Labrador by Kathryn Davis

A New York Times Notable Book and the winner of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction, Labrador is anything but what you might expect. Kitty, the awkward, lonely younger sister narrates a long soliloquy to her older, dazzling and wayward sister Willie. The complex relationship between the sisters takes them from childhood when they pretended that they were orphans in their drafty New Hampshire home while their dysfunctional parents resumed life downstairs, to young adulthood where the ties that bind them twist and turn through the choices that they make. But here is where the unexpected kicks in, merging … Continue reading

A Cup of Friendship by Deborah Rodriguez

In a little coffee shop in Kabul, a quiet revolution is taking place. A free-spirited American brings a group of men and women together to change lives, to change stereotypes and to change the future. Yazmina, a new widow is taken as payment for her uncle’s debts. When she is discovered to be pregnant, she is beaten and left for dead. Sunny, an American who owns a successful coffee shop takes her in. There Yazmina must hide the secrecy of her pregnancy from Sunny, Halajan, an older window with a few new ideas, and the others that make up the … Continue reading