SHORT NOTICES

A tabby cat turns up in a Paradise neighbor's yard, and such is the stuff of a sweet little story by Kaye D. Owens. "Turn-Up . . . . Turns Up" ($5 in paperback, including postage, self-published) "is mostly factual, with a few lines of 'author's prerogative' to fill in the unknown events." Folks in the neighborhood keep leaving, and Turn-up has to find new lodgings again and again. "She survived the horrendous Northern California fires of the summer of 2008" spending most of her evacuation "under a bed." Today, she "has her family pretty much wrapped around her paws."

Watsonville writer Al Cunha was a recent visitor to Chico's Barnes & Noble. His novel, "Dancing With Daffodil" ($10.95 in paperback from Infinity Publishing), tells the story of a homeless woman living in a cardboard box in a San Francisco alley. Befriended by a young female reporter and a French baker, Maggie May Salokavich keeps singing about "the sweetest little girl in the world--Daffodil." Daffodil "is the song that I hear . . . the dance that I dance." But Officer McGuinness is determined to get her off the street. Brutality ensues, but a surprise birthday guest changes everything.

Chico therapist George McClendon, in "Heaven's Call To Earthy Spirituality" ($14 in paper from Dog Ear Publishing), writes in intensely personal terms about leaving the Benedictine Abbey in Shawnee, Oklahoma, in the 1970s. Seeking to reconcile spiritual discipline required of a monk with the "earthy" experience of sexuality and an inclusive spirituality (his heroes include Thomas Merton and the Dalai Lama), the author finds joy in marriage and his practice of psychotherapy and spiritual guidance. It's the story of a "St. George" who meets the "Dragon Lady," an integration of opposites, of past with present. Now: "Time to move on."

SHORT NOTICES

Food writer Kitty Morse, a Vista, California resident who recently visited Chico, has prepared "A Biblical Feast: Ancient Mediterranean Flavors For Today's Table" ($18.95 in paperback from La Caravane, available at Lyon Books in Chico). Beautifully designed and photographed, the book offers dozens of recipes (from "Goat Cheese & Olive Appetizers With Melon" to "Grilled Tilapia") familiar to the ancient Hebrews and early Christians. Each menu item offers an associated Biblical reference and an historical and culinary discussion. Morse includes a glossary of foodstuffs mentioned in the King James Bible and suggests menus for entertaining guests. There's more at www.abiblicalfeast.com.

"Fit At Fifty Something" ($14.95 in paperback from Two Harbors Press) is Sacramento dentist Brian Bolstad's prescription for a more vigorous middle age. After suffering from debilitating back pain, Bolstad resumed martial arts training in his late forties and now, in his mid-fifties, offers what he calls common sense advice on nutrition and weight control, time management, endurance, stress, and sex. The last half of the book features large black-and-white pictures of the author performing a series of flexibility and range of motion exercises. (A DVD set is available at fitatfiftysomething.com.) Witty and blunt ("embrace a little hunger"), Bolstad rocks.

"Willows" ($21.99 in paperback from Arcadia Publishing) is part of the the "Images of America" series. Prepared by the Museum Society of Willows and museum volunteers JoAnn Wright and Evelyn Whisman, the book features over 200 historical photographs with extensive captions. An introduction sets the scene, noting that "the first settlers of what was then the northern part of Colusa County" found land surrounded by willows (fed by a spring near the present town). By the 1870s, farmland was going "for $4-$6 an acre." The "million dollar fire" at Hochheimer's department store in 1920 was devastating, but "can-do" Willows rebuilt.