Monthly Archives: June 2006

Where Can You Find Great Literature?

Where can you find great literature these days?

Well juding from my recent experience, it's likely to be a lot closer to you than Barnes & Noble or Borders. The nature of the publishing business is changing drastically, and it seems that creative people are everywhere. Within the past 6 weeks, three people I know personally have handed me books they themselves have written.

Even I, a writer myself, didn't expect much at first, but oddly enough I found that as I began reading, each of the three books was extremely interesting and superbly crafted. I doubt that one could say the same about the majority of books coming out of major publsihing houses these days.

So how does one find these gems? I guess it is likely that people will increasingly rely upon word-of-mouth suggestions from friends and recdommendations from blogs like this one.

So here are the three I'm recommending to you:

Greensleeves by Lindianne Sarno [Available from Music Garden Press, 2509 N. Campbell Ave., Suite 272, Tucson, AZ 85719]

The Endless Search: A Memoire by David Ray  [Available from]

Above and Beyond by Derek Stockton Available from]

Greensleeves is a compelling tale set against the tragic backdrop of 16th century
Ireland as it struggled against imperial conquest and domination. Skillfully crafted and historically authentic, it is the story of how, in the face of inevitable defeat, a few courageous troubadours sacrificed to preserve the culture of their people and to scatter its seeds far and wide, even amongst their conquerors.

The author’s descriptions of the characters, settings, circumstances, and events are vivid and rich, drawing the reader into the picture and painting scenes that evoke deep emotion. It made me cry, but at the same time buoyed my spirits by showing that despite treachery, betrayal, and injustice, humans are still capable of love, magnanimity, and heroic acts. Anyone who has ever confronted doubts about the meaning of life will find in this story a bit of themselves.


The Endless Search is an amazingly moving and riveting story of vulnerability, neglect, and abuse that turns out to have a happier ending than one would expect. I guarantee you'll not want to put this book down until you've gotten to the end.


Above and Beyond is a story of two men who have returned from separate wars with deep emotional and psychological wounds. The one, a veteran of the Vietnam war, find himself in Germany where he evetually comes into possession of a set of journals written by an ace German fighter pilot during World War II. The former then sets out to tell the story of the latter, unravelling the mystery of his death. This is as good a bit of modern fiction as I've ever read.