Title: The Unfinished Child Author: Theresa Shea

When Marie MacPherson, a mother of two, finds herself unexpectedly pregnant at thirty-nine, she feels guilty. Her best friend, Elizabeth, has never been able to conceive, despite years of fertility treatments. Marie's dilemma is further complicated when she becomes convinced something is wrong with her baby. She then enters the world of genetic testing and is entirely unprepared for the decision that lies ahead.

Friends for over 30 years, Elizabeth and Marie have faced their share of joys and sorrows and have always managed to remain close, in spite of their differences.  They tell each other everything, sharing their lives with each other, relying on their closeness to help them through tough times.  That is, until Marie gets unexpectedly pregnant with her third child at 39 years old.  her other two daughters, aged 10 & 12 adore their 'aunt' Elizabeth, almost more than they adore their own mother.  In spite of the two women's desire to raise their children together, Elizabeth has never been able to conceive a child even after trying for years, naturally at first, then through several rounds of invitro.  Marie knows her friend longs for a baby of her own and is afraid to reveal her surprise pregnancy.  She tries to tell herself that she's afraid the baby will have something wrong with it and doesn't want to reveal the secret too early.  Really she's worried how Elizabeth will react.  She knows the pain it will inevitably cause.  However, not being able to talk about it with her best friend weighs on her heart.  She tries more than once to start the conversation that would lead to her confession, but every time decides it not the right time.  She ends up waiting too long and one afternoon Elizabeth guesses the truth.  Marie, relieved she didn't have to say the words, nevertheless apologizes because she feels guilty to be having yet another baby while her friend has never had one.

"I think I'm a little old for an unplanned pregnancy, don't you?" she says after her initial apology.

Marie knows the news has hurt her friend, even though Elizabeth tries to hide it.  She admits to herself that their friendship has changed with the birth of her other two children.  She hopes it can withstand the third one.

Trying to be happy for her best friend Elizabeth can't help the tears from falling as she leaves the happy family.  She's bitter, angry, and overcome by all her years of trying, of hormones and needles and doctors and implanted embryo's that continually fail to make her body their home.  She knows it's not right to blame her husband, but feels a deep need to change, escape.

"All [she] ever wanted was to be a mother, and... when [they] finally decided to stop the treatments [she] had to let go of that dream... [She's] not living the life [she] thought [she'd]be at this stage in [her]life..."  Elizabeth makes a plan to implement the changes she thinks are necessary.  She takes time away from her husband, from Marie, from Marie's daughters and growing fetus.

Marie, after a dream, becomes convinced that something is wrong with her baby.  She knows that her advanced age means certain risks, including the baby's risk of having Down Syndrome.  She goes to the doctor where she is informed they can't test for it for another couple months.  She discusses the options with her husband as they decide what to do if the baby tests positive.

"We can't... make any decisions until we know... if we end the pregnancy now would we be deciding not to have another child because we really didn't want one, or because we were afraid it wasn't well?"

"I don't see what difference that would make," her husband, Barry, replies.

Every day closer to that test brings more and more tension to the couple.  Marie feels it's all up to her to decide the fate of their child.  She doesn't dare confide in Elizabeth, even though she desperately needs to.  She knows that no matter what pain she is going through Elizabeth has had her share of it with every failed attempt.  Finally Elizabeth calls her and invites Marie and the girls over for lunch.  Marie feels irrationally jealous, convinced that her girls like their beautiful, care-free, unharried aunt better.  Barry suggests the girls stay home, knowing that his wife misses her friend dearly.  Marie agrees and goes for lunch at her best friend's house alone.

Two weeks before the test Marie's daughters notice their mothers pregnancy.  Marie cringes at the questions they spew at her.  She was hoping to have made a decision about the baby before they found out.  She knows they'd love a new baby in the house, and she knows they'll be sad if the child is unwell.  She doesn't want to disappoint them, and cannot hide her growing frame from them any longer.  She confirms the pregnancy and hopes they won't become too heart broken if the baby doesn't come home.

The day of her test arrives followed shortly by the test results.  The announcement is devastating.

"Are you sure there hasn't been some mistake," Barry asks.  "How accurate is this test anyway?"

"About 98%," the doctor replies.

Barry asks about the procedure, if Marie has to stay overnight.  Marie is told she that if they chose to terminate the pregnancy she'll be induced and will have to go through labour to deliver the unfortunate child.  'There would be no reward for the pain.  Nothing to look forward to after her body emptied itself of its burden.'

She calls Elizabeth and they agree to meet for coffee.  Marie finds herself confessing everything.  Elizabeth suggests she sleep on it, take her time considering her options.  Marie reveals that she doesn't have the time she needs.  She's too far along.  It'll soon be too late to terminate.

Elizbeth feels there is an easy solution to the problem.

'Words rose unbidden to Elizabeth's mouth.  Her lips parted, "I'll take the child...I know it sounds crazy... but if you don't want the baby and you don't want to abort it either, give her to me.  Let me raise her for you."

Marie is stunned and flee's the coffee shop, flees the suggestion, flees her friend.

'This decision was likely going to be the biggest turning point in her life.  She would need to live with herself afterwards, no matter what action she decided to take.'

Both husbands are shocked at what Elizabeth has proposed.  They both agree it's an outrageous request.  Both of them insist it can't or won't happen that way.

Marie asks Barry, "... Are we going for what's easy, or what's right?"

Everything comes down to Marie.  Her options are laid out before her, the question becomes which path is best.  She considers the choices, wonders how she'll feel if she kills the child, wonders how she'll feel if she gives it away.  There is only one clear answer, she knows the child isn't coming home with her.  Will her decision affect her marriage?  Her friendship with Elizabeth?  Marie feels utterly alone as she finally makes her choice.

The Unfinished Child is an eye-opening account of what it means to be a child with Down syndrome.  It's a story of tough decisions, of life lessons and relationships.  It's a tale that shows how each person can be admired and envied for different things, and that the life we think we want doesn't always turn out how we expect it to.  The novel has a depth that goes beyond the two families, that shines a light on human connections and the power of family.  It's a story of friendship surviving the worst.  The Unfinished Child will move into your heart and have you questioning the very things you thought you knew and often take for granted.

Click here to purchase The Unfinished Child.

Title: The Rum Diary Author: Hunter S. Thompson

The Rum Diary is a brilliant, tangled love story of jealousy, treachery and violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950's.  Exuberant and man, youthful and energetic, The Rum Diary is an outrageous, drunken romp...

Paul Kemp, a writer from New York,  tries his luck with a small, English newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  He arrives in front of an old greenish building that looks like a warehouse.  Outside the front door 20 Puerto Rican are attacking a tall American who '...was standing on the steps, swinging a big, wooden sign like a baseball bat.'

Kemp waits for the fight to break up before ducking inside.  Away from the havoc on the street Kemp appreciates the familiarity of the office.  He's welcomed by his new boss and a few co-workers offer to take him out for food and drinks at Al's, their local hangout.

Sala, the photographer, advises Kemp, "the first thing you learn here is to avoid the restaurants... Dysentery, crabs, gout, Hutchinson's Disease, you can get anything here..."

Kemp finds himself being drawn into a type of friendship with some of the men, including Sala and the tall American, a trouble-maker named Yeamon.

For the first week or so Kemp divides his time between his hotel and the office or out drinking at Al's.  He's reliable with his assignments, to the delight of his boss, who always complains about the degenerates and thieves and the wine heads who are ruining his paper.  The rumours in the office claim the paper will up and close at any time.  Kemp is comforted by the fact that he has enough money saved to survive or at least buy a plane ticket home should he need one.  In the meantime he dives right into the life of a journalist in the hot Caribbean.

He accepts an invitation to Yeamon's house out near the beach.  It seems that Yeamon has a picturesque life with his girlfriend Chenault and live lobster hunting out past the yard, which is more like a private beach.  Kemp can't help but fantasize about the beautiful, petite Chenault.  He envies Yeamon and wants what he has.  Kemp realizes that if he wants what his friend has he can't keep staying at the hotel.  Luckily, Sala agrees to let him stay at his apartment.

"You don't think I'll get on your nerves?" Kemp asks.

"I'm never there - it's too depressing," his friend replies.

With a place to at change his clothes and sleep a little Kemp feels better, but begins to avoid the place as much as possible.  It's barely a room and a bed.  Instead, Kemp falls in with Sanderson who hosts excellent parties and always seems in the know.  Kemp allows himself to feel optimistic about life in Puerto Rico around Sanderson, who believes whole-heartedly that San Juan is a golden opportunity; an endlessly lucrative paradise. 

The days begin to pass in a routine involving late mornings, a few hours of work followed by the casino then Al's, or the occasional party.  Rum flows freely and is easier to come by than coffee.  When not with Sanderson Kemp spends his time with Sala and Yeamon, even after Yeamon is fired over his refusal to change a story.  Things at the office are tense, even with Yeamon gone as his workload must be redistributed.  The boss tries to get Kemp to take over as Editor and Publisher, but Kemp declines.  He doesn't want to trade more money for more responsibility.  He'd rather join Sala through the endless cocktail parties, schmoozing with San Juan's Kingpins, taking pictures and stealing booze. 

'It was a good feeling to have a stock of rum that would never run out, but after a while [Kemp] could no longer stand even a few minutes at each party, and... had to give it up.'

One drunk afternoon at Yeamon's leads to a drunk evening at the local pub.  Yeamon claims to have an open tab and the three of them eat and drink their fill.  It seems like a fine evening until the manager demands Yeamon square up his bill.  Sala and Kemp both offer to pay, but Yeamon refuses and simply walks out with Sala and Kemp scurrying along behind.  It's not long before two carloads of Puerto Rican's chase them down.  A brawl breaks out as the locals attack the Americans.

'...through the numbness [Kemp] knew they were hurting [him] and [he] was suddenly sure [he] was going to die... [he] was being kicked to death in a Puerto Rican jungle for eleven dollars and fifty cents.'

The police show up only to haul the unruly Americans to jail where they abuse them further and deny them access to a phone.  Kemp recognizes the journalist who works the police beat and screams out for him to help.

"Moberg... Call... a lawyer."

They spend the next six hours in a tiny cell full of Puerto Rican's.  They can't sit down because the floor is foul with human waste.

'[Kemp] felt safe as long as [they] could supply [the locals] with cigarettes, but... wondered what would happen when [they] ran out.'

The men are eventually called into court, which is entirely Spanish.  Yeamon demands a translation of the proceedings and is ignored.  Kemp fears an ugly outcome until Sanderson shows up to rescue the lot of them.  He throws around some impressive names and some fancy words which seem to placate the judge.  Bail is set at $2,300.  Kemp doesn't argue much.  He's too happy being free.

'The fact that [he] spent all night in a cell... made that morning one of the most beautiful [he'd] ever seen.'

The night makes him rethink the way he's living.  He wants a car, and his own apartment '- a place where [he] could relax... and maybe even take a girl once in a while.'

With a new, lucrative assignment from Sanderson he is hopeful to find someplace half decent.  After locating an apartment suite above a garage he begins to feel like maybe he could start calling the place home. 

Yeamon and Chenault invite him to join them at a carnival in St. Thomas.  They promise him a good drunk while there.  The trip happens to coincide with his assignment for Sanderson.  Kemp would already be half way to the island of St. Thomas and after some deliberation decides to accept.  He arrives in St. Thomas to the chaos of steel drums, marching bands and the deafening roar of engines.  He manages to find Yeamon and Chenault.  Yeamon doesn't feel like dancing, and Kemp claims he's only there to drink, but Chenault insists they join the party and is practically carried away by the mob and the music.  With no choice but to follow her the two men weave their way through the crowd.  They spend the night with cheap rum and swiftly melting ice, drifting from bar to party to street mob and back.  They find a quiet beach just before dawn and pass out in the sand.

The next evening they continue their drunken wander from street party to bar before they're pulled away to a private house party where they have to pay $3 each just to get in.  The dark house is crowded and bursting with music.  Kemp and Yeamon lose track of Chenault only to find her in the middle of the dance floor swaying mindlessly with a small, dark man.  She's dropped her skirt and begins to slowly unpop each button on her blouse.  Flinging it into the crowd she's left in nothing but her flimsy panties and modest New York bra.  Yeamon and Kemp try to push through the mass to get to her, but a half-naked blonde beauty dancing half naked in a room full of men sets a riot of bodies seething forward for a better look.

Kemp and Yeamon struggle to pull her out before the rest of her clothes disappear but are held back by the others.  Before they can break away the man grabs Chenault and drags her through the house.  Kemp and Yeamon are thrown into a cab and sent away without Chenault.  Kemp vows to go to the police, who basically do nothing.  Yeamon hopes she's somehow made her way back to San Juan without them.  Kemp is not so optimistic.

Back home Kemp is happy to be on more familiar territory.  He settles back into some semblance of his old routine in spite of his constant worry about Chenault.  Those worries are slowly replaced by the constant barrage of rumours suggesting the paper's about to close.  Kemp isn't sure what he'll do if that happens, but continues on, business as usual, with long, rum soaked evenings.  It's a type of paradise, albeit a filthy one.

A dark tale of human passion and our lust for self-destruction A Rum Diary is a seedy story of old San Juan; a booze soaked glimpse into the secluded Caribbean Island and the inhabitants there.  This book leaves the reader with the feeling of gritty Caribbean life.

Click here to purchase A Rum Diary.

Title: The Body of Christopher Creed Author: Carol Plum-Ucci

When Christopher Creed, the class freak and whipping boy, suddenly disappears without a trace, first his fellow students, then all the citizens of Steepleton join in to speculate on what could have happened to him.  As fingers begin pointing, the town starts to fall apart and several lives are changed forever.  innovative and intense, The Body of Christopher Creed will grab the reader and hang on until its chilling conclusion.

Torey Adams is a well-liked high-school student in a respectably historic town in South New Jersey.  Both has parents are successful in their careers and some see Torey's life as perfect.  He's got a beautiful girlfriend and enjoys comfortable life until he finds out that his classmate, Chris Creed, is missing.  There's no body yet, but the town can't help but speculate the details.  Did he just walk out of his life?  Commit suicide? 

Torey's group of friends cling to the gossip that he was murdered, possibly by someone from their school.  His friends all make jokes, particularly one outsider named Bo Richardson.  None of them can give the disappearance the respect it deserves.  This bothers Torey.  He reconnects with Ali, a girl he'd been better friends with in the past.  She seems affected by the disappearance and confides a lot of Chris's secrets to Torey.  As Chris's next door neighbour she has a great view of the Creed's house from her bedroom window.  She invited Torey over the next night to spy on the family's weird behaviour.  He agrees, even though he knows it'll look bad if it gets back to his girlfriend.  But Ali assures him that her boyfriend is coming over as well, which will help dispel rumours.  Besides, he feels a distance between him and his friends and thinks some time with Ali might help with his discomfort at how life has been unfolding. 

'What bugged [him] was how quick people were to think that [Chris] had been murdered... It was easier to point the finger at somebody else... Something inside him felt totally ready to be completely nice to the rejects - people like Creed...'

At Ali's he's able to shed the pressure from his friends and indulge in the mystery of the disappearance.  They watch the Creed family from her bedroom window.  Apparently, Mrs. Creed has a habit of meticulously searching Chris's room every night.  Ali speculates that she's looking for Chris's diary.  She thinks Mrs. Creed thinks it has some secret as to her son's whereabouts.

Soon, Ali's boyfriend shows up and Torey is surprised to see it's none other than Bo Richardson.  Torey is surprised to find the older boy kinder and more compassionate than anyone had ever given him credit for.  Sill, Bo remains true to his reputation as trouble-maker by suggesting they break into the Creed's house to steal the diary.  Torey concocts a plan based on a movie he saw once.  He'll phone the Creed residence from a pay phone demanding money in exchange for information regarding their son.  They think this will lure the parents out of the home giving Bo the opportunity to break into the house.  It worked so well in the movie, but has a disastrous chain-effect resulting in Torey, Bo and Ali getting hauled into the police station for questioning.  Bo is determined to take the consequences but Torey feels guilty.  His only relief is the fact that his mom is a lawyer who finds herself almost obligated to help Bo out of the worst of it. 

For all the trouble it caused their plan was successful.  Bo succeeded in procuring the diary from the house.  Ali and Torey become obsessed with the words inside.  Through the scribbled handwriting they discover that Chris had a girlfriend in another town; a girl he worked with.  A girl named Isabella Karzdan.  They read further to find out Chris saw a psychic with this girl.  Torey looks the girl up in the phone book and Ali and him take a trip to visit her.  She's nothing like Chris described in his diary.  This tells Ali and Torey that Chris wrote down a highly imagined life.  Isabella reveals that the psychic is her aunt and asks if they'd like to meet her.  Torey is skeptical, but when she tells him that he'll find the body in the woods under some boulders he can't help but be curious.  He knows the exact spot Isabella's aunt is describing.  Desperate to get to the bottom of the mystery he proceeds to check the area out.  It's then that he makes a most gruesome discovery.

The Body of Christopher Creed reveals the complex world of both high-school and adulthood and twists in a mystery so compelling you'll want to devour the story just to find the answer to what, exactly, happened to Christopher Creed?

Click here to purchase The Body of Christopher Creed. 

Title: Things Fall Apart Author: Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart tells two intertwining stories, both centering on Okonkwo, a "strong man" of an Ibo village in Nigeria.  The first, a powerful fable of the immemorial conflict between the individual and society, traces Okonkwo's fall from grace with the tribal world.  The second, as modern as the first is ancient, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world with the arrival of aggressive European missionaries.

These perfectly harmonized twin dramas are informed by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history and the mysterious compulsion of the soul.

Okonkwo 'was tall and huge and his bushy eyebrows and wide nose gave him a very severe look... he had no patience with unsuccessful men.'

Unoka, his father, was an unsuccessful man and growing up under his father's failures pushed Okonkwo to become an independently wealthy and powerful man in his community.  He worked hard and expected his family to follow his lead.  Through his strength of will and determination he quickly became someone respected by the clan.  He was given a boy from another tribe who ended up quite dear to him, not that he could ever admit it.

One day, another older, more respected man came to visit.

"Do not bear a hand in his death," the man warned.

Okonkwo is surprised and quickly learns that for some reason, after three years, the Oracle, a woman of vision and prophesy, has decided the boy should die.  The old man advises Okonkwo to stay home that day.  Unable to show even any weakness Okonkwo feels it's his duty to go to the killing ceremony of the boy who calls him 'father.'  Once there, the boy runs to him in fear, for comfort, but Okonkwo struck him down with his very own machete.

"What you have done will not please the Earth," the old man warned when he learns of Okonkwo's actions.

"The Earth cannot punish me for obeying it's messenger," Okonkwo argued, speaking of the Oracle.

But the death of the boy weighed heavily on his mind and his heart.

It isn't long before he learned that his second wife's only child was dying.  It was suspected by many that the girl was an 'ogbanje, one of the wicked children who, when they died, entered their mother's wombs to be born again.'  His second wife bore ten children, all but one had died before their third birthday.  Finally, Okonkwo called on a medicine man skilled with the ogbanje spirits.  But the girl remained sickly, albeit, alive.  The had even found her token that tied the evil spirit to it's malicious cycle and destroyed it.  Still, the child fell ill.  Okonkwo felt he had no choice but to interfere with the mother as she cared for her sick child.  He told her how to make a potion and together they prayed it would work.  He would never say it out loud, but the girl was secretly his favourite child.

It wasn't long before the priestess to the Oracle came, half possessed with prophesy calling for the sick girl.  Okonkwo and his wife strive to come up with excuses to why she can't come out.  Shrieking with madness the priestess insists and the girl is handed over.  His wife tried to follow the woman who has her child, terrified as to why she'd been summoned.  The family had already lost one child to her whims, they couldn't bear one more.  She follows the priestess all night only to find the woman placing the sleeping child back in her bed at early morning light.

Pleased that his daughter was safe but still mourning the loss of the boy, Okonkwo was not able to continue living his peaceful, prosperous life in the village for much longer. During a burial ceremony for an elder Okonkwo accidentally kills the dead man's youngest son.  It is forbidden to kill a fellow clansman and the offence results in the expulsion of Okonkwo and his family for seven years.  They must seek refuge in his mother's land among his mother's people.  They are warmly welcomed by his mother's people, but the exile has devastated the family.  They live their lives as best they can while Okonkwo strives to recreate his former glory.  He advises his daughters not to marry into this more unfamiliar tribe.

 'With two beautiful, grown up daughters his return [home] would attract considerable attention.'

It's during this time that the missionaries came to the community proclaiming in the name of the one true God and his son, Jesu Kristi.  Okonkwo scoff's at the message, convinced the white missionary is mad.

'But there was one  young lad who had been captivated... Okonkwo's first son... [though] he dared not go too near the missionaries for fear of his father.'

But the lure of the new religion was too strong and the boy chose to forsake his family for the new way.  

Okonkwo was eventually able to move home, though he finds his tribe changed.  The new religion had flourished and had attracted many different faces to the church.

His world, irrevocably changed, left Okonkwo in a state of disbelief.  People were being indoctrinated into thinking their ways, the ways of their fathers, were bad, evil, something to disown.  Okonkwo tries to rally the tribe against the missionaries, but not everyone was as bothered by the changes as he was.  His son chose to go to a new training school for teachers.  This news makes Okonkwo furious.

'Okonkwo was deeply grieved... He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart.'

The change that descended on him proved too much for him to bear as he clings, desperately, to the old, familiar ways.

Things Fall Apart is a rare glimpse into tribal African life; it's rules and complexities laid glaringly bare.  It shows you a world both before and after the reign of Empires showing what it was like to have your world changed overnight by forces directed at you from across strange seas.

Click here to purchase Things Fall Apart.

Title: The Tree-Sitter Author: Suzanne Matson

Julie Prince is a college student at the top of her class and seems destined for conventional success.  But then she falls in love with Neil, a radical environmental activist and graduate student writing on the economics of deforestation.  At his urging she abandons her privileged East Coast life to tree-sit in the forests of Oregon.  Julie at first regards the journey as a romantic field trip; soon, though, she finds herself increasingly moved by the lush magnificence of the endangered forest and, like Neil, invested in its protection.  As Neil veers towards militant acts of sabotage, Julie is forced to reassess her loyalties and beliefs: How much damage is done by doing nothing?  When is it wrong to do good to zealously?  How can she choose between the boy she loves and her own sense of righteousness and morality?  Exploring this edge, The Tree-Sitter is a riveting and beautiful novel about learning the price of love and idealism.

Julie Prince, a year away from graduating from Wesley, accompanies her boyfriend to Oregon to protest the logging companies by occupying old growth forests.  Her mother thinks she has no business protesting in the woods and warns her of the risks.

"Surely, you, yourself, wouldn't want to do anything illegal?  Not with your bright future."

But the prospect of being arrested doesn't phase Julie as she's not thinking of the action part of activist, only the road trip, the trees, Neil.

'Before the trip... [she'd] never camped, not really.'

Julie is the produce of an overachieving mother, the daughter of a trust fun.  to her, money is a blanket of security, comfort, ability.  Neil, however, grew up with less affluential means and finds it difficult to accept her money, even for necessities like food, shelter, and gas for the long trip west.  Julie wants to spend more time on the road trip, sightseeing, exploring the great American landscape.  All too soon they reach their destination, a little town called Eugene.  Their contact is named Mudman, their driver, once they reach Eugene is named Shaman.  No real names are used, nothing personal, no backgrounds, everything is supposed to remain anonymous, for safety reasons. 

Shaman drives them as far as he can into the forest before pointing out a skinny trail that will lead them into the heart of the logging protest.  They've been given a grocery list to carry with them to help keep the camp in supplies, the 'straps dug uncomfortably into [her] shoulders...'  They finally reach the site and are told to give no info other than their chosen aliases.  Neil chooses River and Julie picks Emerald, a name she is immediately embarrassed by and regrets.  She's worried they'll get into trouble as they're briefed on the rules. 

"If detained, if questioned, know nothing... If taken into custody with another, know nothing about that other..."

They are told to memorize the number to a pro-bono lawyer should they fall into police hands.  But Julie isn't interested in breaking the law, she wants to sit in the trees.  They have to train,l practice how to use the ropes correctly, the ropes that will lift them the dizzying height into the canopy above.  The tree's they're protecting are enormously bigger than she imagined and the prospect of ascending one is terrifying.  With fear and doubt edging in she has no choice but to climb up.  At the top she is horrified.  From her vantage point she can see the terrific damage the clear cutting has done to the mountain face. 

'...like the shaved hide of a lamb.  [She] was gripped by the thought of hose little [the remaining] 1% was, how irrevocable it's loss...'

She makes their tree fort as homey as she can among the boughs, the lush foliage thick over their heads.  Their time up there is peaceful, she learns more about Neil, begins to understand his point of view, his zest for action.  She enjoys her experience.  Time ceases to exist as it once had, priorities shift into place that far lost in nature.  She begins to realize that what they're doing is important, worthy.  Their stillness is ruined by loggers.  They swarm at the bass of the tree and hurl insults upwards, cursing and throwing profanities at the tree-sitters above.  She is repulsed and a little frightened by them.

'Was it selfish to love my one little life and want to cling to it?  Compared to death or injury at the hands of the company, arrest suddenly seemed a petty thing... Rage suddenly played a role in what [she] believed.  [She] had met the enemy.'

They leave the shelter of the tree shortly after and Neil begins to take an interest in other plans.  She's warned not to ask too many questions being told it's better not to know too much.  But she is determined to stay with Neil and agrees to go  back with him to Eugene.  There she finds out about his secret plans to sabotage the local lumber company and demands to be given a role. 

She agrees to apply for a job at the local logging office as a temp for the summer.  It starts off as a simple scouting mission, but she's offered the job on the spot.  She decides to take the job as an opportunity to disclose inside information about the company.  The others are impressed and so begins her job as a mole.  She collects lots of information over the few short months she works there and is shocked to find herself torn between her repulsion at the company's intense interest in profit and the fact that the office workers are all nice, polite, normal people who happened to be employed by the company.  She never knows the difference her information makes to the protesters but she asks they leave the office alone.

"You know we can't promise that," Neil tells her.

The night of her 21st birthday she finds out that Neil is planning on setting a bomb at the local SUV dealership.  They believe it'll send a message to the gas-guzzling families to stop buying vehicles that ruin the environment. 

'If people bought SUV's to feel... safer... [they wanted to challenge] that illusion.'

The bomb doesn't go off in the middle of the night like they hoped, instead it explodes the next morning.  One man is seriously hurt.  Julie is outraged.  Neil had told her no one would get hurt.

They're afraid to get caught for the crime and agree to leave town.  Julie is only partially sad at leaving the group as they make their way further west to the coast, presumably to finish their road trip.  Neil tells her he's going back, back to Eugene, back to the trees.

"Go back and work in the movement," she tells him.  "But why do you think that being an activist means becoming a terrorist?"

His arguments are simple and evasive.  She realizes he won't change his mind.  It turns into a moment where she has to make her own decision: return to real life, or go back to the trees with him.

The Tree-Sitter is an unassuming novel that won't let you put it down once you start.  It's relevant message can be enjoyed by all, whether you love the trees, are an activist, or not.  It compares daily life with the life of the wild, showing the reader the underbelly of logging and activists.  It makes no demands of the reader to change in any way, but you'll feel differently about the environment and our modern way of life once it's finished.

Click here to purchase The Tree-Sitter.

Title: A Long Walk to Water Author: Linda Sue Park

Salva walks away from his war-torn village.  He is a "lost-boy" refugee, destined to cover Africa on foot, searching for his family and safety.

We meet Salva at his school.  It's a typical day when sudden gunfire shakes the doldrums from the class.  The teacher urges the students to run and they scatter in all directions, abandoning the school.  Salva run in the opposite direction from his village, from his family.  He runs so far he eventually meets up with other travelers on the road. It's a large group and they're told to break off into groups according to village.  Salva is comforted by familiar faces, though he knows no one well.  They walk all day, sleep by the side of the road at night, walking the rest of the day as well.  They find a barn the next night but Salva wakes up alone.  They've left him.

Alone, he keeps walking until he comes upon an isolated home of an elderly woman.  She allows him to live in her barn for exchange for work.  He joins with another, larger group of strangers who come by her house.  After a while he meets a boy about his age and they become friends. This new friend, Marial, tells Salva he thinks they're going East.

"East of Sudan is Ethiopia," he said.

Salva has been walking for a month and is sure he'll never see his family again.  With luck he finds his Uncle who joined the group somewhere along the way.  Salva is overjoyed to see him.  He's been in the army and is in possession of a gun.

"...I'm going to shoot us a fine meal as soon as we come across anything worth eating."

His Uncle is a provider for the group and Salva eats well, the group eats well, but they're not the only ones.  They're passing through lion territory; 'some of the fiercest in the world.'  Salva is woken up wailing and discovers his friend was taken by lions.  Salva is devastated but the group keeps walking.  They walk until they reach the Nile where they stop long enough to build boats for the journey across. Once on the other side they're told to collect as much water as possible for the next part of the journey to Ethiopia; crossing the Akobo desert, where there is no water to spare.  It is his Uncle who helps him cross that parched desert. Step by step, one step at a time.  One night they're attacked, robbed, and his Uncle is shot dead.

With his Uncle gone the protection Salva had has vanished with it.  The group begins to grumble that Salva is too young, too small to survive with them, that he'll slow them down.

'No one shared anything with him, neither food nor company.  Uncle had always shared the animals and birds he shot with everyone in the group.  But it seemed they had all forgotten that, for Salva now had to beg for scraps which were given grudgingly.'

They make it across the desert to the Itang refugee camp, where there were thousands upon thousands of people.  Salva is grouped with other boys without families.  He remembers his Uncle's advice and takes it one step at a time.  He lives in the camp for many years and by the time he's 17 the Ethiopian government collapses, the camp is closed and the refugees are forced to leave.  Soldiers chase them to the deadly Gilo river by shooting into the crowd.  Over a thousand people die trying to cross that river; being shot by soldiers, swept downstream or eaten by crocodiles.

Salva becomes the unoffical leader of a group of 1500 boys, some as young as 5 years old.

'He organized the group, giving everyone a job... whatever food or water they found was shared equally among them.  When the smaller boys grew too tired to walk the older boys took turns carrying them on their backs.'

Finally, after a year and a half they arrive in Kenya,  but the camps they find there are abysmal with little food, medical help, nothing.  Salva makes a point to learn to speak and read English with the help of an Irish volunteer.  It helps him secure a spot on the list of boys going to live in America.  A family sponsors him and he finds himself on a plane to New York where he has a chance to go to college.  He holds the idea in his heart to return to his homeland to somehow help the people there.  He gets his wish, and not only returns to Sudan but also receives word that his father is alive.  He goes to visit him in the hospital where he also learns his mother and siblings are all alive and living in his old village.  It gives Salva an idea to help the people and families of Sudan.  It takes years to raise enough money but by following the advice of his Uncle, Salva makes his life work come true, one step at a time.

A Long Walk to Water has two stories, the one of Salva, and then of the people he helps with is dream.  It's a book of daring, of never giving up even in the face of extreme adversity.  The book is a story of hope, of determination and the power of a dream.  It shows that anyone can change their world with the right attitude and a positive heart.

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Title: The Pecan Man Author: Cassie Dandridge Selleck

In the summer of 1976, recently widowed and childless, Ora Lee Beckworth hires a homeless old black man to mow her lawn.  The neighborhood children call him the Pee-can Man; their mothers call them inside whenever he appears.  When he is arrested for murder, only Ora knows what really happened in the woods where Eddie lived.  But truth is a fickle thing, and a lie is self-perpetuating.  Ora and her maid Blanche soon find themselves in a web of lies that send an innocent man to prison for the rest of his life.  Twenty-five years later, Ora sets out to tell the truth about the Pecan Man.

Ora Lee Beckworth lives in Mayville, Florida and has a negro servant named Blanche who's worked with her so long they've become friends.  Ora Lee is 82 years old sharing what she knows of the events that happened when she was 57, 25 year ago when she hired the homeless man, known to others as the Pecan Man, but who's real name is Eddie, to keep care of her yard.  The whole neighbourhood was scandalized, but Ora Lee, being as old as she was, couldn't care less.  Eventually they became used to seeing him around their homes and stopped calling their kids inside when he was around.

One day Ora Lee comes home to find Blanche sitting with her youngest daughter asleep on her lap.  Blanch is crying, sobbing, heavy tears as she clutched the child.

"It ain't all right, Miss Ora.  It ain't all right and it ain't never gonna be all right."

Ora Lee takes the sleeping child from her friend and places her in bed.  That's when she see's blood trickling down the inside of that poor baby's legs and realizes the awful offense that's been done to that precious child.  She confronts Blanche, tells her to go to the police, but Blanche knows that going to the police will only bring more confusion and pain.  Ora Lee assures her she'll make sure justice was done.

"I know Chief Kornegay..." she tells her maid.

"...It was [his] son did this to Grace."

Ora Lee suggests that Grace continue to come to her house after school.  Soon the entire family is used to the changes and sometimes accompany Grace on her visits.  Ora Lee is happy to have the company of so many youthful girls in the house.  No one suspects anything until Thanksgiving.  Ora Lee invites Blanche's family for dinner and makes sure to invite Eddie as well.  After dinner Ora Lee is sitting out on her porch with Blanche's son, Marcus, and Eddie when Eddie asks, "How's dat l'il girl doin'?"

Ora Lee is sputtered into silence as she finds out he's the one who found her that fateful day.  Marcus picks up on the tension and starts to question Eddie. 

"I think I done talked outta turn," Eddie managed.  "I thought the family knowed all about it."

Blanche kept it from them by convincing Grace it was all a bad dream. 

Later that night, after the rest of the family's gone home, Marcus shows up at Ora Lee's door bleeding and covered in blood.  He tells her he followed Eddie home and made him tell the truth about what happened to Grace.  He then reveals he ran into Skipper Kornegay, the boy who'd committed the crime, on the way back home.  He say's they got into a fight and Skipper pulled a knife on him.  In the scuffle Marcus manages to take the knife.

"I stabbed him, Miz Ora.  Over and over and over..."

She insists he stay the night and lets him borrow her car to make his way home to Fort Bragg where he's been working for the army.  She tells him what his story is if anyone tries to question him.  She's determined to see that boy go, knowing he'd spend the rest of his life in jail for what happened to the Kornegay kid.

Later that morning after he's left and Blanche has already arrives the police show up at her door.  Ora Lee fears the worst, that somehow they've discovered the truth.  The reason for their visit is much more tragic than that.

"I'm sorry... Marcus was killed in a car accident this morning..."

They bury Marcus in the graveyard next to his Daddy and Ora Lee hopes the awful truth is buried with him.  Until she finds out that Eddie's been arrested for the murder.  Knowing his innocence she strives to pull some strings with old friends with power, trying to help the elderly man.  They do their best at her assurance of his innocence but Eddie pleads guilty to the crime.

She tries to talk him out of it, unwilling to accept his ill-fate.

"It's the safest place for me.  They got a bed and a toilet and three meals a day, and it won't cost me a dime," he tells her.

She can't argue with his logic but is torn to see him put away for a crime he never committed.  She vows to both visit him, bringing him homemade baked goods on every visit, and that someday everyone will know the truth, starting with Police Chief Ralph Kornegay.  Her story will rock the family and bring to light many more truths that might've died with Eddie.  She reveals secrets they've all carried for too long.

The Pecan Man is a touching story of a woman who's fate is linked with that of her maid's family.  She learns valuable lessons about justice, fairness and colour at a time when black's had little in society.  She finds a family in them she never thought possible and they change her life as she changes theirs.

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