Sharp Turns Ahead: Ventures Beyond the Beaten Path by Daniel P. Douglas is a curated collection of short fiction spanning speculative futures, quiet human moments, moral puzzles, and imaginative what-ifs. Organized into four sections, the book guides readers through stories that range from science fiction...

In Angel of Ashes by Erika Kathryn, Audie has dreamed about discovering what else is out there. At thirteen, all she’s ever known is what she’s learned in homeschool and what her father, August, has taught her. She never asked for wings and certainly never...

What Ever Happened to Anna Canneli? by Conal O’Brien is book 3 in the series, introducing many familiar characters, but it can be read as a standalone. The detectives and the private eye Bookbinder and his researcher investigate a murder and uncover politicians and corruption...

Fifteen-year-old Livia Pierce, alias Agent V or Lara Anderson, had spent most of her life working as a spy for an agency called the Age of Spies, which had taken her in at the age of five. She had been on many assignments, all on...

The Healthcare Appointment Playbook: Understanding the System to Get the Care You Deserve by Barbara Alif Doran is a guide that helps readers take an active role in their healthcare. Drawing on more than two decades of clinical practice, Doran explains how today’s healthcare system...

Blood on the Hills is an epic gangster thriller by Andrew Velasco. The Mancinis are the most powerful mafia family in North Beach. While the Orlovs ply their trade on Russian Hill, the Triads rule over Chinatown. Tone Mancini is the apparent heir to the...

Camila’s parents had left Guatemala for the USA in hopes of providing a better future for their daughter. After arriving in the USA, a woman called Jennifer helped them with the paperwork and to find shelter. She becomes not just their caseworker but a close...

The Hollow King by Aaryan Mehta is a young adult fantasy centered on Teagan Spawn, a teenage girl dealing with loss. After finding a hidden alley and a strange library filled with unfinished books, Teagan opens a book called The Hollow King and is pulled...

Rodimals, felimals, avimals, reptimals, mollimals, and so many others. These are oopsimals. Kristie Moeller documents many of these unusual creatures in her book, Oopsimals: The Complete Encyclopedia. It’s an interesting read; all alphabetical. Have you ever heard of an eagloose, “a majestic Avimal that amalgamates...

“This was the pattern—hope, creation, corruption, destruction. Always the same ending.” Painful failure and seven frightful creatures torment an aged Creator in The Lord's Canvas by Stephen Wayne. The story unfolds in an endless void, where nothing exists save a canvas of creation waiting to...

Boudicca’s Knife by Steven James Foreman is a fascinating fantasy. The narrative follows the “life” of a Celtic dagger for a thousand years, its blade variously a knife, a family heirloom, and a ceremonial sword, but always the harbinger of death. A great deal of...

Mud, Microbes & Medicine by Elizabeth Reed Aden is a memoir that is definitely a study in two parts. As a young PhD anthropology student in the 1970s, the author sought a topic for her doctoral thesis. Searching the world for a suitable environment, she...

The Reset Self is an atypical self-help book by Seravyna Böhm. I use the word "atypical" because, unlike most self-help books, The Reset Self does not want you to learn more, improve more, or be more; instead, it wants you to see beyond what you...

In his self-help book Deleting Anxiety: Why Your Anxiety Is Lying to You and How to Push Back by Brian J. Fernandez, LMFT, anxiety is described as a survival alarm, misapplied in settings where it is wholly unnecessary. Fernandez explains how the brain converts the...

Biblical Evolution: Reconciling Science and the Bible by Bill Thormodson is a fascinating book that seeks to reconcile the Bible and science from the standpoint of a lay enthusiast. The author discusses the origins of the universe and Earth, comparing passages from Genesis with scientific...

The Day It Matters by Troy Patoine follows Thomas Atherton, a retired runner, on a fateful morning when he finds himself in an unexpected rupture in time. As the miles accumulate in a sustained run, moments from Tom’s life surface through motion and dialogue, shaped...