Monday, April 28, 2008
Queen of Broken Hearts by Cassandra King
It’s not easy being the Queen of Broken Hearts. Just ask Clare, who has willingly assumed the mantle while her career as a divorce coach thrives. Now she’s preparing to open a permanent home for the retreats she leads, on a slice of breathtaking property on the Alabama coast owned by her mother-in-law. Make that former mother in law, a colorful eccentric who teaches Clare much about love and sacrifice and living freely. When Clare’s marriage ends in tragedy, her work becomes the sole focus of her life. While Clare has no problems helping the hundreds of men and women who seek her advice to mend their broken hearts, healing her own is another matter entirely. Falling in love again is the last thing she wants. So when Lex- a charismatic, charming, burly sea captain- moves to town the run the marina, Claire insists they remain friends and nothing more. But even though she fights it, she begins to fall for him only to find she has a rival, his estranged wife Elinor. A story infused with all the flavors, textures, and intrigues of a small Southern town, with a rich resonant center, Queen of Broken Hearts is a bold step forward for Cassandra King
The story behind the story in an interview with Cassandra King -
Are their parts of this book that you drew from your life experience? Is that always the case for fiction? Was it the case, in particular, for this book?
Almost everything in the book I drew from personal experiences, which has been the case with my other fictional works. QOBH came about this way: As was revising my last book, my sister's twenty-year marriage was falling apart. My own divorce, years earlier, had been bad enough, but witnessing my sister's grief and being able to offer little comfort was a different kind of agony for me. At a signing in Atlanta several months later, serendipity intervened, and the idea for a book was born. I met a woman who conducted divorce recovery retreats, and I not only signed my sister up, I accompanied her in order to do research. Watching the women at the retreat bond with each other, and make the first steps toward recovery, moved me beyond words—or so I thought, until I began working on Queen of Broken Hearts.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Proof Positive by Philip Margolin
The Mystery Lovers Book Discussion Group will discuss Proof Positive by Philip Margolin on Tuesday, April 22, 2008, at 12 p.m. athe Greenwood County Library.
Author Philip Margolin grew up in New York City and Levittown, NY. After graduating from The American University in Washington, D. C. with a B.A. in Government, he served two years in the Peace Corps in Liberia, West Africa. He attended the New York University School of Law while teaching high school. After graduating law school in 1970, he moved to Oregon to clerk for Herbert M. Schwab, Chief Judge of the Oregon Court of Appeals. Margolin was in private practice from 1972 - 1996, and specialized in criminal defense at the trial and appellate levels. He was the first attorney in Oregon to use Battered Woman's Syndrome to defend a battered woman accused of murdering her husband. Margolin began writing full time in 1996 with his first book, Heartstone.
Forensic science plays a key role in this mystery as defense attorneys Doug Weaver and Amanda Jaffe must prove their clients innocent of crimes that the forensic evidence shows they've committed. Someone is trying to convict a pathetic homeless man and a mobster of murder. Weaver and Jaffe must work against time to find the real killers and learn how - and why - this unlikely pair is being framed.
Author Philip Margolin grew up in New York City and Levittown, NY. After graduating from The American University in Washington, D. C. with a B.A. in Government, he served two years in the Peace Corps in Liberia, West Africa. He attended the New York University School of Law while teaching high school. After graduating law school in 1970, he moved to Oregon to clerk for Herbert M. Schwab, Chief Judge of the Oregon Court of Appeals. Margolin was in private practice from 1972 - 1996, and specialized in criminal defense at the trial and appellate levels. He was the first attorney in Oregon to use Battered Woman's Syndrome to defend a battered woman accused of murdering her husband. Margolin began writing full time in 1996 with his first book, Heartstone.
Forensic science plays a key role in this mystery as defense attorneys Doug Weaver and Amanda Jaffe must prove their clients innocent of crimes that the forensic evidence shows they've committed. Someone is trying to convict a pathetic homeless man and a mobster of murder. Weaver and Jaffe must work against time to find the real killers and learn how - and why - this unlikely pair is being framed.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Sweet Home Carolina by T. Lynn Ocean
The Ware Shoals Book Discussion Group will discuss Sweet Home Carolina on Thursday, April 17, 3 p.m. at Town Hall.
Jaxie Parker is sleek and sophisticated, and on the fast track at her firm. Just when she thinks her life is perfect, she's sent to the small southern town of Rumton, South Carolina, to create a plan for its revitalization. At first glance, her assignment seems hopeless. Rumton's population has been declining for years; there's no industry, and its economy is poor. She's bored with the town and hating her assignment when a stranger comes to town and wants to buy land. Jaxie is curious, and begins to ask questions. There's a murder and Rumton's secret history becomes very public. Jaxie has a mystery to solve, and realizes small town life may not be as boring as she first believed.
Unsure of what she wanted to be after college, T. Lynn explored various careers including commercial tread rubber sales and retail management. For one summer, her job was to scare people at a haunted house, but that was a long time ago. Most recently, she was a television producer for several years before leaving the corporate career world so that she could make stuff up on a fulltime basis.
She also writes freelance and her articles appear in regional magazines nationwide. (T. Lynn lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with her husband and a few furry critters.
Monday, April 7, 2008
The Mystery Lovers' Book Group will discuss Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey on Tuesday, April 8, 12 noon. Bring your lunch. Drinks and snacks will be provided.
Written by Elizabeth Mackintosh under the pseudonym, Josephine Tey, Brat Farrar is a classic mystery featuring twins, murder, and an imposter. A young man, Brat, who closely resembles the missing son of a comfortable, horse - breeding English family, agrees to impersonate the young man. The relationship between the imposter and his "family," including a young relative who begins to love him in a very unfamilial way, seems to provide the center of the story. Then Brat stumbles upon information about his new identity which could lead to murder. The difficulties of continuing the investigation and the imposture are intertwined. The answer to one is the solution to both.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
The Southern Writers will be reading and discussing The Sportswriter on Saturday, April 5, 1 p.m. in the Children's Story Room at the Greenwood County Library.
A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Richard Ford published his first novel, A Piece of My Heart, in 1976. The Sportswriter was his third novel, and it made his reputation. It was named by Time Magazine as one of five best books of the year, and received the PEN/Faulkner citation in 1987.
Although the story is set in New Jersey, Ford claims that he was "not trying to write a novel about New Jersey, but a novel about America that is set in New Jersey." We meet Frank Bascombe, a sportswriter who makes his living interviewing professional athletes - mostly men - who have learned to live entirely within themselves. Frank wants to achieve this condition for himself. He is 38 years old, and he has lost a son, a career, and a marriage in a short time. It is Easter weekend, and Frank will face X, his former wife, when they meet at the grave of their son, Ralph, on the morning of Good Friday. The events that follow lead Frank to the brink of a spiritual crisis.
The Sportswriter is the first book in a trilogy about Frank Bascombe. The second, Independence Day, won both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The third book, The Lay of the Land, was named on the Ten Best Books list by the New York Times in 2006.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell
"The evil that men do lives after them, The good is often interred with their bones."
Julius Caesar - William Shakespeare
Kate Stanley, an expert in "occult Shakespeare," has chosen to leave the academic life for the theater. While she's directing Hamlet at the Globe Theater in Stratford, her old mentor, Roz, makes a dramatic appearance asking for Kate's help. Before she can do more than give Kate a wrapped package, Roz is murdered.
When Kate opens the box, she finds a clue that begins an international treasure hunt for one of Shakespeare's lost plays. As Kate travels from country to country, she's followed by a string of grusome murders, the police, and a killer who's planning a terrible death for her.
If you enjoyed The Da Vinci Code, Interred With Their Bones should be on your reading list.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Portrait of a Killer by Patricia Cornwell
The Mystery Lovers will discuss Portrait of a Killer - Jack the Ripper: Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell on Tuesday, March 12, at noon in the downstairs meeting room.
Who was Jack the Ripper? That's the question that crime lovers have been asking for over 100 years, and the answers have ranged from England's royal family to a poor Polish lunatic. Now Cornwell takes us to London's Whitechapel area of the 1800's and tries to prove that the notorious serial killer was Walter Richard Sickert, a student of Whistler's and a successful artist.
Cornwell spent a great deal of money trying to make her case. She considered Sickert's works "revelatory," and purchased several of his paintings, destroying one in the hope of finding evidence. The science she used - from mitochondrial DNA to watermark experts - is fascinating. While she isn't always able to prove her theory, Cornwell makes a strong case with circumstantial evidence.
Was Sickert guilty of the Ripper murders? We may never know for certain, but Cornwell's book is gripping with its lessons in science and history and Sickert's biography. Readers must decide for themselves if Sickert is guilty or not guilty.
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