Category Archives: 2003

2003

by | April 14, 2008 · 11:34 am

William R. Trotter. The Fires of Pride. New York: Carrol & Graf, 2003.

This book, the second of Trotter’s Civil War novels, finishes the story started in The Sands of Pride. Starting in 1863, after the Confederacy’s defeat at Gettysburg, The Fires of Pride is set in Wilmington and continues through the end of the war. Trotter is able to trace several narratives throughout the chaos of battle, with many of his characters based on actual people. He also dramatizes many of the important events of the war, including the Union assault on Fort Fisher and the career of an ironclad ram in the Confederate Navy. Trotter is also the author of a multi-volume history of the Civil War in North Carolina, and can be counted on in these novels to provide accurate depictions of events, and careful attention to historic detail.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Coast, Historical, New Hanover, Novels in Series, Trotter, William R.

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by | March 13, 2008 · 9:58 am

Louise Shivers. Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail. Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, 2003.

Roxy Walston is a young wife and mother on a Tarborough, N.C. tobacco farm in 1937. Farmlife is simple and tough, and Roxy feels restless, especially when Jack Ruffin is hired to help with the harvest. Roxy feels an instant attraction to Jack and is soon faced with choices that could change her forever. When Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail was first published in 1983, it was praised for its tender evocation of life on a tobacco farm and was named the best first novel of the year by “USA Today.” It was also made into the North Carolina-filmed movie Summer Heat in 1987.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Edgecombe, Historical, Shivers, Louise

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by | · 9:58 am

Jack Riggs. When the Finch Rises. New York: Ballantine, 2003.

The narrator of this novel, twelve-year-old Raybert Williams Jr., lives in Ellenton, a fictional North Carolina mill town in 1968. Raybert’s mother and father, each with deep problems of their own, teeter between responsible parenting and neglect, while Raybert’s best friend Palmer faces an even tougher lot with an abusive stepfather and a potential sexual predator in the family. Raybert and Palmer find comfort in each other’s company, and in their shared fantasies of growing up and escaping Ellenton.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Riggs, Jack

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by | · 9:58 am

Karen Robards. Beachcomber. New York, Atria Books, 2003.

Christy Petrino sought a simple vacation at Ocracoke Island after breaking up with her mobster boyfriend. But when somebody makes an attempt on her life, she must figure out whether the New Jersey mob or an Outer Banks serial killer (nicknamed “The Beachcomber”) is out to get her. This romantic suspense novel teams Christy with FBI agent Luke Rand. Those familiar with Ocracoke may raise an eyebrow at Robards’s description of “cliffs on the island, tall rocky cliffs leaning out over the ocean . . . .”

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Coast, Hyde, Novels in Series, Robards, Karen, Romance/Relationship

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by | · 9:58 am

David Payne. Early from the Dance. New York: Doubleday, 2003.

Adam Jenrette, a successful artist in New York, has just suffered a breakdown and returned home to Killdeer, N.C., a fictional town on the Outer Banks. Things there don’t exactly get any easier. Adam runs into Jane McRae, with whom he had spent a memorable summer when they were both eighteen. Adam and Jane find that they are still emotional about the suicide of a common friend from Killdeer. Together they reminisce about that long-ago summer and reflect on how choices they made then have echoed throughout their lives.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Coast, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Payne, David

by | · 9:58 am

Sharyn McCrumb. Ghost Riders. New York: Dutton, 2003.

Set primarily in the North Carolina mountains, Ghost Riders tells three distinct stories. The interwoven tales involve Rattler, a current-day recluse and eccentric who socializes with Civil War re-enactors; Zebulon Vance, the Governor of North Carolina during the Civil War; and Malinda and Keith Blaylock, a married couple who join the Confederate army under Vance. Mixing past and present, McCrumb examines the Civil War and its legacy in the mountains of North Carolina.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, McCrumb, Sharyn, Mountains

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by | · 9:58 am

Margaret Maron. Last Lessons of Summer. New York: Mysterious Press, 2003.

After her grandmother is murdered, Amy Steadman returns from New York to her family’s farm, located southeast of Raleigh, to help sort through her grandmother’s belongings. As Amy digs through her family history she tries to understand not just her grandmother’s mysterious death, but also the death of her mother, who committed suicide when Amy was three. The relationships among the members of this large family are at the heart of the story, especially as Amy begins to believe that her grandmother’s murderer may be a relative.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Coastal Plain, Maron, Margaret, Mystery

by | · 9:58 am

Terry Kay. The Valley of Light. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.

In the years after World War II, Noah Locke wandered from town to town, fishing, doing occasional work, and reflecting on the horrors he had seen throughout the war, especially when his unit liberated the concentration camp at Dachau. When Noah arrived in the fictional town of Bowersville, N.C. (based on the area around Hayesville), in an area known as the “Valley of Light,” he was taken by the slow small-town pace and friendly residents. Noah begins to date a young widow and enters a local fishing contest with the goal of landing a mythical, elusive bass that has captivated the town for years.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Clay, Historical, Kay, Terry, Mountains, Novels Set in Fictional Places

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by | · 9:58 am

Homer Hickam. The Keeper’s Son. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2003.

The tiny, fictional island of Killakeet, on North Carolina’s outer banks, is shaken when German U-Boats appear off the coast in 1941. Coast Guard Lt. Josh Thurlow, the son of the keeper of the lighthouse, takes it upon himself to protect his home. Leading an ill-equipped bunch of locals, Thurlow takes to the sea. The novel follows the emotional struggles of Thurlow and his father and also gives detailed descriptions of submarine warfare during World War II.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Coast, Hickam, Homer, Historical, Novels Set in Fictional Places

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by | · 9:58 am

Annie Flannigan. Love and a Bad Hair Day. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

The Hadleys and the O’Malleys had been feuding for years in Verbena, N.C., a small, fictional town in the mountains. Things look like they’re beginning to thaw when Ryman O’Malley moves back to town to take over the family business, the South Winds Trav’O’Tel, famed for its all-day breakfast buffet. Jolene Hadley Corbett, whose beauty parlor is located just across the street, is determined at first to continue the feud, especially when she learns of Ryman’s plans to demolish the Trav’O’Tel, a local landmark But as she gets to know him better, her feelings turn in quite a different direction.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Flannigan, Annie, Mountains, Novels Set in Fictional Places