God’s Pool in Particle Park by Daniel Boyd
God’s Pool in Particle Park is where magical realism infuses the down-on-its-luck town of Nottus, West Virginia, and its citizens. The town’s librarian, Tate, purchases an old book, Somewhere Behind, a Depression-era tale of refugees Gray and Sarah, who are fleeing the chaos of the nation’s capital. Tate’s reading is interrupted by the appearance of Elsie, who died in 1932 while reading the same book. Elsie cannot rest her soul until she has completed the book. As she and Tate read together, romance unfurls—one in God’s Pool and one in Somewhere Behind. Ruby, a small little angel of a girl, tries to keep her mother alive while in the background a mysterious scientist is building a particle accelerator to bring a new kind of energy to the world. Or is he? Nottus becomes a place of fantastical magic with a wild cast of characters: Constable 12-Gage, doctors Wonderland and Jackson, river pirates, and grandfatherly Frank, a peddler who may be orchestrating the whole shebang.
Self-Portrait in Apologies and Other Essays by Sarah Einstein
What makes us nostalgic? What thoughtful ghosts from our pasts haunt our imaginations – and our intellects? Sarah Einstein’s Self-Portrait in Apologies explores past mistakes as well as the many different kinds of love that need no apology. These fourteen essays contemplate loneliness and companionship, regret and desire, uncertainty, and wisdom, revealing the depths of a life richly lived. Self-Portrait in Apologies charts both love and loss with a sharp mind, a generous heart, and an eye for the dark beauties of a dappled life.