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.

Showing posts sorted by date for query western. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query western. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Appellate Attorney Pens Western Romance, Earns Five Stars


Title: What Heals the Heart
Author: Karen A. Wyle
Author website: http://www.KarenAWyle.com
Genre: historical romance [whether it's Western historical romance depends on people's definition, given the absence of ranches, cattle drives, gunfights, and outlaws, and only a passing reference to cowboys]
ISBN:  978-0998060453 (10-digit version  0998060453) 
ASIN B07VH1Q6C6
Reviewer's rating: five stars

Purchase at Amazon 



Reviewed by Kathryn Blade originally for Amazon


I received a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

What Heals the Heart by Karen A. Wyle is a romance in the years following the Civil War in America. Joshua Gibbs moved to the town of Cowbird Creek after the war. He serves as physician to the residents in the area. He meets Clara Brook. Their attraction is immediate.

Ms. Wyle’s understanding of the time period described in the book is impressive. The world of Cowbird Creek is interesting and well developed. Characters are interesting and develop over time. There are plot twists that keep the reader interested. The love story that develops is endearing and timeless. Another strong point is Ms. Wyle’s style of writing. Reading What Heals the Heart is easy as the writing flows in a relaxed, almost conversational style. My world felt right while reading this book, as if I’d found an old friend and sat for a while to drink coffee and chat about life or love.

I give What Heals the Heart five out of five stars. It is one of the best modern historical romances I have read in recent years. Fans of historical romances will enjoy this book.

Ms. Wyle, if you’re out there reading this, just know I’m a huge fan now.

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER


Kathryn Blade is an indie author and book reviewer. She writes book reviews, poetry, and light romance.  She says, "Check out the recent cool things I've been up to: 
Tons of book reviews posted on Amazon, Goodreads, and Bookbub. 
My interview on the NF Reads website. 
My guest blog post on author Matt Brown's blog. 
Ebooks of my first works are available on Amazon

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karen A. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but eventually settled in Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University. She now considers herself a Hoosier. Wyle's childhood ambition was to be the youngest ever published novelist. While writing her first novel at age 10, she was mortified to learn that some British upstart had beaten her to the goal at age 9.

Wyle is an appellate attorney, photographer, political junkie, and mother of two daughters. Her voice is the product of almost five decades of reading both literary and genre fiction. It is no doubt also influenced, although she hopes not fatally tainted, by her years of law practice. Her personal history has led her to focus on often-intertwined themes of family, communication, the impossibility of controlling events, and the persistence of unfinished business.

what-heals-the-heart-book-review-Karen-Wiley


MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER, THIS BLOG, AND ITS BENEFITS FOR WRITERS

 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 everything 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.

Friday, July 19, 2019

The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca Discussion Questions

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.

The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah

This book elicited quite strong reactions from our Global Reads for Grown-ups Facebook book group readers, particularly on the question of whether Shah relied on cultural stereotypes and caricatures in his portrayal of Morocco.
The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca Discussion Questions

  • ASIN: B015QNQ6R6
  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam Books
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385608071
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385608077

1) What did you think of the book? Would you recommend it?

2) On p. 19 of my edition, Tahir Shah writes "In the West we are driven by an extreme form of guilt - if you are not seen to be working like a dog, you're perceived as being slothful. It was very clear that things in Morocco were quite different...I found people rushed about only when they needed to, and not because they knew others were watching them."
Do you agree that people in the West feel guilty for relaxing? (Or that they don't feel this guilt elsewhere?)

3) Here is a quick overview of Edward Said's concept of Orientalism and how it still shapes Western views of the East today. Do you think The Caliph's House played into these stereotypes? Did he do anything to dispel them?



4) The book begins with Tahir Shah signing the papers on his new house when they are interrupted by suicide attacks in Casablanca. What effect does it have starting the book with this effect? Why did he choose to do this?

5) [Reader question] What did you think about the family relationships in the book?

6) Did you have a favorite character?

7) Overall, would you say The Caliph's House paints a flattering portrait of Morocco? Or of the expats living there? Would you want to move to Morocco based solely on reading this book? Why or why not?

8) Have you ever lived abroad? If so, how did your experience compare with the one portrayed in the book?

9) Thinking on books about where you are from (or where you live now) was there one that really got it wrong? What book really got it right? What book do you recommend about where you are from (or where you live)?

Thank you for reading! This post was written by: 
Leanna is a homeschooler with three sweet, funny, rambunctious children.  She draws inspiration from the Writings of the Bahá’í Faith and tries to raise her Monkeys in a fun, spiritual, loving environment.  She and her husband, who is from Costa Rica, are raising their children to be bilingual and bicultural but more importantly to be “world citizens.”  All Done Monkey is dedicated to sharing this journey with you!
Leanna is the founder of Multicultural Kid Blogs.
Featured website on Bahá’í Mom Blogs
Alldonemonkey.com

The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca Discussion Questions



Friday, July 20, 2018

Dr. Bob Rich Shares Hard-Hitting Review on Pollution

Title: The Coal Truth
Author: David Ritter
Publisher: University of Western Australia Publishing
2018
ISBN: 9781742589824
$Au23

Reviewed by Dr. Bob Rich

The Coal Truth is the deplorable story of the proposed Adani mine in the Galilee Basin in Queensland, Australia, but is relevant to everyone, everywhere. 

Think of this coal mine idea as a case study about what’s wrong with our world, and what we need to do to fix it.

David Ritter is the ideal person to write this book. His research and journalistic skills are obvious on every page. His background as a lawyer give him the ability to explain complex concepts in a way any person will understand. And his role in leading Greenpeace Australia shows his commitment to creating a survivable future.
This is an important book. Reading it hurts in places -- in our crazy world, the truth is bound to -- but there is a lot of positivity to balance the gloom.

Part I is a powerful, personal but thoroughly documented monograph by David. It should be compulsory reading for everyone, particularly those who wield power. Naturally, they’ll dismiss it, but the rest of us need to rub their noses in it.

The second part details the evidence, by a group of experts with impeccable credentials.
I found Chapter 11 by John Quiggin to be particularly powerful, because it avoids any questions of environmental damage, ethical considerations or humanitarian/health issues, but focuses on matters the dinosaurs understand: MONEY. This chapter alone should convince anyone with half a brain that the Adani project is a no-goer. 

Only an idiot, or a bribed politician, can ignore the message from David and his fellow authors.


MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER   


Dr. Bob Rich writes fiction and an eclectic newsletter called "Bobbing Around." It includes articles of note about everything from writing to the environment. He has been an environmental campaigner since 1972. Since he had young children, he studied futurology: the science of examining where current trends point. The results were horrifying, because he accurately predicted today’s world. Everything he does is still aimed at working for a future young people can survive in, and one that’s worth the effort. He asks everyone to join his team. To see what that involves, go to his blog, https://bobswich18.wordpress.com and read the essay, “How to change the world." 

Subscribe to "Bobbing Around" at https://bobrich18.wordpress.com
Find Bob's latest book at : http://bobswriting.com/hitandrun.html
Learn more about him at http://bobswriting.com
"Commit random acts of kindness."
"Live simply so you may simply live."


MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG AND GETTING REVIEWS

 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.

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Ottawa Review of Books Reviewer Shares with New Book Review


TWISTED TRAFFICK
 by Geza Tatrallyay 
ISBN 978-1626947535
Published by Black Opal Books
Genre: Thrilller


Reviewed by Timothy Niedermann originally for the Ottawa Review of Books


Greg Martens and Anne Rossiter, now Anne Martens, are back in Vienna, home of the Sachertorte pastry and the small milk-and-mocha coffee known as the kleiner Brauner. The last time they were here (in the first volume of the projected Twisted trilogy, “Twisted Reasons”) was to find out what happened to Greg’s friend Adam Kallay, an official with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) who had disappeared and was presumed dead. Anne, at the time, was with Interpol in Vienna, and working with Julia Saparova, a Russian who also worked with the IAEA, Greg and Anne had plunged into the shadowy world of international arms dealing to try to recover stolen arms-grade uranium. Their mission was successful, marred only by confirmation of Adam’s death. Now Julia has disappeared, and Greg and Anne are summoned by Interpol from their idyllic Vermont home, back to the cultural splendor of the Austrian capital. But as before, the trail to find Julia inevitably leads to the dark alleys and shady nightclubs of Eastern Europe.

In this, the second volume of the Twisted trilogy, author Tatrallyay immerses us again into the murky criminal underworld of post-Soviet Russia, this time the business of sex trafficking. Nadia, a Russian teenager, thought she was traveling to Western Europe to find a job. Instead, she finds herself kidnapped, sexually abused, and forced to act as a stripper in a bar. Meanwhile, her father, a guard at a Russian nuclear facility, is being blackmailed by Nadia’s captors to look the other way when a certain Julia Saparova arrives. So where is Julia and what is she up to? As the trails Greg and Anne are following begin to intertwine, old “friends” from “Twisted Reasons” reappear, back in the game of stealing uranium from a former Soviet nuclear site for sale to a mysterious client. 

Nadia, meanwhile is destined to be auctioned off as a sex slave to one of several sleazy, but very wealthy criminal bosses. Without being gratuitously graphic, Tatrallyay does not hold back in his descriptions of the depravity of the men who enslave these young women for sale to the highest bidder. Well organized and vicious, they lead Greg and Anne on a tense cross-border chase from Vienna to a yacht on the shore of the Adriatic where the final auction is to take place.

Adding a parallel mystery is the story of Julia’s aunt Katerina, who disappeared in Soviet Russia in 1950 and was never heard of again. Rumours persist that she had been taken prisoner by none other than Lavrenti Beria, the perverted head of the NKVD, Stalin’s secret police.

Tatrallyay was born in Hungary and knows this part of the world well. He creates a vivid atmosphere through which he propels his characters at top speed, never letting the pace slacken or the suspense wane. Though there is less of a history lesson in this book than in the first, Tatrallyay does dip into the real past to give his plot depth. This is welcome and reflects the sensation one often feels in Europe, that the past still has its hand, whether nurturing or threatening, on the shoulder of the present.

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Geza Tatrallyay was born in Budapest and escaped with his family in 1956 during the Hungarian Revolution, immigrating to Canada. He studied at Harvard, Oxford (Rhodes Scholar) and the London School of Economics. His professional experience has included stints in government, international finance and environmental entrepreneurship. With six books published to date and several more due to be released during the next year, he now devotes his time to writing.
There is more on Geza and his books at www.gezatatrallyay.com.

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Timothy Niedermann is a professional editor, reviewer, and novelist who has also taught writing at Yale and McGill. His essays have appeared in The Montreal Review, and he reviews books for the Montreal Review of Books and the Ottawa Review of Books. His novel, Wall of Dust, was published by Deux Voiliers Publishing in 2015. There is more on Timothy at www.timothyniedermann.com.



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. 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 ). 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.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Jendi Reiter Reviews Em Jollie's Poetry

 Field Guide to Falling
 by em jollie
Website https://www.facebook.com/emjollie
Genre - Poetry
ISBN-10: 0997347201
ISBN-13: 978-0997347203
Name of reviewer - Jendi Reiter
Published in Reiter's Block, Jendi's blog -
Link to buy book - best to buy directly from emjollie@gmail.com but also available on Amazon

Reviewed by Jendi Reiter originally for her blog, Reiter's Block



Western Massachusetts writer em jollie’s new poetry collection A Field Guide to Falling (Human Error Publishing, 2017) is like a stained-glass cathedral window: even in scenes of suffering, the glorious colors give joy and uplift. Much of the book processes the aftermath of breaking up with a beloved woman, though at the end, the narrator seems to find a new beginning with another partner and a greater sense of herself as complete and sufficient. But this therapeutic summary can’t do justice to the mystical meaning of her journey. The speaker bravely walks up to the edge of everything we consider permanent, looks into the clouds swirling above the bottomless gulf, and finds a way to praise their ever-changing shapes. These poems imply that the value of falling–in love, out of love, out of Eden into a world of loss–is in how it challenges us to keep our hearts open, to say Yes despite it all.

Specificity keeps these classic themes fresh. A lesser poet would risk pathos with the extended metaphor of “How to Set a Firefly Free” as a farewell to a relationship where love exists but is not enough. This poem works because it is a real firefly first, a symbol second.
Firefly, suddenly setting aflame cut crystal hanging
from ceiling fan pull-chain. Greenish glow in each facet
while all night dogwood salts dark-wet sidewalk
flowers ripped gloriously open in rainpour.
Isn’t that a love poem all by itself? Those “flowers ripped gloriously open” already remind you of your own worthwhile heartbreak, whatever that was. The ending, which makes the personal connection explicit, only confirms what you felt it was about from the very first lines.
…If only
I didn’t know why lightning bugs blink.
If only I wasn’t so wise to the fact that your light
does not belong to me, will not ever.
If only I didn’t know that was right.
So naturally I just Googled why lightning bugs blink. Wikipedia says the trait originally evolved as a warning signal to predators that the bug was toxic to eat, but now its primary purpose is to communicate with potential mates. This dual meaning of sex and death confirms the speaker’s sad verdict on this love affair, which earlier in the poem she compared to the bond between a neighbor and his snarling dog: “[w]e said they were so mean they belonged together. Yet there/was something sweet about the belonging.”
jollie has one stylistic tic that I understand is common to the Smith College “school” of poetry, which is the occasional (and to my mind, random) omission of “a” and “the”. I’m sorry to say this is a pet peeve of mine. It creates a missing beat in the rhythm of a sentence, which distracts me. It’s fine to twist grammar to make a more compressed line, but I feel that this works best when the entire poem is written in an unusual voice, not when a single part of speech is excised from otherwise normal English.
jollie has kindly allowed me to reprint the poems below. It was hard to choose just two! Buy her book here.
Object Constancy
Sand can be grasped in a palm, yes. But wind
will take it eventually. Heart is body’s hourglass,
holding its own beginning
& end, its constant ticking tipping moment into
granular moment, for a while. You could take my skull
in your hands, but you will have to give it back
at some point. As will I.
Sure, Freud’s nephew came to understand
that Teddy Bear was just over edge of crib when it
disappeared from sight. But where is that Teddy now,
if not in some museum, curators desperately
fighting its inherent impermanence? Presence has to be
interrogative, doesn’t it, rather than declarative?
Dust is still dust. What I mean is: how
do I trust more than what I learned in the chaos
of childhood when since then I’ve been ingrained with loss
upon loss, like every human walking wings of light
through time?
Feather the paintbrush of my fingers across your jaw.
Feather the paintbrush of your fingers across my jaw.
We color each other for this moment. Just this one.
Then it’s done, days like hungry teeth devouring
endless could-have-beens into the finite sacred what-was.
I say: I love you (I have no choice)
What I mean to say: I let go (I have no choice)
****
A Few Desires, or How to Hunger
I want to be the malleable soap
your hands sculpt as you cleanse yourself,
as ordinary and as daily and as caressed as that.
I want to be the cutting board, that firm surface
you can lay edges against, that allows you
to divide roughage from nourishment.
I want to be the pillow case, containing all
the softness for resting your public face
and the slim canvas you play your private dreams onto.
Let me suds into joining the stream of water
down the drain, become the bamboo board
oiled so many times until finally, split, I am
placed on the compost pile. Let the laundry
tear my threads until, like the pillow case,
I cannot contain, but let every thriving thing seep out.
But in truth I can be none of these things,
just this tiny self loving you, accepting your gifts,
providing what sustenance I can in return.
In other words, use me up, until I am done with myself.


MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Jendi Reiter is a poet, novelist,  and principal of the essential WinningWriters.com where she often judges for their sponsored poetry contests. She also blogs at Reiter's Block. Find quotations from Rumi in many of her signatures:  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"There is a morning inside you, waiting to burst into light."
~ Rumi


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. 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 ). 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.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

"My Brothers Keeper" Reviewed by Religion Journal



Book Title: My Brother’s Keeper
Author: Bill Kassel
Author Website: www.billkassel.com
Genre: Historical/Religious Fiction
Publisher: Company Publications/Saint Joseph Communications
ISBN: 978-0-938984-06-1
Reviewed by Fr. Michael P. Orsi originally for Homiletic and Pastoral Review

My Brother’s Keeper is an inspirational novel of a type that used to be broadly popular: a Bible-based narrative that expands on the Gospels to tell an engaging story about a character whose life is touched by Christ. Classics such as Ben Hur and The Robe are examples of this genre of religious storytelling that was once at the heart of the literary mainstream.
In our cynical, materialist age, such works have largely fallen out of fashion. Even the Christian publishing houses tend to shy away from Bible fiction, preferring instead to offer contemporary or historical tales that center on moral conflicts, along with those innumerable series of so-called “Christian romances.” And when secular publishers touch on the Bible these days, we’re mainly treated to gnostic conspiracies or wild speculations about Jesus’ “secret wife.”
Catholic author Bill Kassel is attempting to swim against the fashionable tide with a tale that’s remarkably orthodox but that offers an unconventional perspective on Jesus and his family. He accomplishes this through a deft blending of canonical and non-canonical elements, spiced with historical research and a good deal of imaginative supposition.
His story is premised on two ancient pious traditions: (1) that Joseph was a widower with children when he married a much younger Mary, and (2) that Mary herself had been raised in the Temple at Jerusalem as a sort of Jewish proto-“nun.” These ideas are not Kassel’s inventions, but rather are rooted in the Apocryphal Gospels (such as the Protoevangelium of James), early Christian writings that are largely overlooked in the Western Church today.
The plot of My Brother’s Keeper gets nudged into motion when Joseph is asked to take a teenage Mary as his wife because she is approaching her “impurity” (the onset of menstruation), which will require her to leave the Temple. Mary’s mother, Anna, is dead, and her father, Joachim, is nearing death himself, so the girl needs a home and husbandly protection. The twist is that this arrangement must allow Mary to preserve the celibacy she has chosen for herself.
Thus Kassel both sets the stage for all kinds of domestic complications within Joseph’s extended household, and advances a neat rationale for the Catholic doctrine of Mary’s Perpetual Virginity which even Protestants might accept. Through such clever literary contrivances My Brother’s Keeper tries to fill many of the gaps in the Gospels and answer questions that have challenged the Christian imagination over millennia.
The book’s anchor is James, described in the Bible as “the brother of the Lord,” and in Kassel’s telling the youngest of Joseph’s children. James dreams of becoming a Doctor of the Law. He pursues his goal under the tutelage of Hillel, the most renowned sage of First-Century Judaism, and Gamaliel, Hillel’s grandson (who is recognized as an important leader of the Sanhedrin in The Acts of the Apostle).
As James rises to scholarly prominence, Joseph, on his deathbed, exacts a promise from him to protect Jesus, whom Joseph believes to be the Messiah. James doesn’t share his father’s certainty about Jesus and his spiritual pedigree, but he nevertheless agrees to do what he can—in essence becoming his brother’s keeper. Later in the book, when Jesus’ ministry has begun stirring controversy, James cultivates a friendship with Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, in an effort to make good on the promise to his late father and assure that Jesus isn’t railroaded by corrupt religious authorities.
Pilate is only one of the Biblical figures who show up in this book and are revealed in unexpected ways. Joseph of Arimathea and Saul of Tarsus are two others who play surprising roles in James’ life and add density to the plot. Numerous made-up characters enrich the story as well. In fact, one of the book’s strengths is the variety of perspectives on Jesus illustrated as people grapple with their questions about this strange prophet from Nazareth.
Looking back 2,000 years and knowing how things turned out, we sometimes wonder why anyone, at the time, would have missed Jesus’ true nature. But it wasn’t necessarily clear, then, who Jesus was or what he was up to. The book captures those ambiguous circumstances, maintaining an appropriate atmosphere of tension and uncertainty throughout, until Christ’s post-resurrection appearance to James (mentioned in the Bible) near the end of the story.
Kassel demonstrates a deep appreciation for the Jewishness of Jesus and for the Old Testament roots of Christianity, evident in his research into the laws and customs of Judaism. His command of the period’s history, the local geography, and especially the political conflicts of Roman-occupied Palestine make this work instructive as well as entertaining. And it allows the author to avoid either over-romanticizing life in Jesus’ day or blaming the Jews, as a people, for Christ’s death.
My Brother’s Keeper can be viewed as part of a literary genre concerning Jesus that goes back to at least the second century A.D. But it achieves a contemporary plausibility, to which modern readers can relate, by emphasizing the human dimension of the story over its miraculous aspects. This is a highly engaging work of fiction that can be readily employed in religious education programs for both adults and teenagers—though some care should be taken with young people. Kassel doesn’t soft-pedal the violence of the period. His portrayal of crucifixion is particularly vivid. It makes one appreciate what Christ suffered, but it could be a bit unsettling.
Perhaps if My Brother’s Keeper gains a sufficient following, it might help to bring quality religious novels back into popularity among the general readership. My one concern is that 1,000 years from now, when it’s discovered in cyber-space, it may attain the notoriety of the ancient Apocryphal Gospels and engender a sequel to The DaVinci Code.

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. 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 ). 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.