By Frances Schoonmaker

As the Wood Wagon Company leaves Santa Fe to follow the ancient Royal Road to the Interior of Mexico, people tell Sid Johnson they’re facing the hardest part of their journey. Ahead is the Jornada del Muerto, the Journey of the Dead Man, 90 miles of waterless desert. Even so, Sid is convinced that the worst is behind. They’re more than halfway to California and he has a group of friends he can count on. His optimism begins to fade when an old wanderer falls in with the company warning Sid to be alert because things aren’t always as they seem. Things start to fall apart when their trip is disrupted, and Sid must make a 20-mile solo ride across the rugged La Bajada Mesa. Then, when he rejoins the company, Harriet, a new member, drives a wedge in his friend group. Still, he has no idea how bad things can be until he discovers a body near a waterhole at the end of the Jornada and realizes there is a killer in the company, and he has the key to who it is.

UPCOMING

By Richard Jeffery Wagner, PhD

Planet of Love, the sequel to Love Beyond Orbit, is the fourth in the Brent and Edward series of future romantic science fiction by the creative author, Richard Jeffery Wagner. In this hard science fiction book, he details a near-future world where intercontinental rockets and sentient machines are commonplace. Edward Collier lives a carefully balanced life of

comfort, intellect, and quiet longing. His loyal robotic valet, Brent, is more than a servant; he’s a companion capable of deep curiosity and unsettling insight. As Edward returns from paradise and faces the ache of separation from his fiancée, his conversations with Brent turn inward toward questions of love, free will, and what it truly means to live. In the stillness of a high-tech world, thought itself becomes the final frontier.

UPCOMING

Aloha in the Future

By Richard Jeffery Wagner, PhD

Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other Book Retailers sites

The author has woven a captivating narrative that seamlessly blends elements of science fiction, romance, and everyday life. The characters of Edward, Cindy, and Brent are well-developed and relatable, with distinct personalities that shine through in their interactions. The story’s pacing is well-balanced, with a mix of action, conversation, and introspection that keeps the reader engaged. The author’s use of descriptive language effectively transports the reader to the futuristic world of flying cars, space travel, and advanced robotics.

One of the most striking aspects of the story is its exploration of the intersection of technology and humanity. The character of Brent, a robotic valet, is particularly intriguing as he navigates the complexities of artificial intelligence, free will, and personhood.

The romantic undertones between Edward and Cindy add a sweet and tender dimension to the story, while the friendships and camaraderie among the characters create a warm and inviting atmosphere.

Published on July 10, 2025

By Richard D. Bank

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The Ship to America is a work of fiction based on the experiences of an extended Russian Jewish family fleeing oppression in Ukraine during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Seventeen-year-old Dave Michelbank commences his journey following the footsteps of his older brother to America: first on a horse-drawn buggy; then a train taking him through Europe to the docks in Brussels where he boards a ferry to Liverpool; and finally making passage on the ship bringing him to America. Along the way, he meets all sorts of characters including one who makes him a man” and another who becomes a lifelong friend. He also finds himself in precarious situations including a murder that he never could have imagined having lived all his life in the small village of Kuzmin.

Reaching America at the docks in Philadelphia where he joins his brother to live, work and raise funds to bring over his mother and siblings, Dave reunites with several cousins who are also intent on establishing a new life for the rest of the family. Shedding some of the old and embracing the new—such as altering their name to “Bank”, the family struggles to find a balance. Challenges abound in their daily lives some as mundane as putting food on the table and coal in the furnace while they contend with the greater impact of a World War and the conflicts between bosses and workers sometimes compelling them to take sides—as Dave must ultimately do.
Despite the changes, much remains the same. Like those before him, Dave and his wife Celia strive for a better future for their children and descendants. In this sense, Dave’s story and that of the Bank family is not unlike that of the multitude of immigrants from all over the world who have made America their home.

Published on August 4, 2025

By Harry Ringel

Who doesn’t love movies? Harry Ringel’s latest historical novel, A Triumph of Shadows, takes the reader all the way back to the birth of the medium. Watch nickelodeons being planned and built! See them grow from converted store spaces to movie palaces! Stand beside the earliest movie makers as they film in every location that a camera can be cranked and a tripod set up! Eavesdrop on William Dickson Thomas Armat, and the patents-crazy Edison as they enter the fray of inventors seeking credit and control of the technology behind all the wonder! Share a brunch with Marcus Loew, Carl Laemmle, and others as they argue over the best directions for the industry to take! The story has its human side as well. Follow Sam Yanoff and his family as they escape the pogroms of Russia to settle first on New York’s Lower East Side, then in 1900’s Harlem. Join them as they help build this flourishing new art form. A Triumph of Shadows brings to life the fierce competition, the bitter conflicts, the excitement and passion of the era when films first enchanted the world. If you love movies, read A Triumph of Shadows. You will love them even more!

UPCOMING

By Richard Koepsel

Available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, other book retailers globally

The novel, A New Origin, is a story in the “What if this continues?” subset of science fiction stories. The story opens in a typical home in New Origin City on Planet Gaia, a family of the descendants of the original settlers from Earth were preparing to attend the first of a series of seven plays that tell their history from the departure from Earth to the arrival to and settlement of a planet they called Gaia.

The series of plays open in a small colony on the central plains of Greenland in the mid 25th century, the last habitable outdoor place on Earth decimated by climate change and the extraction industry which supplies colonies on Earth’s moon, Mars, several moons of Jupiter, and Earth-orbiting artificial moons. The culture of the colony is based on egalitarian principles, with the technology of mid-eighteen hundreds of North America (i.e. horse and carriage) with a sprinkling of nineteen hundred (telephones, refrigerators, and electric lights). This colony is evacuated to a planet named Gaia, two hundred light years from Earth, that has been terraformed. Four centuries after the departure of the New Originites, the Martian Empire is losing to Insurgents and packs the aristocracy into a spaceship to conquer Gaia.

Published November 1, 2024

By Christie Goodman

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Meanwhile, I Keep Dancing is a passionate memoir of the author’s life-long fight to live her dreams despite an illness which foils her at every turn. It is also about a journey of acceptance, long fought against and for years refused, but ultimately required. It is about coming to trust that despite all the loss, what she is given in this life will be enough. The book chronicles an outrageous life of adventure and positivity amidst the struggles and heartaches of living with a serious illness. It is a story of resilience, adventure, and an unbeatable spirit. 

Published November 1, 2024

By Nick Sweeney

Available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other book retailers globally

Bronia lives in a small Pennsylvanian post-war town too riven with sabotage, murder, and all the superstitions of the old world to offer the American Dream. Its citizens can never escape the darkness and broken magic they have brought with them from the fringes of Europe. Milo is the man of Bronia’s dreams, and yet all his dreams fix on one day racing his bicycle for a living. All she can fix on is getting away with Milo. Before she can do that, she has to navigate through a cast of fake friends, rivals, crazy artists, masked delinquents and bikers to distract him from the scars left by his encounter with a very unorthodox angel. 

Published on March 15, 2025

By Phillip Davis

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The Shadows Behind the Mystery is a work of fiction set in Brunswick, Georgia in Glynn County but intrigue and intense investigations spill over into Duval County Florida. The story focuses on the investigations into three murders which seem to be intertwined at moments during the investigation and at times not even remotely connected to the same killer or killers. The murderers haunt those who attempt to bring the persons responsible for these senseless acts to justice and cost some of those involved everything. Lies, coverup, and deception become the orders of the day and a community demands answers and are gripped with angst as each citizen wonders if they have a serial killer in the midst. Could they be next?

Publication date January 5, 2025

By Blessing Amu

Available on Amazon and Other book retailers globally

From a wealthy home onto the street of hardship and hellish living, Brightest Morning Dew, an inspiring fictional novel, brings to light a journey of struggles and survival of a young and determined, Mawu. She went through the path of the deepest hell to make her music dream a success. It’s the story of Mawu’s determination, motivation, and challenges to do whatever it takes to ensure her dream of becoming a great accomplished musician. Explore the remarkable resilience of a young girl and the cost of her success in this well-written novel by a creative and talented author, Blessing Amu.

Published October 28, 2024

By Phillip Davis

Available on Amazon and other book retailer sites globally

Beautiful Entrapment is a work of fiction set in Brunswick, Georgia in Glynn County but crisscrosses the globe. It centers around the disappearance of a Glynn County district attorney named Gerry Lamar. The local Sheriff’s Office begins the investigation, but the wealthy Gillis family insists that a private investigation firm joins in the search for Gerry, who is married to their daughter and sister, Stella. The investigation heats up and a representative of the Sheriff’s Office, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and a private detective begin to search internationally for Gerry.

As the trio begin to gather more and more information about Gerry’s potential whereabouts and if he is indeed still alive, they seem to be one step behind whom may be Gerry and a mystery lady who seems to accompany him. The private detective is forced to resign from the case to pursue another matter leaving the Sherriff and GBI agent to continue the search. The search continues to more difficult and involve other international locales.

The story’s climax begins when the GBI and Sheriff locate Gerry and he confesses about why he was on the run and who his accomplices are. The GBI agent takes one last international trip to tie all the pieces of the puzzle together and bring all accomplices to justice. The story concludes with a shocking revelation of betrayal and greed.

Publication Date, May 15, 2024

By Sylvia M. Warsh

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Washington DC 1844: When his mother is found drowned in the Potomac, 15-year-old Samuel Evans is devastated and falls gravely ill, saved by an experimental drug given to him by the gruff Dr. James Pyper who developed it from an Amazonian plant. The drug makes Samuel so sensitive to his environment that he can communicate with animals. He sets out to prove his mother didn’t commit suicide, helped by encounters with numerous animals.

The doctor’s childless wife, Martha, convinces her husband to adopt Samuel. He discovers that their house is a stop on the Underground Railroad and that Martha helps runaway slaves.

While investigating his mother’s murder, Samuel’s life is threatened, he falls in love, he dispatches a bee hive to punish the man he suspects, and tragedy ensues. He is kicked out of the Pypers’ house, with nowhere to go. During this painful time, he uncovers lies and betrayal from people he trusts before learning the truth about his parents.

The Orphan is set against the backdrop of slavery and the 1844 presidential election that determined whether Texas would enter the union as a slave state.

Publication Date: May 15, 2024

By Blessing Amu

Available on Amazon and other book retailers globally

Autocracy in Democracy is a fictional story that depicts a story of corruption and narcissism.

Ghanaian Democratic leaders seek power as a means to accumulate wealth and deliberately keep the masses in poverty. The leaders are allowed to sip from the seductive chalice of power in a political structure where the system allows “the winner takes all government.” This system creates more room for leaders to have decision-making autonomy and lots of discretion. The leader becomes corrupt and uses his or her power to further his or her interests instead of working for the common good.

In this beautifully well-written novel, the author gives us a space for dialogue and carefully narrates how Mrs. Akosua Nimako, the fearless founder of the Victory People’s Party, wanted to build an empire for herself and her daughters, but was thrown out by the masses. The book ends with a loud voice that the power of the masses matters. Autocracy in Democracy is the debut novel by Ms. Amu.

Published on February 10, 2024

By Benjamin Kassogue

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The author gives a vivid description of his parents. He described his father as an alpha, hardworking, truthful, family-oriented man who genuinely believed in the importance of schooling and a ruffler of the feather figure in his community. He labels his mother as possessing uncommon characteristics. She is a dynamic and organized woman and a loyal, submissive wife, a tiger and methodical mother, and a valuable and helpful person as a woman. The author fondly remembers the peaceful, exciting, and tender years of his growing up and how his upbringing and his parents’ special care shaped his and his siblings’ lives. The Christian background of his parents meant that he and his siblings had to adhere to some nonnegotiable standards of life. His parents firmly believed that a strong upbringing in all its aspects paves the way to a successful life, and they made sure every one of their twelve children had it. The author also depicts the shock he experienced when a new Western culture clashed with his own culture during his trip to the United States of America for graduate studies. He both pleasingly and remorsefully highlights the invaluable life skills he gained during his excellent and helpful stay in the West and the less attractive demeanor of some people in his host population. He got along well with his host mom and mentor, who massively contributed to his making. The author ends his accounts by showing how he is amazed at how many people in his dear country are dealing with life. In the section about Mali Koura or New Mali, the author genuinely longs for the overall well-being of his country. He begs his people to work for justice, peace, and stability and exercise holistic self-control every day of their lives for the good of everyone if they want the Mali Koura they are talking about. He requests his people to practice what they preach and not look good citizens but be good citizens. 

Published on January 2, 2024

By Frances Schoonmaker

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Hidden among Sid Johnson’s most treasured possessions is a letter he promised to take to Santa Fe. Is the letter a family history as he’s been told or the key to a long-forgotten Spanish treasure? Why is its code name Esteban’s Cross? All Sid knows is that he trusts the man who gave it to him and there are others who are willing to kill for it. But the letter is pushed to the back of his mind as he learns firsthand that travelers on the trails west have more to fear from disease than from the American Indians they are displacing. As he grieves over the loss of his home and friends, Sid must deal with an unwelcoming group of boys in the wagon train. And as if things couldn’t be worse, he discovers the letter is missing just when he needs it to save his little sister from kidnappers. Sid learns what true friendship and courage mean as he navigates the challenges of life on the Santa Fe Trail.

Published January 10, 2024

By Patrick Vitullo

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              In his debut novel, Patrick Vitullo, presents a psychological narrative that explores themes of obsession, racism, sexism, police brutality and vigilantism in the backdrop of a Philadelphia gentlemen’s club that is the intersection of two male characters and one female character. The intersection of the three people results in a Kafkaesque result that must be read to be believed. Hidden Danger is the story of an insurance claims’ manager’s dogged pursuit of a suspected corrupt law enforcement officer who advances a fraudulent workers’ compensation claim allegedly due to a “suicide by cop” confrontation with a woman dressed in black on a Saturday evening. From there, the story evolves into a psychological murder mystery of obsession, greed, and racial hatred. Its denouement can leave some cheering while others will be questioning the use of force in multiple settings by its characters.

Published January 10, 2024

By Marlene K. Kushner

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Sense of Direction has been written to provide this essential information. The author’s life is presented and follows the many challenges she has met. The issues inherent in having an” invisible disorder ” is explored. Resources for students, including associations, technical assistance, and protective legislation are offered. Finally, a sample of current research in the field is included. 

Sense of Direction offers a memoir, guidebook, and text to readers who intend to help students with unique patterns of learning. The title refers to the author’s navigational challenges as well as her decades long quest to understand herself and  work with students whose differences were similar to those she experienced. Deception and misinformation were two building blocks of her identity.  

By Harry Ringel

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Abraham! We know him as the father of three of the world’s great religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Yet his story begins abruptly, with two words from Genesis: “Lech Lecha” — “Go to yourself” as it is often translated. Who was the unknown Abraham of before God calls him? This unique novel uses Talmudic legends, Apocryphal writings, and Kabbalistic sources to trace Abraham’s footsteps into these hidden corners of his beginnings. We travel with him from Ur to Charan 3,000 years ago. We spend time with his wife Sarai (and Iscah, her prophetess alter ego), Shem and post-Ark Noah, the angel Gabriel. Stops are made in Babylon and at the Tower of Babel, where Abraham confronts his nemesis Nimrod. The Hand Above the Lid may be read as fiction, as historical fantasy. Yet it speaks not only to the past but to the present — in each and every one of us. The Hand Above the Lid challenges readers to “go to yourselves” as well.

Published 0n June 23, 2023

By Richard D. Bank

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In June of 1933, sixteen-year-old Lou Bank was living in Los Angeles with an aunt and uncle after his family had moved back to Philadelphia so he could complete high school. One day he was summoned by relatives and given the money needed to purchase a one-way ticket to board a bus destined for Philadelphia where his father lay gravely ill. With all his worldly possessions stuffed into a tattered suitcase and six dollars in his pocket, Lou hoped the six-day trip would leave enough time to reach his father while he was still alive. The Bus Ride is a tale based on a true story that traverses the length and breadth of the country and while it is primarily Lou’s story and that of his family, it is also an account of a populace rich in its diversity, inhabiting a multifarious milieu in America during the early twentieth century.

Published on February 28, 2023

BY JAMES L. MERRINER

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Roxy Stinson, a small-town beauty and brainiac, reaches the highest levels of Prohibition-era corruption—but when her lover is murdered, she takes her revenge on a national stage. Jess Smith, Roxy’s ex-husband and a make-believe tough guy, is the best friend (and lover?) of the crooked attorney general. President Warren G. Harding has advanced views on civil rights and world disarmament. How can he not know that the cronies he put in his Cabinet are such crooks? First Lady Florence Harding and a morphine-addicted friend lord it over Washington Society. Yet Mrs. Harding, “the Duchess,” lives in fear that her husband will die in office as her favorite astrologer foretold.

Stumbling in the Public Square is free of clichés about the “Roaring Twenties.” Instead, this startling and witty novel, based on historical figures and real events, is a revelation of how people caught up in public corruption think, feel, and act. It explores the competing ambitions of two early feminists, Roxy Stinson and Mrs. Harding. And it shows what happens to a nation when “truth stumbles in the public square” and “honesty can’t enter.”—Isaiah 59:14.

Published on January 10, 2023

BY FRANCES SCHOONMAKER

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Rumor has it that a slave stealer is working the Southern Illinois border states. He is so skillful at guiding freedom seekers that slave holders call him a phantom. Sid Johnson’s parents claim they don’t know anything about such a person. But when Sid discovers that their Illinois farm is a stop on the underground railroad, he isn’t so sure they’re telling him the truth. Proud of Ma and Pa, Sid is afraid of what will happen if they’re caught. Bounty hunters threaten Pa, and Sid overhears them talking about the slave stealer. He decides that to protect the family, he must find out more. But before his plans are in place, the bounty hunters burn the Johnson’s barn, compromising the farm as a stop on the railroad. Ma and Pa decide to go west. Disappointed that he failed to learn any more about the slave stealer, Sid is relieved to leave the slave question behind. He is about to find out that the ugly shadow of slavery reaches to the Santa Fe Trail and that his involvement with the Phantom Slave Stealer has just begun.

Published September 15, 2022

BY PATRICK VITULLO

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In his debut book of poetry, The Lighthouse, Patrick Vitullo beautifully reflects on the wonder and sadness of life while exploring themes of family, love, and loss. Whether it’s remembering his childhood surrounded by loving relatives or descriptions of his love of jazz, Patrick’s poems immerse us into specific moments with well-chosen imagery and word choice. The poet takes us on a journey which starts with his childhood in western Pennsylvania where immigrant parents and grandparents gave up their own lives to unimaginable toil so that their children and grandchildren could, one day, live better lives. Other poems show Vitullo’s love for nature and travel. The poets caring and unique observations will keep readers coming back The Lighthouse time and again.

Published August 3, 2022

BY CRISTINA UTTI

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Breaking Infinity is a coming-of-age memoir that delves into the darkest corners of human emotions as Dr. Utti chronicles her adolescent journey through addiction, loss, healing, and learning to love oneself.

This memoir is set in the 1970s when divorce rates were at a historic all-time high in the United States, rising from 3.5 per 1000 in 1970 to 5.3 per 1000 divorces by 1979. Lina’s world turned into a before and after when her parents divorced in 1978 and she was left to help her father raise the younger siblings. The guilt she felt and lack of control over her home environment internalized, developing into an eating disorder as Lina thought that food was the only thing she had control of in her life. Four years later, her father, at his wit’s end, tells her, “Get the hell out of this house!” With only her backpack and guitar, she leaves home at the tender age of sixteen. She uses her beauty, wit, and charm to make it on the streets, thus becoming exposed to the darker side of existence. During this tumultuous time, Lina bounces from place to place, living where she can, and running away from herself. By the age of eighteen, she is living in Philadelphia alone and addicted to meth. She decides to transform her life upon awakening from a drug overdose coma in the hospital. She moves in with David, her older brother, but he continues to party. Lina is left with a decision—does she try to save her brother, or save herself?

BY SCOTT SPIRES

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It’s 1998. Bill Clinton is embroiled in a sex scandal, the Internet is starting to permeate our world, Titanic is breaking box-office records, and we’re supposedly enjoying a “boom economy.” In the Chicago area, two young men, disaffected by their suburban upbringing, take contrasting paths through life. Eric Freeman is a cynical, aesthetically inclined slacker who enjoys an aimless, hedonistic life dedicated to his hobbies, while working at a job he hates. Evan Jarrett is an idealistic college dropout and would-be author who styles himself a “philosopher and activist.” Their clashes with the world around them and with each other strike comic sparks.

In a story that evokes such 1990s classics as High Fidelity and Fight Club, our two antiheroes struggle against unsympathetic employers, uncomprehending relatives, meaningless jobs, romantic frustration, and social isolation, all while searching for a life of meaning and purpose, each in his own way. Abandon All Hope is a comic novel of ideas that asks the questions: How do you make your way in a world where stability is illusory, fraud and lies are ubiquitous, and happiness is always elusive? Should you be a realist or an idealist? And how’s life working out for you, anyway?

BY PATTI CALLAHAN

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In the author’s words, “Identity is complicated. At least it was for me. I lost decades to its uncertainty. To questioning my worth, my value, my very existence. Viewing myself through the tainted lens of unimportance guided every decision. I was on a quest to validate a truth I mistakenly believed to be gospel. An unexpected epiphany led to more questions and the discovery of a lifelong coverup and to proof that I had been living the wrong truth. Finding peace took me to the greatest cities in Europe, to New Orleans, to psychics, therapists, and to energy healers. But ultimately, it took me to myself.”

BY RICHARD D. BANK

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In his youth, when Richard Bank entered his grandparents’ bedroom, he would be drawn to a photograph of his grandfather as a young man standing side by side his brother with both accoutered in WWI German military uniforms. Richard always thought that his great-uncle Berthold was Opa’s only sibling and more than six decades would pass before he learned otherwise. In fact, Opa had two other brothers and two sisters, all of whom perished in the Holocaust. No one—not his Oma and Opa, nor his mother and her sister, nor extended family members ever spoke of this. Such was the way some survivors coped with living in the aftermath of humanity’s most horrific crime. Bank’s memoir is a tale about life in the shadow of The Tree of Sorrow.

BY HARRY RINGEL

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1965. Young Tito Scaffone loves old horror movies more than life itself–especially Lon Chaney’s 1925 The Phantom of the opera. Tito stumbles into a chance to manage the Dreamland, a shuttered movie house in Philadelphia’s Skid Row section. He is joined in his efforts by Lois Koff, daughter of an aging theater manager. Together, Tito and Lois bring life to the Dreamland; together, they explore the charm and mystery of theater with its own secrets. The Phantom of Skid Row is a ghost story, of sorts. It is also a love letter to the magic of classic and non-classic movies; to the eccentric charms of film exhibition in the days before theaters became homogenized; to the mystery of love sheltered in young hearts.

BY DIPTI CHAKRABARTI

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Nirer Maya (Nest-Nostalgia) is a compilation of a variety of poetry and prose in Bengali language. The name of the book, Nirer Maya, reflects the author’s feeling of nostalgia for her home and memories in India. Through these writings she expressed her love for children, love for Nature, feeling about different aspects of life such as greed, destiny, pursuit, etc. She embraced her past and present social and and historical contexts to ratify her analysis about how we should pursue our life as a journey.

BY TRACY KAUFFMAN WOOD

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When vivacious and universally-beloved Sylvia is struck by a debilitating depression and an encroaching dementia, her daughter Tracy launches a desperate, unrelenting, unrealistically optimistic campaign to save her mother from oblivion, and to keep herself from acknowledging the inevitable. You may have run into them at the supermarket— that

determined woman pushing forward on her mother’s wheelchair while pulling her toddler in the shopping cart behind. They would not have noticed you. In this painfully honest memoir, Tracy explores her role as daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, wife, mother, and caregiver within the context of a large Jewish family spawned from Eastern European immigrants who settled in South Philadelphia in 1909. The story follows their journey from the rich intimacy and warmth of spirited family life– through Sylvia’s agonizing losses of independence, home, dignity and identity— to redemption and a remembered promise. It’s a graphic portrayal filled with poignant and humorous anecdotes that pushes through the challenges of multi-generational care giving, pulling back the curtain on one family’s dilemma.

BY MIKE METZLER

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As chemo and radiation treatments for Stage 4 head and neck cancer began in early 2009, the author started a blog called “Mike Metzler Beats Cancer.” The purpose of the blog was to keep friends and family informed about Mike’s progress towards recovery and to welcome friends and family as a part of “Team Mike,” led by his wife Terry. Mike was confident that his treatments would be successful and that he’d return to his normal life within a few months; it took ten months before he received the “No evidence of disease” (NED) result from his doctors. His journey in Cancer World was over, or so he thought; almost immediately after his NED result, signs of serious side-effects of treatments started to emerge. Over the next ten years, those side effects would reveal themselves as serious, and a number of them would leave Mike with physical deformities and disabilities for the rest of his life. So, what was first hoped to be one journey, the months from diagnosis to NED, turned into two, the second being the long and unpredictable path of discovering and coping with the side effects of being treated for head and neck cancer. The blog entries from 2009 to 2018 provided the raw material for this book, with other stories and memories added later to give additional insights into each journey.

The book shows how Mike’s unwavering optimism, his sense of humor, his resolve to endure brutal cancer treatments, and his determination to handle each and every side effect helped him to persevere. The book also shows how Mike’s primary caregiver, his large network of support and number of medical professionals pulled together to get Mike through Journey 1 and have helped to keep Journey 2 going for more than ten years now. The author notes that, for him, all he has gone through in Cancer World beats the alternative of being a cancer victim.

BY HARRY RINGEL

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Fallen Angels, Nephilim giants–how prolific these Biblical figures from Genesis 6 have become in popular culture! Bare-chested male hunks and huge-bosomed temptresses, semi-divine or semi-demonic, grace the covers of innumerable novels. They are illustrators’ favorites in card and

video games from Magic the Gathering to Final Fantasy. Azazel, Lilith, and their like have propelled the Supernatural TV series through many seasons.

Shemhazai’s Game, a novel of Jewish fantasy, spins these legends in an entirely different direction. It carries the reader not into traditional Judaism but the realm of Kabbalah, the collective term for Zohar, the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, and other works of Jewish mysticism. It opens doors for curious readers wishing to explore this “Other Judaism.”

Above all, it is a work of fiction–one in which two all-too-human characters, rooted in disharmony, are challenged to find each other in the labryinth of Shemhazai’s Game. Forty-year-old Debbie and her mentally handicapped 37-year- old brother Jacob are not simply strangers to each other, they are enemies. Fallen angel Shemhazai enters their battle . . . and carries his own agenda with him.

Shemhazai’s Game is not only for readers interested in Judaica in general and Kabbalah in specific. Anyone seeking a new direction in fantasy fiction will find inspiration and entertainment in the book.

BY AYESHA F. HAMID

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The Borderland Between Worlds is the true story of author, Ayesha F. Hamid, where she details her journey towards self-acceptance. Growing up as a Pakistani immigrant in the United States, Ayesha had to deal with the constant struggle and pressure of not being able to fit into worlds that oftentimes demanded total conformity.

In this beautifully written memoir, the author gives us a space for dialogue and candidly narrates her personal experiences that extend from the deepest questioning about her identity and belonging to the vivid details of a journey filled with struggles related to race, religion, family, friends, marriage, and finally to the most precious moments of self-discovery for which we all long.

THE LAST CRYSTAL TRILOGY, BOOK 3

BY FRANCES SCHOONMAKER

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When they board the L.A. bound Santa Fe Chief in Kansas City, the Harrison kids have never heard of the Last Crystal or the magic surrounding it. Worried about their father, who has been injured in World War II, they dread a summer with their boring, old Uncle James. But before the train is half way to L.A., J.D., Mary Carol, Robert, and Grace have crossed paths with a Nazi spy and one of the four has been kidnapped. Then, without warning, they find themselves off the train, drawn into a quest for the Crystal. To get home again, they must cross two thousand miles of wilderness and find the Crystal, with nothing to guide them but their wits, each other, and an old map that only the youngest can read.

Winner of 2019 Agatha Award for Best Middle Grade/Young Adult Mystery

NIKKI MACCALLUM

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Dry Run is a story of human transformation from confusion, despair, and brokenness to wholeness, healing, and the beginnings of self-love and acceptance, paralleling a physical progression through self-doubt, exhaustion, power and persistence.  Consisting of 26.2 chapters, Dry Run is coming of age memoir that compares the challenges of running a marathon with the struggles of growing up as an only child with an alcoholic parent.  Both of my parents were long-distance runners.  My mom ran five marathons and my father’s total was thirty-two which included him doing Boston in two hours and forty-two minutes.  I guess you could say running (and carb loading) is in my blood.

by Miriam Segal Shnycer

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September 1, 1939, bombs thunder across Krakow, Poland. Three families are trapped in the horror of Germany’s invasion. Only five young people out of fourteen members survive the Holocaust.   

Did inclusion on the coveted Schindler’s List ensure escape from danger? Did a family member’s dealings with Amon Goeth, the monster of Plaszow, keep them alive or lead to murder? Did clinging to a lifeline as tenuous as a pole in a latrine prevent capture? Of Love and Death:  Young Holocaust Survivors’ Passage to Freedom answers these questions and more. All events are true in this creative nonfiction book. Five storytellers chronicle the lives of these families as they remember the halcyon days of their youth and see them ripped apart by the genocide. Amidst all this misery is a blossoming love story.

THE LAST CRYSTAL TRILOGY, BOOK 2

BY FRANCES SCHOONMAKER

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The Red Abalone Shell is the perfect story for any middle grade reader who loves fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, and adventure all in one book. This second book in The Last Crystal Trilogy is the perfect companion to the first book, The Black Alabaster Box, or as a stand-alone novel. The book is set during early 20th century American life. Historical accuracy is obviously paramount to Schoonmaker and lessons on inclusivity and bullying are seamlessly woven in to create a story with rich detail and life lessons. Children won’t even realize how much history they are learning while reading this epic tale.

THE LAST CRYSTAL TRILOGY, BOOK 1

BY FRANCES SCHOONMAKER

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Westward ho! It had been quiet along the Santa Fe Trail for more than a year when the Stokes Company set out for California in the early 1840s, the Willis family among them. A reluctant traveler, twelve-year-old Grace Willis longs for her comfortable, safe, and privileged life at home. Just as she is learning to negotiate life on the trail, Grace is kidnapped by fellow travelers and taken into Oklahoma Territory. She must decide if she will cave in to despair or muster the courage to run away and search for her parents. Grace finds help in unlikely places. She discovers that there really is such a thing as magic and there are some things only a child can do.

The Black Alabaster Box is an historical fantasy about growing up and facing terrible circumstances without being overcome by them. Grace learns to face her fears with courage, and that even magic can’t rescue her from the consequences of her choices. Written for middle grade children, the book is one the whole family can enjoy together. Grace’s experiences can provide a springboard for talking about grief and loss as well as the wonderful, funny, and magical adventures life has to offer. The setting and attention to historical accuracy make it an ideal read-aloud for the schoolroom where children are studying the great migration West.

BY RICHARD D. BANK

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I Am Terezin is a memoir unlike any other, written as a gripping narrative in the voice of the concentration camp itself. Situated in Czechoslovakia, Theresienstadt, or Terezin, as the locals called it, was touted by the Germans as a model city where Jews could live their lives in tranquility. Despite the sheer audacity of the claim, the world chose to believe this and ignore the truth looming behind the granite walls encircling the fortress-town. In I Am Terezin, the collective voice of its 140,000 inmates reveals the true story of the camp, imploring that we must look past all deceptive facades shrouding human suffering.

BY MERCY STRONGHEART

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In 1976, in the fields of Northern New Mexico’s scrub grass and coyote fences, a twelve-year old boy named Trout searches for integrity in an increasingly volatile family that is free of moral inhibition. Trout takes it upon himself to protect his mute younger sister, Heaven, and seek out a better life for the two of them. All the while, he must avoid abusive anger of his parents. Before he can take action, a series of events fractures his family forever. Trout and his siblings are left to pick up the pieces and determine if they can ever manage to forgive their parents and each other.

A Boy Named Trout is a story about inter-generational patterns of addiction and abuse, and the power of familial bonds to save us and destroy us. Set against the backdrop of the hippie movement in the 1960s and ‘70s, when dictums such as “If it feels good do it” guided personal philosophies, A Boy Named Trout examines the creation of social morality and looks at how one follows their own inner compass when it contradicts cultural norms. Ultimately an uplifting message of strength and love, A Boy Named Trout is an important story for anyone touched by alcoholism, drug addiction, abuse, poverty, and cataclysmic social movements. In 1976, in the fields of Northern New Mexico’s scrub grass and coyote fences, a twelve-year old boy named Trout searches for integrity in an increasingly volatile family that is free of moral inhibition. Trout takes it upon himself to protect his mute younger sister, Heaven, and seek out a better life for the two of them. All the while, he must avoid abusive anger of his parents. Before he can take action, a series of events fractures his family forever. Trout and his siblings are left to pick up the pieces and determine if they can ever manage to forgive their parents and each other.