Reviews
“People don’t read books anymore.” You hear this sentence on a regular basis. Yet, this is not the absolute truth. Although some of them have shifted to the modern versions books have, literature lovers are still out there and they become more demanding and more discerning every day. With such a generous supply on the market, they want to know in advance if a book is worth their time. This is the section where you can find reviews written by fellow readers, get informed on a book’s topic, style and literary value.
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- Written by: Amanda Dcosta
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Book Review: A Solitary Woman by Pamela A. Babusci
Pamela dares to bare her heart open; to speak out what I would otherwise be silent about. You can feel your heart gyrate to the cadence of her experiences and to the highs and lows of her life.
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- Written by: Amanda Dcosta
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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has haunted many a reader, and has also become a famous play every since it was first written. What is it that makes this story unusually compelling? Is it the setting? Is it the set of characters in the story? Or is it type of grim, dark, scary story that it is. Read on to find more about this unusual tale as it takes you to the early nineteenth century years.
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- Written by: Amanda Dcosta
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Book Review: ephemerae, by Dr. Shrikaanth K. Murthy
ephemerae, the refreshing 'quality' that haikai and tanka stand for. Subscribe to your copy today.
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- Written by: Amanda Dcosta
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Another Garden by Jeffrey Woodward
When the paragraph leads, the closing tanka caps the prose, and is the culminating point of the composition, a sign of the work’s fulfillment. (Jeffrey Woodward in an interview with Claire Everett)
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- Written by: Amanda Dcosta
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Book Review: Casting Shadows by David Terelinck
‘Casting Shadow’ is a collection of tanka by renowned Australian poet David Terelinck. If you have experienced shadows in your life, David has a tanka for it. Grief, pain, love and longing, David artfully paints strokes of black and white to highlight the grays that exist in-between.
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- Written by: Amanda Dcosta
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Book Review: January, A Tanka Diary, by M. Kei
‘January, A Tanka Diary’ is the latest poetic collection by internationally acclaimed poet, M. Kei. In this volume, Kei creates a journal of his inspirational moments through the outlets of five-lined tanka.
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- Written by: Amanda Dcosta
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Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume 3
"The poems in this year’s anthology reflect the great diversity of themes to be expected from such a diverse range of poets. Yet two themes recur frequently in this volume, and indeed the previous volumes and tanka in general: love and death.
Strangely, when writers are attempting to describe what tanka is to those unfamiliar with it, they often mention the subject of love, but rarely mention death, even though death poems have been a major part of the tanka tradition all the way back to the Man’yosh!" (The editor, Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka Volume 3)
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- Written by: Amanda Dcosta
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Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume 2
Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume 2 is the sequel to Volumes 1. This is an annual compilation of tanka, ranging from 16,000 submissions to 140 venues (2009).
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- Written by: Amanda Dcosta
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Book Review: Economic Food Storage Strategies for Disaster Survival by Sandy Gee
Economic Food Storage Strategies for Disaster Survival by Sandy Gee is a timely book on surviving the aftermath of natural disasters. It is packed with useful information and makes the reader aware of the different forms of dangers one faces after a natural calamity.
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- Written by: Amanda Dcosta
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Book Review: Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume 1
Volume 1 of the Take Five series is a collection of tanka poems in individual, prose and sequence forms. A collection of approximately 320 tanka, this volume gives an insight into the making of a good tanka, with particular description about the qualities of tanka that stand out and make their mark.