The Used Marketplace
Sarah Freedom, the free daughter of two enslaved people stolen from Fante-land in Africa, has seen and heard a lot in her time. Now, on the cusp of the American Civil War, the practiced storyteller sets down further chapters of her life and the histories of those around her. There are the peregrinations of Caesar, the Shawnee warrior with African ancestry who fought against the Americans in the War of 1812 and rescued Sarah and her brothers from slavery. There … Read the rest
In this story set in 4000 B.C.E. in what is now southeastern Europe, Naya is the 14-year-old daughter of Potis, the chief of her clan. She chafes against traditional rules, wishing for the freedom that the boys in her tribe are afforded. An encounter with a wild, red filly, which appears to telepathically communicate with her, secures the girl’s belief she’s meant for something more—but she must also convince her family. Her grandmother proclaims the quest Naya’s “soul journey,” but … Read the rest
Ben Taylor grows up in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, a place “where distances are measured in hours instead of miles.” His father, Bob, is a farmer fallen on hard times. Bob turns to selling moonshine to make ends meet, a desperate and dangerous attempt during the Prohibition years to avoid selling his family’s land. But once the Depression hits and Bob dies in a freak accident, Ben is forced to join the United States Civilian Conservation Corps. There, he … Read the rest
It’s 1870 at the beginning of Siniscalchi’s novel, and Griffin Maxwell has spent 12 years in Oporto transforming his uncle’s small trading firm into “the fastest growing port company in the city.” He only needs to secure a partnership with another company to restore his family’s status to what it had been in London before his father’s death. When John Croft, the successful merchant he has been courting for months, finally agrees to partner with Griffin, he is ecstatic. But … Read the rest
In an interesting narrative gambit, physicist and engineer Fiekowsky, who writes his nonfiction debut with Douglis, invites readers to imagine the future of Earth under what current-day climate specialists routinely refer to as the best-case scenario: Humanity comes together to bring the world’s net carbon emissions to zero by 2050. As Fiekowsky points out, this would still result in a nightmare world of barren (and menacingly rising) oceans and many millions of “climate refugees” fleeing their native countries—because even if … Read the rest
“Maybe death is not the worst thing?” So a friend asked Quinn, a thought that led her to ponder what might be worse—or better. Diagnosed with glioblastoma, a once-rare but increasingly common form of brain cancer, the author places her illness in the context of 2020, when bad news on the pandemic, the economy, and politics filled the newspapers. “I guess none of us have been living in ‘normal’ times,” she writes, with what proves to be characteristic … Read the rest