The place bears play in American culture is given a scholarly growl in Daniel Horowitz’s "Bear With Me", which dissects the nation’s affection for, fear of, and ill-advised anthropomorphization of bears of all varieties. This is a... Read More

The nine intricate essays in Margot Singer’s collection "Secret Agent Man" braid investigations of womanhood, Jewishness, and family memory. The sly title piece contrasts spy movie clichés with the reality of Singer’s Czech-born... Read More

Struggling with tragedy, fear, and uncertainty, the characters of Erin Cecilia Thomas’s entrancing, woman-centered short story collection "I Watched You from the Ocean Floor" find hope through human connection and resilience. Easing... Read More

In Get It Out, Andréa Becker investigates the consequences of cultural ignorance about one of the least-studied organs of the human body and the multilayered experiences of those who seek to remove it. Because of the uterus’s... Read More

Complemented by charming illustrations, "Smalltown City and the Spirit of City Hall" is Nancy Pearson’s illuminating chapter book about an edifying field trip that continues through a terrifying storm. Though they don’t know it when... Read More

The interlocking essays of Anne-Marie Erickson’s poignant memoir In the Evening, We’ll Dance commemorate her bond with her late husband, who had dementia. Erickson met Dick in 1974, and they married in 1981. They were both writers;... Read More

Joelle Kidd’s cultural critique "Jesusland" surveys the charming and perilous cultural artifacts and attitudes that defined evangelical Christianity in the early twenty-first century. Kitschy aspects of Christian youth culture... Read More

Chloe Michelle Howarth’s coming-of-age novel "Sunburn" simmers with first love, confusion, and quiet rebellion in sun-drenched 1990s Ireland. Lucy, a restless teenager, lives in Crossmore, Ireland, where “motherhood is the nearest... Read More