Kalyani Adusumilli’s The Invisible Canvas begins in the throes of a medical emergency caused by an overdose, where Jansi, a wife and mother living in Texas, is admitted to a psychiatric facility for evaluation and treatment. What begins as a brief hospitalization becomes an extended...

In The Boy with the Butterfly Mind by Lorelei Brush, readers meet Julie, a math teacher juggling her job, marriage, and the nonstop energy of her four-year-old son, Patrick. She feels deeply proud of him, but also worried. His moods range from exuberant curiosity to...

The Color of Our Names by Mahitab Mahmoud follows the lives of four characters trying to navigate identity, faith, and secrecy between Egypt and the United States. Fareed, a 34-year-old man still living with his conservative family in Alexandria, finds fragile moments of freedom at...

In The Walker by Robert E. Kearns, Mr. McCabe has retired at the age of 61. He had given his life to one company where he had worked all his life. He is a shy person who has never married, so he is all alone....

The Resistance Suite: Stories that Refuse to be Silenced by Gene Scott is a dark, highly-charged, and deeply spiritual collection of linked stories that examines how ordinary people can make a difference in a world designed to suppress and oppose them. These stories examine both...

The Path To Heaven by Emily Minjun Chung follows Lucas Moreau, a Parisian driver who chooses to remain near the grave of his wife, Manon, seven years after her death. As his health quietly declines, Lucas continues working, transporting visitors from around the world through...

The Finder's Keeper by Leon Kildea is a fantasy drama that covers many years and family generations. In the modern day, Edda and her grandfather, Don, discover a wooden chest in a hidden gold mine in south-eastern Australia. Inside are a gold ring, a letter,...

Tokyo Tangents by Robin S. Hasuki is an inventive and unusually structured novel that threads together small, carefully drawn character moments into a larger, unexpected narrative. Framed through short, interconnected chapters, the book paints Tokyo as both familiar and strange, a place where routine hides...

The Sky Is Different Here by Shivani Malik is a must-read. Shani is ready to start her PhD program in biochemistry and molecular biology at Southern Illinois University. Her parents, especially her mother, wholeheartedly support her in achieving her dream of building a fully independent and purposeful life and...

Tokyo Juku by Michael Pronko dropped me straight into Tokyo’s restless, exam-fueled nights where success isn’t just a goal – it’s survival. Mana, a student cramming for her university entrance prep, finds her life turns into a nightmare when she discovers the body of her...