Susan Gilmore’s The Curious Calling of Leonard Bush (Blair, 2025) opens with a funeral—for an amputated leg. A “curious” beginning, to be sure, but not a gimmick. Instead, this unusual event launches a deeply meaningful, beautifully written story about grief, guilt, community, and healing in Sweetwater, Tennessee. Through rotating third-person perspectives, Gilmore delivers a tender, […]
“Finding Angels” by Rhett DeVane
September 8, 2025 by 1 Comment
As sweet as the tea required at every Southern ladies’ luncheon, Finding Angels: A Heartfelt Collection of Love, Laughter, and Hope (2025) by Rhett DeVane is sure to bring a generous helping of light-hearted pleasure to your reading list. This collection of fifty short stories and poems is best savored slowly—like daily devotionals—but you may […]
“Through an Open Window” by Pamela Terry
September 6, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Through an Open Window (Ballantine 2025) by Pamela Terry is an engaging novel about family, love, and loss, centered on the secrets we keep to protect those closest to us. The story takes a whimsical turn from the very first page, when the ghost of Aunt Edith appears to recently widowed Margaret. Edith has been […]
“In the Fullness of Time” by Terry Roberts
September 3, 2025 by Leave a Comment
More than just a compelling mystery or a well-executed police procedural—though it is both—In the Fullness of Time (Turner Publishing, 2025) offers profound reflections on the nature of time itself. Roberts masterfully weaves together past, present, and future in ways that feel almost magical. His lyrical descriptions of the mountains and valleys of North Carolina […]
“Not Till We Are Lost” by William Homestead
August 12, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Not Till We Are Lost: Thoreau, Education, and Climate Crisis (Mercer University Press 2024) by William Homestead is a blend of memoir, philosophy, and literary analysis. It weaves together the author’s college teaching experiences, his personal journey of self-examination, and an academic exploration of Transcendentalist thought, drawing from figures like Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo […]
Read of the Month: “Resurrected Body” by Elizabeth C. Garcia
August 6, 2025 by Leave a Comment
The opening poem, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” sets the soul-baring tone for Elizabeth C. Garcia’s stunning collection, Resurrected Body (Cider Press Review 2024). No wonder this book won Cider Press Review’s 2023 Editor’s Prize! The phrasing of Garcia’s first poem will cause most mothers to recall those scary, cringeworthy moments in the delivery […]