Sotto Voce's Blog
October 9, 2025
BOOK REVIEW: Round the World: A Life of Jeanne Baret (C.R. Hurst)

Round the World A Life of Jeanne Baret is a historicalfiction about the character Jeanne, as she embarked on the trip that brings usalong around the globe.
I applaud the amount of research that was dedicated to thisbook. This is the trip that many would never experience, even in modern times,so one could imagine how important it was back then.
While I understand that it was probably done to maintainaccuracy and details, I wish the character were more relatable because insteadof experien...
October 7, 2025
OLD FRIENDS

View my actual newsletter here, where you can find many book suggestions and free short story: https://preview.mailerlite.io/preview...
I’m always impressed with people who have a lot in their lives but still maintain their positivity. As a contrast, I see many whine about every single inconvenient thing that happens to them to get attention.
I have just met a friend who survived cancer, hopefully it’s gone forever. We have been friends for over two decades, but just l...
BOOK REVIEW: Collapse Years (Damir Solkovic)

Collapse Years is a book I would recommend for anyone who islooking for a good quality short stories. It exceeds my expectation, I like allthe tales and how they are presented.
Touching deep and mature subjects, the stories arewell-written, but the strongest factor of all is how every tale is presentedthrough the lens of characters who experience it directly. It gives closeness,attachment, and readers are able to read along as if they are there.
The tales are dark and heavy, but they’re r...
October 4, 2025
BOOK REVIEW: Dusk (Mrs. Kimberly Tashner Shyu)

I didn’t have much expectation when I read the book, and Ionly read the blurb after I finished the book. I’m glad I did it that way.
The book follows a main character, Theo, in his younger daysthrough his perspective, and the older him through the perspective of hisandroid caretaker, set around five decades into the future.
The revelation between the two PoVs is clever, and the waythe story goes back and forth, one moving to the future and the otherreminiscing about the past, works we...
September 27, 2025
BOOK REVIEW: Treading Water (Jane C.R.Reid)

Treading Water is an intricate tale that focuses onrelationship between Saul, his wife, and his ex-mistress trying to rekindletheir old relationship.
It's a tale as old as time. Most likely, everyone has seen,read, or encountered something like this before. However, what makes the bookgood is the consistency and realism of the characters. They maintain theirrespective traits like manipulative, doubtful, erratic, etc throughout the bookand nothing is over the top, the scenario is very plaus...
BOOK REVIEW: The Christmas Getaway (Flavia Labre)

The Christmas Getaway tells a story through two POVS: Brunoand Laura. They decide to spend Christmas in Bruno's family's holiday house,where Bruno plans to propose.
I think the author did a good job portraying the characters'body language and expressions, showing how they feel and what they thinkinstead of telling them. The writing flows, and these two are the strongestfactors of the book.
I can't decide whether this book is too short or too long,because by the time I have read 50% of t...
BOOK REVIEW: Hypocrisy vs. Mysticism, Wisdom, and Morality (LInda Meris)

It’s great if others find this book inspiring, because themessages are great and thoughtful.
I love to think that I’m an open-minded person, and thereare many things we can’t explain and justify. Things that have been experiencedand told by people I trust, and those I have read. Still, for me, I would haveto exercise a lot of suspension of disbelief for this book. Many non-fictionparanormal and spiritual stories I know have similar things in common, one ofthem is the need for heavy commu...
BOOK REVIEW: Ten Tiny Tales (Gene Kendall)

Ten Tiny Tales is a collection of short stories that varyfrom the light-hearted ones to those that pull your heartstrings. The tales areboth about ordinary people with their ordinary problems and the more fugitiveand hardcore ones. I’d say I prefer the first.
Sometimes I see the ending coming, but on others it makes meraise my eyebrows. My favourite tale is Save the Cat because of the mundanesituations that are realistically relatable in real life, both in the problemsand the frustrating...
August 30, 2025
BOOK REVIEW: The Borealis Queen (Henry Guard)

The Borealis Queen is a delightful read that exceeded myexpectations. It follows Nin's transformation into the Borealis Queen.
Yes, there are some possible plot holes that raise myeyebrows and knock half a star for me, I still round it up. Although theysignificantly distracted me, fortunately, the rest of the book still makes upfor them. For example, why would two prisoners have access to her weapon beforeher battle when the enemies know well what she is capable of? The otherprisoner, ac...
BOOK REVIEW: A Quick Spin Around the Galaxy (J.A. Freely)

I had my own quick spin around the galaxy by reading thisbook. It introduces itself in the beginning as a non-fiction, a statement thatgets better and better as the book goes on. We start by meeting one of the mostunremarkable humans (although I’d admit he would make a better candidate thanme, even in the beginning, as I would just suggest, “Do it, but do it quickly,please.”
The beginning feels a bit clunky to me, and I was afraid Ihad to suffer through the mediocre, predictable jokes, ex...