In Alex Potts’s wry graphic novel "Was That Normal?", a man vacillates between social connections and solitude. In his forties, Philip rents a room, works from home, and is desperate to enjoy some social interaction. He’s awkward in... Read More

In Anna Rosner’s bittersweet novel "Last Year with Maddy", a childhood friendship is tested by family challenges. Twelve-year-old Aviva finds it difficult to keep friends other than Maddy. The girls are as close as sisters—best... Read More

A sixteen-year-old grapples with school, social life, and an unstable home in the outstanding graphic novel "Burn It Down", the second book in the Rigsby WI series. Anna plays violin and works as the stage manager of her school play,... Read More

In Victoria Tatum’s timely ensemble novel "More Than Any River", generations of farmers and workers along the Sacramento River cope with formidable threats to their region and way of life. Covering more than a century, this... Read More

An aspiring activist has rude awakenings during his efforts to effect change in the revealing coming-of-age novel "Proles". In Barry Bergman’s thoughtful bildungsroman "Proles", an idealistic young man endures industrial labor in 1970s... Read More

The reserved daughter of a family of well-heeled, damaged alcoholics determines who she wants to be in Hays Blinckmann’s poignant bildungsroman "Tiny Little Earthquakes". One of Elliot’s earliest memories is of her mother Francie’s... Read More

A moving novel about compassion and redemption, "Lost in Perdition" places a serendipitous friendship at its core. In Shana Mavournin’s resonant novel "Lost in Perdition", an unhoused man seeks redemption and reconnection through... Read More

In the insightful novel "Should Have Told You Sooner", a divorced woman comes to terms with the pains of her past. A woman confronts her English past in Jane Ward’s eloquent novel "Should Have Told You Sooner", about first loves that... Read More