Spring reading ideas: 5 new books by Cape Cod authors

View Comments
“Adoption in Black and White,” by Pam Chatterton Purdy and Rev. Dr. David A. Purdy

“Adoption in Black and White,” by Pam Chatterton Purdy and Rev. Dr. David A. Purdy (2021, independently published by West Barnstable Press, $20, available through http://www.chatterton-purdyart.com or by emailing pdpurdy@yahoo.com)

This is an updated version of Chatterton Purdy’s 1987 book “Beyond the Babylift, a story of an adoption.” Both tell the story of the authors' own mixed-race family, with two biological daughters and two adopted sons of color: one African American son adopted in 1971, and one  Amerasian son of Black and Vietnamese heritage adopted after the fall of Saigon in 1975. The new book includes six additional chapters, plus epilogues that relate where the couple and their four children are today. The authors have won several awards — including the Cape Cod NAACP “Unsung Heroes” Award and the Race Amity Award from the National Race Amity Institute — for their civil rights work and for Chatterton Purdy’s “Icons of the Civil Rights Movement” art. The couple has collaborated on four editions of a book about that often-exhibited art series.

More:Winter reading, part 4: More books by local authors

“Becoming Free,” by Ayanna N. Parrent

“Becoming Free,” by Ayanna N. Parrent (2021, independently published, $15.95)

Local racial-justice advocate Ayanna Parrent is described in many ways in her new book, including as mother, daughter, sister, wife, life coach, recovering alcoholic and survivor. She was born into a struggling family dynamic, and, information from the book says, resolved not to become like her mother, a sometimes inspiring, sometimes neglectful woman who was an addict. After Parrent realized she had become just that, she had a breakthrough during her second time in rehab and created a business model related to recovery. The model is explored in the book as a way to help other people of color in recovery reclaim their lives.

More:Cape Cod books: Part 3 of ideas for winter reading by local authors

"Sky the Skunk Is Not Invited to the Party,” by Liliana Bejarano-Cryer

"Sky the Skunk Is Not Invited to the Party,” by Liliana Bejarano-Cryer (2020, independently published, $10.95) This is the first in a series of books that the Yarmouth author plans to write promoting mindfulness for children. In this one, Sky the Skunk arrives home feeling angry, because his best friend, Honey the Bunny, didn’t invite him to his birthday party. On his journey, Sky learns how to stop and breathe to calm himself down, and when he does, gets a surprise. The series was inspired by Bejarano-Cryer’s four years of work in Cape Cod schools with Calmer Choice, a local organization that teaches a prevention program and stress management for children.

More:Cape Cod books: Ideas for winter reading by local authors

“The Leukemia Chronicles: Reflecting Kubla-Ross's ‘Five Stages of Grief’ (in Rhyme While Dealing With Cancer),” by Thomas P. Johnson

“The Leukemia Chronicles: Reflecting Kubla-Ross's ‘Five Stages of Grief’ (in Rhyme While Dealing With Cancer),” by Thomas P. Johnson (2020, independently published, $16.99)

This new book completes the Harwich Port author’s trilogy about using poetry as a therapeutic strategy to restore a life balance during stressful situations. This third one is a “poetically organized chroniclization” of his journey after a leukemia diagnosis at a Boston hospital, and through his treatment and recovery. Before retiring to the Cape, Johnson held a variety of jobs related to education, including teacher, administrator and human resources officer, and he has a military background. His other two books, both from 2019, also outline “the value of writing poetry to make sense out of personal chaos”: “The Downsizing Septology,” about a difficult work situation; and “Writing Poetry about Writing Poetry,” created through Cape writing groups as a workbook/handbook that could be used in middle schools or high schools.

More:Cape Cod books: More ideas for winter reading by local authors

“Papa’s Road to Riches: A Young Immigrant’s Story,” by Richard Galbraith

“Papa’s Road to Riches: A Young Immigrant’s Story,” by Richard Galbraith (2021, independently published, $6.95)

This biography of the Sandwich author's grandfather is aimed at middle-school readers and is written as a series of discussions between the man and his daughters. It’s billed as an "American Dream" story: Galbraith’s grandfather was 8 years old when his family moved from Ireland to the Texas frontier, where they initially lived in a tent. He started work fulltime at a saw mill at age 14, and worked his way up to being president of a company with more than 50 stores spread around the Southwest. Galbraith’s other three books include a memoir about growing up in Arizona with crippling polio.

Are you a Cape Cod author with a new book? Contact Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll at kdriscoll@capecodonline.com to be considered for future book columns.

View Comments
https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/entertainment/2021/03/25/5-new-books-cape-cod-authors-spring-reading-ideas-various-ages/4762470001/
www.capecodtimes.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2022-05
156310
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:PN5HEBSVARUGIOH5HVODGT2A4WQ7XLFY
<urn:uuid:d940669b-42df-47d5-887d-75c4586b7d9d>
2022-01-26T23:25:34Z
146.75.34.62
text/html
sha1:6RNWT6TAFAQK3YS4VQDM3FYQ4FA7TNAM
<urn:uuid:6a8ba5a8-134b-4793-b7f2-d8fc74a01eee>
https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/entertainment/2021/03/25/5-new-books-cape-cod-authors-spring-reading-ideas-various-ages/4762470001/
response
<urn:uuid:650d657f-bd9e-4a89-9141-7b1f325b7c9f>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2022-05
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for January 2022
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-243
software: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.3-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/