'06 United We Read features two novels

~ "The Gold of Cape Girardeau" and "The Widow of the South" tell stories from the Civil War era.

The books have already been selected for next year's United We Read program in Cape Girardeau, featuring one homegrown novel and another Civil War-era story.

Julia Jorgensen, librarian at Central High School, said Friday the books for this year's program will be Morley Swingle's "The Gold of Cape Girardeau" and Robert Hicks' "The Widow of the South," both period novels.

This is the first time the program, now in its fifth year, has focused on two books. Past reads include "Tuesdays With Morrie" by Mitch Albom, "The River Between Us" by Richard Peck, "A Painted House" by John Grisham and "All Over But the Shoutin'" by Rick Bragg.

Swingle will be the first local author featured in United We Read. But Hicks also has roots in a small town, Franklin, Tenn., just south of Nashville.

"You don't have to live in New York City to be an author," Jorgensen said. "You can be from Cape Girardeau or even Franklin, Tennessee."

Swingle's book is a work of fiction about a large stash of gold found underneath a modern-day Lorimier Street home. Through the story Swingle weaves in vignettes of Cape Girardeau's history through the glory days of steamboats and the Civil War, bringing plenty of real history into the tale.

Swingle was selected this month as a winner of the 2005 Governor's Humanities Book Award for "The Gold of Cape Girardeau."

"I'm thrilled about it," Swingle said of being selected for United We Read. "What makes it so special is that one of my goals in the book was to help educate people about the history of Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri while I was entertaining them.

"Having the book selected for this program accomplishes exactly what I hoped to accomplish."

Swingle is also a fan of the United We Read campaign. In past years he could be seen at public discussions, listening intently, giving his own insights and touting his own author status. He said his fiction writing gives him a much greater thrill than legal writing, since so many people will be reading his work, especially now.

Jorgensen said the award, along with the city's coming centennial celebration, were the primary reasons for selecting Swingle's book.

"The Widow of the South" also tells a historical story, but unlike "Gold of Cape Girardeau" it takes place within one lifetime. The novel is about the real life of Carrie McGavock, whose home was used as a field hospital after a bloody Civil War battle in Franklin in 1864.

After the battle, 1,500 soldiers were buried in a field. When that field was to be used for farmland years later, McGavock dug up the bones and buried them in her own self-made cemetery, and she became known as the Widow of the South.

"It reads like fiction, but the story is true," Jorgensen said. "She wore black the rest of her life. All by herself she took the bones, buried them and documented where they were buried."

Last year's title, "The River Between Us," was also a Civil War-period novel.

Jorgensen said the program has received a warm response from the community in its five years, and has had the added bonus of bringing the young and old together to discuss literature.

A series of discussions of the books will be held through February culminating with discussions with the authors. For more information, call Jorgensen at 335-8228 or the Cape Girardeau Public Library at 334-5279.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182