Monthly Archives: November 2008

by | November 29, 2008 · 4:14 pm

Joan Medlicott. Come Walk with Me. New York: Pocket Books, 2007.

Joan Medlicott takes a break from her Ladies of Covington series in this book that follows Claire Bennett, a successful New York antiques dealer, who has to rebuild her life after the death of her husband.  Like many of us, Claire has unspoken sorrows, suppressed anger, and difficulties with family members.  It takes Claire some time to accept that her husband has died.  Once she does, she looks for a new man to fill that void, but the real path to wholeness is through rapprochement with her estranged adult children.  Claire’s daughter has recently moved to Weaverville where she and her fiance settle on his family’s farm.  Much of the action takes place in Buncombe County, with many references to shops and sites in the area.  This novel lacks the humor of the Covington books, but it tells a satisfying story of one woman’s journey to wholeness.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Medlicott, Joan, Mountains, Novels in Series, Romance/Relationship

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by | November 26, 2008 · 4:06 pm

William P. Singley. Bragg. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2006.

Numerous colorful characters populate this book, set at Fort Bragg in the 1950s.  The main character, Lt. Sy Margolin, left a comfortable assignment with NATO to become a paratrooper.  The rigors of training are just part of what he has to contend with.  Anti-Semitism is not much below the surface on base, off base life is wild and woolly, and at times the Army seems to value tradition above all else.  Secondary characters–diverse, sly, fun-loving, evil–round out the picture of Fort Bragg in the period between the Korean War and the start of the Vietnam Conflict.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2006, Coastal Plain, Cumberland, Hoke, Singley, William P.

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by | · 3:48 pm

Andrea Ferrell. Autumn Seclusion. Victoria, BC: Trafford Publishing, 2007.

This first novel is a coming of age tale, told in the first person.  Anna is brought up in a strict religious family near the North Carolina coast.  She absorbs most of the lessons of her upbringing, but her family rejects her when she begins dating a Native American student while at UNC-Chapel Hill.  Cut loose from her parents, Anna drifts into drinking and then a disastrous marriage.  Her teaching career provides her with the opportunity to leave this country for Thailand where she finds inner peace through self-acceptance and forgiveness.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Coast, Ferrell, Autumn, Religious/Inspirational

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by | November 25, 2008 · 9:55 am

Nicholas Sparks. The Lucky One. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2008.

This is one of those stranger-comes-to-town tales, but since it’s a Nicholas Sparks novel, it’s also a romance.  Logan Thibault is a veteran who believes that a photograph that he found in Iraq is his lucky charm.  When he comes back to the states, he searches for the woman in the photograph.  She is Elizabeth, a divorced mom living in Hampton, near the North Carolina coast. Elizabeth’s grandmother runs a dog training facility in town, where Thibault soon gets a job.  Thibault, a veteran of many battles during his years in the Marines, has his demons, and his interest in Elizabeth can be misconstrued.  Elizabeth’s ex-husband, Keith Clayton, sets out to discredit Logan.  The conflict between Thibault and Clayton builds, putting Elizabeth and her son Ben in danger.  In a raging storm the men battles for their lives, and for Ben’s.  Thibault’s dog, Zeus, helps to save the day.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Coastal Plain, Romance/Relationship, Sparks, Nicholas

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by | November 24, 2008 · 11:35 am

Scott Morgan. The Big Fresh. Livingston, AL: Livingston Press, 2007.

Ruben (Ruby) Riggs is sent to Sunbridge Psychiatric and Rehabilitation Center in Siler City to recover his strength and his wits after he came apart following his wife’s death.  As Ruby heals, the mischievous and adventurous sides of his nature begin to reappear, but nothing prepares him for fellow patient John Carter, who claims to be Jesus Christ.  Carter arrived in Siler City about the same time that a large dark cloud settled over the town, giving more than one resident the sense that a crisis of biblical proportions is brewing.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Chatham, Morgan, Scott, Piedmont

by | · 11:17 am

Victor L. Martin. For the Strength of You. Columbus, OH: Triple Crown Publications, 2005.

Sibling loyalties are strong in this novel set among drug dealers in Selma, North Carolina.  While Anshon was serving time in prison, his sister Tammy was shot and paralyzed.  Once Anshon is back in Selma, he searches to find out who shot Tammy. Tammy wants to help her brother by showing him how to make big money dealing drugs.  Anshon takes some, but not all, of his sister’s advice, and as the double-dealing unfolds, the bodies mount up.  This novel is well beyond a PG rating.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2005, Coastal Plain, Johnston, Martin, Victor L., Urban Fiction

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by | November 19, 2008 · 4:25 pm

James Pendleton. Drinkwater’s Folly. Raleigh, NC: Ivy House Publishing Group, 2007.

In the summer of 1966 Patricia Randal flees an abusive marriage and returns to Roanoke Island.  There she works as a journalist and gets to know a wide rage of folks–longtime residents, fishermen, summer people, cast members of The Lost Colony.  Unfortunately, 1966 is no summer of love for the Outer Banks.  A police officer preys on women driving late at night, racial tensions are increasing, and the conflicts between year-round residents and summer people seem sharper than in years past.  When the son of a local family is killed in Vietnam, protests reflecting unhappiness with the war and the racial status quo unsettle the locals.  Patricia’s decision to share her house with Karen Godwin, the daughter of a United States senator, exposes them both to new temptations and dangers. By the summer’s end, Patricia will come to terms with her past and set herself on the road to a full life, but for others the summer will bring only heartache and destruction.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Coast, Dare, Pendleton, James, Piedmont

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by | November 17, 2008 · 4:00 pm

Susan Whitfield. Just North of Luck. West Conshohocken, PA: Infinity Publishing, 2007.

UPDATE NOV. 17, 2015: Susan Whitfield’s books are now published by Studebaker Press.

In Just North of Luck, the second book in the Logan Hunter mystery series, new SBI agent Logan trades the beach for the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her first assignment is to expose a moonshine ring in fictional Moss County, but after a school janitor is brutally murdered in the town of Trust, she offers to help with that investigation as well. As time passes, the deaths of more school employees have Logan and a local detective searching for a serial killer. In addition to murder and moonshine, Logan also uncovers a local meth producer and faces some of the ghosts from her past.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Madison, Mountains, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Whitfield, Susan

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by | · 11:16 am

Nikki Leigh. Lilah and the Locket. Write Words, Inc., 2007.

After Kristie Connelly’s dog Lilah finds a human bone at the base of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, an entire skeleton is unearthed from the sand dune. Kristie joins the investigation and quickly discovers that the dead woman may be her aunt, who has been missing for fifteen years. Set in 1954, the mystery is tied to the creation of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, both the government’s initial work on roads and dunes before World War II and the project’s completion in the 1950s.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Coast, Dare, Leigh, Nikki, Mystery, Novels in Series

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by | November 14, 2008 · 3:21 pm

J. G. Clinkscales. How Zach Came to College. Spartanburg, SC: W. F. Barnes, 1903.

Zach Whetsone, a lad from Rutherford County, happens to be selling his produce in Spartanburg, South Carolina one spring day when the commencement exercises at Wofford College are taking place. Zach is inspired by the event and later returns to Wofford as a student. As a poor mountaineer, Zach has to overcome many obstacles to complete his degree. When he finally does, he returns home to marry his true love, preach, teach, and start a high school. Zach is presented as an admirable figure: working hard, caring for his widowed mom, staying true to his love, and speaking out for national reconciliation, but his racial attitudes (or, those of the author) will offend many readers.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1900-1909, 1903, Clinkscales, J. G., Mountains, Novels to Read Online, Rutherford

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