The term “ghost in the machine” was first coined by Gilbert Ryle in 1949, and simplistically put, suggests that consciousness or the mind can exist alongside, but independently, within a physical entity. The Ghost in the Machine Reconsidered by Joshua Robertson revisits this and related...

The Spider and the Web by S. Sebastian is a slow-burning psychological thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat. Rachel has suffered enough in her life, but will things be any better when she swaps the dangers of London for the...

It is 1968. Jennifer Blair, an antiquities dealer, is in Hollywood, Los Angeles, partly for business, but her main intention is to seek answers about her mother Veronica’s unsolved murder. Veronica, a powerful publicist in Hollywood, had been found dead at a dinner party hosted...

The Beauty World Through the Lens of a Psychiatrist by Jane B. Sofair is a fascinating memoir that chronicles the author’s career path as a psychiatrist and beauty consultant. In defiance of her father’s disapproval, 17-year-old Jane decides to become a psychiatrist. She studies at...

The Boy Who Set Fire to the Moon by Harshad Sai is a well-written book that teaches children to appreciate naturally occurring phenomena such as sleep, daytime, and nighttime, among others. Mom takes Tom to the playground on the first day of the summer holiday....

The Mystery of the Lightning God by K. Mafikeng follows teenage detective Elena Crawford as she investigates the disappearance of soccer star Mark Evans. With no ransom, no clues, and rising tension in the community, Elena steps in after receiving a request from a retired...

The Funniest Joke in the Universe by Santa Andreas is a hilarious romp through the overactive, vastly imaginative mind of the author. Reminiscent of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, the story takes readers through time, different dimensions, alternate universes, and weird and wonderful planets...

The Day the Devil Went on Trial by Ian Pear is a sharply imaginative novel that blends satire, theology, and modern life into a compelling story. From the opening scenes, where the Devil introduces himself at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, the book establishes a tone...

The Devil in the White Mountains by Mark Smeltz tells a terrifying story set in the Himalayas. Lt. Col. Grant Morrison is serving in the British Raj when he's sent to the Himalayas. A remote village is under siege by a man-eating leopard, and Morrison...

Since Juuji and his family arrived safely on Mars, he has made their welfare his priority. Chief among them is finding a way to get the Caterpillar they all call the Bus to transition into a butterfly. His previous attempts have failed, and as time...

The Kinetix and the Glowing Orb of Gorthon by Austin Basis, Dave Maulbeck, and Josh Taub is an entertaining and original graphic novel. Four middle school students never dreamed that they would one day become superheroes who would end up saving the school. And ultimately,...

The Woman in the Third Floor Front by Richard Scharine is a collection of prose pieces beginning with a series of short stories and followed by musings about his European ancestors. The author traces his life from a midwestern boyhood, through his career as a...

The Carpenter and the Apprentice by Grace Zacaroli follows a young wanderer trying to escape his past. Hoping to become an apprentice to an elderly carpenter, Danat arrives in a small town after losing his family in a devastating war. However, the carpenter has something...

The Return of the Flying Boat is a historical drama by Dale Morton. It's the late 1990s. The Russian government has ramped up attacks on shipping corridors all over the Arctic and Atlantic with covert, cutting-edge technology-equipped stealth submarines. Among them, the USS Buffalo is...

In The Boy with the Butterfly Mind by Lorelei Brush, readers meet Julie, a math teacher juggling her job, marriage, and the nonstop energy of her four-year-old son, Patrick. She feels deeply proud of him, but also worried. His moods range from exuberant curiosity to...

The Minister and The Madness: Seven Days of Casting by Natalie McMillan follows Natalie, a minister who receives a startling spiritual directive in the aftermath of her closest friend’s sudden death: she has seven days to let go. As she steadies the grieving daughters from...

What does it truly mean to be alive? Does it mean being safe? Does it mean living in one place where everything is perfect, and the world is merely something you can watch through transparent walls? In Darya Ahmadi’s The Glass House on the Hill,...

The End of the Sidewalk by Nancy Schutt McCorkle centers on a white girl named Gertrude, or Trudy, growing up in Mississippi during the early 1960s. Segregation and clashes over civil rights are part of her everyday life. Her mother, who serves on the state’s...

H.S. Toshack’s The Smile of the Tiger is set during catastrophic flooding in Bangkok, where a house cat named Sheena becomes trapped alone in the Allen family apartment after the building is abandoned. With no access to food or water, she escapes through a garbage...

The Pebble in the Pond: A Story of Stuarts Landing by Suzanne S. Groves left me searching for the right words to capture its uniqueness and deep sense of rightness, especially in a world that often feels devoid of compassion, empathy, or love. Miriam has...