Rick Bogdan |

Rick Bogdan’s Grunts, Gramps & Tanks: A Soldier’s Tales follows the unpredictable journey of a disillusioned Chicago retail buyer, Tyler Gordon Willett, who impulsively enlists in the infantry in 1975 without telling his wife, Nancy. The teenage recruits at Fort Polk nickname him “Gramps” as he survives basic training, memorably marked by the “Private Dickhead” payday incident. He also endures the OSUT program, where a tank commander’s sweaty Coke inspires his ambitions. The narrative tracks his growth from a novice to an officer, through exceptional tank gunnery at Fort Hood, young Sean’s compound fracture, the lighter-fluid execution of a toilet rat, and command of Bravo Company at For...

D.J. Paolini | Romance - Historical

D.J. Paolini's The Paladin of Rimini is a compelling multi-generational saga spanning from 1982 to 2017. Angelina Fabrizzi is a woman burdened by severe family abuse and financial ruin. After her mother, Isabella, was forced into marriage and died from cancer, Angelina suffered through an abusive union with Giovanni until her godmother, Valentina, a fierce former carabinieri, finally intervened. In 2017, widowed and in heavy debt, Angelina meets Benjamin LaRocca, an American travel writer, on a train to Rimini. Benjamin becomes her tenant, and their shared kindness quickly blossoms into romance. As Valentina protects them from the past, she must reckon with her secrets as well. While Angelin...

Ron Morris | Thriller

In a Country with No Name by Ron Morris follows Bert Mars, a young English teacher in Bangkok who abandons his teaching job for what he believes is a glamorous opportunity with CLB, a television network owned by Thai tycoon Chiang. Transferred to an unnamed neighboring country, Bert becomes entangled in a conspiracy to overthrow Prime Minister Thaw Kai after a business dispute over broadcasting rights. Recruited into Chiang’s inner circle, Bert helps install communications equipment for a coup attempt. Will he and his friends succeed in this daring mussion to overthrow a government or will this insane adventure become his undoing? The answers are surprising.  Ron Morris delivers a comp...

Dottie Lee | Literary Fiction

Dottie Lee’s In the Mountain drops readers into a top-secret facility buried deep inside a mountain. After a catastrophic earthquake, the central Tube collapses, the glass shatters, and floors slide into the abyss, killing most of the staff and leaving a handful of survivors, including Trace, Paul, Pearl, and Joseph, who escape through an emergency exit into the suffocating darkness beyond the Wall. What follows is a struggle for survival as the group, later dubbed the “Dislocated Family,” discovers a subterranean stream, faces pitch-black ruins, and scavenges supplies from locker rooms and broken offices. Along the way, they experience painful losses: driven by despair, Pearl vanishes into...

AJ Streator | Poetry - General

AJ Streator’s From the Shallow End to the Deep End is a gorgeous collection of ninety-five sonnets that capture the author’s experiences, psyche, and autobiographical journey through varying shades of life. Structured clearly into three sections—The Shallow End, Middle of the Pool, and The Deep End—the collection features themes ranging from nostalgic childhood memories and family bonds to the painful experiences of divorce, mental health struggles, and aging. The poems are a reflective ledger, examining the author's intimate relationships with his mother, father, siblings, and children, while exploring resilience, faith, and redemption. Rather than adhering strictly to traditional romantic...

Florenz Dombey | Literary Fiction

Florenz Dombey’s The Long Run to Love is the sixth installment of The Willow Chronicles, an expansive historical romance spanning 1963 to 1969, set against the turbulent backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement and Seattle’s maritime culture. The novel follows Willow “Billie” Benton, a tall, fiercely independent shipping magnate who built the container empire Pinctada Holdings, and Sidai “Sid” Ackroyd, a brilliant six-foot-tall Maasai economist appointed to an endowed chair at the University of Washington. Their chance meeting at the Olympic Hotel ignites a passionate, clandestine romance that defies era taboos regarding race, gender, and sexuality. From their adjacent houseboats on Portage Bay...

Oliver Libby | Non-Fiction - Government/Politics

Strong Floor, No Ceiling: A Bold Plan to Rebuild the American Dream—for Everyone by Oliver Libby offers a radically moderate blueprint for a fractured nation. Entrepreneur and policy innovator Oliver B. Libby urges us to move beyond division with a pragmatic vision rooted in both tradition and innovation, equity and growth. Libby’s “Strong Floor” approach ensures every American has access to healthcare, education, and opportunity—while his “No Ceiling” philosophy champions the limitless ambitions that drive progress. Inside, you’ll find actionable strategies to restore trust in institutions and elections, a new model for bipartisan cooperation, and a call to civic renewal. Learn how capital...

Alan J. Hesse | Children-Educational

It was supposed to be an easy, delightful journey to return Penguin to Antarctica, but Captain Polo and her clever sidekick, Penguin, are drawn into perils they never anticipated. Tex Greedyman is a ruthless oil tycoon with devastating plans for the Amazon, and from the rainforest's heart to Rio’s enchanting streets, Captain Polo and Penguin are on a whirlwind adventure packed with action and discovery. They'll scale Sugar Loaf Mountain's cable car, dodge a furious bull at a southern cattle auction, and uncover nature-based climate solutions in the Atlantic Forest. Along the way, they confront pressing environmental crises while discovering inspiring community-driven innovations. Will they m...

Dr. Stephanie Bernard | Health, Fitness & Dieting

Three small words carry the power to undo decades of diet confusion in Stephanie Bernard’s new book, and they are the title itself: Greens Are Free. In this refreshingly honest guide, Physician Assistant, Registered Dietitian, and professor Stephanie Bernard delivers the wisdom gained from classrooms and a career spent in clinics in a simple but radical thesis: good and lasting health isn't found in quick fixes and fad diets, but in the combination of mindset, knowledge, and action. She structures the book in three phases: one, the book rebuilds nutritional literacy, providing an understanding of calories, macronutrients, hunger, and hormones; two, it rewires the mental habits that sabotage...

Laurel Colless | Children - Adventure

Knights Unite is the fourth book in the Peter Blue Series by Laurel Colless, and it follows Riva du Lac, who is determined to uphold her promise to avoid detentions at Spiral Hall. But a sea cleanup reveals Shem, a mythical fish boy, and a surprise honor from the Spiral Knights forces her to choose between rules and friendship. Meanwhile, Peter Blue has a vision of a water-dwelling monster. Can their unlikely alliance save the knights—and the world? Laurel Colless captures the delicate balance of environmental activism and adolescent adventure through the eyes of Riva, the determined twelve-year-old protagonist. The character development is both nuanced and engaging, particularly in Riva’s j...

Martyn Rhys Vaughan | Science Fiction & Fantasy

Martyn Rhys Vaughan’s No Truce with the Vampires: Those Who Endure transplants gothic horror into the sun-scorched Australian outback to conclude its trilogy. In a future where vampires have conquered Earth after humanity nearly destroyed it, the surviving human race is exiled to “Stralia” and infantilized into docile farmers. The story follows Greg Ferguson, a hardy sheepherder in the Red Centre, who discovers from his dying mother’s hidden documents that their world is a prison. Alongside the mysterious Allira, he uncovers the truth about vampire rule, only to be captured by the sadistic scientists Gronz and Theondra. Their ordeal escalates from rustic mystery to interdimensional conflict....

Colin Dodds | Fiction - Literary

The Reign of the Anti-Santas by Colin Dodds is a unique and audacious Christmas tale that takes readers on a rollercoaster ride through a world where the holiday spirit collides head-on with corporate greed, scandal, and societal change. The story is narrated by Elvin, an elf with a front-row seat to the evolution and devolution of Christmas. Elvin's journey begins when he unwittingly accompanies Santa Claus on a Christmas Eve trip, setting the stage for a decades-long adventure filled with intrigue and danger. Dodds creates a narrative that includes Santa's secret affairs, the PR scandal that catapults Rudolph to fame, and the encroachment of humanity on the North Pole. What makes this book...