Remember, this is not a race and there are no due dates to finish any particular book. I was iced in today and finished Earlene Fowler's Arkansas Traveler. This book is one of the Benni Harper series for which Ms Fowler has won an Agatha Award. That notoriety is what attracted me to the title when I was searching for books. I found the book to be off to a slow start, but stick with it ... it gets very engaging and the characters hook you. A sense of Arkansas is conveyed by the main character, Benni's, recollections of childhood innocent pranks with her friends who still live in Sugartree, the recipes her elderly female relatives compete over, the tension between two soon-to-merge Baptist churches, and more importantly, race relations that still have a long way to go. Don't want to give off too much more of the plot until we all have a chance to get our hands on a copy.
I've started Falling Man, the Dellio story about 9/11. Again, as I started reading it, it wasn't exactly what I expected. The style seemed disjointed, but that appears to be a device to mirror the disassociation of the event from normal day to day life. It's getting better and I think it is said to say a good, if current, simile for NY.
Heard back from Ms. Fowler; here is her note. (By the way, "Love Mercy" is the name of her soon-to-be published book.)
Hi Mercy,
Of course I love your name :). I can't remember if I answered you, so forgive me if I did. I love your resolution! I have great faith you'll achieve it. AT was a fun book to write because I had to do so much research in Arkansas, my mama's birthplace. Miss those cafes and their pie!
Anyway, hope you enjoy "Love Mercy" when it comes out. Happy Trails, Earlene Fowler
Comment from MG: I found myself crying, also, at the end of Arkansas Traveler. It was pretty light as mysteries go but an engaging good book. Next is Between, Georgia. My favorite time in life, other than being a new mom, was when I was a graduate assistant , shared an office with three others and had all the time in the world to read and talk about books. Although my personal life was in the can, the good times at grad school made up for it and I've been let down since then about what the world of "work" looks like. I still can't believe that they not only paid for my tuition but also paid me to read and talk about books. Yum. I like the blog because it's fun and it's in the same vein.
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I can't remember the last time I cried at the end of reading a mystery. As a mystery, though, the Arkansas Traveler is pretty light. But what it lacks in that area it makes up with atmosphere and very engaging characters. We like the folks in this book(except for the racists who don't really lose in the end but don't gain ground, either.) Never having been to Arkansas and not much of a reader of Southern Lit I'm not sure how much of the atmosphere is actually unique to Arkansas but there's lots of good description of lakes and forests and dusty little towns. I liked the interest in quilts and the comraderie that existed amongst friends of different races. The contradictions of political perspectives in fiction are probably matched in a state that had both Little Rock and Designing Women in its past! This is my first resolution read and I liked it!
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