By Peter Hassebroek on March 26, 2012
Peripatetic Australian Zack Morrissey is a chick magnet and all round likeable guy in 1998, back when international travel wasn’t so complicated. He’s crewing on a tourist boat in Israel, partying it up and having a good time, but not a wild time; also he’s not making as much money as he wants. Hence the compelling need to return to a notorious district of Tokyo called—and vividly depicted in Nick Vasey’s debut novel—Roppongi.
Posted in Fiction, Mainstream/Nostalgia, Reviews | Tagged book review, Fiction, japan, nick vasey, Roppongi, Tokyo, Travel |
By Jaime Hypes on March 25, 2012
Holly is a 19-year-old single girl living in 1970s Chicago and trying to survive every day. She prides herself on her independence and her ability to survive with minimal human connection in her life. At least, she is trying to convince herself as much as everyone else that she is choosing to live in the shadows. What Holly may not realize is that by keeping to herself, she will never discover who she really is.
Posted in Jaime Hypes, Mainstream/Nostalgia | Tagged 1970s fiction, anxiety disorder, dark humor, drepression, hang on, nell gavin, rock fiction |
By Shannon Yarbrough on December 3, 2011
At 15, Cathy Quinn is an intelligent misfit living in 1980s Dublin. As the book opens she discovers that her charming older brother Stevie, who’s gay, is falling in love with the one boy in school whom she likes. Over her last two years of school, Cathy struggles with her dysfunctional family, coming to terms with her powerful attraction to her best friend Jeanette, and leaving Ireland. The Leaving is a realistic, yet lyrical, look at adolescence and first love.
Posted in Family Drama, Mainstream/Nostalgia, Shannon Yarbrough, Young Adult/Juvenile | Tagged coming of age fiction, dublin fiction, gabriella west, gay fiction, gay teen, good gay teen fiction, good lesbian fiction, lesbian teen, the leaving |
By Shannon Yarbrough on November 4, 2011
Have you ever wanted to be a super hero? What if your beloved comic book super hero suddenly took control of your body?
Posted in Mainstream/Nostalgia, Shannon Yarbrough | Tagged boltman, comic book fiction, eric quinn knowles, superhero fiction |
By Shannon Yarbrough on July 13, 2011
Slave by V.S. Williams is probably not a book I would have picked on my own, even at its attractive price of 99 cents on the Kindle. In fact, I could not even find it in a random search on Amazon just by its title which is unfortunate. (You can find it using the title and author or the ASIN#.) After a quick read of the synopsis, some may dismiss this as religious fiction, but after reading it I wouldn’t throw it into that category at all.
Posted in Horror/Supernatural, Mainstream/Nostalgia, Shannon Yarbrough | Tagged cheap kindle fiction, good kindle fiction, slave, v.s. williams |
By Shannon Yarbrough on June 3, 2011
Dai Break Jones is a business woman. But the business world is a man’s world, and as the title of Tony Lindsay’s book suggests, Dai has good business sense and is gonna do just fine.
Posted in Experimental/Narrative, Mainstream/Nostalgia, Shannon Yarbrough | Tagged more boy than girl, street fiction, tony lindsay, urban fiction |
By Shannon Yarbrough on April 13, 2011
Cole Alpaugh’s book, The Bear in a Muddy Tutu, immediately had my full attention as it began with the story of Buddy Wayne Hooduk, an odd character of sorts who has just abandoned his needy mother and is intent on convincing people that he is God. With stolen guidebook in hand, How To Become a Cult Leader in 50 Easy Steps, Buddy sets out to find his flock. Odd circumstances cause Buddy to take charge of a run-down traveling circus where an oddball loser like Buddy doesn’t seem so out of place.
Posted in Mainstream/Nostalgia, Shannon Yarbrough | Tagged circus fiction, cole alpaugh, the bear in a muddy tutu |
By Peter Hassebroek on April 10, 2011
A fictional parallel to Facebook called MyFace links the geographically diverse lives in Bonnie Rozanski’s Six Clicks Away. The action begins at Xavier College in New Jersey with the lovely and superficial Rachel who is obsessed with accumulating as many MyFace friends as possible.
Posted in Fiction, Mainstream/Nostalgia, Peter Hassebroek, Reviews | Tagged Bonnie, facebook, Fiction, friend, Milgram, MyFace, Rozankski, Six Clicks Away, Six Degrees, social network |
By Shannon Yarbrough on February 17, 2011
When I first started reading Lance Carbuncle’s Grundish and Askew, I thought about those funny antacid commercials where the chicken wing or the pasta fights back by slapping the person in the face. I felt like this book was slapping me in the face because I couldn’t believe what I was reading at times. Grundish and Askew are best friends – two backwoods hillbilly redneck trailer trash good ole boys.
Posted in Experimental/Narrative, Mainstream/Nostalgia, Shannon Yarbrough | Tagged bizarre fiction, dirty humor, grundish and askey, lance carbuncle, redneck humor, toilet humor, underdog fiction, vicious galoot books |
By Shannon Yarbrough on February 14, 2011
Cypress Lake has been labeled a “coming of age” story, and I can certainly see why after reading it but Joe Basara digs just a bit deeper into the psyche of his lead character, Owen Cloud, to attempt to give his reader much more than that.
Posted in Mainstream/Nostalgia, Shannon Yarbrough | Tagged cypress lake, florida fiction, florida novel, joe basara |
