The New Book Review

This blog, #TheNewBookReview, is "new" because it eschews #bookbigotry. It lets readers, reviewers, authors, and publishers expand the exposure of their favorite reviews, FREE. Info for submissions is in the "Send Me Your Fav Book Review" circle icon in the right column below. Find resources to help your career using the mini search engine below. #TheNewBookReview is a multi-award-winning blog including a MastersInEnglish.org recommendation.

Monday, December 26, 2016

Jan Peregrine Reviews Puts American Class in Perspective

White Trash
Subtitle: The 400-Year, Untold History of Class In America
Author: Nancy Isenberg
Author's Web site: www.nancyisenberg.com
Genre: Non-fiction
ISBN: 878-0-670-78597-1
Available on Amazon


Reviewed by Jan Peregrine originally for her Books on Facebook

Jan Peregrine's Books on Facebook
4.5 stars


Odds are very good that if you're an American too, then we're both members of the white trash class that has existed infamously, and mostly invisibly, since British settlers and their dependents planted their boots (or ill-covered feet) on the shores of the New World. I just finished reading Nancy Isenberg's book White Trash: the 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg who lives in Virginia as well as Louisiana. It's opened my eyes in many ways.
First we must understand that England colonized America with her criminals, vagrants, orphans, and misfits she didn't want simply filling up space, being an economic drain on society. Such people were considered a nuisance and irredeemable, which made them perfect for shipping off to a mysterious, untamed land of 'savages' like America. Scores of them died on the way.
Some wealthy men also sailed to this waste land with the intention of dominating the land as they dominated the poor wretches who worked their fields and kept their homes. We naturally inherited the British class system, Isenberg argues, and the poor became useful to the rich as laborers and breeders whose progeny inherited their parents' lower-class status and roles in society. The vision for America was never about creating the American Dream for everybody, not 'the' land of opportunity where social mobility rewarded those who worked hard for it.
And American politicians have continued to propogate this myth and others, including how the poor are to blame for their inferiority because of 'black' blood or their vulgar temperament and immorality. They may label white trash with many different names, but they're always present, especially in the South.
Isenberg takes us from the earliest days in the 1500s through the Founding Fathers, President Andrew Jackson's 'common man' image, other southern presidents, Civil War, the Confederacy, Reconstruction, the push for eugenics or sterilizing poor, white women, the Great Depression, and all the way up to the present day. Trump was mentioned once, for certain. Isenberg states that many celebrities like him owe their success to their rich, well-connected parents.

I suspect she alluded to Trump when she observed that if we allow elections to become a three-ring circus, don't be surprised if the dancing bear wins.

Reading this huge book was very engrossing. I wish I could write pages about what I found insightful and even entertaining. It may be American history, but it didn't seem dry and boring to me. Indeed it was memorable in the way America was portrayed through the angry eyes of one who represents the interests of the waste people, the white trash, the ones called rednecks today.

White trash have reinvented themselves in recent decades, triggered probably by Tammy Faye Baker's rise to stardom as an unrepentant, white trash princess and Bill Clinton making rednecks or 'Bubba' more accepted in polite society.
Highly recommended for those who wish to understand the turbulent forces behind Trump's terrifying rise on the waves of the disenfranchised masses.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Jan Peregrine was a Top Reviewer on epiinions.com for 14 years and now posts book reviews in Jan Peregrine's Books. They can be seen is on Facebook and  goodreads.com. Her novels are on Amazon  or Audible.


MORE ABOUT THE NEW BOOK REVIEW

The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Patricia Fry Shares Last-Minute Christmas E-Book Tip


No review today! Rather, a quick tip directly from my #SharingwithWriters newsletter to you because--though Amazon has been letting their customers buy books quickly and easily for some time--there still seems to be a lot of confusion about "Kindle" e-books.

So I have made this tip from Patricia Fry, founder of SPAWN, a semi permanent part of my newsletter. I also wanted to be sure subscribers and visitors to this blog benefit from it, too. And it seemed an appropriate time to share because I am pretty sure that many of you who come to this blog will need a truly last minute gift.

So . . .SharingwithWriters newsletter and Patricia Fry to the rescue!

========================================
Did you know that you can buy your e-books from Kindle, even if you don’t have a Kindle? Patricia Fry, founder of SPAWN says, “If you need an e-book but don’t have a Kindle, just go to any Kindle book page look for the buy options. [You may find a widget there offering a free app to make your download easier.] Choose Kindle. After you’ve done that, the site gives you several options or platforms for that book so you can buy the e-book for yourself or to send one as a gift to someone else whether or not you (or they!) have a Kindle. I believe this shows up on any Amazon page where they are selling Kindle. 
=======================================

MORE ABOUT PATRICIA FRY

Patricia Fry, author of the Klepto Cat Mystery series. First in the series is Catnapped, http://amzn.to/14OCk0W And her most recent in the Klepto Cat Mystery Series is By Cat or By Crook (ISBN 9780997519075). I just read it and loved that it would make a great gift for, say, readers from the ages of maybe 9 through any old age at all! Family fare! And, yes, available as a last minute e-book from Kindle (or any other  reader your recipient happens to use!) Buy the e-book on Amazon

MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG

 New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor
.

MORE ABOUT SHARINGWITHWRITERS NEWSLETTER

My #SharingwithWriters newsletter has been serving authors--all authors from traditionally published by New York's big five to those who truly self-publish to those who partner-publish--since 2003. It is an interactive newsletter where authors like Patricia can share their tips and articles with fellow authors and in doing so increase the exposure of their own books and successes. You may subscribe and get a free booklet--and e-booklet, of course!--at http://howtodoitfrugally.com http://howtodoitfrugally.com. There is a subscription form in the top right corner of most every page.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

E-book Help for Authors in Time for Holidays

Title: The Frugal Book Promoter
Subtitle: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher
Series: First in the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers
Cover by Chaz DeSimone
Awards: USA Book News winner, Irwin Award winner, honored by Dan Poynter's Global Ebook Awards
416 pages
Genre: Nonfiction/How-To/Writers/Careers
Available as e-book or paperback


Reviewed by Helen Dunn Frame

Carolyn Howard Johnson’s second edition of The Frugal Book Promoter, How to Do What your Publisher Won’t outlines what writers can do themselves. It offers good advice and is a most complete reference source for authors with little to extensive experience. Carolyn is great about networking and sharing. Back in the day, publishers helped to market books. In recent years, the landscape has changed dramatically and authors have to handle the brunt if not all the promotion even if published by a large traditional company. Not all writers can afford to hire help but they can afford this book. It’s worth adding to one’s library if only for the clarification about writing reviews on Amazon.

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Helen Dunn Frame
Retiring in Costa Rica or Doctors, Dogs and Pura Vida (Second Edition); Greek Ghosts, Love and Danger; Wetumpka Widow, Murder for Wealth; Secrets Behind the Big Pencil, Inspired by an Actual Scandal.
Website: http://bit.ly/1KxXt7T
  Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1COtMJn 

MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG

The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Reviews: The Answer to Book Sales and Career Success

How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically
Subtitle: The ins and outs of using free reviews to build and sustain a writing career
Third in the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers
ISBN-13: 978-1536948370
ISBN-10: 1536948373
ASIN: BOIMQCKRF5      
BISAC: LAN00400, BUS058010
Distributors: Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Createspace
For more advance information:
http://bit.ly/HowToGetReviews
To order as a paperback: http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews 

Reviewed by Helen Dunn Frame, author

Not long after I started reading Carolyn’s blogs, I began using her “Frugal” book series for reference regarding my writing. When Bookbaby.com  recently promoted advance copies of “Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically . . . , it delighted me to learn that she also designed her latest book for ease in consulting it on occasion. The timing was great. She published it just as our Writers Group discussed how Amazon handles reviews. Those guidelines are well-covered in this book.

If you are like me, an experienced writer, her latest creation will help you loosen the cobwebs about ways to garner reviews that you may have forgotten. You even might learn some new techniques.

In every book in her “Frugal” series, whether for editing or promoting, Carolyn generously shares with readers the methods she has used successfully. The appendices offer samples to follow including query letters, media kits, and media releases. Add it to your reference library and follow the path to get reviews today.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Helen Dunn Frame is the author of Wetumpka Widow, Murder for Wealth, a complicated story told from several viewpoints and fired by greed, manipulation, murder, romance, and sex. Learn more about her on her author's page at
http://www.amazon.com/Helen-Dunn-Frame/e/B0054LDOBW


MORE ABOUT THE NEW BOOK REVIEW

The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

A Holiday Gift from Favorite Publishing Smarties

I love it when my favorite smarties give me permission to reprint the wonderful tips they send to my e-mail box! Valerie Allen (see more about them by scrolling down!), Marshall Frank, and Holly Fox Vellekoop direct several Florida book fairs and I have used their fairs free (so frugal!) and very inexpensive opportunities to display my books--something I rarely do.  In fact, in my multi award-winning The Frugal Book Promoter, I warn authors against displaying a book at a fair without an agent, pr person, or the author herself on the premises to tout it. This article will show you one big reason Valerie and her team have kept me and my author husband coming back year after year!  It is a list of tips they sends to their book fair participants with tips and reminders after the fair and even the promotions they do with their local communities will give you ideas for your own promotions: 

TO: Authors and Book Sellers
RE: Meet the Authors' Book Fair – Nov. 19 & 20, 2016
FROM: Authors for Authors
Valerie Allen ~ Marshall Frank ~ Holly Fox Vellekoop
 Thank you, thank you. Great job at the book fair.
 Lots of good ideas, networking, and marketing goin’ on!

Networking opportunities are one of the best forms of marketing for all authors.
Here are some suggestions to extend your marketing after the book fair:
  • Keep in touch with each other via the handout in your folder
  • Send follow up email to those with whom you connected
  • Join the Space Coast Writers group on FB
  • Attend monthly meetings of the Space Coast Writers' Guild SCWG.org
  • “Friend” each other on FB, Twitter, GooglePlus, and Linkedin
  • “Like” each other's books on Amazon.com
  • Go to each other's web page and make a comment
  • Offer to read and review each other's books and post it online
  • Find out if anyone wants to do a book trade and give it as a holiday gift
  • Join a writers' group
  • Attend a writers' workshop, conference, book signing, book launch etc.
  • Read books by local authors, post a review online, recommend their books to others
  • Request a book by a local author from the library – they will buy a copy if they don't have one
  • Attend local author's presentations by the Brevard Authors' Society
  • Watch for Local Author Displays in our libraries and join in

Books in the Display Only Option have been processed. Those who wanted their book returned should have them soon, as the books are being mailed within the week. Books donated by the author will be used as door prizes, gift baskets, or in the Kids Who Read Succeed projects.
There are many writers’ groups available to keep you energized, so be sure to join one.
We want to thank the Space Coast Writer’s Guild, the League of American PEN Women, Cape Canaveral Branch, and Florida Book News for representation at the book fair. We hope you took advantage of meeting these folks. A special Thank You! To Robbie Cox for helping us get up and out there on FB.

FloridaBookNews.com is hosted by Lou@LouBelcher.com. Lou Belcher is an artist and author, and a long time supporter of Florida writers. She will post your news and events. You can also take advantage of advertising your web page with a click button on her site. Contact Lou for more details.

SharingWithWriters.BlogSpot.com is an award winning site for authors written by Carolyn Howard-Johnson. She also has a site to post your book reviews. Contact Carolyn at

Authors for Authors has been working with the Brevard County Libraries to set up FREE Local Author Book Displays each month. Watch for these notices and join in to further promote your book(s).

Authors for Authors will sponsor the Brevard Authors' Book Fair in 2017.
I hear you - yes, yes, yes—we will send you an email reminder and registration form.

Keep checking online at AuthorsForAuthors.com for updates.
Authors for Authors is asking for your ideas and suggestions to make these events more beneficial to writers, readers, and visitors. Your promotion of these events is always appreciated. We thank you for all the emails and feedback we have received. We love all the pics and posts online at Twitter, FB, and Google+. What else can we do to meet your needs to better market and sell your books? We want to hear from each of you about your experience at the book fair. Let’s work together to make things better.

Looking forward to seeing each of you again at the Brevard Authors Book Fair in 2017
Thank you from Authors for Authors
AuthorsForAuthors.com
~ Valerie Allen VAllenWriter@cs.com
~ Marshall Frank MLF283@aol.com
Holly Fox Vellekoop



--


MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER


The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Romantic Science Fiction from Christine Talley

The Girl in the Bird:
Subtitle: Romance and Alien Power in the Current Middle Ages
Author: Christine TalleyAuthor's website: http://talleychristine.wix.com/christinemtalley Genre: Fiction: romance/science fictionCopyright: 2015ISBN: 1523496673
Available on Amazon


Extracted from Sandra Woodruff's 5-star review on Amazon

"Great Read! 
"I really enjoyed the whole story line with the weaving of romance, science fiction, the SCA [Society for Creative Anachronism], and Pennsic war. . . .  I am very much looking forward to her next book! . . .  I really hated to have it end."


ABOUT THE NEW BOOK REVIEW

The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

The Liberty Zone Reviews "A Novel of the Near Future"


Title: Who
Subtitle: A Novel of the Near Future
ASIN: B01N9ETD3H
ISBNL 978-0-9980604-0-8ISBN: 978-0990564195
Purchase with global link for Amazon's Kindle editions: http://a-fwd.com/asin-com=B01N9ETD3H. Author's Web site: http://www.karenawyle.com
Five stars at Amazon


Reviewed by Nicki Kenyon" originally for her blog The Liberty Zone

I always get nervous when I get a request to review a novel. My usual MO is to read a book, and review it if I like it, so that others can get the same pleasure out of the novel as I did.

When it’s in reverse, and someone asks me to read a specific book and review it, my neuroses kick in. What if I hate it? What if the author is someone I like? What if it’s a friend or a family member, and I have to do a negative review, because the work sucks? What if it’s boring? What if it’s badly written? What if…

When Karen A. Wyle sent me a blurb about her new book “Who,” and asked if I would review it, I was intrigued by the description.
Death is no longer the end. Those who prepare, and can afford it, may have their memories and personalities digitally preserved. The digitally stored population can interact with the world of the living, remaining part of their loved ones’ lives. They can even vote.

But digital information has its vulnerabilities.

After the young and vital Thea dies and is stored, her devoted husband Max starts to wonder about changes in her preoccupations and politics. Are they simply the result of the new company she keeps? Or has she been altered without her knowledge and against her will?
But I was nervous at the same time, for the very reasons I described above. What if I hated it?

I needn’t have worried. I couldn’t put the book down. It was intelligently written, engrossing, and not at all what I expected.
I’m a fan of novels that explore what happens after we die. I’ve written at least one short story on the subject – something way too dark and depressing to share with readers right now.

One of my favorite episodes of the series “Black Mirror” involves a woman who loses her husband, who is subsequently “resurrected” by a service through the use of his extensive social media presence.  He is not real, and he is not meant to be. He’s merely an echo digitally created for her to communicate with – an echo she uses to keep the memory of her husband alive in the virtual world. Eventually, the service provides a body using synthetic flesh that is almost identical to her deceased husband. The robot isn’t real. It cannot be. He’s a digital echo comprised of all the information he stored about himself online.

In “Westworld” – one of my current favorite television series – the idea of androids gaining consciousness of the world around them is explored.

In the movie “AI: Artificial Intelligence” the story of Pinocchio is retold through robots who are capable of experiencing emotions and learning to be human.

The ideas in “Who” are not new, but Karen delves deeper into those ideas and explores what can happen when power-hungry humans get a hold of technology that can store human consciousness in digital form. At the same time she explores the digitized “humans” themselves and probes the idea of the human being – his essence, his conscience, and what makes the human being… well… human.

The bright side: Loved ones can continue to interact and be together in every form but the physical after the corporeal body has died.

The bad news: Like any technology, it can and will be abused for those seeking power and profit.

The “stored” dead people live in a digital world. Their consciousnesses downloaded – recorded and digitally preserved. They can interact with their loved ones and with one another. They can continue to create, work, and enjoy hobbies in their digital existence. They can get politically involved and eventually gain the right to vote.

Just imagine how this technology can be abused by power-hungry entities – both corporate and political!

Information stored is information that can be altered.

Personalities stored can be altered – changed to hold political views convenient to those in control – without the knowledge or consent of those to whom these personality traits ostensibly belong.

Can you imagine what an unscrupulous corporation – or politician – can do with that kind of power?

Could they create an army of voters who would form a solid voting block to push legislation through? Would the “stored” – altered to vote in a particular manner – eventually outnumber living voters and usher in a new era of government control and power, as designed by those who seek it?

And what about individual rights? Do the “stored” still have them, even though they’re digital entities “living” inside someone’s servers?

Are they human? What makes them human? What kind of protections do they enjoy under the Constitution?
These are all complex themes.

Karen is an attorney, and she obviously understands the law so well, that she is able to apply it to the characters she created and weave a tense courtroom drama that explores these issues – humanity, civil rights, digital technology, consciousness, conscience, and individuality.

She makes the legal dilemmas entwined in these very real issues readable and interesting without spewing lawyerese or preaching to the reader about right and wrong.

She simply tells a story, and she tells it well.

I’ve read plenty of authors who do nothing more than produce a thinly-veiled vehicle for their political views, with cardboard characters and a crappy plot. They lecture the reader endlessly about political ideals, and produce so much badly written dreck that does little more than allow them to vent in written form.

Karen A. Wyle does none of that. She seamlessly creates a complex world in the near future that is fraught with intricate and elaborate moral dilemmas and uses her knowledge of the law to weave an intelligent, suspenseful, and engrossing story!

It’s the holiday season, so grab and enjoy! This one’s a keeper!

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karen A. Wyle




MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG
 
The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Holiday Gift: Imperfect Echoes Supports Amnesty International

Imperfect Echoes
Subtitle: Writing Truth and Justice with Capital Letters, lie and oppression with Small

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Cover and Internal Art by Richard Conway Jackson
Genre: Poetry 
ISBN: 9781515232490
Available on Amazon as e-book or paper
Finalist USA Book News
All Proceeds Support Amnesty International



Holiday Gift for the Thoughtful Person on Your List


REVIEWED BY MARLAN WARREN, originally for Midwest Book Review

Narcissus knows her reflection
well. She forgets to peer
under burkas, in our jails,
in the beds of the abused,
deeper, deeper into the pond...

From Narcissus Revisited a poem
in Imperfect Echoes.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s “Imperfect Echoes: Writing Truth and Justice with Capital Letters, lie and oppression with Small” is just perfect. This Los Angeles award-winning poet lays out the landscape of her contemplative thoughts, feelings and reactions with such honesty and deceptive simplicity that they have the effect of offering a peek into her private journals. What puts this poetry on par with leaping tall buildings is the fact that each poem manages the feat of conveying personal and universal relevance at once.
 Do not be scared off by the prospect of political rhetoric masquerading as literature; this is not one of those books. Although the book's subtitle may strike some as rather lofty, it is a quote from Czeslaw Milosz's poem, “Incantation,” in his anthology, “The Captive Mind,” which reflects Howard-Johnson's poetic themes. She has divided her prolific poems into a Prologue plus four sections: “Remembering What We Must; “Nations: Tranquil Self-Destruction”; “Acceptance: Waiting for the Gift”; and “Future Stones of Distrust.”
 Howard-Johnson deftly blends the "Truth and Justice" observations with the "Small" moments of "lie(s)" and "oppression" as they intersperse through her poet's journey. The poems in “Remembering What We Must” address the stark realities of war and global misery, which Howard-Johnson treats with her practiced light touch that floats like the proverbial butterfly and stings like an outraged bee. 
In “Belgium's War Fields, she compares the reasons for bygone wars to our present day confusion: “And now a war that takes from the mouths /and hearts of the stranded, the homeless. / How different from those who / marched with snares or flew flags / in a war when we knew / why we were there.”
 In the Nations: Tranquil Self-Destruction” section, “The Story of My Missed Connection in Minneola” brings to life a brief rest stop during a road trip, which seems rather amusing at first as the wife relieves her bladder and the husband declines the coffee with “Let's skip it. Coffee's / probably been stewing for days...” but hits an unexpected bump of overt bigotry when the roadside store owner confides in them (in between the screeches of his pet parrot) that he left Los Angeles to get away from the “ragheads.”
 In the “Acceptance: Waiting for the Gift” section, “Relatives” takes on the ways in which "Small" minds can make a family dinner feel like a stint in Purgatory: “Perhaps you won't invite me back / if I mention that infamous / uncle. You know, the one who killed / three of his wives / but is candid / about who he is, / how many he's killed, / the methods he used / and never gets invited to dinner.
In the “Future Stones of Distrust” section, “Rosa Parks Memorialized” opens with “On the day our September losses / reached 2,000, a tribute / to Rosa...” and asks “If she were alive now.../ would her solo / be enough or do we need now a choir singing, / thousands screaming...?”
 Imperfect Echoes allows readers to witness a poet's lifetime revisited in memory and with fresh wisdom. If the topics of oppression, prejudice and war seem to some "overdone," Howard-Johnson responds in her Prologue poem, “Apologies from a Magpie”:
 Magpies are born to sing others' songs
stained notes, imperfect echoes—
until the world begins to know
them by heart.
 Note: Proceeds from the sales will be donated to the non-profit human rights watchdog, Amnesty International. 
ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Marlan Warren is an L.A. journalist, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, blogger, and publicist with Roadmap Communications[http://tinyurl.com/RoadmapCommunications] and Book Publicity by Marlan [http://BookPublicitybyMarlan.blogspot.com]. She reviews for the Midwest Book Review [http://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/nov_15.htm], and her blogs include “Roadmap Girl’s Book Buzz” [http://roadmapgirlsbookbuzz.blogspot.com] and “L.A. Now & Then [http://losangelesnowthen.blogspot.com].” Her press releases are published in Broadway World Book News and the BBC Record. She is the author of the novel, “Roadmaps for the Sexually Challenged: All’s Not Fair in Love or War” [http://tinyurl.com/qj92dhr] and the producer/writer of the acclaimed documentary, “Reunion” [http://www.directing.com]Marlan is currently producing/directing her documentary “What Did You Do in the War, Mama?: Kochiyama’s Crusaders ” based on her play “Bits of Paradise” [http://sites.google.com/site/bitsofparadisethemovie/home].

ABOUT THE NEW BOOK REVIEW

The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.