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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Book Notes: ‘Broken Ground’ lands in paperback

It’s one of the most acclaimed novels by an Inland Northwest author in the last 30 years.

The New York Times Book Review said it “rumbles with metaphor.”

It’s John Keeble’s “Broken Ground,” about the construction of a prison-for-profit in the Oregon desert, first published in 1987.

Why are we mentioning this now? Because a handsome new trade paperback version of “Broken Ground” has arrived on our desk, published by the University of Washington Press.

This influential novel has a new foreword by Kathleen Dean Moore and a new postscript by Keeble. In it, he remarks on the way the world has changed.

“In the early stages of writing, I believed that the prison-for-profit was my own invention,” writes Keeble. “Imagine my surprise when, a year or so into the project, while watching CBS’s ‘60 Minutes,’ I discovered that what I believed I’d dreamed up was actually the new frontier in prison management.”

The UW Press also reissued Keeble’s “Yellowfish” in 2008.

Auntie’s Angel Tree

The Angel Tree Project, a Christmas tradition at Auntie’s Bookstore, will debut after Thanksgiving.

This is a large tree decorated with hundreds of paper angels, each with the name of a local child. Customers can select a children’s book (with help from the staff) and Auntie’s will gift-wrap the book, use the angel as a tag, and replace the angel with a star bearing the customer’s name.

The book will then be delivered in time for the holidays.

If you can’t make it to the store but want to help anyway, donations to the Angel Tree Fund can be sent to Auntie’s Bookstore, Attention: Catherine, 402 W. Main Ave., Spokane, WA 99201.

‘Cartels and Combinations’

Mike McPheters, a Moses Lake author and former FBI agent, has a new novel out, “Cartels and Combinations” (Bonneville Books, $16.99) about the Mexican drug cartels and border conflicts.

A cartel kidnaps a young American woman and demands that six of its members be released from jail in exchange.

McPheters is the author of 2009’s “Agent Bishop: True Stories From an FBI Agent Moonlighting As a Mormon Bishop.”