Back to the Indie Corner series I’m thrilled to introduce author Anne Coray to the Indie Corner spotlight. As a lifelong Alaskan, place has always helped define Anne. Born in a log cabin on Lake Clark (first named by the Dena’ina Athabaskans Qizhjeh Vena), she spent her first two years […]
Read MoreCultural/Regional
High as the Waters Rise, Anja Kampmann
German poet Anja Kampmann’s award-winning debut novel is the dazzling, heart-rending story of an oil rig worker whose closest friend goes missing, plunging him into isolation and forcing him to confront his past Goodreads Reviews Back to Goodreads
Read MoreInfinite Country, Patricia Engel
Infinite Country is a multi generational family saga about a Colombian family with mixed citizenship status. The story is told through different family members perspectives, time periods, and Andean mythology. The heartache and hope interwoven into this fractured family due to the US’s atrocious immigration policies was so visceral. I […]
Read MoreThe Living Sea of Waking Dreams, Richard Flanagan
In a world of perennial fire and growing extinctions, Anna’s aged mother is dying—if her three children would just allow it. Condemned by their pity to living she increasingly escapes through her hospital window into visions of horror and delight. When Anna’s finger vanishes and a few months later her […]
Read MoreHow Beautiful We Were, Imbolo Mbue
“We should have known the end was near.” So begins Imbolo Mbue’s powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Goodreads Reviews Back to […]
Read MoreRed Island House, Andrea Lee
A sweeping novel about marriage and loyalty, identity and heritage, fate and freedom, Red Island House reintroduces readers to a powerhouse literary voice and an extravagantly lush, enchanted world. Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads
Read MoreThat Old Country Music, Kevin Barry
With three novels and two short story collections published, Kevin Barry has steadily established his stature as one of the finest writers not just in Ireland but in the English language. All of his prodigious gifts of language, character, and setting in these eleven exquisite stories transport the reader to […]
Read MoreWolf Light, Yaba Badoe
When copper miners plunder Zula’s desert home in Gobi Altai, and Adoma’s forest and river are polluted by gold prospectors, it is only a matter of time before the lake Linet guards with her life is also in jeopardy. How far will Zula, Adoma and Linet go to defend the […]
Read MoreLoveoid, JL Morin – Review
Loveoid by JL Morin Release date: December 6, 2020 Genre: eco-fiction, literary fiction, speculative fiction Price: $11.95; 276 pages ISBN: 978-1-941861-54-7 Available at Gardeners, Bertrams, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and bookstores everywhere Review by Mary Woodbury Loveoid, the new novel from JL Morin, aims to change the evolutionary trajectory of […]
Read MoreKing and the Dragonflies, Kacen Callender
King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature at the 71st Annual National Book Awards presented by the National Book Foundation! Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure his brother Khalid has turned into a dragonfly. When Khalid unexpectedly passed away, he shed what […]
Read MoreForest World, Margarita Engle
Middle Grade Fiction Reviewed by Kimberly Christensen Edver and his mother left Cuba when he was just a baby. His father stayed behind and Edver hasn’t seen him since. But when relations between the United States and Cuba finally permit unrestricted travel between the two countries, Edver’s mom sends him […]
Read MoreMargarita, Anni Kytömäki
Margarita won Finlandia Prize for the best fiction book of the year. “I have dedicated this book to the silent ones of water and earth – the ones that are in danger to be left behind in our society and in the face of [the global] ecological crisis. –Twitter Kun […]
Read MoreCrosshairs, Catherine Hernandez
Set in a terrifyingly familiar near-future, with massive floods leading to rampant homelessness and devastation, a government-sanctioned regime called The Boots seizes on the opportunity to round up communities of color, the disabled, and the LGBTQ+ into labor camps. Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads
Read MoreDeath of a River Guide, Richard Flanagan
Aljaz Cosini is leading a group of tourists on a raft tour down Tasmania’s wild Franklin River when his greatest fear is realized—a tourist falls overboard. An ordinary man with many regrets, Aljaz rises to an uncharacteristic heroism, and offers his own life in trade. Trapped under a rapid and […]
Read MoreBetty, Tiffany McDaniel
“A girl comes of age against the knife.” So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty and violence–both from outside the family, and […]
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