Darden North, MD

The Stranger by Harlan Coben My rating: 5 of 5 stars I had not read Harlan Coben in a while--in fact could not remember the title of that last novel. But now after completing this digital audio book in a few days, I'm hooked and will most likely soon read (or listen to) Coben's "The Missing." In "The Stranger," when a stranger confronts protagonist Adam Price with a secret in a bar just before the coaches select the local high school lacrosse teams, Adam begins to question the love and integrity of his wife and everything he holds true--or thought was true. He learns that she has faked a pregnancy, but for no good reason. In the audio version of "The Stranger," the performance may initially seem sing-song or "preachy," but this could be attributed somewhat to Adam's and the narrator's frequent use of simile and metaphor to describe other characters, settings, or the situation. Clandestine Internet websites, mystery-solving...

As an author I love to visit book clubs. Recently by video teleconference, I was the honored guest of the Yarn Spinners Book Club of Ackerman, Mississippi. Friend and member Frances Coleman tells me that the club grew from a group of women who like to knit and crochet. They soon found themselves talking about books and decided to devote one meeting each month to having a book club. The program is sponsored by the Mississippi State University Extension Service - Chocktaw County.  Last year the Yarn Spinners read and discussed my newest novel, "Wiggle Room," but in 2015 my second novel, "Points of Origin," a national IPPY award-winner in Southern Fiction, was the focus of intention. Pictured separately  via Skype and Facetime  are the guest novelist and the Yarn Spinners group with guests. The club shared with me the 23 discussion questions it considered including such concepts as what was the central conflict of the novel’s plot, how does one ...

Fourth of July 2015 was more than a piece of cake for me, but this red, white, & blue concoction sure made our treasured national holiday a sweet one.  The cake was my wife Sally’s idea, but guess who ate most of it! After all, the calories were a just reward, I thought, for using the time off to finish ten rough-draft pages of my upcoming novel, the thriller “When the Bee Stings”—a follow-up story to “Wiggle Room.”  Instead of this photo, I thought about posting the “after” picture with only part of “Happy Fourth of July” remaining in the icing and the cake towering in the stand over a sea of red, white, and blue crumbs.  Because I am a blessed and proud American, I was able to enjoy this treat and an extended, leisurely weekend with family and friends, either here with me in Jackson, Mississippi, or via cell phone and photo texts.  Although this weekend was a special time, we should take pride every day in what we can offer others and what our country means to...