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Open Books Featured Titles
The Artfulness of Women
by Naomi Weiss
Between blues and bloodlines, she found
her own song.
The Artfulness of Women is an emotionally rich novel that explores the complexities of womanhood, ambition, and generational trauma through the unforgettable character of Bayla Szabo.
Scholarly and Academic titles from around the world
Featured Title 2026
Featured Title 2025
The Grace to Carry On:
by AJ Wyman
When a baby girl is diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer before her first birthday, her parents are thrust into a relentless fight to save her life. While her mother becomes a pillar of strength, her father quietly unravels, overwhelmed by fear, guilt, and despair. This raw and unflinching memoir reveals not
Lobster Dreams
by Stephen Spotte
Lobster Dreams is a wonderfully original and unexpectedly profound novel, written with both scientific authority and literary flair by an oceanographer. At its heart is Sonny, a young man who undergoes a surreal metamorphosis into a lobster—a transformation that becomes the gateway to an immersive deep-sea
Featured Title 2025
Featured Title 2026
Greg Jenkins, Author
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For twenty-seven years, Dr. Greg Jenkins served as professor of English at Garrett College in Maryland. Misfit: Confessions of a Community College Professor is his fifth book; among the others are the novel A Face in the Sky and the scholarly study Stanley Kubrick and the Art of Adaptation. He has contributed dozens of short stories to such literary journals as Prairie Schooner, New Pop Lit, Prism International, Barcelona Review, Chicago Quarterly Review and Mensa Bulletin. In addition, he has had several plays produced, in New York, Nashville, Baltimore, Columbus, Virginia Beach and elsewhere. He and his wife Michelle live in Maryland.
Open Books will publish Greg's insightful and humorous memoir in September 2026.
The Grace to Carry On
A Story of Hope and Redemption
by AJ Wyman
When a baby girl is diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer before her first birthday, her parents are thrust into a relentless fight to save her life. While her mother becomes a pillar of strength, her father quietly unravels, overwhelmed by fear, guilt, and despair. This raw and unflinching memoir reveals not only the physical battle to keep a child alive but also the emotional toll that strains even the strongest bonds of love and family.
A powerful reflection on the often-overlooked weight of caregiving, this is a story of survival—not just of a child, but of a father learning how to live again in the aftermath of crisis.
"When AJ Wyman’s baby daughter was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer before her first birthday, life as he knew it shattered. In The Grace to Carry On, Wyman opens his heart to reveal not only the physical fight to keep his child alive, but also the hidden toll of caregiving—the silent unraveling of a father who was expected to be strong, even as he felt himself falling apart."
—Reviewed in Bookglow Magazine Read full review
world. The novel is rich with fascinating detail about lobster biology and behavior, from larvahood and molting to eating, mating, and fighting, all presented with humor and insight.
What truly elevates the book is its blend of sharp wit, philosophical depth, and a uniquely imagined underwater setting. The dialogue—especially between Sonny and his fellow metamorphosed lobsters, most notably the wise and quirky Professor—is consistently clever and engaging. Lobster Dreams is a smart, funny, and esoteric meditation on identity, transformation, and what it means to be human—or lobster!
Tent City
by Amy L. Bernstein
Does the end of prosperity start at home?
A striving family. A collapsing economy. A tragic death. In Tent City, everyone must confront their demons in the struggle to survive.
Janet L. Finn, Author
Janet L. Finn is an author, educator, and lifelong advocate for social justice whose work explores the human stories behind systems of power, inequality, and transformation. Raised in Butte, Montana, she grew up surrounded by the grit, resilience, and layered histories of a mining town — experiences that shaped her lifelong curiosity about the lives we inherit, the communities we build, and the forces that shape them.
Today, Janet brings that curiosity and commitment to everything she does — from teaching social work and writing books, to amplifying voices that too often go unheard. Her work spans genres and geographies, but always returns to one central truth: stories matter. They reveal what is broken, celebrate what is beautiful, and offer a path toward justice.
Open Books will publish Janet's debut novel, Pie in the Sky, in September 2026.
The Artfulness of Women
by Naomi Weiss
Between blues and bloodlines, she found her own song.
The Artfulness of Women is an emotionally rich novel that explores the complexities of womanhood, ambition, and generational trauma through the unforgettable character of Bayla Szabo.
Set against the backdrop of Depression-era New York and mid-century America, the novel explores the inner lives of women—their longings, contradictions, and resilience—while weaving in Jewish immigrant culture, blues music, and feminist themes with remarkable grace.
This is a profoundly human story about the cost of dreams and the artfulness required to survive, love, and endure.
From The Cyclops Cave: A Braided Memoir
by Don Schofield
A braided memoir of resilience, self-discovery, and the search for home.
From the Cyclops Cave: A Braided Memoir intertwines past and present, weaving a turbulent childhood in 1950s California with an adult life shaped by solitude on the Cycladic islands of Greece. Abandoned by his father and raised by strangers, the author grows up yearning for connection; decades later, in a primitive hut he names the Cyclops Cave, he finds both refuge and reckoning. Through braided chapters moving between memory and the immediacy of Greek island life, this poignant memoir explores resilience, identity, and the lifelong journey to belong.
Light up your
Reading Life
with
Personalized reading lamps from our friends
Charlotte & Amelia
Every great reading nook deserves a touch of light and personality—and nothing does it better than a personalized book lover’s lamp. Designed to make your home library or cozy corner feel warm and inviting, this custom tripod lamp proudly displays your name above the word Library, creating a space that feels truly your own. Pair it with other charming reading room accents, like a book tracker, a bookmark holder, or whimsical planters shaped like little readers, and your nook will be every bit as magical as the stories you love.
Trailers, Quotes, The World of Literature, Did you know?
Much, much more!
only the physical battle to keep a child alive but also the emotional toll that strains even the strongest bonds of love and family.
A powerful reflection on the often-overlooked weight of caregiving, this is a story of survival—not just of a child, but of a father learning how to live again in the aftermath of crisis.
A Story of Hope and Redemption
Tent City is a contemporary dystopian family saga that places ordinary citizens in extraordinary circumstances, precipitated by dire economic disruption. As the American town of Willing crumbles under a collapsing economy, hundreds seek refuge in the dense "city" of tents that spring up in the Kings' big backyard, setting the once-thriving King family on a collision course with disillusionment, disaster, and for some, a new and hopeful beginning. This family saga revolves around trust and betrayal, love and loyalty, and the will to survive the breakdown of the American Dream.
Set against the backdrop of Depression-era New York and mid-century America, the novel explores the inner lives of women—their longings, contradictions, and resilience—while weaving in Jewish immigrant culture, blues music, and feminist themes with remarkable grace.
This is a profoundly human story about the cost of dreams and the artfulness required to survive, love, and endure.
Tent City
by Amy L. Bernstein
Does the end of prosperity start at home?
A striving family. A collapsing economy. A tragic death. In Tent City,
everyone must confront their demons in the struggle to survive.
Tent City is a contemporary dystopian family saga that places ordinary citizens in extraordinary circumstances, precipitated by dire economic disruption. As the American town of Willing crumbles under a collapsing economy, hundreds seek refuge in the dense "city" of tents that spring up in the Kings' big backyard, setting the once-thriving King family on a collision course with disillusionment, disaster, and for some, a new and hopeful beginning. This family saga revolves around trust and betrayal, love and loyalty, and the will to survive the breakdown of the American Dream.
What's Trending in Bookglow?
Awaken your inner flower child with these 10 must-read books about hippies. Get ready to board Ken Kesey’s bus with the “Merry Pranksters” and discover (or relive) counterculture, Woodstock, Haight-Ashbury, and free love that began in the 1960s and 1970s with these books about hippies.
Gone but not forgotten, we remember fondly
our OB friends and colleagues
Featured Title 2026
Spanktown Papers
by Jane Hulse
A murder. A false accusation. A deadly truth.
When a dashing coffeehouse proprietor is murdered, Sarah Barrett dives into the mystery and becomes entangled in a scandal that rocked Philadelphia during the American Revolution.
Twenty Quaker pacifists were rounded up, jailed, and banished to the wilds of Virginia for eight months. Their crime? Refusing to back the war for independence.
Were the pious men secretly funneling military secrets to the British? The Spanktown Papers are the key. But even these curious papers are steeped in mystery.
Sarah, a fearless journalist in a man's world, tangles with spies and lies to solve both mysteries, while finding love during dark and dangerous times.
Upcoming in June 2026
The true nature of each person is deeper than one’s skin, and the courage to confront depravity is often learned through the ‘courage of others’.
Remember Jim Hitt through his novel, The Courage of Others.
The true nature of each person is deeper than one’s skin, and the courage to confront depravity is often learned through the ‘courage of others’.
Remember Judy Volhart through her warm-hearted While & Cheese cozy mystery series.
In her novels, Passion Fruit and A Game of Chance, Sandra explored the personal and social lives of ex-pat wives following their husbands along the path of international business.
Remember Sandra Cuza through her lively novels, Passion Fruit and Game of Chance, showcasing expat life in Brazil.
Upcoming in September 2026
Pie in the
Sky
Janet L. Finn
Cover coming soon
Pie in the Sky
by Janet L. Finn
In her first work of fiction, Janet L. Finn brings decades of storytelling and social justice scholarship to life in a sweeping novel about struggle, solidarity, and unexpected connection.
Pie in The Sky follows the intersecting journeys of two young women — one from Butte, Montana, the other from Santiago — whose lives collide amidst the political upheaval of 1970s Chile. Against the backdrop of labor movements, mining life, and the rising hope of social change, their friendship sparks a story of courage, loss, and transformation that crosses borders and generations.
Grounded in rich historical detail and emotional depth, this is a novel about finding common ground in uncommon places — and the power of human connection to shape the future.
Misfit: Confessions of a Community College Professor
by Greg Jenkins
Most of the books written about community colleges have been dry and impersonal—but not this one. Misfit: Confessions of a Community College Professor is very personal. It’s also insightful, educational and entertaining. Displaying his reverence for the irreverent, Jenkins leads us through the obstacle course of his final year before retiring as professor of English at a small community college. Among those we encounter are other faculty, administrators and a host of diverse students. A colorful lot, they bring their vitality to this unique memoir, one that’s both funny and thought-provoking.
