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Review by Ronica Wahi The Mars Room By Rachel Kushner First published: May 1, 2018, Sribner. Edition Reviewed: June 7, 2018, Vintage Digital, Kindle Edition. Pages: 352. Epub ISBN: 9781910702673 The Mars Room , like other works of Rachel Kushner, was received well, even being shortlisted for The Man Booker Prize 2018 . And rightly so. The novel is unapologetically bold and is a much-needed voice, raising many important issues. Among the key merits of the novel is its ability to touch deeply, without being too sentimental, despite the strong presence of memories and nostalgia. The laying bare of cruel realities and raw details, and the constant juxtaposition of the varying circumstances in life as the narrative moves back and forth in time by way of recalled events as life is suffered in the present are done with finesse. Kushner brings to life with untiring effort – and yet effortlessly – the realities of so many suff...

Review by Ronica Wahi   Playing with House Money: An Addendum to Land of Allusions By Andrew Davie Published: January 26, 2022, Independently Published. Pages: 45. ASIN: B09R39GXCQ Andrew Davie continues relating with honesty his own experience as a survivor of a ruptured brain aneurysm in Playing with House Money: An Addendum to Land of Allusions. It’s a fit addendum: it takes forward the story of his own journey, with his unique challenges, struggles, progress in the same straightforward style with ample references-with-explanations – again, as with Land of Allusions , not mere allusions – to movies and TV shows. Davie details his experience with the aneurysm and his miraculous recovery in Land of Allusions , the review for which can be read here . He makes use of some space in that memoir for reflecting over the meaning of life. In Playing with House Money , he takes such reflection much further by trying to understand what he went through and realizing that he has...

Review by Ronica Wahi The Adamson Family By Lee Allen Howard Edition reviewed: October 25, 2017, Three First Names, Kindle Edition. Pages: 144. ASIN: B076V1MYV9 The Adamson Family is a piece of young adult fiction, but it can certainly be enjoyed by adults too. As the genre is Gothic, there are secrets from the past, a haunted house, emotional distress, suicide, and turmoil in the life of the young protagonist, Rendo Flex. Ren wants to be smarter and able at exercising greater control over his life. When his mother, who has been undergoing treatment since years for her instability, wants to visit to meet him and his sister - Calista - whom he fears will walk down the same path as their mother, he wishes for an escape. As he plans this, he finds the means for an adventure instead. For he discovers that the stories about the old, dilapidated house near where he lives are probably not untrue. There is certainly thrill in the story. But there are also elements of pain and...

  Review by Ronica Wahi Honeycake: A Family of Spices By Medea Kalantar First published: February 22, 2019, Tellwell Talent. Kindle Edition Pages: 23. ASIN: B08FF3QHYV This is Book 1 of the Honeycake book series, designed to entertain and educate little kids. The grandmother – who in character and as the illustrated figure is Medea Kalantar herself – teaches her granddaughter, Nala, about her multicultural background while showing her how to bake a delicious honey cake. As Nala learns from her grandma, each ingredient from some different part of the world represents a different family member of the multicultural family - “A Family of Spices”. The recipe is delicious because of its wonderful ingredients and the generous mix of love; the granddaughter – one of Kalantar’s “Honeycakes” – thus learns how to bake a honey cake and why she is one. Not only for a kid from a multicultural background but also for any other kid, Honeycake: A Family of Spices carries an essent...

Review by Ronica Wahi Missing: Gone but not Forgotten By Kathleen Walls First published: October 20, 2020, Global Authors Publications. Kindle Edition Pages: 150. ASIN: B08JCTTFFG Missing: Gone but not Forgotten by Kathleen Walls is a tale of a little girl – named Starr Shatner - who goes missing and is not found. As the cover itself says, it is “Based on an actual unsolved case”; this actual case was of a girl who went missing the same year as Starr here, i.e., 2009, and was neither found nor had justice. The Dedication says, “To all the children who have gone missing and are never found.” It is of importance indeed that Walls has written this book – for it speaks of the tragedy of any kid who suffers for no fault of his/her own and the tragedy of those who love that kid. Without being dramatic at any point, it narrates simply the sequence of events as the long-stretching investigation takes place. One of the writer’s achievements is that without talking at great len...

Review by Ronica Wahi Junction: Time’s Up (Junction Trilogy Book 3) By L.A. Evans First published: December 12, 2021, Elizabeth Guttridge. Kindle Edition Pages: 454. ASIN: B09N2HWQPB Three Cheers for L.A. Evans for completing her Junction Trilogy in quick time and for completing it really well! The final book – Junction: Time’s Up ­ – is, as the title suggests, a thrilling chase for resolution. The difficult and dark times continue for the protagonists before hope-that-can-last is finally glimpsed. As Book 2’s end had indicated, the twists and turns in the lives of Zoe and Aisha aren’t over. The two come together to seek answers for what fate has dealt them, and for whether they can ever set things right. While in Book 1, the reader sees things from the eyes and perspectives of Aisha and in Book 2, from those of Zoe, in Junction: Time’s Up , the point of view alternates between that of Aisha and Zoe with each chapter. Review on "Junction: Time's Ticking...

Review by Ronica Wahi Aliens in My Garden By Jude Gwynaire First published: October 9, 2018, Prodigy Gold Books. Pages: 280. ISBN: 9781939665720 This book is one of those kinds that run like a film in the reader’s mind’s eye - the description so vivid that the reader as if watches the action taking place in the book. If a cinematic reproduction were to be taken up for this one and justice done to it, it sure would make for an enjoyable piece. Jude Gwynaire, a musician and a writer whose writing combines elements from nature and folklore, besides other things, creates a novel, beautiful, thriving wonderland, full of magic and adventure in his young adult fiction Aliens in My Garden. “The Garden”, as the said wonderland in referred to within the narrative, is located within a garden like any other we know. But the Garden – as mentioned - is like no other we know. The Garden has sentient beings of all sorts; among them are Old Tom who is a “potato farmer” – both a potato...