Her Best Self (Regal House 2024) by Mindy Friddle is a fascinating look inside a dysfunctional family in a well-crafted, evocative story with a psychological thriller quality to it. Throughout the novel, pervasive cunningness by several characters heightens tensions and casts a riveting net sure to pull readers deeper into the tale. A darkly comedic […]
Ethel Morgan Smith
December 30, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Ethel Morgan Smith writes creative nonfiction and historical fiction. She has published three books: Path to Grace: Reimagining the Civil Rights Movement. (August 2023) winner of the 2023 Eudora Welty Prize; From Whence Cometh My Help: The African American Community at Hollins College (2000 & 2017); and Reflections of the Other: Being Black in Germany […]
“When Cicadas Cry” by Caroline Cleveland
December 30, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Written by an attorney, When Cicadas Cry (Union Square & Co. 2024) is an interesting legal thriller with enough lawyering to satisfy fans of the genre plus plenty of mystery to engage “whodunit” fans. Author Caroline Cleveland closely tracks the legal thriller formula in the early pages, but then she dashes headfirst into a suspenseful cold-case […]
Elizabeth Soule
December 30, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Elizabeth Soule is a writer of young adult fiction living on the Gulf Coast of Florida with her husband and two young daughters. With a B.A. in Theatre Arts and a background teaching art and elementary school, she brings an aspect of the artistic world to all her writing––especially as it relates to introspective teens […]
“Remembering Paule: A Photo Memoir of Her Richmond Years” by Daryl Cumber Dance
December 30, 2024 by Leave a Comment
I loved reading Remembering Paule: A Photo Memoir of Her Richmond Years, by Daryl Cumber Dance. This moving memoir with photos is about the enduring friendship between African American novelist Paule Marshall and African American Folklorist and literary critic Daryl Cumber Dance. The narrative moves mostly in chronicle sequence. The book is written in eight […]