might be at a loss with this book absent some context, but even with context one might still be at a loss. Mr. Moeckel’s book covers some two years of occasional vignettes, an even dozen from 2005-2006 and another even dozen from 2006-2007: adventures of a sort. The vignettes, […]
Denise Tolan
December 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Denise Tolan teaches amazing students at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio, Texas. She is a graduate of the Red Earth MFA in Creative Writing Program at Oklahoma City University. Denise has been published in places such as Reed, Apple Valley Review, The Great American Literary Magazine, The Tishman Review, and Gravel. Denise’s creative nonfiction recently […]
December Read of the Month: “Wins and Losses,” by Peter Makuck
December 15, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Brendan Galvin Wins and Losses is Peter Makuck’s fourth collection of short stories, a dozen to be exact, and as in the earlier three books his settings are mostly blue collar towns and his characters are usually middle-class Americans, sometimes retired, sometimes trying to get by in questionable financial weather. Makuck was a […]