Though I had assured my Smoky Mountain News editor I’d deliver a real book review this week — my to-read stack includes biographies of Karl Marx and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, a novel, two books of essays on education, and more — book-centered distractions in late May led me in a different direction. 

A special stage production of “Peter & The Starcatcher” will be held on select dates and times from June 5-28.

This wildly inventive production explores the origins of some of literature’s most beloved characters in a fast-paced journey filled with magic, humor and heart. 

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).  

Bill and Alice Hart know each other’s stories by heart, have been known to finish each other’s sentences and share an obvious trait — the calm satisfaction of having led purpose-filled lives. 

The seeds of that satisfaction began the old-fashioned way — through courtship. William “Bill” Hart, of rural Buncombe County, met Alice Huff, of Sylva, 67 years ago at Western Carolina Teachers College.

When money, manpower and supplies from all over the world poured into Western North Carolina after the devastation wrought by Helene, writer and religious scholar Bart Ehrman understood the genesis of this altruism better than most. 

In his new book, “Love Thy Stranger: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West,” Ehrman argues that prior to the rise of Christianity, the concept of providing material help and compassion toward strangers was not in the religious or ethical toolbox of previous Western societies. 

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. 

“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.

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.

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).