In Ireland, a “keener” is one who sings at a wake, but these aren’t pretty songs to guide the dead to their immortal rest. Rather, they are wrenching laments, crying for a future cut short and family left behind, before the song... Read More

While many novels in this genre start out slow and weave their way toward an exciting climax, this one jumps right into the action and never lets up. Hall has mastered the art of pacing, feathering in just enough detail to ensure that... Read More

The injunction not to judge a book by its cover perhaps became a truism because the tendency to judge books by their covers—by their bindings, sizes, editions, illustrations, colors, paper, and point of sale—was indeed a habit of... Read More

At a national optimism convention Marion S. Freed might not fit in—especially if she toted her elegantly constructed rarely predictable yet ultimately pessimistic collection of four short stories. However calculated however painstaking... Read More

Mon Dieu! Can this young lady write! Under its quite forgettable cover lies an unforgettable adventure fiction so exuberant so unexpected that it leaves even the most jaded reader breathless for more. Jaske’s For Honor: An Adventure of... Read More

As every woman past puberty knows (and sadly, increasingly before puberty as well), when it comes to breast development, size really does matter. Even if a woman is content with the shape, width, and breadth of her bosom, it’s likely... Read More

As she lay dying, Khatia Quigley’s mother gives Khatia a new name—the Chinese middle name of Wu Shan. This sets Khatia on a journey to define who and what she is, most evidently in terms of sexuality and race. The common “struggle... Read More

Two reputable psychiatrists, professors at Duke University, step outside the confines of the physicians’ desk reference to report on four “natural remedies” that may have value in a number of ways. In four well-researched and... Read More