Its pages are sharpened by contrasts—between the dull nature of a regimented religious existence, and the colorful needs of a young girl. In a communal home in a quiet Indiana town, between four walls painted in wildly different... Read More

"No Certain Home" reveals an Agnes Smedley who, though she felt like an outcast for much of her life, became a true revolutionary for hire. “A citizen of the world,” says writer, journalist, and spy extraordinaire Agnes Smedley... Read More

The book evokes what it’s like to be in mud and blood under constant German gunfire, whether in thick misty woods or on open terrain like the Anzio beachhead. “Every soldier tells it a little different, even though it’s always the... Read More

Best of all is Starkman’s portrait of Margo—a flawed yet admirably strong victim of circumstance and biology who refuses to be a victim anymore. Monica Starkman’s novel "The End of Miracles" focuses on one woman’s longing to... Read More

The prose captivates the senses and makes one yearn for the dazzling seascape it describes so eloquently. Fragile father-daughter and father-son bonds, pernicious sibling rivalry, the complexities of race relations: combine that with a... Read More

In this compelling story, the characters change, and some grow, through choice and consequence. In "A Well-Made Bed", coauthors Abby Frucht and Laurie Alberts use strong and complex characters and an almost campy plot device to explore... Read More

"The Third Swimmer" is an engaging novel and a welcome addition to the literature of understanding the destruction of war. Rosalind Brackenbury’s "The Third Swimmer" is an intricate, well-crafted gem of a tale. The first part finds two... Read More

A family flees from Castro’s Cuba, in this gritty, humorous novel about a young boy’s coming of age. Raul Ramos Y Sanchez’s "The Skinny Years" is a complex, humorous, and utterly absorbing coming-of-age tale set in the 1960s. With... Read More