In his memoir, Travels with Hafa: In Search of Ourselves, author Nathan Pettijohn recounts an RV trip that he had taken with his German Shepherd, Hafa, in the fall of 2019 after a hard-hitting breakup. With his only expectation of the trip to escape and to reflect, Pettijohn sets the tone for a relaxed trip that begins in California and circles around the Pacific Northwest in under a month.
Kenzo is a young goat who lives with his mom, dad, and little brother, JuJu. Kenzo wakes up for school one morning, excited to go to art class and paint a picture based on a dream he had the night before. Determined to have the best day ever, Kenzo gets a little too excited at breakfast and has an accident. This starts a series of mishaps and incidents that lead to a bad day at school for Kenzo. But his mom and dad help him see that accidents can happen to anyone, and good days don’t always go according to plan.
Author Yasmin Azad recounts her childhood growing up in Ceylon, now modern-day Sri Lanka, and how she and her family wrestle with maintaining traditional customs as the culture around them slowly changes. Most notably, she writes about the advanced education of girls in their Muslim community, and the Christian customs that trickle in and influence their evolving viewpoints.
Gene Metcalfe is a 19-year-old high school student living in DeKalb, Illinois, in 1942, when he reports for basic training at Camp Grant to become a member of the 508th Paratroop Infantry Regiment during World War II. After a misunderstanding, Gene is required to repeat basic training, making him the most overqualified paratrooper in his regiment at the time he boards a C-47 as part of Operation Market Garden. The plan is to protect a road bridge in Nijmegen, a city in Holland.
Anna lives in a meticulously clean apartment, which she rarely ever leaves. She is full of fear, compulsions, and disdain for most people she meets. So when she gets a wedding invitation in the mail, it remains unopened until her nosy neighbor brings it to her attention.
In 1986, Freja O’Connell moves home to Denver from Las Vegas after her current relationship ends—the latest in a long line of drunken, cheating men. Determined to start over, Freja buys from her father a rundown home in a bad neighborhood and decides to fix it up on her own using money earned as a waitress at Shotgun Willie’s Gentleman’s Cabaret. Aside from meeting a crowd of colorful characters at work, she also befriends (and lusts after) the cashier at the local home improvement store, which she frequents as part of her home remodeling project.
