‘Legends’ Warm Enough to Melt Any Heart

Nothing about Legends & Lattes is going to change the world, but it’s comforting and uplifting. It made me smile. Apparently, it makes a lot of people smile, and that’s plenty valuable all by itself. Then again, maybe it can change the world, just a little.

‘Crane Husband’ a Critical Look at Love, Art

The Crane Husband is a meditation on responsibility and art and what love actually means, and so beautifully written that even with material like this you may still feel that you could fly away when you reach the end.

‘Rose House’ Chilling in its Plausibility

This is not a horror novel, but its premise manages to be spine-tingling for the picture it paints—not bleak, exactly, but pragmatic to the point of irrationality, yet difficult to argue with.

‘Build Your House’ Rewards Patience

There are no twists of the traditional sort in Violet Kupersmith’s debut novel, Build Your House Around My Body, but there are a stack of stories that weave themselves around each other before ultimately tying a knot that can only truly be appreciated on the reread.

‘Gentrifier’ Asks Tough Questions Wrapped in Cozy Experiences

Whether she is the gentrifier or isn’t, the perception stubbornly remains that the presence of “[her] whiteness” is linked to upward mobility for the neighborhood by many. 

‘Bones’ a Disturbing, Enlightening Account of Violence and Injustice

Kimmerle doesn’t dwell on the violence; her focus is on telling the story without elaboration or obfuscation to best communicate her belief that every scoop of dirt contributes to long-overdue restorative justice for the dead, the broken, and their families.