Fall reading: 5 new books by Cape Cod authors
The focus is personal in this batch of books by Cape-connected writers, whether it's about their own lives, helping to affect others or recounting the life of someone else.
One writer shares a memoir about a life-changing relationship. Another compiles more than 100 poems based on his thoughts about life and the world we live in. A third focuses on death and grieving, with a hope to teach lessons to children that could provide meaning that the writer has found after her own loss.
Also for younger readers, one author brings local early20th-century Cape Cod to life by telling the story of one girl. And a married couple hope to teach children both about numbers and how working together can create a better world in a book that is about much more than math. Take a look at some reading or gift ideas:
“Pairs of People,” by Jeanne Shriver and Mark K. Shriver (4U2B Books & Media, 2022)
This children’s book aimed at ages 3-9 is a follow-up to the Christopher Award-winning book “10 Hidden Heroes,” with this new piece helping children to learn about the power of numbers and how working together can make the world a better place. With rhyming text and colorful artwork from award-winning artist Laura Watson, the Shrivers hope to inspire discussion on such topics as friendship, leadership and camaraderie while illustrating the basic concepts of multiplication. The married Shrivers are part of the widespread Kennedy family that has homes in Hyannisport. Mark, a former Maryland state legislator and president of Save the Children Action Network, wrote a bestselling memoir “A Good Man: Rediscovering My Father, Sargent Shriver” in 2012.
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“Half In: A Coming of Age Memoir of Forbidden Love,” by Felice Cohen (Dividends, 2022)
Cape Cod native Felice Cohen’s memoir — written at her parents’ home here during the early days of the pandemic — details the secret lesbian love affair she had when she was 23. The romance was with her 57-year-old female boss — a relationship that Cohen says led her to coming to terms with, and accepting, her bisexuality. Cohen, a grandchild of two Holocaust survivors and author of “What Papa Told Me,” is also known for living in a 90-square-foot studio apartment in New York City that was the subject of a viral YouTube video she says got 25 million views internationally and became the topic for a self-help book.
“Wander into Wonder,” by Walter Ralston (independently published, 2022)
A photo of Kalmus Beach in Hyannis is on the cover of this collection of 120 pieces of poetry and free verse, partly indicating the “delight” that Ralston says he feels to be a “washashore” living in Hyannis with his wife and “muse,” whose family has been here for more than 400 years. Ralston refers to himself as a “recovering academic” who in retirement has tried to “write from the heart, rather than the head.” After decades of lecture notes, documentation, computers and training material, he says, “it became time for me to give voice to emotions that have always been present but not made known.” Topics in the poetry written largely during pandemic confinement include the aging process, day-to-day life and “marvel for the world we are fortunate enough to inhabit.”
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“The Surfman’s Daughter: Growing up in a Cape Cod Village 1904-1929,” by Rebecca Locklear (Skaket Books and Art, 2022)
In this book aimed at young adults and older, Locklear, an Orleans author, uses short stories to recount the early life of Roxane Eldredge, who was born in 1904 in Chatham. Some incidents from her life until age 25 are humorous, others serious — including pranks, a house fire, trapping skunks, picking cranberries and volunteering at the Chatham Naval Air Station during World War I. Other Cape Cod books Locklear has written include “Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915,” “The Mayflower at Cape Cod” and “‘Give me a hand!’ History Skits 1942-1945.” She has written and directed more than 40 productions featuring music, dance, art and drama that highlight historical events.
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“Skyler’s Invisible Thread,” by Seana Coughlin, illustrated by Karen Maker (Page Publishing Inc., 2022)
Coughlin grew up in Bourne, with family still here, and this is the second book she's written with a spiritual theme connected to her son Skyler. The new book, she says, focuses on death and grieving for children, with the “invisible thread" the bond that parents and children share with each other and with the universe. In her 2021 book, "Father Sky, Mother Earth and Me," about how humans are connected to the universe, Coughlin said that Skyler had been killed years before at the age of 17. Learning about connection to a larger force has given her life more meaning, she said, and she hopes to share the lessons with “little hearts and minds” to help them grow and have faith “when there is no other way to find comfort.”
If you're an author with a new book and would like to have it considered for a future column, contact Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll at kdriscoll@capecodonline.com.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod authors: 5 new books about math, grief, history, love, poetry
