Welcome to the Revish newsletter. This month we've got a selection of great books available for review, and that's it. Unless otherwise stated these books are available to readers worldwide, but please remember that by requesting a copy you are committing to write a review and post it to Revish.

In this issue:

• An Iliad: A Story of War, by Alessandro Baricco
• The Patriarch, by G. N. Buffington
• Months and Seasons, by Christopher Meeks
• Help Your Dog Fight Cancer, by Laurie Kaplan
• Moments of Contemplation, by Lynn Pinkham
• Holding Her Head High, by Janine Turner
• Trust In The Lord, by Deen Kemsley

An Iliad: A Story of War, by Alessandro Baricco

Alessandro Baricco re-creates the siege of Troy through the voices of 21 Homeric characters. Sacrificing none of Homer's panoramic scope, Baricco forgoes Homer's detachment and admits us to realms of subjective experience his predecessor never explored. >From the return of Chryseis to the burial of Hector, we see through human eyes and feel with human hearts the unforgettable events first recounted more than 3,000 years ago events arranged not by the whims of the gods in this instance but by the dictates of human nature.

With Andromache, Patroclus, Priam, and the rest, we are privy to the ghastly confusion of battle, the clamour of the princely councils, the intimacies of the bedchamber until finally only a blind poet is left to recount secondhand the awful fall of Ilium.

Imbuing the stuff of legend with a startlingly new relevancy and humanity, Baricco gives us The Iliad as we have never known it. His transformative achievement is certain to delight and fascinate all the readers of Homer's indispensable classic.

We have copies of this book available to UK reviewers only.

More on An Iliad: A Story of War at the Canongate website

The Patriarch, by G. N. Buffington

Jacob Sellars, a New York City newspaper reporter, is assigned to cover the memorial services for oil tycoon Joshua Crane, whose corporation has an ambiguous history and suspicious ties to U.S. intelligence agencies. Sellars, who is trying to come to grips with his own troubled past, seizes the chance to write a freelance article about the Crane family, one of New England's most venerated.

In the process, Sellars develops an obsessive romance with Crane's granddaughter, a strident critic of the current administration's foreign policy in the Middle East. His investigations uncover the fact that Crane's company is being used as a front by the U.S. government for nefarious activities in oil-producing countries. Despite efforts to silence him, Sellars intends to publish a blockbuster story revealing the scheme. But he must first survive a beating by thuggish mercenaries, two horrifying terrorist attacks, and his own inner turmoil. Sellars's determination will be the deciding factor in whether he will escape with his life-and his heart-intact.

A masterful mix of high-level corruption, personal conflict, love and loss, The Patriarch is a vivid portrayal of the world for one American in the decade after the infamous terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

We have copies available for readers in Canada and the US.

Months and Seasons, by Christopher Meeks

Months and Seasons is the follow-up story collection to Christopher Meeks' award-winning The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea. Featuring a combination of main characters from young to old, the tales combine drama and humor as they pursue such people as: a supermodel who awakens after open-heart surgery, a famous playwright who faces a firestorm consuming the landscape, a reluctant man who attends a Halloween party as Dracula, and a New Yorker who thinks she's a chicken.

As Carmela Ciuraru wrote in the Los Angeles Times Book Review of Meeks' first book, "This idea resonates throughout the collection: Meeks' characters seek happiness in the small things because they have no choice... [The stories] are poignant and wise, sympathetic to the everyday struggles these characters face."

Author Sandra Tsing Loh (A Year in Van Nuys) says of this new collection "Christopher Meeks' quirky stories are lyrical and wonderfully human." Author Gina B. Nahai (Caspian Rain) says, "If the object of art is to capture the reality of the human condition one glimpse at a time, then Christopher Meeks succeeds gloriously. His stories are delightful and heart-rending, surprising and eerily familiar-chronicles, all, of the epic battles fought by ordinary characters one day at a time."

Help Your Dog Fight Cancer, by Laurie Kaplan

There are 65 million dogs in the U.S. alone, and half of all pet dogs are expected to have some kind of cancer during their lifetimes. Still, pet caretakers are invariably shocked on learning that their dog has cancer, and are at a loss about what to do.

This book is a crash course to help people in this position, and is educational for anyone who loves dogs.

We have copies available for readers in the US only.

Read more on the book's website

Moments of Contemplation, by Lynn Pinkham

Do you struggle with the daily stress and oppression of everyday life? Do you or someone you know struggle with a chronic illness, depression or mental illness? Moments of Contemplation is a very good example of what God can do for you as He did for the author, Lynn Pinkham.

This is an inspiration filled book, with bits and pieces of the author's life, set into devotional style. Each devotional is a word picture of God's handiwork, power and magnificent love. Lynn Pinkham, shares her struggles and God's triumphs in her life. Moments of Contemplation is a book you will want to read more than once.

We have copies available to readers in the US, Canada and the UK.

Read more on the book's website

Holding Her Head High, by Janine Turner

Life lessons from single mothers throughout history inspire single mothers today. Single moms are not just a product of our modern culture; single mothers throughout history have raised not only their children but also nations with a higher vision for life.

Holding Her Head High recounts stories of twelve such women from the third to the twenty-first centuries who found ways to twist their fates to represent God's destiny for their lives. Stories from women like Rachel Lavein Fawcett, abandoned single mother of Alexander Hamilton; Harriet Jacobs, an unwed mother of slavery whose autobiography was published the year the Civil War began; and widowed Belva Lockwood, the first woman to officially run for President, all carrying wounds but all offering insight, wisdom, and encouragement.

Read more on the book's website

Trust In The Lord: Reflections of Jesus Christ, by Deen Kemsley

The book consists of eight personal essays on Christ. Each essay is packed with memorable anecdotes and intriguing insights that strengthen and encourage its readers. The book covers many topics, including the peace we may find in Christ's love, the depth of Christ's sacrifice for us, and the power of simple acts.

Publisher's Weekly states the book "has a deeply ecumenical tone. The focus throughout is on knowing and loving Christ, not emphasizing denominational differences... there is a simple honesty to this volume that makes it refreshing and quietly lovely."

Read more on the book's website

Next issue - more stuff

We don't know exactly what we'll have ready for the next issue, but we do know it will contain good stuff.

Happy reading!