Hitting the Books with Gary Thorne: "A Stranger in the Kingdom"

From time to time, in my library roaming, I like to pick a book off the shelves that I know nothing about. I read the front and back leaf, and if it strikes me as a book of potential interest, out of the library we go together.

Such is the case with " A Stranger in the Kingdom" by Howard Frank Mosher. I knew nothing of the book or the author, but my Maine history and his story setting in the "north country," in this case Vermont, caught my eye.

Later, I discovered this from the Oct. 2, 1997 online edition of The Atlantic:

"During the summer of his fiftieth year the novelist Howard Frank Mosher set out to explore the whole length of the United States's northern border - an area known to many who live there as the North Country. ...(He) sought out from old timers stories of the area's rugged past. From these tales have come several novels, including 'Northern Borders' (1994), 'A Stranger in the Kingdom' (1989), and 'Disappearances' (1977), and a collection of short stories, 'Where the Rivers Flow North' (1978), all of them set in the fictional Kingdom County, an amalgam of the Northeast Kingdom, Quebec, northern Maine, and the Catskills (where Mosher grew up)."

This book is about characters and their interactions. It's about racial discrimination in a very rural setting. It's about a geographical area that is fictional in the book, but ever so real then and now.

"As they've always been. And they don't change just because you want them to." - Dennis Lehane, "The Given Day"

So glad I picked this book off the shelf. I will do so again with other books since instinct can sometimes pick a winner.

Hitting the Books teammate (he of the computer editing room) and avid reader Pete Kerzel of MASNsports.com passed along this note from The Associated Press on a book previously featured here. Pete took "The Devil in the White City" to the beach with him and enjoyed the read.

"Erik Larson's 'The Devil in the White City' is finally headed to the big screen, with Martin Scorsese directing and Leonardo DiCaprio starring in it.

"Paramount Pictures confirmed ... that it has optioned Larson's best-seller. The screenplay will be adapted by Billy Ray, who scripted 'Captain Phillips' and 'The Hunger Games.'

"The film marks the sixth feature together for Scorsese and DiCaprio, who last joined for 'The Wolf of Wall Street.'

"Published in 2003, Larson's nonfiction book is about the architect of Chicago's 1893 World's Fair and a serial killer who used the fair as a setting for his murders. The book has long been a hot property in Hollywood, particularly pursued by DiCaprio."

Gary Thorne is the play-by-play voice of the Orioles on MASN, and the 2015 season is his ninth with the club and 30th covering Major League Baseball. His blog will appear regularly throughout the season. The Orioles and Sarasota County have partnered on the Big League Reader Program, which rewarded kids who read three books in February with tickets to a Grapefruit League game at Ed Smith Stadium in March.

* Hitting the Books with Gary Thorne. © Copyright 2015 Gary F. Thorne. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gary F. Thorne and MASNsports.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.