Where Is Home?

Where Is Home?

A Song to Keep: A Kinship of Poems and Drawings  By Olivia Findlay and Domenica de Ferranti. Scotland Street Press, 2021. Hardcover, 112 pages, $35. Reviewed by Ashlee Cowles. One of the most prominent and compelling themes in literature, including poetry, is the...
Transcending the ‘Good Old Days’

Transcending the ‘Good Old Days’

Last Summer Boys: A Novel by Bill Rivers Lake Union Publishing, 2022 Paperback, 285 pages, $14.95 Reviewed by Ashlee Cowles Nostalgia is a word often used in reference to works of fiction like Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine and Stephen King’s novella “The Body,” which...
The Time That We Are Given

The Time That We Are Given

The Outsiding (A Jo Grant Mystery) by Sally Wright. Amazon Digital Services, 2018. Kindle, 1038 kb, $3. Reviewed by Ashlee Cowles Why do we read fiction? A cynic may claim it’s to avoid reality, but the devoted reader knows better. We read stories, including the...
A Woman Who Reads

A Woman Who Reads

Book Girl: A Journey through the Treasures and Transforming Power of a Reading Life By Sarah Clarkson. Tyndale Momentum, 2018. Paperback, 288 pages, $16. Reviewed by Ashlee Cowles What does it mean to be a woman who reads? This is the primary question Sarah Clarkson...

Shining a Light on Dark Deeds

The Moral Imagination in the Mystery Novels of Sally Wright by Ashlee Cowles When it comes to fictional works of the moral imagination, fantasy novels tend to receive the most attention from critics who believe literature plays a vital role in the conservation of the...