Overview: Flying Saucers, Unidentified Flying Objects, Unidentified Anomalous Objects, Foo Fighters, Ghost Rockets, Phantom Airships, Chariots of the Gods - whatever you call them - strange things have haunted our skies since the dawn of time.

Are they invaders from outer space as imagined in Hollywood movies? Are they the product of psychological, sociological, and cultural factors? Are they non-terrestrial intelligences who are intimately linked to humanity?

Find out more on the subject through Paranormal Perspectives: Portraits of Alien Encounters Revisited, a brand new prose on the subject from author Nigel Watson.

Verdict: Instead of wrestling with theories and speculation, Watson speaks directly with ‘ordinary’ people in the United Kingdom who have reported seeing UFOs and a wide range of startling associated phenomena, that in the past were considered by UFO investigators as too far-fetched or ‘crazy.’

His decades-long research shows how UFO encounters can often escalate from simple sightings of lights in the sky to sightings of alien entities, robots, men in black, and angelic beings. UFO witnesses and experiencers can also be plagued by a life-changing poltergeist or other ghostly experiences, telepathic messages, alien communications, strange coincidences, visions of the future, and abductions.

So, as we all know by now, flying saucers and alien sightings, often categorized under the broader term UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) or more recently, UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena), are reported phenomena that have sparked both public fascination and scientific inquiry.

Now, playing devil’s advocate here, these very same sightings, while frequently linked to extraterrestrial visitation, can also be explained by a wide range of factors, from misidentified natural phenomena and human-made objects to psychological and cultural influences.

And yet back in the 1940’s and 1950’s reports of flying saucers and the such became an American cultural phenomena. Indeed, sightings of strange objects in the sky became the raw materials for Hollywood to present visions of potential threats.

Furthermore, if UFOs were visiting our world, where were these extraterrestrials? Could they be hidden among us? Comic books and television have also dutifully illustrated down the years how the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors reflected anxieties of that era, albeit a fear (or genuine excitement and curiosity) that has bled through the following decades rather seamlessly.

Here in Paranormal Perspectives: Portraits of Alien Encounters Revisited - High Strangeness British UFO Cases, author Nigel Watson explains that UFO’s are here to stay and that even though now and again there are mutterings that the subject matter is a dead duck it only takes a fresh new sighting; a video or photograph, to quickly, and eagerly revive interest in the subject.

In conclusion, sure, many of the stories shared here might seem like science fiction or the very stuff of nightmares, and yet they are told by people of different age groups, social backgrounds, and locations. This is what makes this book such a compellingly intriguing read for as chock full of a lot of statistical and residual information on the subject to hand that it is, it also manages to showcase a very well researched and subsequently documented case study. One that is as infectiously beguiling as it is, at times, imaginatively crafted.

Meaning, to my mind, whatever the answer, and if there is any one answer, this is a most fascinating look at how UFO experiences have evolved in the UK and how they reflect similar worldwide changes in our relationship with the unknown.

About the Author - Nigel Watson has researched and investigated historical and contemporary reports of UFO sightings since the 1970s. He writes a monthly column Saucers of the Damned about UFOs for Fortean Times and regularly writes book reviews for the Pelicanist blogspot. He lives in Plymouth, UK.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: Lee Berk was president of his namesake Berklee College of Music for twenty-five years, where he turned a small, family-operated school into the world’s largest and most innovative music education institution.

In this book, you’ll learn how Berk led the institution’s unprecedented curricular developments in jazz and popular music, film scoring, music production and engineering, music therapy, and more, shattering conservatory models to provide training for countless world class artists and industry luminaries.

Historical records plus anecdotes from both famous and rank-and-file musicians portray Lee as an inspiring, bold visionary and a compassionate, generous man whose life affected musicians across the globe.

Verdict: Lee Eliot Berk, who I myself only just realized was the late president and namesake of the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and who passed away rather unexpectedly in late October of 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona, where he and his wife, Susan, have lived for the past 12 years, graduated from Brown University in 1964 and earned his law degree from Boston University in 1967. He began working at Berklee College of Music in 1966, serving first as bursar and supervisor of the Private Study Division.

He put his legal background to use by teaching courses on music law and copyright issues. He authored the book Legal Protection for the Creative Musician, which won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award in 1971 as best book in music.

He later served as Berklee’s vice president from 1971 to 1979 and worked on the acquisition of new properties in the Back Bay to address the needs of Berklee’s surging student population. Lee oversaw the purchase of property on Massachusetts Avenue and development of the site to become a residence hall, an educational facility, and the Berklee Performance Center. He became the college’s second president in 1979, succeeding his father, and held that post for 25 years until retiring in 2004.

This dedicatedly written and dutifully impassioned new book Lee Berk: Leading the Berklee Way was written by guitarist and noted journalist Mark Small with the help of Lee’s widow Susan and is so much more than a loving tribute to the Berk family and its impact on the music community and beyond, trust me on this.

Opening on the beginnings of Lee’s life, indeed even delving into his lineage, what comes forth on these pages as it eases the story forward chapter by chapter is that aside from being a humble, clinically minded, yet core needs grounded human being, Lee led Berklee with kindness and an entrepreneurial spirit.

Furthermore, he made Berklee into the world’s leader for contemporary music education as if he were organizing the local church fete! He didn’t need to grind gears to achieve what he knew had to happen for this facility to shine and rise to the heights he knew it could. No, for whilst other similar institutes (all be they of a lesser scale) strove to just be the best they thought they could be, Lee broadened their collective curricular scope to include music business, music technology, and music therapy.

He extended their reach and increased access opportunities by establishing Berklee’s International Network, Berklee City Music, Berklee Summer Programs, and Berklee Online. Indeed, Lee broke boundaries with brave new initiatives including the first songwriting major, accepting electric guitar as a principal instrument, and so much more.

His dedication to Berklee and their students was lifelong and fierce. Throughout his nearly 20 years in retirement, Lee stayed in contact with the Berklee community. He devoted his life to helping and supporting aspiring musicians. He was a wonderful, caring person and is missed today by all those that knew him, of that this book resoundingly, and rightfully echoes.

Oh, and as I am sure you are all wondering, the book obviously covers the whole Lee Berk / Berklee name thing too. “My father came home one day and reported that Fred Berman had come into his office and said, Larry, I had a dream last night that the name of the school was changed to Berklee and named after your son,” Lee historically recounts.

And thus he bestowed on him within that very same instant a unique distinction upon him from the time he was ten or eleven years old. In a letter January 14th, 1954, his father wrote to the commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Education, Board of Collegiate Authority, requesting that entity officially approve a name change Schillinger’s School of Music to Berklee School of Music. The state readily granted it. The rest is, as they say, musical history!

In closing, this book is a compellingly alluring read from start to finish, detailing all you could ever hope to know (and more) about a man whose kind gestures made over the years still lovingly resonate today, and who turned a part-time gig into a lifelong passion, not just a career.

To learn more about Lee Berk and the Berk family, you can explore two digital exhibits presented by the Berklee Archives: Berk Family Collection and Lee Eliot Berk.

The collections include assorted Berklee documents and ephemera; artifacts and awards presented to members of the Berk family in recognition of their service and accomplishments; other professional records or tributes; and scrapbooks, photographs, and audiovisual recordings.

About the Author - Mark Small launched his career as a music journalist in 1982 and has contributed hundreds of articles to publications including Guitar Player, Acoustic Guitar, Soundboard, DownBeat, and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society Journal, among others. He served as managing editor of Berklee Today magazine at Berklee College of Music for 26 years and co-authored the book Masters of Music: Conversations with Berklee Greats.

Small studied jazz guitar and composition and arranging at Berklee and earned his bachelor of music degree from New England Conservatory of Music and his master’s from California State University Fullerton (both in classical guitar). He has performed throughout the country as a soloist and with a variety of ensembles, including three televised appearances with the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah.

He has released nine albums featuring his works for guitar. His music is published by Les Productions d’Oz of Quebec, Canada. He lives in the Boston area with his wife MaryAnn. They have two daughters and six grandchildren.

www.berklee.edu

Official Amazon Book Purchase Link

Overview: Circadian Web: The Space of Time - A Novel is a speculative fiction about four men with subconscious secrets on disconnected timelines, and mysterious women intent on helping or hindering them.

Verdict: Across four disconnected timelines, a freelance writer, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, a Latin tutor, and a science teacher hold subconscious secrets. Events in their lives make them question their deep-seated beliefs.

Mysterious women could hold the key to finding answers to their internal conflicts or be intent on pushing them down the rabbit hole. Our subconscious can protect us from traumatic memories … but the truth cannot remain repressed forever.

In what is one of the best novels of the year thus far, Circadian Web: The Space of Time is one of those page turners that even though it is 309 pages deep, the 45 chapters are so enthralling, so dutifully crafted that putting the book down each time you it crosses your mind to so is quickly countered by that little voice in your head that counteracts it with Why?.

Capriciously bringing together an abundance of sci-fi crafted wisdom along with sci-fi fact, and lest it also be known mystically thought provoking and factually spiritually enthralling insights, Circadian Web by author Alistair Conwell is also, at its heart, a genre-bending and insightfully deep dive into quantum physics and alternate dimensions and timelines.

In short, the book is an adventurous read and one that prose wise stays with you long after you have finished the book and put it down. For me it was the sculpted length and breadth given within the idea of an alternate timeline combined with a highly imaginative thriller-esque core that subtly threads throughout.

About the Author - Alistair Conwell was born into a Eurasian family in India but grew up in Australia. He has post-graduate degrees in psychology and business communication.

Alistair spent three years travelling around the world including Britain, Europe, the Middle East, Turkey, Taiwan and the Indian sub-continent. While overseas, he visited and stayed at different types of spiritual communities, and deepened his understanding of meditation, death and the nature of consciousness.

His books and articles have been published internationally, and he has been interviewed by podcasters in the US, Canada and UK about his writings.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: Unlocking Epiphany Moments: A Primer for Life Coaches & Other Inner Guides is a book that defines various epiphanies and explores the skills and strategies that coaches and other inner guides can cultivate to facilitate awareness.

Verdict: Coaching often leads to a mind shift, a change in perspective. It’s not about maintaining the status quo but about diving deeper, gaining clarity, understanding oneself, becoming more authentic, and encountering truth.

This mind shift is an epiphany moment - a moment of discovery, good or bad - that shatters old ways of thinking and sets the future in motion. Though typically associated with religious experience or literature, epiphanies are foundational to coaching, ensuring that the coach and client enter a shared transformational process.

But I digress, for, and by definition, an epiphany is “a moment of sudden or great revelation.” Therefore, an epiphany in itself does not necessarily change your life. But it seems whenever people answer the question asked of them, “What is your greatest epiphany in life?” they always seem to go to events that actually made a profound and powerful difference.

As Stewart herself reveals from the very off, the word epiphany actually originates from the Greek language. It comes from the Greek word epiphaneia" (ἐπιφάνεια), which means manifestation or appearance. This Greek word is related to the verb epiphainesthai (ἐπιφαίνεσθαι), meaning to appear or to be revealed.

For me, the four characteristics of life-changing epiphanies are Listening, Belief, Action and Serendipity, which all come out to play here within the 220 pages that author Elizabeth-Anne Stewart has dutifully brought forth.

As aforementioned, this is an extraordinarily helpful, nay constructively insightful guide for life coaches and more, with the author delving into her own extensive scholarship-hued growth (along with long list of heartfelt acknowledgements) by embedding practical examples of epiphanically moments to being forth a cognate level of understanding and tutorial skills to the spiritually curious.

Unlocking Epiphany Moments: A Primer for Life Coaches & Other Inner Guides represents an unexplored field relevant to anyone who provides inner guidance. Dr. Stewart claims that epiphanies offer a framework for generating meaning, providing a GPS for the maze of life and allowing clients to deepen their exploration into their motivations and options and the forces that block them.

In short, this book defines various epiphanies while exploring the skills and strategies that coaches can cultivate to facilitate such powerful moments.

About the Author - In addition to spiritual direction, Elizabeth-Anne Stewart focuses on life coaching, coach education, and writing coaching; on faculty at The Institute for Life Coach Training, she recently launched The Ministry Coaching Foundation to provide continuing coaching education experiences, coach mentoring, and personal renewal.

She teaches business writing and creative writing at St. Xavier University, recently serving as Director of Education for Thriving Together, an ICF-accredited ministerial coaching program at the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.

The author of 12 books and many articles, her specialties include the mythic imagination, archetypes, and dream work. In 1989, Elizabeth developed “Image Guidance,” a process that helps clients access their own inner wisdom through their own unique images. Mind-Shifting Imagery (2018), adapts Image Guidance for use in life coaching contexts.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: Rhythms of Resilience, by Alex Cohen, is a unique drum methodology book that doubles as a personal memoir of survival, transformation, and creativity under extreme adversity.

Written by renowned drummer and educator Alex Cohen, the book documents the advanced technical drumming concepts Cohen developed while battling—and surviving—malignant brain cancer.

It’s both a manual for drummers seeking new rhythmic frontiers and a story of hope, healing, and defiance in the face of life-threatening illness.

Verdict: To the musical world at large, drummer Alex Cohen is widely considered a modern technical drumming virtuoso and in addition to his role in the Murderhands three-piece, he has fast become one of the most sought-after drummers in New York City.

Furthermore, his first book entitled Ultimate Progressive Drumming (published via Hudson Music) was rightly hailed as a landmark piece of drumming literature by drummers ranging from Derek ‘One Take’ Roddy to multi-instrumentalist Charley Drayton.

But on July 7th, 2024, Cohen suffered a full-body seizure that led to his diagnosis with a malignant brain tumor. These tumors are characterized by uncontrolled cell growth and the ability to invade and potentially spread to other parts of the body. Unlike benign tumors, malignant tumors are life-threatening and require aggressive treatment.

However, and with that all said, over the course of the following weeks, Alex discovered that he could now play ideas and patterns with complexity never before seen on the drum set.

And thus he has now released his brand-new book entitled Rhythms of Resilience, an extremely enthralling new instructional drumming prose that at times pushes itself into new boundaries and shares the unearthing of new discoveries aplenty.

Incorporating a raft of very personal thoughts and black and white photographs of himself along his arduous journey, Cohen’s new drum method book (once again published by Hudson Music) may well have been developed during his painful battle with malignant brain cancer but still manages to merge technical exploration with a most dutifully crafted exposition.

Indeed, the heartfelt chapters brought forth within the construct of his innovative concepts include:

Eldritch Rudiments: Complex hybrid drumming rudiments inspired by cosmic horror and the feeling of insignificance in the face of immense adversity.

The ‘Cohen Method’: A technique system for both hands and feet, focusing on ergonomic motion, finger control, and endurance—developed during commutes and hospital stays.

Ostinatos, Extraction, and Insertion: Advanced limb-independence and polyrhythmic exercises, teaching drummers how to insert/extract rhythms across various limbs and ostinatos.

Extreme Dynamics: Exercises to develop nuanced control of volume and accents, reflecting the emotional extremes experienced through illness.

The Drift & Phasing: Concepts for developing the illusion of independent limb “drift,” as well as rhythmic phasing based on Steve Reich’s minimalist music.

Building Musical Lines: Approaches for creating melodic and contrapuntal drumming phrases, encouraging drummers to think like melodic instrumentalists.

In this book, which is dedicated to both his own father and his friend Owen Strong (both of who died from brain cancer), Alex documents both his extraordinary journey of surviving brain cancer, as well as developing the rhythmic concepts developed while near-death.

A story of survival, perseverance, and the remarkable power of drumming, Rhythms of Resilience shows us both what once seemed humanly impossible on drum set, and the power of music to help us heal during the most difficult times in life.

Furthermore, integrated into the book are more cutting-edge, extremely advanced concepts building on the ideas presented in Cohen’s first two books, Extreme Polyrhythm Coordination & Speed Techniques and Ultimate Progressive Drumming.

Whether following Alex’s journey of healing and discovery or using the exercises to push your drumming towards the most advanced abilities on the drum set seen today, Rhythms of Resilience will inspire you. Of this fact have no doubt.

About the Author - Alex Cohen has now emerged as one of the most advanced progressive drummers on the planet. Called, ‘Incredible’ by Thomas Lang, and ‘A revelation’ by Virgil Donati, Alex is pushing the boundaries of what was thought to be possible on the drum set.

Both of his books, ‘Ultimate Progressive Drumming’, and ‘Extreme Polyrhythm And Speed Techniques’ (co-authored with Brazilian drumming icon Ramon Montagner) have received rave reviews from drummers ranging from Derek Roddy to John Riley.

A faculty member at the world-renowned Drummer’s Collective in York City, Alex maintains a busy teaching and gigging schedule, as well as running a high-end recording studio in Pennsylvania.

Official Book Purchase Link

www.alexcohendrums.com

Overview: The Inner Heart of Reiki is the first Reiki book to look at the inner heart of the spiritual teachings of the system of Reiki.

It will take practitioners and teachers to a whole new level of understanding about their practice and about the way they teach.

This NEW EDITION of the bestselling title comes with new Preface, new Forward, and a new Introduction.

Verdict: For those unaware, Reiki is a Japanese form of energy healing where a practitioner channels healing energy through their hands to the recipient, aiming to promote relaxation, reduce stress, and potentially aid in physical and emotional healing.

Furthermore, it is based on the concept of universal life energy and is often used as a complementary therapy alongside conventional medical treatments.

With proven benefits of such a practice shown to be stress reduction, pain management, and amongst other emotional well-being, you can quickly see just how beloved this pseudoscientific form of energy healing/alternative medicine from Japan really is.

Author Frans Stiene first began writing The Inner Heart of Reiki: Rediscovering Your Self back in 2014. It was actually born from his training in Japan with Takeda Hakusai Ajari, as well as his own personal direct experiences from his training and the practices that he was doing on a daily basis.

At that moment, he did not realize that this book was to become a big game changer for himself and many other people. Why? Because at that time, a book like this had not been written about the system of Reiki.

Of course, countless words had been written, but not an in-depth book about the direct experiences we can have and develop when we practice the teachings of Mikao Usui in a clear and dedicated way.

Me personally, I grew up with a mother who was (putting it politely) Reiki-steered, and thus her five principles were: 1. Just for today, I will not be angry; 2. Just For Today, I Will Not Worry; 3. Just For Today, I Will Be Grateful; 4. Just For Today, I Will Do My Work Honestly; and 5. Just For Today, I Will Be Kind To Every Living Being.

And as much as I was too young to fully comprehend just what they were meant to do for us, or where they originated, or the history behind such a renowned healing technique, I never felt like she was forcing something on me. Moreover it always felt right, perhaps just, and definitely calming to undertake these mantras on a daily basis.

This newly updated The Inner Heart of Reiki: Rediscovering Your Self now comes with a brand new Preface, a wonderful new Forward, and a dutifully crafted new Introduction.

About the Author - Frans Stiene is a co-founder of the International House of Reiki and the Shibumi International Reiki Association. He is also the co-author of the critically acclaimed books The Reiki Sourcebook, The Japanese Art of Reiki, A-Z of Reiki Pocketbook, Reiki Techniques Card Deck and Your Reiki Treatment. He is also the author of The Inner Heart of Reiki - Rediscovering Your True Self and Reiki Insights.

Frans has been a major influence on global research into the system of Reiki since the early 2000s. His practical understanding of the Japanese influences on the system have allowed students around the world to connect deeply with this practice.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: We, Western minds, have forgotten who we are, despite having never once stopped being who we are. We’ve lost touch with the impersonal, Daimonic forces that give us direction and the sacrificial nature of our existence.

No longer do we realize that our lives aren’t, have never been, and will never be about ourselves!

Consequently, we have lost our ability to sense the immanent context that couches our lives in meaning and purpose. Our alienation from our own inborn nature and role has led to a tragic schism: a divorce between essence and narrative, being and action.

Verdict: This book is an effort to help heal this aforementioned schism. It’s about re-encountering our natural selves and guiding Daimon, re-tuning into the archetypal dispositions we embody, and re-learning how to navigate the choppy waters of life in a spontaneous and fulfilling manner.

The author himself, Bernardo Kastrup, even admits that the book is the inevitable outcome, in himself, of a simple momentous realization that we, Western minds, and as aforementioned, have forgotten who we are, despite having never once stopped being who we are. We’ve lost touch with the primordial impetus that fuels the inner fire of our vitality, as well as the innate, archetypal dispositions we embody.

That we’ve forgotten the inner chamber in the palace of mind where we stem from, as well as why we came into being and what we’re supposed to do. No longer can we sense the immanent context that couches our lives in purpose, or the ever-present inner compass without which we cannot navigate life adequality.

We’ve just lost our sense of identity and, therefore, that of family and belonging. In the throes of disorientation and emptiness, we’ve even come to deny the very notions of natural identity, inherent purpose, and objective meaning: we’ve come to deny our natural selves, believing instead that the self is an arbitrary construct that we are free to reinvent, tweak, and otherwise force to comply with convenience and escapist strategies.

Having now read this book three times, in different situations, different settings, and with a different mindset each time, I can honestly relate to you that this new book is a dutifully crafted, intriguingly eye-opening new prose that comes with such an emotional impact that you might not even see it coming before it is insightfully coursing through you days later.

About the Author - Bernardo Kastrup has a Ph.D. in philosophy and another in computer engineering. He has been a scientist in some of the world’s foremost scientific laboratories. His main interests are metaphysics and philosophy of mind. He lives in The Netherlands.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: Elizabeth Barnes, a brilliant agnostic scientist, recovers and uses DNA from a legendary burial cloth - the Sudarium - to impregnate herself and give birth to a clone of Christ, creating chaos for her daughter and the world.

When the identity of this 30-year-old woman cloned from Jesus is revealed, the media go wild, and people everywhere react.

Verdict: Her name is Jennifer, and she is not exactly a poster child for the Church. She has lesbian friends, uses he/she pronouns for God, and fights against domestic violence.

The saying You’re a child of God takes on new meaning as her life is put in danger, she starts to fall for an FBI agent, and global conflict between religions escalates.

Sudarium explores what it means to live with integrity and courage as a person of faith. It disrupts stale views about gender among Christians and invites its readers to pursue their spirituality with fresh eyes in the context of radically loving oneself and others.

Sudarium: A Thriller is Chuck Shelton’s debut novel. As a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary and someone who has been devoted to a life of faith for more than fifty years, reading this book you can clearly see the way his mind works within this intensely written, and highly actionated, absolutely thrilling to immerse one’s self within new prose.

With an inner core that never once bends or even threatens to wane throughout the story, the omnipresent debate of genetics vs. environment makes for a thought-provoking premise, that’s for sure.

In closing, and to give it is full title of Sudarium: A Thriller - Jennifer Barnes discovers she was cloned from the DNA of Jesus. What could go wrong? is a book that not only brings forth a suspensefully written tale that thrills on many levels, but is devotedly chock full of well written characters, all elegantly threaded with a coming-of-age narrative that brings forth a world of captivating wonderment; one that is hard to forget once done.

About the Author - Chuck Shelton is the CEO of Greatheart Consulting, and a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary (MA in Social Ethics). As one of the world’s few experts on engaging and equipping white executives and their mix of colleagues to lead more inclusively, he’s been interviewed and given more than 400 talks, including TV and radio. He lives in Issaquah, WA.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: During the 19th and early 20th centuries, ghost hoaxes (dressing in a white sheet or a more elaborate costume) and scaring people were rife but seldom studied or written about.

These hoaxes frequently led to impromptu ghost hunts by hundreds, sometimes thousands of often drunk vigilantes (and hysterical panics) as rumors of the supposed ghosts would spread round the community.

Many of these ghost scares occurred during the Christmas and New Year periods, and this book explores twelve little-known episodes.

Verdict: Comical but sometimes dark and tragic with entertaining elements of horror and the bizarre, these true Christmas ‘ghost’ stories combine spooky local legends, mischievous hoaxes, and comical ghost hunts.

At the same time, dour psychic investigators compete with whimsical spiritualists and ghost flashmobs. A unique Christmas book, this is an ideal holiday gift for those interested in ghosts and other fortean phenomena, as well as weird histories and social panics.

OK, look, I know it is only late August as I write this review and Christmas is still a veritably long way off, but just holding this book, reading its title and the fact it is red in color all makes me sink into the idea that Christmas is actually here now and that this book is a must-read for such an occasion.

Folklorists use the word “liminal” when referring to the threshold of a border between the old year and the new, the land and the sea, sleeping and waking, and life and death, for this is where one world meets another.

This “liminal” threshold is where the border between reality and imagination comes into being along with, of course, truth and illusion coupled with life and death, all breathing within the past and the present.

To put it another way, the word “liminal” with regard its reference to a threshold, either in the physical world (as in a doorway between rooms) or in time (as in the time between the job interview and the job offer) can also include physical spaces such as tunnels, bridges, and elevators.

Because they exist in space, they tend to have a pre-determined beginning and end, and connect two pre-determined, concrete points. We may not always know what’s on the other side, but we trust the physical world to be there at the end of the bridge.

Indeed, it is these noted “liminal” spaces that are haunted by the phantoms in this book.

And so what makes these twelve stories scary is that the “liminal” spaces brought forth here are ones that when we ourselves cannot perceive the future our grounded belief system suddenly starts to second guess itself; allowing for uncertainty to creep in about what is, what should be, but most assuredly now seems is most definitely not.

For the record, these are all true stories of Christmas and New Year phantoms from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Indeed, the word Phantom was chosen deliberately for its ambiguity. And the ghost hoaxes here generally fall into three categories: playing the ghost, poltergeist jinx, and journalistic jokes.

About the Author - Paul Weatherhead is a native of the Calder Valley and was brought up in Hebden Bridge. He has a longstanding obsession with the weird history of the area leading to the first edition of Weird Calderdale in 2003 which went on to become a local bestseller. His research into Alan Godfrey’s alien encounter led to a deeper investigation into the phenomenon, which formed his Master of Arts dissertation about the philosophy of alien abduction. He lives on the hills above Hebden Bridge, UK.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: Dr Lanning, Catherine Stannard and Patrick Hawton are thrown together by a motorway tragedy. Dr Lanning is treating Catherine and Patrick for PTSD, the loss of their loved ones, their different approaches to feeling and dealing with survivor guilt.

Through shared therapy sessions, Catherine and Patrick form a bond, allowing them to relinquish their previous lives and inhibitions. Dr Lanning sees an opportunity to study them, using them to rebuild his reputation. In doing so, he creates an environment where Catherine and Patrick begin to lose sight of their new realities.

Verdict: In what has quickly risen to become a Top 10 novel of the year to have read, The Quietist: A Novel by author Daniel David Gothard is one of those books you might well pick up simply having been intrigued by the title and cover art. But trust me when I say that once you open it and start to read, well, you will find it mighty difficult to put this book down before the final chapter is upon you.

In what is a breathy, yet downright engrossingly enraptured read, the story given of a shared connection between a doctor and his two patients is one not only subtlety, yet intensely disturbing as it grows, but at the very same time has been created with a magnificent grasp of genius, and dutifully complex storytelling.

As we soon learn, Dr. Lanning is not the person who should be attempting to counsel both Catherine Stannard and Patrick Hawton, especially given that he himself had lost his wife in similar circumstances to both Catherine and Patrick, who themselves had survived a massive pile-up; one that had taken Catherine’s partner and Patrick’s wife.

At just 168 pages The Quietist: A Novel is a book that might even have you so intensely connected to every word of prose captured within that you read it in just the one session. I suggest you do. For this distressing, disturbing human drama, all played out within the psyche of modern existence is one that is as compelling a read as I have myself undertaken in quite a long time.

About the Author - Daniel David Gothard is an award shortlisted author who has published three novels and many short stories, in the UK and abroad. He lives in Reading, UK.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: Journey through the Labyrinth to meet the Minoan deities of ancient Crete, who are still very much alive in the modern world.

The Minoan family of deities is presided over by a trio of mother goddesses representing the three sacred realms of Land, Sky, and Sea.

You might recognize some of the names in this pantheon: Ariadne, Dionysus, Rhea, Amalthea - even Minos, Arachne, and the Minotaur.

These deities continue to fascinate us as they draw us into the Labyrinth, the sacred maze that leads us on the adventure of a lifetime.

Verdict: My own take on the Minoan civilization of ancient Crete was that they revered a mother goddess as their chief deity, with various aspects like a snake goddess, and a young male god often depicted with wild animals. These deities, alongside symbols like the bull and double axe, influenced later Greek religious traditions.

Other deities, like a mountain goddess worshipped at peak sanctuaries, a dove goddess, and a goddess of childbirth, were also part of the Minoan pantheon.

Indeed, Minoan deities and religious practices significantly influenced the later Greek pantheon. For instance, the Minoan Snake Goddess may have evolved into the Greek goddess Artemis. Symbols like the bull and double axe, common in Minoan art, also found their way into Greek religious symbolism.

Thus here in Pantheon - The Minoans, a brand new book on the subject to hand, author Laura Perry brings forth a truly engaging new prose on the Minoan paganism and their culture that embodies them, whist at the same time allowing the reader to fully comprehend all that she is saying in, shall we say, a very enjoyable layman-written way.

Here we get an uncomplicated insight into the Minoan culture, their religion, their beliefs and more, and all whilst showcasing their spirituality through a most dedicated and astutely focused author eye.

An introduction to the ancient Minoans and their deities as well as the spiritual practices of Ariadne’s Tribe, a worldwide inclusive modern polytheistic spiritual tradition, the information on these pages is aimed at people who don’t already have much background knowledge about the Minoans and their religion but who are interested in learning.

About the Author - Laura Perry is an author, artist, and creator who works magic with words, paint, ink, music, textiles, and herbs. She is the founder and Temple Mom of Ariadne’s Tribe, an inclusive Minoan spirituality tradition. When she’s not busy drawing, writing, or leading rituals and workshops, you can probably find her digging in the garden or giving a living history demonstration at a local historic site. She lives in Woodstock, GA.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: What do the Buddha, Jesus, Nelson Mandela, St. John of the Cross, and Victor Frankl all have in common? They all found the courage to love this world even amidst intense suffering.

Verdict: Welcome to the ultimate guide to the great gurus of life: love and suffering. In this impassioned and informative work, love activist and spiritual leader Zach Beach takes you on an enlightened journey across world religions and spiritualities to find the unifying themes behind them all.

The message is simple: If you want to know love, know suffering. If you want to know suffering, know love. The author masterfully weaves insights from his life and teachings with mystic poets, spiritual leaders, therapists, and psychologists.

Inspiring without being dogmatic, and uplifting without being cheesy, Love and Suffering will help any seeker on the path of personal and spiritual transformation.

And so, and which is dutifully observed by the author himself, if you are reading this, you are human. And if you are human, here are three truths to your existence: You ae suffering; You do not want to suffer and You want love.

Furthermore, Beach advocates for himself by saying that as a human being wanting love and not wanting to suffer, this is the book for you. Which might well be the truth, for as I myself dived into it I honest did find myself quickly enthralled by all that he has written.

For Love and Suffering: A Spiritual Guide for Helpers, Healers, and Humans shines a most glorious insightful light on our relationships with love and pain, how they co-exist within us at all times, and how through his spiritual guide we can find ourselves on a path of spiritual and personal transformation sooner rather than later.

Chock full of insightfulness that will lead to inspirational growth and a much deserved healing, we learn that to love and be loved is the deepest human need and that as a result we are most likely either looking for love, trying to keep the love we have, or trying to prevent our love from leaving.

The bad news is that love leads to suffering and suffering leads to love. But here in this book, Beach has some good news too. For recognizing this and welcoming both into our life puts us on a path to wholesomeness, fullness, and transformation.

In short, this book - one which blends Beach’s personal experiences with his knowledge of ancient literature - is a serious must have for anyone looking to recognize the above statements and know they need guidance through either spirituality or the universal truth to understand just what love really is; and how to handle, and/or accept it thereafter.

About the Author - Zach Beach, MA is an internationally renowned yoga teacher, best-selling author, poet, love coach, founder of The Heart Center love school, and host of The Learn to Love Podcast. He lives in Oakland, CA.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: When the world ends, who you become begins.

The End begins with a chilling silence - the absence of wildlife in an African safari park, a subtle foreshadowing of the cataclysmic event to come. In London, Martin Larkin, a disillusioned teacher, and Katie, a successful barrister, are about to face a world far removed from their ordinary lives.

Verdict: The arrival of Bohr’s Comet, initially a source of global excitement, disrupts technology and throws nature into chaos. As the comet’s influence intensifies, Katie undergoes a shocking transformation. She abandons her life with Martin, seeking a radical new identity in Sydney’s underbelly.

But the comet brings more than personal turmoil. A terrifying illness sweeps across the globe, decimating the population. Society fractures further, and the ABs, a new dominant life form, rise to power.

Martin, forced into the role of survivor, navigates a post-apocalyptic world. He grapples with loss, betrayal, and the constant struggle to stay alive. His journey brings him face-to-face with the remnants of authority and a society forever changed.

Yet another solid Roundfire Books novel release this month comes in the form of The End by author Mark Golding, a law graduate turned secondary school teacher in Liverpool, who burst onto the literary scene during the first national lockdown.

For all intents and purposes, The End is a formidably written, well executed, and dutifully strewn with well-crafted characters work of prose art, for it not only highlights and distinctively creates worlds for us that we ourselves will never see, but brings a genuine heart and soul to the leads that enable us to veritably connect with them from the off.

Couple all that with a twisty-turny plot that one minute you think you have a handle on, the next you are left flailing, your trusty plot compass spinning all ends up, your brain now having to reassemble all you have read to try and fathom out just what happened and where this could all now lead, what we get is a narrative that is both easy to read, but at the same time easy to imagine.

That is the beauty of The End for as much as it is an engrossing and exceptionally built universe that we mentally traverse, it is also one that so seamlessly melds together with an unvisualized (for the most part) undercurrent that slips alongside everything; one that enables the aforementioned plot to always remain fluidly full of surprises.

In conclusion, this genuine page-turner of science-fiction imagination culminates in a heart-wrenching confrontation where Martin must confront the woman he once loved, now a symbol of the transformed world, and define his place in this new, unfamiliar order.

About the Author - Mark Golding, a law graduate turned secondary school teacher in Liverpool, burst onto the literary scene during the first national lockdown. His debut children’s book, Out of Time, released in June 2023, garnered critical acclaim and won the prestigious Golden Wizard Book Prize.

Praised for his whimsical storytelling and unique plot twists, Mark’s work has captivated young readers and earned commendations from reputable sources such as Kirkus. He lives in Wigan, UK.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: Scars: Sins Of My Mother, Faith Of My Father is a lyrically charged journey that goes beyond taboo to reach a troubled young boy at the center of abuse that shattered his childhood.

With nowhere to turn for help, he buries the memories and pain deep inside, lost in a young boy’s mind and hopefully gone forever. As a grown man now in his fifties and a successful corporate professional, he begins to reflect on what he considered a decent life.

Looking in the mirror brings back the young boy and these memories start to consume and haunt him.

Verdict: For the first time, Rahman Raheem Allah Hall tries to face not only what was done to him but what he had done to others, as the abused became the abuser. Disgusted and tormented by the guilt, he decided to share his story.

“Scars” delivers a therapeutic balm to a difficult subject. Musically driven and underpinned by one man’s goal to forgive the past and be forgiven for the subsequent abuse he inherited.

For anyone who has suffered sexual and physical abuse, this book is a long overdue conversation. Join this young boy as he embarks on an escapade to heal as a man, the only way he knows how, through words and music.

Beginning this the only way I believe I should, I myself am a victim of sexual abuse as a child and thus was drawn to this book from the very first moment that I heard about it.

Kindly sent to me for review by the author Rahman Raheem Allah Hall himself, what we get here in this most all-embracing of a prose on the subject of child abuse that I myself have read in the past decade or so, is a lyrically charged journey that goes beyond taboo to reach a troubled young boy at the center of abuse that shattered his childhood.

With nowhere to turn for help, he buries the memories and pain deep inside, lost in a young boy’s mind and hopefully gone forever. As a grown man now in his fifties and a successful corporate professional, he begins to reflect on what he considered a decent life.

But looking in the mirror brings back the young boy and these memories start to consume and haunt him.

A book created for anyone who has suffered sexual abuse and physical abuse, this book is a long overdue conversation. Join this young boy as he embarks on an escapade to heal as a man, the only way he knows how, through words and music.

Believe me when I say that the book is both engaging and enthralling, heartbreaking and angering, and yet at all times informative and direct to the core of something that happens too frequently within our cultures and societies.

And it is important to mention the musical aspects of this book as there is a music CD included within this book. Coming complete with nine chapters, it is a strong, emboldened and lyrically forthright set of tracks that in their varying ways, with their varying messages, is the most perfect of companion pieces to include here.

Official Amazon Book Purchase Link

Description: The Still Brimming Twilit River is volume 7 of Nicholas Hagger’s Collected Stories and follows The First Dazzling Chill of Winter/ (2016), which dealt with impending old age. The 1,202 short stories in the previous six volumes cover six decades (from the 1960s to the 2010s) in the life of Philip Rawley.

This seventh volume covers a seventh decade and contains 220 more stories and deals with his defiance of growing old. Philip Rawley’s attitude is akin to Tennyson’s Ulysses who, despite the infirmities of old age, is ready to sail beyond the sunset and the baths/Of all the western stars in search of new experience and new adventures.

Verdict: These mini-stories present a range of characters from a stable society. A number of these characters reappear in other stories, and are presented with their strengths, follies and flaws in different situations. The stories offer a complete literary experience in a page or two, and their brevity is innovatory.

The combination of opposites in their vivid titles derives inspiration from the 17th century: Dr Johnson’s definition of the wit of the Metaphysical poets as a combination of dissimilar images in which the most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together (‘Life of Cowley’).

These stories are verbal paintings and present an image in action with a poet’s eye for significant detail. Hagger’s stories are imagistic, economical and vivid in clean prose and reflect the Age. They contain memorable images and studies of character. They are ideal for short concentration spans, reading on journeys or in bed. They drop into the consciousness like stones and leave the mind to reflect on the spreading ripples.

As we all know by now, Nicholas Hagger’s literary, philosophical, historical and political writings are innovatory. He has set out a new approach to literature that combines Romantic and Classical outlooks in a substantial literary oeuvre of no over 2,000 poems including over 300 classical odes, two poetic epics, five verse plays, three masques, two travelogues and 1,200 stories.

Furthermore, he has presented an original historical view of the rise and fall of civilizations and proposed - and detailed - a limited democratic World State with the power to abolish war and solve all the world’s problems.

His new book, the weighty, yet thoroughly engrossing 528 page-turner The Still Brimming Twilit River: Collected Stories Volume 7 covers a seventh decade and contains 220 more stories and deals with his defiance of growing old.

As we read through the pages, the chapters, the sections, the stories conjoining as a whole before our very eyes, it is beyond obvious that Nicholas Hagger is a poet, a man of letters, a cultural historian and, perhaps above all else, a dutiful philosopher.

I think we can all attest to the fact that it is very important to study history, but that it is perhaps even more important to know through which lens history is being viewed.

Facts matter, but historical accounts are always filtered through a set of ideological biases. No account of history is going to be completely neutral, of this we know, but establishment historians will generally emphasize the significance of events as they relate to their political beliefs.

Progressionally, libertarians and other historical revisionists are also analyzing history through the lens of fidelity to or deviance from their own ideological orthodoxies.

Thus what most conventional readings of American history via the philosophical, historical and political writings overlook is the fine detail, the honest, perhaps gritty truth behind the curtain, so to speak.

In closing, Nicholas Hagger has lectured at universities in Iraq, Libya and Japan, where he was a Professor of English Literature and he has written 54 books, of which include an immense literary offering; most recently King Charles the Wise and Visions of England (both published by O-Books), and innovatory works within history, philosophy and international politics and statecraft.

Thus, to miss out on such a genuine opus of collected works as which are lovingly contained within this welcomed collection from him today, would be one of the cultural, let alone literary sins of the century, my friends. Trust me on that.

About the Author: Nicholas Hagger is the author of more than 50 books that include a substantial literary output and innovatory works within history, philosophy, literature and international politics and statecraft.

As a man of letters he has written over 2,000 poems, two poetic epics, five verse plays, 1,200 short stories, two travelogues and three masques. His archive of papers and manuscripts is held as a Special Collection in the Albert Sloman Library at the University of Essex.

In 2016 he was awarded the Gusi Peace Prize for Literature, and in 2019 the BRICS silver medal for Vision for Future. He lives in Essex, UK.

Official Book Purchase Link

Description: Over the course of a single week, three different travelers visit four different European locations: Amsterdam, the Alps, Rome and Paris. What they discover along the way, about each other and themselves, is as surprising as the speed with which they move from place to place.

Thanks not only to the many delights, artistic and otherwise, of their chosen destinations, but even more so to their enigmatic guide, who seems to know exactly what each of them secretly wants.

Verdict: In what has to be one of the most enjoyable, easy to slip into reads I have had in a long time, If It’s Tuesday: A Novel by author Tony Peake is a book that I can most heartily, and unreservedly recommend to all those in search of a Fall prose that contains veins of magic, expansive European scenes and a defiantly untethered sense of ultimate freedom.

Emboldened with not only a resolute sense of traveling it showcases handfuls of companionship, trust, belief and so much more within our principle characters. Ones that guide us lovingly by the hand through the four European locations of Amsterdam, the Alps, Rome and Paris.

Thus what we have here is a most captivating novel, one chock full of insightful observations, delicious verbal meanderings, sumptuously described landscapes and three characters that you actually wouldn’t mind meeting one day on your own European journeys.

About the Author: Tony Peake is the author of the authorized biography of Derek Jarman (Allison & Busby, 2025) and four novels: A Summer Tide (Abacus, 1993), Son to the Father (Little, Brown, 1995), North Facing (Myriad Editions, 2017) and If It’s Tuesday (Roundfire Books, 2025).

As a prize-winning short story writer and occasional essayist, his work has been widely anthologised and he has also edited a collection of short stories on the theme of Seduction (Serpent’s Tail, 1994).

Official Book Purchase Link

Description: In More Whispers from the Earth, Taz Thornton invites you to journey deeper into the timeless wisdom of our ancestors.

Building upon the foundation laid in her first book, this new collection uncovers even more teaching stories, each one a thread woven from the rich tapestry of our forgotten past.

Verdict: In a book that has - once again - had Taz and her spirits and guides pour their souls into to bring forth another chapter to her original writings, it is amazing to think that it was nine long years ago since that book was written; eight since it was actually published.

A book of two halves - the tales that were still flowing beautifully after Whispers from the Earth was published and after a long break where life got in the way for her, a flurry of newer stories just ripe for the sharing - the book doesn’t try and confuse you with its text. Nor does it have you going back to re-read certain sentences over and over, unable to fully grasp the prose set out.

Moreover it is written - and beautifully so - in a simplistic nature, so to speak, one where the nature of the stories are enhanced by the deliberately easy going, unconvoluted vocabulary. It is a sumptuously easy read, and yet one that still subtly manages to thread a creative vernacular within it.

As author Taz Thornton herself says, ‘I hope the easy, sometimes childish language of these stories to speak directly to the child who lives within every one of us, and that you are able to find the magic not only within these pages, bur in your everyday life.’ Ergo, these stories, shared by the spirits of the land and the voices of the ancestors, offer profound insights and guidance for navigating the challenges of modern life.

They are beautifully written and filled with vibrant descriptions, transporting you into the wonders of nature and to new realms sometimes without you even realizing your mind had gone there. Complete with guidance and encouragement to seek your own stories and connections with nature, whether you are a seasoned storyteller or a seeker just beginning your journey, this book serves as a powerful companion, urging you to connect with the earth, honor the ancestors, and rekindle the sacred art of storytelling.

In a world that often feels disconnected and chaotic, More Whispers from the Earth is a reminder that the wisdom of our ancestors is still alive, waiting for us to listen and learn.

About the Author: Taz Thornton is a shamanic healer, workshop leader and crafter of sacred ceremonial items, including rattles, medicine bags, dance staffs, medicine jewelry and the ‘Shaman Stones’ personal guidance system.

Through Firechild, Taz offers training in shamanism and meditation, as well as one to one healing, distance healing and group sessions, as well as space clearing services. She is trained in several aspects of traditional ‘soul doctoring’, including soul retrieval and extraction, plant spirit medicine, power animal sourcing, light healing, chakra alignment and psychopomp work.

Outside of her healing commitments and workshop program, Taz can often be found channeling spirit to create medicine jewelry and sacred ceremonial and healing tools, such as rattles, medicine bags and dance staffs.

Taz is a member of the Society of Shamanic Practitioners and has presented at the UK gathering many times.

Official Book Purchase Link

Description: Pantheon: The Irish explores Irish pagan beliefs and practices in a beginner-friendly way, offering readers a source for understanding both the spirituality and its context.

Verdict: Besides covering cosmology and holidays, the author discusses the gods and spirits that are acknowledged within the belief system, giving brief descriptions of each, and how they were and are understood.

In what is a masterful introduction to the rich tapestry of Irish paganism, one where its beliefs, history, practices and more are opened up, their core traditions brought forth so that even the most unknowing of innocent bystanders to the subject matter can easily take a grasp, Pantheon - The Irish is a highly insightful must-read for any and all interested about a most wondrous richly veined and historical tapestry known as paganism.

For those unaware, Irish pagan beliefs center on nature, seasonal cycles, and the Otherworld, a spiritual realm inhabited by gods and spirits. Key practices include observing seasonal festivals like Imbolc and Samhain, performing simple rituals such as offerings to deities, and connecting with the land and holy sites.

Contemporary Irish paganism involves modern practitioners studying mythology, engaging with nature spirits, and participating in community events and festivals.

OK, sure, that is a generally basic overview, but it serves as an intriguing foot in the door of what paganism symbolizes to those that are emboldened by it and within it. But here, Morgan delves much deeper into the oft complicated cosmology of paganism, which is not usually where books written down the years have tended to go.

Designed as an introduction to the Irish pantheon, the book first brings us a clarification chapter entitled History - Celtic or Irish before we next get brought forth chapters such as Mythology, Cosmology, Ritual, Celebrations and Prayers, Irish Magic, Taking It Home, The Tuatha Dé Danann, Other Spirits and a four-part Conclusion.

And for anyone wondering what the Tuatha Dé Danann was, well, and as I grew up in a household that had a family member into paganism, and with the meaning being the folk of the goddess Danu, but also known by the earlier name Tuath Dé (tribe of the gods), they were/are a supernatural race in Irish mythology. Indeed, many of them are thought to represent deities of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland.

In closing, Pantheon - The Irish is a comprehensive guide for beginners and those devotedly interested towards a basic understanding of a unique approach to paganism, offering further suggested resources for those wanting to dive deeper.

About the Author: Morgan Daimler teaches classes and writes about Irish myth and magical practices, fairies, and related subjects. Morgan’s writing has appeared in a variety of magazines including Pagan Dawn and Witches & Pagans, and anthologies including Naming the Goddess and Harp, Club, & Cauldron.

Morgan is also the author of a variety of fiction books such as the urban fantasy/paranormal romance series Between the Worlds, and non-fiction through Moon Books including bestsellers Fairy Witchcraft, Pagan Portals: The Morrigan, Pagan Portals: Brigid, and Fairies: A Guide to the Celtic Fair Folk.

Official Book Purchase Link

Description: What if the dead could help the living? The Spirit of Loughmoe Abbey: A Novel is a book about a troubled girl named Gwen who doesn’t fit in at boarding school, but everything changes when she encounters a mysterious ghost who reveals a family secret.

Verdict: In what is a very creatively written ghost story, one where there are no planted jump scares or maniacal beings roaming with bad intentions of harm, but moreover one that provides a genuine sense of mystery, of companionship, of impassioned curiosity, The Spirit of Loughmoe Abbey: A Novel by author Megan Wynne has quickly jumped into the Top 10 of my best books of the year with a bullet!

I live on the other side, said the ghost.

Gwen swallowed. Of what?

Of life. The spirit girl’s eyes shone with silver tears.

I mean, come on people, that right there is enough to have you stop what you are doing, sit down and find out just what is going on. I mean, yeah, sure, what if the dead could help the living? A question posed by Megan that has been doing the rounds for centuries, but here in this delightfully written, wholly engaging book, we travel alongside our central characters as they discover pain, friendship, grief, humor, and all the things that make us human (or otherwise).

The storyline is that home schooled all her life, Gwen is packed off to boarding school when her mother goes into hospital. Gwen believes the key to making her mother better is to be a success at school. Trouble is Gwen doesn’t fit in. She is bottom of the class, useless at games and doesn’t get along with her classmates, but in 1980s Ireland, nobody has heard of neurodivergence - especially in girls!

Gwen wishes she could make friends but doesn’t know what a ‘real’ friend is. To make matters worse she is haunted by a mysterious spirit who wants to help Gwen and her mother. Can Gwen trust the spirit? And can the two of them make Gwen’s mum better?

An endearing work of heartfelt prose art, The Spirit of Loughmoe Abbey: A Novel is not overly long at just 172 pages, and thus brings forth with it a spirt (sorry, not sorry) of hope, an eagerness to believe, a sense of an invisible magical veil that once pierced might just soulfully engage us in a way that changes our lives forever.

It’s a novel that transports us - via an extraordinary ghost story about a family mystery - and that enraptures our inner child from the very first page, and that makes us smile again. And don’t we all need more of that in our lives these days.

About the Author: Living in Dublin, Ireland, Megan Wynne is a writer and fully qualified teacher. Megan gives workshops in journaling to support mental wellbeing. She also teaches creative writing to children, teenagers and adults. In 2022/23 Megan was an awardee on the Evolution Program for emerging writers with the Irish Writers Centre. In 2022 and 2024 she received an Agility Award from the Irish Arts Council. She has received five literature bursaries from her local County Council Arts Office.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: Weaver of fates, steerer of destinies, meet Arianrhod the enigmatic Welsh Goddess of initiation and transformation.

Verdict: With scholarship, vision, and practical techniques to develop devotional relationships and meaningful rituals, Druid and writer Kristoffer Hughes takes you on a journey through myth and mystery to meet Arianrhod, the fiercely independent Goddess of the Silver Wheel and weaver of fates and fortunes.

With never-before-seen material in the English language - and hidden wisdom - you will be ferried across this goddess’ tumultuous seas to find her true nature beneath the starry skies of Arianrhod.

Having grown up with a family member that adored all that the Welsh goddess Arianrhod, Lady of the Silver Wheel stood for. Also known as the Celtic Goddess of the Moon, the Stars and the Sky she was known by such other names, as Margawse or Morgause, and by such titles as the Goddess of Childbirth, Magick, Justice and the Night.

In Wales, Arianrhod takes on other attributes as well, when she becomes the Goddess of the Wheel of the Year and the Goddess of the Full Moon, Destiny, Fertility, Death and Reincarnation. What is extremely important is the fact that Arianrhod is also the Goddess of Feminine Power, an integral part of the Divine Feminine.

Folklore has informed us down the years that Arianrhod was the most powerful of all the children born to the great Mother Goddess Don and her consort Beli; and that she was extremely beautiful. She was also believed to have been both sister and wife to Gwydion, and the mother of the twins: Llew, a Sun God, and Dylan, a God of the Sea.

Also a Magician Goddess and considered by most to be a Maiden Goddess as well, living her life in much the same manner as the Greek Goddesses Artemis and Athena; surrounded only by women, Kristoffer Hughes brings forth here a well written, extremely informative, and wholly encompassing new prose about the lady in question.

In conclusion, what we have here is a resoundingly forensic examination of Arianrhod, one which paints a rather stunning picture of the Celtic Goddess, whilst at the same time sprinkles in a dutiful amount of folklore and myth, which enables the reader to either re-establish their relationship with her or, as a newcomer, there is no better starting place then right here within these pages to discover just who she was.

About the Author - Kristoffer Hughes is a Chief of the Anglesey Druid Order, a first language native Welsh speaker and the author of 9 books and Tarot decks. Welsh language television presenter and actor. He lives in Isle of Anglesey, Wales, UK.

Official Book Purchase Link

Description: A young woman’s dreams and reality meet, and everything rests in the balance.

Nineteen-year-old Amara’s dreams come true when she lands an archaeological internship in Tunisia. But her triumph turns to chaos when a historical artifact hurls her into an alternate version of ancient Carthage, where magic reigns.

Stranded in a world of warring factions and mythical beings, Amara’s only way home is through a cunning Phoenician god. His price? Complete a perilous mission that could rewrite history itself.

As Amara uncovers the god’s true agenda, she realizes that altering one world’s past could shatter the fabric of all realities - including her own. Now she faces an impossible choice: secure her return home or protect the balance of every dimension. The clock is ticking...

Verdict: In what is a tremendous time-travelling tale, one that features a late teen girl on an archaeological internship in Tunisia, who after she is thrown into an alternate version of ancient Carthage is beholden to a series of Djinn’s (supernatural beings from Arabian and Islamic mythology, also known as genies) and other mythological creatures, what author Andrea Franco-Cook has done here in Excavating Fate: A Novel is truly allow magic to fully, and oh-so colorfully reign.

Carthage, an historic archaeological site and a modern, wealthy suburb of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, is showcased here in modern times but also, once the intelligent Amara is transported back in time to a more ancient Semitic civilization based in North Africa (which was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis), we get a world of warring factions and mythical beings vividly brought to life.

OK, enough of me trying to school you on the whole Carthage history through time thing, as trust me when I say that Andrea has most assuredly done her historical research well here, all I will add is that our lead heroine Amara soon learns that the only way home is through a cunning Phoenician god whose price for such a helping hand is that a perilous mission has to be completed - one that could rewrite history itself!

About the Author: Andrea’s literary journey began in a home where plot twists were as common as bedtime stories. Raised by an eccentric mother with an ever-evolving novel, Andrea inherited a passion for storytelling that now influences her daily life.

Andrea’s storytelling is also enriched by a tapestry of real-world experiences. Her background as a U.S. Army veteran and Airborne School graduate, brings a unique perspective to her writing. Her current role as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and therapist also provides profound insights into human nature that add depth and authenticity to her narratives.

When not crafting worlds or healing minds in her Kentucky home, Andrea can be found lost in a good book, cherishing family moments or weaving herself into her community’s fabric through volunteer work.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: This is a story about the beginning of the Bank of England. There are other histories available. They all have truth in them. But none has the whole truth.

Pirates, Punters, and Politicians: How the Bank of England Was Founded brings into play the accidents, chances, and uncanny turns of events - from Spanish treasure and pirates to sheer good luck and political conniving - that had to occur for this particular bank to come about.

Verdict: A pirate is not very different from a banker, and a banker is not so very different from a storyteller. Chancers and risk-takers were needed to get the Bank of England up and running, and perhaps they are still needed to keep it running.

Confirming a sense of wonder and extraordinary inevitability in great historic moments, Pirates, Punters, and Politicians: How the Bank of England Was Founded by author Val Hamilton is a rather wonderful story that will stay with you, and you will want to share it with others.

The Bank of England was founded as a private bank in 1694 to act as banker to the Government. Today they are the UK’s central bank but along the way it has a most storied, and until now, not fully dived into and explored, let alone fully revealed historical via an openness never quite seen before.

Personally, I never knew that its historical roots ventured back to pirates, treasure, daring imagination and even revolution! Not forgetting moments of extreme heroism, lots of optimism, and a fair bit of, well, cheating!

Some of the men behind this grand venture were adventures, some were public servants and some were just creative geniuses. Thus, and with slashes and dashes of deceit and trickery, the Bank was indeed founded on Pirates, Punters, and Politicians.

A quite enthralling read from start to finish - especially to me, someone who knew nothing of all this and didn’t even think he wanted to - this book comes highly recommended (especially to those within the banking industry, of course).

About the Author - Val was born in Manchester to an Irish mum and a Glaswegian dad. She grew up in a time of grammar schools, free tuition and maintenance grants. This meant that at 17 when her parents died she supported in going to University. Val studied English Literature and Language at Manchester University and went on to teaching in schools and universities in the UK, Denmark and Boston, US.

She moved into working with disadvantaged young people, first in Boston, and then in London. She was invited to run a prestigious action research project to improve services for young people in trouble. The project was very successful and Val progressed the skills she had gained running the project by studying Organization Development at the Sheffield Business School.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: Tales of the Tuatha De Danann, Volume 1: New Translations of Irish Myths is a collection of modern translations of older Irish material focusing on the Tuatha Dé Danann and Aos Sidhe and gathers these stories together into a single place and gives readers a more literal translation to work from.

Verdict: Growing up in a family that had roots in Ireland and even went as far as being (so I was always told) very knowledgeable, and protective of all-things Celtic Folklore, I soon came to understand that Tuatha Dé Danann, (Gaelic: “People of the Goddess Danu”), were always languishing within Celtic mythology; a race inhabiting Ireland before the arrival of the Milesians (the ancestors of the modern Irish).

They were said to have been skilled in magic, and the earliest reference to them relates that, after they were banished from heaven because of their knowledge, they descended on Ireland in a cloud of mist. They were thought to have disappeared into the hills when overcome by the Milesians.

Furthermore, the Leabhar Gabhála (Book of Invasions), a fictitious history of Ireland from the earliest times, treats them as actual people, and they were so regarded by native historians up to the 17th century. In popular legend they have become associated with the numerous fairies still supposed to inhabit the Irish landscape.

Here in this enthralling new book from prolific author Morgan Daimler, she sets her focus on shorter tales and excerpts from larger texts and offers a range of material that gives insight into just who the Irish Gods are and how they have been perceived down the years.

The stories include How the Dagda Got His Magic Staff, The Treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Oengus’s Dream, and others. Also interesting to know is that the text is presented in the source languages of Old and Middle Irish with new English translations by the author.

A book (a thick book) chock full of sumptuous Celtic mythology and earnestly impassioned translations, Tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Volume 1 is especially bound for those interested in Irish paganism or spirituality, as a whole. As close prose wise to a genuinely authentic heart of ancient pagan Ireland, anyone familiar with the language of Sean-agus Meán-Ghaeilge and Old and Medieval Irish is going to have a field day here!

Indeed, many existing translations are around a hundred years old and often either exclude material or skew the translation to fit the mores of a more Victorian audience - while this one stays as true as possible to the source material.

About the Author - Morgan Daimler teaches classes and writes about Irish myth and magical practices, fairies, and related subjects. Morgan’s writing has appeared in a variety of magazines including Pagan Dawn and Witches & Pagans, and anthologies including Naming the Goddess and Harp, Club, & Cauldron.

Morgan is also the author of a variety of fiction books such as the urban fantasy/paranormal romance series Between the Worlds, and non-fiction through Moon Books including bestsellers Fairy Witchcraft, Pagan Portals: The Morrigan, Pagan Portals: Brigid, and Fairies: A Guide to the Celtic Fair Folk.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: After learning of his wife’s affair with his best friend and business partner, divorced and unemployed MindTech entrepreneur Dr Harry Coulson arrives in the idyllic English town of Freebourne, looking to start a new life.

But any hopes of quietly picking up the pieces of his broken world are shattered when he steps off the train to discover the body of a young woman lying in the snow. It’s almost as if she’d been left there for him to find.

Harry does everything he can to help. But as a stranger arriving on the night Freebourne witnesses its first murder in over a century, he not only becomes a suspect in the woman’s killing but finds himself caught in a deadly game between science, faith, and free will — in a secret far darker and more terrifying than anything he could have imagined.

Verdict: A definitive page-turner of the highest order, Freebourne by author Salman Shaheen is one of those books that engagingly draw your curiosity from the short preface and once in, well, all bets are off as to how long you will reside within the named village and its ever encircling mystery.

Indeed, from the very off this richly written, and dutifully emboldened new novel is something that could, and should find its way into being on our TV screens sometime in the near future.

Not even close to be your average low effort, plodding procedural, moreover an engaging, and growing storyline that becomes more complex with every chapter undertaken, Freebourne may well also incorporate a few red herrings and some whodunnit guesswork for the reader to play with, but moreover it comes with an ending that I bet nobody will ever see coming!

Liberally spread with elements of modern day politics (due to Shaheen being a politician himself, of course), philosophy, religion and even chunks of science, in short, Freebourne is an absolutely gripping gem of a murder mystery, complete with veins of sci-fi, all coming together to showcase a well told story within a setting that one can easily close their eyes and imagine being within themselves.

About the Author - Salman Shaheen is a British politician, journalist and novelist. He has written for the Guardian, New Statesman, New Internationalist, and Times of India, and frequently comments on politics and economics on TV and radio. His exclusive exposes on corporate tax avoidance have made front-page news in the Observer and have been picked up by the FT and the Telegraph.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: Ancient priestesses of antiquity wrote and performed poetic incantations to the gods. Discover the forgotten magic of women’s voices, of their poetry, and their word witchery! Poetry priestesses have been practicing the art of poetry as spells for thousands of years.

From Enheduanna of Sumer, invoking Inanna, to Sappho of Lesbo’s connection to Aphrodite and Princess Gwenllian, daughter of the King of Gwynedd, said by some to be the author of the Mabinogi, those women and many more used their voices through poetry to connect to the divine feminine within and around them.

Word Witchery helps readers connect to the women and deities associated with poetry and the magical word and includes activities and journaling practices.

Verdict: Abundant with archeological finds, historical research, practical rituals and spells, this book sheds fresh light on ancient magical word craft and unearths the fragmented lives and voices of women mystical poets, writers, chantresses, and bards; many almost lost to obscurity.

From Petroglyphic stone magic traversing caves and desert gorges, incantation bowls found in the ancient Near East, votive tablets to goddesses across the mediterranean, notation blessing knives of renaissance Europe and more, Word Witchery explores our intrinsic desire to commune with the divine and supernatural forces via poetry and magical writing.

Somewhere deep inside us we still remember a time when we could commune with nature, when we spoke the language of trees, when we breathed in rhythm with the Earth.

We are beginning to awake up to all that has been lost, forgotten and banished, overturned in the name of progress and the rational. For centuries we have been living under the restrictive and patriarchal narratives which have been reductive of anything outside of their ken; ridiculing and condemning all other more intuitive, creative ways of seeing as superstitions or crazy or, in worst cases, dangerous or evil.

And yet there is hope. For we are beginning to remember. We are beginning to trust our intuitive knowing - that the Earth herself and all her living trees, plants and creatures are animate; alive with their own energy and wisdom, imbued with spirit.

This timely book is part of this timely revival and remembering. Now, here in this book, we have a wonderful exploration and celebration of the power and magic of words, sounds, incantations and prayers; how they have always been used to bring us closer to the truth of ourselves and to the great mystery of this Earth.

“This goddess has always walked with me, like a shimmer, reminding me of the healing powers of poetry, writing and words and their deep-rooted sacred past as magical and devotional expressions.” - Katie Ness.

In closing Word Witchery: Walking the Path of the Poetry Priestess also includes practical writing ritual and spell prompts for the modern Word Witch and Poetry Priestess to connect with feminine divinity, to conjure their own poetry magic and weave their worlds with words.

About the Author - Katie Ness is a published writer and poet with a variety of literary sites, anthologies and print magazines such as Witchology, Femme Occulte, Witches Magazine, Occulture Magazine, The Feminine Macabre, The Enquiring Eye Magazine published by the Museum of Witchcraft & Magic at Boscastle, Kindred Spirit, Mulberry Literary, The C Word Mag, Poetry Cove, Running Wild and others.

Her first poetry book Aphrodite Fever Dream is published with Undressed Society Press and her second collection Juggernaut is published with DarkThirtyPoetry Press. As an author signed with Moon Books, Katie’s non-fiction pagan book is to be released late 2024.

Official Book Purchase Link

Overview: In the seventies, Record Plant studios was at the heart of the largest boom in record production in music history. With studios in New York, Los Angeles, and Sausalito, and a fleet of remote recording trucks, Record Plant was everywhere there was music.

In 1976 alone, three #1 albums ― Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key Of Life, the Eagles’ Hotel California, and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours ― were all recorded in Record Plant studios.

Based on the memoirs and archives of studio cofounder Chris Stone, and interviews with over one hundred studio employees, music producers, and recording artists, Buzz Me In narrates this previously untold story of classic rock ’n’ roll as the authors received it from industry insiders working behind the iconic studio’s locked doors, alongside the great rock stars of the twentieth century.

Verdict: In what is a rather comprehensive, dutifully detailed, thoroughly engrossing, wonderfully recanting, and therefore insightfully written book, Buzz Me In: Inside the Record Plant Studios is a book that ALL self-professed so-called audiophiles need to have under their collective roofs.

Written and compiled by two seasoned, and at times hard-knocked journalists in both Martin Porter and David Goggin (aka Mr. Bonzai), overall what we get here is an elegantly packaged summary of such an incredible recounting of musical histories that certain chapters strike you as just so absurdly unattainable to the average joe that to read how things went down, how things came together is the equivalent of the reader attempting to put together a large jigsaw puzzle ... blindfolded ... and in a hurricane!

I mean, sure, the big picture is there to be viewed now, all these year later, the pieces all spread around on the sidelines, just waiting to enter the musical fray; the bigger picture, the scene becoming more set with each and every passing historic moment, but just how this incredible story of the evolution of Record Plant Studios, tape by tape, and of the hits that were manufactured there seeps out is as mind-blowing to read today as I can only hope it was to have had been there witnessing it all back then.

The story opens on New York’s West Side in 1968 with the recording of Jimi Hendrix’s third and sadly final studio album Electric Ladyland, and then as Record Plant Studios expands (to LA) so does this story, as next we get to peek into the time when Stevie Wonder produced his greatest hits, before turning left and heading to Sausalito where Sly Stone, Bob Marley, and Fleetwood Mac encamped.

And all this was happening whilst John Lennon made New York his post-Beatles home, and the Eagles conceived Hotel California while working in LA. Indeed, each narrated location showcased the founders’ proven formula of combining state-of-the-art audio, fantasy bedrooms, and group Jacuzzis, with sex, drugs, and celebrity jams.

But I digress, because yes, it all began with Jimi. Gary Kellgren (American audio engineer and co-founder of The Record Plant Studio) built the world’s first living-room-style recording studio on the West Side of Manhattan in 1968, and the success of the album Hendrix worked on their (Electric Ladyland) launched a recording studio empire.

Music industry demands quickly fueled the studio’s expansion out west, and a fleet of concert recording trucks soon followed. The rest, as they say, is history.

We get so many snippets of history here that it boggles the mind at just how many superstars of the day trod the halls of these brick buildings. One time Chris Stone (formerly a regional sales manager at Revlon) went to visit Kellgren at Mayfair Studios, walked right in and came across someone banging away under the lid of a piano. He walked up to him, tapped him on the leg, introduced himself and asked to speak to Gary.

Stone was greeted with a looks-could-kill stare from the hippie with a big head of hair and a Fu Manchu moustache and who demanded to know, Who the hell are you?”and who then added, “Listen I’m Frank Zappa and I’m recording here. So get the hell out!” Stone didn’t know who Zappa was so he continued asking for Gary. Zappa lit a cigarette, took a sip of coffee, shrugged his shoulders and muttered “Get lost”, before diving back into the piano.

Zappa had been working there on the soon-to-be-released third concept album We’re Only In It For The Money. Funnily enough, and even though Stone was only there to look over the studio’s finances, quickly realizing that it was a massively profitable business to be had, Zappa himself used to sit in on some of these meeting and it was he who actually told them both not to do it, and warned them away from making what Gary had any bigger (due to his own personal failings, as we now know).

This book, simply put, is true studio history at its mighty fine finest, of that have no doubt. For as you have hopefully already picked up on, during its most formative years in the 1970’s (and, to a smaller extent beyond), Record Plant Studios was the mecca for one landmark album after another to be created.

About the Authors - Martin Porter is an author, journalist, and publisher who began his career as a technology writer/reporter in the mid-1970s for Rolling Stone, GQ, and Premiere magazines. As editor and publisher of Pro Sound News, EQ, Guitar Player, and Surround magazines, he has been one of the leading chroniclers of this golden period in music and audio technology.

David Goggin, aka Mr. Bonzai, is an award-winning author, photographer, and music journalist. Together the authors manage the popular Record Plant Diaries Facebook page.

Official Book Purchase Link