Fellow Contestants/Site Members: While considering works to nominate, please take a few moments to read a chapter from my books, Between Midnight and Dawn and Even Blue Birds Sing: A True Story. If you want a book to tug at your heart strings, taking you from laughter to tears and back, these both should fill that prescription.

Between Midnight and Dawn is a memoir covering my husband’s career as an ICU nurse. Ray was not your ordinary, play-by-the-rules nurse. When circumstances looked impossible, he innovated, sometimes with striking results. If you know someone who is a health care worker or who is thinking of becoming one, or if you have been a patient, the pages will be affirming and will bring to light what it means to truly presence with another human being.

Even Blue Birds Sing: A True Story, though centered about the very serious topic of domestic violence, is not all doom and gloom. Despite her horrific circumstances, the real-life person about whom this story was put to paper wanted me to add humor where I could. If you enjoyed Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle, you will enjoy this tale of resilience in the face of overwhelming odds and an impossible, Sophie’s Choice type decision. 

Thank you, and best wishes with your own writing adventures! Karen Buyno