American Carnage:Shattering the Myths That Fuel Gun Violence, by Thomas Gabor and Fred Guttenberg (Mango Publishing Group, Coral Gables, Fl., 2023, 228 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

View interview with co-author Thomas Gabor on the "Bookshelf" section with host Anat Tour by clicking here.

May 26, 2023 (San Diego) – Criminologist Tom Gabor and activist Fred Guttenberg, who lost his 14-year old daughter Jaime in the 2018 Parkland school shooting, team up to dismantle some of the leading myths on guns and gun violence in their groundbreaking book and treatise; American Carnage: Shattering the Myths That Fuel Gun Violence. Many of these myths have been promoted by the gun lobby to facilitate gun sales and normalize the presence of guns in American society.

Co-author Tom Gabor reiterates much about what is said in this book in a video above by Anat Tour, the host of the "Bookshelf" section of the East County Magazine. The interview by this excellent talent, Tour, can be viewed and listened to by clicking on the link above.

This extraordinary book resonates with me in a profound and personal way, for I am a survivor of gun violence myself, along with two of my sons, and in my more than 400 book reviews written, American Carnage has impacted my psyche more than any other. This book touches my heart and soul!

East County News Service

May 15, 2023 (Casa de Oro) - The Friends of the Casa de Oro Library will hold a benefit concert Sunday, June 4, at 7 p.m. in a private home.

The featured entertainment will be Fred Benedetti (photo) and Robert Wetzel, an award-winning guitar duo. Light refreshments will be served.

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

March 28, 2023 (San Diego) -- Seven-year-old Leslie has a serious problem. Someone is trying to kill her-- and it’s her mother. Leslie and her little brother live chaotic, often frightening lives under the care of their paranoid schizophrenic mother.

This excerpt from local author Leslie Ferguson’s memoir, When I Was Her Daughter, exemplifies those chilling conditions:

By Pennell Paugh

March 13, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) – Carrolle Jean-Murat., M.D., a Mt. Helix resident, announces publication of her latest book, Strengthening Your Spiritual Foundation for Optimum Health: 18 Ways to Unleash Your Innate Healing Powers.

By K.C. Grifant

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

March 2, 2023 (San Diego) -- Sharpshooter Melinda and her easygoing partner and sweetheart, Lance, are expert monster exterminators in local author K.C. Grifant’s creative novel, Melinda West: Monster Gunslinger. They plan to retire after this last job; however, they accidentally release a demon who steals their best friend’s soul, leaving their friend in a coma. If they don’t hurry, their friend will die.

While fighting one of the demon’s possessed, Lance’s soul is partially stolen. On her own, Melinda is determined to fight to the last to save both her friend and lover. While fighting, she learns she will have to stop hell from taking over Earth. 

By Pennell Paugh

February 9, 2023 (San Diego) - Dr. Mary Travelbest’s guide book is full of tips and on the road recommendations. She helps you to get the best deals, pack light, and ensure your safety. She takes you through stages to develop a level of comfort with less and less structure. I’m still on stage one, but I now have the yen to plan a short trip.

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

January 26, 2023 (San Diego) - Your Fabulous First Book provides support and guidance to the first-time, non-fiction writer. By helping an author overcome writing blocks and other challenges, starting with finding a subject, San Diego author Andrea Susan Glass pulls the writer along until their book is completed and, hopefully, published.

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh 

January 1, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) – Red Chaos details events across that sound very much like events that have happened across the globe. All the crimes have but one perpetrator but it’s not a person, it’s a nation.

“Hello, Mr. Reilly. Please hold for Mr. Shaw.”

The call was from Chicago—Nancy Barney, the assistant to E.J. Shaw, President and CEO of the Kensington Hotel chain, one of the world’s largest hotel corporations. Shaw was Dan Reilly’s boss.

“Dan, we have a program,” Shaw said.

We. Reilly immediately knew the we was about to become he, his problem.

“Where: What?”

“A murder in our Mayfair property. In a London suite.”

“Oh God!” Reilly’s mind raced. The hotel was hosting a regional oil conference. He stated to ask for detail, but Shaw interrupted.

“A visiting oil minister….”

By Richard G. Opper

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

December 4, 2022 (San Diego) -- The Body in the Barrel is a compelling crime novel set in 1973 in San Diego.

The book opens on October 15, 1973: “I shifted the Smith & Wesson Model 10 to a more comfortable place on my hip, which was feeling tender this morning. The bay had a smell of rotting plants, and together with the smell of the diesel it triggered thoughts about the Mekong—which was not so long ago, even if it was half a world away. It was the reason my hip ached, but that life was over. I was back home in San Diego, and glad for it. Whatever I’d thought I was going to accomplish in the Navy’s swift boats turned out to be a bad dream. A nightmare. So, the fact that I ended up in the Harbor Police is a whole lot better—but still a whole lot of not much. I was out of the shit storm and into a more peaceful life, but for crying out loud, at twenty-eight here I was with nothing really going on, already going nowhere. But who cared? Other than my dad, I guess, and that only went so far.”

By Gig Conaughton, County of San Diego Communications Office

October 26, 2022 (San Diego) - Are you the kind of person who enjoys a good, scary book ― especially at Halloween?

By Patricia Daly-Lipe

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

October 14, 2022 (La Jolla) -- Location, location, location. This is the mantra for real estate. But it is precisely “location” that helped define La Jolla. Historic Tales of La Jolla tells the story of the place: its name, even its initial creation by natural forces, followed by the people who found and fell in love with it. This is history from a personal perspective. What did La Jolla do for the people who came, and what did these people do for La Jolla and, in many cases, for the rest of the world?

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

September 21, 2022 (San Diego) -- As an authority on public speaking, San Diego author Lisa Kleiman shares thoughtful and thorough advice for any time you might need to speak to a group of people, even at funerals in You Got This: Everything You Need to Master Authentic Public Speaking. The book helps anyone prepare to stand in front of any group and successfully deliver a message with clarity, confidence, and authenticity.

After graduating college, Kleiman was called on to speak often enough that she developed techniques to lower her anxiety while increasing her clarify.Actually, Kleiman did not find speaking before others to be easy when she started. “Sitting in my high school English class at age seventeen, feeling nauseous in anticipation of my turn to stand up in front of the class and give a formal presentation about a famous historical author, I never would have guessed that I’d spend many years of my life helping others improve their public speaking skills, especially in the role of instructor. The idea of speaking in front of an audience as a profession seemed awful. I didn’t understand why people would want to purposely expose themselves to possible ridicule and embarrassment. 

By Ken Stone, Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  La Jolla couple Barbara Bry and Neil Senturia with their new book on Gina Champion-Cain. Times of San Diego photo illustration

September 2, 2022 (La Jolla) - Gina Champion-Cain hasn’t read her own book.

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

August 11, 2022 (San Diego) - River Woman River Demon by San Diego author Jennifer Givhan weaves together the threads of folk magick, with personal and cultural empowerment in a first-person spellbinding psychological thriller. (The term `magick’ is used by spiritual believers in in supernatural powers, to differentiate from `magic,’ or staged magicians’ tricks.)

Book by Gina Simmons Schneider PhD

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

June 26, 2022 (San Diego) -- While we often cannot control stressful life events, we can learn to control our brain's response to those circumstances and reduce our suffering. Relief from worry and stress can be found through powerful techniques grounded in clinical experience and neuroscience described in Frazzlebrain.