In Brandon Mull’s exciting fantasy novel "Carnival Quest", a carnival of terrors has the power to warp a person’s dreams. During the summer before Nate enters the sixth grade at a new school, the Dreams and Screams Carnival comes to... Read More

Aaron Sachs’s "Stay Cool" proposes a lighthearted means of tackling the serious subject of climate change. Declaring that the sanctimonious tones of environmentalists have a demotivating impact, this book muses on how humor might be... Read More

"Sown in the Stars" surveys the revered practice of planting, farming, and harvesting by the phases of the moon and positions of the zodiac. Centered in Appalachia, the book includes interviews with various rural Kentucky residents who... Read More

Timothy Phillips visits strategic points along the former Soviet border in his travelogue "Retracing the Iron Curtain". The Iron Curtain was an ideological and physical barrier that cut Europe into East and West for decades. Though the... Read More

The cast’s exaggerated facial expressions amp up the silly factor in the empathetic picture book introducing Ruby, a little girl who’s more than a little clumsy. Personally, she’s delighted to learn that there’s a medical... Read More

Murong Xuecun’s "Deadly Quiet City" is a harrowing compilation of testimonies from people living in Wuhan, China, during the beginning of COVID-19. Split into eight chapters, each dedicated to a Chinese person living in Wuhan in early... Read More

Darren Walker’s "From Generosity to Justice" charts a bold new path for changing the world by giving. Walker says that the contemporary world is as rife with inequality as Andrew Carnegie’s period was when he published The Gospel of... Read More

Philip C. Almond’s fascinating and comprehensive cultural study of Mary Magdalene reviews hundreds of interpretations of the revered saint and explores the creative tension between her complex tradition and the history of religious... Read More