The practical guide "Reconnecting with Your Estranged Adult Child" centralizes a topic that’s often mired in shame. Estrangement between parents and children is much more common than is acknowledged. Tina Gilbertson’s book thus... Read More

Ashley E. Sweeney’s novelization of the Donner Party fuses history, realism, and luminous prose. Ada is nineteen when she’s orphaned just after her wagon caravan leaves Missouri for California. Instead of turning back, Ada joins the... Read More

Whatever wilds you conquer or quests you undertake, the most complicated excavations are those that are internal; so a team of adventurers learns in Jean-Baptiste Andrea’s breathless and heartbreaking novel, "A Hundred Million Years... Read More

Jennifer Louden’s "Why Bother?" turns the despairing question on its head to encourage real change through personal growth. Despair and lethargy often begin at a moment of crisis, but both can lead to lifestyles defined by resignation... Read More

Ashleigh Bryant Phillips’s gritty short story collection "Sleepovers" is bold in exploring rural life in the US South. Its entries reflect upon family, childhood, relationships, and loss against backdrops of poverty, abuse, and... Read More

JD Scott’s "Moonflower, Nightshade, All the Hours of the Day" is a dazzling collection of stories—part dystopian, part fabulist, and wholly immersive. In the extraordinary novella “After the End Came the Mall, and the Mall Was... Read More

Two small-town lesbians embark on an old-fashioned courtship in Aurora Rey’s heartwarming romance, "The Last Place You Look". After her marriage implodes, Julia moves back to her hometown and goes to work in her parents’ winery,... Read More

Narine Abgaryan’s "Three Apples Fell from the Sky" is a charming novel set in a remote Armenian village that’s perched on a mountaintop. Though the story acknowledges its tragedies, it also captures the warmth and resilience of a... Read More