#Bookreview of A Guide to Jazz in Japan

By: Michael Pronko

Publisher: Raked Gravel Press

Publication Date: April 30, 2025

ISBN: 978-1-942410-36-2

Reviewed by: Tripti Kandari

Date: June 3, 2025

A Guide to Jazz in Japan by Michael Pronko is a personal jazz journey as much as a travel guide, drawing on the author's years of experience living in Japan to immortalize the icons of the jazz tradition of Tokyo.

A passionate and well-informed take on the jazz scene of Tokyo and Yokohama, the book is a real-world, experience-based documentation listing Tokyo's top-tier jazz clubs and scoops of practical travel advice. It details not just every club but their environment, the type of music, and the etiquette to follow in a city where jazz isn't just music but a serious cultural tradition. A major highlight of the work is a deep respect towards Japan's jazz culture, where jazz venues aren't just venues to go and listen to songs but places treated as sacred sanctities. As such, the guide sweeps one through the etiquette and rules to be a part of this culture, the understanding of which is the road to developing a genuine appreciation of this tradition.

The author captures the atmosphere of each venue visually and emotionally. While capturing décor and layout, it lays out the crowd's behavior, tone of music, sound quality, and lighting effects in detail. These sensory elements account for an immersive reading complemented by photographs and layout, which increase visual engagement but do not interfere with the core text.

More so, the guide isn't all about the jazzy mood — it's full of practical knowledge, with locations to every venue, timings, music style, entrance charges, and venue accessibility to foreigners. There is a structured presentation of each club, where each description comes out as a distinct identity. The observant tone along with accessible and information-centric language make for responsible cultural documentation.

The guide introduces jazz clubs in Japan not as tourist attractions but as living cultural practices. This approach to the jazz tradition in Japan makes it a valuable text for those seeking information on it — not just as a leisure activity on their travels but also as a chance to understand its core. It's a well-researched and culturally sensitive guidebook that presents the jazz landscape of Japan in a rich and respectful attire. A trusted reference material, it's a handy and perfect source for those into music tourism, jazz studies, and Japanese urban culture.

Quill says: A Guide to Jazz in Japan is a must-have guide to understand Japan through jazz, transcending a mere jazz club directory to become a passport to cultural experience.

For more information on A Guide to Jazz in Japan, please visit the author's website at: www.michaelpronko.com

 #Bookreview of Until the Walls Come Down

By: Gal Podjarny

Publisher: Atmosphere Press

Publication Date: July 22, 2025

ISBN: 979-8-89132-695-8

Reviewed by: Ephantus Muriuki

Review Date: May 28, 2025

Until the Walls Come Down is a touching and deeply emotional novel written by Gal Podjarny that gently follows the journey of a young Israeli woman named Tammar, who, while expecting her first child and dreaming of a peaceful future with her loving Palestinian husband, Ali, is suddenly thrown into a world of heartbreak, confusion, and personal struggle after her parents are killed in a tragic terrorist attack. This event not only shakes her life to the core, but also brings back old wounds, family tensions, and social pressures that test her courage and challenge everything she thought she knew about love, loyalty, and identity.

From the very beginning, Tammar stands out as a powerful and relatable character whose emotions feel so real and honest that readers can almost hear her heartbeat, feel her sorrow, and understand the overwhelming pressure she faces as she tries to keep her family together while grieving, protecting her childhood home from destruction, and preparing for the birth of her baby. Her palpable love for Ali, who is gentle, patient, and supportive despite being treated unfairly by many around them because of his origin and background, is one of the strongest and most beautiful parts of their story. Throughout the narrative, readers are drawn into a deeply inspiring environment of two people holding firmly on to each other even when the world around them feels like it’s falling apart.

The novel also paints a complicated but honest picture of Tammar’s relationship with her two brothers—Barak, who is fiery but logical and responsible, and Daniel, who is distant, extremely religious, and hard to reach. Each one of them carries their own version of pain, disappointment, and loss, and each struggle to connect with the other after years of separation and misunderstanding. The scene at the funeral, where emotions boil over and old resentments explode into a public fight, is heartbreaking and tense, and yet it is written with such tenderness and care that readers will not only feel the chaos, but also the deep love hiding beneath the surface.

Podjarny's writing style is soft and poetic, filled with quiet details that bring the world to life: the smell of sea air near Tammar’s childhood house, the heat of the sun on the street where a bulldozer approaches, the bittersweet taste of pastries at the morning table, and the ache in a daughter’s chest when she hears her brother say he never felt loved. These moments, captured in eloquent prose, conjure up a world that is both familiar and relatable, yet profoundly significant, serving as a reminder to readers of the ways in which people, places, and memories influence who they are.

Quill says: Gal Podjarny does something very special in this book—she shows us how grief can hurt deeply but also open the door to healing, how family can break but still find its way back together, and how even in a country full of conflict and division, peace can begin with a quiet conversation, a shared memory, or a single act of kindness. Interestingly, the book offers a silent yet profound call to young readers to think critically and to trust that change is possible, even if it begins with tiny steps. Until the Walls Come Down is not just a story—it is a gentle and emotional experience that teaches empathy, bravery, and the quiet power of standing up for what you believe in, even when it’s hard, and even when you’re standing alone.

For more information about Until the Walls Come Down, please visit the publisher's website at: atmospherepress.com/books/until-the-walls-come-down-by-gal-podjarny

 #Bookreview of Between the Lies

By: Shana Frost

Publisher: Loch Fuar Publications

Publication Date: March 28, 2025

ISBN: 978-1-7384994-4-1

Reviewed by: Trix Lee-Rainwater

Review Date: June 2, 2025

What drives someone to sacrifice everything they know for the truth? This question lies at the heart of Shana Frost's Between the Lies.

Nina Banerjee is an investigative journalist who has spent years building her career after leaving her family behind in Mumbai. When her investigation into sham marriages leads her to an abandoned building one night, she wakes up hours later next to her dead colleague Jonas with no memory of what happened. She flees the scene but becomes the prime suspect in both Jonas's murder and the murder of Anne Muller, PC Robert Muller's wife. Robert is convinced Nina killed his wife and is determined to bring her to justice. His grief over Anne's death has consumed him, straining his relationships with his closest friends and colleagues. However, when Robert and Nina finally meet, an undeniable attraction develops between them despite his suspicions. Despite his initial hostility, Robert finds himself drawn to the enigmatic journalist, even as mounting evidence points to her guilt.

When circumstances force them to work together, they uncover a vast conspiracy involving corrupt police officers, international human trafficking, and DCI Dickheadson, Robert's superior officer who seems unusually invested in pinning both murders on Nina. As they dig deeper, with help from an unlikely alliance of a tech expert, a pub owner Billy, and also a former sex worker Daisy, they discover that Anne's death might not be what it seems. Each revelation comes at a cost, putting both Nina and Robert in increasing danger. With corrupt police officers hunting them, professional killers on their trail, and their hearts becoming increasingly entangled, can Nina and Robert uncover the truth before it's too late?

Between the Lies is a romantic 18+ thriller novella from the same author of Strangers in Crime. At its core, this is a story about trust, how it's earned, broken, and sometimes miraculously rebuilt from the ashes of betrayal. Through Nina and Robert's evolving relationship, Frost showed how love can flourish even in the darkest circumstances while never diminishing the serious nature of the crimes they're investigating. The author tackled weighty subjects like human trafficking and the exploitation of vulnerable immigrants with appropriate gravity while still maintaining the emotional engagement of a romance.

Through Nina's perspective as an immigrant herself, Frost offered insight into the complex challenges faced by those who leave everything behind to build a new life. The story’s examination of truth, justice, and redemption added layers of meaning to what could have been a straightforward romantic thriller. While some coincidences stretch credibility and certain plot points rely heavily on convenient timing, the author's handling of both the romance and thriller elements helps smooth over these minor issues.

Between the Lies proves that sometimes the greatest truths about ourselves are discovered when everything we believe is called into question.

Quill says: Between the Lies is a thrilling sensual novella that will satisfy fans of both romance and crime fiction while offering thoughtful commentary on contemporary social issues.

For more information on Between the Lies, please visit the author's website at: shop.shanafrost.com/

 #Bookreview of Slave: A Novel

By: Christina Maraziotis

Publisher: Existential Publishing

Publication Date: October 30, 2024

ISBN: 978-1959776130

Reviewed by: Diane Lunsford

Review Date: June 2, 2025

The highly anticipated release of Christina Maraziotis’ fourth book in her Loveletting Series, Slave is a phenomenal delight. Maraziotis’ natural ability to leave her audience on the precipice of free-fall from the end of one story before she artfully swoops in with a rescue and promise to keep reading in the next is outstanding.

As has been the case in each novel, Maraziotis focuses on a sublime theme and builds upon it. In Slave, love is the foundation that is something beyond a feeling of heart. Rather, it is something to covet and reawaken within the soul in an attempt to erase sin. Charlotte is desperate to gain independence during a time when women weren’t worthy of such an existence. When Charlotte and Mac are washed ashore after their plunge to the depths of the water below in the end of Ghost, we don’t know if she and Mac survive. Charlotte is furious when she realizes her true love (Mac) is alive. She is wrestling with her own ‘betrayal’ of moving on with Tilghman when she thought Mac was dead.

Evil continues to lurk, however. James is still quite alive and well. Even though Charlotte managed to escape his evil grasp, she is not safe from his will to conquer her once more. There is a greater conflict going on between her and Mac. Will there ever be trust? Are they capable of committing to each other; or has too much happened for this to ever be the case? Charlotte struggles with her own vulnerabilities and her wanderlust of what could have been with Tilghman. This clouds her judgment when it comes to a future with Mac. Therein lies her ultimate dilemma. Both Charlotte and Mac have work to do if they are able to move forward. A conscious effort to grasp and rediscover a tenderness is of the essence.

There is a bevy of situations and circumstances to unpack in this novel and just like its predecessors in books 1-3, it is an epic journey that I personally recommend one take. Bravo Christina Maraziotis! You have delivered yet another must read!

Quill says: Slave is a continuation of the dynamics and complexities of human existence. It is impossible to pick this book up and not set it down until the final page has been read.

For more information about Slave, please visit the author's website at: www.christinamaraziotis.com/