Clear is Kind by Stellan Crowe, I Am Not a Statistic by Terri Sterk in collaboration with Tammy Lieberman, A Mostly Magnificent Memoir by Bo Bennett

 Clear is Kind: The Quiet Art of Staying Calm, Clear, and Kind in a Loud World by Stellan Crowe

In a society that thrives on meritocracy, productivity, perseverance, and being strong, loud, and in control, remaining clear headed, calm, and kind are often seen as weaknesses. This book reveals that is not so,

The core promise of the book is “How to speak clearly without being cruel. How to set boundaries without guilt. How to return to your center fast. Self-mastery isn’t perfection. It’s return speed.”

 It breaks down the frequent cycle of mental and emotional suffering into easily understood and digestible steps to understand what specifically the mind, body, and heart are going through in these situations: The Voice-the narrator in your head, The Hook-the trigger that grabs your attention, The Lens-the meaning you assign to events, The Wave-emotion moving through the body, and The Return-your way back to center. 

To combat this cycle, Crowe suggests The RETURN Method: Recognize what is happening and notice what parts of the cycle are active, Exhale to create the body and ground yourself physically, Tell the truth to distinguish between facts and the stories you’re telling yourself and identify real feelings and needs, Unhook from old patterns by spotting assumptions, personalizations, or the grip of old identities, and consciously stepping away from them, Respond by choosing a clear honest action that fits the moment, and Nurture the return by supporting a return to center with repair, compassion towards yourself, and repetition of those steps.

The book is divided into ten chapters and contains four appendices. The chapters include Clear is Kind, The Noise, The Voice and Listener, The Hook, The Lens, The Wave, Calm is a Skill, Boundaries That Feel Like Love, Alignment, The Return Practice, The Quiet Victory. Appendices include: The RETURN Card, One Minute Practice List with 10 Tools, Boundary Scripts for Work, Family, and Romance, 30-Day Tracker with Instructions and a Sample.

The book is neatly divided so readers can understand the whole work or search for specific sections that they want to study and improve upon. They are a combination of personal stories, lists, exercises, and suggestions to further improve oneself.

Chapter 1: Clear is Kind has Section 1 which includes Kindness WIthout Clarity Becomes Resentment with three micro-stories that illustrate conflicts in work, family, and romance.

 Section 2 includes The Three Forms of Clarity, 

Clarity With Yourself: “What is true in me right now?” with a microstory on self-sabotage and three questions “What am I feeling right now?” “What do I need?” and “What is my capacity right now?” 

Clarity With Others: “What am I asking?/Saying yes to?//What am I saying no to?” including a micro story about work and two distinctions: Clarity is not control. Clarity is ownership. 

Clarity With Life: “What can I influence, and what can I accept?” a microstory about family and two questions: What is actually within my influence and What is my boundary or response if it stays the same?” 

How These Three Forms Work Together and how you feel when they are out of alignment: If you lack clarity with yourself, you feel numb. If you lack clarity with others, you become resentful or passive-aggressive. If you lack clarity in life, you become stuck in control, rumination, or false hope.

Section 3: The Daily Commitment (The Next Honest Step) features a microstory about self-sabotage, The 60 Second “Clear is Kind” Reset to pause, exhale, name the truth, choose the next honest step, and nurture, the tripwire: over explaining and apologizing for T=truth, a mini checklist and what to say instead scripts, quotable one liners, the vow: “I choose clarity with warmth. Clear is kind” and a tiny homework assignment to practice a sentence that sets boundaries such as “I can do X but not Y.” 

I Am Not a Statistic: A Journey to Reclaim My Life:  A Memoir of Resilience to Navigate Emotional Trauma and Discover Hope, Strength, and Purpose by Terri Sterk in collaboration with Tammy Lieberman 

I Am Not a Statistic tells a powerful story about resilience in the face of tough times like illness and loss.

Tammy Lieberman certainly had her share of tough times as she explains to co-author and chronicler Terri Sterk. She had a childhood marked by  emotional abuse and neglect, particularly from a mother who parentified her to handle a family crisis, sacrificing college to do so. Lieberman said hat this time helped shape her own choices during motherhood. She committed herself to break the cycle of abuse that was inflicted on her so her sons would not suffer the same fate.

Some of the more interesting aspects of the book are when Lieberman admitted the emotional tolls that her tough times took on her. While most of the book encourages triumph over adversity, Lieberman made the readers fully aware of the adversity. She acknowledged that her difficult past produced some negative consequences for a long time afterwards.

As a child she fell into the parental role without question. She solved problems, comforted others, and stepped in where she was needed. This created a cycle of resilience but also an unwillingness to accept help from others. She faced her adult difficulties with strength and perseverance but a reluctance to let others inside. 

Lieberman’s adulthood did not get much easier either. She was diagnosed with breast cancer when her sons were still very young. Treatments, chemotherapy, and the emotional uncertainty weakened her mind and body.

On top of the stress of cancer diagnosis, Lieberman’s husband, Eric, died. Along with a frail body, two sons going through their own difficulties, she had to adjust to grief, widowhood, and single parenthood. Lieberman said that she was caught between two mindpaths, one to stay angry and let pain define her future and the other to acknowledge the trauma but not lose herself to it. It was a hard choice but Lieberman ultimately went with the second option.

She also learned some valuable lessons about who to trust and who not to. Despite Eric serving his community faithfully as a police officer, his life insurance policy was denied leaving her and her children destitute. Well they picked the wrong woman to deny it, because Lieberman fought them. She spoke publicly about the denial and was interviewed by ABC News. Eventually the insurance was restored.

She cited friends who taught her to advocate for herself and to ask for help so she could receive answers. This challenges the isolation that she developed in the self-reliant but toxic childhood that shaped her. Her friends proved to be direct contrasts to the fair weather departments that her husband served so faithfully and turned their backs on his family in their darkest time of need.

Lieberman also cited her family particularly her sons and brother that helped her through the difficulties. Because they lost their father and their mother was going through a health crisis of her own, they were forced to grow up pretty quickly. They provided physical and emotional support for their ill and often bed ridden mother. Their strength and devotion are admirable showing that caregiving between parents and children can be a two way street.

Lieberman decided to build a corporation to make sure that her sons were cared for. Her brother, Charlie, who helped the business grow while she received medical care. She says that he handled countless responsibilities such as building, repairing, painting, and handling the material necessities for the business. Charlie became a steady rock that Lieberman desperately needed. 

Besides sharing her story, the book leads by example. It combines Lieberman’s story with advice that can be used by readers for their own struggles. For example one section establishes safety by creating a safe space. Lieberman transformed her environment into a place of healing. Soft lighting, warm blankets, essential oils, and soothing music nurtured her senses and calmed her mind. Using her example, readers can create such a space of their own to destress. Creating a sacred space is essential for self care.

Lieberman also cites her faith to help her through her struggle. Lieberman's belief in God helped her live her remaining life with purpose and to fight to see the light that she felt was hidden from her during the darkness. She quoted poems and Bible verses, like the 23rd Psalm, that provided comfort and connection for her and in turn for her readers. Religious minded readers will find comfort in Lieberman's reliance on spirituality and faith. 

Lieberman died in 2025 but her story, spirit, and legacy live on.

A Mostly Magnificent Memoir: True Stories Dramatized and Somewhat Fictionalized by Bo Bennett 

Despite what the title says, Bo Bennett’s A Mostly Magnificent Memoir: True Stories Dramatized and Somewhat Fictionalized is not a non-fiction memoir. That's important to know in light of some information revealed towards the end of the book that won't be spoiled here. 

Instead it is a humorous Historical Fiction anthology based on events from Bennett's youth but told from the perspective of a fictional protagonist, Jimmy Murphy. Why Bennett chose this roundabout way of narration, I do not know but in doing so, he captures a brilliant first person narration of a childhood told with warm nostalgia, sharp wit, and acceptance of some bittersweet truths.

Instead of an overall novel of one singular youthful experience or a straight linear chronology of Jimmy's life between childhood and adulthood, A Mostly Magnificent Memoir, tells of nineteen chapters of various events in Jimmy's (and probably Bennett’s) youth involving school, friends, first crushes, bullies, causing trouble, fads, and adventures. 

These are the types of adventures that are often found in those days when we ran around freely and didn't care what adults thought. Only after we cut ourselves and broke our legs did we realize that looking before leaping was good advice. When we thought that we knew everything about the world but were really just wrapped in youthful ignorance, naivete, and stupidity. When our bodies didn't ache and moan with aging and adulthood pressures. When our hobbies and entertainment interests were the most important things in our lives. When we thought that the world would always be like this.

Jimmy's friendships are what distract him and provide comfort in a toxic home life with an alcoholic bad tempered father and a loud tabloid obsessed mother. The book explains that even a simple birthday greeting for their son is enough to send them into a virulent hurricane of insults and accusations towards one another. 

Many of Jimmy’s childhood experiences are flights of reality mixed with fantasy such as his fantastic tale of a beanstalk growing in his yard (told to him by his teasing father) and when he saw a monkey that escaped from a nearby zoo in their yard. There is also a seriocomic moment when his mother violated speeding laws to chase what she believed was a UFO so she could be abducted hinting at instability as well as a violent temper. 

Most of Jimmy’s childhood and the book consist of youthful misadventures. He gets into fights with local boys, mourns a deceased beloved family dog, runs a baseball card trading racket, and despairs of being friend zoned by older women, and getting a perm which rendered him the scorn and ridicule of his classmates.

One of the most entertaining chapters describes the “Seek and Destroy” Missions. They were a series of elaborate pranks that Jimmy and his friends would do out of sheer boredom. One involved driving a car with a car seat and a realistic baby doll strapped to the roof. Jimmy reframes an early prank in which his friends broke into secure garage doors by accurately guessing the passcodes as a “public service to remind people to change their damn codes.” 

They “had fun with technology” by using their remotes to change TV channels around town to the Playboy Channel (“Clearly the engineers behind this design didn’t have teenage boys”) and imitating a phone service to annoy randomly selected numbers creating departments like “Confusications” and “Satisfacations.”  

Most of the pranks were immature but creative and not harmful but some skirted the line. Jimmy and his friends created elaborate seasonal displays that while most were harmless, one could have resulted in a serious car accident. Another resulted in a fire, community service, fines, and no more seek and destroy missions. This chapter has a biting savage humor that reminds readers that youth can contain creative exuberance, reckless abandon, and unfortunately simple mindsets that don’t stop and consider the consequences until it’s too late.

The book falls into drama late in the book, so late that it might have worked just as well without it. But it does present a finality to someone who had a childhood worth remembering during a mundane and often troubled adulthood marked by insecurity and illness. They were the days worth remembering.

The Price of Loyalty: Serving Adela of Blois by Malve Von Hassell; An Era in Anddemar by Maureen B. Roberts; The Orphans of Absolution The Hollow Dark Chronicles by Remi A. Rodriguez Brignoni

The Price of Safety: Serving Adela of Blois by Malve Von Hassell 

This review is a summary. The entire review is on LitPick 

 The Price of Loyalty: Serving Adela of Blois is a sublime look at the early Medieval Era during the time of the Norman Conquest and the First Crusades. It is rich in character particularly in its two protagonists Princess Adela of Normandy and Countess of Blois and Cerdic of Wessex, a knight sworn to serve her.

The book sees her through her brothers’ rebellion, the Crusades, her marriage to Count Stephen-Henry of Blois, motherhood, and her family's legacy. It is also told from the perspective of Cedric of Wessex, a knight and childhood friend of Adela’s but has complicated feelings for her despite their marriages to other people.

The two become friends by sharing outsider status. Cerdic is removed from his home in Wessex and Adela subverts her family's expectations. Adela and Cerdic develop a bond of friendship that lasts through constant changes particularly when Adela's brother rebels against her father and Cerdic is trained to fight him.

Adulthood transforms their friendship into a platonic romance. Their relationship never becomes physical but it's clear that they are among the most important people in one another's lives. Even though they marry two decent characters the kind Stephen-Henry and the strong willed Gisella, they still retain their closeness.

The book goes out of its way to not only make Adela and Cerdic decent characters, but also their spouses as well. Because Von Hassell portrays Adela, Cerdic, and their spouses in decent lights, the marriages and Adela and Cerdic’s bond does not resort to love triangle tropes. Adela and Cerdic stay faithful to their spouses and don't give into their passions. 

In the struggle between the political and the personal, Adela and Cerdic choose the political. That doesn't mean that they don't love each other. It just means that their bond includes their spouses, children, homes, lands, positions, values, and self-respect.

An Era in Anddemar by Maureen B. Roberts 

Coming soon here and on Reader Views 

Orphans of Absolution (The Hollow Dark Chronicles) by Remi A. Rodriguez Brignoni 

Orphans of Absolution by Remi A. Rodriguez Brignoni deftly combines Westerns and Paranormal Horror to create a chilling graphic novel of the creatures that can be found in the Old West. 

Twins Francis and Randall O’Dowell are the sole survivors when Father Mercer, a violent minister, murdered their entire family. Now they wander the Southwest, particularly the Arizona Territory hunting demons and other supernatural creatures for a bounty. However, they are on the lookout for their real target, Father Mercer.

The book is a veritable tour into Southwestern myths, legends, and ghost stories. The twins encounter a town in which children have been captured by La Llorona, the notorious ghost that lures children to drowning deaths. The results of a town filled with missing children in a time where early death was all too frequent is heart wrenching and motivates Francis and Randall on their search. 

They also encounter shapeshifters that sometimes fool the twins by looking or sounding like people that they knew. There are various moments when the twins are out in the isolated desert where suddenly they might hear their deceased mother’s voice or catch the form of a former lover out of the corner of their eye. It is terrifying to imagine a creature that not only knows their entire history but is willing to use it as a weapon against them.

Even when characters are potentially benevolent, there is a dark sinister aura that hints that they might not be trustworthy. A mysterious man known only as Crow appears and disappears to give them solid hints and advice about their missions but also maliciously puts them in dangerous situations.

What also makes this book more ominous is the setting. This is set primarily in the desert regions where the landscape is the same for miles. Where the nearest help could be in the next town or county for all anyone knows. Where the mind often plays tricks on the unwary who are lulled into a false sense of sameness and security.Where a mysterious moving shadow could be an animal, a violent person, or something else entirely. Brignoni takes full advantage of the haunted Old West.

The creatures and settings aren’t the only things that are haunted. Randall and Francis are too. They only live for the hunt and have foregone any hopes of romance, family, or settling down while there are dark supernatural spirits out there. They both have histories of relationships that ended prematurely, something that their antagonists take full advantage of. They are also haunted by their family’s graphic death and wake up with memories of blood, bodies, and the minister's sinister presence.

Because of their status as nomadic orphans, all Randall and Francis have in the world are each other. If anything challenges that union, whether it's human or supernatural, that challenge is outright rejected. They have no lives beyond the hunt and each other. It’s an unhealthy codependent relationship that is at times possessive and controlling (though the jury is out over who is controlling whom). But Randall and Francis have a shared understanding, language, and destiny that only they can understand. They have seen death as children and now have to face it every day as adults.

Orphans of Absolution is a graphic chilling Horror Western that combines the barren landscape and the lone gunslingers of one genre with the nightmares and twists of another. This combination presents strange but effective absolute results.

Rock Kills by Michael Di Lauro; Rocking Good Times With An Awesome Narrator

 

Rock Kills by Michael Di Lauro; Rocking Good Times With An Awesome Narrator 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Michael Di Lauro’s novel Rock Kills walks the path that many accounts of rock stars take but it does it with the perfect narrative voice that lets you enjoy the familiar ride.

That voice belongs to Steven Apollo Belmondo AKA Stabb Bell, former lead guitarist for the 1970’s rock band She Kicks. The book tells his story from folk musician to rock star with the usual beats of humble beginnings, small starts, greedy music executives, musical group of misfits, damaged love lives, meteoritic rise to success, addiction, egos, bad tempers, betrayals, break ups, and so on. We've seen it before in every biopic ever but none are told by Stabb Bell.

Stabb’s narration is what makes the book. I would genuinely love to hear the audiobook version to see how the narrator would capture his voice. His elevates many of the usual beats of a star’s rise and fall to an interesting and actually compelling level.

Stabb’s sarcastic comments about his own story are self-deprecating, acknowledging the tropes while also mocking them. Instead of a faded celebrity full of ego and delusion, he looks back with honesty. He compares She Kicks to other famous groups like The Beatles and the Rolling Stones and admits that his band was famous but “never fainting famous.” (Where fans fainted in delight during their concerts). It's less a story about being lonely at the top than it is about feeling kind of crappy in the middle. 

There are times when Stabb’s burnt out narration becomes almost cluelessly adorable. For example, it takes Stabb an entire chapter to figure out an important secret about his past even though the person revealing it drops several obvious hints beforehand. 

The Reader easily guesses the secret only a few lines into the beginning of the chapter and waits, with a forehead aching from the constant face palms, for the Midnight Train to Clue Town to finally catch up to the protagonist. Stabb is highly talented and a great storyteller but he's not the sharpest note on the musical scale. 

Unfortunately there are also times when that naivete results in less humorous moments especially when Stabb finds out too late that he was being used as a front for others’ criminal activities. To his credit the middle aged man telling the story recognizes what an idiot the young budding star was to ignore it but he can't change the past. The only thing that he can do is talk about it.

Di Lauro's writing also gives Stabb interesting recall in describing the colorful characters that he encounters on his journey to and from stardom (not “fainting super stardom" of course). His former girlfriend Margot, the “one that got away” and who inspired his earliest hits appears and reappears in his life but she has her own agency. 

While she appreciates him as a musician, Margot lets Stabb know about what she thinks of him as a person and lives her own life separate from him. In fact it's less like she is pining over him and more like he is pining over her. 

The band members of She Kicks are an interesting eclectic bunch particularly Siobhan, the sharp tongued lead singer who leads the band like a cross between a larger than life prima donna and cold blooded CEO. Think of if Janis Joplin was ever crossbred with Leona Helmsley.

She also isn't afraid to maintain dominance in a largely masculine led industry including arguing with her obstreperous and verbose lead guitarist. Siobhan and Stab often engage in one on one snark battles to disguise their own anxieties and insecurities.

Another interesting member of the band is the ebullient bassist Tanya. She is usually something of a comic relief, blurting out off color jokes and asides at even the most inopportune moments. But her story ends up being one of the most heartbreaking. 

Tanya joined She Kicks to pursue her passion for music and maintain a separate identity from her suffocating family only to find herself crushed by them anyway. Even after all of these years Stabb still feels the vicarious anguish of his former colleague.

 In his recall of his and his band mate’s experiences, Stabb reveals the great cost of pursuing artistic success: the performance highs, constant pressure, and the need to be an individual that is screaming to be heard, understood, loved, and accepted while being surrounded by a crowd.

Stabb Bell, and by extension Michael Di Lauro, turns what could be a hokey cliched melodrama into a thought provoking introspective engrossing novel about fame, love, identity, artistic pursuits, and maintaining one's own individual voice in the face of change, conformity, and control. It is truly a rocking good time. 

The Arts Council by Dolly Gray Landon; The Writing Writes The Writer Taking Kev to Sizzlin' Meats and Salads by Kevin Cann

The Arts Council by Dolly Gray Landon 

 The Arts Council by Dolly Gray Landon is a bizarre book. It can't really be said to be highly recommended. It can't even be considered particularly good or well written. Instead it is a messy, loud, disturbing, darkly comic, vulgar, inappropriate, immature, witty, bizarre, trippy, unforgettable, sharp, and ruthless satire. You don't go into a book like this to like anyone or anything. You read it to cringe, laugh bitterly, compare it to real life, maybe think, and more than likely wonder “What the heck did I just read?”

The plot mainly involves Honoree Oinkbladder and Modesty Greedance, two high school artists who are constantly trying to one-up each other. It also concerns the Pimpleton Regional Arts Council who determines whose artwork is praised and promoted but are often swayed by famous family names, bribery, and other more nefarious means in selecting pieces. There are also various other subplots that involve cheating spouses, hook ups, break ups, murders, public humiliation, illicit lobotomies, and feral attack therapy dogs.

The Arts Council walks that strange line between being a very intelligent satire and an immature joke. There are savage takedowns everywhere from aggravating political figures, to pretentious artists and art experts, to judicial corruption, to inept intellectuals, to kangaroo courts, to depraved socialites, to obnoxious teenagers, and especially to a society which pays lip service to hard work and merit but lets money and names lead to success.

The attacks especially on the art industry are spot on. Landon skillfully dissects an industry which talks a big game about artistic integrity and free expression but only promotes art that is deemed acceptable when it is financially beneficial for collectors, council members, and gallery owners. 

They determine what is considered fine art and will try to assign an arbitrary meaning to make it more valuable. For example, a painting of Honoree’s that was defaced in the most horrible way during a bullying incident is considered a worthy piece. Honoree then displays it, despite its rancid odor and disgusting visuals. She periodically makes some slight additions and changes to make it look like an entirely new piece each time to the delight of her prestigious and unaware fans.

The intellectual satire is augmented by more childish humor making the book a bizarre concoction of humor. Various characters have double entendres and dad jokes for names such as Dweebaldo Van Boofus, Poppin’ Jay Godandy, and Ian Tickleman. The two protagonists named Honoree and Modesty suggest virtue but are conniving manipulative young women who have multiple sexual relationships.

There are moments that over emphasize scatological function and humor. Readers might be torn between sardonically smirking at the satire or rolling their eyes at an obvious dirty joke, sometimes doing both in the same paragraph.

There are many things that prevent this from being a highly recommended book or even a great work of satire and parody. The characters are off putting in that exaggerated way that is found often in satire where everyone is written to an obnoxious extreme and no one is particularly likeable. Some plot points go nowhere or are arbitrarily resolved. It's hard to care about anyone in a cast of shrill annoying caricatures who do stupid obnoxious things as plot devices.

That is probably the point but the incomprehensible plot and one dimensional characters also cause the book to run far too long. Readers might say, “We got the joke the first time. Can we move on please?” It's a book that is not well constructed but also revels in how ill constructed that it is. Technically that makes the book a potential work of genius.

Trigger warnings but there are also moments that are incredibly disturbing. A few characters get publicly humiliated in sexually and physically abusive ways that are treated as graphic and disturbing jokes. One could say that is the point and comedy is subjective. In a world that is becoming increasingly satiric on its own, those who point out society's flaws in arts and entertainment need to be more graphic, more satiric, and crazier to get their points across.

However, these are chapters that go to an extreme that is beyond humor. The excessive nature of these passages turn dark satire into psychological horror. The characters don't just suffer but others stand around, watch it happen, and take part in the humiliations. Once read, the reader can't unsee them and has a hard time focusing on the rest of the book. Because of them, the book could be considered recommended but with extreme reservations that it is definitely not for everyone. It is for people who like bizarre satire, dark humor, sexual innuendo, and have strong stomachs.

The Writing Writes The Writer Taking Kev to Sizzlin' Meats and Salads by Kevin Cann 

Spoilers: Some books capture large moments. Characters dealing with politics, life transitions like birth and death, trauma, and sweeping changes. Some capture little moments concerning friendships, couples, and daily life. 

That is the case with The Writing Writes The Writer: Taking Kev to Sizzlin' Meats and Salads by Kevin Cann. There isn't much in the way of plot but it's heavy in characterization.

The book mostly focuses on Kev and his best friends, married couple Jeb and Mae. Kev is legally blind and Jeb and Mae often drive him around. One of their favorite places to go is Sizzlin' Meats and Salads, the local eatery. It's just a few weeks of their lives punctuated with trips to Sizzlin.’

The three characters and setting are relatable and identifiable. Those who live in small towns will understand the comfortable routine found in a town like Peculiar, California. It presents a history of the town and how it got its, well, peculiar name. It's the type of story that townspeople know by heart and retell. Maybe celebrate it in historical reenactments and guided tours. 

There is also recognition of the important locations that give the town character. In this case Sizzlin' Meats and Salads. It's a local mom and pop place where people arrive every week, order their favorite expected meals so often that sometimes even the servers memorize it before they order, and recognize co-workers, classmates, neighbors, or just the regular gang of diners. It's so beautiful because it's so familiar and comforting.

The three protagonists are the type of characters who depend on daily lives and routines. This is especially vital to Kev. An intellectual and writer, Kev hates being dependent on his friends but still relies on them to be his contact with the world outside his house. 

He is such a devotee to this routine that he looks forward to it like a kid waiting for a trip to a theme park. When things get in the way like car trouble or a family issue, Kev makes them swear that they will go the following week and it's non-negotiable. Of course unlike most people, he doesn't have the luxury of going some other day because of his lack of transportation. It's just as aggravating for him as it is for them and the frustration is easily understood.

We also see Jeb and Mae as a couple that are comfortable with each other. They compliment each other with different personalities but a yin yang dynamic that recognizes each other's strengths and vulnerabilities. 

They have shared memories, inside jokes, unfinished sentences that they answer. They know each other so well and treat Kev like another family member that's welcome in their lives and not an unwanted third wheel. It's a power trio that relies on warmth, familiarity, and connections as their strongest assets.

The Writing Writes The Writer is a simple book. But sometimes the simple books tell the strongest truths.

Borrowed Times by John Glynn; Decent Historical Fiction Has One Glaring Flaw

 Borrowed Times by John Glynn; Decent Historical Fiction Has One Glaring Flaw

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Borrowed Times by John Glynn has a lot of promise. It's a bildungsroman about a young Englishman trying to find his path in 1940’s and 1950’s Rhodesia but could be so much better. There is a huge glaring flaw that must be addressed.

Melvyn feels rootless and out of place within the rigid expectations drilled into by his harsh boarding school upbringing and his self-involved status seeking mother and stepfather. He takes his interest in antiquities and cartography to Rhodesia to stay with his older brother Tristan. Rhodesia is still under British rule because of colonialism and there are hints of rebellion on the horizon.

There are parts of Borrowed Times that are worth reading. Melvyn’s character is particularly developed through his experiences in school. 

His encounters with a rigid class system born from aristocracy is compelling. He is someone who recognizes the privilege that is installed by others because of their birthright. They were born at the finish line and Melvyn feels insignificant because of them. 

When Melvyn travels to Rhodesia, it's to find a sense of belonging that he is denied from his indifferent family and the society in which he was raised. He gets along with his brother and sister in law rather well. There is an agonizing moment where Melvyn’s true affection for his brother/surrogate father figure is revealed.

Setting also makes the book. While in Rhodesia, Melvyn moves out of his comfort zone by doing rigorous farm work, preparing maps, and exploring the landscape around him. The book is filled with descriptions of the landscape without resorting to assumptions that depict Rhodesia as a savage backwater or an idyllic paradise. Instead it is both realistic and atmospheric. It captures the environmental and political structures which characterized the country during that point in time.

Politics are actually part of the issue. Melvyn befriends many native Rhodesians and begins to understand their concerns about the restrictive white establishment. It's a situation that we can see will create the subsequent years of segregation and racism that still mar the country years later.

However, this is at the expense of a local voice which is the book's glaring flaw. We only receive primarily Melvyn's voice, a white newcomer from an English background not from a local black character. It lacks intimacy and authenticity At the very least, a Black character could have shared narrative duty with Melvyn. 

Otherwise it's similar to a Hollywood movie that uses a white voice to tell what is primarily a story involving the Black experience. It projects the overall impression that Glynn could only tell this story at a distance from someone separated from this experience instead of from the people who actually lived it.

After The Rain: Stories by Dina Sokal ; The Narrow by Dan Cornelious; The Love That Wouldn't Die by Anthony Biren; 200 Things Women Can Do After 50 by Permission Press

 

After The Rain: Stories by Dina Sokal

This is a summary of the review. The entire review can be found on LitPick.

This poignant and meaningful anthology focuses on emotional confrontations, secrets, trauma, memories, and how sometimes it takes adulthood and maturity to understand these experiences.

The best stories are:

“Henry and Sally”- Henry learns that his ailing wife, Sally, has secrets that he never knew.

This story is about how we never know everything about the people that we are around the most, spouses, children, and close friends and family. 

Henry cares for his wife through her dementia and finds out her secret on his own. He weighs his suspicion towards her and his guilt in bringing this outcome forward. He has to address the reality of his marriage, not his romantic rose tinted view.

 “The Ritual Committee Meeting”-Christy weighs religious devotion with her uncertainty about her committee leaders Jonathan and Rivka who are becoming quite authoritarian.

This story is only a few pages long but says a great deal about Christy and the other church members. Christy sees the tight hold that the couple have on the committee and when she disagrees with them, they let her know that she has fallen in their estimation. 

She wonders if they are there to lead others to worship God or themselves.

“Mother's Day”-An accident forces Val to evaluate her marriage, motherhood, faith, and behavior.

Val once held a superficial view of her life. She thought that it was an idyllic home as long as she existed on the surface and lived in benign contentment. 

Afterwards she has to weigh her love for her husband and family. She also has to look at her own troublesome behavior and seek to change it.

“After the Rain”- A woman has a magical encounter that forces her to confront her past.

Most of the story is surreal and yet meaningful as a strange box leads her to several human figures, particularly a baby that beckons her to follow it. They have a lot of symbolic touches concerning security, suppression, and confrontation.

The story’s climax is reached when she names the trauma that was done to her. She confronts her assailant and brings her pain to the forefront. Recognizing it gives her the first step towards healing.

 Sokal’s watercolor illustrations are winsome pleasant landscapes that bring a timeless dream-like quality to the stories and provide light to even the darkest moments.

The Narrow by Dan Cornelious 

This is a suspenseful Science Fiction Thriller that combines monster disasters, alien encounters, and conspiracy theories and does some clever unique things with the concepts.

After surviving an attack by a mysterious creature Eli Merritt investigates the encounter. He sees a sealed passage which leads him to a civilization of reptilians called the Zargata. He bonds with one named Ryznk. When a greater evil approaches Eli, Ryznk, and their human and reptilian allies have to work together to fight it.

Most of the book focuses on typical military science fiction thriller tropes. There are the military figures who try to keep the weird stuff under wraps as they fight against it. The scientists and doctors with the analytical questions, devotion to science, and arguments with the military. 

The salt of the Earth protagonist who stumbles on the strange new world but still kicks ass. The religious supporting character that quotes the Bible and fears the End Times. It's all familiar but also kind of fun as a good action novel read for the summer should be. 

One of the most interesting aspects of this book are the reptilians. Most Science Fiction novels that focus on conspiracy theories treat the reptilians as some unstoppable inhuman evil bent in conquest and destruction. Dan Cornelious however took great care to make the Zargata just as important and multi-faceted as the humans.

 Ryznk is actually a well written character more so than Eli, his human counterpart who is alright but stereotypical and cliched. Ryznk however is a proud member of the Zargata community but has enough intelligent curiosity and empathy towards the humans. He draws Eli and others  into their mutual struggles by sharing thoughts and emotions. It is an interesting touch in what might have been a typical Science Fiction Thriller.

The friendship that develops between Eli and Ryznk is the emotional core of the story as they fight against their isolation, assumptions, enemies both human and reptilian, and mental and emotional blockers to work together. It's a twist that elevates this book from ordinary to potentially exceptional.

The Love That Wouldn't Die by Anthony Biren 

This is a beautiful and sinister short novel about the love between parent and child that survives beyond death.

John is devoted to his daughter, Rocky. He is so devoted to her that his final thoughts before he dies in a traffic collision were to always be with her. After death, he watches Rocky as she becomes romantically involved with Derek, a dangerous stalker.

The horror and mystery aspects are well written. John's attempts to communicate with his daughter can be creepy as he speaks to her through her phone and flickers with lights. Also John's attachment to Rocky could affect his memory of her and human emotions leaving him as an angry vengeance seeking spirit.

Besides the supernatural horror, there is also human horror. It is particularly noticeable when John and Rocky are given a chilling vision of Derek's actions and motives. The lengths that Derek went through because he felt entitled to have Rocky are incredibly disturbing.

Above all, this is a strong story about the love between a father and daughter. The opening chapter features a charming moment between John and his then-toddler aged daughter as she watches butterflies. It symbolizes their relationship as Rocky is as beautiful and fragile as those butterflies and John tries hard to hold onto her until he learns to defend when necessary but also to let her go.

200 Things Women Can Finally Do at 50 by Permission Press

If you are approaching 50, don't look at it as old age or think that it is an end to life. Think of it as a potential start to do new things. This is a funny and uplifting book that suggests that women can find fulfillment by living for themselves.

This book covers various areas like social life, beauty standards, work, family, health, tech, and a bucket list. The items suggest similar messages like “It's okay to opt out.” “It's okay to be less than perfect” “It's okay to practice self care.” “It's okay for others to take care of you.” “It's okay to be behind the times.” “It's okay to meet long term goals that were put off by life situations.” “It's okay to be yourself.”

The suggestions are humorous and heartfelt to remind readers that they should make time for themselves. For example in the social life chapter, one suggestion is “Unfriend the Energy Vampire. We all have that one friend. She only calls to complain about her ex, her boss, or the rash on her leg. You have listened to the same loop for 15 years because you are loyal. You are not a therapist, and you are not a garbage can for your emotional refuse. It is okay to outgrow people who only take. Hit ‘Block’ or ‘Mute’ to lift that weight off your shoulders immediately. Rebel Rule: Protect your peace like it is a limited-edition handbag.”

July-August Reading List

 July-August Reading List 

The Arts Council by Dolly Gray Landon 

The Price of Loyalty: Serving Adela of Blois by Malve Von Hassell*

An Era in Anddemar by Maureen B. Roberts*

Borrowed Times by John Glynn

Rock Kills by Michael DeLauro 

The Writing Writes The Writer: Taking Kev to Sizzlin’ Meats and Salads (Awareness and Aplomb Trilogy) by Kevin Cann

A Mostly Magnificent Memoir: True Stories Dramatized and Somewhat Fictionalized by Bo Bennett, PhD

The Weight of Sunshine by Robin Maguire 

The Music Box and The Missing Bride (A Salt and Cedar Antiques Mystery) by Evelyn Hartwell

 The Girl Who Never Left by Alison Stuart 

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Well that's it. Thanks and as always, Happy Reading.