Anna Carey’s young adult novel This is Not the Jess Show starts in a familiar fashion, with a teenager in the suburbs dealing with drama. But there are unsettling events, too: Jess hears a chorus of chants in the morning, her dog has... Read More

In Zarrar Said’s epic novel "Pureland", a servant turned physicist wrestles with science, faith, and love. Salim is born a Pureland plebeian in 1950, but a levitating ascetic prophesies future greatness for him, influencing his fate.... Read More

Three troubled but tough generations of women, all molded and wounded by the Pentecostal culture around them, are celebrated in Kelli Jo Ford’s masterpiece, patchwork novel, "Crooked Hallelujah". Religion became a source of both... Read More

Frank Mortimer’s "Bee People" is an entertaining introduction to the world of beekeeping, drawn from Mortimer’s extensive experience raising bees in suburban New Jersey. The book’s topics will appeal to novices, experts, and the... Read More

"The Words of the Wandering" strikes a perfect balance between fun and danger, school and socialization, and friendship and romance. D. E. Night’s "The Words of the Wandering", the third novel in the fantasy series The Crowns of... Read More

In North Korea in 1950, twelve-year-old Pak Sora sees her father only when he arises from the hole the family of five has dug for him in the backyard so that he can avoid being conscripted into the army. The family cowers in place as... Read More

In Sandra Fernandez Rhoads’s young adult fantasy, "Mortal Sight", an ambitious teenager directs her unearthly powers to destroying vicious monsters, endangering the lives of those around her. Since she was seven, Cera and her mother... Read More

Phyllis Barber’s "The Desert Between Us" is a historical love story about the American West and the need for human connections. Set in the wilds of rural Nevada after the Civil War, the novel focuses on Geoffrey, a road builder tasked... Read More