Books
New Dystopian Novel ‘The Ledger’ Pits One Woman’s Faith Against an All-Seeing System
Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk
Meiyen Kennedy has released a new dystopian novel, "The Ledger," published through Hawes & Jenkins. The book centers on Bridgett Kingsley, a woman living under the rule of an omniscient algorithm called The Ledger, which monitors behavior, regulates emotion and predetermines choice across an entire surveillance state. A routine review of her record exposes a truth that sets the story’s conflict in motion.
The publisher notes that Bridgett’s solitary moment of resistance expands into a wider movement that reaches multiple regions as others begin pausing before obeying directives and choosing prayer over compliance. The publisher describes the novel as building toward a central question: whether a system built for total control can withstand the force of individual conscience, and whether real freedom is found in total allegiance to a higher authority rather than in autonomy itself.
Kennedy’s background is in property management and education, fields that put her in regular contact with institutional systems and the people who move through them. The announcement credits that experience with shaping the novel’s depiction of bureaucracy and constraint, grounding a speculative premise in something closer to observed behavior than invention.
"I wanted to write a story that honors the sovereignty of Christ while confronting the very real tensions between faith and the systems that surround us," Kennedy said in the announcement. "The Ledger is about discovering that true freedom begins where our loyalty to Jesus becomes unshakeable, regardless of what the world demands."
The novel joins a steady stream of faith-driven speculative fiction aimed at readers looking for genre storytelling built around explicitly Christian themes, a corner of publishing that has kept finding an audience even as mainstream dystopian fiction trends toward secular surveillance-state anxieties. "The Ledger" is available in bookstores and through Apple iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and Barnes & Noble.
Studio CarryOnHarry will be watching whether Kennedy’s dual background as educator and property manager gives this entry in the genre a sharper eye for institutional detail than most faith-based dystopias manage.
Read more People’s Choice stories on Studio CarryOnHarry. Reporting via Live News Vault.
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Richard Blum has published "I Do Not Like Escargot," a rhyming picture book that began as a sixth-grade English assignment and, decades later, made it into print through Page Publishing.
The original assignment, according to Blum, asked students to write a book in the style of Dr. Seuss’s "Green Eggs and Ham" about something they didn’t like. Blum chose escargot, despite never having tried it, on the strength of a sixth grader’s confidence that he wouldn’t. The book, released in September 2025, keeps that premise intact and runs with it in verse and illustration.
Blum brought his artistic background to every page, having trained in art while maintaining employment elsewhere. He has roots in Arizona and Missouri, both of which he says shaped the voice in his writing. The finished book, aimed at young readers, follows a child’s insistence on disliking a food he’s never tasted — a setup borrowed directly from the Seuss book it imitates, where a character’s refusal to try green eggs and ham eventually gives way.
This one doesn’t flip the formula. Blum has said that when he finally tried escargot as an adult, he didn’t need to walk anything back. He’s described the experience in blunt terms, comparing the taste to eating rubber soaked in dirt, and says the title stands as written.
The book is listed for sale through major retail outlets including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and Google Play, as well as through Page Publishing directly.
Studio CarryOnHarry’s take: there’s something genuinely funny about an author spending twenty-some years validating a sixth grader’s snap judgment about snails, and that’s the hook here, not the publishing deal behind it.
Read more People’s Choice stories on Studio CarryOnHarry. Reporting via Live News Vault.
Are you an author with a new release? We’re always looking for books to cover and authors to interview — tell us about yours here.
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Books
New Book from Dr. Bruce Erwin Branch Argues Against Going It Alone, Drawing on Biblical and Modern Examples
Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk
Dr. Bruce Erwin Branch has released a new book, "Don’t Guess And Don’t Assume," published through Covenant Books, that takes aim at a specific habit: the belief that one’s experience and education are sufficient to manage every situation independently.
The book’s central comparison is to an occasional gambler convinced he’s cracked the system. According to the publisher’s description, that confidence works right up until it doesn’t, and the same pattern shows up in family and personal conflict. Branch pairs biblical figures with contemporary examples to make the point, arguing that incorrect assumptions, rather than mere chance, typically lead to negative outcomes.
Much of the book deals with family conflict specifically, according to the publisher’s synopsis, including sibling rivalry, misunderstandings that stretch on for years, and disputes that escalate because someone was certain their own read on a problem was the correct one. The synopsis cites disagreement, deception and even murder among the outcomes Branch traces back to that root cause, drawing on stories from the Bible as well as more recent examples. The book is listed under biography and autobiography, and a paperback edition is set for release in May 2026, with an ebook also available.
Branch’s argument, as the publisher frames it, isn’t that experience is worthless, but that it has limits a person often can’t see from the inside. The book’s answer is to seek out other advisers rather than assume self-sufficiency is enough.
Studio CarryOnHarry will be watching to see whether a book built on a single, repeated analogy can sustain reader interest across a full-length treatment, or whether its strongest material is the shorter anecdotes it promises along the way.
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