Bookshelf

(Armin Lear Press, 2026).

“Hope’ has become a soft word in a hard time, often treated like a sentiment, a slogan, or worse, a distraction. Hope is real, and especially now really needed — at work. Across industries, regions, and sectors (including higher education), there is a pattern: People are dispirited, cautious, and lying low. Not because they lack gumption, but because they doubt whether their efforts will lead to something better — and because the world is presenting unforeseen fractures and unknowable forecasts.”

(ELJ editions, 2026).

The author's debut short story collection features characters struggling with sex, identity, and meaning in a world collapsing around them. There’s an aging actress who falls in love with a fictional character. A melancholic sex robot that wanders the streets of New York. A man searching for his beloved inside the chaos of an anti-war protest. Indeed, everyone is longing for something — even annihilation. As the publisher notes, “Cities burn, protests rage, isolation intensifies. A motif of masks and costumes runs throughout as characters experiment with who they are and struggle for connection in an absurd world. Though bleak, many of the stories end with a moment of dark optimism.”

(Livingston Press, 2026).

Selected as the 2025 Changing Light Novel-in-Verse Prize winner, this book combines poetry and flash non-fiction to create a narrative arc. According to the publisher, “It centers on a girl whose accidental conception irrevocably alters the life trajectories of her teenaged parents and who witnesses her parents’ inevitable divorce, her family’s subsequent fall into poverty, and her mother’s struggle to find a new partner in the disco era and cope with her life trauma and mental health issues. The girl comes of age amid these challenges and ultimately makes peace with the imperfect people who loved her.”

(Veritas Resurgence Publishing, 2025).

“When his beloved wife, Janice, dies after a long battle with breast cancer, Joe Mathers is angry with God — if, in fact, God actually exists. But then the ticket sends him on a journey to discover a spiritual realm he had never known existed.” That’s how the publisher describes this book, which “seeks to explore the intersection of grief, joy, tragedy, love, forgiveness, and grace in our lives, as well as the often-difficult path of coming to know and follow Jesus.”

(Bookgo, 2025).

The author describes his autobiography like this: “Born extremely prematurely and weighing just 2 pounds, the doctor told my dear mother Elsa, ‘Don’t even think you’ve had a child.’ Against those odds, I survived — and overcame many odds along the way. In school, struggling with dyslexia, I was in constant academic turmoil. Later, I was asked to leave Hamilton College for academic reasons, only to be drafted because of the war in Vietnam. I thrived in the Army and rose to the rank of first lieutenant, admired by my peers and decorated for combat action.

(self-published, 2025).

“Step into my kitchen, slow down, and color your way through the simple joys of cooking.” That’s how the author invites readers to interact with this book that features over 35 handcrafted illustrations inspired by everyday kitchen moments — from fresh herbs and farmer’s-market finds to holiday baking, comfort foods, and table gatherings. All that’s missing is the color!

(Veritas Resurgence Publishing, 2024).

First, the author asks, “What motivates a man to betray a friend? And not just any friend but the Son of God?” Then he goes on to imagine the answers not found in the Bible. This fictional “autobiography” imagines how Judas would have told his story, from his childhood under Roman occupation to his suicide on a tree outside Jerusalem as Jesus, the one he betrayed, died on another tree for the sins of all mankind.

(MIT Press, 2025).

An associate professor of computer science at the Colorado School of Mines and director of the Mines Interactive Robotics Research Lab, the author argues that robotics design has historically reinforced white supremacist and patriarchal systems of power. In this book, he explores what roboticists might do to subvert rather than reinforce those trends.

(Columbia University Press, 2025).

Bob Pigott has called New York City home since 1959. By trade, he is an attorney who served as section chief and bureau chief of the New York Attorney General’s Charities Bureau. He’s also a history buff. When reading a biography, he finds himself especially curious about one aspect of the subjects’ life — their first trip to New York City. What did they want to see? Where did they stay? What were their impressions?