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Wednesday, 28 November 2007 00:00

An English breakdown

Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey. Melville House Publishing, 2006. 154 pages. Lovers of the English language have always suffered the pistol-whip cuts of poor spelling, dreadful grammar, and…
Wednesday, 25 July 2012 13:50

Special children’s story time

Curtis Sikes and Sheena Kohlmeyer will present their new children’s book, The Heart of a King, at 11 a.m. on July 28 at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.   The Heart of a King tells the story of a young lion…
Wednesday, 25 July 2012 13:50

Medical thriller writer comes to library in Sylva

The Jackson County Public Library in Sylva will host author Dennis Murphy at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 31, for an introduction to his novel, Brain Waves, and a discussion of the process of publishing a novel. The book deals…
Wednesday, 25 July 2012 13:48

An erudite look into the cultural wars

Some years ago, a local artist mounted a painting in a local art show in which he painted Christ with pink paws and Easter bunny ears. “This is going to upset some people around here,” the painter told me. I…
Wednesday, 05 December 2007 00:00

Reading for the holidays

Books are the ideal gift for the Yuletide season. Think of the many advantages in giving a book to a friend or loved one for Christmas. Books provide hours of pleasure. They don’t add inches to the waistline. Books travel…
Wednesday, 12 December 2007 00:00

A look at the dark side of the season

The Christmas Curmudgeon is available at: Barnes &Noble.com, the Western Carolina Internet Café in Dillsboro, or directly from the author at James Cox, P. O. Box 272, Whittier, NC, 28789. Send check ($14.95 plus postage) and your name and address.…
Wednesday, 12 December 2007 00:00

The way of the sword

The 47th Samurai by Stephen Hunter. Simon & Schuster, 2007. 384 pages. Eight seconds. Eight seconds, according to Stephen Hunter in his latest novel The 47th Samurai (13:978-0-7432-3809-0, $26), is the amount of time it takes a human being to…
Wednesday, 19 December 2007 00:00

Christmas traditions from the Moravians

Moravian Christmas in the South by Nancy Smith Thomas. The University of North Carolina Press, 2007. 184 pages Easter is the religious holiday that most North Carolinians would associate with the Moravian Church. In Winston-Salem, brass bands travel about the…
Wednesday, 26 December 2007 00:00

When Florida was wild

Crackers in the Glade: Life and Times in the Old Everglades edited Betty Savidge Briggs. University of Georgia Press, 2007. 127 pages. Crackers in the Glade: Life and Times in the Old Everglades (University of Georgia Press, ISBN 13-978-0-8203-3043-3) tells…
Wednesday, 02 January 2008 00:00

What? Me read?

Letters to My Son on the Love of Books by Roberto Coltroneo. Ecco Press, 1998. 151 pages. In the Dec. 24 issue of The New Yorker, Caleb Crain addresses the decline of literacy and the increasing disinterest in reading in…
Wednesday, 09 January 2008 00:00

Big as a mountain

The Encyclopedia of Appalachia.  University of Tennessee Press, 2007. 1864 pages Sometimes good things come in big packages. And the Encyclopedia of Appalachia is big. More than 1,800 pages of finely-printed prose make up this boxlike book. I’m not sure…
Wednesday, 16 January 2008 00:00

Another mystery mines our fascination with the past

The Machiavelli Covenant by Allan Folsom. Forge Books,2006. 560 pages The last 20 years have seen the creation of a special niche within the genre of ÒSuspense NovelsÓ as more and more books have appeared featuring a tiny group of…
Wednesday, 23 January 2008 00:00

Evolution In a Nutshell — the book

Evolution In A Nutshell by Martin Malloy. Trafford Publishing, 2007. 302 pages Evolution is one of those wonderfully fiery topics which, when broached at parties or family gatherings, can convert otherwise reasonable friends and relatives into raging maniacs, shouting, slamming…
Wednesday, 30 January 2008 00:00

The peril of complacency

The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture by Andrew Keen. Doubleday, 2007. $22.95 Web 2.0 is killing our culture.
Wednesday, 06 February 2008 00:00

Life chronicles

How To Make A Journal Of Your Life by D. Price. Ten Speed Press, $9.95. Ant Farm by Simon Rich. Random House, $12.95. Many people have attempted at least once in their lives to keep a journal. Whether they use…
Wednesday, 13 February 2008 00:00

Poetry dying for readers

In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus: New and Selected Poems, 1955 by X.J. Kennedy. — The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. 224 pages Although tens of thousands of American citizens today may call themselves poets, the fact is that poetry…
Wednesday, 20 February 2008 00:00

Rash's Chemistry "notable"

Chemistry and Other Stories by Ron Rash. Picador, 2007. 230 pages This remarkable collection of short stories has already been named one of the 15 “notable books” of 2007 by the Story Prize Committee — an award that is presented…
Wednesday, 27 February 2008 00:00

Close encounters

Skywalker: Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Walker. Indigo Publishing, 2007. 224 pages. Bill Bryson’s account of his time on the Appalachian Trail, A Walk in the Woods, revealed that the chief amusements of the Trail are not…
Wednesday, 05 March 2008 00:00

Taking back America for Christianity

God’s Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America by Hanna Rosin. Harcourt, 2007. 304 pages Every once in a while a book sees print that inadvertently tells the unwashed what the elite thinks of them. Massa waltzes…
Wednesday, 18 July 2012 13:28

Big Haywood Friends book sale begins July 28

The Friends of the Haywood Library annual book sale begins at 9 a.m. on July 26 and runs through Saturday, July 28. This year’s event has the largest collection of nonfiction books ever assembled for this sale. The books are…
Wednesday, 18 July 2012 13:28

Mystery writer to appear at Shakespeare & Co.

Frank Foster will sign copies of his recently published thriller, Catch a Falling Knife, at Shakespeare & Co. Books from 5-7 p.m. on Saturday, July 21. Foster, a summer resident of Highlands, will speak about his novel and his writing,…
Wednesday, 18 July 2012 13:26

Martin earns mention alongside Tolkien

I apologize. About a month ago, when I concluded my review of Clash of Kings, I noted that I would not continue reviewing all of the books in the Songs of Ice and Fire series (I believe that there are…
Wednesday, 11 July 2012 14:08

Poet to read from new collection

Local poet and artist Terry Michelsen will visit City Lights Bookstore in Sylva to read from her collection of poetry Soaring on Wings of Word at 6:30 p.m. July 13. Soaring on Wings of Word is a compilation of six…
Wednesday, 11 July 2012 14:07

The Highlands Biological Station releases naturalist’s guide

The Highlands Biological Station has released Highlands Botanical Garden: A Naturalist’s Guide, a guide to the garden, with maps, historical overview and profiles of a generous selection of its hundreds of native plants. Established in 1962, the garden is a…
Wednesday, 11 July 2012 14:07

Book launch for Carden’s play

City Lights Bookstore and the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva will celebrate of the release of the book edition of Gary Carden’s new play, Outlander, at 6:30 p.m. July 14. Outlander is a full-length play about Horace Kephart and…
Wednesday, 11 July 2012 14:06

Book discussion series ends with Austen’s ‘Persuasion’

The Friends of the Haywood County Library is hosting a discussion the last book in the Jane Austen “Let’s Talk About It” series, Persuasion, from 4-6 p.m. on July 19 at the Waynesville branch auditorium. Books are available at the…
Wednesday, 11 July 2012 14:04

Frank’s characters confront moral uncertainties

What would you do if your teenaged daughter was assaulted, beaten and shot almost to the point of death, and raped? Would you hunt down the assailants? And what would you do if you were a physician and an ardent…
Wednesday, 04 July 2012 12:01

Ron Rash to be featured on ‘North Carolina Bookwatch’

Ron Rash and his latest novel The Cove will be featured in the season premiere of “North Carolina Bookwatch” on UNC-TV. The program, hosted by D.G. Martin, will be broadcast at 9:30 p.m. July 6 with a repeat showing at…
Wednesday, 04 July 2012 12:00

Civil War literature series continues in Waynesville

Friends of the Haywood County Library’s “Let’s Talk About It” series will continue with The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara from 4-5:45 p.m. July 18 at the Waynesville branch auditorium. Shaara drew inspiration from his own life experiences for the…
Wednesday, 04 July 2012 11:59

Retired Miami police detective to speak in Sylva

Author Marshall Frank will give a talk at the public library in Sylva at 7 p.m. on July 12 based on his books and experiences as a police officer. Frank’s most recent book, a thriller entitled The Upside to Murder,…
Wednesday, 04 July 2012 11:53

Dig deep and ‘The Father’s Tale’ will reward

Michael O’Brien’s The Father’s Tale (Ignatius Press, ISBN 978-0-89870-815-8) has more strikes against it than Babe Ruth on a bad afternoon. Here is a doorstop of a novel, weighing in at nearly three pounds, more than one thousand pages long.…
Wednesday, 27 June 2012 14:02

Snake handlers riveting but cliché

“... and these signs shall follow those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poisons, it will not…
Wednesday, 20 June 2012 15:39

Rivers in WNC bear native names

Long before the first Europeans arrived, the Cherokees developed ceremonials that focused on the spiritual power of running water. When ethnologist James Mooney arrived on the Qualla Boundary in the summer of 1887, those beliefs, which he described as the…
Wednesday, 20 June 2012 14:53

A page turner with a WNC connection

In Frank B. Robinson’s Thirty Days Hath September (ISBN 978-1-4701-6725-7), a man with a murky past, Alex Madrid, finds temporary employment as a security guard at tiny Black Creek College in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The year is…
Wednesday, 20 June 2012 14:52

Ann Hite to speak in Sylva

Novelist Ann Hite, author of the acclaimed debut novel Ghost on Black Mountain will speak at 7 p.m. June 28 at the Jackson County Public Library in downtown Sylva. Ghost on Black Mountain is told in the voices of five…
Wednesday, 20 June 2012 14:51

Coffee with the Poet

John Quinnett will be featured at City Lights Bookstore’s Coffee with the Poet series at 10:30 a.m. June 21. John Quinnett is a Swain County poet who works with haiku and tanka poems. Attendees are encouraged to bring one or…
Wednesday, 13 June 2012 19:46

Watch out! Bigfoot sighted in WNC

I’d never read a horror-fiction genre book in my life. That is, until I found myself at an author’s event last month at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville talking with Eric Brown about his recent book about Bigfoot (Sasquatch) set…
Wednesday, 13 June 2012 19:45

Contributing writers of ‘27 Views of Asheville’ to speak

Four of the contributing writers to the book 27 Views of Asheville will read their selections at 3 p.m. June 16 at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. The authors that will be reading are Wayne Caldwell, Susan Reinhardt, Heather Newton…
Wednesday, 13 June 2012 19:44

Andrea Ford discusses the benefits of the Enneagram

Holistic healer Andrea Ford will discuss the wisdom of the Enneagram at 2 p.m. June 16 at the City Lights Bookstore. The Enneagram is a road map to understanding your personality in a new way. It is based on nine…
Wednesday, 13 June 2012 19:43

Poetry reading in Highlands

Poets Shannon Tharp and Whit Griffin will be reading their recently published works at 7 p.m. June 15 at the Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore in Highlands. Griffin is a native of Memphis, Tenn. He met Scaly Mountain’s poet Jonathan Williams…
Wednesday, 06 June 2012 13:13

Sequel picks up enticing tale

Although A Clash of Kings, the second in George R. R. Martin’s epic series, has a multitude of unforgettable characters, none is more fascinating than the grotesquely disfigured Sandor Clegane. Shortly before the final attack on King’s Landing, a great…
Wednesday, 30 May 2012 13:30

Rash, Frazier featured at author lecture series

Ron Rash, Charles Frazier and Wayne Caldwell will be among a group of southern writers to speak at the Summer Authors Speakers Series in the Manheimer Room at UNC-Asheville’s Reuter Center. The sessions are from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on…
Wednesday, 30 May 2012 13:29

Great Smokies Writing Program comes to Waynesville

UNC Asheville’s Great Smokies Writing Program is offering “A Feast of Memories,” a course in Waynesville that will help local writers hone their skills in poetry and prose. The event will take place from 5 to 7:30 p.m. June 5,…
Wednesday, 30 May 2012 13:28

Finding the right word

In his Foreword to Robert Hartwell Fiske’s The Best Words (ISBN 978-193333882-8, $14.94), Richard Lederer reminds us of Mark Twain’s much-quoted declaration: “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – ’tis…
Wednesday, 23 May 2012 12:39

Bob Plott and Harold Littleton to visit City Lights Bookstore

City Lights Bookstore will host discussions and book signings for two novelists — Bob Plott and Harold Littleton — during the next two weekends. Plott will present his latest book Colorful Characters of the Great Smoky Mountains at 6:30 p.m., May…
Wednesday, 23 May 2012 12:34

Adding the stories of James Still to the Appalachian canon

For those who don’t know, James Still (1906-2001) is one of the most beloved and influential of all Appalachian writers. He left an enduring legacy of novels, stories, and poems during his nearly 70-year career. He is known formally and…
Wednesday, 16 May 2012 13:10

UNC Asheville to host writing program in Waynesville

Local writers will have the opportunity to hone their skills with UNC Asheville’s Great Smokies Writing Program summer workshops in poetry and prose. This year, a class will be held in Waynesville. Visit www.agc.unca.edu/great-smokies-writing-program to see descriptions of other courses…
Wednesday, 16 May 2012 13:09

Friends of the Library to host annual meeting

Friends of the Haywood Public Library will hold its annual meeting at 7 p.m. on May 24 at First United Methodist Church in Waynesville. Guest speaker will be Ann B. Ross, author of the Miss Julia series. Her latest book…
Wednesday, 16 May 2012 13:07

George R.R. Martin’s world captures readers

Readers, be forewarned. If you willingly enter the fanciful world of George R. R. Martin’s Songs of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones, you may find yourself “enchanted” like some hapless knight in Arthurian legend. In other words, you…
Wednesday, 09 May 2012 13:09

Youmans returns to City Lights

Former Cullowhee resident Marly Youmans will return to City Lights Bookstore at 6:30 p.m. on May 16 to read from her latest book A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage. “Marly Youmans’ new book is a vividly realized, panoramic novel…
Wednesday, 09 May 2012 13:09

WCU professor’s book focuses on German cavalry

David R. Dorondo, associate professor in Western Carolina University’s Department of History, is author of the newly published book Riders of the Apocalypse: German Cavalry and Modern Warfare, 1870-1945. In the 336-page work, Dorondo examines the history of the German…
Wednesday, 09 May 2012 13:08

WCU’s Leah Hampton wins 2012 Betts Fiction Prize

Leah Hampton, an English instructor and associate director of the Writing and Learning Commons at Western Carolina University, is the winner of the 2012 Doris Betts Fiction Prize competition for her story “The Saint.” Hampton will receive a cash prize…
Wednesday, 09 May 2012 13:06

Dusting off a few worthwhile volumes

Spring-cleaning remains a ritual in many households. We throw open windows, rid closets, shelves, and drawers of unwanted items — books, papers, video cassettes, sweaters that haven’t seen daylight in 10 years, Aunt Matilda’s time-blighted photographs of zinnias — wash…
Thursday, 03 May 2012 01:43

Blue Ridge Books will celebrate National Children’s Book Week

Blue Ridge Books will host a full day of activities to celebrate National Children’s Book Week starting at 10 a.m., May 12, with an event entitled Animal Surprises. Dawn Cusick, owner of Early Light Books and author of a half…
Thursday, 03 May 2012 01:42

Jenny Bennett to read

Jenny Bennett will read from Murder at the Jumpoff on at 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 4, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. Set in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Murder at the Jumpoff, follows the investigation of of the…
Thursday, 03 May 2012 01:41

A Memoir of a Journey in Healing

Usui and Karuna Reiki Master Deborah Lloyd will visit City Lights Bookstore at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 5, to present and discuss her book, Believe and it is True. Lloyd’s book is a transformative, healing journey and focuses on…
Thursday, 03 May 2012 01:36

‘Raylan’ is business as usual for Leonard

Like a growing number of FX addicts, I have become a devoted fan of “Justified” (Timothy Olyphant and Sylva’s own Nick Searcy) that airs each Tuesday night at 10 p.m. This fast-moving, smart-talking, funny and violent show represents the culmination…
Wednesday, 25 April 2012 13:15

Joan Byrd to discuss the art of Harvey K. Littleton

City Lights Bookstore will celebrate the launch of Harvey K. Littleton’s A Life in Glass with Western Carolina University’s ceramics instructor Joan Byrd at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 27. Byrd was a member of Littleton’s first glassblowing class at…
Wednesday, 25 April 2012 13:14

Waynesville library to host “Let’s Talk About It” series

Merritt Moseley, a professor at University of Carolina-Asheville, will lead a series of discussions surrounding the works of beloved author Jane Austen at the Waynesville library. A novelist whose reputation has never declined, critic Brooke Allen called Austen “a woman…
Wednesday, 25 April 2012 13:13

Thomas Thibeault to read from novel ‘Balto’s Nose’

Thomas Thibeault will be at City Lights Bookstore to read from his historical thriller, Balto’s Nose, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 28. Glenn Carnehan, a WWII veteran, spent the war tracking down treasures looted by the Nazis and in…
Wednesday, 25 April 2012 13:13

Library looks for teen feedback

The Teen Advisory Group will meet at 3:30 p.m. on April 30 at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City. Teens are invited to come share their ideas about materials of interest to them, including what sort of programming they’d like to see…
Wednesday, 25 April 2012 13:11

The tales of two Joyces

In The Guys in the Gang and Other Stories (ISBN 978-1-4697-7768-9, $20.95), James T. Joyce and James T. Joyce — that doubling-up is not a misprint — have shared, perhaps inadvertently, the secrets to a fulfilling life. Like a fine…
Wednesday, 18 April 2012 12:28

Light-hearted take on life’s last lingering years

I remember, I remember The house where I was born, The little window where the sun Came peeping in at morn; He never came a wink too soon Nor brought too long a day; But now, I often wish the…
Wednesday, 11 April 2012 13:52

Ron Rash to read from ‘The Cove’

Ron Rash will read from his new novel, The Cove, at 2 p.m., April 15 in the community room of the Jackson County Library. Laurel Shelton and her brother live in a cove considered by many to be cursed. Crops fail,…
Wednesday, 11 April 2012 13:51

Jenny Bennett to present new book ‘Murder at the Jumpoff’

Blue Ridge Books will host Jenny Bennett, author of Murder at the Jumpoff, at 3 p.m. on April 21. Bennett’s book tells the story of Donald MacIntyre, an avid off-trail hiker, who fails to return from a quest to bushwhack…
Wednesday, 11 April 2012 13:51

Participate in World Book Night

City Lights Bookstore in Sylva is hosting an event at 6:30 p.m., April 17, for local volunteers the week before World Book Night, in preparation for the givers going out into the community. On April 23, volunteers will give away…
Wednesday, 11 April 2012 13:50

Author Micheal Rivers to read from his new ghost novel

Micheal Rivers of Whittier will be at the Jackson County Public Library at 7 p.m. on April 17 to read from his newest paranormal novel, The Black Witch. The Black Witch is an adventure tale of a ghost ship and…
Wednesday, 11 April 2012 13:47

Homegrown poet spreads her wings

Rose McLarney grew up in rural Western North Carolina, where she continues to live on an old mountain farm. Daughter to a somewhat legendary biologist who founded the international conservation organization ANAI, she is a female reflection (a generation or…
Wednesday, 04 April 2012 12:54

Ron Rash makes appearance at local bookstores

Ron Rash, bestselling author of Serena, will read from his newest novel at local bookstores April 14-15. Rash will be at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 14. He will read at City Lights Bookstore…
Wednesday, 04 April 2012 12:53

Rash creates new genre of mountain western

Just when we all thought that Ron Rash had taken his Southern Appalachian noir novels to the limit with Serena, he comes back with not only a topper, but creates a new fiction genre in the process. Rash’s new novel,…
Wednesday, 28 March 2012 12:37

Book signing for three mountain women

Barbara Woodall, Amy Ammons Garza and Doreyl Ammons Cain will sign books at City Lights Bookstore at 2 p.m. on March 31. The three women will share how they came to write/illustrate their books, and how they are connected. They…
Wednesday, 28 March 2012 12:31

Forgotten but not gone — emphasizing grammar

Fifteen years ago, when I was the temporary teacher of Latin at Tuscola High School in Waynesville, I was discussing different uses for the dative case when one of my brighter sophomores — he entered the North Carolina School of…
Wednesday, 21 March 2012 14:00

Winchester to discuss gardening and building relationships

Author and publishing consultant Renea Winchester will be at the public library in Sylva at 7 p.m. on March 27 for a discussion about gardening, friendship and building relationships in the publishing business. Winchester’s first book In the Garden with Billy: Lessons…
Wednesday, 21 March 2012 14:00

Sylva bookstore to hold double book launch

City Lights Bookstore will host a double book launch at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 23. FutureCycle Press will unveil its annual anthology of poetry and flash fiction as well as a new poetry collection from Scott Owens titled For…
Wednesday, 21 March 2012 13:57

Nature shines in Morgan poetry collection

To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. — “Auguries of Innocence” by William Blake The stanza above, from William…
Thursday, 15 March 2012 04:28

A full day of events at City Lights

City Lights Bookstore will continue its monthly Coffee with the Poet series on March 15, and Don and Diane Wells will present their book, Mystery of the Trees, later that day. Sylva resident and author, Ben Bridgers, will read selection…
Thursday, 15 March 2012 04:27

Rose Senehi to signing copies of her latest book

Rose Senehi returns to City Lights Bookstore to sign her newest book, Render Unto the Valley, March 17. She will be on hand from 1 to 4 p.m. to meet readers and sign books. Render Unto the Valley is a…
Thursday, 15 March 2012 04:18

Gossip and privacy in the modern world

Little Sally was eating lunch with her family when her parents ask her if she learned anything in Sunday School that morning. Sally nodded and smiled. "Teacher says we are to go forth and spread the gossip." It seems these…
Wednesday, 07 March 2012 14:00

Trail trees subject of talk

Don and Diane Wells will discuss their book, Mystery of the Trees, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 15, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. Mystery of the Trees is a study of Indian Trail Trees which are trees that were bent…
Wednesday, 07 March 2012 13:58

Taking a trip down dark, violent passages

This novel contains an endorsement from the late William Gay that tweaked my interest. I immediately bought the book. Gay says, “The Devil All the Time hits you like a telegram from Hell slid under your door at three o’clock…
Wednesday, 29 February 2012 22:18

Trey Carland to read from ‘A Seeker’s Guide’ to Inner Peace

Asheville resident, Trey Carland will read from and discuss his book A Seeker’s Guide to Inner Peace at 2 p.m. on March 3 at City Lights Bookstore. The book is a collection of blogs written about his experiences and is…
Wednesday, 29 February 2012 22:18

Local author publishes new children’s book

Jane Grahl, a Waynesville resident, has published a new book, Just One Won’t Hurt, about the demands of high school and peer pressure. The story focuses on 15-year-old Kellie Jamison, the perfect daughter who found the transition from middle school…
Wednesday, 29 February 2012 22:17

Bob Plott returns to City Lights

Bob Plott will revisit City Lights to present his newest book Colorful Characters of the Great Smoky Mountains at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 2. The Smoky Mountains have been the home of many fascinating individuals, and this book details…
Wednesday, 29 February 2012 22:15

A newfound power in 20 minutes a day

Twenty minutes a day. In early January, writing in my book column for this paper, I made a New Year’s resolution to read 20 minutes a day from a bucket-list of books, heavy tomes which I’d laid aside in the…
Wednesday, 22 February 2012 21:51

National award-winner and teacher to read at City Lights

Dawn Gilchrist-Young, a Jackson County resident and teacher at Swain County High School for the past 14 years, will discuss her short story “The Tender Branch” at 7 p.m., Feb. 27, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. The reading and…
Wednesday, 22 February 2012 21:51

Sylva local C.B. Cole introduces her new novel

C.B. Cole will be at City Lights Bookstore to read from and sign her new book, Winter, at 7 p.m. on Feb. 24. In the novel, the main character Winter doesn’t know it yet, but once she steps into the…
Wednesday, 22 February 2012 21:50

Book tells the story of a young boy’s journey

Fifteen-year-old Charlie Thompson is always hungry. Luckily, he is blessed with a high metabolism rate, so the excessive amounts of junk food and Spagetti-Os that he consumes does not alter his weight. Charlie rationalizes that he wants to gain weight…
Wednesday, 15 February 2012 13:51

Valerie Nieman to read from new novel

Valerie Nieman will visit City Lights Bookstore at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, to read from and discuss her third novel, Blood Clay. “Blood Clay is a profoundly moving and beautifully written novel about a community torn apart by tragedy,”…
Wednesday, 15 February 2012 13:49

How an enduring writer created himself

There are many reasons to love the writing of Ray Bradbury. His early short stories — science fiction “lite,” tales of his midwestern youth, accolades to writers like Thomas Wolfe and Ernest Hemingway, Twilight Zone accounts of life in mid-twentieth…
Wednesday, 08 February 2012 21:41

Judith Toy to discuss finding forgiveness through Zen

Judith Toy, ordained by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh as a core member of his order, will be at City Lights Bookstore at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 11 to read from her book, Murder as a Call to Love.…
Wednesday, 08 February 2012 21:40

Asheville author to host spiritual adventure workshop

Author Art Ramsay will present a free workshop based on his newest spiritual adventure novel, The Tibetan Wisdom Code at 3 p.m. on Feb. 11 at Blue Ridge Books & Cafe on Main Street in Waynesville. The event will include…
Wednesday, 08 February 2012 21:39

Book delves into a dark corner of our world

Thursday. Throughout this anguished and gripping tale, this day of the week, Thursday” is usually italicized, suggesting that it has some special (and possibly sinister) significance. Specifically, it is the day that Eva Khatchadourian’s son, Kevin (two days shy of…
Wednesday, 01 February 2012 21:36

Some novels requires a certain tolerance

Recently I watched several early episodes of “Blue Bloods,” a fine television series centered on a New York family with a tradition of law enforcement. The father is the New York City Police commissioner, his father is a retired policemen,…
Wednesday, 01 February 2012 21:36

Two days, two events, two writers

City Lights Bookstore will host two writers this weekend. Anne Clinard Barnhill will be at the bookstore at 7 p.m., Feb. 3, to read from her new novel, At the Mercy of the Queen. A tale of sexual seduction and…
Thursday, 26 January 2012 03:29

North Carolina writer to host critique dicussion

Bob Grove will facilitate the North Carolina Writers Network West new Prose Critique Sessions at 7 p.m. on Feb. 9 at Tri-Community College in the McSwain Building, Room 152. The purpose of the critique group is to provide an immediate…
Thursday, 26 January 2012 03:28

High Vistas contributors to visit City Lights Bookstore

City Lights Bookstore will celebrate the release of High Vistas Volume II at 6 p.m. on Jan. 27 with a reception and discussion with a few of the authors featured in the book. The second volume continues the tradition set…
Thursday, 26 January 2012 03:19

Well-crafted stories about the dark side of life

Several months ago, I reviewed Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone, and received an unusual number of responses from readers. In general, the responses were positive. However, there were a few readers who found Woodrell’s description of Appalachian (Ozark) culture distorted and…
Wednesday, 18 January 2012 14:46

Jane Austen decoded for men

Of female writers who appeal the least to the young men in my seminars, Jane Austen surely holds first place. Many of these male students can relate to the work of Annie Dillard or Anne Tyler, and more than a…
Wednesday, 18 January 2012 14:44

Reading and journaling discussion with Robin Whitley

Robin Whitley will be at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva at 7 p.m. on Jan. 21 to read from her book, In a Southern Closet. She will also discuss the importance of journaling as a means of thinking about a…
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