To fish is to know the singular, electrifying moment when fish, bait, line, rod, and wrist all sense the others in a shock of surprise. The sensation is such a rush, few anglers are content to experience it only once—whether an... Read More

An accidental hot-air-balloon ride lands Bear right in the center of a bustling city far from home. He quickly gains celebrity status through a series of unexpected stunts and outrageous events, which are balanced by smoothly delivered,... Read More

The narrator of Patrick Parks’s surrealistic novel "Tucumcari" is a man who floats through memories and time, addressing ash-covered cities, the atom bomb, and his wife. Lean, direct prose anchors his feverish meanderings. Fantastical... Read More

Modern culture has some ’splaining to do. Climbing out of the Renaissance/Elizabethan age through to the late eighteenth century, an increasingly enlightened society emerged into the industrial wonders of the nineteenth century and... Read More

"The Two-Plate Solution" is a molten broth of comic, nonstop action from page one. The American TV show Natural Dish-aster is shooting in Israel, and producer Sara Sinek, a Special Forces veteran with a secret about her time embedded... Read More

A spirited trio of kid sleuths undertake a classic treasure hunt in J. I. Wagner’s "Legend of the Star Runner". Taking its inspiration from video games and cloak-and-dagger mysteries, this story for middle-grade readers is a visual... Read More

“There is nothing like reading your own police file to make you wonder who you really are,” Katherine Verdery reflects in her true-life, anthropological whodunit. "My Life as a Spy" describes Verdery’s ethnographic fieldwork in... Read More

Sloot Peril, a modest accountant who is “only as superstitious as required by law,” is an unlikely hero in the humorous fantasy "Peril in the Old Country". With a lyrical flair that evokes P. G. Wodehouse, Peril is funny and fun.... Read More