The call came in early, around 0800.

“Quincy’s on line two for ya, Sarge.”

I answered Deputy Mullins with a sigh and a nod before picking up the receiver. I cleared my throat. “It’s a bit early, isn’t it?” Grabbing my coffee, I leaned back in the chair. “What do you got today, some chickens choked by a crazy cauliflower?” I took a sip. “A pesky Pekinese pummel a Pomeranian?”

Quincy frequently reported fictitious crimes. He had found a dead cow once along Route 4 and called it in as a UFO probing gone deadly. A gang of rogue raccoons broke-in to Petey McGee’s barn, and for the assault on Darla Jenkins’ cat by an armed and dangerous Blue Jay, he had secured two witnesses who had seen the whole thing. As irritating as his antics were, you couldn’t blame the guy. He was the Medical Examiner in a town that had never had a violent crime. He was bored, but in all my years as Chief of Police, Quincy had never called this early.

“Uh, Sarge, I think we’ve got a problem. I’m over here at Eagle Ridge, and you know how they’re doing all those renovations on the houses?”

Usually booming, Quincy’s voice was quiet, borderline shaky. I became suspicious. He was a good actor, had a hankering to hitchhike out to Hollywood in his youth to take a gamble at the silver screen, so I played along. “They got some loose pigs pillaging the pantries?”

Mullins laughed.

“Uh, no,” Quincy said. “Looks like the boys found what appears to be…human remains.”

If you haven't read The Color Purple by Alice Walker then you need to put down whatever you're reading and dive in to this heartbreaking and uplifting story.

Taking place mostly in rural Georgia the story is about Celie, a poor, uneducated, fourteen-year-old black girl living in the south during the 1930s.

This story is not for the faint of heart, and you will find yourself angry and disgusted with how black women, and men, were treated and the hardships they had to endure.

The Color Purple won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction in 1983, but the novel has been repeatedly censored.

It's currently documented as the seventeenth most challenged book in the American Library Association's 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000-2009.

The book was adapted into a movie directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah, and Danny Glover. Though the movie is good, we recommend you read the book before catching the flick. There's something about the way Alice Walker tells the story that the film just can't capture.

After the First Death is a young-adult novel about a group of terrorists who hijack a school bus full of children.

Though it was written by Robert Cormier in 1979, the story could have taken place today.

The main characters include Kate, a high school student driving the bus, Miro, one of the terrorists, and Ben, the son of a general for an anti-terrorism group. This is a gripping story that will put you on the edge of your seat.

Robert Cormier is a pioneer author for the young-adult genre. He wrote to teens before it was cool or profitable. 

There's not a lot of fluff with Robert Cormier. His work is serious, and he explores a variety of dark and deep issues.

Other great Cormier books include: The Chocolate War, I Am the Cheese, The Bumblebee Flies Anyway, We All Fall Down, and The Rag and Bone Shop.

Afterlaugh |ˈaftərˌ laf | n. Reflecting on a joke or situation from a previous experience and laughing about it again later.

Ex. I had a good afterlaugh at lunch today when I thought about Jim falling out of his chair at the morning meeting.