Wisconsin Underground by Doris Green

 

Note: this review originally appeared on Wisconsin Writers Association.

Wisconsin Underground: A Guide to Caves, Mines, and Tunnels In and Around the Badger State, by Doris Green

Guidebook, informative,193 pages

Published by Henschel HAUS Publishing, Inc., 2018 (2nd edition)

Reviewed by Gloria Bartel, https://gloriaabartel.wixsite.com/gloriaabartel

Doris Green’s Wisconsin Underground is and eye-opening anthology of historical and current information regarding caves, mines, man-made tunnels, museums, and natural areas all over the state of Wisconsin, northern Iowa, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Through the exploration of these underground areas, the author paints a picture of the subterranean landscape of the state of Wisconsin and the immediate surrounding areas. Doris Green engages her deep knowledge and passion for the man-made and natural history of the world she lives in with this well-written, entertaining guidebook.

This guidebook’s section on caves is very novice-friendly, yet it still points out many areas of interest for seasoned cavers. Ms. Green covers all the known show caves in Wisconsin as well as many lesser-known caves. This book is particularly informative as the author describes each location very specifically, adding notes of what kind of clothing and equipment to bring and the difficulty level of each particular cave or tour. She also discusses the difficulty level for the mines and natural areas so that a tourist can come prepared for any occasion.

One particularly interesting quality of Wisconsin Underground is the way Doris Green’s introduction includes an entire section dedicated to bats and how the white nose syndrome has affected their populations. Throughout this book, she points out different caves and even a mine or two that have been closed to protect the species that hibernate year-round in Wisconsin. Since the caves and mines are an important part of Wisconsin’s natural history, Green also talks about the lengths people and governments have gone to protect these natural and historical landmarks from vandalism that has already damaged many caves, mines, and natural areas.

This guidebook is packed with information, descriptions, photos, and histories of the natural and man-made geological landscape of Wisconsin. Whether you are an experienced spelunker, interested in Wisconsin’s natural history, or just scouting for some new scenic views to share with your loved ones, Wisconsin Underground is a great place to start!

Reviewer Gloria Bartel lives in southern Wisconsin and is an aspiring writer. She loves to read books of all kinds. She has been writing novels since high school. She enjoys talking to authors about their publishing journeys as one day she hopes to publish some of her vast collection of novels. 

Print: $19.95

Ebook: $9.99

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Harvest Moon by Jenny Knipfer

 

Historical Fiction/Christian Inspirational

281 pp

Self-Published, November 23, 2020

Reviewed by Gloria Bartel, https://gloriaabartel.wixsite.com/gloriaabartel

Jenny Knipfer creates yet another masterpiece with her fourth book in the By the Light of the Moon Series, Harvest Moon. Told from the perspectives of Maang-ikwe and her son, Niin-mawin, this story of forgiveness and grace intertwines the lives of these characters, their loved ones, and their wrongdoers in a most intricate and passionately descriptive way.

 The book is divided into two sections, the first of which focuses largely on Maang-ikwe as she blooms into womanhood and finds her calling as an Ojibwe medicine woman while overcoming personal obstacles and growing stronger in her faith in Jesus Christ. The second section focuses on Niin-mawin, Maang-ikwe’s son, who finds himself in a turbulent time of Native history, straddling two worlds—that of his people, the Anishinaabe, and that of his forced upbringing in the white man’s school. Through both perspectives, the story unravels of love and loss and finding a way that leads to love again.

As in her other novels, Knipfer plays with the timelines of her characters, jumping back and forth between perspectives as she goes. While this can occasionally be confusing, Knipfer always gives the reader time and place cues to ground them. The author has put a marvelous amount of research into this book, and while at first incorporating the Ojibwe language into the story seemed awkward, it quickly became natural-feeling and added authenticity to Maang-ikwe and Niin-mawin’s story.

The language of the book has an almost poetic feel to it sometimes in the descriptions of the physical world and the events the characters are taking part in. Knipfer transports us to 1869 on the Lake Nipigon Reservation as Niin-mawin learns how to beat the ceremonial drum and pray to Gitchi-manidoo to guide his path. We readers walk the shore along Lake Superior, looking across its vastness and wonder, is there another side to the great sea before us?

 In the same way, Knipfer creates her characters with so much emotion and physical presence that they become almost real in the imagination. Few of the many characters in Harvest Moon remain static, so the reader gains a better sense of the bonds among the characters across all the timelines presented.

 While you do not need to read the other books in this series to understand the characters or the story, doing so can help create a better grounding in the world Jenny Knipfer builds for her reader and may help clarify the epilogue of this story. Overall, Harvest Moon is a captivating and evocative novel of the importance of family, faith, and forgiveness and how, together, those things help heal a broken heart.

Reviewer Gloria Bartel lives in southern Wisconsin and is an aspiring writer. She loves to read books of all kinds. She has been writing novels since high school. She enjoys talking to authors about their publishing journeys as one day she hopes to publish some of her vast collection of novels.

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The Dragoneer Young Adult from Amber Boudreau

 Note: This review originally appeared her: https://wiwrite.org/book-reviews/9368349

The Dragoneer by Amber Boudreau

Young Adult Fantasy, 268 pages

Dragon Street Press, June 2, 2020

Reviewed by: Michelle Caffrey  www.MichelleCaffrey.com

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Ebook $4.99

Print $14.99

About the Book

High school is hard enough without a dragon breathing down your neck. When 15-year-old Moira Noble stumbles across a cave and a dragon in need of her help, she unwittingly forms a link to it and becomes a Dragoneer. Now the growing Zephyr needs a new place to stay and a steady supply of spicy potato chips.

Moira’s homework now includes learning how to use magic and fight with a sword, so that she can keep Zephyr safe from an escalating troll threat. In the meantime she must keep up appearances at school and at home—because if she fails to help Zephyr find a way home, it won’t just be the life of her dragon on the line…but hers as well.

Michelle's Review: Dragon as Metaphor - Five Stars

This was a fun read, with a great blend of reality and fantasy. The characters are three-dimensional, with orphaned Moira facing teen issues like dating, friendship, curfew, and homework. Complicating her life is her unexpected encounter with a dragon. Unwillingly, she must save the monster from his troll enemies. In the process, she learns not only sword and archery skills, but also courage and trust.

When Moira becomes a “dragoneer” she must also overcome her anxiety and panic attacks from the recent loss of her father—the “monster in the room.”  The book, however, is far from preachy, and sprinkled with humor. Who knew a dragon would enjoy a diet of fire rocks and spicy potato chips?

This is an excellent book for the young reader in your life or for anyone who enjoys a rollicking fantasy tale told well.

About the Author

Amber Boudreau has a background in Geology. In between household projects and parenting, she writes youth and adult fantasy. A native of northwest Indiana, she currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her husband and two children. The Dragoneer is her debut novel. An unapologetic reader of fantasy and romance, or anything really, she would love to connect with other avid readers on Twitter @anamberauthor or at www.authoramberboudreau.com.

Reviewer Michelle Caffrey is the author of her travel memoir, Just Imagine: A New Life on an Old Boat, and two nonfiction books about a friend’s dog lost in Yellowstone for 44 days: Bring Jade Home and picture book Jade – Lost in Yellowstone. The latter book recently won Creative Child’s 2020 Book of the Year Award. She lives in her happy place, Lake Geneva Wisconsin, with her husband Paul. She enjoys reading, knitting, and being anywhere near water.

 

 

Judy DuCharme's Blood Moon Redemption

 

Blood Moon Redemption

Judy DuCharme

Paperback, 288 pages

Published October 31st 2018 by Ambassador International

ISBN: 9781620208229

$4.99 Ebook

$15.99 paperback

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About the Book:

An ancient relic, a puzzling prophesy, a young woman . . . tied together through the ages . . .

Throughout history, blood moons have always been surrounded by persecution and provision, great trials and triumphs. The first blood moons in 1493-1494 provided a new world for the Jewish people. The second in 1949-1950 gave them Israel, and the third in 1967-1969 presented the Jewish people with Jerusalem. Now a fourth set of blood moons is on the horizon, and Tassie’s mother is certain they will bring about great change.

Tassie, a young Jewish lawyer named for a lost religious relic, has her sights set on her career and love, and she doesn’t have time for silly children’s stories. Dismissing the blood moons as circumstance, her unbelief threatens to keep her from her destiny. When Tassie finds herself in the center of worldwide turmoil and a terrorist plot, can she accept her family history and fulfill her place in the future of Israel? Or will the country of her heritage finally fall to its many enemies?

Blood Moon Redemption is an end-times thriller that will keep you riveted until the very last moonrise. 

 

My Review:

I love Judy DuCharme's story-telling chops. Her research is impeccable, and characters full and rich. This story reaches from the past, the Spanish pogroms of the 15th century into the future, a story of Jewish racism from the past into the promises measured out to God's chosen in the future. Blood Moon Redemption follows great moments in history and the present, a wondrous artifact that travels to the New World and to Israel, a special messenger, and a young woman with the fate of the world in her hands.

A welcome aspect of the story is the message of how far God will go to claim us. I think we'll all be surprised at the presences and absences in the Kingdom.

Surprises, twists, action, romance all abound in this book.

 

About the Author:

I was a teacher for 22 years, retiring in June of 2012. Coming from a family of teachers, it seemed a natural fit for me after my children were in school. I grew up in the small lakeside town of Harrisville in the northern part of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, the youngest of four children. Following college, Michigan State University, I worked as an announcer at a Christian Radio Station near Lansing. Lee and I married in 1975 and lived in the Detroit suburbs of Berkley and Royal Oak until moving to Wisconsin's beautiful Door Peninsula in early 1984 with Bethany, age 5, and Christopher, age 3. It was a year or two later that I went back to school to obtain my teaching degree. I taught 5th grade my whole teaching career and loved it.

New mystery thriller from JP Jordan

 

This review originally appeared at Wisconsin Writers Association https://wiwrite.org/book-reviews/9331329

Men of God by J.P. Jordan

Mystery/Thriller, 365 pages

Published on September 21, 2020 by TEN(16) Press

Reviewed by Kathleen (K.M.) Waldvogel, www.kmwaldvogel.com

Men of God is a mystery/thriller set in eastern Wisconsin. Unlike many mysteries that are solved by a police officer or private investigator as the protagonist, this mystery is unraveled by Nick Hayden, a former pararescueman.

After leaving the Air Force, Nick is enlisted by his parents’ friend and CEO of a Wisconsin-based insurance company to head a sensitive project. Nick’s assignment is to determine why a division of the company (which insures religious institutions) incurred astronomical losses and how the company can dissolve that division.

Nick reluctantly agrees to the task and delves into the assignment. Before long, he realizes the losses themselves are not the only concern. He is horrified to uncover proof that the company’s loss of money is linked to serial killings. Who is responsible for these deaths?

J.P. Jordan does a masterful job of weaving several mysteries into one. As a reader, you follow the perspective of various characters while piecing together a web of intrigue. The more you read, the more you want to continue. How do the puzzle pieces fit together?

This is not a book to skim through and toss aside. You want to relish every description, every detail, and every moment. Your heart will pound, your pulse with race, and you will find yourself enthralled by the story mystery, and characters created by J.P. Jordan.

Reviewer Kathleen (K.M.) Waldvogel is a former teacher and author of the middle-grade nonfiction book, Spies, Soldiers, Couriers, and Saboteurs: Women of the American Revolution, and picture book, Three Little Ghosts. Waldvogel and her husband live in northwest Wisconsin and also spend time in sunny Arizona.

 

The Rooming House Gallery from Bill Mathis

                                                  


The Rooming House Gallery: Connecting the Dots, by Bill Mathis
Literary Fiction, 260 pp
May, 2020, Rogue Phoenix Press
99 cents ebook
$10.99 paperback

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About the Book
Josh and Andres unexpectedly inherit an old rooming house in Chicago. Each discovers they have a long and deep history with the place. Thrilled to have a home of their own, plus a place for Andres to make and sell his art, the two are challenged to turn the place into a community art center. The challenge becomes more personal as each deals with their own backgrounds, family issues and differing personal interests. Tough decisions are made about their new/old home, relationship with their fathers, and their conflict over starting a family. The neighboring family and new friends play a key role as they bring the art center to fruition, move into a new personal home, and begin a non-DNA family.

My Review
History and contemporary life duke it out in a quest for acknowledgment in this edition of the Rooming House saga. A building with a previous life is bequeathed to a young couple, one wanting home and family, one wanting space and community action. They learn their roots go deep and twine through the building’s very foundation, and their current relationship may have sprung from history itself as they unravel personal stories from the ledgers and diaries left in the building.

At heart is the author’s passion for family, something that resonates with me. When two people try to form a more perfect union, no matter who, what, when, and where they are, reality often exposes scars and warts and everyone’s personal level of depravity. It’s the committed soul who can share the healing process. Andres and Josh may look and act like opposites, but their mutual affection and determination to give and take are an example for all couples. Each has a desire to learn from the past and grow forward, while serving the greater community. They’ve been together ten years, but how well do they know each other, truly, and the direction to the next level of their union are questions explored in this richly nuanced, very human story.

Told from a large perspective, occasionally shifting among family and community members, the reader is drawn into the secrets and revelations of the evolving American culture. I also had to look up a tamale recipe. While bedroom scenes are under covers, so to speak, parents of potential readers under 16 might want to vet the book first.

About the Author
Bill Mathis won the 2019 Pencraft Runners Up Award for Family Fiction. He is a Preacher’s Kid from Clarksville, Michigan. Bill directed YMCA camps and worked with foster children. He grew up in a tiny town filled with other big families, which may be the reason he frequently writes about family—maybe it’s therapy? He has children, grandchildren, is divorced, retired, and lives with his partner near the Rock River in Beloit, Wisconsin (a wonderful town) from where he can see Illinois. He travels, reads, writes, volunteers with hospice, and eats. He's trying to lose weight—hopefully next year. Bill’s books are about family, warts and all, diversity, and usually include some LGBTQ characters.

Tails and Tales cat poetry from John Manesis

                                                         

Tails & Tales
John Manesis
Poetry
August, 2020

Buy on Amazon
Paperback $12.00

About the Book
A collection of cat poems based on 50 years experience with family pets, news items, felines in movies and famous cats in literature.

My Review
Manesis creates his latest book of 75 poems from the stuff of literature, history, film, fables and children’s stories. Some are short, a single stanza, and some cross the fold. Many follow a particular rhyme pattern and all are lyrical and pithy.

The poems all feature cats either famous by history, fable, or personal experience, such as “Cleo”: My wife and I inherited another cat…” which leads one to question “inherit”? “another”? but follows the tale of pet treatment battlelines. Another riffs on a scene from The Third Man, where a calico cat helps “out” a presumed victim. Scattered throughout are quotes from the likes of Dickens, Twain, and even da Vinci.

Poetry is often so personal it makes a reader feel like a voyeur, but Tails & Tales happily converts history, present day headlines, word play, and family into a joy ride of cats through pop culture. A very fun and appreciative Author’s Note at the end helps the reader put deeper perspective about particular poems, such as Manesis’s double take on “Puss ’n Boots.” Lots of fun for poetry and cat lovers.

About the Author
John Manesis, born in Eu Claire, Wisconsin, graduated from medical school in 1962 and practiced internal medicine and diagnostic radiology until his retirement in 1996. His poetry has appeared in over 100 literary publications, including many anthologies, and he has also published a children’s story, Greenie and the Tree Frog. He and his wife Bess have two sons and two daughters.