Book Review
Fling!
A spirited mother-daughter road trip to Mexico takes a turn for the humorous when long-dead relatives start showing up. "Fling!", Lily Iona Mackenzie’s debut novel, is a romp from Canada to Mexico that includes long-lost relatives,...
Book Review
Marvel and a Wonder
Meno has written a book that honors the values of old men and exposes their prejudices, where the young transcend their apathy to claim a fractured future. "Marvel and a Wonder", the compelling new novel by Joe Meno, is a...
Book Review
Drought
Through the narrator’s oral history, this novel examines the forces that cause a young sharecropper to take his own life. "Drought", a novel by Ronald Fraser, revolves around the suicide of a young sharecropper living in rural Spain...
Book Review
Plus One
"Plus One" provides a comic view of Hollywood excesses, but at its heart is a family reclaiming what’s important. Christopher Noxon’s "Plus One" describes a family struck by sudden good fortune in Hollywood. It’s a laugh-out-loud,...
Book Review
The Cottoncrest Curse
Racial prejudice drives the action of this historical novel. In "The Cottoncrest Curse", the debut novel by Michael H. Rubin, an old family curse explains a murder-suicide on a Louisiana sugarcane plantation. The official explanation...
Book Review
Wildfire
Detailed depictions of firefighting provide a context for gender inequality in physically demanding careers. Mary Pauline Lowry’s novel "Wildfire" provides an insider view into the world of the Pike Interagency Hotshots. Lowry, who...
Book Review
Undermining
A visual narrative of photographs accompanies an inquisitive written narrative to show the link between rural and urban landscapes. Who has the right to decide how land in the Southwest is used? Homeowners or developers, Native Americans...
Book Review
Spheres of Disturbance
With compassion, Schutzer shares a quirky story, balanced in its humor and solemnity. A pregnant potbellied pig and a dying woman are at the heart of this novel about birth, death, and the power of love. Amy Schutzer’s whimsical...