Nonfiction by Ruth Reichl Ruth Reichl, a world-renowned food critic and former editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, needed a plan to effectively critique high-profile establishments in the biggest restaurant town in the world. If they knew she was coming, she would be treated as a queen with the best prepared entrees and service. The only way to get the real picture was […]
S.C. Encyclopedia | The earliest ferries in South Carolina carried settlers across the Ashley, Cooper, Santee, and other Lowcountry waterways. Early ferries, sometimes called “boats” or “galleys,” were important for transportation but were frequently poorly constructed, haphazardly manned, and expensive to the everyday traveler.
A novel by Ruta Sepetys reviewed by Darryl Woods: In 1939, the Soviet Union overran the Baltic States. Anyone suspected of being anti-Soviet — especially teachers, doctors, lawyers and former military members – were rounded up and placed in prisons. Their families were herded and packed into train cars like animals and sent to Siberian work camps.
S.C. Encyclopedia | The yellow, or Carolina, jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) was chosen as state flower by the General Assembly in 1924. In 1923 the legislature appointed a commission to select a floral emblem. Senator Thomas B. Butler and Representatives George B. Ellison and Thomas Savage Heyward recommended the yellow jessamine to the senate and house on Feb. 1, 1924, and it was promptly adopted by both chambers.
Reviewed by Mike Nelson: I recently saw an Amazon Original Series called The Man in the High Castle. The alternative history angle intrigued me so I watched the first episode and was hooked.
S.C. Encyclopedia | Located at the confluence of the Sampit River and Winyah Bay, Georgetown was founded by Elisha Screven in 1729 and is the third oldest town in South Carolina. Screven vested control of the town with three trustees in 1735. Two years later, all 224 lots had been sold, though not occupied. The General Assembly governed from 1785 until Georgetown was incorporated in 1805. In 1892 the city was reincorporated under a mayor and council.
Enjoy three short poems by award-winning poet Richard Garcia, who won the 2016 Press 53 award for Porridge. He is the author of six books or poetry, recently The Other Odyssey, from Dream Horse Press, and The Chair, from BOA, both published in 2014. His poems have appeared in many journals, including The Georgia Review and Spillway, and in anthologies such as The Pushcart Prize and Best American Poetry. He lives in Charleston, S.C., with his wife Katherine and their dog Max. He is on the staff of the Antioch Low Residency MFA in Los Angeles.
A novel by Charles Martin: This book looks at how different people react to tragedies in their lives, yet it is very uplifting. A man who has an unexplained tragedy in his past meets a 7-year-old girl who is living a tragedy in her life now. However, the author makes us love these characters and ultimately come to root for them.
S.C. Encyclopedia | Yellow fever was one of the most dreaded diseases in South Carolina during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Along with malaria, it helped establish the reputation of the South Carolina Lowcountry as a dangerously unhealthy place for whites and was used to justify African slavery. Like malaria, yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes and strikes in warm weather. Unlike malaria, which spread over most of the state, yellow fever was largely restricted to seaports by the habits of the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
Fiction by David Mitchell: Slade House: A Novel is a follow-up to the 2014 novel, The Bone Clocks, and exists in the same magically realistic world. It is not necessary to have read the previous book because Slade House is neither a sequel nor prequel but simply tangential to the original story. — Reviewed by Kathy Sanders.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina! (2019) by editor and publisher Andy Brack offers incisive commentaries on the American South, politics, the common good and interesting South Carolina leaders. Available exclusively for Kindle for $7.99. A paperback version will be ready soon. Learn more.
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