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 March of Ink by Edgar Dixon Rodriquez is an informative and deeply moving account of the author’s war deployment to the Persian Gulf in 1991, including 43 letters between him and his new bride. The author was a member of the Army Reserve and...

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...

Limits Unleashed: A Conversation Between You and Your Inner Self by Alvin Kalicharan talks about Kiritin, who grows up believing that he is a failure. His family sends him to the city, where he feels even more lost until he encounters Kisan, his inner mentor....

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...

I Always Knew We Were Meant for You by Michelle Gillitzer is a heartfelt story following adoptive parents preparing for their adoptive children. Mama and Papa Bear prepare in every possible way to love their children, who are on their way and know that they...

“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...

Michael Pedretti’s Nonpareils: 53 Panegyric Poems is a collection of panegyric poems centered on people whose lives are defined by giving rather than taking. Organized into carefully structured sections, the book moves through exemplars, performers, creators, family, biblical figures, and reflective self-portraits, presenting individuals whose...

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...

Inside My Lady Witch and Other Wondrous Tales by R. Max Gibson, readers will not find the usual beloved fairy tales they are used to seeing. Instead, it’s an original collection of stories filled with magic, quests, and memorable characters. Each one stands on its...

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...

Miles Ahead by David A. Janover PE tells the story of a journey in math and engineering. Miles has always loved numbers and was brilliant at math, even in the first grade. As he moves up through schools, his knowledge and skills grow, and he...

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...

The Rubicon Leader presents leadership change as a permanent shift in identity produced through action over time. Vahab Hasiri explains that people change when they stop treating behavior as something to negotiate and instead act in ways that force the brain to update who it...

What Does Jesus See in You? by Coleen Aquino and Conrad Aquino isn’t a typical 20-day devotional. It’s more of a guided journey into how we view ourselves versus how Jesus actually sees us. The book is built on the idea that most of us...