In "Portrait of an Island on Fire", essayist Ariel Saramandi writes about how race, gender, culture, and environmental change drive life in Mauritius, wrestling with the ongoing impact of the country’s past. With righteous anger and... Read More

Second chances seem possible with a bit of small town holiday magic in Sophie Bueno’s clean romance novel "Christmas at the Havenwood Diner". Alex, a betrayed restaurant group heir who’s been hiding his pain in spreadsheets and hard... Read More

Romance and intimacy are not pathways to anyone’s happily-ever-after in the poems of "The Thorn Key", whose entries are seamless in reimagining fairy tales in the context of feminist values. Folklorist Jeana Jorgensen’s muscular... Read More

A young bird staves off mass destruction in the fantastical graphic novel Haru Book 3: Fall. Haru, a bird who’s unable to fly, meets his apparent death at the hands of Blight, a corrupted force bent on ravaging the world. Caught in the... Read More

A primer on all things gender, this affirming picture book offers understanding and education for readers of all ages. The book covers gender identities, pronouns, and different ways of expressing gender, from haircuts to footwear, while... Read More

The notion that all creatures have the capacity to do either harm or good is exemplified in the ecoconscious novel "Uplift". In Jessica Mann’s delicate allegorical novel "Uplift", a bird living in the Anthropocene comes of age and... Read More

Through its brief portraits of remarkable individuals, "Quiet Valor" issues a compelling argument for rethinking whom society chooses to remember. Larry Nouvel’s illuminating biographical compendium "Quiet Valor" celebrates a selection... Read More

A girl encounters Yokai, creatures from Japanese folklore, in Jem Yoshioka’s spirited graphic novel "Folk Remedy". Maple works with her mother at the family’s apothecary in a remote town in Japan. Influenced by her friend Kunio,... Read More