Book Review: The Pale

Something strange is killing people in The Pale of Settlement—the strip of Western Russia where the Czars let Jews live.

When military hero Sergei looks up from the kid’s body on the street of the captured Polish town under his charge, he’s met with the most terrifying thing he’s seen in years: a flea-bitten orthodox Jew who looks just like him and knows his true name.

When Yankev of Vishanev—down on his luck demon hunter, once powerful kabbalist—looks into the eyes of the brother he thought dead half a lifetime, he’s certain he’s finally back on the path God laid out for him.

When the monsters attack, when the angels speak, when something darker than human violence threatens the Jews of the town with extinction, will these two have what it takes to find their way back to being a family? Will they have what it takes to stop what’s coming?

Book Review: The Block Party

The residents of the exclusive cul-de-sac on Alton Road are entangled in a web of secrets and scandal utterly unknown to the outside world, and even to each other. On the night of the annual Summer block party, there has been a murder.

But, who did it and why takes readers back one year earlier, as rivalries and betrayals unfold—discovering that the real danger lies within their own block and nothing—and no one—is ever as it seems.

The Block Party by Jamie Day was published July 2023 by St. Martin's Press.

Book Review: The Big Gang Theory Pop Culture Reference Guide

It was 2007. The era of Must-See TV had ended. There was no Friends, no Will and Grace, no Seinfeld. The broadcast airwaves were being ruled by reality television series like American Idol and Big Brother, coupled with the expanded offerings of cable networks. Only CBS was seeing some success with the traditional multi-camera sitcom structure through shows like How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men. Into that very lineup, sandwiched between the two hit series, came a fresh take on the sitcom setup: What would happen if two brainy nerds found themselves living next door to a beautiful woman? And television history was made, while educating readers about pop culture and world events.

Book Review: Alternate Worlds

Alternate Worlds is a the Gathering memoir written by Brian Schneider, one of the game’s early R&D leads, about the fun and merit of growing up a gamer. Consider it a love letter to CCG, to gamers, and to anyone who woke up one day and thought, “I miss my friends.”

The book itself is a “Magic deck” of sixty short, delightful, stories -- all tales about lessons learned along the way. All profits from Alternate Worlds will be donated periodically to nonprofit organizations of the highest need.

Alternate Worlds: A Memoir From the Early Days of Playing and Making Magic: The Gathering was published November 2025.

Book Review: The Thunder Heist

Meet Kef Cutmark. pirate, monster-slayer, scourge of the Twisted Seas. After a lifetime of running from her past, she’s returned to Zorith – a tangled jungle of a thousand boats, all lashed together to make a floating city-ship. Zorith is powered by a device that draws energy from lightning. Mysterious, unique, and locked in an unbreachable tower, it’s the envy of Zorith’s rivals.

And Kef? She’s here to steal it. If she can take the device and cripple Zorith, maybe she’ll find justice for all the hurt the city has caused her. But with an unreliable thieving crew, hunters closing in, and her past bearing down upon her, failure looks more likely. And if she fails, she’ll never find peace again.

The Thunder Heist by Jed Herne was published October 2020 by Undergrove Press.

Book Review: Across the Broken Stars

Leon has a secret. He was once an angel – a winged warrior sworn to protect Paya, a realm where people live on discs that float in space. He failed.Now, Leon’s a broken man, trying to forget the past. He thinks he’s the last angel. But then a young fugitive stumbles onto Leon’s doorstep. She’s an angel, too. And she has a riddle leading to a place where angels still live. Or so the stories claim.

Desperate for redemption, Leon begins a perilous quest through myth and folklore. But will Leon and the fugitive find their legendary destination? Or will Leon lose his last chance for salvation?

Across the Broken Stars by Jed Herne was published February 3, 2020, by Undergrove Press.

Book Review: Old Bastards

Hi, I’m Tracy. I work in a nursing home, and to say I hate it would be a gross fucking understatement. It’s got a few perks though — like the sleeping pills (so long as no one sees you take them), and Juan, the hot guy who sells me weed and totally wants in my pants.

But lately, things have been fucking weird. Some old bitch died — it wasn’t my fault, I swear! — and now she’s haunting me. Everywhere I go, she's there, creeping me out with her big creepy face. Does she want something, or am I just tripping? Either way, she better fuck off before I really lose my shit.

Old Bastards: A Very Naughty Comedy was written by Stevie Duffy,independently published June 24, 2026.

Book Review: Generation F*cked

Cancel your subscriptions. Make coffee at home. Go to college. Don’t rent. Buy a house to build equity. That advice was built for a different economy. Today, those choices come with far less certainty.

With rising inflation, unaffordable housing, stagnant wages, and crushing student debt, the traditional ‘rules of success’ for many working- and middle-class young adults no longer lead to the outcomes once promised. This leaves younger generations searching for strategies that actually work in today’s world.

The current system isn’t sustainable. By pairing big-picture clarity with actionable, ground-level guidance, Generation F*cked offers a path toward a more stable, fair, and achievable future, serving as a guide for generations navigating a radically different economy.

Book Review: January and July

A disgraced intel officer anxious to redeem herself after a disastrous mission, January Holte vows to uncover the identity of a traitor who is selling her agency’s secrets. The few clues she’s found have led her to a sleepy river town: Lethey, Texas, and to the one man who might know the truth.

July Whitlock, a rookie bodyguard, searches for his one and only client, who has suddenly disappeared. He follows a trail to Lethey to find his missing protectee, Bill Connors. But Bill’s friends and enemies in Lethey have secrets of their own. And as January and July ask questions no one wants to answer, they find a tangled web of murder, greed, and ambition—one that will kill anyone who tries to unravel its mysteries.

Book Review: Operation - True Love volume 1

Phones are perfect for sending messages, snapping photos, and most importantly, talking to your friends. One thing Su-ae didn’t account for, however, was that her phone would be able to talk back.

Su-ae discovers that Jellypop, a flip phone stored in her locker, is sentient—and Jellypop has a lot to say about Su-ae’s love life. High school romances are never easy, and Su-ae’s relationship with her nonchalant boyfriend seems to be going nowhere.

Lacking the charisma of her step-sister Ra-im is one thing, but seeing the growing sparks between her and Minu just adds salt to injury. It’s up to Jellypop to help Su-ae navigate the peaks and pits of teenage love, and finally get the high school love story she deserves!

The Phantom volume 1

The Ghost walks again! The Phantom returns! Created by Lee Falks in 1936, the Phantom is one of the first costumed super heroes in history, with untold influence on pop culture. Now, critically-acclaimed creators Ray Fawkes and Russell Olson revive the character for fans old and new. When a violent gang of smugglers stubbles on an idyllic Bandar village, the peace that the Phantom has brought to the African nation of Bangalla will suddenly shatter. It will take all of the Phantom’s many skills and allies to restore it. The most exciting series of the year starts here!

The Phantom volume 1 will be published on July 14, 2026. Mad Cave Studios provided an early galley for review.

Book Review: I Am the Night

At a time when televised cartoons—especially within the superhero genre—were often over-looked, Batman: The Animated Series introduced an entire generation of soon-to-be Batman fanatics to the caped crusader. The series triumphed into what is largely considered one of the best superhero cartoons of all time, and the best depiction of Batman mythology in any format.

But the road to genre-defying and genre-defining success was hardly guaranteed. Along the way, co-creator Bruce Timm and his team of artists at Warner Bros Animation battled a landscape that was often antithetical to their aims with Batman. Internal struggles led the writing team and the network to debate everything (literally everything) about how best to depict Batman—from whether or not the eco-friendly hero would have a recycling bin in the Batcave to how many women he was allowed to kiss onscreen.

Book Review: The Library Cosmic

In this fabulous and moving collection of short stories Ben Berman Ghan traverses time, space and the written word to consider the mysteries of life. From ghosts to golems to far future AIs these stories ask the big questions: What is consciousness? What gives a being its soul? What are the boundaries of love? And, perhaps most importantly, how will libraries save us all?

The Library Cosmic by Ben Berman Ghan was published May 26, 2026. Literary Press Group of Canada provided a galley for review.

This is a collection of six stories of varying lengths (some easily near novella length). "Spectres of Bibliotheca" is seeped with symbolism and lyrical beauty. The same goes with the title tale of the volume "The Library Cosmic". As a librarian, I truly support their messages and themes.

I liked that the stories each stand alone but yet also fit into a larger tapestry. They all exist in the same shared world, with overlapping elements between them.

Book Review: Harvested - Fall of Nature

Kristi Wolf was preparing to become a mother. Then the lights came, and something tore her unborn child from her womb. When Kristi awakens, she’s no longer in her world. She’s trapped in a dying future Earth where the human race survived extinction by becoming something else entirely. The creatures humanity once feared as aliens are not visitors from another world. Aliens are us. From the future.

In this future, natural-born humans are hunted, harvested, and experimented on for the genetic purity buried in their DNA. Society has fractured into engineered bloodlines bred for beauty, violence, obedience, and intellect. As civilization rots beneath its polished surface, Kristi joins two other survivors ripped from the twenty-first century. Together they uncover the horrifying truth behind the abductions, the experiments, and the secret feeding on humanity across time itself.

Book Review: Time Travel for Beginners

On a bustling road in Sydney, Australia, lies a nondescript storefront known simply as the Time Travel Agency. Inside, you’ll be welcomed by the smell of fresh-brewed coffee, a selection of baked goods…and the question, Where in time do you wish to go?

The guidelines are simple: you can go whenever you wish into the past, and there’s no fear of altering the present. Have tea with Jane Austen, scream at a Beatles concert, witness the Olympics in ancient Greece. Perhaps a more personal trip? Visit your long-lost grandmother, recapture the heady days of your youth, return to the idyllic time when your teen was a babbling baby—or watch yourself make the one decision that changed everything.

Book Review: What Happened to College?

A decade after his landmark book on faculty politics, Neil Gross decided it was time to give those with the most at stake a chance to speak for themselves. Beginning in the spring of 2024, he launched a massive investigation into how our polarized politics have remade the college experience, interviewing students across the country and polling thousands more. He looked at liberal arts colleges, state schools, faith-based institutions, and elite universities and combed through studies tracking everything from campus dating habits to changes in syllabi.

What he found was startling: Undergraduates today are choosing their schools, their friends, their partners, their activities—even their majors—on the basis of their political beliefs to a degree unimaginable ten years ago, with the goal of interacting as little as possible with anyone whose views don’t line up with their own. Popular campus dating apps invite you to swipe left if you don’t like someone’s political profile—a metaphor for today’s college experience writ large. Instead of resisting this trend, some faculty and administrators encouraged it, creating a cloistered environment where students could avoid uncomfortable disagreement.

Book Review: Dude! Where's My Princess?

Arwin swerves off the road to avoid a dragon and ends up in another world. It’s exactly the change of scenery he needs, a new direction in life.

He meets Yaz, a talking skeleton on an epic quest. Together, they set off to find a long-lost princess, the former knight’s great love, who was magically imprisoned hundreds of years ago by an evil necromancer, the same man who cursed Yaz into undeath. Their first destination is the remote castle of the legendary, evil Dark Enchantress in the eerie Swamp of Spiders. But getting there won’t be easy. There are regions filled with dangerous puns and magic, a revolution to assist, forest nymphs, and a whole tribe of ugly green goblins standing in their way.

Book Review: Sit Write Here

In Sit Write Here, award-winning novelist and certified mindfulness instructor April Dávila presents a groundbreaking approach to writing that integrates the practice of Insight Meditation. Drawing from her personal journey and professional experience, Dávila reveals how mindfulness can help writers improve their craft and navigate common challenges such as writer's block, self-doubt, and ubiquitous distractions. Through practical exercises and relatable anecdotes, she demonstrates how cultivating present-moment awareness can enhance creativity and bring greater ease to the writing process.

Book Review: The Hidden Staircase

A haunted mansion, eerie happenings, thefts, and a search for her missing father—amateur teen sleuth Nancy Drew braves secret tunnels and sinister suspects in this thrilling classic from the 1930s. The suspense builds to a spine-tingling crescendo when she discovers cryptic clues, unraveling the truth behind ghostly events and a hidden staircase. Will Nancy’s fearless detective work expose the mansion’s chilling secrets and unmask the villain behind them? A spooky page-turner for mystery lovers of any age!

Nancy Drew Mysteries book 2: The Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene will be republished June 16, 2026. Dover Publications provided a galley for review.

Book Review: The Secret of the Old Clock

She’s smart, fearless, and always one step ahead of the mystery. An enduring symbol of wit, courage, and girl power for generations, teenage amateur sleuth Nancy Drew makes her iconic debut in Book no. 1 of this legendary series. When a missing will could change the fortunes of the kind Turner family, Nancy races against time to uncover clues and outsmart the scheming Topham family. Originally published by Grosset & Dunlap in the 1930s, this captivating mystery, written under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene, continues to fascinate millions of readers.

Nancy Drew Mysteries book 1: The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene was republished May 19, 2026. Dover Publications provided a galley for review.