May We Suggest Some Good October Reads?

I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive

By Steve Earle (2011)

In 1963, Doc has been addicted to heroin for years when a young Mexican girl comes to his makeshift clinic. Doc cures what ails her and she begins to heal with her hands. This causes a change in the people she comes in contact with and changes occur in the neighborhood as well. Meanwhile, Doc is conversing with the ghost of Hank Williams and discusses the state of affairs.  This is a really good fiction read. ~ Recommended by Sue

You Know When the Men are Gone

By Siobhan Fallon (2011)

This collection of eight loosely interconnected stories explore the lives of the wives who wait for the men to return from war.  The author gives an unsentimental portrait of America, mostly at home at Fort Hood, Texas.  The wives try to carry on, raise their children, and reach deep while they struggle with loneliness and mistrust, bearing a different burden, but just as immediate, as their husbands, soldiers at war.  These haunting, piercing and poignant stories will stay with you long after you’ve closed the book. ~ Recommended by Sheila

Swamplandia!

By Karen Russell (2011)

Run by an eccentric family of daredevils who wrestle with alligators, Swamplandia! is a Florida Everglades theme park well past its prime.  After losing their mother and main headliner, Hilola Bigtree, to cancer, the remaining family members part ways to grieve alone. Ava, Hilola’s youngest daughter, embarks on an epic journey through the islands of the everglades in search of her sister, Osceola, who has fallen in love with a ghost and run away. The writing style in this eccentric and quirky tale is exceptional and really brings the sights, sounds and smells of the Florida wilderness to life.  ~Recommended by Rebekah