The last time we sold a house was 40 years ago, so we were unfamiliar with the current concept of “staging a house” before selling it. When our youngest daughter and husband mentioned staging their house, we thought live music and refreshments might be involved. Wrong again.

Staging a house means you declutter, deep clean and enter all your...Read more

To say Bill Ehnert appreciates women is an understatement. Whatever female strays into his peripheral vision, he sees through his own particular pair of rose-colored glasses, which makes Ken Rossal’s newest novel, "Wither Creek," a joyous and libidinous ride.

Starting out at 16, living in Smalltown America, Rossal’s everyman first falls in ...Read more

Michael Bienenstock’s "Love and Hope Have No Borders" is a rare novel that manages to be intimate and expansive at once. Told through the eyes of Joe Gold, a young Jewish medical student from New York, the book follows his reluctant journey to a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, where his internship through Doctors Without Borders becomes much ...Read more

Imagine a covert operative enhanced by microscopic technology, only to discover the very tools that empower her might also be used to control her.

This is the exhilarating premise of Edward L.E. Phont’s "The Hidden Pulse," a high-octane blend of science fiction and thriller that grabs hold from page one. Set in the near future, the novel ...Read more

Turquoise colors the early morning sky as a granddaughter and I leave the house for a doughnut run. We turn out of the neighborhood, zip past the strip mall, clear two stop lights, lean into a roundabout and begin cruising a lovely stretch of road bordered by magnificent estate homes with manicured lawns and swimming pools.

My backseat ...Read more

What do risk-adjusted returns, beta coefficients and strategic exits have in common with romance? According to Desi Duncker, quite a bit.

In his book "Asset Management: Relationship Lessons from Corporate Finance (and Other Fields)," Duncker draws an unlikely — but utterly compelling — line between boardrooms and bedrooms, offering readers ...Read more

Whether your kid heads to soccer drills, pottery painting or a week of themed chaos at the local rec center, summer camp comes with sunshine, socializing and plenty of opportunities for scraped knees and soggy sneakers.

If you haven’t peeked inside your kid’s backpack lately, you might be missing a few essentials that can make (or totally ...Read more

If you’ve ever felt discouraged or defeated by diet and fitness fads or overwhelmed by the ever-growing sea of contradictory advice about weight loss, "Do It Yourself Weight Management" by Kouros F. might be the guide you didn’t know you needed.

This isn’t a book about quick fixes and overhyped results. It’s written for the rest of us �...Read more

I may be only one bag of Miracle-Gro away from going officially overboard on the whole garden thing this year. I blame it all on a long, hard winter. My survival kit during snowbound months with no sun and sub-zero temps consisted of chocolate and mail-order seeds.

Starting seeds indoors was how I convinced myself winter would one day pass and ...Read more

Mary Alice Monroe’s latest novel, "Where the Rivers Merge," is a gorgeous read, one of those historical novels that sweeps you up into a time and a place so real and lush you feel you’re there, with a compelling storyline to make you stay.

This captivating multigenerational saga of a wealthy South Carolina family and its land centers on a ...Read more

In "Child of Silence: A Blessing in Disguise," H. Allen Benowitz gives readers a deeply personal and boldly honest memoir of a life endured through adversity, transformed by resilience, and uplifted by love, creativity, and purpose. With vivid prose and reflection, Benowitz chronicles a journey that begins in silence. Born as the son of deaf ...Read more

What happens when you give two adventurous octogenarians a Class C motorhome, a loaded itinerary and 15,642 miles of North American wilderness? You get "Ride With Us! 15,642 Miles, Seventy Nights Camping," a memoir by Sportyman (the husband’s pseudonym) that’s equal parts travelogue, survival journal and a love letter to both RV culture and ...Read more

Get a group of women together and chances are they will talk about relationships. And shoes. More specifically, relationships with shoes.

The conversations are about shoes somebody loves, shoes somebody used to love (but broke up with due to plantar fasciitis), and shoes somebody dreams of meeting in the future.

These are women in crisis ...Read more

In "Masters of War" by John H. Thomas, ex-Army Ranger turned cybercrime investigator Maxx King hoped he could recover quietly from his last deadly mission, but fate has other plans. When gunmen ambush Maxx and his loved ones in broad daylight, he finds himself reluctantly pulled back into a covert conflict between the United States and China.

...Read more

Some stories hook you with a single high‑octane scene; others sneak up on you, weaving a spell page by page until you suddenly realize it’s well past midnight and you’re still reading.

Gary R. Hamilton’s "Daydreamers" belongs in the second camp, and the spell it casts is steeped in the music, food and folklore of a fictional ...Read more

A dangerous cult spreading medical disinformation targets Dr. Mark Lin’s patients and hospital in Anthony Lee’s electric medical thriller, "Toxic Minds."

In the sophomore entry of his sleuthing physician series, Lee ratchets up the stakes when Lin takes a call from his patient seeking additional services in the OB/GYN clinic next to Ivory ...Read more

The morning after a storm that snapped tree branches, sent people to their basements and trash cans to the curbs, I was sitting in a line of traffic adjacent to a small family-owned garden store.

A woman out front of the garden shop struggled to untangle flagpole ropes twisted in the storm. Hunched over in an awkward position, she couldn’t ...Read more

In a world increasingly fractured by political ideologies, cultural conflict and racial tension, many are searching for more than slogans — they’re looking for healing rooted in grace and shared humanity. This curated collection of books speaks directly to that hunger. Each work is grounded in a spiritually-based approach to reconciliation, ...Read more

To prepare for her first half-marathon, Kandi Schmitz signed up for a 5K run. Six friends and family members decided to join her.

The race was in Melbourne, Florida, a two-hour drive from Schmitz's home in Loxahatchee, near West Palm Beach. So she decided to make a beach getaway out of it. By the time hotel reservations were made, the entourage...Read more

In Linny Mack’s debut novel "Changing Tides," that’s exactly what happens to Sophie Bennett — and it’s the very wave that might carry her toward a new beginning. Mack delivers an emotionally charged neighbors-to-lovers romance that proves some endings can lead to beautiful beginnings.

The novel opens on an earth-shattering revelation: ...Read more