R. L. Toalson’s heart-wrenching "The Colors of the Rain" traces a boy’s journey through incredible loss amid tense racial issues. In 1972, in Houston, Texas, Paulie Sanders’s father is killed after fleeing the scene of a bar fight.... Read More
If so great a physicist as Richard Feynman once claimed that “nobody understands quantum mechanics,” what hope do we laypeople have? Luckily, Philip Ball, a freelance writer (formerly of Nature magazine) who has published widely on... Read More
An intriguing journey spanning two countries and multiple centuries, Daniel Grenier’s "The Longest Year" is at once epic and intimate, heartwarming and grotesque. This is a novel that defies easy categorization. Shades of the tall tale... Read More
As recalled in "Ballots and Bullets", July 23, 1968, was a night of terror in Cleveland, Ohio. Six people were killed and at least fifteen wounded as police battled black nationalists in the beginning of days of fierce rioting. The cause... Read More
"The Edge of Over There" is a mesmerizing, menacing fantasy. Shawn Smucker fuses New Orleans lore, Christian themes, and dystopian landscapes in a thorough exploration of love and its unintended results. Following The Day the Angels... Read More
In an ideal world, we would be no shorter or taller than we need to be, no thinner or heavier, smarter or dimmer. We would be what we needed to be. Similarly, writing need not be short or long to be what it needs to be. When the work is... Read More
"Small Moving Parts" is an emotive, atmospheric, and memorable tour de force. Not to be missed. In 1958, on a summer’s night in Bufort, Texas, two strangers’ destinies collide. Harley Cain, an ill WWI veteran and rancher, and Dodger... Read More
Blackbeard: The Birth of America is a pleasure—a historical adventure that corrects popular assumptions about the fearsome privateer through captivating and cinematic scenes. The name “Blackbeard” once struck fear into the hearts... Read More