Talking Leaves Scrapbook, poems --by Vivian Mary Carroll

 Publisher: Casa Urraca Press (June 11, 2024)

Paperback: 108 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1956375169

Native American Poetry, Poetry by Women

5 Stars

 

Beginning with the first poem, I was captivated. She gives us a “Haibun for Buffaloes Beneath a Crescent Moon”—a short one paragraph prose poem followed by a haiku. The best history I’ve read of the taking of land by the dominant caste. 

 

Carroll’s poetry covers a lot of territory, and several of the roads, the trips, have also been made by me, and I love reading what she saw, what she wrote of things we both saw, but differently. She saw far more than I. And wrote beautifully about them. 

 

“Cherokee Sevens” is a whole new form to this reviewer. There are seven stanzas, each stanza has seven syllables, each syllable has its own line. A native version of a haiku? 

 

“Spacious Skies” gives us a glimpse of ‘rainy Puyallup’ and the Washington State Fair, and her trip to the Pacific Ocean. I love her descriptions of places I’ve visited often through the years. Her poems take us all over different times and places with a marvelously unique voice of a member of the Cherokee Nation.  

 

A beautiful book not to be missed. It belongs by your bed, or wherever you read. It belongs on your bookshelf. It belongs in your hands as you read and re-read the poems.

Buddha's Cat, poems --by Wayne Lee

 ASIN: B0D6V9SP7Z

Publisher: independently published (June 11, 2024

Paperback: 51 pages

Poetry, Literary Fiction

5 Stars

 

I loved reading this book so much I’ve read it 3 times. There isn’t a poem in this book that will not twist your emotion with humor—or tears. The first poem, Buddha’s Cat, is one such poem. Actually, it’s one of the best explanations of the philosophy of Buddhism I’ve read. I’ve long thought that if reincarnation is true, I want to come back as a spoiled lap cat. Buddha’s Cat showed me where I was wrong—I should want to come back as a bird or a mouse.

 

The poem about the beach dog is wonderful. How this dog lives, and the respect he earns is laugh out loud delightful. If you like cats and dogs, if you’ve ever been owned by one or more, read Buddha’s Cat. Most poems are short, with just a couple being longer. All the poems are worth the read. Honest. Trust me.

LOKA (Book 2 of Allowy Era) --by D. B. Divya

 ASIN: BOBP8B53YN

Publisher: 47North (August 13, 2024

Language: English

File Size: 5238 KB

Print length: 366 pages

Genetic Engineering/Hard Science Fiction

5 Stars

 

I all but inhaled Meru, Book 1, and had pre-ordered Loka before finishing Meru. Give you an idea how much I liked it. I also forgot about it, so I was very surprised when I received a notice that Loka had been delivered. And it wasn’t even my birthday!

 

Divya is one of the best world builders I’ve ever read. And I absolutely love well done worlds. In Meru, we followed Akshaya’s parents. In Loka we follow Akshaya, who was genetically engineered by her mother to live and thrive on Meru. Of course, Akshaya had no say in it, and after living on the Spaceship Loka for all of her young life, she and her mother go to Earth for a while.

 

Akshaya and her heart sibling make the trip together, and have a great adventure. Akshaya wants to be genetically changed so she can live and thrive on Earth. Earth is what she read about, dreamed about, but as she comes of age, she gives much serious thought to her life, where does she really belong? In the end, she makes the adult decision, even though it is very painful, having to chose between Meru and Earth. But, this is fiction, and I am fairly certain Ms. Divya is a bit of a romantic.

 

One of the best coming of age books I’ve read in a long time. 

Murder Undeniable (Book 1 of 4) --by Anita Waller

 ASIN: B09C6LYW2T

Publisher: Bloodhound Books (December 10, 2018)

Language: English

File size: 5307 KB

Print Length: 248 pages

Contemporary British Fiction/Amateur Sleuth Mysteries)

 

All Kat wanted was to become Bishop for her church. Until she met Leon. Now she is both a Bishop and happily married to the man of her dreams, Leon. Leon is a very successful businessman, and owns a series of drug stores. And then, one morning, Kat is with Leon, and they discover two bodies in the alley behind the main pharmacy of Leon’s. One is very dead, the other not quite.

 

Kat checks on the young lady who is in the hospital, as a concerned person, plus as a good Christian. The young lady is called Mouse. They become good friends, and bring in Mouse’s grandmother, and as a trio, they solve the murder and attempted murder, and go into business together as Kat and Mouse, PIs, for at least 3 more books. 

 

Maybe consider this a love child between Midsommer Murders and Vera. A great cozy, but there is a tad more violence than usual, though considerably less than is usual in our murder mysteries. Good wit, acerbic wit, and likable cops. I liked it well enough I just bought books 2, 3, &4!

Memories of the Lost --Barbara O'Neal

 ASIN: B0CQ8AQZJ16

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (July 30,2024)

Language: English

Also available in print

Sibling Fiction/Friendship Fiction/Sisters Fiction

5 Stars

 

Every Barbara O’Neal book I read is better than the one I read before. It’s been a long time since I’ve read the late Maeve Binchy so my comparison may be way off base, but in my mind, O’Neal is Binchy reincarnated. At least, I enjoy O’Neal’s books as much as I did Binchy’s.

 

This story, about a young lady, an artist, Tillie Morrisey who was a single child to her single mom, discovers, once her mother dies, and she’s cleaning out Mom’s house her own death certificate as a young child. 

 

As if that’s not bad enough, just a few days prior, she goes to an art gallery to support her best friend who has his first showing, and while there all but falls into a painting by an unknown artist and is helped by a handsome stranger. 

 

So, we have a mystery, several mysteries. Why did Tillie find her death certificate? She was very much alive and had not been in a fire when she was a child. At least, she didn’t remember it. Who is the handsome Aussie who has entered her life? When she contacts the artist who painted the picture she tried to fall into, she finds out it’s in England.

 

Busy, getting paintings finished and together for her up-coming show, she finds she is getting lost in her paintings and when she returns, she has no memory of painting the changes, but those who have seen them think they might be her best yet.

 

She decides to take a few days to visit England, see if she can find the house in the original painting and instead, she finds the most marvelous answers to all of her mysteries. It’s so nice to read a HEA book where no one dies, where no one resorts to violence. And I really do enjoy a good story, and a Happy Ever After ending.

The Book of Delights --by Ross Gay

 Publisher: Algonquin Books; First Edition (February 12, 2019)

Language: English

Hardcover: 288 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1616207922

Essays (mini), Memoir

5 Stars

 

A friend informed me I really needed to read this book. Since I’d read a couple of Gay’s poems, and as I walked through the bookstore, and this book just happened to fall off a shelf into my hands, I figured it was a sign. I bought the book.

 

There are 102 essayettes, as Gay calls them, in the book. I call them mini essays—some are as short as one paragraph, taking less than half a page, a few are longer, but most are three pages or less. The book is 5” x 7.5” and easy to read. 

 

Gay spent a year writing about things that brought him delight—everything from the taste and texture of a food to sunlight falling through leaves; flowers in a statue’s hand (one of Hoagy Carmichael) to meeting people. This book is a total delight to read. I originally thought I’d read just one or two a night. I finished it in a week. I do most of my reading at night, after I go to bed, and I read this book after I’d read other books, because I knew I’d drift off to sleep with something fun and, well, delightful, to be contemplating as I fell asleep.

 

This a book you will not only enjoy reading, you will enjoy buying copies to give away to friends, or even a stranger you recognize on your commute. 

I Ain't Afraid --by Diane Helentjaris

 Publisher: Alkira Publishing, 1^st edition (Augus 16, 2024

Language: English

Paperback: 316 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1922329707

Biography: Nonfiction

5 Stars

 

Having never heard of Lulu Bell Parr, I found myself unable to put the book down until I finished it. I think she may have out-calamitied Calamity Jane! This woman wasn’t afraid of anything but not having a job! And what a series of jobs she had! And the fact that she died after I was born, and still hadn’t heard of her amazed me because I read anything I could find, even newspapers, about the wild west. Wow! What a life she led. 

 

The photos in the book added a great deal to help visualize who she was. Thank you, Ms. Helentjaris for running away from home as a youngster to take a nap in the graveyard, and really, thank you for coming home, growing up, and writing this book. Thank you for all the research you did, and for bringing all the people back to life!

 

This is not a dry history of date, happening and more of the same. This story reads like a well-done novel—but it isn’t. It’s real. And check out her boots on the cover. I wish I could give it more stars, but 5 is the highest I can go.