2024 Book of the Year Finalists & Book Lovers Gift Guide

  Book of the Year to be announced Sunday, December 15.  Which one will win? Any of these titles make fine holiday gifts. (Finalists listed alphabetically by title.) Birdhouse Jesus by Terri Chastain Using a combination of charm and horror and finally transcendence, Chastain creates a protagonist who comes to terms with childhood abuse by […]

“The Devil Hath a Pleasing Shape” by Terry Roberts

The fabled Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina, looms as the intriguing, dark backdrop for Terry Roberts’ novel The Devil Hath a Pleasing Shape (Turner Publishing 10/01/2024). This excellent mystery is the third in the Stephen Robbins Chronicles series. Those familiar with Asheville and those who love mysteries won’t want to miss this engaging […]

November Read of the Month: “A Short Time to Stay Here,” by Terry Roberts

Reviewed by Matthew Simmons It is difficult to give Terry Roberts’s debut novel, A Short Time to Stay Here, the full and proper treatment it deserves.  This is not because it is a novel marked by “difficulty” of some experimental sense; to the contrary, it is a highly-readable, easily-digestible book.  But in that statement lies […]