This book has a fantastic opening sentence. Here it is:"'Have I told you the drone's penis snaps off during intercourse with the queen bee?" asked Augusta."The story this book tells is set in the late 1990s, with most of the action happening in flashbacks. The "present" is never clearly defined, ...
After reading Robert Morgan's Gap Creek, I went on a hunt of other works of literature that had similar characters who are realistic, hard, and genuine. Yet, it was not until I stumbled upon this novel that I found Morgan's match. Gail Anderson-Dargatz is a beautiful writer who knows how to balan...
If I didn’t, I knew she would die. I had no idea how I knew. I just did. I had never been surer of anything in my life. The search-and-rescue base camp was set up at the foot of Little Mountain. The mobile command unit was an old school bus painted white. From that bus, Matt Holden planned the se...
The summer following Jacob’s return, Job dropped in on Will early one morning, unannounced, and found Ed sitting at the kitchen table in nothing but his Stanfield’s. Morning bristle on a wrestler’s chin, dark ruffle of chest hair, arms as thick as thighs. He made no attempt to cover himself. Will...
So hot everything goes liquid. The air over the cornfield shimmers, air so hot and wet you feel you’re taking in another’s hot, exhausted breath. Your skin’s so slick with sweat, it’s hard to tell where your body ends and the air begins. Smells that were forgotten come to the surface. The garlic ...
We had almost finished taking the old pipes apart before putting in new ones. I was on my hands and knees beside Steve when I heard an unfamiliar voice, a man’s voice. “Hello?” he said through the screen door of the kitchen. I jumped, bumping my head under the sink. “Oh!” I said, holding the back...
Clearly, he liked Devon and was shocked the kid had confessed. So I was right. Devon was the firebug. “Oh, Devon,” Jim said. “Tell me this is some kind of sick joke.” I suddenly realized the chief had been grooming Devon. He had wanted the kid to be part of his firefightin...
Liz started unloading our gear from the truck. Gerald ate his donuts and watched us work. Sam stood beside him with her arms crossed. She wouldn’t help us, either. At one point, I saw Gerald offer Sam one of his donuts. She took it. Progress, I thought. We were only an hour into our trip, and the...
She lay in bed confused, thinking her mother was still alive, waking her for breakfast, but it was dark at her bedroom window and her mother had been dead eight years. Still in those waters between dreams and wakefulness, she turned to sit on the edge of her bed, her feet on the floor, and listen...