The pain of adolescence is complicated by family secrets and persistent grudges in Elena Ferrante’s devastating novel, "The Lying Life of Adults". For thirteen-year-old Giovanna, her father’s side of the family has always been a... Read More

As it controverts stereotypes regarding the formidability of villains and the fragility of senior citizens, Caroline B. Cooney’s mystery novel "Before She Was Helen" is a delight. Clemmie is a resident of Sun City, a retirees’... Read More

In Antoine Laurain’s acerbic cozy mystery The Readers’ Room, a debut novel makes waves among the Paris literati––and with two homicide detectives. Publishing darling Violaine Lepage is much admired for her impeccable taste and... Read More

In the hot Southern summer of "Even As We Breathe", the groundbreaking first novel from Cherokee writer Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, a young man’s loyalties and foundational stories are tested. WWII cleared the Carolina mountains of... Read More

When love is great, its loss can consume you; so a family learns in Meredith Hall’s delicate, poignant novel, "Beneficence". Doris became a Senter the day her husband, Tup, brought her to his family farm. She was happy to settle into... Read More

Timed to match pushed-down pains reemerging, "Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club" is a blistering novel that reveals deep social rifts. In a Newfoundland blizzard on Valentine’s Day, malcontent townspeople gather at the... Read More

Beneath the tranquil developments of Joanna Rose’s coming-of-adulthood novel "A Small Crowd of Strangers" lie dire possibilities, but also the hope of meeting one’s authentic self. Now thirty and absent a sense of definitive... Read More

Michele Weldon’s diverting essays concern womanhood and are written from the vantage of her sixties. From childhood forward, Weldon discusses her career, friendships, and feelings of invisibility. A cancer survivor, she threads regrets... Read More