Book Review: She-Rain by Michael Cogdill

Friday 16 April, 2010 By 1 Comment

Title: She-Rain
Author: Michael Cogdill
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Publication Date: March 31, 2010
Paperback: 360 pages
ISBN: 978-1600377020
Genre: Fiction

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About the book:

In the early 20th Century, a pair of North Carolina mountain children sow the seed of a love that becomes their only solace in the hard yet beautiful world they know. They grow it from steep ground of poverty, ignorance, and violence. A landscape so brutal it can kill hope long before claiming life.

Bloodshed years later finally sends Frank Locke on the run, deep into wilderness, abandoning his extraordinary love, Mary Lizbeth. When a whitewater river washes this desperate soul into the hands of Sophia, he discovers a luminous woman steeped in mystery, trapped in a tragically brilliant life. Far ahead of her time. Secreted from the world. As she awakens Frank’s mind, they rise to meet a love that binds three people for a lifetime.

This love triangle forms a beauty no one sees coming. From the wilds of Appalachia, crossing nearly a century, it runs deep into a lush American fortune, and lives in letters of adoration and hope of the least expected.

In a rhapsody of Southern voices, mingling hilarity and sorrow, She-Rain speaks of lives soaring beyond heartbreak, fundamentalism, and self-destruction. Through the most graceful longing, two women in love with one man ultimately prove the power of human hearts to answer high callings. They show us all how to heal — and thrive — to the very end.

My Review:

The description of the word she-rain is one of the most beautiful word descriptions I have ever heard and someday I hope to catch a glimpse of she-rain, until then I have Michael Cogdill’s description to carry with me. A Story of Hope: She-Rain is an exquisitely written novel filled with descriptive prose of near lyrical proportions interspersed with the proficient use of dialect between the various areas in which the story occurs. She-Rain is a novel to be savoured, slowly, to allow the words and people to become a part of the reader. Cogdill brings his readers to Oconee Gap, North Carolina, where some of the most intriguing, inspirational, colourful, and flawed characters live. The story is told primarily through the main character, Franklin Locke Junior, and through him we learn wisdom from his Pap, Woodfin Lloyd Warren, beauty from his Granny, May Ella Warren, and addiction and flawed behaviour through his father, Monroe Franklin Locke as well as his Uncle Ulysses “Useless” Tickman. Throughout the novel, Franklin learns of strength, faith, compassion, and forgiveness primarily through the women in his life, especially, his mother Dovie, Mary Lizbeth, and Sophia Procter. To share more would rob the reader of this brilliantly woven novel. It is sufficient to say She-Rain is a multi-dimensional novel of faith, abuse, fear, addiction, friendship, love, and hope which is written through the use of vivid imagery, characters the reader grows to adore or learns to understand over an 84-year period. She-Rain is a novel that draws the reader in, making the reader want to pause to absorb every nuance and feeling. She-Rain would make for a brilliant choice for a discussion group. If anyone has read this book, I would very much like to hear your thoughts.

About the Author:

Michael Cogdill is blessed as one of the most honored television storytellers in America. His cache of awards includes 24 Emmys and the National Edward R. Murrow for a broad range of achievement, from live reporting to long-form storytelling. His television credits as a journalist include CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, and The Today Show, and Michael’s interview history crosses a wide horizon: The Reverend Billy Graham, Dr. Mehmet Oz of Oprah fame, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Abby Hoffman, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator John McCain, Howard K. Smith, James Brown, Keith Lockhart of the Boston Pops and many other newsmakers. His coverage credits include Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States.

Michael spent ten years writing She-Rain, letting it evolve into a world of fiction drawn from his upbringing in Western North Carolina but reaching far beyond. His other writing credits are Cracker the Crab and the Sideways Afternoon — a children’s motivational book, and a self-help volume, Raise the Haze. Michael makes his home in South Carolina with his wife, Jill (a publishing entrepreneur), and their second-generation golden retriever, Maggie. He’s currently working on his second novel.

For more information, view Michael Cogdill’s Website.

I received a complimentary copy of She-Rain by Michael Cogdill from FSB Media. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.

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CymLowell

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Book Review: Voices Under Berlin by T.H.E. Hill

Friday 16 April, 2010 By 3 Comments

Title: Voices Under Berlin: The Tale Of A Monterey Mary
Author: T.H.E. Hill
Publisher: CreateSpace; 4th edition
Publication Date: January 31, 2008
Paperback: 312 pages
ISBN: 978-1434839732
Genre: Spy Fiction

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About the Book:

A spy fiction about the Americans who ran the pre-wall Berlin Spy Tunnel that the CIA used to tap Russian telecommunications cables, and about the Russians whom they were intercepting. The novel is ostensibly set against the backdrop of the Berlin Spy Tunnel (Operation GOLD, covername: PBJOINTLY). The yarn is told from both ends of the tunnel. One end is the story of the Americans who worked the tunnel, and how they fought for a sense of purpose against boredom and the enemy both within and without. This side of the story is told with a pace and a black humor reminiscent of that used by Joseph Heller (Catch-22) and Richard Hooker (M*A*S*H*). The other end of the tunnel is the story of the Russians whose telephone calls the Americans are intercepting. Their end of the tale is told in the unnarrated transcripts of their calls. They are the voices under Berlin. Voices Under Berlin is the proud winner of 5 Book Awards: PODBRAM Best Historical Concept, “Puss Reboots” book blog Top 10 Books for 2009, Hollywood Book Festival, Branson Stars & Flags Book Award and Military Writers’ Society Book of the Month.

My Review:

Voices Under Berlin takes the reader inside the 9539th T.C.U. during the early days of the Cold War. The reader is exposed to both sides of the Cold War in a manner I personally thought interrupted the flow of the narrative. In Voices Under Berlin, Hill does a good job describing what it is like for the recruits who arrive into the 9539th, especially the three main characters from the 9539th: Kevin, who is a Monterey Mary graduate, proficient in several languages and also the narrator of the American side of the story; Blackie a manual Morse Code Operator, one of the best, and also a fine blackmarketeer and Lieutenant Robert Sherlock, aka “Sheerluck”. The 9539th is working to get the CIA’s project, the Berlin Tunnel, up and operational during the early days of occupied Germany. The story is about the people that made the Berlin tunnel a reality as well as the interception of communiqués from East Berlin to the USSR. Voices Under Berlin is a spy story of sorts, told with wit, sarcasm and is intended to be a lighter look at a very serious time in history. Hill received numerous awards for his portrayal of Berlin in the 1950s and the secret operations occurring on both sides, yet for me the novel fell short of what I had hoped it would be. Having an extensive background in Soviet Foreign Relations, I was expecting the novel to take a more serious and in-depth historical look at the events taking place, and instead found myself at times bored, reading about sophomoric pranks or wasting time flipping to the front to be certain I was clear about a military acronym being used. The enclosed photographs were of great interest to me as was the few pieces of historical information, however I just could not find a solid rhythm to this novel. For those looking for a non-traditional spy novel with a twist of mystery, dark humour, stab at “military intelligence” and “Mata Haris”,Voices Under Berlin may be exactly what you are searching for.

About the Author:

T.H.E. Hill, the author of Voices Under Berlin: The Tale of a Monterey Mary, served with the U.S. Army Security Agency at Field Station Berlin in the mid-1970s, after a tour at Herzo Base in the late 1960s. He is a three-time graduate of the Defense Language Institute (DLIWC) in Monterey, California, the alumni of which are called “Monterey Marys”. The Army taught him to speak Russian, Polish, and Czech; three tours in Germany taught him to speak German, and his wife taught him to speak Dutch. He has been a writer his entire adult life, but now retired from Federal Service, he writes what he wants, instead of the things that others tasked him to write while he was still working. You can learn more about T.H.E. Hill and his books here.

T.H.E. Hill’s VOICES UNDER BERLIN VIRTUAL BLOG TOUR ‘10 officially began on April 5 and will end on April 30 2010. Follow the tour www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com during the month of April to find out more about this great book and talented author!

I received a complimentary copy of Voices Under Berlin by T.H.E. Hill from Pump Up Your Book Promotion as part of the tour. Receiving a copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.

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