Having read two books back to back about World War Two pilots and nurses, I found only two similarities: They’re both fiction based on fact and they’re both about women. The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg is funny and focuses on one of my pet peeves: how women rarely got (and often […]
General
The Money Bird: funny, yet sensitive
I laughed all through The Money Bird, Sheila Webster Boneham’s second mystery. Her protagonist Janet MacPhail’s dry wit shows up in tongue and cheek comments meant to alleviate the conflict she experiences insisting on her independence, while relishing her closeness to boyfriend Tom. Even more, I like how Sheila, through Janet, interprets dog and cat […]
Moon Beach Magic: a warning
You’ll find a bit of everything in Moon Beach Magic by Natasha Alexander (aka North Carolina resident Nancy Gadzuk)—spirited characters (Shirley’s a hoot), a few necessary explosions, and descriptions of mouth-watering pastries that had me searching online for recipes to duplicate. Set along the southern coast, Moon Beach Magic captures the serenity of beach town […]
Three complaints with spoken language
Language is constantly changing, but I cringed to hear a writer friend say, “She gave the books to her and I.” Too many people are afraid of speaking the pronoun “me,” a legitimate word that deserves to be used correctly—in the above case, as the object of the preposition “to.” Would this person have also […]
Women and Wine
The Mother Vine Festival, featuring women authors, artists, musicians and North Carolina Wineries, will run from Feb. 1-16 at Barnhill’s Bookstore, 811 Burke St., Winston-Salem, NC. Every day for those two weeks, except Sunday and Monday when the store is closed, women authors will give readings and book signings, women musicians will perform, receptions will […]
Actors take many roles in ‘Cloud Atlas’
The best part of the film “Cloud Atlas” comes after the credits. Viewers patient enough to sit through the entire movie will be shocked to see stills of the different characters each actor portrays. Not only one actor playing persons of different ages, but an Asian playing a red-haired, freckle-faced southern belle, Halle Berry portraying […]
