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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Acts of Revision” by Martyn Bedford
Kate’s 2¢: “Acts of Revision” by Martyn Bedford
“Acts of Revision” by Martyn Bedford
Wow, this is a weird one. Eventually, the style becomes evident, but it takes a few chapters to catch on what is happening. Bedford does a good job of character development. Gregory Lynn emerges as a brilliant man, but a certifiably mental case.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Martyn Bedford (born 1959) is a British novelist and literary critic.
Life and career[edit]
He is an alumnus of the University of East Anglia.[1]
The first twelve years of Martyn Bedford’s writing career were spent as a journalist on regional newspapers. His initial book Acts of Revision won the Yorkshire Post “Best First Work” Award.[2] He later became the director of the novel writing programme at the University of Manchester, and is fiction critic for the Literary Review.[3] Currently, Bedford teaches the Creative Writing module at Leeds Trinity University.[4]
In 2008–10, he was Academic Writer-in-Residence, Royal Literary Fund Fellow.[1] Bedford lives in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, with his wife and two daughters.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Acts of revision DB45805
Bedford, Martyn. Reading time: 7 hours, 58 minutes.
Read by John Horton.
Psychological Fiction
After the death of his mother, reclusive bachelor Gregory Lynn uncovers a trove of old school reports that evoke bitter memories of his childhood. Lynn is thus provoked to wreak vengeance against the oppressive teachers who, he believes, doomed him to a failed life. Strong language, violence, and descriptions of sex.
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Best of Prairie schooner: fiction and poetry” by Hilda Raz
Kate’s 2¢: “Best of Prairie schooner: fiction and poetry” by Hilda Raz
“Best of Prairie schooner: fiction and poetry” by Hilda Raz
The variety of personal essays in this anthology is fun to read and gives the reader a glimpse of these writers thoughts.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hilda Raz (born 1938) is an American poet, educator, and editor. Raz is the author of over 14 collections of poetry and creative nonfiction.[1] From 1987 to 2010, Raz was the editor-in-chief of Prairie Schooner and English and women’s studies professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In 2021, the University’s Libraries collected her papers in its archives and special collections.[2] Raz’s awards include the 1988 Nebraska Literary Association’s Heritage Association’s Literary Heritage Award, 2017 Nebraska 150 Books honors for Divine Honors and Best of Prairie Schooner, the 2010 Stanley W. Lindberg Award. Poet Kwame Dawes describes Raz as “a big figure in American Poetry and in the business of American poetry. We owe her a lot as a university and a state. If we value poetry in the world, we should give her a tremendous amount of credit.”[3]
Raz is the poetry series editor for the Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series at the University of New Mexico and Basque Press’ Poetry Editor.[4]
Raz’s work Divine Honors focuses on breast cancer.[5] Trans describes Raz’s son Aaron’s gender identity.[6] The Nebraska-centered Letters from a Place I’ve Never Lived: New and Collected Poems 1986-2020 is edited by Kwame Dawes with an introduction by John Kinsella.[7] In 2010 Prairie Schooner published an issue devoted to Raz’s influence.[8
FromNLS/BARD/LOC:
Best of Prairie schooner: fiction and poetry DBC02025
Raz, Hilda. Reading time: 9 hours, 26 minutes.
Read by Kandra Hahn. A production of Nebraska Library Commission, Talking Book and Braille Service.
Literature
Includes some of the best essays that have appeared in Prairie Schooner since 1980. This anthology of works by poets, novelists and critics will delight readers who seek thought-provoking fiction and poetry. Strong language.
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Comments Off on Cornucopia: Blind Blooper: Visiting the Vet
Cornucopia: Blind Blooper: Visiting the Vet
Blind Blooper
By Kate Chamberlin
My husband and I needed to take my guide dog in for her annual vet check-up. We brought along our 3-year-old and 5-year-old boys with us.
They were busy visiting with other people and their pets in the vet’s waiting room. They’d ask about the pet, then, come sit next to me. Someone new would come in and they’d be off to see the new pet.
When one of them sat, touching my hip, I felt his shirt was not tucked in. I started to tuck it into his belt when a man’s voice said: “’Excuse me?”
“Oh, you’re not my son!” I chuckled, turning crimson, apologizing to the stranger who had unknowingly taken my son’s place.
Cornucopia: Hurricane Hazel, memoir
Hurricane Hazel (360 words)
By Kate Chamberlin
Hurricane Hazel, between October 5 and 16, was the deadliest and costliest hurricane of the 1954 hurricane season and was the strongest and only Category 4 hurricane to ever hit the North Carolina coast, at that time.
I would have been nine-years old then and I remember it for two reasons. We were living in Cedarcroft, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania in a ranch-style home. The bedrooms were on one end of the home and the kitchen on the other end. The living room in the middle, had a, to mee, huge, open, brick fireplace.
When Hurricane Hazel started to bend the deciduous trees in the dense woods behind our home, my Dad took my 12-year old brother and me by our hands and walked to the top of Symington’s hill overlooking the meadow where we’d go sledding in the winter. If the three of us hadn’t been holding on to each other, one of us would have been knocked down to swirl around with the leaves at our feet. The strength of the winds is what has remained with me all these decades.
While we trekked home, the wind knocked out the electricity in our neighborhood. Dad lit a fire in the big fireplace for warmth and light. The four of us plus our St. Bernard mix dog Prince all sat together in companionable silence, listening to the wind howl around our snug home and peering at the dancing flames. Then, we heard our terrified cat, Thanatopsis, meowing to come in, too. He wasn’t as terrified as the small, drenched bunny he had in his mouth.
He dropped the little bunny in front of the fireplace. It happened to be near the paws of Prince, who looked at it with great interest. After watching the bunny for a time, the cat went to pick it back up. Prince growled at him and drew the bunny toward his chest with his chin. Thanatopsis sulked into another part of the house. It was the only time we ever heard Prince growl.
I’ve lived through many storms, cats, and dogs, but those two memories of the wind’s strength and our dog’s compassion remain sharp and clear.
“Magnets and Ladders: 2023Fall/Winter Issue
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Absent in the spring” by Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie)
Kate’s 2¢: “Absent in the spring” by Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie)
“Absent in the spring” by Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie)
I did not appreciate slogging through Joan’s ruminations to come to the conclusion that her life has been so controlling and abysmal, only to find a solution, but didn’t follow through on it when she finally returned home. The epilogue was a real slap in the face and I didn’t appreciate that either.
Socrates believed that living a life where you live under the rules of others, in a continuous routine without examining what you actually want out of it is not worth living.
This illustration of a lifestyle is what Socrates would describe an unexamined life. Hence Socrates’ renowned statement “The unexamined life is not worth living”. Declaring that humans must scrutinize their lives in order to live a fulfilled one isn’t agreeable to any extent.
From: https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/mary-westmacott
Using the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, Agatha Christie was able to explore human psychology in greater depth. Semi-autobiographical in nature, the 6 novels offer a fascinating insight into Christie’s relationships with her family. Her daughter Rosalind Hicks describes the books as “bitter-sweet stories about love”.
The Mary Westmacott Stories
Giant’s Bread
Giant’s Bread
⌸ Novel
First published: 1930
Unfinished Portrait
Unfinished Portrait
⌸ Novel
First published: 1934
Absent In The Spring
Absent In The Spring
⌸ Novel
First published: 1944
The Rose and the Yew Tree
The Rose and the Yew Tree
⌸ Novel
First published: 1948
A Daughter’s A Daughter
A Daughter’s A Daughter
⌸ Novel
First published: 1952
The Burden
The Burden
⌸ Novel
First published: 1956
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Absent in the spring / DB31775
Westmacott, Mary. Reading time: 5 hours, 5 minutes.
Read by Flo Gibson.
Romantic suspense fiction
Psychological Fiction
An Englishwoman is stranded for a week at a rest house in the desert. A remembered conversation with an old school friend starts her on an exploration of her past, and she experiences a vision of the truth that her “happy family life and successful career” were smug, hollow lies.
Downloaded: August 5, 2023
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Kate’s 2¢: “About Face: by Fern Michaels
“About Face: by Fern Michaels
It was interesting, how the author laid down layer by layer until the whole picture was exposed. Except for the two main characters, Casey and Blake, falling in love and eventually marrying, the ending might surprise you.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
www.fernmichaels.com
Fern Michaels is the pen name of Mary Ruth Kuczkir, who was born in Hastings, Pennsylvania on April 9, 1933.[1]
Michaels married, moved to New Jersey, and had five children. When the youngest entered school in 1973, her husband told her to get a job. Because she had no idea how to get a job, Michaels decided to try to write a book. Her husband was not very supportive of her efforts, and consequently they separated.[1]
Although her first manuscript did not sell, the second did. Since then, Michaels has sold over sixty books, many of them New York Times bestsellers.[citation needed] She has been quoted as saying that she loves breathing life into her characters. She also loves writing books about women who prevail under difficult circumstances, which she feels reflect her struggle for success early in her career.[1] For her efforts, she has been inducted into the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame.[citation needed]
When she was a girl, Michaels’ grandmother told her “when God is good to you, you have to give back”. With this in mind, she founded the Fern Michaels Foundation, which grants four year scholarships for deserving students. In addition to that, she has also helped establish pre-school and day care programs with affordable rates for single mothers.[1]
Michaels currently lives in Summerville, South Carolina, in a 300-year-old plantation house listed in the Historic Registry. She claims to share the house with a ghost named Mary Margaret (which had also been documented by the previous owners). Mary Margaret is said to leave messages on her computer.[1]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
About face DB57010
Michaels, Fern. Reading time: 11 hours, 33 minutes.
Read by Sharon Murray.
Suspense Fiction
Psychological Fiction
After ten years in an asylum, twenty-eight-year-old amnesia patient Casey Edwards joins her mother’s new family at a Sweetwater Island estate. As memories trickling back reveal a horrifying past, Casey and a new love search for answers–despite someone who will do anything to hide the truth. Explicit descriptions of sex, violence, and strong language. 2003.
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Blue Lonesome” by Bill Pronzini
Kate’s 2¢: “Blue Lonesome” by Bill Pronzini
“Blue Lonesome” by Bill Pronzini
I enjoyed observing this mild mannered guy emerge into a man. He interspurses the narrative with jazz songs that he enjoys as he investigates the sucide of the woman who captured his curiosity…and finds her sister.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bill Pronzini (Pen names: William Hart Davis, Jack Foxx, William Jeffrey & Alex Saxon) is an American writer of detective fiction. He is also an active anthologist, having compiled more than 100 collections, most of which focus on mystery, western, and science fiction short stories.[1] Pronzini is known as the creator of the San Francisco-based Nameless Detective, who starred in over 40 books from the early 1970s into the 2000s.
Biography[edit]
William John Pronzini was born in Petaluma, California in 1943. He attended local schools.
He has been married three times. The first marriage was to Laura Patricia Adolphson (1965, divorced 1966); the second was to Brunhilde Schier (July 28, 1972, separated December 1985, divorced a couple of years later).[2]
He married mystery writer Marcia Muller in 1992. They have collaborated on several novels: Double (1984), a Nameless Detective novel, The Lighthouse (1987), Beyond the Grave (1986), several books in the Carpenter and Quincannon mystery series, and numerous anthologies.[2]
Writing career[edit]
He published his first novel, The Stalker, in 1971. However, his best known works are the Nameless Detective series, which he began in 1971.[3] As of 2017, there are 46 books in the series, including a number of short stories. While the stories involve the usual range of crimes typical to mysteries, they depict relatively little violence.[citation needed]
Otto Penzler, of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, has published a vodcast review of Bill Pronzini’s work and career http://youtube.com/watch?v=tR0OaQDghKo.
Short stories[edit]
Pronzini has written and published more than three hundred short stories. They have been published in a variety of markets, including some of the last issues of both Adventure and Argosy magazines, generally considered the first American pulp magazines. Pronzini’s work has also appeared in Charlie Chan Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Man from U.N.C.L.E. Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Anthology.[3]
His short story collection Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services (1998) is based in the 1890s and centers on Sabina Carpenter, a Pinkerton detective widow who is working in her late husband’s profession.
Awards[edit]
Pronzini has received numerous awards and award nominations for achievement in the mystery genre.
His début novel The Stalker was nominated for the 1972 Edgar Award in the “Best First Mystery Novel” category.[4] Pronzini won the inaugural Shamus Award for “Best Private Eye Novel” in 1982 for his novel Hoodwink.[5] The following year, he was nominated for his second Edgar Award, this time in the “Best Critical or Biographical” listings for Gun in Cheek.[6] The next year, 1984, Pronzini won his first award for a short-story, winning the “Best Private Eye Short Story” Shamus Award for “Cat’s Paw”. His novel Bones was nominated for the “Best Private Eye Novel” Shamus in 1986.[5] In 1987, Pronzini was awarded “The Eye”, the Shamus award for “Lifetime Achievement” in the mystery genre, the highest accolade awarded.[5] The same year, Pronzini received his first Macavity Award for his Critical Work 1001 Midnights, along with Marcia Muller. The next year he won in the same category for Son of Gun in Cheek.[7]
1989 brought a nomination at the 1989 Anthony Awards for “Best Novel”, for Shackles; and another Shamus nomination for short-story “Incident in a Neighborhood Tavern”.[8] That same year, his novel Snowbound was awarded the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.[9] Another two short-story nominations at the Shamus Awards followed for “Here Comes Santa Claus” in 1990 and “Home is the Place Where” in 1996. That year his novel Blue Lonesome was nominated for the “Best Novel” 1996 Anthony Award.[5][8] The next year, Sentinels received a “Best Novel” nomination at the 1997 Shamus Awards; the year after A Wasteland of Strangers won Pronzini’s only “Best Novel” Edgar Award. Boobytrap won the Shamus Award in the same category in 1999.[5][10] “The Big Bite” in 2001 and “Devil’s Brew” in 2007 were both Shamus Award “Best Private Eye Short Story” nominees. In 2010 he was nominated for “Best Novel” for his Schemers.[5]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Blue lonesome DB43724
Pronzini, Bill. Reading time: 7 hours, 28 minutes.
Read by Christopher Walker.
Mystery and Detective Stories
Psychological Fiction
Every evening Jim Messenger dines alone in the Harmony Cafe, where Janet Mitchell, another lonely soul, catches his fancy. When she commits suicide, Jim sets out to discover her story. His hunt leads him to a bleak Nevada town, where he learns Janet’s terrible secret. Strong language.
Downloaded: July 28, 2023
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Kate’s 2¢: “Blue Monday: by Nicci French
“Blue Monday: by Nicci French
Beth Chalmers’s naturally heavy English accent took a bit for my American ears to get used to, but then the story really took shape. This is, apparently, the first in a series of proposed stories.
I can appreciate Psychotherapist Frieda Klein’s predicament of whether or not she should tell the police of the connections she makes during her private consultations with a client and what she discovers as she plays sleuth to find the two children abducted 22-years apart. There is a great surprise mixed into the ending of this story. It made me laugh and groan out loud when I read it.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(This biography of a living person needs additional citations.)
Nicci French is the pseudonym of English husband-and-wife team Nicci Gerrard (born 10 June 1958) and Sean French (born 28 May 1959), who write psychological thrillers together.
Personal lives[edit]
Nicci Gerrard and Sean French were married in 1990. Since 1999 they have lived in Suffolk in East Anglia, England. Both have studied English literature at Oxford University.[1] The couple have two daughters, Hadley and Molly, and Gerrard has two children from her first marriage, Edgar and Anna.
Biography[edit]
Nicci Gerrard[edit]
Nicola ‘Nicci’ Gerrard was born on 10 June 1958. She grew up in Worcestershire, together with her two sisters and her brother.
She was educated at The Alice Ottley School in Worcester. She then studied English literature at Oxford University and then an MPhil at Sheffield University in 1986.[2] She went on to teach literature in Los Angeles and London. She founded a women’s magazine, Women’s Review, before becoming a freelance journalist. During that time she married and had two children.
Following the failure of this first marriage, she met Sean French whilst working as editor for the New Statesman where French wrote a weekly column, but left when she was offered another job at The Observer.
In November 2014 her father John Gerrard died, his dementia having deteriorated significantly during a five-week stay in hospital for an unrelated problem and with very restricted visiting by his family. As a result of this Gerrard launched John’s Campaign for extended visiting rights for carers of patients with dementia.[3][4]
Since February 2019, Gerrard has supported the ‘Save Our Libraries Essex’ (SOLE) campaign, speaking out against the proposed closures of libraries by Essex County Council.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Blue Monday DB84923
French, Nicci. Reading time: 11 hours, 13 minutes.
Read by Beth Chalmers.
Suspense Fiction
Mystery and Detective Stories
Psychological Fiction
The abduction of five-year-old Matthew Farraday provokes a desperate police hunt. Psychotherapist Frieda Klein cannot ignore the fact that one of her patients has been having dreams in which he has a hunger for a red-haired child he describes as the spitting image of Matthew. Violence, strong language, and descriptions of sex. Commercial audiobook. 2011.
Downloaded: July 28, 2023
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “The Darling Dahlias and the red hot poker” BY Susan Wittig Albert
Kate’s 2¢: “The Darling Dahlias and the red hot poker” BY Susan Wittig Albert
“The Darling Dahlias and the red hot poker” BY Susan Wittig Albert
I enjoyed this gentle tale set in a by-gone era. The lives and loves of a small town that keeps an eye on each other.
I wasn’t able to find much about the author’s life. Maybe you’ll have more success with the following (I don’t do fb.)
From www. Susan Wittig Albert
NYT Bestselling Author
about-susan-albert
Facebook Susan Albert Facebook Susan Albert Facebook China Bayles Pinterest Twitter Instagram goodreads Bookbub.com
from NLS/BARD/LOC:
The Darling Dahlias and the red hot poker DBC26982
Albert, Susan Wittig. Reading time: 8 hours, 38 minutes.
Read by Peggity Price.
Mystery and Detective Stories
Historical Mystery Fiction
“It’s Labor Day weekend, 1935, and members of the Darling Dahlias the garden club in little Darling, Alabama are trying to keep their cool at the end of a sizzling summer. This isn’t easy, though, since there’s a firebug on the loose in Darling. He or she! strikes without apparent rhyme or reason, and things have gotten to the point where nobody feels safe. What’s more, a dangerous hurricane is poised to hurl itself in Darling’s direction, while a hurricane of a different sort is making a whirlwind campaign stop: the much-loved-much-hated senator from Louisiana, Huey P. Long, whom President Roosevelt calls the “most dangerous man in America.” Add Ophelia Snow’s secret heartthrob, Liz Lacy’s Yankee lover, and the Magnolia Ladies’ garden of red hot pokers, fire-red salvia, and hot pink cosmos, and you have a volatile mix that might just burst into flames at any moment” Commercial audiobook. Adult. Some strong language.
Downloaded: July 14, 2023
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Blood Test” by Jonathan Kellerman
Kate’s 2¢: “Blood Test” by Jonathan Kellerman
“Blood Test” by Jonathan Kellerman
Roy Avers is one of my favorite readers for NLS. He added a special touch to this story about a little boy with cancer and the family that is torn apart by moral and physical incest and corruption.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jonathan Seth Kellerman (born August 9, 1949) is an American novelist, psychologist, and Edgar- and Anthony Award–winning author best known for his popular mystery novels featuring the character Alex Delaware, a child psychologist who consults for the Los Angeles Police Department.[1]
Born on the Lower East Side of New York City, his family relocated to Los Angeles when Jonathan was nine years old.[2]
Kellerman graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a doctor of philosophy degree in psychology in 1974, and began working as a staff psychologist at the USC School of Medicine, where he eventually became a full clinical professor of pediatrics.[2] He opened a private practice in the early 1980s while writing novels in his garage at night.[3]
His first published novel, When the Bough Breaks, appeared in 1985, many years after writing and having works rejected. He then wrote five best-selling novels while still a practicing psychologist. In 1990, he quit his private practice to write full-time. He has written more than 40 crime novels, as well as nonfiction works and children’s books.[3]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Blood test DB55486
Kellerman, Jonathan. Reading time: 8 hours, 21 minutes.
Read by Roy Avers.
Mystery and Detective Stories
Psychological Fiction
California psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware handles the case of five-year-old cancer patient Woody Swope, whose parents deny treatment and remove him from the hospital. Dr. Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis trace the family to a holistic cult commune that harbors secrets. Explicit descriptions of sex, violence, and strong language. 1986.
Downloaded: July 28, 2023
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