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#BookReview: Proximity Politics by Jeronimo Cortina

Obvious “Research” Yet Still Manages To Be Hyper Political. The basic premise of this book is that people are more about those things that are physically, emotionally, or ideologically close to them. Ok, and the sky is blue. Next. Oh, but now there’s numbers showing this! And? There are numbers showing why the sky is blue. Nobody cares. Well, maybe the scientists and pedants. Aha! The target audience for this very academically oriented text!

I’ll grant that the length of the bibliography is solid, clocking in at 30% of the text of the Advance Review Copy of this book that I read. Though content wise, it seems cherry picked specifically to support the author’s conclusions rather than offer a more well rounded view of the topic.

In making claims such as “Partisan polarization proved to be the deadliest factor for Americans’ health.” (while blaming elderly Americans for their own deaths during the COVID event) and saying the US-Mexico border “The US -Mexico border as we know it today is a product of historical correction that took place in 1896 to rectify mapping errors from the US-Mexican War of 1849-1855. However, it is not merely a line drawn by Washington, DC and Mexico City to separate two nations. Rather, it is a dynamic permeable membrane shaped by centuries of movement and interaction among indigenous peoples, Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans.”, Cortina makes statements that his fellow members of the Academy may agree with… that will leave the rest of us in the “real” world wondering what the fuck those “Academics” are smoking, and if we can have some – particularly in these last days before the 2024 Presidential election. And then there is the fictitious claim that “assault rifles” exist (they don’t) or that anthropogenic “climate change” is causing ever more natural disasters. Here, I’ll at least give Cortina credit for moderating a *touch* in later chapters and moving on to a more “regardless of origins, it is happening” approach – which is still not actually borne out in the data, but is at least much closer to reality. Cortina would argue that my own proximal politics – growing up in the foothills of the Appalachians yet currently living just six miles off the beach – influences our disagreement here… I would argue reality does. 😉

And that is ultimately how anyone is going to find this book. If you like academic treatises with a strong leftward bent, you’re going to enjoy what Cortina has put together here, obvious though it may be. Hey, there’s numbers now! 😉 If you find yourself not drawn to that type of book… spare Cortina the much more vicious take down that even *I* was tempted to write and just ignore this book. Your cardiologist will hate you for it, but your family will love you ever more for allowing them a few more days with you from not having a heart attack over this book. 😀

Recommended, but only for very select readers.

This review of Proximity Politics by Jeronimo Cortina was originally written on October 22, 2024.

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#BookReview: The Christmas Countdown by Holly Cassidy

Solid Hallmarkie Christmas Romance That “Officially” Has The Weirdest Personal Story Ever For Me. This is one of those damn near prototypical Hallmark Christmas movie type romances, and that alone will tell most people whether they’re going to like this or not. Obviously, with how much success Hallmark has with these types of movies every year (and with so many of the romance authors I’ve worked with over the years now getting chances to write some of these actual movies), there is quite a considerable market for exactly this type of story, so kudos to Cassidy (and the actual person behind her) for branching out into this realm. Here, Cassidy even manages to introduce a few wrinkles not *always* seen… but this also ties into the personal story I have to tell.

For those who don’t care about my very weird personal history with this book, what I said above is everything you need to know. It was really good for its type and had some interesting wrinkles, and is absolutely worthy of your time if you like these types of tales. Very much recommended.

Now, for the weird personal tale:

As I was reading this book in the week before release in October 2024, I *absolutely knew* I had read this tale before. To the level that it was an exact duplicate of the tale I knew I had already read, which I recognized 100% from one particular scene, among others. As I’ve known the actual person behind the Cassidy pseudonym online for many years now and have read and reviewed many of her books under her real name, I knew such blatant plagiarism simply *was not* possible. Not the author I’ve known for so long. And yet… I *knew* I had read this story weeks earlier, back when I last reviewed this author’s 2024 release under her real name.

And yet… I had *ZERO* record that I had already read this book. Which is statistically damn near as close to zero as you can get, as I have *extensive* record keeping about literally every book I read in *numerous* different places.

I have an Excel file where I have three different sheets containing different data about every book, and I mark each sheet as I complete a given book. I download the cover to my phone and then create two separate images – one with my Hardcover.app profile on the side and one without – with my rating of the book on both. I then post the one without in a Facebook group on my personal profile where we keep track of all the books the group reads. I then Facebook Messenger my reader profile both images. I then save both images in a particular folder on my computer. Then I begin to actually write the review in Hardcover.app. I then copy the text of the review into Goodreads, BookHype.com, BookBub.com (if the book is there), TheStoryGraph.com, NetGalley.com (if the book came from there, as both the earlier book under this author’s real name and this book did), my blog, and at least two separate Facebook reader groups, and I’m trying to get better about making it at least three. (My own group there, Reader Garage, as well as at least Readers Coffeehouse and I’m trying to get better about My Book Friends). I then finish out my review on my blog with imagery and some links, then post the links from my blog to the Hardcover.app review and to the NetGalley review. I then copy all of the other review site review links into the NetGalley review and submit that. Finally, I place the link to my blog review in my LinkTree and get the Hardcover version of the cover image out on my Twitter, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook Blog Page. I then share the Facebook Blog Page post publicly on my reader profile there.

So there are a LOT of places that *some* record of me reading this book back then *should* have existed in some form. 25 by my count, 26 counting the My Book Friends group.

And YET, I found record that I had read this book in just *ONE* of them – It had been removed from the Excel tab where I remove books as I complete them. Even this isn’t conclusive, however, as I’ve been known to make mistakes and cut the wrong book from time to time over the years.

But y’all, I *KNOW* I read this book, and I even remember having the plan back in July, when I read the other book under this author’s real name, that I would read this book immediately after – along with then doing the same thing with another author who had two books releasing around the same time as both of this author’s books. (IIRC, the other author’s first book released a week or so after “Cassidy”‘s first book, and the other author’s October book released last week, a week before this book.)

So what I *suspect* and *believe* happened – yet have almost exactly zero evidence of – is that I did in fact read this book back then. It is the only thing that makes sense with everything that I know to be true about everything surrounding this very weird experience. I then noticed that I simply had too many books releasing in August to follow through with my plans for working the other author in a similar manner, and clearly I somehow forgot to go through my review process for this book back then. I honestly have no idea what caused such a lapse, but such a lapse happening is the *only* thing that actually makes sense with everything else I know.

So there you have it. Even the “machines” of the book review space, as some authors have called me over the years, have our breaking points. It seems that August 2024 – whose books I did not fully clear until September 30, with my review of James Rollins’ Arkangel – may have been too close to my own for comfort. But at least I’m on the back side of that, and some new opportunities are arising as I begin to slow down the ARC work that has kept me so busy for so many years now.

Hopefully y’all will continue to follow me on these new adventures… and hopefully you’ll continue to follow Ms. Cassidy under both this identity and her real one. 🙂

This review of The Christmas Countdown by Holly Cassidy was originally written on October 22, 2024.

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#BookReview: When We Chased The Light by Emily Bleeker

Compelling Companion. This book is more “companion” novel to Bleeker’s 2023 novel When We Were Enemies than “sequel”, in that only the prologue and epilogue feature the more modern timeline from the earlier book. The rest of this story is, well, the rest of the historical story found in pieces in the earlier book as our lead character there tries to piece together her family’s past.

Bleeker does a remarkable job of continuing the story of survival she began in When We Were Enemies and continuing through WWII and the ensuing decades. And just when you think survival is all you get – and with some interesting foreshadowing bringing another well known tale into the narrative in a perfectly timed (both narrative wise and timeline wise) point – … Bleeker manages to bring heavy amounts of dust into the room and absolutely *shatter* you, the reader. But this is done in almost literally the last pages and even words of this tale, so those who give up short of the finish line won’t get to the best part of the tale overall… much like those who give up short of the goal line in most other things, come to think of it. 🙂

I’ve literally read everything Bleeker has written, from her powerful debut through this one, and this is easily near the top of her stack in ambition and overall storytelling. Bleeker has had others that may hit even harder (her 2015 debut, WRECKAGE), but this one shows a remarkable growth as a storyteller overall, able to write this in just a few months and make it flow so well with both its predecessor and within the times and worlds in which it inhabits in our “real” world.

Overall a truly excellent book, and very much recommended.

As an aside specifically for the BookAnon.com version of this review, let me add here that Emily and I have known each other online since sometime shortly after WRECKAGE was published. I read it, and pushed a book club I was in at the time to read it. I then brought her into a related Facebook book club I was in at the time, and a couple of years later it was Emily sharing that Lake Union was looking for more members of their review team that got me into that particular group… and effectively truly got this blog off the ground. That group has now been ended longer than it ran, at least while I was a part of it, but I finally had a chance to meet Emily earlier this year when we both happened to be at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom at the same time. If you look closely at the picture below, you’ll see that I had just downloaded a certain book to my Kindle just the day before meeting her. It was truly an awesome time finally getting to meet someone I’ve known online so long and so well, and I truly do continue to be amazed with her writing… even when I sometimes push back on certain elements of it. 😀

This review of When We Chased The Light by Emily Bleeker was originally written on October 22, 2024.

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#BookReview: Drenna Steel Series by John Sneeden

Review Of Retribution, Originally Written February 11, 2021:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
With Remorse. This is a book that has a lot of similarities to Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse (soon to be in bastardized form on your screens), but a lot of key differences. As with the Clancy text, here we get to see a bit of a retired super spy/ assassin falling in love… before we see that ripped away in brutal fashion, with the spy surviving what the bad guys think has killed them. And as with the Clancy text, the rest of the tale is essentially the spy doing whatever it takes to send their lover’s killer(s) straight to Hell – Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200. The key differences here are that while the Clancy text was more of a coda to an already existing character, this one is intentionally set up as Book 1 of a potential new series, and thus there are some of the standard-ish “book 1” mechanics of working to set up a universe, allowing a few plot threads to dangle, setting up an overarching mythos that can be strung out or wrapped up as the author (and, likely, sales) demand, etc. And arguably the real difference here is the lack of utter brutality in this text. Here, Steel is quite capable, and often underestimated – and we see her use her skills in situations that many might deem “less realistic”, but which are plausible enough to work within the story. Still extremely hard hitting and with a decent body count of bad guys genre readers expect, just nowhere near the outright savage brutality of the Clancy. But fans of Clancy, either long time or new ones picked up from the upcoming movie, will do themselves a great service in reading this book. Very much recommended.

Review of Collateral Damage, Originally Written September 30, 2022:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Explosive Spy / Revenge Thriller. When we catch up with our heroine of the series in this book, she is hiding and hurting – but still righting wrongs where she sees them, in badass and brutally effective fashion. And shortly thereafter, she gets roped into yet another mission that turns out to not be as it seems, which leads to even more action which tends to also be brutally effective at times. Yet again Sneeden does an excellent job of providing a seemingly shortish (no official page count as I type this review, but it *felt* like it was in the sub-300 page area) bit of pure escapism, this time highlighting various areas of Europe in the process. Perfect for fans of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher or J.M. LeDuc’s Sinclair O’Malley, or (sadly now late) Matthew Mather’s Delta Devlin. Very much recommended.

Review of Dark Reckoning, Originally Written October 11, 2024:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Explosive From Start To Finish. This is one of those books that starts out as a somewhat classic spy caper – someone is trying to flee from their home country with hyper sensitive material (and knowledge) and is doing the whole “take two steps. stop. turn right and go 3 steps. stop.” thing trying to avoid detection and give the authorities the slip.

But then it takes about 1/3 of the book to get back to that… because we’re now involved in *another* spy thriller such that both will come together – and get even more explosive when they do – but now we need to get back to our series heroine, Ms. Drenna Steel, and find out what she is doing and how she is going to get involved with the first scene.

No matter where we are in the tale, the bad guys are always a shadow away and it is up to Ms. Steel and her allies to keep the good guys safe and handle the bad guys… well, in the manner in which bad guys get handled in such tales. 😉

But then that ending. Wow. On several different levels. Yet again, Sneeden manages to make you want the next book… how about right freaking NOW?!?!?!?!

Very much recommended.

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#BookReview: A Wish In The Wind by Kay Bratt

Reading The Last Book First? WHAT???? Ok, real confession time: I’ve bought every single book in this series – and this is the *only* one I’ve read, specifically because I also received it as an Advance Review Copy. So why did I buy the other 16 books? I’m familiar with the work, and in many cases the person, of the authors in question, and I trust them to give me solid stories.

This one is yet another such solid story, perhaps of a bit of a Hallmark Movie type vibe – but that is really the intent of this entire series, so it works. Bratt in particular is truly capable of so much more emotional depth (check out her By The Seas series or my own first encounter with her work, Dancing With The Sun) and even outright action/ drama (check out her Hart’s Ridge series), but she shows here that she can contain those other impulses and write on theme and on brand for a collaborative effort – and that too shows great strength and talent as a storyteller (or any group participant), to be able to blend just so well.

So, there it is, really – if you like the Hallmark Movie vibe (and clearly *many* do), you’re going to enjoy both this book and this entire series. If that isn’t really your think, this likely won’t be either.

Oh, and one other strength to both the book and the series: They’re all super short. I read this (120 age ish) book in about 2.5 hrs or so this afternoon. In other words, great for those busy with other things that are looking for quick breaks to enjoy something well written and quite enjoyable that won’t really offend most anyone not actively looking for something to be offended by.

Very much recommended.

This review of A Wish In The Wind by Kay Bratt was originally written on October 15, 2024.

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#BookReview: Your Jesus Is Too American by Steve Bezner

No Matter Your Thinking About ‘Christianity’, This Will Challenge You. This is one of those excellent books that truly no matter what you think of Christianity or any given Christian-type theology, Bezner is going to find ways to challenge you – in the manner of the classic pastor joke as follows:

Man comes up to the Pastor after the service. “Preacher, you were stepping on my toes in there!”
Pastor replies: “I apologize. I was aiming about 3 feet higher.” (For his heart, in case that is unclear.)

In other words, yes, Bezner is a pastor and yes, this is written in that general style – but it also isn’t a book seeking to destroy everything you hold dear so much as gently goad you in areas where maybe you’re wrong – or maybe Bezner is.

And I’m not joking when I say no matter your thoughts on Christianity here. Bezner goads the conservatives with his talk of their lily white – or coal black – churches and the need for churches to be more multicultural. Bezner goads the liberals with his insistence that sex is only for straight married couples – and goads everyone with his insistence that more needs to be done to support single adults, no matter their sexual choices. He even manages to goad the Anarchists by *actively citing 1 Samuel* – the very passage where YAHWEH decrees that obedience to an earthly king as a rejection of Himself! – and arguing that earthly kings are necessary, but that a “prophet” is needed to stand outside their court and hold them to account.

If you’re looking for a book “taking down” “Christian Nationalism”…. this isn’t your book, and Bezner never intended it to be. If you’re looking for a book that decries *all* politics in the American Church and instead calls for complete separation between the Church and politics… this isn’t your book, and Bezner never intended it to be. It is quite clear that he sought to write exactly the kind of book he did – calling Americans of *all* political persuasions and telling them that according to his own beliefs, they’re wrong. As with anything else, at that point your mileage absolutely varies. I do believe that we can all gain something from reading this book, but I do NOT believe that Bezner is as correct as he clearly thinks he is.

Ultimately two stars were deducted here. One for the prooftexting, even though it only *blatantly* happened as quotes to begin chapters – I don’t really recall seeing it anywhere else. (For those unaware, “prooftexting” is the practice of citing Bible verses out of context in support of some claim or another.) So while not as bad as some others in this space, it is a practice that is an automatic star deduction from me *any* time I see it.

The other star deducted was for the near absolute dearth of any bibliography. While this book was indeed more pastoral in tone, it was still a nonfiction book and should have been cited much more thoroughly than it was – 20-30% bibliography is my general expectation based on my experiences overall, though I’m a bit more willing to come down to 15% as the lower number with more recent (2021 and forward or so) texts seeming to indicate this is a general shift in nonfiction books of this era.

Still, despite the two star deduction here largely on technical matters, this really is a solid book that every American needs to read – perhaps particularly during election seasons.

Very much recommended.

This review of Your Jesus Is Too American by Steve Bezner was originally written on October 15, 2024.

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#BookReview: The Residence by Nicola Marsh

Southern Gothic Amuse-Bouche. This is a short story (really short, with barely enough pages to qualify as a review in some sites if page count were word count in the review) that has one specific goal: To get your mind in the world of the Outer Banks Secrets and the Southern Gothic tone the series is built around. (Which is interesting indeed, given that Marsh is an Australian who I don’t know has ever been to North Carolina’s Outer Banks at all… but more on that momentarily.)

Y’all, as someone who has *been* to the Outer Banks and has lived every day of his (non-vacationing, and even some vacationing) life no further north than 30 minutes or so below the Georgia-Tennessee State Line and has most of the last decade barely six miles off the coast not far from St Augustine… Marsh *nails* Southern Coastal life, at least the parts of it she chooses to expose and explore here, and she absolutely uses it *perfectly* in her Southern Gothic approach. Yes, this isn’t *all* that the American South is, and perhaps it isn’t even a great representation of all that the American South *can be*, but on the creepy/ gothic side? Marsh captured it quite well indeed, particularly if my assumption is true that she’s never actually been here.

Truly an excellent short story that does everything it is intended to do *and* serves as a nice lunch break read when you want something a bit creepy but don’t have much time to read for whatever reason.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Residence by Nicola Marsh was originally written on October 15, 2024.

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#BookReview: Every Moment Since by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

Dark. Dreary. Dismal. Oppressive. And Then The Candle Flickers To Life. This is one of those books that takes the hyper-dark and hyper-oppressive feel of the singular worst book I’ve *EVER* read – The Road by Cormac McCarthy – and does what McCarthy never could: Provide just that flicker of a spark of a candle lighting. *Just* enough to provide *some* level of hope. Even when most everyone in this book is so broken by the central issue – a child going missing decades ago – and their secrets about that night that none of them *really* *want* that hope, the reader *needs* that smallest flicker… and Whalen provides it in particularly dramatic form.

For those who are not fans of multi-perspective books… this one isn’t going to change that, sorry. There are a lot of perspectives going on here, and a lot of sudden switching that can get a touch confusing at times, particularly as we switch between “then” and “now”.

But really, that was the only *potential* flaw here, and not everyone has that particular hangup. (I don’t, I actually thought the multi-perspectives made the story work much *better* in this particular case, as we get so many views on what happened here and how different people are reacting differently.)

The tie in to Richard Jewel of the Centennial Park Bombing during the 1996 Olympic Park Bombings in Atlanta was interesting, even if Whalen actually meant that particular character to be a more general representation. (And to be clear, it is only my own mind that made the connection at all, though perhaps others who were living in the Atlanta region during that time also might make it. The actual characterization is far more generic and could represent any number of people in similar situations.)

Overall a strong, if extremely dark and depressing, tale extremely well told. Very much recommended.

This review of Every Moment Since by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen was originally written on October 14, 2024.

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#BookReview: Dark Reckoning by John Sneeden

Explosive From Start To Finish. This is one of those books that starts out as a somewhat classic spy caper – someone is trying to flee from their home country with hyper sensitive material (and knowledge) and is doing the whole “take two steps. stop. turn right and go 3 steps. stop.” thing trying to avoid detection and give the authorities the slip.

But then it takes about 1/3 of the book to get back to that… because we’re now involved in *another* spy thriller such that both will come together – and get even more explosive when they do – but now we need to get back to our series heroine, Ms. Drenna Steel, and find out what she is doing and how she is going to get involved with the first scene.

No matter where we are in the tale, the bad guys are always a shadow away and it is up to Ms. Steel and her allies to keep the good guys safe and handle the bad guys… well, in the manner in which bad guys get handled in such tales. 😉

But then that ending. Wow. On several different levels. Yet again, Sneeden manages to make you want the next book… how about right freaking NOW?!?!?!?!

Very much recommended.

This review of Dark Reckoning by John Sneeden was originally written on October 11, 2024.

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#BlogTour: One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery

For this blog tour, we’re looking at . For this blog tour, we’re looking at One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookHype.com / BookBub.com / TheStoryGraph.com / Goodreads.com):

Hallmarkie “Messy Family Comes Together” Type. This is a Susan Mallery book, and it is Christmas book from Susan Mallery – so you know you’re going to get a lot of drama, but in a very Hallmarkie manner where the drama never gets *too* intense and everything wraps up with a nice dose of Christmas magic by the end. Considering the popularity of both Mallery and Hallmark Christmas movies, this isn’t exactly a losing strategy… if a bit “been there, done that”.

Where Mallery manages to spin things with this particular one are, well, the particulars – and there are a lot of things here that aren’t exactly typical. Irritable Bowel Syndrome shown in all of its complexities in a book? Happens some, not exactly overly common in my experience. Female tow truck company owner? I actually am related to one – a cousin – but she’s literally the only one I had ever heard of before reading this book. Age gap romance where the *woman* is the older *and* is on the back side of “middle age” to boot? Done, somewhat, but rarely in this particular combination/ age range. On and on it goes.

Oh, and for anyone who says that this gets way too far out there with just how “together” everything gets… if you’ve read a few of my other reviews over the years, you know about my own family history – same side as the cousin above, actually. You see, both sets of my grandparents were divorced long before I was ever alive. But my mom’s parents in particular? My grandmother remarried, also before I could ever remember anything. My step grandfather was my “second grandfather” (the other died 5 weeks after my birth). And yet there was more than one instance of my grandmother and step-grandfather living on my grandfather’s land over the years, including at least one stint in his house with him. So my sense of “weird family relationships” may be a bit skewed, having seen this type of thing – along with several of the exact scenarios Mallery includes in this book – in my own (extended) family over the years.

Ultimately a solid book of its type, and one for anyone looking for a good Christmas family drama to check out.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery”