Book Review: Dissolution

Maggie Webb has lived the last decade caring for elderly husband, Stanley, as memory loss gradually erases all the beautiful moments they created together. It's the loneliest she's ever felt in her life. When a mysterious stranger named Hassan appears at her door, he reveals a shocking truth: Stanley isn't losing his memories. Someone is actively removing them to hide a long-buried secret from coming to light. If Maggie does what she's told, she can reverse it. She can get her husband back.

Led by Hassan and his technological marvels, Maggie breaks into her husband's mind, probing the depths of his memories in an effort to save him. The deeper she dives, the more she unravels a mystery spanning continents and centuries, each layer more complex than the last. But Hassan cannot be trusted. Not just memories are disappearing, but pieces of reality itself. If Maggie cannot find out what Stanley did all those years ago, and what Hassan is after, she risks far more than her husband's life. The very course of human history hangs in the balance.

Book Review: The Californians

It’s 2024, and Tobey Harlan, college dropout and temporary waiter recently dumped, steals from the wall of his father’s house three paintings by the venerated and controversial artist Di Stiegl. Tobey’s just lost everything he owns to a Northern California wildfire, and if he can sell the paintings (albeit in a shady way to a notorious tech bro) he can start life anew in a place no one will ever find him, perhaps even Oregon.

A hundred years before, Klaus Aaronsohn, a German-Jewish immigrant and resident of the Lower East Side, inveigles his way into a film studio in Astoria, Queens. In love with silent cinema, Klaus will restyle himself Klaus von Stiegl, a mysterious aristocratic German film director. In true Hollywood fashion, he will court fame, fortune, romance, and betrayal, and end his career directing Brackett: a radical, notorious 60s-era detective show.

Weaving between Tobey and Klaus is the story of Diane “Di” Stiegl: Klaus’s granddaughter, raised in Palm Springs, who claws out a career as an artist in gritty 1980s NYC. As America yields the presidency to a Hollywood cowboy, as Diane’s grifter father and free-spirited mother circle in and out of her life, Diane will reflect America’s most urgent and hypocritical years back to itself, uneasily finding critical adoration as well as great fame and wealth.

Book Review: Playing Dead

A long-married crime-writing couple plot murder most horrid, with a jaw-dropping twist. A group of school friends dig up a long-buried dark secret. A widower joins a local amdram society, with surprisingly dramatic results. A deranged fan stalks a celebrated TV personality. An online romance turns sour. And much, much more.

From police procedurals to the sharpest satire, from historical mystery to dark and twisted chillers, these twenty-two original tales, written by some of Britain’s most remarkable bestselling authors, are essential reading for crime and mystery fans. Members of the Detection Club, the most prestigious group of crime writers in the world, celebrate the eightieth birthday of their former president, the original king of cozy crime - Simon Brett, with this stunning collection of all-new short stories.

Book Review: Galaphile - The First Druids of Shannara

One of the most iconic structures in the Four Lands is Paranor, the fortress home of the Druid Order. Legend holds that it was erected by an Elven leader known as Galaphile Joss. But who was this Galaphile, and how and why did he choose to establish this center of magic and learning?

Within these pages we meet the real Galaphile, following him from a friendless teenage orphan stranded in the Human world to a powerful adult and master mage, studying under the infamous recluse, Cogline. We learn of the forces that shaped him, those he loved, and those he lost; those who aided him, and those who stood against him. Throughout it all, Galaphile’s goal is a noble one: to bring order to a chaotic world, and to make life better for those trying to survive it. To this end, he commences building the citadel which will one day be known as Paranor with the aid of the King of the Silver River. But there is one other who seeks dominion over the Four Lands and for far less virtuous ends.

For this foe has been corrupted by an ancient evil—one that will not only reach out and touch Galaphile’s nearest and dearest, but also echo down through the centuries, sowing the seeds for some of the darkest times the Four Lands will ever face.

Book Review: Deep Cuts

It’s a Friday night in a campus bar in Berkeley, fall of 2000, and Percy Marks is pontificating about music again. Hall and Oates is on the jukebox, and Percy—who has no talent for music, just lots of opinions about it—can’t stop herself from overanalyzing the song, indulging what she knows to be her most annoying habit. But something is different tonight. The guy beside her at the bar, fellow student Joe Morrow, is a songwriter. And he could listen to Percy talk all night.

Joe asks Percy for feedback on one of his songs—and the results kick off a partnership that will span years, ignite new passions in them both, and crush their egos again and again. Is their collaboration worth its cost? Or is it holding Percy back from finding her own voice?

Book Review: Eternal Flame

From their first meeting in 1981, the Bangles were ambitious, focused, and intentional; their hard-work and determination resulted in millions of records sold across the globe, before becoming the first all-girl band to have five “Top 10” hits. Not long after coming together, they toured the world, released #1 records, and collaborated with the biggest artists of the day. They seemed unstoppable—until tensions within the band, artistic differences, and the pressures of sudden celebrity tore them apart less than a decade later.

This is the story of those eight years: of a diverse and vibrant Los Angeles music scene, unfettered work ethics and self-belief, the dawn of MTV, the unpredictable consequences of fame, life as a touring band, and their rapid rise to global domination--then imploding at the height of success. But it’s also a story of the very real challenges faced by women attempting to follow their artistic dreams in a media and music industry ecosystem which seemed set up for their failure from the start.

Book Review: Thorn: The Complete Proto-Bone College Strips

The secret origin of Jeff Smith’s Bone comes to light! New York Times bestselling author Smith returns to his roots with a new collection of his Thorn college strips, reprinting the entire run of his earliest rendering of the world-famous Bone characters for the first time. The strip appeared five days a week in the pages of The Ohio State University’s student newspaper The Lantern from 1982 to 1986. A few were reprinted in a self-published 1983 book called Tales from The Lantern. Another small selection was published in 2008’s limited edition Before Bone, a fundraiser for OSU’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. Both books are long out of print and sell at collector’s prices. There has never been an official, complete run published until now.

This beautiful edition includes plenty of bonus material such as recently discovered early drawings of the BONE characters, essays and interviews.

Book Review: The Pictorial Key to the Tarot

As an acclaimed occultist and scholar of the Kabbalah, Waite collaborated with artist Pamela Colman Smith to create what has become possibly the world’s most famous tarot deck. The pictoral key offers a rich introduction to the history and symbology of the modern tarot in addition to providing a detailed explanation of the 78 cards found in the original Smith-Waite deck. Readers will enjoy an in-depth exploration of the tarot’s secrets while gaining insight to the conventional meanings and reversed readings associated with each card.

Repeater’s re-release of this classic text contains a forward by Sereptie (Craig Laubach), creator of The Philosopher’s Tarot, celebrating the importance of the tarot to artists, activists, and others seeking to transform a world fraught with material and psychic oppressions. This expanded edition also includes an appendix featuring a quick reference guide to common keywords and interpretations.

Book Review: It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time

Bruce Vilanch is known as a go-to comedy writer for award shows, sitcoms, and top-heavy variety specials, but he has also been responsible for quite a few of the worst shows ever put on television—legendarily bad productions. Some of his work lives in infamy: The Star Wars Holiday Special, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special, Rob Lowe dancing with Snow White at the Oscars, and The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. How did these ever seem like a good idea?

Well, everyone has screwed up a few times, or had their work screwed up by others. It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time is a lifetime reflection of what Vilanch has experienced, learned, forgotten, dismissed, and embraced in decades of working in show business, specifically the south forty acres known as comedy. It involves very famous people and people who were not very famous but should have been.

And it explains to the person in the audience who says to himself, once he has gotten his jaw off the floor, “’How did this ever get made?” Don’t we all want to know?

Book Review: The Gate of the Feral Gods

Surviving in a multilevel dungeon that also happens to be the set of the galaxy’s most watched game show has taught Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, that there’s only one thing they can count on apart from each other: they never know what’s coming next. And this floor is no exception.

A floating fortress occupied by warrior gnomes. A castle made of sand. A derelict submarine guarded by malfunctioning machines. A haunted crypt surrounded by lethal traps.

It was supposed to be easy. One bubble. Four castles. Fifteen days. Capture each one, and the stairwell is unlocked. Here's the thing. It's never easy. Going it alone is not an option this time, so Carl and his team must rely on the help of the low-level, I-can't-believe-these-idiots-are-still-alive crawlers trapped in the bubble with them. But can they be trusted?

Book Review: After Disney

Walt Disney left behind big dreams when he died in 1966. Perhaps none was greater than the hope that his son-in-law, Ron Miller, would someday run his studio. Under Miller’s leadership, Disney expanded into new frontiers: global theme parks, computer animation, cable television, home video, and video games. Despite these innovations, Ron struggled to expand the Disney brand beyond its midcentury image of wholesome family entertainment, even as times and tastes evolved. Tensions between Miller and Walt’s nephew, Roy E. Disney, threatened to destroy the company, leading Wall Street “Gordon Gekko” types to come after Mickey Mouse.

Book Review: Harley Quinn's Bud and Lou - Trouble Times Two

When Harley's hyenas, Bud and Lou, are framed with stealing the lasso of truth they’re forced to team up with two members of the Super-pets, Ace and Jumpa, to find the culprits. The unlikely team sets off on an adventure that leads them from Oswald Cobblepot's penguins to Mr. Freeze's polar bears. At the chance of being reunited with their beloved Harley, will Bud and Lou save the day and be the good guys for a change? If they aren’t careful, the lasso of truth might reveal how they really feel about being heroes!

Harley Quinn's Bud and Lou: Trouble Times Two written and drawn by Ben Hed with colors by Kendall Goode will be published on March 4, 2025. DC Comics provided an early galley for review.