Mandatory Release

Mandatory Release by Jess Riley  

Published: July, 2013  

Format: Kindle E-Book  

Recommended By: Jennifer at The Relentless Reader

Recovering from a devastating experience and the end of a long-term relationship, Drew returns to her parents' home and accepts a teaching position at the prison where her mom works.

Here she struggles with many challenges. Resistance from inmates who are deeply damaged and chemically unbalanced, struggling with addictions, and riddled by hormones. Unmotivated students. Violent outbursts leading to fights, with other students cheering and egging on the combatants.

Except for the venue, it sounds kinda like middle school.

Tim Rowland's Creature Features Is Laugh Out Loud Funny

Yes, I mean that literally. As I was reading this on my Kindle, my family kept staring at me and demanding to know what was so dang funny.

Rowland is an award-winning columnist at the Herald-Mail Media in Hagerstown, Maryland. This book is a collection of his columns, which chronicle life on a small farm with his wife Beth and various critters.

I was on the fence about accepting Creature Features for review, but as you probably know, I can't resist a genuine animal lover. Plus my dad is also a newspaper columnist, and I figured people in this underappreciated profession -- and their relatives -- need to stick together. I was delighted to find out how much I loved Rowland's intelligent, articulate, and witty style of writing. A nice diversion from my own life with three feral dogs and the two-legged critters to whom I answer to "Mom."