San Diego Bookshelf

East County News Service

March 30, 2025 (Lemon Grove) – The Lemon Grove Historical Society’s “History Alive” lecture series continues this Thursday, April 3 at 7 p.m. with local author Sandra Bonura speaking about her new book, Empire Building: John D. Spreckels and the Making of San Diego. 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo courtesy of Library Foundation San Diego

March 26, 2025 (San Diego) - On Friday, March 14, President Trump issued an Executive Order intended to drastically reduce funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the only federal agency dedicated to funding library services.

Novel by M. Lee Buompensiero

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

March 6, 2025 (San Diego) -- Long-time San Diego resident, M. Lee Buompensiero has released an award-winning novel, Sumerland. The story is full of romance, unusual hauntings, heart-warming dog crises and mishaps.

Brain Surgeon: A Doctor’s Inspiring Encounters with Mortality and Miracles, by Keith Black, MD (Wellness Books, trademark of Hatchette Book Group, Inc., New York, NY 2009, 226 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

Photos of Author by: Kareem BH Photography

February 26, 2025 (San Diego - Having written more than 400 book reviews, two of which contributed towards the authors winning the NAACP Image Award in Literature, this book by Dr. Keith Black is foremost the most intriguing and insightful book that I have ever read, for it deals with life and death. I am truly honored and inspired!

Brain Surgeon: A Doctor’s Inspiring Encounters with Mortality and Miracles delves into the realm of what actually constitutes life and death, and it places Dr. Keith Black in a place that few if any could ever dream or hope for. Having written all those book reviews, from that of former Vice-President Hillary Clinton, President Donald Trump, Lakers’ Owner Jeanie Buss, and former Barack Obama White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett, I say this with the most humble of intentions as a book reviewer.

By Jacob Hubbard

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

February 24, 2025 (San Diego) - Long-time San Diego resident Jacob Hubbard has written a debut novel, Sounds of Yesterday, about a romantic relationship during COVID as experienced by an autistic man.

By Wanjirũ Warama

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

January 1, 2025 (La Mesa) -- Wanjiru Warama a resident of La Mesa, provides true stories of how her family and community lived in abject poverty on British colonial farms in Kenya in her novel, The Colonial Farm. Her historic memoir sheds light on the struggles of Kenyan farmworkers and rural populations under the British colonial rule. She then covers how Kenya’s rulership developed after the British retreated from governing.