And just like that, it’s June! I hope you’re enjoying the warm weather of the summer. I am working my way back from my brief hiatus. If you are waiting on a response from me about a book review, I will be in contact shortly. I have a number of emails to work my way through at the moment but will be getting caught up this week.
I hope you’re continuing to visit MapleStreetStudioHRS to see all of the new items I’ve been adding. There are a number of new bookmarks, paper quilling art pieces, and new styles of tumblers and mugs. I’ve also added an option for custom orders.
My reading list this week is an interesting mix of literature. First up is book three in Sergio Olguin’s Veronica Rosenthal Mystery series. Currently available in Spanish, the English translation is set for release on
September 1, 2022. I very much enjoyed The Foreign Girls and was thrilled to receive an advanced copy of the third installment.
Also on my reading list, this week is Alabama Afternoons by Roy Hoffman. I was gifted a copy in recognition of my volunteer work with my synagogue’s Hebrew School. This is my third work by Roy and I’m looking forward to enjoying the collection of stories, on my patio in the evenings.
And finally, I am revisiting a title I attempted a while back but ended up putting aside. The Town Beyond the Wall by Elie Wiesel is a thin volume but a heady, existential story. This seems like a better time to attempt it than my last try.
Join the conversation! Tell me what you’re reading this week in the comments.
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The third in Olguin’s Buenos Aires thriller series starring the gutsy, raunchy investigative reporter Veronica Rosenthal.
Haunted by nightmares of her past, Veronica is soon involved in a new investigation. Darío, the sole survivor of a car accident that supposedly killed all his family, is convinced that his wife and child have in fact survived and that his wife has abducted their child. Then a truck searched in the port of Buenos Aires on suspicion that it is carrying drugs, is revealed to be transporting human body parts. These seemingly separate incidents prove to be tied in a shadowy web of complicity involving political and religious authorities. This is a dazzling thriller but also a story about the possibilities of love, in which jealousy, eroticism, humor and even elusive moments of happiness make an appearance.
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A collection of portraits of many remarkable Alabamians, famous and obscure, profiled by award-winning journalist and novelist Roy Hoffman
Alabama Afternoons is a collection of portraits of many remarkable Alabamians, famous and obscure, profiled by award-winning journalist and novelist Roy Hoffman. Written as Sunday feature stories for the Mobile Press-Register with additional pieces from the New York Times, Preservation, and Garden & Gun, these profiles preserve the individual stories—and the individual voices within the stories—that help to define one of the most distinctive states in the union.
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Hoffman recounts his personal visits with writer Mary Ward Brown in her library in Hamburg, with photographer William Christenberry in a field in Newbern, and with storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham and folk artist Charlie “Tin Man” Lucas at their neighboring houses in Selma. Also highlighted are the lives of numerous alumni of The University of Alabama—among them Mel Allen, the “Voice of the Yankees” from 1939 to 1964; Forrest Gump author Winston Groom; and Vivian Malone and James Hood, the two students who entered the schoolhouse door in 1963. Hoffman profiles distinguished Auburn University alumni as well, including Eugene Sledge, renowned World War II veteran and memoirist, and Neil Davis, the outspoken, nationally visible editor of the Lee County Bulletin.
Hoffman also profiles major and minor players in the civil rights movement, from Johnnie Carr, raised in segregated Montgomery and later president of the Montgomery Improvement Association; and George Wallace Jr., son of the four-time governor; to Theresa Burroughs, a Greensboro beautician trampled in the march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge; and Diane McWhorter, whose award- winning book explores the trouble- filled Birmingham civil rights experience. Juxtaposed with these are accounts of lesser-known individuals, such as Sarah Hamm, who attempts to preserve the fading Jewish culture in Eufaula; Edward Carl, who was butler and chauffeur to Bellingrath Gardens founder Walter Bellingrath in Theodore; and cousins William Bolton and Herbert Henson, caretakers of the coon dog cemetery in Russellville.
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Michael—a young man in his thirties, a concentration camp survivor—makes the difficult trip behind the Iron Curtain to the town of his birth in Hungary. He returns to find and confront “the face in the window”—the real and symbolic faces of all those who stood by and never interfered when the Jews of his town were deported. In an ironic turn of events, he is arrested and imprisoned by secret police as a foreign agent. Here he must confront his own links to humanity in a world still resistant to the lessons of the Holocaust.
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Read Along with Me Call it spring fever, call it a delayed nesting phase but I have been in the mood to do house projects. Nothing huge but I’m finding a few little things to refresh and improve my space. Like adding some smart features. It’s fun to ask Alexa to handle certain tasks! The…
Read Along with Me My to-do list around the house is getting shorter as I’m crossing projects off my list. It’s fun to make a few changes around the house. Still a couple of bigger tasks to get to but I’ll have them all finished by the end of the month (fingers crossed). If you…
Read Along with Me Hey Readers! I am taking some time for myself for a week or two. The first half of this year has been so incredibly busy so I’ve decided to take just a little break from a few things to make sure I’m keeping life in balance. I hung an “out of…
April Short Story Feature One of the highlights of my tenure as a member of Toastmasters was coordinating a Murder Mystery theme meeting. Keeping members engaged and motivated to continue working toward their goals can be a challenge. So in an effort to liven things up a bit, I worked with a few other members …
Attention writers! This month's short story contest theme is: A Short Story Inspired by Your Career Entries must be received by midnight April 24th, cst. Selected stories will be featured during the month of October. Read on for further guidelines. Short Story Contest Guidelines Stories are to be 1,500 to 3,000 words. All genres welcome. …
Read Along with Me This week, I'm looking forward to enjoying a pair of thrillers. The first is a spy thriller, The Man in the Corduroy Suit. Author James Wolff draws on his own experience working in the British government for this series. And my second selection, The Hand that Feeds You by Mercedes Rosende, …
Attention writers! This month's short story contest theme is: A Short Story Inspired by Your Career Entries must be received by midnight April 24th, cst. Selected stories will be featured during the month of October. Read on for further guidelines. Short Story Contest Guidelines Stories are to be 1,500 to 3,000 words. All genres welcome. …
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