A night of violence is routine, expected, and devastating in Francisco Maciel’s literary novel There’s No Point in Dying. There is a favela (slum) in the birthplace of samba. At its center are three bars. They’re close enough that... Read More

In Susan McCarty’s absorbing, nostalgic novel "2008", the lives of a group of estranged high school friends intertwine again fifteen years later. The story begins in 1993, on the night teenage Stevie, her boyfriend Sam, and her best... Read More

"A Tiny White Light" is a lyrical memoir in which living is treated as a continual search for meaning and self-worth. Linda Bass’s intriguing memoir "A Tiny White Light" concerns a psychotic episode, what led up to it, and its... Read More

Encouraging “independent mastery of self” through nuanced individual assessments, CoreSelf Positioning is a thorough self-help guide. Tim Preston and Jonathan Thomas’s comprehensive self-help book CoreSelf Positioning is about... Read More

An art conservator, a scholar, and a portraitist embrace the mysteries of love and ancestry in Katherine Scott Crawford’s enchanting fantasy novel The Miniaturist’s Assistant. In 2004, Gamble works in a Charleston museum. Fascinated... Read More

In the moving novel "The Untended", a community’s grit, hardiness, and sense of unity become apparent, even as its citizens struggle with addiction. In Mattea Kramer’s multifaceted novel "The Untended", small-town people survive... Read More

A poetic, rhythmic campfire tale that moves at a quick, tense pace, "Warriors of the Red Wolf" is an engrossing community origin story. In Nicholas Varner’s fabulistic novel "Warriors of the Red Wolf", warriors seek safety from a... Read More

"Those We Carry" is a tragic, triumphant novel about wartime love. Perseverance despite a tragic past leads a budding hero into the horrors and humility of World War II, and eventually to love, in Scott Saxberg’s novel "Those We... Read More