Bookshelf

(Finishing Line Press, 2022).

Perhaps the best description of this chapbook comes from fellow poet Stuart Kestenbaum ’73: “Re-membering is a courageous and evocative book. Alice Hildebrand examines the complicated and profound bonds of mother and daughter, through what she calls in one poem the ‘undoing of her mother’s life.’ She skillfully intertwines her multiple roles of daughter, caregiver, and mourner throughout these poems, and we come to see how love evolves, becoming what it needs to be. She takes us on a spiritual journey that transforms her and us as well.”

(Little Cottage Press, 2024).

Here’s a summary from the publisher to get you hooked: “When Mary Jane Bennett is found dead in her bed — alone, strangled by her own scarf, and with every door in the house locked — the medical examiner rules her death accidental, the result of a sex game gone horribly awry. State police decline to investigate further, but Queensbridge Police Chief Caleb Crane doesn’t buy for a minute that his good friend died this way, so he undertakes his own investigation. Facing town councilors afraid of bad publicity, an angry medical examiner, and his own personal demons, he labors to solve what he believes is the first-ever murder in his pastoral Berkshire Hills village. Complicating things: the list of suspects includes some of the people to whom he is closest — including his own wife.”

(Atria/One Signal Publishers, 2025)

The author, whose previous work of nonfiction The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote earned national accolades, returns with the story of four activists whose audacious plan to restore voting rights to Black Americans laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement.

(Finishing Line Press, 2024)

This collection of poetry provides a lyrical warning — take better care of the Earth or find ourselves in the extinction category.

(Wings ePress, 2024)

The latest work from Dafoe explores Grace Storey’s deep dive into dual mysteries about her great-great-grandfather and a contemporary soldier injured in Iraq. Grace’s search arises both out of empathy and an attempt to come to terms with her own devastating losses.

(University of Toronto Press, 2024)
According to the publisher “In the 1970s, new methods of social science research began to flower in Latin America, connecting academic researchers to grassroots social movements. One of these was participatory action research, a method now used by community organizers, educational activists, and social scientists around the world.

(Brentwood, Tenn.: Permuted Press, 2023).
This book tells of the relentless advocacy of Vietnam War-era POW/MIA wives, whose persistence outlasted repeated admonitions from the U.S. government to “keep quiet.” These women waged their battle against the backdrop of cultural, social, and economic upheaval, at a time when women could not obtain a credit card without a husband’s signature. Despite the stonewalling they encountered, the women took their case to the Paris Peace Accords and the world leaders there. They testified before Congress to demand an accounting for their men. Moving from the sidelines to the front lines of diplomacy, the women made the POW/MIA issue central to the peace negotiations, ultimately changing policy so “no man is left behind.”

(Pouthier Press, 2022).
Forced to choose where to ride out the pandemic, Facos opts to extend what was originally intended to be a two-month stay in Paris. That “brief” visit would lead to a transformative 16-month journey of self-discovery, path-realignment, romantic adventure, and a deeper relationship with the City of Light and herself. Join the author, an art historian, as she “explores the jasmine-scented streets of Paris, navigates the fascinating world of senior dating, returns to her original career path, spends weekends with aristocrats, winters on the Côte d’Azur, and holds long conversations with her favorite works of art. And meet the new people in her world — Puzzle Man of Montparnasse, Amazing Accordionist, Jim the Expat, and Caroline the Professor — who made her (first) pandemic year one of metamorphosis and joy.” 

(Georgetown, Ky.: Finishing Line Press, 2022).
As one reviewer so eloquently wrote of this poetry collection: “When we are lost, let poets lead us. Grief, both personal and collective, turns most humans mute, but Dafoe’s a seasoned poet who keeps her eyes open in the dark. With intelligence and skill, she translates the inexplicable and unacceptable into precise, elegant poems that gift us with penetrating images, ideas, and moods — a lonesome frog, a multiverse, a silent house. These transformative poems show us we can pass through devastation into an altered life, ‘forever beginning anew,’ like the galaxies and stars.”

(Avon, Mass.: Adams Media/Simon & Schuster, 2022).

Whether you’re a newcomer to the world of astrology or read your horoscope daily, this book (or the edition written specifically for your sign) will guide you through self-reflection, an important part of astrological practice. After reviewing your strengths and weaknesses and main qualities and goals, the journal dives into over 75 questions tailored to help you gain deeper insight into what you really are. According to the publisher, “Examine situations where you showed your greatest strengths and reflect on how to harness those skills in the future. Face your weaknesses head on and discover ways to understand your instincts, change your responses, and find the good in even your most challenging moments.”