Ghost County by John McCarthy

We launched a new poetry collection!

MG Press only puts out one or two books a year. So when one does get published, it feels extra special because we’re super-selective about the manuscripts we move forward with, and because we put so much energy into each title.

Ghost County by John McCarthy is his debut, but you wouldn’t know if you read it or see him read live. His energy floods the pages and saturates the air when he breathes a meditation on traversing the midwest in a pickup truck to life.

Here’s some of the early press it’s been getting:

“In John McCarthy’s arresting debut, the middle of America reveals itself to be a belly full of opportunities and frustrations.” —Adrian Matejka, author of The Big Smoke

“Ghost County…is a book that never stops opening up.”
–Adam Clay, author of Stranger and Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World

“[I]n these gritty poems, McCarthy exposes a grimmer reality tainted by drugs, alcohol, poverty, and violence. [T]his is a hardscrabble life where time stretches past into future, back into the past, and all seems predetermined to remain the same. McCarthy’s poems pay close attention to a darker middle life, and they do not flinch.”
—Sandy Longhorn, author of The Alchemy of My Mortal Form

Check out Ghost County by John McCarthy

Book Review: Lonely Planet New Zealand’s South Island

4 out of 5 stars

I’ve never used a guidebook to plan a trip.

Granted, I haven’t done a multi-destination international trip since high school, where every step was already plotted out for me. My first instinct was to go to the internet.

Before barely any time at all, I was paralyzed.

There were too many sites. Too many options. Too many different perspectives. I spent days poking around without making any real decisions.

A few days later, I had lunch with a friend who had just visited New Zealand for two-weeks. She introduced me to several guidebooks she and her sister used to plan something that was the envy of everyone she knew on social media.

I decided to narrow my sources down to three things. The Lonely Planet Travel Guides, NZFree Guides, and a Lord of the Rings resource for movie locations.

First up: The Lonely Planet New Zealand’s South Island Travel Guide. It’s over 600 pages filled with tips on activities, places to stay, and things to eat. This book has a little bit of everything for all the major regions and cities of note in New Zealand, with short 3-4 line write-ups of each. You won’t really get a good sense of the place from this limited info, and there are precious few pictures. It still left me with way too many options, but at least I had narrowed it down to a few dozen points of interest.

Each region has a quick visualization of the 8-10 highlights it has to offer. The book makes it easy to quickly get a feel for what each one is about (Queensland: Adventure. Fiordlands: Jaw-dropping Mountains.).

I didn’t use any of the recommendations on places to stay and eat (I’m planning on using Air BnB), but there were hundreds. The back half of the book was a super helpful logistical guide – what outlets they use, what time of year to visit, how to avoid causing an international incident on the island, etc.

With my list of “maybes”, I can dig in further on the internet and the other books. The ZNFree South Island book will help me make sure I don’t miss any “off the beaten” path sights.

My end goal is to plot everything on a map, see where my clusters of ideas are, and then plan my 5-6 days on the South Island around that.

Buy Lonely Planet New Zealand’s South Island

Book Review: The Adventures of Johnny Bunko

4 out of 5 stars

And now, for something completely different.

I’ve been bingeing on Tim Ferriss’ podcast for a few months now (Seth Godin and Scorpion founder Walter O’Brien will straight up blow your mind). Every episode he asks his guests which books have been most influential to them, and which one they give most often as gifts.

The result – I’ve got a huge backlog of non-fiction books to pore through. This one isn’t your standard NYT-bestseller-with-esoteric-title-and-person-in-mid-power-move cover.

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need reads like a manga, but without the backwards panels and page turns. It’s a quick read. For folks about to start their careers, it’s invaluable reading. Though without context, it may be hard for some of the situations and lessons to resonate.

This book is perfect for mid-level to senior professionals, who are probably hitting that 7-year-itch and asking themselves – why the hell am I doing all this?

For these nine-to-five warriors, the story arcs and illustrative examples Diana, a magical Asian genie of sorts, helps Johnny work through will seem pulled straight out of corporate America. The lessons are stripped down to their most essential parts. There is little waste and all the analogies are crystal clear.

For those who already have a healthy perspective on work and work-life balance, this book might feel superficial. But a refresher can never hurt. There may be something in the book that reinvigorates and inspires you. Or, you may only take one of the lessons away as valuable. Given how fundamental these notions are to happiness and career, just one lesson would be well-worth the price of admission.

Buy The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need

Paper Tigers by Damien Angelica Walters

4 out of 5 stars

I’m usually not a horror guy.

However, when a Dark House Press title showed up on my doorstep, I decided it was as good of a time as any to try something unusual.

“In this haunting and hypnotizing novel, a young woman loses everything–half of her body, her fiancé, and possibly her unborn child–to a terrible apartment fire. While recovering from the trauma, she discovers a photo album inhabited by a predatory ghost who promises to make her whole again, all while slowly consuming her from the inside out.”

Paper Tigers echoed The Others for me. DECADE OLD SPOILER ALERT: A protagonist caught in what they perceive is a haunted house. In reality, they are the intruders, the ones disturbing the undead. Walters doesn’t use the shocking twist, though. She gives her broken main character agency and uses the house as a metaphor for Alison’s struggle to heal herself.

The standout in this book was the authenticity, as much as you can have authenticity in a story about a predatory ghost trying to trap someone in a photo album. Alison’s introversion as a result of her horrifying scars felt incredibly crippling. The need to recharge alone after something so simple as taking a few steps outside. The desire to avoid human contact, even with someone you love dearly.

I particularly enjoyed the nuanced relationship with her mother, who had her own struggle between wanting to help Allison return to some version of the person she was before and failing to respect her daughters need for space and time to process.

While I appreciate a good surprise as much as anyone, Paper Tigers felt like it could have ended earlier. Without spoiling the end of the book, the main storyline that had already come to a close felt like a false ending. In the case of Paper Tigers, I think Walters didn’t go surprising enough, instead trying to rekindle story out of an otherwise satisfying ending.

Walters prose sucks you in with vivid descriptions that build setting around all the senses. The smell of tobacco, the tautness of scar tissue: many times I found myself simply enjoying the picture she was painting. In a critical scene near the end of the book, Walters delivers masterfully on what I expect horror to be – unsettling, uncomfortable, and placing a character on that delicate knife edge of escape and completely losing themselves.

As a casual horror fan, I found a lot to enjoy in this novel.
Buy Paper Tigers by Damien Angelica Walters