Book Review: Queens of Disco

From leading vocalists such as Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer and The Pointer Sisters, who helped popularize disco music in the late seventies, to modern-day disco divas including Madonna and Kylie Minogue, Queens of Disco is an electrifying must-read for dance music enthusiasts.

This joyful book explores disco's emergence in the underground club scene and unpicks its influence on DJ culture and legacy in defining electronic dance music such as hip-hop, house and new-wave. Featuring complementary playlists alongside detailed profiles of ten female trailblazers and fully illustrated throughout.

Book Review: Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

Hundreds of books have been written on the art of writing. Here at last is a book by two professional editors to teach writers the techniques of the editing trade that turn promising manuscripts into published novels and short stories.

In this completely revised and updated second edition, Renni Browne and Dave King teach you, the writer, how to apply the editing techniques they have developed to your own work. Chapters on dialogue, exposition, point of view, interior monologue, and other techniques take you through the same processes an expert editor would go through to perfect your manuscript. Each point is illustrated with examples, many drawn from the hundreds of books Browne and King have edited.

Book Review: Enemy of My Enemy

When reports come in that the Kingpin and a police officer have been killed and that Frank Castle (aka the Punisher) has turned himself in for it, Matt Murdock senses holes in the narratives the media and the streets are quick to run with. Both criminals have been Matt’s nemeses when he dons the cowl of the Daredevil, and there’s no denying that New York is better off without its Kingpin and with the Punisher behind bars. And yet, while the Punisher is a murderous vigilante, he doesn’t kill cops. And he doesn’t turn himself in.

Castle certainly deserves prison for all of the other crimes he has committed in the past. However, Matt’s indominable sense of justice insists that nobody should be locked away for crimes they didn’t actually commit. Representing the vigilante in court, Matt enters a contest of wills and guile with Castle to try and uncover the game beneath the game. And when Matt’s girlfriend takes the stand and complicates matters, there’s truly no rest for the wicked or the just. As the Kingpin’s absence causes passion and ambitions to run hot in Hell’s Kitchen, Matt must decide if justice means the letter of the law, what’s best for the citizen on the streets, or where his heart leading him.

Book Review: Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch - Let Verbs Power Your Writing

Great sentences pivot on great verbs. In Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch, Constance Hale, best-selling author of Sin and Syntax, zeroes in on verbs that make bad writing sour and good writing sing. Each chapter features four sections: “Vex” tackles tough syntax, “Hex” debunks myths about verbs, “Smash” warns of bad writing habits, and “Smooch” showcases exemplary writing.

A veteran journalist and writing teacher, Hale peppers her advice with pop-culture references and adapts her expertise for writers of every level. With examples ranging from the tangled clauses of Henry James and the piercing insight of Joan Didion to the punchy gerunds of the Coen brothers and the passive verbs of CEOs on trial, this book offers a reenergized take on the “little despot of the sentence.”

Book Review: The Story Grid

The Story Grid is a tool developed by editor Shawn Coyne to analyze stories and provide helpful editorial comments. It's like a CT Scan that takes a photo of the global story and tells the editor or writer what is working, what is not, and what must be done to make what works better and fix what's not.

The Story Grid breaks down the component parts of stories to identify the problems. And finding the problems in a story is almost as difficult as the writing of the story itself (maybe even more difficult.)

Book Review: The End League - Complete Collection

In a devastated world ruled by supervillains, the last surviving heroes embark on a desperate quest to find the mythic Hammer of Thor, believing it holds the key to restoring hope to humanity. The End League is a gripping saga of high-stakes survival, packed with character-driven storytelling and breathtaking visuals.

Superstar writer Rick Remender (The Sacrificers, Tokyo Ghost) unites with comics legends Mat Broome (X-Men, Batman), Eric Canete (Iron Man, Martian Manhunter), and Andy MacDonald (Justice League, Multiple Man) for a desperate, pedal-to-the-metal fight through the ashes of civilization for a future that’s already lost.

Book Review: Getting Naked

With her signature warmth and disarming humor, the beloved actress and New York Times bestselling author strips away the polished façade and shares what it’s really like to grow older, love harder, and start over. Now in her mid-sixties, Valerie reflects on the hard-won lessons of aging, self-worth, and letting go. From her experiences with menopause, relationships, and family trauma, she writes with clarity and compassion about the insecurities that have haunted her for decades: shame and anxiety about her body, and the false belief that her value depended on perfection. Through it all, Valerie reflects on the quiet, daily work of self-acceptance—the kind that doesn’t make headlines but changes lives. Getting Naked isn’t just a story of survival. It’s a reckoning—with her past, her family history, and the generational pain that shaped her. It’s about the myths we believe when we’re young—about beauty, love, success—and how we carry them until they break us open. It’s about unlearning the script that says women must please, endure, and stay silent.

Book Review: It's Never Too Late

Marla Gibbs has been a Hollywood icon for generations of fans. Now, at ninety-three, she chronicles her climb from a difficult youth in which she yearned for safety and love, to the high-stakes world of Hollywood where she became a confident powerbroker learning to work behind the scenes for fair pay, access, and more creative control for herself and her colleagues.

Told in her forthright voice, It's Never Too Late illuminates Gibbs' daring move to Los Angeles to rebuild her life after an abusive marriage, how she became an actor, and how she eventually learned to balance acting with show running. She was a “Boss Bae” decades before the term would become entertainment industry shorthand for a power flex. While developing 227 her lawyer won her “all rights, courtesies and privileges of an executive producer without the credit.” Though the authority she wielded behind the scenes created deep tensions on and off the set, her hard-luck young life had prepared her to succeed even as her tenacity was put to the test. Her experiences laid the groundwork for powerbrokers like Shonda Rhimes and Issa Rae.

Book Review: Still Into You

Sloane Donavan dreamed of being a rock journalist ever since she posted her first MySpace blog. Now, one journalism degree, a failed internship, and dozens of backstage passes later, she’s struggling to land a full-time staff position. So when punk rock’s most notorious and elusive frontman offers her his first interview in eight years, Sloane should be jumping at the opportunity—but taking it would mean reconnecting with the only guy she’s ever loved (and lost), Dax Nakamura.

Unable to pass up a shot at making her name—and helping Dax clear the reputation that’s plagued his—Sloane agrees. It’s only a conflict of interest if anyone finds out. But the article Dax wants and the salacious tell-all Sloane’s editor is expecting are two completely different stories. And as old feelings resurface, Sloane’s journalistic integrity hangs in the balance. This is the career-making piece she’s been waiting for, but it comes with a price: the chance to rewrite the ending with her first and only love.

Book Review: A Place Both Wonderful and Strange

From its start, when studio executives drafted a plan to recoup costs after what they predicted would be the series' inevitable failure, to the 1992 prequel movie that earned scathing reviews at Cannes, to its unexpected and acclaimed return some twenty-five years later, Twin Peaks garnered millions of devoted fans who refused to let it die.

In A Place Both Wonderful and Strange, entertainment reporter Scott Meslow takes readers behind the curtain of Lynch’s and Frost’s dedication to finishing what they started, with both the prequel film and Showtime’s Twin Peaks: The Return, offering dozens of original and revelatory interviews that cast a whole new light on the extraordinary show. For a series that left as many questions unanswered as answered, Meslow’s deep reporting will give readers a new perspective, detailing scenes left on the cutting–room floor and how Season Two’s finale stunned and infuriated studio execs in what Mark Frost calls “a defiant middle finger to what they [studio executives] thought the show should be.”

Book Review: Jigsaw

This one looked like a slam dunk: a young woman found dead at her kitchen table, DNA on cigarette butts linking quickly to an ex-boyfriend with a criminal record. Or so homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis thought. Then everything changed and a quick close turned into a mind-bending whodunit. That’s when Milo called in psychologist Alex Delaware, his best friend and a long-term consultant on “those cases.” The ones that are different.

Then there’s another one: an old woman found brutally murdered, her body stashed in a deep freeze and mutilated. And when Milo learns who she is, he’s stunned. This victim is someone he once knew. Complicating matters further, her home is an extreme hoarder’s den, virtually impassable due to years of stored trash and apparently meaningless objects. Except for the envelopes of cash stashed among the garbage. As Alex and Milo dig deeper into the seemingly unrelated crimes, they discover shocking links between the victims and realize they have a labyrinthine—and deadly—puzzle to solve.

Book Review: Make It Out Alive

Three newlywed couples have disappeared from an exclusive resort in Florida, only to turn up dead soon after. With the location and the similarities between the female victims as their only leads, it’s up to the FBI Mobile Response Team to catch a serial killer before anyone else ends up dead. And they have the perfect bait—Detective Kara Quinn, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the targeted women.

Undercover as newlyweds pretending to enjoy their honeymoon, Kara and FBI Agent Matt Costa set a flawless trap. When their plan works and they arrest the predator, Matt sends the rest of the team home so he and Kara can have the weekend for some much-needed R&R. But on Monday morning, the couple doesn’t show up to work, and the MRT learns they never checked out of their hotel.

As their team tries to find them, Matt and Kara learn the truth—the killer wasn’t acting alone. He had a partner who succeeded where he failed. Kidnapped and forced into a twisted escape room, they need to find a way out, because if they don’t escape, they’ll die.

Book Review: The Wrong Family

Have you ever been wrong about someone?

Juno was wrong about Winnie Crouch. Before moving in with the Crouch family, Juno thought Winnie and her husband, Nigel, had the perfect marriage, the perfect son—the perfect life. Only now that she’s living in their beautiful house, she sees the cracks in the crumbling facade are too deep to ignore.

Still, she isn’t one to judge. After her grim diagnosis, the retired therapist simply wants a place to live out the rest of her days in peace. But that peace is shattered the day Juno overhears a chilling conversation between Winnie and Nigel.

She shouldn’t get involved. She really shouldn’t. But this could be her chance to make a few things right. Because if you thought Juno didn’t have a secret of her own, then you were wrong about her, too.

Book Review: The Trauma Machine

What if you could fix everything broken in your life before it happened?

Nate Johnson spends most of his time ruminating about what might have been. The charitable categorize the Nate-experience as There, but for the grace of God, go I. And the rest throw him into the pile of people they see every day and never give a second thought.

One day, Nate begrudgingly accepts a legacy gift, a semi-coherent manuscript which describes a mechanism to construct and enter a secret pathway. It’s a portal to undo what seemingly can’t be undone. All he has to do is decipher the manuscript and build The Trauma Machine. Then he can go back, correct the past, and return to the present.

What could have been will become what is. Simple.

Book Review: The Ultimate RPG Villain Backstory Guide

In the varied and diverse worlds of tabletop RPGs, there are a myriad of genres, play styles, and creative opportunities for players and game masters to sink their teeth into. The Ultimate RPG Villain Guide is an essential tool for game masters and RPG players seeking to craft memorable antagonists and morally complex heroes. This guide delves into the art of villain creation, offering innovative strategies to develop characters that drive the narrative and captivate players. Whether you’re plotting the downfall of a kingdom or the rise of a conflicted anti-hero, this book has you covered.

With its step-by-step processes, engaging prompts, and expert insights, this guide solves the common problem of flat, uninteresting villains that fail to challenge players’ creativity. These tools empower creators to design layered personalities, intricate backstories, and compelling motives that enrich any campaign setting.

Book Review: The Sound of Story

Voice in writing can seem elusive and hard to define. It’s more than just style it’s rhythm, energy, attitude, and the unique fingerprint of a narrator or character. Voice is shaped by culture and history as much as the mechanics of language.

In The Sound of Story, author and writing teacher Jordan Rosenfeld demystifies voice and its close companion, tone, offering writers the tools to develop and refine their own. Through contemporary examples, this book explores how syntax, point of view, emotion and more shape voice on the page. Whether you’re crafting fiction or nonfiction, this book will help you shape and refine voice to create compelling, authentic narratives. It empowers writers to wield voice and tone with purpose, increasing their chances of publication, and delivering a compelling story that leaps off every page.

Book Review: How to Write Stunning Sentences

In this new edition of How to Write Stunning Sentences, you’ll find more stylish sentences that mesmerize and rearrange a reader’s world. Think of this book as a private lesson with Nina Schuyler (award-winning author and long-time instructor on style in prose) featuring guest appearances by the masters, including James Baldwin, Lauren Groff, Grace Paley, John Updike, Toni Morrison and newly added Virginia Woolf, Anne Carson, Justin Torres, Don DeLillo, Doris Lessing, Rachel Cusk and Kevin Barry. It’s a masterclass with some of the best writers of the 20th century. Whether a novelist, essayist, short story or nonfiction writer, How to Write Stunning Sentences will elevate your writing from good to stunning.

Book Review: Seven Drafts - Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book

Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book divides writing and revision into distinct stages, with a new focus in each draft. Allison K. Williams' frank, funny voice encourages writers to tackle even big editing tasks with a sense of humor and a feeling that someone who understands is on their side. After sections on story, elements of writing craft and structure, seeking and using feedback, and the publication process, Seven Drafts goes beyond the technical and into the mindset of a writer. How can envy be employed to fuel your own work? Where do you find a writing community? How will literary citizenship influence personal process?

This book was first published January of 2001 by Woodhall Press.

Book Review: Racer X vol. 1

Rex Racer was burned, betrayed, and left for dead, but he came back as Racer X, a masked vigilante on a mission to take down the corrupt racing syndicates from the inside. As he protects his brother Speed from the shadows, he battles deadly rivals, rigged races, and his own past. With every race, he inches closer to the vengeance he seeks, using his skills to level the playing field for those who race with honor. But when returning home risks the lives of those he loves, Rex must choose between family and the fight.

Coming from the world of Speed Racer, Racer X volume 1, written by Mark Russell with art by Nuno Plati, will be published on February 17, 2026. Mad Cave Studios provided an early galley for review.

Book Review: Speed Racer vol. 1

We're going pedal to the metal in this all-new interpretation of Tatsuo Yoshida’s classic manga/anime MachGoGoGo, known to Western audiences as the demon on wheels -- Speed Racer!

Speed Racer lives for the thrill of the race, but on the underground circuit, the rules are anything goes. Dodging bullets, explosions, and dirty tricks, he’s got one goal: to prove he’s the best. But when a dangerous syndicate targets his family, Speed’s greatest challenge won’t be on the track…it’ll be on the streets. With the police closing in and a masked racer lurking in the shadows, Speed is about to learn that some races can’t be won with horsepower alone.