Life’s surprises are illustrated well in Brant Vickers’ novel Fedor, and such surprises hold the key to the book’s appeal. Based on the life of a sideshow that performed in P.T. Barnum’s Circus in the late 1880s, Fedor Adrianovitch Jefticheff has long, thick, silky hair...

A couple of young teens in 1960s-era California find a new outlet for their reckless sense of adventure in Culver City, a novel for young adults by Brant Vickers. Cassady and Kyle are buddies who get along well and tire of the drug-laden experiences their...