BUFFY’S BURRITOS “Illegal immigration,” “undocumented workers”—Mike Leahy and many Americans have heard these terms every day, but for Mike, these phrases have existed mainly as vague abstractions. A chance meeting with an old high school classmate initiates a whole series of events that propel Mike past the nebulous world of abstraction into the very real and enigmatic world of undocumented workers—a world in which both businesses and governmental agencies can profit, a world in which the...

Two families, one solidly middle-class American and the other undocumented Mexican immigrants, face an uncertain future. No ones job is safe, and no paycheck is ever guaranteed. They both live in a maelstrom of uncertainty. The rule of law has yielded to the flux of opportunism. While the OConnell family struggles with an arrogant boss and adolescent upheavals, the Riveras cope with fear of the cartels and worries over deportation and teenage missteps. Despite initial misgivings and differ...

Conversations with the Dead is contemporary fiction with a slight supernatural twist. Aided by his colleagues, Mary and Angelo, and supported by his wife, Mandy, Peter still finds himself nonplussed as he deals with an uncompromising administrator. Even more disturbing to Peter is a son still fighting off the demons of war. Confronted by a boss intent on firing him and a son still feeling the effects of the war in Iraq, Peter Stonehouse sits confounded in front of the TV late at night, wat...