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.

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Free Books to Read and Review

FREE BOOKS TO READ AND REVIEW


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Monday, January 4, 2021

A Vietnam Memoir Like None Other

Title: Good Afternoon Vietnam

Subtitle: A Civilian in the Vietnam War

By Gary L. Wilhelm

Publisher: Self-Published

Genre: Memoir, Military, Vietnam

Photos: By the Author. 

ISBN: 9780999347232

Available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/32SSrTj

Contact Reviewer: hojoreviews@aol.com

 

                        A Vietnam Memoir with a Twist

            

 

War, Vietnam and Civilians

 

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, multi-award-winning author of fiction, poetry and the HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers

 

Good Afternoon Vietnam gives us a perspective quite different from other books—indeed other media—about the Vietnam war. The author, Gary L. Wilhelm, is an engineer and was an engineer called to “duty” by his firm, Univac. Readers will find his viewpoint sometimes tinged with satire, more often will a gentle humor marked with disbelief. After all, how can a civilian employee be prepared for the likes of Vietnam when so often even those with military training weren’t. 

 

There is a reality about the prose—a reality that goes unconfirmed—that much of this book is from actual notes or a journal written on-the-spot. The same goes for the structure which, though told as if it unfolds with a real-time projection—also seems to be punctuated by whatever oddity (the one and a half-page description of the Vietnamese laundrywoman who washed the authors’ clothes in metal cans and swept the sand from his sleeping quarters) happens to come to mind. Sort of a Viet-style stream of consciousness.  And the story is all the more believable for it. 

 

 Good Afternoon Vietnam includes a couple suggestions for further reading. One on the copyright page is a free discussion guide for the book that may be handy for the needs of secondary education units at https://www.thewiseowlfactory.com/good-afternoon-vietnam-book-review-and-free-guide/. The other, the last chapter titled “Conclusions” at the end of the book rarely seen in a memoir, is an integral part of the memoir. Indeed the book, though personal and first-person, is often more of a teaching tool than a memoir. I consider it cross-genre. The need to share, the connection with biography, the personal aspect of the book only served to intensify the usefulness of it as a teaching tool in terms of career and life planning as well as the far-reaching and unexpected effects of war. 

 

A Vietnam Memoir Like None Other


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. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. 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 and love. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page and in a tab at the top of this blog's home page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites so it may be used a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. 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. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Friday, January 1, 2021

Veteran Editor and Poet Praises John Biscello's New "Moonglow on Mercy Street"


TITLE: Moonglow on Mercy Street
AUTHOR: John Biscello
GENRE: Poetry 
PAGE #: 100
PUBLISHER: CSF Publishing
TO BE RELEASED SOON
LEARN MORE: Biscello's Author Profile on Amazon 


Reviewed by Candice Louisa Daquin





When you read a lot of poetry for a living, after a while it’s hard for poetry to move you because your standards invariably raise and you demand something nuanced and rhythmical that isn’t the ordinary dish of the day. At times it can be hard to review poetry books for this reason. They can be ‘good’, but they don’t wow. Unfortunately, in our world, wow is the only way we become somewhat immortal in the literary world. 

Therefore, it was a relief and a secret joy to read Moonglow on Mercy Street by John Biscello and find hidden among the pages, some real beauties. 

Of late, many poetry books I’ve read, tend to have some type of collectivizing, harmonizing theme. I wouldn’t say this is abundantly clear or necessary with Moonglow on Mercy Street. Why do we need a theme or a collectivizing concept? Can’t we just enjoy a really good book of poetry? I vote yes. 

When poetry really strikes me, it does so almost anonymously You don’t know the location, the author, the voice, the era, but you feel the atmosphere, and is that lyrical world you inhabit so intensely that resonates with you. Much like a song, why do you pick one over another and begin to incessantly hum it? Because it has that hook – that hook that keeps you mulling it over in your psyche. 

The other important element to any good collection of poetry, is quite simply, to be a powerful wordsmith, someone who can harness words rather than simply move them around a page. Too often you read poetry that seems forced, mechanical, formulaic, or devoid of meaning. Sound, music, song, isn’t sufficient, it’s not enough to wear a pretty dress as a poem, you need to make sense, have gravity boots and know how to wield your light saber. 

In that, a poem is an individual entity, in its own right it must speak of what it is, stand alone, defend itself, stand up to scrutiny. That’s not easy to accomplish in a world where people are gasping to tear you to pieces. In essence, this is survival of the fittest, and by fit, I mean, endowed with the right properties to stand the test of time and critic. 

You should be able to pluck a poem out of your pocket in a 100 years’ time and read it and feel the same burning sensation as you did 100 years previously. That’s what ensures the master’s endure, and we shouldn’t really aspire for any less with our own collections. Fortunately, John Biscello is somewhat of a Master in this regard, he knows how to create what you, as a lover of poetry, really need, to ensure you get your teeth sunk deeply into his universe. His are not flippant, vague, missives, they are well thought out, well-functioning and fed poems that possess full stomachs and deep pockets. 

I myself am a fan of words, and when a poet knows wordplay and can juxtapose and weave words so effortlessly they really do feel like a primal chant in your amygdala then you know you are reading someone worth pursuing. Someone who invariably shares your love of words, for anything less and you’ll get hackneyed, trite and immature. 

I appreciate the anonymity of sentiment in Biscello’s work. He talks like he is a musing voice in the forest, speaking to us as we plunge through, muttering words of incantation, emotion, longing, living, with the gravitas of a well-oiled tongue. He knows language and the shifting and mixing of words so adroitly he seems to write without effort, although I am sure he puts a lot of effort into seeming effortless and that again, is a gift hard to learn as a writer. 

There’s definitely an entire fantasy world within the realm of Biscello’s over-arcing imagination that causes you to pause time and again, to contemplate what he sees in his minds-eye and how smoothly he feeds this beautiful vision back to us, as if looping a long silver rope through time and landscape. 

Some are fans of ‘shock art’ and want to read graphic, visceral, bound to grab headlines more contemporary styles, and that’s all very well. But there is always going to be a home for classic writing, the kind that caused you to enjoy reading poetry to begin with. Biscello’s work is that kind of work and in that, he excels time and time again, as if he doesn’t quite live in this world, but has one foot in another, where things are more vivid, more able to evoke and illustrate. 

“find your ghost’s / bluest breath of want / upon a mirrored caste / of longing. “(Icy Hot). 

Do not for a moment, imagine, Biscello is old-fashioned because of his multilayered ability to articulate a world beyond ours, but rather, he is a man who knows words well enough to build entire universes with them. Nor is his work defunct because it’s classical in nature, Biscello is a modern man and that shines through intermittently in his nod to our modern lives, the irony, the crush and the quiet despair. 

“Sssssh! You can’t tell yourself, / but you have a crush on God. / Between classes, in the hallway, / you see her leaning obliquely against / the edge of a wall,” (Middle School).

An intelligent poet is one who seeks to unpack the depths of an emotion, or a moment and shine a different colored light into its crevices and discover what we don’t talk about in prose. That’s why poetry is considered the highest form of art, it is both a secret language, with the ability to be more potent than a confessional. But all done in the guise of art. Essentially, the intelligence lies in how the poet returns the observation. 

“Paradox is the umbrella blown inside out in stormy weather, / as we keep walking, still covered, / yet determined to return the umbrella to its original form.” (Paradox). 

Many modern poets are not aware of who came before them. I argue this is essential just as you must know how to paint realistically to master the abstract. It is down to choice. You choose where you go after you know. But if you do not know, you are limited. Biscello, with his love of other authors, ancient and contemporary, personifies the modern poet with that breadth of knowing, and that knowing lends his writing wings.

“Remember that nouns, verbs and adjectives / are made-up things. Crows, on the other hand, / are real to life, and winged.” (Thirteen Ways of Visioning a Crow). 

There were a couple of poems that didn’t personally appeal but overall I found I read through this book voraciously and with a smile on my face, at the humble smarts of this poet and his unending ability to appeal deeply to our inner world and make it flourish all the more. 

“I know they kill / poets in these parts / because the dismembered / remains of Allen Ginsberg / the man that Norman Mailer / once called the bravest four eyed kike / in the whole land / yes that man / scattered all over / screaming psych wards / and fallacious newsprint / meant to stir the cauldron / of bloody bathwater. “(American Poem).

If you read old-modern, contemporary-modern and classical poetry, you’ll love the nuanced update Biscello lends those worlds in homage. If you are unfamiliar with that history, then I suspect you’ll be going out to buy Anais Nin et al soon after reading Moonglow on Mercy Street. What greater compliment to the world of poetry, than to reinvigorate our enthusiasm for those who came before, to bring back to life, their gritty brilliance through your own? Biscello is one of a kind and yet, superlatively familiar to anyone who knows what good poetry really is. 

   



MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

 Candice Louisa Daquin is the author of five books of poetry, including her most recent, Pinch the Lock, and Senior Editor at Indie Blu(e) Publishing.

Veteran Editor and Poet Praises John Biscello's New "Moonglow on Mercy Street"




More About the Blogger and What This Blog Offers
  
 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog 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.



Note about other #TheNewBookReview free services: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too!

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Dr. Bob Rich Reviews Ten Journeys or "Ten Case Studies of the Best of Humanity"

Ten Journeys on a Fragile Planet
Author: Rod Taylor 
Publisher: Odyssey Books (October 2020)
Publisher Website: https://www.odysseybooks.com.au/titles/9781925652789/
ASIN: B08N5WS43W
ISBN: 978-1925652789
Pages: 284
Price: Kindle $9.99, Paperback $27.95

Reviewed by Dr. Bob Rich

This book could be titled “Ten case studies in the best of humanity.” It so happens that I am Australian, the author is Australian, and all ten of the interviewees are Australians, but this is incidental. The events, environment and culture that provide the setting would be different in another land, but there are jewels like these ten everywhere.

While the book features ten jewels, my review is about eleven. Rod writes in a very personal style, and never blows his own trumpet, but comes through to be like his interviewees.

Here is a sample of Rod showing himself: “In my youth, there was talk of nuclear war and the possibility that our world would be consumed by the insane strategy of Mutually Assured Destruction. To us it was a theoretical proposition, a disaster that could happen. We had the possibility of calamity, but climate change is different because it is actually happening. In my lifetime it’s gone from just being a possibility to us seeing glimpses of what a disrupted global climate system looks like. Nuclear weapons and global warming aren’t going away. Humanity is doing a poor job on both fronts.”

These eleven are people who care, who have made a difference through intelligence, perseverance and creativity. Some are well known, others I’ve never heard off, but all have a passion for truth, science, decency, being of service. Because of these attitudes, they are all alarmed by our environmental crisis, and in different ways are doing their best to work for a survivable future.

I can’t do better than to quote Rod on what the book is about: “If there’s one defining attribute shared by the people in this book, it’s motivation — these are people who understand why we need to act. Each has seized upon the idea that there is something important; that there’s something they can do for the environment and for the community. The people in Fragile Planet are fiercely driven to avert the worst of climate change.”

I really enjoyed Rod’s style of bringing a person to life, faults and all. While staying the journalist interviewing someone, he has the skill of showing his subject’s inside reality, “what makes her tick.” For example, I got to really like maggot farmer Olympia, and strongly approve of what she is doing: in effect converting agriculture from a single-line process of fertiliser-to-waste to a circular economy of waste providing feed in a forever-loop.

Ten Journeys on a Fragile Planet would be admirable compulsory reading for high school kids, to inspire them, and to educate them in what matters.

More About the Author

Rod Taylor is a Canberra-based science writer and broadcaster, whose latest book is Ten Journeys in a Fragile Planet (Odyssey 2020).  He has written a science column for The Canberra Times newspaper for the past 10 years. His background is in IT and business systems. He is currently co-editing a major book on the Green New Deal (Springer). He rides both a unicycle and an off-road motorcycle, and has fallen off both.

More About the Reviewer

Dr Bob Rich is a grumpy old man who can’t convince people of his grumpiness. They keep laughing at him. This is just as well, because there is not that much to laugh at in today’s insane world. So, he works for a sane future where people cooperate, care for each other, and prefer credit for karma to credit in the bank. He does much of this at his blog, Bobbing Around https://bobrich18.wordpress.com. Tweet with him at @bobswriting.

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Live simply so you may simply live


MORE ABOUT BLOGGER AND WAYS TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BLOG

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog 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.



Note: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too!

 Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Carolyn Wilhelm Offers Book and Movie Guide on Life on Our Planet




Title: A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future

Author: Sir David Attenborough

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (October 6, 2020)

Publisher Website

Publisher Contact

ASIN: B089CKYNT9

ISBN-10: 1538719983

ISBN-13: 978-1538719985

Pages: 272

Price: Kindle $14.99, Audio Book $12.99, Hardcover $23.40, Audio CD $26.00

Format: Kindle, Audiobook, Hardcover, Audio CD

Film: Available on Netflix

 

Sir David Frederick Attenborough is an English broadcaster and natural historian. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC.

Discussion Guide Instant Download Link

A Life on Our Planet describes his lifetime and the climate changes he witnessed first-hand. It is an autobiography not of him but planet Earth during the Holocene and Anthropocene. The Holocene, he says, was 10,000 years of our Garden of Eden. The Anthropocene is the next period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment, most likely since the 1950s. And, you have probably guessed, it is the time of global warming and could end in the disappearance of human civilization. He says we need to save ourselves, not the Earth. The Earth has survived five previous mass extinctions and will continue.

Discussion questions based on the book: 

1.     How is humankind different from all other species, and why did this cause the climate difficulties we are now facing? 

2.     Homo Sapiens, people, are no longer changing physically, so what is changing about us now? Provide an example. 

3.     What does Attenborough say about human mistakes and bad planning (at the beginning and end of the book)?

4.     What is the true tragedy of our time? 

5.     What is one dire possible outcome? What consequences could cause mass migration by 2100?

6.     What is a better and still possible outcome? What do we need to do to have this better ending?

7.     Are solutions available now? What are some examples of countries demonstrating progress?

8.     Why is modern life unsustainable? What is the definition of sustainability?

9.     Why is eating meat and dairy such a problem for the climate?

10. What are the leading causes of climate change and global warming? 

 

His latest movie, also his mission statement, A Life on Our Planet, may be his best work ever. Oblivious to climate change as a young man, he realized the importance of saving the planet – wait, not the Earth, but ourselves. The planet will continue. We may not. 

He provides simple answers to correct the course we are on, damaging Earth, animals, biodiversity, and ourselves. We already know what to do to save life on Earth. Will we do so?

Discussion questions based on the book:

1.     Attenborough states Earth is a life support machine. What does he mean? 

2.     He mentions biodiversity many times. What are some examples he provides of how are we dependent on biodiversity? 

3.     Ice at the poles helped during the Holocene Epoch (the past 10,000 plus years and currently). What did they do for our planet? 

4.     Attenborough says there was a stable air temperature in the 1990s. The Earth was actually warming as something was masking the problem. What is his explanation? 

5.     Discuss: 15 billion trees are cut down each year on Earth. Did you know before watching the film?

6.     How do no fish zones increase fish populations? What country’s policies illustrates this truth?

7.     In a single day, he said there is more than enough solar power from the sun to do what? 

8.     How does eating meat impact climate change? What does he say a person is “saying” when he or she eats meat?

9.     The Netherlands was held up as a country using innovative farming techniques as they do not have more land. They used fewer chemicals to grow more food. What else did you notice in this segment? 

10. Attenborough says we need to work with nature, not against it and mentions several methods of doing so. Have you noticed efforts in this direction? Why are they important?

Thank you for reading, Carolyn Wilhelm

More About Carolyn Wilhelm:

Carolyn Wilhelm, a veteran educator, owns Wise Owl Factory LLC  and reviews for Midwest Book Review  and The New Book Review where she occasionally writes study guides for film and books like this one.  She is the author of  Change Captives 2035 and Project SAVE . Learn more about her:


About #TheNewBookReview Blog The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. 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 and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the form at https://www.bit.ly/FinishedReviewSubmissions. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. And know that Carolyn Wilhelm, our IT expert, award-winning author, and veteran educator, makes an award image especially for those who volunteer to write reviews from Lois's review-request list and post them in the spirit of her "Authors Helping Authors" project. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's 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. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Monday, December 14, 2020

DR. Wesley Britton Reviews British-Flavored Mystery by Timothy Miller

The Strange Case of Eliza Doolittle

Timothy Miller

Publisher : Seventh Street Books (January 19, 2021)

Paperback : 256 pages

ISBN-10 : 1645060217

ISBN-13 : 978-1645060215

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1645060217?tag=simonsayscom


Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton originally for BookPleasures.com




 

Sherlock Holmes pastiches, of course, are nothing new.  In stories penned by literary descendants of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the fictional detective has encountered actual historical figures from Aleisteir Crowley to Winston Churchill to the Dalai Lama. He has been portrayed alongside literary characters created by other authors  like Count Dracula, Fu Manchu, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

 

I admit, when I first saw that Timothy Miller was merging the realms of Holmes and Watson with the characters George Bernard Shaw introduced in his play, Pygmalion, later adapted by Lerner and Loewe into their classic musical, My Fair Lady,   I suspected I was about to experience a real stretch. At best, a humorous mash-up.  I couldn't have been further off the mark.

 

In fact, The Strange Case of Eliza Doolittle is a inventive pastiche true enough,  but it's no laughing matter. Mostly. I must say Miller did a very credible job at capturing the well-known and oft-imitated cadence of Dr. John Watson as demonstrated in all the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle yarns.  Miller does mix into that well-established style comic touches, especially his use of similes and metaphors. one humorous scene featured actual American actor William Gillette. Known for his portrayal as Holmes in the London theatre  (it was Gillette, not Conan Doyle, who gave Holmes the trademark of wearing a deerstalker hat), Gillette plays Holmes in a scene where Holmes bemusedly looks on and Watson is surprised to see the real and fictional detectives together in the same living room with Henry Higgins.      

 

Throughout, Miller shows a very detailed knowledge of the historical milieu when the Victorian era was giving way to the Edwardian period when motor cars were replacing hansom cabs. There's a strong tone of danger as Holmes and Watson try to find out just how Eliza Doolittle had been so transformed. Was she in fact a continental princess taking on a secret identity to avoid assassination? Had the original Eliza Doolittle been replaced by a doppelganger? Or had something sinister happened to completely transform a flower girl into a proper English lady beyond phonetic tutoring?

 

Along the way, we don't just see Holmes and Watson being inserted into Henry Higgins cantankerous environment where we might expect Rex Harrison breaking into song.  Not for the first time in the Holmes canon, we see the transformative formula of Dr. Henry Jekyll and his alter ego Edward Hyde, sort of, becoming a major thread of the complex plot. Because of that plot line, we have many dark and bloody scenes.

 

In short, The Strange Case of Eliza Doolittle is full of surprises and no shortage of twists and turns in the multi-layered plot.  The book has a rich vitality with it's inclusion of many tones and in-depth characterizations and vivid descriptions. In addition, there are many passages, notably the fast-paced chase scenes, that show a strong influence of more recent high-octane screen versions of Holmes adventures. 

 

You don't have to be a Sherlock Holmes aficionado to enjoy The Strange Case of Eliza Doolittlealthough Doyle fans will get to see many references to events and characters from the Holmes canon updated into a sort of sequel to the original stories.  So, on many levels, the novel is a lot of fun. I enjoyed this book more than      many  a title I've read of late. A perfect diversion from the weird world of 2020.

 

 MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

 

 Dr. Wesley Britton is the author ofThe Beta Earth Chronicles and a regular reviewer BookPleasures.com and #TheNewBookReview. Learn more about him here: 

 

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Saturday, December 12, 2020

Taking a Road Trip in the Time of Covid


Author: LB Sedlacek
Publisher: Goats on Mars Press, 2020
ISBN 9798654725974
Adult/ Poetry
Contact Reviewer: hojoreviews@aol.com

Taking a Road Trip in the Time of Covid

Though LB Sedlacek is a force in the poetry world, I don’t want you to think of her This Space Available as poetry. In these times of Covid, I want you to think of it as a journal—very nearly a record of the simple pleasures of her road trip through the South. Perhaps you could even make it a substitute trip for yourself as you stay cozily ensconced in the recommended sheltering you know is best for you.

Readers who don’t believe themselves to be poetry aficionados will love the simple language, the conversational pacing, the way she can make a point without being didactic as she does in the title poem when she observes that the huge billboards advertising religion she sees along the side of the road in South Carolina.  “It must cost a lot to be advertising Jesus,” she says. She does something similar with the cops in Georgia (and, an ever equal opportunity poet, the drivers!) and those who sell baby alligators to who- knows- what- fate. She tells the mini-stories. The reader gets to feel the way he or she feels about it. 

Nevertheless, Sedlacek’s poetic nature is alive everywhere. She is seeing a part of the US with a fresh perspective. And you get it in little living pieces, sometimes recorded with her camera in full-blown color as well as words. 

You may decide this slender book is the best trip you could possibly take in this, the summer of 2020.  Perhaps you want an assessment in one word.  Here it is: “Refreshing.”

Taking a Road Trip in the Time of Covid
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