MILLIE'S HONOR by Neal L. Powers

iUniverse, Inc.
iuniverse.com
Genre: Fiction
Rating: Exceptional
ISBN: 0595472249, $15.95, 222 pp.

Quoting from the back cover:

"Things change when Millie comes to Raleigh County in 1957. She teaches students to think for themselves, and soon everyone know her slogan: ‘Grammar matters. It proves you’re educated!’

"Because of one teacher, teenagers learn to think critically about civil rights, the death of 13 year-old Donny Weber, the assassination of JFK and Dr. Martin Luther Kings, Jr., and Vietnam.

"Millie leaves a legacy. And Raleigh honors her memory in a most unusual way."

Millie’s Honor is an eclectic mix of history, mystery, drama, romance and suspense. Neal Powers tells a most interesting, unpredictable, true-to-life story about three boys, Vietnam, and the mysterious death of Donny Weber. Neal is a consummate writer with a delightful style, and his novel is well written and well edited. Allow me to share a sample of his writing with you.

"Half a million years ago, give or take a hundred thousand years, an icy mass the size of Antarctica ground past Chicago on its way south. At its southernmost reach, its gleaming face carved a line on the earth we now call the Missouri River. Spanning all the way to New York, the eastern shoulder of the Laurentide Ice Sheet also gouged out the Ohio River Valley. Desperate for a path ti the ocean, the Ohio and Missouri Rivers joined forces to cut the Mississippi River. It wasn’t trickle-down; it was cataclysmic. What sometimes begins as innocently as a snowflake can become a force to change the landscape. It is not unlike the affairs of men."

I don’t think you’ll be disappointed and price isn’t bad.

Kaye Trout - June 3, 2008