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Summer Days, Summer Nights

A MODERN DAY CRACKER FLORIDA NOVEL

Part comedy, part earnest investigation of current issues, this book offers a multifaceted mix of both.

From Beaudoin (Sex Wars 2084 Book Four, 2014, etc.) comes a novel about one man’s experience creating a religion in a backwoods Florida county.

“I am an architect, and I didn’t intend to start a new religion or create a video Bible,” the narrator, Joel Weatherton, tells the reader at the outset of this peculiar tale. This is, however, exactly what happens. After being commissioned to design a Christian church and community in Waccasassa County, Florida, Joel finds himself on the receiving end of threatening phone calls. Having an unbeliever like Joel design something as important as a church is tantamount to sacrilege, or so declare those who seek to intimidate him. As one caller states, “No atheist like you better not take no church design.” Unwilling to reject the commission (“The economy was down” Joel explains), he must risk the safety of himself and his family. Having grown up in Waccasassa County, Joel is more than familiar with the many gun-shooting, God-fearing denizens there. Confiding in his friend Helen and his bouncy 8-year-old daughter, Millie, he confesses that his transition from book-loving architect to prominent religious figure (whose followers wear Hawaiian shirts) is as strange as it sounds. Based largely on imagined miracles and Joel’s quest to help the common man, the story presents the lingering question of how long he can trick the world for the benefit of his fellow citizens. After gaining followers, he tells the reader, “I began to take my role as prophet somewhat more seriously when I saw how much I could help people.” Employing what is inherently a zany premise, the novel nevertheless tackles serious subjects, including the limitations of liberal thinking (“Did I want to join the politically correct crowd who use language to censor any ideas they don’t agree with?” Joel asks himself) and the destruction of Florida’s natural resources. Periods of extended dialogue tend to bog down the narrative, as whenever Joel walks Millie and others through the finer points of the books he likes (“That theme of how much we should trust our friends is important,” he says of Treasure Island). But perhaps even a modern prophet cannot deliver marvels and pizazz all the time.

Part comedy, part earnest investigation of current issues, this book offers a multifaceted mix of both.   

Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2016

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 637

Publisher: Amazon Digital Services

Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2016

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DEVOLUTION

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

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THE THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE

Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.

Life lessons.

Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.

Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.

Pub Date: July 1, 2004

ISBN: 0-345-46750-7

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004

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