Book Reviews

I've taken on writing book reviews as part of my ongoing quest to become a better writer. Not only do I get to read books I might not otherwise be exposed to, the process of analyzing each volume to understand what I like and what I think could be improved gives me insights I can use in my own work. Here's where you can find some of the reviews I've done to date:


Aethlon/Sport Literature Association -- Note: books published in 2021 and beyond can be found at https://sportliteratureassociation.wordpress.com/book-reviews/
Arnie, Seve, and a Fleck of Golf History, by Bill Fields. Aethlon, June 30, 2014. 
Ballists, Dead Beats, and Muffins: Inside Early Baseball in Illinois by Robert D Sampson, posted July 23, 2023.
Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers, by Debra Shattuck. Aethlon, August 25, 2017.
A Dugout to Peace, by Gary Morgenstein, posted November 28, 2023.
A Fastball for Freedom, by Gary Morgenstein, posted July 7, 2021.
Invisible No More: A Historical Novel, by Scott Pitoniak and Rick Burton, posted January 19, 2024.
Issei Baseball: The Story of the First Japanese American Ballplayers, by Robert K. Fitts, posted February 14, 2021. 
A Mound Over Hell, by Gary Morgenstein, posted November 2, 2021.
Not Hockey: Critical Essays on Canada’s Other Sport Literature, edited by Angie Abdou and Jamie Dopp, posted February 3, 2024.
Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World, by Jean Duffy, posted March 29, 2023.
Women’s American Football: Breaking Barriers On and Off the Gridiron, by Russ Crawford, posted July 22, 2023.

The Fifth Di...
The Astronaut Always Rings Twice, edited by Shannon Allen and JR Campbell, August 2023 issue.
Becoming Jade, by Tyree Campbell, December 2023 issue.
Library of the Unwritten, by A.J. Hackwith, September 2020 issue.

The Future Fire
anOther Mythology, by Maxwell I. Gold, posted April 9, 2024
Adornments of the Storm, by Paul Meloy, posted April 23, 2019
Bikes Not Rockets: Intersectional Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories, edited by Elly Blue, posted November 12, 2019
Chasing Shadows (posted April 6, 2017), and its sequel, Unbroken Light (review posted January 23, 2018), both written by K.N. Salustro
The Cityborn, by Edward Willett, posted July 7, 2017
Depart, Depart! by Sim Kern, posted September 11, 2020.
The Empty Throne, by David M. Allan, posted April 2, 2019.
Face the Change, by Samantha Bryant, posted October 30, 2017
The House of Styx, by Derek Künsken, posted May 11, 2021
How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse, by K. Eason, posted March 24, 2021
Luna Station Quarterly, Issue 41, March 2020, posted March 3, 2021
Master of Dreams, by Mike Resnick, posted August 1, 2019
Master of the World, by Edward Willett, posted October 16, 2019
Mountain, by Ursula Pflug, posted July 28, 2017
The Multiverse is a Good Place to Visit, but I Wouldn't Want to Live There, by Ira Nayman, posted December 6, 2017
The Museum of Second Chances, by A.E. Warren, posted September 7, 2018.
Paris Adrift, by E.J. Swift, posted April 30, 2018
The Passengers, by John Marrs, posted February 5, 2020
Paths to the Stars, short story collection by Edward Willett, posted September 21, 2018
Prydori: Perfection is Us, by T.H. Moedviach, posted June 16, 2017
Seeds and Other Stories, by Ursula Pflug, posted November 20, 2020
Shapers of Worlds, edited by Edward Willett, posted February 1, 2021
The War Beneath: The Rise of Oceania, by Timothy S. Johnston, posted September 7, 2019
Trenchcoats, Towers, and Trolls: Cyberpunk Fairy Tales, edited by Rhonda Parrish, posted February 7, 2022
Worldshaper, by Edward Willett, posted December 20, 2018
Zee, by Su J. Sokol, posted April 12, 2021
Zooscape, an e-zine of fantastic furry fiction, Issue 6, March 2020, edited by Mary E. Lowd, posted April 10, 2020

Illumen (Hiraeth Publishing)
The Uber Cat and Dragon Owner Manual, by Marge Simon and Mary Turzillo, January 2024.

Interstellar Flight Magazine
Dinner on Mars: The Technologies That Will Feed the Red Planet and Transform Agriculture on Earth, by Lenore Newman and Evan Fraser, posted April 17, 2023
Thinking Queerly, by Jes Battis, posted February 6, 2023
Season One: Iris and the Crew Tear Through Space, by Cait Gordon, posted April 12, 2024

The Miramichi Reader website
100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife by  Ken Jennings, posted July 31, 2023
Against the Machine: Evolution, by Brian Van Norman, posted February 24, 2024. 
Against the Machine: Manifesto, by Brian Van Norman, posted October 3, 2021
The Age of Insecurity, by Astra Taylor, posted September 26, 2023.
All the Seas of the World, by Guy Gavriel Kay, posted May 23, 2022
Bad Actors: Second Pi in the Face, by Ira Nayman, posted July 4, 2022
Camp Zero, by Michelle Min Sterling, posted May 1, 2023
Dancing with Robots: The 29 Strategies for Success in the Age of AI and Automation, by Bill Bishop, posted February 21, 2022
Death Interrupted: How Modern Medicine is Complicating the Way We Die, by Blair Bigham, MD, posted February 20, 2023.
Decolonizing Sport, edited by Janice Forsyth, Christine O’Bonsawin, Russell Field, and Murray G. Phillips, posted December 31, 2023,
Dialed In: Do Your Best When It Matters Most, by Dr. Dana Sinclair, posted March 12, 2024.
A Diary in the Age of Water, by Nina Munteanu, posted September 28, 2020.
Disease, by 
Sarah Tolmie, posted 
July 22, 2021.
Does Coffee Cause Cancer? And 8 More Myths About the Food We Eat, by Dr. Christopher Labos, posted on October 8, 2023.
The Doomsday Book of Fairy Tales, by Emily Brewes, posted July 2, 2021.
The Earthborn, by Arlene F. Marks, posted June 19, 2023.
Eclipsing the Aurora, by Peter J. Foote, posted March 15, 2023.
Elect Her: Still Struggling to be Recognized as Equals, by Fred Groves, posted November 1, 2020.
Every Living Thing, by Jason Roberts, posted April 7, 2024
Extraordinary Canadians: Stories from the Heart of our Nation, by Peter Mansbridge, with Mark Bulgutch, posted April 11, 2022. 
Fight Night, by Miriam Toews, posted September 11, 2021.
First-Time Listener, by Jennifer Zilm, posted October 10, 2022
The Future, by Catherine Leroux, posted October 9, 2023.
The Garrett Bluenose Patterns: Celebrating Nova Scotia’s Rug Hooking Heritage, by The Teachers Branch, Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia, posted February 22, 2023.
Girl running, by Diana Hope Tegenkamp, posted January 3, 2022
Green Islands: Poems From the Great Bear Rainforest, by Ian Thomas, posted July 17, 2023
Hazard, Home, by Christine Lowther, posted March 7, 2024.
Hypatia’s Wake, by Susan Andrews Grace, posted January 15, 2023
In the Writers' Words: Conversations with Ten Canadian Poets, by Laurence Hutchman, posted June 6, 2022.
A Life Spent Listening, by Hassan Khalili, posted August 28, 2022
The Little Animals, by Sarah Tolmie, posted November 1, 2021
L.M. Montgomery and Gender, edited by E. Holly Pike and Laura M. Robinson, posted March 7, 2022. 
Lucy and Bonbon: A Novel, by Don LePan, posted April 18, 2022.
The Madness of Crowds, by Louise Penny, posted November 11, 2022.
Marilla Before Anne, by Louise Michalos, posted April 24, 2021.
Matters of Time: An Outliers Anthology, posted February 28, 2022
The Messy Lives of Book People, by Phaedra Patrick, posted August 31, 2022
The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8 AM), by Hal Elrod, posted January 29, 2024.
No Place for a Woman, by Anthony Berger, posted January 19, 2021,
The Nominal Echo Chronicles, by Manuel Panchana Moya, posted June 11, 2021.
On This Day: 365 Tales of History, Mystery, and More, by Dale Jarvis, posted December 19.
Resonance: Essays on the Craft and Life of Writing, edited by Andrew Chesham and Laura Farina, posted August 20, 2022
Sapphire and the Hollow Bone, by Diana Hayes, by Diana Hayes, posted November 27, 2023
Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality, posted November 6, 2023
Sentient Stones, by Susan McCaslin, posted September 11, 2023.
Shapers of Worlds Volume II, edited by Edward Willett, posted November 29, 2021
The Sisters Sputnik, by Terri Favro, posted May 5, 2022.
Spectrum, by Julie E. Czerneda, posted April 9, 2021, 
State of Terror, by Hilary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny, posted August 2, 2022
Stone Woman, by Bernadette Gabay Dyer, posted October 26
The Story of Lillian Burke, by Edward M. Langille, posted June 13, 2020. 
Tumblehome: One Woman’s Canoeing Adventures in the Divine Near Wilderness, by Brenda Missen, posted January 30, 2023.
The Ugly Truth, by Ira Nayman, posted February 26, 2023.
Wild Kin, by Marlene Grand Maître, posted August 27, 2023.
Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much, by Natalie MacLean, posted May 15, 2023
The Winter Knight, by Jes Battis, posted November 5, 2023
The Wisdom Found in Hen’s Teeth, by Jules Torti, posted April 17, 2023.
A World of Curiosities, by Louise Penny, posted December 10, 2022.
Worth More Standing: Poets and Activists Pay Homage to Trees, Edited by Christine Lowther, posted January 23, 2023
Wounded Hearts: Memories of the Halifax Protestant Orphans’ Home, by Lois Legge.
The Zone: Rediscovering Our Natural Self, by Rob Wood, posted November 18, 2022.

New Myths
Finder, by Suzanne Palmer, posted October 2020.

Plenitude
Rita Mae Brown Following a Different Traila review of Rita Mae Brown's Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Plenitude, March, 2015

Shelter of Daylight
Mirage, by Julie Czerneda, Summer 2021 issue (print)
Pirating Pups: Salty Sea-Dogs and Barking Buccaneers, edited by Rhonda Parrish, January 2023 issue

Shoreline of Infinity
Fatal Depth, by Timothy S. Johnston, published in Issue 29, released December 9, 2021
Writing the Future, edited by Dan Coxton and Richard V. Hirst, Shoreline of Infinity, Volume 37, Spring 2024.
Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick, by David Wong, published in Issue 29, released December 9, 2021

Specpo Blog
Arthurian Things by Melissa Ridley Elmes, posted December 16, 2021
The Doggo Book by Alan Ira Gordon, posted April 17, 2021
Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota by Amelia Gorman, posted June 21, 2021
Outer Space, Inner Minds, edited by David P. Reiter, posted August 14, 2021

Speculative North
"A Long Time Ago, in a City-State...", a review of A Brightness Long Ago, by Guy Gavriel Kay, was included in Speculative North, Issue 1. 

Star*Line (Note: Reviews appearing in Star*Line are also posted on the SFPA web site  organized by year of publication)
A Route Obscure and Lonely, by LindaAnn LoSchiavo (2019), Star*Line 44.1 (Winter 2021)
Climbing Lightly Through Forests: A Poetry Anthology Honoring Ursula K. Le Guin, edited by R. B. Lemberg and Lisa M. Bradley (2021), Star*Line 44.2, Spring 2021
From Your Hostess at the T&A Museum, by Kathleen Balma, Star*Line 45.3, Summer 2022
The Gates of Never by Deborah L. Davitt (2019), Star*Line 43.3 (Summer 2020) 
How to Navigate Our Universe, by Mary Soon Lee, Star*Line Issue 46.4, Fall 2023.
I Tumble Through the Diamond Dust, by Edward Willett, Star*Line Issue 42.1 (Winter 2019)
Million-Year Elegies, by Ada Hoffmann (2021), Star*Line 44.2, (Spring 2021)
Not a Princess, But (Yes) There Was a Pea, and Other Fairy Tales to Foment Revolution, by Rebecca Buchanan, Star*Line 46.1 (Winter 2022)
The Owl Kingdom and Other Poems, by Rebecca Korvo, Star*Line 47.1, Winter 2024.
The Sibyl, by Hamant Singh, Star*Line 46.3 (Summer 2023)
The Sign of the Dragon, by Mary Soon Lee (2020), Star*Line 44.1 (Winter 2021)
Shelf Life, by F. J. Bergmann, Star*Line 47.2 (Spring 2024)
Summoning Space Travelers, by Angela Acosta (2022), Star*Line 46.2 (Spring 2023)
The Truth About Snails, by J.D. DeHart (2014), Star*Line 43.3 (Summer 2020) 
Tuesday’s Child is Full, by PS Cottier (2022), Star*Line 46.2 (Spring 2023)
War, by Alessandro Manzetti and Marge Simon and illustrated by Stefano Cardoselli (2018) Star*Line 43.3 (Summer 2020) 

Strange Horizons
The Night Clock, by Paul Meloy. Review posted May 16, 2016.

Reviews Posted on Goodreads:
And the Angels Sang, by Lorina Stephens
Ascendant, by Jack Campbell
The Archive of the Forgotten, by A.J. Hackwith
The Astronaut Wives Club, by Lily Koppel
Big Liars: What Psychological Science Tells Us About Lying and How You Can Avoid Being Duped, by 
Christian L. Hart and Drew A. Curtis
Birnam Wood, by Eleanor Catton
Blindspots, by Rhonda Parrish
Crossing the Horizon, by Laurie Notaro
The End of Memory, by Jay Ingram
Everyday Hockey Heroes: Inspiring Stories On and Off the Ice, by Bob McKenzie
Fight Night, by Miriam Toews
The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, by Denise Kiernan
The God of Lost Words, by A.J. Hackwith
The Humans, by Matt Haig
My Dad My Dog, by Rebecca Warner (review also posted on Library Thing)
Outpost, by Michael W. Gear
Red Planet Blues, by Robert Sawyer
The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing, by Mayra Calvani
Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World, by Jean Duffy
Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey . . . by Mike Massimino
Twelve All in Dread: The Twelfth Witch and Other Stories, by Juliana Rew