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, December 21, 2021

Reviewer Wesley Britton Suggests You Dive Into This Camelot Tale

TITLE: The Priestess of Camelot: 

SERIES: Prequel to The Heirs to Camelot

AUTHOR: Jacqueline Church Simonds

Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 28, 2018

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07HSYTNRT

PURCHASE


Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton


Reviewer Wesley Britton Suggests You Dive Into This Camelot Tale

I suppose nearly everyone alive has experienced more than one version of the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table from the songs of Lerner and Loewe in their Camelot to the craziness of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.   In literature, we’ve seen everything from Thomas Malory’s 1485 Le Morte d’Arthur to Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s 1859 Idylls of the King to T.H. White’s 1958  The Once and Future King to my personal favorite, Bernard Cornwell’s earthy Warlord trilogy.

With such a plethora of reworkings of the classic stories, is it possible to give the much revamped canvas any new twists? It seems so. Jacqueline Church Simonds has indeed taken the epic where it hasn’t trodden before. For one key matter, her version of the legend centers on a female lead, Anya, a goddess-worshipping priestess of the Nordic Rus tribes. In Britain, she joins the sisterhood of Avalon, headed by Arthur’s archnemesis, Morgaine.

In time,  Anya travels to Camelot where she falls in love with Merlin and bears him a son. Then, she falls in love with Arthur and also bears him a son. Then, in a magical ritual in a sacred grove,  she has a sort of “immaculate conception” where the goddess impregnates Anya with the fatherless daughter.  Now, that’s a vivid, memorable scene.

Back in the beginning of the tale, Anya is seduced by Morgaine which sets the stage for a series of very erotic encounters.  Malory nor Tennyson nor White ever ventured into this territory but, not having read every modern recasting of the Roundtable saga,  I can’t attest as to whether or not Church Simonds is breaking new ground here.  All I can safely say is that The Priestess of Camelot is not YA material.

To be fair, the book is far more than a series of romances. Anya is a very developed, vividly painted character who becomes a leader in her region, demonstrating her skills by protecting her neighbors in a time where Christianity is doing its best to quash goddess worship.   Because of the visions the goddess occasionally shares with Anya, the priestess sets about making it possible for goddess worship to return to Britain   1,500 years in the future led by her heirs, the descendants of Merlin, Arthur, and the goddess.


So, The Priestess of Camelot sets the stage for Church Simonds’ Heirs to Camelot series including The Midsummer Wife,   The Solstice Bride, and The Mistress of the Rose Moon. All of these titles are available now, so if The Priestess of Camelot grabs your imagination, you can dive into a non-stop trip into a new avenue of Arthurian lore. Maybe you’ll fall in love with Anya yourself. You’d be in good company.

 

 

More About the Reviewer

Dr. Wesley Britton, an author in his own right,  reviews regularly for this blog and rBookPleasures.com.


More 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 submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. 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. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. 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

Thursday, December 2, 2021

Midwest Book Review Shares Their Review of Bernard Jones' Discovery of Troy


TITLE: The Discovery of Troy and its Lost History
AUTHOR: Bernard Jones
AUTHOR'S WEBSITE: www.trojanhistory.com
GENRE: HISTORY - NON-FICTION
AGE/INTEREST LEVEL: From 14/15 Years upward
ISBN: 9781916499218, 
PAGES: 400 
AWARDS:
1.America's Reader Views Literary Awards 2020; 1st Place History Category.
2.America's Reader Views Literary Awards 2020; Global Award - Best History    Book (Europe).
3.Canada's IAN Book of the Year Awards; Finalist - History Category.
PUBLISHER: Trojan History Press


Originally Reviewed by Midwest Book Review's Small Press Bookwatch

 

Synopsis: The Trojan War was the greatest catastrophe of the ancient Hellenic world. We are told that it devastated Europe and Asia and plunged the known world into a Dark Age that lasted 500 years. 


Midwest Book Review Shares Their Review of Bernard Jones' Discovery of Troy

 

Thirty years of painstaking investigative research has finally resolved this 3,000-year-old mystery as author and historian Bernard Jones uncovered the evidence piece by piece, separating fact from fiction, and unlocking the secrets of the past. Unbelievably, Bernard's research showed that the Trojan War could not have taken place in the Aegean area, or even in the Mediterranean world. This evidence turns our accepted geography on its head and leads us on a fascinating journey of discovery back to the real world in which the Trojans lived. Here, we discover who the Greeks and the Trojans really were, and the parts they played in Homer's Bronze Age world. 

 

Secret knowledge concealed in the "Iliad" reveals Homer's work to be a genuine historical record. Yet, only in the corrected Bronze Age environment can it be understood. Deciphering Homer's coded information becomes the key to finding the location of the Trojan War and the Bronze Age city of Troy itself. Lost histories also tell the whole story of the migrations that took place following the Trojan War and the nations that arose out of the ashes of Troy. The records of these nations independently verify the author's findings, and they overturn the theory of a 'Dark Age'. 

 

Critique: An absolutely fascinating and iconoclastic read from beginning to end, "The Discovery of Troy and its Lost History" is exceptionally well written, organized and presented. Impressively informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking, "The Discovery of Troy and its Lost History" is unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university library Ancient History collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Discovery of Troy and its Lost History" is also available in a paperback edition (9781916499201, $22.99). 

 

This review will also appear in the Cengage Learning, Gale interactive CD-ROM series "Book Review Index" which is published four times yearly for academic, corporate, and public library systems. Additionally, this review will be archived on our Midwest Book Review website for the next five years at http://www.midwestbookreview.com 



AUTHOR BIO:


Bernard Jones was, until recently, a multi-disciplinary professional; a Chartered Practitioner and Chartered Fellow with a lifetime of scientific, technical, investigative and research work behind him. In addition to his professional vocation, he is a historian of some 35 plus years.


He completed his post graduate research in ancient philosophy/mythology and ancient history. For the last three decades he has applied his professional skills to his work as a historian, the result of which is two extraordinary books. The Discovery of Troy and its Lost History is the first of these. 


His second book, The Voyage of Aeneas of Troy is scheduled for publication in 2022.




More 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 submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. 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. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. 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

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

How to Submit a Request For a #BookReview to #TheNewBookReview




 

Hi Fellow Authors,


My name is Lois W. Stern, your ‘Author Helping Author’ NewBookReview Acquisition Coordinator. 


If you want to submit a query request, just follow these simple steps by submitting email to me with the exact information below. Send e-mail to: tales2inspire2@gmail.com with the words REVIEW REQUEST in the subject line.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––




TITLE OF BOOK: 

SUBTITLE OF BOOK (if any):

GENRE:

BOOK DESCRIPTION: (100 words max) - Make your description pop to entice others to want to read your book! Hint: Use strong, present tense verbs!


AUTHOR: 


E-MAIL: Contact information for person submitting (be it author, reviewer, reader reviewer, or publisher.)


NUMBER OF PAGES: 


AGE/INTEREST LEVEL:


AMAZON OR OTHER ONLINE BOOKSTORE URL: 

Kindly send full link (NOT shortened link, as they do not seem to be working on Google sheets).


* BOOK FORMAT(S) YOU ARE OFFERING FOR REVIEW:  

(Please note: Tangible books are more likely to get review offers.) 

Paperback or hard copy books - Yes or No 

Electronic versions as e-book, kindle, pdf - Yes or No


Authors should send their book directly to the reviewer along with any promotional material they wish to include.  


Disclaimer: In the spirit of Authors Helping Authors, Lois is happy to provide her review-getting service to her fellow authors at no cost, but due to conflict of interest concerns, she does not review the books listed on her review-request page herself. Nor can she guarantee that your listing will attract a reviewer. 

Monday, November 29, 2021

The Density of Compact Bone by Magdalena Ball Review

The Density of Compact Bone

by Magdalena Ball
Ginninderra Press
ASIN: B09HKYK9HL
ISBN-10: ‎ 1761091867
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1761091865
Paperback: ‎ 102 pages

The Density of Compact Bone by Magdalena Ball Review

"In The Density of Compact Bone, Magdalena Ball stuns with her elegantly constructed paean to earth, sky, water and her requiem to loss, both ecological and personal."

"Magdalena Ball's poems are replete with images and symbols and sometimes pictorial representations of our guilt and desires. Her poems sometimes sing of the extinct creatures who breathed their last to question us for our inhuman actions, nature and its "objective correlative' in poetic diction. Magdalena Ball captivates her readers with cogitations on dreams, failures, moments of joy and despair, contemplations of serious existential truths and quest for the same. Her poems transport us to a land of ecstasy, the parabolic pathway of moving away and returning to the same trajectory of existence with a new promise or at least a complacency of some kind, or just a sense of well-being. Her poems are a must-read!"- Ketaki Datta

This post will share some of the parts of poems from this book by Ball. When we read, we infer. Inferring is text on the page mixed with our own thoughts. We deduce the meaning of the poetry for ourselves. Others may see the same text differently, as we all have unique life experiences. This is what makes book discussion groups so interesting. When I read the text below, I think of overconsumption and landfills. What do you think? 

The billboard

flashing in neon

excess buy buy buy bye

hardwired to self-destruct.

A few poems ahead, Ball writes about loss. Is this what someone thinks at the end of a relationship? Is it about climate change, the ending of an evening, or perhaps how life changes after a funeral? It isn't fair to you, dear reader, as the entire poem is in the book. Yet, do you get some sort of impression?

I know this is something we share 

raising a glass, not thinking too much 

about the uncomfortable fact 

that that we’re sliding 

towards an edge.

 So starts the poem How to make Lokshen Kugel:

Begin with tears. There will not be enough. Salt is essential. Break something. A dish perhaps if you cannot find a heart. There will already be chips. There is no perfect crockery.

 What are you thinking about these words?

I cannot write a review to show how wonderful this book is because I am not a poet or writer. I was a first-grade teacher and so I appreciate Ball's writing but can't come close to honoring it as it deserves. 

The book ends with a land acknowledgment. Ball is from Australia. Have you noticed other books, webinars, or videos with land acknowledgments? How do you feel about Elders emerging? 

"These poems were written on the unceded land of the Awabakal people. I acknowledge the traditional custodians and pay my respect to Elders past, present and emerging."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Magdalena Ball is a novelist, poet, reviewer and interviewer, and is the Managing Editor of Compulsive Reader. She has been widely published in literary journals like Meanjin, Cordite, Red Room, and Westerly, in many anthologies, and is the author of several published books of poetry and fiction. Her work has won or been shortlisted for several prizes including the Newcastle Poetry Prize, the Melbourne Poet's Union International Competition, and the Grieve Writing Competition. She is a longstanding (>25 years) member of the Hunter Writers Centre and has been an active participant (as both moderator and performer) in the Newcastle Writers Festival since it's inaugural event in 2013, as well as other literary festivals such as the Hunter IF, the Sydney Writers Festival, and the Digital Writers Festival. Find out more about Magdalena at http://www.magdalenaball.com

Review by Carolyn Wilhelm

More 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 submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. 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. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. 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, November 22, 2021

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

How Listing Your Book on #TheNewBookReview Helps With #AuthorBranding


Has TheNewBookReview Helped You 

Get Reviews For Your Book?


by Lois W. Stern

Your 'Authors Helping Authors'
NewBookReview Acquisition Coordinator




Hi! 


It's Lois W. Stern here, with some more information on the lists I offer authors seeking reviews for their books, right here on Carolyn Howard-Johnson's TheNewBookReview blog.



Has TheNewBookReview helped you get reviews for your b
ook?


If not, don't despair. Just having your book posted on our blog is a good thing, and an especially good thing when it is part of my list of book review requests. Here's why! It helps google discover your book, bringing your title higher up in the search engines. But there's more, something I've learned along the way from all my 'Authors Helping Authors' projects:


The more I lend a helping hand to other authors, the more benefits I get in return, sometimes quite unexpected. It's all about BRANDING. Many of you now know my name. That’s a big plus for any author. And several of you, who likely had never heard of Tales2Inspire® before, submitted stories to my 2021 Tales2Inspire® contest. One of them even became a 2021 winner. 


There are some tricks to BRANDING yourself while writing reviews for other authors - spelled out in my article: Taking the Pain Out of Writing Book Reviews, While Adding a Touch of Glory. CLICK HERE to read it now. 


If you do write a review for another of our posted authors, we have some neat thank you gifts for you:


GIFT #1:    

Our talented banner gal will create a unique banner for you, with your headshot and book cover included, free for you to use for all your marketing endeavors. CHECK IT OUT.

 


GIFT #2: GO HERE, and click on the MYSTERY or KID LIT genre sign. Check out the far right column under: 


Just scroll down that column to see how we thanked two of our reviewers. And everyone else on this genre list will note that you caught our 'Authors Helping Authors' spirit!

Saturday, November 6, 2021

Carolyn Wilhelm Reviews Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Balls' Christmas Poetry





Title:  Blooming Red

Subtitle: Christmas Poetry for the Rational 

Series: Celebration Series of Chapbooks
Author: Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Magdalena Ball
Publisher: Indy 
Publisher Website Address: https://howtodoitfrugally.com 

Author Email Address: HoJoNews@aol.com

ISBN-10: 1449948243

ISBN-13: 978-1449948245

ASIN: B004GXB4AW

Price: $5.95 Paperback, $2.99 Kindle
Page Count: 60 pages
Formats: PB, Kindle


Reviewed by Carolyn Wilhelm

 

Profound and moving poetry reflecting the reality of Christmas, which may not be that of commercials and photos. Early rising when the children are young, aching for those times when they are grown and perhaps have moved away. Howard-Johnson writes of the "echoes of foil tearing, and crushing of frail tissue." She writes the baby in the nativity set is always the first to go missing. 

 

Ball writes about how time is different for children, and "we touched each moment with tiny, trembling hands." She was a child six million years ago, according to one of her poems. She says, ". . . after hours at the mall, belief wears thin." 

 

The poetry is so beautiful, and my review cannot begin to do justice to the writing. This is a book to read again and again. It is the right size to add to a holiday card and would make a perfect present. 


More About the Reviewer


Carolyn Wilhelm reviews for Midwest Book Reviews and The New Book Review. She is a veteran educator who builds teaching aids for parents and teachers, many of them free and available on Pinterest. It is an especially valuable time during these long months of teaching via Zoom and working in isolated situations. 



More 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