If ghost stories give you thrills, Joe Hill is your man. His 2007 novel Heart-Shaped Box is about a collector of macabre artifacts who buys a suit owned by a haunted man now deceased. The suit arrives by UPS in a heart-shaped box with the dead man’s spirit very much alive inside it. Action-packed confrontations with the dead ensue. Hill wrote a short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts and a graphic novel with art by Gabriel Rodriguez. Welcome to Lovecraft will be enjoyed by horror devotees and graphic book readers. Joe Hill’s website.
Joe Hill’s full name is Joe Hillstrom King; his parents are authors Stephen & Tabitha King. Sibling Owen King is also a writer. We’re All in This Together is his 2005 novella & short story collection. In this interview, Owen King mentions another brother Joseph with whom he is working on a screenplay.
Julie and Romeo is a light-hearted love story for older chick-lit fans. Jeanne Ray has written other similar books, including a follow-up story about Julie & Romeo. Jeanne Ray launched her writing career when most people think of retirement. A registered nurse for 45 years, she had her first novel published after she reached her 60th birthday.
Ray is the mother of two daughters, one of whom is Ann Patchett. Patchett’s Bel Canto published in 2001 is still a favorite for Library users and book groups. Patchett’s 2007 novel Run addresses issues of politics, religion, family and class values & race in a story about a Boston widower and his adopted sons. She writes for numerous publications and her biography Truth & Beauty is a poignant telling of her friendship with a college friend (since deceased) who had Ewing’s Sarcoma. More about Ann Patchett.
The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer takes the reader into the world of new mothers, who have put their careers on hold to tend to their families. It’s the most recent of her novels about family relationships in contemporary settings. Meg Wolitzer’s blog gives a sense of the life of a writer.
She is the daughter of novelist Hilma Wolitzer whose most recent novel (2007) is Summer Reading. Her book The Doctor’s Daughter was published after a 12-year writer’s block. The NYTimes review.
