“A daily dose of prayer activates God’s purpose for our lives,” writes Pastor Murthlene Sampson in her exuberant and fervent Paw-Lal’ (Hebrew for “to pray”). In the tradition of such prosperity theologians as Oral Roberts and Joel Osteen, this book is at once a 31-day daily devotional and an impassioned plea to be courageous in […]

In Once Below a Time, Glynn Baugher recounts growing up in a large, poor family in rural Virginia in the 1940s and ’50s. Underlying these personal details is the rich topography of Greene County, its wooded hills and plentiful streams overlooked by the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Born in 1943, Baugher roots his memoir in rural […]

The short stories and poetry in this collection burst with edginess and anger, like a throbbing release of testosterone exploded onto the page. While such unfiltered emotion can make for immersive reading in some authors’ hands, in this case, several factors impede comprehension and enjoyment.

It’s nearly impossible to summarize the plots of the short […]

In AA Freda’s decade-spanning romance novel, rescue and the search for redemption shape the lives of Anthony, Angel, and the people around them.

Anthony meets Angel when he spots her about to get into trouble as an anti-Vietnam War protest in New York City deteriorates into violence between protestors and police. Anthony’s need to save […]

This picture book for early readers tells the story of a bird and dog that become friends.

Narrated by a brown dog named Chicoree’s Hickory Doc (a German Shorthaired Pointer), the story begins one day at Lazy Dog Hacienda when a young black crow with vision problems falls from the sky and lands on Doc’s […]

Fred Sievert’s Grace Revealed examines how God’s unmerited favor transforms hopelessness into peace, restores joy to the brokenhearted and ignites a desire to pay it all forward.

Sievert tackles the sobering reality that life can get ugly and out of control, leaving us confused, damaged and lost. While some trudge along forever burdened by the […]

Joel M. Levin’s Beyond the Sea of Life on a Bridge Called Why is a sort of philosophical investigation of existential questions presented in an imaginative literary format.

Using the metaphor of life as a voyage, Levin imagines a series of individual passengers on a timeless and imaginary vessel, recounting their experiences as immigrants to […]

Datta Groover’s Different is an absorbing, inspirational novel that explores marital conflict, secrets, a family at risk, and the special abilities of a borderline autistic child who doesn’t speak.

The MacBrides seem to be a typical Oregon couple with three children. Frank, who works at Lake Oswego Public Works, is known as “the pump whisperer,” […]

Equity markets veteran Brian M. Nelson sets forth his analytical framework for evaluating stocks in Value Trap: Theory of Universal Valuation.

Value Trap describes the evolution and underpinnings of Nelson’s quest to identify appropriate empirical evidence for financial analysis of stocks. Interspersed with anecdotes from Nelson’s career, ranging from his beginnings as an […]

Mexico-based novelist M.S. Holm’s Off The Well-Lit Path is a spare, violent literary thriller that delivers an intense and utterly absorbing reading experience.

The story focuses on widowed ex-soldier and retired pilot Bob Rugg, who is taking his 13-year-old daughter Rose to the beach at Mazatlán. They’re ambushed by a crew of gangsters […]