Book by M.A. Richter

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

December 9, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) – Local author M.A. Richter announces the release of Mystic Prince: Vixen. The book is a fantasy-adventure that follows Khael, an enlightened prince in 2773, who has just regained his crown. He reestablishes a government and places his mother, a princess, to oversee day-to-day governance of the realm. He wishes to travel and to negotiate treaties with other realms. He also wants to continue training to become a master mystic under a mentor.

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

July 27, 2023 (San Diego) -- San Diego resident Henry Herz’s latest picture book is titled I Am Smoke. Smoke is the narrator, relating how it has served humankind since prehistory for signaling, beekeeping, curing and flavoring food, religious rites, and fumigating insects.

By Patricia Daly-Lipe

Review by Pennel Paugh

June 24, 2023 (San Diego) -- With a brief biography, author Patricia Daly-Lipe and her husband put together a lovely collection of notes, drawings, and paintings they inherited from Steele’s mother, Georgeanna Lipe. The talented artist lived from 1909 – 2012.

Georgeanna Lipe’s watercolors in How She Did It include areas in San Diego and Europe. Her style is delightful. This review includes examples of her paintings.

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 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.

Book by Kristen Green, reviewed by Pennell Paugh

November 21, 2022 (San Diego) -- In The Devil’s Half Acre, Author and former San Diego Union-Tribune journalist Kristen Green provides details about Black lives in America, starting in 1619 and ends in recent times. Green takes us from slavery, through details about the lives of Blacks during the Civil War and after. More specifically, she closely shares details about 19th-century Richmond, the center of slave trading, giving the reader a view of slavery from an enslaved person’s experience.

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?

Review by Pennell Paugh

August 27, 2022 (San Diego) – Reset, a romantic science fiction story by San Diego author Sarina Dahlan, is thought-provoking. Reset will make you cherish your life’s loves and losses—allowing them to give your life deep meaning and purpose.

Book by Theresa Halversen

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

July 21, 2022 (San Diego) -- This delightful fantasy by San Diego author Theresa Halversen is a fast, fun read from the first page to the last. The story in Warehouse Dreams occurs in a world where the quality of each person’s genes reflects their parents’ wealth.

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

June 9, 2022 (San Diego) – The Third Secret by Marco De Sio combines historical fiction and political intrigue. The tale is told through the life of an Italian immigrant, Big Al. His story takes us from a small fishing village in Italy to the United States, through two world wars, and into intrigue within the Vatican that could transform the future of the Catholic Church.

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

Author to hold book signing at Julian Library on May 10 at 1 p.m.

May 5, 2022 (La Mesa) -- The Colonized and the Scramble for Africa, the first of The Colonized series, provides true stories of how the author, Wanjirũ Warama, her family and community lived in abject poverty on British colonial farms in Kenya.

Warama, a resident of La Mesa, is a member of the San Diego Writers and Editors Guild. She will host a book signing in Julian at the County Library on May 10 at 1 p.m.

Book review by Joe Gandelman, Editor in Chief, The Moderate Voice

Reprinted with permission from The Moderate Voice, a member of the San Diego Online News Network

January 22, 2017 (San Diego's East County) - A Clear and Present Danger: Narcissim in the Era of Donald Trump was written before the election — but boy is it needed to be read now.

It’s a thoughtful volume comprised of contributions by psychiatrists, doctors, psychologists– and a notable storyteller-author-clinical-psychologist that’ll be read for many years and deserves to be read and studied. Because there is a history of narcissism in world history and politics. And in world history, leaders who fit the definition of having narcissistic personality disorder often don’t often fare well — and their countries may fare worse. One thing they do: they backhand societal and political norms, often get away with it and can change their societies, often little by little, sometimes abruptly — and often legally.

Silent Bird by novelist Reina Lisa Menasche

Book review by Ariele Johannson

With podcast interview by editor Miriam Raftery on "East County Magazine Live!" radio show KNSJ 89.1 FM: Listen.

Silent Bird, a novel by Reina Lisa Menasche, could be remembered for its exotic French landscape and romance, or for its treatment of difficult subjects. Maybe it will be reread for its charming humor, an inner view of two young lovers moving too fast, or Pilar, the protagonist learning to adjust to a new culture with its linguistic challenges. There are great descriptions of the meeting of two divergent cultures through the budding and then continually strengthening relationship of Pilar and her lover.

It could also be remembered for its irresistible combination of all of these, but it will be remembered.