Synopsis: The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: In a similar vein to The Traveler’s Gift by Andy Andrews or Dinner with a Perfect Stranger by David Gregory, The Baggage Handler is a contemporary story that explores one question: What baggage are you carrying? “The Baggage Handler by David Rawlings is an extraordinary novel that lingered in my heart long after I finished it.”—Colleen Coble, USA... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Brought together by a charming bookstore in England, three women fight to defy expectations, dream new dreams, and welcome love into their lives. As a counselor, Sophia Barrett is trained to help people cope with their burdens. But when she meets a new patient whose troubles mirror her own, she realizes... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: FROM HUMOR TO PATHOS AND BACK AGAIN Ben Zelig thinks he has his life all figured out. Graduate from rabbinical school. Get hired by a spiritually enriched community. Meet a nice Jewish girl and start a family. Simple, right? Naturally, nothing goes according to plan, but life can still work... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Sophie’s husband James is a loving father, a handsome man, a charismatic and successful public figure. And yet he stands accused of a terrible crime. Sophie is convinced he is innocent and desperate to protect her precious family from the lies that threaten to rip them apart. Kate... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Hailed as Italy’s The Fault in Our Stars, this Italian bestseller is now available for the first time in English. “I was born on the first day of school, and I grew up and old in just two hundred days . . .” Sixteen-year-old Leo has a way with words,... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Set in an America where half the population has been silenced, VOX is the harrowing, unforgettable story of what one woman will do to protect herself and her daughter. On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: This musically and graphically enriched chamber novel is an over-the-top black and blue comic extravaganza about the conspiratorial undoing of a teenage entitlement princess. The story throbs throughout with an undercurrent of apocalyptic motifs related to the extinction of art, fall of empire, and coming of the Antichrist. It is... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Found in Paris, an old, long neglected book that purports to be the journal of one Henry Howard turns Michael Devon's world upside down. Within its tattered pages, Michael finds a rich tableau of mid-sixteenth century life, experienced with all of the wonder and sense of adventure of a teen-aged... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: To save the Great Library, the unforgettable characters from Ink and Bone, Paper and Fire, and Ash and Quill put themselves in danger in the next thrilling adventure in the New York Timesbestselling series. The opening moves of a deadly game have begun. Jess Brightwell has put himself in direct peril, with only his wits and... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: The bestselling author of The Paris Wife returns to the subject of Ernest Hemingway in a novel about his passionate, stormy marriage to Martha Gellhorn—a fiercely independent, ambitious young woman who would become one of the greatest war correspondents of the twentieth century In 1937, twenty-eight-year-old Martha travels alone... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: EVOKATIONS is a spiritual awakening, a term I've coined to implement the meditative healing of America's very soul. The thoughts and emotions conjured EVOKE figurative pillars of esoteric collaboration where semantics, style, and purpose adjoin feelings within the principal scope one calls the promise of TODAY. Therefore, one... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: For most of his adult life, the only place he felt at peace was at home in Silver Lake, Ohio with his parents--but after their sudden death, he is left on his own. Eager to help their brother, Steve’s siblings, Scott and Sylvia, who both live in Los Angeles, scramble to find someone reliable... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Michael has a secret--he knows where the treasure is. Months away from a Yale degree and blessed with a well-connected girlfriend who is hell-bent on pulling strings for him, Michael should be reveling in his good fortune. Instead, he has made a new friend, Boomie, who is, Michael discovers, a picaresque angel on his... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: A sharply intelligent novel about two college students and the strange, unexpected connection they forge with a married couple. Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A college student and aspiring writer, she devotes herself to a life of the mind--and to the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi, her best friend and... Continue Reading →
The 2017 June Issue above has just been released. 76-pages of content. Featuring both bestselling and indie authors. A variety of genres and fun articles. Interested in reviewing a free copy, please, email: urbanlitmagazine@gmail.com & use review copy in the subject line. All reviews must be posted within 2-weeks. Reviewers will be asked to send... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Aaron Poochigian’s Mr. Either/Or is an ingenious debut, a verse novel melding American mythology, noir thriller, and classical epic into gritty rhythms, foreboding overtones, and groovy jams surrounding the reader in a surreal atmosphere. Imagine Byron’s Don Juan on a high-stakes romp through a Raymond Chandler novel. Think Hamlet in Manhattan with a license... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: A stunning star-crossed love story set against the glitz and grit of 1980s New York City When Elise Perez meets Jamey Hyde on a desolate winter afternoon, fate implodes, and neither of their lives will ever be the same. Although they are next-door neighbors in New Haven, they come from different worlds. Elise grew... Continue Reading →
ULM: What was it in the ancient scriptures that inspired you to write The Transmigrant? The idea of Jesus as a holy man rather than the Messiah had been brewing in my mind for a long time. For me, the New Testament story didn’t quite add up. If Jesus were of God, then certainly he... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Punk is no ordinary millennial who takes the life as it is. She has a nasty habit of getting in troubles, she shows the middle finger to prejudice and stupidity, she fights against her broken identity and darkness of her soul. She goes against the stream with her heavy, tight shoes, but she still... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: This is a collection of twelve, high concept, multi-part short stories reflecting on and inspired by the death and transformation of the year 2016. It serves as an elegy for that period of time, submerging into its dark themes of loss, extracting what irreverence and hopefulness it can, and reflecting it through a prism... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: She whispers, “I’m supposed to take you home.” “Not yet,” Abel says. “Please, just not yet.” All Abel wants is a little bit of magic in his life. Enough money so his mom doesn’t cry at night. Healing for his broken body. And maybe a few answers about his past. When Abel discovers letters... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: The Archbishop by Monk Tihon is a famous book in Russia. Written before the Bolshevik revolution, it came under the steamroller of the communist censorship along with other extraordinary books of Orthodoxy. The Archbishop is a book that provokes, a literary work, o novella, not a treaty of ecclesiology, continuing to be a cry against... Continue Reading →
COPING WITH ASH by Michael Scott Curnes Inkwater Press, January 26, 2017 (Reviewed and given 5 stars by Danielle Urban) Author Interview ULM: What would you like readers to take from reading your book, Coping with Ash? MSC: Loss and grief are universal human elements but how we cope with these is uniquely individualized.... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: From the internationally bestselling author of The Vegetarian, a rare and astonishing (The Observer) portrait of political unrest and the universal struggle for justice. In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed. The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: In The Weight of Him Billy Brennan undergoes an unforgettable journey in a startling attempt to resurrect his family and reignite hearts, his own most of all. At four hundred pounds, Billy can always count on food. From his earliest memories, he has loved food's colors, textures and tastes. The way flavors go off... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Big M OK Used Car–magnate Michael Mulroney never set out to be heroic. He lives at the top, naturally, thanks to instinct, wit, and the will to win. Insolvency is not the same as poverty; poverty is for poor people. And a man of proven dexterity is not poor. He beats the practical challenges... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: From the novelist the New York Times compares to Paul Bowles, Evelyn Waugh and Ian McEwan, an evocative new work of literary suspense Adrift in Cambodia and eager to side-step a life of quiet desperation as a small-town teacher, 28-year-old Englishman Robert Grieve decides to go missing. As he crosses the border from... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Sukey is 17. It is 1967 and she moves into a crowded North London flat: her bed is cushions on the floor of the kitchen.Kitty, the official tenant of the flat who Sukey knows from when they were both at college, occupies the main bedroom. She works in a pub, steals money and other... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: In the land of the Boyar, a boy will fall in love and become much more than a man. Fleeing with his family from danger, a boy catches a glimpse of Fifika, as their clan travels with haste to the lands of the boyar, a mysterious benefactor. Smitten, the boy becomes her playmate there... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Man Booker Prize-winner Howard Jacobson brings his singular brilliance to this modern re-imagining of one of Shakespeare’s most unforgettable characters: Shylock Winter, a cemetery, Shylock. In this provocative and profound interpretation of “The Merchant of Venice,” Shylock is juxtaposed against his present-day counterpart in the character of art dealer and conflicted father Simon Strulovitch.... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: William Shakespeare's The Tempest retold as Hag-Seed Felix is at the top of his game as Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. His productions have amazed and confounded. Now he's staging a Tempest like no other: not only will it boost his reputation, it will heal emotional wounds. Or that was the... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Set in ancient Israel, Deborah Rising (HarperCollins, 2016) portrays the dramatic (and unlikely) rise of the first woman to lead a nation in recorded human history. In the tradition of The Red Tent, The Fifth Mountain, and The Mists of Avalon, this absorbing novel delivers an inspiring story of suspense and adventure in pursuit of freedom and self-determination, starring... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Remembrance of Blue Roses follows a man and a married couple in New York City, whose intricate relationship oscillates among friendship, love, love-triangle, and even obsession. Its romantic ambience is interwoven with classical music, opera, art, family legend, and international affairs, illuminating the lives of international civil servants at the United Nations and... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Walt Whitman, John Burroughs, and J.P. Irvine represent a handful of the thousands of government clerks who worked in Washington, D.C., after the Civil War. But Irvine, a small-town poet from the Illinois prairies, was the one selected to address President Ulysses S. Grant and a crowd of 10,000 on Memorial Day 1873.... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Blanca is forty years old and motherless. Shaken by the unexpected death of the most important person in her life, she suddenly realizes that she has no idea what her future will look like. To ease her dizzying grief and confusion, Blanca turns to her dearest friends, her closest family, and a change... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960's. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon Evie, is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerizing... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Coinman, a junior level office worker in India, has a number of eccentricities. The laughingstock of the office, he finds no relief at home; his wife Imli, an obsessed actress, completely vanishes into each role. When tough bully, Hukum, a beautiful enchantress, Tulsi, and the office sage, Ratiram, unite the office to conspire against... Continue Reading →
The June 2016 Issue is now finished! It has been uploaded to Amazon and should be live by tomorrow morning. Thank you to everyone for your help and support. We are looking for 25 reviewers... If you are willing to leave both a rating and a review of the June Issue, we will give... Continue Reading →
We have gone through a lot of changes...some faster than others. We have been experimenting with what works best for everyone and for ourselves. Recently, we have updated...our website's name and URL. Prices and services will be changing once more and after the final changes are made prices will be locked in for the services... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Lonely, widowed, and desperately poor, seventy-three-year-old Miriam is used to living a life of isolation. But when she comes across a lost traveler one stormy night, she knows she must do the right thing, so she invites the stranger into her modest home for a bite of food until the weather passes. The... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Enter Elizabeth Bennet. Chef Casey Reddick has had it up to here with men. When she arrives in the charming town of Summer Hill, Virginia, she leaves behind a demanding boss at a famous D.C. restaurant and a breakup with a boyfriend jealous of her success. Some peace and quiet on the picturesque... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: The stunning novel that explores the secret life of Mecca by the first woman to win the international prize for Arabic fiction. When the body of a young woman is discovered in the Lane of Many Heads, an alley in modern-day Mecca, no one will claim it as they are all ashamed of... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Growing up in an orphanage prepared Amelia Cooke for the high-stakes role of a female lobbyist surrounded by the egos of the 1887 Congress, a time before women had the right to vote. Her success in the isolating male arena comes from using the tactics she’s learned from those who oppressed her.... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: “The mother begins to destroy the child the moment it's born,” wrote the founder of behaviorist psychology, John B. Watson, whose 1928 parenting guide was revered as the child-rearing bible. For their dangerous and “mawkish” impulses to kiss and hug their child, “most mothers should be indicted for psychological murder.” Behave is the... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: The storytellers told tales. The singers sang epic songs. The dancers danced the dance that dancers dance, on the floor and tabletops. The jugglers juggled fire. The fortune tellers only told the good part. And the Gods seemed pleased with all of Rome. Rating: 5 stars Review: Roses of Rome by Robert M. Richburg... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: When two persistent interviewers asked Caldwell if he would define Fiddler, his answer was "Nope." It was his averment that meaning is a function of the story. That's one of the two responses an author can make to requests for meaning. The other is to say what he was trying to do; that,... Continue Reading →
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Urban Book Reviews 