This week’s other featured books, “One Hundred Percent Me,” by Renee Macalino Rutledge and “Bread Of,” by Gabrille Joy Lessans, can be found by scrolling down below this post, or by clicking the author’s name on our Authors page.
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THE BOOK: Searching for Jimmy Page
PUBLISHED IN: October 2021
THE AUTHOR: Christy Alexander Hallberg
THE PUBLISHER: Livingston Press/University of West Alabama
SUMMARY: The unraveling of eighteen-year-old Luna Kane’s haunted past begins in the winter of 1988, when her dying great-grandfather, a self-proclaimed faith healer, claims he hears phantom owls crying in the night. “Them owls, like music. Can you hear the music?” he implores her in his final moments, triggering Luna’s repressed memory of her dead mother’s obsession with Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin’s legendary guitar wizard. Desperate to learn the truth about her mother’s suicide, to tease fact from family lore to weave her own personal narrative, Luna embarks on a pilgrimage from her family’s farm in the pines of eastern North Carolina to England, to search for the man whose music her mother held sacred.
THE BACK STORY: I’ve been a huge fan of Led Zeppelin, especially Jimmy Page, since I was a teenager. The novel is a love song not only to that band/guitarist but also to my late mother and late husband, both of whom made me promise to finish writing it.
WHY THIS TITLE: The protagonist is on a mission to locate Jimmy Page, but she’s also searching for her own identity and sense of self. The title works on both a literal and metaphorical level.
WHY SOMEONE WOULD WANT TO READ IT: As Martha Southgate, author of Third Girl to the Left, said of Searching for Jimmy Page, “You don’t have to love Led Zeppelin to have a whole lotta love for Christy Alexander Hallberg’s gorgeous rock and roll fantasy. Searching for Jimmy Page will speak to anyone who has ever loved—truly loved—someone they know only from the posters on their walls and the music that speaks to their very soul.” This novel is about more than celebrity worship. Searching for Jimmy Page is a story about the complexity of mother-daughter relationships, grief, identity, and the power of art and music and how they connect us to others and ourselves.
REVIEW COMMENTS:
“Within this engrossing rockin’ tale, Hallberg captures the mysterious compelling enigma that is Jimmy Page.” —Pamela Des Barres, New York Times Bestselling author of I’m With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie
“In this debut novel, a young woman’s search for details about her dead mother leads her to a guitar hero. . . . The novel is strangely gripping, and fans of Led Zeppelin, in particular, will enjoy how the author has woven the band’s mythology through Luna’s odyssey. . . . An intriguing but brooding coming-of-age tale.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Readers seeking strong literary works that focus on a daughter’s journey to grasp the essence of family relationships through cultural icons and musical references will find Searching for Jimmy Page a powerful story. It is very highly recommended reading . . .” —D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“Hallberg’s masterful storytelling skills are further elevated by her beautifully crafted prose. . . . Searching for Jimmy Page is woven through with Zeppelin mythology that fans of the band will love. But it’s Luna’s humanity and heartbreak that ultimately strikes a chord and resonates with readers.” —Rob Errera, IndieReader
“In her wondrous first novel, Christy Hallberg gives us a mystery, a mother-daughter love story, a paean to rock and roll, and a window into the culture of eastern North Carolina, all joined seamlessly by the elegance and poetry of her writing. It’s a book that begs to be read twice, first to find out the true story of Luna’s parentage, and then again, immediately but more slowly, to savor the beauty of the language.” —Liza Wieland, author of Paris, 7 A.M., named one of The Best Books by Women of Summer 2019 by O, the Oprah Magazine
“Searching for Jimmy Page is an intoxicating journey into the secret world that lies hidden inside certain songs, a place of illicit promises, shifting identities, and unlikely personal connections. Hallberg’s story unfolds with lyrical poise and thrums with the feral heart of the best rock and roll.” —Jeff Jackson, author of Destroy All Monsters: The Last Rock Novel
“Steeped in rock and roll lore, Searching for Jimmy Page is the coming-of-age tale of a motherless daughter making sense of her grief, and finding the strength to save herself from the flood of loss that threatens to wash her future away. Hallberg’s prose is sumptuous and rich with detail, and readers will fall in love with tenacious Luna. Searching for Jimmy Page is a heartbreaking and hopeful debut.” —Meagan Lucas, author of the award-winning novel Songbirds & Stray Dogs
“Multi-generational secrets, the semi-mystical music of Led Zeppelin, and the tidal pull of a Southern family combine to create literary magic in Christy Alexander Hallberg’s Searching for Jimmy Page. . . . A beautifully written and engaging first novel.” —Kim Wright, author of Last Ride to Graceland, winner of the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction
“Christy Hallberg’s Searching for Jimmy Page is a musical mystery where the author’s melodious writing throws her troubled teenage heroine, Luna Kane, headlong into the pulsing beat of a bygone Rock N Roll era. Luna’s search for the father she never knew begins in a trance and ends with enlightenment, and like any good coming of age tale, the story proves that the lyrics of life, like those of Rock N Roll, are sometimes unexplainable.” —Landis Wade, host of Charlotte Readers Podcast and author of The Christmas Courtroom Trilogy
“Searching for Jimmy Page explores the dangerous magic that arises when pop culture is mixed with traditional folkways in the rural South. From power chords to delicate noodling of our heart’s innermost strings, Hallberg’s debut demonstrates breathtaking range.”—George Hovis, author of The Skin Artist
“Searching for Jimmy Page is a powerful coming-of-age story in which an orphaned girl tries to make sense of her difficult circumstances.” —Jeff Fleischer, Foreword Reviews
For more reviews, visit the author’s website: http://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com
AUTHOR PROFILE: Christy Alexander Hallberg is the author of the award-winning novel Searching for Jimmy Page (Livingston Press, 2021). She is a Teaching Professor of English at East Carolina University, where she also serves as Senior Associate Editor of North Carolina Literary Review. She received her BS and MA in English from East Carolina University and her MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Goddard College. Her fiction, creative nonfiction, book reviews, and interviews have appeared in such journals as NCLR, Main Street Rag, Eclectica, storySouth, Entropy, Litro, Concho River Review, Deep South Magazine, and Still: The Journal. Her creative nonfiction essay “The Ballad of Evermore” was a finalist for the Sequestrum 2020 Editor’s Reprint Award. Her flash story “Aperture,” originally published as Story of the Month in Fiction Southeast, was selected for the 2021 issue of Best Small Fictions. Find her at http://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/ and on Twitter/Instagram @ChristyHallberg.
SAMPLE CHAPTER:
Read the first chapter on the Livingston Press website: https://livingstonpress.uwa.edu/Serching%20for%20Jimmy%20Page.htm
Listen to various excerpts on the author’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfSnRmlL5moSQYi6EjSvqag
LOCAL OUTLETS: Malaprop’s, City Lights Bookstore, Quail Ridge Books, Scuppernong Books, Adventure Bound Books For purchasing links, visit the author’s website: http://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com
WHERE ELSE TO BUY IT: Amazon, Livingston Press, IndieBound, Target, Barnes & Noble
PRICE: $18.95
CONTACT THE AUTHOR: christyalexanderhallberg@gmail.com
Snowflakes in a Blizzard 