"The 53rd Card" is a heavy but rewarding spiritual fantasy. Virginia Weiss’s intensely character-driven "The 53rd Card" chronicles a damaged woman’s attempts to understand her life’s meaning. A life filled with trauma and loss... Read More

Harris’s poems zero in on poignant moments with vibrant attention to detail. In his poem “Killing the Beast,” Michael Harris writes, “I wanted to slow it all down enough to look at.” That urge to look closely, to relate every... Read More

The book’s friendly storytelling tone provides a layer of comfort, while its extensive use of scientific research gives the writing even more credibility. "The Book of Calm" by Nancy G. Shapiro is an extensively researched and... Read More

"Missing Mr. Wingfield" interweaves strong portraits of a mother and daughter for an eye-opening look at the universality of regret. In E. Christopher Clark’s young adult crossover novel, "Missing Mr. Wingfield", a thirtysomething... Read More

The story of Gonzalo Guerrero has long been part history and part legend, with the sixteenth-century sailor treated as a hero or villain depending on who’s telling the tale. In "A Hero for the Americas", Robert Calder tries to put... Read More

Gar LaSalle’s third book in the Widow Walk series, "The Fairness of Beasts", moves a sprawling family saga into the drawing rooms and battlegrounds of a people divided. The year is 1862. Geographic distance and family rifts emerge from... Read More

The novel’s potent sorcery lies in the humanity of its characters and the energy of its storytelling. Replete with poignant details, Mindy Tarquini’s "The Infinite Now" is an engrossing tightrope walk over the relational lines that... Read More

Hossain’s story ripples with magic and just a dash of something twistedly angelic. Whatever your level of familiarity with beings mythological and godlike, rest assured: you’ve never journeyed with djinn like these before! Saad Z.... Read More