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By Peter Hassebroek on April 30, 2012
Imagine yourself in a coma, dead and unconscious to everyone around you for the past six years, and then suddenly able to hear and think. But only that. No sense of smell or sight or touch.
Posted in Fiction, Literary, Reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged book review, Bryan Healey, coma, Fiction, Hospital, mercy killing, The Void |
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 Peter Hassebroek on February 25, 2012
Who is Michael Norton writing to and why is he so sensitive to the shallow identities of others, particularly those on Facebook? These two questions provide the suspense in Matadors, a one-way epistolary mini-novel by Steve Bauman. Yet the underlying question for the un-cool but likeable protagonist is, where do I fit in this world?
Posted in Fiction, Literary, Reviews | Tagged book review, Burlington, epistolary, Fiction, Matadors, novella, Steve Bauman |
By Peter Hassebroek on December 28, 2011
Grief and guilt ripple through Heaven Again by H. C. Turk, but not in a morose or self-pitying way. Despite emotionally weighed-down characters and tragic events, this compact, engaging novel that takes place in fictional locales in Florida compels the reader more to contemplation than anger, tears, or depression.
Posted in Fiction, Literary, Reviews | Tagged book review, dogs, Fiction, Florida, greyhound, HC Turk, Heaven Again |
By Peter Hassebroek on November 29, 2011
Street Raised by Pearce Hansen is a basic revenge drama set in the grimly depicted environment of the East Bay area in California in the early 1980s. Oakland street hood, Speedy, gets released from a prison in the northern part of the state, shoeless. He ventures home, encountering a few adventures and picking up a kitten along the way. In a long opening chapter, we see the complex mix of violence and compassion that makes up the protagonist’s character. Once home, Speedy reunites with his younger brother, Willy, who’s become a crack addict during Speedy’s long incarceration.
Posted in Action/Adventure, Fiction, Reviews | Tagged book review, crime drama, Fiction, Pearce Hansen, Street Raised |
By Peter Hassebroek on October 26, 2011
Joel Friedlander is a well established authority in the self-publishing world and the force behind The BookDesigner website. His old-school self-publishing efforts, before Print On Demand, led to his becoming a provider of customized self-publishing services—a book producer, to use his term. Much of his new book is culled from blog posts of the past years, with an emphasis on the why of self-publishing more than the how.
Posted in Non-Fiction, Reviews, Self-help/Motivational | Tagged Book Designer, book review, Joel Friedlander, non-fiction, print on demand, publishing, Self-Publishing |
By Peter Hassebroek on October 8, 2011
When Cody Everett and his graffiti artist friends get caught by the Portland police, it’s the last straw for the boy’s father who puts two choices to his son: military school or live with his mother’s brother, Race Morgan, in a trailer park in Eugene. Cody’s uncle is a race car driver so the choice seems obvious. Running Wide Open by Lisa Nowak is Cody’s story about that episode in his life in 1989.
Posted in Fiction, Reviews, Young Adult/Juvenile | Tagged book review, juvenile fiction, lisa nowak, running wide open, young adult |
By LK Gardner-Griffie on September 1, 2011
Remember those humiliating moments during childhood and adolescence when making a public mistake? Or when someone outside the family has been subjected to the dorkiness that is your parents? If so, you’ll have an idea of what it’s like to be Darla McKendrick…
Posted in Family Drama, LK Gardner-Griffie, Young Adult/Juvenile | Tagged book review, contemporary, family saga, Fiction, Lisette Brodey, LK Gardner-Griffie, Squalor New Mexico, young adult |
By Peter Hassebroek on August 25, 2011
Writing about what you know and have experienced can be a great tonic to exorcise one’s demons while remaining authoritative at the same time. It can also turn into a self-serving rant. Thomas Thonson is a veteran of the Hollywood film industry and the theme of his unpretentious collection, You Don’t Die of Love, is Hollywood and its people, particularly Harry Dare, an old time actor of Westerns whose private life was more dramatic than his cinematic one.
Posted in Fiction, Literary, Reviews | Tagged book review, collection, Fiction, hollywood, short story, thomas thonson |
