The book’s opening essay, “Breakfast for Dinner,” sets the tone for the rest of the work with its blend of childhood trauma, comedic storytelling, and poignant reflections. The essay opens with the inaugural family dinner in Staples’ new home. In attendance with his wife and in-laws was the author’s mother, who (with “the calm of […]
Having recovered from adventures related to a prankster co-worker, Marty Moose (so named because of an unfortunate ink blot on his birth certificate) is ready to enjoy his day off. And what better way to relax than to attend the Annual Little Ditch Fastest Feathers Race, where birds compete for a solid gold egg? But […]
After Jules’ dad gets a job in Texas, she’s uprooted from everything and everyone she loves in Chicago. Then she discovers that Dad has decided to foster a “miniature moose” of a dog, Sparky, who’s soon taking up her bed—and Jules doesn’t even like dogs. On top of that, her mercurial schoolmate and next-door neighbor, […]
The 10-year-old fraternal twins face yet another fractured holiday with not even a Christmas tree in sight. Their parents, born Billy Clement and Sam Valentine, dated briefly but never married and, as friends, have raised the girls, even taking on their melded last name. The sisters dream of a Christmas with all four Clementines together, […]
The story begins with Wifredo Lam’s childhood in a small Cuban village, where he shared a home with seven older siblings, his Chinese Cuban papá, and his African-Taíno-Spanish-Cuban mamá. His papá’s calligraphy work and his godmother’s Santería ceremonies formed the first major influences on the budding artist, whose predilection for sketching and drawing arose at […]
The setting is a city populated by expressive Pixar-style cars, trucks, and other motorized characters with windshield eyes and smiley bumpers. A variety of helpful trucks and service vehicles go about their work, including ambulances, fire engines, helicopters, tow trucks, blue-hatted police cruisers, delivery vans, school buses, dump trucks, street cleaners, repair vehicles that clean […]
McFadden wastes no time pulling the trigger in this harrowing story that starts with gunfire then swiftly propels readers into a crack tale of secrets and misdirection. Originally self-published in 2016, the book carries the same formidable weight as McFadden’s later novels featuring unsuspecting women who lose their power then fight to recapture it—mostly from […]
In 1988, 20-year-old Sandra Ramirez is savagely kicked to death and left under an old oak tree in Santander, Spain. She’d written a short story from the point of view of a stray dog that dies under the same oak tree, and the murder remains unsolved two decades later. In 2008, master detective Hans Rekke […]
In her introduction, editor and contributor Salazar describes this work as “a playlist of stories, about music, for music, because of music, through the music of poetry.” The collection spans a range of poetic styles, geographical locations, and time periods. The authors represent distinct cultural and ethnic backgrounds and include Indigenous and Afro-Latine writers and […]
Goldberg was a student at New England Conservatory of Music when she joined the Klezmer Conservatory Band, a group playing traditional Jewish dance music that originated in Eastern Europe. Four members of the group, after learning of the plight of Soviet Jews who had been denied the right to emigrate, decided to form a quartet […]