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God Hires Gardeners by William H. McCann, Jr. is a collection of 21 flash fiction stories. Stories range in length from fewer than 75 words ("Book of Job: A Reprise") to many stories that run between 500 and 750 words in length. This is a book that can be read in a single setting of an hour or so, or can be relished one story a day for 21 days. There are a great many genres to be found here, from absurdism to satire, from children's literature to comedy and magical realism. The purpose of the book is to show readers the relevance of the Bible and of Jesus Christ to their daily lives in twenty-first century America. The book does not approach the Bible as the inerrant word of God but as relevant to the average person. Jesus is not just some guy dressed in white robes and beard. Instead he wears khakis, a collared golf shirt, and sandals; he could be walking around your neighborhood, standing in line behind your sister at the neighborhood ice cream store. The community of Christians who are rehearsing "Walking on Water" are the kinds of individuals found in churches across the country. Indeed, only if Jesus and his followers (as exemplified in "Walking on Water"-a teacher, a school principal, firefighter, teenage girl, etc.) relate to ordinary people, can be visualized as people they might know, perhaps even be themselves, is it possible to make the Bible, particularly the New Testament, relevant in our fast-moving world. This is the purpose of God Hires Gardeners.

The Poem Stands on Its Head by the Window gives us indelible portraits of a family's larger-than-life members, their loves, losses, traditions and experiences-from the uncle who sold wrecked cars and died in a car wreck to haunting tales of Holocaust survivors whose pain reverberates through the generations. The poems return again to the balm of nature and daily life with always the reminder of the ever present possibilities of evil and above all, the need for forgiveness. These poems startle the reader into new awareness of the richness, pain and humanity of our lives.

Cindy Glovinsky has an unmistakable presence and voice. The poems in Unclenching chronicle the responses of a fervent consciousness taking on whatever the quotidian has to throw at it in the form of boredom or frustration or craziness or injustice and giving back at least as good as it gets. At times the voice is resigned-"I wonder why we tried so hard/to change things/if this is where we were going to end up" ("They Don't Know")-while at other times it channels the energy and outrage of stand-up comedy. But, in whatever mode, it remains the expression of a serious, thinking, feeling, and eminently relatable fellow human being as she entices us into accompanying her on this entertaining, engaging, and occasionally wild ride.-Bruce Bennett, Emeritus Professor of English, Wells College, author of Just Another Day in Just Our Town, Poems: New and Selected, 2000-2016 (Orchises Press, 2017)Her careful scrutiny of the day that's in it brings to these poems an urgency and immediacy that repays the reader's attentions. Good to have Cindy Glovinsky on the record.-Thomas Lynch, author of BONE ROSARY: New & Selected Poems

"Pillow-Stones" is a collage of poems that reconstructs memories of a distant and not-so-distant past occupied by the poet's German-Jewish heritage and her deeply-held feelings about loss, woman-hood, and her rebellion against religion. Each poem expresses an awakening and an intensification of what it means to survive and to thrive in the shadows of a world where, today, many people are unaware of the Holocaust and Germany's Nazi past.

In sumptuous poems, The Book of Muses reveals the inspiration and magic all around us--in encounters with bears, does, and goldfinches; with turtles laying eggs and snakes shedding their skin; even with witches and mermaids.