Stormview Book Reviews

By John C. Winchell

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Review by Janet Doucette, Stormview Press

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In our culture, men are not encouraged to share the burden of their grief. Success, striving, achievement and displays of power are rewarded whilst silent despair is considered just that - silent. 

 

Poet John Winchell offers a bittersweet taste of the real to a culture that thrives on the illusion of success without stark self- reflection. 

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Click to learn more or buy:  Emotional Fissures

By Erica Shay

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Review by Janet Doucette, Stormview Press

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Ace of Cups is a fabulous new take on the "hard-boiled, gum shoe detective"  trying to keep the office lights burning when the "drop-dead gorgeous widow" arrives and needs a private eye to investigate her husband's recent death. And she's conveniently willing to pay handsomely for it.

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The gum-shoe is ex-cop Marti O'Neal, who not only has precision skills in deductive reasoning, she uses a deck of Tarot cards to spice up the possibilities in crime detection. She knows how to tap into the psychic realms and doesn't hesitate to use all the tools in her investigatory arsenal.

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The damsel is Jayne Cullen, a wealthy socialite, who calls things like she sees them. She doesn't take "no" for an answer. Even though her marriage was a little lacking in the affection department, it doesn't stop her from wanting to find her husband's killer. 

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When Marti's investigation proves Stephen Cullen's accidental death wasn't so accidental, her client becomes the police department's prime suspect. Now it's a murder case and Marti herself is in the crossfire trying to prove Jayne didn't off her husband for an insurance payoff.

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Marti and Jayne work overtime to narrow down the suspects before someone else dies when they discover a few things in common. It isn't just a mutual taste for sassafras tea or the delights of baklava. Romance, it seems, is in the cards. 

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I loved Marti's witty sarcasm and critical self-appraisal. She sizes up situations in a heartbeat and takes action, even if it puts her own safety at risk. Jayne's innate confidence, upbeat attitude and forthright integrity run counterpoint to Marti's more pragmatic style. It's that very tension between the opposites that complements these two women and the discovery that they just might be meant for each other. 

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Click to learn more or buy:  Ace of Cups

by Anneka Lowrie
 

Critic's Review: Booklife Prize​

A band of strong, capable women determined to take down a child sex trafficking ring with the aid of First Nations and other mystical wisdom is a powerful combination in this important story. Lowrie’s sweeping natural imagery gives space for readers to process difficult subject matter. 

While sex trafficking is an oft-explored topic, a seldom celebrated, fierce female presence lights up this book—an antidote to its brutal truths. The infusion of spirituality and its intersection with the natural world provides an impactful additional layer of meaning.

Lowrie’s characters are vibrant and easy for readers to connect to, despite populating an uncommon, strikingly realized setting.  

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Click to learn more or buy:  A Convergence of Crows

by A. Lady

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Review by Janet Doucette, Stormview Press

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There are those who cringe at the sound of his name. Like a fingernail screeching on a chalkboard, the sound of his voice sets off uncontrollable convulsions. The very thought of him makes their blood boil. The pseudonymous writer, A Lady, gently and provocatively guides the reader in taking mental actions that both preserve and restore one’s natural peace of mind.

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What shall we do, she ponders, now that he made good on his promise to run for President again?

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Her book “Donald Trump is My [frickin’] Guru is the ultimate in Buddhist mind training. For those of us perilously close to losing our minds in self-provoked agitation, A Lady points out the necessary mindset and vital practices with which one must engage in order to survive the anger, frustration, confusion and insanity of our current political playing field.

 

What if, she informs us, we free our minds instead of losing it altogether?

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Click to learn more or buy:  Donald Trump ~ Guru

by Mary-Elizabeth Briscoe

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Review by Melanie Braverman / Author of East Justice & Red 

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Reading First Signs of April is like sitting in front of a fire with an old friend: Briscoe starts telling her story and all of a sudden the sun is up and you feel as if you haven't blinked once. This book will become that friend who stays with you for life.

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Click to learn more or buy:  First Signs of  April 

by John C. Winchell

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Review by Janet Ware-Doucette

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One must read poetry out loud. The reader enters a hidden domain, gifting silent images with the shapes of sound. Like magical incantations, words have the power to evoke feelings, memories, and insight. When a poem is performed as spoken word, the reader mimes the poet in a rare choreography; an enchanting dance.

 

When reading poetry by John C. Winchell, one is immediately aware of the drum beating betwixt the brevity of words, decanting the images like fine wine. He is a master of concision, a style of creating whole thoughts with the barest minimum of words.

The staccato beat of Winchell’s word drum brings forth unforgettable scenes of “broken promises… ashen moors… rocky trails.. sacred mountains.. rushing rivers of thought… sacred flames in a starlit canyon..”

 

From beginning to end, from Kismet to Songbird, his precise phrasing occasionally punches, then longingly caresses and gently swirls one in a tender moment of joy, before dropping the reader into painfully percussive realizations. The soul is, after all, a solitary place of vivid awareness.

 

​“self-appointed heir to an empty fortune…”  

“following crumbs of empathy on a once familiar road…” 

 

​Winchell writes of loneliness and isolation crafted as “self-imposed penance” in which one seeks love yet struggles to withstand the burden of worthiness. Love requires him (and therefore, each one of us) to examine the hidden crevices of vulnerability that only our souls have the power to mend. 

 

​“haunting me with visions of beauty and bliss…”

 

The poet is caught in his own snare; the stark necessity to be whole. As any man fractured by life must come to terms with prisons of their own making, Winchell unabashedly allows his defenses to melt. In order to let Her in, he must honor his individual sense of love and connection, devotion and integrity.  

 

​Whilst:

“following her trail, I pause for years on end

only to rise again and travel toward a light 

on the horizon…”  

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The reader discovers there is no hope of authentic love without the willingness to give oneself entirely over to the task. It’s not a job for novices, he reminds us, for it demands nothing less than allowing oneself to be totally consumed within another.

 

​Winchell strikes at the center of selfishness, holding himself and the reader responsible for refusing to share mind and heart with an, as yet, unknown beloved. Fear cloaked as cynicism, he reveals, is the most unwieldy of defenses. While forgiveness is the shining arc of freedom.

 

​He offers the prize:

“and then you emerge from hiding 

with a warm embrace

showing your true face(s)

seraphim of soulmates”

 

​Inner Pathways: A Poet’s Journey into the Soul is equal parts, pathos, passion, and purpose. Whether we intended to, or not, we are on this journey as well. Blindfolded and unwilling, we realize Winchell’s desire for wholeness is what we, too, have been seeking. And that, at the end of the journey, our fears of not being worthy of love were a mere facade for the necessity of becoming whole.

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Click to learn more or buy: Inner Pathways: A Poet's Journey into Soul. 

by Anneka Lowrie

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Review by Janet Ware-Doucette

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This cozy mystery gone bad is set in the lakes and mountains region of Maine, in the shadows of Mount Katahdin. When Johanna Kincaid visits her old friend Norah Jordan-Minsky, she learns someone wants her friend out of the way. She must discover who and why amidst a cloud of deception and devious acts of sabotage.

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Readers are immediately drawn to the character of Norah and the complexities of her husband’s wealthy and influential family. But her husband, Nathan, died in a kayak accident, the previous year, so she is left to navigate those difficult relationships on her own. 

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To make matters worse, Norah is a brilliant eco-botanist known for her intellect and integrity. Her passionate focus on the science of plant-based medicine blinds her to the lengths other people will go to achieve their goals; especially when she stands between what they want and what they will do to get it. 

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This story is about secrets and underhanded intensions, greed and manipulation. Johanna reveals a few secrets of her own as she takes a stand against a well-devised plan to undermine Norah’s position in the family legacy. 

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There are many moving parts in this mystery, puzzles to solve, and devious characters to sort. Don’t let the slow and peaceful start lull you into thinking its pace is more bucolic than suspenseful. Every scene is chock full of clues, hidden in plain sight. 

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When the danger begins, it’s a fast-paced, non-stop race to the finish with more than one life in the balance. From a midnight hike under the stars of Mount Katahdin to a wild kayak ride down a raging river, the tension is tight and the outcome is uncertain. 

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To win the battle against callous and murderous adversaries, Johanna must make a soul-wrenching decision. She must step over the line between what she would or would not do. She must turn her own abject fear into an unlikely ally. 

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In the second book of the Johanna Kincaid Mystery Series, mystical elements remain a driving force offering readers an opportunity to experience the unique world of non-ordinary reality. In case you are wondering about the shamanic shape-shifter who is pursuing Johanna like prey, there are a few clues in Clouds Over Katahdin which will lead you to the next book in the series, Incident on the Right-Of-Way.

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If you liked A Convergence of Crows for its diverse team of specially skilled characters who came together to solve a crime, you will enjoy Clouds Over Katahdin for the opposite reason. Johanna Kincaid is on her own, or is she? 

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Click to learn more or BUY Clouds Over Katahdin: A Johanna Kincaid Mystery

by Linda Preston

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Review by Janet Ware-Doucette

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Linda Preston, licensed massage therapist and non-dual Kabbalistic Healer, has been in the healing arts for over 40 years, offering integrative bodywork therapies, energy work and meditation instruction. Over the years, she realized many people were on the verge of giving up while trying to learn how to meditate.

 

What began as a simple instructional handout, a"how-to" for people frustrated by the multitude of techniques that simply didn't work for them, became the ground work for a unique and timely training guide.

 

Linda's book offers the Three Pillars of Meditation, a combination of very approachable techniques. No matter one's previous challenges or experiences with the practice of meditation, there is something for everyone in this book. Her method breaks down the basics, from gently guiding practitioner how to sit and breathe, to gaining the benefits of self-awareness that lead one deeper into a natural practice. She includes access to her on-line audio meditations that accompany the teachings. This is a great option for those who learn meditation practices best, audibly.

 

While offering useful, easy tools for beginning meditators, Treasure Maps to Meditation opens a path to a deeper understanding of the process of meditation and how it can heal your mind and body. Readers will discover a meditation practice that is natural to them, rather than a prescribed pattern that draws one into a rigid or conforming tradition.

 

The practices in Pillar One include techniques for learning how to sit and use one's breath to develop a self-caring attitude. The ability to use one's one breath and body posture to foster self-reflection is only one of the treasures offered in this unique guide. The author breaks down each meditation practice into understandable components, offering an intention, elements of practice, an affirmation, and its hidden treasure or benefit.

 

In Pillar Two, the reader is drawn into a deeper understanding of energy awareness and its powerful impact on one's physiological terrain. Again, the practices are gaged to gently bring meditators to new levels of awareness natural to their own progression of self-discovery.

 

In Pillar Three, practitioners learn to connect with their spiritual side, where one can truly find the path within that leads to a bountiful treasure of inner happiness. Theses practices bring an awareness of one's spiritual essence and the embodiment of heart and soul.

 

This is just the right book for these uncertain times. We need useful techniques to manage the struggle of rapid change. And we need confidence we can employ them within the day to day turbulence of our lives. Linda Preston's Treasure Maps to Meditation offers timeless methods of finding inner resiliency and along with the self-assurance, that yes - you absolutely can meditate.

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Click to learn more or buy: Treasure Maps to Meditation: A Guide for Those Who Have Tried and Given Up.