Write Stuff: The Year In Books By Connecticut Authors

As 2017 draws to a close, let’s look back at books published by Connecticut authors this year. Here is a sampling:

FICTION

Family, Romance, Historical

John Surowiecki: “Pie Man” (winner of the Nilsen Prize for a First Novel).

Abby Fabiaschi: “I Liked My Life.”

Kristan Higgins: “On Second Thought” and “Now That You Mention It.”

Hannah McKinnon: “The Summer House.”

Nicole Blades: “Have You Met Nora?”

Sophfronia Scott: “Unforgivable Love: A Retelling of Dangerous Liaisons.”

Georgia Hunter “We Were the Lucky Ones.”

Natasha Friend: “The Other F-Word.”

Diana McCain: “Thy Children’s Children,” inspired by the Lyman family of Middlefield.

Kate White: “The Secrets You Keep.”

Luanne Rice: “The Beautiful Lost.”

Beatriz Williams: “The Wicked City” and “Cocoa Beach.” Writing as Juliana Gray: “A Strange Scottish Shore.”

Susan Kietzman: “Every Other Wednesday.”

Jamie Beck: “Unexpectedly Hers” and “Before I Knew.”

Nan Rossiter: “Summer Dance.”

Jane Green: “The Sunshine Sisters.”

Harriet Scott Chessman : “The Lost Sketchbook of Edgar Degas.”

Lucy J. Madison: “In the Direction of the Sun.”

Richard Maule: “Moonlight Helmsman: Robert Smalls’ Amazing Escape.”

David Abare: “The Swing over the Ocean.”

Gloria F. Perry: “Playing Your Game.”

Mysteries, Thrillers and Fantasy

Susan Santangelo: “Dieting Can Be Murder” (Baby Boomer Mystery series).

James R. Benn: “The Devouring” (12th Billy Boyle World War II mystery).

Cuyler Overholt: “A Promise of Ruin” (Dr. Genevieve Summerford mystery series).

Felix F. Giordano: “The Killing Zone,” (Jim Buchanan thriller).

Karen E. Olson: “Betrayed,” (Black Hat thriller).

Karoline Barrett: “It Cannoli Be Murder” (Bread and Batter Cozy Mysteries series).

Sadie Hartwell: “A Knit before Dying” (A Tangled Web Mystery series).

Mark Dressler: “Dead and Gone,” (Hartford detective Dan Shields mystery).

Chris Knopf: “Tango Down,” (Sam Acquillo Hamptons Mystery).

Alan Shayne: “Finding Sylvia.”

Steve Liskow: “Hit Somebody,” (Trash & Byrne Roller Derby mystery series).

Caragh M. O’Brien: “The Rule of Mirrors” and “The Keep of Ages” (Vault of Dreams series).

P. W. Catanese: “Donny’s Inferno.”

Kathryn Orzech: Asylum: A Dark Suspense Saga.”

Amy Bloom, editor: “New Haven Noir” (15 New Haven area stories).

Wendy Walker: “Emma in the Night.”

David Handler: “The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes” (Stewart “Hoagy” Hoag and basset hound Lulu series).

Melissa Crandall and G. Elmer Munson: “Three on a Match” (The Terror Project series).

Penny Goetjen: “Murder on the Precipice.”

Julie Boglisch: “The Elifer Chronicles.”

Dan Foley: “Gypsy.”

NONFICTION

Advice and Inspiration

Nancy D. Butler: “Above All Else, Independence, Happiness and Success in Your Senior Years.”

Shawn P. Flynn: “The Kitty Who Rescued Me After I Rescued Him.”

Connie Bombaci: Hogan’s Hope: A Deaf Hero’s Inspirational Quest for Love and Acceptance.”

Kathleen M. Schurman: “Ozzie’s Promise,” set on a Connecticut farm.

Richard H. Pfau: “Your Behavior: Understanding and Changing the Things You Do.”

John Bargh: “Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do.”

Susan M. Omilian: “Awaken: The Awakening of the Human Spirit on a Healing Journey (The Best Revenge Series), on combatting domestic violence.

Sarah Gallardo: “Hiding in Plain Slight: A Glimpse into the Realities of Domestic Violence.”

Rev. Dr. Robert R. LaRochelle: “Christian Faith for Adolescents.”

Douglas Haddad: “The Ultimate Guide to Raising Teens and Tweens: Strategies for Unlocking Your Child’s Full Potential.”

Memoir, Biography

Anthony T. Kronman: “Confessions of a Born-Again Pagan.”

Patricia Weiss Levy: “The Adulterer’s Daughter: The Life, Loves and Longings of a Girl Whose Father Strayed.”

Dani Shapiro: “Hourglass: Time, Love, and Marriage.”

Betsy Lerner: “The Bridge Ladies: A Memoir.”

Michael Zacchea: “The Ragged Edge: A US Marine’s Account of Leading the Iraqi Army Fifth Battalion.”

Mary Collins: “At the Broken Places: A Mother and Trans Son Pick Up the Pieces.”

Steve Rushin: “Sting-Ray Afternoons: A Memoir.”

Hanna Perlstein Marcus: “Surviving Remnant.”

Dick Caplan: “Lives Well Lived,” a memoir of 1950s Wallingford.

Richard H. Shriver: “Glimpses of an Unchartered Life,” Cold War experiences.

Sonya Huber: “Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a Nervous System.”

Adam Greenberg: “Get Up: The Art of Perseverance.”

Vin Baker: “God and Starbucks: An NBA Superstar’s Journey Through Addiction and Recovery.”

Connecticut

Barbara J. Beeching: “Hopes and Expectations: The Origins of the Black Middle Class in Hartford.”

Charles Monagan: “Connecticut Icons: Classic Symbols of the Nutmeg State.”

Chip McCabe: “100 Things to Do in Hartford Before You Die” and “666 Days of Metal.”

Steve Thornton: “Wicked Hartford.”

Brian Noe and Shelby Docker: “Hammonasset Beach State Park.”

Patrick J. Lynch: “A Field Guide to Long Island Sound: Coastal Habitats, Plant Life, Fish, Seabirds, Marine Mammals, and Other Wildlife.”

Sydney M. Williams: “Notes from Old Lyme: Life on the Marsh and Other Essays.”

Steve Courtney, co-editor: “The Letters of Mark Twain and Joseph Hopkins Twichell.”

Lennie Grimaldi: “Connecticut Characters: Personalities Spicing Up the Nutmeg State.”

Erik Ofgang: “Gillette Castle: A History.”

Robert Ernest Hubbard: “Major General Israel Putnam: Hero of the American Revolution.”

Richard S Ross: “Before Salem: Witch Hunting in the Connecticut River Valley 1647-1663.”

Eric D. Lehman: “Homegrown Terror: Benedict Arnold and the Burning of New London.”

Caryn B. Davis: “A Connecticut Christmas: Celebrating the Holiday in Classic New England Style.”

Duo Dickinson and Steve Culpepper: “A Home Called New England: A Celebration of Hearth and History.”

Miscellaneous

Mary Lou Sullivan: “Everything’s Bigger in Texas: The Life and Times of Kinky Friedman.”

Tony Renzoni: “Connecticut Rock ‘n’ Roll: A History.”

Stephen Spignesi: “499 Facts About Hip-Hop Hamilton and the Rest of America’s Founding Fathers.”

Anne Garrels, NPR journalist: “Putin Country: A Journey into The Real Russia.”

Katherine Hauswirth: “The Book of Noticing: Collections and Connections: On the Trail.”

Robert M. Thorson: “The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau’s River Years.”

Sarah Albee: “Poison: Deadly Deeds, Perilous Professions, and Murderous Medicines.”

Spring Hermann: “Reading and Interpreting the Works of Tennessee Williams” (Lit Crit Guides).

Michele K. Troy: “Strange Bird: The Albatross Press and the Third Reich.”

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro: “The Least Among Us: Waging the Battle for the Vulnerable.”

Chef Jacques Pépin: “A Grandfather’s Lessons: In the Kitchen with Shorey.”

Paul Hensler: “The New Boys of Summer: Baseball’s Radical Transformation in the Late Sixties.”

Denis Leary: “Why We Don’t Suck: And How All of Us Need to Stop Being Such Partisan Little B*tches.”

Jane H. Desrosiers: “Gone Fishing: The Hook.”

R. P. Eddy, co-author with Richard A. Clarke: “Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes.”

Joseph A. Williams: “The Sunken Gold: A Story of World War I Espionage and the Greatest Treasure Salvage in History.”