Today's Featured Books

Pen Parentis presents the final event of its 2022 Spring Season with spectacular readings by authors Sadeqa Johnson, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, and Jacquelyn Mitchard. The theme is "POWER," and their collective accomplishments will blow you away. (FYI: Pen Parentis is a great organization that provides resources to writers to help them stay on track after starting a family.) Tuesday, May 10, 7 PM ET. 

“Don’t worry that children never listen to you: worry that they are always watching you.” ~Robert Fulghum

"With clean, impactful prose and an off-kilter sense of humor...strikes deep into the absurdities of life to uncover the truths we try to keep buried." -Douglas Light. What’s Wrong With This Picture? speaks to everyone who has ever searched for the meaning of existence…or a really good haircut. "These eleven stories...explore the breadth of human potential, from heartening redemption, down to the nastiest of transgressions." -Tim Bridwell From $2.99 SHOP NOW / 

"In Steven Lewis’s wildly imaginative novel, we follow curmudgeonly, big-hearted Charlie Messina as he finds himself passing through the veils of time and space, death and dreams, his life as it was and as it is yet to be." -Tony Hozeny. Back to the Future meets Travels With Charley. "Charlie...the erratic, lovable, self-proclaimed big mouth protagonist in The Lights Around the Shore, wonders and wanders across the lines of psyche and state, searching for clarity and redemption." -Kathy Curto. From $6.99 SHOP NOW /

From $8.99  

In the quest to discover herself, Josephine returns home to Argentina to learn the lessons of her mom and abuela’s pasts, along with the delicious dishes that formed their kitchen arsenals. But her travels from las pampas to the prairie aren’t easy or conventional. Josephine faces mystical encounters with the spirit world that lead her to discover a part of herself that, like sobremesa, had been lost in translation.

Just as she’s ready to give up on love all together, Josephine surprises even herself by entering into a forbidden, transcontinental love affair with the Argentine man of her dreams. If they are to be together, Josephine must make a difficult choice: return to the life she knows back in Pittsburgh or follow her heart and take a chance on herself.

This magical, multigenerational story of a daughter’s love and the culinary legacy that helps Josephine navigate life-changing loss is a reminder that home is anywhere the heart is. By means of culinary time travel, Sobremesa takes the reader on a parallel culinary journey to Argentina that unfolds with each chapter.

Book Clubs: Sobremesa Book Club Guide includes questions and discussion prompts for book clubs.

Praise for Sobremesa

• “Sobremesa is the perfect blend of culture and experience and will transport readers to the streets of Argentina without them having to leave the comforts of their own kitchen . . .” Read more in ¡Presente! Pittsburgh Latino Magazine.
• “Sobremesa is a reminder of a slower time, an exuberant, passionate place, and love as vast as the Argentine pampas.” Read more in Foreword Reviews.
• “Abundant in heart, intimacy and flavor . . . Oría’s story spreads love and nourishment where others might forget its power . . .” Read more in Shelf Awareness.

About Josephine Caminos Oría

Born in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Josephine Caminos Oría was raised Stateside from infancy on in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Gathering around a table large enough to sit her family of eight, plus two for her abuelos on her mom’s side, food and the sobremesa that accompanied it, was how Josephine learned to make sense of the world. Stories of where she came from, and the people she’d left behind, were served to Josephine during family sobremesas she savored like meals. Those tales nourished Josephine’s imagination and sense of self, setting the table for Josephine’s second act—a family and professional life focused around Argentine food and culture. It was in her early 40s, with five young children in tow, that Josephine took a chance on herself, leaving a C-level career to make dulce de leche. Today, Josephine, along with her Argentine husband, Gastón, is the founder of La Dorita Cooks, an all-natural line of dulce de leche products and Pittsburgh’s first resource-based kitchen incubator for start-up and early stage food makers (see www.ladorita.net for more information). In addition, Josephine is the author of the cookbook as food-memoir, Dulce de Leche: Recipes, Stories, and Sweet Traditions (Burgess Lea Press, February 2017).

Gordon Hill Press Spring 2022 Online Launch! Spend your Saturday afternoon mixing and mingling with the authors and editors of Gordon Hill Press, "The Next Voice in Canadian Literatures." The free online event with feature poetry readings from Ayaz Pirani, Steffi Tad-y, and Carl Watts, as well as time for Q&A. Saturday, May 7, 3:00 PM CDT. 

"We must be a beacon of hope, because if you tell people there's nothing they can do, they will do worse than nothing." ~Margaret Atwood, The Year of the Flood

"This book roped me in quick and I didn’t look back! A beautiful story of friendship with just enough twists to keep you guessing." -reader review. Together again, Cate and Patti must decide if it's time to reopen the wounds of that night or keep running from them. As evidence surfaces, the potential to destroy a once-in-a-lifetime friendship looms. Twists, turns and murder. There's only one way out—but how much can one friendship withstand? "An emotional book that packed a punch while soothing the soul. Overall...a great book!" -reader review. From $3.99 SHOP NOW / 

From the Mirror is the first installment of what is to be a four-part autobiography of critically acclaimed author Randall Silvis. With more than three hundred brief reflections and observations, none longer than a single typed page, this intimate and revealing collection considers not just the art of creative writing but also the writing life, fatherhood, academia, politicians, introversion, the afterlife, solitude, romantic love, and more. Silvis spares no victims, including himself, in this brutally honest consideration of his life and career, and of the failings and potential of the human species in general. A must-read for lovers of life, literature, and the pursuit of happiness. From $5.99 SHOP NOW / 

Reader reviews: "Blue Hydrangeas is, by far, the most tender love story I've read in a very long time." "Had me laughing and crying." What if the person who knew you best and loved you most forgot your face and couldn't remember your name? A retired Cape Cod couple struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. "More than a romance... we are taken on a journey of emotional decision making." "Marianne’s writing is easy to read, well crafted, and tells a beautiful story of tragedy, commitment, and everlasting love." From $2.99 SHOP NOW / 

The problem isn’t that we are unhappy. It’s that we expect to be happy all of the time… Your Daily Dose of Stoic Wisdom is a 30-day guide to practicing the foundational tenets of Stoicism. Without being a primer on Stoic philosophy, the book is here to help you integrate its basic principles into your everyday experiences. From $0.99 SHOP NOW / 

Grumpy, small town Mike doesn’t need sunshine, city-slicker Jason to come in and turn his life upside down. Thing is, Mike has been conforming to expectations—on who he is supposed to love, who he is supposed to be—for too long. It might be time to open his heart to something new. From $4.99 SHOP NOW / 

"This is a captivating book, historically authentic, and movingly romantic. A mesmerizing tale of love in a time of extraordinary trials." -Kirkus Reviews. Set in the turbulent Russian Empire of the 19th century, Horodno Burning is a love letter to literature, freedom, and Jewish survival. "...a moving story about human persistence and hope..." -Ellen Meeropol, author of My Sister's Tattoo. "This gripping novel brings history to life." -David Ebenbach, author of How to Mars. From $6.99 SHOP NOW / 

Readers Favorite, International Book Awards, Finalist. #1 on Amazon and Most Gifted. A sweeping tale of abuse and heartache seen through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old girl. Based on life in notorious government institutions that were closed by a Royal Commission in 1974, this book tells the story of healing of a tortured soul in the remote but beautiful Australian outback. From $5.99 SHOP NOW / 

"Confronting and charming with the rapid-fire efficiency of the micro format that makes this collection both prolific and profound." -Tyler Salsman. This book is Alchemy, mundane lead gets transformed to gold, poem by poem, consummation by birth, consummation by death, consummation by transformation. "Kamstra’s words burrow into those intimate places... With its confessional yet unrepentant tone, this poetry collection is a masterpiece of imagery" -Catherine LoFrumento. From $2.99 SHOP NOW /