I didn’t get much fiction read in June, but I read a variety of nonfiction books. I hope you’ll find one in the bunch that piques your interest.

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Crow Mary, by Kathleen Grissom

If you like American historical fiction, novels with strong female protagonists, or novels set in the Great Plains in the US and Canada, I think you’ll like this book. Ms. Grissom did a wonderful job of researching the woman on whose life this novel is based – and just as good a job of weaving in the history without creating any “information dumps.”

I enjoyed The Kitchen House, by Ms. Grissom, so I got on the waitlist at the public library for Crow Mary as soon as I heard about it.

In a nutshell, Crow Mary was a woman in the Crow tribe who married a white trader in the early 1870s. His work as a trader took them away from her family and to Canada. They endure disappointment and trials as they try to make a go of it. Crow Mary isn’t going to take any grief from anyone, and she doesn’t shy away from taking matters into her own hands when her husband lets her down or isn’t there to take charge.

The book does a good job of pointing out how white settlers and the white government failed to see Native Americans as people and, therefore, seldom made the effort to take into consideration their intelligence and ways of life.

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It Happened in North Carolina, by Scotti Kent

This delightful little book is a collection of 27 stories about things that happened in North Carolina. (No surprise there!) Some of the incidents I’d heard of and others I hadn’t. The stories are written in an informal yet informative way that makes the reading pleasurable.

The stories are presented in chronological order and start with a description of the Poskito (a renewal celebration) held by the Pee Dee Native Americans in the 13^th century A.D. It was quite interesting and prompted me to put a day trip to the Town Creek Indian Mound in Montgomery County, NC on my “field trip” list.

The most heart-breaking story in the book is “The Story of Tsali, 1838” about the terrible mistreatment of the Cherokee Indians in western NC during the administration of President Andrew Jackson.

I was pleased to find two Cabarrus County stories in the book on topics that I wrote at length about in my book, Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1:  the story of the Cabarrus Black Boys in 1771 and the story of Ellen Harris of the Rocky River Community swallowing a thimble in 1896.

This is a neat little 139-page paperback book. By the way, I purchased the book for a few cents at a book sale held by the public library several years ago when the collection was being severely weeded.

It makes me sad to see books containing local history being pulled from the shelves. I suppose my Harrisburg history books will be sold for a few cents sometime in the not-so-distant future because decision makers see no value in local history books.

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The Great Valley Road of Virginia: Shenandoah Landscapes from Prehistory to the Present, edited by Warren R. Hofstra and Karl Raitz

I happened upon this book as I researched The Great Wagon Road for the novel I’m working on. I took copious notes from the chapter titled, “The Colonial Road.” Other parts of the book were interesting, but it was that third chapter that I very helpful to me. The following chapters dealt with the post-colonial era to the present.

Anyone interested in the development of the United States will enjoy this book. It’s full of history and geography and helps the reader visualize how the Virginia portion of the Great Wagon Road took shape.

One point the book reminded me of is that in earlier times the government did not decide where to put roads, did not lay them out, and did not maintain them. Such was the case with The Great Wagon Road. Citizens had to petition the county and then do all the work themselves. Once the work was completed and approved, the county appointed an overseer who was then responsible to get the citizens to maintain the road. One can only imagine how well that worked!

I’m still left to determine how the family in my novel would have traveled from Windy Cove to the Great Wagon Road….

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A Place Like Home (short stories), by Rosamunde Pilcher

I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of Rosamunde Pilcher’s Cornwall, England novels back in the 1980s. Reading this collection of her short stories immediately reminded me what an engaging writer she was.

A Place Like Home contains 15 of her short stories. Each one puts the reader right there in England. Ms. Pilcher had a talent for describing the setting and her characters in a way that made you feel like you were there and knew them.

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Since my last blog post

I had the pleasure of traveling to Marietta, Georgia the last weekend in June for the wedding of one of my great-nieces! It was a lovely outdoor event and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. It was nice to spend several days with immediate family for a happy event.

I took the opportunity while in Georgia to visit the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. One of my ancestors was wounded in the Kolb’s Farm Battle there on June 22, 1864.

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In case I seem confused and distracted…

Unfortunately, the hack experienced in June by Windstream, our household email provider, resulted in the suspension of the Windstream email account my sister and I shared. All the company’s customer service in India can say is, “Yes, Windstream got hacked. We’re sorry.” After having that email address for some 20 years, you can imagine what a tedious chore it has been and will continue to be to change my email address with utility companies, doctors’ offices, insurance companies, relatives, friends, and various organizations.

Within hours of Windstream being hacked, our email and my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts were hacked, so I am no longer on either of those social media platforms. I miss many of my friends, but I don’t plan to get involved with Facebook or LinkedIn again. Due to general frustration, I’ve also closed by Twitter account.

Therefore, as of last week, my only platforms are my blog, my newsletter, and my website.

Speaking of my newsletter… I attempted to send out my Janet Morrison Books July Newsletter on Saturday. However, a box popped up saying that Mailchimp “might be having issues, or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.”

I thought things usually happened in threes, but I’ve honestly lost count of the computer program and app issues I’ve had in the last month. Perhaps God is trying to tell me to stop trying to be a writer. I’m filled with self-doubt, and I’m earnestly seeking His will. I’m hitting roadblocks at every turn. When I started this blog many years ago, my intention was to share with you the ups and downs of being a writer. I’m not whining; I’m telling you like it is.

At my age, the technology side of writing is overwhelming. Please be patient with those of us who learned to type on a manual typewriter, learned to “calculate” on a ten-key adding machine, grew up with radio and black-and-white TV, and telephones connected to the wall.

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In case I’m able to send out my newsletter…

Among other items of interest, it included details about and photographs from the Open Hearth Cooking Class I took in May at Hart Square Village and my trip to Georgia.

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Until my next blog post

Happy 4^th of July to my fellow Americans!

I hope you have a good book to read – one that will take you away from the stresses in your life, entertain you, educate you, and give you a new perspective.

Spend time with friends and family. Remember the treasure they are, even if they don’t agree with you about politics.

Think of the people being hurt by recent rulings by the US Supreme Court. After all, we’re all God’s children.

Remember the people of Ukraine.

Janet