Random Connect Points:
Reba's Stories

(Writer's note: I wrote this review in 2019 shortly after the book came out. The podcast mentioned below is still online and is as relevant today as it was when the interview was done in 2019. This book is a must-read for anyone who thinks they might have an understanding of this complex story). 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 Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church is one of them. J ennifer Berry Hawes  wrote the book while a reporter for the Post and Courier and witnessed first-hand many of the details surrounding this tragedy. Currently she writes for ProPublica. When I read writing by an author whose work really grabs me, I like to mark up the pages and go back and read those favorite lines over and over. This book is dog-eared with turned-down pages, numerous bookmarks and notes scribbled in the margins. For anyone who thinks they...

Like many people, I decided to do no more reading about, listening to or watching anything about the Murdaugh case once the trial ended in March 2022. I had no interest in what podcasters, movies, tv series, books, blogs or news hounds had to say once the sentencing was over. That was until I saw that Valerie Bauerlein had written a book about the trial. I’d crossed work paths with Valerie back in her early career when she worked at The State newspaper in Columbia. I continued to follow her writing through her Wall Street Journal work. I knew this book would not be the sensational, rumor-ridden, speculative narrative that so many writers, podcasters, movie producers and news people had resorted to post-trial. I wasn’t disappointed. Valerie’s direct news writing style intersecting with the narrative skill of an empathetic storyteller makes this book engaging, interesting, easy to follow, and a pleasure to read. One of my favorite sentences of the book comes on page 23 with the descr...

"The Women" by Kristin Hannah  came recommended to me by several people ranging in age from young 20s to late 80s. It’s the Vietnam-era story of a 21year-old nurse, Frankie McGrath, from a wealthy (and rather sheltered) southern California family. She naively volunteers for an Army Nurse Corp tour in Vietnam following the death of her brother in the war. I was initially drawn to the book because my recollection of the Vietnam War is vague. I was 12 when the soldiers returned home. My parents hadn’t allowed us to watch news coverage. I knew one person who had lost a father in the war. I had a POW bracelet. We never really studied Vietnam in school because that era wasn’t quite yet “history” in the late 70s and early 80s. That was my limited context going into this book. While on her first tour, Frankie lives with and works alongside two other nurses from backgrounds vastly different from hers. These three nurses build a lifelong bond of friendship that carries them through...