Best of the Best 2020 New Book Alert& Weekly Reader

 Best of the Best 2020

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Whew, has this been a rough year. 

I think the only thing that has kept me going are the amount of wonderful books that I have read and reviewed. 

This year I have decided to overlap my New Book Alert and Weekly Readers into one list because there was just so much overlap, I felt that I wanted to combine the two.

Now I must stress that this list is not your average book list. There were many great bestsellers and awards winners that I read, but I want to focus on books from indie and self-published authors, those that deserve a little more attention.

For the record my top five best seller and well-known books from this year are: The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations by Toni Morrison, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusack, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, and Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. Definitely read them, they are highly recommended.

Now with each book, I selected the best from each genre in an attempt to have a variety from the books that I read this year. I would like to thank the people at NetGalley, BookTasters, Blackthorn Book Tours, Kindle Review Working Web, and the individual authors who brought these wonderful works to life and to my attention.

 I hope you find some nice surprises and look forward to another great year of reading in 2021. Until then, Happy Reading!

12. Memoirs of a Witness Tree: Poems by Randal A. Burd (Poetry)

Burt's beautiful poems are concrete and lyrical. Using primarily the sonnet form, he captures various situations such as traveling, working, friendships, childhood nostalgia, family, love, nature, aging, grief, and death. He creates beautiful images that are not easy to forget.

11. The Voyage of Gethsarade: Book Two of The Elderwood Chronicles by M.G. Claybrook (Children's)

The best way to write for children is to treat them like small adults. Claybrook must have taken that message to heart for this book. What appears to be a cute funny book about a musician squirrel and sailing con artist rodents taking on a group of pirats (sic) is actually a deep story about heroism and what makes a legend. Many characters reveal the difference between myth and reality revealing that the two concepts are closer than believed. 

10. The Black Veldt by Michael Reyes (Short Works)

Many short works require more length because they introduce a great concept but are unable to do much with it. Reyes' novella is the perfect length for this gripping horror of Jose Carvel, a young man haunted in both the physical and supernatural world. The world of poverty stricken 1970's New York City is haunted enough, but add a strange assortment of demonic creatures stalking Carvel's every move and things become even more bleak, terrifying, and mesmerizing.

9. The Network by Margaret Lomas (Mysteries/Thrillers)

This book combines the earnest plucky female protagonist of a Chick Lit and smacks her right in the middle of an Espionage plot involving a Middle Eastern terrorist cell and it brilliantly works. Sam Cannon, a neophyte reporter, moved to Indonesia for a better job and to get over a breakup. Then while investigating a story about Indonesian women and youth, she becomes embroiled in the middle of international intrigue. This strange mix of light hearted comedy and action suspense make a winning combination.

8. Djin by Sang Kromah (YA)

Kromah's excellent writing puts the pre-Islamic magical creatures, the djin away from the Hollywood stereotypes and back into their folkloric roots as the originators of the Faeries. Bijou Fitzroy, a typical high school girl, discovers that she is the daughter of two powerful djin just as dark magical forces kidnap various teen girls and surround her. This modern fantasy subverts many of the known myths and legends of fairy folklore and retranslates them into a different manner for a modern multicultural readership.

7.  Husbands and Other Sharp Objects by Marilyn Simon Rothstein (Romance/Chick Lit)

Rothstein's sharp witty book takes a look at the decline of a marriage during the birth of another. Marcy Hammer is coming off a recent divorce just as she is planning her daughter's wedding. The book is filled with wry observation and sardonic one liners as Marcy skewers her philandering money grubbing ex, her sensitive current boyfriend, he bridezilla of a daughter, and the institution of marriage itself. It is best read with a good sense of humor and a smirk on your face.

6. RotaryPug by Michael Honig (Horror)

You can't get scarier than a literal trip through Hell and that's what Honig gives us. After John Castlemaine commits suicide, he finds himself in a very creepy sinister place. This is the type of horror filled with creepy moments such as different souls from various times periods forced to recall their terrible deeds for eternity. Overseeing the action is a creepy jester figure who sadistically watches over the denizens with the delight of a torturer. It is a bleak book which squashes hope in favor of existential dread.

5. Sophie DeTott: Artist in a Time of Revolution by Julia Gasper (Biographies/Autobiography)

Just like with her previous work about Elizabeth Craven, Julia Gasper gives recognition to a forgotten, talented, passionate, fascinating woman, Sophie DeTott, a portrait painter who lived during the French Revolution. These turbulent times are seen through the eyes of a woman who captured the suffering and troubles of her fellow exiles through her portraits. She is also analyzed through three stormy romances which made her life a particularly scandalous one. Gasper's writing reveals Tott as a vibrant, colorful, independent woman who lived through her tremendous artistic gift and should be remembered today.

4. Pandemic Aftermath: How Coronavirus Changes Global Society by Trond Undheim (Nonfiction General)

This book takes a Futuristic look at how pandemics have affected history in the past and how Coronavirus could affect the global future. Undheim looks at areas such as technology, economics, family structure, social class, healthcare, politics, and defense and visualizes various scenarios. The scenarios vary from a Borderless World, Tighter Border restrictions, a Two World separation of rich and poor, Hobbesian Chaos, or a return to Status Quo. It is a

 hard unflinching look that forces the Readers to look at the potential realities that could begin even right now as we speak.

3. Eli's Promise by Ronald H. Balson (Fiction General)

This WWII era drama is about revenge, anger, and the protection of family as well as balancing hatred with love. Eli Rosen, a laborer, loses members of his family in Holocaust era Poland. So begins a 20 year revenge campaign against the one he holds responsible for their deaths. It is a brilliantly characterized work that is filled with great details from 1940's Poland, to a Displaced Person's Camp, to 1960's Chicago. Through his anger at the Nazis and his specific enemy, Eli never loses sight of friends and family by caring for and assisting those around him. 

2. The Girl Who Found The Sun by Matthew S. Cox (Science Fiction)

In this time period, this is a book that is truly needed. Raven is one of several people who lives underground to avoid plutions which the Elders warn her about. Raven courageously ventures outside to save her community. The description of an outside green world is beautiful, particularly during a quarantine when the Readers are also kept from experiencing such beauty. In her protectiveness and care for her people, Raven reveals how important it is to care for others and the world around them. In troubled times, we can't take those lessons for granted.

1.Melia in Foreverland by Thomas Milhorat (Fantasy)

The best book of this year is a beautiful spiritual journey into the Afterlife, as Melia, a young woman, who is questioning her faith goes on a magical trip to Foreverland and engages in conversations with various scientists, philosophers, artists, musicians, and leaders to acquire her answers. This book presents beautiful evocative settings through various stars, such as one that is a retreat for artists and another one that is home specifically to Melia's ancestors. The book carries different themes that raise just as many questions as answers and allow the Reader to think for themselves. 

Honorable Mention: Life is Big by Kiki Denis, Behind Blue Eyes: A Cyberpunk Noir by Anna Mocikat, Call Numbers: The Not So Quiet Life of Librarians by Syntell Smith, Anonymous is a Woman: A Global Chronicle of Gender Inequality by Nina Ansary, Precious Silver Chopsticks: A True Story About A Korean Noble Family by Mae Adams, The Cult of Eden: Book One of The Unrisen by Bill Halpin, The Adventures of George and Mabel: Based on An (Almost? Sort of? Kind of?) True Story by Stefanie Hutcheson, Joshua N'Gon: Lost Prince of Alkebulahn by Anthony Hewitt, Murder Under A Wolf Moon (A Mona Moon Mystery) by Abigail Keam, Everyone is a Moon: Selected Stories by Sawney Hatton, A Kite at The Edge of the World by Katy Grant, and Rising Petals by Ashwini Rath

Classic Corner Best of The Best

 Classic Corner Best of The Best

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

What a year!

This has been a hellacious year for everyone. I believe that what has kept me going this year are the amount of wonderful books that I read and reviewed.

Of course, I am doing my annual favorite books of 2020 list. This year, I am doing things a bit differently. I am combing New Book Alert and Weekly Reader into one list and have a separate one for Classics Corner. As always, I have enjoyed the journeys that these books have taken me on and look forward to more journeys in the future.

10. Heartburn by Nora Ephron

Academy Award nominated screenwriter, Nora Ephron penned this sharp, witty, and biting semi-autobiographical novel of the decline of a marriage. Ephron's wit finds its target in divorce, dating, psychology, and food as her fictional counterpart cookbook author, Rachel Samstadt, tries to live her life without her narcissistic soon to be ex-husband, Mark. This is a delicious book with plenty of juicy one liners and tasty recipes meant to wet the Readers' appetites.

9.The Trial by Franz Kafka

Kafka's Existential nightmare is a terrifying satire of the Justice system, one which dehumanizes and destroys the people caught up inside. Joseph K. is arrested for unknown reasons and made to stand trial in what would be an insult to refer to as a kangaroo court. There are various moments such as Josef being unable to find specific rooms or never meeting the judge face to face that reveals the bureaucratic nightmare in which he is trapped.

8.Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut's postmodern experimental narrative is a memorable novel about WWII veteran, Billy Pilgrim becoming unstuck in time following the trajectory of his youth, marriage, military career, and time on the planet Trafalmadore, out of order. Vonnegut's savage writing portrays the cruelty of war exemplified during the Bombing of Dresden. It also illustrates the fatalistic nature of one who lives all of his memories at once and can do nothing to change them. 

7.Hiroshima by John Hersey

Hersey's nonfiction account of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, Japan would force anyone to become an anti-war activist. Hersey wrote of the attack and aftermath from the points of view of six citizens from Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, a single mother of three, to Dr. Terefumi Sasaki,a Red Cross surgeon. Hersey's description is heart wrenching in describing the physical and emotional toll that the people suffered for a long time afterwards. It brings human faces to the people that the Allied forces saw at the time as "the Enemy."

6.The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

McCullers' debut novel is an insightful look at loneliness and the toll it takes on people. John  Singer, a deaf-mute appears in a small town after being separated from his only friend and companion. He attracts the interest of four locals who confide their troubles to this strange newcomer because he can't hear or judge them. The four people are isolated because of their race, sex, political views, and inner turmoil. When a loss occurs, the characters feel lonelier and more isolated than ever, showing how hard it is to find connections in a cold disinterested world.

5.A People's History of The United States by Howard Zinn

The strongest and most eye opening account of American history covers from Columbus' takeover of the Arawak nation to the beginnings of the War on Terror. It tells of the United States through various eyes: Native Americans, African-Americans, lower class workers, women, labor union organizers, immigrants, anti war protestors, Socialists, political activists and many others who needed, wanted, and demanded to be heard and recognized. This is a story about all of us in the United States and one that we all need to read, hear, and understand.

4.One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This book about Colombian history seen through the eyes of five generations of the Buenida Family is a confusing book to read, but it is one that is best appreciated on an emotional level. It is filled with beautiful dream like description such as a house made of mirror walls. The description and the magical realism make this book into a visual masterpiece of storytelling, one that the Reader can't easily forget.

3.The Women's Room by Marilyn French

French's novel takes the Readers through the Second Wave of Feminism from the conformist 1950's, to the Feminine Mystique 1960's, to the activist 1970's seen through the eyes of Mira Ward, a wife and mother later to become a divorcee and college student. Mira recounts the troubles she and other suburban housewives have when they are unfulfilled by lives of home, husband, and children. Then she becomes involved in activism and the women's movement documenting that change by capturing the deep characters that surround her and themes of finding one's own independence.

2.The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

This moving novel recounts the lives of four women who emigrated from China and their daughters who were raised in America. The stories are told in alternating points of view as each generation learns of the struggles that they are going through and use their own lessons to educate one another. The book turns the characters not just into mothers and daughters but into women who finally understand each other.

 1.The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

Of the books that I have read this year, this one has stayed with me the longest. Bastian Balthazar Bux, a shy bookish boy is thrust into the magical world of Fantastica and encounters a bevy of fantasy creatures and adventures. The adventures capture the imagination and escapism through reading. However, the real theme of true heroism lies when Bastian finds the courage within himself and his own identity. This has been a book that has stayed through several generations and deservedly so. It is a fantastic masterpiece.

Honorable Mention: Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, The Collected Stories of Franz Kafka by Franz Kafka, Mary Queen of Scotland and The Isles by Margaret George, The Nancy Drew Mysteries 1-10 by Carolyn Keene, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbooks Got Wrong by Jeff Loewens, Spite Fences by Trudy Krisher, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Gracia Marquez, and The Writer's Elements of Style by William H. Strunk Jr.

New Book Alert: Murder Under A Black Moon (Mona Moon Mysteries) by Abigail Keam; Magnificent Murder Mystery Starring Mona Moon, The Kentucky Derby, and Alice Roosevelt Longworth

 

New Book Alert: Murder Under A Black Moon (Mona Moon Mysteries) by Abigail Keam; Magnificent Murder Mystery Starring Mona Moon, The Kentucky Derby, and Alice Roosevelt Longworth

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Alice Roosevelt Longworth is among the most colorful and interesting of the Presidential children. The daughter of Teddy Roosevelt, she was known for her sense of style and outspoken nature. She was a fashionista of her day, even popularizing the color Alice Blue. Most importantly, she supported various causes like women's suffrage and assisting the poor. She had a particularly wild reputation to the point where her Dad said that he could manage the country or Alice, but not both. 

Even as she grew, she remained involved as a prominent power broker and Washington insider. Her sauciness created many soundbites like "If you can't say anything nice, come sit next to me."

Alice Roosevelt Longworth was such an interesting figure in history that if she appears in historical fiction, she could overshadow other characters. 

Well, Abigail Keam did the smart thing when she inserted her into her Mona Moon Mysteries. She pitted the historical Roosevelt with the fictional, Mona, cartographer, businesswoman, and amateur detective. In Mona, Alice Roosevelt Longworth has met her match. In Keam's Murder Under A Black Moon, the two are intelligent, wry, observant, and live for getting the last word. They are divas of the highest order who command every presence and room they are in. 

Mona and Alice meet each other at the Kentucky Derby. Mona is at the Derby with her friends Willie and Dexter Deatherage, her snobbish aunt Melanie, a pair of new money Texans called Jeannie and Zeke Duff, horse trainer Rusty Thompson, and Mona's fiancee, Lord Robert Farley (who Alice is his special guest.)  A very public and exciting race ends in murder when Rusty Thompson is found dead with a woman's hat pin stuck in his eyes. Unfortunately, it's Willie's hat pin and she is arrested for the murder!

With both Alice and Mona as important characters, Keam is able to provide her leads with some great zingers. When Mona's ruthless aunt Melanie says she is not interested in politics, Ms. Roosevelt Longworth responds " Politics is a bloodsport and you seem to be pretty good at bloodsports." When a detective questions members of Mona's party, Mona remarks that he sounds like a character from a bad Dashiell Hammett novel.

Alice and Mona are independent strong-willed women in the respective worlds of politics and business. So, they are aware that they have to speak up and make themselves heard otherwise the make population in charge would ignore or minimize them.

Their barbs aren't the only things that they have in common. Both are ardently political, though on opposite sides of the spectrum. Alice, like her late father, is a Republican and takes potshots at cousin Franklin. Mona however is a staunch Democrat and supporter of the New Deal. So the two get into political disagreements among their discovery of clues and dead bodies. 

Naturally, their divalicious attitudes get onto each other's skin such as when Alice's bluntness does little to comfort a distraught and intoxicated Willie. Witnessing her best friend emotionally chopped down by the Roosevelt woman, Mona thinks that Alice can't hop on the next train fast enough.

Mona and Alice's mere presence causes much of the rest of the book to take second fiddle even the murder investigation. The scandalous world of horse doping and horse ownership isn't near as interesting as the other worlds that Mona peers into in other books, such as the world of Egyptian archaeology in the previous book Murder Under A Wolf Moon. If you don't follow horse racing, as I do not, you can get lost in the terminology and details.

Also, Mona's romance with Robert isn't near as interesting as it was in the previous volume. Last time, Mona was torn between her independence and accepting his proposal. In this book, now that she has accepted there is very little to do but wait for approval from his father and possibly go to England. So, their romance is simply just stalling, talking, and waiting.

However, the details of the murder itself are compelling enough. In the opposite of a locked room mystery, this murder occurs right out in the open, during one of the most famous races and surrounded by hundreds of spectators. Meaning there are more than enough suspects. One does not envy the job that neither the police nor Mona have in investigating this particular case.

The book also offers some interesting subplots, particularly in the conflict between Mona and her aunt Melanie. In most cozy mysteries, the supporting cast are usually above suspicion. They are the best friends, loving relatives, baffled police officers, and regular townspeople. It is assumed that these regulars remain in the protagonist's life and usually are neither victims nor murderers. Note, I said usually.

Mona and Melanie's relationship in this volume, while not good to begin with, is severely fractured and borders on violent. It is not too much of a stretch to assume in this or a future volume that Melanie herself could be under suspicion of murder (and it may not be a surprise to learn that she did it.)

While Murder Under A Black Moon is not as good as Murder Under A Wolf Moon, the relationship between Mona Moon and Alice Roosevelt Longworth make it shine with wit and cleverness between two fascinating women: one real and one fictional.

New Book Alert: The Haunting of Gallagher Hotel by K.T. Rose; An Engaging Haunted Hotel Journey Through Hell And Back

 

New Book Alert: The Haunting of Gallagher Hotel by K.T. Rose; An Engaging Haunted Hotel Journey Through Hell And Back

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: The second dark fantasy horror book that I am reading to scare up the Holidays is The Haunting of Gallagher Hotel by K.T. Rose. It also continues another trend that has been running through the blog this year: a literal trip through Heaven or Hell. This time, it's the latter. 

The Haunting of Gallagher Hotel is an engaging trip through Hell via a haunted hotel which opens up the guest and staff's guilty secrets forcing them to confront those secrets for all eternity.

Like all haunted buildings, the Gallagher Hotel has an interesting backstory to go with the current ghostly occupants. In 1921, hotelier Trudy Mona Lisa Gallagher is condemned to death for arson, destruction of property, conspiracy to commit murder, and murder. Her business connections and illegal dealings helped put the town of Holloway, Michigan on the map and now the town has hypocritically turned against her. Trudy decides to make her disappointment known in a very public and explosive manner. She burns the hotel down and curses the town before succumbing to the executioner's noose.

Over 90 years later, the Gallagher Hotel is under new management. Brenda Scott, modern businesswoman, wants to rebuild the Gallagher and turn it into a haven for ghost hunters and tourist trap for the morbidly curious. She hires a staff and invites a select group of guinea pigs uh I mean VIP guests to experience the place in all of its hellacious glory.

The guests are the usual peculiar bunch you find in these locked room mysteries/horror stories: the war vet with PTSD, the heiress with a naughty past, the flirtatious doctor with broken hearts behind him, and the staff member who mysteriously knows every nook and cranny of this place, even more so than the owner. Everyone of these characters have something to hide that is forced open in the most gruesome and unforgettable ways.

The two protagonists in the book are two helpless individuals sucked into this nightmare. Of course they carry a lot of emotional baggage that the demons and spirits dwelling in The Gallagher don't mind exploiting for their own needs.

Riley is a young woman hired as a server for this event. She is very spiritual despite or because of a troubled past in which her son died as a result of her negligence. Riley has been unable to fully recover from his death but still hopes her belief in God will pull her through.

Chris is a foil for Riley as well as co-protagonist. He comes from a family of professional thieves who want him to accept the invitation solely to clean the place out of whatever valuables he can find. Like Riley, he too has a tragic death behind him, one that has earned him the ire of his very powerful and very dangerous family. (This robbery is meant to be his last chance). Riley and Chris are already haunted tortured people, so they are like catnip to the ghouls that are looking for a few good mortals to torture and mess with.

There are some pretty graphic passages that reveal the characters' guilty secrets in very violent means. One features a doctor being haunted not only by what remains of a patient that died on his table but an obsessive nurse with plenty of sharp medical instruments.

Another features a veteran whose war ghosts come to life literally.

There are some particularly chilling passages involving Riley, Chris, and Brenda but in the name of plot revelations will be unmentioned. However, they are pretty fascinating and clever twists which causes the Reader to rethink the characters and where they really fall in the good vs. evil spectrum. 

The Haunting of Gallagher Hotel is not the type of setting that one would want to check into in real life, but it is certainly one Hell of a vacation.

New Book Alert: A Feast of Phantoms: Lingua Magika #1 by Kat Ross; Magical, Terrifying, and Mesmerizing New Steampunk Dark Fantasy

 

New Book Alert: A Feast of Phantoms: Lingua Magika #1 by Kat Ross; Magical, Terrifying, and Mesmerizing New Steampunk Dark Fantasy

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: It's kind of weird to review not one, but two dark fantasy/horror novels for the Holiday season. But when one stops to think about it, it's not that weird at all. Of course there is the simple scheduling that I just happened to be reviewing these books this time of year. But the connection between horror, fantasy, and the holidays is actually deeper than most people are aware.  

When the harvest year died down and winter appeared, many of the ancient Pagan cultures like the Viking and Celts would tell stories of their deceased ancestors as a means to keep their spirits alive and to reassure that they have moved onto better places where they will be remembered. Even when Christianity dominated the European landscape, the idea of telling ghost stories during the Yuletide was not an unheard of concept. Some of the most famous works of European literature like Hamlet and, naturally, A Christmas Carol hearken back to that tradition.

That tradition continues to modern day. The song "The Most Wonderful Time of The Year" refers to "scary ghost stories." Many of our most popular Christmas books and movies like Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, The Polar Express, and my personal favorite, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, deal with that brush of the magical, supernatural, and sometimes fearful spirits and visions that appear just when days get shorter and night is the longest. And who can forget that lovable and cuddly creature from German folklore, Krampus, whose idea of a good time is to punish naughty children by putting them in a sack and beating the ever loving daylights out of them?

In keeping with that tradition of giving the Holidays a supernatural, spiritual, and spooky bent I give my Readers, A Feast of Phantoms by Kat Ross, the first of her Lingua Magika series which combines a Steampunk Western with Dark Fantasy and creates a terrifying out of mesmerizing world that is brilliant to experience and immerse oneself into.

Ross' attention to detail and world building is beyond astounding. It's one of those literary worlds that one falls into and lives in, not just reads. The setting is filled with the Western tropes with out of the way dusty towns, like Lucky Boy, the one horse town that is the residence of protagonist, Deputy Ruth Cortez. There are also references to another town called Three Bars, which was destroyed by a tornado. (Don't you just love these Western small town names?)

By contrast, there is Carnarvon City, a city of industrialization and growth. It is headed by the Carnarvon Family, a mother and her children, who seem to have their fingers in every institution in town. They don't mind stretching those fingers to the rest of the state, maybe the whole country, despite rivalries with the equally wealthy but so far unseen Braga Family.

Where the small towns like Lucky Boy and Three Bars come out of the Western tradition, Carnarvon City is built on Steampunk. There are steam trains and airships, even a few experimental automobiles, the finest in late 19th century early 20th century technology. Of course the aesthetic would not be complete without gears, telescopes, goggles, top hats, and velvet. 

What makes this setting isn't just the Steampunk aesthetic combined with Western theme. It's the fantastic aspects. This is not only a book where magic exists, but it is commonplace. So commonplace that phantoms are alive, well, and very active.

Ross clearly thought a lot about how to write about the phantoms and it shows. She provides little twists that show depths of the creatures such collective nouns (a group of Phantoms are called a feast) and classifications. There are lesser phantoms like Ruth's partner, Doc, who resides inside the deputy's gun and aids her when she requires information or defense. Then there are the larger classification level phantoms who can efficiently destroy a city in a matter of seconds.

Obviously, these phantoms are dangerous and uncontrollable. The hapless humans need help from those who can communicate and control these spirits. There are linguists, humans that can speak a few of the phantom's languages. Then there are savants, humans who can speak several of the phantom's languages. But, savants are not perceived as the sanest or trustworthy of humans as Ruth discovers when she is hired to leave Lucky Boy to guard apprehended savant, Lee Merriweather (not the actress). 

Lee has been captured by Marshall Sebastian Hardin who is acting under orders from Calindra Carnarvon, matriarch of the powerful Steampunk Carnarvon Family. At first, Ruth willingly goes along with Lee's transfer to be tried by the Carnarvons' reps in a potential kangaroo court. However, after Lee escapes, Ruth questions just what exactly the Carnarvons' and Hardin are planning. 

A benefit is that many of the characters are multifaceted and understandable, so that the Readers don't know who to side with. Ruth remains pretty likable and heroic throughout, but the others surrounding her are a curious bunch. Lee alternates between sinister and charismatic. There are also familial ties that he is protective of while others use him for their purposes.

Even Hardin and the Carnarvons who are the main antagonists show fascinating depths in character. Hardin and Ruth share a lot of chemistry implying that if they aren't yet a couple, then they will be. Calindra Carnarvon shows a lot of strength as a business minded woman in the Old West. Her children befriend Ruth possibly for genuine reasons, but just as possibly to keep a potential enemy closer.

Of course, the phantoms are also interesting characters as well. Doc is a deadpan snarker who will help Ruth at the slightest moment but not before getting the last word in. Another demon is terrifying in its powers and ability to hide in plain sight.

A Feast of Phantoms is a great and creepy world to fall into. It's creepiest to read when the nights are at their longest. It is a very commendable movable feast.

New Book Alert: The Adventures of George and Mabel: Based on An Almost...Well You Know by Stefanie Hutcheson; The Darling Duo's Third and Final Installment Ends on a Heartwarming, Touching, and Even Tearful Note

 

New Book Alert: The Adventures of George and Mabel: Based on An Almost...Well You Know by Stefanie Hutcheson; The Darling Duo's Third and Final Installment Ends on a Heartwarming, Touching, and Even Tearful Note

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: George and Mabel Harrison are this year's Maggie Elizabeth Harrington. Similar to the protagonist of D.J. Swykert's novels which I reviewed last year, George and Mabel are a couple of characters that I have gotten to know through various stages and have loved them through these stages. I have enjoyed them so much that I am a little tearful reviewing this, their final installment The Adventures of George and Mabel: Based On An Almost..Well You Know. Once again, their author Stefanie Hutcheson gives us a few stories that are not long on plot but are vast in character and charm. The Reader will sigh in delight, smile in pleasure, and finally shed a tear when the book is closed knowing that the journey of the Darling Duo has finally come to a moving and satisfactory end.

Like any well-written character, just when The Reader thinks that they know everything about the Harrison's, Hutcheson throws another bit of information to add to the depths of their personality. We are aware of the Duo's love of music and penchant for quoting song lyrics and know of their travels such as (in this volume) a spontaneous and crowded Labor Day trip to Myrtle Beach. We now learn that Mabel combined her love of music and traveling to collect music boxes. They include ones from Colorado that play "Rocky Mountain High" and "The Song Remembers When," one of LA that plays "LA International," and one of the Golden Gate Bridge that plays "Come Monday." (not "Dock of the Bay"  or "San Francisco, Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair"?). For Mabel's 43rd birthday, George surprises his wife with a music box of the Eiffel Tower that plays "Leaving on a Jet Plane" foreshadowing a bigger surprise: tickets for two to Paris. (Altogether now: Awwww!) 

These additions to their character are not meant to be earth shattering. Instead they are stimple nuanced layers that help The Reader understand them. It's almost like getting into a conversation with George and Mabel and The Reader says to George, "I didn't know you used sleight of hand with a gumball machine ring and a real diamond ring to propose to her." They are the couple that you always learn something new about them

As with the previous volumes we also learn about the Harrisons' friends and family and how their influences shaped George and Mabel into the man and woman that they would later become.  A tender WWII-era love story between George's aunt and uncle foreshadows how important finding that soul mate becomes to George and how he knows when he finds her.

Mabel gets a high school-era tale of peer pressure. When she is involved in a drink driving accident, her popular girl clique abandons her. As an adult, Mabel retains loyalty to the true friends who stuck by her even into adulthood.

Because of this being the last volume, there is a sadness present in this one, over the others. One of the darkest and best stories in all three volumes, serves as a wrap around to this volume by carrying over various alternating chapters with the rest of the text. The reason why the Harrison's never had children is revealed in an emotional story. What could be a life of regret and loneliness becomes a heartwarming story of sacrifice and forgiveness, especially when George has to make the decision to not only save the woman that he loves but the one who nearly causes much destruction in their lives. 

This story and an epilogue set in the near future end things on a tearful, but ultimately uplifting note. To borrow the famous quote that has been roaming the Internet, I don't cry because their story is over, I smile because it happened.

New Book Alert: The If Way: The Power of 100 Ifs by Imagine Singh; Poetry of Imaginative and Clever Possibilities

 

New Book Alert: The If Way: The Power of 100 Ifs by Imagine Singh; Poetry of Imaginative and Clever Possibilities 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Imagine Singh is the type of poet who loves to dream up different possibilities and put them into words. That is exactly what he does in his book, The If Way The Power of 100's. This book is a series of poems that imagine different scenarios.

Singh's poems are very pleasant and clever, somewhat reminiscent of Dr. Seuss by way of Lewis Carroll. They start with a an idea such as "If Time Reserved Its Direction." Then the stanzas ruminate on what could happen in that scenario.("The old would be young and/The young would be children./The population of the world now in billions/Would turn into some millions.") Each poem is like that.

Even though the format is the same for each poem, the ideas that Singh writes about keep each poem appear fresh and new as well  as fun engaging. Titles range from "If the Question is Q" to "If We Could Touch Emotions." Topics range from geography ("If All Countries Could Be One"), science ("If All Magnets Suddenly Disappeared Into Thin Air"), biology ("If We Could See With Our Ears and Listen With Our Eyes"), animals ("If Animals Had The Power To Think"), weather ("If We Could Swap Seasons Between Different Regions"), history ("If We Could Witness The Past As Time Flies"), economics ("If We Were All Very Rich and No One Was Poor"), families ("If We Could Become Our Parents For One Day"), and interconnectivity ("If Everybody Listened To Us It Would All Be Very Nice.") among others.

The poems rhyme scheme are simple rhyming couplets that would attract younger Readers. For example, "If We Circled The Earth and Lived On The Moon's" opening lines are "If we circked the Earth and lived on the moon/We might not like to come back to Earth anytime soon." 

There is also some lovely imagery that activates the senses. The poem, "If Colors Could Express Themselves In Words"  is rich with lines like "Red would be the loudest of all/And black would be the proudest of all/Indigo, somewhat depressed, would most of the times be a little bit snappy/Violet, somewhat bright would always be happy." The rhyme scheme and imagery help contribute to making these poems a delightful reading experience.

The possibilities that Singh imagined are filled with interesting scenarios that almost evoke a dream state. The poem, "If We Lived Undersea" describes the wealthy having air pools, and residents fighting with octopuses and racing with fish. Singh clearly had a wonderful time dreaming up these possibilities. It would be an interesting educational experience for teachers to use this book to have students write their own possibilities of things that they would like to see in the world.

While most of the poems evoke a sense of fun, childlike situations, and fantasy, some of Singh's poems strike at the very heart of social commentary. One poem, "If We Could Have A Cure For Human Lust, Greed, and Hate," is blunt but meaningful. "There would be no crimes against humanity/Good sense and love would prevail against insanity/Women would lead a life of dignity and grace/Every man would be humanity's englightened face." Even though, it would be hard to implement such change in reality, nothing can or should stop one from dreaming, imagining, visualizing, or writing about it. 

In The If Way, Singh opens a world of dreams and possibilities and invites the Reader to come along. Sometimes the dream world is better, brighter, and more evocative than the real world. Imagine Singh gives a wonderful tour into his.