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.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Author Questions Evolution and Darwin

The Evolution Conspiracy, Vol. 1: Exposing Life’s Inexplicable Origins & The Cult of Darwin
Author: Lisa A. Shiel,
Genre: Science / Life Sciences / Evolution
ISBN 9781934631300
Slipdown Mountain Publications, 2009

Reviewed by Carol Hoyer, PhD, for Reader Views

Author Lisa Shiel has given readers an opportunity to challenge their views on evolution and how man became. Too many times we have learned to accept what we were told by those in authority, in the school system and those in religion. We have just accepted it without question and now through this well-researched book we can actually begin to question life.

What I particularly liked about this book is the author is not saying evolutionists are wrong- she is just questioning how we came up with certain answers without any true observation or clear definition of terms. Often researchers and scientists believe that the general public is not intelligent enough to understand how research works and how they came upon their results. Having just finished my PhD in 2006, I had to take several research methods classes and from my experience and what I know of evolution they cannot use the term theory as it doesn’t meet the criteria of scientific methods.

The author takes us right from the beginning of the definition of life, through genetic clues to naming species and subspecies. She clearly provides thoughts on what we have been told, providing examples of her own research that question original thoughts. Each chapter provides additional resources and clear definitions of terms used. “The Evolution Conspiracy, Vol.1” by Lisa A. Shiel is not a book one can breeze through, however it is easy to read. Everyone should take the time to read this book and develop their own thoughts and learn to question what is told to us. I have taken what I read from this book and used it in my psychology classes with my students to teach them that sometimes what we know or have been taught may not be true.


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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.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Booklist Reviewer Shares Women's Literature Review with The New Book Review

The Fence My Father Built
Abingdon Press, October 2009
By Linda S. Clare.
Genre: Women’s fiction, contemporary
ISBN: 13:987-1-4267-0073-6.
Author's blog: www.godsonggrace.blogspot.com.
Hardcover, $13.99


Reviewed by Lynne Welch for Booklist



Muri Pond arrives in Murkee with her two children (daughter Nova, 15, and son Tru, 11) for a quick visit to settle her long-lost father’s estate, while she regroups from an unpleasant divorce and the loss of her job, her home, and her social standing. Determined to remain aloof, Muri nonetheless finds herself slowly adjusting to central Oregon’s high-desert ranching culture, so vastly different from Portland’s lush green suburban lifestyle. And while she attempts to bridge the gap between her father’s Nez PercĂ© heritage and her mother’s obsessively white middle-class upbringing, Muri finds herself on a journey of self-discovery, encouraged by her aunt Lutie’s and uncle Tiny’s everyday, casual expressions of faith. Drawing from her own experience discovering her Native American heritage while searching for her biological father, Clare’s rich and thoughtful contemporary inspirational novel vividly portrays the day-to-day struggles of a neglected people against poverty, racism, substance abuse, and more, while holding out the enduring hope for second chances.









The Fence My Father Built, a novel from Abingdon Press

View the Book Trailer: http://bit.ly/3a36t7
Visit my Blog! http://www.godsonggrace.blogspot.com

Making Peace With a Dangerous God
Revealed: Spiritual Reality in a Makeover World
Lost Boys and the Moms Who Love Them
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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.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Founder of Mom's Choice Awards Comments on New Release

Choosing Honor, An American Woman's Search for God, Family and Country in and Age of Corruption
By Ficalora
Genre: Nonfiction, Spiritual/Social/Political
ISBN 978-0-9799359-0-9

Review by Tara Paterson, Founder of Mom's Choice Awards


"I had no idea when I sat down to read Choosing Honor how powerful it would be. I honor Ficalora for having the courage to put this out there. A lot of people wouldn't have done it for fear of their safety. It’s a sign of how things are slowly changing and truth is beginning to surface."



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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.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Ahhhh! November! Month of Celebration and Books!

I am participating in a fun blog tour with a variety of authors--everything from nonfiction writers to poets. I thought that if you followed along it would be fun and you'd see how Karen Cioffi planned this. Not a bad thing for you who have never done a tour using your own blog. Plus, it would give you a chance to win some prizes. And for those visitors who are readers! Wow! A plethora of books in many genres.

So, watch this blog on November 11 for just one of the tour entries, the famous Old Silly, Marvin Wilson.

Here is the tour schedule for the rest of the month of November. There is a prize on each stop, so make this list your reading one-stop-shop!

November 1 Dianne Sagan is hosting Heidi Thomas
http://www.diannesagan.wordpress.com


November 2 Harry Gilleland is hosting Karen Cioffi
http://harrygillelandwrites.blogspot.com November 3 Karen Cioffi is hosting Martha Swirzinki
http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com


November 4 Kathy Stemke is hosting Brigitte Thompson
http://educationtipster.blogspot.com

November 5 Nancy Famolari is hosting Deborah Weed
http://nancygfamolari.blogspot.com


November 6 Margaret Fieland is hosting Elysabeth Eldering
http://www.margaretfieland.com


November 7 Crystalee Calderwood is hosting Harry Gilleland http://crystaleecalderwood.blogspot.com


November 8 Katie Hines is hosting Heather Paye
http://katiehines.blogspot.com


November 9 Helena Harper is hosting Steve Tremp
http://helenaharpersblog.blogspot.com


November 10 Liana Metal is hosting Crystalee Calderwood
http://lianastories.blogspot.com

November 11 Carolyn Howard-Johnson is hosting Marvin Wilson http://thenewbookreview.blogspot.com
Note: You will go to my New Book Review blog to see this. While you're there, you'll want to check the guidelines in the left column to see how your review(s) can be utilized for more exposure.

November 12 Gayle Trent is hosting Dianne Sagan
http://www.gayletrent.com/blog/

November 13 Mayra Calvani is hosting Carolyn Howard-Johnson http://mayrassecretbookcase.blogspot.com

November 14 Marvin Wilson is hosting Gayle Trent
http://theoldsilly.com

November 15 Linda Asato is hosting Mayra Calvani
http://lindaswritingdesk.blogspot.com

November 16 Heather Paye is hosting Katie Hines
http://heatherpaye.blogspot.com


November 17 Steve Tremp is hosting Helena Harper
http://stephentremp.blogspot.com

November 18 Elysabeth Eldering is hosting Linda Asato
http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com

November 19 Darcia Helle is hosting Liana Metal
http://quietfurybooks.com/blog/


November 20 Deborah Weed is hosting Nancy Famolari
http://deborahweed.ning.com

November 21 Brigitte Thompson is hosting Margaret Fieland http://www.writersinbusiness.blogspot.com

November 22 Martha Swirzinki is hosting Darcia Helle
http://movementplus.com


November 23 Heidi Thomas is hosting Kathy Stemke
http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com

Each day there will be prizes offered. All you have to do is leave a comment on the host's site on the day he/she is posting for their guest and you may a winner! Note, Mayra Calvani, author of a great book on how to review books for fun or for pay, will be hosting me.

The Winner will have a choice of ONE of 2 or 3 books of our members or other related gifts, OR a one day guest spot on this blog site!

Prizes being given away evert Day from November 1st through November 23rd!

OH! Wait a minute! That's not all! We will also have a Mystery Site Giveaway and the SUPER-DUPER PRIZE is a $25 (US) GIFT CARD to either Amazon, Target, or an American Express Gift Card.

Winners will be notified the day after each posting. The Mystery Site Winner will be notified Sunday, November 29th.

Come celebrate with us and you may be the winner of a great gift in the process.




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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.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Reviewer Notes Gay Literature As Suitable for Heterosexuals

Conquering Venus:
A Novel

By Collin KelleyVanilla Heart Publishing. 255 pages. $14.95.
ISBN-13: 978-1935407294



Review by Helen Losse
First published in Blogcritics

Let’s be upfront: The category on the back of Collin Kelley’s debut novel, Conquering Venus, says “Gay Literary Fiction.” As a heterosexual woman—had I not known Collin, read his insightful political poetry, I might never have picked it up. But I do know Collin, did read the book, and I’m glad I did, for in doing so, I realized something more important than anything else I will say: “Gay Literary Fiction”—or at least Kelley’s Conquering Venus, which constitutes the sum total of books from this category which I have read—concerns itself less with overt sexual acts and more about what it means to be at home in one’s own body. I know why Kelley’s publisher wanted the book labeled “gay,” but I also know that this book has much to interest the heterosexual reader.

Kelley’s characters are multi-dimensional, his plot mature, and while the book is “gay” in detail, the theme and intent are universal: claiming and letting go—accepting responsibility for one’s own actions and refusing to blame one’s self for the actions of others—are psychological tasks or developmental stages that concern us all. Also of interest is the fact that those who speak most openly are no less troubled than those whose fear is evident. Kelley carefully and masterfully creates characters who must deal with the difficult situations in their various pasts—broken marriages, betrayal, sexual confusion and dishonesty, death, suicide, and family acceptance or denial of these—and a plot that draws them together on a trip to Paris.



Shortly after Irene and Martin meet, they “sit on the balcony for hours … discussing art and poetry, dancing around their true selves, the strange desire to confess deep secrets.” (p. 45) But why? Away from the confines of home and with alcohol flowing to remove inhibition, the characters become free to ignore convention. Or are they now free to explore it? Each effect has its cause; then effects become sorely entangled. Dreams play a large roll in the plot of this novel as does the seeming coincidence. Kelley uses italics to help the reader differentiate between live action and dreams. The dead play a roll, too, as a diary of a Parisian professor, hidden in the house Irene that never leaves, gives purpose as to why Martin and the older woman, an agoraphobic who watches through binoculars the goings on at the hotel where the group are staying, come together at all.



The situation in which Peter died leads, at least in part, to Martin’s present attraction to eighteen-year-old David, with the complicated attraction/repulsion David feels in response, and his resulting, problematic drinking. Not all gays are created equal? Well, not everyone’s family is the same. Situations do not lead to pat answers. The truth about Diane leaving her ex-husband comes out, equally confusing. The characters weave their way through the violence of bombings, a hospital’s mental ward, the landmarks in Paris—The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame—and finally home before book’s culmination. The book is a page turner and kept me up ’til 5:00 am, before the story came to a quitting point, where Diane, the burned-out teacher, and her younger friend, Martin—chaperones on a school trip—end up moving separately to Europe, leaving their problematic lives in America.



But Kelley does not end Conquering Venus by wrapping things up in that proverbial neat, little package nor does he leave us in a world we do not believe possible with everyone riding into the sunset. What Kelley does is offer hope as surely as Martin conquers Venus, exchanging the Venus de Milo for the Winged Victory.

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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.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Radio Readings of Excerpts Even Better Than Reviews

This is not one of my regular review posts. It is really about an opportunity for fiction writers to read from their works and for readers to hear fiction writers in their own voices. So, a little departure. I hope you won't mind.

Lillian Cauldwell and Carolyn Howard-Johnson invite authors for a frugal and fabulous reading and cross-promotion adventure starting March, 2010. Readers may drop by to hear our lineup then, and yes, there will be lots on this blog about how you can listen to this Passionate Internet Voices Talk Radio program.

Passionate Internet Voices Talk Radio will feature authors of published books of fiction to join in the first-ever serial weekly literary festival where authors read brief excerpts from their books over PIVTR’s radio network.
(Nonfiction and Poetry Weeks will come later in 2010.)

Book an exciting and wild read of your professional writing life with this awesome and first of its kind event:

$10 for 10 minutes payable via Paypal lillian.cauldwell@gmail.com
Entries are due no later than January 15, 2010.
Readings are recorded in advance.

Air dates: March 21 thru March 28, 10 to 11 p.m. (New York time) EXCEPT Wednesday evening when the show starts 10:30 and ends at 11:30 p.m.
First come first served
Name:
E-mail:
Date & time for recording session:
Text Lillian at 734-277-2733 Or E-mail: LSaraCauldwell@gmail.com for details!

Note: To benefit all, participants are asked to promote the series (and their own appearance) on their Web sites, in their blogs, social networks and wherever else they can. Promotion templates will be provided.

Extra benefits:

 Your favorite book review will be posted on this blog, The New Book Review blog: http://thenewbookreview.blogspot.com.

 A special Authors' Page will be created on Passionate Internet Voices Talk Radio Where recordings of all the audio segments will appear in html script.
Lillian will make all MP3 streams (html codes) of participating authors' presentations available for $3 each plus shipping. Proceeds from the MP3 streams will go to Mission Socorro and Capuchin Soup Kitchen to help the homeless, migrant workers and recently released prisoners get back on their feet.

 The week will be promoted online, by Lillian and Carolyn and by participants.

Another Offer:
Internet Voices Talk Radio is running a host-your-own 30 minute program special for $49. for Carolyn's Sharing with Writers subscribers. Book now and avoid the rush. Price goes up after January 1, 2010.



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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.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Who's Ready for a Romantic Comedy?

One Apple Tasted
Josa Young
Genre: Romantic comedy
ISBN-13: 978-1904027713

Amazon.co.uk
***** five star

Reviewed by Amanda Craig for Amazon UK, Top 100 Reviewer



One Apple Tasted is by far the best-written new romantic comedy I've read this year, and I'm amazed it didn't find a more mainstream publisher.

Beginning with the adventures of Dora in the early 1980s (a period so well rendered you can almost smaell the Opium - or, in this social circle, the Floris Rose Geranium)it moves back in time to the 1950s and the 1930s, linking three generations of women in love. Dora, the second last virgin in Britain besides Lady Diana, a bright, [pretty Cambridge graduate, works on a magazine called Modern Woman (a thinly disguised version of Vogue)and is mad for the handsome, enigmatic, and it turns out depressive son of a rich man. Their mutual attraction involves much fumbling and tumbling but no actual sex, and it's something of a surprise when he proposes to her. You have to remember just how weirdly fashionable weddings were (even before Richard Curtis)to make sense of it, but they do, secretly, get married.

The story then cuts back to the start of the War, when two women meet each other in a Harley St obstetrician's. One is barely out of childhood herself, a French Jewish refugee, the other a middle aged Home Counties wife and mother. A rapport is struck, and the younger woman comes to stay with the elder. They give birth almost at the same time; opne dies and the other feeds the other's daughter. When they grow up, the refugee's child finds out how hard marrying love and lust can be.

It would be unfair to give away too much of the plot - and, unusually for this kind of novel, there's a lot of it, making it reminiscent of Nancy Mitford as well as Mary Wesley. The posh but poor Dora and her mother Hilly are so alike that they could be the same person - sweet, innocent, sensible and idealistic. They are absolutely charming creations, and needless to say, the men they adore come across as horribly selfish, immature and snobbish (by far the nicest is Dora's father Stephen, and I'd have liked to see more of him). I can't imagine that Dora's future is going to be a bed of roses but then she's too sensible (despite the one absolutely bonkers thing she does) to expect this.

This is very much a novel set in a particular segment of upper middle class life, where men work as art dealers and women dabble in journalism. There's a LOT about clothes, which will no doubt win Young an ardent teen audience. The scenes set in India come close to parody, and weaken the rest even if, again, this is a typical rite of passage. But what it is absolutely marvellous at is capturing the beauty and intensity of being very young and passionate, and not really knowing what to do with yourself.


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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.