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2 weeks ago | 
cityviewnc.com | Diane Parfitt
Houses and gardens often appear in mysteries, and it is there where scary things always seem to happen. The house can even be considered a character in the book. Anyone who has read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier cannot forget Manderley, the omnipresent home that is the setting for this classic story. Contemporary mystery writers also use homes and gardens as settings for their books. What is scarier than a garden that harbors an unseen threat?
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3 weeks ago | 
fayobserver.com | Diane Parfitt
The Parfitts, owners of City Center Gallery & Books, urge Cumberland Commissioner Veronica B. Jones to support continued construction of the Crown Event Center in downtown Fayetteville. They say revitalization efforts have transformed downtown Fayetteville over 30 years and the Event Center would continue that investment. The Crown Event Center would stimulate further investment and increase tax revenue for the county, the book shop owners say.
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1 month ago | 
cityviewnc.com | Diane Parfitt
In most of my Good Reads columns, I often select five or six books related to CityView’s theme for that month’s magazine. There are so many good books out there that it is easy to find books for a particular theme. Once in a while I come across a book that warrants its own article. This month I found that book.
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2 months ago | 
cityviewnc.com | Diane Parfitt
Women writers have been highly creative throughout history but vastly overlooked. Many women writers have used pseudonyms to leave the impression that they were men, knowing that readers would not buy books written by women. This has been as recent as J.K. Rowling’s publication of the Harry Potter books. From 1901-2023 only 14% of winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature have been women and 15% of the Pulitzer Prizes. In both cases, however, women are catching up.
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Jan 31, 2025 | 
cityviewnc.com | Diane Parfitt
Why do we all love “love stories”? In most cultures, people are looking for connections with others. We want a deep and lasting bond with another human being. Although most readers of romance novels are women, some men also enjoy the fantasy of a love story that almost always promises a happy ending. Isn’t that what we are all looking for — happily ever after? For many, a romance novel presents a fantasy.
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Dec 1, 2024 | 
cityviewnc.com | Diane Parfitt
Books can make wonderful last-minute gifts. You can find them at all kinds of stores, and your local bookstore is often open late during the holidays for last-minute shoppers. All the books released in the last few months of the year are just waiting to be given as gifts. They also make great first-choice gifts, especially for those who are hard to buy for. And buying a book that also interests you is a great way to create a connection that you and the recipient can share for months to come.
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Nov 1, 2024 | 
cityviewnc.com | Diane Parfitt
As we get ready for Fayetteville’s 25th Annual “A Dickens Holiday” on the day after Thanksgiving, we need to reflect on why we still care about Charles Dickens. Almost everybody has either read A Christmas Carol or seen a movie or TV adaptation. (There are more than a dozen to choose from including The Muppet Christmas Carol.) Many other books by Dickens have also been made into movies, plays, and musicals.
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
cityviewnc.com | Diane Parfitt
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought, and the thought has found words.”— Robert FrostI have written about poetry before, during National Poetry Month in April, when we recognize the beauty and power of poetry. In high school and college, I did not recognize the significance of poetry while trudging through the required readings. Shakespeare, Homer, and others — I just didn’t get it! Sure, they told a story, but why didn’t they just tell it in plain language?
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Sep 1, 2024 | 
cityviewnc.com | Diane Parfitt
As Fayetteville prepares for the Bicentennial Celebration of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour in March of 2025, we can all enjoy some reading about the Marquis de Lafayette. I don’t mean heavy, stodgy, textbooks. I’m suggesting some delightful fiction and non-fiction books that can give a wealth of information about Fayetteville’s namesake. Lafayette was born on Sept. 6, 1757, in south-central France, and we recognize his birthday every year on the weekend after Labor Day.
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Aug 1, 2024 | 
cityviewnc.com | Diane Parfitt
The arrival of August means summer is more than halfway over, with so little time to squeeze in some last-minute vacation fun. The start of school brings both happiness and dread. For students, it means they will get to see friends they haven’t seen all summer, but it also means the beginning of all that schoolwork. For parents, things will be a little quieter around the house, but it also brings some sadness if it’s the little ones headed off to school for the first time.
