Can’t go wrong with a ‘Literary Mother’s Day’
Don’t worry. We’re not going to explore the relationship of Mrs. Bennet with her daughters in “Pride and Prejudice” or…
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On the road with Charles Frazier’s new novel
Asheville’s award-winning author Charles Frazier has a new novel just out this month (“The Trackers,” Ecco/Harper Collins, April 2023, 324…
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Character counts: a review of James Rosen’s ‘Scalia’
He was good friends with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. He taught shooting to another justice, Elaine Kagan, and…
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The earth speaks; hopefully, we’re listening
Somehow in the last couple years scanning the stacks and shelves of our local library and indie bookstore, I missed…
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‘Being a Ballerina’ includes powerful life lessons
This year, the women’s basketball team of Christendom College, a small school in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, includes a forward, Catherine…
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Anne Tyler gives us another never-ending song
It’s always nice when the good things just keep coming.
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Books vs. the winter blues — and books win
It’s another one of those unremarkable winter afternoons when the outside temp is identical to the inside of my refrigerator,…
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Traveling south to find America
“Appalachia can give us an eye towards how the national personality refracts like a diamond into a thousand rays” — Imani Perry
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Frozen: A review of ‘The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven’
One way to enjoy winter is to read about someone who lives north of the Arctic Circle. It’s never going…
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Resurrected: a review of Mark Twain’s ‘Is He Dead?’
Samuel Clemens, best known by his penname Mark Twain, is arguably the master of American novelists, with his great classic…
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‘McMullen Circle’ and picks for teen readers
It’s 1969-1970, and the world is changing at a fierce pace. The civil rights movement grips America’s cultural arena, and…
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Dylan scores with ‘The Philosophy of Modern Song’
This was a fine morning in the coffee shop.
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Straight up or subtle satire? You decide
Writers of fiction find themselves under several obligations. First and perhaps foremost, they must entertain their readers, enticing them to…
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Some bookish thoughts for the new year
Whatever our political beliefs or affiliations, few of us, I suspect, will look back on 2022 with pangs of nostalgia,…
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A surfer’s quest to find Zen on the sea
“If there is magic on the planet, it is contained in water.” — Loren Eiseley It’s not often that one finds…
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Dreams and near dreams — a return to the 60s
Baron Wormser, who is a former Poet Laureate of Maine, has a new novel titled “Some Months in 1968” (Woodhall…
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Drunk and down but never defeated
Take a broken-hearted, alcoholic English professor, some colleagues seeking his dismissal from the university, several women who desire him for…
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Thoughts and books for your own ‘Happiness Project’
In her online article “World Happiness Report reveals the US has gotten happier in 2022,” Ann Schmidt relates that the…
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Here’s to inflation-fighting holiday gifts
According to a recent U.S. News & World Report article, “The 15 Richest Counties in the U.S.,” five of these…
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C.S. Lewis bio is worth a read
Mention the name C.S. Lewis to other readers, and they might recollect him in any number of roles. The younger…
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A perfect gift for local lore buffs
If you’re looking for a gift for the holidays for that person in your life who enjoys reading about local…
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Language is illuminated in new memoir
Once in a great while, something unexpected and exceptional crosses my desk. In this case it was a gift from…
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Bringing Van Gogh home: the value of art books
Recently I wrote an article on the American artist Edward Hopper and his vision of solitude and alienation. Though I…
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The good and the bad: two book reviews
À chacun son gout, as the French say: “To each his own,” or if you prefer, “There’s no accounting for…
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Lost and found in the woods of Appalachia
Another regional writer has just published a new book. Janisse Ray, whom I know as an original member of the…
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God forbid it ever comes to this
Every once in a while, a book gives me the willies. “2034: A Novel of the Next World War” did…
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The lost poems of Wilma Mankiller
Wilma Mankiller was the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1985 to 1995. She was an activist…
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Hope and laughter from a patron saint
Dear Christine Simon, Normally I write a book review in this space, and I intend to do so here in…
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Heroes, misfits, and men: two reviews
In “Sexual Personae,” controversial feminist Camille Paglia wrote, “When I cross the George Washington Bridge or any of America’s other…
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Annus horribilis: A review of Taylor Downing’s ‘1942’
Annus horribilis is Latin for a horrible year, a time of disaster, and aptly applies to the first months of…
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Buddhism and the San Francisco Beats
“Crowded By Beauty” (University of California Press, 2015) is the poetic title of the most recent biography of Philip Whalen.…
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Stepping backwards through time via literature
In the past 10 days, whim, a desire for a breather from our breathless age, and heaven knows what else…
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A trio of books all worth a read
Before proceeding to reading and books, a note on circumstances and environment.
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Murder, bibliophiles, and a B&B
In “A Fatal Booking” (Crooked Lane Books, 2022, 304 pages), Victoria Gilbert’s third novel in her series “Booklovers B&B Mysteries,”…
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Ecopoetry ruminations from the Great Smokies
“We must unhumanize our view a little, and become confident / As the rock, and ocean that we were made from.” —…
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Local author pens novel about pre-Depression Asheville
I’ve said it before — our local authors are “going to town” these days, and in this case quite literally.
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Regrets and no regrets: a review of two books
Daniel Pink’s “The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward” (Riverhead Books, 1922, 256 pages) opens with a…
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Making a positive change in the world
“Eleutheria” is the Greek word for “freedom.” It is also the reference name of an island in the Bahamas (Eleuthera).…
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The boy monk: a review of ‘Monastery Mornings’
To be human is to suffer. In the case of third-grader Michael O’Brien, that meant watching the apparent disintegration of his…
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Shipwreck, survival and faith all in one novel
Novels that touch on faith and God have long intrigued me.
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Pride, ignorance and high tech equal disaster
About halfway through “Blue Fire” (Kensington Publishing Corp., 2022, 326 pages,) John Gilstrap’s apocalyptic novel about a worldwide nuclear war,…
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A well-told history of the Lakota Sioux
Having grown up in these Cherokee hills, I became interested in things native from an early age. This interest, spawned…
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Off to the beach with “Shrimp Highway”
Too much time has passed since I last visited the coast.
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I don’t get it: A Review of ‘The Ballad of Laurel Springs’
Sometimes a book I’ve read, particularly a novel, will leave me mystified, which is not always a good thing.
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One man’s vision of the Southern Appalachians
In my recent passion and ongoing interest in reviewing books by local and regional authors, I am offering here, yet…
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A quick review and a word of gratitude
Recently in this space I reviewed “The Broken Spine” by Dorothy St. James, a murder mystery set in a small…
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‘The Broken Spine’ and ‘The Dead Beat’
Cypress, South Carolina is a moderately-sized town surrounded by farms where neighbors know one another and the pace of life…
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Making your business a success; making success your business
It’s not often, if ever, that I would review a book about “how to succeed in business.” But I’m in…
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Medicine for the soul: reading Roger Scruton
So why take a look here at two books by a philosopher and polymath, neither of which may appeal to…
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One long, one short: ‘The Book of Candlelight’ and ‘Human Smoke’
Some men pick up a copy of Ellery Adams’ “The Book of Candlelight: A Secret, Book, and Scone Society Novel”…
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