Buick’s searching debut, an act of love and history, finds the author seeking to reconnect with her deceased father—and draw some closure for herself—by attempting to retrace his journey through World War II. As part of the Army Air Corps (later the Air Force), her father served as a tailgunner on a bomber named “Bomb Boogie,” which was shot down over France. He was later captured and held in a prisoner-of-war camp until late in the war, when he escaped during a forced march.

With much of the documentation of his wartime service and imprisonment destroyed by a fire, her hunt is at first slow and halting, until she comes across others doing similar research. Readers interested in personal stories about World War II will be fascinated by Buick's depth of research imagining what her father went through in training, in combat, as a prisoner of war, and being processed back home. Buick notes that she faced a serious generation gap with her father growing up and rarely thought of him as a veteran in the way that soldiers returning from Vietnam were. His alcoholism made him difficult to deal with, though she later came to understand this as a likely coping mechanism for PTSD.

Through her memories of her father's occasional light-hearted stories, documentation and memories from others, and actual visits to sites in Europe, Buick is able to cobble together a likely timeline for her father's experiences. While a full picture is impossible, Buick compensates by imagining likely outcomes and sharing her own feelings about her father, and how they have transformed, throughout the experience of her research and writing the book. The result is another tile in the mosaic of the personal memories and stories of those who shaped history in the war, a generation that's rapidly disappearing. Buick brings that abstract generational reality to life by documenting the mundane, the exceptional, the exciting, and the horrific alike.

Takeaway: A daughter’s probing investigation into her father’s World War II experience.

Comparable Titles: Richard Carlton Haney’s When Is Daddy Coming Home?, Jonathan Gawne’s Finding Your Father's War.

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

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Wallfisch’s sharp-elbowed debut collection comprises a hundred easily digestible flash fictions that examine intersections of religion, race, class, politics, and more, at times employing stereotypes in order to subvert them. Many of the stories are lightly comic, like “In the Garden of Olives,” in which a Christian man tries to convert his rabbi friend while they’re out to dinner at Olive Garden, but Wallfisch pokes fun as a way to address serious issues, like American antisemitism. In “Dry Goods,” a Klu Klux Klansman’s threats against a Jewish fabric shop owner are thwarted when the shop owner points out that without him, KKK members would have nowhere to buy sheets.

A New Orleans native, Wallfisch’s stories take place for the most part in Louisiana and neighboring states, touching on the region’s political climate, dialects, and history, offering a progressive take on a place where “Republican Roger” brings up Critical Race Theory to “Democratic Dave” by saying “I don’t know what the hell it is. But it’s gotta be bad.” (Dave’s response: “I don’t know what the hell it is, either, but I think it’s probably good.”) Though not every story is memorable, and some edge into caricature, the best of these glimpses into complex American life entertain and provoke with a welcome concision and some striking insights: a white couple seizes their guns when they hear Black protesters in the streets; criminal justice grad students aren’t quite prepared for their visit to a penitentiary; a husband’s rebuke of his wife's stacking of matzos lingers painfully in her heart.

Supplementing Wallfisch’s tone of pained levity are minimalist, line-work illustrations accompanying each chapter heading that relate some aspect of the coming story and add an engaging visual element. The author also includes an interactive social media component to “I Want to Be Alone,” in which characters come up with famous movie quotes to describe the human experience during COVID-19. The collection amuses most as a book to sample over time rather than rush through.

Takeaway: Ironic flash fiction using dark humor to make political, social commentary.

Comparable Titles: Kathy Fish; Tom Hazuka’s Flash Fiction Funny.

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

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Moore (author of The Black Market) delivers a penetrating memoir of his journey to become a world-class marathoner. “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to win at everything” Moore writes, though he did not start running until age 40. That later-in-life start never slowed him down, however, and he shares with readers his intense path to completing over 20 marathons in a handful of years, including the prestigious Abbott World Marathon Majors—six marathons in Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, New York, and Tokyo. As he digs into the behind-the-scenes training that went into each race, Moore also hones in on his experiences as a Black runner, revealing the lack of diversity in the sport and his own efforts to change that.

The candid style that Moore uses to recount his own experiences is refreshing, as is his commitment to sharing the history behind marathoning. He chronicles the background of running as an “elitist” sport, covering notables who broke through the barriers—like Marilyn Bevans, the first Black woman to win a United States marathon—and shares his own rules to ensure he feels safe as a Black runner, including only running outside on an actual race day. Moore documents the statistics behind the sport as well, highlighting the shockingly low number of Black marathon finishers both in the United States and internationally.

For Moore, running is a way to challenge himself while connecting to a community—“not just a familiar face but of someone facing an uphill battle alongside me, facing the prospect of failure just as I was.” He details how, thanks to his competitive spirit, he finds and builds that community, even inspiring Black friends and family to take up the sport. Potential long distance runners—and those interested in the experience of Black marathoners—will embrace this inspiring memoir.

Takeaway: Inspiring memoir of competitive long distance running.

Comparable Titles: Alison Mariella Désir’s Running While Black, Meb Keflezighi and Scott Douglas’s 26 Marathons.

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

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Lankford (author of Something Great) takes an intriguing look at life after death in this engrossing fantasy. When Marcus dies, he finds himself in the “Admissions” line at heaven’s gates (which, contrary to popular opinion, are not pearly— they’re black and impenetrable to those applicants who aren’t approved). He makes the initial cut, only to end up at the start of a long journey, with several challenging levels that will need to be cleared before he reaches his end destination—a heaven, of sorts, full of thought-provoking experiences.

Marcus is up for the challenge, especially after meeting Wes and Trudy, two fellow humans seeking their own paths into heaven. The three immediately bond, and Marcus wonders from the start if there’s sex in heaven, given Trudy’s good looks. That camaraderie serves them well, as their road is decidedly strenuous: from hiking over endless mountains, to navigating a sticky candy land that uses what people are holding onto to keep them imprisoned, to being exposed to their darkest moments on earth, the trio have their work cut out for them. Through it all, Marcus keeps an open mind, a choice that often nets him early wins, even when he runs into his father, who has taken on the form of a sad-eyed armadillo and is floundering in an area called “Stuckees” due to his serious case of “Identity Lock”—an inability to understand viewpoints different from your own.

Lankford gently draws attention to similarly weighty concepts throughout Marcus’s journey, making the novel as philosophical as it is fantastical. There’s plenty of entertainment to keep readers invested in Marcus’s story, though, particularly the fun details about what his life really is like after death: his body doesn’t need to eat or drink (sniffing food instead is always an option for enjoyment) and sex with “virtual bodies” is “Heaven indeed!” This is both immersive and insightful.

Takeaway: Immersive story of life after death, with philosophical leanings.

Comparable Titles: Catriona Silvey’s Meet Me in Another Life, Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.

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

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