In 1867 Philadelphia, widowed Jessie O’Hara lives a solitary life working for nuns, having lost her spouse and children years before. Friendless, she now spends much of her time running errands and reading. One fateful day, the nuns... Read More

Joaquin Bridger isn’t much to look at. In fact, most townspeople try to avoid looking at the bedraggled homeless man standing on the street corner in a catatonic stupor. Few would expect him to spring into hero mode during a bank... Read More

The elegant cover of "Big City Gems" beguiles with a vintage photograph of fashionable women strolling in a metropolis—an image perfectly suited to Marvin Goldman’s second book, a short story collection on mid-century, primarily... Read More

Author Jane M. Hogg writes with a straightforward and precise style perfect for nonfiction. "Beware the Mandarins" goes beyond the standard memoir, detailing a period of corruption in British government that she experiences firsthand... Read More

Axel Hooley’s life has been far from simple. Of unknown parentage, he is found as a baby by an Amish couple who raise the mysterious child until he turns sixteen, when they push him out on his own. The following years encompass a wide... Read More

Ernie Hasler’s thriller, "Conspiracy of Wolves", tackles corruption at its deepest level. The protagonist, Douglas Hamilton, grew up in a Scottish coal-mining family. During a hotly contested miner’s strike, Douglas’s father,... Read More

Those whose downtown Los Angeles touchstone is Frank Gehry’s aluminum-clad, tornado-like Disney Concert Hall may have trouble conjuring what the area was like thirty years before that building starred in every new automobile ad on... Read More

Remember your friend from high school who cleared his throat loudly every ten seconds? You may have thought he was doing it on purpose; maybe it seemed like he was looking for attention. Chances are that his endless coughing was... Read More