The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

The Sisters, Charlie and Eli, are killers by trade. Make no mistake, when people in the Old West hear that they are talking with the Sisters brothers, they quake in terror. Currently, they have been hired by The Commodore, a shadowy powerful man, to kill Hermann Kermit Warm. Why? The Commodore says Warm stole from him. What he stole makes no difference to the brothers, nor if he stole at all. They have been hired to kill him, and kill him they will.

They set out to find him where he was last reported to be, California. This is California in the Gold Rush days, and the fever has every man desperate to hide what he’s found or to take another man’s stash. That means it is a shoot first, ask questions later environment, and that suits the Sisters brothers just fine. The book follows them on their journey to find their prey, telling of their adventures along the way.

Charlie is the leader. He has the confidence of the Commodore and is a stone cold killer. Eli will also kill in a second, but has more emotions. He longs to make a human connection and is capable of surprising kindnesses. The brothers fight among themselves but there is never any doubt that they are a cohesive team.

Once they get to California, they discover what it is that the Commodore believes was stolen from him. Warm is an engineer and has developed a method to make finding gold easier. His crime? He refused to cut the Commodore in on the formula or the profits. Will the brothers cut him down or will they hesitate when they discover Warm is not a thief?

Patrick DeWitt has written an unsentimental look at the gunslingers, card sharps, prostitutes and prospectors of the California Gold Rush. The reader is immediately transported back to that time, and begins to see how the brothers view the world, even having a sneaking sympathy for them.  Although the subject is a bit gruesome, DeWitt actually writes in a humorous fashion, making the horrific seem matter of fact.   It was longlisted in 2011 for the Mann Booker prize. This book is recommended for readers of modern fiction and those interested in a fascinating tale.

A Lighter Shade Of Gray by Devon Pearse

Devon is caught in the past.  A past before her mother slipped away into the gray mists of mental illness that has kept her hospitalized for over a decade.  A past where three little girls ran and laughed and played, before one of them was killed before her sixteenth birthday.  A past where Drew was always there waiting for her; the love she'd always imagined.

But the past's tendrils can't stand up to the forces of the present.  The present where Devon has lived for over a decade without Drew, who she sent away due to her fear of ending up like her mother.  Now things are breaking and changing and Devon must adjust.

For one thing, Drew is back in town.  Can Devon and Drew pick up where they left off, or is their love forever in the past?  Next, her mother shows signs of emerging from her illness, but is this because of the teenage girl who is now her roommate and who seems determined to take Devon's place in her mother's life?  Finally, the abusive boyfriend of her best friend's sister has been brutally murdered, and suspicion falls on Cass, Devon's best friend.  Can Cass untangle the mystery and save everyone's life?

Devon Pearse has written a haunting novel, although the fact that her main character is also named Devon Pearse may be confusing at first to the reader.  She has created characters that seem strong one minute, then shadowy the next, echoing the way mental illness recedes and then reconquers the sick mind.  The values of love, friendship and family are strong propellers of the action, and the reader will want to finish to find out what happens to the people met between the pages.  This book is recommended for readers of family relationship novels and those interested in characters who grow within the confines of a book.

The Soldier's Wife by Joanna Trollope

Alexa Riley is home, alone, waiting.  Today is the day Dan returns home from his military tour in Afghanistan; six months away from home, the marriage, the children, everyday life.  How will it go?  The books all say there will be a period of adjustment, but that doesn't apply to them and their storybook marriage.  Does it?

But once Dan is home, things are different.  Alexa has changed and so has Dan and there are many other factors to consider.  Alexa is offered a great job, but one she knows she cannot accept since Dan could get orders to move them any time.  Their oldest daughter is desperately miserable at boarding school.  Their parents are worried, as are their friends.  One of their oldest military friends' marriage seems to be totally falling apart.  Dan and Alexa are talking at each other, not to each other, and the strain and distance grows daily.  Can they find their way back to each other before all is lost?

Joanna Trollope has written a convincing book about the rigors of military life and how it affects not only the soldier but all of their family and friends as well.  She outlines the routines of military life, the commitment that can leave families feeling like a second choice, the demands it places on the soldier.  Some can handle it, some cannot, but all must carefully find their way through the debris of everyday life to a place where family is primary.  This book is recommended for readers interested in current family relationships and how they go awry and can be healed.

The NEW New Rules by Bill Maher

Feeling a lack of snarkiness in your life?  Have no fear, Bill Maher is here.  The NEW New Rules is a compilation of Maher's observations on politics, education, American culture, food, sex, sports, the economy, history--you name it, Bill's got an opinion on it and it will probably make you laugh.

The book is arranged alphabetically.  In each chapter, observations having to do with a subject starting with that letter are arrayed.  Photographs are used to illustrate various points.  Most of the material comes from various prior writings but some material is written new for this book and each new observation is marked as such.

Love him or hate him, Maher will make you laugh.  The material is R-rated so this book is not recommended for children, but adults will be hard-pressed not to find something to make them smile, if not outright chortle.  This book is recommended for adult readers ready for some fun.

My Big Bottom Blessing by Teasi Cannon

If one thing is sure, it is that most women dislike something about their body.  Some don't like their noses, others their hair.  But overwhelmingly, women are obsessed about their weight and peg their self-worth to the numbers on the scale.

Teasi Cannon was one of those women.  She has struggled with her weight all her life, and fought constantly with the negative, self-hating thoughts she had about her body.  How could anyone like her?  How could she possibly go have fun on the beach or in a hot tub?  Did her husband really love her, or was that just pity that made him stay with her?  Did her friends constantly talk about her behind her back?

My Big Bottom Blessing is not a diet and exercise book.  Rather it is a book about learning to accept that God loves each individual, no matter what their size or shape.  God doesn't judge on external appearances.  Once someone truly accepts that fact, size loses its focus.  Cannon discusses her life journey to get to that point, pointing out with humor and honesty her mistakes along the way. 

This book is recommended for readers of Christian literature, and for women struggling with body acceptance issues.  Each chapter outlines an issue, gives Cannon's experience with it, then talks about what the Bible says about it.  The chapter ends with discussion questions and motivating thoughts.  This book can be a help in changing self-images and thus worth the read, especially for those who are religious.

Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes

Cathy Bailey is a single professional woman living in London.  But she is far from a happy-go-lucky woman.  Instead, she is a former victim of domestic violence who is trying to put her life back together.  The victim of a horrendous attack that sent her to the hospital and then to the psychiatric ward as she tried to deal with what happened, she is now desperately trying to put her life back together.

Cathy's attacker was sent to jail, but for only three years.  That three years is now up and Cathy is sure that he is coming back to look for her.  Didn't he always say that she was his no matter what?  Didn't he say that he couldn't live without her and that no one else would have her if he couldn't? 

Cathy is trying to get stronger, but she is petrified by her fears.  She spends hours checking doors and windows, refusing to go out except to work. She trusts no one.  She has panic attacks that cripple her for hours.  She dresses in frumpy clothes that she hopes disguises her body and makes her unnoticable in a crowd.

Things start to change when the upstairs flat in her building is rented to a doctor, Stuart.  Stuart and Cathy become friends, and with his encouragement, Cathy starts to deal with her OCD and PTSD.  Then, it all starts again.  Little things are different in her apartment.  She thinks she sees her attacker several times.  Is he coming back for her or is she just imagining the danger?

Into The Darkest Corner is Elizabeth Haynes debut novel.  It was Amazon UK's Best Book Of The Year.  Haynes is a police intelligence analyst, and her work allows her to chart the progression of this terror with heart stopping details.   The book is compelling and almost impossible to put down; the reader needs to determine what will happen to Cathy.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.

The Mango Orchard by Robin Bayley

Robin Bayley grew up in England hearing stories from his grandmother.  Most of these stories centered around his heroic great-grandfather, her father.  Arthur Greenhalgh had journeyed to Mexico a hundred years ago to seek his fortune.  He established himself, sent for Robin's great-grandmother and married her.  They had one child but as the political climate became more dangerous, Arthur sent her back to England.  They lived apart for several years, and Robin's grandmother was born and was past her toddler years before she ever saw her father.  Arthur finally left Mexico for good as the bloody Mexican Revolution erupted.

Somehow Robin always felt there was more to the story, some unfinished business of his great-grandfathers that only he could resolve.  At loose ends in England, he decided to retrace Arthur's footsteps and see if he could recreate his life.  He went to America, then on to South America.  He stopped for a month to learn more Spanish, then continued his journey.  Along the way he met witches, drug dealers, military bureaucrats who tried to make travel difficult, and everywhere, warm loving people.  The people were poor, but what they had they were willing to share.  Robin was able to locate the village his great-grandfather lived in, and it and it's people made their way into his heart.  There were surprises everywhere, but at the end of his journey, he knew his family history and all that went on.

The Mango Orchard is a fascinating look at both the region, its people and Bayley's journey.  His discoveries and travels are compelling enough to make this book a page-turner, and his optimism and enthusiasm are catching.  This book is recommended for readers of travel writing and anyone interested in tracing their heritage.

The Circus Fire by Stewart O'Nan

On July 6, 1944, nine thousand people, mostly women and children, attended the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Connecticut.  It was the matinee show and started at around 2:00 p.m.  Moments later, the circus tent caught fire and in minutes was completely consumed.  Pandemonium reigned as petrified patrons fought and clawed to escape the inferno.  One hundred and sixty-seven people died that day.

Stewart O'Nan has painstakingly recreated this horrific event.  He covers the individual stories of various victims and survivors.  The history of the circus is covered, along with the war factory environment of Hartford in 1944.  Possible causes of the fire are considered.  Was it an act of arson?  Or was the fact that the tent was waterproofed with a mixture of gasoline and paraffin the main culprit?  The survivors are followed through their months of hospitalization and the various legal issues and court cases are covered.  The lives of various circus performers are told, as well as the stories of the men who investigated the fire and its causes for years.  The later lives of those involved are covered, especially the struggle to identify one little girl that stretched for decades.

Although a horrific event, the painstaking research O'Nan has performed makes this a fascinating subject.  The changes that took place due to the fire and the general change in the country as it moved to new entertainment venues such as television made the circus under the big tent a thing of the past.  O'Nan takes the reader inside the tent and shows them a world that no longer exists.  This book is recommended for readers of nonfiction and circus fans, as well as those who enjoy tales of heroism.

A Good Hard Look by Ann Napolitano

The local celebrity in Milledgeville, Georgia, is Flannery O’Connor. Raised in the town, Flannery moved to New York to pursue a writing career. She is making headway when she receives the same diagnosis of lupus that killed her father. Flannery’s disease moves quickly and at the age of twenty-five, she is back home in Milledgeville at the family farm, Andalusia. She spends her time writing and raising peacocks; the fierce, proud birds touching a chord in her. She is the local star, yet feared by many of the town for her ability to see through the artifice with which most of us surround our lives. As O’Connor was known to say: “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
While Flannery is the most famous inhabitant, she is not necessarily the most influential. That would be the power couple of Cookie and Melvin Whiteson. Cookie grew up in town, the ‘it’ girl who was the most popular in high school and who won all the trophies and prizes. She went North after school and returned with Melvin, an extremely wealthy man who wants to marry her. Their wedding is the year’s most talked about event, and also the place where Melvin and Flannery meet. They strike up a friendship that Cookie is unaware of and would never approve of. Cookie spends her time organizing everything worth organizing in town and is recognized as the woman who makes things happen.

Lona Waters is as far in character from Cookie as it is possible to be. Lona has drifted through life, married to Bill Waters, an ambitious policeman. She has a drapery business and spends her time making window treatments for the wealthy of the town. Yet, Cookie, Flannery and Lona all are brought together in an afternoon of tragedy. Afterwards, none of the women or the men in their lives are the same.

Ann Napolitano has created a masterful portrayal of Southern life and more, the portrayal of how most of us move through life, living it but never really experiencing it to the fullest. The characters are compellingly drawn, while the tragedy that defines the book is foreshadowed in such a way that when it occurs, it seems inevitable. Yet, the characters and their lives also have hope, leaving the reader shaken and better for having read it. This book is highly recommended for all readers; a powerful novel that redefines how individuals can face life and its hardships.

The Night Train by Clyde Edgerton

It's 1963, and things are changing in the South, even in small North Carolina towns.  The Greensboro sit-in is in the news, Dr. Martin Luther King is on his crusade, and everyone is starting to realise that things will be different.

In one small town, Dwayne Hallston and Larry Lime Nolan become friends as each is interested in the new music starting to break through; the music of James Brown and the Apollo Theatre.  Larry Lime wants to be a pianist like his idol, Thelonious Monk, while Dwayne has just started a band with his buddies.  Larry Lime isn't in the band, since he and Dwayne aren't even supposed to be friends.  Larry is African-American while Dwayne is white and their friendship is something new in their town.

Edgerton has captured the feel of rural small towns in this era, when the races were segregrated but depended on each other in ways no one talked about.  It was a time of hope and dread, a subterranean stirring that no one had an ending for, a time of change with all the passions that change always stirs.  This book is recommended for readers interested in knowing what life was life in this place and time, and for those who want to be entertained by a master at his best.

Clyde Edgerton is a North Carolina treasure.  Born in Durham, he has written nine previous novels.  His forte is telling stories; stories that make serious points while being humourous and readable.  He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, five of his novels have been New York Times Notable Books and he is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.  Edgerton currently teaches creative writing at UNC-Wilmington. 

The Sandburg Connection by Mark De Castrique

Sam Blackman and his partner, Nakayla Robertson, have a new case.  Having opened a detective agency and riding high on solving several cases in Asheville, NC, they are more than willing to serve as contractors in a medical damages case.  A professor at UNC-Asheville, Janice Wainwright, is sueing the surgeon who performed her back surgery.  She claims that the operation left her in such pain that working is almost impossible.

Sam and Nakayla agree to do surveillance on Janice to see if she is truly disabled, or if they will find her going about her everyday life, lifting heavy objects or performing physical tasks that a person with a valid case couldn't do.  In the case of this surveillance, they follow her to Connemara.  Connemara is the former home of Carl Sandburg, the people's poet, and now a historic landmark.  It is home to the Flat Rock Theatre and near steep hiking trails.  Janice heads up a trail, and sure that this is a breakthrough for the case, Sam follows.  He gets to her location as she screams, falls and is killed.  Was it a slip caused by post-surgery painkillers or did Sam see someone slipping away through the woods after pushing her?

The case is complicated by Janice's daughter, Wendy.  Agreeing to help her, Sam and Nakayla meet her father and aunt, various individuals either in the teaching profession or the arts or interested somehow in Asheville's history.  Each provides a piece of the puzzle.  Can Sam and Nakayla discover what really happened on the mountain that day?

Mark de Castrique grew up in western North Carolina.  He has worked in both television and the film production industry, and still serves as an adjunct professor at UNC-Charlotte.  He has written three Sam Blackman mysteries,  five mysteries in the Burying Barry series and a stand-alone thriller, The 13th Target.  The 13th Target will be reviewed here in the coming weeks.  This book is recommended for mystery fans.  The pace is nice, the characters well-drawn and the kind of people you can imagine meeting and getting to like.

The Duke Don't Dance by Richard Sharp

The Silent Generation.  These are the men and women between The Greatest Generation who won World War II and The Boomers who resulted when that generation came home and made families.  The Silent Generation didn't have a war that everyone supported; they had Vietnam.  They didn't have a President from their ranks.  Instead the political crown skipped from men like Eisenhower and Nixon to John Kennedy.

But what did they have and what did they contribute?  The start of the computer industry that changed the world.  The rise of rock and roll; Janis and Jimi to Motown.  Flower Power.  The desegration acts that gave African Americans their dignity and rights.  The rise of feminism and reliable birth control.  The Cold War  and the post-Bomb era.  An era when going to college became imaginable instead of just reserved for the wealthy and powerful. 

In The Duke Don't Dance, Richard Sharp tells the story of the Silent Generation.  He follows a group of friends from 1960 to the present.  The reader follows their lives and is privy to their loves, their politics, their work and careers.  In doing so, the contributions and issues of this generation come alive. 

Richard Sharp is a member of this generation.  Born in 1941, he traveled with his career all over the world and currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Ring Of Fire by Bill Cokas

Wally Gibbs has a master plan.  Not content with being a professor of marketing, he has come up with the ultimate marketing plan; a plan that will make him rich beyond his wildest dreams.  So what if a few deaths have occurred during the planning stages?

The plan involves class rings, gemstones found only on a Greek island, miniature cameras and sophisticated database software.  Can Gibbs be stopped before his plan takes hold and more people die?  The only ones who might be able to stop him are a cartoonist who happens to be one of Gibb's students and a surly campus policeman with issues of his own.  They form an unlikely team determined to stop the plan and expose Gibbs.

Bill Cokas has created an interesting, quirky mystery that is bound to please mystery lovers, especially those with a North Carolina tie.  His characters are interesting and the plot moves along at a perfect pitch.  This book is recommended for mystery lovers who enjoy mysteries that are more cerebral than gory.

Cokas graduated from the University of Carolina-Chapel Hill and then went into the advertisement business, writing ads and commercials.  He is now back in North Carolina, and teaching at the university he graduated from.  Ring of Fire is his most recent mystery, but fans will hope it is not his last.

Enchantment by Orson Scott Card

Just as in the fairy tales, Ivan has discovered his purpose in life.  While in the Ukraine visiting his uncle and working on his graduate dissertation, he comes upon a sleeping princess, whom he kisses and awakes.

That much of the story is familiar, but Orson Scott Card's take on the Sleeping Beauty tale is skewed into an enchanting tale that will leave the reader full of wonder and hope.  There are witches, both good and evil.  A talking bear.  A princess who has no use for a modern man who doesn't even know how to handle a sword.  Spells and charms abound, but are there enough spells in the world to make such dissimilar individuals fall in love and live happily ever afterwards?

Orson Scott Card is well known for his science fiction.  He has won both the Hugo and the Nebula Prizes in consecutive years for Ender's Game and Speaker For The Dead, the only author to receive this honor.  Card has written multiple books, most of them best sellers.  He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe

Look Homeward, Angel is Thomas Wolfe's masterwork, the novel that made his reputation.  Born in Asheville, NC, in 1900, he was educated at the University of North Carolina and at Harvard.  He spent his time teaching and traveling, building his reputation as one of America's master novelists.  Wolfe died in 1938.

The novel tells the life of the Gant family in a small mountain town in North Carolina.  It is widely acknowledged that the town is Asheville, NC and that the book is a thinly disguised account of Wolfe's own life there.

The Gant family was made of Oliver and Eliza Gant and their children, Steve, Luke, the twins Ben and Grover, the girls Daisy and Helen, and the baby, Eugene.  Eugene is the individual whose life most closely mimics Wolfe's own.  The family is portrayed for the twenty years of Eugene's childhood and early manhood, as he grows up and learns that he must move on to achieve what he wants from life.

The daily lives of the Gant family are richly portrayed, each detail building upon the next to demonstrate daily life in the mountain region of North Carolina from 1900 to 1920.  Oliver is a stone mason, Eliza becomes the owner of a boardinghouse.  They both are so consumed with the thought of money and what it takes to make a living that they neglected the emotional lives of their children.  The children are left to provide emotional support for each other, to force their way through life trying, sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing to achieve their goals.

Education was a great good, although expensive and those who had the opportunity to get an education were reminded daily of their great fortune.  Wolfe details the daily working life of laborers, of those revered in small towns such as lawyers, doctors and politicians.  He covers the relationships between men and women, and those between the races.   The first Great War and the iinfluenza epidemic are covered.  The United States was changing and the Gant family is a representation of how the country changed over this time period.

This book is recommended for readers interested in knowing how daily life was in western North Carolina during the early years of the 19th century as the population moved from a rural to a city focus.  It is intricately detailed and moves the reader through the daily life of this family and the constant questions of why we are here and what we are to do with our lives. 

The Traitor's Wife by Susan Higginbotham

The Traitor's Wife is the story of Eleanor de Clare and her love for and marriage to Hugh le Despenser, known as Hugh the Younger in the early 1300's in England.  The couple were both royalty and highly placed politically.  Eleanor was the granddaughter of Edward the I and the niece of the current king, Edward the II.  Hugh's father, Hugh the Elder was a trusted advisor of the King.

The book follows the couple over their entire lives together, through their marriage, their nine children, and their political ups and down in a tumultuous period in English history.  The reader will be surprised at the constant political maneuvering that led to treachery and betrayals, to a family being feted one day and scorned or imprisoned the next.  The country was in upheaval as the nobles tried to rein in the power of their kings and force them to rule in a manner they approved of. 

As the years passed, Hugh and Eleanor became ever more entangled in court affairs.  Hugh became the King's Chamberlain, basically the King's right-hand man.  He was the conduit between others and the King, and Hugh used this position to enrich himself and become ever more powerful.  Over the years, Edward and his queen, Isabella from France, became estranged.  Isabella eventually joined forces with her lover, Roger Mortimer, and they enlisted enough support from the nobles to force Edward to abdicate in favor of his son. 

This was disastrous for Hugh and Eleanor.  Hugh was arrested and given a traitor's death, while Eleanor and her oldest son were imprisoned off and on for many years.  Eleanor was left with nine children and the Queen's enmity.

This is a richly written, painstakingly researched account of one of England's leading families.  The Princess of Wale, Lady Diana, was a descendant of Hugh and Eleanor.  Although the reader will learn much about 13th century England and the military and political forces sweeping the country, The Traitor's Wife is above all a love story between Hugh and Eleanor.  This book is highly recommended for readers of historical fiction.

Susan Higginbotham is an attorney by education, and currently in addition to writing, works for a legal publisher.  She lives in Apex, North Carolina.  The Traitor's Wife was her first book, published in 2005 and republished in 2008 by Sourcebooks.  It received ForeWord Magazine's 2005 Silver Award for historical fiction and the 2008 Independent Publisher's Award for Historical/Military Fiction.

The Watery Part Of The World by Michael Parker

Michael Parker's hauntingly beautiful novel, The Watery Part Of The World, tells the story of one of North Carolina's barrier islands, Yaupon Island.  A tiny strip of sand between the ocean and the sound, it serves as the land's first break in the water; a tough land where survival demands the same toughness from its inhabitants.

The novel moves in time between the early 1800's to the present.  The earlier time is the story of the island's first inhabitants; shipwreck survivors, pirates, fishermen and slaves.  Among these is Theodosia Burr Alston, an aristocrat.  Daughter of the Vice-President, Aaron Burr and wife of Joseph Alston, the governor of South Carolina, she is brought to the island where her ship is wrecked by pirates.  She survives with the help of Whaley, a man who fights for her release by the outlaws and takes her as his wife.  She lives out her life in this new environment, unsure that her former privileged life had ever really existed.

Fast forward to the future.  After decades when the island thrived as a tight community, it has dwindled down to three people.  Theodosia and Maggie Whaley are the great-great-great-granddaughters of Theodosia and Whaley.  Woodrow Thornton is the descendant of the slave that Whaley bought and freed and who lived out his life on the island.  Woodrow takes care of the two white women, even at the expense of his own life.  Woodrow is married and he and Sarah have a large family.  Over the years, all drift off to the mainland, but Woodrow refuses to leave his responsibility to the Whaley women, even when Sarah dies. 

Parker has written a book that explores the ties that people have to specific landscapes and places; how the land can shape lives and the relationships that grow there.  It is a grand mixture of love and duty, of the relationship between black and white people in the South, of the toughness and will to survive, of an old culture whose vestiges remain.  This is not the 'beach' of tourists and gaudiness; it is the coast, stripped down to the mechanisms of survival and the love that allows people to survive there.  This book is highly recommended to all readers who want to understand one of the cultures of North Carolina.  Michael Parker is a professor in the MFA writing program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

NC Writer's Workshop

POPULAR FALL WRITERS’ RETREATS NOW OPEN FOR REGISTRATION

Writers of fiction, memoir, poetry and even music can now register for an annual workshop known for helping seasoned writers and first-timers alike to recharge their creative batteries in one of North Carolina’s most glorious mountain settings.

Applications are being accepted on a first-come, first-served basis for this year’s Table Rock Writers Workshop, to be held Sept. 17 -21 at the rustic Blue Ridge Mountain artists’ resort, Wildacres Retreat.

SOLATIDO, a southern singer/songwriters’ workshop that runs concurrently in adjacent facilities at Wildacres, is also open for registration.  Table Rock, originally known as the Duke University Writers’ Workshop, was reorganized in 2010 and continues with the same leadership and philosophy of support for writers of all genres and levels of experience.

Georgann Eubanks, who has directed the popular literary workshops for more than 20 years, also runs Solatido.  Table Rock enrolls a maximum of 50 writers, using a non-competitive, first-come, first-served application process. Eubanks said some registrants are returnees, but newcomers always infuse the weeklong sessions with creative diversity.

The faculty for Table Rock includes North Carolina writers Abigail DeWitt, Darnell Arnoult, Anna Jean Mayhew and Scott Huler. This year participants can also choose to take advantage of a first-time Reader-in Residence, Dawn Shamp. Writers can submit up to 25 pages of manuscript and Dawn will provide a detailed critique that includes copy editing and structural and technical advice.

Music producer and composer Richard Putnam leads this year’s Solatido workshop. The keyboardist and arranger is comfortable with all musical styles and has been a session player in the Southeast for 30 years.

“This is a unique opportunity for participants to have quality time with excellent instructors, away from day-to-day distractions,” said Eubanks. “And the individual and group discussions led by the experienced, published writers on the Table Rock faculty as well as the polished, savvy musicians of Solatido are made even better by the breathtaking surroundings.

More information is at www.tablerockwriters.com and http://www.solatido-workshop.net/. 
Contact Cindy Campbell, 919.923.8857, cincam02@gmail.com

A Lovely, Indecent Departure by Steven Lee Gilbert

Anna had to leave.  Caught in a marriage with a man who needed to control her every move, she left for her sanity.  But she never meant to leave Oliver, her five year old son.  When Evan, her ex-husband, tries to manipulate her through Oliver, making her joint custody more and and more difficult, she makes a momentous decision.

Since Anna has joint citizenship with both the United States and Italy, she is able to take Oliver and flee overseas.  She leaves everything else behind; job, house, family, friends.  Her remote relatives, most of whom she hasn't seen since she was a small girl, help her to get reestablished in Florence.  But can Evan ever concede failure in what he regards as a battle to establish his rightful dominance?

Evan enlists the big guns.  He goes to the police, for Anna has indeed committed a crime, kidnapping.  He goes to the press to make sure his side of the story is the one that gets told.  Finally, after months with no results, he hires a private investigator to locate Anna and kidnap Oliver back.  Evan's single focus brings the rest of his world into jeopardy; his job and marriage soon show the cracks of his obsession. 

Steven Gilbert has written a masterful debut novel.  The reader can empathize with each character in turn and the motives that drive their actions.  The writing is crisp and spare, yet portrays each side of this situation; mother, father, law enforcement, family and friends, fully.  Gilbert lives in the Piedmont region of NC.  In 2007 he was the recipient of a Durham Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant for Literature.  A Lovely, Indecent Departure is recommended for all readers interested in a compelling story and excellent character portrayal. 

North Carolina Tribute Month

I am lucky enough to live in one of the best states in the country, North Carolina.  We have it all.  There are beaches with wide sandy shores and mountains with steep climbs and gorgeous foliage.  There are bustling cities and rural paradises.  We have a thriving public university system and a large community college system.  Did I mention the North Carolina Tarheels, one of my obsessions outside of reading?  There is wonderful seafood, barbecue and apple butter from the mountains.  There is a thriving pottery industry and some of the most beautiful furniture every created.

North Carolina also has wonderful authors.  Some of these include Clyde Edgerton, Betsy Byar, Srah Dessen, Charles Frazier, Kaye Gibbons, Margaret Maron, Tom Robbins, O'Henry, Maya Angelou, Orson Scott Card, Doris Betts, Fred Chapell and Patricia Cornwell.  Others are Marianne Gingher, Michael Parker, Thomas Wolfe, Michael Malone, Jil McCorkle, Robert Morgan and Ron Rash.  There are new NC authors just hitting their stride like Wiley Cash.

I've decided to set aside June to celebrate all things North Carolina.  All books reviewed in June will either be by a NC author (born here or currently living here) or have a North Carolina location.  I hope you will enjoy this month as much as I plan to!

A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash

The mountains of North Carolina have their own culture.  The families have lived in their own specific valley for years and everyone knows everyone else's business; whose farm is doing well, who is drinking a bit too much, who is sleeping with whom.  It is a culture ripe to grow feuds; an atmosphere where wrongs can be brooded about and allowed to fester for generations. Loyalty and betrayal are everyday affairs that echo across the years.

It is also a culture in which religion can play a large part.  This is the land of small rural churches where some of the more fundamentalist beliefs play out.  Churches where snake-handling or poison drinking to prove belief that God will protect the righteous is not unusual.  Churches where charismatic preachers can hold huge influence over the families that attend their churches.

Jess Hall is a curious young boy, living on a farm with his parents and his older brother, Christopher, known as Stump to everyone.  Stump is a mute and Jess is protective of him even though he is the younger.  The boys stumble into a secret that will have consequences that impact the entire community and make life change in ways they could never foresee.

A Land More Kind Than Home is Wiley Cash's debut novel.  He grew up in this area of North Carolina and his portrayal of the area brings it to life.  The plotting is intricate and the pacing is excellent.  The characters are portrayed realistically.  This book is recommended for readers interested in family relationships.

The Cradle In The Grave by Sophie Hannah

A killer is on the loose in England and he has very specific targets. He is obsessed with the topic of women accused of killing their babies. Some of these women have been convicted, some found not guilty. Some have been released on appeal to a general consensus that they were innocent, while others have been released but may well have done the crime. The obsession spreads further to doctors who testified either for the prosecution or the defense, especially one doctor, who is about to have her license revoked due to her testimony in scores of these cases.

Fliss Benson becomes entangled in this web due to her work. She works in television documentary production and is an assistant producer at a company whose star is determined to tell the story of these women. He perceives them all as innocent, and is instrumental in getting several released on appeal and in hounding the doctor who was instrumental in putting them behind bars with her expert testimony. Suddenly, the star decides to leave for another company and the documentary is dumped in Fliss’ lap.

One of the released women is terrorized on the street and then another one is killed. The killer leaves a card with four rows of what appear to be random numbers on each of their bodies. Fliss is pulled even further into the mystery when she begins to receive the same cards with the same numbers. Can she solve the mystery before the killer targets her?
Sophie Hannah has written a series of taut, engaging mysteries. The characterizations are fresh and striking. The interplay and politics in the police department are worth reading the book for, with the interesting character of DC Simon Waterhouse, a detective who can figure out the most complex motivations. This book was originally published in England as A Room Swept White. Readers of mysteries will be captivated and rush to read more of Hannah’s work.

Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

In Berlin, between World War I and II, jazz was the thing. Black musicians flocked there and to Paris, fleeing the discrimination at home. One group formed then had members from all over. There were Sid and Chip, the bass player and drummer, childhood friends who came over from Baltimore. Ernst was a German, son of a rich and powerful industrialist. Big Fritz was also German, as was Paul, the group's only Jewish member.

Then there was Hieronymus, or Hiero Falk, the band's trumpeter. Hiero is young, barely twenty, a decade or so younger than the rest of the band. He is also German, but most people would be surprised to learn this. Born of a German mother and a Senegalese father, he is one of a handful of 'half-bloods' born in a region where Senegalese troops had been stationed. These children were not accepted but shunned and singled out for unfair treatment. But Hiero has a gift; he plays the trumpet in a manner that rivals the king of all trumpeters, Louis Armstrong.

By 1939, things had gotten bad in Berlin. The SS were everywhere, targeting Jews first, but also blacks and other minorities. Jazz was denounced as savage music not worthy of a true German's attention. As tensions mount and the men start to fear for their lives, a woman appears. She is Deliliah Brown, the singer in Louis Armstrong's band, and she wants them to come to Paris and play with Louis. After Paul is captured on the streets one day, the men decide to go there.

Once there, things are better for a time, but not for long. Dissension starts to strain the band as members vie for Deliliah's attention and time to record. The group falls apart when Hiero is swept up and sent to a camp, but Sid manages to sneak out one precious recording, 'Half-Blood Blues' when he and Chip go back to America that makes the group's reputation. Hiero survives the war, but dies soon afterward.
As the book opens, Chip and Sid are on their way to a Hiero Falk Festival in Berlin, put together by a German documentary maker who wants to reestablish the glory of those days when jazz ruled the music scene. This is surprising enough, but Chip has a shock in his pocket. It turns out that Hiero did not die, but has been living in obscurity for forty years. The men are reunited and all the old disagreements and tensions are resolved.
Esi Edugyan has written a glorious book. The reader is transported into the world of jazz musicians, where the music is the thing, the only thing that matters. The tension and danger of the Nazi government is strikingly portrayed, and how it swept apart friends and families and whole generations of people. There is friendship and betrayal, sacrifice and pain along with a determination to survive and make the music survival. This book was long-listed for the Mann Booker Prize and is recommended for all readers.

Scarlet Rose by Julia Madeleine

In her day, Sylvia had it all.  Men adored her and flocked to see her dance.  She was a stripper known as Scarlet Rose and she basked in the admiration.  After all, it was no more than her due; she was made to be rich and adored.

But life doesn't always turn out the way a young girl dreams of.  Now, Sylvia is middle-aged, fat and dumpy, living on handouts from her daughter, Fiona.  She was dragged down by motherhood, kept from what she knew was her rightful place by the demands of three kids.  Now that they were grown, they owed her.  She put Fiona out as a stripper and prostitute at age sixteen.  Suzanne escaped to the streets and drug addiction while her son is in prison.  There there was her angel, her baby, another son who was kidnapped when he was four, perhaps by a former lover, perhaps by a stranger.  He is now back in town, ready to be reunited with his vision of a perfect mother and willing to do Sylvia's bidding.

When her use of her son goes awry, Sylvia flees town, forced once again by a cruel world to figure out how to survive.  Never mind that she tried to force her son to kill her daughters, ingrates that resented supporting her lavish ways.  She should have been able to get enough money from her schemes to live as she wanted.  Now, she will have to figure out a new way to get her dreams, and in Sylvia's world, if you stand between her and what she wants, your life has a short shelf life.

Julia Madeleine has created a woman in Sylvia who the reader will not soon forget.  Totally self-absorbed, the picture of narcissism, she blunders from situation to situation, using others to meet her goals and fulfill her self-image of what life owes her.  This book is recommended for readers of suspense novels.

Raylan by Elmore Leonard

Fan's of FX TV channel's hit show, Justified, will be excited to read Elmore Leonard's new book, Raylan.  Justified is based on a short story by Leonard where the characters in the show were introduced.  Raylan Givens is a U.S. Marshall who grew up in Harlan County, Kentucky.  He worked in the coal mines as most men did, but got out as soon as he could and ended up in law enforcement.  After a showdown in Florida where he shot and killed a fugitive, he is transferred back to Kentucky.

Raylan is back with the folks he grew up with; his family and former friends, but things are not the same.  Many of those he knew break the law routinely, and he is now responsible for bringing them in when they do so.  The book is full of shady characters, from pot-growing and Oxcy selling drug dealers to a female coal-mine owner's thug, from poker players to men who will do anything for a buck.  One of the more interesting characters is Boyd Crowder, a former miner who is now The Head of Disagreements for the coal mine owners.  There are female bank robbers and a kidney-stealing ring who steals kidneys from the owners and then ransoms them back.

Raylan is a laconic Marshall who speaks little but what he says others need to listen to.  He is known for his ability to outdraw and shoot to kill when needed.  The violence is casual but deadly, and the stories in the book contain betrayal and loyalty, shifting alliances and an underworld of criminals who are determined to rule the area.  This book is recommended for crime novel readers. 

Not Untrue And Not Unkind by Ed O'Loughlin

Owen Simmons has a comfortable life these days.  His work as a foreign correspondent over, he potters around in the newspaper's home office, doing little real work but a fixture nonetheless.  The death of an office mate and the discovery of an old file of Simmons' stories from his time in Africa leads him to wonder why his colleague was interested in his time there and forces him back in his mind to relive those days.

Owen went to Africa as a stringer, a journalist who wrote articles hoping to sell them afterwards to someone.  He falls in with the journalist circle there, those with full-time jobs, photographers, TV journalists, print journalists.  Although they are all after the same story, they become a society, helping each other and making friends and lovers within the group.  Owen travels and befriends various members of the group, including a woman journalist he loves but feels he knows little about.

Owen spends several years there in the 1990's, covering the Rwandan genocide and the various national uprisings.  The group becomes hardened to violence and death as they move from one hot spot to another, seeing how little any one death meant in the grand scheme of things.  Owen leaves when he is caught in an ambush and gravely wounded.  Several of his friends are also in the ambush, and what happened that day and their various fates are the mainspring of the book. There is also a secret associated with the ambush that serves as a focal point of the novel.

Ed O'Loughlin writes from first-hand experience, as he himself spent time in Africa as a correspondent for the Irish Times.  Readers will be interested in this subset of war, those who document it so that most of us can experience it comfortably in an armchair.  He accurately portrays the suddenness of violence and death in a war zone, and how banal it all becomes when it is an everyday occurrence. Not Untrue And Not Unkind was a Mann Booker Prize nominee in 2009.  This book is recommended for adult readers interested in how world events are reported and the lives of journalists.

Over 55? Check out Novel Seniors!

Indie Book Collective, a grand group of folks, has started a website and giveaway program for seniors; anyone over fifty-five.  Each month you can choose an e-book as a free gift; to keep and read at your leisure. 

The books are in the categories of mystery/thrillers, science fiction/fantasy, fiction, paranormal romance, historical romance and romance.  Each categories has subsets, so there are a ton of books!

Don't have a Kindle?  Don't worry.  If you have any kind of electronic device (computer, IPad, smartphone, etc), you can download the Kindle reading application to it and take advantage of this great offer.  There are directions on how to do this on Amazon's Kindle page. 

Interested?  Go to the website, http://novelseniors.com/  to sign up on the right hand side.  You can view this month's books, get your questions answered, and find out all about this marvelous opportunity.  Thanks to IBC, what a grand idea.

Blue Eyes by Jerome Charyn

Detective Manfred Coen is a product of the streets.  Raised in the '40's in New York City in the Bronx, he grows up with Jewish gangsters, con men, policemen and politicians.  Most guys gravitated either to the police or the gangs, and Coen ends up in the police.  He is the protege of Captain Issac Sidel and is disliked by the rank and file both for his mentor and for his blond hair, blue-eyed Hollywood handsome good looks.

But times change.  Sidel is now out of the force, disgraced in a bribery scandal.  Coen floats from precinct to precinct, never finding a home but still the most effective cop the force has on the streets.  His world is full of Chinese Hispanic gunman, a clubfooted confidential informer, a gangster's son who is a man with the mind of a child, a rich girl who ends up as a porn star and stripper, an ex-wife who married a dentist the second time around, a ping-pong club owner.  All have roots in Coen's past and he moves among them, taking what he needs from each to solve the case while protecting them all the best he can.

There are hints of a white slavery ring operating out of New York and sending girls to Mexico to become brides.  There are currents and cross-currents of shakeups and realignments in the gang structure that has held true for decades.  Coen seems to be the one who can solve the cases; but is he also being manipulated behind the scenes?

Jerome Charyn is an important figure in American literature.  Two of his thirty books have been New York Times Notable Books.  Michael Chabon calls him “one of the most important writers in American literature.”  Blue Eyes was released in 1974 and is a gritty representation of the world Charyn grew up in.  The language can be jarring with street talk and name-calling, but the sense of place is done superbly.  There are picturesque characters, loyalties and betrayals that stretch across decades, plots and counterplots.  This book is recommended for mystery readers and for those interested in reading about the streets of New York City in the '60's and '70's.

The Last Romanov by Dora Levy Mossanen

Darya Borodina is one hundred and four years old, living in the old Russian Entertainment Palace among the ruins, haunted by her life and her time with the Romanovs.  Born of royal parents who were close friends with the Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, Darya lost her parents as a teen and was brought to live in the royal household.  There she became a companion to the royal children, the four Duchesses and the heir apparent.  Darya had healing powers which were important since the heir had hemophilia and could die at any moment.

We watch royal life through Darya's eyes.  Drawn to the arts, she and the Empress create an artistic salon to showcase the talents of Russia's sculptors, artists and ballet masters.  We see the strife and pain that comes as Russia starts to awake and decide that being ruled by the royal aristocracy will not work.  Darya is torn between these two worlds.  She is loyal to the royal family, but madly in love with one of the artists, a Jewish painter she knows she can never acknowledge publicly.  Through him, she starts to see the turmoil that will soon tear the country apart.

After the Revolution and the assassination of the Royal Family, what keeps Darya alive is her belief that the heir was not killed that horrible day with the rest of the family; that her magic portions kept him alive.  She spends decades searching for him, and now she receives word that 'the last Romanov' has been found.  This starts her final journey to determine the truth once and for all.

The Last Romanov is a marvelous book.  Steeped in history and full of the haunting brooding history of the Russian Empire, the reader is transported to another time and place.  Mossanen has created an interesting heroine in Darya to portray both sides of the Revolution and the pain that the conflict between the sides brought to both.  This book is recommended to historical fiction readers and those interested in the strong women or Russian history.

True Love Way by Nancy Scrofano

Marlo Spencer's dreams are about to come true.  Twelve years ago, the love of her life, Josh, abandoned her to attend chef school in Paris and stayed in France since.  While Marlo has dated, there's been no one serious as she can't get over Josh.  She spends her time with her best friend, Savannah and her daughter.  Savannah was also abandoned by a high school sweetheart and has been a single parent for eleven years.  Marlo's other mainstay is Savannah's brother, Nik.  Nik was too much older to hang with the girls in high school but now that he and Marlo are living in the same city away from their families, they have formed a close friendship.

But now Marlo has a decision to make.  She receives an email after twelve years from Josh.  Josh says he is back in town and has never forgotten Marlo.  He reminds her of the pact they made in high school to get married to each other if neither was married at age thirty, and asks her to come back to town to visit and get reacquainted.  Marlo is overjoyed and nervous all at once.  Will things be the same?  Will Josh explain why he left her alone?

She goes back home, accompanied by Nik who is ready for a family visit.  Once there, she meets up with Josh, but things seem a bit off.  As the week goes on, secrets her friends have been keeping from her start to emerge, along with a sense that she may need to reevaluate her true feelings.  Will true love's way make the decision for Marlo?

Nancy Scrofano has written a breezy, interesting romance that keeps the reader turning the pages to see what choices Marlo will make.  Marlo is a quirky character, loyal to a fault, but determined not to change.  Her favorite things are from the past; old TV shows from the 1960's and 1970's, when life was simpler and every issue could be solved during a half hour sitcom.  Will her life follow the same path, or will Marlo discover that real life is more complicated and more rewarding?  This book is recommended for readers who like romance and modern day relationships. 

THe Superhero Book By Gina Misiroglu

The Superhero Book by Gina Misiroglu is an encyclopedia of all the known superheroes.  At over four hundred pages, it is an exhaustive survey of this genre as well as being a colorful and accessible entry into the superhero world. 

Each superhero is given an entry that talks about the media (TV, comics, graphic novel, etc) as well as a full-color image.  The background of the hero is given, as well as their entire team if they work with someone else.  Supernatural powers are explored along with any moral code or any weaknesses.  A timeline of appearances is given, and if the hero was killed off, an explanation of their demise.  Superheros from Superman to The Powerpuff Girls are explored.

Gina Misirouglu, also known as The Taskmistress, has authored or edited more than three dozen books in the genres of popular culture, biography, American history, folklore and women's studies. 

Graphic novels are becoming more and more popular with the advent of the entire anime genre.  Superheroes are a constant in every time period; only the media used to tell their stories changes.  Humans need to believe that there is a balance in the world between good and evil, and that there are those who stand ready to right that balance when it is askew.  This book is recommended for readers who follow these heroes and anyone interested in learning more about them. 

Return Of The White Deer by Robert Sells

The land of Mercia is uneasy.  It has been ruled for twenty years by a king, Cearl, who is cruel, caring nothing for his people.  Cearl is power-hungry and obsessed by thoughts of those who might try to take his place.  For Cearl doesn't possess the one thing that makes a Mercia king legitimate and beloved.  He was not chosen by The White Deer, a mythical creature who legend says appears when Mercia needs a new king to choose the man best suited.

Pen is a twelve year old boy raised on a farm in the countryside of Mercia.  He is drawn to two strange habits.  Pen can communicate with all types of animals, both the horses, cattle and sheep on the farm and the wild creatures of the forest.  He has even seen the White Deer, although he knows he must keep this a secret. He is also drawn to learn the skills of a soldier, how to use a sword, bow and knife.  He is lucky enough to find a skilled teacher in the nearby village, although he hides his lessons from his farmer father.

When Cearl learns of Pen's existence, he is determined to eliminate him, as he suspects that Pen may be the next Chosen One.  Pen is kidnapped and thrown into Cearl's dungeon after Cearl meets him and decides his suspicions are correct.  When Pen is rescued by his father and his friends, it sets up a situation where a battle will determine the fate of Mercia and who will lead it going forward.

Robert Sells has written an engaging, rollicking tale of fantasy.  The characters are interesting, and the action is brisk enough to move the plot along without dragging.  This book is recommended for readers of fantasy.

The Quaker State Affair by Dan Romain

What would happen if the Chinese decided to write off their American debt and create a fiscal world pegged not to the American dollar but to a gold standard?  How long would it take American to implode without dollars, or the oil it buys?  Could we live without oil as an energy source?

These are the questions that Dan Romain explores in his explosive action thriller, The Quaker State Affair.  As the book opens, it becomes obvious to the American security forces that China is racketing up worldwide tension as a prelude to attempting to take over as the world's most powerful nation.  Reaction by the American President escalates the tension as he implies that America has an alternate energy source which would make oil obsolete. 

Patrick McDaniels, a Nobel winner for his work in physics, has in fact, been thinking about this issue.  In fact, he has done more than think about it, but he realises the risks that come along with such groundbreaking ideas.  The man who can harness cheap, renewable energy that will never run out will be rich beyond dreams, but also in enormous danger.  Nations would war over who controlled such energy or the mind that could conceive of it.  How can McDaniels give his thoughts to his chosen country without becoming a target?

Dan Romain has written an interesting book that is both a page-turning thriller and a book that gives the reader pause for thought.  Readers can see echoes of Romain's predictions in the news media and scientific articles.  Oil is the mainspring of the economy, leaving America in ransom to other countries that can produce it.  Scientists are pursuing alternate energy sources that would make the discovering country the new world leader for centuries.  Readers will finish this book and find their thoughts returning to it time and again, as they read the news and ponder what the average person can do to safeguard in the event some of these issues occur.  This book is recommended both for readers of thrillers and for readers interested in what may occur in the next few decades to our country and to the world.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

In Freedom, Jonathan Franzen has given the reader the quintessential Boomer novel. The novel tells the story of Patty and Walter Berglund. It picks up their story in college as they meet and fall in love. The reader learns about their backgrounds and how each person’s experiences growing up in their specific families and their parental and sibling relationships made them the person they were as an adult. It then follows them over the next thirty or so years, through two children, several moves, and the cycles that make up a marriage.

What is it about? It would be more accurate to ask, what isn’t it about? Freedom is about love, envy, jealousy, betrayal, steadfastness. It is about the relationships between parents and children, between adult friends, the balance between work and home. It contrasts liberalism and conservatism, a focus on business vs. a focus on the environment, the value of old friendships vs. the power of letting new people into one’s life. It is about how we wound each other and how we can heal these wounds. It talks of the dilemma of raising strong independent children who then as adults have little need for their parents. It talks of the difficulty of keeping love strong for decades, and how old hurts can rear up time and time again, sometimes destroying the love that still endures beneath the surface.

Franzen is one of the country’s strongest novelists, and this book enforces that accolade. The writing is dense and detailed, as one would need to reveal someone else’s entire life, motivations and joys. The reader is unable to tear themselves away from this story of two people whose lives and struggles exemplify an entire generation. Franzen shows that no matter how much each generation hopes to be different from the one before it, members come to realize that human nature is fairly fixed, and the same big forces control all of our lives, no matter when we lived. This book is a masterpiece, and the reader will close the last page, satisfied, hopeful and feeling more accepting of their own struggles. This book is recommended for all readers interested in human nature and how we live our lives among other people.

The Best Science And Nature Writing, Edited by Mary Roach and Tim Folger

Each year, a series of best of writing books are released in various categories such as travel, short stories, mystery, etc.  This year's edition of the science and nature writing genre was edited by Mary Roach and Tim Folger.  Mary Roach has made the focal point of her writing life in the science field, popularizing the research into fields such as sex, death and various other topics.  Tim Folger is a contributing editor at Discover magazine and is familiar with a wide range of scientific fields.

The articles range across many scientific fields of inquiry.  There are articles about the problem of space debris, the emergence of bears as pest animals into residential areas with the disappearance of their natural habitats, the issue of organ transplants.  There are more difficult articles such as ones on the space-time continuum and discoveries in that area.  Introduced species that later become predators, crowding out the native animals, get an article, focusing on a species of fish that nature scientists are trying to prevent from reaching the Great Lakes.  There is an interesting article on face-blindness, a condition in which people never become familiar with the faces around them daily and who don't recognize people they deal with daily. 

The series is well done.  The articles are written to educate but the reading level is such that anyone can read and understand the concepts.  There are a wide range of topics, spanning the various areas of scientific inquiry.  This is an anthology that can be dipped into for food for thought, a way to expand understanding of the natural world around us.  This book is recommended for readers interested in how the world works and the discoveries made by scientists.

The Meerkat Wars by H.S. Toshack

The Meerkat Wars is the third adventure in this series about Sheena, a little black and white cat who lives in Africa with her family.  In this book, the family is going on vacation, camping on the great African plains.  Sheena goes along as a stowaway.  She is stranded away from her family and on her way back to the campground, encounters her next big adventure.

Sheena makes the acquaintance of a colony of meerkats, the Duwara, after helping one of their members who was stung by a scorpion.  She stays with the colony for a few days, learning about their ways.  She is there when another Meerkat colony, the Utongo, raid the Duwara tunnels and kidnap their pups.  As Sheena talks to both colonies, it becomes apparent that they are divided not by any reasonable event, but by their belief that each colony is living under the One True Sun.  Meerkats start their day standing and basking in the sun, so the sun is the prime event in their world.  Those who doubt the supremacy of the sun are enemies.  Can Sheena bring the two groups together in the realization that there is one sun that shines for all?

This is a children's book, skillfully educating while entertaining.  Several of the animals of the African plain are introduced along with their habitats, feeding habits and general behavior.  In addition to the meerkats, there are seval cats porcupines, chameleons, water buffaloes and elephants.  The underlying point, that we are all more similar than we are different, and that our separateness is often just self-generated, is brought home without a preachy tone.  This book is recommended for middle school readers and for parents interested in getting good books for their children.

Dirt by David Vann

Galen is twenty-two and still living at home without a job, totally dependant on his mother. His only interest is philosophy and he considers himself an 'old soul', without much evidence to back up his assessment. His mother's interest is in keeping Galen dependant on her. To that end, she dribbles out a meager allowance but tells him there is no money for college or anything that would encourage him to make a life on his own.

Mother and son live alone on a walnut farm in California, the family farm and the basis of the financial trust that keeps them going. Galen's grandmother is still alive, but his mother has moved her to an assisted living home. Galen's aunt and teenage cousin live close and visit, but only to try to extract money from the mother. Galen, with no other exposure to women, develops an unhealthy attraction to his cousin, Jennifer.

The family endures day after dreary day, the same arguments and history revisions visited daily. Things change, however, when all five, grandmother, mother, aunt, cousin and Galen, go together to a cabin for a weekend. Things occur there that change the relationships and bring old resentments to the fore. As Galen makes a final attempt to break free from his family, he learns the extent to which he will go, and the actions he is capable of.

David Vann has received a lot of positive attention for his writing. He is the winner of multiple literary prizes, a Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, and a professor at the University of San Francisco. Dirt is another success in his string of novels such as Legend of a Suicide, Caribou Island, A Mile Down and Last Day On Earth. This book is written in sparse, compelling language as the action alternates between Galen's view of himself as a higher being and the base actions he actually performs. Readers should be aware of graphic violence and sexual matter. This book is recommended for readers interested in family relationships and what the human spirit is capable of. It is a harrowing tale not easily forgotten.

Author Event for In Leah's Wake by Terri Giuliano Long

In Leah's Wake by Terri Giuliano Long is an upcoming review.  Here's a quick blurb:

The Tyler family had the perfect life - until sixteen-year-old Leah decided she didn't want to be perfect anymore. While Leah's parents fight to save their daughter from destroying her brilliant future, Leah's younger sister, Justine, must cope with the damage her out-of-control sibling leaves in her wake. Will this family survive? What happens when love just isn't enough?  Jodi Picoult fans will love In Leah's Wake - a heartbreaking, ultimately redemptive story about family, connection and our responsibility to those we love.

The author is having a Book Club Event Week in late April.  Below is an outline of what will take place:

MONDAY 23RD APRIL: WELCOME TO IN LEAH’S WAKE

Terri shares a candid introduction to the book and her success so far and talks about the role of book bloggers and reviewers in boosting In Leah’s Wake up the charts

TUESDAY 24TH APRIL: THE CHARACTERS OF IN LEAH’S WAKE

Terri invites readers and bloggers to share their thoughts on their favorite characters within In Leah’s Wake and talk about the moments they loved most.  In the evening enjoy a live Q&A session with two pivotal characters from the novel: Zoe and her daughter, Leah.

WEDNESDAY 25TH APRIL: THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

An interview with Terri looks into the story behind the story: how Terri came to write In Leah’s Wake and how it came to be the “little indie book that could” selling over 100,000 copies so far!

THURSDAY 26TH APRIL: YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Answering questions by submitted book clubs, readers’ groups, readers and bloggers, Terri will share her thoughts on the novel, the writing process and what lies ahead. 
In the evening enjoy a Q&A session with Terri Giuliano Long and the chance to put forward your questions live

FRIDAY 27TH APRIL – SUNDAY 28TH APRIL: IN LEAH’S WAKE: IN DISCUSSION
Share your views on some of the discussion topics raised in the In Leah’s Wake reading guide. We’ll be publishing your thoughts along with any new discussion topics you suggest.

SUNDAY 29TH APRIL: LOOKING AHEAD: NOWHERE TO RUN

Terri shares her thoughts on her upcoming novel, Nowhere to Run, and talks about what it’s like to work on a very different kind of story.

Booksie's Blog readers are invited to attend.  Enjoy!

Daddy's Home by A.K. Alexander

Detective Holly Jennings of the San Diego Police Department has worked on a lot of murder cases, but this one is getting to her.  A serial killer is kidnapping single mothers along with their children, and killing both.  That scenario hits home to Holly, as it describes her situation.  Her husband was killed in the line of duty when Holly was pregnant, so it has been her and her seven year old daughter, Chloe, ever since.

The killer is escalating, and it's up to the police to determine his motivation in order to stop him.  Holly believes that the killer is attempting to build a family of his own, and then killing the victims when his fantasy of them loving and accepting him is revealed as a mere dream.  This kind of core drive means that he won't stop until Holly and her team can stop him.  Things devolve when it becomes apparent that the killer has his sights on Holly and Chloe as his next chance at a perfect family.  Can she bring this killer to justice before he takes away everything she has?

A.K. Alexander has written a suspenseful novel that will keep the reader turning the pages.  Holly is a strong, resourceful woman who has the reader cheering for her.  The killer, "The Family Man", is a chilling depiction of evil.  The plot has a great pace and the finale is excellent.  This book is recommended for mystery fans.