Antoinette May Hernson 209 286-1320 toni@antoinettemay.com The Book Worm Four Christmas Choices By Antoinette May First off let me tell you, thrillers are not my go-to genre. I’m more of a Downton Abbey kind of girl—swishy dresses, gleaming silver, stately manor houses, that sort of thing. But admit it, a good story’s a good story. Either its well told or it isn’t. It pulls you in or it doesn’t. Jeff Shaw’s “Concrete Evidence hooked me on the first page and never let go. Not just because the subtitle was “A Calaveras County Thriller” either. Yes, it was fun to read familiar names interwoven into the story like Hams Station, Pioneer and Pine Grove, but it was the plotline that got me. Shaw’s protagonist, Sam Wellington, thought he had it tough. Two brutal tours in Afghanistan, the last ending in a broken body and a shattered marriage. Then quite suddenly, it seemed, his luck changed with an offer to become a California State Parole Agent. Sam’s wantabe boss thought he was just the guy to take over the surveillance of Calaveras and Amador Counties. Seventeen-hundred square miles of gorgeous Sierra Nevada mountains. Sam thought so too. After Afghanistan and a brutal stint as a guard in San Quentin State Prison, the job seemed like a vacation. He was wrong, of course. Shaw clearly knows of what he writes. He spent 25 years in law enforcement before retirement and a move to Merced with his wife, Pam. “The police job was a pleasure when people were good,” he says in retrospect. “Unfortunately that wasn’t often the case. People can do worse things than you can ever imagine.” Maybe that’s why plotting a thriller came easy for Jeff Shaw. He had plenty of experience

to draw from. “I always liked writing,” he says. “I’d written articles on drag racing—a hobby of mine—and taught other officers how to write reports. “When I started writing ‘Concrete Evidence’ it flowed unto the page. It was easy to get my characters into trouble—a lot harder to get them out.” With “Concrete Evidence” on the stands—a perfect choice for the thrill seekers on your Christmas list—Jeff has upgraded his computer and is busy plotting new adventures for Sam Wellington * * * The novels of Jackson resident Helen Bonner seem particularly relevant this time of year. Though not what one would call “religious,” each contains a spiritual element. “Cry Dance” is about believing in everlasting life, thus giving up fear. “First Love Last” tells a story about forgiveness, and “Dolphin Papers” centers around a love-empowered connection with another species. All have been have received both popular support and critical acclaim. Still, its “MsDemeanors” that has people talking and has proved the biggest seller. “I guess women's quest for equality could be seen as spirited, and therefore spiritual,” Helen speculates. The author has recently completed a “new/old” project that promises to be a winner. “As usual, it’s nothing like what I’ve written before,” Helen says. “It’s about what I’m obsessed with now. “While sorting through my files one day, I chanced to find a 100-page manuscript, titled “Send Me Your Poor.” My mind raced back to a time in the 1970s when I was a fledgling social worker beating out my story on an old typewriter. (Two years of that heart-breaking job sent me back to school to become a college professor.) “Reading something that I had written when I was young was fascinating.

It was almost as if someone other than I had written it, someone perhaps more tender and idealistic.  I had written writing it in response to the attitude of my middle-class neighbors, who passed on the myth of the woman on welfare who ‘picked up her check in a Cadillac’, or repeated Governor Reagan’s dismissive,  “get the bums off welfare.”  “I wanted these good people to know my clients on AFDC, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and to hear their often heart-tugging, tragic, and sometimes inspiring stories. Today, having just signed the international Charter for Compassion, I decided to rescue those stories from my “dead” files, and compare them with our needy families today.  Where have we been? Where are we going?  I focus on the stories, not the statistics.  Compassion, not political ideology.  My readers can take it from there.  * * * Following close on the heels of the his popular “The Four Pillars,” Valley Springs resident Getty Ambau has written yet another book on nutrition, “Ethiopian Food and Drinks for Your Taste, Pleasure and Good Health.” “I tremendously enjoyed writing this book,” Getty says, “because, just like the Desta books, I went back to my childhood and wrote about the kinds of foods and drinks my mother used to prepare. “This book is in honor of her and the generations of Ethiopian women who created all the wonderful dishes and beverages we enjoy today. The holidays are always great times to connect with others both in thoughts and action.” * * * PS: I also have a new book out, “The Determined Heart: the Tale of Mary Shelley and her Frankenstein.” Yes, yet another historical novel. The publisher describes it as “a story of love and obsession, betrayal and redemption.”