Jim Alkon

Book Club Network Fiction Thrillers Thrillers - Featured

A Hated Judge, an Unending Suspect List and a Small Town Full of Secrets

Think of all the times people have described a book to you by saying it starts off slowly but you’ll get into it. Frankly, that never cut it for me. Author Katherine Burnette subconsciously must have been listening. That’s because before you’ve left the first two pages of her legal…

Jim AlkonMay 26, 2022

Nonfiction Nonfiction - Featured

Meet a Pillar of the Vegas Gambling Community in “Paul S. Endy Jr.: Las Vegas Gaming Legend”

Author Eric Endy had a front-row seat to much of that history and documents it vividly and thoroughly through the story of his father in Paul S. Endy Jr., Las Vegas Casino Gaming Legend. Paul Endy, a 1997 inductee into the Nevada Gaming Hall of Fame, made a name for…

Jim AlkonMay 18, 2022

Better Self Better Self - Featured Nonfiction

“Millennials” Is a Wakeup Call for the Youth

In his first book, Enrich Your Life and the World with the Game of Golf, the playing field for author Stephen Vigiano was too confined. In that 2020 work, he made the point that “Golf is a sport that transcends a club and a ball. It is a sport that…

Jim AlkonMay 17, 2022

Miscellany Potpourri - Featured

Iconic Bookstore Owner’s Passing Conjures Up Memories of a Love Affair With Books

In my past life as a one-man consulting business, I always used to say that my sales department (me) would shut down when my manufacturing department (me) had to do the work that the sales department sold. Similarly, I always had trouble juggling my intense desire to seek out and…

Jim AlkonMay 16, 2022

Business Business - Featured Nonfiction

“The Purpose of Business Is the Business of Purpose” Says Branding Expert

In 2009, Simon Sinek introduced the concept of starting with the “why” as the framework for how great business influencers think, act, differentiate from competitors and, in turn, build the world’s most successful companies. While Sinek popularized the word “why” as a strategy setter in his bestselling Start With Why and…

Jim AlkonMay 9, 2022

Fiction Thrillers Thrillers - Featured

Looks Are Deceiving — And That Won’t Help This Amateur Sleuth

Bill VanPatten’s fast-paced thriller, Looks are Deceiving, which revolves around a series of apparent hate crimes in a small California community, my antenna was up from the beginning, and I was on the lookout for the twist — and I still guessed it wrong. It all starts when our protagonist…

Jim AlkonMay 2, 2022

Business Business - Featured Nonfiction

Develop a Strong Foundation in Sales With “How to Be a Superstar Salesperson”

Audri White takes the alphabetic game a step further with acronyms like CAPI, SPIN and FAB in her quick “pocket guide” handbook to sales called How to Be a Superstar Salesperson. White, a former salesperson at Xerox Corp. who has made a living in banking, mortgage lending and corporate recruiting,…

Jim AlkonApril 28, 2022

Fiction Thrillers Thrillers - Featured

Scaling the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Two Hikers’ Paths Collide in a Desperate Bid for Freedom

Leave No Trace by Tim Mulholland bills itself as a mystery thriller revolving around a seasoned backpacker who, in the middle of the Sierra Nevada mountains, stumbles upon a woman who, of all things and of all places, has fled kidnappers who have held her captive. But as much as…

Jim AlkonApril 25, 2022

Fiction Thrillers Thrillers - Featured

Swift, Spicy, Witty and Crazy, “Lover Child” Picks Up Where First Two Mysteries Leave Off

When Stephen Kronwith told us he was sending along his third novel, I thought — only for about a nanosecond — since I had read and reviewed his first two that maybe someone else on the BookTrib team should take this one. Might readers be jaded already by my glowing…

Jim AlkonApril 14, 2022

Fiction Fiction - Featured

Single Motherhood Collides With Creative Ambition in the Mid-20th-Century Art Scene

Lis Bensley, author of the thoughtful and provocative The Glimpse (Troubador Publishing), no doubt would be flattered to have a primary theme of her work compared to this description of James Joyce’s A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man: “the essential search for voice and meaning that every…

Jim AlkonApril 14, 2022

Book Club Network Fiction Fiction - Featured

A Poignant Look at Forgiveness, Family and the Greek-American Immigrant Experience

So just how forgiving, and brave, are the characters in the award-winning Stand a Little Out of My Sun, Angelyn Christy Voss’s beautifully written saga of a multigenerational American Greek family making ends meet in industrial Chicago in the Fifties and Sixties? That lingering question becomes the main storyline, fueled…

Jim AlkonApril 12, 2022

Children's Books Children's Books - Featured

A Tender Story of Grief, Healing and a Loved One’s Enduring Presence in the Wisconsin Wilderness

Young Clare Burch was doing some fishing of her own, in debut author Laura Anne Bird’s delightful and meaning-laden middle-grade novel Crossing the Pressure Line. And while part of her quest was in fact the rare musky fish in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, that quote, from Henry David Thoreau, couldn’t…

Jim AlkonApril 8, 2022

Better Self Better Self - Featured Nonfiction

Happiness: A Matter of the Lens Through Which You View It

Rosemary Schmidt tells the story of a teacher asking a young John Lennon what he wanted to be when he grew up. “Happy,” said Lennon. The teacher told Lennon he did not understand the question. Lennon told the teacher she did not understand life. Whether Lennon, or the Peanuts character…

Jim AlkonMarch 8, 2022

BooksToScreen Fiction Fiction - Featured Thrillers

Circumstance Threatens A Man’s Character Even as His “Unyielding Destiny” Unfolds

“A swift, thoughtful thriller … as fast-paced as it is philosophical. … Great for fans of Leonardo Sciascia, Tod Goldberg’s Gangsterland. … Grittily realistic.” —BookLife —∞— The average person might not realize that in the 1960s, some 300 civilians lived on the maximum-security federal prison known as Alcatraz, in the waters off…

Jim AlkonMarch 8, 2022

Better Self Better Self - Featured Nonfiction

Much More Than a Rough and Tumble Sport, Rugby Teaches Valuable Life Lessons

The saying has a practical message in terms of rugby: Go forward, never run sideways; don’t run away from your supporting players. Support, when the play breaks down, set up for what ensues, and remember that no one goes anywhere alone. Rosemary A. Schmidt, a former collegiate and club rugby…

Jim AlkonMarch 1, 2022

Book Club Network Fiction Thrillers Thrillers - Featured

One “Accusation” (or Six) Threatens to Hang a Movie Star’s Career

Those could be the perfect words to hear from your agent if you are a struggling actor and have just landed that plum role. Or not so much so, if you already are a celebrity living the dream life with untold riches, fame and a beautiful loving wife. In the…

Jim AlkonMarch 1, 2022

Jim Alkon

A Hated Judge, an Unending Suspect List and a Small Town Full of Secrets

Meet a Pillar of the Vegas Gambling Community in “Paul S. Endy Jr.: Las Vegas Gaming Legend”

“Millennials” Is a Wakeup Call for the Youth

Iconic Bookstore Owner’s Passing Conjures Up Memories of a Love Affair With Books

Looks Are Deceiving — And That Won’t Help This Amateur Sleuth

Develop a Strong Foundation in Sales With “How to Be a Superstar Salesperson”

Scaling the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Two Hikers’ Paths Collide in a Desperate Bid for Freedom

Swift, Spicy, Witty and Crazy, “Lover Child” Picks Up Where First Two Mysteries Leave Off

Single Motherhood Collides With Creative Ambition in the Mid-20th-Century Art Scene

A Poignant Look at Forgiveness, Family and the Greek-American Immigrant Experience

A Tender Story of Grief, Healing and a Loved One’s Enduring Presence in the Wisconsin Wilderness

Happiness: A Matter of the Lens Through Which You View It

Circumstance Threatens A Man’s Character Even as His “Unyielding Destiny” Unfolds

Much More Than a Rough and Tumble Sport, Rugby Teaches Valuable Life Lessons

One “Accusation” (or Six) Threatens to Hang a Movie Star’s Career

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