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HELL'S SHADOW

Despite relying on political caricatures, a win for fans of military adventures.

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Debut author Gould fires off an information-packed military thriller.

In what is essentially the present day (Obama is president and nearing an election year), Islamic terrorists get extremely close to detonating a nuclear bomb in Washington, D.C. Through that failure, the U.S. government learns of a previously unknown terrorist organization that, even more shocking, may have a second nuclear device. After some investigation, it turns out this device is being stored in the tumultuous city of Beirut. In order to stop this device from reaching U.S. shores, characters from the NSA, CIA, U.S. Army and Marine Corps converge on the city in what becomes a melee of violence and deceit. The good guys fight not only disparate groups of Islamic terrorists, but also meddling bureaucrats back in Washington and a popular press bent on portraying the terrorists as sympathetically as possible. The terrorists may be the main threat to America, but they’re followed closely behind by the liberal media and other figures on the left—Joe Biden, Maureen Dowd, Brian De Palma—along with endorsements of popular right-wing heroes like Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. The not-so-subtle political subtexts often distract from the excitement of flying bullets, while doing little to convince a skeptical reader that if the media were only less kind to terrorists, the world would be a better place. Fortunately for fans of action, there’s more blistering action than political diatribes. In the Tom Clancy tradition, the story is part military information, part action-adventure; weapons and the military branches that use them are described in great detail. Though the good guys and bad guys tend to be little more than black-and-white sketches with guns, the tangled plot twists its way through the streets of Beirut until it reaches its explosive conclusion.

Despite relying on political caricatures, a win for fans of military adventures.

Pub Date: May 28, 2012

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 848

Publisher: Alamogordo Books

Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2012

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THE BUSY TODDLER'S A TO Z

A simple ABC book whose vibrant photographs will grab kids’ attention.

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Debut authors Pi and Pi offer a debut picture-book alphabet of occupations, featuring photos of children playing dress-up.

Each of the 26 pages of this book features a photo, with illustrated details, of a child in the midst of a game of dress-up and imagination. The first shows a cheerful girl, costumed as a doctor, imagining, “What can I be today?” For “A,” a young artist paints on an easel; then, in a transition sentence, she decides to do ballet. The next page shows a ballerina who, when she gets hungry, visits a chef—and so on. Most transitions make sense, and the photos of children with occupation props, set against mostly white backgrounds, offer plenty of smiles. The simple sentences make this book easy to read aloud to its early childhood target audience. However, a few job titles may be a stretch for them to understand, such as “geologist,” “horticulturalist,” and “optician.” The jobs are varied and include artistic positions (illustrator, knitter, musician), service professions (firefighter, judge, librarian, soldier), and science jobs (engineer, X-ray technician). Surprisingly, the only sports-related position is an umpire, but a leading question at the end, about other jobs that one may discover, leaves room for young listeners to create their own.

A simple ABC book whose vibrant photographs will grab kids’ attention.

Pub Date: Dec. 28, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-4808-5453-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Archway Publishing

Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2019

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Body Archaeology

Poems and images that ask readers to appreciate a searching body for its beauty and grace.

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Diehl’s debut poetry collection showcases the arduous search for human connection and self-understanding.

In free verse poems that combine strong metaphors with prosaic passages, the poet wanders along a lifelong path of self-knowledge. She first describes it as a “pilgrimage…to accept what’s been deemed unworthy inside us,” and the trail leads to important insights. In a plainly stated yet necessary reminder, the author asserts that being human, despite the loneliness one may encounter, “is not a solitary pursuit.” Above all else, the book voices a desire for transparency in the self and in others. In “Clear Stream,” moving water illuminates objects within it, even as mystery waits at the bottom, and the water’s clarity corresponds to the speaker’s offering of his- or herself to view: “Here I am. // Come see me if you want.” Sometimes the tumble of words in these short stanzas suggests a pouring forth of injury: “It’s the show-stopping blow of loss upending a heart pain over pain till capacity for love regulates its beating.” Readers will understand a back story involving love and loss, difficulty in communication, sadness, and acceptance of children growing up. The poems gain strength from well-chosen accompanying images, including sketches and paintings by Dimenichi and colorful works by Jamaican-born painter Powell that enrich the verbal landscape. Several full-page images by each artist appear, suggesting a thematic connection or amplifying an emotion in a given poem. A richly textured, grand illustration of a tree by Dimenichi, for example, appears alongside a poem that celebrates the inspiration of such towering entities. A poem concerned with self-reflection joins a Powell painting of floating, twinned female forms. The figures seem to both depict and satisfy the speaker’s need to be seen, with their emphasis on mirror images, body doubles, and echoes of shapes. Even the windshield of a car can be a “two way mirror” behind which the driver is “invisible to life outside.” An explicitly female body is glimpsed in the sketches, and the warm, dreamlike compositions give it substance.

Poems and images that ask readers to appreciate a searching body for its beauty and grace.

Pub Date: July 1, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-304-13091-4

Page Count: 58

Publisher: Lulu

Review Posted Online: May 18, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016

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