Reviews

Natasha Ria El-Scari is most known for her honesty about motherhood, womanhood, politics and love. Once asked in an interview what makes her unique she replied, "most people lie to themselves, but I like to reveal myself.” Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Natasha El-Scari has a BA from Jackson State University and a MA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Her poetry, academic papers, and personal essays have been published in anthologies and journals. She lives in Kansas City.

I put off reading Heroes Are My Weakness for a long time. Susan Elizabeth Phillips is one of my favorite authors, and for years her contemporaries were the only time I ventured outside of historical romances, but this gothic-inspired standalone got lackluster reviews when it first came out and many fans lamented its darker tone compared to her usual zany, fun style.

We know the media story of the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014, but we don’t know the other story. Author, Dr. Steven Hatch focuses less on the virus itself, which was the subject of Hot Zone by Richard Preston, and instead focuses on stories of daily life under the stress of the epidemic.

Dr. Adam Price has twenty-five years of experience with children and adolescents, especially boys, and his experience shows. He's Not Lazy details how and why an adolescent boy’s brain is often behind, they fear of failure, often "opt out". They opt out by procrastinating, losing themselves in the world of video games, or appearing ambivalent towards everything.

What could be the advantage of a diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)? Psychiatrist Archer (Better Than Normal) shares his experiences in living with and treating thousands of patients with ADHD.

Eric McHenry is the immediate past Poet Laureate of Kansas. From Topeka, Kansas, McHenry attended Beloit College and then earned a MA in creative writing from Boston University. His work has been featured in The Harvard Review, Slate, Poetry Northwest, The New York Times Book Review and Salon. He lives in Lawrence and teaches at Washburn University of Topeka. McHenry will offer a poetry workshop at our 2017 writers conference.

Love. Pain. Death.  Family.  These are the main themes of this excellent Amazon production. 

Set among the cold and beautiful New England scenery, the story follows Lee (played by Casey Affleck) as he goes back to his hometown to take charge of his teenage nephew, Patrick (played by Lucas Hedges) after the death of Lee’s brother.   

Patton Oswalt sometimes serves as my spirit guide. That might be a function of my desire to put all of my useless pop culture knowledge to good use and get paid for it. Which is not to say that I think Patton's job is simply goofing on George Lucas or drawing parallels between his chronic depression and the Mad Max film series. Like all effective comedians, he presents his often insightful and unique views on the world with remarkable timing and a memorable delivery.

As Animal, Vegetable, Miracle celebrates its 10th year of being published, I decided to finally give it a try.

Much of what the Kingsolvers put forth about the food industry still rings true.