We Had Our Reasons: Poems by Ricardo Ruiz and Other Hard-Working Mexicans from Eastern Washington —by Ricardo Ruiz and others

 Publisher: Pulley Press

May 3, 2022

Paperback: 212 pages

ISBN: 979-898526320

English & Spanish

Cost at time of review: $18.00

5 Stars

 

I do not often read a book that in my opinion should be mandatory reading and with discussion prior to receiving a high school diploma. This is one of those books. (The other three are: The Absolutly True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie; Caste: The Origins of our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson; and, Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm). Too few of us have any genuine knowledge of people with different backgrounds who live, work, and contribute to our country. It’s time we learned, and not only accept them, but embrace them and the cultures they bring and contribute to our country.

 

The first thing I noticed about this book was the bilingual nature. The even numbered pages are in English, the odd numbered pages are in Spanish. The second thing I noticed is these poems are honest. The tell of pain, of fear, of good times and of bad. The opening poem, “A Sleeping Bag and a Semi” is part of Centavo’s story. “I came from Mexicali across the border. // “I was born in California, / so I could have walked but I didn’t know. / I was bound up in not knowing.”

 

“Lost in the Desert” is the longest poem in the book, with one of the voices of David who is elder brother of Ricardo, and Salvador and Ramiro. It tells the story of crossing the desert, the hardships, the pains, and a friendly Border Patrol Agent. “The way in the desert is long, and lonely.” “My nephew, my sister, and I were left / while we slept.” “We drank water from an animal trough.” “The truth is, you play a lot with your life in the desert…”

 

The biographies of the collaborating poets are fascinating. Can you imagine going to work in the fields when you are five years old? Expected to contribute your earnings to the household? I can’t, either. But I have a much better understanding of that lifestyle now than I did before I read the book. Can you imagine your whole family living in a single room? Parents, younger siblings, possibly aunts and uncles? I can’t. 

 

Did you know if you eat food grown in Eastern Washington, chances are it was harvested by Mexicans, perhaps processed by Mexicans, and there is even a possibility one of those hardworking Mexicans owns the dirt upon which the produce was grown!

 

Buy this book. Read this book. Learn from and enjoy this book. And, just for grins, hire out and spend a month working and living with them in the next harvest season. It will change you in ways you didn’t know possible.

Take the Sun with You and Other Stories—by Gregory Allen Mendell.

 Publisher: KDP

September 26, 2022

1132 KB

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BGMPGG5M

4 Stars

 

I truly do love a good short story, and to find a collection of good science fiction short stories, by a scientist no less, is wonderful.

 

These stories are what I believe is called “Hard Science Fiction” and I enjoyed them very much. Especially the last one. While I enjoyed all of them, the last one was my favorite.

 

If you take the science out of these stories, they will not hold together. And that, my friends is how to tell good science fiction from fantasy.

 

Mendell is a scientist and worked at the Hanford Site for many years. If he writes that A = Ax, then, if you do the math, you will find A = Ax. In other words, as a rocket scientist, he writes darn good stories. 

 

These stories are the perfect stories to read before you turn the light out at night. They are fun and will not come back to haunt you at 0230 hours. Honest. Trust me.

Arms of My Longing --by Kate Aver Avraham

 Publisher: Blue Light Press

September 16, 2021

Paperback: 42 pages (chapbook)

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1421837072

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1421837079

Cost at time of this review: $7.28

5 Stars

 

From the first poem, If you’re already on the road at five a.m., I was hooked. When on a road trip, I am frequently up and on the road by then. She writes of the Langendorf bread truck—could we have been neighbors at one time? I remember their bread and their bread trucks. And then, she nails me, “…take off your shirt / ride along in just a red tank top even though your arms are a little flabby, but you don’t care” and dare I admit, I, too, drive a Honda. She has written my autobiography in the first poem and done a better job of it by far than I could ever accomplish.

 

Her poem, Compassion, is a lesson we can all learn from, “This morning I gave five dollars / to a kid on the street / who said he was hungry. Everyone else ignored him”. In Portal, on a “Thick January night” she listens to Yo-Yo Ma play Bach and neither awake nor asleep, her father, “…[a] lover of Bach, / gone twenty long years, / … walks through the portal to join me.” This one brought memories of joy. The portal to my father is classical Spanish guitar.

 

Avraham writes of a truly tragic loss, of losing her son, and though I have never gone through such a loss, her poetry brought me as close to that heart wrenching pain as possible. Yet, she is neither maudlin nor whiny but introspective and plaintive.

 

This title of this collection explains the poems contained herein with the joy being alive. The last poem, Just for a While Longer, ends with “Just for a while longer / I want to feel life / jumping up inside me, / spinning me round and round / in circles of wonder.” And that sums the book beautifully. When you own your own copy of this book, you will be able to feel that life and spin and spin in ever widening circles of wonder.

Finding Her --by Kristie Williams

 Publisher: Finishing Line Press

August 19, 2022

Paperback: 44 pages (chapbook)

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1646629361

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1646629367

Cost at time of this review: $14.99

5 Stars

 

The poems in this book are, simply, amazing. The first poem, One Minute, is a poem of grief, of loss, of acceptance. I think it helps in reading her poems to note she is writing her story of quadriplegia and cerebral palsy. Her poems are not whines of ‘oh, woe is me’ they are frank looks at herself from where she started to where she is. The final lines of her poem, One Minute, says it all, “Before Quietly Stepping Into / Who I Am Now.” She is not a victim; she is a victor.

 

A few of her poems are as short as 3 lines, such as A Refracted Moment, “I watch my mother cry / desperate to reshape the asymmetrical daisy / swimming in her box of tears” and some are long as two pages. Most are one page.

 

All her poems have a line that will resonate. At least they did with me. Such as the second stanza of Portrait of a Magpie, “She is not misfortune; contrarily, she has soured / Soaking in wine and seasoned with antidepressants—"

 

However, for me, the piece de resistance of the book culminates in the third to last poem, Watching You Undress Me (A Love Letter to Body Image). It’s a love letter to body image, it’s a love letter to self, it’s a love letter to her lover. It is a beautiful poem to the beauty of being human, of acceptance, of, simply, being alive.

 

The last poem is a short one, and closes this book quietly, with many thoughts about living life to the fullest. A Diggers Lot, “Sitting alone / at time’s end—"

 

I’m not the only one who liked Watching You Undress Me—it was nominated for a Puschcart! Buy this book. 

These Days of Simple Mooring: New and Selected Poems --by Florence Weinberger

 These Days of Simple Mooring: New and Selected Poems —by Florence Weinberger

 

Publisher: Blue Light Press

July 27, 2022

Paperback: 122 pages

ISBN-10: 1421835231

ISBN-13:978-1421835235

5 Stars

 

Poetry should be read aloud, each syllable should be felt in the mouth, savored, sent forth on your breath with its siblings. This book is no exception.

 

I had the opportunity, through the magic of Zoom, to see Ms. Weinberger read from her new book. Within a few days, I had my own copy, I am so glad I both saw/heard her, and now can see/hear her again and again. 

 

As you can see from the photo, I have it heavy and colorfully marked, poems and lines I will return to again and again. From the first poem, “What We Did Sundays During the War” to the last, “Announcement” we are given a memoir, a history lesson, words of beauty. Usually, when I read a collection like this, I find a few poems that take my breath away with their beauty, most of the poem are very good, and there are a few I wonder why they were included. I did not have that happen with this book. There were several that took my breath away, and all the rest were marvelous.

 

“What We Did Sundays During the War” begins: ‘In the early forties, few people owned a car, and if you had one, / you hardly used it, because gas was rationed.’ Weinberger goes on to tell us how they visited her father’s nephew, Benny. Benny was a doctor, and she stayed in the waiting room and read magazines she never ‘saw anywhere else, like Esquire.’ 

 

There are five parts to this collection—the first, and longest is These Days of Simple Mooring,  The Invisible Telling Its Shape, Breathing Like a Jew, Sacred Graffiti, and Ghost Tattoo.

 

The Invisible Telling Its Shape begins with ‘I’m Not Playing Around. A short 7-line poem of a girl who gave as good as she got. She made herself visible and, I dare say, held her own with the school yard bullies.

 

Breathing Like a Jew starts off with, “From Where the Feet Grow.”  ‘Curious how Yiddish won’t translate easily / into American idiom so I can share with you / the graze of my father’s judgment, /’ 

 

“Survivor” tells ‘the depths of smokestacks, down ‘to the bone-bottom ground’ It ends, “This year, he will show his daughters / where he was born. He will show them /the chimney, the iron gate, / the deep oven where his mother baked bread.’ Between that poem and the next, “He Wears Old Socks which contains the lines, ‘It’s the way he / represents the dead’ I had to pause, to swallow the ash, to remember.

 

Another very short poem, from Sacred Graffiti, “From a Penitent’s Hand” ‘There is a plant called crown of thorns, / leafless, spiky, clotted with red / flowers. // Once it grew outside my house. Now / it lives inside my head, scratching, scratching / to get out.’

 

I truly enjoyed the differences in her poems not just of subject matter, but style. Prose poems to structured poems, to narrative. The length also varies, so the reader doesn’t get bored by the sameness—there is no sameness, except in the depth and breadth of the collection.

 

The last poem, “Announcement” neatly closes the book with these four lines. ‘A grandchild reads Tarot cards, but won’t do mine. / They know my life’s not found in the flip, //not in the Death or the Priestess cards, but somewhere / in the cloud, written out in longhand, and still unlived.’

 

Reading this book takes you on trips to the other side of the world. Gives you entrée into the lives of people that I, for one, wish I could know. This is a perfect book to read at night, before turning out the light. Read one or two, out loud, feel the words, send them into your room and from there into the world.

 

The Raven Song: A Novel (A Conspiracy of Magic Book 2) --by Luanne G. Smith

 Publisher: 47North

October 11, 2022

ASIN: B09NPQZBHM

7096 KB

5 Stars

 

I loved The Raven Spell and was delighted when the second book came out. Although I think this book is a stand-alone book, I strongly urge you to read the books in order. A lot takes place in the first book that is only alluded to here, in the second. 

 

The witch, Edwina, must flee Victorian London, and the stalker it holds for her. Her apartment and store are gone, her sister buried, and her parents gone, and if they come back, how will they find her?

 

She has a beau, of sorts, in the supernatural detective Ian Cameron who whisks her off to the lands north. There, she must find herself. Who is she? Her only ability is to shape shift to a raven, and find sparkly things—like jewels, precious metals, etc. things people lost and may not even know they’ve lost.

 

Why is she being stalked by a man she doesn’t know? What does he want with her? Will she really be safe in the land of the Scots? Read along, and get your answers in real time as she get’s them. 

The Stroke of Winter: A Novel —by Wendy Webb

 Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

November 1, 2022

ASIN: B09PBJ3JML

6732 KB

5 Stars

 

It’s winter in the lakeside town of Wharton and Tess Bell is renovating the old family home into a bed and breakfast. There are nights when she hears something scratching to get out from behind a door that has been locked since way before she was born.

 

A hard storm comes to town, and she rescues a white dog, who moves in. Obviously, he had a home, but no one has reported him missing, and he’s stayed. He, too hears the scratching.

 

When the room is opened, she finds her late grandfather’s studio and five paintings by him that give her nightmares, as they tell of a nightmarish incident. Was her grandfather a killer? What would that do to his and the families reputation? She never knew him as he died before she was born, but heard stories, and his paintings brought big bucks to the family. Who is the ghost trying to get out? Who is the man seen in the window? So many questions! And the pages seem to turn by themselves to show me the answers.

 

A fun book, a great read. Light a fire in the fireplace, fix a hot drink of choice, and settle back for a truly fun ghost story.

Keeper of Enchanted Rooms (Whimbrel House Book 1) —by Charlie N. Holmberg

Publisher: 47North

November 1, 2022

ASIN: B09MCY9Y34

6787KB

5 Stars

I read this delightful story as an eBook. This story, the sequel of which I have preordered, gives a whole new meaning to the term, “Haunted House.” 

 

The house is not haunted by ghosts, as one would expect, the house, itself is the haunt. It can, and does, move walls when it wants to, turn the stairs into a slide on a whim, throw book in the library, rearrange said books just for grins. It can split beds in the middle of the night, move half to another room, and watch the fun when two people wake who went to bed separately. 

 

The story takes place in Rhode Island, 1846. Merritt Fernsby has been cut off from his family and the only woman he loved vanishes, and suddenly finds himself the heir of a long-abandoned house on an island that has been unoccupied for a hundred years or so.

 

In a place and time when several people have magic, Fernsby does not. But his house does, and Hulda Larkin, a licensed “House Tamer” is sent to help him control the house. Oh, the house is on an island, one which no one bothers to visit. 

 

Haunted houses can be “tamed” and people can live with it (preferred) or the house can be exorcised, which is not optimal.

 

This is a marvelous story, written by someone who shares her vivid imagination and universe with the world. Buy it. Go to the beach. Rent a room with a view of the ocean, hope for a storm, sit, and read. 

Fifty Words for Rain: A Novel --by Asha Lemmie

 Dutton

September 1, 2020 

ASIN: B082ZQWRT

File size: 2752

Print size: 463 pages

Price: differs with type of book

3 Stars

 

Why, you ask, only 3 Stars? Because it’s the most “neutral” number I can think of, it’s right in the middle. Do I recommend this book? Depends on what you want in a novel. The good news first: It held my interest, I devoured it in one day. So if holding your interest is paramount, then yes, I recommend it. The bad news: It’s a tragedy to do the Bard proud. I think it would depress even the infamous Murphy of various laws. If you feel better after reading a book where if it can go wrong, it will go wrong, then this is the book for you.

 

Alas, I want my fiction (it is, after all, make believe) to end Happily Ever After. I don’t care for downer books. And, yet, I couldn’t put it down. (I had to keep reading for the HEA ending.) I did enjoy the characters and find myself hoping for a sequel where Nori finds her long missing relative, how she manages to work with/against the Yakuza. And, just maybe, that elusive HEA ending. 

 

There are plenty of reviews and plot synopses on the web. The book begins in 1948 when Nori, the child of a black American GI and an aristocrat mother is left with her grandparents at the age of 8. Her grandfather wanted to take her to the back yard and shoot her like he would a sick dog. Her grandmother was slightly more devious and won that battle. If it’s bad, it happens. Nori survives. But at what cost?

Belated Mornings—poems by John Macker

 Turkey Buzzard Press

 2022

ISBN: 978-0-945884-16-3

44 pages

$10.00 at time of this review

5 Stars

 

A small book, filled with large poems. I don’t mean the poems take up physical space, they take up brain space. Each one needs to be read, cogitated, chewed, swallowed, and digested, starting from the books’ epigraph, “That is my profession. / I am an archaeologist of morning.” —Charles Olson.

 

Our odyssey begins with Indian Summer, “Autumn as much a notion as it is / warm day, wind-drawn red crayon / moon above the canyon in slow motion, / a crisp yellow leaf afloat in its singularity / flows down a shadowed stream / into the Roaring Fork, is peace”

 

Macker takes us through mornings as night becoming light and mornings of memory. We are brought into the confessional in places, as he tells us about his first confession in the poem, St. Louis Blues. 

 

Every poem is a picture, every poem has language and lines that resonate, biophilia ends with, “or hosanna Greta Thunberg’s name / in the church of feral light” and solstice ends with “I fear the longest night of the year / will last until spring” Oh, how many times have I thought that, only without such simple beauty!

 

The title poem, Belated Morning is a showstopper.  “Last night starry-eyed blue whales / swimming over a yellowed desert appeared” and later, “…if you / don’t shine your morning light on the world / you aren’t listening, you aren’t breathing /”

 

These poems are musical, and accessible to anyone who wants a good story. One does not have to dig deep into hidden meaning and metaphor, one can simply read, and the best way to read any poem is to read it out loud! These poems stopped me several times, just for the sheer beauty of the words and the image they convey.

 

Stars Born Reaching begins “A rare hard rain at night on a flat / roof sounds like a jazz drummer’s / wet dream or palpitating steps late for / a flight…” I had to stop and remember all the times when it would rain and my grandfather and I would grab a book and go out to the travel trailer, stretch out and read until we went to sleep. And how many times I had to run to catch a connecting flight at the other end of the airport!

 

The book ends with the gentle hours. A gentle poem in Macker’s kitchen as he’s up and “shedding the shortened sleep” The last words, the words he leaves us with are words we can all hear in our minds, lean back in the chair with a cuppa, and cogitate, no matter our age. “…At my age I / become something I’m not all over again / and it fits me like a glove. Fate is a direction / that won’t let me lose my way.”

 

I recommend this book to any lover of poetry, as well as those who aren’t quite sure about poetry. Buy this book, it will be a treasure to read and a beacon on your bookshelf reminding you to live—and enjoy your mornings, no matter how you find them. 

 

To purchase this book, please contact the author, John Macker at mackerjohn@yahoo.com. The cost is $10.00 plus s/h of $3.50. 

The Color of Dirt: poetry and flash fiction --by Giulio Magrini

 Word Association Publishers

September 2, 2022

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1633854655

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1633854659

178 pages Paperback

$19.95 at time of this review

5 Stars

 

I had an opportunity to read an ARC of this book, and liked it tremendously, only to discover the author and his editor made many changes, so that gave me the reason to read the new and improved version when it came out.

 

Dirt seems an improbable subject for such a marvelous book of poetry and short prose pieces, but it all comes together, beautifully.

 

Magrini is an Italian American, and some of the poems are in Italian. I strongly urge the reader to read the Italian out loud before reading the English version. Do the best you can with the Italian. It is a beautiful language full of expression. Actually, all poetry should be read aloud, whether to an audience or yourself is your choice.

 

The book is in six sections i. Amore (Love), ii. Arte (Art), iii. Odiare (Hate), iv. Politica e Guerra (Politics and War), v. Sporco (Dirt) and vi. Famiglia e Relazioni (Family and Relationships).

 

Between the first poem, “Vince to Rachel Over the Fourth River in November,” we are introduced to a poet who writes what I call accessible poetry. It is accessible to any who read it, without having to hunt for, and define, the metaphors. “Every time // I love you // A flake of snow / Forms separate / Distinguishable //” and the last writing in the book, “The Color of Dirt Afterword” is humor, love, anger, loss, hope and yes, an admonition or two. “...Reject those who would sever you from your place. We have put our hands in the dirt and sanctified each other.”

 

Although Magrini has performed his poetry including “The Pittsburgher: A memorial for Richard Caliguiri, Mayor of Pittsburgh 1977-1988,” this is his first book, and I say it is about time for the rest of the world to read and enjoy this person and his works. 

The Brotherhood of the Wheel (Book 1 of 2) --by R. S. Belcher

Tor Books

2016

ISBN: 978-0-7653-8028-0 (hardcover)

ISBN: 978-1-4668-7153-0 (e-book)

416 pages

5 Stars

Having just finished the Golgotha Series (Books 1-4, 5 & 6 are not yet out) I decided I needed more, so picked up the Brotherhood of the Wheel series (2 books, so far). This book is a tad more modern than the Golgotha ones, and there was a point where I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue reading, and then I remembered not only is this fiction, it is urban fantasy fiction at its finest, so settled in for an enjoyable read.

 

The beginning seems a tad disjointed as we are introduced to the main characters, Jimmie Aussapile, long haul trucker; Lovina, a smart and savvy detective in New Orleans; and Heck Sinclair, a smart ass member of the Blue Jocks motorcycle club. There are, of course, other people to be introduced to, most nice, some notso. 

 

This is dark fantasy, but there is enough light in the tunnel to make it a worthwhile read for my eyes. Belcher knows how to write a dark scene, and he also knows how to throw light on it by the end of the book. And leave you wanting the next book. Which, fortunately, I have.

 

I love Knights Templar stories, and this has to be one of the all time bestest ever! If I may offer a work of advice: Buy both books, check into a hotel with room service, and spend a few days reading on your schedule, not family’s or boss’s. Take the book down to the hot tub, soak without the jets, and read. Read in bed, read on the floor, and don’t clothes the drapes when you go to bed. Leave the night light on. One never knows what those shadows really are.

If this document should survive —by Robin Wyatt Dunn

 John Ott

May 4, 2022

ASIN: B09ZKPDDD2

4028 KB

$1.00 at time of writing this review

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1940830362

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1940830360

63 pages

$6.00 at time of writing this review

4 Stars

 

To be honest, I’m not sure what I read. I kept at it because the writing was such fun. The story, if there is one, is stream of conscious writing, with beauty in the words. It takes place in a large city in Arizona, though I kept trying to put it in Las Vegas. The protagonist works in a windowless office, beneath the city, and fancies himself in love, or maybe lust, with a woman who wears dead scorpions in her hair. 

 

It was an interesting story to read before turning the light out. I stretched it over 3 nights, and no nightmares; it is not a horror story, just weird and strange. This is the first story I’ve read by Mr. Dunn. I will try at least one other. As mentioned above, I’m not sure what I read, but the writing was enjoyable, hence the 4 stars instead of 3. Actually, if the writing hadn’t been as good as it is, I wouldn’t have finished it. 

 

Perhaps because it is a stand-alone short story, and not a full novel, there is no way to leave a review at either Amazon.com or Goodreads.com. I found that rather interesting, especially on the Amazon site.

corre y corre sin detenerte / run and run without stopping — by undocumented youth detained in Pierce County WA

 Nonfiction / poetry

Copyright by Collateral

www.collateraljournal.com

cost: $10.00

s/h $2.00

 

The young men, aged 13-17 years, were unaccompanied minors and living in the Selma Carson Home in Pierce County WA at the time of publication. Volunteer translators/interpreters helped facilitate some poetry workshops, and we are the beneficiary. The writers, identified only by one initial, had a range of education from no classroom or literacy background to middle- to high-school.

 

When told their poems would be published, smiles covered their faces. And well that news should make them smile. All twenty poems are given in Spanish and then English. They are all heartfelt and range from three-line poems to one that takes up most of two pages. A surprising (to me) number were written in English then translated into Spanish. And all are from the heart.

 

Topics range from Mom to home, the wind, lions, a bird, freedom. The book is 6” x 6”, holds 11 sheets, folded and saddle stapled. I hope you will go to the link, https://www.collateraljournal.com/community and buy a copy. It’s a marvelous piece of optimism and hope and love of life. It is well worth your time and money to have your own copy.

The Shotgun Arcana (Golgotha Book 2) --by R. S. Belcher

 Fiction / Weird Western / Fantasy / Horror / One Heckuva Ride

Tor Books

October 7, 2014

ASIN: B00J6TWJAU

1507 KB

ISBN-10: ‎ 0765374587

ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0765374585

400 pages

5 Stars

 

Boy Howdy! Am I ever glad I followed my hunch and read Six Gun Tarot (Book 1) first. I actually read this book 4^th. I truly encourage you to read Book 1 first, as the groundwork is laid for the others. Once you’ve read Six Gun Tarot, I don’t think the order matters too much, though if read out of order you’ll entertain yourself with some mental gymnastics over the characters. Nothing serious. But read Book 1 First.

 

Mr. Belcher has created one of the most fun universes ever with the Golgotha books. If you like a pinch (ok, a quart) of weird thrown into your books, check this series out. Buy all the books, head to your favorite hotel for a weekend of binging. Use room service. Take with you as you sit in the hot tub, and for heaven’s sake, turn your phone off! Leave a jar of peanut butter, a loaf of bread, and a gift certificate for pizza on the counter if you have family at home. Don’t forget to turn off your phone!

 

I am collecting the hard copy books. Yes, I will pack them around if I move. They are that good. Anne Bishop and Patricia Briggs, there is a new kid on the bookshelf, skootch over a bit and welcome him to the family. 

 

Six Gun Tarot

Shotgun Arcana --you're already here, do you really need a link?

Queen of Swords

Ghost Dance Judgement

Chopped Liver: Short-form and Prose Poems by James Roderick Burns

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cyberwit.net (June 10, 2022zzzzz0

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Paperback ‏ : ‎ 72 pages

 ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 818253965X

 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-8182539655

4 Stars

 

Mr. Burns presents us with a book of short and prose poems. The book is divided into three sections, Hot Dog and Bun: A Duet in short poetry, Chopped Liver, prose poems; and A Dog’s Breakfast, Haiku, Tanka, and Sedoka.

 

Mr. Burns hails from Stockton-on-Tees, in the north of England, and brings to this collection his English humor and spelling. This book is his fourth collection of short-form poems.

 

I liked most, if not all, of his pieces, but my most favorite by far was a short prose piece with a three-line title: “A Crack on the Head is What You Get for Not Asking, And A Crack on the Head is What You Get for Asking.” I laughed out loud at “Attenborough Goes East.” I had no trouble seeing both of these stories as they unfolded.

i am the rage: A Black Poetry Collection —by Dr. Martina McGowan, illustrated by Diana Ejaita

Nonfiction / Poetry

Sourcebooks

February 2, 2021

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1728245079

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1728245072

112 pages

5 Stars

 

I have a habit that drives a lot of my friends bonkers, but I only do it to my books. I dog ear the bottom corner of the page I really like. I treat borrowed books much better. Over half the pages of this book are dog eared! Starting with the epigram at the start of the book, a Langston Hughes quote.

 

With the exception of the cover, which is in color, the art inside is black and white. The pieces go well with the poems, and though my first thought was they would get in the way of the words, I was thrilled to discover they add depth to them. Well done, Ms. Ejaita.

 

I have a strong suspicion that Dr. McGowan speaks for a lot of black mothers out there, if not all. And if you aren’t black, more importantly if you are white, this is a book you need to read. You can’t just say, “My best friend is black, I’m not a racist.” That may be true, I don’t consider myself a racist and one of my best friends is black, but I truly and freely admit I am ignorant (fortunately, ignorance is a treatable condition, and this book is part of the treatment!) of what it is like to be African in America.

 

From the title poem, at the beginning of the book with these stanzas, “I am the outrage that flares every time you say something foolish like / I thought you were already free  //  I am the disappointment that breathes hot and silent / Every time I am dismissed / Discharged / Dishonored / Cast aside / Counted as worthless or meaningless”

 

Or sending my child out on an errand or to a social gathering,  telling him goodbye as he leaves and praying he’s recognized as human and returns home safe. “There is too little time to allow our children / to be children” What a horrid fear black mothers must have for the children they love.

 

If “Traffic Stop” doesn’t wake you to the fact skin color plays a role in all our lives, nothing will. “There is always someone / Who thinks we are doing the things / They should be able to do / And by so doing, / Deprive them /.  A few pages on we come to “Tale of Two Georges” with the call to listen. Hear the silence. Use the silence. And the last stanza, which will bring tears to my eyes every time I read it, “I listen / If only that policeman had been taught to listen / That other George / Would still be alive.”

 

The words in this book speak to me as woman, as mother, as one who believes in equality. As Dr. McGowan says in Juneteenth, “Because someone must still be the lowest caste” being female in this country is hard enough. We don’t need all the other forms of hate. 

Discovery --by Don Krieger

 Nonfiction / poetry

Cyberwit.net

June 2020

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9389690870

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9389690873

100 Pages

5 Stars

 

 

I love a book that makes me think, that pulls my mind in different directions, that stretches my very being so I can never shrink back to my original dimensions. Discovery is just such a book. Although Mr. Krieger is an extremely intelligent man (he is a biomedical researcher who worked on-call for 18 years as clinical neurophysiologist for high-risk surgical procedures,) his poetry is accessible to anyone who wants to read it. And I hope you are one of those people!

 

I was grabbed by the Prologue, when I read, “Lately people talk faster than I can listen”. It’s so reassuring that I am not alone.

 

Many of the poems have QR Barcodes at the bottom of the page. If you scan one, you will be taken to a reading of that poem by Don Krieger. 

 

1970 is a short poem, powerful. “I was in that first lottery, / drawn by birthday, 341, / no worries. / … / so many I knew / gone.” The poetry in this book is honest and emotional, it is not ‘sweet’.

 

Stranger at the Door tells us of a young Don who biked to school, and the weather turned sour, and school let out early so he biked home, turned on his street and “…the wind came…like a wall, then the rain and the roar, flying branches and lightning.” The sky was black, and this cub scout (in his uniform) went to the nearest door and was told “You can wait on the porch.” OMG. That brought all my maternal instincts to the fore and I just want to reach back to that day and time and clobber the unfeeling adult and hold the little boy. 

 

We go from Eighth Grade Shop to discover Obeah, a spiritual practice of the Igbo of Nigeria and farther along, we discover what it is like to be part of a surgical team to the last piece, That Which Is Missing, “If a critic describes a piece as difficult, maybe it / is and maybe it isn’t, but surely he means that he understands it.” This piece explains why he writes, and how he writes. It, alone, is worth the price of the book. (But then, I said that about almost all the poems in this book!)

 

“I write because I have something to say. I remove things because / I want that something to move you because it moved me.” Mr. Krieger writes honest poetry, in whatever form it works best, and will stretch your mind so it can never return to its beginning dimensions.

The Ghost Dance Judgement (Golgotha Book 4) —by R. S. Belcher

 Fiction / Weird West/Horror/Twisted/Historical/Heckuva Ride

Falstaff Books, LLC

October 8, 2020

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1645540545

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1645540540

390 pages

5 Stars

 

Oh, my. All sorts of wonderful mayhem and madness visit the town where all are welcome—the saints, the sinners, the damned.

 

A stranger arrives with a little girl he rescued, Deputy Mutt deals with an old nemesis, Snake Man. Sheriff Jon Highfather gets a message from a dead man, via the stranger. Mayor Pratt finally must choose who he loves, and Auggie becomes a father of an innocent baby boy. Of course, all these various and sundry folk can’t just flip a card or a coin to choose. They must go through hell and highwater and even then, they aren’t all that sure. Are they?

 

And the Natives are not only restless, they’ve found a shaman who can bring the spirits of dead Natives back to life? How do you kill a spirit? One way, I suppose is to bring Allen Pinkerton in with a secret weapon built to spec by Thomas Edison. In the meantime, those Natives are able to kill with almost impunity. 

 

In the background of all the normal, everyday mayhem of Golgotha, the slumbering evil locked under Agent Mine, is hungry, and restless, and wants out. NOW. Will Golgotha ever bee civilized? I hope not. It’s too much fun like it is.

 

As I reached the end of this book, I realized everything had been taken care of, handled correctly, but the ending of this series left an unlocked door. An open door, actually. And yes, Books 5 and 6 are in the mill.

 

These books will go on the shelf with those of Ann Bishop and Patricia Briggs. Fortunately, I’m confident they will all play well together. 

The Queen of Swords (Golgotha Book 3) --by R. S., Belcher

 Fiction / Weird West/Horror/Twisted/Historical/A Heckuva Ride

Tor Books

June 27, 2017

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0765390094

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0765390097

368 pages

5 Stars

 

These books are stand-alone in a series, but I strongly urge you to read Six Tun Tarot (Book 1) first. Then you can read the books in any order. Six Gun Tarot gives the foundation on which this series is written. Since book 3 came at the same time as book one, I read it next.

 

This story is told in two separate timelines. The earlier one, in the 1720s tells us about the infamous pirate queen, Anne Bonney. Miss Bonney is a force to be reckoned with as the escapes the gallows, delivers a son, and searches for the lost city of bones somewhere in northern Africa.

 

One hundred fifty years later, in 1870 Anne’s great-great-great-granddaughter, Maude Stapleton, is a widow who is raising her daughter alone, until Maude’s father interferes, and takes the daughter from Maude and from Golgotha to raise her as a proper young lady and marry her off to the landed gentry of South Carolina. Alas, Maude’s dander is up. She needs to get her daughter back, her inheritance back, and deal with the Sons of Typhon all at the same time. 

 

Her father obviously never understood, perhaps never heard, the adage about Hell hath no fury like that of a woman scorned, let alone the advice to never get between a mama bear and her cub.  Especially when that woman, that bear, is named Maude Stapleton!

Six Gun Tarot (Golgotha Book 1) --R. S. Belcher

 Fiction / Western/Horror/Twisted/A Heckuva Ride

Tor Fantasy; Reissue

March 25, 2014

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0765367513

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0765367518

480 pages

5 Stars

 

I was given Ghost Dance Judgement by a friend. Now, I’ve read enough fantasy series in my life that I don’t have much of a problem coming in at the middle or end of a series figuring out what’s gone on before. And I didn’t have that problem with Ghost, either. However, after reading the first 20 or so pages, I realized this universe, this world, deserved to be started at the beginning, so I stopped, and ordered books 1, 2, 3. I am so glad I did.

 

Mr. Belcher has built a marvelous universe, in 1869 Nevada, and slightly earlier South Carolina. When I can put the books down long enough to go find my tarot cards and book, I will look the chapter headings up, in the meantime, I’m just reading. By starting at the beginning, I have a good background to read the other books. I’m already reading 3 (still waiting for 2 to arrive)

 

Golgotha kind of reminds me of Sanctuary of Thieves’ World (Robert Lynn Aspirin). Everyone is welcome as long as they can abide by the rules of keeping their nose out of other people’s business. Yeah. Right. Jim is a nice young man who killed a couple of guys back east and has come west to find a job with the railroad. He’s really a tenderfoot, and he and his faithful horse try to cross the 40-mile desert with no supplies. He’s rescued by a half-breed Indian/coyote called Mutt. The Sherriff is a dead man walking. It isn’t his time to die yet. Down in a cave are the golden tablets for the Mormons, and in an old silver mine an Olde Wurm (the original bad dude/thing/evil awakens and plans on eating every living thing on the planet, as well as the stars, etc. Unless, of course, our intrepid heroes can stop him.

 

Saddle up, Buckaroo, it’s one heckuva ride. Yes, there is a bit of gruesome, but I wouldn’t call it nightmare inducing. I don’t like horror because it gives me nightmares, and I read this book at night, just before turning my light out. Mostly I chuckled through the book. 

Secrets of Willow House: A heartwarming and uplifting page turner set in Ireland (Sandy Cove Book 1) —by Susanne O’Leary

 Fiction / Feel Good

Bookouture

March 25, 2019

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07ML46CWK

1845 KB

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1786818531

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1786818539

306 pages

5 Stars

 

This is meant as a compliment, truly it is. I’ve been missing Maeve Binchy and this book reminds me of her writing and stories. Not an adrenaline gusher, but a nice story of (mostly) nice people. It is predictable, but it is pleasantly so. The world is in such turmoil right now, it’s a delight to read something that you know will turn out alright, instead of the gloom & doom of news.

 

To be sure, this is Brain Candy, but it great fun, and we all need some calorie-sweetness in our lives now and again. So, pour a cuppa tea, heat a scone, and enjoy while you read.

The House at Mermaid's Cove --by Lindsay Jayne Ashford

 Fiction / Historical (WWII)

Lake Union Publishing

August 11, 2929

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07ZJ2Y3FG

5615 KB

Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 154200635X

287 pages

5 Stars

 

I borrowed this book with my Prime Reading membership. Not real sure what I expected, but Boy Howdy, was I pleasantly surprised. This book has it all—a nunnery, a spy, a resistance fighter, a widower, a want-to-be-ex-nun. Romance, obstacle, war. It’s all here, and masterfully told. The story mostly follows the people involved, not the blood and guts of war. If you like historical novels, a good love story, I think you might want to try The House at Mermaid’s Cove. It’s delightful.

Kill Three Birds: A Kingdom of Aves Mystery-- by Nicole Givens Kurtz

 Fiction / Fantasy / murder mystery / first in series

Mocha Memoirs Press

July 20, 2020

ASIN :   B089S8QHDT

1611 KB

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0984004238

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0984004232

200 pages

5 Stars 

 

I love new worlds with different people, customs, etc. Believe me, this book is a whole new galaxy. The characters are developed, believable, and interesting. There are a few glitches, but very few, and I suspect it’s where something was cut/pasted and the tense change got lost. Nothing big. And the world is so much fun, one can easily gloss over those areas.

 

The humans are birds, and at least some can fly. Our protagonist is the Hawk Tasifa. Hawks are detectives because they can see the unseen. And like any kind of “magic” there is a price to pay. Doves are the priests. There are insiders and outsiders, and it is very logical to the story who is which.

 

Kurtz has finely developed this world down to inhabitants, currency, certain phrases. I had no trouble suspending my disbelief and entering her world. In fact, it was a tad jarring to put the book down and return to my own mundane existence.

 

If you like world building, read this book. I suppose if you’re a mystery aficionado the mystery may not be all that great, but I try not to figure them out, as I like to be surprised by who dunnit. A great book.