Indie Author Radar: Four Extraordinary Books Not to Miss

What begins as a Silicon Valley success story ends in unimaginable tragedy—and then rebirth, in the form of a chef, a daughter, and a restaurant called The Pretentious Boar & Ale House. Set amid pot farms, political satire, and magical kitchens, this debut novel is “funny, biting, poignant, and important,” says actor Hallie Todd.

School pick-ups, dinner duty, secret spy meetings with a Glock in the purse. For decades, this CIA officer did all three—sometimes in the same week. In this surprising memoir, Butler recounts a life spent raising kids while navigating the high-stakes world of intelligence, revealing the hidden logistics of living two full-time roles at once.

A mischievous, larger-than-life girl grows up between summers on Lahore rooftops and school semesters in the Arabian Gulf, carrying the hidden weight of childhood trauma. Marriage and her immigration to Canada bring new beginnings, but also the struggle to live between cultures while keeping the past buried. Blending prose, poetry, and myth, Gajarah has been praised by Midwest Book Review as “thoroughly engrossing and hard to put down.”

Scott Edwin Williams—writer, educator, and author of Lightbulb Moments in Human History—sets out to live the history he’s spent years teaching. With his best friend along for the ride, he leaves Sydney for a fast-moving tour of Europe’s ruins, relics, and odd museums. Blending travel misadventure with sharp historical insight, this heartfelt memoir captures what happens when a longtime history buff trades the classroom for the real thing.