LAURA LEE AND OTHER STORIES by J.D. Livken

Aventine Press
1023 4th Ave., San Diego, CA
www.aventinepress.com
Genre: Fictional Short Stories
Rating: Good
ISBN: 1593304994, $11.50, 131 pp.

From the back cover:

"A delightful collection of short stories–from the humorous to the spiritual to the tragic–that will stay with you long after you’ve read them."

If you enjoy short stories...a bedtime treat, you’ll probably enjoy Laura Lee as it is well-written and well-edited. There are seven stories in all: Laura Lee, Devils, Natty Sorrell, The Mutiny of Harby Stone, The Baptism of Billy Ray Sikes, Confessions of a Ridiculous Man, and An August Colloquy. I personally found The Baptism of Billy Ray Sikes, the thoughts of a man on death row as he awakes to his last day of life, to be the most poignant as he recalls how he came to be on death row, his fears of this day, and finally, the peace he had found.

J. D. Livken is an educated, creative freelance writer who received undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Tennessee. He lives with is wife and two children in East Tennessee.