Ray-views Volume 1

This collection of book reviews and essays will point you to books that inspire, educate, and expand your viewpoint from your bubble to a wider world. Ray-views Volume 1 is a collection of over 40 book reviews written by author Ray Foy. The books he reviews are both fiction and nonfiction, recent and classical. They are presented in 6 categories: Beyond the Usual The Human Problem On Prophecy They Dystopian Potential Inspiration Storytelling An essay begins each category that expounds on that category's subject and why the books selected for Ray-view speak to it. These essays convey Ray's insights into the topics he writes so much about in his fiction and in his website blog. These insights are supported by the written works reviewed and recommended in this volume. From considerations of transcendent dimensions, to why humanity seems so sick and Hellbent on its own destruction, to the reality of prophecy and precognition, to the potential for a totalitarian future, to the need for inspiration, to the joys of well-told stories, this book will point you to authors that speak to it all.
About the Author: Ray Foy worked in Information Technology for over 30 years in his hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. While going to college at night to earn a Computer Science degree, he made the decision to turn around his hatred for writing essays and do the best writing he could. His resolve lead to an ability to express himself in prose and earned him high marks on his school essays. He particularly enjoyed his literature classes and began studying creative writing on his own. In 2008-2009 he took a couple of "continuing education" classes at Milsaps College in Jackson and pulled encouragement enough from them to try to write short stories to submit for publication. In that time, he had his first publication of a short story, Supernal, on the Residential Aliens website. Less than a year later, he had another, Davis and the Goth, published in a printed anthology also published by Residential Aliens. In 2010, Ray launched his own website where he promoted the short stories and novellas he had published on the Smashwords website as ebooks. He also began a blog (Ray's Journal) that gained a following enough to bring 2000 to 3000 visits per month to his website. He also wrote numerous book reviews that he posted on Amazon.com, the Goodreads website, and the Booklikes website. In 2015, he moved to South Carolina with his wife where he continues to write and maintain his blog. He established the Arbordin Park Press to publish his books and put out his first one, The Wider World, in August of 2015 (it can be purchased through Amazon.com). Ray is a lover of classical literature, speculative and historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy, post-apocalypse fiction, and personal stories of inspiration. His concern for the world's ills--war, resource and people exploitation, rapid climate change, and geoengineering--leads him to blog about these issues as he watches current events.