Jeff Sexton

Making The Case For A More Systematic Examination Of Its Topic. This book does a tremendous job in looking at as many facets of love and relationships involving the United States' millions - literally -of prisoners via multi-year case studies of five particular couples. And therein also lies its chief weakness - while the original research for the case studies themselves was conducted directly by the author, the author states many facts beyond the people she is directly interviewing... and then the text doesn't provide any form of bibliography to back up these (sometimes alarming, shocking, or even dubious) claims. But even with this weakness noted, the text's strengths via its case studies are truly remarkable, and show the pressing need for a more systematic - and documented - examination of this particular topic. This is a book that will shock you. It will pull at your heart strings. It will make you cheer and cry and scream out at the people involved “WTF ARE YOU DOING!!!!!!”. And in these regards, it truly is a phenomenal book. Very much recommended.

Hole E Sheet! Belle tosses us into the fire from the get-go... and only turns up the gas. All the way until the closing moments. If you're a fan of Panic Room / The Purge type thrillers, you're going to love this one, where roughly half of the action takes place as a stranger holds a family inside their house - with the other half being the husband/ father of the family racing to try to save them. An interesting story mechanic is also thrown in for good measure, and between the heavy foreshadowing with this and the frequent (usually chapter heading) timestamps driving just how quickly the clock is turning to the pivotal moment... you really are in for a wild ride with this one. There is some minor commentary late that is more YMMV, and while it does speak to motivations (as close as I'll get to mentioning anything remotely specific), it isn't actually truly essential to anything. Which is why its inclusion is a bit of an irritating note in the aftertaste of the book, but isn't any real reason to like the book any less. If you want to end your year on a bang... you might consider making sure you have this book when it releases in the week between Christmas and New Year's 2021. :) Very much recommended.

Excellent “Who Is It?”. This is one of those books I'm going to recommend you approach the same way I did - I knew title and author, that was it. Didn't even look at the description at all until I was over halfway into the book. I've read several books from this author over the past year in particular, and no matter if she is writing romantic comedy (July 2021's The Man Ban) or suspense/ drama (this book), she never fails to give a great story within the bounds of the genre of the particular book.

And y'all, if you approach this book in this particular manner... you're not going to have any dang clue who the titular “Liar” is. If you read the description before the book, you'll know immediately as the description is specifically from the perspective of one of 3 main perspectives (among 7 primary players), though one of the perspectives does get a now/ then timeline split emphasizing that particular storyline more. (This is the perspective from the description.) But all seven main characters, and in particular all three main perspectives, are lying about something to someone, and unravelling all the various lies and how they stack up is one wild ride. Even when certain things begin to be resolved, Marsh manages to have the book end on yet another final bang within the last few sentences. (So a word of caution to those who generally read the last page of a book before reading the rest of the book: DO NOT DO THAT HERE.)

Yet again, with such a dichotomy of books releasing just a month apart, Marsh shows just how talented a storyteller she really is. Very much recommended.

Intriguing Premise Marred by Hyperpartisanship and Hypocrisy. This is a very well documented polemic whose bibliography comes in at nearly 30% of the text, so that is definitely a positive. The premise, spinning the common American knowledge that the American Founding was grounded on Enlightenment thought on its head and declaring that the wars between Hamilton's Federalists and Jefferson's Democratic Republicans were actually wars between two competing strains of Enlightenment thought, is genuinely intriguing. In laying out the history of what Radwell considers these two separate strains of Enlightenment thought, Radwell is particularly strong - possibly because that is one area of my own knowledge that is somewhat lacking. While knowing Paine and Locke (among others, all of whom Radwell considers on the same side of this divide), the majority of those Enlightenment thinkers that Radwell claims were more radical are ones I had never heard of, much less read or even considered.

It is when Radwell leaves the Founding generation that his hyperpartisanships and hypocrisies become ever more blatant, particularly in his excessive time attacking Donald Trump for his “Counter Enlightenment” philosophies while never once acknowledging - and even actively glossing over - when Democrats do the same things in the same manners. Radwell claims objective truth exists and reason should guide us, yet disparages the recent election security measures taken by Georgia and Texas despite very clearly not having actually read either bill. (Full disclosure: I've read the Georgia bill, and indeed have a history of having read - for at least one term - every single bill presented in the Georgia General Assembly. That particular accomplishment was over a decade ago, but I daresay it gives me the authority to challenge the author on this point. ;) ) Further, his hyper progressive blinders are very firmly in place in his disdain for Citizens United - which defended Hillary Clinton, for those unaware -, his frequent (in the latter stages of the book) calls for term limits on a wide range of elected and appointed officials, and his disdain for the US Senate and the Electoral College - crucial elements in ensuring the minority's voice is heard at the national level.

Indeed, Radwell's very clear hyperpartisanships and hypocricies when discussing more modern events - including events of 2021 - brings into doubt his thinking, if not his actual scholarship, regarding events hundreds of years old. (While it is hard to doubt such an extensively cited discussion, it is also very easy to cherry pick those sources who confirm one's preconceived ideas and other prejudices.)

I wanted to like this book, based on its description. I wanted to be able to write a glowing review and scream this book's praises as I did two similar books last year. Unfortunately this book simply fell far from the required objective standards to allow me to do so. And yet it is an intriguing premise, and if one can wade through the hyperpartisanships and hypocricies, it does actually have a few interesting and discussion worthy points. Thus I believe I am satisfied with giving it two stars, but cannot justify even a single additional star according to my own reading of this text. Perhaps those whose own preconceptions and prejudices more fully align with the author's will feel differently, but I also know of many readers who would likely throw this book off a cliff by around the 35% mark (which is about halfway through the discussion itself. Recommended, but make sure you read many other sources about the issues and histories in question as well.

Entertaining. This is a book that is somewhat deep in a series - Book 5 - and never once shies away from that fact. It has a wide range of established characters and storylines, but Keim does a remarkable job of making sure the reader understands the relevant histories, no matter if they've been a long time fan or if this is your entry point to this series or even this author - as it was both for me. Indeed, it is arguable that perhaps Keim does too much rehashing of prior stories- more in repeating a few sentences (with variation, not copy/ paste, at least not obviously) about whatever relevant fact such as how characters met or why another character is so problematic, etc.

And yet, despite and perhaps because of all of this, this book absolutely works as a continuation of its world and as a showcase for the author's style and tone. Those that enjoy ensemble casts with a lot of characters and a lot going on will thoroughly enjoy this book, those who prefer fewer characters... probably won't like it as much. But the storylines all interweave remarkably well, particularly with the narration being solely driven by one character's perspective and the primary focus being that character and her business partner and friend - who enjoy catching up in stolen moments via the titular event.

Ultimately a strong book about friendship and defending the hurting, this tale is very much recommended.

Travels and Aphorisms. This is one of those quick, read any way you want type books that you can read straight through or you can read a short chapter in a few hurried minutes, in any order you want. Those familiar with Christian daily devotional books will recognize the overall format, though this is a purely secular book based on Pasternak's near 50 years of travelling all over the globe as a high level corporate businessman. Filled with short yet interesting stories, many of them apparently already shared on his LinkedIn page in nearly the same (200 ish word) length, this is a great book for someone looking for a light read or a businessman looking for a business-oriented read with some solid truths in that space. Very much recommended.

Domestic Drama With A Touch Of Loss Lake. This is an engaging, real, and honestly a bit depressing look at the trials and travails of your first marriage being your partner's second marriage and coming into a situation where they already had a family with another person while you're still growing and working to establish yourself outside of the marriage as well. In that vein, Mason was startlingly real, including all of the various messy issues that can come up and even showing how finding a place to find support or even just vent can be crucial. The ties to Lake Union stablemate Amber Cowie's Loss Lake... well, in the title of my review of that book, I proclaimed “Screw You (In The Best Possible Ways), Amber Cowie” - which I still chuckle at and produced a few good laughs by those in the know. And if you do know why I wrote that, know that you'll be saying the same thing to Ms. Mason for similar (though to be clear, not identical) reasons. And that's all I'm saying about that. If you don't know what I'm referring to, I suggest you go read both books. :D

Seriously, this tale was excellently done on a topic and with particulars that I'd never seen done quite this way before, and that is always something I seek out and love to find. Mason executed everything beautifully, and you'll find yourself constantly reading to see what comes next. You just may want something a bit more bubble gum for your next read. :D Very much recommended.

Interesting Concept. Remarkable Honesty. Questionable Science. First, I gotta mention that the author intentionally left out the Bibliography, claiming it would run to 70 pages and add $5 to the cost of the book, so he instead put it on the website of the book. Which is an interesting idea, but part of his reasoning was also that this would allow users to click the links and see the sources directly... which eReader users can already do in an appropriately linked (re: fully publication-ready) bibliography. But he discusses this in the very introduction of the book, which sets the tone for how frankly he expresses his views throughout. Still, to this reader this was an attempt to obfuscate the sources at best, and was thus an automatic star reduction.

The other lost star comes from the at times questionable science. Rather than actually discussing various claims made by those with competing ideas, he simply claims massive conspiracies from Big Pharma, Big Food, Big Government, and whoever else he can try to conveniently scapegoat. And then he completely ignores the economic and social sciences in his recommendations for measures that would make Josef Stalin blanch at just how extreme this author wants to dictate to the masses.

Still, the ideas - while ultimately not truly novel and ultimately self serving as he just happens to run a nonprofit advocating these very positions - are interesting and explained in quite a bit of detail, from the chemical and cellular all the way up to the global. Making this a worthy text to read and consider... just don't buy the farm based on just this one book, and make sure you seek out competing narratives to fill in the author's inconsistencies. Recommended.

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHO MARCUS SAKEY IS??? Ok, so this was a fun rib at a fellow author that Parks tossed into this book, and if you're in the know, it was genuinely hilarious. I don't know if Parks and Sakey know each other or have any kind of relationship at all, but it was hilarious regardless. And great levity in an otherwise pretty heavy tale that asks the classic trolley problem in a much more personal and yet global context: If you knew that one singular person was going to be the thing that ultimately tips global warming beyond repair and that billions of lives would thus be lost, could you kill that person? What if that person was your wife? Through the first 2/3 of this book, this is the primary driver and raises a lot of thought provoking questions, as Sakey's own books tend to do. The back third goes more to direct action tale (as the back parts of Sakey's own books tend to do), but the interesting connection here given the ribbing is that there are elements that could tie this tale to Sakey's own Brilliance Saga. Whether this was the intent, this reader has no clue. But again, an interesting thought experiment. Ultimately this is a fun mystery/ action tale that mostly sticks to the realistic - even the exact scenario of the finality of global warming is plausible given the facts recorded in After Cooling by Eric Dean Wilson, which releases just weeks before this book itself does. If you're looking for purely mindless action, eh, there are other books better suited to that. If you like “action with a brain”... this is going to be exactly what you're looking for. Very much recommended.

A Hell Of A Life. Danny Trejo didn't start acting - professionally - until he was almost 40 years old. Mostly because a large part of the rest of that time, he was high and/ or in prison, including some of California's most notorious. Today, Trejo is known as one of the more prolific and high profile actors out there, with over 400 acting credits to his name + his line of Trejo's Tacos restaurants.

Here, we see at least pieces of pretty much all of his 70+ years, from his early childhood as the only male in a house full of women and girls to his first time using various substances to his first robbery and the time he was worried he was about to face capital charges after a prison riot. Much of the front half of the story in particular focuses on his times in and around prisons during the first 2-3 decades of his life, and we see how he gained his “tough guy” persona. He lived it. It was either be tough or be dead.

Which actually makes the discussions of his confrontations with none other than (then recent) Oscar nominee Edward James Olmos over the movie American Me even more epic.

And yes, the back quarter ish is primarily about Trejo's life in Hollywood and how that impacted him and his family. It is here that we see some of the things that will cause many of us to go “I remember that movie!” and “Oh Trejo was [insert opinion here] in that one!”.

In between, we get to see what Trejo was doing in between - which aside from a lot of personal mistakes, was saving a lot of lives and helping a lot of people recover from drug addiction - a passion he pursues to this day.

Serious yet hilarious throughout, this book doesn't pull any punches. Trejo, an ex-con, openly admits to many things in this book that many would probably try to hide, including things that weren't known world wide before now (at least to casual observers). And yet we also get to see behind the scenes of just how much good Trejo has been able to accomplish throughout his life.

Truly a remarkable man, and a memoir well written and told. Very much recommended.

On This Episode Of The Real Housewives Of Apple Hill Lane... The last time I reviewed a book in this series (May 2021's The House With The Blue Front Door), it was my first time reading a book in this series even though it was Book 2 and I noted that it could work as a standalone, even as the author notes that you really need to read Book 1 first. This time, I find myself agreeing with the author more - there is enough going on here that to really understand both the “central” narrative (of the family moving around the corner) and the other various plot threads, you really do need to read at minimum the prior book and really you probably do need to start at the very beginning. But there is enough connective tissue - both with the mystery girl/ woman who is coming into town and with the various women and their families on Apple Hill Lane - that you're really going to want to have all of the books on hand when you begin reading the first one anyway. Particularly for Desperate Housewives / Real Housewives fans, this is a series that y'all will absolutely eat up. Even for the rest of us, it is a compelling series with a lot going on and several intriguing threads. Each woman gets her own time to shine in the book mostly dedicated to her own issues, but each of the neighbors also has quite a bit going on in their own lives at the same time, and the strength of this series is that we see all of this happening in “real time”. Though a bit of a warning, since I've been in discussions lately where it seems that some readers don't enjoy books with multiple perspectives as much: This entire series, this book included, alternates between many different perspectives in each book, though each is distinct enough within their own threads that keeping track of who you're reading at any given moment (aided by the head of the chapter listing the perspective of that chapter) is pretty straightforward. As with Blue Front Door, this one ends on a note such that you're really going to want the next one immediately... and if you're reading these as ARCs, it means that even you are having to wait several weeks for the next one. (One benefit to any who find this series after all of the books publish, but certainly go ahead and read the series as it exists whenever you find it. :D) Very much recommended.

Sweet Home ... Well... Er... Georgia. This was a sweet and fun yet angsty look at small town Southern life mostly through the eyes of a woman who was raised as a damned Yankee. Being a native Georgian and actually having lived in Leesburg - home of Luke Bryan, Buster Posey, and Phillip Phillips and County Seat of Lee County, where the real Smithville, Georgia is located - I can testify personally that the small town life depicted here is pretty damn realistic. (And if you can't tell from the pair of D's I've already used, I can also testify from the side of being a bit of a black sheep/ outsider in these realms, despite arguably having a deeper connection to Southern History than many I've encountered in these real-life small Southern towns. ;) )

But you're not reading this book for reality. You're reading it for hilarity. And if you like the style of Southern rom-com ala Reese Witherspoon's Sweet Home Alabama, you're going to enjoy this tale. It's got plenty of fish out of water hilarity as this Yankee tries to learn Southern speech and customs. It's got the crazy old lady hilarity. It's got the zaniness of various family / friends / neighbors oddballs and their connections. And yes, it has a bit of heat (though nothing more than heavy kissing “on screen”, for those that care about such things - either direction) and a lot of savory.

Overall, a solid “homemade” jam that has a deeper profile than many might expect, but hits all the notes it has to hit to be beloved by many who appreciate what it is. Very much recommended.

Compelling Mystery. This is one of those mysteries that has so much going on that it could feel disjointed in a lesser storyteller's hands, but Girard manages to make it work quite well. We get the story primarily through three perspectives - Hannah, who witnesses a murder in her opening scene, Lily, a nurse who is a former kidnapping victim who is now working to rebuild her life, and Kylie, the detective who helped Lily in the first book and who here is investigating the murder. Girard manages to keep the pace of the reveals driving through the narrative, all while maintaining plausibly realistic scenarios. Indeed, even the ending is surprisingly refreshing in its realism on all fronts - despite what some activists would have liked. Truly a great story told very well. Very much recommended.

Snarky Romance Reads Shorter Than Its Actual Length. This is one of those fun, snarky, steamy - yes, there are numerous sex scenes, for those that care either way about such things - romances that doesn't quite work as a true “enemies to lovers”, since the initial fight is more a miscommunication when these two characters - both introduced in 2020's The Boy Toy - first meet up in the aftermath of that tale. It officially clocks in at around 350 pages, but Marsh keeps the tale pulsing along so well that this reader never really noticed the actual length and indeed by the end the book feels much shorter. For technically being a Book 2, this is also a fairly loosely coupled “series” - yes, these characters are introduced in the first book, and yes, the first book's primary couple (and another character or two) appear in this book, but neither is truly dependent on the other and each totally work fine as standalones in a shared universe as well. Overall a fun book, maybe not an “end of summer” book but definitely a fun, summery feel. Very much recommended.

Excellent Within Scope, Ignores Alternative Explanations. This one was a bit weird. About halfway into the narrative, I was thinking this was going to be a three star at best, because it was so hyper “woke” / “progressive”. But then I read the description - I had picked up the ARC on the strength of the title alone - and saw that most all of the problems I had with the book were exactly what the description said the book would have. Well, crap. Ok, within that scope, this book is a true 5* narrative. Maybe a touch light on the bibliography at just 17% or so of the overall length of the book (more normal range is 20-30% in my experience), but not too terrible there. But ultimately I had to ding a star because it does lean too much into the author's own biases and refuses to consider - and at times even outright dismisses - alternative explanations such as risky geography and geology, among others, in many of the disasters it covers. Still, the book has a lot of solid points about the modern “green” / “sustainable” / “resilient” building movements, if solidly from the “woke” / “progressive” side. Enough that even if you are one that normally can't stomach such tripe (I myself am largely among this camp), this text really does have enough good material that you need to wade through it to see the arguments from even that perspective. Recommended.

Tess And Po With Elements Of Reacher And The Lottery. This is only my second Tess and Po book, but I've quickly fallen in love... and noticed the basic pattern. (Which is the same basic pattern most books of this type have. Brief interlude of “normal life” leads into some inciting incident - in this case, Tess and Po stumbling into a mother and child in peril - leads to an investigation which leads to action. It is a successful pattern given how often it is employed across so many books, and it is well executed here.) When we get to the investigation/ action stages is when this book evokes one of the more memorable Reacher tales due to the similarity of the enemy faced (controlling militia type). And then we bring in elements of the ultra-creepy The Lottery to boot. Completely a Tess and Po story, but the common elements serve to enhance it even more (assuming you've read those tales, anyway :D). A final note: This is deep in a series of investigative/ police procedurals. It can work as a standalone/ entry point as long as you don't mind seeing more advanced stages of the investigative team's life together, but if you're a reader that doesn't like any level of spoiler of previous books, you're going to want to start at Book 1 and get to here. Because if you do start at Book 1... just go ahead and buy the entire series. You're going to want to have them on hand as you finish each one anyway. Hell, I'm already wishing I had Book 9 in my hands, and this one doesn't even release to the public for nearly a month! Very much recommended.

Sometimes You Find Yourself By Accident. Let's be perfectly upfront: I don't have one qualm whatsoever in telling you right here, right now that by the end of this book, the couple is together and everything is awesome. THIS IS A ROMANCE BOOK, and therefore this is a given. :D

With that out of the way, this was actually a fun and fast one, reading seemingly much faster than its near 300 page length would generally suggest. It is fairly low angst, as much as that can be said of a romance featuring someone running from their life and another person trying to recover from his. It is utterly steeped in small town Southern charm, even if rooted in Texas (where they somehow think they are different from other Southern towns - you're not, and football is as much a god anywhere in the rural South as it is in Texas ;) ). And it has all of the requisite fish-out-of-water / good ol' boy hijinx. The one thing it doesn't have, which some romance fans will hate and others love, is that there is little more than kissing in this book, even as the couple is shown in bed overnight together. So for those “sweet” / “clean” romance types, this one is for you. If you have to have sex in your romance books... just know up front this one isn't that. It was a great read regardless of that point, and a solid way to pass a couple of hours on a long summer day. Very much recommended.

Solid Action Thriller. If you haven't been reading John Ryder... you need to be. This is just the second time I've read a book from him, and he has clearly established a pattern of solid action thrillers with heroes who are conflicted and yet have solid and even innovative ideas on how to do their jobs. The house scene early was truly brilliant in what Ryder has Roche do to prepare the scene, and a few other actions late were nearly as good - if a touch more typical.

Indeed, the one flaw - which again I'm chalking up to “maybe British people don't know their way around guns as well as Americans do” and even “most Americans also think this, but it is a myth” - is one point where even as Ryder uses the correct terminology - “suppressor” rather than “silencer” - he still gets the actual effects more Hollywood than real-world. Without giving a whole hell of a lot away, Roche is across the street when a suppressed shot goes off inside a building. Roche doesn't hear the shot. In reality... everyone within at least a quarter mile is hearing that shot, even with it occurring indoors and even if they are indoors themselves.

Still, this was the only actual flaw in the writing and story here, with everything else being more “no one is perfect and this actually makes the story seem even more real” level. Truly an excellent action thriller, and one you won't want to miss. Hell, even as this book is (currently?) listed as a standalone... let me say right here right now that I for one would like to come back to this world. :D Very much recommended.

Romance With An Atypical Twang. Let's face it. When you think of rodeo, you don't exactly think of non-white dudes competing. Much less a non-white chick. Nor do you really think of “reality competition show”, despite that particular type of show being so overdone these days. And yet, in this particular romance, we get all of the above. We get the obligatory overt Garth reference or two, a more subtle Merle reference or two, and two non-white rodeo champions putting it all on the line in a rodeo-based reality competition show in order to save the things they love. And since this is a romance tale, yeah, that builds along the way too. For the clean/ sweet crowd... y'all aint gonna like this one. It only has two outright sex scenes, but one of them is about as far from blink-and-you'll-miss-it as you can get without dragging the story or veering into erotica. Overall a well-done tale that sets up what looks to be a medium-coupled series - not so loose that the characters never appear in each other's books, but also not so tightly coupled that future readers would be completely lost if coming into the series in later books. It will be interesting to see where Ms. Bell goes from here and exactly how she executes stylistically on joining the series together. Very much recommended.

Mitch Rapp Meets Henry McCord With A Dash of John Rambo. If you're a fan of Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp or the CBS drama Madam Secretary, you're going to like this tale. If you're not... you should still give this one a try, as it is a fun action tale set in the wilds of the lower Appalachian Mountains in the Carolinas featuring a former “history professor” who has a few skills history professors normally don't. And the way Nick Anthony uses his skills in this book... well, when the action starts up you might start getting flashes of one of America's action icons. ;)

I happen to be a fan of all of those things named above (well, the earlier Rapp books anyway - which were some of my very first Kindle reads as I began making the transition to my now eReader Era), and for me as a native of the foothills of the region in question, this was truly great. This is the same general region I've gone to many vacations into over the years, and in fact is the same general region that Deliverance was filmed in. And for this Southern boy, finding novels set here that don't disparage our people and are kick-ass to boot... well, that's just awesome.

This book is set up primarily as a standalone, but with these characters and with at least one or two things dangling by the end, it could easily be seen as the beginning of a series that could potentially be as good or better than the Rapp series, so this reader in particular certainly urges the author to at least consider the possibilities. Very much recommended.

Cowboy Bodice Ripper. This is one of those slow burn (ish) cowboy romances where you've got the busty-and-beautiful-but-no-one-knows-it-because-she-hides-it-all-the-time librarian meeting up with the playboy-that-can't-escape-his-dark-past cowboy. The slow burn and banter through the front half of the book is great, helped along via a subplot involving a troubled teenager. And then you get to the (nearly requisite in the genre) sex around the 2/3 mark where suddenly both of our leads are very well endowed for their genders. Sure, why not. A bit typical, and a bit of a letdown because of it, but eh, when being typical in one particular area is the worst you can say of a book... it really isn't a bad book. Fans of the genre will like it, those that aren't fans of the genre won't have any real reason to come to the genre via this particular book. For the clean/ sweet crowd, well, I already told you it has a sex scene, and there's references to several others, both “onscreen” and off. Solid tale mostly solidly told, and it does in fact work as an entry point into the series despite being Book 2. Very much recommended.

Strong Road Trip Romance. This is a really solid road trip romance full of misunderstandings, some hijinx, tragic backstories for our main characters, and an element or two of danger - all while traveling the backroads of America as two strangers who happen to get thrown together due to, well, a major misunderstanding. :D You'll laugh some, you'll cry some, you'll imagine yourself getting a bit wet - from rain, get your mind out of the damn gutter -, and yeah, you'll probably fall in love with these two yourself. Very much recommended.

Intriguing Academic Examination. Let's make this very clear up front: This is a book for academic types. This is FAR from casual reading. And yet, its premise is interesting enough that many may want to slog through it anyway - as I did. :D Just know up front that this is a very dense, very logically-detailed examination of its subject. That noted, this text does a phenomenal job of showing what the historical and current academic thinking is on its dual subjects of human evolution and Original Sin, and it does a similarly superb job of explaining in detail, in many cases point by point, exactly how the two might be reconciled. Indeed, particularly for the casual reader that Just. Wants. An. Answer!!!!!... this book probably won't be what you're looking for. It never really proffers one, instead acknowledging that there is still more research and thinking to do in both arenas before a definitive conclusion can truly be reached. Still, for what it actually is and for how it is actually written, this is truly a strong work of scholarship and contemplation, and within the space it is meant to occupy it could indeed be quite a standout. Very much recommended.

Epic Summer Revisited. This was a strong look at sisters separated by forces beyond their control and the hurts and insecurities that this brought about. Long time fans of Ellingsen's will see her particular style of drama and storytelling play out well here, and it is also a great introduction to this author and her stylings. Told with a single perspective, this is also a book that will work well for those readers that don't like multiple POVs in a book. Ultimately a satisfying read that could prove cathartic for siblings separated by distance or other issues. Very much recommended.

Remarkable Examination of Trauma And Its Permanence. This is a truly eye opening book about the remarkable resilience of many, perhaps most, people - and how the science of trauma often gets the permanence of trauma wrong. Bonanno has spent his career researching these topics, and this is a solid look at his best findings to date. Told using some long-term case studies as a bit of a narrative structure (and certainly a recurrent theme), this book does a great job of showing how intensely personal trauma and resilience are, yet also using facts and studies to back up the case studies and show larger findings and trends. The bibliography here comes in at about 23% of the total text, which is within normal range - and would likely have been a bit more, without the focus on the case studies. Of note, the case studies are from an accidental spine injury - from a traffic accident - and from survivors of the 9/11 attacks, which helps to show the wide range of trauma. Though also of note, sexual traumas are not examined directly. While Bonanno makes the case for general applicability to all traumas for his findings of resilience and the factors that lead to it, one wonders whether more directly studying various types of traumas using Bonanno's framework would truly show true general applicability? Still, that question would be an intriguing premise for a follow up book - but this book itself does in fact make a strong case for its premise and adds quite a bit to the overall discussion of trauma, PTSD, and resilience. Very much recommended.