Thirty years have passed since Red Mars was published. Considering that in 1993 the internet was in its infancy, and cell phones were nonexistent, Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel holds up well. His chronicle of the countless problems involved in colonizing a hostile planet is what makes this book compelling. Just…

Every Anne Tyler novel is like a delicious new dessert. It’s so good that I immediately want a second helping. But overindulging would spoil the pleasure. So I put the leftovers away, knowing I’ll be back before midnight to raid the fridge. Clock Dance is reminiscent of her 1995 novel Ladder…

Following the 9/11 attacks, The New York Times ran a series profiling the lives of as many victims as its reporters could identify. Thornton Wilder followed the same impulse when he wrote The Bridge of San Luis Rey in 1927. Best known for the drama Our Town, Wilder seems to…

If you haven’t read Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, or seen it performed, it would be worth your while to do so before reading Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake. The play is integral to the story and will deepen your enjoyment. Lara Kenison is recounting her brief acting career to her three…

Evelyn Waugh’s characters do not behave as we think we would in moments of crisis. His satirical brush paints them as empty shells with skewed values. That’s what makes A Handful of Dust such an astonishing and fascinating novel. Tony and Brenda Last reside in a large house at Hetton,…

Dear Chevron Ross Subscribers, AuthorsXP is offering a giveaway of Christian Fiction books August 1 through 7. Included is my novel, The Seven-Day Resurrection. There are 27 books in the giveaway. By entering, you have a chance to win an e-book or, in my case, either an e-book or paperback copy…

Seasons is the first-person account of a chaotic year in the life of Danny O’Brien, a fictional marketing executive for a pharmaceutical company. Like the seasons of Earth, his life is full of highs and lows as he prepares to roll out a new drug while coping with the joys…

What do you do when looking back seems safer than looking forward? One summer day, I listened to hard words from a dear woman I had loved and admired for nearly twenty years. We were seated in her small room in a nursing home. My grandson was exploring every nook,…

There is much to enjoy in Bettie Boswell’s Hoping for Treasure. Leaping back and forth between post-World War II and the present, the author explores the lives of ordinary people dealing with challenges that are universal, from romance, to careers, to social conflicts. Spanning these periods is a tale of…