Book by Alex A. Kecskes

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

October 16, 2024 (San Diego) -- Alex A. Kecskes, a San Diego resident, has written a debut book that mixes science fiction and fantasy with romance. 

In 1888, Rene Sakin loses both her parents, falls into depression and is expelled from a prestigious medical college for laudanum abuse. Posing as a nurse, she leaves New York society determined to move medicine into the 20th century using herbs. She heads west to a Tennessee mining town where she meets a mysterious healer — Charles Noble.

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.