Readers' Reviews

Excerpts of Ratings & Reviews from Goodreads, Amazon, Audible & others
the Stovepipe Chess Club
5*    I loved the storyline. The detail used was so captivating.
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5*     This was like watching The Waltons on TV.
Small Virginia town, Depression Era challenges, a powerful and heartwarming story, woven with wonderful family values. The narrator's native Virginia accent is an additional treat!
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5*     Not your ordinary chess club! I found this to be a wonderful story. The reading style was perfect for the book’s setting and time. Excellent entertainment.
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5*     Great story. I really enjoyed, will recommend to others. I enjoyed the story teller, also.
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5*     This tale's journey evokes some interesting revelations about our assumptions regarding how folk lived, just a short while ago. Deals with some issues regarding race and economic disparity in the depression era.
CoriAnn Aground
5*     Warm Family Tale plus Action. I thoroughly enjoyed the escape to the Virginia waterfront. I was drawn to the characters and their interactions with their longtime community members…I *know* these people. The action kept me reading, and the details and history of the fishing industry were intriguing. I found this story to be in the same vein as Michener and Grisham, and I was hungry for more of this family’s saga. This was a fulfilling summer read!
God Sent A Tramp
4* gem of a book...felt I was there in the depression & drought of Western Texas...Parsons has an easy to read style...his great strength is his characters
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4* I really liked this story...good clean read with Christian morals, exactly when I needed it.
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5* ...loved this beautifully written story...lively characters that steal your heart...outwit the forces of nature to survive and counter the greed of the powerful people who would celebrate their failure. ...engaging dialog and vivid imagery, I was taken back to 1930’s, during the Texas dust bowl, when Bo, Myra, and Andy, became The Gannaby Family.
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5* really enjoyed reading this book 1 of a series about the Gannaby family...see what it was like to live during horrific dust storms and drought back in the 1930s...story kept my attention...recommend it to anyone especially those who like reading about what life was like back in the good-old days!
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5*      Kept me reading all the way through. ..brings memories of my mother’s family and the determination of the people of this time. The character development was realistic.

5* ...storytelling and gravitas of the family mystery captured me. Good lessons here amongst the storytelling, don't wait too long to resolve things.
What Happened, Randi?
5*   A beautiful coming of age story with vivid descriptions of life in Virginia during the 1950’s thru 1970’s. Highly recommend this read!
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5*   Beautiful tale of family and heritage. Having grown up in a family that was sometimes similar to Grove’s, and in the Virginia area, I found a lot in this book that hit home with me. Parson’s evocative description of his characters in and around the family home brings the relationship alive in truth, pain, and ultimately, healing. Great read!

As The Dust Falls

5* ...so excited to read the second book in The Gannaby Family series...must move from the home that brought them together and the bonds between neighbors that are more family than friends. Once again, through vivid imagery and lively dialog, we travel to the 1930’s, with Bo, Myra, and Andy facing the challenge of Andy’s education, and rebuilding their lives together in a new home, free of Texas dust.e

5* I really enjoyed this book and had difficulty putting it down.

5*…Dust Bowl...Parsons captures the time and the sense of the horrific storms with vivid detail…With deft strokes Parsons describes the family dynamic and their native American neighbors…characters tell their own story with dialog, Parsons weaves in period details to keep the reader in the time