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| Volume 34, Number 12 | December 2024 | Home | IBWIndex |
Table of Contents
| Reviewer's Choice | Christmas Shelf | Writing/Publishing Shelf |
| AI Shelf | Health/Medicine Shelf | Science Shelf |
| Botany Shelf | American History Shelf | Wildlife Shelf |
| Cookbook Shelf | Business Shelf | General Fiction Shelf |
| Historical Fiction Shelf | Literary Fiction Shelf | Romantic Fiction Shelf |
| Mystery/Suspense Shelf | Fantasy/SciFi Shelf | Graphic Novel Shelf |
| Library CD Shelf | Library DVD Shelf | Philosophy Shelf |
| Mythology Shelf | Folktale/Fairytale Shelf | Art Shelf |
| Mathematics Shelf | Photography Shelf | LGBTQ Studies Shelf |
| Music Shelf | Native American Studies Shelf | Theatre/Cinema/TV Shelf |
| Agriculture Shelf | Wine/Liquor Shelf | Travel Shelf |
| Christian Studies Shelf | Sports Shelf | Parenting Shelf |
| Computer Shelf | Psychology Shelf | Literary Studies Shelf |
| Self-Help Shelf |
Reviewer's Choice
John Shears & Nico Vincent
National Geographic Press
www.nationalgeographic.com
9781426223839, $50.00, HC, 256pp
https://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Discovery-Shackletons-Legendary-Ship/dp/1426223838
Synopsis: In March 2022, an international polar expedition team made an astonishing find: the wreck of Ernest Shackleton's legendary Endurance, lost in 1915 after being crushed by ice and then swallowed by the Weddell Sea.
The harrowing story of Shackleton's survival and rescue of all 27 men aboard is well known, but the ship had lain unseen for a century under 10,000 feet of water -- until now. The vessel remains incredibly intact, as crystal-clear photography and digital scans from the expedition reveal.
A thrilling firsthand account of the expedition co-authored by its leader, John Shears, and deputy leader, Nico Vincent, "Endurance: The Discovery of Shackleton's Legendary Ship" from the National Geographic Press is the first and only volume to fully document the discovery to be produced in full cooperation with the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust.
Critique: This large format (10.1 x 1.14 x 10.21 inches, 2.31 pounds) hardcover edition of "Endurance: The Discovery of Shackleton's Legendary Ship" is informatively enhanced for the reader's benefit with a four page Timeline of Events, a one page bibliographic listing of Sources & Further Reading, a three page listing of Members of the Endurance22 Expedition, a two page listing of Illustration & Map Credits, and a five page Index. With full page and 2-page historic B/W and Color photographs, this coffee-table style edition (a perfect choice for Memorial Fund acquisitions) of "Endurance: The Discovery of Shackleton's Legendary Ship will prove a prized and poplar pick for personal, community, and college/university library Maritime History, Artic/Antarctica History, and Underwater Photography collections.
Editorial Note #1: John Shears was the expedition leader for Endurance22, the mission to find Endurance. He is a polar geographer and expedition leader with over 30 years' experience of working in both Antarctica and the Arctic. He lives in a small village north of Cambridge in the east of England, and grew up in Exeter.
Editorial Note #2: Nico Vincent was Endurance22's subsea manager. He oversaw the equipment and deployment of the expedition's autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and was one of the first eyewitnesses to the discovery of the Endurance wreck. He is a subsea engineer and surveyor based near Marseille, France. He grew up in a very small village called Champdor in the French Alps.
Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love
Sarah Leavitt
Arsenal Pulp Press
www.arsenalpulp.com
9781551529516, $24.95, PB, 144pp
https://www.amazon.com/Something-Not-Nothing-Story-Grief/dp/1551529513
Synopsis: In April 2020, cartoonist Sarah Leavitt's partner of twenty-two years, Donimo, died with medical assistance after years of severe chronic pain and a rapid decline at the end of her life.
About a month after Donimo's death, Sarah began making comics again as a way to deal with her profound sense of grief and loss. The comics started as small sketches but quickly transformed into something totally unfamiliar to her. Abstract images, textures, poetic text, layers of watercolor, ink, and colored pencil -- for Sarah, the journey through grief was impossible to convey without bold formal experimentation. She spent two years creating these comics.
The result is "Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love", an extraordinary book that delicately articulates the vagaries of grief and the sweet remembrances of enduring love. Moving and impressionistic, "Something, Not Nothing" shows that alongside grief, there is room for peace, joy, and new beginnings.
Critique: Unique, original, insightful, candid, universal, emotionally moving, thought provoking, and effectively presented in a graphic novel style format, "Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love" by author/illustrator Sarah Leavitt is especially and unreservedly recommended for readers with an interest in Women's Biographies. While also readily available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99), this large format (8.9 x 0.6 x 11.2 inches, 1.15 pounds) paperback edition of "Something, Not Nothing" is especially recommended for community and college/university library collections.
Editorial Note: Sarah Leavitt (https://sarahleavitt.com) is the author of the graphic memoir "Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother, and Me" (Skyhorse Publishing, 2012) and the award-winning historical fiction comic "Agnes, Murderess" (Freehand Books, 2019). She is an assistant professor in the School of Creative Writing at UBC in Vancouver, BC, where she has developed and taught undergraduate and graduate comics classes since 2012.
An International Circus Affair
Jeff Raz, Stephanie Greenspan, Ori Quesada, and Devin Holt
Modern Vaudeville Press
https://modernvaudevillepress.com
9781958604243, $25.00 Paperback/$9.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/International-Circus-Affair-Francisco-American/dp/1958604240
An International Circus Affair: How a Nanjing Acrobat in San Francisco Changed American Circus Forever captures circus history at its best, using a single acrobat's life and achievements to explore the circus atmosphere and its features and major participants. The story details how an international meeting of East and West played out in the big top arena, changing the circus world forever.
This encounter allowed circuses to develop new opportunities and attractions, leading to its survival of hard, changing times. As a participant in this process rather than an observer or reporter, author Jeff Raz holds his own claim to circus fame. His mentor, Master Trainer Lu Yi from Nanjing, China, is the main subject of the book. Lu Yi took Chinese circus techniques to Australia and America, and then worked with Raz to bring the American circus techniques back to China.
All this was accomplished in eras where East/West relationships were not always smooth. The cultural relationship between Nanjing and San Francisco that is the focus of Raz's history evolves over a 20-year period, a time of many changes both between and within America and China.
Readers might expect the lively descriptions of acrobatic prowess and circus action -- but, in fact, there is as much discussion of business models, show development, and the psychology of two cultures meeting minds over the circus world. Heavily footnoted references allow researchers to access source materials, but don't detract from the pleasure factor of delving into this world for readers who may hold less prior circus familiarity.
The insights on working with students in the Youth Circus and developing new generations of entertainers and audiences alike are particularly vivid. These hold the ability to attract not just circus professionals and participants, but viewers from outside performance circles.
Interviews with students and major participants also enhance the coverage by providing diverse insights into circus dreams, operations, changes, and challenges.
Libraries that choose An International Circus Affair will find that the book expands its audience to include business readers, cross-cultural analysts, and historians as well as general-interest readers. This gives it a strength and appeal that makes it a top choice. Performing arts libraries as well as general-interest audiences will find An International Circus Affair exceptional.
The Christmas Shelf
Timothy Larsen, editor
Moody Publishers
www.moodypublishers.com
9780802432797, $22.99, HC, 336pp
https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Classic-Christmas-Stories-Yuletide/dp/0802432794
Synopsis: Compiled and edited by Professor Timothy Larsen, "Twelve Classic Christmas Stories: A Feast of Yuletide Tales" celebrates the magical season of Christmas with some of the greatest literary figures in history. The wisdom and warmth of Christmas are wrapped in the stories of beloved and gifted authors such as Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, O. Henry, G. K. Chesterton, Willa Cather, Conan Doyle, Washington Irving, George MacDonald, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anthony Trollope, and other classic storytellers.
Not only will you be immersed in the Christmas spirit, but you will draw from the insight of historian Professor Larsen who introduces each tale, sharing with readers the history, background, and inspiration behind the literature.
This inspirational collection invites us to contemplate and savor all that is good and true about God's redemptive story and our call to be Christ-like. The stories call us to generosity, reconciliation, and sacrifice. They encourage us to live with joy and gratitude. Hope and wonder abound as you gather your family around the fire and read aloud the Twelve Classic Christmas Stories.
Critique: "Twelve Classic Christmas Stories: A Feast of Yuletide Tales" is enhanced for the reader's benefit with the inclusion of two Appendices (Is Christmas Unbiblical and Pagan? / A Christian Affirmation of Yuletide Joy and Celebration). This simply elegant hardcover edition of "Twelve Classic Christmas Stories: A Feast of Yuletide Tales" from Moody Publishers is especially and unreservedly recommended for family and community library Christmas themed collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Twelve Classic Christmas Stories: A Feast of Yuletide Tales" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.14) as well.
Editorial Note: Timothy Larsen is McManis Professor of Christian Thought and Professor of History at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. He is also an Honorary Fellow at Edinburgh University, and has been a Visiting Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge University, and All Souls College, Oxford University. He is the author of nine books, including George MacDonald in the Age of Miracles: Incarnation, Doubt, and Reenchantment, and has edited a dozen volumes, including The Oxford Handbook of Christmas. Articles of his have appeared in many venues, including the Wall Street Journal, Christianity Today, World, Los Angeles Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, and CNN.com. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Larsen)
Little Christmas Carol: The Illustrated Edition
Charles Dickens, author
Joe Sutphin, illustrator
Moody Publishers
www.moodypublishers.com
9780802471864, $29.99, HC, 144pp
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Christmas-Carol-Charles-Dickens/dp/0802432832
Synopsis: In 1843, Charles Dickens penned a story that became a classic Christmas tale full of ghosts and the endearing humbug Ebenezer Scrooge. That story (which has captivated readers for over 150 years) is now accompanied by the delightful illustrations of Joe Sutphin.
With charming woodland characters and settings that families will adore, readers will be transformed by "A Little Christmas Carol".
A tale of greed, regret, loneliness, reflection, compassion, hope, and a joyfully changed life, this beautifully illustrated hardcover edition will enliven the timeless classic for readers young and old.
Critique: This large format (8.60(w) x 10.70(h) x 0.70(d)) hardcover edition of "A Little Christmas Carol" from Moody Press is a welcome and unreservedly recommended for personal, family, and community/public library Christmas themed collections. It should be noted that "A Little Christmas Carol" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $17.49).
Editorial Note #1: It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself. -- Charles Dickens (1812-1870).
Editorial Note #2: Joe Sutphin (www.joesutphin.com) is an illustrator of books for kids such as Andrew Peterson's "Wingfeather Saga", "Word Of Mouse" by James Patterson, "Little Pilgrim's Progress" (Moody Publishers) and the official graphic novelization of Richard Adams's timeless classic, "Watership Down" (Ten Speed, 2023). His love of nature, and of the living creatures in the fields and woods around his home, has informed his art for much of his life.
Promises Made Promises Kept: A Family Devotional for Christmas
Marty Machowski, author
Phil Schorr, illustrator
New Growth Press
www.newgrowthpress.com
9781645074151, $21.00, HC, 64pp
https://www.amazon.com/Promises-Made-Kept-Devotional-Christmas/dp/1645074153
Synopsis: Start a new family tradition for the Christmas season by reading "Promises Made Promises Kept: A Family Devotional for Christmas", an "upside-down" book that includes fourteen Bible stories.
Begin the week before Christmas with the first side, "Promises Made" which has seven stories that explore the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah. On Christmas Day, flip the book over and continue by reading "Promises Kept" with seven more stories that vividly illustrate how Jesus's life, death, and resurrection and the beginning of the church fulfill God's promises.
Author Marty Machowski deftly weaves the promises and fulfillments together into one harmonized story that will deepen the family's faith in God's power and control over all of history and their lives too. Each story also includes questions for the family to discuss together.
Critique: While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.75), "Promises Made Promises Kept: A Family Devotional for Christmas" this hardcover edition from New Growth Press is a simply beautiful hardback volume that is impressively illustrated by Phil Schorr and will become a treasured family favorite to be used every Christmas season. Specifically designed for families to read one story each day for the week leading up to and the week following Christmas, "Promises Made Promises Kept: A Family Devotional for Christmas" is especially appropriate for families with preschool and grade school children -- and can be used in family devotions with teens as well. "Promises Made Promises Kept: A Family Devotional for Christmas" is especially recommended for all families comprising the Christian community regardless of denominational affiliations.
Editorial Note #1: Marty Machowski (https://martymachowski.com) is a family life pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, PA, where he has served on the pastoral staff for over 30 years. He is the author of a number of family devotionals, curricula (including the Gospel Story for Kids), children's books, and parenting titles. His latest releases include The Treasure, Angels on Your Side, and the Redemption Tales series.
Editorial Note #2: Phil Schorr (www.philschorr.com) resides in southern California with his family, where he tells stories through visual mediums. He has always been fascinated with mid-century design and the use of bold yet imperfect geometric shapes. As an art director and visual designer, he brings his influence of music, animation, and global stories into his work. Phil is also the illustrator of Jesus Saves and Darkest Night Brightest Day.
The Writing/Publishing Shelf
Julie A. Gorges
I-Form Ink Publishing
https://iforminkpublishing.com
9798990106512, $27.99, HC, 290pp
https://www.amazon.com/Next-Chapter-Writing-Retirement/dp/B0DJD47763
Synopsis: "The Next Chapter: Writing in Retirement" by Julie A. Gorges contains a wealth of 'real world practical' and essential information to help any aspiring writer achieve their literary ambition. But, if you're retired or looking for an encore career, this combination instructional guide and 'how to' manual is written specifically with you in mind.
As an international award-winning author, blogger, and freelance writer for over three decades, Julie A Gorges has drawn upon her years of experience and expertise to write an empowering book to help you write your way to a happy and fulfilling retirement. It is her justifiable contention that you are never too old to pursue your passion to write!
"The Next Chapter: Writing in Retirement" provides just the inspiration and motivation you need while sharing Gorges' extensive knowledge and experience to jump-start your writing during your golden years.
With plenty of encouragement and help, you will explore all the many options available today - whether you want to write for pleasure or profit. Once you decide which direction to take, this DIY manual will guide you down your path with easy-to-understand steps to accomplish your goals.
The comprehensive guide includes vital tips on how to:
Find inspiration for ideas
Create the perfect writing space and develop a writing routine
Write a novel, non-fiction book, or your life story
Find an agent and/or publishing house
Become an indie writer and self-publish at no cost
Promote and market your book
Write articles that sell and find freelance gigs on the Internet
Start, promote, and monetize a blog
Write travel articles and books
Pen poetry or write a play
Start a journal
For further inspiration, "The Next Chapter: Writing in Retirement" includes interviews with retirees who successfully took up writing in their golden years. They share a variety of viewpoints, share a practical and realistic portrayal of what it takes to get started in this industry, and explain how they overcame challenges.
Critique: Exceptionally well written and comprehensive, "The Next Chapter: Writing in Retirement" is thoroughly 'user friendly' in organization and presentation. This hardcover edition of "The Next Chapter: Writing in Retirement" by author Julie Gorges must be considered essential reading for anyone of any age who seeks to write and publish a novel, memoir, non-fiction book, or blog. It will prove invaluable to anyone who aspires to become a freelancer or travel writer, pen poetry, start journaling, and write a play as their encore career in retirement. While also available in a paperback edition (9780976327493, $17.99), "The Next Chapter: Writing in Retirement" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, Senior Citizen center, college and university library Writing/Publishing collections and Creative Writing Workshop curriculums/studies lists.
Editorial Note: Julie A. Gorges (https://juliegorges.com) is an international award-winning author and a member of the Authors Guild. Hundreds of her articles and short stories have been published in national and regional magazines including "Woman's World," "True Romance," and "Cricket." She received three journalism awards from the Washington Newspaper Association and her blog, "Baby Boomer Bliss," was recognized as one of the top 50 baby boomer blogs on the web.
The AI Shelf
Robert H. Chen & Chelsea Chen
Chapman & Hall
c/o CRC Press
www.crcpress.com
9781032715964, $44.99, PB, 322pp
https://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Intelligence-Introduction-Development-Mathematics/dp/1032715960
Synopsis: Now in a fully updated and expanded second edition, "Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction to Big Ideas and their Development" continues to guide readers through the history and development of artificial intelligence (AI), from its early mathematical beginnings through to the exciting possibilities of its potential future applications.
To make this journey as accessible as possible, co-authors Robert H. Chen and Cheslea Chen build their narrative around accounts of some of the more popular and well-known demonstrations of artificial intelligence, including Deep Blue, AlphaGo and even Texas Hold'em, followed by their historical background, so that AI can be seen as a natural development of the mathematics and computer science of AI.
As this newly published second edition of "Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction to the Big Ideas and their Development" proceeds, more technical descriptions are presented at a pace that should be suitable for all levels of readers, gradually building a broad and reasonably deep understanding and appreciation for the basic mathematics, physics, and computer science that is rapidly developing artificial intelligence as it is today.
The only mathematical prerequisite of the second edition of "Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction to the Big Ideas and their Development" is an elementary knowledge of calculus. It is fully accessible to anyone with an interest in AI and its mathematics and computer science, and is especially suitable as a supplementary reading for a course in AI or the History of Mathematics and Computer Science in regard to artificial intelligence.
This new second edition is also fully revised and corrected throughout to bring the material up-to-date. Offers greater technical detail and exploration of basic mathematical concepts, while retaining the simplicity of explanation of the first edition. Includes entirely new chapters on large language models (LLMs), ChatGPT, and quantum computing.
Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction to the Big Ideas and their Development: 2nd Edition" is an ideal introductory textbook for personal, professional, and college/university library Artificial Intelligence collections and supplemental AI curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction to the Big Ideas and their Development: 2nd Edition) is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $31.72). Librarians should note for their permanent AI collections that this second edition of "Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction to the Big Ideas and their Development" is also available in a hardcover edition (9781032732978, $200.00).
Editorial Note #1: Robert H. Chen is the author of three books in English on Personal Computers, Liquid Crystal Displays, and Einstein's Relativity, and four books in Chinese on LCDs & Intellectual Property, Patents, Anglo-American Contract Law, and Technology & Copyright Law, and many scholarly articles in physics and the law. He has a Ph.D. in Space Physics and a J.D. in law and is a member of the California Bar.
Editorial Note #2: Chelsea Chen graduated in physics and computer science from U.C Berkeley and is a software development engineer at a major tech company in Silicon Valley.
The Health/Medicine Shelf
Mark Taylor
Wiley
c/o Wiley Professional Trade Group
www.wiley.com
Blackstone Publishing
https://www.blackstonelibrary.com
9781394283347, $45.00, HC, 288pp
https://www.amazon.com/Hospital-Heal-Thyself-Brilliant-Mathematicians/dp/1394283342
Synopsis: Part biography and part clear-eyed examination of a healthcare system in crisis, with the publication of "Hospital, Heal Thyself: One Brilliant Mathematician's Proven Plan for Saving Hospital, Many Lives. and Billions of Dollars", health care journalist and author Mark Taylor tells the story of enigmatic healthcare visionary Eugene Litvak, whose research and strategies have already been implemented at many top 12-ranked hospitals to save hundreds of millions of dollars and countless thousands of patient lives. While U.S. healthcare costs continue to skyrocket, Litvak's program described in this book offers tested, effective methods to trim those costs while simultaneously improving patient outcomes.
"Hospital, Heal Thyself" covers: How hospital and emergency room overcrowding has harmful and potentially deadly effects on patients and staff; How Litvak's algorithms and complex mathematical theories help hospitals staff appropriately to safely manage patient flow; How applying Litvak's unique patient flow interventions improves nurse retention in an era of mass nurse exodus.
Litvak's methods have been proven to work in the best hospitals in America and the world. Studies in the top medical journals confirm their success in reducing medical errors; hospital and emergency room overcrowding; nurse and physician burnout and stress and patient mortality rates. They've saved millions of dollars for each hospital adopting them, while improving patient satisfaction and outcomes, nurse retention, hospital efficiency and addressing healthcare disparities and inequities.
Critique: An invaluable and timely contribution to our national conversation regarding needed reforms and improvements in our health care systems, "Hospital, Heal Thyself" is an exceptionally well written, organized, presented and essential read for medical practitioners, hospital administrators, governmental health care policy makers. While unreservedly recommended as an critically important addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library Health Care Policy collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists, it should be noted that "Hospital, Heal Thyself" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $27.00) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Publishing, 9798228331402, $45.95, CD).
Editorial Note: Mark Taylor is a veteran prize-winning healthcare journalist who has written for newspapers, healthcare business magazines, and online publications for 30+ years. He is a cofounder and past board member of the Association of Healthcare Journalists, a Kaiser Foundation Media Fellow, and a former steelworker, taxi driver, waiter, and lifeguard.
Longevity for the Lazy
Richard Malish, MD, FACP, FACC
Coco Glendale Lifestyles, LLC
https://www.longevityforthelazy.com
9798990642300, $9.99, PB, 216pp
https://www.amazon.com/Longevity-Lazy-Low-Work-Campaign-Living/dp/B0DHGD92PQ
Synopsis: Do yo want to live your longest healthiest life, but have a hard time dieting and exercising?
With the publication of "Longevity for the Lazy: A Low-Work Campaign Plan to Living to 100 and Beyond", Dr. Richard Malish (cardiologist, public health expert, strategist, and healthcare system leader) reveals easy secrets to healthy longevity.
Asserting that we can live to be a hundred years old, Dr. Malish maintains that:
1. Humans (and our other primate cousins) are lazy by nature and evolutionary design. Diet and exercise are counter to our instincts, motivations, and physical requirements. Consequently, they offer an extremely challenging proposition as a method to achieve a long, healthy life.
2. Fighting laziness is almost impossible. But living a long and healthy life despite laziness is imaginable. Easily affordable resources that require little daily effort to attain longevity are available to the laziest among us.
"Longevity for the Lazy: A Low-Work Campaign Plan to Living to 100 and Beyond" turns what we think we know about health and aging upside down. We can have a long life without making massive lifestyle changes by taking a new approach to medicine and our personal health.
Forge a well-executed campaign plan with one of the information and support provided by Dr. Malish. In doing so, you are relying on an approach based on traditional military strategy, public health fundamentals, and scientific evidence -- the secrets to living to 100 and beyond which reveal:
A Longevity Mental Model exists that teaches us how we will continue to expand our lifespans. Know it and you will know how to augment your lifespan.
Transhumanism, the ability to prolong lifespans through human invention, is a modern reality. It no longer exists as pure theory. Embrace its existence to optimize its benefit.
Living healthfully into the 100s doesn't require new diets or exercise regimens.
Target the two biggest threats in the form of diseases that will kill you.
Be on the defensive (live as healthy a lifestyle as you can) but more importantly, take offensive measures by taking medicine and getting screened for the likely killers.
Choose medical providers who understand human motivation and its strengths and weaknesses. Only one type of provider, the medical realist, can perfectly support your longevity journey.
In the pages of "Longevity for the Lazy: A Low-Work Campaign Plan to Living to 100 and Beyond" you will discover even more unconventional lifestyle advice from a cardiologist, public health expert, and military strategist who thinks we can leverage a new understanding of our role in prolonging our lifespans to 100 and beyond.
Critique: Impressive well informed and informative, "Longevity for the Lazy: A Low-Work Campaign Plan to Living to 100 and Beyond" is exceptionally well organized and presented, making it ideal for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in prolonging the lives of themselves and their loved ones. As long as we are still breathing it is never too late to develop and shape a life-extending life style and "Longevity for the Lazy: A Low-Work Campaign Plan to Living to 100 and Beyond" offers a 'real world practical' instructional guide and 'how to' manual that is inspiring motivational. While also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $2.99) for personal reading lists, this paperback edition of Dr. Richard Malish's "Longevity for the Lazy: A Low-Work Campaign Plan to Living to 100 and Beyond" from Coco Glendale Lifestyles is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, medical school, and college/university library Health & Medicine collections in general, and supplemental Human Longevity curriculum studies lists in particular.
Editorial Note: Richard Malish (graduated from the Uniformed Services University in 1996, receiving a Doctor of Medicine degree. Rich pursued tours as an operational medicine physician with the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and the 173rd Airborne Brigade before specializing in cardiology. Rich's final command was that of the hospital and medical system at Fort Cavazos, Texas (then Fort Hood). In this role, he led the community through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. In all of his assignments, Rich studied, wrote, and published peer-reviewed material on health policy. He has a portfolio of articles that mirror his assignments. Board certified in internal medicine and cardiology, Rich retired from the Army in June 2024 and currently works as a healthcare policy consultant.
Well Being
Valentina Gaylord
Hay House, Inc.
www.hayhouse.com
9781401977375, $25.99, HC, 240pp
https://www.amazon.com/Well-Being-Autoimmune-Charting-Wellness/dp/1401977375
Synopsis: Being diagnosed with a chronic illness can be stressful, confusing, and scary -- especially when the path to healing seems to be nowhere in sight. Valentina Gaylord knows this firsthand because she has lived it. She survived a terrifying series of health challenges that started when she was stricken with Bell's Palsy and launched on a years-long journey to recover her health -- which, after exhausting every avenue that conventional medicine could offer, she finally did by turning within.
With the publication of "Well Being: A Story of Healing from Autoimmune Disease and a Guide to Charting Your Own Path to Wellness", Gaylord dissects the course of her own decline from exuberant wife, mother, and fitness entrepreneur to pain-riddled, exhausted, and desperate victim of disease. She details the dedicated and educated response she brought to her debilitating illnesses as she battled to restore her health. And as she tells her story, she invites you to chart your own path of healing in body, mind, and soul.
Drawing on her personal experience and intensive research as well as her work with clients in the boutique fitness studios she founded and owned for over ten years, Gaylord shares exercises and techniques that put mindset, emotional wellness, and spiritual awareness at the forefront of health. In each chapter, she offers thoughtful questions and carefully crafted journal prompts to help you:
Pay attention to your body and listen to its messages for you
Unravel the mysteries of your own health challenges
Start to write your own healing story
Find your way to true well being -- not just renewed vitality, but a new sense of fulfillment
Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Well Being: A Story of Healing from Autoimmune Disease and a Guide to Charting Your Own Path to Wellness" by Valentina Gaylord is deftly laid out in five major sections: My Story and the Start of Yours; Mental Wellness; Emotional Wellness; Spiritual Wellness; and Physical Wellness. Ideal for the non-specialist general reader wanting an informative, effective, and 'reader friendly' guide to a positive personal transformation, this hardcover edition of "Well Being" from Hay House publishers is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Self-Help/Self-Improvement and Health/Well-Being collections. It should be noted for readers with an interest in dealing with an autoimmune disease that "Well Being" is also readily available for personal reading lists in a paperback edition (9781837823062, $18.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.99) as well.
Editorial Note: Valentina Gaylord (www.valentinagaylord.com) is a CEO, founder, entrepreneur, business owner, holistic health and wellness coach, fitness expert, allergy and asthma ambassador, advocate, mother, and author.
The Science Shelf
Terrance Dickerson & Susan Dickerson
Firefly Books Ltd.
www.fireflybooks.com
9780228104926, $39.95, HC, 224pp
https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Beyond-Terence-Dickinson/dp/0228104920
Synopsis: In the almost 15 years since the release of the fifth edition of "The Universe and Beyond", our understanding of the universe has advanced exponentially. Previous editions guided readers through the intriguing world of black holes, dark matter and dark energy, toured the planets of other stars and plumbed the mysteries of quasars, pulsars, supernovas and the accelerating universe.
In this newly updated and expanded 6th edition of "The Universe and Beyond", Terence Dickinson and his longtime editorial partner Susan Dickinson joined forces to return to these earlier tours armed with exciting new information on the origin and evolution of the universe, the birth of planets, life on our solar system's outer moons, runaway black holes, the first gravitational waves, an enigmatic interstellar visitor and more. These recent discoveries have spawned a host of questions about the universe that couldn't even be imagined a decade ago.
Illustrating this voyage are breathtaking photos captured by the groundbreaking Hubble Space Telescope during the later phase of its mission and by the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope, which has already allowed us to observe first stars and the formation of first galaxies and has provided information about potentially habitable exoplanets.
The fully updated content of this new 6th edition showcases late-breaking science that has emerged since the last edition. The key topics covered include:
The search for and discovery of thousands of new exoplanets
New ideas on the origin and evolution of the universe
The evolving distant universe as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope
New theories about life on Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa & the outer moons in our solar system
New results from the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter
The first direct image of a monstrous black hole
New telescopes and missions for the 2020s and 2030s.
It should also be noted that this new 6th edition of "The Universe and Beyond" is completely redesigned, and the photos and illustrations have been updated with awe-inspiring new images of the cosmos.
Critique: This large format (10.8 x 0.82 x 10.67 inches, 3 pounds) hardcover edition of "The Universe and Beyond" is as spectacular as it is informative. Exceptionally well organized and presented, "The Universe and Beyond: 6th Edition" from Firefly Books is a solid and prized pick for personal, professional, community, and college/library Astronomy collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note #1: Terence Dickinson, one of Canada's best-loved astronomy writers, gained renown for unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos. His down-to-earth style made him the award-winning best-selling author of 14 astronomy books, including NightWatch, The Backyard Astronomer's Guide, The Universe and Beyond and Hubble's Universe. Dickinson was a recipient of the Order of Canada and two honorary doctorates. He died of complications from Parkinson's on February 1, 2023.
Editorial Note #2: Susan Dickinson has been Terry's lifelong editorial partner and advisor. During the latter stages of Terry's illness, Susan oversaw the production of new editions of two of Terry's bestsellers, The Backyard Astronomer's Guide and NightWatch. After his death, she turned her focus on The Universe and Beyond (6th edition), a book that reflects Terry's appreciation of a universe that captivated him for a lifetime.
The Botany Shelf
Leif Ryvarden
APS Press
https://www.apsnet.org/publications/apspress/Pages/default.aspx
9780890547182, $279.00, HC, 267pp
https://my.apsnet.org/APSStore/Product-Detail.aspx?WebsiteKey=2661527A-8D44-496C-A730-8CFEB6239BE7&iProductCode=47182
Synopsis: Poroid fungi, commonly known as "polypores," are among the most frequently encountered fungi throughout the year because of their large size and longevity. Despite their common presence in North America, most fungi guides include only a limited selection of poroid fungi.
"Poroid Fungi of North America" offers a necessary, updated account of these fungi, building on the foundational work of the original two-volume North American Polypores by R. L. Gilbertson and L. Ryvarden. This comprehensive update incorporates more than three decades of new research, featuring detailed keys, descriptions, and vibrant color macrophotos, as well as illustrations of microscopic features.
Authored by renowned Norwegian mycologist Leif Ryvarden, co-author of the previous volumes and a series of regional guides to poroid fungi, "Poroid Fungi of North America" reflects his extensive expertise, contributions, and dedication to the study of polypores. Richly illustrated, this volume fills a gap in mycological literature, offering a detailed guide for identifying poroid fungi.
Critique: This large format, profusely illustrated, hardcover edition of "Poroid Fungi of North America" from APS Press is exceptionally well organized and presented, making it ideal as an informational resource for amateur naturalists, professional mycologists, foresters, serious students, academia, and nonspecialist general readers with an interest in the subject. Unreservedly recommended for professional and college/university library collections, "Poroid Fungi of North America" would also well serve as a curriculum studies textbook.
The American History Shelf
David A. Wolff
South Dakota Historical Society Press
https://www.sdhspress.com
9781941813508, $19.95, PB, 204pp
https://www.amazon.com/Gold-Black-Hills-History-Tours/dp/194181350X
Synopsis: From military expeditions to gold mining boomtowns, outlandish business ventures to stunning national parks, the Black Hills of South Dakota teem with history as rich as their natural beauty.
Inspired by field trips that he organized at Black Hills State University, Professor David A. Wolff has distilled decades of experience exploring, researching, and teaching the history of this majestic region into accessible and informative self-guided tours.
The discovery of gold in the Lakotas' sacred Paha Sapa in 1874 quickly attracted thousands of people in search of easy fortune, transforming the Black Hills into a series of gold camps. With the publication of "The Gold Rush" by Professor Wolff, you can follow in their footsteps, from Custer to Hill City, Keystone to Galena, Deadwood to Mystic and beyond.
Featuring maps by the South Dakota Department of Transportation and dozens of photographs, Wolff 's historical synopsis provides just the right amount of context for each site on the route, along with precise mileage and directions. By tour's end, you will have completed a mini-course in Black Hills history!
Critique: Nicely illustrated throughout with B/W photos, and informatively enhanced for the reader's benefit with the inclusion of six page Bibliography and a seven page Index, "The Gold Rush" is the first volume in the new 'Black Hills History Tour' series from the South Dakota Historical Society Press. A seminal and exceptional work of meticulous historical scholarship, and thoroughly 'reader friendly' in style, organization and presentation, "The Gold Rush" is an impressive and unreservedly recommended addition to personal reading lists, as well as community and college/university library American History and South Dakota History and Travel Guide collections.
Editorial Note: David A. Wolff is professor emeritus of history at Black Hills State University, where he specialized in South Dakota and the Black Hills. He is the author of three books on Black Hills and mining history. His honors include BHSU's distinguished Faculty Member Award. (https://www.sdhspress.com/about/journal-contributors/david-wolff)
History in the Making
Christy Bowe
Brown Books Publishing Group
https://www.brownbooks.com
9781612546919, $39.95, HC, 184pp
https://www.amazon.com/History-Making-Focus-Five-Presidents/dp/1612546919
Synopsis: Christy Bowe is not only a veteran White House press photographer. She is also a chronicler of the real people behind the gravitas of the presidential facade.
With the publication of "History in the Making: Focus On Five US Presidents", Bowe not only takes us through a pictorial journey of five US presidencies but depicts the shifting human experience of each president, all of whom responds differently as both the US and the world sent challenges, triumphs, and disaster their way.
When photographing at the White House there is no choice but to react quickly and respond spontaneously, and Bowe captures each moment perfectly. Throughout the journey, Bowe grants us an inside look into the steps she took and the people who inspired her to make her way into the storied halls of the White House-and what it takes to make it in the press corps.
Critique: This large format (0.25 x 10 x 10 inches, 2.36 pounds) hardcover coffee-table style edition of Christy Bowe's "History in the Making: A Focus on Five U.S. Presidents" from the Brown Books Publishing Group is an elegant, informative, and inherently fascinating combination of captioned photography and descriptive 'insider' commentary. "History in the Making: A Focus on Five U.S. Presidents" is especially and uniquely recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Presidential History, Political History, and Contemporary Photography collections.
Editorial Note: Christy Bowe (www.imagecatchernews.com) is currently a member of the White House Press Corps, the House and Senate Press Photographers' Gallery, the White House Correspondents' Association, and the White House News Photographers' Association. She has lectured at American University, Montgomery College, and George Mason University. Christy has ten images preserved in the George W. Bush Presidential Library. She resides in Bethesda, Maryland, and continues to work as a photojournalist, currently covering her fifth US president, Joseph R. Biden.
The Wildlife Shelf
Pete Dunne, author
David Allen Sibley, illustrator
Chelsea Green Publishing Company
www.chelseagreen.com
9781645022572, $28.00, HC, 192pp
https://www.amazon.com/Courage-Birds-Surprising-Survive-Winter/dp/1645022579
Synopsis: Despite the seasonal life-sapping cold, birds have evolved strategies that meet winter's vicissitudes head on, are driven by the imperative to make it to spring, and pass down their genes to the next generation. The drama of winter and the resilience and adaptability of birds witnessed in the harsher months of the calendar is both fascinating and astonishing.
In "The Courage of Birds: And the Often Surprising Ways They Survive Winter", author Pete Dunne (winner of the American Birding Association's Roger Tory Peterson Award for lifetime achievement in promoting the cause of birding) chronicles the behavior of the birds of North America. He expertly explores widespread adaptations, such as feathers that protect against the cold, and unpacks the unique migration patterns and survival strategies of individual species. Dunne also addresses the impact of changing climatic conditions on avian longevity and recounts personal anecdotes that soar with a naturalist's gimlet eye.
An impressive compendium of unforgettable facts, wit, and moving observations on the natural world, "The Courage of Birds" is for everyone; from the serious birder who tracks migration patterns, to the casual birder who logs daily reports on eBird, to the backyard observer who throws a handful of seed out for the Northern Cardinals and wonders how the birds magically appear in the garden when temperatures begin to fall.
Critique: Featuring beautiful B/W illustrations by David Allen Sibley, "The Courage of Birds: And the Often Surprising Ways They Survive Winter" reflects author and bird expert Pete Dunne's distinctive, lyrically eloquent, storytelling style. Informative enhanced for the reader's benefit with the inclusion of a forty-one page Selected Species Profiles of North American Winter Birds, a two page listing of Acknowledgments, a fourteen page Appendix (Where the Birds Are), and a two page Bibliography, "The Courage of Birds" must be considered essential reading for birdwatching enthusiasts. While especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Avian Wildlife collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for students, academia, and non-professional general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Courage of Birds" is also available from Chelsea Green Publishing in a digital book format (Kindle, $21.49).
Editorial Note #1: Pete Dunne (www.birdwatchingdaily.com/author/pete-dunne) is an author and founder of the World Series of Birding, former Director of Natural History Information for the New Jersey Audubon Society, and former director of the Cape May Bird Observatory. An experienced tour leader, he is well-known for his columns and contributions to publications such as American Birds and Birding. He is also the author of more than twenty books, including Birds of Prey, Gulls Simplified, The Art of Pishing, The Wind Masters, and, most recently, The Shorebirds of North America.
Editorial Note #2: David Allen Sibley (www.sibleyguides.com) is the author and illustrator of several successful nature guides, including The Sibley Guide to Birds. He has contributed to Smithsonian, Science, The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, Birding, BirdWatching, North American Birds, and the New York Times. He is the recipient of the Roger Tory Peterson Award for Lifetime Achievement from the American Birding Association and the Linnaean Society of New York's Eisenmann Medal.
The Cookbook Shelf
Taste of Home, editor
Taste of Home, publisher
c/o Trusted Media Brands
https://www.trustedmediabrands.com
9798889770565, $22.99, PB, 320pp
https://www.amazon.com/Taste-Home-Diabetes-Cookbook-DIETITIAN-REVIEWED/dp/B0CWZ12436
Synopsis: Showcasing 228 dietitian reviewed, family approved, kitchen cook friendly recipes, this new "Taste of Home Diabetes Cookbook" is ideal for planning menus with for all dining occasions, formal and informal, for those having to deal with being diabetic or having a diabetic family member.
Each recipe is accompanied by a complete set of Nutrition Facts and Diabetic Exchanges. All of these must-try recipes were reviewed by a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, tested at the Taste of Home Test Kitchen and approved by a diverse taste-testing panel -- so you know they're ideal for everyone at your table! Best of all, the recipes come from today's family cooks who are happy to share the good-for-you, satisfying dishes their own families adore.
Critique: Beautifully and profusely illustrated throughout with full color photos of finished and tempting dishes, it is no hyperbole to state that a copy of the "Taste of Home Diabetes Cookbook" should be a vital and core addition to every diabetic's personal cookbook shelf, as well as professional, and community library cookbook collections. It should be noted that the "Taste of Home Diabetes Cookbook" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99) as well.
Editorial Note: Taste of Home is a food/lifestyle brand, inspiring togetherness through cooking, baking and entertaining. Featuring recipes shared by today's home cooks, Taste of Home magazine has hundreds of thousands of subscribers throughout North America and publishes best-selling cookbooks and newsstand specials. The brand's web site (www.tasteofhome.com) is a top destination, featuring kitchen-tested recipes, how-to techniques, cooking videos and more.
Fix-It and Forget-It Budget Meals
Hope Comerford, author
Bonnie Matthews, photographer
Good Books
www.goodbooks.com
c/o Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
www.skyhorsepublishing.com
9781680999198, $18.99, PB, 216pp
https://www.amazon.com/Fix-Forget-Budget-Meals-Inexpensive/dp/1680999192
Synopsis: Looking for quick and easy meals that are also shockingly affordable? You've come to the right place. There's no need to spend a fortune on ingredients. Hope Comerford has compiled more than 100 recipes that are delicious, family-friendly, and cheap!
"Fix-It and Forget-It Budget Meals" showcases an impressive variety of DIY recipes including:
Black Bean Soup
Chili Chicken Corn Chowder
Crustless Chicken Pot Pie
Spiced Lentils with Chicken and Rice
Fresh Veggie Lasagna
Orange-Glazed Chicken
Turkey Meatballs and Gravy
Tamale Pie
Black Bean Burritos
Pumpkin Spice Pancake Bites
Breakfast Sausage Casserole
And more!
In addition to truly great recipes, there are also a wealth of tips on how to set up and use your Instant Pot, how to know when your food is perfectly done, and more. Make the most of your Instant Pot or slow cooker with these easy and delicious recipes!
Critique: Ideal for memorable menu planning when both money and time are tight, "Fix-It and Forget-It Budget Meals: Quick, Easy & Inexpensive Slow Cooker & Instant Pot Recipes" is comprised of 127 Instant Pot and slow cooker recipes for palate-pleasing, appetite-satisfying dishes. Thoroughly 'kitchen cook friend' in organization and presentation, and with beautiful full color photos of finished dishes, "Fix-It and Forget-It Budget Meals" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, family, professional, and community library cookbook collections. It should be noted that "Fix-It and Forget-It Budget Meals" is also readily available from Good Books in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99) as well.
Editorial Note: Hope Comerford is the blogger behind A Busy Mom's Slow Cooker Adventures and is the author of The Gluten-Free Slow Cooker and editor or author of several Fix-It and Forget-It books including Fix-It and Forget-It Freezer to Instant Pot, Fix-It and Forget-It Instant Pot Light & Healthy Cookbook, and the Welcome Home Cookbook series. (https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/7138428.Hope_Comerford)
Poppy Cooks
Poppy O'Toole
Bloomsbury Press
www.bloomsbury.com
9781526676993, $30.00, HC, 224pp
https://www.amazon.com/Poppy-Cooks-Delicious-effortless-flavour-packed/dp/1526676990
Synopsis: Professional chef turned TikTok star, and culinary author, with the publication of "Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cookbook" shows you how to get the most out of your slow cooker. Featuring 90 mouth-watering recipes that focus on ease and convenience without breaking the bank or sacrificing flavor, this is the slow cooker recipe compendium that will guarantee you get great food on the table at the end of a busy day.
With recipes for family favorites, curries, soups, pastas and a chapter dedicated to potatoes, Poppy elevates each recipe with hacks, tips and flavor ideas so it becomes something actually delicious.
The get-ahead recipes include: Creamy sweetcorn soup, Laksa, Puttanesca, Tomato and paneer curry, Chicken tikka masala, Chipotle beef taco, the Ultimate chili con carne, Lamb tagine, Honey-glazed pigs in blankets, Pulled turkey buns, Boulangere potatoes and Posh orange chocolate brioche bread and butter pudding.
With more of us relying on quick, affordable, low-energy cooking than ever before, "Poppy Cooks" is a complete instructional guide to mastering your slow cooker.
Critique: This large format (7.44 x 0.85 x 9.69 inches, 2 pounds) hardcover edition of "Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cookbook" from Bloomsbury Publishing is beautifully illustrated with full color, full page photographs of finished dishes. This compendium of thoroughly 'kitchen cook friendly', palate pleasing, appetite satisfying recipes is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99) -- making it especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, and community library Slow Cooker cookbook collections.
Editorial Note: Poppy O'Toole (www.poppycooks.com) has spent the last decade in professional kitchens (from Michelin-starred restaurants to fine-dining experiences and tasty everyday food) and since her Covid-related redundancy she has found a passion for teaching others via TikTok and Instagram. Her educational and entertaining content has amassed over 4M followers on social media, and gives us access to the skills she's learnt from fancy restaurants to inspire and teach people how to cook at home (beginning with the very basics) in a fun and informal way. Find Poppy @poppycooks on TikTok and @poppy_cooks on Instagram.
Soul Kitchen
Wagamama
Kyle Books
c/o Octopus Books
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
9781804191453, $16.99, HC, 192pp
https://www.amazon.com/wagamama-Soul-Kitchen-Cooking-Recipes/dp/1804191450
Synopsis: "Soul Kitchen: The Art of Cooking and Eating in 70 Recipes" is the latest cookbook from the much-loved Asian restaurant brand and offers a culinary celebration of Wagamama's roots in southeast Asian cuisine.
IWith the publication of "Soul Kitchen", Wagamama invites you to join them as they travel through Japan, South Korea and Vietnam to reconnect with their origins. Wagamama At Home celebrates their affinity with Asian cuisine, as well as their place as pioneers in Britain's Asian food scene.
This odyssey through southeast Asia provides the inspiration for a collection of brand new recipes, bringing exciting new trends, essential techniques and delicious flavors to the wagamama repertoire. "Soul Kitchen" features over 50 recipes, including restaurant favorites as well as at least 20 new dishes gathered from wagamama's travels.
Alongside the recipes are to be found local food legends beloved by their communities, and whose tips and stories reveal the rich variety, culture and character behind the brand's iconic recipes.
As with all Wagamama's previous titles, the recipes are fresh, flavorsome and easy to make at home. There will also be a good number of vegetarian and vegan recipes, as well as easy recipe adaptions to make them even more accessible.
Critique: This large format (7.75 x 0.73 x 9.5 inches, 2.16 pounds) hardcover edition of "Soul Kitchen: The Art of Cooking and Eating in 70 Recipes" is profusely illustrated throughout with full page, full color photography in support of palate pleasing, appetite satisfying, authoritatively Asian dishes that are thoroughly 'kitchen cook friendly' to prepare. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.99), "Soul Kitchen" from Kyle Books is a prime and recommended pick for personal, professional, and community library Asian/Japanese Cuisine cookbook collections.
Editorial Note: Wagamama (www.wagamama.com) since opening its first restaurant in 1992 has grown to become a much loved global brand. With its Japanese ethos of Kaizen meaning 'good change' and its recipes based on the principles of egalitarianism, balance and simplicity, Wagamama is a place where a bench, a bowl and fresh ingredients always provide a welcome.
Their previous books include The wagamama Cookbook (2005), wagamama Ways with Noodles (2006), wagamama Feed Your Soul (2019) and wagamama Your Way (2021).
Eat NYC: The Iconic Recipes that Feed the City
Yasmin Newman, author
Alan Benson, photographer
Smith Street Books
c/o Rizzoli
www.rizzoliusa.com
9781922754233, $45.00, HC, 256pp
https://www.amazon.com/EAT-NYC-Iconic-Recipes-that/dp/1922754234
Synopsis: With "EAT NYC: The Iconic Recipes that Feed the City" anyone can live their day like a true New Yorker with an everything bagel, chocolate babka, B.E.C. (bacon, egg, and cheese), or huevos rancheros for breakfast; then grab a smash burger, matzo ball soup, or Reuben sandwich for lunch; and as the sun goes down, pour themselves a Manhattan and indulge in pasta alla vodka, along with General Tso's chicken, or a New York cheesecake, or pizza by the slice deep into the night.
With 55 quintessential and iconic recipes from across the five boroughs, as well as stories from some of the city's best-loved eateries, including Levain Bakery, Tompkins Square Bagels, and Joe's Pizza, this combination of recipes with photography of finished dishes and scenes from New York eateries showcases a cuisine that treasured by locals and visitors alike.
Critique: This large format (8.94 x 1.26 x 11.29 inches, 1.25 pounds) edition of "EAT NYC: The Iconic Recipes that Feed the City" from Smith Street Books is an inspiring resource for planning memorable New York style menus for formal and informal dining occasions. A profusely illustrated and culinary joy to simply browse through again and again, "EAT NYC: The Iconic Recipes that Feed the City" is a very special and unreservedly recommended pick for personal, professional, and community library Regional American Cookbook collections.
Editorial Note #1: Yasmin Newman (www.yasminnewman.com) is a food and travel writer, photographer, and TV presenter, as well as the author of three critically acclaimed cookbooks. Born to a Filipino mother and Australian father, Yasmin lives with her young family on the Central Coast of Australia, just north of Sydney, and travels regularly to New York, where her brother resides.
Editorial Note #2: Alan Benson (https://alanbenson.com) is someone whose love of good food and travel shines through everything he does as a professional photographer. Over the past decade and a half, the former London chef has been creating a stunning body of work. Alan's images have appeared in countless magazines and books.
The Hungry Ghost Bread Book
Jonathan Stevens
Chelsea Green Publishing Company
www.chelseagreen.com
9781645022602, $24.95, PB, 208pp
https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Ghost-Bread-Book-Flatbreads/dp/1645022609
Synopsis: What does it mean to take on the practice of bread? Jonathan Stevens, co-owner of Hungry Ghost Bread in Northampton, Massachusetts, has pondered this question over thirty years of baking sourdough bread. Baking is a ritual that demands attention, physical proximity, close observation, and continual adjustment. It begets sustenance, fosters community, and connects us with a 10,000-year-old craft.
"The Hungry Ghost Bread Book: An Offbeat Bakery's Guide to Crafting Sourdough Loaves, Flatbreads, Crackers, Scones, and More" is a culinary window into one baker's artisan approach to sourdough bread -- the culmination of his time in the tide of dough.
Sourdough, declares Stevens, is not a style of bread. It is bread. The sourdough starter (the microbial community used to inoculate bread dough) transforms flour into something truly digestible by humans, unlocking the nutrients that are otherwise inaccessible. Stevens's unique approach to working with sourdough can be summed up by three tenets, each of which begins with "more." More hydration, more fermentation, and more heat in the oven.
Inside the pages comprising "The Hungry Ghost Bread Book" you wull find tools, techniques, insights, short-cuts, ingredients, warnings, and a handful of haikus. You will also find instructions for creating and nurturing your own sourdough starter, as well as formulas for a variety of loaves, flatbreads, crackers, folds, scones, bagels, and more, including:
Eight-Grain Bread
Fig & Sage Bread
Potato-Thyme Fougasse
Sesame-Spelt Crackers
Rosemary Walnut Scones
The results are quite fantastic: bread that bites back, heels worth chewing on, and scraps worth toasting!
Critique: Exceptionally well written and thoroughly 'kitchen cook friendly' in organization and presentation, "The Hungry Ghost Bread Book: An Offbeat Bakery's Guide to Crafting Sourdough Loaves, Flatbreads, Crackers, Scones, and More" is a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, family, and community library cookbook shelves in general, and bread baking cookbook collections in particular. It should be noted that "The Hungry Ghost Bread Book" from Chelsea Green Publishing is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $24.95).
Editorial Note: Jonathan Stevens is co-owner of Hungry Ghost Bread in Northampton, MA, nominated six times for the James Beard Awards. His bread has been featured in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Saveur, and Taste, among other publications. He has taught baking workshops throughout New England and is ready to sit on your kitchen countertop. He's also a poet, songwriter, and inveterate cyclist. Previous jobs have included: window washing, rough carpentry, housing advocacy, traditional Inuit medicine research, and merchant marine deckhand in the Gulf of Mexico. His songs can be found on Spotify, and the poems are slipped into bread bags at work. He lives on the edge of Conway State Forest with his partner, Cheryl Maffie, and a sharp bread knife.
Chile, Clove, and Cardamom
Beth Dooley & Gary Paul Nabhan
Chelsea Green Publishing Company
www.chelseagreen.com
9781645022459, $34.95, PB, 208pp
https://www.amazon.com/Chile-Clove-Cardamom-Gastronomic-Fragrances/dp/1645022455
Synopsis: Co-authored by Beth Dooley and Gary Paul Nabhan, "Chile, Clove, and Cardamom: A Gastronomic Journey Into the Fragrances and Flavors of Desert Cuisines" is a culinary celebration of the fragrances and flavors of sun-drenched cuisines. Throughout compendium of recipes Dooley and Nabhan have collaborated to reveal surprising patterns and principles among varied recipes of traditional desert cultures, bringing to life the places, dishes, and recipes that have been shaped by heat and drought and infused with bold flavors.
Steeped in history and memory, and showcases 90+ elegant recipes "Chile, Clove, and Cardamom" is also a beautifully photographed, in-depth guide to the essential spice blends that will help you build your own aromatic pantry, drawing on a variety of easy-to-follow cooking methods for planning your own desert meals.
Critique: The palate pleasing, appetite satisfying, kitchen cook friendly recipes includes:
Main Dishes: Sticky Lamb Ribs, Spicy Orange Chicken, Roast Chicken with Tarragon and Capers, Stuffed Mexican Peppers in Yogurt Walnut Sauce, and Lamb Kebabs with Moroccan Spices and Pomegranate Molasses Glaze)
Light Fare and Small Plates: Squash Blossom Fritters, Sonoran Flat Enchiladas, and Eggplant Fries with Desert Syrup.
Dips and Sauces: Sonoran Tepary Dip, Fire Roasted Eggplant Tahini Dip, Aromatic Red Pepper Sauce, and Fig and Pomegranate Jam.
Breads: Pocket Flat Breads, Pan de Semita, and Blue Corn Bread.
Soups and Stews: Tunisian Chickpea Stew, White Bean Chili, and Watermelon and Cactus
Fruit Gazpacho.
Salads: Desert Succotash, Za'atar-Roasted Cauliflower, and Tangerine and Radish Salad.
Drinks and Desserts: Pineapple Sotol Margarita, Canary Islands Pastries, and Phyllo Nut Pinwheels.
Critique; Beautifully (and inspiringly) illustrated throughout with full color photos of finished dishes, "Chile, Clove, and Cardamom: A Gastronomic Journey Into the Fragrances and Flavors of Desert Cuisines" is a welcome and ideal addition to personal, family, and community library cookbook collections. It should be noted that this paperback edition of "Chile, Clove, and Cardamom" from Chelsea Green Publishing is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $33.20) as well.
Editorial Note #1: Beth Dooley (www.bethdooleyskitchen.com) has written several award-winning cookbooks. Her book The Perennial Kitchen offered "simple recipes for a healthy future" in the face of climate change, and her book The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen, coauthored with Sean Sherman, was recognized as the Best American Cookbook in 2018 by the James Beard Foundation. She is regarded as a beloved weekly columnist of food and travel for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, and she regularly appears on Minnesota Public Radio.
Editorial Note #2: Gary Paul Nabhan (www.garynabhan.com) is an internationally celebrated nature writer, food and farming activist, and proponent of conserving the links between biodiversity and cultural diversity. He holds the W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Arizona Southwest Center, where he works with students, faculty, and non-profits to build a more just, nutritious, sustainable, and climate-resilient foodshed spanning the US/Mexico border. He's also the author of numerous books, including Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land, Renewing America's Food Traditions, and Chasing Chiles.
The Bacon, Butter, Bourbon and Chocolate Cookbook
Bruno Feldeisen, author
Henry Wu, photographer
Whitecap Books
c/o Fitzhenry & Whiteside
www.fitzhenry.ca
9781770503335, $34.95, PB, 160pp
https://www.amazon.com/Butter-Whisky-Bacon-Chocolate-Feldeisen/dp/1770503331
Synopsis: In his new cookbook, "The Bacon, Butter, Bourbon and Chocolate Cookbook: Chef Bruno's Favourite Ingredients, Chef Bruno Feldeisen focuses on four distinct ingredients to create some of his favorite recipes. Each one of these ingredients is remarkable on its own and together they produce a range of tastes and experiences that all food-lovers are greedy for -- salty, sweet, silky, chewy.
The DIY recipes comprising "The Bacon, Butter, Bourbon and Chocolate Cookbook: Chef Bruno's Favourite Ingredients" include: Bacon and Salmon Roe Deviled Eggs; Bacon Cheddar Scones; Bacon and Goat Cheese Risotto; Basil and Sundried Tomato Butter; Very Buttery Brioche; Butter and Soy-Glazed Brussels Sprouts; Bourbon Garlic Glazed Yams; Pork Belly with Bourbon Honey Glaze; Warm Peach and Bourbon Cobbler; Cocoa and Molasses Baby Back Ribs; Double Chocolate Whoopie Pies; Chocolate Espresso Eclairs and more!
Critique: Beautifully illustrated throughout with full page, full color, mouth watering photographs of finished dishes, all the recipes showcased in the pages of "The Bacon, Butter, Bourbon and Chocolate Cookbook: Chef Bruno's Favourite Ingredients" are impressively 'kitchen cook friendly', making it a very special and unreservedly recommended and welcome pick for family, personal, professional, and community library cookbook collections.
Editorial Note: Bruno Feldeisen has worked at Le Louis XV (Monaco), Patina Restaurant in Los Angeles, and in the kitchens of Four Seasons hotels throughout North America. Currently he splits his time between being Executive Chef at the Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine Washington, and a judge on CBC's Great Canadian Baking Show. Bruno Feldeisen lives in British Columbia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Feldeisen)
Preserving
Katie Caldesi & Giancarlo Caldesi
Kyle Books
c/o Octopus Books
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
9781804192405, $24.99, HC, 304pp
https://www.amazon.com/Gentle-Art-Preserving-Pickling-Fermenting/dp/1909487082
Preserving: Pickling, Fermenting, Freezing, Drying, Curing and Canning represents the fruits of a two-year sojourn the authors undertook to collect various methods of conserving food. The effort combined well with their interest in Italian cured charcuterie, inspired by Giancarlo's family recipes. It thus expands the focus and variety of most similar-sounding preserving cookbooks to add an extra dimension of cultural influence and discovery to the subject, reviewing disparate preserving approaches from Turkey, Yemen, Japan, and beyond. The focus on using all parts of ingredients without throwing away something as innocuous as orange or lime peel translates to a preserving guide packed with inviting new possibilities. Preserving: Pickling, Fermenting, Freezing, Drying, Curing and Canning stands out from the crowd of typical recipes and Western-centric preserving approaches.
The Business Shelf
Glen Secor
Nolo Press
www.nolo.com
9781413332230, $49.99, PB, 350pp
https://www.amazon.com/Nolos-LLC-Handbook-Agreements-Instructions/dp/1413332234
Synopsis: "Nolo's LLC Handbook: A Complete Legal Guide to Creating and Operating Your LLC" by attorney Glen Secor is a complete and comprehensive one-stop DIY legal guide for forming and maintaining your multi-member LLC.
Attorney Glen Secor explains the forms and agreements you will use to manage the legal aspects of your LLC, including:
Choosing and reserving a business name
Filing articles of organization
Creating an operating agreement
Creating a buyout agreement
Managing transfers of LLC interests
Maintaining legal and tax compliance
Dissolving your LLC
Critique: Absolutely 'user friendly' in style, organization and presentation, "Nolo's LLC Handbook: A Complete Legal Guide to Creating and Operating Your LLC" is essential reading and DIY instructional step-by-step guide for anyone wanting to start up their entrpreneurial business as a Limited Liability Corporation. This paperback edition of "Nolo's LLC Handbook: A Complete Legal Guide to Creating and Operating Your LLC" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Business/Entrepreneurship collections and supplemental MBA curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Nolo's LLC Handbook: A Complete Legal Guide to Creating and Operating Your LLC" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $28.99).
Editorial Note: Glen Secor (www.glensecor.com) is a Nolo editor and a Massachusetts attorney with over 30 years' experience in the practice of business and intellectual property law. He holds degrees from Suffolk University Law School and Harvard Law School, and has taught at the University of New Hampshire School of Law.
Operational Risk Management in Financial Services, second edition
Elena Pykhova
Kogan Page Inc.
www.koganpage.com
9781398617193, $176.00, HC, 464pp
https://www.amazon.com/Operational-Risk-Management-Financial-Services/dp/1398617199
Synopsis: The management of operational risk has developed considerably since its early years. Continued regulatory focus and catastrophic industry events have led to operational risk becoming a crucial topic on any senior management team's agenda. Now in a newly updated and expanded second edition, "Operational Risk Management in Financial Services: A Practical Guide to Establishing Effective Solutions" by Elena Pykhova is a practical guide for practitioners which focuses on how to establish effective solutions, avoid common pitfalls and apply best practice to their organizations.
Filled with frameworks, examples and diagrams, Elena Pykhova offers clear advice on key practices including conducting risk assessments, assessing change initiatives and designing key risk indicators. This new second edition of "Operational Risk Management in Financial Services" also features two new chapters reflecting on the future of operational risk management, from cyber risk to GenAI, and guides practitioners in incorporating ESG into their day-to-day strategies. This is the essential guide for professionals looking to derive value out of operational risk management, rather than applying a compliance 'tick box' approach.
Critique: Ideal as a textbook for college/university MBA curriculums in business finance, financial risk management, this new second edition of "Operational Risk Management in Financial Services: A Practical Guide to Establishing Effective Solutions" is comprehensive, exceptionally well organized, thoroughly 'reader friendly' in presentation. A core addition to personal, professional, corporate, and college/university library Fiscal Business Management collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that this hardcover edition of "Operational Risk Management in Financial Services" is also available from Kogan Page in a paperback edition (9781398617148, $55.00) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $47.49).
Editorial Note: Elena Pykhova (https://theopriskcompany.com/about) is an award-winning risk expert, author, international trainer and educator. She is founder of boutique risk management consultancy The OpRisk Company, which specializes in board (and executive) level advice on effective risk management practices. She runs public and in-house training courses in the UK and internationally for world-leading organizations such as the Euronext Academy. She is founder of a think tank, Best Practice Operational Risk Forum, former Chair of the Operational Risk Expert Panel for the Association of Foreign Banks, and Director for Education at the Institute of Operational Risk.
The 5% Rule of Leadership
Anil K. Singhal
Wiley
c/o Wiley Professional Trade Group
www.wiley.com
9781394285136, $28.00, HC, 256pp
https://www.amazon.com/Rule-Leadership-Decision-Making-Ownership-Productivity/dp/1394285132
Synopsis: With the publication of "The 5% Rule of Leadership: Using Lean Decision-Making to Drive Trust, Ownership, and Team Productivity", veteran technology leader and executive Anil Singhal delivers a transformative approach to project management and company leadership. He explains how to focus your efforts on the first, critical stages of any project or initiative to multiply your results and efficacy, delegating the rest to their capable team.
Essentially, "The 5% Rule of Leadership" is a DIY blueprint for building resilient organizations, departments, teams, and projects that can withstand today's unpredictable and volatile environment. You will learn to avoid micromanagement and maintain your focus on the big, strategic picture, while a well-managed team brings you the results you need.
"The 5% Rule of Leadership" also covers: Strategies for determining how to properly set priorities and satisfy employees, customers, and shareholders; Techniques for building trust amongst your workforce, your leadership, and other stakeholders; Myth-busting advice that blows up misleading and counterproductive habits held by businesspeople and leaders around the world.
Critique: Exceptionally 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation, "The 5% Rule of Leadership: Using Lean Decision-Making to Drive Trust, Ownership, and Team Productivity" is essential reading for business managers, corporate directors, executives, and board members, as well as indepdent entrepreneurs, small business founders, and other business leaders. A brilliantly presented combination of instruction guide and 'how to' manual, "The 5% Rule of Leadership" is an invaluable addition to personal, professional, community, corporate, and college/university library Business Management/Leadership collections and supplemental MBA curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, professional and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The 5% Rule of Leadership" is also readily available from Wiley in a digital book format (Kindle, $17.00) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Publishing, 9798228297333, $39.99, CD).
Editorial Note: Anil K. Singhal is co-founder, chief executive officer, and director of NetScout, a software developer that makes products to help customers monitor the reliability and security of their business networks. He provides strategic leadership, vision, operational priorities, and engagement and succession planning for the company's management team.
Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World
Roger Spitz
Kogan Page Inc.
www.koganpage.com
9781398616905, $92.00, HC, 376pp
https://www.amazon.com/Disrupt-Impact-Achieve-Business-Unpredictable/dp/1398616907
Synopsis: With the publication of "Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World", author and futurist Roger Spitz has written the ultimate guide to thriving in today's complex business landscapes. He offers strategies that will allow you to navigate uncertainty and change through strategic decision-making.
Covering major challenges such as sustainability, AI, geopolitics and cybersecurity, "Disrupt With Impact" is an entrepreneur or corporate executive's compass for exploring the uncharted waters of the future. These paradigm shifts will redistribute trillions of dollars, presenting opportunities for immense value creation, while those clinging to business as usual face growing risks of value destruction.
Through fascinating research and original frameworks, "Disrupt With Impact" offers the knowledge and confidence you need to lead your business through the inevitabilities of disruption.
Critique: Enhanced throughout for the reader's benefit with numerous tables and figures, "Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World" offers a complete course of instruction in business management, leadership, strategy, competition, and motivation. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Disrupt With Impact" is an extraordinary and recommended addition to personal, professional, community, corporate, and college/university library Business Management collections and supplemental MBA curriculum reading lists. It should be noted for MBA students, academia, corporate executives and entrepreneurs that "Disrupt With Impact" is also available from Kogan Page in a paperback edition (9781398616882, $26.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $20.79).
Editorial Note: Roger Spitz (www.techistential.ai/rogerspitz) is a renowned futurist, author, and President of Techistential -- a futures intelligence practice. He also chairs the Disruptive Futures Institute, a global education hub empowering leaders for transformative change. A world-leading authority on strategic foresight and systems innovations, Spitz is an expert advisor to the World Economic Forum's Global Foresight Network.
The Learning and Development Handbook, 2nd Edition
Michelle Parry-Slater
Kogan Page Inc.
www.koganpage.com
9781398617940, $134.00, HC, 384pp
https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Development-Handbook-Practitioners-Toolkit/dp/1398617946
Synopsis: Workplace learning works best when it is collaborative, accessible and immediate. This newly expanded and updated second edition of "The Learning and Development Handbook: A Learning Practitioner's Toolkit" is a practical guide for L&D professionals who recognize this and want to move away from only offering a traditional classroom towards a holistic organizational approach, but are not sure where to start.
This newly updated second edition of "The Learning and Development Handbook" includes a new framework for L&D consulting with advice on how to embed social and digital learning, artificial intelligence, blending learning and how to design more effective, efficient, engaging and enjoyable learning within your organization for improved employee experience and performance.
"The Learning and Development Handbook" also provides guidance on identifying learning needs in an organization, gathering evidence to engage stakeholders, evaluate and measure the effectiveness of learning and align L&D strategy with the overall business strategy.
Packed from cover to cover with tips, advice, hints, tools and frameworks to improve both individual and overall business results in the immediate, middle- and long-term future, and written by an L&D practitioner for L&D practitioners, "The Learning and Development Handbook" is essential reading for anyone in the people and learning profession.
Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "The Learning and Development Handbook: A Learning Practitioner's Toolkit: 2nd Edition" by Michelle Parry-Slater will prove to be of special and enduring value to MBA students and corporate executives with an interest in the subjects of business based and organizational learning, human resource and personnel management, and occupational/organizational psychology. It should be noted that while this hardcover edition of "The Learning and Development Handbook: A Learning Practitioner's Toolkit: 2nd Edition" from Kogan Page is highly recommended for personal, professional, corporate, and college/university library Business Management collections, it is also available in a paperback edition (9781398617926, $41.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $39.89).
Editorial Note: Michelle Parry-Slater (www.kairosmodernlearning.com) is an award-winning L&OD professional with more than 20 years' experience in the industry. She is the Founder and Director of Kairos Modern Learning, an L&D consultancy specializing in driving a shift from traditional courses to embrace the best of digital, social and face-to-face workplace learning. Working with clients such as the CIPD, Co-op, Shelter, the Charity Learning Consortium and Garden Vets at Keele, Michelle was also the Lead Volunteer for L&D at Girlguiding UK for over five years. She was listed as one of the Top 20 Corporate eLearning Movers and Shakers of 2018 by eLearning Industry and named by HR Magazine as one of the most influential HR thinkers in 2023. Michelle is also the host of 'Learning From The Edges' podcast, looking at friction in work and how to overcome it.
The Revenue Operations Manual
Sean Lane & Laura Adint
Kogan Page Inc.
www.koganpage.com
9781398616783, $134.00, HC, 344pp
https://www.amazon.com/Revenue-Operations-Manual-High-Growth-Predictable/dp/1398616788
Synopsis: Co-authored by Sean Lane and Laura Adint, "The Revenue Operations Manual: How to Build a High-Growth, Predictable and Scalable Business" takes the reader through every aspect of this evolving function, whether that's understanding what exactly it is, or how to effectively build a team, technology and partnerships to ensure that go-to-market strategies support business goals and revenue growth.
Using case studies, examples of best practices (and of what not to do), "The Revenue Operations Manual" offers expertise and interviews from world-class operators and provides a blueprint on the mindset required to build and scale this critical business function. Understand the value that Revenue Operations can bring to your business, the right time to invest in it, and how to maximize the outcomes this team can drive.
Critique: Of special and particular interest to entrepreneurs, business managers, and corporate executives with an interest in industrial marketing, production, operations, and sales/selling, "The Revenue Operations Manual: How to Build a High-Growth, Predictable and Scalable Business" is an ideal and comprehensive study that is comprehensive in scope and particularly 'reader friendly in organization and presentation. Also available from Kogan Page in a paperback edition (9781398616769, $38.99), in a spiral bound edition ($59.99) and in a digital book (Kindle, $36.09), "The Revenue Operations Manual" is a solid and recommended pick for personal, professional, corporate, and college/university library Business Management collections and supplemental MBA curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note #1: Laura Adint is currently a partner and operations executive for a financial services company in Los Gatos, CA. With over 25 years of experience, her prior roles included Vice President of Field Operations at Drift, and Vice President of Sales and Services Operations at Adaptive Insights (a Workday company).
Editorial Note #2: Sean Lane is a Founding Partner at BeaconGTM, host of the "Operations with Sean Lane" podcast, and is based in Boston, Massachusetts. He has spent more than a decade building Revenue Operations teams at fast-growing B2B software companies, including Drift and Upserve.
Triple Fit Strategy
Christoph Senn, author
Mehak Gandhi, author
Harvard Business Review Press
http://hbr.org/books
9781647827144, $35.00, HC, 240pp
https://www.amazon.com/Triple-Fit-Strategy-Customer-Relationships/dp/1647827140
Synopsis: Business relationships are still dominated by a narrow perspective -- trying to match products to customer needs and making deals. It's a buyer-seller relationship built on a transactional mindset, and in this modern era it's not how you should be doing business.
There's a better way (orchestrating growth) in which suppliers and customers collaborate to build strategies and grow together. With clarity and precision, with "Triple Fit Strategy: How to Build Lasting Customer Relationships and Boost Growth", co-authors Christoph Senn and Mehak Gandhi lay out the Triple Fit Strategy framework, which will help you escape the product-centric mindset and put customers at the heart of your business strategy.
Based on a hands-on tool set, Triple Fit ensures that customer and supplier are aligned across three areas: planning, execution, and resources. The Triple Fit canvas, a diagnostic and action framework, provides a systematic approach that every account manager and sales team can use to boost business results. Companies who use it can contribute ten times more to their customers' success and can double account values in less than three years.
What's more, the Triple Fit Strategy helps sales and business leaders better understand the health of their customer relationships and allocate resources for faster breakthroughs. It's a proven approach that Senn and Gandhi have implemented with hundreds of companies over twenty-five years and validated with data from more than ten thousand cases.
Triple Fit Strategy is a breakthrough approach to strategy and sales, with the power to transform businesses. Your journey to becoming a value creator starts here.
Critique: With the new Trump administration in office, the next several years will be one of extreme volatility for local, regional, national, and international businesses. This will make the new Triple Fit Strategy even more needed in order to weather the coming economic and business uncertainties. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented so as to be of maximum benefit for entrepreneurs, business managers, corporate executives, and governmental policy makers. "Triple Fit Strategy: How to Build Lasting Customer Relationships and Boost Growth" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, corporate, and college/university library Business Management & Strategic Planning collections and supplemental MBA curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for MBA students, academia, professional and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Triple Fit Strategy: How to Build Lasting Customer Relationships and Boost Growth" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.24) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Publishing, 9798228331723, $39.99, CD).
Editorial Note #1: It should be noted that the Triple Fit Strategy website is located at www.triplefitstrategy.com.
Editorial Note #2: Christoph Senn is an adjunct professor of marketing and codirector of the Marketing and Sales Excellence Initiative (MSEI) at INSEAD. He is also the founder and CEO of Valuecreator, a global provider of B2B growth tools and programs.
Editorial Note #3: Mehak Gandhi is head of research and training at Valuecreator, where she designs and implements B2B growth-accelerator programs and next-generation sales organization strategies for companies around the globe and across industries.
The General Fiction Shelf
Deborah Serra
Koehler Books
www.koehlerbooks.com
9798888244562, $29.95, HC, 256pp
https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Thought-Deborah-Serra/dp/B0D5S7DSHV
Synopsis: Ilana has an enviable job at the opera house, a committed relationship, and a cozy Greenwich Village apartment, but the questions inside of her are growing insistent.
Is it due to her scientist boyfriend's research on how people make their decisions, or is she suffering suppressed grief from the death of her adoptive mother? She becomes curious about who she would be if she'd grown up in her birth home. Is she truly who she thinks she is? Has she ever freely chosen anything at all? When Ilana learns that her birth mom owns a pub upstate, well, what harm could there be in furtively dropping by for a drink? To see, just to see.
What begins as curiosity about her choices evolves into a traumatic shift in her world. She loses control of her life. And then, chaos.
Critique: Original, deftly crafted, and an inherently fascinating read from start to finish, "Lost in Thought" showcases author Deborah Serra's unique and distinctive storytelling style in a novel that will have particular apply to readers with an interest in psychological fiction and the impact of unconscious decision-making and the seeming illusion of free will. With and impressively elegant and erudite prose, "Lost in Thought" is unreservedly recommended for community library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections. For personal reading lists it should be noted that "Lost in Thought" from Koehler Books is also available in a paperback edition (9798888244548, $18.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.99).
Editorial Note: Deborah Serra (www.deborahserra.com) was a recipient of the Hawthornden Literary Fellowship and a semifinalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Award. She has been published in several literary magazines and is an editor with the ethics and short story magazine After Dinner Conversation. She has been nominated for the O. Henry Prize. Deborah has two previously published books, Primal (a thriller) and 2 Broads Abroad (a humorous travel memoir). On assignment, she has written ten TV films and numerous episodes and spent two years on staff. She has worked for Showtime, CBS, NBC, Sony, Fox, and Lifetime. She is a member of WGA, DG, and PEN USA.
Nobody's Perfect
Sally Kilpatrick
www.sallykilpatrick.com
Montlake
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662525810, $16.99, PB, 336pp
https://www.amazon.com/Nobodys-Perfect-Sally-Kilpatrick/dp/1662525818
Synopsis: Vivian Quackenbush enjoys a typical life. She has winesday evenings with her two best friends. Her son is in college. She and her husband, Mitch, are planning the next move for their empty-nester future. But to Vivian's blindsided surprise... not together.
After nearly twenty-five years of marriage, Mitch wants a divorce. He confesses that he doesn't love her anymore. He never even liked her chicken salad! -- Brutal.
What is Vivian to do but channel her anger, frustration, and pain into a video she posts online. Ill advised? Perhaps. Cathartic? Absolutely. Overnight, Vivian goes viral. Millions of views and counting -- to Mitch's fury, her son's embarrassment, her mother's support, and the media's delight. For Vivian, it's a moment of truth: hide or lean into it. Vivian 2.0 chooses to lean -- maybe even toward the younger single father next door.
Now Vivian is wondering where she goes from here. She's discovering that somewhere in her trending if upended life, she'll have to figure out who she really wants to be.
Critique: Of special and particular interest to fans of Contemporary Romance & Women's Fiction novels, "Nobody's Perfect" by author/storyteller Sally Kilpatrick is a deftly scripted and original story that will hold the reader's fascinated attention from first page to last. An extraordinary and highly recommended pick for community library collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that this paperback edition of "Nobody's Perfect" from Montlake is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $1.99) as well.
Editorial Note: Sally Kilpatrick (www.sallykilpatrick.com) is the author of seven novels and counting. She has won multiple awards, including the 2018 and 2019 Georgia Author of the Year.
The Space Between Secrets
Sheri Langer
Red Adept Publishing
https://redadeptpublishing.com
9781958231531, $14.99, PB, 328pp
https://www.amazon.com/Space-between-Secrets-Sheri-Langer/dp/1958231533
Synopsis: In her forties and desperately yearning to be a mother, Rachel Sutton is devastated each month by a negative pregnancy test. Her marriage is on the rocks, but she believes a child will fill the hole in her heart. Life seems bitterly unfair until Rachel is presented with an opportunity to adopt a baby overseas.
Though her husband balks at the idea, Rachel is determined. When he goes away on business, she decides to head to London on her own to get the child. However, the adoption falls through, and Rachel extends her trip to avoid going home. After making friends with Rena, a young British woman, Rachel impulsively offers to have Rena and her baby stay at her home back in the States for a few months.
When tragedy strikes, Rachel makes a decision that will have far-reaching consequences. As she works to avoid being discovered, she realizes that everyone she knows is hiding something. Rachel must unravel the truth and forge a new path to a future she never imagined.
Critique: Original, deftly crafted, and an inherently, emotionally engaging read from start to finish, "The Space Between Secrets" by novelist Sheri Langer will hold immense appeal with readers of contemporary women's fiction. A carefully woven plot with a full measure of unexpected twists and turns, as an author Sheri Langer has created a novel that rises to an impressive level of literary excellence. While also readily available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99), this paperback edition of "The Space Between Secrets" from Red Adept Publishing is especially and unreservedly recommended for community/public library Contemporary Fiction collections.
Editorial Note: Sheri Langer is the pen name of Sheri Lynn Fishbach, who is a New York-based freelance writer and editor who has contributed to local, regional, and national publications including Gannett's the Journal News, the Jewish Reporter, Steppin' Out, Psychology Tomorrow Magazine, and the New York Times network of newspapers. Sheri holds a Bachelor's Degree in History from SUNY Binghamton, a Master's Degree in English Education from Brooklyn College, and has taken post-graduate classes in Screenwriting, Playwriting, Poetry, Stand-Up Comedy, Improvisation, and Commercial Acting. A Meisner-trained actress, she brought her passion for the stage to elementary school children as part of a theater workshop she created. She also produced a community-based Jewish cookbook, No Reservations, which was sold locally. (https://screenluvr2.wixsite.com/sheri)
Are You Free? Till Death Do Us Part?
Carol DeChant
Austin Macauley Publishers
https://www.austinmacauley.com
9798889104827, $13.95, PB, 182pp
https://www.amazon.com/Are-You-Free-Till-Death/dp/B0D5TSF3NV
Synopsis: The Morettis are a Sarasota family of Cafeteria Catholics, (rejecting some Vatican doctrines - mainly pelvic issue ones). Widower Dante goes to his first Confession in decades. He confesses gossip: telling his two daughters of his brother Nick's fling with the caterer for his wedding vow renewal with Nick's then-wife Rosemary. An unusual Penance surprises Dante. Tantrums of Nick's ex-wife Rosemary impact events. Dante wants another good woman to love, but dating yields only stories that amuse his girls.
Dante's gossip is repeated, changing with each teller. Floridians talk about freedom (yet yearn to mate). An undreamt-of source for finding love and fulfilling Dante's Penance offers challenge and hope. Her name is Abigail.
Soon they're doing everything in a pandemic. How could anything go right?
Are You Free? offers a witty rumination on family, religion, and the search for love in many forms - grief, longing, regret, surprise.
Critique: All the more impressive when considering that "Are You Free? Till Death Do Us Part?" is author Carol DeChant's debut as a novelist, this original and deftly crafted combination of romantic comedy and eccentricities of family life is a fun and interesting read from start to finish. The storytelling talents of the author raises "Are You Free? Till Death Do Us Part?" to an impressive level of literary elegance and is an unreservedly recommended pick for community library Contemporary General Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that this paperback edition of "Are You Free? Till Death Do Us Part?" from Austin Macauley Publishers is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.50).
Editorial Note: Carol DeChant (www.caroldechant.com) has published in Chicago's Tribune and Sun Times, and the Miami Herald. Her non-fiction books include Momma's Enchanted Supper and Fifty Great American Catholic Eulogies. The latter won First Place in the Independent Book Publishers Association's Audio Book of the Year contest. Are You Free is her first novel.
The Historical Fiction Shelf
Monica Granlove
Granlove Legacy Publications
https://monicagranlove.com
9798990434707, $14.95, PB, 357pp
https://www.amazon.com/Electrician-Seamstress-Timeless-Legacy/dp/B0DCR3DJNZ
Synopsis: Germany, 1936. Bruno, an electrician, and Karla, a seamstress, forge a powerful love amid the rise of the Nazi Party and Hitler's ascent to power. Staunch opponents of the Nazi ideology, they live in perpetual apprehension as they risk being labeled dissidents, navigating a complex negotiation between moral principles and self-preservation. As World War II breaks out, Bruno faces a profound internal struggle when he is drafted into service, and he is eventually captured by the Russians and imprisoned in Siberia. His nearly two-year journey back to war-ravaged Germany reveals the devastating aftermath, with his city in ruins and family displaced.
Meanwhile, Karla, at home facing nightly bombings, struggles to raise their two young children and is forced into helping the Nazis. Through these tumultuous times, Karla and Bruno's unwavering love becomes a testament to human strength and endurance amid adversity.
Critique: Part of the Timeless Legacy series by novelist Monica Granlove, "The Electrician and the Seamstress" is a work of historical fiction that is based on the true story of her own grandparents and their struggle to survive World War II. This is all the more impressive when considering that "The Electrician and the Seamstress is the author's debut as a novelist.
An inherently fascinating and compelling read from start to finish, with "The Electrician and the Seamstress", Monica has raised her work of cultural and biographical storytelling to an impressive level of literary fiction. One of those novels that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after the book itself has been finished and set back upon the shelf, the paperback edition of "The Electrician and the Seamstress" from Granlove Legacy Publications is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library collections.
It should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Electrician and the Seamstress" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.95) as well.
Editorial Note: Monica Granlove is a storyteller and social commentator dedicated to motivating future leaders. Based on the true story of her own grandparents, Monica wrote The Electrician and the Seamstress, her debut novel. When she's not writing, Monica is traveling with her husband, Axel, and their spoiled dog, Abby, or spending time with her three adult daughters. She lives in North Carolina.
The Shadowed Land
Signe Pike
Atria Books
c/o Simon & Schuster
www.simonandschuster.com
9781501191480, $28.99, HC, 400pp
https://www.amazon.com/Shadowed-Land-Novel-Lost-Queen/dp/1501191489
Synopsis: Kingdom of Gododdin, AD 580: After defeating the Angles at the Battle of the Caledonian Wood, Languoreth, her daughter Angharad, brother Lailoken, and the warrior Artur mac Aedan are reunited. But all too soon, fate pulls each back to their own path.
Artur receives a mysterious summons from his father in Dalriada. Languoreth and Lailoken return to Strathclyde with the dangerous former bishop Mungo in tow, determined to maintain the fragile peace between the Christians and the people of the Old Way. Meanwhile, Angharad must travel deep into the shadowed land of the Picts, hoping to become the initiate of Briochan, a druid who practices the secret Celtic art of summoning weather.
As they rise to their destinies, they are pushed to impossible new frontiers as each must decide whether they are willing to do what it takes to be the heroes their harrowing days demand.
This "rich, immersive" (Kirkus Reviews) saga transports the reader to a vivid world of mysticism, beauty, and meticulously researched early medieval history.
Critique: With a very special appeal to readers with an interest in novels set in early medieval Europe, "The Shadowed Land" by author Signe Pike is an inherently fascinating and deftly crafted novel from start to finish. With a distinctive and memorable storytelling style, Pike creates an a work of action/adventure medieval fiction that rises to a level of literary elegance. While also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Publishing, 9781797183794, $39.99, CD), this hardcover edition of "The Shadowed Land" is a welcome and unreservedly recommended pick for community and public library Historical Fiction collections.
Editorial Note: Signe Pike (www.SignePike.com) is the author of The Lost Queen series, recently optioned for television, and the travel memoir Faery Tale. She has researched and written about Celtic history and folklore for over a decade.
Treasures of Egypt: The Spear & the Scythe
Amr Saleh
Our Street Books
c/o Collective Ink Books
https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com
9781803416007, $21.95, PB, 400pp
https://www.amazon.com/Treasures-Egypt-Scythe-Amr-Saleh/dp/1803416009
Synopsis: What would one do for love? What would one do for Egypt?
Desperation drives Nefiri Minu, apprentice to the Grand Vizier, to save her little brother by seeking Khafset, a young thief from the persecuted people of Hyksos. But his price to help heal her sick brother is to steal a divine spear from Ra's temple. However, by touching the spear, Nefiri unwittingly unleashes Set, the shackled God of Destruction, and starts a chain of events that threatens to plunge Egypt into chaos.
To avert disaster, they are forced to navigate the realm of the gods and the dead, and face off against mythological creatures in a dangerous adventure Khafset insists on calling "The Grand Heist." Can this unlikely pair learn to trust each other? Will that trust turn their forced partnership into something more?
On an adventure packed with secrets, hidden agendas, not to mention Gods and monsters, will Nefiri and Khafset succeed in their mission to save Egypt or will the very prejudices that have shaped their world threaten to tear them apart?
Critique: A deftly crafted work of historical fantasy fiction set in ancient Egypt, "Treasures of Egypt: The Spear & the Scythe" by Amr Saleh is a riveting read from first page to last, and will appeal to readers of all ages. Of particular interest fans of fantasy, romance, and adventure, "Treasures of Egypt: The Spear & the Scythe" is an especially recommended pick for personal, highschool, and community library Teen & Young Adult history fiction and fantasy collections. It should be noted that this paperback edition of "Treasures of Egypt: The Spear & the Scythe" from Our Street Books is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $6.99).
Editorial Note: Amr Saleh (www.amrsalehduat.com) is an Egyptian-German author based in the vibrant city of Munich, Germany. He was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, a city teeming with tales of ancient wonders. He has always had a passion for storytelling, and this passion is fuelled by his hobbies, which include writing, diving into captivating stories in all their forms, traveling, and learning about geography and history.
The Literary Fiction Shelf
Alexandra Grabbe
Cherry Orchard Books
c/o Academic Studies Press
https://www.academicstudiespress.com/cherryorchardbooks
9798887195094, $19.95, PB, 188pp
https://www.amazon.com/Nansen-Factor-Refugee-Stories/dp/B0CS2QQYJT
Synopsis: Norwegian diplomat Fridtjof Nansen created a passport for stateless persons used by refugees as a valid travel document from 1922-1937.
The world is all too aware of what has happened to Russia in the century since then -- Lenin, Stalin, and now Putin with his iron-fist policies and invasion of Ukraine. But what about the aristocrats whose ancestors governed Russia before Communism? How did they fare in displacement?
Civil War, Red Terror, and Bolshevik rule caused over one million to flee Russia.
Written by the daughter of one such emigre, "The Nansen Factor" traces the lives of these refugees and their descendants across a century of upheaval and displacement. From the turmoil of the Bolshevik Revolution to the echoes of the past in modern-day America, the interconnected tales comprising "The Nansen Factor" vividly portray the resilience of individuals uprooted by history at a moment when migrants are once again on the move in search of refuge, highlighting how the pain of losing one's homeland may fade, but the injury to the psyche is slow to heal.
Critique: Exceptionally well crafted, original, and inherently fascinating from start to finish, the sixteen short stories by Alexandra Grabbe and presented in "The Nansen Factor: Refugee Stories" from Cherry Orchard Books raise this work of historical fiction to an impressive level of true literary elegance. "The Nansen Factor" is one of those books that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after it is finished and set back upon the shelf. While especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and college/university Literary Fiction & Short Story collections, it should be noted that "The Nansen Factor" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.16) as well.
Editorial Note: Alexandra Grabbe (https://alexandragrabbe.com) worked in journalism and broadcasting after graduation from Vassar College and while raising three bicultural children in Paris, France. For two decades, she ran an eco-friendly bed-and-breakfast on Cape Cod, where she edited her father's memoir. Two of his ancestors are mentioned in Tolstoy's War and Peace. Now dividing her time between Sweden and Boston, Alexandra continues her lifelong passion as an author.
Fathers and Sons and Other Village Idiots
Billy Warren
Billy Warren Books
www.billywarren.com
9798991356107, $30.00, HC, 254pp
https://bookshop.org/shop/billywarrenbooks
https://www.amazon.com/Fathers-Sons-Other-Village-Idiots/dp/B0DHJCRV8Z
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fathers-and-sons-and-other-village-idiots-billy-warren/1146305925
Synopsis: A deftly crafted novel, "Fathers and Sons and Other Village Idiots: Underdogs and Angels in 1969 South Brooklyn" is partly a story of generational divide, but it is so much more. Kazimierz is on a journey not only through turbulent 1969 America but also through decades of the Polish American immigrant experience in South Brooklyn.
Kaz is a poor immigrant in a rich man's country, continually being sent into the breach by the powers that be. Nevertheless, he was happy in America, content with his lot in life, and devoted to his religion. All that changed when God took his wife away from him.
After Marysia's death, Kaz exercised his free will, an inalienable tenet of his Catholic faith, and rejected God and the church. As he enters 1969, he comes to realize that in order to join his wife in heaven, he needs to reconcile with God and do it soon.
Foolishly for Kaz, it still must be on his terms. He refuses to be extorted by religion to behave. Obediently going to church once a week and not eating meat on Fridays, wasn't going to be his recipe to redemption. On New Year's Day 1969, he resolves to find a good that needs doing.
In 1969 New York City, there are civil rights protests, campus takeovers, war moratoriums, and gay rights riots. Mobsters, both in and out of uniform, rule the streets of his South Brooklyn neighborhood. He knows he needs help. He prays for a guardian angel and discovers they are all around him.
Kaz embarks on his journey by writing a winter haiku for his dead wife. During his quest, he ponders the wisdom of a 18th century writer, Ivan Turgenev, and a 20th-century Catholic radical, Dorothy Day. He encounters underdogs defying reason and resisting power. They include a centuries-old Polish Catholic icon, Battle of Brooklyn warriors, Warsaw Ghetto and Stonewall Inn rioters, Vietnam War protesters, and the worst team to ever play major league baseball, the New York Mets. All lead him to a cold beach where he needs to make a choice.
"Fathers and Sons and Other Village Idiots" is a historical fiction that draws from the newspapers of 1969. It's a unique literary tale of the protagonist battling his psychological demons. It is also an inspirational story of a soul opposing devilish odds for a heavenly desire.
Critique: All the more impressive to the reader when considering that "Fathers and Sons and Other Village Idiots: Underdogs and Angels in 1969 South Brooklyn" is the debut of author Billy Warren who, as a novelist, has raised his original work of historical fiction to an impressive level of literary excellence. One of those emotionally engaging reads that lingers in the mind and memory long after the book is finished and set back upon the shelf, "Fathers and Sons and Other Villages Idiots" from Billy Warren Books is especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library Literary Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Fathers and Sons and Other Village Idiots" is also readily available in a paperback edition (9798991356114, $20.00) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: Billy Warren (www.billywarren.com) was born and raised in a South Brooklyn neighborhood under the shadow of the local Polish Catholic church and the watchful gaze of the Statue of Liberty. He is 2nd generation Polish American whose ancestors immigrated to America around 1910. He is a graduate of City College of New York BS '75, and San Jose State U. MA '81. He remains grateful and proud of his Polish and Brooklyn heritages, and public school education. He has had diverse professional experiences that include being an air traffic controller, spinal cord injury therapist, medical technical writer, and healthcare executive. Today, he writes historical literary fiction full time from northern California.
Something Better
Diane Parrish
www.dianeparrish.com
Meridian Editions
https://www.meridianeditions.com
9781959170143, $32.95, HC, 314pp
https://www.amazon.com/Something-Better-Diane-Parrish/dp/1959170147
Synopsis: The bubble in which Ruth and David live their tidy suburban lives is about to burst. A tragic automobile accident shatters their insular world and sends David into an emotional tailspin. An unexpected job opportunity sends Ruth to the West Coast, waylaying her desire to become a mother and making her increasingly unavailable for David's needs.
Thrown off balance and alone, David develops a fixation on Annabeth Brady, the daughter of the friends lost that fateful night. As he and Ruth drift further apart, each must decide if they will remain true to their vows, or what it might mean to search for something better.
Critique: A novel raised to an impressive level of literary elegance, it is all the more impressive to note that "Something Better' is the debut effort of novelist Diane Parrish. Deftly incorporating thoughtful and thought-provoking elements of forgiveness and faith, "Something Better" is a truly memorable read from start to finish. While especially recommended for community and public library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists for those with an interest in family and women's domestic life that "Something Better" is also readily available from Meridian Editions in a paperback edition (9781959170136, $19.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $2.99).
Editorial Note: Diane Parrish (www.dianeparrish.com) is originally from the Midwest and now lives with her husband and their elderly Corgi in Connecticut, where they raised their two children. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in various literary journals and magazines.
The Romantic Fiction Shelf
Jewel E. Ann
www.jeweleann.com
Montlake
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662523670, $16.99, PB, 331pp
https://www.amazon.com/Air-Wildfire-Jewel-Ann/dp/166252367X
Synopsis: When Jamie Andrews moves in with a house full of firefighters, things start heating up fast. Battling the wilderness of rural Montana, these guys are always charging into danger for a living, for duty, for the rush -- and since Jamie is a psychiatric nurse, they fascinate her analytic mind. She can't help but fixate on Calvin, a grumpy, enigmatic smoke jumper ten years her senior. She makes playfully tormenting him her pet project, trying to get him to open up. It turns out he gives as good as he gets.
When something smoldering between them sparks, they'll have to keep it quiet, which makes Jamie start to wonder about Calvin's secret, the one he won't explain. She'll learn more after life pulls them apart. But as she follows the truth like a trail of flame into the dark, will it lead her to hearth and home with Calvin... or will it all go up in a blaze?
Critique: A deftly crafted and reader riveting contemporary romance by an author who is a master of the genre, "From Air" by novelist Jewel E. Ann will prove to be an immediate and enduringly popular pick for community library collections. For the growing legions of romance novel readers and the growing legions of Jewel Ann fans, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "From Air" is also readily available from Montlake in a digital book format (Kindle, $3.99).
Editorial Note: Jewel E. Ann (www.jeweleann.com/work) has written over thirty novels, including Look the Part, a contemporary romance; the Jack & Jill trilogy, a romantic suspense series; and Before Us, an emotional women's fiction story.
Eight Nights to Win Her Heart
Miri White
https://miri-white.com
Alcove Press
www.alcovepress.com
9781639108923, $31.99, HC, 304pp
https://www.amazon.com/Eight-Nights-Win-Her-Heart/dp/1639108920
Synopsis: Andie Williams is not looking forward to spending her first Chanukah alone after her father's death. About to lose her job, with her only prospect across the country for another work opportunity, she could use some chutzpah to make it through the eight nights alone.
Leo Dentz has had a crush on the girl across the hall from his apartment for years but has never had the courage to say anything -- until she drops her grocery bags and he notices her drug store Chanukah candles. Ready to take a chance outside of his comfort zone, Leo offers to join Andie on the first night, sharing his dinner with her.
As Andie and Leo fall for each other one night at a time, and the clock ticks down on Andie's move, will this season of miracles light their way forward?
Critique: "Eight Nights to Win Her Heart" by author Miri White has all the elements of a Hallmark Channel rom-com movie. All the more impressive when considering that "Eight Nights to Win Her Heart" is Miri White's debut as a novelist, she has created an original, deftly crafted, and memorably fun read from start to finish -- and one that is a 'must' for community library Contemporary Romance Fiction collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of all dedicated rom-com fans that "Eight Nights to Win Her Heart" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99) as well.
Editorial Note: Miri White (https://miri-white.com) and her quirky family live in Massachusetts in a home filled with games, sarcasm, and a hefty amount of pets. When not writing, she can be found trapped under a purring cat, drinking copious amounts of flavored coffee, and hoping her music-making teenager will compose something to go along with her books -- no such luck yet. Writing has always been a passion for her, and bringing underrepresented characters into the spotlight is a thrill.
I Do With You
Lauren Landish
www.laurenlandish.com
Montlake
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662524509, $16.99, PB, 304pp
https://www.amazon.com/I-Do-You-Maple-Creek/dp/1662524501
Synopsis: Hope Barlowe is a vow away from a lakeside wedding to her high school sweetheart. Next, check off her follow-up dreams: two kids, a dog, a home, and a happy ever after. But suddenly, ever after seems like a very long time. Instead of saying I do, Hope thinks I can't and bolts for the woods - right into the unpredictable life of a handsome tattooed hiker.
Days into a three-week getaway, struggling musician Ben Taylor is in search of inspiration. He never thought he'd find a bride stumbling through the bramble. Right away her sweet baby blues, confounding dilemma, and spirited independence strike a chord. Ben has found his muse, and he's falling fast. Hope is finding something just as important - herself.
Soon enough Hope and Ben have all of Maple Creek talking -- and divided. Where do they go from here? If Hope has learned anything, it's that happiness is more than a checklist, and dreams can change in a heartbeat.
Critique: Some authors just seem to have a natural knack for penning original stories of romance with all the highs and lows and ultimately happy endings that make the genre so popular. With the publication of "I Do With You", author Lauren Landish demonstrates herself to be just such a novelist. A fun read from cover to cover, "I Do With You" is a solid pick for community library Contemporary Romance collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of dedicated romance fans that this paperback edition of "I Do With You" from Montlake is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $3.99) as well.
Editorial Note: Lauren Landish (www.laurenlandish.com) is the author of The Wrong Guy and The Wrong Bridesmaid in the Cold Springs series, the Irresistible Bachelor series, and Racing Hearts and Riding Hard in the Bennett Boys Ranch books. When she's not plotting how she'll introduce you to your next sexy-as-hell hero, you can find her deep in her writing cave, furiously tapping away on her keyboard, writing scenes that would make even a hardened sailor blush.
Love Lines
Sheri Langer
Red Adept Publishing
https://redadeptpublishing.com
9781948051309, $14.99, PB, 344pp
https://www.amazon.com/Love-Lines-Sheri-Langer/dp/1948051303
Synopsis: What if you could find the love of your life just by reading between the lines?
Single mom Fordham Price is juggling her job at a small publisher, her precocious ten-year-old daughter, and her feisty mother. She wants to find time for men, but after a series of dating disasters, her relationship status is still stuck at single.
As if her macchiato lite wasn't already overflowing, a co-worker gets pregnant, and Fordham is expected to step in and deliver the company's latest reality read from the Flowers from the Heart series. She must now supplement her own romantic misadventures with tales of cynical cat-ladies, identical-twin husbands, spunky monks, and countless other web-crawlers.
As she wades through the submissions, she finds one from a widower whose story gives her tingles in all the places she forgot existed. His words draw her in until she finds herself daydreaming about him more than she'd care to admit. Could she have a love like that, or will her romantic fate be forever bound to her philandering ex-husband?
Critique: Once again, with the publication of "Love Lines", author and novelist Sheri Langer demonstrates her master of the genre called Contemporary Romance. This is the stuff from which Hallmark Channel movies are made. Fully engaging, entertaining, and original, "Love Lines" is one of those novels that will linger in the mind and memory long after the book itself has been finished and set back upon the shelf. While especially recommended and appropriate for community library Romance Fiction collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of all dedicated romance fans that "Love Lines" is also readily available from Red Adept Publishing in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.99).
Editorial Note: Sheri Langer is the pen name of Sheri Lynn Fishbach, who is a New York-based freelance writer and editor who has contributed to local, regional, and national publications including Gannett's the Journal News, the Jewish Reporter, Steppin' Out, Psychology Tomorrow Magazine, and the New York Times network of newspapers. Sheri holds a Bachelor's Degree in History from SUNY Binghamton, a Master's Degree in English Education from Brooklyn College, and has taken post-graduate classes in Screenwriting, Playwriting, Poetry, Stand-Up Comedy, Improvisation, and Commercial Acting. A Meisner-trained actress, she brought her passion for the stage to elementary school children as part of a theater workshop she created. She also produced a community-based Jewish cookbook, No Reservations, which was sold locally. (https://screenluvr2.wixsite.com/sheri)
The Mystery/Suspense Shelf
Brad M. Meslin
MindStir Media
https://mindstirmedia.com
9781965340431, $41.99, HC, 402pp
https://www.amazon.com/Moldavian-Gambit-Brad-M-Meslin/dp/1965340431
Synopsis: In the summer of 1991, as the Soviet Union teeters on the edge of collapse, a violent uprising erupts in the Soviet Republic of Moldavia. Amid the chaos, a portable nuclear weapon is stolen from a secure armory by nationalist forces seeking to blackmail the Kremlin. When the weapon's location is uncovered, the world faces a terrifying threat that could draw NATO and the United States into a nuclear conflict of unprecedented scale.
A classified U.S. Nuclear Emergency Search Team is deployed to locate the weapon, as a legendary Mossad agent and a tenacious KGB investigator each uncover evidence pointing to a complex - and seemingly contradictory - international conspiracy. The final hours to the climax are a riveting blur of geopolitical brinksmanship that can change the course of history - or possibly end it.
Critique: A riveting combination of political thriller and action/adventure that is all the more impressive when considering that it is author Brad M. Mesline's debut as a novelist, "The Moldavian Gambit" is a deftly crafted and compelling read from start to finish. With a plot driven drama that showcases Brad Mesline's distinctively effective storytelling style, and that is all too believable given the real world history of Soviet Union after its collapse, "The Moldavian Gambit" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library General Fiction and Suspense/Thriller collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Moldavian Gambit" is also readily available in a paperback edition (9781965340424, $27.99) and a digital book format (Kindle, $2.99) as well.
Editorial Note: Brad M. Meslin (https://bradmeslin.com) earned a Masters in Law and Diplomacy and a Ph.D. in international security policy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He has worked for nearly four decades at the intersection of aerospace and defense, private equity, and national security. Advising global private equity firms in more than 1,000 merger and acquisition transactions in the national security, space, and aviation markets, Meslin has gained unique insights into the capabilities deployed by the U.S. and its allies to address geopolitical threats and crises across the globe.
Victor & Me in Paris
Janice MacDonald
https://janicemacdonald.ca
Turnstone Press
https://www.turnstonepress.com
9780888017925, $23.95, PB, 344pp
https://www.amazon.com/Victor-Paris-Imogene-Durant-Mysteries/dp/0888017928
Synopsis: When retired academic Imogene Durant finds herself in Paris with Victor Hugo as her guide, a series of disturbing discoveries are made in local hotels. While Imogene hopes to settle in, read, and write a follow up to her acclaimed book, "Fyodor & Me in Russia", she's drawn into the mystery by her new friend and neighbour, the police detective assigned to the case.
Critique: An original and fun read from start to finish, "Victor & Me in Paris" by novelist Janice MacDonald is a deftly crafted cozy mystery starring an amateur female sleuth and the French literary icon, Victor Hugo. Launching the author's 'Imogene Durant Mystery Series', this paperback edition of "Victor & Me in Paris is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Mystery/Suspense collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of all dedicated cozy mystery buffs that "Victor & Me in Paris" is also readily available from Turnstone Press in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: Janice MacDonald (https://janicemacdonald.ca) is a Canadian author of mystery novels, textbooks, non-fiction titles, and stories for both children and adults. She is best known for writing seven novels featuring amateur sleuth Miranda "Randy" Craig. The Randy Craig Mysteries were the first detective series to be set in Edmonton, Alberta, where Janice lives and works.
Death at an Irish Wedding
Ellie Brannigan
Crooked Lane Books
www.crookedlanebooks.com
9781639109210, $29.99, HC, 288pp
https://www.amazon.com/Death-Irish-Wedding-Castle-Mystery/dp/1639109218
Synopsis: Rayne McGrath's efforts to save the rundown family castle she inherited were an epic failure after she accidentally set fire to the tower and tanked the budget. Is the castle haunted, or is she just unlucky? Meanwhile, her cousin, Ciara Smith, is anxiously booking their joint calendar with special events in the hopes of bringing the property around before they lose everything.
When a bridalwear client from LA asks Rayne for help as her guest list spirals out of control, Rayne nabs the answer to her prayers. McGrath Castle is the perfect destination for the exclusive and intimate wedding party of heiress Tori Montgomery and her fiance, heartthrob actor Jake Anderson. But this white veil occasion turns into a nightmare when Tori's best friend's assistant, Tiffany Quick, is found dead.
It's feared Tiffany jumped from the tower, but that theory is quickly put in doubt as secrets within the wedding party come to light. And as the villagers protest this new wedding venue venture, Rayne begins to wonder if she will succeed in her endeavor or lose it all.
Critique: A deftly crafted and original cozy mystery with all the trimmings (amateur female sleuth, a body, and a wedding to put on in an old Irish castle), "Death at an Irish Wedding" by author and storyteller Ellie Brannigan is a fun read from cover to cover. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99), "Death at an Irish Wedding" from Crooked Lane Books will prove an immediately welcome and enduringly popular pick for personal reading lists and community library Mystery/Suspense collections!
Editorial Note: Ellie Brannigan has lived in South Florida for the last twenty years. She loves the ocean and any food dish with shrimp. When she's not creating new fictional worlds, she reads, and travels... and eats. (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22541174.Ellie_Brannigan)
Best House on the Block
T. R. Ragan
www.theresaragan.com
Thomas & Mercer
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662517303, $16.99, PB, 287pp
https://www.amazon.com/Best-House-Block-T-R-Ragan/dp/1662517300
Synopsis: Aspiring investigative journalist Shannon Gibbons and her family have moved into a beautiful house in the Fabulous Forties of East Sacramento, where Shannon finds a fast connection with a new neighbor. Renowned journalist Rosella Marlow appears to have a genuine interest in giving Shannon's own career a boost -- as personal assistant on Rosella's new project. Appearances are deceiving.
Bitter, resentful, and consumed by excruciating grief, Rosella is obsessed with wiping the smiles off her contented neighbors' faces. Now she's watching closely, ready to expose their secrets. Secrets dark enough to destroy lives. In Shannon, Rosella has a trusting and unwitting accomplice. But Rosella is being watched, too. And when someone is found murdered, everyone on this quiet block is a suspect. Because everyone has a motive.
With the help of a friend, Shannon begins an investigation into the death of a person she just met. As neighbor is pitted against neighbor, the truth is much scarier than anything they imagined.
Critique: A choice pick for readers with an interest in domestic and psychological thrillers, "Best House on the Block" by novelist T. R. Ragan is a simply riveting read from start to finish. An original and deftly crafted suspense with more unexpected plot twists and turns than an Oklahoma tornado, "Best House on the Block" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community/public library Contemporary Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that this paperback edition of "Best House on the Block" from Thomas & Mercer is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $5.99).
Editorial Note: T.R. Ragan (www.theresaragan.com) is also the author of Such a Beautiful Family and Count to Three, the Sawyer Brooks trilogy (Don't Make a Sound, Out of Her Mind, and No Going Back), the Faith McMann trilogy (Furious, Outrage, and Wrath), the Lizzy Gardner series (Abducted, Dead Weight, A Dark Mind, Obsessed, Almost Dead, and Evil Never Dies), and the Jessie Cole novels (Her Last Day, Deadly Recall, Deranged, and Buried Deep). In addition to thrillers, she writes medieval time-travel tales, contemporary romance, and romantic suspense as Theresa Ragan. She has sold more than four million books since her debut novel appeared in 2011.
Assume Nothing
Joshua Corin
www.joshuacorin.com
Thomas & Mercer
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662523533, $16.99, PB, 287pp
https://www.amazon.com/Assume-Nothing-Thriller-Joshua-Corin/dp/166252353X
Synopsis: In 1985, Kat McCann was six years old when renowned Austrian detective Alik Lisser solved her mother's murder. And unfortunately proved Kat's father as the killer.
Ten years later Kat is still obsessed with the heroic criminologist. She's also addicted to the bestselling novels inspired by Alik's ingenious deductions -- penned by the grande dame of whodunits, and who is a bit of a mystery herself. Kat has devoured them all. Even the one based on her father's crime.
When Kat and Alik fatefully cross paths again, a friendship evolves, and Alik is delighted to share the secrets of his success with such an eager and clever girl by inviting Kat to solve a murder of her very own. One that challenges everything Kat believes about the detective, an elusive author, and Kat's notorious past.
Now, as fact and fiction and truth and deception collide, it's all Kat can do to survive the shocking twist ending to her own life story.
Critique: Original, exceptional, engaging, and of particular interest to fans of amateur female sleuths caught up in trying to solve a lethal suspense thriller of a mystery, "Assume Nothing" by master storyteller Joshua Corin is a fun read for the not 'so faint of heart' readers who enjoy a riveting read from start to finish. While a highly recommended pick for community library collections, this paperback edition of "Assume Nothing" from Thomas & Mercer is available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $3.99).
Editorial Note: Joshua Corin (www.joshuacorin.com) is the author of the Xanadu Marx series, the Esme Stuart series, and a cornucopia of comic books for Marvel, among many others. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages.
Echo
Tracy Clark
https://tracyclarkbooks.com
Thomas & Mercer
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662517327, $16.99, PB, 364pp
https://www.amazon.com/Detective-Harriet-Foster-Tracy-Clark/dp/1662517327
Synopsis: Hardwicke House, home to Belverton College's exclusive Minotaur Society, is no stranger to tragedy. And when a body turns up in the field next to the mansion, the scene looks chillingly familiar.
Chicago PD sends hard-nosed Detective Harriet "Harri" Foster to investigate. The victim is Brice Collier, a wealthy Belverton student, whose billionaire father, Sebastian, owns Hardwicke and ranks as a major school benefactor. Sebastian also has ties to the mansion's notorious past, when thirty years ago, hazing led to a student's death in the very same field.
Could the deaths be connected? With no suspects or leads, Harri and her partner, Detective Vera Li, will have to dig deep to find answers. No charges were ever filed in the first case, and this time, Harri's determined the killer must pay. But still grieving her former partner's death, Harri must also contend with a shadowy figure called the voice -- and their dangerous game of cat and mouse could threaten everything.
Critique: An impressively original and thoroughly fun read for fans of police procedural. women murder mystery solving sleuths, and intensely dramatic suspense thrillers, "Echo" by talented novelist Tracy Clark will prove an immediate and enduringly appreciated pick for community library Mystery/Suspense collections. One of author Tracy Clark's 'Detective Harriet Foster' series, "Echo" is also available for reader's personal lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99) as well.
Editorial Note: Tracy Clark (https://tracyclarkbooks.com) is the author of the Cass Raines Chicago Mystery series featuring Cassandra Raines, a hard-driving African American PI who works the mean streets of the Windy City, dodging cops, cons, and killers. Clark received Anthony Award and Lefty Award nominations for series debut Broken Places, which was short-listed for the American Library Association's RUSA Reading List and named a CrimeReads Best New PI Book of 2018, a Midwest Connections Pick, and a Library Journal Best Book of the Year. Broken Places has since been optioned by Sony Pictures Television. Tracy is also a member of Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime, and she sits on the boards of Bouchercon National and the Midwest Mystery Conference.
The Drowning Game
Barbara Nickless
www.barbaranickless.com
Thomas & Mercer
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662510014, $16.99, PB, 379pp
https://www.amazon.com/Drowning-Game-Barbara-Nickless/dp/1662510012
Synopsis: Sisters Nadia and Cass Brenner are heirs to Ocean House, a decades-old empire that builds superyachts for the rich and powerful: emirs, oligarchs, and titans of industry throughout America and Europe. They are a next-generation success with the design of their soon-to-be-commissioned megayacht for a Chinese billionaire. But the sisters' entree into the coveted Asian market is tragically cut short when Cass falls from a fortieth-floor hotel balcony.
A Singapore detective rules suicide. Nadia's been in the yacht business too long not to be suspicious. Especially when she discovers Cass's involvement in dangerously illicit activities. Pulled into the same web of betrayal, lies, and secrets that trapped her sister, Nadia is on the most perilous mission of her life. Because uncovering the truth behind her sister's death could tear the Brenner family apart -- and it just might get her killed.
From Seattle to Austria to the South China Sea, Nadia must hold on to the one thing that can keep her safe. It's the Brenner family motto: Trust no one.
Critique: Barbara Nickless newest novel, "The Drowning Game" is the deftly crafted story about a woman's dedicated investigation into her sister's death and exposes the dark side of a secret life in a gripping tale of power, money, and murder. An intensely engaging and original murder mystery leading to a climatic resolution, and highly recommended for community library Contemporary Mystery/Suspense collections, this paperback edition of "The Drowning Game" from Thomas & Mercer is also available for the growing legions of Barbara Nickless fans in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99) as well.
Editorial Note: Barbara Nickless (www.barbaranickless.com) is the author of Play of Shadows, Dark of Night, and At First Light in the Dr. Evan Wilding series, as well as the Sydney Rose Parnell series, which includes Blood on the Tracks, a Suspense Magazine Best of 2016 selection and winner of the Colorado Book Award and the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence; Dead Stop, winner of the Colorado Book Award and nominee for the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence; Ambush; and Gone to Darkness. Her essays and short stories have appeared in Writer's Digest and on Criminal Element.
What the Wife Knew
Darby Kane
William Morrow & Company
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
9780063352001, $30.00, HC, 368pp
https://www.amazon.com/What-Wife-Knew-deception-betrayal/dp/0063352001
Synopsis: Dr. Richmond Dougherty is a renowned pediatric surgeon, an infamous tragedy survivor, and a national hero. He's also very dead -- thanks to a fall down the stairs. His neighbors angrily point a finger at the newest Ms. Dougherty, Addison. The sudden marriage to the mysterious young woman only lasted ninety-seven days, and he'd had two suspicious "accidents" during that time. Now Addison is a very rich widow.
As law enforcement starts to circle in on Addison and people in town become increasingly hostile, sides are chosen with Kathryn, Richmond's high school sweetheart, wife number one, and the mother of his children, leading the fray. Despite rising tensions, Addison is even more driven to forge ahead on the path she charted years ago...
Determined at all costs to unravel Richmond's legacy, she soon becomes a target - with a shocking note left on her bedroom wall: You will pay. But it will take a lot more than faceless threats to stop Addison. Her plan to marry Richmond then ruin him may have been derailed by his unexpected death, but she's not done with him yet.
Critique: A fully entertaining read that will prove of special interest to fans of psychological suspense thrillers and murder mysteries replete with unexpected plot twists and turns, "What The Wife Knew" by novelist Darby Kane is especially and unreservedly recommended addition to community library Mystery/Suspense collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists that "What The Wife Knew" is available in a paperback edition (9780063351967, $18.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99) as well.
Editorial Note: Darby Kane (https://darbykane.com) is a former divorce lawyer with a dual writing personality. Her debut thriller, Pretty Little Wife, was a Book of the Month pick, #1 international bestseller, and has been optioned by Amazon for a television series, starring Gabrielle Union. She's written romantic suspense as HelenKay Dimon and currently writes stories centered on family hijinks with a mix of suspense and romance. The first, Moorewood Family Rules, has been optioned for television.
The Fantasy/SciFi Shelf
Sharon Lynn Fisher
www.sharonlynnfisher.com
47 North
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662515712, $16.99, PB, 299pp
https://www.amazon.com/Grimm-Curiosities-Sharon-Lynn-Fisher/dp/1662515715
Synopsis: 1851 in old York. Lizzy Grimm struggles to save her late father's charmingly creepy yet floundering antique shop, Grimm Curiosities. Then, during a particularly snowy December in this most haunted city in England, things turn... curiouser.
Lizzy meets Antony Carlisle, whose sister suffers from the same perplexing affliction as Lizzy's mother -- both stricken silent and unresponsive after speaking with ghosts. Working closely together to fathom what power has transformed their loved ones and why, Lizzy and Antony discover an important clue: her father's treasured set of rare books on ancient folktales, enchantments, and yuletide myths.
Books that a persistent collector is awfully keen to purchase. Books Lizzy can't bear to sell.
Every bewitching passage and illustration opens a doorway to something ancient and dangerously inviting. Keys to a mystery Lizzy and Antony are compelled to solve -- even if doing so means unleashing one of this bright holiday's darkest myths.
Critique: A literary masterpiece of historical fantasy fiction, author Sharon Lynn Fisher's new novel, "Grimm Curiosities" showcases her impressively engaging storytelling style. Original and an inherently fascinating read from cover to cover, "Grimm Curiosities" will have a particular appeal to readers with an interest in stories of witchcraft, ghosts, and romance in the context of a deftly crafted historical fantasy. Highly recommended as a popular pick for community library Historical Fantasy collections, it should be noted that this paperback edition of "Grimm Curiosities" from 47 North publishers is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99).
Editorial Note: Sharon Lynn Fisher (www.sharonlynnfisher.com) is the author of Salt & Broom, the Faery Rehistory series, Ghost Planet, The Ophelia Prophecy, and Echo 8. She writes smart, twisty, passionate tales -- mash-ups of fantasy (or sci-fi) and slow-burn romance set in lush and atmospheric worlds.
Blood of the Gods
Sapir A. Englard
www.sapirenglard.com
Montlake
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662522277, $16.99, PB, 320pp
https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Cloak-Vampire-Sapir-Englard/dp/1662522274
Synopsis: Aileen Henderson didn't choose to die. That choice was stolen from her, brutally, at the hands (and lips) of a monster. With a singular kiss, Lord Ragnor Rayne condemned the twenty-one-year-old to an eternity she never wanted. And a future she refuses to accept.
Despite the fury now coursing through her veins, Aileen fights the pull of attraction to Ragnor, a need with a will of its own. But now, she's determined to make her way without the vampire lord's help.
Carving out her new existence, Aileen finds allies, even family, among the ruthless and competitive vampire leagues. But untold dangers abound, and soon, Aileen encounters new and more evil monsters.
When ancient, all-powerful gods dredge up nightmares from her past, Aileen discovers she has an important role to play in this world. And if she can learn to control her powers and her desires, she may find a way to survive both her enemies and Ragnor Rayne.
Critique: The second title in author/storyteller Sapir A. Englard's 'Cloak of the Vampire' series, this paperback edition of "Blood of the Gods" from Montlake is the kind of riveting read that will have a very special appeal to fans of the vampire novel. Original, deftly crafted, and also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $3.99), "Blood of the Gods" is an especially and unreservedly recommended pick for community library vampire themed Romance/Fantasy/Action-Adventure collections.
Editorial Note: Sapir A. Englard (www.sapirenglard.com/books) is the author of the massive digital hit The Millennium Wolves. Published in 2019 on the Galatea app, the twelve-book series has amassed more than 125 million reads. The series is also available in French from Hugo Publishing. Englard's success has been documented in the Boston Globe and Forbes, as well as on TechCrunch and other websites. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Sapir is a full-time writer and musician.
The Naturalist Society
Carrie Vaughn
www.carrievaughn.com
47 North
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662519031, $16.99, PB, 395pp
https://www.amazon.com/Naturalist-Society-Carrie-Vaughn/dp/1662519036
Synopsis: In the summer of 1880, the death of Beth Stanley's husband puts her life's work in jeopardy. The magic of Arcane Taxonomy dictates that every natural thing in the world, from weather to animals, can be labeled, and doing so grants the practitioner some of that subject's unique power. But only men are permitted to train in this philosophy. Losing her husband means that Beth loses the name they put on her work -- and any influence she might have wielded.
Brandon West and Anton Torrance are campaigning for their expedition to the South Pole, a mission that some believe could make a taxonomist all-powerful by tapping into the earth's magnetic forces. Their late friend Harry Stanley's knowledge and connections would have been instrumental, but when they attempt to take custody of his work, they find that it was never his at all.
Critique: "The Naturalist Society" by accomplished novelist Carrie Vaughn is an historical fantasy whose author has raised a fun read to an impressive level of literary elegance. Original, deftly crafted, and unreservedly recommended for community library Action/Adventure Fantasy collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of dedicated fantasy fans that "The Naturalist Society" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99).
Editorial Note: Carrie Vaughn (www.carrievaughn.com) is the author of more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories, two of which have been finalists for the Hugo Award. She's best known for her New York Times bestselling series of novels about a werewolf named Kitty, who hosts a talk radio advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged. In 2018, Vaughn won the Philip K. Dick Award for the postapocalyptic murder mystery Bannerless. A graduate of the Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop, Carrie is also a contributor to the Wild Cards series of shared world superhero books edited by George R. R. Martin.
A Breathless Sky
Veronica G. Henry
www.veronicahenry.net
47 North
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662520280, $16.99, PB, 315pp
https://www.amazon.com/Breathless-Sky-Scorched-Earth/dp/166252028X
Synopsis: As climate disasters wreak havoc, a sister and brother take opposing sides on the fate of the human race.
Syrah Carthan wants to save it. A tour guide for the Sequoia National Park, Syrah has an affinity for the millennia-old Giants that extends to Rhiza, a subterranean world as ancient as Earth itself. Syrah is the reluctant heir apparent as its Keeper. Her duty is to maintain a balance between nature and humans. But Syrah's greatest adversary has his duty as well.
Romelo, Syrah's brother, wants humankind to get what it deserves. To protect the forests, he's already instigated one battle that ended in chaos and death. To reverse the near extinction of the magnificent trees, Romelo's next move is to conspire with the sequoias themselves. If all goes according to plan, it will leave human beings absolutely breathless.
The siblings are going to battle. In the worlds above and below, only one of them can emerge victorious.
Critique: An original and modern fantasy by novelist Veronica G. Henry, "A Breathless Sky" is a simply fascinating, fun, and thought-provoking read from start to finish. Singularly interesting and conflicting values are deftly embedded into an action/adventure storyline that holds the reader's full attention, "A Breathless Sky" will prove an enduringly popular and highly prized pick for community/public library Fantasy Fiction collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists that this paperback edition of "A Breathless Sky" from 47 North is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99) as well.
Editorial Note: Veronica G. Henry (www.veronicahenry.net) is the author of The Canopy Keepers, the first book in The Scorched Earth series; Bacchanal; and, in the Mambo Reina series, The Quarter Storm and The Foreign Exchange. Her work has debuted at #1 on multiple Amazon bestseller charts and was chosen as an editors' pick for Best African American Fantasy. She is a Viable Paradise alum and a member of SFWA and CWoC (Crime Writers of Color). Her stories have appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Many Worlds, and FIYAH literary magazine.
A Tribute of Fire
Sariah Wilson
Montlake
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662525933, $28.99, HC, 527pp
https://www.amazon.com/Tribute-Fire-Eye-Goddess/dp/1662525931
Synopsis: Lia is the princess of Locris, a dying desert nation cursed centuries ago by an earth goddess -- one still worshipped by the thriving and adversarial nation of Ilion. Every year, Ilion offers the goddess a sacrifice: two Locrian maidens forced to compete in a life-and-death race to reach her temple. In a millennium, no maiden has made it out of Ilion alive. This year, Lia is one of the hunted.
An education in battle gives her a fighting chance, but the challenges are greater than she feared: Lia's beloved but untrained sister Quynh has been put in the path of danger. The winding streets of Ilion itself have been transformed into a labyrinthine maze of countless choices and dead ends. And if the risks weren't significant enough, Lia is reluctantly drawn to the commandingly attractive Jason, an Ilionian sailor she loathes to trust and desires like no man before.
The tribute game is on. It's up to Lia to lift the goddess's curse, restore Locris to its former glory, and change the fate of every young woman destined to follow in her path.
Critique: An original, riveting, and epic fantasy from start to finish, "A Tribute of Fire" by novelist Sariah Wilson launches her new 'The Eye of the Goddess' series that deftly blends elements of romance and danger, plot twists and surprises, all within the context of ancient warring kingdoms and personal survival. Especially and unreservedly recommended for community/public library Heroic Fantasy Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists of all dedicated fantasy fans that this hardcover edition of "A Tribute of Fire" from Montlake is also available in a paperback edition (9781662525148, $16.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99).
Editorial Note: Sariah Wilson (www.sariahwilson.com) is the author of Hypnotized by Love, Almost Like Being in Love, The Hollywood Jinx, The Chemistry of Love, The Paid Bridesmaid, The Seat Filler, Roommaid, Just a Boyfriend, the Royals of Monterra series, and the #Lovestruck novels.
The Graphic Novel Shelf
Herve Bourhis
NBM Publishing
www.nbmpub.com
9781681123424, $34.99, HC, 272pp
https://www.amazon.com/British-Invasion-Herve-Bourhis/dp/1681123428
Synopsis: "The British Invasion!" by Herve Bourhis is a " little square book" that surveys English pop culture since 1962 when the country began its popular cultural revolution! It was in 1962, some 60 years ago, that the ' ole Albion, that of the monarchy, tea and crumpets and bowler hats took a resolutely modern turn, thanks to a sexy secret agent, a band from Liverpool, and a mini (skirt and car).
From the eccentric to the ultra-conservative, from James Bond to AstraZeneca, from Bowie to Banksy, including After Eight and the Teletubbies, year after year, all things Brit are covered in a unique graphic novel style format!
Critique: While also readily available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99), this large format (0.79 x 9.02 x 9.02 inches, 14.1 ounces) hardcover edition of "The British Invasion" from NBM Publishing is a fascinating, fun, informative, and nostalgic read from cover to cover -- and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and college/university library 20th Century Popular Culture collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Herve Bourhis was born in Touraine in 1974. Best known for his books on music, such as "The Little Book of Rock" or "The Little Book of Black Music", he has been the author of around thirty graphic novels since 2002. He alternates between contemporary or even political stories with books for young people or humorous ones. He also alternates between fiction and the historic-pop-patchwork, of which he invented a personal form in 2007 with "The Little Book of Rock," an illustrated chronology of rock culture since its origins translated into eleven languages. (https://www.europecomics.com/author/herve-bourhis)
Sunday
Olivier Schrauwen
Fantagraphics Books
www.fantagraphics.com
9781683969679, $39.99, PB, 474pp
https://www.amazon.com/Sunday-Olivier-Schrauwen/dp/1683969677
Synopsis: "Sunday" follows, over the course of one day, the stream of consciousness of a fictionalized version of the author's cousin, Thibault.
On the day of his girlfriend's return from an extended trip, Thibault wakes up, does nothing, gets James Brown stuck in his head, drinks and smokes, grows paranoid about his relationship, struggles to compose text messages, and watches The Da Vinci Code, all the while avoiding anyone and everyone, descending deeper into his own thoughts and fears.
Meanwhile, a former crush and another cousin of Thibault's plan a surprise birthday for him, sending the external and internal on a collision course.
Schrauwen's brilliant comic timing and formal mastery transcends the quotidian nature of the plot. Through use of color, flashback and the dissonance between text and image, the ways in which Schrauwen layers a depiction of human consciousness as lines on paper are infused heavily with slapstick and white-knuckle tension and make for an exhilarating read and breathtaking use of the comics medium.
Critique: Original, unique, fascinating, and featuring full-color illustrations throughout, this large format (7.9 x 1.9 x 10.1 inches, 2.77 pounds) paperback edition of "Sunday" by graphic novelist and illustrator Olivier Schrauwen is a surreal experience on paper that is presented to the reader with a storytelling flair that raises this edition of "Sunday" from Fantagraphics to an impressive level of literary excellence. While also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $28.99), "Sunday" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library Contemporary Graphic Novel collections.
Editorial Note: Olivier Schrauwen was born in Belgium in 1977 and studied animation at the Academy of Art in Gent, and comics at ESA Saint-Luc in Brussels. He currently lives in Berlin. He also is the author of the books The Man Who Grew His Beard (2011), Arsene Schrauwen (2014), Parallel Lives (2018).
Witchcraft: A Graphic History
Lindsay Squire, author
Lisa Salsi, illustrator
Leaping Hare Press
c/o Quarto Publishing Group USA
www.quartoknows.com
9780711295254, $19.99, HC, 128pp
https://www.amazon.com/Witchcraft-Graphic-History-Stories-healers/dp/0711295255
Synopsis: In the pages of "Witchcraft: A Graphic History", readers will find Lindsay, a young and curious 19th-century lady, as she meets Biddy Early, the famous 'wise woman of County Clare', and learns all about the magickal arts -- from which plants can be used to make healing poultices and potions, to how people dealt with the social and political stigma of practicing witchcraft.
Biddy Early, who lived from 1798-1874 in Ireland, was by no means the first-ever witch, but she was the first to appear on the historical record. Before her, fears and superstitions surrounding practitioners of 'the nameless art' were too strong. It is said that Biddy took an apprenticeship with the 'good folk', sidhe or faeries, when she was very young, and it was from them that she learned her skill as a healer.
Never one to accept monetary payment for the help she offered, Biddy would often swap home-brewed alcohol for her services, which in turn, made her ramshackle cottage in Feakle a hub for the local community. When her little corner of the county drew the attention of the Catholic Church and the local authorities, things became very difficult for this unusual woman...
Encompassing self-empowerment, feminism, dealing with stigma, and eco-spirituality, as well as plant magic, traditions, and green wisdom, "Witchcraft: A Graphic History" offers a fresh take on the endlessly fascinating historical subject of witchcraft practitioners.
Critique: A compendium of stories of wise women, healers and magic presented in a graphic novel style format, "Witchcraft: A Graphic History" by Lindsay Squire is a compelling, informative, and inherently fascinating read from cover to cover. The illustrations by artist Lisa Salsi provide a memorably engaging visual experience that brings to story of Biddy Early to life. Of special and particular appeal to readers with an interest in Witchcraft, Wicca, Divination, and Women's History, "Witchcraft: A Graphic History" is a solid and unreservedly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Metaphysical Studies and European Witchcraft History collections. It should be noted that this hardcover edition of "Witchcraft: A Graphic History" from Leaping Hare Press is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Suitor Armor: Volume 1
Purpah, author/illustraor
Ten Speed Graphic
c/o Ten Speed Press
https://crownpublishing.com/imprint/ten-speed
9780593835630, $24.99, HC, 224pp
https://www.amazon.com/Suitor-Armor-1-Purpah/dp/0593835638
Synopsis: While humans and fairies are at war beyond the castle walls, Lucia's life is dedicated to helping prepare Lady Kirsi for her upcoming wedding to King Reimund.
Lucia's time at court takes a dazzling turn when she accompanies Lady Kirsi to a royal tournament that calls together all of the kingdom's brave knights for a competition of strength and wit. A magically animated suit of armor, brought to life by Norrix the court mage's complicated enchantment spell, enters the ring and challenges the winning knight. Lucia is immediately attracted to the armor's dark, mysterious charm and lovingly names him Modeus. Bonded by their mutual status as outcasts within the kingdom, the two begin to develop an unlikely yet thrilling connection and sparks (both metaphorical and magical) fly.
The truth is, Lucia is hiding a dangerous secret about her own identity. She is the enemy: a fairy. She fears being exposed to the whole human kingdom, but she desperately desires to learn more about herself -- especially with the arrival of a winged visitor who has infiltrated the castle walls for reasons still unknown...
Critique: As a graphic novel, "Suitor Armor" by author/artist Purpah is an original, deftly crafted, and fun read from cover to cover. Complete with original behind-the-scenes content and a bonus storyline exclusive to this graphic novel edition, "Suitor Armor" is the first volume of a series that is comprised of episodes 1-17 of the greatly successful Webtoon webcomic and sets the stage for a grand adventure in magic, romance, mystery, fantasy creatures, friendship, self-discovery, and more! While also readily available fro the personal reading lists of dedicated fantasy themed graphic novels in a paperback edition (9780593835654, $17.99), this hardcover edition of "Suitor Armor: Volume 1" from Ten Speed Graphic is a solid and unreservedly recommended pick for community library Fantasy/Romance themed graphic novel collections for readers ages 16 to 66!
Editorial Note: Purpah (https://thepurpah.tumblr.com) is an artist and writer based in California. She earned a BFA in illustration and have since gone on to create Suitor Armor on Webtoon as well as writing for other projects.
The Library CD Shelf
Rich Willey
Boptism Music
$12.00 CD / $12.00 digital
https://boptism.com/boptism-music-store/christmas
https://boptism.com/boptism-music-store/rich-willey-boptism-christmas-digital-download
U.S. Army bandsman and jazz trumpeter Rich Willey presents Boptism Christmas, a music album of Willey's arrangements of beloved Christmas songs originally created for local Jazz Christmas concerts. A sophisticated array of music artists also lend their talents on alto sax, tenor sax, trombone, bass trumpet, piano, organ, guitar, upright and electric bass, drums, and vocals. Boptism Christmas is lively, exciting, and brimming with holiday cheer, highly recommended especially for holiday parties and seasonal fun! The tracks are Merry Gentlemen Kings (medley, traditional), White Christmas (Irving Berlin), Silver Bells (Evans & Livingston), Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Martin & Blane), Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Johnny Marks), Little Drummer Boyz (Katherine Kennicott Davis), The Christmas Song (Torme & Wells), What Child Is This? (Greensleeves, traditional), and O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (traditional).
The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery
Caleb Wheeler Curtis
Imani Records
imanirecordsmusic.com
$40.00 vinyl / $20.00 CD / $20.00 digital
https://calebwheelercurtis.bandcamp.com/album/the-true-story-of-bears-and-the-invention-of-the-battery-deluxe-edition
The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery is a magnificent double album in which saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Caleb Wheeler Curtis plays the stritch (a straight alto), trumpet, soprano saxophone, and tenor saxophone as part of two different trios. Disc one, Bears and the Invention of the Battery, consists of Curtis' original songs (except for the track Odessa by Arthur Blythe); Curtis performs with bassist Sean Conly and drummer Michael Sarin. Disc two, Raise Four: Monk the Minimalist consists of songs composed by Thelonius Monk; Curtis performs with drummer Gerald Cleaver and pianist Orrin Evans. The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery is a grand musical adventure, boldly exploring free jazz and rhythm & blues funk, highly recommended for personal music collections. The disc one tracks are Another Tape (for Gerald); The First Question; This Cult Does Not Help; A Feather is Not a Bird; Odessa, Bears and the Invention of the Battery; Stellar Ray, See?; Miedo; Empires; and So Long. The disc two tracks are Oska; Introspection; Boo Boo's Birthday; Raise Four; Reflections; Played Twice; Ugly Beauty; Jackie-ing; Light Blue; and Raise Four (Take 2).
Beyond the Sleepy Hills
Rudy Adrian
Spotted Peccary Music
www.SpottedPeccary.com
$16.00 CD / $8.00 MP3
https://spottedpeccary.com/shop/beyond-the-sleepy-hills
Beyond the Sleepy Hills is an atmospheric, electronic New Age album especially ideal for soothing the restless mind. The quiet beauty of atonal bells, soft piano, and gentle synth sounds encourage the listener to immerse themselves in meditation, relaxation, or sleep. Beyond the Sleepy Hills is a choice pick for ambient music collections and also makes an excellent gift. The nine tracks are named "The Sleepy Hills 1" through "The Sleepy Hills 9"; the tracks range from four to ten minutes long each.
Angell & Crane
Angell & Crane
Privately Published
$35.00 CAD vinyl / $10.00 CAD digital
https://angellandcrane.bandcamp.com/album/angell-crane
Angell & Crane is the self-titled debut album of contemporary ambient jazz. All tracks are the original compositions of Simon Angell and Tommy Crane. Simon Angel performs on guitars, bass, and synth; Tommy Crane performs on drums, percussion, synths, and vibraphone. Two guests lend their talents to individual tracks: Sarah Rossy performs vocals for three tracks, while Charlotte Greve plays alto sax on one track and the flute on another. The result is a blossoming, multilayered auditory experience, ideal for connoisseurs and for playing during work or study sessions. Highly recommended! The tracks are Twin machines, Swingjugend, SALT I, Unearth, Himalayan Dial-Up, SALT II, Honguedo, Hesa Fredrik, Yellow Diamond, Subsequent Flooding, Eight Years to Okuma, and 2000 Decades.
My Universe
Maria Puga Lareo
My Keter Records
$13.99 CD / $9.49 MP3
Jazz and Brazilian music vocalist, songwriter, and producer Maria Puga Lareo presents My Universe, an album that showcases her mellifluous voice supported by talented music artists on saxophones, woodwinds, piano, keyboards, bass, drums, guitar, harp, percussion, trumpet, trombone, and more. Maria was involved in composing two of the tracks; the others are by a diversity of acclaimed composers. My Universe is a beautiful album and a treasure for vocal jazz connoisseurs, highly recommended. The tracks are Make Someone Happy (Jule Steyne/BettyComden/Adolph Green), The Song Is You (Oscar Hammerstein III/Jerome Kern), Depois de Tanto Tempo Intro (Dori Caymmi/Nelson Motta), Depois de Tanto Tempo (Dori Caymmi/Nelson Motta), Spring (Dori Caymmi/Tracy Mann), Till the End of the World (Maria Puga Lareo/Bob Sheppard), Cherokee (Ray Noble), We'll Be Together Again (Frankie Laine/Carl Fischer), At the End of the Night (Maria Puga Lareo/Bob Sheppard), and Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vincius de Moraes).
Tomorrowsville
Randy Hoexter
randyhoexter.com
Privately Published
$TBA CD / $9.49 MP3
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFY83VY8
Jazz pianist composer, arranger, producer, and educator Randy Hoexter presents Tomorrowsville, a full-length album of original, high-energy jazz pieces. Exploring exciting rhythms and adventurous time signatures (5/8 for Rosetta Stone and 7/4 for Diaspora), Tomorrowsville is a grand tour of dream and imagination. Hoexter's talented jazz piano is supported by a medley of excellent music artists on bass, saxophones, bass clarinet, flutes, drums, percussion, trombone, trumpet/flugelhorn, guitar, and more. Rapturously exciting from beginning to end, Tomorrowsville is a treasury for connoisseurs of inventive jazz, highly recommended. The tracks are Rosetta Stone, The Dragonfly, Argentum (for Horace), The Wine-Dark Sea, Diaspora, Evening Comes Early, Particle Accelerator, Phosphenes, Tomorrowsville, Sonate, and In Bright October.
Fiesta at Caroga
The Afro-Caribbean Jazz Collective
www.acjcmusic.com
Privately Published
$TBA CD / $5.94 MP3
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CS1F9N3Z
The Afro-Caribbean Jazz Collective is a lively band with a talent for adding modern jazz flair to traditional Afro-Caribbean music. The band consists of Brian Stark on tenor sax, Ben Weisger on trombone, Stephen Busath on congas, Sebastian Nassar on timbales, Brian Shank on percussion, Ian Stewart on bass, and Jose Guzman on guitar. Fiesta at Caroga is their latest album, exploring new twists on salsa, bembe drum style, bolero (Cuban love songs unrelated to the Spanish dance of the same name) and more. Fiesta at Caroga is an unfettered, joyous open celebration from start to finish, highly recommended especially for international music collections! The tracks are Descarga 2 (Jose Guzman), Xipirona Cha Cha (Jose Guzman), El Canaveral (Jose Guzman), El Volcan (Brian Stark), Carino (Jose Guzman), and Baile Bailekita (Brian Stark).
Duke & Strays Live
Day Dream
Corner Store Jazz
$TBA CD / $10.00 digital
https://philhaynesmusic.bandcamp.com/album/duke-strays-live
Drummer/composer Phil Haynes, pianist Steve Rudolph, and bassist Drew Gress form the Day Dream trio. Together, they perform Duke & Strays Live, an album of works by beloved jazz artists Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Day Dream adds their own stylings and flourishes to the traditional pieces, in this exciting concert highly recommended especially for jazz connoisseurs. The disc one tracks are African Flower, Perdido, Single Petal of a Rose / Sophisticated Lady, U.M.M.G., and Lush Life. The disc two tracks are Come Sunday, Rockin in Rhythm, T.G.T.T., Lotus Blossom, and My Little Brown Book / Take the 'A' Train.
A Beautiful Day, Revisited
Andrew Hill Sextet Plus 10
Palmetto Records
$39.98 vinyl / $22.98 CD / $18.98 MP3
https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Day-Revisited-Andrew-Hill/dp/B0D3B4GJWG
A Beautiful Day, Revisited is a freshly remastered two-disc CD album reissuing the 2002 live big band performance of the Andrew Hill Sextet Plus 10. The track 11/8 has been extended from the one-minute original release to more than six minutes, and a sixteen-minute bonus track A Beautiful Day (Thursday) has been added, showcasing a striking rework of the double album's title track. Exciting and grandiose, A Beautiful Day, Revisited is a "must" for big band music connoisseurs and highly recommended for both personal and public library music collections. The disc one tracks are Divine Revelation, Faded Beauty, New Pinnochio, and A Beautiful Day; the disc two tracks are J Di, 5 Mo, Bellezza, A Beautiful Day (Thursday), and 11/8.
Heaven Sent
Peter Sterling
Harp Magic
www.HarpMagic.com
$16.98 CD / $8.99 MP3
https://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Sent-Peter-Sterling/dp/B0DK4XWZ91
Award-winning harpist Peter Sterling presents Heaven Sent, an album inspired by the Thanksgiving holiday season - especially Sterling's deep gratitude toward the recognition given to his music. Sterling performs his original songs with aid from skillful collaborators: a string trio from Ukraine; a violinist from Soviet Georgia; a master of Irish flute from Italy; a harmonica player from Amsterdam; three-time Grammy winner Paul Avgerinos on keyboard and vocals for the tracks Silver Lining and Afterglow; acclaimed pianist Charu suri for the track The Rain Will Fall; and Richard Hardy on Irish penny whistle for the track The Sun Always Shines. Extraordinarily beautiful and spiritual, Heaven Sent is a treasure for connoisseurs of inspired music, highly recommended. The tracks are Golden Leaves of Fall; The River Runs Deep; Timeless Heart; A Silver Lining; Forever My Love; The Rain Will Fall; Together Forever; After Glow; Days Of Old; and The Sun Always Shines.
Tryptique
Fern Lindzon, Colleen Allen, and George Koller
fernlindzon.com
ZSAN Records
zsanrecords.com
$20.00 CAD CD / $5.00 CAD digital
https://fernlindzon.bandcamp.com/album/tryptique
A unique hybrid of chamber music and contemporary jazz, Tryptique is an eclectic mix of original compositions and arrangements by Fern Lindzon on piano, Colleen Allen on flute and saxophone, and George Koller on bass. Like the visual art concept of the triptych (three works intended to be shown together), Tryptique brings combines the talents of these three extraordinary performers into a sweeping musical fusion that delights, inspires, and blazes its own unique path. Highly recommended! The tracks are Wondering (Doug Wilde), Canarios (Fern Lindzon), Retrato em Branco e Preto (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chico Buarque), Satin Doll (Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn), Eucalyptus (Steven MacKinnon), Compassion Blues (George Koller), Themes (Freddie Stone), Do Look (Fern Lindzon), Zeynebim (Karl Berger, trad. Turkish), A Flower for Amadeus (Moe Koffman), Apres un Reve (Gabriel Faure), and News for Bob (George Koller).
The Answer
Ilya Osachuk
ilyaosachuk.com
Privately Published
$20.00 CAD CD / $10.00 CAD digital
https://ilyaosachuk.bandcamp.com/album/the-answer
The Answer is the debut album of bassist Ilya Osachuk. Five songs are Ilya Osachuk's original compositions, and four are arrangements. Ilya Osachuk collaborates in two different trios for different tracks - Tyler Henderson on piano and Kai Craig on drums for tracks 1, 2, 5, 8, 9; and Donald Vega on piano and Billy Drummond on drums for tracks 4, 6, 7. The Answer is an extraordinary showcase Ilya Osachuk's mastery of the double bass, and a welcome addition to personal and public library contemporary jazz collections, highly recommended. The tracks are I Cover the Waterfront (Johnny Green/Edward Heyman), Lviv Perspective, Intro to February, February, Work (Thelonius Monk), Tenderly (Walter Gross/Jack Lawrence), The Answer, Waltz for J, and Satellite (John Coltrane).
Marche Nocturne
Thelonius Garcia
www.theloniusgarcia.com
Privately Published
$40.00 CAD vinyl / $20.00 CAD CD / $12.99 CAD digital
https://theloniusgarcia.bandcamp.com/album/marche-nocturne
Marche Nocturne is the debut solo piano album by Thelonius Garcia, who personally composed each of the sixteen original tracks in 2023. A mellifluous weaving of balanced harmony and the unfettered freedom of improvisational jazz, Marche Nocturne is a treasure for solo piano connoisseurs and highly recommended. The tracks are Marche nocturne, Vestiges, Gould, Evocation, Planetes soeurs, Apres minuit Bach, Histoires ephemeres, Je veux vivre avec toi pres de la riviere, La Memoire noire, Incantare, Debut, Le piano englouti, Les restes humains, Poussieres de vie, Nous avons change d'armes, and Petite marchae nocturne.
The Library DVD Shelf
First Run Features
https://www.firstrunfeatures.com
$19.95
https://www.firstrunfeatures.com/underdogvod.html
Underdog: The Curiously Optimistic Tale of Doug Butler is a DVD documentary following the life and trials of Doug Butler, a sixty-five year old dairy farmer in Vermont. Dough Butler is a widower; his son and daughter-in-law help him run the farm along with various employees. Running a farm is exhausting, demanding, relentless work; ever since he was a young man, Butler hadn't left the farm for longer than five days. Yet he has one hobby he's truly passionate about - dog mushing. He breeds and cares for roughly fifty dogs that are bred and trained to pull a sled in dirt or snow, and selects the best dogs to pull him in mush races. His life's dream is to compete in the world championships in Alaska. Underdog intimately portrays a year of Butler's life, showing everything from a difficult dairy cow calving to euthanizing a dying animal to broken tractors, respiratory illness induced by long years of farm work, expensive farm vehicles that break down in the field and need to be repaired ASAP before the harvest is lost, hunting deer for venison, and of course, the labor involved in caring for fifty affectionate and eager cross-breed sled dogs. As his farm teeters toward the possibility of bankruptcy, weighed down by high interest payments on a loan, Butler decides that no matter what the future brings he will make his dream real in the present day, and participate in a true Alaskan dog mushing race! Raw, real, honest, and ultimately inspirational, Underdog is an unforgettable glimpse into farming life, rural American culture, and the will to pursue one's dream. Highly recommended! 82 minutes, color, optional English subtitles.
Modernism, Inc.
First Run Features
https://www.firstrunfeatures.com
$19.95
https://www.firstrunfeatures.com/modernismincvod.html
Modernism, Inc.: The Eliot Noyes Design Story is a biographical documentary about architect and designer Eliot Noyes, who had a tremendous influence upon modern design during America's post-World War II economic boom. The signature aspect of Eliot Noyes' designs was that beauty lay in utility - good designs are accessible, easy to use, and foster good business. From easily identifiable corporate logos to user-friendly IBM typewriters to simple, elegant furniture and luxury houses integrated with the surrounding natural environment, Eliot Noyes' ideas were aesthetic, practical, and ultimately, widely disseminated. Modernism, Inc. explores both Eliot Noyes' greatest achievements and what are arguably his greatest failings, such as his reluctance to engage with political push for socially responsible engineering practices that began to emerge in the 70's onward. At once both an intimate life portrait and a portrayal of dramatic shift in American culture at large, Modernism, Inc. is highly recommended for both personal and public library DVD collections. 79 minutes, color, optional English subtitles.
The Philosophy Shelf
Dr. Harvey Lawrence
Iff Books
c/o Collective Ink Books
https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com
9781803416144, $9.95, PB, 96pp
https://www.amazon.com/Offbeat-Philosophers-Thinkers-Played-Different/dp/1803416149
Synopsis: With the publication of "Offbeat Philosophers: Thinkers Who Played a Different Tune", author Lawrence Harvey offers the reader a collection of ten philosophical portraits -- each one providing refreshing and provocative insights into thinkers who dared to play a different tune.
Often labouring at the margins of mainstream thought, these original thinkers tendered novel and often disquieting perspectives that serve to challenge our 'unexamined' norms. Each portrait is followed by questions to ponder, deliberate and ultimately stimulate the reader to think otherwise.
Critique: Fascinating, thought-provoking, inherently interesting and specifically recommended for readers with an interest in philosophical controversies and iconoclastic social/cultural critiques, "Offbeat Philosophers: Thinkers Who Played a Different Tune" is a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library History of Philosophy collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Offbeat Philosophers: Thinkers Who Played a Different Tune" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.99).
Editorial Note: Lawrence Harvey is a lecturer in Liberal Arts at the University of Winchester and teaches Philosophy at Peter Symonds College, Winchester. He is also the founder of the online platform, The Vectis College of Liberal Arts. He lives in the UK.
The Mythology Shelf
Jeffrey John Dixon
McFarland & Company
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9781476687940, $20.95, PB, 336pp
https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Holy-Grail-Jeffrey-Dixon/dp/1476687943
Synopsis: In the twelfth century, a French poet wrote a verse romance about a young knight who witnesses a mysterious procession centered on a radiant vessel called a "grail". Left unfinished, the poem inspired other writers of prose and verse, until the story was completely rewritten into the Arthurian romances, in which the vessel becomes a relic of the Last Supper, the Holy Grail.
For hundreds of years, the Grail story has haunted the western imagination. But the original medieval texts are full of inconsistencies, as different writers attempted to complete the story in varied ways. "Encyclopedia of the Holy Grail" by Jeffrey John Dixon is encyclopedic style seminal study that illuminates a path through the Perilous Forest of literature and legend.
The entries comprising "Encyclopedia of the Holy Grail" summarize the stories of the principal characters, sacred objects and places associated with the Grail. An Afterword shows how mysteries of the grail continue to enchant the scholars and creative writers who have transformed the medieval legend into modern mythology.
Critique: A welcome addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library Mythology/Folklore collections, "Encyclopedia of the Holy Grail" by Jeffrey John Dixon is a perfect pick for supplemental Arthurian Studies curriculum studies lists as we.. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that this paperback edition of "Encyclopedia of the Holy Grail" from McFarland & Company is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.99).
Editorial Note: Jeffrey John Dixon, after studying English literature at Sussex University, travelled widely and now lives and writes in Powys, United Kingdom. (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5865987.Jeffrey_John_Dixon)
The Folktale/Fairytale Shelf
Sharon Blackie and Angharad Wynne
New World Library
www.newworldlibrary.com
9780349018317, $23.33 HC, 336pp
9781608689668, $19.95 PB, $11.49 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Wise-Women-Stories-Midlife-Beyond/dp/1608689662
Wise Women: Myths and Stories for Midlife and Beyond gathers stories of older female characters who hold a variety of strengths, from confronting monsters and helping young women come into their powers to transmitting the wisdom imparted by their life choices and perceptions. Sharon Blackie and Angharad Wynne move beyond the typical selection of familiar myths with an approach that represents many years of research on lesser-known European stories. These are organized by themes and accompanying commentary that links fables and legends with keys to understanding the challenges of being both female and strong. Wise Women reaches beyond mythology enthusiasts to attract women interested in stories reflecting female strengths and challenges. It will also draw discussion groups strong in women's history and issues and is a top recommendation for libraries, from general-interest public libraries to those collecting myths and stories for women-centric collections.
The Art Shelf
John Gage
Thames & Hudson, Inc.
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
9780500027936, $65.00, HC, 448pp
https://www.amazon.com/Color-Culture-Practice-Antiquity-Abstraction/dp/0500027935
Synopsis: What does the language of color tell us? Where does one color begin and another end? Is it a radiant visual stimulus, an intangible function of light, or a material substance to be molded and arrayed? Color is fundamental to art, yet so diverse that it has hardly ever been studied in a comprehensive way.
With the publication of "Color and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction", art historian John Gage (28 June 1938 - 10 February 2012) considers every conceivable aspect of the subject in this groundbreaking analysis of color in Western culture, from the ancient Greeks to the late twentieth century.
Gage describes the first theories of color, articulated by Greek philosophers, and subsequent attempts by the Romans and their Renaissance disciples to organize it systematically or endow it with symbolic power. He unfolds its religious significance and its use in heraldry, as well as how Renaissance artists approached color with the help of alchemists.
He also explores the analysis of the spectrum undertaken by Isaac Newton and continued in the nineteenth century by artists such as Georges Seurat, traces the influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's color theory, and considers the extraordinary theories and practices that attempted to unite color and music or make color into an entirely abstract language of its own.
A seminal undertaking to suggest answers to many perennial questions about the role of color in Western art and thought, "Color and Culture" throws fresh light on the hidden meanings of many familiar masterpieces.
Critique: This large format (8.4 x 1.3 x 10.7 inches, 2.31 pounds) hardcover edition of "Color and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction" from Thames & Hudson is informatively enhanced for the reader by art historian John Gage with the inclusion of fifty-two pages of Notes, a three page Bibliography and Concordance, a five page List of Illustrations, and a thirteen page Index. Profusely and beautifully illustrated throughout with full color images of art works, "Color and Culture" is impressively informative and insightful, as well as exceptionally 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation. Ideal as a curriculum textbook, "Color and Culture" is a high priority and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library Art History and Graphic Design collections.
Editorial Note: John Gage was an acknowledged international authority on the history of art and color, and wrote many books on the subject, including Color and Meaning: Art, Science, and Symbolism and Color in Art. He was head of the department of history of art at Cambridge University from 1992 to 1995. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gage_(art_historian))
George Bellows: American Life in Print
Kristin L. Spangenberg
Giles
https://gilesltd.com
9781913875831, $54.95, HC, 184pp
https://www.amazon.com/George-Bellows-American-Life-Print/dp/1913875830
Synopsis: George Wesley Bellows (August 19, 1882 - January 8, 1925) was an American painter, illustrator, and printmaker. His career established, in late 1915 he turned to lithography. Over the next nine years he almost single-handedly elevated lithography in America to a fine art. The inherent flexibility of the process, its potential for drawing in vigorous strokes and its richness of tone were well suited to his style.
The subjects that fascinated him ranged from intimate studies of his family and friends to snap shots of American life, the atrocities of World War I, and what first caught the public's attention, Boxing. -- All were new and undeniably American.
"George Bellows: American Life in Print" features two essays. The first is "Bellows, Advocate for Lithography" with in depth examination of sixty-six lithographs and drawings. The second essay explores the artist's rise to fame in "Bellows and the 'Art Palace of the West'" and focuses on his long term relationship with the Cincinnati Art Museum and it's "Annual Exhibition of American Art".
Critique: This large format (9.3 x 0.8 x 10.3 inches, 2.49 pounds) hardcover edition of author Kristin L. Spangenberg's "George Bellows: American Life in Print" from GILES is informatively enhanced for the reader's benefit with the inclusion of a one page Director's Foreword by Cameron Kitchin, three pages of Explanatory Notes, a two page Exhibition List, a one page Concordance of Lithographs, a two page Selected Bibliography list, and a two page Index. Beautifully reproduced lithographic images supported by informative captioning and commentary, "George Bellows: American Life in Print" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library American Art History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Kristin L. Spangenberg is curator of Prints at the Cincinnati Art Museum. She has more than 40 years of experience in her field, having previously served as Assistant Curator of Prints at the Cincinnati Art Museum and Assistant Curator of Graphic Arts at the Detroit Institute of Art. She is a member of the Print Council of America and the Circus Historical Society. (https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/meet-the-curators)
The Mathematics Shelf
Derek Zweig
Chapman & Hall
c/o CRC Press
www.crcpress.com
9781032687230, $68.99, PB, 198pp
https://www.amazon.com/Technical-Mathematical-Finance-Financial-Mathematics/dp/1032687231
Synopsis: With the publication of "A Technical Guide to Mathematical Finance", author Derek Zweig covers those foundational mathematical topics most important to an aspiring or professional quant. His text goes beyond a simple recitation of methods and aims to impart a genuine understanding of the fundamental concepts underpinning most of the techniques and tools routinely used by those working in quantitative finance.
"A Technical Guide to Mathematical Finance" is especially suitable for professional quants and graduate students in finance, and mathematical/quantitative finance. "Concept Refreshers" are employed throughout to provide pithy summaries of complex topics. Of special note are the step-by-step details for formal proofs and mathematical descriptions.
Critique: An ideal introduction to readers with an interest in Business Mathematics/Finance and Financial Engineering, "A Technical Guide to Mathematical Finance" is an unreservedly recommended pick for personal, professional, and college/university library Business & Finance collections, and for supplemental MBA curriculum studies lists. For students, corporate executives, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject, it should be noted that "A Technical Guide to Mathematical Finance" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $51.99). It should be noted for academic and corporate library collections that "A Technical Guide to Mathematical Finance" is also available in a hardcover edition (9781032685960, $180.00 from Chapman & Hall.
Editorial Note: Derek Zweig (https://mises.org/profile/derek-zweig) is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Value Analytics, a data and analytics firm specializing in equity markets. Prior to founding Value Analytics, he worked as a capital markets risk analyst at a large regional bank where he specialized in market and counterparty risk. Along with his experience in risk, Derek spent much of his career valuing business interests and intangible assets of private and public companies. He is an active member of the CFA Institute and the Global Association of Risk Professionals. He has a graduate certificate in Financial Engineering from Columbia University, an M.S. in Applied Economics from Johns Hopkins University, and a B.S. in Finance from the Ohio State University.
The Photography Shelf
Robert Reeves
Firefly Books Ltd.
www.fireflybooks.com
9780228104988, $49.95, HC, 288pp
https://www.amazon.com/Photographic-Atlas-Moon-Comprehensive-Astronomer/dp/022810498X
Synopsis: Written by Robert Reeves, a dedicated selenophile (a person who loves the Moon), "Photographic Atlas of the Moon: A Comprehensive Guide for the Amateur Astronomer" from Firefly Books is guide to Earth's celestial companion with a non-technical narrative that quickly elevates the lunar novice to lunar authority.
"Photographic Atlas of the Moon" explains how the Earth and the Moon are locked together in a co-dependent embrace, each affecting the other in ways that impact our lives. The reader will learn in comprehensible, jargon-free language about the Moon we see, its orbit, its creation and the differing geologic details of the Moon, some of which can be seen with the naked eye.
All the photographs in this lavishly illustrated book were taken by the author, an internationally recognized authority on celestial photography. Reeves has perfected image processing techniques that allow the amateur astronomer, using modest equipment, to exceed the quality of Earth-based professional lunar photographs taken during the Apollo era.
Although Reeves is an accomplished deep-sky photographer, his current celestial passion is re-popularizing the Moon within the amateur astronomy community. Momentum is building for a manned return to the Moon to continue the exploration started over half a century ago.
"Photographic Atlas of the Moon" will provide even the most novice reader with an understanding of the Moon and its allure so they can appreciate the upcoming explorations by NASA's Artemis lunar program.
Critique: This large format (0.87 x 0.39 x 5.51 inches, 2.31 pounds) hardcover edition of "Photographic Atlas of the Moon: A Comprehensive Guide for the Amateur Astronomer" is exceptionally well organized and presented for the benefit of students and the non-specialist general reader with an interest in the subject. "Photographic Atlas of the Moon" is an especially appropriate addition to personal, professional, highschool, community, and college/university library Astronomy collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Robert Reeves has been exploring the cosmos since 1958 and took his first lunar photograph in 1959. In 1984 Reeves began publishing articles about astrophotography, and since then his articles have appeared in Sky and Telescope, Astronomy, Deep Sky, Deep Sky Journal, Amateur Astronomy and The Astrograph. The author of six previous books about the Moon, space exploration and celestial photography, Reeves enjoys speaking about astronomy and spreading his passion for the Moon and photographing the heavens. His recent activities include a five-city speaking tour in China. Reeves is the first westerner to address the Chinese astronomy community about the Moon. (https://astroleaguephils.org/robert-reeves-biography)
Ranchlands: By the Land, For the Land
Duke Phillips II, contributor
Madeline Jorden, contributor
Rizzoli
www.rizzoliusa.com
9780847830879, $65.00, HC, 274pp
https://www.amazon.com/Ranchlands-Land-Duke-Philips-III/dp/084783087X
Synopsis: Over the past two decades, Ranchlands (with properties in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Wyoming) has grown from a family cattle ranching business to one of the great ranching companies of the West. Its grassroots model honors and embraces ranching traditions while working tirelessly to sustain and conserve the land for future generations.
Illustrated with galleries of stunning images from a variety of photographers who have worked or spent time on Ranchlands properties over the years, this edition of "Ranchlands: By the Land, For the Land" from Rizzoli showcases the seasonal rhythms of the ranch, the daily lives of its team members, the flow of herds of cattle and bison on the open range, communities of wildlife, working horses, and the breathtaking sweep of the Western landscape.
For all of us drawn to the mystique of the American West, the grit and poetry of a hard day's work on the land, welcome to Ranchlands.
Critique: This large format (9.5 x 1.43 x 12.12 inches, 2.31 pounds) hardcover, coffee-table style edition of "Ranchlands: By the Land, For the Land" is an impressive compendium of captioned full color photography that will hold a very special interest to fans of landscape photography, as well as readers concerned with nature conservation and environmentalism. "Ranchlands: By the Land, For the Land" is especially and unreservedly recommended as a prized pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library American Photography collections.
Editorial Note #1: Duke Phillips III is the founder and CEO of Ranchlands. More than 20 years ago, and with only 35 cows to his name, Phillips moved his family to the Chico Basin Ranch located on the prairie just outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Over the course of two decades, Phillips, his family, and his growing team have built Ranchlands into a large-scale ranch-management business that now stewards 380,000 acres of land across four western states. (https://ranchlands.com/blogs/podcast/duke-phillips-iii)
The LGBTQ Studies Shelf
Joseph A. McCormack
Independently Published
9798218382605, $19.77, PB, 226pp
https://www.amazon.com/Until-End-Known-Bisexual-Odyssey/dp/B0D71T3XFW
Synopsis: Attracted to both men and women from an early age, Joe McCormack found alcohol as a teenager to be the path to sexual liberation and to social confidence until it became a problem for him as a young professional in New York.
"Until the End is Known: A Bisexual Odyssey" is the story of his journey from humble beginnings in the Santa Clara Valley to a life-long search for his father, his recovery from alcoholism and a successful business career as the country's first openly LGBTQ executive search consultant.
This unique memoir offers an unforgettable portrait of a spiritual seeker who discovered meaning and fulfillment in sobriety and in service to his community.
Placing exceptional leaders in many HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ national and community-based organizations, McCormack has made a unique contribution to the liberation and evolution of the queer community in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Critique: Fascinating, impressively informative, candidly insightful, exceptionally well written and ultimately inspiring, "Until the End is Known: A Bisexual Odyssey" will prove of special and exceptional value to readers with an interest in the subject of bisexuality, as well as community and college/university LGBTQ Biography/Memoir collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Until the End is Known: A Bisexual Odyssey" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99) as well.
Editorial Note: Joe McCormack a founding partner of McCormack + Kristel, the first openly LGBTQ-owned executive search firm in the country. McCormack + Kristel opened in Los Angeles during the AIDS pandemic in 1993 to address the need by emerging volunteer HIV/AIDS organizations for professional leadership. Joe has been active on the Boards of the Palm Springs LGBTQ Center, Service Members Legal Defense Organization, the Point Foundation and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).Joe has had long term relationships with men and women, and he is the father of two adult daughters and the grandfather of two boys and a girl. Joe and his poet husband, who have been together for 30 years, make their home with their two dogs, Oliver and Gracie, in California.
The Music Shelf
Yayoi U. Everett, editor
University of Michigan Press
www.press.umich.edu
9780472076260, $85.00, HC, 348pp
https://www.amazon.com/Contemporary-Opera-Flux-Yayoi-Everett/dp/0472076264
Synopsis: Comprised of twelve essays which were compiled and edited by Yayoi U. Everett, "Contemporary Opera in Flux" discusses a series of shifts that, taken together, have radically redefined the production and reception of opera.
Focusing on productions involving late twentieth- and twenty-first century scores and libretti, the contributors draw on conversations with members of creative teams and studies of archival material, dipping into a historical record that remains in flux as composers, librettists, directors, and designers revisit existing work and create anew.
The contributors to this seminal and ground-breaking volume push the boundaries of contemporary opera scholarship by examining works that disrupt operatic conventions; tackle sociopolitical issues such as drug trafficking, racial injustice, and cultural trauma; and advance underrepresented works by female, African-American, Asian, and avant-garde composers around the globe.
"Contemporary Opera in Flux" bridges the gaps between expanding literature on opera, theater, new music, postmodern dramaturgy, and posthuman aesthetics, while also confronting larger questions of identity, representation, and narrative agency that are at the forefront of contemporary music scholarship. This collection of essays engages critically with the past out of a conviction that, amid general public perceptions of opera as anachronistic or elitist, contemporary opera has emerged as an artistic incubator for experimentation.
Critique: Informatively enhanced for the reader's benefit with the inclusion of illustrations, a twenty-eight page Bibliography, a four page listing of the Contributors and their credentials, and a sixteen page Index, "Contemporary Opera in Flux" will hold a very special interest for both professional and non-specialist general readers concerned with present day interpretations of opera in terms of the human voice and the newly emerging themes and minority crafted operatic and compositions. A master piece of collective scholarship, "Contemporary Opera in Flux" is unique, erudite, insightful, and thought-provoking -- and an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library Opera Music History & Contemporary Culture collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Contemporary Opera in Flux" is also available in a paperback edition (9780472056262, $29.95).
Editorial Note: Yayoi U. Everett is a Professor of Music at CUNY Hunter College and the Graduate Center. (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=a0v4xXYAAAAJ)
The Native American Studies Shelf
Norman E. Katteoni
South Dakota Historical Society Press
https://www.sdhspress.com
9781941813522, $24.95, PB, 344pp
https://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Storm-Sitting-America-Ghost/dp/1941813526
Synopsis: In the fall of 1890, a new religion swept onto the Sioux reservations like a prairie fire. It was called The Ghost Dance and promised that if American Indians would dance and pray, a Messiah would deliver them from the misery of reservation life. The movement was soon trumpeted as a new Indian war in the making by those who refused to see it as the lament of a downtrodden people.
At the center of the controversy was Sitting Bull, the Hunkpapa Lakota chieftain and medicine man who was relentlessly villainized as "Custer's assassin." In reservation life he had become a staunch opponent of federal Indian policy, and when he refused to forswear the movement, even if he did not openly embrace it, his enemies tarred him as a crazed malcontent.
Ambitious generals, self-righteous Indian Agents, reservation rivals, unscrupulous reporters, and self-serving politicians were determined to suppress the Ghost Dance and arrest Sitting Bull as the new religion's alleged ringleader -- resulting in a double tragedy for the Lakotas.
With the publication of "A Phantom Storm", author Norman Matteoni deftly traces the smear campaign against Sitting Bull in the words and actions of public figures and the nation's media. The resulting narrative reveals the previously unexplored manipulation of public perceptions by those seeking to gain from the demise of Sitting Bull and all that he represented.
Critique: An original, seminal, and ground-breaking historical study, "A Phantom Storm: Sitting Bull, America, and the Ghost Dance" opens with a poem by Sitting Bull, features an informative Introduction and Epilogue, a nineteen page section of B/W historical photographs, a ten page Appendices, sixty pages of Notes, a two page bibliography listing Further Readings, and an eleven page Index. This paperback edition of "A Phantom Storm: Sitting Bull, America, and the Ghost Dance" from the South Dakota Historical Society Press is a simply outstanding and highly commended contribution to personal, community, college, and university library Native American History/Biography collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Norman E. Matteoni is a lawyer, legal author, and lecturer on the law of eminent domain. His interest in the dispossession of the Oceti Sakowin influenced his studies on the U.S. government's annexation of the Black Hills. He is the author of Condemnation Practice in California and Prairie Man: The Struggle between Sitting Bull and Indian Agent James McLaughlin. (https://www.sdhspress.com/books/norman-e-matteoni)
The Theatre/Cinema/TV Shelf
Tony Lee Moral
Titan Books
https://titanbooks.com
9781789099546, $50.00, HC, 144pp
https://www.amazon.com/Alfred-Hitchcock-Tony-Lee-Moral/dp/1789099544
Synopsis: "Alfred Hitchcock Storyboards" from Titan Books is visually stunning and informative study that focuses on the story boards for nine of Alfred Hitchcock's classic movies: Vertigo, The Birds, Psycho, North by Northwest, The 39 Steps, Torn Curtain, Marnie, Shadow of a Doubt and Spellbound.
"Alfred Hitchcock Storyboards" includes never before-published images and incisive text putting the material in context and examining the role the pieces played in some of the most unforgettable scenes in cinema. Hitchcock author and aficionado Tony Lee Moral provides a fascinating and illuminating insight into the directorial mind of the Master of Suspense.
Critique: This large format (10.32 x 0.5 x 13.1 inches, 2.75 pounds) hardcover edition of Tony Lee Moral's "Alfred Hitchcock Storyboards" is a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library Cinematic History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for film students, film makers, academia, and cinematic history buffs that "Alfred Hitchcock Storyboards" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $17.99).
Editorial Note: Tony Lee Moral (https://tonyleemoralbooks.com) is a multi-award winning British mystery and suspense writer who has written three books on the works of Alfred Hitchcock: The Making of Hitchcock's The Birds, Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie and Alfred Hitchcock's Movie Making Masterclass.
Old Films, Young Eyes
Simone O. Elias
McFarland & Company
https://mcfarlandbooks.com
9781476696591, $29.95, PB, 192pp
https://www.amazon.com/Old-Films-Young-Eyes-Hollywoods/dp/1476696594
Synopsis: Why would a modern teenager find classic films enthralling? With the publication of "Old Films, Young Eyes: A Teenage Take on Hollywood's Golden Age", Simone O. Elias presents an eye-opening tour of how old movies foreshadowed, influenced (and continue to shape) popular culture in many surprising ways.
From foreseeing today's image-dominated social media landscape to ushering rock music into the mainstream, and sparking elements of the #MeToo movement, classic movies remain relevant and inspiring.
Despite prevailing attitudes that old films are outdated, many dramatically broke boundaries around racism and antisemitism. They predicted current trends in divorce and sexual relations. They helped shape current icons like Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, as well as foreshadowing more sobering events such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
A Gen Z-age cultural critic, author and podcaster Simone O. Elias presents an insider's perspective on the socio-cultural impact of classic Hollywood films on a modern generation.
Critique: Featuring occasional B/W photo illustrations, "Old Films, Young Eyes: A Teenage Take on Hollywood's Golden Age" by Simone O. Elias is impressively and informatively insightful, as well as a simply fascinating and thought-provoking read from start to finish. Also featuring eight pages of Chapter Notes and a four page Index, "Old Films, Young Eyes" is an original, seminal and recommended pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Cinematic History & Film Criticism collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for film students and film buffs that this paperback edition of "Old Films, Young Eyes" from McFarland & Company is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.99) as well.
Editorial Note: Simone O. Elias (https://simoneoelias.com) started her career in podcasting: producing, and writing for Teenage Golden Age, a podcast about classic Hollywood from the teenage perspective. She focuses on classic films, screenwriting, and songwriting.
Gunsmoke: An American Institution
Ben Costello, author
Sue DeFabis, author
Book Street Press
https://www.instagram.com/bookstreetpress
9781589852228, $50.00, PB, 673pp
https://www.amazon.com/Gunsmoke-American-Institution-Celebrating-Televisions/dp/1589852222
Synopsis: Starting on September 10, 1955, and continuing for more than 600 episodes over the next twenty years, Gunsmoke ruled the airwaves. Each week, Marshal Matt Dillon and his friends would face a new threat to the peace and lawfulness of their frontier home of Dodge City, Kansas -- and each week, goodness and determination prevailed.
With the publication of "Gunsmoke: An American Institution - Celebrating 50 Years of Television's Best Western", author Ben Costello has produced a remarkable testament to the on-screen characters and off-screen individuals who made the story lines come alive. With lead performer biographies, hundreds of episode and behind-the-scenes photographs, complete episode logs, updates on all the surviving cast members, and interviews with the show's luminaries, this history of "Gunsmoke: An American Institution - Celebrating 50 Years of Television's Best Western" is a 'must' for the legions of Gunsmoke fans.
Critique: Originally published in hardcover by Book Street Press, this new paperback edition of "Gunsmoke: An American Institution - Celebrating 50 Years of Television's Best Western" continues to be what was cited in our review at the time -- "a 'must read' for anyone who grew up with Matt Dillion, Miss Kitty, Doc, Chester, Festus, and all the other denizens of Dodge City and the Old West." -The Midwest Book Review.
Sadly, the author Ben Costello passed away in 2021. But with the editorial assistance of Sue DeFabis and Costello's editor, Linda Radke, "Gunsmoke: An American Institution" is now back in print for a new generation of appreciative readers in a paperback edition from Book Street Press -- as well as in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99). Unique, comprehensive, detailed, informative, and thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation, this special paperback edition of "Gunsmoke: An American Institution" (8.25 x 1.52 x 8.25 inches, 2 pounds) is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and college/university library 20th Century Television History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Ben Costello is a self-confessed film and television buff. Starting at the age of five, he has appeared on stage in a variety of dramatic and comedic roles. He also enjoys writing and directing. Along with fellow comedian John Babrowski, Costello has played in casinos and clubs from New York City to Las Vegas, frequently portraying characters similar to Abbott and Costello (no, Ben Costello and Bud Costello are not related). In fact, Costello and Babrowski performed the classic Who is on First routine at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, to kick off the 2000 World Series. They were the first to do so since Abbott and Costello performed the skit there 44 years earlier. Costello wrote, produced, and costarred in The Whitley & Costello Show in 1979. In 1987, he took the classic Laurel and Hardy movie Way Out West and adapted it for the stage, with the blessings of Lucille Hardy Price, widow of comedian Oliver Hardy. In 1988, his play titled Company B debuted. The show, a slapstick musical tribute to World War II, was so popular that it spawned five stage sequels. For his work on this production, Costello won Best Actor, Writer, Director, and Production awards from the Southern California Theatre Leagues. Costello teaches seminars on Hollywood Comedy and Comedians and is an authority on television and motion picture Westerns. A divorced father of one, Costello makes his home in California.
The Agriculture Shelf
Raymond A. Cloyd
APS Press
https://www.apsnet.org/publications/apspress/Pages/default.aspx
Item No. 47052, $149.00 (List Price), $134.10 (APS Member Price), PB, 114pp
https://my.apsnet.org/APSStore/APSStore/Product-Detail.aspx?iProductCode=47052
Synopsis: The western flower thrips [Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande)] is an invasive pest insect in agriculture. This species of thrips is native to the Southwestern United States but has spread to other continents, including Europe, Australia (where it was identified in May 1993), and South America via transport of infested plant material.
The life cycle of the western flower thrips varies in length due to temperature, with the adult living from two to five or more weeks, and the nymph stage lasting from five to 20 days. Each female may lay 40 to over 100 eggs in the tissues of the plant, often in the flower, but also in the fruit or foliage. The newly hatched nymph feeds on the plant for two of its instars, then falls off the plant to complete its other two instar stages. Nymphs feed heavily on new fruit just beginning to develop from the flower.
Critique: "Western Flower Thrips: Insect Pest of Greenhouse Production Systems" by Raymond A. Cloyd provides a complete course of instruction and is ideal for professional and non-professional greenhouse gardeners on dealing with flower thrips. Comprehensive, up-to-date, usefully illustrated throughout, thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation, this paperback edition of "Western Flower Thrips" from APS Press is an essential and unreservedly recommended addition to professional and college/university library pest control instructional guides, and supplemental Agriculture & Gardening curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Dr. Raymond A. Cloyd has an appointment at Kansas State University. His research and extension program involves pest management/plant protection in greenhouses, nurseries, landscapes, turfgrass, conservatories, interiorscapes, Christmas trees, and vegetables and fruits. Dr. Cloyd is the extension specialist in horticultural entomology for the state of Kansas with a major clientele that includes homeowners, master gardeners, and commercial operators. (https://entomology.k-state.edu/about/people/faculty/Cloyd-Raymond-A.html)
The Wine/Liquor Shelf
Iphigenia Jones
Ulysses Press
www.ulyssespress.com
9781646046812, $19.95, HC, 176pp
https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Screwdriver-Literary-Cocktails-Legendary/dp/1646046811
Synopsis: Calling all booklovers and at-home mixologists! Get out a chilled glass and prepare to get chills down your spine with these sinisterly scrumptious cocktail recipes. Inspired by your favorite gothic tales, with the publication of "The Turn of the Screwdriver" literary and liquor expert Iphigenia Jones offers up 50 creative drink recipes so you can shake or stir up some liquid trouble to serve at any event.
There's a cocktail for every dark and twisted soul out there, including:
The Haunting of Highball House (The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson)
The Portrait of Dorian Grey Goose (The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde)
Mexican Hot Gothalate (Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia)
Her Brandy and Other Parties (Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado)
Lestat's Bloody Sazerac (Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice)
The Legend of Slushy Hallow (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving)
And more!
Critique: Unique, illustrated, and an ideal pick for dedicated bibliophiles and cocktail enthusiasts who enjoy celebrating Halloween all year round, this hardcover edition of "The Turn of the Screwdriver" from Ulysses Press is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended pick for personal, community, and college/university collections. It should be noted for bar tenders and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Turn of the Screwdriver: 50 Dark and Twisted Literary Cocktails Inspired by Anne Rice, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, and Other Legendary Gothic Authors" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99).
Editorial Note: Halloween cocktail and literature enthusiast Iphigenia Jones has seen every episode of The Addams Family and has only been accused of witchcraft thrice. She enjoys cats, blackberries, and chatting with ghosts.
Botanical Bar Craft
Cassandra Elizabeth Sears
Chelsea Green Publishing Company
www.chelseagreen.com
9781645022398, $34.95, PB, 320pp
https://www.amazon.com/Botanical-Bar-Craft-Apothecary-Cocktails/dp/1645022390
Synopsis: With the publication of "Botanical Bar Craft: A Guide to the Art of Apothecary Cocktails and Herbal Tonic Elixirs", innovative herbalist and mixologist Cassandra Sears invites readers to create herbal elixirs and apothecary cocktails infused by a close connection to nature.
Whether in the garden, the field, or the forest, Sears finds generous abundance among the plants. Her tonic libations harness the power of phytochemistry and place-based consciousness while easing stress and comforting the body, mind, and spirit. With original recipes that tie together the creative arts of herbal medicine and craft cocktail making, Sears blends herbal tinctures, teas, and botanical infusions into modern-classic cocktails as well as sensational and unique nonalcoholic drinks that hit the spot for relaxation without sedation.
More than just a collection of recipes, "Botanical Bar Craft" is also an herbal handbook for bartenders and a mixology guide for herbalists. Readers will delight in the journey as Sears combines dashes of herbal lore and history with instructions for developing the spirited philosophy of apothecary bartending, lessons on mixology, and a primer on the beneficial actions of medicinal herbs.
"Botanical Bar Craft" is comprised of: 65 original recipes for potions, tonics, elixirs, and cocktails, including Kava Cacao Flip, Pregnancy Punch, Victory Garden, Bloody Botanist, Bitters and Soda, Juice of Life, and Euphoria; More than 40 plant profiles that include how those plants grow and suggestions for how to use them behind the bar to draw out their beneficial actions: An accessible explanation of the chemistry and energetics of medicinal herbs; Behind-the-scenes interviews with artisan distillers; Advice and tips for growing a garnish garden.
"Botanical Bar Craft" will not only appeal to herbalists, herbal enthusiasts, and home cocktail enthusiasts, but also to professional bartenders looking to embrace the use of innovative and highly flavorful natural ingredients in their bar creations. "Botanical Bar Craft" provides all the answers for those who are curious and wondering how to make a really good drink inspired by and infused with plants.
Critique: Original, innovative, fascinating and fun, "Botanical Bar Craft: A Guide to the Art of Apothecary Cocktails and Herbal Tonic Elixirs" is profusely and colorfully illustrated throughout. A unique, informative, inspiring, and thoroughly 'user friendly' compendium of drink recipes and background commentary, "Botanical Bar Craft" is a welcome and highly recommended pick for personal, professional, and community library Cocktail & Mixed Drink instructional reference collections. It should be noted that this paperback edition of "Botanical Bar Craft" from Chelsea Green Publishing is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $27.30).
Editorial Note: Cassandra Elizabeth Sears is an apothecary bartender, gardener, and herbalist. She has been studying herbal medicine for sixteen years, growing lush gardens while working as an organic gardener, and playing in the wild while mixing drinks inspired by nature. She enjoys the dynamic intersection of the hospitality industry, wilderness, and organic agriculture in her native state of Maine. You can find her behind the bar part-time at The White Barn Inn in Kennebunkport. The rest of the time, you can find her elevating private events and teaching botanical cocktail classes in her role as proprietor of The Remedy Cocktail Co., for which she grows her own ingredients and works closely with local small farmers. She is also a graduate of the clinical herbalist training program at the Vermont Center of Integrative Herbalism, as well as having a modest apothecary and private wellness consultation practice where she partners with individuals for health-coaching.
One Thousand Vines
Pascaline Lepeltier
Mitchell Beazley
c/o Octopus Publishing
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
9781784729233, $55.00 HC, $27.99 Kindle, 352pp
https://www.amazon.com/One-Thousand-Vines-Understand-Wine/dp/178472923X
One Thousand Vines: A New Way to Understand Wine comes from a noted sommelier who provides a groundbreaking resource for better understanding the world of wines. It consists of three main parts (Reading Vines, Reading Landscapes, and Reading Wines) that offer new ideas not just about wine tasting, but grape growing and how flavors and palates are developed.
It also provides an in-depth history of changing perceptions of both, giving wine aficionados a foundation for contrasting past and present approaches to wine.
Subjects range from a revolutionary reading of terroir and viticultural landscapes to understanding different types of fermentation and the difference between a wine defect and a characteristic.
Libraries and wine enthusiasts seeking to broaden their reference collections and knowledge will find One Thousand Vines: A New Way to Understand Wine stands out from any other wine guide on the market. It's simply packed with maps, data, and lively discourses about the art and history of winemaking and wine consumption.
Larousse Cocktails
Larousse
Hamlyn
c/o Octopus Books
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
9780600638537, $50.00 HC, $25.99 Kindle, 352pp
https://www.amazon.com/Larousse-Cocktails-ultimate-expert-recipes/dp/0600638537
Larousse Cocktails: The Ultimate Expert Guide With More Than 200 Recipes employs the well-respected Larousse name to promote an authoritative, comprehensive recipe collection of cocktails. Libraries and readers seeking definitive collections should consider Larousse Cocktails a mainstay of cocktail creation. Nothing is left to wonder, here. Coverage includes the basics of selecting cocktail-making equipment, understanding bartending basics, employing rum, gin, vodka, cognac and more in cocktail classics, and creating non-alcoholic alternatives for those want the colorful allure of exotic cocktails without the booze. Gorgeous full-page color photos further embellish recipes which are not only enlightening, but thoroughly inviting.
Smith Street Books
c/o Rizzoli
www.rizzoliusa.com
Smith Street Books is a premier publisher of gift books. 'The Cocktail Cabinet' is one of their most popular series to which two new titles by author and cocktail expert Kara Newman and illustrated by Giacomo Bagnara have been added:
https://www.amazon.com/Cocktail-Cabinet-essential-drinks-should/dp/1923049593
"The Cocktail Cabinet: Gin" (9781923049598, $24.95, Novelty Book, 52pp)
Whether you prefer a simple gin and tonic, a bubbly French 75, or more modern creations like the bramble, gin is the foundation of some truly great cocktails. Without it, we wouldn't have the martini, the Tom Collins, or the negroni.
"The Cocktail Cabinet: Gin" distills the best of the spirit with 50 cards that feature recipes for any mood, whether you'd like to get effervescent with a fizz or fly away on an aviation. With something for every palette, get ready to shake, mix, and stir your way through the world of juniper.
With mid-century - inspired illustrations and easy-to-follow recipes, this DIY cocktail recipe deck is the ideal pick for novice mixologists and seasoned bartending experts alike.
https://www.amazon.com/Cocktail-Cabinet-Whiskey-essential-whiskey/dp/1923049666
"The Cocktail Cabinet: Whiskey" (9781923049666, $24.95, Novelty Book, 52pp)
Whether you lean more toward an Old Fashioned or a fruitier classic like a Whiskey Sour, there is no doubt whiskey is the foundation of some truly great cocktails. Without it we wouldn't have the Manhattan, the Boulevardier, or the Rob Roy.
"The Cocktail Cabinet: Whiskey" distills the best of the spirits with 50 cards that feature recipes for any mood, whether you'd like to get serious with a Sazerac or enjoy a simple Rusty Nail. With something for every palette, get ready to shake, mix, and stir your way through some whiskey classics.
With mid-century - inspired illustrations and easy-to-follow recipes, "The Cocktail Cabinet: Whiskey is especially and unreservedly recommended for all aspiring mixologists and amateur/professional bartenders.
Editorial Note: Kara Newman is a spirits and cocktail writer based in New York. She reviews spirits for Wine Enthusiast magazine, where she's also a writer-at-large. Her writing has appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Food & Wine, Bloomberg BusinessWeek and PUNCH. She's the author of seven cocktail books.
Editorial Note #2: Giacomo Bagnara is an illustrator and artist living in Verona, Italy. His work has been recognized over the last years by American Illustration and the Society of Illustrators of NY. An avid observer, he loves exploring different perspectives of the everyday life questioning his own perceptions.
The Travel Shelf
Patti DeLano
The Globe Pequot Press
www.globepequot.com
9781493078226, $19.95, PB, 240pp
https://www.amazon.com/Missouri-Off-Beaten-Path%C2%AE-Path/dp/1493078224
Synopsis: The Globe Pequot Press 'Off the Beaten Path' series is specifically designed for travelers and vacationers who are 'tired of the same old tourist traps'. So whether you are a visitor or a local looking for something different, "Missouri Off the Beaten Path" by Patti DeLano shares with you the Show Me State with new perspectives on timeless destinations and introduces you to those you never knew existed -- from the best in local dining to quirky cultural tidbits to hidden attractions, unique finds, and unusual locales. So, if you've "been there, done that" one too many times, get off the main road and venture Off the Beaten Path.
Critique: Impressively informative and exceptionally 'user friendly' in organization and presentation, "Missouri Off the Beaten Path" is an ideal resource for planning Missouri based vacation itineraries and travel plans. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $17.95), "Missouri Off the Beaten Path" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library American Travel Guide and Missouri Travel Guide collections.
Editorial Note: Patti DeLano is a travel writer and photographer who has lived in the Ozarks of Missouri. She is also the author of Arkansas off the Beaten Path and Kansas Off the Beaten Path. (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/318395.Patti_DeLano)
The Christian Studies Shelf
Warren W. Wiersbe, author
Dan Jacobsen, editor
David C. Cook
c/o Cook Communications
www.davidccook.org
9780830787661, $21.99, HC, 288pp
https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-New-Days-Transformation-through/dp/0830787666
Synopsis: A transformative journey through the arc of Scripture, "Becoming New: 100 Days of Transformation through God's Word" by the late Warren W. Wiersbe invites us to experience a deepened connection to God's Word, a greater sense of purpose, and a stronger relationship with the Holy Spirit.
A beloved Bible teacher known for his BE series and numerous other books, Warren Wiersbe was passionate about God's Word. Now, in this previously unpublished devotional, Wiersbe calls Christians to "become new" in their relationship with God.
With daily, themed Scripture passages, reflections and commentary from Wiersbe, and thought-provoking application questions, Becoming New offers an accessible 100-day experience of spiritual growth. Becoming New is ideal for those seeking profound, lasting change, as Wiersbe's contagious love for the Bible inspires us day by day to draw closer to God and then share this joy with others.
Critique: Deftly compiled and edited by his grandson, Pastor Dan Jacobsen, "Becoming New: 100 Days of Transformation through God's Word" is an admirable testament to the Christian legacy of Evangelical Pastor Warren W. Wiersbe. Informed and informative, inspired and inspiring, life changing and spirituality enhancing, and living up to the promise of its title, "Becoming New: 100 Days of Transformation through God's Word" is especially and unreservedly recommended reading for clergy, seminary students, and all members of the Christian community. It should be noted for personal reading lists that this hardcover edition of "Becoming New: 100 Days of Transformation through God's Word" from David C. Cook publishers is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99) as well.
Editorial Note: Warren W. Wiersbe (May 16, 1929 - May 2, 2019) ministered in churches around the world, published more than 150 books, and received the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. His grandson, Dan Jacobsen, shares the same passion for studying and teaching the Bible, having served in pastoral ministry for over fifteen years. Dan is currently a lead pastor at Heartland Community Church near Kansas City. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_W._Wiersbe)
The Sports Shelf
David Aldrige, author
John Hollinger, author
William Morrow & Company
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
Blackstone Publishing
https://www.blackstonelibrary.com
9780063329126, $40.00, HC, 752pp
https://www.amazon.com/Basketball-100-Sports-2/dp/0063329123
Synopsis: Over the course of 100 luminous player profiles, the best sports newsroom on the planet paints vivid portraits of the game's most compelling characters.
There's George Mikan, who was cut from his high school team because he wore glasses, then went on to become the fledgling NBA's first transcendent star. Gary Payton, called "The Glove" for his skintight defense, who talked as much trash to his teammates as he did to his opponents on the court. Dennis Rodman, who started playing basketball at age 20, and in a few short years went from working as a janitor at the airport to being one of the strangest superstars that sport has ever known. Allen Iverson, who drew inspiration from hip hop for his inimitable style and swagger, on and off the court. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was so dominant in the paint that they changed the rules -- and Steph Curry, who was so dominant outside it that he seemed to expand the very boundaries of the court.
With the publication of "The Basketball 100: An Epic Basketball History with In-Depth Player Profiles, Perfect for Fall 2024, Celebrate the Game's Greatest Players", co-editors and sports reporters David Aldridge and John Hollinger, answers the game's toughest, most important questions: How should we weight championship rings, versus statistical profiles, versus the "eye test"? Were the great players of yesteryear, like Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, propelled by the inferior athleticism of their competition or would they have been transcendent in any era? And of course, who's the GOAT - MJ or LeBron? Speaking of GOATs, for the book, Hollinger (inventor of the statistical metric PER) has created a new benchmark, GOAT Points.
Critique: An impressively informative and statistics packed compendium"The Basketball 100: An Epic Basketball History with In-Depth Player Profiles, Perfect for Fall 2024, Celebrate the Game's Greatest Players" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Basketball History & Sports Biography collections. For the personal reading lists of dedicated basketball fans it should be noted that this hardcover edition of "The Basketball 100" from William Morrow & Company is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle $21.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Publishing, 9798874803698, $59.99, CD).
Editorial Note #1: David Aldridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Aldridge) is a senior columnist for The Athletic. He has previously covered the NBA for Turner, ESPN, and the Washington Post. In 2016, he received the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame, as well as the Legacy Award from the National Association of Black Journalists.
Editorial Note #2: John Hollinger (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hollinger) is a senior writer for The Athletic. For the past two decades, he has been at the forefront of basketball's statistical revolution, inventing several advanced metrics including PER. In addition to stints at ESPN.com and SI.com, he also spent 7 seasons as the Memphis Grizzlies' Vice President of Basketball Operations. In 2018, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.
The Parenting Shelf
Dr. Anthony M. Bean, PhD
Leyline Publishers
https://shop.geektherapeutics.com
9781955406130, $19.99 Paperback/$16.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Checkpoints-Autosaves-Parenting-Thrive-Geekdom/dp/1955406138
Checkpoints and Autosaves: Parenting Geeks to Thrive in the Age of Geekdom intersects themes of popular culture, parenting, and gaming into a unified theory for better understanding how young 'geeks' can benefit from geek entertainment and child development insights.
What is 'geek therapy'? Dr. Bean answers this and other questions about identifying geek culture and attractions, placing his psychological insights in line with social and community inspections that move from family to broader arenas of interaction and reaction. As he probes cosplay, video gaming, Dungeons and Dragons, anime and comic books, and other examples of geek entertainment, Dr. Bean considers how and why these influencers help craft a young person's psyche and social understanding.
Adults who work with kids, whether they be parents or counselors, in turn receive specific insights based on real-world modern attractions to young people. Case histories from his work with young people permeate these analyses with specific 'you are here' moments that marry psychological understanding and techniques with guidance strategies: The purpose was not to teach Jake he could win every time with three cards, it was to teach him he could win. And statistically, three random cards beat a high card most of the time. After he felt more empowered, we discussed how the card game relates to his life. Each card represents a person Jake can turn to for help. They are people he can trust to build his strength and overcome stronger obstacles he cannot defeat on his own. Jake listed possible party members from his own life: family, friends, teachers, and me. The card game helped Jake visualize who he can rely on and utilize when he feels overwhelmed.
Moments of clarity are sometimes presented with wry humor that blends observation with thought-provoking fun: As parents, we secretly hope our children see us as their own personal heroes. We sacrifice our time, money, and sanity for our kids, and we do our best to protect them from evil. Parenting is heroic, even though the job does not come with its own set of superpowers. We only hope our children look past our normal strength and non-laser-eyes to see SuperMom and DynoDad anyways. Unfortunately, few of us are privy to that special recognition. When I asked a client, Andy, to build his own superhero comic book, he did not base his hero on his mom or dad. He built a superhero named Chicken Nugget Man.
The result is a parenting guide that stands apart from most others; both for its foundations in psychology and analysis and for its ability to connect the dots between pop culture, child-rearing, and approaches that represent not only better understanding, but better parenting choices. This is why Checkpoints and Autosaves should be a mainstay not just in psychology libraries, but in collections catering to parents seeking new insights about and methods of reaching their children.
The Computer Shelf
David Baez-Lopez, author
David Alfredo Baez Villegas, author
CRC Press
www.crcpress.com
9781032117676, $230.00, HC, 436pp
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Python-Applications-Optimization-Processing/dp/1032117672
Synopsis: Co-authored by David Baez-Lopez and David Alfredo Baez Villegas, "Introduction to Python: with Applications in Optimization, Image and Video Processing, and Machine Learning" from CRC Press is intended primarily for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in quantitative sciences such as mathematics, computer science, and engineering.
Additionally,"Introduction to Python" is written in such a way that it can also serve as a self-contained handbook for professionals working in quantitative fields including finance, IT, and many other industries where programming is a useful or essential tool.
"Introduction to Python" is intentionally written to be accessible and useful to those with no prior experience of Python, but those who are somewhat more adept will also benefit from the more advanced material that comes later in the book.
"Introduction to Python" covers introductory and advanced material. Advanced material includes lists, dictionaries, tuples, arrays, plotting using Matplotlib, object-oriented programming. It is
suitable as a textbook for advanced undergraduates or postgraduates, or as a reference for researchers and professionals. It also features solutions manual, code, and additional examples which are available for download.
Critique: While also available for students, academia, and Python practitioners in a paperback edition (9781032119106, $79.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $62.98), "Introduction to Python: with Applications in Optimization, Image and Video Processing, and Machine Learning" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Python Programing, Machine Learning Theory, and Mathematical Analysis instructional reference collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note #1: David Baez-Lopez obtained a B.S. in Physics in 1973 from the Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Mexico. From 1979 to 1984 he was a researcher at Department of Electronics at National Institute for Astrophysics, Optics, and Electronics, located in Tonantzintla, Puebla, Mexico, and he became Head of The Department of Electronics and Graduate Coordinator. In 1985 he joined Universidad de las Americas-Puebla, Mexico as a professor and in 1988 became Chairman of the Department of Electronic Engineering until 1994. He was a member of the National Systems of Researchers. He retired in 2015 and now is Academic Director in EDUPROTEC A.C. in Puebla, Mexico, a non-governmental organization dedicated to the improvement of mathematics learning, among other topics. He has authored books on circuit simulation, MATLAB, Python, and Mathematica in English and Spanish. A Chinese edition of a book on MATLAB was published in 2017.
Editorial Note #2: David Alfredo Baez Villegas is an electrical engineer with master's degrees in Project Management (Ecole de Technologie Superieure, Montreal) and Electrical Engineering (Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University). He holds a B.S. in Electronic Engineering from Universidad de las Americas-Puebla, Mexico, and M.S in Electrical Engineering from Texas Tech University and Texas A&M University (TAMU). He worked as an assistant to the Office of International Affairs at TAMU before moving to Montreal, Canada. Since 2015 he has been a consultant in project management.
The Psychology Shelf
Daniel Kaufman, PhD
Leyline Publishing
https://shop.geektherapeutics.com
9781955406239, $19.99 Paperback and eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Gamers-Journey-Daniel-Kaufman-PhD/dp/1955406235
The Gamer's Journey belongs in any library strong in adolescent psychology and computer game analysis. It probes the underlying influences and atmosphere of a video game that holds both widespread attraction and the promise of better understanding when reaching adolescent clients. Dr. Daniel Kaufman explores not only the structure, intentions, and experiences of this game, considering the attraction and healing possibilities of video games in general.
He applies basic psychological analysis and thought to such wide-ranging subjects as spirituality and transcendence, growth opportunities, and lessons in attraction and reaction. His considerations juxtapose this specific game with broader topics that will especially intrigue adults working with a teen clients: The lessons from any range of games, from Spiritfarer to roleplaying games and beyond, can be deeply personal in their abilities to influence meaning.
While we may not notice the wonder in each nascent moment early in life, our ability to experience them is limited. The games we play represent our interests as we push through each new phase in our lifespan. We alternate between many different directives in our lives as much as we will in the metaphor of our in-game protagonists and their quest log. These insights, in turn, encourage a different form of psychological analysis and inspection that places more tools in the toolbox of counselors working with teens.
The approach injects contemporary and meaningful insights into the gaming culture, its possibilities for growth and learning, and its specific applications to adolescent audiences (although adult video game participants may also be reached via a revised understanding of gaming culture and its opportunities for healing).
The Gamer's Journey will appeal across the board to psychology, adolescent medicine, and media studies libraries. It represents a fairly unique opportunity to not only better understand video game participants and their culture, but apply the basic techniques of deeper psychological understanding to psychologist consultations.
The Psychology of The Last of Us
Dr. Anthony Bean
Leyline Publishing
https://shop.geektherapeutics.com
9781955406291, $19.99 Paperback and eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Last-Us-Endure-Survive/dp/1955406294
The Psychology of The Last of Us: Endure and Survive tackles not just the popular video game about post-apocalyptic survival, but processes of recovery and adaptation which form intrinsic parts of the endurance process. The only prerequisite to a thorough appreciation of what Dr. Anthony Bean is achieving in his book is a reader's prior knowledge of either this video game (The Last of Us) or the spin-off TV series that evolved from it. Those with such a background will especially appreciate Dr. Bean's in-depth analysis of events, choices, and outcomes, which contributes discovery and evolutionary growth considerations to the survival process.
Dr. Bean's delves into the unique characters in the story, drawing important connections between their culture, lives, and perspectives and modern-day attitudes and experiences. This creates exceptionally insightful reading that takes a fictional environment and overlays dilemmas of modern times with new revelations: Communities that prioritize nuclear family dynamics are likely to cause cognitive dissonance, inner conflict, and isolation in queer youth - and Lev's friction with his own identity and his community is analogous to that of real-world queer youth.
If you have ever felt the expectations of a parent's worldview was at odds with what you want, or put you into a box, Lev's story likely rings true to your own lived experience. Dr. Bean's approach allows readers to more thoroughly understand not only the characters and premise of The Last of Us, but why they may resonate so deeply, given current events.
Another vivid draw of this book lies in its ability to dissect not just characters and politics, but the culture of response and discussion. This adds additional attraction to the story's plot and underlying themes: Being a fan creates identity within a group and allows for an individual to feel supported, which can reduce feelings of loneliness and other negative traits. For fans of The Last of Us, a connection to both the characters and the community took root after episode three of the series aired. This episode depicts a romantic story between characters Bill and Frank. Bill and Frank represented something not often depicted in mainstream media - a healthy, loving same-sex relationship.
This representation was not lost to fans and sparked much discussion online. The approach, in turn, translates to a much deeper inspection of not just the plot and characters, but their intrinsic attraction and connections to modern readers and their communities, lives, and choices. All these features are why The Psychology of The Last of Us: Endure and Survive is highly recommended both as a library collection addition and, in particular, for psychology, social issues, media studies, and debate classrooms. The opportunities for contrast and consideration of the many themes of The Last of Us are endless.
The Psychology of The Witcher
Dr. Anthony Bean
Leyline Publishing
https://shop.geektherapeutics.com
9781955406260, $19.99 Paperback and eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Witcher-Never-Always-Found/dp/195540626X
Akin to Carus Publishers' series titles connecting philosophical approaches to daily life, psychology and popular culture enthusiasts will appreciate Dr. Anthony Bean's similar approach to making psychology more relevant and palatable to modern audiences, starting with The Psychology of The Witcher.
The first prerequisite for a complete appreciation of Dr. Bean's approach is familiarity with the TV drama The Witcher, a very popular Polish franchise that reaches around the world with its alluring fantasy story. Child-stealing monsters, curses, and a host of villains (both human and inhuman) abound, challenging readers to absorb underlying lessons about good, evil, and the hearts of men and monsters alike. These themes and many more are explored in The Psychology of The Witcher in a manner which invites both individual contemplation and group discussion, whether it be in a psychology, social issues, or media studies classroom or reading circles.
A review of the series setting and premise is provided that covers the foundations of this world, from its magic to its monarchs... but the meat of the analysis lies in the accompanying in-depth psychological analysis which considers why The Witcher has earned such a wide audience of dedicated fans.
Readers receive more than a psychological probe, here. Embedded into these thematic discussions are social issues and political insights that deserve slow, careful reading, contemplation, and discussion for their powerfully hard-hitting insights: The world of The Witcher shows a frightening parallel to many unthinkable behaviors in human history, set in a more digestible fantasy context. Looking for anchoring points in a chaotic environment, we may naturally want to be told who is good and who is bad.
However, just like reality, The Witcher does not afford us this luxury of being able to categorize creatures so easily. Each of us is susceptible to influences around us and capable of both helping as well as hurting. The charismatic leader may sin far more than the grotesque monster. To better understand how people make decisions that end up brutalizing one another, it helps to first understand why we allow ourselves to do this.
Readers who have become immersed in The Witcher may not have previously considered the impact and approaches of its characters, clashes, and choices. Dr. Bean's book explores and helps clarify the series' draw as a whole, as well as its ability to expand the psychological and social milieu of its setting, characters, and conundrums.
An episode-by-episode analyses leads readers to return to The Witcher from a different vantage point: Yennefer has chosen to stay with Ciri and Geralt because she wants to, so her autonomy is intact. She has discovered that her competence isn't a reflection of her magical abilities. All of her skills and abilities can demonstrate her competence as a whole person. Finally, her sense of connection is fulfilled with her role as Ciri's teacher and Geralt's friend. She isn't using either of them to accomplish some hidden agenda, and neither of them is manipulating her. Her motivation to stay with them is intrinsic and comes from Yennefer's desire to do good for her friends and herself.
All these features contribute to a discussion that should be a mainstay in any media studies, sci-fi or fantasy, psychology, or social issues library's collection. Librarians will want to very highly recommend The Psychology of The Witcher to TV show enthusiasts interested in understanding exactly why and how the series relates to and expands upon human concerns and magical connections in life.
The Literary Studies Shelf
Theresa Delgadillo
University of Michigan Press
www.press.umich.edu
9780472076932, $100.00, HC, 329pp
https://www.amazon.com/Geographies-Relation-Diasporas-Borderlands-Americas/dp/0472076930
Synopsis: With the publication of "Geographies of Relation: Diasporas and Borderlands in the Americas", Professor Theresa Delgadillo offers a new approach for examining diaspora and borderlands texts and performances that considers the inseparability of race, ethnicity, and gender in imagining and enacting social change. Professor Delgadillo crosses interdisciplinary and canonical borders to investigate the interrelationships of African-descended Latinx and mestizx peoples through an analysis of Latin American, Latinx, and African American literature, film, and performance.
Not only does Professor Delgadillo offer a rare extended analysis of Black Latinidades in Chicanx literature and theory, but she also considers over a century's worth of literary, cinematic, and performative texts to support her argument about the significance of these cultural sites and overlaps.
Individual chapters illuminate the significance of Tona La Negra in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, reconsider feminist theorist Gloria Anzaldua's work in revising exclusionary Latin American ideologies of mestizaje, delve into the racial and gender frameworks Sandra Cisneros attempts to rewrite, unpack encounters between African Americans and Black Puerto Ricans in texts by James Baldwin and Marta Moreno Vega, explore the African diaspora in colonial and contemporary Peru through Daniel Alarcon's literature and the documentary Soy Andina, and revisit the centrality of Black power in ending colonialism in Cuban narratives.
"Geographies of Relation" also demonstrates the long histories of networks and exchanges across the Americas as well as the interrelationships among Indigenous, Black, African American, mestizx, Chicanx, and Latinx peoples. It offers a compelling argument that geographies of relation are as significant as national frameworks in structuring cultural formation and change in this hemisphere.
Critique: A seminal and ground-breaking work of authentic and original scholarship, this hardcover edition of "Geographies of Relation: Diasporas and Borderlands in the Americas" from the University of Michigan Press also features fifty-two pages of Notes, a twenty-four page Bibliography, and a twelve page Index. A singular and unique contribution to Hispanic/Black American Literature, "Geographies of Relations" is an invaluable and recommended contribution to personal, professional, and college/university library Literary Studies collections and supplemental curriculum Hispanic/Black American studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Geographies of Relation" is also available from the University of Michigan Press in a paperback edition (9780472056934, $39.95).
Editorial Note: Theresa Delgadillo (https://english.wisc.edu/staff/delgadillo-theresa) is a Vilas Distinguished Professor of English and Chican@ and Latin@ Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is also Director of the Chican@ and Latin@ Studies Program. She is also a founder and editor for the online publication Latinx Talk.
The Self-Help Shelf
Richard Freeman & Mary Taylor
Shambhala Publications, Inc.
www.shambhala.com
9781645472339, $21.95, PB, 208pp
https://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Happy-Yoga-Body-Heart/dp/1645472337
Synopsis; What is the fully embodied experience of happiness, and is there any way for it to last? co-authored by the team of yoga expert instructors Richard Freeman and Mary Taylor, "Feeling Happy: The Yoga of Body, Heart, and Mind" is designed to help you explore what happiness is and offers practical steps toward cultivating happiness as a deep, embodied expression of life and connection to others.
Using familiar examples from everyday life, traditional understanding of one's search for happiness, stories, and humor, Freeman and Taylor demonstrate how to find your way back home to the essence of who you are, and the direct experience of what it feels like to be truly happy.
"Feeling Happy" offers 24 accessible practices (meditations, simple movements, and breathing exercises) along with 22 black-and-white illustrative photos as guides along the path toward fully embodying happiness. These practices together with insight into the nature of being, will allow you to wake up and integrate the physical body, heart, and mind through the breath so that even in difficult times, compassion, equanimity, and happiness can emerge.
Richard Freeman and Mary Taylor draw from their years of experience practicing and teaching yoga, meditation and the philosophical interfacing of yoga and Buddhism to explore what happiness is and to offer practical steps toward cultivating happiness as a deep, embodied expression of life. They also offer insight into the nature of happiness as a basic human capacity - and illuminate how suffering, imbalanced emotion, and confusion can cast a veil over one's ability to truly feel happy.
Some of the practices showcased in "Feeling Happy" included: Focusing and calming the mind; Observing and engaging the breath as a guide; Working with difficulty and vulnerability; Keeping a tender and open heart; Building authenticity and presence; Attuning to yourself and to others; Cultivating kindness and compassion in complex times -- and more!
Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, this paperback edition of "Feeling Happy: The Yoga of Body, Heart, and Mind" from Shambhala Publications is particularly ideal for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in utilizing yoga to deal with self-confidence and life's inevitably stresses. Of special note is the use of yoga with respect to exercise based injury rehabilitation. While especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Yoga collections, it should be noted that "Feeling Happy" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.99) as well.
Editorial Note #1: Richard Freeman has been a student of yoga since 1968. He spent nine years in Asia studying yoga asana and pra ayama, bhakti, Sufism and Sanskrit. He continues his study of Western and Eastern philosophy all of which he incorporates into his yoga and meditation practices, drawing insights into the interfacing of Buddhism and yoga as a reflection of modern life.
Editorial Note #2: Mary Taylor began studying yoga in 1971 while at university as a means of relieving stress. Her interest grew to include an interfacing of yogic and Buddhist practices and theory as a support for a balanced and joyful approach to life. She focuses her work on weaving self-care, embodiment, and contemplative practices into daily life.
Editorial Note #3: Together, Freeman and Taylor teach workshops and trainings throughout the world and online. Richard's instructional videos and CDs on yoga set the gold standard for approaching yoga as a contemplative art. Freeman and Taylor have co-authored numerous books, most recently, When Love Comes to Light.
Okay, Now What?
Kate Gladdin
Alcove Press
www.alcovepress.com
9781639109128, $31.99, HC, 240pp
https://www.amazon.com/Okay-Now-What-Resilient-Tough/dp/1639109129
Synopsis: When motivational speaker Kate Gladdin was twenty years old, she woke up in the middle of the night to find out her older sister had died in a tragic road accident. Suddenly, everything she knew about her life, her future, and her family shattered in a heartbeat.
Just like Gladdin, we all face loss in different ways every day, because adversity is a part of life. There's no getting around it - only through it - and the most vital tool we need to overcome the unexpected is resilience. It was this realization that led Gladdin to become a resilience expert, life coach, and motivational speaker. Through her own proven three-step strategy using the three Rs - to recognize, reflect, and redirect - she now has the skills to use anytime she feels helpless and wants to take back control over any circumstance she faces.
It's this incredible method that Gladdin presents in "Okay, Now What?: How to Be Resilient When Life Gets Tough" as she shows readers how to: Recognize what's really causing them to struggle the most; Reflect on the impact of that struggle; How to redirect toward finding the resilience they need to grow through what they go through and create good from even the worst moments in life -- the most important step!
Resilience isn't a fixed trait that you are born with, like your eye color or the shape of your toes. Resilience is a skill that any of us can grow and develop with practice, and in "Okay, Now What?", you will learn exactly how to do so.
Critique: Life changing, life enriching, confidence building, and motivationally inspiring, "Okay, Now What? How to Be Resilient When Life Gets Tough" is exceptionally 'reader friendly', in substance, organization and presentation. While readily available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Tantor Audio, 9798228302051, $39.99, CD), this hardcover edition of "Okay, Now What?" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Self-Help/Self-Improvement collections.
Editorial Note: Kate Gladdin (www.kategladdin.com) is an international speaker, certified life coach, resilience specialist, podcast host, and author of Mini Habits for Teens, The Teen's Guide to Social Skills, and The Social Skills Workbook for Teens. Through her keynote talks, online coaching, and podcast show, Okay, Now What?, Kate has helped more than 250,000 students and young adults build the social and emotional skills they need to become more resilient so they can better handle the unexpected in life.
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Diane C. Donovan, Editor
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