Popular Fiction Glorify Each Day By John Banks 819 Publishing, $15.00, 286 pages Tommy “Teach” Morrison, a controversial GED teacher who is at once a plethora of personality and pain, is riddled with the guilt of his past. He is sentenced to emotional outbursts and an insatiable hunger for redemption, albeit the recurring pain lives solely in his mind and his day-to-day is insufferable. Although he is not a role model by any stretch, this is one of the most humorous, haunted and honest characters to cross the page in a long time. Glorify Each Day is a witty and gripping, if not addictive, read. The structure of the story is intelligent and climactic, leading its readers into a world of watchful waiting. There are finely intertwined stories which almost always satisfy the reader’s questioning and sleuthing, with an exception of some characters that, although intrinsically interesting, do not necessarily warrant such lengths of exposition dedicated solely to themselves, in this reader’s opinion. That being said, each character is leaping full of life.John Banks displays his gifting throughout this novel, his ability to realistically capture such a wide range of personalities and language (Maria “a-Teach,” “Green Eggs and Da Ham” by Pilluz, and Jerry Speziak’s ‘possum’ (to name a few), is hilariously accurate and brings a colorful realism to the characters, as one would hope. His characters are battered and scarred, making them memorable and endearing to the final period.This novel and John Banks have brought a light to the quest for self and the means with which as a human race we will strive to find it. Through Teach, a journey is realized in loss and grief, culminating in an ultimate release of his past and renewal through emancipation.A read this good should not be ignored. A small warning for the sensitive and earmuff-wearer, Teach is a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is-accordingto-him, sometimes offensive storyteller. He has a tale to tell, and a compelling one, if you can get around his means. Sponsored Review Phyllis Marie By Terry Row, Clifton Edwin Publishing, $17.95, 380 pages “Finally it was their turn to take off. The instructor turned, came to a complete stop, waited one extra second, and then pulled back on the stick. Perry felt only a small increase in prop wash, but the volume of noise seemed to drill into his ear canals. Come on, buddy, he thought as the airplane
rumbled down the runway. You’re never going to lift this thing off the ground if you don’t give it more juice. At what felt like the last possible moment, the ship lifted off the runway, to Perry’s surprise, reducing the vibrations by seventy-five percent. He flew, for the very first time.” Perry Row was born to fly, and he gets his chance after the infamously disastrous day of December 7, 1941. Through trial and persistence, struggle and gain, Perry, along with the vast cast of characters shared throughout, reveals a passion and thirst fueling not only his life, but, indeed, that of a universal proportion.Terry Row has a mesmerizing voice, transporting his readers on a flight of family ties, determination, honor, allegiance and, starkly evident, love. His story of Phyllis Marie spans a multi-generational territory, taking its readers from a warm bedroom shared by a timeless love to 1941 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the desire of young men lining up to defend their freedom and privilege, to the Great Salt Plain, traveling by wagon and horse; we are threaded through time, terrain and theme. Each chapter flips through a different family and their heartfelt predicaments and joys, culminating into one immensely solid family tree. Although this is a work of fiction, based on a true story, Row has captured every bit of reality onto his worn pages. This story has every bit of blood, sweat, tears, and heart imaginable poured into it. Through an exact execution of detail, character development and story, Row has catapulted himself; he, too, has flown, and hopefully not for the last time. Sponsored Review Friends 2 Lovers By Jonathan Anthony Burkett Xlibris, $19.99, 381 pages In Friends 2 Lovers, a romance by Jonathan Anthony Burkett, protagonist and college man Claude Daniels battles numerous personal problems, including the complete devastation of his family, to achieve true love with his best friend and foster sister, Kelly. The story begins normally enough, at the beginning of Claude’s high school senior year, his whole family wishing him luck. Within days, however, Claude’s brother and father have been killed; his grandmother has died of a heart attack, and his mother has committed suicide. Latoya, friend Kelly’s mother, takes Claude in, and the family moves to Florida with the help of Claude’s recently surfaced biological father. And this is just the beginning. Scenes were too rushed for them to carry necessary emotional impact. The real story follows Claude and Kelly’s college romance, interspersed with Claude’s love poems. This story really wants to be a college romance, with
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ISBN 9781449082253 one main and several supporting couples. However, Claude’s multiple and unbelievable personal tragedies are a hindrance. Claude could have been left orphaned in a usual way, such as his single parent dying, which would provide the reason for moving in with Kelly’s family. The author could then have proceeded with the real story—Kelly and Claude’s relationship. Sponsored Review Circle the Moon By J Jay Ross Xlibris, $19.99, 318 pages Fifteen-year-old Michelle Tanner is a military kid, and as such, was uprooted from her near-the-beach home in Eureka, California, to the middle of Idaho. Michelle is fine at managing the change in climate, school, friends, and culture, ending up with both a new boyfriend and a secret admirer. Through college and after, she has three key relationships that present their own joys and challenges. But her new life is left unsettled with the death of her father, spinning her world and feelings out of control.Circle the Moon is an engaging story. Michelle is a likeable and sympathetic character, realistic in her portrayal, facing difficult situations, yet not overly melodramatic. We see Michelle’s life going forward and back in time, peeling the story back, one layer at a time. Her relationship with her mother suffers in the wake of her father’s death, and Mi- chelle finds herself married to one man, and still feels the call to be with her old high school admirer. It is how Michelle does, and doesn’t, deal with all this that Circle the Moon presents in a highly readable way. An enjoyable novel that explores hard issues. Sponsored Review
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ISBN 978-1452093468 Progress By Michael V. Smith Cormorant Books, $44.72, 272 pages What are the ethical responsibilities of a person who bears witness to a terrible, lifechanging act? This question is addressed through the lives of Helen, her brother Robert and his best friend Colin in Progress, the thematically complex, carefully crafted second novel by Canadian author Michael V. Smith.Robert visits his sister after a fifteenyear absence from their small town, only to discover the house in which they grew up is slated to be physically relocated, along with those of their neighbors, because of the construction of a nearby dam. Helen is emotionally unprepared for Robert’s return, having just seen a horrible accident while visiting the grave of her fiancé Garrett, who died violently overseas.There’s a connection between Robert’s initial departure, kicked out by his father as a teen, and Garrett’s death, which Robert and Colin have arrived in town to finally explain. Through the author’s use of rich sensuous detail and elegantly measured pacing, the reader gradually comes to understand the secret, shedding light on all that’s gone deeply wrong in both siblings’ lives in the intervening years. Full of subtle, intimate familial tension, Progress is a provocative meditation on the multiple meanings of both home and family. Reviewed by Shawn Syms
August 2011
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