Haris Marath offers a rigorous exploration of humanity's biological, social, cultural, and civilizational history and potential future in The Theory of Us. According to Marath, humanity can be viewed through three diagnostic premises, including the selfish gene, the illusion of free will, and the apparent...

In Richard Siciliano’s The Man Who Obviated Christmas, Edward Brash, a middle-aged manager who has spent years limiting his life to work and routine, walks out of his office on Christmas Eve and is pulled into a street crisis when children tell him their kitten...

It is 1891. Richard Carnby, Terrence Alexander “Axel” Hastings, Percival Wallace, Dr. Stanthorpe Whitehall, Emma Westover, and Jane Halifax each receive a letter offering membership in a clandestine organization. To accept, they must appear at a specific address. As they heed the invitation, they meet...

Nursing Her Fractured Family by Louis Tong is an enthralling novel. Penny's father has just died, and from now on, she has to take care of her mother and younger sister. Penny, at twenty-four, thinks more about her sister, how to protect her from their mother, who...

In Painting Over Cracks by Lee Bukowski, Beth and Danny were in an accident. They were hit on Danny’s side of the car; he was thrown out and died at the scene. Beth survived with a few injuries but now faces life without Danny. To...

In Pamela S. K. Glasner's Journey Key, Nora's existence is defined by the repetitive chores in her home and the demands of her dismissive husband, Lyle. Life in Winter Falls takes a sharp turn when a loose floorboard reveals a tin box containing a key...

That McKenzie Girl by Jesse Gordon is a fun, lighthearted, slice-of-life story. Twenty-one-year-old Victor Navarro lives with his best friend, a gamer who livestreams in his underwear, called Brand. Victor isn't at a great stage in life, but Brand needs him—he's in free fall after...

Robbie Shell’s Bees on the Roof, as the title and beautifully designed cover suggests, is a children’s book about a colony of bees being cultivated by children on the roof of a building. The venue is the Meadow Hotel, where Nick the Head Pastry Chef...

In John Wesley Wilson’s Straight to Hell: Memoir of an Ex-Evangelical Pastor, Wilson grows up in rural Alabama inside a world shaped by Pentecostal religion, family violence, poverty, and fear of divine punishment. After becoming a pastor, husband, and father, he spends years trying to...

“After all, I won’t say I’m completely innocent, but I’m not exactly… not guilty.” It's difficult to separate the guilty from the innocent in Blood Echoes, the latest novel from prolific author Aaron Ryan. It is also challenging to understand where the source of true...

There is beauty all around us, and it’s soothing. Imagine the stars in the night sky and the gentle sound of the waves. It’s all very calming. In Clare Hollywood’s The Stars and Sea Are in Me, one can feel the simple power of the...

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...

Mike Dee constructs a powerful self-help guide in I Am My Biggest Stranger using Dante Alighieri’s Inferno as a psychological roadmap for understanding the darkest territories of the human psyche. The author invites readers to step into the woods where they are forced to confront...

In Sandra L. Huska's Think of the Sunflower, Nikee Madison travels from Pittsburgh to rural Pennsylvania for her twentieth high school reunion, expecting an uncomfortable weekend. Instead, a locked metal box hidden in her late mother’s attic leads her toward a buried secret connected to...

Many of us live life without critically examining our path or learning the lessons taught by our successes and failures. In sharp contrast, Costantino Delli has come to understand his life as a learning process, constantly reviewing the events as they unfolded and asking searching...

The Doll House Brides: Soleil is a fantasy romance novella by S.M. Webb. Soleil and her sisters grew up in the Northern Nymph Lands, raised by their adopted father, Cherub, a wizard. Cherub arranged marriages for his daughters. One of them is Soleil, who married...

In R.G. Edwards's Eafin Lokdore and the Magician's Lost Medallion, after young border scout Eafin Lokdore discovers that the armies of Maggoria are advancing toward the peaceful hamlet of Qualdor, he carries a warning across the dangerous wilderness to the leaders of the Realm of...

The Blind Boy Who Saw The Invisible King by Austin M. Kairnes III centers on Joe, a blind boy who is very determined to find a mythical king hidden in a mountain castle. Joe believes this Invisible King holds the secret to his purpose and...

Eafin Lokdore and the Altar of the Sun is the second volume in R.G. Edwards’ The Eafin Lokdore Trilogy. Master Magician Eafin Lokdore is fifteen years old and grief-stricken when he sets out on the impossible mission to overthrow Sorfin, the usurper, and restore the...

In Eafin Lokdore and the Ancient Secret by R. G. Edwards, a teen sets out from his homeland on a quest to recover an ancient power meant to return light to a struggling world. Guided by the writings of his late father, our young hero,...