#BookReview: Political Survival 101 by Adam Marky

Pessimistic Satirical Look At Politics For The Millennial And Younger Crowds. First, let me address why I specifically say this is for the younger crowds: Every chapter ends with an image that, in the print edition at least, is a coloring sheet. Yes, you read that right. This is, partially and only in the print edition, a coloring book. Even the last text section before the coloring sheet is a suggestion of how you might want to color it, based on the image at hand and the commentary of that particular chapter.

As to the actual text, it is exactly what I said above – a satirical, if perhaps a touch pessimistic, look at all things politics, including how so many stereotypical politicians act so much of the time. Which means that at least in a certain vein, it absolutely does ease political stress with a bit of humor – if perhaps landing a touch close to one’s actual views of the subject.

The coloring sheets, while infantilizing – arguably one of the *last* things we need to be doing with this set of younger adults (to be clear, including those of even my own Xennial generation) – are at least a solid attempt at humor whose landing will depend more on personal taste.

Overall a fun, light, funny-enough book that never takes itself to seriously and is in fact a good way to try to have a laugh.

Very much recommended.

This review of Political Survival 101 by Adam Marky was originally written on November 16, 2024.

#BlogTour: The Mother Next Door by Tara Laskowski

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a solid Halloween themed, Urban Legend backed mystery/ drama. For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Mother Next Door by Tara Laskowski.

Here’s what I had to say about it on Goodreads:

Halloween-Themed Mystery/Drama With An Urban Legend – And A Punisher Scene. In the early 2000s, pre-MCU version of The Punisher – the one with Thomas Jane as Frank Castle/ The Punisher and also featuring John Travolta and Will Patton – I’ve always LOVED the scene in the finale where Castle tells Travolta’s character “I made you kill your wife. I made you kill your best friend. And now I’ve killed you.”. This book actually has elements that played out there within it as well, and this book actually works the drama and even action in those sequences much better than even that movie pulled off. (Though in its defense, in that movie the scene in question is just a plot point in service of the actual story, and here the story ultimately revolves around this scene.) To my mind, all of the above is obscure enough that I haven’t actually gone into spoiler territory here, so let’s move on.

This is a tale where several characters are at play, but we only ever really hear from three of them – the newbie, the Queen Bee of the resident Mean Girls (in this particular case, the mothers who effectively run the school’s PTA board), and a mysterious “other”… who seems intent on killing someone on Halloween night. It mostly takes place in the leadup to that night, where we see that not all is as it seems on Ivy Lane, and that, in the words of Tony Stark (when referencing Nick Fury in The Avengers), her “secrets have secrets”. Which goes for most every “her” here, particularly the three we actually hear from.

Arguably the one knock here is that male characters are almost non-existent and pretty damn one dimensional, but eh, this is fairly common across the genre, particularly when written by females. Finding an author that actually does opposite-sex characters well in this genre is a bit difficult at times, so it is more easily excused – for better or worse- as simply the way things (currently) are when this occurs.

Beyond this quibble though, this is a strong enough book, and spooky/ creepy enough that it absolutely fits right in with the Halloween vibe and its release is thus perfectly timed in mid-October. Definetly not a classic “monster tale”, but if you prefer your monsters of the more human variety… this may be up your alley. (Though to be fair, there is nothing *overly* horrific here. Though there are absolutely some very bad people here.) Very much recommended.

Below the jump, an excerpt (that if I remember correctly is the entire prologue) followed by the “publisher details” – including basic publishing data, book description, author bio, author web/ social media links, and links to buy the book.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Mother Next Door by Tara Laskowski”

#BookReview: Holly Banks Full of Angst by Julie Valerie

Hilarious Super Mom Satire. This is one of those books that non-perfect parents will LOVE, showing just how ridiculous the Super Moms of the world are and that no one is truly perfect. Truly the only reason I dinged this a star was because I personally just could not get into it due to being a childfree male that generally prefers to avoid kids… and this is all about a mother’s struggles with her daughter’s first week of Kindergarten. Great tale, well written, and I absolutely look forward to seeing more from this debut author in the future. Recommended.

This review of Holly Banks Full of Angst by Julie Valerie was originally written on December 12, 2019.