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Still No Time for Clocks: Stories from Tipton County, Ohio (self-published, $24.99), Trenton Coleman’s follow-up to his 2005 collection of short stories, No Time for Clocks, rejoins his fictional cast of characters in his home state 20 years later. They’re a little older, a little wiser and much more reflective. The deeper rumination is no doubt a result of the Phoenix author and retired pediatric nurse’s terminal diagnosis of congestive heart failure in November 2021....

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Fans of rom-coms by the likes of Emily Henry, Helen Hoang and Rebecca Serle will find familiar satisfaction in Love Buzz (Harper Perennial, $17.99), the debut novel of Phoenix writer Neely Tubati Alexander. Like those best-selling scribes, Tubati Alexander mingles romance with career concerns, friend and family issues, and personal growth for a tale that’s as moving as it is steamy. Love Buzz starts with a Mardi Gras meet-cute in a Bourbon Street bar between...

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Learning where our food comes from – and celebrating the farmers who grow it – is at the center of this children’s book written by Paradise Valley author B. G. Hennessy (the Corduroy series) and illustrated by Mary Ann Fraser (In Search of the Grand Canyon). Phoenix nonprofit Southwest Human Development, which focuses on early childhood development, including mental health, family support and disabilities services, published the picture book as part of its Buy One,...

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Perhaps more than any other opera, Georges Bizet’s Carmen lends itself to fanciful adaptations. In 1990 there was Carmen on Ice, starring skaters Katarina Witt and Brian Boitano. In 2001 there was Carmen: A Hip Hopera, starring Beyoncé Knowles. In 2022, Arizona Opera entered the fray with CARMEN: The Graphic Novel (Clover Press, $35). The 112-page narrative comic was funded by a Kickstarter campaign and is the brainchild of opera director and tenor Alek Shrader,...

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THE SCENE When I walk into The Bar’s Gilbert location for a media happy hour, I’m struck by how chill it is. Yes, it’s a bar – The Bar, as its no-frills name downplays – but it’s not rowdy. It’s not kitschy or themed or projecting the forced party atmosphere of a bar where grown-ups try to act like college kids. It’s not a quiet, demure little watering hole, either. It occupies a sweet spot...