Darkness, My Old Friend Takes Readers Back to Lisa Unger's Fictional Small-Town

Lisa Unger takes readers back to the sleepy (but surprisingly crime-filled) streets of The Hollows, a small town just outside New York City, in her latest book Darkness, My Old Friend.

As in Fragile, her previous novel set in The Hollows, Unger populates her book with a whole host of characters, both old and new. Returning are psychologist Maggie Cooper and her husband Jones, psychic Eloise Montgomery, and high school principal Henry Ivy. In small towns like The Hollows, everyone knows everyone. However, in Darkness, My Old Friend, Unger introduces several new characters for readers to get to know.

Michael Holt has come home to The Hollows after decades away. After the death of his father, Michael returns to his childhood home to prepare it for sale. Back in his hometown, Michael finds himself unable to let go of his mother's disappearance more than a dozen years ago. He hires private investigator Ray Muldune and psychic Eloise to help him solve the mystery once and for all. They, in turn, enlist the help of now-retired police detective Jones Cooper to help them work the troubling cold case.

Jones is also called to assist a young housewife who learns too late what her husband is really like. As she hires him, then immediately disappears, Jones steps carefully around the husband's pointed questions. In the meantime, he works to find her -- dead or alive.

Bethany and Willow Graves make up the final new-to-The-Hollows characters. Hailing from NYC in search of a place more quiet, the Graves family has secrets of their own. Willow, a high school student, has her share of issues that led them to The Hollows. She stumbles into the Marla Holt investigation by accident, then struggles to make her mother believe her.

Although admittedly Darkness contains a somewhat complicated set of storylines, it is an enjoyable read nonetheless. Unger immerses her readers in her small-town universe. Although most small towns don't experience quite so many dramatic disappearances and crimes, the underbelly of small-town life is decidedly complex. Unger gives us a peek behind the curtains of the houses we might normally pass by, and in the process spins quite a fascinating tale.

In addition to Darkness, My Old Friend, Lisa Unger is the author of Fragile, the first book set in her fictional town of The Hollows, as well as eight other novels. Some of these were written under her maiden name of Lisa Miscione, but are being re-released over the next year. Two, Angel Fire and The Darkness Gathers, are already available. For updates from Unger, visit her website, read her blog, like her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

The Accident Propels Linwood Barclay Onto My To-Read List

Linwood Barclay's latest thriller starts off with a bang -- literally. Although the author kills characters off at every turn of the page, all that death only serves to accelerate his novel rather than squash it. Barclay won't be winning the National Book Award for his efforts anytime soon, but he might just snatch an Edgar or a Dagger. I read this novel every chance I had, and finished it in about two days.

The Accident begins in New York City with a crime in Chinatown in a back alley knockoff handbag shop. Barclay then takes the action to Milford, Connecticut, a suburb, where Glen Garber and his wife live a sedate, family-driven life. But when Sheila Garber is killed in an accident which she seems to have caused, their quiet life is turned upside down.

Things in their small Connecticut town continue to spiral downward, as one crime after another pops up. Glen fights to clear his wife's name, but causes a domino effect as he does so. The most surprising characters in this novel reveal their inner criminal, and I'll just have to stop there. Truly, no plot point can be discussed at any length without revealing too much.

The Accident is about the crimes inside us all, from the smallest white lies to the larger, punishable-by-law crimes. Barclay's characters are well-written and his plot flawless. I had previously only read one Barclay thriller, 2009's Too Close to Home; now I'll be downloading his backlist onto my Kindle Touch. If you're looking for a fast-paced, engaging thriller, The Accident is the book for you.

Married to Bhutan Describes a Land Where the Spirit Can Find Peace

Isn't it funny how fabulous books just sometimes fall into your lap? You aren't looking for them -- in some cases, you don't even know about them. Linda Leaming's Married to Bhutan was one of those books.

Every October, I attend the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, Tennessee. This past fall, author River Jordan was speaking on a panel about faith,  which I was dying to attend. I had read -- and adored (read my review here) -- her nonfiction memoir-of-sorts, Praying for Strangers, so it was a no-brainer for me to attend her session at the Festival. Also on the panel with Jordan was author and missionary Katie Davis, and joining them was Linda Leaming.

The connection between these three women was at first difficult to understand. Jordan wrote a book about praying for people. Davis does mission work in Uganda, Africa, and is foster mother to thirteen orphaned and abandoned girls. Leaming wrote a book about uprooting her Nashville life and moving halfway across the world to Bhutan.

As Leaming spoke, her love for Bhutan was evident in both her words and in the way her eyes lit up as she spoke about the country. She rambled a bit, like a schoolgirl in love -- and that's a spot-on comparison. Leaming flew to Bhutan on a stopover from India during a world-wide trip whose other stops included Italy and France. But the streets of these beautiful countries couldn't hold a candle to the flame she was carrying for Bhutan's mountains and rivers.

She eventually made Bhutan her home, and Married to Bhutan is her love letter to that Himalayan country. In this memoir, Leaming details her life teaching English in a Bhutanese school, learnng to wear a kira, and struggling to communicate in a difficult and unknown-to-her language.

After reading Married in Bhutan I (sort of) want to visit the country, and I definitely understand Leaming's inclusion in the panel on faith. Although hers is not a novel of religion, it is a novel about finding your way spiritually. In Bhutan, Leaming has found a place where her spirit is at home, even though she may not believe in the Buddhist teachings her husband and his countrymen follow. She is at rest there, and often faith is just that -- finding a place of comfort in which to just be.

You can follow Linda Leaming on Twitter or on her blog, Married to Bhutan. She is currently at work on a second book. (And although this is mentioned exactly nowhere above, Leaming is quite funny. Her tongue-in-cheek sense of humor pops up throughout the book as a nice respite from the often-serious manner in which she describes her new homeland. It's a perfectly balanced book! Also, I read this on my new Kindle Touch, and the e-book is on sale at Amazon right now for $1.79. So you must snap it up.)

Red Mist Thrills This Kay Scarpetta Fan

Dr. Kay Scarpetta has moved on after her near-death experience several months ago. She's working steadily to rebuild the Cambridge Forensic Center, a forensic research company created solely by her and the people she loves. Dawn Kincaid, her attacker, is safely ensconced in prison while awaiting trial. Dawn's mother, also incarcerated but in Savannah, Georgia, has been contacting Kay via letters and email. As the always-curious scientist, Kay travels to Savannah to see what her would-be killer's mother has to say in a face-to-face visit.

Once there, Patricia Cornwell's seasoned medical examiner finds herself tangled in a complicated web of deceit. Her reasons for being called to Savannah turn out a bit differently than she first expected, and Scarpetta's dismay at being deceived almost outweighs her sense of right and wrong. In the end, she agrees to help by working an old case that involves a current female death row inmate -- one who is close to execution.

All of the usual suspects end up in Savannah -- Marino, Lucy, and Benton all make the trek to be near Kay. Readers of recent Scarpetta novels will also remember NYC prosecutor Jaime Berger, who appears in a somewhat different (and highly interesting) role.

Several things pleased me about Red Mist, the latest Scarpetta novel in a string of nineteen about the medical examiner, which Cornwell began writing more than twenty years ago.

First of all, Cornwell places the reader firmly inside Scarpetta's head. In several books, Cornwell switched from first-person point-of-view to third-person, a move that distanced the reader from her main character. According to an interview in December with ABC News, Cornwell stated that she made a definite decision to switch back to Scarpetta as narrator.

Books such as "Predator," "Trace" and "Book of the Dead" replaced Scarpetta's first-person narration with an omniscient third person that directly exposed readers to the sadistic imaginings of the perpetrator, which the author began to feel uncomfortable with. 

"I started finding it was disturbing to me. I couldn't sit in my chair for very long. I couldn't eat at my desk anymore. I grossed myself out. I never eat at my desk anymore," Cornwell said. "In the early books, you hold Scarpetta's hand. It's a much safer journey from her point of view."

Another thing that made me glad (and that kept me up nights reading this novel) was that Cornwell returned to the older days of her Scarpetta novels, in which the focus was truly on the ME's character. In a few of the novels, Scarpetta hardly seemed the point. Rather, the novels were a jumping point for Cornwell to write about the government and the military. While Scarpetta's role as a military ME does factor into Red Mist in a small way, much larger is the focus on her as a human being.

Relationships between the long-standing characters rank high on Cornwell's list of important themes in Red Mist. Not only do readers experience some details about the inner workings of Kay and Benton's marriage, but there are also some key moments in Kay's relationships with both Lucy and Marino.

In addition to all my reasons for being glad, Patrica Cornwell spins a darn good yarn in Red Mist. Even readers unfamiliar with Scarpetta and her motley crew will appreciate the nuanced plot of this novel. I did feel as though the end wrapped up rather quickly, but then again -- the novel is more than 500 pages long, and I had been staying up to the wee hours of morning to finish it. So perhaps the ending could have been slowed if I had read it at a normal pace!

For my review of Cornwell's last Scarpetta novel, Port Mortuary, click here.

Holiday Reading: Books for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

What better way to celebrate a holiday than to learn about it through reading?

The teacher in me says there is no better way. Although we aren't in school for me to teach my students today, I thought I would share some book suggestions with you. Even if you don't get around to reading them today, perhaps you'll take a dive into them at a later date.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a federal holiday that was first celebrated in 1986. It falls on the third Monday in January each year, near King's birthday on January 15.

Here is a smattering of book lists from around the web that either provide information about King and his life, or are more general books about the Civil Rights Movement to which King devoted himself:

• Last year on MLK Day, the Huffington Post provided a list of nine books about King's life.
• Last January, the Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog listed three books about the movement and one collection of King's writings and speeches.
• This year About.com asked Brooklyn booksellers to recommend books about King and the Civil Rights movement, totaling twenty books for both children and adults.
• ReadingRockets.org compiled an excellent list of books about King and the movement for children, including both picture books for reading aloud and books for beginning independent readers.
• NPR's Backseat Book Club Pick for January 2012 is Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963, a book that provides a child's view of the 1963 church bombing in Alabama, a pivotal event in the Civil Rights movement. Young readers can submit questions during or after reading the novel, and NPR will ask Curtis submitted questions during their wrap-up interview at the end of the month.

Weekend Cooking: (Wedding) Cheese Pie

**This is a post that I revamped from my never-got-off-the-ground cooking blog, Down Home Girl Cooks. Maybe one day I'll go back to it -- especially during the summer months -- but for now, I'll combine all sorts of posts on A Worn Path, bookish or not.**

On my wedding day, I got up fairly early. 7am saw me putting in a load of laundry, making a run to my local Wal-Mart, and... baking Cheese Pies. Yep, you read that right -- I was baking and doing laundry the morning of my wedding! You see, my guy doesn't really like regular cake, so I had decided his groom's cake would be cheesecake -- a treat he loves. In all the preparations and decorating, I hadn't had time to bake, until that morning.

Cheese Pie is a recipe that has been in my family for years. I don't remember who originally made it or where the recipe came from, but it's been a favorite for more than a decade. We call it Cheese Pie because it's sort of a cross between a cheesecake and, well, a pie. It actually bakes up into its own crust with a cheesecake-like center and a sour cream topping. Not overly sweet, like cheesecake can sometimes be, but instead pretty perfect.

Cheese Pie Recipe

Pie:
2 - 8oz packages of cream cheese (softened -- let it sit outside refrigerator or soften it in the microwave by zapping for no more than 5-10 seconds)
3/4 c sugar
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter glass pie pan and set aside. Beat cream cheese with hand mixer until smooth with a whipped texture. Add eggs and sugar. Mix well, until creamy and pourable. Pour into a buttered pie pan and bake for 50 minutes. Take out and allow to cool for 20 minutes. Leave the oven on, as you'll be returning the pie to the oven soon. In the meantime, mix up the topping.

Topping:
8 oz sour cream
1/4 c sugar
1 t vanilla extract

Mix all three together until smooth. When pie has cooled for 20 minutes, pour topping into the center that's been created as the pie cooled. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Take pie out and allow to cool completely. Refrigerate for a minimum of 2-3 hours, or longer if necessary, until serving.

This post is part of the Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking series. According to her blog, "Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs." It's a fun way to start the weekend off, with lots of links to recipes and all things foodie. To see this week's links, click here.

I Love You Like a Love Song, Baby: Wedding Music

Gratuitous Honeymoon Photo

No, we decidedly did not play any Selena Gomez songs at our wedding (but my stepson would have loved it if we had!). Instead, I created an iTunes playlist of songs I love. After hours of listening (my car rides almost became torturous, so determined was I that I would listen to every.single.song.on.the.playlist.in.order every time I went somewhere), I finally came up with what I thought was a delightful mix. Although I'm sure some would wonder if a thirty-year-old or a fifty-year-old added some of the songs (two by Don Henley, anyone?). I didn't want to fill up the blog with videos that would take too long to load, but I've linked to YouTube videos of all the songs if you want to take a listen.

Before the ceremony:

"January Wedding"  ~ the Avett Brothers
"Feels Like Home" ~  Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt
"Forever" ~ Ben Harper
"Grow Old With Me" ~ Mary Chapin Carpenter
“For My Wedding” ~ Don Henley
“The Luckiest” ~ Ben Folds
“True Companion” ~ Marc Cohn
“Make You Feel My Love” ~ Adele 

Bridal party entrance:

"Marry Me" ~ Train

Bride's entrance:

"So Are You to Me" ~ Eastmountainsouth

Finale:

 "You are the Best Thing" ~ Ray LaMontagne

Reception:

At the reception, which held many more people (the ceremony itself was just immediate family), we kicked it up a notch. I'm not sure guests could really hear the music, but having it in the background made me happy. I played all the songs from the ceremony, plus several more upbeat tunes. Here are some of my favorites:

"Let's Get Married" ~ Jagged Edge

"By Your Side" ~ Sade

"I Could Not Ask For More" ~ Edwin McCain

"Every Time I Close My Eyes" ~ Babyface

"You and Me" ~ Penny and the Quarters

"Taking You Home" ~ Don Henley

"Cowboy Take Me Away" ~ Dixie Chicks

Sometime I will get back to talking books; you'll have to indulge me a few wedding-related posts.