April 2023 MBR The Literary Fiction Shelf

The Literary Fiction Shelf

The Last Beekeeper
Julie Carrick Dalton
Forge Books
c/o Tor/Forge Books
www.tor-forge.com
9781250269218, $27.99, HC, 384pp

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Beekeeper-Julie-Carrick-Dalton/dp/1250269210

Synopsis: It's been more than a decade since the world has come undone, and Sasha Severn has returned to her childhood home with one goal in mind -- to find the mythic research her father, the infamous Last Beekeeper, hid before he was incarcerated. There, Sasha is confronted with a group of squatters who have claimed the quiet, idyllic farm as their own. While she initially feels threatened, the group soon becomes her newfound family, offering what she hasn't felt since her father was imprisoned: security and hope. Maybe it's time to forget the family secrets buried on the farm and focus on her future.

But just as she settles into her new life, Sasha witnesses the impossible. She sees a honey bee, presumed extinct. People who claim to see bees are ridiculed and silenced for reasons Sasha doesn't understand, but she can't shake the feeling that this impossible bee is connected to her father's missing research. Fighting to uncover the truth could shatter Sasha's fragile security and threaten the lives of her newfound family -- or it could save them all.

Critique: A celebration of found family, an exploration of truth versus power, and the triumph of hope in the face of despair, Julie Carrick Dalton's new novel, "The Last Beekeeper", is It is a deftly crafted meditation on forgiveness and redemption and a reminder to cherish the beauty that still exists in this fragile world. "The Last Beekeeper" will have a very special appeal to readers with an interest in an all to plausible dystopian future. A remarkable work of original literary fiction, "The Last Beekeeper" is unreservedly recommended for community, and academic library collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Last Beekeeper" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).

Editorial Note: Julie Carrick Dalton (https://juliecarrickdalton.com) is a journalist who has published more than a thousand articles in The Boston Globe, BusinessWeek, The Hollywood Reporter, Orion Magazine, Electric Literature, and other publications. Dalton holds a master's degree in literature and creative writing from Harvard Extension School. She is a frequent speaker on the topic of writing fiction in the age of climate crisis.

Don't Go
Abraham Aamidor
Stephen F. Austin University Press
https://www.sfasu.edu/sfapress
9781622889297, $18.00, PB, 188pp

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Go-Abraham-Aamidor/dp/1622889290

Synopsis: With the publication of "Don't Go", journalist and author Abraham Aamidor showcases his extraordinary literary storytelling skills and mastery of the short story form. "Don't Go" features speculative and realistic fiction together, creating a balanced body of original stories.

In "John Gardner's Last Ride," the day famous writer John Gardner died in a motorcycle accident in 1982 is chronicled. "Siddhartha," inspired by the Hermann Hesse classic, this quest for meaning begins in a trailer park with a pimply-faced young man. In "My Stupid Life Dot Com," a computer "nerd" tries to get a date with the beautiful daughter of his landlord. In "Sacrificing Isaac," a religious boy protests the Biblical story; why would Isaac have even submitted to his own prescribed death?

In "Best Jewtown Hot Dogs," a wisecracking Jewish newspaper reporter in Chicago knows the Windy City better than he knows himself. A Palestinian and a former Kibbutz volunteer meet at college in America and learn to see each other with new eyes. In "Nietzsche's Dog," an earnest young man searches for truth and is disappointed; his hoped-for mentor may not even be real, and he knows he must fall back on his own resources. "In the Graveyard of Past Experience" documents an imperious psychiatrist and his failed career.

Critique: Comprised of eleven original and deftly crafted short stories and one Novella Aamidor's new anthology "Don't Go" is a truly memorable literary experience and is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal reading lists and community/academic library Contemporary American Literary Fiction collections.

Editorial Note: Abraham 'Abe' Aamidor is an award winning feature writer at The Indianapolis Star and the author of several books, including a biography of basketball shoe legend Chuck Taylor and a history of the British motorcycle industry.

108 Dreams
Cheryl Wheeler
Independently Published
9798769929045, $10.80, PB, 119pp

https://www.amazon.com/108-Dreams-Cheryl-Wheeler/dp/B0BVCMM4R5

Synopsis: With the publication of "108 Dreams", author and poet Cheryl Wheeler presents prose poetry insights into our collective human subconscious worlds while showcasing the deliciously absurd, the tragic, the bizarre mechanics that our brains use to process our daily lives.

These succinctly crafted short stories render her captured dreams reflecting twisting mundane daily concepts of reality into the dizzying shared human experiences of suffering, loss, shame, resignation, confusion, grief, humor, love, compassion, perseverance, and strength.

Critique: Original, absorbing, reflective, contemplative, thoughtful and thought-provoking, and highly recommended for personal, community, and academic library Contemporary Literary Studies collections, "108 Dreams" is an extraordinary and compelling collection that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after this slim anthology is finished and set back upon the shelf.

Editorial Note: Cheryl Wheeler (https://sites.google.com/view/cheryllwheeler/home) is a creative, experienced, purpose-driven cross-functional professional with expertise in designing and implementing customized transformative educational programs at the University of Washington for diverse learners across multiple disciplines, continuously seeking opportunities to affect positive change, particularly in environmental conservation and regeneration. She is an optimistic pessimist who creates, and sometimes writes about, both reality and non-reality.

Ten Golden Fields: Secrets Unveiled
Wen E. Henagan
Yellow Bear Books
https://www.gogreatstory.com
9780578279701, $11.99, PB, 115pp

https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Golden-Fields-Secrets-Unveiled/dp/0578279703

Synopsis: With the publication of "Ten Golden Fields: Secrets Unvailed", author Wen Henagan presented a collection of ten very short fiction tales, each of which is between 7-10 pages in length.

Each deftly crafted short story is designed for maximum good reading. Characters shine and speak to truth, as they see it. Time periods are the far past, recent past, near present, or near future. Plots are geared to involve readers very quickly. Endings surprise and are compelling. Genres are varied and as readers move from story to story, there is no intended thread, except that stories are difficult to put down until readers know the ending. At that point emotions may be boiled, roiled or coiled.

Critique: Having a very special appeal for readers with an interest in the very short story format, "Ten Golden Fields: Secrets Unveiled" is a large coffee-table style (8.5 x 0.26 x 11 inches) paperback anthology that is unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and academic library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections. It should be noted further that "Ten Golden Fields: Secrets Unveiled" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99).

Among the Fallen
Henry Mitchell
Creative James Media
http://creativejamesmedia.com
9781956183580, $16.99 Paper/$4.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Among-Fallen-Henry-Mitchell/dp/1956183582

Among the Fallen focuses on a sleepy Appalachian village, but doesn't open with the ordinary world. Instead, it introduces a milieu in which portents of change between the Two Worlds charge Wendl with introducing Gobnait (aka Abigail Trammel) back to the Stream from the world of the Fallen. Readers come to realize that the Fallen's world is our own familiar one.

Abigail is no spring chicken. Well into her elder years, Abigail prides herself in maintaining abilities her peers have not. Wendl VonTrier is just the new renter in town -- or so she thinks! Why is a visitor coming off-season and unannounced? It's none of her business, Abigail thinks -- but it turns out to be entirely her concern, because the visitor lies at the heart of an edict to change worlds and her own future via the challenges Wendl introduces to Abigail's set life.

As crimes, victims, and puzzles mount, readers will find this story a special blend of magical realism, murder mystery, and a tale of evil, redemption, and other worlds that come to center on one small town and an aging woman who holds unexpected answers to odd circumstances and questions. "How perverse are the gods. More inscrutable, even than dragons." Given the keys to a special kind of kingdom, will Abigail use them?

Author Henry Mitchell mixes mystery, literary reflection, magical realism, and discoveries with Appalachian community culture in a manner that lends to the book's enjoyment by fantasy and novel readers alike. Its magic is rooted in two worlds, its characters operate on the edges of both, and its action and psychological tension develop many surprises in the course of events which draw all kinds of people into a transformative encounter.

Libraries will find Among the Fallen easily recommendable to patrons interested in mystery, magical realism, fantasy, and small town rising forces alike, creating a bridge between fantasy and fiction that, like its characters, operates equally powerfully in two genre worlds.

Society, Suspicious
Freeman Smith
https://freemansmith.com
Atmosphere Press
www.atmospherepress.com
9781639887064, $24.99 Hardcover/$16.99 Paper

https://www.amazon.com/Society-Suspicious-Freeman-Smith/dp/1639886877

Society, Suspicious represents political satire at its best, blending a first-person observational style with experimental fiction in a manner designed to challenge reader perceptions and ideals.

Freeman Smith's saga opens with a bang: "I faked my death in Paris, which proved far easier than I had imagined. The one time in my life I devoted my mind and soul to planning. Real planning. France is not like America. A few hundred years older, maybe not wiser, but definitely too tired to deny or regulate a man's personal freedoms."

A stolen citizenship card from a dying man leads the narrator into a life "...free of fame and chaos and forced narcissism." The self-professed "Mr. Mojo Rising" has been a busy man in America, playing the 'victim/hero' in a variety of scenarios that keeps testing his identity and fostering his participation in the nation's "collective narcissism."

The poet/rebel narrator crafts so many observations and dialogues that readers ride a roller coaster ride of irony and social inspection that moves from money to madness around the world, juxtaposing a jaunt through others' lives with a wry sense of embellishment and commentary that runs over disparate lives like a river of judgment. Whether attacking affirmative action and prejudice, the love child of a seventeen-year-old's dalliance, or scenes from a play that offer serious messages, the strobe light roller-skating foray is certain to intrigue, offend, and give rise to all kinds of thoughts. Whether he's embedding poetry, play scenes, or nonfiction into his saga, one thing is for certain: this experimental work will challenge some and intrigue others.

Ultimately, its romp and realizations deserve attention and discussion in book groups interested in satirical experimental fiction firmly embedded in social inspection. Society, Suspicious will do well in libraries that look for contemporary satire, experimental literary fiction, and stories that reverberate with contemporary angst.

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