July 2023 MBR The General Fiction Shelf

The General Fiction Shelf

Petrochemical Nocturne
Amos Jasper Wright IV
Livingston Press
University of West Alabama, Station 22, Livingston, AL 35470
https://livingstonpress.uwa.edu
9781604893434, $22.95, PB, 350pp

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/petrochemical-nocturne-amos-jasper-wright/1143664760

Synopsis: The Mississippi River. HAZMAT. Boxing. Suicide by cop. New Orleans Saints football. Chemical explosions. The Angola prison rodeo. Chlorine gas ghost ships.

Through these symbols and themes we learn about Toussaint, (an African-American named after the Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture) and his formative experiences in the Standard Heights neighborhood of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

"Petrochemical Nocturne" is an indictment of what Toussaint describes as "that dystopian haunted carnival cruise line called America." as Standard Heights and the ExxonMobil refinery which has destroyed it supply the energy and refined petroleum products which enable contemporary consumerism.

A discursive exploration of environmental racism, southern history, the prison-industrial complex, police brutality, intergenerational trauma, and climate change, "Petrochemical Nocturne" is both paean and eulogy for the former enslaved communities of Cancer Alley, the erasure of an entire people from a poisoned landscape.

Critique: Although a work of fiction by novelist Amos Jasper Wright IV, "Petrochemical Nocturne" offers a clear warning about a very real and current environmental, social, political, judicial, and racial crisis in America. A riveting and thought-provoking read, "Petrochemical Nocturne" is available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.95) and a critically important and unreservedly recommended addition to community and academic library Literary Fiction collections.

Islomanes of Cumberland Island
Rita Welty Bourke
Addison & Highsmith Publishers
c/o Histria Books
www.histriabooks.com
9780980116458, $29.99, HC, 246pp

https://www.amazon.com/Islomanes-Cumberland-Island-Welty-Bourke/dp/0980116457

Synopsis: Lucy Carnegie, wife of industrialist Thomas Carnegie, dreamed of creating on Cumberland Island a home where her children would be safe from the smoke and soot-filled skies over Pittsburgh. Protected by the waters of the Cumberland Sound, the estate she built encompassed nearly the entire island. It was a perfect paradise -- until the outside world intruded. Stone by stone it all came tumbling down. Wild horses now crop the grass around the burnt-out mansion. Rattlesnakes nest among the ruins.

A century later, another family comes to Cumberland to walk among the horses and to accept what gifts the island has to offer: solitude, unspoiled wilderness, and wildlife free to roam undisturbed. Returning year after year, Rhamy and her parents explore the island and swim in the ocean. They picnic on the beach where servants once served champagne, shrimp cocktails, and crab cakes to the Carnegie family and their guests. They gaze at the chimneys surrounding Stafford house, all that remain of slave quarters that once housed plantation field hands. They mourn for Zabette, daughter of a plantation owner and his black servant, sold to a man who fathered her six children, then abandoned her.

Always, everywhere on the island, the horses graze nearby, unaware of efforts by environmentalists to remove them from the island where they have lived for centuries.

Traveling to the north end of the island, the family sits for a quiet moment in the church where JFK Jr. married Carolyn Bessette. Across the pasture is the shack where naturalist Carol Ruckdeschel has lived for fifty years and the porch where her lover lay dead, shot through the heart.

In the campgrounds, on the beach, at the Dungeness dock, wild horses graze. For now, they are safe.

Critique: "Islomane" is a word invented by writer Lawrence Durrell to explain the feeling one gets when one is on an island. "Islomanes of Cumberland Island" by Rita Welty Bourke is a carefully crafted novel that deftly blends historical family life fiction with an appreciation of the wild horses of Cumberland Island, Georgia's largest and southernmost barrier island. Cumberland Island is also home to over 9,800 acres of Congressionally designated Wilderness. As a novelist, Rita Welty Bourke is able to conjure up in the mind's eye of the ready the beauty of land, the horses, and the lives of her characters.

A masterful work of impeccable literary elegance, and a novel that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after the book has been finished and set back upon the shelf, "Islomanes of Cumberland Island" is fully and unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university library Contemporary American Literary Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Islomanes of Cumberland Island" is also available in a paperback edition (9781592112043, $19.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $1.99).

Editorial Note: Rita Welty Bourke (https://ritaweltybourke.com) is also the author of "Kylie's Ark: The Making of a Veterinarian", She has published over forty works of fiction and non-fiction in literary magazines including The North American Review, Cimarron Review, Louisiana Literature, Shenandoah, Witness, and the Black Warrior Review. One of her stories, Gunnison Beach, has been included in an anthology entitled "Naked" compiled by Susan Zakin. Five of her works have been nominated for Pushcart prizes.

Walking on Fire
Kathryn Crawley
https://kathryncrawley.com
She Writes Press
www.shewritespress.com
9781647424381, $17.95, PB, 368pp

https://www.amazon.com/Walking-Fire-Novel-Kathryn-Crawley/dp/1647424380

Synopsis: Greece. Reeling from a failed marriage and spurred on by a burgeoning sense of feminism, twenty-five-year-old Kate accepts a position as a speech therapist in a center for children with cerebral palsy in Thessaloniki, Greece.

It is 1974, and the recent end of Greece's seven-year dictatorship has ignited a fiery anti-American sentiment within the country. Despite this, as her Greek improves, Kate teaches communication to severely disabled children, creates profound friendships, and finds a home in the ancient and historied city. From a dramatic Christmas pig slaughter to a mesmerizing fire walking ceremony, her world expands rapidly -- even more so when she falls in love with Thanasis, a handsome Communist.

Through Thanasis, Kate meets people determined to turn a spotlight on their former dictators' massacre of university students, as well as their record of widespread censorship and torture of dissidents. The more she learns, the more her loyalty to her country and almost everything she was taught in her conservative home state of Texas is challenged.

Kate is transformed by her odyssey, but when her very safety is threatened by the politics of her lover, she must choose: risk everything to stay with Thanasis and the Greece that has captured her heart, or remove herself from harm's way by returning to her homeland?

Critique: "Walking on Fire" by novelist Kathryn Crawley (who aptly draws upon her expertise and experience working with Greek children with cerebral palsy) is an impressive and deftly scripted mix of politics. romance, and danger that will hold immense appeal to readers with an interest in political thrillers and coming of age stories. An original and fully entertaining read from first page to last, "Walking on Fire" is unreservedly recommended for community library fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Walking on Fire" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.49).

Editorial Note: Kathryn Crawley (https://kathryncrawley.com/about) received undergraduate and graduate degrees in speech pathology from Baylor University. Unforeseen events and an adventurous spirit led her to Casper, WY, Colorado Springs, CO, and Thessaloniki, Greece, where she worked in a center for Greek children with cerebral palsy from 1974 to 1976. She went on to establish roots in Boston, where she continued her career as a speech pathologist.

Forever Hold Your Peace
Liz Fenton, author
Lisa Steinke, author
Alcove Press
www.alcovepress.com
Dreamscape Media
https://www.dreamscapepublishing.com
9781639103522, $19.99, PB, 320pp

https://www.amazon.com/Forever-Hold-Your-Peace-Novel/dp/163910352X

Synopsis: When their newly engaged kids ask all four divorced parents to meet each other over brunch, everyone RSVPs yes -- secretly hoping someone at the table will get to the bottom of the bottomless mimosas fast enough to say what they're all thinking: that this engagement, coming after a whirlwind romance between two people barely out of college, is too much too soon.

But at that brunch it's not the impulsive couple's decisions that end up under the microscope, as it turns out June, mother of the bride, and Amy, mother of the groom, certainly do know each other. They are ex-best-friends who haven't spoken since their explosive falling out more than twenty-five years ago! Reeling from their unwanted reunion and eager to shift the spotlight off their past as decades-old secrets and rivalries come to light, the two moms battle it out for the prize of Most Enthusiastic About This Wedding.

But when their history (and their present-day shenanigans) threaten to crack the foundations of the happy couple's future, June and Amy find themselves becoming unexpected allies in an all-hands-on-deck effort to get their kids (and themselves) a happily-ever-after two generations in the making.

Critique: A messy, complicated family novel by an author with a complete mastery of the kind of narrative driven storytelling that keeps the reader's rapt attention from beginning to end, "Forever Hold Your Peace" by co-authors Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke is an original and fun read from cover to cover. While a highly recommended addition to community library comedic family and friendship fiction, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Forever Hold Your Peace" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Dreamscape Media, 9781666641448, $22.99, CD).

Editorial Note: Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke have been best friends for twenty-five years and survived high school and college together. Liz lives in San Diego with her husband and two children. Lisa, a former talk show producer, now lives in Chicago with her husband, daughter, and two bonus children.

Cloud Girls
Lisa Harding
HarperVia
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
9780063270282, $30.00, HC, 400pp

https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Girls-Novel-Lisa-Harding/dp/0063270285

Synopsis: Sassy, streetwise Sammy is a teenage girl who is falling through the cracks. Neglected by an alcoholic mother, the problems she endures at school and home lead her into the hands of adults who don't have her best interests in mind. Failed by them at every turn, Sammy acts out, seeking attention from boys, then men, when what she wants most is protection.

Meanwhile, in a small village in Eastern Europe, preternaturally beautiful and naive Nico is about to turn thirteen and as her family falls upon desperate times, her father is approached to marry her off. Her family knows that the nice life this stranger seems to be offering Nico is too good to be true, but they and Nico hope for the best as she's shuttled across the border into Ireland, where she and Sammy find one another in their new home -- a suburban brothel.

As Nico and Sammy journey into this dark underbelly and out the other side, their friendship (and the unexpected acts of kindness they give and receive) form a potent bond.

Heartbreaking and breathtakingly beautiful, "Cloud Girls" exposes the failings of polite society and the cruelty that exists beneath its surface, yet reminds us that goodness and love can flourish in the darkest times.

Critique: Deftly scripted by an author with a genuine flair for the kind of memorable character creation and narrative driven storytelling style, "Cloud Girls" is a compelling read from cover to cover that will have a very special appeal to readers with an interest in psychological and friendship literary fiction. While very strongly recommended for community and academic library Literary Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Cloud Girls" is also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Audio, 9798212216227, $41.99, CD).

Editorial Note: Lisa Harding (https://lithub.com/author/lisaharding) is an Irish actress, playwright, novelist and screenwriter decided to change her life when she applied for the MPhil in creative writing at Trinity College Dublin as a mature student. She graduated in 2014, having pursued a tumultuous career as an actress until that time. SEvery day now, as a writer, she can produce work and practice her craft.

The Cyclone Release
Bruce Overby
Madville Publishing
PO Box 358, Lake Dallas, TX 75065
www.MadvillePublishing.com
9781956440089, 21.95, PB, 258pp

https://www.amazon.com/Cyclone-Release-Bruce-Overby/dp/1956440089

Synopsis: It's the late 90s Internet boom, and Brendon Meagher has just lost his wife Sadie in a freakish car accident at the edge of Silicon Valley. "The Cyclone Release" follows Brendon as he emerges from tragedy and lands in a pre-IPO start-up that promises astonishing riches.

Mo Gramercy, a bright and commanding colleague with her own deep secret, joins Brendon, disrupts his malaise, and takes him as her lover. The characters' careen toward IPO millions, their secrets suddenly converging, and both are shaken without mercy from bucolic notions of work, life, and impending fortune.

Critique: A deftly crafted and compelling novel of Silicon Valley that is truly impressive when considering that, "The Cyclone Release" author Bruce Overby's debut as a novelist, he has written an original and entertaining story populated with memorable characters and the kind of intense and narrative driven storytelling style that will keep the reader vividly engaged from cover to cover. Blending romance with psychological fiction, "The Cyclone Release" is a highly recommended pick for community library fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Cyclone Release" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).

Editorial Note: Born in California's Santa Clara Valley long before it became the Silicon Valley of today, Bruce Overby (https://www.bruceoverby.com) both participated in and keenly observed the transformation and evolution of an insular place that many still fail to understand. His fiction has appeared in several literary journals, and his story "Bookmarks" won First Prize in the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition. He holds an MFA in Writing from Queens University of Charlotte and continues to live in Northern California with his wife Caroline.

Highway 28 West
Joe Taylor
Sagging Meniscus Press
https://www.saggingmeniscus.com
9781952386602, $19.95, PB, 120pp

https://www.amazon.com/Highway-28-West-Joe-Taylor/dp/1952386608

Synopsis: Preacher is not a preacher, though death's vicissitudes clamor around him in a disturbingly ecclesiastic manner. When he finds a pit bull puppy by the side of the road and gets a job at a boxing manufacturer, he declares his luck changed. But one small-town cop has doubts: "It ain't your luck needs changing, but the folks you meet." And so it stands, as the sun and moon revolve in their tango-or is it a waltz?-and whisper to one another.

Critique: Deftly scripted, and as entertaining as it is thought-provoking, "Highway 28 West" by author and storyteller Joe Taylor is a fun and inherently interesting read from first page to last. While readily available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99), "Highway 28 West" is an especially and unreservedly recommended pick for community and academic library Southern and Literary Fiction collections.

Editorial Note: Joe Taylor has had three story collections published (The World's Thinnest Fat Man; Some Heroes, Some Heroines, Some Others; and Masques for the Fields of Time). Also, there are a matching number of novels (Oldcat & Ms. Puss: A Book of Days for You and Me; Let There Be Lite: How I Came to Know and Love Godel's Incompleteness Theorem; and Pineapple: A Comic Novel in Verse) published. He has also edited several story collections, including Tartts One through Tartts Seven and Belles' Letters. He has directed the Livingston Press for more than 25 years.

The War Ends At Four
Rosanna Staffa
Regal House Publishing
https://regalhousepublishing.com
9781646033317, $18.95, PB, 210pp

https://www.amazon.com/War-Ends-At-Four/dp/1646033310

Synopsis: Renata, an Italian acupuncturist in Minneapolis, falls madly in love with a charismatic actor. Once married, she discovers his passion is not focused on her alone. With her marriage and her small acupuncture clinic in crisis, she is called to her father's deathbed in Milan. There Renata again faces the slights she suffered in childhood as the daughter of an immigrant from Naples.

Gripped by grief and anxiety over her future, she discovers that her father, a survivor of WWII, believed until the end in risk-taking as a life-affirming necessity. With newfound courage, Renata stumbles into the lure of an old love and the magic of a new one.

Critique: "The War Ends at Four" deftly explores the quest of a perpetual outsider who is desperately seeking a true home while coming to terms with the Italy she left behind and the America she found. Exceptional, original, eloquent, entertaining, it is all the more impressive when learning that "The War Ends at Four" is author Rosanna Staffa's debut as a novelist. While also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.49), "The War Ends at Four" is unreservedly recommended for community library Family Life and Literary Fiction collections.

Editorial Note: Rosanna Staffa (https://www.rosannastaffa.com/bio) is an Italian-born author. Her work can be found in Best Short Fictions 2021, The Sun, Tampa Review, Gargoyle, and other literary magazines. She is the winner of 2020 TSR Nonfiction Prize, a Pushcart nominee, and a McKnight Recipient. She is a member of The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. The War Ends at Four is her debut novel.

The Boys and Girls of America
Christopher Gould
https://authorchristophergould.com
Atmosphere Press
www.atmospherepress.com
9781639888474, $20.00

https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Girls-America-Christopher-Gould/dp/1639888470

In The Boys and Girls of America, only fifteen percent of applicants get into the dream college Edsen. Like so many before him, James Castle has similar big dreams, but fails to make the cut. Six years later, his perseverance pays off when he becomes the college's writer-in-residence, producing a magnum opus that cements his prowess as an author while exposing family secrets and skeletons which should better have been left in the closet.

With opportunity comes adversity, because these newly released secrets which dovetail with his literary success ironically threaten his achievement when a too-savvy stranger tries to expose the real roots of his novel's themes and strength. As James navigates dicey relationships with women and men, he begins to fall into the kinds of adult situations and realizations that are the hallmark of maturity.

Christopher Gould captures the moments of this evolving life with an intimacy and attention to detail that brings James's experiences to life: "I guess I sort of lost myself for a bit. What I did, without realizing it, was start singing along to the music that was playing. It was a song by The Police, called "Message in a Bottle." Anyway, I always liked that song, and I just sat there in the middle of traffic singing along, forgetting entirely that Marnie was even there. Midway through the song, Marnie started laughing. Really laughing -- hysterically even. I mean, it was one of those joyous laughs that are pure and genuine; the kinds of laughs that are a long time in coming, and make everyone within hearing distance break out into uncontrollable laughter too."

Part of the allure of The Boys and Girls of America lies in the moments it captures as James falls hard for Marnie, only to realize that her special brand of strange passion has permitted him entry into an emotional hellscape in which he finds his ambitions and perceptions constantly thwarted. From the "torched heat of East Coast summer" to equally emotionally sizzling encounters James never expected from school or success, Gould paints a compelling portrait of a young man under siege in more than one way. This time is a "furious balancing" of past, present, and possible futures that James navigates with precision and growing uncertainties about his choices.

Libraries and readers looking for a vivid story of a new adult who teeters on the cusp of change when his longed-for recognition produces unexpected (and unwelcome) results will find The Boys and Girls of America rich in its portrait of a dream gone awry and the transformations that emerge from it. Steeped in a sense of culture and the songs of the times, James's terrible summer brings with it a series of evocative, thought-provoking revelations that make The Boys and Girls of America a strong recommendation for book clubs looking for powerful stories of aspirations, successes, failures, and the secrets that can blossom to unfold around them.

Ghost Runners
Robert Rubenstein
Aria Tyger Inc.
9780692534007, $21.95 Hardcover, $15.99 Paper

https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Runners-Olympic-Dream-Betrayed/dp/B09GJMCH7G

Ghost Runners is a novel based on real events which give the story the ringing tone of reality as the fictional characters (including well-known Olympic sports figures) face not just sports ambitions, but racism and prejudice which permeates their past, present, and future worlds.

Focusing on the Olympic team's American running competitors in 1936, the story winds through Jewish, German, and American encounters on the playing field of sports and prejudice as athletes, coaches, and observers find their lives and careers challenged by shifting social and political tides.

Author Robert Rubenstein builds a captivating story that swaggers with nationalist sentiments, scintillates with new possibilities for achievement and identity, and explores the perceptions and efforts of men like Adolf Eichmann, who "...wanted only to sweep the Jews away." As the Olympic Games become the tertiary playing field of businessmen, financiers, observers, and major players, readers are immersed in a story of American, German, and Jewish encounters which represent the building blocks of a growing prejudice and hatred. Some characters seem destined to effect changes behind the scenes. Such is Joshua, who is "...going to race invisibly. He was going to move everyone along. He was a ghost runner now."

As the novel provides hard-hitting scenarios of the athletes who represent the "...glory and the dash men who ran like gods down from Olympus," it excels in a powerful voice that contrasts ethnic perceptions, experiences, and the rise of power in all strata of society and competitive circles.

Ghost Runners should be in any library strong in fiction that examines Hitler's Final Solution and its compelling evolution through all levels of life in Europe and America. Ideally, it also will receive discussion and debate in book clubs devoted to stellar works that explore and expose a time when the circles of hate closed around the Jewish people, leaving them with no place to hide and too many reasons to run.

Ghost Runners offers an important lesson for modern times, charting the rise of an era in which "Soon, he'd know all the names of the Jews. 'Yes, it was possible not just in Germany. In a little more time, you can begin cataloging all of Europe.'" Therein follows the world - which is why readers need the reminders and insights featured in Ghost Runners to keep the darkness at bay, now more than ever.

Glassman
Steve Oskie
Open Books
https://open-bks.com
9781948598651, $21.95 Paper, $9.99 ebook

https://www.open-bks.com/library/moderns/glassman/order.html

Mark Glassman is a self-taught twenty-five-year-old whose eclectic educational pursuits have resulted in a generalist's education, a literary jack-of-all-reading knowledge, and various light addictions which mitigate the impact of his intellect. When he falls in love with Teresa Devlin, he finds himself unexpectedly terrified about his lack of sexual savvy, and so he begins to pursue his more accessible, safer roommate Sarah -- only to find himself in a dangerous emotional game as his relationships entangle and become angst-ridden and complicated. There's only one thing to do. Run for it.

In too many ways, Glassman has never really grown up. From his adult interactions with his parents, which mimic the whining self-absorption of childhood, to his insistence that life goes his way or it's the highway, Glassman represents an intellectual and emotional dichotomy. His actions reflect not only his delayed adulthood, but patterns of approaching life and lessons he's absorbed from his divorced parents: "In addition to my refusal to rent a carpet cleaner, the ingrained frugality of my father found its way into the schedule I devised for going to the neighborhood laundromat. This schedule was constructed upon the necessity of making my four or five hand-me-down towels last as long as my two bed sheets."

As readers review Glassman's life through his first-person experiences and reflections, they will realize that they, too, have known many an adult like him. But, here, the psychology explaining his actions, logic, and disparities in dealing with life provides succinct, hard-hitting insights that make Glassman both a character to like and one that also exists on the edge of condemnation.

From tangled family relationships that lead him to procrastinate over important decisions (like finding work) to his naivety in dealing with women and life, Glassman represents a self-inspection form of flawed logic that works to sometimes support and sometimes circumvent Glassman's desires and ambitions.

His tendency to embrace both unemployment and flight lend a realistic feel to the story of a character continually confused about the world around him, the psyches of women and men, and the love and hate that swirls around a divorce he never really accepted.

Author Steve Oskie's ability to view life through the eyes of a character both eminently likeable and deeply flawed leads readers into a whirlwind of a life that always teeters on the brink of breakdown and disaster, yet represents a resiliency that comes from the same disruptive forces of childhood experience.

Glassman is a coming-of-age story (even though the character is well into his twenties) that follows a new adult's journey into full-fledged adulthood, in whatever form that might assume for a damaged soul. Oskie's character comes to life through his inquiries, fears, and realistic methods of both embracing and rejecting set courses in life based on his past. This makes for thought-provoking insights into the maturity process as, now an adult, he reconsiders his motivations and fears.

Libraries and readers seeking stories of evolution and growth will find Glassman a classic in its approach to revealing transition points and influences, whether they reside in family history and current relationships or new, frightening, and ultimately uplifting opportunities for change.

Guards
Steven Clark
Independently Published
9798843073480, $12.99 Paper, $5.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Guards-Boston-Novel-Steven-Clark/dp/B0B835922W

Guards: A Boston Novel represents a study in humorous fiction and revolves around Karl Augustus Poppel and other Boston personalities at odds with their environment, culture, and life trajectory: "It was morning in America, and as the Amtrak limped into South Station, Karl August Poppel fought the Cro-Magnons. 'It's two dollars.' The surly bartender stared back. 'Two-fifty for the muffin and juice.' Poppel's square jaw firmed. 'As Hooker Academy graduates, we receive a discount. This is the documentation.'" Much has changed about Boston since he was locked up: "...different words slid under the door. New ones had sprouted since he'd last been in the city. He hated them; swaggering towers of Cro-Magnon pride, a tribe of glass and steel bullies pushing their weight around older, smaller brick and stone buildings that squat like trolls."

The dialogues, confrontations, realizations, and culture which swirls around Poppel brings Boston to life with a wry "back East" sense of humor and observation that those familiar with Bostonian attitudes will find all too familiar --and fun: "'This place is falling apart. It's an abortion is what it is.' Howie Leakey was the head maintenance man, and he looked like the eighth dwarf: Bitchy."

Poppel and other characters navigate these mean streets with an eye to moving through familiar and unfamiliar terrain, whether they are skyscrapers, relationships, or shifting life objectives. From men in uniform and inquests to the odd trio of illegal alien bike messenger Fiona, security guard Poppel, and alcoholic security director Mike Gilhooley, the story presents an odd set of relationships that all come steeped in the dark wit and observational style of a true Bostonian.

Will Poppel save himself and stop being a joker? Will Gilhooley get the girl? All three characters find their lives intersected, their special purposes challenged, and the courses of their careers and relationships challenged as the story evolves.

Libraries and readers seeking humorous contemporary fiction that juxtaposes disparate lives with the deft rhythms of a dance into irony and shifting objectives will find Guards rich in laughter, thought-provoking inspections, and Bostonian ironic and sardonic life observations.

Karma Two
Colleen Hollis
Atmosphere Press
www.atmospherepress.com
9781639888382, $18.99

https://www.amazon.com/Karma-Two-Colleen-Hollis/dp/1639888381

Karma Two is a story of ideals, addiction, and a childhood that leads to poverty and struggle as Arizona Sunshine Jacksyn (AJ) finds ways to survive his abuse and neglect and strives to create a better future for himself.

This first-person story opens with a violent confrontation between Ember Elizabeth and her pimp Leroy, moving between the first person experience and third-person reflections on Ember's own troubled childhood and struggles. Scenarios of torture and violence are graphically portrayed (in keeping with the story, but which may serve as trigger points for readers who keep their own demons of the past at bay).

The preface and introductory chapters set the stage for a better understanding of the family legacy of foster care cruelty and street influences that impact son AJ as he tries to form a different life.

Author Colleen Hollis takes a candid look at the possibilities of past legacies and changing one's world no matter their influences, crafting the story of a young man who is drawn to kindness and opportunity even as he struggles with studies and new experiences that typically rely on foundations of education and support: "Every day he feels more and more frustrated and ashamed at his slow progress. Isabella tries to offer positive reinforcement, but AJ can't hear it; he's so frustrated with himself. He finds it hard to fit in with the wholesome, loving environment that the Franklin's have cultivated in their home. He just doesn't understand it. He thought for sure he could make the transition from living on the streets to living with the Franklin's with no problem."

The slow simmer of a life in transition which finds no easy answers and much difficulty creates a story that is exceptionally realistic and compelling as AJ cements a relationship with Isabella and new purposes by confronting his past and shaping a different future. His determination to create new opportunities and avenues of success for his family, and his gratitude for having succeeded where most fail, makes for an especially thought-provoking story that holds much book club reading book debate material as AJ defies his legacy and creates different pathways and patterns against all odds.

Libraries and readers seeking novels graphic in their descriptions of past adversity and uplifting new courses of action will find Karma Two an exceptionally realistic novel of love, adversity, and transformation.

A Stillness in the Pines
Neil MacNeill
Independently Published
9798392235841, $12.99

https://www.amazon.com/Stillness-Pines-What-world-stopped/dp/B0C47YFZTM

An ordinary stonemason from New Jersey knows nothing about black holes, scientific experiments, and deadly forces. Joe Scarapone experiences all these things and more during an unexpected encounter in the heart of the Pine Barrens, when he and a group of strangers find themselves alone, isolated, and possibly the only survivors of a world-changing catastrophe.

A Stillness in the Pines opens with the confession that this story is only reluctantly being revealed, as the protagonist is encouraged by his daughter to relive these events for her oral history project. This unusual way of opening a portal to the past involves readers in deepening questions from the very start as the narrator's first-person confessional voice reveals that he's managed to survive an extraordinary event.

The intrigue stems as much from the process of this disparate group of strangers interacting on new levels for the shared cause of survival as it does from the circumstances themselves: "Stranded in the Pines, our little group of six souls was like some kind of sociology experiment...about what people will do when the shit hits the fan. We all started the day with our prejudices - some kept in check, some not - our own points of view about what's right and wrong with the world. By the time we got out of the Pines, those of us that did, we were changed. I won't say traumatized, but that fits, too."

This approach diverges from the usual apocalyptic survival story, giving A Stillness in the Pines a special sense of social revelation that comes as much from the characters' interactions with one another as from their growing perceptions about what has happened in the outside world and how they can make the most of their unexpected isolation. Neil MacNeill delves into the stillness that comes from an inhaled breath held through disaster.

As the story progresses from being lost to making new discoveries, each character's detour into the wilderness imparts new insights and truths about trust, humanity, and revised possibilities, both within their group and in the wider outside world's unknown situation. The changing relationships between men and women, the power plays over who holds the gun and who navigates survival, and questions about opportunity and ability that emerge from group dynamics all create an exquisite tension cemented by Joe's first-person observations: "Jimmy and Eve had planted the seeds of paranoia, and they were starting to grow. What if the guy in the woods really did have it in for us? What if the Piney was an evil son-of-a-bitch, and not the benign hermit I'd imagined? Here we were, like cavemen huddled around a fire, trying to keep the monsters at bay. All I could do was stare into the glowing embers, watching a meager flame appear and then just as quickly disappear."

MacNeill's incorporation of shifting ideas of what is right and wrong behavior and choices in these extraordinary circumstances goes beyond survival tactics to probe influences of the past and adaptations each character must make in order to remain strong. Joe's engrossing voice powers these displays of inspection and interpersonal confrontations: "I heard Momma's voice in my head. 'One nail drives out the other, Joey.' Merda! I guess the women had a point. I had almost forgotten about the knife, and Lila could sure use those painkillers. So, give Jimmy what he wants. But it still didn't sit right with me."

Readers well versed in apocalyptic end-of-world scenarios and stories will find A Stillness in the Pines a standout in the literature. This is because its strength lies as much in its characters' individual and group dynamics as it does on the reality of what changed in the outside world they've become isolated from. From issues of belief and moral and ethical conundrums to the group's evolving survival tactics that test faith, attraction, and prejudices alike, the multifaceted themes that emerge are far from predictable - which makes for delightfully thought-provoking reading.

Delivered in a voice steeped in South Jersey culture, A Stillness in the Pines captures an atmosphere of Piney culture that holds its roots in reality and the author's own experiences. Libraries and readers looking for powerful stories of unexpected endings, new beginnings, and ordinary individuals thrust into extraordinary circumstances will find A Stillness in the Pines builds intrigue and creates satisfyingly unexpected twists in the story that even seasoned readers of apocalyptic and survival fiction won't see coming.

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