Reading, Writing, and Family Research: "How to Survive a Snowstorm"

Since I haven't posted since last Wednesday's photo of the beginning of our most recent winter storm, I thought today's post would bring my readers up to date on what has been going on here for almost a week now.  Like most of the rest of the country, we had another severe winter storm.  Really, I don't know how I would have survived this storm without an Internet connection, and I am tremendously thankful that we were not without the power to keep my good old laptop battery charged up. So besides keeping warm and baking a lot, I used the indoor time to begin reading another of Greg Iles's books, "The Devil's Punchbowl" and to do an awful lot of online family research. The results of that research, I might add, will be included in posts later this month. I also spent quite a bit of time responding to comments about some recent postings on this blog, three of them from relatives of those about whom I wrote, readers who live in New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. Receiving positive comments from living relatives, for me, is a particularly pleasant form of what I refer to as "blogger satisfaction." And my ultimate level of blogger satisfaction is achieved when individuals who are researching their own family history find something useful in one of my posts.  The bottom line is that I did not mind being snowbound last week, forced to read and research in front of a warm fire, bundled up in soft, fleecy clothing, with a hot cup of my favorite Caribou coffee beside me.  Oh, and I forgot to mention the goodies I baked. 

 Just how much better can research get?

"The Quiet Game," by Greg Iles - A Book Review

Always on the lookout for books by Mississippi authors, I recently purchased a copy of "The Quiet Game," by Greg Iles, a Mississippi native and an Ole Miss graduate.  Published in 2000, this book is Iles's fourth thriller. Although backdrops for his other books have been cities outside the State of Mississippi, "The Quiet Game," is set in Iles's hometown of Natchez, Mississippi. 


The central character in the book is a recently widowed Houston lawyer-turned-best-selling-author, Penn Cage, who returns to his hometown seeking solace and a new beginning for himself and his young daughter. Almost immediately after his return, Cage finds himself entangled in events surrounding an unsolved murder that happened in the 1960s, a murder that involved race and politics and had national significance. Cage's involvement in the matter is complicated by his personal and professional relationships with other key characters, some that include secrets that have lay buried for years.


In "The Quiet Game," Greg Iles has woven a story that is both realistic and spellbinding.  His writing style is amazingly descriptive, and his character development leaves the reader with a clear visual imprint of the person and the personality. Not only is the book a story of intrigue with unexpected twists and turns, Iles has seized every opportunity to paint pictures with his words of the beautiful and historic southern town of Natchez, Mississippi, once the territorial capital of Mississippi.


As a family historian and as a person who loves to read about people, places, and things, with a bit of intrigue thrown into the equation, "The Quiet Game," by Greg Iles was the ideal book for me.  And I plan to read more.