New Indie Books Released This Week

New Releases

Continuing our theme of Horror/SciFi/Fantasy for the month of October, today we’re focusing on something very scary for your wallet: a list of amazing books that are all hitting shelves this week. This week’s new books come from great publishers and with literary fiction, picture books, travel, spirituality, romance, and more, there’s bound to be something scary for the wallets of all kinds of book lovers.

Rockets Versus Gravity

Book Cover
Richard Scarsbrook
Dundurn
Softcover $19.99 (200pp)
978-1-4597-3386-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon

Rockets Versus Gravity celebrates those who can achieve escape velocity, soaring toward freedom.

Richard Scarsbrook’s Rockets Versus Gravity is a novel of confluence and departure, bringing characters together or pulling them apart through twists of fate and circumstance. Set in the fictional Canadian town of Faireville and nearby Toronto, Rockets Versus Gravity creates its own small universe of hope, frustration, love, lust, tragedy, and comedy. Each chapter adds to a quirky wholeness, forming a haunting pattern evocative of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio.

The unlikely force behind so many conjoined lives is Stan the lumberjack, who has trouble holding onto his wedding ring. Unhappily married for decades, Stan has lost four rings—perhaps by subconscious intention, perhaps by sheer bad luck—yet he dutifully replaces each one and remains with his shrewish wife. Stan has also always been fascinated by space travel and the spectacular rockets that can escape “the tyranny of gravity.” Sadly, Stan cannot seem to escape and soar. His lost rings, however, roll off and find new lives of their own.

Through shifting perspectives, the scope of Rockets Versus Gravity widens, then becomes close and connected again. Scarsbrook’s tight world is held together by distinctive characters, ranging from powerful to penniless, and from working-class to the idle rich. There is Clementine, a nurse whose teenage romance left her a single mother, along with vainglorious hockey star Keegan Thrush and the wisely poetic homeless man Rhymin’ Simon. Khalid, a Pakistani clerk at the Gas ‘n’ Snak convenience store, is nicknamed Sheik because of his resemblance to Rudolph Valentino. Wheelie Koontz’s spina bifida may confine him to a wheelchair, but it doesn’t stop him from seeking his own forms of personal justice.

Though the tone of Rockets Versus Gravity is often relevantly poignant, an underlying humor adds to the novel’s appeal. A roadside billboard proclaims JESUS IS COMING; under this, someone spray-paints HIDE THE BOOZE! One character reads Take Control of Your Life with NUMEROLOGY!, while another obsesses over the hardcover edition of YOU DESERVE BETTER! YOU DESERVE MORE!

Rockets Versus Gravity celebrates those who can achieve escape velocity, soaring toward freedom, while it offers admirable compassion for those who—for one reason or another—must still remain earthbound.

MEG NOLA (August 26, 2016)

Nonstop Metropolis

A New York City Atlas

Book Cover
Rebecca Solnit
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro
University of California Press
Softcover $29.95 (232pp)
978-0-520-28595-8
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon

All will come away from this New York City volume with newfound love for the beguiling, legendary, volatile town.

Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas, edited by Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, is a multidisciplinary ode to one of America’s most beloved cities.

This volume is a work of artistry and scholarship, focusing on New York City, past and present, and using a wide variety of vantage points. Twenty-six maps are accompanied by essays that each take on an area or characteristic of the city, including urban essentials parks, basketball, music, linguistic and cultural diversity, religion, education, and even trash. While the topics themselves aren’t always surprising, the freshness, creativity, and artistry that both the essayists and the mapmakers brought to their work is astounding. Each section is unique, and together they make up a holistic examination, often a celebration, of what—almost who—the city is.

Though packed with research, the book is balanced with humor and lightness alongside its deep insights and scholarship. Each page is not only full of information but also a joy to read. The multifaceted combination of anthropology, mapmaking, history, pop culture, and artistry makes Nonstop Metropolis rich, catering to the sort of intellectual thirst that, without such books, is often only quenched by hours of obscure online research.

Still, it is hard for the maps not to steal the show. They’re intricate yet easy to read. Each has its own style, befitting its subject. They balance cartographic accuracy, visual information, and entertainment, and demonstrate mastery of color, illustration, and typography.

Whether they’ve lived in New York City for decades, just moved to town, or are planning a visit, everyone who encounters this volume will learn new information beyond mere factoids and will come away with a newfound love for this beguiling, legendary, volatile town. Urban planners, community organizers, and anyone else who values deep roots and urban innovation will find that this book gives them an understanding of the past and present that enables a clean projection into New York City’s future.

Nonstop Metropolis is an engaging and enlightening read for anyone who loves New York City, creative scholarship, and top-notch graphic design.

MELISSA WUSKE (August 26, 2016)

Du Iz Tak?

Book Cover
Carson Ellis
Candlewick
Hardcover $16.99 (48pp)
978-0-7636-6530-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon

A group of excitable insects are inspired and astounded by the appearance of a growing flower in Du Iz Tak? Written entirely in the playful and amusing language of bugs, it isn’t necessary to speak fluent moth or ladybug to enjoy the growth and metamorphoses creatively combined through Carson Ellis’s delightful words and fanciful illustrations as the seasons subtly transform. Damselflies, ants, and a bespectacled pill bug mister and missus all rally together to build a bug-sized treehouse with some surprising results, and, as an added bonus, all the major players are ready to be perforated into finger puppets, adding to the pageantry of story time and wonder of nature as seen through the eyes of its tiniest inhabitants.

PALLAS GATES MCCORQUODALE (August 26, 2016)

The Road Back to You

An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery

Book Cover
Ian Morgan Cron
Suzanne Stabile
InterVarsity Press
Hardcover $24.00 (220pp)
978-0-8308-4619-1
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon

“Life hands us a challenging syllabus. We need all the help we can get,” writes Ian Morgan Cron, who, together with Suzanne Stabile, reveals how the Enneagram, from the Greek words for nine (ennea) and for a drawing or picture (gram), can enrich our lives by enhancing our self-awareness.

Wired for survival at all costs, we learn early on that our survival depends on meeting the expectations of our family, friends, and culture, so we form a protective mask, called a “personality,” or “persona” (Greek for mask), to hide our authentic selves—a mask that, over time, imprisons us. Beneath the mask there lives a “truer, more luminous” self, one that we must come to know if we are to feel fully alive and be whole.

Cron and Stabile walk through the Enneagram’s nine different personality types and their distinct ways of seeing the world, showing how each one has a potentially infinite number of expressions, strengths, and weaknesses.

Cron describes his own Enneagram experience as a feeling of waking up after having been asleep for a long time. He explains that in catching a glimpse of the person he was created to be, he began to see himself with the same delight, pride, and expectation with which God sees him, and to sense the immediacy of God’s grace. “In the spiritual life that’s no small thing,” he writes.

KRISTINE MORRIS (August 26, 2016)

So Many Boots, So Little Time

The MisAdventures of Miss Lilly, Volume Three

Book Cover
Kalan Chapman Lloyd
Rebelle Press
Unknown $7.99 (428pp)
978-1-5237-4497-8
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon

Lilly Atkins is Erin Brockovich in boots, ensuring plenty of sass and Southern charm.

In Kalan Chapman Lloyd’s latest mystery caper, So Many Boots, So Little Time, a fast-talking Southern lawyer trades life in the fast lane for small-town values, only to find that being at home on the range isn’t as laid-back as she’d hoped. Lloyd’s sassy, conversational tone and tough but tenderhearted protagonist make this an enjoyable selection for beachside summer reading.

Lilly Atkins left her hometown of Brooks, Oklahoma, to test her mettle in a big-city law firm, only to return brokenhearted and burned out from one homicide investigation too many. Back on the ranch, Lilly is looking for a break—a little yoga, a few hands of poker, some reconnecting with her family—but that just isn’t in the cards.

Before Lilly can say “namaste,” her family’s prize-winning herd of cattle are stolen, and though she’s forbidden to participate in the investigation, Lilly just can’t resist. Along the way, old flames return, passions rise, and soon enough, Lilly is toting a gun around town instead of her yoga mat.

Lloyd’s no stranger to the romance-novel rodeo: So Many Boots, So Little Time is the third in the MisAdventures of Miss Lilly series. Though parts of the book may feel akin to jumping into the middle of a long-running conversation, Lloyd leaves a decent trail of clues to Lilly’s former life and loves to bring new readers up to speed on her current situation.

The tone sparkles with Southern banter, and descriptions of the rolling Oklahoma landscape are taut yet illustrative. A lot can also be learned about characters by their footwear: Lilly’s father wears custom boots while shoveling manure—not because they’re expensive, but for his extra-long feet; FBI agents stomp about in flashy new orange-and-black numbers; and former lovers strut their stuff in full-quill ostrich boots. Of course, Lilly has a few pairs of boots herself and changes them up, depending on the situation.

What really makes the novel so enjoyable is that Lloyd writes like folks might actually speak in a sleepy ranch town, with short, declarative sentences that cut right through any baloney. Unfortunately, spelling errors like “cattle-rusting” mar this edition, and some sections, especially descriptive narration, appear hastily written, with similar words appearing more than once in the same paragraph (“complete” is a noticeable repeat offender). However, these are minor setbacks in an otherwise well-crafted story.

So Many Boots, So Little Time is frothy, saucy chick-lit for fans of all things country, and Lilly Atkins is Erin Brockovich in boots, ensuring plenty of sass and Southern charm.

BARBARA NICKLES (April 13, 2016)

Conversations in the Spirit

Lex Hixon’s WBAI ‘In the Spirit’ Interviews

Book Cover
Lex Hixon
Sheila Hixon, editor
Monkfish Book Publishing
Softcover $20.00 (440pp)
978-1-939681-53-9
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon

Spirituality has come a long way since the 1970s, when lots of parents worried that Zen Buddhism was a cult. Lex Hixon, who for seventeen years hosted WBAI 99.5 FM’s Sunday morning radio show, “In the Spirit,” in New York City, contributed much to the nation’s understanding of the changes taking place in its spiritual culture. His interviews with spiritual teachers who were bringing what were then strange new ideas and religions from the East to America provided much-needed explanations, addressed the all-too-common misunderstandings, and gave listeners the opportunity to get answers to their questions and put some of their fears to rest.

Deeply spiritual, educated in many spiritual traditions, and immersed in all that was new and alive in ’70s culture, Hixon had hoped to open, with Bernie Glassman, an interfaith center, the House of One People, and serve as its spiritual director; his death from cancer forestalled these plans.

Conversations in the Spirit features interviews with spiritual giants, including Alan Watts, Reb Zalman Schacter-Shalomi, Mother Teresa, Ram Dass, Swami Muktananda, Sheikh Muzaffer Effendi, Bernie Glassman, Huston Smith, J. Krishnamurti, Father Daniel Berrigan, Allen Ginsberg, and many others. It offers a profound and intimate experience of the evolution of religious thought and spiritual growth in America, and a look at how media programming has the potential to serve as an instrument of grace in troubled times.

KRISTINE MORRIS (August 26, 2016)

Ulysses Dream

A Timeless Romance

Book Cover
Tim White
Koehler Publishing
Hardcover $24.95 (204pp)
978-1-63393-294-4

Raw, unfiltered humanity comes through this novel that draws upon Homer’s epic.

Like the ancient tale of the great warrior Ulysses whose journey home from war was filled with twists and turns, Ulysses Dream is a bold, personal, and precisely wrought epic that deals with the all-too-real daily occurrences of human trafficking and exploitation right here in the United States.

Penelope is a woman of Honduran descent who was kidnapped by the notorious Central American gang MS-13 as a child and forced into prostitution. She manages to escape the gang’s clutches, only, it seems, to become another lost statistic.

The young girl meets a Nez Perce boy—the Ulysses of this tale—and together they claw their way through their version of childhood. As they grow, they fall in love and have a child—yes, Odyssey readers, their son is named Telemachus—but the Vietnam War calls Ulysses away, leaving Penelope to defend herself against the evils of the world. Ultimately, there is retribution and revenge, as Penelope takes up arms against the traffickers, finding satisfaction in removing at least one terror from the many that ravage innocent people across the world.

Ulysses Dream may be fiction, but it borrows heavily from reality. Child trafficking from Latin America to the United States is a well-documented problem, and the text’s descriptions of abandoned children living in a city dump make Lord of the Flies look tame by comparison. Children seek refuge in the stinking hell, or are cast there to die, and Penelope recalls the garbage dump as a place where “God does not hear our prayers.”

Told from Penelope’s point of view, the story is a raw, unflinching look at the seedy, violent underbelly of fearsome gangs and unscrupulous profiteers. The author drew on his own firsthand observations from working with the urban poor in Honduras and convincingly demonstrates that illegal immigration is a far deeper issue than many politicians portray it to be.

As a modern-day epic, the book draws on ancient history as well, using names of characters from Greco-Roman myth and legend. In Homer’s tale, Penelope was the wife of Odysseus (Ulysses in Latin), and they have one son, Telemachus. That same family dynamic appears here as well, and though it feels a little forced, especially when the other characters have distinctly Latino names, it serves the author’s literary trope of reinforcing the notion that tragedies are not the stuff of legend; they are everyday occurrences. But, as in those ancient stories, there is hope. Ulysses and Penelope are representatives of two marginalized groups, and together they offer a new, nuanced definition of patriotism and pride.

This book combines many elements from various genres—military fiction, ancient mythology, historical fiction, and religion—and explores how themes of marginalization and victimization are never cut-and-dried. Fantasy does not reside in these pages; raw, unfiltered humanity does.

BARBARA NICKLES (September 26, 2016)


Seth Dellon
Seth Dellon is director of audience development at Foreword Reviews. You can meet him or hear him speak at most of the events Foreword attends, and contact him at seth@forewordreviews.com.

Seth Dellon

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