"The Rosey View Of The World: One Woman's Journey Through The 20th Century"

Andrew Bassett (andrewscottbassett.com) "still living between Anderson and Cottonwood," realized that the eulogy he delivered at his mother's funeral several years ago evoked a life that would fill a book—and now it has. "Her life," he writes me, "was so amazing that I just had to create a novel that was part fact, part fiction." 

Bassett's mother, Rosetta, becomes "Rosey." Her youngest son, "Danny," is fighting writer's block after publishing a best-selling first novel. When Rosey dies in her eighties, Danny flies to Phoenix for the funeral even as his agent presses him for the long-promised manuscript.

"The Rosey View Of The World: One Woman's Journey Through The 20th Century" ($15.95 in paperback from Luminare Press; also for Amazon Kindle) is a captivating tale within a tale, recounting Danny's present-day woes but also his mother's life in notes she bequeathed to him (which fill most of the novel). Born in Northampton, England, Rosey, like Forrest Gump, seems to be present at history's hinge moments. 

Young Rosey survives the Battle of Britain; later, she doesn't tell her parents when, at sixteen, she and a friend frequent the club scene. She meets Max, a German prisoner of war, jovially escorted by British soldiers knowing he is no Nazi and will soon be returned to Germany. Max and Rosey spend hours together talking and dancing, little knowing that in the years to come they would meet again—and again.

Rosey marries an American soldier, lives in the segregated South, befriends a Black woman named Carol, becomes involved in the civil rights movement (attending Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" rally in Washington, DC), hangs out with Elvis and later the Beatles, and discovers a terrible secret about her soldier husband. Plain-spoken, with a deep sense of justice, Rosey breaks down sexist and racist barriers.

"When my mother faced a wall in her life," Danny tells his girlfriend, "she tore the wall down. She did everything she could to destroy the bloody thing … as she would have said." 

As the walls tumble in Danny's life perhaps a few will fall in the reader's life as well.

"The Story Of Christianity Told As Good News For All"

My friend and retired Butte College philosophy instructor Ric Machuga begins his new book with a provocative theological statement: "I believe in the God who can and will save everyone. My belief," he continues, "is grounded in a literal reading of St. Paul: 'Just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all' (Romans 5:18)."

The claim is provocative, of course, because at first glance it seems to override human free will. What about those who choose not to believe? In the book's sixteen chapters Machuga tackles the question head on, first through a philosophical lens and then through a theological lens. Even those who vehemently disagree will find I-never-thought-about-it-that-way insights in "The Story Of Christianity Told As Good News For All" ($15.99 in paperback from Quoir, quoir.com; also for Amazon Kindle).

If moderns sometimes talk about “choosing to believe,” Machuga questions the coherence of that claim. He tells his own story of how "God’s choreography" brought him to belief in universal salvation, belief that for him is as undeniable as the roses outside his office window. "Belief is voluntary," he writes, "but it is not chosen."

Central to Machuga's argument is that in Christianity, God is "non aliud," meaning "not 'another thing or person' in the universe." His key theological claim tracks with Augustine, that God created “a world with space and time, not in space and time.” God is not just another a thing in the universe competing with human free will. 

The book uses some important, and mostly jargon-free, philosophical distinctions to draw out the implications of this view, which allow for affirmation of the traditional Christian Creeds within the context of “salvation for all.” And, importantly, it places new emphasis on the doctrine of the Trinity and the revelation of this transcendent God through the God-man, Jesus of Nazareth.

Machuga’s own story of this gift of belief is woven into his account, and it’s clear his prayer is that this volume may also be part of the Holy Spirit’s choreography for the person who takes up this book, and reads.

"Missing In The Maldives"

Chico novelist Mike Paull brings readers the third in a series of international spy thrillers with "Missing In The Maldives" ($15.99 in paperback from Wings ePress, Inc., wingsepress.com; also for Amazon Kindle). 

The Republic of Maldives is a group of islands southwest of India and Sri Lanka, a touristy destination for the well-heeled and shadowy heels alike. One fine day in 2011 a body washes up on Thulusdhoo island, the victim's passport identifying him as Craig Cooper.

That's a bit of a conundrum since the real Craig Cooper ("Coop"), Deputy Director of the "Agency," is very much alive in Washington, DC. Five months earlier he and his Agency partner Zoe Fields had been shot; while Coop quickly returned to work, Zoe "remained in a deep coma for eight weeks…." 

But now she's well, and not a moment too soon. Coop convinces the Director to bring her back to the Agency (despite her disappearance for a time "with nine million dollars of Agency money," told in Book II, "She's Missing"). 

They are no strangers to dangerous international assignments (Coop is shot in the back in Book I, "Missing," as he searches for the rumored Iraqi gold hoard after the demise of Saddam Hussein). And now it seems Israel wants to find a rogue Mossad operative, Lev Cohen, who with his girlfriend Rachel Kagan murdered the Mossad director and absconded with the nine million. 

Earlier Zoe had pumped three bullets into Kagan's chest but Lev is nowhere to be found. And then word comes from the chief of the Maldives National Defense Force and Police Service, Shaquille Azeez, that the body is Craig Cooper is in the morgue.

Well, game on. When Coop is thrown into a Maldivian jail, he enlists a fellow prisoner to work on an escape plan. With Coop missing in the Maldives, Zoe sets out to find him. Along the way an intricate plot is revealed, spycraft is pushed to its limits, and, as Coop observes, "in this business, betrayal never comes from our enemies. It always comes from our friends."

Paull's crisp writing and endearing heroes make the pages fly by, but let the reader be warned: Trust no one.

"A Fickle Life"

Uncertainty reigns in the new novel by long-time Chicoan David Dirks. Now living in Brentwood with his wife, Karen, the author draws on his own life experiences to fashion a series of stories about the teenage years of one David Janzen. 

It's the 1960s. Now a sophomore at Del Rio Vista High School in a farming town in Central California, Janzen and his pal Jack Johnson are still smarting from their loss at the school's science fair a year earlier. They were convinced their rocket experiments would take top honors. 

Uh, no. 

Salley Marsh and her team win for hydroponically grown vegetables and "even Blake Sandy (my neighbor who is one year older and the older brother of Mandy Sandy) won attention with a model V-2 rocket."

For their biology class project David and Jack revisit their balloon experiments, this time monitoring the heartbeat of the rat-astronaut Gus Grissom as his capsule parachutes to the ground. Things don't go quite as anticipated—especially with teammates Molly Beth Brown and Mandy Sandy.

Readers should take each novel in order in the growing series, beginning with "The Art Of Stretching," then "A Fickle Wind," "Resurgam (Rise Again)," and, now, "A Fickle Life" ($7.99 in paperback, independently published; also for Amazon Kindle). There's at least one more on the way since many loose ends are left hanging. And perhaps that's the point. 

The city council faces protests when it tries to ban hot-rodding; David's sister Martha is secretly seeing whiskey-drinking, Cuban-cigar-smoking Billy Martin, younger brother of Bobby, a bully who died in a car accident; and rumors abound that chemistry teacher Karl Grundig, "former lieutenant in the German Army during the war," is creating a powerful cabal, including Jack and his father, promoting Nazi beliefs.

As Janzen reflects on the story he's narrating, he realizes the good ol' days are over, when the big question was how to retaliate against dirt clods lobbed by neighbor kids. "Life was turning out to be a continuous stream of losses…. This year, it felt as if I was losing a sense of normalcy. Everything seemed out of sorts—very fickle. I wondered if life would return to normal."

Uh, no.