Search results for ""Author Mark Dunn""

From 1983 to 1987, author Mark Dunn worked as a court clerk for a justice of the peace in Travis County, Texas, where, he says, “I learned more about human nature . . . than I could have learned in any other job I might have taken up as a bushy-tailed kid from Tennessee.” Based on interviews with 200 justices of the peace from all parts of Texas, Texas People’s Court promises to take readers on a tour of what it means to be a Texas justice of the peace: an experience that is by turns hilarious, sobering, heart-wrenching, and, from one end to the other, fascinating.Here in the Texas justice court, wrongs can be righted and lives changed in profound ways. A priceless family necklace might finally be restored to the rightful owner; an occupational driver’s license fortuitously granted. A death inquest may become an opportunity for family reflection and valediction, with the attending judge as sympathetic witness.In each of its chapters, Texas People’s Court takes up a different aspect, duty, or area of thought related to the profession of justice of the peace taken from conversations with JPs throughout the state of Texas—from those who serve in its most populous municipalities to rural county JPs—putting a human face on the responsibilities, attitudes, and perspectives that motivate their judgments. The result is a thoroughly entertaining, sympathetic view of what Dunn calls “the day-to-day observation of human conflict in microcosm.”

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In Mark Dunn’s new novel, his alter ego, Griffin Stoddard, a long-time admirer of Cranford author, Mrs Gaskell, chances upon her work called We Five. He comes to learn that the novel – unpublished in her lifetime – was subsequently adapted by three other writers. Stoddard draws together the four versions and writes his own to complement them. The result is a novel which spans five different historical periods – a small mill town near Manchester in 1859, San Francisco in the days before the 1906 earthquake, the fictional Zenith, Winnemac of 1923, autumn in 1940’s war torn London and a small town in Northern Mississippi in 1997 – and follows five childhood friends – Ruth, Jane, Molly, Maggie and Carrie – their encounters with five young men of differing intentions, the girls’ respective families together with their ever-changing occupations and exploits, concluding with an explosive unification of all five stories. This cleverly constructed novel’s style is faithful to each era, the vagaries of language and the bonds of friendship. Readers who have already discovered Ella Minnow Pea – a novel without letters, Ibid: A Life – a novel in footnotes and Welcome to Higby will recognise and enjoy the challenges in Mark Dunn’s new adventure Pentaptych.

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Nevin Nollop left the islanders of Nollop with the treasured legacy of his pangram the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. But as the letters begin to crumble on the monumental inscription, the island's council forbids the use of the lost letters and silence threatens Ella and her family.

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The United States is a nation of counties--3,071 of them, to be exact. This reference book offers a brief profile and history of each and every one of them. The authors provide the following information for each county: name, county seat, population, land area, location and prominent geographical features, name derivation, date of establishment, and products and industries. Selected entries include history, a sampling of famous residents, interesting facts or oddities, population and area rankings and name comparatives. Connecticut and Rhode Island's counties were officially abolished a few years ago, but information about the former counties is included. Louisiana's parishes are also included. Alaska does not have counties, but its organized boroughs are listed in an appendix.

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