In “Untangling You” (Major Street Publishing, 2022, 208 pages), Dr. Kerry Howells explores the role of gratitude in life and the oftentimes diminished importance of it. But it’s more than just a book about how to be more grateful.

Ralph Ellis will host a special reading for his new work, “The Accident Report,” at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 12, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. 

Sometimes a book finds you when you need it and don’t even know you need it.

Over the last few years, I’ve read some of Andrew Klavan’s columns. He’s an excellent writer, the author of novels, film scripts and works of non-fiction.

Friday, May 30, was a banner day I’ll long remember.

A soft Carolina-blue sky topped the Virginia hills and fields as I drove to novelist Mark Helprin’s farm, Windrow, in the countryside north of Charlottesville.

The following events will be held at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

• Elizabeth and Quintin Ellison will present “Land of Blue Shadows: Mountain Life in Verse & View” — a poetry and photography collaboration with the late George Ellison — at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 14.

In the course of human events, there does come a time when comedy is in order. Such was a time last month for me. I was choosing a book to read and I needed comedy.

“Morte D’Urban,” a novel by J. F. Powers (Doubleday, 1962), had been recommended by a trusted friend. It is brilliantly funny and, how wonderful, much more than that. 

A reading for “Stronger Than The Storm: Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina” will take place from 5–7 p.m. Saturday, June 7, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. The collection features work from over two dozen contributors reflecting on last fall’s storm. Proceeds support ongoing Helene relief efforts. 

A friend of mine suggested “Wild Swans” (Simon & Schuster, Reprint Edition, 2003, 538 pages) and to say it did not disappoint would be an understatement. This family history is written by Jung Chang, who recounts the lives of her grandmother, mother and finally herself. 

I was gifted the book “The Secret Life of Sunflowers” (by Marta Molnar, 2022, 399 pages) and told I would like it. Usually, this kind of gift ends up not being what it was purported to be by the gift-giver.

As a practitioner and student of poetry all my life, I’ve noticed that while there is a lot of poetry written well and with talented reach, at the same time, there is little current poetry that I’ve experienced that one would classify as being “wise” or “transcendent.”