Stehekin Wilderness Ranch brings together several older and younger adults one summer. As they each go about their duties providing pleasurable adventures and food for visitors, readers are treated to descriptions of arduous hiking trails and forest surrounds. One can almost feel the silence and...

A century ago, Kahlil Gibran wrote The Prophet, a revolutionary poetic narrative chronicling the journey of a wise man. In light of societal changes and the unique challenges women face today, Natalie Solomon and Greg Solomon have reimagined Gibran's work from a woman's perspective, presenting...

Carolyn McBride brings us soulful women's fiction in The Cicada Spring. Katie Young is adrift. She has just said goodbye to her daughter who will be attending college in New York City. Now she will be returning home to Virginia, alone. She has a stable...

Short fiction is not hard to come by, but impactful short fiction is. Danila Botha's Things That Cause Inappropriate Happiness is a collection of slice-of-life stories around themes of diversity, wonder, and femininity. My favorite story is Don't Look Back. It follows a young artist...

Set in 1980, The Cop Reporter by PJ Jones is an immersive women’s novel that follows the life of Abilene-based reporter, Kat Coe. When Kat is transferred from San Angelo Standard-Times to Abilene Reporter-News, she views it as a great opportunity to grow and leave...

The first thing Joe Dowling did after settling into their new home was to plant a willow in their backyard. The tree bore witness to Joe and Margaret’s life as they raised their four girls. Debra, the eldest, had a go-getter attitude that made her...

Amy Maroney’s The Girl From Oto is a well-crafted captivating mystery novel. The story is set in two different centuries and follows the lives of two women. Zari Durrell is a contemporary art historian and scholar from California. In 2014-5, Zari is on a University...

What could the connection be between a gallery opening featuring Egyptian artifacts, bombs going off, fires all over London, and police sergeant Jackson Randolph? This puzzle appears in the opening pages of The Last Rays of Ra by Karina McRoberts. The central character Doctor Vahlona...

The Ill-Fitting Skin by Shannon Robinson is a collection of twelve short stories featuring women navigating extraordinary situations. A mother struggles to control the wild tendencies of her son, a lycanthrope, only to realize they have much in common. A woman gains notoriety when she...

The Other Side of Nothing by Anastasia Zadeik is a powerful and moving novel. It follows Julia Reeves, an eighteen-year-old, as she tries to find a way to escape from the pain and guilt that consume her. Her father made her believe in a world...