By:Arlene Bice
Editor’s Note: Arlene Bice is the owner of the By the Book shop on Farnsworth Avenue in Bordentown City. An avid reader, she writes four columns every year for the newspaper highlighting some of her favorite selections. This is her column for autumn.
A bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils sit in a cup on my desk. Next to it are some pads of lined paper and a pile of books. The scent tickles my nose and reminds me it’s the time of year for going back to school. A time to set up new routines for the autumn. Remember to schedule some time for reading – just for the fun of it!
"McNally’s Secret" by Lawrence Sanders takes place in the upper-class town of Palm Beach, Fla., also known as the Gold Coast.
Archy McNally is the junior part of McNally and Son, Attorney-at-Law. Prescott, the father, is quiet, reserved, smart and sensible. His son is the opposite, head of the DID, otherwise known as the Discreet Inquiry Department.
In this book, Archy is searching for some stolen "Inverted Jennies." These are 24-cent air mail stamps issued in 1918. The plane on this stamp was printed upside down in error, which of course, to the philatelic means big money value. We’re talking $1 million here, for four stamps.
When that amount of money is at stake it seems to bring out the worst in people. So, we now also have murder. But, not gory, descriptive, gross stuff. McNally’s murders are neat and not scary.
This all makes for light, fun, puzzle-solving reading for de-stressing. Sanders has written several books about McNally, whose personal life progresses through each book. But any one of them is a good place to begin.?
A large population of immigrants from South Asia have been prominent in the Northeast Corridor of the country for over a generation now.
Because my knowledge of the ways and customs of South Asians is so lacking, I relished the idea of reading "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri. This, her first book, has won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It’s a collection of short stories about relationships.
In the title story, Mr. Kapasi is assigned to take a family on a tour to the Sun Temple at Konorak. He is often assigned to the tourists because of his command of English. Mr. and Mrs. Das were both born and live in New Brunswick, N.J. They are in India visiting their parents along with their three children.
Some of the stories are set in India, some in the northeastern United States. Each story reveals a little something to learn about a culture different from the traditional American. This is an especially good book for anyone who has ever experienced being the outsider.?
Susan Delaney of the Mill Hill section in Trenton recently had her first novel published.
"A Star to Sail By" tells of modern-day Peggy Millwright, a Jersey Shore resident.
As the story opens, we find her still grieving the death of her husband, two years before. While walking on the beach, deep in thought, she finds a young sailor washed up and barely conscious.
She tends to the cut on his forehead and finds out he was born in Nova Scotia … in1825.
The situation is puzzling. Does he have amnesia? Is he a con-man? How about lunacy? Somehow, Peggy is unafraid to have him stay at her house while they find answers.
Now the fun begins. Imagine being dropped into this very day while you were living in the early 1800s. Part of the interest of this book is the very idea of adjusting to the present with only knowledge of the past and the other part is romance. A book to read for pleasant relaxation.?
Here is the nonfiction ghost story for the season, the complete opposite of the former book discussed.
In 1969, Hans Holzer, leading ESP authority and parapsychologist, wrote "Window to the Past: Exploring History Through ESP"
His first story in the book covers the assassination of President Lincoln. His last story in the book covers the vindication of Aaron Burr. Fascinating reading. Here, Mr. Holzer is in the present, delving into the past for answers.
A few different people have sighted a "man" with piercing dark eyes and no "body" to speak of, in a building in Greenwich Village, NYC.
Holzer brings Sybil Leek, a California psychic, to help investigate. Mrs. Leek goes into a trance allowing Aaron Burr to speak through her. Later discussions with Samuel Engle Burr (a born-and-raised Bordentonian) and Aaron Burr reveal facts that were not known generally. He also learns that the building in which this takes place was once the stables on the Aaron Burr estate.
Combining parapsychology and history is indeed interesting. Perhaps one day we’ll discover the story behind the Texas motorcade on that fateful November day.
Former Bordentonian Dave Hoats told me of a relatively new fiction series available called "Dear America."
These stories tell American history from the eyes of a youth living at that time.
"A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin" by Karen Hesse was the volume I read. The story opens on Dec. 24, 1860 and runs for a year.
Sixteen-year-old Amelia helps her father, John, in keeping the light on Fenwick Island, Del. She logs her day-to-day duties at the lighthouse, teaching school on the mainland and housekeeping for her ailing mother.
Woven into the story is the personal effect the Civil War created, alienating friends, siblings and even causing divorces.
Even her daily life is affected. Delaware was considered a Union border state but the majority of people were Southern sympathizers. The story is fiction, based on fact and includes pertinent illustrations, maps, even recipes of the time.?
With the autumn approaching, the air is full of ghost stories, even for the younger set.
"The Ghost of Ballyhooly" by Betty Cavanna was published in 1971.
Sixteen-year-old Kristy is living in Dublin, Ireland, while her father is teaching at a nearby college for a year. Her grandparents decide to have a family reunion at Christmas at Ballyhooly Castle in County Cork.
Kristy researches the castle at the library and finds a legend of a ghost.
Once they arrive, she and her younger brother, Sam, find the crotchety old caretaker dead. Then some odd things happen in and around the castle. Her brogue-speaking friend, Michael, shows up to help solve the mystery.
A gypsy camping out on the grounds tells her, "In Ireland ghosts appear only in houses that have known true happiness or true misery."
