“To what degree does family mean destiny?” Mary Ann Hogan asks. A fourth-generation Californian, she followed in her father Bill’s footsteps as a local journalist. Blending his work with her own prose, "Circle Way" is a delicate,... Read More

Peter Golenbock’s nostalgic "Whispers of the Gods" swings for the fences, relating the real stories behind the legends of baseball’s golden age. A home run for baseball fans, this oral history tells the tales of greats like Ted... Read More

Michelle Birkby’s historical mystery novel "No One Notices the Boys" is riveting as it traces an investigation in Sherlock Holmes’s London. Martha, Sherlock Holmes’s housekeeper, is bedridden in a private women’s hospital ward.... Read More

The early life of guitar legend Django Reinhardt, and the accident that almost derailed his career, are the subjects of "Django, Hand on Fire". Born among a Belgian Roma community, Django plays the banjo from a young age. He’s fast to... Read More

Black-and-white characters are layered over bright backgrounds in this playful picture book about a badger navigating an existential crisis. “Who am I?” Badger asks. “Am I black and white, or white and black?” From skunks to... Read More

A girl recovering from illness longs to participate in her tribal powwow in this vibrant picture book about acceptance and hope. Delicate feathers and fringe adorn brilliant gold, pink, and turquoise ensembles as River’s friends and... Read More

James Broderick’s "The Last Words of James Joyce" mixes murder into an irreverent campus satire. This eccentric story is led by a former PhD student who moonlights as a pornographic script writer, and who believes that he’s found one... Read More

Edward J. Renehan Jr.’s "Deliberate Evil" is about a true crime from long ago: the upper-class murder that shook Salem, Massachusetts in the 1830s. That spooky setting is fleshed out with lots of literary references, enriching the... Read More