When Arjuna leaves for the United States for his master's degree, the plan is clear: school for two years, get a good job, return to India and marry a family-approved wife, start a family in America, etc. But this plan succeeds only to the point...

The Once Upon a Time of Now: Mythic Adventures, Discoveries and Meditations in the Forest of Consciousness by Hope West is about a girl in a strange land who absorbs mystical ideas from magical teachers. Agnes finds a map inside a popped balloon while on...

Three middle-aged women, Bláithín, Pamela, and Cassandra, become friends after meeting in an emergency room in Ibiza. They seem very different. Bláithín lost her job at a company where she had worked most of her life. Pamela, a loving mother and grandmother, sees that her...

Somewhere in the multiverse of possibilities, a woman who has given up on people and life ventures into the desert. She plans to control the fate of her death because she has had no control over the suffering she has faced. Deep in the middle...

The Secret of Life: An Adventure Out of Body, Into Mind by Stephen H Martin is a metaphysical novel that revolves around Claire, who is navigating the complex emotions surrounding her father's debilitating illness. After her father, in his unstable condition, mentions the name 'Angelique',...

This week, I’ve been thoroughly absorbed by Radu Guiasu’s powerful depiction of friendship and determination in The Faraway Mountains. The book explores the lives of several young people living under a communist dictatorship, splitting between a group of friends on an expedition up a mountain...

The Life That Follows is a work of fiction in the interpersonal drama, slice-of-life, and relationship subgenres. It is best suited to the general adult reading audience and was penned by author David Hartshorn. In this compelling novel filled with deep emotion, an interpersonal drama...

Four solitary people sit in a restaurant in Annapolis. It's Midnight Madness, and soon they will head toward the stores. They all have stories and these stories are sad. Eva Levoni's boyfriend, Kyle, left her for another woman. Reid Jones is devastated because his parents...

The Girl From Huizen is a historical fiction drama novel by Paulette Mahurin. Set in Nazi-occupied Netherlands in the 1940s, the story follows Rosamond Jansen (Roz), a young woman living on a farm in the small village of Huizen. Roz and her family feel disillusioned...

The Couple’s Counsel is a book by Ikenna Ngene, Ph.D., and Ijeoma Ngene. After years of marriage, Pete and Jane have trouble in their relationship. On the advice of Jane’s mother, the couple attends a couple’s retreat. They meet three couples, one of whom is...