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Shortly after her husband's death, a young widow is murdered while sitting in her rocking chair....

Five children at play are visited daily by a strange woman in black, who disappears mysteriously when she reaches the doorstep....

The Union army, heading south to suppress insurrection, is duped by a local farmer into traveling ten miles out of its way, while greatly outnumbered rebels escape to safety....

The President of the United States drops in at a farmhouse while on a hunting trip, and meets a little boy who bears the name of his greatest political enemy....

Scheduled to open on a tiny island, a traveling circus must figure out how to get a 2,775 pound elephant across the waters of the Chesapeake Bay....

...These are just a few of the True Tales of Virginia's Eastern Shore, a storied little peninsula east of the Chesapeake, fervently Virginian despite being attached geographically to Maryland. This varied collection, spanning four centuries, began as separate articles in "Chronicles," Kirk Mariner's column of local history in the Eastern Shore News. It is filled, of course, with the exploits, follies, and accomplishments of the people of the Shore, but also with appearances from a surprising number of prominent figures from "across the bay:" presidents and generals, preachers and abolitionists, spies, saloon wreckers, pirates, photographers, and politicians. And all of it is (as the title says) true.

This is Mariner's seventh book about his native Eastern Shore, and once again he combines careful research and good writing. Almost every corner of the Eastern Shore of Virginia has its tale, and this book is further proof that Mariner is among the peninsula's best story-tellers.

God's Island: The History of Tangier. Most small Virginia towns go about their daily routines in quiet obscurity, but Tangier, Virginia (population 650), frequently captures the notice and interest of the outside world. Here at last is the full history of this island and its people. This 186-page book contains over 90 photographs and illustrations and 11 maps. It is fully cited and footnoted for the true historian. God's Island sells for $14.95 plus sales tax and shipping (total $18.13).

It is not, repeat not your church that Kirk Mariner is singing about in these songs!

But if you're familiar with the foibles and idiosyncrasies of church congregations, you'll probably be tempted to think you know exactly who he's singing about.

After a lifetime in the church, and 35 years in the ministry, Mariner gives us the real scoop of what the local church is like, singing it like it is. In what sounds like church music he introduces us to:

- the decrepit organist, determined to keep going despite advancing age,

- the ladies hard at work on the all-consuming annual bazaar,

- the Sunday School scholar who's Biblical knowledge is a bit dicey,

- preachers who forget how important it is to get the congregation home by noon, and

- the congregation gathered for what it does best of all: eating.

Mariner's satire includes not only a dig at the preachers out there in "radioland," but also at preachers up there in the pulpit -- of which he is one. Nobody escapes!

Irreverent? For sure. (Don't attempt this at home if you're inclined to stuffiness and pomposity.) But in his last song Mariner shows his true colors. After all, surely the willingness to admit how far short we fall of the goal, and to laugh at ourselves for it, is a virtue worthy of Christians.

The Enterprise Front Page

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1 Those Good Old Songs

2 Young Adult Bible Class

3 Every Church Will Get Some Folk to Heaven,

but the Baptists Have Chartered a Bus

4 Nobody Drinks Till the Bishop Is Gone

8 Fanny J. Crosby, Where Are You Now?

9 The Potluck Proof of God

10 Biblical Truth

11 O Bishop, My Bishop

12 No Bazaars When Jesus Comes

13 The Sermon

14 The Church Still Alive