Saturday, March 24, 2018

Book Nook: Path of the Wind (2 of 2)


Excerpt from CHAPTER Fifteen of THE PATH OF THE WIND by James A. Misko, © 2017. Square One Publishers, Inc. (www.squareonepublishers.com). Used by permission. 




The hospital did not release Eleanor Foster until the next evening. It took all day for the swelling to go down, followed by her blood pressure. Miles helped Ele to the car and they began the drive back to Tamarack. With Ele asleep and no other cars on the road, Miles looked at the stars through the windshield, and imagined how anybody could begin to count them. The half moon showing white now and sliding along the horizon seemed impossible to reach with a rocket from earth. Yet the government was going about doing just that. How high school science and physics would advance if that worked. He slumped behind the wheel.
So many changes taking place, and look at the moon. Does its light wash everything, everywhere? Will it wash relationships? Will it cover over writing a check I don’t have money to pay? And what about me, school, wife, and upcoming family? Everything happening too fast nowadays. Every day something new. Something challenging me to get better, faster. Have I got it in me to give these kids what they need? There’s the load. Why do I always challenge people? Challenge Brooks and buy uniforms? Now I have to pay for them. Involve other people, buy a popcorn machine, ask for short-term loans. Oh yeah—the chickens and the cow. Added to everything else, we’ve got animals expecting something from me every day.



Enjoyed the excerpt? Learn more about the book:

Set in central Oregon of the late 1950s, The Path of the Wind  is the story of newly appointed school teacher Miles Foster. Upon graduation with a teaching degree, Miles dreams of obtaining a position in the well respected and financially stable Portland, Oregon school system. Though the city of Portland is where he and his spirited young wife, Eleanor, call home, Miles quickly has to face the unwelcome reality that there are no job openings there for an ambitious new teacher. Even worse, the closest available position is in a remote lumber mill town nearly two hundred miles away in central Oregon. Far from the dream job he had anticipated, Miles accepts the teaching post in an impoverished school with only forty students—students who have been passed along despite the sub-par education they have received. Adding to Miles' challenge is a school board with a controlling superintendent named Calvin Brooks—a jealous man who is intolerant of any teaching outside the box, and who soon becomes seemingly intent on destroying Miles and his teaching career. Miles finds he must discover a way to effectively educate his students and defeat the damaging control of Superintendent Brooks without losing his job, his marriage, or both.

The Path of the Wind is the fifth novel written by Misko since his debut work, For What He Could Become, was published in 2004. In its review, the Midwest Book Review declared Misko "a truly gifted novelist with a genuine flair for creating deftly created and memorable characters" while it recognized Path as "a consistently entertaining and highly recommended addition to community library General Fiction collections." 

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