Call it Bon
Temps withdrawals but I had some doubts about Charlaine Harris’s new series set
in Midnight, Texas. Even after I had read the first book in the series,
“Midnight Crossroad,” I wasn’t sure I would be as enthralled with this series
as I was her Sookie Stackhouse best-selling series, one you might recognize as
the basis to the “True Blood” series on HBO.
And yet
after reading “Midnight Crossroad,” I couldn’t get the characters out of my
head.
The second
book in her “Midnight, Texas” series has just been published and “Day Shift”
continues the antics of a small but eclectic group of people who live and work
in the tiny crossroads known as Midnight, a town somewhere outside of Dallas. I
found myself thrilled to be back in their midst and the book captivates better
than the first.
The story
begins when the main character — even though it’s an ensemble cast — psychic
Manfred Bernardo visiting a tony suburb of Dallas to have face-to-face readings
with some clients. His Midnight neighbor, the secretive and beautiful Olivia
Charity, is also in the hotel and suspiciously involved in a murder that
happens there.
When one of
Manfred’s clients keels over dead, things get really interesting.
“Day Shift”
deals with the fallout of both murders and its effect on the sleepy town where
its peculiar residents want to remain out of the public eye. There’s also a new
kid in town who’s odd in his own way and under the protection of the equally
abnormal “Rev” who operates a pet cemetery and chapel. The abandoned hotel gets
a makeover but the owners appear to have ulterior motives. And one of the
hotel’s visitors has unique paranormal gifts.
All of
these activities, naturally, come to a head in this paranormal mystery series.
Stackhouse
lovers will be happy to note that two characters from that series make
appearances in Midnight, allowing Harris to slightly tie the books together.
Now, I’m
hooked. Can’t wait until next May so I can return to Midnight, Texas.
New releases
Jessie
McCormick grew up a sharecropper’s daughter in Lucky, Louisiana, wishing for
pearls and a good education, things her family’s meager income couldn’t afford.
One of the wedding gifts her parents received was Pearl, “a reddish-brown
jersey cow with a soft, leathery nose and wise, walnut eyes,” which became
Jessie’s friend. Jessie’s
story, told in a novel-like fashion by Patti Lacy, a graduate of Neville High
School, and Sara Richardson, a Colorado author, make up “Jessie’s Pearls: A
Memoir,” about growing up and dreaming of a better life. The book follows
Jessie McCormick’s life through the Depression, war years and on into the
tumultuous 1960s. The authors
will discuss “Jessie’s Pearls” at 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the Louise Williams
Branch Library in West Monroe.
Mississippi Press
Out this
month from the University of Mississippi Press is “Conversations with Michael
Chabon,” 18 interviews with the renowned author edited by Brannon Costello of
Baton Rouge. Costello is associate professor of English and director of the
Master of Arts in Liberal Arts program at LSU.
Anna
Servaes of Youngsville, who teaches French and Spanish at Schools of the Sacred
Heart in Grand Coteau, has published “Franco-American Identity, Community and
La Guiannée.”
Now in
paperback is Peggy Frankland and Susan Tucker’s “Women Pioneers of the
Louisiana Environmental Movement.” Frankland is a native of Sulphur and has
served environmentalism in many capacities. Tucker is from New Orleans and
curator of books and records at the Newcomb College Center for Research on
Women at Tulane. She is the author of “Telling Memories among Southern Women.”
Book events
The Faulkner
House Books and the Faulkner Society will have a launch party for Irvin
Mayfield's new book about music and musicians, including his own stories, and
seven CDs of music, at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Cabildo in New Orleans. “Irvin
Mayfield's New Orleans Jazz Playhouse” is introduced by author and journalist
Walter Isaacson with a foreword by Louisiana author Ernest Gaines and an
afterword by Wynton Marsalis. There will be free cocktail refreshments and
finger food. To reserve your copy of the book in advance, call Faulkner House
Books with credit card information at (504) 524-2940. Please e-mail the
Faulkner Society,
faulkhouse@aol.com, to
reserve a place.
Warren and
Mary Perrin, editors of “Acadie Then and Now: A People’s History,” will speak
about their new book at noon Wednesday at the Houma Rotary Club. For more
information, call 233-5832, or email
perrin@plddo.com.
The Bayou
Writers’ Group of Lake Charles is hosting a Literary Reading Night of prose and
poetry from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday at Stellar Beans Coffee and Edibles in
Lake Charles. Sign up to participate through their web site,
www.bayouwritersgroup.com.
