Susan Schoenberger’s Liability of Love explores themes of class conflict, grief, trauma, and ultimately depicts how the stories we tell ourselves have the potential to both wreck us and save us. Kirkus Reviews calls it, “a keenly observed, compassionate, and…
Mona Mireles, the prematurely bitter and grumpy protagonist of Elizabeth Gonzalez James’ debut novel Mona at Sea, graduates from college with her dream job at an investment back all lined up. Her hard work has paid off. She’s crossed that…
“My mother did not move from the bungalow’s doorway. Her apron, stained with baby burp and breakfast grease, seemed to pull down at her narrow shoulders. She brushed a dark sheaf of hair away from her face and boosted my…
In P. J. Vernon‘s Bath Haus, Oliver Park, a recovering addict from Indiana, has everything he ever wanted: sobriety and a loving, wealthy partner in Nathan, a prominent trauma surgeon. Despite their difference in age and disparate backgrounds, they’ve made…
The central mystery of Katheen Alcalá’s Spirits of the Ordinary is this: how can a book have everything –breathtaking, living landscapes, gender-bending, gold fever, Indigenous wisdom without cliché or fetishization, Crypto-Jews, empowered women, and profound character arcs – yet still…
Several months ago, one of my mother’s childhood friends died. Margie was a librarian, teacher, writer, activist. Although we hadn’t connected in many years, she remained a vivid part of my memory of childhood, very much the color Red. At…