…of Georgia, in Dade County. A park that claims to be the prettiest in all of the state: CloudLand Canyon, on the edge of the Cumberland Plateau, and foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Certainly not the largest, which would be Roosevelt, located on 9000 acres in the on the Fall Line in central west GA, near Pine Mountain. Or the most unusual which might be the barrier island on the Atlantic coast known as Cumberland, now managed by the National Park Service. Maybe the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge,with hundreds of acres of tannic-acid colored shallow water, abundant wildlife, recently designated a World Heritage Site, protected by UNESCO.

There is a lot of new construction going on in this park. At the entrance, a new kiosk for state workers to stay out of the weather where they can dispense information and collect entry fees. Currently day use is $10, up from the original five first charged some years ago to help defray maintenance expenses,although entry was no charged any place in the state when the parks were first established.

A new visitors center, incomplete, that will provide guests w information about history of the area, interpretive displays to explain geography of the deep canyon carved by millions years of erosion, and possibly centuries of indigenous inhabitants as well as wildlife, native flora and descriptive details. Many parks in the state have dioramas, examples of animals preserved by taxidermy as visuals to help make the scenes come alive: wild life in their natural setting, as if the creatures were living in water or on land, and simply in suspended antimation. Swimming, running, flying as if caught in motion.

Hiking trails, picnic pavilions, ample facilities for guests, paved paths for ADA.Waterfalls, horse-back riding, wedding venue. Much of the new construction supported by state funding, or Friends of State Parks.

… by Marie Benedict. Educated as an attorney, she admits the years of law school were for naught, finding her gift as a writer to be much more satisfying as a career. Benedict is pen name, one she has used for a number of publications, including tales of Einstein’s first wife, as well as a woman who worked for the wealthy Carnegie family, and Hollywood notable, Hedy Lamar, and Lady Clementine,wife of Winston Churchill. Although the books are fiction, all are thoroughly researched, filled with details of the era, fascinating reading oft time, place, strong female characters.

Based on the in depth research the author will do prior to beginning a new novel, Benedict reports finding the story of a Dorothy Sayers, who was an English mystery writer in the real life investigation of the death of a young nurse. There was a group of females including Agatha Christie, in addition to Sayers, three others of the same genre, writing the stories published at the time. Fiction and fact blend, as the women travel to France, search for clues, find their efforts diminished and discounted by male writers, as well as newspaper reporters,law enforcement, men in general who cannot take them seriously as investigators.

The women do uncover many details, pieces of useful information, evidence as clues to help them piece together the mystery of the young woman’s death. Resolving the puzzle, referred to as ‘the locked room’ mystery, where someone simply seems to vanish into thin air without notice. Justice is served, the women are hailed as capable detectives by they male counterparts.

Bennet reports being inspired by an aunt in her youth who took on the responsibility of purchasing and gifting reading material in her youth that would enrich her life: books that surely must have lead her into the career of being the author she has become. The amount of research done before the narratives are assembled appears to be staggering, to have the details of time, place, traveling in such an organized manner. And excellent read!

… by Emma Pattee. Published in 2025, under the imprint of Simon-snd Schuster. This is the author’s first novel, though she has been published in numerous well-respected periodicals. Highly regarded, she recently participated in a book event sponsored by the Parnassus group, headed by Anne Patchett, book-lover extrordinare, in Nashville.

Annie lives in Portland, Oregon, is extremely pregnant, shopping for a baby crib at IKEA when the long-predicted Cascadia earth quake rolls across the northwest, on the fault line running the length of the west coast. Buildings crumble, roofs cave with hundreds buried beneath rubble. All city services/resources cease to exist, infrastructure destroyed: no electricity, cell-phone service, bridges collapsed, streets impassible due to fallen trees, power lines, wrecked vehicles, buildings lying in the streets.

Walking miles, with an occasional ride, she is searching for her husband. Diverted numerous times due to downed power lines, unsafe passage of bridges or crossing over highways, water, she struggles in her massive pre-birth state to get back to her neighborhood. The descriptive parts of the narrative, as she makes her way across town from the ill-fated trip to find a baby crib, to her home in an apartment where she hopes to find her mate appear to be realistic and accurate, as the damage of the colliding fault lines of the massive quake with take years to recover from.

… by Alice Henderson. The book was published in 2020. I found a paperback copy on the sidewalk of Eagle Eye Books where there is a 24 hour book sale, that benefits local non-profits. If you go by at 2:00 am, just roaming in the dark, browsing and find something interesting, drop your payment in the crack in between the two front doors for the staff to put in the jar when they unlock on the morrow. A hardback was published the same year, by William Morrow Co.

In an afterward the author tells of being an environmentalist before she could spell the word. Raised in a family that gave the freedom to pursue interests, and roam the wild places, camping with parents and free to pursue her curiosity at will, she has cultivated an interest in the untamed parts of the world since childhood. The results are obvious in this interesting book about the lives and habits of wolverines. A small, fierce creature, completely unsocial, that enjoys the mountainous regions generally deemed uninhabitable by humans.

Alex is living in Boston, having moved from California to the east to be with a man who finished law school and was offered a corporate job with a large firm. The relationship gradually dissolved as their interests diverged, with Alex unwilling to ‘settle’ into tame, city life. After a near tragedy, she is offered a position doing research in the mountains of Montana, searching on a large preserve for evidence of wolverines. Empty lodge, abandoned ski resort, a creepy place with stories of hauntings, murderous guests, mysterious circumstances that make the readers hair stand on end – and give enough suspense to want to tell Alex: get out!

As she designs camera traps to look for possible wolverines, she finds a variety of other animals, with her complicated set-up collecting hair to evaluate for DNA. Hoping to find enough evidence of the solitary animals, she treks across mountain ridges, and through beautiful meadows of wildflowers. Also finding evidence of a man who is seriously injured, but disappears before she can provide help. And evidence of something damaging her camera traps that is not likely an animal.

Fascinating details of the lives of the animals she is researching, and how she hopes to prove they are living on the property, in conservation. On protected property, any animal within the bounds of the land would be safe, but cattlemen cut fences and allow their herds to graze on the private lands. Alex tangles with local law enforcement, ranchers, hired hench-men. Not a book I expected to enjoy, but it was fascinating. Highly recommended reading for those who are interested in the environment, concerned about the value of maintaining the natural balance of nature.