Mitch Albom spent decades as an award-winning sportswriter, so he surely knows a gut-punch when he sees it. Yet apparently he knows also how to deliver one, as he does on the first page of his lingering memoir, “Finding Chika: A little girl, an earthquake, and the making of a family” (Harper).

The calendar says winter is more than a month away, but there’s been snow in the High Country and, likely, that means that somewhere near you there is a warm fire, a comfortable chair and a stack of books waiting to be read.

In 21 novels featuring Michael Connelly’s now-legendary detective Harry Bosch, the touchstone has never wavered: “Everybody counts or nobody counts.”

In John Grisham’s new novel “The Guardians,” truth is sadder than fiction. But that realization comes at the end of the book, in a well-placed author’s note.

Margaret Atwood’s books of fiction, poetry and essays encompass no themes so consistently as those of gender, identity, myth and religion. Exhibit A, “The Testaments,” the Canadian author’s sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale” that recently earned Atwood her second Britain Booker Prize.

We all learn, eventually, that there is a dramatic difference between running away from home and moving on.

The unflagging inspiration of Henri Nouwen was his ability to share his faith and his love for Jesus even during the lowest points of his life.

Ibi Zoboi’s debut and National Book Award-finalist YA novel, “American Street,” explored magical realism and the voodoo culture in a narrative about a Haitian teen whose mother is detained as they immigrate to America.

When Mountain Times reviewed David Joy’s “The Line That Held Us” (Putnam) in August 2018, we made it clear that this North Carolina’s author’s mastery of Appalachian noir continued in this, his third novel. Following the haunting releases of “Where All Light Tends To Go” and “The Weight Of T…

An author with the stature of Stephen King has more options — and demands — than most when it comes to publishing his work, which can sometimes make finding a copy of a new release … interesting.

Few authors use a book’s dedication page to the effect and impact as does Don Winslow.

A definitive retelling of the Civil War as it was fought in North Carolina has been well-documented by the writings of Avery County-based historian Michael C. Hardy.

The notion that grit-lit is a gentlemen’s club is no fallacy.

When was the last time you read a published drabble? Admittedly those short-form stories — precisely 100 words, no more, no less — are a rare literary animal. But if you’re on the hunt, you’ll find one in Richard Chizmar’s newest release,”The Long Way Home” (PS Publishing).

After 40 years and 18 novels, Lawrence Block’s unlicensed New York City investigator Matthew Scudder has been absent for most of the past decade — in fact, since 2011’s “A Drop of the Hard Stuff.”

Does history repeat?

Because Maryann D’Agincourt does not write art fiction in black and white, her fifth offering of the form is the most aptly titled.

Integrating fiction into science is the purview of storytellers able to reimagine our world and take us to places we’ve never been — at least not yet.

Into the fray of monster and monster-hunters is there yet room for another vampire novel?

In the 40-plus years since the paperback publication of “Carrie” allowed Stephen King to leave his high school English teaching post at Hampden Academy, the author has ushered more than 60 books to international best-selling status. Which means at this point King can pretty much do as he ple…

Twenty novels in just about as many years is no small accomplishment for any author. But when this is compounded by more than 100 million of those novels sold internationally, one of the largest social media presences in the world and a multi-media platform that is consistently among the mos…

To be a child crippled by the curse of sundering is a study in perpetual loss — unless that child springs from the able pen of two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo.

Crafting an original fantasy series is no easy feat. The competition is immense and the history an author is writing against is long, far and wide. And so, into this fray comes “Silvarum” (Elvelon Press) a planned eight-book series, coming-of-age tale from the pen and colored pencils of Dean Kuhta.

Virgil Wander has lost the ability to modify his life, and for a man whose foundation is built on a staid lack of modification, that could be damning, indeed.

There are names in the world of sports that conjure magic and myth just upon hearing them. In the world of tennis, such a name is Bjorn Borg, the darling Swede of the 1970s and ‘80s who did as much, if not more, than any single player to catapult catgut and wooden rackets into international vogue.

The Library of Congress by design keeps to a minimum the specific duties of the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, and it is in this spirit of vagueness that our nation’s official poet is afforded the maximum freedom to pursue his or her own path.

Concerned, as always, with what he calls “big ideas,” Appalachia’s David Joy is so gifted a writer that he never lets those ideas get in the way of the story — and so it is with “The Line That Held Us” (Putnam), Joy’s third, most ambitious and best novel to date.

Fortunately for us, Peter Watts turned from his beloved marine biology to write sci-fi full time, and he has gifted us again with “The Freeze-Frame Revolution.”

One for the month, one for adults, two for young readers in search of summer adventure and you have four new releases, bursting with immediacy, to offer a fitting start to your summer season of reading.

‘The Weight of This World’ by David Joy

How easily Maryrose Carroll could have begun her new book like this: Once upon a time. …