The calendar says winter is more than a month away, but there’s snow in the High Country and, likely, that means that somewhere near you there is a warm fire, a comfortable chair and a stack of books waiting to be read.
In 21 novels featuring Michael Connelly’s now-legendary detective Harry Bosch, the touchstone has never wavered: “Everybody counts or nobody counts.”
In John Grisham’s new novel “The Guardians,” truth is sadder than fiction. But that realization comes at the end of the book, in a well-placed author’s note.
Margaret Atwood’s books of fiction, poetry and essays encompass no themes so consistently as those of gender, identity, myth and religion. Exhibit A, “The Testaments,” the Canadian author’s sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale” that recently earned Atwood her second Britain Booker Prize.
For those of us who call the High Country home, or those who already know the region as a cold weather getaway, the idea of snow in the South is as happenstance as winter following summer.
A Stephen King novel for those who don’t like Stephen King’s novels is an appropriate label for the horror master’s latest: “The Institute” (Scribner).
Publisher Capstone Editions offers a pair of publications this fall targeting a young audience and a difficult subject: slavery. Under Capstone’s stewardship, both stories are handled exceedingly well.
We all learn, eventually, that there is a dramatic difference between running away from home and moving on.
With this most recent offering from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child — the Preston and Child of “Relic” fame and dozens of novels since — noted archeologist Dr. Nora Kelly teams with historian Clive Benton to set off on an epic adventure. Well, after about the halfway mark or so. There’s no…
The unflagging inspiration of Henri Nouwen was his ability to share his faith and his love for Jesus even during the lowest points of his life.
Ibi Zoboi’s debut and National Book Award-finalist YA novel, “American Street,” explored magical realism and the voodoo culture in a narrative about a Haitian teen whose mother is detained as they immigrate to America.
Steeped in mythology, fairytale, tradition and folklore, William Ritter’s “The Oddmire, Book 1: Changeling” (Algonquin Young Readers) is a fresh hero’s tale worthy of a readership as vast as the Wild Wood it encapsulates.
As with Colson Whitehead’s 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Underground Railroad,” the past is prologue in this follow-up to that novel, “The Nickel Boys.”
When Mountain Times reviewed David Joy’s “The Line That Held Us” (Putnam) in August 2018, we made it clear that this North Carolina’s author’s mastery of Appalachian noir continued in this, his third novel. Following the haunting releases of “Where All Light Tends To Go” and “The Weight Of T…
An author with the stature of Stephen King has more options — and demands — than most when it comes to publishing his work, which can sometimes make finding a copy of a new release … interesting.
Because it’s never too early to prime the pump for your summer reading, publishing houses have a habit of releasing some of their best and most anticipated books in the days and weeks immediately preceding Memorial Day.
Waiting for a new release from a favorite author can be an excruciatingly pleasant pastime for a dedicated reader. Here, in early spring 2019, are two such examples to consider — one a surprise, and one a fitting finale to a dystopian world.
From beach bum to mountain man, author Ed Robinson brings his fictional creation to the High Country
The magnetic allure of our mountain communities is so attractive that now even fictional creations are migrating here from the Florida coast.
Judging a book by its cover may not be fair, but what about judging a publishing company by the books it puts between those covers?
Few authors use a book’s dedication page to the effect and impact as does Don Winslow.
A definitive retelling of the Civil War as it was fought in North Carolina has been well-documented by the writings of Avery County-based historian Michael C. Hardy.
The notion that grit-lit is a gentlemen’s club is no fallacy.
When was the last time you read a published drabble? Admittedly those short-form stories — precisely 100 words, no more, no less — are a rare literary animal. But if you’re on the hunt, you’ll find one in Richard Chizmar’s newest release,”The Long Way Home” (PS Publishing).
After 40 years and 18 novels, Lawrence Block’s unlicensed New York City investigator Matthew Scudder has been absent for most of the past decade — in fact, since 2011’s “A Drop of the Hard Stuff.”
Does history repeat?
Because Maryann D’Agincourt does not write art fiction in black and white, her fifth offering of the form is the most aptly titled.
Integrating fiction into science is the purview of storytellers able to reimagine our world and take us to places we’ve never been — at least not yet.
The story you’ve never read and the story you’ve read repeatedly are now one and the same with Tachyon Publications’ beautifully imagined release of “The Last Unicorn: The Lost Journey.”
Were you taking odds on what John Grisham’s next novel would be, the safe bet would always be legal thriller.
Into the fray of monster and monster-hunters is there yet room for another vampire novel?
In the 40-plus years since the paperback publication of “Carrie” allowed Stephen King to leave his high school English teaching post at Hampden Academy, the author has ushered more than 60 books to international best-selling status. Which means at this point King can pretty much do as he ple…
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Twenty novels in just about as many years is no small accomplishment for any author. But when this is compounded by more than 100 million of those novels sold internationally, one of the largest social media presences in the world and a multi-media platform that is consistently among the mos…
To be a child crippled by the curse of sundering is a study in perpetual loss — unless that child springs from the able pen of two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo.
Crafting an original fantasy series is no easy feat. The competition is immense and the history an author is writing against is long, far and wide. And so, into this fray comes “Silvarum” (Elvelon Press) a planned eight-book series, coming-of-age tale from the pen and colored pencils of Dean Kuhta.
Virgil Wander has lost the ability to modify his life, and for a man whose foundation is built on a staid lack of modification, that could be damning, indeed.
There are names in the world of sports that conjure magic and myth just upon hearing them. In the world of tennis, such a name is Bjorn Borg, the darling Swede of the 1970s and ‘80s who did as much, if not more, than any single player to catapult catgut and wooden rackets into international vogue.
Before Max Brallier penned his first middle school book he designed games for the virtual world Poptropica and worked in marketing. Combining both of those passions has not only proved successful — his current middle school series “The Last Kids on Earth” (Viking) has sold more than 2 millio…
The Library of Congress by design keeps to a minimum the specific duties of the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, and it is in this spirit of vagueness that our nation’s official poet is afforded the maximum freedom to pursue his or her own path.
In a magnum opus designed to be one author’s remembrance of the 1960s, Frye Gaillard trains his pen on an era he not only knows well, but wrote extensively about during his time as the Southern editor for the Charlotte Observer, covering topics such as the city’s school desegregation and the…
While no official research exists on the topic, a good guess is that enough books about the Blue Ridge Parkway have been written that they, were they laid end to end, would stretch the entire 469 miles of our nation’s most scenic drive.
Concerned, as always, with what he calls “big ideas,” Appalachia’s David Joy is so gifted a writer that he never lets those ideas get in the way of the story — and so it is with “The Line That Held Us” (Putnam), Joy’s third, most ambitious and best novel to date.
BOONE — New York Times-bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb visits “Cook The Books,” the Watauga County Public Library’s mystery book club, at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 7, to discuss her novel “The Unquiet Grave.”
Fortunately for us, Peter Watts turned from his beloved marine biology to write sci-fi full time, and he has gifted us again with “The Freeze-Frame Revolution.”
One for the month, one for adults, two for young readers in search of summer adventure and you have four new releases, bursting with immediacy, to offer a fitting start to your summer season of reading.
‘The Weight of This World’ by David Joy
How easily Maryrose Carroll could have begun her new book like this: Once upon a time. …
Before graduating with her master of Divinity degree, N.C. author Lynne Hinton attended the N.C. School of the Arts, School of Filmmaking — both significant points when considering her 21st publication, “The View From Here” (NewSouth Books).
Oh, the things you can learn from a children’s book.
M.T. LeBlanc will hold a public reading and book signing for his first published book, “Are You Ready, Freddie?” on Saturday, May 5 from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at the Center for Entrepreneurship, 2 Peacock Hall, located on the campus of Appalachian State University. Join M.T. for a family-friendly e…
With spring just a step away, it won’t be long before young men and women — and those at all other ranges of the age spectrum — turn to thoughts of getting outdoors. But before your fireplace goes cold for the summer, there’s yet time to curl up with just one more book … or two. Here, from a…
Only with the experience of living intimately on two diverse continents could a story about the United States’ civil rights struggle, such as Elaine Neil Orr’s “Swimming Between Worlds” (Berkley), be told. As she writes in that novel, “people who have lived deeply in two countries always bea…
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