January 2026 Books of Note

“Cinnamon Beach” by Suzanne Kamata “Multicultural family” does not adequately describe the relationships among the characters in Suzanne Kamata’s Cinnamon Beach (Wyatt-MacKenzie, 2024).  Characters who are Indian American, Black, Japanese, American Japanese, white, hearing impaired, and gender fluid people this novel.  Add in family members with chronic illnesses related to aging, and the character who […]

Deb Bowen

Deb Bowen is co-author of A Good Friend for Bad Times: Helping Others through Grief (Augsburg Fortress Publishers). Her Crafting the Wheel of the Year (Search Press) with Claire Gelder is scheduled for release in autumn, 2025. Deb’s creative nonfiction, essays, and poetry are published in Salvation South and County Lines Literary Journal. Her current […]

 “The Goddess of Weaver Street” by Joy Ross Davis

Review by Deb Bowen Prolific author Joy Ross Davis offers readers both magical realism and a view of societal norms for upper class women during the Eisenhower era in The Goddess of Weaver Street (Wyatt-MacKenzie, July 2, 2024) Women in the 1950s and early 1960s, relegated to rigidly defined domestic roles, cherished their portable hair […]