The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street: A Memoir by Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho (Douglas & McIntyre). Reviewed by Bob Armstrong. “Diasporic children frequently develop a sense of resilience, self-reliance, and self-worth that serves them well as they mature into adulthood. As Ho’s narrative makes clear, however, parental absence can’t help but create feelings of abandonment, loss, and resentment, too, even when those parents go to great lengths (as hers did) to maintain a bond by visiting as often as possible and paying their kids’ living and education expenses.”

The White Deer: A Novel of Anton Chekhov by Regina McBride (Green City Books). Reviewed by Ashlee Green. “Her plan backfires, though, when Petya is instead sent to a place that’s both far away and subjectively ‘uninteresting,’ where Vera has ‘no family connections.’ So, she’s back to square one, ‘always outside somewhere wandering the grounds’ with a mind that is ‘engaged with the invisible,’ when she is auspiciously presented with two new distractions: a rare (and symbolic) white deer on her family’s property and the arrival of Anton Chekhov, an aspiring medical student and visiting friend of a neighbor down the road. Soon, Vera and Anton forge a bond of their own.”

Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys Through Ancient Literature by Emily Wilson (Liveright). Reviewed by Arthur Ivan Bravo. “Wilson suggests that translating the ancient involves not only an interpretation of the linguistically and culturally foreign, as it would with contemporary translation, but also of the unbridgeable distance of time and history. In this case, the ancient sources just happen to be part of what people often consider the foundations of Western civilization. Therefore, any attempt at interpreting such material wades into the history of that history and the discussions around its meaning.”

A Penance for Crows: A Novel by Shannon Morgan (Kensington). Reviewed by Patricia S. Gormley. “On the tiny island of Beanna Dubh off the coast of Ireland, there is murder most foul — bloody and inexplicable, perhaps even demonic. Peculiar lights are seen in bogs, frightening sigils (symbols) appear and disappear, and the titular crows quite literally stalk characters through the pages in a sweeping, cawing murder. Beanna Dubh itself is as gothic a setting as any crumbling castle — its small size, limited technology, and distance from the mainland only feed the sense of isolation. When the deaths begin and mysterious symbols appear, the locals fall into hysteria.”

Life on the Octopus Farm: The Ethics and Future of Growing the World’s Most Intelligent Invertebrate by Richard Schweid (University of North Carolina Press). Reviewed by Paul D. Pearlstein. “Schweid is not a scientist or a farmer but a curious journalist, and he takes readers on a tour of octopus aquaculture in several countries. At each stop, we meet many of the people and entities engaged in the octopus-meat trade, which is big business in places. The author begins in Sisal, Mexico, on the Yucatán Peninsula, where octopus farming produces up to 25 tons of meat per year, generating $55 million for investors. From there, he moves onto Galicia on the Atlantic coast of Spain, the region said to produce the tastiest octopuses.”

Don’t miss another excellent book review, author interview, or feature! Subscribe to our free newsletter and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Bluesky, and LinkedIn. Advertise with us here.