Originating as a father's never-sent letters to his teenage children from war-torn Ukraine, this inviting, upbeat compendium of life lessons and advice for young adults urges readers to nourish, boost, master, and “level up” skills in crucial areas like mental health, relationships, financial strategy, and entrepreneurship. Lovingly presented in a way that befits its origins, Scott’s guidance offers actionable advice to accomplishing life goals and curating personal success, with an emphasis on the things it takes grown-ups years to learn themselves, if they ever manage to do so: adjusting one's mindset, maintaining a healthy lifestyle through nutrition and wellness, and building support systems to forge relationships that will lead to lasting wealth and thriving lifelong happiness.

Scott lays out steps toward crafting a well-rounded, well-lived life, noting in a section on Wealth Management that he had to learn that “money is just a tool, not the ultimate goal.” Self-assessment tools and the author’s warm, coach-like approach offer guidance toward determining what, for individual readers, one’s ultimate goal might be. The 50 short sections here share motivational steps and experienced insight as Scott presents "a buffet of vital knowledge.” His guidance ranges from big-picture to granular, with an emphasis on the results that accrue, over a life, from early investment in changes like developing healthy sleeping habits, journaling, and performing exercises to increase memory functions and boost brainpower.

Scott’s fresh COPE formulation (capturing, organizing, producing and evaluating) offers a framework for becoming more productive and fulfilled in life endeavors. It’s a welcoming tool, of a piece with Level Up’s easy-to-follow topical lists, interactive questions, and entertaining illustrations by George Miroshnichenko. Blending the mindful with the practical, Scott focuses not just on practical tips about entering the workforce or planning for retirement but on the fulfillment of the mind, body, heart and soul. The result is an encouraging roadmap to growth and intentional learning.

Takeaway: Thorough, inviting guide to starting out in life for young adults.

Comparable Titles: Jaqui Meyer's Adulting Life Skills for Young Adults, Sean Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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Meslin’s debut is an ambitious and frighteningly convincing international thriller set against the chaos and promise of the Soviet Union's collapse. When a highly dangerous portable nuclear weapon is stolen in the Soviet Republic of Moldavia in 1991, the world's superpowers rush to discover who is behind the theft and what intentions they harbor, creating a high-stakes political game that spans continents and reaches into space. Meslin persuasively puts readers in explosion-rocked streets, Parisian salons, St. Maarten casinos, and the Oval Office, illuminating the nuances of splinter groups, arms sales, and the tradecraft of diplomacy and espionage among a far-flung cast. “One can’t simply waltz into a Western capital sporting a tactical nuke and expect to leave it wherever he likes,” the Director of Central Intelligence declares, deep into the nerve-wracking story. He’s immediately corrected: “Simon, that seems to be precisely what they have done.”

Meslin demonstrates an impressive knowledge of Cold War politics and nuclear security protocols, bringing authenticity to the complex plot involving a U.S. Nuclear Emergency Search Team, a veteran Mossad agent, a determined KGB investigator, and classic spy-thriller twists like a sleeper agent, presented with welcome plausibility. He particularly excels in both presenting and making dramatic the technical aspects of nuclear security and satellite surveillance, all without letting his expertise slow down narrative momentum. Especially engaging is the depiction of the Soviet Union's final days, capturing the political tensions and power vacuum that could make a nuclear crisis possible.

Reflecting the global crisis, the narrative frequently shifts between Moscow, Washington, Israel, geostationary orbit, and more, creating a brisk but at times disjointed reading experience. Still, the challenge of keeping up with the many interested parties will pay off for lovers of smart, real-world thrillers, as Meslin builds to a tense climax that effectively pays off its many plotlines.

Takeaway: Sophisticated thriller of international crisis management as the Soviet Union collapses.

Comparable Titles: Owen Matthews’s Black Sun Trilogy, Brian Freemantle’s Bomb Grade.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

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Okun sets out to coach readers on the ins and outs of commercial real estate development in this down-to-earth debut, covering areas such as net operating income, capitalization rates, upside potential, and more. Drawing inspiration from the impromptu, “back of the napkin” analytics that often happen when colleagues casually discuss property values, Okun—in a refreshingly direct and plain-spoken style—shares step-by-step instructions to assigning value while breaking down how that process differs from land purchases to owner/user properties to a range of investment properties (office complexes, shopping malls, and the like).

Decades of experience and a knack for simplifying complex topics make Okun’s advice easy to digest as well as informative. He spices the material with hands-on examples, useful checklists, and careful attention to jargon that readers may be unfamiliar with, including a particularly helpful outline of the language commonly used in lease clauses. His advice is technical, straightforward, and applicable to a range of situations, as in his summary of the important points to research before jumping into different leases (retail spaces should always be tailored to location, he writes, while industrial areas can focus more on specifics like ceiling height or access to roll-up doors).

For readers who want to move into sales techniques, Okun delves into those waters as well, sharing his own sales training and a five-step model—complete with sample open and closed-ended questions—to help followers close deals more effectively. He wraps each chapter with a mini quiz designed to enhance information retention (answers are included at the end of the book) and closes with an exhaustive glossary of relevant terms. Throughout, his central emphasis on setup as the key to success—“for every type of property, there are specific items that you will need BEFORE you try to assess and value a property”—is persuasive, and readers will leave feeling knowledgeable, capable, and prepared.

Takeaway: Down-to-earth guidance on commercial real estate development.

Comparable Titles: Robert A. Wehrmeyer’s The Complete Guide to Developing Commercial Real Estate, Rob Finlay’s Beyond the Building.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B

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Cohen chronicles the revitalization of Toronto’s Regent Park in this inspiring debut, as he walks readers through his team’s efforts to redevelop a neighborhood that had become “isolated and deeply stigmatized throughout the city.” The revitalization takes place in three phases, as Cohen lays out the groundwork of a community effort—including residents, housing committees, and city officials—to transform a “challenged inner-city” while ensuring minimal disruption to the area’s residents. Throughout, Cohen poses the question: "Is revitalization a genuine attempt at redevelopment that respects the people and history of a community . . . or is it simply gentrification in disguise?"

In addition to details on the housing project, Cohen shares his upbringing, love for music, and memorable behind-the-scenes footage that spotlights gentrification’s impact, the crucial need for affordable housing, and how to obtain government assistance for areas suffering from "deteriorating living conditions." During Regent Park’s revitalization process, the original residents were factored into the discussion and given a voice in their neighborhood’s renovations, a point Cohen lovingly emphasizes—alongside the insider’s glimpse he gives readers of the day-to-day procedures that come with rebuilding a neighborhood: obtaining permits, gaining (and losing) funding, and adjusting construction timelines. "Although not everyone was happy with the choices, the key was that they had choice, rather than an ultimatum,” Cohen writes.

Regent Park is now “the gold standard” for revitalizing neighborhoods according to Cohen, and, as he shares the project’s wins and setbacks, he also details its inspiration for his songwriting—and eventual musical production, in The Journey Musical. Cohen’s revitalization blueprint unfolds through the project photographs he includes as much as it does through the text, and, though Regent Park is not yet fully completed, his vision surpasses just one neighborhood, bounding onto an international stage where “strong, inclusive communities… [in which] everyone has an opportunity to learn, grow, work, and prosper” steal the spotlight.

Takeaway: Powerful testimony of revitalization done in partnership with impacted residents.

Comparable Titles: Ronald R. Sundstrom's Just Shelter, Willow S. Lung-Amam's The Right to Suburbia.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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This offbeat, energetic second offering in Allen’s Black Oops Detective Mystery series (after Cad to Cadaver), finds PI Tracy Black working one of her bread-and-butter cases: surveilling a cheating spouse. She successfully snaps photographs of the adulterous couple in flagrante, but before jilted husband and brewery owner Blake Geist has a chance to take his wife to the cleaners in the divorce, he is found dead in a vat of beer. Tracy is surprised when Geist’s widow contacts her and her partner, Adam, to investigate, but a shocking turn of events tangles Tracy in a complex web of suspects.

Allen (the pseudonym for Maria McKenzie) uses Tracy’s relationship with Adam to infuse this murder investigation with romantic tension. The couple is on the cusp of making it official, but while Tracy waits for a ring, Adam’s unexplained disappearances force her to consider that his involvement in the case may be more than just professional. The fast-moving plot pivots frequently between a wide cast of characters—a sinister rival brewery owner, a local politician with a hot temper and a steamy secret, a jovial German chocolatier—but the couple’s emotional ups and downs contrast nicely with the twists and turns of the investigation.

As the mystery unfolds, Tracy’s lively commentary feels like a no-holds-barred conversation with a friend. As a former FBI Agent and ex-cop with trust issues, Tracy is “naturally suspicious,” but, while her skepticism and insecurity carry over into her work and relationship, she balances the chip on her shoulder with an entertaining sense of humor, as when Adam experiences a head injury on the job and Tracy uses her shirt and sports bra as makeshift bandages, worrying that “a topless black woman hiking in Kentucky would likely go viral.” With its mix of humor, red herrings, and romance, Allen’s mystery will keep readers hooked, right up until the final reveal.

Takeaway: Action-packed whodunit that balances humor and suspense.

Comparable Titles: Janet Evanovich; Alexia Gordon.

Production grades
Cover: B-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

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When FBI Cartel Counter Intelligence agent Brad Hanley finds one of his own dead after infiltrating the Sinaloa Cartel, he enlists the help of his friend and "the best tracker" he knows, Lance Tallbear, to help him sleuth out the traitor in their midst. But as soon as Tallbear arrives at the crime scene, he realizes that what they’ve stumbled onto is not just the body of an FBI agent, but a "killing ground" inundated with buried bodies. To piece together clues and solve the mystery, Tallbear must risk his own life, going undercover with ruthless criminals smuggling drugs—and people—across the Arizona border.

This fast-paced, gritty thriller—filled with whip smart characters, rich descriptions, and a vividly portrayed Southwest landscape—sweeps readers into the seedy world of organized crime, sex trafficking, and illegal border operations. Hanley—assisted by the Indigenous Tohono O'odham tribe—pairs well with Tallbear, a sarcastic yet capable protagonist that readers will find humorous and fast on his feet, especially when lives, including his own, are on the line. Tallbear quickly finds himself in the crossfire of multiple gangs and the seductive charms of power-hungry widow, Marla Satillo, the “leader of the Sinaloa Cartel in Nogales,” as well as allies who turn out to be anything but.

Lauritzen’s story—the second in his Lance Tallbear series, after Regardless of the Consequences—is immersive and will captivate readers from beginning to end. While undercover, Tallbear views those he comes to work closely with as "an enigma,” reflecting that “they all seemed like normal people, but accepted levels of depravity he couldn’t understand.” With danger hurtling from every direction, Tallbear must keep his wits about him as he tries to deliver on his promise to Hanley while still making it home alive. Secrets, betrayal, and greed pave his road, and readers will be transfixed by his fight for justice.

Takeaway: Heart-pounding thriller of infiltrating the Sinaloa cartel.

Comparable Titles: Ian K. Smith's Ashe Cayne Mystery series; James Patterson's Alex Cross series.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

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Smith offers readers the “transformative individual freedom people are so desperately searching for today” in this brief introductory debut to discovering Grace—its nature, how to identify it, and how understanding it can help drive purpose. He outlines five “Gracepoints” on the road to living authentically, asserting that authenticity cannot exist without Grace, that “cross-cultural… life-changing-type-of-knowing.” Those five main tenets include paying heed to intuition, acknowledging “we did not, and do not, create ourselves,” learning to avoid conditioned thinking, understanding our interconnectedness with the world, and utilizing Vivekananda’s essays on “the Yoga of work.”

Smith makes good use of evocative descriptions, demonstrating his understanding of Grace in lyrical prose that hints at the warmth accompanying belonging, acceptance, and peace in one’s existence. Drawing from his own life experience, he explains how daily walks with his dogs evolved into prayer journeys and an eventual realization that “we are never alone; we are ‘undivided’ individual expressions of God being itself, all loved, and with a purpose.” When addressing conditioning, Smith delves into how destructive it can be, arguing that, to truly achieve Grace, we must let go of self-focus and recognize “the ‘I’ we think we are is relentlessly conditioned to ‘get ahead’… [which] creates the all-powerful ‘self’ that stands in opposition to reality.”

Though a quick, precursory read, Authenticity and Grace touches on barriers to authentic living and how to break through conditioning, assuring readers that “anyone in this world… can learn to see Grace operating in their lives,” without requiring “faith or religious affiliation”—though Smith does note that spiritual principles are at play in his definition and exploration of Grace. He closes with encouragement to shed materialism—and separate from our fast-paced, virtual world—to “truly grow in spirit and character and become who we were meant to be.”

Takeaway: Brief introduction to restoring life’s sense of wonder, through grace.

Comparable Titles: Kevin John Delaney’s A Life Worth Living, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Notes for the Journey Within.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

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Financial advisor Goldfarb urges readers to “not [allow] your emotions to dictate your investment decisions,” but to focus instead on “long-term investing through education.” Acknowledging the potential risks that come with investing, he emphasizes logical decision-making, risk evaluation, and investing for the long run, with the expectation that downturns will happen, but, with the help of a trained, licensed advisor and a diverse portfolio, financial success is within reach. Most interestingly, he draws from his real-life experience—sharing quotes from his clients over the years—to illustrate common investing pitfalls and how to avoid them.

Investor anxiety will sabotage success, Goldfarb argues, and he is emphatic that logical decision-making must drive the investing equation. He lays out, in direct, easy-to-understand terminology, basic concepts such as asset allocation, risk versus return, and the importance of a financial plan. Other practical tips include how to make a basic cash-flow statement, determine a sensible retirement-withdrawal rate, and how to choose an advisor who is a good fit. Goldfarb is at his best when clarifying such common yet misleading beliefs as reverse mortgages are equal to relinquishing home ownership or investors should expect to “outperform the markets significantly every year,” and his ability to simplify complex topics (beta and standard deviation for measuring risk, exchange traded funds, among others) is refreshing.

You’re Kidding, Right? offers a unique, down-to-earth approach that resonates, and Goldfarb sprinkles comedic touches throughout this debut that make the material entertaining as well as informative. Readers will applaud his candid, no-holds-barred advice, applicable to those who are new to investing as well as seasoned retirees, and he closes with a rundown of smart, responsible ways to access income in retirement—along with a sample cash flow statement readers can utilize in their planning. “Try not to overcomplicate,” he advises, “and most importantly, stay the course no matter how tough things may seem.”

Takeaway: Down-to-earth advice on avoiding investment pitfalls.

Comparable Titles: Cary Siegel’s Why Didn’t They Teach Me This in School?, Scott Reed’s Top 50 Rules of Investing.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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Ink and tears fuel Winther’s forlorn yet hopeful collection that marks the speaker’s transition from love to heartbreak to transcendent catharsis through the making of poetry and art. The book itself feels like a purging of pain and loss that results in a spiritually and emotionally cleansed renewal. Winther draws on Eros to describe “a love so fierce, we dared not speak,” as if language’s limitations and impurity would soil it; in Winther’s “moment of pure love and sweet surprise,” words paradoxically both have no place and illuminate the distinctions of what love even is, whether it’s “A sanctuary found in each other’s eyes” or that “true fulfillment” found in “the act of giving.” Yet unlike Eros and Psyche, such loving unions in Winther’s poems often tend not to last, souring in a mire of abuse and infidelity.

Winther’s poems mostly take the lyric form, though haikus punctuate the collection also, offering a structural rhythm that allows the different types of poems to harmonize. Some even approach prose territory, but those are some of the weakest selections in Winther’s collection, falling into a stream-of-consciousness that’s not as sharp or revealing as the tighter verses. The strongest passages often prove moving while offering flashes profundity and grace that will reach readers due to their raw vulnerability and honesty: “you swallowed me whole // I just didn't notice.”

In the loss of love, heartbreak and grief is all-consuming; as she writes in “Love’s Illusion,” “Oh, the pain of a love betrayed // A symphony of heartache, never to fade,” yet the despair is never total, and each of these pain poems ends with a hopeful refrain. Phoenixes rise from ashes in Winther’s poetry again and again, and the collection as a whole is a manifestation of the speaker’s rebirth following her destructive heartbreak. The act of writing, of confessing, of making is an act of healing. As Winther writes, “mending, I find peace.”

Takeaway: Vulnerable poems of a journey through love, heartbreak, and catharsis.

Comparable Titles: Amanda Lovelace, Rupi Kaur

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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This thought-provoking, pointedly unconventional memoir navigates the complex terrain of privilege, race relations, and personal reckoning in contemporary America. In the playful first pages, Gidding (author of Failure: An Autobiography) writes, of himself, “Look at him go. He writes, he hopes.” From there he considers, among other concerns, questions of why write at all, especially as an old white man, and what it means to write when he feels “muzzled” as “certain topics—race, gender, and so on—are off-limits for oldsters like me to consider in a more critical light.” His approach is searching, often expressive of uncertainties, but humane and compelling. Despite the title, Gidding eschews both reactionary pushback against societal changes and empty sloganeering endorsing them, and the book grows rich and affecting as it digs into stories of the Major and Minor Periods of Gidding’s life—and whether they’re his stories to tell.

Gidding grapples with these complexities while employing a unique narrative structure that presents both the author's voice and a critical alter-ego, Joßche, prone to hectoring, italicized interruptions. As Gidding describes, with rare and welcome frankness, his youthful introductions to America’s racial realities, Joßche takes on the role of the uncharitable reader, lobbing stinkbombs like “Curious about a biracial family, but not about African American literature?” Gidding's approach to hot-button issues is refreshingly nuanced and self-deprecating, plunging into topics like the unbridled anger that some white people feel towards marginalized groups. Giddin’s writing about family is likewise exploratory and open-hearted, his lifelong tendency toward the Lucretius Effect and a “Imagination of Disaster,” and finding a way to live after the death of his first wife.

The result, while innovative and often hilarious, can feel fretful, though that is the spirit of the project, if not the era. What’s worth marveling at is how, even as he second guesses himself and refuses to “refrain from making bad jokes,” Gidding, with biting prose and incisive wit, hits on uncomfortable truths and shares a host of moving, urgent stories from his life, each studded with insights.

Takeaway: An inventive reckoning with age, whiteness, writing, and life itself.

Comparable Titles: Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility, Garrett Bucks’s The Right Kind of White.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

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Will Barnes, a battle-worn, no-longer active duty Marine and stroke survivor, searches for meaning in his fractured life by tracing his German mother’s roots in Canfield’s sequel to The Errors of Mankind. Will meets Johann, a 90-year-old relative involved in the Nazi’s paramilitary, whom he immediately admires for his wisdom on war and human nature. When Johann dies, Will clashes with Johann’s grandson Friedrich, a history professor who attributes the Second World War solely to Germany’s racism and superiority. Infuriated by this simplistic view, Will resolves to write a book about the roots of war, inspired by Johann’s perspectives and his own desire for redemption—a path fraught with guilt and regret.

Better is the End balances heavy political commentary with explorations of Will’s strained relationships—with his son, wife, granddaughter, and a Japanese girl he abandoned—stressing how war shapes identity. Canfield examines the revisionist view of World War II, a heavy lift but one that he tackles ambitiously, using Will as a lens to critique America's obsession with militarism, neglect of the psychological toll of war, the long-held narrative of America as a global liberator, and media manipulation—a global concern still eerily relevant today. Will's haunting reflection—"Did my darkness come from all the sin that I inflicted on the world? Or did it come from all the sin that I had witnessed in the world?"—anchors central themes of war’s lasting trauma and its perpetuating cycle of violence.

While the crisp and provocative dialogue occasionally veers into didacticism—characters serving as philosophical mouthpieces rather than well-rounded individuals—Canfield's prowess connects history with modern dilemmas by avoiding binary narratives for a nuanced understanding of the ethical foundations of military might. The message is clear: redemption is hard-won but necessary. This thoughtful blend of historical exposition and personal reflection scrutinizes the timeless search for a moral compass in a world often bereft of one.

Takeaway: A retired Marine’s account of war, guilt, and personal redemption.

Comparable Titles: Sarah Waters’s The Night Watch, Pat Barker’s Regeneration.

Production grades
Cover: B-
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B

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Allen-Walters presents the intertwined stories of two families in the Banat region of Serbia during World War II whose unwavering Christian faith guides them through the brutal hardships of communist rule in what was then named Yugoslavia. The book emphasizes how their steadfast adherence to their beliefs provided both protection and strength in the face of oppression, as they ultimately found their freedom and immigration to the United States. Central to the narrative is Kalman Hartig, a courageous Seventh-day Adventist and violinist, who endured persecution and imprisonment as a conscientious objector.

Walters skillfully depicts the Hartig and Kirchner families' experiences, exploring sibling tensions and early religious influences, with family photographs adding personal and historical depth. The book intricately weaves these family stories against the backdrop of war and post-war challenges, particularly focusing on religious tolerance and immigration. Rich with biblical stories and verses that deepen the characters' motivations, the memoir vividly portrays the horrors of labor camps and prisons, leaving readers deeply moved. Kalman’s letters to his family ground the narrative, evoking empathy far beyond simple descriptions. Themes of healing and rebuilding with familial support are also explored.

Kalman Hartig’s story is a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit, faith, and the transformative power of music. Through Hartig’s harrowing experiences, the book explores themes of perseverance, integrity, and the will to survive despite unrelenting cruelty. This moving account not only honors Hartig's bravery but also serves as a call to cherish freedom and practice tolerance for all religious and ethnic backgrounds. This book will resonate deeply with readers who value personal stories of overcoming adversity, particularly within the context of faith-based endurance.

Takeaway: Rousing story of Christian perseverance under communist rule.

Comparable Titles: Walter J. Ciszek’s With God in Russia, Liao Yiwu’s God Is Red.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

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When the carousel animals finally break free from their Brooklyn park prison one brilliant night, 10-year-old Pearl Twist is astounded. Lion, her special carousel friend, promised he would come live with her one day—and now that the day is here, Pearl is understandably anxious. The two quickly settle in together, though fears of the dreaded Cornelius Cage, the carousel keeper, plague their newfound happiness. Soon, after the pair encounter the volatile but goodhearted Crow, they jet to a magical new world, the City of Zinnia—“an infinite universe created by thought”—where they run into a host of colorful characters in their quest to escape Cornelius.

Lion is so much more than Pearl’s magical best friend in this endearing tale; he’s “a welcome escape from the enduring grief and sadness of losing her father,” a mirrored counterpart of bravery and strength to Pearl’s own struggles with self-doubt and anxiety. Soles (author of Peace Came Over) crafts the pair’s adventure with loving care, spotlighting Pearl’s fears of abandonment against the greater context of the story’s themes on grief and friendship. The death of Pearl’s father years earlier plays a strong part in how she views and interacts with her new environment, as she and Lion meet mind reader Rosie, her friend Inchworm, and John, a mysterious boy who serves as their guide, of sorts, in the beautiful and sometimes dangerous Zinnia.

Soles’s vivid descriptions of Zinnia’s endlessly shifting landscapes, wildlife, and weather will delight readers of all ages, though they feel overdone at times. Lion’s happiness at his newfound freedom is uplifting, and it inspires Pearl to change her own life, as she learns to sacrifice herself for her friends and reflects on whether “it’s more important to give joy or to have joy.” This is a touching homage to the power of friendship and the delight of helping others.

Takeaway: Friendship and a magical adventure help a grieving girl heal.

Comparable Titles: Ross Welford’s Time Traveling with a Hamster, Cassie Beasley’s Circus Mirandus.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A

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Tender yet satiric, empathetic yet frank about human failings, Donovan’s follow-up to Sunnyville again explores the lives of the residents of Sunny Glen Palms, a sprawling retirement community near Tampa Bay, Florida. There, couples bicker and dish, drive golf carts and play pickleball, and strive to find connection and peace in later life. Donovan spins a rich, funny story of what appears to be at least three impending disasters. First, there’s the hurricane bearing down on the Gulf. Then there’s the fiftieth anniversary party of Mike and Peggy Beamish, a celebration whose joyousness is undercut by Mike’s cheating and Peggy’s decision to end this “most farcical of marriages” soon after. Finally, there’s the relatively younger woman bringing urgent news to 57-year-old hoarder Kenny, a punk rocker, early retiree, and “Mister non-conformity himself.” The news: their one-night stand has resulted in a pregnancy. But Kenny, at 57, isn’t sure he’s ready for fatherhood.

Set in a 2004 roiling with the politics of life during wartime, Sun of Sunnyville lays bare, with a reportorial eye, the secrets and hearts of its cast of retirees. Despite some biting passages, especially on the subject of men with rage issues, Donovan’s storytelling emphasizes each character’s humanity—and how so many have pickled or lost connection to what really matters. The novel bustles with scandals, slicing remarks, and pitch-perfect dialogue that invites readers to feel as if we’re eavesdropping. But at the story’s core is a pervasive loneliness, as characters face the consequences of years of turning to adultery, pop culture, political arguments, or intoxicants as “a means to escape a very lonely selfish world.”

What a relief, then, that characters like Peggy and Marge find each other and forge new connections, surprising themselves. (A visit to a storm-tossed Disney park is a bittersweet comic highlight.) The novel is hefty, with slow pacing and a sometimes overwhelming wealth of detail about each character’s daily grind and vividly drawn past. But it’s got a sharp eye and a big heart.

Takeaway: Incisive, sprawling novel laying bare the hearts and lives of Florida retirees.

Comparable Titles: Dave Lutes’s The Wall(s); Cathie Pellitier.

Production grades
Cover: B-
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

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Outraged and outrageous, this scathing satire, Cann’s debut, finds a laid-off sketch-comedy writer so desperate for work that he just rolls with a production assistant role on a reality show starring right-wing debutante, Lane Bryantt, determined to “make Hollywood great again” and her influencer daughters. Despite Lane’s pointed question “Are you a Jew?”, protagonist John strives to please her, her family, and the producer, no matter how degrading or inane the task. As the relentlessly profane, proudly church-going women strive to go from “Wyt Tee and Eye Gee” famous to “TV famous,” John often runs afoul of them, especially after nudging the sisters’ brother Lucas (“I’m incel, and it’s a side effect of being related to you”) into a scene-stealing role.

Even worse for the stars-on-the-rise is the producer’s choice to livestream their lives with up-to-the-moment audio commentary from online viewers broadcast into their own house. Cann emphasizes the cruel depravity of all involved, and this section of the novel—women performing intimate, monetizable parodies of their lives while enduring relentless abuse from strange men—lays bare dark truths about the worst of “reality” and influencer culture. Canceled keeps changing up its game from there, with the sisters eventually fleeing an invasive new contract with a Japanese producer. The arc of these lives bends inexorably toward porn.

Cann’s understanding of the business of TV and streaming is clear throughout, and he scores big laughs and some insights about privacy and consent. The novel’s over-the-topness, though, precludes giving readers reasons to care much about John or anyone else. The prose tends toward wordiness, and the storytelling, while continually inventive, lacks narrative suspense. Cann takes the kind of risks readers might expect with a title like Canceled, offering countless jibes about the women’s bodies and quease-inducing scenes in which a Yale-educated rapper and the Japanese producer, for reasons of their own, speak as comic racial stereotypes, daring readers to abandon the book.

Takeaway: Pointedly outrageous satire of reality TV and influencer culture.

Comparable Titles: Mark E. Greene’s Lobster Wars, Nick Lennon-Barrett’s Reality Bites.

Production grades
Cover: C
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: B

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This brisk, engaging novel of the aftermath of the first World War finds two young American men, Beau Shipley from Charleston and the half-Quebecois Caleb “Keeby” Styles, facing the question of how to go on with life after injury and existential terror in the trenches. Paris ignites something in both men, as Beau fumbles, at first, to reconcile his new interest in painting with his responsibilities back in the States. Keeby falls in with a Left Bank Bolshevik collective, penning articles for a revolutionary broadsheet—"The poorest and most destitute among Paris’s denizens would become his muses,” notes Helms (author of Holy City, among many others.) As Keeby discovers a wild new life among the minds shaping the century, Caleb, back home, faces his wealthy father’s expectations, the tragedy that has befallen the woman he considers his true love, and an America shaken by the Spanish Flu and Prohibition.

At the heart of Helms’s novel are questions of what to make of new possibilities and dreads in a world shattered by war at an industrial scale. Helms relishes the dishy pleasures of Paris salon culture, imagining sharp, inspired colloquies with Stein, Pound, Rimbaud, and more, but rather than simple celebrity cameos these encounters suggest the new ways of living, seeing, and creating now open to Caleb and Keeby. A vital thread about a film adaptation of a book by Keeby reveals the accelerated rate of change in culture, tech, and mores.

The drama is intimately personal as Beau finds himself exemplifying a lost generation. A South Carolina seething with racism no longer feels like home, but rousing moments of discovery as an artist—"the world collapsed into only three entities—the church, the light, and the paint”—and the frisson of new ideas offer liberation. Despite themes of trauma and suicide, the storytelling is fleet and crisp, the prose as pleasurable as the “croissants and Normandy butter and sweet French fruit preserves” that break these characters’ fasts.

Takeaway: Moving novel of the lost generation of soldiers and artists in Paris after WWI.

Comparable Titles: Liza Klaussmann’s Villa Americana, Malcolm Cowley’s Exile’s Return.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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