In Peace on Earth we see into both sides of a vicious, blood-curdling battle in the trenches of WWI, when poison gas, hand-to-hand combat and starvation still played a big role in wars between countries. In a true event, something that history verifies happened, we get a glimpse of what could have happened on that day on the Western Front, between two armies, and the human beings who discovered there humanity on that Christmas Day, in the year of Our Lord, 1914. In Muhammad's Revenge we see how the world can be, has been and will be again, changed in dramatically, historic fashion until it no longer is a world. And, in the Duke, we see into the life of a totally disreputable, thoroughly unlikeable character but whose traits we all recognize because that are not only those of someone we have known but traits that we ourselves have suppressed most our lives. In fact, the further we read, the more we realize that we, ourselves have some, maybe too many, of those same traits ourselves.

In Santa Claus, Satellites, Cellphones & Sinkholes in Spring Hill we see into the lives of a small Tampa Bay suburb and the lives of many of its residents. The author delves into many of the problems that confront it's residents almost daily, including such things as a large generation gap between many of the communities senior citizens and the millennial generation. Such things as cultural issues, religious issues, political issues; previous and present-day wars and revolutions and what they meant in the past and may mean in the future and government agendas pertaining to the enormous gap of wealth between societal groups are just some of those problems. Another larger problem turns out to be why it is that so many struggle in the computer generation while others do well only because they are so well-versed in the use and knowledge of satellites, cellphones and the digitally computerized gadgets that will make or break many a company, corporation and human being in the future. And, finally, the truth of what Christmas has been, is and should be takes center stage and if, and how it is that Santa Claus figures into this equation, by how much, and why and is it only children who can believe in Santa Claus?

Muhammad's Revenge is a collection of short stories that literally forces the reader to bring the realities of life on this earth, along with such terrible things as war, into sharp focus and to concentrate on why things happen as they do-when they do-and what happens to the soul when this life on earth is over. In the title story, "Muhammad's Revenge," we see how the war experiences of a single human being can bring an apocalypse to the entire world. In "Peace on Earth" the realities of the horrors of World War I become starkly vivid and real but so does the humanity of mankind when the Germans and the English armies call a one-day truce, a historic event, that actually did happen. In "Big Sugar," as in all these stories, we see the personal as well as private lives of many of the characters, in their darkest moments and how one life's circumstances which end in a tragic death can alter history for all the others involved for the better.

The story begins on a street corner where five of the main characters are waiting to be picked up for a construction job. It spirals out of control on their third day at work when the white daughters of the general contractor's make a frivolous play for one of the black laborers, which ends up with them, their fathers and four of the laborers in a courtroom, in which justice becomes secondary to the societal pressures of an all-white jury, in 1968, trying two black laborers, one who is an escaped-felon, on a trumped-up charge that ruins more lives than just those who end up in prison.

The Manly Art is another collection of writer Keith G. Laufenberg's short stories, only this time with the defining factor being that they all involve the sport of boxing. Having been in the sport himself, beginning at age 17, when he entered Marine Corps boot camp, and ending after seven years, fought as a professional, he is afforded a closer more intimate look into the boxers lives. In "Sonny Liston's Eyes," the reader is taken into the Underworld of the sport when a writer interviews an ex-mobster-who is dying of lung cancer-and claims to have killed Sonny Liston, as well as JFK and Martin Luthur King Jr. He tells an incredible story but backs it up by saying he has absolutely verifiable evidence that he will produce for the writer. In "Frankenstein" we see why a young amateur boxer should have picked boxing over football. He has little say in the matter though as his father and uncle have trained him his entire life for football and it, along with the other stories, will keep you glued to the page.

The author of Miami Rock sets a blistering fast pace, and this mystery/thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat, reading from the first page to the last, as you wonder what next calamity may befall one of the denizens of this sub-tropical area of our country, which many refer to as a paradise for its beautiful climate, sandy beaches, and famed tourist attractions. Its Latin beat provides the backdrop for another side of this city, however, and one also well-known to the public, for paradise can become a purgatory where crime is rampant and drugs are on every street corner in too many neighborhoods. The main characters, a rough-hewn group of construction workers, on a job site in Ft. Lauderdale, sojourn into Miami for a night out and encounter much more than they had bargained for as rogue cops, drug dealers, shapely vixens, and a briefcase full of money all collide in a thriller that you won t be able to put down.

It's 1979 and Jimmy Carter's administration is seeing 21% interest rates. In the city of Sacramento, California, Gary Greb labors as a union carpenter but with a wife and two toddlers to support-and, as new construction is all but non-existent, he tries real estate sales; putting his knowledge of construction techniques and land-use to bolster his earnings, He quickly finds that one group-the excessively wealthy-are totally unfazed by the recessionary times and when he finds an engineer, with ties to people with unlimited funds, who will buy any piece of land at any reasonable price-for cash-he begins a career that will ultimately land him in prison, as well as turn him from the working class into a part of the wealthy landowners-a class he has come to disdain, distrust and dislike. If you never lived through these times in the 1970's and 80's, take heed and scrutinize today's headlines and economy and remember history has a way of repeating itself-and God only knows when the cycle will begin to spin again.