how to stop dwelling on painful past
events, how to reprogram negative beliefs,
and how to break negative habits.
Exercises include instructions on “loving
when you’re not sure how,” creating a
“mind mansion” to find the source of self-limiting negative beliefs, accepting difficult situations, and “identifying and
responding to inner voices.” While
Hughes addresses the psychological reasons for anxiety and panic attacks, his
book is chiefly geared toward proposing
practical solutions for this common but
crippling malady. He strikes a disarmingly relatable pose, freely admitting that
he compares himself to everyone he meets
and invariably comes up, in his own mind,
as the loser. While the frequent interjections from the author’s “inner critic” can
be hokey, his underlying advice is solid
and sensible. A list of suggested further
reading is included.
Children’s/ YA
Grunge Gods and Graveyards
Kimberly G. Giarratano. Red Adept, $5.99 e-book (303p) ASIN B00KPBSGA0
Part ghost story, part mystery, this
atmospheric piece set in 1996 combines
teen angst with small-town dynamics and
a touch of urban legend. High school
senior Lainey Bloom is in mourning for
Danny Obregon,
the boy she loved,
who was killed in a
hit-and-run acci-
dent over the
summer. She’s also
contending with
bullies (including
Danny’s ex), an
unsympathetic
school administra-
tion, and a perpetually busy widower
father. While Lainey’s life spirals into con-
fusion, Danny’s ghost appears, asking her
to help figure out who killed him. As they
investigate Danny’s death, romance con-
tinues to bloom between girl and ghost,
and they discover that the truth is almost
fatally complicated. Giarratano makes a
solid debut, though she takes a kitchen
sink approach to her plotting and world-
building: Lainey’s life takes on the quali-
ties of a soap opera, with everything going
wrong at home, at school, with her
friends, and so on. What proves over-
whelming for the protagonist risks feeling
excessive for readers. Nevertheless, the
mix of murder mystery and supernatural
love story makes this an entertaining if
unfocused read. Ages 14–up.
How Wendy Redbird Dancing
Survived the Dark Ages of Nought
Lyn Fairchild Hawks. Lyn Hawks, $10.99 pa-
per (284p) ISBN 978-0-9888837-2-7
It’s 2009, and high school senior
Wendy Redbird Dancing has just moved
from California to a small North Carolina
town, thanks to her hippie mother’s latest
whim (i.e. love interest). Between her
mixed ethnicity (her father was Zuni) and
her Michael Jackson obsession, Wendy is a
perennial outsider.
Bullied by a class-
mate, she falls in
with two African-
American kids at
school who see her
sarcastic wit and
M.J.-inspired
wardrobe as signs
of levelheaded-
ness. Wendy’s pri-
mary sources of solace are a promised trip
to see Michael Jackson in concert in
London and the attention she receives
from her mother’s new boyfriend, but
when that attention turns sexual in
nature, she faces a crisis. In her first novel,
Hawks creates a complex and passionate
renegade in Wendy. While a number of
traumatizing events arrive in quick suc-
cession and threaten to overwhelm the
plot (though upsetting to Wendy,
Jackson’s death ends up getting lost in the
shuffle), it remains a compassionate story
about finding the right people (and
music) when you don’t fit in. Ages 14–up.
Mistake, Wisconsin
Kersti Niebruegge. Kersti Niebruegge, $3.99
e-book (160p) ISBN 978-0-9908710-0-2
Megan Svenson, 15, is determined to
figure out why the “Troll,” Deputy Mayor
Trollqvist, has it in for the teenagers of
Mistake, Wis. Not only has he exchanged
tater tots for head cheese on the school
menu, but he has also cancelled Opening
Day festivities for musky
fishing season (the fish are
the pride and joy of Mistake),
because of a thief stealing musky-themed
mailboxes. Aiding her aunt, Sheriff Lori
Holm, in tracking down the thief and
trying to under-
stand the Troll’s
erratic behavior
through her blog,
Uff Da, Megan
ensures an ending
almost as satis-
fying as the town’s
famous Blue Moon
frozen custard.
Shifting attention
among multiple
Mistake citizens, with Megan as the cen-
tral figure, debut author Niebruegge cre-
ates a light, humorous mystery filled with
Midwestern references—cheese curds,
lutefisk dinners, supper clubs, and high
school sports—and a touch of
Northwoods folklore. Despite intriguing
cliffhangers, Niebruegge’s characters and
plot can be overshadowed by excessive
town backstory and a vein of passively
endured sexism (“There she goes, Miss
Almost Legal”) that distract somewhat
from the novel’s farcical, homespun
appeal. Ages 14–up.
Dream Warriors
D. Robert Pease. Evolved Publishing, $2.99 e-book (280p) ASIN B00LLUGAP2
In this fanciful adventure, loosely
inspired by the Biblical story of Joseph,
Pease (the Noah Zarc trilogy) begins a
series about a
young man des-
tined to change
the world.
Whenever
15-year-old New
Yorker Joey
Colafranceschi
falls asleep, he
journeys to a
dream world,
where he is sucked into a conflict between
the immortal Pharaoh and the mysterious
Ammon; Pharaoh wants to destroy the
waking world, while Ammon wants to
prevent this catastrophe. Both use armies
of dream warriors to do their bidding,
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