Reviewed by Adele Annesi The Feathered Bone, by New York Times bestselling author Julie Cantrell, fuses poetic voice and unwavering honesty in a haunting tale of worst fears come true, best intentions gone horribly wrong, and a freedom that brings hope beyond this life. Set in New Orleans and rural Louisiana in the years involving […]
March Read of the Month: “Driftwood Tides,” by Gina Holmes
March 2, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl The American poet Hart Crane wrote in a late letter that “[t]here is constantly an inward struggle.” More often than not such is the case with any artist, novelist, poet, sculptor, or wood-worker. Inside the soul, inside the imagination, there’s a stirring, a warring, contradictions of personality, affirmation, enthusiasm, skepticism […]
February Read of the Month: “The Secret to Hummingbird Cake,” by Celeste Fletcher McHale
February 9, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro The Secret to Hummingbird Cake (Thomas Nelson, 2016) by emerging Southern author Celeste Fletcher McHale manages to do a very difficult thing: It spins a loving tale about enduring female friendships in a small town in the Deep South without engaging in stereotypes or sentimentality. Replete with the poignancy of […]
January Read of the Month: “Casey’s Last Chance,” by Joseph B. Atkins
January 6, 2016 by 1 Comment
Reviewed by Philip K. Jason “Last chance for what?” the eager reader might ask. To make it to the majors? To score big at anything? In this debut novel, it’s this sorry fellow’s last chance to get out from under the debts incurred over a decade or two of minor league hustling and losing. Not […]
December Read of the Month: “Want v. Need: Stories from Pottawatomie County,” by Amy Susan Wilson
December 3, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by William Bernhardt Just when the cynics begin to wonder if the short story as a literary form is lost, moribund, or permanently encased in amber, Third Lung Press presents a collection that reminds us how rich, how enriching, and how truly American this form is. Want v. Need: Stories from Pottawatomie County is […]
November Read of the Month: “A Hanging at Cinder Bottom,” by Glenn Taylor
November 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith Glenn Taylor’s new over-the-top caper sparkles with cinematic scenes begging to be transformed into film. A Hanging at Cinder Bottom: A Novel (Tin House Books) is primarily set in West Virginia coal country with occasional forays into Baltimore. The white-faced monkey depicted on the cover plays a role in a story […]