The public library helps me do my job. When I enter the library in my neighborhood, the librarians smile and whisper to one another before deciding who will assist me. Sometimes they team up: one gets the books waiting for me on the “hold” shelf while the other begins to wave...
Articles
Our editors and writers pen a variety of articles about independently published books. New articles appear regularly, but right now, browse by clicking a title. You may also use the site search at top right of the page to search by keyword.
For decades women have accepted their doctors' advice and taken hormone replacement therapy to alleviate menopausal symptoms by getting estrogen back into their bodies. Now women are being told that the therapy that was supposed to restore their quality of life could kill them.
Recent...
At first, the authors of these books seem to have little in common but gender. Look more closely, though, and you'll find a shared sense of adventure, a willingness to throw off insecurities and embark on daring creative journeys.
To exploit the power of writing, women first have to find...
Prying Religion Off the Pews and Taking It to the Streets
Americans have an uneasy relationship with the public expression of religion. We cherish the separation of church and state, but expect declarations of faith from our political leaders: how many presidential speeches end with "God...
Let's face it-much of what we think of as travel writing is really just travel listing. It's useful, but not very inspiring. Here, we're celebrating something different.
Travelers often link up with each other at a cafe or bar and share stories as if they're old friends. The best travel...
The book as we know it has been around for more than two thousand years. Pliny the Younger witnessed the shift from the roll to the codex, in which the papyrus or parchment (vellum) sheets or signatures were stitched and placed between covers. Since then, papermaking, image reproduction and...
Museums, monuments, and natural wonders are all great. But, as travel pleasures go, it's hard to beat the discovery of a really good place to eat. Junking the usual restaurant guide model, the authors of several new
travel books provide inspiration to get readers out of the kitchen in...
In the era of celebrity CEOs, business books publishers looked to corporate chiefs to find their next big book. But in the past few years corporations and executives have become known as much for the scandals exposed in courtrooms as for the deals made in boardrooms. Now, instead of exalting...
Neurosurgeons, geneticists, astronauts, and other highly skilled professionals often find themselves pigeonholed within their fields of expertise, especially if they wish to take up pen and venture out into different areas of interest. In certain disciplines, the hierarchy and protocols are so...
Wendell Berry, in his recently published masterful collection of essays, Citizenship Papers, builds the case that consumers who prefer fresh, wholesome food must accept some agricultural responsibilities. Especially those who have grown doubtful of the healthfulness, the trustworthiness, and...
Parents today are likely to be older, better educated, and more affluent than in previous generations. But that doesn't mean they don't need help. What it does mean is that they're less likely to embrace the wholesale advice of their own parents--who may not be around to lend their wisdom anyway...
Much has been published lately on the topic of stress--how to recognize it, what it does to us mentally and physically, and how to deal with it. Even children's books are now teaching youngsters how to recognize and deal with this topic.
Young Wes, in Tolya L. Thompson's children's book...
More than 100 years ago, Cardinal John Henry Newman summarized the notion of continuous development: To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often. When considering the developmental challenges of the adult lifecycle, readers can turn to a number of recent titles that...
Feminism is no longer what it used to be, and therefore, feminist presses are not what they used to be,? says Claire Kirch, publicist of Edgework Books. Once upon a time, privileged middle-class white women had a hold on the movement, defining the reality, shaping the ideas, founding the presses...
"You are the sum of your relationships," says Dr. Frank Sovinsky in his book, Life--The Manual. Healthy and sacred relationships require looking "into self and out to the seventh generation" with what authors Blackwolf Jones and Gina Jones call circular vision in Sacred Self, Sacred...
As soon as the electric blankets are hauled out, trips to the tropics cant be far behind. Publishers are willing to help with books about favorite destinations, off-the-beaten-path travel, adventures, nature-oriented trips, taking kids along, and just plain relaxing.
Books about warm-...
One of my fondest childhood recollections is of a small library near our summer cottage at the tip of Long Island. Compared with our hometown library, there were few titles, but there were series of dark-covered hardbacks, lined up spine out Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Little Maid, Dr. Doolittle,...
They get a bit louder every year, the prognosticators of literary fictions demise, warning that novel readers will soon be abandoned to hack thrillers and paint-by-number romances.
Fortunately, theyre wrong. With their latest debut novels, independent publishers deliver a chorus of fresh...
In contemporary America, the pursuit of convenience can eclipse our ability to decipher and savor details. A convenience-bound life seeks escape from intrusions of climate, season, flora, fauna, sound, and even smellsthe fingerprints of an environment. Convenience demands predictability. It...
Ever since academicians and historians such as Harold Seymour, David Q. Voigt, and Jules Tygiel began to make "serious" examinations of the national pastime, baseball has received a newfound respect from a new generation of readers. Heretofore, sports books were relegated almost exclusively to...