Michelle Anne Schingler

Traverse City

Jewish feminist; progressive tendencies.Bibliophile w/Sorkin addiction. Book Riot contributor. Views mine and mine alone.

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Articles

Review of Porthole

1 week ago | forewordreviews.com | Michelle Anne Schingler

Joanna Howard McSweeney's (Jun 17, 2025) Hardcover $28.00 (325pp)978-1-963270-28-0 In Joanna Howard’s sardonic novel Porthole, a famed director is forced to seek rest following the death of her star. Yacht-raised by an uncle who cycled between young women and filmed it all, Helena learned to master classic film techniques and opportunism early on.
Bettered by the Book

3 weeks ago | forewordreviews.com | Michelle Anne Schingler

Do you ever wonder if those in power would do better if they knew better? In my more hopeful moments, I think: “maybe they just haven’t read the right books, or extended enough empathy. Maybe if—”And let’s admit, too, that we sometimes read to avoid becoming like those who stand in stubborn opposition to our most cherished values. Growing into those values, and learning how to protect and honor them, is a neverending process. Belief is easy; nuance takes time and practice.
July/August Ed note

3 weeks ago | forewordreviews.com | Michelle Anne Schingler

Bettered by the BookDo you ever wonder if those in power would do better if they knew better? In my more hopeful moments, I think: “maybe they just haven’t read the right books, or extended enough empathy. Maybe if—”And let’s admit, too, that we sometimes read to avoid becoming like those who stand in stubborn opposition to our most cherished values. Growing into those values, and learning how to protect and honor them, is a neverending process. Belief is easy; nuance takes time and practice.
Review of A Place No Flowers Grow

1 month ago | forewordreviews.com | Michelle Anne Schingler

Cheryl Cantafio Amazon KDP (103pp)979-898804522-9 Clarion Rating: 3 out of 5 A Place No Flowers Grow is a modern fairy tale in verse that’s shot through with menace. A young couple in love has their happiness threatened by mistakes from their past in A Place No Flowers Grow, Cheryl Cantafio’s dark, fabulistic novella in verse.
Review of Chalice of Echoes

1 month ago | forewordreviews.com | Michelle Anne Schingler

Nexus of Arcanus Series Steven W. Truelove FriesenPress (228pp)978-1-03-833688-0 Clarion Rating: 4 out of 5 A loyal team is on a noble quest to stop a villain’s dark plans in the intriguing fantasy novel Chalice of Echoes. Part of a continuing series, Steven W. Truelove’s involving fantasy novel Chalice of Echoes follows a group’s efforts to stop a vicious sorceress.
Editor-in-Chief Michelle Anne Schingler Interviews Antti Tuomainen, Author of The Burning Stones

1 month ago | forewordreviews.com | Michelle Anne Schingler

In the main, thrillers coming out of the Nordic regions are grim, as if their writers all work for a sinister tourist bureau intent on frightening the wits out of any potential foreign travelers. So, brutal cold, unrelenting darkness, stoic people—that’s the upside to daily life in these noir novels—while shocking scenes of dismemberment and murder send the convincing message that Barcelona might be a wiser choice for spring break. But no, that tourist bureau doesn’t exist.
Review of The Scald Crow

2 months ago | forewordreviews.com | Michelle Anne Schingler

Beyond the Faerie Rath: Book 1 Hanna Park Baisong Press (May 26, 2025) Softcover $12.99 (258pp)978-1-06-899753-2 In Hanna Park’s erotic fantasy novel The Scald Crow, a disgraced woman flees to Ireland, where she discovers her connection to faeries and falls in love. After being fired from her broadcasting job, virginal Calla, an adopted Canadian with a propensity for “blurting out the obscenest prophecies,” moves to Donegal County to claim a mysterious inheritance.
Review of Not Long Ago Persons Found

2 months ago | forewordreviews.com | Michelle Anne Schingler

J. Richard Osborn Bellevue Literary Press (Jun 10, 2025) Softcover $17.99 (176pp)978-1-954276-40-6 A forensic anthropologist and her partner travel abroad in search of the truth behind a boy’s brutal murder in the feverish dystopian novel Not Long Ago Persons Found. A seven-year-old boy’s torso is found in a city’s river with foreign pollen in his lungs and the remnants of his last meal still in his stomach. His head is found elsewhere.
Review of World Without End

2 months ago | forewordreviews.com | Michelle Anne Schingler

Essays on Apocalypse and After Martha Park Hub City Press (May 6, 2025) Hardcover $24.00 (240pp)979-888574048-7 A gorgeous exercise in open theology, Martha Park’s essay collection World Without End ponders climate change, social inequities, family, and religion. Though it has roots in her Christian upbringing, Park’s book treats faith less as a matter of certainty than it is a continual search.
Review of No Straight Road Takes You There

2 months ago | forewordreviews.com | Michelle Anne Schingler

Essays for Uneven Terrain Rebecca Solnit Haymarket Books (May 13, 2025) Softcover $16.95 (184pp)979-888890363-6 The urgent, prescient essays in Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Road Takes You There name social inequities and ecological pains while insisting upon hope.