MER Bookshelf – January 2026 Curated by Melissa Joplin Higley Forthcoming books with flair! Susan L. Leary, More Flowers, Trio House Press, February 2026, poetry With lyrical acuity, philosophical insight, and deep reverence for girlhood, womanhood, and the wildly…
Browsing: Reviews
Review by Sharon Tracey Laura Cresté’s first full-length poetry collection, In the Good Years, opens with dead horses and ancestors, garden slugs and chipmunks, and two feisty and devoted mothers. There’s an immediacy and honesty as the poet…
Review by Susan Blumberg-Kason Diane Botnick writes in the prologue of her novel, Becoming Sarah, that a midwife at Auschwitz delivered 3000 babies and most were brutally murdered as soon as they were born. Only 30 survived. She imagines…
Review by Melissa Kutsche The events of Susan Buttenwieser’s debut novel, Junction of Earth and Sky, are set into motion by World War II, but this is not a typical World War II novel. Instead of epic battles, Buttenwieser…
Review by Rebecca Jane The Seeds empowers fresh perception, until perception become synonymous with ecological compassion. These poems stir thought, wisdom, and sensitivity to notice “the immeasurable / heartbreaks of the field” (3) so that we may embrace our…
Review by Emily Webber Jennifer Eli Bowen’s memoir in essays, The Book of Kin: On Absence, Love, and Being There, covers twenty years, exploring topics such as marriage, motherhood, the transformative power of writing, and different kinds of communities—when…
MER Bookshelf – December 2025 Curated by Melissa Joplin Higley New or forthcoming books of note (in order of date of publication). Bonnie Naradzay, Invited to the Feast, Slant Books, October 2025, poetry Bonnie Naradzay’s journey—as mother, professional, teacher, and…
Review by Mary Makofske From the title poem, “At the Redemption Center,” where the prosaic recycling of bottles and cans slides into “hope…for the redemption of us all,” Anne Sandor demonstrates her skill at turning words and situations over…
Review by Mindy Kronenberg The memoir has become a prominent and innovative literary genre, evolving from conventional prose to graphic and poetic forms, providing poignant and entertaining forays into the lives of authors with complex personal journeys (100 Demons,…
Review by Megha Sood Pramila Venkateswaran, Poet Laureate Emerita of Suffolk County and author of multiple poetry collections, brings forth her latest poetry collection of fifty-one poems, Exile is Not a Foreign Word, which introspects the walls—both figuratively and…