Danbury (The Other Cheek) offers a heart-tugging narrative of mystery and love, centered on Phoebe LaFlamme, a 25-year-old red-haired firecracker who lives with her adoptive father. Phoebe gets the upset of her life when she receives a letter from her long-lost biological grandfather. After searching for years to discover some key to her past and the mystery of what happened to her biological parents, Phoebe now sets out on a journey to find the letter's author. Choosing to go by her original name, Phoenix, she doesn’t plan on finding out the sinister story behind her mother's passing or the other truths surrounding her birth.

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

Click here for more about LEAVING PHOENIX

Wigginton (Olivia’s Promise) introducesCatherine Lawrence, the newly appointed campaign manager for Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate, Russell Tillman, as she steps into her new role only a few weeks before the election. Following the deaths of her Grandma Alice and father, Catherine has lived a regimented life, closely abiding by a fifteen-year plan she developed with Alice upon her deathbed. Now that she’s made her plan a reality, Catherine finds something missing in her life, but with a busy lifestyle, Tillman down in the polls, and her own political ambitions on the horizon, there is no time for distractions or a relationship. That all changes when handsome blue-eyed surfer Jake Ryan moves into the condo next door. A slow burn whirlwind romance unfurls that leaves Catherine questioning the careful roadmap she’s followed for her life thus far.

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-

Click here for more about A Compromising Position

From the prolific Jones (author of the Evan Wycliff Mysteries series, among other titles) comes a witty and timely romance between a criminal defense lawyer who has kept her opera-trained singing a secret in her professional life, an eager and well-meaning talent agent, and a stiff, highly proper financial manager. Readers follow Moira, Mick, Brad, and a host of other engaging characters through their Los Angeles lives as Moira makes the life-altering decision to seize a wild opportunity. She’ll fill in for—and possibly impersonate, if necessary—an international music star who no longer can fulfill her upcoming obligations, a process that entertainment lawyer Mick assures her can make her a star, too … or that she can walk away from once her contract’s up. With little holding her back, save for her potential romance with the seemingly disinterested Brad, Moira leaps at the opportunity to pursue her dreams.

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-

Click here for more about Mick & Moira & Brad

Waithman (King’s Chosen) kicks off the King’s Chosen series with dependable medieval fantasy beats enlivened by a rousing spirit of adventure. Ten-year-old Lucas mourns the death of his blacksmith father, killed in a confrontation with a mysterious man dressed in black. Father Ansan at the local monastery takes Lucas under his wing to teach him the ways of the sword-wielding warrior monks. But Lucas is different; he has unusually quick reflexes and heightened senses. When Lucas reveals that he heard voices from the monks’ sacred black stone, Father Ansan explains, “The stone speaks to those it chooses to be worthy.” Now Lucas hopes to one day serve in King Itan’s army. Discovery of the sacred stone has given Lucas the power of knowing with his mind without seeing with his eyes, and Father Ansan believes “He is the one we have been waiting for.”

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

Click here for more about Blood Ties

Storied investment banker Frank invites readers into his innovative career as a forward-thinking dealmaker in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and health care services industries. Filled with insight into Frank's life, exciting behind-the-scenes accounts of epochal Wall Street deals, and revelations about how and why industry-shaping investments do or don’t happen, A Philosopher on Wall Street is a rich, intriguing read about how the world actually runs—and what it takes to balance risk and reward to empower innovators to make that world better. Duncan brings vigor and clarity to a story centered on the biotech boom, the development of groundbreaking medications and technology, and Frank’s prescience at “leveraging billions of dollars to further innovation that at times seemed highly esoteric and risky but in the end proved to be right.”

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

Click here for more about A Philosopher on Wall Street

This inspired-by-a-true-story account of a therapist-patient encounter gone wrong, penned by a retired licensed therapist, revolves around a fictionalized “Jonathan Sure” and his dealings with “Kulai," the wife of a doctor who had pleaded with Sure to take her case. Before he knows it, Kulai, in the course of her hypersomnia treatments, pulls Sure into a web of flirtations and recriminations, and he finds himself crossing boundaries he never imagined possible. “I believe it is our destiny to be lovers,” she says, during one session. Their destinies, in fact, prove messy: lives will be upended, accusations will fly, and Sure will face condemnation, suspension, and more.

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

Click here for more about Poetic Injustice

Psychoanalyst Keene shares a well-laid path for readers to find their way through childhood traumas, internalized insecurities, and negative perspectives and interactions in this helpful resource for understanding why we react to or interpret situations the way that we do. From marital issues to relatable inner struggles such as not being able to let go of the glory days, Keene breaks down client cases that readers will be able to learn from, touching on a rich array of relationships, from parent-child to the relationship with one’s self. Keene's insight and professional knowledge shines through as Keene breaks down complex therapy sessions with anecdotal storytelling and clear-eyed, practical advice. A “Toolbox” offers overviews, questions for readers to contemplate, and exercises to promote conversations in personal relationships.

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

Click here for more about Your Way There (To Being Fully Alive)

Targeting the “unwelcome digital distractions”—or “digital pollution”—that drives “annoyance and anxiety” and mistrust in our lives, Human-Centered Communication calls for nothing less than a “restoration of the human.” Beute and Pacinelli make an urgent, persuasive case that businesses must “reorient our businesses toward a healthier future,” while sharing a wealth of tips, advice, insightful interviews with experts (founders, CEOs, futurists, and more), and action steps that showcase why it’s pressing to bring more personal, human interaction into the fully digital world we live and work in—and also how to do so.

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

Click here for more about Human-Centered Communication

In this brisk and surprising study, Lockwood (Fooled by the Winners) analyzes the correlation between a nation’s size and its success (or failure), contending that “living in an optimally sized country is good, all else being equal. But all else is rarely equal.” He delves into five factors that determine a nation’s ideal size-incidence of warfare, cost of national defense, free trade, level of income inequality, and number of effective international government organizations, and breaks down the circumstances that influence their growth, arguing that countries have been shrinking since World War II. To drive home his principles, Lockwood analyzes contemporary examples including Japan, Russia, the United States, and more.

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

Click here for more about Rightsizing Nations

Charns (How Women’s Hockey Saved the World) offers readers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the power and joy of hockey in this entertaining memoir. Drawing on his family’s love for the sport, he details his son Leo and daughter WJ’s time spent learning, practicing, and eventually playing league hockey, describing it as “a prayer and a blessing disguised as a fast, exciting, and hard-hitting sport.” Charns candidly shares his irritation with the prejudice women face as hockey players, focused specifically on his daughter’s experiences on the ice, and delivers a quiet call-to-action for social justice minded readers: “If hockey is for everyone, there is no place for misogynist slurs, racial comments or other forms of bullying and abuse.”

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-

Click here for more about How Hockey Saved My World. An off-beat family memoir.

“It was only a matter of time before a single girl, without military training, and alone in the jungle, would be caught,” a private-industry intelligence contractor muses early in Born’s hard-edged thriller. That woman, Sara West, has lost everything but still must make her way, streaked in blood, across the mountains border from Uganda to the Congo, as a host of professional killers—American mercs, Russia’s spetsnaz forces—hunt for her and the secrets she had the misfortune to discover. On a research trip with her father and her husband, both botanists, Sara and co. found in the deepest jungle a downed Nazi plane … and a tranche of documents outlining Hitler’s contingency plans.

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+

Click here for more about The File

Gladden presents a thought-provoking memoir in this literary debut. At birth, the author was a Black male. But growing up, Gladden identified as a Black man with a white woman’s soul, which he describes as a transracial identity—blending transgender and transracial life elements. Written mostly in epistolary form, Gladden’s brutally honest musings first take the form of an inner white girl addressing the author, then the author addressing the intricacies of a shadow identity. Gladden and his inner white girl also take a figurative road trip, conversing and looking for answers in locations from Washington D.C. to Finland.

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

Click here for more about White Girl Within

Guitarist/author Sterling’s debut novel entices with unbridled suspense as a father seeks to find closure in the disappearance of his daughter. Though his daughter Megan disappeared almost two years before, Colorado resident and police officer Tom Floyd remains determined to find out what happened to her. Though he hopes she chose to abandon her small-town life and is alive elsewhere, the facts suggest otherwise. Tom hires a former cop-turned-private-investigator, whose findings suggest that Megan’s drug use may have played a key role in her disappearance. Complicating all this: the suspicion that the notorious “Rocky Mountain Killer” might be involved, and the fracturing of Tom’s marriage to Lisa as Tom gets closer to the truth—and the danger for everyone eager to expose it intensifies.

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

Click here for more about The Fear of Winter

Spanish poet and celebrated lyricist and musician Antonio Casares’ seventh poetry collection, published posthumously, is both a love letter to and a eulogy for Scotland, “a place north of dreams,” and all the literary masters who wrote their best work in the misty, gothic streets of its cities. On the surface, the collection reads like tourist poetry, complete with photos of the poet at Scottish landmarks, but Casares, a Cantabria native, is far more than a tourist in his travels there. In place of travel guides, he uses the works of Burns, Byron, and Walter Scott to steer him through “the country of poetry.”

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+

Click here for more about El Unicornio Blanco (The White Unicorn)

Erickson (The Great Healing) tells the pressing story of regenerative agriculture, which is also, simply, the story of soil. Arguing that we need healthy soil not just to cultivate a healthy ecosystem, but also to grow nutritious food and quickly draw down carbon to avoid climate catastrophe, Erickson explores the benefits of this regenerative agriculture, defining it with care and precision, and identifies industrial agriculture as its opposite. Erickson lays bare the violence of industrial agriculture, from pesticides and herbicides to worker exploitation. As always, he’s clear-eyed—even alarming—about the dangers humanity has created for itself, but also never hopeless, instead showcasing how we can foster regenerative agriculture, from taking to the land ourselves to advocating for policy change.

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

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Daily’s inspirational novel of loss, redemption, and Christian faith centers on a Boston man and the surprising connections he makes with unexpected souls—and, quite possibly, the divine. Marvin Johnson, 87, loses his wife and decides to end his own life, purchasing a gun from a pawn shop. While returning home, he finds a badly hurt child on the pavement and carries him home, collapsing due to the strain. Meanwhile, teenager Savannah/Samantha Wilkins, living out of her car and desperate for money, breaks into Marvin’s house. Unwilling to leave an unconscious Marvin in the bathroom, she calls emergency services before escaping with valuables. Unknown to her, a creepy cop, both abuser and abused, is stalking her. As these three lives unravel, the presence of the strange child in Marvin’s affects him in surprising ways.

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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