This upbeat guidebook to strengthening and maintaining relationships from Chaleff (author of The Wounded Healer) goes beyond the romantic to explore how to spark genuine, substantial, enduring connections with others in all different types of relationships, from friends to family to collaborators and beyond. Urging readers to understand the importance of trust and respect when forming bonds, and offering clear-eyed insight and exercises to develop the self-awareness it takes to be supportive, less judgemental, and better at not taking things personally, The Connection Playbook is an invitation to transform how readers relate to others, resolve conflicts, and above all embrace authentic connections where all involved feel supported, respected, and capable of navigating difficult conversations without defensiveness.

The Connection Playbook advises not only on how to become the person one wants to be, seeing those one cares about through the “lens of love” and communicating with intent and clarity, but also how to avoid perpetuating unhealthy cycles. “If we’re not conscious of what lies behind our triggers, we can turn into the very people we try our best not to be,” Chaleff notes. To that end, Chaleff offers original strategies, techniques, and clarifying examples exploring how to face challenging moments in relationships—like flashpoint interactions that could lead to conflict—with grace and empathy. Relevant and practical exercises are found at the end of each chapter, reinforcing concepts like viewing mistakes as “moments to create connection.”

This warm, illuminating guide is a toolbox for building relationships, enhancing professional connections, and simply understanding more of the world around you–and understanding your own triggers, defensiveness, and responsibilities in relationships as well. Chaleff persuasively argues that “if we can’t see how we create barriers between ourselves and others, we have no way of dealing with those barriers.” With clear eyes and an open heart, The Connection Playbook deftly demonstrates how to create healthy attachment styles at a time when people feel increasingly distant.

Takeaway: Original, informative guide to building relationships on trust and respect.

Comparable Titles: David Bradford and Carole Robin’s Connect, Gary Chapman and Jennifer Thomas’s When Sorry Isn’t Enough.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about The Connection Playbook

Warm, clever, and balancing playful narrative ambition with the traditional pleasures of its genre, Goldsmith’s ambitious fantasy, her debut, centers storytelling itself as an act of heroism, bringing pleasure and imagination to those who dwell in the novel’s many taverns but also something deeper. “Language and music are magic in themselves,” says the Rooke, a man robed in red, the last of his kind, dispatched on a most unlikely quest: to reawaken love of stories and the truth about a mythic, dragon-rich past in those oppressed by imperial rule. Stories spun by rookes—and then re-told by the people moved to reach into a rooke’s robes for a coin—also have a traditional side effect: soothing those dragons, who aren’t so mythic after all. They’re only sleeping.

Salvation Taverns offers a classic quest narrative, complete with a party of do-gooders, accumulated over chapters, pursued by strange creatures and elite soldiers (here, Spytes and the Scarlet Bans) and facing overwhelming odds, in this case an empire that bans books and demands citizens wear metal sleeves denoting each individual’s trade and standing. But Goldsmith balances the escapes, travels, friend-making, and betrayals with the tales of the Rooke, who in each chapter visits a tavern (The Dragon’s Toenail; The Glittering Raptor) and unspools a yarn. These awaken something in the listeners, reveal urgent backstory, and give Goldsmith opportunity to play in a host of fantasy subgenres.

The stories feature demons, pirates, purple foxes, and a host of figures of legend. Their narratives often are connected, with characters making multiple appearances. Before the Rooke regales a tavern, Goldsmith often devotes a perspective section to new characters who will become embroiled in the cause. This fills out the cast and world, but—combined with the storytelling—comes at the expense of narrative momentum. But Goldsmith’s fantasy asks readers to dig in deeper than most page-turners: it’s about gathering, sharing a tale, and making one’s own magic in the world.

Takeaway: Fantasy of storytelling deftly blending the epic and the cozy.

Comparable Titles: Ellen Kushner’s Thomas the Rhymer, Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about Salvation Taverns

This ambitious, genre-blending series starter from Springett (author of The Lions from Kiev) centers, a millennia now, on something like an idealized vision of the pastoral past: Matthew Stone, often on horseback, safeguards a Shenandoah Valley that, through dedicated reforestation, now looks like it must have when “man first discovered it many thousands of years earlier.” There, Matthew, a warden, ensures the security of the kingdom ruled by his brother, the Alliance leader Michael Stone. But Springett’s unique tale unfolds not on a fallen Earth but one where humanity has expanded into the solar system, with colonies on Mars, several moons, and multiple stations orbiting the other planets—and humanity, as is its wont, is divided into factions with competing interests. While the Stones maintain their kingdom and an antiquated lifestyle subtly supported by modern technology, a rogue AI and others will soon embroil the Valley in conflict.

Springett immerses readers in Shenandoah Valley's everyday life as Matthew returns to his brother’s castle on his horse for his niece's “name day,” but also in engaging political intrigue rooted in the flaws and future of humanity itself. The narrative gains momentum when assailants wielding banned Outer Rings weaponry target Matthew’s brother-in-law, exposing a conspiracy involving Earth’s Ambassador, the AI Statera, and a mysterious group called the Destiny Project. Forced to journey to the Alliance's capital, Copernicus, on the Moon. Stone survives attacks on the embassy and its Diplomatic Dome, where ambassadors from across humanity soon convene to face the danger. There Stone unearths a grand conspiracy.

Matthew encounters a host of interesting characters, establishing the richness of this future. The thoughtful story of diplomacy and secret machinations often leans on conversations rather than action, an approach that Springett executes with suspense. This vision of humanity’s future is smart and surprising, but always plausible and even revealing of who we’ve always been—and likely always will be. The conclusion this all builds to is a touch less exciting than the hints at what’s to come in the next installment.

Takeaway: Smart space opera pitting the warden of the Shenandoah Valley vs. a system-spanning conspiracy.

Comparable Titles: S.B. Divya’s Machinehood, James S.A. Corey

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Warden of the Valley

Two of the most terrifying words in English: “Personnel changes.” LaPierre’s sprawling debut, a drama of succession, business, and love centered on a wealthy Ontario family and a small software company in early 2000s, builds to those words with pained suspense, the lives of its rich, poor, and in-between characters surging towards tragedy amid soirees, job interviews, not-quite-affairs, and a hotshot investment banker’s insistence that the best way to run a business is to “Get on top of a wave and sell. Don’t ride the wave to shore.” The Equity of Love examines the cost in human lives of such thinking, as LaPierre pins down his milieu with persuasive power, charting the aspirations, machinations, and life-upending lusts of the Hardich family’s two privileged but reckless adult children, and the beleaguered team at Enigma Solutions.

Chief among that staff is Richard Earning, whose resonant name and love of Dickens suggests something of LaPierre’s ambitions and approach. After the senior Hardich dies, his offspring Xavier and Augusta become the chief investors in Enigma, and Xavier, taking an interest in the company despite his lack of experience, spends much time with Richard, spouting vagaries about taking Enigma “to the next level.” Richard meets and soon falls for Augusta, a grad student whose progressive sloganeering doesn’t disguise her cynicism. “We’re self-interested,” she confesses, in a discussion of humanity itself. “I see how we all use each other for our own ends.”

Humanist Richard, though, believes in happy endings, but LaPierre is savvier than that, as Richard’s love yields painful dividends. Meanwhile, LaPierre, a Dickens fan himself, spins an intriguing subplot involving the executor of the Hardich estate and the young woman he feels obliged to assist—and to warn away from Xavier. Entertaining despite a protracted length and a tendency toward rumination, The Equity of Love is precise in its characterization, alive with memorable dialogue, animated with moral purpose, and jolting in its revelations and reversals.

Takeaway: Engaging Dickensian novel of an Ontario software company.

Comparable Titles: Susan Rieger’s The Heirs, Sharon English’s Night in the World.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about The Equity of Love

This heartening memoir tells us what diligence and optimism can achieve in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Born into a household of modest means, Douhadji, a quiet boy with a sunny disposition, discovers early the benefits of optimism. Faced with an abusive father, Douhadji seeks refuge in the library at a nearby hospital where his father works and books prove a lasting inspiration. Though his parents’ separation and the absence of his mother saddens him, he persists in his efforts at school. Battling near-starvation and a severe lack of facilities, he finishes high school with a GED and then graduates from college, falls in love and gets married, all the while keeping his dream of emigrating to America alive.

What’s amazing about Douhadji is his refusal to be broken by the circumstances of his upbringing, thus making the title apt. His attitude of seeing the positive side of any situation and his determination to overcome limiting circumstances and excel are indeed inspiring. Douhadji’s father, though physically and emotionally abusive, is also always supportive of his academic dreams, a complexity that Douhadji explores. It is also amazing how, even in his darkest moments, young Douhadji finds inspiration in books. In a moving incident, his friend, though unable to provide him food, gives him a book, and it is while reading this gift Douhadji experiences a life-changing incident that frees him from hunger.

Throughout the narrative, Douhadji pauses to generalize and draw lessons from his experiences, no matter how grueling they are. Sometimes this does sound clichéd, a danger that the author acknowledges but doesn’t always avoid. Still, his attitude of gratitude, cheerfulness, diligence, and determination to move forward to live a purposeful life, together with his risk taking and positive use of criticism, makes him an excellent self-help coach. These, combined with the uniqueness of his experience go a long way in shaping this memoir into an immersive and inspiring one.

Takeaway: Deeply engaging memoir of overcoming obstacles and achieving one’s dreams.

Comparable Titles: Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, Chris Gardner’s The Pursuit of Happyness.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Unbroken Optimist

In this inspirational collection of short stories, McKenzie (author of The Wisdom Teachings of the Bhagavad Gita and other titles) explores the spirit realm, the metaphysical, human consciousness, and questions of identity, with an emphasis on enlightenment and awakenings to deeper realities and the truth of the human condition. In "A Ghost Story" a yogi traveling alone encounters a ghost, Hugh, struggling to identify the meaning of his existence. Constructing himself out of utensils and kitchen appliances, Hugh is shown that he is not who he believes himself to be. In "The Day the Children Remembered,” kids across the nation begin to remember their past lives, causing a shift in the dynamics of relationships as more people begin to delve into each other's backgrounds by inquiring about previous existences. Meanwhile, "You Might Get Bored of Heaven" finds a woman reuniting with lost loved ones in Heaven where she learns the meaning of life, "true identity,” and the joys of the human "process of discovery".

Each story holds clear but also subtle messages and spiritual lessons for readers to interpret and glean their own understanding and pause to reflect on its underlying meaning. McKenzie spins an eclectic batch of tales that are insightful, revealing, and at times enigmatic. Juxtaposing ideas such as life and death, self and identity, and even teacher and student, Hair on Fire is a thought-provoking offering that centers the transcendent nature of consciousness and makes the case that, despite our short life spans, it never truly dies. Each story, though brief, brings its characters and its plot "full circle"—much like, as McKenzie’s “A Ghost Story” suggests, our consciousness itself.

McKenzie's storytelling is inviting and positive, even when exploring the heavy topic of death, which McKenzie assures readers is not the end of consciousness. Whether through exploring reincarnation, spiritual entities, or spiritual realms, each story suggests the possibility of life thriving long after the body stops. Seekers will relish this.

Takeaway: Inspiring spiritual stories of life, consciousness, and awakenings.

Comparable Titles: William Buhlman and Susan Buhlman's Beyond the Astral, Paulo Coelho's Veronika Decides to Die.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Hair on Fire

In this heart-warming children's book, Dottie, on the cusp of her eighth birthday, is finally getting "her biggest wish": the puppy she's always wanted. But first she has to make straight As on her report card and save up "50 big ones" to pay for a dog license. Dottie knows right away that she wants a Dalmatian puppy, and at the pet shop, Daphne's Dal House, she makes fast friends with a pup named "Nothin' but Trouble,” though she has the good sense to rename the pup Guinness the Good Girl. As the pair bonds, Dottie trains Guinness to become a well-behaved dog that knows a few tricks (such as the biscuit roll), while Guinness teaches Dottie a thing or two as well, like the quickest way to get into a piggy bank and how to shuffle a crowd.

Set in Tune Town, a burg boasting colorful characters like Stan the Muscle Man and the President of Earl & Roth Enterprises, Guinness the Good Girl will keep young readers—and especially dog lovers—engaged, even as author Gillmann, making his debut, works in valuable lessons about the responsibilities that come along with pet ownership, naturally, but also the importance of education, saving money, and earning the things we want in life. Guinness creates a little chaos at home but eventually performs heroics around town, proving to be "the good girl" Dottie knew she would from the start.

Penny Weber’s illustrations capture the essence of a playful Dalmatian, capturing Guinness and her spots in a host of cute, comical, and exciting poses, each spirited and precise, although some of the human faces are less convincing. With educational facts about Dalmatians such as their heart shaped noses and how they are born without their spots, young readers will grow to love Guinness and look forward to future books in this projected series.

Takeaway: Adorable adventures between a smart young girl and her Dalmatian.

Comparable Titles: Amanda McCardie’s Our Very Own Dog, Alexandra Day's Good Dog, Carl.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A-
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Guinness the Good Girl

"The future depends on what we do in the present,” Mahatma Gandhi says in this beautifully illustrated children's book, centered around Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta's, 1959 journey to and through India. The visit, which King called a “pilgrimage,” spanned "4 weeks, 12 days, 3 continents,” as the Kings paid homage to and learned from Gandhi, whose ethos of non-violent resistance inspired King in his boycotts, marches, and impassioned speeches during the Civil Rights Movement. This culturally rich voyage through India follows the Kings as they visit Mumbai, the city Gandhi called home, the "bustling metropolis" of Madras, and the famed "wonder of the world," the Taj Mahal. Along the way, young readers will learn about justice, Gandhi and his beliefs, and Dr. King and his work in America's South.

Welcomed with great fanfare, the Kings soak in the knowledge of the culture and the teachings of Gandhi. Filled with inspiring quotes from Gandhi (such as "nonviolence is a weapon of the strong") and eye-pleasing, easy-to-follow mixed-media artwork putting the Kings in vibrant tableaus suggesting geographical locations and cultures of the subcontinent, Dr. King Goes to India is a touching narrative rooted in deep respect for both leaders’ philosophies and the vital connection between colonial India and the segregation and Jim Crow laws of the American South.

Reese’s book highlights the importance of global community and acceptance amongst different cultures in clear and inviting prose, though the text at times can be challenging to read against the colorful backgrounds. Still, young readers will learn about two positive leaders who impacted their community through peaceful movements and insightful messages. In this engaging resource for young minds to learn about diversity, India and its rich history, King’s legacy, and the power of cross-cultural connections, Reese (author of Black Artists Rock) admirably showcases Gandhi and King's reach and impact as two worlds collide to pay respect and honor each other.

Takeaway: Gorgeous children's book of two iconic leaders from different cultures.

Comparable Titles: Shane W. Evans's We March, Brad Meltzer's I Am Brave.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Dr. King Goes to India! A Cool Kids' Guide

Jerickson’s quirky and hilarious space adventure tickles with interdimensional mayhem. Orion Spatial, the behemoth corporation that manufactures platforms for instantaneous travel through the multiverse, has abducted criminal Pharos Barton Plyaedes while still in his pajamas. A clone committee hires him to retrieve an errant droid that is pursuing the Entirely Unwelcome and Unjust Tite, an entity that has caused death and destruction in the galaxy. The company gives Barton a K-Drive capable of traveling through time, as well as a persnickety Bookkeeper to keep track of his expenses. To help him locate the Tite, Barton employs a grumbling Monk of Karlof named “Brother Can Point In The General Direction Of What It Is You Seek,” and kidnaps the last known person to have seen the Tite, Harry Patterson, from the backwater planet Dirt, er, Earth. The quest has its difficulties: the Tite may be mythical, only travels through time, and can appear in two places at once.

Jerickson injects this brisk farce with a paranoid android, doppelgangers, a neuro-positronic initializer Mind Helmet to boost brain power, luck waves emanating through the galaxy, and Quasi-Investment Dollars (QuID). Interspersed throughout the book are comical extracts from the multi-volume History of the Multiverse explaining this uncanny world, including elements like “I-Drives” and “Planet Hubs,” which, on some “Planets of Little Interest” (PoLIs), were great stone circles whose original use was forgotten over millenia and mistaken by locals for “a clock, or something. Or somewhere to kill things for God.” Barton and his motley crew, including engineer Hong, who is stuck inside the ductwork, must find and return the missing droid before Orion Spatial’s Supreme Manager EMM erases the Tite from existence by blowing up the entire universe.

This tropey romp through multiple dimensions and outrageously bizarre aliens and tech delights with action and heart. Readers of classical science fiction and fans of humor will have much to smile about, and will hope for more rowdy adventures in Jerickson’s Multiverse.

Takeaway: Hilarious SF adventure with silly aliens, rogue cyborgs, and interdimensional fun.

Comparable Titles: Douglas Adams; Charles Yu’s How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about A History of the Multiverse: Orion Spatial

Puchalski traces the course of constructing a new garden over a year, during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, in this refreshing debut. A New Jersey transplant, Puchalski grew up working outdoors in his family’s backyard, but it wasn’t until his move to Pittsburgh—and purchase of a 100-year-old brick house—that his green thumb truly blossomed. Starting in March of 2020, Puchalski chronicles the remodel of his outdoor space, detailing the demolition, planting, and harvesting that went into building his own “private oasis.” His labors were not in vain; the garden renovation produced physical beauty, wholesome food, and a sense of community with his neighbors in a time when fear and isolation were the norm.

Readers interested in starting their own garden will relish Puchalski’s practical advice; from how to check growing zones to avoiding rot in certain crops to the growing phases of rhubarb, he transports readers into a lush atmosphere of sunshine, soil, and sustenance. A top 10 list of dramatic plants for home gardeners (coneflower and lavender steal the show), unique recipes—such as elderflower liqueur or rhubarb syrup—and access to Puchalski’s regularly updated garden tracking page with farming spreadsheets and more give this journal serious clout. Photographs sprinkled throughout add personality, particularly those of Puchalski’s landscape progress and crop growth.

Beyond the practical advice, Puchalski writes with an easy humor that will delight readers as he reflects on lessons learned during the pandemic (“Seeds make great roommates during a global pandemic. They stick to their room, never use all the hot water, and if you maintain your relationship with them, make excellent company in the kitchen.” he claims). Even though the journal is based in Pittsburgh—from the growing season to the concrete garden to the steep hills—it will resonate with gardeners worldwide.

Takeaway: Charming journal devoted to the joys of city gardening.

Comparable Titles: Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates’s Paradise Lot, Page Dickey’s Uprooted.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: A-
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about A Pandemic Gardening Journal

Digging deeply into the concept of the muse, including its spiritual aspects, and exploring techniques to help writers ignite their own spark, Hawkin, author of the Hollystone Mysteries urban fantasy series and a former part time lighthouse keeper, lays out a path for embracing creativity, finding inspiration, and not over-thinking one’s writing. “Remember,” she writes, in a passage about meditative techniques, “the goal is to stop thinking and start connecting.” To that end, Hawkin invites readers on a journey through art, literature and encounters with the spiritual world, plus a history of the “muse” as developed by the ancient Greeks and celebrated for its ability to inspire us to reach our creative peak.

Describing writers as “luminaries” who “envision” words that get “taken into our reader’s or listener’s brain and stimulate a private pyrotechnic show,” Hawkin builds on the muse tradition, citing several of her own out-of-body experiences as well as contact with other teachers and artists and the impact such “spirit guides” have had on her personal creative output. Writing with Your Muse blends exploratory spiritualism, including movement meditation and connecting with the “divine source”—or getting into “the zone, a place of intuition”—with pragmatic writing tips and techniques tackling such issues as conquering fear, getting started, developing plots, characters, and imagery. Along the way she explores the “Celtic-Shamanic Journey,” writing to heal, and dispelling fear.

While the mix of personal anecdotes, practical advice, and spiritual musings at times can feel circuitous, Hawkin serves hearty doses of inspiration and imagination while frequently drawing on giants of literature and philosophy. She writes a rousing explanation of the motivation behind characters in Jaws before segueing into a brief chapter on writing sex scenes with one’s muse, where she urges writers to “Shed your moral cap and stop worrying about your mother”—vital advice for the tale spinner in each of us.

Takeaway: Encouraging and spiritual guide for writers seeking connection to the muse.

Comparable Titles:Priscilla Long’s Minding the Muse, Jill Harris’s The Writing State of Mind.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Writing with your Muse: A guide to creative inspiration

In this moving memoir, son and mother Davis and Mead recount their transformative journey and the lessons they learned as Davis faced heroin addiction. After a life-altering motorcycle accident, Davis lost the feeling in his dominant arm along with his dream of attending art school and pursuing a career in photography. In the aftermath, he numbed the pain of discontentment and depression. Told in rotating point-of-views, Davis and Mead each share their perspective on the impact that addiction had on their lives and their loved ones. The duality of their story being told by both voices results in a moving, multi-faceted examination of a mother's love and young man's misery eventually giving way to a desire to overcome addiction.

Just as Mead reminded Davis that he was not alone, the authors show readers who may be facing similar troubles that it’s possible “to plant a seed that will sprout at some point and turn into a beautiful life.” Through multiple relapses, life-threatening infections, and arrests, Mead never loses faith that one day her son would win the battle. Reflecting on her support, which at times served to enable Davis's addiction, Mead offers a transparent narrative from a loving mother never willing to give up on her son, even in times when she had to learn to let go. Davis offers urgent insight into the mind and struggles of an addict: "Experiencing addiction creates a series of cracks in your belief system,” he notes. “It blows up what you know to be true and breaks you in places you didn't know you could be broken.”

These impassioned accounts demonstrate that "addiction is a 'family disease'" that affects everyone in the life of an addict. Covering detoxes, surgeries, and rehab, both authors illuminate what it takes to find a path to recover—and invaluable lessons about what it takes to support an addict as the authors unflinchingly share a story offering real hope.

Takeaway: Moving memoir from a mother and son's journey overcoming addiction

Comparable Titles: James Brown's Apology to the Young Addict, Erin Khar's Strung Out.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Before There Was An After

This literary page-turner sets a gripping mystery amid the gorgeous and barren High Desert (and its attendant “occultists, religious groups, UFO abductees, [and] hermits,” as one character puts it) near Joshua Tree as Walker Clayborne, a professor of geology, investigates the murder of his rebel younger sister. Even though the strongest clue at the start is a local seeker’s hallucination, that urgent mission demands getting to know her life with an intimacy he had never before managed as an adult, as he moves into her cottage, tracks down her ex-lovers, visits her church, and discovers that her impassioned activism had won the ire of Universal Waste, the company eager to build what would be “the largest single landfill site in the world.”

Isaak’s novel, written in 2002 and published with four others as part of an inspired posthumous project, will appeal to readers of smart, character-driven mysteries with lots of feeling, a strong sense of place, and opportunities for reflection. The cops suggest that Walker not nose around, and he’s soon attacked by a stranger, threatened by waste-company lawyers, and invited by a visionary physicist to oversee a mysterious experiment. Walker’s colloquies with that physicist, like many of his discussions with the locals, are searching and unsettling in a way that suits the milieu: in places like Mojave, the mind naturally ranges beyond the concrete.

But despite the characters’ spirituality, Things Unseen is beautifully down to Earth. Isaak takes advantage of Walker’s profession to capture landscapes with gorgeous precision, and he brings the same qualities to his handling of local politics and police work, Christian bikers and other hardscrabble residents, and the occasional burst of ugly violence or emotional catharsis. That richness means the novel is a touch long for a mystery, but Isaak deftly builds momentum and suspense while digging deep into character and place, with even the subdued not-quite-a-romance reading as touchingly human. This is a smart, moving pleasure.

Takeaway: Vivid, searching mystery of the American southwest.

Comparable Titles: David Guterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars, Ivy Pochoda’s Wonder Valley.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Things Unseen

What actually makes us happy? According to Bush (author of Designing the Mind), the answers form a relatively short list. Be honest with yourself and others, work hard and help your neighbor. Start now as even relatively small steps can pay large dividends, and the road to fulfillment is paved with good deeds and other virtues. Offering nothing less than a “grand, unified theory of human well-being,” Become Who You Are presents a synthesis of the thinking of Nietzsche (the source of the title), the Stoics, spiritual wisdom, psychotherapy, virtue ethics, and more, as Bush lays out a route to achieving “eudaimonia,” an ancient Greek term for “the good life.”

Bush’s guidance and the book’s soul-searching process is crafted not only to make readers ourselves better individuals, coming into “who they are,” but also to become happier and more fulfilled along the way. Bush cuts a wide swath blending “philosophical arguments, scientific data, and therapeutic advice” with thumbnail explications of philosophical history and movements, all while digging into questions like why we feel there’s a reason to do the right thing even in the absence of consequences, and whether one person’s gain is necessarily another’s loss. Bush notes that, in a society that seemingly values material success above all else, it’s tempting to think of one’s self before others. But after the new car has lost its luster, and the trip around the world is over, what’s next?

Bush urges readers toward greater self-esteem by arguing that regularly doing the “right thing,” i.e., following a simple moral compass, is what can determine who we truly are. Although he occasionally falls short in his philosophical arguments, Bush deserves an “A” for effort. To his credit Bush neither talks “down” to the reader nor gets too grandiose in philosophical jargon. His direct, simple style, buttressed by examples from his own personal journey, which serve as life lessons, make the book highly readable and engaging.

Takeaway: The road to “the good life,” through philosophy, virtue, and ethics.

Comparable Titles: Massimo Pigliucci, Skye C. Cleary, and Daniel A. Kaufman’s How to Live a Good Life, Gregory Lopez’s A Handbook for Stoics.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Become Who You Are

Jacobowitz’s debut is a lighthearted legal mystery that centers on Tyler McCarther, an egotistical and insecure workaholic St. Louis defense lawyer who discovers the bloodless body of her boss, Kevin, in her car trunk. She views Kevin’s murder as a disruption to her career and, at first, lies to police about finding his body, which soon disappears, only to turn up in the firm’s garage. The cops are understandably outraged, and Tyler, ashamed, awkwardly starts investigating, slowly discovering connections between Kevin’s murder and several class action lawsuits against her law firm’s client, which, in Jacobowitz’s irresistible phrasing, is “a prominent men’s nose hair wax manufacturer.” Tyler is threatened by the real killer while juggling a heavy workload and a surprising spark between her and Tom Armstrong, the detective involved in the investigation, as Jacobowitz’s story deals with the law, love, ego, and more.

Jacobowitz deftly captures the cutthroat competition of a prestigious law firm, particularly in Tyler’s rivalry with another associate, the seemingly perfect Cerene, as well as the monotony of billable hours and document reviewing. Jacobowitz is fascinated by the toll such a life exacts on the soul, as Tyler obsesses over career, weight, and wardrobe while trying to numb her empty personal life with more work, drinking too much and watching endless reality TV. The novel charts Tyler’s slow growth, though she’s often pointedly unlikable, to the point that even the killer complains about it, snapping “try to focus on one person other than yourself.”

Tyler’s a reluctant sleuth, one who resists interviewing Kevin’s family, friends, and colleagues, but readers open to prickly leads will enjoy her growth, her wit, and her burgeoning romance with Armstrong, which develops quickly. Armstrong is close-mouthed about his past and distracts her with sex, making his eventual moments of tenderness all the sweeter. Also satisfying: Tyler coming into her own as the case is cracked, still ambitious but warmer and worth toasting.

Takeaway: An ambitious lawyer must put her ego aside while investigating her boss’s murder.

Comparable Titles: Caro Land’s Convictions, Robyn Gigl’s By Way of Sorrow.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about Burned Out and Bled Dry

This provocative novel from Hay (The Fountain) of a day-in-the-life of office drones facing a soul-crushing job mesmerizes with disheartening psychological observations of the internet’s impact on our psyche. The social media moderators at Vexillum Co. in Chicago watch horrific internet videos to decide which to flag, pixelate, or remove, such as suicides, terrorist videos, and shootings. Ironically these videos are NSFW: not safe for watching at work. Vex employees understandably need extreme coping mechanisms to numb the emotional toll—office hookups, narcotics, and floggings. They also don’t want to know each other’s real names. @Sa>ag3, a 49-year-old divorcé, has sex with Wiccan @Jun1p3r in the lactorium and gets his lorazepam from trans @Skiny_Leny. With an atrocious retention rate, Vex entices workers to stay by offering a therapist stipend, and a surprise bonus if they last 90 days.

Hay manages not to horrify the reader quite as much by only briefly describing the videos, rather, he redirects with a litany of depressing observations of social media’s absolute subjugation of our humanity. “The best and brightest from Ivy League schools are not curing cancer. They’re trying to get you to like things,” observes @Sa>ag3. While some workers die by suicide, @Sa>ag3 and @Jun1p3r literally turn their apartment into a garden, installing sod and trees, and suggest a murder-suicide pact. But they inevitably crack after viewing a child pornography video and learning that their boss, known only as face, is releasing a new device that runs on the body’s bioelectrical charge so that people need never live a moment unplugged.

Hay shrewdly addresses the real human issue of our present lives hypnotized by the glow of our devices and the lengths we will go to adopt the latest tech, regardless of what it does to our humanity. This exposé of the seductive power of tech is a passionate wake-up call.

Takeaway: Smart, outraged novel of social media moderators facing humanity’s worst.

Comparable Titles: Hanna Bervoets’s We Had to Remove this Post, Calvin Kasulke’s Several People Are Typing.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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