The road trip takes them from Salem, Massachusetts to Seattle, Washington with several pit stops down a dark memory lane. They couldn’t be more different a rough-and-tumble corrections officer and a fastidious, out-of-touch academic. Jason and Tom Prendergast are two estranged brothers on a forced cross-country trip to dump their abusive father’s ashes. Winner of the Grand Prize at this year’s Los Angeles Book Festival, Ashes is a buddy-road-trip novel written by Somerset author Steven Manchester.

What makes it transcend most survivor tales is the unbreakable bond between a couple united both in marriage and their will to live. Plagues of bees and piranha-infested waters, sketchy natives, airplane crashes, and more, this story is so unbelievable you might think it is fiction. When newlyweds Holly and Fitz left for their around-the-world vacation, they never expected to wind up nearly starved to death on a floating raft in a South American river. Ruthless River: Love and Survival by Raft on the Amazon’s Relentless Madre de Dios by Holly FitzgeraldĪ resident of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, Holly Fitzgerald has written a debut memoir recounting her hellish honeymoon. Like our South Coast Almanac Book Group on Facebook to learn more. The Sparrow Sisters offers everything a fan of magical realism would want, plus the added bonuses of a steamy love affair and an intriguing mystery.īONUS: Read The Sparrow Sisters this summer and then join us in the fall for an opportunity to meet the author and hear about her upcoming sequel, The Forbidden Garden. However, the profundity and quality of their plants sparks rumors of witchcraft. They are healers, herbalists and horticulturalists who run the local garden center. Set in the fictional seaside town of Granite Point, the novel tells an enchanting tale of the three Sparrow sisters Patience, Sorrel and Nettie. The Sparrow Sisters by Ellen Herrick is our first “Summer Pick” for The South Coast Almanac Book Group, and it couldn’t be more perfect. So #readlocal and #enjoy! Sparrow Sisters by Ellen Herrick That’s why we asked the Almanac’s book guru, Laura Latour, to give us a list of books by local authors.

We’re all about local at South Coast Almanac.

Consider by Kristy Acevedo