Story Circle Book Reviews

How to Make a Life starts in 1905 in Kotovka, Ukraine and ends in 2012 in New York City. It’s a complex, layered story  that follows four generations of a Jewish family. With so many characters to keep track of, the table of contents and the family tree […]

What do you remember? What do you choose to forget? Author Jeannine Ouellette describes The Part That Burns as “a memoir in fragments.” That’s an accurate assessment of the way memory works. (Think back on your own childhood. Do you remember the scenes that had an emotional impact […]

Terry Sue Harms was on a quest. That quest, for answers concerning her paternity, ultimately encompassed most of her life. The Strongbox: Searching for My Absent Father is a compelling read. Family history mysteries are one of my favorite genres and this one is an excellent story. Harms […]

Amy Jean’s latest book, Side Steps Terrorizing Sound Bites Part 2, her newest collection of free verse poetry, brings to light many of life’s truths as she’s found them in an “intense poetic clang.” Where did these terrifying/terrorizing thought bits come from? In an interview on Women Writers, […]

Smallwood’s book of poetry is a delight for the senses in so many ways. Divided into three parts, Thread, Form, and finally Other Enclosures, her use of poetic techniques such as loose rhyme, rhythm, repetition, and allusion masterfully pull the reader into a world of prose monologues, drawing […]