“Playground” is a futuristic story about the wonders of the ocean, the possibilities of artificial intelligence, mankind’s insatiable desire to monetize nature and the barriers of race and poverty in interpersonal relations.  And more than all of that, Playground is a compelling, hard to put town novel!

Todd Keane is a technology genius and is

“Table for Two” is a wonderful collection of six short stories and one novella.  The short stories all take place, at least in part, in New York City and the novella, which is one of the most enjoyable things I have read in a long time, takes place in Los Angeles.

Each of the stories

The wren, the wren is a complex novel about family.  Nell, age 22,  is struggling with her career as a writer and social media influencer.  She is pondering the differences between people and the way they think  “We don’t see the same street  as the person walking beside us.  All we can do is tell

Let me just start this post by saying this is not the sort of novel I usually read. It is a feel good novel and some might say perhaps a little too tied together.  However, there is something special about this story and its characters and I am glad I read it.  You should read

This Other Eden is a work of historical fiction based on the story of Malaga Island from the mid-1800s to 1912.

This Other Eden begins when Benjamin Honey, a former slave, shows up on an uninhabited Island with  “his wife, Patience, nee Raferty, a Galway girl, in 1793.”  The island was “hardly three hundred feet

“The postman had just dumped the mail on the ground at the foot of the mailbox.  My mother went to collect it…She flipped through the stack of envelopes…All very typical for early January.  Except for the postcard. ..What caught my mother’s attention right away was the handwriting, strange and awkward…Then she read the four names

“Be Mine” is a novel about finding contentment with age and dealing with loss. Richard Ford is one of my favorite authors, and his ability to address the struggles of life in a matter of fact and sometimes amusing way is on display in this sometimes uncomfortable and yet reassuring novel.

The novel begins with a

Tom Lake is a story of life’s winding roads, disappointments, and ultimate joys and beauty. “The past, were I to type it up, would look like a disaster, but regardless of how it ended we all had many good days. In that sense, the past is much like the present because the present — this

“I Have Some Questions For You” is a complex story about the murder of a teenager (Thalia) at a seemingly high end boarding school in 1995. The story is being told 23 years later by Bodie Kane, a graduate of the Boarding School and a roommate of the murdered student.

There is a lot going

The Rabbit Hutch is the story of lives gone awry in the depressed town of Vacca Vale, Indiana. In the past, the town had been completely dependent on Zorn Automobiles. “For decades, Zorn Automobiles was a miracle, a heartbeat, an empire…” And then the factories closed. “After 1963, Zorn, a superhero in previous generations—became the