Category Archives: Henderson

Henderson

Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Renews Her Vows. New York: Viking, 2010.

Now what woman wouldn’t be a bit upset if her husband of just a few years tells her that he thinks they need to attend “marriage enrichment” classes–and those classes are led by someone she knows to be a shady character?  Leading the “Stoking the Embers” classes is Dr. Fred Fowler, a man who once tried to make the case that Julia was too mentally incompetent to manage her first husband’s estate.  Miss Julia and Dr. Fred have a little personal history too, the memory of which fills Miss Julia with shame.

Rev. Ledbetter, Miss Julia’s nemesis, is behind this, but Julia has an ally in Rev. Ledbetter’s wife, Emma Sue, who also wants out of the classes. Both women feign illness, but hiding out in the bedroom all day just doesn’t work for Miss Julia.  Young Lloyd is staying with her while his mother is on her honeymoon and Julia is preparing for the newlyweds to live with her and Sam until their twins are born.  Julia also is busy trying to clear a friend of an assault charge, and Julia would like to send the newly returned, much-married Fran Delacorte back to Florida before she gets her hooks into Sam.

It’s almost too much for Miss Julia, but readers know that she will come through as she has done in the previous ten books in this series.

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

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Henderson, Humor, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Ross, Ann B.

Kenneth Butcher. The Middle of the Air. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, Publisher, 2009.

The Colebrook family is not your typical four-generation span of Hendersonville, NC residents. The patriarch, Pipo, is a talented but controversial painter. His son, Philip, has an active business account with a nuclear weapons facility, and Phillip’s wife Lilly heads an ecological watch group while running the local chocolate shop. Their three sons, Xavier, Charles, and Leon have built prototype unmanned spy planes, developed government satellites, and made breakthrough archaeological discoveries, while Leon’s 6-year-old daughter has a precocious knack for drawing and detecting ancient artifacts.

One day a truck full of nuclear fuel goes missing. The theft occurred suspiciously close to where Leon finds a downed unmarked surveillance plane on the Appalachian Trail. After he brings the fuselage of the plane to Xavier’s workshop, all of the Colebrook men fall under investigation by the FBI. It turns out that the higher-ups in Washington are trying to protect a government nuclear power project that doesn’t officially exist. As the FBI discovers, there is more to the entire Colebrook family than meets the eye in this novel of hiking, chocolate, politics and government intrigue.

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

Comments Off on Kenneth Butcher. The Middle of the Air. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, Publisher, 2009.

Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Butcher, Kenneth, Henderson, Mountains

Terrell T. Garren. The Fifth Skull: A Historical Novel of the Civil War and the American West. Spartanburg, SC: Reprint Co., 2008.

It’s 1864, the last year of the Civil War, when a new conscription law establishes the Confederate Junior Reserves, which requires boys to serve in the army after their 17th birthday.  Protagonists Billy Nick Long of Henderson County and John Rattler of the Snowbird Cherokee Community are sent to Camp Vance in Morganton, NC, along with other members of the Junior Reserve.The boys have not yet been trained or provided with weapons when Union soldiers raid the camp and take the boys as prisoners of war.  In order to save their lives, the boys join the Union Army’s Galvanized Regiments and head west towards California and Oregon to fight in the American Indian Wars.  Garren’s novel weaves historical evidence of the crimes and atrocities committed during these two wars with his coming-of-age tale of two North Carolina boys.

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

Comments Off on Terrell T. Garren. The Fifth Skull: A Historical Novel of the Civil War and the American West. Spartanburg, SC: Reprint Co., 2008.

Filed under 2008, Burke, Garren, Terrell T., Henderson, Historical, Mountains

Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Delivers the Goods. New York: Viking, 2009.

That Hazel Marie! Miss Julia has become fond of her late husband’s mistress and the couple’s son, but Hazel Marie hasn’t always made it easy.  Miss Julia was scandalized when Hazel moved in with a new boyfriend, private detective J.D. Pickens.  Hazel and J.D. are each on the stormy side, and when J.D. has had enough, he leaves town.  Now Hazel finds herself expecting twins, and Miss Julia decides she must get the couple back together.

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

Comments Off on Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Delivers the Goods. New York: Viking, 2009.

Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Henderson, Humor, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Ross, Ann B.

Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Hits the Road. New York: Viking, 2003.

Miss Julia can’t figure out what is wrong with her friend Sam. He is too old for a mid-life crisis and too young for senility, but he inexplicably shows up in her driveway one day wearing a leather jacket and riding a Harley. Although she can’t seem to wrap her mind around it, he also begins courting her in earnest: flowers, bad poetry, and calling “just to talk.” However, the real problem in this book is that Miss Julia’s housekeeper Lillian and all her neighbors are in danger of being evicted by their shady landlord. Miss Julia comes to the rescue by organizing a Poker Run motorcycle fundraiser, but must also dodge the unwanted attentions of the event’s biggest benefactor. This is the fourth book about the proper widow’s adventures in the fictional town of Abbotsville.

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

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Henderson, Humor, Mountains, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Ross, Ann B.

Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Throws a Wedding. New York: Viking, 2002.

When Hazel Marie decides to move out of Miss Julia’s house–and in with her boyfriend, J.D.–the proper widow isn’t sure what to do. Luckily, there are people in town who are more in the marrying mood and Julia throws herself into planning a proper wedding for a local couple. But nothing is ever easy in Abbotsville; there are bridal wedding jitters, uninvited guests, and a local thief for Julia to contend with. This is the third novel about Miss Julia’s exploits in the fictional town of Abbotsville.

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

Comments Off on Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Throws a Wedding. New York: Viking, 2002.

Filed under 2000-2009, 2002, Henderson, Humor, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Ross, Ann B.

Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Takes Over. New York: Viking, 2001.

At the opening of Miss Julia Takes Over, Hazel Marie Puckett disappears after a dinner-date in Asheville with Abbotsville’s new fundraiser. Although Hazel Marie was the mistress of Julia’s now-deceased husband, she and her son Lloyd are now part of Julia’s family and the upstanding widow is determined to find her. Since the police won’t help, Julia enlists the assistance of a beer-drinking, womanizing private eye. Her search brings her all around North Carolina and has her meeting a NASCAR driver outside Rockingham, whose missing property is connected to Hazel Marie’s disappearance. Readers of the first novel in the Miss Julia series will be familiar with the cast of supporting characters, including Miss Lillian, Sam Murdoch, Pastor Ledbetter, and televangelist Brother Vernon Puckett.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

Comments Off on Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Takes Over. New York: Viking, 2001.

Filed under 2000-2009, 2001, Henderson, Humor, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Ross, Ann B.

Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind. New York: William Morrow, 1999.

The very proper Julia Springer doesn’t believe in speaking ill of the dead, but her husband’s sudden demise leaves her in a difficult position. She finds out that her stingy husband of more than forty years was actually quite rich and, since there is no will, she inherits every penny of his money. However, her unexpected windfall brings out the worst in some of her small-town neighbors, including a pastor who tries to get the money by proving her legally incompetent. The widow also inherits something else unexpected: her husband’s illegitimate nine-year-old son. As if this weren’t enough to keep Julia busy, she also faces a strange televangelist, a robbery, and a kidnapping.

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

Comments Off on Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind. New York: William Morrow, 1999.

Filed under 1990-1999, 1999, Henderson, Humor, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Ross, Ann B.

David Smith Hubbell. Flat Rock Harvest. Chapel Hill, NC: Chapel Hill Press, 2006.

For Doug, a medical student from Durham, finding a summer job during the depression years is a difficult task. He travels west and eventually finds a position at a pharmacy in Hendersonville, where he pours sodas and sells tonics. As he becomes more a part of the town, he also becomes involved in two more controversial, and certainly very illegal, activities: moonshining and abortion. The author Thomas Wolfe makes a brief appearance and there are recurring references to his book Look Homeward, Angel.

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

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2006, Henderson, Historical, Hubbell, David Smith, Mountains

Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Paints the Town. New York: Viking, 2008.

What’s up with the men in Abbotsville??!! Mildred Allen’s husband has disappeared, Richard Stroud might have had his hand in the till, Pastor Ledbetter is toying with the idea of accepting a call to another church, and even Julia’s reliable Sam is acting suspiciously. And as if that isn’t enough, a developer wants to tear down the historic courthouse and redevelop the courthouse square. Miss Julia has a plan to scare off the developer, but it’s anything but a quiet spring in Abbotsville.

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

Comments Off on Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Paints the Town. New York: Viking, 2008.

Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Henderson, Humor, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Ross, Ann B.