The Eric Hoffer Award for Books
The US Review of Books supports the Eric Hoffer Project by publishing the results of the annual Eric Hoffer Award for Books. The Eric Hoffer Award is judged by a separate panel, under direction of the Eric Hoffer Project, and is not influenced by The US Review of Books. We simply publish their results each year, and therefore the following commentary cannot be attributed as an official review from The US Review of Books. Instead, the Eric Hoffer Project respectfully requests that you give fair use when quoting their award winners. Please use "-The Eric Hoffer Award."
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The Eric Hoffer Award honors the memory of the great American philosopher Eric Hoffer. In addition to the grand prize, Hoffer honors are bestowed by press type and category, and also through the Montaigne Medal, da Vinci Eye, and First Horizon Award. Coverage of the the Hoffer is updated in May when the results are released to the public. You can view the Hoffer Award announcement schedule on their official website in the spring. They also post a grand prize short list of finalists. We publish their list of category finalists with links to the books we've reviewed in our pages.
2026 Eric Hoffer Book Award
CATEGORY AWARDS
Adult Fiction
Nonfiction/Trade
E-Book
Legacy
Hoffer Grand Prize
The Eric Hoffer grand prize is the highest distinction awarded each year.
A Story to Tell: From Single to Surrender, Tina Rastelli, Single to Surrender – Rastelli begins with her journey of betrayal caused by her husband's affair, which was uncovered by chance just a few days after the birth of their second child. In an instant, the dream is shattered. Following an attempt to salvage the marriage yet ending in divorce, the author leans on her faith, while struggling to raise two young daughters as a single mother. Situations get much better when she trusts in God's leading, but quickly turn sour when she does the opposite. Time passes before she recovers enough to consider marrying again. The author shares openly about praying for guidance in her desire for a loving, faithful husband, who will also be a good father for her children. There is a worldly world, and there is a spiritual world. The path we decide to take will determine the results. Many of the same challenges will arise along both paths, but again the results and the experience will be different depending on where we search for answers. Rastelli finds success learning to seek His will in all decisions. The narrative is relatable, clearly written, and sincere without becoming didactic or saccharine: "This was the very spot God wanted me in at that moment." This is a timeless story yet ripe for uncertain times.
Montaigne Medal
The Montaigne Medal is awarded to the most thought-provoking books. (The Eric Hoffer Award provides no specific commentary about Montaigne Medal finalists, but they are listed on their official website.)
Human Again: In the AI Age, J.D. Macpherson, Cairnstone Press – AI is now baked into much of everyday involvement with in the digital world. Economies are destined to change as employers cut costs by replacing jobs with AI efficiency. If effort is no longer strictly associated with the value of a work product, how do workers navigate this strange new world? This book is a guide to using AI as a partner or a "mental amplifier" for nearly any task performed on a screen. Such a partnership requires know-how and practice. Macpherson explains how to craft prompts that create the friction necessary for an AI assistant to accurately assess a project, rather than respond with praise, self-serving, or ordinary solutions. Tips provide guidance toward relevant answers by creating context within the prompts provided. If one begins with the end product in mind, we can engineer specific and effective prompts, leading toward an effective result. This book will help people to become confident about using AI, rather than being intimidated by the change.
Sustained: Grieving in the Hands of Jesus, Hanna Marmalich, Westbow Publishers – Marmalich shares her grief over the death of her mother in this honest deep dive into faith and healing. After many prayers for her mother, who was a woman of faith, she dies regardless, which initially but not uncommonly touches off a flood of anger and regret. The author, who is also a Christian, writes of how the grief comes in waves, even as God promises to walk with us. She mourns the empty house of her childhood, the emptiness of exchanging fresh flowers for the wilted ones at the gravestone, the tears that sometimes refuse her control, and of course the actions left undone and words left unsaid. Death surprises us all, and after the shock and pain, Marmalich lets her anger toward God over her mother's untimely death dissipate, until she discovers the godliness in our ever–multifaceted Lord who can steward a beloved departed soul home, while simultaneously guiding the grieving toward peace and a deeper understanding of His magnificence. This is a very personal yet universal testimony of the comfort and wisdom found in God's presence.
da Vinci Eye
The da Vinci Eye is awarded to books with superior cover artwork. (The Eric Hoffer Award provides no specific commentary about da Vinci Eye finalists, but they are listed on their official website.)
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all children, Shabnam Puryaei, Diode Editions (cover by Law Alsobrook, Alefes Silva artwork) |
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Bind Me Tighter Still, Lara Ehrlich, Ren Hen Press (cover by Heidi Stiles, Renee Robyn photography) - Winner of the Best Small Press Award |
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Flowers That Grow on Graves, K.F. Black, Black Hollow Publishing (cover by Xavier Comas at Cover Kitchen) |
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Land Shadows, R.J. Striegel, OIN Publishing (cover by Othman Zidane) |
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Michael Richards: Are You Down?, Alex Fialho and Melissa Levin (editors), Co-published by the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (Michael Richards artwork) |
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The Adventures of Mrs. Crockess and Ivy, Julia Kolouch, Miriam Laundry Publishing (cover by Petros Bouloubasis) |
First Horizon Award
The First Horizon Award is given to superior work by debut authors. (The Eric Hoffer Award provides no specific commentary about First Horizon Award finalists, but they are listed on their official website.)
A Story to Tell, Tina Rastelli, singletosurrender.com - winner of the Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize
American Animism, Jamey Gallagher, Cornerstone Press - winner of the Best Academic Press award
Be the Captain, James Evenson, Zingaro Publishing - winner of the Best Self-Published Book Award
Cinnamon Soul, Quinn Lawrence, Fondence City Press - winner of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category
Displaced, Jocelyn Kerr, Live Write Publishing - winner of the Memoir category
Find Me When You're Ready, Perry Janes, Northwest University Press - winner of the Poetry category
Joyosity, Jenn Whitmer, Ideapress Publishing - winner of the Self-Help category
No Woman Left Behind, Kate Grant, She Writes Press - winner of the Culture category
Parents of Starseeds, Moana Leanne Kirikino, BalboaPressAU - winner of the Home category
Sashé Boudreaux, Coco McQ, Sand Dollar Press - winner of the Commercial Fiction category
The Cage and the Mirror, Jeremy McEntire, Cage & Mirror Publishing - winner of the Business category
The Dreamer, Linda Patricia Cleary - winner of the Young Adult category
Towards a Retreat, Samaa Abdurraqib, Diode Editions - winner of the Chapbook category
Unfinished Acts of Wild Creation, Sarah Yahm, Dzanc Books - winner of the General Fiction category
Water of the Sky, Miya Ando with Joan Halifax, The MIT Press - winner of the Art category
Medal Provocateur
The Medal Provocateur is given to to the best on the frontier of poetry—the experimental, the innovative, the daring and stunning, the impromptu in technique and voice.. (The Eric Hoffer Award provides no specific commentary about Medal Provocateur finalists, but they are listed on their official website.)
Agrippina the Younger, Diana Arterian, Northwestern University Press/Curbstone - Its bold, strong, feminist voice defies definition and, at times, even category. The poems are rife with fierce determination, stalwart defiance, and an awareness of the powerlessness and exhaustion that agonizes some females. Agrippina's story holds the audience from the first page until the last. The poetry carefully traces her existence, and, despite her noble standing, her erasure. Simultaneous, these poems dissect and scrutinize the patriarchy, and they beg the question: What progress has been made? Shifting forms and structures combine with eloquent, poignant lyricism to intensify the emotional sharp tugs and deep pulls. Most of all, this is a call for recognition and justice, by examining how many women are erased from historical and societal memory.
Planetaria, Monica Ong, Proxima Vera – Breathtaking constellations of images and words predominate. These visual poems transcend the times they bring to life by fully engaging the senses in their grand delicacy of word, color, and image. A diaspora is juxtaposed with what endures in the Chinese zodiac. A pandemic haircut marks time. The poet reveals both elements of traditional Chinese heritage and her bold defiance of expectation. These poems embody both striking economy and a ripeness of image that masterfully reveal the poet's careful mapping of her universe. In "Star Gazer" the narrator notes: "In dream revision home is/ woven from sky not skin." The visuals hold their poems in glimpses of the myth and magic of all time, ever-present in our time.
Academic Press Award
The Academic Press Award is given to a book from a press with an educational institution affiliation, such as a college, library, or museum.
American Animism: Stories, Jamey Gallagher, Cornerstone Press - Gallagher that blends realism with a touch of magical realism. This collection introduces diverse characters, some trying to make sense of their situations, others leaning into who they are or who they want to be. Each narrative and character is accessible and almost charming until undermined by an edgy or dark element, leaving just enough of an enigma to move each element along, leaving us with a wanting just a little more. New worlds emerge in the pages populated by a characters. The settings are palpable and the issues are real. From a cryptid museum to a wolf haven and then a support group at an elementary school each venue offers an invitation to wrestle with the complexities of life.
Small Press Award
The Small Press Award is given to a book from a press producing twenty-five books or more per year.
Bind Me Tighter Still, Lara Ehrlich, Ren Hen Press – Ceto lives in the sea with her siren sisters, luring unwary sailors to their death. As their lives ebb from them, she drinks deeply of their joys and their sorrows, tasting what it means to be human. But in time this alone cannot satisfy. Trading tail for legs, she embarks upon a life on land. But human life is not what she'd imagined it would be, for there's always a cost, and she soon rebuilds a shadow empire of the sea in Sirenland, a seaside mermaid burlesque. Ceto's empire flourishes, but her daughter does not. Naia, now 15, born of both sea and land, has her own developing hunger, her own yearnings. And her mother's world begins to feel as constricting to Naia, as Ceto'’s life in the sea once felt to her.
Micro Press Award
The Micro Press Award is given to a book from a press producing twenty-four books or less per year.
There is Room in a Horse for the Whole Boy, Barbara Saunier, Grand River Poetry Press – Readers may return to this collection for the joy of it—its unique and powerful voice, and the remarkable perceptions and revelations of the speaker. Its technical excellence makes it highly readable, yet complex and surprising, with a thorough engagement with the natural world. Through exceptional artistry, Saunier elevates the most ordinary things to importance through imagery, which flows through the prose with ease, allowing one to feel more alive and appreciate each experience, to help us truly see what is invisible without the poet's eye.
Self-Published Award
The Self-Published Award is given to a book that was financed by the author and/or not by the publisher, regardless of press size.
Be the Captain: A Field Manual, James Evenson, Zingaro Publishing – From the first sentences, "This book is not about sailing. It's about leadership," the author makes it clear that the captain is not only the person who makes the crucial decisions, s/he is also is also the person who must know everything is ship–shape before leaving the berth. Some things are obvious. The crew needs fresh water, food, and a first aid kit, but how much and what kind? And there are other concerns s/he must be able to cope with, such as how to cope with movement fatigue, which is different from sea–sickness, and how to "survive in a tiny space without losing your mind." Morale is as important as knowing how to steer in a storm. Concise, accessible, and at times stern, and with definitions along with checklists, the book gives straight–forward advice to old salts as well as the beginner: Sailing is enjoyable but can also be lethal for the unprepared and the unskilled, as evidenced by the author's sometimes harrowing anecdotes.
Art
The Art category captures the experience, execution, or demonstration of the arts, including art, fine art, graphic art, architecture, design, photography, and coffee table books.
Winner
Water of the Sky: A Dictionary of 2,000 Japanese Rain Words, Miya Ando with Joan Halifax, The MIT Press – John Updike once wrote, "Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life." Artist Ando’s art collection focuses on the impermanence or transience of nature, most specifically for this collection—the uncapturable nature of rain. Yet Ando does just that in over 100 paintings from a larger collection of 2,000 that span the hours, days, and seasons like a shifting Buddhist mediation, while taking in the scope and nuance of the Japanese lexicon for rain. This sample, will make you want to see all her remaining works.
First Runner-Up
Fragments of Light: A Medley of Vision & Verse, Robert Feist - Photographs are all about the eye, a grip on a shifting moment that somehow speaks of the whole. Due to the icy contrast of each photo, Feist’s art becomes haunting. The subject matter is predominantly nature or man’s footprint within it. Color renditions intersperse among the many edgy black and whites that achieve a silver tone in their rendering. Prose supports these depictions—sometimes a reflection, other times a mere explanation of the moment—but the photos pull a reverse, asserting their dominance by delivering their own stories and making the words optional within this superb collection.
Honorable Mentions
100 Objects from the Collections of the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research, Stefanie Halpern, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research – Often archives become sheltered, hidden places—random access points for researchers who understand what that they are seeking before they arrive. Halpern attempts to bring the YIVO Institute collection into the sun for all, but attempting to bracket an entire archive is a breathtaking task. She nails it by organizing the art and artifacts of the Jewish people into ten distinct categories, from beliefs and customs, through the arts, and societal impact, forming historical and cultural timelines that cuts in several directions at once. In the end, the sampled objects within shed light on the places where we’ve all lived.
Coloring the White House, Kyle Dugdale, The White House Historical Association - For whatever cultural or psychological reasons, coloring books have become things for adults. This gorgeous assembly of original line drawings of The White House, commissioned in the early 1900s by the National Park Service, likely surpasses the comprehension of a preschooler, and that's a good thing. It offers various history and reproductions of this famous building and its surrounding property. On the right side are the colored images and narrative, including palette suggestions, and on the left the line drawing consumes the page, begging for someone to fill in. If you're good at your choices and deft execution, you could rip any picture from this spiral bound artist pad and have them framed.
Knowy Chloe and the Netherlandish Proverbs' Plan for Life, Jeanne Farewell, Puddingdale Press - Bruegel's famous 1559 painting, "Netherlandish Proverbs," is a satiric romp through man's folly. Thus it becomes the fictional material for Farewell, who guides a quest-like Chole through the preponderance of fractional images depicted within, offering interconnected encounters with Bruegel’s hapless cast and their attempts at worldly satisfaction. Like the painting itself, the story becomes a maze that Chloe must escape, but for the reader, it's Bruegel’s satire in words and an opportunity to laugh at our own futility if not mortality itself.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
Chapbook
The Chapbook category contains books with 40 pages or less, with typically some form of saddle stitch binding and/or artistic assembly.
Winner
Towards a Retreat, Samaa Abdurraqib, Diode Editions – Vastly experimental and psychologically jarring, Abdurraqib explores how close one’s ancestors reside to them despite modernity’s trappings. These poems are rooted in natural imagery and an authentic voice. Due to their structural and linguistic experimentation, they defy categorization. These poems are part meditative prayer, part intellectual rage, and part space for deep thinking due to their precision and rhythm. This book invites its readers into its conversations about environment, identity, and place and asks them to not merely read, but to engage and converse—not only with the poems—but also with themselves in order to achieve a level of self-understanding.
First Runner-Up
Year of the Sheep, Stacey Park, YesYes Books – This bold and innovative collection houses a fearless speaker, innovative forms, and myriad conversations about the self, identity, and the ever-changing dynamics of balancing two cultures and languages. These poems cycle and cycle through questions about immigration and assimilation and belong in a world and a society hellbent on conformity. While simultaneously exploring self-preservation and the various mechanisms one uses to preserve who they are in the face of adversity, the speaker returns to the ancestral "we," finding strength and guidance for living their own self-determined life. This collection is a love song to immigrant life in all its forms.
Honorable Mentions
After the Floating Barn, Josh Gaines and Ben Clark, North Dakota State University Press – These philosophical poems are as rugged and wild as the plains and landscapes that feature so prominently within them. Elegiac and haunting, Gaines and Clark explore how a single barn and the land on which it is built can transform lives and become a sacred entity. What is most intriguing about these poems is their inspiration: two poets write collaboratively as they live rustically and grittily in a farmhouse occupied by mice and raccoons. These poems serve as a testament to the ever-changing land, plants, and animals that too often form the backdrop to one's life when, realistically, they are intertwined with and inseparable from one's own daily existence.
Elegies of Herons, Sarah Wetzel, Black Sunflowers Poetry Press – The speaker's grief after losing a friend centers each poem, but nature offers the healing touch that guides the speaker through their healing journey. This poetic exploration of the natural world offers hope, grace, and meditative spaces. Owls, hawks, sparrows, swifts, and even dandelions receive their rightful odes and respect in these verses. Herons stand as a measure of human experience and time. Nature's cycles mirror the speaker's pain journey. These poems testify to the myriad wild spaces can become sanctuaries for loss, giving us pause and time to observe, to quiet ourselves and listen to what nature offers.
Children's
The Children's category is for young children's books, including stories and picture books.
Winner
A Million YES's, DJ Corchin, Dan Dougherty (illustrator), The phazelFOZ Company – This uniquely illustrated book introduces a young girl who carefully builds an exciting plan composed of the word "yes," represented as physical objects. As her friends approach her with various requests and needs, she readily hands over her "yes" items to help them. This pattern continues until they are all gone, leaving her feeling empty and unable to fulfill her original plan. She learns that true friendship does not require total self-sacrifice, and after she refills her own supply, she then teaches her friends on how to make their own yes's. This metaphor demonstrates how preserving one's personal well-being ultimately allows for more positive relationships with others.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
First Runner-Up
Nellie's Island, TK Sheffield, Making Hay Press – A very small pony grows tired of always being left behind on her farm. Looking for a better life, she travels to a beautiful island famous for its giant draft horses and busy carriage rides. At first, she worries that she is too tiny to fit in among the massive animals, but then quickly proves her worth, using her speed and a friendly nature to earn the trust of the islanders. She takes on special jobs, like giving rides to brides at weddings and explores famous landmarks along the way. This is a warm message about believing in yourself and finding your own special place in the world. The book uses simple language and bright pictures to show that even the smallest characters have a large impact.
Honorable Mentions
A Maker of Dresses, Violet Lemay, Michael Sampson, Brown Books Kids – Alexis is an energetic little girl who dreams of working and living her life in the fashion industry when she grows up. Through upbeat and descriptive rhyme, she reveals her plans to be a dressmaker. She begins by describing clothes for the seasons and then different outfits she will make each day, from sportswear to dresses and clothing for babies. She even includes plans for dogs, birds, reptiles, and wild animals. Finally, Sunday is her day off from making dresses, but not a day off from fashion. The colorful illustrations are engaging, playful, and fun.
A Puppy's Tale, Grant Merritt, Elena Ciolacu (illustrator), Grant Merritt Publishing - The book follows a young boy named Evan and his puppy, Achilles, as they grow up side by side, forming a bond that endures throughout his youth. From the playful early days filled with curiosity and energy to quieter moments as Achilles ages, their relationship evolves and changes during the life of the German Shepherd. As Achilles ages, the tone of the story shifts, introducing the reality of growing old and the sadness, but peace, in having to say goodbye. The author presents these stages clearly, pointing out that the friendship teaches the boy to treasure the little things and love unconditionally.
Endangered Animals ABC, Rinat D Medalsy, Kesem Books – This is a spectacular book about endangered wildlife presented to young readers. It starts off using the ABC's to share different animals that are on the brink of extinction. Beautiful drawings illustrate each animal. The first part of the book is simply the letter of the alphabet with a picture of the animal. Then it explains the list of endangered animals and how people are working hard to keep them safe. It has facts for parents to read and share with their children as well. Finally, it has a map of the world and shows where many of the endangered animals are from.
Grandma's Bucket of Mercy, Robin Carole, Sally Fantasia and Aimee Croteau (illustrators), MindStir Media Children – With touches of nostalgia and sentimentality, Carole promotes kindness and mercy even when it is not earned or deserved. A young girl travels to visit her grandma each summer where she is encouraged to gift the grandma's grumpy neighbor a bucket of various vegetables and fruits. Always anonymous, these gifts are given despite the neighbor being unkind. Eventually the granddaughter learns just how much these gifts have meant to the old man. Along with the importance of mercy, the author shares lessons on manners and cooking, as well as wisdom from the grandma who always has something new to teach her granddaughter.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
I, Too, Am Here, Morgan Christie, Second Story Press - A young girl listens to her family’s stories of what it was like to make this country their home. Her grandmother remembers the way the moonlight looked different on these shores, and her father recalls what it was like to see snow for the first time. They have painful memories, as well, of being told they did not belong and should go back to wherever they came from. Her mother reflects on her own childhood in the Jim Crow South, growing up without the same rights as others. The young girl does not yet understand these struggles. However, when a classmate won’t hold her hand because of the color of her skin, the girl feels the pain of not belonging. Her mother then shares the poem, "I, Too," by Langston Hughes and inspires the girl to feel beautiful, loved, and proud.
Sleeping Giants, Sarah Doran, Angelina Davis (illustrator) – This is a celebration of military service through the lens of a child. Our protagonist follows his mother, a lead aircraft mechanic, through a military base to the helicopter hangar where he first lays eyes on the "sleeping giants." His imagination takes him and his cat companion on many fictional adventures in each of the different helicopters that his mother is servicing. During one such adventure, his helicopter—flanked by dragons and paper airplanes—is in dire need of a mechanic's support. Luckily, his mother saves the day, and he returns safely home from his flight of imagination with gratitude and pride for his mother's military service.
Middle Reader
The Middle Reader category is aimed toward the pre-teen market, including chapter books.
Winner
When the Sky Turned to Dust, Catherine Matthias, Moon Glow Books – Matthias follows the life of the Dolan family, living in Kansas during the Great Depression and facing life-altering dust storms. This places each family member in danger, especially the youngest child who requires help to get the dust out of her lungs. Because of this, the mother decides to take the baby and go to a city, far away from her family. Left behind are the father, a nine year old boy, and his twelve year old sister. Written from the point of view of the girl, she vividly describes how they struggle with the elements, bond, and even grieve in order to succeed in the drought and devastation of the 1930s.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
First Runner-Up
Rats with Backpacks, J.N. Courtney, J. N. Courtney Publications - Filled with colorful photographs and drawings, this short book with large pages introduces scientist Dr. Donna Kean from a global non-profit dedicated to saving lives and improving the environment with the help of animals, as well as the important work of RescueRATs. Dr. Kean journeys to the Belgian organization APOPO—Anti-Personnel Landmines Detection Product Development—that works with African giant pouched rats. These rats are raised and trained to work with scientists to detect certain smells, such as landmines or tuberculosis, and perform life saving search and rescue missions.
Honorable Mentions
Legends of the Twin Dragons: The Prophecy of Gemini, Brian John Skillen, Publishing Hackers - Shiloh and Link Jones are on an archeological dig with their uncle in Egypt when they are caught in a sandstorm. When the storm passes, they find themselves in Altiniya, where they meet Pen and Alithia, his dragon. Here everyone has a dragon, and discovering it identifies your personality type. The only thing worse than Shiloh's dragon not appearing at her summoning ceremony is everyone finding out that her and Link are twins! Are they the twins the ancient prophecy foretold? To uncover these answers, they must first face the desert perils, escape the gladiator arena, and not succumb to the dragonless Laka who aims to take their lives.
Red and Me, Terry Lee Caruthers, Star Bright Books - Set in rural Tennessee during the Great Depression, Caruthers'’ historical novel begins with a 10-year old girl who helps her family with household and farm chores. Her care and innocence are brought out as she completes tasks throughout the story, but during a time in town, she catches a glimpse of a dog, which transforms this tale into one of a child and dog. The bond between them becomes charming, while at the same time historical themes, issues of animal cruelty, and even racial injustice emerge. In the end, the girl perseveres with friendship, loyalty, and a caring spirit.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
Poetry
The Poetry category contains poetry or highly stylized prose.
Winner
Find Me When You're Ready, Perry Janes, Northwestern University Press - Janes' narrator is wildly explorative, urgently seeking, and energetically examining his own history, perception, and true nature. Each entry is an act of deconstruction, often zooming in on microscopic images that stand in for larger wholes, as in "blunt-head tick," "holy eggs," "fish flies," "dried husk chrysalis," "the roaches and the rock salt," "a dozen sheep wait[ing] on the slaughterhouse floor," or how "laundromats open their damp mouths to gargle with coins." Janes' speaker claims he can "lance blood from any ear with a whisper" and hear "the little bells of a restless night ring before arrival," and we believe him. We plunge gladly into the meticulously articulated world both outside and inside of this narrator whose poetry is an act of public discovery. We feel discovered too, wanting, as the speaker does, to "hold the teacup handle of [our] partner's wrist and not to feel for fractures." Through humor and unflinching honesty, Janes uses language as a bulwark against confusion and diminishment—entertaining and beautiful.
First Runner-Up
First You Must Destroy the World, Claudia Saleeby Savage, First Matter Press - This collection feels like a blend of verse, music, and visual art. Words and symbols explode across pages as Savage explores negative space and challenges us to see the landscape of each poem as a unique country, its form unfurling like a flag. The poems detonate like bomb, singing requiems. Savage confronts decades of war and the horrors of living in the 21st-century's 24-hour news cycle. Each piece breathes hot fire, hisses like a snake, swallows like glass, cradles us, nurses us, and sings to and with us. Savage points the gun at us, while also making us hold the gun at others. She makes us both a witness and complicit. She reminds us again and again the power of poetry, of witness, of the poet themselves to tell the truth and, by doing so, telling the whole story, including the spaces between.
Honorable Mentions
All is the Telling, Rosa Castellano, Diode Editions - In this vivid and revealing compilation of small, insightful poems, the author shares the raw truths of existing in the contemporary world as a black woman. Transcending a structural narrative, each poem is a world within itself. As the poet uses a fluidity of framework to craft unique narratives, a prevalent theme of honoring memory emerges. Dwelling in the past is crafted by beautiful words and melancholy, reminding us that what is past is still present, and without change, is doomed to be repeated in an ongoing cycle of abuse and underestimation. Castellano shares that perhaps the only truth that exists is perception and that it may be formed at too young an age to ever change.
Between Latitudes, Michelle Latvala, Green Writers Press - Every migration implies two lands, and sometimes we find ourselves in the space between them. Lost in that bardo, we can count our companions: not just the familiar animals who measure our lives, but also the ungentle wild things, the lives all around us, each with its own purpose, separate, but part of the only web we know. Can we know even the language of silence, decipher the rhythms of the calls of the owls, or understand what bears us toward the willows? In the blue night, or in the solstice dawn, or even in the first days of May, the web of life surrounds us, if only we can learn to pay attention. If we choose, arrival can be a kind of resurrection or a rebirth.
Even the Sky, Kevin Thomason, Cornerstone Press – Thomason quickly immerses into a familiar but unorthodox poetic form. Each poem is rich with end-line rhyme, much of it deftly veiled, until they reveal within enjambments. To this end, a line from 'Ledger of Joseph' states "we always wonder what might happen—." Thomason takes rhyme to new levels, mastering the American sonnet. This collection would most surely delight elder Twentieth Century poets like Frost, Jeffers, and Van Doren, and their legacies are advanced by this deeply academic yet reflective offering.
Inked, Annelle Janssen, Butterdragons Publishing – Janssens offers a deeply personal exploration of healing, reflection, and inner peace through intimate prose. Each piece carries a remarkable sense of sincerity, creating the impression that the work emerges directly from the poet's inner life. The writing feels less like performance and more like an act of honest self-expression, as though the pages hold a piece of the writer's soul. Moments of vulnerability and sadness remain present, yet the overall tone moves toward resilience, acceptance, and hope. It's a journey where emotional wounds gradually transform into understanding and strength. This authenticity fosters a powerful sense of connection, underscoring the voice behind the work. Supported by elegant editorial presentation, thoughtful layout, and beautiful design, this collection stands as both an artistic achievement and an inspiring meditation on healing.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
It is Still Beautiful to Hear the Heart Beat, Margo Berdeshevsky, Salmon Poetry – Written by a masterful multi–faceted poet of the world, this collection is a gestalt of complex and sensuous imagery combined with what feels like heart-stopping treatises on a broken world moored in a "winter's remarkable determination to sleep until April..." This burrows out of the dim-sighted extant self into the body politic and awakens a clear-eyed and fierce voice. Language and form astonishes, performing its "tiny ritual of magic" until "a black bird [falls] out of [the poet's] heart"—woken to an infinitesimally beautiful and connected world, even in its brokenness.
Jump the Gun, Jennie Malboeuf, BOA Editions – This collection is as much about form as it is about content. Malboeuf creatively uses form, space, and visual graphics to convey meaning. The poems burst with animals, religious imagery, and the word "gun." With clever word play and pop culture references, a mirror is held up to society and reflects on our violent tendencies. When the mirror shatters, we dance on the glittering shards, revealing a connection between sex and violence in a variety of form, points of view, and tense. Each poem is a perfectly crafted container for its content, whether it be the speaker's childhood, marriage, or struggle to conceive.
Lanterns in the Night Market, Mary Morris, TRP: The University Press of SHSU - This collection is a somber and magical invitation to explore the world as thoroughly as it still exists. "The past is gone" is a recurring dread thought made mantra by the poet's insistence on praising and appreciating all wondrous creatures, scenery, and sensations that sustain us even now, even after. We're reminded that the dual majesty and cruelty, both angels and demons, present in our surroundings are reason to be ever the more aware and unbridled in our defense of the natural world. These poems do not deny the reality of endangerment or extinction but proudly and assuredly defy it, voicing an expectation for the reader to remain forthright and vigilant. The poet refuses to allow harsh truths to evade the public conscience, following each grim reckoning with her own resounding optimism: "And yet–" as to instill the hope and dream of a resurrection.
Mother, Daughter, Augur, Mary Simmons, June Road Press – An all-inclusive world of lore unfolds, pulling from myth, legends, literature, and the oral traditions of storytelling. The speakers make new what was once old, offering divination, nature, and feminine perspectives, eerily and ethereally. Each section wraps around an illustrated epigraph akin to a tarot card, evoking omens, predictions, and questions of safety and satisfaction. From the fate of the stars to the free will of natural beings, from the human to the insects, from survival to serene, these poems reflect ideas about the basics of life across space and time, like a new folklore.
Someone Else's Hunger, Isabella DeSendi, Four Way Books – Throughout this collection the poet delves into what it means to be a Latino growing up in NYC. The skillful juxtaposition of images mimic the poet's belief that "We learn to make beauty/ from chaos… ." Main themes are of culture, family hardship, romantic love, and the treatment of women, in particular their bodies. The power of each poem lies in the vivid language that drives each message. Poetic precision grabs our attention and pulls us in. In the opening poem on disemboweling a chicken, the poet shares the trick to surviving was to be good and beautiful before discovering "soon I'd be pinned on a bed like an animal/ while someone else's hunger made a sacrifice of me." The collection leads us through other dichotomies and relationships good and bad until "…we discover all the ways we've learned to live/ with who we said we'd never be."
Wild/Hurt, Meg Ford, Button Poetry – This collection reads like an intimate confession, tracing a woman’s spiritual journey through the quiet weight of everyday life. The mundane—kitchens, streets, fleeting moments—becomes charged with memory, trauma, and longing. Rather than dramatizing pain, the poems sit with it, offering a raw, candid voice that feels both vulnerable and deliberate. Her exploration of sexuality is especially compelling, presented not as a fixed identity, but as an evolving and often conflicted space of discovery. The body emerges as both witness and archive. Despite its heaviness, this collection is deeply beautiful in its attentiveness. It finds grace not within hardship, but within honest and unflinching prose, lingering more than resolution, portraying the quiet act of becoming.
Young Adult
The Young Adult category is aimed toward the juvenile and teen markets.
Winner
The Dreamer, Linda Patricia Cleary – Sixteen-year old Ash is just trying to survive in space with her parents, when an unscheduled docking of their spaceship results in their tragic death. Alone, ash must regroup, repair her parents' ship with the help of the onboard robot, and navigate a new world on her own. She immediately runs into Edan, a teenager on the run and barely making ends meet through imaginative means. Ash and Edan continuously cross paths and eventually team up with other teens to not only survive, but help answer questions surrounding her parents'’ death. Through their partnership, Ash realizes not everything is as it seem, and she is haunted by voices of an unfamiliar language. Could there be more to Ash, her parents, and the beliefs that she was raised with?
First Runner-Up
Orphanland, Lauren Fischer, Mission Point Press – Precocious, mischievous Willa is an orphan living in the Southern Ohio Children's Home. She's been there since she was seven; she's now eleven. Her parents both died of overdoses, and she is sometimes sad about it and sometimes not. She loves living in the Home, which is a rambling, crumbling mansion that has seen finer days. After years of instability, she finally feels safe. The Home is run by Mercy, who actually inherited it and the surrounding land, but has no more money to maintain it. Mercy hopes to sell some land to keep the Home afloat, but can't due to the terms of the will of the previous owner, her aunt. Meanwhile Willa and her nonbinary friend Kacey discover a hidden cache of diaries written by the aunt, and slowly come to realize their beloved Home, and Mercy herself, are full of secrets and surprises.
Honorable Mentions
Dreamteller, K. D. Shade – This medieval fantasy shares the life of Lady Shannyn, a 15-year-old princess who has everything to lose. Lady Shannyn is the heiress to the Megaran throne and niece to Queen Althaliah. For her entire life, she believed what was told about the deaths of her father, mother, and brother, and she believes that the world is too unsafe for her to explore. Then she gets a glimpse into the past and questions everything and demonstrates unimaginable bravery, as she enters an adventure that could either save her kingdom or destroy it. As the future queen, Lady Shannyn strives to do the right thing, but she trusts the wrong people who place her in grave danger. This novel encourages all to be strong and brave and to do the right thing even in the midst of great adversity.
Goon, Glenn Erick Miller, Peasantry Press – Imagine being saddled with a nickname that determines your life. The main character, Goon, learns that he does not have to define himself by the perception of others and by a name so carelessly given. The drug overdose death of his mom, the abandonment of his father, and a life-changing accident catapult Goon into a system that he desperately wants to leave. He will do anything he can to return to his brother. The friendships he makes and the experiences he has on his journey help him to discover his true nature, not who people think he is. He learns to heal and forgive himself in order to break down the barriers placed around him, and only then can he succeed.
Commercial Fiction
The Commercial Fiction category contains genre specific titles, including thriller, suspense, romance, and horror.
Winner
Sashé Boudreaux, Coco McQ, Sand Dollar Press – Sashé is a former beauty queen with a generous spirit and sharp instincts, quietly holding together the tight-knit bayou community of Cypress Grove, Louisiana—a small town where Spanish moss drapes ancient oaks, neighbors know each other's business, and a good meal carries real meaning. She spends her days delivering hot lunches to shut–ins and offering color consultations to the women around town, until a neighbor's uncharacteristic absence from his weekly meal sets off alarms. When a disturbing discovery turns up at the local recycle drop, Sashé enters a mystery with roots stretching back centuries into the murky past. Together with her circle of friends, she begins connecting forgotten crimes to present–day danger, but some in Cypress Grove will go to dangerous lengths to keep the past hidden. The author draws on a life shaped by military service communities, global travel, and a deep–rooted Southern storytelling tradition to bring Cypress Grove and its residents to vivid, authentic life.
First Runner-Up
Open Bar, Dan Schorr, Spark Press - Serena Stanfield is a human resources director at Mountain Hill University. She learns of the university's mishandling and cover-up of sexual misconduct by the softball coach. For years, the university has covered up sexual abuse of girls who came to its summer softball camps. Serena publicly confronts the coach, and the surrounding community is thrown into a game of strategy to use the situation to their advantage, including university staff, investigative firms, and politicians, all maneuvering to exploit the situation for their own gain. Serena stands alone as the single advocate for her agenda: justice for the abuse survivors.
Honorable Mentions
Becoming Sarah, Diane Botnick, She Writes Press - This is the story of twentieth-century America through the lens of a Holocaust Survivor, from her days in Auschwitz to her eventual migration to the United States. Although America’s influence on world culture in the aftermath of World War II is undeniable, this illustrates how that influence is intertwined with the force and will of the Jewish people to live. Born in Auschwitz in 1942, Sarah personifies the plight of Jews fleeing the murderous cruelty of Hitler's Nazi Germany. Initially finding refuge in Italy after the war, Sarah and her newborn daughter immigrate to New York City. Sarah is at once strong, resilient, and determined, but also distant, alienated, and distrustful. These character traits shape her personal and professional relationships, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Sarah’s search for fulfillment and happiness is complicated by the deep, wounding memories of how the world may render her efforts futile.
Reappearance, Edward Villaume, Paddock Road Press – Imagine having the knowledge and means to clone any human to reappear as a better version than the first. The change this would render on the medical, physical, political, and moral standards of the world is unfathomable. This story explores these possibilities with characters that are memorable, hopeful, and steady. It gives readers a glimpse into what cloning perfection might look like, without the concern of finances. How this would affect food, plants, and the animals we love comes into view. However, would a kind and genius human with a love for others be able to control this kind of power? And even so, what impact would this ability have on today's world?
When Shadows Burn, Todd Brown, Koehler Books - Timothy Michaels, a true crime podcaster, returns to his small hometown of Raven's Cross to investigate a former grand house that is now dilapidated. For almost a century, there have been ghost stories about the Scott couple who had once been the envy of the town until the Great Depression caused them to lose everything. The husband hanged himself upstairs, and his young wife vanished. Now, young women are vanishing again. Suspicions and accusations run rampant. The once-quaint community shows its ugly side, revealing homophobia, sexism, and bigotry. Timothy soon realizes the scariest things in Raven's Cross are not tortured souls from the past. The real monsters in town are alive and well, cleansing the town of anything or anyone that threatens their ideology.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
General Fiction
The General Fiction category contains non-genre specific fiction, including literary and mainstream.
Winner
Unfinished Acts of Wild Creation, Sarah Yahm, Dzanc Books – A woman who knows she carries a fatal hereditary disease decides to leave her family before the decline sets in. The story spends the next forty years with the people she left behind. This may sound bleak, and parts of it are, but the author has a real sense of humor that keeps catching you off guard. Louise and Lydia are not always easy to spend time with, which feels intentional rather than careless. Leon is quietly the heart of the story and gets his due in the final stretch. The structure is loose in places, more like a collection of scenes than a tight narrative, but the writing is good and gripping, taking the everyday and the extraordinary into a symphony played on higher ground.
First Runner-Up
I Inherited a Mixed Animal from Uncle Living in Woods, Richard Martin, Apprentice House Press – In this wacky, funny and creative novel, siblings are inheritors of Uncle Leonard's will when Unc's neighbor delivers the "Mixed Animal" named Yonder to Lemuel, as well as $74.25 to his sister Shane, a fortuneteller. The bizarre Mixed Animal resembles a mutt or pussycat and is a "dab of goat," a little monkey, "a possum in the middle," with wolverine, fox, and a low growl. Unc was an experimenter living in the forest. Shane is running for mayor of Hmm, and Lemuel is a handyman. They are unsure how to deal with this Mixed Animal living in their house. It eats everything, changes colors, steals from neighbors, and crowds follow him. Shane's campaign is a humorous parallel to contemporary politics. A mysterious mountain woman is among those who claim Yonder. The story is rich with word twists and delicious descriptions of actions and characters.
Honorable Mentions
Leta Pearl's Love Biscuits, Arlon Jay Staggs, Koehler – Football is a religion in the South, and the rules and caveats extending from that include strictly gendered roles of the male athlete and female cheerleader. Trudy Pearl was one of those, a lead cheerleader in fact, who got pregnant senior year with her football husband, who later drowned himself in shame for being a child beater. That was in '75, and now it’s '82, and Trudy teaches chemistry at the same high school. She is engaged to Haskell Moody, a mayoral candidate, but meanwhile the football coach is roiling her emotions into a frenzy of indecision. Seems the Abernathy clan has a secret Aberdeen Mountain Oil, a few drops of which can make any man fall in love. But how can Lita be sure if either man really loves her, once they have munched a loaded biscuit?
Mancala Moon, Asa Bowers – Michah has lost his parents and is on his way to losing his way in life, following the tragic pattern of generations of relatives before him. His question to himself as he contemplates his almost certain fate is: Will he, can he, change the fate he sees before him? Employing a deep and mysterious forest as both backdrop and metaphor, Bowers deftly places the characters on familiar earthly ground as well as the surreal spiritual world. Michah seeks help from both. Will either or both intervene to provide Micah with a different future?
The Fire Service of Sachem City, Tom Trabulsi, Stillwater River Publications – After the 2009 economic crash, the fire department of Sachem City, a fictional Rhode Island town, suffers terrible fallout from municipal bankruptcy. The team of firemen, including one woman, must bear 96-hour work weeks, failing equipment, the absence of one third of their force. The author, like Dickens, paints an absorbing and sprawling picture of a chaotic world. Details of every rescue team is offered with exquisite knowledge and alacrity. The reader suffers the fear and tension and occasional pleasure of life in a fraught world in which the threat of death accompanies daily work. Gallows humor and crude but funny appreciation of ordinary day-to-day necessities like food and sleep pepper the narrative, though the characters must sometimes forgo both in extreme fire situations.
The Ghost of Brighton Hall, Jacqueline Johnson Goon, Urlink Print & Media – The Brighton family operates a cotton plantation and are slave owners in the antebellum American South, with Brighton Hall serving as their grand estate. The Civil War has taken part of it as a battlefield. Then there's the ghost, a spectral presence who haunts the pages like a silent sentinel. His presence is both comforting and a chilling reminder that the past is never truly gone and some wounds never fully heal. The mystery surrounding his identity unfolds, drawing deeper into the tangled web of secrets and lies that shrouds Brighton Hall in darkness.
Three Guesses, Chris McClain Johnson, Regal House Publishing – This an intimate portrait of three strangers whose lives become intertwined through a sustained exchange of handwritten letters, each initially connected by a single painting. The narrative unfolds over several years, allowing relationships to develop gradually through reflection, confession, and response. The author uses the epistolary form to reveal each character'’s private struggles—creative frustration, loneliness, questions of identity—while also showing how distance enables a kind of honesty that everyday life often obscures. Small details accumulate across the correspondence, giving weight to moments that might otherwise seem ordinary.
Historical Fiction
The Historical Fiction category contains historical fiction books.
Winner
Bend, Don't Break, Julie L. Brown, JAB Press – This story is fascinating not only because of the compelling narratives of ten generations of strong African American women, but also due to the structure Brown employs to tell them. It begins with Aisha in her beloved home in Africa, as she is captured along with her husband and eight daughters to be sold into slavery in North Carolina. Instead of proceeding in chronological order through the generations, the author introduces ninth generation Sha, a present day IT specialist, followed by seventh generation Olivia, who is studying to be a lawyer at a time when Black women were not easily accepted into the profession. This connects the generations and illustrates the women facing similar challenges despite their moment in time. Each character is artfully developed through riveting storytelling. The entire palette becomes breathtaking.
First Runner-Up
Land Shadows, R.J. Striegel, OIN Publishing - This recounts the journey of the McNeil family in the mid 1800s from their beloved home in Scotland. Fleeing unjust accusations and boarding a ship to New York City, they plan to make a new start in a new land. Tragedy happens, and young Murdoch McNeil is the only family member to survive the trip. He endures countless hardships, but is determined to persevere and make the most of the opportunities he stumbles into. After establishing himself as a trustworthy, intelligent, and unfailing worker and friend, he rises to a legal career in New York City. Follow Murdoch's life as he fights to restore his family name and take revenge for the wrongs done upon it.
Honorable Mentions
Born of This Fire, Jeanne Gehret, Verbal Images Press – Anne Anthony follows her husband—civil war hero and brother of Susan B. Anthony—to Leavenworth, Kansas, determined to begin their future together. However when the deeds of the past are painted with a tainted brush, it becomes hard to tell friend from foe, and Anne must decide whether following her passion and her heart can coexist. Can her sister–in–law's example help Annie find the strength within herself to believe in the future she once dreamed of? Set against a backdrop of a country redefining itself postwar, this offers a beautiful example of the power of quiet strength and unwavering faith.
Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life, Pamela Reitman, Sibylline Press - Charlotte is a student at the Berlin Art Academy in 1938. She enters an art contest and wins First Prize, but authorities discover she is a Jew, and she loses her enrollment. This is just after Kristallnacht, and Charlotte’s parents send her to live with her grandparents in France. She discovers this family is less than ideal. Her art is an escape from the knowledge of the presence of mental illness in her family, her grandmother’s death, and a lecherous grandfather. Charlotte’s goal is to become a serious painter, but she and her grandfather are arrested and she is sent to the horrible Gurs Camp in the Pyrenees. When her grandfather falls ill, she is freed to care for him in Nice. There she continues to work on her painting, "Life? Or Theater?" before she is captured by the Nazis again. Will she complete her work before she faces the ultimate fate?
The Ashtrays Are Full and the Glasses Are Empty, Kirsten Mickelwait, Koehler Books - Set mostly in the 1920s and 30s, this is the life of Sara Wiborg. Passionate for art and literature, her wealthy upbringing in Gilded Age New York opens the door for her to live her life among the creative elite. Traveling between the U.S. and Europe, she rubs elbows and bonds with the Lost Generation—Stein, Hemingway, Fitzgerald—and some of the 20th Century's greatest figures—Picasso, Joyce, Cocteau, Parker. Though her privilege steers her in one direction, she is able to marry and live life on her own terms—a life that is not immune to tragedy. Hers is a story of strength, passion, and compassion, while sailing through love, loss, artistic revolution, and a turbulent modern era.
The Pythagorean Solution, Joseph Badal, Black Range Publishing - A shipwreck off a coast of Greece in 1945 involves a wealthy banker with secrets that he thinks are worth killing over, but that very ship sails with a tourist in the wrong place at the wrong time. These elements combine to create an engaging tale from start to finish. When a recently divorced man travels to Greece to clear his head, he becomes embroiled in intrigue that he wants no part of. A dying fisherman hands over something that could be either a treasure map or the rants of a madman. So much for a vacation trip—the protagonist becomes entangled in a decades-long intrigue that may end in his own death if he isn't careful.
The Weight of Dreams, Nicole Sorrell - This is a multi-generational story of traditions, loyalty, kingdoms, tribes, and family. The savannah comes roaring to life, immersed in its wildlife and landscape. Etana grows from an oppressed young girl to an elephant warrior. Etana realizes she must escape her tribe after learning her father has pledged her to a much older man. As a runaway girl, her options are slim in the savannah, until the elephants capture her attention and a unique bond forms. When word gets to a faraway king about an elephant girl, he knows his kingdom needs her skills to advance his army.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
Mystery/Crime
The Mystery Crime category contains mystery, crime, and true crime books.
Winner
Elita, Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, TriQuarterly – A feral girl emerges from the woods beside a federal men's prison on a remote Puget Sound island in 1951. She speaks no known language and carries no clues to her identity. Bernadette Baston, a single mother who studied linguistics and child development, is called in to assist the prison doctor, the girl's court-appointed guardian, and a police detective in solving the mystery surrounding the girl, who they call Atalanta. As the investigation deepens, long buried tensions on the island surface and the specialist's own past begin to echo the girl's in unsettling ways. The narrative moves between mystery, psychological inquiry, and family drama to reveal how trauma, silence, and personal resolve shape both Bernadette's and Atalanta's lives, as well as the lives of everyone around them.
First Runner-Up
Better Dead Than Poor, Lisa Story – Every family has a skeleton in the closet. When the author's uncle, Walt Reca, confesses to her that he was the infamous hijacker, D.B. Cooper, she begins a decade-long journey to unravel her uncle's past, including aliases, intelligence assignments, covert military operations, and criminal activities. A true crime story that has inspired hundreds of podcasts, documentaries, articles, and much speculation, the 1971 D.B. Cooper hijacking remains the only unsolved case of air piracy in commercial aviation history. Perusing hundreds of personal letters, interviews, eyewitness accounts, and newspaper archives, the author extensively researches and crafts a compelling narrative tying her Uncle Walt to the D.B Cooper hijacking.
Honorable Mentions
Fatal Fugue: A Scott Drayco Mystery, BV Lawson, Crimetime Press – On a movie set inside a Victorian Mansion, a detective investigating a cold case talks with the cast and crew and discovers that some of them believe the production is cursed. Is the past coming alive once again? He must uncover the reason for the curse in pursuit of his cold case, at the risk of his life. Not everyone is who they claim to be. The investigation becomes dangerous when a killer uses cover-ups and deception to hide the truth, eventually slating the detective for death in order to keep the secrets hidden.
Garbage Town, Ravi Gupta, Greenleaf – Set in the 1990s in Travis, Staten Island, Raj Patel and his friends (the Victory Gang) have always lived within the shadows of Fresh Kills, the largest landfill in the world. Inhabited by the island's local crime family, Raj has always tried to keep his distance from them, despite their business dealings intertwining into all parts of his town. However, when they witness a murder at the landfill, they're forced to clash with the local mob and make sure justice prevails. Love, murder, and mob ties quickly force these teens to grow up and keep each other safe amid the investigation.
Killer Vintage, Eric D. Sanchez, Brown Books Publishing - South Plains Cellars winery holds many secrets, and DEA agent Jackson disappears late one night while investigating them. When he fails to check in the next morning, DEA agent Brian Harris picks up the case, not only trying to discover what happened to agent Jackson, but also trying to discover what is truly happening at South Plains Cellars winery. He recruits Bud Garza who is a local college student working a summer job as a tour guide at the winery hoping to make good money. As the two men seek answers, they discover that this place protects secrets more dangerous than either one bargained for.
Romance
The Romance category contains romance books.
Winner
Ava, Janet R. Perroni, Aspire Publishing Hub – Perroni presents a historical romance that explores a woman's romantic awakening in early 20th century Boston. Through her journey, she is presented with trials and tribulations as she falls in love with a man above her social class. Social expectations for a woman in this time period of the United States is viewed through both everyday life and her romantic exploits. While she navigates her family and supports her children, her desire to love a man that she can't have is painfully revealed. Will she decide to settle for financial stability for her family instead?
First Runner-Up
Somewhere Along the Way, Anna Gomez, Open Road Integrated Media – This touching story follows Charlie, a young woman struggling to cope with her father's death. While grieving, she discovers old love letters that reveal the truth about her long-lost mother and the secrets that kept them apart. Searching for answers, Charlie sets off on a cross-country journey. Before she leaves, she meets a stranger named Graham, who is also carrying deep loss. They decide to travel to California together—Charlie to find her mother, and Graham to reconnect with his family and the life he left behind. Along the way, their shared pain forms a bond that helps them find love, healing, and acceptance. The story weaves together themes of perseverance through mental illness, the love stories of two couples, and the idea that new beginnings often appear when least expected.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
Honorable Mentions
When I See Your Smile, Christine Anthony, BookBaby – More than just a mystery, this is a story about healing. With only a photograph to go by, Willow James travels to the quaint town of Haunted Harbor, Maine to find the man who she believes is the father of her adopted daughter. Once there, she runs into Ethan Miller—a man picking up the pieces of a failed relationship. Through a series of supernatural events, Willow and Ethan are forced to confront their pasts and the unknown bond that connects them. This is a beautiful story about how true love, a mother's love, and the strength of friendship will ultimately win out in the end.
Winter in the High Sierra, Robert Brighton, Ashwood Press – Brighton crafts a historical romance set in the year 1899–1900 as the United States expands westward. A well-off socialite named Louisa MacGrego sets West to get over a break up, when the train she travels on is caught in a snowstorm that forces her to be left behind. Rescued by a man named Bandit, who is her opposite in most respects, but takes her to his cabin to help her recuperate. The time period is vividly drawn, presenting a romance that shifts from the hills of undeveloped Nevada to the streets of New York City. When they are confronted with numerous tests from the environment, illness, and even robbers, the characters grow closer and realize that they are perfectly matched.
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
The Sci-Fi Fiction category contains science fiction books.
Winner
Cinnamon Soul, Quinn Lawrence, Fondence City Press – Hokuren loves the people of her city, Velles. She spent years serving them as part of the Watch. Now, though she stepped down as Captain, she still serves the people by solving crimes as a private detective. Her latest case—and opportunity to earn enough to pay the rent for her office space—includes finding the daughter of the leader of Velles. The case brings unexpected danger to both Hokuren and her dedicated assistant, Cinna. Both must face the mysteries of their pasts in order to solve the case. Whispers of forbidden and hidden magic, librarian guards, and unexpected adventures keep the pages turning as the mystery unfolds.
First Runner-Up
The Shapeless, Tiffany Clavecilla - Beginning in a post-apocalyptic world, beings known as the Shapeless confront the revelation that their existence has been part of a simulation run by the real Humans. As that constructed reality collapses, survival becomes uncertain and the boundaries between identity and design begin to fracture, often leading to elimination of barriers and the once-Earthbound-human's and the Shapeless' death. Through the perspective of Strange Bird and others, the narrative reveals the impact of fractured identity and what it takes reconstruct reality. Questions of purpose, memory, independence, and agency become central to this story, beside themes of the fragility of identity and truth.
Honorable Mentions
HomeAdrift, Soheil Mirchi, Whiskers & Ink Press – An impending super nova is on a crash course with Earth, and Commander Solene Ellis and the ship's AI, Ava, are headed out into deep space, with 100,000 colonists in hibernation, in search of a new home. During the 3,000 year voyage, Commander Ellis keeps tabs on her passengers and the ship during her brief wake-up times. All goes well for Ellis in the few times of wakefulness—for a while. Then unusual things begin to happen on the ship, and Ava begins to act abnormally. Ellis' once-pleasant dreams turn into nightmares. Then an unidentified, and possibly hostile, ship appears. As events begin to collide, Ellis fights to hold on reality. She begins to wonder what's real, what's not, and if will they ever find a new home.
The Wounded Sky, Ray Strong, Impulse Fiction – The second in the YA epic adventure trilogy, Dragon's War, Astria attempts to break a curse that is slowly killing her and her faithful dragon, Zephyr. Beauty emerges amid the struggle, as Astria goes undercover at the College of Singers. The mystical combines with the poetic through song as a way to mold this epic world. Astria must sacrifice either pride, power, or values to preserve the bond between her and her dragon and therefore seeks the help of her enemies, gathering an unlikely group of allies for her survival. It becomes a balancing act both mentally and emotionally, as she learns to resist her innate beliefs in order to see the truth of others, even that of a feared enemy.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
Orb, Gary Tarulli – Writer Kyle Lorenzo, along with four specialized scientists and Dr. Kelley Takara, M.D, is aboard the spaceship Desio to observe and record its historical voyage. Sent to explore a new planet, the six man crew unexpectedly discover a new life form. In his self-righteous quest for knowledge, Dr. Larry Melhaus underestimates what he perceives as simple, less intelligent beings than himself. Even after realizing that the small, perfectly formed, fluid-like orbs are sentient, he proceeds with experimentation regardless of consequence. He quickly learns that any entity, as seemingly inconsequential as it may be, can expand cosmically when provoked or mistreated. A mistake that will cost him dearly. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew undergo individual epiphanies of self-awareness.
Virtuality, Derek Cressman, High Frequency Press – A futuristic universe in 2065 showcases a society that is disconnected and emotionally detached. Society forces its people to constantly "upgrade" because consumerism makes the best citizens, yet they appear more like addicts. Governmental systems use propaganda to horde people into to boosting money and power, where reality is now a secondary concern. Multiple points of view delineate this dystopia: Chase, from the upper class, completely depends on AI and virtual reality. Oscar and Luena, in the secondary class, dream of upgrading because they have to wear helmets to enter the metaverse. Caspian, from the elite corporate class, climbs the corporate ladder, but his drive for success allows him to ignore fundamental questions about society. Aneeka, a therapist, keeps people in Myndscreen, representing authority's attempt to maintain order. When a hacker takes everyone offline, people slowly but actually reenter reality, and they must learn to perform the simplest tasks of living: cooking, cleaning, loving, learning. Is there hope of humanity to be human again?
Short Story/Anthology
The Short Story/Anthology category contains short story collections and anthologies.
Winner
Little Fortified Stories, Barbara Black, Caitlin Press – Much like a well-crafted cocktail, this collection of short stories is designed in two equal parts: first categorized by distilled alcoholic spirits and second by the effects of said spirits. The author provides literary snapshots experienced by drinking specific bottled spirits (i.e. Gran Cruz Tawny 10 Anos, Porto Branco) spanning from the subtly humorous to the deeply profound. Once the reader is appropriately loosened up, the second half of the collection explores post-drinking themes of "disorientations" and "visual provocations," among others, resulting in a full-bodied experience that lingers on the palate.
First Runner-Up
The Absurd Burden of Family: A Cautionary Tale, H. Alvaurence, S. Alvaurence (illustrator), H&S Alvaurence Creative Works - This is a delightful tribute to the imperfection of human nature. When obsession is mistaken for love, and love is ignored in place of desire, the flaws of being human become all too prevalent. Woven with vivid details and perceived truths, it leaves one questioning not only how far wrong human nature can go, but the secrets of the supernatural world as well. In the end, people hear the words they want to hear, but are so blinded by their own desires that they rarely see the truth before their eyes. In cases such as this, the lengths people will go to in order to stay true to their own nature are revealed. Here we see selfishness stand true, and the most unloved having the most love to share.
Honorable Mentions
The Kindness of Terrible People and Other Stories, Stephanie Dupal, Swan Abbey Press – This collection of fifteen stories is impeccable. The author's skill in rendering realistic characters and settings through vibrant description and believable dialogue traverses an immersive series of mini-worlds. With its breadth of settings, stories range from colonial America to 1940's Hollywood, as well as modern Canada, 1990s Italy, and medieval France—held together by themes of love and loss, whether the loss is the protagonist's loved one or their ability to play the cello. Several revolve around the passage of time, as characters reflect on their beautiful, painful experiences. The heart of this collection can be summarized in a quote: "she reveled in these moments of private beauty when she could accept her own insignificance and forget, for a flash, the loss consuming her."
Spiritual Fiction
The Spiritual Fiction category contains book within the religious and spiritial genres.
Winner
The Tempests of Time: Ages of Malice Book IV, Lloyd Jeffries, Buckminster Publishing - This book picks up right in the middle of chaos, where the world is falling apart and events have gone full apocalypse. Emery Merrick is no longer just trying to survive; he is central to a prophecy that could tip the balance between God and the rising power of Cain, the Antichrist. Meanwhile, Rhyme, Emery's ex and Cain's current wife, leads the fight against growing demonic forces as the world slips deeper into that chaos. As secrets about divine plans and humanity's role come to light, Emery is forced into an impossible choice involving love, sacrifice, and the fate of the world. The overall story becomes more focused, with everything building toward a final confrontation.
First Runner-Up
Soul Mission, Joshua Becker, Evolved Publishing – Ephraim is a modern-day husband, father, and school teacher descended from the ancient Hebrew tribe of Levi, the tribe of priests dedicated to divine service. One day after school, he runs into the ancient Hebrew prophet Elijah and is presented with a unique opportunity. He must revisit the past lives his soul has inhabited and correct his critical mistakes in order to redeem humanity from future destruction. If he fails, the world of the future will no longer exist. Coached by Dr. Siegel and Rabbi Shimon, Emphraim reluctantly embarks on a terrifying journey that takes him back to darkest and most frightening events of his personal history to see if he can make the difference on which the world is depending.
Honorable Mentions
Noah's Ark Chronicles, Rene Mugnier, Archway Publishing - This is an amusing and witty narrative told from the perspective of the animals who boarded Noah's Ark as it prepares launch into the historical rainfall and resulting flood of the ancient world. Each pair of animals featured is described with clever prose and illustrations.The conversations among themselves, as well as with Noah, highlight and expose their thoughts, vulnerabilities, and humor, as they journey together to a new unknown post-flood world. Proverbial wisdom, comical prospective, and poignant anecdotes that are true to the nature of the species as well as humanity in general are laced throughout.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
Worthless Treasures, Mary L. Hamilton, Blue Mist Books - Diamond Lange, a professional organizer is great at helping other people de-clutter, but not so great at dealing with her own past. When her estranged mom passes away, Diamond is stuck cleaning out a house packed with stuff she sees as nothing but junk, as well as a final request that she really doesn't want to deal with. Her mom leaves behind five random and seemingly worthless items and asks Diamond to give each one to someone who will actually appreciate it. At first, it feels pointless, but as Diamond tracks down the right people, each item reveals a story she never knew, which forces her to face the old wounds she's been avoiding. Along the way, Diamond starts to realize that what looks like junk can hold real meaning and maybe she's been misjudging more than just her mom's belongings.
Business
The Business category involves applications to today's business environment and emerging trends, including general business, career, finance, computer, and the Internet.
Winner
The Cage and the Mirror: How to Make Rigid Organizations Resilient Again, Jeremy McEntire, Cage & Mirror Publishing – McEntire looks at organizations not simply as groups of people or sets of rules, but as systems defined by what they are able to notice—and what they overlook. This suggests that rigidity rarely comes from bad intentions. Instead, it grows out of structures that favor what can be easily measured over what requires judgment. Rather than offering quick remedies, the author encourages careful attention, drawing toward quiet ways metrics, processes, and incentives shape definitions of value. The writing is measured and disciplined, avoiding easy motivation in favor of sustained thinking. Ideas unfold deliberately, inviting reflection rather than compliance. Over time, the framework clarifies how even well run systems can undermine resilience by narrowing expertise and suppressing variation. The book rewards with a clearer view of risk, excellence, and endurance.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
First Runner-Up
The Working Brain: Optimize Your Workday Performance, Dr. Brynn L. Winegard, Page Two Press – Winegard presents a unique, science-backed approach to utilizing and optimizing the brain's natural rhythm in order to get the most out of the workday. The brain is the most impressive, complex technology that has ever existed, and the author explains how to use it to its fullest potential through her MERIT approach (Move, Eat, Rest, Interact, Think). It isn't just about how you do your work, but how you prepare in your day-to-day activities to be productive and efficient by giving your brain exactly what it needs to thrive. This book presents a practical guide to help anyone maximize their cognitive performance and mental wellness every single day at work and throughout their career.
Honorable Mentions
Not Made For You: How Women in Tech Can Challenge Bias, Claim their Space, and Thrive in a System Built for Men, Kae Kronthaler-Williams River Grove Books – Of the many books that address women in business (and specifically women in tech) this year, this one stands out. Kronthaler-Williams' observations and personal insights apply to most women in workplace settings and not necessarily just in tech. She unapologetically tackles sexism, ageism, racism, and other discrimination. The premise—challenging male-dominated business norms—holds real promise, but stronger tactical guidance will elevate its impact. Many women will identify with her personal stories and experiences. The interior design is polished and engaging with effective sidebars. The cover design is understated and fits perfectly in this genre.
Start. Scale. Exit. Repeat., Colin C. Campbell, Forbes Books – This is the culmination of decades of experience in the entrepreneurial field. Campbell, who is a successful serial entrepreneur, followed the experiences of dozens of other successful entrepreneurs, authors, and experts in order to share their life lessons, identify their patterns of success, and present the information in a salient way. Learn how to start with an idea, successfully scale your business, maximize your wealth, in order to define yourself as a serial entrepreneur as you repeat the process again. Practical goal-setting techniques, tried and true business model approaches, expert pitch presentation tips, and strategic exit plans are among the many topics discussed. This is everything you need to be the seed of business and garner the reward.
Culture
The Culture category contains nonfiction books demonstrating the human or world experience, including multicultural, essay, women's issues, sexuality, gay, lesbian, aging, travel, recreation, true crime, social commentary, and current events.
Winner
No Woman Left Behind: A Journey of Hope to Heal Every Woman Injured in Childbirth, Kate Grant, She Writes Press – The founding CEO of Fistula Foundation reminisces about her young adulthood in this memoir and reveals her feelings about an unfulfilling career in advertising that led her to choose a different life path. She discusses her eventual leadership of Fistula Foundation, which she helped grow from a small startup to a global leader in providing life-changing treatment for thousands of women. Obstetric fistula is an injury that can leave women incontinent after a difficult childbirth. These women often find themselves isolated and shunned in their communities. For most of them, surgery is the only cure, something that is out of reach for the poorest women in some parts of the world. Through straightforward and compelling narrative, the author shares credit for the success of her organization with dedicated surgeons and other partners, as well as gratitude for donor support that has helped so many women receive care.
First Runner-Up
Do More Good: Inspiring Lessons from Extraordinary People, Neil Ghosh, Post Hill Press – A timely and energizing guide to purposeful action in an age of overwhelming challenges. Blending personal narrative with the stories of thirty remarkable change makers, the book moves beyond inspiration, offering a practical roadmap for impact, whether through community service, philanthropy, or values-driven leadership. What makes it especially compelling is its clarity: Meaningful change is within reach, and it need not come at the cost of burnout. With wisdom, compassion, and actionable insight, Ghosh equips us to translate intention into sustained everyday leadership that genuinely makes a difference. The book will inspire and serve as a model and motivation for anyone who wants to make a positive impact.
Honorable Mentions
A Safe Place: How to Prevent the Next School Shooting, Luis D. Aponte, MLIS, Owl & Scroll Publishers – Aponte, a librarian and U.S. Air Force veteran, spent years researching over 1,200 school shootings, tracking patterns, and examining the underlying causes of these tragic events to highlight what can be done to protect students and teachers. The author shares his own history with gun violence and his connection to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, as well as other victims' and survivors' stories. Filled with data and analysis, the history of school shootings and potential causes are explored, including detailed information about actions that parents, schools, and communities can take to prevent school violence. He touches on emotional intelligence, social media monitoring, security interventions, counselors in schools, responsible gun ownership, and more.
Ketubah Renaissance: The Artful Modern Revival of the Jewish Marriage Contract, Michael Shapiro, The Jewish Publication Society – Illuminating the contemporary revival of the Jewish marriage contract, Shapiro tells the storied history of this beloved document. Michael is the world's leading publisher of artistic Jewish wedding contracts and is a worldwide lecturer on historical and contemporary ketubot. The book guides the reader on an exploration of the Jewish marriage contract, from its ancient roots as a groom's pledge, to a richly decorated modern work of art. The book features sixty of the most innovative and beautiful ketubah of the last half century. The book's outstanding featured artwork and delightful cover makes it a great wedding gift or a colorful coffee table addition.
The Coroner's Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence, Terence Keel, Beacon Press – Keel build a case for the practice of some coroners of covering up police brutality to protect members of law enforcement. He begins his investigation with the death of John Horton III, who was mistakenly arrested for a drug overdose, put into solitary confinement, and then beaten to death by deputies. The coroner pronounced his death a suicide. Many more examples and case studies follow, with the preponderance of them having to do with minority inmates. Often the official cause of death for young, healthy people who die in custody is "natural causes." In addition to supporting his thesis, the author also provides a history of the job of coroner and how it differs from state to state in terms of necessary qualifications and selection. He touches on social, legal, and medical systems that set up people to become victims.
The Great Serpent Mound: An Ancient Ohio Mystery, Jeffrey Alan John, PhD, The History Press – With clear diagrams, historical photos, and solid research, this book sheds light on a fascinating archeological find in Ohio. Part mystery and part science, with some brief bits of plausible historical fiction narrating how the mound may have been created, this book is both entertaining and educational, as it delves into an intriguing piece of human history. The narrative enlivens the mound's possible past. Who built the mound, for what purpose, and when in history? This book is relevant for anyone interested in archeology or Indigenous America. This includes notes for those interested in visiting the mound.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
Health
The Health category promotes physical, mental, and emotional well-being, including psychology, fitness, and sex.
Winner
A Mindful Teen: Thriving through Gratitude, Acceptance, Intention, and Non-judgment, Greg Hammer, MD, with John P. Rettger, PhD & Eric Wentworth, Bloomsbury Academic – Teenagers in America are in crisis. Deciphering the adolescent mind is a complicated endeavor. The challenges that today's teenagers confront are overwhelming without proper guidance and support. Understanding the critical issues that young people face—from smart phones to gun violence and a over-sexualized environment—offering practical solutions is critical. The GAIN method (i.e. gratitude, acceptance, intention, and non-judgment) is introduced as an effective parental strategy. Criticism and contempt are replaced with understanding and gratitude, transforming negative cycles into seeds of positivity. With its concise and organized format, this is a wonderful roadmap for a healthy and thriving relationship between today's teenagers and their caretakers.
First Runner-Up
Mastering Chronic Pain: Peak Resilience Unlocks Your Potential, Matthew Bennett and Sahar Swidan, TranscendMed – Wrapped in stark black, the cover alone delineates how chronic pain leaves a patient isolated with only tough and imperfect solutions. The authors offer an extensive introduction that sets the foundation for this manual of relief. For many, injuries and illness trauma leave a person with lasting pain cycles. Over five distinct phases of this book, the origins and solutions to chronic pain are discussed, beginning with empathy and understanding and eventually offering hope for resiliency. Through a brain retraining and/or reset, many people rise above debilitating agony. With clear writing, as well as chapter takeaways and sidebars, the authors move through step–by–step suggestions for self–help and reclamation of life.
Honorable Mentions
Scoliosis: Congenital, Neuromuscular, Syndromic, and Other Nonidiopathic Types, Tenner J. Guillaume, MD, Walter H. Truong, MD, Danielle H. Harding, PA –C, Lily Collison, MA, MSc, Cheryl Tveit, RN, MSN, CNML, Gillette Children's Healthcare Press – As with other books in the Gillette Children's Healthcare Press series, Scoliosis received high marks. The Table of Content is clear, and the book is well laid out. Chapters all begin with a summary introduction, and each chapter contains a "QR" code for additional investigation. The authors present a "how this book is organized" section to assist navigation through an otherwise complicated discussion. Illustrations are clearly presented and supported with definitions and hearty explanations. The book contains unfolding case studies that support chapter information. Chapters are intelligently summarized at the end. Further Reading and Research sections, as well as a glossary and an extensive reference list, reinforce their authority. Overall, this is a clearly well–researched study.
Sixty is a Good Start, Allison McCune Davis, Niche Pressworks – This is for "seniors" who have no plans of living a sedentary, dull life. The author shares engaging tidbits about life in the later years, explaining that life doesn't slow down when you hit six years of age. McCune encourages healthy lifestyle changes that make lasting shifts that carry into the golden years. Actionable steps throughout the book make these changes simple. The details form purpose-driven plans for mental health improvements, physical wellness, and worldwork (i.e a broad spectrum multi-faceted approach to group management). This is a user-friendly resource for anyone interested in living a healthier and happier life as they age.
Home
The Home category has practical applications to home or home-related issues, including general home, gardening, cooking, parenting, family, interior design, animals, pets, and home-related crafts.
Winner
Parents of Starseeds: A Soul–led Guide to Nurturing the Children Born Whole, Moana Leanne Kirikino, BalboaPress – Kirikino makes the case that children who don't "fit in" are a gift to the world, because they feel deeply, cry loudly, love more sincerely. Raising or caring for such children is a sacred endeavor, she argues. These children are to be revered, not repaired. The author provides words to use when teachers or other professionals focus on a child's behavior but miss the cause. The author reminds parents that they are their child's protector. The author offers gentle and clear advice on parenting "difficult" children in places that are too loud or too bright. Love, she says, is the best medicine.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
First Runner-Up
Parents Have Feelings, Too: A Guide to Navigating Your Emotions, Hilary Jacobs Hendel, LCSW, and Juli Fraga, PsyD, Alcove Press – This self-reflective and empowering parenting book covers a wide variety of emotions to reflect upon and gain knowledge from the parenting journey. Beginning with how emotional connection is so important because we are wired for that, as it forms the basis of most of what we do. The author then moves to describe struggling with emotions as parents and how we can overcome challenging emotional situations, such as anger and disappointment. A large variety exercises help to encourage parents on their journey, including scripts to better articulate words to a child. The author gives precise and calm instructions to guide parents along key milestones with the ultimate goal of creating a more fruitful relationship with children.
Honorable Mentions
Homeschooling without Losing Your Marbles: A Former Teacher's Guide to Keeping it Together, Jennie McDow, Ed.D., Archway Publishing – McDow charts her journey from school teacher to home schooler, detailing what works and what doesn't. Confident of her abilities in the classroom, the author discovers that teaching her own children at home is a wholly different experience. The author shows how academics aren't enough. There's an emotional and sensory piece that needs to be tweaked for successful homeschooling. "Some days you need to close the book and open your arms," she says. Celebrate the small wins, she advises. Find everyday joy in pajama days, field trips, interest–based learning, and the math in baking. It's not just kids who learn. The author describes how she came to value patience, flexibility, and laughter.
Sea of Clouds: A Collection of Poetic Expression, Sylvia Anne Pollard, Westbow Press – This is a collection of poems that are beautifully, yet honestly rendered. The poet describes her everyday life, translating emotions of raising a special child. Pollard describes times of intense joy, where she admires the eyes and smile of her neurologically challenged daughter. She also speaks of frequently crying out to God, asking why has she been forsaken and given tasks that are difficult to bear. At times, she feels "thrown by the wayside." As her journey progresses, glimmers of hope and light for the future are sent through the love and mercy of our savior, Jesus Christ.
Memoir
The Memoir category captures specific personal experience.
Winner
Displaced, Jocelyn Kerr, Live Write Publish – With lyrical and engaging prose, Kerr moves from Los Angeles to New Orleans. The author has little money, no home, and no work. A tarot card reader ekes out her truth: She has left one relationship and is looking for another. She finds work in a library and a new love with a musician. For Kerr, better work follows, as does happiness in the air-conditioned home the couple stretches to afford. Then comes Hurricane Katrina. Like a devotional, the author describes the housekeeping and packing the couple undertakes as they abandon home for a nearby church shelter. The author survives but lands in a post-flood dystopia. The couple bounces around the country, until finally settles, by herself, in Boston.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
First Runner-Up
Light Beneath Ashes, Boaz Anglade, Thaba Publishing – His years growing up in Haiti showed memoirist Anglade both family closeness and political instability. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Haiti experienced great turmoil, and then the earthquake of 2010 compounded their difficulties. After going to the United States for higher education, Anglade returned with a degree in economics to contribute to the rebuilding of his country. The governmental corruption and economic disarray were more insurmountable than expected, and Anglade ends the book on a hopeful note for his country. This memoir provides an insider's view to the last forty years in one of the most troubled countries in the Western hemisphere.
Honorable Mentions
Befriending Betsy: A Memoir, Betsy Pauly and Jen Braaksma, She Writes Press – Is it possible to befriend someone you will never meet in person? This is an intricate dance between the late author, a champion of misfit animals and abandoned pets, and the book coach tasked with bringing her unfinished manuscripts to life. The two have never met in person and have undoubtedly lived very different lives. Through writing, however, the book coach forms a special bond with this endearing animal rescuer. As the story unfolds, the book explores myriad topics: animal welfare, the writing process, the power of stories, and the fascinating subject of the story.
Escape from the Fat Farm, Sandy McIntosh, Marsh Hawk Press – The author of this book has lived with and among writers, artists, poets, and thinkers throughout her life, and many recognizable names appear. This is an atypical memoir, mixing prose, a fascinating examination of lucid dreaming, and poetry to craft a moving testimony to the author's late mother. The writing is effortless and liquid, combining narrative with flights of fancy that somehow serve to illuminate the text. An appearance by a contemporary larger-than-life figure could easily be a focal point, but the author has much broader ambitions. Moving poetry and surreal narration, not married to fact, paints a fascinating tableau of a life lived in art.
Fit Into Me: A Novel: A Memoir, Molly Gaudry, Rose Metal Press – Memoirs are combinations of fact and fiction, dovetailed like a thrift store jigsaw puzzle with both missing and extra pieces. Powered by the magical wand of speculative nonfiction, the author transmutes this puzzle into a novel dropped into a memoir. A roller–skating accident wreaks devastation on the author's visual and sensory processing, just when she decides to enter a PhD program in experimental writing. Ten–word writing prompts (word banks) fuel a brain struggling to read, write, and think. The memoir eats snippets of her previous novels to birth multiple personae: a multigenerational Korean tea house owner, a woman alone, a brain–injured patient, and a Hawthorne groupie. Her lovers are both credible and absurd. Originally a PhD thesis, the footnotes are a joy. By drawing her own characters, she becomes a woman whose recovery through experimental writing and radical therapy is decidedly her own. The telepathic journey between reader and writer is complete.
My Mother in Havana: A Memoir of Magic & Miracle, Rebe Huntman, Monkfish Book Publishing Co. – This spiritually rich memoir explores facets of grief and examines the relationship between a mother who died thirty years earlier and a daughter who is still coming to terms with the loss. Drawn to study in Cuba as a Latin dancer and choreographer, the daughter is moved by the spirit of Ochún, Queen of the Rivers, and inspired by the performance and ceremony of the Afro–Cuban dance rituals. Some years later, while still navigating grief, she returns to Cuba and is guided by the gifts of Ochún, a deity of the Santería religion, and Our Lady of Charity, the holiest of Catholic saints, in a successful attempt to connect with her late mother. With language that is sometimes lyrical but also artfully descriptive, this memoir is a look at Afro–Cuban traditions as well as an investigation of the enduring connections that often exist between the living and dead.
Nether Land: Nether Land-High School Temptation, Insurance Haze, Stolen Resolution, and Murder, Kem Hinton, Tenebo Press Company – Homecomings can be complicated for some but for the author, this is a major understatement. The old classmate he was going to get back in touch with is now dead and perhaps murdered. The book tells the story about how growing up their paths ran parallel and yet they were never really friends. So why would this author then start an investigation into his classmate's death? It's a mystery that pulls the reader in from the first page and filled with pictures that enliven the story. Hinton shares anecdotes about life that defy the ordinary.
Saving the Lost Girl: A Memoir of Healing, Kelly Jean Torres, Reaching Up Press – Born to young parents struggling with addiction, anger management, and other mental health issues, the author bounces from relatives to foster care and back again. Everywhere she lands, she becomes a victim of abuse—emotional, physical, and/or sexual. Her life is a roller coaster of trauma leading her to attempt suicide at eighteen. After a brief stay in a psych ward, she receives counseling. Her counselor is surprisingly caring and becomes actively involved in her life, even giving her a place to stay and helping her navigate the financial aid process so she can go to community college. After a while though, the helpfulness turns too controlling, and she must leave. Eventually, she heals and marries a man she can trust, one who respects her and treats her well, and together they create a healthy and happy family of their own.
The Edge of Land: A Swimming of Age Story, Jonathan Ezer, Writers of the West – Ezer tells in detail the events that lead to reaching the goal of swimming twenty–six miles from Moloka'i to O'ahu at the age of 18. From elementary school age swimming experiences, participation in high school swimming competitions, and life guarding, he perseveres in his quest to defy conventional wisdom. He is undaunted by the threatening conditions of rough waters, dangerous ocean creatures, and financial needs, all while maneuvering through the challenges of his teenage years. Recognizing his need for the support of others, his limitations, and being boosted by his older brother, the author's inspirational journey is presented in a way that leaves the reader with an appreciation of his accomplishments.
We Learned to Live in the Castle: Stories, Theresa Griffin Kennedy, Oregon Greystone Press – At 18–months old, Theresa and six of her brothers and sisters are moved into foster care. Their mother had a breakdown after finding herself pregnant with her eighth child. Their father was deemed unfit to care for the children while also working to support them. Foster care was only for a few months, but it set her and her siblings up for long term consequences. At thirteen, she is raped while babysitting. In the process she realizes she has less anger for the rapist than the law enforcement and court system that was supposed to support and protect her. Life becomes a roller coaster with many dips. At forty–three, she graduates from college and, with her husband, makes her own way into the world of writing and publishing. This is the story of the unstoppable spirit.
Reference
The Reference category involves traditional and emerging reference areas, including history, psychology, biography, education, sports, recreation, training, travel, and how-to.
Winner
INNOVATOR: 10 Simple Steps to Innovate with Speed, Scale and Confidence, Tom Pullen, Practical Inspiration Publishing - Pullen offers a practical, no-nonsense guide to turning ideas into action. Each step is clear, actionable, and simple to apply across industries, making innovation feel accessible rather than unreachable. The author emphasizes quick testing, learning from failure, and scaling what works—strategies that are immediately useful for teams and leaders alike. The book also includes easy-to-access images and graphics that enhance understanding and keep readers engaged throughout. Its layout, with clear subtitles, allows for quick identification and implementation. The strength lies in its simplicity, helping readers build confidence and create meaningful momentum in their innovation efforts.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
First Runner-Up
Charles Whitfield Richards: The Artist and His Circle, J. Michael Warner, University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press – Charles Whitfield Richards isn't a household name, but the author introduces us to him as both author and artist, who illustrated his stories in the days before handheld cameras became available. More than a biography, however, the book is a portrait of an era. Born in 1906, Richards left school, worked on a merchant marine ship at thirteen, studied art in Paris, and became a successful journalist and feature writer before he was twenty–one. Blessed or cursed with insatiable wanderlust, Richards job–hopped from newspaper to newspaper, but held on to the dream of becoming a fine artist. His journey, through wars, the Great Depression, domesticity, and tribulations allows us to experience history in a unique way—not just chronologically but through those he met along the way.
Honorable Mentions
COVID Wars, Ronald Gruner, Libratum Press – Anyone who can read this book is old enough to remember its topic. Though not, perhaps, with the diligence and flat authority of this book. It serves as a kind of scrap book of events and figures related to the pandemic, devoid (as best as any of us can manage) of politics, bias, and the fade of memory. Its dispassion is its passion, and that makes this historical record invaluable. This is not 20/20 hindsight, but a reminder of how things looked at the time and how they might look again if we keep our eyes closed, which we should never do again.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
Self-Help
The Self-Help category involves traditional and emerging self-help topics.
Winner
Joyosity: How to Cultivate Intense Happiness in Work & Life (Even If Things Are What They Are), Jenn Whitmer, Ideapress Publishing – Created with a mission to direct others toward jubilation, the author skillfully blends the content with both an academic and a playful approach, capturing the attention from both personal and business perspectives. Within a how-to concept and simple graphics, messages emphasize the importance of balancing happiness despite the challenges of work and daily life. Each chapter combines academic knowledge with the author's specific case-study experience, curated to help people effectively deal with complex situations and difficult individuals. The book cover design stands out, and the layout is consistently well-spaced, with legible type and color-contrasted subheadings for enhanced appeal. The content exceeds the criteria for a hands-on guide. Those seeking to heal and manifest a positive mindset are inspired to becoming adept at learning to recognize situations and transition to a better outcomes using progressive techniques. Collectively, the work is a blueprint for transformation.
First Runner-Up
Before I Lose My Own Mind: Navigating Life as a Dementia Caregiver, Beverly E. Thorn, PhD, Girl Friday Books – This is both a memoir and a guide to caring for a loved one with dementia. Dr. Thorn chronicles her caregiving journey from her husband's initial diagnosis to disease progression to his death in 2020, along with the aftermath of guilt, grief, and attempts to rebuild a new life. Dr. Thorn not only shows the personal toll this type of caregiving takes on a marriage and individual, but the ravishing effects of the disease on the loved one's mind and body. Each chapter ends with a Facts & Insight section with references. The author's experienced and well-researched advice covers information on managing the disease progression, support systems, medical interventions, facing end-of-life matters, emotional recovery, and more.
Honorable Mentions
101 Ways to Wow! Our World, Debbie Jenae, Inspired 101 – Structured in an easy-to-read format, this book serves as a daily inspirational guide and self-help resource to shift mindsets from hopelessness to mental empowerment. The opening statement explains exactly how to maximize the content, making the process insightful from the start. Editorially designed with a precise, universal style, it contains a broad range of subject matter, including resolving old beliefs, moving blocked energy, making time for others, and shifting thoughts to discover that there are unlimited ways to make a positive impact on the world. Pastel-colored art is spread throughout the body, maintaining balance that does not distract from the lessons in each chapter but rather presents a calm source. Based on a desire to advocate for positivity, the author used her background as a survivor of abuse and a court-appointed child advocate to write with credibility and documentation.
Go Within to Change Your Life: A Hidden Wisdom Workbook For Personal Transformation, Carl Greer, PhD, PsyD, Chyron Publications – This examines our inner wisdom through the lens of shamanism and Jungian ideas. Throughout, different exercises help integrate the lessons provided. Each lesson is divided intoo two sections: the first focuses on archetypes and the introduction to learning about hidden wisdom, while the second section helps apply this knowledge. The book is structured so that one can select the sections that appeal to them and in the order they choose, allowing an individual path of discovery. Throughout, the author focuses on gathering information from the unconscious through dreams, inner dialogues, visualizations, and an overall inner connection to gain insight and growth.
The Mirror Effect: Approach to Growth for the Next Generation of Female Leaders, Dr. Sheila Gujrathi, Amplify Publishing – Gujrathi offers a grounded examination of leadership growth rooted in self-awareness and environmental clarity. Rather than framing advancement as a matter of confidence alone, the author explores how internal narratives and external structures interact to shape professional outcomes. The author approaches leadership as a reflective practice, urging readers to examine how they respond to pressure, power, and visibility. Personal insight is paired with practical reasoning, creating a framework that values emotional intelligence without drifting into abstraction. The writing remains direct and thoughtful, addressing systemic challenges while emphasizing agency and discernment. Throughout, the book stresses the importance of alignment—between values, workplace culture, and long-term ambition. Its strength lies in its insistence that sustainable leadership begins with honest self-assessment and continues through deliberate choices about where and how to lead.
Spiritual
The Spiritual category involves the mind and spirit, including religion, metaphysical, and mystical.
Winner
A Taste of Joy and Liberty: A Philosopher Encounters the Gospel of Jesus, Jeffrey Wattles, Origin Press – Wattles provides a remarkable clear historical perspective, employing accessible language that delivers a transparent accounting of the life of Jesus. He helps to show and bridge the gap between ancient narrative and modern existence. The book effectively relates these eternal teachings to the complexities of today's world. The work serves as an invitation to reconsider the relationship between reason and faith, suggesting that a philosophical engagement with the Gospel can yield a new view of human understanding. It avoids sentimentality, while maintaining a compelling intellectual discussion. It explores how ancient spiritual truths can resonate with modern existential inquiries, offering a narrative that is both analytical and deeply personal. Ultimately, the book stands as a significant contribution to contemporary discourse on religious philosophy, providing a sophisticated framework for understanding the pursuit of a meaningful and liberated life.
First Runner-Up
The Birth of the Messiah: A December Devotional, Steve Laureanti, WestBowPress – Amid the bustle of Christmas preparation, even the most religious Christian can get lost in a countdown to the festivities, rather than a "count–up" to the wonderment of the holy day. Laurenti presents a devotional guide for Advent using one Scriptural verse per day, accompanied by a meditation on that verse, to give a reader a daily moment to ponder the reason for the season. The author quotes from both the Old and New Testament to focus not only on the prophecies, but also on the fulfillment of the nativity story as well. Those looking for extra contemplation in their holiday preparations will find this a desirable addition.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
Honorable Mentions
Feed Your Hungry Soul: Awaken Your Loving Heart, Victor Acquista, M.D., Vox Veritas Vita Press - This is a collection of contemplative essays, each followed by exercises that include reflections, question, and practices, that embark on an active journey to uncover the extraordinary within the mundane aspects of life. The author's perspective sheds light on the transformative power of ordinary moments, cultivating an awareness that transcends the conventional perceptions of happiness and fulfillment. One of the central themes is transformation, specifically how limitations can be reframed as opportunities for personal growth. Obstacles serve as catalysts for change. Another theme is the pursuit of happiness independent of external circumstances. The author argues that true contentment arises from within rather than from material possessions or societal validation.
Redeeming the Post-Affair Divorce, Linda J MacDonald, M.S., Healing Counsel Press - This book examines the emotional and psychological aftermath of divorce following infidelity, with a focus on healing and rebuilding a sense of self. It explores the deep impact that betrayal can have on trust, identity, and relationships, while entering the challenge of moving forward after such a rupture. The author discusses common patterns and responses, offering insight into the recovery process and the complexities of forgiveness, boundaries, and personal growth. Real-life examples help illustrate the journey many individuals face, emphasizing that while the experience is painful, it can also become a pathway toward renewal and a more grounded, authentic future.
E-Book Fiction
The E-Book Fiction category holds fiction books published in an electronic format.
Winner
Dewdrops: Tales from the Razor’s Edge , Dan Flanigan, Palmetto Publishing - In this pithy collection of not-so-short stories (the final and titular one is really a novella), desperation, resignation, self-pity, and redemption fight it out so that "fallen angels" might fly again—even if they are a bit tattered and roughly-used. Set in the latter part of the 20th century, memorable characters emerge from down-to-earth situations and genuine dialogue. Their complicated, messy, and sometimes inappropriate relationships fuel the narrative. The author is unafraid to take on the rawness of addiction, the search for some kind—any kind—of fulfillment, and two persons' inexorable need for "a garden of earthly delights." The characters and their seminal experiences stay will linger.
First Runner-Up
Conversations with My Mother, Ronald-Stéphane Gilbert, Rootstock Publishing – The book follows cunning octogenarian Yvette as she lives the final years of her life with dementia. Her closest relationships are with her son, Rob, and daughter Diane who becomes her main caretaker. Yvette is a generous character filled with candor, who reveals shocking moments of insight despite her mental decline. The banter between siblings and their mother feels both honest and well executed. The plot is conveyed through a series of vignettes, moving through time and place, and possesses deep character development and engaging dialog. While the reader is aware of the inevitable ending, it is hard not to grow fond of Yvette and feel sympathy for her children who are navigating the difficulties of a steadily failing loved one.
Honorable Mentions
A Celebration of Murder, Mary Ann Paul, Mary Ann Paul Books – Suffragette Petra Wood experienced her highest high of winning Texas and her lowest low of being tarnished by her father’s legacy of espionage on the same day. Desperate to clear his name and get her life back on track, she sets out to recover his stolen notebook that would clear his name. The thieves were last spotted in Lenox, but Petra finds herself short on cash. Her uncle lands her a job planning a welcome home event for a local general, but things quickly spiral out of control following multiple murders with Petra suspiciously caught in the middle. Can she put the pieces together in time to clear her name and successfully recover her father’s notebook to clear his?
Fixed Point, Lynn M. Kristopher, Feline Orchid Publications – In this thriller, timelines collide. When an explosion takes place in her university lab, physics student Olivia Barrett becomes the FBI's number one suspect. A professor she has accused of misconduct is killed in the explosion and the evidence points to her. Rachel Quinn works for the FBI as a bomb specialist. She's been chasing a bomber for years and knows what to look for, but as the investigation unfolds, the past and future blend and there's one clear question that remains: How far will someone go to rewrite the past?
See a full review in the US Review of Books
Raven's Legacy, Charlotte Stuart, Quartermaster Publishing – The book truly is an Alaskan mystery of stolen relics, dark legends, and murder. Set in Koloshan, Alaska, home of the Tlingit clan, Jonah St Claire is the only police officer in town. As an experienced LA police officer and Vietnam veteran, Jonah could usually handle the local disturbances. An urgent message sends Jonah to the Native Arts Center where he discovers a robbery of ancient relics. What ensues is a thrilling adventure in the wilderness of Alaska to discover who took the relics and why. Jonah discovers a dead body in a bear cache, but suspicious marks on the body make him wonder if he was killed by the bear or if the incident is somehow connected to the robbery. Jonah calls in for reinforcements from Juneau to help him stake out the suspects and figure out what happened to the relics.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
Swimming with Manatees, Bill Bennett, BillBenn Books - Crystal Cove, a quiet coastal town primarily known for its manatee population, is shaken when April Seagram is found murdered in its mangrove forest. Ava Martinez and her partner, Dan Riley, suspect the local biker gang, the Renegades, are involved. Dan and several others are murdered in an attempt to keep the town's secrets. Ava persists in piecing together an investigation that reveals illegal testing on the manatees, shipping irregularities, off-shore accounts, and a scheme by BioSphere to illegally patent an antimicrobial agent. BioSphere's influence and power have controlled the town for decades. Can Ava, with assistance from an unlikely source, expose their corruption and bring justice and freedom to the town?
The Choir, Carol M. Cram, HTF Publishing – Cram delivers alternating perspectives of two women—Eliza Kingwell, a mother whose dreams of taking her singing talents to the top are dashed when she marries a violent drunk, and Ruth, the star singer at a London theatre. They are related by marriage. Ruth is Reg Kingwell's stepdaughter by his previous and now deceased wife. The two women's worlds are on opposite trajectories as Ruth's marriage to James, a gay man, crumbles when he falls in love with a man in his early twenties. After James falls prey to a blackmail scandal, Alexander refuses to move to Paris with him, and James commits suicide, resulting in Ruth's fall from societal grace. Meanwhile, Eliza is making secret plans to enter and eventually conduct a small-town choir to enter into a major singing competition. As Ruth watches every door close, she runs into Eliza, who is judging the competitions and later consulting with Eliza to help the choir polish their skills. In the midst of an unwanted pregnancy and her husband's beatings, Eliza prevails, escaping Reg's grip with her children. Old family wounds are healed, and Eliza reunites with an old love.
The Sun and The Moon, Willa M Scantlebury – Friends in high school and college, Robin and Tommy's life unfolds. Robin, who secretly wants more than friendship, heads toward the world of nature in the Adirondack Mountains and the man of her dreams. While Tommy, struggling with his sexuality, submerges in the heart of Manhattan and the world of live theatre. While they attempt to maintain their friendship, Tommy confesses an alarming experience from his fifth grade and in an atmosphere of mistrust and conflict, disappears from sight. Robin makes a plan to save him, but he feels she is the one needing to be saved from her so-called Woodsman. This complex romance explores the disparate worlds of the beautiful natural environment of the Adirondacks and an exciting life in the New York theatre scene. We get a sense of both central characters attempting to care for each other, while living such different lives and following paths leading to romantic others.
The Valentine Lines: A Magical Small-Town Comedy, TK Sheffield, Making Hay Press – What happens when a minor god of the Roman pantheon decides to leave his shabby apartment on Mount Olympus to live in the mortal realm? Hijinks ensue! Cupid leaves Olympus with the help of his uncle Apollo and his steady companion, Pegasus. Bart, as Cupid is now known, lands in Mineral Springs, Wisconsin where he plans to open a relationship service and woo the lovely Monet from the bakery. Things seem to go well until Apollo returns with a broken heart. Bart’s aunt, Hera, and cousin, Mercury, also pop up in town creating their own special kind of chaos. This is a clean, but hilarious novel that will have you rolling with laughter.
Whatever It Takes, Alan Brenham – Kit Hanover is a Fort Worth PD detective known for being relentless and unafraid of bending the rules. When the FBI asks for her help in breaking a money laundering ring, she accepts an undercover assignment as an exotic dancer at the Pink Kitten Club in Las Vegas. The introverted detective puts her reservations aside to gain the trust of Sonny, the club's owner. As she digs for evidence on Sonny, she finds that money laundering is just the beginning of the crimes that can be traced back to him. Following a death at the club Kit finds herself in the middle of an organized crime turf war. As she works to break the case, she must also work to survive the dangerous fallout. This is a suspenseful, emotionally charged thriller set against the grit of everyday Las Vegas, exploring duty, conscience, and the cost of truth.
E-Book Nonfiction
The E-Book Nonfiction category holds nonfiction books published in an electronic format.
Winner
Why I Believe in the Beauty and Truth of the Catholic Faith, John L. Fontana, The Authors Point – Fontana exhibits an impressive mastery of his subject matter, covering ethical issues, as well as the history and doctrine of Catholicism. He makes an organized and compelling case for Catholic faith while avoiding the proselytizing that are the downfall of so many religious books. The tone is objective, but also compassionate with relatable, modernday anecdotes that are judiciously layered in. Added to this is a truly first-rate layout and clear attention to editorial rigor. The layout supports the general concept of the book by contributing "the beauty" of the faith. It all comes together with exceptional writing overall.
First Runner-Up
Little Boy, I Know Your Name, Mitchell Raff, River Grove Books – Raff presents a clear and unsparing account of how inherited trauma shapes a life. It follows the author through a childhood defined by his mother's instability, where sudden violence, neglect, and fear become routine. His parents' Holocaust experiences—linked to places such as Dachau—remain largely unspoken, yet they govern the emotional climate of the home. Issa and Sally offer moments of care and structure, while Malka and Regina reflect how unevenly the past settles across a family. The author avoids exaggeration, allowing events to stand with direct force. The narrative moves steadily toward recognition, showing that understanding the deep vein of hurt, rather than escaping it, becomes necessary to interrupt a cycle that otherwise continues unchecked.
Honorable Mentions
Dance While the Fire Burns: Family, Identity, and Dreams, Deborah Ann Lucas, Trot Town Studios Press – This memoir spans different continents and the narrator's hardships and triumphs, be those failed relationships, familial challenges and personal resilience, or a nurtured dream that is delayed but later pursued and achieved. Follow the narrator, an American girl from an underprivileged background, from her family's brief stay in Australia through her move back to the United States, from various (often short–lived) periods of employment and the consequent financial instability, through her hard-won education, professional growth, and ultimate realization as a visual artist. This is far more than a collection of personal recollections. It is a fresh and compelling testament to human survival and subsequent flourishing.
Pitch, Sketch, Launch: What Sketch Comedy Can Teach Us About Product Development, John Krewson and RobKutner, Wren House Press – People unfamiliar with the world of product development glean insight to the process as a global nuance, where sketch comedy is the tool used to "pitch, sketch, and launch." The many relatable anecdotes provided may be connected and applied to everyday lives, making it handy for all walks of life. With practical strategies and proven templates, this is not only a valuable tool those embarking on product development, but also related endeavors where design, presentation, and feedback are required.
The MissADVentures of a Hapless Entrepreneur, Peter J. Snow OAM, Be Inspired Books – Entrepreneur, philanthropist, investor—these are just a few of the hats Snow has worn throughout his years in business and private life. He reveals how to look at business opportunities and see the shortfalls, as well as the windfalls connected with each venture in order to walk away the wiser. Receiving many honors, honorary degrees, and awards for his work in both the business and volunteer sectors, he especially enjoys his involvement in the Whaling Museum Project in South Australia, which transforms old whaling stations into thriving tourist attractions and a source of revenue for the museum. His work has inspired major investors, including famous artists who have donated their artwork to the museum because of this intervention. Happily married for over 40 years, he is still active in community and business affairs.
The Hole in Your Life: Grief and Bereavement, Bob Rich, PhD, Loving Healing Press – This guide to understanding and navigating grief draws from personal experiences, including the loss of his daughter and decades of psychological counseling. Rich provides readers with tools to process bereavement and find healing. The complexities of grief is explored, including anticipatory sorrow, guilt, anger, and social isolation, while offering coping strategies, such as mindfulness meditation, journaling, and the "seven magic bullets" for wellbeing: nourishment, sleep, exercise, fun, creativity, social connection, and meaning. Through real-life examples and personal anecdotes, Rich emphasizes that grief is a unique, difficult journey, but can lead to growth and renewal. The book also highlights the importance of forgiveness, compassion, and finding purpose after loss, serving as both a source of comfort and a roadmap for those seeking to rebuild their lives.
Hello? Who Is This? Margaret?, Dani Alpert, River Grove Books – This collection of personal essays is a pleasant surprise. It is quirky, entertaining, yet well-written. The memoir blends the author's coming-of-age experiences with the perspective of a middle-age woman looking back on her adolescent years as a performer. The account is honest, raw, and sometimes self-deprecating, offering rare and intimate glimpses into a very public, creative persona since childhood. There are anecdotal takes on a celebrity life, interspersed with stories of personal struggles in the entertainment industry. All is told with a healthy dose of optimism, without falling prey to excessive navel grazing. Humor is one of the book's best qualities, the authorial voice resonant of the heroine's courageous presence.
Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change, Dr. Mark van Rijmenam, Dean Publishing – Dr. van Rijmenam encourages us to grow more comfortable with the many questions that major life or career changes bring. Utilizing QR codes, visual aids, personal stories, and charming insights, an introductory class to major change unfolds. The author, like any good professor, is curious, wondrous, and offers tools for us to reach better understanding and new conclusions. A particular skillset may not answer every question encountered during life turmoil, but can prepare us to adapt to the different conclusions wrought. This author supplies the motivation for expanded thinking and new possibilities.
Song of the Cardinal, Cynthia Waine Brandt, Starfish Publishing – This is a contemplative exploration of healing, scrutinizing the nature of grief in the aftermath of profound personal loss. Through lyrical prose and candid storytelling, the author portrays emotional devastation and resurfaces on a path to renewed purpose. A powerful statement of vulnerability and quiet resilience, highlighting the way to intuitive awareness and the enduring connection between love and memory. It offers a framework of grief, not as mere suffering. Grief is not a pit. It's a ladder for self-discovery. While emotions remains intimate and is at times cyclical, the writing stands out for its sincerity and evocative voice. This is a memorable and unsettling piece in its genuine and poignant honesty.
Legacy Fiction
Books in the Legacy Fiction category are fiction books over two years of age which hold particular relevance to any subject matter or art form. Unlike many in the industry, we think good books last longer than one season.
Winner
Comfrey, Wyoming: Birds of a Feather, Daphne Birkmyer, Atmosphere Press - What do to when the life you had, loved, planned for, all crumbles with one tragic event? The heroine of this novel decides to physically, and metaphorically, escape. A chance encounter at a no-name motel does more than offer company, and she decides to start over in Wyoming, a place she'd heard of for years. Quickly she takes over the local soup kitchen, and though her new position brings many characters across her path, there is one who stays in her heart. As they grow closer, the heroine finds a new, unconventionally formed family and is able to open her heart again.
First Runner-Up
Journey into Darkness: A Journey in Four Parts, J. Arthur Moore, Omnibook Company – The Civil War has started and Duane's father has volunteered to fight in the battle between North and South. After tragedy strikes at home, young Duane heads out in search for his father, becoming himself a soldier in the army. Following real-life events of the Civil War, Duane moves through loneliness, bloody battles, insurmountable obstacles, and terrible weather conditions while searching for his dad. Will father and son ever reunite? This is a beautifully woven and riveting historical novel, centered on a story of love, devotion, tenacity, and courage.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
Honorable Mentions
A Day for Misty, Sheila Cayolle, Pontchartrain Publishing Co. – This early reader not only lets parents introduce their children to the delights of story, but also inspires children to read on their own. This sweet adventure of a young housecat, Misty, starts with simple illustrations that saturate the page with color, captioned by clear type correlating with the actions. Each repeated read of the story builds on the one before, entrancing children with the familiar images of home, family, and pets, while they learn new words and comprehend longer sentences. Unlike many children's books that present animals as fantastical or humanlike beings, this reflects reality and shows kids how to identify and value the good things in everyday life. For parents, the back pages include a word list that guides them toward helping kids build vocabulary, noting that once a child knows all the words in the story, they can read the book unassisted.
Howl of the Banshee: A Lou Gault Thriller, Dave McKeon, AHA Publishers - The story opens with a frantic call between twins: A selfish twin has murdered their father and is hell-bent on revenge, and the other is pulled into the fray. Their revenge is focused on Kate, the new wife of Lou Gault. Since Kate now knows the secret of his family land, Kate’s disappearance en route to Ireland for their second wedding causes an all-hands search and assist. As the vengeful twins' leave murder and mayhem in their wake, Lou and both the Candian and Irish police stay one step behind their trail. Once Lou realizes that this game leads to certain death, he races to save his bride’s life.
Ivory Moon, John R. Gentile, Wild Spirit Books – Poachers, arms dealers, and terrorists are met by a squad of female rangers tasked with the job of shutting the network down. When the arms dealer Kinyonga joins forces with the Somali terrorist group Jawari, the task becomes more complicated and dangerous. The female rangers, the Honey Badger Squad, are recruited from the villages by a Gaia team to bring down the group killing elephants for ivory as well as other African wildlife. Times are bad as the COVID virus results in many lives lost, which severely affects the rangers' numbers. When the terrorists attack the villages and take young females as hostages to Somalia, the Gaia team and Honey Badger Squad assemble a rescue party, yet also with revenge in mind. Is it too risky to succeed?
Soul Matters, Yolonda Tonette Sanders, Yo Productions LLC – Pregnant, Wendy's faith is tested when she receives medical news from her doctor. It will change the trajectory of her marriage. The main focus of the story is interwoven beautifully from several viewpoints, giving the reader a full understanding of everyone involved, as Wendy struggles with whether to keep her baby and her marriage. It's a rollercoaster ride of emotions while getting to the heart of the situation—learning about betrayal, false friends, love, and it's never too late to request or give forgiveness and especially to restore one's faith.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
Legacy Nonfiction
Books in this Legacy Nonfiction category are nonfiction books over two years of age which hold particular relevance to any subject matter or art form. Unlike many in the industry, we think good books last longer than one season.
Winner
Raising Independent, Self-Confident Kids: Nine Essential Skills to Teach Your Child or Teen, Wendy L. Moss, Ph.D. and Donald A. Moses, APA Life Tools – Beginning with the importance of teaching children to become independent within the safe space of home or school, this book touches on several key skills to develop to reach wise independence and ideas for how to implement them. Rather than an academic presentation, this book is refreshingly clear to understand and down-to-earth. Backed by many studies, the ideas have been condensed into helpful examples, charts, and bullet points to easily follow. Confidence, decision-making, perseverance, self-discipline, social skills, and technology use all come together to form a helpful basis for parenting or teaching in an ever-increasing culture of short-term self-gratification. With a special chapter just for children going through special circumstances (i.e. loss of a loved one, divorce, behavioral issues, mental challenges, or situations, etc.), encouragement builds the confidence not only of the child but also the parent.
First Runner-Up
The Beak in the Heart, Betina Entzminger, Rivercliff Books & Media - This book presents a layered and emotionally resonant exploration of generational identity, tracing the lives of women who resist social constraint and endure its consequences. Through sharply drawn portraits, the author reconstructs family histories with a balance of candor and lyricism, giving voice to those long marginalized or misunderstood. The narrative moves fluidly between past and present, revealing patterns of resilience, rebellion, and quiet endurance that connect generations. The prose remains clear and engaging while carrying significant emotional weight, allowing moments of humor and sorrow to coexist naturally. By examining inherited stories alongside personal experience, the book offers a thoughtful meditation on legacy, self-understanding, and the courage required to break from expectation.
Honorable Mentions
GPS for the Soul: Wisdom of the Master, Dana Hayne, BalboaPress - This book is about the relationship between the author and His Holiness Muhammed Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, a mystic from Sri Lanka. She lived with him for thirteen years in a community with other people and all the while she held a job, got married to someone in the community, and had a child. The book revolves around the author's insecurities and searching for answers to her life through her guru Bawa. She is involved with building the residence, chores like food for thirty people, fund raising, and participating in many events where everyone is gathered around the guru in his bedroom just listening to him talk. She also publishes her poems and drawings in the book.
See a full review in the US Review of Books
Rising Waters: Reports from Across a Rapidly Warming World, Tony Bartelme, Evening Post Books – Clear, gripping, accessible and readable, this delivers a first-person dispatch from the ground, as the author travels across the globe to document the reality of rising seas as they begin to redraw the world's maps. From eroding Arctic coastlines to the precarious streets of flooded tropical megacities, the narrative captures the physical and social toll on communities already losing ground to the tide. It highlights how existing social inequalities make every inch of water more dangerous for those in its path. By blending a mix of human compassion with environmental science reporting, Bartelme offers a sober, direct look at our new geological reality and the high stakes of survival in a rapidly shrinking world.
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