In Baseball, Birthday, and Ten-Cent Beer by Gregg Sapp, Solomon Zuch loves baseball, and his favorite team is the Cleveland Indians. The Indians' management runs a lottery for home games to pick birthday boys to serve as honorary ballboys. Plans were made for the entire...

Mitchell and Michael, twin brothers, were child prodigies. In Charter Road’s Play with My Heart, Mitchell is hailed as being perhaps the greatest violinist in the world, while his twin brother, Michael, is one of the best pianists. Their father promoted the boys’ talents, wanting...

“There’s no such thing as a whole, functional, fuck-up-free human. We all have our problems and things that prevent us from being perfect.” True, and that may include Nicholas Bruechle, author of the novel All Writers Are Liars. At the very least, his characters certainly...

In Ali Hamdoun’s Habracadabrah, after surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Shinobu stays alive way beyond his expected lifespan. This is in the care of Seiren, who moves him to an isolated forest home where his damaged body requires constant treatment so he can keep...

Palms and Pomegranates by L.S. Csida is one of those atmospheric novels that really pulls you into its setting—a North African city caught right in the middle of a tug-of-war between ancient traditions and modern hustle. Perin's first week brings everything at once: a violent...

To H1-B or Not To Be by Hitesh Dev is a timely and powerful book. Amit Khanna is a young Indian student who pursues his dreams and ambitions, like many others of his generation, through higher education in the U.S. The foreign student experience, the...

Set in the Ottoman capital during the winter of 1602, Rebellion and Deceit, book two in the Empires and Kingdoms series by David Eugene Andrews, follows Aisha, sister of Sultan Mehmet III, as she leaves her residence near the Hippodrome and enters a palace system...

In Mary Romasanta’s La Llorona: The Awakening, Ruth arrives at her partner John’s family home for Thanksgiving, stepping into a household where his mother, Mi-Ra, presses her about having a child. When a last-minute errand sends John and his brother JJ to a nearby store,...

Bernadette Gage’s A Beautiful Sunrise begins in rural Ipole. Young Abi attends school because her father, Pa Okoh, refuses to accept the customs that reserve education for boys. His decision sends her away from home while she is still a child, places her in mission...

In Jean Grandbois' Nursing Flagstop, for nearly fifty years, Jerry has measured his life against a single song, “Borderless,” recorded by the elusive musician Flagstop. When a chance discovery reveals that Flagstop, now living under his real name Eugene Books, is in a Detroit care...