One of the most fantastic writers on the planet has gone and done it again, creating a story that not only makes the reader not want to put the book down until the very end, but makes the reader actually feel the need to continue no matter what. The ‘pull’ of this novel is such a complete package of intelligence, perfect dialogue, edge-of-your-seat action, and a completely surprise ending.
Photo by: K. Zimmerman The Lonely Writer’s Companion - Getting to the Desk by Lisa Lenard-Cook May, 2011 E. B. White circled his office, straightening the pictures on the wall until the work waiting on his desk demanded...
It may have been Dr. Gachet’s painting or simply his name in conjunction with another painter that sparked Carol Wallace’s interest in Vincent Van Gogh’s last months in bucolic Auvers, but Dr. Gachet is imagined into existence. All of this seems to come from Van Gogh’s portrait of the psychiatrist who unofficially treated him.
Jiminy Davis stops in the middle of a very successful and stressful life to wonder what she’s doing. She leaves Chicago and her plans for being a lawyer to bury herself in Mississippi in the little town where she visited her grandparents. Jiminy needs to find herself and her purpose. What she finds are buried secrets and prejudice that she is determined to uncover.
Beginning with the murder of a colleague in the Special Trials division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, Rachel Knight faces the fact that outside of the office she did not know Jake Pahlmeyer very well. It is a hard truth and she has a few moments of doubt about whether or not the man she knew was a pedophile and murderer willing to commit suicide.
In 1947, Martin Mitchell was returned from the war a changed man, in utter control of his work and his emotions, drinking too much, smoking and distant from his wife Evie and their son Billy. Into this cease fire holding pattern, Martin is awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study the partition of India in the wake of the departing British Raj.
Dar McCarthy is a resident of the stunning Martha’s Vineyard. Sitting on her front steps with her black lab, Scup, Dar relaxes beside the wonderful gray cottage that looks out across the froth and foam of the high-cresting waves. The frost is still on the ground, but it’s soon to be gone with the arrival of spring right around the corner.
Alienor was the eldest daughter of the Duke of Aquitaine and quite precocious, thanks to her father teaching her politics and the art of governing. He set her feet on the path to obtain what she desired—to be queen—by having her confirmed as duchess of Aquitaine at a time when women were not seen as strong or capable enough of handling the reins of power. Alienor was bound to prove them wrong.
R is a young man with an existential crisis–he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he has dreams.
Ever wonder why teens can spend entire weekends playing video games but struggle with just one hour of homework? Why we’re addicted to certain websites and steal glances at our smartphones under the dinner table? Or why some people are able to find joy in difficult or repetitive jobs while others burn out? It’s not the experiences themselves but the way they’re structured that matters.
