AGONY HILL
Sarah Stewart Taylor
Sarah Stewart Taylor ’93, acclaimed author of the Sweeney St. George series and Maggie D’arcy stories, has started a new series based in Vermont in the 1960s. Her latest protagonist is Detective Franklin Warren, who has arrived in the small town of Bethany to work with the state police. He’s immediately thrown into the job when he’s called to a remote farm, where a man seems to have locked himself into his barn, set it on fire, and died. Like any small town, secrets abound that Warren needs to navigate and unravel as he investigates. Taylor once again provides a compelling mystery full of intriguing characters, and a plot as winding as a rural country road. By setting the story in the 1960s, she takes the opportunity to explore the challenges affecting life in those days, from the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement to something closer to home for the folks of Bethany: the coming of the interstate highway and the changes it will bring to Vermont. Taylor continues to produce books that will keep you turning the pages well into the night.
MY BROTHER, MY SISTER, MY KIN
Jack DesBois
Singer-storyteller Jack DesBois ’15 has released his debut solo album, My Brother, My Sister, My Kin, which contains a collection of traditional English, Celtic, and American folk songs along with Christian songs and hymns and originals for solo voice and guitar. Many of his songs follow in the style of Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, and similar folk singers, and DesBois has found inspiration for his work in a variety of places, including the Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury. Flanders devoted her life to preserving New England folk music culture, and from 1930 to the late 1950s, she collected over 4,000 field recordings of folk songs, fiddle tunes, and stories from musicians. DesBois has included his adaptation of some of those songs on his album along with well-known hymns and his own creations. His talent was recently recognized on The Solari Report, where his tune “Waking Up” was featured as the “Music of the Week” choice for January 10. His album is well worth checking out.
HOLD STRONG
Robert Dugoni, Jeff Langholz, and Chris Crabtree
In Hold Strong, Jeff Langholz, a professor in environmental policy and management at the Institute, has teamed up with teacher Chris Crabtree and author Robert Dugoni to tell the story about the deadliest accident in U.S. military history. Based on an event that took place during World War II in the Pacific Theater, the gripping novel follows the lives of young lovers Sam Carlson and Sarah Haber as Sam is sent to the Philippines, where he is captured as a prisoner of war by the Japanese, and Sarah, a math whiz, becomes a top-secret codebreaker at a base in Hawaii. The drama and suspense intensify when Sam, after surviving the Bataan Death March, is herded into the cargo hold of a barbaric hellship, the Arisan Maru, and Sarah deciphers a message indicating the Navy needs to sink a Japanese convoy. Langholz spent a decade doing meticulous research and investigation for the story, providing over 400 endnotes to track the true underlying components of the fictional account to ensure transparency. While the book could have been nonfiction, the creators felt that historical fiction would better delve into the inner lives of the characters and their emotional experiences, while showing the courage and resilience needed during the crisis. They were right.
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