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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “All the Dangerous Things” by Stacy Willingham
Kate’s 2¢: “All the Dangerous Things” by Stacy Willingham
“All the Dangerous Things” by Stacy Willingham
A few take-aways:
–There is no way to imagine it until you’re right in the thick of it.
–Nothing about grief makes sense.
–Nobody ever stops to wonder what takes place in the dead of night. All the things that take place when the world is unconscious.
–We assume the world falls asleep when we do.
–The sleep-walker rarely remembers his episode in the morning, but sometimes they can.
–The risk of developing post-partem depression/psycosis is higher with women with a history of it in their family.
–She wouldn’t have done what she did if someone had been there to listen and help her.
–It’ll be true because they’ll believe it to be true, bending the facts to fit their feelings.
–If you are concerned about the mental health of a loved one, contact: National Institute of Mental Health. Website:
www.ninh.nih.gov/health/find/help
ABOUT — Stacy Willingham
Stacy Willingham is the New York Times, USA Today and internationally bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark, All the Dangerous Things and Only If You’re Lucky.
Her debut, A Flicker in the Dark, was a 2022 finalist for the Book of the Month’s Book of the Year award, Goodreads Choice Best Debut award, Goodreads Choice Best Mystery & Thriller award, and ITW’s Best First Novel award. Her work has been translated in more than thirty languages.
Before turning to fiction, she was a copywriter and brand strategist for various marketing agencies. She earned her B.A. in magazine journalism from the University of Georgia and M.F.A. in writing from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
She currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, Britt, and Labradoodle, Mako.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
All the dangerous things DB111846
Willingham, Stacy. Reading time: 10 hours, 3 minutes.
Read by Karissa Vacker.
Suspense Fiction
Mystery and Detective Stories
Psychological Fiction
“One year ago, Isabelle Drake’s life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her—literally. Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year. Isabelle’s entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle’s past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust… including herself. But she is determined to figure out the truth no matter where it leads.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “The Sorrows of Others: stories by Ada Zhang
Kate’s 2¢: “The Sorrows of Others: stories by Ada Zhang
“The Sorrows of Others: stories by Ada Zhang
Kristin Allison did a good job of narrating these short stories for NLS. The themes in these stories are probably universal and why this book was so well received.
I became a bit confused in the stories that had fast dialogue, since I wasn’t familiar with the Chinese names. I couldn’t keep up with which were men and which were women. I did, though, enjoy each of the stories.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ada Zhang is an American author. Her debut short story collection, The Sorrows of Others, was published May 9, 2023,[1] which was an honoree of the 5 Under 35 award by the National Book Foundation.[2]
Zhang is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and her work has been published in McSweeney’s and A Public Space,[3] and Alaska Quarterly Review.[4]
The Sorrows of Others[edit]
Zhang’s debut short story collection centers around themes of loss, loneliness, grief, and joy in characters from the Chinese-American immigrant experience. Significant historical ties included in the book are relations to the Cultural Revolution and the Communist movement in China which was led by Mao Zedong from 1966 to 1976.[3]
Zhang wrote one of the first stories in 2015 before deciding to apply to an MFA program in creative writing.[3] She wrote the rest of the collection during the pandemic throughout 2020.
Belinda Huijuan Tang of Literary Hub called Zhang “one of the most skilled short story writers of our time” for her work on The Sorrows of Others.[5]
Booklist called the collection “filled with lost souls aching for connection on both sides of the world” in a starred review.[1]
Yiyun Li wrote that “Ada Zhang is a bighearted and sensitive writer, and these stories… are a triumph”.[1]
The collection made notable mentions across literary platforms including The Millions by Jai Chakrabarti, Ms. Magazine, and Katie Couric Media.[1]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
The sorrows of others: stories DB116982
Zhang, Ada. Reading time: 4 hours, 28 minutes.
Read by Kristin Allison.
Short Stories
“In New York City, an art student finds an unexpected subject when she moves in with a grandmother from Xi’an, and boundaries are put into question. When a newlywed couple moves to Arizona, adapting to unfamiliar customs keeps their marriage from falling apart. A woman grapples with what it means to care for another, and the limits of that care, when her dying husband returns from Beijing years after abandoning her. And during a rainy summer in Texas, a visitor exposes the unspoken but unburiable history that binds two families together. Ada Zhang writes with startling honesty and love about lives young and old, in a stunning debut that explores what happens when we leave home and what happens when we stay, and the selves we meet and shed in the process of becoming.” — Provided by publisher. Strong language and some descriptions of sex.
Download The sorrows of others: stories
Kate’s 2¢: “Never Lie” by Freida McFadden
“Never Lie” by Freida McFadden
Oh, this is a good one! Leslie Howard did a good job of reading this and I wasn’t able to stop listening until the end. Very well crafted, with ‘a groaner’ for an ending.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification.)
Freida McFadden (born May 1) is an American author and practicing physician specializing in brain injury from New York City.
Biography[edit]
McFadden self-published her first book through Amazon KDP in 2013. Her 2022 book The Housemaid was an international bestseller. A movie adaptation of the book is set to be adapted for Lionsgate with Rebecca Sonnenshine to pen the screenplay, and Hidden Pictures’ Todd Lieberman and Alex Young to produce.[1]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Never lie DB117800
McFadden, Freida. Reading time: 7 hours, 23 minutes.
Read by Leslie Howard.
Suspense Fiction
Mystery and Detective Stories
Psychological Fiction
“Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams. But when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace four years earlier, a violent winter storm traps them at the estate… with no chance of escape until the blizzard comes to an end. In search of a book to keep her entertained until the snow abates, Tricia happens upon a secret room. One that contains audio transcripts from every single patient Dr. Hale has ever interviewed. As Tricia listens to the cassette tapes, she learns about the terrifying chain of events leading up to Dr. Hale’s mysterious disappearance. Tricia plays the tapes one by one, late into the night. With each one, another shocking piece of the puzzle falls into place, and Dr. Adrienne Hale’s web of lies slowly unravels. And then Tricia reaches the final cassette. The one that reveals the entire horrifying truth.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.
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Kate’s 2¢: “Blood Betrayal” by Ausma Khan
“Blood Betrayal” by Ausma Khan
NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Inho…
Fareeda Pasha did a good job of narrating this story. The topic of police killing young black men is a hot issue in the news today, the outcome of the investigations, the reasons for the shootings might surprise you. I enjoyed the drama in visiting the neighborhoods, learning more about the culture, and the pressures they live with on a daily basis.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ausmazehanatkhan.com
Khan holds a Ph.D. in International Human Rights Law with a research specialization in military intervention and war crimes in the Balkans. She received her LL.B. and LL.M. from the University of Ottawa, and her B.A. in English Literature and Sociology from the University of Toronto. She practiced immigration law in Toronto, and was an international human rights law professor at Northwestern University as well as a human rights and business law professor at York University.[1] She has lived in the United States for fifteen years and resides in Denver, Colorado.
Khan was the editor-in-chief of Muslim Girl magazine from 2007 until the magazine’s closure.[2] Two documentaries were made about the publication, and it was featured in hundreds of national and international profiles and interviews including CNN International, Current TV, and Al Jazeera English’s “Everywoman”.[3]
Khan published her first crime novel The Unquiet Dead in 2015; the book received “best first novel” accolades from both the Arthur Ellis Awards and the Barry Awards in 2016. The Washington Post” wrote of the novel: “Throughout Getty and Khattak’s solid and comprehensive investigation, Khan’s talents are evident. This first in what may become a series is a many-faceted gem. It’s a sound police procedural, a somber study of loss and redemption and, most of all, a grim effort to make sure that crimes against humanity are not forgotten.”[4] Kirkus Reviews wrote: “Khan’s stunning debut is a poignant, elegantly written mystery laced with complex characters who force readers to join them in dealing with ugly truths.” The novel also received a starred review in both Publishers Weekly and Library Journal.[5]
In 2017, Khan published her fantasy debut, The Bloodprint (Harper Voyager), the first in The Khorasan Archives, a five-book epic fantasy series. The Bladebone, Book 5, will be published in October 2020.
In 2018, Khan’s middle-grade non-fiction book Ramadan was published by Orca Books as part of its Origins series. It was selected as a Children’s Book Council Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People 2019, as well as the Children’s Literature Roundtable of Canada’s 2019 Information Book Award Honour Book. It was also nominated for a Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award.
In 2020, Khan’s nonfiction essay “Origins and Destinations” was published by Seal Press in the crime fiction writers’ anthology, Private Investigations (ed. Victoria Zackheim). Her short story “The Once and Future Qadi” will be forthcoming in the Sword Stone Table anthology, also in 2020.
In a 2018 interview with Nick Douglas, published in Life Hacker magazine, Khan described how she devoted more time to her writing as a novelist when she and her husband began moving more often, and it didn’t seem worthwhile to get the qualification to practice law in a short-term home.[6] She currently lives in Colorado.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Blood betrayal DB117796
Khan, Ausma Zehanat. Reading time: 10 hours, 22 minutes.
Read by Fareeda Pasha.
Suspense Fiction
Mystery and Detective Stories
“In Blackwater Falls, Colorado, veteran police officer Harry Cooper is hot on the heels of some local vandals when the situation turns deadly: Harry, believing one of them has a gun, opens fire and Duante Young, a young Black man, is killed. The “gun” in Duante’s hands was a bottle of spray paint. Meanwhile, in nearby Denver, a drug raid goes south and a Latino teen, Mateo Ruiz, is also killed. The Denver Police force is spread thin between the two cases, and protests on both sides begin. Detective Inaya Rahman and her boss, Lieutenant Waqas Seif, have their work cut out for them as they consider the guilt of the perpetrators and their victims. Harry was, by all accounts, an officer dedicated to the communities he served: Was this shooting truly a terrible mistake? Duante was, to some, a street artist with no prior record, but to others, he was a vandal. Mateo was either in the wrong place at the wrong time, or a dangerous drug dealer. In either case, was lethal force truly necessary? While Inaya is forced to reckon with her own prejudices and work through those of her colleagues, she must discover the truth of what really happened on one fateful night in Blackwater Falls.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.
Download Blood betrayal
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Witch and famous” by Angela M. Sanders
Kate’s 2¢: “Witch and famous” by Angela M. Sanders
“Witch and famous” by Angela M. Sanders
While murder is no laughing matter, Sanders’s approach to solving the issue is novel and often funny. I enjoyed this book that was included on the NLS cartridge of 7 books, sent at random.
Rebecca Mitchell did a good job of reading this for us. Thank you.
From the Web:
About Angela M. Sanders
Angela grew up in rural Northern California building forts in the woods where she devoured Nancy Drew mysteries. She earned degrees in economics and public administration, and in graduate school studied six months in Paris, sparking a lifelong interest in French culture. After 11 years as a congressional investigator, Angela realized she was more fascinated by the stories at the edges of her investigations—the decrepit exercise equipment in the ladies room of a Czech oil company; the curious number of framed photographs of women on a nuclear weapons official’s desk; the stupendous speed by which a particular Agriculture undersecretary inhaled chili dogs—than by the policies she evaluated. She returned to the west coast to explore the world and her imagination through magazine stories and fiction.
Angela lives in Portland, Oregon.
Angela M. Sanders
I give the best part of my day—that calm few hours early in the morning when the birds are waking up and my subconscious is fresh from a night with the sandman—to writing fiction. Specifically, I write crime fiction geared to people who like down-to-earth glamour shaken with intelligence and wit.
My current series, the Witch Way librarian mysteries, also explores rural Oregon, but this time through the eyes of a transplanted East-Coaster who finds herself in the middle of nowhere, running a library in a multi-turreted house that would have made the Addams Family proud, in a town full of alarming eccentrics, and with the curious ability of being able to talk to books.
The Joanna Hayworth Vintage Clothing series takes place in my hometown of Portland and features a curmudgeonly aesthete who reluctantly solves murder cases while luxuriating in 1930s dressing gowns and icy martinis.
The Booster Club capers center around a retirement home for petty criminals who want to do good, but can’t resist using their, um, “talents” along the way.
The three Kite Shop mysteries, written as Clover Tate, take place in on Oregon’s gorgeous coast and star Emmy Adler, a young, struggling kite shop owner with hippie parents (quinoa and a Watergate reenactment club factor heavily) and a knack for stumbling over dead bodies.
Happy reading! Let’s stay in touch. You can reach me at angela@angelamsanders.com.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Witch and famous DB114583
Sanders, Angela M Reading time: 8 hours, 19 minutes.
Rebecca Mitchell
Mystery and Detective Stories
“For a tiny town, picturesque Wilfred, Oregon, has everything, including an impressive library housed in a Victorian mansion, a touch of magic in new librarian and fledgling witch, Josie Way, a visiting movie star-and a curious tendency toward murder . . . Josie and all of Wilfred are buzzing with excitement. A-list movie star Daphne Morris has chosen to interview Roz, assistant librarian and novelist, for her book club. But when the glamorous actress quickly charms both Roz’s long-time love and sheriff Sam, the object of Josie’s unrequited affection, Josie turns to the whispers from her beloved books for ideas on revising the plot. Yet soon there’s another twist . . . At a party to celebrate the interview, Daphne’s personal chef is found dead in a scene that all too closely echoes one in Roz’s novel. It’s clear to Josie that someone’s idea of a happy ending means framing her friend. She’ll have to read between the lines with the help of the library’s enchanted stacks, guidance from her magical grandmother’s letters, and her cat familiar, Rodney, to solve this murder before someone decides to stage a deadly sequel . . .” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.
Download Witch and famous DB114583
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Vanished: Stories” by Karin Lin-Greenberg
Kate’s 2¢: “Vanished: Stories” by Karin Lin-Greenberg
“Vanished: Stories” by Karin Lin-Greenberg
I enjoyed each of these short stories, especially the ones about teachers and students. It resonated with me by reminding me of some of the students I taught years ago.
Having a variety of readers brought uniqueness to each story and the readers did well.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karin Lin-Greenberg is an American fiction writer. Her story collection, Faulty Predictions (University of Georgia Press, 2014), won the 2013 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction[1] and the 2014 Foreword Review INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award (Gold Winner for Short Stories).[2] Her stories have appeared in The Antioch Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Berkeley Fiction Review, Epoch, Kenyon Review Online, New Ohio Review, The North American Review, and Redivider. She is currently an associate professor of English at Siena College in Loudonville, New York. She has previously taught at Missouri State University, The College of Wooster, and Appalachian State University. She earned an MFA in Fiction Writing from the University of Pittsburgh in 2006, an MA in Literature and Writing from Temple University in 2003, and a BA in English from Bryn Mawr College.[3]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Vanished: stories DB110972
Lin-Greenberg, Karin. Reading time: 7 hours, 4 minutes.
Read by Xe Sands; Emily Lawrence; Erica Sullivan; Taylor Meskimen; Kyla Garcia; Erin Bennett; Stacey Glemboski; Hillary Huber; Jane Oppenheimer.
Short Stories
“Winner of the Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, Vanished tells the stories of women and girls in upstate New York who are often overlooked or unseen by the people around them. The characters range from an aging art professor whose students are uninterested in learning what she has to teach, to a young girl who becomes the victim of a cruel prank in a swimming pool, to a television producer who regrets allowing her coworkers into her mother’s bird-filled house to film a show about animal hoarding because it will reveal too much about her family and past. Humorous and empathetic, the collection exposes the adversity in each character’s life; each deals with something or someone who has vanished—a person close to her, a friendship, a relationship—as she seeks to make sense of the world around her in the wake of that loss.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.
Download Vanished: stories
Kate’s 2¢: “The Blaze” by Chad Dundas
saying…
Apparently, Matt’s Traumatic Brain Injury has less to do with his memory loss than the fright his Dad and his friend instilled in him when Matt witnessed a crime cover-up. Still, memory loss is no joke and individuals suffering with this should get professional help.
WebAbout me & my work. I’m the author of the acclaimed novels The Blaze and Champion of the World, co-producer of the award-winning history and true crime podcast Death in the West and co-host of The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast.
from NLS/BARD/LOC:
The blaze DB99574
Dundas, Chad. Reading time: 10 hours, 50 minutes.
Read by Chris Henry Coffey.
Suspense Fiction
Psychological Fiction
Having lost much of his memory from a traumatic brain injury sustained in Iraq, Matthew Rose is called back to Montana after his father’s death. On his first night back, Matthew sees a house go up in flames, which sparks a memory of a different long-ago fire. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2020.
Downloaded: January 8, 2024
Download The blaze
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢:” An American tune: a novel” by Barbara Shoup
Kate’s 2¢:” An American tune: a novel” by Barbara Shoup
“An American tune: a novel” by Barbara Shoup
NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares her thoughts about what she reads. Imho…
I enjoyed this story and Charles Cooper did a good job of reading it.
Shoup showed us several results of young men who experienced the war in Vietnam: one who died, one who came back totally whacked on drugs, and one who receded into his own shell. My brother was in Nam and he never talks about it.
A few take-aways:
–An achingly poignant account of a family crushed under the weight of surpressed truths.
–Given the skills to succeed, nurtured with kindness and attention, that we begin to see how different our world could be.
–Only working from the indside could you make a difference.
–It was the time of life. Wasn’t remembering the people you loved when you were young, a natural a natural part of the process of looking back on your life; coming to terms with what it had turned out to be.
–…They were buried by life itself.
–Choices come to compose tune of our lives.
From the WEB:
Barbara Shoup is the author of seven novels and the co-author of two books about the creative process. Her young adult novels, Wish You Were Here and Stranded in Harmony were selected as American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults. Vermeer’s Daughter was a School Library Journal Best Adult Book for Young Adults. She is the recipient of numerous grants from the Indiana Arts Council, two creative renewal grants from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, the 2006 PEN Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship, and the 2012 Eugene and Marilyn Glick Regional Indiana Author Award. Currently, she is the executive director of the Writers’ Center of Indiana. Her most recent novel is An American Tune.
MWW social media intern Rachael Heffner interviewed Barb for this week’s E-pistle.
Rachael: Your intensive at MWW is called Writing YA: Think Like a Teenager. I know you don’t want to give too much away, but can you give one tip on how to “think like a teenager”?
Barbara: That teenage person is still there, inside every one of us. If you’re like me, you can’t help thinking like a teenager, at least some of the time. If you’ve forgotten how to think like a teenager, this workshop will take you right back to that time in your life and put you in touch with the emotional perspective you need to get a YA novel right.
Rachael: You write both YA and adult novels. What’s the biggest difference for you in terms of writing these types of books, or is there a difference?
Barbara: I don’t consciously choose to write one or the other. I write the novels that seem possible to write–some of them are made of ideas that reflect the complexity of adult life; others, the rawness and self-absorption of adolescence. They are equally interesting to me and equally challenging. In several cases, novels that started out as adult novels became YA novels in process when I realized that the strongest voices and most compelling stories were those of the younger characters.
Rachael: You are quite a busy woman. You are Executive Director at the Indiana Writers Center. You’ve just published a new novel called An American Tune. Most writers have to struggle to balance family, work, and writing. How do you do it?
Barbara: I’m extremely fortunate to love everything I do. Everything is of a piece to me and everything feeds my writing, one way or another. Still, it’s a constant struggle to keep everything in balance. Usually I write for a few hours early each morning. Sometimes I escape for a week or so to a quiet place and work nonstop, which is heaven. That said, there are plenty of times when I get overwhelmed and find my real life creeping into the time I need for fiction–which is not a good thing because when I don’t write, I’m just not okay. So I try to catch myself when I feel things getting out of whack. Years ago I read this in a women’s magazine–probably about dieting, but it seemed dead on in terms of everything: “Discipline is remembering what you want.” I want to be a writer, so I choose it whenever I can. Slowly, the pages pile up.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
An American tune: a novel DBC12181
Shoup, Barbara. Reading time: 14 hours, 7 minutes.
Read by Charles Cooper. A production of Indiana State Library, Indiana Talking Book and Braille Library.
Psychological Fiction
While reluctantly accompanying her husband and daughter to freshman orientation at Indiana University, Nora Quillen hears someone call her name, a name she has not heard in more than 25 years. Not even her husband knows that back in the ’60s she was Jane Barth, a student deeply involved in the antiwar movement. An American Tune moves back and forth in time, telling the story of Jane, a girl from a working-class family who fled town after she was complicit in a deadly bombing, and Nora, the woman she became, a wife and mother living a quiet life in northern Michigan. An achingly poignant account of a family crushed under the weight of suppressed truths, An American Tune illuminates the irrevocability of our choices and how those choices come to compose the tune of our lives.
Download An American tune: a novel
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “All The Western Stars” by Philip Lee Williams
Kate’s 2¢: “All The Western Stars” by Philip Lee Williams
“All The Western Stars” by Philip Lee Williams
saying…
Bob Askey is one of my favorite readers/narrators and he did his usual fabulous job of presenting this story.
You have to love these two old codgers, who aren’t ready to lie down and die in a nursing home. I’ve often thought that too many people are put ‘away’ in a nursing home too soon before their time.
I enjoyed the humor and the extravagant tales Jake and Luca make up as the need arises.
A few take-aways:
–A memorable story filled with universal fears and truths.
–Jake and Lucas are running from their pasts, from their mortality, from the fear of dying unfulfilled.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
( biography of a living person needs additional citations)
www.philipleewilliams.com[dead link]
Philip Lee Williams (born January 30, 1950) is an American novelist, poet, and essayist noted for his explorations of the natural world, intense human relationships, and aging. A native of Athens, Georgia, he grew up in the nearby town of Madison. He is the winner of many literary awards for his 21 published books, including the 2004 Michael Shaara Prize for his novel A Distant Flame (St. Martin’s), an examination of southerners who were against the Confederacy’s position in the American Civil War. He is also a winner of the Townsend Prize for Fiction for his novel The Heart of a Distant Forest and has been named Georgia Author of the Year four times. In 2007, he was recipient of a Georgia Governor’s Award in the Humanities. Williams’s The Divine Comics: A Vaudeville Show in Three Acts, a 1000-page re-imagining of Dante’s magnum opus, was published in the fall of 2011. His latest novels are Emerson’s Brother (2012) and Far Beyond the Gates (2020) from Mercer University Press[clarification needed]
Biography[edit]
Philip Lee Williams was born in 1950, one of three children of Ruth Sisk Williams (1924–2008) and Marshall Woodson Williams (1922– ). He, his parents, and his older brother John Mark Williams (b. 1948), moved to Madison, Georgia, in 1953, where Marshall Williams had accepted a job as a chemistry teacher at Morgan County High School. Williams also has a sister, Laura Jane Williams, born in 1959.
Williams began his creative work by composing music and writing poetry while still in his teens. He graduated from Morgan County High School in 1968 and from the University of Georgia in 1972 with a degree in journalism and minors in history and English. In 1972, he married Linda Rowley. They have two grown children and four grandchildren.
He finished more than half of his master’s degree in English at the University of Georgia before sustaining a serious back injury in 1974. After that, he spent 13 years as an award-winning journalist before becoming a science writer at his alma mater in 1985. As a journalist he worked for The Clayton Tribune (Clayton, Ga.), the Athens Daily News (Athens, Ga.), The Madisonian (Madison, Ga.), and The Athens Observer (Athens, Ga.)
Williams retired in 2010 from the University of Georgia, where he was a writer and taught creative writing.
In 2010, Williams was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, alongside Flannery O’Connor, Martin Luther King Jr., James Dickey, and fellow University of Georgia graduate Natasha Trethewey.[1] In addition, he is a recipient of the Georgia Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
All the western stars DB28203
Williams, Philip Lee. Reading time: 9 hours, 17 minutes.
Read by Bob Askey. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.
Psychological Fiction
A novel about two old men who escape from a small-town Georgia nursing home and head West to live out their cowboy fantasies. Jake Baker, a Mississippi-born former construction worker, and Lucas Kraft, an award-winning poet and novelist, find they have much in common: thirst, lechery, a hankering for risk, and a desire for freedom. Strong language and some descriptions of sex.
Download All the western stars
Kate’s 2¢: “Bleak Harbor” by Brian Gruley
“Bleak Harbor” by Brian Gruley
saying…
How many times have we condemned, looked down, or otherwise discounted someone who looked a bit different from us or acted strangely?
MacKenzie Beyer did a good job of reading this story. I enjoyed spending time on Bleak Harbor.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
www.bryangruley.com
Bryan Gruley (born November 9, 1957) is an American writer. He has shared a Pulitzer Prize for journalism[1] and been nominated for the “first novel” Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America.[2]
Career[edit]
Gruley studied at the University of Notre Dame where he majored in American Studies and graduated in 1979.[3] Gruley is currently a reporter for Bloomberg News, writing long form features for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine.[1][4] He worked more than 15 years for The Wall Street Journal[1] including seven years as Chicago bureau chief.[5][6]
With the Journal, he also helped cover breaking news including the September 11 World Trade Center attack, and shared in the staff’s Pulitzer Prize for that work, which cited “its comprehensive and insightful coverage, executed under the most difficult circumstances, of the terrorist attack on New York City, which recounted the day’s events and their implications for the future.”[1][7]
Gruley’s first novel, Starvation Lake: a mystery, was published in 2009 as a trade paperback original by the Touchstone Books imprint of Simon & Schuster. It is set in the fictional town of Starvation Lake, based on Bellaire, the seat of Antrim County, Michigan.[5] The real Starvation Lake is a lake in the next county, but the fictional town is on the lake, and the novel begins when the snowmobile of a long-missing youth hockey coach “washes up on the icy shores”.[5] Two sequels have followed in the so-called Starvation Lake series, The Hanging Tree (2010) and The Skeleton Box (2012). As of May 2013 Gruley is working on a new novel set in a different town with different characters.[citation needed]
Gruley played ice hockey as a boy and continues to play in his fifties, and to root for the Detroit Red Wings. He was schooled in Detroit, at Detroit Catholic Central, but the family vacationed up north and acquired a cottage in 1971 on Big Twin Lake near Bellaire, which the six siblings used until some time after their parents died. His first newspaper job was in the region as a 1978 summer intern at Antrim County News.[1][5]
Gruley and his wife Pam currently live on the North Side of Chicago.[5] They have three grown children.[1]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Bleak Harbor DB93541
Gruley, Bryan. Reading time: 11 hours, 29 minutes.
Read by MacKenzie Beyer.
Suspense Fiction
Psychological Fiction
Shortly before he turns sixteen, Danny Peters–who has autism–disappears from Bleak Harbor, the town his ancestors founded. Danny’s mother and stepfather–both alarmed that their own secret actions led to his abduction–scramble to obtain ransom funds. Strong language, some violence, and some explicit descriptions of sex. 2018.
Downloaded: January 8, 2024
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