Brisk pacing and a complex plot make this mystery novel a juicy, satisfying thriller. "Slow Burn" follows Fourth Down and Out as the second Andy Hayes mystery by Andrew Welsh-Huggins. Private investigator Andy is struggling in both his... Read More

Striking, deeply honest, and sensitively told, this novel based in real life considers juvenile prisons and all its dramas. Jerome Gold calls In the Spider’s Web a “nonfiction novel.” In it, he depicts the routines and characters... Read More

This touching story plainly told provides a captivating view of wartime Serbia, its tensions, and its effects on ordinary working people. Judith Somborac’s "Tug-of-War" follows the fictional experience of one young woman’s... Read More

Scholarly examinations of a political movement delve into the nature of the Irish American identity. A Greater Ireland: The Land League and Transatlantic Nationalism in Gilded Age America, by Ely M. Janis, is a concise, meticulously... Read More

Weighty subjects and introspection never bog down Taylor’s quirky characters as they rush toward a surprising finish. "Death Comes for the Deconstructionist", by Daniel Taylor, is a slim, funny, thoughtful novel about mental illness,... Read More

A woman’s story of wartime PTSD gathers complex characters to shed light on a little-discussed point of view. "Her Own Vietnam", by Lynn Kanter, is the story of Della Brown, who served as an army nurse in Vietnam but only begins to... Read More

Profiles of the central personalities involved in the career of the SS Eastland help to bring this compelling tale to life. After more than a decade of research, journalist and Chicago resident Michael McCarthy shares a heartbreaking... Read More

Kulski’s story heart-wrenchingly follows the arc of a boy becoming a young man in World War II Poland. "The Color of Courage" is the chronological diary of Julian Kulski, who was ten years old when Germany invaded his native Poland in... Read More