This week’s Newsmax Rising Bestsellers offers a range of topics from entertainment to crime. The first nonfiction selection is a biography of a country music legend who’s been a Nashville fixture for 60 years, followed by the story of a serial killer dubbed the “Charles Manson of the South.” A third suggestion is the inspiring story of a high school football team that beat all the odds to become champions, and yet another describes what’s wrong with public education and how to fix it. For fiction enthusiasts, there is the latest suspense-thriller from an international bestselling novelist.
“Ain't Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton,” by Martha Ackmann (St. Martin's Press)
Singer, songwriter, actress and businesswoman Dolly Parton is known as the “Queen of Country” having released 50 studio albums and being honored with 11 Grammy Awards and two Emmys. But it didn’t come easy, according to author Martha Ackmann. She rose from impoverished beginnings in the Smoky Mountains and was discouraged by others at nearly every step. One recording executive even told her that her voice sounded like a screech owl. But she never gave up because above all, she believed in herself. "Illuminating... a well-rounded portrait of Parton that's firmly grounded in her Smoky Mountain roots,” wrote Publishers Weekly. [Nonfiction]
“Dig Me a Grave: The Inside Story of the Serial Killer Who Seduced the South,” by Richard A. Harpootlian & Shaun Assael (Citadel)
This is the story of a South Carolina serial killer and rapist who became known as the “Charles Manson of the South” for murdering more than a dozen people. It’s written by the prosecuting attorney who put his career to an end. He used his charming, easy-going exterior to get close to his victims, while hiding the cold, dark void within and using whatever means was available to achieve his goal, including shooting, stabbing, choking, and drowning. While in prison, he even murdered a fellow death row inmate with military-grade C4 explosive. He instructed one victim to dig his own grave. “A gothic crime tale about South Carolina’s most infamous serial killer,” wrote Jonathan Martin, Politico columnist and a New York Times bestselling author. “Murder, corruption, and the underbelly of Southern justice - my kind of beach read.” [Nonfiction]
“The Hillmen: A True Story of High School Football, Loss, and Brotherhood,” by Steve Montoya (Independently published)
This might be called “Friday Night Lights California-style,” as it tells the story of Placer High School’s 1981 football championship season, achieved against considerable odds. Winning was everything to the players that year, and as a sign of team loyalty and unity they even shaved their heads. But luck was against them from the start, with a star player becoming paralyzed in a mine shaft accident, and another killed in a car crash. Although devastated, the losses bonded the Hillmen from Auburn closer and made them more resolved to succeed in honor of the players they’d lost. “I grew up in Auburn in the 70’s and was close friends with several characters in this book, wrote Dennis Wycoff for GoodReads. “I moved away in 1980 and missed all the fun. Auburn was special, and this book does justice to the community.” [Nonfiction]
“Woke and Weaponized: How Karl Marx Won the Battle for American Education, and How We Can Win It Back,” by Robert Bortins & Alex Newman (Classical Conversations MultiMedia, Inc.)
The stories appear every day. Public school students, even grade schoolers, are introduced to sexually inappropriate material, others are labeled predators, minorities labeled victims, and they’re encouraged to leave the classroom to protest the boogeyman of the week — police, ICE agents, or even President Donald Trump. Then they graduate — sometimes with honors — and university professors are handed young adults who can neither read, write, or work out simple math problems. But the authors don’t leave it at that; they provide a roadmap to get us out of the quagmire. “It validated many concerns I've had while giving me concrete ways to help families pursue educational freedom,” wrote A. Grieves for Amazon. “Highly recommend for any parent who believes they — not the government — should shape their child's education.” [Nonfiction]
“The Water Lies,” by Amy Meyerson (Thomas & Mercer)
This latest novel from international bestselling author Amy Meyerson is full of twists, turns, and surprises. When a young woman is found dead in the canal behind Tessa’s’ Venice, California, home, she recognizes her as the stranger at the local coffee shop the day before — the one her toddler son kept calling “Gigi.” The police chalk it up as an accidental death, but Tessa isn’t convinced. When the woman’s mother shows up with the same doubts, the pair set off to ferret out the truth. “As an author, Amy Meyerson is gifted with a genuine talent for the kind of narrative driven storytelling style that fully engages the reader’s rapt attention from start to finish,” wrote Midwest Book Review. “Her newest novel, ‘The Water Lies,’ is an extraordinary and original suspense thriller.” [Fiction]
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