The New York Times wants you to pay them to recommend books to you, books that they only know about because mega budget marketing departments have put a lot of time and energy into getting the New York Times to read their books – and *only* their books.
While I openly admit to working with some of those same marketing departments at times, I also work quite heavily with a lot of indie/ self published authors. Authors that you’ll never hear about on the New York Times unless we band together and get them the attention at that level.
So here, for absolutely free, is a list of eight books that have or will release this month, November 2022, that I’ve personally read and reviewed:
Charlie by James Beltz, available November 1, 2022
Interesting Twist On The Series. With the first two books in this series – which is held together primarily by being the adventures of a buddy cop pair – the mysteries were of a more paranormal nature. With this one, Beltz creates an interesting challenge as a storyteller while taking the series in a more science fiction direction. This ultimately still has the same general tone and structure from the first two tales in this series…
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz, available November 1, 2022
Haunting Yet Preachy. This is a book in the vein of if i stay, though here we know up front that our narrator is dead – and she knows it. Still, when searching through my memories trying to find a comparison point, that is what comes up and I think the comparison works. This tale has a similar haunting effect, not from the haunting itself…
The Midlife Male by Greg Scheinman, available November 1, 2022
Male Self-Help/ Lifestyle Podcast Turned Book. This is essentially a podcaster turning his podcast (apparently of the same name as the title of the book) into a book. Each chapter begins with an excerpt from an interview from one of the episodes of the podcast, then the author continues the theme of the chapter with his own commentary for seemingly 2,000 – 3,000 words or so while including a few lists of various things related to the chapter…
In Their Names by Lenore Anderson, available November 1, 2022
Timely Conversation Needs Even Better Documentation. The timing of this book, releasing just a week before Election Day in the United States, could perhaps be *slightly* better – a month earlier would have allowed it and its ideas to be discussed more during the final days of the campaign. And to be clear, this book does in fact present a mostly compelling argument and certainly a wrinkle on the American justice system that needs to be more openly examined…
Sewer by Jessica Leigh Hester, available November 3, 2022
Fascinating Look At Mostly Current Status Of Sewer Systems. After having read Chelsea Wald’s Pipe Dreams in 2021 about the history and future of toilets, this book seemed a natural progression in my learning on the topic…
The London Girls by Soraya M. Lane, available November 8, 2022
Yet Another Realistic Fiction Of WWII. Lane does a tremendous amount of research for all of her WWII historical novels, then takes licenses where needed to tell the story she is trying to tell within that setting, and this tale is no different. Yet again Lane manages to bring a spotlight to a particularly deadly role in the war, that of the female motorcycle dispatch riders in the UK…
A Homestead Holiday by Elizabeth Bromke, available November 15, 2022
Complex And Short Tale. Bromke manages to show that if a storyteller is truly great, they can manage to pack quite a bit of complexity into a still short-ish (seemingly less than 200 page) book. Here, Bromke manages to show a teacher’s passion for her particular craft, a son’s devastation…
The Personal Assistant by Kimberly Belle, available November 29, 2022
Meganets And Pre-Networks. Ok, I know what you’re thinking – what does computer networking and the Internet have to do with this book? Well, on some level, it is somewhat obvious – one of our main characters is a social media “influencer” with a million followers. But on another level… Belle actually manages here to show the pitfalls and advantages of two different eras of human history…