There is a simple secret to everlasting life. In this fascinating work of Chinese alchemy, religion, and philosophy, Richard Bertschinger states it succinctly: “There is everlasting life, because there is no death; but if there is no... Read More

"The House that War Minister Built" is a novel that may shake the neat structure and quaint romance of typical historical fiction with its authentic raw voices and its breadth of historic sweep. It is 1929 in a sequestered palace in... Read More

Explorers looking for an accessible, comprehensive naturalist guide to Wisconsin forests will be happy to read Beyond the Trees: Stories of Wisconsin Forests, by Candice Gaukel Andrews. While many nature books and field guides seek to... Read More

Blessing, the heroine of this remarkable coming-of-age novel, is an intelligent, sensitive young girl who finds her privileged life stripped away when her Nigerian businessman father cheats on her mother. She and her brother Ezekiel are... Read More

On the list of “isms”—ageism, heterosexism, classism, racism—speciesism is most likely to fall at the bottom. Sister Species, a collection of essays by feminist animal activists, could change that. In this book, feminism and... Read More

Édouard Glissant once wrote that Faulkner’s “work stands up before you…as though erected by an architect who constructed a monument around a secret to be known, pointing it out and hiding it all the time.” The same might be said... Read More

One pleasure of this quirky, heartfelt novel is the feeling of being in direct conversation with the first-person narrator—an odd, spirited, and no-nonsense woman who speaks up even, one gets the sense, when she ought to know better.... Read More

Secrets can be toxic—kept too long, they can destroy a person or a whole community, as evinced in this Southern coming-of-age novel by first-time author Matt Matthews. Sixteen-year-old Isaac Lawson is still reeling from the death of... Read More