Embracing the Local: Extension Cords and All, by Glen Cantrell | Book Review
Clocking in at roughly 150 pages and coming out November 10th, Embracing the Local is an upcoming civic memoir that chronicles Glen Cantrell in his first year as president of the Twain Harte Area Chamber of Commerce. Pitched somewhere between a memoir and an essay collection, it arrives with a somewhat unusual origin story. The […]
The Catchings Press, by Robin McMillion | Book Review
The follow-up to The Children of the Children (reviewed here), The Catchings Press is a literary coming-of-age novel set in 1967-68, in the fictional small town of Catchings, Texas. It’s McMillion’s second novel, and it shares its interest in institutional power and control with that book, though in a considerably different way: here the setting […]
Woman of Valor, by Jeanne Simonoff | Book Review
What do you do when the person you love is still there, but the person you knew is already gone? Woman of Valor is a memoir by Jeanne Simonoff, published September 2, 2026 by Redhawk Publications that explores this topic. It’s a slim book at 150 pages, and the second installment in a planned memoir […]
Looked Down Upon: The Exiled Kin, by Jordan Lopez | Book Review
The first book in a duology, Looked Down Upon: The Exiled Kin is an imaginative coming-of-age thriller from indie author Jordan Lopez. Published on August 12, 2023, with the sequel coming out last year, it clocks in at 316 pages and feels like a personal project in more ways than one. Reading it, I kept […]
Despite It All, I Made It Through, by R. Marin | Book Review
Memoirs live or die on one simple test: is this ordinary life, as lived, actually worth someone else’s time to read? Despite It All, I Made It Through: Volume I, published May 22, 2026, is the first of a planned trilogy and is billed as a novel “inspired by a true story,” though it reads […]
Cutie Pies by the Slice, by Kimberly Nixon | Book Review
If you enjoy Depression-era historical fiction, Cutie Pies by the Slice will definitely be one to add to your reading list this autumn. Set in the twenties to thirties, the novel is Kimberly Nixon’s latest work of family-inspired historical fiction. Following her earlier novel, Rock Bottom, Tennessee, this book is reportedly inspired by her mother’s […]
Cutie Pies by the Slice, by Kimberly Nixon | Book Review
If you enjoy Depression-era historical fiction, Cutie Pies by the Slice will definitely be one to add to your reading list this autumn. Set in the twenties to thirties, the novel is Kimberly Nixon’s latest work of family-inspired historical fiction. Following her earlier novel, Rock Bottom, Tennessee, this book is reportedly inspired by her mother’s […]
In Between Rooms, by Adrian Mompoint | Book Review
The cover of In Between Rooms gives you a perfect preview of what you’re in for: a bloodied stuffed elephant sitting alone. It’s a fitting image for Adrian M. Mompoint’s second horror novella, which continues to draw heavily from Stephen King. Where his previous novella, The Performance Review felt more like a King short story […]
So You Want To Be A Professional Athlete, by Linda Soules | Book Review
So You Want To Be A Professional Athlete is another entry in the “So You Want To Be A…” series by Linda Soules, the illustrated career-exploration line for young readers that has grown to nearly 200 titles, covering everything from astronauts to zookeepers. I’m reviewing it alongside another entry in the series, So You Want […]
So You Want To Be A Scientist, by Linda Soules | Book Review
So You Want To Be A Scientist is the latest entry in the “So You Want To Be A…” series by Linda Soules, an illustrated career-exploration line for young readers that now spans nearly 200 titles, covering everything from astronauts to zookeepers. I’m reviewing this book alongside another entry in the series, So You Want […]