48. A Cry in the Dark by Denise Grover Swank

#1 Carly Moore

listened on Audible

narrated by Shannon McManus very well

Unabridged audio (10:48)
2019
376 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 5/8/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.45 - 1976 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary small Smoky Mountain town, Tennessee

First line/s: " 'No, no, no, no, NO!' I shouted, banging the heel of my hand on the steering wheel of my Honda."

My comments: This is a mediocre mystery that dragged in many places much longer than it needed to.  Much, or even most, of it was either eye-rolling or difficult to believe.  Repetitive and slow quite a bit.  Very decent narrator was one of the details that kept me listening.  There are two or three or maybe even four more to come in the series, 50 -50 on whether I will continue.

Goodreads synopsis:  A woman fleeing her past finds more than she bargains for in a new suspense series by New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author Denise Grover Swank.

          A woman on the run with no one to trust.
          With the ink barely dry on her new identity, Cary Moore just wants to disappear…but fate has other plans.
          Broken down car, next to nothing in her bank account, Carly is stuck in a Smoky Mountain town that time has forgotten. Drum is riddled with secrets and outsiders are eyed with distrust. Still, it isn’t until she witnesses a cold-blooded murder in a darkened parking lot, that she realizes she’s escaped one nightmare, only to land in another.
          As the clock ticks down and more bodies pile up, Carly doesn’t know who to trust. If she doesn’t stop the killers, they just might stop her…permanently.

20. If You Find Me - Emily Murdoch

2013, St. Martin's Griffin

248 pgs.

Written for young adults

Finished 5/29/2013

CRF

Goodreads Rating: 4.09

My Rating:

4.5 Really loved it

TPPL

Setting:  Contemporary Tennessee, deep in the woods of the Obed River National Forest and in a small Tennessee town

1^st sentence/s: "Mama says no matter how poor folks are, whether you're a have, a have-not, or break your mama's back on the cracks in between, the world gives away the best stuff on the cheap.  Like, the way the white-hot mornin' light dances in diamonds across the surface of our creek."

A quote I'd like to notate and remember:  "Then I hold on to the edge of the counter for support and cry until I'm all cried out.  I reckon a good cry has been a long time in the making, and I cry until I'm empty, but a goo empty, like the speckled shells left behind by flapping quail babies." (p. 149)

My comments: This is the first novel that I've read in one gulp in a long time. The first person narration was superb, I haven't been able to get inside a protagonist's head like this in awhile. The story was heart-breaking, totally believable, simple-yet-deep. Couldn't put it down, even though I knew exactly where it was going. It didn't matter, it was the WAY the story was told. AND, this was Ms. Murdoch's first (published) book. Super cudos!

Goodreads Review:  A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and two strangers arrive. Suddenly, the girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and perplexing new world of high school, clothes and boys.

Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go… a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn’t spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down

14. Flight Behavior - Barbara Kingsolver

Audio read by the author, beautifully!

15 discs (16 hrs. 56 min.)

2012, Harper Audio, $30.95

437 pgs.

Written for adults

Finished April 14, 2013

Genre: CRF

Goodreads Rating: 3.79

My Rating 4.5

Acquired TPPL

Setting: contemporary Appalachian Tennessee

1^st sentence/s:  "A certain feeling comes from throwing your good life away, and it is one part rapture.  Or so it seemed for now, to a woman with flame-colored hair who marched uphill to meet her demise.+

My comments:  My rating is actually a 4.5. Why not 5? Because there's just a little too much scientific explanation in places. However, I'm glad I listened to the book instead of reading it, because I would have skimmed over those parts if I were reading and while listening was forced to listen to them - and they were interesting, thought-provoking, and worrisome. The added plus of Barbara Kingsolver's wonderful voice and accent made me upset when the book was over. I wanted more, more, more! At the beginning of the book I was quite unsure whether I'd like the protagonist, Dellarobia  It was a weird introduction to a character - someone sneaking off to cheat on her husband. However, the story was outstanding, and incredibly beautifully written. And tiny, red-haired Dellarobia was a superb character. Kingsolver is my favorite writer. I don't know anyone who can put words together like she does. Global warming. Monarch butterflies. Hardship and hard times in Appalachia. Mothering. Really good mothering. Interesting, REAL, well-fleshed characters. Honesty. Hmmm....I loved it.

Goodreads Review: Dellarobia Turnbow is a restless farm wife who gave up her own plans when she accidentally became pregnant at seventeen. Now, after a decade of domestic disharmony on a failing farm, she has settled for permanent disappointment but seeks momentary escape through an obsessive flirtation with a younger man. As she hikes up a mountain road behind her house to a secret tryst, she encounters a shocking sight: a silent, forested valley filled with what looks like a lake of fire. She can only understand it as a cautionary miracle, but it sparks a raft of other explanations from scientists, religious leaders, and the media. The bewildering emergency draws rural farmers into unexpected acquaintance with urbane journalists, opportunists, sightseers, and a striking biologist with his own stake in the outcome. As the community lines up to judge the woman and her miracle, Dellarobia confronts her family, her church, her town, and a larger world, in a flight toward truth that could undo all she has ever believed.  Flight Behavior takes on one of the most contentious subjects of our time: climate change. With a deft and versatile empathy Kingsolver dissects the motives that drive denial and belief in a precarious world.

Passing the Music Down - Sarah Sullivan

Illustrated by Barry Root
Candlewick Press, 2010
HC $16.99
32 pgs.
Rating:  4
Endpapers:  Light blue
Title page:  Small oval watercolor of a bridge over a river between two mountain/hills

Based on the true story of the friendship of an elderly fiddle player and a young boy who learns to carry on the tradition of mountain folk music.  The original story takes place in West Virginia, this story takes place in Tennessee.

Come August, with corn strutting high in the fields
and tomatoes plumping out on the vine,
folks get to talking about tuning up and
heading over twisty mountain roads
to hear fiddle players and banjo pickers
make music under the stars.

They travel through the heartland,
past cold factories and drifty towns
to the old, old mountains
slumbering east of Tennessee.

Full page illustrations are just gorgeous.

Full of alliteration, metaphor, simile, personification, and snazzy, snazzy verbs, the eloquent text is a joy, and the story is quite interesting.  I plan to look up some of the tunes mentioned, see if I can purchase or download them to share with my students when I share this beautiful book.  "Peg 'n' Awl," "Bonaparte's Retreat," "Cold Frosty Morning," "Liza Jane," "Yew Piney Mountain."

Author's Note, Lengthy bibliography, and a note on the tunes are at the end of the book.

63. Where I'd Like to Be - Frances O'Roark Dowell

Audio read by Denise Wilbanks (in a great southern accent)
Listening Library, 2003
4 unabridged cds
4 hrs. 3 min.
240 pages
Rating: 4.5

I listened to this story. At first I was just a tiny bit put off by the very southern accent, but Denise Wilbanks did a superior job. The story is set in rural Tennessee, and that accent really accentuated the setting. (ha - good one, right?)

Maddie lives in the East Tennesse Children's Home. She has been in a number of foster homes since her birth, and she's a great, philosophical kid. Her best friend is a six-year old named Ricky Ray, another great kid who she cares about a lot. Then one day a new girl arrives. Murphy is different, and Maddie is mesmerized by her. Murphy has been places, has seen things, and has magical ideas and dreams.

Throughout her life, Maddie has been creating a "book of houses" and a "book of people." It sounds like they're created from those black-marble-ized journals. She has cut-out pictures of houses and people lovingly glued in. She and Ricky Ray create story after story of happy times in loving homes.

So five good friends decide to create a "house" of their own. With help, they build a fort in the woods that becomes their haven. But naturally, the course of life is not always smooth. Bumps appear. Foster homes, real parents coming out of rehab, possible adoption.....and decisions. Tough decisions for 11 and 12 year olds.

Great story. Almost a five....there are a few places that might have had a bit more detail. I loved it.

62. Chill of Fear - Kay Hooper

#8 Bishop/Special Crime Unit series
Audio read by Dick Hill
Brilliance Audio, 2005
8 unabridged cds
9 hrs.
368 pages
Rating: 2

This is a mystery solved by two psychics - one of them, Quentin Hayes, is an FBI agent. Psychics make up the Special Crime Unit. Apparently every psychic has different abilities, and with Quentin's help, Diana Brisco discovers that she hasn't been crazy her whole life, she is actually a medium that can go into the freezing cold "gray" world and talk to the spirits of the dead.

The setting for this story is at a fancy-schmansy resort in the boonies of Tennessee. Murder after murder has taken place ever since the place had been built, and it's time to solve them. Of course they do, though it takes forever to get to the end, and then it's done.

I won't say I don't believe in the paranormal (actually, I don't think I do), but I guess I really like mysteries of reality, gritty reality. And I wanted more characterization. It certainly passed the time back and forth between school and home, but I can't say this sort of story is my cup of tea. Maybe if Iwere a believer....