The Dinosaur's Descendants

Mark Ellsberry
iUniverse, 329 pages, (paperback) $19.95, 9781475990164
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

The Dinosaur's Descendants is a sci-fi tale in which the actions of a time-traveling, prehistoric reptilian creature push the world toward global war. Conveniently, the U.S. National Security Agency happens to have created a time machine of its own and organizes Team T-REX, a group of scientists and soldiers that ultimately becomes involved in high-stakes battles both present and past with the creature’s race.

While Team T-REX is traveling back in time to find this technologically advanced race of humanoid reptiles – the dinosaur's descendants of the title – the reptilian agent, SuHa, from a land called Laurasia is initiating present-day terrorist plots. A dictatorial leader has assigned him to destroy the modern "mammal" civilization so Laurasia can solve a lack of natural resources with oil from the future.

The story clearly has some creative concepts. Though it's reminiscent of Planet of the Apes and other time-travel tales, author Mark Ellsberry has combined these ideas into a narrative that's sometimes intriguing. However, the storytelling doesn't do the concept justice. The book's dialogue is blatantly unrealistic, and much of it is used to dole out long stretches of blunt exposition.

In one scene, Khaliq, an al-Qaeda operative in cahoots with SuHa, is testing remote-controlled explosives in the desert when a dune buggy crosses the test site. “Wait a minute. Someone has come into the test area," whispered Khaliq. “Let's hold a minute to see if he passes out of our way. Oh, no, he has seen the backpack and is stopping to check it out. Activate the transmitter!"

Action throughout the story defies belief, even for a fantastic tale, as when SuHa convinces Khaliq at their first meeting to accept $50 million to blow up Pasadena's Rose Bowl. Not only does the al-Qaeda agent accept the deal, but SuHa somehow delivers $50 million in a single suitcase. The Dinosaur's Descendants is certainly imaginative, but its lack of craft ultimately makes for an unsatisfying read.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
Brentwood, California

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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Hidden Account of the Romanovs

John Browne
iUniverse, 827 pages, (paperback) $38.95, 9781475978322
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

John Browne’s historical fiction novel, Hidden Account of the Romanovs, begins in 2003, when British Royal Bank employee Peregrine Coulter receives the unusual assignment of uncovering any possible heirs to an account belonging to the Romanovs, the last Imperial family of Russia. His investigation transports readers to the early 20th century, deep into WWI and the Russian Revolution.

At 827 pages, the novel is split into two volumes and takes on some of history’s most controversial and fascinating events, such as Rasputin’s assassination and the execution of the Russian Imperial family, including, of course, the possibility of a survivor.

The story follows fictional soldier Alex Fanshawe, but is full of actual events, people and historic facts. While many of these are intriguing (comparison of the Empires, why British pilots did not have parachutes), the inclusion of people’s names is excessive, chiefly in the story’s first half. During one scene at a banker’s meeting, the author lists 34 attendees’ names, taking up the equivalent of one full page.

Likewise, lengthy descriptions of uniforms, confusing decoration acronyms, and accounts of battles not essential to the plot impede the story’s flow. The author notes that he included so much information for the “added enjoyment” of people in the armed services; others will find the details overwhelming at times.

Grammatical errors are common, especially in the second part when the story develops into a romance, and are particularly jarring when the author uses several different spellings for a person’s name, even in the same paragraph.

Those who can persevere, however, will be amply rewarded with Browne’s prodigious ability to build suspense and ensnare the imagination. With meticulously detailed depictions of trench warfare, dangerous capture missions, assassinations, and daring escapes, Browne weaves captivating stories and describes with great (and sometimes gruesome) detail, life on the front and within Revolutionary Russia.

While the book could be trimmed for broader appeal, Browne ultimately succeeds in blending truth and imagination, creating an often-entertaining and credible love story within the confines of the war-torn continent that ties it all together.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
West Palm Beach, Florida

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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The Spring Rain

Quinn Graw
iUniverse, 85 pages, (paperback) $9.95, 9781475988659
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

The Spring Rain: A Seasonal Collection of Poems by Quinn Graw is organized into four sections: “Faith in God,” “Family and Friends,” “Odds and Ends of Poetic Rhyme,” and “Seasonal Poems.” Graw lives in Alberta, Canada, where he grew up, and these poems are drawn from “the beginning of his writings in the 1990’s.”

The book tackles a range of topics, including social and ecological plights, with mixed success. The poem “The Leaf,” for example, criticizes the owning class for its materialism and greed: “Fancy cars, gadgets and houses. / Money, money and more of that. That’s what they worship in their holy vault...” While these lines have a specific tone of contempt that is compelling, they don’t rise above run-of-the-mill criticism to bring readers into a complex imaginative space.

Graw’s language is descriptive through his use of adjectives, but ultimately, he does not offer the fresh combinations that would distinguish his pieces. For instance, he writes, “[i]n a black era I was the dull foghorn of life.” While the modifiers “black” and “dull” show admirable writerly intent, they are respectively melodramatic (the word “era” when relating to one’s own life can sound pompous) and redundant (the sound of a foghorn is inherently dull, as opposed to sharp).

Two other aspects hinder the book: All the poems are centered on the page, which indicates a default, an attempt to rely on symmetry alone instead of deliberate line breaks to create complex rhythmic drama, and the end rhymes are often predictable and uninteresting, utilizing common monosyllabic words, such as “wife/life” “way/day.”

Readers who enjoy poems about the various nuances of the seasons from a northern perspective as well as those who have a somewhat pessimistic view of humanity will be affirmed by this collection. However, the work needs developing to reach a more sophisticated poetry audience.

Also available as an ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
Alberta, Canada

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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Flight 17's Voice Recorder

J.F. Cronin
iUniverse, 191 pages, (paperback) $14.95, 9780595289851
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

A mentally challenged pilot isn't what passengers would prefer at the cockpit's helm during a commercial flight. The airline industry's tendency to turn a blind eye to such problems is central to this thought-provoking, though uneven, novel.

The book opens in Big Fork, N.D., where Chuck Taylor, vice president of operations and safety for the fictional Los Angeles and Continental Airlines (LACA), arrives to speak at the dedication of his hometown's new high school. He is forced to rush back to California when a company airliner piloted by his close friend Phil Carlin crashes into a mountain, killing everyone.

Phil has left behind a locked briefcase labeled "for Chuck's eyes only." Inside is a stack of sealed and numbered letters — Note #1, dated Aug. 10, through Note #19, dated Nov. 10 (15 months later), the day of the crash. The balance of the book shares the contents of the notes in Phil's voice regarding his emotional struggles and inability to get help without losing his pilot's license.

The long series of notes is a unique structure for advancing the story, as the author (who has a Marine Corps flying and airline pilot background) demonstrates through Phil's words and actions the airline industry's unwillingness to acknowledge mental disorders. Also, a you-are-there view of actions within a cockpit during storms and other flying challenges is clearly captured.

However, the author's writing style waters down the story's impact because it lacks the imaginative language and riveting action that stir a reader's emotions. Neither are we privy to the points of view of Chuck or others in reaction to Phil's revelations as the notes unfold because the notes are placed one after the other without interruption for 156 pages. This also serves to lessen the story’s emotional resonance.

While some might find the book an interesting read as is, with restructuring and more electrifying word choices, it has the potential to attract a much wider audience.

Also available as an ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
Tucson, Arizona

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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A Long Walk to Knowing

Anne Fisher
iUniverse, 251 pages, (paperback) $16.95, 9781475909821
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

Anne Fisher pays tribute to the Occupy Movement with this enthusiastic but flawed story of a rugged individualist who sacrifices her dreams of earning her doctorate to escape into the wilderness.

This dystopian novel opens in 2125 and tells the story of Rose, who has fled a totalitarian regime in a major city to set out for the woods north of San Francisco. It flashes back and forth between Rose’s struggles to survive in the wilderness and her previously docile life as a university student and writer for the communications department of “The Government.”

Fisher is deliberately cruel to her protagonist. Rose is obsessively protective of her emotions, vowing never to marry or have children. As the novel opens, Rose is in a relationship with a neighbor, Jeff, who is dispatched from the story when he burns to death in an industrial accident. Soon after, her parents commit suicide, sending Rose deeper into an emotional spiral.

Much of the book is devoted to the politics that drove Rose into the wilderness. Her advisor tells her, in Dilbert-esque fashion, that her efforts are pointless. “I applaud your goals…but you must understand, the culture in the work site is not supportive to personal or professional growth.” Without any real analysis of the social issues involved, Rose begins to rail against the corruption of her government oppressors—“the bastards are like a cancer that just will not stop taking everything for themselves,” she says. Eventually, Rose enters a relationship with another refugee and settles down to have children in a commune-like community.

Unfortunately, the writing here is wooden, with little dialogue to break up long expository passages. Grammatical, punctuation and word choice errors abound. (“She began to groan, and then let out a muffled moan as she reached her first organism [sic].”) Fisher's desire to expose class inequity in American society is commendable, but the novel's execution ultimately hamstrings the reader's ability to fully immerse in the story.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
Tucson, Arizona

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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Soldiers and Ghosts: How Josh Simmons Spent His Summer

Phil Gutierrez
iUniverse, 277 pages, (paperback) $17.95, 9781475970814
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

America’s Civil War has long fascinated authors. Since some of the best writings about the war are from such esteemed authors as Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce and Stephen Crane, it is a challenge for contemporary authors to find a fresh approach. Author Phil Gutierrez’s novel, unfortunately, fails this challenge.

Gutierrez’s story follows young Josh Simmons during his summer with the Army of Virginia. Josh is one of many young Southern males who has endured major battles and the privations of an army on the march. Yet, he is “young, healthy and whipcord tough.”

Various characters enter and exit the plot as various battles rage, but only two assume any individual identity. One, Isaiah Williams, is determined to become wealthy by selling opium balls to wounded Federal officers. The other, Felipe, is a young Cuban to whom Gutierrez assigns a dialect that sounds half Spanish and half German.

Gutierrez frequently interrupts Josh’s story with lengthy digressions about equipment, General Lee, other outfits and campaigns. He also intrudes his own 21st century voice in passages about 19th century views and equipment. The use of such sound effects as “Crash! Bang! Crack, Pow!” or a sentence that is nothing more than “RRRRRIIIIIIIIIPPPRR...,“ etc., gives the book a graphic novel characteristic and is inconsistent with a literary novel.

Readers will also find that the author’s errors in punctuation and sentence structure are an immediate barrier to a full understanding of his narrative.

Gutierrez, a Vietnam veteran, obviously understands war, and he reveals a solid knowledge of the Civil War through this novel. However, good fiction requires strong characters, conflict and plot movement toward resolution. This book is little more than a collection of adjective-laden battle scenes designed to shock. It does ultimately carry Josh to an uncertain future at the end, but due to the writing flaws mentioned, it is unlikely that most readers will persist this far.

Also available as an ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
Stockton, California

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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Amid the Ashes and the Dust

Clay Mitchell
iUniverse, 340 pages, (paperback) $20.95, 9781475988079
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

In this novel of faith and family, Tyler Morgan is forced to reassess his religious beliefs after a series of tragedies that began when his football career – and college scholarship – was derailed by a knee injury.

Some years later, he’s headed for a new job, away from his small East Texas hometown. But a storm breaks and Tyler ignores the aftermath of the torrential rains in his haste to get on the road. His wife and young son are swept away in a swollen creek. Heartbroken, Tyler spends the next five years drinking and taking life-and-death chances to tempt fate. When his mother is dying and he arrives too late to say goodbye, he hits rock bottom. But a near-death experience brings him clarity, and an unmailed letter he finds from his mother reinforces his newly restored faith.

Author Clay Mitchell is a competent writer, and the book is a pleasant enough read with a clear religious focus. Says a character: “God doesn’t take from us, Tyler ... We live in a world of free will. He doesn’t interfere with our lives, He only answers prayers from those who work to become knowledgeable in His word and seek to build a strong relationship with Him.”

The main problem with the story is an overstuffed plot, even though all roads eventually lead back to Mitchell’s themes. There are story lines about gold, the resident baddie who is trying to cheat the townspeople, Tyler’s former girlfriend and his injured brother. Even the space shuttle Columbia plays a part.

The author makes it clear that he wants to entertain as well as bring comfort through God’s word. The book would probably most resonate with Christians, especially those who are questioning their faith or struggling with “Why me, Lord?”

Also available in hardcover and ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
San Antonio, Texas

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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The Boy Who Became an Early-Childhood Educator: Reflections, Memories and Future Thoughts about Our Field

Manuel Kichi Wong, M.Ed
iUniverse, 178 pages, (paperback) $17.95, 9781475984842
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

While providing licensed child care in his home, Manuel Kichi Wong kept a journal to reflect upon the sometimes achingly long days spent watching half a dozen infants and toddlers. His entries, which document the final months of his child care business, his enrollment in graduate school and his transition into teaching college courses in early childhood education, make up this insightful but uneven memoir.

Wong’s is not the usual clinically written child care book. He puts himself in the midst of the action and brings readers along as he faces the ups and downs of dealing with children on a daily basis. His musings can be random and uncensored, such as his meditation on bowel movements that begins “Poop. Caca. BMs, or whatever you call it” and continues in excessive, unnecessary detail. But he also offers practical advice on dealing with weepy, cranky or potty-training children (and their parents).

Wong brings a unique perspective as one of the few male child care providers in a women-dominated field (Wong estimates 10 women to every man). During frequent walks with his charges through his urban neighborhood, he received plenty of curious stares and comments from passers-by. He writes of feeling compelled to prove himself capable and trustworthy throughout his career, and of eventually coming to terms with this.

As is the case with most journals, Wong’s memoir is often wandering or redundant: He repeats his advice to caregivers (such as, "If you give children what they need, they will be happy") and could have ended the narrative sooner. Just when you think he’s wrapping up, he offers more advice that might have been better treated as an addendum.

Still, anyone who works closely with children will be able to relate to Wong’s insights, and will likely find them useful.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
San Bruno, California

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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Duty, Honor, Money

iUniverse, 226 pages, (paperback) $15.95, 9781469780511
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

In Duty, Honor, Money, former Marine J.F. Cronin delivers a blistering novel about the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, depicting a military mission subverted by politics and corruption, both Afghan and American.

Lieutenant Xavier Moran is sent to command a Marine unit stationed on the Pakistan border that has been suffering “unacceptable” casualties. That’s because every time the unit attacks and takes a nearby hill harboring Taliban fighters, the regional governor orders them off.

The author deftly uses an unusually candid intelligence briefing by a disgruntled civilian to explain to Moran what’s really going on. The words “Taliban” and “government” have little to do with the actual divisions between powerful Afghan families maneuvering for profits from the drug trade. The U.S. turns a blind eye because U.S. private companies are making pots of money in “reconstruction projects” while soldiers protect them for peanuts.

Major Ahern, Moran’s brown-nosing superior, doesn’t care how many Marines die so long as he’s still in good with the regional governor. So no one is happy when Moran runs several successful missions that clear the Taliban off the hill and mine it before following orders to stand down. When he has the nerve to disrupt a drug convoy, he winds up at a disciplinary hearing that could result in his dismissal in disgrace.

This being commercial fiction, complete with exciting battle scenes and a tough-as-nails hero, Moran confounds his enemies and escapes a plot designed to shut him up. But he’s still in danger in a cliff-hanging conclusion pointing to a sequel.

The characters are vividly rather than deeply drawn, and Cronin’s prose is more serviceable than beautiful. What gives his novel its powerful impact is its moral passion: disgust at the fact that honorable men are dying for people motivated only by profit and ambition. Every twist in the well-crafted plot underscores Moran’s bitter message: “…We’ll win the battles, but corrupt governments will result in our losing the war...”

Also available in hardcover and ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
Tucson, Arizona

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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India Marching: Reflections from a Nationalistic Perspective

Dr. Sat D. Sharma
iUniverse, 441 pages, (paperback) $28.95, 9781475914221
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

India Marching is a passionately argued work of revisionist history. The author, an internist who has published widely in medical journals, wants to write the “real history” of the struggle for India’s freedom from the British Raj.

Dr. Sat D. Sharma argues that a group of committed revolutionaries—(a great deal of space is given to a discussion of the contributions of Subhas Chandra Bose)—were more responsible for Indian independence than either Mohandas Gandhi, who he ranks as “treacherous” and “sycophantic,” or Jawaharlal Nehru, who is treated as nothing more than Gandhi’s pawn in Congress. Following Independence, Sharma blames both Gandhi and Nehru for “one of the greatest tragedies in human history,” as they settled for a dominion status and a partition with Pakistan, rather than complete independence. To Sharma, then, the history of modern India is one of betrayal and compromise. Taken to its logical end, Sharma ends his critique by castigating the present Indian government for its “all around rampant corruption.”

This is not a work of professional history; rather it is amateur history, and it carries with it all the strengths and weaknesses of that genre. As with most history buffs, Sharma’s command of the narrative can be compelling, often encyclopedic. He is also uncompromising and passionate in his prose. However, as with most non-professionals, passion leads to technical problems: There is much repetition and issues with grammar and syntax. There is also much missing from this work that might allow for readers to better judge Sharma’s claims. He offers few quoted specifics in his work; there is no bibliography, no footnotes, and no index.

India Marching offers such a passionate point of view that it will likely find an audience of those interested in the subject. However, Sharma’s important position deserves a greater scholarly precision and depth of analysis than is delivered here.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
Mumbai, India

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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Easterland

Patrick Henry Prentice
iUniverse, 332 pages, (paperback) $19.95, 9781475988338
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

What if Jesus Christ returned to the earth through the magic of science, and he turned out to just be this guy, you know? Emmy-award winning writer Patrick Henry Prentice’s tackles this question in his debut novel about faith and redemption.

The novel begins with some scientific alchemy in the vein of Michael Crichton. Catholic scientist Nicholas “Doc” Bishop is summoned by the Vatican to receive the blood of Jesus of Nazareth, taken from the fabled Shroud of Turin. Bishop uses this DNA to create a clone of the Son of God—in fact two clones, implanted into two different mothers.

Peter Ponto grows into a simple young man with a dark temper. Paul Amarante makes a promising start but gradually becomes withdrawn from the world. By adulthood, Peter is running a motel and manifesting otherworldly powers. Paul drives a cab and is in deep denial when Bishop reveals the truth. “Do I strike you as a guy on a mission from God?” he asks.

This all comes to a head when televangelist Billy Tarr dreams that the savior will return, and plans an enormous revival meeting in the heart of Texas, branded as “Easterland.”

Prentice is a practiced writer, who has written extensively for television, and he takes an interesting approach to what sometimes lends itself to the monotony of books such as the Left Behind series. While there is a healthy smattering of biblical mysticism (swarms of insects and snakes, etc.), these rough-hewn men are played more as feuding brothers out of a Sam Shepard play than as the savior and antichrist.

The prose doesn’t quite rise to the occasion—Prentice shuns the use of speech marks, and has a tendency to tell rather than show. But his alternative take on biblical mythology has a rare depth of feeling that readers may indeed appreciate.

Author Platform: Patrick Henry Prentice is a writer, producer and director of more than 200 films for television. He is the winner of five national Emmy awards and has been nominated for an Oscar.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
Washington, D.C.

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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Too Big to Succeed: Profiteering in American Medicine

Russell J. Andrews, MD, DEd
iUniverse, 175 pages, (paperback) $16.95, 9781475971286
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

Too Big to Succeed exposes the way profiteering has driven costs in American medicine to unsustainable levels while eroding the quality of care. With an insider’s eye, the author, a neurosurgeon, examines how our system turns physicians into money-oriented profiteers and how profiteering has supplanted medical outcomes.

Expanding on the theme of Dr. Atul Gawande’s seminal 2009 New Yorker essay, The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas Town Can Teach Us About Health Care, in example after disturbing, documented example of what he calls ”the symptoms” of “profit-centered” health care, Dr. Russell J. Andrews devastatingly shows how profit motive has “highjacked” American medicine and made it “an economic rather than humanitarian enterprise.”

One particularly chilling example is lumbar spine surgery, for which Americans spend $2 billion dollars a year. Complex fusion surgery, “of questionable long term benefit” for many and for which life-threatening complications are more than twice as frequent as simple decompression surgery, nonetheless increased “fifteenfold” from 2002 to 2007. Why? “Not surprisingly,” Andrews notes, hospital charges were about $81,000 versus $24,000 and surgeon’s fees “five to ten times” more. His diagnosis: When health care is a commodity and profits the driving force, disaster is inevitable.

Prognosis: “Until we in the United States acknowledge that [universal] health care is part of a civilized society,” the costs and quality of health care will continue to diverge and “ultimately will bankrupt the United States financially, medically, and socially.”

Prescription: Reconfigure the system so that physicians are motivated to consider the patient’s medical outcome first and change the culture to return to the goals of the Hippocratic Oath.

Andrews’ insightful solution, like his well-documented, nation-wide examples showing how widespread the problem is, goes further, wider and deeper to attack the real cause than many others have. His compelling, well-reasoned, paradigm-shifting examination is an engaging and, yes, easy (!) read, essential for every health care consumer.

BlueInk Heads-Up: Highly recommended for health-care consumers, practitioners, policy wonks, politicians. Fans of Dr. Atul Gawande’s books and articles on American health care will also appreciate Dr. Andrews’ work.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
Los Gatos, California

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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Understanding Change: A Personal and professional Management Strategy

Dr. Albert de Goias
iUniverse, 251 pages, (paperback) $21.95, 9781475970289
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

In this self-help volume, a psychiatrist with a penchant for philosophy and a fascination with physics diagnoses "existential pain" and provides a prescription to alleviate it based on developing individual identity, self-affirmation, personal accountability, and accepting change.

The first half of this book offers a metaphorical and historical observation of why humanity has been slow to address the perennial enigma of change. The author advises us to first accept the fact that change is imposed by something over which we have no control, and then to embrace it in order to become self-affirmed, highly evolved individuals. Quoting Hume, Einstein, Dawkins, Hawkings, and others, Dr. Albert de Goias' aim is to "use scientific argument to prove the existence of the mind or soul as a distinct entity, not just a function of the body." He also asks readers to make a commitment to develop their own conscious energy in order to earn new insights and stimulate personal growth.

The book’s second half is focused on fostering creativity and caring for the body as well as the mind. It also introduces the modes and reasons for facing change, accepting change, and influencing change. It is possible, de Goias contends, to manage one's own existence and then use that arcane ability and conscious energy to take on the challenges of managing others, in business, family, educational and community environments.

The book reads like a series of lectures, reminiscent of Werner Erhard's EST and the Forum, MindSpring, or other cultic "training" of the 1980s designed to reward participants with personal power and success. De Goias presented his treatment format—designed to cure existential angst, emptiness and weakness—to corporate executives during the 1980s, hence the book's argot and approach.

At times the prose is vague and elusive but it is generally an encouraging and inspiring book that might be more useful and accessible had it been more aggressively updated from its original 1989 edition.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
Toronto, Canada

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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The Journey Home

Willy Nywening
iUniverse, 294 pages, (paperback) $18.95, 9781475988291
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

Willy Nywening’s novel The Journey Home features the trinity of loss, survival and rebirth. Set in rural Canada, the story follows Martha and her younger brother, Jamie, whose lives swirl out of control following their mother’s death. Their father is also dead, leaving the children to live with their aunt and uncle on the family farm. The absence of maternal love haunts everyone.

While the story is engaging — after all, orphans tug at the heart — it nonetheless suffers from several flaws. First, it contains too many parallel stories. As the children work to find their place in the world, for example, their Aunt Lydia and Uncle John independently grapple with this concept, too.

Nywening’s adults are mostly unsentimental and flawed in their ability to communicate anything but negative feelings. In their defense, they are aware of their failures to express real emotion, yet they fall short of making a true effort. The children, on the other hand, are sweet, introspective and compliant. Consequently, they come across as far too angelic. They have every reason to complain or rebel, and the absence of such seems unrealistic.

Additionally, the story is troubled by inconsistencies. For instance, although Nywening describes the preacher’s wife as a loving mother to her now-grown children, there is little proof of this. Also, the time elements don’t quite mesh. The author states that the events of the children’s lives span five years, yet there are suggestions otherwise. At one point, Jamie finds success in school, but that seems to be lost or forgotten, as his later efforts revert to limited success. Numerous changes in tense and Nywening’s didactic tone are equally distracting.

The story’s appeal lies in the ongoing efforts of the children to survive. More than anything, they strive to fulfill their mother’s deathbed wish to “remember to love God, to be good and to work hard.” Despite the story’s faults, many will find poignancy in their struggle.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
Ontario, Canada

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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Love Doesn't Die

Angela Brent-Harris
iUniverse, 56 pages, (paperback) $9.95, 9781475934526
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

Angela Brent-Harris grew up in Jamaica in a warm and loving home. Love Doesn't Die is a tribute to her father, Yorke Devere Brent-Harris. A jazz aficionado and eternal optimist, he is sympathetically presented in this portrait. Anyone reading might wish he had been their father, too.

Brent-Harris is currently a first-grade teacher in Boca Raton, and her meticulously edited yet reader-friendly prose seems to indicate that those children are in good hands. In language both children and adults can appreciate, she describes childhood delights, such as buying an enormous block of ice to shave by hand (there's a photo of the scraper included) for cool treats. Younger readers may enjoy the story, but parents should note that there is some discussion of alcohol and marijuana use.

If there's one nit to pick here, it's that Brent-Harris doesn't share enough of her father with us. “Probably his sense of humor is what he'll be remembered for the most,” she writes. “I'd love to hear a compilation of all the jokes he told and all the practical jokes he participated in or instigated. It would be a long list.” Yet we don't even get one joke, or a better idea of what his sense of humor was like.

She describes several field trips her father took her on to answer questions, then goes on at length about the things she learned (such as how sugar is made from cane) but shares no anecdotes about taking the trip with her dad. It feels like a missed opportunity. A description of a near-death experience she had during a bad fall is interesting, but again steals focus away from her father.

Love Doesn't Die is nevertheless a touching portrait of a family and the particular bond between this father and daughter. It will appeal to family members most of all, but may be comforting to women who have lost fathers they were close to as well.

Author’s Current Residence
Boca Raton, Florida

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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Confronting Death

Edited by Alfred G. Killilea and Dylan D. Lynch
iUniverse, 284 pages, (paperback) $21.95, 9781475969771
(Reviewed: September, 2013)

In Confronting Death, University of Rhode Island professor Alfred G. Killilea teams with a former student to collect 18 undergraduate essays written for his course on “The Politics of Being Mortal.” Specific topics range from Dante’s Divine Comedy to mountaineering, but the overall focus is on “death as a way of understanding how to live.”

The collection begins unpromisingly with an essay by co-editor Dylan D. Lynch, whose purported subject (Kurt Vonnegut’s early novel Player Piano) seems to have so little to say about mortality that the author is forced to shoehorn in a variety of strained connections, such as the assertion that a character’s decision to quit his job “is perfectly analogous to our current societal problem with facing death.”

This isn’t the only piece to display an unfortunate tendency to declare positions instead of backing them with evidence. In addition, the collection presents distracting errors in spelling and grammar, such as using “boarder” for “border” and indiscriminately employing past and present tenses within sentences involving a single time frame.

There is some strong material here, particularly in the sections on terrorism, child soldiers, street gangs, and fascism. These essays, concerning people who either welcome death for religious reasons or have been numbed by its constant presence in their lives, suggest the unnerving possibility that accepting the reality of one’s own death—usually praised as a healthy development—in some cases instills contempt for the lives of others and encourages the unhesitating use of deadly violence. However, it’s regrettably characteristic of this book that a smart analysis of Japanese attitudes towards suicide is followed by the cloudily titled and argued “Suicidology—A Philosophy.”

The editors have amassed a scattershot array of essays whose sincerity and seriousness are palpable, while too often falling short of enlightening.

Also available as an ebook.

Author’s Current Residence
Kingston, Rhode Island

Source: BlueInk Reviews

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