Summer reading with a local twist

Six new books with Cincinnati connections hitting shelves (and screens)

‘Hope Interrupted’ • Byron McCauley & Jennifer Mooney

This new offering from Cincinnati Enquirer columnist McCauley and communications consultant Mooney is a cautionary tale of hope, fear, optimism, existential dread, and living. The authors bring diverse backgrounds to their first project together. A Black man who grew up in the South and a Jewish woman who grew up in the North, they wrote during six months of the pandemic, a failing economy, Black Lives Matter and political unrest. Their work explores what it means to be an American and what the future holds for their offspring and the next generation. (Publisher: Orange Frazer Press)

'Hope, Interrupted' cover

Byron McCauley and Jennifer Mooney

‘Fire in The Field and Other Stories’ • John Young

This new book of short stories by former Cincinnati advertising executive John Young is meeting the high expectations that his first novel, “When the Coin Is in the Air,” created 18 months ago. According to author Patricia Averbach (“Resurrecting Rain”), the book is an “elegant, wry, wise, witty collection that deserves a place among the best work being produced today.” This new collection of stories strongly reflects the author’s time living with his family in Boston, but most return the reader to a small Midwestern town, with richly-drawn, empathetic characters struggling through life and the decisions we all face everyday. (Publisher: Golden Antelope Press)

'Fire in The Field' cover

John Young

‘Cincinnati’s Germans before World War I’ • Dr. Don Heinrich Tolzmann

This new book describes how Cincinnati came to be a German heritage center. Tolzmann has published numerous books on German-American history and culture, received many awards and serves as book review editor for German Life Magazine. This book provides a comprehensive history of German immigration, settlement, and influences in the Greater Cincinnati area, from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. (Publisher: Little Miami)

‘Cincinnati’s Germans before World War I’ cover

‘The Parting Present/Lo Que Se Irá’ • Manuel Iris

Shaped by the birth of his daughter, becoming an immigrant father, the global pandemic, and his personal spirituality, this is the sixth book of poetry from this DePaul Cristo Rey teacher and Cincinnati Poet Laureate Emeritus. And it is his first to be published simultaneously in the United States and Mexico in English and Spanish. According to poet Tara Skutru, “If language is a vector of truth and transformation … the poems in this bilingual collection offer the magnitude and direction to do exactly what poetry aims to do: say in words what can never be expressed in words.” (Publisher: SPD Books)

Manuel Iris with his books

‘The Secret is You’ • Chris Cicchinelli

The author charts his two-decade journey transforming Pure Romance into the world’s largest in-home/virtual party company of its kind, while also sharing his innovative approach for helping women become successful entrepreneurs themselves. As the CEO, his leadership swelled company revenues from $3 million in 2001 to more than $250 million today. Its workforce of independent consultants now approaches 40,000. Cicchinelli is also co-founder, with wife Jessica, of the Living With Change Foundation, dedicated to supporting transgender youth and their families. (Publisher: Simon & Schuster)

‘The Secret is You’ cover

‘Historic Barns of Ohio’ • Robert Kroeger

Dedicated with a quote from the author – “Barns represent the heart of America, and the old ones are bleeding. So many barns, so little time,” – this tribute to our rural past explores older barns from each of Ohio’s 88 counties. Every chapter covers a geographic region of the state, starting in the glacier-flattened Northwest and ending with the hills and curves of Washington County along the Ohio River east of Athens. A second-generation artist, Kroeger brings that sensibility to his appreciation of these once-majestic structures, shared lovingly via photos and dozens of his own graceful paintings. Dr. Robert Kroeger practiced general dentistry in Cincinnati from 1977 until retiring in 2010. (Publisher: History Press)

‘Historic Barns of Ohio’ cover