In a purgatorial village that’s dwindled to nine members—all of whom were traumatized in a mountainous “city of suffering”—change is brewing. Shawn Smucker’s "These Nameless Things" is an enigmatic allegory on post-traumatic... Read More

Distilling anhedonia to its essence, Sometimes When I’m Sad’s calm approach to educating children and adults invites discussions. Deborah Serani’s clearcut, holistic picture book Sometimes When I’m Sad introduces childhood... Read More

In "Stealing First and Other Stories", everyday folks are charged up by their fervor for baseball. In Cynthia Drew and Joan Golden’s engaging "Stealing First and Other Stories", a talented but undersung baseball team deals with their... Read More

"Jack and the Lean Stalk" is an empowering alternative fairy tale in which a brave young boy welcomes a giant in need. Raven Howell’s picture book "Jack and the Lean Stalk" celebrates the joys of taking chances in friendships. Jack,... Read More

"Dinner at 10:32" is a literary novel about inner turmoil, tender mercies, and all-too-human wavering. Set in San Francisco during the 1960s and early 1980s, Mahyar A. Amouzegar’s ruminative novel "Dinner at 10:32" is about tangled... Read More

A nineteenth-century entomologist is caught between social expectations and desire in Kimberly Duffy’s "A Mosaic of Wings", a novel about wanderlust and women’s empowerment. In Ithaca, Nora is her class’s valedictorian. She longs... Read More

In Lynn Austin’s tantalizing domestic drama, If I Were You, desperation and forgiveness are part of a classic upstairs/downstairs plot. In 1930s England, Eve was Audrey’s scullery maid and coveted her privilege. Audrey admired Eve... Read More

In The Anarchists’ Club, Alex Reeve brings back his large-hearted Victorian sleuth, Leo Stanhope, a transgender man who’s swept into a loury London murder case. When a stranger’s body is found at the Social and Democratic... Read More