Grace Covey and her teenaged daughter Jenny are badly injured in an arson fire, and both lie unconscious in the hospital. Despite outside appearances, both are well aware of what’s going on around them and are taking steps to understand what happened. Grace, suffering from a head injury that leaves her in a coma, and Jenny, badly burned, are both able to leave their damaged bodies. They can speak to each other, hear all the conversations going on around them, and can even hitch rides in cars as police and family members inspect the scene and question those involved. As Grace gets new information and Jenny is able to remember more details about the events around the fire, they realize the danger isn’t over. They are the only Read more…

Poet Craig Arnold disappeared while hiking a volcano in Japan in 2009. The woman who loved him writes about their relationship and her sense of loss without explanation. There is no preface; the tragic event is explained in the blurb on the back cover.   The first poem, “What Rings but Can’t Be Answered,” is touching and could speak to anyone who has ever waited for a call from a loved one. “I want to be the crackers in your soup, I want to be your brass compass. Oh, mister, just thinking about you curls the ends of my hair.” Thirty-one pages are given to the alphabetical listing of remembrances and feelings as the couple’s story is told. “A ABANDON, what I did when you touched me that winter with an ungloved Read more…

Kleon is known for his poetry collection Newspaper Blackout (Harper Collins, 2010). Here he offers engaging, inspiring and practical advice on becoming a successful artist, advice that applies well beyond artistic pursuits. In an open, convivial tone that conveys the thrill of pursuing a creative passion, Kleon admits in the first pages that he’s “writing to a previous version of himself” and shares a photo of himself captioned “19-year-old me could use some advice…” He begins with the premise that “nothing is original” and encourages readers to figure out what is worth stealing, to embrace influences. He does not advocate plagiarism or direct copying. Rather, he believes that studying what you love in great depth will Read more…

 We know these three wise men. They come from the East, following a brilliant star that shines above the town of Bethlehem. They bring gifts to honor the birth of a great king. Accounts vary on who these men are, where they have come from, or even if they were indeed three in number. But no account matches their flamboyant escapades as portrayed in Unholy Night. The story centers on Balthazar, the man from Syria. Embittered by an impoverished childhood and the merciless killing of his beloved brother, he gained infamy as the “Ghost of Antioch,” a hardened, vicious criminal. He hooks up with the other two men in a prison cell while they await execution. They escape, and the trio is formed. After stumbling into a small shed that is Read more…

After “perfecting” his mind in The Know It All (2004) and his soul in The Year of Living Biblically (2007, both S & S), Jacobs’s newest quixotic quest is to perfect his body, embarking on a two-year whirlwind tour of all the scientific and pseudo-scientific health advice he can get his hands on.   Despite the hyperbolic subtitle,  Jacobs displays admirable amiability and humility, making him a perfect guide through the morass that is fitness literature.  He is genuinely interested in becoming a healthier person and takes readers through each body system as he makes improvements in his lifestyle, never claiming to have discovered the ultimate answer, but simply offering readers his usually quite astute observations as they Read more…

Twelve year old Florine is carefree, roaming her small Maine fishing community with her band of lifelong friends— Bud, Dottie, and Glen. She adores her big, practical father, Leeman, and her beautiful, charismatic mother, Carly, even though the two argue over Carly’s restless nature. Nothing prepared Florine for the tragedy to come. Carly and her best friend went for a short getaway up the coast, during which Carly disappears without a trace. Florine and her father are left with open wounds that torment them with possibilities: Is she hurt? Did she leave on purpose? Or is her body left somewhere? The novel spans the course of Florine’s adolescence, during which the Carly mystery overshadows each celebration and each tragedy. Read more…

In this finely tuned genre blending of historical, Western, and horror fiction, readers are swept along as young Chester Kates (who appears and acts as though he’s in his late teens) takes on a dangerous job after effectively being run out of one Wild West town. On assignment, he finds that where he’s been sent is nearly a ghost town, its populace ravaged by some mysterious plague. And even cynical Chester is beginning to see what look like ghosts in the trees. Character development, plotting, and the careful balance of narrative regaled in words and communicated through expressive and colorful cartoons make this a complete package of adventure. The bad men have surprisingly human sides, Chester has plenty of female attention, and his Read more…