What is Camille Griep reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Camille Griep, author of New Charity Blues.

Her entry begins:

After I turn a book in, I always reward myself with a big stack of reading. Luckily, this spring has also been filled with a period of enforced rest, aka cold and flu season, so I’ve been catching up. Of late, I’ve been feeling particularly starved for great, narrative nonfiction, so here are four of my most recent reads:

The Worst Hard Time – Timothy Egan’s exploration of the Dust Bowl is a long and worthy read. He gently guides the reader through the scientific causes – agricultural and farming policy, supply, and wartime demand – integral to the land’s dishevelment. The narrative is interspersed with the stories of people who grew up in the Great Plains, watching the land change around them. Some of those people stayed, watching families and fortunes die. Some...[read on]

About New Charity Blues, from the publisher:

In the wake of a devastating plague, two communities emerge as bastions of survival. One is called the City, and its people scrabble for scraps in the wasteland. The other, New Charity, enjoys the bounty of its hydroelectric dam and refuses City denizens so much as a drop of precious water. When City-dweller Cressyda inherits her father’s ranch within New Charity, she becomes intent on opening the dam to all—no matter the cost.

But when Syd reunites with her old best friend, Casandra, a born seer and religious acolyte, she realizes that her plans could destroy the fragile lives they’ve built in order to survive. What’s more, the strange magic securing the dam’s operations could prove deadly if disturbed. Yet when Syd discovers evidence that her father might have been murdered, she is more determined than ever to exact revenge on New Charity’s corrupt.

Pitted against Cas, as well as her own family, Syd must decide how to secure the survival of both settlements without tipping them over the brink to utter annihilation. In this intense and emotional reimagining of the Trojan War epic, two women clash when loyalty, identity, community, and family are all put to the ultimate test.

Visit Camille Griep's website.

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The Page 69 Test: New Charity Blues.

Writers Read: Camille Griep.

--Marshal Zeringue