In Sadie Hoagland’s novel "Circle of Animals", a woman goes through cycles of trauma, motherhood, complicated love, and perseverance in a misogynistic culture. Sky’s life is unusual thanks to her free-spirited, unpredictable mother,... Read More

A middle schooler seeks the courage to pursue his dreams amid mockery and an abusive home situation in Corinne Gaile’s novel "Saving Kenny". Twelve-year-old Kenny accompanies his older sister to the opera, expecting to be bored.... Read More

In R. A. Busby’s novella "You Will Speak for the Dead", a house cleaner faces an unexpected personal crisis while wrestling with his most bizarre job yet. Putrid kitchens, bug infestations, and massive piles of junk are all in a... Read More

A whaler and his wife experience a tragedy and new beginnings in Cynthia Reeves’s poignant historical novel "The Last Whaler". Tor loves whaling. Each summer, he leaves his family in Norway and sails to icy Svalbard to hunt. But... Read More

Sharon Dilworth’s "To Be Marquette" is an absorbing coming-of-age novel about a woman’s freshman year in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. In the 1970s, Molly chooses a college in Marquette to escape the freeways and factories of her... Read More

In Renée D. Bondy’s historical novel about clerical sexual abuse, "[non]disclosure", a survivor finds the courage to tell her story. As a girl at a Catholic school, the unnamed narrator is taught that the reward for confession is no... Read More

In Lynn Stegner’s novel "The Half-Life of Guilt", a couple’s personal and professional relationship is tested as they protest the endangerment of a whale population. Clair is a biologist and botanist who grew up on her family’s... Read More

A high school crush-turned-romance faces adult complications in the exciting contemporary novel "The Side Project". In Laurel Osterkamp’s romance novel "The Side Project", two reserved writers have complicated family lives that act as... Read More