As it controverts stereotypes regarding the formidability of villains and the fragility of senior citizens, Caroline B. Cooney’s mystery novel "Before She Was Helen" is a delight. Clemmie is a resident of Sun City, a retirees’... Read More

In Antoine Laurain’s acerbic cozy mystery The Readers’ Room, a debut novel makes waves among the Paris literati––and with two homicide detectives. Publishing darling Violaine Lepage is much admired for her impeccable taste and... Read More

In the hot Southern summer of "Even As We Breathe", the groundbreaking first novel from Cherokee writer Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, a young man’s loyalties and foundational stories are tested. WWII cleared the Carolina mountains of... Read More

When love is great, its loss can consume you; so a family learns in Meredith Hall’s delicate, poignant novel, "Beneficence". Doris became a Senter the day her husband, Tup, brought her to his family farm. She was happy to settle into... Read More

The essays of Issac J. Bailey’s Why Didn’t We Riot? are incisive as they confront the realities of systemic racism in America and in the age of Donald Trump. Bailey begins his book by discussing blind spots—in particular, those of... Read More

From the depths of the sea to neighboring planets, no destination is off limits in Anneliese Mackintosh’s thrilling feminist adventure novel. Solvig cannot be contained. Since childhood, she’s been restless to go farther, try harder,... Read More

Timed to match pushed-down pains reemerging, "Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club" is a blistering novel that reveals deep social rifts. In a Newfoundland blizzard on Valentine’s Day, malcontent townspeople gather at the... Read More

Young husbands learn to say goodbye in "Elegy for the Undead", the sweetest zombie story you’ll ever read. Jude and Lyle met in high school, when Lyle was out and Jude was not. They reconnected over a quiet walk through the woods... Read More