Tuesday, March 18, 2008

High Spirits



High Spirits:  
A Tale of Ghostly Rapping and Romance by Dianne K. Salerni
(iUniverse / 0-595-42350-7 / May 2007 / 366 pages / $20.95)

Sometimes I wonder why I have spent so much time developing this stupid blog that so few people actually read! Then along comes a book like Dianne Salerni's High Spirits and I remember why: no matter what the fatheaded, disparaging naysayers say about iUniverse books, there are some iU books out there that cannot be discerned from traditionally published books. There are dedicated POD authors who have produced quality, professional products, and Ms. Salerni is certainly one of them. Although not her first book, this is her first novel. Dianne has previously published three short, academic books pertinent to the elementary school teaching profession, and both her previously, traditionally published books and her current profession have obviously influenced the professionalism of High Spirits.

The story is based on the real lives of the three young ladies known in Nineteenth Century spiritualism circles as The Fox Sisters. Maggie, Kate, and Leah Fox found themselves embroiled in controversy after they began running a small business affair in the years prior to The Civil War. The problem was that their little business of holding spirit circles for profit had become a publicly acclaimed entertainment act, and the whole idea had been borne from the two younger, teenaged sisters doing nothing more than trying to frighten a superstitious cousin by holding what later became known as a seance. This historical fiction novel traces the girls' adventure from its dubious inception until its entanglement in the love life of Maggie, the middle sister, with a celebrity Arctic explorer threatens to bring the house down.

Dianne Salerni's writing style is very fluid and polished. The minimal typos do little to diminish the power of the author's compositional and editing qualities. This is a book most readers will enjoy from the first page to the last. Who says an iUniverse author is not a real author? Get real.

See Also: Floyd M. Orr's B&N Review
Dianne K. Salerni's website
The Fox Sisters at Wikipedia

1 comment:

Malcolm R. Campbell said...

Okay, now I'm tempted to go buy the book.

Malcolm