The Day the Screens Stood Still written by R.L. Ullman and illustrated fabulously by Buhmi Loupito is a book all middle grade kids should read—and parents too. With all the blessings home computing has brought us, some bad things have come along. Like taking us...

A story of selflessness and devotion is always touching, but it is even more extraordinary when the protagonists are two brothers. Manas is the eldest and hopes that Manan, the younger brother, will have a wonderful life. Born and raised in a family that cannot...

The Lost Symphony: A Historical Mystery Thriller is the sixth book in the Jack Rogan Mysteries by Gabriel Farago, and you don’t need to have read the previous books in the series to enjoy this spellbinding story. Jack Rogan is an Australian journalist who inherits...

The Fog Ladies (A San Francisco Cozy Murder Mystery) by Susan McCormick is a delightful story of residents living in a prime location apartment building in San Francisco. We are introduced to each tenant and learn of their quirky personality. Sarah is the exception to...

The Antidote by Susan McCormick blends elements of urban fantasy, YA science fiction, and the paranormal to create an engrossing tale filled with lessons for young readers. Alexander Asclepius Revelstoke is a twelve-year-old kid in Seattle with a unique gift: the uncanny ability to detect...

Najia’s father is a wealthy sheik with very stern principles regarding women. Her mother is a modern American woman, also wealthy. Najia’s father kidnaps her when she’s in her teens and sets a jinni on her, a paranormal power that both frightens and controls her....

The Realist by Jack Hemphill is a historical fiction novel about a young biracial man yearning to be an artist during the Great Depression. Leon Hawkins grew up in an orphanage with the comfort of a slightly older sister, Edith. From the time he could...

Germany is desperate and apprehensive in 1945. Russian soldiers patrol and women scavenge in the rubble. So begins The Letter by Barry Cole. We wonder why Hannah and her children are given shelter by an older couple, Otto and his wife. The scene then focuses...

The Career Toolkit: Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You by Mark A. Herschberg is an occupational self-help book that every career-minded person needs. The author lays out in one place all the basic skills you need to get started on your career...

The Lucky Man: An Act of Malice is an engrossing novel by Monika R. Martyn, a gripping story. Jack Spencer is an attractive man who also knows how to mess up with beautiful young women. But having an affair with a woman about to marry...

Have you ever been blamed for something you insist was not your fault? That’s what happens to Declan in the book The Go-KartAstrophe (Kids’ Court Book 2) by Caron Pescatore when his friend Greg blames him for crashing his go-kart. Declan insists that something was...

Gregory Kopp's novel The Heiress in Kent takes place in 19th-century London and New York. Sir Richard Mayne and Her Majesty the Queen ordered Scotland Yard detective Richard Cordwell to investigate urgent matters regarding the British throne's financial investments in the American railroads. During a...

In The Meaning of Myth, Neel Burton (psychiatrist, philosopher, wine expert) brilliantly discusses and exhibits the meaning of myth. First, he defines it as “a piece of lore” and then separates it from legend, fable, fairytale, parable, religion, ritual, magic, and science. He presents a...

Dr. Carrie Hayward offers a short but valuable story about a woman named Winnie, who has come upon a moment of her life filled with uncertainty and gloominess, not only from the weather but mental gloom; being human means having bad days or even bad...

The Mad Days of March by Philip Catshill tells the story of Terry March, who works for the council and leads what some would refer to as a dull life. Terry is trapped in an unhappy marriage to his sarcastic and obsessively clean wife, Brenda....

The Cooking Olympics: The World’s Best Kept Secret is a fascinating non-fiction book by Dean Jeffrey Kropp. Everyone is familiar with the Olympic Games and can name their favorite athletes, but did you know that food has its own Olympics? Matthaeus Carl Banzer (1867–1945) is...

The Alter Prey is a psychological drama thriller written by Frederick Mulae. Psychologist and hypnotherapist Stuart Ryder unwittingly triggers traumatic childhood memories of his own while performing age regression therapy on a patient. Plagued by nightmares and short-term amnesia, Stuart is horrified to discover that...

Life on a farm is something many of us cannot even imagine. There is something special about being in contact with nature and animals, and The Parables of Sunlight by Margaret Dulaney explains it very well. In her splendid book, Dulaney tells how she bought...

The Garden of Calilily, written by Chrystie Keller, is a children's book that promotes mindfulness through fairy tales. The book features two fairy sisters, Marigold and Sweetpea, who usually do a good job. However, they each have personalities that tend to distract them from their...

“The devastation of my mom’s death split my universe into two time periods: before she died and after.” In The Reckoning (A Time Travel Thriller) by D.M. Taylor, physicist Taden Barrett and her team successfully find a way to time travel. Leaders of the Patriot...