DORX Chronicle Editorials

For more than four decades, Kevin D. Finson stood at the front of a classroom asking students not to memorize the world but to wonder about it. A retired professor of science education, he taught five years at the middle school level, two in high school, and thirty-four at the college level. Now, in retirement, he has found an audience that embodies everything he ever believed about learning: children, beginning with his own grandchildren.

Finson is an earth scientist by training, though his teaching ranged across physical science, life science, meteorology, oceanology, paleontology, and geomorphology, along with instructional theory and program evaluation. He spent eighteen years at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, where he is now professor emeritus, after earlier posts at Western Illinois University and Valley City State College in North Dakota. Wherever he taught, one principle held: inquiry first. Students who expected to be handed answers were instead asked to find them, a method that challenged many of them and that he defended because he believed it prepared them best for real life.

His first children's book, A Cloudy Tale, followed a thunderstorm from its first gathering clouds to its passing. Finson gave his grandchildren a draft nearly two years before its 2020 publication and noticed something telling: they kept opening it to compare its photographs with the sky outside their front window. A book had turned a view into an experiment. That moment became the model for everything that followed.

The titles since then carry the same quiet curiosity. My Maple Tree traces a single tree from seed to tree to seed again, a gentle introduction to life cycles. The Tree and the Stones, which Finson wrote and illustrated himself, sets a lone evergreen among sculpted rock and invites young readers to consider how living things and landscapes shape one another. The Lesson of the Sunflowers, now in its second edition, and the forthcoming Dragon Sign, a story of nature, wisdom, and growing into purpose, extend that hand-drawn world further.

Readers who meet Finson quickly discover his humor. Colleagues say he lived for the groans his puns produced, and he admits as much. His love of wordplay grew into a fondness for shaggy dog stories, those long, winding tales that end in a deliberately terrible punchline. For seven years he hosted holiday dinner parties where friends competed to tell their own, with award certificates for the winners. A collection of his shaggy dog stories is in the works.

Behind the playfulness sits a serious scholarly career. Finson published eight books, twelve book chapters, five monographs, and more than sixty refereed journal articles. Much of that work focused on making science accessible to students with learning disabilities, an interest rooted in friends who struggled with dyslexia, and led him to co-author a guide for adapting materials, procedures, and equipment so every student can do real science. His other major line of research examined how students picture scientists, building on the classic Draw-a-Scientist Test and extending into the study of visual data in learning.

He gave back to his profession just as steadily. Finson served on the board of the Association for Science Teacher Education, chaired its Professional Development Committee and Inclusive Science Education Forum, helped launch the journal Innovations in Science Teacher Education, and edited the Journal of Elementary Science Education for eleven years. In 2016 ASTE honored him with its Outstanding Longtime Service award. He also co-hosted a live national satellite television program on science careers for middle schoolers, memorable not least for the day a powerful magnet yanked his scissors and he finished the half-hour broadcast with a handkerchief wrapped around his thumb.

The thread running through every chapter is the same: learning is an adventure best begun with a question. Finson's children's books carry that conviction to the youngest readers, offering them seeds, stones, storms, and sunflowers as invitations to look closer. Readers can explore his work at kevindfinsonauthorspage.org, follow him on Facebook and on Instagram at @kevindfinsonbookshelf, and find his books on Amazon. Alongside, DORX Chronicle presents the front-page feature dedicated to his stories.

Some writers arrive quietly and leave a mark that lingers. Anne Morenn, an award-winning contemporary romance author, belongs to that rare group. With Second Chances in Brittany, the first book in her Brittany Series, she trades the glamour of Europe's great capitals for the salt air and slow mornings of Saint-Malo — and in doing so, tells a story about starting over that readers have found impossible to put down.

The novel follows Sarah Pullen, a woman who thought she had finally settled: a new home, new friends, and a marriage she believed was back on track. When unexplained headaches spiral into something far more unsettling and her husband James grows distant, the life she built begins to unravel. What emerges is a tender, clear-eyed portrait of betrayal, resilience, and the courage it takes to begin again.

Morenn writes with warmth and restraint, letting the Breton coastline become a character in its own right. Early readers have praised the book as “heartfelt, beautifully written, and impossible to put down” — an emotional journey of healing and hope. Alongside, DORX Chronicle presents the front-page feature dedicated to her latest work.

Archie Richards is a seasoned financial expert with over five decades of experience explaining complex economic issues in simple, practical terms. A former Boston stockbroker, syndicated columnist, and author, he has written extensively on investing, government policy, and economic freedom.

In America's Governments: Enemies of the Poor, Richards examines the impact of excessive government spending and bureaucracy while offering practical ideas to reduce inflation, improve public services, and strengthen America's economy. It is a clear-eyed argument that the systems meant to help the vulnerable too often stand in their way.

Drawing on decades spent translating Wall Street for everyday readers, Richards writes without jargon and without partisanship. His central claim is deceptively simple: when government grows faster than the economy that sustains it, the people with the least are the first to feel the squeeze — through higher prices, fewer opportunities, and services that promise much but deliver little.

Rather than dwell on grievance, the book turns toward solutions. Richards lays out concrete steps to trim waste, restore accountability, and return decisions to the communities closest to the problems. He makes the case that a leaner, more focused government is not an abandonment of the poor but the surest path to lifting them — pairing lower inflation with stronger, more responsive public institutions.

Throughout his work, Richards champions limited government, economic freedom, and a more prosperous future for all. The result is a book that reads less like a polemic and more like a practical field guide for readers who want their money, and their government, to work harder for them. Alongside, DORX Chronicle presents the front-page feature dedicated to his latest book.

A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) began his lifelong pursuit of God after hearing a street preacher in Akron, Ohio, at the age of seventeen. The self-taught theologian committed his life to the ministry of God's Word as a pastor, teacher, and writer. For his flowing prose, Spirit-filled words, and deep conviction, many have called him a modern-day prophet.

He is the author of the beloved classic The Pursuit of God and dozens of other works. Now, three of his most enduring titles are gathered in a single volume: The Knowledge of the Holy, The Pursuit of God, and God's Pursuit of Man — a trilogy that moves from the majesty of God, to the soul's longing for Him, to the astonishing grace by which He seeks us first.

Together these classics form a complete portrait of the devotional life: reverent, searching, and unafraid of mystery. Tozer writes not to inform but to awaken, calling readers past shallow religion into genuine encounter with the living God.

Decades after his death, his words remain startlingly fresh. For more of Tozer's writing, visit awtozer.org. Alongside, DORX Chronicle presents the front-page feature dedicated to this landmark collection.

Gretchen Astro Turner is a writer of luminous short stories that blend emotional depth, spiritual curiosity, and a rare gift for observing the subtle magic woven into everyday life. With a Master of Arts in the Teaching of English Language Arts from Columbia University, where she graduated with a 4.0 GPA, Gretchen has long devoted herself to the power of language, expression, and the human spirit.

Beyond her academic mastery, her life is shaped by a deep connection to healing, intuition, and the natural world. A lifelong animal lover, spiritual seeker, athlete, and drummer — as well as an identical twin — she brings her full spectrum of identity and experience to the page with warmth, courage, and unmistakable authenticity.

Her debut collection, But I Digretch, has already begun circulating through creative and literary communities, including the Manhattan Book Club, which recently produced a Netflix-aligned video teaser for the book — an early glimpse into the cinematic potential of her work.

Gretchen's storytelling reverberates with readers who crave emotional resonance, insightful humor, and a compassionate examination of what it means to be human. Alongside, DORX Chronicle presents the front-page feature dedicated to her debut.

In Unbreakable Courage: Strong Faith in an Age of Anxiety, Chaos, and Exhaustion, New York Times bestselling author Max Lucado turns to the prophet Elijah — a man whose unswerving belief fueled his courage in deeply uncertain times. With the signature storytelling and biblical insight that have made him one of the most widely read inspirational writers alive, Lucado draws a straight line from an ancient wilderness to the modern reader's overloaded life.

Lucado's own story began far from the bestseller lists. After training for the ministry, he and his wife, Denalyn, spent several years as missionaries in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, before returning to Texas, where he has served for decades as a minister in San Antonio. That pastoral life, spent beside ordinary people in hospital rooms, kitchens, and church pews, gives his writing its unmistakable warmth. He writes the way a good pastor speaks: plainly, personally, and with a story always close at hand.

Over four decades that voice has found an extraordinary audience. His books, devotionals, and children's titles have sold well over a hundred million copies and been translated into dozens of languages. Titles such as Anxious for Nothing, He Still Moves Stones, and the children's favorite You Are Special have become companions for readers in seasons of grief, doubt, and new beginnings. Few inspirational authors have spoken to so many people for so long.

In Unbreakable Courage, he turns to one of Scripture's most human heroes. Elijah called down fire on Mount Carmel and faced down a king, yet days later he fled into the wilderness, exhausted and afraid, asking to die beneath a broom tree. Lucado lingers on that collapse because it is so familiar. A person can stand tall in public and still be quietly coming apart, and the prophet's story shows that even great faith can run on empty.

What happens next is the heart of the book. God does not scold the weary prophet. He lets him sleep, feeds him, and then speaks not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, but in a gentle whisper. From that scene Lucado draws a steadying lesson: courage is not the absence of anxiety but faith exercised in spite of it, and restoration often begins with rest, nourishment, and a quieter way of listening.

The argument at the book's heart is bracingly simple: faith in an unchanging God can instill the strength to stand firm when everything else feels like it is giving way. Rather than deny the anxiety, chaos, and exhaustion of the moment, Lucado meets them head-on. Chapter by chapter he offers practical encouragement for readers navigating burnout, uncertain news, and a culture that seems to run on worry.

Across every season of his ministry, the throughline has been the same conviction: an unchanging God meets ordinary people in their most uncertain hours. Unbreakable Courage distills that belief into a warm, biblical, and quietly bracing guide for anyone who feels worn thin. Alongside, DORX Chronicle presents the front-page feature dedicated to the book, an Editors' Pick in our Discover Books collection.

From the No.1 Sunday Times bestseller comes The Valley of Ravens, a gripping time-slip novel that moves between the present and thirteenth-century Wales. In the here and now, Eve arrives in the so-called cursed valley to restore a long-abandoned cottage known as The Witch's House. In 1260, a healer named Alys discovers Llewelyn, the last true Prince of Wales, wounded on the battlefield — and the vow she makes to guard his final secret reverberates down the centuries.

Few novelists have shaped a genre the way Barbara Erskine has shaped the time-slip novel. Trained as a historian, with a particular love of the medieval world, she burst onto the scene with Lady of Hay, the story of a modern woman who discovers, under hypnosis, a past life in the twelfth century. The book became a phenomenon, selling millions of copies, and it established the template readers still treasure: deep research, a restless past, and a present that cannot escape it.

In the decades since, Erskine has written more than a dozen novels and several collections of short stories, among them Kingdom of Shadows and Child of the Phoenix, steadily earning her place as a No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author. Her books are built on a historian's patience. Real figures, real battles, and real landscapes anchor every story, so that the supernatural elements feel less like fantasy and more like history refusing to stay buried.

The Valley of Ravens returns her to the landscape she knows best: the wild borderlands of Wales. Eve's present-day story begins as a practical project, the restoration of a remote cottage that locals regard with unease. But the valley has a long memory. Strange sounds, half-glimpsed figures, and the persistent presence of ravens suggest that something within those stone walls has been waiting a very long time to be heard.

In the medieval strand, Alys is a healer living through one of the most turbulent eras in Welsh history. Llewelyn ap Gruffudd, the last true native Prince of Wales, fought to hold his country together against the growing power of the English crown. When Alys tends him on the battlefield, she is drawn into the dangerous orbit of princes and politics, and the promise she makes to protect his final secret will cost her more than she can imagine.

The pleasure of the novel lies in how Erskine braids the two timelines together. Each chapter in 1260 deepens a mystery in the present, and each discovery Eve makes casts new light on the past. Neither woman can fully understand her own story without the other. The result is a book that reads like a historical epic, a ghost story, and a love story at once, with the tension mounting as the centuries draw closer together.

Across her career, Erskine's throughline has been the same: the past is never truly finished with us. The Valley of Ravens is atmospheric, romantic, and quietly unsettling, the work of a master of the form writing at the top of her powers. Alongside, DORX Chronicle presents the front-page feature dedicated to the novel, one of our standout historical picks in the Discover Books collection.

It is 1976, and William McKay is at the top of his game — yet something is missing. When his long-absent father calls from the Florida Keys with an invitation to a father-son fishing competition, William agrees, and the water becomes the place where old wounds finally surface. Looking Through Water, now the basis for a forthcoming film, chronicles the long shadow a family's pain can cast and the release that only forgiveness brings.

The man behind the story, Bob Rich, knows the water as well as any of his characters. A lifelong angler, conservationist, and storyteller, he has spent much of his life on boats and flats, learning the patience that fishing demands. That experience gives Looking Through Water its authenticity. The tides, the light on the shallows, and the long silences between strikes are written by someone who has lived them, not merely imagined them.

At its center is William McKay, a man whose success has never quite filled the space his father left behind. Years of distance and unspoken disappointment have hardened into a kind of armor. When the call comes from the Keys, accepting the invitation feels less like a reunion than a dare. William arrives guarded, uncertain whether he wants to win the tournament, settle a score, or simply understand why his father left.

The fishing competition becomes the frame for something far larger. Out on the water, there is nowhere to hide, and the two men are forced into the closeness they have avoided for decades. Rich uses the rhythms of the sport, the waiting, the reading of the water, the sudden fight of a fish on the line, as a mirror for the hard work of reconnection. Seeing beneath the surface becomes the book's central metaphor.

The novel also moves between generations, showing how a family's pain is handed down when it goes unspoken. William learns that his father carried his own wounds, and that the choices that hurt him were shaped by a history he never knew. It is in that discovery that the story turns, from resentment toward understanding, and from understanding toward the possibility of forgiveness.

Readers responded to that message, and the story is now the basis for a forthcoming feature film. This revised edition returns to the novel with fresh eyes, sharpening its portrait of the Keys and deepening its emotional arc. It remains a book about fishing in the way that the best sports stories are about sport: the game is the setting, but the real subject is the human heart.

Throughout, Rich's conviction is clear: old wounds can heal, but only when they are named. Looking Through Water pairs the sunlit stillness of the Florida Keys with the slow work of reconciliation, making it a quietly moving read about fathers, sons, and second chances. Alongside, DORX Chronicle presents the front-page feature dedicated to the novel in our Discover Books collection.

When Caroline and Ashley meet at fifteen, Caroline is the girl everyone notices and Ashley is the one beside her. In My Beautiful Friend, D. D. Barrowes follows the two across the decades that follow — through marriage, reinvention, and heartbreak — as their friendship remains the one place each of them is fully seen.

D. D. Barrowes writes the kind of fiction that rewards slow reading. Devoted to the inner lives of women and the bonds that shape them, Barrowes has a keen eye for the small moments where friendships are made and quietly tested: a glance across a room, a confidence shared late at night, a silence that says more than words. Rather than racing from plot point to plot point, the stories unfold across decades.

That patience is the great strength of My Beautiful Friend. At fifteen, the dynamic between the two girls seems fixed. Caroline draws every eye, and Ashley has learned to stand slightly out of the light. But Barrowes refuses easy roles. Beneath Caroline's beauty lies a loneliness few people ever see, and beneath Ashley's quietness lies a resilience that will carry both women through the years ahead.

As the friends grow up, life pulls them in different directions. There are marriages that begin with hope and end in disappointment, careers that rise and stall, moves to new cities, and the slow, ordinary losses that come with adulthood. Through each chapter, Barrowes returns to the same question: what does it mean to truly know another person, and to let yourself be known in return?

The novel is especially perceptive about beauty and the weight it carries. Caroline learns that being admired is not the same as being loved, and that a face the world celebrates can become a kind of cage. Ashley, meanwhile, must come to terms with her own sense of worth apart from the comparisons that shaped her youth. Their friendship becomes the one mirror in which each sees herself clearly.

Not every moment between them is kind. Jealousy, misunderstanding, and long stretches of distance test the bond more than once, and Barrowes writes those fractures with honesty. Yet that is what makes the reconciliations land so powerfully. This is not a sentimental portrait of friendship but a true one, in which loyalty is a choice made again and again, often at real cost.

Luminous and character-driven, My Beautiful Friend examines beauty, worth, and the quiet lives women build in one another's company. It is a tender study of the bonds that outlast everything else, and a reminder that the people who see us fully are the rarest gift of all. Alongside, DORX Chronicle presents the front-page feature dedicated to the novel, one of our featured selections in Discover Books.

When the coronavirus reaches Hong Kong, ten-year-old Knox Wei-Evans's mother moves the family back to California — and Knox lands at a new school an ocean away from his father. In New from Here, an instant #1 New York Times bestseller, Kelly Yang draws on her own family's experience to write about racism, being the new kid, and the ache of a family split apart.

Kelly Yang knows what it means to start over. Born in China, she moved to the United States as a young child and grew up in California, where her immigrant parents worked managing motels. Those years became the foundation of Front Desk, the beloved novel about Mia Tang, a girl who runs a motel front desk while her parents clean the rooms. The book and its sequels found a devoted readership and made Yang a #1 New York Times bestselling author.

Her own path was remarkable. Yang started college at an unusually young age, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and went on to Harvard Law School. Rather than practice law, she turned to teaching and writing, founding a writing program for young people and championing the idea that every child's story deserves to be told. That belief runs through all of her fiction, which centers kids who rarely see themselves on the page.

New from Here grew directly from Yang's family experience in the early days of the pandemic, when she and her children left Hong Kong for California while her husband stayed behind. In the novel, Knox and his siblings face the same sudden upheaval: a new home, a new school, and a family suddenly divided between two continents, with no clear answer about when they will be together again.

Knox is an unforgettable narrator. Impulsive, big-hearted, and endlessly curious, he wants desperately to help his family and often makes things harder in the process. Yang writes his inner world with tenderness and humor, capturing the way a ten-year-old tries to solve adult-sized problems: money worries, a mother working overtime, a father on a screen, and the fear that things will never feel normal again.

The novel does not look away from difficult truths. As fear of the virus spreads, Knox and his family encounter anti-Asian racism at school and in their community. Yang handles these moments honestly, showing children what prejudice looks like and how it feels, while also showing them how to respond with courage, how to speak up, and how to find allies in unexpected places.

Across her books, Yang's throughline is the same: home is something we build together, wherever we land. Warm, funny, and clear-eyed, New from Here gives young readers a hero who chooses courage over fear and finds his place in the world. Alongside, DORX Chronicle presents the front-page feature dedicated to the novel, a standout in our Discover Books collection for readers of every age.