TSR Newsletter: January 13th, 2024
Volume 2, Issue 2
Hello, TSR Subscriber! It’s mid-January (well almost!) and so far, here in Miramichi truly little snow to speak of. How is it where you are?
Considering the recent wildfires, this week’s featured review is Uncontrolled Flight by Frances Peck, a novel centered around wildfire season in the British Columbia Interior. Ian Colford is the reviewer.
Featured Review
Uncontrolled Flight by Frances Peck
It’s wildfire season in British Columbia. How could Rafe Mackie, a veteran firefighting pilot with West Air, lose control of his plane while making a routine drop of fire retardant, and crash into the forest? That is the question everyone’s asking in Frances Peck’s ambitious and suspenseful novel
Baraka Books is a TSR Newsletter sponsor! Saints Rest by Luke Francis Beirne is one of their newest releases and the review of it will be appearing here soon. For more information, please click the banner.
New Reviews
Through the Portal Offers Hope Amid Dystopia
Mermaids, arborists, and pollinators are among the characters to be found in Through the Portal: Tales from a Hopeful Dystopia. Edited by Lynn Hutchinson Lee and Nina Munteanu, this eco-fiction collection gathers over thirty stories that fall under the general umbrella of hopeful dystopias.
Shadows of Tyranny: Defending Democracy in an Age of Dictatorship by Ken McGoogan
In the last days of 2024 we sensed, more acutely than ever, a certain finality beyond the habitual ceding of one calendar to another. Events, both proximate and global and characteristic of the rise of right-wing and ultra-conservative movements, augur increased threats to democratic governance and the institutions and principles on which it relies, spu…
Haunting Loneliness and Visions of the Past: The Second Season of Jonas MacPherson by Lesley Choyce
This breathtaking tribute to life is best read in the early morning when all is quiet, and the living have not woken from their slumber. The words of this story dance off the page to shine a light in the darkness. The Second Season of Jonas MacPherson
The Storm of Progress by Wade Rowland
For a long time, I’ve been dismayed by humanity’s foot-dragging when it comes to taking meaningful action to confront looming threats like climate change. Wade Rowland’s The Storm of Progress: Climate Change, AI, and the Roots of Our Dangerous Ethical Myopia
Michael Greenstein Reviews:
The Astonishing Room by Brian Bartlett
Brian Bartlett’s latest collection of poetry, The Astonishing Room, is noteworthy not only for its astonishment in sound and sight, but also for its roominess or breathing space between meanings. His capaciousness includes the reader and his subjects in the experience of reading and dreaming about family, friends, neighbours, other poets, and the moods …
Halyna Kruk’s A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails (and Four Other Griffin 2024 Titles)
Halyna Kruk’s A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails has been translated from the Ukrainian by Amelia Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk. Through moving stanzas, careful punctuation, and poignant imagery she bears witness to the war in Ukraine in “there and back again.” Strong s consonants in the opening stanza ground the poet’s difficult journey: “I travelled there…
Other TSR News
TSR Co-Administrator Heather McBriarty: Why I wrote The Island of the Golden Orbs
“I’m a grandmother of two little boys, with a sailboat (with pirate flags) that those boys love to come out on, and I write books. What could be more natural than writing a book for grandsons about all the things we love? The Island of the Golden Orbs began life 4 years ago, as a much simpler story - about grandparents who were secretly pirates - a picture book for very young children. Without an illustrator, it didn’t get far. It stewed on the backburner until the little boys got bigger and the eldest started reading chapter books on his own. It was too late, I thought.
At the beginning of November (NaNoWriMo), it occurred to me that if I buckled down, I could write a chapter book and have it ready for Christmas for my grandsons. Throw in a timeslip, a “fair maiden in need of rescue” who really doesn’t need rescuing, a treasure that is so much more than mere gold, and a spider family for the youngest who adores them, then I had a story! While my grandsons have very special copies, in which they play the lead roles, the public version has a sister and brother, and the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Its available on Amazon and launching soon at the new bookstore/coffee shop in Saint John, The Write Cup!”
TSR Contributor Spotlight:
Laura Patterson is a Registered Acupuncturist and a Food Inspector from rural New Brunswick where she lives with her husband and twin boys. When she's not busy with life's craziness, you'll find her with a warm drink in hand and her nose in a book. Her Substack site, The Fairweather Review, can be found here.