What are you reading this week of April 30, 2017?

[japple]

1. A Southern gothic: She-Rain by Michael Cogdill.

From a reviewer at Barnes & Noble named ChristysBook Blog:

She-Rain by Michael Cogdill is a powerful story of the 1920s that will leave readers considering the nature of love. Frank Locke has lived his life with more despair and tragedy than ten other boys his age. His father is addicted to paregoric, and his mother too often faces his fists. The grandparents who guide his life giving it foundation and faith die while he's still a young man, leaving him to make his way. Mary Lizbeth has suffered even worse than Frank, and their shared pain pulls them together in a bond that seems irrevocable, until a violent act sends Frank running for his life and spilling onto the doorstep of sheltered Sophia. Sophia and Frank share a loss that binds them together as well and will change them both forever. Cogdill writes the book that every author intends when they sit down to write the Great American Novel. Filled with quotes that will touch the reader's very soul, every word seems carefully chosen, pulling the reader into the mountains of North Carolina where a child suffers for the sins of the parent. Beautifully written, impossible to put down, Cogdill will leave readers thinking about how true love makes each of us better, never leaves us the same and that "love is the only thing you earn by givin' it all away."

@ http://www.barnesandnoble.com/reviews/she-rain-michael-cogdill/1112537836?ean=9781600377020#reviews-header

This book is set in the mountains of Western North Carolina--a place near and dear to my heart and where I'll be headed for a visit next week.

I notice that I didn't post anything last week. After setting up and cleaning up from our semi-annual book sale for Friends of the Library, I was beat and it took me a few days to recover. Between the library and cat rescue, I'm up to my ears in projects. Thank god I'm retired!

and thank you, hermetic, for your weekly posts.