“It’s very frightening,” Babchenko tells us, “that the war is in color.” Not black-and-white, like the heroic WWII movies he and his fellow soldiers had grown up on, but in the brilliant colors of the beautiful Caucasus mountains, where not one but two appallingly brutal wars have been fought in the past two decades. In […]
Read more "“One Soldier’s War” by Arkady Babchenko"In “Zinky Boys,” Alexievich weaves together interviews with those who have been affected by the Soviet war in Afghanistan–soldiers, yes, but also doctors and nurses, civilian contractors, and, most tragically of all, the mothers and widows left behind–to create a document that is heartbreaking, harrowing, and utterly damning. Those who ended up in Afghanistan did […]
Read more "“Zinky Boys” by Svetlana Alexievich"Amy Tan’s latest offering is both similar to her previous books, and yet startlingly different. While it possesses the richness of description and the multi-generational depth and breadth we’ve come to associate with Tan, prudish readers may be shocked by the sexual details of the main character’s experiences, and the tone is somehow different from […]
Read more "“The Valley of Amazement” by Amy Tan"“Esper Files: The Sky Cult” is the continuation of the first “Esper Files” book, and starts shortly after where the first book left off. Freya, whose deadly ice powers were revealed in book 1, is now in training at the Institute, and the Esper community is under threat from external misunderstanding and treachery within the […]
Read more "“Esper Files: The Sky Cult” by Egan Brass"Yes indeedy, I’m soooooo excited about certain events in DC this week that I decided to make my dystopian novelette “Unplanned Parenthood” free in their honor! I originally wrote the story back in 2011, when there was a big kerfluffle about shutting down the government in order to defund Planned Parenthood. I soon had a […]
Read more "FREE 1/19-20! “Unplanned Parenthood” on sale now!"In 1965, Robin Lee Carter ran away from a life of tragedy and abuse, and reinvented herself as Catherine Henry. Twenty years later, her son is dying of leukemia and can only be saved by a bone marrow transplant from a relative. Catherine/Robin Lee has to face up to her past and reunite with her […]
Read more "“A Bend in the Willow,” by Susan Clayton-Goldner"In “Law and Disorder,” spunky heroine Kody finds herself taken hostage by a criminal band looking to capitalize on her knowledge of Florida history in order to find a famous cache of loot. Only one of the bandits seems strangely familiar–and awfully attractive… This book has a lot of what you’d expect in a romantic […]
Read more "“Law and Disorder” by Heather Graham"In “Esper Files,” a mad(ish) scientist in an alternative Victorian England accidentally hits the world with a massive EM radiation pulse. All of a sudden, people start manifesting unusual abilities. Within a few decades, there are rival groups of good and bad Espers, as those with the abilities are called, and the good Espers find […]
Read more "“Esper Files” by Egan Brass"The Lakota warrior known as Crazy Horse is one of the more romantic and yet enigmatic and tragic figures in American history: surprisingly little is known about the man who led the Sioux to a series of successes against the US Army, before being arrested and killed in prison. This book takes the bare facts […]
Read more "“Stone Song: A Novel of the Life of Crazy Horse” by Win Blevins"“Rebellion’s Forge” is a rip-snorting tale of battle and adventure. There’s also some other stuff, but it takes backstage to the action. Loosely based on historical events, the story takes place in the early 12th century, when the Normans were trying to extend their conquest from England to Wales. King Gruffydd is walking a fine […]
Read more "“Rebellion’s Forge” by K.M. Ashman"
E. P. Clark: Author, Book Reviewer, and All-Around Literary Handiwoman 