Nov 4

Nov 4 Books Publishing This Week

The first week of November brings with it a certain kind of calm—the exuberance of autumn has softened, the air has cooled, and the early evenings feel like gentle invitations to slow down. The sun dips below the horizon earlier now, painting the world in shades of smoky rose and violet before giving way to blue twilight. You can hear the faint rustle of dry leaves outside, the occasional gust of wind rattling against the window. It’s the perfect kind of night for beginning a new book.

You make yourself comfortable in your favorite spot—maybe by a window with a view of the darkening street, or in an armchair pulled close to the warmth of a lamp’s golden light. The house feels still, the day’s noise fading into quiet hums. A blanket rests across your lap, and beside you, a mug of something warm—tea steeped dark and fragrant, or cocoa topped with a swirl of cream—sends thin curls of steam into the cool air.

The book sits on the side table, its spine uncracked, waiting. You reach for it, the cover smooth beneath your fingers, the promise of story just beyond the first page. You open it slowly, savoring the familiar creak of new binding. The first words draw you in immediately—they always do—and you can feel yourself crossing the invisible threshold between this world and the next.

Outside, the wind shifts again, carrying the scent of rain and woodsmoke. You can almost hear the season changing, a slow and steady turning. Inside, the lamplight glows softly, catching on the edges of your mug, gleaming faintly on the pages. The story begins to take root, quiet but insistent, drawing you deeper into its rhythm.

There’s something about November evenings that makes reading feel sacred. Maybe it’s the darkness coming earlier, or the hush that settles over everything once the clocks shift. Maybe it’s the way the cool air makes you crave warmth, the kind that only a blanket and a good story can offer. You take a sip of your drink, the warmth moving through you as the book unfolds in your hands.

Every so often, you pause—not because the story has lost you, but because you want to linger in it. You tilt your head toward the window, where streetlights glow faintly through bare branches, the world outside painted in muted tones. A single leaf drifts across the glass, sticking there for a moment before sliding away. You smile faintly, then turn back to the page.

The author’s words pull you further in. The setting becomes vivid, the characters distinct, and before you know it, you’ve lost track of time. The quiet house, the flicker of the lamp, the faint hum of the wind outside—all of it fades until it’s just you and the world within the book.

When you finally look up again, the mug beside you has gone cool, and the hour has grown late. The air feels colder now, the kind that makes you burrow deeper under your blanket. You mark your place carefully, close the book, and hold it for a moment, feeling its weight. There’s something deeply satisfying about the beginning of a story—knowing you’ve found one that will keep you company through the coming long nights.

You glance once more at the window, at the quiet dark pressing gently against the glass, and then at the book resting in your lap. The season has changed again, and you’re ready for it—ready for slower nights, deeper thoughts, and stories that glow like light in the dark.

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Books Publishing November 2 - 8

From Sexless Marriage to Sex Goddess: A Memoir, Dr. Alisa Kriegel

After her husband of 25 years came out as gay, psychologist Alisa Kriegel set aside clinical detachment and used herself as a case study.

From Sexless Marriage to Sex Goddess (Latah Books, 10/8/25) is her account of what followed: a deeply personal and often surprising exploration of shame, desire, and reinvention. The book moves through the frustration of a low-intimacy marriage into the messy, often illuminating realities of midlife dating and self-exploration. Drawing on both her professional and lived experience, Kriegel examines how long-buried desire resurfaced once she gave herself permission to seek it.

Breaking from therapeutic convention, Kriegel writes openly about her own sexual reawakening. With over 20 years as a practicing psychologist, she has guided clients through shame, disconnection, and the complexities of intimacy—challenges she faced firsthand. The result is a memoir that skirts the line between clinical insight and personal vulnerability.

Prowl by Colleen Coble

Prowl, the second book in USA TODAY bestselling author Colleen Coble's Sanctuary series (following Ambush), delivers exactly what her fans want: the ideal blend of suspense that keeps you on the edge of your seat with just the right amount of romance. Perfect for fans of Laura Dave, Allison Brennan, and Dani Pettrey.

When a worker at the Sanctuary is discovered dead in the tiger enclosure, authorities assume the big cat killed her. But when the autopsy shows she was killed by a lethal dose of anesthetic delivered by a tranquilizer gun, suspicion falls on Blake Lawson, co-owner of the Sanctuary. Blake has his hands full trying to clear his name as well as get the Sanctuary finances back in the black. When a soil test turns up traces of rare earth, he's even more puzzled. Is someone trying to run them out of business to get to whatever is under the ground?

Meanwhile, wildlife veterinarian Paradise Alden is determined to find the brother she only recently learned even existed. When the results of the DNA test she ran mysteriously disappear from her portal before she can read them, she realizes someone must not want her to know the truth. A break-in at her new apartment is alarming, but she tries to pass it off as someone trying to scare her away. She refuses to turn tail and run when she is desperate for answers.

For Blake, the only solid ground is his relationship with Paradise, and he longs to propose--but how can they even think about starting a life together with so many forces working against them?

Colleen Coble's Prowl combines gripping suspense with closed-door romance and includes intriguing mysteries from both the past and present, sabotage and danger, second-chance romance, found family, and themes of overcoming pain and how the past doesn't have to define you.

A Complete Fiction | Books Publishing November 2 - 8 — Books Publishing This Week

A Complete Fiction by R.L. Maizes

With little evidence, would-be author P.J. Larkin serves a “nibble” on the trendy new social-media app Crave, accusing editor George Dunn of stealing the novel she submitted to him for publication. The nibble shoots to the top of the site’s “Popular Menu Items” and before you can say “unpaid literary labor,” George is fired, and his million-dollar debut book deal is put on hold. P.J.’s novel, possibly based on the sexual assault of her sister, Mia, is snapped up amid the publicity, but is it P.J.’s story to tell? When Mia comes after P.J., and George proves his book is autobiographical, it’s P.J.’s turn to feel the public’s scorn.

Told in the humorous vein of Where’d You Go Bernadette, A COMPLETE FICTION is the story of two writers trying to navigate the minefields of modern publishing and social media.

***

The germ of the idea for A COMPLETE FICTION: A Novel (November 4, 2025; Ig Publishing trade paperback original; ISBN 978-1-63246-211-4; 280 pages/ $18.95) came out of author R.L. Maizes’s concerns about how writers’ lives and careers were being destroyed by social media. “It troubled me that writers were being cancelled, often for little to no reason,” Maizes explains. “Someone would read a two-sentence description of a book and condemn it on social media. They wouldn’t have read the whole book or even a piece of it and they wouldn’t have taken the time to understand what it was about or its nuances. We shouldn’t destroy people’s lives or their professional careers based on rumors or innuendo or without giving them a chance to be heard.”

Does that mean that no one should ever be cancelled? “Absolutely not,” Maizes asserts. “People who are dangerous should not be given a platform to do harm. Criminals who are using a platform to commit crimes? Cancel them. People who are spreading lies or conspiracy theories? Cancel them. But have the evidence from a reliable source before you do. Be responsible before you post or share something. George, the most sympathetic character in A COMPLETE FICTION, is the first to say that sometimes people shouldn’t be given a platform.”

Maizes also came to personally understand how the addictive quality of social media could also derail an author’s career. “I had to withdraw from a platform that took up too much of my mental energy,” she says. “I had my husband block other social media platforms on my laptop. Those apps make us stupider. They take us away from our real lives. People read posts instead of books. They engage with ‘friends’ rather than the actual friends they’re with.”

A COMPLETE FICTION is a departure from Maizes’ earlier books, such as the award-winning novel Other People’s Pets. “I write about things that bother me, that I’m obsessed about,” Maizes says about her new novel. “Writers being unfairly cancelled is one of those things. Also, I don’t want to repeat myself in my work. That’s boring for me as a writer, and if it’s boring for me as a writer, it will be boring for the reader. As a reader myself, I don’t like when other writers write the same book over and over.”

R.L. MAIZES’s debut novel, Other People’s Pets, won the 2021 Colorado Book Award in Fiction and was a Library Journal Best Debut of Summer/Fall 2020. She is also the author of the short story collection, We Love Anderson Cooper. Her stories have aired on NPR and can be found in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading. Maizes’s essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, O Magazine, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. She is a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow and the recipient of a Fellowship Grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture for 2024-2025 for her novel-in-progress. Maizes was born in Queens, New York, and lives in Boulder County, Colorado.

Simone in Pieces | Books Publishing November 2 - 8 — Books Publishing This Week

Simone in Pieces by Janet Burroway

Author Interview with Janet Burroway

Readers first meet Simone Lerrante, a Belgian war orphan, as a child refugee in Sussex, England, her memory damaged by trauma. This novel offers a kaleidoscopic vision of her fractured life and piecemeal understanding of self across multiple points of view. Following her from Cambridge to New York City and across the United States—through a disastrous marriage, thwarted desire, and the purgatory of academic backwaters—the novel charts Simone’s unexpected reconnection with her past, which provides both autonomy and inspiration for her future. Janet Burroway slowly reveals a multifaceted, fascinating protagonist, who observes her own life without always allowing herself to be immersed in it. Spanning seven decades, this story is both epic and contained, rewarding readers at every turn.

Last Call at the Savoy by Brisa Carleton

Set amongst the glittering backdrop of London's iconic Savoy hotel, Cinnamon Scott is forced to confront her troubled past as she uncovers the story of the hotel’s first female bartender who has been erased from the history books. And like a well-made cocktail, their intertwined stories pack just the right punch.

Six years ago, Cinnamon Scott was a young writer on the rise in New York City. But since the sudden loss of her parents, she's been stuck in place, retreating to a life of endless partying—made possible by the massive fortune she's inherited. Despite their tragic loss, she and her older sister Rosemary have always had each other to lean on. But now, with Rosie living in London and about to give birth to twins, Cinnamon feels more lost than ever.

When Rosie is put on bedrest, Cinnamon flies to her sister's side, where she's temporarily living at The Savoy. Immediately swept away by the beauty and history of the legendary hotel and its famed American Bar, Cinnamon finds ample opportunity to distract herself. When the late shift bartender tells her the story of Ada Coleman, the woman who crafted the cocktail recipes The Savoy popularized in its famous handbook a century ago, Cinnamon is inspired by the bartender's vivid stories of Ada's fearlessness and can't understand why Ada's name is nowhere to be found.

After meeting a handsome historian researching the hotel and realizing that Ada is likely to be once again overlooked, Cinnamon must decide if she can overcome her demons and stand up for Ada's story. And, along the way, she might just save her own story too.

Bullets in the Water by Conor McAnally

A gripping tale of small-town intrigue and corruption

When Mike Carson, a disgraced New York journalist, returns to his Texas hometown to sell his late uncle’s house, what should be a simple task quickly spirals out of control. Asked to investigate a suspicious death, Carson uncovers a web of lies, self-dealing, and drug trafficking, and with each revelation, he finds himself dragged deeper into a powerful conspiracy.

Fast-paced, with a colorful cast of characters and razor-sharp dialogue, Bullets in the Water is a must-read for fans of crime fiction and investigative thrillers.

the honeymoon stage — Books Publishing This Week

Honeymoon Stage by Margaux Eliot

Selected as the debut book for the Chicago Literary Salon

Brimming with wit and romance, this twisty trip back to the early 2000s follows as a former production assistant’s upcoming marriage descends into the confusion, chaos, and karmic consequences of reality TV.

It’s the night before her wedding, and Cassidy Baum isn’t sure she wants to get married…Or maybe she just doesn’t want to get married on set, surrounded by cameras and crew, with the crushing weight of everyone watching.

As a production assistant, Cassidy’s used to being behind the camera, not in front of it. But her fiancé is a former child star and musician, and their wedding makes the perfect spin-off for Honeymoon Stage, the groundbreaking celebreality show she once worked on.

Five years ago, the show fell apart―for dramatic reasons Cassidy is still struggling to understand. Now, Cassidy is forced to reckon with what happened on set to search out the truth once and for all before her wedding is broadcast to the world.

Rumors, lies, and suspicions come rushing back. And if Cassidy can’t figure out a way to make sense of the past, her own happily ever after may not be so happy after all.

These Violet Delights by Madeleine Roux

Violet Arden is a burgeoning painter who insists on a life of passion, but scandal is heaped on humiliation at her artistic debut in London. It would be one thing to withstand withering critiques, but the night goes from bad to worse when an illicit affair with her art instructor is exposed. She flees the London limelight to her cousin Emilia Graddock’s country estate, where she plans to leave all thoughts of love in the past where it belongs. . . until she comes face-to-face with the man who scorned her paintings in front of her friends and family, Alasdair Kerr

Alasdair Kerr has recently set aside his life of travel to return to his family’s estate and the site of a tragic fire that claimed his cherished father’s life. He’s ready to finally rebuild the home that was lost and step into his role as man of the house. But his rakish younger brother Freddie can’t seem to leave the off-limits Graddock woman alone, and his mother has brought an overbearing clergyman into their home who appears keen to stick around.

Violet is determined to ignore Alasdair, which shouldn’t be difficult considering their families have been in a long-standing feud. . . if only their attempts to end Emilia and Freddie’s secret relationship would stop bringing them together. And when new fires threaten their safety, Violet and Alasdair reluctantly join forces to uncover the identity of the arsonist. But can they ignore the feelings kindling between them that are but an ember away from igniting into a full blaze?

The Lady on Esplanade by Karen White

Author Interview with Karen White

People and secrets from the past threaten to disrupt Nola Trenholm’s new life in New Orleans in the third novel of the Royal Street series by New York Times bestselling author Karen White.

Nola is ready to focus on starting over in the Big Easy. She wants to get back to work on the renovations of her Creole cottage, and she is eager to launch a new murder-house-flipping business with contractor, closet psychic, and part-time nemesis Beau Ryan. After a near-death ghostly encounter and the return of Beau’s missing sister, they are confident that the ghost of his mother can finally rest.

Nola believes the shotgun house on famed Esplanade Avenue is a prime fixer-upper for her first project. It may have been the site of a woman’s murder and the disappearance of an entire family, but the house will be perfect for new-to-town Cooper Ravenel—who happens to have caused Nola’s first heartbreak.

That’s the least of Nola’s worries, though. In addition to the elusive spirit of an angry young woman who accompanied Cooper to New Orleans, the house on Esplanade has its own ghosts, including one that is becoming increasingly dangerous as he tries to hide his dark secrets. And the wet footprints from the spirit of Beau’s mother have returned to let them know there is still unfinished business before she can rest. Spectral danger is headed toward them, and it’s up to Nola to convince Beau to help before it’s too late. . . .

The Place Where They Buried Your Heart by Christina Henry

Author Interview with Christina Henry

A woman must confront the evil that has been terrorizing her street since she was a child in this gripping haunted house novel from the national bestselling author of The House That Horror Built and Good Girls Don’t Die.

On an otherwise ordinary street in Chicago, there is a house. An abandoned house where, once upon a time, terrible things happened. The children who live on this block are told by their parents to stay away from that house. But of course, children don’t listen. Children think it’s fun to be scared, to dare each other to go inside.

Jessie Campanelli did what many older sisters do and dared her little brother Paul. But unlike all the other kids who went inside that abandoned house, Paul didn’t return. His two friends, Jake and Richie, said that the house ate Paul. Of course adults didn’t believe that. Adults never believe what kids say. They thought someone kidnapped Paul, or otherwise hurt him. They thought Paul had disappeared in a way that was ordinary, explainable.

The disappearance of her little brother broke Jessie’s family apart in ways that would never be repaired. Jessie grew up, had a child of her own, kept living on the same street where the house that ate her brother sat, crouched and waiting. And darkness seemed to spread out from that house, a darkness that was alive—alive and hungry.

The Great Forgotten | Books Publishing November 2 - 8 — Books Publishing This Week

The Great Forgotten K.L. Murphy

One War. Two Loves. A Lifetime to Remember.

July 4, 1918, Nashville, Tennessee. Even as the war in Germany drones on, patriotism swells at home. There are celebrations, music, and dancing. But for five men―one train engineer, one porter, one salesman, one farmer, and one thief―the world will soon take a terrible and tragic turn.

Summer, 1988. Ginny Campbell is a young woman unsure of her marriage and her future. Moving into a new house, she finds an old, abandoned trunk filled with carefully wrapped memorabilia, photos, and a woman’s name. Intrigued, she sets out to uncover the mystery of the steamer trunk, leading her on a sweeping journey of love and loss that stretches back to 1918.

Inspired by a true event. The great train wreck near Nashville on July 9, 1918, when two passenger trains collided due to human error, was a horrific disaster that killed over 100 people and injured hundreds more. The Great Forgotten is a gripping tale of five men whose lives were intertwined that fateful day and the ripple effect of this little-known American tragedy on the woman who knew them all.

Things That Are Funny on a Submarine But Not Really by Yannick Murphy

Informed by an intense pressure of language, wit, and energy, Things That Are Funny on a Submarine But Not Really enraptures with the colorful world of David, nicknamed "Dead Man," and his shipmates. Stationed in Guam, they sail the depths of the oceans, swapping jokes and stories while strengthening bonds continually tested by the rigors of submarine life. But when one shipmate is revealed as a Chinese spy, and another takes his own life, Dead Man is burdened by a repressed guilt and left with a lingering trauma.

Searching for a change, Dead Man leaves the Navy to start fresh as a college student, but his past refuses to let go. The ghosts of former shipmates—both dead and alive—continue to haunt him, and unwilling to stay mired in his turbulent memories, Dead Man navigates the complex terrain of identity and searches for meaning after reentering a way of life that feels increasingly foreign.

Written with Yannick Murphy’s distinctive and darkly humorous style, Things That Are Funny on a Submarine But Not Really is a headlong, entertaining dive into what it means to find one's way in a rapidly changing world.

Not Today, Satan by Samantha Joyce

I’m destined to rule the damned…not fall for one.

Think your life is hell?

Try being the Prince of Darkness’s only daughter—a seventeen-year-old born and raised in Hell, destined to inherit the throne, and constantly enduring the (literal) eternal moans and screams of souls who had it coming.

The only thing worse than ruling the Underworld is working here. Day after day, it’s me, a bunch of demons who are too intimidated by my dad to befriend me, and an endless lineup of sinners. Until Nathan Reynolds shows up, with a smile that could turn brimstone to butterflies, claiming he’s innocent.

I don’t question the system; it's never wrong. But Nate’s pleading eyes have me doubting everything I’ve ever known.

So, I’m going to do the one thing I’m not supposed to do: I’m going to help him break out. Even if it means showing Nate exactly who I am. Metaphorical horns and all.

Because if we don’t make it out of here?

We’re not just damned. We’re doomed.

Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi

From New York Times bestselling author Akwaeke Emezi comes a steamy paranormal romance set in the Black South—a bold new foray that takes us on a journey of magic and fantasy, from the whispering creeks outside the city of Salvation to the very depths of Hell itself.

Tenderhearted Galilee was raised by the Kincaids, a formidable clan of Black women sequestered deep in the weeping willows and dark rushing creeks of their land. Galilee has always known that she’s different—that there is an old and unknowable secret around her very existence. It has been a hollow ache inside her since her childhood, something she assumes she will always have to live with.

Until she meets Lucifer Helel. He’s fronting as the head of security for her wealthy friend Oriaku’s family, protecting a mysterious, ancient artifact, but from the moment she lays eyes on him, Gali knows he’s not human. From her first incendiary touch, Lucifer knows something even Gali herself doesn’t—that she isn’t human either.

Enter: Leviathan. As Lucifer’s most trusted prince of Hell, Levi is ruthless and determined to eliminate the intolerable danger that is Galilee before she brings death and disaster to those he loves. While unseen battles rage between Hell, Heaven, and earth, Lucifer and Galilee’s attraction threatens to bring all the structures of their existence crashing down around them.

Soon, loyalties will be shattered and reformed as Kincaid secrets clash with the princes of Hell, driving even the most powerful to their knees. Galilee Kincaid must decide if she will step into herself and embrace the consequences of power in this astonishing, seductive, and wildly original fantasy.

Ship of Spells by H. Leighton Dickson

A war-scarred mage. A sentient ship. A secret that could drown empires.

When Ensign Bluemage Honor Renn is rescued from the wreckage of her first naval post, she expects death or disgrace. Instead, she wakes aboard the Touchstone, a mythic vessel whispered of in dockside ballads and royal war rooms alike. With a crew of misfits. A mysterious, elven captain. And a mission tied to the Dreadwall, the crumbling barrier that has kept the Overland and Nethersea from open war for a hundred years.

But the tragedy that sank her last ship didn’t just take lives―it left something behind.

Now Renn carries a secret everyone wants. A magik that’s chimeric, arcane...and slowly killing her. But the captain’s mission may be her only chance to survive, even if he still doesn’t trust her.

Caught between privateers, princes, and spies, Renn knows each choice could sink her future―or set the sea on fire.

Ship of Spells is perfect for readers who crave the raw grit of Arya Stark, the world-building of Samantha Shannon, and the slow-burn tension of enemies who should never trust or want each other.

Till Taught by Pain by Susan Coventry

Inspired by the groundbreaking discoveries of ether and chloroform anesthesia, William Stewart Halsted pursues a surgical career with relentless ambition, daring to perform operations deemed impossible by his peers. His reputation skyrockets with each bold success— until his quest for an effective local anesthetic leads him to inject himself with cocaine. Caroline, the niece of Confederate General Wade Hampton, seeks to escape the constraints of post-war South Carolina by training as a nurse. When she takes a position at the prestigious Johns Hopkins Hospital, she finds herself captivated by the brilliant yet troubled chief of surgery, Dr. Halsted. Till Taught by Pain is a poignant exploration of love and sacrifice, as Caroline grapples with the difficult choice between enabling her husband’ s addiction and supporting his pioneering career. As their lives intertwine, both must confront the consequences of ambition, the nature of love, and the toll of personal demons on their shared dreams.

Susan Coventry is a retired physician with a lifelong historical fiction obsession. Her first novel, The Queen’ s Daughter, was a YA historical set in the Middle Ages. She has since switched from YA to adult novels and moved on from medieval Europe to the turn-of- the-20th-century U.S. She lives in Louisville, KY with her historian husband, Brad Asher.

Otherwise Engaged by Susan Mallery

Author Interview with Susan Mallery

A twisty, tender and wise look at how secrets can transform the powerful—and sometimes problematic—bond between mothers and daughters, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery.

When Shannon gets engaged, her beloved mom, Cindy, is the first person she wants to tell—and the last. Cindy’s engaged, too, and has already hinted at a double wedding. The image of a synchronized bouquet toss with her mom fills Shannon with horror. She’ll keep her engagement a secret until Cindy’s I-dos are done.

Victoria has never been proper enough for her mother, Ava, so she stopped trying. She lives on her own terms and amuses herself by pushing Ava’s buttons. Ava loves but doesn’t understand her stuntwoman daughter. When a movie-set mishap brings Victoria home, Ava longs to finally connect.

Chance brings the four women together at a wedding venue, where a shocking secret comes tumbling out. Twenty-four years ago, desperate teenager Cindy chose wealthy Ava to adopt her baby—then changed her mind at the very last second. The loss rocked Ava’s world, leaving her unable to open her heart to the daughter she did adopt, Victoria. As Shannon and Victoria deal with the fallout from the decisions their mothers made, they wrestle with whether who they are is different than who they might have become.

The Bridesmaid by Cate Quinn

The Kensington’s invite you to the society wedding of the decade. There’s just one hitch. You might not make it out alive.

When a celebrity bridesmaid is murdered weeks before an exclusive society wedding, forensic attorney Holly Stone is drafted as an unlikely undercover replacement. Working to unpick the secrets of the notoriously private Kensington family, glamour-averse Holly discovers a new worst enemy in bridezilla Adrianna. And beneath the veneer of sophistication, she realizes the Kensingtons have secrets worth killing for. As the wedding day gets closer, it seems clear that one of the five hand-picked bridesmaids has committed murder - and the destination wedding is a perfect place to strike again.

From the acclaimed author of The Clinic, and for fans of The Unwedding comes a thriller tracing the path to an exclusive society wedding, with one bridesmaid murdered and the wedding party the main suspects, told through the eyes of an undercover forensic attorney who just might be the next intended victim.

The Strength of Water: An Asian American Coming-of-Age Memoir by Karin K. Jensen

In 1920s Detroit, King Ying lives in a small apartment behind her parents’ laundry business, where she stands on a box to iron clothes, endures taunts of “Ching-Ching Chinaman" on the playground, and tries to reconcile what passes for normal in Jazz Age America with her father’s vastly different cultural values. She dreams of a real home, the elegance of her Jane Arden paper dolls, and winning her stern father’s affection. But when Ba incurs steep debts during the Great Depression, he sends her far from hope to live in his ancestral village.
In remote Tai Ting Pong in the Guangdong province of China, she feels as foreign in the land of her heritage as in the country of her birth. While her family tries to eke out a subsistence living, she must survive hunger, dangerous superstitions, and the start of the Sino-Japanese War.
When guardian angels help her return to the U.S., it’s a chance to seize her American dream. She succeeds in finding and improving her employment. However, mid-century racism, those who take advantage of the poor, and toxic cultural expectations around marriage take their toll until a romance leading to betrayal leads to her attempting suicide. Yet her guardian angel has not deserted her. As she discovers the strength to continue, she finds new love and forges a path to a loving home, family, and prosperity.
In this inspiring and heartfelt memoir, Karin K. Jensen recounts her mother’s transpacific quest for identity, survival, and new world dreams.

The World is My Mirror by Riza Rasco

What if the path forward meant stepping into the unknown, again and again?

At forty-three, Riza Rasco walked away from a career in science when her life fractured under the weight of infertility, burnout, the deaths of loved ones, the breakdown of marriage, and depression. What began as a nine-month overland journey across Africa deepened into a decade-long odyssey through every country in the world.

From war zones and remote villages to sacred rituals and tribal dances, Riza maps both the landscapes she crossed and the inner terrain of grief, healing, endurance, and transformation. Each place, each culture, each encounter reflected fragments of herself back to her, until what had been broken slowly reassembled into a life grounded in resilience, empathy, and purpose.

It is a story of detours and setbacks, of breaking apart and choosing, again and again, to keep moving. Reinvention, she learned, grows slowly through attention, through presence, and through the willingness to let change take root.

This is not just a travel memoir. The World Is My Mirror is a meditation on courage and what it means to keep going when the map disappears. For anyone standing at a crossroads, it offers both a companion and an invitation to begin again.

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