Save the best for last. Isn’t that what we always say?
You know I enjoy my role as host of UNC-TV’s program, “North Carolina Bookwatch.” After this season, (my 10th) concludes next year, I plan to step down. The fine authors and timely books coming up make it possible for me to “go out” with the best season ever.
For instance, if you are appalled by the kidnapping and confinement of Jaycee Lee Dugard, read John Hart’s latest book, “The Lost Child.” It will take you into the backyard of a sex offender who has imprisoned a young girl just like Jaycee. (On UNC-TV’s NC Bookwatch, 5 p.m. today).
The sudden loss of a beloved child, the damning sentence of an incurable cancer, the indiscretions of a husband she adored, how does Elizabeth Edwards deal with this triple set of slammers? She lays it all out powerfully in her bestselling book, “Resilience” (Sept. 27).
During his lifetime, Archie Graham, brother of UNC President Frank Porter Graham, was virtually unknown outside the Minnesota town where he was a respected physician. But Archie, also known as “Moonlight Graham,” has become an icon. Find out why in “Chasing Moonlight: The True Story of Field of Dreams’ Doc Graham” by Brett Friedlander and Robert Reising (Oct. 4).
Michael Malone is North Carolina’s Charles Dickens. His new book, “The Four Corners of the Sky,” takes a North Carolina woman who is a top Navy pilot on a journey like Dorothy’s trip to the Land of Oz (Oct. 11).
Coincidently, the title story in N.C. State’s John Kessel’s new book, “The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and other Stories” is also inspired by Dorothy and Oz. Kessel takes his readers from the North Carolina Mountains to human colonies on the moon, and from the present day to 100 years ago or 100 years from now (Oct. 18).
Beginning with the publication of “A Long and Happy Life” almost 50 years ago, readers all over the world have admired the works of Reynolds Price. At last we have the story of how that first wonderful story of Rosacoke Mustian came to be. It is all a part of his new book, “Ardent Spirits: Leaving Home, Coming Back” (Oct. 25).
The Gothic architecture Duke University campus is a perfect setting for Alexandra Sokoloff’s “The Unseen,” a tale of mystery and the supernatural based on the extrasensory perception experiments of Dr. J.B. Rhine (Nov. 1).
UNC-Chapel Hill Professor Barry Popkin’s new book, “The World is Fat,” explains why changes in lifestyle and eating habits across the globe have made the food we eat our No.1 public health problem (Nov. 8).If you read Erica Eisdorfer’s “The Wet Nurse’s Tale,” you risk falling in love with a 19th Century English servant girl, whose role is to nurse the children of upper class women. Plain and plump though she may be, her tenacity and resourcefulness will win your admiration (Nov. 15).
Kate Betterton’s “Where the Lake Becomes the River” captures the spirit and the spirits of growing up in the South. It also captured the prestigious Novello Literary Award (Nov. 22).
More than 150 years after the end of slavery in North Carolinians, its legacy still haunts the land, still surrounds us, intertwined with family and personal history. That legacy is the theme of literary icon Shelby Stephenson’s award winning book “Family Matters: Homage to July, The Slave Girl” (Nov. 29).
Ron Rash’s new novel, “Serena,” establishes him as one of America’s leading authors. New York Times book reviewer Janet Maslin named it one of her 10 Favorite Books of 2008 (Dec. 6).
Hope you will watch on Sundays at 5 p.m.
Last chance.
D.G. Martin is the host of UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, which airs Sundays at 5 p.m. For more information or to view prior programs visit the Web page at www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch/.