Contemporary

Spotlight – Renan Bernardo

About the Book Renan Bernardo’s Different Kinds of Defiance (Android Press, March 2024) is a collection for the rebels at heart—for those who find courage where hope seems lost and for whom every act of resistance is an act of sheer will. From the sunbaked docks of a Rio de […]

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Virgil Harbor, Julia Glass

When two unexpected visitors arrive in an insular coastal village, they threaten the equilibrium of a community already confronting climate instability, political violence, and domestic upheavals. Read more at Penguin Random House.

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Pearce Oysters, Joselyn Takacs

Pearce Oysters, a lush, evocative, finely-drawn debut novel set on the Louisiana coastline during the historic 2010 oil spill, follows the Pearce family, local oyster farmers whose business, family, and livelihood are all on the brink of collapse. Eye-opening, eco-fiction at its best, Pearce Oysters highlights the grit and beauty […]

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Last House, Jessica Shattuck

“Last House soars, sweeping us through the 1960s to the near future, and following the river of oil that influences American policy. But the novel’s great beating heart is the particularities of the lives of two captivating women–one bound by social mores, the other trying to dismantle them. The sublime […]

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Spotlight – Charlie J. Stephens

About the Book Charlie J. Stephens‘ A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest came out by Torrey House Press this April. In 1980’s Oregon, Smokey is figuring out how to survive childhood with a young mom who is increasingly desperate in her search for love. As their mother’s boyfriends come and go, […]

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Spotlight – Donna M Cameron

About the Book The Rewilding (Transit Lounge, 2024) is an exhilarating and unforgettable love song for our world. Heartbroken and in fear for his life, corporate whistle blower, Jagger Eckerman, escapes to hide out in a remote cave, but kick-arse radical, Nia Moretti, is furious a ‘capitalist suit’ has taken […]

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Land of Milk and Honey, C Pam Zhang

Sensuous and surprising, joyous and bitingly sharp, told in language as alluring as it is original, Land of Milk and Honey lays provocatively bare the ethics of seeking pleasure in a dying world. It is a daringly imaginative exploration of desire and deception, privilege and faith, and the roles we […]

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Indie Corner – Overlord, Eric James Fullilove

Back to the Indie Corner series Today I chat with Eric James Fullilove, author of Overlord (Atmosphere Press), a climate change speculative fiction novel. Eric James Fullilove is an MIT graduate, CPA, and published author. He has worked in mainstream media (CBS, Young and Rubicam advertising, and Scholastic, the children’s […]

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Flying Up the Mountain, Elizabeth-Irene Baitie

The companion to Crossing the Stream is a moving story of friendship and a timely reminder of our duty to nature. Ato and his friends Dzifa and Leslie have been selected to visit Nnoma, the bird sanctuary that Ato’s father helped build before he died. Ato is convinced that his […]

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Michikusa House, Emily Grandy

While spending a year on a small farm in rural Japan, a young woman named Winona, who is struggling with mental illness, finds meaning in connecting with the land, learning to grow her own food and cook with the seasons. But transformation is often bittersweet, and Winona is forced to […]

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Spellcasters, Rajat Chaudhuri

Business reporter by day, dreamcatcher by night, Chanchal Mitra wakes up in a far-off desert town, sharing a dingy hotel room with the flamboyant Mr. Kapoor, who is planning to abduct a billionaire. Kapoor insists that the billionaire tycoon is an impostor. Chanchal is unwittingly drawn into the plot. Soon […]

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The Good-Hearted Gardeners, Suniti Namjoshi

The Good-Hearted Gardeners (Spinifexpress) is eco-fiction with a twist. Can the headlong rush to extinction be halted? Will the planet and its inhabitants be saved? Suniti Namjoshi is an internationally acclaimed author, a writer of fables, poetry, satirical fiction, and children’s fiction. Born in Mumbai in 1941, she lives in a […]

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Fire in the Canyon, Daniel Gumbiner

This is a story about grape growing and wine, financial and familial struggles, and the peculiar characters and unlikely heroes one will always find in small-town California. Through the experiences of the Hechts and the escalating challenges that face their community, Fire in the Canyon is an intimate look at […]

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