Read of the Month: “Hotel Impala” by Pat Spears

The devastating effects of mental illness on a family become appalling clear in talented author Pat Spear’s latest novel, Hotel Impala (Twisted Road 2024). Leah’s drastic mood swings bring complete chaos to the lives of her two children—teenage Grace and grade-schooler Zoey—and her husband Daniel. Chaos is not even the worst result of Leah’s instability. […]

Read of the Month: “Without You Here” by Jody Hobbs Hesler

With achingly beautiful prose, Jody Hobbs Hesler explores mental illness and the devastating effects of suicide on family members left behind in her novel Without You Here (Flexible Press: 2024). Complicated family dynamics and a troubled marriage are also important themes that make this story set in the Virginia mountains unforgettable. The timeline shifts frequently […]

Focus on Mental Health: Donna Meredith Interviews Jody Hobbs Hesler, author of “Without You Here,” and Pat Spears, author of “Hotel Impala”

Introduction Recently I had the painful pleasure of reading two exceptionally fine novels that examine the effects of mentally unstable people on their families. In Jody Hesler’s Without You Here, a niece is haunted by her favorite aunt’s suicide, while Pat Spears’s Hotel Impala delivers a devastating portrait of two children confronting the chaos and […]

Florida Humanities Council to lead discussion of “Margaret: The Rose of Goodwood”

Please join Donna Meredith and the Florida Humanities Council to discuss “Margaret: The Rose of Goodwood” Thursday, Nov. 7. Due to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the Florida Humanities Council rescheduled the discussion of “Margaret: The Rose of Goodwood” by Southern Literary Review Editor Donna Meredith. The online book discussion will now be held Thursday, Nov. […]

Donna Meredith Interviews Betsy Reeder, author of “Broadus Unbound”

Summary of Broadus Unbound Called by the famed Charles Spurgeon “the greatest of living preachers,” John A. Broadus left an indelible signature not only on the Baptist denomination but on a generation. Emerging from the US Civil War as a voice of reason and reconciliation, he traveled, wrote, and tirelessly trained clergy for the urgencies […]

Donna Meredith Interviews Rachel Hauck, author of Meet Me at the Starlight

Novel Summary: Meet Me at the Starlight (Bethany House Publishers 2024) spans three generations. In 1987, supermodel Harlow Hayes seeks solace in a quaint Florida beach town to heal from a heartbreak that shattered her entire world. To her surprise, she encounters Matt Knight—a Hollywood A-lister with a bad-boy reputation—who has returned to his hometown […]