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Told in simple terms but deep in meaning, Child of Gilead is a parable of good versus evil. At stake in their battle is the destiny of a ten-year-old boy, child of an innocent young woman and a hoodlum long departed from their lives. The unnamed boy and his mother,…

From May 3 through May 10 you can purchase the first Chevron Ross novel, Weapons of Remorse, for only 99 cents (regularly $2.99). The novel is about a shooting incident that threatens to destroy America's most powerful gun rights organization. Weapons of Remorse has won independent publishing awards from Indies…

Ling Ma must have precognitive talents to produce a plague novel so eerily similar to the pandemic reality of 2020. Published two years before the Coronavirus, Severance sketches a world in which people wear personalized masks to fend off a fever that dooms victims to robotic, repetitive behavior. Civilization crumbles as…

The ministry is a unique and difficult occupation. Laypersons expect preachers to be closer to God and live on a higher plain of morality. Reverend John Ames, third in a generation of preachers, lives in a small, unexceptional Iowa town. He loves the ministry but admits to shortcomings everyone possesses.…

Suppose your government leased your property to an oil company. That it did so without your permission. That the company’s drilling poisoned your children, your pets, your trees, and your garden. What would you do? Fortunately, we Westerners have laws to protect us from such outrages. The people of Kosawa,…

What makes this one of John Grisham’s better novels is the way he works the Bataan Death March into a murder mystery. A year after surviving the horror and returning to his farm, Pete Banning walks into his hometown church and shoots the preacher to death. He refuses to explain…

I love the deft way Anne Tyler draws you into the lives of her characters. A few pages go by, and suddenly you feel you’ve known them for years. Then the story is over, and you wish they’d have stayed around longer. There’s so much to like about French Braid,…

If you’re into nostalgia, I’d like to recommend a collection by a founding father of science fiction. The Best of Clifford D. Simak, 1939-1971, harkens back to a time before World War II, when science fiction was in its infancy, the dark side of the moon was a mystery, and…

“When it happens, you must find a way to remember.” That admonition is the theme of Salt Houses, Hala Alyan’s tale of a Palestinian family spanning the years 1963 to 2014. The words come from Salma, the family matriarch. Her daughter doesn’t understand what she means, but we get a…

I found myself attracted to this history because of its stellar reputation and my own murky knowledge of post-World War II Japan. I’m pleased to state that it was well worth my time. Drawing from numerous sources, author John Dower depicts a culture humbled and devastated by war, its people…