With an intense and fascinating narrative that grips readers from the start, Danbury weaves a tale of a lost soul finding their way in an uncertain world. The deep plot keeps attention from the start, though for all its surprises it’s grounded in character and place. Lovingly detailed descriptions (cars, guitars, road-trip tunes, one “weathered giant of a cactus”) lead the way in moving the story forward as Phoenix travels across Arizona to California, the road and environs vividly evoked. The pacing, though a bit slow at times, won’t hinder readers of touching travelogs and thoughtfully earthbound mysteries. The story turns on a jolting family secret, which Danbury handles with sensitivity and insight, the suspense never at the expense of her cast’s humanity.
The result is a well-edited story alive with striking images, sharp dialogue, and the pain and promise of self-discovery. Deep character development and welcome lighthearted moments lead the way in keeping the pages turning. The mystery is believable, and the characters are lovable with well-thought-out character arcs and a relationship to story development. Any mystery fan who loves a mostly fast-paced narrative with a splash of romance will find this is a rewarding addition to to-be-read lists.
Takeaway: This road-trip mystery of self discovery with a hint of romance will win readers’ hearts.
Great for fans of: Nora Roberts, Janet Evanovich’s Hard Eight.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
Anxious about her new job responsibilities, Catherine struggles with the dynamic of her new relationship with Jake and knowingly gives him a back seat to her career. However, as the story progresses Jake’s sexy, surfer-boy appeal and easy-going nature steer Catherine in another direction. Although romance is central to the plot, after Catherine finds candidate Tillman in a “compromising position” with lobbyist Patricia Grant, a woman she doesn’t trust and workplace “arch nemesis," the story treads into suspense territory. Intermittent chapters alternating omniscient perspectives between Catherine, Jake, and at times Patricia, Russell and other key characters add layers of depth and angst that fans or romantic suspense will enjoy.
Set against the backdrop of Florida beaches and politics, this story is a page-turner; however, it’s a slow burn with moderate heat, filled with plot twists and tension-building scenes. Fans of romantic suspense and contemporary beach reads alike will find this enjoyable. Wigginton has created a story where two very different characters with very different lives come together in a beautifully written happy-ever-after.
Takeaway: Fans of contemporary romance and romantic suspense will love this story of opposites falling in love.
Great for fans of: Jenny Hale’s The Beach House, Cecelia Scott’s Cocoa Beach Boardwalk.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-
Jones’s prose is fleet and conversational, and the setting and scenes come across vividly. Characters are engaging and witty, especially in their responses to each other; Jones is adept at the parry-and-riposte nature of romantic-comedy dialogue, and his showbiz chatter likewise shines. At times, the character of Brad is opaque, his choices driving the story forward but not always clearly rooted in what readers know of him. Of course, that’s also how it feels to Moira, a cunning and smart woman, whose existence has been upended by surprising new obligations. Jones never lets the comedy—or the element of wish-fulfillment fantasy—inherent in Moira's situation obscure the real emotion at the story’s heart.
The stakes are high—millions of dollars are on the line—but the novel’s breezy, at times even low-key, with Moira already accomplished and established before her fateful choice. That means the narrative at times lacks urgency, but the wit, quips, and situations continually engage. Romantic comedy readers with a love for dry humor may find this right up their alley.
Takeaway: Romantic comedy readers will enjoy this story of a lawyer-turned-music star and her love triangle.
Great for fans of: Virginia DeBerry, Terry McMillan.
Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-
The comfort-food plot moves quickly as Waithman follows Lucas’s adventures and the boy gradually discovers his lineage and destiny. It’s all told with vigor and engaging characterization, especially once Lucas joins a royal circus in the hopes it will bring him closer to King Itan. When word of Lucas’s skills reaches Itan, the king wonders if he could be either an elite born—a boy of noble blood trained to serve in the king’s guard—or a chosen one, a commoner with exceptional skills to fight in the king’s army. But before Itan can test Lucas, the boy is swept away, continually chased and threatened by the men in black.
Waithman crafts a solemn, engaging tale of a naïve and inquisitive boy who grows into a strong and capable young man. Despite the familiar setting and plot, lovers of classic high fantasy YA storytelling will eagerly follow the precocious and likable Lucas as he staunchly pushes through the many plot twists, betrayals, to face his mysterious past and claim his destiny with King Itan.
Takeaway: Likable characters and a spirit of adventure enliven this traditional fantasy
Great for fans of: Taran Matharu’s The Inquisition, Sara Holland’s Everless.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
Duncan recounts, with striking detail, Frank's Depression-era childhood, in Salt Lake City, military service, education (Hotchkiss, Yale), and career, highlighting his consultation on deals between major corporations where Frank was sought out for his unique skills in risk assessment, merging companies, and more. Correlations between Frank’s upbringing and success are highlighted: “I grew up in the West when there was this feeling that things were new and just getting started,” Frank states, noting that there, in the middle of the century, “It was much easier for someone to start a business, to strike out on his own, if you were willing to work hard.”
Such hard work is a recurring theme through Duncan’s many engaging anecdotes, which bring life to Frank’s early experience at Smith, Barney—where he became Wall Street’s first dedicated pharmaceutical industry analyst—then at a not-yet-behemoth Lehman Brothers in the 1970s, where Frank helped launch a biotech revolution, funding the genetic research that would quite literally change the world. Duncan ably captures the texture of Wall Street life in bygone eras, while presenting the science and the dealmaking with clarity and showmanship. Frank himself pens an engaging afterword. This inspiring biography will fascinate readers interested in finance, medicine, and bold innovation.
Takeaway: Exciting accounts of a pioneering investment banker and the biotech revolution.
Great for fans of: Robert Teitelman’s Gene Dreams, Sally Smith Hughes's Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
The title conveys Sure’s feeling of betrayal, not just at the hands of Kulai, but the entire mental health industry. The book starts as a tale of percolating and forbidden romance, with vivid dramatizations of Sure and Kulai’s initial interactions setting the stage for a relationship. Grounding the story is the sure handed evocation of a therapist’s inner and working worlds, capturing the protagonist’s drift of mind, professional obligations, evolving understanding of his field’s practices and expectations. Much of Poetic Injustice’s back half becomes considerations, in essay form, of Sure’s treatment by his field itself; elsewhere, he includes poems written by the lovers, and appendices printing real documents, letters, and photos.
The result is a novel that suggests memoir and something like narrative therapy itself, a working through of an upsetting episode rather than a story meant to compel readers on its own. Scenes set in the therapist’s office, with professional and patient toying with crossing clear lines, are engaging like traditional fiction, especially in their nuanced attention to the job and its ethics. The poetry and the account of the fallout, meanwhile, offer readers less in terms of suspense or narrative momentum. Regardless, readers fascinated by the romance of transgressing professional boundaries may find this affecting in its rawness.
Takeaway: The inspired-by-truth story of a therapist’s condemnation after crossing lines with a patient.
Great for fans of: Susie Orbach’s The Impossibility of Sex, Sue Johnson’s Hold Me Tight
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B
Marketing copy: B
The result is a guidebook to the self and to connection, a resource for readers wanting to gain an understanding from a professional standpoint. Considerations of “Sticky Beliefs” (which govern our interpretations and reactions), “Bodyguards” (our defenses that kick in whether we need them to or not), and what it takes to put down “our shields of anger and swords of hate” all form a persuasive throughline about self-knowledge and how any of us can work to be more open and understanding in relationships. Meanwhile, Keene’s stories demystify therapy itself, offering an entertaining peek into the life of a therapist. Playful illustrations and graphics help lighten the mood even when the topics turn dark.
Keene demonstrates throughout the urgency of recognizing the contradictions inherent in our “Full Spectrums” of thoughts and feelings. Connecting with this Spectrum, she writes, helps us “identify, strengthen, and act on what is capable, courageous, and compassionate within us.” Your Way There showcases tools to help us understand and connect, both to ourselves and to those whose paths cross our own.
Takeaway: A psychoanalyst's engaging, insightful guide to understanding the self and connecting with others.
Great for fans of: Bruce D. Perry’s What Happened to You, Mark Wolynn’s It Didn't Start with You.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

The human-centered approach is all about creating a more positive and forward-thinking communication that leans on being proactive, future-oriented, and focusing on the person (employee, customer, anyone) on the receiving end of the service or messages. Throughout, illuminating considerations of pervasive problems are followed by nuts-and-bolts practices to address them: a breakdown of the broken goal, perspective, and mindset of the traditional of sales and marketing “funnel” communication, for example, builds to a presentation of “The Bow Tie Funnel” model, derived from the teaching of Jacco van der Kooij.
Human Centered Communication is filled to bursting with new methods to bring more intentional and personal human communications into this world of Innocent, Consequential, and Intentional digital pollution. Among their practical guidance are strategies to improve video communications, the next best thing to in person communication, for a more human experience: solicit honest feedback, take production quality seriously, align your message, your subtext, and your self with the person you’re addressing. “Turning up your emotions and expressions is not inauthentic,” the authors note, in a revealing discussion of acting, authenticity, and what it takes to get a message across. Also key: guidance for restoring trust to various stakeholders. Human-Centered Communication is a smartly targeted, up-to-date resource that will resonate with a multitude of readers.
Takeaway: An invaluable resource examining how to recenter human communications in a virtual world.
Great for fans of: Erica Dhawan's Digital Body Language, Karyn Gordon's The Three Chairs.
Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Lockwood’s advice often goes against the grain, such as his take on the euro (not sustainable, he submits) and his doubts on the merit of free trade: he argues that the concept of comparative advantage is unrealistic and outlines several drawbacks to free trade, chief among them the inability of workers to easily transition between professions. Lockwood contends that the Industrial Revolution was the catalyst for lasting change to the labor force and wealth disparity, warning that “the challenges for the average worker today are only just beginning.” Some potential answers for the US, he argues, lie in partition and annexation—though he points out the reasons these fixes are unlikely to help our current trajectory—and he makes the case for decentralization as the best method for increasing consensus.
The material is weighty, though Lockwood’s inviting prose and penchant for entertaining bits of history help break it up (the US once abandoned its Navy, and smaller nations have turned to nuclear weapons development to cement their status in a larger playing field). Lockwood’s ideas are provocative, particularly the possible benefits to a California secession and his caution against the risk of a more authoritarian government in the US, but his careful research and meticulous descriptions lend credibility to the text. Backmatter includes a breakdown of nations formed since 1945, along with their partition types.
Takeaway: An absorbing look at factors determining a nation's success and longevity.
Great for fans of: Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson's Why Nations Fail, Ray Dalio's Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
Despite hockey initially being an outlet mainly for his children, Charns recounts his wife's (he refers to her as Tucker throughout) compulsion to skate after watching their son brim with satisfaction from scoring a goal in a game. Tucker yearned for that same feeling, spurring her full-hearted commitment to the sport and kickstarting some healthy family competition. Charns, who started playing hockey in his 40s, comically shares his angst at losing to Tucker’s team alongside his respect for their shared family hobbies: “Play together, stay together” he writes. His love of the game is evident throughout, particularly when recounting his disappointment at the need to stop coaching his son’s team after a medical crisis.
Charns does more than sing hockey’s praises—he delves into the sometimes painful dynamics of his childhood (an alcoholic father and hypervigilant mother) and his own adult struggles with mental health, but touchingly circles back to how spirited competition on the ice has helped him find peace and healing. He sprinkles in welcome wit, including an aside on Mattel finally making a realistic hockey Barbie in 2020 and a pitch for women’s “constitutional right” to swear as much as men in the rink. Hockey fans will be delighted.
Takeaway: An entertaining tribute to the power of hockey as a path to peace and happiness.
Great for fans of: Jerry Hack’s Memoir of a Hockey Nobody, Angela Ruggiero’s Breaking the Ice.
Production grades
Cover: C
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A-
Born establishes this conflict and its players with convincing detail, briskly running down backstories on an international cast, while priming readers’ anticipation of the revelation of the prize that these competing spies and soldiers are willing to kill for. That prize: documents about a fortune “hidden outside Germany behind a web of front companies, banks and trusts,” set aside to fund the rise of a fourth Reich, and a list of the Reich’s “Circle of Friends,” which could still, all these decades later, destroy reputations around the globe. The action is raw and wrenching, which makes the chase all the more frightening.
On the run, Sara finds herself surprised at her own capabilities. Born’s accounts of her stealth-kills and trap setting are persuasively detailed; at times, the action occurs from the perspective of the men chasing her, edging toward survival-horror, with the hero as monster. That level of detail is consistent throughout the novel, occasionally slowing the narrative momentum, especially in the opening chapters. Dialogue is crisp throughout, though, and the story picks up speed once a former CIA agent discovers Sara might not be the traitor he’s been told. The brutal jungle survival adventure is memorable, but it’s the uneasy alliances and Sara’s climactic plan back in civilization that are Born’s most suspenseful inventions.
Takeaway: This brutal jungle thriller pits a woman who’s discovered Nazi secrets against pro killers.
Great for fans of: Wilbur Smith, Frederick Forsyth.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B+
Gladden doesn’t sugarcoat the injustices perpetrated on Black Americans, especially Black men, (“The more melanin in the skin the more malaise and mayhem you can expect”), but believes that Eighties sitcoms such as Diff’rent Strokes heralded a new era of a world where Black and white kids could co-exist happily together. Gladden also invokes Rachel Dolezal and Dr. Jessica Krug as kindred spirits. Dolezal, the former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)’s Spokane, WA, chapter, identified as a Black woman, while her race at birth was white; Krug, a white former George Washington associate professor, admitted to faking being Black and Puerto Rican.
Gladden’s evocative prose has a lyrical quality (“and I am warning you directly, Ronnie. Our identity can only continue to grate, rumble, and slip against each other for so long”), which will easily draw readers into the narrative and carry them through to the final page. A helpful resources section will help readers to gain a greater understanding about complex intersectional identity. Minor grammar and editing errors distract but don’t diminish the importance or power of the story and storytelling. Anyone hoping to gain insight into the experiences of a person whose outside doesn’t correlate to their inner identification will learn empathy in the author’s wise pages.
Takeaway: A thought-provoking account of complex intersectional identity experience.
Great for fans of: Jo Ivester’s Never a Girl, Always a Boy, Jazz Jennings’s Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen, Amy Ellis Nutt’s Becoming Nicole.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: B+
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B
Marketing copy: B

The Fear of Winter, the first in a series, leads readers down a twisted path of mystery and suspense. As Tom and the investigator’s team learn more about Megan’s drug use and the characters and encounters that go with it, Sterling’s richly detailed depictions of the underbelly of the illegal drug trade mesmerize with chilling authenticity—and with much welcome empathy, both for the daughter with shocking secrets and the father facing them at last. (Sterling’s memoir Teenage Degenerate offers an unflinching account of addiction.)
The darkness and cold of the Colorado winter is the perfect setting for the bleakness of the novel as Sterling examines what could make a young woman disappear and the unraveling of a marriage. Sterling hones in on Tom’s continued search for closure, hinting at the simmering undercurrent of hope which, along with his marriage, will likely be shattered if Tom learns that Megan is dead. Yet the aspect of the novel that will likely resonate most with readers is Tom’s consideration of all the things he wants to change about the past which would prevent the horrific events he now faces to learn what happened to his daughter.
Takeaway: A man desperate to find a missing daughter searches for hope in this tense novel.
Great for fans of: Jess Lourey’s The Quarry Girls, Thomas Fincham’s The Dead Daughter.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
To read Casares’s poems is to take a dreamlike tour through Scotland, where every cobblestone in the street is charged with some unspeakable, ancient force that has compelled artists to create for millennia. Readers experience Scotland in Casares’s poems like a Celtic Shangri-La, yet it is not some sorrowless fantasyland. The verses certainly radiate with a nearly obsessive admiration for Scotland and its poets, but the grief therein is just as powerful, almost to a mystical extent, for the death of his heroes, Scotland’s lack of independence, and the temporality of poetry and life itself. In his poetry, however, Casares makes the sadness radiant and romantic—just one of the many jewels that make up “the most melancholy country in the world.”
Lovers of Scottish literary history and poetry in general will appreciate the poems chronicling Casares’s insomniac walks through Aberdeen, hearing Byron’s “voice among the voices of the people who walk past me” and the search for his idol’s unmarked Edinburgh resting place in “Thomas de Quincey’s Grave.” Casares’s spellbinding poems evoke the magic aura in his forebears' work, and he reminds readers that a poet’s legacy isn’t maintained simply by their verse—it’s by the people who read it.
Takeaway: An endearing and haunting homage in English and Spanish verse to Scotland and its poets.
Great for fans of: Robert Burns, Luis Cernuda
Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: B+

Through gorgeous photos, illuminating research, lots of engaging individual stories, and even some cleverly anthropomorphized animals (including Lucinda the Monarch Butterfly and Pat the Pooper), Erickson illustrates how a healthy ecosystem works for nature and for humans. Erickson takes care to include stories of urban farms, such as Green Leaf Learning Farm in South Memphis, and to spell out how consumer choice can drive demand for regenerative agriculture, crucial steps in starting to bring change when “chemical fertilizer-intensive, input-intensive farming” takes up 99 percent of American cropland.
Although his urgency is clear, the primary note that Erickson strikes throughout the book is one of hope. The tools and techniques of regenerative agriculture may feel new (though they are deeply traditional) but they work, and work better than industrial agriculture. He makes a persuasive case that, in the long run, regenerative agriculture can even be more profitable than conventional agriculture. Erickson argues that what we need now is the courage and the hope to take bold steps for the health of humanity and the planet. Anyone interested in new directions for agriculture, as a consumer or farmer, will benefit from this well researched, carefully written and beautifully illustrated exploration.
Takeaway: This endorsement of regenerative agriculture will fascinate readers invested in the future of farming.
Great for fans of: John Kempf’s Quality Agriculture, Gabe Brown’s Dirt to Soil.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: B
Daily’s language is marvelously empathetic and draws the reader into the lives of the three major characters. The reader feels the helpless, debilitating misery—of the unhoused, of children of abusive fathers, of bereaved spouses and parents. The tension builds and the pacing stays taut up for much of the novel, up until the point where Marvin and the child, Michael, have a conversation in which the child quotes from scripture, thereby stepping out of a realist yet spiritual mode and into something more miraculous, as the “strange” child begins to feel very familiar (fast-healing wounds, frail body, luminous skin, fine, silky, golden hair).
Readers’ response to these developments, of course, might be a matter of faith. Daily’s portraiture of contemporary characters feeling for meaning in their lives is moving, and the possibility of Marvin healing, through the care and protection of a child, is so rich that readers invested in that story may resist the miracles and visions to come. Still, this empathetic and well-written novel about homelessness and coping with loss will strike a chord with believers.
Takeaway: This empathetic Christian novel centers on grief, the unhoused, and a miracle baby.
Great for fans of: Francine Rivers’s The Scarlet Thread, Karen Kingsbury’s Found.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
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