Discovering New Authors

This week I "got wind " of some authors and books that caught my interest. Pat, a blog follower from East Tennessee wrote me about a new first novel from author Dolen Perkins-Valdez titled " WENCH". She said it was being compared to " The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. Since "The Help" is my favorite read of 2009, I had to check this book out. I googled it and read the reviews. It has gotten rave reviews! The author who lives in Seattle was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee so that means Southern Author in my book and you all know how I Love our southern writers! This book is fact based on a pre-Civil War Ohio summer resort where slave owners took their African-American mistresses to spend summer vacations. The story is told from the voices of four of these women who meet up there every summer for 4 weeks. I started the book last night and read three chapters. So far it is wonderful! I'll do a review when I'm finished..........for more on this book go here I got a e-mail from a friend in Tennessee who had just finished this book " Mudbound"by Hillary Jordan and she said it was terrific! This is also a first novel that was published in 2008. Its setting is post WWII in the Mississippi Delta. The story of a white family and a a black family who work together in a struggle to survive on a ramshackle farm. It is a winner of the Bellwether Prize for fiction. Hillary Jordan grew up in both Oklahoma and Texas....for more on this book go HERE

Author Vicki Lane had a comment in her newsletter about another author I'd never heard of who writes books about my favorite place, Appalachia. A North Carolina Author!! You know how partial I am to those wonderful NC writers! So I googled Peggy Poe Stern and was just awe struck by the books she's written! I had a wonderful phone conversation with Peggy yesterday and I'll be getting five of her novels in the mail this week! I'm really excited about discovering Peggy Poe Stern! Thanks Vicki !! This book is her first novel and it also has a sequel titled

" Above All" and she told me she has two more sequels to this book in the works!

" Tamarack" was her second and one of the five I ordered from her. Her books are set in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina and have gotten wonderful reviews! For more on Peggy Poe Stern and her books go HERE.

I hope you will check out these books and their authors and add them to your list of must read books!!