Events Calendar
In This Section
Talking Television with Rich Heldenfels
Stage Notes: Broadway star to perform cabaret at Akron fundraiser
The Heldenfiles - Wicked Lottery
Bon Jovi return to blue-collar roots with a new CD
Maya Angelou, Rihanna among Glamour mag's honorees
Answer the call of 'For Better'
Most Read Stories
Chapel Hill isn't rolling right along
Coventry woman abducted at gunpoint; ex-boyfriend arrested after 100-mph chase
New eateries expand menu of options
Akron City Council OKs higher speed on I-77
Patrick McManamon: Here's what the Browns should try the rest of the season
Suitcase causes bomb scare at Akron bus terminal
Stark County engineer dies at 49
Man says he was punched, robbed by 3 people in parking lot
Blogs:
Pets:
First Person: Inside St. Louis Pit Bull Shelter
The Heldenfiles:
Talking Television
Patrick McManamon:
Mangini opens up to national media
Akron Zips:
Interview with a Temple blogger
Tribe Matters:
Indians announce spring dates
Cleveland Browns:
Quinn tabbed to start against Ravens Monday night
Kent State Sports:
KSU Notes – November 11
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Cavs: Yeah, on That Issue of Privacy
Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeyes Roll 100-60 / Season Outlook
Varsity Letters:
Twinsburg likes chances, but warns offense needs to deliver
All Da King's Men:
Democrats Divided Over Abortion
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Simply Incapable of Telling The Truth
Akron Law Café:
Study says 2,200 uninsured veterans died in 2008 due to lack of health insurance.
See Jane Style:
Muffle Your Muffler
Car Chase:
Clock Tender- Extending the Life of Collector Car Clocks
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Rumors: Akron Starbucks Closing
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Kimberly requests information on living in Columbus, Ohio.
Sound Check:
Aeromsith looking for new singer as Steven Tyler contemplates solo career
HRLite House:
Personal Rant – Why People Do Not Live in Northeast Ohio
Akron Gamer:
Video: 'Modern Warfare 2' hits the streets
Published on Sunday, Jan 04, 2009
Doctor at Hull-House
Karen J. Hasley, the Cuyahoga Falls author whose Laramie Series of novels already has yielded two rewarding entries about women living in 19th- and early 20th-century Wyoming who use good sense and self-reliance to make homes and families for themselves, continues to impress with a sparkling new book.
Where Home Is brings along the heart from Lily's Sister and Waiting for Hope to the story of Katherine Davis, a young doctor who has just graduated from Kansas Medical School. She's thinking about returning to her Wyoming home and practicing there, when an opportunity comes along: One of her professors offers her a yearlong posting at the famous Hull-House, where social worker Jane Addams works among Chicago's poor and immigrants.
Katherine accepts and soon is at work helping bewildered new mothers, destitute women and even a prostitute who has been beaten by her customer. She befriends an abused girl with a promising soprano voice, and accompanies Addams to a ball where they chat up rich potential sponsors. There she meets Douglas Gallagher, who begins squiring her around. What follows could be a conventional love story, but not in Hasley's capable hands.
Katherine, of course, is independent-minded, but not just ''contrary'' for the purposes of conflict in the story. Douglas is generous and attentive, but doesn't seem to ''get'' her; his reckless brother is more perceptive. A visit from Katherine's parents and the end of her Hull-House assignment help her realize what she really wants. The conclusion is tear-inducing, but feels heartfelt, not manipulated, and the historical references are spot-on.
Where Home Is (338 pages, softcover) costs $14.95 from online retailers.
A truly racy book
If an erotic novel is set in the world of stock-car drivers, would you call it a racy book? The answer is found in Flat-Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy of Westlake, in which Tamara, a nice mom whose husband was killed in a track accident, meets a hot young driver who escorts her to the finish line. Many times.
At first, they decide, their relationship will be secret and just for fun. Then her kids get sick, and Elec comes by to help out. Does he have dad potential? What about the pit-row Annie who keeps e-mailing him naughty photos of herself? And Tamara's father-in-law, who bears a grudge against Elec's family?
Flat-Out Sexy is flat-out for adults only. The 291-page softcover costs $14 from Berkley Sensation, a division of Penguin.
American canonized
My Friendship With Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton by Mary Hilaire (Sally) Tavenner of Lorain tells of the author's interest in the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized.
Tavenner, who had been a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Syracuse (N.Y.) convent, became fascinated with the story of Seton, born in 1774 and married to a man who became ill and went to Italy for an unsuccessful health treatment. She converted to Catholicism there and returned to America.
Tavenner became an expert on Seton's life, was in Rome for her canonization in 1975 and advised producers on a 1980 television movie about the saint. She left the convent in 1984 and earned a doctorate in reading and language arts. She also has written a book about the Lorain writer Helen Steiner Rice.
My Friendship With Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton (103 pages, softcover) costs $15.99 from http://www.xlibris.com.
/>
Event
At Borders (3737 W. Market St., Fairlawn), Robert Spirko will sign his spy thriller The Palestine Conspiracy, 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Correction
In last week's column about the best books of 2008, I incorrectly stated that Prisoner Prince author Olga B. Kurtz is from Silver Lake. She lives in Firestone Park.
— Barbara McIntyre
Special to the Beacon Journal
Send information about books of local interest to Lynne Sherwin, Features Department, Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309 or lsherwin@thebeaconjournal.com. Event notices should be sent at least two weeks in advance.
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
