"Will the Real Human Being Please Stand Up!" is an unusual and innovative perspective on life in the womb and the role it plays in human growth and development. Jean Mastellone’s "Will the Real Human Being Please Stand Up!" is a... Read More
Both a memoir and an exploration of a mother-daughter bond, "The Goodbye Diaries" is a moving story told through two voices: those of a then-teenaged daughter and her terminally ill mother. Using both of their journals as source... Read More
Abbigail N. Rosewood’s compelling "If I Had Two Lives" begins in 1990s Vietnam as a young girl is brought to a military camp. The girl’s mother—an ambitious reformer who is thwarted by the corrupt Vietnamese power structure—has... Read More
Plastic is an unputdownable dark comedy, full of strong commentary on the times and sparkling LA scenes. Frank Strausser’s novel, "Plastic", is a delicious, caustic comedy of manners with a dose of suspense that keeps its pages... Read More
The past is the present is the future in "Flashback Hotel", the masterful new short story collection by Ivan Vladislavić. Alternately whimsical and deeply affecting, the collection explores South African culture and the impact of belief... Read More
“How the hell do you start a letter to the UN?” If you’re Al Santamaria, you do it with the absolute conviction that your entreaty for their recognition of your family’s estate will be heard and respected—because you are a... Read More
Ben Barnz’s partner has a theory that there is a major generational shift for gay people every five years. This book, then, is a memoir from almost four zeitgeist changes ago. Beginning in the week of the 9/11 attacks, "We" is a taste... Read More
Maureen Aitken’s "The Patron Saint of Lost Girls" pretends to be a collection of short stories but is not. Instead, advantages of both short-story and novel formats are fused into a mutation which is neither. By the time this... Read More