Michael Hettich and Al Maginnes will read from their poetry collections, “Waking Up Alone” and “Second Line: a sequence,” at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 6, at City Lights Books in Sylva.

Hettich has published over a dozen books and chapbooks of poetry.

One May evening in Holt, Colorado, septuagenarian and widow Addie Moore makes her way to the home of Louis Waters, a widower also in his 70s. They’ve lived within a block of each other for decades, and Addie had always admired Louis’ wife. After exchanging a few pleasantries, Addie says she has a proposal for Louis.

One of the reasons I love writing book reviews is it keeps me from getting stuck in a loop of predictable reads. While I still read what I enjoy, I learn to enjoy what I read, especially when it isn’t a genre I would’ve picked up on my own. The book this time was a military fiction: Harry Crocker III’s “Kruger’s Korps” (Knox Press, 2026, 224 pages).  

When Patrick Lambert first sat down to write his book “The River: A Cherokee Principal Chief’s Fight for Family, Truth, and Vindication” in 2024, he intended it to be about personal finance. 

Somewhere along the way, he ditched the original theme, opting for a more vulnerable story. Lambert, former principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, decided to share his perspective about his 2015-2017 tenure and why it was cut two years short. But he also wanted to talk about growing up, dropping out of high school, getting a law degree, building a casino regulatory framework from scratch — all as much a part of his life as his impeachment, the main thing he feels he’s been remembered for.

Sometimes a book appears which changes the course of our nation’s history and culture. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” gave a face to slavery and helped bring on the Civil War. Now rarely read, Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel “The Jungle” exposed the unsanitary conditions of the meatpacking industry and so repulsed the American people that it brought about federal reforms regarding food safety.

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. 

Ralph Ellis will discuss his new novel, "The Accident Report," in conversation with Susan Puckett at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

Set in the summer of 1974, the novel follows rookie reporter Ronald Truluck, stuck covering petty crimes in a North Carolina textile town until he uncovers a possible police cover-up involving a drunken city councilman.

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).