Shannon Yarbrough is a fellow writer who is gaining a nice following. Just read below what the critics are saying about his writing. Plus, he's a damn nice fella! The book itself sounds damn interesting. Like a good holiday read.
By Shannon Yarbrough
ShanLian WordLit Press
Copyright © 2011
Paperback ISBN: 0984238336
270 Pages
About The Book:
A rape victim raising a biracial baby. A drug addict haunted by a dead girlfriend. A homosexual mourning a dead lover. A teacher having an affair with his student. And a businesswoman sexually harassed by her boss. What do they all have in common? They all sit at Lorraine White's holiday dinner table; they are also her children.
ButLorraine 's children are not the only ones in the family dealing with ghosts of the past. This is the first Christmas the Whites have spent together since the death of their father. And it very well could be their last, as arguments ensue, secrets are revealed, and perhaps a murderer walks among them.
But
In his latest novel, Shannon Yarbrough explores the damaged soul of one small town family and breaks through the boundaries of love, convincing his readers that no matter how hard life gets, sometimes the support of family is often the only true foundation we have left to depend upon - whether we want it or not.
What Reviewers Are Saying?
Yarbrough's best book
yet-a well-crafted blend of interesting characters, a wistful small-town
setting and a tense family dynamic that serves up discomfort food for
Christmas.
--Jerry L. Wheeler, author & book critic -
outinprint.net
Yarbrough weaves the lives of a band of disparate characters into a rich tapestry complete with death, secrets, and murder, tied up with a Christmas bow.
Yarbrough weaves the lives of a band of disparate characters into a rich tapestry complete with death, secrets, and murder, tied up with a Christmas bow.
--LK Gardner-Griffie, author of the Misfit McCabe series
From the moment that I started to read, I felt comfortable and that I had entered a family—with all of its ups and downs (and downs and downs and downs) that was still a family. (Think the Walkers on “Brothers and Sisters”). Love is not always evident but somehow I felt it was there from the very first page.
From the moment that I started to read, I felt comfortable and that I had entered a family—with all of its ups and downs (and downs and downs and downs) that was still a family. (Think the Walkers on “Brothers and Sisters”). Love is not always evident but somehow I felt it was there from the very first page.
--Amos Lassen, book and film
critic
The ties that keep
families together ... and the secrets that threaten to tear them apart ... are
blended skillfully as if a tapestry, by a talented author who never
disappoints.
--Bob Lind, Echo Magazine
"Are You Sitting
Down?" deals with themes of forgiveness, reconciliation, and a journey to
wholeness, but Yarbrough's writing makes clear that death is always just around
the corner and that despite the hope of family togetherness, each of us is stumbling
through life alone dealing with our past and our secrets.
--Gabriella West,
author of Time of Grace and The Leaving
About the Author:
Shannon Yarbrough is the author of two previous books, The
Other Side of What, first published in 2003, and Stealing Wishes,
first published in 2008. He lives in St.
Louis , Missouri
What the Author is Saying About His Book:
While I wrote Are You
Sitting Down? to expel a few demons of my own, I really wanted to break
down the walls that family secrets sometime build up between loved ones. I tried to push each of my characters as far
as I could take them.
While the book and its multiple storylines are filled with
tragedy, I still wanted the reader to come away with a positive outlook on the
White family’s life and maybe even on their own. More than one reader has commented with “And
I thought my life was F’ed up!”
I purposely did this by using the metaphorical themes
presented by the two families – the Whites and the Blacks. Though their
surnames are the most obvious, I also used their lives to represent good and
bad, light and dark, happiness and sadness, and so on.
Each chapter is told from a different character’s voice to
give it a real multilayered family drama feel, just like a soap opera. It is my
intention that I hope readers will purposely relate to one of the characters in
some personal way, or with the book as whole.
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