Jessica Handler’s based-in-truth historical novel "The Magnetic Girl" is all atmosphere and electricity. It centers on Lulu, the daughter of a Civil War defector and the sister of Leo, whose developmental challenges she feels... Read More

In 1939, a team from Garfield, New Jersey, traveled to Miami for the high school football championship. The event drew wide attention. The upstart Garfield Boilermakers came from an immigrant-heavy northern city to face the perennial... Read More

A ventriloquist walks into a doctor’s office. No, it’s not the setup for a great joke. Bob Baker’s wonderful, funny, friendly book The Performance of Medicine: Techniques from the Stage to Optimize the Patient Experience and... Read More

"Whiskey and Ribbons" is an absorbing delight, illumined by richly described relationships and thoughtful explorations of life’s central questions. The tale of a young police officer killed in the line of duty, "Whiskey and Ribbons" is... Read More

Examination’s considerations of difficult philosophical texts are rich and detailed, offering needed context for exploring looming religious questions. Richard L. Scott’s An Examination of the Conscience of the Understanding is a... Read More

Tudor England’s legendary history is a rich locus in the popular imagination. Full of pageantry and larger-than-life personalities, the period is a favorite of the Anglophilic world. But what if that seemingly monolithic world was also... Read More

Dynamic, compelling, and wholly original, "True Sex" is an invaluable addition to LGBTQ studies. Emily Skidmore’s True Sex: The Lives of Trans Men at the Turn of the Twentieth Century is a fascinating addition to LGBTQ historical... Read More

"Savage Joy" encapsulates an era as it captures searches for meaning and connection. Robert Dunn’s brisk and engaging "Savage Joy" captures a distinct cultural era—a 1970s New York City, when the scene raged with punk music and the... Read More