Summer of '69

One uncertain summer on Nantucket Island changes the lives and loves of every member of an extended family.

Elin Hilderbrand (The Perfect Couple) dips into historical fiction, setting Summer of '69 in the era of the Vietnam War and Woodstock, a landmark moon landing and the scandal of Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick car accident.

With history playing out, the Foley-Levin family of the greater Boston Area had planned to spend another summer at "All's Well," the Nantucket home of Exalta Nichols, the family matriarch. This year, however, the family is splintered, everyone facing the uncertainty of personal challenges: Kate--Exalta's widowed, remarried daughter and mother of three adult children of her own--is worried sick about 19-year-old Tiger, who fights for his country and his life after he's drafted into the Vietnam War. Rebellious Kirby is a hardworking 21-year-old; the free spirit and civil rights activist grapples with a taboo love and bristles against the ramifications of the Kennedy scandal. Blair, a 24-year-old intellectual, feels neglected as she endures a difficult pregnancy with twins while her husband is wrapped up, manning Mission Control for NASA. Jessie--the only offspring of Kate and her second husband, David, a lawyer--is a sensitive, love-sick 12-year-old swept up in family drama, preteen angst and the judgments of her elitist grandmother. 

Hilderbrand weaves the secret struggles, weaknesses and strengths of her well-developed cast into a rich tapestry. Hot-button issues--classism, racism, anti-Semitism, abortion, women's rights and the polarization of war--add resonant depth to Hilderbrand's trademark Cape Cod Islands setting and well-plotted multiple storylines. Once again, Hilderbrand shines, continuing to stretch her literary range with great success.

The Summer of ‘69 by Elin Hilderbrand

Little, Brown and Company, $28.00 Hardcover,  9780316420013, 432 pages

Publication Date: June 18, 2019

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (June 21, 2019), link HERE

The Devil's Garden

Author Brady Christianson cures writer's block by target practicing with his knives. "I can spend hours throwing them," he says. "Focusing on the target helps focus my thoughts." 

It's no wonder this former Marine, who served in the Reconnaissance Division, has centered his first novel, The Devil's Playground, around a retired Recon Marine who thinks he is enjoying a quiet, civilian life but who has his world suddenly turned upside-down when heavily armed Arab terrorists break into his house and try to kill him and his family. It is clear that his former military "secret identity" has been compromised and ghosts from the past have come back to settle old scores. 

 

This action-packed mystery/thriller was inspired by true events, after Christianson learned that a laptop was stolen from the Department of Veterans Affairs. "It contained the names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and social security numbers of every veteran who served this country since the Vietnam conflict. The missing laptop was not recovered until about a month later, which was an eternity for someone to copy the information and sell it...Considering these events and weighing them against the fact that there are those in the military services whose identities are protected—and they are protected for good reasons—the potential for disaster becomes painfully apparent...The story almost wrote itself."

I am pleased to welcome Brady Christianson to Reading Between the Lines to share his thoughts, in his own words, about The Devil's Garden:

The fog of war is a place where confusion rules, innocence dies and demons are born. Sometimes these demons come back to haunt a man and other times they simply come back to kill him. Few men would welcome the fight, which is to say, a proud and terrible few. The Devil’s Garden twists a Recon Marine’s worst nightmare into a deadly reality.

There is a saying in Recon: There is no life after Force. The lack of adrenaline and ensuing boredom will kill a warrior’s spirit. However, former Recon Marine Brandon Colson has a different kind of death to fear. After years spent in remote deserts and jungles on the other side of the planet dreaming of a quiet, civilian, family life, he finally has it. The problem is he has a large price on his head that even his family doesn’t know about: He is wanted by terrorists he worked to bring down.  With revenge in their hearts and murder on their minds, Colson’s enemies plan to revisit his sins upon him, his wife and his children. When a heavily armed squad of assassins arrives at his home in the middle of the night, he quickly dispatches the men, but knows the identity he buried deep in his past is no longer a secret. With his family in hiding, he makes it his personal mission to eliminate the threat to his family and reclaim the life he’s made.

The Devil’s Garden captures the irreconcilable thoughts and trepidation of a military man turned family man who must now fight to protect his family. As Colson’s crucial mission leads him to the Devil’s Garden of Florida, a forgotten wasteland of swamps, collapsed shacks, and lost souls, he finds that the midnight attack on his home was simply an omen of what is to come. With his fate in the balance until the last second, Colson must navigate a trail littered with bloodshed and revenge.

To learn more about The Devil's Garden and Brady Christianson (and read excerpts from the novel), link HERE

Follow the book blog tour for this novel at Tribute Books 

The Devil's Garden by Brady Christianson
Two Harbors Press, Trade Paper, 9781938690167, 392 pp
Publication Date: November 11, 2012
To order this book via AMAZON link HERE

War Stories

Life is a battlefield in War Stories, a riveting collection of short fiction by Elisabeth Doyle. Each story delves deeply into the experiences of American soldiers, the physically and emotionally wounded (and those who love them) as they struggle to survive and fulfill the demands of civilian life. 

Half of the stories deal with the idea of soldiers in the literal, military sense of the word:

Rebelliousness is at the heart of "Recruiters," a story about a farewell rendezvous for a young friend heading for boot camp that goes dreadfully wrong.

In "One of These Days It Will All Be Over," a man returns home from war and admits to his wife, "I'm not the same man...I'm nothing now...How can God love me?" But the simple act of going to pick up his children one day offers him an unexpected moment of transcendence.

"Pistolesi," a story about resilience, is told from the point of view of a young war wife and mother whose severely injured husband returns home from combat steeped in a severe depression. In order to pay the bills, the wife takes a job as a baby photographer and becomes enlightened by what it means to fight for the things that give life meaning.

"Driving" depicts how the terrifying prospect of combat is overcome for a young couple by taking car rides together.

And in "The Deepest, Darkest Part of the Woods," a numb veteran returns home unable to move past a chilling atrocity of war that keeps him a spectator to his own life. But the presence of a neighbor and the remembrance of a compelling dream offers a sense of renewed perspective.

The rest of the stories deal with secondary soldiers - those struggling to move on and reinvent their lives beyond the personal grief and anguish inflicted by the ripple-down effects of war:

In "Median," a highway car crash is the impetus that forces the father of a war hero to come face to face with the past. 

"Passengers" is a harrowing story about a mother whose son was unable to cope with life after war and how she finds herself caught up in a life and death battle of her own.  

Aimlessness, isolation, guilt, detachment and love are common threads that bind these nine sparse, yet richly drawn stories. With great perception and insight, Doyle focuses on chilling facts and small moments that give emotional heft to the interior landscapes of these traumatized, fully realized characters.

War Stories is currently under consideration for The Story Prize (2012).  To read more about Elisabeth Doyle and her writing process link HERE.

War Stories by Elisabeth Doyle

Two Harbors Press, $14.95, Trade Paper, 9781937928407, 111 pp

Publication Date: September 21, 2012

To order this book via INDIEBOUND link HERE

Note: This book was provided for review by Tribute Books, as part of a hosted book blog tour.