Illuminating a dystopian landscape with hope and love, Leif Enger’s magnificent novel "I Cheerfully Refuse" follows a grieving bibliophile’s sailing quest across the Great Lakes. Rainy, a bear of a man born in a climate-changed time,... Read More

A charismatic band of wood nymphs, shapeshifters, and a gigantic humanoid mushroom protect their home from an ancient force in Christopher Mackie’s charming fantasy novel "Cloudlanders". The story begins “years from now, in a strange... Read More

In prose drenched with awe, Charlie J. Stephens’s tender novel "A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest" takes a child’s perspective on the pains of being poor in rural Oregon. For eight-year-old Smokey, poverty is part of the landscape, just... Read More

Death is owed a debt, and a mother and daughter face underworld threats, in Rania Hanna’s lush fantasy novel "The Jinn Daughter". Nadine, a jinn, consumes the souls of the dead, which take the form of pomegranate seeds. She tells their... Read More

Iman Mersal’s biography explores the troubled, unfulfilled life of Egyptian writer Enayat al-Zayyat. In 1963, twenty-six-year-old Enayat al-Zayyat committed suicide using sleeping pills. Enayat had finished one novel and was working on... Read More

In Anders Sparring’s humorous chapter book "The Pinchers and the Diamond Heist", the sole redeeming member of a family of bandits is a scrupulous boy who can’t seem to lie. Theo’s parents and sister have a penchant for thievery.... Read More

Tony Jones’s meditative memoir "The God of Wild Places" is about leaving the ministry but remaining alive to spirituality through outdoor adventures in Minnesota and further afield. It was Jones’s childhood ambition to become a... Read More

In Christine Read’s novel "Queenie Jean Is in Trouble Again", a lonely fifth grader with ADHD tries to fit in at a new school. In her new school, Queenie hopes for an understanding principal, a caring teacher, and just one girl to be... Read More