Friday Finds | August 7, 2026
Summer reading meets garden-fresh flavors in this week's Friday Finds, featuring two memorable book reviews, Mark J. Engels Behind the Book, a fresh corn and tomato salad, vintage herb markers, and more.
Summer reading meets garden-fresh flavors in this week's Friday Finds, featuring two memorable book reviews, Mark J. Engels Behind the Book, a fresh corn and tomato salad, vintage herb markers, and more.
Urban fantasy author Mark J. Engels takes readers behind the scenes of his Forest Exiles Saga, revealing how a remote engineering assignment, a lifelong love of anime and anthropomorphic storytelling, and one persistent werecat named Pawly became the foundation of his completed three-book saga. In this Behind the Book feature, Mark shares the real-life experiences, family influences, and personal passions that shaped his unforgettable characters and world.
Discover the inspirations behind Rübezahl by M. Laszlo in this Behind the Book feature. From a nearly deserted Chautauqua Institution to folklore, political allegory, and class tensions, the author shares the real-world experiences that shaped this dark philosophical fantasy.