The Forsyth County Saga gets five stars from a LibraryThing reader (I don’t know her, but I hope to meet her someday): This book took me on an emotional roller coaster ride. I flew through it despite its length. I loved it…all of it, and there isn’t much more to say than that. I highly recommend it, especially to those people who are from the south, with parents or grandparents from the “old school.” It really opened my eyes to how much things have changed here in the south. Overall rankings (out of 5.0 stars): Goodreads-4.5, LibrraryThing-4.36, Amazon.com-4.5    

Brambleman just hit a 4.5 average rating (out of a possible 5) on Goodreads. Just shoved Chain Gang Elementary to the side. That’s the kind of book it is. The Story: Down-and-out Atlanta writer Charlie Sherman has no idea what madness awaits him when a mysterious stranger convinces him to finish a dead man’s book about a horrific crime that’s gone unpunished for decades. What Charlie inherits is an unwieldy manuscript about the mob-driven expulsion of more than 1,000 blacks from Forsyth County, Georgia in 1912. During the course of his work, Charlie uncovers a terrible secret involving a Forsyth County land grab. Due to its proximity to Atlanta, the stolen farm is now worth $20 million—and a sale is pending. When…

Read More→

From SusanReviews: “I found myself reading faster and faster as the story twisted and turned more and more. I really enjoyed the pace and the story in a story aspect that came out of the manuscript that Charlie had to edit. Some of the characters are just that, characters! Good, bad, hicks and politicians, men and women and children all had interesting thoughts and actions.” Read the review.  

For those of us who were alive and watchful in 1968, those two raised fists symbolized a defining moment. And the divisions that ripped us apart during that era have never really healed. Trymaine Lee has written an interesting retrospective (then again, does the past every go away?) in the Huffington Post about the famous protest by Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the medal stand during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.  It will give you a new perspective–or perhaps solidify your old one–on Brent Musburger, who at the time condemned the two men as “black-skinned stormtroopers” and missed the point by about … oh, 180 degrees. To read Lee’s post, click here. Wikipedia (yes, Wikipedia) has an excellent article on the proteste and its aftermath, as well.

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens is suing the city of Cumming and Mayor H. Ford Gravitt for allegedly violating the state’s open meetings law, which allows citizens to record open meetings. Olens’s suit,  filed Tuesday in Forsyth County Superior Court, states that, during an April 17 City Council meeting, Gravitt ordered Nydia Tisdale to stop videotaping a city council meeting and ordered her removed by force from chambers, along with her camera; when she returned and attempted to use her cell phone to record the meeting, she was told to stop recording. Olens asks the court to impose fines in excess of $1,ooo for the alleged violations. To see the Associated Press’s coverage of the lawsuit, click here. For background on the…

Read More→