Stephanie Cardel’s novel reminds me how tough it is to be a teenager. Romantic desires compete with career goals, while parents and friends warn you that the choices you make will resonate the rest of your life. And if you’re like Madison Ragland, determined to be a good Christian girl, pleasing yourself often conflicts with pleasing God.

Madison begins her senior year with hopes of becoming a ballet dancer. Her boyfriend, Calvin Westfall, is leaving for college. Madison hopes to marry him one...

Most stories about illegal immigration are predictable: either you sneak into a country and get caught, or you succeed and struggle to survive. Laila Lalami’s novel uses such stories to tell us about the Moroccan people and their customs.

There’s Murad Idrissi, who spends his days trying to make a living off tourists. When his escape attempt fails, he works in a bazaar while dreaming of becoming a writer. Faten Khatibi escapes Morocco only to end up as a prostitute in Madrid. Hatima Bouhamsa...

J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is so well known that it tends to overshadow his other works. Today I’d like to familiarize readers with his short stories. All nine of them appeared in magazines over a period of several years before being republished as a collection in 1953.

The first one, A Perfect Day for Bananafish, is perplexing. The principal character, Seymour Glass, seems to be an ordinary man until he commits a shocking act at the end. You find yourself flipping back through...