• Book Review

    Book Review: Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall

    Looking for Jane touched me in so many ways. Heather Marshall did a great job with this story of motherhood and everything that it entails. She introduces us to Angela Creighton, Dr. Evelyn Taylor, and Nancy Mitchell. Each of their story lines begin disconnected, but poignant in their own lives. In 2017, Angela and her wife are going through invitro, trying to have a baby. In 1960, Evelyn is an unwed teenager, sent to St. Agnes, to hid her baby from the world and give it up for adoption. In 1979, Nancy is a young adult meeting her cousin who plans to have an illegal abortion. All these women’s stories…

  • Personal Essay

    What do You Know About Book Clubs?

    Are you part of a book club? Do you like to read books? Can you commit to reading at least one book a month? Those are some of the things you need to consider before joining a book club. Although, most book clubs meet once a month, some meet less often. Some pick their books for the whole year at one time and some pick one month ahead. Some read only fiction, some read only non-fiction. What sounds good to you? That’s what you must decide. Size is important, too. Do you want an intimate small group, a medium size group with a chance for discussion, or a large group…

  • Moonshine
    Personal Essay

    Did you Know Moonshine was in my Family Tree?

    I’ve been to Moonshine Distilleries and sampled a few flavors here and there. They make everything from Apple Pie to Salted Caramel, and many more. I discovered while researching information for my current book that the origins of moonshine produced today started with the first Scot-Irish people who immigrated here in the 1700’s. Fast forward to today and there are large operations like Copper Barrel in North Wilkesboro, Howling Moon in Asheville, and Call Family Distillery in Wilkesboro. Moonshine got its name from bootleggers who made their product under “the light of the moon. In the book I’m currently writing, one of my characters is a young moonshiner. He falls…

  • Personal Essay

    Do You Have a Favorite Genre?

    Find you read certain types of books? JAN 28, 2024 Some people read only one genre of story. They love romances or historical fiction and that is the one type of books they choose to read. Kind of how I used to read Nancy Drew when I was younger. Nothing could touch a Nancy Drew Mystery and I lived for every other Friday night. My parents would take my sister and I to “town,” I’d pick out the next book in the series, and buy it with my allowance. Of course, my mom took us to the library, too. But those books were just fillers until I got my hands…

  • Book Review

    Exiled South

    by Harriet Cannon Lizbeth Gordon’s husband doesn’t come home one day. He dies in a one-car auto accident. That’s not the shocking part. He had a hidden gambling addiction and accumulated a large pile of debt. At least it was hidden from Lizbeth. She’s left with only answers and empty banking accounts, so she put the family home up for sell, helped her two sons return to college, and headed for the family cottage on Folly Island, SC. She needed a quiet place. This started Lizbeth’s search for healing and understanding that leads her along a winding road ending in the discovery of the long-lost branch of the Gordon family.…

  • Book Review

    Sunflowers Beneath the Snow

    by Teri M. Brown Teri M. Brown has written a timely novel that started with a conversation between her and a family friend. That friend was Ukrainian and the rest is history, so to speak. As the story opens, you meet Ivanna and her husband, Lyaksandro. Turmoil is pulling their lives apart. Ukraine was a dangerous place to be in the 1970’s. It was under Soviet rule, but the rumblings of independence were growing. All Ivanna knows is that her husband is dead and now she and their young daughter, Yevtsye, are alone.             Ivanna works hard to provide for the two of them. Yevtsye excels in school and is…

  • Faye, Faraway
    Book Review

    Book Review: “Faye, Faraway” by Helen Fisher

    There are some books you are just meant to read at a certain time in your life. The pandemic has left me waiting, I realized today. Waiting to do so many things and this book helped me see that I shouldn’t wait any longer. Not that my head and heart had not been telling me the same thing for quite a while. Sometimes you need beautiful words written by someone else to figure it out. “Faye, Faraway” is more than a time travel book. I was skeptical at first about the whole idea of her falling through a cardboard box and falling back in time to meet herself as a…

  • Book Review

    The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson

    Ruth, it’s a perfect name from the Bible for this real woman. A name given to her by her grandmother when she was born. A name her Mama (grandmother) hoped would allow her granddaughter to get her foot in a lot of doors. As we get to know our Ruth, we find out that she has a secret. A big secret. This smart, funny woman has a secret that she’s held onto almost her whole life. She hasn’t told her any of her friends, and definitely not her husband. This secret is pressing down on her hard and she’s not sure what to do. You see our Ruth had a…

  • Book Review

    Reviving the Hawthorne Sisters by Emily Carpenter

    This book started off with me asking who grows up in an insane asylum? Dove Jarrod escaped from Pritchard Hospital in 1934 where she was born. After she dies, Eve goes back to film the donation that her grandmother left to revitalize the asylum. Eve is ready to move on with her life and stop propping up her mother and brother, but she needs to take care of this task first. She knows her grandmother, the well-known faith healer was a fake and she wants out of the web of lies that she has to pretend are true. Lured outside before the event starts, Eve is attacked and threatened. Someone…