Replete with harrowing and laugh out loud accounts of misadventures at home and abroad, Suzanne Roberts’s "Bad Tourist" collects entertaining stories from around the world. Forget the glamour of collecting passport stamps and checking... Read More

Why witches? What accounts for our Western fascination with women who hex and heal, summon demons and project power, eschew religion yet embrace religious iconography, live contentedly in darkness, anonymity, and seclusion? Most... Read More

The threat of war has long been the most persuasive tool of statesmanship, made the better if you occasionally back it up on the battlefield. Diplomacy has a place, yes, but the laws of the jungle are often the only rules that really... Read More

While it is politically inconvenient at times, science is certainly real and deserving of respect. Not to say that science doesn’t deserve scrutiny. Like experts in other fields, scientists too often lack the humility to acknowledge... Read More

The characters of Rachel Swearingen’s beguiling short story collection sparkle with charisma, living high on testing boundaries. A couple finds the perfect apartment, but it’s filled with the belongings of the previous resident, and... Read More

Joanna Eleftheriou’s nuanced essays ask if one can ever truly go home again. Eleftheriou’s entries illuminate life at crossroads, handling Queens, New York, versus Cyprus; tradition versus modernity; and respect for the bonds of... Read More

In "Frankie and the Gift of Fantasy", a ten-year-old boy finds independence and purpose when he is transported from California to a distant planet. Francesco, who goes by Frankie, is always being nagged to be productive instead of... Read More

Stephen Arno and Carl Fiedler’s inviting text "Douglas Fir" is filled with information about the versatile, resilient conifer that “from firewood to flumes, flagpoles to flooring, snowshoes to spars, and liquor to lumber [fills]... Read More