Update: The author will have a book signing event at the San Carlos Library onApril 25 at 2:00 p.m.

By Wanjirũ Warama

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

January 1, 2025 (La Mesa) -- Wanjiru Warama a resident of La Mesa, provides true stories of how her family and community lived in abject poverty on British colonial farms in Kenya in her novel, The Colonial Farm. Her historic memoir sheds light on the struggles of Kenyan farmworkers and rural populations under the British colonial rule. She then covers how Kenya’s rulership developed after the British retreated from governing.

Edited by Matt Coyle, Naomi Hirahara, & Tammy Kaehler

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

December 5,2024 (San Diego) -- Crime Under the Sun is the second anthology to be offered by Partners in Crime, the San Diego chapter of Sisters in Crime. Out of 60 entries, the editors selected the best 15.

You will meet a beguiling bail bondswoman hanging onto the family business by her fingernails, a magnificent old coot bound to his land and his cattle, four all-too-believable teens playing a deadly game, and a kick-ass 11-year-old cowgirl who takes on a real-life mystery from Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Novel by Carl Vonderau

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

September 24, 2024 (San Diego) – Award-winning San Diego mystery/thriller author Carl Vonderau's critically acclaimed novel, Saving Myles, weaves a gripping tale of a  couple who encounter intrigue and danger as they race to save their drug-addicted son from kidnappers south of the border.

By Eric Martin

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

August 18, 2024 (San Diego) -- Erik Christopher Martin lives and writes in San Diego, California. In The Case of the Greensboro Gremlins: Dotty Morgan Supernatural Sleuth Blook Three, Gremlins and fashion don’t mix!

Summer vacation before seventh grade Dotty is expanding and her girlfriend, Hannah, is getting taller. Hannah fights in a wrestling championship and is hired in a fashion show to model Parker’s clothes. He’s Dotty’s best friend.

Parker, is competing in a young designer fashion show in Greensboro, the prelude to Fashion Week. After a series of accidents plague the rehearsals, Parker hires Dotty to investigate. Her sleuthing reveals gremlins are behind the mishaps. Worse, someone put them in the theater on purpose. Sabotage!

Edited by Kimberly Lee and Kate Manning

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

August 11, 2024 (San Diego) -- Published by San Diego Writers, Ink, The 17^th Volume Anthology: A Year In Ink, is an anthology of the creative work of San Diegans. In the 2024 version, 281 entries were submitted from all genres.

Of those, 46 pieces were selected to be in this year's anthology (23 poetry and 23 prose). Submissions include short stories, novel and memoir excerpts, creative nonfiction, satire, flash fiction/nonfiction, and poetry.

East County News Service

 

Hear full interview aired on KNSJ Radio

May 10, 2024 (San Diego) – East County Magazine Bookshelf host Reina Menasche recently interviewed author Ken Schafer regarding his first young adult novel,. An Otherwise Perfect Plan: A Novel of Mystery, Love, and Chocolate that Defies Description  Schafer started his professional writing career as a screenwriter, working for companies as diverse as Disney, Paramount and ABC, and on projects ranging from a prequel to "Sleeping Beauty" to "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and ABC Night at the Movies. He also founded Moon Jumper Press.

Kirkus Reviews praised the novel's cinematic structure, though Schafer says,"Screenwriting and novel writing are two completely different beasts," because screenplays are fundramentally visual. But he says screenplay writing's tight time requirements have influenced his writing.

An unusual facet of this coming-of-age novel is that there are no villains, Meansche notes. Schafer says this arose from the story and decisions made by the young girl's mother. "The conflict is just getting through life," he says. "We all know there's enough stress in the world without actual bad people." He's currently finishing up an audio version that will be available on Audible.

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

May 6, 2024 (San Diego)-- World surfing champions Milton and Michael Willis share their love for riding waves of any size in their latest book, 100 Foot Wave: The Official Book. Their book provides a deeper understanding of the hows, whys, and dangers of this exciting discipline. For the Willis brothers, who grew up in San Diego's North County and Hawaii, riding big waves is a spiritual practice. They share the rigors and dangers of the sport, as well as the spiritual highs.

Their book is comprehensive, covering:

• Contest winners and who really rode the biggest waves
• How boards are designed and made, along with the development of surfing equipment innovations
• The best places to find waves and how to train for riding a big wave
• Notable male and female surfers and their contributions to the sport, and
• Commemorations of those who have died while surfing.
  

The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power, by Courtney B. Vance & Robin L. Smith (Hatchette Book Group, New York, NY, 2023, 268 pages).

“Papa was like a shadow that was always hanging over me.”

                                    -CORY MAXSON, FENCES

Book Review by Dennis Moore

How fortuitous and ironic that I would make this book, The Invisible Ache, the last of my more than 400 book reviews written, as I now go into retirement. This spellbinding and historic book co-written by Courtney B. Vance, a member of my church here in Los Angeles, compels me to write this review.

Along with co-author, Dr. Robin L. Smith, The Invisible Ache, pulls back the covers on social taboos, and makes this book a profound and historical commentary on race and mortality, and it resonates with me for so many profound and personal reasons full of ironies.

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

March 9, 2024 (San Diego) – San Diego author J. Elke Ertle was born and raised in West Berlin during the aftermath of World War II, when the city had become the focus of an escalating Cold War between East and West.

In her memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, she beautifully describes how her strict rearing was similar to the restrictions of the Wall on her city’s people.  

The following excerpt gives a sense of her conflict: