Michael Parker (1) (1959–)

Seventeen-year-old Earl is a loner in a sleepy Texas town who sees the world in a different light. He loves music and books ...and Tina. Tina talks Earl into driving her up to Austin to see her mama who was put in an asylum.
Earl eventually rolls back into Stovall and is promptly picked up for driving a stolen car (his cousin was pissed when he didn't return it a couple days ago), Tina is nowhere to be found, and there's an alarming amount of blood in the trunk.
Earl's lawyer tries his best to help the teen out, but Earl can't seem to remember what happened over the course of those three days in Austin and while Tina can't be found, there's damning enough evidence to send Earl to prison for forty years.
The world is a much different place when Earl is released from prison. The kid has turned into a man navigating a lifetime he missed and now that he remembers what happened during those days in Austin, he considers the choices he made.
Making a fresh start in Oregon, Earl finds the past is never far away.

Wow, this story packs a bold punch. Earl is one of the most well-defined characters I've read about in quite some time; he's flawed, relatable while also oddly quirky, and genuine. I Am the Light of This World is a heartbreaking story that is quiet but gripping from start to finish.

Thanks to Algonquin Books for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest review. I Am the Light of This World is scheduled for release on November 15, 2022.… (mere)

Set in Oklahoma in the early 1900s, Prairie Fever tells the story of three people: Gus McQueen, a young man with a talent for memorization who is sent to Oklahoma to teach at a small one-room schoolhouse; and Lorena and Elise Stewart, two very different inseparable sisters who are two of his students. Lorena is practical, steady and determined, whereas Elise is flighty, imaginative and, as some say, a bit “touched”. Gus McQueen will come between the two of them.

In an easy, charming and seductive prose Parker transports us to the prairie of a hundred years ago and tells a big-hearted story about love, family and passion. Once started, the book is hard to put down, and it’s the perfect read for the beach or a rainy day…(or in my case, hiding from the heat and humidity outside and the housework inside).… (mere)