Celebrate the Hindu festival of lights with a family whose parents teach their children about the tradition as they shop, clean, and snack. There are a few interruptions to their joyful planning, but these surprises do not dampen the... Read More

W. A. Simpson’s fantasy novel "Tinderbox" invokes magical powers and the possessive motives of the ruling elite. Isbet returns home and finds that her grandmother, a powerful witch, has been killed, and the killer stole the Box, a... Read More

In Intisar Khanani’s fantasy novel "A Darkness at the Door", a lady in waiting is on a dangerous mission to end a child trafficking ring in the kingdom of Menaiya. Rae, the attendant of Princess Alyrra, is held captive aboard a cargo... Read More

Corie Adjmi’s captivating novel "The Marriage Box" is situated among the opulent but restrictive culture of Syrian American Jews in the 1980s. Casey was a cheerleader at her New Orleans high school, and she mingled with a diverse range... Read More

In David Ehrlich’s contemporary novel "Café Shira", a literary coffee house located in the heart of Jerusalem becomes a temple for the patrons who frequent it. There are many people who regularly spend their time in Café Shira. They... Read More

In Lynn Sloan’s luminous novel "Midstream", a woman’s comfortable, enviable life is upended. In 1974, Polly is thirty-four. The US simmers in discontent. Vietnam protests and feminists who demand equal rights and pay are disturbing... Read More

With pathos and aplomb, travel writer Mark Chesnut’s enchanting book "Prepare for Departure" gathers essays about his aging mother and growing up in the 1970s as part of a single-parent household. Chesnut’s road trips and flights are... Read More

A man mired in his past discovers a promising future in Brad Zellar’s novel "Till the Wheels Fall Off". Matt, a Midwestern kid whose father was killed in Vietnam and whose mother is quiet and impenetrable, finds refuge in the roller... Read More