The Academy of Unusual Skills by Matt Baker

July 24, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Academy of Unusual Skills by Matt Baker
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Non-Fiction, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Welcome to The Academy of Unusual Skills, the only school where balancing a broom on your face, flipping an oven mitt, and turning a towel into a chicken can land you on the honor roll.

Part comedy book, part hands-on training manual, The Academy of Unusual Skills teaches readers more than 100 strange, silly, oddly impressive tricks using everyday objects. From coin snatching and card throwing to hat tricks, snack-based stunts, minor miracles, science illusions, juggling, balancing, and other strangely cool life skills. This book is your official guide to becoming unusually impressive.

Written by professional comedian, stunt performer, and three-time Guinness World Record holder Matt Baker, this book combines step-by-step instructions, hilarious faux-academic nonsense, and over 350 illustrations. Each skill is designed to build coordination, confidence, creativity, and showmanship, or at the very least, give you something weird to do at parties.

Whether you’re a curious kid, a bored adult, a future variety performer, a teacher looking for fun activities, or someone who simply believes life should contain more silliness, The Academy of Unusual Skills is your ticket to a world where useless is useful, silly is serious, and being bad at boring is practically required.

Classes are now in session.

Being called weird is a compliment at this academy.

There were such a wide variety of tricks included here that I suspect there will be something for everyone. Some of them looked like they’d require a good deal of practice given how many different steps were required to make them work, while other ones could probably be mastered in a single afternoon or even sooner than that. I appreciated that and thought it made this a better read.

Some of the entries made me a little nervous due to the risk of injury associated with them. For example, throwing food up into the air and then attempting to catch it with one’s mouth can be incredibly fun, but it can also be a choking hazard when the edible item in question is the same size and shape as a person’s windpipe. As much as I loved the concept of a school for learning unusual things in general, I do wish there had been a few safety warnings included before those ideas as this is a topic that could easily appeal to kids or young teens who might not yet have the life experience to realize the dangers of certain actions.

Mr. Baker has a playful sense of humor that works well with the themes of this book. I especially enjoyed the sections that sent readers off for breaks that were included in a few different spots. For spoiler reasons, I won’t share the exact natures of these pauses as they’re best left as surprises, but they showcased his creativity and made me chuckle as I took note of which tricks I might want to learn in the future.

The Academy of Unusual Skills was an amusing book for adults who want to learn a few party tricks.

Filed Under: Non-Fiction, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

the darkest of times, the darkest of thoughts by Megan Diedericks

July 13, 2026 By Leave a Comment


the darkest of times, the darkest of thoughts by Megan Diedericks
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Non-Fiction, Poetry, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

gray, empty
but i let the words grow
and my heart, i let show
but with separation came
the anxiety, the pain, the journey
within confinement.
i wasn’t ever my own
and my many faces had me so alone,
i thought i might drown.
it started before i even knew what puberty meant:
at twelve, i wrote my first lines.
now, at twenty, i want you to read my warning signs.

Sectioned off by chapters with original photography, the darkest of times, the darkest of thoughts is Megan Diedericks’ debut poetry collection which delves deep into mental health and self-reflection; encapsulating her journey with heartache, loss, grief, and self-perception. This collection begs the reader to wonder whether or not any of us will ever truly be free, and fully alive.

Healing isn’t always a straightforward process.

Mental health is one of those topics that piques my interest immediately. Not only are there many different diagnoses to choose from, but each person’s individual experiences with their own mental health can vary based on a variety of factors including age, culture, and personality. This means that a reader can pick up six books on the same disorder and potentially have a wildly different experience with each of them. Learning more about Ms. Diedericks experiences was rewarding, and I thought she did a nice job of explaining why some days can feel overwhelming when one is in the thick of things.

The repetition in this collection made it tricky for me to maintain a high interest level in it from beginning to end. Obviously, one would expect the same themes to be repeated over and over again, but the wording used in many of the poems was a little too similar for my tastes. With more development, I think this could have been a stronger body of work that dug even more deeply into all of the nuances of experiencing heartbreak.

My favorite poem, “Amusement Park,” also happened to be one of the final ones. It was the best example of the author’s creativity in my opinion, especially once the amusement park metaphor in it was explained in more detail. I enjoyed the dark sense of humor woven into it and thought this could have easily been expanded into an entire poetry collection in and of itself.

the darkest of times, the darkest of thoughts was thought provoking.

Filed Under: Non-Fiction, Poetry, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Cherry Creek by Linda Griffin

July 6, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Cherry Creek by Linda Griffin
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Romance, Historical
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

When her fiancé died, Eileen said, “Then I’m free,” words that her younger sister Molly didn’t understand and never forgot. In 1850s Ohio, a girl doesn’t have that many options, and marrying Andrew MacLeith may be the best she can hope for. He promises to cherish her, but they have to live with his parents, and he can’t even protect her from his mother’s sharp tongue. After a quarrel, Molly impulsively joins his gambler brother Hugh on a journey to the Pike’s Peak gold region. Perhaps the romance and freedom she longs for lie elsewhere. Or were they right under her nose all along?

Freedom always comes with a cost.

I loved Molly’s assertive personality and willingness to do anything necessary in order to improve her life. Her strained relationship with her judgmental and mean-spirited mother-in-law could have intimidated a less self-assured protagonist, so it was refreshing to see how she stood up for herself in that situation as a new bride. Marriage is a big enough adjustment to make on its own, after all, even for someone who knew what she wanted as clearly as Molly did.

There were some plot holes in this story that I wish had been explained in more detail. For example, Hugh’s fate was not clearly explained, and neither was Andrew’s reaction when Molly decided to run away from home soon after he married her. These were both important aspects of the storyline, so I was surprised by how quickly they were glossed over later on. A few more chapters developing this would have encouraged me to choose a higher rating.

It was also interesting to see how Molly’s dreams about what life would be like elsewhere were tempered by her actual experiences. Nobody has everything they want or even necessarily knows what all of their other options are, and sometimes fantasizing about a change can be quite different from actually experiencing it. The strongest passages in this tale in my opinion were the ones that explored the gap between the two and showed some examples of how to try to build a better future for oneself.

Cherry Creek made me smile.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , , ,

Movie Review: Dragon Striker

July 6, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Dragon Striker
Writer: Paul McKeown
Directed by: Charles Lefebvre
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Rebecca LaChance, Waylon Jacobs, Evanna Lynch
Distributed by: Disney
Genre: Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Children’s (0 – 6 y.o.), Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.)
Rating: 3 Stars (6 stars on IMDB)
Reviewed by Dicentra

Follows Key, a twelve-year-old farm boy who discovers he may be the legendary “Dragon Striker” and joins a team of underdogs to take on the school champions, while fighting to prevent an ancient evil from resurfacing.

Disney’s Dragon Striker was such a fun release, coinciding with the start of the World Cup in North America this year and combining fantasy and sports into one cartoon. The show did a great job highlighting the sport of Gorotama and the powers of the different players, but suffered from plot holes and the length of the show not allowing enough time to go in depth.

Gorotama is such a cool sport, very reminiscent of a more fantastical version of Shaolin Soccer. I loved the different powers that the players had, and I think the writers did an excellent job providing unique ways for some of them to ‘level up’ over the course of the show. It was also cool to see how some of the powers, or Tamas, were able to make use of the arenas to their advantage (i.e. twins with magnetic tamas being able to run on the ceiling). It was unclear how Key’s powers were so unique when it seemed like Ragno had very similar ones, but that leads more into some of the plot holes issues the show faced.

Dragon Striker was composed of multiple episodes that were about 20 minutes in length, but there was defniitely potential for them to go much longer. For example, Kal Asterock is supposed to be an academy of sorts but we never really see any of the students in classes (it is unclear if all they do is learn to control their Tamas for the sake of playing Gorotama). It is also a little weird that for a school that big, there seems to be only four professors (or Goyen) that ever make an appearance. I was kind of hoping that with the start of the team of Underdogs (the Knights), there would be some kooky professor coming out of nowhere to be their coach but it never happened. There’s also a scene towards the end of the show where one of the players on another team gets attacked, but they never really go deeper into what attacked him (it’s limited to three out of four of the Goyen complaining that Key coming to the school is bad news, as though he’s somehow related to the issue). I recognize though that I’m likely older than the target audience for this show, and expecting more complex shows as a result might be related to most of my complaints.

Overall, this was an entertaining cartoon and I’m glad I took the time to watch it. The show has a lot of potential, especially if they go into more of the history of the school and what happened with Key’s mom (we really only get told that she was a former Dragon Striker, and bits and pieces of what happened when she died). I really hope Disney gives this show another season, as there’s so much more to explore (and many more games of Gorotama to be played).

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Musings, Movie Review, Television Show Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Bot Camp by Paul Clarke

June 29, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Bot Camp by Paul Clarke
The Bot Books #1
Publisher: Green Hill Publishing
Genre: Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.), Action/Adventure, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Twelve-year-old Daniel is obsessed with combat robotics — because duh, who isn’t? So when his plucky lifter-bot snags him a spot at Bernard Barker’s legendary Bot Camp, Daniel short-circuits with excitement. Meeting his tech-innovator hero will be a dream come true!

His mom says he should try to make friends, but Daniel won’t have time for that. Bot Camp is a high-voltage competition and only one kid will win the ultimate prize: becoming Bernard’s apprentice.

Unfortunately, from the moment Daniel steps into the fully automated, AI-powered training complex, nothing goes to plan. The other participants are brilliant, but Daniel’s teammates are totally useless. He’ll never impress Bernard at this rate.

So while the others relax for the night, Daniel convinces his team to sneak into the workshop to fix their bot. But when the labyrinth-like facility mysteriously goes into lockdown, Daniel finds himself in real danger and only his teammates can help.

Summer camp is a rite of passage for many kids and, in this case, maybe a few robots as well.

The plot was fast-paced and exciting. There was never a time when it felt easy to set this down and stop reading for a while because every chapter was filled with adventure and twelve-year-olds aren’t always known for thinking about the consequences of their actions ahead of time. This is something I’d especially recommend to reluctant readers or kids who need a lot of action in their stories.

I would have liked to see more character development. Despite spending over two hundred pages with the characters, particularly Daniel, I’d struggle to describe his or their personalities or interests other than their love of combat robotics. Yes, this was a plot-centered book, so I wasn’t expecting pages of development for every single character or anything, but that was something that felt missing from the storyline.

Combat robotics was a topic I knew little about when I began reading chapter one, so I appreciated the detailed descriptions of how these battles work and what sorts of techniques players use to create robots that are good at both defending themselves and causing damage to their competitors. While I’ll leave it up to other readers who know more about this type of competition to share their thoughts on how well it represented what actually occurs in those battles, I certainly thought this made it sound exciting and educational.

Bot Camp kept me on my toes from the first paragraph to the last on.

Filed Under: Reviews, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Imago Nine – The Popstar Apocalypse by A.D. Shaddox

June 3, 2026 By 2 Comments


Imago Nine – The Popstar Apocalypse by A.D. Shaddox
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Amaya Reed never asked to become an Active.

One day, she’s a normal high school junior. The next, she’s cycling through eight unpredictable powers—mind-reading, gravity control, phasing, speed—each one replacing the last, each one harder to control than the one before.

There’s just one problem: once she uses a power, she can’t use it again until she’s burned through all eight.

When a disastrous rescue attempt goes viral, Amaya is branded a danger instead of a hero. But before she can even figure out how to live with her abilities, the mysterious Agency comes calling with an offer she can’t ignore:

Go undercover on the biggest show in America—The Next American Popstar—and stop a killer who plans to strike during the live finale.

Now, Amaya has to survive high school, master a volatile cycle of powers, and compete on a national stage where one mistake could cost her everything.

Because this time, failure won’t just go viral.

It’ll be deadly.

Being a teenager is complicated enough even before magical abilities start developing.

The descriptions of Amaya’s eight powers and how she learned to use them were detailed and memorable. I liked the fact that each ability was not only associated with a color but also had a special name. Once the characters explained them all, it was easy for me as a reader to know what to expect next based on what she’d done recently and which power was next on her rotating list. I should note that it did take a little while for this to be fully explored, but I didn’t mind the wait and thought it felt very natural to learn the last few bits of information when I did. Sometimes life does get in the way of lengthy conversations about important matters, after all!

It would have been helpful to have stronger character development, especially for Amaya. As much as I enjoyed learning about the incredible things she could do, I found myself wishing that I knew more about her personality and the interests she had that were unrelated to her role as an Active. Her relationship with her younger brother, for example, could have been explored more deeply in order to round out her character and give the audience a glimpse of what she was like when she was doing typical teenage things.

Many of the young adult books I read tend to shy away from including social media or reality television in their storylines, so I found it refreshing to see how the characters used and were affected by both the Internet and this style of programming. There are some key differences between teens who grew up in previous generations where these things either didn’t exist at all or were much more niche and people in that age group today who know that anything they say or do could be immediately shared and dissected online.

I was intrigued by Imago Nine – The Popstar Apocalypse.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Two Lives With You by Lauren Ho

June 2, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Two Lives With You by Lauren Ho
Publisher: Mindy’s Book Studio
Genre: Romance, Paranormal, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

What if they never married? For an overwhelmed husband and wife, that what-if wish comes true in an emotional and bittersweet novel about choices, sacrifice, and the love that they might lose forever.

When Dana and Nigel got married, they had such promise. After sixteen years, the cracks are showing.

Dana is a burned-out ER nurse, and Nigel is a recently unemployed stay-at-home dad whose professional identity is disappearing. Questioning the directions their lives have taken, Dana and Nigel are each granted a wish from a mysterious stranger. For one week they can escape the pressure of their lives in favor of ones in which they never married.

Waking up in an alternate reality where their youthful, individual dreams have come true is, at first, a marvel. When they meet by chance in Bali, Dana recognizes Nigel instantly, but he feels only an inexplicable connection to this stranger. And they discover there’s a catch to their wishes.

Returning to normal—and to the long-haul love they vowed would be forever—won’t be as easy as they thought. As the clock ticks down, Dana and Nigel face an impossible choice that will test the very foundation of their relationship and alter their lives forever.

Perfection is a myth.

Romantic relationships evolve over time, especially when a couple decides to have kids, encounters health problems, or struggles to find work among many other potential stressors in life. There simply aren’t enough romance novels about characters in these busy and sometimes difficult stages of life for my tastes, so I was thrilled to read something about a relationship that has weathered multiple storms and no longer feels quite the same as it used to. While I don’t want to give away any spoilers, I can say that this realistic approach to romance for people who are no longer college aged was refreshing and I loved seeing how Nigel and Dana explored their past together as they contemplated their possible futures as well.

I would have preferred to see more attention paid to character development. While I could easily describe Dana and Nigel’s professions and what they thought of their work on their best days as well as their worst ones, explaining what their personalities were like or how they grew and changed as a result of their magical experiences would be trickier. There were moments that briefly focused on this topics, but not to the extent I’d hope to find in a full-length novel. As much as I enjoyed the storyline itself, I needed a deeper understanding of who these two characters were as individuals in order to select a higher rating.

With that being said, I loved the fantasy and paranormal subplots of this tale. They were well developed and blended beautifully into the main romantic storyline due to how reliant the two protagonists were on figuring out the spell that bound them in order to repair their marriage and hopefully return to their original reality. This was a great example of how to blend these genres together in ways that honor all of them equally.

Two Lives with You was romantic and heartwarming.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Protecting Home by Kyle Shoop

May 28, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Protecting Home by Kyle Shoop
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Historical, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

You can’t outrun home.

A game-winning hit.
A mysterious inheritance.
One journey that changes everything.

After the sudden death of his father, major-league all-star Buck Boone is forced to return to the hometown he left behind years ago. But instead of a traditional inheritance, Buck is surprised to find his father left him a final challenge: in five days—the length of a little league baseball game—he must revisit four meaningful places from his past.

Four bases.
One final trip around the diamond.
Only then can he claim what his father left behind.

Each stop uncovers a memory his father could never forget—a defining moment in their relationship, and a moment Buck believed he had outrun long ago. As the journey unfolds, the line between past and present begins to blur, revealing the love, heartbreak, and quiet sacrifices that shaped his life.

Told through an emotionally rich dual timeline, Buck’s return home forces him to confront formidable moments, old friends, a fractured relationship with his family, and the lesson his father lived by: always protect home.

Heartfelt and unforgettable, Protecting Home is a powerful novel about baseball, fathers and sons, forgiveness, and the courage it takes to come home—reminding us that the greatest victories aren’t always won on the field, but in the lives we choose to protect.

Forgiveness is for everyone.

Memories can be tricky things sometimes, so I was glad to see the dual timelines included in this book. Buck’s understanding of the world as a child and teenager were obviously not the same as how he viewed the same events many years later. It was helpful for me as a reader to see how his perspectives evolved as he began to understand his family better and branched out into the world as a professional athlete.

It would have been helpful to have stronger plot and character development. Other than his love of baseball and his close relationship with his father, I’d have trouble describing what Buck was like as a person. For example, no other hobbies or interests of his were included and I’m not sure what it would be like to meet him in person. Was he gentle, loud, thoughtful, or impulsive? I was never certain, but the same could be said of the vague descriptions of his small hometown. Was this set now or sixty years ago? Good arguments could be made for many different decades, and knowing roughly when it occurred would have helped to clear up some of my questions about why the character who was struggling with serious mental health problems didn’t seem to have any medical assistance with them.

With that being said, the descriptions of what it’s like to have a relative who is struggling with their mental health were interesting. Whether it was happening decades ago or in current times, getting help for a family in crisis can be difficult and sometimes provoke feelings of shame and guilt in both the person who is suffering as well as in their loved ones. This isn’t something that can always be easily resolved, and I liked the way the author acknowledged that aspect of the subplot along the way.

Protecting Home was a thought-provoking look at fraying family ties, mending fences, and, of course, the joy of baseball.

Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Other, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Heritage Mountain by Karen Black

May 20, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Heritage Mountain by Karen Black
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Romance, Cozy Mystery, Action/Adventure, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In a world where the mystical and the actual coexist, adventure, romance, and a touch of mystery unfold. Set in the majestic Adirondack mountains, when Marco Cason leads an expedition to explore the history of the mountain wilderness, he doesn’t know his colleagues are guardians of the fae.

Searching for clues about ancient societies that inhabited the Adirondacks centuries before, the team delves into legends, navigates ancient maps, and learns that folklore about magical clans is based on facts. When a pixie introduces herself to Maria, the expedition takes a different path. The guardians realize the mountain is filled with mystical clans whose homes are under attack. Negligent use of dynamite, illegal mining, and disregard for nature and the environment has destroyed much of their habitat. It has also cost lives.

Faced with the truth about the existence of magical beings, Marco is forced to reevaluate everything he believed. Still, he becomes a central force when he battles beside the fae to save Heritage Mountain as elves, stargazers, and goliaths fill the pages and the explorers unite with the supernatural creatures to save the mountain from invaders whose greed is destroying their territory.

Themes of friendship, conservation, love, and acceptance flourish, as well as a heavy dose of karma.

The mountains are full of possibilities.

Romance and fantasy are often combined into the same plot, so I wasn’t too surprised to see that happen here. While the latter definitely took up more space, the occasional romantic moments scattered here and there provided additional depth to the characters and gave them some tender experiences interspersed among more serious and sometimes even dangerous ones. I think using this form of love sparingly but purposefully was a great decision for this universe.

The slow pacing and repetition made it difficult for my interest level to remain high even though I was quite curious about this book when I requested it. While I did feel as though I had a good understanding of who everyone was in the large cast of characters, introducing so many of them meant that the protagonists needed to repeat their reasons for being on Heritage mountain and, in some cases, their abilities to see or communicate with mystical beings over and over again. Unfortunately, this only slowed down the storyline even more and made it harder for me to remain highly invested in what was happening.

There was plenty of attention paid to the world building which made this a satisfying read in that regard. I wasn’t aware this was part of a series when I began the first chapter, but it worked pretty well as a standalone piece given the explanations of what seemed to be the most important events of past books. It was especially interesting to me to find out what the various types of magical beings thought of each other and how they organized their societies in order to remain hidden in a world filled with nosy and sometimes destructive humans.

Heritage Mountain was filled with wonder.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Dear Missing Friend by Susan McGuirk

May 19, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Dear Missing Friend by Susan McGuirk
Publisher: Sea Crow Press
Genre: Romance, Historical
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Three hearts. Countless letters. One impossible choice.

Through letters exchanged across oceans and Manhattan streets, Irish immigrant Catherine McGuirk navigates love, ambition, and heartbreak. Torn between her seafaring husband, the suitor she once refused, and her own dreams, Catherine’s fate unfolds in an intimate, epistolary saga of passion, resilience, and 19th-century life.

Not all choices are equal ones.

Being an immigrant requires courage and the hope that that things will improve. Some of the most memorable passages were the ones that described the prejudice Irish people faced when they came to the United States in the 1800s as well as how Catherine and her loved ones pushed through their struggles to find housing, employment, and a sense of community in cities and towns that were anything but accepting of them. These sections were written tenderly and with so much sympathy for all of the hard times this family experienced as a result of their social class and ethnicity.

I struggled with the slow pacing of this novel, especially in the beginning as the characters were being introduced. Since not everyone’s relationship to the protagonist was explained immediately, this only made those passages trickier to get through. This is something I’m saying as a reader who enjoyed the plot in general and was hoping to choose a much higher rating for it. I simply needed things to unfold a little faster and with a bit more attention paid to how everyone knew each other.

The realistic and bittersweet ending fit the characters and the era they lived in perfectly. While this was a work of fiction, it was loosely inspired by the life of author’s great-aunt. There was a section at the end that shared some of the research Ms. McGuirk did about her family tree in the 1800s and this relative in particular. I love it when historical fiction authors use real life as inspiration for their work, and despite my struggles with the pacing I thought this was a good example of how to use a few historical records to imagine what might have happened generations ago that was never written down. Life was incredibly difficult back then for the vast majority of people, and I liked the fact that this was acknowledged as Catherine lived out her days.

Dear Missing Friend was thoughtful.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , ,
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