Reading Rule: Don't Judge A Book by Its Cover

The Red Album of Asbury Park Remixed
By Alex Austin
http://www.willcall.org
Mainstream Fiction
ISBN 978-1-60264-450-2
Publisher: Virtual Boookworm
Reviewer: Allison Vaughn
Review first published on Amazon.com
Reviewer's Rating: 5 Stars

Reviewed by Allison Vaughn



The Red Album of Asbury Park Remixed is, by far, one of the best books
I have read recently.

On the surface, The Red Album of Asbury Park
Remixed doesn’t appear to be anything exciting – I wasn’t a fan of the
cover (although “Never judge a book by the cover” rings very true here)
and the synopsis did not pull me in. The cover just does not do this
magical and engaging story justice. I gave it a try, though, and – wow.
I am speechless. It’s going to be hard writing a review – because how
do you explain something so wonderful?

Sam has just returned from his stint in the military and on the way to
his mother’s new home, he meets a free (although heavily damaged) soul
named Jillian. Instantly drawn to her, and their mutual respect for
music -he finds himself torn between two women, one representing the
past and one who represents everything that could be. Meanwhile- Sam
wants nothing more than to make it big in the music industry, although
the town is small and the stakes are high. Sam is full of soul and
passion, qualities that are very admirable in a character. Sam is a
likable and truly realistic character that will you cheering for him
from start to finish.

Austin does a wonderful, amazing, absolutely phenomenal job at painting
a picture. Words are carefully chosen and sentences carefully
structured but flow easily as if writing is the most natural thing in
the world. Because I was born in the 80’s, I was not fortunate enough
to belong to the lifestyle of bell bottoms, hippies, and musicians
following the Beatles. After reading Austin’s novel, I feel like I
truly lived there. Like maybe – just maybe – I can now picture what
life was like back in the 60s. With real life situations (JFK’s &
Martin Luther King’s assassinations) mentioned in the time line of the
plot, the book felt real to me. It gave me that sense of wonder, as if
the book may possibly be based on true events. (I admit it, I looked up
the band name “Pan” without much luck.)

While I read The Red Album of Asbury Park Remixed, I kept thinking what
a fabulous movie this would make and am hoping that someday Alex Austin receives such recognition that this would become an easy possibility.
For anyone who loves music and would love to read something new, I
definitely recommend The Red Album of Asbury Park Remixed. Place it on
your “To-Read” list as it’s a worthy read.


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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 loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index 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.

Mike Angley’s Award-Winning Debut Novel Gets 5-Stars

Title: Child Finder
Author: Mike Angley
Publisher: TotalRecall Publications, Inc.
Genre: mystery/thriller
ISBN: 978-1590958278
Rating: 5-Stars


Reviewed by Stephanie Boyd for Armchair Interviews


Child Finder is the first book of a new suspense thriller series featuring Air Force Special Agent Patrick O’Donnell.

Patrick discovers he has a psychic gift as he begins to experience very vivid and sensory detailed dreams about children that are missing. Not wanting to risk his military career he approaches a trusted former commander who is rumored to run a Top Secret program that includes anything in the paranormal realm. Patrick is quickly pulled into the program and proves he can locate these missing children under the right conditions. But Patrick is worried about how the program is affecting his family life and he is also very concerned about some of the government’s methods to ensure this program remains a secret. Murderers are being caught–but are innocent people’s rights also being violated?

I loved this book! A former Military Intelligence Officer, the author’s background adds credibility to this fascinating look into covert operations. But just because he knows what he is talking about doesn’t mean he can tell a good story or especially write one! Luckily for those of us who love secret undercover organizations, paranormal stories, and great intriguing suspense filled tales, Mike Angley has it all together.

Patrick is a remarkable character, honorable, moral, patriotic, and a devoted Catholic. It does not matter what your religious beliefs are, Patrick’s conflict between his religious beliefs and his psychic gift makes for a fascinating contrast. You’ll but love the character of this dedicated and truly caring man. I would not say this is a “Christian book” as that puts limitations on it that are not really valid. Patrick has a strong belief system but the other character’s beliefs do not come into play and obviously some of them are not believers by their actions. This story is in no way preachy. His beliefs are what make up his character and a part of him that cannot and should not be separated out.

I can’t wait to read the next two books in the series!

Armchair Interviews says: This is 5-star read for anyone who loves political suspense, secret government agencies, and uniquely gifted heroes!


Author Biography

Colonel Michael “Mike” Angley is the award-winning author of the Child Finder Trilogy. He retired from the Air Force in 2007 following a 25-year career as a Special Agent with the Office of Special Investigations (OSI). He held 13 different assignments throughout the world, among which were five tours as a Commander of various units, to include two Air Force Squadrons and a Wing. He is a seasoned criminal investigator and a counterintelligence and counterterrorism specialist. His debut novel, Child Finder, received the Silver Medal for Fiction in the 2009 Military Writers Society of America’s Annual Awards program. Child Finder features a USAF Special Agent protagonist, and it gets its inspiration from Angley’s long, multifaceted career.

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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 loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index 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.

Wendy Gillissen Pens New Fantasy

Title: Curse of the Tahiéra
Author: Wendy Gillissen
Publisher: Booklocker
Genre: fantasy
ISBN: 978-1601458391

Reviewer: Eric Jones for Book Review.com

Rating: Excellent

The review:

Though much of it takes place in a physical world of forests and stones, the real story of Gillissen’s protagonists, Rom, Yldich, and Eald who journey through enchanted lands northward, is one of kinship and illusion as they struggle to save their people from the destructive power of an entity known as the Tahiéra. Gillissen uses dreams the way that an artist might use watercolors to paint a vivid portrait. Her expressions are at once clear and beautiful as they are abstract and distant, eventually culminating in an ending revelation that is unforeseeable (unless, of course, you’ve “dreamwalked” through the story already).

Rom is haunted by “énthemae” dreams, or dreams of his past which reveal a power in him to confront the Tahiéra. As he learns these things throughout his journey, he becomes acquainted with “ayúrdimae” dreaming, or “dreamwalking”. “Curse of the Tahiéra” is full of mystical enchantments and riveting adventures, but it’s these particular facets which make it different from most other fantasy novels. Gillissen creates a dream world within a dream world; worlds inside of other worlds which are constantly in motion. It might seem complicated, but Gillissen handles them all like a well trained juggler, and the show is spectacular.

The only small caveat to “Curse of the Tahiéra” are the bevy of terms which are constantly used by her characters and can be difficult to discern, especially when some of them are as similar as “ayúrdimae” (which means “dreamwalking”) and “Alyúrimae” (which means “take him away”). Gillissen seems to have recognized this, and offers a handy glossary to make it easier, but looking up terms seems more like work than fun. Still, this never bogs down the novel to the point where it becomes a major issue, and definitely doesn’t get in the way of Gillissen’s flair for fantasy.

“Curse of the Tahiéra” achieves on nearly every level of excitement and entertainment that the genre of fantasy prescribes. It’s enlightening in its connection with real world values of love, honor, and camaraderie and on top of that, its great entertainment. Gillissen’s take on pixies, beasts, and other common fantasy figures is unique and revitalizing. Fantasy novels are all about the journey, and Gillissen is able to weave several into a single amazing voyage that is captivating from beginning to end.

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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 loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index 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.

America's Film Vault: A Reference to READ

Below is a special review in a new series I'll be doing to honor those books that won the Military Writers Society of America's Silver award. I have a special place in my heart for them because my Tracings (Finishing Line Press) won that same award. So this is just a way to pass it forward, especiall for my fellows. (-:

AMERICA'S FILM VAULT: A Reference Guide to the Motion Pictures Held by the U.S. National Archives
ISBN 978-0-9793243-0-7
$39.95, trade paper, pms press, 2009
Series: Third book in The Historic Footage Project
By Phil Stewart


Reviewed by Ron Standerfer for Reader Views in April 09

Whatever happened to all those news reels we used to watch in the movie theaters when we were kids? Or those training films they made us watch when we were drafted or enlisted in the military? How about those carefully crafted films depicting life in America during the Twentieth Century; some dating back to early 1900s? I’m sure many of us would like to see them again just to see what life was like in those days. The good news is that many of those films are alive and well, tucked safely away in the care of the federal government. The bad news is that finding a specific film can be a difficult and frustrating task. Until now.

In one fell swoop, America’s Film Vault: A Reference Guide to the Motion Pictures Held by the U.S. National Archives, by award-winning author and film-sleuth Phillip W. Stewart has leveled the playing field for historians, film buffs, and curiosity seekers. How significant is his new book? Consider this: for the first time ever, the whereabouts of over 360,000 film reels that document a century of American and world history have been assembled in book form. As a matter of fact, it is safe to say that some of the best kept history secrets are buried deep within Stewart’s book.

Considering the scope of America’s Film Vault I expected the review copy to arrive on a hand truck bearing a book somewhere in size between the Manhattan telephone directory and the oldfashion dictionaries that sit perched on large walnut stands in the libraries. To my surprise, it was quite modest in size; about 280 pages. But what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for it in sheer volume of information it contains between the covers.

Finding a specific title amongst the 360,000 or so films listed is relatively simple. For ease of search, the book is divided into five sections: Civilian Films; Military Films, Donated Films, Title Index, and Subject Index. Each film section begins with an overview which provides general information concerning what type of films the searcher can expect to find there. Of the three film sections I found the Donated Film section to be the most fascinating, mainly because it contains a treasure trove of newsreels. The subjects of these newsreels vary from the mundane to stories of epic proportions. Here’s an example of the former that was filmed by Universal Newspaper Newsreel: “Runaway Train Plunges Down Mountain: New Castle, PA - 210,000 tons of coal spilled, 32 cars wrecked, but nobody is hurt. Some of the derailed cars hung on the edge of a steep embankment.”
Can’t you just picture this?

So far American Film Vault has been warmly received by those in the know. For example, according to William T. Murphy, former Chief of the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch of the National Archives, America’s Film Vault is, “...a convenient overview of National Archives and Records Administration's motion picture holdings, one difficult to obtain from any other source.”

American Film Vault is the third book Phillip Stewart has written as part of The Historic Footage Project. You can learn more about this project by visiting his website. Meanwhile, I am prepared to accept the challenge he laid down on the cover of his book; namely, “If you’re ready to play detective, take a crack at the combination, and investigate the bowels of the vault, you need a guide map...and this is it! Discover “reel” treasures with “America’s Film Vault.” I can’t wait to get started.
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Phillip is also author of:
BATTLEFILM: U.S. Army Signal Corps Motion Pictures of the Great War
WAR WINGS: Films of the First Air War
PROJECTED HISTORY: A Catalog of the U.S. National Stories Released by Universal Newsreel, Volume One, 1929-1930
AMERICA'S FILM VAULT: A Reference Guide to the Motion Pictures Held Within the U.S. National Archives
PROJECTED HISTORY: A Catalog of the U.S. National Stories Released by Universal Newsreel, Volume Two, 1931-1932

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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 loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index 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.

Ping Li's Program for Making the Universal Law of Attraction Work for You

Awakening: Fulfilling Your Soul's Purpose on Earth
By Ping Li
Publisher: Trafford Publishing; First Edition(August 15, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1425180558
ISBN-13: 978-1425180553

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Ping Li's newest book, Awakening: Fulfilling Your Soul’s Purpose On Earth, is an amazing guidebook to uncovering, exploring, and achieving your higher purpose in life, and the nourishment your soul needs. (And, in the process, achieving all your heart’s other desires!) What Ping Li has laid out in such easy-to follow fashion, is a 22-day process of daily mental exercises, journaling, and meditative journeys. Each day, you explore another aspect of spiritual development together…

As you progress through Li's simple steps, you can feel your spirit lifting, your daily burden lightening, confusion and depression dissipating, and nature’s Universal Laws of Attraction, Giving & Receiving, and Manifestation beginning to work in your favor to create the life you dream of.

You may want to visit Li's Web site, at: www.awakeningbooklaunch.com/bookpromo.html where you’ll find many glowing reports other readers have shared.

Ping’s own story, her transformation, has been both remarkable and inspiring. And the process she followed to turn her life around is precisely what she shares with you now in AWAKENING: Fulfilling Your Soul’s Purpose On Earth.

You may be able to tell that I believe in the principles that Li espouses in her book. They work for me and I believe they will work for everyone who opens their hearts and minds to them.

Book Launch Special

Just in case a 22-day program to put you on the fast track to attracting the best in life isn't enough to encourage you to take this leap, Li's friends and colleagues have banded together to make the official launch of her book a hugely over-the-top success for her AND for you by offering over $7500 in bonus gifts just for buying the book!

Or visit Li's page at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Fulfilling-souls-purpose-earth/dp/1425180558/


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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 loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index 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.

Paranormal Romance Just Released by Victoria Roder

The Dream House Visions And Nightmares
Victoria Roder
Paranormal Romance
ISBN 978-1-934337-64-6
Asylett Press
4 bricks out of 5

Reviewed by Bea Ware for Writers Wall, Valerie J. Patterson forhttp://valeriejpatterson.wordpress.com:80/

When I sat down to read Dream House—Visions and Nightmares, the debut novel by Victoria Roder, I expected a book full of ghosts and attempts at spine-tingling scenes. What Roder actually delivers is a taut story with an ending only the most attentive of readers will figure out prior to reading the final chapters.

Roder strategically introduces characters, allowing the reader to gradually learn their significance. This prevents information overload, but also affords Roder the opportunity to develop multifaceted characters the reader comes to either care about or despise. Every good book has a villain, but Roder offers up more than one—and they all have their place artfully etched out in the plot.

The book opens with Hope Graham fighting off sleep and losing the battle. Nightmares plague her. Horrible, unsettling nightmares. The lack of sleep and plentiful nightmares begin to intrude on Hope’s waking hours, causing her boss at the resource center where she works to issue the ultimatum: Get it together or get out. After one nightmare too many, Hope calls her sister, Samantha and, at 3 in the morning, decides she’s going back home to Sheboygan where her sister still lives and where the house of her dreams can be found.

Hope begins to unravel the purpose of the haunting nightmares by investigating the house those nightmares center around. With a little bit of help from her sister and a lot of help from the locals, Hope not only uncovers history about the house, but she unearths secrets that force her to dig deep into her own past and confront the very real nightmare she lived through as a child.

The sunshine in the darkness of the plot comes in the form of very sexy bakery owner, Brock Cooper. Brock offers Hope all the things her ex-husband couldn’t: romance, friendship, support, encouragement, tenderness, understanding, and love. He’s her sounding board, her confidant, and her romance when she needs a break from the intense mystery surrounding her dream house. Roder holds back and successfully allows the romance to slowly blossom between these two, which is refreshing given the fact this is not a romance, but rather a paranormal thriller that serves up a happily ever after in spite of the odds against it happening.

Hope also finds an ally in the elderly busybody living across the road from the dream house. Ida is full of knowledge, but is not as forthcoming as Hope—or this reader—wants her to be. Instead, Ida has a foresight most people wished they had, and there’s a purpose for disclosing information slowly. Hope’s on a voyage of self-discovery and too much information too soon not only makes for a short book, but would defeat what Roder obviously worked so hard to combine into one exciting, unpredictable plot.

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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 loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index 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.

Rebecca Foust Pens Poetry of the Midwest

Mom’s Canoe
By Rebecca Foust
Poetry
Texas Review Press
ISBN-13 Number: 9781933896274
ISBN-10 Number: 1933896272

Rebecca Foust’s award-winning chapbook, Mom’s Canoe, is concerned largely with the rural landscape and the poet’s family’s place in that landscape and its history. Indeed, one of the book’s later poems, “Altoona to Anywhere,” seems to echo the sentiments of the titular poem in Cottle’s book: that one can never erase one’s history.

Go ahead, aspire to transcend
Your hardscrabble roots, bootstrap
The life you dream on,
Escape the small-minded tyranny
Of your small-minded Midwestern
Coalmining town.

But when you’ve left it behind you
May find it still there, in your dreams,
Your syntax, the smell of your hair,
Its real smell, under the shampoo.
Beware DNA; it will out or be outed
And you’ll find yourself back
Where you started…

The Midwest is in Foust’s DNA, and the long shadows of this large and varied region infuse all of the poems in her deceptively slim chapbook, whether they discuss the people of Altoona, Iowa (including members of Foust’s family) or the beautiful, often mysterious landscape. Mom’s Canoe is a celebration of this region as well as a history of Foust’s family and the region in which they dwell.

In many ways, Foust works like an archaeologist to excavate her region and her place within it. She does so somewhat literally in “Fossil Record,” in which she moves from discussing trilobites and ammonites resting in layers of prehistoric soil to the fetus waiting inside a womb and the bones inside a woman beneath an x-ray.

In “Archeological Record” (here reproduced in full), she considers another cross-section: one replete with imagery of the Midwest as well as classical mythology. Like any good archaeologist, Foust then attempts to weave these elements into a story—an impressionistic one to be sure, but a story nonetheless that speaks of loss and hidden grief.

Scotch straight-up, thy neighbor’s
wife and Sunday Church
—Nobody’s talking

but one white glove is lost.
What was said, and not. Gaps
outline the years laid down

in stone, but each wedged-in bit
is rocking. Dreams, cookbook
notes, the dress a mother wore

to a father’s wake, or would
have worn—had she gone?
The shards meet to make

a pot you haven’t seen before.
The walls are half-effaced,
but Zeus is raping some girl

somewhere, you know that
much. It’s all here—battle,
faun, flash of dawn, grapes

twined into leafy crowns,
each loved thing lost, sieved
with bitter salt and ash.

Foust is not always so indirect in her “digging” into Midwestern life, however. In poems such as “The Dream,” “Books for the Blind,” “Kinship of Family” and, of course, the collection’s titular piece she writes about her family’s place in this land—her mother’s tears (of joy and apprehension) upon discovering a pregnancy; her grandmother’s blindness; her parents’ deaths; the distance between two sisters who were once very close. These are poems, at times, of “bitter salt and ash,” as is the case with “Backwoods,” in which Foust describes her mother’s return to an abusive second husband.

“How could you,” she asks

After he blackened
your eye,
dumb-bitched you
and wrecked your canoe?

You escaped from that place once,
his cottage collapsed
on the banks of that dirty, dredged ditch
he calls a river; all you needed was a car
where you could sleep, keep your things.

But of course, no region is all bitterness and bleakness, even the most hardscrabble one. In other poems, such as “Mom’s Canoe,” family and landscape meld together elegiacly, and even a memory of a mother’s death is transformed into something as beautiful and breathtaking as it is sad.

I still see you rising from water to sky,
paddle held high,
river drops limning its edge.
Brown diamonds catch the light as you lift, then dip.
Parting the current, you slip
silently through the evening shadows.
You, birdsong, watersong, slanting light,
following river bend, swallowed from sight.

Foust’s language and imagery, as the reader has probably by now divined, are as challenging as they are startling, and the reader who wants to follow her through her narratives would be well advised to consider and reconsider each poem, each phrase as an archaeologist reconsiders sand, bone and fragment. But patience is well-rewarded. Mom’s Canoe is a subtle and sometimes painful evocation of the Midwest, an example of a regional voice that transcends its boundaries, achieving universal apppeal.


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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 loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index 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.