Charleston Currents

Dozens of bouquets lined a sidewalk in 2015 after the shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

FOCUS, Campbell: Book on Emanuel shootings is important to read

A review by Reba Hull Campbell, special to Charleston Currents | Rarely does a book appeal to all my “reading” senses – well written, important message, compelling story and human connections. “Grace Will Lead Us Home” about the shootings at Emanuel A.M.E. Church was one of them.

Back in June, I listened to an interview on the SC Lede podcast on SC Public Radio with the author of the book, Jennifer Berry Hawes. She’s a reporter for The Post and Courier who witnessed first-hand many of the details surrounding this tragedy.

After hearing Hawes’ podcast, I knew I had to read the book. And I knew I had to buy it and not just borrow it from the library or listen on Audible. I had a feeling it would be one of those books I’d want to mark up and re-read.

Once I got started on the book, I just couldn’t stop. …

by Special to Charleston Currents · 08/05/2019 · 1 comment · Focus, Good news, Reviews

REVIEW: Magpie Murders

By Whitney Lebron, Mount Pleasant Regional Library | Susan Ryeland, editor for London based Clover books, receives a manuscript for the latest of the well-known and loved Atticus Pünd series by a not so endearing author Alan Conway. Thinking it’ll be the same traditional formula that has proven highly successful, Susan is caught off guard when she becomes convinced that there is a hidden story of real-life greed and ambition in the manuscript.

by Charleston Currents · 12/04/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

Nonfiction by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan Reviewed by Jen McQueen, Mount Pleasant Regional Library | A few years ago, I complained to my husband that I just couldn’t get all of my work done — at home or on the job. He suggested that I delegate almost everything except the tasks that only I could do. Since I already […]

by Charleston Currents · 11/27/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: The Couple Next Door

The Couple Next Door (2016) is Shari Lapena’s first foray into the thriller genre and it is a winner. Anne and Marco Conti are good friends with their next-door neighbors, Cynthia and Graham. A dinner party planned for Cynthia’s house is in jeopardy because the Conti’s babysitter called off. Marco talks his wife into leaving the six-month old home alone, provided they check on her every 30 minutes. Anne is reluctant, but agrees. All is well until they decide to go home around 1:00 am and find the front door ajar and the baby gone.

by Charleston Currents · 11/20/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: Miss Hokusai, a film directed by Keiichi Hara

Tama R. Howard: O-Ei Katsushika “narrates” this incredibly beautiful film that spotlights the strange life and long career of the famed Japanese painter, Hokusai Katsushika.

by Charleston Currents · 10/02/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: A Really Good Day, by Ayelet Waldman

Jen McQueen: “Writer Ayelet Waldman (Bad Mother) tried everything – meditation, psychotherapy, therapy, and prescription drugs – to treat her depression, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and mood swings. Yet despite years of effort, this talented and successful woman continued to drive herself, her friends, and her family – including a saintly husband, the writer Michael Chabon – bonkers.”

by Charleston Currents · 09/25/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: Piece of the World, by Christina Baker Kline

Review by Michel Hammes | From the author of Orphan Train, comes another historical fiction piece about the imagined life of the muse in Andrew Wyeth’s painting Christina’s World. Kline weaves fact and fiction to tell a compelling story about Christina, living on her family’s rural farm, dealing with illness and coming to terms with the prospect of leading a small life.

by Charleston Currents · 09/18/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community

Reviewed by Marianne Cawley | The splendid reputation of this book is completely well deserved. Published in 1984, Down by the Riverside was one of a new wave of works of history that looked at a specific defined community over an extended period in the hope that better understanding of the parts would bring greater knowledge of the whole history of a wider region.

by Charleston Currents · 09/11/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman

Reviewed by Michel Hammes: “In another intriguing tale from the author of A Man Called Ove, you meet a collection of characters living in an apartment complex in Britain. Elsa is a young girl trying to find her way in a world where she doesn’t fit. Her grandmother is her best friend and with a penchant for mischievousness- the two often get up to trouble in hilarious ways.”

by Charleston Currents · 07/17/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: Lockdown by Laurie R. King

Linda Stewart: Career Day is to be the defining moment of Principal Linda McDonald’s tenure at Guadalupe Middle School. This struggling school has dealt with so much bad press over the last year – the murder of a former student, the disappearance of a sixth-grader.

by Charleston Currents · 07/10/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews