#BookReview: “Iran: Make Love Not War” by Mary Jane Walker

“Iran” brings up a very specific image in the minds of most Westerners: Chadors, morality police, nuclear weapons, and other unsavory things. “Persia,” on the other hand, is redolent of some far-off, ancient Oriental exoticism. Mary Jane Walker’s contemporary account of her recent trek through Iran is thus a welcome corrective to both those images. […]

“Man and Horse” by John Egenes

I think most of us horse people have harbored fantasies of taking off across country on horseback. John Egenes actually did it. “Man and Horse” is the story, told by John himself, of how he, as a callow 24-year-old, and his Quarter Horse Gizmo, as an even more callow 4-year-old, rode from California to Virginia […]

“A Maverick Traveller” by MaryJane Walker

A Maverick Traveller Mary Jane Walker “A Maverick Traveller” is a straightforward, high-spirited account of the author’s adventures traveling around the world, as she does everything from sail across the Pacific in a Chinese junk to go mountain climbing in the Alps. In between, and perhaps even more fascinatingly, it chronicles her involvement in New […]

“Flying By the Seat of My Knickers” by Eliza Watson

Flying By the Seat of My Knickers Eliza Watson “Flying By the Seat of my Knickers” is part of the burgeoning genre of…I don’t know exactly what to call it…stories about hapless young women who have to turn their lives around by having adventures and finding love. It’s chick lit of a very specific sort. […]

“All Over the Place” by Geraldine DeRuiter

“All Over the Place” is a travel book, except that the travel is at least as much internal as it is external. Geraldine DeRuiter has transformed her popular blog, The Everywhereist, into a book that chronicles her trajectory from unemployment to travel blogger to brain-tumor-survivor to someone who’s come to understand her family, her marriage, […]

“Out of the Blue: New Short Fiction from Iceland”

Iceland is one of those romantic destinations that you hear a lot about, but how often do you actually get to experience Icelandic culture? For all its popularity as a tourist spot, there’s very little Icelandic literature available to the average reader; so little, in fact, that I went into this collection, my first foray […]

“Badlands: New Photo Edition” by Melinda Camber Porter

“Badlands” is a peculiar novel, although it’s only a novel in a very loose definition of the word. But it is stunning nonetheless. An Englishwoman travels to South Dakota with her American boyfriend Adam, who has agreed to represent Henry Blackfoot, a Sioux man who’s initiated a lawsuit against a local white farmer whose land, […]

“A Woman of Integrity” by J. David Simms

A Woman of Integrity In “A Woman of Integrity,” fifty-something fading actress Laura is faced with the loss of her agent, her career, her flat, and possibly her self-respect. Invited to participate in a documentary about her youthful idol, silent cinema actress and acclaimed photographer Georgie Hepburn, she jumps at the chance, only to discover […]

“Of Our Own Device” by M.K. South

Of Our Own Device Cold Warriors rejoice! A major fix for your addiction has arrived! Okay, I’m being tongue in cheek, but “Of Our Own Device” has pretty much everything readers longing for a hit of classic Cold War spy fiction could want. Plus a bunch more. It’s a big, sprawling book covering the Gorbachev […]

“Rubbing Stones” by Nancy Burkey

In “Rubbing Stones,” two seemingly separate stories converge, with both uplifting and tragic results. Jane is an American psychiatrist whose teenage son has gotten into trouble with the law. Meanwhile, Katura is a teenage girl from Botswana, whose older brother has also gotten into what turns out to be much more serious trouble with the […]