I find that more often than not, you don’t find the books you need to read, they find you. A few months ago, a work acquaintance suggested “Healing Back Pain” by John E. Sarno, M.D. (Warner Books, 1991, 193 pages) and it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. 

If you want to feel how lucky you are, just read Brian Barth’s “Front Street (Resistance and Rebirth in the Tent Cities of Techlandia)” (Astra House, 2025, 287 pages). Barth, with maternal roots in WNC going back eight generations and who is a freelance journalist who writes for National Geographic, The Nation, The New Yorker and others and who has won prestigious medals and awards, literally takes us in hand to some of the most populated homeless camps in Silicon Valley in the Bay Area of northern California, introducing us to a cast of characters, describing their personal stories, private philosophies and political activism in order to explain why the country’s current approach to homelessness has become at once cruel and ineffective.

“On the day Richard Nixon resigned the presidency, Ronald Truluck drove the long way to work so he could smoke a celebratory joint.”

So begins Ralph Ellis’s comic novel “The Accident Report” (Black Rose Writing, 2025, 223 pages). A recent graduate of Chapel Hill, Ronald Truluck is a reporter for “The Eagle,” a local paper which only reports the news of the fictional Millerton, North Carolina.

“All things are bound together. All things connect.” 
— Chief Seattle

"We will be known forever by the tracks we leave."
— Dakota

In maybe one of the most alluring covers I’ve ever seen for a book of poems, John C. Mannone’s book “Sacred Flute” (Iris Press, 2024, 77 pgs.) — with a photo of an indigenousYuma musician taken sometime around 1900 — makes you want to turn the page and see what’s on the inside.

In January, in the middle of the week-long subfreezing temps and the snow that froze into ice, one of my sons gave me a belated Christmas gift, Alfred Lansing’s “Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (Basic Books, 2015, 416 pages). Originally published in 1959, this account of explorer Ernest Shackleton and his 27-man crew and their long battle for survival in Antarctica sold moderately well, then took off with the public after its reappearance in the late 1980s. Many of you readers have likely read this tale of heroism and resilience, but I was a come-lately to its pages. 

Thomas Schlesser’s “Mona’s Eyes” is a slow motion read that will baffle readers looking for a conventional pathway to storytelling. 

Ten-year-old Mona lives with her parents, Camille and Paul, in Paris. One day, she inexplicably goes blind. Her worried parents rush her off to the doctor, but on their arrival Mona regains her vision. The doctor and staff of the hospital are baffled; the parents and Mona are terrified.

“I wanna know what love is/
I want you to show me.”
— Foreigner

There’s love and then there’s Love. In Glenn Aparicio Parry’s book “Original Love: A Timeless Source of Wholeness” (SelectBooks Inc., New York, 2026), he gives us the full monty of what this means, as if looking at the Earth from outer space through enlightened eyes.

Ordering some item from a company like Amazon — a smock, a special coffee, cotton swabs, whatever — is quick, simple and easy. You place the order, and two or three days later, the package appears on your front porch. The same ease and speed apply when ordering your groceries from Walmart or the local food mart. You make a list, tap a key, arrive at the delivery time, put the groceries in the car and brush your hands off as a job well done. 

Since 1999, hundreds of my reviews have appeared in The Smoky Mountain News. Of those, I would guess that less than 25 were negative. The cause of this disparity is simple enough. My good editor at the SMN lets me choose the books I review, and so I generally pick ones I expect to enjoy. 

“Tell me where you’re from and I’ll tell you who you are.”
— Wallace Stegner

I have just finished reading a book that was like taking a class by an enlightened professor. In this case the “professor” is award-winning author Janisse Ray and her book is titled “Journey In Place: A Field Guide to Belonging” (Amazon, 2025, 231pgs).