Events Calendar
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Most Read Stories
Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Victim of beating in Kent last week is declared dead at Akron hospital
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Can DNA tests free ex-Akron captain?
Browns' roster nearly devoid of consistent players
Coventry man killed in crash at I-77 ramp
College student mistaken for deer, shot to death
Does it work? Test team returns to try out new products advertised on television
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Friday Night Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Browns vs. Lions live …
Akron Zips:
Hitchens leads Zips in second-half comeback
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Robiskie, Harrison inactive
Kent State Sports:
Kent State blown out in second half, loses to Temple 47-13
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Four area football teams play tonight
All Da King's Men:
The Sunday Sanity Challenge
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?
Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (69) The Brookings Institute Study on "Bending the Curve" – Four General Strategies
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Silverdome Potentially SOLD!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
George is looking for a Thanksgiving buffet in Akron.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
A Random Rant on Testing
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
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.
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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.
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