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Books to power the mind, feed the soul

Featured Essay

Diane Chamberlain, an Author Study

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Diane Chamberlain writes compelling fiction that features young female protagonists striving to prevail in a world that proves to be hostile towards them for reasons that are revealed as the stories progress. Her novels captivate the reader as secrets from the past and mysteries of the heart gradually come to light.

Recent Reviews

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Published by Atmosphere Press in 2019, The Devil’s In The Details is San Diego based writer and artist V.A. Christie’s debut fiction collection available in both paperback and ...

The Great Alone

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Rarely has the setting played as important a role in a novel as Alaska does in The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. It becomes a towering character throughout the novel, symbolizing, ...

Stray Our Pieces

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Gloria Hytner is the protagonist in Jason Graff’s edgy study of a disconsolate woman in a marriage she grows to resent. If it hadn’t been arranged by mistakes and bad luck, she ...

So You Want to Talk About Race

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Have you ever tried to ignore the uncomfortable conversations about race that happen around you? Have you ever been angry that your well-intended comment has been labeled as ...

Author Interviews

V.A. Christie, author and artist

V.A. Christie is an author and artist whose debut fiction collection, The Devil's In The Details, was published by Atmosphere Press in 2019. V.A. Christie's short story "Heartless" was selected as a finalist by Pen 2 Paper in 2019, and won the Audience Choice award in 2020. Forthcoming publications ...

Essay

Minka Kent, an Author Study

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Minka Kent writes psychological suspense novels that draw the reader in from the word “go.” Delving into her novels could almost be considered a delectable guilty pleasure except the author's impressive writing style and ability to channel her first-person narrators down to the most specific detail make her books true gems in contemporary ...

Courage to Create

The Courage to Create

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In the early 1980s when I studied choreography with Dr. Alma Hawkins at Santa Monica Community College, The Courage to Create by Rollo May was on the reading list for the class. You may wonder: Why would there be a reading list for a dance class? Dr. Hawkins was interested in how the creative and imaginative processes work in order to support the ...

Longform

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Michael Fertik’s novel Hip Set is not only a thrilling detective story but also a literary inquiry into the sacred and the profane—the secular sandwiched between both. When it comes to human behavior, ...

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In 2011, the Korean American writer and teacher Suki Kim taught English to the sons of North Korea's elite for two semesters. When it came time for her to leave North Korea (the Democratic People's ...

Leading from the Roots

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Leading from the Roots: Nature-Inspired Leadership Lessons for Today’s World is a transformative book in the field of organizational leadership. In the Introduction and the following eleven chapters, ...