The strange and surreal take center stage in Kristen Gleason’s beguiling short story collection "The Wallet and Other Thefts". The characters are often confused or detached, estranged observers of garden workers or weddings. In “The... Read More

Centering an Armenian boy, N. T. McQueen’s outstanding historical novel "Never Hide from the Devil" roils around a genocide, as Turkish forces surround the city of Van. Most of the story takes place over one month in 1915, when the... Read More

Greed, violence, and true love fuel Bianca M. Schwarz’s lively historical novel "The Missing Baroness". After a decade of hiding in the country from her murderous uncle, orphaned Georgina learns that he plans to have her pronounced... Read More

In Dennis McFadden’s charming short story collection "Lafferty, Looking for Love", an Irish ne’er-do-well gets himself into all sorts of trouble. Lafferty is disinclined to overlook potential damsels in distress to whom he might... Read More

Everyone gets their flowers in "Do What You Fear Most", Richie Unterberger’s excellent history of the Velvet Underground, the beloved and iconoclastic New York rock band. This biography of the influential band includes an exhaustive... Read More

In their informative book "Lessons for a Warming Planet", Alejandro Camacho and Brigham Daniels trace the history of environmental regulation in the United States from the colonial period through the early twenty-first century.... Read More

The adage that travel broadens the mind is tested in a comic, thoughtful fashion in Vincent Chu’s novel "Nice Places". Feeling aimless, Georgie quits his dead-end technology job to travel the world for a year and learn about himself.... Read More

Susan Cormier’s "Dead Bees Still Sting" is a poignant, often surprising collection of nature essays about rural life and beekeeping. These essays concern five seasons on a small farm on the edge of suburban Vancouver. Several focus on... Read More