Ever wonder what it was like to live on a commune back in the days of “Make Love, Not War”? Sandra Eugster takes you on a journey to such a place in her honest and revealing memoir Notes from Nethers. Sandra grew up on a West Virginia commune founded by her mother in [...]

Yalo, written by Elias Khoury and published by Archipelago Books, takes place in war-torn Beirut of the 1980’s where the main character (Yalo) is accused of rape and is imprisoned and tortured. Forced to write his confession, he starts to sort through his twisted memories of childhood, life as a soldier, and the crimes [...]

I’ve read some great books lately, and this next novel is certainly no exception. A Highly Placed Source by Michelle Dally was a fantastic read. John Irving-esque in style, it handles some pretty sensitive subject matter and pulls it off brilliantly. The story line is laugh-out-loud humor blended with sarcasm.
When I say this [...]

When I recently started carp(e) libris, I had a vision. I wanted to bring books to readers, unique pieces of literature hunted like gold from small presses who publish works as labors of love. I have found one of those books. Boxing for Cuba by Guillermo Vincente Vidal is exactly the kind [...]

Caley’s parents are divorced. His father changes personalities like Mr. Rogers does sweater vests, and his mother has lost her attachment to Caley and his siblings after marrying an unsympathetic man. Gone and Back Again by Jonathon Scott Fuqua is a book that pulls at your heart with all too real scenes of [...]

Amiri Baraka is a controversial author and poet who has been a literary revolutionary for decades. His latest work, a collection of shorts called “Tales of the Out and the Gone” published by Akashic Books, spans almost 40 years of writing. Most of the stories in this book have never been published before. [...]

First published in Spanish as “Sombra de la Sombra”, Paco Ignacio Taibo II’s “The Shadow of the Shadow” was a book I knew I’d like from the first page. Published by Cinco Puntos Press, “The Shadow of the Shadow” is not your average mystery novel. With chapter titles such as “Death of a Trombonist” [...]